Pygmalion

By DocPaul

Chapter Forty-five: Endgame…

Day Sixty-five: Wednesday, 6:33 am…..the longest of days.

“Michael!” Max shook Michael awake. It was the gun pointing at his forehead that had Max backing away with his hands up. “Dammit, Michael! Put down the piece. It’s Max. We’ve gotta go!”

Michael was suddenly fully awake.

“What happened?”

“Cap. It’s the safe house. We lost the safe house. We lost Strickland.”

Michael was out of bed despite his nudity. He grabbed his clothing, cursing a blue streak. He paused to kiss Maria as she slept. She was too tired to wake up. She really needed more than a few hours of sleep.

Max and Michael rushed down the stairs. Jonathan was standing at the wall, his shoulder leaning against it. He was solemn and quiet.

“Pierce?” Michael asked him. Jonathan nodded. “Fuck! We’re not letting this go unanswered! He isn’t getting away again!” He rubbed the tiredness and sleep from his eyes as Sean came through the glass door with Alex. “Alex, you don’t need to come.”

“I’m here.” They all turned as Kyle came out of the guest room.

Sean nodded at his partner. “You ready, partner?”

Kyle nodded. “Let’s go. Who’s taking care of….” Kyle didn’t finish. Jonathan raised his hand.

“Go. I’ll keep an eye on all of them.” Jonathan looked at both Michael and Max. “Nothing will come near them. Any of them.” Giving a dark unfathomable look at Max, he tried to smile, but couldn’t. “Be careful. Torq’el is very dangerous.”

~~~

Michael was out of the car first. Waters and Philips were on the lawn, the security van was no longer down the street, but in the actual driveway. Simon and his forensic teams were there, as were the Feds.

The entire house was gutted. Not a fire. The inside. It was as if the internal structures of the house had collapsed and pushed outward on itself in an explosion of wood and glass.

“I don’t give a fuck! This is my town! My jurisdiction!” Jim’s voice was loud and angry.

Max and the other paused as Jim Valenti fought with the FBI. The argument was loud and vigorous. Michael noticed the ambulance and paramedics.

“Who got hurt? Strickland?”

“No,” Waters eyes were bloodshot, and he was bleeding from a few defensive wounds where wood splinters had hit him as he had walked around the house. “Strickland is dead. I’ve never seen anything like it. Hanson’s the one who’s down. He was blown out of the house, and he doesn’t look good.” Waters rubbed his face tiredly as Philips joined him. “We lost the team upstairs. They didn’t make it out before the collapse and explosion.”

“Who was it?” Max asked.

“Fletcher and Jenny Burns.”

Michael shut his eyes for a moment. Jenny Burns was a new detective, one who was waiting for a trainer. She had been pushed to Special Projects until things slowed down. Fletcher was the detective who went with Hanson to Hawaii . Now they were gone.

“What happened?”

Waters shrugged. He looked at Michael, who normally would’ve been loud and angry, but this time was quiet and seemingly subdued. “We got word that Cap and the Chief were on their way back. Then there was a call from Hanson inside. Nothing we could really hear. I thought I heard him say, ‘What are you doing here?’ and then nothing. A blast. Not a normal one. It was like a sonic bomb, no smoke. No fire. Just this wave moving outward pushing everything down in its path. I was walking around the house checking the doors when it knocked me off my feet.”

Simon saw Michael and the others. He stopped to talk to a few of his people along the way, but he made it to the group.

“I’ve got the coroner’s office taking the body. Cap cleared it, but did you want to see it?”

Michael nodded. Leaving the others, he followed Simon. They entered what was once a house. The roof was gone. Water from broken pipes was everywhere. All that remained was the outer walls, almost like a shell. No fire marks. No blasts. Percussion. It had to be a percussion wave, like a peristaltic blast or eruption, moving from a point outward.

Michael stood over Strickland’s body. Or what remained of it.

“Are you sure it’s him?”

Simon nodded. “I think so. His wallet was still readable in his back pocket. That’s all that really remains.” Simon looked at Michael. “Not even tooth enamel. His teeth are gone. Everything.”

Michael stared at the burned out shell of Strickland, or what had once been Strickland. Closing his eyes, he couldn’t even dredge up sympathy. It was the most horrific sight he had ever seen, and yet he couldn’t feel a shred of remorse. Strickland sold his soul to the devil, and Satan himself had collected.

“Damn, the amount of force or heat necessary to melt enamel and bone….” Michael shook his head. Enough to cause that amount of destruction but leave the clothing unmarked or even touched.

“Michael, I’ve seen some strange shit lately, but this….this is beyond me. I had my people take samples for Liz’s lab people, but this is even beyond Liz. She’s exhausted. I talked to Serena. She said Liz worked through the night, and finally collapsed in her office. I don’t want to wake her for this. Not for this. There’s nothing here.”

“Let her sleep. Yesterday was a long day.”

“Today will be longer.”

Michael looked up as his partner joined them. “Maxwell, anything on Sam?”

Max shook his head staring at Strickland. “It’s not good, Michael. The paramedics didn’t sound hopeful.”

Michael swore.

They hit Pierce, and he ignored it. He walked into a safe house, a place unknown, and left again undetected except for the destruction he left in his wake. Pierce was the Bogeyman. An urban legend that young adults told each other about in school. He was teaching them to fear. Was he even stoppable? Maybe only Jonathan knew, but Jonathan had lost his battle with Pierce so many years ago. It almost cost him his very life. It had cost him the Royals.

~~~

Jim surveyed his men. They sat in the conference room at the Roswell PD. Alex was an addition, but no one asked him to leave. “Where do we stand?” Jim looked at all of them, but he addressed Max.

