| Chapter Seven: "All for one..." | ||
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"You died Michael. You died in Max's arms minutes before he came back in time."
"He told me that we were married in Las Vegas when we were 19 years old. Everyone was there, including Alex, but afterward Tess left and the four square fell apart."
"He was real, Michael… He was able to pick up objects and hand them to me; he was able to tell me what would happen next. It wasn't a trick, he was real."
"So I did it. Pushed Max away, set him up with Tess, everything I could to save everyone from the future he was predicting, only to find out it’s happening all over again. I can’t do it again Michael, not alone, not when I have to live with the knowledge that I failed to save us all the first time.”
You know, back in the days before I was haunted by strange visions that linked me to Liz Parker, I used to actually sleep in beds. Friggin' amazing, I tell ya.
Now, I found myself, just lying in beds and staring at the ceiling, pondering the fate of the universe and the part that I had to play in the whole thing.
Liz's explanation of the downright bizarre events surrounding Maxwell's return to Roswell from the future was cut short yesterday by her parents calling her cell phone and begging her to come to the Crashdown, as well as ask how the debate club trip went. If Parker’s parents believed that she’d been on that debate trip, then that meant that Valenti never told anyone that we were really in Vegas the whole time. Maybe I didn’t have to worry about my emancipation status after all. In a way, I was secretly thankful for the interruption because I didn't know how to react to the news.
Hearing about your own death tends to render one speechless.
A day later, I was still mildly surprised to be experiencing two emotions that were on the complete opposite ends of the feeling rainbow. Honestly, how could one person be inordinately thankful, yet completely pissed off at the same time?
Granted, I was plenty pissed at dearest Maxwell. How on earth could one man be so unbelievably stupid? Out of our entire group, he decides to heap what seems to me as the biggest burden ever, on the woman he supposedly loves in order to save the world. I know I must have been dead because there was no way I would have ever agreed to his traveling back in time and telling Liz Parker how she needs to save the world and leave me, the damned solider of the group out of it!
Also, I didn’t know how Maxwell figured that Liz could keep this information from everyone. Hell, I’d been keeping these damned dreams secret for three days now, and it was driving me nuts. Liz and I both agreed we were definitely going to have to fill everyone in on this sooner or later. Preferably sooner, any later and it could be too late to save us all. She told me she would take Maria and Alex, which left me with the alien contingent.
As for the thankful part, I mean, how do you go about telling someone 'Gee, thanks for saving my ass in the future…' without sounding like you'd joined the cast of some cheesy sci-fi television show? All I knew was that Liz had been willing to sacrifice one of the most important parts of her life so that I could continue my sorry ass existence on this planet; I owed her more than words could express.
Now I had to go about showing her my gratitude, somehow.
I looked over at the small alarm clock that Isabel had bought for me, perched on a plastic chair next to my bed.
9:14am.
"Michael, Isabel died two weeks before Max traveled back in time. I'm so sorry…"
I fought the urge to groan. I knew that with all these thoughts about the end of the world, Serena Winston, flashes, Liz Parker and prophetic dreams swirling in my brain like too many colors on a canvas, I would never get back to sleep.
“Supposedly, Serena and Alex figured out how to modify the Granolith and use it as a time machine...”
Moments later, I found myself pulling on jeans, a fairly clean smelling t-shirt and my Docs. There were too many thoughts, too many voices that weren't even mine competing for dominance. Maybe some fresh air around Roswell would help me clear my mind so I could figure out where Liz and I needed to go from here.
A good solider was always prepared and I thought it was about time I started acting like one.
I stepped outside my apartment building and took a deep breath. I didn't have a specific destination in mind, I just needed to walk and think alone for a little while. So, Liz mentioned that Future Max came from the year 2014. So the world really goes to hell in thirteen years, so bad that Max takes a direct flight to the year 2000 on the Granolith to warn us about our past mistakes.
Hmmm. Now just where have I heard that story before?
I felt my strides begin to quicken as my mind started to whirl with seemingly unanswerable questions.
What the fuck happened in our future? Who were we running from really?
Was it the government?
Was it the Skins?
Was Tess really such an important part to our victory over the skins? Was she really hurting us, pretending to be on our side? I knew that from now on, I’d better start keeping a close eye on her actions. She very well could be an enemy hiding in plain sight.
Our future selves only mentioned Tess briefly in the very beginning. Sure we’d been interrupted during our one and only meeting since then, but why would Maxwell focus on her and our futures selves on Serena Winston?
Who was Serena Winston?
Who killed Laura Palmer?
Hell, who shot JR?
Seriously though, what the fuck was wrong with Maxwell? Why the hell didn't he give Liz a little more information to go on besides their goddamned wedding song?
Why didn't he come and tell me what to do? Must’ve figured that good ol' fuck up Michael couldn't get the job done. Apparently he had no faith in me in the future, past, or present... goddamnit, Maxwell, why couldn’t you just trust me for once?
Didn't he realize how much that must have killed her inside to just go through with his demands knowing all their wedding specifics?
Why would Maxwell bother to travel back in time when Liz and I could just astral-project ourselves back? Sure a 24 hour pass would probably be preferable to waiting for your destination to fall asleep, but you only had one shot. What if something happened to you? What if the Granolith didn’t work right?
You were screwed.
Could the astral-projection not work if I was dead?
How had I let everyone down?
How had I let Liz down?
