Summary: Post 'The Assault'. Where do they go now? With an unknown future they must turn to Lexa whose unknown past may be their only chance at redemption.
Disclaimer: I had a dream that I owned em'! ...if that counts then hot damn! ...goes off to dream about other stuff to never actually happen... hey, we can all dream.
Authors' Note: To give myself a major head start I waited until I finished another chapter before I posted this so rest assured there is more to come. And on a happy note THANKS a bunch to all of you readers that reviewed. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the insides. I put all of you on my Christmas list and guess what I got you?! Yep, another chapter...yeah! (No refunds or exchanges.)
PS- To me I think this chapter kinda sucks compared to the rest so PLEASE be patient for the rest. It gets better, ask mfkngstif you don't believe me.
New Beginnings
Chapter 2: A Part of Me
Lexa woke with a start. For a moment she forgot where she was and she looked around. Finding she was on a plane and Jesse was asleep next to her the memories of what had happened and where she was came together. That's when she heard the pilot giving the landing procedures.
"What time is it?" Jesse asked, yawning. Checking her watch she was surprised to see it was passed seven in the morning. With the plane in the air and the skies bright it seemed like it was later in the day.
"Welcome to Burlington Vermont. The current temperature is forty four and it looks to be a sunny day with highs in the sixty's. It is now seven eighteen, please stay seated until the plane has come to a complete stop. We hoped you enjoyed flying with Northwest Airlines and we hope to see you again."
The plane stopped and the four mutants began their exit, joining up once inside the terminal. "Now what, this is a small airport. How are we suppose to get a rental car or some sort of transportation?" Brennan asked.
"Gee Brennan aren't we optimistic? Just because this isn't a big city doesn't mean that cabs don't wait out front for passengers," Lexa said.
Shalimar and Jesse watched the exchange. Some things never change they realized as they followed Lexa whom they decided to give the lead, this being a familiar area for her. Lexa led them through the small airport and out front was what she had said. A line of taxi's waited for any who needed the service.
The three squeezed into the back while Lexa slipped into the front passenger seat. "Hey, how do you get shot gun?" Jesse insisted, realizing the less than comfortable room in the back and never once had he thought of sitting in front.
"Cause I know where I'm going," Lexa said, dryly and then gave instructions to the driver.
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The two hour drive hadn't seemed that long; most of Mutant X had never been to this part of the country let alone this area of New York. The land was so old and untainted, it seemed so pure.
Shalimar was lucky to have gotten to sit by the door. Staring out the window her feral side couldn't wait to be unleashed. For Jesse it reminded him of his youth when he visited his grandparents on their farm. Brennan, well even his opinion of nature went up a couple of points.
The drive ended at the top of a private road that several homes shared. After the driver was paid he left the four young mutants on their own.
"Which house is it, Lex?" Shalimar asked, impressed by some of the rural style homes.
"This way," Lexa said, heading up the drive passing all the houses the others followed, skeptically. Together they started up a hidden driveway that none of them had originally noticed.
They climbed the escalating driveway which was surrounded by trees and other natural vegetation. All of them were becoming a bit anxious to see the house that rested deep in these woods.
Walking a little less than a mile up the driveway they'd finally reached the top. There stood an old two story log cabin. It was a dream house for anyone who loved the outdoors. From the front porch there, a view of a lake and hundreds of trees was. Out back the view featured mountains covered with trees and an endless sight of green, it was all breath taking.
Lexa started to walk them up through the opened garage doors and towards the door to the house. Before anyone could react an old German Shepard came barreling out towards them, barking, ears back, and hackles up. The last thing on their minds was to have to protect themselves against a guard dog.
In an instant Jesse protectively stepped in front of Lexa, knowing from previous experience her fear of dogs. But to his surprise Lexa stopped him, stepping in front of him.
"Hey Max," Lexa called out, patting her thigh to call attention to the dog. Hearing his name and now recognizing the owner of the voice the guard dogs' ears went back to friendly mode and he wagged his tail at the girl who had known him since he was a pup.
