[u]Part 35[/u]
Max stood with his arm around Liz as the others crawled back into the granolith chamber. She was trembling slightly, but he knew that it was no longer because she was on the verge of freaking out. She was half-excited, half-scared by whatever information Grant was going to spring on them next.
He knew this because he could [I]feel[/I] it. Just as certainly as he knew he felt the same way, he could feel exactly what Liz's emotions were at the present time. It was also why he had known to get everyone out so that she could have her meltdown in private. Since their conversation in the Jeep, he felt more in tune with her than ever. The fact that she had revealed that she could read him had resulted in him being able to do the same back, now that he knew it was possible.
Max was glad that he had been able to help her, just like she had made him see more clearly earlier. If there was anyone who deserved the chance to lose it every once in a while, it was Liz. She was always so strong. He had always known it too, even before they started to get to know each other better after the healing in the Crashdown. Her strength of character was one of the things he had most admired about her from afar. It was also one of the reasons that he had always daydreamed of telling her the truth, had known somewhere deep inside that she would understand.
Her strength had only increased since he had brought her into the fiasco that was his existence. She had stood firmly against him when he had tried to push her away, conquering all his defenses, and, then, finally, when she felt it was for his own good, she had walked away on her own. Her fierce unwillingness to compromise or to take the easy road was one of the many things he loved about her. The fact that he knew this - that he loved that about [I]Liz[/I] - made it easier for him to believe and accept what she had said to him in the Jeep earlier. It didn't matter that they had apparently meant something to each other before, in that other life. Although it was nice to know, he would have loved her no matter what. Of that he had no doubt.
And, apparently, she had loved him anyway too. Because he was almost entirely positive that the Future Max and Future Liz he had heard so much about recently had not known anything about Liz's origins - or at least they hadn't until it was too late. It was the only explanation for why Future Max had decided to come back to the point in time he had. They had had to stop Tess from leaving town so that they could all find out just how closely they were linked - that Tess and Liz's relationship was just as important as Tess and Max's, if not more so. If Liz hadn't pushed him away when she did, the two girls would have likely had to wait years to find out who they really were. By then, it would have been too late.
It [I]had[/I] been too late. The world had ended.
But that Max and Liz had chosen each other anyway. Without knowing the truth, they had loved each other. And that was good enough for him. They were meant to be.
Max wondered briefly if they would ever know for sure exactly [I]what[/I] Future Max had known. He hoped so. He had a feeling though that he might just have to accept that, in spite of how hurt he had been a couple of weeks ago, Future Max's visit had changed things for the better.
Now they had the chance to learn what they needed to know so much earlier. They had the chance to forge bonds with those they had likely seen as their enemies in the future, re-establish ties with Kate, Will and Jack that had obviously been important to them in the past lives. They knew that Tess really was one of them and so was Liz. The bitterness that had obviously been allowed to fester in that other world would never have a chance now.
They now knew who their real enemy was, who their real enemy had always been. Now all they needed to know was [I]why[/I].
Max met Grant's dark eyes as the shapeshifter straightened, having just come through the opening between the pods. "We want to know everything you can tell us. We're ready."
"And none of this 'I can't tell you what your purpose is' crap either," Michael spoke up from behind Grant. "You tell us [I]everything[/I]."
Grant shrugged. "I will tell you what I can. But I wasn't being evasive when I said that I cannot entirely tell you your purpose. I was not in charge of the mission to bring you here. In fact, I barely managed to get myself on that ship. Nasedo didn't trust me then and he still doesn't entirely trust me now." He looked at Michael. "I will repeat what I said to you earlier. That's the reason I dug up those bones. I had to make him believe that I didn't care about your safety one way or the other. That I was ready to follow orders."
"But the granolith [I]can[/I] give us those answers?" Liz asked.
"I believe so, yes," Grant replied.
"So what are we waiting for then?" Michael demanded. "Tell us how to use it."
"I can't tell you that," Grant said, beginning to sound impatient. "I told you that she's the one who knows how to use it." He indicated Tess, who was already staring at the granolith again, her blue eyes distant, as though she was trying to unlock the memories of how to make the machine work. Her brow was slightly furrowed and Max could tell that she wasn't making much progress. It made him wonder again why only some of Serena's memories were being unleashed by the wedding cloth. If Tess remembered who she was, why didn't she remember [I]everything[/I]? Max felt a slight flash of suspicion. He was trying to believe that Tess was now being completely honest with them - that she had merely been one of Nasedo's pawns too - but Liz as Serena had seemed to remember so much more.
[I]Why[/I]?
Max realized that now wasn't the time to worry about that though. He could tell that Grant's irritation with Michael was reaching the point where they might not be able to get any useful information out of him. ".don't want to hear what I have to say," the shapeshifter was saying, sounding offended. "I refuse to continue if I am going to be constantly interrupted."
