[u]Part 28[/u]
It was his voice that brought her back. She heard it as though from a great distance, felt it was too much trouble to acknowledge it. All she wanted to do was sleep. She had never been more exhausted in her life.
But, in the end, its desperation was more than she could ignore.
"Kate! Open your eyes. C'mon, please?" Her body was shifting and then, "Oh dammit." She momentarily felt like she was falling, moaned when her head smashed against something hard. "Hell. I'm sorry. Are you okay? Will you please just wake up before I accidentally kill you?" Something was moving against her back. It took her another moment to understand that it was, in fact, [I]someone[/I].
Alex. Twisting her hands slightly, she realized that she was brushing against body parts that did not belong to her. What.Oh. They were tied together, back to back. How on Earth had that happened?
It was then that her thoughts managed to finally focus themselves. His face had been the last one she had seen before passing out during the explosion. He had been completely shocked, but also more than that. He had also been extremely pissed off when Tess had tossed that orb at him, shaking his head as though he was, in the end, not surprised at all.
It was all Kate had had time to process before she had been knocked unconscious by the explosive device.
She pried her eyes open, blinked a few times. It didn't help. It was still pitch black. She tried to speak, swallowed when it came out as a croak. Eventually, though, she was able to make sounds come out of her mouth that approximated words. "A.Alex?"
She felt him breathe a sigh of relief against her back. "You're awake! Thank God!"
"Where.where are we?"
"I think we're in the back of a truck."
She strained her eyes. Her cheek was pressed against the floor, which was coldly metallic. Well, that explained the falling sensation. She had obviously been slumped against Alex's back and he had somehow managed to knock them both over so that they were now lying on their sides, still attached together. "We're not moving," she said, stating the obvious, but still trying to collect her thoughts.
"We stopped. They opened the door and took Will out and then shut us in again."
"Who are they? Ava? Nicholas?"
"No. Two guys I didn't recognize. But I heard Tess." His voice trailed off and then he muttered, "I can't believe that she betrayed us. I thought I hated her before. I was so wrong. I now literally understand the concept of seeing red."
"Did they know you were awake?" Kate asked. "Was Will okay?"
"He was still unconscious too," Alex replied. "I couldn't see much because the sun was shining in my eyes, but I think they knew I was awake. They came to check on you, basically ignored me. They don't want me." He paused, sounding a bit relieved. "I'm surprised they haven't just killed me."
Kate felt a shudder run down her spine at the thought. "Don't say that!"
"I'm just saying."Alex said. He paused. "Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's okay."
There was another long silence. She felt his fingers slide gently over hers where they were linked at the wrists. Her heart started to pound more quickly in her chest.
Oh behave, she thought disdainfully to herself. This is so not the time. But Alex's thoughts seemed to be heading much in the same direction as hers because when he spoke again, his voice was low, gentle. "Are you okay? You were out of it for a long time. I think that was more of an alien smackdown weapon. It didn't seem to work very well on me. I woke up long before you."
"Yes. Just a little dizzy," she admitted.
He was still tentative when he continued, "Do you think you can use your powers on these ropes? We need to get out of here, need to warn everyone else."
"Is that wise? We have no idea what's going on. The last thing we want to do is to bring Rowena and the others into something dangerous." She didn't know why, but she was feeling incredibly protective of all of them now. Her thoughts were focused on Will and Jack and what danger they might be in, but she was just as concerned about Vilandra, was just as worried about somehow causing Zan and the others to fall into their enemies' hands.
She guessed that it was because it was now completely obvious that they did indeed have enemies in common. Whoever Tess was working with, she was obviously not on any side that Kate wanted a part of.
Unless Zan had somehow planned this whole thing as a means to get Will into his power. The thought came unbidden, made her frown. Perhaps Vilandra's abduction had been a ruse all along, a way to make Rowena continue to trust Zan and to put Will off balance.
But, as soon as she thought it, Kate rejected the idea. She trusted Zan. She had connected with him. He was as he had once been , as he was when she had loved him like a brother.
