Pygmalion

By DocPaul

Chapter Forty-eight: Who Lives Forever Anyway?

Day Seventy-six: Sunday, 12:13 am

“Jonathan!” Max scrambled on the floor. He heard Tess screaming, but it didn’t register. His son. Standing, he looked around. “Michael!”

“I’m going!”

Sean, Kyle and Michael moved quickly, all of them drawing their guns. Liz couldn’t be far, not with a crying baby. Alex stayed to help Max. Jonathan was gone. Dead. Max concentrated on healing him. He tried, and tried again.

Maria and the other emerged from the den, cautiously. The screaming and the sudden silence alerted them.

“Jonathan!” Maria dropped to her knees. “Max?”

Max shook his head. He couldn’t. Jonathan’s humanity wasn’t the problem, his alien part was. Max didn’t, couldn’t imagine how to visualize repairing alien internal tissue. Max’s head leaned down to Jonathan. His heart was beating out of control. Not strong enough. He couldn’t do it. Jonathan had forfeited his life for Max.

Alex looked at Maria urgently. “The healing stones. Who has them?”‘

“I do. Michael and I. We put them in the room with the Granilith.”

Alex looked at the empty hollow room, behind the missing brick wall. Granilith. Gone. “In the Granilith?”

Maria shook her head, as she went to fetch them. “No. In the room, safe behind the wall. I’ll get them.”

Alex dropped a hand of comfort on Max, as Tess paced, fear emanating from her in waves, her hands dropped uselessly. Maria came back, placing the stones on the ground. She quickly went to her friend, hugging her close. Tess wept in Maria’s arms for a moment, but she seemed to suddenly be aware. Ava.

Ava’s still body was on the floor. Tess pushed away and went to her sister. “Max?”

Max didn’t move.

“Max! I need you! Ava, you have to help Ava!”

Max seemed to slowly come back to himself, he slowly lifted himself from the floor beside Jonathan, and went to look at Ava. It took some work. He wasn’t as focused without…

Max bit back a rush of pain. Ava’s eyes fluttered and Tess cried in relief. She hugged her sister. Crying in pain from loss, crying in relief, and crying in fear.

They came back, stepping through the missing glass of the front door. Maria stood first, meeting Michael’s eyes. He shook his head no. Liz had escaped. Or Pierce... Nasedo... Torq’el... It didn’t matter what name you used, what was important was that baby Zan was gone as well.

Kyle crossed the room towards his wife and Ava. He hugged them hard. His eyes met Max’s, and the two men shared a bleak moment of pain. Their son.

Alex picked up the stones. “We have no time! We need to try these now, or not at all.”

Michael looked down at Jonathan’s still body. “Maxwell, you couldn’t…?”

Max shook his head wearily. He felt old, too tired to go on. Jonathan gone. Zan gone. His life was shattered. He had lived too long.

“We have to try.” Maria went to Alex and studied the stones. She reached for the two that felt like hers. “Michael!”

“The twins! Do we need the twins?” Michael asked.

Maria shrugged. “I hold their power. Together we are Rath to Be.” Michael nodded. They would hold both stones.

Alex motioned for Isabel to join him.

Kyle and Tess stood, Tess still crying. Kyle gestured to Ava to stand with them, help them. Tess could barely stand on her own.

Julia and Sean held their stone, the brilliance had increased almost three fold since Sean had been healed. Max stood helpless.

Maria handed Max the twins’ stone. He placed it on Jonathan’s chest, and then she and Michael knelt beside Jonathan, their stone was added with Max’s hands, joining theirs. The three of them held the two stones. All of them concentrated, and Max tried to channel the healing into Jonathan’s body.

The loft began to hum. In a flash of brilliance, the Granilith returned to its place in the vacant room. All of them were pulled into the Balance, into a plane of existence facing each other. Three stones surrounding the two stones with the four in the middle. Jonathan’s eyes opened, and all of them gasped as they stepped back.

