~Chapter 6
Max was hanging around the Crashdown after it was closed and Liz was by herself finishing the clean up. He waited for her to get off work like this sometimes, keeping her company and helping if she needed it or would let him help with anything. Today basically they were just chatting as she went about the last of her work.
"Have you seen Michael today?" -Max.
"Yeah, actually he and Maria were here for lunch." -Liz.
"Oh. Well, that's good I guess. You know Michael doesn't come home sometimes." -Max.
"Because Victoria's living there now?" -Liz.
"That and because I think he's trying to deal with a lot by himself right now. I just don't know how to help him. I don't think I could begin to. He definitely won't talk about anything that's happened. But maybe Maria can help him." -Max.
Liz set down the salt shakers abruptly. "Um, Max, Maria broke up with Michael today."
"What? So out of the blue?" Max said in surprise.
"That's what my reaction was at first. But we talked a long time today and it wasn't so sudden. Michael treated her badly, the whole situation was bad I know, and I can see all sides a bit, even Victoria's in some way I think, but - Michael did cheat on her Max and I know how it felt when I found out Tess was pregnant with your child. The situations are so different, I know too - but also, Maria and I are so different, that we handled it two totally different ways. Anyway, without betraying any best friend confidences or anything, I can say it was for the best. Maria handled it really well." -Liz.
"And Michael?" -Max.
"Well, there was no crashing or breaking of anything. Actually not even any yelling. So." -Liz.
Max thought about all that and then Liz said, "Do you think he and Victoria will get back together now and-"
"Absolutely not." Max snapped.
Liz looked at him in silence. Max said, "I'm sorry, Liz. I just don't want Michael to get hurt again, actually any of us. And I don't really think Michael would want to be with her again in any event. Or even if he had some feelings, I don't think he would act on them. Not this time."
Liz nodded. "You're probably right." And then she asked, "Have you found out anything else? I mean, has she talked to you?"
"Some. The main thing I have found out though is that she definitely knows a lot more than she's saying." -Max.
"And she knows that you know she knows a lot more?" -Liz.
"I believe so. She's admitted as much, that she knows a lot she's not saying. But she said she couldn't say more. Some vague excuse. But it doesn't matter. I'll find out what she's hiding." -Max said with determination.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When Max went home to Michael's apartment, all was dark. He assumed everyone else was sleeping. When he turned on the light, he found differently. Victoria had been sitting on the couch in the dark.
"What are you doing?" -Max.
"I was just hoping Michael would come home tonight. He sometimes stays gone all night. I was worried." -Victoria.
"Really now?" -Max.
"Yes. I know Michael's almost like a brother to you and you are cautious. But contrary to what you may think, I love him. I always have." -Victoria.
"You sound like you've known him more than six months." -Max said wryly as he put away his jacket.
Victoria didn't answer, so he looked back at her and she was looking at him. What he saw before she turned away, was a vast knowing - something that gave him an almost eerie feeling.
"It doesn't look like he's coming home tonight either, so I might as well go to bed." Victoria got up and started to the bedroom.
"You know Michael and Maria broke up today." Max said, knowing that would get her attention.
Victoria stopped in her tracks.
"Yeah and it was not a nasty break up, though. From what I understand it was pretty civil." -Max.
"What do you want me to say?" -Victoria.
"I don't remember asking you to say anything about it." -Max.
"No, I know you told me that so that I would stay here and talk. But what do you want me to say? I know you want me to slip and say something. But I already told you, I can't tell you everything." -Victoria.
Max turned to her. "And why can't you?"
"I said---" -Victoria.
"I know what you said. But it was vague. Not an explanation enough. It doesn't make sense enough. We're supposed to be, for lack of a better word - "aliens", right? So there should be no secrets among aliens. Why can't you tell me? Is someone threatening you?" -Max.
"No." -Victoria.
Max didn't take that as an answer. "It's Saelar isn't it? Besides another 'alien' - Who is he exactly?"
Victoria didn't answer.
"So it is him isn't it? He's controlling you. He won't let you talk. So now that Adam's gone, you're just going to let someone else control your life." -Max.
"No, it's not Saelar. He doesn't control me. He couldn't even if he wanted to." -Victoria.
"Why?"
