Title: Time After Time

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything

Author's note: No Michael or Maria in this one. The next chapter will take us back to Santa Fe and wrap up the Laurie story-line, but this one focuses only on the pod squad and the humans still currently in Roswell.

Chapter Seventy-Two: The Hive Queen

The forest was silent, save for the repeated sounds of shovels hitting the dirt. Even in the gloom of the night, however, the air seemed to carry a frantic intensity to it, as though even it could tell that the two girls were terrified. It had been a long time since they had started digging. How much longer would it be until they got through?

Would the others even be alive?

Not for the first time, Tess looked up from her shovel and let her gaze sweep around her, peering into the trees. Courtney frowned at her companion, a wariness in her eyes.

“Tess? What is it?”

“Nothing,” Tess answered, and turned her attention back to her shovel. “Keep digging. I don’t know how much oxygen they have left.”

Courtney obeyed the request to keep digging, but she did not let the subject drop. “If you think something is out there…”

“I don’t,” Tess answered sharply, not even bothering to look at the rebel skin. Her shovel hit more rocks, and she turned the angle slightly, hoping she could enlarge the hole. Sending a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that Max and Liz figured something out, and quickly, she pressed on with her digging.

Courtney sighed. “Look, I know you don’t trust me. And I guess I can’t really blame you for that, but… I am trying to help. And if you think something is out there…”

“We’re being watched,” Tess answered, interrupting Courtney. Her voice was low, low enough that only Courtney would be able to hear, but her words were hard and underlined with something that sounded quite a bit like worry.

Courtney did not even blink an eye. Tess could only assume that years of working as a spy had trained her how to keep a blank face, because she answered in a perfectly even tone, “How long?”

“About twenty minutes,” Tess answered just as calmly. She was about to say something more when her cell phone rang. Dropping her shovel, she pulled the phone out of her coat pocket and glanced at the caller ID.

Kyle.

That brought nothing but overwhelming concern, because Kyle hadn’t spoken to her for days now. If he was calling her, did that mean he was in trouble? Had something happened to him? Or to Jim?

She snapped open the phone. “Kyle? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Tess, look… I was just hoping we could talk.”

Tess was torn between elation at the fact that he had apparently decided to remember that she was his sister, and exasperation at just how bad his timing was. “Now’s not a good time, Kyle,” she said. “Can we talk tomorrow?”

“Now’s not a good time?” he mimicked, and she could hear the disbelief in his voice. “Is this payback for me taking so long to talk to you?”

“What? No!” Tess answered, pulling the phone away from her ear to glare at it as though that would somehow transport the emotion to Kyle. “I’m just… busy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Unless, of course, the world ended tomorrow. Or they ended up burying Isabel and Alex.

Not wanting to dwell on those depressing thoughts, she continued, “I’ll see you soon.”

“Tess…” Kyle started, but it was clear from the tone of his voice that he was going to continue arguing with her, and every moment she was on the phone was a moment she wasn’t digging, so she did the only thing she really could.

She hung up the phone.

She continued to dig in silence, and Courtney said nothing. For a while, all that could be heard was the wind in the trees and the two shovels hitting the dirt.

Then Courtney asked, “Are we still being watched?”

Tess hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t feel it anymore. Maybe I’m just paranoid.”

“But maybe you’re not,” Courtney murmured.

“She was not one of them.”

Jared looked at his companion, and sighed. “No, she was not. She was a skin.” They continued walking through the woods, leaving the two girls behind. “I wonder who she was, though. Any thoughts, Kristalia?”

Kristalia frowned. “What was Ava doing with a skin in the middle of the woods, this late at night? Why were they digging?” Letting out a huff of frustration, she added, “We should have gotten closer. Perhaps heard what they were speaking about.”

“And risk getting seen?” Jared countered. “Not worth it. We have found Zan, Ava, and Vilandra. Only one more.”

“But we haven’t found Rath. And the skins had obviously found them all. I don’t like waiting, not when the enemy moves so close.”

“You are the one who told me that we could not rush this,” Jared countered. “You are the one who continually says that until we locate all four…”

“And I stand by that,” the woman said sharply, angrily. “Until we find Rath, we will make no moves. The Four Square is not complete without him.” She paused, then added bitterly, “Still, I do not like this. That girl is a problem. An unknown, a variable. I do not like unknowns.”

