"Alex! I can’t feel him any longer!"

Max had never not felt his twin. It was the one constant of his life, his only real comfort, and now the link was severed.

"Let him go, Max. It was what he wanted. Michael and Maria together were the One. This was the bending of the matrix I saw so long ago, the way it was always meant to be."

"Fuck that!" Max searched the area where the great Granilith had stood and then winked out of existence with his brother and new sister-in-law.

A small hand touched his arm and he looked down at the young woman with golden blond hair and startling blue eyes. She looked done in, ready to collapse.

"We must go. They gave us time and this universe. Don’t waste it."

Max nodded, but not in his newfound heart. It was broken. "What do I call you?"

"Tess. We’ve got to go."

"Max, quickly. I will open a corridor back to the Shiva."

They exited the room and found the main corridors. They needed to find a primary access area close to the main hull, at the entry point where they first boarded. Khivar’s Imperials were on all sides, and Alex rushed the women, with Lonnie’s hand in his.

The alert was sounded as Max’s men fought the Imperials on the Octavian. Sean and his group joined up with them just outside the entrance to the main Bridge where the other teams were waiting. The Octavian was trying to re-establish the power grid that had been taken out by the Granilith. Pushed and angry, Max left the group and entered the war Bridge on Khivar's ship. Alex and Sean called to him, but he didn’t listen. He couldn’t.

"Khivar!"

The man turned and looked at Max, disgust and hatred lining his face. An Attilaan. Tess followed Max and stood slightly behind him off his right shoulder, the defiance apparent on her face.

"You took my Immaculate!"

"I took more than that." Max looked back at the young woman who had suffered torture at Khivar’s hands. "This Immaculate belongs to no one but herself."

The rest joined Max, standing behind him.

"And the Anterraan? Where is the Princess?"

Max swallowed an angry lump in his throat. Sean showed him the countdown timer. It was getting close. Khivar’s Imperials were surrounding them, however Khivar motioned them to stand down, but remain on alert.

"She took back what was hers, and removed it from your destructive grasp. The Granilith is gone, no longer a weapon for your use! There is a war coming to this universe, and this time it will be fought on even ground."

Khivar bristled at the knowledge the Granilith was gone. Standing angrily he faced Max down from the lower level Command deck. Tess smirked at him. The thread of his life was cut and drawing to an end.

"You think to fight me? I command an army of the best warriors in the known universe. Your own people. You fight me, you fight them."

Max looked around the room. Khivar had surrounded himself with Attilaans. Max walked the upper deck.

"I’ll fight whomever it takes, wherever it takes me and no matter how long! I'd gladly meet my ancestors in the hall of Valhalla than live under the yoke of a would-be King! Times are changing, Khivar. And you in your sickness have missed an awakening. I’d rather die fighting for my freedom, the freedom of my people and the freedom of this universe, than live another day under your sickening reign."

Max looked at his people, those forced into service against their will and pledged to Khivar through blood oaths.

"I’m freeing Attila and all her holdings. If you would be free, then rise up against the tyrant holding your restraints. It is a new world, brothers! One that has cost me dearly, and I will not watch the sacrifice go for nothing."

Khivar laughed. "You hope to pull them from centuries of blood oaths, to rise up against me?"

"It matters not! My world will be freed, her children returned to the learning way and you, Khivar, will be the bug I squash beneath my feet!" Max looked at his people. "If you would be free, then join me! Join the Royals! Khivar is merely the thug of the day - toothless without his Granilith! My band of rebels has destroyed two of his strike fleet, and I hold the strongest Eminent One. There is no surrender! It is victory, or it is death."

The explosive charges that Sean and his team had set went off at that moment. They started in the lower reactor core and moved upward. The control panels on the Bridge exploded in a display of fire and smoke. The Bridge’s few remaining lights went out as the backup lights came on and smoke rolled through the ship.

"Max, we must go! There is less than five minutes before the secondary explosives blow!"

Max nodded, "Alex, do it!"

Alex opened the corridor back to the Shiva and Sean, the Immaculates and his men walked through. Khivar stood stunned.

"That is an Anterraan trick."

Max shook his head no. "It is my Eminent One. We hold the knowledge of how to blink. My people have sacrificed themselves to bring forth your destruction, along with my brother and his wife giving up their own existence for my people enslaved for generations."

"I’ll eat you! I will destroy your worlds, take your Eminent One, and then I’ll take your life!"

Max just laughed smiling a smile of genuine humor. "Then let it be a fight between us!"

"Max!"

Max nodded and started to join Alex through the corridor when he felt Him. Them.

"Alex, wait! I feel Michael again. I feel him and Maria." Alex closed the distortion. "We must go back."

"Max, the time." Max ignored him and rushed against Imperial guards who stood unknowing what to do. Alex followed.

Khivar watched Max and Alex leave his Bridge, and no one stopped him.

"Stop him! Get me that Eminent." No one moved. Khivar circled his Bridge screaming. "I said, seize them!"

He grabbed the nearest Attilaan warrior and shook him. The man knocked off his hands, and pushed him back. In an act of defiance, he turned his back to his onetime Master, as did the other Attilaans on the Bridge. They would not raise a hand against him, nor would they raise a hand to fight for him. Not ever again.

Max rushed into the room that once housed the Granilith. Pausing for a moment, he found them. They were on the ground in a heap where the Granilith had stood. They must have blinked back.

"Michael!"

Alex followed Max into the room and saw them. Looking over his shoulder he was surprised that no one had followed them. He went with Max to where Michael and Maria lay.

"Max, we are running out of time."

"Can you open a corridor from here?"

Alex shook his head. "I do not know. There are so many decks and hulls, and the distance is great."

A hand came up and grabbed his arm. It was Michael. Alex gazed into his golden brown eyes, sensing his message. Alex nodded and concentrated.

The corridor opened from the Octavian to the Shiva’s Bridge. Max quickly picked up his brother, helping him walk with an arm over his shoulder and supporting him under his shoulder. Alex picked up the unconscious Maria whose body was almost translucent, as was Michael’s, and they stepped through just as the decks behind them exploded.

~~~

When they emerged from the corridor, Shiva's entire Bridge was standing with arms drawn, waiting for whomever was coming through.

"Captain!"

Max quickly set his brother on his feet, gently. Alex still held Maria, who was looking almost ready to blink out again.

"Put them together quickly, Alex. He’s her anchor. Someone call Medical!" Alex complied while Max turned to his officers. "Helmsman, plot us a stream out of here now! That ship has troubles."

"Aye, Cap. Main power just came back online. A plotted course back to Karnak is already laid in."

"Cap, we’ve got Imperial battleships and prowlers closing fast." Liander informed Max.

"Sam, get us out of here." Max's last view of the Octavian before they entered the transport corridor was of her burning in space, her ballast gone as she veered off to port. He’d see her again. Of that he was sure.

~~~

"Max, I need you down in Medical." Kyle voice came over the com.

"What is it Kyle?"

"Just get down here."

Max nodded for Sam to take Conn and he raced to find what was wrong now.

"Kyle, is it Michael and Maria?"

"Yes. I can’t stabilize them. They’re blinking all over the place. As fast as they come back, they wink out again. Dammit, Max! I can't get through to them!"

Max stood beside the medical bed with both of them in it. He watched as they blinked out and then back again.

"Will they reset like Maria and Alex did last time?"

"I don’t know. Alex opened two corridors in a row just now with no ill effects except fatigue. The extra power he gained from Pierce must have helped. This time it’s different. It’s like they’re here, and then they’re not, and then they are. Almost as if they’re searching for something."

"Max." Alex came forward. "I believe they are searching for Max."

"Me? I don’t understand."

Alex stood beside Max and nodded towards the couple. "Michael was Maria’s anchor. He gave her enough structure to survive, but he needed something that anchored him as well. You, Max. You are his anchor. I thought they together were the One, but I was wrong. It is you, Michael and Maria. The twin bond you share has grown over the past few months, evolving much like the maturation of their bond. It was meant to be, as was their mating. Michael came back and brought Maria too, because your bond with him gave him a physical place."

