Title: Mythology

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's note: I'm changing season three quite a bit. Here are the things you have to know. Liz starts getting visions early, even before the whole thing where she runs off to boarding school in Vermont or wherever. She does not need to be touching anything to get a vision. Maria and Michael are still together, mostly because I don't actually remember when exactly in the season they break up. Italics are communications between Arya and Tess, or Liz's flashes, depending on the context.

this is the stuff of legends...

Chapter Two: The Army Moves

Day 2

"Maxwell, we've got a problem."

Max glanced up from his book and frowned in mild concern at his best friend. Michael had been distant lately, disappearing into his own work, and although the hybrid king had wondered what his general was up to, he had known better than to push for answers. Even Isabel had been unable to elicit details from the secretive Michael.

"What kind of problem?" Max asked warily. He and Liz were supposed to be enjoying a nice romantic meal at the Crashdown after hours, but it had already been interrupted by Maria who was having a identity crisis, Isabel who needed to talk about her marital problems, although Max wondered how she could have them after only a few days of marriage, and Kyle, who just wanted to yell at someone about their stupidity for doubting Tess again.

"It's your father," Michael said without preamble. "He's investigating you."

"Huh?" Max asked. In the seat across from him, Liz straightened and looked up with interest and concern. Maria, who was wiping the tables on the other side of the room, dropped her rag on the floor and walked over, worry etched onto her face.

"He's investigating you. Valenti just told me that he was asking a whole bunch of questions. About Tess…"

"What?" Liz spluttered.

Max glanced in between his best friend and his girlfriend and frowned, wondering what to do. "What sort of questions about Tess?"

"Where she went and why she left so abruptly," Michael answered. He dropped into the seat next to Max. "And the last thing we need to right now is anyone making Jesse suspicious, or Isabel is going to be in trouble as well."

"I need to talk to him," Max decided.

"And say what?" Liz questioned hesitantly. Max and Michael both looked at her and she shrugged. "If you are going to have that conversation, it would probably be best if you worked out all your lies ahead of time so that you know what to say when they start pressing for answers."

"She's got a point," Maria concurred.

"I don't know what answers I can give them," Max replied thoughtfully. "Nothing they would by, and most certainly nothing that they would understand."

"You could tell them the truth," Maria suggested. All eyes swung to her and she shrugged self-consciously. "Look, I'm not saying divulge every detail of your life to the entire world. But these are your parents. They're not going to hand you over to the FBI."

"I really wish I could believe that," Max replied. "But I just can't take that chance." He stood up resolutely. "I'll think of something else to tell them, to throw them off track. In the meantime, just don't answer any questions if you can avoid it."

"Easier said then done," Michael grumbled, but nodded his head in agreement with the plan.

Liz watched as the two men walked out of the diner. She shook her head, part in concern that her boyfriend was in trouble, part in annoyance that she couldn't even have a half-an-hour date without it getting interrupted. She stood up and cleared the dishes from the booth, wondering how long the relationship would last.

Max loved her. If she just reminded herself that Max loved her, everything would be okay.

She hoped.

She carried the dishes half way to the back room, then dropped them on the nearest table, suddenly to tired to go any further. Something inside her started to burn, then to ache, and she gasped out in shock and pain. She was numbly aware of Maria at her side, asking her if she was okay, but she was in too much agony to respond. The world began to spin around her, and she doubled over, panting for breath.

"Liz, look out!"

"Max, no! Run, get out of here, save yourself."

"Not without you."

"Your going to die! Please, just leave. Just get out. Save yourself, save Isabel and Michael. Please."

"I can't leave you, Liz. I love you. I need you."

"No! You need to fight. You need to survive. For the world."

"If I had a choice in this, I'd pick you. I always have."

"I know. I love you, Max. Forever."

Liz opened her eyes and found that she was lying on her back on the cold tile floor of the Crashdown. Maria was kneeling next to her, applying a cold, wet washcloth to her forehead. Both Michael and Max were there as well, wearing identical looks of confusion and concern.

"What happened?"

"I think I had a flash," Liz answered dully, pushing herself to a sitting position.

"But you weren't kissing anyone," Maria pointed out, confused. She helped Liz stand, supporting the girl as she swayed unsteadily on her feet.

"I know," Liz admitted. "But…I definitely saw something. A vision of the future, maybe?"

"What did you see?"

Liz closed her eyes and pictured the scene, remembered the fear and despair the hovered in the air, the pain behind each frantic word. Suddenly another memory came to mind, one from many months ago. Future Max, standing in her room, telling her what had happened in his life, in the future he came back to prevent. Her face paled dramatically. "Oh, God, Max. I think I saw the end of the world."

Khivar stared at the map in front of him, tracing the snaking Landra river with his finger. After a moment of contemplation, he turned to Nicolas and said, "Read over the names of the people Audin said where on Antar before we destroyed it?"

Nicolas complied, glancing down at the paper in his hands and skimming the names. "Larek, Arya, Sria, Khai, Lotho, Kani."

