'm kind of numb
It's all distorted
You left me here with
This damage that you caused…"
--Staind
"So, Britt. What have you been up to the last few years?" Jesse asks, logging into a spare computer. Britt had refused to open the disk on a computer that was hooked up the net or any other computer.
"I'm a police officer. I didn't know what else to be after…after what I'm about to show you." Britt starts to click the keyboard furiously and the hologram screen opens up beside them and displays a jumble of codes.
"You really are a genius…this is some of the most sophisticated code I've ever seen…" Jesse admires. Shalimar glances at Emma.
"I don't understand it either, Shal," Emma grins.
Britt clicks some more keys and a building appears. "This is some video from the compound. I don't know who it was designed for, I guess the investors."
"That's the compound?" Emma asks, as the clip moves forward, through the steel doors into the building.
"Yup," Britt replies.
The screen shows into different parts of the building. In one frame, a white room is displayed with a small child lying sedated on a gurney. He is surrounded by masked 'doctors'.
"That's bullshit. The rooms were dirty gray…most of them were bloodstained…and we were never sedated for anything…" Britt says, quietly.
The video continues, showing a clean, normal research facility. At the end, happy children are shown, reunited with their nuclear families.
"Okay. That's the edited version. Now I'm going to show you some of the security video with what…what really went on." Britt glances at the others before he starts the clip. "You guys know Brennan pretty well?"
"He's like a brother to us," Emma replies. Shalimar pokes her and gives her a look.
"He is my brother. But we've never talked about what happened in that place," Britt says quietly. "We were in there together, but…this is the kind of stuff nightmares have nightmares about."
"You don't want us to tell Brennan what we're going to see," Emma says.
Britt nods slightly. He sighs. "This is some heavy shit." He clicks some keys and the video starts.
Emma gasps as a child is shown, restrained on a bed in a dingy room. The floors are brown with aged blood and the child's eyes are wide with fear. As the clip plays, a man wearing scrubs enters with a long syringe.
"What is he doing?" Jesse asks.
"I don't know. But it hurt like hell," Britt replies. The child onscreen begins to scream.
Britt's eyes are not on the screen; he is looking in the direction of the lab. "Brennan would volunteer…so the people wouldn't hurt me or the others…" Britt says quietly. "By the time we escaped, he couldn't eat, sleep…he could barely function."
"Is that…" Shalimar gasps, recognizing a young Brennan alongside Britt in a cell. Britt nods.
"That was our room…when they still let us stay in the same room," Britt says, without looking.
Emma gives her teammates a glance. "We don't need to see anymore, Britt. This is too much…" She starts, pausing as the video shows Brennan and Britt restrained in a room. As they watch, Britt sends pulses of energy at his brother, relentless as the men in white scream at him. Even when Brennan collapsed, limp in the restraints, Britt continued to shock him.
Britt switches the video off. "I'm going to take a break. Rorie's file is on here as well as a roster of all the kids in the compound." He walks away, quickly, clearly disturbed from the video.
"Did you hear what he said about Brennan volunteering? How could he let Brennan take all that abuse?" Jesse whispers to the girls.
"They were kids, Jesse. They were kids in that hell…shit…" Shalimar replies.
"The guilt is coming from him in waves," Emma says.
"It should be," Jesse says.
Brennan is surrounded by mist.
"Brennan…Brennan, come out and play with your Auntie Rorie…Brennan…"
Brennan doesn't know why Rorie cannot find him. He waits in his mist camouflage, watching her walk around. She looks straight at him and he flinches, seeing her face. Her face is visage of burnt flesh. The mouth she calls for him from is a gaping hole and her hair is missing in clumps.
"Brennan…here kitty kitty kitty…" Rorie calls, looking around. "I know he's here, I'm in his fucking mind…"
"How exactly are you mind-fucking me, Rorie? How are you here?" Brennan asks, the mist dissipating around him. He barely contains a shiver as she turns her ravaged face toward him.
"Look at me, Brennan…I wanted you to see what you did to me…what I've become…"
"Karma's a bitch, Rorie…you deserved it…" Brennan says, trying to provoke her. He is tired of letting her win. He is tired.