"Because I don't take orders from him. And that's all I'm saying!" -Victoria stepped forward to the bedroom again.
Max stopped her by grabbing her arm.
"Don't-" Victoria started to say, but it was too late, he touched her and visions accelerated before her open eyes- somewhere from the back of her mind. Far too fast to see, but disturbing and uncomfortable. It was the second time he'd ever touched her in any way. The first being in menace with the confrontation with Adam. Max couldn't feel this dizzying uncomfortableness could he? The visions too fast to see? No, she surmised as she looked at him. His powers were not as advanced. A good thing, perhaps. He didn't know. Couldn't know.
Max let go of her arm and sighed. "Look, if I promise no harm will come to you for telling me whatever it is you know - if I assured you that, would you tell me?"
"No." -Victoria.
"What else do you want?" Max asked in exasperation.
"I don't want anything. I don't want your assurances. They can't matter." -Victoria.
"I am trying to do this in a peaceful way. But do you want me to take it by force?" -Max asked seriously.
"No. And it wouldn't be so easy were you to attempt it. It wouldn't be good for either of us. Do you remember what it felt like for the brief instant that our powers collided in the mansion- before it was destroyed?" -Victoria.
Max thought back to that and he remembered the shock to him. As shocking as being dunked into ice cold frigid water. Very unpleasant, very strange. Very wrong. Max blinked back the memory and looked at her. " Who are you? I don't think I know you at all."
"You do." Victoria said before she realized she'd said it.
She looked away and he said, "What are you afraid of?"
"The truth. As you should be." Victoria walked away and he let her retreat this time.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- that night-
Circles dazzled Max's dreams. Strange circles and signs. Images blurred and voices almost taunting, just out of hearing. A circle of 5 .. or 6.. no, 8, now there was eight. Two of four. What did that mean?
All of the confusion faded suddenly and then Max found himself standing in a street. A street that went back as far as he could see. Towering building on all sides. Great stairs to his back. People cheered and shouted. They seemed happy and excited. All around. But there was no noise. Only an absolute silence. People in robes and gowns. The sun hurt his eyes. Too bright. The colors too vivid. Max looked about him and saw Isabel in his dream. Isabel with long dark hair, the color of his own. Isabel. And Michael, only he wasn't Michael. A sort of difference. A sort of different stature? He couldn't talk to them, because they weren't paying attention to him. He couldn't talk, because he had no voice. Flower petals floated down all around them from somewhere high above. And a glass and metal carriage rode down the center of the street toward him. He found himself moving, though not of his own accord. He was standing waiting for the carriage to stop. And when it did and the door opened, he held out his hand. Looking up, he saw a vision in white step from the carriage. A vision in white take his out stretched hand. Victoria. Only, different. Just as their hands clasped, the dream changed completely.
A pool of red. Crimson, no, darker- and when he realized that he was stepping in the liquid he moved back, but there was nowhere to move back to. He was looking at a circle, an odd sort of circle. Points along the way and blood, blood deep and red everywhere. It rose and he couldn't scream, because he had no voice. But he heard the word zenovia again and again in whispers and voices. A key, zenovia - zenovia was a key. It consumed him and just as the blood flowed over his head, he woke straight up on the couch and looked around him at the darkened living room of Michael's apartment. No blood, no symbols, no voices, no carriage. No dream.
Max was shaken. He had had dreams that were strange before, since Victoria came into their lives- since she lived here. He hadn't shared it with anyone. Strange and confusing, but disturbing tonight. Frightening in part. He had suspected Victoria had something to do with it. She said she hadn't done anything. Perhaps she hadn't, but he would bet his life on it that she knew what it all meant. Desperate for answers Max flung back the cover and went to Michael's room where Victoria slept now instead of Michael.
Max went to her side and shook her awake.
Victoria's eyes fluttered and in the hazy light between sleep and awake she recognized the figure. More asleep than awake, she said, "Zan."
Max shrank back at that in shock.
At his abrupt removal, Victoria became fully awake and opened her eyes. In the moonlight shining from the half opened curtains, she saw Max and she was no longer either dreaming or asleep.
"What did you just say?" Max asked in a strangled whisper.
