Part 33
Max didn't even bother to try and hide his approach to the dome. There was no point. Khivar knew he was out here. The faster he got into the dome, the faster Liz would be able to get Ben and Lexi away safely.
And so, he simply walked back up the slope, walked through the door and confronted what was close to his worst nightmare - all of his friends in danger at one time.
His worst nightmare would have been Liz and Ben in Khivar's clutches. At least that had not yet happened. And it wasn't going to.
No one stopped him. He had been right about the Special Unit. They were not a factor in this at all it seemed.
Only Khivar.
Khivar whom he had been sure was dead. But, looking back on their one and only confrontation, in this lifetime anyway, Max understood perfectly what had happened.
He was furious at himself that he had made the mistake. He had [i] known[/i] that Khivar had dupes of himself for security reasons, had had since Larek had turned traitor. It was amongst the first technology that Larek had turned over to Max's enemy after he had changed sides. And the clones that Larek had been capable of creating by then had been far superior to even the hybrids he had engineered that had been Max and Isabel and Michael and Tess. He had had fifty years to perfect the technique after all.
But Max had been informed by all of his advisors that no more than two clones could be created from the same essence. He had made sure that both of Khivar's were dead before he had taken on the original.
Apparently someone had misinformed him about Larek's cloning capabilities. Because if Khivar was still alive, then it had to have been a clone that he killed.
How could he have not been more careful, have not made sure?
And, yet, Max [i] knew[/i] that it had been the [i] real[/i] Khivar that he had fought on Antar, at least part of the time. The connection from the seal had been too strong for it to have been a clone. The mind he had battled had been the mind of his captor.
Khivar must have done then what he was doing to Jesse now, Max reflected, what Larek had done to Brody all those years ago. He had inhabited his own [i] clone[/i], had made Max think that he had conquered him. And he had slipped away at the last moment, sacrificing the duplicated version of himself to advance his plot.
He had slipped away to inhabit Isabel's husband, like the parasite that he was.
Isabel was going to be devastated, not only by the fact that Jesse had been violated so completely, but also by the fact that Khivar had obviously been around long enough to have had a hand in Lexi's conception. The thought was too revolting to even contemplate. How could he have let this happen to his sister?
All of this was on Max's mind as he paused at the door to the dome. He stared at it for a moment, his eyes narrowed.
He realized that he could feel his nerves tingling. His stomach was clenching in the way it always did before he had to face a battle of this magnitude, his heart pounding - but he was not really nervous. In fact, he was almost looking forward to this final confrontation.
When this was finally over, his real life could begin.
Max pushed open the door.
There was no one in the main dome. It was completely dark and empty, the sun having set and so no light filtered in through the holes in the roof.
Max scowled. **Where are you?**
*~Dealing with Nikkol.*~ Max could hear the disdain in Khivar's voice, even in his head. *~He tried to kill my heir. He has paid.*~
Max felt a twinge of satisfaction. Truly, he had known when he had accused his arch-enemy of attempting to hurt Ben that Khivar had had nothing to do with it. Ben was the one thing on which Max and Khivar were in complete agreement. Although Khivar wanted to use the boy as a pawn, he [i] did[/i] care about him, about his survival, considered Ben to be [i] his[/i] son. It was twisted and sick, but it was also slightly reassuring that his son would survive this, especially with Nicholas dealt with.
**What did he want? What did he hope to gain?**
*~Much.*~ Khivar replied, sounding like he didn't want to discuss it further. *~Sometimes Nikkol's ambition has become a little less subtle than I would like. He has been punished, will learn.*~
**What are you talking about?** Max frowned. There was no answer.
"MAX!"
The sudden yell caused Max to cut off the connection abruptly. He whirled, threw his shield up just in time to stop the bullet that had been headed straight for his back.
He stared at his assailant through the green haze, felt his heart drop into his knees.
"Dan! What the hell are you doing?" It was Kyle who had yelled, Kyle who had warned him, Kyle who was presently wrestling the gun away from Liz's fiancé.
Max dropped his shield, went to help Kyle.
