Part 32
Liz stopped breathing. She closed her eyes, convulsively pulled Ben more tightly against her side. She could feel the tension in the little boy's frame, felt the connection flicker as she distracted him from the help he was giving her to connect with Max over the distance between them. Liz squeezed him lightly, apologetically, felt the energy he was transmitting to her increase again.
She then scowled, her shock quickly igniting into an anger so intense, it surprised her. She could feel it affecting Ben as well.
[I]Liz?[/I] She heard his voice, small uncertain in her head, where only moments before Max had informed her of his plan - hands down the stupidest one she had ever heard.
Liz took a deep breath, tried to control her rage. *~It's okay Sweetie.~* She soothed.
Her next thought was that she was astounded that she was even surprised that Max would decide that this was the best course of action. This was just like him. Taking everything onto his own shoulders, never letting anyone else make a decision, refusing to allow anyone else to risk themselves.
And suddenly she understood exactly why she had remained so unable to cope with the fact that he had left her eight years ago without even saying goodbye.
He never let her in. He told her he loved her, but he refused to allow her to give as much of herself as she truly wanted to. He arbitrarily decided that he was the only one who had the right to risk anything for the people he loved.
He had left without her, throwing the love and acceptance and [I]forgiveness[/I] she had given him over the baby they had still thought was his at the time back in her face by doing so. Yes, there had been extenuating circumstances because of the seal, but it did not negate the fact that he had [I]always[/I] done it, stretching all the way back to the time he had told her that they could only ever be friends after he had first healed her.
He had said then that it was because they were different, but she had always understood that that was not the real reason. He had not felt deserving of the risks that she was willing to take for him, and so had rejected her time and again. When he had finally been willing to take the chance, to truly believe that they were meant to be together, along had come Tess to screw everything up again.
He had never been able to stop hurting her since. And every time he did it, he felt less deserving of her love and so rejected her even more. The seal had only made it worse.
He could not accept her unconditional love and, so, had several times almost destroyed it.
It was [I]not[/I] going to happen again.
*~That is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.*~ She heard the coldness of her tone, was satisfied.
**Liz, there's no other way.** He didn't sound surprised that she was arguing with him. It appeared that he had been expecting it, but it also sounded like he thought he was going to win in the end.
He was [I]not[/I] going to win this time.
*~Max, we're in this together. If you're going up there, I'm going with you.*~
**Liz…**
*~NO! You are not going up there alone. It's a stupid plan Max! You have no way of guaranteeing that they won't just kill everyone anyway when they get their hands on you. And it's not even [I]you[/I] they want! It's Ben. Right now no one up there knows exactly where Ben and Lexi are. Nicholas [I]can't[/I] get any worthwhile information out of them. But [I]you[/I] know Max. He could use [/I]you.*~
There. That was an argument he wouldn't be able to deny.
**Nicholas can't mindrape me again Liz. I'm too strong.** There was a slight pause. **I am stronger than he can ever hope to be. If I give myself up, I will be in complete control of the situation.**
Liz felt a shiver descend her spine. His tone had been a little scary there. Almost merciless. *~What do you mean?*~ But she knew [I]exactly[/I] what he had meant.
If he confronted Nicholas, only one of them would survive it. And Max was positive that it would be him.
What exactly [I]had[/I] he managed to learn about his powers on Antar?
*~If this is so true, then why didn't you just deal with Nicholas back in Albuquerque?*~ Liz demanded. *~Why the wild goose chase?*~
**Liz, I was trying to get my son out of the way.** Max replied patiently. **Why do you think I wanted all of you out here with me? I was going to leave him with you all - the only people I can trust - and then I was going after him.** There was a beat of silence. **Things got a little messed up unfortunately.**
Because of Dan. Liz felt a pang of guilt. *~Max, how can you be so sure?*~
**I know everything there is to know about Nicholas Liz. I know his weaknesses, I know his strengths. I learned it all on Antar. He doesn't know [I]anything[/I] about me. Not anymore. I'm not the stupid kid I was the first time we met.** He finished grimly.
