Megiddon
A/N: Thanks, Tom. You can't imagine what those three words meant to me. ; ) Maya, I think there is definitely a possible ship with Adam and Emma and tried to express it here, then again I think Mason and Shalimar should be a couple but that's another story (hehehee). Matrix crossover, yes I've toyed with the multi-dimensional concept familiar to most as the Matrix for years. I give credit to the producers and writers of Matrix for any reference and similarities in my stories (the cyber aspect, I believe) to their movie- I don't own them or Mutant X but sure wish I did. *********
MICHELLE"S HOME
The Eckhart's daughter stared hostilely at Eckhart. "Look at me, old, man," she demanded.
Eckhart broke his link with the Unity. He knew it was Ashlocke dominating his daughter that was speaking. He sighed impatiently and looked at Michelle.
"You have been nothing to me but a thorn in my side. I should have killed you long ago." She said.
"YOUR mistake, Mr. Ashlocke," Eckhart replied with a slight sneer in his voice. Michelle rose suddenly and started to backhand Eckhart across the face. She stopped unexpectedly in mid-motion and stood there with a confused expression. Eckhart raised an eyebrow and looked questioningly at his daughter. Michelle ran a hand through her short blond hair and looked at her hands. She stared icily at Eckhart.
"Michelle won't allow me to physically harm you." Ashlocke/Michelle said. "Because of her 'limited' telepathic abilities, I cannot access you like Emma can, but I am drawing Emma here where together we will break you open like cracking a nut." Michelle paused and clenched her fists, then her eyes took on a pleading expression. "Emma's wearing a subdermal governor, Father. Ashlocke is planning on making me inactivate the governor when she arrives. I'm sorry," she said in a voice choking with emotion.
Eckhart nodded and touched her hand. Michelle suddenly pulled away. "The glove, father. I will keep him under control, but you must use the glove and you must leave."
A flash of realization showed in his expression and the white-haired man hobbled over to the utility drawer. How long must he keep up this fascade with his daughter, he wondered. He quickly found the stasis glove and put it on. Michelle turned and faced him. "Do it quickly, father." He extended his hands toward her shoulders and grasped them. Michelle gazed fearlessly into his eyes. The glove sparked as the stasis field within it activated upon contact with her shoulder. Michelle collapsed in his arms. Eckhart held her for a moment then gently laid her on the couch. Her face was so deathlike, that he checked her pulse. After a few seconds, he felt a heartbeat. "Ah, the miracles of stasis," he thought. As a second thought, he laid a blanket over her. Eckhart's expression became thoughtful as he picked up the keys to Michelle's car and quickly strode out of the house. He needed to get to the hospital before Ms. DeLauro did.
Eckhart felt the sudden change. Ashlocke had sensed the change in plans through his link to Emma, and was directing Emma to the hospital instead of to the house. Resolutely, Eckhart kept the pair diverted from accessing the rest of his mind.
MUTANT X
As the Double Helix landed on the helicopter pad near the hospital entrance, the dark-haired woman appeared on the monitor. The expression in her green eyes were at the same time concerned and ruthless.
"Take Adam through emergency admissions. We have taken care of everything. You will be told what to do." She paused, "hurry, Adam is regaining consciousness." The monitor returned to its normal readings. Jesse shook his head, baffled. That transmission isn't coming from anywhere I can track it.
Brennan hoisted Adam's limp form over a shoulder. He cocked his head at Shalimar and Jesse. "You heard the lady, let's get going," he said with resigned cynicism.
Inside the hospital, the admissions official nodded. "Oh, yes. We were informed to expect Mr. Kane's arrival. He's the emergency subject for the Virtual procedure. Please step this way." Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan exchanged puzzled glances and followed the blue-gowned orderly who wheeled Adam into the prep room. After scrubbing up and donning clean blue hospital gowns, Shalimar, Brennan and Jesse were admitted to a darkened room illuminated with blue light. Through a window, they could see Adam lying on a Med-chair engulfed in a small, man-sized force field that severely restricted his movements. He was awake now, studying his surroundings by moving his eyes. The force-field would not permit any visible body movement. Adam appeared to be in a chamber of some sort, an array of light of various spectrums passed over him at intervals.
