Summary: When an old friend of Adam turns up craving revenge, it results in the capture of Bren/Shal, but is the love they hold for each other enough to keep them alive?
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Mutant X. Tribune Entertainment Co. owns the rights to these characters. But I do own any other characters.
Notes: Italics with indicate thought. Stars indicate time change or place.
Story by: Quest – shadowfox_fuse@yahoo.com, feel free to email me on any questions or well anything!
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Chapter 11: The one I trust
"You come with us!" Abby ordered pointing at Shalimar, with Ashley right by her side.
"You have got to be KIDDING ME!" Shalimar said angrily, so desperately wanting to know if the man was Brennan or most importantly if she got shot.
"Come!" Ashley demanded walking over and pulling Shalimar to her feet, with the help of Abby. She got evil looks from Riley, Shannon, and Vince.
Abby started pushing Shalimar out of the holding cell, Ashley was about to head to leave as well. Riley reached up and grabbed Ashley's arm before she left. Ashley looked down at Riley, "what?"
"You know this is wrong Ash, don't do it," Riley lectured. "He's not what you think, look what he's done to all these other mutants."
Ashley glanced down at her then over to look at Vince and Shannon who were staring at her. "Let go of me!" Ashley snapped before tugging her arm away from Riley's grip and stormed out of the room.
Shalimar was dragged into the main interrogation room where Crawford had made contact with Adam for the first time. Abby placed her in the same chair that she had sat in before, but this time was different Shalimar wasn't cuffed down or gagged. Abby moved away and stood off in a corner. With in minutes Crawford entered the room followed by Zan and Ashley. Crawford and Zan approached her as Ashley moved off to stand with Abby.
"All right Miss Fox, it's now time to see if your beloved leader truly wants you back," Crawford explained walking over to the computer.
Zan moved over to Shalimar strapping a piece of duck tape across her mouth and put out his knife and held it to her throat.
* * *
Adam had spent the last hour contemplating on what he should do about this situation. He wanted to get Shalimar and Brennan back, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to give Crawford the satisfaction of having his normal life back. Jesse and Emma had gone to get some food leaving Adam by himself, when the computer came up with a web cam invitation. He sighed as he clicked it knowing all to well that it was Crawford. Sure enough Crawford face came up on the computer.
"So Adam have you made you decision?" Crawford asked.
"Yes, I will do it for you Crawford," Adam said in detest.
"Good, I thought you would," Crawford smiled in delight.
"But how do I know you haven't killed Shalimar and Brennan already?" Adam finally brought himself to ask.
Crawford turned the web cam towards Shalimar, Adam shuttered when he saw her being held with a knife to her throat. "I brought Miss Fox along incase I had to persuade otherwise."
Adam hung his head glad that he made the right decision, where he didn't have to see Shalimar get tortured in front of him. "Where is Brennan?"
"Oh didn't think it was necessary to kill them both at once if it came to that," Crawford answered. "Now I expect some results by tomorrow or this will happen," Crawford pointed to Shalimar. Zan slowly dragged his knife across her neck causing Shalimar to muffle out a scream in pain.
Crawford nodded his head and Zan stopped. "I'll contact you tomorrow." With that the screen in front of Adam turned black leaving him in the lab by himself.
"What do you want us to do with her?" Zan asked with his knife still in hand.
"Put her in a cell by herself, I don't want those three to put silly notions in her head." Crawford explained, Zan nodded and walked over Shalimar.
He grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her out of the chair, he ripped the duck tape off her mouth she growled lowly. She started to walk out of the room with Zan right on her heels. Abby and Ashley started out after them. "Ashley I want to talk to you," Crawford said before she headed out the door.
Ashley turned around and walked back over to him, "yes Sir?"
"You're the only one I trust right now, you know that right?" Crawford walked over to her placing his hand on her shoulder.
Ashley shook her head yes in reply, "good. Now I need to know if Mr. Mulwray still alive?" Crawford asked.
"I'm surprised but yes, he is still very much alive. They only thing is he has massive internal bleeding along with some broken ribs, and I'm not sure how much longer he'll last," Ashley explained. "Ever since we took Shalimar out of the cell he has gotten much weaker."
Crawford thought for a second, "we need him alive. Take him to the infirmary and have the doctors work on him."
"Yes Sir," Ashley then turned, left the room and headed for Brennan's cell.
* * *
Shalimar sauntered along followed by Zan and Abby. Zan was getting tired of her walking so slow, he finally pushed her from behind causing Shalimar to fall forward onto the floor scuffing up her arms and hands on the cement. "Get up!" Zan demanded.
"Whatever asshole," Shalimar mumbled softly as she slowly began to get up.
Zan gritted his teeth and drove his foot into Shalimar's stomach. Shalimar hurled down in pain with tears welling up in her eyes, she didn't have the energy to get up and kick the crap out of Zan. Her mind was somewhere else; mostly think about her loss of Brennan and how she was going to go through this whole thing without him.
Abby stood there smiling at the sight, as Zan kicked Shalimar four more times. He finally stopped the beating and grinning with pride. Shalimar held her stomach before she propped herself up on her hands and knees, and began coughing up blood for a few seconds. It finally stopped allowing Shalimar to get back up on her feet. She just glared at Zan and Abby, wiped the blood from the corner of her lips spat blood down in front of them and started walking again.
