Chapter 2

Michael stared at the soldier without blinking, still struggling to find the answer to his question about his actions. On Antar he wouldn´t hesistate to attack instantly, because they were all equals with their abilities, but on earth everything was off. He could risk to blast this one man within seconds, which however meant he would also risk that the other men would shoot him, Max and Isabel. Finally noticing that Larek was missing from the picture, he was sure that their old friend was planning something already, planting a few traps for their human hosts. Smiling, because he received the decision, he stood up slowly from his position and was prepared to throw an energy ball, something he had learned on Antar, when he saw that two soldiers were coming with Larek in tow. Realizing that they were blown, he bit the inside of his cheek angrily.

" Get in the car! We´ll bring you to our base. The General will want to deal with you".

Michael slightly stumbled when the soldier pushed him with his gun in the direction of the jeep. Before he however could get in, some young dude was putting some strange ropes around his wrists and bound them together. " Hey, not so tight. I bruise easily".

The boy glanced at him nervously, not even having the guts to look his captive in the eyes and instead looking at a spot a little over his opponents head, making it apparant that he wasn´t a trained soldier, but a civilist who had just gotten a weapon pushed into his hands and ordered to use it.

" Don´t waste too much time with our guest. We want to back before the sun goes down", the older soldier, obviously the leader of this little group of men, barked at his youngest member. And it seemed to work, because seconds after the snappy comment they were driving out of town.

Isabel and Max sat in the first jeep, huddled close together and praying that some idea would pop in their heads to get them out of this mess. Unfortunately their panic was making thinking to a challenge and the only thing circling in their minds was the thought that they would be getting thrown into a prison cell again or worse killed. And they didn´t even know the reason for that or what happened to Roswell in the first place. But maybe someone would be so kind to answer a few of their questions before they decided what to do with them.

Meanwhile Larek and Michael were in the other jeep, both staring out at the scenery or what was left of it passing them. Nothing was at its place, there was just a lot of destruction and death, hopelessness and fear. Michael saw the spot where the DeLuca house had been standing and the only thing that was still visible was the wreckage of the foundation. Shaking his head he was hoping that Maria had managed to escape before everything had been damaged and that she was safe somewhere, maybe with the others. Turning his head he glanced at the two soldiers sitting in the front and talking quietly to each other, probably about them and what this General would do to with the prisoner. For the first time he was miffed about the fact that he couldn´t read minds, it would help him in this situation and he could prepare himself for what they had to expect. Facing Larek he realized that the other man was trying to get the ropes off of his hands by using his powers. Sadly the ropes weren´t budging an inch and the only thing happening was that they got tighter and were cutting into his flesh.

" Great. You can´t untie yourself, because that´s an alien proved rope and the only way you get them off will be by cutting your hands off, which I wouldn´t suggest. Not because I care about you, but I´m not in the mood to clean blood from the interior of the car", the front seat passenger told them, having heard the quiet grunt of pain. He seemed to be worse than the other soldier having pushed them into the jeep.

Michael was momentarily thrown when he heard the word alien in the sentence and he wondered how the guy knew about their out of this world status. Squinting his eyes he tried to read the expression to find out if it was just a bluff or if the soldier really knew something. Sadly the face of the older man was almost set in stone and he didn´t give anything away. " I want to know why we´re getting treated like a criminal, even though we haven´t done anything".

The driver, one of the younger man, gazed through the rearview mirror at them and there was something in his eyes that made clear that he wasn´t so hardened like his companions. " Everything will be explained when we´re at the base".

" Fantastic and until then we have to guess or what? What happened to all the people in town and why does Roswell look like nobody had lived here for hundreds of years?", Michael thought that maybe they would realize that they had the wrong guys when he gave them the impression they weren´t from around, which wasn´t even a lie anyway.

