Tess watched carefully as Isabel swallowed, making sure that she drank as deeply as Michael had. Once Isabel handed the bottle back to her, she put the cap on and threw it back over her shoulder - one thing was for sure, SHE wasn't going to drink any of it, lest the trap hit her as badly as it had just hit Michael and Isabel. To be suggestible to their comments, or Liz Parker's... no thanks. They should be doped up enough not to know or care that she hadn't followed through with the toast. "We're leaving now."
They followed her agreeably enough, but just then Liz Parker showed up at the door that Tess' own party had come through from, propping Alex up beside her. Ahh, that was a moderately clever maneuver, really. Sending two and two from opposite directions, to cut off her retreat. Too bad for Liz that her two strong friends had already been taken care of, and only herself and the nearly-dead Whitman were left. They were no threat.
"Hold her," she told Valenti, indicating Liz. Jim stepped forward, and even though Liz tried to back away, he caught her forarms and held them spread apart, using that leverage to lead her away from the doorway. Alex collapsed to his hands and knees, and Tess kicked him herself to send him scrambling out of her route as he best could.
But when she stepped forward this time, something was wrong. Isabel and Michael weren't moving to follow her this time, they were standing still. "Come on," she insisted, but they remained irresolute, and Isabel even took a tentative step towards her little human sweetheart. "Okay then, we'll do this the slow way, right here you bitch. LET ME IN!" She caught Isabel's shoulder, and when the taller girl looked down, she caught her eyes and made the connection.
And every fiber of her brain screamed, although there was no way for her vocal cords to respond to the pain.
Isabel had not reacted to the gooseberry drug at all, she wasn't suggestible, but had been playing along, faking it, biding her time. When Tess had tried to solidify her control, Isabel had realized the moment had come to drop the pretense, and unleashed a powerful, if untrained, mental counterattack just when Tess had been least expecting it.
Tess wasn't badly hurt by Isabel's opening salvo, but after firing back a mental shock wave that wasn't any more powerful and getting stunned by a psychic left hook, she decided that she wasn't going to stick around and slug things out like this. For one thing, there was...
She broke the connection just too late to see it coming, and a wave of kinetic force knocked her through a full circle in midair and then smack down on her butt and upper back simultaneously (which hurt like hell!) But she knew that just lying down like she wanted to die would be the end of all of her plans, so she forced herself to jump right back up and send a counter-wave back at Michael, which knocked him quite satisfyingly against a wall, even if that probably didn't hurt as much as she'd hoped.
At that point, Michael got an odd expression on his face and spat out what looked like a disk of semi-solid purple jelly maybe three inches in diameter out of his mouth, so that it bounced on the floor one or two times and then came to rest. Confused, she turned to Isabel, who also spewed out a similar object, though with a little less flair and energy, so that it only just missed SPLATTing on her knee.
Suddenly it came clear to her that these jelly disks held the key to why Isabel and Michael hadn't been affected by her gooseberry juice ploy. "You... you were expecting the juice," she muttered. "Somehow... Whitman warned you, didn't he?" She had forgotten that she had blabbed about the secrets that Nacedo had told her while Alex was in Las Cruces, that she had taunted him about the ways she could trick his friends.
"And you just pretended to fall into the trap," she continued, "extracting everything that wasn't pure water molecules from the juice you drank, swallowing the water so that I thought the juice would be entering your system, and leaving all the other molecules inside those gelatin pouches you could leave tucked in the corner of your mouth without it being too obvious." Isabel nodded slightly. "Well, I have to admit, that's pretty impressive."
"Thanks," Isabel said dryly. "And since you broke the deal and tried to walk away with everything and giving up nothing, then all deals are off. MICHAEL! Do it!"
----------
Isabel steeled herself as best she could... this was when the whole conflict would be decided, pretty much, and hers was arguably the hardest job. She faced Tess, pointed her hand, and hoped that this trick worked as well in an actual crisis situation as when she had practiced it.
A jolt of purple lightning flashed from her hand to streak into Tess's body, multiple arcs of current making contact with her head, upper arms, and chest. The impact knocked her back, towards the south. Good. Now all Isabel needed to do was keep her there somehow.
She heard and sensed the rest of what was going on more than seeing it -- Michael using a small jolt of kinetic power to drive Jim Valenti away from Liz, and then physically herding the senior Valenti, along with his son and Maria, into a corner of the hallway. The three mind-controlled humans, who also had to be kept away from the true scene of the action, lest Tess use them to interfere.
