I know I keep on apologising for the lack of updates but I can't help it. This year with regards to school is so very hard that I'm barely getting a chance to breathe. Over the weekend I am going to make a real effort to finish this story, atleast on my computer and then I'll update sooner. I won't promise cos knowing my luck I'll probably get fifteen essays to do for Monday morning. Thank you to the people who reviewed. The numbers are decreasing gradually so anyone who regards this story, if you could just let me know how you think its going. Good, bad or indifferent would all be fine.
***
Brennan looked ahead of him at the rock that he liked to call home. Both he and Lexa had come to the same conclusion about the intentions of the Dominion and Charles Handon and they had both decided that the only way they could do anything about it was to head home, something they were both pretty keen on doing anyway, if only to see their significant others.
He was worried as hell about Shalimar. He always worried about her safety, even though he knew he didn't have to. She was incredibly capable of looking after herself and he knew it frustrated her that he felt the need to protect her but it was a natural instinct, and not in a hunter gatherer kind of way. He just didn't want anything to happen to the person he loved. It would kill him if she was hurting in any way.
He angled the Helix in through the security entrance, neatly hidden from the outside world. After parking the plane in the garage he and Lexa looked at each other once more. She was terrified that the Dominion would have done something terrible to Jesse and Shalimar. She knew the way they worked and that was what scared her so much. They wouldn't have called in Handon if they hadn't been serious about their objective, whatever that was. He was the Dominions connection to everyone who had anything to do with new mutants. With him working with them their resources had increased six fold.
Lexa and Brennan had both come to the assumption that the Dominion had wanted to keep them away from Sanctuary. With them gone and only two of them left, no matter how powerful those two new mutants were they were still much more vulnerable. It had been the perfect opportunity. But, while Brennan was worried that they would find the place overrun with Dominion agents Lexa was more scared about the possibility of Handon and his illusionist, whoever that was. With the power of creating a whole new world came the power to manipulate people and Lexa was anxious to find out what exactly they had been manipulating Shalimar and Jesse into doing.
Brennan flicked a switch and the door in the belly of the Helix opened smoothly, a whooshing noise filling the cabin. They both stood up and walked quickly to the opening where they looked around them, silently taking in everything. Nothing appeared to be out of place and, although they both understood that danger could still be lurking around the next corner they breathed a sigh of relief at finding nothing changed beyond recognition.
Brennan walked out first, his hands ready and willing to form a tesla coil at the first sign of trouble. He wanted to run to wherever Shalimar was, he didn't want to have to do the sneaking around thing. He had always been one for rushing into a situation and that was not going to change just because he was facing the Dominion now instead of the GSA. The enemy may have changed but his attitude towards Shalimar's safety was the same.
The air conditioning buzzed quietly, filling the air with noise. In their time at Sanctuary both he and Lexa had grown used to it, it was almost comforting to them but now its very presence only served to make them both jumpier. Their eyes flitted from place to place, looking for the smallest sign that something was wrong but they couldn't find anything.
Brennan pushed open the door to the main rooms of Sanctuary. Warm light illuminated his features and he walked through the opening. He looked around him and saw everything he was used to. He smiled. It was good to be home. He heard footsteps and immediately became more aware of the danger that footsteps could signal. Both he and Lexa backed up against the wall. She wished that for once she had Jesse's power to disappear into the very stone that was cool against the back of her neck. Her breathing slowed till the rising and falling of her chest became imperceptible movement and she could no longer hear the sound of air rushing to and from her lungs. But the beating of her heart became louder in her ears and she wondered that it wasn't shaking the foundations of the building.
'What are you guys doing?'
They both visibly jumped as Jesse's voice startled them both. They looked at Shalimar as she walked around the corner.
'I saw you both on the security system,' she said, as curious as Jesse was as to the pairs actions. She stepped forward and looked into Brennan's eyes. Shalimar, more so than anyone bar a psionic could read other peoples body language and Brennan and Lexa were off. They weren't the same people who had left a day earlier. Something had changed but she had no idea what and neither of them seemed prepared to let her in on the secret.
'You guys want some food? Me and Jesse were just about to eat,' she offered, hoping that if she gave Brennan a little space he would eventually tell her whatever it was that was bothering him in his own time.
She turned and led the way through to the kitchen. The sun had moved in its own path in the sky and the light shining through the window was no longer as bright as it had been, it created more of a comfortable glow. Brennan looked around him. He didn't know quite what he had been expecting but the normalcy of the situation wasn't it. Both Jesse and Shalimar were acting like nothing was going on but Brennan had been with Mutant X long enough to know that when everything seemed pretty ordinary it probably wasn't. He wasn't prepared to give in to the thoughts floating around in the back of his mind, the ones which told him that he and Lexa had been worrying about nothing. He wasn't ready to let himself relax into the situation. And despite his desire to just get back to his normal life something still felt funky. He looked across at Lexa who looked as ill at ease as he felt.
