PART TWENTY-SIX

Liz turned her tear-filled eyes to look up at him.

"It was true. The prophecy was true. I have the mark," she said, angrily turning her head, her fingers parting her hair to reveal the birthmarks that formed a V on her scalp.

"And look what good it did," Cal said in derision. "He's dead because of it, because of you."

Liz lowered her head, her eyes turning to Max.

"You're right," she whispered. Maria moved forward and crouched next to her friend, putting her arm around Liz, tears in her eyes.

"Shh, sweetie, it's ok," she whispered.

Alex's mouth tightened, his heart breaking for his childhood friend, and he snapped.

Before anyone had time to react, he rushed Cal and pushed him away from where he stood near Liz.

"That's all you have to say?" Alex said, furious. "All of us put our lives on the line for you and your King, and for what? He would have been dead weeks ago if Liz hadn't killed that agent!"

"Watch it, kid," Cal growled.

"No, I'm not going to watch it!"

"Alex," John said in a placating tone. "Take it easy."

"No, don't tell me to take it easy!" Alex growled. "Just because you worship this thing's people, it doesn't give you the right to tell us how to feel! This is supposed to be some superior race?"

Alex was so furious, he didn't realize that Isabel and Michael stood behind him, listening to everything he said, Isabel with tears forming in her eyes.

"If it weren't for Liz, the FBI would have been poking Max's dead body weeks ago. If I hadn't taken that tracking chip off of Max, he would have been hunted down like a dog. If it weren't for me, you never would have known about the cell mutations, and maybe that thing might have made a home inside one of you!" he said, turning back to Cal. "And Maria's the only reason you're still breathing, if that's what you even do. If she hadn't distracted that thing, you'd be toast."

"Alex," Maria said, and Alex turned toward his friend's voice, but her eyes were focused behind him.

Alex turned to see Isabel, looking at him, a wounded expression on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks and his anger quickly deflated.

Michael stared at him, his expression unreadable.

Alex grimaced. He'd been so angry with Cal that he hadn't thought about what he was saying. He hadn't meant to hurt either one of them.

"Jesus," he said, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"I'm...sorry," he said apologetically. "I didn't mean, I didn't mean you...."

"And therein is your weakness," Cal snapped.

Maria saw the fury grow in Alex's eyes once more, and her grip tightened on Liz. If he tried to rush Cal again, she knew that this time Cal would retaliate.

"Alex, just walk away," Maria said in a calm voice. "I've got Liz. Just walk away and calm down."

"Go Alex," Liz said in a trembling voice. She'd already lost Max. She wasn't about to lose one of her friends too.

But Alex wasn't moving. It wasn't until Isabel walked toward him, tugging on his arm, that he finally shook his head and walked off into the darkness.

"My priority is Antar. I have no further concerns other than that. My family was killed by Khivar. This mission was all I had left, and if it weren't for the damned Granolith, I would be at peace with my family."

"So you've lost everyone you care about, and now you don't care about anything but some damned chore you have to complete," Maria said in a rhetorical tone.

Cal snorted.

"She's right," Isabel said to Cal.

"You didn't care about anyone, even us. You only care that my brother is dead because it inconveniences your plan! You don't feel the...emptiness," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I felt plenty of emptiness when Khivar killed my family!" Cal spat. "I still feel it. You'll get used to it."

"How can you be so cold?" Isabel asked, incredulous. "How can you be so unfeeling?"

"Because it's the only way to survive!" Cal seethed.

"You wouldn't have thought anything of killing Liz if it interfered with your plans," Isabel accused.

"She doesn't mean shit in the big picture. What, was I supposed to say to hell with a whole planet so that Max could have his human girlfriend, and stay here to play house?" Cal scoffed.

"She was different!" Isabel fired back. "You know it."

"I know it now, but now's too late. Millions of lives are at stake!" he said.

Isabel looked at Cal in tearful loathing and left the clearing, heading in the direction Alex had taken.

"I think Max was right. I think that this was supposed to happen," Michael said.

"Yeah, I was supposed to bring you all millions of light years away, looking for you all for fifty years, only to watch Zan taken down by a bounty hunter and the human girl who supposedly cares about him. That makes sense," Cal said, shaking his head sarcastically.

"Don't put that on her!" Michael growled. "She didn't have a choice. Max didn't give her a choice. He did what he did to save her life, and she saved ours."

Cal shook his head in disbelief.

"So now you're taking up for a human," he said in derision. "After everything they did to you...for years they tortured you, and yet it comes down to this."

"I've realized something you never learned Cal," Michael answered. "I learned that not all humans are out to hurt us. Some of them put themselves in danger to save us."

Maria looked up to find Michael looking at her, and her eyes softened.

Michael turned his gaze back to Cal.

"And like it or not, Max was right. We may be Antarian, but we're human too," Michael said. "And it's time you faced it."

********

Once Alex walked away, Liz instantly lost interest in what Cal had to say, the pain of her breaking heart almost tangible in its intensity. None of it mattered in the end because she'd lost Max, the boy who had come to mean more to her than her own life, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

The mark he'd given her throbbed painfully, burning her throat, but for the moment, it was pushed to the back of her mind.

