LUNG
"You can take the ice away," Dr. Robinson directed. "His fever is down. We don't want him getting too cold."
"Second that," Jesse echoed, his teeth chattering. His cheeks still held an unnatural redness against the pale skin and his hair was damp with sweat. Lexa smoothed the hair out of his eyes, readjusting the oxygen mask against his face and pulling the blankets up around his chin. He struggled to take a deep breath, coughing. "Shalimar? Thanks. I know how hard that was for you. I'm sorry I did that to you."
"Hush," she said, crawling to her feet. The room swayed, and she felt strong arms around her. She didn't need sight to know that it was Brennan. Only one man was that tall, and felt that good. She steadied herself, determined to open her eyes and see for herself that her little brother was still there on the bio-bed. "No more, okay? No more fevers."
"Deal," Jesse whispered, closing his eyes. "I'm tired of feeling this bad. It still hurts my chest," he complained. "I thought I was better." He coughed, cringing as the movement pulled on unhealed flesh.
"You'll feel better soon," Dr. Robinson promised, emptying the contents of a syringe into the intravenous. "Just relax, and take some deep breaths of the oxygen."
Lexa jerked her head up in alarm. The doctor didn't sound convinced of her own words, and Lexa could see the frown on the empath's face. "Doctor?"
The doctor shook her head at Lexa ever so slightly, waiting until her patient had drifted off to sleep before pulling them away. Jesse's breathing steadied, in and out, the sound rattling in the back of his throat as he struggled to pull in enough oxygen to sustain himself.
By then the other two had picked up on it.
"Well?" Brennan kept his voice down so as not to wake Jesse, but the demand was urgent. "What's wrong?"
The frown got more pronounced. "Jesse isn't responding the way he should to the antibiotics," Dr. Robinson informed them. "The last scan showed definite increases in the massed lung tissue, and the pneumonia is expanding along with it. He should be doing much better by now."
"Why isn't he?" Lexa wanted to know, anger covering the fear in her voice. "We've been helping him. We helped him clear out the massing in his heart, and his fever is gone. Why isn't he better?"
"You've bought him some time," Dr. Robinson said bluntly. "If the three of you hadn't done what you did, Jesse would be dead by now. But there's still some uncontrolled massing going on in the area that was originally affected by the bullet containing the proton coupler." She glanced over at her patient; the man was motionless, only the shallow rise and fall of his chest betraying that life still existed within. That, and the incessant hiss of the oxygen mask covering his face as well as the hushed beeping of the heart monitor above his head. "That massing will continue unless stopped. It's still affecting his lung."
"Which means one more excursion inside Jesse's warped brain," Brennan said grimly. "Let's get to it."
"I am not happy about putting you back there," Robinson warned, equally as grim. "Whether or not you chose to acknowledge it, each journey you make takes its toll on your own strength. Brennan, you were almost killed the first time when Jesse was ready to fall into the pit of lava. Lexa, you could have perished in the ice and snow and Shalimar, had you not dealt with the flames you would have died when Jesse did of brain dysfunction secondary to excessively high body temperature from his fever. Your brain, Shalimar, would have been cooked along with Jesse's. All three of you are not fit to do this final task. All four of you could die very easily if you attempt to help Jesse one more time. You all need to rest before attempting it again. This is not something to take lightly."
Brennan nodded. He knew he was wiped, and one look at Shalimar and Lexa convinced him that the doctor was right. He knew from experience how dangerous this was. "All right. One hour. Everybody rest, and we'll meet back here in an hour ready to go. Plan?"
It would have been a plan, but for one things: the monitors. One beeped, then another. Dr. Robinson looked up in alarm. "Jesse?"
"What's happening?" Shalimar bounced to her feet.
"It's Jesse! He's stopped breathing!" Robinson moved swiftly. "I'll intubate him. You three rest. If he's still alive in an hour, I'll send you in."
"No, doc." Brennan stopped her. "We go in now."
Dr. Robinson shook her head. "The massing is progressing more swiftly. It's too dangerous. You all need to regain your strength before attempting this. If he's still alive in one hour—"
Brennan set his jaw. "That man took a bullet for me."
"He's saved me more times than I can count," Shalimar added.
Lexa bit her lip, and looked away.
