Chapter 10

Jesse reacted instantly.

"I'll push, you breathe!" he barked to Shalimar, already positioning his hands to start CPR, "Lexa, watch our backs!"

"Wait – what about the broken ribs?" Lexa protested, "You'll tear his lung to ribbons!"

"That he can survive," the feral stated the obvious as Jesse started pumping Brennan's chest, counting a rhythm of five compressions per set. Shalimar pulled his chin up and checked that his airway was clear. Blood was beginning to leak from his nose. She pinched it, placed her mouth over his and blew as hard as she could, trying to force air into his lungs.

Jesse thought he felt a slight give with each push, but he couldn't worry about that now. He finished the third set of reps and looked over at Shal. She shook her head. He repeated the whole process and got the same response.

Lexa stood at the doorway, one eye peeled for possible attackers, the other watching her teammates in their frenzied, futile efforts. She understood the sentiment – they had been together for a long time, and coming so quickly after the loss of Adam and the psionic it would be doubly hard for them to let go – but there came a time when you had to cut your losses. There was no telling how long they had before the Naxcon forces regrouped and attacked again. Surprise had whittled down the odds earlier, but that was gone now. Once they regrouped, Acosta's forces would be coming for blood, and would find their outnumbered foes boxed into a small space with no cover. This room would become a killing field.

A hard decision had to be made. Lexa had no problem with taking Brennan's body with them if either Jesse or Shalimar could manage it. There was no point in leaving it behind for those inhuman ghouls to carve up, but they had to get out of here now. Brennan was dead. The only thing left to do was to take him home.

She shook her head sadly. She obviously hadn't known him as well as the others; hadn't even really liked him all that much. But he had been gutsy and a fighter, and she respected that. He died the way he wanted, saving the life of someone he loved. It was time to let him rest. He had earned it. She shifted uncomfortably. She was still very much the outsider in this tightly-knit group, and they would probably resent her for this, but someone had to broach the painful truth. Brennan had sacrificed himself, and the only way to honor that sacrifice was to go. Lexa wished there was a better way, but there wasn't. Not if they wanted to get out of here alive. She coughed to clear her throat.

"Look, I know you don't want to hear this …," she began.

"Then don't say it!" Jesse snapped.

He knew exactly what Lexa had been about to say. The same thoughts were starting to leak into his own head, little worms of doubt crawling inch by inch past his defenses. Brennan was gone, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. The damage had just been too great, too much even for the elemental's strength and tremendous will to live. Jesse was just fooling himself here, just going through the motions. It was hopeless. The grief he felt before he phased through the wall magnified like an exploding star.

Let it go, Jess.

Huh? Jesse's head came up with a jerk. Who said that? He glanced at Shalimar. She was still blowing air vigorously into Brennan's mouth, oblivious to anything else. She obviously hadn't heard a thing. The whisper must have been inside his head, merely his imagination. He hadn't really heard anything. Or could that have been Matt speaking telepathically? It didn't feel the same, yet he still searched his mind for the sensations he experienced earlier. He didn't find them, and Matt didn't answer.

You did everything you could. I know it hurts, but you have to let me go. Get Shalimar and Lexa out of here. That's more important now. You have to be strong for them.

In his shock Jesse actually missed a couple of beats on his CPR compressions, although he caught himself and kept going on autopilot. Those were Brennan's words, what he would likely say in this situation, but was that his actual voice? Was it really over? Jesse closed his eyes tightly, so tightly that moisture squeezed out in wet trails from the corners. No. He wouldn't believe it. This was just his mind preying on his fear of inadequacy and failure, trying to rationalize what was starting to look like an unthinkable outcome. He would open his eyes, and Brennan's ghost would not be kneeling beside him. He opened them cautiously.

There was still a thinning haze in the air, but no ghost, thank God. It was all in his head, just as he thought. He just needed to concentrate more, focus on what he was doing. He could not allow himself to waver. He started another set of compressions, pushing even harder, letting his renewed resolve flow into the thrusts.

