by Andy Mangels
Near the front of the cathedral a girl knelt in prayer. What she faced, though, was not a crucified figure of Christ in agony, but a smiling, comforting statue of Jesus, his arms outstretched and his robes swirling about him.
As Max approached, the girl turned. He was startled to see that it was Shania, the girl in the hospital bed. The girl he was healing even now. Max couldn't recall a time when he had seen a manifestation of the person he was healing while he was doing so; usually, he saw through their eyes.
"I'm not ready to go," Shania said, her tone slightly defiant. "There are a lot of things I haven't done yet. “
Max knelt next to her. "I'm not here to take you away, Shania," he said softly. "I'm here to take you back. “
"Back? “
"Back to life. Back to reality," Max said, holding out his hand toward her.
She didn't take it. "How do I know you're here to help me?" she asked.
Max wasn't sure how to answer that. He looked around for inspiration. "Well, you were praying, right? And I arrived. I'm here, in the church. And I'm not recoiling from all this religious imagery, so I'm not some devil or something. “
"True," Shania said, clearly weighing Max's words. "So you're saying you were sent by God to answer my prayers? “
"Not exactly." Max was uncomfortable. He wasn't sure he believed in God, or at least the one that many Earth religions espoused. But he didn't want to cause any rifts in the girl's metaphysical mindscape by getting into a theological debate.
"I'm here because what happened to you yesterday afternoon was wrong, and I want to right that wrong," he said simply, hoping it would be enough.
She considered his words for a moment, then her face brightened. "Okay, I can accept that." Taking his hand, she rose to her feet.
They began to walk down the aisle through the colored lights, toward the vaulted doors that loomed in the far-off distance. "It's very pretty here," Max said.
She smiled serenely. "Just like I imagined it would… “
A loud noise interrupted her, and a harsh voice echoed from in front of Max. "What the hell are you doing with my sister? “
Max felt himself pulled away from Shania's hand, sucked back into his own body in an instant. The dimness of the hospital room was a stark contrast to the colorfully bright cathedral he'd found in the injured girl's mind. It took him a moment to focus his eyes enough to see a twenty-something woman standing next to the opened door of the room. Her expression was guarded but slightly hostile.
"I asked you a question," she said. "What the hell are you doing with my sister? “
"Can we get some help here, please?" Isabel called out. Kyle was leaning on her, and she struggled to keep him on his feet. He wasn't exactly light.
A male nurse stood up from where he was sitting with Liz in the waiting area. "What's the problem?" he asked.
"My boyfriend just got really dizzy and passed out," Isabel said. "And he's having trouble breathing. “
"Let's get him over here," the nurse said, pointing toward an area that had several gurneys and hanging curtains. He took one arm, and helped move Kyle.
Isabel was about to say a "thank you" to Kyle, when a burly security guard stepped up beside her and grabbed the other arm. "Let me help you there, miss," he said.
"Thanks," Isabel stammered. Where had he come from? How many other guards were patrolling the hospital? She and Kyle had watched from the outside as Liz and Maria had performed their distractions, and no guards or orderlies had been evident.
As the nurse pulled up Kyle's shirt, he put a stethoscope to the young man's chest. "Breathe in, breathe out. Not so deep. Okay, that's fine." He let the stethoscope go, and it bobbed on the rubber cords that connected its earpieces. Taking a penlight, he lifted one of Kyle's eyelids and shone the light into his eye.
"Have you been drinking, or taken any drugs tonight?" he asked.
"No, sir," Kyle said, each word punctuated by a breath.
"Is he going to be okay?" Isabel asked.
