Part 21 - Max POV
June 15, 2000 - Mesa Laco Reservation, near Roswell, New Mexico
I drew my pillow over my head when sunlight suddenly streamed through the window and directly onto my face. "What?" I asked groggily.
I knew it was Michael who had thrown open the curtains to the guest bedroom in River Dog's house. Why couldn't he ever just leave me in peace? I had been having the best dream - about Liz of course. In it, she stopped on the cliff near the pod chamber when I asked her to, turned around, told me she loved me and that she would never leave me. Trust Michael to interfere again. I still hadn't forgiven for him for not letting me go after her. Maybe it would have changed things.
"Get up Maximillian. Today's the day. Today's the day we learn who we really are."
I groaned. I threw my pillow at him. He caught it, scowling. "You say that every day Michael - and so far all I know is that I'm still Max Evans, so-called leader of my people, who would rather just go back to sleep."
"You're the one who decided to stay here Max. Don't you think Liz would want you to learn everything you could? Isn't it why she left you in the first place?"
Low blow.
I sat up and glared at him. "Fine." I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the shower.
Michael was sitting on my bed fiddling with something when I returned. I saw that it was one of the blue communicator orbs.
"What are you doing with that?" I asked suspiciously. "We agreed we weren't going to use it again. Nasedo warned us that it could be dangerous, that it could let the other race know where we are. Plus, its what caused all my problems in the first place."
"River Dog told me to bring it - we're meeting him at the cave." Michael explained.
I quickly dressed, poured myself some orange juice in River Dog's sunny kitchen and then followed Michael out the door. "Where's Tess?" I asked, not really caring, but pleased that she wasn't around.
"River Dog told her to go back to Roswell last night after you went to bed to sulk." Michael told me.
"And she went?" I asked, surprised. Tess had not let up on me since Isabel, Alex and Maria had left the Reservation a couple of weeks ago. I had told her that she was only allowed to stay if she dropped all that destiny business, but she hadn't gotten it through her thick, destiny-obsessed skull. It was really annoying.
But Tess had been useful in other ways. She knew a lot more about what Michael and I could do then we did - she had grown up knowing. She had been helping Michael mostly - the extent of his power to destroy was actually kind of scary. He didn't seem to like it much either.
"Who's going to help us now?" I asked, a little annoyed that River Dog had been so high-handed. Sure, he had been really helpful, but it annoyed me when he tried to tell me what to do. I didn't think he liked me very much sometimes. I kept remembering how he had told Liz to make sure she could trust me way back when we had first met him. He seemed to like Michael a lot more, in fact, always had. I remembered the Father's Camping trip and how annoyed he had sounded when Izzy and I had shown up at the place where Nasedo had left the message - like we didn't belong there or something.
Basically, I thought River Dog was weird and I didn't understand why he was so eager to help us.
But Michael trusted him and Michael needed people to trust these days. I knew that he still thought about having killed Pierce all the time. He needed to focus his thoughts elsewhere and River Dog gave him that outlet.
"The Dog said that he could take it from here." Michael informed me now. "He told Tess that she was distracting you, that you haven't made any progress because you keep having to push her away from you. She finally agreed that this was probably true and left." Michael looked momentarily nonplussed. "It was actually kind of weird Maxwell - she just suddenly changed her mind. Like she didn't really but just said she did."
I frowned, but didn't have time to reply. We were at the cave.
Michael ducked his spiky head, entered. I followed my best friend warily. Every time I came here I was reminded of the time Michael had almost died. It had been one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Sure we fought - a lot - but he was my brother. If there was any reason to trust River Dog, the cave always reminded me of what it was. He had saved Michael's life that day.
River Dog was seated in the centre of the healing circle as we entered the large chamber at the end of the tunnel. He had his eyes closed, but they popped open when I accidentally tripped over a rock, sending it scuttling against the stone wall. Michael turned and glared at me. "Sorry." I mouthed, feeling like I was two years old.
"Did you bring them?" River Dog asked without hesitation. Michael nodded, placed the orb in his hand on the ground in front of the old man, pulled the second blue communicator out of the pocket of his jacket and set it down.
"So, what are we doing today?" Michael asked eagerly. I never saw my friend as animated as he was when he was about to learn something to do with our heritage - well, except when he had been bickering with Maria. I smiled sadly to myself. Thinking of Maria made me think of Liz.
I shook my head, pushed the thought away, tried to focus on what River Dog was saying. "Today is the day you learn the truth about me boys." He told us, glancing affectionately at Michael, barely including me.
It was weird how he did that - his concern always concentrated on Michael, like he was the more important of the two of us. But wasn't I the leader?
Great Max, I thought to myself, arrogant much? It was good that Michael was the centre of attention to someone. Lord knew he had rarely experienced that in his life.
"What do you mean?" Michael asked suspiciously. River Dog just gazed at him, one eyebrow raised.
"I think you know Michael." I glanced at Michael, totally confused.
My best friend blinked, the said quietly, "You ARE one of us." My head snapped back around to stare at the native elder. He had a slight, knowing smile on his face. "Are you my father?" Michael asked, his eyes brightening in excitement.
"Yes, I am."
Part 22
I stared at River Dog in shock. Needless to say, Michael started shooting his mouth off immediately. "Why the hell did you lie to me?" He demanded. "I knew you were one of us! Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were not ready." River Dog replied calmly. He was still sitting motionless, cross-legged in the middle of the healing circle. His gaze rested solely on Michael.
"But I'm ready now?" Michael asked, his tone belligerent - he always behaved this way when he was hurt. I knew that he felt betrayed that River Dog had not trusted him in the same way he, Michael, had trusted the native elder - or should I make that alien, I amended wryly to myself. "What about my mother? What about the crash? Tell me about our home. Why did you desert me?" The words were still tumbling out of Michael's mouth. I didn't think I had ever heard him talk so much at one time.
River Dog did not answer any of his questions, just gazed at him with meaningful eyes.
I was suspicious. "Michael we need to talk about this alone." I told my best friend quietly. "We need to tell Isabel and Tess."
"It is not your place to tell anyone my lord." I blinked at the title the old man bestowed on me. Michael grimaced.
"I don't understand." I told him. "They're part of the Four Square. They need to know." River Dog ignored me again.
"Are you ready to learn about your true destiny my son?" He asked Michael. I saw Michael glance at me, confused. I shrugged - I was just as lost as he was.
And I realized suddenly that I was afraid. Once again, nothing had been what it seemed to be.
"Are you saying that what those things told us..."Michael pointed at the orbs on the ground, "Isn't true?" My heart leapt. Maybe Tess wasn't my destiny after all! Could I be with Liz without either of us feeling guilty?
River Dog eyed us both. "It was true. In a way. You heard the correct message, but misinterpreted its meaning." He told us.
Michael ran his hand through his hair in annoyance. "What?"
"The Four Square is incomplete." He told us. "The message was misinterpreted."
"Me, Max, Isabel, Tess." Michael counted off impatiently on his fingers. "Four!"
River Dog just smiled cryptically. Michael glanced at me again, rolled his eyes. "I feel like I'm in the bloody X-Files here," he muttered to me. "Why can't aliens ever speak straight?" I felt myself wanting to laugh. This whole situation was ludicrous.
"Fine." I said finally as River Dog continued to stare at Michael in silence. "We're leaving." I grabbed my friend by the arm. He didn't budge.