It's okay, Jess.

No, dammit! Jesse ruthlessly closed his mind to that insidious whisper. Whether it really was his best friend speaking to him one last time or merely his own fears and imagination didn't matter. Jesse wasn't abandoning the fight this easily. Brennan wouldn't give up on me – I'm not giving up on him! He was getting winded; his wrists were starting to ache, but he kept pumping, ticking off the count mechanically in his head. "Come on!" he grunted, panting. "Come on!"

Time seemed to slow to a standstill, the world closing in around the three of them. The longer they worked the less likely they were to succeed, and they both knew it. Shalimar was still administering artificial respiration in tandem with his thrusts, trying to blow air into Brennan's lungs with the fierceness of a woman possessed. Blood leaking from his nostrils smeared her face every time she placed her mouth over his, the taste and smell slashing through her feral senses, driving her ever closer to full-blown despair. Her tears were falling freely now, leaving wet spots in the coating of dust on Brennan's face.

"Damn you, Brennan, don't you do this!" she burst out suddenly between breaths, "I'll kick your ass all the way back to Sanctuary!"

It was apparent to Jesse that she didn't even realize she had spoken aloud, much less recognized the total lack of logic in her threat, but he was too busy to do any more than process her words. He finished another group of three sets and halted, breathing heavily as he glanced over at her, flexing his wrists to give them some relief before inevitably taking up the rhythm again. Shalimar hesitated, her concentration centered in her fingertips.

"Yes," she breathed after a few seconds, astonishment and wonder blending together in that single word. She looked over at him, and he could see the barest glimmering of hope in her wide, liquid eyes. "It's weak, but he's back."

Jesse leaned back on his heels in pure relief, his eyes closing briefly in a wordless, heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving.

"Maybe he heard you," Lexa commented from behind her, then stiffened at the sound of approaching footsteps. She flattened herself along the wall, her right hand beginning to glow in anticipation of a preemptive strike. A few seconds later she powered down as Jaryl and Matt, both looking rather disheveled, appeared at the doorway. The others relaxed, but Jesse's brain went into vapor lock for a few seconds. Although he knew what to expect, had even been preparing himself since he saw her on camera, the sight of her in the flesh still rendered him speechless. Her eyes were just as brilliantly green as he remembered.

"Hang on, kids," Jaryl said, reading the situation in an instant and hurrying over to the fallen mutant, her husband at her shoulder, "Help has arrived." She dropped to her knees beside Kilmartin and smiled.

"Hello, Jesse," she said, "It's been a long time."

Shalimar and Lexa looked at each other, then at their molecular teammate. Jesse just shook his head; now was not the time to explain. They had other things to worry about.

"Oh, boy."

Jaryl had immediately placed her hands on Brennan's chest, looking inward to assess his condition. A wave of golden energy flowed from them into the stricken elemental. His body reacted with quick, barely discernable intake of breath. Jesse got out of her way and went over to stand beside Lexa.

Jaryl looked up at her husband. Their gazes locked. Consternation quickly clouded Matt's face. Jaryl returned his look steadily. Matt's eyes closed briefly, his face a war of violently conflicting shock, objection and searing fear. She waited, and as she did so she fed more biokinetic energy into Brennan's body. Finally, with the exhalation of a deep breath, Matt got his emotions back under some semblance of control. He nodded once in tight resignation and held out his hand. His wife shook her head.

"Later," she said, "Time is more important."

Lexa leaned toward Jesse. "Does anyone else feel like were missing something here?" she asked in a low voice.

Jaryl took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The glow from her hands spread over the whole of Brennan's torso like a soft amber blanket and stayed there, bathing him in a nimbus of energy. Matt took one last lingering look at her, then abruptly rose into the air, lifted by his telekinetic power.

"Hey, where are you going?" Startled, Shalimar rose to her feet.

