DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Mutant X'. They're not
my property. They belong to Tribune Entertainment.
***
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The last long, blond lock fell gently to her lower back before Shalimar placed the brush back in its place. Her eyes fell down on her wrists that still bore the traces of the restrains. Painful memories...
Her body kept feeling the side-effects of all the drugs if had been subjected to. Yesterday she had lost her balance and a brief black flash swallowed her when a sudden change of blood pressure occurred. She was alone, thankfully; no one saw her fall like that. Two days before that, a hammering insomnia forbid her to go to bed and she hated it.
She slept alone. Shalimar wished to be alone in her bed for a while which made, perhaps little sense after her torturous ordeal, but the solitude gave her a chance to make clearer decisions and even a choice for them and their usage.
Her hand took the small disk. She tapped her index finger on its surface, contemplating whether to watch its contents again or do otherwise. Nostalgia won over and she walked over to the small screen next to the door of her room. Putting the disk inside the thin slot, she then pressed a yellow button under it and took a deep breath.
Adam's face appeared on the screen with its crystal-clarity. Shalimar did her best to stay numb to the image of her former mentor but the tremors inside her were already announcing their presence. She only hoped those tremors wouldn't be as powerful as last time.
"Hi, Shalimar... Or I'm hoping it'll be you who's seeing this, anyway." The lines on his face announced stress and tiredness, and the eyes... they spoke out too many things to be described. "I'm recording this message because I'm not sure what's going to happen to me now, whether they'll decide to eliminate me or not. And since you're watching this..." he sighed heavily. "You can guess the outcome."
Shalimar's lips pressed tightly against each other. It could be easier this time... it has to be.
"I owe you an explanation as I doubt Felicia has told you the reason all of this has happened to you. After her men broke into Sanctuary - I never found out how they located it at all - and they took me... Brennan and Emma were the first victims of their 'experiment'... they were injected with a virus called Rose 2. It's a controllable virus, which I know is hard to believe but she managed to create one. It's used... it was used to probe into the brain of each of you and after each finding it would feed on that and nest inside the cells, creating a sort of alternate reality for the subjects. The subjects react to the "scenarios" and of course that was monitored here.
Uh, fortunately all of you were in the same scenario so it would be easier to keep track of the reactions. Further tests i.e. scenarios were thought of after this one but they were dismissed because Felicia found out that you wouldn't survive them. The virus started functioning after you discovered my "body" in the desert." He paused and looked down while preparing himself to continue. "By now you know that that person wasn't me. It was one of her guards. She had altered his face and killed him to make the first phase of the experiment, to have a starting point for the virus which occurred after you discovered the body. I couldn't contact you because if I did, you would have died by now... The experiment lasted for two months although your minds had registered everything which has happened to you after the fire in Sanctuary, as one year. I had to assist her as part of her blackmailing, again and I wish I had done this sooner and simply ended my life instead of dragging all of you through this torture. I'm sorry, Shalimar."
Another pause followed, giving Shalimar a chance to hear the cuts in her own breathing cycle as she continued to watch.
"In the fourth week of the experiment, I found an antidote for the virus of which Felicia was unaware. It went horribly wrong... your illness in the alternative reality was a result of that. Later, I discovered that she *had* been aware of my attempts and she had changed the formula, and as a result and punishment, your health started getting worse and I was put here," he pointed around him, "in this cell. But, she was always more interested in Emma due to her telempathic abilities and she focused the rest of her experiment on her. Jesse and Brennan were excluded and kept only as 'spare parts' and you... well, your feline genes made you another interesting subject and I'm sure you remember the rest. Brennan and Jesse were spared in a way and I'm hoping you were too. Emma, however... I don't know. Her mind had been subjected to rigorous torture... experiments creating an almost, emotional chaos inside her without her even being aware of it. All of that has caused a lot of damage to her psyche and I don't know how she will recover." His eyes began to water. The confession was hard on him and the guilt even stronger. "I'm hoping she will be alright. You have the antidote in that bottle and you need to give her one spoon per day of it for a month. It'll fight off and destroy the virus gradually, if my formula is correct, otherwise a bigger dosage would endanger her health even further and I. think I've caused her enough damage. Everyone thinks I'm dead now and It's best if everyone keeps believing that because I'm unsure and I highly doubt that she will keep me alive any longer. The shock is huge to you, I know... knowing that I'm alive even though you thought I'd been killed. Let them believe I was never alive after the fire. and yes, I probably deserve this. Please, after you view this message, destroy it. I don't want the others to find it. It'll be way too painful for them. You went through enough, you don't deserve more pain.