Max glared at Michael warningly. His best friend sighed heavily, rolled his eyes, but nodded, as though in agreement that he would let Max do the questioning. "We're sorry," Max said quickly. "Go ahead. Just tell us what you can. Start at the beginning maybe," he suggested. "Who are you? You said that you had to convince Nasedo to let you onto the ship? Why?"
Grant frowned slightly. "Who am I? It is hard for me to tell you that as well." Max looked at Michael sharply, sure that was going to wind his friend up again. While he understood Michael's frustration and also wondered why Grant couldn't just tell them what they needed to know, they didn't want to alienate their only source of information either.
Michael seemed to have gotten control of himself though. It likely didn't hurt that Maria was holding his arm, obviously ready to pinch him at the slightest provocation. Max smiled slightly to himself, turned to listen to Grant again.
"You have to understand about what it means to be Wendarian," the shapeshifter continued. "Our entire existence is built into the ability to shapeshift, into the fact that we have no one form, that our only real identity is the fact that we can do it - that we are [I]Wendarian[/I]. In truth, we have no real identity. Our entire focus is supposed to be on the good of the planet. Identity brings selfishness and self-involvement, as all the political upheaval on the other four planets in our system demonstrated over the millennia."
This last was said with such disdain, it made Max frown slightly. He looked at Kate, who was also scowling, as though insulted. The irony of Grant's statement about Wendarians not being self-involved was that they were quite clearly arrogant about that very fact. And arrogance was what self-involvement was all about.
"You make it sound like the Wendarians wanted nothing to do with the other planets," Liz prompted, obviously having picked up on Grant's tone of voice as well. "But we know that your planet was allied to Max's."
Grant looked at her, grimaced slightly. "I'll get back to that. First I must tell you a bit about the history of our system."
"We know some already," Max told him. "Like Liz said, we know that Antar, Wendar and Knosis were all allied. We know that Rowena and Khivar's marriage meant that their two planets were allied as well. Courtney also told us that the basis of the war had something to do with tariffs?"
"That's true," Grant acknowledged. "The problems began at a trade summit on Valonia. Zan's father sent him to mediate a dispute between Knosis and Sardica. The Knosians were trying to take over some very important trade routes between Antar and Knosis by claiming ownership and taxing any ship passing through from another planet. The Sardicans protested this and were in the right - the trade routes had always ever been under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of the Five Planets and were open to all interplanetary traffic. It was a clumsy power play on the Knosians part, inspired by the fact that Zan was betrothed to Ava, the sister of the King of Knosis. They felt it gave them status and so they tried to make a little money off of it."
"The Knosians obviously thought that Zan would side with them?" Tess asked. "I mean, he married Ava, didn't he?"
"But he didn't want to," Max said quickly, wanting that out in the open right from the beginning. He knew that Liz didn't really care about all the destiny garbage anymore, but reinforcing that he hadn't wanted any part of a forced relationship, even in his past life, could only be a good thing. "Courtney told us that too," he added, reddening slightly when Tess raised her eyebrows at him. She didn't seem upset though. Actually, she appeared amused.
"You're both right." Grant said. "Increasing Knosis's control of the shipping routes could only increase Zan's planet's own power upon their marriage, being as Ava was her brother's heir. This meant that, in reality, the shipping routes would become Antar's. In truth, the whole conference was supposed to be a sham. Zan's father never intended for him to mediate at all. He was supposed to go and rubber-stamp Knosis's control of the new markets, which meant that Sardica was going to have to pay heavy tariffs to ship anywhere in the system, greatly decreasing their influence. Zan's father was trying to break Sardica's firm hold on the economy of the system."
"Zan didn't do that though," Kate interrupted. "I remember that trade conference. I was staying with Vilandra on Antar at the time. The king was really upset when he heard that Zan was going to rule on behalf of the Sardicans, keeping with the Tribunal's tradition and also rejecting Antar's covert play for supremacy. Vilandra told me at the time that her father thought that Zan was just being difficult because he wanted to ruin the alliance with Knosis so that he wouldn't have to marry Ava. We both knew that Zan would never do that though. He didn't play games like that. He just didn't think that so much power should be held on one planet, even if it [I]was[/I] his own. Antar already held the political influence through the high kingship. They didn't need to be the economic center as well. He and his father disagreed over it all the time."
Max couldn't quite believe that he was finding all this talk about trade routes and tariffs so interesting, but he was. He had a feeling that it had more to do with the fact that Zan was beginning to sound kind of okay, at least at this point in time. It still didn't explain what happened to him later though. There was no question that something did, because Max still remembered with vivid clarity the flash he had gotten from Kate. His alter- ego had killed her in their past life. What had made him go from being a fair and just ruler to the monster Kate remembered now?