"Lexa?" Robinson's voice was soft.
"I'm not going with you, Jesse."
Jesse turned, shocked. "What?"
"We're different, Jesse." Lexa bit her lip. "You know, when I was a kid, all I could think about was taking care of my brother. Everything I did, working for Genomex, for Adam, the Dominion, everything was to save Leo. And I screwed it up."
Jesse understood. "Look, when I first came here I was messed up, too. The last thing I thought I wanted was to join a bunch of freaks in a cave. But once I was in, I found something that I could never find on the outside. For the first time in my life, I fit in. You're a part of that now."
"I'm a part of this now." Lexa lifted her chin. "Put me in."
It was clearly against her better judgment, but: "Hurry," was all Dr. Robinson said.
White water dashed by in a swiftly flowing river. Jagged rocks stuck blackly up above the frothy crests, the waves etching at the banks and dragging clumps of dirt away from the nests of tree roots on the edge. It was cold; the water was flowing high up on the mountainside.
Brennan took in all of this in an instant: the sun meager in the cool air, the water spray dancing up to mist onto his face, heavy clouds above sailing in to block whatever light was available this time of year in Jesse's mind. He pulled back; as an elemental specializing in electricity, water was his enemy. One spark, and it would flow through the liquid to electrocute anyone and everyone in its path including a certain New Mutant he saw in the mirror every day when he shaved. Makes a guy real careful not to snap his fingers in the shower.
A shout alerted him: Shalimar and Lexa were high up on a cliff, nearly half a mile away upstream. Lexa was jumping up and down, trying to get his attention, waving and pointing at something in the river. Shalimar was taking the short way down the cliff by leaping from scant ledge to rock hold, but even that was taking a long time. The holds were tiny, and one false move would end up in Shalimar taking an unexpected and fatal plunge to the watery rocks below. Despite the danger, she was hurrying. There was a canoe on the water's edge that they could use to get to whatever Lexa was pointing at in the middle of the white water expanse. In a flash, Lexa used her powers to produce a laser pointer, targeting what she wanted Brennan to see.
Brennan looked: in the middle of the raging torrents was a dark figure clutching at the rocks, trying to keep from being swept away. Even as Brennan watched, Jesse's hands were ripped from the sharp boulder and the current carried him another several yards, bumping and jolting him against more immense stones before he could grab onto another slender handhold.
There was no time for thought. Any moment Jesse would lose his precarious grasp and go spinning down the white river to oblivion and death. For that was what this was: just as the pneumonia was choking Jesse's lungs, so did this river threaten to pull him under and drown.
There truly was no time for thought. The water wouldn't harm the elemental as long as he refrained from using his powers. Brennan dove head first into the white water, knifing cleanly through the cold, heading for his teammate.
He surfaced, shook the wet hair out of his eyes and looked around. Good: Jesse was only a few yards away, clinging to an immense boulder, eyes closed against the white water spray. Brennan let the current carry him closer.
The elemental almost missed him. The swift water tried to drag him past, but Brennan reached out with one long arm. He couldn't grasp Jesse's rock, but he snagged a boulder not two yards downstream.
"Jesse!" he yelled. "Jesse!"
The molecular opened his eyes blearily. It took him far too long to recognize who was calling to him. "Brennan? What are you doing here?"
"Saving your life," Brennan yelled back.
"You're wasting your time," Jesse said hoarsely. "It's the end."
"Not a chance, bro. This is only water, not hot lava. You can swim, I can swim. Just let the current bring you to me. I'll get you out of this."
"I can't."
"Yes, you can," Brennan encouraged. "Don't you remember? You phased the Helix. You've beaten back Genomex's goons more than a dozen times. You can do it again, bro. This is no different."
"Brennan, just let me go…"
"Jesse, I won't let you quit! Let go of the damn rock and get your ass over here!"
Jesse crumbled into the raging currents, releasing his hold on the boulder and tumbling head over heels in the water. It wasn't clear whether he had let go or been torn away by the force of the rushing river, but Brennan wasn't about to quibble. He barely managed to snag Jesse's shirt and dragged him into a fierce bear hug.
"I've got you," he yelled. "Hang on!"
