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: Beni – yah (be – Nye – yah)
Noone (Noon)
Barak (B – air – rik)
Faigel (Fay – GEL)
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
Tir Lamar: sister city to Eshtari
kashkar: slur,
equivalent to witch
plascer: plasma weapons, compact, length of your hand
Chapter Sixty Three
***
At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are
spent.
- Proverbs 5:11
***
Michael
allowed his body to run on automatic pilot.
His enemies approached with swiftness, and with a certain amount of
disbelief, he found himself responding likewise, with amazing surety and
accuracy. But as much as Michael would
have liked to believe that this hidden agility and strength would somehow get
him out of this mess, as the numbers of guards increased, he knew that would
never happen. If he managed to overwhelm
them with an energy blast, Khivar would have another fifty men ready for
battle. It was all too much.
Hani and
Quirinius had managed to transmit one last message to him before all
communication was lost.
‘Sir,
we are boarded.’
‘Go,’
he had told them irritably.
‘But
sir…’
‘I’m
not going to make it. I’ll find another
way out.’
Those
were his last words before the magnetic field cut off all contact.
With a
quick rhythmic change, he held off one guard as he raised his other hand and
wiped the sweat that was collecting upon his brow. Michael glanced over his shoulder at the open
ventilation shaft above. At least he
had managed to bide his men enough time to escape. He exhaled loudly, as his heart continued its
quick pounding rhythm while he dispatched two more soldiers. Growling loudly, Michael knew he needed to
change his strategy. He could not hold
them off and wait until the onslaught stopped.
Somehow he needed to get out of there – he needed to escape.
“That’s
enough. Leave us.”
Michael’s
ear perked up at the familiar voice, as the sea of soldiers that filled the
corridor halted their attack and seemed to look at each other in
confusion. With a sudden shift in
direction, Michael watched as the soldiers began to file out of the
corridor. As they dispersed, he saw a
lone figure at the end of the hallway.
He was short in stature - just as he remembered the repugnant
commander. “Nicholas,” he breathed,
straightening his posture to meet his foe.
The
commander smirked, as his dilated black eyes met his, in an attempt to stare
him down. “Commander Rath, how nice it
is to meet you in the field again?” His
tone was sickeningly sweet. “I never
expected to see you at my back doorstep!”
Michael
swallowed hard, trying to catch his breath and regain his composure. The amount of time he had spent fending off
the guards had exhausted a great amount of his physical strength. And now as he faced Nicholas, he knew he
needed all of the strength he had both physically and mentally to oppose his
strongest adversary yet. “It’s
Commander Guerin,” he breathed, trying to hide his fatigue. “And it’s too bad I can’t say the same thing
about you.”
Nicholas
clucked his tongue and shook his head slowly, as he approached Michael. “You know it’s not nice to insult your host,
especially when you broke into my nice, warm home.” His ebony eyes flashed white under the
hydrogen lamps in the corridor, as his steps echoed in the narrow hallway. “I just don’t feel safe anymore after what
you have done.”
Michael
rolled his eyes and snorted. “Give me a
break,” he scoffed, at Nicholas’ performance as a damsel in distress. “You’re even more pathetic than I
remember.” He rolled his shoulders back,
preparing for a surprise attack from the scrawny imp.
Nicholas
tilted his head to his right, causing a loud cracking noise; and then repeated
the action, but to his left, causing the same result. “You know I will gain much pleasure from
watching you squirm under my power,” he sneered. Nicholas stopped three quarters of the way
down the corridor and closed his eyes.
“Prepare to experience more pain than you could ever imagine.”
Michael
stiffened as he found himself paralyzed by Nicholas’ powers. He knew he was unprepared for the
attack. He should have seen it coming. Michael kicked himself for not running when
he had the chance, instead of exchanging witty banter before Nicholas made his
move. He should have blasted him when
he had the chance.
~ * ~
Nicholas
was pleased with himself. He had stalled
the overconfident commander until he had drawn close enough to mentally bar the
muscle-bound Loyalist from accessing his motor functions. If he knew he wasn’t being watched, he would
have clapped gleefully at the triumph. It
was easier than he had expected.
“Khivar
will be impressed by your imprisonment, wouldn’t you say?” He circled Michael, inspecting his hybrid
captive. “I have to say Commander
Guerin,” he smirked. “You aren’t
much to look at.” He stopped and looked
into the eyes of the blue-eyed Antarian.
Michael
hated the way he was being taunted. If
he could have freed his hands, it would have been easy to reach out and wring
the Iturian’s neck. But there was no
release from Khivar’s second in command’s control. He looked down in utter disdain. When he realized that his facial features had
not been paralyzed. Michael smirked as
he worked up a large wad of saliva into his mouth. He gestured with his head for Nicholas to
draw closer.
Nicholas
furrowed his brow; his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What?”
He leaned in closer. “What is
it?”
Michael
spat in the self-aggrandizing commander who was nothing more than a little boy
in grown-up shoes.
Nicholas
jerked his head back as he felt the wet, bubbling, bacteria-filled goop slide
down his cheek. Quickly he wiped his
face with the back of his sleeve and forcefully plowed his fist into the
sitting target’s abdominal region. This
sudden movement caused his soon-to-be tortured prisoner to fall flat on his
back.
Michael
squeezed his eyes shut, as the shock of hitting the marble floor sent a jarring
moment of darkness flash before his eyes.
His head throbbed and his ears rung.
Before he could curse the baby-faced skulk, he felt the hall shake. Michael furrowed his brow, blinking several
times, wondering if he was imagining things.
Nicholas
moved in closer to Rath so that he could knock him out cold, then he would be
able to call in his guards to drag his body into the laboratory. When he focused on the dazed hybrid, a sudden
blinding energy blast brokered the two-inch thick steel walls, causing them to
melt into a liquid pool at the foot of the wall. “What the hell…?” His concentration broke long, as his
attention was drawn to the blinding light that filled the newly built in
entrance to Sector L21.
Michael
still couldn’t focus well, but he did feel his limbs unexpectedly loosen at his
sides. He glanced up at Nicholas, who
had stepped over him and was approaching the hole in the wall. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of
the stars that circled around his head.
Slowly he managed to push himself up to his feet and subtly follow
behind Nicholas. He had no idea who it
was, but it had definitely got him out of the jam he had been in.
“Commander
Guerin, get in!” A loud distorted voice
boomed throughout the hallway.