"Indeed," Grant was agreeing. "Zan was honorable, knew what was right. He was going to rule for the Sardicans, jeopardizing the marriage alliance. His father intervened and ordered Zan away from the conference, insisting that he should think about what he was planning to do a little longer - that he needed privacy to reach his decision. The Sardicans knew what was in the air, but they agreed, hoping that Zan was going to be able to fight his father on this and win. They trusted him, in spite of the impending alliance with Knosis."
"Oh my God."
This came from Kate. Max looked at her sharply. Her face had whitened and she was staring at he and Liz. "What?" He demanded.
"How could I have forgotten about this?" She moaned. "Alex and I already discussed this with Will - how there was no way that Zan and Rowena could have been together because they didn't ever meet alone. I totally forgot about all of this!"
"About what?" Liz asked gently.
"Zan went to Rowena's summer palace to make his decision. [I]That's[/I] when they met!" Kate shook her head. "That's when it happened."
Max looked at Grant for confirmation. He was nodding. "That's what we all assume. Valonia had offered a neutral planet for the conference and they then offered Zan a neutral place to reach his verdict. He did go to the summer palace." He was frowning at Kate. "You remember some of this, but not everything?"
"I guess so," Kate replied, sounding upset. "I've always believed that I remember everything, but the last couple of days have certainly proven me wrong about that."
"The granolith just flashed you know." They all turned to look at Kyle, who was staring at the base of the cone. "I don't get why you people keep missing it, but it did. When Kate remembered that, it flashed." Max realized that most of them were standing with their back to the cone. Only Kyle and Grant were facing it directly.
"Well, this only confirms that your pods [I]were[/I] damaged as well," Grant sighed. "The four squares were so closely linked, it always seemed strange that none of the others were affected by Rowena's failing as it did."
"So we were supposed to remember?" Max asked.
"I don't know that for sure," Grant admitted. "The Crash changed everything and I wasn't in on any of the planning sessions before you were sent. I was a glorified guard. I only found out what was really going on after everyone else was killed in the Crash because Nasedo needed me then." He looked at the granolith again, thoughtful now. "It would seem that all of your memories still exist within this machine though. That you will be able to access them. It is releasing them slowly now, but there must be a better way to control them."
Max looked at Tess, who seemed upset, as though she wished she could be more helpful. "It's okay," he told her. "We'll figure it out."
"So Zan went to Rowena's summer palace," Michael prompted impatiently.
"He did," Grant agreed. "And he seemed to be taking an inordinately long amount of time to come to the decision his father wanted - the one he [I]knew[/I] he had to make. He was not high king yet. He was going to have to bend to his father's will. Everyone knew it and no one knew why he was taking so long to do it."
"Rowena must have kept him busy," Kyle said. He smirked at Liz. "You must have been one hot chick Liz."
Max rolled his eyes, but ignored Kyle because Maria smacked him, effectively shutting him up. Liz didn't seem insulted either, only exasperated, as she usually was by Kyle's sarcasm. Everyone knew by now that Kyle didn't really mean anything by his motor mouth. He just seemed incapable of controlling it sometimes. Max had a feeling it was one way his former nemesis dealt with stress.
"We know now that it was Rowena, but, at the time everyone thought that he was just trying to annoy his father by taking forever to come to the decision everyone knew he had to," Grant continued, as though Kyle had not spoken. "He stayed on Valonia until he was called back to Antar when his father died suddenly. Needless to say, everyone expected that the ruling would come down quickly after that, that Zan would do what he had always wanted to do and side with Sardica. The system was hailing him as the fair and just Zan, who had refused to make a ruling while his father lived, that he had played his cards perfectly."
"What I don't get is why Zan and Vilandra's father didn't just over-rule Zan. I mean, [I]he[/I] was high king. Zan was his heir. He could have done it," Kate stated.
"The old king was stubborn, but he wasn't stupid. He was the one who had sent Zan. It had been a mistake, he had underestimated Zan's own stubborn streak. He couldn't back down, couldn't let his son make a decision that he felt undermined his own power. Yet, had he taken the power away from his son, many would have questioned Zan's ability to rule following his father's death. Any faction who wanted a chance at the throne would have seized on that, would have proclaimed Zan unfit. If the old king wanted his family to rule after his death, he was going to have to deal with his son because, while he might have passed over Zan in favor of Vilandra, Vilandra would never have accepted the throne while her brother still lived. She would have just passed it back to him when her father died. She and Rath were the epitome of loyal to Zan. The old king needed to make his son bow to his will, but he couldn't call him back either. It was stalemate."