"Well, whether we call them or not," Alex said, beginning to sound impatient, "Lying here doing nothing is pretty much the last thing we should do. Can you untie us or not?"
She felt her stomach clench a bit at the tone of his voice. She wondered if he suspected the direction in which her thoughts had been traveling. Because, for some reason, he seemed really annoyed at her all of a sudden.
"I can try," she replied quietly. "If they're just regular ropes, it shouldn't be a problem."
She twisted her hand beneath his until her fingertips were brushing one of the cords around his wrist. Closing her eyes and ignoring the pounding that still continued in her head - God! What had that thing been that Ava had thrown at Alex? - she concentrated on manipulating the molecules. She nudged them apart with her mind, felt the twined cords beginning to melt beneath her touch.
"Good job!" Alex exclaimed as he managed to struggle free. The next thing she knew, he was standing up, had turned her around so that she was facing him. For one moment, she truly felt like she was going to be sick. His shadowed form was swimming in front of her. She took deep breaths, trying to calm her stomach. She didn't really realize what she was doing as she lowered her head so that she was leaning against his chest.
When she finally managed to steady herself, the first thing of which she became aware was his heart beating a swift tattoo against her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat. Kate glanced up at him, could not see his expression in the dark, but his breath was coming in short puffs.
She hurriedly stepped back, grimaced slightly when her pounding head screeched in protest. Kate ran her hands across her eyes, sent a small healing pulse into her temples. She was not a skilled healer, but could do minor things, like curing headaches and the like.
"Okay, I think you're right," Alex was saying, his speech very rushed for some reason. She blinked when she understood that he was nervous - and she didn't think it was because of the dire circumstances in which they now found themselves.
She was probably just imagining things though. After all, the only reason he had come with she and Will at all was to save Isabel. It had been made more than clear to her that there was something beyond friends between Alex and Zan's sister. While Kate had never officially met Vilandra in this lifetime and, so, could not really make any sort of educated guess as to their relationship, nor had Alex said that they were a couple, his concern for her seemed to indicate otherwise.
"Right about what?" Kate forced herself to ask, shaking her head, dismayed that she should be so concerned about this when she certainly had other things to worry about.
"We need to case out the situation before we bring the others in on it," Alex said. Even in the darkness, she could see his shadow moving towards the door at the back of what she could now see was indeed a large truck of some sort.
Just as he bent at the knees to slide up the back-door, she heard voices.
"Alex!" Kate hissed, stumbling towards him and grabbing him by the elbow. "Someone's coming!"
"Crap." She could feel his panic, did not blame him a bit because it matched her own. She was upset that she was proving to be so useless in a crisis. She had never experienced anything like this before. She had understood that she and her brother and her cousin were overprotected, but she had never realized how much until now. How on Earth had their guardians ever expected them to manage on their own? They knew nothing! Will had played at being in charge, but when it came right down to it, he had turned out to be just as useless and clueless as the rest of them, had ended up captured as well, likely by the very people that were supposed to be his allies.
"What do we do?" She demanded, trying to modify her tone, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
"Quick!" She felt warmth run up her arm as his fingers closed around hers. "Get down. We'll pretend we're still out."
He pulled her to her knees, then pressed his back up against hers. His hands twined with hers, so that they would look like they were tied together.
"But Alex, I thought they knew you were awake?" She whispered.
"Shhhh! Just do it!"
She snapped her gaze shut as the door Alex had been about to open slid up. She felt the bright sun on her face, was glad that she had her eyes closed. She would have been blinded anyway.
She had absolutely no idea what time it was, but it was obviously still daylight, which had to be a good thing. They couldn't have been unconscious for very long, as it had already been late afternoon when they'd left the motel.
Unless, of course, they had been out of it for a full twenty-four hours. Kate decided to ignore that possibility. For now, it was best to go on the assumption that they were still living the same day.
".demand that you release us! Your quarrel with Zan has nothing to do with us!"
Her brother's voice made her sit up straighter. Alex squeezed her fingers warningly.