Wordlessly Matt looked down, his eyes meeting Jesse's. The molecular flinched, staggering back a step as if dazed by some sort of impact, both hands going to clutch his head. Matt maneuvered through the ceiling hole and was soon out of sight.

"What the hell was that all about?" Lexa demanded.

Shalimar reached out quickly to steady her molecular teammate.

"Are you okay?" she asked solicitously.

Disoriented, Jesse gave his head a little shake, trying to process what just happened. He felt flushed, as with a fever, at the influx of concepts and images into his head, a unique kind of knowledge not dependent upon words suddenly just there, as if it all had somehow been injected into his brain. The sensation wasn't unpleasant exactly; more like startling and disconcerting. His mind reeled as it tried to sift through all the information and put it into some sort of coherent form. Something slim and strong tightened around his body, supporting him, but he had no idea who or what it was. He drew a shaky breath, then another, coughing a little in the clearing air. The flush faded as order began to emerge from the chaos, his brain processing the data into recognizable patterns.

His gaze fell on Jaryl sitting on her heels beside Brennan, her eyes closed, both of their bodies as still as death. In a perception seen not with his eyes but with the inner vision of understanding he saw that the energy field diffusing from her hands across Brennan's chest, which he originally took to be steady, was in fact moving, pulsating with a life all its own. Tiny, almost imperceptible streams were imbedded in the larger field, little tides of the pure essence of life ebbing and flowing from her to Brennan and back again, guided and protected by a stronger river made of twin currents braided together. Watching it with the innate sense of knowing, he fancied he could almost see his friend's injuries transferring to her atom by atom, see the flow pause and lighten in color slightly over him, then resume, reinforcement coming in the next blush of amber.

Red crashed through the gold next; the red of warning, of risk, of danger stark and near, surmounted by the pendulum of a giant timepiece dominating the scene. Urgency was there too, casting its shadow over the face of the clock. Beside the clock stood a great stone sentinel with far-seeing eyes watching over the entire scene. Little pockets of darkness began to form around the periphery, but the sentinel stood fast, keeping the shades at bay. It turned its monolithic gaze on him for a long moment, then once again took up its vigil. Jesse understood.

Something squeezed him hard around the middle; he heard the sharp, firm sound of his name spoken close to his ear. Blinking rapidly, he started as he came back to the larger world around him, and looked into Shalimar's concerned brown eyes. He straightened and nodded, not knowing if she said anything else, but recognizing the question anyway.

"I'm all right," he said to her.

Shalimar's hand came up to rest lightly his shoulder.

"What just happened? It almost looked like Matt attacked you."

Jesse gave his head a negative shake.

"It was a telepathic burst," he replied, "Matt didn't have time to explain, so he asked me to do it for him. Here's what we need to do …"

He never finished the sentence. Lexa, who had been keeping a weather eye on the area outside the storage room, saw shadowy forms begin to gather in the haze.. Her head snapped around.

"We've got company!"

"Report, Mr. Voss."

Called away from the bank of security monitors by the summons, Jason Voss, Head of Security for Naxcon, turned to his computer screen and met the cold obsidian glare of Damien Acosta with the air of a seasoned professional rallying after an initial catastrophe. This had been a debacle from the start, but with the latest developments Voss believed he could turn the situation around. More than that, in fact. There was a very good chance now that he would not only retain custody of Target Alpha, but bag her rescuers as well. Much as he wanted to strangle Dillon Carter for his insane vendetta and the subsequent destruction of parts of the first and second floors, he couldn't deny that his actions just might have turned defeat into victory.

It had been pure luck that Mutant X broke into Dr. Harrison's lab just before the additional security contingent went to assist in transferring Target Alpha, else he wouldn't have known as soon as he did that the facility was under attack. The second team had found their fellows unconscious, and had called it in. Since his camera feed here in the security office showed nothing amiss, it was obvious what had happened. Intruders, probably from The Dominion, were on site and had engineered several video loops to disguise their actions.