"What the hell is going on here?" Max demanded as Kyle pulled a set of hand- cuffs off his belt and pulled Dan's hands behind his back, made to restrain him. He was no longer struggling though, was staring straight ahead, his eyes blank. Max and Kyle both started in astonishment as Dan's knees suddenly buckled and he collapsed in a heap at their feet.
Max crouched, quickly felt for a pulse.
Nothing. He closed his eyes, brought his hand to Dan's chest, concentrated on starting his heart.
He was not going to let this man die. Liz would [i] never[/i] forgive herself if it happened - if Dan should be killed because of [i] her[/i] involvement with aliens. Max would not let her suffer that.
Max sent a pulse of energy into Dan's chest, sighed in relief as he felt it jump and then start beating again.
"You're all right now," Max said quietly, glancing up at Kyle and shaking his head when his old friend appeared about to say something. He helped Dan to sit up. Liz's fiancé was blinking rapidly, a dazed expression on his face.
Dan stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment. Max watched calmly as Dan's face reflected his displeasure at recognizing Max. "What the hell? What am I doing here?" He looked around the dome, clearly confused, but more annoyed than anything. "Where's Elizabeth?" He finally noticed Kyle. "Kyle, what's going on? Why is [i] he[/i] here? Where am I?"
"Er…" Kyle looked at Max desperately.
"You fainted," Max told him. "Are you okay?"
Dan's expression was fierce. "I fainted? Why?"
"You passed out," Max modified quickly. "Don't you remember [i] anything?[/i]"
Dan shook off Max, stood up without help, stumbling slightly. "The last thing I remember is having dinner at Isabel and Jesse's." He looked closely at Max. "You're Max Evans, aren't you? I've seen pictures of you." He did not look pleased. In fact, his expression was pretty much exactly the same as it had been on Isabel's front lawn four days ago - when they had first met.
Because, Max was quickly beginning to realize, to Dan, [i] this[/i] was their first meeting. "What have you done with Elizabeth?" Dan was snarling now.
"I haven't done anything with her," Max replied quietly. "She's at home, in Roswell." He looked at Kyle, trying to tell him with his eyes that he should play along. "We met at my sister's. Don't you remember? You invited me to your bachelor party. Kyle organized it. You got wasted and disappeared on us. We finally found you here."
Dan stared at him for a long moment, then looked at Kyle for confirmation. Kyle nodded. "I'm sorry Dan. We turned our back for one minute at the bar and you disappeared."
"What the hell did I drink?" Dan muttered, shaking his head and clearly trying to remember. He looked at Max again. "Why would I invite [i] you[/i] to my bachelor party? That doesn't make any sense."
Max shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you," he replied, non-committal. "You did."
"And you wanted to come?"
Max simply shrugged again.
Kyle cut in here. "It's a good thing we found you man. It's Friday night. You've been missing for three days. Liz is absolutely frantic."
"WHAT?" Dan practically yelled. He glanced at his watch. "It's nine o'clock! I'm getting married in fourteen hours!" He appeared to forget all about Max and why on Earth he would have invited his fiancée's ex-boyfriend to his stag party.
"And it's a six hour drive back to Roswell," Kyle told him. "So we better get a move on. My car's out there." He pointed towards the front of the dome. Dan just continued to sputter in disbelief as he started towards the door. "I'll be right out." He called after him.
They waited for him to exit the dome before Max turned to Kyle, his voice reflecting his urgency. "What happened?"
"To Dan? I have no clue," Kyle shook his head. "I was hoping you could tell me."
Max pressed his lips together. "Possessed apparently."
"Possessed?" Kyle's eyes widened. "Like what used to happen to Brody?"
"Exactly." Max closed his eyes.
"By who?"
"Khivar."
"Jesus. For how long?" Kyle demanded. "Isn't he supposed to be dead?"
"He is - supposed to be dead that is." Max replied grimly. "I don't think he's possessed Dan for long though - a few days at most. He's had other irons in the fire." When Kyle looked perplexed, Max just sighed. "It doesn't matter." He shook his head. "Kyle, what the hell happened here? Where are the others?"
