Whom among us, part fifteen

Author: Chris Kenworthy

Email: chrisk@fanfiction.net

Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.

Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy

Feedback: YES PLEASE!

Category: Roswell future-fic

Rating: R, for this part.

Summary: Liz's life changes when, as a university junior, she runs into Max again.

Spoilers: Up to 'end of the world,' kinda

The group of them gathered around the strange barrier, silent for long moments. Then Davin spoke up.

"I've heard of something like this - a reality warp. A generator can create a local pocket of space seperated from our dimension."

Isabel frowned a second, and then turned to the alien covert ops agent. "Explain more."

Davin nodded readily. "There's a computer program controlling the barrier. When the car passes through, I expect, it passes through normally and emerges in the forest behind the curtain. When you or Max pass through, on the other hand, you emerge in an alternate reality of the Banff forest, where the capsule is protecting itself. Anyone who doesn't have a deep connection to those things beyond the completely normal world would probably not even be able to perceive the barrier - they'd just pass through it like it didn't exist."

"And there'd be no chance of them stumbling across the capsule by chance?" Michael confirmed, and Davin nodded. "Well, that's something at least."

"Well, if we can't take the cars into this thing, we'd better load up with some emergency gear just in case," Isabel decided. "And then move."

"Wait," Tess put in. "First, hadn't we better make sure who of us this curtain will take??"

"Yeah," Max agreed. Quickly each of them ducked through the curtain to see if they could see the front of the car. Michael and Tess could not, so that was good, they were going inside the protected space, like Isabel and Max did. So did Liz, Alex, Kyle, and Maria.

None of the Others could pass through, even if they were holding the hands of those who could enter.

"I like this not, my Lord," Bentor muttered grumpily. "Why should the barrier seek to seperate you from your retainers unless it conceals some sinister trap??"

"There may be a way to find out," Kenner suggested. "Davin, the barrier is a direct manifestation of the space capsule's computer, the portion of it controlling the reality warp, right?" Davin nodded. "Then... Max and Michael should be able to tap into it and divine the nature of the program, at least to tell if it's malevolent or not."

Bentor didn't seem too satisfied by this, but he didn't stop Max and Michael from joining their hands and reaching out to touch the barrier. Liz, for her part, was fascinated, this was a power specialty that she hadn't heard of, and it was somehow nice to see the guys doing detail and informational work, which somehow always seemed to end up with the female of the species.

Max drew back his hand, and a fraction of a second later so did Michael. Max turned to Bentor. "It isn't malicious," he reported, "but I didn't get an impression of great control. We have to go in," his tone allowed no argument - it was a Royal proclamation, "but we'll all be extremely careful. Got it?"

"Yeah, we got it, your majesty," Kyle called out.

Soon they were crossing the barrier again, the original elite eight, wearing backpacks filled with just about anything they could think of in under three minutes. "Gotta say, this doesn't really look like an alternate reality," Isabel muttered after about half a minute. "Just the same dirt road through a forest that we were following in the cars."

Liz turned and looked at her, stopping still for a moment. "At first glance, maybe. But the woods weren't that thick before we stepped through the curtain."

Curious now, Isabel walked over to the edge of the path and took a closer look. Criss-crossed branches barred the way, some of them thorny or covered with suspiciously sticky leaves. She carefully grabbed hold of a bough that was neither and tried to break it off. The branch didn't even bend under her hands.

"Only one way to go," Max muttered. "Like an old-time computer game. It keeps you from going out of bounds."

They walked quietly on for a few more minuted, unnerved by Max's conclusion - at least Liz knew that she was.

Soon enough, though, the path dead-ended, at a clearing dominated by a small cottage.

"Do we go inside??" Tess wondered.

"The forest is still thick on all sides," Kyle muttered, having just completed a quick circuit of the clearing. "Unless there's some secret path that's hidden extremely well, the little house looks like our only alternative."