"I don't hear anything in his chest, and his pupils are responsive. How did this happen? “
Isabel did her best to blush. "We were… making out in the car, and suddenly he couldn't breathe. “
The guard standing nearby smirked, and the nurse nodded. "Just kissing," the nurse asked, "or something more… strenuous? “
Isabel was both amused and interested in the question. At times, she had been attracted to Kyle, but she never would have acted on those feelings, especially now that she was married. But the nurse didn't know that, and they were buying Max time. "Well, you know, we weren't doing the freak or anything like that, if that's what you mean. “
As she looked toward Kyle, Isabel saw his eyes suddenly widen. She realized that he was looking past her at something. At the same time, his breathing started getting ragged.
"He's doing it again!" Isabel said, concern in her voice. What is Kyle up to? And then she heard Kyle's voice in her head. Do anything you have to do to distract them. We're on the TV news! As the nurse started treating Kyle, Isabel let out a wail and flung herself at the security guard. "I don't want to lose him! Help him, please! “
The guard put his arms around her protectively. "It's okay, miss. The nurse will be able to help your friend. Why don't we go over here to the waiting area? “
Out of the corner of her eye, Isabel saw Maria returning to the front area just as Liz hopped up to the counter to distract the female nurse.
"I'll be fine. I just want to stay with Randy," Isabel said, giving the guard the most plaintive, puppy-dog look she could muster.
Max had better hurry up, Isabel thought. There don't appear to be any other emergencies tonight, and I don't know how much longer our distractions can work. Especially when our faces are all over the cable news channels.
Max put up a hand, palm outward, to calm the woman who had just entered the room. "I'm here to help, Ms. Cameron." He hadn't seen a wedding ring on the woman's hand, so he'd guessed that she still shared her younger sister's name.
"Who are you? You don't look like a nurse or a doctor." Shania Cameron's sister looked at him with obvious suspicion. "Give me one good reason not to call security right this second. “
"I'm trying to help your sister. I was… “
"She's in a coma," the woman said sharply. "How exactly were you going to "help' her? “
Max struggled to come up with an explanation, but wasn't sure that he could.
"Lisa?" The voice was tremulous and weak, but Max recognized it as the girl from the church. He looked down and was elated to see she was awake. He also realized he was still holding her hand.
"Shanny! Oh, you're awake!" Relief flooded the woman's features. She moved over to the bed and squeezed her sister's other hand.
"He helped me," Shania said weakly. "He was in my mind, and he helped lead me back out. “
"What do you mean, baby?" Lisa asked. She was still looking at Max with mistrust.
Shania took a deep breath and offered a wobbly smile. "I think he's an angel. “
Max was about to correct her, when he heard Kyle's voice in his head. Do anything you have to do to distract them. We're on the TV news! Shania looked at him questioningly. "What does he mean, you're on the news? “
"What does who mean?" Lisa asked, and then Max saw something register in her eyes. "You're one of them, aren't you? 1 thought you looked familiar. You're one of the guys from the mall. “
"Things aren't always what they seem," Max said. "I can't explain, but whatever or whoever you think I am, you're wrong. I came here to help your sister. “
"You're the reason she's here," Lisa said, sounding defensive. "The car she was in got hit while the police were chasing you. “
Shania grabbed at her sister's arm. "He helped me come back, Lisa. Don't yell at him. “
"So, what, you came in here and healed her somehow?" Lisa asked. "Is that it? Did you help that other woman, too? “
Max just stared at her blank
ly. Anything I say will only make her angrier. Better to let her jump to her own conclusions. "Please, just let me leave in peace," Max said quietly. "I've helped your sister, and now I have other things to do. “
"What, like running from the law?" Her voice was full of anger. Max assumed most of it was not specifically because of him, but rather a product of all the emotional trauma she had faced during the previous day.
Max gave the girl's hand a squeeze and let it go. "Be good, Shania. Do all the things you planned to do." He paused for a moment, then decided to warn her. "You'll want to be sure they don't examine your palm until it stops glowing. Otherwise, they might put you under the same scrutiny they've put me. “
Shania lifted her hand and saw that its palm was glowing a faint silver. She looked beyond it as Max stepped toward the door. "Thank you," she said simply.
