Skylar Mulwray, her loose raven hair fell out of the motorcycle helmet.
"Where have you been? Its five in the morning." She was hoping to sneak in, without waking him.
"Good morning to you too, Dad." Skylar secured the helmet to the back of the midnight blue, motorcycle.
"Where have you been?" Older and wiser, Brennan remembered pulling the same things when he arrived at Sanctuary.
"I was out." She bit her tongue and unzipped the leather jacket
"You disappear for the weekend and then come rolling in here at five am, Monday morning?" Brennan crossed his arms. "This isn't like you. You need to take a little more responsibility."
"Whoa, stop right there." Skylar's brown eyes glared at her father. "You are the one who wanted me to relax a little and stop working so hard."
"Not like this and certainly not with him."
"You leave Gabriel out of this." She re-zipped the jacket. "He was no where around this weekend."
"You wouldn't tell me if he was." Brennan pointed out as he began talking with his hands.
"You're right, I wouldn't. What do you have against him anyway?"
"I just don't like him." Brennan told his daughter.
"Is this going to take long? I have to be at work in an hour." She put the helmet back on and sat on the bike.
"Go, we'll talk about it later." Brennan waved her off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What is your problem?" Shal, arms crossed, stopped Brennan coming in from the argument with Skylar.
Brennan mumbled something about how it was irresponsible it was for her to take off and disappear for the weekend.
"Brennan, it was our idea for her to get away for a weekend." Emma was clearly upset at the whole thing. "We tried telling you, but you just flew off the handle....."
~~~~~~~~~
Sky parked her bike in the back of the bookstore, still distracted about the tiff between herself and her father, she didn't notice the black motorcycle pull next to her.
"Skylar." A raspy, male voice called to her from the bike. "Talked to the boss and he's willing to do without you today."
She turned to see Gabriel on his bike. Helmet still on, she got on behind Gabriel and the went roaring off.
~~~~~~~~~
"Day off?" Brennan just about hit the ceiling when the bookstore owner told him that he had given her the day off.
"Brennan!" Emma tried to calm the excited father down and then thanked the bookstore owner.
"Hey I found the bike in bac...." Shalimar turned the corner outside of store.
"She's been given the day off..." Emma chimed in.
"She's off with HIM." Brennan threw his arms in the air in disgust and walked away.
"Him?" Shal asked " I had hoped this whole Gabriel thing would blow over."
"Maybe it would be better for Skylar to move out." Jesse's voice came over the com link. "By the way, Adam wants you guys to get to the hotel for the mayor's speech tonight."
~~~~~~~~~~
Gabriel punched in a security code at large rod iron gate and after riding up a long drive way he parked in front of the large, gothic mansion.
Gabriel was handsome, his brown eyes seducing, a dimple appeared in the right corner of his mouth when he spoke or smiled and you couldn't see his jet black, shoulder length hair, underneath the black helmet.
They left their helmets on the bike and Gabriel slipped his arms around her waist and gently rocked her back and forth as they stared at the home. "Come, Father is waiting for us."
~~~~~~~~
At the hotel, Adam and Jesse met them in the banquet hall. Adam told Jesse to catch Shal and Emma up on the security measures, while he talked to Brennan.
"Is everything OK between you and Skylar?" Adam asked. "If not..."
"Its nothing I can't put aside for the night." Brennan assured his friend.
"Good." Adam slapped him on the back. "Not easy being a Dad is it?"
~~~~~~~~~~
Father, was an older man with silver hair, a beard and mustache and good posture. His blue eyes sparkled at the sight of Skylar and Gabriel holding hands as the came up the steps into the house.
When the door opened, the two lovers appeared, he stood up, revealing his tailor made suit and a black cane with a gold cobra's head.
"Good morning Gabriel, Skylar," He hobbled to meet them. Gabriel shook his hand, while Skylar kissed him on the right cheek.
"Tell me Skylar, are you ready for the task ahead of you?" Father asked.
"Yes."
"Perfect." Father was pleased. "How was her weekend training?"
"It went better then I predicted. She's a trained killer." Gabriel told Father. "She can seduce, manipulate and control, with little or no effort."