"But where can we go from there," Maria interjected. "A trap door leading down into a lost underground kingdom?? Gotta say I'm not wild about that."

"Who knows - it's not like we really have any choice," Michael replied. "Unless we're ready to turn back, we have to follow the path that whoever's set up. Unless he actually chooses to present us with a choice."

"This place doesn't necessarily follow the same rules as the outside world, anyway," Isabel pointed out. "If we go into the house, we might find an extra door out of it, one that leads to a completely different setting."

At that, there really was nothing to do but explore the cottage. Max and Michael insisted on going first, in case there was some hostile creature that was a part of the program, but like the path, the premises of the cottage seemed to be disappointingly ordinary. A large, L-shaped living room area, with coffee table at one end, a fireplace burning low, (but quickly restored with some of the kindling and split firewood stacked next to it,) a large piano, and four cots spread about the room. Kitchen with wood stove, stocked with a few camping supplies and no perishables. Two very small bedrooms, each featuring narrow bunk beds. That was it. Definitely no trap doors or mysterious thresholds.

"Okay, smart guys?" Maria grumped. "What do we do now??"

Max sighed. "I'm not sure... get some sleep??" He got a couple of very dubious looks for that one. "Well, I'm sure that all of us could use the rest. Whatever the next step, our Gamemaster is doing a good job of making sure that we don't find it, so maybe we're not supposed to find it, or not yet. Maybe it's supposed to find *us*."

Liz pondered that, and slowly nodded. The capsule had already landed, and was protecting itself, and they had entered its domain. All of the old reasons for rushing no longer related -- though it nagged at her that there was a new reason that she should be thinking of. But it didn't want to come.

"Girls on the bunk beds in the bedrooms, guys in the cots out in the living room??" Michael suggested, and no one seemed to disagree. It seemed to Liz that the hybrid couples were a little upset that there were no accomodations that would sleep two, but there was really no one for them to complain about it to.

"I'm rooming with Liz," Maria called out.

Quickly they settled in, though nobody made themselves too much at home - they all hoped that they'd be leaving on short notice. "Okay... can we actually eat this food, or is there something weird about eating food in a reality warp??" Isabel called out from the kitchen.

"Umm... like pomegranite seeds in hell??" Kyle asked.

"Or the banquet of the fairies??" Alex put in.

"I wish we'd asked Davin for more details before charging in," Max mumbled. "But from what I got, it's not like this is a holodeck or anything, everything we can see or touch is real, made up of real molecules at least. So... it's not like the food won't fill us up, or it'll just vanish from our systems once the switch gets turned off."

"But there's no guarantee that the molecules are what they should be," Tess pointed out. "The food could be poisoned, or drugged, all at the whim of the Gamemaster."

"So could the air, but we can't exactly do anything about breathing," Michael pointed out.

"Okay, okay, okay!!" Liz called out, cutting through the clamor. "We've packed food, right?? How about, we eat the food we brought in here for as long as it lasts, which should be plenty long, just because it's marginally safer. If we lose it or run out, we figure out what to do then."

"Umm... okay, I guess," Isabel sighed. They gathered around the fireplace and snacked for a bit.

"Okay... I think somebody should be on watch through the night," Michael suggested. "Taking turns. Those of us with hybrid powers."

"Watching for what, a tribe of wandering hobgoblins??" Maria put in, but she couldn't argue Michael out of it.

* * * *

Liz rolled over as she woke up... and yelped as she realized that she was more than halfway over the edge of the narrow bunk. Luckily she managed to scramble back aboard before gravity, (or whatever imitation of the force of gravity held sway here in the reality warp, perhaps,) could do its relentless work.

Her heart beating quickly from the scare, Liz lay sprawled on what there was of the top bunk for a long moment, trying to gather her thoughts. She had been dreaming, dreaming of the past again. Finding out about Max's destiny, running away to Florida, helping him find Agent Pierce's bones to save Michael from jail and all of them from certain exposure. Why did the past keep coming back to haunt her on this trip??

