Title: The Crucible

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author's Note: So, this is the last of my slower, non-action-filled chapters. Everything after it will be filled with a lot of action, so if that is what you like reading about, after this chapter, you'll be in luck. This also ends any discussions on alien society. They were necessary at the beginning, but I think I've pretty much given all the information necessary for the rest of the series. Also, I introduce more Resistance members in this chapter, so it might be a good idea to review the list below, just so you know who everyone is.

As always, read and review.

Okay, just a reminder of who the major players are:

Tess and Larek, of course

Alex-Tess's son, named after Alex Whitman

Audin-diplomat to Larek from the planet Byor

Arya-the regional ruler from the province of Tel'ai, which is the capital province on Antar. She was recently deposed by Khivar

Khai-main general and leader of the Resistance, Rath's younger brother

Sria- the original Ava's best friend, one of Larek's advisors, and a native of the planet L'so

Lotho-general of Larek's army (like Rath was for Zan), married to Kani, killed by Khivar's army.

Kani-married to Lotho, she is one of Larek's closest friends and advisors

Tunia-a Resistance spy killed by Khivar, most likely set up by a traitor

Resistance members with smaller roles: Radim, Trell, Zyith (Zyith killed by Khivar's army)

Resistance members introduced in this chapter: Shalimar, Sirch, Nasada

Places of importance:

Tel'ai-capital province of Antar, has Dimaras Rock, where Zan met Ava. The Triaji Desert, the Cortai Jungle, the Landra River, and the Fel Mountains are all located in this province as well.

Antar-the capital city of Antar has the same name as the planet.

Sab and Drasu-cities in Tel'ai that Khivar attacked and decimated, no adults were left alive in either.

Mt. Sinai-a mountain in Tel'ai, it's name means (in Antarian) 'mountain of fate'

Daila: The capital city of Larek's planet.

Lexan: A city on Larek's planet.

crucible; an object made stronger as it is passed through fire

Chapter Eleven: That Which Does Not Kill You

Day 10

Tess awoke in the early hours of the morning to feel someone shaking her violently, hissing, "Get up!" She rolled over and peered through the dim light, finally making out the tan skin and dark yellow eyes of Radim. She groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position, frowning at Radim in confusion. She had not seen him for several days, not since the news of the original attack on Sab, and she was slightly disconcerted by his presence in her bedroom.

"What's going on?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and pushing the covers off of her body. She planted her feet on the floor and stood up, smoothing out the wrinkles of her nightgown and staring at Radim in concern.

"There was an attack on Lexan," Radim replied. When Tess stared at him, clearly having no idea what Lexan was, Radim continued impatiently, "Lexan is a city on this planet. It is an important trade city, and the attack is a severe blow to the economy. Khivar has started his attacks against Larek."

Tess pulled a bathrobe on, tying it securely around her waist, and followed Radim silently from the room. They hurried down a labyrinth of interconnecting passage ways, through halls that Tess had never been in, and finally ended up outside of a room Tess had never seen.

She followed Radim through the door into the room, and quickly looked around, taking stock of everyone who was there. She instantly recognized Larek, Khai, Sria, Audin, Kani, and Trell. There were three others in the room that Tess did not recognize. Radim took a seat next to one of the strangers, while Tess walked over to the vacant chair next to Larek and slipped into it.

"Ava, this is Shalimar," Larek said quickly, gesturing to a woman with black wavy hair, black eyes, and dark skin. "And Nasada," Larek continued, nodding to a woman sitting to the right of Shalimar. Nasada inclined her head to Tess, her light brown tresses falling in front of her almond-shaped, violet eyes. "Sirch," Larek pointed to a nondescript man of average height, with mousy brown hair and brown eyes. "They are all members of the Resistance who are based here on my planet. They do mostly technological and surveillance work, providing new equipment and data for our cause."

Tess nodded her head to all of them, then turned wide eyes to Larek. No point beating around the bush. "Lexan was attacked?"

"Yes," Sirch answered, his voice scratchy and deep. "I've spoken to my contacts and they say much of the city was destroyed. They were unprepared for such an attack."

"Where is Khivar's army now?" Sria asked quietly.

"They've moved south from Lexan. They are currently camped in the open plains between Lexan and Daila," Shalimar replied quickly. She spread a map out across the table and leaned over it, studied the interconnecting paths and cities. "Here," she said at last, placing her finger on a spot. It was in the middle of a large open plain. "They've camped here. Our insider intel leads us to believe that they are headed for Daila."

