Part 43
"Is it possible for Czechoslovakians to give straight answers?" Liz heard Kyle mutter to Alex. Alex snorted.
Ren turned his dark eyes on Kyle. Kyle smirked, trying to look innocent. "I will try and explain."
"It better be quickly." Kyle replied, indicating Maria. "She looks like she's about to explode." She was still struggling against Michael's grip.
"Jennetta is undergoing a transformation but not the one you think." Ren told them. "These are not cleansing pods." He turned to Michael. "Are these the pods Tarsus used to cleanse you?"
After Michael nodded, Ren frowned. "I don't understand how that was possible. These pods were meant for incubation, not cleansing." He pointed at the four dark pods sitting nearby. "Those were meant for Jaxon, Mirana, Tristandor and Sabrya. They are dark because the four of you matured naturally and therefore never had cause to use them."
Liz could feel Max tense beside her. "What do you mean we 'matured naturally'?" He asked.
Ren appeared to be deep in thought. "The history is vague but from what I understand, the four of you were never meant to grow up human." He paused, clearly trying to straighten something out in his own mind. "My father was sent with you, was supposed to allow you break free naturally from your infancy pods and then re-pod you for complete maturation. But the Crash changed all that. My father and Silesa managed to hide both sets of pods before they were captured, as you have probably determined from these tunnels, our people have been to Earth many times before and my father and his companion knew it well, but not well enough to avoid detection for long. The Crash was impossible to mask. By the time my father managed to escape from the government, Silesa had been killed and Jaxon, Mirana and Tristandor had already broken free of their pods and were gone."
Liz felt a stab of shock. "His father?" She asked Max under her breath, although she had a good idea who Ren's father had to be. Max squeezed her hand, acknowledging that he had thought of the same thing.
"Who is your father?" He asked. It was clear that everyone else was fine with Max taking control of this situation. It was what he did best.
Ren's expression darkened. "My father was Laren -the one you knew as Nasedo."
Liz heard Tess gasp. "Knew? You don't mean he's dead too?" Liz glanced at the blonde, who looked to be on the verge of tears. Although he had likely not been much of a father, he was the only family Tess had ever known. Liz was surprised that Kyle made no move to comfort her. In the end Michael went and put his arm around her, dragging Maria along with him.
Maria was half in a daze anyway and didn't seem to mind. She didn't really seem to be taking any of the conversation in. She just kept her eyes glued on Jennetta, clearly looking for confirmation that her daughter still lived.
Tess glanced at Michael in confusion at first, but her face smoothed and she seemed to light up from within.
"Danala's first act upon arriving on the Earth was to kill my father. Tarsus contacted her immediately after he assumed the old man River Dog's form, which helped him in his plan to get close to you, by imitating someone you trusted. Danala came and tracked my father to the Special Unit where you had sent him and killed him." Ren told them stiffly.
"Nasedo warned us that there were beings searching for us." Max admitted. Liz could feel the guilt emanating from her boyfriend in waves. "I decided to activate them anyway."
Michael looked upset too, but was more angry when he interjected, "It wasn't your fault Maxwell. Nasedo had the responsibility to tell us why it was so dangerous. Instead he abandoned us. Going to the Special Unit was clearly a mistake. We should have left town." Michael glared at Ren challengingly. "Nasedo should have made us!"
Liz eyed Ren worriedly. He had his lips pressed together, angry that his father was being disparaged, but his tone was even as he explained. "My father was programmed to obey Jaxon at all costs - even if it turned out to detrimental to the four of you."
Liz couldn't help herself. "Why?" She asked. "Wouldn't it have made more sense for Nasedo to be the one in charge? At least until Max and the other three were old enough and experienced enough to assume leadership?"
Ren smiled at her sadly. "Again no one counted on the Crash. My father's main function was to protect the pods and re-pod the four when they broke free. All the memories they needed to rule and to return to Illyria were programmed into the second set of pods. My father was never supposed to have to make any decisions. The problem was that, although Milena trusted my father, Hamor, Jaxon and Mirana's stepfather, did not trust him completely. He had already been a turn-coat once you see."
And Liz understood. "So Hamor made it so that it would be physically impossible for Nasedo to betray them."
"Indeed. We all make mistakes." Ren said quietly. "Mine was not to recognize earlier that my father had taken the true path, that cleansing was wrong and made the Dernians weak. Hamor's was not to see that my father could be trusted."
"But this still doesn't tell us what is going on with Jennetta." Michael inserted impatiently. "So she's in some sort of incubation? How long does it last? What does it mean?"
"It is supposed to last the same time as the original podding." Ren replied, eyeing Jennetta's pod, a worried expression on his face. "That is to say several months."
"But we were in our original pods for almost forty years!" Isabel exclaimed. She had obviously been listening closely to Ren, but this was the first time she had spoken. Liz knew that hearing about anything alien was hard for Isabel. She had always been the one who wanted nothing to do with her alien heritage. She liked being a human.