Okay, that was a stupid question. The past was coming back to her in her dreams because it had come back to her in real life - bumped into her on campus.

Yawning, Liz carefully felt out with one hand for the wooden ladder that led up to the top bunk, then carefully crawled around so that she could climb back down, making as little noise as possible. If she hadn't woken Maria already, (and if Liz had, she'd probably have heard her voice by now,) then she didn't want to disurb her oldest friend's sleep at this point.

Once her feet were on the floor, Liz suddenly realized something that had been true from the moment she woke up -- but then, she had been a little distracted.

There was music playing softly - something lovely and classical. She headed out of the room to see where it was coming from. There had been no stereo or tape player in the cabin when they'd searched it - had someone thrown one in their backpack??

She wasn't expecting the beautiful music to be coming from the piano - especially not with Max Evans at the keyboard.

"I didn't know you could do that," she muttered softly.

Max looked up - a little surprised to see her there, she could tell, but the melody barely faltered. "I picked it up along the way. You look pretty, by the way."

"What would your wife think, if she heard you saying that?" Liz scolded.

"I doubt it would surprise her. She knows that you're pretty. She knows that I'm particularly aware of that fact."

"Yeah..." Liz frowned. "But you're not supposed to SAY it."

"Maybe not among humans," Max countered, "We've gotten used to saying what we really think, what we feel. No facades. It's very liberating."

Liz considered that for a moment, intrigued. Somewhat impulsively, she decided to say something that she'd been thinking, herself. "I've been thinking about the old days, about all that we went through. Do you really think that we could stay friends and not have any of that old baggage get in the way?"

Max stopped to think about that - literally, he stopped the song almost in mid-note and pondered her question. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I want to try. One thing I'm sure of: being your friend is something very special, and very precious, Liz. It always was."

Liz smiled a bit, remebering the times before the worst of the badness. Max put his hands back to the piano keyboard and started playing a pretty, simple melody. "Do you remember that one??"

Astoundingly, Liz did... from some quiet afternoon, so many years ago... after the two of them had first met River Dog - before that afternoon on the old highway when they crashed into the bushes trying to avoid a horse. They had been taking a study break in the middle of a difficult chemistry assignment, just channel surfing. Liz had teased Max when he stopped on the country music video channel.

The music from the piano stopped. "Ladies and gentlemen... The ever talented, the ever lovely -- Miss Elizabeth Parker!!" he announced, doing a good imitation of the guest singer in that video. And then he started playing again - not just the melody this time, but quiet harmonizing notes with his left hand too.

Liz choked on the first cue, but Max cycled through and gave it to her again. Very shakily, she managed to force the first line out of her throat. "I believe... in miracles,"

The reason for the slight pause in the middle was a sight that would have startled just about anybody. A bright point of light had flown around from behind Liz's head into her field of vision as she sang - light a star that had floated down to earth. It was about as big as a ping-pong ball, and glowed softly, so that it didn't hurt to look at it, shooting bluish white sparks off that vanished almost immediately. The star danced around a bit, and then winked out as the sound of her voice faded away. Had it popped into existence when she started singing??

She looked at Max, whose playing had faltered only for a split instant, and he nodded intently at her, urging her without words or hand gestures to continue. Liz agreed that this could be important - it was obviously a manifestation of the reality warp effect - keyed in to her singing. She had to continue, see what came of it. But could she force herself to sing out a second time??

Look into Max's eyes one more time -- yes, she could. "I believe in signs!" she called out to the music. This time the manifestation brought a smile to both of their faces: a large white, rectangular placard intantly appeared on the opposite wall where both Max and Liz could see it, reading 'KEEP GOING!!' in large block letters. So she did. And things just got stranger from there.

It was like the scene became a music video, bit by bit. "...And I believe that mountains move," A hill of grayish rocks sprouted through the wooden log floor, and Liz began stepping up onto it as if it were a staircase. "One prayer at a time." Turn back to Max, still sitting at his piano, and Liz was surprised to see that she was over four feet high off the ground already.

