GONE FOREVER

Rating: PG 13 for violence, language, and some sexual stuff (nothing major). This story may turn R later, but for right now it’s PG 13.

Genre: Action/ romance

Pairings: Shalimar/Brennan, and Shalimar/original character

Summary: Shalimar joins up with the F.B.I. once again, but this time it’s a matter of national security. When she is assigned to help an elite force of mutants against a group of mutant terrorist, she has to make a decision on whether or not she wants to leave and go back to Mutant X or stay. Will Shalimar’s feelings for a man on each side make her choice more difficult? AFTER A Breed Apart!!!

AUTHOR’S NOTES: This story is very complicated, but here is goes. This takes place after A Breed Apart, and is a little bit of a sequel to the story Agent Fox. Ok this is where it gets complicated, in this story Shalimar and Brennan were not involved in Agent Fox. Also I used a name of a girl from my other story, but it’s not the girl from that story (One True Love). I just like the name, but it’s a totally different character.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Mutant X. Tribune Entertainment Co. owns the rights to these characters. But I do own any other characters. Agent Doug Kenna belongs to Hardyzandlitarule, and I got the story idea from the ending of Agent Fox.

Distribution: I don’t mind if anyone wants to put any of my stories on their site, just email me first and tell me you would like to put it on your site! Thanks!

Notes: Italics with [ ] indicate thought. Stars indicate time change or place.

Story by: Quest

Chapter 1: Called Back

Shalimar was blindfolded standing in the center of the dojo. She stood casually just listening to the sounds around her. She quickly dodged fists coming behind her; her feral instincts had started increasing allowing her to anticipate her opponent’s next move. Shalimar whipped her body around in a circle, wrapping her arm around someone’s waist, throwing her opponent to the floor.

“Jesus Christ Shal! Are you trying to kill me?” Brennan asked lying flat on his back.

Shalimar took off her blindfold off and smiled sweetly at Brennan. “ME never!”

They had been getting closer and closer ever since Gabriel had taken Shalimar. Brennan had blamed himself for her capture and still couldn’t admit to her that he had feelings for her. They had almost kissed twice but were interrupted by Gabriel and his group The Strand, and then by Emma.

“I hate your new ability, I never win,” Brennan explained still on the floor.

“You never won even before my new ability,” Shalimar told him as she stuck her hand out to help him up.

“True,” Brennan said with a grin as he accepted Shalimar’s hand.

Shalimar pulled him up hard and Brennan came up too fast, his body slammed into Shalimar’s. She started falling backwards, but was caught quickly by Brennan’s strong arms and brought up close to his body. A shudder rushed through Shalimar’s body as she looked up at Brennan who was smiling down at her.

He brushed a piece of her hair away from her face. There was a long pause where they just stared at each other. Brennan leaned down slow, he was afraid to touch her lips knowing they would probably get interrupted or that she wouldn’t kiss him back. Without warning Shalimar wrapped her hand around his neck and brought him into a passionate kiss.

Shalimar broke from the kiss as she heard footsteps coming closer. Adam soon came down the stairs and the two moved away from each other. “Hey Adam,” they both said with a smile.

“Hello. Shalimar can I see you for a moment?” Adam asked, motioning for her to follow him.

“Sure Adam,” Shalimar said wondering why she was the one being called. Adam turned around and headed back to the lab. Shalimar followed behind Adam leaving Brennan standing alone in the dojo. She turned around and gave Brennan a big puppy face, mouthing ‘I’m sorry’ before leaving, but not without blowing him a kiss. Brennan grinned watching her go, then left to go take a shower.

Shalimar entered the lab and took a seat on one of the lab chairs. Adam turned around to face her. “I got a call from Agent McKenna from the F.B.I. a few minutes ago.”

“Really!” Shalimar said with a little excitement, she enjoyed the last job he had her do.

“Don’t get too excited until you hear what’s involved,” Adam replied.

“Ok,” Shalimar said with a sigh.

“He wanted me to tell you that if you agree to take this job then you’ll have to leave right without saying goodbye to the others. You're not allowed to bring anything with you, and you might be gone for a long time,” Adam explained.

“How long is long?” Shalimar asked.

“It could be weeks, months, or even years,” he answered.

Shalimar looked down at her hands that she started playing with at the beginning of the conversation. “Do you know why he wants me?”

“All I know is that is a matter of National Security, and the rest is classified,” Adam told her. “You can think about it if you want.”

Shalimar sat in silence for a minute. “I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure about this?” Adam asked a little surprised.

“Yes I want to do it Adam!” Shalimar said with a strong tone.

“Ok then lets get going,” Adam, replied heading for the Helix.

Shalimar got up and followed him, “We’re leaving right now?”

“Yes, I told you no goodbyes,” Adam answered as they both boarded the Helix.

“I know, but I didn’t think you were serious,” Shalimar said sitting down in the cockpit with Adam.

Adam just smiled and punched in a destination, then leaned back in his chair and just stared at Shalimar. Shalimar couldn’t help but notice. “What?” She asked with wonder.

“Oh, nothing,” Adam replied.

“No tell me, what is it?” Shalimar asked again.

“I just hope you're not going to get yourself into big trouble,” Adam explained.

“Don’t worry I will,” She said sarcastically.

Adam couldn’t help but laugh as her comment. Shalimar turned around and stared at the controls. She couldn’t help but think about Brennan and their kiss they had right before she left, she was going to miss him a lot. She hoped that he wouldn’t be mad at her for leaving without saying goodbye.

Adam landed the Helix on top of the F.B.I. building; Agent Doug McKenna was standing near the door leading into the building. Shalimar exited the Helix first, Adam only came down off the ramp and stopped. Shalimar turned around noticing Adam wasn’t following her.

“Adam why aren’t you coming?” she asked him.

“This is as far as I go Shal, it’s all up to you now,” Adam explained to her. “Just don’t get yourself into to much trouble,” he said pulling her into a big hug.

“You know I will,” Shalimar replied with a small chuckle. “Tell them I’m sorry for not saying goodbye.”

“I will,” Adam replied.

Shalimar broke from the hug, “Especially Brennan.”

“Ok,” Adam said not wanting to get into Shalimar’s feelings towards Brennan.

“Thanks,” Shalimar replied with a small smile.

“We’ll be waiting for your return,” Adam said before turning around and leaving her all alone.

Shalimar headed over to Doug, she could hear the Helix take off but didn’t turn around to watch him leave.

“Hello Shalimar,” Doug greeted her with a smile.

“Hello,” Shalimar replied.

“This way,” Doug said then headed to the door with Shalimar right on his heels.

* * *

Brennan searched the whole Sanctuary for Shalimar, but he couldn’t find her. He saw Adam coming out of the landing deck. “Adam have you seen Shalimar?”

“She’s gone,” Adam answered in a serious tone.

“Ya sure whatever, so where is she for real?” Brennan asked not taking Adam seriously.

“No Brennan I’m serious she’s gone, and she might be gone for a long time,” Adam said again.

“NO Adam you can’t be serious,” Brennan said angrily.

“I’m serious Brennan, trust me she’s gone for awhile,” Adam said placing a sturdy hand on Brennan shoulder trying to get his point across.

“Then where’d she go?” Brennan asked.

“It’s classified Brennan,” Adam stated walking back to the lab.

Brennan grabbed Adam’s arm viscously making him look into his eyes. “It’s classified!”

“Brennan I can’t talk to you about it, all I can say is that Shalimar said she was sorry she couldn’t say goodbye herself,” Adam explained.

“AND YOU LET HER GO!” Brennan said furiously gripping Adam’s arm tighter.

“It was her decision to go,” Adam explained.

Emma and Jesse heard the commotion as the rounded the corner and saw Brennan gripping Adam, yelling at him. “What’s going on?” Emma asked with a strong tone.

“I’LL TELL YOU WHAT’S GOING ON!” Brennan said once again yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Brennan calm down, you need to take a deep breath,” Jesse said walking closer to Adam and Brennan.

Brennan listened to his friend and took a deep breath, then let go of Adam. “Shalimar’s gone.”

“Where’d she go?” Emma asked.

“Good question,” Brennan replied turning to Adam. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

“I’m not allowed to say, but I can tell you that she’s on assignment for the F.B.I. again,” Adam told them.

“The F.B.I. again, she almost got killed the last time. Why did you let her go?” Brennan said angrily.

“It was her choice to go, she knows the risks and that she could be gone for quite awhile,” Adam explained with a sigh.

Brennan was pissed off; he turned around and stormed off in fury to his bedroom.

“He just loves her, he’ll get over it,” Emma said out loud not thinking about what she just said. The other two looked at her confused, Emma’s eyes opened wide, “Did I say that out loud?”

“Ya,” Jesse said rolling his eyes at the thought of his two friends as a couple.

“But I sure he’ll calm down and be more level headed in the morning,” Emma explained before walking out with Jesse.

“I hope your right,” Adam softly to himself as he watched them leave, he hoped that Brennan would be more likely to talk without getting angry in the morning.

* * *

Brennan sat in his room at the edge of his bed. He ran his hands through his hair before lying back on his bed. He could only think about Shalimar and how he wanted to hold and kiss her again. Brennan wasn’t sure if he could handle her not being around; to talk to or spar with. He was going to miss her.

Chapter 2: Briefing

Shalimar was led to a briefing room; she took a seat that Agent Kenna offered to her.

“You know if you take this mission, then your not allowed to come in any contact Mutant X or anyone that you know for that matter.” Kenna explained. “If you do then it might jeopardize what you’re trying to do, it’ll be you never existed, you’ll be a ghost.”

Shalimar thought for a moment, “I understand.”

“Alright then. Do you know why I asked for you to do another mission?” Kenna asked her walking over to the end of the table.

“No not really. All Adam said was it was classified,” Shalimar answered.

Kenna placed his hand on the table, a computer screen and keyboard opened from the table. He types a quick code into the computer, activating a huge wall screen. “We’ve come across some encrypted messages from a Mutant terrorist group that we believe is planning to kill or turn the President,” Kenna explained bringing up the files on the screen.

“The President?” Shalimar asked in surprise.

“Yes, the President of the United States,” Kenna replied.

“But why him?” Shalimar continued her questions.

Kenna took a short pause, “He’s a mutant.”

Shalimar’s eyes widened, “Thee President, the one that runs our country?”

“Yes, he is a Psionic,” Kenna told her.

“What kind?” Shalimar wondered.

“A telekinetic,” Kenna said bluntly.

“Really?”

“Yes,” Kenna answered.

Shalimar shrugged, “Who would have thought.”

Kenna just gave a small smile. “So let’s begin with the briefing. We have had an elite group of special selected mutants trying to prevent a terrorist group on kidnapping the President. They have tried several times, and they are getting closer and closer to taking him. Are team has put together many photo’s of this so called terrorist group,” Kenna explained as he started a slide show of candied photo’s.

Shalimar watched carefully as the pictures were brought up individually on the screen. Her eyes widened as she saw a familiar face come across the screen. “Wait stop!” Shalimar told him.

Kenna did what she requested and stopped, “What is it?” he asked her.

“I know her,” Shalimar announced.

“You do?” Kenna was surprised.

“Ya. Her name is Kelly she’s a fire elemental. She’s also part of a group called The Strand,” Shalimar told him.

“I don’t believe we’ve heard of them,” he stated.

“You probably haven’t, their very secret and stay out of site,” Shalimar huffed, Kenna didn’t want to know so he pushed on with the briefing.

“Now here are your new teammates,” Kenna announced as he brought up five-face photos of the elite group. There were two girls and three guys. Kenna clicked on the first male bringing up his file, “This is Deacon, the groups leader and our top agent. You will be taking orders from him,” Shalimar was intrigued, the man was very handsome, with deep blue eyes and short spiked up brown hair with blonde highlights. “He is a Molecular, propulsion actually he has acceleration motion and speed; along with imperviousness, making withstand any physical penetration.”

