The
Departure……
Inside the Granilith Chamber, Max, Tess, Isabel and Michael
were using the translation of the Destiny book and studying the crystal; they
had a way home. There was no time left to question. Tess was pregnant with
Max’s baby, and the child was dying. It couldn’t live on Earth.
“This is a key.” Max said showing the others the crystal. “When we
insert it the Granilith will transport us … home. It will take twenty-four
hours for it to prepare itself. When it's ready, we have to be on board or we
don't go. The Granilith is capable of one mission, only one. When we use it,
it's gone. It's our only way home.” Max looked at the others. “Is everyone
ready?”
Shaking her head, Isabel couldn’t believe it. “This is
happening too fast.”
“We have no choice, Iz.” Max said his eyes met Tess’s.
“What about Leanna?” Michael asked. “She's still out
there, how can we leave? I mean, she's already killed Alex, what's to stop her
from killing Liz or Kyle or Valenti or … Maria.” Michael voice stumbled over
Maria’s name.
“I'll take care of Leanna,” said Max.
“Max ... ” Tess said holding her stomach, pain moving
across her face.
Max inserted the
crystal ‘key’ into Granilith and a clock magically appeared on the wall,
starting a twenty-four hour countdown.
“Everyone say your goodbyes.”
~~~
Liz, Maria, Kyle and Sean were sitting at a table outside
at the Crashdown. Maria stared at her cousin shaking her head.
“Oh Sean, you really gotta lose that earring. It's just
so like you're obviously trying.”
Sean made a face at Maria. “You're retarded, you know
that?”
“I think it looks cute!” Liz chirped in, rewarded with
a smile from Sean.
Maria rolled her eyes at her best friend. This flirting
thing between Liz and her cousin was icking her out. “Okay, let’s hear from
somebody other than the lowly Parker. Kyle?”
Kyle shrugged. “Isn't it like a gay thing anyway?”
“No, it is not
a gay thing.” Sean told Kyle in irritation. “I've got to get out of this
town, I really do.”
Maria glanced over at Kyle frowning at him. “Would you
please stop that? Please?”
“What?” Kyle looked at Maria, confused.
“That tapping thing, you've been doing it for like an
hour!” Maria gestured to Kyle’s right hand that was moving nervously on the
table.
“I have?” Kyle was going to comment further, but Max
and Michael entered the small outdoor courtyard. He made a face of distaste.
“Oh, Heckle and Jeckle…I'm out of here.”
Sean looked over following Kyle’s glaze and the same
grimace of irritation and distaste moved over his face. Max Evans. Michael, he
was starting to get a grudging respect for, but Max. Un-uh. “Yeah.” The two
young men left without talking to Max and Michael.
Max said to Liz, “Can we talk upstairs? Please?”
Michael waited until Max and Liz left to sit down across from Maria. She
searched his face. He looked serious, deadly serious.
“What? Oh god, somebody's dead, isn't' …?”
Michael winced, feeling bad that he frightened her. Since
Alex, she had lost a lot of her ability to cope with everything. “No, no,
no.” Michael picked up her hand that lay spent on the table, too weak to move.
Fear did that to her lately. It gutted her. “It's nothing like that.”
Her eyes roamed over his face. It was something. She knew
his looks, and this one was too serious, even for Michael. “Then what is
it?”
“I have to see you tonight.”
“You see me almost every night.”
“This is special.” Michael couldn’t stop staring at
her. Twenty-four hours … it was such a short time. Such a short time to cram
in what remained of a lifetime of knowing someone.
“Can’t you just tell me?” She asked gently.
Michael shook his head, staring beyond her, trying to pull
it back together. He felt … he felt … He cleared his throat.
“I need to get outta here, just for a little while. Can
you get off and come?”
Maria nodded getting up to go change out of her uniform.
Whatever it was, it had to be serious. He would tell her in his own way … in
his own time. Maria hurried. Michael had looked on the verge of tears, and that
wasn’t like him.
~~~
While the others were taking care of last minute business,
Michael and Maria chased the sun across the desert. Michael enjoyed the feel of
power, Maria at his back, and nothing weightier than the pull of the wind on
their bodies as they sped across the
Max and Liz went to take care of Leanna, but they had been
wrong. Leanna was nothing more than an innocent human pawn, set up to be
Alex’s killer. The real killer was out there, unknown. Max was forced to break
the news to Liz that he had no time to find the real killer, and to take care of
it, that he only had twenty-four hours. Upset, Liz listened as Max tried to
explain that Tess was pregnant and they were forced to leave immediately.