They were in the loft. Michael and Maria sat back as Max gazed  intently into Jonathan’s eyes. He reached down and grabbed Jonathan in a hard hug, whispering to him. Michael stood up and led Maria away. He needed to see his children.

They were all heading to the family room when a knock came at the door. Pausing, Michael nodded to Kyle and Sean as they pulled their service revolvers. It was the delivery man with dessert.

So little time had passed, but it had felt like so much more. Once Michael paid off the man, he tossed dessert on the kitchen bar and went to find his children. The loss of baby Zan was weighing heavily. They were in shock.

~~~

“What do we do now, Max?” Tess asked. Tess hugged herself hard. Her breasts hurt. Full of milk, no baby to feed. No baby to hold. Biting back a cry of pain, she tried to hold herself together, to be strong for Zan.

Max shook his head. Pierce. Liz. Whoever he was…he  had many resources, the ability to hide and disappear. All these years, Pierce was the nemesis they could never find or shut down.

“He’ll contact us. I’m sure.” Max closed his eyes trying to think, to reason. He had to think of the Shifter as a ‘he’, and not Liz Parker. Never Liz. “The Granilith. He wants the Granilith, and he knows that it will return to Michael and Maria.”

“A trade? You think he would trade Zan for the Granilith, or passage home?” Jonathan asked.

“He’ll trade. He wants something.” Max got up and paced. “He wants the Granilith, the power. He wants Zan, an heir to the throne. He wants to go home to rule. Power is his ultimate goal.” Max frowned. “We’ve got a problem. First, he can’t have the Granilith. Too much power in the hands of a psycho. It’s bad enough it’s in Michael’s control.” Max actually smiled when Michael waved a suggestive finger at him. “Second, Zan is no longer an heir to the throne. I took care of that. He will never inherit the Crest of Antar.” Max shrugged. “Finally, I’d love to send that creature home, let Zan and Lonnie, Kivar, and whoever the hell else is there deal with him. The problem is finding him.”

“He’ll take Zan. He’ll take my baby and leave.” Tess said. Her face was pale, and she was wringing her hands in a nervous gesture. “If he gets the Granilith, he will take Zan and leave.”

Jonathan shook his head. “No. He won’t. He can’t.”

Max looked at Jonathan. “Explain.”

“Zan. He’s connected to Tess, as much as the twins are connected to Maria. Their mothers hold their power for the first six years of their lives. No incubation pod needed. Zan can’t be incubated, and his powers are in Tess’s hands. If he is removed from the Earth, or something happens to Tess, Zan will die. Torq’el is stuck here, for at least six years. Unless he takes Tess too.” Jonathan stood up. “He can run. He can hide, but we will always find him. Tess can find him. She is linked to Zan. There is no place on this planet she can’t feel her son.”

Max nodded. “That solves one problem. That gives us at least six years to find Zan, and take him back.” Tess’s sharp intake of breath drew Max’s glance. “We won’t take six years, Tess. I would not have you miss a day of his life.” Max looked at the group. “And the Shapeshifter... What do we do with him?”

Sean took a cigarette and lit it. Michael calmly took it and tossed it in the fireplace. “Babies. No smoking.”

Sean smiled at his newest family members. For them, he could give up a smoke or two. “I vote kill him.”

Julia nodded. “I concur.” Bastard. She’d never forgive him Sean. The terror of thinking him gone.

Alex lifted his hand. “Dead. However  it happens doesn’t matter to me, as long as he is gone.”

Isabel, Kyle, Tess, and Maria all agreed. The Shapeshifter needed to be removed. Period.

“Michael?” Max asked.

“I don’t consider it murder. I think of it more of putting a diseased animal to sleep. He needs to be found, and dealt with.”

Jonathan cleared his throat. “It’ll be harder than you imagine. I was never his equal. Twice I survived, but of all of us, I’m uncertain any one person has the power to take out Torq’el, to bring him down.” Jonathan rubbed his face. “But, he needs to be gone. If he becomes trapped on this planet, his insanity and anger can only increase. The amount of his rage is beyond comprehension. He is a threat. A global one.”

Max looked at the one silent person in the room. Ava. “Ava, you are one of us now. You have a say. The Shapeshifter? Any thoughts?”

Ava breathed in deep. “He was mah Protectah. He lied to me in more ways than I can name, left me with the othahs. I hate him more than I can breathe. Exterminate. That’s mah vote.”

“Then it’s agreed.” Max said. “That takes care of problem number two. The Shapeshifter dies. Now our final problem,” Max gestured to the Granilith. “This cannot remain.”

Tess stood up. “It has to! We need it to trade for Zan.”

Max grabbed Tess’s arms and shook her. “It’s blackmail, Tess. Blackmail! We can’t pay. It’s too high a price.”

Tess pulled her arm free. “No price is too high! We’re talking about our son!”

Max stood up, straightening his back. “I know. Believe me, I know. The price, Tess, could be catastrophic for this world. If the Shifter gets the Granilith, there will be no world left. He hates humans. Our son is important to us, to all of us, but how can we weigh his life again mankind?”

