Disclaimer – I don't own anything.
To scienceficfan24 – Hey! Thanks for your review on Missing Scenes! I'm very glad to be back and I'm so glad you like my other stories so much! I hope you like this one as well!
AN – So, this fic came to me a while ago when I started thinking, what if Karen didn't die in season 3 and was alive in season 4. This story probably will have some similarities with my other story Will to Survive, but it's not exactly like it and I will try to keep it original. Please review and
Enjoy!
In the dark of the night, the citizens of Charleston walked down a dirt road through the trees away from the city. After destroying the tower in Boston and letting the rest of the Volm onto earth, the humans fighting the Espheni for their planet came to a harsh discovery. The Volm were not planning on fighting with them. In fact, they wanted to do all the fighting and viewed that their help was not at all needed and wanted to relocate them to Brazil away from the war.
With Cochise's help, they managed to get away from the city and his species who wanted to move them before that could happen. Now, though it was late in the night, probably passed midnight, the group continued walking, trying to put as much distance as they could the Volm. Ben was in the front, making sure the way was clear of any Espheni, Tom and Matt were close behind him, and further back was Hal with Maggie, who was been looking over at him consistently once they had left the city.
"What?" Hal finally asked, wanting to know why she kept glancing over at him and why she was smiling.
"Just the smell of fresh pine. It's good to get out city. It gets my blood flowing." Maggie responded light-heartedly. While it was nice to hear Maggie's happy tone, Hal knew what the real reason was, and it wasn't the smell of the outdoors. Or at least, not just that.
"It's not the mountain air. It's the fact that you think the war is going to go on." Hal said, his own voice a little hard.
"You think you want it to end, but trust me Hal. You wouldn't cut it in a split-level house. Spending your weekend trimming hedges and weeding flowerbeds. You'd go stark raving mad." Maggie told him, voice full of confidence. Hal was thinking of his reply when Pope came up behind them.
"She's right kid. Compared to the quiet desperation of the suburbs, I'd say an alien apocalypse is paradise on Earth." The criminal cut into their conversation, and again, Hal had to resist the urge to punch the man in the face.
It didn't take much from Pope for anyone to get annoyed or angry with him. The man could rile up anyone he met within minutes of meeting them with his sarcastic comments and insults, but that wasn't why he was getting on Hal's nerves. It was the fact that Pope not only butted into a conversation he wasn't welcome in, it was the fact that both him and Maggie seemed to think that his desire for the war to end was ridiculous and were somewhat teasing him about it.
While he agreed, the idea of living in a split level house doing gardening did seem ridiculous, it wasn't what he meant when he was talking to Maggie about life after the war. He just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. He wanted to go to sleep without worrying about being attacked in the middle of the night, wanted to live without fear of skitters attacking and kidnapping his brothers. What was so crazy about that?
"Wait." Ben suddenly said as he stopped. Hal, Maggie, and Tom all quickly ran over to his side the second they heard him.
"What do you got?" Hal questioned once he reached his younger brother's side.
"Not sure. Something big coming this way." Ben answered, looking at his father and older brother. On the other side and further down the road, Lourdes started shaking and dropped to the ground. Weaver, who was just behind her, got to the ground to see what was happening to her.
"Dad!" Matt shouted from the other side of the group. Tom rushed over to his youngest and saw Lourdes shaking on the road, painful and loud grunts escaping from her lips.
"Ship inbound!" Ben yelled, pointing at the night sky. Everyone looked up to see the bright lights of an Espheni spaceship coming right at them. Those who had weapons raised them instinctively, even when the ship landed in the trees at least a mile away.
"Karen took the bait. It worked." Tom said to Weaver once they both got back to Ben in the front of the group.
"I just hope it's her." Weaver told him. If it wasn't, then they had no idea what to expect. Odds were, it was going to be a fight, or maybe another Espheni sales pitch, but after what they just did to their tower in Boston, Weaver highly doubted it.
"It's her." Tom affirmed, even though he had no proof. He could feel it in his gut that Karen was in that ship.
"Hal, Ben, Maggie." Tom called the three over to him while Weaver turned to the rest of the group.
"Stand two. Take cover! Let's go!" The Colonel ordered. Immediately, the group started moving away to safe place while Weaver, Tom, Hal, Maggie, and Ben started walking towards the trees in the direction of the spaceship.
