Author's Note: Yes it is true! Finally an update. Thanks for your patience,
folks. I hope to have I Am Not Felicity updated soon as well.
[u]Part 51[/u]
"Oh my God."
Max reached out and took Liz's hand. He squeezed it comfortingly, although he was just as horrified as she was. There was no other way to feel, being as they were staring at a pulsing pod in which floated an exact replica of himself.
"Why do you think he looks human?" Liz whispered. "Isn't that kind of weird?"
"What isn't?" Max asked, shaking his head. He looked around nervously. For some reason, they had easily found their way into the lab housing the clone. No one had tried to stop them, nor had they come across anyone in the entire research wing of the palace. Although Yorvin had not followed them when they went in search of the lab, Max suspected that Liz's bodyguard had warned the scientists that they were coming. And, now, here they were, staring at the clone of Zan, which was the key to setting the Wendarians entire plan into motion. This was the duplicate they were going to use to bring down three planets.
Max wondered if the other Zan - the one who had lived before - had found himself in this exact moment. Had he uncovered what the shapeshifters were planning? Were Max and Liz just reliving exactly what had happened to Zan and Rowena before? Had they been in the position of being able to stop the destruction of Valonia and had they failed to do so? It was entirely possible. Because, after all, Max knew exactly what had to be done - knew exactly what the granolith had sent them here to do.
The clone had to be destroyed. There was no question. And he was the one who was going to have to do it. He was going to pull the plug on a part of himself before it ever even had a chance to exist. And, in so doing, the entire history of the star system...the entire history of his very existence...would change forever.
"I don't understand," Liz said. "How did they do this? You've only been here for a few hours. It can't be possible that they've managed to create an almost fully grown clone so quickly. I mean, it took over fifty years for our pods on Earth to produce six year olds."
"They must have had my DNA from earlier," Max replied. "It's the only explanation. It doesn't matter anyway. The important thing is that we've found it and we can get rid of it."
Max felt Liz tense through where they were still holding hands. "Max, how can we do that? It's [I]you[/I]!"
"It's not me," Max told her grimly. "And we have no choice."
There was a long pause. Max glanced at Liz. She was staring at the pod, her lips tightly pressed together.
"Liz, c'mon. You have to know there's no choice."
"I know," she replied quietly. "But we won't just be changing the history of this planet when we do this, Max."
Max closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and then said, "I know. But things are already different, Liz. There's no Ava here. That has to mean something. Things have changed already, and I have to believe that it's for the better."
"But can we really make this decision for everyone? If we fix things here - if we destroy him - we'll never have any reason to go to Earth. We both know it. Everything will be different." Max could feel her trembling slightly. He pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her, but he didn't look at her. They both seemed incapable of taking their eyes off the clone. Max frowned. How could something that looked so peaceful, so much like [I]him[/I], be the cause of so much future misery?
"Max, what if we're not even really here?" Liz asked in a soft voice. "What if we do this and we stop existing altogether?"
"What do you mean?" He wasn't quite sure what she was getting at.
"My memories of being Rowena go back exactly two days, Max," Liz replied evenly. "But she existed - she [I]lived[/I] - before my consciousness took over. Which means that she was forced out when I became her." Max felt his heart start to thump even more quickly, as he started to understand what Liz's quick brain had already worked out. "If we do this," she continued, "What if they come back? In fact, where are the real Zan and Rowena right now? Where's the Zan that came off that ship? Because that wasn't you. I know it wasn't. What if they come back permanently? Where are we going to go?"
Max didn't know what to say. "I can't answer that," he finally said carefully. "But can we turn away? I mean, just because we're scared? All the people who are going to die..."
"I know."
Which meant that, really, there was nothing left to say.
"Should we try to contact the others first?" Liz asked. She had already moved forward, and was looking around, her movements determined.
"I just don't think there's time," Max told her. He looked around warily too. It was really making him nervous that no one had yet confronted them. "If we're going to do it, it has to be now."
"How?"
"I guess we just pull the plug," Max replied. He walked over to the pod, then ran his hands over it, searching for a way to destroy it. He felt a shudder run down his spine. This moment, more than any other, including first finding the pod chamber, reinforced to him that he really was a clone - that he had been born exactly this way. That he truly was alien.