She looked back at Jesse who stood there, confused. "There's always an acceptation," she said, simply. Jesse nodded, he'd find out more detail later.
"Someone's coming," Shalimar noted, eyes turning yellow.
Now that it was brought to their attention the other three listened hearing the beats of horse hooves coming up fast behind them. The horse slowed and finally stopped they turned to see a woman, whom they could only assume to be Lexa's aunt, drop from the saddle and approach the alleged trespassers.
"What the hell are you doing?" the feminine yet threatening voice demanded. As she neared them her features became clear. The woman was in her late forties, about five foot six, athletic build, with dark hair down past her shoulders, grey green eyes, and the rest of her features all similar to Lexa's. You could definitely tell they were related somehow.
"Aunt Al, it's me," Lexa said, stepping in front of her friends, the coldness far from the warmth that called out to her aunt.
"Lexa?" her aunt asked a complete change in tone, features included.
The momentary silence seemed to last a lifetime. Breaking the still shocked silence the two hugged, the gesture appeared to be one that neither enjoyed on a daily basis but the feelings were obvious. "Jesus Lexa where the hell have you been? I heard about Leo, but you..." she asked, pulling away from the embrace.
"It's a long story and well I have a favor to ask," she started turning her attention to the three teammates that still stood behind her.
"What's that, a pony?" she asked, cynically.
Laughing Lexa shook her head no and gestured towards the others behind her. "We need your help."
Not really knowing what to do Brennan, Jesse, and Shalimar just stood there waiting for Lexa to continue.
Looking at Lexa's friends, her aunt turned her attention back to her niece. "What kind of help?"
"Just the basics, food and shelter."
Her aunt again looked each one up and down then returned her steely gaze at Lexa. "After all this time no calls, no nothing. Why do you expect me to help you now?" she asked coldly.
The three mutants backed away, intimidated. They felt an icy chill run down their spins from her words. But Lexa stood her ground. "Because I'm your favorite," she said, same manner of coldness and steely gaze.
Smiling her aunt laughed, and then patted Lexa on the back. "That's the answer I was looking for. So who are your friends?" she asked, approaching them.
"This is Shalimar Fox, Jesse Kilmartin, and Brennan Mulwray. Guys this is my aunt, Alexandra Kerr."
The introduction seemed odd for some reason, probably because Lexa's friends and teammates had thought the older woman was rather intimidating, not that they minded it just wasn't what they had expected, but then again this was Lexa's family. The only thing they did know was that they weren't about to mess with this little spit fire.
She approached and shook each of their hands, greeting them formally and individually, insisting that they call her Alex. "Well now that we're on the topic of introduction let's take a tour of the house and I'll let you get settled in." As they started for the garage Alex turned to face them, "oh and don't make any sudden movements around the dogs out back. After all they are guard dogs," she warned opening the door, letting Mutant X into her home.
Inside the door was an old farmhouse type kitchen, everything just seemed to fit into the setting, passed that room was a rather spacious living room. The room had a cozy feel to it and amongst the two comfy chairs, the big fluffy couch, the moderate television, and the old fashioned rocking chair there was a rather large window that brightened the room and allowed for the view of the whole front yard and the lake that rested below. From there she took them through a hall that to the left was the front door, in front of them was a study, and to their right were a flight of stairs.
They followed her up the old stairs and she led them to the room at the far end of the hall. Inside the two person bedroom was a bunk bed, dresser and closet space. It was obvious the room hadn't been used in years. Only the occasional cleaning had it then seen any occupants. "I'm sure you remember this room, Lex," Alex said, turning to face her niece.
"Couldn't forget it," Lexa replied, smiling at the memories.
Alex then turned stopping at the room next to Lexa's old bedroom. "Bathroom," down the hall she pointed to the room they had passed earlier at the top of the stairs. "My room," passed that the room next to her own she took through the doorway and into a hallway.