Betrayed, Liz broke down, angry with Max for betraying everything they
could’ve been. It was all too late.
~~~
Valenti took care of a very ill Tess. She had added
something to his and Kyle’s life, and it was hard to see someone so young, not
only pregnant, but unmarried facing a journey to a world she never really knew
outside of half baked memories. It would’ve been easier if he was certain she
would be okay, but there was no way of knowing that.
~~~
Isabel was having the hardest time. Her parents. She
listened to their usual insane conversations as she searched for Chinese mustard
for her father and the finality of it all hit her. She was leaving forever.
Going to Alex’s grave, it seemed fitting. Everything there was so final. Home.
Home to Antar. Who was she? Vilandra? A betrayer of her family? There was
nothing she wanted out there in that big sky. It had all been there, on Earth,
her parents and Alex. Her biggest regret was Alex, and she never told him how
much he really meant to her, how sorry she was for always pushing him away until
they ran out of time. The Prom, it was the last real moment she felt happy and
alive, and now…that was all gone.
~~~
Maria arrived at Michael's to find the room lit with
candles, a dinner made, and the table set. He had cooked without her. He never
did that.
“Michael?”
Michael stood in the doorway staring at her, his tongue
seemed too thick in his mouth. God, she was so beautiful, her clear green eyes
searching his face, confused and worried. “I know you like Italian, so ...”
Michael paused taking a calming breath. He prepared for this his entire life,
and now it was harder than he ever imagined. She made it damn near impossible.
“And I know Scooby's your favorite.”
“What's going on?”
“Sit down.”
Maria stood at the sofa, her body stiff ready for a brutal
blow. “What's this all about?”
“Sit down please.”
Maria reluctantly took a seat. Michael picked up her hand
… her small delicate human hand.
Michael swallowed hard. “I love you, Maria.”
Maria smiled uncertain where this was going. “I love you,
too.”
Michael breathed in deeply, he wasn’t doing this right,
but what was right? “The thing is … you became a friend, a really good
friend … my best friend, even better than Max and Isabel.”
“You’re my best friend, too. I love Liz, you know that,
but somehow over the past two years, you and I … we have …” Maria bit her
lip.
“Become close.”
“Yeah. Close. Closer than close.”
Michael looked down at her hand, intertwining his to hers,
holding her firmly. “The thing is, Maria,” he said quietly, so soft that she
was forced to move closer to hear him. “I never counted on you … on finding
something like you on this world. I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me
… how much your friendship and family has helped me to survive these past two
years.”
Maria’s eyes softened as they swept over his face. He
really was so beautiful. “I know.”
“I know you do, and that’s a big part of it. How can
you know? You just do. I wasn’t looking for a friend, but that was what I
found in you. You gave me everything, and so much more. When we first met, I was
on this huge out of control path towards self annihilation. I was barely hanging
on, and Max and Isabel, they didn’t seem to get that. You did.”
“You’re better now.” Maria brushed his hair off his
face. “You grew up when I wasn’t looking.”
Michael kissed her hand. “We grew up, Maria. Together. I
always considered Max and Isabel my friends, but they used to make me feel like
they tolerated me, that I was breaking into an exclusive club that was only
them. After I found out I wasn’t their brother … I guess it made more sense.
All I know is with them, I always felt that we became friends and bonded merely
because we were alone, alien, and all each of us really had in this big vast
world. If things had been different, I don’t think they would’ve wanted to
know me.”
“They do love you, Michael.”
Michael shrugged. “I know. But…I feel like I was only
let in the door because of what I am, not who I am. You changed that.”
“Me?”
Michael smiled at her incredulous look. She was always so
willing to downplay her own importance. She wasn’t Liz with this great
soulmate love, some mocked up importance that only existed in Max and Liz’s
minds. She wasn’t an alien with this huge mystical destiny or super secret
powers. She was just a lowly human … a lowly human with something so unique, a
huge capacity to love and accept … unconditionally. There was nothing being
offered to her. No destiny. No soulmate love. Just friendship, and that was
enough.
