Part 15
It begins as it always does.
The windshield explodes behind them. She loses control of the car. They are in the woods and then they are on the bridge. She kisses him and then she jumps.
It is only when she hits the water that she realizes she is alone. He has not come with her. He is still up there and they have captured him again. She did not save him. He is gone, taken, because she was not strong enough.
She closes her eyes and lets the water close over her head.
"Liz. LIZ!" She recognizes the voice, and the urgency of it makes her fight the river. The instant she does, the scene changes and she is back on the bridge.
She realizes that it is Isabel who has pulled her out. "Liz, you need to focus. You're getting lost."
She stares at Max's sister, uncertain what she means.
Isabel elaborates. "This isn't your nightmare, Liz. You were letting it become yours, though. That's not why we're here."
Looking around, she understands. They are back on the bridge, but this time they are not alone. Her eyes widen as she takes in the sight of herself standing on the railing across the way.
Max is there. He is gesturing wildly, talking to that other her, obviously trying to convince her to get down off the ledge. Beth cannot hear him, but she can feel his desperation, even from so far away.
This is his nightmare. He has let them in.
Her heart starts to thunder in her chest. "Can I talk to him?" she whispers to Isabel.
Isabel is frowning. She has tears in her dark eyes. "I don't know," she admits. "We're here, but I feel like he's still holding back somehow. He's opened himself up a bit, but I don't think we can affect things directly." She wipes her eyes firmly. Beth can see Isabel's determination. "I guess there's only one way to find out."
Max's sister takes a step forward. Another. One more. It is all that Max's subconscious will allow. The next instant, the scene flickers, and Isabel is back standing beside Beth.
"What good is this?" Beth demands. "If we can't talk to him, how is he ever going to know I'm alive?"
Isabel has her arms crossed. She is beginning to look angry. "Why is he so stubborn?" she demands. "I am seriously going to kick his ass when I get my hands on him."
Beth blinks at the outburst, recognizes it for the unreasonable sibling flash of rage she has come to expect in some interactions between Zan, and Lonnie, and Rath. It is the kind of anger that comes from love.
"There must be something we can do?" Beth tells her, gentling her tone. They can not both be angry, after all. "I mean, he let us in this far."
Isabel is breathing deeply, as though to get control of her temper. The strain of the past couple of days is becoming ever more evident in the tall blonde's demeanor. "You're right," she finally says. She appears to be thinking hard. "He's talking to you over there. Maybe you can influence her, if not him."
"What do you mean?" Beth asks.
"They're fighting," Isabel says. "Can't you hear them?"
"No," Beth admits.
Isabel seems perplexed by this. "She's blaming him for killing her."
Beth starts. "What? It's not his fault!"
Isabel sighs. "I know that, Liz. This is his dream though. And it's also typical." She closes her eyes briefly, sadly. "God. This is worse than I imagined. Not only has Pierce had him for five years, he's been torturing himself, too."
"I don't understand," Beth says.
"You might not remember this, but one of the things you and Max most had in common was an absolutely ridiculous tendency to feel guilty about things that you had no control over," Isabel tells her. "I should have known this was part of it. He really blames himself for your death. That's why he won't come home."
"He thinks he doesn't deserve to come home," Beth whispers, understanding. She shivers. For some reason, this makes her think of Zan. She remembers the hopeless expression on his face when they spoke the morning after they first made love. For the first time she understands that it was not simply hope he was missing that day.
He was resigned, accepting. He was not surprised that she had not opened up to him completely. Because he thought he did not deserve her.
Isabel, and Michael, and Tess are wrong. The Original and the Duplicates are so alike, it is frightening to her. A small suspicion begins to worm its way into her thoughts. It is not yet a fully formed fear, nor does she have time for it, but she knows that she will call Zan the instant she is out of this dream.
For now, though, it is Max she needs to help.
"What do I do?" she asks Isabel.
"It's not exactly you over there," Isabel tells her. "It's Max's version of who he thinks you were. Which just goes to show how screwed up he is right now. Because the Max I knew would have known that you never would have blamed him for what happened."