***
'How could you let them get out?' His face was red and his eyes were almost to the point of bulging out of their sockets.
She stared at the angry man in front of her with a calm which served only to infuriate him further. She could so easily have made him believe that he was a phone booth but that would have been too easy and she couldn't have held him for ever. She knew better than most that he would come after her and he wouldn't stop until he had caught her. Better than most...but not better than some. She knew that Lexa had found out about Charles' involvement in the torture that had been dished out onto her and Brennan but she wasn't yet sure if Lexa had known about her involvement. Halle didn't have an obvious connection to Handon but she was certain of the fact that Lexa wasn't an idiot. She would work it all out eventually, but hopefully by the time she did Handon would have gotten what he wanted and Halle would be long gone. She knew exactly where she wanted to go as well. She would buy a plane ticket and fly to Florence. She would buy a small apartment, not too far from the centre of the city and she would walk the streets for the first couple of weeks, soaking it all up before she settled down. That was the dream anyway, and she was not going to give up on it at any cost because without that dream she had nothing.
'I didn't intentionally let them go,' she replied calmly. 'Shalimar Fox slipped out of her dimension and she saw the real one. What would you rather I did? Let her go or allow them to go home?'
He sighed. Contracting talent from elsewhere was a tricky business and it was difficult to know who you could trust. He didn't like Halle but she was the best illusionist there was. Her powers were extensive and he had known when he had come up with his plan that she was the one he would need. Controlling the thoughts and the visions of four powerful new mutants was a difficult thing to do and she was dealing with it remarkably well.
'Fine. So what do you plan to do next to resolve this issue?' he said.
'Wait and see,' she said with a smirk. Inside though she hated what she had to do. She didn't want to hurt Mutant X but throughout her life she had been forced to make a lot of difficult choices and if she had to sacrifice them to save herself she would do it. She closed her eyes and felt herself flood into the world she had created for Shalimar and Jesse. Her thought and feelings flooded the dimension they were currently inhabiting and she grabbed hold of their individual consciences, hoping people didn't get hurt too badly.
***
He looked out at the distance from the top of Stormking Mountain. The sun was setting behind the edge of the world and it dazzled him briefly. He turned away from it, waiting for the sun to descend far enough in the sky for him to be able to watch the beauty laid out before him without running the risk of losing his corneas.
'You okay?' she said as she walked up behind him. He looked at the brunette as she moved towards him, her face still bearing the signs of weariness from the past few hours.
'I should probably be asking you that,' he replied, running his hands through his dark hair as he spoke.
'I'm fine,' she said. It was clearly a lie but Brennan knew she probably didn't want him to push it.
'Its weird. They both seem so normal and there's no one else here. If Handon wanted to do anything to Sanctuary surely the best time would have been while atleast two of us were out.'
Lexa looked up at him. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Jesse was the same Jesse she had left behind when she went to visit the safehouses. And Shalimar seemed like the same person. If they had both been taken over mentally then whoever it was was damn good at their job. But Lexa knew enough to know that Handon could find people that skilled, he had the means and the inclination.
'We should probably keep our eyes open for the next couple of hours atleast. We can't be sure yet that nothings wrong with them.'
Brennan looked up at the imposing mountain before him. The yellow rock practically shone from the blast of the dying sun.
'So, you wanna tell me anymore about this Handon guy?' he asked quietly.
She breathed deeply. She had been hoping that he wouldn't ask about that, about her past but there was a part of her that was perfectly happy to tell him. She wanted to get everything off her chest and he deserved to know.
'Charles Handon,' she began after a long pause, 'was in the same class as me at high school, or atleast the Dominion equivalent. He was an elemental and we just seemed to fit, when we were working and when we weren't.'
'What kind of elemental?'
'He created light,' she said with a wry smile.
'Like you?'
'In the beginning, when I was first trying to control my abilities I could only manipulate it. Handon was a lot more confident and he got a handle on it all a lot quicker. When we both graduated he was top of our class and I was one below him.' She walked across to one of the large rocks which lined the ledge on which they were standing and sat down on it, pulling her light jacket around her as the cold crept into the atmosphere.
'We were both offered jobs with the Dominion,' she continued, 'but he was always one step ahead of me. Eventually, unsurprisingly he became my boss.'
'But I thought you were the star pupil of the Dominion, that was why they sent you here.'
'Handon was powerful, very much so, but he was unpredictable. If there was one area in which I excelled and left him behind it was at acting like a cold hearted ice queen. I was better at undercover because I could hide my true feelings. Charles would always lose it if he was under pressure and something had made him mad.'