Ren just looked upset. "We have never been able to figure out what went wrong. Lucianus determined that it must have had something to do with space travel and time changes and all the things that are so hard to control in the infiniteness of space. Perhaps even the trauma of the Crash caused them to fail - or at least delayed them. They are organic after all."
"Which brings to mind another little question." Alex muttered. Everyone turned to look at him. He reddened slightly. "Sorry, keeping it shut over here."
"No Alex, we're all a part of this now." Max said quietly. "What is it?"
Alex swallowed, but spoke up. "Well, I mean, why were you guys sent in a ship in the first place? How dumb was that, what with all the portals that everyone seems to be able to open all the time. It must have taken a really long time to get here. What was the point?" Alex seemed to be on a roll now. "Which also begs the question, what is up with all the indiscrepancies in time anyway? When you guys were gone," He indicated Michael and Maria, "It was like one hour here, but clearly a lot longer on Illyria." He nodded towards the pod. "Jennetta being the prime evidence of that."
"But Max was gone so much longer - close to a year on Earth." Liz added. "But when he came back he hadn't aged by three hundred years."
They all turned back to Ren. The shapeshifter sighed. "This is a bit complicated." When they all still looked interested, he continued. "Briefly then - you were sent on a ship because only Jaxon and Mirana have ever had the gift of opening the portal. It is, and always has been, activated through the Waylandian Ring and only the true heirs of Ilyria, called the Blue Prince or Blue Lady - depending on sex - and the White Prince or White Lady, can activate it."
"And they couldn't activate it because they were already dead." Kyle finished. He smirked at Max. Liz wanted to smack him. Kyle did not seem very inclined to be kind to Max since he had been back and Liz was sure that it had everything to do with Tess. She sighed.
"That still doesn't explain the time differences." Max said, clearly ignoring Kyle.
Ren nodded, continuing. "When your essences were cloned and sent to Earth an interdict was passed on Illyria. That's to say, basically time stopped. The planet was awaiting your return. Danala managed, somehow, to keep time going in Dernia however. It didn't really matter one way or the other. Our lifetimes are so much longer that most of the people you knew in your first lifetimes would still have been around when you returned. The four would have lived for hundreds of years had their lives not been cut short violently. Your father was killed in much the same way. He was very young when he died, barely fifty years old, another victim of the conflict between my people and the Illyrians."
"Sort of like Chewbacca." Liz heard Alex say to himself. Again they all turned to stare at him. He held up his hands defensively. "Hey! Don't blame me! Chewie was like three hundred years old in Star Wars!" Isabel rolled her eyes. "He was!" Alex exclaimed.
"And Yoda was over eight hundred." Kyle added. He smirked at Max again. "Apparently you guys are sort of like little green men after all."
"Kyle!" Liz glared at him. Liz glanced at Max. He actually looked amused, which seemed to annoy Kyle even more.
Liz noticed Tess watching the whole exchange, a strange look on her face.
"Anyway..." Michael began motioning with his hands for them to speed it up. "What you're saying is that Jenny could be stuck in this thing," he tapped the pod, "For fifty years?"
Ren just shook his head. "It cannot be speculated. I still cannot figure out how Tarsus managed to cleanse you in one of them Tristandor."
Liz could see Max's face frowning pensively. "He must have altered them somehow."
"What do you mean?" Ren asked, seeming intrigued.
"When Michael was cleansed Tarsus had to make him go in a bunch of times, but when he tried to cleanse me it only took once." Max elaborated. "He told me at the time that it was because he was having some problems with the cleansing pods. He thought they had been damaged in the Crash. He obviously didn't know that they weren't cleansing pods at all. In the end he must have modified them somehow."
"Which could also explain why Michael's cleansing was reversed with the journey through the portal. His cleansing was faulty to begin with." Maria spoke up. Everyone turned to stare at her. She had been quiet for so long Liz was sure that she had gone into a state of advanced shock.
"It makes sense." Ren nodded.
"I just have one question." Maria continued.
Ren smiled at her sympathetically. "Yes my lady?"
"How old were Michael and the others supposed to be when they emerged from their second podding?"
Ren grimaced. "Older." He said sadly.
"How old?" Maria demanded in a fierce voice.
"The age they were when they were killed." Ren swallowed, looking uncomfortable. "Jaxon, Mirana and Tristandor were all 21. Sabrya was 19."
"But Jennetta was never supposed to exist." Michael said. "How old is she going to be?" Liz could hear a note of fury beginning to creep back into his voice.
Ren licked his licks, clearly not eager to answer. "She was supposed to exist." He finally said cryptically.
Michael was breathing deeply. Liz could feel Max tensing up, preparing to stop Michael from attacking the shapeshifter, which he seemed on the verge of doing. Yet Michael's voice was disturbingly calm when he said, "We'll get into THAT later. I want to know how many years my daughter is going to lose."
Ren closed his eyes. Liz could tell that he was upset. Finally he spoke. "A random age was programmed." He swallowed again and then spat out the horrible truth. "Jennetta will be 21 years old when she emerges from the pod."