I realized I was standing in front of the Crashdown at the corner of Citrus Street and Badillo Avenue in downtown Roswell, heart racing and palms burning hot from anger.
How, if Liz Parker obviously meant the world to me in the future, had I let her down?
Resisting the urge to stomp inside the Crashdown, find Liz and see if we could figure out this wacky timeline shit without a fucking degree in astral-physics or some shit like that, I turned and continued down Citrus Street instead.
“I’m sick of all the secrets, Michael. Who knows, maybe because I never told anyone the first time around is the reason why we’re in this mess now.”
As I walked further away, it struck me that Liz and I were on the same page this time around in that one aspect at least. It was obvious that while we needed to save the world together, there was simply no way that we pull it off without everyone else knowing.
I groaned. I just couldn't help. I didn't want to deal with Maxwell's inevitable issues with Liz and me receiving dreams together. King Anal-Retentive would throw a hissy fit.
"Michael? What are you doing out and around Roswell before noon on a day off?"
I whirled around to find Isabel standing behind me, one hand planted on her hip a la Ice Queen and the other clutching several shopping bags.
"I had some thinking to do, Is," I muttered. "How is it that you can blow three grand on clothes in Vegas and still do shopping back here?"
Isabel laughed as she smoothed her down her hair. "Poor, poor Michael. You'll never understand women. We live to shop no matter how much money we may have spent recently."
I grunted and shuffled my feet. If I just understood what was going on with me, I would trade that for understanding women any day.
"Michael?" Isabel was suddenly at my side. "Is there something wrong? You've been acting funny ever since Las Vegas…"
I sighed and looked up the girl I'd considered my sister for as long as I'd known her. This was Isabel; she would understand and maybe could help us work through these dreams, or at least with Maxwell. "Is… Let's go to the park and talk. I’ve got a lot to tell you."
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I never imagined that it would be so uncomfortable to talk about Future Max with another person.
Sure it had been hard with Maria, but she was Maria and her frequent interruptions and rants had somehow made the process easier. She had gotten mad on my behalf. She had raged at the injustices of it all while I couldn’t, and that was fine, wonderful, soothing really.
Alex had been all bear hugs, and whispered words. Holding me while I cried and telling me that it would all work out. He had then taken me out for the biggest Sunday ever made and even sacrificed his manliness to watch chick flicks with strong women who didn’t need a man, so that I wouldn’t see leaving Max as the emotional end of my world.
In my mind I had told Max a million different ways, but these mythical conversations always started with me announcing in some dramatic fashion that I needed to tell him something and then fast-forwarded to the end when he would wrap me up in his strong arms and tell me everything was going to be okay. In true Queen of Denial fashion, I conveniently left out the actual conversation. Maybe I just always figured it would come to me, that it would just flow out because it was the right thing to do. Someone should have hit me over the head with the reality stick, because it sure as hell didn’t go that way with Michael.
Michael.
The last person I ever saw myself explaining my actions to.
I had expected to tell Kyle, Isabel or even Tess before I unburdened that little secret on him. In fact, I had always known that I might have had to tell Tess before any of them, just to keep her from leaving if Max didn’t get a clue. Given how gung ho she was about destiny, I had figured knowing that it was the only right way in the future would just add to her verve.
Michael had never really been a consideration, although I really couldn’t say why. Maybe it was because Max had chosen to come to me. Maybe it was because the idea of opening myself up to Michael like that scared the bejesus out of me. The man had read my diary, heard me prattle on about how Max and I were meant for each other, how we were soul mates. Hearing that the future went to hell because of us would have only confirm that he was right in the first place when he claimed we, the humans, were a distraction, a destructive force.
Okay, maybe he hadn’t said “destructive force” exactly, but his thoughts had definitely been in that vein.
Maybe these dreams had changed him though, or maybe I had never really known him at all, because he had been surprisingly receptive to what I had to say. Of course, knowing that your future self was currently contacting you through your subconscious had to help my side a little. Still, he had been almost gentle when he’d questioned me, scratching his eyebrow more than smirking, sitting on that stump without even squirming he was so caught up.
That had almost been harder to take. The fact that he seemed to be weighing my words, judging everything that I said, judging me. What if he had found some flaw I hadn’t considered? What if he saw something that proved I had made the mistake that caused our future to spiral out of control again? God, I didn’t want to be responsible for messing up the future twice.
“How did he prove he was Max?”
“Why did he come back?”
“What did he say happened exactly?”
I had never been more happy to have my parents call, to have an excuse to end the questions that just seemed to build the tension between us.
“Okay, explain this Tess thing to me one more time…”
“He expected you to do this alone?”
It was hard to say who came to the realization first—that we would have to tell the others—just that he had been the one to say it. To admit out loud that we couldn’t do this alone, that we weren’t doing it alone in the future, and that Future Max should have never made me do it by myself in the first place. He had sounded so resolute, and at the same time scared. It was at that moment I finally realized how big this was, how much greater than the two of us. It was true that we couldn’t do this by ourselves, but I never thought that Michael Guerin, loner extraordinaire would be the one to say it first.
He had though, and now I found myself waiting for Maria and Alex to arrive, to convene a meeting that I had known would take place eventually—I had promised never to lie to the two of them again—but not quite this soon. They were involved in the future though, whether it was alive or in the memory of their deaths. They deserved to know what was happening, even if what I knew was sketchy at best.
The words Michael had recalled from my first dream scared me.