"But Zan didn't rule on behalf of Sardica," Kate said. "We all know that. He came back and ruled for Knosis."
"That is what happened," Grant acknowledged. "No one knew then that Zan was a totally changed man. He ruled against the Sardicans and by the time he left Valonia, war was unavoidable."
Max felt a twinge of guilt. "So Zan ruled against Sardica because he was jealous of Khivar and Rowena?"
"One assumes so now," Grant shrugged. "But no one thought so at the time. You must understand that all of this only came out after your deaths, when it was revealed how wide a web of jealousy and hate had been woven between all the players. No one knew about Zan and Rowena. As far as anyone knew, Rowena married Khivar."
"That makes [I]no[/I] sense," Tess said. Max looked at her, surprised. "It doesn't Max. Why would Zan be jealous? We already know that it wasn't Rowena who went to marry Khivar. It was Serena. Zan and Rowena obviously made that decision together. He had no reason to be jealous."
Max blinked. He felt Liz squeezing his hand, looked down at her. "No guilt. Tess has to be right. And remember what we said before. We can't change what happened. We just need to [I]know[/I] what happened."
"Sorry," he muttered. He realized that it was possible to feel guilty about feeling guilty, but decided to suppress that too. Liz was right after all. Feeling guilty didn't change things. It only delayed fixing them. He looked back at Grant. "So then what happened?"
"The war started," Grant replied. "It did look like maybe it could be resolved fairly quickly. In the end, the decision about the trade routes [I]was[/I] Antar's to make, and so the Sardicans' war was illegal. But, then, out of nowhere, Zan sent the Sky Army to destroy Valonia."
Max felt his stomach clench. He looked at Michael. "Courtney told us about this," he said, having to clear his throat first. "Rath tried to defend him by blaming it on Khivar."
"Rath knew Zan better than anyone," Grant said grimly. "Rath was right that Zan was not the one who ordered the strike - at least not the Zan [I]he[/I] knew. But he was wrong to accuse Khivar."
"Do you know what happened to Zan?" Liz asked. She was clutching Max's hand tightly. "Why did he do that?"
"Haven't you figured it out by now?" Grant asked. "It's so obvious." He looked at Tess, then back at Liz. "What does the granolith do Liz?"
Max frowned. What does the granolith do? What does the granolith have to do with.
And, abruptly, he understood. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before. It was the only thing that made any sense with Kate's memories of what Zan had been like before and after the trade summit. No one could change [I]that[/I] much in such a short amount of time. Jealousy might have been an explanation, but Tess had been right. Zan had no reason to be jealous. Khivar was [I]not[/I] married to Rowena.
Max felt the flash of understanding from Liz as she too grasped what the shapeshifter was telling them. "Oh my God. It [I]wasn't[/I] Zan at all, was it?"
"It was not," Grant replied. "Do you truly believe that Zan and Rowena would just separate after all the effort they had made to be together? Neither of them really wanted to rule their planets anyway. Rowena was obsessed with science, invention and Zan. She didn't have time to reign. And, after meeting Rowena, Zan was too obsessed with her to even do his duty by Antar any longer. They did everything in their power to avoid their destinies, even sending Serena to replace Rowena. Why would they stop there?"
Max could feel his heart thudding in his chest. "So you're saying that there were two Zans? And somehow the one they sent to rule Antar was defective?"
This was worse than anything he could have possibly imagined. Zan and Rowena had left their planets at the mercy of a madman - a crazy version of Zan himself - because they had wanted to be together. How could they have been so selfish? He could feel Liz's hand trembling in his. She understood exactly what this meant too.
Their selfish love had destroyed an entire planet. Valonia had been destroyed because of them.
Grant snorted. His disgust was obvious. "Not just two Zans."
"Wait a minute!" Kyle interrupted. "I thought you said that it was [I]Serena[/I] who invented the granolith? But you just said that it was Rowena who was the scientist."
It was Kate who spoke up at this. "They were both scientists," she said quietly. "This is why we never knew that Rowena had a sister. She didn't."
"What?" Michael demanded. "Are you saying they're [I]not[/I] sisters?"
Max stared at Kate as he realized what she was getting at. [I] Not just two[/I] Zans,[/I] Grant had said.
"They weren't sisters," he continued for Kate, looking down at Liz, unsure how she was going to take this. He was still in shock that he and Liz could have been so completely cavalier about throwing away their thrones for each other and placing sub-standard versions of themselves in their places. They had doomed Valonia and the five planets had been in turmoil ever since. "They were the same person," he managed to say, past the lump in his throat. "That's why Liz was affected by Serena's wedding cloth."
"Serena wasn't Rowena's twin," Grant agreed. "She was her clone."
