Chapter Seven - Afloat in a Sea of Memories
The wind rustled in the background, lifting her hair from her shoulders as she stood at a railing overlooking an ocean. It seemed to span out in all directions, the blue waves, tipped in a frothy white as they broke against the rocks below. The night sky was giving way to day's bright sun, the golden circle just beginning to rise, coloring the sky a brilliant rose and deep purple. As the sun began to rise in the sky the water beneath her began to boil, its movement increasing until small bubbles began to break through to the surface. Watching them from her perch by the railing she saw the first one rise to the surface and burst open, releasing a small butterfly into the air. Fluttering its wings the little flier land on the hand she stretched out towards it. Gazing down at the small butterfly a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. As though they were linked she could hear it speaking to her, telling her a tale... a tale of her life.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Slowly the steady humming encroached into her unconsciousness, rousing her to the world that moved around her. Cracking open her eyes she looked around to see a lab of some sort, Adam sitting before the computer, absently humming to himself a tune that she almost knew. Stretching her limbs she sighed softly but it was enough to catch his attention. The humming ceased as Adam looked up, rising from his seat at the same time. Crossing the distance between them in two long strides he put a hand to her forehead, feeling for the fever that had been raging in her body. "You gave us one hell of a scare," he said softly when he was satisfied that the fever was practically gone.
"Where am I?"
"Mutant X headquarters. You've been fighting a fever for a few days now." Adam could see the confusion in her eyes and explained. "The time was up on the Ethelplorinide and you passed out from the headaches just after we got you to safety. You had a fever from the side effects of the withdrawal for a few days but it seems to have passed. How do you feel?"
Gazing up at him with blank eyes she blinked a few times before sighing again and closing her eyes. "Like someone showed me the middle of a movie without letting me see the first half." Adam smiled. "Did everyone make it out okay?"
Nodding, "They're all fine, everyone is waiting for you to wake up so they can come say hi," he smiled at her.
"Adam, I..." she started, biting her lip. "I still don't remember anything."
"Don't worry about it," he smiled to reassure her. Taking her hand in his Adam helped her to sit up for a moment. "The Ethelplorinide is out of your system but it will still take some time to get your memories back. Thankfully you're here at the Sanctuary where I'm sure we can stimulate some of them for you, it will help you remember a little faster."
"How much faster?" she asked hopefully.
Adam couldn't help but laugh. He could already see bits of Emma beginning to shine through the woman who knew herself as Eve. "Patience," he teased. "Are you feeling up to having some company?"
Smiling she gave a small nod and Adam moved to open the door, signaling for the group of men and women in the hallway to come on in. Six people hurried in, their faces beaming when they saw her sitting up to meet them. Watching her greet them, hugging each one, Adam had to stamp down the little stab of jealousy that rose in his heart.
"How are you feeling!?" Mixy cried as she hugged her friend close. "Damn, girl! You had us worried out of our minds!"
"I'm fine," she smiled. "Just a little out of it still."
"What do you mean, kiddo?" Pete asked, leaning against the chair, dropping his arm over her shoulders.
"I still don't remember anything. Except..." Trailing off she thought back to the dream from just before she woke. Was it a dream? Was it a memory? "I'm not sure but I think I might remember something. It seems more like a dream than anything else, but at the same time it seems so real. I was standing in the middle of a platform of some sort, I'm not sure where it was, but I wasn't alone. There was another woman with me. We were fighting... but not really. I'm not sure how to explain it. It was like..."
"Like a sparring match?"
"Yes!" she answered excitedly. "It was a sparring match," looking at Shalimar, "With you." Staring at Shalimar another memory floated to her mind past the muddled barrier between her and her memories. "And it was you in the alley that night wasn't it? I was running from someone and a woman fought them so I could get away. It was you," pointing to the feral, "But there were other people too." Her eyes drifting over the group she stopped on Jesse. "Jesse, you were there, you stopped the bullets. And... you," looking at Adam. "You were there too."