"If I could be an angel..." Step off the rocks, into thin air without a second thought, but of course thin air supported her, as it she were on an invisible glass walkway. She also noticed that Max had come in with the harmony vocals at this point, his rich baritone blending with her mezzo soprano beautifully. (Of course, Liz's own voice had already been enhanced by the magic, it seemed to her...)

"...I'd make your every dream come true," wave a hand, and a rainbow appeared, arcing over the piano, and then fading away. "But I am only human," dancing down the glass walkway back to ground, Max had stopped the harmony at this point, "Just a woman, loving you." Stepping towards the piano, looking into each other's eyes, and Max picking up the harmony again with the last two words in the verse.

"Where your road leads..." On the word 'road', the scene exploded... but not painfully so. "...I will follow." Liz had the impression of flying over the forest, and the unmistakeable realization that the warp field had brought both of them into some sort of music video come alive. "When your heart bleeds, I'll be there for you." Without warning, she was undersater, breathing and singing without trouble, and swimming after Max who was leading the way.

"When your night grows dark..." And now they were flying amidst the stars themselves. Max caught her and they spun about for a few seconds in a graceful dance move... "And you can't find your tomorrow..." Hand in hand doubled, they drifted down to the mouth of a convenient wormhole that led them back down to earth with a shimmering effect, "...then you can follow me."

They were on a path that led out to a an ocean beach, just before sunrise or just after sunset, and Liz kept one of Max's hand in hers as they walked in step to the music.

"Someday we'll look back and see our footprints in the sand." Liz couldn't help looking back behind them and sure enough, just like in all those corny inspirational stories, their path led down the beach almost infinitely, not up the path she knew they had just used. "How sometimes you would carry me, and sometimes you'd be in my hands." Max started to sing the harmony a little more noticeably again, and Liz realized that though he wasn't playing the piano any more, its music still surrounded them. Just another music video effect, she guessed. But was the way she was feeling right now a phony effect too, the sensation that no matter what had happened over the past four years, it couldn't keep them apart??

"If we could love forever, that won't be long enough for me.

I wanna hold you tender..."

Not knowing quite why, Liz closed her mouth silently, and Max delivered "be your shelter" all by himself, and Liz came back in on "...All you need." Was that another little effect, how they seemed to be perfectly in sync. Or had Max not even been expecting that??

As the chorus started again, they kept walking - but the terrain changed around them, so that they were climbing hills, and then mountains. By the time it had ended, a full orchestral was crashing invisibly around them with no signs of a diminuendo, so Liz knew that some big climax was just around the corner. She'd forgotten how the song went at this point, though. Would that matter, or would their invisible video director be able to allow her to perform anyway??

It seemed that he, or it, could. "Ohhh..." she belted out, stepping away from Max for a moment but half turning back towards him, stepping close to a cliff (but not too close,) and gesturing theatrically at the incredible view that spread out beneath it, "We can be each other's guiding lights... Through this lonely world alone..." Max came up beside her, and snapped his hands to trigger a fade dissolve to the ravine path in Roswell.

"Where your road, leads, I will follow..." As the chorus began again, Liz kissed him, and then led the way down into the woods. "When your heart bleeds, I'll be there for you." The waterfall was at its perfect flow rate, of course, highlighting the beautiful forest cove. Liz threw every bit of effort she could into the developing finale. "When your night grows long, and yo-ou can't find your tomorr-ow..." There was a short pause, and then they were standing out on the sidewalk in front of the Crashdown.

"When you've lost sight of your dreams," Max sang softly.

"Then you can... follow... me." they finished in perfect harmony, and as the last notes faded away they were in the cabin in the woods, Max finishing his play on the keyboard with a flourish.

"Uhhh. wow," Liz muttered, blinking a little as reality set in again. "I..."