Shalimar nodded in reply and Kenna continued, bring up the next file. “Lydia, she’s Deacon’s right hand man… or women in her case.” She had greenish hazel eyes, and dirty blonde hair down past her shoulder, “She is a feline Feral like you.” Shalimar smiled excitedly. Kenna went on, “Eliza an expert with weapon, from guns to swords. All I can say is don’t piss her off while she’s around any kind of harmful objects.” Eliza had green eyes, with light brown hair that was a little longer than Lydia’s. “Eliza is a very unusual mutant, she’s a illusionist the only one reported so far.”

“Really! What’s that?” Shalimar asked.

“She can project unreal images, memories, or attitudes.” Kenna explained then went on, bringing up a man with short blonde hair spiked up with blue tips, and baby blue eyes. “Ben is a master at computers, probably from being a telecyber. Allowing him to control computers or anything technological.” Shalimar was amazed at the types of mutants Kenna had on his team. “And Zeke, he can drive, fly, and fix any machine or vehicle known to man and some that aren’t.” Zeke had short dark brown hair that was combed down and forward, with steel gray eyes. “Zeke is what you call a geological sort of, he actually can control the weather.” The screen went black and Kenna turned to Shalimar, “So that’s the team, any questions before you actually met them in person?” he asked her.

“Ya, how long am I going to be on this team?” Shalimar wanted to know exactly how long she was going to be away from Brennan and her friends.

“It’s hard to say. It all depends on how fast we can stop their plan. But it should be a little easier to find them since you know one of the members,” Kenna answered.

“What’s their plan to be exact?” Shalimar asked confused that Kenna had not really explained what this terrorist group was actually planning to do with the President.

“Well were not actually sure what they are planning, we hope you can help find that out,” Kenna replied. “Ok enough of that, let me take you to meet our team in person,” Kenna suggested heading to the door.

Shalimar stood up and followed Kenna out the door; he led her down a flight of stairs leading to a parking garage. They climbed into a black dodge Neon and started driving away form the F.B.I building. Shalimar stared up at the sky; she could stop thinking about Brennan and the way he kissed her. “He loves me,” Shalimar whispered softly to herself with a huge grin on her face.

“What was that?” Kenna asked as he glanced over at her.

“Oh nothing,” Shalimar replied with a smile as Kenna returned his attention to the road. Shalimar turned her head back towards the window, “He’ll wait for me,” She said so softly that Kenna didn’t hear her this time.

Chapter 3: New Home

Shalimar was taken across the city into the outskirts, to an abandoned rundown warehouse. Kenna pulled up and parked behind a mound of scrap metal. The two got out of the vehicle and headed over to the half broken door. He flipped up a piece of the wall right beside the door; a red beam came out quickly scanning his eyes.

“Retinal scan recognized,” a computerized voice said. “Welcome Agent Kenna.” The door unlocked and slid open.

Kenna led Shalimar inside of the building; they went through a short corridor to another door. Stopping in front of the second door another voice rang out, “Voice identification need.”

“Agent Doug Kenna,” he said clearly.

“Voice recognized,” the voice said once again, and the door opened.

Shalimar was amazed at what she saw. It was a huge loft like apartment, a big living room, with a huge screen TV and couch’s and chairs, was the first thing she saw. Off to the right was the open kitchen that was connected to the living room. Then to the right was a spiral iron stairway going to the upstairs. Shalimar looked up seeing an open hallway that went round the upstairs, with only a railing on one side and many bedroom doors on the other.

“Whoa!” Shalimar commented not meaning to say it out loud.

Kenna just smiled at Shalimar comment, and started walking in. Kenna moved to another hallway off to the left, they moved by huge glass windows looking into a personal gym. Shalimar counted at least four people inside. Each one looked up seeing them enter the gym. Shalimar noticed Lydia the other feral come up first.

“Hey Kenna, what’s going on?” She asked referring to Shalimar.

The others soon came up beside Lydia, waiting for him to explain why he brought an outsider to their home. “Everyone this is Shalimar, the new team member I was telling you about,” he answered.

“Oh, nice to meet you,” Lydia said with a smile holding out her hand for Shalimar to shake. Shalimar took her hand eagerly, Lydia looked at her for a minute. “You’re a Feral?”

“Yup,” Shalimar replied seeing Lydia get a bit more excited. She looked at the other team member’s noticing they were all in their early 20’s.

Kenna turned to Lydia, “Where’s Deacon?”

“I think his in the training room,” she guessed.

“Alright. Can you show Shalimar to her room for me while I go talk to Deacon,” he requested.

“Sure no problem,” Lydia said as she and Eliza went to show Shalimar her room upstairs.

Lydia and Eliza took Shalimar to one of the rooms in the middle of the horseshoe like hallway. Lydia opened up the door and turned on the light to show Shalimar. Lydia moved into the room and over to the back wall to open up the blinds to two window’s, to let more light in. Shalimar couldn’t believe what she saw the room it was huge, but cozy. A big queen size big up against one of the walls, a desk with big oval mirror on the back, was directly across from the bed. In the corner by the desk was big soft looking leather recliner, with a reading lamp beside it.

“There’s a library down stairs past the gym, if you like to read,” Eliza told Shalimar, she just grinned.

Lydia walked over beside the bed to a sliding door, she opened it up to relieve a large walk in closet, that was full with many different types of clothes and shoes, to last over a year. Also inside was a whole panel of mirrors, where you could look at your self at each angle. Hung up on hangers were a large amount of black, brown, and tan leather jackets; some long like the ones she normal wore and then some that were short about to her waist. Shalimar felt like a little kid in a candy story, she could believe what she was seeing. Lydia saw the look on Shalimar’s face, “I knew you would like that.”

Shalimar nodded yes, “Very much,” Shalimar glanced around the room again and noticed another door off to the other side of the desk. “What’s that door?” She asked.

“Oh, that’s the best thing,” Lydia said excitedly jogging over to the door. “This would be your bathroom.”

The bathroom matched the room, huge. A large shower and bathtub combo was to the far left. In a far corner was the toilet and in the middle of the floor was European carpet. On the right when you first walk in was a big sink and counter top, with many drawers. A mirror paned the back of the wall behind the sink area, any many different sized towels were hung or folded near the sink and shower.

“This is amazing,” Shalimar announced.

“Hell ya,” Lydia replied with a small chuckle. “Oh we forgot to show you something,” Lydia said walking out of the bathroom and over to the door. “Everything in the room is voice activated, you don’t even really have to use the switches. So I’ll show you a few things.” Shalimar nodded and waited for Lydia to start. “Over head fan on,” the fan over the middle of the room turned on slowly, “Faster speed,” the fan sped up on command. “Remove blinds from skylight,” the computer followed out the order and a skylight appeared. “Open skylight,” Shalimar watched as the skylight opened letting in fresh air from outside. “Window’s open,” the windows on the back wall opened as well.

“I’m impressed,” Shalimar told the girls.

“That’s not all,” Lydia said with a sly smile. “You can return everything back to the way they were when you leave, all you have to say is ‘away stasis’,” as soon as Lydia said the command everything shut off and closed, even the lights. “The door even locks when you leave the room. Also to get into your room you have password or code, it can be either voice or keypad activated, both appear outside when the door is locked.” Lydia smiled, “I think that’s everything for the upstairs, we’ll show you the downstairs later. Any questions?”

“Ya, where are your rooms?” Shalimar wondered.

“Well Eliza’s room is right after yours, and I… well mine is the second room from the stairs, it’s also Ben’s room,” Lydia confessed with a blush, Shalimar couldn’t help be smile. “Zeke’s room is in between mine and yours, then Deacon has the first room from the stairs,” Lydia continued.

“And very bedroom is like this?” Shalimar asked.

“Ya just about, just things are moved around and more decorated then yours,” Lydia explained. “Okay, lets go down stairs and you can met Deacon,” Lydia suggested, and getting two nods yes she led them out of Shalimar’s room and down to the living room, where Ben and Zeke were watching TV.

* * *

While the girls were up stairs, Kenna had gone to see Deacon in the training room, in the hallway behind the kitchen.

Deacon looked up from his exercises at Kenna who was standing in the doorway. “Hi Kenna,” he greeted not breaking away from workout.

“She’s here,” Kenna said without answering his greeting.

Deacon stopped what he was doing and turned towards Kenna, “She agreed to help?” He asked walking over to him.

“Ya,” he replied.

“Does she know what she’s getting herself into?” Deacon questioned.

“Not exactly, but that will come with time,” Kenna answered.

“Time is something we don’t exactly have right now,” he stated.

“I know but she will learn quickly and she’s going to contribute a lot to this team,” Kenna explained.

“I hope your right,” Deacon wondered as he and Kenna walked back out to the living room.

* * *

Shalimar as the rest of the group looked up when they heard Kenna and Deacon enter the room. Shalimar finally got a better look at the team leader. She couldn’t believe it he was hot! He was a little taller then her, but not as tall as Brennan. He had a sweet smile and gorgeous eyes. Shalimar smiled when he walked up to her, as did he.

Deacon put out his hand, “Nice to met you Shalimar.”

“Like wise,” Shalimar replied.

“Well I guess I better go, before someone starts asking question on where I went,” Kenna announced once Shalimar and Deacon were done shaking hands. Everyone nodded in reply before he turned around and headed for the door, he looked back before exiting. “And Shalimar don’t get yourself into trouble, that’s Adam’s orders,” Shalimar flashed her eyes a bright yellow color, Kenna just laughed and left.

Everyone turned and looked at Shalimar. Shalimar felt kind of awkward with everyone starring at her. “So you’re a Feral,” Lydia said trying to break the silence, even though she already had asked the question.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she replied.

“Did Kenna show you our profiles, or do we have to go around and explain what we are?” Zeke asked as he and Ben joined the rest of the group.

“Ya he showed me everything, but I’m still not sure what you guys do,” she answered.

“Don’t worry none of us really know either,” Ben said trying to be funny.

Shalimar just smiled at him, he was pretty hot and seemed like he had a very good honest personality. She could see why Lydia had gone for him. Lydia was going to be a close friend, Shalimar could tell, not just because she was another feral but she was energetic and seem like she wasn’t the type to take shit from anybody. Eliza seemed more down to earth, like Emma which would be nice, so she could keep Shalimar inline like Emma had to do so many times. Shalimar couldn’t really tell if she was going to get along with Zeke or Deacon. Zeke looked like he wasn’t impressed that she was there, but on the other hand he could warm up. This was the first time Shalimar had met Deacon, but he seemed shy and kept to himself. But this was only the first day, she knew that everything would be different after a couple of day, and by then maybe she would know exactly what they were going to do.

“Lydia, Eliza why don’t you show Shalimar the rest of the downstairs,” Deacon suggested, snapping Shalimar out of her little trance.

“Sure,” they replied. The two led Shalimar over to the hallway behind the kitchen to show her the training room and lab/computer consol.

Zeke and Ben stepped closer to Deacon watching the girls enter the training room, “She’s hot,” Zeke, stated out loud, both Ben and Deacon looked at him in shock. “Did I say that out loud?” Zeke asked seeing their looks.

“Yup,” Ben answered.

“It’s true though,” Deacon agreed with a sly grin.

“Oh our fearless leader does notice the opposite sex,” Ben joked then broke out in laughter, along with Zeke and Deacon.

As soon as the laughter died down Zeke jumped at the chance, “So are you going to make a pass at her?”

“I don’t know, not until I get to know her first,” Deacon answered, getting rolled eyes from the other two. “What?”

“Oh nothing,” Ben replied and went back over to the couch to watch TV.

“Was it something I said?” Deacon asked Zeke.

“Never mind,” he said before joining Ben back over at the couch.

Deacon shrugged and walked over to join his friends.