“You. You’re the first friend I ever made that became
my friend, not because I was alien … and in this case it was more despite my
alienness,” Maria smiled at that. He really did scare her at first. “You
were the first person who had no reason to like me, except for myself … and
the funny thing was, you stayed. Every day that you stayed with me, sought me
out, I began to believe that you actually liked me … found something in me
worth liking and knowing.”
“I did. I still do.”
“You were the one thing I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t
even know to look for you, and one day … there you were, a huge part of my
life. Everything.” Michael leaned forward and framed her face, he kissed her
gently. “Thank you. You made it so much easier for me to hold on … to keep
believing.”
Maria’s hand came up to lie on top of his on her face.
“Michael? Can’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“I have to leave. Max, Isabel, and Tess and I are going
home.”
“Yeah, I know. Like eventually, right?” Maria stared in
his eyes and realization hit her hard. It was there. All of it, there in his
eyes, his earnest warm golden brown eyes. He was leaving. “The Destiny
book,” she said softly. Michael nodded. “When?”
Michael took a deep breath. “Max activated the Granilith
early this morning. It gives us twenty-four hours. It’s a one way ticket home,
and we already punched it.” It wasn’t supposed to feel like this. It was
supposed to be a celebration of a lifetime dream, but why did it cut a hole out
of his heart and stomach leaving nothing but a cold hollow hole? “We're
leaving in a few hours. We have to, I have no choice. I don't want to leave you.
But we both knew someday this would happen.”
Maria nodded. She was supposed to feel glad for him, happy
that finally all his waiting and efforts were being rewarded, but she just felt
numb. “How much time do we have?”
“A few more hours. About eight.”
“That was what this afternoon was about? The ride through
the desert?”
Michael nodded. “I wanted to capture one last ride with
you, one that would last me a lifetime.”
Maria didn’t even know she had started crying. One tear
slowly chased another down her cheek, and she nodded at him, trying to smile
bravely at him, happy for him.
“There's a lot about you Maria.” Michael said, clearing
his throat. Her tears were disarming him, making it harder. “There's a lot
about you, but I think what means the most to me is that you're open. You know I
can look into your eyes and I can see you. I can see what you're thinking. I can
see what you're feeling. How much I mean to you sometimes, how much I piss you
off sometimes. But I can always see you.”
“I see you too.” Maria said softly.
“No, no you don't see me.” Michael shook his head. “I
don’t ever let anyone in that close, not intentionally.” He sighed.
“Remember when Liz was getting the flashes, and I wanted you to let me try
with you?” Maria nodded. “I never told you, but I was almost relieved you
said no.”
“I thought you were angry …”
“I was, or I acted that way, but truthfully?” Maria
nodded. Yeah, she wanted the truth. Between them, there had never been nothing
but, not since the beginning. “I was relieved, because I was afraid that we
would fail, that I would never be able to open up that much to another
person.”
“Michael …”
“The reason you wouldn’t have gotten the flashes is
because I wouldn’t have let you get them. I wouldn’t have let you see me.
I've never let anyone see me before … because there are things inside of me
that I don't want people to see.” Michael’s voice broke to a rush of breath.
“There are things inside of me that I'm not so proud of.” Maria leaned over
and kissed his cheek, rubbing her face against his. “But I've thought about
it, and I wish I could’ve let you seen me.”
“Michael,” Maria said softly.
“It’s too late, but …”
“Michael,” Maria stilled his head, forced him to look
at her. “I do see you. All the time, and for a long time now. Do you remember
the Dalmatian and my red sneakers with the Kermit patch?” Michael nodded, a
frown forming between his brows. “Well, I see you too. I saw you, Michael, as
a little kid leaving the pod. I saw you fighting with Hank as a child, and the
first time he hit you.” Maria ignored Michael’s wince. “I saw you in the
desert with Max and Isabel … walking.” Maria rested her head against his
whispering low, afraid a loud voice would break him, break them. “I saw you
kiss me on the dream plane, and all the times we spent together. You watch me
while I sleep, your hand touches my face. I see myself in this field of stars,
eternal and beautiful. How you see me … it is overwhelming, and it humbles me,
that you … this incredible being, sees something worth knowing and treasuring
in me, a very small human.”
“How?” Michael asked incredulously. How could she get
so much from him?
“Because, you let me inside a long time ago. I’ve seen
you for a long time, and everything I ever saw only made me know how beautiful
you really were … through and through.”