“At the starting point. Again.” Max shook his head. Chameleon gone. Strickland gone. The immediate threat to them and theirs was over, but Pierce was still out there.

Pierce... Nasedo... Torq’el... And who knew how many numerous other names this entity had usurped?. A Shapeshifter of unmentionable, unimaginable power who had spent more than half a century hating humans. An alien who was crazed by his very nature.

“What are the FBI doing, Cap?” asked Michael.

“Running around, chasing their tails. They’re trying to hold back general knowledge of aliens, or perhaps get real confirmation. Either way. They know Roswell is a hotbed of activity.”

“As long as these other alien species walk around Roswell , there’s a danger.” Max was stating the obvious, but it had to be said. “There are still three Dupes out there. They look like me. Like my sister. And like Tess. They identify us. Not to the aliens. Seems that we’re already well known to them. I’m more concerned about my son, Zan. If the FBI gets ahold of our Dupes, then they’ve got us as well.” Max looked at Michael. “And our children. Born or otherwise.”

Michael stared into his empty cup of coffee. He could use more. “It’s not just us anymore, Max. It’s Kyle and Alex, too. They’ve become part of this Destiny. Sean and Julia as well, but exactly how I’m not sure.”

Jim sat back in his chair. He was tired. He wanted to go home. Find Amy. Maybe go on vacation, someplace she wanted. Someplace where she could get him arrested for civil disobedience. Now that was normal. It was an affront to him that in the last months he hadn’t had to bail Amy out of jail once, or pick her up after booking.

“Are there any people left in Roswell who aren’t aliens?”

The group shrugged. No one could really say.

“I can’t let this go, Cap,” said Sean. “We’ve got to find Pierce. Not because Pierce is a psychotic alien that has no morals, and has terrorized this city for over a decade. I need him because for some reason he’s targeting Julia, and I don’t know why.” Michael looked at Sean in sympathy. “I don’t know why, and that scares me. I can’t fight what I can’t see coming.”

“We need a plan. A course of action.” Max stood up and paced the room. “It’s time to really set out what we know.”

“About Pierce?” Michael asked.

Max nodded. “It’s there. All the clues.” Max looked at Sean. “Strickland killed Andy Garza because he needed leverage. Leverage with Pierce. Andy must have seen Pierce shift forms. He followed Strickland, and during that time, he saw something that made him a liability. It had to be Pierce. He was too afraid to talk. If it was Strickland, and Strickland only, he would’ve gone to IA. Sean, what did he tell you?”

Sean shook his head. “Nothing. He told me nothing. He said I was the only one he could trust, and that he would’ve left it at a place that he once left another drop, but he needed to tell me personally what the evidence meant.” Sean frowned. “He died before he could tell me.”

Michael sat up straighter. “Wait. Repeat that, Sean.”

“What? That he would’ve left it at the same place where he once made another drop, but he needed to tell me what it meant?”

“That! The evidence, Sean! Andy had evidence. He left it. But the evidence would mean nothing! Not to a person who didn’t know they were looking at a Shapeshifter. Andy had no reason to know that you’d understand what was happening. He needed to tell you. Describe it.”

Sean seemed to be thinking about it. Kyle slapped Sean on the back. “Where is that place, Sean? Where would Andy have left the evidence?”

Sean looked at the other. “ Skin Palace .”

“Strip joint on Williams?”

Sean nodded. “Back peepshow rooms. In the fourth cubicle behind a condom machine.”

Kyle rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. “Damn, partner! The places you like to visit!”

“Oh, c’mon Sweetpea! You loved the gay bar!”

“Pervert.” Kyle looked at his dad. “Sean and I’ll go check for this ‘evidence.’”

Max looked at Michael. “If it is there, we can know who Pierce is, why he slips under our radar, knows our every move. We can trap him in this form before he can walk away. Slip into the shadows.”

“We can.” Michael stood up. “I’m too wired to sit here. Max and I will hit the streets. Benny the Rat is gone, but JoJo and Sly are still out there. What killed Benny can’t be a secret. He was executed. Someone has to know something.”

Cap nodded. “Go. I’m taking some time off, a couple of hours. I need to find my wife and take a nap. Look for me at Michael’s, and if not there, home.”

They all stood up to leave. “Alex, where you want to go?” Michael asked.

Alex smiled. “I haven’t seen a good peepshow in forever. Think I’ll go with Kyle and Sean. Rousting snitches seems too ordinary to me.”

Max rolled his eyes. Figured. Sometimes he couldn’t tell the difference between Sean and Alex.

~~~

“Maria, I’m not sure about this.” Julia looked around for Jonathan. “I thought Jonathan was supposed to keep an eye on you.”

“We’re not wandering too far. I wanted you to see the size of the two lofts. I’m sure once you see them, all the possibilities will really hit. I love renovating. Everything new and clean.”

Julia laughed. “That’s only because you hate cleaning.”

Maria made a face. “I don’t hate it. I’m just bad at it. My only consolation is that Michael is worse.”

~~~

“Whoa, there, JoJo!” Michael went around the corner of the building nabbing his prey easily. Max followed at a more sedate pace, having scared JoJo into Michael’s waiting arms.

“Guerin!” JoJo looked at Michael with some trepidation, and then at Max. “Dude, I gots nothin’ to say! The city is whacked. I wuz justa thinkin’ I mights take a vacation to Florida or som’em.”

“Uh huh.” Michael kicked at the ground as he pushed JoJo up against the wall.

“Really, man. I’m just sayin’….” JoJo looked around nervously. “Yah pulled me in when Benny wuz gutted, and man, I had nothin’ to say then. It’s like same-o same-o.”