Nicholas spun
around to see Rath just before he knocked him out with an energy blast.
Michael
furrowed his brow at the blinding light that dimmed as he stepped through the
hole. “Who is it?” he barked, as he had
a sneaking suspicion of who was behind this sudden rescue.
There was
no answer.
When
Michael climbed aboard the hovercraft that floated parallel to the second floor
of the secret base, he headed straight towards the cockpit, locating the stupid
leader of the commando escapade. Hani in
the pilot’s seat while Que seemed to be manning the weapons control
station. “What the hell was that?” he
yelled, furious at his soldiers for disobeying orders once again. “This was not our plan.”
Hani and
Quirinius looked at each other guiltily.
“Sir, we…”
“I told you
to move on without me if I didn’t return.”
Michael knew from experience that it had been a narrow escape with the
help of his young officers, but that did not dampen his rage at the complete
and utter disregard for his commands. No
man or alien could survive if rogue soldiers existed in the Core. Sure this plan had worked, but only this
time. He would never allow reckless
behavior that dwelt in Hani or Quirinius into his battalion let alone into the
Loyalist Army. As his eyes darted from
the young eager officer to the quiet brainy one, Michael knew they would be
devastated at his decision to discharge them once they returned to
“I was
willing to ignore the first mission slip-ups, but this is something that I am
not able to excuse or condone.”
Michael
spun around and was about head into the ship’s midsection to analyze the data
they had retrieved - he was too emotional to navigate the ship – when he saw
Tess standing in the narrow corridor. He
had forgotten Tess and Yasu were also along on a separate mission. “Tess…”
His anger continued to seethe as he exhaled loudly, trying to calm
himself down. “What happened? Did you find Zander?”
Her face
was solemn and pale; her eyes dull, as if someone had doused the fire that lain
behind them since the day he had met her.
“Don’t
yell at them,” she said, barely above a whisper.
Michael
tilted his head to the side, worried at her unusual behavior. “What happened, Tess?” He gently guided her from the prying ears of
the young officers and led her past Yasu, who sat quietly in the midsection of
the ship, and into the small cargo bay.
“Michael…” It seemed that her voice was like that of a
child’s.
He guided
her to a nearby crate and sat her down.
“Come on Tess, tell me what happened.”
Her speechlessness made his body tense and thinking back to his
unexpected boarding of the hovercraft, he hadn’t heard a child’s voice or cry
since he arrived. Michael swallowed
hard. It couldn’t have been good news.
Obviously
both their missions hadn’t gone exactly as planned.
~~~
Tess
wasn’t quite sure what exactly had happened. Everything had been such a blur. They had tried to locate Zander and once she thought
perhaps she had, but when she had almost narrowed down the location of her son,
the connection vanished. She had
scrambled around, trying to reconnect, but there was nothing.
She had
lost him again.
Yasu had
told her quite calmly that their open door to rescue Zander was closing. Hani had contacted Yasu and informed them
that he was already prepared for take off and that Quirinius had just made
contact and spoke of the trouble in Sector L21.
Tess had tried frantically to locate Zander, but the magnetic fields
were making it impossible to reach him.
~ * ~
“We
must leave.”
Tess
stared blankly at Yasu – his suggestion did not register. She continued to creep along the walls of the
busy hallways. If she could keep up a
mindwarp long enough to search the rooms along this corridor, she stood a
chance at finding her son. Tess ignored
Yasu, whose hand had gently grasped her upper arm, began to pull her in the
opposite direction.
“We
must go.”
Tess
spun around. “We are not leaving without
my son!” Her chest rose and fell dramatically.
She hadn’t realized that her heart had begun to race and that she was
breathing loudly. Forcefully Tess ripped
her arm out of his hand and continued down the corridor. “He’s here.
And I have to find him.”
Suddenly
a thunder of footsteps echoed not far, around the corner of the corridor. Tess felt Yasu yank her backward, causing her
to lose focus on her mindwarp. Yasu
pinned her body against the entranceway of a nearby entrance, trying to avoid
detection as a troop of soldiers marched by.
She could hardly breathe, as her face was pressed against his
chest. When Tess tried to create some breathing room, she felt
Yasu push in harder, as the soldiers stopped right in front of them.
It
boggled her mind that no soldier even turned a stray glance over in their
direction. They were in plain view of
their enemies and none of them blinked.
And that is when she heard the voices.
“How
is the child?” a low raspy voice rumbled.
“I want him physically fit when we prepare him for the test.”
“The
child is being cared for,” a woman’s voice replied stonily. “His energies have been emerging. Soon he will be ripe for Project Pilan. We have monitored his the pattern of his growing
powers and it is following the turn of cyclical moons, General.”
“Perfect,”
the General purred. “Once we confirm
that Project Pilan has its’ power source, we can turn it on our enemies.”
“What
about the intruders, Sir?”
“They
are being dispatched at this very moment.”
Tess’
heart sped up at the mention of her son.
She didn’t quite understand what they were talking about; she didn’t
know how Zander could be involved in Project Pilan. Bracing herself against the crushing weight
of Yasu’s insistent protection, Tess managed to gain a minute amount of room to
breathe. As she inhaled deeply, she
leaned forward and around the corner, still hidden under the shadow of Yasu’s
body in attempt to catch a glimpse of the muffled voices.
The
man was balding with a thin bar of wispy, salt and pepper locks that ran across
the back of his smooth shiny head. His
face was worn and wrinkled. Thick dark
brows hovered above his grayish blue eyes, which were darting about, as he
gazed upon a full-figured woman who stood in full dress, with her back to them.
“Is
the information correct?” the female officer asked tentatively. “Has Commander Rath of the Royal Guard been
captured?”
Tess’
eyes widened. “Michael?” she said under
her breath. Suddenly she felt Yasu’s
hand clamp firmly across her mouth.
“Did
you hear something?” Tess heard the General ask suspiciously.
“Sir?”
The
overweight General peered over the woman’s soldier, and Tess could feel his
gaze boring into Yasu’s back. Still, as
he approached the sunken entrance against which they hid, there was an
expression of confusion, yet no recognition.
Under the palms of her hands, she could feel Yasu’s heart pounding. When the General reached out his hand to feel
around in the shallow entrance to the room she heard Yasu inhale sharply in
conjunction with her own gasp as she feared discovery.
