A Future Forsaken
By Emily Jennings
Summery: Max left in Departure with Isabel & Tess, who didn't kill Alex. 20 years later & the world has changed. Antar & Earth have formed an alliance & 'aliens' are a thing of faerie tales. Can Max & Liz truly forsake their love now that the ultimate boundary has been diminished?
Author's note: Hay there! Ummm ... couple of people wanted to know when the other characters would be introduced in the story. Well, they're all doing they're own thang, and I'm sure they'll make an appearance but I don't have big plans for them. Would you guys wanna know what's going on with them?
Also, once again this is a flash back chapter and these events have already occurred. Sorry, there's a lot of back history that needs to be explained and this is the only way to do it. The subsequent chapter will be another flash-back Max-focusy one too. I know it's tedious but it'll explain a lot and hopefully you guys will still find it interesting!
Hope you enjoy. X
----
Max sighed and stopped contemplating the ring. 'It's signed then?'
'It appears so, the markings are there but of course you're the only one who could tell for sure.'
Another more practical use for the ring was a form of identity. He could active the ring and leave a unique, invisible imprint on a message or object which couldn't be forged. Usually after such a signing a kind of royal hallmark was left, signifying that the signature had been given.
Serena turned over the hexagonal piece of metal and carefully ran a hand over the small, slight, almost untraceable, design on the back. It certainly looked genuine.
Max cautiously touched the hallmark with his index finger and felt warmth run up his arm. Purple light rippled out from the hallmark and covered the metal hexagon, shimmering delicately. When the metal was fully in cased in the effervescent force Max's ring suddenly flared to life, emitting a strong and steady purple light of its own which caused Serena to cover her eyes.
As quickly as it had happened, the room was suddenly normal again, no traces that the remarkable feat had ever happened, and Max's hand lay limply on the smooth, cool metal.
'Another thing' Serena whispered, full of confusion and awe, 'It was written on earth.'
Max's head shot up, 'That's impossible'
His friend shrugged tiredly, 'But it's true'
Max was confused and because he was confused and he couldn't understand he became irritated and finally ran out of patience, 'So what does it say?! What's the message?'
'I told you I didn't have much Max.' Serena spoke quietly, knowing that Max would be upset. 'The text is so corrupted; if there was anything significant it's not anything that can be read. Although .... I don't know, to me it seems as though this was more of an acknowledgement. You know 'Max was here, 2014''
'That makes no sense at all!!!' he exploded. He growled in frustration and paced the room agitatedly. Finally he sighed and looked at his friend, 'Give me everything you have on it. All the tests you've done, notes you've made, everything!'
Serena handed over the file she had compiled and Max gave her a weak smile, 'Thanks Serena'.
Serena nodded and smiled back and watched as her King left the room and stalked off, to know doubt lock himself in his study.
----
Max was getting a head ache. Who was he kidding! He couldn't do this, not even Serena had been able to. He shoved the notes violently off the table and rested his head forlornly on the tabletop.
His mind drifted. Vaguely he wondered how his son was. Zan was twenty-years-old now and the exact double of Max. The boy was now on Earth where Max should have been.
Since an alliance had been established with Earth Tess had made sure that Max had stayed firmly put on Antar, and for the most part Max agreed with her reasoning. He did not trust himself to go and form political ties with the planet when his personal ones were still so strong. He knew from his communication with Michael that things were different there now.
His friends and second-in-command were important figures. If he went over there he would meet Liz and he was not certain that if he did, he would come back.
No. He knew his duty to his wife and children, so he had sent his son instead.
Max pulled himself from his misery and raised his head. Still his eyes were unfocused, his mind in an odd in-between place, so it was a while before he realised what he was seeing.
His gaze had absentmindedly fallen on the scattered papers on the floor and now, his eyes rapidly going into focus, alarm bells of recognition were going off in his head, becoming louder and louder until he finally understood what he was looking at.
He leaped off his chair, knocking it to the floor, and crouched over the papers, roughly pulling the sheets to his face, hands shaking, breath ragged.
Max looked at the markings on the sheet, the so-called nonsense Serena had to extract to decipher the 'message', and laughed at the irony. Serena had effectively ended up removing the most important part of the message ...
What Max was looking at was English.
Each separate letter was submerged amid a torrent of meaningless symbols which Max's Antarian adjusted eyes merely glided over, his mind assuming all the symbols were such and bypassing the English completely.
He grabbed a clean sheet of paper off the desk and began to hurriedly jot down each single letter, meaningless when read singularly but momentous when together.
It took a moment for his eyes to comprehend the words at first, so long had it been sine he had read a word of English, but finally he understood.
I Shall Believe – ... The truth comes from within.
Max felt as though he had been punched in the stomach, the whole foundation of his existence was crumbling. Nauseated and confused he slumped against the desk.
Liz his mind screamed. She loved that song.
He did not understand. How was this happening? What was its meaning? The truth comes from within? He knew he was missing something significant, he just knew it.
How was it possible that nine years ago he had written this message, on Earth, and put it inside the Granolith?
The truth comes from within
Was he forgetting something? Was it possible that he had written it and just couldn't remember? His mind raced.
If he had been mind-warped to forget something then possibly he wasn't able to remember. But he knew he hadn't been, there were signs that allowed a person to recognise when a mind-warp had taken place.
He thought for a moment. He had learnt a technique on Antar, to retrieve memories suppressed by a mind-warp, it was difficult and energy consuming but maybe, just maybe, it would help him now.
Max pushed away the sheets of paper and shoved roughly at the desk to create a clear space around him.
Breathe deeply, leave the purely physical behind and picture your destination.
Max didn't have a place or destination to anchor his thoughts, instead he thought back nine years to the year '2014'. He remembered the struggle, the confusion, the deep loneliness. Isabel, Tess and Zan were safely hidden. He was surrounded by strangers who either revered or hated him. He had killed men, wrecked families and destroyed an entire species of people, the Skins.
In the year 2014 he had finally won his throne back ... But at what cost?
All these thoughts swam through his head and he was almost consumed by grief. The battles he had fought, the lives he had taken, the lives that had been lost in his name ... And always alone, always so alone ...
Resentment rose within him. Where had Michael, his friend, his brother, his Second, been? On Earth no doubt, where Max ached to be, living life happily with Maria, seeing Liz everyday, whilst he, Max, fought for his life.
The pain was excruciating.
Max didn't know it but he was weeping; long, hard, soul wrenching sobs. He cried like he hadn't let himself cry in nineteen years.
Pain was Technicolor, surround sound, three dimensional, and it hurt.
He howled in torment, beat his fist against the plush carpet, and then, suddenly, it happened.
Something snapped within him, a subtle shift, sudden calm before the storm ... and then the hurricane hit.
----
T.B.C.
-x-