Chapter 17

Liz gaped at the skin as he crossed the distance between them, an evil smirk marring his youthful face as he approached.

"What, aren’t you going to invite me in, Tess?" Nicholas mocked her, and Liz was so shocked by the informal greeting that she couldn’t come up with any response better than a disgusted glare. He just smirked at her before climbing through the window and stepping into the room, studying his surroundings in amusement. "Nice place you have here." He commented sarcastically.

"What are you doing here?" She finally spat back at him. "You should know better than to come here."

Liz desperately fought to keep her voice angry and threatening as she thought Tess would in the situation, meanwhile desperately trying to hide how afraid she truly was.

"What do you think I’m doing here?" He shot back at her. "I want to know why you didn’t show up for our scheduled meeting yesterday. Khivar wants an update on how the plan is going."

Liz froze at his words, completely unable to respond to his words. She was shocked, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly as she struggled to reply, even as his words just began to penetrate.

Tess’s betrayal was much worse than they had ever anticipated. She was working for their worst enemy. Liz was disgusted in the girl that most of the group had once called their friend.

"What, no response?" Nicholas mocked her with a harsh laugh. "Come on, Tess. How hard is it to get into the king’s pants?" Nicholas ran a leery grin over her figure, making Liz feel dirty, as he emphasized his point. "It’s not like you’re lacking in the proper attributes or anything."

Liz shuddered under his gaze, even as she tried to counter him as realistically as possible. She needed to play along long enough to figure out his plan and then get him out of there.

"It isn’t that easy. He’s in love."

"Bullshit." Nicholas disputed. "You said that problem is long over. The girl’s little visitor took care of that. Nice to know that he’s always going to be as foolish and emotional as he is right now, isn’t it?"

The blood drained from Liz’s face at Nicholas’s reference to Future Max. No one was supposed to know about that, especially not the enemy. To make matters worse apparently her actions, which had seemed right at the time, only made things worse in the long run. She felt shocked, disturbed, and angrier than she had felt in a long time.

"Just back off, okay?" Liz exploded. "I’ll take care of him, all right?" Liz insisted trying to get Nicholas off her back, as her anger level rose. Her blood boiled within her skin as she stared at the little troll who was threatening the love of her life.

"You’d better take care of him." Nicholas threatened. "Khivar doesn’t like it when his people fail him. Right now he wants Zan’s son…so you had better deliver."

Nicholas turned his back as if to leave, and Liz reacted quickly, knowing that the situation needed to be taken care of. Kyle’s baseball bat was sitting in the corner only a few inches away from her. It only took one quick motion for her to grab the bat, and swing it, cracking right into the center of Nicholas’s back. Before he even knew what hit him, the skin exploded into a rainstorm of flakes, showering around the room.

Liz stared at the remains fluttering through the air, as she stepped to the center of the room, the baseball bat still in her hand, before weakly dropping it and falling to her knees in the midst of the flurry.

One enemy was taken care of…but they were all still in very real danger. Especially Max. And Liz had no idea what to do to fix everything.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Isabel took a deep breath before knocking on the Valenti’s front door. She had been avoiding contact with Liz and Kyle as much as possible to try to lessen suspicion, but with the discovery of what Tess’s agenda with Alex was, and the secrets contained in the destiny book, she knew she had to see them. Liz would want to know everything.

So she had sneaked out early before the meeting, telling Max and Michael that she needed some time to think about what her stance would be when they all talked that afternoon. Max hadn’t even questioned as she disappeared with the destiny book, telling him that she would bring it to the meeting.

After three quick knocks, the door flew open and Kyle was instantly in her face.

"Oh my God, you’re here!" He exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief before tugging Isabel into the house. "Liz has been freaking out ever since I got home a half hour ago, but she won’t tell me why, only that she needed to see you right away. I’ve been trying to call, but for obvious reasons Max has been a little less than friendly."