I'd like to think that I would have done things differently… I'd like to think that Alex would still be alive, that Tess would have been exposed, that we wouldn't be running for our lives from the very men that he dreamed about so long ago…
What did she mean? Was Alex really dead? Had he died because Future Max and I had changed the future the first time? That made me responsible, made me the catalyst for his death. I didn’t want to believe it was true, but it made sense in a sick fashion.
It would explain why my future self didn’t utilize the Granolith again. Because surely being able to talk to the us face to face would have been better than waiting for us to fall asleep, which I was pretty sure was what had to happen for the connection with our future selves to take place. The scientist in me also took into account the energy they must be expending with each connection. The Granolith ran on its own energy source, the future versions of Michael and myself only had what was provided by their bodies as far as I could tell. The amount of power we would have to be expending was hard to envision, and the aftereffects would have to be detrimental physically if not mentally. The future would have to be pretty grim if we were willing to make that sacrifice.
But what were we trying to change?
Who was after us? The Skins? The FBI? Khivar himself?
In the first timeline it had been the Skins, but my future self had mentioned the men Michael had been running from. Men implied the FBI, the government, my own species, but it didn’t necessarily mean that they were the only ones.
I rubbed my arms to chase away the chill that had raised goosebumps on a seventy-five degree day. I was afraid that we would have to know the future to know what to stop, and unfortunately our future selves had not been very forthcoming to date. I could only hope that by finding Serena we would understand a little bit more. She had been mentioned in both timelines so she had to be important. Michael told me that he asked Valenti to see if she lived in Roswell, but the idea that she lived under our noses for so long seemed pretty impossible to me.
I glanced at my clock.
9:30 am.
Maria and Alex would be arriving at any moment.
What was I going to tell them? How was I going to break it to Michael’s ex-girlfriend that I was sharing dreams with him, getting flashes? Did I even mention that we seemed to have feelings for each other in the future?
I bit my lip.
Maybe I would just hold that little tidbit of information back until later. I didn’t need to start a hurricane Deluca when it was so important that she pay attention and listen. With Maria, it was better to dole the important information out first, slipping in the bad as unobtrusively as possible. The whole reason I had invited Alex over too instead of having a separate conversation with each of them was so he would act as a calming influence.
Fingers drummed against my door, Maria’s own personal little signal to announce that she had arrived. Two knocks followed. Alex was here too. I glanced at myself in the mirror, pausing briefly to pinch some color into my pale cheeks before letting them in.
I could do this.
“We’re here!” Maria announced, just in case my stuffed animals had somehow missed her entrance I was sure. “Ready for some three musketeers bonding minus the shopping, money and lights of Vegas!”
“Maria! Quiet. My parents will hear. Right now they’re under the impression that I went on a debate trip because thankfully Valenti decided not to tell our folks where we’d really been.” I hugged her even as I scolded her. She was irrepressible really.
Alex rolled his eyes as he strolled in behind her. “It wasn’t our butts he was saving Liz, it was his own. How would he explain where we’d gotten the money to go in the first place. Skipping school they would get over, but in their minds they would always wonder if we had held up a convenience store or something.”
He practically wrapped his arms around me twice as he swung me up off the floor, the tuners on his guitar he had strapped to his back, catching in my hair. I couldn’t stop myself from holding on a little tighter than I usually did. Sometime in the future he died, and it would be my fault. I was never going to take him for granted again. He meant too much to me. They both did.
“Oh please Alex, like any of us would even think of holding up a convenience store!” Maria giggled. “We’d do something with more cash at least, maybe a grocery store or a bank.”
“Nope, a bank would make it federal.” Alex put me down to pretend to stroke his chin thoughtfully. “But you may be on to something with that grocery store idea. They do a lot of turn over…”
He trailed off suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows. I just shook my head, “What future felons I have as friends. Here I thought I knew you two so well, and it turns out you have a dark side.”
“Ah Liz,” Alex grinned, moving to sit cross-legged with his back against my bed, “you know we’d be smart enough to not get caught.”
“Besides,” Maria added, as she flopped down on my mattress, scooping up an abandoned [U]People[/U], “If we ever did commit a felony, you know it would be because the pod squad finally drove us to murder.”
“Dum, di dum, dum,” Alex intoned menacingly, strumming along on his guitar. “Can’t you see the trial now. Pleading innocent by reason of alien abduction.”
“Oh, oh,” Maria broke in, “I didn’t mean to do it Your Honor, but Spaceboy had taken me and the Jetta for alien purposes one time too many—”
I frowned, cutting her off, this was getting out of hand. “Actually it was something alien related that I wanted to talk to you about…”
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Isabel and I walked in silence towards the park, Isabel probably coming down from her shopping high and I was simply trying to figure out how to explain this to her the easiest way possible.
Hey, Is, Liz Parker and I are receiving messages from our future selves saying that everyone practically dies in the future and it's up to us to save everything right now... oh yeah and apparently Liz and I have this whole star-crossed lovers feelings to boot. Isn't that neat?
Please, just book my nice padded room now, thank you. I heard there are nice people in the mental institution... Realtors, Lawyers, and former Soldiers from Antar come to mind.
It was strange, my future self had mentioned his feelings for Liz many times, but I didn't remember from her flashes about her future self mentioning it. Maybe she didn't want her present counterpart to deal with it after all those Future Max issues.
Or, maybe she didn't feel the same way.
Which was fine. Yeah, that whole thing didn't really matter because we had to save the world, not fall in love or some mushy crap like that.