The young boy shook his head, indicating that this conversation was over. He didn´t even have the permission to talk to the prisoner in the first place. All he had to do was drive the jeep and don´t ask questions. Thankfully he was spared to listen to more questions with the arrival at the base near Frazier Woods. Actually it was looking like some camping trip from the boy scouts. Tents in all sizes were standing in a circle around a fireplace while small items like water bottles and coolers were strewn on the ground, all in all making a pretty innocent appearance. That changed the moment they parked the jeeps side by side and as soon as everyone was out of the vehicles, the muddy floor under the cars was opening up and swallowed them quickly. Michael, Max and Larek were impressed about the technique and Isabel was too scared to notice anything besides the guns from the dangerous looking men. Unfortunately they didn´t have too much time to watch the ground getting back to its former state, because the soldiers dragged them in the direction of the biggest tent on the campside. The leader of the small troop stepped forward as soon as they were inside and glanced in the mirror which was hanging at south wall. For a moment the aliens stared unbelieving at the scene, wondering why the guy was gazing at himself. But then some sort of scanner was running in a green stripe across his face and seconds later the ground opened up from again, this time something came up instead of getting down. It looked like an elevator just without the cables pulling it up and it was a little bit bigger with glass doors instead of metal ones. Waiting until the cabin opened the humans each held tightly onto one of the aliens, preventing them from escaping. Pushing them inside the elevator the older soldier bent down towards a small speaker in the wall.

" Tinkerbell".

The younger men started to grin at that, usually having so much fun when they heard the codeword for the elevator from their commander mouth. It was always such a pleasure to hear him utter such a delicate word, remembering that most of the time he cursed like a sailor. Feeling his heated gaze landing on them, they immediately tried to hide their amusement and concentrated on something else. After the cabin was moving the mood changed and everyone was keeping a straight face again. Seconds later they came to a halt in front what looked like a long hallway, with a lot of uniformed people scurrying around. As soon as they came out of the cabin the noise of many voices was filling the air, the smell of gunpowder and soil was wafting through the hall.

" Move it. We don´t have all day", the aliens instantly got in gear and started walking over the muddy ground, watching the men and women staring at them when they passed or some of them even glared, seemingly thinking they were the enemy while some didn´t even take notice of them, obviously too busy with their own task to wonder about the new arrivals.

Then they stopped in front of a large heavily looking steel door with two guards on each side. They immediately drew their weapons when they noticed the group of people they didn´t know. They just relaxed when they realized that each person was tied up and some of their own men were present. Nodding at another they got permission to enter. Slowly they stepped inside the room, which seemed to be an office. A expensive looking desk was standing at the far wall, at the right side was a small table with bottles of what looked like whiskey and glasses on top. And on a huge chair was someone sitting with his back turned to the people having come in.

The oldest soldier walked around the group and went to the desk. " General. We have found another batch of aliens".

" Yeah I know. I´ve felt them as soon as they had hit earth", the chair turned around and the occupant of the said thing got on his feet to make his way towards the captives to enjoy the shock on their faces from a closer point. He knew that they hadn´t expected to see him ever again.

Michael nearly forgot to breath when he looked in his own face with same expression and the same damn smirk. Except for the short haircut and the neatly shaved skin, it was him exactly to the T. And immediately he knew who was standing in front of them, relishing the fact that they were at his mercy. " Wonderful, my loser dupe. I should have known that you would want to play the boss".

Rath stopped in front of his twin and smiled at him, keeping himself from chuckling amused at the other man. He knew that his lady wouldn´t like it and she would scold him for behaving like a child. Instead he folded his arms over his chest and glanced at his opponent with a raised eyebrow. " Yeah well, if you would have stopped playing the babysitter for King weakling, you could be on my position right now".

" Thanks, but no thanks. I´d rather keep my hands clean", Michael didn´t want to imagine what the other man had done to get at this point, how many blood was sticking to his dupes skin and how many people he had killed. No person trying to murder someone else because of selfish motives could be doing anything without having good intentions.

Rath couldn´t contain his laughter any longer and he started to let everything out. They were so much alike that he regretted having not such a special bond to his twin, they could have done a lot of damage in his old days. Getting himself under control again he turned to his men. " You´re dismissed. I can handle them alone. And sent the Princess to me".

