Chapter 21


"I want Aldonis to take over."

An intense silence lowered itself over the group. If they had been humans they would probably have been staring at the man responsible of such a shocking announcement with their mouths hanging open in unmistakable disbelief, but the majority of the group didn't consist of humans. Their faces were as blank as a newly washed window. They didn't reveal even the most miniscule trace of whether the information affected them. The only aliens showing some proof that they had in fact heard what had been spoken were Serena and Aldonis himself. Aldonis was looking at Serena, searching her face for proof that he had interpreted the foreign language he was still learning correctly. Serena met his eyes a brief second, shock briefly flashing in her eyes. Emotions were closer within her reach now then they had been before. She wasn't a blank slate any longer.

"And I want Serena to rule by his side."

This caused Serena to slowly rise from her seat, staring at the dark-haired man, standing at the center of the room, with a mixture of barely cooled confusion and suspicion.
"I don't understand," she said.
"I'm giving up the throne, but I won't leave this planet to its mercy. I want to see it blossom and come to life. But I am not the right person to do that. My heart isn't in it." His voice softened and he looked at the woman standing next to him. "My heart is with Liz and Earth is our home. That's where we grew up and that's where we want to spend our lives together. A part of me is still Antarian and will always be. I'm not rejecting my heritage. It's because I feel connected to this planet that I don't want to rule it. I want it to be ruled by people who love it and will work for it to be a free place, a democracy. Where people are free to feel again and come to life. And I know that you can do it." He gave Serena a comforting smile. "I can see the future of our people in your eyes, Serena. The person you are starting to become is also what the people will soon discover and look after in their lives."

One of the men rose abruptly and protested coldly, "Your majesty. What exactly do you mean with Serena ruling by Aldonis' side? She is a woman."
The other men, warriors, around him nodded in agreement. The question had entered everyone's head. A woman was to give support to the husband so that he could do his job. Nothing more.
Max opened his mouth to object, but Aldonis beat him to it. Standing up, he boldly grabbed Serena's hand. The surprised look on her face revealed how uncommon, almost forbidden, it was to touch your mate in such an affectionate way in public.
"Serena will rule by my side. She will have the same amount of power as me. We will rule together in unity." Serena looked up at him with astonishment, blinking her eyes rapidly to fight off the impending tears. She wasn't sure if she could trust her eyes any longer.
The men observed Aldonis mutely, no one saying a word or displaying any emotions. It was only the movement of their eyes that told who of them had accepted Aldonis's statement and who were still hesitant. Some men dropped their eyes and respectfully bowed their heads to their new king, while others still looked at Aldonis with resistance.
Aldonis shifted his attention to his king and slowly walked up to him, kneeling before him and bowing his head.
"Your wish is my command, Your Majesty," he said softly.
"Aldonis, rise," Max said.
Aldonis looked up, his grey eyes meeting Max's sincere amber ones, before slowly rising to his feet.
"Listen to me, Aldonis. I don't want you to rule this planet out of obligation or because I said so. I want you to feel it in your heart. I've talked this over with Liz and we feel that you are most fitted for the task of ruling this planet. You are more accustomed to the environment, the culture and the people than I will ever be." Max reached behind him and took Liz's hand in his and emphasized, "But I want Serena with you. The planet needs both of you. Even though I trust you to do the right thing, it's never good to rule all by yourself. You need to listen to the people around you. You need to listen to your people. Sometimes you are wrong and you have to let the people tell you that."
Aldonis nodded. "You are right, Your Majesty."
Max couldn't stop himself from smiling. "It's Max, Aldonis. It's you that are the majesty now."
"You'll always be the righteous king," Aldonis objected.
Their gazes locked and a silent communication, quickly followed by an understanding between two men scared by battle and years of hiding, in their own respective ways. Max nodded.

