Disclaimer:
These characters do not belong to me, but to the writers and producers
of
Spoilers: After Chant Down Babylon, changes happening
where Max is successfully rescued, and Michael was the one who broke up with
Maria.
Pairings: You’ll have to wait and see!
Pronunciation Guide: Hani (Ha -
NEYE)
Quirinius
(KWIR - in - us)
Yasu (yah - SU)
Sanom (sah - GNOME)
Author’s notes: Queen
Fadilia Kedar: Max/Isabel’s mother
King
Alaric Kedar: Max/Isabel’s father
Andaria: Tess’ mother
Radim:
Tess’ father
Kedrans: race from which Royal Four descended
Iturians: race from which Khivar descended, and
overthrew and killed Zan and the Kedrans
Cerideans: special core ops of the Iturian army, mostly
psyonics and telepaths
Kaptar’s
Jewel: constellation in the
Antarian’s star system
Yun’s
Garment: Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights
Saren Dari: desert plain on
Antar
dashka : good luck charm
elkarl :
Iturian hand weapon
capaechea:
long haired
woolly creature, with long flanks and a large hump on its back
kii: location where
various endangered animals are kept for protection
Mount
Freiweil: location of Loyalist secret base
Chapter Sixty
***
…for our God is a consuming fire.
- Heb. 12:29
***
Through
the swirls of fog came a surge of heat like a gust of warm wind passing through
the maze of white. The soldiers didn't
seem to know what was happening, which put them on edge. As the velvety curtain dispersed, as if the
sudden heat was melting it away, from above came an unexpected shower of
blinding light. The pale silver streams
sliced through the smoky wisps, now lifted, something like that of the Red Sea
parting.
The
General grew tense; his army was losing focus and scattering in the wake of
this immense light show. "Hold
your positions!" He barked at the
mindless host bodies, running wildly like beheaded fowl. "Captain Leisner!"
Everything
had been under control; but now he found his well-trained army in fearful
disarray. His third-eye sought out the
cause of this unwanted chaos; amidst the fleeing human waste was...him. Zan.
"General,
you summoned me?"
The
General turned around and looked down from his transport. The young captain appeared calm, yet
underneath his thin exterior, he knew the soldier was shaking in his
boots. "How many men have we lost
to this sudden attack?" He scanned
the area, trying to estimate the count of human hosts they had lost control
over. The General was sure it was
cowardice on his own men's part - they had fled their host bodies at the
slightest hint of peril. How
pathetic.
He
watched as the eager captain scanned the clearing battlefield. "Sir," he paused, taking a deep breath. "It seems we've lost hold of a third of
our host army."
The
General clenched his fists and let out a primal, malevolent cry.
No! Damn it!
He closed
his eyes and dug deep for an ounce of self-control. His plan had gone to hell; but he could not panic. He was more experienced to fold under such
an obvious scare tactic. He would just
devise another plan, which could be implemented under such confusion. The General opened his eyes and gazed
indomitably ahead into the widening field of tan and copper. "Bring the prisoners to me," he
growled.
"Let's
see how strong our enemy is when I kill them...right in front of his
eyes."
Max was
amazed at the streams of light that flooded down upon the legion of hundreds,
scattering them in every direction. He
had never seen such a supernatural display in his life. There still remained a host of soldiers, but
the overwhelming numbers had just evaporated before his eyes.
"Thank
you," he said under his breath.
'I
will overcome...'
Max felt
a sudden peace come over him as he prepared himself for the next part of this
divinely inspired attack. He could see
the army already regrouping in front of him.
Now it
was his turn.
The
General stepped down from his hovercraft and approached the horseshoe formation
his men were creating, extending the reach of his arm to the cloak of unnatural
mist in the middle of the cool desert; the black veil of night had opened from
above, and its' watchful eyes in its' infinity now peered down upon them. "Let the many generations of this
galaxy lay testament to this night."
He narrowed his eyes and raised his hands in honor to his distant king. "For the House of Kedar will end in all
its dim and paltry glory!"
The
General came up behind his men, his posture exuding a confidence in what he
believed to be the last breath Zan would or could ever take. "Bring the prisoners!" He waited smugly for the captain to lead the
weak, plodding vassals of flesh onto centre stage.
In the
distance he could see the faltering steps of a uniformed man, prodding two
shackled humans in front of him. The
General frowned. This was not what he
expected. Where were the others?
Captain
Leisner seemed to read his thoughts, as the captain's gaze peered towards his
position, and seemingly shrugged in ignorance.
The General clenched his fists once more, wanting to squeeze the life
breath out of his fumbling and incompetent men. It was as if a curse had been placed on his men. Everything was not going as expected.
