Title: Time After Time

Disclaimer: I don't own anything


Chapter Fifty-Two: In the Sewers

Max held his breath and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to control his frayed nerves. "I can't believe I am doing this," he muttered under his breath, sending a glare towards Tess. But she wasn't looking at him and hadn't heard his words, so she did not react.

The hybrid king squared his shoulders and walked back into the meeting room, moving towards Nicolas with more confidence than he felt. But he had agreed to distract the skin somehow so that Tess could have a private conversation with Ava, and this seemed like the only way to do it.

"Made a decision?" Nicolas asked as Max approached.

"My twenty minutes aren't over yet," Max answered. "And I had a couple questions for you. If you don't mind…?" He gestured towards the corner of the room, lowering her voice as he explained, "I'd rather not have our conversation overheard."

Nicolas shrugged and followed Max away from the table, from the other leaders. "What do you want to know?" he questioned, his tone curious.

"Will it work?" Max asked.

Nicolas raised an eyebrow. "Will what work?"

"Will people actually stop fighting?" Max asked. "If I were to agree to your plans, would it work? Would the civil war end?"

"With a reconciliation between governments…" Nicolas began, but Max cut him off.

"We've been gone for over fifty years. Is the war even about us anymore?" Nicolas frowned, and Max pressed, "Look, we both know that people don't stop fighting just because their government tells them to. Do you really think that my presence will be enough to convince them to turn to peace?"

"I think you have a lot more power over your followers than you realize," Nicolas answered cautiously. "I think…" He stopped, reconsidering his words. "I think it is the best chance you have at ending this war."

Max accepted this in silence. Nicolas' opinion meant little to him, particularly given that he knew the skin could not be trusted. But he was intrigued by the answer, and he carefully dissected the words, pulling them apart and looking for hidden meanings.

Finally, he asked, "And the other worlds?"

Nicolas gave a dark chuckle. "So you don't think highly of them either, do you?" he asked with sneer, his gaze flicking over to Larek and Kathana who were deep in conversation. "They'll force their agreements on us, make us smile and sign their contracts… but don't worry. Once Antar is united, we will have no problem pushing their influence back. They'll get what they deserve."

His words were harsh, cold, and brutal. His eyes were filled with triumph at the thought, and that sent chills down Max's spine. It made Nicolas appear so inhuman, so vicious… but more than that, it worried Max, because he could not deny he felt the same vindictive pleasure at the idea of turning the tables on the four planets that had so calmly sat back and let his world fall apart.

He did not like the idea that he and Nicolas might actually agree on this.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ava follow Tess from the room. He glanced down at his watch… thirteen minutes left before he had to make a decision.

And at this point, he had no idea what that decision would be.


"You wanted to talk. So talk," Ava instructed bluntly, facing Tess with her arms crossed over her chest. It was clear that she felt no fear of the other hybrid, but then, Tess did not feel fear either. It was hard to imagine that they would hurt each other, given that they were, biologically, the same person.

Of course, Rath and Michael were the same person also, and Tess was beginning to think there was very little Rath wouldn't do to get what he wanted.

"Why are you doing this?" Tess asked, trying to keep the accusation out of her voice. "Why are you on Nicolas' side?"

"Why are siding with Rath and Lonnie?" Ava asked in reply, her own blue eyes narrowed sharply. "Do you really think they care about you or Antar more than Nicolas does?"

"Why do you hate them so much?" Tess countered.

Ava bit back a laugh and turned away from Tess, walking further down the hallway. "You can't tell?" she asked. "It isn't blatantly obvious to you?" Glancing at Tess over her shoulder, she added, "What are your Rath and Lonnie like?"

Tess shrugged. "Michael is a monosyllabic, semi-abrasive, emotionally stunted teenage guy. Isabel is a scarily-organized, uptight, planning freak." She smiled, her lips quirking upwards as she silently imagined Michael and Isabel's outraged replies to her descriptions of them, but then pushed the thought away and continued, "I'm guessing you would use different adjectives to describe Rath and Lonnie?"

Ava grimaced and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I would." She turned back to face Tess completely. "You really have no problems joining forces with Rath or Lonnie?"

"Tell me about them," Tess retorted, "because I don't know enough about them to make my own decision. I've got suspicions, but not a whole lot else."

"And you want me to help you?" Ava scoffed. "In case you haven't noticed, we're not on the same side. Not right now. And maybe we never were."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tess demanded.

"It means you seem pretty close with your Zan," Ava answered coolly.