“General,
we have had some anomalies within the child’s system,” a new breathless, male
voice said. “Our biological monitoring
unit has been experiencing a flux since we entered him into the data analysis
module.”
The
General spun around sharply and acknowledged the new officer. “How does the data read?”
Tess
leaned forward again, impelled by the anxiety that filled her heart at the
urgency of the soldier’s uncomprehending news.
Though she had no idea what they were talking about, if there was
something wrong with her son or if they had harmed in any way, they would
pay. Yasu held her back, but allowed her
enough room to watch the General motion the troops, who had been quietly
standing at attention while he held a conversation with this female soldier, to
head down the corridor in the opposite direction, while he, the female soldier
and this new officer strode quickly in the other.
Once they
were a few feet down the corridor, Tess pushed Yasu off of her and peered
around the corner, with the full intention of following them. “Yasu…y-yasu,” an unfamiliar voice quietly
cracked in their ears. “A-are you
there?”
Tess
ignored the voice and stealthily began to stalk her son’s captors. She heard the soft shuffle of steps behind
her and she knew Yasu was following also.
“Hani?” She heard Yasu mutter
behind her.
In her
earpiece she heard the static break up the confirmation of their contact’s
identity. “…es, it is I,” he
replied. “W…must leave.” His words were either unfinished or
unrecognizable. “Sold…surrounding…lea….5 min…utes.”
At the
young officer’s plea, Tess quickened her pace, knowing full well that Yasu
would urge her to flee. The three
figures ahead of her turned a sharp corner and she lost sight of them for a
moment. Taking a deep breath, she
sprinted around the corner in time to see a large dull, grey steel door close
behind the female soldier as entered the sealed room. Posted outside its entrance were two
guards. She moved to engage them, but
felt Yasu yank her back and around the corner.
Tess pushed him off and glared angrily at his audacity. “What do you think you’re doing?” she barked
quietly.
Yasu
did not blink at her sudden outrage. He calmly shook his head, like something a
parent would do, and positioned her to stand at a certain angle at the corner
of the hallway intersection. With a
slight tilt of her head, a sudden glint shimmered in the middle of the corridor
in front of the two guards. Along with a
the two guards and the intricate security system, Tess finally saw what caused
Yasu to draw her back – a thin plasma field which filled the height and width
of the hallway.
“What
are we going to do?” she asked urgently.
“Zander’s behind that door.”
Yasu’s focus seemed distant and elsewhere. “Yasu.”
The
average-height officer turned his gaze on to her, with an expression of sudden
clarity. “Wait here.” With that he strode around the corner and out
of sight. Tess leaned against the wall,
not daring to alert the guards of her presence, if indeed Yasu was intending to
draw the guard’s attention away from her.
She heard raised voices and the low hum of the plasma field suddenly
wind down and a few bright read beams of light fly past her head and into the
wall in front of her. Flinching at the
sound of loud groans, Tess waited tensely as she heard footsteps approaching.
“Come,”
he said curtly.
Tess
peered around the corner to see the two guards bound and gagged in the
hallway. “Hurry,” she exclaimed, rushing
towards the metal door, which had to be at least four inches thick. Determinedly she turned and focused on one of
the bound guards, searching for the security code that would allow her access
to her son; once she acquired the eight digit alphanumeric code, Tess quickly
punched in the code while Yasu stayed on the look out. Her heart raced with anticipation, knowing
that just through those doors was Zander’s sweet beautiful face.
The
metal doors groaned as the magnetic field slid them into the grooves in the
wall. Tess prepared herself for
immediate attack, as she stepped through those doors. Instead she was assaulted by an image of a
canopy of long cables extending downward from a halo of light into a small oval
containment unit, attaching to several portals in its jagged outer veneer. A monitoring station hovered several feet
from the main level where she could see the General and the other two officers
along with two other men dressed in white robes conversing. No one had noticed their entrance as they
seemed engrossed in the problem at hand.
The room’s light fixtures flickered rapidly, as if a strobe was its main
source of light and every architect and officer was scurrying around the base
of the oval containment unit, if she could hazard a guess, to locate the
malfunction.
‘Zander?’
Tess called out mentally.
The
flurry of activity continued as she motioned Yasu to follow her while creeping
stealthily through the crowd of people, blinding the malicious men torturing
her son to their presence. “He’s in
there,” she pointed to the oval unit, “I know it.”
‘Ma!’
Tess’
heart wrenched as the tearfully frightened mind reached out into the
laboratory. ‘Mommy’s coming,’ she
reassured, while searching for the optimum route up to the containment unit
that had been craned tentatively in the air, with the black cords its only
failsafe, and even then, she wasn’t sure they would protect her son from
injury.
‘Nonnie!’
The
strange name seemed familiar to her. ‘Who
sweetie?’ Tess tried to keep her son’s
mind elsewhere as she found an angled beam which rose to the ceiling. If she could just manage to shimmy up the
smooth structural pillar, she had a chance to reach her son.
‘Nonnie…Andie…’
Suddenly
the nickname struck a cord. ‘Grandma
Andaria?’ The thought of her mother sent
a chill down her spine. Tess closed her
eyes and shook her head. She couldn’t
lose focus now. ‘Just stay quiet, Zander,’ Tess said calmly. ‘Mommy’s coming to
get you.’
As she
reached up to gain some leverage to pull herself up onto the beam, Yasu’s
familiar hand halted her. “Let me go,”
he whispered. “You could fall.”
Tess
furrowed her brow and stifled a loud boisterous laugh. She had allowed Yasu to face off with the
guards, but apparently the young soldier had gotten the impression she could
not take care of herself. The corners of
her lips curled slightly. “I will be
fine. Besides, Zander doesn’t know
you.’ A hesitant look crossed his once
stoic face. It was the first sign of
emotion she had seen the stiff, well-trained soldier express. ‘I’ll be fine,” she repeated, in a reassuring
voice.
At
this, Yasu seemed to step back and resign himself to the role of watchout
again.
Slowly,
Tess shimmied up the beam, using the muscles in her thighs to steady her, as
she pulled herself up with her arms. She
kept telling herself not to look down and focusing on her goal, Zander. As she came closer to her destination, the
louder the voices of Khivar’s men got – to the point where she could understand
what they were saying.
“Well
fix it!” The General gestured
emphatically towards the oval unit. “We
do not have time for these unexpected surprises!” he growled.