For all the good it did them. Anyone who ever watched TV knew of this trick. It had been child's play for Voss to disable the loops and return to the actual feeds. He helped design this system, and had included some redundancies with just this ploy in mind. He had been expecting something like this ever since they acquired the woman this morning.

What he hadn't been expecting was the identity of the intruders, at least not this soon. Their intelligence indicated that The Dominion was keeping Mutant X out of the picture, yet there they were. He recognized Shalimar Fox and Brennan Mulwray right off from the dossiers Mr. Acosta had recently provided of Mutant X. The problem was that his people weren't prepared to deal with a commando force of this caliber. The opportunity to acquire Target Alpha had come along too quickly. His regular force had only just begun working out with the new electrically-charged weaponry, and of course training of the Special Forces personnel had been understandably meager. Their life spans were limited as it was after the grafting process. There was no sense in hastening the inevitable with excessive training and burning out their mutant DNA too soon. It might cut down on future recruitment if their guinea pigs knew what was in store for them. He would just have to make do with what he had and hope that the innate pugnacity of the street-bred thugs, their new abilities and superior odds would prevail. There would be casualties; several were nearing their expiry dates, and it was a waste of good shock troops, but it couldn't be helped. Besides, as Mr. Acosta pointed out earlier, they were already in the process of creating more.

The lack of proper training was evident in the effortless way that Fox disposed of the additional security team, which was why Voss immediately sent the nearest Special Forces team, backed by another group of uniformed security, to intercept the pair in Dr. Harrison's lab. Two more SF units were dispatched to converge from opposite directions on the first floor. Voss reasoned that Mutant X must be present in its entirety, and that as the tech specialist of the group Jesse Kilmartin had engineered the camera loops, most likely from the server room on the main floor. He probably had Lexa Pierce with him providing cover. The plan was for his two SF teams to catch Pierce and Kilmartin between them and capture them by sheer weight of numbers.

Unfortunately for his men, Mutant X immediately set about justifying their formidable reputation. Fox and Mulwray struck hard and fast, taking out nearly half of their opposition in the first few seconds. Even Target Alpha, freed from her sub-dermal governor by the elemental, fought ferociously, leaving two of the Special Forces operatives seriously injured. Voss got the impression that she had somehow used her powers in an offensive fashion, although he wasn't quite clear on how they were utilized. He had already forwarded that bit of intelligence to Mr. Acosta. In the end, though, he thought the SF unit had their quarry captured in the lab antechamber – until two electro-clubs had torn themselves free from their owners and flung themselves like giant demented insects at his people. It was then he realized that the woman's telekinetic husband was also loose in the facility, although he apparently took great care to stay out of camera range. Voss had no idea where the man was. He didn't even know what he looked like.

That was what was bothering him the most. The backup unit he sent down the northeast stairs toward the lab to cut off the fugitives' escape reported that the clubs had charged them, exploding when hit by a bolt of Mulwray's lightning. SF Unit 2 coming down from the second floor had experienced a delaying attack by an unknown assailant – again, likely the telekinetic. Since telekinesis was a skill that required visual contact to be effective, at least in his understanding, that meant he had to have been at Harrison's lab, then gone up the southwest stairs with his wife, Fox and Mulwray. He probably paused just long enough to delay SF 2, and then exited the stairway on the main floor. The cameras there, though, never picked him up, although they saw the other three. Nor did either of the SF units actually see him. So where was he?

Voss hadn't dwelled on the question, but had marshaled his forces via walkie-talkie and dispersed them for intercept. It had turned into an unmitigated disaster. Mutant X and their allies had staged three nearly simultaneous ambushes. Despite his warnings, two of the three had been eminently successful. The third had turned into a running battle with Fox and Mulwray, who were on the verge of prevailing until Dillon Carter managed to corner them in the storage room and blow up the chemical tanks racked there. Unfortunately, the explosion took out the cameras in the area as well. He immediately dispatched a couple of survivors from the laboratory to get up there and report what was happening. Those reports were already coming in.

