Disclaimer:Yeah yeah, not mine, blah blah blah...stop rubbing it in...
A/N: Sorry 'bout the wait, yeas, I know it's a short chapter but it needed to be for effect...deal with it...
Jesse and Lexa came quietly into the room, seeing Shalimar asleep with her head on the edge of Brennan's bed, but despite their near-silence, Shalimar woke with a start, calling Brennan's name, breathing heavily. Jesse rushed over to her and pulled her into his arms.
"It's okay. Shh, it's okay. Calm down. What happened?" He said soothingly.
"Just...a dream..." She breathed.
"What'd you see?"
"It was weird," she frowned, trying to remember. "I saw Brennan running down this sort of hallway...but it was strange, like, distorted, sort of... I ran after him, but the faster I ran, the further away he got. Then he just disappeared. I got to the place where'd he disappeared and almost fell through this huge crack in the floor. I watched him fall and I couldn't reach him to save him. I was helpless."
Jesse hugged her tightly, "Well, it was just a dream. Don't think too hard about it."
"Yeah, you're right...It just, freaked me out."
"Well, I know dreams can be kind of weird and stuff, and I don't mean to be mean," Lexa said, slowly, as if choosing her words carefully, so as not to offend her. "But, I'm a bit more concerned with Brennan. How's he doing?"
"He talked to me last night." Shalimar said, eyes filling with tears.
"What?!" Jesse and Lexa gaped in unison.
"He woke up and said that, um...that he didn't want to leave without saying good-bye and that he was trying to hold on...but that it hurt..." Her voice broke and she let the tears fall. "He's hurting...and I'm the reason... It's my fault..." Lexa pulled her into her arms and held her gently. Shalimar put her face on Lexa's arm. Jesse rubbed his hand over her back comfortingly.
"Shal, he's holding on because he wants to. Don't you know that he'd do anything for you?" Lexa asked quietly.
"I know," she sobbed. "But if it weren't for me, we wouldn't be here."
"That's not true." Jesse said, making Shalimar look up sharply. "We don't know what would've come from Shane's escape, had the rest of us just let Brennan take care of it on his own. We'll never know that. But I highly doubt that he blames you for what happened to him or the pain he's in now. He didn't have to jump on Shane in the lobby. He made a choice. Like we all make choices. His just ended badly. As did yours when you chose to go up to the roof without backup. That's just the way it is."
"He's right, Shal." Lexa agreed. "Besides, if we were going to blame anyone for all this crap, we'd blame Shane. It was his fault. If he'd just stayed in jail..."
"None of this would've happened." Shalimar finished for her. She wiped away her tears. "I know, you're right. It's just...hard not to blame myself. I mean, he told me to stay away from Shane, he told me not to go on that rooftop alone. He begged me to stay out of this. And did I listen? Do I ever?"
"Of course not, but that's what we love most about you. Plus, you love him. And you were concerned."
"Yeah, but still..." Jesse pulled her into a tight hug, effectively silencing her guilt.
Shalimar ran into Brennan's room, hand tightly gripping the arm of a young woman dressed as a nurse. "Who the hell's that?" Lexa asked, standing defensively.
"This is Amelia. She's a telempath. I figured, Brennan saved Jesse that time he got shot with that special bullet by being connected to his mind and helping him escape that little hell he was stuck in, so why can't I do the same for Brennan." Shalimar explained hastily, sitting down beside Brennan's bed, ignoring the looks on her two friend's faces.
"Shal, are you sure this is a good idea?" Jesse asked apprehensively.
"No, but it's worth a shot." She looked over at Jesse and saw his expression and smiled softly. "It's been two weeks and I'm sick of feeling helpless. Jess, I can't just sit here and watch him die." Jesse walked over and laid a hand on her arm.
"Okay," he nodded. "Just be careful. You have no idea what his subconscious is subjecting him to."
"Thanks," she smiled. "Okay, Amelia, let's do it." Amelia nodded and shot a psychic wave at Shalimar, who instantly fell unconscious. Jesse looked at Amelia.