The group of 5 slowly came closer the edge of the forest that was near the road they were on, hearing the loud stomps of a Mech coming their way. Before they could get any further, Karen emerged from the right side of the trees surrounded by a few skitters and one Mega-Mech. In her hand, she carried a stick with a white cloth tied to the top end, signifying that she wanted this to be a peaceful meeting. When she saw them, she slowed her stride.
"Tom. Hal." Karen spoke, looking only at the two oldest Masons before glancing at the others, then said, "We need to talk."
"Thank goodness you're okay Hal. I've missed you." Karen spoke directly to Hal, ignoring the others for a moment. Though her voice sounded sincere, no one believed it for a moment.
"Yeah, I've been looking forward to seeing you too." Hal replied, his tone making it clear that his reasons for wanting to see her were no where near the same as hers.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you!" Tom yelled, getting her focus away from his oldest son.
"Easy Tom." Karen tried to calm him before finishing, "This is far more important than our personal differences. It's about the Volm."
"Get to the point." Tom told her, quickly growing bored and annoyed with this conversation when his instincts were telling him to just kill her and end this. Slowly, Karen started walking closer to the group, her skitters and Mech moving with her.
"I see things haven't turned out the way you planned. You and your beloved allies have parted ways. Not the knights in shining armour you thought they were, right?" Karen questioned, still moving closer to them.
"That's far enough." Tom said instead of answering her questions. There was no way he wanted her to know that she was right. Karen instantly stopped in her tracks, clearly not wanting to make the resistant fighters any more uncomfortable than they already were. She could see that they were struggling not to shoot her and the aliens with her.
"I'd say you've become an expert on disappointment. In fact, I think the only reason you want to talk is the Volm have you on the run." Tom changed the subject back on her, a slight smugness in his voice.
"You don't trust me. I would feel the same if I were in your shoes. I could tell you I've made some mistakes," Karen glanced at Hal again when she said the before looking back and Tom and continuing, "that I regret the way I've gone about some things, but those would just seem like empty words to you."
"You got that right." Tom confirmed, clutching his gun tightly in hands, wondering why he was still listening to her. There was nothing she could say or do that would make up for everything she had done, that would make him even consider forgiving her for trying to kidnap Ben, for planting a bug in Hal, for killing Anne and Lexi.
"Which is why I didn't expect to reconcile our differences in one conversation. But I am confident there will be more unpleasant discoveries about the Volm. This war has gone on for centuries. And it will continue for a long time to come. And as you know from your own history, there might be a day when our interests will coincide. So, I want you to know my door will always be open." Karen finally finished her pitch, again looking over at Hal.
"You can't be serious." Hal told her, finding it completely absurd that his ex-girlfriend truly believed that after everything she had done to them, that they would actually work with her.
"I am." Karen replied, smiling at him before turning back to Tom, adding, "And to prove my good faith, I've brought a gift. One that I think you'll appreciate Tom."
Tom was about to tell her there was nothing she could do to prove her 'good faith', when he saw a human figure emerge from the trees when Karen and the skitters had come from just moments before. Though it was dark out, the lights from the Mega-Mech illuminated the clearing enough to see and recognize the woman who had appeared.
"Anne?" Tom whispered her name quietly as he slowly lowered his gun. Anne immediately ran over to him, throwing her arms around the former history professor who instinctively wrapped his arms around her in return. Feeling that the woman he loved was in his arms, he tightened his hold on her, feeling tears prickling the corners of his eyes.
"Wait, where's Lexi?" Tom suddenly remembered, pulling away from Anne just enough so he could look at her face but still hold her. Anne turned her head to look over her shoulder and when Tom raised his eyes to where the doctor was looking at, he saw a young girl, maybe about 6 years old slowly coming over to them.
"Hi Daddy." The little girl said with a smile. Tom stared in shock as Anne pulled away once the child reached him so she could wrap her small arms around his waist. Despite the fact that she appeared a lot older than he last saw her, then she actually was, Tom recognized her. He knew this child hugging him was indeed his daughter. Tom placed one arm around Lexi's shoulders, the other staying around Anne.
