SOG-3 The Haunting
Disclaimer- same as always. Don't own them. Wish I did.
A/N- MW, this chapter is for you. Thanks for the encouragement, without it this wouldn't have been written-- so if it sucks….*grins*. Besides, I just couldn't leave Mason lying there dead. Where's the sport in that? I'm playing as usual. The story does not reflect the Author's beliefs or ideologies, I'm just using conventions to more effectively mess with your minds….
******
All was quiet in the hallway of the medical center. The bodies of Dr. Anna Richards and Mason Eckhart lay sprawled on the floor where their executioners left them. The fluorescent lighting of the building was overshadowed by the pale, white light from the skylights and windows. The unnatural brightness drained color from the walls and surroundings, dressing the fallen couple in shades of gray.
Anna opened her eyes first and found Mason still lying on top of her, his face touching hers. Alarmed, she moved her head a fraction away from his so that the deadly contact with her skin would be broken. Eckhart opened his eyes a moment later and blinked slowly trying to remember something.
"Oh," she sighed softly. "Thank God, you're all right."
"I'm fine, Anna." Eckhart replied, puzzlement apparent in his voice. "I remember kissing you on the forehead."
"and I remember pushing you out of danger's path," she replied equally puzzled. "But what else happened?"
Eckhart propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at the dark-haired woman beneath him. The lighting made the gold strands of hair glitter amongst the ebony strands. An impish grin spread across his face. She looked up at him questioningly then smiled back at him. "You kissed me and I didn't kill you," she said almost in wonder.
"Maybe you did and we're in our eternal reward," Eckhart joked delightedly. He pulled the binding away from the doctor's hair and ran his gloved fingers through and kissed her soft, cool hair.
"Yes," he said softly, "so much nicer unbound," and drawing closer to her, he gently touched her lips with his. Anna flinched and watched him closely to see if he'd collapse. He didn't, just held himself up a maddening few inches away from her face studying her. A wave of relief swept over Anna, followed by a fierce sense of being joyously set free. Suddenly she frantically removed her gloves. She looked at him and nodded. "You too. Take yours off." She directed.
With a lift of an eyebrow, he obeyed. Anna sat up now, next to Eckhart on the floor in the middle of the corridor. She held her hands up, palm out toward the white haired man, and he did the same toward her. They clasped hands. Other than a sense of pure relief, there were no adverse effects. They regarded each other for a moment, then collapsed onto each other, mouths locked together, caressing. A shadow filled the corridor but the two were oblivious to it.
**** at the same time in the same place ******
A pair of residents walked through the corridor, over the spot where the bodies had been removed just hours earlier.
"MAN! Did you feel that? There's definitely a cold spot in this corridor," one of the residents exclaimed.
"You know that this is exactly the place where the Doctor Richards and one of her patients were murdered. I'll bet this place is haunted. Let's step back and see if that cold spot is really there?"
The two back-tracked a couple steps and suddenly both felt the ice-cold center of the corridor. "I've got a thermometer here in my kit. Let me hold it in place here," Walker said as he pulled out the small instrument. His hand shook slightly.
"A little nervous?" Madrid asked with a nervous laugh.
"No, just feel like my insides are turning to ice here. Hm. Just another 30 seconds and this baby should be registering 30-40 Fahrenheit."
Madrid stood further away from the cold spot and rubbed her hands to warm them. She watched the thermometer's mercury line carefully while Walker held it within the cold zone.
"It's not doing anything," she said.
The blond man quickly stepped away from her and walked several feet down the hall before he stopped, rubbing his arms vigorously.
"Hey, is something wrong?" Madrid asked.
Walker shook his head. "I just got too much of the dead-zone." He heaved a sigh. "It's much warmer here, but our thermometer still registers the same temperature. I have to say that perhaps something is affecting our perceptions of ambient temperature."
"Ghosts?" Madrid asked. Suddenly the woman jumped backwards and seemed to be tracking invisible movement away from her down the hall in the opposite direction. She looked astonished.
