THE FALCONER

It was three in the morning by the time she reached her destination, she had walked the whole way from the park to the pod chamber and as she walked toward the giant rocks she felt a great sense of loss. Not the loss of Max or Alex, not the loss of her friendships, but the loss of herself somewhere over the past year she had completely disappeared.

Not just from her friends or her family but she sat atop those rocks now and she couldn't feel any remnants of the person she used to be. It wasn't that she had changed it was that she had completely vanished, the old Liz had withered and died within her body and a new person had set up shop in her corpse. The sun was rising slowly from behind the endlessness of the desert and she sat there alone, she couldn't cry anymore.

'So this is it?' she wondered 'this is my life, or her life rather. This is what's left of her life; you strip it all away the friends, the family, the humanity and this is what's left?'

"Enjoying yourself?" Spoke a familiar stony voice interrupting her thoughts.

"What do you want Michael?" she turned to look at him.

"Maria told me what happened I figured you'd come here," he sat down next to her "Liz I know what you're feeling." He tried to reason

"Oh do you?" she said sarcastically "then please Michael, tell me what I'm feeling." She glared at him

"Sick, disgusted by yourself," he started

"Try again Michael," She paused and stood up "You think just because you killed Pierce you know what I'm feeling?" she asked him

"It's the same..." he said but she stopped him

"No Michael it's not the same, you killed Pierce in the heat of the moment by accident, you couldn't control your powers and you killed him. I shot Gregors, I shot him on purpose. I meant for that bullet to rip through his gut and kill him. I meant for him to gasp for air and suffer. And more then anything I wanted his last moments on earth to be surrounded by enemies, I meant for him to be scared and to feel alone and cold like I did a year ago." She looked down at Michael "I killed him in cold blood and I have no regrets." Her voice detached

"Liz you didn't kill him because you wanted to," he tried to convince himself more then her

"I didn't?" she asked

"No,"

"Not quite Michael, I killed him because I wanted to and I would do it again if I could. The silence in that room..." she smiled grimly

"Stop it Liz," he said

"You could almost hear his heart stop..."

"Don't do this Liz,"

"The way he struggled for breath so he could beg for his life..."

"STOP IT!" Michael yelled standing up

"I'm a murderer," Liz said trying on the new title

"No you're not,"

"Yes I am," she said taking a step forward her hands crackling with the energy of the argument and the memory of last night.

"Liz..."

"Why do you keep saying my name like that? Is it because you're scared of me?" she frowned at him looking at her feet now. She thought about the things she had said, they had been meant to scare him away so he and the others would let her suffer in peace. She could never stand sympathy it made her feel small and melodramatic.

"We want to help you," he said loudly trying to regain the upper hand.

"I don't want your help Michael, I just want to be left alone." She stopped for a moment thinking "I don't want to be forgiven," she looked into his eyes; she could see the king in him.

'I can see you' she thought 'for the first time I can see you as a leader and a great man not just a screw up' she let a lopsided smile cross her face.

"You make a great king Michael," She looked at his hands which bore some of the same scarring and calluses as hers did "And you've always been a great man," she took a step closer and looked up into his eyes. "But you are not my savior," She touched his face for a moment seeing him for once as Maria did, a caring man who struggled for everything he had. "This is what has become of me, and what's broken can't be fixed." She took a step back and he nodded as he walked away. Liz turned back towards the steadily rising sun.

"Just take care of yourself Liz," Michael stopped and turned back to her "I know that Max would have been able to save you, I promised him I wouldn't let anything happen to you. And as long as I'm here I won't." He said softly

"Thank you," She nodded at him and he left and as he left she thought of her own promise to Max and how she had failed so miserably at keeping her promise.

'I was supposed to take care of them' she thought 'I was supposed to keep the group together' she sat there for an hour before she got up to leave.

She passed the wall that held the pod chamber, the granolith, and the secrets of a world far from here she looked at it and walked away back towards town.