[u]Part 51[/u]

"The meeting's on hold," Max told Tess and Kyle as he passed them in one of the upper corridors of the Citadel. He was in search of Liz, whom he hadn't seen since he'd left their room to go help the new four square with their healing earlier that morning. He could feel her presence on the edge of his awareness, as always, but wasn't quite sure where she was. Something seemed to be blocking their connection slightly, had been doing so since he had come back from the Ring with his mother, Isabel and Maria. "Jennetta's a little.well, busy."

"What? Why?" Kyle demanded. "Please don't tell me something's happened."

Max grinned. "You could say that. Ren appears to have sorted himself out. Or at least I think that's why they were making out in her office."

Tess's face lit up. "Really? Oh Max, that's wonderful!"

Meanwhile, a wicked expression of glee had crossed Kyle's face. "Does Michael know about this?"

"I'm not sure," Max shrugged. "Maria's probably told him by now. She was with me and Izzy when we walked in on them."

Kyle rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "So maybe not. C'mon honey. Let's go find your brother. I want to see the expression on his face when he hears."

Tess shoved him lightly. "You're mean."

"Nah, just easily amused." Kyle grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hallway after him. "See ya your mightiness."

Max rolled his eyes. Kyle still called him that, much to his annoyance. He usually chose not to react anymore though, because it just egged his friend on. Max also knew that it was [I]why[/I] Kyle teased him. Because he did consider him a friend now. They were on much better terms these days, Kyle completely secure in Tess's love, with his position in the group and with his status as a changed human.

In fact, for a while, Kyle and Liz had considered attempting to form a four square with a couple of other newly changed humans, if only to strengthen their gradually emerging gifts. Their particular powers were finally coming to light. It had come as no surprise to any of them that Liz was developping into a dreamwalker like Isabel. The ease with which she had always received flashes from Max and the fact that she had been able to visit him in his dreams during his first stay on Illyria had more than prepared them for the conclusion of her change.

Kyle, on the other hand, was about a year behind Liz in his development as a healer. It was why, in the end, they had decided not to join with others. They had wanted to do it together or not at all, not to mention, it would have meant potentially having to bring Illyrians or Dernians back to Earth to keep the four square active. They figured their connection to the Royal Four was about as far as they needed to take their new alien status.

Max and Liz's bond had continued to strengthen over the past months, to the point that he was pretty much aware of her all the time, even when many miles separated them. Knowing her inside and out had only reinforced how much he adored her. She was quite simply the most wonderful person on this world or any other. And this opinion had nothing to do with the fact that he was madly in love with her. It was just the truth, or so he had told her many times, much to her embarassment. He grinned slightly to himself at the thought of the way her cheeks always reddened slightly before she kissed him to shut him up. That certainly had nothing to do with his constant desire to tell her such things either. Far be it from him to suppress the truth after all.

~*Liz, where are you?*~ He called out now, impatient to be with her. They didn't use their ability to communicate telepathically very often, so that they could both maintain a modicum of privacy, but enough was enough. He could walk the corridors of the immense fortress for days and find no sign of her.

Max could feel that she was busy with something, but that she wouldn't mind his appearance either. She was slightly distracted obviously because it took a moment for her to reply. ~*I'm up in the north tower.*~

The north tower? Max grimaced. What the heck was she doing up there? And why the hell was it so far away? Grumbling slightly under his breath, he turned on his heel and made his way to where his girlfriend could be found.

Fifteen minutes later he arrived, out of breath from the light jog he had employed so that it wouldn't be half an hour, and more curious than ever. He had never been in this part of the Citadel before. Most of the governmental chambers and their rooms were found in the south and east towers. The north tower had been the base of Nasedo's illegal rule of the planet and they had pretty much abandonned it once they had cleared out all that they needed.

Max found Liz in a small room on the third floor of the tower. It had apparently been used as a sleeping chamber because she was seated cross- legged on a small cot in the far corner, her head bowed, her long dark hair, almost waist-length now, sweeping over her shoulders and onto the volume that lay in her lap. She looked up as he poked his head into the room. "Hey!" She held up her hand and beckoned him forward.

"What're you doing?" Max asked, plunking himself down beside her. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in so that he could kiss the top of her head.

Liz was eyeing him though, a concerned expression on her face. "How did things go with Milena?" She asked. "I'm guessing not particularly well from the flashes I was getting from you. You were really mad there for a while."

Max sighed. "She just knows what to say to tick me off I guess. But things went well enough. She agreed to have her gift stilled. That's what Jemma called it anyway. Izzy, Maria and I took her to the Ring and it was done. She's back in her cell now. It took a lot out of her. Isabel seems to think that she really regrets what she did, but I don't buy it. If I never have to set eyes on that woman again, it will be too soon."

Liz leaned forward, kissed him gently on the lips. "I'm sorry Max."

