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I'm already back again... Without further ado, here's the next chapter...

Chapter 26

He found his sons first. Pulsating with life, he could feel them reaching out for him. He could hear their voices in his head, but something was different from the time he had connected with them on Antar. Some of their innocence had disappeared and they weren't asking questions anymore. There was concern now. They knew that their mother was dying and it scared them. Max's heart clenched painfully at their silent plea to help their mother. He tried to reassure them that he was going to help Liz, but it was difficult to hide the truth when he had his mind open. All his doubts, self-blame, fears and insecurities were constantly washing over the twins and they knew what was happening even if their father didn't want them to see. Without Max noticing the change, the twins gradually took over. Their strong combined energy started pulsating straight through Max's body and suddenly he knew not just what to do but also how to do it. With his sons guiding him, he started searching for Liz and Emma. Emma was easier to find than Liz. The twins' energy joined with his, plunged through the wall around Emma's mind and reached inside, finding Emma crying and scared. But there was also relief and hope, which fueled Max's heart. Together they now tried to reach Liz. Max had to fight with his feelings to not fall apart as his mind moved through the surface of Liz's consciousness. He hadn't let himself see that she had been getting this bad the last couple of weeks. There was hardly anything left. Her whole body was weak and almost completely deteriorated, as if she had been suffering from a horrible disease that had been eating her alive from the inside, decaying her organs and wearing out her very essence. Moving deeper into her mind, Max got increasingly aware of how much of a miracle it was that Liz was not already dead. How had she been able to even stand up with this tarnished body?

His heart skipped a beat, and he could feel the simultaneous skip in his children's hearts through their link, as he came into contact with the first conscious thought in Liz's mind. They'd found her, but he had no idea that she was this close to disappearing forever. He had no idea that if they hadn't found her now she might never had woken up again. She was ready to die. She was ready to give up. She didn't have any strength left to fight whatever was devouring her. With her last vestiges of energy, more than she really had, she was hanging on to save her sons, but she couldn't do it anymore. She was so tired. Max could feel the energy being literally sucked out of his body the more conscious contact he got with Liz. She wasn't talking to him, but she was responding nonetheless. He could feel her essence envelop him, but it lacked the usual warmth. Now it was cold, deadly cold. Even though he was feeding her a lot of energy, he reached out around her soul and pulled her closer to him, trying to warm her up and awakening a bond that had died. He could feel his sons feeding him with energy and he was amazed at the strength they had; it seemed never ending. Emma was also helping, but he could feel that she was weak and he concentrated on putting a small block on her connection, so that she wouldn't give her mother too much of her energy, even though he could feel that she would do anything to help her mother. He wouldn't lose her too. The first instant he felt one of the twins falter he did the same to their connection. He could feel their surprise through the connection at what he had done, but he tried to assure them that daddy could handle this; they needed to rest so they could help their mother later.

As he was deep in Liz's mind, voices started to swirl around him. Voices from a conversation that was long gone, but not forgotten. Max tried to push the voices away, and refocus on healing the connection between him and Liz, but the conversation wouldn't leave him alone. The voices grew louder; they wanted to be heard. For some reason, Liz wanted him to hear this conversation. Reluctantly, he turned some of his attention away from the bond and focused on the voices. As soon as his focus fell on the voices, they became louder and clearer. Liz's vibrant voice filled him, making his heart ache with bittersweet remembrance of how full of life she had once been. It had been so long that her voice almost sounded foreign. The other voice was more difficult to place, hence it took a couple of extra seconds before Max registered that the voice belonged to Kira.

"Are you really all right, Elizabeth? You look so pale and I can sense the concern in your soul."
"I'm… uhm… Actually, there is this thing that I needed to talk to you about, Kira. You know when I was so sick – on Earth…"
"Yes, when we found you, you were really ill."
"But then I started to feel better-"
"After you and Max mated."
"Right." Max could hear the smile in her voice and he could mentally picture the redness on her cheeks at Kira's bluntness. "And after that I started to feel better, but then… then… then Khivar took Emma, and I… Something happened. Max and I… we were both grieving and Max was trying so hard to find Emma. He didn't let himself rest. He was worrying so much, making decisions and seeing to it that I was okay as well. I couldn't tell him that I was starting to feel worse again. At first I thought it was only because I was so afraid for Emma, but after a while it started to get really bad and I could feel Max slipping away from me. He was always there, always comforting and being so…so strong." Max took a deep breath as he heard the tears in her voice; the appreciation of what he had done was mixed with the loneliness that the weakening of the connection had brought.
"I think Max noticed as well that the connection was weakening between us, but I think that it only made him fight harder to find Emma because he believed that it would fix everything. I did too. I thought that if we could just get Emma back we could heal again."
"I understand."