“Sir,
it is not our equipment,” said a lean, undernourished, dark-skinned academic,
who was shaking his head fervently. “
The child seems to be unconsciously emitting these electrical charges and our
apparatus is not equipped for such large currents. It is flooding our biophysical processing
mainframe.”
Tess
swallowed hard, absorbing the newly arisen information about her son. Though she had recognized in the last few
days which she spent with him, that there was something developing, changing
within his delicate body – hearing his voice in her head – she never expected
his powers to emerge so quickly. Her
powers and that of the other Royal Four’s gestated until they had turned the
ripe age of six. But Zander was only 15
months old, there was no possible way that he had developed them so quickly.
“I’m
sure you’ve got some magic potion up your sleeve, Architect Beni-yah. Make it so that he can’t think. I don’t want this project destroyed because
of one little child.”
“Y-yes,
Sir,” Architect Beni-yah stammered.
Tess
glanced up at the containment unit which was only a few inches away. Biting the bottom of her lip, she teetered on
the cold metal beam and reached for the edge of the module, using all of her
strength to draw it close enough to take hold of it with two hands. After taking a deep breath, Tess gripped the
edge of the module, where a glass cover sealed the module and leaped off the
beam. Her heart raced as she dangled
above the laboratory, gritting her teeth as she attempted to work her way to
the front of the module, with only the strength of her arms to keep her from
plunging to the ground. As her feet
swung wildly in the air, they found a flat piece of metal jutting out of the
module, which allowed her to gain some leverage on her son’s prison. With a determined effort, Tess managed to
heave herself up to the top of the oval unit, that was, she now realized,
hovering at a slight angle backwards to her benefit.
“Hurry,”
she heard Yasu whisper. “Your façade is
wavering.” Tess, who was sprawled on top
of the glass, clinging for dear life, glanced backward to see the world
perceived was blurring.
‘Damn
it.’
‘Bad
words,’ she heard her son chide.
Tess
looked down into the oval prison and saw her son, who had grown at least an
inch since she had last seen him, was naked, except a for a purple cloth that
served as a diaper. “Zander, what have
they done to you?” she whispered, seeing her breath fog up the glass.
Zander
was unconscious. Several thin glowing
fibrous wires had been inserted into his arms, chest and legs. It made the blood rush to her face as her
vision blurred and her peripheral vision was extended to an almost 360 panorama
of the laboratory. Tess pressed the palm
of her left hand against the glass, wanting to reach down and rescue her son
from the torment he must have been experiencing. “Mommy’s going to get you out,” she
whispered, pressing her lips against the glass in an invisible kiss.
Slowly
she squirmed up the slippery slope, to the pinnacle of the unit and straddled
it, keeping her balance by hanging onto one of the cables that hung down. Tess patted down her clothes, in search of
the fine-tipped pen she had received from one of their architects. When her right hand slapped her back pocket,
she felt a slender mound.
Got
it.
Tess
gripped it as she would a regular writing utensil and pressed gently on the
narrow button that was under her thumb.
A thin green light emanated from the silver pen. The pungent smell of smoke filled her senses.
“What
is that?” Tess heard the General inquire suspiciously.
“What?”
Architect frowned.
“Smoke. I smell smoke.” There was a pause. “And it’s coming from the module!”
Tess
glanced over at the group of five Iturians who were scrambling to find the
source of the smell. She looked down at
the small body of her son – so pale, so vulnerable – under the glass. The opening she had been creating was almost
complete. Zander would soon be free.
Alarms
were sounding loudly as she threw the circular piece of glass on the ground and
reached down into the module to touch her son.
Everyone seemed quite calm, as her mindwarp blocked out the sounds of
the room for the moment. The soft,
smooth skin under her hand filled her heart with a sense of calm.
She
had her son.
“Your Highness,
quickly,” her companion urged, pointing at his time device. “We don’t have much time. Retrieve him now.”
Tess
began to remove the wires that the architects had attached to him, but before
she finished removing the last couple from his nose, she was mentally
assaulted.
‘No!’
Tess
squeezed her eyes shut as the voice almost shattered her eardrums. “Argh!”
“What
is it?” She heard the anxiety in Yasu’s voice, but she could not respond.
‘Bad.
Stop,’ the voice said urgently, softening it's tone. ‘No go.’
Tess
frowned. ‘Who are you?’
‘Mommy,
no go…not yet.’
Tess
sat up and peered down at her ashen-faced son.
He had not moved or made any noise.
‘Zander, is that you?’ She tilted
her head in confusion. ‘Mommy has to get
you out of here before they hurt you.’
‘Not
yet.’
Tess
didn’t understand what he was saying. Of
course he didn’t know what he was talking about. She needed to get him out of there. There was no ‘ifs ands or buts’. Tess reached in to the module and began to
lift her limp son’s body out of the containment unit when she felt him
stir. “Zander,” she gasped. “Oh, my poor baby.”
Tess
glanced down at Yasu, who was looking more than anxious now. She looked ahead and saw that the blurring
was worse now and that many had begun to hear the alarm. Her focus was distracted at best.
Zander
was shackled with thin fibreoptic cords
that pierced his skin, like those of Earth’s IV lines, but she was sure their
purpose was not to save his life. Her
nerves were edging on overload as she fumbled with the last few cords strapped
to her son’s body. She knew that it
would read on their monitoring system, since she had no more strength left in
her to add to her fading mindwarp.
‘He’s
flatlining…” an architect stated rather calmly.
Tess
grabbed the smooth grey cloth that he had been laid in and wrapped it around
her son’s limp body. Searching around
her for a decided exit, as shimmying down a metal beam was not an option, she
saw the cords that held the contraption above the ground. Wrapping the black malleable coil around her
arm and thigh, a trick she had learned from watching Cirque de Soileil with
Kyle and Valenti, Tess somewhat jerkily slid down into Yasu’s waiting arms with
Zander grasped tightly against her.
“This
way,” Yasu hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the back of the
laboratory.
“What
are you doing?” Tess cried, shifting Zander’s now so slender body into a more
comfortable position. “Why are we going
this way?”
“We
have no time to argue this,” the young officer pointed aggravatingly towards
the guards that were now flooding through the entrance door. “We must get out of here.”