"All dead except for Khai, who I am fairly certain has the Granolith with him," Khivar muttered, nodding slowly. Khai had evaded his men several times, but they were slowly closing their net around him. The Resistance general could not run forever, not from the best trained soldiers in the entire Southern Beltway. "Who else?"

"Morxan, Zyith, Radim, Trell."

"Also dead," Khivar murmured. "Except Morxan, who has escaped back to his own planet. I fear he is out of our reach now, he will have obtained intergalactic amnesty by now. But I doubt he can do much harm to us, even if he sends all his resources and all his money to the Resistance." He frowned for a moment, then sighed. "Next," he ordered.

"Nasuda, Shalimar, and Sirch."

At this, Khivar paused. "Nasuda and Sirch are dead," he said slowly, "but Shalimar is still unaccounted for." He turned back to the map, peering at it, trying to sort out his complicated thoughts.

"Do you think she knows where the Queen is?" Nicolas asked eagerly.

"I would stake my life on it," Khivar replied. He leaned forward, resting his hands and his weight on the table. "We need to find her, and we need to do it quickly, before she has time to disappear."

"Perhaps she has already," Nicolas suggested uneasily. "It has been three months since we took the planet." He watched the skin king, wondering if they were too late. Would Shalimar have already escaped their grasp, slipping through their fingers like sand?

Khivar nodded thoughtfully. "I have no doubt that she has chosen some place safe to hide, because she must know the value of the secret she harbors." He spun around to face Nicolas. "Attack."

"What?"

"Attack," Khivar repeated. He turned back to the map and stabbed his finger at several of the cities. "Attach hard and fast. Coordinated attacks, large scale and complete. Wipe out every city by the Landra river and burn them to the ground. Continue throughout the entire province of Tel'ai until there is nothing left."

"Why?" Nicolas asked, uncomprehendingly. "In the past, we've only attacked cities that were either Resistance bases or beneficial to us in some other way. A strike on the entire province…"

"Will force the Resistance to meet me in the battlefield," Khivar finished. "Our other fighting strategy worked fine when we were concerned about protecting our own image, but now I have something else in mind."

"And you want to engage in a full scale battle?" Nicolas questioned.

"Yes," Khivar replied simply, not elaborating any on his plan. He turned to Nicolas, his eyes deathly serious. "Prepare the entire army, Nicolas. All of the regiments. They move out tonight."

His entire army is moving? Tess asked, puzzled by the information. She had learned much about Khivar in the past several weeks, and one of the many things she knew was that Khivar rarely attacked in such a blatant and open manor. His attacks were swift and brutal, there was no doubt about that, but he always had a reason, a justification, that he could give to the intergalactic community if they demanded one. He had to protect his own image as a fair king and not a crazy despot.

Even the cities of Drasu and Sab, the cities that he had completely decimated simply because of their proximity to the capital of the planet, even those he had a 'justifiable' reason. Tess shook her head, resisting the urge to burst into cynical laughter. The reason Khivar had supplied to the Council of the Worlds was that the two cities had been secretly feeding money to the Resistance. The Council of the Worlds was a lethargic congressional body that wanted to involve itself in as little conflict as possible, and there had been just enough truth in Khivar's claim for them to accept it as proper justification of the murder of innocent men, woman ,and children.

But the complete and utter annihilation of an entire province? How could Khivar possibly justify that? How could the Council close their eyes to that?

The spies have brought reports, my Lady. They are moving, and quickly. The attack on the province will happen soon.

How does he expect to justify this to the Council, Arya? They cannot close their eyes to that kind of military tactic, no matter how much they may want to.

The Council has always been on his side, my Lady. They back the side they believe will win.

Tess gave a dark chuckle. They picked the wrong side this time.

Perhaps. But Khivar is moving now, and we don't know why. And I am worried.

Tess silently agreed and glanced around the desert. At times like these she felt so completely helpless. She wanted to be with the Resistance in more than just spirit, she wanted to be able to fight with them in the fields and to stand next to them when the sky filled with black smoke and the earth ran thick with blood.

It's a trap, Tess thought suddenly. A distraction method.

How do you know?

I don't know, Arya. I just…I just know. Tess frowned, frustrated that she was unable to adequately explain what she thought and how she felt. He is planning something else, and this is just a distraction. He wants us to face him, he wants us to be too absorbed in this to see what his real plans are.

What do you suggest we do, my Lady? We can't not engage in battle or we risk losing everything.

We risk losing everything no matter what, Arya. No matter what they did, Khivar would outnumber them one-hundred to one.

True…But if we don't attack, we will be sending a message to all those who look to us in hope that we are giving up.

Tess sighed, uneasy with the answer. It was true, they would have to send the army out to fight Khivar. They had to, or the planet would lose faith in them. If they just stood by and let an entire province be destroyed…But no matter the necessity of the move, Tess did not like sending men and women out into a needless battle. If we can figure out what Khivar is planning, then we may have a better idea of the best way to proceed. Contact me if you have any other news, I will think on this tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will bring answers.

There was a pause, and when Arya's answer finally came, her words were filled with doubt.

Perhaps, my Lady.

Next Chapter: The Forces Wait

Due: Wed 2/1