To be continued.
Max stood with his arm around Liz as the others crawled back into the granolith chamber. She was trembling slightly, but he knew that it was no longer because she was on the verge of freaking out. She was half-excited, half-scared by whatever information Grant was going to spring on them next.
He knew this because he could [I]feel[/I] it. Just as certainly as he knew he felt the same way, he could feel exactly what Liz's emotions were at the present time. It was also why he had known to get everyone out so that she could have her meltdown in private. Since their conversation in the Jeep, he felt more in tune with her than ever. The fact that she had revealed that she could read him had resulted in him being able to do the same back, now that he knew it was possible.
Max was glad that he had been able to help her, just like she had made him see more clearly earlier. If there was anyone who deserved the chance to lose it every once in a while, it was Liz. She was always so strong. He had always known it too, even before they started to get to know each other better after the healing in the Crashdown. Her strength of character was one of the things he had most admired about her from afar. It was also one of the reasons that he had always daydreamed of telling her the truth, had known somewhere deep inside that she would understand.
Her strength had only increased since he had brought her into the fiasco that was his existence. She had stood firmly against him when he had tried to push her away, conquering all his defenses, and, then, finally, when she felt it was for his own good, she had walked away on her own. Her fierce unwillingness to compromise or to take the easy road was one of the many things he loved about her. The fact that he knew this - that he loved that about [I]Liz[/I] - made it easier for him to believe and accept what she had said to him in the Jeep earlier. It didn't matter that they had apparently meant something to each other before, in that other life. Although it was nice to know, he would have loved her no matter what. Of that he had no doubt.
And, apparently, she had loved him anyway too. Because he was almost entirely positive that the Future Max and Future Liz he had heard so much about recently had not known anything about Liz's origins - or at least they hadn't until it was too late. It was the only explanation for why Future Max had decided to come back to the point in time he had. They had had to stop Tess from leaving town so that they could all find out just how closely they were linked - that Tess and Liz's relationship was just as important as Tess and Max's, if not more so. If Liz hadn't pushed him away when she did, the two girls would have likely had to wait years to find out who they really were. By then, it would have been too late.
It [I]had[/I] been too late. The world had ended.
But that Max and Liz had chosen each other anyway. Without knowing the truth, they had loved each other. And that was good enough for him. They were meant to be.
Max wondered briefly if they would ever know for sure exactly [I]what[/I] Future Max had known. He hoped so. He had a feeling though that he might just have to accept that, in spite of how hurt he had been a couple of weeks ago, Future Max's visit had changed things for the better.
Now they had the chance to learn what they needed to know so much earlier. They had the chance to forge bonds with those they had likely seen as their enemies in the future, re-establish ties with Kate, Will and Jack that had obviously been important to them in the past lives. They knew that Tess really was one of them and so was Liz. The bitterness that had obviously been allowed to fester in that other world would never have a chance now.
They now knew who their real enemy was, who their real enemy had always been. Now all they needed to know was [I]why[/I].
Max met Grant's dark eyes as the shapeshifter straightened, having just come through the opening between the pods. "We want to know everything you can tell us. We're ready."
"And none of this 'I can't tell you what your purpose is' crap either," Michael spoke up from behind Grant. "You tell us [I]everything[/I]."
Grant shrugged. "I will tell you what I can. But I wasn't being evasive when I said that I cannot entirely tell you your purpose. I was not in charge of the mission to bring you here. In fact, I barely managed to get myself on that ship. Nasedo didn't trust me then and he still doesn't entirely trust me now." He looked at Michael. "I will repeat what I said to you earlier. That's the reason I dug up those bones. I had to make him believe that I didn't care about your safety one way or the other. That I was ready to follow orders."
"But the granolith [I]can[/I] give us those answers?" Liz asked.
"I believe so, yes," Grant replied.
"So what are we waiting for then?" Michael demanded. "Tell us how to use it."
"I can't tell you that," Grant said, beginning to sound impatient. "I told you that she's the one who knows how to use it." He indicated Tess, who was already staring at the granolith again, her blue eyes distant, as though she was trying to unlock the memories of how to make the machine work. Her brow was slightly furrowed and Max could tell that she wasn't making much progress. It made him wonder again why only some of Serena's memories were being unleashed by the wedding cloth. If Tess remembered who she was, why didn't she remember [I]everything[/I]? Max felt a slight flash of suspicion. He was trying to believe that Tess was now being completely honest with them - that she had merely been one of Nasedo's pawns too - but Liz as Serena had seemed to remember so much more.
[I]Why[/I]?
Max realized that now wasn't the time to worry about that though. He could tell that Grant's irritation with Michael was reaching the point where they might not be able to get any useful information out of him. ".don't want to hear what I have to say," the shapeshifter was saying, sounding offended. "I refuse to continue if I am going to be constantly interrupted."