“Maria …”
“Michael …” She took a shuddering breath. She
couldn’t do this. Her heart was breaking, but she promised him. It was
important to him. This … finding home, it was his lifetime dream. “Something
better than
“There's something I have to tell …”
“Shh.” Maria kissed Michael softly, interrupting him.
“You already told me everything you can tell me now. It’s okay, baby. It’s
okay.” Maria stood up holding a hand out to him. “The ride, it was good, but
what I’ll miss most is sleeping with you. I know it started with me holding
you, comforting you when Hank hurt you, but it became something more.” Maria
breathed through the pain. “I never told you how lonely I felt at times, how
lost when my mom was gone … out of town. I know she loves me, but there was
always this thought deep inside me, a fear that she wouldn’t come home. That
something or someone would take her away, and I would be alone. Then I started
to sleep with you, share space, and when she wasn’t there … you were. I
allowed myself to not feel alone anymore, or afraid. You gave me that.”
“I know.” Michael licked his lips. “I always knew. I
get flashes from you all the time, Maria. Not just flashes, but feelings …
strong ones. I never told you, because I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
“Come rest with me one last time. It has to last a
lifetime.”
“Maria …” He didn’t know what else to say. He
allowed her to lead him into the bedroom. His bedroom. No. Their bedroom.
~~~
Across town, Kyle took flowers to Tess. While in his old
room, Kyle saw a flash of Alex in the bedroom. A memory hit him. Alex had been
there. Alex in pain. Alex screaming at Tess, and Tess hurting him.
Kyle started, the memories were confusing. He had to tell
his father. He started to go, but a desperate Tess stopped him. She mindwarped
him again, like she had been doing all along, until Kyle remembered nothing
except that he came to say goodbye to her.
~~~
Max and Liz finally returned home from their trip to
‘take care’ of Leanna. The stark reality that an unknown killer was still
out there was hard to ignore, and Max was helpless to stay. The timer was
already ticking down.
Max gave Liz the amulet from Atherton to remember him by.
Tess had his baby, and Liz got the necklace. She had never slept with Kyle, and
it was too late to go back and change things between them, between him and Tess,
and start over again. There was no way to ever get clean again.
What hurt most as Liz walked away as she stopped in the
Crashdown door, was all that might have been. He loved her, and he loved Tess in
his own way. Life’s choices should’ve been easier for a boy of seventeen,
but they weren’t. After she went inside, Max collapsed against the steering
wheel realizing that for the rest of his life, it would always be about regret.
~~~
Max went home, his feet dragging his heavy heart. He found
Isabel sobbing on her bed, her heart equally broken. She looked up at him.
“What if I said I wanted to stay?”
Max sat down next to her. “When we came out of the pods
and we lost Michael, it was just the two of us in the desert and I knew that I
wasn't alone…that I had my sister. To me, earth isn't home and whatever's out
there isn't home, but you're my home.”
Together, they filmed a goodbye tape for their parents.
~~~
Max entered Valenti’s home to get Tess. She was waiting
for him. She and his unborn son. It was time to go.
“Let's go.”
“Max, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes.”
Tess held his hand tightly. It was over. They were finally
all the other had, for the rest of their lives. “Right.”
Max kissed Tess and she saw a flash of Max kissing Liz.
Standing back from him, she stared at him in disbelief and anger. “You kissed
Liz!”
Max remained quiet. He never lied about his feelings to
Tess. She always knew what Liz meant to him, how Liz would always be in his
heart. It was a life she chose.
“Don't worry,” Tess told him, “you won't remember her
where we're going.”
~~~
The bedroom was dimly lit by candles. Maria lay there
looking at his back. He sat up on the edge of the bed a few moments ago.
“It’s time?” she asked softly. Michael nodded. He had
no words left, nothing left to give her … nothing that wouldn’t hurt.
Maria remained silent as he dressed. He was leaving, and
nothing she said would make it any easier. It was never meant to be this hard,
but it was.
Michael walked through his apartment for the last time. He
couldn’t even afford to kiss her goodbye one last time. Walking past the
dinner they never ate, he opened the door. Closing his eyes, he paused for a
moment before walking through the door.
It was the sound of her bare feet running fast across the
room. “Michael!”
He turned quickly and swept her up in a hug, holding her
hard against him. She was crying her arms circling his neck as if she would
never let him go.
“Oh, god!” she whispered, her voice low and thick with
tears. “I … I can’t …”
“Sh. It’s okay. I know.”