"Is he all right?" Shalimar asked no one in particular.
"Shal, is that you?" Adam called out.
"Adam!" Shalimar cried. "Are you ok?"
"I think so. I feel," he paused, "much more in control now. Where am I?"
"We took you to the hospital," Brennan replied.
"WHAT!" Adam exclaimed. The force field sparkled where Adam's body had moved in reaction to his surprise and he slumped, suddenly tired. A female voice, cautioned them,
"You must exercise care not to excite the patient."
"Adam," Jesse called, "after the fiasco in Sanctuary, we were instructed by a "Power that be" to bring you here," Jesse answered. The entity calls herself Sanctuary and apparently controls Sanctuary and the Helix. We had no choice but to comply, or lose you."
"The procedure is beginning. During the procedure, all communications will be terminated." The voice continued. Shalimar, Brennan, and Jesse stared at Adam through the window. The light activity within the chamber was intense, especially around Adam's head. Adam had closed his eyes and appeared to be resting comfortably. The wall monitor displayed his vital signs. They registered normal. Shalimar activated her feral vision for a moment but was unable to see any activity inside the chamber. She switched back to human vision and watched the light show around Adam.
Adam considered what his team told him. He remembered the dark-haired woman in the Dojo. It must be she that they were referring to. Eckhart was also part of this somehow, he remembered the white-haired man trying to contact him when he lost control. He felt calm, here and now. A woman wearing surgical garb approached him. Her black hair was tied back and netted, as her experienced hands palpated the lump on his neck, her alert green eyes studied him.
"Who are you?" Adam asked.
"Dr. Aarariah." She answered quietly, watching him for any sign of recognition. Adam gazed deeply into her eyes, trying to place the name. Somehow it seemed familiar, but he just could not remember why or how. Puzzled, Adam asked, "Harvard? Genomex?" He felt so comfortable here. He didn't realize that he was no longer speaking with his mouth.
"All of this technology within this chamber is yours," the ebony-haired woman told him, as she continued to work at the growth under his ear. Adam's eyes darted to and fro to see what she was referring to. "The force- field that is sealed over your body is the one you use in the Dojo. It has been keyed to your and Ashlocke's DNA so that your new powers are effectively neutralized. The lights, the energy beams are your inventions as well. I am using them to keep your body sedated while separating the foreign DNA."
"Sort of like the way I separated the regeneration sequence from Marlowe?" Adam asked.
"Exactly." Aarariah replied. "The only technology that you haven't completely engineered is the one that allows you to see me, but even that was initiated by you. We perfected the process."
"This looks like an upgrade of a Virtual Reality Chamber," Adam commented. The woman nodded. "My original intent with that technology was to help link the human mind with the computer mind." Adam smiled, remembering. "It's too bad that I had been unable to pursue that avenue the way I wanted to." Adam looked at Aarariah with a question in his eyes.
"Jesse mentioned something about you calling yourself Sanctuary. I recall seeing you in the Dojo. Who are you and why are you helping us?" Adam asked.
"Does Sequence Genetics ring a bell?" she asked intensely.
Adam smiled almost shyly at the attention. "No, I'm sorry, never heard of it." He was slightly alarmed to see a tear form in her eyes.
"I loved you there. It exists in our realm, not in yours, " she said quietly. "I'm sorry, Adam. Tell the others that I'm just a computer glitch that you had randomly programmed into Sanctuary." She stroked his face and lowered an energy center. Adam's eyes closed and he drifted into a dreamless sleep while the doctor from the cyber realm finished operating on him within the hospital's special virtual reality chamber. She separated the mass of tissue that Ashlocke had implanted into Adam's body and the chamber's tools dissolved the foreign DNA strands that crept through Adam's nervous system into his brain. The damage inflicted by Ashlocke was reversed. While Ashlocke could still control Adam if he chose, there was no longer any chance of his accessing his super powers through Adam. Now all that remained was to remove Ashlocke's psyche from Adam's realm.