Time came to a sudden, screeching halt.

Only moments before, Max and Liz had come crashing into the Evans’ house, nearly tearing the door off the hinges. Liz could barely keep up with the frantic Max, who scrambled around the first floor, checking every room for his father. Then he took the stairs two at a time, heading for the second floor.

His room was the first he came to, and the scene that met his eyes turned his blood cold.

He’d held on to some kind of hope, a tiny flickering light a fire in his chest, that the assumption was wrong. That his father had not been involved. It was all circumstantial evidence and they didn’t have any real proof, so maybe… maybe it was a mistake.

But Philip Evans stood in the middle of the room, staring blankly at his surroundings. The room had been nearly torn apart, the bedspread pulled onto the floor, a chair turned over, books scattered across the floor, clothing pulled out of the dresser and dumped in piles. Diane Evans stood opposite him, near the window. Her eyes were wide with confusion and fear.

Philip was holding a broken lamp in one hand, the shattered pieces of porcelain on the ground at his feet, the sharp edges pointed outwards, almost like a weapon.

Max and Liz both froze in the doorway.

“Dad?”

The one, tentative word broke the still silence, but Philip’s eyes showed no recognition as he looked over at Max. He took a faltering step, then froze, drawing back. Whatever thoughts flashed through his mind caused him to look in confusion over at Diane, then back to his son and Liz. It was as though he had no idea where he was or how he had gotten there.

“Philip… what are you… how did you…?” Diane’s stuttering, choked words filled the air for a moment, and then she moved towards her husband.

Philip swung around to face her again, and Max remembered Larek’s warning that the host would do anything necessary to find the intended target.

Laurie.

Which meant that if his mother tried to stop Philip, she would be in danger.

“Mom, don’t,” Max warned, at the same time reaching out and pushing Liz back with one hand. The brunette waitress opened her mouth to protest, but he turned away from her without listening to her words. He didn’t care how much she wanted to help, he was not going to let her put herself in harm’s way. Not when it was his own father who was possessed.

“Max?” Diane looked over at her son, bewilderment reflected in her gaze. “Your father… I don’t know what happened to him…”

“Stay away from him Mom,” Max said quietly, his tone firm and unyielding. He had no idea how he would manage this, given that he didn’t want to use his powers in front of his mother. But he also doubted he could get her from the room, and that would complicate matters.

Diane frowned, giving her son a suspicious look. “Do you know what’s going on, Max?”

Instead of answering the question, he asked his own, “Do you know if Dad has been to Pohlman Ranch?”

The look of complete surprise, followed swiftly by fear, on Diane’s face was enough to answer the question, and Max felt his heart momentarily stop beating. There it was, the answer that he hadn’t wanted, the truth he could no longer avoid.

His parents’ had been investigating him, he’d known that all along, but the fear had always been that the investigation would put himself, Isabel, Michael, and Tess in danger. He hadn’t realized just how much danger it would put them in.

“Why? Max, what’s at Pohlman Ranch? What happened to your father?”

Max didn’t answer.

“Where is she?” Philip asked, the first word he had spoken since Max’s appearance. His voice was hoarse and unrecognizable, and his wide eyes focused on Max with a fierce intensity.

“Who? Who is he talking about?” Diane demanded.

Still holding the lamp with one hand, Philip grabbed a few papers from Max’s desk and waved them around in the air. Max barely caught sight of them, but he saw enough to know that they were the notes from Sherriff Valenti about Laurie. He’d taken them back to his room after Michael and Maria had left to track down the supposedly-crazy girl, intent on reading over them again. But then everything with the crystals had happened, and he’d forgotten about them.

Until now.

“Max, do something!” Liz hissed in a low tone.

At the same time, Diane said furiously, “Max, what is going on? Answer me!”

Then Philip dropped the papers back onto the bed and took a threatening step towards Max, swinging the lamp. Max moved backwards, trying his best to get out of the way of the jagged edges of the broken lamp.

“Max,” Liz said again, desperation in her voice, “those papers will lead him straight to Laurie. And to Michael and Maria.”

Max knew that, and he also knew that the Queen currently residing in his father’s body was the key to freeing Isabel and Alex, to preventing his sister from suffocating to death in that cave. But all they knew was that the Queen could not survive without oxygen, and he was not about to suffocate his own father.

