'So, what do we do now?' asked Emma quietly. Her and Adam were sitting by the meditation pool. There had been no further success on finding anything about Brennan or Shalimar. Jesse was losing patience so they had decided to leave him to it.

'I don't know. I looked at those security tapes again. Either Brennan wasn't really Brennan or he's been intoxicated by something.'

'Intoxicated by what?'

'That's the part I'm trying to figure out. It could be some kind of poison that he's ingested or it could be some kind of new mutant.'

'Like Lorna Templeton?' Emma looked down as she saw Adam nodding. She remembered what that had been like. She had known that Lorna was trouble but when it came to women Brennan was blind. Well, not quite. If they were good-looking women Brennan was blind. Not so much with Shalimar though. It was like he was so much more scared of hurting her. It was sweet the way he always tried to protect her, to be her knight in shining armour, even when she didn't need one. Unfortunately for him that was most of the time but he never stopped trying. And Shalimar knew all about Brennan's feelings for her. She just...maybe it was a case of not being able to face what was right in front of her or maybe she was just as scared of hurting him? Emma had stopped trying to read their minds a long time ago. It was an unspoken arrangement that she wouldn't. But, and occasionally she wished it wasn't so she couldn't help hearing what they were feeling. Downside of being telempathic. And right now she could sense the worry and anxiety of Adam. He cared so much and yet he couldn't do a thing.

'I just...if it was a new mutant who intoxicated Brennan then, when did they get the opportunity to do such a thing?'

Emma closed her eyes. They had all been hoping to keep the club thing a secret from Adam. With him gone from Sanctuary for a couple of days he had kinda left them in charge to keep a serious eye on things...serious being the operative word.

'Emma, is there something you're not telling me?' Adam asked looking across at Emma's guilty face.

'The night you were away...we all...we didn't think it would matter...just for a couple of hours...' Emma trailed off. She knew Adam would be pissed and really hadn't wanted to be the one to tell him.

'Emma!'

'We went to a club to wind down for a couple of hours. I mean seriously Adam all the pressure of saving the world. Occasionally we need to take a break,' she said quickly. She looked over at his face. He smiled back. He knew what she was talking about. He did put too much pressure on them, he knew that but sometimes it seemed that it was the only way to get things done. He should have let them go out more often. They were all in their 20's, this was what their lives should have been without the constant nagging worry of who was going to attack them next...

'Adam, its not your fault.'

He looked at the honest eyes of Emma. He smiled and nodded, knowing in his heart that she was right. He couldn't continue to blame himself for everything that went wrong that had something to do with new mutants. He had to try and find Shalimar and Brennan so he could help them, instead of wallowing in self pity.

***

Shalimar opened her eyes again as the door opened and a strong beam of light came flooding across the floor and onto her face. She squinted. The person wasn't Brennan, they were too small, in height and build. But if it wasn't Brennan then who the hell was it?

Ali walked further into the room and flicked the light switch. The whole room was suddenly illuminated and she saw Shalimar lying in the middle of it. She had her eyes closed, attempting to get used to the bright light. Ali smirked as she walked across the floor, the door closing silently behind her. She walked past the table and further on into the room where there was a desk with a computer set up on it. She started typing information into the keyboard.

Shalimar looked around her, trying to catch a glimpse of her captor. Or atleast that was who she assumed it was.

'Shalimar Fox, feline feral,' Ali read off of the computer screen. She had managed to gain access to the Genomex computer files a long time ago. It had had all the information she had needed, information on all of the new mutants ever created, including Mutant X. She had heard about them of course but had never had the opportunity to meet them. And now she essentially had two of them hostage. She knew she was intelligent but she was outdoing herself on this one.

'Yeah, what about it?' Shalimar was too tired to deal with this crap. She wanted out as soon as possible but first she wanted to know what this woman wanted with her...and what, if anything she had done to Brennan.

'Original member of Mutant X huh? Very impressive.'

'Like I said, what about it?'

'You're impatient. You know you should really try calming down. Being so wound up all the time cannot be good for you.'

Shalimar was bored already. Normally the bad guys could be counted on to have some kind of witty come-backs but this girl was just boring. 'I refuse to enter a battle of wits with you - its against my morals to attack an unarmed person.'

She breathed in deeply as a sharp pain went shooting up the nerves in her arm. She lifted her head up and saw a deep cut in her arm, just above her elbow. Blood was pouring from it into a small bowl. Gradually the pain subsided.

'See, I told you you could get hurt.'

***

Brennan watched on as Ali proceeded to collect Shalimar's blood. She hadn't told him her full plan yet but he didn't need to know. He didn't deserve to know. She was too good for him and he was just honoured to have been chosen by her to do her bidding. And that slut Shalimar deserved everything she got, including pain.