She could feel the situation slipping away from her. She couldn't argue with him when he kept saying things that she didn't understand.
And she had thought that he had told her everything.
*~Max, what are you talking about?*~
**Liz, Nicholas completely screwed with my mind the first time I met him. That is [I]not[/I] going to happen this time. I have a secret weapon. One that he won't be able to understand and, so, won't expect.** He paused yet another time, as though unsure how to phrase what he wanted to tell her next.
*~What Max?*~
**I have a life I actually want to live this time.** Liz's heart skipped a beat. **And if that evil little troll thinks that he's going to come between me and my future, he's got another thing coming. I am going to raise my son and I am going to hold onto my dream that we're going to end up together Liz.**
She closed her eyes. *~Max…*~
**Liz, please. You need to let me do this. I [I]need[/I] you to look after Ben and Lexi. Please trust that I will not let anything happen to me or anyone else. Liz, I want my life. I want to be Max Evans, but in order to be him, I [I]have[/I] to kill all of Zan's enemies once and for all. And I [I]will[/I] do it.**
Liz felt Ben's fear through the connection, knew that he understood what she and Max were saying to each other. It twined with her own fright, creating an almost overwhelming sense of panic within her.
*~But Max, you don't even know what he wants.*~ Liz tried once more, desperately, but she knew that he was right.
As much as she wanted to help him, she couldn't - not up the dome.
But down here she could - by protecting the person most important to him in the world.
**The two most important people.** It was a whisper, but she felt a lump in her throat that he had heard her private thought. That was how the sensitive the connection was becoming. **Liz, you are the bravest person I know. I know you think that I didn't accept your love because I wouldn't let you risk yourself for me, so many times, but I just could not put you in danger like that. If it was selfish, then I'm sorry, but it's a part of my make-up that I will never regret.**
*~Max…*~
**Liz, I couldn't take you with me to Antar. I know you wanted to go, but I just [I]couldn't[/I]. There is no excuse for me having left without saying goodbye, but if I hadn't, I would not have gone. Even with the seal - I know that I wouldn't have. And I think that I knew that the only way to fix things between us was for me to go there, find Ben, and figure out exactly what the hell was the matter with me. I was a shell Liz. I was not the Max Evans I wanted to be…**
She cut him off. *~Max!*~
**What?** He sounded surprised and a little hurt that she hadn't let him finish.
*~Go.*~ She felt tears beginning to form under her lashes. *~End this. Please. Once and for all. I just want you to be safe. Finally. And if I have to let you go once more time for it to happen, then I can do it.*~
For an instant, the connection weakened again. She thought that he was gone, that she was actually going to have to sit here with two small, terrified children and wait for him to come back.
He was back abruptly, his tone suddenly even, as though he was trying to hide something. He sounded [I]too[/I] normal.
**Liz, you need to get them out of here. No matter what. As soon as I go up there, they'll be distracted and you have to [I]go[/I].**
*~Max, what about the Special Unit? Won't they be waiting for us?*~ But she knew already that there was no choice. He was right. They were going to have to risk it. They could not just sit here as darkness continued to fall on the desert, waiting like sitting ducks for this to be resolved one way or the other.
**I have a feeling the Special Unit has absolutely nothing to do with this at all.** Max answered grimly.
*~What?*~
**Liz, I have to break this off. Someone else is here. You need to leave - [I]now[/I].** There was a slight change in the feel of his mind in hers, a minor shifting. His next words told her why. He was now addressing Ben. **Benno, I'm going to have to ask you to do something important.**
[I]Okay Dad.[/I]
**I need you to use as much strength as you have left kiddo. You're going to need to build a mind shield around you and Liz and Lexi until you get away from here. Do you think you have enough power left?**
[I]Yeah![/I] Ben sounded insulted that Max would even question it.