Walker shot her a look. "Maddie? Something?"
Madrid's attention snapped back to the present and said, "I had a distinct sense of a presence moving that way. I could almost see it – it was a translucent outline of two people walking that way." She pointed back toward the center's exit. Her partner shrugged. He didn't believe in ghosts or in extrasensory perception, but this was awfully weird. Madrid stared down the empty corridor, preoccupied with her thoughts.
**** in the same place, same time, different dimension…. ******
Mason Eckhart sighed deeply as Anna slowly tore herself away from him. "I will treasure this moment," she said. Mason looked up in question. "Here we are, sprawled out on the corridor in the middle of a busy prestigious medical center, making love to each other without a thought for who might walk around the corner. And the amazing thing is that no one has interrupted us."
"Seems like a dream." Eckhart answered, feeling all too comfortable. He gazed attentively at the doctor. He mused. "perhaps we should move to more comfortable quarters, doctor?"
"I could stay here forever, Mason, but yes let's move on, it seems to be getting dark here, for all the lighting," she answered. Eckhart resisted the temptation to embrace her again and stood instead, helping her up. Wrapping an arm around the other, the pair headed down the corridor toward the exit.
"I can't help but think that something else was happening before we found ourselves in this incredibly compromising situation," Eckhart mused.
"Yes Mason, I remember pushing you out of danger's way- but what was the danger?" Anna replied.
"All I can think of is you, as if no one else exists, but surely, there must be someone else we know here." Eckhart answered.
Anna smiled. "Let's walk around. I'm sure we'll run into someone." They walked toward the exit, their arms brushing against each other. Interestingly enough, the center seemed to be devoid of people. The brightly lit facility seemed to have areas of darkness co-existing with the light.
"Look at this, Mason!" Anna exclaimed. They walked into a room that seemed relatively dim despite the bright fluorescent lighting.
"Very intriguing," Eckhart replied thoughtfully. "What is this room?"
"This is the staff lounge. We're not allowed to smoke in here, but it seems hazy as if someone did light up."
"The air is actually quite fresh," Eckhart said, sniffing the air then touched her shoulder. "Look," he said softly.
A woman wearing the blue coat of a resident walked into the room. She seemed to be talking with someone who wasn't there, then looked up directly at them.
"Hello, Dr. Richards," the woman said. She suddenly looked to her left as if something else commanded her attention. She looked at them thoughtfully.
"Is something wrong, Mary?" Anna asked. Turning to Mason she explained that Mary was a resident who the others kidded for always being lost in another world. Mary seemed to be a little anxious now, she kept looking over to a darkened area to her left.
"You can't see them?" She asked addressing the air to her left. Mary suddenly looked again at them with a guarded expression. "Oh, I must have been seeing things, too little sleep," she remarked lightly turning away. "I didn't know she was murdered."
Anna had a horrified expression on her face. Murdered. Eckhart drew her close to himself and held her protectively. Suddenly he saw a vision of a man's silhouette, Anna leaping like a Feral between the man and himself, seeing Anna being struck, convulsing in mid-air, himself holding her dead body, kissing her. Eckhart closed his eyes in pain as the memories began to return. "Mutant X." he breathed. When he opened his eyes, she was staring up at him. "What do you remember?" he asked.
"The attack on us. The cat-woman strangling you, Michael being critically injured by the attackers, your body-guard fallen, the electric man attacking you. I blocked you from his attack." Anna looked at Mason searchingly. "I felt as if I was hit by cardio-paddles that were still discharging. My body tingled then I must have passed out."
"Did it hurt?" Eckhart asked.
"Just a little. More of a pulling sensation than anything else. I suppose that childbirth would have been more painful," she replied. "How about you."
"It was exquisite," Eckhart said with a faraway look. "I kissed you, knowing that I should die. Mr. Mulray threw another thunderbolt at me at about the same time." He looked at her suddenly. "Can we do that again?"
