Chapter Text
When her phone flashed with a message, Maria almost ignored it. Alex, her best friend since grade school, kindest, sweetest, smartest friend, was missing and while he was possibly being abducted, she was making eyes at his man.
Her other best friend, Rosa, was also back which threw her emotions into overdrive and also made her want to smoke something to relax a little. She may be a bit psychic but no one can see the future if that future should be impossible.
Point being, she had more importantly things to worry about than that guy Jared finally texting her back. When she finally shut down for the night and checked in on Rosa and the gang, she felt as useless as she had when her mother was diagnosed.
Everyone was on edge and all of them had spent the last few nights at Isobel's house seeing as it had the most beds and comfy couches to crash on after all their brainstorming and communication prototypes failed.
Maria was just about to flick the switch to turn off the neon sign after staying late to finish the payroll when her cell pinged a text from Jerod. She scoffed and then almost dropped her phone when she realized the text above his was Alex's.
Aliens on way to Pony play crazy maybe good guys but looking for pod squad play it safe.
It was a crazy text but Maria got really good at interpreting his messages since the start of high school when Alex's dad started reading them so they had to use soft codes and lots of reading between the lines.
They wanted crazy, well for Alex, she'd give them fucking nuts.
***
The Pony's neon was still on even though they had closed over an hour ago. Alex had to hope that meant Maria had got his message and they weren't about to get jumped.
He had seen the three aliens move and while he was sure his people would put up a good fight, these were trained soldiers and his people just had gusto, guts, and lots of luck on their side.
The three aliens seemed to be sniffing the air like bloodhounds, Alex assumed hoping to feel the resonance of another of their kind, but all three deflated and then pulled themselves back together all within seconds of entering the Pony.
Maria was behind the bar rubbing out glasses in a deliberate way she never did. It was a message to him: she was ready. She smiled at him soft and reserved and so very unlike her. He wanted to hug her but figured that might be pushing his luck.
"Hey Maria," Alex kept his voice soft. He was happy to see her.
"Alex. What do you need from me?"
And wasn't that a loaded question. He needed a hug and his best friend back. He needed Micheal and Maria but not together. Right now he needed her tremendous acting skills.
"She is not a man," Roe pointed out. Alex had been hoping their differencing use of pronouns between their language and English could be overlooked but Roe was a trained soldier. Alex had to be the same.
"Yeah well I was in kind of a stressful situation when you interrogated me." Maria flinched but Alex just shook his head. Her rushing to defend him was commendable but it could get both of them killed. "Maria here knows about that sparkly glass, right?"
"If by that you mean I know where it comes from, not really, but I know where I found it. Why are you asking?" She played off the very weird scene of the four of them like they were just a few roughty college kids who drove down from Albuquerque for the night and might cause trouble. She had already pinned Roe as the one to watch out for, Alex could feel it, and it made him want to smile.
"We are looking for more things from the crash. Do you know of anything?" Maria ran her tongue across her teeth and Alex hoped he told her enough to know how to play it. He just needed these aliens off his planet.
Alaxa had said they came to Earth every few months to restore water for their ship, it wasn't like he was depriving Michael from his chance to leave, he just knew that they were war-hardened and jaded and might not give Isobel and Max much of a choice when it came to who was staying and who was going.
"My mom owned this bar before I did, she got all the locals and by extension, all the local stories." God damnit she was good. There was a reason her palm reading business was still making bank and that was because Maria could read a room like a fucking champ. "Some guys came in a few years back with a few things they took from deep storage at the base they were stationed at. I knew Alex liked that sort of thing and he paid me a pretty penny to take them off my hands."
Rath looked angry at the dead end Maria had led them down but Roe was watching her with a sharp glare Maria returned. She had been mind controlled by an alien only weeks before but never let it be said that Maria DeLuca took anything sitting down.
"Did these men ever mention anything about pods?" Roe cut to the quick.
"What, like with aliens inside? No I think they might have left that part out," Maria made a joke about it and that seemed to cement the feeling of asking a line of pointless questions.
They backed away from the bar and Maria took her cue and puttered away over to the far side of the bar to fold napkins. Final step, convince mind reading aliens to leave and come back when he was running on more than two hours of sleep.
"Perhaps it is better this way," Roe straightened her shirt and ran her fingers over where her belt would normally rest. "It's like Rath said, if the Three were here they might have been driven insane by the pods or even killed by the people who scavenged their ship."
She had made that connection before Alex could even recommend it to her. Rath reached a hand out to comfort his second-in-command and they shared a sweet headbutt.
"I'm not much, but I am Rath. We will figure something--"
The door to the bar was yanked open and Kyle walked in, his face flushed from running and followed by Liz and--
Michael.
"Alex!"
Everything went to hell in a handbasket in the space between a heartbeat.
Rath's spear slammed into Kyle with a meaty thud. Alex screamed as Kyle went flying back into Liz and they both crashed into a table and didn't get up from where they had sprawled.
For the first time in over a year, Alex wished desperately for his crutch if only to have a heavy object to bash someone over the head with.