Max made an tsking sound. “Now, JoJo, please don’t make us haul you in. Everyone’s eyes are awatchin’, with all the raids and pulldowns yesterday. We know that all you low street sleepers know more than you say. Seems we’re needing some information on Pierce.” Max smiled at Michael and tilted his head. “Now, we know that Benny was shut down by Pierce, and it was a mighty fine example for the rest of you snitches. But, it really doesn’t matter since Pierce is going down.”

“I can’t! I can’t talk! People who talk about Pierce, they don’t survive long. He has a long hand, man. Long. I’d do anything. Anything! Not that.”

“Michael, looks like JoJo is not going to talk.”

Michael stared at JoJo hard. “I’m tired. Real tired. When I get tired, I get mean.”

JoJo gulped. Guerin was mean when he wasn’t tired. Pierce was scarier.

“I think you should give the little squealer a break.”

Michael and Max turned to the young voice. A young boy stood there. He smiled. Michael grabbed JoJo and pushed him away. “Scat, JoJo. This is not your scene.” JoJo didn’t need any more encouragement. He slithered away. “And you’d be...?”

The boy laughed. “How soon they forget! Commander, I thought you’d remember me well. After all, I did stand over your body as your very life leaked into the red dirt of our worlds.”

“Nicolas!” Michael spat out. “I don’t remember you. Diminutive in size and memory. Hardly a blip. I’m told that I almost won the war on my own.”

“Says who?” Nicolas’s eyes narrowed.

“Kivar himself. But maybe he exaggerates?”

Nicolas spat on the ground. “Kivar! Upstart. The war was between you and me. I won. That is all that mattered.”

Michael laughed cruelly. “Stuck on Earth for over half a century in a thirteen year old’s body. It sounds like Kivar knows how to punish those who aren’t up to snuff. Nice assignment. Let me guess. If you don’t retrieve the Granilith, you’re stuck here for all eternity.”

“He always did know how to back losers, didn’t he?” Max said maliciously. Nicolas. Now he remembered him well. “Nicolas, you should’ve sided with me.”

“Zan!” Nicolas stepped back a little. “I’m not interested in taking the two of you on. Not this time. I wanted to know if it was you that turned the humans on to us?”

“No.” Michael smiled a tight mean grin. “Getting hot, Nicolas?”

“Insufferable.” Nicolas looked at the two. “Maybe it wasn’t you who killed Vanessa, my sister. Maybe. Someone did though. It wasn’t the Shifter. He was a little….shall we say... pissed.”

“No. It wasn’t Pierce.” Michael noticed how Nicolas startled at the knowledge that they knew Pierce was the Shifter.

“I know you killed your Dupe. That punked out reject. Waste of re-engineering. He was insane trying to kill the destiny children.” Nicolas sneered. “But Vanessa? She was nowhere near you, and none of you were near her. A Walker ! It had to be one of Larek’s flunkies.”

Michael frowned. “How do you know that my Dupe was trying to kill my children?”

Nicolas shrugged. “Common knowledge. Don’t think we wouldn’t have stopped him if we had realized. Nothing like being ‘unmade’ to ruin a person’s day.”

Michael seemed suddenly agitated. “Not nice meeting you, Nicolas. Maxwell, we need to go.”

“Wait!” Nicolas frowned. They were leaving?

“Sorry, short fry. We’ve got adult things to do!” Michael gestured for Max.

“I could…”

Michael stopped. “What?” Michael’s size was menacing to the thirteen year old body of Nicolas, and he stepped back. “You could what?”

“I killed you once. I could kill you again.”

Michael got real close to Nicolas. “You could try. Oh….I forgot. You can’t. If I cease to exist, my next child isn’t born and you unmake your very existence. Convenient for me, huh?” Michael smiled evilly. “I was going to kill you, but instead, I think I’ll let you go.”

“You’ll ‘let’ me?” Nicolas spat out.

Michael picked Nicolas up by his neck with no hands. “Yes, let. I might not be Rath of Antar or whoever the hell, but I have something he never had.” Nicolas gurgled as he sucked air into his lungs, or whatever passed as lungs for him. “I found my mate. My focus. I’ve unlocked the full potential of my powers. You think I was hard to beat before? I suggest that you do not try me now. I have no liking for your kind!”

Michael dropped Nicolas to the ground with a thud. Max squatted down next to him. “Here’s a message for you to pass on to your other alien friends including Kivar, or anything else shedding dry skin. This is our world, and we don’t share. We’ll give you time to get off or die. The immediate order is to get out of Roswell .”

Max stood up, and Michael followed. Without looking back Michael swept his hand behind his back and he could hear Nicolas impacting against the wall.

“Thought you were going to kill him,” Max said. “He still didn’t give us anything on Pierce.”

“Yes, he did.” Michael took the driver’s seat. “He gave us more than he knows.”

Michael’s phone rang before he could start the car. “Guerin.” Max watched as Michael’s face turned red. Anger was fusing his demeanor, and he was biting and cold. “I’m on my way!”

“What?”