Max sounded slightly amused, and yet even more determined in his reply. **Okay then. You have to do it until Liz tells you it's okay to stop.**
Liz missed most of this though. She was still reflecting on the Max's comment that [I]someone else was here[/I]. *~Max, is there something you're not telling me?*~
**Yes.**
And she understood. He [I]couldn't[/I] tell her. Not with Ben so intimately connected to them.
She knew it was bad, whatever it was, but she was going to have to trust him. Trust Max. Trust him in a way she hadn't since the whole Tess debacle had originally gone down.
She was going to have to trust that he would come back to her.
There was absolutely no hesitation. Not anymore.
He had come back to her once before - and not even just physically in a spaceship from Antar. [I]Her[/I] Max - the brave, innocent boy she had fallen in love with - had returned to her in the form of the mature, loving man she now knew. He had fought through hell to do so - physically and mentally.
Somehow she knew that he always would.
And she was no longer afraid.
*~I love you Max.*~
But he was already gone.
The connection had broken, so abruptly, it was though it had never existed.
Liz fought momentarily against the panic that threatened to rise within her again. She had to be strong. For Ben, for Lexi. And, yes, even for herself.
She did not want to die. Not when she was just starting to [I]really[/I] live again.
"Liz?" Ben was whispering into her ear. She could feel him slumping against her, exhausted. "Is my dad going to be all right?"
"Of course he is Sweetie!" She could tell by the way that he relaxed against her that he believed her.
She was amazed that she even believed herself. "What's a mind shield Ben? Your dad asked you to do one."
Ben sighed heavily. "It's a really little mind-warp. Instead of warping the people to not see us, I mindwarp [I]us[/I] so that [I]we[/I] think that we can't be seen. And we can't." He finished simply.
"Does it really work?" Liz asked, amazed. Would the extent of the alien's abilities to control minds ever fail to astound her?
"Yeah." There was a pause. "I used to do it to myself when I was really little when Mommy was looking for me."
Liz felt a lump rise in her throat. "You didn't want your mom to find you?"
"Not all the time. But she hardly ever tried to find me anyway." He did not elaborate and Liz did not want to push him, but she felt a flash of such rage at Tess, it was almost more than she could bear. How that evil girl could have produced Ben, Liz would never understand, but it made her even more fiercely determined that he was going to know nothing but security and love for the rest of his life.
She tightened her arm around him, pulled Lexi more tightly against her side and went to the far side of the small clump of bushes to stare up the hill in the direction of the vehicles.
It took her another moment to realize that she had absolutely no way to start any of the cars up there. She looked down at Ben, who was pressed against her side, smiled slightly to herself as an idea came to her. "Benjamin Evans, this is absolutely the only time that you are ever going to hear these words from me. I guarantee it." She made her voice sound light, trying to reassure the little boy. "But I don't suppose you know how to hot-wire a car?"
He just looked at her, perplexed. Liz gave him a squeeze, turned her attention to watching the hill Max should be climbing any moment. A slight tremor ran through her body, but she steeled herself to be ready to make a break for it as soon as Max went in.
*****************************************
Max felt the lack of the connection like a physical blow. He knew exactly what it meant and for a moment he was sure that he had held onto it for too long. He had betrayed Liz and Ben and Lexi by not being able to let them go soon enough.
But the entrance of his enemy into his mind had cut it off, not the fact that anything had happened to them. Max's own mind had been protecting them it seemed, managing to hold him off long enough after the original shock of his presence had almost made Max weaken enough to allow him entrance while Liz and his son had still been present. But he had remained strong, his mind a virtual fortress, his will to protect them greater than his enemy's desire to get at him.
Max was in control. He [I]knew[/I] that he was the one who had let [I]him[/I] in.