"Do not leave yet my lord." River Dog still wasn't looking at me. "You must learn Michael's true destiny." He indicated the orbs on the ground. "Use them again."
Michael and I stared at him. "But we're missing Tess and Isabel and what about the evil race?" I trailed off. Michael had stepped up to the nearest communicator, picked it up and then handed me the other one.
"Let's do it Maxwell." I had never seen my friend so determined.
"Michael, I want to talk to you first - alone." I said, equally as determined.
Michael shook his head. "It's now or never Max. You know that you want to know just as badly as I do. I know you." I swallowed, nodded.
What the orb told us might make things better. Maybe I could be with Liz and still save my people.
But then it could be worse.
Of course, no life could be worse then the lonely one I was currently living. "Okay."
Michael and I both held our communicators between our hands. I closed my eyes, concentrated, waited for it to heat up as it had when Tess and I had activated it a few weeks before.
Nothing happened. My eyes snapped open at River Dog's snort.
"It is you my lord. You are willfully stopping the communication." I stared at Michael's orb. It was glowing, while mine remained perfectly the same.
"I didn't do anything." I protested.
Michael opened his eyes. The orb in his hand gradually began to fade until it was exactly like mine again.
"Great Maxwell!" He glared at me, grabbed the orb out of my hand and stalked out of the cave.
River Dog truly looked at me for the first time since this whole conversation had begun. "You cannot stop his destiny my lord, so don't try. It will only be worse for you and those you love." His tone was even, but the underlying menace made me shudder.
He stalked past me, brushed my arm. Images began to assail my head...
Flash*
Liz lying motionless in a pool of blood.
Flash*
Isabel curled up in a ball in the middle of the White Room, Pierce standing menacingly over her.
Flash*
My parents pointing at me, staring in horror."Get that thing out of my house!" My dad yelled as my mom just cried, terror on her face.
Flash*
Maria and Alex and the Sheriff, and even Kyle and Tess...all dying in horrible ways.
Flash*
Michael and I in the desert, him glaring at me, saying "I was always the one."
I stumbled against the wall of the cave, threw my hands up to my head, trying to push the flashes away.
They stopped as abruptly as they had come.
I was alone.
Things sort of went back to a routine after that. I had tried to talk to Michael about what had happened, about the images that River Dog had sent me, but he generally ignored me, which I was not unused to.
But somehow, this time it was different. I knew he was still furious that the communicators had not worked and that he blamed me but the coldness that he started to develop...it was not Michael. The Michael I knew should have been flying off the handle, demanding that I figure out a way to make them work. It was weird.
Michael and I continued to train together despite the sudden distance between us. I was trying to develop the power to scan things into my mind that Nasedo had told Michael about when I had been rescued from Pierce. Tess had instructed us on the basics, but it was damn hard. I wasn't getting very far.
Michael was still working at fine-tuning his blast, as we had begun to refer to it. We didn't know what else to call it. And he was succeeding, where I was failing. He had improved to the point that he could actually aim, and he didn't kill or destroy things right away anymore.
I was disturbed that he had started to practice on live creatures. I came across him blasting a rattler one day, and it was over before I could stop him. It was only stunned though, which showed how much he had improved...but the lack of emotion that was involved. I didn't know what to think about what was happening to my friend.
He was changing.
Although I never saw them together, I knew that Michael and River Dog were going off together, that River Dog was training him, was telling him things that Michael was not passing on to me.
And everyday he spoke less to me and froze over a little more. It no longer seemed like he was mad at me, rather, that he just didn't care.
I wondered if I should call Isabel, ask her to come out and try and help me get through to Michael but then I didn't like the idea of getting her involved. The threatening image of her in the White Room that River Dog had sent me...No, it was best to keep Izzy and the rest of them as far away as possible.
Finally, one day I followed them. And I learned the truth about what River Dog really wanted with my friend.
Part 23
It was hard to follow River Dog and Michael and stay out of sight.
They headed straight out into the desert. There were few trees and very few things to duck behind should they turn around.
But they never did. They just walked.
The noon sun was beating down on my head when suddenly Michael and River Dog disappeared.
I broke into a run, tried to remember where exactly I had last seen them.
And then I stumbled over a rock and almost fell head-first into the hole.
It was small, barely five feet across, but I could tell that it was where my friend and River Dog had disappeared. Michael had left his water bottle sitting on a small rock near the entrance to what I assumed was an underground tunnel of some sort.
I got down on my hands and knees and peered into the dark opening. I couldn't see a thing, even when I made my hand light up the way I had when I had been with Liz and River Dog had "tested" me.
I really had no choice - I eased myself into the hole, was not surprised when my feet hung in mid-air.
I took a deep breath and let myself drop.
I didn't realize that I had been holding my breath until it whooshed back into my body when I hit the ground. I climbed unsteadily to my feet, looked back up the way I had come. Sunlight streamed into the tunnel from about ten feet above me.
The ball of light I created in my hand lit up the tunnel enough for me to see Michael and River Dog's footprints in the dust on the stone floor. They led off to the right.
It was then that I realized that the floor on which I was standing was not natural. It was smooth rock, clearly polished at one time, although it was now dusty and the walls were covered with spider webs. Where the hell am I? I wondered, amazed.
I swept my ball of light near the walls, was not at all surprised to see symbols engraved everywhere. I recognized the whirlwind galaxy from Isabel's pendant and the four-square and there were a bunch more that I had never seen before, but I somehow KNEW them all. I didn't know what they meant, but they were familiar to me.
Finally I tore myself away from trying to read the symbols. I scanned them into my brain, knowing that they probably wouldn't all be there when I went back to access them, but I had improved a little bit. All that practice hadn't totally been in vain.
I followed the footprints. They wound through what seemed to be endless twists and turns. The tunnel was heading down. I wondered how far underground I was when, after ten minutes, I still hadn't found Michael.
After another ten minutes I wondered if I had gone the right way. Then the footprints stopped abruptly. I looked back the way I had come and then I saw it..
A glowing handprint.
I stared at it for a minute. Well, it was now or never.
I swiped my hand across it and the wall slid back immediately. I inched my way into the chamber, saw River Dog and Michael conversing on the far side of the room.
I ducked behind an outcropping of rock. I carefully poked my head up, tried to hear what they were talking about.
"...you sure I'm ready for the final stage?" Michael was asking, his voice excited and hopeful.
"Yes, my son. You have been ready for a long time. And when it is done you will be ready to take your true role in our society - as his right-hand. You will convince him of his destiny and he will go through the ritual himself. When you are both cleansed, then we will complete the Four Square."
What the hell are they talking about? I asked myself, getting more and more worried. I just knew that something was not right here.
I turned my head, scanning the room for an answer.
And then I saw them.
Five glowing pods.
I stared at them, tried to see if they were like the ones I had seen in the pod chamber. They were identical - but there were five. What the...
I turned back to stare at River Dog. He was helping Michael into a white body-suit. I sort of recognized it. It looked like the ones Michael, Isabel and I had been wearing in the memory Tess had shown me of us emerging from our pods when we were little.
"The first four stages cleansed you of your human skeletal structure, your blood supply, your human thought patterns and the majority of your organs." River Dog was explaining to Michael. My mouth fell open. "This last stage will be the most important - it will transform your human heart, return you to your true form - that of warrior and true member of our society. You will be ready to return to Illyria." Michael was nodding, clearly not disturbed at all by the fact that the other man had told him that he was losing his humanity.