Tess blinked, surprised. "Max? I guess. I mean, he's okay when he isn't brooding over the weight of the world resting on his shoulders or making a fool of himself pining for Liz…"

That caught Ava's attention, and blue eyes opened wide. "Liz?" she asked, repeating the name.

Warning bells went off in Tess' mind, accompanied by flashing red lights, sirens, and large signs saying Danger! Proceed with Caution. "His girlfriend," she answered carefully, watching the several different emotions flickering in her counterpart's suddenly aching gaze.

"You're not…" Ava gestured wordlessly back towards the meeting room. "You two aren't a… a couple?"

"Max and I?" Tess asked, aghast. "No. God, no. Not even close." She shuddered, remembering the brief time that Max had been dominated entirely by his alien half, remembering all the problems that had caused. "Liz can have him, I'll stick with my boyfriend."

"You're dating someone else…" Ava murmured, looking shocked. "And Max… he's okay with that? He let you leave him?"

That was all it took. Just that simple, quiet question, just the look of fear and hope mingling in Ava's eyes, and the tiniest bit of envy to her tone. Nothing else was needed, and the pieces of the puzzle were coming together in Tess' mind, forming a picture that was sharp and bright and filled with things she did not want to contemplate. Her suspicions grew, becoming concrete, and in Ava's gaze, she found all the evidence she needed to know far more than she had ever wanted to about Zan.

"Ava… what was Zan like?" Tess asked softly, her low voice lined with steel.

She did not answer. Her pale skin had gone even whiter, and her eyes were so wide, so filled with innocent hope, that they contrasted sharply against the heavy makeup and gaudy jewelry.

Tess narrowed her eyes at Ava's neck, seeing there, at the base of the throat, almost entirely concealed with make-up, the faint outline of an old bruise.

"It doesn't matter," Ava said at last, her words forced out of her dry throat. "Maybe your Max is a saint. It doesn't matter. Rath and Lonnie…" She stopped, shook her head, looked away. "You are siding with them. And that makes you my enemy."

She moved around Tess, stepping past the other girl in an effort to return to the meeting room. Tess reached out and grabbed her arm, and the moment their skin touched, the Roswell hybrid was thrown crashing into a flash.

"Where were you?" Zan demanded harshly, advancing on Ava.

The meek blonde tried to back away, but Lonnie was directly behind her, preventing her from moving. She felt the other girl's fingers tightening around her arms, pushing her forward again, towards Zan.

"Out," she whispered. "Just… out."

"Out?" Zan sneered, his face flushing with anger. "Out where? With who?"

"No one," Ava pleaded, begging for him to believe her. "I just wanted to walk."

Zan loomed over her, eyes flashing dangerously. She bit her lip, desperately wishing she could close her eyes and make this all go away. But nothing would ease Zan's anger, not now that he was so livid because of her disappearance.

Lonnie's hands fell from Ava's arms, but were almost instantly replaced by Zan's painfully tight grip. She fought back the urge to pull away, knowing it would only make him angrier.

"Just a walk?" she heard Lonnie said contemptuously. "Well, ain't that sweet."

"Did I tell you that you could leave?" Zan asked in a low tone. Ava said nothing, and he shook her, hard. "Did I?" he asked again, his voice rising in volume. "Answer me!"

"No," she murmured, barely able to push the word past her terrified lips. "No… Zan… I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"In fact, I told you to stay," Zan continued, speaking over her quiet words. "Ain't that right? Didn't I say that, Ava?"

She nodded, tears pooling in her eyes. "Yes… I'm sorry, Zan."

His expression was cold, unemotional, as he replied, "That's alright, Ava. If you ain't willin' to spend time with me, fine." Then, without warning, he shoved her forcefully backwards. She would have lost her footing on the slick ground under her feet, but two arms wrapped firmly around her, holding her upright.

She froze.

"But someone has to keep you safe," Zan continued. "If you don't want it to be me…" he shrugged. "Fine."

Lonnie moved to stand by Zan, a smirk forming on her lips at the sight of the fear in Ava's eyes. Ava twisted to look up, meeting Rath's malicious gaze as the taller hybrid's arms tightened around her.

"No…" she whispered, but Zan and Lonnie had already turned away from her. "No… I don't… Zan, please, I want to… I'll stay with you, please… don't… don't go…"

Zan did not even bother looking back.

"Tess? Tess!"

She opened her eyes as the flash faded, the memory disappearing. Relief flooded through her body, she had not wanted to see the end of that flash she knew exactly what was going to happen.

She was on the floor, slumped back against the wall, and Max was kneeling beside her, concern and worry reflected in his tawny eyes. Ava was no where in sight.

"Tess? Are you alright?" Max asked, his hands hovering next to her shoulders. "Are you hurt?"