The General
cleared his throat and glared at his cowering enemy, who lingered in the cloak
of his own making. He could not let Zan
know that his plan was unraveling before his eyes. He would put on his best front for the returning king.
Max was
surrounded. He could not run, even if
he had wanted to. "You are
fighting a losing battle!" Max declared, not sure if this was for the
army's benefit or his. "Run before
I take every one of your lives!"
The
General pursed his lips, as the hackles on the back of his neck were raised at
the presumptuousness of the one-man army.
He had waited a long time to see the regenerated being called 'Zan', who
was held in high esteem, as the true king of Antar'.
"Show
yourself, O Great King!"
His voice dripped with malice.
~~~
Diane and
Phillip exchanged timid glances, as they knelt on their knees before this
horrifying madman, who was challenging an obscure floating mass, which had
begun to glow a silvery white.
This was
it. Behind them were their
blood-lusting executioners and a tall blonde madman, regaled in black, with
numerous small pearled medallions above his breast. The commander of this makeshift army of terror was calling for
their blood. But the frightening thing
was that he seemed to believe whatever was hidden behind the fog would actually
care about their deaths.
Tears
streamed down Diane's face. She had
never imagined her death this way. She
imagined passing away in her sleep - peacefully.
Hadn't
she been a goof wife, mother...person?
What had she done to deserve this terrifying end?
Obviously
this 'thing' - man or animal - was the reason.
'Zan', they were calling him; but she could not comprehend what 'it' had
anything to do with them. Maria and
Kyle seemed to understand what was happening to them - why this indeed was
happening to them - but they had suddenly disappeared themselves.
Now
they were alone.
Phillip
squeezed his wife's hand. She had
withdrawn into herself, as he could see the strain of the unexplainable had
gotten to her. He felt a thin bead of
sweat trickle down his own face, even though the night brought with it
temperatures dropping down to three or four degrees Celsius. It was a nightmare.
Max
was involved. He knew this in his gut. The various mysteries and unexplainable
disappearances in Roswell lately - the strange men and women that seemed to
suddenly enter their lives and exit just as quickly, had always intrigued him;
but now he knew...Max was in over his head.
How had Max gotten involved in such madness?
Phillip
closed his eyes and whispered a silent prayer.
He was not a religious man, but if there was a God, he and Diane needed
him right about now.
~~~
"Show
yourself Zan!" The General
repeated himself. "Or they die!"
Diane and
Phillip cringed as they felt the sharp point of metal stabbing into their
flesh.
Max
instinctively stepped forward; the thought of running to their rescue was at
the forefront of his mind. The sight of
his parent's treacherous situation raised an overwhelming flood of emotions;
but something pulled him back, as if an invisible hand steadied the chaos that
made him reel inside.
'Be
still.'
Max
gritted his teeth, as his whole body throbbed with pure hatred for this foul
waste of breath. He knew Khivar's
tactics were cheap and underhanded, but he realized how it had aided him now,
in this dark hour. There would be no
remorse in expelling from the earth the filth that surrounded him.
Diane and
Phillip waited for the sharp weapons, which pressed up underneath their
shoulder blades, to plunge into their bodies.
"Phillip I love you," Diane sobbed dejectedly. She bowed her head, as if her all of her
strength had been sapped from her body.
"Don't,"
Phillip choked out. He was in sheer
disbelief. He couldn't be on his knees,
pleading for his life. He wasn't only a
moment away from death's door.
"Don't say that," he hissed.
"We're not going to die."
Suddenly
out of the hovering mist that floated ominously before them, a golden stream of
light was expelled. Its' intense and
dazzling rays reached out, like arms from the faceless being before them, and
struck the two guards who loomed over them.
Diane screamed. Falling forward when the blast of light, energy...whatever it was flew over her head - her whole body trembled. Phillip shielded his wife's trembling body with his, but not before seeing out of the corner of his eye, the guards who had been appointed their executioners fall lifelessly behind him.
~~~
The
General frowned, as he watched as two of his best men fell to the ground. He glared at Zan's impudence. "Fire!" The General bellowed over the deafening silence, his death
sentence for the lone crusader
There
would be no slow torturous death - he had had enough. The risen leader of the Loyalist contingent would not live a
second longer.
~~~
Max heard
the General's swift orders and frowned uncertainly. As he watched the remaining legion raise their odd, yet familiar
weapons to kill him, nothing but peace filled his being. Lifting his eyes towards the glistening
light of the heavens, Max flicked his wrist, and silently relieved the
purposeful cloak that had so effectively shielded him from attack.
~~~
"No
more!" a dark and foreboding voice echoed across the silent plains.
