Title: On My Knees
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Author's note: The lyrics are from Not Ready to Make Nice by the Dixie Chicks. Also, this is a relatively long chapter with quite a bit of action. And fighting. And character death. And, towards the end, you might start to think that this is the last chapter. It isn't. There are actually a few more chapters after it (each probably pretty long as well).
And... just a warning. This is not a happy chapter. Not at all. Not in any way, shape, or form. So... yeah. Be prepared for that.
Summary: Five years, and she's still struggling just to survive.
Chapter Twenty-One: Forgiveness
Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything...
But I'm still waiting.
In the future, Kyle will willingly admit that forgiving was the hardest thing he had ever had to do. To forgive Liz for the lies and Max for the whole alien takeover of his life, to forgive Jennifer for what she had not told him, to forgive Tess for the mess she had left behind.
To forgive himself for all the things he could not do.
Forgiveness was supposed to help the healing process. And although it had come far too late for him, he will always hope that his forgiveness is enough to help heal the others, the ones he loves.
The silence was filled with tension.
Kyle and Jim Valenti stood to one side, Emily held tightly in her father's arms. Diane Evans was hovering between her children, grief etched into every line of her face as she watched the others try to cope with all that had happened. Max held Liz in a protective embrace, and continually sent quick looks to his sister, trying to gauge Isabel's emotional state. Michael stood separate from the others, his eyes haunted as he let his gaze wander over the others and note Maria's still painful absence. Tess, too, stood apart from the others, but Nick and Alex joined her, and Charlie and Kate waited a few feet behind her, unsure if they should intervene.
Only Agent Thompson seemed completely unaffected by the stressed atmosphere.
"What now?" Jim asked finally, when it became clear that no one else could think of what to say or do.
All eyes turned to Max, waiting for an answer.
The hybrid king let out a heavy sigh. "We fight back," he answered quietly. "Michael, Isabel, Tess, and I. The rest of you leave."
"No." It was Liz who answered, and while she had agreed to stay behind on the first expedition, the look in her eyes indicated that she was not going to let Max dictate this one. "We're in this together, Max. I'm not leaving you to fight."
"I can't fight if you're there," Max argued.
"Yes, you can," Liz retorted, flushed. "You fight with Isabel by your side all the time. I have powers too, you know. I might not use them much, but I can do things. I'm not a liability anymore."
"You're sick," Tess murmured, and as Liz spun to face her, she lifted defiant eyes and said firmly, "You are a liability as long as you're illness keeps you weak."
"You're a liability as long as your fear of the skins keeps you from being able to fight off their control," Liz shot back. Tess flinched, her eyes moving to Max in what was clearly a silent question of why did you tell her about that?, but Liz did not notice. "Isabel is a liability because of the Vilandra within her. We all have weakness, Tess, but we are in this together, and I am not going to let Max face Khivar alone."
"She's right," Michael muttered, shaking his head. "We're stronger as a group."
Max frowned, but seeing that he was outnumbered, he bowed his head with heavy resignation. "Fine. Liz can stay. The rest of you…"
"What about Kyle?" Michael demanded suddenly, giving the human a searching stare. "Max healed you as well. What are your powers?"
Kyle sneered in reply, "I never developed them. Guess I didn't turn into a freak like the rest of you."
Liz looked at him for a moment, as though finally seeing him for who he really was. The hurt in her expression changed quickly to one of anger, but before she could speak, Max was talking again.
"All the better for us," Max said firmly, tightening his grip on Liz to reassure her that this was not the time or place for a fight, but that he would speak to Kyle later if she wished. She gave him a watery smile, and Kyle turned away, almost disgusted by the show of affection. "So Kyle, his daughter, Jim, Mom, Nick, Alex, Charlie, and Kate will all stay behind."
"And how exactly do you plan on finding this alien king?" Nick asked pointedly. "You all thought he would be waiting for you here, but he wasn't. What are you going to do, fly around the world looking for him?"
"He's here," Isabel said, and she said it with such sudden assuredness that Nick did not argue the point. He cast a slanted look at Tess, but she was frowning at Kyle and did not see the question in his eyes.
Diane Evans watched the proceedings with a heavy heart. She could so easily see the fault lines among the group, and though she knew her children had made mistakes, they were her children and she could not keep from feeling a little bit of frustration at the pain Kyle was causing by his harsh words. Neither could she look at Tess for more than a few seconds without wanting to grab the girl by the shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattled, demanding an explanation for her prolonged absence.
But even more than that, she felt frustration at herself, and her inability to help them. They were her children and she was supposed to protect them. And yet here they were, trying to figure out a way to protect her, to keep her safe. They were preparing for war, and she was helpless to do anything at all but stand by and watch them make their plans.
"Uh… Mrs. Evans?" Tess spoke up, a little unsure of herself around Max's mother.
Diane looked at her. "Yes?" she asked. Her voice was not particularly unfriendly, but neither did it contain any warmth. It was as though she was completely ambivalent to Tess' presence, and the petite blonde could not fault her for that.
"Did the skins say anything to you when they attacked? Anything that might be important?"
Diane shook her head. "Not really. They didn't talk much. They just came after Philip and I…" She stopped short, trailed off with a sigh. The tears pricked in her eyes and she licked dry lips, trying to force herself back into the nightmare, wishing there was something she could remember that might help her children.
"How many?" Tess asked, pressing forward gently.
"Five," Diane answered readily enough. "Um… I think the leader's name was Jorguin… or Jorjin… or something like that. I don't really remember."
"Did any of the others have names that you heard?"
"Not that I remember. They weren't speaking English more of the time."
"What else do you remember?" Tess pushed.
Isabel glanced between her mother and her brother, wishing Max would intervene and stop Tess from asking these questions. She did not want her mother to have to relive this moment any more than she herself wanted to hear the details of her father's death. But though Max had moved to his mother and was now standing with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, his expression indicated that he recognized the importance of this information and he did not have the luxury of avoiding the unpleasant questions.