"They wouldn't dare," Larek growled, staring at the map.

"What's Daila?" Tess asked quietly.

A silence fell over the room at those words, and all eyes turned to stare at her incredulously. Khai's gaze was tinged with mocking, Shalimar and Sirch both seemed a little put off by the question, and Sria had turned an accusatory glare to Larek.

"You didn't tell her?" the fiery redhead demanded, crossing her arms and glaring at Larek. "She shows up at your doorstep, clearly not knowing much about where she was or what was going on, and you don't tell her?" Larek opened his mouth to say something, but Sria waved her hand dismissively at him and turned to Tess. "Daila is the capital city, Ava. It's where we are right now."

"Khivar is coming here?" Tess asked aghast.

Sirch snorted. "He wouldn't, not if he knows what is good for him."

"The Council of the Worlds declared his case against Larek legitimate," Radim pointed out tiredly. All eyes turned to him, and he said, "The news was given out last night. The Council is on his side."

Larek groaned at the news and wiped a hand over his face wearily. Shalimar and Kani exchanged darkly significant glances, and Sria shook her head in disapproval.

"That isn't much of a surprise," Sirch pointed out. "We always knew where the Council stood. They support Khivar." His eyes darkened with disgust and he said, "Khivar probably bought their support."

"We need a plan," Nasada said quietly, speaking up for the first time. Her voice was soft and lilting. "I spoke to Arya a few hours ago. She reached Antar safely and is in hiding, but she says the situation does not look good. Since Zyith was killed, Khivar's troops have made moves on two other cities."

"But it has only been a matter of hours!" Audin protested, surprised. "Why is he moving so quickly?"

"Maybe he thinks he can bring Vilandra here faster?" Sria suggested.

"Our information says otherwise," Sirch replied. He turned to Larek, his voice serious. "We believe it will take him two or three months to reach Vilandra. But he is currently testing new technology…"

"Technology the Resistance would attack the capital city for?" Khai cut in. "He must know that we would never do that, regardless of how desperate we are. It's suicide."

"This technology would allow him to instantly travel anywhere in the universe," Nasada said glumly. "And when he traveled, it wouldn't be like possession. He could take the body of anyone, regardless of their brain capacity. He could take one of us."

"Think about how much damage he could do with that," Sirch added.

"Indeed," Shalimar elaborated, "He could be possessing one us right now, stealing all of our secrets, and we would have no way of knowing. Or worse, he could travel to even the most distant planet. There would be nowhere in the universe we could go where we would be safe from him."

"He believes, and rightly so, that we would be desperate enough to go on a suicide mission if it meant stopping him from succeeding in his endeavor," Nasada finished.

"Is that how he is planning to get to Earth, to get Isabel…Vilandra?" Tess asked. "Through this technology?"

"That is what we believe, my Lady," Nasada replied.

Tess blinked. It had been a long time since anyone had called her 'my Lady.' Not since that very first Council Meeting, before they had all decided she wasn't ready to be Queen… The respect and reverence from Nasada was strange and perplexing.

A dismal silence met Nasada's words as everyone thought silently about the implications of her statement. How much longer did they have?

"What about the spy?" Trell asked, breaking the tense silence. "We haven't even began to discuss what we are going to do about whoever this person is. And as they were able to get Zyith, Tunia, and many other members of the Resistance killed, this person is clearly a threat."

Nobody had an answer to that.

"Byor wants to retract diplomatic relations," Audin said suddenly, abruptly.

Larek turned to Audin in dismay, and Radim cut in, explaining bleakly, "Since the Council of the Worlds has officially declared that it does not support you, it really is no surprise that all the planets who have delegations in the Council would follow suit."

Audin agreed, "I spoke to a few of the officials on Byor last night, and they would like me to return."

There was another silence, short this time, then Khai turned to Ava and said, "You've been here ten days, Ava. Right?"

"Yes," Tess replied, feeling as though those ten days had been a lifetime.

Khai closed his eyes. "So, just to sum everything up…" He turned to Larek. "There has been an attack on Lexan, and it was serious enough that it has severely harmed the economy of your planet."

Larek nodded. "Without those trade routes…Lexan is the capital for several of my most prosperous businesses. I will need to put effort, resources, and time into rebuilding the city, or else Khivar could fatally ruin this planet."

"And we believe that Khivar is heading for Daila?" Khai continued, glancing over at Shalimar. "He is going to attack the capital, attack us?"

Shalimar nodded wordlessly, and several of the others in the room shifted nervously in their seats.

