Chapter 21: Empty Spaces

Michael

I knew Liz was hiding something from me. I wasn't quite sure what it was but it was just *there*. At first I didn't notice but over the last couple of days, she would just get sad for no reason and then just brush it off that she was alright. At first I assumed it was about her parents but whatever it was, it was causing her more distress than that. I was worried about her because whatever she was keeping from me, it was so big that she kept it out of the connection.

That night at a hotel on the way to LA, Liz was in the bathroom and I was laying on the bed with my arms cradling my head. She stepped out in her pajamas and smiled at me. Not wanting to bring down her mood, I smiled back and pushed my thoughts in the back of my head.

Liz laid her head on my chest and said, "I keep thinking about who this Cal Langley is."

"This could just be a dead end," I reasoned.

She frowned, "I hope it isn't. Tomorrow we'll have the answers."

I nodded. "I think I like it here in California. We can move here when we're older you know."

Distress shot through our connection and before I could say anything, Liz pushed herself off the bed and held herself tightly. "You think that far ahead into the future?"

"Yes. I couldn't be with anyone else but you, Liz. Unless you have a problem with that," I mused. Maybe I was getting too far ahead of myself, I thought as doubt began to creep into my head.

"No, I don't. It's just that maybe we should just think day to day. The future is a long time away."

Raising from the bed, I asked, "Why are you acting like this?"

"I just think that maybe we shouldn't think about the future too much."

"Don't you want a future with me?" I asked, my voice cracking with emotion.

Liz's eyes met mine and I saw the love shining in them that I needed to reassure myself. "Of course. It's just that we shouldn't get our hopes up."

"Liz, what is going on here?" I asked in confusion. "Does this have anything to do with what you aren't telling me?"

Her countenance went a deathly pale and she shook her head, "I'm not hiding anything from you."

"That's a load of crap and you know it! So you're just going to stand there and lie to my face?" I asked, angry and hurt now.

"I'm doing it for your own good," she said pinning me with a glare.

"Don't you think that maybe I don't want you to do things for my own good? I can make that decision for myself!"

"No, Michael, you can't! This goes beyond your free will!"

"No, Liz. It doesn't. I love you and it hurts to watch you do push yourself away from me."

I watched as Liz faltered but than she said softly, "I'm trying to protect you, Michael."

"So why don't you let me protect you?"

Liz's tear brimmed eyes met mine and she said in a defeated tone, "Because no one *can* protect me, Michael. It doesn't matter how hard you try. No one can *save* me."

Staring at her disbelief, I watched as she left the hotel room. She stayed with Isabel that night, only a room away, but I felt as if she was a hundred miles away from me.

"Is this the place?" Alex asked. We stood in front of a LA restaurant and were trying to glimpse inside to find out if Cal Langley was here. Liz and Isabel had convinced his associates that they were his new interns and they needed to find him quickly. They told us we was eating with a client.

"I think so," Kyle said.

"Maybe he left already."

"No, there he is," Isabel said and she gestured towards the exit. It wasn't that hard to recognize him. Cal was a director and the three bodyguards that surrounded him kind of gave him away. "Let's go."

When Cal passed us, Liz went into motion putting the mind warp on his body guards. Cal watched in shock as they kept walking, obviously thinking he was still with them. He looked even more shocked when Kyle and I went on opposite sides of him, each grabbing an arm and guiding him towards our van. OK, so maybe kidnapping him wasn't such a good idea but we only had a day to figure all this out.

He tried to pull away but we held him with a firm grip, "Who are you people?"

"Funny, we're here to ask you the same thing," Kyle quipped.

When he stopped walking abruptly, Kyle and I looked at him in confusion. He seemed to be staring intently on something. Someone. Liz. "Are these idiots yours?"

Liz looked shocked at first but quickly recovered. "You know who I am?"

Cal raised an eyebrow at her, "It's kind of hard not to. You being the girl whose going to save Earth and all."

"You can tell?"

"Of course I can. I'm your protector."

Liz

I definitely wasn't expecting this. Gesturing for Michael and Kyle to let him go, I asked, "Let him go."

Kyle and Michael looked at me in shock. "Liz.." Kyle warned.

I held up a hand to stop their protests, "He can't harm me."

They reluctantly let Cal go and he wiped off his sleeves. "What brings you here, Princess? You already know about the prophecy."

"I don't care. I want to stop it."