For the moment, she could feel nothing but the absence of Max, the comfort of his embrace, the gentle timbre of his voice, the quiet way his gaze seemed to set her heart and body on fire. It was a deep, black hole in her soul, a void that crushed her with its weight.

Oh Max, she thought. This isn't fair! I'd only just found you and now you've been taken away from me.

She had been so sure of it. So ready to bear the consequences so that he might live. But he had taken that decision out of her hands.

Her lower lip trembled as she brushed her fingertips over his eyelids, closing them, forever hiding his honeyed gaze from her own.

"Fuck," Cal mumbled, shaking his head. "I don't need this shit. The kid was right, you carry the mark. He gave you something, his hereditary seal. You were bonded to him. So now you're the Queen."

"I'm not any Queen," Liz muttered.

"Like it or not, the title's yours now. When did all of this get so fucked up?" Cal said, looking down at Max dispassionately. "This didn't play out like it was supposed to. I'm gonna have to deal with it."

Liz turned her gaze back to Max, heartbroken.

"What does that mean to me," she said in a dull voice, taking Max's limp hand, stroking his fingers. "It means nothing. Now that Max is gone, it doesn't mean anything."

"Well, unfortunately you're gonna have to live with it. Didn't you feel it, when he tried to pull away from you? It's unheard of. He never should have taken a mate from another species."

"Why should that matter? What I am didn't matter to Max," she said in a trembling voice, meeting Cal's unfeeling eyes with disgust.

"True. It was what he was that mattered," Cal answered. "He was Antarian royalty. You're just a human girl. When Max told me he knew you were the one, I didn't believe him. It was inconceivable."

"Did it ever occur to you that there was a reason that Max and the others were reborn half human, why I, a human girl, bear the mark the prophecy spoke of?" Liz said angrily.

A thin smile crossed Cal's face.

"I can't see what purpose you would serve other than to bear his heir, and you didn't even do that. Didn't you pay attention to the story at all? So since he threw himself on the sacrificial altar...where does that leave my planet? This," he said, motioning at the area around him, "shouldn't have happened. If Max was to die, then where is his heir?"

Liz paled.

"There isn't one, is there," he said, his rhetorical tone telling her he already knew the answer.

"And why pray tell is that?" he asked, a dark look crossing his face.

"If you were half of what the prophecy foretold, you would have been with child, a son, as is always firstborn to the Antarian King. If you had been, then his death wouldn't have been such a setback."

"We're taking the body with the Granolith, back to the priests. I'm at a loss. I have no fucking clue what do now," Cal said. "The bloodline is broken."

Liz shook her head in disbelief, feeling ill.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Maria asked, horrified.

"You know, for all this talk about being more evolved, your ways sound medieval," Maria said in disgust. "Priests? Bloodlines?"

Cal smirked.

Maybe there's something they can do. Maybe there will be another male chosen. Then you can bear his kid. Who knows?"

"I love Max," Liz insisted vehemently. "I'll never feel this way about anyone ever again, not ever."

Cal looked up at the sky.

"That bond you had with Max?" he said. "It's tied to that mark he branded on your throat."

Liz just stared at him.

"He's dead and you still have it. You will bear it for the rest of your life. If a successor is chosen by the Granolith, and he wants you, he'll have you. And he will want you, of course. You have the marks. Prophecy or not, fairy tales make good politics," Cal said.

"So tell me, Liz Parker, are you better off for not listening to me? Was it worth it?" he muttered.

"I'll never regret a minute I had with Max," she said, her eyes flashing with unshed tears. "Not one minute."

"But you might want to think about this. Where exactly does that leave you now that he's dead? You didn't create a child. That mark ties you to the Antarians for the rest of your life. You will never be able to love another who doesn't carry it."

"I wouldn't want to," Liz whispered.

"If you'd let him go, he'd be alive now. He wouldn't have drawn the hunters here by pulling away from you to protect you. Do you get it now?" Cal asked derisively.

Liz remained silent, heartbroken at the thought that she may have caused this, prophecy or not.

"I have to take the body back to Antar," Cal said, dismissing Liz, and turning to Michael. "It and the Granolith will need to be brought to the Curacian temple for guidance. You'd best get your sister. We still have work to do."

Liz squeezed Max's lifeless hand, unable to look at Cal, unable to think more than one moment ahead, for each one was closer to the moment when he would take Max from her.

*******

Alex stood near the truck taking deep breaths, looking out over the desert, knowing in his heart that he should be with Liz, to comfort her.

But the murderous rage he was feeling toward Cal at the moment would probably only put them all in danger.

He needed a few minutes to calm down.

He really did feel awful for saying what he had in front of Michael and Isabel. It wasn't their fault that things had turned out this way, or that he and Maria had gotten involved in this whole mess. Both he and Maria had jumped into it headfirst because Liz was their best friend, and neither of them could walk away.

He'd lashed out without thinking and he'd hurt them, he knew it. But they were different than Cal was. They had feelings, fears, emotions.