Max frowned. "What do I need to do?"

Kyle looked at Alex and shrugged. "Touch them. Touch Michael and call him home?"

"He was here once."

"Yes, but we lost him again once we brought him to Medical and separated him from you."

Max nodded. Taking a chair, he grasped his brother’s larger hand and waited. Whatever it took. Michael had never left him behind, even when it meant digging a mountain off him and almost dying in the process. Max wouldn’t leave him either.

"Come on, M. Don’t be such a pansy. I’ve got work to do. Worlds to move and a war to fight. The word is already spreading. Nations are rising in revolt and contacting us for a rendezvous for the assembling of a Royal Rebel fleet. Khivar’s days are numbered. He’ll not forget the pasting we gave him today."

Max sat and talked to Michael and Maria for what felt like hours. Until a pair of hands touched his tired shoulders.

"Any luck?"

Max looked up at Isabel and shook his head. None. They were still silent. Isabel's hands stroked through his long hair in comfort and he closed his eyes. The touch of kindness, of comfort - it was strange to him and he craved it.

"He’ll come back. They both will." Isabel looked at the two on the bed. Their bodies were tangible again and not blinking in and out. To her, they looked asleep, wrapped around each other. Strange, she could feel them almost like a whisper in her mind. What she felt from them was a sense of peace and a serenity.

"I hope so. I’m sick of talking. I can’t remember ever talking this much." Max reached up and took one of her hands, and pulled her around. "What are you doing here? I thought you were scheduled for galley duty tonight, so I was looking forward to eating in the officer’s mess."

"I am scheduled, but I had an appointment with Kyle."

"You okay?"

Isabel paused and thought of a better circumstance to tell him, but in truth between them nothing was ever just normal.

"I’m pregnant."

Max forgot to breathe. He stood up and then sat down again, until he noticed he had left her standing. He quickly stood up and pushed her into his vacated chair. Isabel chuckled softly to herself. He was totally at a loss.

"Pregnant?" His high-pitched voice made her soft laughter increase into real humor.

"You knew it was a possibility, and since we’ve been back from Cyrenaica we haven't even tried to be careful."

That was true. Max had to admit it. Since she came to talk to him that day, three days after Cyrenaica, she had practically lived in his rooms with him and in his bed. They never used protection in any form. He wanted to be a father. He never thought he ever would. Serena had been sterile and then she died. He had thought that was it for him in this category.

Alex was right. Things were changing. He was changing, as was Michael who was born changed. They both had found an emotion called love, and they both were mating outside their species. His child would never be accepted on Attila, nor would any child of Michael and Maria's. He didn’t care. His children wouldn’t be sent to live in a military camp so young. He, Michael and Sean would teach them everything they needed to know. And he would touch his child.

"Just tell me it won’t be twins." He had been a twin all his life and he loved the bond with Michael, but it was also a hard life when one is never alone or private.

Isabel laughed as Max knelt on the floor in front of her, and buried his head against her still-flat stomach. "I’m a twin. You’re a twin. It’s not looking good for us, Captain."

Max didn’t care. He didn’t care. He was going to be a father. "Marry me," he said softly in her stomach.

"No." Max drew in his breath sharply and looked up at her. She gently smiled and framed his face with her hand stroking his scar. Shaking her head, she said no again.

"Why? Don’t you want to marry me?"

"Yes. But when you’re ready." Max started to protest. "Shh, it’s all right. The baby or babies are ours, and there is no question that you’re the father. I’d marry you in a heartbeat because I love you. But you need it to be what you really want. Michael knew he wanted Maria, and he asked her because it was all he could think about. I want you to feel that sure, that real, and not have it just be about the babies."

"Isabel..."

"It’s all right! You ask me again when the time is right for you."

"You’ll say yes?"

Isabel laughed again. "Maybe." Max’s eyes narrowed and Isabel smiled as she reached down and kissed him. "You get to tell my brother though. I think he was planning on having a talk with you about your intentions towards me, so telling him I’m knocked up should be even more interesting."

Max just groaned against her. Great. Fucking glorious. Alex would use his voodoo super Eminent powers and pin him to the wall like a bug. Max smiled at the thought. Michael was right. He didn’t know that a person was supposed to feel happy and loved, or that it was even possible to feel anything other than loyalty, honor and duty.

"Hear that, little brother? I’m going to be a father." Max said to his silent brother.

So when Michael spoke without opening his eyes it was shocking. "Hard to miss," he said softly. "Maybe you could take her somewhere and celebrate in private so I can get some damn sleep instead of listening to you yakking my ears off."

"Michael!" Max stood and grabbed his twin's head.

Michael slowly opened his eyes as if they were too heavy to hold open. "I swear, Maxwell, if you kiss me, we’ll be having words."

"Kyle!" Max called to the doctor and kissed his brother on the forehead anyway. Finally! He was free to leave and get back to work - or other things.

Kyle came in and saw that Michael was awake. Scanning him quickly, he nodded at Max. Their bodies had finally stopped fluctuating. "They’re both fine. They just need some rest."

Michael just snorted bitterly, closed his eyes, snuggled up close to Maria and went back to sleep. Fat chance of that happening on this fucking crate. No one ever left you alone!

Max grabbed Isabel’s hand and thanked Kyle quickly. "Come on. Let's go talk about this pregnancy thing."

Isabel held back a little, suspicious of his motives. "Talk?"