"What about her stamina?"
"Surprisingly strong for someone who is only half feral."
~~~~~~~~~
By the time evening rolled around, the banquet hall was furnished with chairs, cameras and a podium.
Adam was backstage with the lady mayor, Jesse was covering the back of the building, Emma in the actual hall and Brennan and Shalimar patrolling the building.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse."
He turned around to see Skylar, clad in black from head to toe, with what looked to be a transmitter in her ear and microphone coming to her mouth. "Sky! Your Dad is going out of his mind..." But before he knew what was happening, he felt someone hit him from behind.
Down and out, Skylar knelt over him and after pulling the ring from his hand, she slipped it into her leather jacket's pocket. "I'll secure him and then join you inside."
He nodded and handed her, what looked like a flair gun. She put it to the back of Jesse's neck and pulled the trigger. Skylar motioned for the black Hummer to back up into the mouth of the alley. "Load him up, he won't give you any problems." Lady Mulwray ordered the men clad in black.
~~~~~~~~~~
Backstage, Gabriel made his way towards the stage where Adam and the lady mayor stood side by side. Gabriel open one of the curtains looking for signs of the remaining members of Mutant X. Though Shalimar and Brennan were excellent warriors, it was Emma that Skylar warned him about.
~~~~~~~~~
Emma sensed something a miss and just as she set one foot in the hall, she heard her name being called. "Emma, help me, I'm scared."
Emma followed the voice to a brightly lite hallway, and saw movement in the shadows.
"Skylar?" Emma asked down the hall.
Skylar sent Emma to the ground with a spin kick and she seemed to enjoy it. "Skylar..." Unsure what had just happened, Emma readied herself to hit Skylar with her mind's energy.
"I wouldn't." Skylar was the quicker draw and hit Emma with a bolt of gold energy. She took off the ring and dropped it into the potted palm tree on her way out. "Gabriel, we have two unknowns." She spoke into her microphone.
"Skylar, hey..." Shal met the young woman near the potted plant. Looking behind Sky, Shal noticed Emma, out cold.
~~~~~~~~~
Rushing to Emma's side, Shal tried to wake her up.
"Shal behind you!" Emma alerted her to Skylar pointing the gun to the back of Shal's neck. Shal twisted and disarmed the young woman. Skylar tried hitting Shalimar with a bolt of energy, before backing up and taking off.
"If you want Jesse back, be at the old airfield in one hour." Skylar sent forth another bolt of energy, allowing herself time to put distance between them.
~~~~~~~~~
"Brennan, I need you here now!" Adam called for him.
"Adam?" Now worried even more he, made his way to backstage. Brennan saw the lady mayor out cold and Adam favoring his left shoulder from a burn of some sorts.
"Out back..." Adam was trying to catch his breath and point out the door.
~~~~~~~~~
He was barely out of the door when an energy ball came flying at him, thinking quickly, Brennan slammed the door. Reopening the door, Mulwray found nothing but a black Hummer pulling away.
~~~~~~~~
"She would never be involved in anything that would hurt us or innocent people." Brennan held tight to his beliefs. "Gabriel must have done something to her."
"No Brennan, she did everything willingly, I could sense that." Emma put in.
"I still think he did something to her." Brennan grumbled.
"Must you blame him for everything?" Emma snapped.
"Yes!" Brennan snapped back.
"I'm not sure what you're more upset about, Sky falling in love, or her falling in love with someone you don't approve of...." Shal started to say.
"Guys, could you please focus?" Adam's voice broke their thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~
They smelled a trap, but was unprepared for what followed. Inside the only, still standing hanger, were rusted old beams and broken glass from the windows.
"I really have a bad feeling about this." Emma mumbled as they were surrounded by men and women dressed in black.
The door opened and in walked two more figures.
"Skylar, what are you doing," Brennan was taken aback, when he saw her holding hands with Gabriel.
She just smiled as Gabriel wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Where's Jesse?" Adam asked.
"Safe." Gabriel responded over the noise of a jet outside the building.
