Sacrifice
A Sequel to Quietly into the Night
Conventional Couples
Rating: PG-13

Chapter Forty

Antar – Royal Palace

Kivar cleared the room of his guardsmen with a wave of his hand. He looked across the room, his steel gray eyes focusing on his nemesis.
"I said are you going somewhere Zan?"
"Going somewhere?" asked Max, moving forward so that he was shielding Liz with his body. "The only place I'm going is across this room so that I can kick your ass to Earth and back!"
"Brave words from one in such a precarious position, Zan. Or would you prefer I call you Max?"
"What we'd all prefer is that you rot in hell," said Michael, from across the room.
"Ah Rath," how good to see you again," said Kivar conversationally, turning towards Michael. "I took great pleasure in killing you once, and I look forward to watching you die again."
As Kivar walked across the room in Michael's direction, Max raised his hand and prepared to hit him with a blast from his hand.
"Don't bother, Zan. It won't work. Your powers are useless to you in here."
"That's bull," said Michael. "You're just bluffing."
"I am? Really, how amusing of me," said Kivar. "Well, why don't you try it and see what happens?

Michael glared at Kivar and raised his had, but nothing happened. As one, Max and Liz both raised their hands and pointed at Kivar, and again nothing happened.
"You bastard," said Liz. "What did you do to us?"
"Ah, Elizabeth, such language," said Kivar, shaking his head. "What I've done doesn't matter. The only thing that does matter is that soon all of you will be dead."
Kivar turned on one heel and walked across the room towards the door, he rapped once on the panel, and it slid open. He smiled at his prisoners and stepped out of the room. After the door slid shut, his voice filled the small room.
"Ah yes, your powers. I suppose you are wondering what has happened to them. As you are aware, Antarian powers come from the brain. We have installed transmitters in this room which emit a frequency that allows us to block the electromagnetic waves your brains use to activate your powers."

"Damn, that son of a bitch," said Max. "There has got to be some way around this. Can any of you do anything? Are any of your powers working?"
One by one, they responded negatively.
"Okay then, do we have any weapons?"
Again the others answered negatively.
"It's obvious our powers aren't going to get us out of here, Max!" snapped Liz.
Maria turned to look at her friend, amazed at the venom she heard in her voice. She slipped her hand out of Michael's and moved across the room to go stand by Liz.
"Calm down Chica," she whispered to her friend. "This is so not the time for either one of us to freak out. We'll have a major freak fest after we get out of this royal hell hole."
Liz smiled, the way Maria hoped she would, but her eyes were still worried. She had been Kivar's captive for too many years, and she wasn't about to allow it to happen again. She looked around the room, at the others who all stood about helplessly. Suddenly, she spied something around Maria's waist.

"Maria, what's that?" she asked pointing to her friend's waist.
"Oh, it's the fanny pack I wear when I jog. I forgot I had it on. Why?"
"What's in it?"
"I don't know, just junk. I grabbed it and slipped it on before I came here."
"Open it," Liz commanded.
Maria slipped the pack off her waist and opened it, and spilled the contents onto the floor. Isabelle moved closer, and she and Liz knelt down and began to shift through the items.
"See," said Maria. "I told you there wasn't anything very useful in it.
"Maria, you are wrong, so very wrong, and I have never been so happy in my life!" shouted Liz.
Maria shook her head, puzzled by Liz's exuberance. "What are you seeing there Liz?"
"Will you look at this," said Liz gleefully. "Pepper spray, a metal nail file, keys, nail polish," she stopped and looked up at Maria, puzzled. "You jog with all of this?"
"Well, not usually the manicure stuff, right before I left, I took Beth for a walk in her carriage and I decided to do my nails in the park while she napped," explained Maria.
"You know Maria," said Isabelle. "Those metal nail files really aren't very good for your nails. They can do a lot of damage."
"Jesus!" said Michael. "Would you mind not playing Madge the Manicurist right now, Isabelle? I think we have bigger problems right now than the state of my wife's cuticles."