"Oh my God!" Max turned his head and looked at Liz. She was standing behind him, a horrified expression on her face and was staring past him, at the clone. Max looked up at the pod. He felt a shiver descend his spine when he realized that his clone was staring down at him. His eyes were open and he was looking directly at Max. Creepy was not a strong enough word to describe how it made Max feel.
"Max, he's awake!" Liz said, sounding panicked. "How can we do this to him when he's [I]awake?[/I]"
Max did not know how to answer her. She had stepped up beside him and was tracking her fingers lightly against the pod, fascination beginning to replace her upset. "God, he looks exactly like you."
Max closed his eyes for a moment. None of this changed anything. He knew what they needed to do. He knew Liz did as well. But it was becoming harder to do it with every passing moment. They needed to do it now.
Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do. As he ran his hands over the pod again, trying to ignore the fact that his clone was still staring at him, he was forced to admit that there didn't seem to be any way to harm the clone by simply pulling the plug, as he had termed it before. They were going to have to destroy it entirely it seemed. Max eyed the computers behind the pod, frowning. Unless he and Liz could somehow figure out how to use those things.
He was about to suggest it, when he heard Liz gasp again. He watched in amazement as his clone, inside the pod, lifted his hand and placed it against the see-through material. The clone traced the outline of Liz's hand, which she had flattened against the pod.
"Max, he sees us," Liz murmured, sounding upset. "We can't do this."
"Liz..."
"Max, maybe if we take control of him now, he won't be evil," Liz suggested desperately.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
They never got a chance to make the final decision, one way or the other. In the end, the clone made the decision for them. Because the next thing Max knew, spots were starting to appear in front of his eyes. It took him a moment to understand what was happening, but once he did, he knew that their hesitation might have been their undoing.
He clutched frantically at the clone's hands, which were wrapped around his neck. He could hear Liz screaming, but he couldn't see her clearly anymore. She was starting to fade in and out as he struggled against the clone's iron grip.
His last thought, before passing out, was for Liz. He was leaving her all alone. He felt a pang of utter failure, and then the world went black.
Kate opened her eyes to intense sunlight streaming into her face. She raised her hand to block it out, which proceeded to jolt her out of the languorous waking in which she had been indulging.
She stared at her hand in fascination. Because this was not [I]her[/I] hand. She was looking at long tapered fingers, which in and of itself wasn't that strange. After all, her fingers had been long before. No, it was the fact that they were covered in grey skin that was making her heart pound at ten times its usual speed.
"Wow," she breathed in amazement. She sat up, and slid to the floor. Glancing around the room, she found herself to be admiring a spacious, high- ceilinged chamber. It was graced with floor to ceiling windows, through which the light was pouring in. Moving to the window, she stared out onto another planet. She gaped in amazement at the tall buildings surrounding her. She had always remembered something of her past life, of course, but nothing had quite prepared her for the reality of where she had come from.
It was unbelievable. She was on some sort of city planet, obviously. The intense sun beamed off the thousands upon thousands of soaring edifices, almost blinding her with their magnificence. If she had not known already that the culture from which she had emerged was well advanced beyond that on Earth, the splendor before her would have told her so.
She leaned further out the window, shivering slightly with unease when she looked down. The ground was far below. She looked up again, ready to drink in the sights...and quickly took a step back, shrieking when a face suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Oh! Good! You're awake!"
Kate stared at the grey, large-eyed face in front of her. "Do...Do I know you?" She looked down again. "And, what are you [I]doing[/I] out there?"
The large dark eyes blinked once, and Kate watched in amazement as amusement flooded their depths. "Of course, silly. It's me. Are you still dreaming?" She gestured towards her feet. "I'm on the lift."
Kate could see that the figure was indeed standing on some sort of moving platform. But she quickly let the strangeness of this appearance at her window go. Because, indeed she did know who this was.
Vilandra.
Kate did not know how she knew it was her, but she was positive she was right. Of course, it was Vilandra. And she was on Antar, waiting for her brother, Khivar to come fetch her home.
But this wasn't supposed to be Vilandra, Kate realized, shaking her head. This was supposed to be Isabel. Something had gone horribly wrong!