"I don't know want you mean. What.." Victoria scooted up in the bed and looked around her. "What are you doing in here?"
"Don't play the fool." Max said and pounced to her side again. "I just dreamed of blood and a circle and signs and a street, a place. and you. Why are you in my dreams? And what does it all mean? And don't you dare say you don't know, because we both know you do!"
"I can't.." -Victoria said in a whisper.
Max shook her. "You can tell me!"
"If I tell you, it's the point of no return for us all!" Victoria cried back. "Just leave it alone, Max. You don't know what you're asking!"
"You know what it all means. And you called me Zan. You know." Max said and he repeated. "You know. What is zenovia? Why and how is it a key? TELL ME!"
"No!" Victoria screamed and scooted across the bed away from his grasp that demanded answers.
Max followed her on the bed and grabbed her again. He held her head roughly, desperately in his hands so that she could not look away and he demanded, "Tell me NOW!"
"*I* am Zenovia!" Victoria cried in a strangled whisper. Like that revelation explained it all, she was silent for a moment lost in her thoughts. Max thought she wouldn't say anymore, but she continued, "I was, I am .. the key."
"You're one of us. From Antar?" -Max,
She nodded.
"How? You said Saelar told you that you were created here on Earth, that there was no pod. You can't be like us. You couldn't have known Zan. me, or any of us then. You couldn't.."
"But I could. I did. You don't understand. It's very complex. Everything you thought you knew is not the way it really is. I mean it is true, but not the whole truth."
"You know about that other life?" -Max.
"If there is a God, I wish to him that I didn't." -Victoria.
"You don't know what you're saying. Whatever you've been told is just not true." -Max.
"You don't even know anything really, and you're already doubting me." -Victoria.
"Make me understand." Max said, looking in her eyes seriously, plaintively.
"I am one of the royals, Max Evans. Not the four - at least not as you know it." -Victoria.
"How do you fit in? And how do you know this, just because Saelar and Adam told you? They could have lied to you." -Max.
"Adam didn't tell me, he didn't want me to know who and what I was, just that I was different. Saelar told me. But I know it's true. Only a couple months ago did he tell me precisely- though now looking back, he eluded to it before then." -Victoria.
"How do you know it's true?" -Max.
"Because I've dreamt of our planet, our life, you. all of my life. Vague and imprecise, but it was always there. I didn't realize it was more than that until not long ago, but I felt strongly for Michael, because I knew him. But he doesn't know. Saelar also said that -" Victoria stopped.
"What did Saelar say? -Max.
"When he came to me while I was on the streets, homeless - he told me who and what I really am. He proved to me. He showed me a sign. A sign of my destiny. And he said that when I told you, as I must come to do some day - that I call him and we meet with him and he will tell you what you need to know." -Victoria.
"Then call him now! We have to see him." -Max.
"No. Max, you don't even understand it yet. You---" -Victoria.
Max interrupted, "I understand enough. You're telling me that you are connected with Michael, Isabel and I - that you're from our world, that you knew us - that you're a key. I've heard enough to know that I need to know more. How do you call Saelar?"
"I've never called him before. He's always come to me. But he said if I was in great danger, he would know and he would come. He also said that when I was to call him, I simply called his name and he would come. From wherever he would hear the call." -Victoria.
"That doesn't explain how you are to do it." -Max.
Victoria shrugged. "Then it must be simple as he said."
She cleared her mind of all but his image and the feel of his own personal energy. She said in her mind, "Saelar." And then, aloud, "Saelar." She opened her eyes and saw Max looking at her.
"That's it?" -Max.
"Yes, I think. But you forget, my abilities are much more advanced than yours. I can connect fairly easily." -Victoria.
Max sat back and sighed, "Now what?"
"Now we wait." -Victoria.
There was a long silence and Victoria said, "You're not going to like what Saelar is going to tell you."
"Why?" Max looked at her seriously.
"It's frightening and it's grander than the both of us and because I didn't like it either. It was a shock." -Victoria.
Max just looked at her. A little wary and a little premature disbelief at anything this Saelar had to say.
Somewhere along the way, whether it be minutes or hours later - they fell asleep. And they didn't awake until the brightness of the daylight shined in and the only thing blocking it, was a form standing above them, against the light.
