Summary: Liz did what she came to do; she went back into the past and saved Zan. But Zan is nothing if not dangerous, and every action he makes creates a ripple effect that will change the world Liz knew beyond all recognition. It's a new timeline, but does that really mean it will be a better one?
Disclaimer: I do not own Liz Parker, Zan, or any of the other characters or places of the TV show (and book series) Roswell.
AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, but it's a long chapter, so there's that.
I also want your opinion on Tess. All of your opinions, good or bad, because like it or not... you're going to be seeing more of her soon, and I'm honestly still not really sure how to write her. She's not crazy like Lonnie, but she's definitely got something wrong with her way of thinking, and I've never been able to pin it down to a believable explanation. Yeah, she was brainwashed by Nasedo... but what exactly did he say to make her, well... y'know, the way she is?
Thoughts?
Liz woke up to the sound of Maria softly crying.
It was hard to focus at first – she was dizzy, dizzier than she could ever remember being. Fortunately, before too long her mind started to clear and the spinning stopped. Unfortunately, it left behind a powerful throbbing in her skull and an uncomfortable urge to vomit.
"Well, well." A familiar voice said cheerfully. Liz opened eyes she hadn't known she'd closed to find Isabel's face inches from her own. It was only after the kohl-lined eyes, ragged haircut and vicious smile had registered that she realized it wasn't actually Isabel at all. "Look what we have here. You lost, little two face?"
Liz blinked, trying to dig through the fog in her head to pull up a word from months before.
"… Lonnie?" Liz finally mumbled, through what felt like a mouthful of cotton balls.
"Oh, wow. You can still talk!" Lonnie said, faking shock and pushing herself to her feet. Her smile came back almost immediately as she nodded to one of the Skins standing at the edge of the room. "Yo, Target – fix that for me, will ya?"
Liz couldn't tell who she was talking about until a medium sized brunette guy in a generic red polo shirt stepped forward out of the line. She was just starting to pull his face into focus when he stepped forward and hit her hard in the mouth.
Liz's head snapped back and everything flashed white. Some bizarre little voice in her head wondered why she hadn't cried out or even whimpered; it wasn't until her lungs started to burn that she realized she'd subconsciously been holding her breath. She hurriedly opened her mouth to suck in a ragged gasp, the revitalizing oxygen doing more than the hit to leave her on the edge of hysterics.
Across the room, Maria shrieked and sobbed and begged them to leave Liz alone, but all the blonde earned for her trouble was a slap across the face and a warning to stay quiet.
Lonnie sat down in front of Liz again. "See – uh…" She blinked and cocked her head. "Fuck. What the hell was your name again? I mean, I know you were Max's little squeeze or whatever, but… Well, you kinda fell beneath my radar, if you know what I'm sayin."
Lonnie waited a second as if actually expecting Liz to reply. The brunette opened her mouth to try and almost choked; she leaned over the arm of her chair and spat blood, instead. She probed her mouth with her tongue to find out where it was coming from, but although a few teeth were loose the only real issue was a sharp cut on the inside of her cheek. God, it was amazing how hot her face felt.
I've never been hit before...
Lonnie smiled, not bothered at all by the lack of response. "Not that it matters, really. Potayto, potahto, right? If I ever want to get a hold of you, all I really gotta do is track down one of my brothers."
"What –" Liz started. The teary whine of her own voice startled her into silence, and Liz braved the nausea just long enough to swallow a mouthful of blood. She almost vomited right there, but with her mouth clear and her focus in place she started up a lot more strongly. "What are you talking about?"
Lonnie rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't pretend you don't know. I meet little, harmless human you in Roswell one day, and then a few months later who should come to the rescue of my darling baby brother but… another you. You think I wouldn't figure shit out at that point, princess?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Liz protested, hating herself for how weak she sounded. Tears formed in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall – half because she didn't want to give Lonnie the satisfaction and half because she could still hear Maria softly crying in the corner.