Liz. Max. And Alex. If their plan was going to work, it had to be the three of them who were key.
Max had been acting very dopey and silent through the whole thing, was showing signs of being more alert. Unfortunately, his orientation seemed to still be concern for Tess and utter shock that Michael and Isabel had been treating her so cruelly. That was regrettable, of course, but pretty much what they had expected. It would take everything that Liz had to get through to him.
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"Max." Liz brushed away his shaking arms and brought his head up towards hers, trying to make eye contact. For a second she was struck by the incredible parallelism. Nearly two years ago, Max had tried to get Liz to look at him, to make the connection and use his healing powers to save Liz's life from a stray bullet. Now Liz had to get Max to look at her, hopefully to save Max's life, not from death, but from this strange and horrible mental cage that Tess had built around his soul.
"Not to mention keep Alex from dying," she whispered under her breath. And then he looked up at her, those deep brown eyes locking onto hers so intently that nothing else in the world seemed to exist outside of them... and then Max snarled, furious. He looked away, and whipped a furious backhand into Liz's face, knocking her over. Her hopes dashed and her heart broken, Liz looked up to see Kyle standing over her and...
"None of that, hussy!" And Max was staring into her eyes again. No... staring into Liz's eyes still. Everything else had been a mindwarp, which Isabel had somehow been alert enough to catch in progress and interrupt, probably by breaking Tess' concentration, before Liz had really been affected enough by the deception for it to matter.
And Liz Parker smiled inside, confident for the first time since she had realized what Alex had been blurting out to her in his vestibule. Tess knows, a little voice inside her head told her. She has to -- she knows that I can get through to Max. And once I do, it's all over but the shouting.
But she didn't let overconfidence distract her, focusing on Max still, intently. "Come on, Max," she said softly. "You know what Tess is trying to do, deep inside, and you won't stand for it." The conflict between two aspects of his mind seemed to have left Max strangely simple, like a frightened wild animal. She reacted to him as she would to a proud creature of the woods, keeping her voice soothing but firm.
"Max, you once told me that as long as we were together, nothing else mattered. Isabel said that if there was one voice you would hear no matter what, no matter where you are, it was my voice. Well, Max, I'm here, and I hope that my voice can reach you, the real you, deep down inside." Liz realized that tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Because I need you, I need the real Max -- I need you, and Isabel and Michael need you, and Maria and the others, but especially Alex needs you, Max, because he won't survive long without you. And I love you.
"I love you, Max, and I'm so sorry for everything that I felt I had to do, and I want to be with you, the way that we used to be together, if we can, but first you need to come back to me. Only come back to me, and we'll work out everything somehow. I don't even care if we can't be anything, just so long as you come back."
And, not really even knowing why, she leaned in and kissed him once, softly on the lips. He didn't really react, but when Liz pulled back and stared deeply into his eyes, she could se that something was starting to change.
And then, it was like Max shook himself awake. There was no confusion, no uncertainty at all... it was like he had been watching the situation unfold all along and now knew exactly how to proceed, or almost exactly.
"Isabel, you alright with our dear little friend?" The disgust and irony nearly dripped off of his voice.
"YES!" Isabel shrieked. "I'll hold off the bitch queen as long as I need to... take care of Alex!" Liz wanted to go with Max, to watch and make sure that their friend would be okay, but she knew that it would still be safer to play the odds. She stepped up next to Isabel, keeping a careful eye on Tess. She wasn't sure what she'd be able to do if there was an unfortunate turn of events yet, but she might be able to at least call a warning to Michael and Max.
It seemed to take forever, but finally she heard Alex's voice behind her, thanking Max. Isabel obviously wanted to turn around like anything, but couldn't bring herself to turn away from Tess. Until Max tapped her on the shoulder. "Step aside," he whispered. "This is my business now."
"What... what are you..." Isabel stepped aside slightly and Max moved into the space where she had been... and both Isabel and Liz shuddered slightly. Max seemed... awesome, in the sense that wasn't very far away from 'terrifying.'
He was carrying so much righteous fury about him that you could almost see it, a dreadful dark green aura surrounding him in a nimbus of power. Tess seemed to notice it too, or at least she was suddenly shaking after having faced down Isabel calmly and without a tremor.
"How could..." Max breathed softly, then trailed off. After a moment he continued, or maybe began again. "You said that you loved me, Tess. Is that really something that you could do to someone you LOVED?"