And suddenly I knew exactly what the pods were for - they were to prepare us to return to our home planet.
It had never dawned on me that we would be unable to return as humans, but of course we couldn't. When Tess had told me that we were mostly human, just advanced humans, I had been glad. It had never occurred to me that that might not be the final form that the cloning of our essences was to take.
And Michael was only one stage away from NOT being human...from leaving us all
behind, from abandoning his true self, his Michaelness.
My brother would be gone.
Ridiculously, I wondered wildly what his name was on our home planet because what was I going to call him when he was no longer Michael?
Okay, Max get yourself together, I ordered myself. You're the leader here. It is your responsibility to stop this.
Because even though I often felt like every question we had answered only made me realize how ignorant I really was of my place in the world, the universe, I was sure of one thing.
This was wrong.
I stepped out from my hiding spot. Michael had just waved his hand across the front of one of the pods. It was opening, the sides pulling apart in a strangely organic manner.
"Michael! Stop!" He whipped his head around, stared at me.
River Dog grabbed him by the arm, shoved him into the pod.
"Michael!" I raced across the chamber, pushing River Dog aside, tried desperately to grasp Michael's arm but the pod closed around him, pushing my hand out.
As I watched in horror, the pod began to fill with a clear liquid. Michael's eyes closed and a blank expression came over his face. He floated in the liquid, apparently unconscious.
I turned, grabbed River Dog, pulling him to his feet. "I command you to get him out of there!" I barked. Being the supposed leader had to be good for something - I hoped.
The old man laughed, his tone mocking. "It is too late my lord. It is done." He pulled away from me and as I watched in astonishment he shape-shifted. He was no longer River Dog but instead...Michael. "And now I have you exactly where I want you."
Part 24
"Who are you?" I demanded, now positive that whoever this guy was, he was not Michael's father. And then I knew.
He was one of THEM. The enemy. They had found us. "It's me you want, isn't it?" I asked quietly. I was amazed that I sounded so calm. I had just seen my best friend literally become a pod person. Shouldn't I be a little more upset?
"Of course." The Michael clone looked over his shoulder at the real Michael, who was floating peacefully in his pod. There was disdain in his voice when he continued, "He has always been unimportant. He could not save you in your past life and now with his insipid human desire for a family he has doomed you in this one."
I felt red-hot rage. "Don't talk about him like that! You don't know him at all."
"Oh, I know him." The shapeshifter replied arrogantly. "Michael has always been weak and completely unable to see past his own desires. Why they sent him with you, I'll never know, but it made my mission easier." He sounded pleased.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded again. I needed as much information as he could provide. It was becoming more and more clear that he liked to talk about himself and how brilliant he was. The more I kept him talking, the better. "And why are you Michael?"
The shapeshifter eyed me, a slight smirk on his Michael-face. " I am Michael because I choose to be - it is but a form. My true role is that of your destroyer Jaxon Falconer - and the facilitator of your rebirth." I blinked.
"Pardon me?"
"That is your true name you know - Jaxon Falconer, Blue Prince, King of Illyria." It had the ring of truth to it. But the name did not sound at all familiar.
I was Max Evans - and that's who I intended to remain.
"What do you want with me - us?" I indicated Michael, but I really meant ALL of us, Isabel and Tess included.
"I don't want them at all." The Michael clone sneered. "They are insignificant to what I want. They will remain on this puny planet and hopefully rot. They are only important so far as they help me control YOU."
He waved his hand in the air. An image began to form - it was Liz. "Now this one...her importance is only just becoming clear. At least to you." He smirked at me. "I believe that she has recently gone on a little trip." I stiffened. "Well, no matter. She will be back."
I felt the intense fear and panic that had engulfed me the last time Liz, Isabel and my friends had been threatened. Pierce had been bad enough, but at least he had been human. This guy was certainly not, and was also clearly insane.
I forced myself to remain calm. My tone of voice was ingratiating when I finally managed to say, "Tell me everything. Maybe I will choose to go with you in spite of them."
He snorted. "You cannot fool me my lord. They are the key to controlling you. Bringing you back to Illyria, completely powerless, then bringing you to our side. I will be as a god on our world. And I will be able to rule through you. Or my leader will." He amended.
I was getting seriously confused now...and worried. How could I possibly defeat this guy if he wouldn't tell me what he intended to do? "What is your name?" I asked, trying anything to keep him talking. I glanced quickly at Michael in the pod, wondered how long until his transformation was complete. Cd he be turned back?
"I am Tarsus of Dernia. I am the right-hand of the one who defeated you the first time Jaxon Falconer nd I am here to bring you back so that we can finish the job."
"Ummmm...call me Max." I replied. This Jaxon Falconer stuff was not what I wanted to hear about at the moment. It seemed wrong somehow. "What do you want me to do? You already know that I will do anything to save my friends." There was no point in lying to him, he knew it already. "Just get to the point."
"It is not so easy as that...Max." He accepted my request to call me by my familiar name. "With that one," He indicated Michael, "He had already given up on humanity. He was willing to do so eagerly in order to find his true self. He loved as a human, but he craved his other side more. He was an easy pawn to play."
He stared at me intently. "You, however, will not allow the transformation so easily. Your bonds to this world are too strong. You have accepted your humanity - in fact you revel in it - and it is all because of this girl." He waved his hand through the image of Liz, which was still floating in the air. It disappeared suddenly. "You must step back from them, make them hate you. Break their bonds to you and you will break YOUR bond to them."
"But I cannot choose to go with you?" I asked desperately. I would do anything to protect them - even leave them.
"No. The heart is a strong force. Michael was able to give up his heart for the chance at a family, not realizing that once he loses it he will no longer care about family anyway. We do not love in our race in the way the pitiful humans do. It is weak. You will never willingly give up your human heart, no matter how long you pickle in that pod. And as long as they love you in return, you can never be changed."
Tarsus of Dernia's expression was blank. I realized that the only emotion he had displayed up to this point had been arrogance. This had been very similarly the case with Nasedo, although I had seen glimmerings of a heart when he dealt with Tess.
If I gave up my humanity, I would lose all emotion. It was a scary thought. I turned to stare at Michael. Would he be that way when he came out? Had he really, willfully broken all his human ties? I just could not believe it somehow. I KNEW that he had loved Maria...and me and Isabel and maybe even Liz and Alex. How could he have thrown it all away so easily?
And I felt anger at my friend.
But I would not desert him. "Can you please not look like him?" I demanded, suddenly not wanting the bastard in front of me to lay claim to my best friend's face any longer.
Tarsus complied, shapeshifted back to River Dog's form. I suddenly had a thought.
"How did you find us?" I asked.
"The communicators of course." He replied. He had moved slightly away and was fiddling with something on the wall. I could see that it was an organic control panel of some sort.
"So then you were not the one who healed Michael here last winter?" It was a formality. I knew now that the real River Dog had probably been murdered by this maniac.
"Of course not." He snorted. "I would have let him die. That old man did not know what hit him." I felt a pang for that kind, wise man. Michael had cared about him, and though he had not seemed to like me much, he had always been there, someone who knew who we were and accepted us anyway.
Tarsus stopped whatever he was doing. As I watched sadly, Michael began to emerge from his pod. His expression was blank and he stared at me without recognition.
"Get dressed Michael." Tarsus told him abruptly. He watched Michael carefully as he complied, clearly trying to see if the transformation had been a success. I was staring at my best friend, my "pitiful" human heart breaking for him.