Cal had none of that.

He supposed it was the part of them that was human. The one part of them that Cal considered useless was the one thing that Alex liked the most about them.

"Alex," a voice said quietly behind him, and he turned slowly, his blue eyes clouding with regret as his eyes fell upon Isabel's tearstained face.

He took a few steps toward her.

"Isabel, I'm really sorry for what I said back there. I wasn't thinking before I spoke, but I didn't mean..." he started.

"I know," she said in a low voice, nodding.

"I think I understand now," she said, wiping the tears from under her eyes, before lowering her gaze to the ground, shifting from one foot to another.

"I wanted to think that Cal was like us, that he wanted us," she said, her face crumpling. "All we dreamed about in that compound was finding someone like us, one of our own, someone who cared about us, because humans had treated us so horribly."

A small sob escaped her lips.

"But Cal, he doesn't care about us. All he cares about is who is going to get the seal, who is going to save Antar, someplace we've never even seen. I wanted to believe that we were more than that. But he thinks we're weak because of our human genes. It won't be Michael or I that's chosen," she said, looking up at the sky.

"Isabel," Alex said softly, resting his hand on her arm.

"We don't belong anywhere Alex," she said, miserable. "We were hunted and tortured here, and we'll be useless on Antar without Max."

Feeling his heart twist, he pulled her into his arms. At first she stiffened and he was sure he'd overstepped his boundaries, but then he felt her hands lift to slide around his waist.

"You don't have to go, you know," he said, his voice muffled by her hair. "If you want to stay, we can help you."

She pulled away, sniffing.

"No, we have to go," she said, shaking her head.

"We don't have a choice," she said bitterly, staring at Cal's distant figure in the clearing, but Alex sensed she was holding something back.

"You always have a choice Isabel," Alex said softly.

"You don't understand," she said.

She turned back to Alex, her eyes full of remorse.

"So help me. Help me to understand," he said, his eyes searching hers.

"Why are you being so nice to us, Alex?" she asked, shaking her head. "You could have just turned us in and been done with it all, gone on with your life like nothing happened."

Alex could see the insecurity in her eyes, and his heart went out to her. No one should ever have to experience what she and Michael went through for all of those years in the compound.

"Because," he said softly, brushing a lock of hair that had strayed across her face with his fingers, "that's what friends do for each other. Liz is our friend, and she set a lot of stock in Max, so it goes without saying. You and I, we're friends, right? Despite the stupid things I said before, I mean."

"I don't know," Isabel shrugged, looking up at him. "I never had a friend before."

"If you want, I'd like to be your friend," he whispered.

"I would have liked that," she answered softly, feeling her heartbeat quickening as his fingers traced her cheek, his lips moving closer to hers....

"Isabel!"

Isabel turned quickly to find Michael standing a short distance away.

"We're leaving," he said, turning without a further word and walking back toward the clearing.

***********

As John and the others gathered up of what was left of Pierce and the other agent's bodies, Liz remained at Max's side, unwilling to leave him, even in death.

She fell silent after Cal's last revelation and hadn't spoken to anyone since.

She had fallen strangely calm as her eyes traced Max's form over and over, her fingers smoothing the skin of his palm in a soothing gesture, trying to memorize everything, for those memories would be all she had left when he was gone.

His head had fallen to the side, sooty lashes dusting skin that was still warm, yet too soon would grow cold.

A hand on her shoulder startled her.

She looked up with red-rimmed eyes to see Michael standing beside her.

"Are you ok?" he asked in a low voice.

She stared at him for a moment and then shook her head.

"I don't think I'll ever be ok," she said, her voice cracking.

He nodded, closing his eyes, for a moment, before lowering himself to sit beside her.

He stared in silence at his fallen friend, who he had felt all his life, but in reality had only known only a few short weeks.

"Are you?" she asked, studying him. "Are you ok?"

He shook his head.

"I felt him from the moment we came out of our pods, just like I felt Isabel. We'd never seen each other, but they were always there. Now…now I don't feel him, and it's like there's this huge empty space inside where he used to be," he said.

Liz nodded, and looked down at Max's fingers, still clasped within hers. They quickly grew blurry as her eyes grew once more unfocused with tears.

"It's like that for you too, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah" she said, in a trembling sigh.

"Max and Isabel were the only thing I had to hold onto while we were in the compound. You know, like one of those imaginary friends I read that little kids have. Only he wasn't imaginary. He was real," Michael said, his jaw working, trying valiantly to control his emotions.

"I felt it you know. I felt how much he loved you. He felt the same pain you're feeling when he left you this morning," he said.

"You felt it?" Liz asked, her brow furrowing.

"It's just impressions we get off of each other, like an echo of how we're feeling," he shrugged. "He didn't want to leave. He didn't want to go to Antar. He wanted to be with you."

Liz smiled through her tears.

"He would have come back. He would have found a way to come back to you," Michael said.

"It wasn't that simple," Liz said, shaking her head. "That was before we knew about the prophecy. That changed everything."

"It didn't change how he felt," Michael said. "Or how you felt."