As Isabel and I neared the park, I held back a groan. If Isabel hadn't experienced how strange our lives could be on a daily basis I wouldn't have expected her to believe any of this. I led the two of us deep into the center of the park, hoping that I could tell her everything without being interrupted by anyone.
I picked out the closest bench and sat down, I didn't even want to start this conversation, but I knew I had to get it over with or else everything was going to be royally fucked. How do I break this to everyone?
"Michael?" Isabel stood in front of me, her face full of concern.
"Yeah?" I grunted back.
"I've known you for two lifetimes now, and I know when you want to get something off your chest. Please tell me what's going on… I mean, you've been acting kinda strange since we went to Las Vegas."
"I don't know," I muttered. I was having second thoughts about this. Maybe I really was crazy, maybe this was some sort of alien delusion…
Isabel walked over and sat down on the bench next to me, placing one reassuring hand on my leg which was currently bouncing up and down at the same speed as my rising stress level. "Michael. Whatever it is, I won't think of you any differently."
C'mon Guerin, just grow a set and tell her damn it.
"Alright, before we even begin, I guess I should warn you that this is all really, really... uh... strange."
Isabel waved a manicured hand dismissively and rolled her eyes. "Tell me something new Michael, I think that flying blue Gandarium takes the cake, but go ahead."
She tried to say it like she didn’t care, seen it all, been there, done that, but her eyes shadowed at the mention of the Gandarium. Sorenson.
"Fine, but don't bitch at me later that I didn't warn you. Okay, Liz Parker and I have been receiving these weird dreams that are..."
"Whoa, whoa! Did you just say Liz Parker? As in Liz-who-makes-Max-all-mooney-eyed-Parker?" Isabel asked, one eyebrow arched at me.
I sighed deeply. "Yeah, that's exactly why I'm bringing this to you first and not Maxwell directly. Last thing I need is for him to flip out over this."
"No kidding. So, continue..."
"Well, our dreams are coming from ourselves in the future, warning us that we need to make some serious changes now in order to save the world." I shrugged my shoulders. "I told you. Strange."
She looked at me skeptically for a moment. "Are you sure this is all for real, Michael? I mean, it could very well be bad dreams from eating crappy fast food too late."
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“…I’ve been having these really weird dreams…involving Michael.”
Maria gave me an astonished look, “Spaceboy? Geez, even I can avoid him in my sleep.”
“Yeah well, in these dreams there’s this future me and…” I paused, my entire vocabulary had been reduced to one adjective that I just could not escape. “…it’s well, weird.”
“Okay Chica, good weird, or bad weird?” I could tell Maria was getting serious, she had put down the [u]People[/u] entirely.
“Or just plain weird-weird,” Alex chimed in, looking up from his guitar.
“Can I pick all of the above?” How could I explain to them about the feelings, the sadness?
Maria sighed and moved next to me to rub a hand up and down my back, “Normally this is where I would insert the little bit that while I know we were raised to share, sharing ex-boyfriends is a bit much, but I can tell that is not the point of the conversation. Oh Chica, why do I get the feeling that this can’t be fixed by mere ice cream alone?”
Alex got up from the floor, and suddenly I found myself sandwiched between the two of them as we sat on the edge of my bed. “Liz, you know whatever it is we’ll stand right beside you through it all.”
“Yeah, it’s all for one…” Maria began.
“And one for all,” we finished in unison. I hadn’t realized how cut off I had been feeling until they’d both wrapped me up in a massive group hug.
“Ugh, can’t breathe here guys,” I squeaked, mostly because any more emotional stuff was going to make me cry. They really were the best friends in the entire world.
Alex must have realized my emotional turmoil because as he pulled away he told me, “I know this is probably going to be hard for you to explain because of all the varied levels of weird you’re dealing with, but never fear I have all my episodes of the X-files cataloged so we can use them as a reference guide on the weird-weird issues.”
Maria and I giggled and he pretended not to notice as I not so discretely dabbed my eyes, continuing, “…of course I have to tell you if it’s the fluke worm guy in the sewer weird-weird, then I have to register my reservations now.”
I almost choked on my laughter and Maria smacked me on the back, “But seriously Chica, you know Alex and I are behind you 100%. No matter how weird-weird the weird-weird gets.”
“Well how weird do you consider being contacted by your future self in your dreams?”
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"He's contacted me twice, in my dreams… Telling me that we were going to have to change things now in order to save everyone in the future. He was telling me that people were dying and there was nothing they could do in the future, they had exhausted all their opportunities…"
Isabel leaned back against the park bench and thought for a moment. "How do you know that this isn't an advanced mind warp from the Skins?"
I shook my head. "I asked my older self to prove he was real and... well, let's just say he passed with flying colors, Is. This is legit."
"What exactly did he tell you to do?"
"He wants us to find this girl named Serena Winston. Apparently, she's a key to our success. Also…" I took a deep breath. This was going to be a tough one to break to Isabel, she might be the Ice Queen, but I knew that deep down she had feelings for our lanky, goofy friend.
"What, Michael? Does something really bad happen?" "You could say that, Is. We're pretty sure that Alex is going to die," I told her quietly, watching her eyes widen in shock.
"Who would want to kill Alex? He would never hurt a soul…" Isabel cried out, one hand flying to her open mouth.
"I don't know. Maybe I could find out if these damned dreams wouldn't keep getting interrupted by vertically challenged idiots…" I grunted in frustration as I looked over at her in concern. She looked really pale under the bright sunlight, maybe she cared even more about Alex than I realized. I reached out and squeezed one of her shoulders gently. "You okay?"