For a moment, a familiar arrogance filled Tess' features as she faced Max down defiantly. "I didn't want to do any of that; you know it. YOU drove me to it... you and that --" Tess nodded in Liz's direction, but she seemed to think better of completing the epithet.
"What would you do if you were in my place, Tess?" Max asked her softly.
To Liz's surprise, Tess seemed to consider that question sincerely. "Well, you've made your choice about not going along with my agenda I would think... And you can't be sure about keeping me captive forever. Whoever's on guard would never be able to be certain about what he or she is seeing, never able to let down their guard or I might be able to convert them. And I don't think you have it in you to kill me, which puts you in something of a tight spot." She flashed a sarcastic 'so sorry' face at him for an instant.
"Well, I need to get out of that tight spot, don't I?" Max said slowly, and then with lightning speed his hand whipped out to touch Tess' left temple, ear, and part of her forehead.
Tess gasped in surprise, was silent for about three seconds, and then let out a piercing scream of pure agony. It was as if Max's touch would not let her fall down, even though he wasn't holding her physically or supporting her weight. The others flinched as Tess' pained shriek continued to sound, but for all the expression on Max's face he was not even aware of any of them. The only thing that Liz could see there was utter resolve.
Tess' cry died away, but little else seemed to change in the tableau between she and her wrathful King. Suddenly Liz heard motion about her, and turned to look. Michael and the others were drawing near... Kyle, Jim Valenti, and Maria. Somehow from their faces Liz could tell that Tess' controls had fallen away, and her three friends were once again themselves - probably 'confused-themselves,' but...
Liz had missed something. Max and Tess had both fallen to the floor: she curled up in a fetal position, making unconfortable whimpers and moans, and he struggling to his hands and knees, holding back sobs. Liz and Isabel rushed over to Max while Michael and Jim checked on Tess.
"I didn't want to do it," Max choked out between ragged gasping breaths. "I just wanted to make sure that she'd never hurt any of us again; and she was right - I didn't think I could do it by killing her. But this -- I didn't realize in that moment. Think it's worse than death!"
"I say, 'fry the bitch any damn way you CAN!'" Isabel burst out, and Max turned a pained look up at her. "I'm sorry, it's just... Alex nearly died and she WANTED it to happen... and she zombified you and Maria and the Valentis... and tried to do it to the two of us..." Isabel trailed away uncertainly at that point.
"What... what happened, Max?" Liz asked softly.
"I... I, all I wanted was to make sure that she could never hurt us again," Max mumbled. "Agent Pierce -- when I was in the White Room, he said our powers are rooted in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. So I struck there... at the interface connections actually, between the PFC and the rest of the brain. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized..."
"Oh, my god," Isabel mumbled, starting to realize where this was going. Liz was already there... she had probably picked up more tidbits about how the brain works than both the Evanses put together, and as soon as he had mentioned that particular cortex, the facts about all the perfectly human things it was important for started to flash before her eyes.
"She's brain-damaged now, effectively," Max spat self-loathingly. "Damaged by me. I'm not sure if she'll even wake up, or what she'll be like if she ever does."
"Okay," Michael said, stepping over -- they had been talking loudly enough for him to overhear. "What's next, then? I guess that we can't take her to a hospital... aside from the usual blood test issues, if anyone takes a brain MRI or whatever, they'll have a whole new set of questions we don't want asked, because the pattern of damage probably won't match anything known."
"We take her back home," Jim Valenti announced, standing up and looking down at the fragile figure lying there on the tile. "Take care of her there. It's the least suspicious course of action... at least for now. If there's anything in the way of medical equipment she absolutely needs, I'll probably be able to get ahold of it."
"Are you sure about this?" Isabel asked. "After the way Tess abused your trust, to bring her back into your home again?"
Jim Valenti exchanged a look with Kyle, and finally his son nodded. "She can't hurt us any more, after all," Jim said, nodding himself in confirmation.
"I think there's a stretcher in the nurse's office," Alex pointed out. "That'd be the best available way of getting her to someone's car."
"We'll get it," Max volunteered. "You take it easy there."
"Hey, I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me," Alex insisted as Iz hurried to his side. "I feel like I've got some extra energy to burn off, actually - probably comes of not doing anything strenuous all day."
Liz shook her head a bit at that way of putting it, and Isabel put one arm around Alex and briefly gave the side of his head a once-over. "You feel that good already? No lingering symptoms?"
"No... none at the moment at least. Gotta say, your brother does good work." There was a sudden guilty silence as everyone seemed to realize at once how awkward that sentence was under the circumstances.
