Title: Details in the Fabric

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author's note: So very sorry for the delay. Real life caught up to me for a while, but I'm back now.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: War (part five)

Like an instrument for a song
Like the sun for tomorrow's dawn
Every moment of time's just an answer to find
What you're here for, what you breathe for
What you wake for, what you bleed for
What you hope for, what you live for

"Careful, Vail, careful!" the man said. He was anxious, his eyes betraying his anxiety. He paced worriedly, glancing every now and then at the other two, barking out orders that switched between admonishments for them to hurry and cries for them to be cautious.

It was clearly annoying the other two.

"Leave me be, Zorn, I know what I am doing. You are not a scientist," one of the men, Vail, said coolly.

"And you are not a soldier," Zorn answered heatedly. "We are still at war, and this…" he gestured wildly to the laboratory all around them, "is our only hope of survival."

"This is not just about survival," the other scientist murmured. "We are creating life, we are preserving the Royals essences. This is not even mere science…" He stared at the bottles of chemicals and Petri dishes of cells before him. "This is so much more than that."

"The Lady Courntey did not go to all the trouble of finding the two of you so that you could wax poetic," Zorn snapped. "She recommended you to the Queen Mother because you are supposedly the best at this particular bit of genetics." He squinted at the lab bench. "How much longer will this take?"

"A few days, perhaps."

Zorn snorted. "A few days," he grumbled, although in truth, it was far faster than he had expected. But they were working under pressure, and they could not afford any unnecessary delays.

Of course, they could not afford another mistake, either. The last attempt at creating the hybrids had not gone as well, and the clones that had been formed were clearly not fit to carry the DNA of the great Royals.

Zorn looked away, towards the walls that surrounded them. There were no windows here, nothing to let in natural light. And nothing to let the rest of the world know that this facility was being used. The project was being done entirely in secret, not even all of the Royalists new of it. There was still a war raging all around them, and if Khivar heard what they were doing…

That would be yet another mistake, and one they certainly could not allow to happen.

"Look in the microscope, Dar, and tell me what you see," Vail directed suddenly, nodding towards his colleague.

Dar obediently bent forward and peered through the lens, a smile gracing his features. "The cells are binding. Human and Antarian DNA. They are combining."

"Humans," Zorn sniffed, shaking his head in disgust. "I still do not see why we must use their DNA. Could we not take DNA from some other sentient being? One that is not so wasteful, so weak, so pathetically subpar?"

Vail smiled grimly. "Unfortunately, no. They must be born as children and have time to develop, to grow into adults. And they will not be able to do that unless they leave this solar system, and even this galaxy. We cannot risk having Khivar hear of their presence and find them before they are ready to fight back. This planet they call Earth is the safest place for them, and they cannot live on Earth and blend in with the native inhabitants unless they share DNA."

"But humans… how can we dilute the Royals' DNA with something so foul?" Zorn growled.

Vail nodded in agreement, but Dar looked up from the microscope and said mildly, "But you have not met a human."

"I have studied them," Zorn answered distastefully. "That was enough."

And it was enough. He did not need to meet a human to make up his mind about them. The knowledge he had gleaned from books and technology had been more than enough to convince him that he belonged to a far superior species.

Humans were so wasteful they did not even use all of their potential, all of their mental power!

"They are weak," he said, "and I do not like them."

Dar sighed. "Perhaps. But perhaps they are stronger than we realize. Perhaps they will surprise us all."

Maria hated this. Hated everything about this, about sitting here staring at computer screens, watching as the boy she loved and her best friend went rushing into danger. She was literally just watching, and when Michael had first suggested it she had thought maybe she could so some help, but she felt so useless.

They were facing Khivar.

They were facing Khivar.

Kristalia and Patrick were both dead, and God only knew how many others had been killed as well. And she didn't want them to die, but she also really care about any of them – and she knew just how horrible of a person that made her, to be so carelessly dismissing their deaths, but they weren't Liz or Michael, and that mattered to her.

It mattered a lot.

