The Congo

Shalimar and Brennan looked at each other as the jet, set on auto pilot, flies back towards their head quarters, and home. They were going to be stuck out here for a long while and there goes their ticket home. They would have to wait for a while if they got into trouble for the jet to come pick them up.

"So, which way do we head?"

"According to this transmission, we head north east of here."

Shalimar sighed and picked up her bags, and headed in that direction. Sighing, Brennan started after her, carrying his packs similarly. It was hot and humid, they were stuck together, and they had a really bad fight just before leaving. This was not going to be a very fun mission together. But he still couldn't shake an ominous feeling he got as soon as Emma had told them that Adam wanted them. Now that they were in the jungle, it had gotten worse.

"Shalimar, wait up! You're going to fast!"

Brennan had to run up to her as she went through brush on game trails. Mostly pig trails, making it difficult for him to keep up as he had to swim through vegetation. Because he was watching his feet and the bushes, he didn't see that Shalimar was stopped in front of him. Therefore, he rammed right into her back.

"Oof!"

"Shhh! Be quiet Brennan, there's something ahead of us."

"Where, I don't see anything-!"

Brennan fell to his knee after he felt a sharp, needle-like prick on his shoulder. Shalimar whirled around to look at him. Her eyes went wide in surprise, but she said nothing. Instead, she crouched down next to him and gently pressed around the dart. The dart was actually high tech, up to date. The silver gleamed in the sun light shinning through the canopy, or what sunlight that was coming through.

"Brennan, are you all right?"

"I… I think so. My legs just collapsed on me."

At that moment, some mutants leapt out of the brush in front of them and attacked. Shalimar's eyes instantly changed as she started to fight. Brennan at first only dodged attacks and used his fist, but then he was forced to use his powers; which he wasn't able to do.

"Uh, Shalimar…"

"Uh, Shalimar…!"

"Shalimar!"

"What is it Brennan? I'm kind of busy at the moment."

"I can't use my powers. I'm kind of helpless over here."

"Damn it Brennan, I told you to be quiet. Blackblood must've been in that dart."

"Yeah- kind of nice- now that you mention it! But I am fighting a mutant over here to—!"

"Brennan, are you okay?"

She looked to see that one of the other mutants had knocked Brennan clear across the little defrayal. The force had knocked him out. Her eyes shone a little brighter and she went into a berserker-like mode, becoming even faster and stronger than she was. She soon had the enemy at bay, four laying dead in unnatural positions and three knocked out. The other six decided that their necks weren't worth being killed and they grabbed their knocked out buddies and took off. Shalimar immediately went back to normal and ran to the downed Brennan.

"Brennan! Brennan! Talk to me! Are you alright?"

"No… my head feels as if somebody crushed it."

Shalimar bit back a sob, not wanting anyone to see her cry, especially not Brennan. She helped him to his feet and looked around. She thought she heard an echo sound close by while she was fighting. Following her animal-like instincts, she went the direction they told her. She soon found herself at the mouth of a cave with dense brush and vines surrounding it. Just to make sure, she had Brennan sit close to the mouth, but not in it, and went in.

She had found nothing there that indicated that it was occupied, so she helped Brennan in. Once he was settled, she went all the way back to the fight scene and gathered up both of their packs that were dropped in the heat of the moment and took them back to the cave. She started a small fire, not for warmth, but to keep wild animals away, but she herself stayed back some ways from it.

Brennan was pretty close to the fire as he warmed up the water from the canteens, sterilizing it. He then went to Shalimar as she stared silently at the mouth of the cave, as if she was expecting something to come in through there. He touched her shoulder and she jumped a little.

"That's something new. What has all of your attention that I can scare you?"

"Startled, not scared. And it feels as if something is watching us from out there."

"Hmmmm… to tell you the truth, I had a bad feeling about this trip from the moment Lexa told us that Adam wanted us."

"Then why'd you come?"

"I don't know. Duty?"

"How are your powers coming along?"

"I still can't even start a spark. This stuff is pretty strong."

"Do you know how long it lasts…?'

"No… do we still have the intercom?"

"I don't think we grabbed it."

"Damn. How can we contact Adam?"

"No, this mission is important. I will not have Adam cancel it just because I am unable to use my powers. I know the martial arts too Shalimar, we practiced along side each other. We are continuing with this mission Shalimar."

Shalimar whirled on him, pinning him against the cave wall. Her eyes were slightly glowing as she used her powers so that he couldn't escape.

"It's not just you Brennan. I almost lost control today. I haven't done that since Adam gave me that retro-virus. No, wrong. I did lose some control today. I killed four of those men, and nearly three of the others. I couldn't stop myself Brennan! I kept telling myself to stop, but I wouldn't. Don't you understand? I may completely lose control, and it won't just be the enemy who I'll be after."

Brennan could see the pain clearly in her eyes as they dimmed and her grip loosened. His features softened a little as he cupped one side of Shalimar's face in a hand. When that didn't help, he held her face in both hands, forcing her to look at him.

"You won't be alone Shalimar. We'll get through this. Maybe this is part of the reaction to the virus, maybe this is how it works."

Shalimar smiled a little at him. Brennan knew the fear of losing control. After all, that is his biggest fear, to lose control of his gift. He bent his head to hers and kissed. She returned the kiss, both of them going deeper. This was going to be a long night, for the both of them.

The person smiled as it saw the two make up after an obvious fight. Love was always stronger than hate. It brought people closer together. After all, love from its parents had brought this being into existence. And love will take it out when the time was right.

The individual withdrew from the foliage. It is time to find out where those intruders were. They were in its territory and it didn't want them there. They brought noise and disturbance here in this peaceful land. They brought death and loss of homes. They were not supposed to be here.


A/N: Yey! I got the next chappie done. This is wonderful. I had fun doing this chappie, although it was a little hard. I had to look at the character profiles as I wrote it. Anyways, tell me what you think, please. Please r/r. It would make me extremely happy. :;)



Denisse
: Thank you for the complement. I'll try my best to go as fast as I can.

n
: Thankyou, and I'll put in as much Brennan/Shalimar. I couldn't find many Shalimar and Brennan either, that's why I decided to do one. ;;)

The
Night Marauder
: You do? Wow! You've seen everything. You've seen Naruto, Inu Yasha, Mutant X, read TP. Have you read ML too? What else do you know? But I'm glad my ff is helping you out some. I fell in love MX the first time I saw it. And that was a long time ago. And yes, there will be a lot of Brennan/Shalimar fluffiness.

A/N
: Just a question, should I keep it as Lexa and Jesse, or should I change it back to Emma and Jesse? It'll be up to the votes, so please be honest and not do more than one per person.