"Reconnaissance confirms what I told you earlier, Mr. Acosta," he said, "Half of Mutant X was in the storage room when it blew. The other two members have since joined them there. One of my guards reports seeing a laser beam carving a doorway from inside the room. That can only be Lexa Pierce."

"Agreed. So it was Fox and Mulwray that were caught in the explosion?"

"Yes sir – I've had an eyewitness report to that effect."

"So they're either dead or severely injured."

"Just Mulwray, sir. I sent a spotter up to the second floor to observe them through one of the holes in the ceiling. He's down and looks bad; Fox and Kilmartin appear to be working on him. Fox seems to be relatively unhurt."

Acosta raised an eyebrow at that. The security chief had no explanation for how she could have escaped unscathed and so offered none. His employer waved a dismissing hand. It was an intriguing question, but one for another time.

"What about that fool, Carter?"

"Stunned, but not seriously injured. They're bringing him around."

The receiver in his ear chirped. Voss listened intently.

"Sir, Target Alpha and her husband have just arrived at the storage room."

"Excellent! Now we have them all right where we want them, and Mulwray's condition will keep them there." The image on the screen considered for a moment. "What are your current resources?"

"Mutant X took a heavy toll, sir; there's no getting around that. At least five are dead, mostly from burnout; several others are incapacitated. We're going to need a triage team as soon as possible. Backup forces would also be advisable if there are any available." Voss shook his head, still marveling at the casualties Mutant X had been able to inflict in the face of far superior numbers. He wished he could have operatives of that caliber on his own staff. "As for our remaining resources: Carter will make eight Special Forces operatives available, along with ten uniformed security officers. The SF operatives are moving into position around the doorway opening as we speak. Of my own security, I've got two providing situational intelligence. Five more armed with heavy weaponry are guarding the back to discourage them in case Kilmartin tries to get his team out that way."

"I want them alive if possible, Mr. Voss."

Voss nodded crisply. "I anticipated that, sir. I've sent the remaining three equipped with tranquilizer guns up to the second floor with orders to fire only if necessary. The SF agents will then move in and subdue them with sub-dermal governors. We should have them all in custody shortly."

"Advise your men to go ahead and take down the telekinetic with the tranquilizer guns. He's the most dangerous of the group."

"Yes, sir, I'll relay that right away. I'll also warn them again not to harm the woman."

"Very good, Mr. Voss. I'll send a triage team and another Special Forces unit right away." The image on the screen leaned forward, its dark eyes burning like pools of molten lava.

"Take them."

Lexa peered back through one of the smaller holes to get a count of the enemy.

"I make out six or seven," she reported presently, "They're taking up positions in front of us. It looks like they're getting ready to move in."

Frankly, she was surprised there weren't more. She recognized only one from the group she and Jesse took on; the one he handcuffed in a door. From the numbers remaining the rest of the team had fought with similar success, and now the survivors were here looking for some major payback. A cold, grim reality settled into the pit of her stomach. This was what came of sentiment. They had waited too long, and now they were trapped like mice in a cage. Whether or not Jaryl could have saved Brennan was about to become moot. Well, she sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight.

Shalimar touched Jesse's arm. "Back door?"

Jesse darted to the rear wall and phased his head through. His action precipitated a flurry of gunfire. Hurriedly he pulled it back in.

"I don't think so."

Shalimar looked out through another hole, marking the positions of the various enhanced operatives. For some reason they seemed to be holding their positions, as if waiting for something. Maybe she could use that to her advantage. She glanced up at the decimated ceiling, trying to gauge the damage and whether or not she could leap up there without collapsing more of it. Jesse hastened back to his teammates.

"Okay, here's the deal," he said in a low tone, "Matt will cover us as much as he can while keeping watch for outside reinforcements. We need to fight a holding action here until Jaryl is through absorbing what she can of Brennan's injuries. "

"Absorbing?" Shalimar questioned. Jesse nodded.