Maria nodded, sniffing back the tears that refused to stay
away. “I knew this was coming. I always knew … I just didn’t know it would
be so soon … too soon. I’m not ready to give you up, Michael Guerin.”
Michael hugged her so tight. He knew. He knew because he
was having a hard time giving her up too.
Maria pulled away and tried to gather her emotions.
Searching his face, she tried to smile bravely. She was happy for him, really,
she was, but there was so much doubt, worry, and fear choking at her.
“If the baby can’t breathe here, and the Skins … like
Courtney needed a special husk to breathe on Earth … how do you know you can
breathe on Antar? You’re basically human.”
“Maria …” Michael searched her face. She was
rambling.
“Maybe you were never meant to go back. Why did they make
you human?” Maria framed his face with her hands. “I know you have to go. I
know, but I can’t live not knowing … never knowing that you’re okay. I
can’t spend my life in doubt searching the skies wondering if you’re still
alive.”
“Maria, I have to go.”
Maria nodded, wiping a shaking hand across her face. “I
know. I always knew. You were one risk I was afraid to take.” Maria licked her
lips. Holding his face, she made him promise. “I want to feel good about
looking at the stars. I want to look up and think of you happy and finally home.
So you have to do this one thing for me. A promise.”
“I don’t know if I can keep any more promises, Maria.
There is no more time.”
“Promise anyway. Promise me, that no matter what happens,
or where you go, that you will find a way, if possible to contact me, to send me
a message. Through Larek, or some other way. I don’t care. Send a message home
to me that you’re okay. That you live. I need to know that, to go on. Promise
me.”
Michael nodded, laughing a little without humor. Larek was
the last person he would send a message through to her. Trust her to find the
one promise designed to break his heart. Even at the very end, she found a way
to take care of him. Michael hugged her one last time, his hand staying on her
cheek as long as it could as he pulled away.
“I promise.”
Maria stood in the doorway of his once apartment, framed in
the door by the light against the darkness of the night in nothing but her slip
and bare feet. She stood in the doorway with her eyes closed listening to the
sound of his bike, until she could hear it no longer.
“I love you,” she said softly as her hand slowly shut
the door.
~~~
Michael was the last to arrive. He was strangely quiet. Max
frowned at him, uncertain what was going on in his mind. This was a lifetime
dream for Michael, and Max always expected Michael to be so excited they
wouldn’t be able to contain him. He wasn’t that. He was solemn and still.
Michael used his powers to send the jeep over a cliff as
Isabel, Max, Tess and Valenti watched. Breathing deeply, he watched another part
of their human life burst into flames. It was really over.
Isabel handed the tape she and Max made to Valenti. “This
is for our parents. Will you give it to them as soon as you're sure we're
gone?”
“I will.”
“Thank you.” Jim pulled Isabel and then Tess into a hug
goodbye before turning to Max.
Max couldn’t leave so much undone, but he was out of
time. “Look, I need you to protect Liz, Maria and Kyle.” Michael flinched at
the mention of Maria’s name, the knowledge she was being left with a killer
out there. He remained silent.
“With my life.” Jim held out a hand to Max. “It's
been an honor to know you, Max. It's been an honor.” Jim dropped the hand and
hugged the alien boy that gave him back his son.
“Same here.” Jim watched as the four alien children
walked in the direction of the pod chamber, their last walk home.
~~~
Maria walked into her bedroom, surprised to find Liz lying
on her bed. Sighing she threw herself on the bed next to Liz staring up at the
ceiling of her room. There was a glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. Michael
had put them there for her.
“I can't believe this is happening. I … I just can't
even believe it's possible!”
“Um, hmm,” Liz said, too depressed to even speak. She
tried to drown her sorrow and broken heart with Maria’s cousin, Sean. It
didn’t work. No matter how much she wanted to let Max go, he was still there,
in the way.
Maria reached over and took Liz’s hand in hers holding it
in comfort.
She just lost her best friend of a lifetime, and Liz lost
the great love of her life. Maria didn’t want to examine her feelings for
Michael too closely. She was afraid. All this time, she had guarded her heart
from him, not wanting to let him in all the way … to love him like Liz loved
Max, because she didn’t want to have to suffer when he left.
It was so much easier to look at the skies for the rest of
her life thinking of him up there, happy and finally home, and to be happy for
him, missing him, but still happy for the time she knew him. Loving him like a
lover would’ve been so much harder. She did everything she could to safeguard
herself from the fate. So why did it hurt so much? What did she do wrong?
