Thanks for the reviews everyone! It really helps me to know you all enjoy the story. I will keep going.

Emma lay in bed. Every night since the explosion she would run the entire series of events through her mind trying to make sense of how everything went so wrong so fast. She could never make any sense of any of it. Adam hadn't told her everything yet, and she wasn't sure that she even wanted the answer. Adam had so damn many secrets! As she drifted off to sleep the events began to play again..

"Adam!" Emma heard herself yell. "Emma, hold on!" she heard Adam yell back. Then, front out of nowhere, an intense light and horrible explosion and suddenly, she was falling. She woke up with men above her saying that there was nothing they could do. Her ring fell off. She was screaming at the top of her lungs but could not hear herself. She thought she heard Shalimar yelling her name, "Shalimar! I'm here! Shalimar?" but Shalimar did not answer. Then someone covered her face with a sheet. "What the hell is going on?" Emma screamed - again to no avail. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in the back of a van. Her hands were tied and she was lying on the floor. Her head really hurt. She saw Adam lying on the floor of the van next to her. She tried to call out his name but her mouth was tied. She tried to enter his mind using her powers but she couldn't. She somehow knew Eckhart had taken her and Adam. Her memory then slips to an image of Adam standing over her. How? She wondered. I thought we were both caught, she thought to herself. Then she sees Eckhart standing behind Adam asking him how she is doing. Adam is actually talking to him! How? "Adam, Adam why?" But then the man isn't Eckhart at all but someone who looks like him because Emma feels nothing but concern from this man and other genuine feelings. She is so confused. Then, she finds herself lying with Jesse back at Sanctuary. Her heart rate begins to level back out and she feels safe once more. Jesse rolls over and there are tears in his eyes. He asks her softly, "Why, Emma, why did you leave me?" He is crying now. Emma can do nothing but cradle him in her mind. She rocks his mind gently in the comforting cradle of her mind, soothing him, until he eases back into a restless sleep. Emma takes a deep breath and manages to recede back to herself and lay in her cold bed alone. A single tear flows down her cheek as she weeps.

Adam stands in the doorway of Emma's room as he listens to her anguish. He, too, runs the events through his mind on a daily basis.

He knows that they cannot remain separated from the rest of MX for much longer. The Dominion would eventually kill them all. The mole they planted named Lexa was one of the early monstrosities that Eckhart and Breedlove created. They created the mutation in her mother's womb and Lexa was born without a conscience - much like Gabriel became. But Lexa, Lexa was different. She was an early stealth with no morals. She always worked for the highest bidder and right now, that bidder was the Dominion.

Adam walked back to his computer and typed in the address for the database that he had been working from. He looked at the email he had received from Dominique, the self-proclaimed leader of the Dominion. The email was so simple.

"Adam,

This is Dominique. I am certain you remember me. You and Mutant X are finished. The New Mutants can no longer be allowed to exist. The experiment has been called back. You are to report all of your data to Nalcon Industries and hand it over to a man by the name of Maxwell Sand. Bring your Team, Adam. They too are to be extinguished. On Tuesday, you are to report to Novum Island - you know where it is.

Do not violate this order, Adam.

Adam received this email the day of the explosion. He thought that he could find Max and reason with him. But Eckhart must have also received the same emails - but obviously earlier than he did. That is why he was doing what he was doing. He knew that he could no longer wait if the experiments were being called back. Adam thought back to that fateful day. How he found Emma in the van - barely alive - in a psionic state. How he tried to get to the others but got captured instead. Thank God Max came around and helped he and Emma. But the others - she found them back at Sanctuary right after the explosion. They had already injected Brennan at the site and managed to get the others while supposedly treating their injuries. He should have gotten to them sooner! Now the Dominion had all of them. But the worst part was they didn't even know it.

Adam looked at the screen and the serum used to set up the destabilization. He thought back to what Max had told him about Lexa. Adam brought Lexa's email up on the screen again. He noticed the date - exactly one week following the explosion:

Adam,

We know you and Emma DeLauro are not dead. You are to report with her to Novum Island by Dec 1, 2003 at 10AM. You are to turn over your data, Adam. If you do not comply, the rest of your Team will be extinguished one by one starting with Mulwray. This noncompliance will not be tolerated. If you attempt to warn Mutant X in any way, they will all be extinguished immediately!

The cat is in the cradle, Adam.

Lexa.

Dec 1 was exactly one week away. Attached to the email was the formula for the serum. It was almost like a game they were playing with him. Adam knew what he had to do. He had received an email from someone else in the past few days. He brought that one up and read it again:

Adam,

I know you are not dead and by now, you must have figured it out that I am not either. I believe we both staged our deaths quite well - you with slipping your ring to a homeless person - really Adam, that was the best you could do? And I, well, let's just say Mr. Mulwray had the opportunity of a lifetime. We have both hidden ourselves from the Dominion for now, Adam, but it is only a matter of time. We both want the same thing, you know - we want New Mutants to live and the technology to continue - we just want it for different reasons. But, that is no matter right now. Adam, we need each other to defeat the Dominion - you know that as well as I. We are both very busy people and don't have time for games. Contact me, Adam. We really must talk.

Mason

Adam slammed his fist on the laptop and closed its cover.

XXX

Shalimar made her way back to Sanctuary as quickly as possible. She had to tell Jesse and Brennan what she saw.