While Max didn't fully understand everything about the relatively new psychic bond he shared with Isabel, he sensed a torment in her ever since they reunited on Kivar's ship. He knew Nicholas's death rattled her. Both Isabel and Michael seemed reluctant to get into details, even when they had time on the drive from El Quartelejo to Roswell to discuss what happened. Getting tricked away from the group by Kivar in disguise as Jesse only added to the unnerved feelings Max sensed from Isabel.
Max knew pairing himself with Isabel for this final night watch shift would give him the opportunity to check in on her and hopefully get her to open up about everything. He just needed to find the right way to start the conversation. Fortunately, Isabel knew him too well and called Max out.
"It's not a coincidence that it's just the two us, is it, Max?" Isabel asked as she sat down beside him on Valenti's couch.
"No," Max acknowledged simply. "We haven't been able to talk outside the group since coming back from Kivar's ship. From your battle with Nicholas to now getting deceived by Kivar like that… I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine," Isabel stated flatly.
Max looked his sister in the eyes. He knew she could pick up on his general thoughts and feelings.
"You're sensing something different, though, aren't you?" Isabel asked.
"I'm concerned about why you don't want to talk about your confrontation with Nicholas on the ship," Max explained. "It feels like you're afraid to tell me the whole story."
Isabel hesitated, but Max didn't want to pressure her. He took a look at both the front door and the door to the backyard to ensure no signs of trouble were evident before returning his attention to Isabel.
"I've been saying that Kivar pinned Michael down and put his hand on Michael's heart, ready to deliver a fatal blow," Isabel began, "and that I rammed an object into the seal on his husk to save Michael. All of that is true, but… I don't know that I had to kill him."
"You can't second guess or beat yourself up," Max said. "When it becomes a life or death battle like that, we don't have time to make careful, calculated decisions."
"That's not what Michael thought right after it happened," Isabel confessed. "He accused me of being unnecessarily aggressive to begin fighting with Nicholas in the first place, and he said it seemed like I wanted Nicholas dead. And I … I think he's right, Max. That is how I felt then and how I feel now."
Even before Isabel's deadly showdown with Vanessa Whitaker in high school, she surprised Max weeks earlier by suggesting that they kill Brody. At the time, they suspected Brody was one of The Skins and snuck into The UFO Center to confront him. He fired Max from his job at the Center, and the Trithium Amplification Generator went off and knocked Michael down. Back then, Isabel offered that up out of fear over what one of The Skins could do to them. Now Max believed she suffered from guilt over making the tough call to save Michael at the expense of Nicholas.
"No, this isn't you," Max assured her calmly, placing a hand around her shoulder to console Isabel.
"But what if it is, Max?" Isabel insisted. "I hated Nicholas for all the times he tormented me. And it's not just him. I hate Kivar, too. And Vilandra—oh, I hate Vilandra most of all. I wish I could kill the part of her that lives inside me."
Max could sense Isabel believed what she said, but he didn't want to. He couldn't.
"I know you," Max insisted. "You're not a hateful person or a killer. This all sounds like Vilandra."
"No," Isabel cut him off firmly, "Vilandra still has feelings for Kivar. And I don't think she had a problem with Nicholas. Those weren't her enemies—just like they weren't Tess's enemies."
"You're not like Tess," Max objected. He did not like Isabel reminding him of some of the last words Tess spoke to him before she went off-world to give birth to Zan.
"I don't want to be," Isabel wept softly, as her eyes began to well up. "But after thinking I left everything about Vilandra and Kivar and Antar behind years ago, this experience—ever since I tracked you down in Texas—is changing me. I have a family to protect now. How am I supposed to sleep easy at night knowing Kivar and Nicholas and who knows what other kinds of alien threats are coming for me?"
"That's it," Max suggested. "This is the first time you've had to deal with any of this now that you have your own family with Jesse and the girls. Maybe some of these feelings are your maternal instincts spurring you to protect the people you love. That's not a bad thing, Iz."
"What kind of person am I going to be if I go back to them?" Isabel asked.
Max knew he failed to fully get through to her so far. He searched through his thoughts looking for something new to offer her.
