"Jesse! Jesse!"

            Hadn't he been through this scene before? Hadn't somebody taken pity on him, and killed him yet?

            "Tell me that Mrs. Pettigrew isn't outside, wanting to see me again?"

            "Huh?"

            Which was how Jesse learned that when Ernest had realized what had happened, he went into lock-down mode. Ernest might not have the facilities of Sanctuary, but the kid had been learning from Jesse via e-mail for the last year and was ready for almost anything.

            'Anything' even included his sister getting snatched by one or more evil-doers. Running away wasn't quite the same thing, but Ernest figured that it was close enough to qualify. The house got locked down. No one got in or out, and the phone was allowed to ring all it wanted. The messages on the answering machine proved to be mostly salesmen trying to sell magazines and health insurance, although Jesse figured that he'd better answer the one from Mrs. Pettigrew fairly soon.

            "How long?"

            Ernest looked uncomfortable. "It's morning, Jesse."

            "The next morning? Like, eighteen hours from when Tess came home?"

            "Yeah."

            Cursing in front of an eleven year old is not cool. Gotta set a good example. Make Mrs. Pettigrew proud. Jesse swallowed what he wanted to say and instead focused on what he thought a conscientious uncle should say. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

            "Yeah. I got hungry. There were some cookies and milk. And I figured that ice cream had plenty of calcium in it, like the commercials said."

            So much for being a guardian. Grateful that Mrs. Pettigrew wasn't around to see, Jesse carefully levered himself to his feet, grabbing on to the back of the chair so as not to fall on his face.

            An hour later he felt able to think, although standing still remained problematic. Tess was gone. If past history was anything to go by, Jesse himself wouldn't be able to function for another several hours. Time to call for help.

            He tabbed his comm. ring. "Shalimar? Brennan? Lexa? Anybody out there?"

            No answer. He tried again, wishing his head would stop throbbing.

            Then a voice came through. It didn't belong to any of Mutant X, and Jesse hadn't heard it in over a year, but he would have recognized even after ten years.

            "Mr. Kilmartin."

            "Absalom Maguire." Jesse felt himself go cold. No room for mistakes. Not an easy thing, with brains the consistency of week-old gelatin. "Your communicating on this link suggests that you have met some of my teammates recently."

            "Quite so, Mr. Kilmartin. Both Ms. Fox and Mr. Mulray are my guests, along with a Ms. Pierce with whom I believe you are also acquainted."

            "I hope you are treating them respectfully," Jesse said, motioning frantically for Ernest to remain silent. The eleven year old's eyes were bugging out of his head with terror, darting all around looking for an escape. Of them all, Ernest had suffered the most at his father's hands. Jesse quashed the feeling of rage building inside; no time for that now. He had to get the rest of Mutant X out of Maguire's hands. "Or don't you recall what happened the last time we met in person?"

            "I remember perfectly well, which is why I've made special preparations." Both Jesse and Ernest could hear the barely concealed snarl in Maguire's words. "You will come alone. You will present yourself, unarmed, at my door, and submit yourself to my project. Or I will turn the collars on your friends and leave them running. Do you recall the collar, Mr. Kilmartin?"

            Jesse did. And, by the look on the kid's face, so did Ernest. Ernest's hands were shaking with naked fear.

            Stall for time. "I want to talk to the others," Jesse said evenly. "How do I know they're still alive? Or that you even have them?"

            "Oh, I have them," Maguire gloated. "Believe me, I have them. But I have someone else that you might enjoy hearing from even more."

            "Jesse?" The mature bravado was gone. Left in its place was a child in over her head. But even as he listened, Tess summoned her resolve. "Jesse, remember what I said. Don't come after me—" The words choked off in an agonized scream.

            "Maguire, you bastard! Turn it off!" Jesse yelled. "Turn it off! I'll be there!"

            Maguire did. All they could hear for several long moments was Tess's sobs, trying to catch her breath.

            Then: "I will expect you shortly, Mr. Kilmartin. As an added incentive for alacrity, I will subject one or more or your friends to my collar device every hour on the hour. Any tricks, and they will all feel its effects for as long as I need them to. Do I make myself clear?"

            "I'll be there," Jesse said sullenly. "You win."

*          *          *

            "Don't touch me!" There was a note of hysteria in Tess's voice.

Brennan drew back. "All right, Tess. I won't touch you," he soothed. "What's wrong? Where's Jesse? And Ernest?"