*~I'm growing tired of waiting Zan.*~ The voice was impatient, angry. *~Are you going to come out and face me like a man, or do I have to come and get you myself? Still a lover and not a fighter I see.*~
**I'm surprised [I]you're[/I] actually willing to fight your own battles this time.** Max returned sharply. **It's not something you do regularly after all. The fact that you're even here more than proves it.**
Max felt the flash of anger that ran through his enemy, narrowed his eyes, not caring in the least. ~*You're going to pay for that you damn bastard!*~
**Unfortunately for you usurper, I'm the farthest thing from a bastard there is.** Max replied wearily. **I am the legitimate king of Antar and there is nothing you can do about it. Even killing me last time didn't make the throne yours.**
*~You gave up the throne! You don't deserve it - you never did!*~
**I was willing to give up the throne because I care about my people. The monarchy it rotten, a relic. A free system is what the people want.**
*~They [I]don't[/I] want it! You decided for them because you wanted that insipid girl. You weren't strong enough to hold it.*~
**Funny.** Max bit back. **I'm not the one who needs to come after little boys to reinforce my claim.**
*~What are you talking about?*~ The voice was fierce, suspicious.
**Oh, didn't Nicholas tell you? He tried to kill my son.**
There was a long pause. *~What happened to Ben?*~
Max did not reply, simply returned, **I'm coming up there. You're going to let the others go.**
He could almost hear the glee in his enemy's voice. *~If you think I'm letting Vilandra go now, you're crazy. She is my wife. The mother of my daughter.*~
**She is not [I]your[/I] wife. She is married to a perfectly nice man, one that you are violating by being here.**
*~So you figured it out then did you Zan?*~ The voice sounded amused now.
**I've had you figured out for a long time Khivar.** Max sighed. **For two lifetimes in fact. But I'm tired of it. It's over.**
*~You thought it was over on Antar Zan. Seems I'm still here.*~
But not for long, Max thought grimly. **I'm coming up there.** He repeated.
*~I'll be waiting.*~
Max took a deep breath. Khivar would be waiting all right. But this time it would really be for the last time.
It was going to end once and for all. And not on a distant battlefield in a galaxy far away, but right in the desert of Max's home - with the lives of everyone he held most dear at stake.
Liz stopped breathing. She closed her eyes, convulsively pulled Ben more tightly against her side. She could feel the tension in the little boy's frame, felt the connection flicker as she distracted him from the help he was giving her to connect with Max over the distance between them. Liz squeezed him lightly, apologetically, felt the energy he was transmitting to her increase again.
She then scowled, her shock quickly igniting into an anger so intense, it surprised her. She could feel it affecting Ben as well.
[I]Liz?[/I] She heard his voice, small uncertain in her head, where only moments before Max had informed her of his plan - hands down the stupidest one she had ever heard.
Liz took a deep breath, tried to control her rage. *~It's okay Sweetie.~* She soothed.
Her next thought was that she was astounded that she was even surprised that Max would decide that this was the best course of action. This was just like him. Taking everything onto his own shoulders, never letting anyone else make a decision, refusing to allow anyone else to risk themselves.
And suddenly she understood exactly why she had remained so unable to cope with the fact that he had left her eight years ago without even saying goodbye.
He never let her in. He told her he loved her, but he refused to allow her to give as much of herself as she truly wanted to. He arbitrarily decided that he was the only one who had the right to risk anything for the people he loved.
He had left without her, throwing the love and acceptance and [I]forgiveness[/I] she had given him over the baby they had still thought was his at the time back in her face by doing so. Yes, there had been extenuating circumstances because of the seal, but it did not negate the fact that he had [I]always[/I] done it, stretching all the way back to the time he had told her that they could only ever be friends after he had first healed her.
He had said then that it was because they were different, but she had always understood that that was not the real reason. He had not felt deserving of the risks that she was willing to take for him, and so had rejected her time and again. When he had finally been willing to take the chance, to truly believe that they were meant to be together, along had come Tess to screw everything up again.
He had never been able to stop hurting her since. And every time he did it, he felt less deserving of her love and so rejected her even more. The seal had only made it worse.
He could not accept her unconditional love and, so, had several times almost destroyed it.
