The rest of the day was spent touring the palace and surrounding grounds, it was beautiful. The grass was lush green and Liz had been right about waterfalls running under the palace. After the tour they met with the tutors that they’d be working with then the girls split from the guys to go see the seamstresses to get Antarian clothes. The girls were all excited as they looked over the gowns that they would be wearing on formal occasions. The bodices were form fitting and flowed into a full skirt. The material looked similar to satin with a translucent sheer top layer. “These are very beautiful but what about everyday clothes?” Liz asked.
“Well the queen usually wears gowns but we can alter anything. There isn’t a dress code.” Mira, the head seamstress, answered holding up simpler gowns.
“Good I need something I can move in.” Liz stated. Liz, Syl, and Jondy worked with Mira on gowns that would allow them freedom of movement if they ever needed to fight. The dress was either long or short sleeve with a long loose skirt. The skirt had two slits in front of each leg that ended at mid thigh, underneath they wore tights the same color of the gown to cover where their legs would be exposed. Another everyday outfit that they had were form fitting tops and pants made out of a silky slinky material. They were what Liz would wear most of the time when she didn’t have formal meetings and such. When she looked in the mirror and saw the way the outfit hugged her curves she knew Max would love it. They even arranged for some maternity clothes for her sister since they had a feeling that she would be showing soon. Although Maxie was happy to be pregnant she grumbled about getting fat.
“Your majesty, umm Kati. Can I ask you something about Max’s life as Zan?” Liz asked as Mira fitted her for her clothes.
“Of course.”
“Zan and Tess, were they in love?”
The Queen mother pursued her lips for a minute, “Yes and no. When he first met her he felt strongly for her but before they became engaged their relationship was only one of friendship. They decided they should still marry for the sake of duty.”
“So they were only friends?” Ava asked.
“The best of friends but yes. They knew that the war was going to be hard and that the people would feel better with a queen by his side.”
Liz nodded thinking how different things would have been if they knew all of that before. Once they were all dressed they went to meet the guys who had all changed their clothes as well. Their clothes weren’t much different then what they wore on Earth. Somewhat bagging pants and button down shirts made out of the same slinky material that the girls’ clothes were made of. Liz saw the way the material fit Max’s muscular upper body and wished that she could drag him back to her room, it was going to be a long month.
Michael, Sarah, and Maria left shortly after to go to his parents house same with Zack and Ava leaving to visit her parents. The rest of them were left to fend for themselves. Max decided that he and Liz needed some time alone to just be together. He made excuses to his mother before heading to find her.
Liz and Naomi made their way back to Liz’s chambers with her new clothes and put them away. Naomi went out to the outer office just as the door chimed. She went to answer it only to find Max on the other side. She bowed deeply, “Your highness.”
“You must be Naomi. Liz has told me about you and how grateful she was for your help. And please call me Max. If you’re going to be protecting me and the one I love then I think we should be on a first name basis, at least.”
“I am sorry your highness but I cannot do that. I would be disrespecting my king. Once Liz has become queen I will no longer call her Liz.”
“How about you call us by our names in private? It would make us more comfortable if you are going to be around us a lot.” Max said just as Liz came through the door to the bedroom. She rushed over to him and he took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. They hadn’t had much chance to be together since they arrived and she missed him. She crushed her lips to his, kissing him hungrily. When they broke apart a little later they remembered they weren’t alone. Liz turned to see a very embarrassed Naomi standing by. “I’m sorry Naomi, Max and I have a habit of falling into ourselves and forgetting what’s going on around us.”
“I will just take my leave but if you need me just call.” Naomi said before bowing and leaving. Once the door shut Liz and Max burst out laughing at the entire scene. Once they calmed down again Max said, “I missed you.”
“You just saw me.”
“I know but I haven’t been able to get a moment alone with you.”
“I can’t wait until we get married.” Liz said sighing.
“Soon we will. I thought maybe you and I could spend sometime together.”
“I would it. What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, didn’t have anything planned except for it to involve you and me.” Max said kissing her gently on her neck.