Isabel nodded head as she closed her eyes briefly. A moment later she opened them and looked at me. We all had our own walls. Mine, I’d been told was made of stone. Izzy’s was ice. "So, I don't get it. What does this have to do with Liz?"
There it was - the 20 million dollar question that I had been dreading. Do I lay it all the on the line and just tell Isabel that Liz and I were semi-romantically involved in the future, or just gloss over the whole thing at the moment?
"Well, she's been having these dreams too." That a way, Guerin, just let sleeping dogs lie for now.
"Michael, I can see maybe why you're worried, but it shouldn't be a big deal if you and Liz are just getting the same freaky dreams," Isabel told me.
I exhaled loudly in my frustration. I was just going to have to spell everything out. "That's not all, Is. There's more?"
Isabel gave me a blank look. "Well, what is it? You can tell me, Michael. I seriously doubt I'll freak out or anything, I can honestly say I've seen everything."
"We had flashes with each other."
Isabel looked floored. "Michael Guerin! What the hell is wrong with you? I mean, having similar dreams with Liz is one thing, but running around kissing her? That's, that's..."
What happened to Miss "I won't freak out, I've seen everything?" I resisted the urge to bang my head on the bench as Isabel continued to rant.
She jumped from her seat on a park bench and waved her arm angrily at me. "I mean, Max is going to really freak out about this. She may not want to be with him, but he's still crazy about her."
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“How exactly is she contacting you?” Alex asked frowning, his fingers beating a rapid tattoo against his thigh.
“It’s some form of astral projection, what I used to contact Max in New York. Michael has his dreams at the exact same time, so I am assuming it takes both of them to build up the energy to do it.” I barely controlled the urge to smack my hand down over his, the sound was slight, but it was grating on my already tight nerves. You’re doing this to save his life, to save everyone.
“Why didn’t she use the Granolith like future Max?” Maria asked, reaching across me to snag Alex’s dancing fingers. She glared at the offending digits when he shot her a confused look and tried to pull his hand away. The tug of war was on.
“Something has gone wrong, she and the future version of Michael both said to look for Serena Winston who Future Max said helped work the Granolith.” I bit my lip praying that Maria wouldn’t remember who else helped discover the secrets of the Granolith.
“But what about Alex?” Maria pulled harder, nearly toppling Alex on top of me.
“Yeah, what about me?” Alex grunted out the last words he yanked his hand, pushing off my shoulder to propel himself back with more force. Maria let go abruptly and he tumbled off the bed. “Here I imagined I was the super genius behind the rock.”
“Super klutz more likely,” Maria murmured sweetly causing Alex’s eyes to narrow.
“You know Maria, I’d be nice to me, someday I might immortalize you in song and right now it’s not looking like you’ll be remembered by history in a good way,” he huffed turning his attention back to me. “There better be a damn good reason why I’m not helping in the future Liz, because I would hate to think that in this timeline I lost IQ points for some reason, like hanging around with a certain ditzy singer.”
“You didn’t lose IQ points Alex,” I murmured smiling sadly as he scrunched his too long frame around his guitar.
“I am not a ditz!” The outrage in her tone was hard to measure, it could have been in fun, or it could have been signaling an oncoming Deluca hurricane. Considering that Austin Rasmussen had made a crack about her intelligence yesterday at the Crashdown when she’d stopped in to see me, I was betting on the hurricane.
“Well I’m not the one that spent twenty minutes pushing on a door that said pull in third grade before convincing myself that it was locked.”
“You can not throw that up in my face that door was not clearly marked!” Maria was practically laying across me in an attempt to glare as closely at Alex as possible.
“Then there was the time in fifth when—”
“Why isn’t the Suuuuuper Genius helping in the future?” Maria drawled, cutting him off before he could elaborate any more of the embarrassing moments in the life of the daughter Deluca.
Oh god, I didn’t want to do this. There was no point. What if it never happened? Wouldn’t that just be causing them emotional anguish over nothing? After two dreams in two days, I had been future free last night. Maybe Michael and I had been wrong, and it was all caused by some bad food we ate in Vegas. How desperately I wanted to believe that even though I knew it was untrue.
“Liz?”
I realized I must have been quite for too long, Alex and Maria had stopped fighting and were now looking at me with alarm. I stared hard at him, taking in the way he cocked his head in question, and how his eyes looked so vivid. He had been one of my best friends for so long, I just didn’t want to believe it.
“Liz?” He sat his hand on my knee, squeezing slightly, reassuringly.
“We think the reason they don’t use the Granolith is because you, Alex, are dead,” I spit out the words as fast as I could, as if by making them unintelligible then it wouldn’t happen.
“Alex dead? How can you say that? You must be wrong!” Maria’s green eyes had taken on a glassy sheen, and her voice was bordering on shrill, “Maybe you heard her wrong. What did she say exactly?”
Alex’s face had gone pale, muscles clenching to delineate the bones of his cheeks and the blood vessels running along his temples. Now it was he who reached out to grab Maria’s hand, using her unbalanced posture to pull her down to the floor and up against his side.
“Let her talk,” he whispered, rubbing her arm, the fingers of his other hand patting my knee comfortingly. “I’m sure Liz can explain.”