“That was Jonathan. Maria and Julia are missing.”

~~~

“Does Julia know you come here?” Kyle asked, checking out the establishment with interest. Over the last year or so, he really had some experiences. Gay bars. Crossdressing. Horse racing. Now a strip place.

“No. That’s because I haven’t since I left Vice.” Sean nodded at a few people he knew. Searching through the haze, he tried to find Corky, the owner.

Alex ordered himself a drink, lit up a cigarette, and took a seat at the runway to watch women strip. Kyle’s eyebrow went up when Alex reached into his wallet and took out some cash, folding it to easily slide in a G-String.

“I’m telling, Isabel!”

Alex snorted. “Snitch.” Alex took his drink and passed on a lapdance. “Isabel knows me. She’d make fun of me going to strip joints, and as long as I don’t take anyone home, she’s fine with it. There’s a hell of a lot of space between looking and acting.” Alex tossed back his whiskey, and felt the head rush of his new alien physiology. Damn. He was hoping that this new development was only temporary. He liked drinking, and this was a pisser. Looked like his and Isabel’s home was going to be a dry zone. “Ask Isabel. She likes male exotic dancers, all the way to the full Monty. As long as she doesn’t pick up a Chippendale, I’m okay.” Alex smiled at Kyle. “I stripped for her for her last birthday.”

Kyle suddenly was interested. “Really! How did that go over?”

“Good, real good. But, I wouldn’t suggest the thong.”

Alex smiled and slipped a folded bill into a dancer’s string. Sean saw Corky. “You coming?”

Alex shook his head as he waved his empty glass at the waitress. “Nah. I’ll wait here and feed the locals better wages. Everyone’s got to make a living somehow.”

Kyle reluctantly followed Sean. He wanted to learn more about this stripping thing. Now that Tess was no longer pregnant, and in a few weeks they could mix it up. Maybe…

“You aren’t interested in finding out more about that stripping thing?” Kyle asked Sean as they moved through the crowds.

“What?” Sean was too distracted. He shrugged. “Nah. I spent six months undercover as a male exotic dancer. Alex is right. The damn thong is a pain in the ass. Literally.”

Kyle stopped in his tracks as Sean continued onward. Disbelief covered his face. “Damn! Where have I been all my life? Everyone else is having fun, and…” Kyle hurried after Sean. “Sean, wait up!” Around Alex and Sean, Kyle felt like a boy scout. He didn’t even want to imagine what Guerin did during his stint on the mean streets.

Sean backed the owner up in a corner, and they talked for a little while. Kyle patiently waited watching the clientele and dancers. Alex was at the runway quickly working on a nice drunk.

“C’mon. Corky gave us permission to use the room, but we have to feed the machine.”

“Machine?”

“Yeah, deposit money, window slides open, and a female does a personal show just for you. The privacy booths are so you can get it on with yourself while watching. There are condom dispensers in there. The place prefers the clientele to use condoms. Less mess.”

“You sure we got the right booth?”

Sean moved through the crowds to a back dark hallway. “Think so. Andy and I once passed notes there. He’d go in. Watch. Between sessions, he’d slide info behind the condom machine. Later, I’d pick up.” Sean frowned. “I should’ve checked sooner, but I really thought he was passing verbal information. This might still be a wash.” Sean felt guilty. He had meant to check it out much sooner, but he wanted to take Julia with him, and somehow things kept interrupting.

They had to change money for tokens. And Kyle held the slot money. All this was such a new experience. What the hell was he thinking when he was young? All these places he never thought to visit or try. Of course, the Roswell when he was a kid, and the Roswell of today were two completely different places.

The booth was busy. Sean rolled his eyes. “Great. Just great.” Moving Kyle out of the way as another man moved down the hall.

“That one’s open,” said Kyle to Sean.

“Yeah, and that one doesn’t have what we’re looking for.”

Kyle turned red at that. He forgot. They did have a purpose beyond trying new things. Kyle’s phone rang, and he turned even redder.

“Hey, Dad.” Making a face, Kyle the Family Man came back online, and he listened to his father. “Okay, we’ll meet up with Michael and Max, and be around.”

“Something new?”

Kyle shook his head. “Cap was just checking in. He wanted me to know that he collected Amy, Tess and Zan and took them to his place. We need to meet Michael and Max at the loft and then head over to report to him.”

Sean leaned against the wall. “If we ever get into this damn booth!”

“Sean, it’s not your fault. Let it go.”

“I should’ve checked here sooner. I…” Sean shook his head. “We had Chameleon. He knew things.”

They waited for what felt like hours as they heard the five minute window opening and closing. Finally Sean lost his patience. Giving Kyle a look, they both leaned hard into the door breaking it open.

The middle age overweight man was a trucker on an overnight layover. He stood up in anger. Sean pushed him back down in his seat, and reached over him grabbing the condom dispenser.

“It’s okay,” said Kyle. “We’re the police.”

The man’s hands went up. “I didn’t know it was illegal! I swear.” The man was sweating. “You won’t tell my wife in Louisiana ?”

“Oh geez!” Kyle listened to the man’s pathetic pleas and reached over to help Sean pull the dispenser off the wall faster. Dumping a few tokens in the man’s lap, he made a face. “We’re looking for something. Calm down.”

The man quickly pushed a token in the slot shoving it forward, and suddenly the window blind opened and there was this skimpily dress woman performing. Kyle gave the man a look of disbelief.

“It calms me!”

“Oh, shit.” That girl looked familiar. Before Kyle could place her, Sean had the dispenser. There was a manila envelope duct taped to the back. “This calms you?” Kyle shook his head. The trucker, his eyes peeled to the dancer nodded happily. Yeah. Made him real calm.

Sean had it. He nodded to Kyle and they left the dispenser against the wall. Leaving the trucker to his…calming activities, they went to remove Alex from his bar stool. Sean stopped and shoved some bills at Corky for the damaged dispenser.

“Alex, let’s go!”

Alex seemed oblivious, so both of them took an arm and pulled him away. Alex was laughing.

“Damn! I haven’t had alcohol affect me this way since I was pimply faced and in high school, and a geek.”

“Don’t worry, Whitman,” said Sean. “You’re still a geek.”

Kyle helped to shove Alex into the car, and looking over the roof, he smiled at Sean. “You know. Speaking of high school, I think the girl in the booth was a girl I went to high school with.”

“Wow, so what was her name?”

Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know. Lynn ? Linda? Jane? I just recognized the breasts.” Kyle snapped his fingers. “Star!”

“Those were real?”

Kyle laughed as he climbed into the car. Sean opened the envelope as Alex leaned over the seat from the back. All three watched as some pictures from a 35mm telephoto lens shoot dropped from the envelope. A warehouse. One of the warehouses they had shut down yesterday. Strickland entering. A man. Nondescript. Sort of balding. It was the last three pictures that caught their attention. Strickland leaving in one. And the final two of a figure they knew.

“Fuck me!” said Sean in disbelief.