"We’ll talk...well...eventually." His arm went around her waist and his hand rested on her slim hip, pulling her body close to his. A father. Who’d have thought?

~~~

Max turned in his Captain’s chair when Michael and Maria returned to the Bridge, arguing furiously.

"I told you to stay put!"

Maria shrugged. "I did. For a few moments. You didn’t say how long."

"Maria, I swear..."

"That’s all you do! I wasn’t in danger, and we got the job done."

"Is it?" Max asked interrupting their usual Michael possessiveness/Maria recklessness discussion. They were a couple made to produce ulcers. They fought almost as hard as they made love. But not quite.

Michael nodded. "We successfully planted the explosives and blew up the Imperial stronghold. The new colonial government sends their regards. The rebel forces are now taking over control of their planet. They'll be sending representatives to the new Royal Federation."

"Cap, three of our recovery ships have just requested a rendezvous in the Karnak system. They have completed the final relocation of the Aesculapian system."

All worlds had voted unanimously to relocate to the Karnak system. It didn’t hurt their decision when they discovered that Karnak was going to serve as the homeworld and command base for the Royal Alliance, and the seat of the new Royal Federation.

"Inform our ships that we’ll be there to pick them up once we complete our rendezvous with the Royal Alliance in the Escalari system. They’ve found another Imperial stronghold. Order them to Karnak for regular maintenance and shore leave."

"Aye, Cap."

Six months. It had been a long six months since they took the Granilith and the war started again. Six months of fighting Khivar at every turn. Some battles they lost, but many they won. Once the word of Khivar’s loss of the Granilith spread, worlds held under oppression rose up in rebellion and joined the Royal cause.

Khivar was further weakened by a flood of mutiny within his ranks as Attilaans deserted their posts in droves and returned home to free their world and join the Rebels. Some worlds were liberated easily, but many were places of open guerilla warfare, with battles in space that left both the Royals and the Imperials searching for power sources.

"Inform the fleet of our arrival in the Escalari system."

"Aye, Captain."

The Shiva was the flagship of the Royal Alliance, and Max held full command. But it was Alex who was the leader of the Resistance. His position of Eminence held as he planned the attacks and met Khivar on all battlefronts.

"Any word from Alex?"

"No, Cap. He is still aboard the Baltar. He will reboard the Shiva when we meet them at the rendezvous."

"Good." Max didn’t like having Alex off their ship. His sister worried, and Isabel was in no condition to be worrying about anything as she was nearing her seventh month of pregnancy. Isabel was suffering separation anxiety having Lonnie on Karnak and Alex gone. They were correct in assuming that their children were twins. And Isabel wasn’t happy not being able to see her feet. Max just smiled at her waddling form.

Max sat back and listened to Michael and Maria’s banter. Since Maria was no longer needed in her position as the Acolyte de Prin’c, she was determined to find herself a place on the Shiva.

Max already had her in a position equal in rank to his highest officers. She was his new astrometric officer. The new lab needed an expert, and there was no one more qualified, who knew and understood space and spatial anomalies more than Maria. But he let them fight it out.

"I don’t know why I can’t work in security. I can take you down."

Michael just snorted. Maria and explosive rounds? Wasn’t going to happen, not on his watch.

"Helm? I’m a great pilot with an excellent sense of navigations."

"Like the Torsaian Nebula you took us through last week?"

Maria made a face. Bitch, bitch, bitch. "It was fascinating, and it only damaged a few of the forward shields. I recorded some real interesting stuff. Wait until I finish my analysis."

"Max isn’t going to let you pilot the Shiva."

"Max..."

Max didn’t even bother to look up from his reports. "Keep me out of it."

"Getting Max to take your side is useless. He knows better..."

"To step in the middle of one of your squabbles." Max finished. "Maria, I’ve got a report about your lab being left open. Did you leave it that way before you left on the last mission?"

"No." Maria frowned. "Dammit! It must have been Sean again. Bastard! He keeps scavenging my components for his damn engines!" Maria headed off to go survey the damage and kill Sean. Point a finger at her husband, "We’re not through with this yet."

Max turned and watched her stomp off in search of a certain hapless engineer. Max smirked and looked at his brother’s stormy face.

"Happy?"

Michael just growled. "Fucking ecstatic."

But in truth, he was. Life with the biggest pain in the ass Anterraan was nothing if not unpredictable and interesting. And when he felt himself getting all weepy, weak-kneed, and ready to spout poetry, she always did something to piss him off, and he recovered his moment of weakness.

Max just chuckled and went back to work. Surprisingly, Michael was quiet and thoughtful at his station as they prepared to engage Khivar for what might be the last battle of the Resistance.

"So, Max..." Max just made a sound in his throat without even bothering to look over at his brother, Hmm. "This pregnancy thing with a non-Attilaan, how does it work?"

"What, you want a diagram on how to do it?"

Michael made a face. "I think I’ve got the logistics. I just mean, is it different from a normal pregnancy?"

Max just laughed and shook his head. "It’s not going to work, M."

"What?" Michael tried his most innocent of looks which came off as being sly and devious.

"Getting her pregnant isn’t going to magically get her to settle down and do the housewife thing." Max snickered under his breath. "Women don’t get pregnant and suddenly know how to cook, clean, and want to stay home where it’s safe."

Michael just swore under his breath. He supposed not, but who said Max was an expert on women? The idea of Maria pregnant didn’t bug him in the least, but the thought of her and her pregnant body down on a planet in the middle of firefight made his blood run cold.

"She still wouldn’t settle with being left behind." Michael said in a burst of insight, swearing under his breath.

"Doubt it. Her title and position of Princess was more of a protector title and not Royalty. I notice she's still able to toss your ass around the gym on a regular basis."

"She cheats."

"Uh huh. That’s what Sean said the other night when she took half his winnings in poker."

Michael just laughed. "He’s right, she does cheat. She used her Anterraan tricks and switched cards with me!"

Max was laughed. "You didn’t tell Sean?"

Michael snorted. "No way in hell! Maria gets all excited and raunchy when she wins. It makes for great sex."

"You’re a sick man."

"I am."

~~~

"Dammit, Maria! Just tell me where you sent them." Maria just ignored the redfaced engineer and went to leave with her stolen components in hand.

"Nope. I told you to stop scavenging in my lab! This is retribution."

"An entire box of isolinear chips is not retribution. It is malicious and sadistic. I’ll have to waste valuable manpower to search the ship to discover where you pushed that damn box."

Liz was working at a console, trying desperately to keep a smile off her face, but a small chuckle escaped.

"Traitor, Lizzie. I damn well swear you better not be laughing at me!"

"No boss, not at all." Liz pretended to be looking at a watch she didn’t have. "Oh look at the time. Appears my shift is up." She put her hands behind her back and was leaving whistling lightly under her breath. No way she was going to spend the evening crawling through dusty ducts looking for Sean’s blasted chips that Maria transported away.

"Liz, oh come on! Don’t desert me."

"Sorry, I’ve got a date." Liz smiled when Jonesy came up to her and smiled.

"You ready, Lady Liz?" Liz nodded as the large dark man took her hand and led her out of main Engineering.

"I want her home early! She has work tomorrow!" Sean cussed under his breath. "Dammit, Ria, give me back my chips."

"If you promise to not steal from my lab again."

"I don’t steal. I creatively acquire."

Maria just snorted and went to leave.

"Okay, okay, dammit! No more acquiring from you unless I ask first." Sean ran a hand over his neck as suddenly a box reappeared. Damn Anterraan. All these women running around the ship was giving him indigestion. In the good old days he used to fantasize about having women on the crew. Now? Now they seemed to control the ship. They were like a plague.

"So how long has that thing with Jonesy and Liz being going on?"

Sean just snorted. "Forever! He blushes around her, dammit! It is sad. First I had him all, ‘my Princess’ this, ‘my Princess’ that, which he still does." Sean said in disgust. "But then one day he caught Liz when she almost took a spill off a ladder, and it was ‘are you okay’, ‘my Lady Liz’, and ‘Lady Liz’ said this, ‘Lady Liz’ said that...bleh!"

"I think it’s sweet."

"You would. Jonesy used to be one damn tough warrior and fighter. He could rewire an entire relay within seconds. Now you women have him all emotional and smiling for damn sakes." Sean just grimaced. "He better watch himself with my Immaculate. I might have to have a talk with him."

Maria laughed. Sean was taking his possessiveness of Liz a tad too far. He had started out finding her annoying, but over the months she had come to replace his sister in a way, and now he made sure no one abused her...except for himself.

Jonesy was another story. Towering well over six feet, large and muscular with dark skin, and dark eyes, he was from a warrior race much like the Attilaans. His people were the Anubis. He stood strong and tall with his hair long and in braids pulled back and tied. And like all the Rebels he was impressively covered in leather. Surprisingly he and Liz made a good couple.

"I think she’ll be fine with Jonesy. He seems more than just a bit smitten."

Sean just snorted again. "Hey, what’s the story with your other Immaculate?"

"Lonnie?"

"No, the cutesy little blond with killer blue eyes! I tried to chat her up the other day, and I swear she saw right through me. Tell me, Princess...am I losing my deadly charm?"

Maria just shook her head. "You, my slick-tongued friend, are as attractive as the day I first met you." Maria quickly decided the time was to leave.

Sean smiled in pride until it occurred to him, she never said just how attractive that was. "Maria? Hey? That’s good right? I mean you found me the most attractive of men, right? Maria?"

Sean looked around and noticed himself alone, again. Oh well. Smiling, he knew she was really in love with him. Who wouldn’t be?
~~~

"Princess."

Maria looked up from her work inside a console. Her main router and holographic modulator were on the fritz. More than likely due to a certain curlyheaded engineer’s removing three major components.

"Tess, call me Maria, please. You’re no longer an Immaculate, and I’m no longer the Acolyte de Prin’c."

Tess smiled. "Maria." She stopped smiling. "We reached the Escalari system. The Royal Alliances are hiding in a gravitation field behind the nebula, regrouping and doing battle plans."

"I heard. My intentions are to be in one of the first waves." Maria looked up at Tess. "Of course, I’m sure my grumpier half will have other plans for me." The woman wasn’t smiling. "Is there something?"

Tess picked up a tool, and set it down.

"I need a favor."

Maria nodded. Tess never asked for anything. She was very quiet while learning everything she could, but she kept herself apart for everyone. The only person who seemed to touch her, or get any response from her was Kyle.

"If I can."

"I need a small fighter craft. The fleet is regrouping and will attack in the next four days. But before the battle, there is something I need to do."

"Don’t do it, Tess." Maria said quietly.

"I have to. You know that." Maria closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, Princess. You know it is what I need to do. It's very much like you walking away from the love of your life, your husband, to risk death to destroy the Granilith. It was the right thing to do."

"You wish to die?"

"I wish resolution...a respite...some peace for my people who never had a chance."

Maria understood that. She acknowledged that she and Tess were in many ways the same. "I’ll clear it with Michael."

"Thank you, my Princess." She turned to leave.

"Tess!" The woman stopped but did not turn. "May the journey’s end find you peace."

Maria watched the young woman leave, and sitting on the edge of the console, she buried her face in her hands and cried.