Only I couldn’t explain, not really, it was all garbled in my head. By saying it aloud, saying it to Alex, it felt like my brain had overloaded, like I was making it real instead of just the mumblings of this nebulous future me who seemed incapable of giving a straight answer about anything. “Explain what? She said you died Alex and I blocked it away, wouldn’t have evened remembered it if Michael hadn’t gotten it in one of our flashes…”
“Flashes. Okay. Are you sure it’s not some sort of false memory? I mean you of all people know that flashes are notoriously hard to figure out…” he trailed off, frowning. “Wait a minute Liz, don’t you only get flashes from—”
“Kissing,” Maria cut in, “Liz only gets flashes from kissing.”
Kissing. No, that was not…Oh damn. “No—”
“Like I said chica, we’ve shared a lot, but what were you doing kissing my boyfriend?”
On the bright side Maria didn’t look like she was going to go into shock anymore.
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I jumped up, placing my hands on Isabel's shoulders. "Isabel! I never said that I kissed her!" I hissed. "Will you calm down?"
Isabel threw me the Ice Queen glare that she had perfected over the years. The one I had seen freeze men solid. "Then explain."
She sat back down on the park bench and looked up at me expectantly. She should have known by now that it didn’t work on me, the glare, and if it did, the hell I was ever going to admit it. Still, it was in my best interest to talk fast.
"We're getting these flashes through touch, just hand to hand, or well, hand to arm contact." I left out the hand to stomach because I didn't need Isabel to get all riled up again.
"How?"
“I have no idea, Is,” I told her as I paced back and forth in front of the park bench. “One minute, we’re riding my motorcycle, then Liz touched my… arm and all of a sudden I’m watching her dream play before me.” I turned to face her and shrugged, “There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“Oh my god Michael, you could have been killed! What if someone stepped in front of the motorcycle or you missed a red light because you couldn’t see?” Isabel asked, her voice rising an octave.
“We didn’t Is. Don’t dwell. We got lucky.” I resumed my pacing. “I don’t know why the flashes happened at that point in time, but they did.”
Isabel was silent, staring off into the distance for a moment before replying. “What are you guys going to do about this then? You very well can’t just let it go, next time you could be injured or…”
She trailed off, and we both knew she was thinking about. The suddenness it could strike. Finally she murmured, “We’ve had enough death recently.”
“We’re going to start experimenting to see what exactly we need to do to get the flashes,” I said trying to reassure her, distract her from her thoughts. “That way, at least we could get them while we’re somewhere safe.”
Isabel considered my words for a moment before chuckling to herself quietly.
“What’s so funny?”
“Max is going to be pissed when you tell him about this,” she shook her head. “You know how he gets about Liz… Despite the fact that you two might have to save the world together, he’s still going to throw a fit.”
Translation: Maxwell was going to be an even bigger pain in the ass than usual. Suddenly I was reconsidering this whole idea where we had to tell the others.
She shrugged, “I mean, I’ll try to help him focus on the important issues, but it’s going to be tough.”
I groaned, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration, “Thanks for reminding me, Is.”
Isabel frowned, “I love my brother, but I can freely admit his faults and one of them is being too…” she trailed off, searching for the right word for a moment, “… obsessive, when it comes to Liz Parker and doing what’s right.”
“So, you’ll back me up when I break the news to him? Remind him that we’re dealing with the fate of the world and that I’m not trying to get into Parker’s panties?”
Contrary to Maxwell’s popularly held belief that it was the Mecca all wished to visit.
Isabel nodded as she stood up, surprising me with a brief, but tight, hug. “You’re my brother too Michael, I’ll always back you up.”
“Thanks,” I muttered as we started to walk back towards the main street. “Oh and Isabel…”
“Yeah?”
“I think we need to keep an eye on Tess. In one of Liz’s dreams, her future self mentioned that Tess was exposed. She didn’t say for what exactly, but…” I scratched my eyebrow for a moment before continuing, “I have this feeling that we need to watch her for anything suspicious.”
Isabel’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll let you know if I see anything odd from her.”
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Oh. God.
When Maria got mad her eyes got all glittery, color burning across her cheek bones as she blinked rapidly. If she wasn’t mad right now, then she was definitely doing a damn good impression.
“Um, technically you broke up with Michael, remember?” Alex interjected.
Not helping Alex.
I noticed that the arm he had slung around her was now keeping her tight against his side. Bless his heart, but the mere barrier of human strength could not hold back a Deluca hurricane. I needed to explain, and I needed to explain fast.
“No kissing. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.” I scooted away from her for good measure.
“You only get flashes when your kissing, Liz.” Yep, her eyes were definitely shooting sparks now. “Remember Max, remember Nascedo. Kissing. Both of them. I don’t even get flashes from Michael.”
It hurt her, the way her voice quivered on his name. It always had. And here I got flashes just by grabbing on to his arm, his stomach…better not mention the stomach. “They just happen, we can’t control them. We wouldn’t even try to if it hadn’t been for what happened on the motorcycle.”
“Motorcycle?” Alex shot me a question glance. “Explain what you mean about the motorcycle.”
Nervously I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. I could do this. I could tell the story without mentioning touching Michael in the lower abdominal region. “Michael and I decided we needed to talk about the dreams, and we didn’t want to take the chance of getting interrupted like we had before, so we were going out to Frasier Woods, only as we riding out of Roswell I touch Michael’s…arm…and the flashes happen. Somehow he managed to get us to the side of the road without crashing, but God if I know how.”