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I have parents and I have you. I don't need her."

Liz sat back, her eyes lowered. He could have kicked himself because he too had felt the stabbing grief that ran through her when he mentioned "parents." "Oh God. I am such a jerk. I'm sorry sweetheart."

She smiled slightly, but Max could see that it took some effort. "It's okay. You need to be able to talk to me about these things. You are lucky to have your parents. But I think maybe you do need to try with Milena once more Max, even if to stop feeling so angry. She is your mother, no matter what she's done. It's not something to take lightly."

"Maybe," Max agreed, although he was pretty sure that seeing Milena again was the last thing on his agenda before returning to Earth. He decided to change the subject. "So, what [I]are[/I] you doing up here?"

Liz looked at him, obviously trying to decide whether she should let the topic go or not, but when she raised the book sitting beneath her hands, he knew that she had for the moment. "I found this. You'll never believe what it is."

Max took it from her, flipped it open to the first page and then stared. "Oh my God." He blinked, stared again, making sure he wasn't seeing things.

"I know!" Liz exclaimed. "It's Pam Troy's. Max, she was here!"

Apparently so, because the thin leather-bound book that Max held between his hands stated as clear as day that [I]This Journal Belongs to Pamela Denise Troy[/I].

"I don't understand." Max raised his head and stared at her. "How did you find this?"

"This morning, after you left, I was talking to Lillia. She came in when I was writing in my new journal. Apparently she was at the ceremony in Danar when we donated my grandma's and my first journal to the Archives there. It turns out that she finds the whole concept of writing down feelings fascinating. Even Illyrians, who were never cleansed, used to try and suppress their emotions. Anyway, she mentioned that it struck her as odd how much time we humans spent writing out our feelings, that it was a strange habit Princess Andrina had obviously picked up, because they just don't do that here."

"Okay?" Max frowned, not quite understanding where she was going with this.

"It dawned on me that she had obviously never seen my grandmother write in her journal and I know no one else out of the eight of us has one. But she sounded like seeing me with mine wasn't the first time she had witnessed it. I asked her and she told me that some other human girl Tarsus had brought to the Citadel had written in one too! She directed me here. This was where she was kept."

"And the other girl was Pam Troy." Max shook his head in amazement. "So she was here the whole time that Danala was impersonating her on Earth."

Liz nodded. "She must have been." She took the journal away from Max, smoothed her hands over the leather cover. "I was reading this when you came in. It talks all about Tarsus showing up at her house, kidnapping her and bringing her here through the portal so that Danala could get close to us."

Max narrowed his eyes, a sick feeling overtaking him. "Wait a minute. When we left Roswell, Pam was [I]still[/I] missing. If she's no longer here, then where is she?"

"Well, she kept the dates in here as though she was still on Earth, starting from the day she was kidnapped, which was a couple of weeks before you came home. The last entry is dated the day of the fire at the Crashdown." Liz's voice was sad as she continued, "Max, I think we finally know whose body was in my bed when it burnt down. I think Nasedo brought her back to Earth and left her there to be found, making everyone think I had died. He could have easily changed my dental records with hers. He was a shapeshifter after all. We'd already figured out that part anyway."

Max didn't even know what to say. It made perfect sense, but also made him feel horrible. While he hadn't liked Pam - at all - that she had met such a horrible fate, because of them. "God, Liz."

Liz reached out and threw her arms around his neck. "I know. It's awful. I never liked her, but she was completely innocent Max. She didn't deserve that."

Max stroked Liz's hair soothingly, taking his own comfort from her warm body too. His mind was in turmoil. Finally, he spoke softly against her neck, working out the problem aloud. "We're going to have to do something about it Liz. We can't let her parents continue to wonder what happened to her. I mean, before we [I]had[/I] to. We were in danger. I never wanted to keep them in the dark anyway, because I know what my parents went through when I disapeared, but now we have no choice. We have to tell them something."

"I know," Liz sighed. She pulled back, looked him in the face. "Maybe the Sheriff can help us come up with a logical explanation?"

"You're going to be back in town. Maybe people will believe that Pam was sleeping over at your house and you were kidnapped and the kidnappers set the Crashdown on fire?"

Liz grimaced. "It sounds a little far-fetched. Everyone knows Pam and I hated each other." She ran a hand through her hair in annoyance. "Not to mention, I still feel horrible about it. She just didn't deserve to die like that Max." She was angry now, her tone reflecting her fury. "No one did, particularly my parents." Tears of rage were shining in her dark eyes. "I hate him so much Max. I still hate him so much. He deserved to die a thousand deaths for what he did to all of us, for what he did to them!"

Max pulled her against him again, his pain for her overwhelming him. He didn't even know where to start to comfort her. "I'm so sorry sweetheart. I'm so sorry that this happened."