"That's what you think. You've always had your head stuck up your ass Khivar. This is just as much about you as it is about him." Kate didn't recognize the voice, which was male, but she felt Alex flinch against her back. She wondered if it meant that he did.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Zan of Antar and I have nothing in common." Will sounded outraged, but Kate heard the underlying fear in his voice. If there was one thing her brother hated it was feeling out of control and he quite obviously felt out of control now, although he was trying to hide it.
Another voice, this one female, said, "Is this a good idea? Maybe we should transport them all separately. The last thing we need is for them to band against us."
"That won't happen," the man replied. "We have Zan and Rowena exactly where we want them. One peep out of these brats and we destroy them." Two distinct thuds shook the truck as what Kate feared might be bodies were tossed into the truck. She strained her ears, could hear weak breathing from nearby. She reached out with her mind.
And felt her blood run cold. Her thoughts had very briefly meshed with one of the other prisoners. The turmoil in the other person's thoughts was so complete, she forced herself to leave immediately. The last thing she needed was to get lost in someone else's head.
She was brought back to what was going on around her when her brother spoke again. "If you touch Rowena, I will [I]kill[/I] you." Will's tone was perfectly steady. Kate felt a flash of pride. He had obviously mastered his fear and now he was quite simply furious. Of course it would take a threat to Rowena's life to achieve that, but it was better late then never.
Kate felt the floor thud under her again as something heavy was thrown into the truck. She realized that it had been Will because he was quite obviously now only a few feet away from her. "I'm warning you, you bastards! If you touch her, I will kill." The door slammed shut, cutting off Will's threat. He finished it anyway. ".you. God dammit!" This last was a wail of such frustration, Kate shivered.
She waited for the truck's engine to start up and for the vehicle to rumble into motion before she called out to her brother. "Will!" Kate opened her eyes again, tried to readjust to the dark.
He was breathing unsteadily, his anger barely under control. She could feel it coming off him in waves, his usual self-control completely absent. He finally seemed to get a hold of himself though because when he said her name, his tone was steady. "Kate?"
She moved away from Alex, crawling towards the sound of her brother's voice. "Just wait a second. I'll untie you. Alex and I were just about to get out of here when they came back."
"Are you okay?" Will demanded as she reached over his body and started to untangle the ropes that bound his wrists together. She realized a moment later that it was far quicker to just melt them as she had Alex's bonds and proceeded to do so.
"I'm fine," she replied. "What the heck is going on Will? Who [I]are[/I] these people?"
"In a minute," Will said. He was already moving away from her and towards the two other dark shapes nearby. "Jack's here Katie and he's hurt. Really hurt."
Kate's heart stood still. "What happened to him?" She whispered, her voice cracking slightly.
"I have no idea. As far as I could tell in the short time I was alone with him, they did something to his mind." There was a pause, as though, for once, Will was actually weighing his words, was reflecting on how they might affect someone else. "Whatever it was, they did it to Vilandra too."
There was a long silence. Kate almost felt this news hit Alex like a punch in the gut. His breath hitched slightly, but when he spoke, his voice was quietly calm. "Is.is she here?"
"Yeah," Will said softly. "She's right here."
She could hear Alex sliding towards them. "Is there any way to get some light in here?" He demanded impatiently.
Kate frowned, realized that there was indeed. She wasn't really sure why she hadn't thought of it before, could only blame the fact that she had been pretty out of it since that device had knocked her unconscious. Again she wondered what it had been.
She raised her hand, concentrated on stirring up the molecules above her palm, enough so that they sent off a dull glow.
A thin blue light cast itself around the enclosed space. Her eyes cast themselves down to Jack's still face. She swallowed, brought the back of her other hand up against her mouth to muffle her sob. "He looks.Will, he looks [I]dead[/I]!"
"He's not dead," Will said grimly. "They told me what they did to them. One of them wanted to do it to me too, but Ava said she wanted me fully aware of everything that was going to happen to Rowena, that they couldn't do it to me until Ro was with me."
