Chapter 20
Liz and Max transported themselves back to the cave with Max's arms around Liz's waist, as soon as they had re-materialised she saw Michael waiting for them. He walked forward and said, "just don't hurt my sister again!" he said in big brother mode that for a minute Max thought Michael was going to hit him. It wasn't until Liz started laughing that Max relaxed, Michael in turn glared at Liz and said, "do you mind you are ruining my speech!" before giving her a massive hug. Max stepped back and watched them for a minute because they were obviously talking and it was touching to see that Michael finally had a family that he had always wanted.
"Mom?" Liz heard somebody say and as she and Michael pulled apart looking for where the noise had come from they saw Ava lying asleep in the corner and she was fighting in her sleep. The others raced over to her, Michael and Liz reached her first as Ava screamed, "MOM! NO!" Liz had no hesitation in connecting to her younger sister and as she did she was sucked into Ava's dream and could see everything she could.
* FLASH *
She was in an operating room at the compound; there were five other people in the room surrounding the bed so that she couldn't see who was on it. Just then the door behind her opened and as Liz turned to look so did the other people in the room. Liz ran forward and immediately recognised the person lying on the bed, it was Catherine! "Has there been any success yet?" a voice asked and Liz immediately recognised it to be the Leader's, "No sir, the subject has shown an impressive resistance to the serum so we have started to torture her into revealing the location of her children, but to no avail"
"Clear the room" the Leader said, his orders were carried out immediately, once the door shut on the last person the Leader leant down close to Catherine and said "why do you give so much resistance? You know as well as I do that your children won't let you stay here, you may as well make it easy on yourself and tell me where they are now so I can put them out of their misery"
"N … No" Catherine said, "I will never help you," she added as she screamed in pain again
"On your own head be it" the Leader said, "continue" he said to the people who had been waiting on the other side of the door. As he walked down the corridor he heard Catherine's screams echo and bounce off the walls and he began to laugh.
Even before Liz had disconnected from Ava, Michael had seen what she had seen and said, "Oh my god!" as he collapsed onto the floor with the rush of images that were too painful for him to even start comprehending, "Michael!" Maria screamed as she went to him
"What is it Michael?" Alex said pushing past Maria and kneeling down in front of his brother who had tears running down his face. "It's Catherine, they are …" he never got to finish his sentence because Ava screamed again and Liz who was in the process of disconnecting was thrown by the intensity of pain in their body that she was thrown across the room where she bounced off the wall and onto the floor. "Liz!" Max yelled as he ran over to where she lay, she didn't answer for a few seconds until she said, "need to help Ava" before passing out. Alex had heard her plea and knelt in front of Ava trying to bring her out of the nightmare she was in. "I can't do it, I need help" he said fearful looking at Michael, the two of them weren't strong enough though, "we need Liz and then probably more help" Michael said, "that's it!" he said suddenly having a brain wave. He picked up Ava and placed her in the middle of the room and then said to Max, "bring Liz and put her next to Ava" Max did as he was told before standing next to Michael and saying "now what?"
"We need to join hands and all of our powers combined could bring them out of it" Michael said
"What about me, I don't have any powers" Maria pointed out
"You didn't tell her yet?" Alex said looking at Michael
"There wasn't a good time," Michael said defensively
"And this is one?" Alex demanded
"Excuse me, what's going on?" Maria asked confused as she broke up the bickering,
"No time to explain, just do as I told you, their lives are at stake" Michael said. The others realising the seriousness of the situation did as they were told and soon they had formed a small circle around the girls. They focused their energy on bringing Ava out of the nightmare she was trapped in and within seconds the cave began to glow, Michael looked around and realised that the cave wasn't glowing, it was the people in it, their auras had started to become visible and they were almost blinding. Isobel's was a deep purple, Maria's a bright blue, Max's a liquid emerald, Alex's a sunny orange and Michael's in brick red. * Come on Liz * Michael said looking for some sign of her warm amber and Ava's mint green in the cloudy, mist which had appeared in the centre of the circle. Michael got an idea and started to send out pictures of Liz's aura into the group, he sent out the picture of an amber traffic light, and Alex getting the idea sent out the picture of a lion's mane. Then they saw it! An arrow of amber suddenly shot out of the murky dark mist and Michael knew they had Liz back, but now they had to focus on Ava. Alex sent out the picture of mint green walls, Maria sent out the picture of mint ice cream, Isobel responded with mint green nail polish, Michael sent out a mint green car and Max showed the mint green UFO sign that was just outside Roswell. Like they had just seen with Liz an arrow of green came shooting out of the centre and immediately the mist disappeared to reveal Liz hugging Ava with both of them crying surrounded by the circle of people who loved them.
Back in the compound, the Leader sat at his desk starting to get worried and impatient by the fact that Liz and Michael hadn't made their move by now. He knew that he couldn't show weakness in front of his troops though, so he had to continue to sit and wait which was something he was not accustomed to doing. He had an inkling that something might be going on in Roswell, so he pushed the call button to call everyone back to he meeting room as he had come up with an idea.