Max glared at Michael warningly. His best friend sighed heavily, rolled his eyes, but nodded, as though in agreement that he would let Max do the questioning. "We're sorry," Max said quickly. "Go ahead. Just tell us what you can. Start at the beginning maybe," he suggested. "Who are you? You said that you had to convince Nasedo to let you onto the ship? Why?"
Grant frowned slightly. "Who am I? It is hard for me to tell you that as well." Max looked at Michael sharply, sure that was going to wind his friend up again. While he understood Michael's frustration and also wondered why Grant couldn't just tell them what they needed to know, they didn't want to alienate their only source of information either.
Michael seemed to have gotten control of himself though. It likely didn't hurt that Maria was holding his arm, obviously ready to pinch him at the slightest provocation. Max smiled slightly to himself, turned to listen to Grant again.
"You have to understand about what it means to be Wendarian," the shapeshifter continued. "Our entire existence is built into the ability to shapeshift, into the fact that we have no one form, that our only real identity is the fact that we can do it - that we are [I]Wendarian[/I]. In truth, we have no real identity. Our entire focus is supposed to be on the good of the planet. Identity brings selfishness and self-involvement, as all the political upheaval on the other four planets in our system demonstrated over the millennia."
This last was said with such disdain, it made Max frown slightly. He looked at Kate, who was also scowling, as though insulted. The irony of Grant's statement about Wendarians not being self-involved was that they were quite clearly arrogant about that very fact. And arrogance was what self-involvement was all about.
"You make it sound like the Wendarians wanted nothing to do with the other planets," Liz prompted, obviously having picked up on Grant's tone of voice as well. "But we know that your planet was allied to Max's."
Grant looked at her, grimaced slightly. "I'll get back to that. First I must tell you a bit about the history of our system."
"We know some already," Max told him. "Like Liz said, we know that Antar, Wendar and Knosis were all allied. We know that Rowena and Khivar's marriage meant that their two planets were allied as well. Courtney also told us that the basis of the war had something to do with tariffs?"
"That's true," Grant acknowledged. "The problems began at a trade summit on Valonia. Zan's father sent him to mediate a dispute between Knosis and Sardica. The Knosians were trying to take over some very important trade routes between Antar and Knosis by claiming ownership and taxing any ship passing through from another planet. The Sardicans protested this and were in the right - the trade routes had always ever been under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of the Five Planets and were open to all interplanetary traffic. It was a clumsy power play on the Knosians part, inspired by the fact that Zan was betrothed to Ava, the sister of the King of Knosis. They felt it gave them status and so they tried to make a little money off of it."
"The Knosians obviously thought that Zan would side with them?" Tess asked. "I mean, he married Ava, didn't he?"
"But he didn't want to," Max said quickly, wanting that out in the open right from the beginning. He knew that Liz didn't really care about all the destiny garbage anymore, but reinforcing that he hadn't wanted any part of a forced relationship, even in his past life, could only be a good thing. "Courtney told us that too," he added, reddening slightly when Tess raised her eyebrows at him. She didn't seem upset though. Actually, she appeared amused.
"You're both right." Grant said. "Increasing Knosis's control of the shipping routes could only increase Zan's planet's own power upon their marriage, being as Ava was her brother's heir. This meant that, in reality, the shipping routes would become Antar's. In truth, the whole conference was supposed to be a sham. Zan's father never intended for him to mediate at all. He was supposed to go and rubber-stamp Knosis's control of the new markets, which meant that Sardica was going to have to pay heavy tariffs to ship anywhere in the system, greatly decreasing their influence. Zan's father was trying to break Sardica's firm hold on the economy of the system."
"Zan didn't do that though," Kate interrupted. "I remember that trade conference. I was staying with Vilandra on Antar at the time. The king was really upset when he heard that Zan was going to rule on behalf of the Sardicans, keeping with the Tribunal's tradition and also rejecting Antar's covert play for supremacy. Vilandra told me at the time that her father thought that Zan was just being difficult because he wanted to ruin the alliance with Knosis so that he wouldn't have to marry Ava. We both knew that Zan would never do that though. He didn't play games like that. He just didn't think that so much power should be held on one planet, even if it [I]was[/I] his own. Antar already held the political influence through the high kingship. They didn't need to be the economic center as well. He and his father disagreed over it all the time."
Max couldn't quite believe that he was finding all this talk about trade routes and tariffs so interesting, but he was. He had a feeling that it had more to do with the fact that Zan was beginning to sound kind of okay, at least at this point in time. It still didn't explain what happened to him later though. There was no question that something did, because Max still remembered with vivid clarity the flash he had gotten from Kate. His alter- ego had killed her in their past life. What had made him go from being a fair and just ruler to the monster Kate remembered now?