"Home," she said grimly, "and they're going to stay there. I'm really sorry I got you guys into this."

Lexa looked in puzzlement at the other two. "This little girl got us into this? Am I missing something?"

"Lexa, meet Tess," Brennan introduced them. "Psionic Vampire, meet Lady of Light. And no, Tess, you did not get us into this. We did a pretty good job of it on our own. Where's Jess? He know you're here?"

"Oh, he knows all right." Tess fingered her black collar gingerly. "Daddy Dearest made sure of that. He told Jesse to come, alone and unarmed, here to this place. He told him to give himself up, or he'd use the collar on us all."

Lexa looked at the others. "I don't suppose there's any chance of Jesse sacrificing us for the greater good of the world?"

"You've met Jesse, and you can still ask that question?"

"Right." Lexa sighed. "We're going to have to get out of this mess ourselves. Any ideas?"

For once, Lexa would have liked a little chatter. Instead she was greeted by dismal silence.

*          *          *

            "That's close enough, Mr. Kilmartin."

            Jesse halted several yards away from Maguire and his men. The factory loomed darkly behind them, the double doors standing open in mock welcome and the interior lighted by fluorescent ceiling panels. A slender breeze ruffled Maguire's white mane, tickling Jesse's nose and reminding him of the spring brilliance that he was about to leave behind for the sake of his teammates. All six of Maguire's men had guns aimed at his head, but that wasn't what stopped the molecular. A quick phase, and the bullets would pass through him like so much air.

            No, what made Jesse pause was the sight of Tess, collar in place, with her father's hand on the black box controls. One wrong move, and Tess would be writhing on the ground, screaming in agony.

            He lifted his hands from his sides, to demonstrate his lack of weapons. "See? Unarmed, and alone. Let her go. Let them all go. You can have me."

            Maguire shook his head, his white mane of hair lifting in the quiet breeze. "No, I think we'll do much better if I keep them right where they are. In fact, if you look closely, you can see Mr. Mulray beating his fist against that window over there to the left. I suspect he's trying to tell you to leave. For his sake, I suggest that you ignore him." He tossed a black collar over to Jesse. It landed on the ground not three feet in front of him. "Put that on, Mr. Kilmartin. Quickly, or Mr. Mulray will experience the effects of his own collar." He lifted up the black box control device.

            Jesse picked it up. The collar was black, of a synthetic leather shot through with silver wires to make contact with his flesh and dig into his brain. This was the stuff of his nightmares. He remembered all too well the first time it had been used on him. This fiendish device was designed to force a mutant to use his powers in far greater quantities than he could ever imagine, and at the behest of another. When Maguire turned it on the first time, the lump of coal in Jesse's hand had been molecularly phased into a high-density diamond. And that was just a simple demonstration of what Maguire and his collar could force Jesse to do.

            "Put it on, Mr. Kilmartin." Maguire held up the controls. "Or do you need persuasion?"

            Jesse swallowed hard, and wrapped the synthetic leather around his throat. At Maguire's signal, one of his men stepped behind the molecular and snugged the collar tight, buckling it in place. Jesse could feel the wire contacts digging into his skin.

            "Testing," Maguire murmured, fiddling with the black box.

            Jesse didn't remember falling to the ground. His vision cleared, the red seeping away, and his muscles felt strangely weak as though Brennan had just zapped him. Tess leaned forward, held back by one of Maguire's men, tears in her eyes.

            "That's good enough. It works; he's under my control. Bring him along," Maguire ordered.

*          *          *

            Brennan leaned nonchalantly against the wall at the back end of the cell, where he could be easily seen by anyone entering. They would be bringing Tess back here, the trio reasoned, and anyone expecting trouble would be expecting it to come primarily from the largest member: Brennan. Seeing Brennan in no way prepared to offer a fight should throw the guards off just long enough for Shalimar and Lexa, positioned to either side of the door, to take them out.

            They heard Tess long before the men made an entrance. "Let go of me, you idiots!" she screeched. "He said to put me back in the cell, not yank my arms off!"

            It took two of them to manhandle Tess back inside. One hung on to the scratching, kicking, biting girl while the other unlocked the door. He swung it wide, noting carefully that the dangerous tall Brennan was not ready to rush him. Brennan spread his hands wide in submission. The man stepped inside, pushing Tess ahead of him.