Shalimar's stomach ached, every step she took on the way to her cell. She needed to sit down, but keeping going weaving in and out of the halls in the compound. "Stop here!" Zan yelled out, Shalimar obeyed and stopped in front of a door. Zan moved in front of Shalimar opening the door. "IN!" He pushed her in roughly and slammed the door behind her.
She turned around at the door, "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PISSY ABOUT IT!" She yelled at him, then walked over and sat down against the wall. She sat contemplating on how her life was going to change without Brennan, as she awaited her fate.
* * *
Ashley had gathered two guards on her way to Brennan's cell, to have them carry Brennan to the lab. She didn't like using her mutant ability in unnecessary situation. Ashley flew open the door and looked into the room, she found Brennan lying face down. "Get him up," Ashley ordered the men. They nodded in reply and rushed over to Brennan's side. They swung their guns behind their back and picked him up by the arms and began to drag him over to Ashley.
Brennan slowly started to regain consciousness, and looked up and Ashley with a groan of extreme pain. Ashley looked at the man, and for a brief second she felt sorry for him. She had to turn around from him; his pale white skin with a hint of black and blue bruises was making her sick to her stomach.
"Follow me," Ashley said walking away towards the lab.
As ordered the two men started dragging Brennan's limp body after her. Ashley came to a stop and opened up a door, ushering in the men with Brennan. She followed them in, two men and a woman in white lab coats approached.
"What's wrong?" one of the men asked looking at the pale man being lifted onto a medical bed.
"Crawford wants you to keep him alive," Ashley explained.
They started hooking up IV's in Brennan's arm and doing a quick scan on his body. One man turned towards Ashley, "he has severe internal bleeding and many broken ribs, how has he survived this long?"
Ashley shrugged, "beats me."
"It's amazing," the man shook his head. "We will do our best, but we're not making any promises."
"Thanks," Ashley replied as he turned back to start his tedious work on Brennan. She took a good hard look at Brennan and tears started welling up in her eyes, she quickly turned away taking a deep breath to get a grip and walked out of the lab.
Ashley moved down the hall, she looked at her watch and sighed but continued down the hall.
* * *Riley was worried sick about Shalimar; she had been gone for a half an hour. "Do you think she's ok?" Shannon asked.
"She has to be I saw her future," Riley sighed.
"What do you think Crawford is going to do with us?" Shannon got the courage to ask.
"I don't know," Riley replied.
Vince smiled, "don't worry it can't be too bad or he would have done it already. Besides I'll protect you if he tries anything."
"That's really reassuring," Shannon said rolling her eyes.
Riley grinned, "I think we'd have better luck with Shannon trying to protect us."
"Hey!" Shannon stared at Riley. "I hate to fight."
"That's my point; Vince most likely would run himself up a tree or bite himself in the butt." Riley explained. "You on the other hand would have a better chance of hitting someone than Vince getting a handle on his powers."
Shannon started laughing, but Vince was not impressed. "That's not funny," he glared at Shannon.
"Ya it is," Shannon continued to laugh.
Vince was about to protest but the door opened. Ashley appeared holding a tray in her hands. They all became silent as she moved closer to them. She placed the tray in the middle of them. "Enjoy," she groaned.
"Will do," Vince, said unenthused.
Ashley shook her head and turned around to leave. "Ash," Riley said softly.
Ashley sighed and turned around, "What?"
"What are you doing?" Riley asked her.
"Huh?" Ashley said confused.
"You know what she meant Ash, don't play stupid," Vince snapped as he took the top off of the tray and grabbed an apple.
Ashley hung her head knowing he was right, "there is nothing I can do."
"No you can do something," Shannon began. "You can help them escape."
"Crawford wouldn't approve of that," Ashley said.
"Who the HELL cares about what he thinks!" Shannon became angrier.
Riley nodded her head, "she's right Ash, who cares about him?"
"Ahh…"
"Ash, you aren't like this. You're nothing like these monsters not one bit," Vince told her.
"Crawford would…ki…" Ashley choked and started for the door to get away from them.
"Ash he won't, Shalimar and her friends can help you; they can put you in the Underground. Like they did with us," Vince explained.
Ashley turned around, "ya and look what happened, you got caught."
Vince looked at Shannon and Riley, nodding his head in agreement. Riley rolled her eyes. "But we didn't listen to them, if we did this never would have happened," she defended.
"Whatever!" Ashley huffed and stormed out of the room.
"So do you think we got through to her?" Shannon asked.
"I don't know," Riley sighed.
Vince stared at Riley, "why didn't you just use your ability and tell her what to do, so we can get the heck out of here?"
Riley just looked up at the ceiling and pounded her lightly against the wall. "She has to figure this out for herself," she finally explained.
TBC
A/N: You didn't think I would kill off Brennan did you? LOL ya right! Now the wait for Wednesday….I'm pretty sure that is a longer chapter, I know this one was…hmm not sure now, well anyways THANKS for ALL of the review there really awesome!