Disclaimer: I don't own it, I don't pretend to own it, and I don't mean to offend anyone's sensibilities.

Thank You: Stelmarta for being there! Mom because I love her!

Spoilers: A Breed Apart

Gabriel Ashcroft was a patient man. Most of the time. Having spent most of his adult life in stasis, he had developed a wait and see policy towards many things. When he went back to pod storage to investigate the contents, discovering the evidence of Miss Mary Elizabeth's escape route was not on his list of 'wait and see' objectives. Finding out that it had been his own stupid fault that she'd woken up was also not on the top of his list of priorities. Neither had been hearing about the daring capture of the Chicago squatter, hours before he had planned to dispatch his own team of Strand members to 'investigate' the disturbance. Things were not going his way. This was distressing.

Sociopath that he was, his only concerns were for his own well being, and the well being of his mission; namely to eradicate average humans off the face of the planet and create a master race in the labs of the GSA. The escape of Miss Mary Elizabeth and her undoubted defection to Mutant X was a problem. Therefore it must be solved, one way or the other. His favorite plan, one that he was now putting into action, was to perpetrate some  heinous crime on the civilian populace and wait for his targets to show up to defend the worthless cretins from subjugation by the master race. Seated in his stronghold in the Genomex laboratory he watched on closed circuit TV as his agents went into action.

The air sucked out of the building with a sticky, slurping sound as the firebomb of one of his elementals exploded in the Redbird Mall complex. On the flat screen digital monitor, Gabriel admired the exquisite graphics cards he had seen to installing, the pictures were incredibly accurate. He could even see the shock on the patrons faces as the glass in the windows melted away. He had one teek, a telekinetic, hold off the police and rescue crews. They held the doors shut so tightly that no one could get in or out. Then the real fun began. The news cameras recorded every screech and shout for posterity, as Gabriel waited for the inevitable arrival of Mutant X.

He wasn't disappointed; they blew a hole in the roof, overpowering the telekinesis of his agents, and landed the still invisible jet fighter in the main atrium of the flaming mall. The whine of the jet engines was audible; he wondered, absently, how the government was going to 'doctor' this report for the media.

The members of The Strand jumped into action, Gabriel sat up and began to take note on the effectiveness and enthusiasm of each of his people. He had sent five, altogether, some mutants weaker than others. The elemental, "Brennan" his genetically enhanced mind spit out at him absently, came out of the cockpit first. His indoor electrical storm was quite impressive, it disabled two of Gabriel's lesser Mutants and severely damaged a third. The next out of the invisible jet was the other man, Jesse; he phased out a wall and began to escort the survivors into the waiting arms of the rescue personnel. Damn Adam and his bleeding heart humanitarian sensibilities. Could he not see that Mutantkind was destined to rule over the lesser beings in the world?

The next one out was the telempath, Emma de Lauro. She had a peculiar power, the bolts of empathic lightening was putting his agents asleep faster than anything he'd ever seen. It didn't affect his elementals, though, he'd shielded them himself before they'd been sent on the mission. The building began to fall apart around them, the fire intensifying on all sides. Most of the people were out already, but not all, and the damn idiots kept on trying to save lives. The Mutant X humanitarians couldn't save them all, not unless they got rid of the elemental source of the fire.

There was only one thing that could stop a fire elemental once they really got out of hand, and, curiously enough, that was the fire itself. Just because they could control it, didn't mean they were immune to its effects. Although a fire elemental could call it down to shield himself, the greatest danger to the elemental was the elemental power itself. Just like Brennan was no more immune to electric shock than the average person, so too were fire elementals no more immune to the fires they called then an ordinary human being.

When Mary Elizabeth waltzed out into the inferno Gabriel was surprised, according to his information, his memory, her internal temperature was too dependant on the environment for her to survive in this kind of heat. There was no way she could stay out here for long. She moved like greased lightening, a combination of her terror of fire and the heat fueling her muscles. Still, even her abilities were limited because of her fear; the terror would consume her sooner or later.

Sooner was the operative word, she curled into a fetal ball and howled her fear to the sky. Gabriel gave the order to move in and re-capture her. His fire elementals, the only operating agents he had left, moved in for the final blow. They recoiled in howling pain, each one alight in a wash of blue-white flame.

"So," he mused, "We are not as helpless as we seem, Miss Mary Elizabeth. Fascinating." Oblivious to the fact that the human torches on his screen were not only living breathing people, but living breathing people whom he was responsible for, Gabriel watched in detached analysis of her apparent abilities. Evidently the outcome of her succumbing to fear had not only been anticipated by Adam, it was carefully orchestrated. The telempath, Miss deLauro, was right by the feral elemental within seconds of the incendiary breath. She ushered her to the now visible jet, completely supporting the weight of the smaller woman. The other two followed, now that the elementals were no longer controlling the flames, they had jumped out of the carefully chosen area of infiltration. The group worked like any good, highly-trained commando team to evacuate the area and extricate themselves without any harm to their person or their equipment.

Gabriel nodded, as if confirming something to himself, and turned to his top associates standing near his new desk. "Well?"

"Sir, with all due respect, that was a massacre! There was no way our people were prepared to handle that situation without proper backup. What in the name of God were you thinking?"

