Content Warnings: violence

A/n: Many apologies to everyone for this chapter. I've hardly had time to even think about writing in the past few weeks. Sorry, very sorry, here's your next chapter!

******

"For a brief moment, not more than a few seconds, I saw into Brennan's mind. He was bleeding so much, and he couldn't breathe. Oh, god, Adam, he could be dieing or dead, he needs us.." Emma was gripping Adam's forearms like she'd never let go.

"What happened?" Jesse breathed as he and Shalimar burst through the door to Emma's room, summoned like Adam by her scream.

"I was sleeping. Sometimes sleep acts like a deep mediation and I can get a hit. For a moment I saw Brennan sprawled out and bleeding. And then his voice, screaming at us to come help him." Emma repeated what she had told Adam, forced calmness etched across her face.

Shalimar sat down on the edge of Emma' s bed, stretching an arm out to grasp her shoulder reassuringly. "It's alright Emma. This was just a mind image, right? Maybe it was even a dream from all this stress of not knowing where Brennan went."

"No!" Emma said fiercely. "I can tell the difference between a dream and psionic visions. That other psionic has Brennan, and Brennan needs our help!" Emma was no longer hysterical, but angry. Couldn't they see that now they needed to act?

"I'm going to go see if the Helix is here yet." Jesse said as he quickly backed out of the room.

"Typical guy. Run when things get rough." Shalimar quipped, and managed to get a shallow smile from Emma and preoccupied one from Adam.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that the Double Helix should be back by now, so if you two will excuse me, I'm going to go help Jesse get a fix on Brennan's last known location." Adam smiled reassuringly at both of them, meeting and holding each of their gazes. "We will rescue Brennan, Emma, if that's what he needs." Emma nodded.

Shalimar's eyes rested on the door for a little while after Adam left. Emma always acted so emotional. It was all Shalimar could do to keep her 'bad girl who is affected by nothing' façade in place. Brennan was gone, and from what Emma said, he could be an inch from death. He was all alone, and here was the rest of his valiant team, scurrying around just to find out where he was. Sometimes it felt like someone had ripped out her heart just to stick needles in it to see how she'd react.

Shalimar sat there in silent contemplation of her hidden feelings. The blond-haired feral had, however, forgotten, that she was sitting right next to a psionic, broadcasting private feelings loud and clear.

"Shal?" Emma murmured. "Shalimar?"

Shalimar jumped a little bit and glanced over at Emma. "What's up, Em?"

"I never thought.." Emma began, but stuttered. "I mean, I thought.. You know, I thought you two were just…. Shal, you love him?"

"Dammit, were you reading me? Emma, why the hell-" Shalimar almost shouted, so startled by Emma's sudden revelation that she jumped off the bed.

"Of course I wasn't reading you! I wouldn't do that! You were broadcasting your thoughts as though you were telling me yourself!" Emma shouted right back.

"Sorry! I just-" Shalimar sighed. She hadn't really been angry, just startled. "I just feel lost. You're the one whose always saving him, you're the one who can see him. I can only fight flesh and blood, and I want to help Brennan."

"Believe me." Emma said, avoiding looking at Shalimar. "You don't want to see him. Not right now."

"Why are we just sitting here? We have to get out there! He could be dead or dying. All alone and I'll never see him again!" Shalimar burst out standing up and pacing to one wall. She stood stock still in front of it, and slowly she raised her hands and ran them through her hair.

"I'll be okay." She murmured, her voice back to its old confidence. "I just had to vent."

"Shal." Emma said, not willing to let everything go. "Shal, I want to know about you and Brennan. Do you really think you're in love with him?"

Shalimar leaned forward and pressed her hands and forehead against the wall. "You know what, Emma? I think I do. I think I do."

"Then-" Emma began. She restarted. "-Then I won't tell anyone unless you want me to."

******

Part of Brennan's mind was still trying to remain conscious and focused, but unfortunately it was the losing part. His body and mind couldn't decided what was actually happening. His brain thought he was bleeding to death, but he wasn't and his brain couldn't come up with a way to remedy that. His brain thought he should be unconscious with pain, but his nerves didn't, and nothing could change that. Brennan wasn't entirely sure how all that psionic-mind-game stuff worked, but the only really rational thought he could form was that this couldn't be happening. He was raised to be a street fighter, and Adam had drilled him constantly in martial arts. How could he have walked right into his tormentors arms like a long lost child? This couldn't be happening.