Kyle glanced towards the door of the dome. "Listen Max, I really think you better let Maria tell you that. I need to get Dan out of here. It looks like he doesn't remember [i] anything[/i] - and I'm not just talking about the Khivar thing. It'll make life easier on [i] everyone[/i] if we keep it that way."
Max knew exactly what he was talking about. Not only did Dan not remember his experience of being invaded by an alien essence, he apparently didn't remember any of the revelations he had been party to over the last week either. "Maria's here still?" At Kyle's nod, Max sighed with relief. "Okay. But first I need to go get Liz. She's still got the kids down in the trees. I just hope she hasn't left yet." He began to follow Kyle towards the door. "Where's Maria?"
Kyle smacked his hand against his forehead. "She's still in the closet in the bedroom," he grimaced. "It's where Jesse tied her up and put her before he left with Michael and Isabel."
Max stared at him. "You left her there?" And then, "Wait a minute! Why didn't he tie [i] you[/i] up?"
"Because I was willing to stay here because I knew someone had to tell you what was going on," Kyle replied. "He didn't want us. Maria wanted to go though. Michael told him to do it."
Max frowned. Michael was going to pay for that one later. "So you have no idea where Jesse took them? Why did they go with him anyway? Ben said something about Nicholas. Was he here too?"
Kyle rubbed his eyes wearily. "I've got some bad news for you Evans - Nicholas [i] was[/i] here, but not in the way you might have been expecting."
"What do you mean?"
"Jesse [i] is[/i] Nicholas. All that Special Unit stuff - Maria told me about that last night - all the stuff he's told Isabel over the years, none of it's true. He [i] is[/i] Khivar's right-hand man. When Jesse got here, he got out of the car and just [i] told[/i] her. Spilled it right outside, the minute he pulled up."
Max felt his heart stop. "How is this possible? Is Isabel okay?"
Kyle shrugged, "I don't know. At least she has Michael with her." He glanced uneasily towards the door. "Listen, I need to get Dan out of here. Where do you want to meet up so that we can go after them?" He stared at Max seriously, clearly having no intention of not returning.
"I'll be in touch by cell." He didn't quite know what else to say. He didn't want Kyle involved in this, but he couldn't help the warm feeling that entered his heart when the help was offered.
He had had no one on his side on Antar, when he had gone into battle there - at least no one who wasn't obligated to help him because he was the king. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be able to depend on others.
Kyle nodded, turned to go. He paused after a couple steps, turned back to look at Max. "Listen Evans, I don't think Nicholas is [i] all[/i] bad. I really think he's in love with Isabel. I [i] know[/i] he loves their daughter."
"He tried to kill Ben," Max replied evenly. "There will never be any excuse for that."
Kyle sighed. "I know." He turned to leave again.
"Kyle," Max called after him. Kyle turned again, raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for saving my life."
There was an awkward pause. "I guess we're even now," Kyle finally told him. He disappeared outside.
Max waited a moment, then followed. He would go let Maria out as soon as he made sure Liz was still here.
*Procrastinating again are we Zan?*~
Max jerked to a halt at the voice in his head. He scowled. **What have you done? Where are you?**
*~Where I've been all along.*~ Khivar replied, sounding amused. *~In the body Nikkol has been keeping warm for me.*~
Max felt momentarily nauseous at the thought of Isabel married for years not to one monster, but two on occasion. **How?**
*~All in good time Zan.*~
**Where are you?**
*~Waiting for you to find me.*~
Max grit his teeth. **Stop playing games with me. Where the hell are you?**
*~Not far.*~ There was a pause. *~Let's just say that I am where you least want me.*~
Max frowned, realized that the connection had been severed suddenly. He frantically tried to re-enter Khivar's mind, wherever he was, but something was blocking him.
It took him less than two seconds to realize what it was. Or rather, [i] who[/i] it was.
It was Liz. Something had happened to her.
And, because it had, whatever [i] it[/i] was, was happening to him too.
It was his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness.