Tess
nodded, knowing that she hadn’t the energy nor the will power to argue with the
Kedran. She caught a glimpse of the navi
system in his palm and realized he had been determining their exit strategy,
and this was not some ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to look the hero. Silently Tess gave way and followed hurriedly
to the narrow sliding door; but as they made their escape, she accidentally tripped
on a thick cord that lined the floor, stumbling forward. Yasu forcefully pulled on her arm in an
attempt to keep her from falling face-down; she ended up on her knees, gripping
Zander protectively.
But in
that moment of unforeseeable surprise, Tess was so focused on making sure
Zander would not fall that she let go of the mindwarp – easily slipping into
unconscious thought.
“THERE!”
Tess
glanced over her shoulder as Yasu practically lifted her up onto her feet, all
the while running towards the exit, that she almost stumbled again. Her heart raced as she could almost
physically feel deep-seated desire of the pursuit of their enemies. Footsteps haunted her, as the echoes filled
her ears. Several beams of red energy
had come shooting past their heads, as they shrunk from the high-pitched whinny
that warned them. Once they escaped
through the sliding door, Yasu scrambled the release with the laser pen Tess
had been given.
Silently
and with apprehension the two crept down the hallways and corridors, awaiting
any possible arrival of guards searching for their persons. Ducking into cold storage closets and
interspersed usage of both Yasu and Tess’ gifts slowly brought them closer to
their destination. Tess was grateful
that their tentative escaped kept her mind from focusing on what they had done
to her son. His inability to speak and
his lack of movement chilled her to the bone.
This was not the son she had left.
“Search
every corner, hall and staffroom!” a man’s voice barked, not far from them.
Several
soldiers jogged down the far corridor, perpendicular to the one she and Yasu
were traveling down. When the Iturians
had passed she thought they were in the clear and she stepped out into the open
only to have Yasu pull her cautiously back, just as the owner of the loud
commanding voice walked by. His head
turned slightly and Tess was certain that he had seen her; but no alarm was
sounded and no voices were raised as the commanding officer slowed and then continued
on his way.
“You’re
going to have to stop doing that,” Tess groaned, rubbing the crook of her neck.
“I am
sorry, Your Highness.” Yasu lowered his
head respectfully. “I did not
mean…” There was no time to finish his
unnecessary apology for saving her hide, as the sound of voices and footsteps
trailed behind them.
“In
here,” Tess motioned him to follow her, as she noticed the green glowing panel
beside the entrance of a storage closet that the soldiers before them, had
already searched. She pressed the
release and quickly darted into the closet.
Yasu gently guided her aside in the dark room, which held shelf upon
shelf of crates and containers of all shapes.
Licking her lips, Tess looked down on Zander, whom she had tucked into
the smooth folds of the blanket-like fabric.
The voices lingered in front of their door, as the guards radioed other
troops in an attempt to co-ordinate their search.
“The
sec…tor E,” static crackled, as if the voice came from some sort of radio, “20
has been searched.”
“Then are
we not wasting our precious time here?”” a voice groaned. “I cannot believe we cannot find 2 measly
spies!”
“Silence,”
an annoyed voice growled. “This is far
from over. We must secure all
exits. If we have spies, they must have
a means of escape..."
Tess
lifted the folds of the fabric which concealed her son's face. As her fingertips grazed his troubled brow,
she felt the coolness seep into her blood.
Slowly her chest began to constrict and her heart felt like it was being
squeezed as with a vice. Tess bit her
bottom lip and pressed Zander's cheek to hers and held her breath as she
listened hard for a sign of life.
The
short inhale of oxygen was shallow and couldn't have been enough to sustain
him. Oh God no! Tess pulled more of the fabric from her
child's cool frame and pressed her ear to his chest. Zander's heartbeat was irregular and
labored. She closed her eyes as fear
overwhelmed her.
'Not
now...not when they had come so close to being free.'
"Come,"
Yasu beckoned as his body was almost halfway out the door.
Taking
a deep breath, Tess held back the tears that threatened to fall and gritted her
teeth determinedly at the next few moments of their mission. She closed her eyes and gave herself a pep
talk. 'You can do this. We've gotten
through much worse than this...we're not going to fall apart now!' Tess once again wrapped Zander into the folds
of the fabric and cautiously crept out of their temporary hiding place.
~ * ~
The
halls had been crawling with guards, but by the time they had reached the cargo
bay, the hallways seemed to empty and the guards were fewer and fewer. Tess had never been so relieved to reach the
large sand-infested dockage bay in her life.
As they stood hesitantly outside the door, Tess and her companion's eyes
met in an anxious fleeting moment. There
could be a waiting army beyond the slick sliding metal door; whether all of
their hiding and camouflage tactics had been for naught would be known in a few
minutes.
Tess
swallowed, knowing that precious minutes of her son's life were being wasted
because of their fears. With the
smallest pressure against the flowing panel, the door opened into the darkened
shelter for supplies and weapons. There
were only two ships that were docked in the large hangar - a large white
pristine freighter built for desert travel and carefully hidden behind it was a
small hovercraft which they had managed to sneak into the cargo bay during the
shift change and hidden with a camouflage device developed by Architect Noone.
Yasu ran
along the nearest wall, deftly evading large crates and hard plastic-like
containers. Tess' gaze darted around the
bay. Everything seemed eerily quite. It made the hairs on the back of her neck
prickle. She didn't like the feel of
this at all. As she followed Yasu
towards their camouflaged ship, Tess couldn't help but think that this had been
all too easy.
'They
are not that careless.'
"Thank
you for giving us the credit," a low, rumbling voice chuckled.
Tess spun
around startled by the unseen voice. As
she searched for the voice, the dimmed lights of the cargo bay began to hum and
soon the whole room was illuminated, revealing a contingent of Iturian guards
standing single file horizontally across the length of the room. She stood half in awe and fear and half in
complete self-loathing for her overconfidence.
One
tall dark-haired soldier stood out amongst the uniformed troop. His chiseled features, like that described of
an Adonis, were striking and she couldn't help but admire them in a strangely
comforting way. Tess frowned. He seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't
place the face.
"Now
will you hand over the child?" The
arrogant officer stepped forward with arms outstretched; in conjunction, the
tightly knit group of officers behind him raised identical weapons of size,
shape and color. They were known as
'plascers'. Similar to the elkarl, the
weapons did not expand into long staffs, but their force blast doubled that of
their counterparts.
Tess closed
her eyes with every intention of killing everyone in the encampment. She would not have her child put back in that
deathtrap.