IN THE HOSPITAL
As Eckhart traveled to the hospital, he suddenly realized what the Unity's plan was.
"NOOO!" Mason Eckhart literally shouted into the Net. There had to be another way. He thought frantically. Adam. He needed Adam's help and needed it now. Why was Adam never there when he needed him?
Mason Eckhart walked quickly toward the stasis ward. The sense of urgency was frightening. He glowered. The sense of impending doom was tangible. Like a homing pigeon, he entered the large room filled with stasis tables and headed for the woman who was lying in among the fifty or so others.
"There you are," he whispered to the sleeping woman "at last." Unmindful of the stasis field, he gently touched her face.
"Turn it off, there is no longer any need," he heard Natalia's voice speak, although she seemed asleep. The field automatically shut down for her table. A thin, ancient looking woman opened her eyes and looked up at Eckhart's face. "At last," she murmured. "Are you surprised?"
"You are just as I had imagined," Eckhart told her.
"You lie beautifully, Mason Eckhart," Dr. Natalia Jensen told him.
"Things are not always as they appear to be," Eckhart repeated to her softly, touching her fragile face again.
"I am the one who re-engineered your daughter when she was a child." The ancient woman told him.
"I remember you. I promised to make your employment at Genomex very unpleasant and you saved her life in return," Eckhart replied, eyes locked on hers, following her every movement. "You didn't stay very long," he added, tracing her lips with his finger.
The grey eyes studied him. "I counteracted the monster that Adam Kane had created."
"I know. In your sudden absence, I continued to follow her progress. Jennifer Collins," Eckhart suddenly smiled. "It is ironic that you chose my daughter as your subject."
Natalia continued. "I had incorporated a little bit of myself into your daughter" she smiled weakly, "so, in a way, I've considered her as my daughter as well. I used my Psionic influence as she developed. The child has an amazing obsession with you, Mason. Do you think it may have rubbed off?" Dr. Jensen's eyes smiled at Mason. "Ironic how this all worked out, Mason. Do you remember the first time we met at Genomex?"
Eckhart looked reflectively into her eyes. Yes, he did remember the arrogant, young doctor who treated him as a busboy on his first day on the job. "You can't stop me," she had flippantly told him when he cautioned her about breaking protocol. He remembered how he raged and swore to get even. He'd make her life a living hell.
"Dr. Jensen? I'm sure that we will be speaking again." Eckhart had told her stiffly. It turned out that Dr. Jensen reported to higher authority in a top secret division. He never did see her again and by the time he had assimilated her division, after the 'X' incident, all traces of her was gone. Adam had no recollection of her, and only Eckhart still had a couple files in his possession.
"You have aged, Natalia." Eckhart said, gently stroking the ancient face. "We are approximately the same age."
Natalia smiled. "Are you sure about that, my love?" Eckhart looked down. It didn't matter to him what she looked like now. The bond between them was deep and strong. "I would do anything for you, Mason." She said softly. "Even give my life in exchange for yours."
Eckhart's eyes widened. Somehow he had always known and accepted that, but this sounded suspiciously like a goodbye. "You can't die," he interrupted.
"You can't stop me." She replied softly. "Look, I have a job to finish and we may need your help. Ah, there they are."
Adam, Shalimar, Brennan and Jesse filed silently into the triage. Adam's eyes were dark, filled with a haunted expression. How close he had come to assimilating almost god-like powers and he had almost destroyed his friends. An unknown entity had come out of the ether to restore him and to muzzle Gabriel Ashlocke. Why was he not surprised that Eckhart had somehow come out of the woodworks and was here as well?
"Emma," Shalimar greeted her teammate. Emma had entered from the other door, her expression drawn and intent. As Emma approached, Natalia grasped Eckhart's hand tightly and gazed into his eyes. A pained expression crossed his face like a shadow and then he straightened resolutely. Everything was perfectly clear now.
"Of course," he realized. "She was the perfect telepath. Why should I protect Adam? Can't he protect himself with his genius mind and his Mutants?" Eckhart protested silently, knowing her mind was set.