"So I need to make him remember that," Beth guesses.
Isabel shrugs. "It's worth a try." She takes Beth's hand. "We're going to need to work together to fight his will though. It's not going to be easy."
Beth swallows, suddenly nervous. She squeezes the other woman's hand. "Okay."
They both close their eyes. Beth almost instantly feels the wall that Max's mind has built around them. She pours all the love she feels for him against it - the love that she remembers in her heart, if not in her mind - and she can sense Isabel doing the same.
She nearly falls to her knees when the wall crumbles abruptly. This fact, more than anything, reveals to Beth that Max is bending. His iron will is crumbling, too.
He is ready to come back to her.
She can now hear the conversation between him and that other her. It is not nearly as angry as she expected it to be.
"I asked you once," the other Beth - she will call her Liz, because to Max, that is who she is - says, "I want to ask you again. Do you burn for me, Max?"
"Always. Forever," Max replies. Beth feels a lump enter her throat.
"You don't," Liz says. "You don't, not really. If you did, you'd know."
Beth feels Isabel's hand clutch hers more firmly. Max's sister is trembling, as though she is using much more energy than Beth. It occurs to Beth that it is her presence in the dreamwalk that is making Max let them in, if even this much. If it had been Isabel alone, he never would have relented.
"Know what?" Max asks. He is tense, as though he is about to make a grab for the Liz standing on the railing.
"I can't find my way back without you," Liz tells him. "To find me, you need them."
Dream Liz is telling him to go home. Again a sign that he is beginning to forgive himself. She briefly wonders at it. For the first time she wonders why he has chosen now to escape from Pierce. What happened to him after five years that finally made him run away from that torturous life?
This is no time to question it though. She allows a small sense of relief. Something has changed here. Is it her presence in the dream? Even if he can't see her, can he feel her? Does he know that this is what she wants? That she wants him to come back to her?
Beth hears Isabel gasp. She stares as Dream Liz turns suddenly, and jumps off the bridge.
"Liz! Don't!" Max grabs for her, but he misses. Beth feels his grief crash through her. She cannot allow it. He mustunderstand that this is not his fault.
Instinctively, she lets go of Isabel, closes her eyes, and when she opens them again she is standing next to Max at the railing. He is leaning over the edge, a horrified expression on his face. Beth can feel him struggling to go after Dream Liz, but his own guilt will not allow it. He is trapped on the bridge as invariably as she is trapped in a world without any memory of this man.
They need each other to escape. They are meant to find each other, and he needs to know it.
Beth places a gentle hand on Max's shoulder. He turns his head, surprised. His eye widen at the sight of her. He glances back over the ledge, then back at her. "Liz?" he whispers.
"It's me," she replies simply.
"The river..." he trails off helplessly, obviously not understanding.
"What about it?" Beth asks. "The river doesn't matter anymore, Max. Come back to me."
"Can I?"
"If you want to, you can. I need you."
She knows it is true, and that he will understand. That he will listen.
He is breathing erratically. He looks down to where their hands are now joined. When he looks up, his gaze burns into her with an intensity that makes her entire body feel like it is about to burst into flames.
"I'm coming."
With that, the dream flickers, and he is gone.
***
After the dreamwalk, Beth knows that she will not sleep again, although the rest of the group finally retires to bed after midnight. The others are relieved that Max is coming to them, although she can see that Michael does not quite believe it, and Isabel is still uncertain. Beth knows that she is right though. There is no need to go in search of Max. She knows what happened in that dream. He understood that she was real. He is coming. Not only is he coming, but she knows exactly where to go to meet him. Because, of course, he cannot come to the hotel. But she knows where he will be. In fact, she has known for five years.
She sits in a chair on the balcony, and waits for the sun to rise. She waits for Max to wake up in Canada and to remember exactly what he must do this day. She knows that he will not arrive until close to evening, and there are things to do before then.
She must find Zan.
