Disclaimer: I still own nothing. "Cept the plot and the evil people.
A/N: WARNING RAPE!!!! I've toned it down as much as possible without jeopardizing the effect of the moment. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER AND DO NOT REPORT ME!!!!
"Shal!? Shalimar, answer me!" Brennan called into the Helix's speaker. It had already been twelve minutes, but he couldn't bring himself to leave. He couldn't just leave her there to be tortured, even killed. "Shalimar, please," his throat tightened.
"Brennan," Shalimar's hushed voice over the speaker made him breathe a sigh of relief.
Shalimar sat crouched in a corner of some dark room, breathing heavily, having only just managed to outrun Neilson's cronies. "Don't tell me you're still here Brennan." She admonished him. "Get going. Now, before they figure out where the Helix is."
"I-I can't," he stammered. "I can't leave you here."
"You can," she whispered. "You have to. I'll find my own way back to you. Just take care of them."
"Shal-," his voice held a hint of a plea.
"Just go. I'll be alright. I find a way back to you. I promise." She assured him again. "Shit, my play mates are coming back. Gotta go baby. So do you. I love you." He told her he loved her and she hid the ring away again just as the guards burst into the room. "Hey boys," she grinned and kicked the legs out from two guards, grabbed the front of another's shirt and chucked him over her head and into the wall, doing the same to the next. She was hauled to the ground then by close to a dozen guards. Shalimar swore inwardly. 'Sorry, Brennan, I failed.' She thought to herself as she was knocked out and dragged away.
Shalimar woke in a poorly lit room. Her eyes glowed yellow as she sensed three other bodies near her. One was a feral, like herself. She growled threateningly. An old man, maybe in his early sixties, shuffled over to her. He had several bruises forming on his face and a bandage on his nose.
"Hello Shalimar Fox," he said evilly, making her shudder. "I've heard a lot about you. Adam's girl. The feral beauty who captured the Elemental's heart. Yes, I know about you and Mr. Mulwray." Neilson said, noticing Shalimar's surprised expression. He laughed, sending another shiver down Shalimar's spine. "Adam's two favorites. The most powerful of the four. Except that Lexa. She's quite the dangerous little character, isn't she?" He winced as he laid a gentle finger on his nose. Shalimar grinned.
"Damn straight you stupid fuck. Bet you got more than you bargained for when you tried to hurt Lexa. Bet she kicked your fat, ugly ass." She insulted him insolently. Neilson's eyes flashed angrily and he knelt down in from of her, grabbing her shoulders painfully.
"You're going to pay for that. I'm not just going to torture you; I'm going to make you feel so dirty, so utterly filthy, that you won't let your precious Brennan touch you ever again. I'm going to desecrate that perfect little body of your and make you bleed. Inside and out. You won't make it out of this room alive, princess. That's a promise."
"Nothing you can do to me will make me do that. Brennan would never hurt me. And you shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Shalimar quipped bitterly, though she feared what was coming next. He was going to take her. 'God Brennan, please don't hate me.' She thought sadly. She shifted slightly and by some strange power unknown to her, her COM ring slipped from her bra, down her side, and onto her finger, un-noticed, as Neilson was sending Serenity and the guard out of the room. This was something she would come to regret in the near future. Very much.
Jesse lay motionless, his body being scanned by numerous computers as they tried to reverse the damage done to him. The slow blip....blip.....blip of the heart monitor could be heard in the background. Brennan and Lexa hovered in nervous anticipation out of the way while the computers did what they had to do.
"God, I wish there was something I could do to help him." Lexa's voice broke and a tear ran down her cheek. Brennan put an arm around her. She had only been under the computers for an hour. In that time her wounds from the feral Serenity, had been healed and all she had left of her ordeal were a few bruises. Jesse had been lying there, seemingly lifeless, for almost four hours and it frustrated her to know that she couldn't help him. She couldn't stop his pain. He had helped her take that stupid mind-control device out of her neck; he had saved her life, and now she was watching his life flicker and wane, hoping and praying that it wouldn't go out; wouldn't take the man she had grown to love away from her before his time.
"I'm gonna go see if I can get a hold of Shal. Keep an eye on him." Brennan whispered, squeezed her shoulder, and then walked away. 'Please, God, don't take him from us. We can't lose him too.' Brennan prayed.
Lexa sat by Jesse's bed, stroking his hand gently with her fingers. "You can't leave me, Jess. There's still so much I haven't told you. That I haven't shown you." Another tear fell from her eyes.
"I remember the day I met you. I was an unwelcome stranger in your midst. You had just lost Emma and I could tell you felt alone and abandoned.
"You thought I was a hard ass 'cause I showed no emotions. But what you didn't know was that I wanted to reach out and tell you I understood and that I knew how you felt. I wanted to comfort you, let you let go, feel safe enough to cry in my arms." She paused.
"But I couldn't. Not then. I was too afraid that if I let people get to close, I would only get hurt again. But you; I just couldn't keep you out of my head, or my heart. No matter how hard I tried, you grew closer, as did Shalimar and Brennan.
"But you were different from them. I found myself falling in love with you. And I couldn't stop myself. And now, you're lying here, fighting for your life, and I don't know what to do. I can't lose you. Not now. Not like this. And I'm beginning to wonder if I made a mistake, letting any of you get so close. It only gets me hurt. But I can't help feeling that I needed this. You made me feel alive again." She broke down in tears and laid her head on his arm. "You can't leave me, Jesse," she sobbed.
[A/N: RAPE IN THIS PARAGRAPH!! IF IT BUGS YOU DON'T READ IT!! YOU HAVE AGAIN BEEN WARNED!!!]
Neilson stripped off his pants and roughly tore open Shalimar's jeans. He stared at her, playing with himself until he... "rose to the occasion...", then he straddled her and roughly thrust into her. Disgusted tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but she held them back, not wanting to give him the pleasure of seeing her cry. He drew out the process, thrusting slowly, but in a way that pained her. She struggled, but to no avail, she screamed at a particularly painful movement by Neilson, but it only seemed to encourage him. He tore open her shirt and cupped her breasts in his hands, her shirt hanging loosely from one shoulder. He bit her breasts hard, drawing blood. He soon lost control over his body and started pumping into her hard and fast, fingers digging deep welts and bruises into her sides and abdomen, until he came.
Brennan listened to the sounds of his beloved being defiled. He winced and clenched his fists angrily as she screamed in pain. Lexa came up behind him and gasped. He heard the man, Neilson's, sigh as he reached his climax. Brennan let hot, angry tears run down his cheeks. Lexa wrapped her arms around him comfortingly and held him as his body was wracked with sorrowful tears of pain and rage. But what came next was worse. The screen suddenly went blank, the connection lost. When it came on again, several minutes later, the heart monitor built into the COM ring squealed shrilly, her heart had stopped.
"Time of death: 11:43 PM." The computer droned.
"NO!!" Brennan screamed. "SHALIMAR!! NO!!" He sobbed and Lexa held him closer, tears rolling down her cheeks.
'This can't be happening.' Lexa thought, trying to breathe through her pain- constricted throat, she cried harder. "Shalimar," she whispered, her voice hoarse.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: I hope I didn't make Lexa too OOC...If I did I am sincerely sorry. It was a touching moment, plus she seems to have softened up a bit where Jesse's concerned. Also, she loves him. We all know it. So there...yeah...Review please and thank you! Saph Oh yeah, and I'm uploading this and watching MX on TV at 11:55 at night...Duuuddeee...