Silent Barriers: Part 3

By Aja

The alleyway was dark when the team arrived. And hollow. Wet. Secluded. No sign of Brennan or anyone else.

Shalimar wasn't surprised, but the discovery of nothing made her feel cold—an odd kind of cold that pranced up and down the surface of her skin. And maybe the others felt it too, because for a stifling moment the four of them stood frozen together in the alley's street-way opening, wary of the wrongness in the air.

They'd been speculating on their way over. If Adam's contact wasn't lying to them, and everything really had gone according to plan, then what could have possibly happened? Something about the situation already didn't fit. Adam said he'd checked his inside links to the GSA twice before even telling the team about Brennan's disappearance and then twice after. There were no GSA reports that would indicate Brennan—or anyone else—had been recently captured.

So… what then? Shalimar was still learning about her new teammates. If she had to choose one of the two to be dubious about, she'd pick Brennan, but only if she had to. She didn't want to be dubious about him. Since his arrival, both he and Emma had added a dynamic to their small group that made Shalimar feel complete—like lost members of her pack were now, suddenly and inexplicably, accounted for. She wasn't prepared to lose that just yet but this—probably nothing—situation made her feel like the completeness of her world was starting to fray.

Standing in the mouth of this abandoned alley filled with unanswered questions felt like finding a loose thread on a sweater—tug too hard and the whole thing would come undone.

Adam set a hand on her shoulder. "Spread out," he ordered.

She stepped forward tentatively, peering through the wet griminess for a glimpse of Brennan's ring. The others did the same, walking and searching, a sort of controlled anxiety in their movements. The scent of worry clung most strongly to Emma. She looked small and vulnerable as she toed aside a garbage can and peered inside.

In the Helix on the way over, Emma had tried to get a hit off of Brennan, but despite the power and depth of their connection, she got nothing. It was possible that Brennan was too far away, that he was currently feeling no strong emotion, or that his emotions were being shielded somehow. Shalimar didn't like the picture painted by any of the possibilities.

Adam's face was somber as he searched, but less stoic than usual. He seemed as puzzled about this situation as the rest of them. Gone was the little spark in his eye that hinted humbly to the rest of the world that he knew something they didn't.

And over by a tipped garbage can, lifting a pizza box and roughly throwing it aside, Jesse was… Jesse looked… Jesse looked… peculiar.

Shalimar stopped abruptly what she was doing, unnerved by the fact that she couldn't place a label on Jesse's expression. The feeling caused her stomach to dip. She knew Jesse. She knew him better than anyone except maybe Adam and now all of a sudden couldn't name the look on his face? Slowly she set down the garbage lid she'd lifted, eyes focused on Jesse's face as she extended her senses. Taking deliberate steps, she moved forward, paying no heed to the sky's continued drizzling.

Jesse stayed focused, oblivious to her approach, toeing aside a wood crate, eyes peering around intently.

"Jesse?" Shalimar said, reaching her hand out to his shoulder.

"Did you find it?" He looked up, his baffling expression slipping momentarily into a look of raw hope.

"No," she started, not sure what to say next. "But, Jesse, are you—"

"I've got it!" Emma shouted from the far side of the alley.

Jesse brushed past Shalimar, moving briskly to where Emma was pointing, barely beating Adam to her location.

Shalimar stood frozen, not following. Wrapping her arms tightly around herself, hugging against the deepening cold in her bones, she peered the length of the alley in both directions. The rain had washed out any traces of Brennan her senses might have picked up, but she took inventory anyway, noting the scuff marks on the walls, the wet cardboard, the tipped crates and garbage cans. It all crowded around her, poking at her mind with images of violence.

Taking a deep breath, she shook off her irrational thoughts. They would find Brennan. And Jesse… Jesse was just worried like the rest of them. His look meant nothing. "When we find Brennan," she muttered to herself, overheard by no one as she walked to join the others. "I'm going to kill him for making us worry like this."

Two of Miguel's patrons bumped clumsily into Brennan as he was pushing out of the small bathroom. They were swaying and laughing and obviously drunk. Gritting his teeth against his protesting torso, he tucked an arm against his chest and waited for them to finish shoving through. The noise they were making echoed painfully off the cracked tile walls. Brennan cupped his hands over his ears until he was free of them. He didn't think his head would ever stop hurting.

Out in the hallway, he scanned the floor for his missing ring. Finding nothing, he stepped outside to the cement steps and looked again. He found a shiny mix of discarded soda cans, and saw the glinting reflection from a broken beer bottle, but no ring. Brennan read a lot and the metaphor of what he was doing wasn't lost on him—looking for a mythical ray of hope through the discarded realities of his life.

It was funny, he thought, what Adam had told him when Mutant X had first given him the ring—about it being Brennan's opportunity to put the past behind him. Adam should've known better. Adam spent every waking minute of his life fighting his own past… why had he possibly thought it would be any different for Brennan?

The past was everywhere.