Oh, god – I'm so sorry, Maria. This is all my fault…
"Bullshit!" Lonnie snarled, suddenly only inches from Liz's face. Her smirk came back with a vengeance, only now there was something terrifying about it. "It's no fucking coincidence that both the clones of my brother happen to have some version of you watching from the shadows. So tell me, you useless little wench… who the fuck do you work for?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Liz shrieked, tears breaking free of the tension that held them in place and finally streaming down her cheeks. "I'm not working for anybody, I swear!"
"Oh, really?" Lonnie asked. She snorted and shook her head, pushing herself up from the chair again. "Boys. Show me her back. Let's see if she's this stubborn with her little seal exposed."
Liz blinked. She had only a moment to be totally bewildered before the ropes on her wrists and ankles snapped and she was dragged to her feet by one of the bigger Skins – a woman, this time. She held Liz so tightly by the upper arms that the teenager swore she could feel the bruises forming. Target came around her back and tugged her shirt up past her bra strap, dragging his fingernails from the base of her spine upwards. Liz let out a yelp.
There was a moment of silence that made Liz wish she could see what was going on. Target ran his fingernails up her back again, this time pressing in harder and going over one spot in particular with careful attention.
"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me." Lonnie snapped. All of a sudden a different set of nails were on her back, digging into that same spot with enough force to draw blood. Liz gasped and bit her lip.
"Leave her alone!" Maria yelled desperately. Liz heard a series of little grunts and gasps that made her think Maria must have been shaken sharply by her captor, but she couldn't be sure. Liz bit her lip harder, hating herself and every one of the aliens in the room for getting them into this mess.
Lonnie ignored all of it.
"You ever heard of a Skin without a seal?" Lonnie muttered to Target, who must have answered but made no noises Liz could hear. Another moment passed in silence before Liz was slammed back into the chair, ropes suddenly snaking around her wrists and ankles.
Lonnie put her face inches from Liz and snarled. "What the fuck are you?"
"Look who's asking." Liz sniped, then immediately regretted it. She flinched preemptively, expecting to be hit again. Instead, the moment she got the courage to open her eyes she was greeted with yet another of Lonnie's terrifying smirks.
"No prob." Lonnie said cheerfully, pushing one shoulder up in a casual shrug. "You won't tell me? Fine. I got other ways."
Lonnie grabbed the chair and twisted it around until Liz was facing the other side of the room.
And for the first time in months, Liz saw Ava.
The little blonde girl had always struck Liz as both spunkier and softer than her Roswell double – a combination of traits Liz had found immediately endearing – and seeing her staring blankly from the floor made Liz's breath freeze in her throat. Her eyes scanned her once-friend at a desperate speed, hoping, praying for some sign the girl was still alive. The blank, staring eyes, bone-thin frame and ragged clothing picked at her nerves, and the instant Liz noticed the minute movement of the other girl's chest, she let out a ragged sigh and started crying again.
She's not dead. She's not dead.
"That's my work." Lonnie said with a dreamy sort of pride Liz found unnervingly sincere. Lonnie leaned close to Liz's ear as if sharing some special secret with a friend; Liz fought not to flinch away. "It's fun, don't get me wrong, but it can take a while. Sure you don't wanna save me a little time and be a bit more, uh… forthcoming? I hear sharing's good for the soul."
Liz swallowed hard. "I don't know. I swear, I don't know what you're talking about! Please, just let us go!"
For just a second, the silence let Liz think they had a chance.
"Don't worry, Princess." Lonnie said in a mockery of compassion. "When I'm through with you, you won't feel a thing. Just like sweet little Ava."
Liz's eyes went wide as the realization set in. Maria screamed and kicked and struggled…
… and could do nothing but watch as Lonnie forced her way into Liz's mind.
The elements that made up the bunker were heavy – too heavy to move, apparently. Zan figured that much out the hard way. But the things that made them move – the gears and the switches, they all had to be easy to manipulate by nature of what they were. So all Zan really had to do was close his eyes and focus on finding the right button to push to make it happen.