I wish it could have been different. All four of you have been the most important people in my life. But it isn't right for the parents to outlive their children, is it... Goodbye."
The screen went black.
The wetness on her face sparkled against the light while her mind fought to retrieve itself from the painful memories of the not so distant past. She should've destroyed the message the first time she viewed it but she lacked the strength to do it. Shalimar obeyed his wish - the others felt oblivious to Adam's life after his 'death'. She saw that he had been right, however. Shalimar could easily imagine the devastating effect it would have on them... it would have on Emma.
Shalimar's thoughts weren't settling after she had been the only one to witness him for the last time before he died. She never had a chance for a burial; everything belonging to him had been lost in that fire.
Wiping her face with the ends of her black t-shirt, Shalimar sniffed a couple of times to hold back any more expositions of her shaken state. She then took out the disk and placed it on the table when she heard an unfamiliar sound from the main hallway.
Quickly, she rushed to the brightly lit corridor to find a familiar person standing there. "Well, look who showed up," she said.
"Are you happy to see me, freak?" Caleb's distorted speech echoed through the empty corridor as his eyes, taking in the much needed 'natural' color of orange, watched her eagerly.
"Don't you ever get tired of trying to kill us?" Her blood was not flowing easily with the unsettling knowledge she had of his presence.
"You should be grateful, Feral. It was thanks to me that you escaped from that hellhole!"
"Oh! And it was you that set that fire and killed everyone in there?" she sounded far from impressed by the creature's response.
"The fire did the trick, I merely started the process."
"Wow, impressive."
"It was a special fire."
"If it was so special, it would've gotten you as well!"
"I wouldn't talk like that if I were you, Feral."
Keeping a safe distance from Caleb, she observed the tall, scaly figure of the mutant, helping herself to stay on her highest level of alert. Jesse and Brennan were absent from Sanctuary and Emma was sleeping, still in her own state, leaving Shalimar on her own with this 'thing'. "Why did you do it then?" Her voice was flat with intolerance painted on it. She chose to expose herself to his version as her frustration left little room for useless negotiation.
"They killed the scientist instead of me and that stolen pleasure didn't satisfy me," he said.
"You poor thing."
"I warned you." He knew her mocking tone. anyone could recognize it. "Since he's now dead... one less evil in this world."
"Why are you here then?"
"A 'thank you'?"
"I think it's time for you to leave now," she warned him.
"After all the drugs they pumped into you I doubt you could do much damage, Feral," he told her.
"You're really lucky that I don't kill you and skin you right now!"
"Easy, Feral, easy." His eyes took a brief inspection of the shelter's new look. "I liked it better when the colors were darker."
"Not accustomed to too much light then?"
The mutant let out a strange screeching sound as a response.
"Too much time in the swamp does that to you."
Her comment did not seem welcoming to Caleb as his eyelids squeezed against his eyeballs and with an angry hiss he threw himself towards Shalimar, knocking her down on the floor. "Shut your mouth," he said and grabbed her by her neck before he separated her body from the floor and threw her further down the hallway, letting agonizing spears run through her body, injecting further pain to her less-than-perfect health right now. "How do you know if this is real, Feral?" Caleb began walking towards the fallen mutant. "With all those tricks they did with your mind, how do you know if all that is over?"
"I can sense your ugly stench from a mile away, so it must be real," she said while trying to focus her eyes on his green figure but that chance was short-lived when a strong force took hold of her neck once more, pulling her away and throwing her against the wall. The impact registered another layer or agonizing pain, plastering itself onto her body. Moaning quietly while sliding roughly down, she shut her eyes to keep herself in the conscious reality while she tried to control her breathing. His applied force was too much for her physical condition that hadn't yet recovered from the tests. The brightness of the walls was fading as a black, silky cover took its place over her eyes, closing them from any images in front of Shalimar. Exhaustion....