"This is the apartment I guess I'd call it. There's a small kitchen, bathroom passed the kitchen and my guest bedroom," she finished opening the door to a decent sized room with a queen size bed. "And that concludes the tour. There is a basement but that's pretty much used for storage and kennels. You can pick the rooms you want to stay in and if someone doesn't want to double up in here you can sleep on the couch in the living room. There's food in the kitchen, find what you need and I'll let you get settled," she said.
"Ms..." Shalimar began, but was cut off by the older woman's eyebrow twitching, reminding not to be formal. "Alex," she started, walking closer to the older woman, "Thank you so much for taking us in. You don't know how much we appreciate it."
"Yeah, I don't know many people with this type of generosity," Brennan said.
"Like they said and if there's anything you need, let us know," Jesse finished. The others nodded their agreements
Waving her thanks away Alex nodded her gratitude, "Aw come on you're gonna make me blush. You're friends of Lexa's you're friends of mine. Besides I don't leave family out in the cold," she said looking at Lexa she winked then started heading down the stairs.
"Wait, Aunt Al," Lexa called. The older woman stopped to look at her niece. Lexa looked at her teammates. "Listen, how about you guys get settled in while I go and catch up with my aunt. We can meet up later and discuss...things," Lexa said. Making her way down the stairs the two disappeared from sight.
"So how are we going to split up the bunking?" Brennan asked, winking at Shalimar.
"I was thinking, Brennan, that you and I could share this room,"she paused taking in his reaction, "and you could sleep on the floor, stud."
Jesse laughed and Brennan smiled in revenge of the comment. "I'm kidding, look how about Lexa and I share this room and you boys take the room down the hall."
"Well do you think Lexa will mind us in her old room, I mean she might wanna stay there," Jesse offered, feeling a bit odd taking Lexa's old room.
"Then she would have said something about it. We should keep this appropriate. I don't want to be discourteous; I mean she is letting us stay in her home as guests."
"Yeah, all right," Brennan said, slugging an arm around her shoulders he led her down the stairs and Jesse followed.
Once downstairs Shalimar pulled away from Brennan smiling at him, "hey Brennan, how about you boys hang out while I take a look around outside," she said, letting go of Brennan's hand.
Nodding he watched as her feral eyes turned and she headed for the door they had come in from.
After he thought about it Brennan decided he was tired. "Hey Jess, I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me if we have a meeting or something."
"You got it. I'm going to get something to eat and check the news, see if anything odd comes up back home," Jesse said.
"Alright, have fun," Brennan said, heading back up the stairs while Jesse headed towards the kitchen.
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Lexa walked beside Alex as they returned her horse to the barn. "So how have you been?" Lexa started.
"Oh you know same old same old. I've been having problems with trespassers though. That's why I got more dogs; people fret a bit more over guard dogs then security systems, so." Signaling the surrounding area with her arms.
"Have they been trying to break into your house?" she asked curious of the life she left behind as well as trying to stay off topic.
"No, there's just more problems with hunting. I just worry that that will start happening when they come up this far, you know." Lexa nodded.
Inside the barn Alex started taking the saddle off and Lexa helped. Small talk was over and Alex wasn't one to beat something around the bush. "Lexa, where have you been?"
Stopping Lexa wasn't quite sure how to answer her. Should she tell her the truth or not? The better question would be would she understand the truth. Lexa decided to be vague, maybe she would have some minor knowledge on what's going on, after all her aunt had made a career in the navy intelligence.
"We were working for an organization and they ended up being on the wrong side, now they're after us so I thought we could stay here a while and then figure things out from there."
Deciding on letting her leave it at that Alex nodded, Lexa had always been secretive and the only way to get her to tell you something was to let her do it on her own. Alex was pretty good at getting information out of people, if not from Lexa then one of her friends might fess up, under a certain amount of pressure Alex might have to apply later. An evil grin formed in her head at the thought.
Lexa could sense her aunt, she knew the older woman wanted to know more but what should she do? Before she could reply Alex spoke.
"Lexa, I know your parents and I got into a dispute about...things when you two were eight and that's part of why they moved, but I also know there's another reason behind it. Even though we haven't talked since then there is one thing good about my sister, your mother, was the loyalty we had. You can thank your grandparents for that. We both had our secrets and we respected that but when it came down to you and Leo our ideas of morale conflicted."