"What.what did they do?" Alex asked hesitantly. Kate looked over at him, where he was huddled over Isabel Evan's unconscious form. He had one of her hands in his, was stroking it lightly, his gaze glued to her face. Kate briefly closed her eyes, then shook her head, forcing herself to look away.
If there had ever been any doubt left that it was ridiculous to continue allowing these silly feelings for the human boy, it had now been completely squashed. Which was all to the good. She had to worry about Jack now. Her cousin was all that mattered.
"They removed their essences," Will told them. "I don't know exactly what they meant, but from what they were arguing about, it sounds like they took out the part that made them Vilandra and Jondar." He paused, then said in a rush. "Their [I]alien[/I] part."
Kate knew that her eyes were as round as saucers, but she couldn't even grasp what this meant - or how it had been done. "But, why?" She whispered in horror.
"To take away the claim they have to the thrones of Antar and Sardica. Vilandra is [I]still[/I] Zan's heir after all and Jondar is next in line for Sardica's after you Katie. But from what Ava was saying, they aren't really sure why they won't wake up. Their human sides were supposed to have been enough to keep them alive." He paused, then said, as though disbelieving. "I don't think they really want us dead at all. They want us to live on, as humans, knowing what we lost."
"Who [I]are[/I] they?" Kate repeated her earlier question, totally incapable of understanding how anyone could hate [I]all[/I] of them so much. It simply made no sense. "Nicholas can't have anything to do with this!"
"I know one of them," Alex stated, his tone grim and not entirely surprised if Kate was not mistaken. "His name is Grant Sorenson. Isabel has been dating him. I knew there was something wrong with that guy."
"Well, you were right," Will said. "I'm not sure exactly who he is in terms of our system, but he's definitely alien. The only thing that makes any sense though, being that Ava seems to be leading them, is that it's a rogue faction of Knosians. I don't understand how that's possible though! They shouldn't even [I]be[/I] here. None of them were sent in the ship and they're supposed to be allied with Antar anyway."
"But not if Max isn't married to Tess." This came from Alex, who had a slight frown of concentration on his face, as though this was now all a gigantic jigsaw puzzle he was determined to figure out. Kate had become used to that expression by now. He wore it almost every time they held a conversation and she told him something about what she remembered from her past. "Without that alliance, Tess's planet has no status at all, isn't that right?"
"Pretty much," Will agreed. "Are you saying that Ava turned when it became clear that Zan was never going to honour their marriage?"
"I didn't even think that it [I]was[/I] clear," Kate added. "Didn't you tell me that Max and Liz have been at odds for a couple of weeks?"
"It all makes perfect sense," Alex sighed. "Future Max came back to make Liz drive Max to Tess to avoid any of this happening. What happened fourteen years in the future must have been because of Tess in the first place."
"What?" Kate asked, totally confused by now.
"Don't you get it?" Alex demanded, his anger clear. "It wasn't Khivar and the Sardicans who were supposed to attack Earth fourteen years from now. It was Ava and the Knosians. For revenge. To pay back Max and Liz for their marriage and for finding happiness together. But it all got screwed up. He only made it worse. Because, somehow, when Future Max came back, he linked Tess up with her own people way earlier. They must have been in Copper Summit. It's the only explanation. She met them there, something that never happened in that last lifetime."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Kate was trying to modify her breathing, but her burgeoning panic was making the process slightly difficult.
"Wait a minute," Will interrupted. "Future Max? Have you two gone insane?"
But both Alex and Kate ignored him. Her gaze was locked with his and she read the truth of it on his face. Alex snorted. "I guess he got what he wanted. He stopped the end of the world. It's not going to be necessary anymore." He trailed off, waited for Kate to finish his train of thought. Which she could, because she knew exactly where he was headed.
The voice of one of their mysterious captors rang through her mind, only reinforcing Alex's fear.
[I] We have Zan and Rowena exactly where we want them.[/I]
"Because there won't be any Max or Liz to seek revenge on in fourteen years," Kate whispered. They'll already be long dead."