“How about we order some food, then just relax?” Liz said thinking of how busy their lives were going to be.
“Sounds perfect.” Max said. They ordered up dinner and relaxed around in the outer sitting room heading out for a walk around the gardens.
Part 32
Alec followed Sarah around the gardens at the end of their tour. It was dark out but Sarah used her powers to light the way. He was trying to pay attention to what she was saying but found himself just staring at her. She was beautiful and he just needed to figure out the best way to make his move.
“Are you listening?”
Alec looked at her startled, “Okay I’m busted. You’re not going to hurt me like you did earlier are you?” Alec smirked.
“No, I won’t hurt you.” Sarah said smiling. “Is the big bad human scared of the little female alien?”
“No. Where did you learn that anyway?”
“My father and Rath taught me. I used to train with Rath all of the time.” Sarah said.
“Were you two close?”
“Yeah, I hope I can be with Michael too.” Sarah said as they approached a clearing. “This is my favorite spot on all the grounds.” Alec looked around and saw that they were by the edges of the cliffs. The moons were reflecting off the water and the sky was full of stars. “The cliffs are the only place where my favorite flower grows.” Sarah said picking up a flower.
“What is it?”
“It’s called an Amber Lillie. I like to sit here among them and just meditate. It’s so peaceful and beautiful.”
“Yes, beautiful.” Alec stated but wasn’t looking at the cliffs. Sarah caught him staring at her and said, “You’re not even looking at it.”
“I was talking about you.” He whispered as he leaned down and brushed his lips gently across hers. He felt her respond back and he applied more pressure deepening the kiss. When they broke away Sarah found her voice, “Do all humans move this fast?”
“Only if they know what they want.”
“And I’m what you want?”
“From the moment I saw you.”
“The feeling is quite mutual.” Sarah said in a half smirk. The time she had spent with Alec had been wonderful. One she didn’t want to end. She lifted her head to meld her lips to his again. The kiss was even more passionate and he traced her lower lip with his tongue when they heard someone yell, “What the hell?”
The two broke apart to see Michael and Maria no more than ten feet away. Alec had only known them for a few days but could tell Michael wasn’t happy. Sarah only smiled and asked, “What are you two doing out here?”
“Obviously showing up at the right time.” Michael growled. He couldn’t believe he had just walked up on his sister making out with Alec, a guy she had only known for a day. Granted he was one of Liz’s brothers but he didn’t know him like he did the others.
“Your parents thought you might be out here so we thought we’d come by and say goodnight.” Maria explained.
“But instead we find you with Alec’s tongue down your throat. What the hell were you thinking?”
“To tell you the truth thinking was the last thing on my mind.” Sarah smirked thinking of how Alec’s lips felt on hers.
“You’ve only known him a day.”
“It’s none of your business.” Sarah stated starting to get angry. She could tell Michael was fuming but she didn’t care. “You never change do you?! Always have to over react and blow things out of proportion. I would have thought when you were recreated it would have mellowed you out.”
“I’m sorry if my protecting you bugs you but get over it because it seems like you need it.” Michael said as his hair began to whip around his face. The sky seemed to be darkening and the wind had picked up considerably. Maria and Alec watched on in silence. Maria could feel with her powers how upset they were with each other but the looks on the two siblings told them it was better not to try to talk because they wouldn’t get a word in edge wise. Maria wrapped her arms around herself trying to block the wind and heard thunder starting to rumble.
Alec could see Sarah’s eyes had turned gray during her fight with Michael and were filled with fire. “You don’t even know me!”
“Neither does he!” Michael snapped.
“You can’t boss me around!” Sarah yelled.
“Will you guys quit fighting long enough to come get out of the storm?” A new voice asked. Four head snapped around to see Max and Liz standing nearby, Liz being the voice that they heard. “I could hear you almost back to the palace. Let’s go inside before this gets worse.” She motioned to the bad weather.
Sarah looked around and finally took note of the surrounding elements. She concentrated and the wind died down while the sky cleared. “Sorry about that, when I get upset my powers go a little haywire.”