Kyle didn't really seem to have a problem arguing with Tess, however, and he snapped irritably, "Isn't it enough that she lived through it? Do you really want to force her to remember?"
Tess looked at him. "I never meant to hurt you," she whispered.
He met her gaze and answered in a glacial tone, "You're too late."
To forestall the inevitable argument, Max interrupted, asking, "Mom? Do you remember anything else?"
Diane wiped away a few tears and said, "Not really. There were a lot of flashes of light. It got really hot, and the air felt heavy. Your father pushed me out of the way of an attack and…" Again, she stopped, a sob catching in her throat, and was unable to say anything more. Max pulled her into a hug as Isabel doubled over, trembling, trying to hide her own tears from her distraught mother.
"Does that mean anything to you?" Liz asked Tess.
Tess pulled at a loose strand of hair. "Yes. It does."
"Well?" Michael prodded impatiently.
"Jorjin is not a name. It's a title. It means king."
It did not take long for anyone to understand exactly what Tess was implying. A horrified silence met her words, then Isabel asked incredulously, "It was Khivar that attacked my Mom?"
"We knew he was here," Michael countered. "I suppose this should not come as a surprise."
"You're lucky to be alive," Tess whispered, gazing at Diane. "People don't usually escape from Khivar."
"You did," Diane replied.
Tess blinked, then turned and looked over at the destroyed remnants of what had once been the city of Roswell. "Yes," she agreed. "And many people had to die to make that happen as well."
The sound of voices drifted past him, but Michael was no longer paying attention. The conversation had dissolved, and now everyone stood around in small groups, the Evans together, Tess with her friends, Kyle and Jim standing separate. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Isabel look at him a few times, but his attention was on the phantom that had appeared and was now standing on the sloping desert floor, watching them.
"Not the welcome you were expecting?" the phantom asked. "Well, I wasn't really expecting to die either. I guess we don't always get what we want."
It took all of Michael's willpower not to answer aloud as he wanted to. But he knew it would be difficult to explain to the others that he was seeing ghosts, and he did not want to distract them with worries about his own sanity. He might not know why he was being haunted by this phantom, but he knew it was not because he had completely lost it. He was still sane… sort-of.
I should have been able to protect you, he thought bitterly.
"Well, of course you should have, Space Boy. It is certainly what we both would have liked. But, like I just said, we don't always get what we want." The reply was almost immediate, and she grinned at him with a smugness that he thought might be attributed to her sudden ability to read minds.
She can hear me think? Michael wondered silently, shaking his head. Okay, maybe I have lost it.
"I've always known what you were thinking, Guerin. You've got a very one-track mind." She flushed slightly, a light pink tint covering her cheeks. "Now, now, now… get your mind out of the gutter. I'm dead, you should not be imaging that."
Michael glowered at her, opening his mouth to say something. Then Isabel was suddenly moving towards him, and he shut his mouth quickly, turning away from the ghost.
Isabel gave him a thoughtful look. "Are you alright?" she murmured. "You look… distant."
"Isabel, he's always been distant," the phantom announced.
But, of course, Isabel did not hear.
"All of Roswell just got destroyed because of us," Michael said sharply. "Of course I'm distant! You weren't there, you didn't see the way everything looked… so empty…"
"And there you go again, Guerin, yelling at poor Isabel just because you're in a bad mood. And worried that you might be crazy."
Shut up! And I'm not crazy.
"Well, you are talking to a voice that only you can hear," she drawled, rolling her eyes. "But hey, if you don't think that makes you crazy, who am I to say any differently? I'm just a lowly human, after all, and I couldn't possibly understand how the great alien mind words." Even dead, she could use sarcasm well.
"Michael?" Isabel murmured. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply…" She trailed off, shook her head.
"No, I'm sorry, Izzy. I shouldn't have…" He, too, did not finish the sentence.
"Hey! How come you can apologize to her when you've never apologized to me?"
Like you ever apologized to me.
"I never had a reason to apologize to you. I was never wrong."
He rolled his eyes, and too late realized that this was a gesture Isabel could see, and one that would puzzle her. Sure enough, she was looking at him with confusion and something akin to worry in her wide eyes.
He wondered what he could tell her. How could he possibly explain any of this in a way that would not make her fear for his sanity and for all their safety? He was seeing things, arguing with someone who was dead. Someone he knew was not actually there. He was talking to his own imagination.
And yet, to his surprise, Isabel just gave him a sad smile and said, "It's okay. After Alex died… well, I saw him… or his imaginary ghost… a lot, too."
"Kyle, please… just hear me out," Tess found herself saying as Kyle turned away from her, wanting to ignore her insistence that they speak.
He spun around to glare at her. They had left the cliffs and now gathered in a roadside motel, trying to gather their wits and come up with a plan. The two one-time siblings stood alone in Kyle's room, Emily lying asleep on the bed across from them. Neither were entirely sure where Jim had gone, but when Tess had shown up in the doorway of the room, the ex-Sheriff had quickly excused himself, opting to be elsewhere.
"What can you say, Tess? What could you possibly tell me that would make anything okay again?"
"I never wanted to hurt you!"
"But you did hurt me," was Kyle's firm retort, laced with anger and pain. "You did hurt me, more than you seem to even understand."
"If I could have saved Alex, if I could have not done any of this to you…"
"Then why didn't you come back and tell us?" Kyle demanded heatedly. "Let's pretend, just for a moment, that I actually believe you, that I think you might not be entirely responsible for Alex's death. That still doesn't explain what kept you from me for five years!"
"I was scared. I was hurting."
"You were hurting? How the hell do you think I was feeling all those years? God, Tess. We took you into our house, we made you family. I gave you my room, my bed. Do you remember when I told you that you were the only good thing that had resulted from this mess? That you made it worthwhile? Do you remember any of that, Tess, or did you conveniently forget it over the past five years?"