~~~

“You were supposed to watch her!” Michael yelled at Jonathan.

“I was! I stepped outside with Jim and Amy to help them load up Zan and Tess, and when I came back inside both Maria and Julia were gone.”

“How long ago?”

“Just about ten minutes. I called you immediately.” Jonathan looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes now.” Ignoring Michael’s anger, Jonathan grabbed his jacket. “I’ll circle around the block, and then start hitting a few of Maria’s favorite places. You can call Amy, and stay here in case she decides to wander back.”

Michael flopped his arms in agitation. “Did you try her cell phone?”

Jonathan picked it up from the table beside the sofa. “Look, she probably went with Julia to pick up something. She’ll be right back.” Jonathan looked at Max in confusion. “What’s going on? Why are you so upset?”

Michael stopped pacing. “My wife and unborn children are out there with a murderous Shifter on the loose. Upset? This isn’t upset!” A few things around them started to explode. The pictures literally jumped from the walls. “That is upset!”

“Okay, I’m looking. You stay….and, get calm. Or something.” Jonathan waved at Max quickly and left before Michael lost his cool and twisted him into a pretzel.

“He’s right. Maria probably took a quick walk with Julia. She was locked up in this house for over twenty-four hours. A leg stretch was probably needed.” Max had to agree with Jonathan. Michael was abnormally upset. Maria and the babies were in no real danger. They were protected. Julia was another problem. She had been a target from almost the beginning. “What’s got you so wired?”

Michael paced some more, his breathing puffing out in loud exhales. “Remember how whacked and territorial I was over Maria since we got together?”

“Hard to forget. I thought she was going to dump your obsessive ass.”

Michael ran a hand over his face. “Seems I need to follow my natural instincts more. I was always ill at ease around Jonathan. Well, Nicolas gave us a damn large clue today.”

Max had missed it. “You said that before Jonathan called. Maybe you better explain.”

“The Skin knew! He knew that Rath was trying to kill the babies.”

“So…” Max paused. How? No one did. “That’s impossible.”

Michael nodded, his pacing moving at a frantic rate. “Highly. There’re only a select few that knew of Rath’s intentions. Only a few of us. Kyle, Sean, Maria, Alex, Tess, me. You. Just the inner circle. Who the fuck would we tell?”

“Yet the Skin knew. Nicolas.”

Michael nodded. “He knew because Pierce told him. And Pierce knew because…”

“He’s that close to us. Very close. One of us.” Max joined Michael in his pacing. “Who? Julia? Maria is with Julia right now.”

Michael shook his head. “I thought of that, but no. She’s not in the loop. Sean hasn’t had time to tell her, so we kept all that away from her. Even if she was Pierce, targeting herself to throw away suspicion, it couldn’t be her. She wouldn’t have known about Rath.”

“Okay. So you’ve been an obsessive territorial miser because you feel someone too close.” Max frowned. Jonathan? Could it be Jonathan? Maybe he lied about being Sa’rel. Maybe he was indeed Pierce.

“Too close. More than one, but one specifically. Like fucking eyes on my back, watching us all the time.” Michael scratched his eyebrow. “I need Maria back here, now!”

Max nodded. He agreed. Pierce could be anyone. He could’ve taken any form for a short time, moving in and out of the loft and among them for months. “Michael, you feel Maria. Connect with her. Tell her to come home.”

Damn! He should’ve thought of that! He was so damn agitated that he let it slide. Clearing his mind, he searched for her. Reached out requesting a focus.

There.

On the mental plane, he could see it. Pure brilliant crystal in the darkness. Walking towards it, he rushed his power through it requesting her to come to him. Find him. Immediately. He sent the urgency through the matrix.

“Fuck. She and Julia are in the two empty lofts looking at them for renovation. She’s working on getting Julia to agree to take the lofts and move in with Sean.” Michael breathed a sigh of relief once he knew she was safe. “She’s on her way back across.” Tie her up. Restraints. A spanking. There had to be some way to keep Maria DeLuca-Guerin in check. She was literally driving him insane.

Max nodded. “I’ll call Jonathan. Let him know he’s off the hook, and he can stop looking for Maria.”

Before Max could dial, Isabel, Liz, Julia and Maria came through the sliding glass door. They had cut through Liz and Isabel’s loft and through the garden. The four women were all talking at the same time. Plans. They were talking about possible renovations and the addition of new windows and a door facing the new garden in memorial to Mrs. Mulhoney.

“Hey, Detective.” Maria went to him immediately. “What has you all in an uproar? I could sense that caged beast across the complex.”

Michael framed her face. “You were supposed to stay put, Professor. Jonathan is out scouring the city looking for you, checking all your favorite places.”

Maria frowned, but suddenly brightened. “You think he’ll bring me some chocolate fudge cake with extra whipped cream from the Towers?”