He paused, his eyes turning hard as he looked at Cal.

"Cal would have killed you. He told Isabel and I that he'd kill you if we didn't convince Max to leave with us," he said. "I'm sorry. We tried to talk him into leaving."

Liz took a deep breath.

"You did what you thought was best," she said.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "We did what we thought would keep everyone alive. You and Maria and Alex helped us, when no one else would have. We didn't want anyone to get hurt. But it only made things worse. Max almost killed the both of you when he tried to break the bond, and he did it because he thought we would go along with Cal, that we'd kill you if we had to."

"I'm sorry," he said in a soft voice.

"Michael, it's not your fault. After everything you've been through…" she said.

"That's the thing," he said, after a pause. "We came out of that place hating humans for what they did to us and then you guys, you helped us, you risked everything, when you could have run."

"No one deserves to be treated the way you all were," Liz said angrily. "I don't think I'll ever forget the terror in Max's eyes that first night I found him in the Crashdown."

An angry tear slid down her cheek.

"We all aren't like that," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I hadn't stopped Jeffrey that night."

"You saved all of us that night," Michael said. "If you hadn't, Isabel and I would have still been locked up in those cells."

"So you're going to go back with Cal," she said in a dull voice.

Michael nodded.

"We have to," he said in a grim voice. "Cal wanted to avoid the hunters altogether. Now they're dead. When Khivar realizes that the hunters are missing, he'll know. He'll come for us, and he'll destroy whatever he needs to, to get to the Granolith. If we go back, this world will be safe."

Liz felt the horrible burning sensation again at her throat, and she winced, raising her free hand to it.

Michael looked at her, his brow furrowed.

"You feel it?" he whispered. "I've been feeling something too."

"It burns….in here," he said, lifting his hand to his chest.

Liz looked at him confused.

"But…."

"Michael!" Cal shouted. "Let's go!"

Michael glared at Cal and rose to his feet.

Liz didn't even try to suppress her loathing of Cal Langley, and she could tell that Michael now had no fondness for him either.

"We're done here," Cal growled. "We need to get the body into the truck."

***************

Liz and Maria followed Michael and Alex as they carried Max's body up to the chamber, feeling as if she were going to suffocate.

Maria squeezed Liz's hand in a silent gesture of comfort, and Liz squeezed back, unable to look at her friend, knowing that the look of compassion she was sure to have on her face would be her undoing.

Instead, she concentrated on Max's arm, hanging limply as they carried him up the steep incline, swaying with each step Alex and Michael took toward the chamber.

Steps that were leading to the moment when he would be taken from her.

Cal and the others were going to take Max away, and all she would have left is the deep aching hole in her heart he'd once filled.

She hadn't been able to get those last moments with Michael out of her head. He was feeling something similar to what she was feeling, but why?

Maybe Max had changed her, and she was feeling things she couldn't before, feeling things as Michael and Isabel always had.

Up ahead, she saw Isabel, walking beside Alex.

Alex had kept clear of Cal since he'd come back with Michael and Isabel.

She'd watched Isabel become a silent buffer between the two after their return to the clearing.

Something had changed between them and some silent understanding passed in their gazes now when they looked at each other.

John and Cal were already in the chamber, having brought the remains of the agents, as well as the bodies they'd found at the side of the road near the abandoned sedans. The androids would soon assimilate the DNA of the bodies, and would begin the damage control within the US government.

Everything Cal had wanted to accomplish had been done. The Special Unit had been disabled, and the bounty hunters were dead.

But it came at a heavy price, Max's life, and Liz's own heart.

She wanted to curl up into a ball and just disappear, her emptiness without him was so great.

But she had dragged her friends into this, and had to make sure that they didn't spend the rest of their lives running because of it, if she could do anything to prevent it. Max would have wanted it that way.

She didn't want to think about what would happen to her once that was done.

Michael laid Max carefully on the floor in front of the Granolith, and Liz once again took up her vigil as Cal prepared the androids.

She couldn't watch. Seeing it would remind her too much of the bounty hunters. And so she concentrated on Max lying so still in front of her, his blood already drying his shirt into a hard shield around his chest.

Maria sat alongside her, holding her hand in silent support.

John had made some calls to the people in his network, and transportation was arranged for the droids.

Isabel stayed in the outer chamber with Alex, also unwilling to watch Cal's handiwork.

"Are you all right, hon?" Maria asked Liz in concern.

Liz clenched her eyes closed, trying to keep her tears at bay.

"Stupid question, huh," Maria said rhetorically in a sympathetic voice.

"I'm so sorry sweetie, for everything," Maria whispered, and Liz looked up to find her friend looking at her with tear-filled eyes.

"I'm sorry too," Liz said. "For getting you guys involved with this whole thing."

Maria shook her head.

"Liz, what kind of friends would we be if we turned our backs on you?" she asked.

"I know, but..." Liz started to say weakly.

"Liz, Alex and I lost nothing. It's you that I'm worried about," she said, reaching out to push her friend's hair from her eyes.

Liz's face crumpled.