Saelar had come.
Max was hanging around the Crashdown after it was closed and Liz was by herself finishing the clean up. He waited for her to get off work like this sometimes, keeping her company and helping if she needed it or would let him help with anything. Today basically they were just chatting as she went about the last of her work.
"Have you seen Michael today?" -Max.
"Yeah, actually he and Maria were here for lunch." -Liz.
"Oh. Well, that's good I guess. You know Michael doesn't come home sometimes." -Max.
"Because Victoria's living there now?" -Liz.
"That and because I think he's trying to deal with a lot by himself right now. I just don't know how to help him. I don't think I could begin to. He definitely won't talk about anything that's happened. But maybe Maria can help him." -Max.
Liz set down the salt shakers abruptly. "Um, Max, Maria broke up with Michael today."
"What? So out of the blue?" Max said in surprise.
"That's what my reaction was at first. But we talked a long time today and it wasn't so sudden. Michael treated her badly, the whole situation was bad I know, and I can see all sides a bit, even Victoria's in some way I think, but - Michael did cheat on her Max and I know how it felt when I found out Tess was pregnant with your child. The situations are so different, I know too - but also, Maria and I are so different, that we handled it two totally different ways. Anyway, without betraying any best friend confidences or anything, I can say it was for the best. Maria handled it really well." -Liz.
"And Michael?" -Max.
"Well, there was no crashing or breaking of anything. Actually not even any yelling. So." -Liz.
Max thought about all that and then Liz said, "Do you think he and Victoria will get back together now and-"
"Absolutely not." Max snapped.
Liz looked at him in silence. Max said, "I'm sorry, Liz. I just don't want Michael to get hurt again, actually any of us. And I don't really think Michael would want to be with her again in any event. Or even if he had some feelings, I don't think he would act on them. Not this time."
Liz nodded. "You're probably right." And then she asked, "Have you found out anything else? I mean, has she talked to you?"
"Some. The main thing I have found out though is that she definitely knows a lot more than she's saying." -Max.
"And she knows that you know she knows a lot more?" -Liz.
"I believe so. She's admitted as much, that she knows a lot she's not saying. But she said she couldn't say more. Some vague excuse. But it doesn't matter. I'll find out what she's hiding." -Max said with determination.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When Max went home to Michael's apartment, all was dark. He assumed everyone else was sleeping. When he turned on the light, he found differently. Victoria had been sitting on the couch in the dark.
"What are you doing?" -Max.
"I was just hoping Michael would come home tonight. He sometimes stays gone all night. I was worried." -Victoria.
"Really now?" -Max.
"Yes. I know Michael's almost like a brother to you and you are cautious. But contrary to what you may think, I love him. I always have." -Victoria.
"You sound like you've known him more than six months." -Max said wryly as he put away his jacket.
Victoria didn't answer, so he looked back at her and she was looking at him. What he saw before she turned away, was a vast knowing - something that gave him an almost eerie feeling.
"It doesn't look like he's coming home tonight either, so I might as well go to bed." Victoria got up and started to the bedroom.
"You know Michael and Maria broke up today." Max said, knowing that would get her attention.
Victoria stopped in her tracks.
"Yeah and it was not a nasty break up, though. From what I understand it was pretty civil." -Max.
"What do you want me to say?" -Victoria.
"I don't remember asking you to say anything about it." -Max.
"No, I know you told me that so that I would stay here and talk. But what do you want me to say? I know you want me to slip and say something. But I already told you, I can't tell you everything." -Victoria.
Max turned to her. "And why can't you?"
"I said---" -Victoria.
"I know what you said. But it was vague. Not an explanation enough. It doesn't make sense enough. We're supposed to be, for lack of a better word - "aliens", right? So there should be no secrets among aliens. Why can't you tell me? Is someone threatening you?" -Max.
"No." -Victoria.
Max didn't take that as an answer. "It's Saelar isn't it? Besides another 'alien' - Who is he exactly?"
Victoria didn't answer.
"So it is him isn't it? He's controlling you. He won't let you talk. So now that Adam's gone, you're just going to let someone else control your life." -Max.
"No, it's not Saelar. He doesn't control me. He couldn't even if he wanted to." -Victoria.
"Why?"