Part 44
Max rubbed his eyes as he guided the Jeep down the highway. His mind was whirling with all the information Ren had provided over the last couple of hours. He knew that he would be mulling it over for days.
He had not absorbed the horror of the announcement Ren had made about Jennetta's future. His little sister was losing her childhood, Michael and Maria were losing the joy of watching their daughter grow up. They had already lost so much. The unfairness of it was like a physical pain to Max.
And there was absolutely nothing any of them could do. It certainly wasn't like they hadn't tried to get Ren to give them some sort of hope that the process could be halted.
Maria had been the first to react to the news. Her eyes had rolled up in her head and she had fainted from the impact of her grief. Michael had barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor. Liz had left Max's side, rushing to Maria.
Michael had let Liz take Maria in her arms, had let her talk soothingly to her best friend. The rage in his voice was barely controlled as he asked, "Why? Why is this happening to my daughter?"
"It's her destiny." Ren replied, sounding upset that THEY were upset, but clearly a little confused as to WHY they were all so upset.
"Not that word! Please! Anything but that word!" Tess had shrieked from where she stood, near the maturation pod that might have originally been the one meant for her.
Michael had pressed his lips together. "How can this be her destiny?" He demanded. "She wasn't supposed to exist! I was supposed to be with Isabel, not Maria. How can my half-human daughter be the 'salvation of out planet' as you so eloquently called her a while ago?"
Max had blinked, stared at Michael. This was not the act-first, think about consequences later Michael to whom he was accustomed. The whole ordeal he and Maria had endured together had matured him in a way that made him almost unrecognizable to Max.
The old Michael probably would have beaten Ren into a bloody pulp by now.
Maybe something good HAD come of this whole catastrophe, although Max almost missed the old Michael. It would mean that none of this had ever happened. He would not have wished the tragedy his best friend had endured on anyone.
"It was a safety clause." Ren explained. "Although the Crash was not anticipated, it was determined that something MIGHT go wrong. If any of you were to die on the journey or during the maturation process, it was decided that the remaining three would be allowed to live out their lives on Earth. The Four were only capable of uniting the two factions as a unit." He glanced significantly at Jennetta. "And yet a ruler would still be needed." He paused, continued wryly. "It was hoped that at least one of the remaining four would produce a child - one that could be taken to Illyria and proclaimed the unifier."
"That still doesn't explain anything about Jennetta." Alex said. "How could it have been known that she would be born? And how could ANY child born on Earth be a unifier? It wouldn't be half-Dernian/half-Illyrian, which seems to be what you have all decided is the answer to all the problems."
"The legend." Ren had explained. "It was always assumed that the Chosen One would be half-Illyrian/half-Dernian because it was known that it would be a child of mixed blood. The annals never specified what specific conditions were attached to being the Chosen One, only that it would be a child of dual heritage. No one counted on the fact that it would be half-human." He paused again. "Except for Lucianus, which is why he insisted that a fifth pod be sent."
"What?" Isabel had asked the question they were all thinking. "What on Earth are you talking about? What do humans have to do with any of this?"
Ren had raised an eyebrow. "You cannot tell me that you have not all wondered why everyone on Earth looks exactly like everyone on Illyria? Or why Earth was chosen as your destination in the first place your highness?"
Michael and Max had exchanged looks. "Well, I guess I haven't." Max finally replied, feeling a little sheepish.
Ren had looked perplexed that they were all so dense. "Earth was an Illyrian colony."
"So the X-Files are true!" Alex had exclaimed. "I knew it!" When everyone had turned to glare at him, he reddened. "Er, sorry."
"The portal was created specifically for that reason." Ren had explained. "Our explorers came here many thousands of years ago, so long ago that the Dernians as a faction did not even exist yet, to build the Ring that would receive the portal that only the true heirs could open. It was hoped that travel between the two worlds would be frequent and beneficial to both planets, but something needed to be done to overcome the problem of time loss that results from space travel. Stonehenge, as the Ring on Earth has been called, was meant to receive the portal so that the energy from the stones could absorb the lost time." He had paused again, looking pained. "Unfortunately the humans were so unadvanced at that stage that the whole project was deemed worthless and Illyria abandoned the plan."
"That still doesn't explain why Illyrians look like humans." Liz had put in from where she was still holding Maria. Maria was no longer unconscious, although she looked slightly dazed. Max could tell that she was listening to what was going on around her though.
Ren had shrugged. "It was why Earth was chosen. The Illyrian genetic make-up is so similar, it was determined that it was the best planet with which to make contact. Dernians are of course shapeshifters, but our genetics are very closely linked as well. Illyrians used to have the ability but have lost it over the millenia from lack of use." He had looked at Liz, Alex, Maria and Kyle significantly. "Even HUMANS have the ability. They have many aspects of their brains that they do not access. It is the great tragedy of the species as a whole." Ren glanced at Jennetta. "But Lucianus knew that humans would still have a role to play in our history."
"Nasedo told me something similar, about the untapped reaches of the human mind I mean." Michael had told Max. He looked at Jennetta, floating peacefully in her pod. A deep despair seemed to come over him. Max clenched his jaw. His own sadness was growing. "Jenny - or any other child born to any of us - has always been doomed then."