"All right." His voice faltered slightly when he felt a shift in his connection to Liz. He turned his head to look at her, finding her with her eyes closed.
"Liz?" He couldn't help the worry to invade his voice, making it tremble with fear.
Liz opened her eyes and tried to give him a reassuring smile, but she couldn't quite make it one hundred percent. Her eyes closed again and she blindly reached out with her hand towards Max. The meeting and the other people in the room completely forgotten, Max turned to Liz and grabbed her by her upper arms to support her.
"Liz, what's wrong?"
Serena was walking towards them now, wanting to be close if they needed help. Maybe Liz wasn't completely healed after all.
"It's okay, Max," Liz whispered and looked up at him, "I'm fine."
"What happened?" Max asked, his worried eyes still searching her face, checking her eyes and the color of her face, while he unconsciously searched through her body through their connection for injuries.
"It's nothing, Max. It's just the pregnancy." Liz was smiling at him now, but Max was still not calmed by her words.
"I get dizzy sometimes. It feels a little bit different than with Emma. Maybe it's because it's twins or…"
Max frowned when her voice trailed off. "Or what?"
Liz shook her head. "Nothing. It's nothing."
He knew that she wasn't telling him the whole truth. He could feel her worry through the connection.
"Are you all right, Liz?" Serena asked.
Liz turned to her with a soft smile. "Yes, I'm fine."

They returned to the meeting, finishing up the details, and slowly starting to form the new system that would take place instead of the dictatorship that had been keeping the planet in its jaws earlier. But half of Max's attention was on Liz the whole time, and his hold on her hand was just as desperate as it was lasting. When Liz excused herself, needing to go to bed, it was with great reluctance that Max let her go. He wanted to go with her, but he knew that he needed to focus on the meeting first. He realized later that Liz had been able to stay longer, but she knew that he needed to keep focused and he couldn't be the leader he needed to be if so much of his attention was focused on worrying about her.

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It was dark when Max returned to the tent several hours later. He brushed the opening to the tent to the side and stepped inside as silently as he could. The interior of the tent was as dark as the night outside. His eyes were still trying to accustom themselves to the darkness, so he didn't notice her position until he was up close to the bed. She was lying on her side, her legs pulled up to her chest, one arm around her knees and the other one around Emma, lying beside her. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed the shivers making her body tremble. Her eyes were closed and she seemed asleep, but something was obviously wrong.
As if death had been hunting him, he quickly crawled into the bed, moving up on his knees next to her curled up form.
"Liz?" he whispered, brushing a dark strand of hair away from her damp forehead. His heart was beating wildly in his chest. He couldn't feel all of her through the connection and that terrified him more than anything, reminding him of another time when the black darkness of her absence had been enough to suffocate him.
She didn't react to his voice and his fears skyrocketed. His hands moved to her shoulders as he turned her to her back. Even though his movements were frantic by now, his touch was still gentle.
"Honey? Liz, wake up."
The cold hand around his heart lessened its death grip some when Liz moaned softly. He took a hold of her shoulders and gentle shook her.
"Max?" she murmured, her eyes fluttering open.
Relief flooded him and he smiled at her. But he couldn't hide the worry that was coursing through him.
He brushed the hair away from her face, gently cradling her face. The same gesture he had done so many times before. The same gesture he had done the first time he had let her see into his soul. "Baby, are you okay?"
She blinked sleepily and nodded. "Mhmm."
"Do you feel nauseous? Are you cold? Are you in pain?"
His worry washed over her like a cold shower and she was instantly awake. She scooted back up against the headboard, moving up into seated position.
"Max? What happened? What's wrong?"
"Are you okay?" Max asked again.
Liz pulled the poor replica of a comforter up to her chin and frowned. "Yes. What's wrong?"
"You were shivering," Max said, his fingers tracing invisible lines in her face.
"I'm a little cold," Liz answered, her voice calm, but it wasn't enough to make Max relax completely. "That's probably why I was shivering."
Max's broke eye-contact with her just to look down at her stomach, which was still fairly flat, and his eyes followed his hand as he placed his palm against the fabric of the T-shirt covering her stomach.

