Chapter 10

Maria took in the freaked out expressions on Liz's parents' faces. Oops. Maybe she shouldn't have just blurted it out like that.
"Liz has a child?!!" Mr. Parker cried.
"Um...yeah," Maria answered quietly.
"Oh my god," Mrs. Parker breathed, sinking back down in the sofa.
"Is Max the father?!" Mr. Parker demanded to know.
Maria swallowed and nodded.
"She had sex with an alien?!"
Maria cringed at how absurd that sounded.
"Mr. Parker, please..." she tried, looking up into Mr. Parker's fierce eyes.
"How could he take advantage of her like that? What if he had hurt her?!" Mr. Parker was now pacing the floor in an upset manner and stopped abruptly once he had processed what he had just said. "God! He didn't hurt her, did he? Was it he who somehow raped her?" He raked his fingers through his hair, trying to fit all the pieces together, but nothing fit. "How could he?! I trusted him with my daughter!"

"Jeff…" his wife pleaded. But he wasn't listening. Max Evans had slept with his baby girl and he wasn't even human.
"What does that baby look like? Is she normal?!"
"She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," Maria said softly.
Mr. Parker stopped.
"Tell us about her," Mrs. Parker said, tears shimmering in her eyes.
Maria gave her a faint smile. She wished that she could give them more than just a description, but she would do her best for now.
"She looks just like Liz and she's a lot like Liz in her behavior too. She's very caring and quiet. But she's so smart and so warm. She's an incredible four-year-old."

"Is she...normal?"
Maria nodded, her small smile growing warmer. "Yes, she is. She's perfect."
They both relaxed and Jeff slowly lowered himself down on the sofa, feeling the anger running off him. "We have a grandchild," he mumbled.
"Yes," Maria answered, but her smile died on her lips as she thought about what she had to tell them next. That their grandchild was now the one held captive. That would probably tear them apart. When she saw a glow she hadn't seen in their eyes since Liz 'died', she really didn't want to say anything. She wished she could just say that Liz and their grandchild were just fine. But she couldn't lie any longer.
"Let me tell you about what happened after Liz stopped writing in her journal," Maria suggested.
Silently, Mr. and Mrs. Parker nodded.
"First, you need to know about the Granolith."

"I think Liz mentioned something about it," Mrs. Parker said thoughtfully. Mr. Parker nodded in agreement.
"I don't know much about it either. Liz was better at understanding that scientific stuff."
Mrs. Parker gave her a sad smile, a smile that a couple of years earlier would have been a proud one.
"All I know is that it was supposed to get Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess home when they were ready. It is some kind of spaceship, but it can also be modified to become other things."
"That was the time machine, right?" Mr. Parker asked.
"Uh-huh. That was really confusing," Maria said.
"Yes," Mrs. Parker agreed. When she had read what Liz had written about a future version of Max coming back from the future to stop the end of the world, she had really feared that her daughter had finally gone crazy. Why would a world end just because two people loved each other? It seemed highly unlikely. But there it was, in black and white in her daughter's familiar handwriting.

"As I've understood it, the Granolith is very powerful and the enemies of our aliens wanted it, along with Nasedo and Tess. Max is the only one that can activate the Granolith and hence Nasedo and Tess needed him on their side, and preferably together with Tess. The only way they could get Max to let go of Liz was to get rid of her. I don't really understand their plan, but they didn't kill Liz. They just made us believe that she died-"
Mr. Parker raised his hand to silence her, confusion draped over his face. "Wait a minute. What do you mean? How could they make us believe that she was dead?"
"Mindwarps. I told you they were powerful. Tess forced images into our heads that made us see Liz as dead."

"But we buried her, she was in the coffin..." Mrs. Parker protested, utterly confused.
"It was all a mindwarp," Maria stated.
"How could she do that?" Mrs. Parker asked.
"She doesn't have a conscience-" Maria started, but Mrs. Parker cut her off.
"No, that's not what I meant. How can you mess so much with somebody's head. How does it work? She must have so much power and…and it was all directed at Liz."
Maria nodded. "Liz couldn't defend herself. Nasedo and Tess attacked her that night but they didn't kill her. They took her to a motel and were planning on keeping her there. After a while Liz regained consciousness. She doesn't know how long she was out, but when she came to, she was alone. She managed to hide the fact that she was awake from Nasedo and Tess, and then she escaped."
Mrs. Parker shook her head from side to side, trying to understand what Maria was telling them.

