Disclaimer: Roswell, and its characters do not belong to me. Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and 20th Century Fox have that particular pleasure. If I was lucky enough to own them, you just know the show would still be on the air, and you'd be watching that instead of reading this.

Rating: PG-13 to R for inappropriate language and some violence.

Chapter Twenty-Six Homecoming

Liz landed with a bump in the small hidden tunnel room they had used for meetings when they first came to Antar. Secreted under the Training Academy, it provided them with access to the city proper, as well as a place to plan, strategize and just relax.

She looked around the small room, smiling slightly at the memories that filled her mind. They had come back to Antar several times to visit, but Liz had never returned to their small sanctuary before now. Several cans of chicken noodle soup were stacked in a small pyramid in the corner, remnants of the food supplies their parents had sent when they were fighting Kivar.

Idly, she picked up the sign that Ava and Alex had made that read Antarian Eraser Room. How they laughed when they had first seen the sign. It was one of the many times they had relied on humor to get them through a bleak situation. She sat down on one of the dilapidated chairs and waited for Max and the others to arrive.

A scraping noise in the tunnel alerted Liz to potential danger, and she dove behind one of the chairs, and held her breath, waiting

"Searching here is a waste of time," a voice echoed from the bowels of the tunnel. "They wouldn't come back here, even the Royal Family isn't that stupid."

"Lord Kivar said to search, so we search," responded another voice. "What we think doesn't matter. In fact, if you want to stay alive, you'll forget about thinking, and concentrate on following orders."

"Fine," the first voice grumbled. "I'll go up and check it out, you wait here."

Liz drew herself into a small ball, and tried to control her quaking limbs. Fear coursed through her body, causing her teeth to chatter. She bit down on her lip, trying to still the chattering, and struggled to relax her mind enough to mind warp the soldier into not seeing her.

Please, God, she prayed. Do not let Max and the others show up now.

She peered around the side of the chair and watched as the guard came into view. He made a cursory search of the small room, never once noticing the huddled shape of Liz hiding by the chair. Liz waited anxiously, hardly daring to breath until she was certain he, and his companion were gone. After several minutes had passed, she allowed herself to relax. She stood up; her limbs so shaky they could barely support her, and drew a deep breath.

"I don't think I can go through this again," she whispered to the empty room. Even as the words passed her lips, she knew they were untrue. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do to help her friends.

A slight tremor alerted her to the fact that the others were arriving, and one by one, Max, Michael, Kyle, Isabel and Cal appeared. Cal looked more than a bit shaken up at this new method of travel.

"Remind me never to complain about space travel again," he said removing the belt as quickly as he could. "That was absolutely horrific."

"Liz, are you okay?" Max said, quickly moving to stand next to his wife.

"Yeah, but we probably shouldn't stay here too long," Liz responded. "You just missed a couple of Kivar's men searching for us."

"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Max asked.

"Right, Max, the big bad soldiers came in here, found a member of the Royal Family, and just left her here," said Kyle. "Stop thinking like a husband and think like a soldier why don't ya."

"Sorry," Max said, his voice sheepish. "That was rather lame of me. Kyle, what are you doing?" he asked when he noticed his friend was removing a section of shelving they had installed on the wall.

"You'll see," Kyle said. He pulled the shelving off the wall and revealed a hidden door. He opened the door and reached in and pulled out several rolled sheets of paper, a several backpacks, a large crate, and a small white box.

"What's all that?" Michael asked, pointing at the pile.

"These are maps of all the tunnels, and passageways under the city," said Kyle. "As well as complete architectural plans of the palace. This contains more transport belts, as well as several prototypes of weapons that Zan's people were working on. And these," he said, hefting the backpacks are Antarian clothing."

"Good thinking," Cal commented. "But why weapons? We've never used weapons."

"And that's exactly why Zan decided to have some of his science and technology people work on some prototypes," Max explained. "We certainly weren't looking to fight, but if we had to, we wanted more on our side than just the fire power our bodies could generate."

"I'm impressed," Cal said, grudgingly. "You certainly planned your mini arsenal well."

"Yeah, well, it was actually Michael's idea," said Kyle. "He got everything. I was just in charge of finding a place to hide it in case we ever needed it."

"I'd forgotten about that," said Michael.

"So did I," Kyle admitted. "Until I saw the shelves, then I remembered." He knelt down and busied himself removing clothing from the packs and passing them to Isabel. She, in turn laid them on the various pieces of furniture.

"Kyle, what's that in the box?" Liz asked, as she spread the maps out on the table.

"Box, oh, uh, what box," said Kyle.

"Kyle, don't tell me," said Isabel, trying to contain her laughter.

"Okay, fine, they're Ho Ho's, okay? I stashed a box in case of emergency. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Am I missing something here?" Cal asked Liz.

"Not really," Liz said, smiling. "It's just that Kyle's love of Ho Ho's is legendary. Him stashing a box here is just typical.

Cal stepped back and watched the interaction between the five as they unpacked and studied the various maps. They were an intriguing contradiction, a blend of child and warrior. Watching them plan, he was starting to believe that they might have a chance after all.