Disclaimer: Same old same old. I don't own Mutant X.

Chapter 8: John Cates

Jesse spoke up, "The only person who would have the pass code would be the original author of the program that encrypted the information."

"That would be?"

"The leader of the Dark Angel Project, John Cates, your father."

Alcazar felt what was left of him leave him. All he thought he knew was a lie. "My dad is the leader of the Dark Angel Project?"

"The new leader," corrected Adam, "but yes, he took over about a year ago."

"Tell me what the Dark Angel Project is, I mean are they evil?"

"A few years back I would have said no, back when I was getting funding from the D.A.P they were peaceful. They even gave me the money to build Sanctuary and Haven."

"So maybe their still like that," said Alcazar as he tried to hold on to the hope that his father wasn't a monster. "I mean it's possible, right?"

"No, not possible, I'm sorry Al, I wish I had better news for you, but the D.A.P. is Mutant X worst nightmare."

Shal and Jesse glanced at each other, Shal turned to Adam, "What do you mean our worst nightmare?"

"The D.A.P. is gathering mutants to assault Mutant X and destroy everything we've built up."

"How are they going to do that?" asked Lexa.

"There's a hit out for some of you, others I'm guessing are more low-key than others."

"Who's got hits out on them?" asked Max.

"Shal, Jesse, Lexa, Emma, and Gabriel."

"What?" asked Gabriel, "I'm not even a member of Mutant X."

"But they see you as a threat to their leader. You have the power to lead Gabe; you've done it in the past. As weird as it sounds I think we're going to need you to do it again."

Shalimar couldn't believe her ears. 'There is no way Adam just told Gabriel to go back to his evil ways.' "What did you just say?"

"Gabriel, I need you to re-gather the Links. We're going to need them to fight with us. But they can't know of our location here at Xavier Manor."

"All right, I'll take Ashley with me, I can re-gather all the Links," said Gabriel as he and Ashley got off the couch and left.

Cassandra watched as her husband and son left. As the only non-mutant there, she felt out of place a lot of the times and spent most of her time with Melodie. Cassandra got up, "I'm going to go check on Mel and the kids."

Shal watched her leave. She glanced over at Mari who for some reason was very calm. Lexa looked at Shal and noticed Shal was noticing the same thing she was. Emma was sitting behind Jesse felt the tension between the three women. It was so thick in the air that she was forcing the images to stop. "Excuse me everyone, I need some aspirin."

"Ok, Adam what do we do?" asked Shal.

"Well you Shal, along with Emma, Jesse, and Lexa are hereby grounded from going on missions."

"Why? Just because there's a hit out on us?"

"Yes," said Adam. "This threat is unlike any threat we've ever received. The Dark Angel Project is worse the GSA, Ashlocke before transformation, and Dominion all rolled into one."

Shalimar felt nervous, like this threat was something to be afraid of, but she shook it off, "Adam I'm not hiding, never have never will."

"Me either," said Jesse.

"Same here," said Lexa.

"You three might think differently when you find out…you guys weren't the only ones on the list."

"Who else?"

"Brennan."

Mari looked at Adam, "Are you saying that there was a hit out on Brennan?"

"Yes."

"From this D.A.P.?"

"Yes. Look, virtually all of you are in danger, not just these five."

"They can't hurt us Adam, come on!"

Cassandra came running into the room, "Help!"

"Cassie, what is it?"

"Mel, she passed out, I can't wake her up!"

Jesse took off running with Adam and the others right behind him. Jesse got there first, only to find Alex kneeling beside his mom Melodie. Shalimar acted fast, picked him up, and carried him out. Alcazar went over; picked up B.J. and Chris and followed Shal out.

Adam knelt beside Melodie to fell for a pulse. Mike rushed in, "I'll carry her to the lab."

Adam nodded; Mike knew something was wrong, Adam was acting funny. Mike picked her up and almost knew instantly why Adam was so somber. There was no life in Melodie; she was dead.

For Jesse's sake, they went on as if nothing was wrong. They knew they would have to tell him, but not like this.

15 minutes later…

Jesse sat outside the lab with Emma beside him. She tried to calm him, but there was no use. He had just found out his wife and unborn daughter had died. He was inconsolable, wrecked with grief like she had never felt before.

"How could this happen?" he whispered between sobs.

"I don't know, maybe Adam will have answers for you later."

"I loved her Emma, I loved her so much," he sobbed. Emma pulled Jesse close to her and just held him.

Next morning…

Adam knocked on Jesse's room, "Jesse can I come in?"

"Sure."

"I got the test results back on Mel, do you want to hear them now or wait?"

"Yeah I want to know now. I have to know how she died."

Adam sat down on his bed; Jesse knew it wasn't good news. "Her blood test showed that she was poisoned."

"What?"

"I'm not sure how or what it was for the matter. Most it was out of her system by the time I took the blood sample."

Jesse closed his eyes trying to avoid hearing what Adam was saying, "I'm sorry, can this wait, I need to make arrangements to bury my wife and unborn child," he said angrily before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

Jesse walked down the hallway and placed a call to Melodies' mom. He had called her last night to tell her about Melodie and she said she wanted to help with the arrangements.

"Hello?" said a quiet but sad voice.

"Hey Katherine, its Jesse."

"How are you dear?"

"Terrible, you?"

"Horrible. How is Alex?"

"He's numb I think, Emma helped me calm him down last night."

"Who's Emma?"

"A friend that works with me at my company," he lied. "She's friends with Mel and me."

"Oh, well I made a list of relatives and I don't mind helping make arrangements in other areas."

"Well I guess there needs to be food at our house for guests, Shalimar, my sister, thought it would be nice to serve Mel's favorite food to our guests. You probably know her favorite foods better than I do."

"Well I just might, since I raised her," joked Katherine.

"One thing, don't forget the chocolates, you know the ones with the almonds in them. There her favorite."

"I know she loves them, has since her 16th birthday."

"She was excited to get the chocolates the other night that you sent."

"What chocolates?"

"You forgot that you sent her chocolates?"

"No I didn't forget; I never sent her chocolates Jesse. I don't even know your new address."

Jesse dropped the phone. The poison that killed his wife was in the chocolates. Fear and anger hit him all at once. He leaned against the wall and slid down. His body was overcome with grief. How did they know Melodies' favorite chocolates? How did they know where Xavier Manor was? Was no one safe? How could they kill an innocent woman who was pregnant with a child?

'How could they kill my wife?'

All right, I'm not a huge fan of killing pregnant women. It killed me to kill off my character like that. However, as the story progresses, you will agree it had to be done.