* * *

Brennan could barely sleep that night; he tossed and turned never getting comfortable. Glancing over at the clock, he found that is was three o’clock and he had gotten any sleep. He could only think about Shalimar and how he didn’t know where she went or when she was coming back for that matter. It was bugging the hell out of him; he finally got up and headed down to the lab. The door lid open and he found Adam sitting at one of the computers working.

Adam looked up and smiled as Brennan came over and took a seat beside him. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“No all I could think about was Shal,” Brennan replied rubbing the back of his neck.

Adam sighed, “She’ll be back in no time.”

“I know, but I’m just afraid that she might get hurt or even…well you know,” Brennan explained hanging his head.

Adam reached over and placed a hand on Brennan’s shoulder, “I’m sure she’ll be fine, she can take care of herself.”

“I know that, I’m just scared that she’ll be gone for a long time and that she’ll stop feeling things that she might have had before she left,” Brennan sort of hinted.

Adam could tell where he was going, “Brennan,” his tone made Brennan look up at him. “I’m curtain Shalimar will not stop loving you even if she’s gone for a long time.”

“I hope your right,” Brennan said standing up.

“I am,” Adam replied with a smile.

Brennan smiled in returned before heading back to see if he could get at least a few hours of sleep after getting that of is chest. He turned around one last time before leaving. “Adam,” Adam looked up from his computer, “Sorry if I hurt your arm earlier, I just over reacted,” he apologized.

“It’s all right Brennan, I understand, you were just worried about someone that you care about deeply,” Adam explained, Brennan nodded yes in reply. “Night Brennan.”

“Night,” Brennan said then walked off to his room.

Chapter 4: Your Mission

Shalimar crept to the library, it was about one in the morning and she couldn’t sleep. Part of it was because her feral instincts were telling her to do something and the other part was she was thinking about Brennan too much. She turned on the light and started walking through the huge rows of books. She headed straight to the poetry section; she grabbed a small thin book and hurried out of the room. Shalimar went over to her big chair. Flipping open the book she started to read. It was one of Brennan’s favorite pieces of poetry. Soon her eyes started to get heavy and she fell asleep curled up with the book rapped around her arms imagining it was Brennan in its place.

THE NEXT DAY

Shalimar woke up the next morning around 5 o’clock; Shalimar normally would get up and start her morning exercises but this morning was different. She didn’t feel up to it, she just lied in the chair. Her body started craving her morning routines she struggled to her feet. Shalimar began with her stretches and then into her push-ups and sit-ups. She then went to her door still in her pajama bottoms and black tight spaghetti strap tank top. Shalimar usually jogged in the morning around Sanctuary, but this place was too small. So she went to the weight room to use one of the treadmills, seeing that she was the only one up.

She pulled her hair up in a ponytail and placed a set of headphones on. Shalimar started running, but it wasn’t the same. She missed the company of Brennan joining her on her jog. Her heart ached for him; she pushed herself harder and harder trying to run from the pain that was buried deep down in her heart.

Lydia came down the stairs awoken by the noise coming from the treadmill. She walked to the gym noticing Shalimar running as hard as she could. Lydia entered unheard by the other Feral. She could see the tears running down Shalimar’s face as she came closer.

Shalimar felt the presence of another in the room; she glanced over and saw Lydia. She shut down the machine and wiped her eyes, which were now puffy and red. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s alright, I heard you get up and do your stretches earlier. That’s the one thing I hate about being feline Feral, you hear every damn thing,” Lydia said trying to lighten the mood.

Shalimar cracked a small smile, “I know what you mean,” she replied wiping away another lonely tear.

“Do you want to talk?” Lydia asked hating to see her in pain.

“No I fine,” Shalimar answered gathering her composer.

Lydia didn’t push the issue any further. “Do you want a fruit smoothie, I was just about to make one?”

“I’d like that,” Shalimar smiled and followed Lydia out to the kitchen.

She took a seat on one of the stools around the middle counter, as Lydia went over to the refrigerator grabbing a bunch of fruit and the soymilk. Within a few minutes Lydia was pouring two tall glasses of the fruit smoothie for herself and Shalimar. Shalimar and Lydia talked for a half an hour, Shalimar explained to Lydia about Mutant X and without meaning to she told Lydia about Brennan and their starting relationship.

Ben, and Zeke walked down the stairs at the sound of laughter, as Shalimar entertained Lydia with one of her many stories of Brennan and his crazy stunts. “What’s so funny?” Ben asked as he came up behind Lydia and kissed her check before going to raid the refrigerator.

“Oh nothing. Shalimar was just telling me some stories of her friends,” Lydia answered.

“Meeting in five minutes,” Deacon said over the railing down at them.

“Ok,” they all replied as Deacon returned to his room.

“I hate it when he calls early meetings,” Eliza yelled from the railing over at her room.

“We know Liz,” Zeke said, as Eliza rolled her eyes at him and headed for the stairs.

“Come on let’s go to the lab,” Lydia suggested. Everyone nodded yes and followed her to the lab.

They were all standing around everyone still in their pajamas, and Deacon entered the lab, in his pj’s as well. “Alright lets begin,” Deacon said standing by a computer. “The President is going to start a year tour of the United States, now all we know is that the Mutant terrorist group wants the President dead or alive, by any means necessary. We have three cities where they might try to take him; New York, Austin, and Los Angeles,” he brought each city up separately on the computer for all of them to see.

“Ok, so if we have an idea of where they might strike, how are we going to get close to the President?” Shalimar asked after a long period of silence.

“Ya, I was wondering that to,” Zeke agreed.

“This is the fun part,” Deacon said with a smile.

“There’s more fun?” Ben asked in a sarcastic tone.

Deacon shock his head yes, “Kenna if having us go undercover as Secret Service agents to watch over the President.”

“Cool,” they all replied.

“All right Zeke, you’re the Presidents new Air Force One pilot,” he started.

“Cool I’ve never flown that kind of plane before,” Zeke stated with a huge smile, as he got nervous looks from some of his teammates, “was it something I said?”

Deacon just shook his head and continued, “The rest of us get to be agents.”

“Do we get guns and everything?” Eliza asked excitedly.

“Yes Eliza you can take you weapons,” Deacon sighed, and Eliza smiled. “Now the President know about the threats to him but he does not want to cancel his trip, so he requested us.”

“When do we leave?” Shalimar asked not wanting to leave another place so soon.

“This afternoon,” Deacon answered.

“Crap,” Shalimar thought.

“Are you serious?” Ben asked not very impressed.

“Yes,”

“So how long are we going to be gone?” Ben asked another question.

“It depends, but most likely until we catch them,” Deacon told them. “So go pack and we’ll get ready to go to Washington D.C.”

They all herded out of the lab and went to their rooms to pack.

* * *

LATER THAT DAY

Shalimar packed most of the clothes in her closet in three suitcases; she was not impressed that she had to travel around the country. She knew it was going to take some time to adjust. She wished she could have Brennan with her or anyone of her friends for that matter.

A knock came to the door, “Come in,” Shalimar told the person.

Lydia’s head appeared in the doorway, “You ready to go?”

“Ya,” Shalimar replied trying to pick up all three of her suitcases.

“Let me help,” Lydia offered as she entered the room.

“Thanks,” Shalimar smiled.

“No problem, I had Ben help me with mine to,” she stated making Shalimar giggle.

“It’s nice to have a boyfriend to do that for you,” Shalimar stated.

“Hell ya,” Lydia said as they walked out of the room and over to the stairs.

They reached the bottom in time for Deacon to come over. “Hear let me take one,” he offered.

Shalimar smiled and let him take one of the suitcases, “Where were you when I had to go down the stairs with these?” She asked jokingly.

Deacon just laughed, “I thought you were a tough enough girl to handle it yourself.”

Shalimar just elbowed him in the side as she and Lydia walked by, she thought about what she had just done. “Was I just flirting with him?” she thought to herself, “No I like Brennan, and I can’t to this to myself.”

Shalimar’s thought were seceded when she saw a jet that looked a lot like the Double Helix. It was a bit larger and more like a plane then the Helix, but it was just as sophisticated. Lydia led Shalimar up the ramp and placed her luggage in the very back of the plane. Deacon was the last one to board the plane; Shalimar couldn’t help but glance up and give him a small smile. He smiled back at her and took a seat at one of the computers.

“Where’s Liz?” Lydia asked.

“She’s still bring out luggage,” Zeke yelled from the cockpit.

Lydia just rolled her eyes as she saw Eliza stumble onto the plane carrying four bags of luggage, with the door closing behind her. “Enough clothes their Liz?” she asked her friend.

“Who ever said these where clothes,” Eliza said with a smile.

Lydia and Deacon laughed, as Shalimar stared at them in confusion feeling the plane take off, “So what’s really in the bags then?”

They laughing died down, “Weapons,” Eliza, replied with a shrug.

Shalimar’s eyes widened, Lydia leaned over a whispered in her ear, “If you think that’s amazing then wait until you see what’s inside the bags.” Shalimar was intrigued to see, but Zeke interrupted.

“Deacon where do you want me to land this thing?”

“Land this thing, we’re already there?” Shalimar was amazed at how fast this plane could actually go they had been in the air for only ten or fifteen minutes.

“Ahh…” Deacon thought for a moment before answering. “At the White House.”

“Are you serious?” Zeke asked shocked.

“Ya,” he said bluntly.

“So you want me to land this beast at the white house in the middle of the night?” he asked sarcastically, getting giggles from the three girls.

“No I was just joking,” Deacon admitted to Zeke.

Zeke just burst out laughing and Ben just rolled his eyes. “So where did you want me to land this?”

“At the airport, in the last hanger,” Deacon instructed.

“Roger that,” Zeke replied in a funky Robocop voice.

“I hate when he say’s it in that voice,” Deacon said giving Shalimar a smile. Shalimar smiled back and returned to her reading.

“Okay we’re about to land,” Zeke yelled.

Shalimar just felt a slight hover as the plane landed vertically. The engines turned off, then Zeke and Ben piled out of the cockpit to join with the others.

“Alright grab your stuff and lets go,” Deacon ordered.

The team filed out of the plane, Shalimar noticed Air Force One outside of the hanger. There were at least ten Secret Service Agents coming down the stairs from the plane. They fanned out as the President came out from the plane to greet them.

He smiled as Deacon walked up to him first, “Deacon it’s been along time.”

“It sure has,” Deacon replied, as the President pulled him in to a hug.

The rest of the team looked at each other, wondering if one of them knew what was going on.

“So Kenna told me about our little situation here,” the President told him.

“Ya that’s why we’re here,” Deacon replied pointing to his team.

The President nodded in acknowledgment to the team. “Good just do what you have to do and don’t mind the other Agents they’ll stay out of your way. Just make yourselves at home.” With that he turned around and boarded the plane.

Deacon turned to his team, “Lets go,” they walked up the stairs, and Deacon turned to Zeke. He pointed to the cockpit and Zeke nodded with a huge grin on his face. He handed his to bags to Ben and Lydia, then left.

Zeke entered to the cockpit to find two pilots already sitting there. The pilot a young man just about the same age as Zeke, turned when he heard him enter. “Your not supposed to be in here!” The man said angrily.

“I wouldn’t be talking that way to an officer,” Zeke said in is best general type voice.

“Ah…. I’m…ah…” they guys stammered.

“BOY! GET OUT OF MY SEAT!” Zeke ordered, as the man got up quickly. The guy paused before he passed him, but Zeke just pointed for him to go.

Zeke just smiled and went over to the pilot’s seat, as the co-pilot finally turned around. Zeke’s mouth dropped, he wasn’t expecting to have a young girl as his co-pilot. “Hi,” that’s all he could think of.

The girl smiled, “Hi,” she replied.

“I’m Zeke,”

“Sarah,” the girl replied. “So are you really an officer?”