To be continued.
It was his voice that brought her back. She heard it as though from a great distance, felt it was too much trouble to acknowledge it. All she wanted to do was sleep. She had never been more exhausted in her life.
But, in the end, its desperation was more than she could ignore.
"Kate! Open your eyes. C'mon, please?" Her body was shifting and then, "Oh dammit." She momentarily felt like she was falling, moaned when her head smashed against something hard. "Hell. I'm sorry. Are you okay? Will you please just wake up before I accidentally kill you?" Something was moving against her back. It took her another moment to understand that it was, in fact, [I]someone[/I].
Alex. Twisting her hands slightly, she realized that she was brushing against body parts that did not belong to her. What.Oh. They were tied together, back to back. How on Earth had that happened?
It was then that her thoughts managed to finally focus themselves. His face had been the last one she had seen before passing out during the explosion. He had been completely shocked, but also more than that. He had also been extremely pissed off when Tess had tossed that orb at him, shaking his head as though he was, in the end, not surprised at all.
It was all Kate had had time to process before she had been knocked unconscious by the explosive device.
She pried her eyes open, blinked a few times. It didn't help. It was still pitch black. She tried to speak, swallowed when it came out as a croak. Eventually, though, she was able to make sounds come out of her mouth that approximated words. "A.Alex?"
She felt him breathe a sigh of relief against her back. "You're awake! Thank God!"
"Where.where are we?"
"I think we're in the back of a truck."
She strained her eyes. Her cheek was pressed against the floor, which was coldly metallic. Well, that explained the falling sensation. She had obviously been slumped against Alex's back and he had somehow managed to knock them both over so that they were now lying on their sides, still attached together. "We're not moving," she said, stating the obvious, but still trying to collect her thoughts.
"We stopped. They opened the door and took Will out and then shut us in again."
"Who are they? Ava? Nicholas?"
"No. Two guys I didn't recognize. But I heard Tess." His voice trailed off and then he muttered, "I can't believe that she betrayed us. I thought I hated her before. I was so wrong. I now literally understand the concept of seeing red."
"Did they know you were awake?" Kate asked. "Was Will okay?"
"He was still unconscious too," Alex replied. "I couldn't see much because the sun was shining in my eyes, but I think they knew I was awake. They came to check on you, basically ignored me. They don't want me." He paused, sounding a bit relieved. "I'm surprised they haven't just killed me."
Kate felt a shudder run down her spine at the thought. "Don't say that!"
"I'm just saying."Alex said. He paused. "Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's okay."
There was another long silence. She felt his fingers slide gently over hers where they were linked at the wrists. Her heart started to pound more quickly in her chest.
Oh behave, she thought disdainfully to herself. This is so not the time. But Alex's thoughts seemed to be heading much in the same direction as hers because when he spoke again, his voice was low, gentle. "Are you okay? You were out of it for a long time. I think that was more of an alien smackdown weapon. It didn't seem to work very well on me. I woke up long before you."
"Yes. Just a little dizzy," she admitted.
He was still tentative when he continued, "Do you think you can use your powers on these ropes? We need to get out of here, need to warn everyone else."
"Is that wise? We have no idea what's going on. The last thing we want to do is to bring Rowena and the others into something dangerous." She didn't know why, but she was feeling incredibly protective of all of them now. Her thoughts were focused on Will and Jack and what danger they might be in, but she was just as concerned about Vilandra, was just as worried about somehow causing Zan and the others to fall into their enemies' hands.
She guessed that it was because it was now completely obvious that they did indeed have enemies in common. Whoever Tess was working with, she was obviously not on any side that Kate wanted a part of.
Unless Zan had somehow planned this whole thing as a means to get Will into his power. The thought came unbidden, made her frown. Perhaps Vilandra's abduction had been a ruse all along, a way to make Rowena continue to trust Zan and to put Will off balance.
But, as soon as she thought it, Kate rejected the idea. She trusted Zan. She had connected with him. He was as he had once been , as he was when she had loved him like a brother.