Maria was pulled from her brooding thoughts by the sound of
her mother’s voice coming from the kitchen.
“Larek. He says his name is Larek, and he's an alien. Who
is Larek?”
Maria sat up looking at Liz. Larek? “My mom...” They
both rushed into the other room.
“And he's taken over this whole place. And he's holding
us hostage here with a gun. He's pointing a gun at my daughter.” Amy’s voice
raised in anger. “He threatened my daughter!”
“Mom,” Maria forced her mother to look at her. “Mom
what's wrong?”
“Maria?” Amy looked at her daughter in confusion.
“What are you doing up, it's the middle of the night.” Amy’s eyes wandered
to Liz. “And Liz? What are you still doing here?”
Amy hand began tapping exactly like Kyle’s had been doing
while they were all at the Crashdown. It was the same rhythmic tapping that Alex
did on his guitar the day he died. Liz’s eyes narrowed as she stared at
Amy’s hand. Tess mindwarped Amy not to remember Larek and the whole hostage
event at the
“It's Tess! Tess mindwarped Alex!”
“What?” Maria was still concerned about her mother.
“And Kyle!” Liz pulled Maria away. “Look, we've got
to go now.”
They took the Jetta to go find Kyle. Jim would be with the
aliens, seeing them off. Kyle was in his reclaimed bedroom. They quickly
questioned him. Maria bit her lip, nervously looking at the time. It was running
out fast.
“No, there's no way I've been mindwarped. I'd remember
it.”
Maria shook her head. “Kyle, that's the whole point of
being mindwarped. You don't know that it's happening to you.”
“So I'm supposed to look around the room and what?” It
was his room for god’s sake. It was the same room it had always been.
“I don't know, see if you have an unusual response to
anything.” Liz hated to push him, but like Maria, she saw their window of time
slipping away.
Kyle began looking around the room. He suddenly started
tapping his fingers on the dresser.
“Liz …” Maria pointed at Kyle’s fingers.
Kyle shook his head. “Sorry, nothing.”
“Kyle,” Liz moved closer licking her lips, nervous it
wouldn’t work. “It could be really close, so keep looking … keep
trying.”
Kyle’s face clouded in confusion as he stared in the
mirror. He had a vision of Tess and Alex.
“You did this to me, you sent me to
“Okay, Alex,” Tess was nearly hysterical, desperate.
“Alex let me fix your mind, you're not thinking straight.”
“You mindwarped me for two months while I decoded that
silly book for you and now there's nothing left for you to mindwarp. You
destroyed my mind! How could you do this to me?”
Kyle entered the room to the sound of Alex’s angry voice,
the screaming and pain. Tess couldn’t control them both. “Kyle, get out!”
“What's going on?”
“Kyle, go!”
Alex was holding his head in pain. “I have nothing, I
might as well be dead.”
Kyle didn’t know what was going on, but Alex was highly
agitated. “Hey just calm down!”
“He's right okay.” Tess said, concentrating on Alex,
her eyes squinting as she mindwarped him. “Calm down! Just calm down!”
“No, you can't mindwarp me. No!” Tess does it anyway,
desperate to get Alex calm so she could take care of Kyle. Alex collapsed under
the strain of the continuous mindwarp. Kyle watched Alex die, but before he
could react, Tess turned to work on him.
Outside, Kyle shut the door to Tess’s SUV. “Your
duffel's all loaded.”
“Thanks Kyle.”
“Want me to come along?”
“No. Go in the house. I'll take care of everything from
here.” Kyle smiled and went back inside as Tess drove off with Alex’s dead
body.
Kyle turned to Liz and Maria, horror etched on his face.
“I carried his body. She made me think it was luggage. She killed him. Tess
killed Alex!”
~~~
Liz, Maria and Kyle were in the Jetta on the way to the
Granilith Chamber. They had to hurry. It was already getting light outside.
Liz pointed to a marker. “There's the mile marker. Kyle,
how much farther?”
“It's just up ahead.”
They finally made the area of the chamber. Maria and Kyle
ran up the hill to the pod chamber as Liz pointed out where it was stopping them
from going any further.
“Wait, it's right here.” Liz banged on the rock face.
“Hey guys open up.” She screamed as loud as she could.
