Learning to Deal

Author: Dezi/Jezebel Jinx/VampireQueen21

Couples: Rath/Liz, Maria/Zan, some Alex/Lonnie and some Kyle/Ava

Rating: PG-13-R (language, slight sexual content)

Summary: One week has passed since 'Departure'.

Spoilers: Alex is still alive, and so is Zan. Everything about how they are still alive will be explained.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A.N. I started writing the sequel before I started writing this story. And I wanted to write what happened after the aliens left, so this fic came to mind.

A.N. 2: Also before you start worrying if this will become another one of my WIP's or MIA's have no fear, it's already done. And I'm working on part 3 of the sequel, which is set 20 years after this fic. Enjoy.

Part 1

May 22, 2001

Journal Entry #86

It's been a week since Tess Harding, Michael Guerin, and Max and Isabel Evans took off back to their home planet. Up into the bright blue sky with the smoke trailing behind the ship. With Maria and I looking on and being unable to do anything to stop it.

Maria and I had driven up to the mountain to stop the aliens from leaving. We had to tell them that Tess would turn them in to Kivar and his army the minute they landed to have them killed.

Earlier, when Maria had gotten home Alex was waiting in her room, looking jumpy and sweat was just dripping down his face like a river. Alex told her Tess had been mind warping him since the previous summer. She wanted him to decode the Destiny book, when he did she continued to mind warp him so he wouldn't tell anybody what she was doing to him.

That's when I walked into the room listening to him explaining what she did and I wanted to kill her. I've never wanted to kill anyone before, but standing there hearing Alex explain what he went through because of Tess just brought all this anger flooding up. I wanted to get it out—by bashing in Tess's elf like face.

After making my presence known I went to Alex and hugged him close telling him that Maria and I would be there for him so we could help him through this. I never wanted to let Alex go someone that he was beginning to trust, who most of the group was also beginning to trust, had violated him.

The only two who never trusted her were Maria and myself. Now that I think about it—I suppose Michael never fully trusted her either but it seemed that he was at least hoping too. There were so few people that Michael trusted…'

Liz glances up from her journal and takes a moment to gaze at the stars. She wonders if their happy and most importantly if they're safe. Did Tess actually follow Nasedo's plan/deal to turn in three of the Royal Four. She hoped that Tess did at least one good thing with her miserable existence and not turn the others over to Kivar.

Moving her gaze from the star covered night she takes a peak inside her window, Maria is lying on her bed sprawled out like she owns the thing. Liz smiles shaking her head knowing that it's going to take an act of God to get Maria to scoot back over to one side of the bed.

Ever since Alex had broken out of the mind warp he's stayed either at my house or at Maria's. Getting our parents to agree with that arrangement was to say the least—difficult.

The Parker's didn't want any boy sleeping with their daughter in same room, even if it was Alex. Liz didn't know what else to do, so she did what she had wanted to do ever since she got shot, she told her parents everything.

Surprisingly to her, her mother and father took the news rather well. Not to say that they weren't shocked, they were. It took them a while to start talking again, but they dealt with it a million times better than would have ever thought.

After telling her parents the latest news, with Alex being mind warped, the aliens leaving back to their home planet, and Nasedo's plan/deal he made with Kivar, the Parker's understood why the three of them wanted to stick together for awhile.

She would have asked if Kyle could stay with them as well—if he had been talking to them. It's not that he's not talking to us because he's avoiding us, he just wants to spend some time with his dad. Kyle had come to think of Tess as a sister and now he felt the need to reconnect with his father, so they can find a way to move on from this betrayal.

The day after she had told her parents the truth about everything, her father had taken Alex to the doctor to check his brain out. Doctor Stone had told Jeff that Alex's brain was close to mush and he had absolutely no clue how it became that way. Whatever it was that happened to him, in a few more day he would have been dead.

Liz comes out of her daze of what transpired over the last few days and begins to write in her journal again…

While I was holding Alex's trembling body to mine Maria was pacing back and forth getting more agitated as the seconds ticked by. Maria not being able to keep quiet anymore stated what I had been thinking about as well. They needed to get to Max, Michael, and Isabel to stop them from blasting off into space with 'Tess the Mind Rapist'.

Maria placed a call to Kyle telling him to get to Maria's house pronto. Kyle was there within five minutes. I quickly filled him in on what was going on and that we would explain more later but we had to go get the others and if he could please stay with Alex.

Kyle didn't even hesitate to stay with him. Maria and I drove to the desert where we had a good idea of where the chamber was. We heard a rumbling sound and saw metallic colored ooze coming out of the top of the chamber.

I knew then we were too late, and they were leaving and there was nothing that Maria or I could do about it. We had turned when the chamber top exploded releasing the ship, we managed to turn around again in time to see the ship going up into the sky and back to it's home planet.

At that moment Maria broke down and cried, moaning and crying out to Michael. I had bent down and held her in my arms, whispering to her trying to calm her down but to no avail, so I gave up trying to calm her down and I cried right along side her.

Liz hears a soft bang, lifting her head she sees Maria climbing out of Liz's room and onto the balcony. Maria's p.j.'s are wrinkled from her tossing and turning.

"I'm sorry did I knock you out of the bed again?" Maria yawns and sits down at the end of Liz's patio chair.

"No, you did kick me a couple of times, but nothing that a relaxing night under the stars won't cure. Why'd you get up?" Liz closes and places her journal down on the table next to her.

"I had another dream about Michael. I miss him so much Liz." Maria whimpers softly and tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

Liz scoots closer to her and wraps a comforting arm around her. She wants so bad to take Maria's pain away, she hates seeing her friends hurting so much and a tiny tear escapes down her cheek as well. Resting the side of her head next to Maria's she holds her until Maria's cries subside.

TBC