"Can he shapeshift now?" I asked.
"No." Tarsus replied. "It is unnecessary for him to have that ability. Your race has given it up anyway. The pods only program what is required." He turned back to me. "You have the power to turn him back Max Evans."
I knew what he wanted from me before he even said it. "You'll make him human again if I do what you want?"
"I am glad that you are as intelligent in this life Jaxon Falconer as you were in the last." Tarsus said smugly. "It makes life much easier." He gave me my instructions, knowing me too well. I would do anything to save my friend and he knew that I considered returning him to humanity to be saving him, although he could not understand it himself. "Return to your little human life and break your ties. Make them hate you and return to me. Then the ritual to cleanse you of your humanity will be possible and the return to Illyria will follow swiftly."
I swallowed, could not peel my eyes from Michael, who still looked exactly like Michael, but was NOT him. "Fine."
"And do not try any funny business my lord." Tarsus of Dernia warned me. "Michael is my pawn now. I can see through his eyes and I can ACT through his body. I will hurt them if I must. Not all of them - some must be there to reject you - but some of them are expendable."
I glared at him. "Fine." I said again.
I led the way out of the chamber, Michael following close behind. He still had not spoken a word.
I had been a lonely person in the past, always "behind the tree" as Ms. Topolsky had told me once, but at least I had had Isabel and my parents and Michael...and then I had Liz and Maria and Alex. But that was over.
For the first time I truly knew what it was to be alone.
Part 25
Fraser Woods, near Roswell, New Mexico - January 2001
Liz had been unaware of the tears streaming down her face until Max stopped talking.
They had finally stopped walking while Max told his story because Liz, Isabel and Alex kept smashing into trees in the dark, they were concentrating so hard on what Max was telling them. Now Max was leaning against a tree, Liz seated between his legs, leaning back against his chest. He had practically been in a trance the entire time he had been talking, but she had known that he had been aware of her, stroking her arms every once in a while to warm her up when she shivered, or placing a kiss on her temple or her ear or the back of her head every once in a while. She was pleased that her presence seemed to be comforting him.
Alex and Isabel were sitting side-by-side on a log to their right. Isabel's face was icy - Liz could see the fury she felt at what her brother had been forced to deal with on his own over the past few months. Liz guessed that anger was Isabel's defense mechanism over her true feelings - supreme terror that she was going to either lose Max or Michael - or maybe both, depending on how things went when they tried to rescue Maria. Alex was doing his best to support her, but Isabel flinched away from his touch, clearly needing to deal with this on her own, at least for the moment.
Liz did not blame Isabel for trying not to feel anything. The situation looked impossible. To save Michael, they were going to have to sacrifice Max or vice versa. Liz felt panic begin to rise in her chest at the thought of losing Max. She had just accepted that they belonged together, destiny be damned. How could she let him go now?
Because Liz knew without a shadow of a doubt, if it came down to a choice between Max and Michael, Michael would win out. Max would accept nothing else. He would go with Tarsus of Dernia and they would lose him.
"I don't know what to say." Alex said suddenly, breaking the stunned silence that they had all been sitting in. "I mean, did you believe all this stuff that he told you about who you really are Max? I don't understand all that blather about the Four Square not being complete. I mean, how can Izzy and Tess NOT be important." Alex shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense. What about what that book said? What about what the transmission from your mother?"
Liz felt Max shrug behind her. "I don't know what to believe. He could be lying for all I know. But I do know that he is one of the enemy race our mother spoke of and I do know that something has happened to Michael. I think we have to believe him."
"Then there's no hope." Isabel said in such a calm manner, it made Liz's blood run cold.
"No Isabel! There's always hope." Liz said urgently. "I mean, Maria told me when I first got home that Michael freaked out when she dated Neal Freemont last fall. That has to mean something?" She looked at Alex appealingly, "Don't you think?"
Alex nodded slowly. "Yeah, I remember that. He was still going through the motions at the Crashdown then." He looked at Max. "I wonder - do you think that Michael is still in there somewhere?"
Max sighed. "I don't think so." He glanced at Isabel worriedly. She looked so brittle, Liz thought that any wrong word might make her crack. "But maybe. I guess it's worth a try."
"So then what's the plan?" Alex asked, standing up, clearly eager to get the show on the road.
"First and most importantly, we need to get Maria out of there. That's your job guys. I'm going to distract Michael - hopefully he won't know you're there. I know that he knows that I screwed up somehow but he doesn't know that I told you guys everything. I'll try and convince him that Liz just won't leave me alone and that I cracked a bit." Max kissed the top of Liz's head, then gently pushed her to her feet.
"And then what?" Isabel demanded. "We're not going to just leave Michael?"
Max scowled. "Of course not!" Liz took his hand, tried to calm him down. "You'll leave and I'll give myself up to Tarsus." Liz closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She had known he was going to say that but hearing the words was like a stab to the heart.
"NO Max!" Isabel suddenly exploded. "I can't lose you! I can't!" She was shrieking, quickly becoming hysterical. Liz knew exactly how she felt - wanted to scream too, but she couldn't. Max didn't need her flipping out on him on top of everything else he had to deal with.
Besides there was no way he was giving himself up to anyone.
She would not allow it.
Max looked helplessly at Alex, who was trying to calm Isabel down. The whole outburst was so unlike Izzy, neither quite knew what to do. Max moved forward, tried to pull her into his arms to comfort her.
Isabel turned away from him, was suddenly quiet, which was almost more terrifying. "I want to talk to Liz alone." She said in a voice that brooked no opposition.
Max and Alex stared at her, turned to Liz hopefully. She nodded. "You guys go wait for us at the highway." Liz could hear the cars whizzing by on the Interstate. They were obviously close to the road.
"I don't like leaving you alone." Max said stubbornly. Liz smiled encouragingly at him.
"It's okay Max. We'll just be a minute." Max finally nodded, pulled Liz into his arms for a quick kiss and followed Alex off into the woods.
Liz turned to Isabel. "Are you all right?"
Isabel's face was a mask of ice again. "I refuse to allow this Liz." She said. "We have to stop him and we have to get Michael back too." Her beautiful face set into stubborn lines. "I am not going to lose EITHER of my brothers."
"I understand Isabel. I have no intention of letting Max sacrifice himself either." Liz replied. Isabel eyed her, nodded resolutely.
"Then we're in agreement. Max is in charge, but only if it looks like he's going to be reasonable. I won't let him play the martyr again Liz. He has to learn that we're all in this together or we all lose." Isabel tugged on her hair in frustration. "I don't understand any of this! Why did this thing come after only Max and Michael? Something's wrong here Liz! Was my mother wrong in that message? I mean, its not like we were going to follow that stupid destiny stuff anyway, but can't we trust anything to be the truth?" Isabel's eyes filled with tears.
Liz felt her heart go out to the other girl. Isabel had never wanted anything other than to stay who she was. She loved her parents, her brother, Alex, her friends - her LIFE. She didn't want to be having to make these decisions that seemed to affect whole worlds.
It wasn't fair - fair for any of them.
Liz moved forward, put her arm comfortingly around the taller girl. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to help you in this Isabel. We're in this together - whatever happens - until the end." Liz continued with determination. "And we're going to find out the truth, no matter what it is."
Isabel's spine straightened. "It's a deal."
The two girls smiled at each other, in perfect accord.