Max didn't even bother to try and hide his approach to the dome. There was no point. Khivar knew he was out here. The faster he got into the dome, the faster Liz would be able to get Ben and Lexi away safely.
And so, he simply walked back up the slope, walked through the door and confronted what was close to his worst nightmare - all of his friends in danger at one time.
His worst nightmare would have been Liz and Ben in Khivar's clutches. At least that had not yet happened. And it wasn't going to.
No one stopped him. He had been right about the Special Unit. They were not a factor in this at all it seemed.
Only Khivar.
Khivar whom he had been sure was dead. But, looking back on their one and only confrontation, in this lifetime anyway, Max understood perfectly what had happened.
He was furious at himself that he had made the mistake. He had [i] known[/i] that Khivar had dupes of himself for security reasons, had had since Larek had turned traitor. It was amongst the first technology that Larek had turned over to Max's enemy after he had changed sides. And the clones that Larek had been capable of creating by then had been far superior to even the hybrids he had engineered that had been Max and Isabel and Michael and Tess. He had had fifty years to perfect the technique after all.
But Max had been informed by all of his advisors that no more than two clones could be created from the same essence. He had made sure that both of Khivar's were dead before he had taken on the original.
Apparently someone had misinformed him about Larek's cloning capabilities. Because if Khivar was still alive, then it had to have been a clone that he killed.
How could he have not been more careful, have not made sure?
And, yet, Max [i] knew[/i] that it had been the [i] real[/i] Khivar that he had fought on Antar, at least part of the time. The connection from the seal had been too strong for it to have been a clone. The mind he had battled had been the mind of his captor.
Khivar must have done then what he was doing to Jesse now, Max reflected, what Larek had done to Brody all those years ago. He had inhabited his own [i] clone[/i], had made Max think that he had conquered him. And he had slipped away at the last moment, sacrificing the duplicated version of himself to advance his plot.
He had slipped away to inhabit Isabel's husband, like the parasite that he was.
Isabel was going to be devastated, not only by the fact that Jesse had been violated so completely, but also by the fact that Khivar had obviously been around long enough to have had a hand in Lexi's conception. The thought was too revolting to even contemplate. How could he have let this happen to his sister?
All of this was on Max's mind as he paused at the door to the dome. He stared at it for a moment, his eyes narrowed.
He realized that he could feel his nerves tingling. His stomach was clenching in the way it always did before he had to face a battle of this magnitude, his heart pounding - but he was not really nervous. In fact, he was almost looking forward to this final confrontation.
When this was finally over, his real life could begin.
Max pushed open the door.
There was no one in the main dome. It was completely dark and empty, the sun having set and so no light filtered in through the holes in the roof.
Max scowled. **Where are you?**
*~Dealing with Nikkol.*~ Max could hear the disdain in Khivar's voice, even in his head. *~He tried to kill my heir. He has paid.*~
Max felt a twinge of satisfaction. Truly, he had known when he had accused his arch-enemy of attempting to hurt Ben that Khivar had had nothing to do with it. Ben was the one thing on which Max and Khivar were in complete agreement. Although Khivar wanted to use the boy as a pawn, he [i] did[/i] care about him, about his survival, considered Ben to be [i] his[/i] son. It was twisted and sick, but it was also slightly reassuring that his son would survive this, especially with Nicholas dealt with.
**What did he want? What did he hope to gain?**
*~Much.*~ Khivar replied, sounding like he didn't want to discuss it further. *~Sometimes Nikkol's ambition has become a little less subtle than I would like. He has been punished, will learn.*~
**What are you talking about?** Max frowned. There was no answer.
"MAX!"
The sudden yell caused Max to cut off the connection abruptly. He whirled, threw his shield up just in time to stop the bullet that had been headed straight for his back.
He stared at his assailant through the green haze, felt his heart drop into his knees.
"Dan! What the hell are you doing?" It was Kyle who had yelled, Kyle who had warned him, Kyle who was presently wrestling the gun away from Liz's fiancé.
Max dropped his shield, went to help Kyle.