“No, I just thought it would be more fun then just tell him he was fired,” Zeke explained with a sly smile. Sarah just laughed. “So how do you start this thing?” She gave him a worried look, “I was just kidding,” Zeke said. He placed his headset on, and then flipped a few switches turning on the engines.

The rest of the team made their way down the isle. Shalimar couldn’t help put peak into some of the room’s that had their door’s open, their were people on computer’s, men and women around tables talking making plans. Lydia tugged on her arm motioning for her to move. Shalimar smiled and followed her to a couple of seats that were assigned to them.

Lydia took a seat beside Ben who placed her arm around her. Shalimar watched them before taking a seat across from them, next to Deacon, which was the only seat left. She turned and looked at him, he was smiling at her. She smiled back and looked back Lydia and Ben. It was hard for her to watch them, she could only think of Brennan and how much she missed him. Turn her attention away, just as she felt the plane shutter as it prepared to take off.

* * *

SIX MONTHS LATER: NEW YORK CITY

The President had traveled most of the Eastern Coast and some states out by the Mississippi River. The Stand had not shown themselves once, and the team was starting to get upset, especially Shalimar. She wanted to get this stuff over with so she could go home.

Their next stop was New City, before they headed out to the West Coast; the President was going to be making a few speeches at a park, and some city memorials.

On the plane one of the President’s secretaries handed Deacon a sheet of paper with the President’s schedule on it. “Alright four speeches four different locations,” Deacon said. “Two inside, two outside.”

“Where are the outside ones?” Eliza asked sitting on the floor cleaning some of her guns.

“One is a new children’s park of the disabled and the other one is in front of a new bank building,” Deacon explained, before he kept on reading the paper to himself. “The park is going to be a dusk, that could be a target.” Deacon looked up from the paper at Shalimar who went to receive her two guns from Eliza, who wanted to clean them for her. “Shal,” Shalimar turned around, she hated the way he said her name it reminded her too much of Brennan. She was trying to clear her mind of him, knowing all to well she could be away from him for a very long time. “I want you and Lydia to go check it out before we get there, just to make sure everything’s fine,” he told her.

“Sure,” Shalimar replied, as she flipped the safety on the guns and placing them in their holsters, which were strapped around her shoulders. She went over and grabbed her long black leather jacket and put it on covering up the guns.

Lydia and Ben entered the area, just as Shalimar sat down. Shalimar loved having hunting duty with Lydia, with them both being Feral it made it even more interesting. Lydia saw the smile on Shalimar face when she walked in.

“Hunting duty?” she asked. Shalimar nodded yes in reply. Lydia’s eye’s flashed yellow for a brief second. “I love our job!” She stated sitting down next to Shalimar.

“Now you girl’s, don’t get into trouble,” Deacon told them, knowing they always did.

“US?” They both replied, and then looked at each other, “Never!”

“That’s what they always say,” Ben mumbled quietly, but not with out getting two sets of yellow glowing eyes. Ben backed off and sat next to Deacon, before the plane landed.

They plane came to a stop and Zeke’s voice rang out over the intercom, “Thank you for flying Air Force One, please watch your step when exiting the plane, and don’t forget to tip your hostess.”

The girls couldn’t help but giggle, as Ben and Deacon rolled their eyes. “I give him one job and he has to go making jokes,” Deacon said with a sigh.

Everyone got up and exited the plane; the president was the first to leave in one of the five limos. The team hung back for Zeke to exit the plane, he soon came down. “You are the dumbest man I know,” Ben yelled to him.

“What did I do?” Zeke asked as he approached them.

“Who is stupid enough to say that stuff on the intercom? I mean it would be bad enough if it was a regular plane, but Air Force One!” Ben explained, as they climbed into the last limo.

* * *

ONE WEEK LATER

The President had made it through three of the speeches. Shalimar and Lydia went out earlier that day to check out the park area, where the President would make his last speech around seven o’clock just when it was turning dark. Everything seemed okay but both girls had a funny feeling about this speech. Not knowing whether it was their feral instincts going out of whack or something else.

Chapter 5: First Attempt

It was starting to get dark as the President arrived at the podium, in front of the amazingly large crowd. Deacon, Eliza, and Ben stood off to the side of the President as he started his speech. Shalimar and Lydia each patrolled the crowd looking for something out of the ordinary.

“Shal you see anything,” Deacon voice came over her earpiece.

“No nothing. Lyd you see anything?” Shalimar asked.

“No not a damn thing,” Lydia voice replied.

The two girls passed each other on their patrol; they just nodded and kept going. The President was half way through his speech and neither Shalimar nor Lydia saw anything. Shalimar finally stopped; she was sick and tired of walking back and forth around the crowd. Shalimar knew something was wrong, Lydia had sensed it to when they checked out the park earlier that day, but nothing was out of the ordinary.

She huffed and leaned up against a tree and started looking out at the crowd who were listening to the President behind her. She glanced up at the rooftops of the buildings behind the crowd, and something caught her attention. Shalimar couldn’t really tell what it was, she was to low. Turning around quickly, she jumped up into the tree. All she could see was a figure kneeling down, it looked like he was holding something but it was too faraway.

Shalimar looked around noticing Lydia on the opposite side of the crowd. “Lyd, look up at the rooftop right in front of you. Do you see something?” Shalimar asked.

She watched Lydia look up, “Ya I see it.”

“Do you girls see something?” Deacon asked.

“Ya, we’ll go check it out,” Shalimar suggested, then jumped out of the tree and head over to the building.

“Okay be carefully,” Deacon told them.

“We always are,” Shalimar said sarcastically.

Lydia was right there waiting for her in front of the building, “Easy route?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Shalimar answered with a sly grin.

The two girls entered the alleyway be side the building; they walked over to the side fire escape. With one leap both jumped half way up the stairs, then ran up the rest. Shalimar looked around quickly, but Lydia tapped her on the shoulder. She pointed over to a figure hunch over by the edge of the building. Lydia motioned for them to split up and surround the man, Shalimar nodded. Lydia then moved silently to the other side of the building.

Shalimar crept up on the man silently; she was finally close enough to see what he was hunched over; her eyes widened seeing the snipe rifle. Her minded raced through the opinions she had. Lydia met her right behind the man a few seconds later.

They both reached over and tapped the man on each shoulder. He slowly sat up on his knees and turned his head around to see what had tapped him. Two fists suddenly made contact with his face, making him grabbed his nose that was broken and blood gushed all over his hands.

Lydia reached over him grabbing the rifle, as Shalimar roughly grabbed him by the collar making him stand up. Lydia through on the safety on the gun and took out the bullets dropping them on the floor.

“Who the hell are you?” the man asked angry that the girls broke his nose.

“None of you business. If you want to know the truth we should be asking you who the hell you are?” Shalimar said smartly.

“I will not tell you!”

“Wrong answer!” Lydia announced right before punching him in the stomach.

The man grabbed his stomach moaning, but Shalimar kept her grip. “Now we didn’t want to do that, but if you don’t tell us who you are or working for, then I’ll have to let my friend here hit you again, and it could be a lot lower. If you catch my drift!” Shalimar explained.

The man looked up and sighed as he saw Lydia prepare to kick, “THE STRAND!”

“Good now were getting some where,” Lydia huffed.

The man glanced up and smiled, something wasn’t right he was too cooperative. Lydia saw the knife just as he swiped it at Shalimar still holding him. “SHAL!”

Shalimar lunged backwards, but not quick enough, the blade slashed across her arm causing her to loss her grip on the man. Seeing Shalimar crumble to the floor, blood gushing everywhere, Lydia didn’t see the man run right passed her. She finally snapped out of it and heard the man running over to the fire escape.

Lydia whipped out her gun from underneath her jacket and pointed it at him, “DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE!” She yelled at him, causing him to stop in mid motion. “Know turn around slowly.” Lydia ordered cocking her gun as she walked closer to him.

The man started to turn around, Lydia saw the flash of his handgun, as he grabbed in with one swift motion as he turned around. He brought it out to shoot her. Lydia felt like everything was in slow motion; she pulled the trigger, the bullet looked like it took forever to reach the man; she pulled it again, both bullets hit him square in the chest. He collapsed on the floor blood spilling out of his body on to the rooftop. Lydia walked up cautiously, still holding her smoking gun in front of her.

The man struggled to breath the bullets were lodged into his lungs causing them to fill with his own blood. Lydia could see blood flowing it’s way out from his wounds, and mouth. She stood for a minute, watching the man die right before her eyes; she finally lowered her gun seeing his chest not rise again.

* * *

Deacon swore he heard two faint gunshots being fired; some of the people glanced around, but most probably thought it was a car back firing. Deacon knew better, “Shal Lydia. Is everything ok?” he asked.

* * *

Lydia jumped when she heard Deacon’s voice in her earpiece. “I had to shoot him,” Lydia admitted to Deacon and herself. She heard Shalimar moan and quickly went to her side. “Shal is hurt, but I’m ok.”

“How badly hurt is she?” Deacon asked with worry.

“Shal,” Lydia said as she bent down.

“I’m fine Lyd just a scratch,” Shalimar winced.

Lydia could see the deep gash on Shalimar’s right arm, “Keep pressure on it.”

“LYDIA, how badly hurt is Shalimar?!” Deacon asked very worried.

“She has a gash on her right arm that’s bleeding pretty bad,” Lydia explained.

“I’m sending Ben over to help you with her,” Deacon said.

“Alright,” Lydia started helping Shalimar up, but Shal stumbled forward, “WHOA, Shal take it easy.”

“I’m fine just a little dizzy,” Shalimar told her.

“You’ve lost quite a bit of blood, but you need to keep pressure on the wound,” Lydia explain, getting a nodded from Shalimar as she helped her over to the fire escape. She eased Shalimar down the stairs, until they reached the very end. Lydia glanced at Shalimar, “Can you jump?”

“Ya, it’s not like my legs are broken,” Shalimar replied sarcastically.

“All right, on three,” Lydia said with a sigh. “One…two…” Lydia didn’t even say three before Shalimar jumped down with out her.

Shalimar smiled and glanced up at Lydia, “You coming?”

“Ya, ya hold your horses,” Lydia answered rolling her eyes and jumping down from the railing.

Ben finally ran in to the ally way, and over to the girls. “Are you…guys…ok?” He asked out of breath.

“We need to fix Shalimar’s arm,” Lydia told him.

“Should we take her to the hospital?” Ben wondered, seeing the blood dripping from Shalimar’s elbow as she squeezed her forearm against the other hand trying to create the best amount of pressure.

“NO! No hospital,” Shalimar snapped nervously. “They take too many tests, and ask too many damn questions.”

“Are you sure Shal?” Lydia asked.

“Ya I can fix it, I just need a few things,” Shalimar explained.

“Alright come to the car, I’ll take you back to the hotel.” Ben said as he and Lydia walked with Shalimar to a SUV part out front.

* * *

Lydia helped Shalimar into their hotel room, and over to the couch. “I need some stuff to fix my arm,” Shalimar told her.

“What do you need?” Lydia helped Shalimar talk off her jacket to get a better look at the cut. She thought see was going to puke, the slice was deep she could see the muscle tissue and some of the bone. The cut was four inches long, and was still bleeding immensely.

“Ah…I need some rubbing alcohol, antibacterial cream, gauze, and some medical supplies.” Shalimar listed off.

“What kind of medical supplies?” Lydia asked as she wrote stuff down.

“I need things to do stitches,” Shalimar said.

Lydia finished writing the list then stood up to go, “I’ll be right back with these.”

Shalimar nodded and watched Lydia leave, “OH MY GOD!” She said in pain, finally able to show her weakness, “HOLY SHIT,” Shalimar glanced down for the first time to see the wound, she hadn’t though it was that bad. She took in a deep breath and got up to go wash some of the blood off.