"Because I don't take orders from him. And that's all I'm saying!" -Victoria stepped forward to the bedroom again.
Max stopped her by grabbing her arm.
"Don't-" Victoria started to say, but it was too late, he touched her and visions accelerated before her open eyes- somewhere from the back of her mind. Far too fast to see, but disturbing and uncomfortable. It was the second time he'd ever touched her in any way. The first being in menace with the confrontation with Adam. Max couldn't feel this dizzying uncomfortableness could he? The visions too fast to see? No, she surmised as she looked at him. His powers were not as advanced. A good thing, perhaps. He didn't know. Couldn't know.
Max let go of her arm and sighed. "Look, if I promise no harm will come to you for telling me whatever it is you know - if I assured you that, would you tell me?"
"No." -Victoria.
"What else do you want?" Max asked in exasperation.
"I don't want anything. I don't want your assurances. They can't matter." -Victoria.
"I am trying to do this in a peaceful way. But do you want me to take it by force?" -Max asked seriously.
"No. And it wouldn't be so easy were you to attempt it. It wouldn't be good for either of us. Do you remember what it felt like for the brief instant that our powers collided in the mansion- before it was destroyed?" -Victoria.
Max thought back to that and he remembered the shock to him. As shocking as being dunked into ice cold frigid water. Very unpleasant, very strange. Very wrong. Max blinked back the memory and looked at her. " Who are you? I don't think I know you at all."
"You do." Victoria said before she realized she'd said it.
She looked away and he said, "What are you afraid of?"
"The truth. As you should be." Victoria walked away and he let her retreat this time.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- that night-
Circles dazzled Max's dreams. Strange circles and signs. Images blurred and voices almost taunting, just out of hearing. A circle of 5 .. or 6.. no, 8, now there was eight. Two of four. What did that mean?
All of the confusion faded suddenly and then Max found himself standing in a street. A street that went back as far as he could see. Towering building on all sides. Great stairs to his back. People cheered and shouted. They seemed happy and excited. All around. But there was no noise. Only an absolute silence. People in robes and gowns. The sun hurt his eyes. Too bright. The colors too vivid. Max looked about him and saw Isabel in his dream. Isabel with long dark hair, the color of his own. Isabel. And Michael, only he wasn't Michael. A sort of difference. A sort of different stature? He couldn't talk to them, because they weren't paying attention to him. He couldn't talk, because he had no voice. Flower petals floated down all around them from somewhere high above. And a glass and metal carriage rode down the center of the street toward him. He found himself moving, though not of his own accord. He was standing waiting for the carriage to stop. And when it did and the door opened, he held out his hand. Looking up, he saw a vision in white step from the carriage. A vision in white take his out stretched hand. Victoria. Only, different. Just as their hands clasped, the dream changed completely.
A pool of red. Crimson, no, darker- and when he realized that he was stepping in the liquid he moved back, but there was nowhere to move back to. He was looking at a circle, an odd sort of circle. Points along the way and blood, blood deep and red everywhere. It rose and he couldn't scream, because he had no voice. But he heard the word zenovia again and again in whispers and voices. A key, zenovia - zenovia was a key. It consumed him and just as the blood flowed over his head, he woke straight up on the couch and looked around him at the darkened living room of Michael's apartment. No blood, no symbols, no voices, no carriage. No dream.
Max was shaken. He had had dreams that were strange before, since Victoria came into their lives- since she lived here. He hadn't shared it with anyone. Strange and confusing, but disturbing tonight. Frightening in part. He had suspected Victoria had something to do with it. She said she hadn't done anything. Perhaps she hadn't, but he would bet his life on it that she knew what it all meant. Desperate for answers Max flung back the cover and went to Michael's room where Victoria slept now instead of Michael.
Max went to her side and shook her awake.
Victoria's eyes fluttered and in the hazy light between sleep and awake she recognized the figure. More asleep than awake, she said, "Zan."
Max shrank back at that in shock.
At his abrupt removal, Victoria became fully awake and opened her eyes. In the moonlight shining from the half opened curtains, she saw Max and she was no longer either dreaming or asleep.
"What did you just say?" Max asked in a strangled whisper.
"I don't know want you mean. What.." Victoria scooted up in the bed and looked around her. "What are you doing in here?"