Diane
strained her neck upwards, as Phillip protectively hovered over he, trying to
shield them from any stray fire. That
voice...
Phillip
widened his eyes as a dark figure approached through the swirling mist that
seemed to evaporate before their very eyes.
Who was it?
Suddenly
his breath caught in his throat, and unconsciously loosened his grip on Diane,
who was also staring in bewilderment at the spectacle before them.
It
couldn't be...
~~~
"Zan." His tone revealed a note of satisfaction, as
he watched the slender, dark-haired boy emerge from the intricate diversion.
The
General glanced down at his man, whose human hosts obeyed their temporary
possessors. A sequence of multiple rays
was expelled from the long staff weapons they had transported from Antar onto
Earth. He watched silently as the
linear glow of red sped towards its target.
His lips
curled into a smug satisfied smirk, as he clasped his hands together
gleefully. "May the House of
Ituria reign in all its' glory."
~~~
"Maaaax!" Diane watched in frozen horror as the
strange red lights hurled through the night towards her son. She clawed the dark soil underneath her
fingers, straining forward, in an attempt to warn her son...to save him.
If she
could only reach him.
~~~
Max
raised his hands towards the numerous crimson bursts bearing down on him; they
unexpectedly converged into one large deadly mass of energy that seemed intent
on destroying him. Before he could even
blink, a burst of fluorescent green energy emanated from the palms of his
hand. His whole body skidded backwards,
as his feet could not find any grip on the dry, loose soil, jarred from the tremendous
impact of the blast. Max cringed under
the strain of the blow, almost faltering, as he tried to absorb the sudden
blast.
He opened
his eyes tentatively, searching for a harmless location where he could deflect
the large amount of energy he had pressing in on him. Finally, with immense effort, Max managed to change the
trajectory of the energy blast - over and above his head, where it dissipated
into nothing. The effort left him
breathless.
Max
turned towards the tall, muscular commander, who led the mindless host of men
before him. He stood tall and erect,
glaring down his opponent. "Is
that all you have...General Qunar?"
Qunar
stared blankly at the smooth, chiseled jaw of the youth. It had been decades since he had met him in
battle; Khivar had spoken of the hybrid's reluctance to embrace his heritage -
his previous life. How could he know
my name?
It
unsettled him - Zan's display of mastery over his powers. He had not expected him to be so prepared;
it was as if someone had instructed him about what to expect. The boy did not display the inexperience of his
years or the rashness of a callowed youth.
Yet...
Qunar set
his shoulders back and folded his arms across his chest; nodding once, he
acknowledged the feat Zan had accomplished.
"You put on a spectacular display." He glanced down at his men, who had become restless; they were
disheveled and slowly breaking formation.
He tensed. "But how long
can you last?" he said condescendingly.
"It's
not a question of lasting," Max replied perceptively, slowly
approaching the once menacing throng.
"Oh
no?" General Qunar scoffed at his
confidence. "Then what is
it about?"
Max
locked gazes with his opponent, meeting his steely gaze with staunch
defiance. "No. It's about justice; those who have murdered
- slaughtered my people - receiving thaat which has been their fate since the fall
of the House of Kedar. It was sealed
the night of Zan's death."
Qunar
tilted his head toward his enemy, who seemed, up until now, to have gained the
upper hand. "Why do you speak
about yourself, Zan, in third person?" He grinned; delighted he had caught the hybrid in a prophetic quandary. "Is it because your hybrid form has
rejected Zan's true essence?"
"Is
that why you did not return along side Ava, your Queen?"
Qunar's
probing questions fell on deaf ears as Max stopped his approach; his gaze fell
upon his parents. Their faces were pale
and ashen. He felt his blood curdle, as
their eyes, which were a window into their souls, reflected the terror, panic
and anguish they had been through in the last 24 hours. Regret filled him in its entirety, as they
looked at him with new eyes - they finally saw him for who and what he
was. No more secrets; no more lies.
~~~
"M-Max?" Diane croaked, unable to comprehend the
spectacle that had just occurred minutes ago.
The man looked like her son; but none of this made any sense. "W-w-what..." She could not find the words to express her
complete and utter lack of understanding at what her captor and the man she
thought was her son were talking about.
Why would he respond to the name Zan? Why would this man refer to her son as Zan?
"Let
them go," Max demanded calmly.
"And I may let you live another minute." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see
the horseshoe formation closing ranks, until he and his parents were completely
surrounded.
"Max,
what is going on?" Phillip asked, through clenched teeth. This was getting out of hand. He didn't have a clue to what was happening.
What
'thing' could do what he had just seen Max do?