"But I couldn't talk to him about it. You see, Max takes everything on his own shoulders. He was already taking all the blame for Khivar abducting Emma. I couldn't tell him that I could feel our connection dying. He would only have found some way to blame himself for it. Now we have Emma back and Max has just announced that Aldonis is to take over to rule Antar, but we are still not okay. Emma is so…" Her voice hitched in her throat and she had to clear her throat before thickly continuing. "She is so weak. I don't know what to do. I'm feeling even worse. It's like the energy that Max gave me to heal my wounds is sipping out of me and I can't stop it. I don't have any energy left and I don't know what to do. Max doesn't know what to do either and it's killing him. Please, Kira. Do you know anything? Do you know what's happening?"
There was a pause before Kira answered. Max's whole body tensed in anticipation of the answer.
"There is this story; it's almost become a legend with time. By many it is not considered to even be true. That's why I haven't told you and Max anything about it yet, even though the story has been on my mind for a while now."
"Please, Kira. Anything will help now."
"Yes, I will tell you. You know that Antarians can speak with each other telepathically. Well, due to Max and yours connection I presume you can do that as well."
"Yes, but we were not that advanced. I got sick again before…" Her voice faltered and Kira continued slowly.
"Because Antarians are more specialized in communicating with their minds, they don't need a connection to the same degree as you and Max do. They have a connection, but not with the same strength your connection. There is something you have to understand. Before Khivar took over, before Zan was killed and Antarians were enslaved under Khivar's regime, they all had feelings; just like humans. They were all allowed to laugh, to cry, to care…to love. They could marry whoever they wanted. They were happy. Khivar destroyed that. He took it all away by forcing the people to repress their feelings. At the beginning, the Antarians still felt it in their hearts, even if they hid the feelings in their minds. But their children were brought up in another environment. Gradually, the Antarians forgot what it was like to feel. They forgot what it was like to love someone, and even what it was like to…kiss someone."

"That's horrible."
"Yes, but there was nothing they could do about it. All they could do was to hope that the rumors were actually true. That the essence of Zan had been preserved and that he would come back and save them. So that they could live again."
"I'm not sure I know why you're telling me this, Kira."
"I'll come to it. There was this couple, who lived when Zan's father lived. They loved each other deeply. At least, that's what the legend says. When Zan's father was killed and later Zan, instead of moving apart and hiding their feelings like Khivar commanded, they got even closer. They were fighting Khivar with their love. They wouldn't let him win and they wouldn't let him destroy what they felt. But the woman was a distant relative to Khivar, while the man came from a peasant family. The woman had always been loyal to Zan's father and later to Zan during the short time he ruled, but something changed when Khivar took over. Even though they committed themselves so deeply to each other, the woman started to mistrust her own loyalties. She was always loyal to her husband, but she began to consider if she should really disobey an order from her family. What makes this story relevant to your problem, my dear Elizabeth, is that they had developed this really strong connection. It was unlikely anything anyone had ever seen. No one could describe the love that they showed each other, the tenderness and the selfless care. They were like one, always in sync and always supporting each other. But the woman started to pull away because of the mistrust she felt in her heart. She felt that she couldn't trust herself and she didn't want her husband to know of her insecurities because then he might start to doubt her. The legend tells that as she started to pull away and began to hide some parts of her mind from him, she fell ill. She grew weaker everyday and as she grew weaker she couldn't hold on to the connection as strongly and it faltered even more and she grew even weaker. It became a…what do you say… a vicious circle. As the woman had started to pull away, the husband had gotten worried and after a while suspicious, and he had begun to distrust her. This did nothing to help with the connection."
There was a pause and Max could sense Liz's fear heightening.
"What happened to them?"
Kira cleared his throat before continuing. "She died. Her body was nothing more than skin and bones and she could hardly stand up. She couldn't even stay awake for more than one hour at the time."
"Oh my god."
"The man died shortly after. When the connection was completely cut off with his wife's death, he couldn't handle the coldness. He killed himself."