"Kara, are you well?" Vilandra demanded. She had stepped off the lift and onto the window sill, and now almost seemed to float gracefully to the floor as she entered Kate's room.
Kate brought her hand to her temple, slightly dazed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Isabel?"
"Isabel?" Vilandra said, laughing slightly. It was a musical sound, pleasant to the ears. The memories she held of Vilandra started to flood back at the sound of it. Charming Vilandra. Her best friend. "What is [I]Isabel[/I]?"
"Your name," Kate whispered to the other woman. But Vilandra did not hear her, because she was already moving across the room to a door set into the wall. The princess keyed something into the pad set into the wall next to it, and it slid open, revealing a flurry of fabric in colours so rich they made Kate gasp.
"You're just nervous," Vilandra was saying over her shoulder. "I should never have told you that Zan was coming home today." Her expressive eyes opened wider, if that was possible. While the rest of her face remained unreadable, those eyes told her that Vilandra was still amused. "He's still the same Zan, you know, Kara, even if he is king now."
"King?" Kate prompted. She was beginning to get her bearings. She finally understood that the granolith had somehow deposited her into her previous life. Why she was not sure. She was also frightened. Because, if she was here, where was Isabel? Why did Isabel not know who she was?
"You sound as though you're hearing it for the first time," Vilandra said, turning away from the clothing she was examining and eyeing Kate. "We need to grow used to it, I suppose. It has only been a few days."
"But, your father..." Kate trailed off. Vilandra didn't seem overly upset that for Zan to be king, it meant that her father must have just recently died.
"It was his time." Vilandra said. "I loved my father, but we both know he could be a difficult man. The system has been at a stand-still during his time on the throne. But, now, with my brother leading, our planets can finally truly unite and achieve the golden age for which we have all yearned for so long!" She tilted her head slightly, and Kate felt her confusion. "Are you not happy, Kara? You want Zan to return, do you not?"
"Of course," Kate replied quickly.
Vilandra laughed again. "'Of course' she says, as though she has not been waiting for this chance." She took a step closer to Kate. "Do you not know why my brother is returning, Kara? Can you really not know?"
Kate grimaced to herself, although she wasn't sure if the expression appeared on her face. She had not yet seen her face, but she was guessing that, if Vilandra was any sort of indication, then her face was probably as serene as her friend's. "No," she finally admitted.
"He's coming to marry you, of course," Vilandra replied.
Kate gaped at her. "Marry [I]me[/I]?" she squeaked.
"Of course," Vilandra repeated. "It is the most natural thing in the world that you should wed. You are friends, and allying our two planets will only benefit the system."
"But, why now?" Kate demanded. "What about Ava?"
"Ava?" Vilandra sounded confused. "Who is this Ava?"
"The king of Knosis' sister," Kate reminded her. She was a little surprised that she had to. In spite of her reputation, Kate was aware that Vilandra had not been as flighty a princess as everyone had always deemed her. She remembered this about her friend, and the girl she was speaking to now did not strike her as at all like that either.
"The king of Knosis does not have a sister," Vilandra replied. She sounded worried again. "Kara, are you certain that you are quite well?"
"But why me?" Kate demanded.
"Well, it cannot very well be me, can it?" Vilandra asked. Kate noticed the bitterness that entered the other woman's liquid eyes. "I am already married."
"To Rath," Kate clarified.
"Of course to Rath," Vilandra sighed. "Practically my brother." There was a long pause. "Would that I could be the one to unite our planets."
She sounded sad, but the yearning in her voice made Kate start. Because, how could she have forgotten? Suddenly, without a shadow of a doubt, Kate knew exactly why she had been deposited where she had been.
The shapeshifter. Whoever Grant had been on this world was in the process of wooing Vilandra behind her husband's back. He was pretending to be Khivar, to sow the seeds of discontent in the princess in front of Kate, so that, when the time came, Vilandra would flee Antar and take her army with her. And Kate was meant to stop it.
But it also meant something else that sent a flash of horror through Kate's entire frame.
Because, if the shapeshifter was already pursuing Vilandra, then that could only mean that the Zan who was returning to Antar on this day was not the Zan they wanted.