“Oh damn, Liz,” Maria murmured, her anger drained. She tried to joke weakly, “Now I’m going to have to go apologize to Spaceboy for thinking he couldn’t do anything right.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my posture relaxing slowly as I realized that I wasn’t under imminent attack.
“Well he didn’t get you killed,” she shrugged, sniffing slightly. “I’m a big fan of keeping my friends around for awhile, you know?”
“Yeah, I’m a big fan of keeping me and Liz around too,” Alex said, releasing his hold on Maria after giving her a quick squeeze. The danger had passed. Hurricane Deluca had been downgraded to a light sprinkle. “So what’s the plan?”
“Well, we need to figure out all we can from the dreams, pinpoint why these flashes are happening and find this Serena Winston girl that our dream counterparts keep telling us about.” I sighed, “So far Michael has Valenti looking for Serena here in Roswell, and we put together everything we could remember from our dreams…”
I'd like to think that Alex would still be alive, that Tess would have been exposed, that we wouldn't be running for our lives…
Tess. I had to tell them about Tess.
“And um, I need you guys to stay away from Tess, not avoid her exactly, but, you know, don’t be alone with her. The future me said something about her being exposed and it was in the same sentence she spoke of your death Alex,” I rushed out. “She could be really dangerous.”
“But I thought that Future Max said she was important,” Alex frowned.
He was a fool, but we all were really.
“Apparently he was wrong. All I know is that in his timeline you were alive Alex and now in this new one you are not. I’m not taking any chances.” This time I was going to get it right.
“I always knew that bitch was up to no good,” Maria growled.
We sat there in silence for a moment, each lost in our own thoughts.
“You know,” Alex began, running his fingers over his guitar strings. “This knowledge about my own possible mortality has prompted me to take a new outlook on life.”
“Really?” Maria and I asked in unison, a bit confused by the smile playing along our friend’s lips.
“Really,” Alex intoned seriously. “In fact, I feel the need to sing about it.”
He cleared his throat, sitting up straight to properly settle his guitar. I don’t know what we were expecting, funeral dirges perhaps, maybe some classic song of redemption…certainly not what came out of his mouth. “I don’t want somebody to love me. Just give me sex whenever I want it. ‘Cause all I ask for is instant pleasure…”
Groaning Maria tackled him, and I followed seconds behind with two pillows so we could beat him into submission.
“Hey! What? You ladies are the exception of course,” he wheezed, laughing, trying to dodge our blows, while he shoved his guitar away so that he could roll into a ball. “You can love and adore me all you want.”
“Oh we’ll love and adore you alright,” Maria gasped out between giggles.
We pretended not to notice the edge to our laughter. The lightness we desperately tried to interject despite it all. In the back of my mind I prayed that this time would be different, this time it would work out. It was only then, as I helped Maria teach Alex a finer attitude towards women and relationships, that I really began to understand that it was really no longer about me just getting it right. I wasn’t doing this alone.
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La Quinta Inn—Morro Bay, California—2009
He was leaning back against the headboard, wood hard against his shoulder blades, Liz’s head heavy against his thigh, her body curled in a tight ball around the battered stuffed cat. He had shifted to this position when he realized that Liz wasn’t going to awaken right away, needing to enjoy the closeness away from the prying eyes of Maxwell while he could.
So that’s wha it’s supposeda look like… I nevah realized how pure it could be…You eva’ break that, an’ you’ll break her.
What had Ava meant by that?
How could she see it?
Sure her powers were more mental than his or Maxwell’s, but then wouldn’t that mean that Isabel would see it too?
Sometimes we make the wrong decisions in life, Michael, but only through maturity and time are we able to see it for what it is and move passed.
Isabel had told him that once. At the time he had thought she was talking about her marriage to Jesse, about the bond she’d been forming with Kyle, but they hadn’t been talking about either when she’d made the comment. No, instead they had been talking about Maxwell and Liz. If he remembered correctly, Isabel hadn’t even been looking at him when she had spoken, choosing instead to stare at some point between him and the tiny brunette who had been loading the van. It had been soon after her parents’ deaths, but before Maria’s…that weird time when everything was in limbo…
“Skins!” Liz’s whole body jerked against him, flying into an upright position even as she screamed the word again, “Skins! They’re coming.”
She’d had another vision.
Michael was up and off the bed only nanoseconds behind her, his eyes meeting her frantic ones. “How soon?” “Minutes, maybe hours…” She thrust her hair behind her ear and gave a bitter laugh.
It was almost always minutes…
“Fuck.” He scooped up their remaining bags of supplies from the room. Liz grabbed the stuff cat from the bed, and her backpack from the floor.
“We have to get to Isabel, Max and Ava. Do you know where they went?”
“The café. They went to the café across the street.” Already he was flinging the door open, the knob smacking loudly against the wall.
“Well that would explain the food…” Liz trailed off, choosing to spend her energy gulping in air as they raced across the cracked, weed choked concrete parking lot to the street. She stumbled one, catching the toe of her shoe, her whole body still in the grips of a lethargy she couldn’t throw off. Michael wrapped a hand around her upper arm, supporting some of her weight as he pulled her off the sidewalk and into the street.
The horn of a red F150 blared as it raced by them, narrowly missing clipping Michael in the back. They paused on the dotted yellow line.
Wait.
Minivan, dented fender.
Breathe.
Blue Honda Civic, music loud…
Let the bodies hit the floor, let bodies hit the floor…
Breathe.