"Indeed," Grant was agreeing. "Zan was honorable, knew what was right. He was going to rule for the Sardicans, jeopardizing the marriage alliance. His father intervened and ordered Zan away from the conference, insisting that he should think about what he was planning to do a little longer - that he needed privacy to reach his decision. The Sardicans knew what was in the air, but they agreed, hoping that Zan was going to be able to fight his father on this and win. They trusted him, in spite of the impending alliance with Knosis."
"Oh my God."
This came from Kate. Max looked at her sharply. Her face had whitened and she was staring at he and Liz. "What?" He demanded.
"How could I have forgotten about this?" She moaned. "Alex and I already discussed this with Will - how there was no way that Zan and Rowena could have been together because they didn't ever meet alone. I totally forgot about all of this!"
"About what?" Liz asked gently.
"Zan went to Rowena's summer palace to make his decision. [I]That's[/I] when they met!" Kate shook her head. "That's when it happened."
Max looked at Grant for confirmation. He was nodding. "That's what we all assume. Valonia had offered a neutral planet for the conference and they then offered Zan a neutral place to reach his verdict. He did go to the summer palace." He was frowning at Kate. "You remember some of this, but not everything?"
"I guess so," Kate replied, sounding upset. "I've always believed that I remember everything, but the last couple of days have certainly proven me wrong about that."
"The granolith just flashed you know." They all turned to look at Kyle, who was staring at the base of the cone. "I don't get why you people keep missing it, but it did. When Kate remembered that, it flashed." Max realized that most of them were standing with their back to the cone. Only Kyle and Grant were facing it directly.
"Well, this only confirms that your pods [I]were[/I] damaged as well," Grant sighed. "The four squares were so closely linked, it always seemed strange that none of the others were affected by Rowena's failing as it did."
"So we were supposed to remember?" Max asked.
"I don't know that for sure," Grant admitted. "The Crash changed everything and I wasn't in on any of the planning sessions before you were sent. I was a glorified guard. I only found out what was really going on after everyone else was killed in the Crash because Nasedo needed me then." He looked at the granolith again, thoughtful now. "It would seem that all of your memories still exist within this machine though. That you will be able to access them. It is releasing them slowly now, but there must be a better way to control them."
Max looked at Tess, who seemed upset, as though she wished she could be more helpful. "It's okay," he told her. "We'll figure it out."
"So Zan went to Rowena's summer palace," Michael prompted impatiently.
"He did," Grant agreed. "And he seemed to be taking an inordinately long amount of time to come to the decision his father wanted - the one he [I]knew[/I] he had to make. He was not high king yet. He was going to have to bend to his father's will. Everyone knew it and no one knew why he was taking so long to do it."
"Rowena must have kept him busy," Kyle said. He smirked at Liz. "You must have been one hot chick Liz."
Max rolled his eyes, but ignored Kyle because Maria smacked him, effectively shutting him up. Liz didn't seem insulted either, only exasperated, as she usually was by Kyle's sarcasm. Everyone knew by now that Kyle didn't really mean anything by his motor mouth. He just seemed incapable of controlling it sometimes. Max had a feeling it was one way his former nemesis dealt with stress.
"We know now that it was Rowena, but, at the time everyone thought that he was just trying to annoy his father by taking forever to come to the decision everyone knew he had to," Grant continued, as though Kyle had not spoken. "He stayed on Valonia until he was called back to Antar when his father died suddenly. Needless to say, everyone expected that the ruling would come down quickly after that, that Zan would do what he had always wanted to do and side with Sardica. The system was hailing him as the fair and just Zan, who had refused to make a ruling while his father lived, that he had played his cards perfectly."
"What I don't get is why Zan and Vilandra's father didn't just over-rule Zan. I mean, [I]he[/I] was high king. Zan was his heir. He could have done it," Kate stated.
"The old king was stubborn, but he wasn't stupid. He was the one who had sent Zan. It had been a mistake, he had underestimated Zan's own stubborn streak. He couldn't back down, couldn't let his son make a decision that he felt undermined his own power. Yet, had he taken the power away from his son, many would have questioned Zan's ability to rule following his father's death. Any faction who wanted a chance at the throne would have seized on that, would have proclaimed Zan unfit. If the old king wanted his family to rule after his death, he was going to have to deal with his son because, while he might have passed over Zan in favor of Vilandra, Vilandra would never have accepted the throne while her brother still lived. She would have just passed it back to him when her father died. She and Rath were the epitome of loyal to Zan. The old king needed to make his son bow to his will, but he couldn't call him back either. It was stalemate."