He pulled up his hood and waited until there was no one close to the main entrance before he did it. The main hatch slid open by just a foot and he dropped through it, closing it behind him and running to an unoccupied hallway before anyone could spot him. There were cameras, obviously, and as good as Beth had made him he was operating on way too short a timeline to take all of them out before he started, so he just kept his head down and handled them as they came into his path, hoping they didn't catch a good shot of him.
He came up against a couple Skins early on, and it was actually a little terrifying how easy they were to take out. They hit walls hard enough to break bones before they'd even noticed him and just crumpled. Whatever protection their little human suits gave them… it obviously didn't protect from sudden impact trauma.
Just to be sure, though, he took a moment to touch each of them and make sure they stayed out. There weren't any cameras close to that part of the hall, but he found what looked like a spare room and sealed the door behind them.
He followed his mental connection to Ava as best he could, but it was a straight shot in his head whereas the halls were a friggin labyrinth of twists and turns, and he was pretty sure he'd already missed the turn that would've taken him the right way. He was tempted to just open up the walls (regular plywood and plaster down here on the inside), but anyone who stumbled on the mess he made would immediately know exactly where he'd gone.
He started checking doors after about ten minutes. Mostly he just found empty rooms – a lot of which looked like either cells or bunks, usually empty. The few that weren't put him face to face with their startled residents. Their surprise made it easy enough to knock them out. And then…
And then he found a different sort of room.
It was some kind of a security station. There was no light but what was coming off the floating video projections on one side of the room and the faint glow coming from a panel beneath the projections. All in all, Zan thought it looked like the bad guys spaceship on star-trek or whatever. Very high-tech, very alien... ridiculously melodramatic ambiance.
A guy was sitting there, outlined by the video panels, hitting buttons and staring intently at a couple of different screens.
"John?" The Skin called without looking over. "Check this out - something's going on with the cameras."
Zan moved forward until he could put his hand on the Skin's shoulder. The dude turned, mouth already opening to talk, and froze the instant he caught sight of the New Yorker. "Yeah, sorry about that."
A quick surge and the dude was out.
Zan pushed the chair aside and leaned in towards the projections. He'd never seen anything like it. Or – well, he guessed he must have, back in his first life. But it didn't really compare to the little black-and-white security cameras he'd seen in human buildings. These ones were in full, incredible color, for one, and they flashed across the spectrum, showing first visible light, then infrared, and finally x-ray before switching to another view point and cycling all over again.
The Skins looked incredibly bizarre under x-ray. For one thing, you could see another silhouette inside the first – a smaller, more compact one whose details couldn't quite be made out through the flesh of the Husk. Infrared was almost as bad, with the Skin extremities running way hotter than the green and yellow body inside.
There were dozens of these floating screens in a semi-circle around (and a little ways above) the chair, and every view the individual cameras flipped through showed an entirely separate room…
It took him a moment to sort through what he was seeing, analyzing or ignoring whatever he had to to form a clear picture in his mind. He and Beth had barely spent any time at all in this place last time, and what he'd seen hadn't been nearly enough to know what they were dealing with.
The bunker was massive.
He didn't know how many floors it was, exactly, and his alien senses told him only that it was deep, but he saw what he thought had to be at least a eight different stairways on the screens. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of rooms – most of which were so wide they needed two cameras to get the full scope of them.
After the size, the first thing that caught his attention was how empty it was. There was so much space – multiple cafeterias, stock rooms, garages… even what looked like some kind of medical bay. And yet he only saw… maybe thirty Skins? Fifty, tops. Most of whom he guessed by the placement of the videos had to be on the top two floors.
The place was totally deserted.
And then one screen on the corner caught his attention. It stood out only because it was the only one that kept flipping through three angles of the same room – the biggest one he'd seen so far. It was at least forty feet tall with walls that looked almost ribbed and a massive bare, grated floor. There were catwalks along the wall at regular intervals leading upwards, but those were just as deserted. The only reason the whole thing was visible was because the lens was fish eyed and the screen was just a little larger than the others.
The ribs on the walls were the strangest part of the whole thing. They weren't even ribs, really, just… places where the wall seemed to almost bubble outward. The bubbles were roughly rectangular in shape, measuring… probably four by seven feet?