His mind was barely registering external pain, outside of it's own distress. The part of him that was seeking to regain some semblance of thought got driven back as soon as it realized that Geris wasn't only inflicting damage with his mind anymore. Knifes, fire, scissors, skewers, Brennan stopped registering anything after a while. He stopped thinking… maybe he even stopped breathing….

But through everything, surprisingly, a calculating part of himself stayed aloof from the fiery pain. That part guarded a secret cache of information that Brennan inadvertently became privy to when Geris entered his mind for the first time in the apartment complex.

So part of Brennan remained alive, deeply buried, separated from mind, body, and spirit. Hoping only to escape, and to never ever feel pain again.

******

Tracking residents….

Retrieving files…..

Searching for a match….

Please wait….

All the words on the computer screen were starting to blend together. Shalimar rubbed her eyes for the millionth time and squinted back at the screen. It didn't even look like English anymore. For advanced technology, it took an awfully long time to search, apartment building by apartment building, in a three to four block area, for all psionics.

Her stomach was clenching in a tight but all to familiar manner. Her muscles were stiff and locked up, and even if Eckart himself had tried to attack her right now, she wouldn't have been able to move. Her very fingers were frozen with worry. Concentrate on anything, anything except…

How many searches had she done? One, three? Ten? She knew that Jesse, Emma, and Adam, were all doing the same thing, with about as much success as she. There was so much sifting for the database to do. Besides hacking into the listings of the residents, it had to sort through everyone, finding new mutants, and then sorting through those new mutants to find psionics. The proverbial needle in a haystack, that's for sure.

*Search completed. 1 psionic found in the requested search area.*

ONE! Shalimar almost whooped for joy, and for pure, unmatched, luck. New mutants weren't exactly numerous, especially not in one small area, but this was luck!

"ADAM!" She yelled, and heard three sets of feet running from various computer consoles in Sanctuary.

"Anything?" Adam breathed, racing to look over her shoulder.

"One psionic. Accessing their file now." Shalimar replied, fingers racing over the keyboard as Jesse and Emma came running up.

"Caldmann, Geris. Psionic, rumored to be very powerful. Not a member of the Underground, but no reported instances of getting bothered by the GSA. Residence: Sangworth Avenue Apartment Plaza, Room 425."

"Jesse-" Adam turned.

"The Double Helix is prepped and waiting." Jesse responded immediately.

Nothing further had to be said. The Double Helix was out of the hanger before the computer had time to shut down Caldmann, Geris' file.

******

Geris was in his mind again. Brennan could barely feel him. But he knew that Geris was there. Doing… something. That hurt.

That was the funny thing about pain. After the first three blows, Brennan had gone catatonic. He felt the pain, he felt it burn, he had screamed at first. But now all he could do was register it. He couldn't respond, couldn't cry, couldn't breathe. Complete and utter desensitization.

Suddenly, it was gone. The constant companion of pain that Brennan didn't even think about anymore stopped. He continued to hurt, oh, did he hurt, but the infliction of pain just… stopped. It was enough to shock him out of his stupor, and enough for him to realize all of the pain. All of it, all at once.

Brennan felt tears renew their flow down his cheeks, mixing with blood on the way. It almost felt like his eyes were bleeding…. How odd…

When he looked up, he saw Geris standing over him with a knife, and he felt a stillness. Like the stillness right before dawn…And he knew in his heart he was going to die.

******

The Double Helix wouldn't fly fast enough. Shalimar's stomach twisted itself so tightly she could swear it was knotting up her throat as well. As soon as the Helix touched down she was sprinting towards the building faster than the rest of the team could blink. But they caught up and were right behind her.

Shalimar didn't know how they did it, but while she pressed up against the double glass doors that blocked her path to Brennan. Maybe Adam had some sort of technology up his sleeve, but whatever it was, the doors swung open and Shalimar bolted to the stairs. Elevators-- too slow.

425. 425. 425. Shalimar chanted in her mind. Her body was responding fully now, her desperate race to get to her goal bringing her feral abilities completely to the fore. She was racing down the fourth floor hallway, a fury in her eyes that was nothing short of an uncontrolled rage.

She was not paralyzed by shock when she threw open the door and saw Brennan lying there. She did not hesitate when she saw a man in bloodstained clothes standing over Brennan, a knife slicing towards Brennan's throat. The man looked up and for a second his eyes met Shalimar's.

He lunged. Shalimar lunged.

The knife went flying.