~~~

"Kyle."

Kyle was working at his desk when Tess entered. Smiling at her, he quickly went somber. No.

"Tess..."

"I’ve come to say goodbye." She sat on his lap, and ran her hand over his face.

"Don’t go. Stay. Mend. Heal with me."

Tess kissed him. She had slept in his bed for almost six months. They were two wounded birds finding a comfort in each other, but he still loved his estranged wife, and she had no heart with which to love.

"You have two hearts to my none. I can’t. But I thank you for all the nights that you lent me one of your hearts, so I could feel you."

Kyle just grabbed her face and searched it. Her pain was too great. The hatred in her soul and the unreleased anger were too much. For a time she seemed to be at peace, usually in the early mornings when they would lie in bed and she would tell him all the things she learned while studying history and events. She made him laugh with stories too wild to believe, but when day finally came, she changed.

"Promise me something?" she said as she kissed him.

"What?"

"Go home to see your wife and your children when next time you are home."

Kyle just shook his head. "I can’t. They are protected from me."

"Five years in a long time, Kyle. You’ve grown much stronger living on a ship with all these mentally active people. I think so much has changed in you, and you haven't noticed."

"Perhaps." She was right. He was able to block out so many of the crew now, and perhaps those blocks went both way. "But I can never return home to stay. And there is where they belong."

"Too much war?"

"Too much everything. It’s like eating a rich food for so long, and suddenly settling down to plain broth for life. My world is wonderful, but in a word, it's boring. It lacks challenges."

"Perhaps they will want to relocate with you to Karnak? And you can see them between jobs and runs."

"I doubt it."

Tess shrugged. "You’ll never know unless you ask or try."

Kyle rubbed his face into her neck and held her tight. "Tess, I don’t want to lose you."

"Nor I you. But you’ve given me a lot of peace, especially at night when I was feeling alone. That is always why I’ll love you forever. But this thing in me, it needs to be fed - to find an end to the journey."

Kyle pleaded with her, "Please just let it go!"

"I can’t. You knew that. Think of me from time to time." Tess kissed him one last time and then quickly left.

Kyle sat there stunned, powerless. Finally he left his medical bay to find Maria. She was still sitting on the console, no longer crying. But when Kyle entered she looked up, and he saw the tracks of her dried tears. She quickly went to him, and he hugged her tightly. Crying against her, Kyle closed his eyes and wished Tess well.

~~~

It was over three days before Tess could intercept an Imperial fighter that finally took her prisoner. She watched in the back of the transport as the Octavian became larger on the viewscreen. Khivar. She was going home to her tormentor. The torture he visited on her was like an aphrodisiac to her hatred of him. In the final hours of the oncoming battle, she wanted to watch his pain and feel his death as her own.

"So it seems after all these months, you are mine again. My Immaculate."

Tess looked at the man in pure hatred. "Nothing Immaculate about me any longer. My job was over before I left this ship the last time, the day I helped the Rebels take the Granilith from your evil grip."

Khivar backhanded her with his closed fist. Tess lay on the ground laughing. Looking up at him, she wiped the blood from her mouth.

"I would think you could do better than that, you evil fuck."

Khivar picked her up by her throat. "I can and I will. I will wreck you until you can scream no more. I want to hear you beg!"

Tess just spit in his face. Khivar tossed him to a guard. "Take her to my quarters, I’ll deal with her shortly."

His Captain stopped him. "My Lord, intelligence informs us of an imminent attack by the Rebel fleet. Our location has been compromised. I suggest…"

"I suggest you hold your position and defeat whatever comes within our domain. I’ve got unfinished business, and do not wish to be disturbed."

~~~

It was the sound of full alert that pulled Khivar from his pleasure. Sitting up in the bed, Tess moaned in pain next to him. Reaching up, she pushed him flat onto the bed, and despite the protest of her body straddled him, holding his shoulders down.

He smiled up at her, his eyes brilliant and wicked. "Never suspected that you would enjoy pain so much." His hand moved up her back that was raw with the beating she had taken from his strap. Her blood was still flowing.

"Do you hear that, Khivar?"

He just shrugged. "They will not save you or end my use of you anytime soon. I find I like what you have to offer. My forces will take out your little Rebel friends easily."

"Your overconfidence has always been your greatest weakness. But you’ll never see the end of this war. My people demand revenge, and I am she who cuts the thread."

Khivar’s hand went up to hold the back of her head, hard. "You talk too fucking much! You want to use that mouth? Then use it on me." He cruelly pushed her head down towards his groin, but when she was even to his neck, a blade that she had been holding between her teeth all this time came out of her mouth. Tess swiped the sharp blade across his neck, slicing away his carotids and jugular.

Sitting up on him, she looked down, her mouth and naked front covered in his blood as his hands reached for her throat, his breath spattering more blood on her. Spitting the blade from her mouth, she watched him slowly die as his heart pumped all the blood from his body.

"You didn’t think I’d let you live?" she said softly as his last breath left his body as a death rattle.

Tess slowly crawled from the bed, her body so weak and bruised, her legs could barely hold her weight. Her back hurt almost as much as the rest of her. He had raped and beaten her for hours, but she held on until the moment she knew that the attack was upon them. Pulling a sheet from the bed, she went to a table and poured herself some wine. Standing at the porthole she watched the battle and waited to die. She could all but hear her peoples’ voices calling her home.

~~~

Michael was surprised when for once, when Maria decided not to be part of the battle stayed on the Shiva. She waved him off, as he took the Zephyr into battle with his attack force.

Standing on the forward observation deck, she watched the battle rage as the destruction of Khivar’s fleet beneath the might of the Royal forces came to pass. Quietly standing next to her was Kyle.

"She’s on the Octavian with Khivar." Kyle said.

"I know." Maria held his hand in comfort.

"She didn’t have to do it."

"Yes, she did." Maria moved in closer to him and put her arm around his waist hugging him hard. "The torture wasn’t what he physically did to her, but what she felt and watched as he blew her world to bits. Revenge was all she could feel, all she wanted."

Kyle nodded. "I loved her. She was a gentle thing with a broken heart."

"I know. He made a mistake. He broke her heart, but never her spirit."

They stood watching as the Royal fleet went in, and from a safe distance they saw the Octavian blown to bits when her reactor core went critical.

At that moment Kyle simply turned and hugged Maria, crying. Tess had finally found peace.

~~~

Isabel was lying in bed against Max. His hand was rubbing her pregnant stomach, smiling when the children under his hand moved.

"They’re active today."

Isabel just made a snorting noise. "They’re active every day. You just don’t notice since it’s not your bladder they’re dancing on."

Max laughed, and played with a few strands of her hair. "Not much longer."

Isabel moved her hand over her stomach as well interlacing her fingers with his. Picking up the letter, she continued to read.

"Lonnie has sent us yet another long list of names she thinks would be good for the babies."

"Did she get passed the ‘H’s’ in the alphabet? The letters full of ‘B’ names was worrying me. But I really can’t even imagine naming one of the babies Horus."

"No. She up to the ‘J’s’ now. Though I can honestly say that ‘Jezebel’ is not an option."