Tess shook her head. She didn’t want to hear this. She didn’t want to be noble or sacrificing. Zan. Her child. She wanted her child back.

“Listen to me!” Max made her look at him. “We’ll get him back. I swear! On my last breath, he will be in your arms, or I will no longer exist. I swear! But, not this way, Tess. Not this way. The Granilith is beyond this world’s scope, this time’s scope to control. It has to be sent away.” Max looked at Michael and Maria standing together. “That’s your job, Commander, as it was your son’s to send it in the past. Will you do what it takes?”

Michael shut his eyes, and felt Maria’s hand folding into his. He nodded. Their time. Their job. Tess shook her head, and buried it in Kyle’s chest. He smoothed a hand down her back, but his eyes met Max’s and he nodded his agreement. The Granilith was tied to the Praetorians. It was their duty to protect.

“Michael,” Maria said. “Can we leave it as is? One Key. One?”

“No. Rath told us. He gave us a hint. The power can’t reside in One. It must be divided. Checks and Balances.” Michael picked up the stones. “We are the keepers. The Guardians at the gate. All of us.” Michael passed the stones along the others, each taking their stone, and grouping together; Isabel and Alex; Kyle, Tess, and Ava; Julia and Sean. Michael held the two stones belonging to his children.

“How?” Jonathan asked. This was beyond the known Destiny.

Maria looked at the machine. “It belongs to Earth. Her now. Her past. Her future. As long as it resides on the Earth, it can be hidden. Sent anywhere else in the galaxy, it will hone to us.” Maria looked at Michael, her eyebrow lifting. He nodded.

“The past is set. Rath’s solution. It was once necessary to create his parents. His own future. And yours. That leaves us only the future.” Michael said.

Alex looked at Isabel. “It came from the future, Michael. They couldn’t control it.”

“The future beyond the moment it was sent back. Hundreds of years, beyond.” Michael took Maria’s hand. “We need to send it, transport it. Any ideas?”

Maria frowned, remembering the insides of the mechanism. “One time. Moments. Shifting.” Maria took Jonathan’s hand. “It has to phase shift, yes? Into another time, perhaps one where men are more capable of handling the raw power?”

“There is a risk, Maria. I told you. Humans, they can’t shift. It has a price.” Jonathan frowned. “The mechanism has to activated from the inside. At the main terminus. Those who activate it will shift with it, through time.” Jonathan looked at Max. “I’m the only one capable of doing it safely.”

Max closed his eyes. “Will you return?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” Jonathan licked his lips. “It would require an anchor.”

Michael stared at Maria. Their duty. This was their job.  She nodded her agreement. “We’ll go. It’s our place.” Michael looked at Jonathan. “You’ll come with us?” Jonathan nodded. His tie to Maria was strong. It was his place as well.

“If you don’t come back,” Max said. “There will be no Rath. No Granilith, and…the twins!”

“It won’t matter either way,” said Michael. “All of you, surround the Granilith with your stones on three sides. Concentrate on the Balance, the Granilith, and allow the power to run through your mind, to blend into the Balance.”

Sean frowned. Whatever the hell that meant. He was game. Looked like a thrilling ride. The three groups spread along the base of the Granilith an equal distance apart, holding the healing stones in their hands. concentrating. The Granilith increased its power output, almost revolving, the sound increasing into a loud high pitch. Maria put her hands over her ears. She could hear the twins crying and for a moment her heart hurt at that sound. Then in a burst of light, there was a moment of blindness, as the light moved beyond the ultraviolet spectrum, much like the focus prism.

Sound moved beyond human hearing, and the harmonics shifted. Each harmonic, revolved, elongated, and synchronized into a unique crystallized form. Then the Granilith seemed to power down to a low hum. The groups stood almost stunned. Alex looked at the stone he held with Isabel, it was red. A red crystal gem. Kyle, Tess and Ava held a blue stone of the purest clarity. Julia and Sean held a yellow crystal in their hand. Sean frowned. The harmonic seemed to vibrate in his hands. It felt pure. Clean. It reminded him of Liz Parker, the first time he met her.

Maria walked towards the others. “I think you can insert them in front of you.” The group exchanged glances among each other, and together, they all inserted their crystals into the base of the Granilith. The mechanism suddenly started to vibrate, oscillating in magnitude beyond what it had before. It was stronger than any had imagined.

“Michael,” said Maria, her hand reached out to touch the cone. She was gone. Michael quickly went to follow. He looked back at Max.

“Maxwell, Zan’s genetics weren’t part of the Granilith. That was why you weren’t part of its Destiny. That was the past. This is for the future. Protectors need a leader to follow.” Michael held out his hand.

Max nodded. He reached up and touched the cone with Michael. Jonathan was the last to enter. The others stood back. Sean and Julia picked up the twins and held them.

