Chapter 16

Legal Disclaimer-All the rights belong to Marvel, Alliance Atlantis, Tribune Entertainment and whomever else owns them.

Authors Note-Reviews are begged for and I must admit, this is the story that won't end. It's running me, but luckily, I spilt this one up so that it won't kill me. I blame seeing episodes I have only heard of finally and it changing my feeling toward the characters slightly. Dang Henry scared me. Poor Jesse, I think I beat him up enough....Nah.

Here's Chapter 16..

The property that the Creator owned was on a high hill in upstate Pennsylvania. Due to the Amish communities around it, there was no outdoor light at all to guide them in. Brennan landed the craft after flying in under the radar and in stealth mode. To the outside world they were completely invisible. Thankfully, also being under the cover of night, they were a complete mystery to the town surrounding the Creator's compound. Shalimar had sat during the flight running over the plan in her mind. They were going in to save Lexa and Jesse, that was a given, that was a plan and that was exactly what they were going to do. She donned her black jacket as she stood up and looked at Brennan. He looked at her, the fire in his eyes reminiscent of their earlier days in Mutant X. They wanted blood and no one was going to stand in their way.

Emma was up as well, but her look wasn't calm, it wasn't angry, it was more of fear. An intense fear that rocked her to her core. Jesse was awake and his sanity was shattering. Ever since their earlier contact, she began to suspect that he had something happen to him courtesy of the creator that she feared in her own life. Jesse had no control over this power he had just seemed to inherit.

Adam too had prepped for the mission in his own way. Using a program that he only used once with the team, he put the finishing touches on the mask he hoped to never wear. As he turned to the group, they looked back in awe and a bit of fear. He was dressed and made up to look like the Creator. He silently hoped he would never look that way because deep in heart he knew that he would never act that way.

Lexa sat up in her cell, the restorative nap not doing anything for her demeanor. She was in the dark, something that didn't help her fears, or her powers. Light was as important to her as oxygen, but with a subdermal governor and barely enough light to see her hands, she knew that if she had to use her powers she would bear through the pain and use whatever charge she had left to get herself the hell out of there.

She waited. Something told her she wasn't going to have to wait much longer.

Jesse squirmed in the pod, the grandfather of all horrendous headaches starting up. If he concentrated on the headache he couldn't hear the voices screaming at him to help him. He couldn't control either one so his mind was filled with searing pain and voices begging for help. At the same time it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. He opened his eyes and tried to focus. A man stood over him, the man who looked like an older version of Adam but wasn't Adam.

"How are you feeling Mr. Kilmartin?" he asked, "Headache?"

Jesse didn't want to find his voice, to find it would hurt. He just nodded.

"That should fade, your temperature is still up," the man continued, patting the front of the pod, "I'm glad Adam invented these, they work so well for diagnosis. You should be as proud of him as I am."

His voice found him.

"I'm" Jesse stuttered, the pain came over him in waves, "Not. Proud. Of. Him."

"You should be," the man said, leaning over to look in his eyes, "He helped create you. As I did. I'm more of his father, which makes you my grandson, Jesse."

"I had a grandfather," Jesse spat, "And you're not him."

Alarms began to sound as Jesse screamed in pain. The sound deafened any chance of the conversation continuing and Jesse put his hands to his ears. He clamped them over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. If the pain could just stop for a second or two he could get his control back. That's all he wanted.

"I'm sorry Jesse," the man said, flipping switches around him, "Let me turn that off."

The silence helped a bit. The endless throbbing continued. Jesse opened his eyes again, the knowledge of pain staying with him. The voices were getting louder. They were begging him and he couldn't do anything. He just screamed.

Emma stopped in front of the doorway that had the keycard. Jesse's pain had overwhelmed her. She had built a wall the second she realized that he was suffering and she worked to strengthen it, but the stress and worry were working against her. She closed her eyes to catch her breath and felt Brennan's hand grab her arm.

"Jesse?" he asked softly, already knowing the answer.

Emma nodded and looked at him. The concerned gaze that she met gave her the first feeling of hope she had in hours.

"We're going to get him out, Emma," Shalimar said, putting her hand on Brennan's, "Let's start with this door."

Using keycards that they had created, Shalimar ran the card to the door that simply unlocked. She stepped in first, her instincts on high alert, Brennan covering her back. Emma and Adam followed.

For Shalimar, it was simple to see in the dark. Her feral abilities had given her night vision, and the others followed her slowly. The room was dark. There was a light in the warehouse which they headed for, knowing to slowly approach. Brennan turned toward Emma as she caught her breath again, knowing that Jesse was throwing his pain elsewhere and his empathic wife was caught in the crossfire. He tried to block his mind for her, she didn't need his fear amping her own.

They approached the door and found it empty. Luckily the guards were elsewhere and Adam walked in and turned to the security cameras. From his time with the Creator he knew that the man was known to walk the grounds at night, so a weird hour jaunt around the property wouldn't alarm the guards in the stationhouse at the bottom of the hill. Shalimar put a keycard to the door and it too turned green and opened.

They slowly spilt up as they entered the hallway. Shalimar headed to the right, knowing from the map Adam created from memory that the cell Lexa was in was down the hall. He, Emma and Brennan went left. The medical labs were there and they were heavily guarded.

Shalimar reached the end of the hall and popped the keycard marked cell into the slot. Miraculously the door opened and Shalimar pulled out a penlight. She could smell Lexa, so she knew that she had been here, but a light would reassure whomever was in the cell. Adam had been right on the money, she was at Lexa's cell. Lexa's back was to her. Lexa turned, seeing the light on the wall.