"Why didn't she come home?"
"She couldn't remember," Maria answered.
"She couldn't remember?" Mr. Parker repeated.
"She suffered from amnesia for five years. She didn't even know what her real name was. She didn't remember you. She didn't remember me. She didn't even remember Max. She was alone, fearing for her life, and pregnant."
"Oh my God," Mrs. Parker sobbed, burying her head in her hands, "She was all alone, Jeff. She was out there on her own. She must've been so...so lost and we weren't even there for her..."
Mr. Parker rubbed her back in an effort to offer her some consolation as he turned his eyes back on Maria.
"What changed? Since you know all this, you must've found her."
"Yes, we found her. We found Emma first and through her we found Liz."
"Emma..." Mr. Parker breathed as if the name were sacred, "Is that her name? Is that our granddaughter's name?"

Maria smiled. "Yes. She was on a field trip in Roswell and she met Max at the UFO center. We found out her last name and then tracked her down in Santa Fe. And then we discovered that Liz was really sick."
"She was sick?" Maria cringed at Mrs. Parker's broken voice as she looked up from behind her hands. Maria wondered how much more she could load on them on one time.
"Well, Max and Liz have this connection. They can...um... melt their souls together. See into each other's souls. Literally." Mr. and Mrs. Parker shared a confused look and Maria decided to just get it out. "When Max healed Liz he didn't just make a connection with her. He bonded with her. He sort of...married her..."

"He married her?" Mr. Parker asked incredulously. He wasn't sure how he was going to react any longer. This just kept getting weirder and weirder and he was afraid that they hadn't even begun to scratch the surface.
"Well, sort of. But in many ways it's stronger than a marriage. But this bond, as far as I've understood it, makes it impossible for them to live without each other. Since Liz was separated from Max for five years, her health deteriorated."
"So, what you're saying is that Max was responsible for her being sick?" Mr. Parker asked.
God, Maria thought, he's worse than a lawyer is at twisting words. "No, not really. Actually, if he had been with her, she wouldn't have been sick."

"But still, he is indirectly causing her illness by not being there," Mr. Parker argued.
Maria sighed. "Max wanted to be there. He was beating himself up for not being there when Liz gave birth to their baby and helping her raise their daughter. But he couldn't. He thought she was dead just like everyone else did."
"Jeff, don't blame Max. I don't think he understood what was happening either," Mrs. Parker said. Maria shot her a grateful look before returning her eyes to Mr. Parker. "If you knew what Max is like, you would know that he is already paying for what happened, whether it was his fault or not. He's a master at blaming himself and he would have died from kicking himself to death if Liz hadn't stopped him."
Mrs. Parker actually smiled faintly and Maria relaxed some. So far, so good. Now it was just the bad part left.

"Umm..." Maria scratched behind her ear, "As you might've noticed Liz and Max aren't here, and neither is Emma."
"Yes, where are they?" Mr. Parker asked, feeling uneasy at Maria's obvious discomfort. Whatever she was about to tell them was something bad.
"Well, one of Max's enemies is called Nicolas," Maria said.
"Yes, I remember that," Mrs. Parker mused.

"He was willing to do practically anything to get revenge on Max and eventually kill him," the words were flying out of her mouth now. She wasn't sure she would be able to get everything out if she didn't get it out all at once. "Because it was difficult to get to Max, he targeted Liz and Emma instead." Maria heard Mrs. Parker gasp, but she continued, not letting anything stop her now. "He kidnapped Emma and he took her to Max's home planet, Antar. Max and Liz used the Granolith to go after them and that's were they are now. On Antar, trying to save their daughter."

Maria anxiously looked up as the unnerving silence enveloped her and was met by two very shocked parents. She chewed on her bottom lip, and sank further down in the armchair. This was not good.

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Antar

He gently shook her shoulder, trying to rouse her from her sleep.
*Serena.*
It wasn't difficult. Serena instantly opened her eyes, her whole body preparing for combat. She was a trained soldier and was ready to fight at any second of the day. She was already half way out of the bed before her mate's hand stopped her.
*Relax, Serena. Everything's okay.*
She exhaled a breath that contained a lot of pent up tension. *Where have you been? It's the middle of the night.*
He stroke one auburn strand of her hair away from her face and smiled. She hadn't seen him smile in months and it warmed her to her very core.
*They have agreed to meet with us,* he said.
*'They'? You mean, his majesty?*
He nodded. *So we have a lot to do. We have to make this meeting really safe and really plan what we are going to do.*
She swung her legs over the edge of the bed. *Then we should get started.*