"Well, whether we call them or not," Alex said, beginning to sound impatient, "Lying here doing nothing is pretty much the last thing we should do. Can you untie us or not?"
She felt her stomach clench a bit at the tone of his voice. She wondered if he suspected the direction in which her thoughts had been traveling. Because, for some reason, he seemed really annoyed at her all of a sudden.
"I can try," she replied quietly. "If they're just regular ropes, it shouldn't be a problem."
She twisted her hand beneath his until her fingertips were brushing one of the cords around his wrist. Closing her eyes and ignoring the pounding that still continued in her head - God! What had that thing been that Ava had thrown at Alex? - she concentrated on manipulating the molecules. She nudged them apart with her mind, felt the twined cords beginning to melt beneath her touch.
"Good job!" Alex exclaimed as he managed to struggle free. The next thing she knew, he was standing up, had turned her around so that she was facing him. For one moment, she truly felt like she was going to be sick. His shadowed form was swimming in front of her. She took deep breaths, trying to calm her stomach. She didn't really realize what she was doing as she lowered her head so that she was leaning against his chest.
When she finally managed to steady herself, the first thing of which she became aware was his heart beating a swift tattoo against her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat. Kate glanced up at him, could not see his expression in the dark, but his breath was coming in short puffs.
She hurriedly stepped back, grimaced slightly when her pounding head screeched in protest. Kate ran her hands across her eyes, sent a small healing pulse into her temples. She was not a skilled healer, but could do minor things, like curing headaches and the like.
"Okay, I think you're right," Alex was saying, his speech very rushed for some reason. She blinked when she understood that he was nervous - and she didn't think it was because of the dire circumstances in which they now found themselves.
She was probably just imagining things though. After all, the only reason he had come with she and Will at all was to save Isabel. It had been made more than clear to her that there was something beyond friends between Alex and Zan's sister. While Kate had never officially met Vilandra in this lifetime and, so, could not really make any sort of educated guess as to their relationship, nor had Alex said that they were a couple, his concern for her seemed to indicate otherwise.
"Right about what?" Kate forced herself to ask, shaking her head, dismayed that she should be so concerned about this when she certainly had other things to worry about.
"We need to case out the situation before we bring the others in on it," Alex said. Even in the darkness, she could see his shadow moving towards the door at the back of what she could now see was indeed a large truck of some sort.
Just as he bent at the knees to slide up the back-door, she heard voices.
"Alex!" Kate hissed, stumbling towards him and grabbing him by the elbow. "Someone's coming!"
"Crap." She could feel his panic, did not blame him a bit because it matched her own. She was upset that she was proving to be so useless in a crisis. She had never experienced anything like this before. She had understood that she and her brother and her cousin were overprotected, but she had never realized how much until now. How on Earth had their guardians ever expected them to manage on their own? They knew nothing! Will had played at being in charge, but when it came right down to it, he had turned out to be just as useless and clueless as the rest of them, had ended up captured as well, likely by the very people that were supposed to be his allies.
"What do we do?" She demanded, trying to modify her tone, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
"Quick!" She felt warmth run up her arm as his fingers closed around hers. "Get down. We'll pretend we're still out."
He pulled her to her knees, then pressed his back up against hers. His hands twined with hers, so that they would look like they were tied together.
"But Alex, I thought they knew you were awake?" She whispered.
"Shhhh! Just do it!"
She snapped her gaze shut as the door Alex had been about to open slid up. She felt the bright sun on her face, was glad that she had her eyes closed. She would have been blinded anyway.
She had absolutely no idea what time it was, but it was obviously still daylight, which had to be a good thing. They couldn't have been unconscious for very long, as it had already been late afternoon when they'd left the motel.
Unless, of course, they had been out of it for a full twenty-four hours. Kate decided to ignore that possibility. For now, it was best to go on the assumption that they were still living the same day.
".demand that you release us! Your quarrel with Zan has nothing to do with us!"
Her brother's voice made her sit up straighter. Alex squeezed her fingers warningly.