"What the hell do you want?" Lexa asked into the darkness, "You already have Jesse."

"How about you out of here?" Shalimar smiled, "Calvary's arrived."

Lexa smiled and jumped up.

"Thank god," Lexa brought her attention to the cell door, "It's not rigged, no alarm, just pull the bastard off its hinges, Shal."

Shalimar stepped back, turned her penlight off and ran for the door, the rage of a lion behind her. One savage pull and the metal door was off. Lexa hugged her.

"Good to see you too," Shalimar said, "Now, let's go get Jesse."

"Copy that," Lexa laughed.

The two women ran out of the darkness and into the light, Shalimar knocking down the security camera on their end of the hall on their way out.

Looking up at the top of the pod lid, Jesse knew that this was the hell he only could of imagined in nightmares. The children's voices didn't stop, his head throbbed, his shoulder hurt and he couldn't close his eyes to go back to the meadow. There was no concentration at all. His thoughts were everywhere. He couldn't even focus on Emma. He wanted to, his heart cried out to her, but, he couldn't think long enough to form her face in his mind. He closed his eyes, hoping that he could muster the concentration to calm himself.

"Jesse?" the voice asked.

It sounded like Adam. It couldn't be, Adam left him at the diner. Adam looked like the older man, but Adam wasn't there. He couldn't be. He heard the pod unlock, and felt the rush of cold air on his exposed chest. He shivered. The chill gave him a moment of concentration.

"Jesse?" another voice asked. This time it sounded like Brennan.

"Brennan, you have to get him sitting up so that I can take the subdermal governor off," the voice that sounded like Adam said, "Hurry, Emma's got the Creator distracted for only a short time."

He felt warm hands lift him to a sitting position. Other hands touched the back of his neck and he felt the pain vanish from his head. The children's voices, though, they got louder.

"That should do it," Adam's voice continued, "Jesse? Can you hear me?"

Jesse opened his eyes to the bright light of the medical lab and the faces of Adam and Brennan looking back at him. He wanted to leap out of the pod, but his body wasn't responding to his commands.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice sounding even more distant to him, "Help the kids first though, Adam."

"You know where they are?" Adam asked.

Jesse started shaking. The voices were yelling at him again. They were also getting louder.

"Jesse, where are they?" Brennan asked, "Can you tell me where the kids are?"

Jesse tried to talk again. He found his voice through the screams of the children.

"The. Kids. Are. In. the. Warehouse. Next. To. This. one," Jesse said, every word an effort, grabbing Adam's arm, "Adam, you have to get them to stop screaming."

"Who's screaming?" Adam asked, looking into Jesse's eyes.

The gaze Jesse gave him was one of pain, fear, terror and anger mixed in his eyes. They were paler than usual and looked fogged. The man was in horrific pain.

"The children, you can't hear them?" Jesse asked, his voice failing, "You can't hear them?"

Adam looked up at Brennan who helped Jesse out of the bed. The gaze said more than words could, Brennan was going to have to help Jesse get out of there. Adam was going to find the children. Shalimar and Lexa ran into the lab at the same time, Shalimar running to help Brennan with Jesse. Emma was still working the opposite hallway, redirecting the Creator away from the medical lab. Brennan waved Shalimar off, picking up Jesse and carrying him in his arms. Jesse was too weak to walk.

Jesse had his hands over his ears. The sound wouldn't stop.

"Thanks Brennan," he whispered, "They have to stop."

"They will," Brennan replied, his thought only on getting Jesse out of there, "You might have to help me here, Jess."

"I will," Jesse replied softly, "Don't let Adam forget Pierce, we need to get him first, I promised. God, they won't stop."

Jesse covered his ears again, the pain washing over him. Emma met them in the hallway, Adam grabbing Shalimar and Lexa to help him find the children. Emma put a hand on Jesse's arm as Brennan ran for the aircraft, knowing instinctually, that he had to get Jesse there.

Emma ran with him, her emotions trying to steady the nearly convulsing Jesse. Brennan didn't speak, just tried to stay as calm as possible as he got Jesse to the craft.

He ran in and put Jesse gently on a chair, covering him with a blanket. Jesse still shook violently. Emma settled in next to Jesse, trying to get him to stop shaking. His hands were clamped over his ears.

"You have to get them to stop," he said, over and over, "They won't stop screaming for me to come back. Go get them Brennan."

Jesse looked up at Brennan, his eyes crazed.

"Don't think that I have gone crazy, go get them, Brennan," Jesse said, his gaze turning to Emma, "You need to help them. Get Pierce."

"Who's Pierce, Jess?" Brennan asked softly, "You're not making sense."

"Get Pierce," Jesse begged, "He's my son, Brennan, go get him."

Emma grabbed Brennan's hand.

"You heard the man, go," Emma said, "I have him, don't worry."

Brennan nodded and ran back into the compound. Emma took Jesse's hands from his ears and brought his face up so that he could see her eye to eye.

"Emma, don't, I don't want to hurt you," Jesse's voice had gone childlike, "I don't know what's happening to me."

"I do, Jess, and I want you to listen to me," Emma said calmly, "You need to concentrate on my voice and my voice only, okay?"

Jesse's eyes met hers and he nodded. She was so beautiful and he got lost in her eyes. Within time they were in the meadow again.

"What the hell is going on?" Jesse asked, the silence of the children deafening, "What did he do to me?"

"I need Adam to confirm it, but I think you've been made psionic Jesse," Emma replied, sitting on the blanket next to him, "And you're a pretty powerful one."