To be continued...
June 15, 2000 - Mesa Laco Reservation, near Roswell, New Mexico
I drew my pillow over my head when sunlight suddenly streamed through the window and directly onto my face. "What?" I asked groggily.
I knew it was Michael who had thrown open the curtains to the guest bedroom in River Dog's house. Why couldn't he ever just leave me in peace? I had been having the best dream - about Liz of course. In it, she stopped on the cliff near the pod chamber when I asked her to, turned around, told me she loved me and that she would never leave me. Trust Michael to interfere again. I still hadn't forgiven for him for not letting me go after her. Maybe it would have changed things.
"Get up Maximillian. Today's the day. Today's the day we learn who we really are."
I groaned. I threw my pillow at him. He caught it, scowling. "You say that every day Michael - and so far all I know is that I'm still Max Evans, so-called leader of my people, who would rather just go back to sleep."
"You're the one who decided to stay here Max. Don't you think Liz would want you to learn everything you could? Isn't it why she left you in the first place?"
Low blow.
I sat up and glared at him. "Fine." I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the shower.
Michael was sitting on my bed fiddling with something when I returned. I saw that it was one of the blue communicator orbs.
"What are you doing with that?" I asked suspiciously. "We agreed we weren't going to use it again. Nasedo warned us that it could be dangerous, that it could let the other race know where we are. Plus, its what caused all my problems in the first place."
"River Dog told me to bring it - we're meeting him at the cave." Michael explained.
I quickly dressed, poured myself some orange juice in River Dog's sunny kitchen and then followed Michael out the door. "Where's Tess?" I asked, not really caring, but pleased that she wasn't around.
"River Dog told her to go back to Roswell last night after you went to bed to sulk." Michael told me.
"And she went?" I asked, surprised. Tess had not let up on me since Isabel, Alex and Maria had left the Reservation a couple of weeks ago. I had told her that she was only allowed to stay if she dropped all that destiny business, but she hadn't gotten it through her thick, destiny-obsessed skull. It was really annoying.
But Tess had been useful in other ways. She knew a lot more about what Michael and I could do then we did - she had grown up knowing. She had been helping Michael mostly - the extent of his power to destroy was actually kind of scary. He didn't seem to like it much either.
"Who's going to help us now?" I asked, a little annoyed that River Dog had been so high-handed. Sure, he had been really helpful, but it annoyed me when he tried to tell me what to do. I didn't think he liked me very much sometimes. I kept remembering how he had told Liz to make sure she could trust me way back when we had first met him. He seemed to like Michael a lot more, in fact, always had. I remembered the Father's Camping trip and how annoyed he had sounded when Izzy and I had shown up at the place where Nasedo had left the message - like we didn't belong there or something.
Basically, I thought River Dog was weird and I didn't understand why he was so eager to help us.
But Michael trusted him and Michael needed people to trust these days. I knew that he still thought about having killed Pierce all the time. He needed to focus his thoughts elsewhere and River Dog gave him that outlet.
"The Dog said that he could take it from here." Michael informed me now. "He told Tess that she was distracting you, that you haven't made any progress because you keep having to push her away from you. She finally agreed that this was probably true and left." Michael looked momentarily nonplussed. "It was actually kind of weird Maxwell - she just suddenly changed her mind. Like she didn't really but just said she did."
I frowned, but didn't have time to reply. We were at the cave.
Michael ducked his spiky head, entered. I followed my best friend warily. Every time I came here I was reminded of the time Michael had almost died. It had been one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Sure we fought - a lot - but he was my brother. If there was any reason to trust River Dog, the cave always reminded me of what it was. He had saved Michael's life that day.
River Dog was seated in the centre of the healing circle as we entered the large chamber at the end of the tunnel. He had his eyes closed, but they popped open when I accidentally tripped over a rock, sending it scuttling against the stone wall. Michael turned and glared at me. "Sorry." I mouthed, feeling like I was two years old.
"Did you bring them?" River Dog asked without hesitation. Michael nodded, placed the orb in his hand on the ground in front of the old man, pulled the second blue communicator out of the pocket of his jacket and set it down.
"So, what are we doing today?" Michael asked eagerly. I never saw my friend as animated as he was when he was about to learn something to do with our heritage - well, except when he had been bickering with Maria. I smiled sadly to myself. Thinking of Maria made me think of Liz.
I shook my head, pushed the thought away, tried to focus on what River Dog was saying. "Today is the day you learn the truth about me boys." He told us, glancing affectionately at Michael, barely including me.
It was weird how he did that - his concern always concentrated on Michael, like he was the more important of the two of us. But wasn't I the leader?
Great Max, I thought to myself, arrogant much? It was good that Michael was the centre of attention to someone. Lord knew he had rarely experienced that in his life.
"What do you mean?" Michael asked suspiciously. River Dog just gazed at him, one eyebrow raised.
"I think you know Michael." I glanced at Michael, totally confused.
My best friend blinked, the said quietly, "You ARE one of us." My head snapped back around to stare at the native elder. He had a slight, knowing smile on his face. "Are you my father?" Michael asked, his eyes brightening in excitement.
"Yes, I am."
Part 22
I stared at River Dog in shock. Needless to say, Michael started shooting his mouth off immediately. "Why the hell did you lie to me?" He demanded. "I knew you were one of us! Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were not ready." River Dog replied calmly. He was still sitting motionless, cross-legged in the middle of the healing circle. His gaze rested solely on Michael.
"But I'm ready now?" Michael asked, his tone belligerent - he always behaved this way when he was hurt. I knew that he felt betrayed that River Dog had not trusted him in the same way he, Michael, had trusted the native elder - or should I make that alien, I amended wryly to myself. "What about my mother? What about the crash? Tell me about our home. Why did you desert me?" The words were still tumbling out of Michael's mouth. I didn't think I had ever heard him talk so much at one time.
River Dog did not answer any of his questions, just gazed at him with meaningful eyes.
I was suspicious. "Michael we need to talk about this alone." I told my best friend quietly. "We need to tell Isabel and Tess."
"It is not your place to tell anyone my lord." I blinked at the title the old man bestowed on me. Michael grimaced.
"I don't understand." I told him. "They're part of the Four Square. They need to know." River Dog ignored me again.
"Are you ready to learn about your true destiny my son?" He asked Michael. I saw Michael glance at me, confused. I shrugged - I was just as lost as he was.
And I realized suddenly that I was afraid. Once again, nothing had been what it seemed to be.
"Are you saying that what those things told us..."Michael pointed at the orbs on the ground, "Isn't true?" My heart leapt. Maybe Tess wasn't my destiny after all! Could I be with Liz without either of us feeling guilty?
River Dog eyed us both. "It was true. In a way. You heard the correct message, but misinterpreted its meaning." He told us.
Michael ran his hand through his hair in annoyance. "What?"
"The Four Square is incomplete." He told us. "The message was misinterpreted."
"Me, Max, Isabel, Tess." Michael counted off impatiently on his fingers. "Four!"
River Dog just smiled cryptically. Michael glanced at me again, rolled his eyes. "I feel like I'm in the bloody X-Files here," he muttered to me. "Why can't aliens ever speak straight?" I felt myself wanting to laugh. This whole situation was ludicrous.
"Fine." I said finally as River Dog continued to stare at Michael in silence. "We're leaving." I grabbed my friend by the arm. He didn't budge.