"That's how her power works," he explained, "She transfers physical injuries to her own body, then heals them. She can also strengthen the injured person by transmitting some of her own biokinetic energy. That's what she did a minute ago."

"How does Matt plan to cover us, and why couldn't he do it from here?" Lexa demanded.

"He figured that once our friends out there realized he wasn't with us, they'd come looking for him, taking some of the heat off us," Jesse answered, "He also needed to get to someplace high and centralized in order to …"

"Freeze!"

Three pairs of eyes shot skyward to see a trio of rifles trained on them from the upper floor. Lexa eased a hand behind her, letting the gathering flow of energy ignite her fingers.

"Don't try it, lady!" one of them snapped from above. A red targeting laser spot appeared on her chest. With a fulminating glare she powered down and slowly raised her hands. One of the snipers waved at the glowering Special Forces agents, who started forward en masse.

"Where's this cover you were talking about?" she mumbled disgustedly to Jesse out of the corner of her mouth. Jesse heard the bitter recrimination in her voice and it fueled his own rising desperation. A few more minutes – why couldn't we have had just a few more minutes? His thoughts raced. They had to do something, make some kind of a break to take the battle away from Brennan and Jaryl, but as soon as they even twitched the snipers would open fire. He couldn't shield everyone, so whom should he cover? Shalimar? Her speed gave her the best chance of escaping; she was already tensed and ready to spring. Jaryl and Brennan were helpless, locked in an empathic trance. Surely they wouldn't shoot them; it was obvious that neither was any threat. Besides, they needed Jaryl unharmed. That left Lexa, their only remaining long-range attacker, but even she couldn't prevail against such odds. They were screwed.

All of this darted through his head in a fraction of a second. Matt, where are you? He set himself, preparing to mass out in a shield for Lexa when in that split second he had the sense of an ephemeral presence at his shoulder. He exhaled with a sigh of relief and looked up, instinctively knowing what was needed of him.

"Cover coming up."

Suddenly the trailing edges of shredded carpet hanging down from the floor above rose up in a wave with a ripping sound, sending the three snipers tumbling. Jesse seized Lexa's hand and ran toward the doorway, releasing it when he got there and massing in front of her. Taking her cue, Lexa raised both hands and fired a blitzkrieg of laser shots in all directions, aiming more to scatter than taking the time for a killing shot. Her ploy was eminently successful. The grafted mutants, thinking that their foes had been rendered harmless, dived for cover with much cursing. One did get off a snap shot; some sort of green energy splattered off Jesse's body but did not penetrate. Both then ducked to either side of the door. Jesse glanced around and saw that someone was missing. Where was Shalimar?

The feral had leaped up to the second floor in the carpet's wake. Now she came to stand at the edge of one of the larger holes, the three rifles in her hands. She had a very satisfied look on her face.

"I've brought you some souvenirs," she said, dropping one to Jesse, "Tranquilizer guns – I guess they want us alive."

"More likely they want Jaryl alive, so they're not taking any chances," Jesse said.

"Oh, that's comforting," Lexa commented sardonically. She caught the gun Shal tossed her by the barrel and leaned it against the wall beside her. She might have to resort to using it later, but for now she preferred her own weapon and her own personal ammunition.

Ordinarily Shalimar wouldn't have bothered with the light-duty rifles, but it had been a long, hard fight and they were all wearing down. Lexa in particular was starting to look drained, the paleness of her skin enhanced by the darker colors of her shiner. Shalimar acknowledged with an inward grimace that she herself probably didn't look a whole lot better. The trank guns weren't what she would have wanted, but they might help them conserve some measure of their waning strength. She jumped back down to the storage room, getting clear just an instant before a bolt of that green energy sizzled through the hole from somewhere outside their haven. Lexa started to retaliate with a laser bolt of faded red, but Jesse stayed her hand.

"Save your energy," he advised.

"For what?" Lexa snapped. Through one of the holes she could see the grafted mutants gathering themselves again.