"I don't know what I'm going to do Maria," she said. "I never thought it would turn out like this. It hurts, so much."

"I know," Maria said, pulling her friend closer.

"I can see how they can grow on you," Maria said, her eyes softening as she looked at Michael across the room. The look he returned was inscrutable.

Liz pulled away, wiping her eyes, her gaze once again returning to Max.

"I love him, Maria. It's like...he was a part of me, and I'm just...empty," Liz said. "I can't explain it... I don't know how."

Maria nodded, looking a bit confused.

"I guess there's a lot I don't know about this whole thing, like why you were in that trance, or woke up speaking in some funky language, or why that thing took a chunk out of your hair, and what this prophecy thing means." Maria said.

"I'll explain everything soon, Maria. I just, I can't now," Liz said, taking a shuddering breath, looking at Max. "I can't."

John called out to Maria from the outside chamber, and squeezed her shoulder.

"I'll be right back, ok?" Maria said, and Liz nodded without looking up.

*****

Hearing the voice of the first android sent a shiver of fear up Liz's spine.

"Agent Pierce, reporting for duty Sir," it said, and her head snapped to find Pierce reincarnated.

She hated that voice. She hated everything Pierce had done to Max. Logically she knew that the figure standing near the Granolith with a condescending smirk was not Pierce at all, but that did nothing to quell the intense anger of the sound, the tone of it's voice.

Cal chuckled, seeing the play of emotion across her face.

"Don't worry, this one won't come after you," he said in sadistic mirth, and Michael glared at him.

The sound of the voice drew the others in from the outer chamber.

The voices of the other dead agents soon followed and Liz's anxiety grew as she realized that time was growing short and that they would take Max from her.

But who was she kidding, really? He was already gone.

She could feel his absence as acutely as she felt her own heart still beating.

Despair once again threatened to drown her.

She used every last ounce of will she had not to break down again, and the curious burning once again began at her throat.

She looked up to find Isabel and Michael looking at each other from opposite sides of the room, and then their eyes turned to hers.

She looked from one to the other, trying to figure out the unspoken message in their eyes, and she guessed that both of them had felt something along the same lines she did.

She knew she should ask questions, to find out what this shared pain meant, but at the moment, she just didn't have the strength. She wasn't at all sure that Isabel or Michael would have the answers, and she'd be damned if she would ask Cal.

She watched the shape-shifter move between the androids, and felt a wave of anger overtake her that she knew wasn't completely justified.

Cal had done what he'd been told to do, what the Granolith had commanded him to do.

He had been trying to keep Max safe, and it was she that had put him into danger. If she hadn't been bonded to Max, Cal would never have threatened her life. And if Max hadn't tried to dissolve their bond, then the bounty hunters never would have found him, and together they all would have taken care of Pierce and the others and left Earth, alive and safe. She was sure of it.

She had experienced such strong visions of the prophecy, she'd been so sure that she was meant to protect Max, that she'd been the one meant to fall.

But none of it made sense. Cal spoke of bearing a child, something that had never even crossed her mind. She knew she wasn't pregnant. Somehow she was certain that she would know if she were.

Had she just been getting those visions merely because Max believed in what Zan once did, of finding his mate after being reborn? Could she have been so wrong? It had seemed a certainty when she'd seen them, but now, she wasn't so sure.

And it had cost Max his life, by her hand.

"They're programmed," Cal said finally stepping back.

"What are your instructions?" he asked the Pierce doppelganger.

"Our instructions are amended from our original objective. We are to return to the Eagle Rock facility, and maintain normality. When Liz Parker reports that she was apprehended and held without cause by the Special Unit, we are to be resistant enough to be believable. The government is to find evidence of others that were held in captivity. Our mission will not be completed until the Special Unit is disbanded," Pierce finished with a smile.

"Good, good," Cal said, with a satisfied look.

"When the Unit is disbanded, you will return to Roswell, assimilating the appearance of another human of your choice and convenience. You will keep watch over Liz , our Queen," he said derisively, "until we have a solution to this mess. If Khivar were to find out that Max had taken a mate, she could be in danger, for she carries the royal mark. Is that understood?" Cal asked.

"Affirmative," the Pierce-droid answered.

"I don't want anyone watching me," Liz said, indignant.

"Tough," Cal said, dismissing her. "You don't have a choice. Right now you're too important. Until the heir returns, you are under the protection of the guards."

"As much as it galls me to say it, he's probably right, Liz," Maria muttered. "We don't know what else is out there, or what other freaks are out there. I couldn't handle anything happening to you."

Alex's mouth tightened, but he remained silent. Isabel put a hand on his arm.

"When will you be coming back?" Liz asked, in a dull voice.

She didn't really care what Cal said. She didn't believe him, and she wasn't going to be held to a bond with anyone else but Max, and the sooner she made that clear to any heir that might return to Earth, the better. She knew in her heart that there would never be anyone else for her but him, her gentle Max, who had been through so much and been taken too soon.

"If the priests can do something, yeah," Cal shrugged. "It all depends on how stable things are on our planet."