"I'm not sure that he can, Mason. The Net and the Unity depends on each of us doing our part. We can't afford the possibility, small as it is, that Ashlocke will still jump to Adam when he leaves Emma. "
"I want to protect you, not the man who destroyed my life." Eckhart retorted. Natalia silenced him with a stare. "Don't make it harder for me than it already is. When I unleash the beast everything will happen quickly."
"Mr. Ashlocke, I presume." Natalia commented, sitting up in her bed, intravenous lines still attached. Emma stared at her in distain.
"Old woman and old man," she taunted them. Natalia lifted an eyebrow skeptically. Leaning forward, she entered Emma's mind and found Ashlocke. Grabbing Ashlocke by the neck, she began to squeeze.
"You are nothing," she told him.
"No fair," Ashlocke gasped. I'm fettered with the subdermal governor."
"Life isn't fair," she mocked him. "I have more powers than you, Gabriel Ashlocke. Adam Kane may have created you, but I will destroy you."
"No, Ashlocke replied arrogantly between gasps. I will possess you just as I possess your creation, Michelle Eckhart."
Emma staggered and fell to her knees at the pain that kicked in as the subdermal governor burned her nerve endings. Adam reached for her.
"No Adam," Eckhart reminded him, "She houses Mr. Ashlocke's psyche. You must not interfere as she is purged."
"What does he know?" Jesse retorted, starting to push Eckhart away as he attempted to reach Emma. He paused when he saw the eyes in the aged face turn silver.
"Fine," Natalia snapped at Ashlocke. Her eyes turned silver as she created a cyber-space there in Emma's mind. Natalia motioned with her head and suddenly the device implant was deactivated. Emma slumped in relief. Ashlocke, realizing he was free, suddenly became much stronger and larger. He leaped into Natalia's mind and engulfed her. The cyber-space compacted upon itself and withdrew back into Natalia's mind. Emma fell back, Jesse caught her.
Natalia grinned at the group. Her countenance morphed from that of an ancient woman to a much younger one, one that Mason Eckhart remembered well. "New followers of Gabriel Ashlocke, I've linked with an even more powerful Psionic than Emma. One with other powers similar to my own. A body in which I can express myself appropriately ." The woman suddenly transformed into an exact likeness of Gabriel Ashlocke. He stretched luxuriously and stared at each of his adversaries with murder in his eyes. Eckhart glared back. It wasn't supposed to end like this. He started to form a link with the Net in order to access his powers.
"No, Mason. You may not do that." Marlina stood before him. She was dressed in military garb and armed. He retreated back to the hospital scene.
Ashlocke stared at him and began to create an energy field in his hands. Suddenly his image became blurry as Natalia regained her form. There was a sense of being in a whirlwind as Natalia bound herself up with Ashlocke's psyche and pulled up all of the links that Ashlocke had formed over his existence. Shalimar and Emma suddenly blinked as an invisible grip suddenly dissolved. Members of the Strand suddenly felt lighter, as if a shackle had been removed from their souls. As Kimmy played with her baby and suddenly felt an incredible sense of loss, as if Gabriel's death had replayed again.
Natalia, hating herself, had simply overwhelmed Ashlocke with the illusion of having the things that he desired the most. With her superior telepathic abilities, she painstakingly followed each link to its source and broke it. She sensed that he was becoming suspicious but he was too late.
"Mason," she said softly. He came to her and held her hand. Her eyes softened momentarily as she gazed into his eyes. Without another word, the IV line suddenly dispensed a massive overdose of the medication into her veins. With a shuddering sigh, she fell back, lifeless on the bed. An alarm went off with a stark buzz.
Mason Eckhart continued to hold Natalia's hand as the warmth left it. Her lifeless form looked young again. Silent tears burned his cheeks. He closed his eyes and searched for her, for any indication of her presence. His universe was empty again.
Somewhere in the Net, the remaining Unity, Aari and Marlina looked solemnly at each other. Their third member was gone. "Mission accomplished," Marlina whispered, looking out into the ether of the Cyber universe.