"Who is Lucianus?" Liz had asked.
"Lucianus is the beginning and the end." Ren replied evasively.
"In English please." It was Kyle who had spoken up at this point. He was shaking his head. "I mean, can't they ever just spit it out?" Max eyed him for a minute, concerned. Kyle had been behaving strangely ever since he had returned to the transformation chamber with Tess. He looked like he was about to snap at any moment.
" I don't really know how to put it into words. Lucianus is the power of the Ring in Illyrian form." Ren had explained, shaking his head. "That's not really right though either."
"He isn't...God?" Liz had asked quietly. Max had felt his heart stop. He stared at Liz. The expression on her face was unreadable.
"No. Not exactly. He is not the Creator." Ren replied, scratching his neck. "He is energy, maybe a small part of the Creator."
"Why is he on Illyria?" Max had managed to ask.
"Is he not everywhere?" Ren had shot back. He clearly wanted to change the subject, it being one with which he was uncomfortable. Max had realized that Ren's manner of being in control of a situation was by knowing about every little in and out of the story. Things he did not understand, he preferred to ignore and just accept.
But then who didn't have a little bit of that in them?
"Anyway, Tristandor, I must disagree with you that Jennetta is doomed." Ren had told Michael.
Max had felt an overwhelming sense of relief sweep through the transformation chamber. "Then the transformation can be stopped?" Maria had asked, as Liz helped her to her feet.
"No." Ren had stared at her. "What I meant was that she is to be the Chosen One, the saviour of our people. She will know all of this when she emerges from the pod. She will be ready to take her place on the throne of Illyria, will unify the people and bring peace to the planet."
"But she's only a little girl." Maria had said. "She's my baby. I barely know her." Max had seen the tears welling in her eyes. Michael had reached out, pulled her into his arms. Max had felt a flash of pain from Liz's direction, knew that she was grieving for her friend.
Liz had come and taken his hand, looking for comfort, frustrated that she could do nothing to help Maria and Michael.
"But what of us?" Max had asked. "If Jennetta is to sit on the throne, are none of us needed anymore?" He realized that he didn't care one way or the other. He had absolutely no intention of returning to Illyria, come hell or high water. But he was curious to know how they could be replaced so easily.
"I don't know." Ren frowned slightly. "I only know that Lucianus foresaw that Jennetta would be the one."
"It might be nice for Lucianus to pop in right about now." Alex had muttered. Isabel had pinched him warningly. "Again, sorry. Frustration being vocalized in unnecessary angst."
Max and Liz had both been watching Michael and Maria with concern. The despair that surrounded them was almost suffocating.
"Michael?" Max had finally asked, trying to find out what his friend wanted them to do.
There was silence for a moment. And then, "I think we need to be alone with her for a while Maxwell."
Ren had interjected then. "I cannot leave her. I am her bodyguard."
Max had intervened firmly. "You can leave her for one night." He told the shapeshifter.
"But Tarsus is likely trying to find a way through the portal." Ren had argued. "He will know that Danala has been destroyed."
"One night." Max had repeated. Ren scowled, but nodded finally nodded his head.
"Yes your highness."
And they had all left, Max telling Michael that they would be back first thing in the morning.
Now, Liz was quiet beside him in the passenger seat, although her hand was resting on his leg as though she couldn't stand not to have some sort of physical contact with him. He was glad, because he felt exactly the same way.
In the back seat Isabel had fallen asleep with her head on Alex's shoulder. Alex was staring off into the pitch black desert night, silent, as they all had been since they had left the Reservation. Kyle, Tess and Ren were following in the Mustang.
"How can things ever go back to normal after this Max?" Liz asked him quietly, shattering the unnatural stillness that had permeated the car.
"They can't Liz." Max picked up the hand that was resting on his leg, brought her palm to his lips. "But as long as we're all together, somehow we'll work it out."
Liz was quiet for a moment longer and then she said, "I want you to promise me that if you ever leave again, that if you ever decide you have to go back there, that you'll take me with you."
"Liz..."
"I mean it. I know that you would never break a promise to me. It's why you didn't promise that you'd be back the first time you left. You didn't know for sure that you'd be able to come back." Max turned his head, looked at her lovingly, before he turned his eyes back to the road. "So I'm not getting out of this car until you promise me."
The lights of the city were appearing ahead of them. Max felt his heart swell.
His home. Roswell was his home. EARTH was his home.
It was where he had found Liz, his true love, the one person in the universe who completed him...
He would never leave it again.
"I'm not going anywhere." He told Liz firmly.
"Max! That's NOT a promise!" Liz's voice was rising.
Max smiled slightly to himself. If Liz Parker was anything, she was stubborn. "I promise that I will never leave YOU again." He turned to look at her again. "I swear it. And if that means that you have to come across the universe with me, well, I guess that's what will happen."
But I'm not going anywhere, Max thought to himself. And neither is Jennetta, if I have anything to say about it.