"What the hell is going on here?" Max demanded as Kyle pulled a set of hand- cuffs off his belt and pulled Dan's hands behind his back, made to restrain him. He was no longer struggling though, was staring straight ahead, his eyes blank. Max and Kyle both started in astonishment as Dan's knees suddenly buckled and he collapsed in a heap at their feet.
Max crouched, quickly felt for a pulse.
Nothing. He closed his eyes, brought his hand to Dan's chest, concentrated on starting his heart.
He was not going to let this man die. Liz would [i] never[/i] forgive herself if it happened - if Dan should be killed because of [i] her[/i] involvement with aliens. Max would not let her suffer that.
Max sent a pulse of energy into Dan's chest, sighed in relief as he felt it jump and then start beating again.
"You're all right now," Max said quietly, glancing up at Kyle and shaking his head when his old friend appeared about to say something. He helped Dan to sit up. Liz's fiancé was blinking rapidly, a dazed expression on his face.
Dan stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment. Max watched calmly as Dan's face reflected his displeasure at recognizing Max. "What the hell? What am I doing here?" He looked around the dome, clearly confused, but more annoyed than anything. "Where's Elizabeth?" He finally noticed Kyle. "Kyle, what's going on? Why is [i] he[/i] here? Where am I?"
"Er…" Kyle looked at Max desperately.
"You fainted," Max told him. "Are you okay?"
Dan's expression was fierce. "I fainted? Why?"
"You passed out," Max modified quickly. "Don't you remember [i] anything?[/i]"
Dan shook off Max, stood up without help, stumbling slightly. "The last thing I remember is having dinner at Isabel and Jesse's." He looked closely at Max. "You're Max Evans, aren't you? I've seen pictures of you." He did not look pleased. In fact, his expression was pretty much exactly the same as it had been on Isabel's front lawn four days ago - when they had first met.
Because, Max was quickly beginning to realize, to Dan, [i] this[/i] was their first meeting. "What have you done with Elizabeth?" Dan was snarling now.
"I haven't done anything with her," Max replied quietly. "She's at home, in Roswell." He looked at Kyle, trying to tell him with his eyes that he should play along. "We met at my sister's. Don't you remember? You invited me to your bachelor party. Kyle organized it. You got wasted and disappeared on us. We finally found you here."
Dan stared at him for a long moment, then looked at Kyle for confirmation. Kyle nodded. "I'm sorry Dan. We turned our back for one minute at the bar and you disappeared."
"What the hell did I drink?" Dan muttered, shaking his head and clearly trying to remember. He looked at Max again. "Why would I invite [i] you[/i] to my bachelor party? That doesn't make any sense."
Max shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you," he replied, non-committal. "You did."
"And you wanted to come?"
Max simply shrugged again.
Kyle cut in here. "It's a good thing we found you man. It's Friday night. You've been missing for three days. Liz is absolutely frantic."
"WHAT?" Dan practically yelled. He glanced at his watch. "It's nine o'clock! I'm getting married in fourteen hours!" He appeared to forget all about Max and why on Earth he would have invited his fiancée's ex-boyfriend to his stag party.
"And it's a six hour drive back to Roswell," Kyle told him. "So we better get a move on. My car's out there." He pointed towards the front of the dome. Dan just continued to sputter in disbelief as he started towards the door. "I'll be right out." He called after him.
They waited for him to exit the dome before Max turned to Kyle, his voice reflecting his urgency. "What happened?"
"To Dan? I have no clue," Kyle shook his head. "I was hoping you could tell me."
Max pressed his lips together. "Possessed apparently."
"Possessed?" Kyle's eyes widened. "Like what used to happen to Brody?"
"Exactly." Max closed his eyes.
"By who?"
"Khivar."
"Jesus. For how long?" Kyle demanded. "Isn't he supposed to be dead?"
"He is - supposed to be dead that is." Max replied grimly. "I don't think he's possessed Dan for long though - a few days at most. He's had other irons in the fire." When Kyle looked perplexed, Max just sighed. "It doesn't matter." He shook his head. "Kyle, what the hell happened here? Where are the others?"