"If
you want your child to live you will think twice about your actions," the
Iturian's voice echoed confidently.
Tess'
eyes flashed suspiciously. "What
have you done to my son?" she growled, lifting the fold of the purple
fabric from Zander's face. "You
will pay. You tell Khivar
that!" Her whole body was trembling
with a throbbing tension.
"Your
Highness," the officer said calmly, stepping towards her. "Your son will 'not' be harmed."
Tess
stepped back in time with his approach, almost like a slow wary dance. Her eyes narrowed, completely disgusted by
his attempt to reason with her, like she had absolutely no idea of what Khivar
stood for and his intentions were. He
could have cared less if her son lived or died - preferably dead - as long as
his throne was secured. And from the
snippets of conversation and Loyalist Intel, Tess knew that the monster had
full intentions of using her son to do it.
"If
you come another step closer, I swear I will disintegrate your whole
army." Tess locked gazes with the
officer in an attempt to communicate her full intentions. "I have no regrets spilling your
blood. In fact, I will enjoy it."
"I
know you will not sentence your son to death," the officer said, as if
completely ignoring her threats.
"And I am not trying to deceive you, Your Highness."
Tess
felt her stomach churn as he referred her to respectfully for the second time. There was something about him; though his
face remained stoic and calm, his eyes seemed to plead with her for her to
listen to what he was saying. 'No.' Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she
stepped back one more step. 'It's a trick.'
"It
is not," he mouthed quietly.
"I
will take care of them, Your Highness!"
Yasu's commanding and defiant voice filled her ears as he charged in
front of her, pushing her to safety.
"Leave!" The back of
ebony-colored locks of her tanned companion was to her as she was startled by
the move to attack. His body was tense
and alert, ready for battle. Tess could
see it in his body stance.
The
officer seemed unfazed and lifted his hand, flicking his wrist towards Yasu
casually. "Hand to hand combat
should suffice," he declared., not giving Yasu a second glance and turning
his attention back to her.
Tess
watched as groups of three approached Yasu warily, circling their prey. Her heart raced praying that he was as strong
and stubborn with them as he had been with her during the mission.
"Now,
we have the opportunity to speak," the commanding officer said quietly.
"Barak
watch your back with her! You know
General Garrick has warned us about her powers."
Tess
tilted her head to the side, as the officer paused at the warning. 'Barak.'
She frowned uncertainly. The name
seemed familiar. 'Why?'
"You
must trust the One has plans for him," Officer Barak said soothingly.
"What
are you doing?" she cried, so confused at his sudden about-face. "Why are you saying this to
me?" Protectively Tess pulled
Zander even closer to her chest, while backing away.
"He
will die Your Highness. I know that for
a fact. Even 'you' know that."
Tess
bit her lip as she looked down at her son; tears were on the verge of spilling
down her cheeks. Her breath quickened as
doubts began forming in her mind about what she was doing. 'Could he be telling me the truth?' The thought left her breathless and her chest
aching.
How
could she leave her son here?
"I
would die for him, Queen Ava..."
Tess
glared at this Antarian in Iturian garb, vowing his life for her son's. "You are a LIAR!" she
screamed. Tess turned around to escape
to the still-cloaked ship, but found herself trapped, with two guards coming up
behind the rear to hinder her escape.
"He
will die if you do not listen to me!" Barak said anxiously.
Tess
turned around, a mixture of rage and helplessness. She just couldn't take the chance that by
rescuing her son she would be sentencing him to death. As she pressed Zander close to her chest,
Tess felt him move. Peering into the
folds, her son was choking, gasping for breath, as if a vacuum had formed in
the spacious hangar.
"Do
you want us to take him?" one guard asked smugly.
Tess
watched the commander's face flinch at the triumph in his man's voice. She closed her eyes and shook her head. None of it made any sense. "Please." His voice softened and almost pled for her to
believe his lies.
When
Tess opened her eyes she found him standing in front of her. His big round eyes staring down upon
her. He just stood there, making no move
to wrest her child from her arms. She
never noticed his silver eyes, which seemed to shimmer under the flickering
overhanging lights that illuminated the room.
Without a word, he nodded once, as if reassuring her that it was okay
for her to let Zander go...
And
with a flash, Tess placed the face that was now gazing so calmly at her, as if
studying her face for the first time - like that of a painting. He was the soldier who had seen her in the
corridor - the one who had let them escape.
"You
know that retribution will be made," Tess said quietly, as if testing his
silent claim to fealty to the true King.
"I will not let my son come to harm..."
Barak
nodded. "Your powers are somewhat
legendary," he said auspiciously.
"And I would warn my men that to take you for granted would be a
terrible mistake." He hesitantly
reached out for Zander. With an amount
of care, he cradled her son in his arms, as if holding a fragile piece of art.
"Men,"
he barked, his eyes glazed over while addressing his pre-occupied men. "Take care of them." The distinguished officer, whom Tess had
turned her child over to, turned on his heel and towards the direction of
hallway.
Tess
felt like she had made a mistake trusting the Antarian when his back was turned
to her, but unexpectedly his stride slowed and he turned around curiously, to
face her once again as his men closed in on her. “The General has been alerted that all is
well and that the search has been called off,” he said calmly, his steady gaze
meeting hers. “Men, be careful during
transfer. We wouldn’t want any
‘incidents’ to occur when I leave.” His
eyes never left hers. It was like a
subtle allusion or inference that seemed to awaken her to the circumstance she
was in.
Tess
knew what she had to do.
Turning
around, she faced the two guards that were approaching confidently, yet with an
intelligent posture of unease. She
turned her head slightly and out of the corner of her eye she saw Barak
speaking softly to Zander, grazing his lips across his forehead softly. Her attention was drawn back to her would-be
captors as they yelled idiotically, as if they were in some war movie,
announcing their approach. Clearing her
mind swiftly of any distractions, Tess summoned an image of a brooding rain
cloud, dense and threatening. Her eyes
snapped open like that of a sternly pulled blind, her pupils dilated ever so
slightly. The determined soldiers were
now quite tense and they had stopped their approach. In the background even the rousing cries of
attack and struggle between Yasu and the Iturian guards quiet.