"When you realize that the Volm are not all they appear to be, my door will be open. Until then, goodbye Tom." Karen didn't wait for a response before she turned around and started walking back to her spaceship still hidden in the trees.
Maggie however, had other ideas. For so long, she had been waiting for the opportunity get payback for everything that Karen had done to them. Even if she didn't actually kill Anne and Lexi and did release them, she knew that there was no way the human-turned-alien would ever help them defeat the ones she had sided with. She was evil, there was nothing human in her. She had to be stopped and seeing the opportunity, Maggie raised her gun and pointed it at Karen's back.
Suddenly, there was hand on the barrel and pushing it down towards the ground. Maggie looked over to see that it was Hal who was forcing her to lower her gun. He didn't look at her though, not right at her anyways. His gaze kept going from Karen's to retreating figure and to his sister and Anne who were now surrounded by Weaver and Ben as well as his Dad. Because of this, Hal didn't see the shock, confusion, and betrayal in Maggie's eyes.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
When they met back up with the others, Tom and Weaver gave the order to start setting up camp. Though they only had a few hours until the sun would start rising, they decided to use them to give everyone a chance to rest. While the members of the group from Charleston did that, Tom talked to Anne about what all happened while she was with Karen. Unfortunately, Anne didn't remember much. Tom didn't mind that much though, he was just grateful that she and Lexi where alive. Soon, Anne fell asleep in one of the tents that had been set up and after watching her for a few minutes, Tom got up to let her rest peacefully.
"How's Anne?" Weaver asked once he saw Tom exiting the tent that the doctor was lying in.
"She's sleeping. I think she's okay, but she's been through a lot. She hasn't said much about what all happened." Tom reported to Weaver as they walked away from the tent.
"Well, the important thing is that she and Lexi are okay." Weaver replied, clapping Tom on the back.
"Yeah." Tom agreed, then suddenly started looking around. The last time he had seen his daughter was when he and Anne went inside the tent, and now had no idea where she was. He had assumed that she was waiting just outside, but wasn't there. A surge of panic shot through him before he spotted Lexi heading towards the line of vehicles.
"Lexi? What are you doing?" Tom asked loudly so the young girl would hear him. Lexi however didn't answer. Whether it was because she didn't hear him, or she didn't care, they didn't know. The adults did realize though that she was walking right towards the truck that had the makeshift cage where Lourdes was currently in.
"No Lexi, get away from there." Tom ordered as he started running towards his daughter, Weaver right on his heels. After just getting his daughter and Anne back, the last thing he wanted was Lourdes to hurt her or infect her with the eyebugs that were still trapped inside of her.
Once they reached the young girl, who was actually only a few months old despite her 6-year-old appearance, they saw that she was holding her hand out against the cage, her hand wide open. Before Tom could pull Lexi away, Lourdes started shaking again, and the bugs crawling all over her face started flying towards Lexi, landing on her palm. When they were all gone, Tom's daughter closed her hand tightly into a fist before opening again, a small pile of dust there instead of the bugs. Letting the dust fall onto the ground, Lexi looked up at her father with a small smile while Tom stared in a horror-filled shock.
"What on Earth?" Weaver exclaimed, just as stunned as his friend was. What became clear to the two in that moment, was that whatever Karen did to the little girl had far more effects than they previously thought, and neither were sure if that was good or not.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
Two weeks later…
For the next several days, the entire group from Charleston, dubbed as the 2nd Mass yet again, walked around the forest that surrounded the city they had evacuated. The plan was to meet up there again once they were sure the Volm were gone and weren't going to 'relocate' them.
During those days, Lexi quickly managed to bond a bit with her older brothers, not that it was that hard. Despite the fact that she had been though so much already in her short life, she still had the innocence and joy of a child that had never seen war, pain, or the evil that filled their world. It made Hal, Ben, and Matt that much more protective of her. Lourdes also formed a sibling like bond with the little girl after she destroyed the alien eyebugs that she was infected with.
Hal and Maggie's relationship on the other hand seemed to be breaking at the seams. Ever since that night where Anne and Lexi rejoined the group, they barely talked. Hal would try but it quickly became clear that Maggie had put her walls way up. Thinking that maybe she just needed some time, Hal backed off and by doing so, they became more distant. They took shifts opposite of each other and no longer slept in the same tent. Instead, Hal shared a tent with Matt while Maggie shared one with another female fighter. Everyone who was looking could see how distant the two formerly inseparable pair had become, but no one said anything.