It was [I]not[/I] going to happen again.
*~That is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.*~ She heard the coldness of her tone, was satisfied.
**Liz, there's no other way.** He didn't sound surprised that she was arguing with him. It appeared that he had been expecting it, but it also sounded like he thought he was going to win in the end.
He was [I]not[/I] going to win this time.
*~Max, we're in this together. If you're going up there, I'm going with you.*~
**Liz…**
*~NO! You are not going up there alone. It's a stupid plan Max! You have no way of guaranteeing that they won't just kill everyone anyway when they get their hands on you. And it's not even [I]you[/I] they want! It's Ben. Right now no one up there knows exactly where Ben and Lexi are. Nicholas [I]can't[/I] get any worthwhile information out of them. But [I]you[/I] know Max. He could use [/I]you.*~
There. That was an argument he wouldn't be able to deny.
**Nicholas can't mindrape me again Liz. I'm too strong.** There was a slight pause. **I am stronger than he can ever hope to be. If I give myself up, I will be in complete control of the situation.**
Liz felt a shiver descend her spine. His tone had been a little scary there. Almost merciless. *~What do you mean?*~ But she knew [I]exactly[/I] what he had meant.
If he confronted Nicholas, only one of them would survive it. And Max was positive that it would be him.
What exactly [I]had[/I] he managed to learn about his powers on Antar?
*~If this is so true, then why didn't you just deal with Nicholas back in Albuquerque?*~ Liz demanded. *~Why the wild goose chase?*~
**Liz, I was trying to get my son out of the way.** Max replied patiently. **Why do you think I wanted all of you out here with me? I was going to leave him with you all - the only people I can trust - and then I was going after him.** There was a beat of silence. **Things got a little messed up unfortunately.**
Because of Dan. Liz felt a pang of guilt. *~Max, how can you be so sure?*~
**I know everything there is to know about Nicholas Liz. I know his weaknesses, I know his strengths. I learned it all on Antar. He doesn't know [I]anything[/I] about me. Not anymore. I'm not the stupid kid I was the first time we met.** He finished grimly.
She could feel the situation slipping away from her. She couldn't argue with him when he kept saying things that she didn't understand.
And she had thought that he had told her everything.
*~Max, what are you talking about?*~
**Liz, Nicholas completely screwed with my mind the first time I met him. That is [I]not[/I] going to happen this time. I have a secret weapon. One that he won't be able to understand and, so, won't expect.** He paused yet another time, as though unsure how to phrase what he wanted to tell her next.
*~What Max?*~
**I have a life I actually want to live this time.** Liz's heart skipped a beat. **And if that evil little troll thinks that he's going to come between me and my future, he's got another thing coming. I am going to raise my son and I am going to hold onto my dream that we're going to end up together Liz.**
She closed her eyes. *~Max…*~
**Liz, please. You need to let me do this. I [I]need[/I] you to look after Ben and Lexi. Please trust that I will not let anything happen to me or anyone else. Liz, I want my life. I want to be Max Evans, but in order to be him, I [I]have[/I] to kill all of Zan's enemies once and for all. And I [I]will[/I] do it.**
Liz felt Ben's fear through the connection, knew that he understood what she and Max were saying to each other. It twined with her own fright, creating an almost overwhelming sense of panic within her.
*~But Max, you don't even know what he wants.*~ Liz tried once more, desperately, but she knew that he was right.
As much as she wanted to help him, she couldn't - not up the dome.
But down here she could - by protecting the person most important to him in the world.