Michael laughed in relief, holding her tight in his arms. The others were starting to understand that something had upset Michael, but before they could say anything, Alex, Sean and Kyle came through the door at top speeds.

“Sean…” Maria said, but the look on his face stopped her.

Sean was staring at Julia in horror. “Julia, come here.”

“Sean?” Julia looked around confused. “What is it?” She slowly walked towards Sean, trying to read his eyes, but he wasn’t staring at her. He was gazing beyond her, and so were Alex and Kyle.

Turning, confused, she looked at Isabel and Liz, both frowning. Isabel’s eyes narrowed as she studied Alex. She moved towards him as well. Alex nodded. Yes. Come here. Sean tossed a set of photographs on the floor, almost like a gauntlet. Pictures of Liz Parker.

“What was it, Liz? What made you target Julia?” Sean asked softly.

Julia stopped suddenly and looked back at Liz. Liz? Liz Parker? “I don’t understand.”

“Liz was Chameleon’s other employer. Weren’t you, Liz?”

Liz Parker looked at the group. Her confusion was evident on her face. Suddenly it cleared, and her entire demeanor shifted. “Yes.” Her voice was amused. “Some detective you are, Sean.”

“Why?” Sean reached out to pull Julia to him. Behind him. Liz calmly pulled her service revolver from the small of her back. Keeping it trained on Julia, she smiled maliciously, shaking her head at Julia as she tried to move towards Sean. Liz could easily use her powers, but somehow, the thought of a projectile entering Julia’s body, tearing organs along the way was so pleasing.

“I would suggest you not move. At all.” Liz laughed. “Why? Why not? You cannot imagine how horrible it felt to be dumped by a man who thought I was... ‘vanilla,’ I believe was the term? When I could have given you a lifetime of pain.” Liz moved more to the center, keeping her eye slightly on Michael. “Do not think about it, Commander. I can counteract anything, in full force. We would not want the loft to implode around your lover and mate, now would we? I go down. We all go down.”

Maria put a restraining hand on Michael’s stomach. “Michael, no.”

“Why Chameleon, Torq’el?” Max asked.

Liz laughed, hearing her other name. “So you know. Yes, I am Pierce. I have had many names, but I think Pierce is my favorite. He is deliciously uncomplicated, unlike this whiny Liz Parker. She was convenient. I could not have found a better blind. Brown. Dull. Uninteresting. No one ever missed her when she slipped away. Weeks could go by, and no one would ask about her. Any excuse was easily accepted.” Liz’s face showed a total lack of emotion despite the smile. “Why Chameleon? He was another choice of convenience. I almost died in one of his bombings. A few times. No one looks too closely at a victim, therefore it is the best way to hide. Plus, he guaranteed me a good view of a cat and mouse game. It diverted your investigations away from Strickland, and gave me an open field to work closer than ever.”

Julia shook her head. “How can she be Pierce? He’s a man. From all accounts, he’s a man.”

“She is not that intelligent, is she?” Liz said laughing in real amusement. “All this time, all of us moving around her, keeping her in the dark. It made it easier to confuse the motive.”

Sean took a step closer. “Why, Liz? Why Julia?”

Liz made a soft meowing noise in her throat. “I miscalculated. I did not know you liked pain. I could have given you that, and so many more excruciating experiences. Imagine my shock when you cut me loose.” Liz held up her hand. “Which really, I was quite fine with, or my little hostess was. She understood. And Maria was there to hold my hand through it all. She made me think clearly. More on track. Stop waiting for Prince Charming, and pick up the sword...”

Maria frowned, remembering that conversation. “I didn’t quite mean it that way, Liz.”

Liz shrugged. “Nevertheless. I did. I might have let Sean’s abandonment slip by, except that he replaced me with this….human! Mere days, hours….after he walked away from me. Imagine my surprise. Alien sex usually has enough power to keep them all on a string. A tight tether. He dumped me for straight human sex! The boy really did like pain.” Liz laughed at her own amusing comments. She looked at Julia critically and laughed again. “Honestly!”

“What is it you want?” Michael asked.

“What do I want?” Liz asked. Then she screamed. “What do I want?! To be free of this nagging morality.” Liz paced quickly, her gun never altering from its aim on Julia. “This creature. This Liz Parker, is wholly annoying. She was the perfect point of entry into your closed society. But her voice is a nagging drone in my ear. In my head. She is……nice. Disgustingly nice, in a condescending pasty way.”

“When did you…” Maria made a gesture to Liz’s form.

Liz laughed. “Oh, so long ago. You did not really think she could survive having her throat sliced open? One moment she was critical, on the verge of death, and the next, she miraculously healed. It was a glorious moment for human medical technology. Saving an honorable and trusting loyal public servant. Imagine how easy it was to walk into her room, imprint her form, and burn her remains to dust. There was not even enough lint left over for a person to blow away.”

Maria put a hand over her mouth and turned into Michael’s chest. Max closed his eyes. That was why. One day he had felt he could have a connection to Liz Parker. She fascinated him. The next day he went to visit her, and that spark was gone. She had been gone, and he sensed the difference, but never knew to make the connection. He hadn’t even known he was an alien back then.

“None of you knew her. Not really. The Commander found her irritating, therefore when he picked up a feeling of unease, he discounted it as his natural indifference. You, Maria, only knew her for a few days, perhaps a week? When she was different, you assumed it was part of the trauma of the attack. People see what they want to see. It is easy to blend in that way. I think the only person close to feeling an unease with me was Eddie. He seemed to look too closely, so I backed off from a relationship with him. Strange. He seemed to see what no one else could.” Pierce laughed. With the face and body of Liz Parker, it was an affront. “She was not all that annoying. There were some benefits I enjoyed. Before I was Liz Parker, I never paid much attention to detail. Her anal retentive personality has been a good addition.”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Sean. Liz was exposed. Pierce was known. They wouldn’t be fooled by her again. She couldn’t kill any of them. They now knew her.