He laughed, "There isn't a bone in my alien body that could lie to you, Princess. So trust me when I say that there isn't a way to stop it."

I didn't have time for this. "Are there anymore of you, aliens, that could help us fight?"

Cal scratched his head, "There is another protector on Earth and than there are the extras."

Well at least we were getting somewhere now. "He's dead. And who are these extras?"

"Antar sent two sets of the royal family. One, I'd assume, is you guys. The others are in New York."

"Do you have an exact location?"

Cal shook his head, "No. Sorry. But if they are meant to help you than you'll find them. Can I speak to you alone?"

"Why?"

"I have a feeling that you don't want other people over hearing this," he said knowingly.

Turning to Kyle and Michael, I said, "Go to Isabel and Max and get the van ready."

Kyle nodded and went off in the direction of the van and Michael held my gaze for a moment. I could tell he was hurt by the fact that I told him to leave. Pushing the feeling back, I turned back to Cal when Michael dejectedly stalked off.

Cal smirked at me, "I take you have some questions."

"Let's get a few things straight. Whatever I have to do to stop what is meant to be from happening, I will do it."

"There isn't any choices."

"No! There is *always* a choice!"

Cal shook his head sadly, "Choice is delusion. The so called choice that you make, it's already written out what it will be. Choice is a false security given to us by destiny. There are no choices; just what you *aren't* going to do and what you *are*.

"You don't have to save the two worlds. You see there are two things that can happen. You can stay alive but you'll be alone. There will be war on Earth between the Skins and the humans and you will have to stand by and watch it. All of your friends will be dead. The second thing that could happen is that everyone lives. A planet that was once will be again. One path leads to destruction. The other leads to happiness. The choice is yours which one you want to take. That is quite possibly the only choice that you will be able to make in your entire lifetime. But you already know what path you'll take, Princess."

I hated him. I hated him because he was right. "I'll be leaving now," I said through clenched teeth.

"Wait! Before you go, I just want to tell you one more thing."

"And what would that be?"

"The most powerful of warriors die with honors, their dignity. That's a given. But sometimes, they die alone. They push the people they love away because they think it is what they have to do. But they don't-you don't."

The thought of Michael immediately popped into my head. "Goodbye, Cal Langley. Enjoy your life."

He looked at me in confusion, "You don't want me to come with you."

"Back to Roswell? Of course not. You have a life here. You may annoy me but I wouldn't do that to you. We'll dream walk you if we need anything."

And I turned and walked away.

It was raining outside. Tomorrow morning, we were heading back to Roswell. As much as I didn't want to realize it, Cal was right. I was pushing Michael away because then I wouldn't have to say goodbye.

I didn't want to die alone. *I didn't want to die alone.*

So here I stood outside of Michael's hotel room. When he opened the door, he seemed surprised to see me. I looked at him and said simply, "I don't want to die alone, Michael."

His face immediately softened and he moved aside to let me in. He closed the door and asked, "What are you talking about?"

I closed my eyes and began to recite the prophecy I didn't read before. "There will be a war and the vessel with two seals will be surrounded by death. The royal family will be dead. The granolith-the source of infinite energy-combined with the vessel's energy will rebuild the Earth and bring back to life its people. It will also bring Antar back to it's golden age. All will be right in the worlds. The vessel will die but will leave behind a legacy of greatness and begin an age of prosperity."

I wiped away the tears that I didn't even know I was crying and said, "I didn't want to tell you because then that would mean I would have to say goodbye to you. I can't do that. So I tried to push you away but I realized Michael that I was so worried about you guys living out the rest of your lives that I forgot that I'm still living mine too. And I want to live with you. If I die tomorrow or today, or twenty years from now, I want it to not-I don't want to do it alone. I love you so much."

Michael held me so tightly that I almost couldn't breathe. His warm tears mingled with mine. He pulled away slightly and said, "I love you too. And we are going to find a way to fight this. I'm not going to lose you, Liz. I'm *never* going to lose you."

"I hope not. Because I don't want you to lose me either."

Michael tenderly wiped the tears off my cheeks and gently kissed my eyelids. My heart felt like it was being ripped apart. How could I ever leave him?

{How can I ever live without *you*?} he thought in my head as he read my thoughts.

We both felt like we are being suffocated. His pain was my pain. My loss was his loss. Never leaving each other's embrace, we fell asleep after talking for two hours.

In a way, we both knew that we couldn't stop it. We wanted to but we both knew that was impossible.