Eyebrows narrowing in question Lexa knew her aunt knew more about the topic then she was letting on. Perhaps she knew of her mutant powers, perhaps she knew of Genomex, but for now Lexa had to be vague. Things needed to start to settle with the whole situation at hand. "There's just so much going on that I can't tell you for fear of endangering you." Lexa offered. 'Chicken shit,' she thought to herself, sighing inwardly.
"You know, Lexa," Alex began, pulling the bridle off the bay mare and replacing it with a halter. She then picked up a brush and started combing the horse down. "Sometimes being vague isn't the best way to go. After all you might need help and then what?"
Lexa stood in silence for a moment, not really sure what to do next. Giving information up just wasn't something Lexa was used to. All her years at Genomex, with Eckhart, and the Dominion secrets were a blessing. What it finally boiled down to was that this was her aunt whom she trusted more than anyone and it was time she told her aunt of where she and Leo had been for all these years and what had become of her, but now just didn't seem like the appropriate time.
"Aunt Al, there's something I need to tell you, but now is not the right time." she said.
"Well so long as you promise to tell me in the near future I'll let it slid," Alex said. Her sense of humor was a cover for her feelings, if she had any. Developed due to her parents and continued through her time in the service, neither had allowed feelings to get in the way. Besides that Alex didn't like to show her emotions, just never did. For Alex, weak always seemed to go hand in hand with emotion.
Lexa picked up a brush and when she started brushing the other side of the mare Alex added, "when 'now' is the right time, there's something I need to tell you as well." Alex had her own secrets. Now that Lexa was an adult and now she was close to giving up some of her secrets, Alex might as well tell Lexa of some of her own she'd kept hidden all of these years.
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Shalimar was in heaven. The land was so pure, so alive, so much like a home for the feral that rested inside of her. Climbing up a nearby tree she felt her insides scream with excitement. With her new sight high in the tree she saw the endless view of trees and mountains.
Jumping from the tree to the ground below she landed gracefully, then raced ahead looking for new sights and smells. Wildlife scattered across the lands she watched, all feral.
Letting her instincts go Shalimar took in her surroundings. She could get used to this.
Author's Note: So I says to myself, self how long is this fucker gonna be and are you gonna finish it? After some thinking I answered by saying this fucker is gonna be roughly eight chapters, each getting longer as we go and since I'm practically done writing it on paper then yes I'm gonna finish it. My lazy ass will more than definitely be getting some sort of workout before next year.
Well there's all my cussing for a PG-13 rating, if you don't believe me of the rating than go watch S.W.A.T. or a number of other movies that can use the magic word once or twice with violence and other cussing involved.
MORE IMPORTANTLY- So I wrote half of this then saw the episode 'Brother's Keeper' for the first time today and was like 'shit'. In any event this still works out if you as readers play along. In the Mutant X world Lexa and Leo's parents were in the military intelligence and they handed their kids over to the bad guys when they started showing their powers. From there Lexa had Leo go to Genomex in return she would work for them, shaping where her whole character of now came to be.
So that's that and how it works in my world is that Alex is in the navy intelligence. Lexa's mother, Alex's sister, knew of her sister being in the navy but kept her identity, that you'll find out in the next chapter, a secret. Alex knows more then she is telling and Lexa knows that so that will start to unfold. Lastly, since Alex was in the navy she had to leave quite often on trips leaving Lexa and Leo when they wanted to see her. Hence the memory Lexa told Jesse that Alex said her and Leo had to look out for each other, making Lexa feel more like the responsible one. The whole mess with Lexa not bringing up her aunt before was because she was young when her and her brother 'moved' usually when you have a relative you spend time with and love but they are always in and out, then you move and never see them or have contact with them. Inside you usually remember the good memories and Alex was someone she always respected but due to the events in her life Alex was someone in the back of her mind. That emerged in MY Mutant X world.
Thanks for reading! Chapter 3: Never Goes Away, will be up soon.
