Title:Synchronicity
Rating:Teen/Adult
Summary: Takes place after Consanguinity. It's been a happy time for humans and aliens alike. They've had the opportunity to just be regular teenagers enjoying a typical teenage life. But all of that is about to change.
Disclaimer: Melinda Metz created them, 20th Century Fox owns them, Jason Katims killed them. I'm just borrowing them.
Chapter One
Synchronicity– Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related.
Liz Parker awoke and reached immediately for the journal that she kept by her bed. She wanted to write down her dream before she forgot.
October 26,
Again my dream contained images of stars in a spiral pattern. I could see the stars, but it wasn't me looking up at stars from Earth, it's more like I was in the stars. The star pattern shifted and formed a grid pattern, and some of the points on the grid were connected. It was more than last night.
Liz rushed to record as much as she could before the images faded trying to write down every detail. She struggled to remember then threw the pen in frustration, and climbed out of her bed. Today was Saturday, and, in addition to her regular waitressing duties, she was responsible for training their newest waitress. Not that it was going to be an arduous job because their new waitress was Tess Evans, one of her best friends. Tess wasn't the first member of the Evans family to work at the CrashDown. Her brother Michael worked the grill. Max Evans, Liz's boyfriend and Tess and Michael's brother worked, ironically enough at the Alien Museum across the street.
The only member of the Evans family to not hold down a part time job was Isabel, and that was because her parents refused to let her get a part time job unless she gave up some of her many organizations to which she volunteered her time. She was involved in so many charitable activities that she didn't have time for anything else. Liz theorized that she did it to make up for the person she used to be on Antar. It still freaked Liz out on some level, knowing that her boyfriend and his siblings were aliens from the '47 crash. They'd been murdered on their home planet of Antar at the hands of Kivar, Isabel's lover. Their essence had been cloned and sent to Earth with the hopes that they'd survive and return to Antar.
If that wasn't amazing enough, apparently there had been another timeline, and Max had traveled back from the future to change the past and put them on the timeline they were on now. Sometimes it made her head ache, just thinking about it.
She showered quickly and changed into the ugly turquoise uniform her father insisted the waitresses wear. Flying down the stairs, buttoning her uniform as she went, Liz burst into the staff area of the CrashDown, the alien themed restaurant owned by her parents, and crashed into Tess who was waiting nervously.
"Hi," Liz said, breathlessly. "Sorry I'm late. I overslept."
"It's okay," said Tess. "How do I look?" She smoothed her hands over the silver alien apron nervously. "I look stupid, don't I?"
"We all look stupid" said Liz. "It's part of the uniform's charm. And don't be nervous, Tess. You've helped us out plenty of times before. That's why dad insisted we put you on the payroll. Now come on, you're going to be fine."
"If you say so," said Tess. "I don't' know, maybe I should just go help Isabel. Nobody gets mad if you screw up volunteer work."
The two girls were silent s they thought about the almost maniacal zeal Isabel brought to her volunteer activities.
"Uh, on second thought, never mind," said Tess. "I'm better off here."
Tess' first shift, while not an unqualified success, wasn't a total disaster, either. She didn't spill, drop or break anything, but she did mix up several orders during the day. But the regular customers were understanding and accepted her mistakes with good humor.
Liz and Tess sat, sharing a basket of Saturn Rings between them while they waited for their friends to join them. Kyle was the first to arrive, and he slid into the booth next to Liz and dropped his head on the table.
"I'm so tired," came his muffled voice. "I slept like crap last night."
"Poor baby," said Tess, rubbing his hair. "Let me go get you some coffee." She slid out of the booth and crossed the floor while Liz looked curiously at Kyle.
"Bad dreams last night?" she asked.
"Not bad, just weird – and never ending," groaned Kyle. "Stars and graph paper and connect the dots. It was freaky."
"Graph paper?" asked Liz. "You mean like a grid?"
"Yeah, I guess," Kyle said. "What does it matter?"
"Maybe it doesn't," said Liz. "But I've been having those same dreams."
"So? You've been having weird dreams too. So what?" Kyle asked brusquely, lack of sleep making him short tempered. "Big deal."
"Not weird dreams," said Liz. "The samedreams."
Kyle looked at Liz in shock and started to say something, but she quickly shook her head as Tess returned with the coffee, and Alex and Isabel entered the café. Tess slid the mug in front of Kyle and took her place across the table from him. Isabel slid into the booth next to Tess, and Alex pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the table.
"How are the working girls?" asked Isabel. "Did you survive?"
"Barely," said Tess. "I felt like I made so many mistakes."
"You did fine, Tess," Liz said automatically, her mind still on her conversation with Kyle.
"Way to go, Alice," said Alex, causing everyone to stare at him. "What? You have to admit, it's a better waitress name than Tess. Listen. Tess, pick up. It doesn't sound right. Now Alice pick up has a certain ring to it. It just sounds right."
"What it sounds like is you've been watching too much Nick at Night," said Kyle.
"Hey, leave my boyfriend alone, or I'll turn your hair green," said Isabel.
"And my girlfriend will make your hair fall out," countered Kyle.
"Children, children, don't make me pull this restaurant over and separate you," said Maria as she walked past carrying a tray of drinks. "What's the deal for tonight? We doing anything?"