Anna looked at him mischieveously despite the gravity of the situation. "Not here." She answered. "How about my apartment?"
Eckhart gazed hungrily at her. "Yes, let's," he agreed.
Instantly, they found themselves at Dr. Richard's apartment. Too amazed to pursue their initial intentions, they decided to experiment. They decided to go to the Med Center cafeteria. They were there. Mason's apartment. They were there instantly.
"We've developed teleportation abilities." Eckhart mused. "But we've only seen one person in a place that should have had at least 40 people. Why would that be?"
"If we are truly dead, we might be existing on a different dimensional plane," Anna said thoughtfully. "The rules must be different here. Our physical bodies are probably somewhere in this facility…." She straightened resolutely. "Let's visit the autopsy area." Mason Eckhart nodded. They found themselves in the basement of the facility where the dead were processed. The area was brightly lit, yet shadowy. Two tables were occupied with shrouded bodies. Eckhart tentatively touched one body, as if to remove the shroud from the face, but was unable to move the piece of cloth. It was as if the figure was made of stone.
"At least my hand doesn't pass through like a ghost," Eckhart muttered.
"Dr. Hindlemann should be conducting the autopsy," Anna said. "I wonder if he's here today." As she spoke, one of the shadowy areas began to mass and took on the form of Dr. Hindlemann. The man apparently unaware of them was talking to someone next to him, someone that neither Dr. Richards nor Mason Eckhart could see.
"Dr. Kane," he said, (Eckhart started at the name. "Adam!" he exclaimed.) "Thank you for arriving on such short notice. I know you worked with and treated Mr. Eckhart in the distant past. Perhaps you could share some thoughts on what you know of him. It may help to figure out who hated him enough to kill him."
Adam's form materialized. Eckhart's face became a mask of incredulous disbelief. "The bastard!" he whispered. "He put the contract out on me and now he's pretending find my killer?"
Anna took his arm. "Listen," she hissed. Dr. Hindlemann lifted the sheet off the corpse. Eckhart found himself staring at his own lifeless body. He touched it. It was solid to the touch, even more so than he remembered.
"Mr. Eckhart was a client of ours." The coroner told Adam. "His immune system was being rebuilt gradually through Dr. Richard's therapy. Unfortunately, their early demise prevents us from seeing her therapy through to the success we anticipated."
Adam looked down. "Do you have any leads to who might have done this?" he asked.
"None, unfortunately. The surveillance cameras show nothing, as if they had been turned off. The injured have no recollection of the incident; it's as if their minds were erased. We are totally baffled. If this was planned, this might be the perfect murder. We must find out who did this and stop them before they strike again."
"I wonder if perhaps the Doctor had an enemy and Mason just got in the way." Adam offered.
Dr. Hindlemann shrugged thoughtfully. "That is a possibility," he conceded, "although I don't know of anyone who would have reason to harm her. The positioning of the bodies is a strong indication that she died first."
"We all live double lives," Adam said mysteriously. "Then again, Mason as you know, had a long list of people that he had alienated. Any one of them may have wanted revenge." The men sighed. "How'd he die?" Adam asked.
"It's odd, Dr. Kane. Neither the doctor nor Mr. Eckhart has a mark on them yet they lie here dead while Mr. Eckhart's entire bodyguard survived and show signs of violent physical trauma." He shook his head. "Blood work and the condition of their internal organs indicate that both had been subjected to intense electrical shock as if struck by a lightning bolt, however, the facility surroundings show no sign of damage. Mr. Eckhart's blood is depleted of essential factors while Dr. Richards is not. I think that Mr. Eckhart may have died before being subjected to electrical shock, perhaps something that caused his body to cannibalize essential nutrients or components very quickly."
Anna looked at Eckhart with concern in her eyes. The white-haired man touched her hand reassuringly. Adam shook his head thoughtfully as he stood over Eckhart's body.
"Very strange indeed." Adam said quietly. His dark eyes were unreadable and glistened as he gazed at the still form of his adversary. He gently brushed a stray lock of white hair out of Eckhart's face. "Why did it all come to this?" he muttered softly then he turned away.
