Title: Road Taken (1/1)
Author: Morgan R.
Email: [email protected]
Rating: PG
Summary: Where did Liz run off to?
Spoilers: Destiny
Feedback: That would be wonderful!
Disclaimer: WB et al own everything and everyone
Note: It isn't so much that I hate Tess, as that I fear she has not a single scruple when it comes to getting what she wants
****
Liz ran blindly, her heart pounding, loose tendrils of hair catching in her gasping mouth. What had she done what had she done what had she done what had she done-
She saw the highway, like a black slash of reality through the desert, and she angled towards it with something like relief. A road had direction, it wasn't just cavernous anguish dropping off into nothingness.
It was further off than she had remembered, and it seemed like she would never reach it before her legs gave out from beneath her. But finally, she managed to shrink the distance.
She was only a few feet away from its solid surface when-
****
Tess leaned against the shadowed rock surface with her eyes closed. A small smile curled her mouth, and the voices of the other three drifted up to her from below. The feeling of rightness was growing stronger every minute. They were reunited, clustered around their point of origin. A few messy details still needed to be taken care of, but she could-
"Tess? What are you doing?"
Isabel's sharp query startled Tess out of her reverie, and the image she had been creating in her mind snapped away as she lost focus.
"Nothing, why?"
Isabel shrugged, her eyes suspicious, but they both walked back to the boys together.
"We should get back to town," Michael said, squinting at the setting sun.
"Right." Max's voice was thick with pain, but he held his chin up defiantly. "I need to find Liz..."
He walked down the slope, leading the way, and the fact that he refused to look in Tess's direction meant that he had no reason to wonder about her persistent smile.
****
The road vanished as though it had never been, and Liz stumbled to the ground with a panicked cry of defeat.
"Where- why?"
She was covered in dust and tears and realization, and her hands were trembling violently.
** "Can you just do that with everyone? Make them see things that aren't even there?" **
Had Pierce felt this desperate when Max disappeared from his vision? Did his agents look this foolish when they obeyed the commands of the empty air, their minds nothing more than playgrounds for a curly haired girl?
"The road," she whispered through parched lips.
The sun dropped down past the horizon.
** 'She doesn't belong here."
"She's with me." **
"Not anymore, Max."
****
"I don't understand. Why wouldn't she head towards the road?" Max paced frantically, unconsciously forming a box with his steps, a square with the same parameters of his white prison from the day before.
Tess had been raised by Nasedo, a creature who spoke cruel truths with glee and loved to flaunt his miraculous powers. How complete was her upbringing?
"Maybe she thought she did."
She realized too late her bad judgement, because Max remembered what it was like to have his mind and will wrenched away from him. His eyes filled with horror, and Tess wondered fleetingly if even destiny could overcome such loathing.
"What did you do?!"
Perhaps she should have considered a little while longer...
****
finis