"Let Isabel and Michael stay," Liz asked suddenly. "I'll come with you. Max is gone, and everything you've been saying tells me that Isabel won't be chosen to succeed him, so then there shouldn't be any reason for them to go. I'm the one that the heir will need."

She knew it would be dangerous, but at least it would give Michael and Isabel a chance here, a chance to be safe.

"Liz, no!" Alex interjected.

Cal shook his head.

"Their people are waiting for them. It's going to be bad enough that we're coming back with a dead King. " Cal said. "I'm not even sure you'd survive the trip, and I'm even less sure you'd survive once we got there."

"I'll accept the consequences," Liz insisted.

"I'm not giving you a choice," he said coldly.

"And you haven't given them one either," Liz retorted. "You don't own them. That planet doesn't own them!"

Isabel was staring at her, and Liz couldn't help but notice the surprise in her eyes, and the emotion too, for she was surprised that Liz was defending them.

"They owe their planet! They'd be rotting under a pile of rock if it weren't for the Granolith," Cal said, furious. "The three of them were meant for a greater purpose, and you fucked it up! Max and Isabel were meant to come back to their people. They were supposed to be the sign, one that signaled this war going to turn around…"

"And what about the part of them that is human? How do you know what the Granolith's purpose was for them?" she seethed.

"That wasn't supposed to happen, that's for damned sure!" Cal growled, pointing at Max's body.

Michael tried to diffuse the situation.

"Liz, we have to go," Michael said in a low voice. "And it's better if you stay here, where you're safe. Max would have wanted it that way. That's all he ever wanted, was for you to be safe."

"He wanted the both of you to be safe too," she said tearfully.

"He was going back to get you out of that compound, even before Pierce found us. Will you be safe there, on Antar?" she challenged. "Do you think Cal's going to be able to protect you? I mean, he's done such a bang-up job so far!"

"Liz, we wouldn't be safe here either," Isabel said. "There's a good possibility that Khivar will send his men for us, once he finds out the hunters are dead and that we survived."

"He'll come after you anyway, whether you stay or not," Maria said, moving to stand beside Alex. "At least here, you're millions of miles away from him."

"But there it will only be us and our kind in danger, not everyone on Earth," Michael said. "Most humans don't understand us, and I'm not sure we'll ever understand or forgive what was done to us in that compound. But not all humans are like that. They feared what they didn't understand. You didn't. We can't take the chance that what happened to our people, won't happen here, if Khivar finds out. The battle with Khivar had nothing to do with humans, and it shouldn't now."

Liz wasn't sure that was true. There had to be some reason that the Granolith chose for them to be partially human. But why? She didn't know the answer, and it was pretty certain she'd never know now.

"But you're part human now too, Michael," Maria said, her eyes meeting Michael's.

Michael's eyes softened and he was about to answer her, when Cal interrupted.

"Enough! They're coming with me, end of story," he barked.

John interrupted, walking into the chamber.

"The cars have arrived for the droids," he said, looking around, sensing the obvious tension.

"Good," Cal said in a flat voice, turning toward the droids, standing eerily still in a line, waiting for their orders to move.

"Follow John," Cal said to the Pierce look-alike. "Have the others follow you to the compound. You know what to do."

The droid nodded, and the others followed John out of the chamber.

"Michael, move the body closer to the Granolith. We don't have a lot of time," Cal said.

"Give Liz a minute with him," Isabel said quietly, "to say goodbye."

"Fuck," Cal muttered, exasperated. "Fine. Get rid of what's left of the agents, then."

Shaking his head, he moved toward the back of the gleaming icon.

Michael and Isabel exchanged a look and then began to drag the remains into the outer chamber. Maria and Alex helped them, Maria gagging at the sight of it. They left the chamber, leaving her with Max and Cal, who was busy preparing the Granolith.

Liz turned her attention from them to focus on her last few moments with Max. The gravity of what had happened suddenly hit her with the force of a freight train as she looked down at his still features.

"Oh Max," she whispered in a quavering voice.

Trembling fingers reached out to rest against the soft skin of his lips. A sob hitched in her throat.

"If I'd known this was going to happen, I...I'm so sorry," she whispered. "You should have just let me die, because I don't know how I'm going to live without you now. Part of me is dead, the part of me that was you, and I'm so scared. I'm so scared to be here now without you."

She closed her eyes against the tears streaming down her face.

"How am I supposed to do that without you? How am I supposed to go on, when all I want to do is to lie down and disappear?" she said.

She knew what Max would have said. If nothing else, she had to make sure her friends were safe. And that had to be reason enough to go on. Max would have died for Isabel and Michael. He did die for them, for all of them. And she couldn't let that gift be in vain, as much as she hated it.

She choked back a sob, leaning over to touch her lips to his, her hand resting on his chest, where a mighty heart once beat, now still and silent.

She pulled away reluctantly, hearing Cal's mutterings from across the chamber.

Isabel and Michael walked back into the chamber, walking over to crouch on either side of Max's body.

Michael paused to look at Liz, who sat on her knees, her head lowered, her hand once again clutching Max's, knowing this would be the last time she would touch him, would know the feel of his skin against hers.