"Do not leave yet my lord." River Dog still wasn't looking at me. "You must learn Michael's true destiny." He indicated the orbs on the ground. "Use them again."
Michael and I stared at him. "But we're missing Tess and Isabel and what about the evil race?" I trailed off. Michael had stepped up to the nearest communicator, picked it up and then handed me the other one.
"Let's do it Maxwell." I had never seen my friend so determined.
"Michael, I want to talk to you first - alone." I said, equally as determined.
Michael shook his head. "It's now or never Max. You know that you want to know just as badly as I do. I know you." I swallowed, nodded.
What the orb told us might make things better. Maybe I could be with Liz and still save my people.
But then it could be worse.
Of course, no life could be worse then the lonely one I was currently living. "Okay."
Michael and I both held our communicators between our hands. I closed my eyes, concentrated, waited for it to heat up as it had when Tess and I had activated it a few weeks before.
Nothing happened. My eyes snapped open at River Dog's snort.
"It is you my lord. You are willfully stopping the communication." I stared at Michael's orb. It was glowing, while mine remained perfectly the same.
"I didn't do anything." I protested.
Michael opened his eyes. The orb in his hand gradually began to fade until it was exactly like mine again.
"Great Maxwell!" He glared at me, grabbed the orb out of my hand and stalked out of the cave.
River Dog truly looked at me for the first time since this whole conversation had begun. "You cannot stop his destiny my lord, so don't try. It will only be worse for you and those you love." His tone was even, but the underlying menace made me shudder.
He stalked past me, brushed my arm. Images began to assail my head...
Flash*
Liz lying motionless in a pool of blood.
Flash*
Isabel curled up in a ball in the middle of the White Room, Pierce standing menacingly over her.
Flash*
My parents pointing at me, staring in horror."Get that thing out of my house!" My dad yelled as my mom just cried, terror on her face.
Flash*
Maria and Alex and the Sheriff, and even Kyle and Tess...all dying in horrible ways.
Flash*
Michael and I in the desert, him glaring at me, saying "I was always the one."
I stumbled against the wall of the cave, threw my hands up to my head, trying to push the flashes away.
They stopped as abruptly as they had come.
I was alone.
Things sort of went back to a routine after that. I had tried to talk to Michael about what had happened, about the images that River Dog had sent me, but he generally ignored me, which I was not unused to.
But somehow, this time it was different. I knew he was still furious that the communicators had not worked and that he blamed me but the coldness that he started to develop...it was not Michael. The Michael I knew should have been flying off the handle, demanding that I figure out a way to make them work. It was weird.
Michael and I continued to train together despite the sudden distance between us. I was trying to develop the power to scan things into my mind that Nasedo had told Michael about when I had been rescued from Pierce. Tess had instructed us on the basics, but it was damn hard. I wasn't getting very far.
Michael was still working at fine-tuning his blast, as we had begun to refer to it. We didn't know what else to call it. And he was succeeding, where I was failing. He had improved to the point that he could actually aim, and he didn't kill or destroy things right away anymore.
I was disturbed that he had started to practice on live creatures. I came across him blasting a rattler one day, and it was over before I could stop him. It was only stunned though, which showed how much he had improved...but the lack of emotion that was involved. I didn't know what to think about what was happening to my friend.
He was changing.
Although I never saw them together, I knew that Michael and River Dog were going off together, that River Dog was training him, was telling him things that Michael was not passing on to me.
And everyday he spoke less to me and froze over a little more. It no longer seemed like he was mad at me, rather, that he just didn't care.
I wondered if I should call Isabel, ask her to come out and try and help me get through to Michael but then I didn't like the idea of getting her involved. The threatening image of her in the White Room that River Dog had sent me...No, it was best to keep Izzy and the rest of them as far away as possible.
Finally, one day I followed them. And I learned the truth about what River Dog really wanted with my friend.
Part 23
It was hard to follow River Dog and Michael and stay out of sight.
They headed straight out into the desert. There were few trees and very few things to duck behind should they turn around.
But they never did. They just walked.
The noon sun was beating down on my head when suddenly Michael and River Dog disappeared.
I broke into a run, tried to remember where exactly I had last seen them.
And then I stumbled over a rock and almost fell head-first into the hole.
It was small, barely five feet across, but I could tell that it was where my friend and River Dog had disappeared. Michael had left his water bottle sitting on a small rock near the entrance to what I assumed was an underground tunnel of some sort.
I got down on my hands and knees and peered into the dark opening. I couldn't see a thing, even when I made my hand light up the way I had when I had been with Liz and River Dog had "tested" me.
I really had no choice - I eased myself into the hole, was not surprised when my feet hung in mid-air.
I took a deep breath and let myself drop.
I didn't realize that I had been holding my breath until it whooshed back into my body when I hit the ground. I climbed unsteadily to my feet, looked back up the way I had come. Sunlight streamed into the tunnel from about ten feet above me.
The ball of light I created in my hand lit up the tunnel enough for me to see Michael and River Dog's footprints in the dust on the stone floor. They led off to the right.
It was then that I realized that the floor on which I was standing was not natural. It was smooth rock, clearly polished at one time, although it was now dusty and the walls were covered with spider webs. Where the hell am I? I wondered, amazed.
I swept my ball of light near the walls, was not at all surprised to see symbols engraved everywhere. I recognized the whirlwind galaxy from Isabel's pendant and the four-square and there were a bunch more that I had never seen before, but I somehow KNEW them all. I didn't know what they meant, but they were familiar to me.
Finally I tore myself away from trying to read the symbols. I scanned them into my brain, knowing that they probably wouldn't all be there when I went back to access them, but I had improved a little bit. All that practice hadn't totally been in vain.
I followed the footprints. They wound through what seemed to be endless twists and turns. The tunnel was heading down. I wondered how far underground I was when, after ten minutes, I still hadn't found Michael.
After another ten minutes I wondered if I had gone the right way. Then the footprints stopped abruptly. I looked back the way I had come and then I saw it..
A glowing handprint.
I stared at it for a minute. Well, it was now or never.
I swiped my hand across it and the wall slid back immediately. I inched my way into the chamber, saw River Dog and Michael conversing on the far side of the room.
I ducked behind an outcropping of rock. I carefully poked my head up, tried to hear what they were talking about.
"...you sure I'm ready for the final stage?" Michael was asking, his voice excited and hopeful.
"Yes, my son. You have been ready for a long time. And when it is done you will be ready to take your true role in our society - as his right-hand. You will convince him of his destiny and he will go through the ritual himself. When you are both cleansed, then we will complete the Four Square."
What the hell are they talking about? I asked myself, getting more and more worried. I just knew that something was not right here.
I turned my head, scanning the room for an answer.
And then I saw them.
Five glowing pods.
I stared at them, tried to see if they were like the ones I had seen in the pod chamber. They were identical - but there were five. What the...
I turned back to stare at River Dog. He was helping Michael into a white body-suit. I sort of recognized it. It looked like the ones Michael, Isabel and I had been wearing in the memory Tess had shown me of us emerging from our pods when we were little.
"The first four stages cleansed you of your human skeletal structure, your blood supply, your human thought patterns and the majority of your organs." River Dog was explaining to Michael. My mouth fell open. "This last stage will be the most important - it will transform your human heart, return you to your true form - that of warrior and true member of our society. You will be ready to return to Illyria." Michael was nodding, clearly not disturbed at all by the fact that the other man had told him that he was losing his humanity.