"We don't have time for this," Sky snapped, "kill them."
"I'd love to say and watch, but my girl's right, we're late." Gabriel said opening the door for her. "Oh and Brennan, I'll take good care of her."
Brennan tried to storm after them, but was stopped by Shalimar. "Later."
~~~~~~~~~
Climbing into the private jet, they found Jesse out cold and bound. "I'll check to see if we're ready." As soon as he closed the door, Jesse's eyes jolted open.
"I've disable the governor, you can phase now." She whispered, slipping the ring on his finger and a piece of paper in his pocket.
"Come with me." Jesse phased the lock and stuck the fire extinguisher into the lock, leaving the extinguisher stuck in the lock.
She shook her head no and asked him to leave her.
"No."
"Gabriel, help he's trying to escape." She yelled at the cockpit. "Go!" Sky mouthed to him.
Gabriel phased through the door, Jesse pushed Brennan's daughter aside, and her head caught the edge of one of the seats. He finished phasing through the door, in time to see Skylar hit her head and Jesse phase his way off the plane.
~~~~~~~~~
"If she really wanted to hurt us, she would have," Emma told them. "What about this mansion?" "Cleaned out, it was like no one has lived there for years." Adam read the police report off the screen. "Jesse have you decoded the message?"
"Yeah, but its not much, just says something about a faction recruiting New Mutants as mercenaries and she names names. This branch was run by a man named Father..."
"Who was just pulled out of the bay yesterday..." put in Shalimar.
"Skylar says that if she plays her cards right, she thinks that its possible to meet the brains behind this operation. Skylar goes on to say that names like The Tribunal and Genomex are being tossed around." To himself, Brennan read over the last part on the paper, "You can't keep fighting the Tribunal blind. You need more information and since you've re-joined Mutant X, Dad, I've felt helpless in the fight with the Tribunal. That's only one selfish reason, I know, I have others, but I don't know if you'll understand them, just know that I love you and the team very much."
~~~~~~~~~
Two months later, Jesse answered the phone and then put it on speaker. "Skylar." Jesse responded tapping into the security cameras around the city.
"Jesse...." Skylar's voice shook like Jell-O in an earthquake. "I'm in trouble....."
"Its OK, we're coming to get you," Brennan tried to soothe her, "tell us where you are."
~~~~~~~~~~
The travel time to the city seemed endless and Brennan was trying not to go crazy.
Once out of the Helix, Brennan saw a black van and they heard a commotion inside the old warehouse.
Brennan and Emma were first inside as another van pulled up and out jumped, what looked like GSA agents. Shal and Jesse stayed outside to dispose of these troublemakers.
~~~~~~~~~~
Inside the warehouse, they found the commotion quickly. It was like a mob beating, Brennan saw a trail of blood on the floor and assumed the worse.
"Hey!" Mulwray called out to them, then hit two of them with his energy. Emma fired at them with her mind's energy. The remaining three, took to their heels and left.
"Skylar." Brennan knelt down next to the beaten body.
"Dad...." Skylar showed her face to her father.
Emma took a step back when she saw Skylar's bloodied face. She was bleeding from the nose, jaw and the right side of the head. She had bruises and scratches on her face and arms, she had black circles under her eyes, her clothing was torn and you could see scratches on her legs.
"We've got company!" Shal was heard through the ring.
"Can you walk?" Emma asked helping her up.
"Only if you don't go to far." Skylar was shaky, but stood up. "Dad, you need to disable this governor, otherwise I'm not going to be much help getting out of here."
"Let us worry about that." Brennan said after blowing out the governor's circuits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're supposed to be resting." Adam reminded the young woman as she darkened the doorway of the lab. Shivering, Skylar wrapped the red and blue, woven blanket tighter around her. "Is there something you wanted to ask?"
She gingerly sat on the examination table, and Adam saw her hands begin shaking. He put his hands on top of hers trying to stop the shaking. "At the risk of sounding cruel, Skylar, spit it out."