The screen switched again, the angle giving him a closer look at one of the walls. He blinked and leaned in closer, trying to identify the odd pattern.
It wasn't until the x-ray view that he realized he was looking at pods filled with Husks.
Even as every thought in his mind stopped dead in shock, the numbers started rolling behind his eyes. There were hundreds of Skins in there. He blinked and his brain started working again... bringing along a sudden, disturbing realization.
He watched closely until it came back to the same angle again. The camera had moved a little – just enough to see more of the closest pod. Unless, of course, that screen wasn't actually showing one space over and over, but flitting through views of multiple identical rooms. In which case…
… There could be thousands.
Zan leaned back, feeling all the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end. He'd totally underestimated this place before because they'd barely scratched the surface of it. But now… now he could understand the veiled horror he'd heard in Beth's voice when she'd mentioned how long Kivar had been preparing for war.
There weren't enough Antarian's here to fill those Husks. Hell - he had a hard time buying there were that many of them on the whole planet... yet.
Kivar was stockpiling them here so his soldiers would have something to protect them from the elements when they came to Earth.
The screen beneath it switched to another view, and Zan glanced down with his mind still occupied on the pods. He almost didn't recognize them in time.
It was a little room – the smallest he'd seen that warranted a camera. Ava was in the corner, staring at nothing and looking like she'd just laid down and died. Lonnie was there, the very sight of her making him think morbidly violent thoughts. But it wasn't her that got his attention; it was the other two in the room.
Maria was being held in place by a bulky Skin, kicking her feet and screaming.
And Parker… Parker was tied up in the chair in front of Lonnie.
The scene was just too reminiscent of what had happened to him, and the panic hit him like a sledge hammer. He very nearly just ran out of the room, but he grit his teeth against the instinct and made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a snarl. He needed to know where they were.
He needed to know…
He stared at the small, barely visible black markings in the corner of the image, very nearly sobbing as the image switched to another room. He wanted to hit something (preferably Kivar, although he found the unconscious Skin on the floor incredibly tempting), force the universe to understand that he couldn't afford to stand here all night working out this stupid chicken scratch – that he needed a little help. But the universe didn't give half a shit about him, and there were people depending on him to save them.
Zan grabbed the edge of the desk and rocked on his toes, eyes locked on the Antarian script with such an intense focus they started to water. He didn't bother blinking back the reflexive tears; instead he felt himself sinking into a kind of trance. It was almost like his meditations with Beth, only… different.
It wasn't peaceful.
The sheer power of his desire made his head throb and his shoulders tense. He needed this. He couldn't let Beth down – not again, not like this. He'd felt fear before – terror, fury, all of that. But this was different. This was the first time he'd ever wanted something so badly he honestly felt like he could face down an army to make it happen.
The image flipped back to the one with Lonnie, and the symbols seemed to change.
Interrogation floor. First level.
Zan let out a brief, exalted gasp… He glanced across the pictures and spotted one he'd passed on his way in here. First level. Good. He was in the right place.
He looked down at the desk, and now the impossibly convoluted markings made perfect sense. He grinned and looked around until he found the button he was looking for.
Emergency Pod Ventilation.
He slammed his hand down with vicious energy. The image on the corner flashed red, jets of pressurized air blowing like conical clouds from every pod he could see. Within seconds, lights he hadn't noticed started flashing bright red as every video image on the screen mirrored the alarm in the security room. A shrill whistle started screaming as a voice spoke from nowhere in fluid Antarian.
Zan was vaguely, distantly disappointed that he couldn't suddenly understand it. It didn't matter though. The words were flashing across the screen in a form he understood perfectly.
Emergency Lock-Down. Pod Security Compromised.
Zan grinned again and ducked out the door just as it began slamming shut. Let the douche bags spend a little while trying to pick up the pieces here; he had other things to do.
On instinct, he turned back to the security room and fused the metal to the wall. He camouflaged it next, spreading a thin layer of cement in front of it and frying every bit of technology he could find inside the walls beside it. It wouldn't last forever, but it would hopefully be enough of a delay to keep them from saving the pods.