And what that might mean for what had happened to Max did not even bear thinking about.
[u]Part 51[/u]
"Oh my God."
Max reached out and took Liz's hand. He squeezed it comfortingly, although he was just as horrified as she was. There was no other way to feel, being as they were staring at a pulsing pod in which floated an exact replica of himself.
"Why do you think he looks human?" Liz whispered. "Isn't that kind of weird?"
"What isn't?" Max asked, shaking his head. He looked around nervously. For some reason, they had easily found their way into the lab housing the clone. No one had tried to stop them, nor had they come across anyone in the entire research wing of the palace. Although Yorvin had not followed them when they went in search of the lab, Max suspected that Liz's bodyguard had warned the scientists that they were coming. And, now, here they were, staring at the clone of Zan, which was the key to setting the Wendarians entire plan into motion. This was the duplicate they were going to use to bring down three planets.
Max wondered if the other Zan - the one who had lived before - had found himself in this exact moment. Had he uncovered what the shapeshifters were planning? Were Max and Liz just reliving exactly what had happened to Zan and Rowena before? Had they been in the position of being able to stop the destruction of Valonia and had they failed to do so? It was entirely possible. Because, after all, Max knew exactly what had to be done - knew exactly what the granolith had sent them here to do.
The clone had to be destroyed. There was no question. And he was the one who was going to have to do it. He was going to pull the plug on a part of himself before it ever even had a chance to exist. And, in so doing, the entire history of the star system...the entire history of his very existence...would change forever.
"I don't understand," Liz said. "How did they do this? You've only been here for a few hours. It can't be possible that they've managed to create an almost fully grown clone so quickly. I mean, it took over fifty years for our pods on Earth to produce six year olds."
"They must have had my DNA from earlier," Max replied. "It's the only explanation. It doesn't matter anyway. The important thing is that we've found it and we can get rid of it."
Max felt Liz tense through where they were still holding hands. "Max, how can we do that? It's [I]you[/I]!"
"It's not me," Max told her grimly. "And we have no choice."
There was a long pause. Max glanced at Liz. She was staring at the pod, her lips tightly pressed together.
"Liz, c'mon. You have to know there's no choice."
"I know," she replied quietly. "But we won't just be changing the history of this planet when we do this, Max."
Max closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and then said, "I know. But things are already different, Liz. There's no Ava here. That has to mean something. Things have changed already, and I have to believe that it's for the better."
"But can we really make this decision for everyone? If we fix things here - if we destroy him - we'll never have any reason to go to Earth. We both know it. Everything will be different." Max could feel her trembling slightly. He pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her, but he didn't look at her. They both seemed incapable of taking their eyes off the clone. Max frowned. How could something that looked so peaceful, so much like [I]him[/I], be the cause of so much future misery?
"Max, what if we're not even really here?" Liz asked in a soft voice. "What if we do this and we stop existing altogether?"
"What do you mean?" He wasn't quite sure what she was getting at.
"My memories of being Rowena go back exactly two days, Max," Liz replied evenly. "But she existed - she [I]lived[/I] - before my consciousness took over. Which means that she was forced out when I became her." Max felt his heart start to thump even more quickly, as he started to understand what Liz's quick brain had already worked out. "If we do this," she continued, "What if they come back? In fact, where are the real Zan and Rowena right now? Where's the Zan that came off that ship? Because that wasn't you. I know it wasn't. What if they come back permanently? Where are we going to go?"
Max didn't know what to say. "I can't answer that," he finally said carefully. "But can we turn away? I mean, just because we're scared? All the people who are going to die..."
"I know."
Which meant that, really, there was nothing left to say.
"Should we try to contact the others first?" Liz asked. She had already moved forward, and was looking around, her movements determined.
"I just don't think there's time," Max told her. He looked around warily too. It was really making him nervous that no one had yet confronted them. "If we're going to do it, it has to be now."
"How?"
"I guess we just pull the plug," Max replied. He walked over to the pod, then ran his hands over it, searching for a way to destroy it. He felt a shudder run down his spine. This moment, more than any other, including first finding the pod chamber, reinforced to him that he really was a clone - that he had been born exactly this way. That he truly was alien.