Adam nodded. "You were running from the GSA. They were after you and you ran into the alleyway."
Smiling, "I remember." Her smile faded. "And I remember that I was a real bitch back then too," frowning.
Jesse laughed. "Yeah, but you grew on us."
The group laughed.
"You've been out for a while, you're probably hungry. Why don't you come out to the dining area and we'll get you some food."
"Mmm... food," she grinned, jumping up from the chair. "I'm starved."
Following her friends out of the medical room she stopped just before entering the dining area. While the rest of the group set out to make a meal she slipped down the hallway towards a larger room at the end of it. Passing under the stairs she found herself standing in a large open room, a water garden ahead of her and a platform above her. Wide-eyed she recognized the platform from her memory of Shalimar. Climbing the stairs she stood on the platform, her arms wrapped around herself.
Behind her Adam stopped a few steps from the edge of the platform. She seemed so distant to him. It used to be that he could read Emma as though she were linked to him. The swirling emotions in her eyes had always told him what was running through her mind. But now he didn't know, couldn't see them anymore.
"Do you always stand on your head when you're confused?"
Taken off guard Adam blinked in silence. Then, a small smile creeping onto his face, he climbed the last few steps to stop beside her. "Only if the mood strikes."
Turning to look at him she smiled. "You're good at it though," she teased.
Chuckling Adam was silent for a moment before speaking again. "What made you remember that?"
"I'm not sure. I was staring at the platform and I suddenly saw you standing on your head," she grinned. "I don't even know why you were doing it."
"I needed to think."
"So you stood on your head?"
Adam smiled and shrugged.
Laughing she shook her head. "Come on, let me escort you to dinner," taking his arm as they walked down the stairs toward the dining area. "It's the least I can do after you saved my life and all."
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting in the water garden of the Sanctuary she sat in meditation. Letting her mind wander wherever it willed she could barely contain her excitement as the memories floated in and out of her mind. Some were new, some were old, some painful, and some happy, but they were hers and she was glad to have them. She remembered her friends, meeting Brennan in the bar, Jesse, Shalimar, and Adam in the alley. The times that she fought side by side with them, a few of the times at least. She knew that there were chunks missing from her memories but, as she had seen over the past few days, she knew they would return eventually. But there was one vital memory that still eluded her.
What was her name?
Mixy, Pete and Jackie still called her Eve but more than once she had caught the four team members calling her by another name; Emma. With that small bit of information she'd done a search on the name Emma with the computer and had found her file. Emma DeLauro. That was the name attached to the face that she saw in the mirror. But it seemed no more real to her than the name Eve did. She had read the file through so many times that she had it memorized and slowly, bit by bit, the facts that she had read became more and more real to her. The more time that passed the more she remembered her life.
And finally, as she sat in the water garden, her mind drifting where it pleased, she remembered, in her heart, what her name was. What she had known in her mind she now knew in her heart as well. Jumping up, thrilled, excited, ecstatic to finally remember, she ran off in search of someone to share this good news with. Not sure where she was going, just needing to go somewhere, she ran through the halls in search until she came to a stop outside the labs. Opening the door she saw Adam standing at a desk and leapt onto his back, her laughter, too buoyant to keep reigned in, filling the room.
"Adam! I remember! I finally remember my name!" she laughed in his ear, hanging on to the shocked man tightly. "It's Emma! My name really is Emma!"
Though the sudden onslaught of her weight in his back had startled him Adam had to grin. Laughing he deposited the young woman onto the desk and stood facing her. "That's great, Emma!"
"I was just sitting there in the garden, not really thinking about anything, when it just came to me. One minute I was thinking about one of the times I was held by the GSA and the next I remembered my name. It was the weirdest thing. But I'm not complaining!"
Laughing at the unbridled joy in Emma's face and voice Adam folded his arms and stared at her, leaning his hip against the other desk. He was dying to ask if she remembered, truly remembered, him. But Adam knew he would have to wait until she remembered it on her own. But he couldn't help but wonder... "So who did you tell on the way here?"