She pushed his hands away and rose unsteadily to her feet. "I'm fine, Max," she said in a shaky voice. "No need for healing."

"What happened?" Max asked, moving closer to her as he stood up as well. "What did Ava say?"

Tess licked her dry lips. "Don't take the deal," she whispered.

He looked at her, surprised. "What? Why?"

She knew he had almost made up his mind to accept Nicolas' terms. He did not want to leave his planet in the hands of his enemy, nor did he want to allow the leaders of the other four worlds to do any more damage than they already had. Only by returning home could he prevent that from happening.

But she had seen the truth about Rath and Lonnie and she knew now, "You can't side with them, Max. Rath and Lonnie… they can't be trusted. You can't give them power."

"Nicolas can't be trusted either," Max countered. "If I don't take this deal…"

"No," Tess said. She ran a hand through her hair and glanced back the way Ava had gone. "Is Nicolas could do this without you, he never would have agreed to this meeting. Ava isn't enough. He wants you to think that she is, he's trying to trick you, to manipulate you into taking this deal. Make you think that if you don't, he can still take control of Antar."

"Are you sure?" Max asked.

She nodded slowly. "I don't know how I know this, Max, but I do. It's not… Nicolas needs you to go back. If you don't…" She trailed off and shrugged. "It won't be over. Ava isn't enough."


"I've made my decision."

All eyes were on Max as he rose to his feet and addressed the others. Sero and Nicolas both looked grimly triumphant, and Sero simply looked mildly curious. Kathana was waiting with anticipation, and next to her, Larek shifted uncomfortably, his expression unreadable.

"And the answer," Max continued, "is no. I will no abdicate my throne, nor will I publically give power back to Khivar. And I most certainly will not return the Granolith to him. Not now, not ever. It was entrusted to me."

Nicolas flushed darkly, anger sparking in his eyes. "If you turn down this offer now, you will never get another chance," he snarled threateningly. "Khivar is trying to be reasonable, has offered the hand of peace, and you slap it away so carelessly?"

"What are you doing?" Lonnie demanded angrily, leaning towards Max. "What is wrong with you?" At her side, Rath, too, seemed incensed by the decision. Carla, as usual, was impassive, but Max detected a faint glimmer of frustration in her pale green eyes.

Max ignored her as he faced Nicolas. "Take Ava and go home, Nicolas."

"Did you ever wonder why your predecessor was killed, Max?" Nicolas asked bitterly. "He made a lot of bad decisions. Like you."

"You've made a lot of enemies today," Kathana added softly, giving Max a long look.

He met her gaze without flinching. "I already had a lot of enemies, Kathana. My decision changed nothing." He let his gaze wander over them for a moment, then turned to Nicolas and said, "But do not worry. You can assure Khivar that this war is far from over."


The return to the sewers had been filled with tense silence, Rath, Lonnie, and Carla clearly displeased by Max's decision. Tess had watched the other three with wary eyes, but Max had been far too busy mulling over the decision he had made to pay much attention to anything else.

It was not just Rath and Lonnie he had prevented from returning home. It was Michael and Isabel as well. And he had done it without asking them, without even telling them what had happened. He wondered what they would say if they knew.

Isabel would probably not be too upset about the lost opportunity. She had never really felt the same desire to return home, not the way Michael had. But Michael… he might not be too thrilled at all.

The silence was finally broken as Rath turned to face Max with a hoarse demand, "What the hell, duke? You just lost our chance to get off this planet!"

Lonnie chimed in with her own bitter accusation, "What about us? What if we wanted to go?" She gestured to herself and Rath.

"It was my decision," Max answered coolly. Tess still had not told him what Ava had said to her or what she had seen in that flash, but the fear in her expression had been enough to tell him that Rath and Lonnie were not only not trustworthy, but they were also loathsome.

"It affected all of us!"

"We can find another way home," Max answered, silently adding to himself that whatever this other way home was, it would not include either of the dupes. "Nicolas cannot be trusted."

"How do you know that? What do you even know about him, huh?" Rath snapped, walking up to Max and glaring at him. "What ain't you been tellin' us?"

With a sneer, Max replied, "What have you been not telling me, Rath? Besides Ava obviously being alive…"

Tess took a few steps towards him, discreetly placing herself in a position to intervene if need be. Across from her, Lonnie stiffened and watched as Rath drew himself up to his full height, eyes burning with fury. Once again, Carla remained quiet, unemotional, standing back as the scene unfolded before her.

The floor beneath Max's feet was damp, the ceiling overhead covered in a pale green mold. The sewers were the last place he had expected to end up when he first started this trip, but he was beginning to think that perhaps it was a fitting abode for Rath and Lonnie after all.