"The first sign of trouble, you pull her out, you got it?" He ordered.
"Yessir," Amelia nodded.
"Good," Jesse walked over to Lexa, who put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Please, God, let this work." Jesse whispered, watching Shalimar closely. Lexa pulled him into a gentle hug then they sat back to watch for any sign of change.
Shalimar found herself dropped into a dark, fog-filled, expanse of nothing. Red swirls of cloud-ish things swept around her. She took a hesitant step forward, then another. A few feet away a reddish-orange glow erupted, exceedingly bright in the gloomy dark, from a gaping chasm in the ground. "Brennan?" Shalimar called quietly, inching forward a little. "Brennan?" She called a little louder.
"Shalimar!" She heard Brennan yell, seemingly below her.
"Brennan!" Shalimar called, moving toward the chasm quickly. Suddenly she heard shrill screeching as several black cloaked and hooded creatures appeared around her. She screamed and covered her overly sensitive ears. The screeching stopped and she rose from where she had fallen to the floor, ears ringing and still at least a foot away from where Brennan inevitably hung on for dear life.
"Shalimar, get the hell out of here! Stay away from them!" Brennan shouted at her, sounding far away. "Leave me here!"
"No way! If I leave, you're coming with me!" She turned to look at the creatures that were slowly creeping closer to her. "What the hell are you...things?" She yelled at them.
"We," a grating voice answered, sounding remarkably close to the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Shalimar winced, but stood strong. "We are of shadow and darkness, of sadness and rage, of fear and pain. We are that of nightmares. We are what you feel watching you when no one is near. We keep here those that could become one of us, but refuses. We leave those that defy us in the Chasm of Fire. There they rot until their deaths and another of us is borne of their falling ashes. This is the fate of your lover, who refused our offer and clings to the hope that one day he will find him way back to the people he loves and the woman who waits. You. But we shall allow you passage to the Chasm. You cannot have him. His fate is sealed. Be gone, or you will join him."
Shalimar yawned visibly and quirked an eyebrow at the thing that appeared to be their leader, "Oh, I'm sorry, were you still talking? I got bored somewhere after...oh...the first sentence." She smirked. "So, here's how it's gonna go, I'm not leaving here without Brennan and I'm not going anywhere until I have him. The way I see it you have two choices, get the hell out of my way and let me have my boyfriend, or two, I kick your asses out of my way and I'll take him back whether you like it or not."
"You have no power here. You shall never get through." The shadowy creature hissed as the other eight creatures advanced.
"Back off, ugly, you don't know what you're dealing with." Shalimar growled, moving into a fighting stance.
"Shalimar Fox, feral, acquainted until recently with one Adam Cane, has almost never lost in hand-to-hand combat." Shalimar smirked in amusement.
"No," She smiled then growled deep in her throat. "A pissed off girlfriend who wants her lover back." She leapt on the leader and tackled him to the ground. She slashed her nails across his face, in the process, throwing off his hood. She gasped in horror and stumbled back. It was the ugliest thing she'd ever seen, mottled and greenish-purple skin hung from the sallow bones of its face, its eyes were milky-white with maggots wriggling from tiny holes and crawling in and out of his hanging flesh.
"Ugh!" She exclaimed. "No wonder you cover that face! Ever heard of plastic surgery?" The creature drew its hood back over its head with similarly mottled hands and hissed in rage.
"Ever heard of shutting your mouth and learning respect for those more powerful than you?" He quipped.
"No, have you?" She grinned and leapt on him again, quickly snapping his neck, leaving him in a crumpled heap on the ground. The others stepped back in shock at the unforeseen death of their leader. Shalimar glared at them warningly and rushed over to the edge of the Chasm of Fire and looked down. A long ways below her, Brennan clung to an outcropping of rocks, molten lava rushed along beneath him and flames leapt from its surface, licking at the rocks and turning them red with heat.
To Be Continued...
A/N: Review.