"Oh no one, you're the first one I found," she replied absently as another memory floated to the surface of her mind. "We do this a lot don't we?" Emma asked suddenly, her face becoming serious. "I remember doing this, sitting here in the lab, talking, a number of different times. It always seemed to help, talking things over with you I mean. Like that one time after you went all bad on us. You freaked me out with the way you were hurting us. I remember I couldn't be in the same room with you for a while. Even though I knew you wouldn't hurt me it was still strange. But then I was working in here and you locked the door so I couldn't bail on you. We talked and by the time we were done it was okay between us again."
Adam was silent. He remembered that night. Emma had been avoiding being alone with him for almost a week before he finally pinned her in the lab and made her face him. It had taken a few hours but they'd talked it all out and had left the room as friends.
As though she didn't realize he didn't respond Emma kept talking, voicing her memories as they came to her, one memory sparking the next one to life. "But that wasn't the first time either. We work in here a lot, don't we? Like the time I... no, that can't be right," shaking her head at the memory.
"What is it?"
Chewing her lip Emma recalled what she had just remembered. "I died. But that's not possible."
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
Hiding the pain he still felt from that awful time Adam told her what had happened the day Lazarus had killed her. As he spoke Emma listened intently, tears stinging at her eyes. Though he hid it from his face she could feel Adam's pain as though it was her own and she wondered at it. Emma knew they were friends, teammates, but the pain and emotion she was sensing from Adam seemed to go much deeper than that. It was almost as if...
"Adam," she interrupted. Stopping he looked at her, wondering at the softness in her voice. "You don't think of me as just your friend do you?"
Closing his eyes Adam moved away for a moment, crossing the room to the opposite wall and leaning against it. Arms folded over his chest he stared at the floor for a moment before raising his eyes to meet hers. "Emma..."
"Adam! Adam get out here!"
Brennan's voice rang out over the comm links, the urgency in his tone sending both Adam and Emma racing out of the labs and to the main room. Once there they discovered what was so urgent.
"The GSA is closing in on our safehouse in the city. Jesse is there with about seven other New Mutants and they have no way out."
Muttering a curse under his breath Adam ordered everyone to the Double Helix, there was no time to lose. Piloting through the air they made it to the city and to the safehouse only to find it empty. Signs of a struggle, overturned crates and furniture, broken display panels, were everywhere but not a body was to be found. While the others began an aggressive scan of the safehouse to find some clue as to where their friends had been taken Emma sat down in the corner of the room, isolated from everyone and closed her eyes.
Calling on her mutant gift she reached out to Jesse with her mind, trying to find him, to see if he was all right at the very least. With her minds eye Emma saw him, trapped in a place that was filled with pain. But she could tell he wasn't alone. Someone was in his mind with him. As Emma watched Jesse she was unaware that the person in his mind knew she was there as well until it was too late. With a heart-stopping scream she felt herself being kicked from Jesse's mind by the person she couldn't quite see.
Jumping at the sound of Emma's scream Adam felt his heart grow cold as he raced towards her, the young woman hunched down in the farthest corner of the safehouse. Though he was the first to reach her side the others quickly joined him, a small group formed around her, each one concerned and curious. Kneeling before her Adam reached out and hooked his finger under her chin, forcing Emma to look at him. Breathing deeply she met his eyes and focused on calming her racing heart.
"What did you see?"
"Jesse," she said after a moment. "He's trapped and he's in pain but... not really. I... I can't describe it," getting frustrated at her inability to make sense of it.
"Okay, calm down and focus. When you found him which way did you feel it from?"
"North, he's north of here."