"But Zan didn't rule on behalf of Sardica," Kate said. "We all know that. He came back and ruled for Knosis."
"That is what happened," Grant acknowledged. "No one knew then that Zan was a totally changed man. He ruled against the Sardicans and by the time he left Valonia, war was unavoidable."
Max felt a twinge of guilt. "So Zan ruled against Sardica because he was jealous of Khivar and Rowena?"
"One assumes so now," Grant shrugged. "But no one thought so at the time. You must understand that all of this only came out after your deaths, when it was revealed how wide a web of jealousy and hate had been woven between all the players. No one knew about Zan and Rowena. As far as anyone knew, Rowena married Khivar."
"That makes [I]no[/I] sense," Tess said. Max looked at her, surprised. "It doesn't Max. Why would Zan be jealous? We already know that it wasn't Rowena who went to marry Khivar. It was Serena. Zan and Rowena obviously made that decision together. He had no reason to be jealous."
Max blinked. He felt Liz squeezing his hand, looked down at her. "No guilt. Tess has to be right. And remember what we said before. We can't change what happened. We just need to [I]know[/I] what happened."
"Sorry," he muttered. He realized that it was possible to feel guilty about feeling guilty, but decided to suppress that too. Liz was right after all. Feeling guilty didn't change things. It only delayed fixing them. He looked back at Grant. "So then what happened?"
"The war started," Grant replied. "It did look like maybe it could be resolved fairly quickly. In the end, the decision about the trade routes [I]was[/I] Antar's to make, and so the Sardicans' war was illegal. But, then, out of nowhere, Zan sent the Sky Army to destroy Valonia."
Max felt his stomach clench. He looked at Michael. "Courtney told us about this," he said, having to clear his throat first. "Rath tried to defend him by blaming it on Khivar."
"Rath knew Zan better than anyone," Grant said grimly. "Rath was right that Zan was not the one who ordered the strike - at least not the Zan [I]he[/I] knew. But he was wrong to accuse Khivar."
"Do you know what happened to Zan?" Liz asked. She was clutching Max's hand tightly. "Why did he do that?"
"Haven't you figured it out by now?" Grant asked. "It's so obvious." He looked at Tess, then back at Liz. "What does the granolith do Liz?"
Max frowned. What does the granolith do? What does the granolith have to do with.
And, abruptly, he understood. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before. It was the only thing that made any sense with Kate's memories of what Zan had been like before and after the trade summit. No one could change [I]that[/I] much in such a short amount of time. Jealousy might have been an explanation, but Tess had been right. Zan had no reason to be jealous. Khivar was [I]not[/I] married to Rowena.
Max felt the flash of understanding from Liz as she too grasped what the shapeshifter was telling them. "Oh my God. It [I]wasn't[/I] Zan at all, was it?"
"It was not," Grant replied. "Do you truly believe that Zan and Rowena would just separate after all the effort they had made to be together? Neither of them really wanted to rule their planets anyway. Rowena was obsessed with science, invention and Zan. She didn't have time to reign. And, after meeting Rowena, Zan was too obsessed with her to even do his duty by Antar any longer. They did everything in their power to avoid their destinies, even sending Serena to replace Rowena. Why would they stop there?"
Max could feel his heart thudding in his chest. "So you're saying that there were two Zans? And somehow the one they sent to rule Antar was defective?"
This was worse than anything he could have possibly imagined. Zan and Rowena had left their planets at the mercy of a madman - a crazy version of Zan himself - because they had wanted to be together. How could they have been so selfish? He could feel Liz's hand trembling in his. She understood exactly what this meant too.
Their selfish love had destroyed an entire planet. Valonia had been destroyed because of them.
Grant snorted. His disgust was obvious. "Not just two Zans."
"Wait a minute!" Kyle interrupted. "I thought you said that it was [I]Serena[/I] who invented the granolith? But you just said that it was Rowena who was the scientist."
It was Kate who spoke up at this. "They were both scientists," she said quietly. "This is why we never knew that Rowena had a sister. She didn't."
"What?" Michael demanded. "Are you saying they're [I]not[/I] sisters?"
Max stared at Kate as he realized what she was getting at. [I] Not just two[/I] Zans,[/I] Grant had said.
"They weren't sisters," he continued for Kate, looking down at Liz, unsure how she was going to take this. He was still in shock that he and Liz could have been so completely cavalier about throwing away their thrones for each other and placing sub-standard versions of themselves in their places. They had doomed Valonia and the five planets had been in turmoil ever since. "They were the same person," he managed to say, past the lump in his throat. "That's why Liz was affected by Serena's wedding cloth."
"Serena wasn't Rowena's twin," Grant agreed. "She was her clone."
To be continued.