"I'm sorry! I wish I could take it back, but I can't. I can't change what happened, I can't rewrite the past five years. But… Kyle, you were my family and you turned on me. You accused me of cold-blooded murder and betrayal. Of course I was afraid to go back. How could I face all of the people who had done that to me?"
"What was I supposed to believe?" Kyle shot back, face flushed. "After what I saw… if you had just told me…" He paused, lowering his voice as Emily began to stir in his sleep. Running a hand through his hair in an absent manner, he said, "If you had come straight back to Roswell after returning to Earth, if you had come to me and told me the truth… I would have believed you. I wanted to believe that things were different than what they seemed, that you hadn't really done all that… But you didn't come back, did you? You ran. You left us alone with all of the consequences. You left my Dad and me to suffer. And why? Because you were afraid? We were your family, Tess. How could you let fear stop you from coming home?"
"Kyle…"
"Do you know what happened to us after you left? Do you know what it is like to watch your entire life crumble around you?"
"Yes! Yes, Kyle, I know what that is like! I know exactly what it feels like when suddenly everything turns upside-down and you realize you have no escape. When you see yourself spiraling into destruction and you just can't stop it. It happened to me, Kyle. It tore me apart!"
Kyle froze, eyes wide, then asked, "Then how could you knowingly stand back and let that happen to me?"
This time, it was Tess' turn to go silent.
"My Dad had his life ruined. He lost his job, his reputation, his everything. He started drinking, started getting depressed, and I was left by myself to take care of it because you were gone and Max and the others were too busy trying to help each other to help him. I used to have nightmares about you, Tess, and about what had happened. I used to be completely unable to move on from the fact that I had carried Alex's dead body out to the car and helped stage a phony accident."
"I never wanted to…"
"But you know what the worst part of it was?" Kyle continued, speaking over her. Now that she was here, standing in front of him, he desperately needed to talk, to force her to listen to everything he had kept inside for so long. "I still missed you!"
Blue eyes widened in surprise.
"You were never gone. You could never just leave me alone. Everyone else hated you, but I couldn't. I hated what you had done, but I couldn't stop thinking about you. I couldn't stop wondering where you were and if you were hurt or captured or in danger. I didn't want to care, but I did. For over five years, Tess, I cared about you and what might have happened to you, and I didn't have a single damned person I could tell that to because you were too busy being afraid to come back home!"
Kyle drew a shaky breath, watching as the tears pooled in Tess' eyes. It should have made him feel happy, should have fed the small vindictive voice that wanted her to suffer… but it didn't. It just made him even more upset.
Even now, she still had an impossibly firm grip on his heart, and she didn't even know it.
"I couldn't tell Max or Liz," Kyle continued, now speaking in a normal tone once more. "I couldn't tell Maria, who hated you, or Isabel, who would burst into tears for Alex every time your name was mentioned. I couldn't tell Michael, who would have accused me of being on the wrong side, or my Dad, who was so close to falling apart that it was all anyone could do to keep him together. But even on the other side of the universe, you managed to dictate my thoughts, my actions, everything… and you don't even seem to care."
His feelings for Tess had always been somewhere in between romantic and brotherly. At Prom he had told her that he thought of her as a sister. Before that, he had often wanted her as a girlfriend, and had been annoyed and disappointed that she had been so focused on Max. But whatever the exact nature of the relationship, there was no denying the fact that she was the first girl that he had ever truly loved… regardless of what type of love it was.
So when she had left, it had been that much more difficult to deal with everything he felt about her departure. Sometimes he had wished that he could simply hate her, that the vestigial concern and love would fade and he would be left in peace. But that had never happened, and it was not until he had met Jennifer that things had started to slowly heal. Jennifer had been the one to help him see the good in people again, to move past all that had happened and to begin to rebuild his own life.
But, of course, if anything he had learned from his father and Michael was true, then it would appear Jennifer had not been entirely honest with him either.
"I'm sorry, Kyle," Tess breathed, tears making tracks down her pale skin. "I'm so sorry."
He held her gaze for a beat, then said emotionlessly, "That's not enough," and watched with no feeling in his eyes as Tess turned and rushed from the room.
The attack would have come without warning, except that they had been expecting it all along. But the sudden rush of heat, the sound of wood cracking, the shattering of glass, was enough to inform them that the battle had now begun in earnest, and it would not end until the war was finally over.
Diane and Jim had left only a few hours earlier, taking Emily with them. Tess was reluctant to send Alex with Nick, without any of the aliens there to protect him, but as Kate had reasonably pointed out, if they failed to defeat Khivar in this battle, it would not matter if Alex had protection or not, he would still be as good as lost to them. So Kate, Charlie, Nick, and Alex had all left about an hour after Diane and Jim.
Only the four aliens, Liz, Agent Thompson and Kyle remained behind.
Kyle was supposed to leave as well, separately from his father and daughter, but the attack had come far too quickly for any of them, and so he was stuck within the motel even as the place was surrounded by skins.
Max, Michael, and Liz were in Michael's room, and the blast that cut through the motel effectively split the floor in two, separating them from Tess, Isabel, Kyle, and Agent Thompson. Smoke filled the air, drifting into the room through the remains of the now destroyed door. The smell of charred wood followed, mixed with flashes of light and the guttural scream of someone dying on the floor below.
"Well, well, well… what have we here?" came a sneering voice.
Max moved instinctively in between Liz and the sound coming from the doorway. Michael fell into a reflexively-defensive stance, prepared to fight.
And a man stepped out of the smoke.
They did not recognize his physical appearance, nor did they recognize his voice. But the aura of power that circled him, heavy and thick like a strong perfume, was unmistakable. There was something so familiar about him, about the coldness of his eyes and the smirk of his lips, that for a moment, Max felt as though he was back on Antar, as Zan.