Satisfied, Zan turned towards his mental connection to Ava and ran.
This had never been a skill of Lonnie's, back on Antar.
Of course, Lonnie herself would admit she hadn't had much in the way of skills. She'd been every inch her daddy's little girl, and all she'd ever bothered herself with was shopping and gossip. The only ability she had any natural talent at – the dream-walking she'd inherited from her mother – was as much use for gossip and leaving secret messages with friends as it was for anything else, and it was probably the only reason she'd ever been any good at it.
But she was different, now. Better.
Because of Kivar.
I have to be strong for him. She knew. I have to be useful.
And all the weeks she'd spent digging into Ava's mind had taught her a great deal. Oh, her sister's deepest secrets still eluded her – which was an endless source of irritation – but Lonnie was convinced that was due to the girl's natural talent and not any real failing on her own part. She'd learned so much from searching the nooks and crannies of Ava's mind that she felt even Nik would have been impressed.
Well, if he wasn't dead.
Diving into the mind of her brother's human plaything was easy – refreshingly easy. And for the first few seconds, everything passed exactly as she'd expected.
Until she found the bubble.
The bubble was something totally new. She'd never seen anything like it in Ava's mind; she couldn't remember ever even having heard of it – in either of her lives. There were barriers in the girl's (named Liz, she knew now) mind, sure – everybody had some natural rudimentary defenses – but those were both ridiculously average and laughably simple to tear down.
But the bubble… It was huge, for one, and totally out of place. It was as if someone had simply placed a giant murky space into the middle of a totally intact mind and somehow… kept it separate. Kept it guarded.
Because it was guarded. Despite its fragile appearance, Lonnie couldn't breach it. Hell, she couldn't even feel it. Every sense she had told her it should be right there, and yet… she could throw all of her collective power at it and hit nothing but air.
Her frustration quickly mounting, Lonnie shifted tactics. She dug through the rest of Liz's mind, looking for clues on the bubble – for details on what it might be hiding. And then, from the very edge of her perception, she heard it…
You got a visit from a guy from the future not long ago, right? Lonnie stopped, turning slowly towards the source of the errant thought. It wasn't the words so much as the feeling woven into them that caught her attention… and the familiarity of the voice.
Her brother's voice.
Well, we sorta have that in common…
Zan flew through the corridors, following his link to Ava and completely ignoring any and all doors he passed.
He had to get to Parker before Lonnie hurt her.
Doors were opening on either side of him, a small crowd of people spilling out into the hall. Zan tried to get past, and at first it seemed like they were ignoring him, but before someone grabbed him, and then another and...
Zan felt the focus shift to him. Oh, a bunch of the Skins were still running past - there were the pods to consider, after all - but the others seemed to be picking up on who exactly was the cause of the problem. Zan jerked and pulled, but got nowhere; they wouldn't let him go, and their hold on him was getting stronger the more of them joined in.
No.
Zan snarled and kicked, but he couldn't pry himself free. They started to drag him off... in the opposite direction of Beth.
No!
Zan squeezed his eyes shut and focused. The feeling he'd gotten when he'd remembered how to read was still lingering... an odd, tenuous thread connecting to his past. It was fragile and fading, but his rage - his desperation - let him grab hold of it again.
He reached deep - so deep he felt his stomach drop - and pulled something back up with him.
It didn't quite click that it had worked until he realized the hands holding him were gone. Zan opened his eyes.
Ashes drifted through the air around him like snow.
Zan blinked, looking around for the Skins, but the hallway was totally clear now. He was alone.
That's when it clicked.
He looked at the ashes in awe.
I killed them.
Zan swallowed, stumbled, shook.
No way. I...
Before that very moment... It had never even occurred to Zan that he could do something like this. Not like this, not on this kind of scale.
He knew he should feel guilt or - or fear or something. People weren't supposed to do this. People weren't supposed to kill dozens of their own kind and not feel bad about it. But he didn't.
If anything, he felt... elated.