Still, she was a little afraid that it made her completely soulless to have felt relief every time someone else died instead of the people she cared about. And she was sitting there, hands clenched into fists, studying the computer screens and feeling so confused and so worried and so…

"Mr. Whitman, Ms. DeLuca."

Maria started, and spun around in her chair. Alex was on his feet behind her, and they both stared in surprise and a little bit of shock at the man who had appeared so suddenly and so silently that they had been caught unawares.

He was older than them, and dressed in a crisp black suit. His expression was bland, and his eyes were not focused on them, but rather on the computer screens. His gaze kept flicking back and forth between the different screens, studying them. And there was something about him that gave Maria the impression that he was assessing the battle… and that he had seen battles before.

It was Alex who spoke first, which was probably a good thing because Maria wasn't sure she would be able to find her voice any time soon.

"Who are you?"

"Not important," the man replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a badge. He held it up for them to see, and Maria felt her heart plummet into her chest.

FBI.

"Do you have a way of contacting your friends?" the FBI agent asked, nodding at the computer.

Maria reached automatically for the earpiece she was wearing, and the FBI's eyes caught her movement. A satisfied smile lit up his face, and he nodded.

Maria and Alex exchanged a brief look.

"It would probably be in their best interest if you were to inform those you care about to exit the compound," the FBI agent said quietly. "And quickly." He looked down at the watch on his wrist. "You have twenty minutes."

"Until what?" Maria demanded, finally remembering to speak.

The FBI agent looked up and met her gaze without any emotion. "Until we take care of things the human way."

Liz looked up just in time to see Isabel's hands connect with Khivar's face. The tall blonde raked her fingers across Khivar's skin, drawing blood. It was such a futile move – how could fingernails do much damage to someone as powerful as the skin king – but it seemed to take Khivar by surprise.

"Khivar!" Max snarled, pushing himself away from the attacking skins and stumbling towards his sister and the skin king. Liz wanted to scream out to him, to tell him not to be stupid, not to draw attention to himself. But Khivar was fighting his sister, and Max wasn't going to sit out on the sidelines.

Liz knew that much.

She struggled to reach his side. There were several more skins coming into the room from the gaping holes in the wall, but Liz could hear footsteps above them and hoped that meant that their allies were coming to their aid.

"Leave her alone," Max snarled, raising his hands and sending bursts of white energy at Khivar. "Your fight is with me."

Khivar waved a hand carelessly and dissipated the attack while still focusing on Isabel. "Actually," he said, "my fight is with all of you. But don't worry, I'll do your sister a favor and kill her quickly."

And he backhanded Isabel. There must have been some sort of power in his attack, Liz thought idly, because Isabel went flying across the room and landed in a heap on the floor several feet away from them.

"Izzy!" Liz heard Michael scream.

Liz spared Isabel a quick glance, long enough to ensure that the hybrid Princess was still alive. Isabel crawled to her hands and knees and Liz turned her attention back Max. He had somehow fought his way through the room and was standing in front of Khivar. His eyes shone with disgust and repulsion, and his anger was close to boiling over.

Michael was helping Isabel to her feet and Tess was somehow holding her own against the several skins that were facing her, and Liz found herself stumbling forward, practically tripping over her feet. She looked down and saw that the ground was covered in broken cement and without thinking she leaned over and picked up a piece of rubble.

Someone grabbed her arm and she spun around and slammed the heavy cement into the chest of the person attacking her.

The skin took a few steps backwards, twisting and slipping along the floor to keep his footing, and Liz threw the rock at him, shattering his husk.

He turned into pieces of skin, into dust.

Liz felt suddenly sick. They had been fighting and she had probably killed in the chaos, but this skin had just… before her very eyes, he had…

She couldn't even think the words.

"Max!"

She heard Tess yell out a warning and spun around in time to see Khivar knock Max to the ground. Khivar stood there, a cold smirk on his face, completely uncaring. There was triumph and glee, and it was so bitter and so vicious, and Liz felt pure rage.

Khivar was going to kill Max, and he was laughing about it.