The
room was filled with a fine grey mist which thickened each passing minute. Tess scanned the room noting the position of
each of the speechless guards and reached out mentally with a power she had
only felt once before - in the halls of Roswell High. Systematically she struck the guards with
bright white bolts of lightening. The
static in the air crackled in the air as she tested herself, striking with one
bolt, then two, until she was overloading their nervous systems with energy
that could only be described as tentacles strangling their prey.
Tess
hadn't even heard the cries of the tormented aliens; she didn't even remember
boarding the ship. It had happened all
so fast - freeing her son only to lose him, killing at least twenty men without
blinking, rescuing Michael...
~ * ~
"I...I
couldn't do anything," she whispered, as she fell forward into Michael's
arms. But in a moment Tess sat up and
looked Michael in the eyes. "I
couldn't leave you too."
She
searched for understanding, maybe even assurance that she had done the right
thing. Tess closed her eyes. Now as she retold the events of her escape,
images of the piles of black ashes on the floor of the hangar appeared before
her eyes as Yasu pulled her to the ship, to safety.
"I...I
was so calm, Michael, like nothing phased me.
I didn't even give them a second thought." The words tumbled past her lips, but she
wasn't quite sure she was aware of what she was saying. Everything had been so real - the war, the
possible loss of her son. It seemed like
a game before - chess, where she would strategically move the pieces and if she
made the right move she would triumph - but death hadn't been seemed a part of
the game until that day.
"Shhhh." Michael's arms wrapped tightly around
her. "It's going to be all
right."
Tess
rested her head against Michael's chest, listening to the slow rhythmic beat of
his heart, allowing it to soothe her restless spirit. Zander I'm so sorry. She closed her eyes and allowed the tears
to flow from the depths of her heart.
Now
she had let them both go.
~~~
"Over
there...turn here!" Kyle yelled excitedly as he spotted on the horizon of
the clear black night, a dim glow.
Brody...Larek,
had commandeered his truck and was driving wildly, as if he'd never driven a vehicle
before. I suppose aliens don't drive
cars...
"When
we get there, you'd better pray to whatever Deity you believe in that
it's not too late."
Kyle
glanced worriedly at Larek's less than cheery disposition. "I bet you're the life of the party on
your home planet, huh?"
Larek
looked unappreciatively at the lame joke.
"There has been so much planning done and to think that all of it
will be for naught if General Qunar's surprise attack is a success," he
mumbled angrily.
Kyle
wasn't sure if he was blaming him for not staying or himself for not getting
here sooner. He frowned, as he looked
over the scrawny, less-than-heroic figure of a possessed human-alien. How was he supposed to overpower the still
numerous aliens that were hanging out in the middle of the desert plain? Kyle tilted his head and scrutinized each
body part of the human/alien. Could he beat a 'whole' army?
"Stop
staring at me like that," Larek said, with his eyes staring straight
ahead.
Kyle
quickly turned his eyes to the front of the road. He better not have thought he was checking
him out. He was 'so' not doing
that. Kyle glanced briefly at Larek
and then turned his eyes forward again. Should
he say something?
Suddenly
he felt the truck come to a jarring halt.
They were still several feet from the place where the battle was
occurring. Kyle frowned. "Why are we stopping here?"
Larek
jumped out of the truck and pulled out a weird round metal object that flowed a
fluorescent yellow. "I must make
contact with Faigel." Kyle followed
his gaze, which was staring intently up into the infinite solar system. His eyes widened in disbelief. "You've got a ship up there?" he
cried.
Larek
glanced at him curiously, as he pressed a sequence of symbols on the apparent
communicator. "Yes. Is that a total foreign concept when you have
already seen one?" He shook his
head warily and walked away from Kyle.
Kyle knew
he shouldn't be stunned or even surprised by anything by now, but it still
boggled his mind that there were 'actual' spaceships that could fly in outer
space. Of course, not the shuttles that
humans sent into space, but real UFOs.
"Let
us go."
Kyle
turned to see Larek standing atop a sand dune a few feet in front of him. "Everything has been arranged, and if
it's not to late, maybe Zan and Vilandra are still alive."
Kyle
swallowed hard at his unemotional assessment of the situation, though he shared
the same sentiments. He closed his eyes
and sighed. Please let them be
alive...
~~~
Isabel
breathed in sharply as she awoke from her blackout and choked on the dry dust
that filled the air. She tried to move,
but found a weight hindering her movement, especially under her present injured
condition. Her head hurt, as if she had
just had entirely too many Jack Daniels.
She groaned.
Isabel
watch out!
The
memory of the frantic cry filled her ears with an unexpected viciousness. Why had the voice sounded so
familiar? Isabel pondered that
question as she lay there, eyes closed, trying to regain enough strength to
remove whatever had her pinned to the ground.
The noise around her was muted and she managed to make out who were
speaking: The General and her
guard. Isabel silently lolled over in
her mind where Max was or even whether he was alive. Everything had happened so fast, one motion
and blast after another. In her heart,
she feared the worst - Max was dead.
The
thought of her brother slain at the hand of ‘The General’ arose a sudden surge
of anger and hatred. Isabel gritted her
teeth and found solid ground from which she could push her upper body to try to
gain leverage on whatever was sitting on her.
She cringed at the shooting pain that swept through her arms and caused
her stomach to churn with nausea.
Sucking in a sharp intake of breath, Isabel bit down on her bottom lip
in pain, her eyes shut tight. “Oh
God.”
It took
everything in her to not collapse under the pain. Slowly, Isabel managed to maneuver her body,
until she was lying flat on her back.
She tried not to draw attention to herself, wanting a chance to seek
revenge on those who had robbed her of her only family. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the
dark-haired lackey that had kept her from helping Max. He will be the first to die.
Making
sure their attention was focused elsewhere, while she prepared herself for one
last attack, Isabel felt whatever was on top of her, move. She furrowed her brow. As she placed her hand upon the mass on top
of her, Isabel realized that it was a person; in fact, a man. Suddenly a lump began to develop in her
constricted throat. Her heart began to
race; she didn’t know why she was reacting this way, but dread flooded over.
Isabel
watch out!
The cry
seemed to wrench at her heart. Jesse. Isabel opened her eyes wide, frantic at the
realization that the voice she had heard had been Jesse. Suddenly the body on top of her groaned as it
moved.
Isabel
managed to prop herself up on her forearm so that she could push the body, who
was lying facedown against her chest.
Rolling him over, Isabel saw the sandy features of the man whom she
pledged her life to only a year and a half ago.