A/N: Thanks, Tom. You can't imagine what those three words meant to me. ; ) Maya, I think there is definitely a possible ship with Adam and Emma and tried to express it here, then again I think Mason and Shalimar should be a couple but that's another story (hehehee). Matrix crossover, yes I've toyed with the multi-dimensional concept familiar to most as the Matrix for years. I give credit to the producers and writers of Matrix for any reference and similarities in my stories (the cyber aspect, I believe) to their movie- I don't own them or Mutant X but sure wish I did. *********
MICHELLE"S HOME
The Eckhart's daughter stared hostilely at Eckhart. "Look at me, old, man," she demanded.
Eckhart broke his link with the Unity. He knew it was Ashlocke dominating his daughter that was speaking. He sighed impatiently and looked at Michelle.
"You have been nothing to me but a thorn in my side. I should have killed you long ago." She said.
"YOUR mistake, Mr. Ashlocke," Eckhart replied with a slight sneer in his voice. Michelle rose suddenly and started to backhand Eckhart across the face. She stopped unexpectedly in mid-motion and stood there with a confused expression. Eckhart raised an eyebrow and looked questioningly at his daughter. Michelle ran a hand through her short blond hair and looked at her hands. She stared icily at Eckhart.
"Michelle won't allow me to physically harm you." Ashlocke/Michelle said. "Because of her 'limited' telepathic abilities, I cannot access you like Emma can, but I am drawing Emma here where together we will break you open like cracking a nut." Michelle paused and clenched her fists, then her eyes took on a pleading expression. "Emma's wearing a subdermal governor, Father. Ashlocke is planning on making me inactivate the governor when she arrives. I'm sorry," she said in a voice choking with emotion.
Eckhart nodded and touched her hand. Michelle suddenly pulled away. "The glove, father. I will keep him under control, but you must use the glove and you must leave."
A flash of realization showed in his expression and the white-haired man hobbled over to the utility drawer. How long must he keep up this fascade with his daughter, he wondered. He quickly found the stasis glove and put it on. Michelle turned and faced him. "Do it quickly, father." He extended his hands toward her shoulders and grasped them. Michelle gazed fearlessly into his eyes. The glove sparked as the stasis field within it activated upon contact with her shoulder. Michelle collapsed in his arms. Eckhart held her for a moment then gently laid her on the couch. Her face was so deathlike, that he checked her pulse. After a few seconds, he felt a heartbeat. "Ah, the miracles of stasis," he thought. As a second thought, he laid a blanket over her. Eckhart's expression became thoughtful as he picked up the keys to Michelle's car and quickly strode out of the house. He needed to get to the hospital before Ms. DeLauro did.
Eckhart felt the sudden change. Ashlocke had sensed the change in plans through his link to Emma, and was directing Emma to the hospital instead of to the house. Resolutely, Eckhart kept the pair diverted from accessing the rest of his mind.
MUTANT X
As the Double Helix landed on the helicopter pad near the hospital entrance, the dark-haired woman appeared on the monitor. The expression in her green eyes were at the same time concerned and ruthless.
"Take Adam through emergency admissions. We have taken care of everything. You will be told what to do." She paused, "hurry, Adam is regaining consciousness." The monitor returned to its normal readings. Jesse shook his head, baffled. That transmission isn't coming from anywhere I can track it.
Brennan hoisted Adam's limp form over a shoulder. He cocked his head at Shalimar and Jesse. "You heard the lady, let's get going," he said with resigned cynicism.
Inside the hospital, the admissions official nodded. "Oh, yes. We were informed to expect Mr. Kane's arrival. He's the emergency subject for the Virtual procedure. Please step this way." Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan exchanged puzzled glances and followed the blue-gowned orderly who wheeled Adam into the prep room. After scrubbing up and donning clean blue hospital gowns, Shalimar, Brennan and Jesse were admitted to a darkened room illuminated with blue light. Through a window, they could see Adam lying on a Med-chair engulfed in a small, man-sized force field that severely restricted his movements. He was awake now, studying his surroundings by moving his eyes. The force-field would not permit any visible body movement. Adam appeared to be in a chamber of some sort, an array of light of various spectrums passed over him at intervals.