Her worry about him has increased over the course of the night. She has known since the sheriff's arrival that Zan is up to something, but she still has not quite figured out what. After the dreamwalk, and the recognition of how similar Max and Zan really are, and after several hours of turning the possibilities over in her head, she is beginning to suspect that it is far worse than she ever imagined.
Max stayed with the Special Unit to protect his friends, but also out of a sense of guilt. He felt like he deserved it. Zan possesses that same over- developed sense of responsibility. Zan feels that he should have known who Beth was all along. She knows he does. Zan will want to punish himself for it, just as he has punished himself for Langley's desertion for all these years.
Zan knows now that the reason that Beth has never fully given herself to him is because of her prior connection to Max. She can piece together the conclusions he has likely reached. Zan was able to heal her without a connection because he used the connection she has to Max. They did not establish an alien bond when they made love, because she is already bonded to Max. She knows how Zan thinks, and she knows that he will have realized all these things and that he has been deliberately lying to himself for years.
Zan also knows that she will not pick him. He will understand that she wishes that she could, but that she cannot deny what her heart is telling her is meant to be. She and Max belong together. They will heal each other in a way that Zan and Beth have never been able to do.
Finally, Zan knows that the main reason that Max is staying away is still the threat that Pierce and the Special Unit represent. Zan wants her to be happy. Zan will want to take away that threat, so that she can be happy.
And, because of all of this, he is going to take Max's place. Just not with her, because that role is one she has never allowed him, even after three years. Which only makes it easier for him to take the place no one will mind giving him.
She does not understand why it has taken her so long to realize what Zan intends to do. She needs to find him. She needs to stop him. Because she cannot possibly live with the thought that he might endure the same torture that Max has. If he thinks that this is freeing her to be with Max, he is wrong. He must understand that neither she, nor Max, will ever be able to accept this sacrifice. Either the guilt will torture them both, or they will have to save him, and they will all end up in even more trouble.
He is making a mistake.
She cannot wait until morning. She needs to talk to him now.
She calls Lonnie's cell. Zan's sister answers quickly. Beth can tell that she has not been asleep. Lonnie senses it too, then. This night is dangerous for the person they both love. He is going to do something stupid on this night, if they cannot figure out a way to stop him.
"Is Zan there?" she asks, without preamble. Because, there is no time for niceties.
Lonnie does not mind. "No," she replies quietly. "I don't think he's coming home, Beth."
Beth feels her heart fall. "What? Lonnie..." She can hear Zan's sister sniffing. She feels her eyes widen. Is Lonnie crying? Her heart starts to thump irregularly. "Tell me," she orders.
"Ava...Ava followed him this morning. She saw him leaving with them, from the hotel. She tried to save him. She mindwarped them, but he made her stop. He told her that he had to go."
"Go where?" Beth demands. She knows, but she wants Lonnie to say it. She wants Lonnie to admit that they are letting him do it. Because, of course they are. In this, the duplicates are different from the originals. They have always known that Zan is their leader, and they have always accepted his decisions. It is what they were raised to do. It was partly why they finally accepted her, even though she knows that they grew to love her, too.
And, so, Lonnie has no shame in admitting what they have let him do. "He gave himself up, Beth. He let those bastards take him."
"Lonnie, I'm coming over there," Beth tells her. "I'm coming over right now."
"No!" Lonnie exclaims. "Beth, you can't. Don't you get it? Don't you get what he's done? They've seen them. If they see us, they'll understand. They'll understand that we're all different, that Max isn't the only one. You have to stay there. We can't see you again. We're leaving town in the morning, at least until they go home."
Beth can hear the vitriol in Lonnie's voice. She has come to hate the originals. Beth cannot blame her. She cannot blame anyone for anything. But it does not mean that she can just accept this either. She has never allowed Zan to make her decisions, and she is not going to start now.
He is not going to give up his life for her. She will not allow it.
She tries again. "Lonnie..."
But Zan's sister will have none of it. "Stay there, Beth! Don't make what he's done for nothing."
