Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Dance of the Dreamscape

Legal Disclaimer- It's called Fanfic. It's not meant to be sold, there is no money being made off of this, it's just a chance for me to blow off creative steam and have a little fun. Suing me is not the way. I don't have money, I have a mortgage to pay.

Authors Note-Guys, I love you for the reviews. You all rock. Due to an unwanted gift at work and the trade in policy at Best Buy, I now own most of season two. It's amazing how a DVD can give you more of an idea of how the show works. Thank God.

Yes, there is some Jesse started angst in here. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 4

Sleep was the best and worst thing that Jesse Kilmartin could do. His body, overworked and still healing from his torture session at the hands of the Dominion demanded the time to heal and rebuild. He lay quietly, his breathing slow and shallow, his mind on a journey far away from the cave that he and his friends now lived in.

The slam of a Genomax stasis pod is one sound that a person, mutant or otherwise, never forgets. The feeling of isolation is one of the first things that could cause stasis madness, as the techs at Genomax called it, and for Jesse, it was something that he hid deep in his subconscious. It only came around to visit his nightmares and this time, he wasn't surprised it came calling. His stress level was the certain trigger.

He shifted, trying to forget the sound, trying to think of anything else that didn't play on his senses, but the muffled sound of someone talking held. He opened his eyes and realized instantly that he was still asleep, but his vision was that of being inside the pod yet again. He opened his mouth the scream, and realized that there was no sound. He was trapped inside the pod. He tried screaming again.

In the conscious world, the sound of his scream was heard by only one of his friends. Shalimar Fox bolted from her seat at the computer bank and ran for Jesse's room, Brennan, Lexa and Kari in tow. As she reached his room, she nearly ripped the door from its hinges to witness Jesse in the throes of a nightmare. He was phasing in and out, just enough to cause an effect on the bedsheets, then stopped as he tried to scream again.

Shalimar started to touch his shoulder, hopefully to get him out of the nightmare he seemed to be in the clutches of. He started to phase again and stopped, becoming whole and looking tortured. Something bizarre was going on.

Brennan came up behind her and stopped her.

"Don't, we don't what kind of state he is in," Brennan said, watching his friends state in total disbelief, "Something is very wrong here."

Jesse's solid state held and Kari flew past Brennan, grabbing Jesse's hand. With that one touch, she slipped into the dreamscape and into his nightmare. Jesse was pounding on the cover of the stasis pod, his knuckles bloody. She pounded back, trying to get his attention out of the panic he was in. He screamed again, this time stopping when he saw her face. He looked past her, the fear of this not being reality, adding to his panic.

"HELP ME!" he pleaded, not knowing if Kari was real or not.

She pulled Jesse out of the pod, working the controls by guessing. His hands grabbed her shoulders, trying to see if she was real. Discovering that she was real, he gathered her into a hug. She hugged him back, trying to calm down her shaking friend.

"It's a nightmare, Jesse," she said, putting a hand to the side of his face, "You have got to wake up."

"I can't," Jesse sounded like a little boy, "I really want to, but I can't wake up."

She took his hand in hers, trying to avoid the bloodied knuckles and yanked it. The slight pain got his attention.

"Follow me," she said, "You need to wake up, and everyone's waiting for you."

Jesse's eyes fluttered open. He was awake finally, and looking at the concerned faces of Brennan, Shalimar, and Lexa. Kari slowly came into focus, putting his hand back on his stomach, a completely unhurt hand that did hurt.

"Hi there," he said, his voice dry, "I'm sorry to call all of you to this meeting..."

Lexa tried not to laugh as Brennan and Shalimar smiled. At least he had stopped phasing in and out, while Kari slowly came back to this reality. She squeezed Jesse's hand.

"You okay?" she asked, brushing a lock of blond hair out of his eyes.

Jesse met her glance.

"Thank you," he said, "I don't ever want to go back there."

"Where was there?" Brennan asked, "You were phasing in and out, Jesse."

"I was?" Jesse always had fantastic control over his power. Only at rare times did it take over on its own.

He looked at Kari who he then realized had risked phasing in and out with him to get him out of the nightmare. She stood up.

"Where were you Jesse?" Shalimar asked.

"Genomax, in a stasis pod," Jesse said softly, "I haven't dreamed about that place in years, Shal, it was way too realistic."

Lexa shuddered. The mere thought of it was not a pleasant one. She didn't know what being in one was like, but from what the others had said, she knew how horrible it was. The look of fear in Jesse's eyes said a tremendous amount about it.

Jesse sat up slowly. He had only been asleep for a few hours, his body now acted like he had rested, but the residual effects of his nightmare hid behind his eyes. The tube had been real to him.

He closed his eyes again, opened them and looked at Shalimar. She knew what he had gone through with his time in Genomax, they talked about it on a regular basis when they had first started Mutant X, his screaming nightmares being one of the few things she could soothe. His phasing in and out in the dream was a new wrinkle though. He got up and out of bed, taking a second to move slowly and looked at his worried friends.

"I'm okay," he said, "Let's get something to eat and get back to work, guys, there are plenty of things to do."

It wasn't a snack that Kari wanted, it was information. While the others did their best to divert Jesse's attention from the nightmare, Kari went into the medlab for research of her own.

Unlike the others, she was not one who experienced the stasis pod. Adam Kane had made sure that she was treated differently when she visited Genomax. Her mutation was more hereditary than genetically engineered. Adam had just tried to control the voices that wandered through her brain at strange moments. It's not everyday that a five year old girl speaks Cherokee and does not realize it. Especially went they have never heard it.

In turn, she needed to find out more about what had happened to Jesse at Genomax. Asking him was not a question that she wanted to ask. She knew that bringing up that memory could cause him more nightmares and she preferred not to put him through them again. The file was interesting yet terrifying. Jesse's past was one that she hoped to never experience. Just reading about Jesse's experience with the stasis pods there were enough to play at her phobia of small places.

She shuddered. Jesse had gone through hell before Adam had pulled him out of there. It was amazing to her that it hadn't driven him insane, but it did explain his high threshold for stress.

"You know that you can ask me," Jesse said from behind her, his voice growing cold, "I would actually appreciate it if you did."