And suddenly I knew exactly what the pods were for - they were to prepare us to return to our home planet.
It had never dawned on me that we would be unable to return as humans, but of course we couldn't. When Tess had told me that we were mostly human, just advanced humans, I had been glad. It had never occurred to me that that might not be the final form that the cloning of our essences was to take.
And Michael was only one stage away from NOT being human...from leaving us all
behind, from abandoning his true self, his Michaelness.
My brother would be gone.
Ridiculously, I wondered wildly what his name was on our home planet because what was I going to call him when he was no longer Michael?
Okay, Max get yourself together, I ordered myself. You're the leader here. It is your responsibility to stop this.
Because even though I often felt like every question we had answered only made me realize how ignorant I really was of my place in the world, the universe, I was sure of one thing.
This was wrong.
I stepped out from my hiding spot. Michael had just waved his hand across the front of one of the pods. It was opening, the sides pulling apart in a strangely organic manner.
"Michael! Stop!" He whipped his head around, stared at me.
River Dog grabbed him by the arm, shoved him into the pod.
"Michael!" I raced across the chamber, pushing River Dog aside, tried desperately to grasp Michael's arm but the pod closed around him, pushing my hand out.
As I watched in horror, the pod began to fill with a clear liquid. Michael's eyes closed and a blank expression came over his face. He floated in the liquid, apparently unconscious.
I turned, grabbed River Dog, pulling him to his feet. "I command you to get him out of there!" I barked. Being the supposed leader had to be good for something - I hoped.
The old man laughed, his tone mocking. "It is too late my lord. It is done." He pulled away from me and as I watched in astonishment he shape-shifted. He was no longer River Dog but instead...Michael. "And now I have you exactly where I want you."
Part 24
"Who are you?" I demanded, now positive that whoever this guy was, he was not Michael's father. And then I knew.
He was one of THEM. The enemy. They had found us. "It's me you want, isn't it?" I asked quietly. I was amazed that I sounded so calm. I had just seen my best friend literally become a pod person. Shouldn't I be a little more upset?
"Of course." The Michael clone looked over his shoulder at the real Michael, who was floating peacefully in his pod. There was disdain in his voice when he continued, "He has always been unimportant. He could not save you in your past life and now with his insipid human desire for a family he has doomed you in this one."
I felt red-hot rage. "Don't talk about him like that! You don't know him at all."
"Oh, I know him." The shapeshifter replied arrogantly. "Michael has always been weak and completely unable to see past his own desires. Why they sent him with you, I'll never know, but it made my mission easier." He sounded pleased.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded again. I needed as much information as he could provide. It was becoming more and more clear that he liked to talk about himself and how brilliant he was. The more I kept him talking, the better. "And why are you Michael?"
The shapeshifter eyed me, a slight smirk on his Michael-face. " I am Michael because I choose to be - it is but a form. My true role is that of your destroyer Jaxon Falconer - and the facilitator of your rebirth." I blinked.
"Pardon me?"
"That is your true name you know - Jaxon Falconer, Blue Prince, King of Illyria." It had the ring of truth to it. But the name did not sound at all familiar.
I was Max Evans - and that's who I intended to remain.
"What do you want with me - us?" I indicated Michael, but I really meant ALL of us, Isabel and Tess included.
"I don't want them at all." The Michael clone sneered. "They are insignificant to what I want. They will remain on this puny planet and hopefully rot. They are only important so far as they help me control YOU."
He waved his hand in the air. An image began to form - it was Liz. "Now this one...her importance is only just becoming clear. At least to you." He smirked at me. "I believe that she has recently gone on a little trip." I stiffened. "Well, no matter. She will be back."
I felt the intense fear and panic that had engulfed me the last time Liz, Isabel and my friends had been threatened. Pierce had been bad enough, but at least he had been human. This guy was certainly not, and was also clearly insane.
I forced myself to remain calm. My tone of voice was ingratiating when I finally managed to say, "Tell me everything. Maybe I will choose to go with you in spite of them."
He snorted. "You cannot fool me my lord. They are the key to controlling you. Bringing you back to Illyria, completely powerless, then bringing you to our side. I will be as a god on our world. And I will be able to rule through you. Or my leader will." He amended.
I was getting seriously confused now...and worried. How could I possibly defeat this guy if he wouldn't tell me what he intended to do? "What is your name?" I asked, trying anything to keep him talking. I glanced quickly at Michael in the pod, wondered how long until his transformation was complete. Cd he be turned back?
"I am Tarsus of Dernia. I am the right-hand of the one who defeated you the first time Jaxon Falconer nd I am here to bring you back so that we can finish the job."
"Ummmm...call me Max." I replied. This Jaxon Falconer stuff was not what I wanted to hear about at the moment. It seemed wrong somehow. "What do you want me to do? You already know that I will do anything to save my friends." There was no point in lying to him, he knew it already. "Just get to the point."
"It is not so easy as that...Max." He accepted my request to call me by my familiar name. "With that one," He indicated Michael, "He had already given up on humanity. He was willing to do so eagerly in order to find his true self. He loved as a human, but he craved his other side more. He was an easy pawn to play."
He stared at me intently. "You, however, will not allow the transformation so easily. Your bonds to this world are too strong. You have accepted your humanity - in fact you revel in it - and it is all because of this girl." He waved his hand through the image of Liz, which was still floating in the air. It disappeared suddenly. "You must step back from them, make them hate you. Break their bonds to you and you will break YOUR bond to them."
"But I cannot choose to go with you?" I asked desperately. I would do anything to protect them - even leave them.
"No. The heart is a strong force. Michael was able to give up his heart for the chance at a family, not realizing that once he loses it he will no longer care about family anyway. We do not love in our race in the way the pitiful humans do. It is weak. You will never willingly give up your human heart, no matter how long you pickle in that pod. And as long as they love you in return, you can never be changed."
Tarsus of Dernia's expression was blank. I realized that the only emotion he had displayed up to this point had been arrogance. This had been very similarly the case with Nasedo, although I had seen glimmerings of a heart when he dealt with Tess.
If I gave up my humanity, I would lose all emotion. It was a scary thought. I turned to stare at Michael. Would he be that way when he came out? Had he really, willfully broken all his human ties? I just could not believe it somehow. I KNEW that he had loved Maria...and me and Isabel and maybe even Liz and Alex. How could he have thrown it all away so easily?
And I felt anger at my friend.
But I would not desert him. "Can you please not look like him?" I demanded, suddenly not wanting the bastard in front of me to lay claim to my best friend's face any longer.
Tarsus complied, shapeshifted back to River Dog's form. I suddenly had a thought.
"How did you find us?" I asked.
"The communicators of course." He replied. He had moved slightly away and was fiddling with something on the wall. I could see that it was an organic control panel of some sort.
"So then you were not the one who healed Michael here last winter?" It was a formality. I knew now that the real River Dog had probably been murdered by this maniac.
"Of course not." He snorted. "I would have let him die. That old man did not know what hit him." I felt a pang for that kind, wise man. Michael had cared about him, and though he had not seemed to like me much, he had always been there, someone who knew who we were and accepted us anyway.
Tarsus stopped whatever he was doing. As I watched sadly, Michael began to emerge from his pod. His expression was blank and he stared at me without recognition.
"Get dressed Michael." Tarsus told him abruptly. He watched Michael carefully as he complied, clearly trying to see if the transformation had been a success. I was staring at my best friend, my "pitiful" human heart breaking for him.