Beth frowns. She senses that there is more to any of this than Lonnie is letting her know. Because, in spite of everything, she cannot believe that Lonnie, and Rath, and Ava would just allow Zan to march to his doom. They might accept his decisions, but they still feel. They would have fought him. They love him. There must be more. She must know what Lonnie knows.
"Did you dreamwalk him?" she demands. Because she knows already that Lonnie has. This is not just about what Zan said to Ava. Zan's sister would never have just accepted Ava's word on what Zan wanted. Lonnie has spoken to him herself.
The long silence tells Beth what she wants to know. "Lonnie, tell me."
Lonnie sobs. "Beth, I can't. I promised him. I can't tell you."
"Lonnie!"
"I'm sorry, Beth. Please. Don't ask me. You'll know soon enough anyway."
"Lonnie, please!" Beth says desperately. "We can't just let this happen!"
"You'll understand," Lonnie replies. "Beth, trust me, you will. He wants to do it."
"NO!"
"I'll talk to you soon," Lonnie says, ignoring her protests. "Trust me on that. Once you're with Max, leave. Go somewhere safe. You need to leave. You have to promise me you will. Once you know, you'll understand why it's so important that you do this."
"Lonnie!" Beth almost screams.
But Zan's sister is totally ignoring her now. Because she knows that Beth will do as she asks. That without all the information, Beth has no choice. She understands that by acting to save Zan without knowing exactly why he is doing what he is doing, she might make things worse.
Zan knows her well. He knew exactly what to make Lonnie tell her so that she would not go after him.
Damn him!
Beth is now sobbing, as she pleads with Zan's sister to tell her the truth. "Lonnie, please! Please, don't make me do this!"
Lonnie is a rock though. This is her final gift to her brother, and she will not break. She says gently, "We will find you. We love you, you know. We really do."
"Lonnie, I'm coming over there!"
"We'll be gone when you do," Lonnie replies. "Don't. Please, just don't."
And, with that, Lonnie hangs up.
It begins as it always does.
The windshield explodes behind them. She loses control of the car. They are in the woods and then they are on the bridge. She kisses him and then she jumps.
It is only when she hits the water that she realizes she is alone. He has not come with her. He is still up there and they have captured him again. She did not save him. He is gone, taken, because she was not strong enough.
She closes her eyes and lets the water close over her head.
"Liz. LIZ!" She recognizes the voice, and the urgency of it makes her fight the river. The instant she does, the scene changes and she is back on the bridge.
She realizes that it is Isabel who has pulled her out. "Liz, you need to focus. You're getting lost."
She stares at Max's sister, uncertain what she means.
Isabel elaborates. "This isn't your nightmare, Liz. You were letting it become yours, though. That's not why we're here."
Looking around, she understands. They are back on the bridge, but this time they are not alone. Her eyes widen as she takes in the sight of herself standing on the railing across the way.
Max is there. He is gesturing wildly, talking to that other her, obviously trying to convince her to get down off the ledge. Beth cannot hear him, but she can feel his desperation, even from so far away.
This is his nightmare. He has let them in.
Her heart starts to thunder in her chest. "Can I talk to him?" she whispers to Isabel.
Isabel is frowning. She has tears in her dark eyes. "I don't know," she admits. "We're here, but I feel like he's still holding back somehow. He's opened himself up a bit, but I don't think we can affect things directly." She wipes her eyes firmly. Beth can see Isabel's determination. "I guess there's only one way to find out."
Max's sister takes a step forward. Another. One more. It is all that Max's subconscious will allow. The next instant, the scene flickers, and Isabel is back standing beside Beth.
"What good is this?" Beth demands. "If we can't talk to him, how is he ever going to know I'm alive?"
Isabel has her arms crossed. She is beginning to look angry. "Why is he so stubborn?" she demands. "I am seriously going to kick his ass when I get my hands on him."
Beth blinks at the outburst, recognizes it for the unreasonable sibling flash of rage she has come to expect in some interactions between Zan, and Lonnie, and Rath. It is the kind of anger that comes from love.