"Is it possible for Czechoslovakians to give straight answers?" Liz heard Kyle mutter to Alex. Alex snorted.
Ren turned his dark eyes on Kyle. Kyle smirked, trying to look innocent. "I will try and explain."
"It better be quickly." Kyle replied, indicating Maria. "She looks like she's about to explode." She was still struggling against Michael's grip.
"Jennetta is undergoing a transformation but not the one you think." Ren told them. "These are not cleansing pods." He turned to Michael. "Are these the pods Tarsus used to cleanse you?"
After Michael nodded, Ren frowned. "I don't understand how that was possible. These pods were meant for incubation, not cleansing." He pointed at the four dark pods sitting nearby. "Those were meant for Jaxon, Mirana, Tristandor and Sabrya. They are dark because the four of you matured naturally and therefore never had cause to use them."
Liz could feel Max tense beside her. "What do you mean we 'matured naturally'?" He asked.
Ren appeared to be deep in thought. "The history is vague but from what I understand, the four of you were never meant to grow up human." He paused, clearly trying to straighten something out in his own mind. "My father was sent with you, was supposed to allow you break free naturally from your infancy pods and then re-pod you for complete maturation. But the Crash changed all that. My father and Silesa managed to hide both sets of pods before they were captured, as you have probably determined from these tunnels, our people have been to Earth many times before and my father and his companion knew it well, but not well enough to avoid detection for long. The Crash was impossible to mask. By the time my father managed to escape from the government, Silesa had been killed and Jaxon, Mirana and Tristandor had already broken free of their pods and were gone."
Liz felt a stab of shock. "His father?" She asked Max under her breath, although she had a good idea who Ren's father had to be. Max squeezed her hand, acknowledging that he had thought of the same thing.
"Who is your father?" He asked. It was clear that everyone else was fine with Max taking control of this situation. It was what he did best.
Ren's expression darkened. "My father was Laren -the one you knew as Nasedo."
Liz heard Tess gasp. "Knew? You don't mean he's dead too?" Liz glanced at the blonde, who looked to be on the verge of tears. Although he had likely not been much of a father, he was the only family Tess had ever known. Liz was surprised that Kyle made no move to comfort her. In the end Michael went and put his arm around her, dragging Maria along with him.
Maria was half in a daze anyway and didn't seem to mind. She didn't really seem to be taking any of the conversation in. She just kept her eyes glued on Jennetta, clearly looking for confirmation that her daughter still lived.
Tess glanced at Michael in confusion at first, but her face smoothed and she seemed to light up from within.
"Danala's first act upon arriving on the Earth was to kill my father. Tarsus contacted her immediately after he assumed the old man River Dog's form, which helped him in his plan to get close to you, by imitating someone you trusted. Danala came and tracked my father to the Special Unit where you had sent him and killed him." Ren told them stiffly.
"Nasedo warned us that there were beings searching for us." Max admitted. Liz could feel the guilt emanating from her boyfriend in waves. "I decided to activate them anyway."
Michael looked upset too, but was more angry when he interjected, "It wasn't your fault Maxwell. Nasedo had the responsibility to tell us why it was so dangerous. Instead he abandoned us. Going to the Special Unit was clearly a mistake. We should have left town." Michael glared at Ren challengingly. "Nasedo should have made us!"
Liz eyed Ren worriedly. He had his lips pressed together, angry that his father was being disparaged, but his tone was even as he explained. "My father was programmed to obey Jaxon at all costs - even if it turned out to detrimental to the four of you."
Liz couldn't help herself. "Why?" She asked. "Wouldn't it have made more sense for Nasedo to be the one in charge? At least until Max and the other three were old enough and experienced enough to assume leadership?"
Ren smiled at her sadly. "Again no one counted on the Crash. My father's main function was to protect the pods and re-pod the four when they broke free. All the memories they needed to rule and to return to Illyria were programmed into the second set of pods. My father was never supposed to have to make any decisions. The problem was that, although Milena trusted my father, Hamor, Jaxon and Mirana's stepfather, did not trust him completely. He had already been a turn-coat once you see."
And Liz understood. "So Hamor made it so that it would be physically impossible for Nasedo to betray them."
"Indeed. We all make mistakes." Ren said quietly. "Mine was not to recognize earlier that my father had taken the true path, that cleansing was wrong and made the Dernians weak. Hamor's was not to see that my father could be trusted."
"But this still doesn't tell us what is going on with Jennetta." Michael inserted impatiently. "So she's in some sort of incubation? How long does it last? What does it mean?"
"It is supposed to last the same time as the original podding." Ren replied, eyeing Jennetta's pod, a worried expression on his face. "That is to say several months."
"But we were in our original pods for almost forty years!" Isabel exclaimed. She had obviously been listening closely to Ren, but this was the first time she had spoken. Liz knew that hearing about anything alien was hard for Isabel. She had always been the one who wanted nothing to do with her alien heritage. She liked being a human.