Brennan turned to look back out over the sea, which was calmly lapping at the rocks below. The sun was gone and it had left behind it the most spectacular clouds Brennan thought he had ever seen. The pinks and oranges and purples merged in the sky and he found himself stifling a gasp.
'So, the guys dangerous,' Brennan stated after a moments silence.
'Yeah.'
***
Brennan looked ahead of him at the rock that he liked to call home. Both he and Lexa had come to the same conclusion about the intentions of the Dominion and Charles Handon and they had both decided that the only way they could do anything about it was to head home, something they were both pretty keen on doing anyway, if only to see their significant others.
He was worried as hell about Shalimar. He always worried about her safety, even though he knew he didn't have to. She was incredibly capable of looking after herself and he knew it frustrated her that he felt the need to protect her but it was a natural instinct, and not in a hunter gatherer kind of way. He just didn't want anything to happen to the person he loved. It would kill him if she was hurting in any way.
He angled the Helix in through the security entrance, neatly hidden from the outside world. After parking the plane in the garage he and Lexa looked at each other once more. She was terrified that the Dominion would have done something terrible to Jesse and Shalimar. She knew the way they worked and that was what scared her so much. They wouldn't have called in Handon if they hadn't been serious about their objective, whatever that was. He was the Dominions connection to everyone who had anything to do with new mutants. With him working with them their resources had increased six fold.
Lexa and Brennan had both come to the assumption that the Dominion had wanted to keep them away from Sanctuary. With them gone and only two of them left, no matter how powerful those two new mutants were they were still much more vulnerable. It had been the perfect opportunity. But, while Brennan was worried that they would find the place overrun with Dominion agents Lexa was more scared about the possibility of Handon and his illusionist, whoever that was. With the power of creating a whole new world came the power to manipulate people and Lexa was anxious to find out what exactly they had been manipulating Shalimar and Jesse into doing.
Brennan flicked a switch and the door in the belly of the Helix opened smoothly, a whooshing noise filling the cabin. They both stood up and walked quickly to the opening where they looked around them, silently taking in everything. Nothing appeared to be out of place and, although they both understood that danger could still be lurking around the next corner they breathed a sigh of relief at finding nothing changed beyond recognition.
Brennan walked out first, his hands ready and willing to form a tesla coil at the first sign of trouble. He wanted to run to wherever Shalimar was, he didn't want to have to do the sneaking around thing. He had always been one for rushing into a situation and that was not going to change just because he was facing the Dominion now instead of the GSA. The enemy may have changed but his attitude towards Shalimar's safety was the same.
The air conditioning buzzed quietly, filling the air with noise. In their time at Sanctuary both he and Lexa had grown used to it, it was almost comforting to them but now its very presence only served to make them both jumpier. Their eyes flitted from place to place, looking for the smallest sign that something was wrong but they couldn't find anything.
Brennan pushed open the door to the main rooms of Sanctuary. Warm light illuminated his features and he walked through the opening. He looked around him and saw everything he was used to. He smiled. It was good to be home. He heard footsteps and immediately became more aware of the danger that footsteps could signal. Both he and Lexa backed up against the wall. She wished that for once she had Jesse's power to disappear into the very stone that was cool against the back of her neck. Her breathing slowed till the rising and falling of her chest became imperceptible movement and she could no longer hear the sound of air rushing to and from her lungs. But the beating of her heart became louder in her ears and she wondered that it wasn't shaking the foundations of the building.
'What are you guys doing?'
They both visibly jumped as Jesse's voice startled them both. They looked at Shalimar as she walked around the corner.
'I saw you both on the security system,' she said, as curious as Jesse was as to the pairs actions. She stepped forward and looked into Brennan's eyes. Shalimar, more so than anyone bar a psionic could read other peoples body language and Brennan and Lexa were off. They weren't the same people who had left a day earlier. Something had changed but she had no idea what and neither of them seemed prepared to let her in on the secret.
'You guys want some food? Me and Jesse were just about to eat,' she offered, hoping that if she gave Brennan a little space he would eventually tell her whatever it was that was bothering him in his own time.
She turned and led the way through to the kitchen. The sun had moved in its own path in the sky and the light shining through the window was no longer as bright as it had been, it created more of a comfortable glow. Brennan looked around him. He didn't know quite what he had been expecting but the normalcy of the situation wasn't it. Both Jesse and Shalimar were acting like nothing was going on but Brennan had been with Mutant X long enough to know that when everything seemed pretty ordinary it probably wasn't. He wasn't prepared to give in to the thoughts floating around in the back of his mind, the ones which told him that he and Lexa had been worrying about nothing. He wasn't ready to let himself relax into the situation. And despite his desire to just get back to his normal life something still felt funky. He looked across at Lexa who looked as ill at ease as he felt.
***
'How could you let them get out?' His face was red and his eyes were almost to the point of bulging out of their sockets.