**The two most important people.** It was a whisper, but she felt a lump in her throat that he had heard her private thought. That was how the sensitive the connection was becoming. **Liz, you are the bravest person I know. I know you think that I didn't accept your love because I wouldn't let you risk yourself for me, so many times, but I just could not put you in danger like that. If it was selfish, then I'm sorry, but it's a part of my make-up that I will never regret.**
*~Max…*~
**Liz, I couldn't take you with me to Antar. I know you wanted to go, but I just [I]couldn't[/I]. There is no excuse for me having left without saying goodbye, but if I hadn't, I would not have gone. Even with the seal - I know that I wouldn't have. And I think that I knew that the only way to fix things between us was for me to go there, find Ben, and figure out exactly what the hell was the matter with me. I was a shell Liz. I was not the Max Evans I wanted to be…**
She cut him off. *~Max!*~
**What?** He sounded surprised and a little hurt that she hadn't let him finish.
*~Go.*~ She felt tears beginning to form under her lashes. *~End this. Please. Once and for all. I just want you to be safe. Finally. And if I have to let you go once more time for it to happen, then I can do it.*~
For an instant, the connection weakened again. She thought that he was gone, that she was actually going to have to sit here with two small, terrified children and wait for him to come back.
He was back abruptly, his tone suddenly even, as though he was trying to hide something. He sounded [I]too[/I] normal.
**Liz, you need to get them out of here. No matter what. As soon as I go up there, they'll be distracted and you have to [I]go[/I].**
*~Max, what about the Special Unit? Won't they be waiting for us?*~ But she knew already that there was no choice. He was right. They were going to have to risk it. They could not just sit here as darkness continued to fall on the desert, waiting like sitting ducks for this to be resolved one way or the other.
**I have a feeling the Special Unit has absolutely nothing to do with this at all.** Max answered grimly.
*~What?*~
**Liz, I have to break this off. Someone else is here. You need to leave - [I]now[/I].** There was a slight change in the feel of his mind in hers, a minor shifting. His next words told her why. He was now addressing Ben. **Benno, I'm going to have to ask you to do something important.**
[I]Okay Dad.[/I]
**I need you to use as much strength as you have left kiddo. You're going to need to build a mind shield around you and Liz and Lexi until you get away from here. Do you think you have enough power left?**
[I]Yeah![/I] Ben sounded insulted that Max would even question it.
Max sounded slightly amused, and yet even more determined in his reply. **Okay then. You have to do it until Liz tells you it's okay to stop.**
Liz missed most of this though. She was still reflecting on the Max's comment that [I]someone else was here[/I]. *~Max, is there something you're not telling me?*~
**Yes.**
And she understood. He [I]couldn't[/I] tell her. Not with Ben so intimately connected to them.
She knew it was bad, whatever it was, but she was going to have to trust him. Trust Max. Trust him in a way she hadn't since the whole Tess debacle had originally gone down.
She was going to have to trust that he would come back to her.
There was absolutely no hesitation. Not anymore.
He had come back to her once before - and not even just physically in a spaceship from Antar. [I]Her[/I] Max - the brave, innocent boy she had fallen in love with - had returned to her in the form of the mature, loving man she now knew. He had fought through hell to do so - physically and mentally.
Somehow she knew that he always would.
And she was no longer afraid.
*~I love you Max.*~
But he was already gone.
The connection had broken, so abruptly, it was though it had never existed.
Liz fought momentarily against the panic that threatened to rise within her again. She had to be strong. For Ben, for Lexi. And, yes, even for herself.
She did not want to die. Not when she was just starting to [I]really[/I] live again.
"Liz?" Ben was whispering into her ear. She could feel him slumping against her, exhausted. "Is my dad going to be all right?"
"Of course he is Sweetie!" She could tell by the way that he relaxed against her that he believed her.
She was amazed that she even believed herself. "What's a mind shield Ben? Your dad asked you to do one."
Ben sighed heavily. "It's a really little mind-warp. Instead of warping the people to not see us, I mindwarp [I]us[/I] so that [I]we[/I] think that we can't be seen. And we can't." He finished simply.
"Does it really work?" Liz asked, amazed. Would the extent of the alien's abilities to control minds ever fail to astound her?
"Yeah." There was a pause. "I used to do it to myself when I was really little when Mommy was looking for me."
Liz felt a lump rise in her throat. "You didn't want your mom to find you?"