“Must be hereditary.” Maria muttered at the same time as Michael asked, “That storm was because of you?”
“Yeah, weather manipulation is one of my main powers.” Sarah explained. She saw the astonished looks on everyone’s faces and asked, “Guess you’ve never seen that power before huh?”
All of them shook their heads, “When I do it, it doesn’t effect the whole planet, just a small area. I make it thunder, lightning, rain, even fog. Mother can do something similar with ice, creating it out of no where. ”
“That’s amazing.” Michael said not trying to hide the awe in voice. The new discovery of his sister’s power had calmed him down and he realized he need to work things out with her. “Why don’t you guys head on in, I’m going to walk Sarah to the house?”
He looked at Sarah and saw that she wasn’t going to argue. He said goodnight to Max and Liz while Sarah whispered something to Alec before they set off. They were half way to their parents’ house when he finally spoke, “I’m sorry about what I said back there. Maria always says I talk before I think.”
“She’s a smart girl.”
“When we lived on Earth I always wanted to find my family and now that I have I don’t want anything to happen to them.” Michael explained.
“It’s okay, I overreacted too. What do you say we forget about it?” Sarah asked.
“About the fight or you kissing Alec?”
“The fight. I don’t care if you forget about me kissing Alec, it probably won’t be the last time you see it.” Sarah could see Michael was about to say something but she continued before he could, “I like him. I know we haven’t known each other long but I want to get to know him. I’ll keep seeing him whether you like it or not.”
Michael could see there was no arguing with her. “Fine. But don’t expect me to do a happy dance.”
Sarah laughed as they walked up to the front door of the house; “I’d worry about you if you did. Goodnight Michael.”
“Night Sarah.” Michael said before heading back to the palace. As he did he thought about although he had already fought with a member of his family he was happy to have found them.
Part 33
It started out just like all her other dreams did with shadows of what went on during her day. In reality it started out like every day at Manticore had. Two neat little rows of seven by seven. Shaved heads, Grey gowns, bare feet. Marching through the compound like ants through a maze. Sounding like one-person walking, bare feet slapping against the ground, precision in a four by four beat. It was the music they lived by. It coursed through their veins and dictated their every move. Under the strict watchful eye of Colonel Lydecker they were sent into the recreation room to spar. Matted floors with seven little white circles on them that pairs of soldiers stood in and padded walls for the protection of anyone who was thrown.
Lydecker gave them their sparring assignments and Liz took her place across from Josh. They started their sparring, Liz and Josh matching blow for blow. At least until Liz looked away when she saw Ky land wrong close by and Josh kicked her into the wall. She landed hard but was up again in an instant. She moved to retaliate when Colonel Lydecker yelled, “Halt.”
Josh and Liz stopped fighting and stood at attention. Lydecker walked over to them, he didn’t look happy. “Explain your lack of concentration, 435!”
“Checking on the injury status of 440, sir!” Liz yelled back.
“That’s none of your concern soldier. You left yourself open for attack. Maybe you need a lesson to remind you.” Lydecker stated before Liz felt the sting of a tazer then fell into blackness.
Liz woke up from the tazer blast strapped down to a chair aware of Colonel Lydecker’s as well as another doctor’s presence somewhere behind her. “Where’s my family?” She asked.
“435 you don’t have a family. You have a regiment of comrades.” Lydecker explained.
“I have a name and a family!” Liz broke down crying and ripped the straps off of the chair, freeing herself.
Colonel Lydecker was on his feet in an instant trying to restrain Liz. “Stand down, soldier.”
Liz turned on Colonel Lydecker. He was no match for the young X-5‘s strength. All the while the doctor was watching this in fascination while trying to talk the soldier down.
“I am not a soldier!” Liz lashed out at the older man bloodying his nose and splitting his lip, tears streaming down her face.
Colonel Lydecker grabbed her by one of her wrists, twisting it hard enough to break it while Liz howled. Then she felt a needle pierce her skin that seemed to have materialized out of thin air. Colonel Lydecker stepped back releasing his hold on her. Everything moved in slow motion for Liz. She managed to land three more blows to Colonel Lydecker before she collapsed to her knees.