FLASH
Max, Isabel, Tess, Maria and Alex talked with Nasedo in the employee breakroom at the Crashdown Café junior year of high school. Nasedo wore the identity of Ed Harding. Liz stumbled into their conversation coming down the stairs from her bedroom above the restaurant. Max explained to Nasedo that the Feds, led by Vanessa Whitaker, were looking for proof of alien interference on Agent Pierce's bones in the form of Cabnium X, an alien substance created when his bones fused from Michael's deadly attack.
"Tell me how far this information has leaked," Nasedo requested casually. "I need to extinguish every human who has this information."
"I'm going to assume present company is excluded," Alex said disapprovingly.
"Isn't murder what got you into this situation to begin with?" Liz asked, also disapproving of the possibility of killing anyone.
"My job is to protect the Royal Four," Nasedo told Liz calmly. "Their survival is critical to the survival of an entire race."
"No one's going to die," Max whined, "killing people isn't going to solve anything."
WASHOUT
Rehashing that shared memory of Nasedo's attitude toward killing could do the trick to help Max differentiate Isabel's feelings from their alien protector's attitude about it.
"If you were this killer, it wouldn't bother you like this," Max told Isabel. "Remember how Nasedo would confront almost any obstacle? He killed without hesitation and never showed the slightest regret or remorse. And he'd suggest killing multiple people as if it was as mundane as reading the morning paper. You're not like that. You'll never be like that."
Isabel took a moment to let Max's words sink in. "I hope you're right."
"I am," Max insisted with compassion and confidence.
Isabel looked into his eyes. "Thank you for believing in me, even when I have doubts about myself."
Max hugged her tightly. "That's what brothers are for."
After a long, emotional embrace, Isabel looked Max in the eyes again.
Isabel spoke with a nervous quiver in her voice, "So let's say you've convinced me that I can go back to being the same old me with my family again. Will I get to go home to Suncook? Or are you going to signal Larek to take you, me, Michael and Ava back to Antar?"
Max took a deep breath. "We'll just have to see when the time comes," he said with a calm, stoic tone.
"How can you say that so matter-of-factly?" Isabel asked. "Doesn't the idea of returning to Antar bother you, at least a little bit?"
Max let some of his guards down. "Bother me? It terrifies me. You think I want to leave Liz? You think I want to leave the only life I've ever known? Or that it would be easy for me to ask you or Michael to follow me? I have no idea what would be in store for us on Antar or if we've learned enough about our abilities to truly survive there. But just like you can't rid yourself of Vilandra, I can't remove…"
Max closed his eyes and took a couple of seconds to focus. He summoned and projected the 5-star V-shaped Royal Seal emblem out of his hand so that the bluish 3D symbol contrasted against a nearby dark wall. Isabel watched in awe, never seeing it project from Max's head quite like this before.
"…this," Max finished. "I'm the king. What kind of person would I be if I risked mass lives on two worlds to selfishly do what Max Evans wants?"
"It was never fair how this burden of responsibility was cast on you," Isabel empathized.
"Thanks," Max said warmly. "My plan extends as far as we need to get the Granolith and summon Larek. If there's any way we can think of to end this without going to Antar, I intend to take it."
"I understand," Isabel said.
Those simple words made Max feel like a massive boulder got lifted off his shoulders. Even he and Liz didn't discuss this possibility at length. Isabel and the other hybrids could relate to going to Antar in a way Liz couldn't. Max knew none of them welcomed getting ripped away from their families, but hearing that his sister understood why he couldn't promise that they would never go back provided some assurance that Max employed a reasonable thought process.
Isabel continued, taking Max's hand, "And while it would be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do in my life to leave Jesse and the girls, if that's what it comes to, just know that I love you and support you and will do my duty to come with you."
They didn't speak another word the rest of their shift. Isabel rested her head on Max's shoulder as they waited for the two hours to lapse at sunrise. Then they would all gather so Valenti could teleport them to the pod chamber.
Max spent more than half of his life on the run. In a literal sense, he ran from the Special Unit and the US government. But in many ways he also stayed on the move to dodge what he now recognized as an inevitable duty and responsibility as the king of Antar. Max didn't know if he could've or should've made different choices over the years to prevent everything from coming to a head like this. With countless lives on multiple planets hanging in the balance, the weight of his kingly duties and responsibilities came crashing down on him like never before. As hybrids resigned to live out their lives on Earth, Max wanted to relinquish his authority so the gang could make decisions as a group. Now it felt like the fate of everyone rested on him, his Royal Four unit and his Granolith. Max had nowhere else to run to.