"That's what you think. You've always had your head stuck up your ass Khivar. This is just as much about you as it is about him." Kate didn't recognize the voice, which was male, but she felt Alex flinch against her back. She wondered if it meant that he did.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Zan of Antar and I have nothing in common." Will sounded outraged, but Kate heard the underlying fear in his voice. If there was one thing her brother hated it was feeling out of control and he quite obviously felt out of control now, although he was trying to hide it.
Another voice, this one female, said, "Is this a good idea? Maybe we should transport them all separately. The last thing we need is for them to band against us."
"That won't happen," the man replied. "We have Zan and Rowena exactly where we want them. One peep out of these brats and we destroy them." Two distinct thuds shook the truck as what Kate feared might be bodies were tossed into the truck. She strained her ears, could hear weak breathing from nearby. She reached out with her mind.
And felt her blood run cold. Her thoughts had very briefly meshed with one of the other prisoners. The turmoil in the other person's thoughts was so complete, she forced herself to leave immediately. The last thing she needed was to get lost in someone else's head.
She was brought back to what was going on around her when her brother spoke again. "If you touch Rowena, I will [I]kill[/I] you." Will's tone was perfectly steady. Kate felt a flash of pride. He had obviously mastered his fear and now he was quite simply furious. Of course it would take a threat to Rowena's life to achieve that, but it was better late then never.
Kate felt the floor thud under her again as something heavy was thrown into the truck. She realized that it had been Will because he was quite obviously now only a few feet away from her. "I'm warning you, you bastards! If you touch her, I will kill." The door slammed shut, cutting off Will's threat. He finished it anyway. ".you. God dammit!" This last was a wail of such frustration, Kate shivered.
She waited for the truck's engine to start up and for the vehicle to rumble into motion before she called out to her brother. "Will!" Kate opened her eyes again, tried to readjust to the dark.
He was breathing unsteadily, his anger barely under control. She could feel it coming off him in waves, his usual self-control completely absent. He finally seemed to get a hold of himself though because when he said her name, his tone was steady. "Kate?"
She moved away from Alex, crawling towards the sound of her brother's voice. "Just wait a second. I'll untie you. Alex and I were just about to get out of here when they came back."
"Are you okay?" Will demanded as she reached over his body and started to untangle the ropes that bound his wrists together. She realized a moment later that it was far quicker to just melt them as she had Alex's bonds and proceeded to do so.
"I'm fine," she replied. "What the heck is going on Will? Who [I]are[/I] these people?"
"In a minute," Will said. He was already moving away from her and towards the two other dark shapes nearby. "Jack's here Katie and he's hurt. Really hurt."
Kate's heart stood still. "What happened to him?" She whispered, her voice cracking slightly.
"I have no idea. As far as I could tell in the short time I was alone with him, they did something to his mind." There was a pause, as though, for once, Will was actually weighing his words, was reflecting on how they might affect someone else. "Whatever it was, they did it to Vilandra too."
There was a long silence. Kate almost felt this news hit Alex like a punch in the gut. His breath hitched slightly, but when he spoke, his voice was quietly calm. "Is.is she here?"
"Yeah," Will said softly. "She's right here."
She could hear Alex sliding towards them. "Is there any way to get some light in here?" He demanded impatiently.
Kate frowned, realized that there was indeed. She wasn't really sure why she hadn't thought of it before, could only blame the fact that she had been pretty out of it since that device had knocked her unconscious. Again she wondered what it had been.
She raised her hand, concentrated on stirring up the molecules above her palm, enough so that they sent off a dull glow.
A thin blue light cast itself around the enclosed space. Her eyes cast themselves down to Jack's still face. She swallowed, brought the back of her other hand up against her mouth to muffle her sob. "He looks.Will, he looks [I]dead[/I]!"
"He's not dead," Will said grimly. "They told me what they did to them. One of them wanted to do it to me too, but Ava said she wanted me fully aware of everything that was going to happen to Rowena, that they couldn't do it to me until Ro was with me."