"Liz," Max muttered intensely, gesturing at something behind her. Liz spun around, and saw that a section of the wall of the cabin had disappeared, and a path was leading through the aperture that had developed, a walkway shrouded in fog.

"Gather everybody." Max told her softly. "That's our way out of here."

* * * *

"Well, I certainly can't say that things haven't gotten weird enough," Alex muttered out loud. They had been walking down the strange path, surrounded by mist, for almost an hour now, according to Liz's watch, stopping to rest only briefly every fifteen minutes. Every so often they saw something else unusual to break the monotony, like a family of frying pans crawling across their path, a cloud of fog shaped like a butterfly that actually sat on Maria's wrist for a few brief seconds before flitting away, and a stream that was actually made up of tiny blue rocks, so round and smooth that they 'flowed' downhill. Aside from those kinds of things, it was just more of the path, more white clouds on every side of them, and a twist and turn every now and again.

"Yeah, I wonder who came up with this program," Michael muttered. "Has more of a sense of whimsy than I think I'm comfortable with."

They rounded another turn, and all of a sudden the dark at the end of the tunnel was in view, so to speak - a rainbow covered arch spun over the path, and dimly an indoor scene could be viewed through a portal perhaps like the one they had entered. Maria ran ahead, but seemed to bounce off something invisible as she tried to pass underneath the rainbow gate. "What the hey??"

Max and Kyle tried too - it was a soft but elastic force field that resisted even the alien's powers to breach it. "Okay, how do we get through this??" Tess grumbled.

"Hey, there's a clue or something," Isabel mentioned, pointing to white letters that were inscribed in script on the rainbow arch. "'Parler dans anglais, l'ami, et entrer.' Does anybody speak french??" Max noticed that she had botched the pronunciation.

"Too easy," Alex quipped. "That one is right out of 'Lord of the Rings.'" He stepped right up to the forcefield and called out "'Friend!!'" And stepped through. Everyone could go through now - the force field was down.

"Do I even want to know what that was about??" Tess asked Alex.

"The message read, I think, 'speak in english, friend, and enter,'" Alex explained. "But we'd been talking in english the whole time. So I figured that the key was the word 'friend' - like the gateway into..."

"Okay, okay, we get it," Kyle interrupted. "So, where to next??"

They were in another cabin, like the other in general appearance and decor but differing in numerous small details. Michael and Alex checked outside and reported that there were three paths leading away from this clearing.

Max looked around and saw a lot of tired and upset faces. "Let's bunk down again - we can start exploring in the morning, or what feels like morning to our internal clocks. What are the sleeping accomodations??"

There were four bedrooms in this cabin, it turned out, one with a double bed, the other three with two cots each. Max looked at Michael and said, after a moment, "You and Iz take it."

"You sure man?" Michael looked from Max to Tess and back for a moment. "Thanks, man."

"You with Tess, me with Kyle, Liz and Maria??" Alex confirmed. All of them quickly unpacked and fell asleep with almost no difficulty.

* * * *

"Ahhhh!!" The muted cry woke Liz up instantly, and she fumbled for the flashlight. "Maria... are you all right??"

"Umm... huhh?" Maria groaned, and Liz moved the flashlight away from her face. "Ohh, yeah, I'm okay, just a recurring nightmare." Her face crinkled in embarrassment. "Bees chasing me."

"Oh, okay." Liz said, smiling. "Umm... wait a second, what's that on your arm??"

"Huh?" Maria looked, saw something, and brought the inside of her forearm closer to her face, peering at it curiously. "I can't quite tell, can you shine the light on it better??"

"Sure," Liz got up and came over to the bed. "It looks like..."

"A stinger!!" Maria explained. "And one of them got me right there, in the dream... are there really bees here??"

"I haven't seen any," Liz said, "Was there anywhere else you got stung in the dream?"

"Ummm..." Maria thought about that. "On my side, near the waist, but I think I dug the stinger out before I woke up. Ouch." She checked that area - sure enough, no stinger, but the sign of a bee sting was quite evident and real.