He reached over the counter and grabbed a thick bottle of bourbon instead and brought it down on the head of Baldy. Roe would have been ideal but she was on the other side of Rath, who had turned to him in shock.
Alex refused to feel ashamed about the betrayed look Rath wore.
Michael always had a masochistic streak a mile wide and a rattlesnake's temper. Watching as Rath eyed him without an ounce of mercy in his eyes, he wondered if that anger was a Rath trait Michael might have been born with, and not something beaten into him by a faulty social services system.
"Alex!"
Michael had blasted Roe back and Maria had jumped the counter and pulled one arm of Roe's behind her back as Isobel held the other. Kyle was still not moving but Liz was up pulling a bundle from her bag.
Michael was in the middle of the action now, gun raised at his doppelganger. Rath had his knife in his hand.
Alex had the thought that this must have been surreal for them both. Michael hated his own reflection and Rath saw the person he was never good enough to be. The only outcome either could see would be beating the other.
"Stop Michael!"
Alex threw himself in Michael's path. A gun would do shit to Rath but piss him off.
The room went still for a fraction of a second before Roe headbutted Maria and kicked Isobel off. She reached out and put a chokehold on Isobel, cutting the connection Isobel must have been attempting to make. Alex wanted to help but there was a sudden pressure against his neck he realized fairly quickly was Rath's knife.
The knife Rath had showed him in confidence, the one thing that proved he was good enough.
"Don't do this Rath," Alex was a codebreaker not a negotiator, but he would save himself just to take that punch-drunk expression of Michael's face.
"You know him, this whole time you played us for fools! I trusted you!" Rath pressed harder in anger and unintentionally nicked his neck. Alex tried to regulate his breathing to avoid cutting himself further. His blood felt warm on his chest and pulled a thoughtless cry from him that was echoed by Michael. That angered Rath more. "You knew where the three were this whole time, and you wished to what? Protect your government?"
"My friends Rath. I was trying to protect my friends," Alex tried to make his voice sound soft. Roe was watching with wide eyes, it seemed even she was surprised at Rath's outburst. She still had a tight grip on a slack Isobel's arm, as if she might lift her over her shoulder and run off with her.
"Drop your weapon!" Rath screamed and Michael let his revolver clatter to the floor. He was watching the slow trickle of blood stain the neck of Alex's shirt with wide, horrified eyes.
"Rath--" Talking hurt but he tried to force something out. Rath took it out of his hands when he pressed his hand to Alex's mouth to silence him.
Alex felt his blood start to boil.
His father used to press him face first into walls and then use the disorientation to spin him around and smother him while he made demands. A covered mouth meant Alex was robbed of a voice he hadn't used freely since he was a kid.
Fuck that.
Alex took a breath and sucked his neck in. He kicked out and caught Rath's knee, using the momentum to twist his arm and dislodge the knife.
Alien or not, his arm shot out instinctively to pinwheel to balance himself and Alex used the seconds to curl his fist, center himself, and deck him.
Roe raced past him leaving Isobel collapsed on the floor where Maria had jumped the bar to crouch down with her. Rath was watching him with wide eyes and a disbelieving look on his face. He dabbed at his split lip like he'd never seen it before.
Alex'd had a few in his life time and he hoped Rath's stung like a bitch.
"I just wanted to go home, asshole!" Was the eloquent response Alex could think of. He could still feel his neck bleeding sluggishly and wondered where Max was and if he could heal that for him. The leg was too much for most people, a slit throat might be taking it a step too far.
Michael was at his shoulder when his feet seemed to go out from under him. He steadied himself and watched Rath eye the knife Alex had forgotten he was holding.
Even with his hair pushed back from his face, Rath looked so much like Michael it tied his stomach in knots. He had nightmares where he stood over a hurt Michael holding a weapon, though in his dreams it was normally a hammer.
Roe eyed Michael and Isobel. Alex knew that she knew. Alex also knew when playing dumb just got someone more pissed off and judging by their faces, Rath and Roe were about ready to snap.
"You wouldn't give them the option. You would have just dragged them into a war that wasn't theirs to fight. I couldn't let you." It's not his most elegant speech but he hoped it could get his point across. Alex was a soldier and so were they. All soldiers got tired sometime. "You want to stop that tyrant, gather your forces and plan for some guerrilla warfare, don't place all your chips on some mythical saviors to come and save your asses!"
"There must always be a Three!" Rath had blood dripping down his chin and Alex had to hold himself back from rubbing it away. His upper lip was trembling like a lost child.
"Says who? The Three?" Alex laughed. He punched an alien clone of his booty call, his night was fucking weird and he was not a victim nor an idiot. "You said they were powerful, right? Well you are Rath. Go do it yourself."
Alex knew he was being harsh, could feel the way his words felt sharp coming out of his mouth. Roe looked shaken and Rath looked unmoored.
"Something I learned young, power is wherever you think it is. Go back to your planet and show the people the truth, show them they have options. That they have you." Alex stepped forward and Michael followed right behind him. He ignored the shaking tables to their sides but wondered for a split second which if the two was losing control of their powers. Maybe it was both.
"What if I'm not enough?"