Pulling her to her feet Adam led the group up to the Double Helix and they headed north, following the link Emma had, if only for a short while, with Jesse. As they hovered over an abandoned warehouse Emma knew this was the spot, though every visible detail said it couldn't be. Landing a little ways away the group left the Double Helix and walked towards the building. No sooner had they set foot on the cement floor than they were knocked out by a blast from somewhere in the darkness.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
The wind rustled in the background, lifting her hair from her shoulders as she stood at a railing overlooking an ocean. It seemed to span out in all directions, the blue waves, tipped in a frothy white as they broke against the rocks below. The night sky was giving way to day's bright sun, the golden circle just beginning to rise, coloring the sky a brilliant rose and deep purple. As the sun began to rise in the sky the water beneath her began to boil, its movement increasing until small bubbles began to break through to the surface. Watching them from her perch by the railing she saw the first one rise to the surface and burst open, releasing a small butterfly into the air. Fluttering its wings the little flier land on the hand she stretched out towards it. Gazing down at the small butterfly a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. As though they were linked she could hear it speaking to her, telling her a tale... a tale of her life.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Slowly the steady humming encroached into her unconsciousness, rousing her to the world that moved around her. Cracking open her eyes she looked around to see a lab of some sort, Adam sitting before the computer, absently humming to himself a tune that she almost knew. Stretching her limbs she sighed softly but it was enough to catch his attention. The humming ceased as Adam looked up, rising from his seat at the same time. Crossing the distance between them in two long strides he put a hand to her forehead, feeling for the fever that had been raging in her body. "You gave us one hell of a scare," he said softly when he was satisfied that the fever was practically gone.
"Where am I?"
"Mutant X headquarters. You've been fighting a fever for a few days now." Adam could see the confusion in her eyes and explained. "The time was up on the Ethelplorinide and you passed out from the headaches just after we got you to safety. You had a fever from the side effects of the withdrawal for a few days but it seems to have passed. How do you feel?"
Gazing up at him with blank eyes she blinked a few times before sighing again and closing her eyes. "Like someone showed me the middle of a movie without letting me see the first half." Adam smiled. "Did everyone make it out okay?"
Nodding, "They're all fine, everyone is waiting for you to wake up so they can come say hi," he smiled at her.
"Adam, I..." she started, biting her lip. "I still don't remember anything."
"Don't worry about it," he smiled to reassure her. Taking her hand in his Adam helped her to sit up for a moment. "The Ethelplorinide is out of your system but it will still take some time to get your memories back. Thankfully you're here at the Sanctuary where I'm sure we can stimulate some of them for you, it will help you remember a little faster."
"How much faster?" she asked hopefully.
Adam couldn't help but laugh. He could already see bits of Emma beginning to shine through the woman who knew herself as Eve. "Patience," he teased. "Are you feeling up to having some company?"
Smiling she gave a small nod and Adam moved to open the door, signaling for the group of men and women in the hallway to come on in. Six people hurried in, their faces beaming when they saw her sitting up to meet them. Watching her greet them, hugging each one, Adam had to stamp down the little stab of jealousy that rose in his heart.
"How are you feeling!?" Mixy cried as she hugged her friend close. "Damn, girl! You had us worried out of our minds!"
"I'm fine," she smiled. "Just a little out of it still."
"What do you mean, kiddo?" Pete asked, leaning against the chair, dropping his arm over her shoulders.
"I still don't remember anything. Except..." Trailing off she thought back to the dream from just before she woke. Was it a dream? Was it a memory? "I'm not sure but I think I might remember something. It seems more like a dream than anything else, but at the same time it seems so real. I was standing in the middle of a platform of some sort, I'm not sure where it was, but I wasn't alone. There was another woman with me. We were fighting... but not really. I'm not sure how to explain it. It was like..."
"Like a sparring match?"
"Yes!" she answered excitedly. "It was a sparring match," looking at Shalimar, "With you." Staring at Shalimar another memory floated to her mind past the muddled barrier between her and her memories. "And it was you in the alley that night wasn't it? I was running from someone and a woman fought them so I could get away. It was you," pointing to the feral, "But there were other people too." Her eyes drifting over the group she stopped on Jesse. "Jesse, you were there, you stopped the bullets. And... you," looking at Adam. "You were there too."
Adam nodded. "You were running from the GSA. They were after you and you ran into the alleyway."