"I thought Ava was dead," Rath spat, jerking his chin upwards. "You wanna know the truth, duke? That little Queen of ours, she'd be better off dead. Ditching us for the enemy. If she didn't have that Nicolas' protection, I'd have gone and offed her at the meeting m'self."

"Is that so?" Tess asked bitingly, her words hard. "And here I thought you would have wanted to keep her around… for fun."

Rath and Lonnie both gave her surprised looks, and Lonnie's stare held a fair amount of suspicion as well. Max frowned, wishing he could interpret the hidden meanings in gazes. It was obvious that Tess' comment had meant something to Rath and Lonnie, and they were not happy with what she knew.

Rath turned forcefully away from her and looked back at Max. "So what now, duke? You want me and Lonnie to spend the rest of our lives in the sewer waiting for you to finally grow a backbone and do what you gotta do?"

"Hey, if you want to leave the sewers, you are more than welcome to do so," Max replied with a shrug. "You can live wherever you want. But we are not going home until I say we are."

"God, you are so much like Zan," Lonnie spat, blotches of color appearing on her cheeks. "Throwin' your weight around, pretendin' to be all high and mighty… You ain't nothin', Max. You're just another teenager. Like me and Rath. You ain't special."

"Trust me," Tess said in a low tone, her blue eyes flashing with a mixture of anger and disgust, "Max is nothing like your Zan." She stepped in between Rath and Max, placing her hands on Rath's chest and shoving him backwards. "And I'm not like your Ava. So back off."

"Or you'll what, Queenie?" Rath asked harshly, mockingly. "You gonna take me and Lonnie on all by your pretty little self?"

Max quickly placed his hand on Tess' arm to stop her from answering that question. They could not afford to start a fight right now, not when they would be at such a disadvantage. They did not know the sewers as well as Rath and Lonnie did, and they did not know if Carla was on their side. If this turned violent, one of them could get hurt.

"Leave her out of this," Max ordered. "Your problem is with the decision I made."

But it seemed both Rath and Lonnie had also realized that they had the advantage here, and neither was willing to back down.

"You know," Rath said with a leer, "things happen in the sewers. People just disappear… never to be seen again…"

"Is that a threat?" Max asked. "Don't be an idiot. You will never get anywhere without me."

"You're right," Lonnie agreed softly, "we won't." Her eyes flicked quickly to Tess and she added, "Your precious Tess, on the other hand… she is superfluous."

Anger rushed through Max's body, filling his veins and wrapping around his chest. Any threat to his family would have been enough to send him over the edge, but now, with the stress of the meeting already chewing away at his rapidly growing temper, he found himself absolutely livid.

"I told you to leave her out of this," Max snarled.

"Enough," a new voice cut in, and Carla stepped between them. Rath made an attempt to move around her, and, quick as she could, she spun around and caught him by the collar of his shirt, yanking him from the floor and sending him flying into the nearby sewer wall.

He sprawled out on the ground, stunned by her actions.

"I said, enough," she repeated, her tone clearly indicating that there would be no arguing with her. "You both need to take a few minutes to cool off, and then you can talk about this like rational adults."

"I think you're asking too much of them," Lonnie snapped. "They're not rational, and they sure as hell aren't adults."

Max took a threatening step towards her, but Carla caught him by the arm and hissed in warning, "Don't make me throw you into a wall as well."

"Who are you to tell us anything?" Rath demanded fiercely, pulling himself to his feet and looking at the rebel skin. "You ain't a royal, that's for sure. You don't get to call the shots."

"Neither do you," Max cut in firmly. "This is my decision, my call."

A dangerous fury flashed through Rath's expression, and he moved forward, lifting his hand and pointing it at the ceiling above Max. The stone cracked, a sharp noise snapping through the air, and debris came raining down. Max jumped to the side, landing heavily and rolling across the slick ground as the stone shattered in the place he had been standing only moments before.

Gasping for breath, Max retaliated quickly, unleashing a burst of energy towards Rath. The air around him crackled with the force of his power, and Rath was only just able to move out of the way in time. He conjured an attack of his own, prepared to throw it at Max, when something hit him from behind, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Max looked past Rath's still body to find Carla standing there, her hand glowing with eerie white dots, her green eyes looking remarkably inhuman.

Then Max continued to let his gaze sweep through the sewers, and, for a moment, panic gripped him and his heart nearly stopped beating.

Tess and Lonnie were nowhere to be seen.


Next Chapter: By Your Side, At Your Back

Due: Sun 5/24