"There must be something we can do?" Beth tells her, gentling her tone. They can not both be angry, after all. "I mean, he let us in this far."
Isabel is breathing deeply, as though to get control of her temper. The strain of the past couple of days is becoming ever more evident in the tall blonde's demeanor. "You're right," she finally says. She appears to be thinking hard. "He's talking to you over there. Maybe you can influence her, if not him."
"What do you mean?" Beth asks.
"They're fighting," Isabel says. "Can't you hear them?"
"No," Beth admits.
Isabel seems perplexed by this. "She's blaming him for killing her."
Beth starts. "What? It's not his fault!"
Isabel sighs. "I know that, Liz. This is his dream though. And it's also typical." She closes her eyes briefly, sadly. "God. This is worse than I imagined. Not only has Pierce had him for five years, he's been torturing himself, too."
"I don't understand," Beth says.
"You might not remember this, but one of the things you and Max most had in common was an absolutely ridiculous tendency to feel guilty about things that you had no control over," Isabel tells her. "I should have known this was part of it. He really blames himself for your death. That's why he won't come home."
"He thinks he doesn't deserve to come home," Beth whispers, understanding. She shivers. For some reason, this makes her think of Zan. She remembers the hopeless expression on his face when they spoke the morning after they first made love. For the first time she understands that it was not simply hope he was missing that day.
He was resigned, accepting. He was not surprised that she had not opened up to him completely. Because he thought he did not deserve her.
Isabel, and Michael, and Tess are wrong. The Original and the Duplicates are so alike, it is frightening to her. A small suspicion begins to worm its way into her thoughts. It is not yet a fully formed fear, nor does she have time for it, but she knows that she will call Zan the instant she is out of this dream.
For now, though, it is Max she needs to help.
"What do I do?" she asks Isabel.
"It's not exactly you over there," Isabel tells her. "It's Max's version of who he thinks you were. Which just goes to show how screwed up he is right now. Because the Max I knew would have known that you never would have blamed him for what happened."
"So I need to make him remember that," Beth guesses.
Isabel shrugs. "It's worth a try." She takes Beth's hand. "We're going to need to work together to fight his will though. It's not going to be easy."
Beth swallows, suddenly nervous. She squeezes the other woman's hand. "Okay."
They both close their eyes. Beth almost instantly feels the wall that Max's mind has built around them. She pours all the love she feels for him against it - the love that she remembers in her heart, if not in her mind - and she can sense Isabel doing the same.
She nearly falls to her knees when the wall crumbles abruptly. This fact, more than anything, reveals to Beth that Max is bending. His iron will is crumbling, too.
He is ready to come back to her.
She can now hear the conversation between him and that other her. It is not nearly as angry as she expected it to be.
"I asked you once," the other Beth - she will call her Liz, because to Max, that is who she is - says, "I want to ask you again. Do you burn for me, Max?"
"Always. Forever," Max replies. Beth feels a lump enter her throat.
"You don't," Liz says. "You don't, not really. If you did, you'd know."
Beth feels Isabel's hand clutch hers more firmly. Max's sister is trembling, as though she is using much more energy than Beth. It occurs to Beth that it is her presence in the dreamwalk that is making Max let them in, if even this much. If it had been Isabel alone, he never would have relented.
"Know what?" Max asks. He is tense, as though he is about to make a grab for the Liz standing on the railing.
"I can't find my way back without you," Liz tells him. "To find me, you need them."
Dream Liz is telling him to go home. Again a sign that he is beginning to forgive himself. She briefly wonders at it. For the first time she wonders why he has chosen now to escape from Pierce. What happened to him after five years that finally made him run away from that torturous life?
This is no time to question it though. She allows a small sense of relief. Something has changed here. Is it her presence in the dream? Even if he can't see her, can he feel her? Does he know that this is what she wants? That she wants him to come back to her?