Max stepped out into the corridor, and a moment later Lisa followed him. "I suppose I should thank you too, but this isn't over for us, you know?" she said. "Even if they don't find out whatever this glowing-hand thing is, we're still in trouble. “
"What do you mean? “
"We don't have very good insurance," she said. "We lost the car today, and these hospital bills are going to cripple us. So while you're off running from the cops, think about the problems you've caused for my family. “
"I'm truly sorry," Max said. As he walked away from her, he could feel her gaze burning into his back.
Isabel felt intense relief once she and Kyle finally got out of the building and away from the blather of the cable news channel that had just broadcast their faces all over the country.
Perhaps twenty minutes after having entered the hospital, she and Kyle joined Maria, Liz, and Max in the hospital parking lot.
"Sorry about the delay," Kyle said. "They didn't want to let me out of there without taking all my insurance information first. I told them it was an Antarian policy. “
Isabel snorted. "He did not." Turning to Maria quickly, she said, "Don't tell Michael he said that, even as a joke." She knew how little humor Michael found in all matters alien.
Maria raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Wasn't this supposed to be a busy time in there due to drunk-driver wrecks?" Kyle asked.
"Guess we picked the wrong night," Liz said, frustration in her voice.
"So, how did everything go in there, Max?" Isabel asked.
"Fine. Both of them are healed," Max said gruffly. "I got caught by the younger one's sister, but she got distracted from calling security when Shania woke up from her coma. “
"That's great," Liz said, squeezing his arm.
Isabel could tell that something else was eating at Max. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly.
"Nothing," he said, too quickly. "I'm just exhausted. You know how much healing people drains me. “
"Liz could use her electrical powers to give you a jump-start," Maria said, a smile on her face.
Liz gave her a shocked look, and Kyle snickered.
Maria blushed. "I did not mean that in any kind of a sleazy way. “
"Uh-huh, sure," Kyle said, teasing. "But you just might have given new meaning to the term 'sparking.' “
As they walked back toward the Microbus, Isabel caught her brother's eyes for a moment. What she saw in them wasn't just exhaustion, though that was clearly there, in spades.
He's haunted, she thought. And from the look of things, this is one ghost that even our little Scooby Gang might have trouble getting rid of.
13 Los Angeles International Airport
Very slowly and painfully, Ava swam back to consciousness. Her limbs and head felt heavy, as though encased in something viscous, like honey. When she opened her eyes, bright lights dazzled them.
Where am I? she thought, squinting against the glare.
Ava opened and closed her eyes repeatedly until they adjusted to the brilliance. Feeling marginally stronger, she began moving her limbs experimentally.
She discovered she was sitting in a narrow, padded seat, both of her arms secured by stainless-steel handcuffs to the chairs arms. Identical seats were arranged in rows before her, behind her, and on either side in the otherwise empty cabin. The carpeted floor beneath her feet vibrated, and she could both hear and feel the resonant subwoofer hum of large jet engines.
An airplane. They've loaded us onto an airplane. Ava had never been aboard a plane before. Even when she, Rath and Lonnie had left New York for Roswell immediately after Zan's murder, they had traveled by car. And she had continued traveling exclusively by car… in a series of other people's vehicles, actually… for many months following her lovers death. She had wandered the country then, trying to sort out her ambivalent feelings toward Rath and Lonnie, the two members of the Royal Four who had conspired to throw Zan into the path of a truck back on that horrible day, when her life had spun utterly out of her control…
And I'm every bit as guilty as they are, Ava thought. I didn't even lift a finger to save Zan. I just froze when they killed him, the way I always do whenever things go south. She considered the cuffs that bound her to her seat. I'm probably getting what I deserve. Those government guys will cut me open to see what makes me tick. Maybe after it's all over, I'll see Zan again. And the other Ava, the one from Roswell.