"Hello, Khivar," Max said, throwing out the line like a hero is some clichéd science-fiction movie. As though at any minute, he would save the day and get the girl and ride off happily into the sunset, content in the knowledge that he had, once again, thwarted danger.
But this was not a movie, and Khivar was backed by at least eight other skins, each one prepared to battle until death if need be.
"Zan. It will be a pleasure to kill you. And this time, I will see to it that you stay dead."
There was little else to say. Unlike the fables that Max had heard growing up, unlike the stories on television and in the movies, the hero and the villain did not throw insults at each other or discuss their respective master plans. There was no exchange of mocking pleasantries, no plea to turn away from evil, no attempt to somehow work everything out. This was a war that had been fought since long before Max Evans had been born, and it was a war that Khivar had been fighting his entire adult life.
They both just wanted it to end.
Max conjured a shimmering shield of blue energy, wrapping it around himself, Liz, and Michael. Khivar's attack bounced harmlessly off the force-field, as did the efforts of his soldiers.
Then Max dropped the shield, and everything seemed to happen at once.
Michael twisted his hand expertly, and the wall behind the skins exploded, sending pieces of plaster raining down upon them. In the confusion that reigned immediately, Max forced Khivar back with a burst of his own energy, and Liz focused on the ground in front of them, causing flames to appear. This joint attack, however, was not enough to stop Khivar, knocked Michael off his feet with a telekinetic slice of his hand. Liz cried out, worried, even as several skins converged upon her and Michael tried his best to rise back to his feet.
And then the air was filled with bullets.
Three skins went down, blood spilling across their bodies as Max turned towards the door and stared in shock at the four men who entered. They were all wearing black suits and bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the letters FBI. Each held a gun and had another strapped around the waist.
Another volley of bullets brought Max out of his shock, and he waved his hand, sending one of the skins attacking Liz flying backwards. The skin in question smashed against the far wall, cracking the plaster and slumping to the ground. His husk broke, and he disintegrated into nothing more than a pile of skins.
One of the FBI agents fought his way to Max's side. "We think some are husks and some are possessed humans. But the possessed humans seem to be able to channel alien powers."
"Right," Max answered, unsure what else to say. Was the FBI really on his side?
Liz looked pale as she gazed down at the three dead bodies by her side. They must have been possessed humans, she realized, and killing the aliens possessing them had required killing the humans as well.
The FBI agent who had spoken demanded hoarsely, "Where are the others?"
"Others?" Max repeated.
But the rest of the conversation was cut off by the appearance of even more skins, and the battle began again, this time with Michael and Liz jointly facing Khivar. Max tried to scramble to their side, but was pulled back by several skins. Something hit his jaw, and he delivered a kick of his own, satisfied by the heavy thud as his foot collided with his attacker.
Liz, meanwhile, was not faring quite as well. Already, Khivar had forced her to her knees, her back up against the wall, and even Michael's support and assistance could not help her slow the repeated blows that landed on her shoulders and chest. She tasted blood in her mouth and bit back the urge to cry out in fear.
Khivar lifted his hand, and it glowed green with energy. He drew it back, prepared to deliver the final blow that would end the life of his human opponent…
And something caught his arm, twisting it backwards and pulling him down to the ground. He rolled over to find himself staring directly into the eyes of one of the FBI agents, who had just barely managed to save Liz's life. With a snarl of rage, Khivar pressed his hand against the man's chest, using his powers to kill him instantly.
The FBI agent fell to the ground, lifeless eyes staring blankly at the ceiling around him. Liz flinched, Max turned away briefly, and Michael let out a heavy exhale. But the other three FBI agents did not even pause to take note of their fallen comrade, but instead continued fighting with a ferocity beyond most anything Max had ever seen.
"The others!" the first FBI agent yelled at Max again. "Your sister, Ms. Harding, Agent Thompson. Where are they?"
"Come on," Max said as he seized Liz's arm and forcefully dragged her from the room. "We need to find them!" And they raced into the hallway before Khivar could rise back to his feet and stop them.
When the fighting had started, Isabel and Kyle were both in Kyle's room, discussing the details of where he would go and how they would locate him once the battle was over. Tess had decided not to join in that conversation, knowing that Kyle did not want to see any of them, least of all her, once this was over.
Which had left her alone in her room, without no one else to turn to when the attack started.
She had jumped to her feet, ready to rush into the hallway and seek out the others, but any thought of escape was forgotten the minute her door swung open and a figure stepped inside.
Tess' jaw dropped. "Lonnie?" she whispered.
"Surprise!" the Isabel-lookalike smirked. "Did you miss me?"
She did not look much different than the last time Tess had seen her, all those years ago. Her hair was still short and spiky, her make-up and many piercings still giving her an exotic and rather terrifying appearance. But scariest of all for Tess was the expression of gleeful anticipation on her face.
Tess had seen that expression before, and she knew it did not bode well for any of them. It was the look Lonnie had worn every time she had used her powers to seize control of Tess' mind, every time she had made yet another step towards her ultimate goal of ruining the lives of the Roswell Royal Four.
Tess lifted her head and prepared to blast the hybrid.
The flash burst into her mind with such an intensity that she knew, in a detached and vague sort of way, that it was being forced into her mind by someone else.
Lonnie.
"How much longer is he going to be?" Rath demanded impatiently, striding back and forth with a frustrated countenance.
"You got somewhere to be, sweetheart?" Lonnie retorted with a sardonic grin. Her eyes moved towards Tess, who sat on the floor of the sewer in front of them. "He'll come when he does. You keep your eyes on that pretty little thing until her Zan shows. I ain't risking a screw-up just because you got bored."
"Oh, please. What she gonna do? You got a good hold on her."
Tess' face was glazed with beads of sweat as she tried with all her might to fight off the force keeping her still. But Lonnie seemed barely affected by her efforts, and she couldn't understand how the hybrid had enough power to keep her so completely trapped.