Brennan rose from his careful crouch and stared across to the alley where he'd been. That's where he'd taken the ring off. That's where he'd most likely dropped it. He could just barely make out four shadowy figures moving around in the dark. The team had moved quickly, he realized, faster than he'd thought.

This is it, he realized. Time to put on a show. Shaking off the last temptation to run, he carded grazed fingers through his hair and moved. I can do this, he coached himself. I can con anyone. Even them.

I can do this.

"I'm screwed," he breathed aloud.

Adam plucked up Brennan's com-link gingerly, touching it only by the thin rims on the sides. It was unlikely that there would be finger prints or DNA on it other than Brennan's, but there always existed the possibility. Without other leads they couldn't afford to be sloppy or make assumptions.

When they'd arrived, he'd scrutinized the passageway for any signs of struggle, but it was difficult to conclude whether violence had occurred or not. Cardboard boxes and wooden crates sat discarded along the brick wall, some of which were smashed and torn. A few of the garbage cans had been tipped, the contents scattered; however, all those things could have occurred without a fight. Stray dogs, vandals, mischievous children, the storm, the wind… a combination of any of the above.

And any blood in the alley—god forbid—would have been washed away by the afternoon downpour. If Brennan had been attacked, or taken, there was no concrete evidence to show for it. Though, if that is what happened, the rain itself could explain how he'd been overpowered. Without safe access to his powers he'd have been extra vulnerable.

Adam pressed fingers to his forehead, digging into his temples.

He should have sent Shalimar… or Jesse. Even Emma. He hadn't known it was going to rain and there wasn't supposed to be anything dangerous about the drop off. Nothing at all. And—

"Adam." Jesse tapped his shoulder. "I found this too."

He looked over to see what Jesse held, breathing in disappointment at the frayed thread clinging to a shiny black button. It could have come from any of the garbage cans, or any number of other sources.

"It was right in the middle of the alley," Jesse clarified, reading Adam's doubt. "It wasn't near any of the garbage cans at all. It looks just like the ones on Brennan's coat."

Conceding, Adam reached out to accept it, handling it as cautiously as he had the ring. He dropped both items into a plastic bag pulled from his pocket. He was keenly aware that his team members were waiting, irrationally, for him to say he'd magically solved the mystery and knew where they could find their missing elemental. But he hadn't solved the mystery, and they already knew that. "Check the alley again," he told them, rising off his haunches and tucking the bag back into his pocket. "Let's see what else we can find."

Emma and Shalimar moved away together, splitting left and right as they searched. Jesse lingered at Adam's elbow like he had something to say. "Jesse?" he prompted. "Did you find something else?"

"No. It's just… never mind." There was a frown line between Jesse's eyebrows that Adam knew well.

"Jesse." Adam stopped him before he could move away, hand to his shoulder. "We'll find him."

Jesse stood motionless a moment, then nodded curtly and walked away. Adam watched him, fearing his words had emerged weaker than he intended, that he hadn't hidden his own doubt as successfully as should have.

He sighed.

Jesse had been an ardent defender of Brennan—in spite of their ability to bicker—since the two had met. Ever since Brennan, still equipped with a sub-dermal governor, had managed to give Jesse the opportunity to escape capture by the GSA. But it was more than that. Jesse had needed a brother ever since he'd come to sanctuary. He'd needed a friend. For years Adam and Shalimar were the only people he'd had to relate to or hang out with. Despite the competitiveness Brennan brought out in Jesse, Jesse responded readily to the easy way Brennan called him brother, to the easy way Brennan joked with him, and the easy way he pushed him to a higher skill level.

From an outsider's perspective, you'd think it was Jesse who was trying to figure out his place on the team instead of the other way around. But Adam knew better. Brennan was still adjusting and learning, and sometimes struggling. Jesse was sensitive and prone to ignoring the challenges Brennan faced in shedding his past. At times, Adam had found himself wanting to caution Jesse, but he was reminded of the years Jesse had spent much too closed off. Already Brennan had done wonders for that.

They needed him. The team needed him. And Brennan needed them. This, Adam was sure of.

So what could have happened here?

Adam trusted Brennan. But he trusted Jeff Stanton also. Stanton was a good man, a rare quality of friend. Adam couldn't fathom Jeff was lying when he so sincerely told him everything went off without a hitch and that Brennan had left the alley completely unharmed.

So far, every possibility was already a dead end. He tried to think through next steps.

They could look for witnesses—question some of the local business owners down the street, but getting useful information from them was already unlikely. He and Jeff had chosen this location for its seclusion. The alley was closed off from the rest of the street, shuttered from the city's nearby business district and devoid of windows where squatters in the nearby warehouse might have otherwise had a good show.

The only inhabited building with half a chance at witnessing anything was the dubious looking pizza haven situated across the street—and only then if someone had been taking garbage out the back entrance or otherwise hanging out in the pizza joint's back alley, which was even more unlikely considering the day's weather.

"Adam!" Shalimar gripped his forearm tightly. When he looked over he could see her eyes had flashed to feral gold.

"Shalimar?" he asked, gripping her shoulders.

"He's here," she said. "Brennan is nearby."

tbc