Beth hears Isabel gasp. She stares as Dream Liz turns suddenly, and jumps off the bridge.
"Liz! Don't!" Max grabs for her, but he misses. Beth feels his grief crash through her. She cannot allow it. He mustunderstand that this is not his fault.
Instinctively, she lets go of Isabel, closes her eyes, and when she opens them again she is standing next to Max at the railing. He is leaning over the edge, a horrified expression on his face. Beth can feel him struggling to go after Dream Liz, but his own guilt will not allow it. He is trapped on the bridge as invariably as she is trapped in a world without any memory of this man.
They need each other to escape. They are meant to find each other, and he needs to know it.
Beth places a gentle hand on Max's shoulder. He turns his head, surprised. His eye widen at the sight of her. He glances back over the ledge, then back at her. "Liz?" he whispers.
"It's me," she replies simply.
"The river..." he trails off helplessly, obviously not understanding.
"What about it?" Beth asks. "The river doesn't matter anymore, Max. Come back to me."
"Can I?"
"If you want to, you can. I need you."
She knows it is true, and that he will understand. That he will listen.
He is breathing erratically. He looks down to where their hands are now joined. When he looks up, his gaze burns into her with an intensity that makes her entire body feel like it is about to burst into flames.
"I'm coming."
With that, the dream flickers, and he is gone.
***
After the dreamwalk, Beth knows that she will not sleep again, although the rest of the group finally retires to bed after midnight. The others are relieved that Max is coming to them, although she can see that Michael does not quite believe it, and Isabel is still uncertain. Beth knows that she is right though. There is no need to go in search of Max. She knows what happened in that dream. He understood that she was real. He is coming. Not only is he coming, but she knows exactly where to go to meet him. Because, of course, he cannot come to the hotel. But she knows where he will be. In fact, she has known for five years.
She sits in a chair on the balcony, and waits for the sun to rise. She waits for Max to wake up in Canada and to remember exactly what he must do this day. She knows that he will not arrive until close to evening, and there are things to do before then.
She must find Zan.
Her worry about him has increased over the course of the night. She has known since the sheriff's arrival that Zan is up to something, but she still has not quite figured out what. After the dreamwalk, and the recognition of how similar Max and Zan really are, and after several hours of turning the possibilities over in her head, she is beginning to suspect that it is far worse than she ever imagined.
Max stayed with the Special Unit to protect his friends, but also out of a sense of guilt. He felt like he deserved it. Zan possesses that same over- developed sense of responsibility. Zan feels that he should have known who Beth was all along. She knows he does. Zan will want to punish himself for it, just as he has punished himself for Langley's desertion for all these years.
Zan knows now that the reason that Beth has never fully given herself to him is because of her prior connection to Max. She can piece together the conclusions he has likely reached. Zan was able to heal her without a connection because he used the connection she has to Max. They did not establish an alien bond when they made love, because she is already bonded to Max. She knows how Zan thinks, and she knows that he will have realized all these things and that he has been deliberately lying to himself for years.
Zan also knows that she will not pick him. He will understand that she wishes that she could, but that she cannot deny what her heart is telling her is meant to be. She and Max belong together. They will heal each other in a way that Zan and Beth have never been able to do.
Finally, Zan knows that the main reason that Max is staying away is still the threat that Pierce and the Special Unit represent. Zan wants her to be happy. Zan will want to take away that threat, so that she can be happy.
And, because of all of this, he is going to take Max's place. Just not with her, because that role is one she has never allowed him, even after three years. Which only makes it easier for him to take the place no one will mind giving him.
She does not understand why it has taken her so long to realize what Zan intends to do. She needs to find him. She needs to stop him. Because she cannot possibly live with the thought that he might endure the same torture that Max has. If he thinks that this is freeing her to be with Max, he is wrong. He must understand that neither she, nor Max, will ever be able to accept this sacrifice. Either the guilt will torture them both, or they will have to save him, and they will all end up in even more trouble.
He is making a mistake.
She cannot wait until morning. She needs to talk to him now.