"Yeah, well…" Lonnie grinned, switching her gaze back to Rath. "God, I feel pathetic pretending to need that Max. Like I couldn't take him in a fight. They're all so weak. No one would ever believe they're actually royalty. They oughta be the rejects, not us."
"Yeah, well… they're gonna learn now," Rath answered.
"And I can't wait to see the look on their Zan's face when he realizes his precious Ava's gone and betrayed him to Khivar."
"Pity it wasn't that brunette. She's the one he's got the hots for," Rath remarked casually. "Looks like he's got some pathetic puppy-dog love thing going on. And with a human. Still... betrayal is betrayal, no matter the source. The guy's a wimp. He'll crash before he figures out anything."
"If he figures out anything."
"That's the beauty of everything, ain't it, sweetie?" Lonnie sneered with a mocking grin as the flash faded and Tess found herself back in the present. "It didn't have to be you."
Tess licked dry lips and glared at the hybrid Princess, wondering what had gone so wrong for her. It was hard to believe that Isabel shared the exact same genetic make-up as this twisted alien, and yet she did. It made Tess wonder, sometimes, if Isabel might have ended up this way, had she been raised differently. Were they all walking that fine line between good and evil? Were they all possible of becoming part of the other side?
Lonnie pressed on, eyes glittering maliciously. "Any chick can have the King's son. Don't need to be you to make the kid the next ruler."
Tess shook her head, eyes wide. She had always known on some level that it had not been about destroying her life. It had been about ruining the lives of all four of them, and she had simply been the one they chose to carry out the plan. Maria had not been a viable option since she possessed no alien powers of her own, and Tess doubted that the skins realized that Liz had inherited a few tricks of her own until it was far too late to consider using her. Isabel, of course, would not work because Max would never sleep with her. And Tess, with her obsession towards destiny, her memories of Antar, and her mind-warping abilities... she had been the perfect target. But it wasn't anything personal. It didn't have to be her.
Just like it didn't have to be Alex that was killed, or Kyle who carried his dead body.
There was a way out of this. Tess knew she'd never be strong enough to stop Lonnie if she relied only on her lesser powers. But she remembered the fireball she had used to kill the skins, the way her entire body had been nearly torn apart from the inside as she let go of all her control and let the fire consume. After that, she had been more wary of her mind-warps, more hesitant to use them without preparation. And then, with Alex's death...
But this was different. She had to kill Lonnie, even though she was hesitant to do so. She had to kill her...
But could she? Even without bothering to control the mind-warp, she might not be strong enough...
"Tell me something, sweetie," Lonnie continued gloating, "did you have fun on Antar?"
Tess swallowed back the bitter retort, the fear and the pain, and took a few steps forward. Then, without preparation, without warning, without thinking, she closed her eyes and imagined the fire. Instantly, something tugged at her insides, twisting in the pit of her stomach. Her instinct was to fight it, to fight for control, but she let the instinct pass, and instead focused on making the fire burn brighter, burn with an intense heat that consumed anything it touched. With her eyes closed, she could not see the sudden panic on Lonnie's face or the way the flames traveled so quickly across the space between them, burning the ground, surrounding the Isabel-lookalike with their orange glow. But she could feel the power in the air all around her, crackling like electricity.
Despite the fear, Lonnie still had a few tricks up her sleeve, and she was not about to go down without a fight. Flinging both hands out in front of her, she smiled with satisfaction as the fire seemed to hesitate, unsure if it could proceed forward. For all her training, Tess still could not hope to match Lonnie in strength, a fact that both hybrids knew well. If it came down to a battle of wills, Tess would not win.
The fire flickered, getting smaller.
Then Lonnie gave a choked cry and crumbled to the ground, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
Tess looked past the fallen hybrid and found Isabel and Kyle both standing in the doorway. Isabel had her hand stretched out before her, and her eyes had hardened into a look of disgust. She glared at the fallen dupe even as she moved towards Tess. Her body was still tense, coiled like a spring ready to explode should Lonnie attack again.
"Tess? Are you alright?"
Tess blinked at Isabel, still dazed by the sudden rescue, but nodded slowly. "Yes... I'm fine. Max? Michael? Liz?"
"I don't know..."
"What is she doing here?" Kyle interrupted, his words harsh and filled with dislike as he gazed at Lonnie. "I thought she and Rath were dead."
"Guess not," Isabel muttered uneasily. "Did you see Rath? Is he here as well?"
"I didn't see him," Tess answered worriedly. "He could be here. I don't know..." She didn't bother asking about Ava, since the last of the dupes had never been a threat. All her thoughts were a jumbled mess, however, and she could make little sense of what was happening. She moved past Isabel towards the hallway, towards the sounds of fighting. Max, Michael, and Liz were somewhere out there, and the only thought that managed to penetrate the fog around her brain was that they had more of a chance of surviving if they fought together.
Her abrupt exit was halted by Agent Thompson, however, who hurried in through the door. The FBI agent held his gun loosely in one hand, and his eyes roamed through the room, taking in the three shocked faces and the unconscious body on the floor. "That's your double," he said in a shaky voice, frowning at Isabel.
Isabel nodded mutely, and Tess wondered what Thompson could have heard about the dupes to make him look so distraught over her appearance.
He lifted his gun and pointed it at Lonnie. Isabel closed her eyes briefly and turned her head away, unable and unwilling to watch the death of someone who shared her genetic makeup. In a different time and place, and under different circumstances, she might have become Lonnie.
Agent Thompson was not fast enough to kill her, however, and before he could pull the trigger, the entire room began to shake. Tess fell to her knees, barely managing to keep from crashing completely to the ground. Kyle stayed upright, using the wall for support, and next to him, Isabel stumbled and lost her balance, hitting the ground hard. Lonnie groaned and rolled to her side, and Thompson tried to adjust his aim on her but could not keep himself steady long enough. As they all attempted to recover from the movement, the door flung open once more and several skins rushed into the room.