"Is he all right?" Shalimar asked no one in particular.
"Shal, is that you?" Adam called out.
"Adam!" Shalimar cried. "Are you ok?"
"I think so. I feel," he paused, "much more in control now. Where am I?"
"We took you to the hospital," Brennan replied.
"WHAT!" Adam exclaimed. The force field sparkled where Adam's body had moved in reaction to his surprise and he slumped, suddenly tired. A female voice, cautioned them,
"You must exercise care not to excite the patient."
"Adam," Jesse called, "after the fiasco in Sanctuary, we were instructed by a "Power that be" to bring you here," Jesse answered. The entity calls herself Sanctuary and apparently controls Sanctuary and the Helix. We had no choice but to comply, or lose you."
"The procedure is beginning. During the procedure, all communications will be terminated." The voice continued. Shalimar, Brennan, and Jesse stared at Adam through the window. The light activity within the chamber was intense, especially around Adam's head. Adam had closed his eyes and appeared to be resting comfortably. The wall monitor displayed his vital signs. They registered normal. Shalimar activated her feral vision for a moment but was unable to see any activity inside the chamber. She switched back to human vision and watched the light show around Adam.
Adam considered what his team told him. He remembered the dark-haired woman in the Dojo. It must be she that they were referring to. Eckhart was also part of this somehow, he remembered the white-haired man trying to contact him when he lost control. He felt calm, here and now. A woman wearing surgical garb approached him. Her black hair was tied back and netted, as her experienced hands palpated the lump on his neck, her alert green eyes studied him.
"Who are you?" Adam asked.
"Dr. Aarariah." She answered quietly, watching him for any sign of recognition. Adam gazed deeply into her eyes, trying to place the name. Somehow it seemed familiar, but he just could not remember why or how. Puzzled, Adam asked, "Harvard? Genomex?" He felt so comfortable here. He didn't realize that he was no longer speaking with his mouth.
"All of this technology within this chamber is yours," the ebony-haired woman told him, as she continued to work at the growth under his ear. Adam's eyes darted to and fro to see what she was referring to. "The force- field that is sealed over your body is the one you use in the Dojo. It has been keyed to your and Ashlocke's DNA so that your new powers are effectively neutralized. The lights, the energy beams are your inventions as well. I am using them to keep your body sedated while separating the foreign DNA."
"Sort of like the way I separated the regeneration sequence from Marlowe?" Adam asked.
"Exactly." Aarariah replied. "The only technology that you haven't completely engineered is the one that allows you to see me, but even that was initiated by you. We perfected the process."
"This looks like an upgrade of a Virtual Reality Chamber," Adam commented. The woman nodded. "My original intent with that technology was to help link the human mind with the computer mind." Adam smiled, remembering. "It's too bad that I had been unable to pursue that avenue the way I wanted to." Adam looked at Aarariah with a question in his eyes.
"Jesse mentioned something about you calling yourself Sanctuary. I recall seeing you in the Dojo. Who are you and why are you helping us?" Adam asked.
"Does Sequence Genetics ring a bell?" she asked intensely.
Adam smiled almost shyly at the attention. "No, I'm sorry, never heard of it." He was slightly alarmed to see a tear form in her eyes.
"I loved you there. It exists in our realm, not in yours, " she said quietly. "I'm sorry, Adam. Tell the others that I'm just a computer glitch that you had randomly programmed into Sanctuary." She stroked his face and lowered an energy center. Adam's eyes closed and he drifted into a dreamless sleep while the doctor from the cyber realm finished operating on him within the hospital's special virtual reality chamber. She separated the mass of tissue that Ashlocke had implanted into Adam's body and the chamber's tools dissolved the foreign DNA strands that crept through Adam's nervous system into his brain. The damage inflicted by Ashlocke was reversed. While Ashlocke could still control Adam if he chose, there was no longer any chance of his accessing his super powers through Adam. Now all that remained was to remove Ashlocke's psyche from Adam's realm.
