Dark Tomorrow

Chapter 6: Things Aren't Always What They Seem

To Brennan, it was as if the world had begun to spin wildly and he couldn't control it. For a moment, his mind was blank, unseeing, uncomprehending. He simply couldn't grasp what he was seeing standing before him. It was like his wildest dreams had been answered.

Then Max removed his sunglasses, his green eyes glowing out at them like they had so many times in Brennan's nightmares, and suddenly, everything became clear.

"You!" he spat, making a furious move towards Max. "You bastard! What did you do to her mind, huh? What have you done to her body?"

"Take it easy, Mr. Mulwray," Max drawled, looking suddenly amused. "You and your little Mutant X have no claim over Shalimar anymore. She wants only me; she belongs to me."

Jesse had to throw an arm across Brennan's chest to block him from throwing himself at Max in a pure rage. They knew that fighting with Max would be dangerous, especially with Brennan's emotions spurring way out of control.

Emma moved forward towards Shalimar, who was shaking slightly and staring at them with a terrible confusion and fear in her eyes. "Shal," she said softly. "It's me, it's Emma. Your private thoughts-snooper. Your best friend. It's me, Shalimar."

The feral's lip trembled and she hugged herself with shaking arms. Emma tried to breach her mind once more, but only saw that dreadful brick wall before her. What the hell had Max done to her? This was no kind of amnesia Emma had ever experienced before. It was tampering.

"Jesse," she said in a low voice. "Talk to her. I'll keep Brennan and Max apart."

Brennan was glaring at Max with utter hate and fury blazing in his brown eyes. Jesse took one look at him and moved towards the companion he had missed so terribly for a year.

"Shalimar," he said, giving her an innocent-boy smile that could melt the hardest of hearts. "Emma's your friend, your confidante. And what about Adam? Your father in spirit, Shal, and the man you could turn to when there was no else. Don't you remember me? Your Jesse? The one you would tease unmercifully? You'd use my arm as a punching bag sometimes, and once I massed just to tease you and you nearly broke your wrist. Remember that? You forgave me, just like you're the only one I could forgive anything."

She was listening now, the fear slowly draining out of her eyes. Brennan and Max were still locked in deadly combat with their eyes. Shalimar looked at Jesse and for a moment, he caught her eye and he saw the woman he knew in them - but so briefly that he thought he might have imagined it.

"And what about Brennan, Shal?" Jesse continued gently, stepping a little closer. She didn't flash her eyes at the trespass of her territory or cower backwards in fear. That was a start. "What do you think it will do to Brennan if you don't return to us? Brennan cares about you in a way that even I can't understand. Don't you remember him? Don't you remember your endless bantering and sparring matches and teasing flirting?"

"Brennan . . ." the word was barely a whisper, and yet it caught his attention and he tore his eyes away from Max to lock with Shalimar's.

His heart ached terribly at the pain he saw deep in her eyes. Anger bubbled up in him as he thought about how much Max must have done to her . . .done with her. "Oh, Shal," he stretched out his hand to her. "Don't leave me again. I can't live without you anymore, this past year has been worse than hell. Come back to us, Shal. Come back to me."

She looked deep into his brown eyes and he saw the flash of recognition there. Tears brimmed in her eyes and began to slip out. "Brennan." She sobbed.

"No!" Max snarled, grabbing her arms. "You can't go with them, Shalimar, remember how much you owe me! He doesn't care about you; only I do, remember? These people are the reason you were lost on the streets!"

"Don't listen to him!" Emma shouted as Max began to pull Shalimar away.

Brennan looked at her despairingly. Jesse yelled: "No, Shalimar!"

But even thought Shalimar tried, Max was much to strong and he launched his propulsion powers, blurring away from them, his arms wrapped tightly around his possession.

"No!" Brennan growled, his voice breaking like an injured wolf. "I love you, Shalimar! Dammit, I love you!"

A second later, the blur and their beloved lost friend, were gone.

***

"We thought she was dead!" Jesse yelled at Adam. "How could Emma not pick up her life signals? How could we have believed for so long that she was gone? How could you not have known?"

Adam's eyes were weary and sad, but he gave them a small smile. "Things aren't always what they seem, Jesse, as been proven here." He sighed, his longing to have his Shalimar back almost unbearable. "We haven't lost her yet."

"Oh, yeah?" Brennan demanded. "Then how do we find them this time?"

"Do you know what I've been doing in my lab every night?" Adam asked. "I've been searching. Searching my own history with Max, and I've made a surprising discovery. Back when Max was first created, he worked as my assistant in the labs. One night, I discovered a few vials that I had produced - two potions - were missing. They didn't seem important to me then, so I ignored their loss, believing I would remake the potions some other time."

"Your point is?" Brennan asked snappily.

Adam shrugged. "My point is: Max stole them. Do you know what those potions were for?"

Emma was already picking up on his thoughts. "Let me guess," she said softly. "One completely erased prior memory in the subject it was injected to, and the other inserted a mental block into the mind of the subject, rendering it inaccessible and therefore undetectable by any technology, including a psionic's mind."

"My God," Jesse choked when Adam nodded sadly, "The bastard injected Shalimar with both the potions, didn't he? And injected himself with the second one - the mental block to psionics - so that Emma and the rest of us could never track him down."

"That's what I believe, now that you've told me what happened and how Shalimar reacted." Adam confirmed. "I believe Emma and Jesse were able to take that seedling of memory in Shalimar's mind - the one that's been crying out to us for help and release in our sleep and hers - and plant it firmly, and I believe Brennan's voice and eyes were able to trigger some of her memory back - so that she could recognize and know him at least."

Brennan banged his fist against the lab wall, rattling the machines. It had become a habit with him to take out his fury on the walls, because he no longer had any passion for sparring or working out of the dojo - they reminded him too much of Shalimar.

"I don't believe this!" he spat bitterly. He looked at Adam with the first trace of hope in his eyes. "Can you make a cure, Adam?"

This time, Adam's smile was genuine. "I still have the formula for the potions in my records; from them I can concoct the cure. It should take two days, maybe less, and the cure would take effect on Shalimar about twenty- four hours after we inject it."

"There's a problem there," Emma said, shaking her head. "You know the potions' power. How the hell are we supposed to find Max and Shalimar again?"

Brennan sank into a chair, the hope and brief light in his handsome face dying. "We're right back where we started aren't we?" he said quietly, the slightest glimmer of tears in those distinctive coffee-colored eyes.

TBC.

A/N: Quite a cliffhanger in the previous chapter, wasn't there? I hope you guys liked this one and I hope it satisfied your curiosity . . . for now. Please R&R and let me know how this went, and I'll post the seventh chapter as soon as it's finished.