Hot tears stung her eyes as memories of the past two years continued spooling past her. She remembered how she'd survived being alone on the road by discreetly obtaining transportation, meals, and lodging from people she encountered along the way, courtesy of her mindwarp abilities. She'd never influenced anyone to give her any more than they could afford, and therefore had managed not to rouse much unwanted attention before moving on to obtain aid from her next "sponsor. “
Ava had been sitting in a dingy little roadside diner somewhere in Ohio, grieving Zan, when she'd felt the fiery death of her other self… Tess, as her alter ego had called herself. When Rath and Lonnie had taken Ava to Roswell just before the big alien summit meeting that had followed Zan's death, she and Tess had evidently forged a subtle psychic connection.
The psychic flash Ava had endured at the precise moment of Tess's demise… a vicarious empathic experience that had seemed more real to her than even her most vivid dreams of Zan and Antar… had convinced her that she could no longer survive entirely on her own, a destitute half-alien waif with no one to lean on except for those whom she coerced into giving her aid and comfort. She realized that the surviving members of Antar's Royal Four needed one another, regardless of which set of them, if any, were the "real deal," as Rath liked to say. Just as Tess's preordained place had been with her own podmates, Max, Isabel, and Michael… Roswell 's version of the Royal Four… so, too, did Ava belong among her own kind.
This understanding had come to her as she'd walked alongside the median strip of a lonely stretch of highway, considering the aftermath of Tess's demise while watching the cars that flew past her in either direction. Ava knew it would be a simple matter to mindwarp any one of the drivers into stopping for her, and taking her in whatever direction she wanted to go.
The only question that remained then was, Which way? She knew that her heart still belonged to Zan, and that it always would. But Zan was dead, and the closest facsimile was a New Mexico teenager named Max Evans. Like her, this other Zan was now facing life without his predestined soulmate; Tess, the Roswell Zan's Ava, was gone, just as her own Zan was.
I could go to Roswell and have my Zan again, and he can have his Tess, she told herself as the traffic continued to whiz past, every car an opportunity, each direction a gateway to a unique life that would exclude the possibility of any other. One of those directions led eastward, back toward New York. The other would eventually wind southwestward to Roswell. And Zan.
But even as these thoughts swirled through her mind, she'd known that trying to hold on to Zan this way was wrong. She had seen the way the other Zan… or rather Max… had looked at the slight, dark-haired girl he'd called Liz.
He wasn't Za
n. It was clear that he had long since established a destiny of its own.
A destiny that did not include Ava. She wondered if Tess had seen that. If that had been the reason Tess had died… or had been killed. The explosive psychic flash Ava had experienced wasn't been clear on that score.
So she began then, reluctantly, to accept that she would never sway Max's heart the way she had captured Zan's. And even though she knew she could never forgive or forget Rath and Lonnie for what they had taken from her, she was also aware that they were all she truly had in this world.
That day she had forever turned her back on whatever roads led to Roswell. There was only one path left for her to take, even though she knew it would lead her right back to Zan's killers.
Ava let go of her remembrances and returned to the present. She listened to the deep thrum of the jet engines and looked down at the cuffs that restrained her. Shame warmed her face. Maybe if I'd taken the other road that day, none of this would have happened. Maybe everything that's gone wrong now is because of me. Those Antarian-possessed freaks and the cops and the Men in Black swarmed all over us, and I just let it happen.
Just like with Zan.
Then Ava's shame changed temperature and texture, morphing into a dull red… red anger that finally came into balance with her omnipresent fear. She'd finally had enough of being a victim.
She concentrated, trying to focus her powers onto her bonds.
Nothing. The handcuffs on her wrists remained as solid as ever. The only reward she got for her efforts was a sudden dizzy, headachy feeling. She hadn't felt so lightheaded since the first time Zan had taken her to a rave. All four of them had had quite a bit to drink that night; they'd all learned the hard way just how powerfully alcohol affected their half-alien systems. The MiBs must have drugged me, she thought.