The bleeding had finally subsided and Lydia returned only fifteen minutes after she left. She came in with a metal case, and walked right over and placed it in front of Shalimar on the coffee table. Lydia opened it for her; Shalimar saw everything she listed and more.

“Thanks,” Shalimar said with a smile, as she grabbed the rubbing alcohol and gauze and started cleaning the cut. She winced as the alcohol burned her skin. Lydia sat down in a chair and watched Shalimar with interest as she fixed her own injury. Shalimar started stitching, then glanced over at Lydia who was watching her, “What?” She asked her knowing she had a question on her mind.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Lydia asked.

“Adam taught me,” Shalimar answered and continued her stitching.

Lydia remember from there late night conversation’s who Adam was, she watched Shalimar finish up mending the injury. “Lydia could you gab the medical tape in there?” Shalimar asked grabbing a large piece of gauze. Lydia jumped up and grabbed the tape and handed it to Shalimar and ripped pieces off for her. Shalimar then wrapped her upper arm with an ace bandage. “There!” She said with sigh and a smile.

Lydia was going to say something but Deacon, Eliza, Ben, and Zeke burst into the room. Deacon went right up to Shalimar, “Are you ok?” As he placed is hand on her arm.

She smiled and nodded yes, “It’s only a little scratch.”

Shalimar and Deacon had flirted a little bit, but nothing serious, Shalimar just couldn’t do it. She wasn’t sure if it was because of her emotions for Brennan, or worried that she didn’t have any emotions for Brennan anymore and she didn’t want to admit it to herself.

* * *

SANCTUARY

Brennan moped around the Sanctuary like he has done for the past six months. Emma and Jesse had given up on cheering him up. He walked down to the Lab for a meeting. Adam had kept them busy on tracking The Strand ever sense Shalimar left. He knew that’s way Kenna wanted Shalimar.

Emma and Jesse were already there as Brennan came through the door, “Anything new?” He asked hoping that they might find Shalimar.

“Matter of fact that’s way I wanted a meeting,” Adam said seeing Brennan’s attitude change dramatically.

“What is it?”

“Ashlocke is sending mostly all of his people to Los Angeles, so I believe something big is going to happen in a couple of months,” Adam explained. “So we’re going to keep a closer eye on him then we’ll make our move.”

“Good! I want to find Shalimar.” Brennan said with a sad tone.

Adam sighed, “We all do Brennan, we all do.”

Chapter 6: He Saw Me

ONE MONTH LATER

The President had one big speech in Austin, Texas. Austin was another city they thought the Strand might try to take out the President.

Once again Shalimar and Lydia secured the area, before the President got there. Nothing seemed wrong, the President began his speech and the girls began their patrol of the crowd. Shalimar looked up at the roof tops, nothing. Neither she nor Lydia had any bad feelings about this one. The President soon finished his speech and made it over to his car with Deacon and Eliza by his side the whole way, they both came over to Shalimar and Lydia who were off by their SUV.

“Nothing?” Deacon asked.

“Nope, I have a feeling the big strike is going to be Los Angeles,” Shalimar explained.

“Why do you think that?”

“I just know,” Shalimar, said giving Deacon a sweet smile, but that smile soon turned to a frown as she saw a familiar figure across the street watching them.

Shalimar pushed Deacon out of the way as she started walking in that direction. “Shal, what is it?”

Shalimar recognized Kelly anywhere, and she started to run. Kelly noticed the feral running towards her and she turned and ran herself. Deacon watched Shalimar chase after the women. They both disappeared from sight and Deacon got worried, he started running in the same direction. Deacon didn’t want to use his ability of speed but he didn’t want Shalimar to get hurt again. Focusing he ran faster, everything seemed to be at a stand still as he turned the corner seeing Shalimar standing by herself. He stopped right beside her.

Shalimar jumped when she noticed Deacon right beside her, her feral senses didn’t even pick him up. “Shit you scared me! Where’d you come from?”

“That’s the good thing about having increased acceleration, no one knows how you got there so fast,” Deacon said with a smile.

Shalimar smiled back, she had lost Kelly when they turned the corner. “Who was that?” Deacon asked her.

“Kelly she’s part of The Strand, I think she was spying on us,” Shalimar explained.

“Do you thinking they’re going to attack now?” Deacon wondered.

“No they’ll wait,” Shalimar answered, knowing Ashlocke too well.

* * *

SANCTUARY: ONE MONTH LATER

“Brennan could you come to the lab,” Adam ordered over his comring.

“Sure I’ll be right there,” Brennan replied.

He soon entered the lab, and walked over to Adam who was at one of the computers. “Good, I want to tell you something,” Adam, said with a smile glancing up. His smile disappeared as he saw Brennan appearances; his clothes were all wrinkly like he had slept in them for days. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and he looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep for months. Adam knew Shalimar being gone had taken a toll on him, but he didn’t think he would end up looking like this. Brennan had been with a lot of girls that left him, but none had done this to him. It made him think that Brennan wasn’t just having a one-time thing with Shalimar, but something much more.

“What is it Adam?” Brennan asked, breaking Adam’s trance.

“Oh ya,” Adam said. “I want you, Emma, and Jesse take the Helix to Los Angeles. Ashlocke is planning something big down there, and I think it has something to do with the President.”

“The President?” Brennan asked.

“Yes he plans to visit there in a couple of days, it’s the only thing I can think of.” Adam told him. “I have a feeling that’s why Kenna asked for Shalimar.”

“What?” Brennan was confused.

“I’ve researched the President’s travel’s the last ten month’s and I finally found this.” Brennan stepped closer as Adam brought up a picture on the computer. “Look I found her.”

Brennan watched as Adam enhanced the image, Brennan finally saw what he meant. “Shal!” A smile crossed Brennan’s face, which was the first time Adam had seen Brennan smile in a long time. “Do you think she’ll be there?”

“I believe she will be,” Adam said, “You might want to go get ready to go,”

Brennan smiled and ran out to get ready. With in a half an hour he met Emma and Jesse in the Helix. He took his regular seat with a huge smile on his face.

“What’s got into you all of a sudden?” Jesse asked, noticing Brennan back to his normal appearance.

“You’ll see,” Brennan, said as they took off heading towards LA.

* * *

LOS ANGELES

Shalimar and the rest of the team arrived in LA earlier that morning. In the afternoon Shalimar, Lydia, and Deacon who had decided to join the two girls on their sweep of the area where, the President was going to make his speech. Shalimar walked around with Deacon not knowing the Helix just landed in an old junkyard near where the President was going to give a speech.

Brennan, Jesse, and Emma walked out of the junkyard, and into the park, where many people walked around, and kids played on the jungle gyms. They did notice several men setting up a podium in the middle of a field.

Shalimar and Deacon circled around one last time, and where about to catch with Lydia, when Shalimar saw Brennan. She stopped dead in her tracks; she stared at him for a moment wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her.

“Shal everything okay?” Deacon asked as he stepped in front of her.

Shalimar saw Brennan glance over, she swore he had seen her, she knew he wasn’t allowed to see her until after the mission was done. Shalimar thought of something fast. She quickly leaned in and gave Deacon kiss hiding herself from Brennan.

Brennan knew he had seen Shalimar, he saw her give this other guy a kiss, and his heart broke into a million pieces. He turned away quickly and head to find Emma and Jesse.

Shalimar notice him leave, and broke the kiss. “Deacon I’m sorry,” He did reply just stood there frozen. Shalimar felt like crap, she just broke the heart of the man she loved, and just gave a wrong signal to one she didn’t. Deep down Shalimar just want to cry and run after Brennan and explain the whole thing, but she had a job to finish. “Let’s go find Lydia.”

“Oh ya,” Deacon finally replied still half dazed.

They finally found Lydia over by the car that they had brought. Lydia saw a depressed looking Shalimar and Deacon who looked like he was on cloud nine. “What’s up with you two?” She asked getting a dirty look from Shalimar.

“I’ll tell you later,” Shalimar replied with a huff as they climbed into the SUV and headed for the hotel.

* * *

Brennan stormed over to Emma and Jesse who were walking around together. “Let’s go home,” He demanded.

“Why what’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

“Nothing I just want to go home,” Brennan said with sigh.

“We have to finish finding The Strand, then we can go,” Emma explained knowing something was up with him.

“Fine, I’ll go look over there,” he explained pointing to the other side of the park.

The other two nodded yes, and started walking off. Brennan strutted over to a nearby bench and sat down. He placed his head in his hands, and sobbed quietly. He stopped quickly when he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking up he saw Emma standing there.

“Brennan what’s wrong?” Emma asked sitting down next to him.

Brennan took a deep breath, “It’s Shalimar she’s here.”

“That’s great, let’s go find her,” Emma said.

“NO!” Brennan yelled.

“Why not?” Emma was now confused.

“I saw her kissing another guy,” he confessed.

“Are you sure it was her?” Emma asked getting a ‘are you kidding’ look from Brennan. “I know stupid question.”

“I can’t believe she would do this, I really thought she loved me,” Brennan said before he openly broke down and cried quietly into his hands again.

“I’m sure there’s some reasonable explanation, everything’s going to be fine, Shal still loves you,” Emma couldn’t believe what she heard or saw, Brennan was truly in love with Shalimar, she just hoped Shalimar had a good explanation for what she did.

* * *

No one spoke the whole trip back; when reaching the hotel they climbed out and headed to their rooms. Shalimar hung back and waited for Deacon to enter the guys room, before she and Lydia went into their room. Lydia took off her jacket and watched Shalimar go right over to the bed and flop down on her back.

“So what happened?” Lydia asked going over to her.

Shalimar sighed. “Brennan’s here.”

“Really! That’s great.” Lydia said excitedly knowing Shalimar must feel thrilled.

“No it’s not,” Shalimar said almost breaking down into tears.

“Why not?”

“I’m not allowed to make contact with any of my friends not even Brennan, until the mission’s over,” Shalimar explained.

“What? That’s bull shit, you go see him right now,” Lydia demanded.

“I can’t!” Shalimar said angrily as a few tears rolled down her face, “I kissed Deacon.”

“WHAT?!” Lydia said shocked.

“I couldn’t think of anything else to do to prevent him from seeing me, so I kissed Deacon. Which lets say was the stupidest thing to do.” Shalimar admitted.

“That’s why Deacon looked so happy,” Lydia said.

“I know deep down that Brennan saw me do it, it probably broke his heart,” Shalimar told her, as she rolled over and cried into her pillow.

Lydia walked up and gave Shalimar a reassuring rub on the back, “It’ll be ok Shal, he’ll understand.”

“I hope so,” Shalimar whispered in between sobs.

Chapter 7: One Down

It was the middle of the afternoon and the President had just arrived at the park to give his speech. This was like no other speech; Shalimar and Lydia still did their patrolling, as the rest stood around the President.

“Shalimar Lydia. Keep your eyes open,” Deacon ordered.

“Don’t worry we will,” Shalimar replied.

The President was almost finished with his speech, when he crumbled to the podium floor holding his head. Deacon and Eliza were right by his side.

“What’s wrong sir?” Deacon asked.

“My head, someone’s in my head,” he whispered.

“Come on lets get him out of here,” Deacon ordered as they helped The President to his feet. Secret Service agents surrounded him as the walked over to the car. The people watching the President’s speech, started running away, all wondering if he was shot or something else.

Shalimar and Lydia almost got run over by the thousands of people running from the seen. Shalimar could hear Lydia yelling her name from the other side of the crowd, but she wasn’t paying attention. She was watching a group of people run over to the junkyard. Shalimar noticed Kelly in the middle of the group, and she started running after her.

“Shalimar where are you going?” Deacon asked into her earpiece.

Shalimar couldn’t stand it any longer; she took the earpiece out and through it on the ground as she ran into the junkyard.

Lydia, Zeke, and Ben were the closest ones to Shalimar and started running after her.

