"Max is dead," Liz said in anguish, "I don't believe this…"
"And Michael?" Maria asked, knowing the answer she would receive.
"Dead," Larick said coldly, "all of them, gone. I saw it with my own eyes. It was Max. He released energy. It's something that can happen to our people if we become highly agitated. But our emotions aren't like humans at all. We barely feel a thing. Something happened that shouldn't have. Even I can't quite explain it. Somehow, Max tapped into something he wasn't supposed to see until he returned home. I, I can't stay here any longer. This body needs to be released. I'm sorry." Brody's body fell to the floor. Both Maria and Liz knew that when he regained consciousness it would be Brody again. Larick was gone, Max was gone, and Michael was gone. And all the humans were left to cope on their own.
In the pod chamber, the Royal Four rejoined their mother – they were okay.
"Max," asked Isabel, "what just happened?"
"I don't know," said Max, his voice cold, and monotone, sounding more like a robot than a human, "I was upset, and all the sudden, that emotion just came pouring out of me. I couldn't control it. I used my abilities to teleport all of us out of there, or else we would have died."
"That's what happens," Quandara said, "to us when our emotions go out of control. Humans are much more sensitive than we are. How can you do this now – you shouldn't be able to? Did you look at the disc?"
"The disc?" Max said, sounding more alive, but not like himself, like Xan, "no, I forgot all about it. When Kavar captured me, I saw a carving of our Royal Seal on the wall. It triggered something in my mind. I remember everything now."
Quandara smiled, but Isabel was confused, "Wait," she said, "disc, what disc? Max, what are you talking about?"
"This," said Max pulling the disc from his pocket, "is designed to help us remember home. Quandara gave it to me before Kavar came. We can view if you'd like."
"So I can end up like you," said Isabel, "I thought I was home to you, Max! But now you talk about our world – I can't ever remember even being there! I thought I knew you Max, but I don't know you anymore." Isabel walked out of the pod chamber, crying, and upset.
"I won't just leave her out there alone with our enemies lurking," said Michael. He turned to leave in pursuit of Isabel, but he turned back to Max first. Max was standing there, watching and holding hands with Tess. "I don't know what's been going on with you Maxwell, but I don't like it." Then Michael did go.
Max addressed his mother, Quandara, "How can we fix all of this? We have to get on that ship, go home and fight. I need them."
"Fight?" said Quandara.
"I have to," said Max, "it's my duty, to you, to Tess, the others… to every single one of my people."
Quandara nodded her head, "Get the ship ready. I'll go talk with Vilandra, I mean, Isabel. I'll make both of them see what is at stake here."
Max and Tess went to the alien ship. They noticed that all of the other aliens were still not on board. In fact, now nobody was on board. They headed to the engine room, where they would discover why. Max ran up to the panel Michael had hit with his powers, recognizing it.
"Oh no," he said.
"What is it?" asked Tess.
"This is ruined, badly," said Max, "it can't be repaired."
"Now what's going to happen?"
"All the other aliens are still here, on Earth, somewhere. My guess is that they'll try to find us. Without Kavar they have no leadership, and without their ship they can't leave. All they can do is kill us."
"You really think they will?" wondered Tess.
"It is our way," Max said grimly.
"You tried to change all that," Tess said thoughtfully, "the people were behind you all the way. You were so loved."
"Yes," said Max, "but when Kavar took over, I'm sure people were able to just go back to the old ways. Kavar ruined everything I tried to do; I have to kill him. I'd like to rule with a velvet glove, but I must use an iron fist to get respect and protection – support from the people. I have to try to get back all I lost, but first I must kill Kavar, so that I can have the thrown once again. Then I'll make things right."
"Well," humored Tess, "you'll just have to until we get off this rock. I guess you'll have to kill him tomorrow."
Max smiled. Then, without warning, 5 alien troops in silver suits came bursting into the room.
One of them spoke, "Well, well, so they are alive." He signaled to a friend, "Go, gather the others. We will attack the enemy as one large unit. That way we cannot fail." The other man nodded and left. This left four aliens in the engine room with Max and Tess. All of the aliens had those strange weapons Max had seen before. They were spiraled and kind of small. They attached to the soldier's wrist. The four of them did not hesitate to use them on Max and Tess.
Max and Tess ran behind the engines themselves for cover. The weapons fired concentrated energy blasts at Max and Tess. One thing was for sure, the engines would not hold up forever. Max stuck out his middle and pointer fingers, lifted his head just above an engine and fired a green burst of energy, striking down one of the four. As the green burst hit him, a green aura surrounded the man's body for a quick second, weakening his muscles. Then he fell, unconscious. Tess looked over at Max.
"Just stunned," Max said, "I won't kill innocents who are being deceived by Kavar."
Tess felt better, but asked what was really on her mind, "How did you do that?"