"OK, there is no way easy way to say this, Mason Eckhart is alive and Gabriel's name is actually Gabriel Ashlocke." Having said that, Skylar squeezed her eyes tight and waited for the backlash.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"My boyfriend is Gabriel Ashlocke's son." She opened one eye to see Adam's reaction.
Adam paused for a moment, then asked, "Have you told anyone else yet?"
"I was going to tell everyone at once, but you're the only one here." Mulwray pointed out. "By the way where are they?"
"Trying to settle in a New Mutant couple, a Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Wallace." He answered.
"I suppose they're from Iowa." She chuckled.
"How did you know?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the cloaked Helix landed on the roof of the old warehouse, the two spied a large truck and a black Hummer. Skylar saw the two guards and pounced.
Two agents approached her, the three of them conversed until Sky hit the one on the right with her energy, then took the offense with the other. Adam was surprised at what he saw, it was as if Brennan and Shalimar were rolled up in one being.
"Gabriel." Eyes feral, she rushed towards the door, with Adam on her heels.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Mutant X found themselves inside an electromagnetic bubble. Jesse couldn't phase through it, and their rings couldn't get a signal through to contact Adam. Brennan was outside the bubble, only to find his air cut off by Gabriel's seemly iron hand, while the left hand kept the bubble up. ~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gabriel! Gabriel, stop!" Skylar jumped two stories from catwalk to solid ground.
The raw colored silk shirt, black pants, suited Gabriel just fine, and he didn't even seem to notice her as he tossed Brennan against the wall and turned his attention to the remaining members.
Adam attended to Brennan and kept an eye on Sky and Gabriel. "Its eerie," Adam thought, "he looks so much like his father."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sky inserted herself between Gabriel's arms and made an attempt to free Mutant X. "Gabriel." Taking him by the shirt, she pulled him down to her level and kissed him. His arms dropped to his side, and the bubble disappeared.
The whole team felt the intense passion and the energy the two put out.
"I thought I had lost you again." Gabriel pulled away from her lips and ran his fingers through her hair.
"No, they tried to put me in a status bed and I got away, but not before they took away my powers, by putting a governor into my neck." She guided his left hand to the back of her neck, so he might feel the scar left by it. "I tried to contact you, but I couldn't reach you."
"Again? What does he mean again?" Brennan was to his feet.
Not taking her eyes of Gabriel, she tried to explain to the team what was meant by it.
~~~~~~~~~~
"I was sent solo on a mission in Rio de Janeiro during the Carnival season, and my hotel room was facing the street, and I had the windows open, and no lights on while I was in the middle of a work out. I don't know what happened exactly, fireworks, then a burning in my leg, I fell to the floor and could smell blood in the room."
"By the time I reached her, she was unconscious." Gabriel picked up the story from there. "I tried to stop the bleeding and carried her to a hospital. They said that the femeral artery had been nicked, and should would need immediate surgery. The doctors came to me after surgery and said that she needed a blood transfusion, but they had a unexpected run blood during this season of Carnival and their next shipment was expected in the morning. They didn't know if the blood would be in time, so I told them to set me up for a direct transfusion."
"When I woke up, the doctors told me what Gabriel had done, I couldn't believe it." She turned to face the team, with Gabriel's arms around her waist.
"Why would they want to kill you anyway?" Shalimar asked.
"Because the Tribunal felt threatened with a Mulwray and an Ashlocke working as a team." Gabriel told them.
"Ashlocke, as in Gabriel Ashlocke?" Emma questioned. But before the question could be answered, agents of the Tribunal surrounded them.
Gabriel jerked forward as if he had been hit by something in his neck.
"What the hell?" Before Skylar could deactivate the governor, they attacked.
~~~~~~~~~~
As fights between both sides began, Brennan was able to observe Gabriel and Skylar, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, they worked well and looked like they belonged together. Shalimar and Brennan cleared a path to the roof, and waited for Emma, Jesse and Skylar.
"Sky look out!" Emma pointed to several beams starting to fall from the energy blasts.
Skylar saw the beams falling, but was pushed out of the way, by Gabriel.
Jesse jumped into the fray next and protected her from the remaining beam. As if this wasn't bad enough, the building seemed to start crumbling around them. "Sky we have to go." Jesse grabbed hold of her arm.
