AN: Okay, just as a warning I will be following some of the plans of what would have been the season 2, but I categorically disagree with most of the proposals. First, if you don't mess the Bard up so badly as to break up Romeo and Juliet, it's not going to happen... Second, you shouldn't bring an inter-species pregnancy only to drop it, bad writing. Finally, should Tybalt-Count Paris live? I haven't decided.
Watching the flames creep ever closer to the pool of gasoline flooding around her car, Taylor's terror evaporated like mist. She had to save herself, and the child growing inside of her. Gloria's development, the love she had for her child's father, (yes, she could admit it was love now), filled her with the will to escape her fiery death trap. "Okay, my baby, it's time to give mommy all the Atrian strength that your daddy has," she murmured.
The first thing she had to do to get free meant dealing with her seatbelt. She closed her eyes and filled her mind with every moment of seeing and feeling Drake's incredible strength. She pictured his glowing pride as he told her that all the women of his tribe gained amazing strength carrying their children. With complete faith that she could be as strong as any Atrian woman, she ripped off the seatbelt and twisted herself to her shattered window. Adrenaline surged through her veins mixed with the Atrian hormones provided by her baby. She used it to force herself through the window and onto her feet. She ran as fast as she could and dove behind a dumpster just as her car exploded into a fireball.
Back at the Sector, Teri forced herself to remain in control of her emotions. Her mother, she knew, never ever bluffed. If she said her father lived, her father lived. If her mother said that she had only temporarily saved Roman and his followers, she meant it. Suddenly, she felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder. "You did the right thing, Teri." Gloria's soothing voice filled her ears.
"Is it possible to feel like you've lost everything and nothing all at once?" the girl asked in a soft dead-tone.
"I'm afraid it is," Gloria sighed. "Teri, I will do everything in my power to make sure your actions count for the best. I know you've got very little reason to see humans as anything other than vicious savages. I have never blamed you for that, however you have a choice to make. You can run to Elgida, try to live down the choices you've made without a chance to change things for the better. You can stay entrenched in your anger and bitterness, and waste the precious gifts you have, possibly throwing your life away. Whatever you choose, you should know that Nox believed in you. That's why he fought so hard to make you a part of the integration program. I believe in you as well, and I don't want to see you fail yourself."
"Fail myself?" Teri spat. "I don't know what I am supposed to be anymore! I betrayed my people's fight for freedom, I sent my own mother to the crate! I hate you, and all the humans who created this mess to begin with," she shouted. "Why did you have to fire on us when are ship crashed? Why did you have to cage us like animals? Do you think we wanted to crash here? I wish the entire ship had blown up and annihilated us all!"
The pain etched in the young woman's face caused Gloria to wrap her in a tight embrace. "I know, Teri, I know. I wish I could find the man who fired that first shot and kill him in the worst possible way humanity has devised. Teri, I want to tell you something no Atrian in the Sector knows… my son is half Atrian," she choked out. "I want my son to be free, I want you to be free! I want every Atrian man, woman, and child to be completely free! I will fight until my last drop of blood is drained, until my last breath is ripped from my lungs, I will fight until the very last neuron in my brain fires. I will fight to make you free!"
Teri pulled away from the human pushing her hard. "How could you have a half-Atrian son? Who of our kind would have mated with you? Drake I understand, because the human he chose is someone who approaches life as an odd form of combat, and I'm willing to bet she approaches sex the same way. Roman loves— her," she hissed as if the words were acid on her tongue, "because, she's his ideal. She's everything he believes in. He loves her because of what made her hold my hand as I saved him from the deathblow Caster inflicted on him. She knows I want him more than my freedom, she knows I've tried to destroy her, and tried to take him from her. She still held my hand, and she would help me in any way she could if she thought I needed it. You," she snarled, "have only referred to us as a project, your investments. Hell, we're no better than lab rats to you! Now, you tell me your son is half-Atrian! What, did you need to know that humans and Atrians could mix so you can use that to 'integrate' us?"
Gloria went blind with rage and slapped the girl across the face as hard as she could. "Don't you ever, ever, talk that way about my son!" she roared. "I never intended to fall in love with his father, but my son was conceived only in love! I let him go to Elgida, a place I can never go, to keep him safe and free! He is not my experiment, he is the living embodiment of the only love I will ever know. I don't fight because of my son, I fight FOR him!"