His worry was so palpable that she would have been able to feel it, even without the mental connection between them.
"You were so sick when… when Emma…"
Liz softly interrupted his stuttering fearful voice by capturing the side of his face in her hand, guiding his eyes back to hers. "I didn't have you then. That's why I was sick. I didn't have you. Our connection was severed because of the amnesia and it was hurting me. But now when we have it back, there's nothing to worry about."
"What about the dizziness?" Max whispered. He desperately wanted to believe her. He desperately wanted to be soothed by her words. But he couldn't help but worry about her. He would probably never stop doing that.
"It's normal, Max. Many pregnant women experience dizzy spells."
"The shivering?"
Liz mustered up a comforting smile. "Honey, that probably had nothing to do with me being pregnant. I was just cold." Her voice taking on a lighter quality, she continued, "Not everyone is immune to temperature shifts you know."
But her attempt to lighten the atmosphere fell flat to Max's ears. "They are alien… What if they harm you in any wa-"
"Max," Liz interrupted, more sternly now, "I've already been through one pregnancy and it turned out okay, didn't it?"
Max swallowed and glanced over at their sleeping daughter, and was for a moment reminded of how Emma had been when he had first met her. So carefree and happy. Now she was just… gone.
"Do you want to check on them?" Liz asked.
Max sighed gratefully and nodded. Liz scooted down into the bed until she was flat on her back, before pulling up her gown, exposing her stomach. Taking a deep breath, fear still crawling around in every part of his heart, Max lowered his hand to her skin, feeling the familiar tingle when his palm touched her stomach. He tried to will his beating heart down enough to concentrate on collecting his powers. His worry and fear was only strengthened when he initiated the connection. Something that was often easy to do, was taking a lot of effort. Something was obviously wrong. His hand was shaking as he forced himself to concentrate on the life forces inside Liz's womb. He could feel them responding to his touch, seeking him out. He could feel their essence reaching out to him. It didn't take him long to realize that they were okay. He gentle separated from their souls and broke the connection.

"Are they okay?" Liz asked when he opened his eyes and his body fell back to rest against his heels. He nodded mutely.
"Max?"
She could feel that something was wrong, but there was so many emotions being transferred over their connection that she had difficulties distinguishing one from the other.
"Is something wrong with them?"
The fear in her words hit him like daggers and he quickly shook his head. "No. No, they're fine, Liz." But you aren't.
She looked at him for a long time, trying to read his facial expression.
"Please don't lie to me," she whispered.
Max shook his head in denial and pulled her close, gently placing a loving kiss on her forehead. "They are fine, love."
He pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her. Liz tried to resist him at first, tried to force herself to make him tell her what was wrong, but then his love, mingled with the warmth of his body, protectively surrounded her and she relaxed in his arms.
"I need you to tell me if something's wrong, Liz," Max whispered against her ear.
Max's words reminded her of the suspicions, the worries she had felt since she had regained consciousness. She opened her mouth to tell him, but just then she felt Max's arms tighten around her and his fearful and concerned face flashed through her mind, and she couldn't do it. She didn't want to weigh him down with her worries too, when he had enough worries on his own to last him four lifetimes. Besides, her intuition might be wrong this time. It was probably nothing. She was okay.

But even as they lay down together, wrapping up in each other, the dark thoughts wouldn't leave her mind. The fact that the connection to Max was slowly diminishing, like someone was gradually turning down the volume to a speaker, and the fact that she felt so weak, like she wanted to sleep the whole time, were whispering at the back of her head. It took her a long time to fall asleep that night, vividly aware that Max remained awake.

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Liz woke up to someone crying.

Dimly, she pulled herself out of the restless sleep and the first thing she noticed was Max's absence next to her. Her hand automatically searched the empty space to her right, finding the sheet-like material under her fingers still warm.
"Max?"
"I'm right here." The response came from her left and she slowly sat up, the darkness clinging to her body. Max was kneeling on the floor, his hand slowly threading through their daughter's dark hair.
"I think she's dreaming," he said, the sadness making his words sting like acid. "But I can't wake her up."
Liz fought her way through the helplessness in his voice and reached for the calmness inside of her. The calmness she'd had years to practice on when she could have been panicking about dying and leaving her daughter all alone.
"Baby," she whispered, gently brushing her fingers against Emma's damp cheek. Emma's eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed eyelids. Perspiration was covering her forehead and her neck. "Wake up, honey."
Liz could feel Max's eyes on her. She knew that they hadn't been able to contact Emma at all, so he really shouldn't have much faith in her waking up now all of the sudden. But for some reason, Max didn't give up. He didn't give up on the ones he loved. The gaze that was now lingering on her didn't doubt her, it wasn't questioning what she was doing or even considering her stupid for even trying. She could feel the warmth in his gaze. She could feel the belief and trust in her. She could feel the never-ending love and support. He wouldn't stand back and let her do it by herself. She had been forced to fight many battles alone and he wasn't going to make her experience that again.