Soon enough Max and Kyle were back with the stretcher, and Tess' now-quiet body was quickly moved into the back seat of her own car.
Liz suggested that she and Max stay behind at the school for a bit. The nine of them had arrived in two fairly crowded vehicles, and Tess now kind of took up more space, so there wasn't really room for everyone to leave in the same cars. Maria was going to pick them up in the Jetta as soon as she could.
Jim Valenti drove Tess' car, along with Kyle riding shotgun, while Maria, Michael, Alex, and Isabel all crowded into Mrs Evans' ride, which would soon be returned to her again. Max and Liz sat next to each other on a bench near where the parking lot was seperated from the football field by a high fence.
"I... I can't get my head around how much everything's changed," Max muttered, shaking his head to and fro. "How... how did you figure out what Tess was up to, anyway? I didn't quite hear much of that story, myself."
Liz drew in a breath, reminded of the scene. "It was the freakiest chance, actually. I forgot my antennae at Alex's place and went back for them. As soon as I was through the door, it was obvious that something was wrong... most of the mindwarp had worn off while Maria and I had been out in the car." She gasped as a new ramification hit her. "And he said something about going to Tess... whether that was confusion or a post-mindwarp suggestion I don't know. But if he'd gone to her... I don't even want to think about what would have happened then."
Max nodded soberly. "Well, he's okay, and having nearly lost him, I don't think Isabel will ever take him for granted again... maybe the rest of us too." He hesitated, and then tentatively brushed a bit of Liz's long dark hair away from the side of her face. Liz smiled at the sweet gesture, and Max cleared his throat. "Umm... it's a little fuzzy, but when you were trying to... um, to snap me out of Tess' influence, I think I remember you saying something about..." He trailed off self-consciously.
Liz grinned teasingly. "Yes? You remember something?"
Max paused for a long moment, and then forged bravely ahead. "You... you want us to be 'us' again? To be together?"
Liz nodded, and then impulsively leaned in and kissed him lovingly. "Max, oh, I can't even begin to explain... I've wanted it for so long, only I thought that I had to -- well, right now, today is not the time to explain everything I think. Soon." She sat back, a serious and distraught expression stretching across her whole face.
"What is it? Something's bothering you now, something big," Max said.
"This may sound odd," Liz began slowly. "But I think we need to try to find Ava. Maybe... maybe even convince her to stay in Roswell."
"Whh..." Max seemed to be nearly beyond words. "We can look for her, sure. But -- well, why?"
"I'm not sure yet," Liz admitted. "But I get the feeling that the foursquare was never whole - was never quite right, because of Tess. She... to be capable of all this, she was never a worthy teammate for you, and Isabel and Michael. Ava isn't perfect maybe, but she has a good heart. She helped me to save your life, not standing to get anything in return. Lucky for us that there were two, maybe."
"I dunno, possibly." Max sighed. "But make no mistake... there'll only be one queen in my heart, and that's YOU. No substitutes."
"Glad to hear it," Liz giggled, and melted into Max's arms when he kissed her back.
----------
"That was really good," Isabel murmured into Alex's ear as they walked out of the movie theater, arm in arm. "Nice idea."
"Thanks," Alex admitted. "I know we actually have made it to the movies before, but that was definitely outnumbered by all the occasions on which we didn't end up going after all." He checked his watch. "Aww, it'll be more than half an hour before the reservation is ready, I must have mixed up the times. Wanna find a bench to sit at in the mall?"
"Rservation?" Isabel asked. "What reservation... I thought we'd just grab something to eat here or swing by the crashdown."
"Nah, after everything that's happened, I figured that both of us deserve a celebration," he countered. "That is, well -- you know. I put a call into Walter's. They'll have a booth ready for us at nine thirty."
"Ohhh, that place is so fancy," Isabel said, and paused. "Okay. Well, no, I don't feel like a bench. We can go to your dad's car and make out."
Alex only had to think about that for a second. "Works for me!"
They hurried towards the parking lot entrance. "Did your parents notice anything different?"
"Not really." Alex frowned a little. "It's weird... I keep feeling like they should know, but at the same time I realize that I can't tell them anything about what happened. It'd just freak them out too much."
"Welcome to my life," Isabel joked.
Alex smiled weakly, and pushed the door open into the night air that was only slightly cool. "After you, my sweet."
Isabel stole a quick kiss from him as she stepped through.
THE END!