Suddenly one of them gave a wild yell and they all charged, intent upon storming the doorway. Lexa braced herself, waiting for Jesse to mass out to act as her shield again, all the while cursing inventively in three different languages. This was it, and she knew it, whether the others admitted it or not. It was seven against three, and the three had no cover and limited space to maneuver. The bad guys were coming in too fast; there was no way they could keep from being overwhelmed. Gritting her teeth, she prepared call up every last ounce of energy she had left.

"Wait," Jesse said softly. He still hadn't massed, and Lexa wondered what the hell he was waiting for - to see the whites of their eyes? They were more red than white, red for blood and a whole lot of vengeance. Lexa's nerves tightened to the shrieking point. The howling mob was only ten feet away; Jesse hadn't massed and she couldn't wait any more. Her hands whipped up, both of them glowing orange, and she sighted on the nearest of them, the man with the red beard and Harley Davidson T-shirt. Jesse stepped in front of her, blocking her shot, but did not mass. Before she could push him out of the way Red Beard suddenly smashed full tilt into an invisible barrier just in front of the doorway. She would have had no idea what he hit if the impact hadn't made it shimmer briefly. With the surreal feeling that she had inadvertently stepped into a Road Runner cartoon, Lexa watched in amazement as the red-bearded stand-in for Wyle E. Coyote hung there for a second, then sort of slithered unconscious to the floor.

Two more near him realized what happened but couldn't stop in time. They bounced off with somewhat less vigor and were able to retain their senses, if not their feet. The others stood back as the remaining moleculars and elementals among them began firing blasts of energy, trying to pierce the barrier. It shuddered and became visual at the impact points, but it held.

Shalimar was watching from a vantage point on the other side of the doorway.

"What is that?" she whispered.

"Matt has a telekinetic shield protecting the front," Jesse told them, "He has no idea how long he'll be able to hold it. He's also keeping watch in case they bring in reinforcements from the outside. We need to use the time he's buying to make plans for getting out of here – which we can't do until Jaryl breaks the trance. That's what she meant about time being important. She needs time to get Brennan stable enough to be able to move him safely – if she can."

His feral sister gave him an odd look.

"Matt told you all that with that – what did you call it?"

"A telepathic burst," Jesse answered, "I gotta tell you it was weird. Effective, but weird."

Lexa stepped forward. "Yeah, whatever. We still have to get out of here. I say we take the fight to them – right now." Shalimar nodded in agreement.

"Not so fast," Jesse said, "There's more to this than taking out our grafted friends out there. We also have to deal with the artillery behind us if we're going to get back to the Helix. Most importantly, we need to protect Jaryl and Brennan. While they're connected that way they're dangerously vulnerable. Understand - anything that happens to one happens to both. A punch, a stray shot, a ricochet, whatever."

He paused, meeting each gaze in turn. They needed to fully comprehend the situation here. There was no way of knowing if Jaryl would be able to take enough from Brennan to keep him alive. If she couldn't …. This could very easily be Mutant X's last battle. He swallowed hard. "Even if nothing hits them, if Brennan…" he took a deep breath, trying to steady the tremor he heard in his voice, and continued, "If Brennan dies while they're joined, it will kill Jaryl, too. And because of the way their minds are linked, the feedback shock would likely take Matt out as well."

Shalimar gazed at the pair on the floor locked in silent struggle amid the gently pulsing amber glow.

"So we're really protecting three lives here," she said softly.

Jesse shook his head.

"Four."

The two women looked at him in puzzlement.

"I saw the medical scan in her file when I accessed the system," he said, "Jaryl is 11 weeks pregnant."

Author's note: Rest assured (particularly Lisa) that I have every intention of bringing this story to a conclusion - but not yet. There are more twists to come. My best guess at this time is about 16 chapters total, although that can change. To answer another question I've had - 'Jaryl' rhymes with 'Carol'. There is no connection between her and the empath Kristoff from "The Hand of God". She has actuallyen in my head and early writings before Mutant X existed. I guess her spiritual origins are in a character from an original Star Trek episode.