Smiling, "I remember." Her smile faded. "And I remember that I was a real bitch back then too," frowning.
Jesse laughed. "Yeah, but you grew on us."
The group laughed.
"You've been out for a while, you're probably hungry. Why don't you come out to the dining area and we'll get you some food."
"Mmm... food," she grinned, jumping up from the chair. "I'm starved."
Following her friends out of the medical room she stopped just before entering the dining area. While the rest of the group set out to make a meal she slipped down the hallway towards a larger room at the end of it. Passing under the stairs she found herself standing in a large open room, a water garden ahead of her and a platform above her. Wide-eyed she recognized the platform from her memory of Shalimar. Climbing the stairs she stood on the platform, her arms wrapped around herself.
Behind her Adam stopped a few steps from the edge of the platform. She seemed so distant to him. It used to be that he could read Emma as though she were linked to him. The swirling emotions in her eyes had always told him what was running through her mind. But now he didn't know, couldn't see them anymore.
"Do you always stand on your head when you're confused?"
Taken off guard Adam blinked in silence. Then, a small smile creeping onto his face, he climbed the last few steps to stop beside her. "Only if the mood strikes."
Turning to look at him she smiled. "You're good at it though," she teased.
Chuckling Adam was silent for a moment before speaking again. "What made you remember that?"
"I'm not sure. I was staring at the platform and I suddenly saw you standing on your head," she grinned. "I don't even know why you were doing it."
"I needed to think."
"So you stood on your head?"
Adam smiled and shrugged.
Laughing she shook her head. "Come on, let me escort you to dinner," taking his arm as they walked down the stairs toward the dining area. "It's the least I can do after you saved my life and all."
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting in the water garden of the Sanctuary she sat in meditation. Letting her mind wander wherever it willed she could barely contain her excitement as the memories floated in and out of her mind. Some were new, some were old, some painful, and some happy, but they were hers and she was glad to have them. She remembered her friends, meeting Brennan in the bar, Jesse, Shalimar, and Adam in the alley. The times that she fought side by side with them, a few of the times at least. She knew that there were chunks missing from her memories but, as she had seen over the past few days, she knew they would return eventually. But there was one vital memory that still eluded her.
What was her name?
Mixy, Pete and Jackie still called her Eve but more than once she had caught the four team members calling her by another name; Emma. With that small bit of information she'd done a search on the name Emma with the computer and had found her file. Emma DeLauro. That was the name attached to the face that she saw in the mirror. But it seemed no more real to her than the name Eve did. She had read the file through so many times that she had it memorized and slowly, bit by bit, the facts that she had read became more and more real to her. The more time that passed the more she remembered her life.
And finally, as she sat in the water garden, her mind drifting where it pleased, she remembered, in her heart, what her name was. What she had known in her mind she now knew in her heart as well. Jumping up, thrilled, excited, ecstatic to finally remember, she ran off in search of someone to share this good news with. Not sure where she was going, just needing to go somewhere, she ran through the halls in search until she came to a stop outside the labs. Opening the door she saw Adam standing at a desk and leapt onto his back, her laughter, too buoyant to keep reigned in, filling the room.
"Adam! I remember! I finally remember my name!" she laughed in his ear, hanging on to the shocked man tightly. "It's Emma! My name really is Emma!"
Though the sudden onslaught of her weight in his back had startled him Adam had to grin. Laughing he deposited the young woman onto the desk and stood facing her. "That's great, Emma!"
"I was just sitting there in the garden, not really thinking about anything, when it just came to me. One minute I was thinking about one of the times I was held by the GSA and the next I remembered my name. It was the weirdest thing. But I'm not complaining!"
Laughing at the unbridled joy in Emma's face and voice Adam folded his arms and stared at her, leaning his hip against the other desk. He was dying to ask if she remembered, truly remembered, him. But Adam knew he would have to wait until she remembered it on her own. But he couldn't help but wonder... "So who did you tell on the way here?"
