A New Beginning

2

It took a moment for Liz to realize where she was. She looked around as the room seemed to take form, to solidify.

She was standing alone in the band room. Waiting. For Max.

She was excited. Nervous but excited.

Max was going to meet her. It was a secret meeting, and the thought thrilled her for a second. Guilt rose up. Kyle couldn't know. He wouldn't understand.

She didn't understand yet, herself, but she was sure that Max would explain it to her. He would explain what he had done to her. How he had saved her. How he had mag- ically healed the gunshot wound in her stomach.

How he had brought her back to life.

Liz realized she should be afraid of Max, but she wasn't because she loved him and he loved her.

No.

Not yet. That would come later.

She was aware of that contradiction, but it didn't trouble her. The logic of dreams made it all perfectly clear.

And this was a good dream. Liz would not question it.

Max was coming and he would explain everything. Then she had something to tell him.

After a few moments of waiting, he entered the room. Liz could see his perpetually serious expression soften for a moment when he saw her. Something flashed in his eyes and across his face. Liz was sure there was no single word for that expression, but she knew it was good.

She was also sure that something similar passed across her own face.

Then Max's control was back and his expression grim. "Liz, we need to talk," he said simply.

It was then that Liz realized that she didn't want to talk. There had been too much talk. Three years of discussion. Three years of worry.

A voice inside her said, None of that has happened yet. You are not with Max yet. You are with Kyle.

It was easy to push the voice down. It was even easier to lean into Max and kiss him. He responded immediately.

Of course, he was her… boyfriend. The word seemed much too small for what he was to her, but it would have to suffice until… until what? Until that changed, sometime in the future. Not the future of the dream, Liz realized, but the future of her waking now.

Even in her dream state, Liz was aware of the difference between her dream reality and the reality that awaited her when she woke up.

It was another contradiction that didn't trouble Liz as she kissed him more deeply. He pulled her to him.

They were done with questions, problems, and issues.

Finally, they had found their answer. Liz was sure she had found hers, and she held him tightly.

Her awareness shifted to the real world, which she felt hovering above her like the surface of the water when you were under it. A hand brushed her cheek. Max's hand, she was sure.

The touch was a like an electric shock. She felt the room shifting around her. She also felt Max slipping out of her arms.

When the world solidified around her, she realized that he had disappeared.

No, not exactly, she realized.

Taking in her new surroundings, Liz saw that it was she who had disappeared. There were lockers on both sides of her.

I'm in the hallway of school, she thought. Immediately, Liz realized that she didn't want to be here. Something was wrong with this place.

Liz started to run, trying to find her way back to the band room, where she sensed Max was waiting for her.

She tried every door she found, but they were all locked. Though the classroom doors all had glass panes, she couldn't see inside any of them.

We're running out oj time, a voice that Liz dimly recog- nized as her own rose up inside her.

Finally, she came to a single door with a light on inside. "Max," she called out as she peered inside. The single fig- ure inside the classroom was not Max, though.

It was Alex.

But Alex is dead, she thought.

Pulling on the door, she saw that it was locked. Alex obviously heard her and turned to see her. He looked at her calmly and expectantly.

Liz pulled on the door with all of her strength.

Alex will help me, she thought desperately. He will help me find Max.

But the door wouldn't budge.

We're running out of time, the inner voice yelled.

Turning, Liz looked down the hallway. At the very end she could see the door to the band room.

Her legs felt like jelly, but Liz made them work through sheer will. Soon, she was racing down the hall at full speed and somehow finding more strength to go even faster.

Max is behind that door, Liz thought, but the door receded, even as she approached.

Then there was a flash of orange light that threw Liz to the hallway floor. When she looked up, a wall of flames stood in front of her, blocking her way to Max.

Then she sensed something behind her. A monster, the inner voice said. And this one's real.

Turning to look, Liz saw something coming for her, rac- ing toward her… across the desert.

Liz barely noticed the change of scenery.

She had to get up. She had to do something.

But her peripheral vision caught sight of something on the ground nearby. It was Max. He was holding someone, Michael, who was lying on the ground.

Michael was hurt, she could see. No, not hurt, the inner voice said.