Ren just looked upset. "We have never been able to figure out what went wrong. Lucianus determined that it must have had something to do with space travel and time changes and all the things that are so hard to control in the infiniteness of space. Perhaps even the trauma of the Crash caused them to fail - or at least delayed them. They are organic after all."
"Which brings to mind another little question." Alex muttered. Everyone turned to look at him. He reddened slightly. "Sorry, keeping it shut over here."
"No Alex, we're all a part of this now." Max said quietly. "What is it?"
Alex swallowed, but spoke up. "Well, I mean, why were you guys sent in a ship in the first place? How dumb was that, what with all the portals that everyone seems to be able to open all the time. It must have taken a really long time to get here. What was the point?" Alex seemed to be on a roll now. "Which also begs the question, what is up with all the indiscrepancies in time anyway? When you guys were gone," He indicated Michael and Maria, "It was like one hour here, but clearly a lot longer on Illyria." He nodded towards the pod. "Jennetta being the prime evidence of that."
"But Max was gone so much longer - close to a year on Earth." Liz added. "But when he came back he hadn't aged by three hundred years."
They all turned back to Ren. The shapeshifter sighed. "This is a bit complicated." When they all still looked interested, he continued. "Briefly then - you were sent on a ship because only Jaxon and Mirana have ever had the gift of opening the portal. It is, and always has been, activated through the Waylandian Ring and only the true heirs of Ilyria, called the Blue Prince or Blue Lady - depending on sex - and the White Prince or White Lady, can activate it."
"And they couldn't activate it because they were already dead." Kyle finished. He smirked at Max. Liz wanted to smack him. Kyle did not seem very inclined to be kind to Max since he had been back and Liz was sure that it had everything to do with Tess. She sighed.
"That still doesn't explain the time differences." Max said, clearly ignoring Kyle.
Ren nodded, continuing. "When your essences were cloned and sent to Earth an interdict was passed on Illyria. That's to say, basically time stopped. The planet was awaiting your return. Danala managed, somehow, to keep time going in Dernia however. It didn't really matter one way or the other. Our lifetimes are so much longer that most of the people you knew in your first lifetimes would still have been around when you returned. The four would have lived for hundreds of years had their lives not been cut short violently. Your father was killed in much the same way. He was very young when he died, barely fifty years old, another victim of the conflict between my people and the Illyrians."
"Sort of like Chewbacca." Liz heard Alex say to himself. Again they all turned to stare at him. He held up his hands defensively. "Hey! Don't blame me! Chewie was like three hundred years old in Star Wars!" Isabel rolled her eyes. "He was!" Alex exclaimed.
"And Yoda was over eight hundred." Kyle added. He smirked at Max again. "Apparently you guys are sort of like little green men after all."
"Kyle!" Liz glared at him. Liz glanced at Max. He actually looked amused, which seemed to annoy Kyle even more.
Liz noticed Tess watching the whole exchange, a strange look on her face.
"Anyway..." Michael began motioning with his hands for them to speed it up. "What you're saying is that Jenny could be stuck in this thing," he tapped the pod, "For fifty years?"
Ren just shook his head. "It cannot be speculated. I still cannot figure out how Tarsus managed to cleanse you in one of them Tristandor."
Liz could see Max's face frowning pensively. "He must have altered them somehow."
"What do you mean?" Ren asked, seeming intrigued.
"When Michael was cleansed Tarsus had to make him go in a bunch of times, but when he tried to cleanse me it only took once." Max elaborated. "He told me at the time that it was because he was having some problems with the cleansing pods. He thought they had been damaged in the Crash. He obviously didn't know that they weren't cleansing pods at all. In the end he must have modified them somehow."
"Which could also explain why Michael's cleansing was reversed with the journey through the portal. His cleansing was faulty to begin with." Maria spoke up. Everyone turned to stare at her. She had been quiet for so long Liz was sure that she had gone into a state of advanced shock.
"It makes sense." Ren nodded.
"I just have one question." Maria continued.
Ren smiled at her sympathetically. "Yes my lady?"
"How old were Michael and the others supposed to be when they emerged from their second podding?"
Ren grimaced. "Older." He said sadly.
"How old?" Maria demanded in a fierce voice.
"The age they were when they were killed." Ren swallowed, looking uncomfortable. "Jaxon, Mirana and Tristandor were all 21. Sabrya was 19."
"But Jennetta was never supposed to exist." Michael said. "How old is she going to be?" Liz could hear a note of fury beginning to creep back into his voice.
Ren licked his licks, clearly not eager to answer. "She was supposed to exist." He finally said cryptically.
Michael was breathing deeply. Liz could feel Max tensing up, preparing to stop Michael from attacking the shapeshifter, which he seemed on the verge of doing. Yet Michael's voice was disturbingly calm when he said, "We'll get into THAT later. I want to know how many years my daughter is going to lose."
Ren closed his eyes. Liz could tell that he was upset. Finally he spoke. "A random age was programmed." He swallowed again and then spat out the horrible truth. "Jennetta will be 21 years old when she emerges from the pod."