Kyle glanced towards the door of the dome. "Listen Max, I really think you better let Maria tell you that. I need to get Dan out of here. It looks like he doesn't remember [i] anything[/i] - and I'm not just talking about the Khivar thing. It'll make life easier on [i] everyone[/i] if we keep it that way."
Max knew exactly what he was talking about. Not only did Dan not remember his experience of being invaded by an alien essence, he apparently didn't remember any of the revelations he had been party to over the last week either. "Maria's here still?" At Kyle's nod, Max sighed with relief. "Okay. But first I need to go get Liz. She's still got the kids down in the trees. I just hope she hasn't left yet." He began to follow Kyle towards the door. "Where's Maria?"
Kyle smacked his hand against his forehead. "She's still in the closet in the bedroom," he grimaced. "It's where Jesse tied her up and put her before he left with Michael and Isabel."
Max stared at him. "You left her there?" And then, "Wait a minute! Why didn't he tie [i] you[/i] up?"
"Because I was willing to stay here because I knew someone had to tell you what was going on," Kyle replied. "He didn't want us. Maria wanted to go though. Michael told him to do it."
Max frowned. Michael was going to pay for that one later. "So you have no idea where Jesse took them? Why did they go with him anyway? Ben said something about Nicholas. Was he here too?"
Kyle rubbed his eyes wearily. "I've got some bad news for you Evans - Nicholas [i] was[/i] here, but not in the way you might have been expecting."
"What do you mean?"
"Jesse [i] is[/i] Nicholas. All that Special Unit stuff - Maria told me about that last night - all the stuff he's told Isabel over the years, none of it's true. He [i] is[/i] Khivar's right-hand man. When Jesse got here, he got out of the car and just [i] told[/i] her. Spilled it right outside, the minute he pulled up."
Max felt his heart stop. "How is this possible? Is Isabel okay?"
Kyle shrugged, "I don't know. At least she has Michael with her." He glanced uneasily towards the door. "Listen, I need to get Dan out of here. Where do you want to meet up so that we can go after them?" He stared at Max seriously, clearly having no intention of not returning.
"I'll be in touch by cell." He didn't quite know what else to say. He didn't want Kyle involved in this, but he couldn't help the warm feeling that entered his heart when the help was offered.
He had had no one on his side on Antar, when he had gone into battle there - at least no one who wasn't obligated to help him because he was the king. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be able to depend on others.
Kyle nodded, turned to go. He paused after a couple steps, turned back to look at Max. "Listen Evans, I don't think Nicholas is [i] all[/i] bad. I really think he's in love with Isabel. I [i] know[/i] he loves their daughter."
"He tried to kill Ben," Max replied evenly. "There will never be any excuse for that."
Kyle sighed. "I know." He turned to leave again.
"Kyle," Max called after him. Kyle turned again, raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for saving my life."
There was an awkward pause. "I guess we're even now," Kyle finally told him. He disappeared outside.
Max waited a moment, then followed. He would go let Maria out as soon as he made sure Liz was still here.
*Procrastinating again are we Zan?*~
Max jerked to a halt at the voice in his head. He scowled. **What have you done? Where are you?**
*~Where I've been all along.*~ Khivar replied, sounding amused. *~In the body Nikkol has been keeping warm for me.*~
Max felt momentarily nauseous at the thought of Isabel married for years not to one monster, but two on occasion. **How?**
*~All in good time Zan.*~
**Where are you?**
*~Waiting for you to find me.*~
Max grit his teeth. **Stop playing games with me. Where the hell are you?**
*~Not far.*~ There was a pause. *~Let's just say that I am where you least want me.*~
Max frowned, realized that the connection had been severed suddenly. He frantically tried to re-enter Khivar's mind, wherever he was, but something was blocking him.
It took him less than two seconds to realize what it was. Or rather, [i] who[/i] it was.
It was Liz. Something had happened to her.
And, because it had, whatever [i] it[/i] was, was happening to him too.
It was his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness.