By coloradospace
Jesse looked at Emma, stunned. What was going on? She killed him, or rather his double? She said it was Brennan, but his old pal looked sincere. He then saw a small tear escape Emma's eye and rolling on her cheek. She had her eyes downcast.
"Em…"
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound"
Her soft voice was the only sound that could come to his ears. Jesse didn't notice the sorrowful look on this Brennan's face, nor Lexa's attitude that clearly stated she had other things to do. All air left his lungs at this revelation.
"That saved a wretch like me."
Even Eckhart stopped his little smirk once he heard the psionic singing.
"I once was lost, but now am found"
While singing, other tears where falling, still ever so slowly, but this time they were not only on Emma's cheeks. Jesse's were mirroring his breaking heart, thinking of his own sweet Emma who wouldn't hurt a fly, whereas Brennan's were as transparent as can be, having already shed many tears for his fallen friend.
"Was blind, but now I see."
Shalimar just stared at all of them, all so fixed, eyes glued to the small brunette that had so much power over the men in the room.
"'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear"
Jesse didn't want to hear it. It couldn't be true. But she kept singing, in her own little world. It was as if she was in another place, in another time.
"And grace my fears relieved."
""Why did you do it, Em?" It was just a whisper, something that could be mistaken by the wind if they were outdoors. But Emma never heard Jesse's plea.
"How precious did that grace appear"
She kept singing, and singing, her eyes never meeting the others.
"The hour I first believed."
"When we first arrived at Mutant X, everything was fine." Emma kept singing, but Jesse heard Brennan nonetheless. There was something in his best friend's double's eyes…
"We'd been there for a couple of months already when she was kidnapped by Ashlocke. He did a powerful mind game on her. At first, things were kind of odd when we got her back. We started to fight over nothing, but I knew she held me responsible for not rescuing her sooner. You see, Jess, your double and I went on an undercover mission a couple days prior; the girls didn't know what it was about or how to find us. It took us 2 days to get back when Adam finally contacted us to say Emma was gone. In fact, you're the one who found her, or rather our Jesse. During a big fight, she said I didn't deserve her, and that she was better with him - Jess I mean. He didn't love her that way, so she just killed him. She said if she couldn't have him, no one could."
Brennan's eyes never left Emma's face all through the story.
Brennan paced back and forth at Sanctuary, waiting anxiously for the others to come back. He didn't like being left behind and had a very bad feeling about their current situation. He could feel Emma's emotions mixed with his own; it really was a bad combination. Fear, sorrow, loneliness. Nothing good. Feeling powerless, he finally settled for a quick trip to Naxcon. If he couldn't help finding Adam, he sure as hell would try to find a way to settle things down by finding out how to send Adam back to his Earth… and maybe having the courage to leave himself.
As he drove there, he couldn't help himself but feel responsible for this whole fiasco. After all, it was his powers that opened the dimensional door. Maybe if he had controlled them better, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe if they hadn't pressured Shal to begin with, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe they should have made sure Eckhart was dead when the stasis pods went ballistic and mutants came back to life… Jeez, if he kept thinking like that, he could also think it was Adam's fault for making them mutants, or their parents' for having children!
Brennan was so engrossed in his sombre thoughts he never noticed he arrived at Naxcon, as if guided on autopilot. He never saw the shadow figure hidden in what was left of the lab, waiting for its time to strike.
The silence was beginning to get on Lexa's nerves.
"Come on, Jesse, let's move," she said, tugging at the molecular's shirt to get his attention. He slowly turned his teary head towards her then nodded, slowly, almost imperceptibly.
"I don't think so, Miss Pierce." Eckhart's words reverberated through the office. "You won't go anywhere till I say so." His eyes became smaller by the second if possible. Jesse started trembling as one of his worst fears started taking place. He could already see himself on a lab table being picked and probed, cut open with no care in the world from his tormentors.
In one swift motion, Shalimar took hold of a still violently shaking Jesse, helping Lexa in the process.
"We're all in this together, whether we like it or not," she stated, looking at Eckhart without blinking. "We all have to go back to our worlds in order to make things right, even though I would love to kick your sorry ass to Stasis Kingdom for what you are, Lex!" she continued, glaring intensely, eyes turning feral.
That seemed to help Brennan realise the situation they were in for he knocked Emma unconscious and threatened Mason not to say a word with just a look. Everything happened so fast Lexa hadn't had time to process what exactly just happened, save for being threatened and curiously helped… by the same people.
tbc...