The three of them screamed at the top of their lungs
praying someone inside would hear them before it was too late. “Open up!”
~~~
Inside the pod chamber the four aliens waited as the
Granilith counted down the time. Michael stared at the timer, indecision moving
over his face. This was the most important moment of his life, the one he had
waited for since he left the pod chamber, and it felt wrong.
Hal had been right. His time had come. He wanted to be the
One, the Man who looked to the stars for answer. Michael breathed deeply closing
his eyes for a moment. He was the
“Max …” Michael breathed in hard and deep. He
couldn’t believe he was saying this. “I can't go.” The others looked at
him in shock, Max moving closer. Michael stared at the timer, then Max needing
him to understand how important this was to him, how he could mess this one
thing up. “Ever since we came out of the pods, I've been on some quest to
figure out where I belong.” He couldn’t in a thousand years have expected
this outcome. He never counted on love. “I finally found home. The weird thing
is, it's here … it's here, on Earth.”
Max stared at his brother … the only brother he ever had.
“Maria,” he said softly. Max shook his head in wonder. He knew. He always
knew, but he never thought that Michael did or would ever admit it, especially
to himself.
“Yeah. Maria.” Michael nodded, laughing softly at
himself, not believing it could happen this way. “I wasn’t prepared for this
to happen … not to me.”
“You of all people,” Max said in wonder, hugging
Michael goodbye. He understood. If thing had been different, he would’ve done
the same. “Take care of yourself, Michael. I love you.”
“You too, Max. Take care of yourself. I don’t know
what’s out there, but whatever it is, I hope it’s worth all this.”
Max understood what Michael was saying. He hoped it was
worth losing Liz and his life on Earth. “Take care of the others. I hope this
works out for you.”
Michael nodded, giving a rare smile. “I don’t know how,
but somehow, I think it will. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
Max looked over at Isabel remembering her devastation over
leaving Earth and their parents. He and Tess needed to go, but the others should
have a choice. “I would understand …”
Isabel shook her head. Leave Max? “What you said before?
You're my home too.”
Tess irritated by the change in plans glanced at the timer.
“Well, whoever is coming, we have to go. Now.”
Michael lifted a final hand in farewell and exited the
chamber one last time. Walking through the dark passage, he moved toward the
door, to outside, and towards his future. Nothing was certain any longer except
one thing. There was someone out there waiting for him, and he wasn’t ready to
walk away from her or the feelings she inspired in him. He didn’t expect her
to be easy, because God knew she never had been in the past. But, he had time
… they had time. Michael smiled at that.
Opening the door, he stood in shock to find her on the
other side of the chamber door. They stood staring at each other in silence that
elongated until he sped it back to normal time by pulling her into a hug.
Michael didn’t register Liz or Kyle, only Maria.
Maria held him tightly, but she pulled back. They were
almost out of time. “Tess killed Alex!”
“What?” Michael looked back at the chamber, at where
Isabel and Max were on the verge of leaving with a murderess. Letting Maria go,
he ran back inside as the others followed.
“Max stop!” Liz screamed from the door before Max could
transfer to the Granilith. “It was Tess. Tess killed Alex. She mindwarped Alex
and sent him to
Kyle entered the chamber with Liz. “It's true, I was
there. I witnessed it.”
Max looked at Tess who was shaking her head. “Why didn't
you ever say anything?” Max asked Kyle.
“Because she mindwarped me!” An angry Kyle went over to
Tess his contempt and pain etched on his face. “You lived in my home, you were
like my sister!”
Max stared at Tess in disbelief. How could she be this
monster? How could he not sense that about her? “How long?” Max asked
Michael, who looked up at the timer.
“About three minutes.”
“Everyone out,” Max ordered, his hand restraining Tess.
“Max …” Michael looked at Max and Tess. He didn’t
trust her not to pull something else, not to find a way to take Max with her. He
doubted Max would kill her, and much to his own chagrin, he realized he
wouldn’t have that problem.
“Now!” Max waited until everyone left before addressing
Tess. “Did you kill Alex?”
“I didn't want to.” Tess swore. “I wish I hadn't, but
I did.”
“Why?” Max couldn’t understand what threat Alex
could’ve been to Tess or anyone.
Tess licked her lips anxiously looking at the timer.
“Look Max, the … the clock's ticking, we don't really have time …”
Max grabbed her roughly, like he once did in the desert
when he first learned who she was. “Tell
me why!”