Michael felt the same. “What is it you want, Pierce?” He couldn’t call Pierce by Liz’s name. Liz was just an outer shell.

“My kingdom of Antar . I only wish to rule! Always born to a subservient class. I was the better. Zan, the King, suspected my duplicity, but he actually liked it. It served his purpose. I should have suspected the traitor he bound me to had to have a separate agenda. I tried to use the Dupes, but they were as great a failure as you.” Pierce stared at Julia. “So much time spent in the background as wallpaper, watching. Learning. Waiting for the Royals to awake and find the blasted Granilith. I was your Protector! From many things. From the serial killer, Price. I saw him watching Stiller, and I waited until Stiller walked into the men’s room, followed, shifted into him, and walked back out. Nothing and no one could get that close. Not until I had the Granilith. The power to negotiate my return to Antar.”

Julia looked at the group, shaking her head. “What the hell is this? Are you buying into her story? She is obviously a delusional freak. Pierce? Liz? She has a multi-personality disorder!”

Liz looked at Julia. “It was a shame to let Chameleon have all the fun. A freak?” Liz laughed. “Oh, I truly think I have had enough of you!” She aimed the gun and squeezed off the trigger.

“Julia!” Sean moved fast. He grabbed her and moved around her body, turning his body towards Liz, shielding Julia from her.

The room went still as the exploding sound of gunfire rang throughout in a dying echo. Julia pushed away from Sean, pulling free of his restraining hands. Sean stood there staring at her, his eyes clear and bright. Julia shook her head, confused, as a small speck of red covered his front near his heart in mid-chest. The speck increased as the blood stain seeped into the cloth.

Sean seemed suspended in midair, and without a word, his eyes never leaving Julia’s, he suddenly collapsed to the ground like a limp dishrag. Julia eyes widened, her hand shaking in incredulity. No. No! Her hands reaching out for him.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Not this way. They fought. They made up. They were in love. He would ask her to marry him again, this time with a ring, and she’d say yes. They would go to Florida to tell his family, and she and Sean would renovate Maria’s vacant loft just for themselves and their future together. That was what was going to happen. What was supposed to happen. It all flashed there. In his eyes. In that moment, hanging in time, he stood there unblinking looking deep into her eyes. Everything they were supposed to be together flashed by in a blinding light. And then he was gone. A bullet directly to the heart. Death was instantaneous.

“Sean?” Julia knelt next to him quickly. “Sean! Speak to me!” Her voice pulled from her body in a gasp of pain. “Oh…oh, Sean! Sean! Baby?” Her hands ran over his face. He was pale. Deathly pale, and sweat beaded on his skin, as his lips lost color, and he stared. Unblinking. His eyes unfocused, and unseeing. No goodbye. No ‘I love you.’ Nothing. That fast. He was gone.

Time seemed to pause in a vacuum, and then Michael and the others moved. In the timeless split second that Liz shot at Julia, Michael lunged at her, knocking the gun from her hand. He had her down, and his fist was ready to punch her senseless, but he couldn’t. She was a woman. She was Liz. Michael’s body flew across the room hitting the dining room table, and taking Max with him. Liz slowly stood up, trying to get her composure.

“Sean? Don’t die. Don’t die!” Julia was crying hard. He was already gone. His eyes wide open, the center of light darkened. His pupils dilated and empty. Julia was weeping as she lifted him against her chest, shaking her head violently. No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. This was wrong. “Oh God!” Julia buried her face in her hands weeping uncontrollably.

“Sean?” Maria was crying as she moved to him slowly, but she couldn’t move. Her stomach... The babies... Maria bent over in pain. She broke out in a sweat. Around her, Liz stared at her hands in shock, as Isabel, Michael and Max all hit the floor, all them gasping. Even Alex and Kyle seemed to be reacting.

“What is happening?!” Liz’s voice broke as she seemed unable to hold herself up. Liz’s form morphed into Pierce, Nasedo, and then back to Liz. All the forms she once possessed rushing over her body and face in a kaleidoscope of personalities.

“Michael….” Maria was in pain. Michael tried to get to her, as Max tried to reach Sean. The babies. She was losing the babies. This wasn’t a miscarriage. It was like their very essence was being ripped from her. “Michael!”

“Maxwell, what’s happening?” Michael asked, his voice hollow. He could barely concentrate.

Max made it over to Sean. He was dead. Gone. “Sean! It has to be Sean. He and Julia made a healing stone radiate. He’s part of a harmonic. Without him, Destiny is changed. He wasn’t supposed to die!”

“A harmonic?” Liz’s voice was loud and shrill. She was dying. Her very existence was reversing to nothing. Fading to black. All of them were soon going to no longer exist.

Julia looked over at Liz, and she reached over Sean’s body that Max was trying to heal. “You fucking bitch!” Julia picked up the gun that Liz had dropped when Michael hit her, and she aimed it at Liz, shooting it over and over until the clip emptied, not caring as Liz’s body hit the ground. “I hope you burn in hell!” Sobbing, Julia dropped the gun, and looked down at Sean. Weeping she laid her head on his chest. “Sean…oh….Sean! Don’t be dead... Don’t be dead....”

“Maxwell! Heal him!” Michael was scared. Everything was darkening. He could see Maria, but his mind seemed to being losing its ability to concentrate, and he could hear a rushing in his ears. Maria was in pain. Without Destiny, without him, there were no babies, and their very existence was being ripped from her.