Thompson twisted and started firing, paying little attention to his aim. His bullets flew in all directions, shattering plaster from the wall and breaking the lamps and the television screen. Several also managed to hit the intended targets, and two skins dropped to the ground almost instantly, while several others cried out in pain and stopped mid-rush.
There was a blinding flash of light, a brilliant burst of whiteness that momentarily blinded Tess, and when she slowly forced herself to see once more, the room was filled with even more skins, and Thompson lay at her feet, his body broken and bloodied, his eyes glazed over in death.
She almost screamed in horror.
Then Isabel had seized her arm and dragged her from the room into the hallway, Kyle close at her heels. The air was heavy with smoke, and the ground shook beneath their feet, testament to the battle that was raging all around them. She blinked through the haze of panic and smog and caught sight of Max and Liz coming towards her, with Michael and several FBI agents behind.
"We need to get out of here!" Max hissed. "There are too many, I don't think we can fight them all."
"Where are we supposed to run, Max?" Isabel countered breathlessly. "Wasn't the whole point of this that we stay and fight?"
Another volley of bullets exploded through the air but for every skin that fell, another seemed to take his place.
"You're surrounded," one of the FBI agents shouted. "We will hold them off. Get to the first floor and put the main doors to your backs. You stand a better chance of fighting there!"
Tess wasn't entirely sure what happened after that. Isabel still had her by the arm, and she was being dragged through the hallway and down a flight of stairs, away from the sounds of fighting. She could think of little else besides Thompson's lifeless body collapsing to the floor. She could not honestly say that she liked or trusted the FBI agent. He had been far too willing to manipulate them to suit his own needs. But in the end he had been willing to sacrifice his life to protect them, so that they could fight the cause he believed in so much.
The thoughts were pushed from her mind as she found herself in the main lobby of the hotel. Liz, pale and exhausted, leaned against the sofas and turned her attention towards the elevators and the stairwells, waiting. Michael and Isabel both looked around worriedly, their attention drawn to the windows and the set of glass sliding doors that opened into the front drive. Max was constantly shifting his weight from foot to foot, prepared for whatever would come next. And Kyle was standing completely still.
They did not have long to wait.
While on the floors above them the FBI was just barely managing to keep the majority of the skins at bay, at least three of the enemy aliens had slipped by unnoticed and made their way to the lobby as well.
Khivar, Nicolas, and Lonnie.
"I see you recovered from all those bullet holes Thompson put in your body," Max sneered, forcing himself to appear brave.
Nicolas gave a cold chuckle. "Too bad Thompson won't be recovering from the energy hole we burned in his chest." Max visibly flinched, and Nicolas grinned with even more glee. "So… who wants to die first?"
"Leave them out of this," Max ordered tersely, striding forward, his eyes on Khivar. "Your fight is with me."
"My fight is with all of you," Khivar answered. "But don't worry, I'll do you the favor and make sure to kill you first. Then you won't have to see your precious wife die." He turned to Liz, his eyes raking over her body with an appreciative grin. "Maybe we will have some fun before that happens…?"
Tess slanted a look at the hybrid King, watching as his rage nearly boiled over. He was just barely managing to stay in control of his fury, to keep his emotions checked and not rise to Khivar's bait. Liz, too, was struggling to keep a straight face even as the disgust and repulsion shone in her eyes.
Isabel apparently had also sensed how close Max was to losing it, and interrupted the conversation. To Lonnie, she said, "Looks like you're back from the sewers. I guess it was too much to hope you'd rot into nothingness. But hey… where's your reject boy-toy?"
Lonnie smirked, "Ain't that sweet? You're all concerned for Rath. Well… let's just say I ditched him. Permanently." She looked over at Michael with a cocky grin. "I'm more interested in this one, anyway. You for sale, sweetheart?"
"Why'd you kill him?" Max whispered, horrified. He knew that she had been partially responsible for Zan's death, and had certainly threatened Ava on more than one occasion, but she and Rath had seemed like to peas in a pod. Why would she dismiss him? What did she stand to gain from it?
"Khivar asked me to do it," Lonnie replied callously.
Isabel winced. "So that's it? You just… you just killed him?"
"Yep. Just like that." Lonnie gave a long, drawn out sigh, then added, "Wanna see how easy its gonna be to kill you?"
A second later, Lonnie was forcefully thrown back against the wall, her head hitting the wood with a resounding crack. Max stepped forward, one hand stretched out in front of him, power rippling up and down the length of his arm.
His eyes were completely black.
"Well, well, well…" Khivar drawled. "Look who finally decided to play."
Nicolas smirked. "This would be quite a lot easier, Zan, if you just gave in to the inevitable."
Tess closed her eyes against the pain, trying to ignore the feeling of helpless dread that settled in her heavy limbs. The baby twisted in her womb and she gave a short gasp. Her forehead was lined with beads of sweat, her lips trembled as though she wanted to scream out, but could not find the energy.
Nicolas watched her dispassionately from the other side of the cell. "This would be quite a lot easier, Ava darling, if you just gave in to the inevitable."
She squinted at him and shook her head. "Never, Nicolas. You cannot have my son."
He laughed. "Sweetheart, I already have him." He gestured to the stone walls surrounding him. "You're not going anywhere, my Queen," he sneered, "and your precious son will be born here. Accept it."
A wave of pain swept through her body once more. "No," she hissed.
"You're only hurting your son," Nicolas countered. "Why would you do this to him? Can't you see he is in pain as well?"
"You are the one hurting him," Tess gasped. "Just stop it!"
Nicolas turned away from her and the pain faded just a bit. "You know how to make it stop."