Part 44
Max rubbed his eyes as he guided the Jeep down the highway. His mind was whirling with all the information Ren had provided over the last couple of hours. He knew that he would be mulling it over for days.
He had not absorbed the horror of the announcement Ren had made about Jennetta's future. His little sister was losing her childhood, Michael and Maria were losing the joy of watching their daughter grow up. They had already lost so much. The unfairness of it was like a physical pain to Max.
And there was absolutely nothing any of them could do. It certainly wasn't like they hadn't tried to get Ren to give them some sort of hope that the process could be halted.
Maria had been the first to react to the news. Her eyes had rolled up in her head and she had fainted from the impact of her grief. Michael had barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor. Liz had left Max's side, rushing to Maria.
Michael had let Liz take Maria in her arms, had let her talk soothingly to her best friend. The rage in his voice was barely controlled as he asked, "Why? Why is this happening to my daughter?"
"It's her destiny." Ren replied, sounding upset that THEY were upset, but clearly a little confused as to WHY they were all so upset.
"Not that word! Please! Anything but that word!" Tess had shrieked from where she stood, near the maturation pod that might have originally been the one meant for her.
Michael had pressed his lips together. "How can this be her destiny?" He demanded. "She wasn't supposed to exist! I was supposed to be with Isabel, not Maria. How can my half-human daughter be the 'salvation of out planet' as you so eloquently called her a while ago?"
Max had blinked, stared at Michael. This was not the act-first, think about consequences later Michael to whom he was accustomed. The whole ordeal he and Maria had endured together had matured him in a way that made him almost unrecognizable to Max.
The old Michael probably would have beaten Ren into a bloody pulp by now.
Maybe something good HAD come of this whole catastrophe, although Max almost missed the old Michael. It would mean that none of this had ever happened. He would not have wished the tragedy his best friend had endured on anyone.
"It was a safety clause." Ren explained. "Although the Crash was not anticipated, it was determined that something MIGHT go wrong. If any of you were to die on the journey or during the maturation process, it was decided that the remaining three would be allowed to live out their lives on Earth. The Four were only capable of uniting the two factions as a unit." He glanced significantly at Jennetta. "And yet a ruler would still be needed." He paused, continued wryly. "It was hoped that at least one of the remaining four would produce a child - one that could be taken to Illyria and proclaimed the unifier."
"That still doesn't explain anything about Jennetta." Alex said. "How could it have been known that she would be born? And how could ANY child born on Earth be a unifier? It wouldn't be half-Dernian/half-Illyrian, which seems to be what you have all decided is the answer to all the problems."
"The legend." Ren had explained. "It was always assumed that the Chosen One would be half-Illyrian/half-Dernian because it was known that it would be a child of mixed blood. The annals never specified what specific conditions were attached to being the Chosen One, only that it would be a child of dual heritage. No one counted on the fact that it would be half-human." He paused again. "Except for Lucianus, which is why he insisted that a fifth pod be sent."
"What?" Isabel had asked the question they were all thinking. "What on Earth are you talking about? What do humans have to do with any of this?"
Ren had raised an eyebrow. "You cannot tell me that you have not all wondered why everyone on Earth looks exactly like everyone on Illyria? Or why Earth was chosen as your destination in the first place your highness?"
Michael and Max had exchanged looks. "Well, I guess I haven't." Max finally replied, feeling a little sheepish.
Ren had looked perplexed that they were all so dense. "Earth was an Illyrian colony."
"So the X-Files are true!" Alex had exclaimed. "I knew it!" When everyone had turned to glare at him, he reddened. "Er, sorry."
"The portal was created specifically for that reason." Ren had explained. "Our explorers came here many thousands of years ago, so long ago that the Dernians as a faction did not even exist yet, to build the Ring that would receive the portal that only the true heirs could open. It was hoped that travel between the two worlds would be frequent and beneficial to both planets, but something needed to be done to overcome the problem of time loss that results from space travel. Stonehenge, as the Ring on Earth has been called, was meant to receive the portal so that the energy from the stones could absorb the lost time." He had paused again, looking pained. "Unfortunately the humans were so unadvanced at that stage that the whole project was deemed worthless and Illyria abandoned the plan."
"That still doesn't explain why Illyrians look like humans." Liz had put in from where she was still holding Maria. Maria was no longer unconscious, although she looked slightly dazed. Max could tell that she was listening to what was going on around her though.
Ren had shrugged. "It was why Earth was chosen. The Illyrian genetic make-up is so similar, it was determined that it was the best planet with which to make contact. Dernians are of course shapeshifters, but our genetics are very closely linked as well. Illyrians used to have the ability but have lost it over the millenia from lack of use." He had looked at Liz, Alex, Maria and Kyle significantly. "Even HUMANS have the ability. They have many aspects of their brains that they do not access. It is the great tragedy of the species as a whole." Ren glanced at Jennetta. "But Lucianus knew that humans would still have a role to play in our history."
"Nasedo told me something similar, about the untapped reaches of the human mind I mean." Michael had told Max. He looked at Jennetta, floating peacefully in her pod. A deep despair seemed to come over him. Max clenched his jaw. His own sadness was growing. "Jenny - or any other child born to any of us - has always been doomed then."