Shalimar entered the junkyard and noticed a group of six or seven New Mutants. “You know it’s not nice not to invite people,” Shalimar said smartly as they all whipped around to face her.

Kelly stepped forward as the other’s stood and watched. “Shalimar good of you to join us, Ashlocke will be very pleased.”

“Go screw yourself,” Shalimar replied angrily.

“I’m going to have to contain you if you don’t cooperate.” Kelly stated.

“Go ahead, make my day,” Shalimar said, she wanted a good fight.

Kelly stepped forward and through up her hands, creating a huge fire circle around Shalimar. Kelly laughed as she saw Shalimar eyes widened in fear.

Lydia, Ben, and Zeke ran in after Shalimar, they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Shalimar in the middle of a circle of fire. “Zeke make it rain,” Lydia demanded.

“All right but it’s going to take a few minutes,” he replied.

“Well we don’t have a few minutes,” Lydia said before seeing Kelly and the rest of The Strand come out around the fire towards them. “Oh, shit!”

The fight started immediately, the three were out numbered. Lydia felt someone push her out of the way, trying to move through the huge fight. She glanced over to see a man run towards the fire and jump through, Lydia wasn’t sure to be happy or nervous that he jumped in. She notice two more people join the fight, she watched them attack The Stand with amazing force.

Brennan had seen Shalimar frozen in the middle of a circle of fire; he jumped through the burning flames, pushing past mutants on his way.

“SHAL!” Brennan yelled to her, trying to get her attention. She wouldn’t budge; he grabbed a hold of her waist and started moving her. It felt good to touch her again; he had missed her so much, even if he hated her. Brennan pulled her out of the fire and started shaking her trying to snap her out of her trance.

Deacon and Eliza ran as hard as they could to the junkyard were they saw their teammates fighting other New Mutants. Eliza immediately jumped into the pool of people, but Deacon hung back looking for Shalimar who he did not see. Then he spotted her; a man had his hands up at her neck, choking her. Deacon was furious, he ran right over to them.

“Shal snap out of it!” Brennan demanded as he shook her.

Brennan was going to continue to talk to her when he was bolded over and knocked to the ground. He struggled to get up, but someone’s fist met him across the face, “You’re not going to hurt her,” the man said angrily.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her MAN!” Brennan yelled as the man hit him again.

Brennan was pissed off; he found the strength to get to his feet quickly and faced the man. He gathered a huge amount of energy, he through it at the man. The guy moved quickly. All Brennan saw was a blur, as the man came up in front of him. The man moved too quickly Brennan couldn’t block any of his punches or kicks. Brennan soon had a bloody nose, the man quickly kicked him across the face send him to the ground. Brennan lied on his back, his whole body ached he felt like he had some broken bone and many bruises.

Deacon walked over to the man he had beaten to the ground. He smiled and stood over him. “This will teach you,” Deacon said as he straddled over him, and started punching him in the face and chest. Brennan could barely feel the pain anymore, he finally couldn’t keep consciousness, and everything went black.

Shalimar was still frozen scared by the fire, as her friends scared off some of the New Mutant’s. She could hear moaning behind her and finally was brave enough to turn around. Shalimar found Deacon beating someone senseless, she looked down at the person, and she could barely recognize the man from all the blood that flowed from his face and chest. Her eyes widened with fear, she ran over and lunged at Deacon tackling him like a football player.

Lydia, Ben, Zeke, and Eliza finished off a couple of New Mutant’s when they noticed Shalimar take out Deacon.

Shalimar and Deacon stood up, Shalimar eyes flashed yellow, “You lil’ son of a bitch.”

“Shal he was trying to kill you,” Deacon explained wondering what had gotten into her.

Shalimar couldn’t stand it anymore; she attacked him with all her might. She threw a couple of punches into his stomach; Deacon groaned as he gripped his stomach, he didn’t fight back. Shalimar couldn’t resist, she gabbed his head and brought it down onto her knee, causing him to hit the ground in pain. Shalimar looked at him tempted to hit him once more but she turned around and ran over to Brennan.

The rest of the team managed to make it over to Shalimar, they just stood back wondering what had happened. Shalimar bent down besides Brennan’s still form, tears rolled down her eyes as she whipped away the blood on he face with her hand. “Brennan I’m sorry,” She whispered.

Lydia heart sank when she heard Shalimar say his name, the rest of them looked around in confusion. “Who is he?” Zeke asked.

Shalimar held her breath as she slid her hand down to check for a pulse, Shalimar sighed. “Thank god!” She had found a weak pulse, when Emma and Jesse came running over.

“Who is he?” Zeke asked frustrated that no one would answer him.

“God Brennan,” Emma said nervously as she and Jesse pushed by the crowd.

Shalimar looked up at them with tear’s streaming down her face. “I’m sorry,” she told them.

“It’s ok Shal, he’ll be ok.” Emma said giving her a hug.

Jesse looked down at Brennan, he didn’t look to good, and blood was everywhere, on his chest and face, it was hard to look at him with out causing his stomach to feel wheezy. “I’ll go get the Helix,” Jesse said before taking off into the middle of the junkyard.

“I should have stopped this mess,” Shalimar admitted, still sobbing.

“Shal it wasn’t your fault,” Emma said trying to calm her down.

“If I wasn’t so scared of the fire I would have seen Deacon beating him up,” Shalimar told her.

“Shal, he’ll understand,” Emma explained.

She glanced up at Emma and noticed Deacon had finally gotten up and was standing behind her, watching them. “Why you bastard,” She was going to go after him again when Emma tried to grab onto her. Shalimar burst right passed her, she was just about to reach him, but Lydia was right there. She grabbed onto Shalimar waist and held her back.

“Shal calm down, he’ll be fine,” Lydia said reassuring, Shalimar looked Lydia right in the eye, she sighed and backed off.

Jesse finally came with the Helix, “Alright lets get him to the lab.” He said over his comring.

“I’m coming too,” Shalimar announced as she gentle brushed Brennan’s face with her fingers, before he disappeared from his spot.

“Shal you can’t go!” Deacon said angrily. “That’s an order!”

“Order my ass,” Shalimar said smartly.

“We have to finish the mission,” Deacon explained.

“Screw the mission, you guys can handle it without me,” Shalimar told him.

Deacon was about to protest again, but Lydia butted in. “Deacon shut up and let her go, my god.” She huffed and walked up to Shalimar. “I’m going to miss you.”

Shalimar smiled and pulled the feral into a hug, “I’ll keep in touch.”

Lydia smiled, “That’s if you can find me.”

Shalimar laughed and looked over at the rest of the team, “It’s been a blast guys, hope to see you again.”

“We’ll miss you Shal,” Ben said as he put his arm around Lydia when she walked back over to them.

Shalimar nodded in reply and turned to Emma, “Let’s go home.”

Emma smiled then the two boarded the Helix, Shalimar immediately went to Brennan side. “I’m so sorry, Brennan.” She whispered.

“It’s good to have Shal back,” Jesse admitted as he started head by to Sanctuary.

Emma sighed, “Ya but I wish it wasn’t under these conditions.”

Jesse nodded, “Adam we’re on our way back, and Brennan’s hurt real bad.”

Adam face showed up on the screen in front of him. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story, that I don’t know exactly,” Jesse explained. “But we brought back someone who does.”

“Who?” Adam asked.

“Shalimar,” Jesse said bluntly.

“Shalimar’s with you?” Adam wasn’t sure if he had heard Jesse right.

“Ya she’s here looking after Brennan,” Jesse replied.

“How badly hurt is he?”

“It’s not good Adam, you should see him, he looks like he got run over three or four times,” Jesse explained.

“Alright I’ll have the lab ready,” Adam told him then the screen went black.

Emma went back to see how Brennan was doing, Shalimar looked up when she heard her walk up, Emma noticed that her eyes were now red and puffy from the extensive amount of crying she had done. “Emma is he in pain?” She asked almost choking on the words.

Emma sighed and concentrated on Brennan.

* * *

Emma found Brennan sitting by himself he was surrounded by fog. “Brennan.” She said softly as she sat down beside him.

Brennan huffed, “Can you see them?” He asked her out of the blue.

“See who?” Emma was confused she couldn’t see anything.

Brennan pointed in front of them, Emma then could see to figures in front of them kissing. She couldn’t quite see who it was because they kept fading away.

“Emma make them stop, please make them stop. I can’t handle it anymore, I just want to die,” Brennan begged her. “Please kill me now, get rid of my misery.”

“Brennan who is it?” Emma asked.

Brennan closed his eyes and rocked back and forth. “Make it stop,” he repeated over and over again.

Emma stood up and walked closer to the figures, Emma rolled her eyes seeing it was Shalimar and that guy Deacon. She knew Brennan couldn’t handle it anymore, or he would eventually died of a broken heart. Making her way back over to him, Brennan looked up at her.

“I don’t care if I ever see her again,” Brennan confessed.

“You don’t mean that,” Emma said.

“Yes I do!” Brennan said angrily. “I HATE HER!” He started screaming over and over again.

Emma gripped her head as his words echoed around her, she couldn’t stand it anymore she broke their connection.

* * *

Shalimar watched as Emma came back from Brennan’s mind, “So?”

“He’s not in pain anymore,” She lied to her best friend.

“Good,” Shalimar said with smile as she returned to Brennan’s side.

Emma sighed and went back to talk with Jesse. Jesse was at the controls just waiting to reach Sanctuary. “We have a problem,” Emma announced.

“What?” Jesse said turning around to face her.

“Brennan. I went in to his mind to see if he was in any pain,” Emma began then paused.

“And?” Jesse asked.

“Well I’m not quite sure if Shalimar being here is going to make things any better,” Emma explained.

“Why?”

“Brennan is replaying the scene of Shalimar kissing that other guy, he’s so angry. He kept saying he hates her, and never wants to she her again. I couldn’t stand the yelling anymore I had to leave,” Emma told him.

“Ah, man. Well what if Shalimar explains to him why she did it?” Jesse offered.

“I’m not quite sure if he’ll even get close to her, to let her explain,” Emma huffed and slummed in her chair.

“We’ll figure this thing out when we get Brennan fixed up,” Jesse said as they reach Sanctuary.

“I hope you’re right,” Emma knew Adam could only fix up Brennan’s physical wounds, but it’s was going to be Brennan’s choice to mend his emotional wounds, before it’s too late.

Chapter 8: Running Away

Adam paced back in forth in the lab waiting for them to return with Brennan. He was just about to use his comring when they came bursting through the door. Shalimar and Jesse carried Brennan over to one of the medical tables. Adam just stood there for a second just looking at Shalimar who he had not seen in a year.

“Adam!” Shalimar yelled from Brennan’s side breaking Adam’s trance.

Adam rushed over to them, “Alright let me do a body scan.”

They all moved back from Brennan as a yellow beam came down sweeping over Brennan’s body twice. “So?” Emma asked.

“He has several broken ribs, a fractured cheek bone, and some internal bleeding,” Adam explained with a sigh.

“You can fix it right?” Shalimar asked holding back her tears as she returned to Brennan’s side.

“Yes but it might take a while,” Adam answered. “Emma I need you to stay here with me, Jesse Shalimar I suggest you go get some sleep.”

“No I want to stay with him,” Shalimar protested.

Adam sighed, “Please Shalimar, you need some sleep. We’ll call you when we’re finished.”

Shalimar huffed in disappointment. “Fine.” She kissed Brennan’s forehead and left with Jesse.

Shalimar entered her room; it was just like the way she left it. She flopped down on her bed and just cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Shalimar finally woke up after a long restless nap. She jumped out of bed and headed down to the lab. The lab was empty except for Brennan’s body on the table. She walked closer to him, and noticed Adam and Emma sleeping in chairs off at one of the computers. Shalimar crept over and grabbed a chair and went back over to Brennan’s side. She sighed and stroked his face with her fingers; he looked so fragile and weak, but he had more color to his skin then before. She hated to see him like this, for once see wished she had Emma’s powers so she could find out what he was thinking.