The man's body felt desperately cold in Brennan's grasp, colder than even the river water around them. Okay, now what? This bad a nightmare, this river could only end up in a waterfall to be dashed on more rocks below. There was nothing else that Brennan could imagine from Jesse's mind. Brennan clutched him closer, trying to share whatever body heat that wasn't stolen away by the river.
Okay. Now what?
What came in the form of two women poling a canoe down the river, shoving against the boulders to keep the craft from knocking up against the rocks and being torn to pieces.
"Brennan!" Shalimar yelled, pushing the boat away from the jagged edge of a particularly large outcropping of river rock.
"Over here!" Brennan yelled back, as if they couldn't see him.
"Grab on!" Lexa hollered. "We'll bring the boat as close as we can!"
It wasn't easy. The current kept shifting not entirely in keeping with the laws of physics—"Get it together, Kilmartin!" Lexa grumbled—but Shalimar stuck out her pole to Brennan who grabbed onto it as if his life depended on it.
It did.
The boat banged up against one of the rocks, taking the men along, battering them both. Lexa abandoned all pretense at keeping the boat away from the boulders and concentrated on hauling Jesse's limp form into the meager protection of the canoe.
Thunderclouds rolled in. A flicker of lightning danced above their heads, and Brennan looked up in alarm. This may have been Jesse's nightmare, but the molecular was doing a good job of tapping into the elemental's worst fear: electrocution. And Brennan, as an electrical mutant, was a lightning rod for electricity.
Parboiled Mulwray, anyone?
A blast of thunder rumbled, the sound almost lost in the onrushing water. Another crackle of lightning. Panic-stricken, Brennan pushed off from one of the passing boulders and heaved himself into the canoe, all but toppling the unsteady craft.
"Down!" Shalimar commanded, meaning to increase the weight in the bottom of the canoe to stabilize it. Brennan gracelessly flopped onto the wet surface, mist floating over to join he and Jesse in creating a puddle in the boat. A wave crested over the bow, drenching them.
"We have to get to the shore!" Lexa shouted. "It's not safe on the water!"
That much was obvious. Another lightning strike lashed out, diverted from the elemental only by the tree branch that stretched too far out over the water. The stench of burning wood filled the air. The branch toppled into the water to be swept away by the swirling water.
"Get down!" Shalimar shoved Brennan further onto the floor of the canoe, heedless that he was already as flat as he could go. It didn't matter. Brennan's fingers were tingling with the aura of electrons dancing in the air, ready to be charged into a single devastating bolt, the electricity searching for a way to connect the natural circuit with the elemental. Thunder boomed out, and then lightning. It struck the canoe, flinging Lexa backward from her position at the bow and nearly overboard. She cried out.
Then Brennan realized what he had to do. This may have been a nightmare, a horrible figment of Jesse's imagination, but Jesse knew very well that the one thing guaranteed to put Mrs. Mulwray's little boy into a panic was the thought of electrocution. And since Jesse was obliquely trying to save his teammates by getting them out of his mind…
It all made a warped kind of sense. In the ice storm, by getting Lexa to leave the others behind, she had succeeded in rescuing Jesse. For Shalimar he had played on the feral's fear of fire. Now, for Brennan: electrocution, the very power that the elemental controlled and feared being controlled by.
It was all a matter of trust. They all trusted Jesse, but did he know that? Did the molecular trust himself enough to feel himself worthy of their trust? Each member of Mutant X had their own fears, their own night terrors, but Jesse's inner doubts tended to run closer to the surface. There was always that little niggling doubt as to whether he was good enough, whether he would measure up to their expectations, the constant need to prove himself not to the others but to himself. And here it was again:
Do you trust me to not let you die?
Yeah, bro. I do.
Slowly, balancing against the wild rocking of the canoe, Brennan stood up.
"What are you doing?" Shalimar screamed at him. "Brennan, get down!"
That was so not going to happen, but Brennan couldn't spare the concentration to tell her that. He caught one quick glimpse of Jesse's wild-eyed stare, watching his every move, fear and self-doubt running rampant. Brennan braced his feet against the sides of the boat, and raised his arms.
The storm responded. Lightning struck one hand, surged through his chest, and flashed out the other side back up into the sky in a giant electrical circuit. The fury of the excited electrons lit up the sky better than anything Lexa could have put out. The world dissolved into a great white light…