"And meanwhile, he is building a technology that could potentially be so devastating it would cripple us to the point of destroying our entire base of operations and wiping all of his opposition out of existence?"

The question was directed at Sirch, and he answered readily, "Yes, that is what we believe."

Khai nodded grimly and glanced at Nasada, "And he will use this to bring Vilandra back to Antar?" Nasada shrugged and nodded slightly. "We think there may be a traitor, a spy for Khivar, somewhere in the Resistance," Khai continued, this time facing Trell.

"And obviously someone who is good enough at what they do to avoid detection for a very long time," Trell added, his wrinkled face creasing even more deeply as he spoke.

"Meanwhile," Khai glanced at Radim, "the Council of the Worlds has declared itself officially opposed to Larek, and," he glanced over at Audin, "Byor is cutting diplomatic ties with Larek." Both Radim and Audin nodded, and Khai glanced over at Tess. "And if our original assumption was correct," he finished wearily, "we have four more days until the shape-shifter reaches Khivar and informs him that Ava is with us?"

A heavy silence fell over the ten occupants of the room as they realized with dawning horror the utter hopelessness of their situation.

Tess walked into her bedroom in the mid afternoon to see Sria sitting by the window, waiting for her. She forced a brief smile for her friend, grimacing as a wave of pain shot up her shoulders. Once again, she had left Alex with Sria while she went to …train… with Khivar.

If you could even call it training.

More like falling repeatedly onto hard stone floor.

It wasn't so much the bruising sessions with Khai that worried her, however. It was the fact that he wasn't trying to kill her. If this was how much it hurt to fight someone who wasn't actually striving for her death, how was she supposed to survive an actual fight against an actual enemy?

How was she supposed to face Khivar?

Sria, interpreting the contemplative and slightly disgruntled look on Tess' face correctly, said softly, "It will all come with time, Ava. Just keep practicing."

Tess sighed and sat down on her bed, rubbing her bruised shoulder gently. "Unfortunately, Sria, if I've learned anything from being here, it's that time is the one thing we don't have."

Sria gave a dark chuckle and nodded. "No kidding," she murmured. She stood up and began to pace, a habit Tess had realized showed that she was nervous, that something had happened, that something had been decided.

And her next words confirmed the hybrid's fears.

"Radim took a contingent of Larek's soldiers and left for the plains today," Sria said. That particular course of action had been agreed upon during the early morning meeting, but everyone had still had some reservations about it. Engaging it full out war with Khivar might be inevitable, but they still would have preferred to delay it. To buy themselves enough time to better prepare for such an attack.

But, as Tess had so adeptly pointed out, time was not something they had.

"They hope to stop Khivar's army before they reach the capital," Sria continued, stating what Tess already knew. "They should be engaged in battle before night falls."

"What are there chances for survival?" Tess asked quietly.

Sria hesitated, then said bluntly, "It is a suicide mission. Everyone, even Radim, even the soldiers going with Radim, know that. But it should buy us time to prepare."

Tess swallowed and nodded, wincing as the movement caused a explosion of pain to shoot down her neck. She walked over to the crib next to Sria and lifted Alex into her arms, then perched on the arm of the sofa and eyed her friend wearily.

"I wish Alex didn't have to be a part of this," she murmured, glancing down at her son. "Suicide missions and traitors… I wish he could just have a normal childhood, you know?"

Sria nodded appreciatively and said, "Any mother wishes that."

Tess shifted Alex's weight to one arm and used her spare hand to tuck a curl behind her ear. Yes, all mothers did wish that. Zan's mother had wanted that for her children. Resigned to the fact that Zan would be King, she had still clung to the hope that Vilandra could have a normal life, away from the intrigue and politics that defined palace life.

The blonde hybrid blinked suddenly, wondering, yet again, where the sudden information had come from. It had been happening a lot lately, these little pieces of the puzzle falling into place. There were still things she could not remember at all…like Sria…but some fragments of memories were slowly and steadily returning.

In a way, it was worse to have these half-memories. She could feel the other life inside her, feel Ava's essence in her blood, but there wasn't enough of it there for her to actually become the other person. She couldn't be Ava, but at the same time, with these bits of Ava's life inside her, she couldn't not be Ava.

Second lives were complicated.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Sria asked, watching the pensive look in Tess' eyes.

Tess shook her head slowly. "Nothing much," she murmured. "I wish… I wish that I could send Alex to Jim. He would have made such a good grandfather, and it isn't fair of me to drag Alex into this without his consent."