"Oh, yeah," said Isabel. "I knew I was supposed to tell you something. Derek Jensen's having a party tonight, and we're all invited. Actually, the whole junior and senior classes are invited," she qualified.
"Count me out," said Kyle, his head resting on his arms again. "I'm wiped out."
"Awww, come on, Kyle," said Tess. "It'll be fun."
"Sorry, Tess, I'm exhausted. Um, maybe you can ride with Alex and Isabel or something."
"Yeah, sure, Tess," said Alex. "Ride with us. It'll be fun."
"Yeah, fun," Isabel echoed insincerely.
"What will be fun?" asked Max who'd entered the CrashDown unnoticed and hung over the back of the booth.
"Derek Jensen's party," said Kyle. "I don't want to go, Tess does, so Alex said that Tess could ride with them."
"Ride with Liz and me," said Max. "You don't care, do you, Liz?"
"Of course I don't," said Liz. "The thing is, I'm not feeling great and I thought I'd just stay home tonight."
"Oh," said Max, looking hurt. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I think maybe I'm coming down with a cold or something, and maybe if I get some rest, it won't turn into a full fledged one."
"Well, I could just – " began Max.
"No, Max, you can't just," said Liz, laughing. "Tell you what, if I break my leg, you're my go to guy for healing, but for a cold, I'll stick with bed rest and chicken noodle soup."
Liz's comment caused everyone to laugh and the awkward moment was glossed over. Maria checked with Michael, who was manning the grill, and they decided to rent movies and hang out at Maria's house instead of going to the party, and Alex cajoled Max and Tess into riding to the party with him and Isabel. In the flurry of making plans, nobody noticed Liz whispering to Kyle.
** * ** *
Kyle climbed the fire escape outside of Liz's window and rapped gently on the window.
"Hey," he said after Liz opened the window. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I want to talk about those dreams you've been having. When did they start?"
"Uh, Liz, are you going to make me kneel out here all night, or are you going to let me come in and talk?" Kyle asked.
"Oh, sorry," Liz said, backing away from the window. She went and sat on her bed and waited impatiently for Kyle to climb in and sit down at her desk.
"Are you all settled now?" she asked, impatiently.
"Geez, sarcastic much?" asked Kyle. "What's your problem? You know, I couldbe sleeping right now instead of sitting her listening to you rag on me."
"Sorry," said a shamefaced Liz. "I'm just kind of freaked out is all."
"Why are you so freaked out over some stupid dreams?" asked Kyle. "I'm just pissed because they keep interfering with my sleep, that's all. I don't think there's anything to freak out over."
"I think lack of sleep is the least of your worries Kyle," said Liz. "The least of mine, too."
"You're freaking me out, Liz," Kyle said "What's up?"
"Tell me about your dreams," said Liz. "What you can remember."
Kyle thought for a minute before speaking. "Well it's all sort of disjointed images," he said. "I keep seeing stars, but it's not like I'm standing on the ground looking at them. It's more like I'm up inside them or something. Oh, I know," he said excitedly. "It's sort of like in Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon goes into hyper drive, you know?"
Liz nodded to show she understood and Kyle continued.
"But the stars, they're not all blurry like in Star Wars. There's a shape too them. Kind of a whirlwind shape. From there, I see some sort of graph or something, with dots on it."
"Are the dots connected?" Liz asked.
"That's the strange thing," said Kyle. The first time I had the stupid dream, none of them were connected but each time I had the dream, more and more of the dots were connected."
Liz rummaged around in her nightstand drawer and pulled out her journal and some papers. Kyle, familiar with Liz's journal began to laugh.
"Oh great," he said. "Are you going to read me your journal? Max looked at me tonight," he kidded.
"Jerk," said Liz, throwing a pillow at him. "Just shut up and listen." She read him her entry from that morning, and it matched Kyle's description of his dream perfectly.
"That's freaky," he said. "Why do you think we're having the same dreams?"
"I'm not sure," said Liz. "But here, look at this." She passed him a piece of paper with a grid drawn on it. "Do you think you can show me what dots are connected on the grid in your dream?"
"I don't have to," he said, handing the paper back. You did it for me. Um, are you interested in doing my English homework too?"
"Kyle, this is serious," said Liz. "Something strange is going on here, and it's happening to us. Not to Alex, not to Maria, just us."
"Do you suppose it has to do with Max healing us?" asked Kyle.
"I'm sure of it," said Liz. "The message from the other Max said we both developed powers. I think that's what's happening to us."
"So why the funky dreams?" asked Kyle.
"I don't know," Liz admitted. "Maybe it's a clue our subconscious is giving us to let us know we're changing. And when all the dots on the grid are connected…"
"We're changed," finished Kyle.
"Yeah, pretty much," said Liz. "At least, that's my theory."
"Have you told Max about it yet?"
"No, because until you said you were having dreams too, I didn't think anything of it. I just figured I was having weird dreams or something. Listen, Kyle can you do me a favor? Can you try and write down your dreams as soon as you wake up in the morning, and try and track your grid connections too? We can compare and see if there are any differences."
Kyle went and sat next to Liz on the bed and examined the grid pattern. Neither one of them noticed Max looking in Liz's window at them, his face, a mask of anger.