Eckhart had an incredible urge to touch Adam. He did. Adam stopped in his tracks, looking very alert and uneasy as a chill ran down his spine. Eckhart noticed how easily his hand passed through Adam's arm. With an intrigued, excited expression Eckhart obeyed the overwhelming temptation to slide into Adam's body.
"Mason!" Anna called as her companion vanished.
Adam still stood there uncertainly, looking like there was an internal struggle going on. He closed his eyes, his face tense and shook his head slowly. Adam felt for a moment as if he had switched identities—with Mason Eckhart. It was a strange sensation, a feeling of otherness, as if the man's consciousness overlaid Adam's for a brief moment. I am Mason Eckhart he thought incredulously. NO, That's impossible! But he knew his perceptions had changed for that instant, that a sense of childish curiousity had filled him, energizing his jaded scientific mind; that drive, that need to control that Adam thought he had laid to rest long ago was suddenly very much alive, and he felt an anger within him that was alien to his own nature. There was more: passion and memories of a history that was not his own, but Adam shut them out. In a second, these things registered within his consciousness along with the certainty of Mason's identity within him. Adam stared one last time at Eckhart's dead body. He'd have to do something about that guilt complex of his. Adam acknowledged Dr. Hindelmann and left, looking distinctly unsettled. Mason Eckhart stepped out of Adam's body and smiled. This certainly had possibilities. He looked at Anna. The woman had quietly observed the interaction with Adam. She gestured for him to follow her. He took her hand and they were suddenly back in her bedroom.
"Do you know what this could mean?" She asked excitedly. "We're proverbial ghosts! I never imagined that the afterlife could be like this. You stepped into Dr. Kane's body, yet neither of us could get back into our own bodies."
"Yes and we have incredible teleportation powers." Eckhart replied. "It appears that when we focus on someone we know, we can teleport to their location and see them, although any other person in the area is invisible to us."
"I think people can walk through us and we can't see or feel them. It's an inter-dimensional phenomena." Anna reasoned.
"The darkness coexisting with the light!" Eckhart exclaimed. "The darkness must be the people from the dimension or life that we just departed.
"But where are all the other dead people?" Anna asked. "There's no one else here."
"Perhaps we're in transition?" Eckhart asked.
"Yes," Anna replied thoughtfully. "We were murdered. We have unfinished business."
"Then I think we need to finish our business." Eckhart replied, a devilish smile spreading across his face. Anna smiled back at him and pulled him down onto the bed. There was no rush.
After a forever of delight had passed, they decided to pay Adam and Mutant X a visit at Sanctuary.
******* break *********
At Sanctuary, Adam sat with his team looking lost in thought, wishing that they had a fountain in this area. "Adam, you seem disturbed about something," Shalimar said.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" Adam asked. Emma and Shalimar shook their heads.
"I just viewed Mason Eckhart's body." He said, looking subdued.
"Then you should be happy, Adam. We did a good job. No evidence." Jesse said.
"I…just didn't think it would end up like this." Adam said.
"It's a little too late to have second thoughts Adam," Emma stated, looking at him suspiciously, "especially after what he did to you. Do you think he would be having second thoughts about you if the Tribunal had succeeded in carrying out their sentence on you?"
Adam had a faraway look. "No, of course not. But as I looked at him, I felt a chill go down my spine and suddenly, I WAS him. How is that possible?"
"Adam, you have too much of a guilt complex." Brennan chided. "You did give us the go ahead to pull the plug on that psychopath. After the hundreds of innocent souls that he had killed or tormented, he got what he deserved."
Mason stood there and listened as his enemies discussed the kind of man he was. They were all wrong. He wasn't a murderer. He was simply trying to counteract Adam Kane's treatments with some of his own. Like Adam, he didn't always succeed and some of the New Mutants that his people worked on didn't survive. But his motives had been pure. He wanted to either remove the mutancies or perfect them. Like Adam, a new race of humankind had been his vision for the future. Unlike Adam there had been no room for compromise. He looked at Dr. Anna Richards to see how she would react to this information. Anna sat near Emma looking troubled.