            Lexa slammed the door back into his face. The man staggered back, stunned. Shalimar leaped over him and whirled a leg over Tess's head to connect with the second guard's jaw. He dropped like a rock.

            Brennan came out of his relaxed pose and grinned at Tess. "Delegation, Tess. That's all there is to it. Ready to boogie out of here?"

            "What about Jesse?"

            Lexa pushed forward. "He's keeping your father busy. We'll come back for him after we get these hellish collars off."

            "Don't call him that! He's not my father! I disown him! I despise him!"

            "Okay, okay," Lexa said, taken aback at her vehemence. "Just let's get out of here first, right?" She peered out through the doorway. "No one here. Let's go."

            The four mutants hustled. Alarms could go off at any moment. Their escape could still be foiled, as long as they wore the collars. Lexa turned the corner and saw the exit, guarded by four stalwarts.

            "Almost there," she whispered. "Tess, stay here. Let Brennan, Shalimar, and I handle these goons."

            "I want to help."

            "I know you do," Shalimar said quickly to forestall the explosion she saw building in Lexa. "But none of us have our powers in working condition while we wear these collars. That doesn't make us helpless; we train every day in martial arts. Do you?"

            "No." Tess stared angrily at the floor.

            "Then stay here, just for now. When you get home you can start training, too. Next time you can help. Okay?" Shalimar ignored the concept that nobody wanted to be in this situation in the first place. If Tess grew up with a normal childhood after this, she wouldn't need martial arts training to protect herself.

            All of that was secondary. "Obligatory fight scene number three," Shalimar murmured, launching herself into the air.

            The four guards never stood a chance. Having given up his chance in the cell, Brennan insisted on taking on two at once. The ladies eliminated the other pair with almost no trouble.

            Too bad the scene was captured on security cameras. And that the guard assigned to monitor the cameras had been given a little black box with remote-control wiring to their collars.

*          *          *

            This close to victory, Maguire was taking no chances. Jesse's hands were manacled behind him, and Maguire had the collar set onto a constant low dose that disrupted Jesse's very thoughts. He stumbled; the two guards to either side caught him and hauled him back onto his feet.

            "Put him in there," Maguire directed. "I have a few things to get ready before the final operation. They may as well get acquainted; I doubt they'll have any need to converse later."

            The men shoved Jesse into a dimly lit cell. He fell to the floor; it was gray, and concrete, and hard. Escape by phasing out through the similar walls might have been an option if only Jesse could get his powers to work. The collar prevented that.

            There was another occupant in the cell. Jesse shook his head, trying to focus. The other was a gangly teen-ager, some fifteen years old, Jesse surmised, with light brown hair in need of a haircut. From the looks of it, it was Maguire's fault that proper grooming hadn't been taken care of in some weeks. The kid looked bad, with dark circles under his eyes and hollows to his cheeks. Proper feeding also hadn't been high on Maguire's list of priorities. And, like Jesse, he wore a black collar.

            "I'd take it as a real favor," the kid said conversationally, "if you'd kill me right now. Before Ole Crazyhead over there does whatever it is that he's planning to do."

            Jesse groaned, and rolled over onto his back. His manacled hands made an uncomfortable lump to lie on. The collar whining at his brain didn't help, either. "What is it with kids today? All of you want to kill yourselves. You, Tess. Who's next?"

            "Can you blame me? I mean, look around." The kid gestured to the four concrete walls. Unlike Jesse, Maguire had left his hands free. He paused. "Who's Tess?"

            "Fourteen year old girl. Mutant, like you and me. Kinda pretty. You seen her?"

            "Nope. Probably won't get to, either." The kid hesitated once again. "You say she's pretty?"

            "Yeah. Smart, too. What's your name?"

            "Tommy. Tom," he corrected, with all the aplomb of a kid morphing into an adult.

            "Hey, Tom, I'm Jesse. Sorry I can't shake hands." The molecular tried to find a comfortable position, or at least one that didn't hurt as badly as his present one. "What are we doing here?"

            "You mean you really don't know?"

            "Wouldn't be asking if I did."

            "It's me." Tom gestured bitterly to his head. "I'm psychic. I can read other people's thoughts. Sometimes I can put ideas into their heads, but not very often. Maguire thinks he can soup me up so that I can do it all the time with this collar of his. And he's on a real ego trip. Wants to conquer the world."

            "Yeah. I've met him before. Nice kind of guy. You tried to get out of here?"

            "All the time." Tom pointed at his collar. "Kinda stops you dead in your tracks."

            "Yeah, I noticed that. What does Maguire need me for, if he's got you?"

            Tom shrugged. "My head doesn't always work so well. Maguire got this mutant woman to burn out a part of my brain that gets in the way, but he says he can't access it with his collar until that piece has actually been removed."

            "Which is where I come in." Jesse couldn't repress a shudder. He didn't doubt that Maguire could force him to do just that. Little bits of memories flooded back from the first time he'd run up against Maguire: the scientist had taken him into the back laboratory where he had fetuses and other living things. With the collar Maguire had forced Jesse to alter the molecular structure of this one, and that… Jesse shuddered again. All that had been destroyed in the fire. Everything except the memories which had plagued his nightmares for weeks after that, stuff that Adam had forced him to talk about behind closed doors, stuff that the other members of Mutant X knew nothing of. "Look, I'm going to get us both out of here."

            "Right." Tom didn't seem hopeful. "Better do it soon. After Doc Maguire is finished, there might not be much chance."

            That sounded odd. "What do you mean?"

            "I mean, this isn't the first time I've had people messing with my head. You don't know what's up there, Jesse. You don't want to know what's up there."

            "This is not getting any better," Jesse observed. He struggled to maintain a sitting position, wishing that Maguire had turned off the low dose of collar. It interfered with his ability to think.

            "That part of my brain that Maguire is trying to take out was put there deliberately, when I was a baby," Tom explained. "It kept me from going insane. It kept me from making everyone around me go insane, too."

            That got through. Jesse felt his blood run cold. "So you're saying that if Maguire makes me take this thing out of your brain, you're going to go insane and take the rest of the world with you?"

            "That's about the size of it."

            "The whole world? Not just a little piece of it? Say, you and me? Maybe Maguire if we're lucky?"

            "Nope. Whole world stuff. Armageddon. That's why they put it there in the first place." Tom tapped his skull again. "Got some pretty horrific stuff up there. The people who put the governor in my brain did a lot of hypnosis and stuff to help me ignore it, but it's there, lurking and waiting to get out. I see it in my nightmares sometimes."

            "Does Maguire know about this?"

            "I've been trying to tell him. I'm not sure that he's been listening."

*          *          *

            "Is the wall supposed to be doing that?" Lexa pointed at a spot underneath the window. The gray concrete was wavering.

            "It's Jesse!" Shalimar exclaimed.

            Brennan came up off of the floor. "It can't be. I saw him being taken away by Maguire. Could he have escaped?"

            "It's Ernest!" Tess shrieked delightedly. "Ernest! Get us out of here!"

            "Hurry up," came the plaintive voice from outside the barred window. "I can't hold this much longer."

            "I'm outta here!" Tess jumped up and dove straight into the wall, trusting her little brother to the max. She vanished through the gray.

            Brennan looked at the two women. "Ladies first."

            "I've got to be out my mind, trusting kids," Lexa muttered. But she followed Shalimar out through the not-quite opening.

            The outside air had a sweetness to it made all the better by the taste of freedom. The breeze ambling through had a faint wisp of magnolias trying to bloom, and the sun felt warm on their faces. Ernest grinned, although the expression faded as he remembered his mission. "Jesse sent me," he explained. "He said to get you guys out of there while he distracted my father for a while. Then he wanted you to come back and get him out." He screwed up his face. "Tess, you gotta make everybody hurry. You know our father. He's crazy! He's gonna hurt Jesse real bad!"

            Tess had no time for that. "Quick," she demanded of Ernest, "get these collar things off. We need 'em off so that that piece of crap inside can't get to us. Hurry up, Ernest!"

            Ernest blanched when he realized what they were. He had worn the same thing himself too many times. Screwing up his face, he seized the black collar around Tess's neck, phased it to insubstantiability, and pulled it free. His hands shook as he dropped it to the ground, biting his lip, almost afraid that the mere touch of the collar would be enough to allow Maguire control over him once again.

            "You did it!" Shalimar approved. "Can you get the rest?"

            It took too long, but the eleven year old did it. The last collar came off of Brennan's neck, and he flung it to the ground.

            Brennan twisted a few million electrons between his hands. "I think we need a little insurance that nobody will use these puppies ever again. A little room, if you please?" He aimed a high voltage bolt at each of the collars. Moments later all that was left were four sizzling heaps of burned plastic, a few forlorn blackened wires sticking up out of the mess. He turned to Tess and Ernest. "You think that man—I won't insult you by referring to him as your father—has any more of those inside?"

            "Besides the one he has on Jesse, and the other kid?" Tess shook her head. "No. They're tough to make, and expensive. He's a cheapskate."

            "Good." Brennan rubbed his hands together in grim determination. "Then it's time to do a little lab wrecking."

*          *          *

            Jesse swam up through the blackness toward consciousness, and wished that he hadn't. His throat was sore; he knew that he screamed it raw. Every muscle in his body ached from trying to fight the restraints that Maguire had applied. And nothing that Tess had ever done to him equaled the nail-in-the-head kind of thing going on between his ears.

            Though the room possessed only dim light he could see his roommate lying quietly on his own hospital bed. Tom had this go-around easier than Jesse; Maguire had sedated the fifteen year old, and the kid was still sleeping it off. Jesse could only remember bits and pieces of what had happened: the collar going into action, vision coming in fits and starts. His hands phasing into Tom's head and withdrawing a bloody blackened lump of insensate flesh. And above it all the agony that set every nerve searing.

            All in all, Jesse was content to just lie there. The plastic mattress was uncomfortable but as long as he didn't have to move it would do.

            The door opened, letting in unwanted light and a visitor. Jesse squinted. It made his head hurt worse. He hadn't thought that that was possible.

            "Mr. Kilmartin. You're awake. I must admit, I'm surprised."

            Jesse found his voice. "What, that I'm awake?"

            "No. That you're alive. Usually my subjects don't survive after this level of sustained effort. Quite remarkable, really. I shall have to explore your limits further."

            "Don't go to any trouble on my account."

            Maguire ignored him. The real object of his attention in the next bed over stirred tentatively, and sighed. Jesse thought briefly about springing to his feet and over powering Maguire, then did a reality check. Breathing in and out was his level of activity right now.

            Maguire shone a penlight into Tom's eyes. The fifteen year old muttered something unintelligible, and shook his head. Maguire tapped him on the cheek. "Thomas. Thomas, wake up."

            More muttering, but Tom wasn't ready to awaken. Pulling a stethoscope from around his neck, Maguire listened in a few spots, then put it away, satisfied.

            He was not satisfied with Jesse. "Tell me, Mr. Kilmartin. How did your comrades escape?"

            They escaped? Good. Jesse relaxed onto the plastic mattress. "Beats me. I was here all the time. As you well know."

            Maguire pulled the black box out of his pocket, fingering it suggestively. Jesse froze. "All four had collars on, Mr. Kilmartin. Not one could use their powers. The cell was locked and watched. One moment they were there, the next they were gone. Where are they?"

            Jesse closed his eyes. This was going to hurt. "I don't know."

            He was right. Every nerve seized up, and even his heart twisted inside him. He heard a scream and wondered how he could have uttered it since there wasn't any breath left to scream with.

            Then the pain was gone, as instantly as it started. Jesse gasped for breath, unable to move. Maguire moved closer, waving the control box in front of his face. "I can increase the power, Mr. Kilmartin. I can leave this on longer until you beg me to kill you—" he broke off as a thought occurred to him. "My daughter is here, or rather, was here. Her brother must be, also. Did you teach him to phase as competently as you do, Mr. Kilmartin?"

            "Go to hell, Maguire."

            "I'll take that as a yes. It is the most logical explanation, given the circumstances. Though I am surprised that you would risk the boy in such a dangerous escapade." Maguire turned, his attention caught by Tom's movements. The fifteen year old was waking up. "No matter. I've more important things to attend to."

            Tom moaned, and Maguire moved closer. Jesse felt a ripple of fear and loathing flicker through him.

            It felt odd. It felt as though the fear was coming from something around him, not Maguire, though the man was terrifying enough. Shadows crawled in the corners of the dimly lit cell, and Maguire's face took on long and horrific proportions. There—something flashed by, too quick to be seen. Maguire had caught a glimpse of it too, for his head whipped around trying to follow the unseen flying projectile. Something rustled under his bed. Jesse felt too weak to try to hide. Unreasoning terror seized hold of him.

            Then he understood. The fear wasn't his—it was Tom's. Tom's insane terror, the reason the governor had been placed in his brain to begin with. Maguire, with Jesse's unwilling help, had set it free.

            Tom whimpered as the nonexistent horrors manifested themselves. Maguire started to howl, a captive of Tom's psychic powers. And, a moment later, Jesse found himself caught as well.

*          *          *

            With a last jolt, Brennan finished slagging the collars into a steaming heap of black tar. "And now," he announced, "I am seriously pissed. I am ready to tear down that warehouse, haul Jesse out of there along with Maguire's other captive, and be done with this whole mess."

            "Obligatory fight number four," Shalimar declared. "Bring it on."

            A spat of bullets marked the ground in front of them. Shalimar grabbed Ernest and Brennan hauled Tess to the ground into the bushes.

            "You've got to stop asking for these things, Shalimar," Lexa grumbled. "Excuse me." She vanished in a flicker of light.

            "Hide here," Brennan told Tess. "You too, Ernest. Don't move." Jumping up, he loosed a bolt of electrical energy. Three men were blown off their feet.

            Shalimar wasn't to be outdone. Speeding into their midst, she whipped through a line of Maguire's guards, dropping them with a kick here, and a punch there. She had them caught between a cross-fire, though none except she could see it; an invisible Lexa was knocking them down from behind, one by one.

            But—"Lexa," Shalimar called. "There's more."

            Two dozen more men piled out of the factory, yelling and screaming and looking for something to punch at. Several of them batted at the air, stumbling over each other in their eagerness to get to Mutant X, ready for the final battle. Mutant X braced themselves.

            But to the group's amazement, not one of the men stayed to even throw a single jab or uppercut. Instead, they ran off down the road. Two managed to get into their cars and roar away, but most couldn't spare the time to unlock doors and start the motors. Fleeing from the factory was uppermost in their minds by the most direct means possible.

            Lexa stared. "What's gotten into them?"

            It nearly bowled them over. It was like looking at a double negative: they could see both the pleasant spring afternoon, but with horrible cobwebs and dingy clouds overlaid like a bad transparency. Ernest burst into terrified tears; Shalimar automatically hugged him close for comfort.

            Both Brennan and Shalimar recognized the sensation. Emma had done this once, just once, but the effect was unmistakable: a psionic blast of terror. Someone inside was emitting mental waves of horror, hurling them all around indiscriminately.

            And Jesse was at ground zero.

            "C'mon!" Lexa cried out. "We have to stop this!" She plowed forward, Brennan and Shalimar in her wake. She spared a glance for the two children. "Stay here. We'll be back."

            Tess looked at Ernest, watching as the Mutant X team dashed inside the factory, wiping the sudden tears from her eyes and recognizing what it was. She'd gotten 'charges' off of psionics, and had a pretty good idea what was happening. Once identified, it didn't seem as bad. She turned back to her little brother. "Wait here? Right. Jesse's inside. You up for this, Ernest?"

            The eleven year old shrugged, wiping the tears off of his face and getting hold of himself. Already his control was reasserting itself and flowering under Tess's determination. "After differential equations, how hard could this be?"

*          *          *

            The psychic blast hit each mutant differently.

            For Brennan, it was as though he were standing in water, live wires dancing around his head. Only he could touch the wires, but one wrong move and he would be fried with more than a million volts charging through him. More wires came at him, more and more until he couldn't keep track of them. Back to the wall, he sank down, trying to minimize the area he had to defend. The horror seized him, hampering his ability to think, and to concentrate. It was too much: he screamed in helpless terror.

            Shalimar was plunged into an imaginary sea of fire. Flames licked up around her, setting her mind spinning in panic. Nerve endings shrieked under the onslaught of non-existent heat, and tongues of fire caressed her skin like tiny whiplashes. She hunkered down into a little ball, trying to crawl under the smoke, trying to make herself as small as possible so that the fire would ignore her and go away. The horror seized her, hampering her ability to think, and to concentrate. It was too much: she screamed in helpless terror.

            It was total darkness for Lexa. Try as she might, not one photon could she raise. Things rustled in the dark at her, brushed up against her unseen, ripped at her flesh from behind. She huddled into a little ball, hiding her face in her arms. The horror seized her, hampering her ability to think, and to concentrate. It was too much: she screamed in helpless terror.