After awhile Shalimar fell asleep with her head on the edge of the lab table. Emma and Adam woke up an hour later; Emma couldn’t help but smile seeing Shalimar had come down while they were a sleep.

“Adam do you think he’s going to be ok?” She asked. They had worked on Brennan for two hours; they had controlled his internal bleeding and fixed broken bones.

“I hope so,” Adam sighed. “Do you know what exactly happened to him?”

Emma waited a moment, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell him about Deacon. “Brennan saw something that he shouldn’t have,” Emma replied.

“What did he see?” Adam knew Emma was holding back on him.

Emma rolled her eyes, “Shalimar kissing another guy.”

“What?” Adam was shocked that Shalimar would do something like that.

“I know, it’s not like her but she did it for Brennan’s own good,” Emma explained.

“But how did he end like this?”

“The man that Shalimar kiss beat him up after Brennan saved Shal from a ring of fire,” Emma replied. “Adam I went into his mind.”

“You did?” Adam was surprised.

“Ya, it’s not good Adam,” Emma crossed her arms and looked over at Shalimar and Brennan. “He was in so much pain. Brennan told me he hates her and I think he really does!”

“Why do you say that?” Adam was confused.

“Because he kept yelling ‘I hate her’ over and over again,” Emma replied as Shalimar started waking up from her sleep. “I want to go back in and try to get him to wake up.”

“Emma do you thing that’s wise,” Adam said as Shalimar stretched and walked over to them.

“What’s going on?” Shalimar asked rubbing her eyes.

Emma looked at Adam, “I want to back in and talk to him.”

“NO!” Shalimar snapped.

“What?” they two replied.

Shalimar looked at Brennan, “I want to go in and talk to him.”

“Shal I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Adam said as Jesse walking into the lab.

“What’s not a good idea?” He asked walking up to them.

“Shal wants to go in to talk to Brennan,” Emma explained.

“Well maybe…” Jesse started before Emma elbowed him. “It’s definitely a bad idea.”

“Come on guys, please let me go in.” She begged.

“No Shal he’ll wake up soon,” Adam told her.

“Don’t give me that Adam!” Shalimar said angrily. “I heard you and Emma taking, I am a Feral you know, you guys were talking so loud I could have heard you in my room.”

“Shal I won’t connect you and Brennan,” Emma replied.

Shalimar flashed her eyes at her, “I will talk to him!”

“Let’s her talk to him, she might be able to get him to wake up,” Jesse suggested.

Adam thought about it for a minute, “Fine,” he really didn’t want her to do it but she could at least try.

“Lets do it,” Shalimar went over and jumped up on a table.

“I don’t think Brennan’s going to like this,” Emma whispered to Adam before walking over to Shalimar who had already laid down on the table.

Emma sighed, “Shal are you sure?” She questioned before connecting the two.

“Ya let’s do it,” Shalimar smiled and closed her eyes as Emma placed her a hand on each of their foreheads.

Within seconds Emma connected the two and took a step back to join Adam and Jesse, “I hope he listens.”

“Me too,” Adam said softly.

* * *

Shalimar found herself surrounded by thick fog, “Brennan!” She yelled out.

Brennan heard her voice yelling to him, he wasn’t in the mood to see or talk to her.

Shalimar kept yelling, “Brennan please come talk to me, I want to explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” she heard his voice yell back to her.

“Yes there is, PLEASE come talk to me,” she begged.

She stood there for a few minutes but he didn’t show, she was about to yell to him again when the fog started to lift and Brennan stepped out in front of her.

“What do you want?” Brennan said angrily.

“I want to talk to you, about what happened.” Shalimar told him stepping in closer to him.

“Shal don’t,” Brennan said taking a step back.

“Brennan it wasn’t what you thought,” Shalimar started to explain.

“No Shal I know what I saw. I saw you kissing him Shal, DO you KNOW how that made me feel?” Brennan asked her trying to hold back his feelings.

Shalimar turned her head away from him and tears started to roll down her eyes. “You don’t understand,” She started.

Brennan’s eyes widened, “Don’t UNDERSTAND! I perfectly understand, I don’t think you do.”

“Brennan PLEASE let me explain why?” Shalimar begged again as the tears streamed down her face.

Brennan won’t let her, “Shal I love you and all you did was break my heart. Everyday all I did you think about you and when you would come back. Jesse and Emma even took me out to a club to have some fun, because I was brining them down with all my mopping.” Brennan could hold his own tears back and a few trickled down his cheek. “You should have seen how many girls wanted to dance with me, but I told them off, saying another girl had my heart.” Brennan saw Shalimar crying softly to herself after hearing his words. “And you know what the sad thing is? It was true, but I’m not sure if it is now,” Brennan crossed his arms.

“Brennan will you at least wake up, if you don’t you could die,” Shalimar told him.

“You know I think I would rather die,” Brennan replied.

Shalimar hung her head, “If I left Mutant X for good would you wake up then.”

Brennan looked at her in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“If you wake up I promise to leave Mutant X, because I would rather leave and never see any of you again and know you’re alive, then stay and have you die because of me,” Shalimar explained.

Brennan thought about it for a minute, “Maybe.”

“Fine, I’ll leave,” With that Shalimar suddenly faded away in front of Brennan.

* * *

The three remaining team members watched as Shalimar came out of Brennan’s mind. Shalimar got up from the table without looking at them and left for her room, Emma looked at Adam and was about to go after her. As soon as Shalimar left the lab, Brennan started waking up. Brennan moaned and found three smiling faces looking down on him.

“How do you feel?” Adam asked him.

“Like shit!” Brennan said smartly.

Emma whispered into Adam’s ear, “I’m going to go check on Shalimar.”

He nodded and Emma left the men alone, she knew something was wrong with Shalimar.

Shalimar was in her room packing a duffle bag of clothes when she heard a knock on the door, “GO away!” Shalimar yelled.

“Shal, what’s wrong?” Shalimar heard Emma’s voice ask.

“NOTHING!” Shalimar snapped.

“Come on Shal,” Emma knew she wasn’t going to tell her.

“Just LEAVE me ALONE!” Shalimar yelled as tears started rolling down her face once again. She knew Emma was going to read her mind anyways.

Emma sighed, and closed her eyes, “Ah shit,” Emma turned around and ran back to the lab. She didn’t know exactly why Shalimar was leaving, but she knew it had to do something with Brennan. Emma burst through the lab door, “Adam I need to talk to you.” She demanded striding over to the men.

“Sure Emma,” Adam stood there waiting for her to say something.

Emma just rolled her eyes, “Alone.”

“Oh sure,” Adam smiled and moved away from Jesse and Brennan.

Emma stood off waiting for Adam to get closer to her, “So what did you want to talk about Emma?”

Emma glanced over at Brennan, “Shalimar is leaving,” she whispered.

“What?” Adam was confused.

“I think something happened between Brennan and Shal while she was in his mind,” Emma assumed. “We need to do something, or Shal will leave for good.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Adam huffed. He lifted his comring to his mouth, “Shal can you come down to the lab for a second?”

There was a long pause and Adam thought she might have runaway already, “Ya I’ll be right down,” her voice finally snapped.

“What are you going to do?” Emma was curious on what plan Adam had in mind.

“I’m going to lock them into the lab,” Adam said simply.

Emma couldn’t help but smile, “But what are we suppose to do?”

“Were going to leave them alone,” Adam explained.

“Sounds good to me,” Emma turned and walked off over to Jesse, she grabbed his hand and started pulling him after her. “Come on let’s go,” She ordered him.

“Where are we going?” Jesse asked, wondering where Emma was taking him.

“Out,” Emma replied dragging him along towards the garage.

“Okay,” Jesse said, not minding getting dragged by Emma off to some destination.

Shalimar entered the lab soon after Adam and Jesse left. She noticed that Brennan had woken up and was now sitting up in one to the lab chairs. Shalimar didn’t make eye contact with him, she just walked up to Adam, “So what did you want?” She snapped.

“Could you stay with Brennan while I go get something?” Adam asked her. Shalimar was going to protest, “Thanks Shalimar,” With that Adam grabbed something off the table and left the lab.

Shalimar sat down in a chair her back facing towards Brennan; she wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. Brennan just sat there looking at her, out of all everyone to watch him Adam had to ask Shalimar.

Brennan saw Shalimar stand up; she looked at him for a second. “I’ll be right back I need to get some food.”

“Fine,” Brennan huffed.

Shalimar went up to the door, but it didn’t open, “What the hell.”

“What?” Brennan got up and walked over to her.

“The door won’t open,” Shalimar was angry. “Computer open lab doors.” She ordered but the computer gave no response. Brennan stood beside her, just his presence beside her sent shutters up her entire body, “Adam locked us in here,” She turned and went back to her chair.

“So we’re stuck in here alone, just the two of us?” Brennan said going back to his seat.

“It looks like it,” Shalimar replied smartly.

“So what are we suppose to do until Adam gets back?” Brennan asked her, not really sure if he wanted to ask the question.

“We could talk,” Shalimar replied turning around in her chair so she could face Brennan.

“Shal we have nothing to talk about, we already settled this,” Brennan hung his head.

“No Brennan you settled it, I wanted to explain but you wouldn’t let me,” Shalimar said getting up out of the chair and making her way over to Brennan.

Brennan jumped off of his seat and went to her, “Shalimar don’t start.”

“Oh I will start you need to know the truth,” Shalimar said crossing her arms. Brennan turned and started waking away from her. “Don’t walk away from me Brennan, please.” She begged him.

Brennan stopped in his tracks, “Shalimar please don’t do this.” He started waking off again.

Shalimar couldn’t stand it any longer. She ran up to him and tackled him to the floor; she flipped him over and pinned him down on his back. She applied all her weight onto his chest and used her knees to keep his arms down. “Now it’s time for the truth.”

Brennan didn’t try to struggle he just lied still. “Brennan I wasn’t allowed to come in any contact with you or anyone I knew. If I did I could have jeopardized our mission.”

“That’s doesn’t answer why you kissed that guy,” Brennan told her.

Shalimar looked at him straight in the eyes, tears started to form. “Brennan I did it to protect you.”

“To protect me? Shal you hurt me more than anything,” Brennan, told her.

“Brennan I had to think of something, maybe I kissed him because I was attracted to him a little,” Shalimar admitted. “Not in the same way as I am to you, it was more like a cute one time thing more than a sexual thing.” Brennan turned his head away from her. “So do you forgive me?”

Brennan was silent for a moment, “No not yet, I need sometime to think.”

“Fine I’ll leave you alone for a while, so you can think about it,” Shalimar said getting up off his chest.

Brennan stood up and went off to be alone.

* * *

Adam soon came back with Emma and Jesse, “So did it work?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know, they talked for awhile, but even if it didn’t we still have to let them out.” Adam explained, as he unlocked the door and entered the lab.

Shalimar stood up and ran over to them. “FINALLY!! I’m starving.” Shalimar said angrily then pushed past them.

Shalimar turned to go up the stairs to her room, instead of the kitchen. She flung her door open and grabbed the duffle bag on her bed and her jacket the back of her chair. She ran down the stair and quietly went to the garage. She grabbed the keys to her bike and strapped on her duffel bag onto the back. Shalimar started it up, she looked back at the door, “Goodbye,” she whispered before driving off.

Chapter 9: An Old Friend and A New Enemy

Brennan sat in the rec. room only a half an hour after talking with Shalimar, he laid on the couch processing Shalimar’s words wondering if he should take her back so easily or would he get hurt again. He trusted her and still loved her, but he was really hurt by what he saw.

Emma entered the rec. room, she noticed Brennan lying on the couch. “Hey, Brennan can we talk?” She asked walking up to him.