"Don't play the fool." Max said and pounced to her side again. "I just dreamed of blood and a circle and signs and a street, a place. and you. Why are you in my dreams? And what does it all mean? And don't you dare say you don't know, because we both know you do!"
"I can't.." -Victoria said in a whisper.
Max shook her. "You can tell me!"
"If I tell you, it's the point of no return for us all!" Victoria cried back. "Just leave it alone, Max. You don't know what you're asking!"
"You know what it all means. And you called me Zan. You know." Max said and he repeated. "You know. What is zenovia? Why and how is it a key? TELL ME!"
"No!" Victoria screamed and scooted across the bed away from his grasp that demanded answers.
Max followed her on the bed and grabbed her again. He held her head roughly, desperately in his hands so that she could not look away and he demanded, "Tell me NOW!"
"*I* am Zenovia!" Victoria cried in a strangled whisper. Like that revelation explained it all, she was silent for a moment lost in her thoughts. Max thought she wouldn't say anymore, but she continued, "I was, I am .. the key."
"You're one of us. From Antar?" -Max,
She nodded.
"How? You said Saelar told you that you were created here on Earth, that there was no pod. You can't be like us. You couldn't have known Zan. me, or any of us then. You couldn't.."
"But I could. I did. You don't understand. It's very complex. Everything you thought you knew is not the way it really is. I mean it is true, but not the whole truth."
"You know about that other life?" -Max.
"If there is a God, I wish to him that I didn't." -Victoria.
"You don't know what you're saying. Whatever you've been told is just not true." -Max.
"You don't even know anything really, and you're already doubting me." -Victoria.
"Make me understand." Max said, looking in her eyes seriously, plaintively.
"I am one of the royals, Max Evans. Not the four - at least not as you know it." -Victoria.
"How do you fit in? And how do you know this, just because Saelar and Adam told you? They could have lied to you." -Max.
"Adam didn't tell me, he didn't want me to know who and what I was, just that I was different. Saelar told me. But I know it's true. Only a couple months ago did he tell me precisely- though now looking back, he eluded to it before then." -Victoria.
"How do you know it's true?" -Max.
"Because I've dreamt of our planet, our life, you. all of my life. Vague and imprecise, but it was always there. I didn't realize it was more than that until not long ago, but I felt strongly for Michael, because I knew him. But he doesn't know. Saelar also said that -" Victoria stopped.
"What did Saelar say? -Max.
"When he came to me while I was on the streets, homeless - he told me who and what I really am. He proved to me. He showed me a sign. A sign of my destiny. And he said that when I told you, as I must come to do some day - that I call him and we meet with him and he will tell you what you need to know." -Victoria.
"Then call him now! We have to see him." -Max.
"No. Max, you don't even understand it yet. You---" -Victoria.
Max interrupted, "I understand enough. You're telling me that you are connected with Michael, Isabel and I - that you're from our world, that you knew us - that you're a key. I've heard enough to know that I need to know more. How do you call Saelar?"
"I've never called him before. He's always come to me. But he said if I was in great danger, he would know and he would come. He also said that when I was to call him, I simply called his name and he would come. From wherever he would hear the call." -Victoria.
"That doesn't explain how you are to do it." -Max.
Victoria shrugged. "Then it must be simple as he said."
She cleared her mind of all but his image and the feel of his own personal energy. She said in her mind, "Saelar." And then, aloud, "Saelar." She opened her eyes and saw Max looking at her.
"That's it?" -Max.
"Yes, I think. But you forget, my abilities are much more advanced than yours. I can connect fairly easily." -Victoria.
Max sat back and sighed, "Now what?"
"Now we wait." -Victoria.
There was a long silence and Victoria said, "You're not going to like what Saelar is going to tell you."
"Why?" Max looked at her seriously.
"It's frightening and it's grander than the both of us and because I didn't like it either. It was a shock." -Victoria.
Max just looked at her. A little wary and a little premature disbelief at anything this Saelar had to say.
Somewhere along the way, whether it be minutes or hours later - they fell asleep. And they didn't awake until the brightness of the daylight shined in and the only thing blocking it, was a form standing above them, against the light.
Saelar had come.