"Anna?" Mason addressed her gently. The woman looked at him with an anguished expression.
"Mason, tell me you never intentionally ordered someone's death," she pleaded.
Eckhart looked at her silently and didn't answer. Anna looked down and didn't speak for several minutes. Eckhart waited patiently. He had never intended for this relationship to grow as it had. Perhaps it was meant to end.
Anna looked up at him. "I euthanized some of my patients over the years," she said softly. "It had been for their own good and for the good of society." Eckhart's eyes widened. This had escaped the careful check he had made on her before he agreed to let her treat him.
"Would I have been one of those euthanized patients?" he asked carefully.
"What if you had been?" Anna asked. "You had submitted yourself to my care for treatment. What if I had determined that your quality of life didn't justify its continuation?"
"You're just like Adam, playing God with human lives!" Eckhart exclaimed.
"And what about you, Mason? If what these people are saying here is true, you have sent killers after them and other hapless experiments of Adam Kane. I understand people die on the battlefield and I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you selecting individuals to hold against their will and experiment on them without their consent and killing them if they refuse. Now who's playing God?"
The two glared at each other while Mutant X continued their discussion, oblivious to their presence. Anna's gaze softened. "I had always felt some kind of connection with you, Mason. We are of a kind, you and I."
Eckhart nodded. "Yes. We could have accomplished much had we been permitted to continue our existence." He looked at Adam thoughtfully. In that brief contact with him, he had picked up much insight on Adam's personality and quirks, much of this he had already figured out over the years, but the interpersonal relationships….hmmm. Anna was sizing up Shalimar.
"Be careful," Eckhart said softly. "She's not your type."
Anna placed a hand on the Feral's arm and watched it pass through. Shalimar shivered and looked around suspiciously. Anna slipped into Shalimar's body. The blond Feral looked up toward the ceiling with a puzzled expression.
"Shal?" Brennan took her hand. Shalimar snapped away from him but still stood there as if listening. Her eyes glowed like yellow coals.
"I…I feel so weird," she said. "…As if all this was new."
"What's new, Shalimar?" Emma asked, trying to read her friend.
"I don't know. For a second I felt like I was someone else." She sighed. "so strange." Shalimar's eyes became slightly unfocused and Emma caught a sense of another presence within Shalimar, but it was subtle. It felt like another personality or aspect of Shalimar was surfacing. "Emma, it's not me," Shalimar gasped softly. She turned to Adam, her eyes wide and intense as Anna searched the Feral's open mind and assimilated her personality.
"Shalimar, what are you feeling?" Adam asked anxiously. Shalimar sighed deeply and relaxed.
"That was the weirdest experience." She said. "Similar to what you just described what happened at the coroner's." She paused as she seemed to track invisible movement around the group.
"You're weirding us all out, Shalimar," Brennan said. "What are you watching?" Anna/Shalimar smiled and tossed her hair, Anna deeply aware of Eckhart's presence and following his movements. Brennan suddenly felt a chill go through him as Mason touched his arm and paused thoughtfully. Eckhart then stood next to Emma and gazed at her curiously. Emma shifted uncomfortably.
"I always wanted to have telepathic powers," Eckhart said aloud to Emma. The redhead shifted nervously. She sensed his intent, but not his presence per se.
Adam, something is going on here. I'm picking up strange thought patterns at the same time that Shalimar and Brennan felt the coldness in here. Shal, why are you staring at me like that?"
Anna/Shalimar didn't reply. Anna watched Eckhart expectantly.
Eckhart touched Emma's arm. The red-head whirled, hugging herself. Her eyes darkened as she tried to scan what was intruding on her body. Eckhart stopped. Something didn't feel right about this. He looked at Anna/Shalimar with an odd, hungry look and waited. Anna stepped out of Shalimar and approached him.