"Who is Lucianus?" Liz had asked.
"Lucianus is the beginning and the end." Ren replied evasively.
"In English please." It was Kyle who had spoken up at this point. He was shaking his head. "I mean, can't they ever just spit it out?" Max eyed him for a minute, concerned. Kyle had been behaving strangely ever since he had returned to the transformation chamber with Tess. He looked like he was about to snap at any moment.
" I don't really know how to put it into words. Lucianus is the power of the Ring in Illyrian form." Ren had explained, shaking his head. "That's not really right though either."
"He isn't...God?" Liz had asked quietly. Max had felt his heart stop. He stared at Liz. The expression on her face was unreadable.
"No. Not exactly. He is not the Creator." Ren replied, scratching his neck. "He is energy, maybe a small part of the Creator."
"Why is he on Illyria?" Max had managed to ask.
"Is he not everywhere?" Ren had shot back. He clearly wanted to change the subject, it being one with which he was uncomfortable. Max had realized that Ren's manner of being in control of a situation was by knowing about every little in and out of the story. Things he did not understand, he preferred to ignore and just accept.
But then who didn't have a little bit of that in them?
"Anyway, Tristandor, I must disagree with you that Jennetta is doomed." Ren had told Michael.
Max had felt an overwhelming sense of relief sweep through the transformation chamber. "Then the transformation can be stopped?" Maria had asked, as Liz helped her to her feet.
"No." Ren had stared at her. "What I meant was that she is to be the Chosen One, the saviour of our people. She will know all of this when she emerges from the pod. She will be ready to take her place on the throne of Illyria, will unify the people and bring peace to the planet."
"But she's only a little girl." Maria had said. "She's my baby. I barely know her." Max had seen the tears welling in her eyes. Michael had reached out, pulled her into his arms. Max had felt a flash of pain from Liz's direction, knew that she was grieving for her friend.
Liz had come and taken his hand, looking for comfort, frustrated that she could do nothing to help Maria and Michael.
"But what of us?" Max had asked. "If Jennetta is to sit on the throne, are none of us needed anymore?" He realized that he didn't care one way or the other. He had absolutely no intention of returning to Illyria, come hell or high water. But he was curious to know how they could be replaced so easily.
"I don't know." Ren frowned slightly. "I only know that Lucianus foresaw that Jennetta would be the one."
"It might be nice for Lucianus to pop in right about now." Alex had muttered. Isabel had pinched him warningly. "Again, sorry. Frustration being vocalized in unnecessary angst."
Max and Liz had both been watching Michael and Maria with concern. The despair that surrounded them was almost suffocating.
"Michael?" Max had finally asked, trying to find out what his friend wanted them to do.
There was silence for a moment. And then, "I think we need to be alone with her for a while Maxwell."
Ren had interjected then. "I cannot leave her. I am her bodyguard."
Max had intervened firmly. "You can leave her for one night." He told the shapeshifter.
"But Tarsus is likely trying to find a way through the portal." Ren had argued. "He will know that Danala has been destroyed."
"One night." Max had repeated. Ren scowled, but nodded finally nodded his head.
"Yes your highness."
And they had all left, Max telling Michael that they would be back first thing in the morning.
Now, Liz was quiet beside him in the passenger seat, although her hand was resting on his leg as though she couldn't stand not to have some sort of physical contact with him. He was glad, because he felt exactly the same way.
In the back seat Isabel had fallen asleep with her head on Alex's shoulder. Alex was staring off into the pitch black desert night, silent, as they all had been since they had left the Reservation. Kyle, Tess and Ren were following in the Mustang.
"How can things ever go back to normal after this Max?" Liz asked him quietly, shattering the unnatural stillness that had permeated the car.
"They can't Liz." Max picked up the hand that was resting on his leg, brought her palm to his lips. "But as long as we're all together, somehow we'll work it out."
Liz was quiet for a moment longer and then she said, "I want you to promise me that if you ever leave again, that if you ever decide you have to go back there, that you'll take me with you."
"Liz..."
"I mean it. I know that you would never break a promise to me. It's why you didn't promise that you'd be back the first time you left. You didn't know for sure that you'd be able to come back." Max turned his head, looked at her lovingly, before he turned his eyes back to the road. "So I'm not getting out of this car until you promise me."
The lights of the city were appearing ahead of them. Max felt his heart swell.
His home. Roswell was his home. EARTH was his home.
It was where he had found Liz, his true love, the one person in the universe who completed him...
He would never leave it again.
"I'm not going anywhere." He told Liz firmly.
"Max! That's NOT a promise!" Liz's voice was rising.
Max smiled slightly to himself. If Liz Parker was anything, she was stubborn. "I promise that I will never leave YOU again." He turned to look at her again. "I swear it. And if that means that you have to come across the universe with me, well, I guess that's what will happen."
But I'm not going anywhere, Max thought to himself. And neither is Jennetta, if I have anything to say about it.