She stared at the angry man in front of her with a calm which served only to infuriate him further. She could so easily have made him believe that he was a phone booth but that would have been too easy and she couldn't have held him for ever. She knew better than most that he would come after her and he wouldn't stop until he had caught her. Better than most...but not better than some. She knew that Lexa had found out about Charles' involvement in the torture that had been dished out onto her and Brennan but she wasn't yet sure if Lexa had known about her involvement. Halle didn't have an obvious connection to Handon but she was certain of the fact that Lexa wasn't an idiot. She would work it all out eventually, but hopefully by the time she did Handon would have gotten what he wanted and Halle would be long gone. She knew exactly where she wanted to go as well. She would buy a plane ticket and fly to Florence. She would buy a small apartment, not too far from the centre of the city and she would walk the streets for the first couple of weeks, soaking it all up before she settled down. That was the dream anyway, and she was not going to give up on it at any cost because without that dream she had nothing.
'I didn't intentionally let them go,' she replied calmly. 'Shalimar Fox slipped out of her dimension and she saw the real one. What would you rather I did? Let her go or allow them to go home?'
He sighed. Contracting talent from elsewhere was a tricky business and it was difficult to know who you could trust. He didn't like Halle but she was the best illusionist there was. Her powers were extensive and he had known when he had come up with his plan that she was the one he would need. Controlling the thoughts and the visions of four powerful new mutants was a difficult thing to do and she was dealing with it remarkably well.
'Fine. So what do you plan to do next to resolve this issue?' he said.
'Wait and see,' she said with a smirk. Inside though she hated what she had to do. She didn't want to hurt Mutant X but throughout her life she had been forced to make a lot of difficult choices and if she had to sacrifice them to save herself she would do it. She closed her eyes and felt herself flood into the world she had created for Shalimar and Jesse. Her thought and feelings flooded the dimension they were currently inhabiting and she grabbed hold of their individual consciences, hoping people didn't get hurt too badly.
***
He looked out at the distance from the top of Stormking Mountain. The sun was setting behind the edge of the world and it dazzled him briefly. He turned away from it, waiting for the sun to descend far enough in the sky for him to be able to watch the beauty laid out before him without running the risk of losing his corneas.
'You okay?' she said as she walked up behind him. He looked at the brunette as she moved towards him, her face still bearing the signs of weariness from the past few hours.
'I should probably be asking you that,' he replied, running his hands through his dark hair as he spoke.
'I'm fine,' she said. It was clearly a lie but Brennan knew she probably didn't want him to push it.
'Its weird. They both seem so normal and there's no one else here. If Handon wanted to do anything to Sanctuary surely the best time would have been while atleast two of us were out.'
Lexa looked up at him. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Jesse was the same Jesse she had left behind when she went to visit the safehouses. And Shalimar seemed like the same person. If they had both been taken over mentally then whoever it was was damn good at their job. But Lexa knew enough to know that Handon could find people that skilled, he had the means and the inclination.
'We should probably keep our eyes open for the next couple of hours atleast. We can't be sure yet that nothings wrong with them.'
Brennan looked up at the imposing mountain before him. The yellow rock practically shone from the blast of the dying sun.
'So, you wanna tell me anymore about this Handon guy?' he asked quietly.
She breathed deeply. She had been hoping that he wouldn't ask about that, about her past but there was a part of her that was perfectly happy to tell him. She wanted to get everything off her chest and he deserved to know.
'Charles Handon,' she began after a long pause, 'was in the same class as me at high school, or atleast the Dominion equivalent. He was an elemental and we just seemed to fit, when we were working and when we weren't.'
'What kind of elemental?'
'He created light,' she said with a wry smile.
'Like you?'
'In the beginning, when I was first trying to control my abilities I could only manipulate it. Handon was a lot more confident and he got a handle on it all a lot quicker. When we both graduated he was top of our class and I was one below him.' She walked across to one of the large rocks which lined the ledge on which they were standing and sat down on it, pulling her light jacket around her as the cold crept into the atmosphere.
'We were both offered jobs with the Dominion,' she continued, 'but he was always one step ahead of me. Eventually, unsurprisingly he became my boss.'
'But I thought you were the star pupil of the Dominion, that was why they sent you here.'
'Handon was powerful, very much so, but he was unpredictable. If there was one area in which I excelled and left him behind it was at acting like a cold hearted ice queen. I was better at undercover because I could hide my true feelings. Charles would always lose it if he was under pressure and something had made him mad.'
Brennan turned to look back out over the sea, which was calmly lapping at the rocks below. The sun was gone and it had left behind it the most spectacular clouds Brennan thought he had ever seen. The pinks and oranges and purples merged in the sky and he found himself stifling a gasp.
'So, the guys dangerous,' Brennan stated after a moments silence.
'Yeah.'