Max just laughed. A few months back, they left Lonnie on Karnak. She and a few members of the crew were slowly creating a site for a new capital city below the ruins of Karnak and the protected Temple that belonged exclusively to Maria and Michael. The planners of the new city were busy preparing for the Royal government to take control, now that Khivar was defeated and the war was ended. All that was left was a few Imperial holdouts, but it was all but over.

Michael, Sean and Max went home to Attila for a freedom ceremony, and all of them were uncertain how their home world would handle Michael’s marriage to Maria, and Max with a very pregnant Isabel. To disarm them, Michael and Maria wore full regal attire and Max even dressed up with Isabel on his arm, ever the Lady. Alex attended in full Eminent dress. They looked impressive. Sean? Well he looked like he had slept in his warp core, but it didn’t matter since he didn’t make it all the way to the ceremony. He was distracted by young ladies on the side, and stopped to tell them of his many adventurers as the Savior of the Universe.

They stopped at the local jail on their way back to the Shiva to pick up Sean who had been detained for drunk and disorderly conduct and fixing a game. His mother was visiting her son in jail, sitting in her usual chair.

"We got a letter from your mother today."

Max just moaned. "Make Michael and Maria read it first. It’s their turn."

Isabel just laughed. The twins' mother was a hard read at most times. The Shiva had returned Attila’s treasures from the Saratoga, and despite mating and breeding outside their species, Michael and Max found themselves welcomed back to their world. Breeding with the sister of the only Eminent One, and marrying the only remaining Anterraan Princess made them nothing if not more notorious, when added with their roles in the liberation of their people. Max was still trying to adjust to his mother wanting them to come home for a visit. It took Michael pointing out that this situation made their mother also notorious. She spent her days bragging about how her sons were coming home with their alien mates.

"Is she still trying to harass us into marriage?"

Isabel quickly scanned the letter. "Actually she’s getting better. She only mentioned it sixteen times in this one. There is the usual bastard children and stuff to make her point."

Max picked up her hand and kissed her hand, sucking a finger into his mouth. She wore his ring, one identical to one he wore as well, but they had yet to settle on marriage.

"You want to get married?"

Isabel smiled. He was ready to be married. The war was over and with it went Serena and a lot of baggage he had carried forever, but now it was Isabel who wasn’t in any hurry. Their relationship was just fine as it was, and she figured that one day it would happen in a spontaneous romantic gesture.

"Max, I met your mother."

"Dammit, I knew it! Michael warned me. He said if I didn’t marry you before you met my mother, that you’d never marry me."

Isabel just laughed.

Max continued, "We’re scheduled for some off time on Karnak. How about we get married in front of our friends and family, and we force Michael and Maria to take us to the Temple so we can honeymoon in the past?"

"I’ll think about it. But I was thinking of waiting until the babies are born. Then when they're keeping us up at all hours of the night, we suddenly get married and force Michael and Maria to babysit them while we go on our honeymoon for a few weeks. Then I’ll be able to see my feet again - and no interruptions."

Max made a thoughtful face. Her plan had merit.

"I like. Just the thought of Michael trying to figure out how to change diapers fills me with extreme happiness." Max smiled at the sound of Isabel’s laughter and reached over her to answer a hail from the com system.

"Yeah?"

"Captain, we’ve just received a message from Agape. The Eminent child is being born."

Max looked at Isabel. "Inform Alex and set the course. Let's make it there in time, Sam."

"Already done, Captain."

Max disconnected and looked at his mate. "Looks like you’re soon to be an aunt." Max calmly handed her a tissue.

"Damn hormones!" Isabel gave him a watery smile, and reached up and kissed him.

~~~

When they entered the birthing rooms of the hospital in Damascus, Alex was a basketcase, pacing and moving about in nervous energy. Isabel tried her best to calm her brother down. Maria laughed slightly when things on tables within Alex's range went flying. His powers were just a little out of control.

Kyle came back from down the hall with his father, Jim. They were both smiling. Jim was dressed in surgical greens, and Kyle had changed as well.

"Come on, Alex. You’re just in time. They’re on their way." Jim slapped Alex on the back, and led him to a room where he could change.

"Is everything going well, Kyle?" Isabel asked wringing her hands.

"Fine. Everything looks good."

"You’ll let us know, right? I mean...immediately?"

Kyle reached over and squeezed Isabel’s hand in reassurance. "It’ll be fine, Izzy. You’ll see. It won’t be like last time."

Isabel tried to believe and swallow her worry, but Alex had suffered terribly when his daughter died last time. It was hard to imagine he would survive losing another child, especially not on top of losing Kathleen.

~~~

"Okay, Amy, just one more push...really big. Bear down!"

Amy blew the hair from her eyes and concentrated on delivering a ten pound cow. Jim stood next to her on one side and Alex on the other. Kyle was also in the room waiting for his new sister.

The first baby was a girl. She wasn’t quite ten pounds, more like six pounds and four ounces, but she felt bigger. Amy lay back and rested, getting ready for the next one. Alex’s son.

Jim was all smiles as he cut his new daughter’s cord and placed the baby on Amy’s stomach. Her hands quickly moved over her child counting fingers and toes and connecting to her empathically. Birth was scary for empathic children. It could leave them traumatized. At one moment they were connected to their mother, and the next moment they were alone. Their newborn brains were too small to find and re-establish a connection. Jim and Amy quickly joined to their newest addition and named her Saoirse.

Alex’s hand came to rest lightly on the crown of her head. The closest his son would have to a sister. Thanking her for sharing time with his son, he wasn’t surprised to see her eyes open and fix on him with clear awareness.

"Amy, we’ve got work to do. The other baby is ready to be born." Amy nodded at her doctor as the contractions started again increasing in severity.

Jim kissed Amy and took Saoirse with Kyle to check her out while Amy was delivering Alex’s child. Saoirse was a miniature version of Amy, and Jim’s smile grew as he gazed at her.

"What did you and Mom decide on for a name?" Kyle asked, as he cleaned his new sister and checked her health.

"Saoirse. We’d chosen something different, but because of the end of the war and Khivar we decided that Saoirse was more appropriate."

Kyle nodded. Saoirse, pronounced 'SEER-sha' meant 'freedom'. "It’s a good name. She was born free." Jim laughed and patted his son on his back.

Alex hadn’t realized he had held his breath when Saoirse was born, but he had. He drew his breath in again and waited for his son. They didn’t have to wait long. Eoin was in a hurry to be born. Once separated from his wombmate, he suddenly felt alone.

Alex’s heart stopped as he held Amy’s hand with her nails digging in his hand. His son’s voice was loud and full of anger at being handled. Alex closed his eyes as the feel of his son, a familiar sensation that he remembered from carrying him, washed over him. It felt like Leena.

"Open your eyes, Alex. They want you to cut the umbilical cord." Alex looked at Amy. Her eyes were kind, and gentle. She nodded to the doctor. He was waiting. Alex’s hand shook as he cut the cord that held Eoin bound to Amy, and when they handed him his son, he couldn't see anything except Leena’s beautiful blue eyes.

Kissing his son’s head, he gently laid Eoin on Amy’s stomach, as he reached down and kissed her cheek.

"Thank you." She just smiled at him, and looked at the little boy she carried for all those months.

"There you are. You are very much wanted by your father and his people, little one." Amy ran her fingers over the baby, still feeling the connection stronger than she felt to her own child. This child was strong, stronger than she had ever encountered. "He’s beautiful, Alex."

"Is he all right?"

Amy nodded. "He is perfect. Have you decided on a name?"

Alex looked at his son, unable to take his eyes off him. Distracted, he answered without thought. "Leena and I have decided on Eoin which means ‘gracious gift of God’, because he was a gift."