“You okay Deck?” The other doctor asked.
“Fine.” He whipped some blood off his face but he was smiling. “She is a good soldier.”
“I’ve never seen any of them go down that fast. What the hell did you give her?”
“Three hundred milligrams of Thorazine.”
“Damn that’s almost enough to take down a horse.”
Colonel Lydecker simply nodded. “That’s why it works. We just can’t use it too often out of fear that they’ll build up a tolerance to it.”
“I’ll get a team to prep her for the shock treatment.” The doctor walked out of the room leaving Lydecker alone to watch over the soldier until the team secured her.
Liz finally came out of her daze when a cold chill shot through her body as they applied the conductor jelly and then attached the electrodes to her head. One at each of her temples, two at the base of her skull, and six scattered around the perimeter of her head and down her back. She was strapped down to the table by her waist legs and arms and she could sense the presence of another person in the room besides the doctors. Liz’s body tensed and she began to panic, her eyes wide and filled with fear of what she knew was going to happen.
As the first wave of shocks ran through her body the current made her body jolt. She heard someone gasp. Liz put a name to the voice, Colonel Lydecker. She bit her bottom lip and held back a scream of pain as the second jolt of current ran along her spine. She struggled hard to concentrate and forget the training that told her pain was a weakness. Cruel animalistic sounds that were not even in her own voice, escaped instead. They sounded strange even to her own ears. Then there were the cruel murmured sounds of approval coming from Colonel Lydecker. Eventually Liz gave in to the pain screaming at the top of her lungs.
Liz sat up in bed, the scream lodged in her throat. She looked around making sure that she wasn’t still in her dream. She saw the now familiar surroundings of her room in the palace and relaxed. She had decided to try and sleep for the first time since they arrived and she got a nightmare. As she got out of her bed her hand absently went to her back of her neck, where one of the electrodes had scarred her. Even being able to heal quickly hadn’t prevented the X5s from having scars, like the one on her eyebrow and the one on her back. There had been something wrong with one of the electrodes and had put out more current then the others and burned her. The technicians in the infirmary had ignored the black mark when they bandaged her broken wrist. Then they drug her back to the barracks. Zack and the others used what they could to bandage her up. She slept that entire night while the others watched over her. She healed enough to move the next morning, which was good considering she had to report like always. Lydecker had worked her even harder to make sure she had learned her lesson.
She grabbed a pair of loose pants and tugged them on. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep after that dream so she grabbed the things she would need and headed for the gym, she needed to work off some anger. Liz made her way quietly through the palace. She had almost run into a few guards but had managed to allude them. She didn’t feel like dealing with them now. Once Liz entered the gym she headed right over to one of the punching bags. She pulled on her gloves knowing she would be hitting hard and didn’t want to explain her injured hands and used her powers to play the CD, loud. The music matched her mood.
She started hitting the bag with all of her strength, alternating between punches and kicks, trying to take all of emotion out on the bag. She kept picturing Lydecker’s face, the face that even after being dead for a year haunted her. Of course she knew he wouldn’t be easy to forget. He had been the one who had control of her life for the first eight years. He had command over every breath that they took and how long they held it. There were times when she could have sworn that he enjoyed disciplining them. He wanted them to be tough, to be able to withstand anything nevermind that they were only kids.
She started hitting the bag faster and faster moving as a blur until finally the bag busted open. She pulled back breathing heavily. She felt a hand on her arm and she turned to attack but stopped when she saw Max with a look of shock on his face.
Max had been sleeping when he felt how upset Liz was. He had sought her out and found her in the gym. He had seen Liz on the other side of the gym hitting the bag. The anger just rolling off of her, she was so upset that she hadn’t even heard or felt him come in. That was when the bag busted open. He wanted to calm her down and reached to pull her into his arms. When his hand touched her arm a collage of flashes hit him.