"What.what did they do?" Alex asked hesitantly. Kate looked over at him, where he was huddled over Isabel Evan's unconscious form. He had one of her hands in his, was stroking it lightly, his gaze glued to her face. Kate briefly closed her eyes, then shook her head, forcing herself to look away.
If there had ever been any doubt left that it was ridiculous to continue allowing these silly feelings for the human boy, it had now been completely squashed. Which was all to the good. She had to worry about Jack now. Her cousin was all that mattered.
"They removed their essences," Will told them. "I don't know exactly what they meant, but from what they were arguing about, it sounds like they took out the part that made them Vilandra and Jondar." He paused, then said in a rush. "Their [I]alien[/I] part."
Kate knew that her eyes were as round as saucers, but she couldn't even grasp what this meant - or how it had been done. "But, why?" She whispered in horror.
"To take away the claim they have to the thrones of Antar and Sardica. Vilandra is [I]still[/I] Zan's heir after all and Jondar is next in line for Sardica's after you Katie. But from what Ava was saying, they aren't really sure why they won't wake up. Their human sides were supposed to have been enough to keep them alive." He paused, then said, as though disbelieving. "I don't think they really want us dead at all. They want us to live on, as humans, knowing what we lost."
"Who [I]are[/I] they?" Kate repeated her earlier question, totally incapable of understanding how anyone could hate [I]all[/I] of them so much. It simply made no sense. "Nicholas can't have anything to do with this!"
"I know one of them," Alex stated, his tone grim and not entirely surprised if Kate was not mistaken. "His name is Grant Sorenson. Isabel has been dating him. I knew there was something wrong with that guy."
"Well, you were right," Will said. "I'm not sure exactly who he is in terms of our system, but he's definitely alien. The only thing that makes any sense though, being that Ava seems to be leading them, is that it's a rogue faction of Knosians. I don't understand how that's possible though! They shouldn't even [I]be[/I] here. None of them were sent in the ship and they're supposed to be allied with Antar anyway."
"But not if Max isn't married to Tess." This came from Alex, who had a slight frown of concentration on his face, as though this was now all a gigantic jigsaw puzzle he was determined to figure out. Kate had become used to that expression by now. He wore it almost every time they held a conversation and she told him something about what she remembered from her past. "Without that alliance, Tess's planet has no status at all, isn't that right?"
"Pretty much," Will agreed. "Are you saying that Ava turned when it became clear that Zan was never going to honour their marriage?"
"I didn't even think that it [I]was[/I] clear," Kate added. "Didn't you tell me that Max and Liz have been at odds for a couple of weeks?"
"It all makes perfect sense," Alex sighed. "Future Max came back to make Liz drive Max to Tess to avoid any of this happening. What happened fourteen years in the future must have been because of Tess in the first place."
"What?" Kate asked, totally confused by now.
"Don't you get it?" Alex demanded, his anger clear. "It wasn't Khivar and the Sardicans who were supposed to attack Earth fourteen years from now. It was Ava and the Knosians. For revenge. To pay back Max and Liz for their marriage and for finding happiness together. But it all got screwed up. He only made it worse. Because, somehow, when Future Max came back, he linked Tess up with her own people way earlier. They must have been in Copper Summit. It's the only explanation. She met them there, something that never happened in that last lifetime."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Kate was trying to modify her breathing, but her burgeoning panic was making the process slightly difficult.
"Wait a minute," Will interrupted. "Future Max? Have you two gone insane?"
But both Alex and Kate ignored him. Her gaze was locked with his and she read the truth of it on his face. Alex snorted. "I guess he got what he wanted. He stopped the end of the world. It's not going to be necessary anymore." He trailed off, waited for Kate to finish his train of thought. Which she could, because she knew exactly where he was headed.
The voice of one of their mysterious captors rang through her mind, only reinforcing Alex's fear.
[I] We have Zan and Rowena exactly where we want them.[/I]
"Because there won't be any Max or Liz to seek revenge on in fourteen years," Kate whispered. They'll already be long dead."
To be continued.