"I am concerned that eventually we will become locked into one of these bodies if we continue this little game. I want you to know that I will always love you, regardless of where we end up, Anna." Mason said, his dark eyes devouring the sight of Anna.
"We don't have to do this, Mason." The doctor said.
"Ah, but we do." Eckhart replied, holding her, touching his forehead to hers.
"Yes, the unfinished business," Dr. Richards murmured resignedly, feeling totally contented in his arms. "Do you suppose that there is a limit to the number of times we can step into a body? Or will I be locked in when the 'right' one comes along?" Anna whispered into the white hair that covered Eckhart's ear.
"None of the above, I hope," Eckhart said.
Emma stared at them, cautiously extending her hand toward the space that felt cold as ice, the space that was occupied by Mason Eckhart and Dr. Anna Richards. Adam paced nervously, watching his people for clues. They had superior senses and he depended on their input to make the right decisions. Emma waved her hand warily in a wide arc before her, advancing, her hand passing through their bodies. Anna started to shimmer when Emma's hand touched her.
"Mason, I can't move," she cried. A moment later, she melted into Emma. The red-head stopped in her tracks and looked directly at Mason. She then looked at Jesse.
"Em?" Jesse said, "something wrong?"
Eckhart strode over to Jesse and touched him. Jesse shivered and stood up abruptly.
"Man, something's gotta be wrong with the thermostat. It feels like the temperature has dropped 20 degrees." He declared. Everyone nodded in agreement. Jesse suddenly met Emma's gaze. His mouth dropped open then he swallowed. Emma stared back, suddenly overtaken with an overwhelming longing to be in his arms.
"Uhm guys?" Shalimar raised an eyebrow at them and scowled her disapproval .
Jesse startled, reddened in embarrassment, but suddenly, with uncharacteristic coolness directed his full attention to the group and replied dismissively, " I'm not sure I understand why we need to continue this conversation." Turning to Adam, Jesse said, "ADam, unless there is anything you need from me, I will turn in. I need to reflect on the events of the day." Adam stared at Jesse, stunned. He was momentarily shaken by the way Jesse pronounced his name, and at the realization that Jesse's comment was a direct quote from a much younger Mason Eckhart. Adam stared at Jesse suspiciously.
"Mason?" Adam said in a small voice. Jesse stopped in his tracks and looked back at him sharply. The rest of the group watched the two men.
"ADam," Jesse said, "is there something wrong?"
"Even the way you pronounced my name is like him," Adam mused aloud. "Jesse, are you feeling any ambivalence about your identity?"
The blond man gazed intently at the older man, looked down introspectively, then allowed himself the slightest of smiles. "Never felt better, Adam," he replied lightly. His shoulders slumped for a moment and he sighed deeply. Jesse felt slightly confused yet comfortable, as if an imaginary friend had returned to him. He would sort it out later, alone in his room.
Adam gazed at him for another moment. Jesse stole a glance at Emma and Adam saw Emma return the look. Adam shook his head indulgently then dismissed the incident as chance, storing it for future reference. There had always been a certain chemistry between these two. Shalimar and Brennan approached him.
"It's been a long day, Adam. How about we call it a night?" Shalimar threw her right arm around his shoulder and her left around Brennan's waist.
Emma blinked contentedly. The cold spot was gone. Maybe they were all tired from the stress they had been under. She had felt strange for a moment when she touched that cold spot but felt good now. Aware of her triune nature, Emma believed that one of her entities was developing. She would watch and wait. Her teammates had committed a crime, and she had a strong feeling that it would come back to haunt them. They would deal with it. There was far more important business at hand, like getting to know her own powers and Jesse a little better.
"Ghosts, Shalimar?" Emma repeated, as Shalimar interrupted her out of her reverie. "No. I still don't believe in ghosts," she said with a disarming smile, turning in time to catch Jesse standing motionless in the doorway, watching her silently, hungrily. He left. She ran to follow him.
The End.