"Liz…" Isabel started, and then faltered.

"I can't believe that this is the way everything is going to end," Liz said, unable to look at either one of them.

Her eyes fell shut, her lips trembling as she held her tears. She would not give Cal the satisfaction of knowing that he'd hit a nerve with her.

"Maybe it's for the best," Isabel said.

"For who?" Liz asked, opening her eyes to look at Isabel. "Do you think this is what's best for you and Isabel? Going back to a planet you've never seen, that you don't remember? You don't even know what's happening up there. You don't know if you'll be safe."

"If it was really your choice, would you have stayed?" Liz asked, looking at the both of them.

"I don't know," Isabel said quietly.

Michael was silent for a long moment.

"Most of the time I've spent here has been pretty bad," he said finally.

Liz nodded slowly.

"It was because of you that Max would have stayed," Michael said. "He didn't want to go back to Antar, not after knowing you. He would have stayed for you. He told us that. If it were his choice, he would have wanted us all to stay, to make a life here."

Liz fought the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, wishing for what might have been, wishing she had another chance to make things right, to undo what had been done. But there was no going back.

"Maybe things would have been different. Maybe you would see that most people aren't all monsters, not like Pierce was," Liz said.

"Maybe. But we still would have had to hide what we are, Liz. You know that. Most people wouldn't be as understanding as you, Alex and Maria are," Isabel said.

Liz knew that what she was saying was true. People were frightened of what they couldn't understand.

"I know. But what's waiting up there for the both of you without Max?" Liz asked. "I'm just...I'm worried for you, like he was worried. He wanted more than anything for the two of you to be safe, and now that he's gone...."

The rest remained unspoken. She was worried that their importance would become obsolete once a new heir was chosen. She knew that their return would be a bolster for their people, but would they have the same reaction that Cal did regarding the part of them that was human? Max had wished so much to be normal, to be human. But would they wish the opposite once they reached Antar?

Michael stared at the ground.

"I know what you're thinking Liz. But I feel like...I want to see my planet. I want to see what's up there. I want to see if what I dreamed is what it's really like," Michael said.

Liz nodded.

"I understand," she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"I can't believe you offered to go in our place. That was an incredibly brave thing to do," Isabel said.

"Max would have done it for Maria and Alex," Liz said simply, enfolding Max's hand with both of hers.

"We've got to move Max," Michael said reluctantly.

"Isabel," he prompted, but she didn't seem to hear him.

Isabel frowned as she stared at their hands entwined, and she gasped, her face crumpling, her hand moving to her chest.

"Isabel?" he said again, and she seemed to snap out it, meeting Michael's eyes.

For a long moment they looked at each other, and then he frowned, but said nothing.

"Isabel, are you ok?" Liz asked, concerned.

"I'm...I'm fine," she stammered.

"What is it?" Liz asked, seeing that something had spooked her.

Isabel shook her head.

"Nothing," she said vaguely. "We should move Max."

Liz hesitated before she let go of Max's hand, a sudden and debilitating panic settling over her.

It took every ounce of will she had not to slap Michael and Isabel's hands away from him. It was irrational, she knew. Max was already gone, and there was nothing to be gained by his body remaining here on Earth. But some part of her knew that the physical separation from him, even in death, would be devastating.

As they carefully laid him in front of the Granolith, it began to glow brighter.

Her breathing became erratic, panicked. The pain from her mark became a fire that pulsed through her body, fed by her pain.

It was only a hand on her shoulder that stopped her from running to him.

"Liz, you've got to let him go," Alex said. She slowly raised her head to look at him. She hadn't heard Maria or Alex come back into the chamber.

Alex had always been so intuitive, and she should have known that he could see what she was thinking plainly written on her face.

"Keeping Max here isn't going to change anything," he said in a comforting voice, with a sympathetic shake of his head.

"Come on!" Cal snapped walking out from behind the Granolith. "We gotta get this show on the road, before we got the military crawling through the desert."

He caught sight of John in the antechamber, and walked out to give him last minute instructions.

"Two minutes," he barked from the outer room.

Isabel was the first to move, walking over to Liz and hesitating.

Liz couldn't even attempt to smile, wiping her tears from her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Isabel, for what happened to Max, for everything...." she sobbed. "If I could have..."

Isabel took her by surprise putting her arms around her.

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself," Isabel whispered, her own tears matching Liz's. "You saved his life, our lives..."

"And I'm the reason he's dead," Liz said, shaking her head.

"Don't give up hope, Liz," Isabel answered, pulling away. "Sometimes things do work out."

Liz stared at her, disbelief evident in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Just...remember what I said when things seem bad," she answered enigmatically. "Thank you Liz. For helping Max, for saving our lives."

Liz shook her head.

"Take care of yourself," Isabel said in a low voice.

"You too," Liz said, wiping her tears.

Michael stood a short distance away from Maria, not looking at any of them, his eyes trained on the Granolith.

She walked over to stand next to him, and looked up at him, as he turned his head.

"So I guess this is it," she said, sticking her hands in her pockets, hunching her shoulders.