She knew what he wanted, but she would not yield. To have the Queen lend her support to Khivar? She was not foolish enough to think it would stop the war. The rebels wanted the skin king dead, and the skins wanted to completely wipe out every last remnant of Zan's family. She could travel throughout the planet, shouting from every mountain, every tower, every high point in the entire land, begging people to put down their arms and accept Khivar, and the war would still not end.
It would only serve to make the rebels even more distraught, more hopeless, more disinherited.
"I will never publicly acknowledge Khivar's right to rule!"
Nicolas shrugged. "As you wish."
Tess forced the memory away and watched in horrified fascination as Max brought both hands together in front of him and channeled a continual stream of shimmering electricity down his arms. It crackled at his fingertips and jumped into the air, exploding towards Khivar.
Khivar lifted his hand and conjured a shield that absorbed the energy. He stumbled back a few steps at the force of the blow, but stayed upright.
Michael moved quickly to Max's side, lending his support and strength, while Lonnie rose to her feet and walked determinedly forward to face Isabel. Liz hovered between the two, unsure who needed her powers more, while Tess and Nicolas locked eyes, each waiting for the other to make the next move.
And then the three fights broke out in earnest.
Khivar and Max exchanged blows, each digging deeper and deeper into their energy reserve. Max's black eyes seemed to widen in size, and his body was filled with a dark glow. The fury that fueled his powers was spiraling all around him, slowly pushing the Max Evans aside and replacing the void with pure Zan. Khivar still had the upper hand, his power almost too great to believe, but with Michael standing beside Max, joining in the fight, the two sides were fairly evenly matched.
"You really are pathetic," Khivar mocked. "The Zan I knew was stronger than this. The Zan I knew didn't have to rely on backup from his General just to win a one-on-one fight. After all these years of fighting, killing you is going to be rather anti-climatic."
Max did not answer, just continued to focus all his attention on destroying the enemy who had brought so much pain and destruction into their lives.
Meanwhile, Tess was not faring as well. She had never been strong enough to stand against Nicolas, none of them had. He easily blocked her attacks and struck his own blows. So when he put his hands on either side of her head and prepared for the mind-rape, she had neither the energy nor the determination to keep him out of her mind.
"Oh…" she groaned in pain, struggling weakly to pull away.
"When this is all over, Nick, I'll meet up with you," Tess whispered, kissing her boyfriend on the cheek. "Enjoy Santa Fe."
"Promise me you will come," Nick answered, taking her hands in his own.
"Always."
"Interesting," Nicolas laughed as he roughly pulled the memories from her mind. "So you sent that darling boyfriend of yours and your son away, thinking it would keep them safe? Well, don't worry, I'll find them. Tell me, what else is in that brain of yours?"
"I'm sorry, Kyle," Tess breathed, tears making tracks down her pale skin. "I'm so sorry."
He held her gaze for a beat, then said emotionlessly, "That's not enough," and watched with no feeling in his eyes as Tess turned and rushed from the room.
"Oh… heartbreaking," Nicolas said sardonically, shaking his head. "Anything else to share, my Queen?"
"You're sick," Tess murmured, and as Liz spun to face her, she lifted defiant eyes and said firmly, "You are a liability as long as you're illness keeps you weak."
"You're a liability as long as your fear of the skins keeps you from being able to fight off their control," Liz shot back. Tess flinched, her eyes moving to Max in what was clearly a silent question of why did you tell her about that?, but Liz did not notice. "Isabel is a liability because of the Vilandra within her. We all have weakness, Tess, but we are in this together, and I am not going to let Max face Khivar alone."
"She's right," Michael muttered, shaking his head. "We're stronger as a group."
Max frowned, but seeing that he was outnumbered, he bowed his head with heavy resignation. "Fine. Liz can stay. The rest of you…"
"What about Kyle?" Michael demanded suddenly, giving the human a searching stare. "Max healed you as well. What are your powers?"
Kyle sneered in reply, "I never developed them. Guess I didn't turn into a freak like the rest of you."
"You all have some rather interesting weaknesses," Nicolas mused thoughtfully, dropping his hands and letting Tess fall to the floor in an exhausted heap. "Did you really think you could win against us? You're too terrified of killing again, your Vilandra is afraid of reverting to her past self, Zan's new wife is dying of cancer, and the human boy has no powers! You're all useless."
His words were cut off by Liz, who had crossed to Tess' side. The brunette glared at Nicolas before flicking her wrist at him and catching him off-guard with her assault. He fell backwards and Liz instantly knelt down and struggled to pull Tess back to a standing position.
"Come on," Liz ordered, her voice filled with determination, "this isn't over yet."
And it wasn't.
"Why are you fighting this?" Lonnie demanded as she parried blows with Isabel. "Don't you know this ain't the right life for you, sweetie?"
Isabel gasped for breath, but retorted fiercely, "I am nothing like you. I will never sell out my own brother or Michael just to please Khivar."
"But doll, we've got the same DNA," Lonnie countered. "You're exactly like me. Ain't that right?"
"No!"
"We both come from Vilandra. And she did sell out her brother. She did turn her back on her betrothed. She did let Ava die. What makes you think things will be any different for you?"
Isabel, momentarily forgetting her powers, reached over and slapped Lonnie. "Shut up!"
"What's the matter, precious?" Lonnie sneered. "Don't like admitting to the truth?"
"The truth," Isabel spat, her fingers curling into Lonnie's hair, "is that I love my family. More than anything. And you… you pathetic…" She yanked hard on her double's hair, pulling until Lonnie cried out in pain and hit her back. The dupe's hand collided with her cheek, splitting her lip.
Isabel spat the blood back into Lonnie's face.
Lonnie pushed her hard in the chest, knocking her to the ground. Then the dupe kicked her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and she curled into the fetal position, lungs frantically wheezing for oxygen. Twisting slightly, she caught sight of Max finally being overpowered by Khivar, who forced the hybrid King to his knees and knocked Michael unconscious with a single blow. Tess was leaning heavily against Liz, but Nicolas was advancing on them, his eyes glistening with triumph.