"Owen. That is a lovely name." Alex nodded at her correct pronunciation. Amy didn’t ask how a dead woman could help choose her child’s name.

~~~

Kyle walked the long path through the City’s garden. Damascus was as beautiful as he remembered, but even with its beauty, it held little for him any longer except as a place to visit his family. There was nothing here for him. As a doctor he would be one of many - undistinguished and not really needed.

On the Shiva and on the new world of Karnak, he was necessary. He had a place. It was a harder life, fraught with hardships and hard work, but there he could make a niche for himself.

Coming to a nice home set back from the main roadways, he stood at the door waiting. The woman who answered his knock was taken aback, and for a moment they stood facing each other in silence.

"I can’t read or feel you."

"Meghan."

"Kyle, you’re visiting your parents?"

"Yes, my mother went into labor, so I came home for the birthing." Kyle was keeping his promise to Tess, and it was as hard as he suspected it would be.

"Why can’t I feel you?"

Kyle shrugged. "I’ve been living with people who are evolving mentally, and I guess it’s true that I’ve learned to block out their thoughts and emotions. The block goes both ways now."

Kyle’s wife of fifteen years stood aside, and gestured for him to come in. "You want to come in and...talk?"

"I just want to see my children, if that’s okay. I promise to leave if..."

"That would be fine." Meghan moved to let him in, and when he passed her, she reached out and touched his shoulder. It hurt her when he actually flinched from her touch.

Meghan went to get the children as Kyle studied their pictures in the room. They had grown so much in the last five years. The youngest, Shane was only three months old when he last saw him. His daughter, Page was now ten with his eldest son, Liam almost thirteen."

"Dad?" Kyle turned at the sound of Liam’s voice. He’d just turned eight last time Kyle saw him. Taking a picture he had, Kyle went over and looked at the picture of the boy he knew to the young man his son was becoming. He moved his fingers lightly over the features of his son’s face. He looked almost exactly like Kyle did at his age. Reaching out, Kyle drew his son in a full hug.

Jim came looking for him hours later. Meghan was watching her husband and children playing on the lawn. Shane wouldn’t let go of Kyle's legs. She laughed through tears as they were all dogpiled on top of their father, and all she could hear was their laughter and squeals as he chased and played with them.

"I thought he would be here."

"How long, Jim?" she asked quietly.

"The last two years. Both Amy and I haven’t been able to read him since he came home two years ago. He finally learned to shut the door. At times I could feel him searching for information, anything that would tell him about the children, but he never asked."

"Why didn’t he tell me, or come by?"

Jim sighed. He didn’t want to accuse or place blame. "Did you write, Meghan? Have the children written? Or even bothered to send him pictures of them as they were growing? Even if you didn’t know where he was, we did."

"I..."

"You were angry. You were punishing him for not being the man you married, for letting the horror he lived through touch him. Two hearts. He was born with two hearts. How was he to ever let it go?"

"It was just so hard, Jim. When he came home six years ago, we tried. I tried. I became pregnant with Shane, and during all that time I almost miscarried. Liam and Page were waking up in fright, screaming and crying. And when Shane was born he rolled up into a little ball and went into shock."

Jim squeezed his shoulder. "I’m not denying you were protecting the children, Meghan. They’re my grandchildren. I love them. But you could’ve made him part of their lives, even if it was only by long distance."

Meghan nodded. Tears fell as she watched her childhood sweetheart and the only man she had ever loved play with their children, and she couldn’t even feel him.

"He’s shutting me out."

"He shuts us all out. He came home a walking wound and instead of healing him, we exiled him. He has no reason to trust us back into his heart."

Meghan cried and buried her head in Jim’s chest. He stroked her back and stood watching his son.

"Tell me. Just tell me how I can get him back."

"I don’t know. He came home after three years with all his shields back up, and though polite and familiar, he doesn’t really even let me and Amy in. The betrayal he feels from you must be greater."

"Jim..."

"Try talking to him. Offering him a way back in, and then just be patient."

~~~

Kyle looked up when his father walked towards them. The children saw him first.

"Grandpa!" Except for Shane’s paw-pah’s echoing his older brother and sister. Jim smiled and kissed them on the head gathering them close.

"Dad."

"Thought you’d be here."

"Is everything okay?"

Jim nodded. "Your mother is resting and Alex is staring at his son. The others are looking around and settling down for a small visit. Max decided that you could stay for a couple of weeks so Eoin could be breastfed for at least that amount of time and then weaned."

Kyle nodded. That would be for the best. The baby would feel a connection to Amy. Pulling them apart would be traumatic to both of them.

"You look good, son. How about I borrow these scamps and take them for a quick treat to see their new aunt?"

Liam frowned. "I want to stay with dad."

Kyle and his father made eye contact and then Kyle smiled at his son. "I’m not going anywhere, Liam. I’m here for a couple of weeks." Liam remained unmoving. "I promise. I’ll still be here until you return."

"But..."

"It’s okay. I’m not going to just disappear again."

"Promise?"

"Absolutely." Kyle watched Jim take the children with a skeptical Liam staring back from time to time.

"He’s afraid of losing you again." Meghan said as she came up behind him.

"He won’t." Kyle started picking up the toys they had tossed around the yard.

Meghan just sighed. "I’m glad you’re home."

"I’m not. This is no longer my home. I don’t belong."

"You’re just going to walk away again? Just like that?"

Kyle slammed down the toys he was picking up. "I didn’t just walk away. I was escorted away, shown the door and helped off this world. Dammit, Megs, what do you expect of me? I sent you credits over the years, provided..."

"You’ve been very generous." Everything they had, he paid for. She stayed home with the children, and Kyle sent them enough that they lived more than comfortably.

"They’re my children. This isn’t 'generous'. This is what I would have done either way."

"I know." Meghan looked away and swallowed hard. "I can’t try to talk to you if you won’t let me in, or refuse to meet me halfway." She looked at his angry eyes and stubborn face. "Or just a few steps."

"You divorced me on a world that knows no divorce! A fucking restraining order to keep me from my own children like I was a monster! How many steps do you want exactly?" Kyle rubbed his neck, and looked up at her under his lashes. "A letter from them, or even pictures so I could watch them grow? Anything." Kyle tossed a toy across the lawn. "How many lovers did my credits support?"

"There have been only a few in the last five years, but they meant nothing to me."

Kyle laughed bitterly. Isn’t that what they always said? "I can’t say the same. Women, lots of women. The last one was almost for six months, and she meant a lot to me. Her, I loved. She needed me. I wasn’t a scarred monster to her, but someone who was compassionate and deserving of love."

"I see." Meghan was starting to feel him. She felt his anger, his hate and his distance. The idea of other women hurt, but she had freed him, sent him away and left him alone when he needed her the most. "You loved her."

"I still do. I always will. She died recently, and I still mourn her."

"And me?"

Kyle looked at her. "I have two hearts. One heart loves you and will always love you. You’re my wife in that heart from now to all eternity. My other heart hates you, hates that you deserted me, that you tossed aside everything we were."

Meghan sat on the table. Looking at her hand that was devoid of her wedding ring for all these years, she looked over the yard and properties that she bought with the credits he sent.

"Where do we go from here?"

"I don’t know. You could start by writing me letters, sending me communications, letting me see my children and having them with me on their breaks."

"On the Shiva?"

"There, and my new home on Karnak."

"Karnak? You’re settling on Karnak? Why not just come home?"

Kyle shook his head no. "This world has no place for me any longer. I’ve been too far, seen too much and lived too hard. It is a nice world, but it is dead to me."

Meghan came to him, ran her hands up his arms and ignored his gesture of trying to elude her. Leaning into his body, she closed her eyes and kissed him. But he remained unyielding.

Putting her away from him, he just rubbed his face. "I can’t. I can’t just leave one woman’s bed for another, not even if the woman was my wife. I owe Tess some loyalty, some time to mourn her loss. I’ll not replace her with another immediately."

"At least tell me there is a chance."

"There was always a chance. But now it’s all about time." Kyle went to wait in the front for his children to return. "I won’t be easy."