Philip jumped forward suddenly, thrusting the lamp towards Max, who reacted on instinct and did the only thing he could to keep himself from being stabbed in the stomach by his father’s makeshift weapon. He conjured a shield, a shimmering blue wall of energy, and the lamp shattered against it, pieces falling harmlessly to the floor.

“Oh my God…” Diane breathed, horrified. “What are you?”

Max didn’t answer. He focused all his attention on his father, noting that the older man’s eyes had turned completely black. Behind him, he could hear Liz’s breathing hitch as she gazed at the scene, and knew she was frantically trying to come up with a solution.

“Max, what is going on?” Diane demanded again, moving towards him.

Philip swung to face her.

“Mom, don’t! Stay away from him,” Max ordered, dropping the shield and stepping in between his parents. The fear had turned his veins to ice, and now all he could think about was how entirely impossible it would be to keep his mother and his father safe, and still keep his secret.

“Not until you tell me what is going on,” Diane snapped. “What are you and what has happened to your father?”

“Please, Mom,” Max said, and now he was truly begging. “I know I’ve lied to you about countless other things, but you need to trust me now. You need to trust that I want your safety – Dad’s safety – more than anything else in the world. Please.”

He looked at her, and maybe she saw the truth of that statement shinning in his eyes, or maybe she just remembered that he was her son, that they were family, and that she had always trusted that he loved her and Philip… Whatever the reason for her decision, she gave a wary nod and stepped back, pressing herself against the wall.

“Max, can you pull the oxygen out of his lungs?” Liz asked abruptly.

He stared at her. “What?”

“Can you use your gifts to… to suck the oxygen out of your father’s lungs?”

“That will kill him.”

“No, it won’t.” Liz frowned as she turned her attention back to Philip, who was growing more and more impatient and enraged at being ignored. “We don’t have time… I don’t have time to explain this to you, but I have an idea. Just… trust me.”

Max stared at her, and then slowly nodded. He did trust Liz, and if she said this would work…

Pushing away his doubts and hesitations, he turned towards his father and raised a hand, concentrating his gifts and dragging the air from his father’s lungs. He’d never done anything like this before, and it felt strange, different. He had to struggle, had to envision exactly what he wanted to have happen to make it happen, but then…

Philip cried out, a gurgling, strangled sounds, and sank to his knees, hands moving to his throat.

“Philip!” Diane screamed. “Max, stop it!” She ran towards him, and out of the corner of his eye, Max saw Liz intercept Diane and grab her, pulling her away from Max.

“Mrs. Evans, it’s okay. He’s going to be fine,” Liz said with a confidence that Max hoped was genuine.

“Liz?” Max asked worriedly. His father had fallen to the ground and was shaking, almost as though he was about to have a seizure. His eyes were rolling around frantically in his head, and his hands still clenched and unclenched at his throat, as though he was trying to catch the oxygen before it departed from his partially open mouth.

“Keep going,” Liz said tensely.

“Why? What’s going to happen?” Max asked, trying and failing to keep the panic out of his voice.

And then, quite suddenly, Philip was encased in a blue light, and an iridescent blue jellyfish-like creature seemed to materialize in the air above him. It’s long tentacles swung back and forth as it rose towards the ceiling, and though it had no face of any kind, though there was no expression to decipher, Max had the distinct expression that it was furious.

“That,” Liz said in triumph. “That is what is supposed to happen. Let your father go now.”

Max didn’t need to be told twice. He dropped his hand, and Philip took a few gasping breaths before passing out sprawled on the floor. There was a thud from behind him, and Max turned to see his mother collapse to the floor as well, having fainted.

“Trap the thing in your closet,” Liz said quickly. “You can suck all the oxygen out of the closet, and keep going until it dies. If Brody is right about the oxygen depletion… this should kill it.”

Max obliged. Using his gifts, he yanked open the closet door and then telekinetically threw the crystal Queen in among his nice shirts and slacks, before slamming the door shut. Draining the oxygen from the closet proved to be a lot easier than trying to drain it from a person’s lungs, and it was only a matter of time before they heard the Queen slamming into the walls, obviously trying to escape.

There was a final, high-pitched screech, a heavy smash as the door shook… and then silence.

Max slowly walked over to the closet and opened the door.

“Did it work?” Liz asked anxiously.