Rorie leaps at him but when she contacts him, electricity surges from Brennan, knocking them both in opposite directions.
"You fucking bastard!" She charges him again, before he can get to his feet. She pounces on his chest and the energy explodes again.
Brennan wakes up with a jolt. He sees Shalimar through the lab window, sleeping with her chin up. He opens his mouth to call for her but his throat is too dry and painful for any sound to escape. He glances down and sees fire trickling from his fingertips to the bed. He struggles to get out of the bed before it becomes an inferno. He falls to the floor with a thump, too shaky to stand. He sees Shalimar yelling something to him from behind the glass right before the sprinklers come on, soaking him wet. As the water drenches him, he starts to shiver and electricity starts to build in his hands.
"Brennan…Brennan, are you okay?" Adam yells, standing in the doorway.
"Stand back…" Brennan coughs, unsure of anything but intense pain. A severe convulsion shakes him and a pulse of energy erupts, knocking Adam to the floor and shattering everything that is glass.
Brennan sinks back into unconsciousness, the water draining his power.
"Back so soon? What happened out there, Brennan?" Rorie snarls, crouched in wait.
Brennan sways as Rorie appears in front of him. Despite being soaked and powerless, his exhaustion fuels his rage. He pushes her to the ground, his mere size enough to overtake her.
"Why are you doing this?" Brennan demands.
"You and your brother destroyed me…" Rorie spits, struggling.
"You destroyed yourself," Brennan replies, his hands around her neck.
"You going to kill me? You don't have the guts…" Rorie taunts.
"You stay away from my brother…" Brennan pants, his vision wavering as his grip tightens.
"Brennan, wake up, man!" A voice penetrates into his mind.
"Punk…" Rorie gasps, as Brennan releases her.
"Brennan…Brennan, can you hear me?" Adam's voice strikes him and he jolts upright with a gasp. He is still on the floor in the center of the shattered, scorched lab.
"Brennan?" Shalimar and Jesse are beside Adam alongside him.
"Yeah?" He asks.
"What the hell is going on?" Shalimar asks.
"I almost killed her…I had my hands on her throat…I could have crushed her throat…" Brennan says, his eyes a dark grey, glazed with emotion.
"It was self defense…" Jesse starts.
"I'm not a killer…I'm…" Brennan's voice fades away as the memory of the destroyed compound assaults him.
"Brennan? Brennan?" Shalimar is alarmed by the look on his face.
Emma enters, waving Adam to join her in the other room.
"What?" Adam asks, concern lining his face.
"I was looking through the disk Britt left with us. It has a medical file on Brennan. It doesn't match ours at all," Emma begins. Britt walks in, his hair wet from the shower.
"What's going on? Is Brennan okay?" Britt asks.
"He's conscious. Rorie attacked him again," Adam says. "Wait, Britt," He stops Britt from going into the room where Shal and Jesse are lifting Brennan onto a fresh bed.
"Britt, can you fill us in on some of Brennan's med files?" Emma asks.
"Like what?" Britt asks, his gaze never leaving his brother's body.
"When you guys escaped from the compound and…blew it all to hell…what did that do to Brennan?" Emma asks.
Britt hesitates.
"Well?" Adam urges.
"He lost it. He lapsed into catatonia for a while, wouldn't talk, wouldn't eat…I finally had to take him to the hospital for dehydration. After that, he seemed to be okay, but he couldn't stop shaking, his mental stability was shot. He would have flashbacks and nightmares…I had to institutionalize him for a few months…" Britt explains.
"You put him in an institution?" Emma gasps.
Britt's eyes are clouded. "I found him in the bathroom with shards of the mirror, slashing his wrists…he couldn't handle what we had done…"
"After the institution, how was he?" Adam asks, giving Emma a warning glare.
"Stable. He was fine. He recovered fully…" Britt says, watching Brennan through the shattered window.
"Adam, I was thinking…what if Rorie is a manifestation of Brennan's mind? What if all the pent-up stuff in his head is breaking free? I mean, Rorie Charlotte is not a psionic, there's no way she could be hurting him like this…" Emma says aloud.
"Something is happening to Brennan…I just hope he's not losing his sanity…" Adam says, watching Britt go to the bedside.