"God?" Gabriel asked smoothly, "God has everything to do with this, my friend. I hope most sincerely that you're not using my name in that manner. I am your God, Mr. Kessler, make no mistake about that. Gods must not always be kind and benevolent, this was necessary to determine the relative strength and capacity of the Mutant X team. I assure you that the sacrifice of the Strand was not in vain. Need you any more information? If I explained every thought in my head to you, we'd be standing here all night. Do not question your God, Mr. Kessler, the plan will be revealed in my own good time."

Mr. Kessler gulped and bowed slowly, "Forgive my indiscretion"

"You are forgiven," Gabriel said mildly, his mind elsewhere "but don't let it happen again." The threat needn't have been said, Mr. Kessler was already shaking in his well polished wing tips. Gabriel gazed once more on the polished screen, and smiled softly to himself. Success was a relative measure, and this, in his opinion, was a success.

Adam was beside himself, he couldn't believe he had allowed Liz to go out there. When she'd been explaining her necessity to go on this mission and that she could handle the chaos of the flames and all of that he'd agreed with her, but listening to Emma trying, unsuccessfully trying, to calm her down was too much for Adam to bear. Shalimar, left behind because it was well known that she couldn't handle flames, was pacing a hole in the carpet frustrated beyond belief that she couldn't be there for her new friend. She was growling, and for once made no attempt to stifle the sound.

"Emma?"

"I'm working on it, damnit, will you relax?" frustration and leaked off fear made he voice break over the sound system. Inside the cock pit, Emma was trying with all her empathic might to calm Liz down. The feral/elemental mix was currently hyperventilating into a neat little brown paper bag, her fear levels so far off of Emma's empathic scale that she was wondering how Liz could sit there and breathe with relative calm and not be crawling up the sides of the cockpit.

"Hey are you all right?" It was Jesse, looking at Emma with concern. She suddenly realized that the lightheadedness she was experiencing wasn't a reaction to lack of blood sugar, but that she too had begun to hyperventilate.

"Yeah," Emma concentrated on her breathing; it slowed and then went back to a controlled normal. "Thanks. I've never felt this kind of leakage before. If it's affecting me this badly, God knows how Liz is coping with it."

He looked warily at the elemental, now almost catatonic from ruthlessly controlled fear. "I don't think she is coping with it. I mean look at her. She's not moving."

"That's better than the alternative. Do you think we could handle a feral gone completely feral? Not in here. It's too close. She's controlling it. Thankfully." Emma bent over, putting her head between her knees and breathing deeply in and out. "Wow, I don't feel too good."

"Here," Jesse pulled her into his arms and started rubbing her back in smooth, long circles. "Breathe with me, OK? In and out, nice and easy, in and out." 

"In and out," Emma repeated shakily. She was trembling, shaking with a fear not her own. Slowly she relaxed into Jesse's arms; he was warm, supportive and so strong she could cry. She did, finally breaking down and crying softly into his shoulder. He supported them both, carefully maneuvering her to one of the cockpit chairs and pulling her gently on to his lap. She quietly sobbed her way home to Sanctuary, wrapped in the comfort of Jesse's arms.

Adam was waiting when they got home. Taking notice of Emma long enough to ascertain that she was being taken care of, then racing into the cockpit to see Liz. Shalimar was two steps behind, having taking the time to set Emma and Jesse on the sofa with a cup of her favorite tea, brewed while the Helix was in the air.

"Hey" came the rusty, slightly thick response to Adam's frantic greeting. "I'm Ok, how's Mademoiselle Freud? She's not used to this, not like me."

"Emma's Ok," said Shalimar "she's calming down on the sofa with Jesse"

"Good idea." Up came the paper bag again, as she winced and closed her eyes to another wave of terror. "You mind?"

Shalimar didn't quite understand, but Adam did, he scooped her up and carried her to the study, sat down, and ran his hands through her hair while rocking her slightly back and forth. Shalimar came too, half-mad with frustration over the whole situation.

"Hey Shal,"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you go help Brennan get everything together, Ok? We've kinda left him in the dust." Adam gave her an emphatic 'look' over the top of Liz's head. "Find something for he and you to do, it might be a while before Emma and Liz are back up to steam."

"OK"

Shalimar went back out to the hanger, helping Brennan re-fuel and re-equip the Helix. They did it after every mission to make sure they could leave at a moment's notice.

"Damn" Brennan swore quietly, "You know, I might not get along with her too well, but there isn't anyone who deserved that."

"Amen" Shalimar took another few second to digest what he said, "Why don't you like her?"

'Because she's got your admiration and respect,' floated on the tip of Brennan's tongue, but he didn't say it. "I didn't say I didn't like her. We just rub the wrong way I guess. I mean it's not that I really don't like her as a person or anything, it's just, well, we've been a team together for a long time and the way Adam's talking he wants her to join up with us, and I guess that makes me a little uncomfortable"

"I can see that. After all, it was kinda hard taking in a supposedly ex-thief who can hurl lightening bolts from his fingers." She smiled at him "Just give her a chance, Brennan; she knows what she's doing. And that's coming from me, all right? I'm the queen of skeptics."

"OK," he gave her a classily charming grin "but only if it comes from you" She gave a very unladylike growl and pretended to swipe at his head. Brennan ducked, laughing, glad that things between them had at least reached the friendly stage again.