Meghan watched her husband walk away. "You never were," she whispered softly. Some things had to be worth a fight. He had taught her that.

~~~

Alex watched his son nurse. His eyes were sharp and watchful, waiting for signs that Eoin would be as his sister had been - slowly crushed under the weight of being born an Eminent One.

"He’s fine. Perfect, daddy. You can stop worrying." Amy said softly. Her hand moved over the fine dark hair that was so much like his father’s. "He’s healthy. He’s nursing well, and he seems to remember you as if you were always there."

"He feels the separation from Saoirse."

Amy nodded. "They both feel it. They always will." Eoin was finished nursing so Amy handed him to Alex.

"He is so tiny."

"He’ll grow. Isabel is dying to help you take care of him."

Alex laughed. Isabel wanted the practice. "She needs the experience. Her lot is going to be much heavier with twins on the way."

Amy reached over and feathered her fingers on the gentle down of Eoin’s head. "He talked to me while I was carrying him. If his vocal cords were more mature, he’d already know how to speak."

"What do you mean?"

"Images at first. But it was as if he was probing me, searching for you, and in the process learning all I knew. He’s above this Universe, Alex. You know that, right?"

Alex held his son tight to him. "He belongs with me."

"He does. But a child such as this, the product of two Eminents, how will he fit?"

Alex sat in the chair next to Amy. She saw too much. "I will make sure he fits."

"Do you fit?"

Alex sighed and looked down at his son. "Not for a long while. Long before Pierce’s power became mine, long before Leena mated our powers to produce Eoin, and long before Eoin gifted me with a burst in evolution."

"You’ve been evolving all along?"

Alex nodded. "It was why Khivar wanted me the most, why he searched for my sisters. I was the most evolved of the all the Eminents. He didn’t know why, none of them did, but it was what it was."

"You’re like the Princess."

"No, I am something else. She is the template, the natural expression of what will evolve if there is enough time, but I am an oddity. A construct devised to cheat nature out of time, a shortcut. Maria remains stable and close to us because it is natural for her to be thus..."

"But you are not."

"No. I can feel my mind seeking pure thought. My son speaks to me as well."

Amy thought as much. Sadness moved over her face. She’d have liked to have watched Eoin and Alex grow up together into their roles of father and son, but something told her that they had another purpose.

"What will you do?"

Alex closed his eyes and rocked his son. "I do not know. But when it is time, I will know."

~~~

Karnak. They had stayed on Agape for almost a month until Eoin was able to be taken from Amy. She and Jim stood watching them leave with tears in their eyes and Kyle’s children at their side. Kyle promised his children to come to visit often, and that he’d back to take them with him on their breaks from tutorial.

Alex stood in his dark room watching Karnak become bigger and bigger. No more wars, no more battles. There was nothing but freedom and time to grow and live.

"He is so beautiful!" Alex smiled at Leena’s voice in his head.

"He looks like you."

"Liar! Except for the eyes and my excellent hands...oh, thank goodness! He has my ears!"

"There is nothing wrong with my ears, honey." Alex turned to see Leena lying on the bed playing with Eoin. "Is he able to see you?"

"Of course. He is my boy." Leena sat up. "You are getting strong. I can touch your essence in the waking now, and not just in the field of dreams."

Alex took her hand and moved it over his face. "You are so real to me."

Leena laughed. "Your Maria could explain how nothing is truly lost, merely transformed."

Alex lay down on the bed next to Leena, bring their son in between them. Their hand joined together over him.

"I think we should have more just like him."

Alex chuckled with his eyes closing as he stroked his son’s back into sleep.

"You would be needing to have your head examined."

"Me? You are the one talking to a ghost."

"Touché."

~~~

"I don’t know why we have to take all these people to our special place." Michael tried to locate his belt, but it wasn’t anywhere to be found. "What did you do with my belt?"

"Nothing. It’s exactly where you left it."

"Maria..." She pointed to the belt still attached to their bed. Michael smiled wickedly. "Oh yeah!"

Maria just ignored his come-hither look. They were already late.

"Alex wants the Monks to bless Eoin and perform his naming ceremony. You should be honored that we are to be named his godparents."

Michael finished looping his belt and was cinching it. "That’s just another way of saying he’s going to drop the kid on us to babysit."

Maria sat down on the bed quickly, her face losing some color. "You don’t think?"

Michael smiled cruelly at her. "Max and Isabel plan to do the same thing, and Maria...? Theirs will be twins."

"Oh god! Michael, we need to relocate!" Maria didn’t mind babies, not really, as long as they were someone else’s. The idea of parenthood terrorized her. She was barely able to find her shoes, and in her wake was a swath of disorder. She’d probably lose any child in her care.

"I take it you don’t want a baby?" Michael asked casually, but carefully. Her answer was important to him.

"A baby? Any baby? No." Michael’s eyes darkened and his face closed down. "But I do want your babies." Maria moved up to her husband and reached up to kiss him long and hard. "Just not today, or even tomorrow. Someday soon, when we’re ready and after I enjoyed having you to myself. I have so many places to go with you, Commander. So many adventures. Time is a fluid thing. We have lifetimes of it to make all the babies you want."

Michael kissed her hard. He wanted time with her too. The fear of losing her was still too close to the surface. At times, he woke in a panic and searched the bed beside him for her touch. They had blinked together across time and space, entering worlds that had died and worlds to come, all in a wink of an eye. In all that time they were blinking it was only a day in real time, but thousands of years to him and Maria as they tried to find something...anything...to anchor them. Max. It was finally the amulet, his amulet that he had given Max, the one identical to the one that Maria wore, that kept them returning. It was his link to his twin that allowed them to finally stop blinking.

Had he not gone with Maria he would have lost her for all eternity. So, he’d change a few blasted diapers for his brother. He owed him that much.

They climbed the stairs to the Temple of the Sensei, and walked through the portal. The group gasped at the change in activity, the peace and beauty. Once again the dark skies were lit with the torches of Monks lining the walkway leading to the Temple.

O’Jah was waiting for them at the altar, the same one where Michael and Maria were married.

Michael whispered to Alex, "Whatever you do, don’t hold a sword or let them brand you."

Alex just nodded stoically at Michael’s sage advice, but he met the amused eyes of Maria with a twinkle in his own.

"The child of two that is one. You bring him to the Temple."

Max started. Alex’s prophesy. He had thought it meant Michael and Maria, but it was Alex and Kathleen who had merged.

Alex looked at the man, and nodded. "Yes. He is Eoin, born of two Eminents who melded as one in the Great Understanding."

O’Jah gazed at the group before him. Isabel stood with Max, Lonnie, and Liz. Sean and Jonesy were at their side. Kyle was quietly standing with Michael and Maria.

"Who are those who can call his name?" Michael, Maria, and Kyle stepped forward. "Do you offer him up to this world, to a path that will be his destiny? Do you freely offer him a place in your hearts and souls, should he need refuge?"

They all three agreed in unison.

"Then kneel." They complied as O’Jah took a knife from a sheath, and cut Maria’s hand, Michael’s, and Kyle’s. Their blood dripped into a goblet of wine. Michael swore silently. He should’ve known. These Monks were heavily into slashing skin.

"The door swings both ways. A father and child, who have no bodies to this world. Time is watching the clock as it runs forward and back."

O’Jah handed Alex the knife. Alex sliced his own hand and added his blood, and took his son’s small hand, and cut a small slice on his palm. Quickly he added Eoin’s blood to the mixture and drank, then he dipped his finger into the mixture and put it in the baby’s mouth. Handing the goblet to O’Jah, he took his son’s cut hand and put his mouth to it in comfort.

Maria was the first to drink, and she passed the goblet to Michael, who drank and then gave it to Kyle.

"Let you be the witness, as the door opens."

Alex suddenly turned and smiled, closing his eyes. Eoin also seemed to hear what the others could not.

"You hear the words that are spoken in silence?"

Alex nodded. "My heart hears what is not uttered."

"She calls."

"Yes." Alex’s felt his heart open, the same feeling he felt when he first held his son.

"The Great Path waits for any man who is prepared to make the journey."

"I have walked this path for many years, but never alone."

"And your son?"

"He is born to the Great Understanding. It is there he belongs."

"The truth has many faces. An honest man knows that his life is his own, and that all sacrifices are but steps along the way. Do you walk this path of your own free will?"

Alex nodded. O’Jah bowed to him. Alex turned back, holding Eoin to him closely.

"It is time for Eoin and I to go. We wanted you here for the ceremony, so you all could celebrate our journey."

Isabel and Lonnie both shook their heads in disbelief. Isabel gripped Max’s hand hard.

Max looked at his friend and partner of over six years. He knew that Alex was right. Eoin would grow to strengths beyond their understanding, and Alex was already becoming a source of fear to those who couldn’t comprehend his absolute power.

"Will you be all right?" Max asked his friend and surrogate brother.

Isabel squeezed his hand hard. "No, Max. Make him stay!"

Alex walked over to his sisters and kissed them both, hugging them close as they kissed their nephew.

"We will always be with you. Just a door away. Michael, Maria and Kyle can call us if you need us. And I will visit you often in your dreams."

Lonnie was for once subdued. "Where are you going, Alex?"

"Home. Leena is waiting. She calls to me."

Alex stopped next to Maria, and stroked her cheek. "Princess. Your journey had many travelers. I wish you a long walk."

Maria smiled through her tears as she quickly kissed Eoin on the head, and Alex lightly on the lips.

Alex’s head went to the side as he heard the voice calling to him again, and he walked the few steps up into the sanctuary beyond the altar as O’Jah stepped to the side. In an opening of light, Alex stepped through, and the doorway closed.

"Kel’ rah Tehl,’" Liz said softly. The others looked at her in confusion.

"Ascension," said Maria.