"Hey." Hal greeted one morning when he found himself walking beside Maggie about two weeks after that night.
"Hey." Maggie greeted back, though a bit coldly, keeping her gaze straight ahead, not so much as even glancing in his direction.
"You ever really going to talk to me again?" Hal inquired, trying not to lose his patience and reveal how frustrated he was feeling with the way Maggie had been acting around him for the last two weeks.
"We're talking now, aren't we?" Maggie pointed out, not meeting his eyes.
"Look, Maggie, I get that you're mad at me, but, what did you expect me to do?" Hal wondered, deciding to cut right to the chase. He knew Maggie was upset that he made her lower her gun when she had a chance to kill Karen, and while he could understand why, after she revealed that Anne and Lexi were still alive and released them, Hal thought for a moment, he saw something good in her. If they were going to kill, he wanted to make sure that there was nothing good left.
"I don't know, make sure that Karen paid for everything's she done?" Maggie suggested, sounding more and more upset with every word she said, turning around to face him, stopping both of them in their tracks.
"It's not that simple." Hal argued, taking a deep breath in an attempt to keep himself calm.
"Really? She kidnapped your Dad, and Ben. Then tried to kill us all, twice. After that, she put a bug in you, several in Lourdes and had several of our members killed, kidnapped Anne and Lexi and let us all think that they were dead, and you think she should still be allowed to breathe?" Maggie was more than happy to point out how much damage and pain Karen had caused them.
"Maggie, if there's still a chance that we can save her…" Hal broke off, not exactly sure how to finish his sentence with upsetting Maggie even further.
"Seriously? You still think after everything that you can save her?" Maggie questioned even though she already knew what Hal's answer would be, as he looked down at the ground. Taking a step closer to her boyfriend, she said quietly and strongly, "Hal, open your eyes. She's beyond saving."
"Maybe, maybe not." Hal responded, looking back up at the woman. Seeing the furious look in her eyes slowly turning to one of betrayal, Hal put his hand on her shoulder.
"Maggie," Hal started only for Maggie to shrug off his hand and take a step away from him.
"Just go Hal." Maggie told him, looking down at the ground.
"Fine." Hal muttered and started walking away from her and towards the front of the convoy. Seeing his Dad up there along with Anne, Lexi, and Matt around there, he headed in their direction.
"Everything okay?" Tom asked, seeing the angry and frustrated expression on his eldest's face as Hal came over to him.
"Yeah, everything's terrific." Hal replied sarcastically, staring straight ahead instead of looking at his father. Tom didn't say anything, knowing that Hal wasn't actually going to say what was really going on with him. The father was about to say something to take Hal's mind off whatever was bugging him when a loud screeching filled the air. Everyone looked up to see several beamers coming straight at them.
"Run!" Tom yelled even though the entire group was already beginning to scatter. Most were running for cover in the trees or behind the vehicles while others were shooting up at the beamers.
The bullets didn't seem to do any damage to the ships. But when some fighters managed to get onto the trucks that were holding the machine guns, a few of the alien aircrafts were destroyed. The others didn't flee though. Instead, they started dropping objects on to the ground. Some started exploding while others released a large green, fence like structure.
Somehow, they knew they were being rounded up and everyone started running for cover away from the beamers. Tom was doing the same while shooting at the beamers and looking for his family at the same time. He was so focused on trying to spot his sons, daughter, and Anne that he didn't see one of the objects drop from a beamer and explode right near him. The explosion sent him flying through the air before landing painfully on his back.
"Dad!" Tom tried to lift his head when he heard Hal call out his name, but didn't have the strength. He thought he saw Hal suddenly leaning over him, but then everything went black and silent.
AN – Yes, when I am back, that does mean my evil cliffhangers are back too. Sorry, we are a packaged deal. Also, there is a chance going forward, that the character may seem a bit OOC, and if it does, I'm sorry. But also, bear in mind I am putting these characters in a position that they have never been before, and therefore, we have no idea how exactly they would react. Hope you guys liked this chapter. See you next time!