Then Isabel was there, grabbing Khivar by the arm and dragging him away from Max. She raised both hands and telekinetically shoved him into the wall and held him there, but it only took Khivar a moment to break free. He fell, but landed fairly gracefully on his hands and feet amidst the rubble.

Liz ran to Max's side.

He was bleeding badly from a wound on his head and there were several bruises along his face and neck. She had no idea how he had gotten so badly hurt in such a short period of time, but his eyes were glazed over in pain and she looked up and Khivar and threw out her hand without even thinking.

The same green energy that had appeared when she had attacked Courtney was there again, morphing into electricity and crackling up and down the length of her arm. Her anger was bubbling over, causing her to act without thinking, to do things she didn't even know how to do. She just wanted to keep the people she loved safe.

The electricity hit Khivar in the chest and it should have been enough to stop him, to at least slow him down. He didn't have time to raise a shield to defend himself, but while the electricity struck him fully, it did little more than make him stumble.

He was too strong.

"Max!"

Alex's voice was ringing in her ears, and she stopped for a moment, surprised. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Isabel do the same, surprised by the panic in Alex's tone.

"You need to get out of the compound. Now!"

"What? Why?" Liz heard Michael demanding. She twisted around and looked at him, and for a moment, their eyes met.

Then Isabel was screaming, "Liz, look out!" and Michael was extending his hand in her direction. She looked up as Khivar loomed over her, a manic grin on his face, and then Michael's power hit him fully, knocking him back several steps.

"You have twenty minutes to get out of the compound and get as far away from it as possible!" Alex was still shouting in her ear. His words were reaching her, the four hybrids, and Ahab, and the scene was rapidly dissolving into even more chaos.

Max blinked a few times, pushing away the pain that clouded his vision, and fought to climb to his hands and knees. Liz was still holding into him with one hand, and she started at his movement.

"Why do we need to leave?" Max asked hoarsely.

"I don't know. The… the FBI, they said…" Alex's voice answered, fading slightly at the end.

Max stumbled to his feet.

"Still fighting back, Zan?" Khivar sneered, and Liz found herself having trouble paying attention to the skin king and Alex at the same time.

Michael and Tess were fighting towards them, and Isabel was already there.

"Don't worry, though. You won't be fighting much longer. I'll kill you and your pathetic human love."

Max stepped forward, one hand stretched out in front of him, power rippling up and down the length of his arm. The air grew hot and humid and filled with energy like the night sky right before a summer thunderstorm and Liz turned to look at Max. And gasped.

His eyes were completely black.

"Well, well, well," Khivar drawled. "Look who finally decided to play. You know everything would be a lot easier if you just gave in to the inevitable."

Max brought both his hands together in front of him, and Liz watched in horrified fascination as he channeled a continual stream of shimmering electricity down his arms. It crackled at his fingertips and jumped into the air, exploding towards Khivar.

Khivar retaliated with an attack of his own, but somehow Max seemed unharmed. His black eyes seemed to widen in size, and his body was nearly glowing. The fury that fueled his powers was spiraling all around him, and Liz knew – somehow, and she wasn't quite sure how she knew that – that Max Evans was disappearing, to be replaced by pure Zan.

She didn't like Zan. He'd been arrogant and dismissive, and had seemed to care only for Tess and Michael. Even Isabel had been treated with coldness, and everyone had been treated as though they were second-best.

But Zan was clearly powerful.

Then Michael struck out with his power as well, and Liz noticed the darkness in his eyes. He wasn't fully Rath yet, but he was giving into his alien half, allowing that personality and that power to break free and join Max in the fight.

Maria had confided in Liz that Michael had been afraid of Rath, of the type of person he had been in a past life. How would this change Michael?

Would either of them be able to come back?

"Guys? Guys, did you hear me? Get out!" Alex's voice echoed in Liz's ear.

"We heard you," Tess said sharply. "Now shut up."

Liz could literally feel Alex bristling at the command, but he said nothing. And although Liz felt a wave of annoyance at Tess' tone, she couldn't blame the other girl for being on edge. They couldn't listen to Alex, fight Khivar, and find a way out all in the next twenty minutes.