"Yeah," he answered.

For a moment, they said nothing, and then Michael looked at the ceiling.

"Thanks," he said in a low voice.

"For what?" Maria asked, her brow furrowing.

"For saving us out there. If you hadn't done what you did, I think Cal and I would be dead," he said, letting out a ling breath.

"No biggie," Maria said, with a shrug, dismissing it.

"No, it was a big deal," Michael said, unable to meet her eyes. "No one, well...no one except Max or Isabel ever did anything like that for me, so...thanks."

Maria knew how difficult it was for Michael to what he did, and she her heart twisted.

"You're welcome," she said, looking up at him. She didn't know the right way to say goodbye, unsure of what might offend Michael or set him off.

Screw it, she thought, and reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He stiffened, his arms remaining at his sides. His heart thumped loudly against her ear, a tell-tale sign that he was nervous.

"Relax Michael, I don't bite," she teased, under her breath.

He remained stiff, just long enough for her to think she'd made a mistake, and then slowly, he raised his arms and she felt them at her back. She closed her eyes and smiled, her cheek pressed against his chest.

"You take care of yourself. Y'all come back now, ya hear?" she said, trying to keep her tone light, as much for herself as for him.

She barely knew this boy, but she feared for him and the unknown that he and Isabel were heading into. The truth was Michael and the aura of loneliness that he tried to hard to hide, pulled at her heartstrings. She would have liked to have the time to get to know him better.

Turning her head, she rose on her toes and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

He pulled away and looked into her eyes and they both stilled.

"Be careful Michael," she whispered, surprised at the tears blurring her vision, but then maybe, seeing the fear and wistful regret in his eyes was the cause of it.

He nodded and stepped back.

Isabel stood before Alex, not knowing what to say to him. He had been so kind to them, they all had, and up until today, they had repaid him only with their cold demeanor. Now she wished that she could change that, but it was too late.

"Alex," she started, "I wish...I wish that...."

Alex shook his head, silencing her.

"Don't do that," he answered in a low voice. "Friends don't have to explain how they're feeling. Friends just...know. I'm sorry about Max, about everything."

She nodded, smiling through her tears.

"I'm not gonna forget you Isabel," he said, with a small smile. "You guys...you made me realize that there's a much bigger world out there than I ever thought. I want you to find your world, and when you do, I hope that it's everything you hope it is."

A small sob fell from her lips.

"Me too," she said. "But I won't ever forget this one. I won't ever forget you."

"Good," he said with a chuckle. "It's nice to know that I'm unforgettable. You guys need to learn not to say too many things like that. I might get an ego or something."

She shook her head, her eyes locked on his.

Without a further word, she walked into his embrace. Alex nuzzled his cheek into her hair, pulling her close.

"I guess I probably won't be seeing you again," he sighed.

"Don't be too sure of that," Isabel said, pulling away, an enigmatic look on her face.

He looked at her with a questioning frown, and she just shook her head, wiping her tears away from her cheeks.

"Goodbye Isabel," Alex said slowly.

"Goodbye," she whispered, turning to Michael, who nodded stiffly at Alex.

"Take care, man," Alex said.

"You too," Michael said.

He turned to look at Liz, who had moved a short distance away. Her attention was solely on Max's prostrate form, now lying near the Granolith.

Michael noted the expression of utter despair on her face.

"Let's get this show on the road," Cal said, returning from the other chamber, crystal in hand.

"You'd better step back," he snapped at Liz, who looked up at him with contempt.

Alex put a comforting hand on Liz's shoulder as Maria flanked her other side.

Alex glared at Cal for his callousness.

"Contact us through the network if you need anything," Cal said, tipping his chin at John.

John nodded without a word.

Glances passed between Liz, Alex and Maria. None of them needed to say it. John could no longer be trusted.

Isabel and Michael lifted Max's arms carefully, pulling them over their shoulders. Cal inserted the crystal into the base of the Granolith and the entire chamber brightened bathed in Technicolor light.

A high pitched hum filled the room as the light grew brighter.

The three touched the Granolith, and a blinding explosion of light burst from its core.

The humans flinched away from its harsh glare, and when Liz opened her eyes, she could see the shimmering forms of Michael and Isabel, still supporting Max's lifeless body. Cal stood behind them.

The hum grew into an ear-piercing whine, and Liz felt what was left of her heart shatter as she turned her head into Alex's chest, unable to stop the tears that now streamed down her cheeks.

*******

Michael turned from the shimmering image of the humans still standing in the chamber outside, to look at Isabel. He could sense her thoughts, but he was pensive that what he had suspected, and what she now believed, might be a possibility.

"Isabel?" he called in a soft tone.

Cal looked at them suspiciously, and Isabel shifted Max's arm to better bear his weight.

"Later," she said with a deep breath. "We'll talk about it later."

In the next instant, everything was drowned in a furious explosion of white light.

*******

The cacophony went from deafening to silent in an instant, and the chamber was bathed in darkness, just like Liz's own heart, for she was quite sure that it was dying a slow and painful death. She wondered how long it would be before she would feel nothing at all.