It was so quiet Alex might have wondered if he had heard it if he hadn't seen Rath's mouth move. Alex sighed and slowly, painting his movements as deliberate and steady, twisted the hilt of Rath's dagger back towards him.
"If your people mean that much to you, you will have to be."
The others were circling. Baldy was standing beside Roe in a defensive position, but he was mostly eyeing Isobel who was being hefted up by Maira. Their combined glares looked as if they might raze the building. Liz looked remarkably put together and was pressing a hand to Kyle's side as if she was checking for bruising under his bulletproof vest.
Rath looked him in the eye and slowly reached out to take the knife and slip it into his belt.
Compared to the dramatics of his speech, the rest of the night was remarkably anticlimactic. Kyle and Michael followed Alex and the other aliens back to their ship. Liz joined them to demand answers on how the pods worked and how they could be used to cure people.
Alex learned Max was dead and Rosa was alive. Alex explained his time as an alien captive. His joke about being probed fell flat.
Roe seemed quite detached from the idea of death, explaining to them death was destruction of the physical pathways in the brain. Only then could someone not be brought back.
Rath remained quiet, walking at the front of the group and refusing to talk. Even Baldy answered some of Kyle's questions regarding space and its effects on the human body.
When the ship came into view, the humans became tense but Rath raised his hand and the hull glowed lightly then dimmed like typing in the code to a house alarm.
Liz seemed happy about her answers, Roe seemed determined, Michael seemed pissed off, and Rath seemed despondent.
Alex turned to watch as Michael exited his truck and when he looked back, Rath was in front of him looking softer in his billowing clothes.
"You could come." Rath said. It was quiet but he said it with conviction and an unwavering stare. "With me."
Alex could almost feel Michael's eyes on the back of his head and for a moment he almost wanted to be conflicted. Almost.
Alex smiled and leaned forward on his toes, pressing a kiss to the crown of Rath's curls, exactly where his circlet sat.
"You don't need me," Alex stated.
"Maybe I want you," Rath whispered. Alex had to smile at the smirk he wore, it was such a Michael thing to say. "I can be what he is."
"I don't want you to," Alex said immediately. His father wanted a lot of things from him and to accomplish those he was forced to change parts of himself. It felt like losing something important and knowing you will never be able to find it again. Rath deserved better. "Go save your world then come back and ask me again. It's like you said, who doesn't want to be royalty?"
Rath burst into laughter and it was exactly like Michael's down to the little catch when he laughed too hard he choked a little.
Telegraphing his movements, Rath leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to Alex's mouth, letting his hands cup Alex's damaged throat.
Before Alex could pull away, he felt a warmth and the tugging of torn skin was gone. Rath leaned back with his eyes still closed but a soft smile on his face.
"We are not worth you," Rath said and Alex was stunned into silence as they boarded their ship. Roe bowed and clicked her heels at Alex as she passed by and he knew it was her way of saluting another soldier and also her saying goodbye.
Rath looked back once and Alex refused to leave until the flare of their engines faded into a distant speck of light which snuffed out into darkness as it exited the atmosphere.
Michael sat with him, hand pressed to his knee as if to keep him grounded.
"You wanted to find your people and I found them first. How's that make you feel?" Alex smiled but Michael's eyes rested firmly on his throat where the knife had been pressed. He hadn't scarred.
"Who was he?"
Alex sighed and looked back up at the stars only partly to avoid Michael's eyes.
"The culture on your home planet was some real Star Trek shit," Alex huffed and it drew a laugh out of Michael. "They have all these ideas about what you need to be to lead. Rath just needed to get his ass into gear."
"Wrath? That was his name? What a dick." Michael scoffed and Alex couldn't help but rise to defend him.
"He's not that bad."
"He cut your throat."
"Sometimes we hurt the people we care about," Alex whispered. They were crossing into the unspeakable parts in their relationship and he could almost feel Michael pulling away from the conversation without even moving. Before Alex could even open his mouth to try and fix it and inevitably say the wrong thing, Michael leaned over and placed his head on Alex's shoulder. He stilled to avoid shattering the moment.
"You go away for a week and you already replaced me," Even with the joking tone, Michael's words tore like a bullet. "Literally with myself."
"Well the way I see it, Rath said there were thousands of Raths but there is only one of you. So Michael Guerin, you are one of a kind." Michael laughed and buried his head into Alex's neck.
He let his thoughts drift before they settled like silk on a question he'd forgotten to ask.
"How did you guys know where I was?" Alex asked. He didn't think Maria would have tattled. Michael just laughed and laughed harder when Alex shot him a questioning glare.
"Your phone popped up on Kyle's. On that app, Find my Friends." Michael seemed to relished the half-amused half-annoyed smile his explanation pulled from Alex. He laughed again, bright and clear in the New Mexico air.
Things were far from perfect. Rath and the others could be killed or fail, the man who killed Michael in another life could learn of their existence. Michael was still a trash can fire of a man but Alex wasn't exactly in a stable state of mind either. His dad was still a problem and he knew his brothers were out there doing unspeakable things to innocent people.
Those were tomorrow's problems.
Tonight, Alex smiled and let his head relax onto Michael's curls, watching the stars flicker softly above them.