"Oh my God!" Max turned his head and looked at Liz. She was standing behind him, a horrified expression on her face and was staring past him, at the clone. Max looked up at the pod. He felt a shiver descend his spine when he realized that his clone was staring down at him. His eyes were open and he was looking directly at Max. Creepy was not a strong enough word to describe how it made Max feel.
"Max, he's awake!" Liz said, sounding panicked. "How can we do this to him when he's [I]awake?[/I]"
Max did not know how to answer her. She had stepped up beside him and was tracking her fingers lightly against the pod, fascination beginning to replace her upset. "God, he looks exactly like you."
Max closed his eyes for a moment. None of this changed anything. He knew what they needed to do. He knew Liz did as well. But it was becoming harder to do it with every passing moment. They needed to do it now.
Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do. As he ran his hands over the pod again, trying to ignore the fact that his clone was still staring at him, he was forced to admit that there didn't seem to be any way to harm the clone by simply pulling the plug, as he had termed it before. They were going to have to destroy it entirely it seemed. Max eyed the computers behind the pod, frowning. Unless he and Liz could somehow figure out how to use those things.
He was about to suggest it, when he heard Liz gasp again. He watched in amazement as his clone, inside the pod, lifted his hand and placed it against the see-through material. The clone traced the outline of Liz's hand, which she had flattened against the pod.
"Max, he sees us," Liz murmured, sounding upset. "We can't do this."
"Liz..."
"Max, maybe if we take control of him now, he won't be evil," Liz suggested desperately.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
They never got a chance to make the final decision, one way or the other. In the end, the clone made the decision for them. Because the next thing Max knew, spots were starting to appear in front of his eyes. It took him a moment to understand what was happening, but once he did, he knew that their hesitation might have been their undoing.
He clutched frantically at the clone's hands, which were wrapped around his neck. He could hear Liz screaming, but he couldn't see her clearly anymore. She was starting to fade in and out as he struggled against the clone's iron grip.
His last thought, before passing out, was for Liz. He was leaving her all alone. He felt a pang of utter failure, and then the world went black.
Kate opened her eyes to intense sunlight streaming into her face. She raised her hand to block it out, which proceeded to jolt her out of the languorous waking in which she had been indulging.
She stared at her hand in fascination. Because this was not [I]her[/I] hand. She was looking at long tapered fingers, which in and of itself wasn't that strange. After all, her fingers had been long before. No, it was the fact that they were covered in grey skin that was making her heart pound at ten times its usual speed.
"Wow," she breathed in amazement. She sat up, and slid to the floor. Glancing around the room, she found herself to be admiring a spacious, high- ceilinged chamber. It was graced with floor to ceiling windows, through which the light was pouring in. Moving to the window, she stared out onto another planet. She gaped in amazement at the tall buildings surrounding her. She had always remembered something of her past life, of course, but nothing had quite prepared her for the reality of where she had come from.
It was unbelievable. She was on some sort of city planet, obviously. The intense sun beamed off the thousands upon thousands of soaring edifices, almost blinding her with their magnificence. If she had not known already that the culture from which she had emerged was well advanced beyond that on Earth, the splendor before her would have told her so.
She leaned further out the window, shivering slightly with unease when she looked down. The ground was far below. She looked up again, ready to drink in the sights...and quickly took a step back, shrieking when a face suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Oh! Good! You're awake!"
Kate stared at the grey, large-eyed face in front of her. "Do...Do I know you?" She looked down again. "And, what are you [I]doing[/I] out there?"
The large dark eyes blinked once, and Kate watched in amazement as amusement flooded their depths. "Of course, silly. It's me. Are you still dreaming?" She gestured towards her feet. "I'm on the lift."
Kate could see that the figure was indeed standing on some sort of moving platform. But she quickly let the strangeness of this appearance at her window go. Because, indeed she did know who this was.
Vilandra.
Kate did not know how she knew it was her, but she was positive she was right. Of course, it was Vilandra. And she was on Antar, waiting for her brother, Khivar to come fetch her home.
But this wasn't supposed to be Vilandra, Kate realized, shaking her head. This was supposed to be Isabel. Something had gone horribly wrong!