~~~
"You
and what army, Zan? Or as your human guardians seem to refer to you,
'Max'." General Qunar smirked, as
he could read the obvious affection Zan had for the human race. "You may have withstood our first
encounter, but I think you would not fair so well after a continual
onslaught. Even you couldn't
last that long," he chuckled, gesturing to the stone-faced
soldiers, who had their weapons aimed at him.
"Y-you may be right," Max admitted, slowly nodding his head.
Qunar
narrowed his eyes at the sudden admission of defeat. It caught him off guard.
And when the dark-haired heir met his gaze, Qunar could have sworn he
saw a glint of triumph flash across his face.
It made him suddenly wary.
Though Zan had boldly postured before his army, he could still sense the
boy's hesitancy - in his eyes and body.
But the boy king's demeanor had suddenly changed. He now looked like one whose numbers had
just been added to and the tide turned.
"But
he's not alone."
General
Qunar stiffened at the unwelcome, female voice, which echoed above him. He spun around, and to his dismay, a shadowy
figure loomed over him, standing defiantly on a nearby ridge. He could not see her face, but he knew...he
knew it was her.
General
Qunar scanned the circumference of his army, only to see the stiff, stoic men
suddenly stumble, as if fighting an internal war. Once again he looked up at the tall figure above him and cursed
his luck.
No!
"Dilkar,
you fool!" he muttered under his breath.
Qunar raised his arm towards Max and the chained humans, and waved
frantically at them, allowing the human emotions of his host body to overwhelm
him. "Kill him!" he
ordered. "Kill them all!" He screamed at the useless lumps of flesh, which
were for the most part, lying crumpled on the ground.
~~~
While Max
was gazing happily at Isabel's sudden arrival, he noticed out of the corner of
his eye, a flash of metal under the light of the pale moon that now shone in
all its splendor. He spun around in
time to see a scythe-like sword, made out of a strange black metal hover
perilously over his parents' heads.
With inimitable speed, he threw a short burst of energy towards the
guard; it knocked the weapon out of his hand, but did not kill him. He ran over to his parents in a race to free
them before the army regained control and obeyed their furious commander. The guard had scampered off, like a dog with
his tail between his legs.
"Max,
what the hell is going on?" Phillip whispered, his eyes darting around at
the commotion that surrounded them.
Max
studied the magnetic field enclosing their wrists. With deft skill, he quickly dispatched the shackles and crouching
low; Max scanned the battlefield for a safe haven to stash his parents. "There's no time to explain," he
blurted out. "We have to get you
out of here."
"No
time to explain?" Phillip's voice
rose in a mixture of anger and incredulousness. "How do we even know you're our son?"
Max
grabbed his father's shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "You have to trust me now,
Dad." His breathing was heavy and
uneven. He could see the guard who had
run off approaching with a renewed determination - in his hand was a long
metallic staff. "I know this is
all mind blowing right now, but we have got to get you out of
here!"
Suddenly
a narrow path opened between a nearby group of soldiers. Max grabbed his mother's hand and began to
drag them towards the group of men, who were fighting amongst themselves. "Cover me, Isabel!" Max covered his parents’ heads as they made
a mad dash through the chaos.
~~~
Isabel
felt her heart race as she watched almost helplessly as the organized army of
men converged into the centre of the field, where Max and her parents were
scurrying haphazardly, in an attempt to escape. She had barely made it to the fray. How could she help?
When
Isabel woke up in a pool of water and glass, she had no idea where she
was. With a stroke of luck, a hapless
private walked in and graciously 'offered' to be her guide. Once she had extracted the information she
needed from him, Isabel knocked him unconscious and made her escape; but before
she left the encampment, she destroyed whatever computers and alien technology
that had existed in the large dome prison.
Isabel had hoped that somewhere amidst the rubble was the compacitor that
allowed the lengthy possession of the human bodies; and staring down at the
uniformed men - some unconscious or writhing around helplessly - she had
managed to accomplish that.
Isabel
closed her eyes and fell into a deep trance, spreading a thin mist-like facade
for her parent's escape; she could not maintain the warp for long, since she
hadn't the talent or the power. The
drugs and whatever else Khivar's men had given her had weakened her into an
almost incapacitated state. It took
everything in her to stand there, not allowing the General the pleasure of
seeing what his handiwork had done to her.
When she
saw that Max and her parents were safely out of harm's way, Isabel dropped the
warp and dropped to one knee. Her chest
hurt and her head was pounding.
Glancing down at the gathering mass of soldiers that seemed to have held
on to their host bodies, Isabel took a deep breath and pushed herself onto her
feet again. They would be after Max in
a heartbeat. She had to get down there
and help him.