Kyle hovered in the background, unsure what to do.
"You're worthless," Khivar laughed, his eyes running over the group and landing finally on Kyle. "The only one left standing is a useless human. I never did like anti-climatic endings… but this will have to do." He turned to Tess. "You've been a thorn in my side for too long, Ava. I want that son of yours, and I know as long as you are alive you will stand in my way. So…" he paused, drawing out the statement to build the tension, "you'll be the first to die."
And then Kyle stepped forward. "I'm not useless," he said in a soft tone, although his words were underlined with pure steel.
Khivar laughed. "Little human, you haven't got any powers. Nicolas saw it in Ava's mind, and you must know she can't lie during a mind-rape."
"No, she can't," Kyle agreed. "You learned exactly what she believed to be true." His eyes narrowed and his voice raised just a little bit higher in volume. "But that still doesn't make it true. Because she's not the one who was lying."
And before anyone could even respond to the statement, Kyle lifted his hand and pointed it directly at the ceiling above Khivar. The ceiling exploded, huge chunks of stone and wood raining down upon them. Lonnie dove for cover, barely managing to get out of the way. Nicolas was struck on the back of the head and knocked out instantly. Max raised a shield, protecting himself, Michael, and Isabel, while Tess pulled Liz out of the way. Khivar was battered by several smaller stones, and though he dropped to his knees, dazed, he remained conscious.
"What…?" Liz gasped, shocked not only by the knowledge that Kyle had lied to them about not having powers, but also by the fact that he had learned how to control his so well that he could react to Khivar with such force and power. He had not gone to any of the aliens for help, which meant he had to have figured it all out on his own.
It was rather impressive, actually.
"That was stupid," Khivar snarled. "I might have let out daughter live, given that she is no threat to me. But if you want to join this war… well, I'll just have to kill your precious Emily. After I've gotten rid of you, of course."
"Stay away from my daughter!"
Khivar shook his head. "You signed her death warrant, human. It is your fault, not mine. And none of your little tricks can save her. Not anymore." He crawled back to his feet, still dazed. But still incredibly dangerous. "It's a pity, really, that you would sacrifice so much for people you don't even care about anymore."
Kyle and Tess locked gazes for a heartbeat, then Kyle answered, "I still care. I might hate them all, but I never stopped caring. That's what family is, that is what family does. But you will never understand that, will you? You'll never get why people you love deserve second chances."
He thought of Tess, of her wide blue eyes, frightened and filled with longing as she gazed at him. He thought of Jennifer, of her laugh and her smile and the way she managed to light up his life. He thought of Emily, the most important person in the world to him.
Forgiveness was not easy to give. But he was so tired of hating them.
And he was a father. There was nothing in the world he would not give for his daughter. Nothing at all.
"Giving me a lesson on emotions?" Khivar asked sarcastically. "When will you realize that human emotions are just a weakness? That they prevent you from surviving, from thriving. All that idiotic praise of love and sacrifice is just a pathetic way to make your species feel better about what is cannot do. Those emotions will kill you."
Kyle took a shaky breath as everything fell into jarring alignment, as it became clear what he needed to do. There was one way out of this, one way to ensure that Khivar never hurt his daughter or any of the other people that he loved ever again.
"You're right," Kyle answered. "Human emotion is a weakness. It is what will kill me." And then he moved, launching himself across the room. He grabbed Khivar by the collar of his shirt and slammed him back into the hotel wall. His eyes narrowed into slits of fury, but the fury did not quite cover the triumph that flashed through his face. "But it is also what is going to kill you."
And then he was surrounded by a brilliantly bright white light, a flash that momentarily blinded them all.
Khivar was too smart to lose any type of fight. He never showed his face unless he was sure he had the advantage, and often preferred to let others do his dirty work for him. Like many tyrants, he was a coward, terrified of what would happen if his faithful servants turned on him. He had instilled fear or loyalty in most of them, and was content in his ability to maintain the status quo. He did not bother to study anything he thought was weak, and so he could never fully comprehend just how far someone might be willing to go to protect a their own child. That type of love was far beyond his understanding.
And so he was not prepared for Kyle's actions. He was not prepared for the intensity of electricity and energy that left the human's body and filled the air around them. He was not prepared for the hands that held him tightly, preventing him from moving away from the heat. He was not prepared for the sacrifice he knew Kyle was making.
When the light finally faded, it was all over.
The skin King, the alien who could never have been killed in a simple fight, the enemy who had hunted them for decades, the one who had been almost unstoppable… he fell to the ground with the slightest of gasps, his eyes widened in surprise. He fell, just like anyone else, lifeless and unmoving, destroyed by the simple fact that he had never been able to understand humans.
But for Tess, the irony was not amusing. It was horrifying.
Because Kyle fell as well, the force of his attack draining his life. She rushed to his side, her blue eyes filling with tears that spilled down her cheeks even before she frantically began to search for a pulse.
He moved, his eyes focusing on her for a heartbeat.
"Forgive you," he whispered.
And even as Max rushed towards him, hand stretching out towards their fallen ally, Kyle's eyes glazed over in death. Too late, the healer King fell to his knees, trying to reconcile himself with everything that had just happened. Liz came to kneel beside him, pulling him into a tight hug as she rested her head on his shoulder and let the tears fall.
Tess buried her face in Kyle's unmoving chest, sobbing.
Only Michael and Isabel were left standing. Both looked around the destroyed lobby of the hotel, eyes frantically searching for the other two. But Lonnie and Nicolas were already gone.
Isabel suddenly shivered. "Michael?"
"Hm?"
"Do you… do you think this is… it?"
He looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"I just…" Isabel shook her head slowly, not quite able to explain. "I just have the weirdest sensation. Like… a feeling. A feeling that this isn't over yet."