"Can he shapeshift now?" I asked.
"No." Tarsus replied. "It is unnecessary for him to have that ability. Your race has given it up anyway. The pods only program what is required." He turned back to me. "You have the power to turn him back Max Evans."
I knew what he wanted from me before he even said it. "You'll make him human again if I do what you want?"
"I am glad that you are as intelligent in this life Jaxon Falconer as you were in the last." Tarsus said smugly. "It makes life much easier." He gave me my instructions, knowing me too well. I would do anything to save my friend and he knew that I considered returning him to humanity to be saving him, although he could not understand it himself. "Return to your little human life and break your ties. Make them hate you and return to me. Then the ritual to cleanse you of your humanity will be possible and the return to Illyria will follow swiftly."
I swallowed, could not peel my eyes from Michael, who still looked exactly like Michael, but was NOT him. "Fine."
"And do not try any funny business my lord." Tarsus of Dernia warned me. "Michael is my pawn now. I can see through his eyes and I can ACT through his body. I will hurt them if I must. Not all of them - some must be there to reject you - but some of them are expendable."
I glared at him. "Fine." I said again.
I led the way out of the chamber, Michael following close behind. He still had not spoken a word.
I had been a lonely person in the past, always "behind the tree" as Ms. Topolsky had told me once, but at least I had had Isabel and my parents and Michael...and then I had Liz and Maria and Alex. But that was over.
For the first time I truly knew what it was to be alone.
Part 25
Fraser Woods, near Roswell, New Mexico - January 2001
Liz had been unaware of the tears streaming down her face until Max stopped talking.
They had finally stopped walking while Max told his story because Liz, Isabel and Alex kept smashing into trees in the dark, they were concentrating so hard on what Max was telling them. Now Max was leaning against a tree, Liz seated between his legs, leaning back against his chest. He had practically been in a trance the entire time he had been talking, but she had known that he had been aware of her, stroking her arms every once in a while to warm her up when she shivered, or placing a kiss on her temple or her ear or the back of her head every once in a while. She was pleased that her presence seemed to be comforting him.
Alex and Isabel were sitting side-by-side on a log to their right. Isabel's face was icy - Liz could see the fury she felt at what her brother had been forced to deal with on his own over the past few months. Liz guessed that anger was Isabel's defense mechanism over her true feelings - supreme terror that she was going to either lose Max or Michael - or maybe both, depending on how things went when they tried to rescue Maria. Alex was doing his best to support her, but Isabel flinched away from his touch, clearly needing to deal with this on her own, at least for the moment.
Liz did not blame Isabel for trying not to feel anything. The situation looked impossible. To save Michael, they were going to have to sacrifice Max or vice versa. Liz felt panic begin to rise in her chest at the thought of losing Max. She had just accepted that they belonged together, destiny be damned. How could she let him go now?
Because Liz knew without a shadow of a doubt, if it came down to a choice between Max and Michael, Michael would win out. Max would accept nothing else. He would go with Tarsus of Dernia and they would lose him.
"I don't know what to say." Alex said suddenly, breaking the stunned silence that they had all been sitting in. "I mean, did you believe all this stuff that he told you about who you really are Max? I don't understand all that blather about the Four Square not being complete. I mean, how can Izzy and Tess NOT be important." Alex shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense. What about what that book said? What about what the transmission from your mother?"
Liz felt Max shrug behind her. "I don't know what to believe. He could be lying for all I know. But I do know that he is one of the enemy race our mother spoke of and I do know that something has happened to Michael. I think we have to believe him."
"Then there's no hope." Isabel said in such a calm manner, it made Liz's blood run cold.
"No Isabel! There's always hope." Liz said urgently. "I mean, Maria told me when I first got home that Michael freaked out when she dated Neal Freemont last fall. That has to mean something?" She looked at Alex appealingly, "Don't you think?"
Alex nodded slowly. "Yeah, I remember that. He was still going through the motions at the Crashdown then." He looked at Max. "I wonder - do you think that Michael is still in there somewhere?"
Max sighed. "I don't think so." He glanced at Isabel worriedly. She looked so brittle, Liz thought that any wrong word might make her crack. "But maybe. I guess it's worth a try."
"So then what's the plan?" Alex asked, standing up, clearly eager to get the show on the road.
"First and most importantly, we need to get Maria out of there. That's your job guys. I'm going to distract Michael - hopefully he won't know you're there. I know that he knows that I screwed up somehow but he doesn't know that I told you guys everything. I'll try and convince him that Liz just won't leave me alone and that I cracked a bit." Max kissed the top of Liz's head, then gently pushed her to her feet.
"And then what?" Isabel demanded. "We're not going to just leave Michael?"
Max scowled. "Of course not!" Liz took his hand, tried to calm him down. "You'll leave and I'll give myself up to Tarsus." Liz closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She had known he was going to say that but hearing the words was like a stab to the heart.
"NO Max!" Isabel suddenly exploded. "I can't lose you! I can't!" She was shrieking, quickly becoming hysterical. Liz knew exactly how she felt - wanted to scream too, but she couldn't. Max didn't need her flipping out on him on top of everything else he had to deal with.
Besides there was no way he was giving himself up to anyone.
She would not allow it.
Max looked helplessly at Alex, who was trying to calm Isabel down. The whole outburst was so unlike Izzy, neither quite knew what to do. Max moved forward, tried to pull her into his arms to comfort her.
Isabel turned away from him, was suddenly quiet, which was almost more terrifying. "I want to talk to Liz alone." She said in a voice that brooked no opposition.
Max and Alex stared at her, turned to Liz hopefully. She nodded. "You guys go wait for us at the highway." Liz could hear the cars whizzing by on the Interstate. They were obviously close to the road.
"I don't like leaving you alone." Max said stubbornly. Liz smiled encouragingly at him.
"It's okay Max. We'll just be a minute." Max finally nodded, pulled Liz into his arms for a quick kiss and followed Alex off into the woods.
Liz turned to Isabel. "Are you all right?"
Isabel's face was a mask of ice again. "I refuse to allow this Liz." She said. "We have to stop him and we have to get Michael back too." Her beautiful face set into stubborn lines. "I am not going to lose EITHER of my brothers."
"I understand Isabel. I have no intention of letting Max sacrifice himself either." Liz replied. Isabel eyed her, nodded resolutely.
"Then we're in agreement. Max is in charge, but only if it looks like he's going to be reasonable. I won't let him play the martyr again Liz. He has to learn that we're all in this together or we all lose." Isabel tugged on her hair in frustration. "I don't understand any of this! Why did this thing come after only Max and Michael? Something's wrong here Liz! Was my mother wrong in that message? I mean, its not like we were going to follow that stupid destiny stuff anyway, but can't we trust anything to be the truth?" Isabel's eyes filled with tears.
Liz felt her heart go out to the other girl. Isabel had never wanted anything other than to stay who she was. She loved her parents, her brother, Alex, her friends - her LIFE. She didn't want to be having to make these decisions that seemed to affect whole worlds.
It wasn't fair - fair for any of them.
Liz moved forward, put her arm comfortingly around the taller girl. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to help you in this Isabel. We're in this together - whatever happens - until the end." Liz continued with determination. "And we're going to find out the truth, no matter what it is."
Isabel's spine straightened. "It's a deal."
The two girls smiled at each other, in perfect accord.
To be continued...