**FLASH**
Liz and her siblings marching through a hallway
**FLASH**
A little Liz and a young boy that looked like Josh sparring. Little Josh knocking Liz to the ground.
**FLASH**
Lydecker yelling at Liz before shocking her.
**FLASH**
Liz waking up finding herself strapped to a chair. Her screaming that she wasn’t a soldier.
**FLASH**
Her fight with Lydecker that ended up with her collapsed on the floor drugged with a broken wrist.
**FLASH**
Liz waking up in the chair and the pain she felt as the electricity flowed through her.
**FLASHES ENDING**
“Max?” Liz asked. She had seen the expressions come over Max’s face and was pretty sure he had gotten flashes. She wasn’t sure of what but had a good idea. “What did you see?”
It took Max a minute to catch his breath. He had felt all of Liz’s emotions from the flashes, anger, hatred, fear, and pain. He realized that what he saw before from Liz was only a small part of what she went through. He felt Liz pull on his arm and then the hardness of a bench that she plopped him down on. “I know I said it before but if that son of b*tch was still alive, I’d kill him.”
Liz knew who Max was talking about, “You saw it didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I saw it, I felt it. You and Josh fighting, Lydecker yelling at you and stunning you, your fight with him and him drugging you, then the shock treatments.”
“How did you know I was awake?”
“I came looking for you because I could feel how upset you were. Haven’t you noticed how much stronger our powers and our connection has gotten since we got here?” Liz nodded. She felt like her powers were twice as strong since she had come to Antar.
“It was another memory nightmare wasn’t it?” Max asked. Liz nodded again. “What to tell me about it?” Liz shook her head.
“Liz, I know you don’t like to talk about what happened but I think it would help make the nightmares go away if you did.” Max stated pulling her close.
“You’re one to talk.” Liz said harshly. Of course Liz wasn’t one to talk either, she’d been out of Manticore eleven years and only talked about a third of it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. And I did talk to Michael about it some, you know we bonded helping each other to talk about it but some of it is still locked up. It’s just I’m still scared of peoples’ reaction.”
“Liz, I thought we got past this. I know anything that happened there was forced upon you.”
“But that doesn’t help my conscious any. I mean, I killed people. One of them with no mercy. You remember when I first came back from Seattle and you told me exactly what you saw in those flashes. Well that killing was gentle compared to the first one. It was one we were all involved in. We tracked the prisoner until we had him surrounded. A couple of the boys took him down, knocked him to the ground that was when we saw it. He had a tattoo of a heart with a knife through it. We thought he was a nomlie, like Ben had told us about, we didn’t want him to get us. So we killed him, ripped him apart so we knew he couldn’t come back. We were covered in blood. I think we even surprised Lydecker by what we did, but he still acted proud. The sick son of a b*tch took a picture of us. After that I hated myself for what I did so I made sure that when I did kill again I did it with mercy, quick and as painless as possible. So tell me Max how am I supposed to live with that? How can I forget what I’ve done?”
Max was taken back for a minute by her story but recovered from it. “You can’t forget it, Liz. That memory will always be with you. But you can let people in and let them help you. I’ve known that things there were worse than you told me or that I saw. Your story is a brutal one but it doesn’t change the fact that I love you. Nothing could. But this is going to eat you alive, it’s been eleven years and you need to let it out. If not to me than talk to one of your brothers or sisters.”
Liz shook her head, “No, I can’t talk to them about it, especially Zack. When he was recaptured, they tortured him so that he would give up our locations but he resisted. He forced himself to forget everything, even who he was. I don’t want to make him relive that.”
“Then I’m here. Open up to me. Please Liz.”