"Not all the time. But she hardly ever tried to find me anyway." He did not elaborate and Liz did not want to push him, but she felt a flash of such rage at Tess, it was almost more than she could bear. How that evil girl could have produced Ben, Liz would never understand, but it made her even more fiercely determined that he was going to know nothing but security and love for the rest of his life.
She tightened her arm around him, pulled Lexi more tightly against her side and went to the far side of the small clump of bushes to stare up the hill in the direction of the vehicles.
It took her another moment to realize that she had absolutely no way to start any of the cars up there. She looked down at Ben, who was pressed against her side, smiled slightly to herself as an idea came to her. "Benjamin Evans, this is absolutely the only time that you are ever going to hear these words from me. I guarantee it." She made her voice sound light, trying to reassure the little boy. "But I don't suppose you know how to hot-wire a car?"
He just looked at her, perplexed. Liz gave him a squeeze, turned her attention to watching the hill Max should be climbing any moment. A slight tremor ran through her body, but she steeled herself to be ready to make a break for it as soon as Max went in.
*****************************************
Max felt the lack of the connection like a physical blow. He knew exactly what it meant and for a moment he was sure that he had held onto it for too long. He had betrayed Liz and Ben and Lexi by not being able to let them go soon enough.
But the entrance of his enemy into his mind had cut it off, not the fact that anything had happened to them. Max's own mind had been protecting them it seemed, managing to hold him off long enough after the original shock of his presence had almost made Max weaken enough to allow him entrance while Liz and his son had still been present. But he had remained strong, his mind a virtual fortress, his will to protect them greater than his enemy's desire to get at him.
Max was in control. He [I]knew[/I] that he was the one who had let [I]him[/I] in.
*~I'm growing tired of waiting Zan.*~ The voice was impatient, angry. *~Are you going to come out and face me like a man, or do I have to come and get you myself? Still a lover and not a fighter I see.*~
**I'm surprised [I]you're[/I] actually willing to fight your own battles this time.** Max returned sharply. **It's not something you do regularly after all. The fact that you're even here more than proves it.**
Max felt the flash of anger that ran through his enemy, narrowed his eyes, not caring in the least. ~*You're going to pay for that you damn bastard!*~
**Unfortunately for you usurper, I'm the farthest thing from a bastard there is.** Max replied wearily. **I am the legitimate king of Antar and there is nothing you can do about it. Even killing me last time didn't make the throne yours.**
*~You gave up the throne! You don't deserve it - you never did!*~
**I was willing to give up the throne because I care about my people. The monarchy it rotten, a relic. A free system is what the people want.**
*~They [I]don't[/I] want it! You decided for them because you wanted that insipid girl. You weren't strong enough to hold it.*~
**Funny.** Max bit back. **I'm not the one who needs to come after little boys to reinforce my claim.**
*~What are you talking about?*~ The voice was fierce, suspicious.
**Oh, didn't Nicholas tell you? He tried to kill my son.**
There was a long pause. *~What happened to Ben?*~
Max did not reply, simply returned, **I'm coming up there. You're going to let the others go.**
He could almost hear the glee in his enemy's voice. *~If you think I'm letting Vilandra go now, you're crazy. She is my wife. The mother of my daughter.*~
**She is not [I]your[/I] wife. She is married to a perfectly nice man, one that you are violating by being here.**
*~So you figured it out then did you Zan?*~ The voice sounded amused now.
**I've had you figured out for a long time Khivar.** Max sighed. **For two lifetimes in fact. But I'm tired of it. It's over.**
*~You thought it was over on Antar Zan. Seems I'm still here.*~
But not for long, Max thought grimly. **I'm coming up there.** He repeated.
*~I'll be waiting.*~
Max took a deep breath. Khivar would be waiting all right. But this time it would really be for the last time.
It was going to end once and for all. And not on a distant battlefield in a galaxy far away, but right in the desert of Max's home - with the lives of everyone he held most dear at stake.