Chapter 9.
Shalimar raced into the empty house and frantically searched for the ring that would give her all the answers that she needed. Damn you Adam. Damn you. Finally she found it attached to the back of the television linking the DVD and VCR cords together. What the hell were you trying to do Jesse?
Now how the hell do you work this thing? She thought as she turned the ring over and over in her hands trying to figure out its secret. Two hours later she finally gave up and sat down on the floor facing the front door like a parent who is waiting for their errant child to come home well after curfew. She sat there, not moving a muscle, just waiting for the others to come back.
A couple of hours passed before the door opened and Lexa came into the house dripping wet with an annoyed expression as she noticed Jesse wasn't there.
"Aagghh! Where is he!" she asked exasperated. Shalimar shrugged her shoulders as Lexa plopped down on the floor next to her.
"Lexa what do you remember?" she asked quietly after they had sat there for thirty minutes in total silence. She watched as the dark haired woman bit her lip slightly before replying.
"I remember everything. But it's odd. Some of my memories overlap others. Some take place at the same time as something else. For example I know I gave birth on Halloween to Iain. However I also have a memory that tells me that on Halloween we were dealing with some kind of persuasive mutant."
Shalimar nodded. "I remember being seven months pregnant at that time but I also remember the girl entering through Brennan's mind and us having to protect him from himself. It's so odd. I don't know what's really real and what's not. I can't quite separate the fact from the fiction." She shook her head as if the motion could somehow force the fake memories to just go away. "All I know is that on Christmas Day I gave birth to a baby girl we named Emma and then a few months later Adam stole her from me. He more than stole her really. He erased her. I hope we never find Adam, Lexa. I'll kill him."
Lexa stole a glance at the blonde to see whether or not she was joking but when her mind registered the other girl's honest loathing of Adam she realized she felt the same way. "You're right Shalimar. Adam had no right to try and play God."
They leaned in to each other for support and waited for the other two to arrive home. Which they promptly did at midnight. But before either Jesse or Brennan could get out a single word Shalimar threw the ring at Jesse and said three words.
"Make it work."
"Now" added Lexa.
Jesse nodded noting the anger in both girls and opened his mouth to say something but when Brennan elbowed him in the side and motioned at Shalimar's expression he changed his mind and set out to get the message out of the ring. Shalimar was very angry. In fact the word angry didn't really apply anymore. She was a feral whose child had been taken away. Not a good situation.
Deep in his mind he fought with himself. Adam is going to have to apologize to her in a major way when we find him. Find him! Ha! You better hope Shalimar never finds Adam or all you'll ever find afterwards are pieces. Remember the special on Channel 13 last month where they took the lion's cub to show how protective, paternal and territorial they are? That is what a feral is and that is what she will do to Adam.
As Jesse ran a pin over the inside of the ring suddenly there was a flash of blue light and once again there was a hologram of Adam. Behind him on the bed you could see two children sleeping peacefully; a blonde haired little boy who looked a few months shy of a year old and a curly dark haired girl next to him who appeared to be a few months younger than him.
Shalimar felt her eyes tear up a bit and she felt like she was about to weep as she realized all the time that she had lost with her precious Emma she couldn't get back. I have probably missed her first steps by now. Suddenly she felt a weight on her shoulders and glanced to the side to see Brennan had come to sit next to her on the floor and had slung his arm over her shoulders.
"By now you all have most likely remembered the majority of what was suppressed." the holographic version of Adam said. "I imagine that Shalimar along with the rest of you are very angry at me but please hear me out. When I preformed a regular checkup on both Iain and Emma I also ran a test to see what their powers would manifest as in order to help them learn to control it at a young age. That's when I found that not only do both of the children have combination powers but the age expectancy gene was dormant. I immediately became concerned for their welfare. Lexa if your old bosses or if anyone from the old GSA found out about this they would have, for lack of a better word, harvested your children's DNA. Then I was informed by an old collegue of mine that the government was considering rebuilding the GSA with a large amount of government funding in order to catch us. Whom they had labeled as rogue experiments. With the children all of you had changed in the ways you would go on missions. You were all more reserved, careful, but sometimes you would refuse. Like Shalimar. You hadn't gone on a single mission since Emma was born until tonight. Tonight I realized what must be done. In order for you all to survive I must take away what is holding you back. I had to take away Iain and Emma. So I sent you all out on a fake mission in order to hide the two with families in the underground. Only there was another problem. My informant contacted me again just as I was about to leave. They knew about the children and their DNA and now they were looking for them. My informant told me their bosses were so desperate to find them that they would go as wide scale as another slaughter of the innocents practically. So then I knew I couldn't hide the children in this time. So I went to another old friend. One who helped me track Shalimar down in the beginning."
"Amara." Shalimar breathed her voice slightly choked.
The hologram Adam continued, "Together she and I went to the past. Twenty years ago to be
precise and placed them in families where I knew they would be safe. I purposely placed them in different families in case something should happen and they found out I sent the babies into the past then I wanted to make it more difficult for them to find Emma and Iain. I even left my younger self a note to watch these two children grow up but to never interfere or go near them unless absolutely necessary. I am sorry. But it was necessary. If you turn on Brennan's old ring it will give you the very latest information on where to find your children. Remember though. I sent them into the past far enough back so that the GSA wouldn't be suspicious of them. I'm sorry but they are most likely not even children anymore." and with that the hologram blinked out and the four sat there stupidly until Brennan took his ring off of the chain he wore around his neck.
"Good thing we all kept our comm rings." Lexa said to try to lighten the mood.
Jesse forced a small laugh, "Yeah."
He took the ring from Brennan and pushed the small button hole with the pen and watched as Adam popped up again this time with the background of the hideout they had finally found him in right before he was taken by The Creator.
"Alright. Today is June 3rd of 2004. I sent both Iain and Emma back to June 17th of 1983. They are going to turn 21 on their respective birthdays this year. Both of their families were explained to the majority of the reasons why I had to send them into the past. They were instructed to tell both Iain and Emma these facts when they turned eighteen. Among those facts are that they do belong in the future and a copy of your pictures so they will know who you are when you come for them. Over their years I have managed to keep their powers dormant by a sub-durmal govenor chip attached to their back of their necks. I inserted it beneath the skin in order to keep up appearences. Pressing the button on Lexa's ring will deactivate them. I recommend doing this when they have already accepted the past and are hopefully living with you all so you can train them on how to control their powers. And on a rather interesting note when Emma's foster family sent her to the local community college a year ago she met Iain who was there just hanging out with some friends. They immediately were attracted to each other and are now married." A panel in the hologram behind him beeped, "Intruder Alert." The holographic Adam laughed, "Well speak of the devils. Here you all come to save me. Well I had better hurry up and give you the last few pieces of information. The foster families are expecting you. They will arrange a get together with Iain and Emma in a comfort zone for Emma so she doesn't get too emotional or stressed. Oh yeah, Iain and Emma are expecting their first child, a girl, who is to be born around Thanksgiving of this year so try not to upset her too much and don't give her her powers back until after the birth. You all are at the front gates so I have to go. I've uploaded the names and addresses of the foster families into all four rings. Be careful...you must press them in perfect synch in order for the names and addresses to show up and you don't want to mess up and accidentally deactivate the governor chips. Good luck. I'm sorry." and with that the Adam hologram disappeared.
Continued in Chapter 10...