“The Queen is gone,” Max answered, finding no sign of the alien parasite. “Call Alex or Isabel and find out if they can get out of the cave.” Liz nodded, but before she could so so, he asked sharply, "Hey, how did you know the Queen would come out of my father?"

Liz shrugged. "Basic science. A parasite will abandon it's host if it thinks that the host is dying. Since the Queen can't live without oxygen, tricking it into thinking that your father was going to suffocate to death would cause it to abandon that body and look for a new one."

"Oh... well, I'm glad it worked," Max murmured under his breath, his eyes moving back to his father's unconscious form. The steady rise and fall of his chest was a good sign, a sign that he was alive and breathing, but now... now he had seen the truth. Both he and Diane had seen Max use his gifts...

And Max had no idea what to do about it.

“February made me shiver, with every paper I’d deliver… Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn’t take one more step.”

Isabel closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the sound of Alex’s voice echoing in the cave. The air felt warm, although that could have easily been her own paranoid mind playing tricks on her. She chewed her lip and swallowed back the urge to say something, to initiate some kind of conversation.

What would she say?

“I can’t remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride, but something touched me deep inside… the day the music died.”

Isabel groaned and looked over at Alex. “Do you really have to sing that?”

“American Pie is a classic,” Alex protested, and began to sing again. “So bye, bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry. Them good ol’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye, and singing this’ll be the day that I die. This’ll be the day that I die…”

“Yes, I can see why singing a song about death is exactly what you would want to do while we’re trapped in a cave that might actually become our grave,” Isabel snapped. She pulled herself to her feet and walked away from Alex, staring up at the crystals above them.

“We won’t die here,” Alex said confidently.

Isabel glanced at him, wondering if he actually believed those words, or if he was only saying them for her benefit. “Somehow, this is not how I pictured it,” she murmured quietly, shaking her head.

“It was a hell of a ride, though,” Alex answered in a teasing tone. “I mean, think about it. Not only did I meet aliens, but I started dating one, and now I’m going to get killed by them.”

Isabel lifted an eyebrow at him, a little concerned. “You’re getting delirious,” she said.

“I’m just trying to keep things light,” Alex protested. “I mean… there isn’t a whole lot we can do right now besides sit here and wait for Max to get us out of here. I just think we shouldn’t… you know… lose hope.”

For a moment, Isabel thought she might argue with him. She certainly opened her mouth to say something hard and pessimistic, but then, quite suddenly, she found all the anger draining away, and she ended up simply sliding to the ground again, pulling her knees into chest.

“I’m sorry we dragged you into this,” she murmured.

Alex crawled to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head against his shoulder and stared up at the ceiling, at the blue crystals that glowed eerily in the space above them.

“I’m not sorry,” Alex said quietly.

She twisted to look at him. “How can you not be sorry? You could die in this cave, killed by parasitic alien crystals.”

The comment sounded so bizarre, even to her own ears, that Isabel could not help the smile that tugged at her lips. Alex was grinning, and the absurdity of the situation hit her again, the force of the realization nearly taking her breath away. It was almost comedic.

Then Alex looked down at the ground and started idly scratching circles into the dirt. “Think of all the things I would have missed out on, if I hadn’t known about all this. I got to meet real aliens. I got to find out that we aren’t alone in the universe, that there are things out there that normal people can’t even begin to imagine, I just… I guess I just think it is worth all the danger and the intrigue.”

“Even if you die?”

“Yeah.” Alex nodded and smiled at her, then looked back down at the dirt. He brushed his hand over the ground, erasing the designs. “Even if I die.”

Isabel blinked back a few stray tears at the simple sweetness of those words, and said tiredly, but with a hint of amusement in her tone, “Now I know for sure that you’re delusional.”

Alex laughed. “Think about it. I’ve got my friends, and this amazing secret, and… and you. Why would I want to change that?”

She pulled away from him entirely and gave him a long, searching look. He met her gaze without flinching, as though he was patiently waiting to see what she would find.

“Alex, I…” She started, then stopped, realizing she needed to summon more courage for what she was about to say. I love you. The three words lingered on the tip of her tongue, then she licked her dry lips and took a deep, steadying breath. “I…”

“Oh!” Alex let out an exclamation and scrambled to his feet as iridescent blue liquid dripped down onto his shoulder. Looking up at the ceiling, he said in awe, “I think they’re dying.”