“He would have told you what I did and I couldn't let
that happen.”
“So you just... you just killed him?” Max was
horrified. This was the mother of his unborn son, someone he knew intimately,
and he didn’t know her at all. She wasn’t who he thought she was.
“I didn't mean to. His brain was just so weakened by the
mindwarp, and …” Tess glanced up at the timer, “look, none of this matters
now.”
“Life matters Tess. My life, your life, his …”
Tess couldn’t agree. “What matters is getting home, but
you could never understand that could you?” Tess’s disdain for Max and his
ineffectiveness added a bite to her voice. “I might have been able to teach
you but that stupid bitch had you wrapped around her ...”
“Don't you ever call her that!” Max yelled in anger.
“See! Look how fast you run to her defense!” Tess said
in bitterness, the hatred of Liz and her scorn on her face. “Why couldn't you
ever feel that about me? I'm your wife, Max! I'm carrying your child!”
“This was all some kind of plan to get pregnant and go
home, wasn't it?” It was suddenly all coming clear. Destiny, the push to have
him followed it, not only the pressure placed on him by Tess, but Nasedo.
“Home to what, Tess? To Khivar? To our enemies?” Max held Tess’s arm
harshly.
Tess shook his restraining hand off of her. “They're not
my enemies, Max.”
“You made a deal with them, with Khivar.”
“No,” Tess couldn’t take credit for that. “Nasedo
made a deal, forty years ago.”
Max felt sick, thinking of the Shapeshifter, all he did and
said, his assurances. “What was the deal? Tell me!”
“To return home with your child, and deliver the three of
you to Khivar.”
“And what would happen to us once you delivered us?”
Tess refused to answer, but even Max could figure that one
out.
“How did I ever fall in love with someone like you?”
Max asked in disgust, the disgust almost more for himself than for her. She was
a pawn in Nasedo’s game, born to the alliance, but still, her sins were her
own. “How could I ever marry you?”
“You were different,” Tess spat at him, in spite,
“you were a king! Now you're just a boy.”
Max raised his hand to Tess' neck. She stared him down.
“You kill me, Max, you kill our son.”
Max’s hand flexed, but he finally released her stepping
back. “Go.” Tess reached up a hand and transferred into the Granilith, she
looked back at Max all alone. “This isn't over, Tess.”
Max quickly left the chamber hurrying before the place
exploded.
Isabel was waiting for him in the outer chamber unwilling
to leave him behind. “Max!” The others were there too.
“Quick, go. Let's go!”
Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle ran away from the
chamber as large pieces of the rock face tore away. They cleared the chamber to
stand watching as it disintegrated and the Granilith shot upward into the sky.
Max looked at Liz in regret. “I've been really wrong
about a lot. But I was right about one thing: To get you into my life, to be
around you, to love you.”
Maria couldn’t listen to it. It would be a long time
before she could forgive Max Evans. Forgive him Alex and Liz, and the near death
of both Isabel and Michael. Maybe it was unfair to blame him, to hold him
responsible for Tess, but he was the King, and ultimately, it was his
responsibility. The things he did and the things he said to Liz … there was no
forgiveness.
Maria hugged Michael. “You opened the door and you came
out … why?” She looked at him. He was alive. Shaking her head, she hugged
him again. “I don’t care. I don’t care what made you decide to stay, I’m
just glad you did. Whatever it was … I’ll thank God for it until my dying
days.”
Michael hugged her hard, his heart feeling full, alive for
the first time in twenty-four hours. That hollow feeling was finally gone. He
would thank God too, until his dying days. He would thank God for Maria. She was
the reason, the only reason any of them lived.
Isabel looked at her brother watching the Granilith
disappear from sight. “What happens now, Max?”
“I have to save my son …”
The six of them stared in the direction the ship left until
finally Michael took Maria’s hand and led her home, towards the Jetta.
“C’mon, I’m starving.”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t pack a lunch for the
journey.” Maria almost skipped next to him, her feet feeling lighter than they
had in over twelve hours. “That was poor planning on your part.”
“I got to blow up the jeep.”
“Really?” Maria snorted. “Too bad Max didn’t let
you blow up Tess.”
Michael put an arm around Maria in comfort, keeping it
light. “Well, you know, too much fun in one day would spoil me.”
Maria’s arm went around his middle hugging herself close
to his side. “Don’t I know it.”