His words sent a chill down Isabel’s spine, and she quickly pushed past Kyle and into Tess’s bedroom, where Liz was pacing back and forth nervously across the center of the room.

"Oh thank God, Isabel!" Liz exclaimed at the sight of her ally.

"Liz? What’s going on?" Isabel pressed quickly.

Liz’s eyes flew wildly from Isabel’s to Kyle’s and back again, before taking a deep breath and starting to explain.

"The situation with Tess is much worse than we ever possibly imagined. She’s working for Khivar!"

"What?" Isabel gasped in disbelief.

"Nicholas was just here…checking up on me…on her." Liz continued in a flat voice. "I killed him."

"What?" Isabel gasped, thinking of the dangerous skin who had overwhelmed all four of them with his powers once before.

"I took him by surprise." Liz explained softly. "I think he trusted Tess. His guard was down."

"You did the right thing, Liz." Kyle insisted. "He would have killed all of you…he’s tried before."

"I know. He was a monster." Liz agreed, her voice bitter. "It seems they have some big plan they’re working on. I got enough of it to figure out this much. Tess is supposed to seduce Max into sleeping with her, to get her pregnant. Khivar wants Max’s child for some reason, probably to secure the throne. Apparently that side of the plan wasn’t going very well for her." Liz smiled bitterly.

"Which is why Tess jumped at the chance to be you." Kyle finished for her. "Because Max loves you and would be willing to go there with you."

"Oh God." Liz paled at the thought. "Do you think he has? Slept with her…as me?"

"Liz, no!" Isabel insisted comfortingly. "Anyway, Nicholas would have known if she had. If Tess had succeeded, she would have gone to him to prove it."

Liz nodded, a sickened expression on her face at the thought of Tess bragging to the enemy about winning Max over.

"You’re right." Liz agreed, before turning her subject back to the question at hand. "So what we need to figure out is how the two plots are connected. Nicholas, Max’s child, and the destiny book."

"Maybe there’s a hint in this?" Isabel held up the stack of papers which had been carefully tucked under her arm, and passed them to Liz. "I thought you might like to see them. It’s the translation to the destiny book."

Liz stared at the papers in her hand for a long moment, before staring at Isabel in awe.

"Have you…did you read it?" Liz stammered, clearly nervous about what was inside.

"Some." Isabel admitted. "Not the whole thing."

"What…" Liz didn’t even need to finish her question. Isabel knew exactly what she was asking and quickly clarified.

"Lots of things…the history of how we came here and why, some basic scientific information about us…and instructions on how to use the granolith."

Liz froze on Isabel’s last word, her mind whirling with nervous energy. Images of Future Max and his explanation of time travel flew through her mind.

Liz was so caught up in the memory, that she barely even registered as Isabel continued to speak.

"Liz, we can use the granolith to go home."

"What?" Kyle exclaimed in shock. "Are you going to go?"

"We don’t know yet." Isabel sighed. "We’re having a group meeting in a little bit to talk it over and decide."

As Isabel and Kyle debated the possibilities of the aliens going home, Liz climbed up onto Tess’s bed, sitting cross-legged as she flipped through the papers quickly, trying to find the page with the information about the granolith on it. She paused as the words she searched for flew out of the page at her, and quickly skimmed the entire page, before settling her attention on one passage…the words she had been both hoping, and fearing would be there.

"God, it’s all here." Liz murmured to herself, catching both Isabel and Kyle’s attention.

"What’s there?" Kyle asked, but Liz ignored the question as she stared down at the page, her eyes not even focusing on the words as she quickly formed her plan.

"What is it, Liz?" Isabel pressed.

"I can use the granolith to fix this…all of this. Everything." Liz mumbled in a distant voice.

"Everything, meaning?" Kyle wondered.

"Meaning I can make it so that this switch never happened…and still reveal the truth about what Tess has done."

"What?" Isabel cried. "How?"

"I have to go back to before all of this happened." Liz determined. "I have to change the past."