The lump in her throat now seemed to be the size of a golf ball. Her chest rose and fell quickly, as she tried
to catch her breath at the image of her husband’s unconscious face. Quickly she forgot about her own fatal injury
and brushed the burnt copper grains from his cold moist face. “Oh!
Jes-se!” Her vision blurred
as each caress revealed another portion of her husband’s face. His skin had always been so smooth.
When the
flood of tears had begun raining down on his soiled face, she didn’t know. Isabel could only search his body - beginning
at the top of his head and working her way down to his torso – for the cause of
his unresponsive state, when she felt a wet, moist area under the palm of her
hand. “Oh no!” She gasped hysterically, shaking her head at
the thought that passed through her mind.
“Oh, no!” she repeated, clutching Jesse’s head to her chest. “Please God, no!”
“Jesse,
wake up.” Isabel lowered her husband’s
head onto her knee and stroked his face. “Come on, honey. Wake up!”
The
present disappeared as she watched Jesse’s paling face. Everyone and everything that she had been so
aware of gave way to the startling reality of another man in her life
dying. Max was dead. Jesse…
The words
would not form in her mind. Isabel
closed her eyes. This was not
happening. It just wasn’t. She unconsciously wiped her upper lips with
her hand, feeling the moisture transfer to her hand. Most would believe that a thousand thoughts
would rush through your head when two people you loved had died, but all Isabel
found was emptiness. She felt
nothing. Isabel frowned. Why couldn’t she feel anything? The thought distressed her. She had no emotions at all. It was as if they had been stolen along with
her brother and her husband.
How
much more was she supposed to take?
~~~
The
fierce desert squall was unexpected to say the least. Where was the catalyst for the sudden,
confusing experience that was unfolding before each of their eyes? Max felt himself hovering above the commotion
of war that held the very key to the survival of a planet and more personally,
to the life of his son, Zander. Floating
there, he had never felt such a sense of insignificance in the spectrum of the
infinity that surrounded his very body.
There was so much more to the universe than his tunneled perspective of
‘self’.
A swirl
of white, grey and blacks, textured by the grains of sand formed a simulation
of a cocoon, where the final metamorphosis of his ‘self’ would emerge. It was a
surreal process that he had not foreseen.
While his conscious began to awaken in the whirlwind of silence, Max saw
Liz’s body floating in the same abyss to which he was confined. Her body was limp, her head lolling back and
her arms hanging loosely at her side.
It hurt
to see this woman that he had fallen in love with caught up in something that
should never have involved her. How much
had she given up? How much had she
suffered because of him? Now in this one
final act, Max witnessed her complete devotion to him. As the cocooned wall began to converge upon
him and Liz and the distance between them lessen, the pale ray of the moon
streamed into the otherwise darkened shelter filling the imperceptible room
with its’ silver rays.
Max
watched as the light dallied around Liz’s limp body, as if gently caressing her
pale skin. Then a sudden cool breeze
swept through causing his body to send a shiver down his spine. After a few moments, the swirl of sparkling
light danced through the air toward him.
Max watched it slowly approach him, unprepared for whatever was to come.
His body
felt a soothing, warm gentle caress envelop him. Strange sensations filled his body as the
light penetrated his warm tingling skin and absorbed into his slow metabolic
system that was frantically trying to sort out the evolving changes and
transformations that were occurring. It
ebbed and flowed with a naturalness that seemed to burn under his skin,
singeing his follicles from beneath his pores.
His essence which had always felt incomplete was searching…searching for
that last piece of the puzzle. His
spirit searched for something that would make him complete.
The
gentle force that had held him up, as though he could truly fly, seemed to wane
and he felt the pressure against his limbs begin to disperse. He saw Liz’s worn body gradually descend and
realized that he was also descending from the plane of existence that was
foreign to him. But while he prepared
himself to face the real world once again, he felt a sharp pain stab into his
spine, as if someone had inserted a long spike of cold steel through his nerves
that burned with a hot ferocity.
Max could
hear his scream echo within the drifting wind tunnel, bouncing as if the wall
of wind and sand truly existed as a solid barrier, muffling his cries. He arched his body back, as if trying to
escape the repeated stabs of pain. The
warm breath that filled his lungs, escaped with a shallow gasp. His mind buzzed, as his ears rang with a high-pitched
tone. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut,
trying to block out the throbbing white pulse of pain that shot through him.
It was
too much.
~ * ~
The pain
had stopped. Max awoke to see Liz
sprawled on the ground underneath him. He
paused to assess whether his body had managed to survive the excruciating pain
without any side effects. Though Max
felt no pain, he was uncertain whether that was because he was physically fine
or whether it was because something worse had happened.
He
didn’t know.
'Daddy...help
me...'
Max
closed his eyes, unsure whether he was imagining things. Zander?
'Daddy...help
me...'
Max
rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up onto his feet. Suddenly incensed by the soft pleading voice
in his mind. It was the first time he
had heard himself referred to as 'Daddy'.
This
was far from over.
~~~
Jesse
thought he was imagining things as he opened his eyes. Things were somewhat blurry and out of focus,
but she was there, her angelic face hovering over him. Don't cry my baby. He wanted to say the words; he wished he
could comfort her, but his body wouldn't let him.
It
was an odd sensation that floated over him.
It wasn't exactly as they had described it in medical journals and
tabloids. He was filled with a mixture
of pain and numbness. There was no white
light...
Jesse
could hear Isabel's voice pleading him to stay with her, but it was muffled and
hard to understand. He tried to hang on,
but it was like his fingers couldn't find anything to grasp onto. So sorry my baby.
"Jesse!"
Jesse
rested his eyes, as his breath became more labored and shallow. The pain was fading now and the numbness
taking its place. With the a conscious
effort and the last amount of strength he had, Jesse managed to find his
voice. "Is...Isa-bel..."
Her
teary eyes seemed to flicker in acknowledgement of his voice. A moment of hope flashed in her beautiful
brown eyes. He always loved staring
into those eyes...
"Jesse,"
she cried happily, lifting him into her arms.
When
Isabel lowered him back onto her lap, Jesse managed to sum up the most
important thing he wanted her to remember.
"I loved you, Isabel. A-all...all of you."
Jesse
felt he could let go now. As he stared
up into her lovely face, he could rest now.
He had been able right some of the wrong he had done to her, Max and
Michael. He had proven that he loved
her.
Goodbye.