Teri stood stunned by the human's blow, and the raw anguish in her voice. Her mother had taught her to use her vision to see the heartrates of others to test their honesty. She didn't want Gloria to be telling her the truth. She had clung to her hatred for so long, as a remedy for the helplessness and despair that permeated her soul. Not only due to the humans, but due to her mother's indifference and manipulations, and the futility of her life. She needed this woman to be lying, and yet she could not deny her own senses. She wiped the drop of blood at the corner of her lip, and grinned. "I need to reevaluate my impression of the human race as physically weak and pathetic," she chuckled.
Gloria's deep coco eyes filled with tears, seeing the scarlet smear on the girl's chin. "You need to reevaluate many things, Teri."
Teri nodded. "The first thing I need to reevaluate is what it means to be an Atrian, and a member of my own tribe. With my mother in the crate, I am supposed to lead them, but I do not know my own convictions anymore. I cannot lead them, until I can lead myself. I will speak to the Elders, and to Roman for he will be named Iksen very soon. If they permit me, I will stay in Elgida, without the influence of Trags and humans. Until I can come to terms with who I wish to become as an Atrian, I cannot choose a side in this war."
Gloria slowly approached her and hesitantly raised her hand to check the damage she'd impulsively inflicted on the girl's exquisite face. "Forgive me, Teri, I shouldn't have done that."
"I've lost count of how many humans I've assaulted, and you never sent me to the crate," she shrugged. "I deserved it, and we're even. I can't even say you didn't use your words."
Before Gloria could reply, the shockwave hit, and after that… Chaos reigned!
One week after the Suvek… Seven days and seven nights: heat, pain, and nothingness. On and on it went, thoughts gone, emotions gone, endless nothingness…
"Daddy, you have to help them! They're innocent and you know it. They've done everything possible to protect both humans and Atrians they do not deserve to be locked in the crate!" Emery screamed at her father.
"I am not the government, Emery! No matter what I think or how I feel about the Atrians or you, warships are coming to Earth. The Atrians who are coming have superior technology and can destroy us. The Atrians on earth are the only leverage we have for any hope of survival. This isn't about me, or the Red Hawks, this is about the government of earth. If we do anything to support the Atrians we will disappear." Ray answered his daughter not able to disguise his own anguish.
"Emery is it worth it?" her mother asked. "That Atrian warships could destroy us all, don't you care about that?"
"Of course, I care! Despite what you may think I care about my people just as much as Roman cares for his. Look at our history endless wars, the genocides, the war crimes… Every era we scream that it will be ended, and it never is! Now my people are fast committing another genocide and for what? The Atrians who are coming will still kill us all for what we've done. The only hope for us is to oppose what's going on and help the Atrians." Emery pleaded.
"We can't overthrow an entire government, sweetheart." Ray retorted.
"Why not?' Emery demanded. "According to the Constitution it's not only our right but responsibility."
"Emery!" her mother cried out in horror.
"NO! I will not sit back and do nothing while two races are destroyed because of hatred and stupidity." Emery declared. "I know what you're thinking: I'm sixteen, sheltered, and letting my hormones take over my brain. It's not true. I lived almost my entire life with the shadow of death over me. I know what's most important in life and I am no child. Atrians can never attain humanity, nor should they be forced to try. However, I will be damned if I watch my people lose any claim to it."
"Ray," Michelle gasped, trembling in terror. "Reason with her, she can't know what she's saying!"
Ray sighed, the weariness of the situation etched into his body. "She's right, Michelle. Things are escalating fast, not only are Roman, his entire family, and the 7, in the crate, but the guards are being encouraged to crack down even harder. Just yesterday I had to stop two new guards from beating two children in the market. There's been talk of summery execution of suspected Trags and throwing every relative in the crate regardless of age or guilt. Michelle, the sector is turning into a concentration camp. All that's missing is the gas chambers and the ovens."
"But what can we do?" Michelle cried out as tears fell down her face. "We're just ordinary people, we…" she broke down in a flood of tears.
"First, we need to find Gloria," Emery answered, pulling her parents into her embrace.
"I can do that." Ray assured. "When are you going with your friends to the hospital?"
"I leave in an hour."
"Be careful please, Emery." Her mother begged.