Something about… whatever had happened back in that security room had made him feel more capable, somehow. He couldn't really explain it – didn't have the time to even think about it, actually – but he could tell that something had changed.
For the first time since that truck had hit him, Zan felt like he was finally getting strong enough to make a difference.
Still, the attack took its toll, and the drain in his energy very nearly sent him to his knees. Zan grit his teeth and pushed past it, hurrying forward towards the source of his connection to Ava.
He turned a corner and knew immediately he was in the right hallway. A door a ways down opened, and a guy in a red polo glanced up and down the passageway before spotting Zan. He blinked and started to shout, but Zan lifted his hand and sent the guy flying head first into a wall. His hand shook and his vision tipped sideways, but Zan swallowed and pushed forward. He had no idea how they were going to do this, now – how they were even supposed to get out of the bunker, let alone back to Roswell with everyone in one piece.
But he had to keep going. He'd… just have to come up with something as he went along.
Zan stopped and reached out with his mind, shocked and a little worried to realize his range was a lot shorter than it should've been. Still, he could see enough of the room to know there were at least four people in there besides Ava and the two he'd brought with him. Zan sat down took a deep breath, closing his eyes and sinking into a light meditation.
He was exhausted, but could do this. He could face down fucking armies, if he had to.
He was the man, and Lonnie didn't have the faintest idea what was coming for her.
Maria sobbed. She kicked and thrashed and tried desperately to get away, but the massive Skin behind her barely noticed. She mentally dubbed him Gigantor and imagined all kinds of ways she would like to kick his ass.
But no matter how much she struggled, the freak of nature didn't even twitch.
What the hell had she been thinking, letting Liz talk her into coming to this place? She should've waited till the brunette turned around and hit her over the head or something – anything to keep her from doing something this monumentally stupid.
She was furious at Liz – more angry than she'd ever been before. And at the same time… she was totally terrified that she was about to lose the best friend she'd ever had. That she was going to stand here like one of those brainless bimbos in a horror movie and watch this psycho bitch murder Liz.
But there was nothing she could do.
She'd never been so helpless. She'd never felt so weak.
And then, out of nowhere, something shrill screamed and the lights dimmed, and Maria felt Gigantor go rigid. She didn't know what it meant or what was going on, but if it made these jerks nervous, she was all for it.
The Isabel look-alike didn't even seem to notice the noise, though. For that matter, neither did Liz. That was somehow even scarier than the casual violence these guys had been showing only moments before – the alarm, or whatever the hell this noise was, was so ridiculously loud Maria swore she could feel herself going deaf. That Liz didn't even seem to hear it…
The guys in the room started moving, and Gigantor passed her to a smaller Skin. Maria started struggling again, but instead of fighting her the guy shoved her into the wall. There was a dull flash of pain in her face and everything between her eyes and lips went hot. She felt blood spill across her mouth and chin but barely noticed; the throbbing in her nose wiped all thought from her mind.
A sudden jerk on her collar had her falling back onto her butt, and it was only after the impact made her bounce that she realized what had happened. The Skin who'd shoved her into the wall had been holding her by the back of her shirt, and now he… wasn't.
In fact, a quick glance backward saw him flat on his back in the other corner of the room.
Maria turned just in time to watch Zan step into view beyond the doorway. She could see Gigantor outside, literally half embedded in the wall, and before she'd even taken that in the third guy was running at him screaming.
Zan just looked his way and the guy was suddenly flying straight up. He hit the ceiling hard and fell back down in a rain of cement dust.
Maria had never been one to be won over with big gestures; despite appearances, that was really more Liz's thing. Maria liked the flash and the glitter, but when it came to actually learning to trust people, it took time and commitment – little things, every day, for as long as it took for her to feel at home with them.
But she had to admit… when it came to big gestures, this took the cake.
He hesitated when he looked at Isabel's clone, though, and it only took Maria a split-second to realize why. The emotions that flitted through his expression seemed to back up the idea, and if it hadn't been for her nose and her fear and the general over-taxing natural of this whole hellish road-trip, she may have even felt bad for him in that moment.