White Mazda Miata.
Break. Go.
Dodging between the minute gap left between the rear of the Mazda and the two trailer Mac truck following closely behind, they slipped onto the opposite sidewalk and down the alley two buildings up from the café. Reaching the back of the building they cut to the right, scanning the shadows and garbage piles for Skins as they followed the smells of frying bacon and burgers to the back door. Apparently the ambush only took place in the restaurant.
“Listen,” Michael murmured as they paused at the entrance, his hand sliding down to grasp hers. “I want you to promise me that if anything goes wrong in there you’ll get out and keep running. Don’t look back, don’t wait for me, just run Liz.”
She turned so she was facing him, running her thumb across his knuckles as she stared up into his eyes. “We’re in this together Michael, don’t ask that of me.”
Before he could reply, she pulled away and slipped into the kitchen.
Grease.
Smoke.
The clatter of dishes and conversation.
“Order up…”
“I need a tuna on…”
“Watch where you’re…”
“We’re just the new staff,” Liz yelled over the din, scooting around the bus boy with his towering bin of plates, ducking the waitress swinging her orders from the counter. “Just getting the lay of the place…”
“When did we…”
“Harry, table eight…”
She could feel Michael at her back, and the strange stares at the stuffed cat she had tucked under her arm. Moving quickly, they passed through the swinging doors into the dining area before anyone could stop them. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the group sitting in the back corner; Max and Isabel with their backs to the wall, Ava in a chair at the end of the table so she too could see who came in through the front door.
“We’ve got to go,” Michael growled, pushing Liz until she was between him and the wall. “Liz had a vision, the Skins are coming.”
“You little bitch,” Max hissed at the blonde on his right. “You sold us out.”
“No I’s—” Ava jumped up, knocking her chair to the floor as he lunged for her.
“Save it—” Michael started, only to be thrown back by the force of a blast hitting the wall, sheetrock exposed where Max had been sitting.
Screams filled the café, patrons diving to the floor as another blast was fired only this time blocked by the shield the king had thrown up. Michael only caught a glimpse of what had to be five Skins standing at the door as he upended the table to form a flimsy wall of protection for them to huddle behind.
No Lonnie, Rath or Nicolas.
“Do you think the back door is clear?” Max asked, automatically dropping the shield so Michael could fire back.
“It was when we came in,” Liz yelled to be heard over another blast. Somewhere in the café pottery shattered and someone screamed in pain. How many innocents would have to die for them?
“Max and I will hold them off,” Michael grunted, popping up to fire again. “You take Ava and Isabel and go get the van.”
“But Michael, I said—” Liz was cut off.
“I don’t want that little traitor anywhere near me,” Max gritted out.
“Listen, I says I got nothin’ to do wit this,” Ava glared.
“Can we have this argument say about a hundred miles from here?” Isabel asked. “You know, some place where death is not an immediate threat?”
“If you leave now.” Michael came up blasting continuously, Max immediately joining him. Isabel grabbed on to the other girls, pulling them along as she burst into the kitchen and sprinted towards the back door.
“No! Wait!” Liz yanked back hard. “We can’t just leave them.”
She turned to Ava, “Can you mind warp the Skins long enough for me to get Michael and Max out of there?”
“I’s can try,” the blonde murmured, closing her eyes tightly, lines of concentration wrinkling her forehead.
Dashing back into dining area she saw that the Skins were still firing, only now at a completely different part of the café. The men were using the distraction to pick them off one at a time. “Let’s go! Ava can’t hold this for much longer and they might have reinforcements.”
Together they retraced Liz’s steps and with Isabel and Ava headed out into the alley. Enraged screams and cries of agony could be heard from the restaurant. The Skins had discovered they had been tricked.
Michael felt his breath saw in and out as of his lungs as they ran. Blasts followed them down the alley, yells in English and Antarian.
They were getting closer.
In an attempt to slow them down he blew up garbage cans as they went by, hoping that the shrapnel and litter would cause them to pause, cause some damage.
Liz never wavered from his side as they emerged out onto the sunny sidewalk.
Traffic had not slowed but picked up, vehicles racing by. No…they just needed to get to the van. If they could get to the van they could get away.
The sounds of explosions and pounding feet signaled the approaching enemy.
Michael sent up a silent apology to the drivers that would be hurt as he blasted the asphalt in the middle of the road. Cars immediately began swerving to a stop to avoid the gaping hole, a Volvo rear-ending an Explorer when it didn’t see the break lights in time. But the panicked squeal of tires signaled the break they needed.
Immediately they poured on the speed, dashing across the street and towards the van, towards safety.
It was only as he ripped open the driver’s door he realized Liz wasn’t at his side any longer. A panicked glance revealed her only a few feet away, bending down to scoop up the raggedy stuffed cat of Ava’s. “Liz, hurry!” Liz caught his worried gaze, moving forward with the animal once again clasped to her chest. While she could still hear the crashing of cars, there were no explosions.
A look over her shoulder revealed the Skins were nowhere to be seen.
Odd. She turned her attention back to the van.
Explosion.
Shock wave.
Screaming metal.
Flames.
Burning flesh.
Pain.
Pain.
Pain…
She blinked once, the visions before her wavering to reveal the van with everyone inside, Michael in the driver’s seat with his hands disappearing under the dash, around the steering column.
Oh God.
Ignition.
Bomb.
“Michael, no!”
To Be Continued in Chapter Eight “To Investigate and Experiment” |