The voices faded and Max had to take a deep mental breath. That was what was happening to them. That was what was about to happen and he had to stop it, before it was too late.

Liz? Liz, sweetie, can you hear me?

He wasn't sure how he knew that she had answered him; it just became clear to him that she had.

Baby, I need you to listen to me carefully, can you do that?

Her reply was weak, but he could feel her hope strike his heart with such force that he had to take another deep breath before continuing.

You have to trust me. Open your heart completely. Just feel and let me feel you. Don't be afraid of anything. Let me see everything you're thinking and feeling. I love you so much, Liz. Let me in.

With those words, he opened the connection completely and his own fears and insecurities started to leak out into the connection, flowing over to Liz. He could feel her surprise and the overwhelming power his feelings had on her. But then he could feel her relief and he felt himself relax. He only had time to relax for a couple of brief seconds before her emotions slammed into him. He had to focus harder not to be pushed out of her mind. Her feelings swirled around him, creeping into every little fold and corner of his mind. He had never felt her this strongly before. Her fear of losing everything, of losing him and the children shook him to his very core. He never knew she had been this afraid. She hadn't let him know. These were the feelings she had kept hidden deep in her mind, where no one had access. Not even him. He could feel her insecurities about her own capacity to support him, her inability to help him when she was ill. Her worry about the connection growing weaker crawled around him like a snake and started to squeeze, almost painfully, around his chest. She had known that the connection had been the reason to why she had been feeling worse, but she didn't want to tell him because she wanted to protect him. She didn't want him to once again feel guilty about his origins and who he was. She knew that it would ruin him if he found out that he was indirectly responsible for her death. That something that they had both treasured, something that had been a special addition to their love, was killing her. She knew that the man she loved would never be able to live with himself if he had known. So she had hid it from him and she had tried to hold onto the connection on her own, hoping that maybe the connection would come back to life again and everything would be okay.

Instead, she had almost sacrificed her life out of fear that Max would start blaming himself. Max's heart almost stopped under the pressure of her feelings. He never knew that his tendency to take the blame for everything would end up killing the person he loved the most – more than himself. Even though, naturally, the thought of her not telling him, because she had been afraid he couldn't handle the truth, made the self-blame kick straight back in, he quickly pushed it to the side. The connection was one hundred percent open by now, so Liz probably felt his feelings of guilt, but that was how it was supposed to be. That was how they were to heal the connection. By feeling and experiencing everything with each other – something they hadn't done since that one night in the warehouse when they had reopened the connection.

Max could feel his soul wakening up again, as if it had been hibernating. It was almost like he was cracking with fresh energy, excited to meet up with the essence that was Liz. He could feel her returning to her, slowly but steadily. He could feel her soul beginning to respond to his, and it was the most beautiful feeling he had ever felt. It was like a warm blanket spreading around him, enveloping him, buffering his feelings and making everything around him warm and soft. From deep within the core of his being he heard her heart, now becoming one with his.

I love you. I love you so much

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Liz slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelids felt heavy, but strangely light at the same time. The light forcing itself in through the small openings in her eyes was bright and she started to repeatedly blink in response. She closed her eyes again for a couple of seconds, deeply breathing in the air and the fragrances hanging in the air. It was with a smile on her lips that she opened her eyes again, feeling how his heart was beating with the same rhythm as hers. She could feel how soft the air was flowing into his lungs in sync with the air that was flowing into hers. She could feel the touch of her own hand on his arm. She was bathing in his essence. The feelings from the dream world he was currently experiencing were floating all around her and she started to laugh quietly to herself with happiness. She could feel him. She could feel all of him and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever felt.

He was lying just in front of her, one whisk of his dark hair hanging down over his left eye. Her smile was everlasting, ever glowing, as she slowly moved her hand to tenderly brush the hair away.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for coming back to me."
She could feel sleep starting to claim her again, her body still needed to recuperate, and she willingly succumbed. Her hand drifted down his side to fall softly over his waist as she moved closer to him. But there really was no way she could get any closer. Their minds were one, not to be separated ever again.

TBC...