He stepped forward and gently laid his hand on unresponsive Lonnie's head, and she collapsed where she'd been kneeling. Liz gasped, desperately drawing in air as if the blonde had been holding her under water this whole time. Maria shakily pushed herself to her feet, forcing herself across the space separating her and Liz to tug at the ropes binding the little brunette to the chair.
Maria glanced up and caught Zan staring down at Isabel's clone with a clenched jaw and indecipherable emotion in his eyes. She looked away quickly, somehow sure that she'd intruded on a private moment.
It didn't take long to get Liz free, and by the time she was done Zan had pulled himself out of whatever funk he'd slipped into. He stepped forward and put his hand on Liz's cheek. Maria had to fight to keep herself from protesting, but as the bruises on her friends face disappeared she felt herself relax. By the time he reached for her, she was ready for it; she didn't let any of her fear show on her face.
Maria had never been healed by Max before, so the sudden end to her pain was almost jarring. She reached one hand up to her face and felt the stickiness of fresh blood still coating her mouth and chin, but when she prodded at her nose she didn't get any of the throbbing pain or slight nausea she'd half been expecting.
She watched Zan turn towards Ava with a little reluctant awe. He ducked down beside the little New Yorker and put his hand on her face. Maria helped Liz to stand and watched him work, waiting for the shorter blonde to pop up and be herself again.
When that didn't happen after about twenty seconds, she began to realize something was horribly, horribly wrong.
"Zan?" She said softly, but with a worried edge to her voice. "Hurry up and fix her – we have to go."
There was a moment of silence. Then, still staring at Ava, he whispered, "I… I can't."
Liz's grip on Maria's arm tightened. "What do you mean, you can't? You can't what?"
"I can't heal her." Zan said, his tone shocked and a little unsteady. "I – this… This has never happened before. It's like there's nothing wrong with her, she's just not… there."
Maria and Liz both spun to look at the door as distant voices caught their attention. They turned back to Zan, who was staring down at Ava without any sign he'd noticed. Liz let go of Maria and wobbled forward, setting one hand on his shoulder and saying gently, "Zan… we can figure out what's wrong with her later, but we need to get out of here."
Another shout, closer this time. Maria crossed her arms and said sharply, "Like, now."
Zan turned to look at them before turning towards the door. After a second he nodded briskly and reached down to pull Ava into his arms, bridal style. "It's going to take a while to find a way out."
Maria shook her head quickly. "We can go out the way Liz and me came in; it's not far from here."
Zan paused before nodding. "Yeah, sure. Don't got any better ideas. Lead the way."
Zan's head was killing him, and that stupid fucking alarm wasn't helping. He'd never expended this much energy in this short a time before – he probably could have taken everything up to knocking out Lonnie with no problem, but trying to heal Ava had been like trying to fill the ocean with a fire-hose.
He hadn't been totally honest when he'd said there was nothing wrong with Ava – she was dehydrated, half starved, and getting sores on her back and thighs, to name just a few of the things wrong with her. And her brain… her brain had been beyond stressed, with the little veins swelled way beyond where they should be. Whatever else had happened, she'd had a massive headache, and for a long… long time.
But he'd healed all of that in seconds, and she still hadn't woken up.
He'd looked closer, trying to find something – anything – he'd missed, but there was nothing wrong with her anymore. Nothing physical, anyway. And if it wasn't physical, then he didn't have a fucking clue what he was supposed to do to help her.
That thought bothered him in a way he hadn't thought it would. He'd been so angry at her for so long that he hadn't expected to feel any really significant worry or empathy for her.
He'd been so stupid.
Zan pushed that aside to think about later and turned toward the door.
Maria was leaning out, checking both ways down the hall. Almost immediately she went running for the right – the opposite direction from the one Zan had taken coming in. Liz ran after her a little more slowly, obviously not too steady on her feet yet.
They lead him to a janitor's closet and hurried him in, Zan looking around dubiously as he considered whether they'd seen some Skin he hadn't and thought they should hide, or whether their stay with Lonnie had just driven them bat shit crazy.