IN THE HOSPITAL
As Eckhart traveled to the hospital, he suddenly realized what the Unity's plan was.
"NOOO!" Mason Eckhart literally shouted into the Net. There had to be another way. He thought frantically. Adam. He needed Adam's help and needed it now. Why was Adam never there when he needed him?
Mason Eckhart walked quickly toward the stasis ward. The sense of urgency was frightening. He glowered. The sense of impending doom was tangible. Like a homing pigeon, he entered the large room filled with stasis tables and headed for the woman who was lying in among the fifty or so others.
"There you are," he whispered to the sleeping woman "at last." Unmindful of the stasis field, he gently touched her face.
"Turn it off, there is no longer any need," he heard Natalia's voice speak, although she seemed asleep. The field automatically shut down for her table. A thin, ancient looking woman opened her eyes and looked up at Eckhart's face. "At last," she murmured. "Are you surprised?"
"You are just as I had imagined," Eckhart told her.
"You lie beautifully, Mason Eckhart," Dr. Natalia Jensen told him.
"Things are not always as they appear to be," Eckhart repeated to her softly, touching her fragile face again.
"I am the one who re-engineered your daughter when she was a child." The ancient woman told him.
"I remember you. I promised to make your employment at Genomex very unpleasant and you saved her life in return," Eckhart replied, eyes locked on hers, following her every movement. "You didn't stay very long," he added, tracing her lips with his finger.
The grey eyes studied him. "I counteracted the monster that Adam Kane had created."
"I know. In your sudden absence, I continued to follow her progress. Jennifer Collins," Eckhart suddenly smiled. "It is ironic that you chose my daughter as your subject."
Natalia continued. "I had incorporated a little bit of myself into your daughter" she smiled weakly, "so, in a way, I've considered her as my daughter as well. I used my Psionic influence as she developed. The child has an amazing obsession with you, Mason. Do you think it may have rubbed off?" Dr. Jensen's eyes smiled at Mason. "Ironic how this all worked out, Mason. Do you remember the first time we met at Genomex?"
Eckhart looked reflectively into her eyes. Yes, he did remember the arrogant, young doctor who treated him as a busboy on his first day on the job. "You can't stop me," she had flippantly told him when he cautioned her about breaking protocol. He remembered how he raged and swore to get even. He'd make her life a living hell.
"Dr. Jensen? I'm sure that we will be speaking again." Eckhart had told her stiffly. It turned out that Dr. Jensen reported to higher authority in a top secret division. He never did see her again and by the time he had assimilated her division, after the 'X' incident, all traces of her was gone. Adam had no recollection of her, and only Eckhart still had a couple files in his possession.
"You have aged, Natalia." Eckhart said, gently stroking the ancient face. "We are approximately the same age."
Natalia smiled. "Are you sure about that, my love?" Eckhart looked down. It didn't matter to him what she looked like now. The bond between them was deep and strong. "I would do anything for you, Mason." She said softly. "Even give my life in exchange for yours."
Eckhart's eyes widened. Somehow he had always known and accepted that, but this sounded suspiciously like a goodbye. "You can't die," he interrupted.
"You can't stop me." She replied softly. "Look, I have a job to finish and we may need your help. Ah, there they are."
Adam, Shalimar, Brennan and Jesse filed silently into the triage. Adam's eyes were dark, filled with a haunted expression. How close he had come to assimilating almost god-like powers and he had almost destroyed his friends. An unknown entity had come out of the ether to restore him and to muzzle Gabriel Ashlocke. Why was he not surprised that Eckhart had somehow come out of the woodworks and was here as well?
"Emma," Shalimar greeted her teammate. Emma had entered from the other door, her expression drawn and intent. As Emma approached, Natalia grasped Eckhart's hand tightly and gazed into his eyes. A pained expression crossed his face like a shadow and then he straightened resolutely. Everything was perfectly clear now.
"Of course," he realized. "She was the perfect telepath. Why should I protect Adam? Can't he protect himself with his genius mind and his Mutants?" Eckhart protested silently, knowing her mind was set.