Still under heavy enemy fire, Max moved in closer to Tess. He guided her to stick out her middle and pointer fingers too. He held her fingers in his hand and closed his eyes. Aiming at an engine farther from their position, Max was able to get Tess to fire the same green burst.
Tess looked up at Max and smiled. The two of them quickly stunned the other aliens, who had never bothered to seek cover of any kind. Max hit the first one directly in the stomach, as Tess hit her first target in the jaw, both of them falling. Max had to quickly jump back, as the last alien standing fired a shot that would have taken his head off. Tess quickly fired at him, but she missed, and ducked herself. Max looked at her, he held out his hand, raised it slightly, and then lowered back down very quickly. He was communicating a plan. Tess nodded in understanding. She poked her head above the engines for just a moment, drawing a shot from the alien that very nearly hit her. As the alien fired at Tess, Max jumped up and shot him in the chest. Max let out a sigh of relief once they were gone.
"Tess," he said softly, this was the first time since he had regained his memories that Max did not speak with commanding authority. He sounded more like his old self again. "What is happening to me? Isabel said she didn't know me anymore. I don't know if I know me anymore. I've regained these memories, but they're different from what I'd have thought. The memories of home, they're facts mostly, some feelings. They aren't the same as my human memories."
"I know," Tess said, "that's how it is. It's like that because we never actually experienced that stuff in this lifetime."
"It was programmed into us."
"Yes," said Tess.
"Part of me wants to go back and take that old life back. Part of me is afraid. I don't know why I am, but I am. Everything's slipping away from me Tess. The past few months I've turned my human life into a mess. I have no friends here, and my parents were sending me to therapy. Kavar has polluted the thoughts of my people, and I won't be getting welcomed home anymore. I'm trying to find something to grab a hold of. Something to grip, but the harder I try, the more things just slip from my grasp. I'm losing everything I've had in two lifetimes, and I don't why."
"I'm here," said Tess, "I'll always be here."
Max looked at her, into her eyes. A single tear formed and rolled down his cheek. Tess, empathizing, wiped it away with her powers, and hugged her husband. "I don't know if that's enough," he told her, "my life here is harder than it ever was for Xan. Right now, we have each other, but that's not going to cut it. We can't even survive this invasion with only each other." Now his voice became more firm, and took that commanding tone again. He said, "We have to get the others. Come; let us go find them. Hopefully, Quandara has persuaded Michael and Isabel to have faith in me."
Michael was just chilling out at his place when he heard a knock at the door. He got up to answer it; he expected either Isabel or Maria. He didn't know that Maria was under the impression that he was dead. He opened the door, and it was Max.
"Uhh, look," Michael said, "Maxwell, maybe this isn't the best time."
"Michael," Max told him firmly, "we have to talk."
"I have nothing to say to you," Michael said.
"Where's Isabel?" Max demanded.
"She's out," said Michael, "with Quandara. The two of them wanted to talk."
"All right, Michael," Max said, "listen. I know you're uncertain of what to think of me since I got my memories back, but this is no time to back away from your responsibilities."
"Yeah," said Michael, "well, how come you know all this stuff all of the sudden? Since you do 'remember things' now, then maybe you can tell me this: why are we in such a rush to get home? What's going to happen to us there? Oh yeah, our enemies are going to greet us at the airlock or whatever, and they're gonna kill us!"
"It's not about that right now Michael," Max explained, "the ship is damaged, beyond repair. No one can use it now."
"So?" Michael said.
"So, now the rest of the aliens from the invasion are gathering together to form one large unit. They're coming to hunt all of us down. We don't have to go home to die. There's one underlying fact to all of this, we, the Royal Four, have to be one unit too. Now, they saw Tess and I, so we're probably first. But in the end they'll be coming after you and Isabel too. We have to fight this together, or none of us are going to survive. Join us, Michael. We'll go get Isabel and take care of them."
"I don't think I can do that Maxwell," Michael told him, "there are just too many things here that I don't understand. Why are there people who think that I should be king instead of you? People like Courtney. How can I trust you with all these new 'memories'? For all I know, Tess really is bad, and she's done something to screw with your head."
"Michael," said Max, "you're being foolish."
"I'm not so sure," Michael said, "right now, I… I don't know who to trust anymore."
"Tess and I will go back to the pod chamber," said Max, "join us there if you change your mind. Depending on how much damage we do, you and Isabel may be able to get the rest of them later, but if you leave us alone in that chamber, the aliens will attack and we will die."
Max walked out of the room, and Tess followed. Michael closed the door behind them, and went and sat down on his couch. He started to think of what he should do. He knew he had some kind of duty. He didn't know what it was all about, but this was the first time that he just abandoned it. He didn't know what was best. He got up though, put on his coat. He didn't have any answers, but he knew that he had to find Isabel. Together they would have to decide if what Max had always been to them meant more than what Max had become now, and that, whatever it was, scared both them. Michael walked out the door, and searched for Isabel, hoping that she and Quandara had come up with all the answers.