The oldest soldier nodded before he took his younger companions and left the room without hesistating. He trusted his general to know what he was doing and capable of taking care of this situation without them.

" Okay now that we´re alone. I want to know what´s going on here, what you´ve done and who died and made you king?", Michael refrained from asking about the others. A part of him didn´t want to know what had been happening to them and another part didn´t want to get his friends in trouble by getting the attention of the enemy drawn in their direction.

Rath walked back to his desk and sat on the surface, making sure not to disorganize his papers with the position of his rival´s army. He didn´t have time to rearrange everything again and he didn´t want to get in trouble with his girl for making more mess. " Firstly I´m the General and not the King. Secondly you missed a lot when you were up there and thirdly I´ve done nothing".

Max, having been pretty quiet the whole time because he couldn´t forget that this guy had wanted to kill him for some strange reason, finally found his voice again. He knew that Michael wouldn´t get anything out of his dupe, he wasn´t exaclty the calm one. " Fine. But we just came back to this destruction and we want to find out what had happened".

" All right", Rath waved his hands in their direction and instantly the ropes around their wrist fell away, which the four people acknowledged with a sigh of relieve. Rubbing their sore skin they stared at something they could use as a seat. Seconds later four white chairs made themselves visible and everyone took place there while their host tried to find the right words. Breathing deeply in, he thought it was better to just jump in the water. " Okay, here´s what I remember. Me and Lonnie were travelling around, minding our own business when some dude approached us, warning to run as fast as possible away from this spot. At this point we realized that we were pretty close to Roswell and that people left the town in a hurry and I mean really in a hurry. F***ing human beings didn´t even look after everyone else, they just wanted to be as far away from the place as possible, no matter the cost. Of course Lonnie and I had to check out what was going on and we found the small town totally wrecked, flames were shooting out of buildings, screams were heard over miles and dead bodies were lying around. In the middle of everything we found a group of people armed to the teeth fighting of a troop of seemingly evil aliens. By closer looking I saw that it was the british museums guy, the sheriff, some jock, some latino, the brown-n-boring chick from the king and the blonde firecracker with some other people. I knew they were losing and I was in the process to turn around and mind my own business again. Until I heard his voice, the voice of everything I hated. Khivar had decided that now that you had been gone the granilith and the only one able to use it would be his without any problems. Unfortunately he hadn´t counted that the humans would fight him and that´s what they´re doing for four years now".

Isabel just heard the date and she startled, thinking that they had been gone for one year top. But if this was true then it meant that time was going not so fast on Antar like here on earth, which in return was making her feel more guilty for just leaving them to deal with their enemy. " How long have we´ve been away?".

Rath counted quietly in his head the days before he came to Roswell and the years he was now here. Counted with the months he was leading this operation he came to a long time. " Almost five years".

" Oh god!", Isabel was glad to be seated because she was sure her legs wouldn´t have held her weight anymore at this moment. Five years they had been away from home, away from their friends, their lovers and most importantly their families. " Where are the others? Are they still alive?".

Michael couldn´t grasp the information to the fullest, everything was swirling around in his head and he wasn´t able to think clearly. But one thing stood out from all the facts, something about the granilith and the only one able to use it. " What do you mean with the granilith? Didn´t Tess fly away with it? And who is the one able to work it?".

Rath shook his head, wondering how these people had survived for so long with the few knowledge they had. But after what he heard it was the fault from their protector, who was more foe than friend. " No, the thing Tess was flying away was the transporter. The granilith is still here on earth. To be exact it´s here with us, pretty good hidden and heavily guarded".

" Oh damn".

Rath was just in the process to second that comment when the door opened and some small person stormed inside with quick steps, making it apparent that there wasn´t any time to waste. " I hope for your sorry ass that you have a good reason get me away from the few free minutes I have".

Three people immediately gasped at seeing the familiar face again.

TBC