She raised her eyes to his face, biting her lower lip in an attempt of having the mild pain drown the almost uncontrollable urge to cry. Her child was dying, in their arms, and all they could do was sit by and passively watch.
"What are we going to do, Max?" she whispered, her words laced with fear and anguish.
Max looked down at Emma and then reached over his daughter and captured Liz's hand. "We have to go back." The firm squeeze of his fingers around hers enhanced the determination in his voice. "The meeting today was just one meeting and there's still a lot to do before we can leave. I have to make sure that I'm not… I'm not abandoning them."
Max lowered his eyes in guilt. He felt like he was letting down his family, because he was prioritizing Antar before them.
"I know you do," Liz said softly. "It's just… it's just so hard. I'm so afraid that every day we just don't do anything, she's going to get worse."
Max nodded, her words confirming his deepest fears. What if he was racing against time – again – and this time might be his last chance. This might be when he lost the battle, when his daughter would be lost.

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Earth, United States of America, New Mexico, Roswell


"Maria?"
Alex poked his head through the door, but his searching gaze couldn't find the blonde girl anywhere.
"Maria? Are you here?"
Mildly confused, he stepped over the threshold, the almost eerie silence wrapping around him.
"Maria?"
She had called him half an hour ago, wanting him to come over for dinner. They had almost made meeting on Friday nights and cooking together into a tradition. It was something to keep each other company and offer silent support. They never touched the subject of the absence of the larger part of the I-know-an-alien club. They had a silent agreement to not discuss it. It was just a relief for them both to be in the presence of someone who knew the truth and knew what the other person was going through.

Life on Earth had been chaos since Maria dropped the bomb on Liz's parents. Well, really she dropped several bombs. Liz being alive. Liz having a child. Max being an alien, as well as Michael and Isabel. Max, the alien, being the father of Liz's child. Finally, telling them that Liz was not really on this planet anymore, because their granddaughter had been kidnapped and taken to another planet. Alex was actually surprised that the Parkers were handling it so well. He was even surprised that Maria was handling it so well. Just the fact that she had gotten herself out of that situation without making a complete mess of everything was just remarkable. It reminded Alex once again of how much they had all been forced to grow up the last couple of days. They had all changed in some way or the other. Their perspective was probably different than other people their age's were. They saw things in a completely different light.

But even taking all the experience and everything they had gone through into consideration, it didn't prevent Alex's heart from speeding up when there still wasn't a response when he called Maria's name. He repeated her name, his voice louder, as he crossed the living room floor, quickly scanning every part of the room after Maria. He pushed the door to her room open and there she was. Sitting on the floor next to her bed, her legs spread out in front of her and photos covering her legs. One of the photos was clutched to her chest and tears were streaming down her face.

Without a word, Alex kneeled next to her, gently gathered the photos and put them away, before guiding Maria into his arms.
"Shhh…" he soothed, holding her trembling frame in his arms.
"What if…" Maria hiccupped, "What if they don't… they don't come back."
"They will, Maria. They will."
"But what if…what if they don't?" her sobbing voice echoed, reviving the embers of fear deeply hidden in his own heart.
"We just have to believe that they will," Alex whispered, gently stroking her blonde hair. Her hair had grown during the last couple of months. At the beginning, everything had appeared normal – on the outside. But the interior chaos soon spread to the outside as well and she stopped to care. She didn't apply any make up. She didn't cut her hair. Her hair was hanging loose and she wore sweatpants and sweatshirts everyday. She still went to class, though. It kept her mind occupied.
"I can't lose her…again, Alex. I just can't."
"You haven't lost her, Maria. They will be back. She's the smartest girl we know and she's with the smartest guy we know. Together they can do anything. They'll be back. We have to believe that. We have to believe."
Maria nodded against his shoulder, the photo of Liz, Alex and herself, with a grumpy Michael poking out his head from the kitchen in the background, being pressed against her heart as she tried to seek comfort in Alex's familiar arms. But it wasn't the arms she longed for. It wasn't the arms she missed. It was a good substitute, but it wasn't enough. Not by a light year.



TBC...