"I'm not sure that he can, Mason. The Net and the Unity depends on each of us doing our part. We can't afford the possibility, small as it is, that Ashlocke will still jump to Adam when he leaves Emma. "
"I want to protect you, not the man who destroyed my life." Eckhart retorted. Natalia silenced him with a stare. "Don't make it harder for me than it already is. When I unleash the beast everything will happen quickly."
"Mr. Ashlocke, I presume." Natalia commented, sitting up in her bed, intravenous lines still attached. Emma stared at her in distain.
"Old woman and old man," she taunted them. Natalia lifted an eyebrow skeptically. Leaning forward, she entered Emma's mind and found Ashlocke. Grabbing Ashlocke by the neck, she began to squeeze.
"You are nothing," she told him.
"No fair," Ashlocke gasped. I'm fettered with the subdermal governor."
"Life isn't fair," she mocked him. "I have more powers than you, Gabriel Ashlocke. Adam Kane may have created you, but I will destroy you."
"No, Ashlocke replied arrogantly between gasps. I will possess you just as I possess your creation, Michelle Eckhart."
Emma staggered and fell to her knees at the pain that kicked in as the subdermal governor burned her nerve endings. Adam reached for her.
"No Adam," Eckhart reminded him, "She houses Mr. Ashlocke's psyche. You must not interfere as she is purged."
"What does he know?" Jesse retorted, starting to push Eckhart away as he attempted to reach Emma. He paused when he saw the eyes in the aged face turn silver.
"Fine," Natalia snapped at Ashlocke. Her eyes turned silver as she created a cyber-space there in Emma's mind. Natalia motioned with her head and suddenly the device implant was deactivated. Emma slumped in relief. Ashlocke, realizing he was free, suddenly became much stronger and larger. He leaped into Natalia's mind and engulfed her. The cyber-space compacted upon itself and withdrew back into Natalia's mind. Emma fell back, Jesse caught her.
Natalia grinned at the group. Her countenance morphed from that of an ancient woman to a much younger one, one that Mason Eckhart remembered well. "New followers of Gabriel Ashlocke, I've linked with an even more powerful Psionic than Emma. One with other powers similar to my own. A body in which I can express myself appropriately ." The woman suddenly transformed into an exact likeness of Gabriel Ashlocke. He stretched luxuriously and stared at each of his adversaries with murder in his eyes. Eckhart glared back. It wasn't supposed to end like this. He started to form a link with the Net in order to access his powers.
"No, Mason. You may not do that." Marlina stood before him. She was dressed in military garb and armed. He retreated back to the hospital scene.
Ashlocke stared at him and began to create an energy field in his hands. Suddenly his image became blurry as Natalia regained her form. There was a sense of being in a whirlwind as Natalia bound herself up with Ashlocke's psyche and pulled up all of the links that Ashlocke had formed over his existence. Shalimar and Emma suddenly blinked as an invisible grip suddenly dissolved. Members of the Strand suddenly felt lighter, as if a shackle had been removed from their souls. As Kimmy played with her baby and suddenly felt an incredible sense of loss, as if Gabriel's death had replayed again.
Natalia, hating herself, had simply overwhelmed Ashlocke with the illusion of having the things that he desired the most. With her superior telepathic abilities, she painstakingly followed each link to its source and broke it. She sensed that he was becoming suspicious but he was too late.
"Mason," she said softly. He came to her and held her hand. Her eyes softened momentarily as she gazed into his eyes. Without another word, the IV line suddenly dispensed a massive overdose of the medication into her veins. With a shuddering sigh, she fell back, lifeless on the bed. An alarm went off with a stark buzz.
Mason Eckhart continued to hold Natalia's hand as the warmth left it. Her lifeless form looked young again. Silent tears burned his cheeks. He closed his eyes and searched for her, for any indication of her presence. His universe was empty again.
Somewhere in the Net, the remaining Unity, Aari and Marlina looked solemnly at each other. Their third member was gone. "Mission accomplished," Marlina whispered, looking out into the ether of the Cyber universe.