"Oh no one, you're the first one I found," she replied absently as another memory floated to the surface of her mind. "We do this a lot don't we?" Emma asked suddenly, her face becoming serious. "I remember doing this, sitting here in the lab, talking, a number of different times. It always seemed to help, talking things over with you I mean. Like that one time after you went all bad on us. You freaked me out with the way you were hurting us. I remember I couldn't be in the same room with you for a while. Even though I knew you wouldn't hurt me it was still strange. But then I was working in here and you locked the door so I couldn't bail on you. We talked and by the time we were done it was okay between us again."
Adam was silent. He remembered that night. Emma had been avoiding being alone with him for almost a week before he finally pinned her in the lab and made her face him. It had taken a few hours but they'd talked it all out and had left the room as friends.
As though she didn't realize he didn't respond Emma kept talking, voicing her memories as they came to her, one memory sparking the next one to life. "But that wasn't the first time either. We work in here a lot, don't we? Like the time I... no, that can't be right," shaking her head at the memory.
"What is it?"
Chewing her lip Emma recalled what she had just remembered. "I died. But that's not possible."
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
Hiding the pain he still felt from that awful time Adam told her what had happened the day Lazarus had killed her. As he spoke Emma listened intently, tears stinging at her eyes. Though he hid it from his face she could feel Adam's pain as though it was her own and she wondered at it. Emma knew they were friends, teammates, but the pain and emotion she was sensing from Adam seemed to go much deeper than that. It was almost as if...
"Adam," she interrupted. Stopping he looked at her, wondering at the softness in her voice. "You don't think of me as just your friend do you?"
Closing his eyes Adam moved away for a moment, crossing the room to the opposite wall and leaning against it. Arms folded over his chest he stared at the floor for a moment before raising his eyes to meet hers. "Emma..."
"Adam! Adam get out here!"
Brennan's voice rang out over the comm links, the urgency in his tone sending both Adam and Emma racing out of the labs and to the main room. Once there they discovered what was so urgent.
"The GSA is closing in on our safehouse in the city. Jesse is there with about seven other New Mutants and they have no way out."
Muttering a curse under his breath Adam ordered everyone to the Double Helix, there was no time to lose. Piloting through the air they made it to the city and to the safehouse only to find it empty. Signs of a struggle, overturned crates and furniture, broken display panels, were everywhere but not a body was to be found. While the others began an aggressive scan of the safehouse to find some clue as to where their friends had been taken Emma sat down in the corner of the room, isolated from everyone and closed her eyes.
Calling on her mutant gift she reached out to Jesse with her mind, trying to find him, to see if he was all right at the very least. With her minds eye Emma saw him, trapped in a place that was filled with pain. But she could tell he wasn't alone. Someone was in his mind with him. As Emma watched Jesse she was unaware that the person in his mind knew she was there as well until it was too late. With a heart-stopping scream she felt herself being kicked from Jesse's mind by the person she couldn't quite see.
Jumping at the sound of Emma's scream Adam felt his heart grow cold as he raced towards her, the young woman hunched down in the farthest corner of the safehouse. Though he was the first to reach her side the others quickly joined him, a small group formed around her, each one concerned and curious. Kneeling before her Adam reached out and hooked his finger under her chin, forcing Emma to look at him. Breathing deeply she met his eyes and focused on calming her racing heart.
"What did you see?"
"Jesse," she said after a moment. "He's trapped and he's in pain but... not really. I... I can't describe it," getting frustrated at her inability to make sense of it.
"Okay, calm down and focus. When you found him which way did you feel it from?"
"North, he's north of here."
Pulling her to her feet Adam led the group up to the Double Helix and they headed north, following the link Emma had, if only for a short while, with Jesse. As they hovered over an abandoned warehouse Emma knew this was the spot, though every visible detail said it couldn't be. Landing a little ways away the group left the Double Helix and walked towards the building. No sooner had they set foot on the cement floor than they were knocked out by a blast from somewhere in the darkness.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X