Sweating, Max tried. He couldn’t. He was no longer strong enough. He was dying like the rest. “I can’t! I can’t! I don’t have the strength.”

“Reach for Jonathan! Reach for a focus!” Michael moved over to Maria, pulling her into his arms. He was losing her. They….there would be no more ‘they,’ forever. “Dammit, Maxwell! You’re the fucking King! You are strong. You are so fucking strong!”

Isabel pulled herself next to Max, and joined her hands to his on Sean. “Help him! We all have to help him. While we still have enough power. Once Sean is beyond retrieving, we’ll cease to be. Maria, you have the twins’ power. It’s far stronger than any of us, alone. Focus for Michael, give him the power!”

Michael helped Maria pull herself closer to Sean, as Kyle and Alex joined them, uncertain if they could help. Without the aliens, they were never killed and never brought back by Max and Isabel, so as the aliens dissolved into the void, the parts of them that were altered was reverting back to pure human.

They all placed their hands on Sean’s dead body and concentrated, pulling from whatever hidden strength remained to help bring Sean back. The humming of the loft increased, as the Granilith activated. Max reached outward for Jonathan who was suffering death like the rest of them wherever he was. He reached out for his focus.

There. In the dark. Darker than the blackest of night, he saw it. A small pinpoint of light. Waning. Flickering. Slowly dying. Reaching out, Max felt a surge of power coursing through his veins. It hit them all at once, intermixing them. The wall in the back of the new addition of the loft exploded as the Granilith generated an increasing power, fueled by the joining of the One. Michael and Maria moving together mentally to the plane of the balance, feeling the others joining them, even Tess from across the way.

Max’s back arched at the power hit him in a burst, so brilliant that he didn’t hear the others’ reactions as they all fell away. And then there was only darkness.

~~~

Sean couldn’t feel. Couldn’t see. His body hurt, or what felt like it might be his body. Hard to say. It was the voice reaching him in the dark. A voice in his head. Maria. Her voice told him to come back. Come back, now! He wasn’t allowed to leave. Sean rolled his eyes. Give her a new power, and she was a damn annoyance.

Then another voice hit his consciousness. Julia. She was crying. Irritation. That was what it was. Irritation that someone was once again bothering his mate. Enough of this shit. Enough. Sick and tired of it all.

Sean pushed through the weight, and the heavy resistance until his eyes opened. Disoriented, he stared around him. They all partially covered his body in a heap. Fuck. Guerin was on his leg. Man felt like he weighed a ton.

“I’m really having a hard time breathing here.” Sean said in a husky soft voice.

No one moved. Frowning, Sean struggled to lift his hand. It was lifeless, but slowly the electrical motor responses obeyed his brain, and he moved. Confused, Sean looked at the heap of people on him, his hand moving over Julia’s hair. Were they dead? God wouldn’t do that to him. Sure, he was an A-1 sinner, but even God couldn’t be that cruel to bring him back to find everyone he loved gone.

“Sean?” Julia sat up a little to look at him. His eyes were still open, but this time there was the light of living sparkling in their hazel depths. “Sean!” Julia cried openly hugging him hard, kissing him, everywhere. Anywhere. Touching him with shaking hands, she couldn’t stop crying, unable to form coherent words.

The rest slowly seemed to wake, or clear the fog that was clouding their brains. Michael could feel his body again, and his hand was on Maria’s stomach. A baby kicked. With tears running down his face, Michael bent to kiss her stomach. Alive. He was alive. His children were still there. It was Maria’s hands forcing his face from her stomach. They stared at each other. Michael moved upward and kissed her, both of them crying.

Liz?

Michael searched for Liz/Pierce. The glass in the sliding door was gone. Blown out. Shit. And there was no body. Her bullet riddled body was gone. Isabel wiped tears from her face. Searching the room, she laid against Alex, and held Max’s hand.

“Liz? Is she gone forever? Dead?”

Michael struggled to get to his feet, but at first the best he could manage was his knees. Shaking his head, he stared at the blown glass. “I don’t think so. Pierce still lives.”

They all laid together in a large heap, too exhausted to move. Finally Michael found his feet, but his body still ached. Pulling Maria up, he led her to the new family room to survey the damage. The other followed. Almost as if they all agreed, they all collapsed into a group huddle in the middle of the family room.

Staring.

They all looked where the wall once had stood. In the space that was waiting to someday be renovated was a large machine, humming softly. Maria was lying on top of Michael, in his arms with his hands circling her waist, resting on the babies.

“Does this mean we get to finish renovations?” Maria asked. Michael huffed a soft laughing sound and kissed the nape of her neck. Maria smiled and looked over at her cousin, meeting his eyes. Reaching over, she grabbed his face and gently kissed him on the lips.

Sean hugged her close, or as close as he could with Michael in the way.

Julia was too busy holding onto Sean to question anything about these events. But the missing wall and the large humming machine had her slowly sitting up.

“What the hell is that?” Julia cleared her throat that had closed in from all the crying. “Someone is going to tell me what the fuck is happening! Now!”

Maria licked her lips, and opening her mouth, she quickly closed it. For the first time in forever, she actually was speechless.

Max stared at the large alien device, or actually, future human device in wonder. “I think it’s a Granilith.”

They all laid back and stared at the machine in wonder and then contemplation. Maria, as usual, was finally the one to break the silence. “Note to self, have the kids build something not so ugly.” The group softly laughed. Maria seemed to be quietly mulling over a problem. “Um, is anyone else extremely hungry?”

There was a silence, and then the group of them started laughing. Food. Of course. The panacea for everything that might make a person ill.