"So... our dreams are becoming real??" Maria asked. "It did seem more vivid than usual."

"Or they can at least can have real effects," Liz replied. "I'd better tell the others. You..."

"I'll go outside and start making a mud pack to draw this stinger out," Maria agreed.

Liz woke up Alex and Kyle, Michael and Isabel and told them about their discovery. None of them had noticed any ill effects, though Alex reported having been dreaming and holding a golden wand when Liz woke him up, and it didn't appear, so apparently it was only their bodies or things that were inside the body that the effect extended to, and not things held or carried. Liz didn't want to deal with Max or Tess again, so she asked Michael to go in and brief them while she checked on Maria.

Max came out to see her after Maria had gotten the stinger out and was applying some calamine lotion that Isabel had luckily thrown into her pack to both sting sites. "Are you sure that this isn't just a co-incidence, Liz?" Max muttered. "There could have been real bees in your room, and Maria incorporated them into her dream."

"I didn't see or hear and sign of them," she whispered softly. "Can't tell you any more than that."

"Okay." Max thought for a second. "Do you think we should be moving on right now, instead of resting longer??"

"I don't know," Liz sighed. "Someone could get awfully hurt in their dreams."

"But maybe not," Max countered. "Whatever this effect is, it's still under the control of the program running on the space capsule - the game master, if you will. And we know that that program isn't trying to hurt us. I'd say to stay put. The last strange effect we encountered got us this far. Maybe we're supposed to double down."

"Okay," Liz sighed. "Maria, do you think you can get back to sleep??"

"Not sure," Maria sighed. "I'll make up some powdered hot chocolate, play a game of solitaire or something, see if I get sleepy."

"Okay." Liz stretched and groaned. "I'll be in our room."

"Thanks," Max said to her softly.

"For what??"

"What else? For looking out for everybody, as usual." He smiled at her and left.

* * * *

She carefully pushed the window up from the outside and hopped inside. Liz didn't make much noise, even as her feet touched down on the floor, but apparently it was enough to wake him. **File for future reference: Max Evans is a light sleeper.** "Michael, what the heck is it??" he groaned grumpily.

"It's not Michael," she called out softly. That woke Max the rest of the way up.

"Liz!! But... what are you doing here??"

"I couldn't stay away any longer," she told him softly. "I... I never -- you were right. About Kyle and me, nothing happened. It's too long a story to get into right now..."

"Ssh, ssshhh." Max got up and wrapped her in his arms. "It doesn't matter... it doesn't make any difference. Just that you believe... that you believe in us -- Everything will be all right now."

She believed him... she also kissed him. Suddenly, fiercely, with the supressed passion and lust of many long months. He replied in kind, and all too soon they were sprawled all over Max's bed in an amorous tangle of hair and limbs and other body parts and clothes... clothes which were rapidly being shed by a co-operative effort... hands roaming everywhere.

Suddenly Liz saw where this was heading... "Are you sure that we're ready for this, Max??" But she couldn't resist kissing his ear and licking his neck.

"It'll be alright," he murmured throatily. "I've got protection." But... but he didn't seem to do anything, to use it. A short round of petting and foreplay later... and she realized that he was inside her.

There was no pain. The feeling was almost transcendent. A powerful rhythm was building up inside her, forcing her body to respond, compelling her...

And Liz woke up in her bed in a hot sweat. Suddenly she realized what Maria had meant about the dreams seeming vivid - it had been every bit as realistic an experience as real life. She was still flushed and aroused from the physical sensations of making love, not to mention the emotional complications of it.

But as soon as she felt she could get up without having her condition be completely obvious, she barged over to Max and Tess' room. Max was wide awake too, and seemed to be blusing himself. Had he... had he experienced any of that dream himself?? Tess was snoring quietly.

"We're leaving here," Liz announced in a tone of voice that allowed no argument. "NOW."

TO BE CONTINUED...