Fade
Staind
I try to breathe
Memories overtaking me
I try to face them but
the thought is too
Much to conceive
I only know that I can change
Everything else just stays the same
So now I step out of the darkness
That my life became 'cause
Express how I felt
I just stuffed it down
Now I'm older and I feel like
I could let some of this anger fade
But it seems the surface
I am scratching
Is the bed that I have made
Part 34
Liz knew she needed to let it out. She was safe now and would never be at Manticore again. She put up her hand and started projecting her memories on the wall. The first picture was of a toddler Kyle and Liz. “Ky and I were two years old when we were taken out of the nursery. They had brought the others in occasionally that way we’d know them so we weren’t scared. Actually we were happier than we ever were when they were around. Our nannies, the nurses who looked after us, had never really been warm to us but our siblings welcomed us happily. We started training the next day. Well the physical stuff, we had already started learning what we could from books. We were two but we were more like six or seven year olds.”
“Everyday it was the same, up at 0600 hrs to the showers, next was breakfast then on to the classroom. Hours spent reading manuals watching those horrible movies, then lunch and on to sparring, weapons, maneuvers, and so on.” Max watched the flashes of everything Liz was saying go by. “I remember the first time one of us get punished worse than getting knocked to the other side of the room. Ben was dragged out of the room only to be brought in later battered and bruised. He said that they had taken him into pscyops, he couldn’t even explain it but I found out later.” Max cringed when the picture of Liz strapped to another chair with her head restrained switching between having a laser in her eye and a TV flashing in front of her then pictures of what he saw in the flashes.
“What you saw, it happened about six months before the escape. Our punishments became harsher as we got older. Jack and Jondy were punished once so severely that we thought we might lose them. Zack always tried to protect us, sometimes taking the blame and punishments for something that one of us did. He was CO and he was in charge of us. We knew that we had three choices, become mindless soldiers, continue as we were and get punished maybe even die from it, or escape. The first two weren’t even considered.”
“We started cataloging everything in our heads. Number of guards, what was the shortest distance to the fence, where would give us the best cover stuff like that. Then we finally picked a night and went for it. But as you know everything didn’t go as plan and Eva was killed. You know what happened after that.” Liz sighed then took a deep breath he was right she did feel better. “I guess I just didn’t want to think about it or bring up your own bad memories. I remember how you were when we got you out of the white room, I know how hard it was for you.”
“It was and I’ve never talked about it to anyone, and although I know you of all people would understand like you I didn’t want to bother you with it. I guess we were both too busy protecting the other one to worry about ourselves.” It had been two years since he had been in the white room and Max still had never talked about what happened to him.
“The night we got you out, I wanted to keep you safe. I thought about telling you everything then call Zack and asking for his help but then we kissed and I got flashes of what happened. I knew that if you went on the run with us that you might be captured with us and be sent to Manticore. I couldn’t let that happen, you had already been through too much.”
“I would have gone, left town with you. But Pierce would have come after Isabel and Michael. I couldn’t let him do to them what he did to me.”
“What exactly happened? I only saw snippets.” Liz asked cautiously
Max ran his hand over his face. “I woke up only being able to see white around me, I could feel that my powers were gone. I found out later that I was being drugged. Then Pierce came in. He asked me questions, accusing me of killing the agents Nasedo had. Then when I wouldn’t give him the answers he wanted he started other ways to get me to talk. Electro shock, ice water baths but he still wasn’t happy because I wouldn’t tell him anything, I couldn’t since I didn’t have the answers. He decided to do it a different way. He put a VR mask on me and started threatening my friends. He showed me a picture of you beaten and bloody lying on the ground dead. I snapped and he told me it was fake but it would come true if I didn’t help him. But I couldn’t. They were about to cut me open when the others rescued me.”
Liz squeezed his hand, as he continued, “Later at the UFO Center I wanted to hurt him so much. To inflict the same thing to him and I probably would have if Michael hadn’t killed him, his face still haunts me.”
“Just like Lydecker does mine.”
“Everyone has their demons and ours are both dead. They win if we don’t live our lives in happiness.”
“You’re right Max. And we are, we’re creating our own destiny.” Liz said as she kissed him deeply. She could feel him through their connection and he felt different, like a great weight had been lifted. She was sure that she felt the same way to him. He walked her back to her rooms, kissing her goodnight before leaving. Liz couldn’t help smiling, the final barrier between them was gone.
Back
Next
LittleBit