"People are dragged into their lives without consent all the time," Sria answered. "Nobody is ever given a choice about what life they are born into." She stood and stretched, then joined Tess on the sofa. "Although I suppose it would be possible to send Alex to Earth if need be," she mused. "Only as a last resort if every other option for keeping him safe fails."

"Every other option?" Tess asked.

"Well, if you died, and Larek lost the war, and Khivar brought Vilandra back, and the Council of the Worlds declared her the rightful ruler, and the people of Antar rejected your son…" She left the sentence drift off, thinking wearily about all the things that could go wrong. "Then we would send you son to Earth. Keep him safe."

"Only he can't survive there," Tess pointed out.

Sria raised an eyebrow at the comment. "What makes you say that?" she asked, confused.

"He almost died when I was still pregnant with him. The atmosphere was poisoning him," Tess explained, frowning at Sria. She assumed that the redheaded alien knew all this already. "That's why I had to leave."

Sria shook her head, her eyebrows knit together in concentration. "Antarian babies, while still in the womb, do not have fully developed respiratory systems, so it makes sense that he wouldn't be able to breath then. But now that he is fully developed…" She shrugged. "Chances are he could survive there now." She stopped suddenly and faced Tess, surprised as she realized what Tess had said. "I thought you were still mad at everyone on Earth? And now you want to send them your son?"

Tess shook her head. "It's never going to happen, Sria. I'm not giving up Alex also." She stood up and began to walk back and forth, rocking the child in her arms. "And I don't want to send Alex to Max and the others, I want to send him to Kyle and Jim. The only two people who actually ever cared about me." She let out a breath slowly and finished, "But there is no point dwelling on that, because it will never happen. Alex will stay with me."

Sria noted the fiery determination in Tess' eyes and remarked dryly, "Never get between a mother bear and her cub."

"You need to learn the art of diplomacy," Khai said without any introduction. He and Tess were in one of the meeting rooms. He was pacing the white-carpeted floor, while Tess stared through a set of large windows out into a garden filled with dark blue-green shrubs and yellow flowers.

"How am I going to learn?" Tess questioned, turning her attention back to the Antarian General. At least whatever she had to teach him could not possibly be as bruising as the sword-fighting lessons.

"I'll give you scenarios of situations you may find yourself in, and you will tell me what you would do," Khai replied. He took pulled out a chair and took a seat, staring intently at Tess. "You will need to understand the complexity of diplomatic relations, especially among those planets you have relations with, friendly or otherwise."

"And which planets are those?" Tess asked.

Khai frowned slightly. "Antar has relations with most of the planets in the Southern Beltway."

"What exactly is the Southern Beltway?" Although Tess had heard Larek use the term before, she had been unsure of what it was. A string of planets… She knew that much, but was it like a galaxy? Like the Milky Way?

"The galaxy Antar is in is a spiral galaxy. It is concentrated in the center, with long arms that spiral outwards from that center. The Southern Beltway is one of the arms and the planets within it are all within about a day's travel from each other, provided you are using an ordinary space craft."

"As opposed to Earth, which is about two weeks away?" Tess pressed. She nodded slowly, excepting Khai's words. "So, Byor, and Nathor, and L'so… these planets are all in the Southern Beltway?"

"Yes," Khai said shortly. "Now…" He began pacing again. "Dri is in the Southern Hemisphere of L'so, and has often declared that it does not support the Minister or any other regions, and has tried to overthrow the elected government several times. As a result, the Minister of L'so placed economic trade sanctions on the region. However, you rely on Dri for oil. You cannot risk angering the government of L'so, because it is supported by the Council of the Worlds, but if you cut off trade with Dri your economy will be severely debilitated. Meanwhile, Byor has declared support for the Minister of L'so, but Nathor has declared that it supports Dri because it, like you, is dependent on the oil. You have a diplomatic relationship with Byor, and if you antagonize them, they will withdraw the foreign aid that they gave you last year and demand that you make good on their loan with interest, which you cannot afford to do at this moment. You don't have any dealings with Nathor, but you also do not want to start bad relations. Also, several of your business have partners in the capital of L'so, which is a trade capital of the Beltway, and if you do not support the Minister, you risk alienating your businesses, who may decide to leave your planet and take all of their resources, assets, and investments with them, resulting in a crippling loss of jobs and a economic recession."

Khai turned and faced Tess as she stared up at him, her eyes filled with confusion. His face twisted into a grim smile as he asked, "What do you do?"

Next Chapter: Trial By Fire

Due: Sunday 12/18