Max put Michael gently to the ground. As he did, he moaned. It was a terrible sound that told her without a doubt that Michael was much more than hurt. It was then that Liz saw another figure beyond and partially behind Michael. Though Max was mostly blocking the figure and it was not… completely intact, Liz was certain that it was Isabel. And that she was also much more than hurt.

Max got to his feet. He was wobbly, unsteady. He turned slowly to look at her and the site of her seemed to steady him… to give him strength. He gestured vaguely to Michael and Isabel. And she nodded that she understood.

Somehow, she found her voice. "It's coming, Max," she said, pointing behind him, from where the thing, what- ever it was, was coming. "You have to get out of the way”

Then Liz realized there was something odd about Max. "Liz, you look different," he said, speaking her own thought about him out loud.

He was different. He wasn't the Max who waited for her back in the band room. He wasn't even the Max who was sitting beside her in the van, up above the waterline of her dream.

This Max had not happened yet, and would not happen for almost fifteen years. Nevertheless, he had come to visit her. She and Maria had called him Future Max. He had come to warn her once.

Now it was her turn. "Max, behind you!" she shouted.

He held his eyes on her for a moment. She saw all the pain and grief in his eyes. And something else. Something just for her. Then she could see that he was determined. He would fight for her. He would give everything for her.

It won't be enough, the voice inside her said.

Darkness was racing toward Max as he steeled himself and lifted his right hand. Liz didn't need her newfound ability to see the future to know what would happen next.

She felt it, from someplace older and deeper than the source of her new powers.

"NO!" Liz screamed.

She didn't want to be here. She wanted to wake up, but she sensed this was not a dream. She didn't want to watch what was about to happen. Liz found that she could not even close her eyes. She watched Max steel himself from the darkness that was flying toward them now.

When the darkness was almost upon them, energy flared from Max's hand, and a green defensive shield appeared in front of them.

It's too big, Liz thought. Too strong.

She knew she had to do something. She had to help Max, but she knew it was already too late. Then the dark shape reached the shield and tore through it after less than a second's pause. There was only a moment now, Liz knew, and Max used that moment to fire a burst of energy into the darkness that swallowed it without even hesitating.

"NO!" Liz screamed as she watched the darkness tear into Max. Finally she was able to turn away, but she didn't need to see it to know what happened next. Whatever had raced into Max almost instantly tore him apart, and Liz felt him die.

Liz Parker screamed.

Liz was stirring.

She's having a bad dream, Max realized. No, not just a bad dream… a full-on nightmare.

As she tossed in her seat, Max considered waking her. He couldn't remember if it was better to let someone who was having a nightmare sleep or to wake them up.

Maria would know, Max realized.

"No!" Liz practically shouted in her sleep.

"Maria…," Max began, but he was interrupted by Liz saying, "Max, behind you!" Her voice was clear, and for a moment Max was certain that she had woken up.

Then she lapsed into unconscious moaning and twist- ing in her chair. That's it. That's enough, Max decided.

He reached for Liz. Maria did the same and said, "Hey, Parker.”

As they did, Liz let out a terrifying scream and pitched violently forward in her seat. "NOOOO!" she howled as she thrust her hands forward.

Her hands would have cracked into the windshield if it were there. But a burst of white energy exploded from her hands and shattered the windshield outward. Max slammed on the brakes and swerved the wheel as the van skidded.

He was vaguely aware that the blast that came from Liz's hands traveled down the highway. Hoping there were no cars in front of them, Max skidded onto the road's shoulder.

As soon as the van came to a stop, Max turned to Liz, who was wide awake and reaching for him.

"Max," she sputtered as her hands cupped his face and she studied him with a wide-eyed stare.

As someone opened the side door of the van, Max pulled Liz toward him. "It's okay, Liz," he said, fighting to keep the worry out of his voice.

"No," Liz said forcefully, pulling back from him. "It's not okay. Oh my God, Max, you died.”

She's terrified, Max thought. Completely terrified.

"No, I didn't, Liz. I'm right here," he said gently.

Max could see that Liz was fighting for control. She pulled him toward her and started to cry. When her sobs began to die down, he whispered reassuringly into her ear, "Liz, it was just a dream.”

Pulling away again, Liz looked at him with a new expression on her face. It wasn't fear this time. It was grief. "No, Max, it wasn't," she said clearly.