“What is up with you girls and talking?” Brennan huffed.

Emma just rolled her eyes and kept talking. “Why are you pushing Shalimar away from you? I know you still love her I can see it in your eyes.” She stated crossing her arms.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you are. Shal told you she was sorry.” Emma explained.

“That doesn’t explain why she did it.” Brennan sighed.

“She was trying to protect you, they might have killed you if they found out you knew where Shal was. Did you ever think of that?” Emma suggested.

Brennan had never thought of that. “Maybe I was too quick to judge her for what happened.”

“Ya think!! You should have seen Shalimar when that guy beat you up,” Emma said with a smile. “She fill out, broke the guy’s nose on her knee.”

“Really?” Brennan just had to smile.

“Brennan,” the tone of Emma’s voice made Brennan look at her. “Shal loves you and no one can change that, not even that Deacon guy.”

“I know.” Brennan sighed. “I love Shal more than anything, but the way they kissed it just made me think. She’s been gone for so long, I thought she might not have as strong of feelings as she did before she left.”

“Trust me she does,” Emma explained. Brennan hung his head in shame. “She can’t forgive herself for what she did or what happened to you.” Emma told him.

There was a small moment of silence, “I guess I should go talk to her,” Brennan finally said.

“That would be a very good idea,” Emma replied as Brennan walked out of the room and up to Shalimar’s bedroom.

Brennan just stood in front of Shalimar’s door debating on whiter or not to knock. He slowly motioned his hand to knock. He waited a few minutes there was no answer, so he knocked once again. “Shal please open the door,” he begged her after she didn’t answer. Brennan reached down and grabbed the doorknob. He turned it slowly it was unlocked.

“Shal I’m coming in.” He announced as he opened it up.

The room was pitch black, Brennan turned on the light. Shalimar wasn’t in there, some of her drawers were open and her jacket was gone. He walked over to her bed; there was a piece of paper on her pillow. It was folded up into fourths and addressed to him. He slowly picked up letter and started reading to himself, “Ah shit,” Brennan stuffed the letter in his pocket and was about to run out of Shalimar’s room when he noticed her comring was on the light stand near her bed. He grabbed it and placed it in his other pocket and ran out of her room.

“ADAM WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!” Brennan yelled as he ran to the lab. Brennan burst through the lab doors, to find the other three talking to each other in a circle. “She’s GONE!” He huffed.

“What?” Adam asked confused.

“SHE’S GONE!” Brennan yelled slamming his fist into on of the walls.

“Brennan calm down and tell us what happened,” Adam ordered in a soothing tone.

“I went to go talk to Shalimar, but she’s gone,” Brennan started. “But she left this,” he pulled out the note.

“What does it say?” Jesse asked impatiently.

“The beginning part is for me, but then she writes to everyone,” Brennan said trying not to blush. “So I’ll just read you that part.”

“No read us ALL of it,” Adam ordered.

“Fine,” Brennan sighed and started reading it.

Dear Brennan,

I know you’ll be the one to find this letter, I don’t know how I know I just do. I want to tell you that I’m sorry for hurting you the way I did, I truly am. Brennan I hope you don’t come looking for me, even though deep down I really want you to. I just need some time to myself I hope you understand.

Tell everyone that I didn’t want to resort to this but I thought it would be best. I need to think things through for myself. I really hope you guys understand!

Love,

Shalimar

Brennan looked up at Adam had a worried look on his face, “Jesse try to contact Shalimar on her comring,” Adam immediately told him.

“I’ve already tried that, she doesn’t reply,” Brennan stated. “Adam I want to go out and look for her.”

“Brennan you can’t we don’t even know where she is,” Adam explained. “I think we should try to trace her first.”

“Fine!” Brennan was pissed off he blamed himself for Shalimar leaving. “I’m going to go get something to eat,” he announced before heading out of the lab.

As soon as Brennan left the lab Emma turned to Adam, “You know he’s going to go look for her, right?”

“Ya I know. I just hope he doesn’t get hurt,” Adam replied.

Brennan ran straight to the garage and grabbed his black Audi, he speed off into city to find Shalimar.

* * *

Shalimar sat at the bar of a local club just listening to the music and drinking a glass of beer. She heard a man’s voice speak to her, “I didn’t expect to see you of all people here.”

Shalimar slowly turned and smiled, “I wasn’t excepting to see you here either Deacon.” Shalimar really did want to see him of all people; she still wasn’t in a forgiving mood especially with what he did to Brennan.

“Well it’s a small world,” Deacon sat down next to her. “So you here by yourself?”

“Ya I’m taking a break from Mutant X for awhile.” Shalimar told him, smugly then turned away from him.

“Really?” Deacon could cut the tension between them with a knife.

“Ya, I just need some me time,” Shalimar said talking a sip of her beer, hoping he would go away and leave her alone.

Deacon took a seat next to her, “Shalimar I’m really sorry for what I did to your friend, I truly am. I just really thought he was hurting you, that’s all.”

Shalimar sighed, it sounded like the same words she had told Brennan. She didn’t want to be vengeful, she need someone to talk to. “I know Deacon, it’s just that my emotions got out of hand.”

“It’s alright Shal,” Deacon said with a smile. “Can I a least make it up to you?”

Shalimar took in a deep breath, “What do you have in mind?”

“I want to show you something.” Deacon replied.

Shalimar thought for a minute, “So what is this thing that you want to show me?”

“It’s a surprise,” Deacon smiled; glad he broke through Shalimar’s shell.

“Sure it is!” Shalimar got up and paid for her beer then, walked out of the club with Deacon.

Deacon led Shalimar over to a car, and opened the door for her, “Thank you,” Shalimar said as she climbed in ‘Maybe I can give him a second chance,’ Shalimar thought to herself. She looked up at him, just in time to see his fist slam into her cheek knocking her out.

Deacon got into the drivers side and started the car, he glanced over at Shalimar, “My dear Shalimar it’s time to join your destiny.” He then drove off.

Brennan pulled up to the club just as Deacon drove out. He got out of the car, and headed in. Brennan immediately went over to the bar, “Hey Sam have you seen Shalimar?”

“Ya she just left,” Sam replied as he whipped a wet beer glass.

“Thanks,” Brennan turned and was about to leave when a girl stepped out in front of him. “Brennan right?”

“Ya, who are you?” Brennan was not in the mood to talk to her.

“My names Lydia,” the girl replied.

“Sorry I really can’t talk right now, I’m looking for someone,” Brennan was about to push past her.

“I know where Shalimar is,” the words made Brennan stop in his tracks.

He looked back at Lydia, “Where is she?”

“Come on,” Lydia motioned for him to follow her outside.

“So where is she?” Brennan was impatient.

“Deacon has her,” Lydia explained.

Brennan was surprised, “Why does he have her?”

Lydia crossed her arms, “He left the FBI Special Forces, and we think he has joined The Strand.”

“The Strand has Shal!” Brennan put his hand on top of his head a started walking towards his car.

Lydia ran after him, “What’s wrong?”

“The guy that runs the organization is obsessed with Shalimar, who knows what he’ll do to her.” Brennan said jumping into his Audi.

“I’m coming too,” Lydia said getting into the car with Brennan. “I’m supposed to bring Deacon back.”

Brennan nodded and started the car, Lydia looked over at him. “Where are we going?”

“The Strand headquarters,” Brennan replied as he quickly shifted the car into fifth gear and drove quickly down the street.

Chapter 10: No means No

Shalimar started waking up, she found herself lying face down on a nice comfortable bed. Her head was throbbing from the massive hit Deacon placed on her head. ‘I’m going to kill him,’ Shalimar stated to herself, as she jumped from the bed and over to the door. She grabbed the doorknob and tried to open it, but it was locked. ‘Great just my luck,’ Shalimar walked back over to the bed and sat down.

She looked around the room, ‘Where the hell am I?’ She wondered.

‘You’re where you belong Shalimar,’ a voice echoed through her head.

Shalimar’s eyes widened hearing the voice she dreaded the most. Shalimar ran over to the door, “LET ME OUT OF HERE!” She yelled as she pounded on the door.

‘There’s no way out Shalimar, you will join us,’ the voice explained.

“Hell NO!” Shalimar lowered her shoulder and began hitting the door, trying to knock it down.

‘Why do you want to leave?” The man asked her.

“Because I don’t want to be under your fucking mind control again,” Shalimar said smugly.

‘Don’t worry Shalimar you WILL be!” The man replied.

Shalimar felt him leave her head; she stopped her pounding and went over to the farthest corner in the room. She sank down and tucked her knees into her chest, and starting rocking back and forth as she cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Brennan drove the car almost at the point of going out of control. Lydia’s eyes widened at each turn, hanging onto for dear life every time. “So Lydia I never asked how you know me?”

“Well ah…” Lydia gripped the side of the car as Brennan turned the car around the next corner. “I was Shalimar friend in the FBI Special Forces, we used to patrol together, since we’re both feral.” Lydia explained. “You know she talked about you all the time, she wouldn’t shut up, it was always Brennan this, Brennan that, I miss Brennan.” Brennan hung his head in shame. “So why was Shal out by herself?”

“That would be my fault,” Brennan said.

“What did you do?” Lydia gave him a pissed off look.

“I blew her off because I saw her kiss Deacon, so I thought she didn’t love me anymore,” Brennan admitted.

“Are you KIDDING ME!!?” Lydia asked him as she swatted at his arm, making him swerve.

“Are you trying to kill us?” Brennan asked sarcastically.

“NO, but you’re blind!” Lydia stated.

“Why is that?”

“Because you couldn’t see that Shalimar still loves you,” Lydia explained.

“I know, I know, that’s why I’m here,” Brennan told her.

“Good or I would have to hurt you,” Lydia said with a smile.

“Get in line,” Brennan rolled his eyes. “So Lydia why are you here?”

“Well after Shalimar left and Deacon went over to The Strand the team was split up on different missions, and mine just had to be to hunt down Deacon and bring him back. I was the only one assigned to it because I’m a feral so they thought I could find him easier.” Lydia explained.

“Sounds like fun,” Brennan smirked as Lydia just shook her head. “We’re almost there.”

“Good I want to get this over with,” She replied.

“Me too,” Brennan sighed.

* * *

Deacon walked up behind Ashlocke who was standing contemplating the view from the balcony. He stopped when Ashlocke spoke, “Do you know the one thing I hate the most?”

“Ah… no!” Deacon answered.

Ashlocke turned around slowly and faced Deacon. “People that interfere with my plans.”

“Sir please just let me see her,” Deacon begged.

“No!” Ashlocke turned and looked out over the balcony again. “Your services were greatly appreciated, but I’m afraid Shalimar is no longer your responsibility, I’ll have to relieve you of you duty.”

Deacon started to walk backwards. “Look I’m not leaving until I see Shalimar.”

“Don’t insult me, I know that you want her all for yourself, and I just can’t have that.” Ashlocke explained. “Come here for a second Deacon, I want to explain something to you.”

Deacon hesitated for a moment, but obeyed his leader and moved up next to him.

“See that down there?” Ashlocke pointed to nothing.

“No sir,” Deacon was confused.

“Well take a closer look,” Ashlocke instructed, as he grabbed Deacon and threw him over the side of the balcony. Ashlocke could hear the man screaming until he hit the floor with amazing force. He could see the blood flowing from Deacon’s head as it cracked open upon impact.

Ashlocke smiled to himself, “Now she’s all mine,” He announced to Deacon’s dead body. He turned and left to go finish his plan, he stopped in front of two of his men. “Take care of his body.”

“Yes sir,” they replied. Ashlocke smiled at them and headed for Shalimar room.

* * *

Shalimar looked up from her corner when she heard the door begin to open. She saw an all too familiar figure enter the room. Her eyes flashed yellow as she lunged at him. Shalimar immediate