"No! Gabriel!" Sky screamed, trying to get back to him. "Let me go Jesse!" She squirmed out of Jesse's hold and ran towards the falling beams.
Jesse, literally, had to pull her out of the collapsing building, kicking and screaming.
~~~~~~~~~~
Once outside, Skylar's pain turned to rage. There was another black Hummer and a laptop on the hood. Stomping towards the vehicles, Skylar let loose a large amount of energy, blowing the truck sky high.
Skylar took a look at the blurred screen and heard a scrambled voice ask, "Stevens?"
"No," she snapped at the screen.
"Where is Stevens?"
"Dead." Was her angry response.
"Who...are...you?" The voice was afraid to ask.
"Patient 0001." Was her response before terminating the connection.
~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar was barricaded in her room and let no one in. The room was dark except for a few candles she had in front of her.
"Skylar Elizabeth Mulwray would you please open the door!" Her father was ticked off, to put it mildly.
She explained her actions of joining the other side. Skylar lost three close friends to Tribunal assassins, and wanted to take them down, but she never expected to fall in love, really fall hard and with Gabriel Ashlocke's son.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Brennan, knock it off." Shalimar glared at him. Brennan slammed his fist against the doorway as if to say he was giving up.
She saw Emma standing on the other side of him and Emma continued, "Brennan, her heart is shattered, even more so since she's part feral, and you're only making things worse by being angry with over something she has no control over."
"Yeah I get that Emma, but Ashlocke's son?"
"You can't help who you fall in love with." Shalimar put in.
"Yeah, but..."
"Get over it!" The girls snapped at him. "For both your sakes."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar smiled at the conversation outside her room. It was better that he hear it from someone else, maybe it would sink in. She wasn't trying to upset anyone, least of all Dad, but she wanted to be left alone and the girls understand that better then anyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"She's been infected with his blood." Brennan snapped.
"Infection? Infection?!! You call Gabriel giving me a life saving transfusion an infection?" Skylar's hands were on her hips, expressing her dislike for her father's dislike of Gabriel and his actions.
"Brennan, I wouldn't exactly call it an infection. All the blood work looks fine and if she's hasn't shown any ill effects from the transfusion by now, it should be OK." Adam reasoned.
"But you don't know for sure?" Brennan asked, arms crossed on his chest.
"Nothing's for sure."
"Gabriel's son, she fell in love with Gabriel's son." Brennan mumbled as he started leaving the lab.
Skylar gasp and stumbled into some of the medical equipment.
Her father picked her up and laid her down on the table , so Adam could examine her.
~~~~~~~~~~
"We had a deal, no one was supposed to make a move until I said so."
Eckhart looked up from his screen and saw Gabriel fuming.
"Yes we did."
"You screwed up." Gabriel reached over and grabbed him by the collar. "Because you screwed up, I barely made it out and lost Skylar."
"Lucky that governor was programmed for Skylar's DNA, weren't you?"
"And what is this about putting her in status?" Gabriel's left hand squeezed Eckhart's throat.
"A...minor.......miscom..municat..ion." He choked out.
~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar woke up in a start and had a screaming, pounding headache. "What happened?" She tried to focus her eyes.
"Exhaustion." Brennan put his hand on her forehead and tried not to worry her.
Not wanting to stay in there any longer, she sat up and got off the bed in her room.
"Listen, Sky, about what I said earlier..." He caught her reflection in the mirror and saw the tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry...." Getting off the bed, putting his arms around his daughter and felt the tears on his shirt as she began sobbing.
"No, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who should be apologizing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The facility under Eckhart's control was like the old Genomex, he stood overlooking the two empty status beds, one with the patient number 0000 and 0001. "You said there would be no problems." He said staring through the glass.
"Yes, sir I know..." The man's voice tried to reason with him.
"Gabriel Ashlocke's son is too powerful to be running loose, and if you hadn't screwed up, his precious Skylar would be here and then we'd be able to put them both in status. Then we'd be able set up Mutant X for a fall."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~