"I told my grandmother in the Ring that I wouldn't change things," Liz whispered against his neck. "But I lied. Knowing what happened to Pam, it's only brought home the fact that I'm never going to see my parents again. I would change that one thing if I could."

"That can be arranged."

Liz whipped around so quickly, she almost fell off Max's lap. Max managed to grab her before she tumbled to the floor. When he looked up, he was not at all surprised to see Lucianus seated on a bench in the corner of the small room, as though he had been there all along.

"Lucianus!" Liz exclaimed.

"Hello Liz." The old man smiled his gentle smile, sending a flash of warmth through Max's body. The only word to describe how he always felt in the mage's company was "comfort." He could feel Liz's emotions calming down through their connection too. "And to you to Max."

Neither Max, nor Liz, said anything. They simply stared at Lucianus. They both knew that he was there for a reason. He never came unless he had a reason. Jennetta had told them a bit about the time she had spent with him as a child, but that Milena and Hamor had always seemed to brush his presence in her life away, as though he was merely the imaginary friend of a child. Jenny knew that Milena had met him though. He had been the one who had helped their mother clone them. And, yet, they had all started to wonder at one point if the old man hadn't perhaps been a figment of all of their imaginations too. He had not shown his face since that single meeting in the Ring and no one else on Illyria had ever come into contact with him.

But here he was again. Calm, implacable and fully capable of changing their lives with a flick of his wrist, if his actions so far could be used as precedent.

"You said it could be arranged?" Liz asked carefully. Max was still trying to grasp that Lucianus was sitting there, but Liz, as usual, was already two steps ahead of him. "You mean, that my parents never died?"

"You said in the Ring that day that you didn't want to change things Liz," Lucianus said kindly. "I could have told you then that it was an option, but you seemed sure."

"I was sure at the time," Liz replied. She paused, swallowed. "I'm still sure that they should stay the way they are if fixing things means that all the good we've done on Illyria will come undone."

"It does not have to," Lucianus told her. Max could feel Liz start to tremble. She was still sitting on his lap, but was facing away from him, her entire being focused on the old man. He tightened his arms around her, trying to support her, but still completely unsure what the hell was going on here. "Just as the Illyrians were under interdict, not knowing what happened to the Royal Four when they were killed - possible because of the time differences between Earth and Illyria - the Earth can be interdicted the same way. The time differences that you resolve when you use the portal in a Ring can be used to your parents' benefit."

"Are you telling us that we can go back to a time on Earth before the fire ever happened?" Max demanded. He was beginning to get a bit angry. He was going to be furious if the mage was getting Liz's hopes up for nothing. It sounded crazy, unbelievable.

And, yet.

Maria and Michael had spent more than a year on Illyria their first time here, when Jennetta had been conceived. When they had returned to Earth, not using a Ring, it had been as though only an hour had passed there. But time [I]had[/I] gone forward, if not in sync.

"How can you we go back in time?" Max asked, still uncertain. "It doesn't make any sense!"

"If you believe strongly enough, the Ring can do anything," Lucianus told him firmly.

"And nothing will change here on Illyria?" Liz asked, wanting to clarify that point. "We'll remember everything that's happened?"

"On Earth, it will be as if you were never gone. Here on Illyria, all will stay as it is now."

"Okay, this seems too good to be true," Max muttered to Liz. "There [I]has[/I] to be a catch." Suddenly he thought of one. "What about Jennetta? If we go back to before the fire, Jennetta will still be in her pod."

"Jennetta is where she is meant to be," Lucianus replied. "It will be as if she did not exist on Earth."

"But we'll remember her?" Max demanded. "We can't ask Michael and Maria to give up their daughter."

"You will remember her," Lucianus agreed. "And Laren will still be dead. He is gone for good. I swear it. Judgement is irreversible."

Liz had shifted off Max's lap and was now clutching his hand. He could feel the mounting excitement she was trying to damper until they had examined this proposal from all directions. "Are you [I]sure[/I] there's no catch?" Max asked finally, still uncertain.

"I swear to you that there is not. You have given of yourselves freely over the past three years my children. You have assured the union of this planet and the safety of another. It is time that the universe thanks you."

There was a long silence. Max turned his head, looked at Liz, whose eyes were wide with wonder.

"In that case." He trailed off, glanced at Liz again. He briefly wondered if he should talk to the others before agreeing to this. "We accept."

Lucianus smiled. "Very well then."

Max stood, pulled Liz to her feet. He hugged her. "I can't believe this is really happening."

"There is one condition."

Max's heart stopped beating. He turned his head, scowling already. "You said there was no catch!"

"It's not a catch," Lucianus replied mildly, clearly unperturbed by Max's anger. "It is merely a condition."

Max narrowed his eyes. "What is it?"

"You must return tonight."

To be continued.