Michael's outburst caused the pod squad to explode into laughter while the Antarian contingent looked on in amused confusion. Finally Naloch turned to his children and said with a smile, "Observe the ruling class of Antar. This is by far, their finest moment."
His statement caused another explosion of laughter, and the room filled with the sounds of mirth. Struggling to contain himself, Max flashed an engaging grin at the others.
"Okay, Liz, you seem to have a plan forming. Did you care to enlighten the rest of us, or are we just going to wing it?"
"Kivar said that they were using some sort of transmitters to block our powers, right? Well I'm guessing that means that whoever comes in here will have their powers blocked as well. Why can't we just over power whoever comes in here and go out right through the door? We'll still have to fight, but at least we'll have a fighting change."
"It seems risky, Liz," said Max, doubt tingeing his voice.
"Do you have a better plan?" asked Liz.
"No," admitted Max.
"Fine, then we go with mine. Now, who is going to be waiting at the door to disable whoever is unfortunate enough to come through the door?"

"Liz, if I may make a suggestion?" asked Naloch.
"Of course Naloch, you know we value your advice. Without it, I'm sure we wouldn't be alive right now."
"I'm not so certain about that," said Naloch. "You are quite a resourceful bunch, but I think I have found a flaw in your plan. I really don't think any of you should be waiting by the door. The guardsmen will be expecting that."
"Right," said Michael. "When the door opens, they are going to be looking for us to make sure we aren't going to try something."
"Well, I can do it," offered Maria.
"Yes you could, and you would probably be successful, but we need someone with powers at the door. That way, they can step outside, and hopefully out of range of the transmitters, and their powers will work."
"Well, you can't do it Naloch, they'll probably be watching you as close as they are watching us," said Max.
"Jereon and I will do it," said Saranara, suddenly. "Maria, you will show me how to work this pepper spray. I will disarm whoever comes through the door, and Jereon can then overpower him and get into the hall."
"Saranara, are you sure?" asked Isabelle, slowly. "It's going to be dangerous, and to be honest, you never really signed up for any of this."
"I don't know what you mean, signed on, but I will do this for Kyle. He is brave, unafraid to do whatever needs to be done. I too will do whatever I need to, so that we can free ourselves."
"Saranara is right," said Jereon. "You keep saying you are stronger together, well I think that includes us as well. It will take all of us to get out of here."

Isabelle didn't say anything, but the look she gave Jereon spoke volumes. He smiled back at her and crossed the room to stand beside her.
"I will not let anything happen to you Isabelle," he said softly, taking her hand. "I will die before I let Kivar get near you."
She squeezed his hand and smiled back at him.
"That's sweet, but entirely unnecessary," she said, flippantly.
"And why is that Princess?"
"Because I'm going to kill the bastard myself, and don't call me that," said Isabelle sweetly.
"Great, we've got the door covered," said Michael. "But what are we going to do? No offense, but I'm not too accustomed to letting everyone else but me save my ass."
"Good," said Liz, crisply, grabbing a few items off of the floor. "While Maria is showing Saranara how to use the pepper spray, you and Max can use the nail file and nail clippers to see if you can get the door to the tunnel opened again."
"And what will you be doing while all this is going on?" asked Max with a grin, enjoying the sight of his wife in take charge mode.
"Simple, she said, grabbing a bottle of nail polish, and winking at her husband. "I'm going to be doing my nails."

It didn't take long for Maria to instruct Saranara on the uses of pepper spray, and then she and Jereon quickly took their positions on either side of the door. Michael and Max used their simple tools to try and free the passageway to the tunnel, while Maria, Liz, Isabelle and Naloch blocked them from view. A noise on the other side of the door alerted Saranara and Jereon, and they called softly to the others, who quickly moved to their pre-assigned positions, and waited while the door slid open. Two guardsmen walked in, carrying trays of food. Their feet slipped in the puddles of nail polish that Liz had dropped just inside the door. Saranara quickly sprayed the pepper spray into their eyes, while Jereon shoved the two of them deeper into the room to a waiting Max and Michael. While they disabled the guardsmen, Jereon and Saranara rushed out into the hall, followed by Naloch, Liz, Maria and Isabelle. Max and Michael quickly joined them, and they ran down a hallway, trying to find the quickest way out of the palace.
"Well, our powers work anyhow," said Michael, as he blew a portrait off of the wall as he ran past.
"That's good," Jereon called back to him. "Because we've got trouble."