~~~

“Where to?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know. How far into the future can we go? How long will it take for natural evolution to bring mankind into the division of powers between strong powers and strong focuses?” Maria asked.

Jonathan smiled as Max looked around in interest. “Maybe sooner than you think. Your children. All of your children will be hybrid mixtures given an evolutionary boost from the advanced alien genetics. They could fuel the burst of evolution.”

“We have to set a coordinate, Jonathan.” Maria frowned. It was activated by the crystals. They needed to direct it. “How are we going to shift?”

“I’ll do it. I’ll join to all of you. The three of you will meld the two stones, into the One. I’ll lend my Shifter genetics. This will be the Stone of the One. Three harmonic crystals to activate, and One to operate and direct.”

Max looked at the controls. “That doesn’t solve destination, Jonathan.”

Michael moved a control full forward. “Let the mechanism determine its own burst.” Michael looked at Maria. “If we don’t come back, I want you to know…..”

Maria smiled. “I know. It has been one hell of a journey, Detective.” Maria kissed him. “Wherever we go…”

Michael nodded. “Together.”

He joined his hand to Maria’s and placed it on the two remaining healing stones, his other hand took Max’s as well, and Jonathan put his hands over their joint ones, as the Granilith began its phase shift, winking through time to another place, space elongating and shifting, his body shifting with the machine, his genetics mingling into the others, his genetic recoalescing to Maria’s since they were the same. There would always be two brothers, and a mate. The One.

~~~

The Granilith exploded into a wave of electromagnetic energy, in a wave front pushing the ones left behind to the floor. They lay there in a confused heap. Alex pushed Sean’s leg off his head, and he looked over to see if Amanda was okay. The baby’s eyes stared back at him. Golden brown. Michael’s eyes.

Slowly sitting up, he shook his head to clear it. Hell, he had spent so much time lately in a dog pile with these people. They were starting to worry him.

Kyle stood up and stared. The Granilith was gone. So were Michael, Maria, Max and Jonathan. He slowly walked to the empty part of the loft. Turning quickly, he grabbed Tess. She was still with him. The twins. They were still alive. Still here. Ava. Isabel. Whatever happened, wherever they went, they were still alive.

“Max!” Isabel rushed to stand with Alex. “Oh God! Where did they go?”

Alex shook his head. “I don’t know.” Julia came to stand next to them. She was holding Mikey. Mikey started to cry, and Amanda followed suit. Both small babies were crying, and no one could soothe them.

“Maybe they’re hungry?” Julia said. Maria. She was gone. “Tess? Can you…” Julia didn’t want to ask. Tess’s baby was gone. She had no one to nurse.

“I…” Tess never finished when the room was bathed in white light, and in wink of an eye, where the Granilith once stood, Michael, Maria, Max and Jonathan appeared in a heap. They were all unconscious.

~~~

“Dammit! My head is killing me!” Michael moaned, his arm covering his eyes.

“Michael! Language!” Maria winced, but inwardly she had to agree. She gestured to her babies who were quiet now that their parents had returned. Once she could settle her stomach and move, she was going to have Michael arrest the twenty miners that were busy pounding in her head. Sick filthy bastards.

“Sorry,” Michael said leaning down to kiss his daughter’s head.

“What happened?” Sean sat next to them where they were lounging on the large sofa in the family room. Max and Jonathan were strangely silent. Jonathan looked to be asleep.

“We…” Michael couldn’t explain it. He didn’t know. He had been conscious of Max, Maria and Jonathan. The rest of the world seemed to float away, or meld into endless scenes. It was hard to say to where or what timeframe they went. All he had was a conscious sense of the others. Worlds raced by, and his body felt…ethereal. “I didn’t think we’d get back.”

“How did you?” Alex was holding Isabel to his chest. The Granilith was gone. Their crystal was gone. Whatever purpose they served was now complete, or it would be once they had their child. Alex frowned. Marriage. He’d have to give that some thought. Maybe Isabel should propose to him?

Maria snuggled Mikey close to her. “I heard crying. I think I heard the babies crying, and then we were here.”

Their anchor. Maria’s connection to the twins, her holding of their power was what brought them back. They phase shifted to the here and the now, leaving the Granilith, the crystals, and a legacy of power for the future to discern. The Granilith of Antar was lost to the present. A mystery answered. Now they knew how the Granilith left Earth. It hadn’t. It had shifted to a time far in the future. Its power now hidden in the future, beyond reach of the aliens of Antar’s abuse, and beyond Torq’el.

The next time the Granilith would exist would be when the twins created it. Why they created it, was still a mystery. One that was theirs to tell, not their parents. It was a mystery for the next generation.

~~~

Only Michael, Max, Jonathan and Maria remained. The others had gone home. Tess was beyond consoling. Kyle took her and Ava home. They would return later. In the morning.

“Rath, our son will be able to shift.” Michael said. He looked at Jonathan. “He had to be able to, to send the Granilith to the past. It was why he was the One. Why he was so important. The twins might create the Granilith, but only Rath could use it.” Michael laughed in wonder. Once he wrapped his head around the causality loop, it changed, shifted, and became more complex. Had Jonathan never imprinted Maria, never came to Earth, never met them, saved them and shifted with them, Rath would never be born with the ability to shift. The Granilith would never be sent back to the past. The aliens of Antar would never find it, and…..

Max. He was the underlying motivator. As Zan, the King, he had sent Sa’rel. He made Jonathan. He created the Dupes to replace the Royals. As Max, he now had a Destiny with the Granilith, for its future. It would take the combination of Max, Maria, and Michael to work the Granilith. Three harmonics created by Max to activate. The threads of their lives, past, present, and future, were bound in a large overlapping ball of string, touching beyond time and space. Reborn a million times, to a million different worlds, always their spirits would find each other.

“I think so. I hadn’t realized until now.” Jonathan sighed. “When I shifted all of us, I mixed my alien genetics, my abilities that made me a Shifter into all of you. So when you and Maria have Rath, he will be much different from the twins. The same, but different. He will have the power of his father, and the power of a Shifter.”

Maria finished nursing Mikey, and handed him to Michael to burp. Smiling, she kissed Amanda and switching breasts, to let her daughter feed. “He will be the first human capable of shifting.”

“No. I’d say that you are, Maria.” Jonathan said, smiling.

“I can’t shift.”

“Perhaps not. But the genetics are there inside you, as they are also inside both Michael and Max.” Jonathan laughed. “What a crazy life you’ve lived. Could you have ever imagined it?”

“Never. I used to worry about my lack of time for sex, and wonder if I was ever going to complete my Ph.D. Now…” Maria laughed. “That seems so mundane.”

Michael leaned back, resting with Mikey on his stomach, his hand gently rubbing the baby’s back as his son drifted off to sleep. A baby’s life. So uncomplicated. Eat. Burp. Comfort. Sleep. “I want to go to work, arrest some bad guys, and harass a rookie. That’s the life. All this alien crap is giving me indigestion.”

“It’s not over.” Max’s face was hard and angry. “My son is out there, apart from his mother. What do I tell Tess? I can’t let this go. I’m leaving in the morning. I’m finding my son.”

“I believe we had two items on the agenda, Maxwell.” Michael reached over and stroked his daughter’s head as she nursed. His children. He could feel them across time and space. For them, he would always come home. “Find Zan, and kill Pierce.”

“Not you, Michael. Your place is here. You and the others have a job.” Max said. They all still had a date with Destiny, in the form of unborn children.

“Actually, Max you can’t go either.” Jonathan stood up. “Finding Torq’el is my job. You have to stay here. Protect Tess. She must never be alone. Never left unattended. She is still your Queen. The mother to your son. Your job is to safeguard her, to safeguard your son through her. You have a legion of protectors that serve you. They will protect her. They will protect you. They will protect this world.”

“You’re leaving?” Max followed Jonathan. Maria started to join them, but Michael pulled her back. It wasn’t their place.

Max watched as Jonathan grabbed his jacket. “Yes. The trail will get cold. I can sense Torq’el. Now that I know what to look for. Liz Parker, or the remnants of her, will be like a beacon. I can feel her.” Jonathan took out his card folding it in Max’s hand. “My cell phone. Have Tess look on the map and concentrate. She can guide me to Zan, and my sensing of Liz will narrow my journey. When I find them, I’ll call you. You and the others can then come. Together, we’ll stand against Torq’el and take back Zan.”

Max swallowed hard. Lose Jonathan too? Zan was hard enough. Jonathan waited. He could sense Max’s indecision, his internal battle. Hiding a smile, his deep black eyes strangely for once not so impenetrable. Pride. He was proud the moment he felt Max’s decision.

“Go. Keep in touch. All of the resources of The Foundation will remain available to you. Find my son. Find Torq’el.” Max put a hand on Jonathan’s arm. “I’d like both of you back.” His heart battled with his reason. Finding Torq’el and eliminating the threat an unstable alien was to the Earth had to be more important than his selfish need to keep his lover close. No one person on the face of the Earth was more capable than Jonathan. It was his very nature to guard the Royals, to protect the King. His missing King was held captive. It was his duty.

Jonathan took Max’s head in his hands, and kissed him deeply. “I’m not going anywhere.” Jonathan rested himself against Max. “Tell my Queen…Tess...that I will find her son. I will find him, or I will never return.” Jonathan stared at Max hard, “And I will return.”

Jonathan was out of the door before Max could stop him. Michael and Maria came to stand next to Max, both of them holding a baby. They watched as morning slowly dawned, Jonathan’s dark figure fading into the early gloom. Who wanted to live forever, anyway? Jonathan, a man who already lived several lifetimes, finally had a reason, a purpose to continue. He was part of a family, and a larger Destiny. He had a home.

They watched together in the doorway, silhouetted by the light of the loft behind them. A dark figure watched as well, crouched in the shadows, his yellow eyes gleaming. Mr. Booboo made a loud caterwauling sound that echoed after Jonathan Stiller, sending him along his journey.

This was not the end. It was the end of the beginning…..the saga continues.