*********
***
*********
The last long, blond lock fell gently to her lower back before Shalimar placed the brush back in its place. Her eyes fell down on her wrists that still bore the traces of the restrains. Painful memories...
Her body kept feeling the side-effects of all the drugs if had been subjected to. Yesterday she had lost her balance and a brief black flash swallowed her when a sudden change of blood pressure occurred. She was alone, thankfully; no one saw her fall like that. Two days before that, a hammering insomnia forbid her to go to bed and she hated it.
She slept alone. Shalimar wished to be alone in her bed for a while which made, perhaps little sense after her torturous ordeal, but the solitude gave her a chance to make clearer decisions and even a choice for them and their usage.
Her hand took the small disk. She tapped her index finger on its surface, contemplating whether to watch its contents again or do otherwise. Nostalgia won over and she walked over to the small screen next to the door of her room. Putting the disk inside the thin slot, she then pressed a yellow button under it and took a deep breath.
Adam's face appeared on the screen with its crystal-clarity. Shalimar did her best to stay numb to the image of her former mentor but the tremors inside her were already announcing their presence. She only hoped those tremors wouldn't be as powerful as last time.
"Hi, Shalimar... Or I'm hoping it'll be you who's seeing this, anyway." The lines on his face announced stress and tiredness, and the eyes... they spoke out too many things to be described. "I'm recording this message because I'm not sure what's going to happen to me now, whether they'll decide to eliminate me or not. And since you're watching this..." he sighed heavily. "You can guess the outcome."
Shalimar's lips pressed tightly against each other. It could be easier this time... it has to be.
"I owe you an explanation as I doubt Felicia has told you the reason all of this has happened to you. After her men broke into Sanctuary - I never found out how they located it at all - and they took me... Brennan and Emma were the first victims of their 'experiment'... they were injected with a virus called Rose 2. It's a controllable virus, which I know is hard to believe but she managed to create one. It's used... it was used to probe into the brain of each of you and after each finding it would feed on that and nest inside the cells, creating a sort of alternate reality for the subjects. The subjects react to the "scenarios" and of course that was monitored here.
Uh, fortunately all of you were in the same scenario so it would be easier to keep track of the reactions. Further tests i.e. scenarios were thought of after this one but they were dismissed because Felicia found out that you wouldn't survive them. The virus started functioning after you discovered my "body" in the desert." He paused and looked down while preparing himself to continue. "By now you know that that person wasn't me. It was one of her guards. She had altered his face and killed him to make the first phase of the experiment, to have a starting point for the virus which occurred after you discovered the body. I couldn't contact you because if I did, you would have died by now... The experiment lasted for two months although your minds had registered everything which has happened to you after the fire in Sanctuary, as one year. I had to assist her as part of her blackmailing, again and I wish I had done this sooner and simply ended my life instead of dragging all of you through this torture. I'm sorry, Shalimar."
Another pause followed, giving Shalimar a chance to hear the cuts in her own breathing cycle as she continued to watch.
"In the fourth week of the experiment, I found an antidote for the virus of which Felicia was unaware. It went horribly wrong... your illness in the alternative reality was a result of that. Later, I discovered that she *had* been aware of my attempts and she had changed the formula, and as a result and punishment, your health started getting worse and I was put here," he pointed around him, "in this cell. But, she was always more interested in Emma due to her telempathic abilities and she focused the rest of her experiment on her. Jesse and Brennan were excluded and kept only as 'spare parts' and you... well, your feline genes made you another interesting subject and I'm sure you remember the rest. Brennan and Jesse were spared in a way and I'm hoping you were too. Emma, however... I don't know. Her mind had been subjected to rigorous torture... experiments creating an almost, emotional chaos inside her without her even being aware of it. All of that has caused a lot of damage to her psyche and I don't know how she will recover." His eyes began to water. The confession was hard on him and the guilt even stronger. "I'm hoping she will be alright. You have the antidote in that bottle and you need to give her one spoon per day of it for a month. It'll fight off and destroy the virus gradually, if my formula is correct, otherwise a bigger dosage would endanger her health even further and I. think I've caused her enough damage. Everyone thinks I'm dead now and It's best if everyone keeps believing that because I'm unsure and I highly doubt that she will keep me alive any longer. The shock is huge to you, I know... knowing that I'm alive even though you thought I'd been killed. Let them believe I was never alive after the fire. and yes, I probably deserve this. Please, after you view this message, destroy it. I don't want the others to find it. It'll be way too painful for them. You went through enough, you don't deserve more pain.