She calls Lonnie's cell. Zan's sister answers quickly. Beth can tell that she has not been asleep. Lonnie senses it too, then. This night is dangerous for the person they both love. He is going to do something stupid on this night, if they cannot figure out a way to stop him.
"Is Zan there?" she asks, without preamble. Because, there is no time for niceties.
Lonnie does not mind. "No," she replies quietly. "I don't think he's coming home, Beth."
Beth feels her heart fall. "What? Lonnie..." She can hear Zan's sister sniffing. She feels her eyes widen. Is Lonnie crying? Her heart starts to thump irregularly. "Tell me," she orders.
"Ava...Ava followed him this morning. She saw him leaving with them, from the hotel. She tried to save him. She mindwarped them, but he made her stop. He told her that he had to go."
"Go where?" Beth demands. She knows, but she wants Lonnie to say it. She wants Lonnie to admit that they are letting him do it. Because, of course they are. In this, the duplicates are different from the originals. They have always known that Zan is their leader, and they have always accepted his decisions. It is what they were raised to do. It was partly why they finally accepted her, even though she knows that they grew to love her, too.
And, so, Lonnie has no shame in admitting what they have let him do. "He gave himself up, Beth. He let those bastards take him."
"Lonnie, I'm coming over there," Beth tells her. "I'm coming over right now."
"No!" Lonnie exclaims. "Beth, you can't. Don't you get it? Don't you get what he's done? They've seen them. If they see us, they'll understand. They'll understand that we're all different, that Max isn't the only one. You have to stay there. We can't see you again. We're leaving town in the morning, at least until they go home."
Beth can hear the vitriol in Lonnie's voice. She has come to hate the originals. Beth cannot blame her. She cannot blame anyone for anything. But it does not mean that she can just accept this either. She has never allowed Zan to make her decisions, and she is not going to start now.
He is not going to give up his life for her. She will not allow it.
She tries again. "Lonnie..."
But Zan's sister will have none of it. "Stay there, Beth! Don't make what he's done for nothing."
Beth frowns. She senses that there is more to any of this than Lonnie is letting her know. Because, in spite of everything, she cannot believe that Lonnie, and Rath, and Ava would just allow Zan to march to his doom. They might accept his decisions, but they still feel. They would have fought him. They love him. There must be more. She must know what Lonnie knows.
"Did you dreamwalk him?" she demands. Because she knows already that Lonnie has. This is not just about what Zan said to Ava. Zan's sister would never have just accepted Ava's word on what Zan wanted. Lonnie has spoken to him herself.
The long silence tells Beth what she wants to know. "Lonnie, tell me."
Lonnie sobs. "Beth, I can't. I promised him. I can't tell you."
"Lonnie!"
"I'm sorry, Beth. Please. Don't ask me. You'll know soon enough anyway."
"Lonnie, please!" Beth says desperately. "We can't just let this happen!"
"You'll understand," Lonnie replies. "Beth, trust me, you will. He wants to do it."
"NO!"
"I'll talk to you soon," Lonnie says, ignoring her protests. "Trust me on that. Once you're with Max, leave. Go somewhere safe. You need to leave. You have to promise me you will. Once you know, you'll understand why it's so important that you do this."
"Lonnie!" Beth almost screams.
But Zan's sister is totally ignoring her now. Because she knows that Beth will do as she asks. That without all the information, Beth has no choice. She understands that by acting to save Zan without knowing exactly why he is doing what he is doing, she might make things worse.
Zan knows her well. He knew exactly what to make Lonnie tell her so that she would not go after him.
Damn him!
Beth is now sobbing, as she pleads with Zan's sister to tell her the truth. "Lonnie, please! Please, don't make me do this!"
Lonnie is a rock though. This is her final gift to her brother, and she will not break. She says gently, "We will find you. We love you, you know. We really do."
"Lonnie, I'm coming over there!"
"We'll be gone when you do," Lonnie replies. "Don't. Please, just don't."
And, with that, Lonnie hangs up.