Then he noticed the ladder.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" He hissed, not really angry at Maria or Liz so much as the constant attempts of the universe at large to royally screw him over.
Maria turned to look at him in shock as Parker leaned against a shelf of cleaning supplies and closed her eyes. Another little twinge of guilt hit him, but there was so much going on just then that he ignored it easily enough. He'd been able to heal all their injuries, but their shock, their exhaustion… that was a different thing. And the moment he'd seen Lonnie arched over Parker in that cell, he'd known she was doing something mental – something Parker was probably still feeling the effects of.
Zan turned back to Maria and frowned. "How the hell are we supposed to get Ava up a ladder?"
Maria blinked, looking at him and then down at Ava. Her mouth formed into a little 'oh'.
"Can't you just, like…" Maria waved her fingers at the top of the exit. "Float her up there or something?"
The question irritated him so much Zan very nearly screamed.
As casually as he could, Zan clenched his teeth and whispered with subtle venom, "Considering I literally just took down an alien army base to rescue your sorry asses? Uh, no. Unless you've got a fresh can of spinach up your sleeves, I'm fresh out of super juice."
Maria blinked wide at him and then frowned, the dainty expression coming off more like a pout than she'd probably meant it to. "Fine, whatever. Look, just… me and Liz will go up first, and then you can, like… push her up to us."
"I can what?" Zan gaped. "Are you out of your fu-"
"Do you have any better ideas, smart ass?" Maria snapped. She spent about five seconds watching him struggle for a response before smirking. "No, I didn't think so. Now, seeing as we're low on time here, you can either help me make this work, or we can sit here and argue until Vilandra and her little minions figure out where we went. Up to you, hotshot."
Zan glared, but couldn't really think of any argument to that.
He gestured toward the ladder and Maria gave him a self-satisfied grin. She reached over and shook Parker's shoulder, but it obviously took her a second to really get the other girls attention. She made Liz go first – presumably to make sure the unsteady brunette didn't fall off the ladder – and then hurried up herself.
Zan hadn't just been bitching to be a pain in the ass before. Staring up at the top of the ladder with his arms throbbing and his vision spinning, he genuinely wondered whether or not he could pull this off. Still, as Maria had pointed out there wasn't exactly a lot of other options just then.
Zan took a deep breath and shifted Ava so she was hanging over his shoulder. His shoulder started aching almost immediately, but it freed up one hand and at least gave him some hope of climbing the ladder.
Despite what Maria had said, Zan knew he couldn't just lift her to them. They only had maybe a three foot reach, and that would put them almost half way into the hole. If they grabbed Ava at that point and didn't have something to hang on to, they would end up dropping her... and maybe fall in after her.
Besides which, there was no way Zan had the energy to lift Ava over his head right now.
Instead, he went the totally undignified route.
Zan shifted Ava so that she was half hanging over one shoulder and he only needed the one hand to keep her there. He started climbing, and the moment he needed to move his hand up to a higher rung, he'd take a moment to balance and then bite down on whatever strip of metal was closest. He'd move his hand as quickly as he could manage to the next rung – before he lost his balance and swung back or his bite slipped.
He was almost all the way up before he felt hands on his shoulder, on Ava, pulling her up and away. Zan hurried the rest of the way up, shaky and beyond exhausted.
Holy fuck, he thought to himself. I can't believe that worked!
He just wanted to lie there and fall asleep, but Maria was already shaking him. "Come on! We have to go, Zan –"
He groaned and pushed himself to his feet, dragging Ava up with him in what was almost an afterthought. When he was finally stable enough to walk, he nodded at what he thought was the direction of the road and grunted, "Go!"
Later, he wouldn't remember much of the scramble to the van. He'd remember the faint sound of the alarm going off in the bunker, shouting in the distance, and Parker tugging his keys out of his back pocket and throwing them to Maria.
The last thing he did before he passed out was reach over and grab her hand.
Beth, I did it. He was already falling asleep before he could make the worlds audible. The world went dark around him and, just for a moment… it was like she was there again.
Beth...
AN: Review!