I wish it could have been different. All four of you have been the most important people in my life. But it isn't right for the parents to outlive their children, is it... Goodbye."
The screen went black.
The wetness on her face sparkled against the light while her mind fought to retrieve itself from the painful memories of the not so distant past. She should've destroyed the message the first time she viewed it but she lacked the strength to do it. Shalimar obeyed his wish - the others felt oblivious to Adam's life after his 'death'. She saw that he had been right, however. Shalimar could easily imagine the devastating effect it would have on them... it would have on Emma.
Shalimar's thoughts weren't settling after she had been the only one to witness him for the last time before he died. She never had a chance for a burial; everything belonging to him had been lost in that fire.
Wiping her face with the ends of her black t-shirt, Shalimar sniffed a couple of times to hold back any more expositions of her shaken state. She then took out the disk and placed it on the table when she heard an unfamiliar sound from the main hallway.
Quickly, she rushed to the brightly lit corridor to find a familiar person standing there. "Well, look who showed up," she said.
"Are you happy to see me, freak?" Caleb's distorted speech echoed through the empty corridor as his eyes, taking in the much needed 'natural' color of orange, watched her eagerly.
"Don't you ever get tired of trying to kill us?" Her blood was not flowing easily with the unsettling knowledge she had of his presence.
"You should be grateful, Feral. It was thanks to me that you escaped from that hellhole!"
"Oh! And it was you that set that fire and killed everyone in there?" she sounded far from impressed by the creature's response.
"The fire did the trick, I merely started the process."
"Wow, impressive."
"It was a special fire."
"If it was so special, it would've gotten you as well!"
"I wouldn't talk like that if I were you, Feral."
Keeping a safe distance from Caleb, she observed the tall, scaly figure of the mutant, helping herself to stay on her highest level of alert. Jesse and Brennan were absent from Sanctuary and Emma was sleeping, still in her own state, leaving Shalimar on her own with this 'thing'. "Why did you do it then?" Her voice was flat with intolerance painted on it. She chose to expose herself to his version as her frustration left little room for useless negotiation.
"They killed the scientist instead of me and that stolen pleasure didn't satisfy me," he said.
"You poor thing."
"I warned you." He knew her mocking tone. anyone could recognize it. "Since he's now dead... one less evil in this world."
"Why are you here then?"
"A 'thank you'?"
"I think it's time for you to leave now," she warned him.
"After all the drugs they pumped into you I doubt you could do much damage, Feral," he told her.
"You're really lucky that I don't kill you and skin you right now!"
"Easy, Feral, easy." His eyes took a brief inspection of the shelter's new look. "I liked it better when the colors were darker."
"Not accustomed to too much light then?"
The mutant let out a strange screeching sound as a response.
"Too much time in the swamp does that to you."
Her comment did not seem welcoming to Caleb as his eyelids squeezed against his eyeballs and with an angry hiss he threw himself towards Shalimar, knocking her down on the floor. "Shut your mouth," he said and grabbed her by her neck before he separated her body from the floor and threw her further down the hallway, letting agonizing spears run through her body, injecting further pain to her less-than-perfect health right now. "How do you know if this is real, Feral?" Caleb began walking towards the fallen mutant. "With all those tricks they did with your mind, how do you know if all that is over?"
"I can sense your ugly stench from a mile away, so it must be real," she said while trying to focus her eyes on his green figure but that chance was short-lived when a strong force took hold of her neck once more, pulling her away and throwing her against the wall. The impact registered another layer or agonizing pain, plastering itself onto her body. Moaning quietly while sliding roughly down, she shut her eyes to keep herself in the conscious reality while she tried to control her breathing. His applied force was too much for her physical condition that hadn't yet recovered from the tests. The brightness of the walls was fading as a black, silky cover took its place over her eyes, closing them from any images in front of Shalimar. Exhaustion....
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