"Kara, are you well?" Vilandra demanded. She had stepped off the lift and onto the window sill, and now almost seemed to float gracefully to the floor as she entered Kate's room.
Kate brought her hand to her temple, slightly dazed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Isabel?"
"Isabel?" Vilandra said, laughing slightly. It was a musical sound, pleasant to the ears. The memories she held of Vilandra started to flood back at the sound of it. Charming Vilandra. Her best friend. "What is [I]Isabel[/I]?"
"Your name," Kate whispered to the other woman. But Vilandra did not hear her, because she was already moving across the room to a door set into the wall. The princess keyed something into the pad set into the wall next to it, and it slid open, revealing a flurry of fabric in colours so rich they made Kate gasp.
"You're just nervous," Vilandra was saying over her shoulder. "I should never have told you that Zan was coming home today." Her expressive eyes opened wider, if that was possible. While the rest of her face remained unreadable, those eyes told her that Vilandra was still amused. "He's still the same Zan, you know, Kara, even if he is king now."
"King?" Kate prompted. She was beginning to get her bearings. She finally understood that the granolith had somehow deposited her into her previous life. Why she was not sure. She was also frightened. Because, if she was here, where was Isabel? Why did Isabel not know who she was?
"You sound as though you're hearing it for the first time," Vilandra said, turning away from the clothing she was examining and eyeing Kate. "We need to grow used to it, I suppose. It has only been a few days."
"But, your father..." Kate trailed off. Vilandra didn't seem overly upset that for Zan to be king, it meant that her father must have just recently died.
"It was his time." Vilandra said. "I loved my father, but we both know he could be a difficult man. The system has been at a stand-still during his time on the throne. But, now, with my brother leading, our planets can finally truly unite and achieve the golden age for which we have all yearned for so long!" She tilted her head slightly, and Kate felt her confusion. "Are you not happy, Kara? You want Zan to return, do you not?"
"Of course," Kate replied quickly.
Vilandra laughed again. "'Of course' she says, as though she has not been waiting for this chance." She took a step closer to Kate. "Do you not know why my brother is returning, Kara? Can you really not know?"
Kate grimaced to herself, although she wasn't sure if the expression appeared on her face. She had not yet seen her face, but she was guessing that, if Vilandra was any sort of indication, then her face was probably as serene as her friend's. "No," she finally admitted.
"He's coming to marry you, of course," Vilandra replied.
Kate gaped at her. "Marry [I]me[/I]?" she squeaked.
"Of course," Vilandra repeated. "It is the most natural thing in the world that you should wed. You are friends, and allying our two planets will only benefit the system."
"But, why now?" Kate demanded. "What about Ava?"
"Ava?" Vilandra sounded confused. "Who is this Ava?"
"The king of Knosis' sister," Kate reminded her. She was a little surprised that she had to. In spite of her reputation, Kate was aware that Vilandra had not been as flighty a princess as everyone had always deemed her. She remembered this about her friend, and the girl she was speaking to now did not strike her as at all like that either.
"The king of Knosis does not have a sister," Vilandra replied. She sounded worried again. "Kara, are you certain that you are quite well?"
"But why me?" Kate demanded.
"Well, it cannot very well be me, can it?" Vilandra asked. Kate noticed the bitterness that entered the other woman's liquid eyes. "I am already married."
"To Rath," Kate clarified.
"Of course to Rath," Vilandra sighed. "Practically my brother." There was a long pause. "Would that I could be the one to unite our planets."
She sounded sad, but the yearning in her voice made Kate start. Because, how could she have forgotten? Suddenly, without a shadow of a doubt, Kate knew exactly why she had been deposited where she had been.
The shapeshifter. Whoever Grant had been on this world was in the process of wooing Vilandra behind her husband's back. He was pretending to be Khivar, to sow the seeds of discontent in the princess in front of Kate, so that, when the time came, Vilandra would flee Antar and take her army with her. And Kate was meant to stop it.
But it also meant something else that sent a flash of horror through Kate's entire frame.
Because, if the shapeshifter was already pursuing Vilandra, then that could only mean that the Zan who was returning to Antar on this day was not the Zan they wanted.
And what that might mean for what had happened to Max did not even bear thinking about.