At this point, she thought idly, they were probably down to fifteen.

Khivar had turned to face Isabel. There were now several skins between Liz, Max, Michael, and Khivar and Isabel. Liz blinked and couldn't quite figure out how that had happened.

"You are Vilandra, my dear," Liz heard Khivar say as he and Isabel exchanged blows. "And she did sell out her brother and her betrothed. What makes you think you can really be any different?"

"Shut up!" Isabel snarled, punching Khivar in the face with all her strength. "I love my family. More than anything. And you… you pathetic…" She hit Khivar again, splitting his lip.

He tossed her aside like a ragdoll.

"Isabel!" Tess screamed, and ran to her side.

"Get away from my sister!" Max or Zan or whoever he was snarled.

"The sister who betrayed you?" Khivar laughed cruelly. "Is that the sister you are so desperate to save? Pathetic, all of you."

"You're the one who is pathetic," Tess spat. "You don't understand, do you? You never will. You'll never get why people you love deserve second chances. You think being human is a weakness? You think emotions are a weakness?"

"I'll kill you," Khivar said angrily. "And your stupid human friends. You are a waste of perfectly good flesh, and the parasitic species on this planet is nothing at all."

Max flung him into the far wall. "Get up," he snarled. "Get up and fight me, you coward. You killed me once by using Ava against me. Fight fairly this time, Khivar. Fight me."

"What difference will that make?" Khivar laughed. "Even with all four of you," he paused, eyes moving over Liz, and said contemptuously, "five of you… you still can't win. You can't stop me. You aren't powerful enough."

And he strode forward without hesitation, ignoring Isabel and Tess and even Michael.

He grabbed Liz and pulled her forward, his fingers wrapping around her throat. Fear filled her chest, and she struggled for oxygen. His hands were hot, and her throat felt as though it was burning, but she wasn't sure if it was because he was strangling her or because his hands were actually on fire.

Her vision was darkening, blackness encroaching quickly. Spots and then darkness and she could barely breathe…

Light exploded everywhere around her and she fell to her knees, suddenly released from Khivar's grasp. Her body hit the ground hard, sending waves of pain through her bones. She gasped, then tasted blood in her mouth and realized she had bitten down on her tongue. Her ears were ringing and her vision was blurred and she was struggling, trying to get as much oxygen as possible.

Everything was bright white. The light was searing into her eyes, and she shut them tight, trying to block out the brightness. It took a moment for her brain to kick in, to remind her that they were fighting and she couldn't lie on the floor with her eyes shut while the battle raged around her.

She forced open her eyes.

Khivar was lying on the floor next to her. There was red electricity traveling up and down the length of his body. Max, Michael, Tess, and Isabel were all standing above Khivar, their hands outstretched, palms glowing. It took Liz a moment to comprehend, to realize that all four of them must have attacked Khivar at the moment that the skin king had tried to kill her.

She tried to pull herself to her feet, but her hands slid over the floor and she stumbled forward, falling against the rubble. Jagged edges of stone sliced through the palm of her skin, drawing blood, and she winced in pain.

Then she closed her hand over the rock and struck Khivar across the head with it. The force of the blow sent reverberations up and down her arm.

The electricity stopped, and Khivar's eyes glazed over.

He was dead.

Tess lowered her hand, breaking the connection that had appeared between the four of them, and then said dryly, "That was anti-climatic."

"You have five minutes to get out of there!" Alex suddenly yelled in their ears.

Liz stared down at Khivar's body. It was crumbling, the skin falling apart, turning into dusk. She was still holding the rock in her hand, the rock that had killed Khivar.

She'd killed him. Like she'd killed the other skin. Like she'd probably killed several skins during this battle.

But Khivar… she'd killed him with her hands.

Max was kneeling at her side, pulling her to her feet, dragging her from the room. There was chaos everywhere and she was dimly aware of the skins closing in on them, filled with fury and rage, and Alex's voice was still echoing in her ears.

Five minutes to get out.

Next Chapter: In the Wake of a War

Due: Now