            Ernest took Tess by the sleeve, automatically avoiding contact with bare flesh that would initiate the vampiric psionic drain. The pair waded into the psychic morass, walking ahead past Mutant X and the overcome guards huddled in the corridor. It wasn't pleasant, but the pair had already been to hell and back. For the Maguire children, this was only a warm up.

            Their own nightmare was one and the same: their father, Absalom Maguire, bearing down on them, black collars in hand. He loomed like a tall disciplinarian, floating down upon them through the bare corridor with the false smile he always wore when he wanted something from his mutant children. Black tendrils drifted around his head like smoky blind snakes.

            It didn't work. Both children had already lived through that horror, and survived through the resiliency of youth and the caring of Mutant X. They had done it once, and could do it again.

            The psychic epicenter lay not too far from the entrance. Tess headed for it almost hungrily, unerringly bearing down on the source of the terror that flooded the corridors, Ernest in her wake. Here and there were men unable to get out in time, each one curled up in a fetal position on the floor, whimpering wordless little noises to themselves, helpless to escape the nightmarish awfulness, being slowly and horribly driven insane by the psionic onslaught.

            The door to the cell was locked, but that didn't stop the pair of children. Ernest placed his hand upon it as Jesse had taught him and exhaled. The door faded into nothing, and the pair walked through into the cell where the psychic energy lived and grew.

Two hospital beds were inside, but Tess only had eyes for one of them. She stepped over the quivering wreck of flesh on the floor that was her father, and approached the one containing a gangly brown-haired boy. He stared at her in despair, only half seeing the girl.

            "Don't worry," Tess said. "I'm here now." She put her hand to Tom's cheek, and began the psionic drain.

*          *          *

            "Absolutely not, young man. It's a school night." But the twinkle in Granny Esther's eye told everyone present that Ernest would get away with staying up late. And that Mrs. Pettigrew wouldn't hear a word about it.

            Jesse grinned. Two weeks of rest in Lady Esther's country home had done much to erase the lines in his face, and last night was the first time he'd slept through without waking up screaming. Shalimar and Brennan had hovered over him for the first several days—they'd dragged him out, catatonic, from Maguire's factory—and Jesse'd even caught Lexa sneaking a worried glance at him when she thought he wasn't looking. His throat felt better too, and he could finally speak above a whisper. Lady Esther's herbal tea with honey had worked wonders.

            The other three of Mutant X had suffered as well. Brennan cringed at every snap, crackle, and pop, and Shalimar refused to let Lady Esther light any of her candles. And Lexa—well, Lexa had quietly invested in a nightlight, until Brennan found out about it and ribbed her so badly that she gave it up. And didn't sleep a wink that night. Or the next, or the next, until the moon shone brightly enough not to need it.

            Absalom Maguire was a lost cause. Grimly, the trio had pulled him out of the factory as well, but it was too late. His mind was gone. Better that way, was Lexa's cold assessment, and they turned him over to the authorities to care for the man's body. Neither Tess nor Ernest could stand to look at the man who had sired them.

            Of them all, Tess and Ernest and Tom had fared the best. Ernest put it behind him with the typical aplomb of youth—"can I go back to my computer now?"—which was a tribute to Lady Esther's delicate hand. After the life of horror, to see Ernest recover so readily spoke much for the home she had built.

            Tess too had settled in remarkably. Jesse, when he finally was up to it, was worried about her, but she waved him off. "Jesse," she said, waving her hand airily, "that was before. I didn't have anyone to get a charge off of. Now there's Tom."

            Now there's Tom. The fifteen year old no longer had an internal governor to help him control the psychic tidal wave that routinely crashed in on him, but he had Tess. A daily drain from the psionic vampire dampened his talent enough so that he could control both the thoughts coming in and the thoughts coming out. The governor wasn't internal, but Tom didn't mind. Tess as an external governor did just fine.

            "Look at them," Jesse sighed, lounging on the sofa. The headache was almost gone. Shalimar had brought him a lemonade, and he sipped at it. "Living here together, they're going to be as close as brother and sister. Good thing, too. They'll help each other get through life."

            "Look again," Lexa advised drily. "That's not brother and sister activity there."

            Lady Esther fixed Jesse with a determined eye. "She's quite right, you know, Jesse. I will discuss lady-like behavior with Tess, but I expect you to take on young Master Thomas. You brought him here to my house, you can deal with the consequences!"

            Jesse sighed again. "And to think, I thought dealing with a couple of kids was no big deal."