“What?”

“The crystals! Look, they’re dying. They’re fading away, melting. I can see the sky!”

And sure enough, all around them the crystals were turning into liquid and dripping to the bottom of the cave. The hole above them opened, and they could feel the cool breeze of the night air and hear the sound of shovels hitting the ground.

“We’re free!” Alex exclaimed happily.

“Alex? Isabel?” Tess’ voice came floating to them, and then a moment later her face appeared above them, looking down into the cave. “Oh, thank God,” she breathed, relief flooding her voice. “Come on, let’s get you both out of there.”

Alex turned back to Isabel. “Sorry, you were saying something before the crystals started to die. I interrupted you.”

Isabel looked at him, then looked up at Tess, and at Courtney who had joined the hybrid Queen and was extending her own hand into the cave, ready to help them from the underground prison that had almost claimed their lives.

“It’s not important,” she said, and she and Alex scrambled from the cave.

“If you just mind-warp them…”

“No.”

“Tess…”

“I said no.”

The relief and gratitude Max felt at the death of the Queen and Isabel’s escape from the cave was slowly disappearing, replaced by frustration at Tess. She was stubbornly refusing to even consider the possibility of mind-warping his parents, and his arguments only seemed to anger her.

“Tess, I had to suffocate my own father,” Max hissed in exasperation. “My mother watched me do that. They both saw me use my gifts. What do you want me to do?”

“Max, you can’t seriously think this is a good idea,” Tess protested, hands on her hips as she glared at him. “You saw what happened to Kyle. It’s too dangerous…”

“The mind-warp for Kyle was much more extensive,” Isabel said softly, looking back and forth between her brother and the irate blonde. “And, besides, he only ended up in danger because he got sucked into an alternate dimension. This is safer. You know this is safer.”

It was an odd turn of events. Usually it was Tess who wanted to proceed with the mind-warp, who believed in doing anything necessary to keep their secret safe. Usually it was Isabel who was always reluctant to agree, to allow someone to mess with her parents’ minds. But the situation was reversed now, and the unyielding look in Tess’ eyes was enough to tell everyone else in the room that she was not backing down.

Not when the memories of Kyle’s brush with death were still so recent, still so raw.

Max looked away from Tess, his eyes turning towards the door that lead into his parents’ room. He and Alex had managed to move both parents into their bed, assuming that Tess could mind-warp them into thinking it was all just a dream.

It was supposed to be over. They had stopped the parasites, saved the word… it was supposed to be done, finished.

Tess turned away from Max and walked over to take a seat on the sofa. The Evans’ living room was silent, the air filled with tension and worry. Alex and Liz were both perched on chairs, and Courtney was leaning back against the furthest wall. Max had started pacing again, the rhythmic thud of his shoes on the floor the only sound that could be heard.

Finally, Tess said, “Have Isabel dream-walk them. Her powers will work just as well as mine, and it’s a lot less likely she’ll end up killing them.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Isabel countered. “You know it doesn’t work like that. Maybe I can convince them of the truth, but maybe I can’t. And then… then they’ll know our secret. Do you really want that?”

Tess hesitated, looking somewhat torn. But then she drew an uneasy breath and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m just not willing to take that risk. You’re going to have to find another way.”

Max groaned and paused in his pacing long enough to slam his hand against the wall in frustration. He understood Tess’ hesitations, and after what had happened, he, too, had qualms about playing with anyone’s mind. But he just didn’t see another way. Isabel was right, her gifts weren’t guaranteed to work well enough for this, and it was a small mind-warp, one that was unlikely to cause any lasting damage.

And, though it was selfish of him to think this way, he also did not particularly want them to have any memory of the night, even if they only thought of it as a dream. He had attacked his own father, nearly killed him. And yes, it had been in an effort to save his life, but it didn’t change anything. It didn’t change the fact that his father would remember it, that his mother would remember seeing it… even if they thought it was a dream.

“Clean up your room,” Tess said quietly. “You can use your gifts to put the broken lamp and everything else back together. If there is no evidence, your parents will believe that it was just a dream.”

Max expelled a short breath, but there was nothing else he could say, no other retort that would change Tess’ mind, and eventually she simply rose to her feet and walked from the house, leaving a silence in her wake.

Next Chapter: The Ties That Bind

Due: Sun 11/8