~~~

They sat in a great hall with a large stone table filled with food and wine. It was the celebration dinner for Alex’s and Eoin’s ascension. Everyone was quiet and not very jovial, feeling the missing presence of their friend and brother.

"So this ascension... It doesn’t mean death, right?" Lonnie asked. She needed reassurance that Alex and her nephew continued to exist.

"Right. It means they now exist on a different plane of reality. Perhaps a plane that intersects ours in places, and as easy as stepping through a door, they can move back and forth."

Lonnie frowned at Maria, tearing her bread in her plate to pieces. "I don’t understand. If they can exist on both planes, why go? Why leave us?" Tears chased down her face, and she wiped them away.

Isabel was choking back tears as well, and rested against Max who was rubbing her stomach. Her out of control emotions were affecting the babies. They had hiccups.

"He chose to ascend because of Eoin. Eoin is highly evolved, and his chances of ever remaining or stabilizing in this dimension were doubtful. He’d be a source of fascination, or an opening for another monster like Khivar to rise. Alex chose to take him to a place where he is like the others. Like the other Eminents, and where his mother exists."

Kyle looked down at his cut hand that was wrapped in a cloth. Alex chose him because of his mother’s gift of carrying Eoin to term, and Michael and Maria because they retained the ability to shift, and thus were closest to Alex and could easily access him.

"Your people, Maria. They ascended?"

"Some. Like O’Jah and those like him."

"So Alex is like O’Jah, somewhere out there?"

Maria understood Lonnie’s need to understand, but the concept was so much more than that.

"No. O’Jah is a specter. He is a remnant of his former self from over a thousand years ago. Time is overlapping. It co-exists with itself over and over again. If you could travel back into time as we did, you would meet the remnants of those who passed. It is like a fingerprint in time. O’Jah can interact because he is ascended, and his ascended self and his fingerprint co-exist within the same space, so he lives on."

"So my brother isn’t a ghost, a specter who needs a physical place to come back?" Isabel asked, her curiosity was growing with Lonnie’s.

"No, Alex is something else. He’s a higher life form now. Very much real, very powerful, and very much beyond us. He can come and go as he pleases, but he has chosen a place where his child can exist free from harm, fear and prejudice. He has chosen a place where his child is a norm and not a an oddity."

"So you could do this on any world? Go back in time and visit its past?" Sean asked as he reached for more wine.

"If we had the technology."

Sean bobbed his head as he ate more meat. Tasty animal. He and Michael would have to go hunting.

"Which you do. So you could go back in time and tell yourself not to do things, or correct mistakes."

Maria laughed. "No. That is time traveling of a different kind. This is stepping back and seeing images, specters that have no real consistency. You can visit, but change is impossible. What has gone before, remains."

"But you take physical materials from the past and send them forward."

"True. But many of those things were from a future time, merely stored in the past. Physical materials do not alter over time, unless they are subject to decay, and even that can be overcome. But human flesh dies, and that is not so easily preserved like a piece of metal."

Liz swatted Sean’s hand away from her plate as he tried to take more food from it. "So can you visit your people? Those on Anterra?"

Maria became quiet, and then shook her head no. "A fingerprint in time needs a physical realm or reality that holds it. Karnak has these Temples. Anterra lost her physical realm when she was pulled apart in the black hole. There is no recovery possible, so all she was is lost, save these Halls and Temples of Knowledge that once was that of the Ancients."

Max warmed to the discussion. Maria was telling them a history lesson of her people, a people of mystery. For centuries rumors and legends had risen about the Ancients and the Anterraans who could walk across space in a wink.

"The Ancients, you once said, brought Anterra here using the Granilith."

Maria laughed as Michael tossed a bone at Sean, but she answered Max’s question. "They did. They transferred the entire world through the Great Barrier and then closed the rift behind them. They thought this universe was a younger version of their old one, but after hundreds of generations, they lost solidity. Their choices were three. Ascend, mix with the native inhabitants of their new solar system, or blink out of existence. They chose many paths, those who ascended like O’Jah, and those who mated with others of this solar system which resulted in a movement backwards from the evolutionary advancements of the Ancients."

Max frowned. "So they purposely de-evolved."

"Essentially. Much of what the Ancients were was lost because the newer generations couldn't understand or comprehend the complexity of it all. So the leaders of my world quickly built these Temples and transferred all the remaining knowledge of the Ancients here before it was all forgotten. That included the information and knowledge of the Granilith."

"How could they settle for stepping backwards?"

"Their original home was polluted. Destroyed by them, due to lack of insight. They messed with their genetics, much like Khivar did with the Eminents. They ripped apart the very fabric of their own universe until the movement of Anterra was their last hope of survival. It was a horrible shock to realize that they couldn’t return home, and they couldn’t survive here as they were. This universe selected against them, and they were fast becoming extinct. So they took a step back and de-evolved, basically did a huge cosmic ‘do over’, this time letting nature slowly evolve them in a process that was more natural."

"Then it was good that your people, the Ancients created the Granilith that saved them." Liz said.

Maria laughed. "Actually, they did not create the Granilith. It was brought to Anterra by a group of aliens in their old universe. These aliens stayed and melded into the Anterraan cultures, becoming hybrid and melding their genetics with the indigenous people. It took centuries upon centuries for those we now call the Ancients to learn how to use the Granilith as a transport devise. It has in its history always been abused, misused and sought after. The Ancients before they learned better where a barbaric race full of hate, greed, lust, and almost anything you could imagine as their war like ways forced them to evolve to save themselves. They learned to let go of all the most hideous of vices and to expand themselves to a betterment of their worlds and those around them. Unfortunately, the damage was already done. They used the Granilith, and understood it would forever be a tool of misuse and a guest for power. For that reason the office of the Acolyte de Prin’c was created as a guardian, a failsafe."

"But they found a way to use it. To save themselves." Kyle said softly.

"Yes. Of course when Anterra was transferred to this universe, they felt obligated to change her name. The prefix ‘an’ was added to denote ‘another’ Terra. It seemed fitting for a new universe and a new name."

Michael was tired and he wanted to go to bed, but only after they kicked everyone out of their place. It was time to send them packing back to the Shiva.

Max as usual, was the hardest to take a hint. He ignored his brother’s gestures to wrap it up and go away.

"So Anterra was once just 'Terra'?"

Maria pinched her husband for his rudeness and laughed at his response. Leaning down, she kissed him and stroked his face. Wherever Alex had gone she hoped he was finally happy with his family. He, Kathleen and their son.

"No, it was once called Earth."

THE END