I finally got round to writing this chapter. Took a while but better late than never (or atleast I hope so). Only one more chapter to go which is pretty much finished now, unless I decide to change the ending completely. This is where I kinda need your help. And you thought you could just sit back and relax. Do you want to have a happy ending or a sad one? I can't promise that I'll go with the majority but I wouldn't mind some reasons…I'll be won over by the best one and you'll get a cookie * she says as she eats the said cookie*
As always thank you so much to all my regular reviewers and any new ones. Hope you enjoyed the story so far and I hope you like the ending.
Have a nice day.
Jesse watched Shalimar. He had seen her pissed off before but never to the point where she was calm. This was a new level of annoyance and Jesse wasn't sure what she was going to do. She had always been unpredictable but after all the years working with Shalimar Jesse usually had some kind of clue as to when she was gonna snap. Now there was nothing, he couldn't read her at all…and it was freaking him out.
Emma was watching the weather like Gabriel. It was getting really hard since there was pretty much nothing to watch. The sky was just about to disappear completely, and the rain was practically non-existent. So Shal didn't care whether she beat the crap out of Gabriel or not, she was just doing it for something to do, killing time? Emma knew that that wouldn't help anybody. Unless Shalimar started giving a damn her beating the hell out of Gabriel was not gonna do any good. Emma stared at the back of Shalimar's head, willing her friend to feel emotion.
Adam was proud of Shalimar so far. He was no expert but surely this had to be a good thing. Shalimar was facing up to Gabriel; she had gained some kind of strength, strength enough to do something. But then to Adam that was not surprising. Shalimar had always been strong, stronger than him. When he had first met her she had been scared, freaked out by her abilities but she had picked herself up from that time on. With a little help she had become the one person in Sanctuary who would always disobey his orders but would always do so with so much force behind her convictions that there was no way he could have stopped her if he had wanted to.
Brennan was also watching Shal. She was the centre of attention, something he knew she would have liked if it had been any normal day. He supposed that was why he had first started to like her in the way that he did. You couldn't ignore her with her long, blonde hair, gorgeous figure, the way the corners of her mouth turned up when she wanted to laugh and the way she moved. It was hard to not notice her. That was why he lost to her all the time when they were sparring. She was so sensual and yet so powerful and a lot of the time she caught him off guard, not just because she was feral but because he would just stand and watch her a lot of the time. For split seconds he would just look on as she flipped herself over her head and land, totally stable on the floor. She would normally take advantage of these moments but that just gave him another reason to feel the way he did.
Shalimar stared into Gabriel's eyes. He had stopped looking around him and was now taking a long look at the woman standing in front of him. She was incredibly sexy, and strong and feisty with it (not at that exact moment in time but she had been). That was what had attracted him to her in the first place. After she had gotten away and back to Mutant X he had continued to search in her mind at random intervals. There had always been so much hatred for him in here. It had been intoxicating, that was why he hadn't left her alone. She had been so repulsed by him that it had been so much more of a challenge, and he had loved every minute of it. She had always been so much fun to screw around with, and what with the whole dying thing he had needed a little fun.
'So, Shalimar, you gonna kick my ass now?' Gabriel taunted.
'Nope,' Shalimar replied, still refusing to break the look she had with Gabriel.
'So, if you're not gonna beat the crap out of me what are you going to do?'
Shalimar continued to stare as a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She raised her eyebrows and finally breaking the stare she turned her eyes up to the heavens. It was then that Gabriel heard a low rumble, steadily building its way up to thunderous levels. His head shot every which way as he tried to figure out where the lightning, which he knew was coming would strike.
Suddenly the flash came. It shone off the windows of the remaining buildings and created black shadows that appeared and then, just as quickly disappeared. And then, it was all gone. Gabriel looked around him warily and hardly daring himself to, looked straight into Shalimar's eyes. The sly smile had gone, it was replaced by a look of pure contentedness. For the first time since she had entered her own mind she looked like the possibility of happiness was just around the corner.
And then Gabriel was blasted with the light of the sun. He hadn't expected it and it blinded him temporarily. But when he could finally see again he looked around him. The skyscrapers once again reached into the clouds, there were actual clouds again! Beyond the edge of the city, as far as the eye could see was green grass and huge, rolling hills. There were animals, birds soaring overhead, cats wandering in and out of the buildings, not caring what was going on with the humans. Shalimar watched them and smiled. She knew exactly how they felt.
Emma had seen Shalimar's mind before so it was not all new to her, but that didn't make it any less beautiful. The other three members of Mutant X were shocked at the change, which had taken place in the space of just a few seconds. They hadn't realized how exquisite Shalimar's world was. They looked at each other and then to the doorway of one of the buildings that had just repaired itself. Out of it there came a stream of people, all different. They seemed to spread themselves out to fill the space, which had for so long been empty.
Emma had known what was coming. She had taken the full tour of this place a couple of hundred times and had always seen it milling with people. She had known that they would come; it wasn't Shalimar's world without them. But this wasn't the end. Shal may have restored her mind to its original beauty but she still had to get rid of Gabriel, or he would fester and infect her psyche again. And Shalimar couldn't survive a second time. Emma looked through the crowds towards her friend to see what she would do next and to be ready to encourage if it was needed. The rest of Mutant X followed Emma's lead, eager to know what was going to happen.
'Hey Gabriel,' Shalimar said loudly, waving her hand in front of his face. 'You still there?'
He blinked a few times trying to pay attention to the woman standing in front of him.
'You remember you asked me a question?' His face was a blank, like he couldn't have remembered his own name if he'd have tried.
'You asked if I wasn't gonna kick your ass, what was I going to do,' she prompted him. 'You want an answer?'
He didn't really. He knew it was over, everything he had worked for, all the time and effort he had put into his plans, wasted. But Shalimar didn't look like she was going to take no for an answer.
'Sure, why not?' he replied, no energy left to be smug, or arrogant…basically no energy to be himself.
'Okay then, and you'd better listen cos I worked real hard on this.' She looked up into his face with an amused expression.
'I'm gonna tell you to kiss mine!'
Gabriel had the chance to smile before he disappeared into thin air. It was literally that simple. One minute Gabriel was there and the next…he wasn't. Shalimar stood for a minute staring at the place where he would have been. She could feel the presence of Brennan, Jesse, Emma and Adam behind her. She turned around and looked at each of them. They were tired but seemed happy, relieved for her.
'Well, that was somewhat of an anti-climax. Do I not even get a bang, or some fireworks?' she asked with an innocent expression on her face.