Genetic, or psionic? At this point, he truly didn't know. All of his genetic work wasn't turning up anything, and Emma's talents were letting them down. Adam Kane needed to turn his attention to other avenues of exploration. There had to be a link somewhere, somehow, and Adam was determined to find it.

The computer was his tool of choice, and Adam was an expert in its use. A quick scan of mutants had turned up three possibilities, all of which Emma had ruled out. Well, she hadn't quite ruled out the St. Legere boy, but Adam could leave him alone for now. Certainly he wasn't affecting Shalimar when Emma had briefly touched his mind, and that suggested that he wasn't involved. Adam would have to look elsewhere for an answer.

Logic was the answer: first, ask the right question. Who was capable of doing this? If it was a who, then it had to be a psionic. Adam didn't kid himself that he had every mutant in his database, but the majority were referenced. He set up his search parameters to pull off every psionic he had.

Better. That left him with something over fifty suspects. Suspects. He hated using that word, but could think of no other. Which one of these would hate Shalimar so much that they would want to destroy her mind? No, not the correct question to ask. Who would hate either Shalimar or himself so much that they would want to destroy her mind? For surely who ever it was would understand that harming the feral would be as devastating to Adam himself as to the young woman who had won his affection. All right, expand the winnowed list to include those who knew either Shalimar or himself. Which left something more than sixty possibles, including the St. Legere boy.

Hah. He could narrow it down by a few more. He'd forgotten to exclude those who were dead or podded by Genomex. No, keep the pods. There was always the possibility that Mason Eckhart had released one by accident or design. Likewise, Adam didn't feel justified in eliminating those with powers too weak to be able to pull something like this off. Powers would change, some weakened and some increased in range and scope—witness his work with his own team—and Adam wouldn't know whose powers had taken a turn for the worse until an incident like this rambled onto the radar. But the psionic mutants who were definitely dead could be ruled out.

Great. Sixty minus three left fifty-seven suspects to explore.

Wait. It wasn't only psionics who could do this. Adam was limiting his search using a false assumption. A simple poison could also affect the feral, and that could be administered by anyone, whether psionic, mutant, or just plain human.

Adam sighed, and started to enter new parameters: who would want to harm Shalimar and/or himself?

The list got a whole lot longer.

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Emma waited until Adam left her alone for a restorative nap before closing her eyes.

Not, however, to sleep. Adam was right, she did need to recuperate from her extended journey on the psionic plane, but Emma was never one to rest when one of her 'family' was in trouble. And Shalimar was clearly in trouble. Her earlier touch of the feral's mind assured her of that. Much more damage to Shalimar's mind, and the girl would never recover. Something was doing this, and although Emma couldn't tell whether it was organic or psionic, she could see the results. Shalimar was being slowly driven insane.

So Emma prepared to go hunting in her own way, to defend the sister who was closer than a blood relation. It took only a moment to find the familiar mind, and to link.

Shalimar was outside, at one with nature and her feral nature, drinking in the smells of the forest around her. Emma could feel no danger around her, nothing menacing. But Shalimar was disturbed, was upset, and Emma delved deeper to determine the cause.

It wasn't hard to find. There was clear damage to Shalimar's higher thought processes. That which kept her human was slowly being eroded away by an outside force. No wonder the feral would go wild, Emma mused. She was being slowly driven insane, using her mutation against her. A touch against this lobe, slight pressure there, and Shalimar would react like a cornered wild animal.

How was this happening? The tendril that Emma had thought that she felt earlier was gone. Had she imagined it? Perhaps this was truly of bio-chemical origin, and she had been wrong to suggest to Adam that it was psionic. She could be wasting valuable time that Adam needed to cure Shalimar. For there was only one end in sight for the feral if this situation went unchecked: madness and death.

Emma now had two tasks to accomplish: one, tell Adam to resume his search for a genetic cure and two, calm Shalimar as much as she was able. Hopefully Emma could keep the feral under control for as long as it took for Adam to come up with a cure. A real cure, not this frantic searching for a mystery psionic on a vengeance mission.

Carefully Emma spread a soothing psychic balm over the damaged areas in Shalimar's mind, isolating the wild thoughts that drove the feral to lash out at her pack members and run. She could feel the tension abate, could feel Shalimar sink to the ground in exhaustion to wait for her team mates to catch up with her. Satisfied, Emma allowed herself to withdraw from Shalimar's mind. And, as Emma had feared, the empath had found no trace of psionic tampering from any other source. The tendril had been imagined.

She tried to get up to go tell Adam that he had been right all along, that Shalimar was suffering from some sort of genetic illness, and that he should resume his work in the lab to come up with a cure. Emma tried to get up. But the exertions from her previous excursion coupled with her recent efforts proved too much for the girl. She never realized when she sank to the carpeted floor and quietly passed out.

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"Hi, guys." Shalimar had a sheepish look on her face. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground, leaning against a rock. The usual ebullience was missing; beneath the exterior there was a very scared feral.

The cliff, however, was still nearby. Only a few dozen yards away. Not close enough for the edge to fall off and take a few unhappy members of Mutant X with it, but still close enough to be seen. And that, as far as Brennan was concerned, was too close.

"Hey, Shal," he said. He stuck out his hand. "Ready to come home?"

"Yeah." Shalimar rose smoothly to her feet. "I feel like an idiot. I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Not your fault," Brennan said. "You didn't ask for this. None of us did. C'mon. Let's go."

But Jesse stopped him. "Brennan, Adam said to trank her."

"Jess, look at her. She's not going to run away. She's okay."

"Right now," Jesse agreed. "Remember what happened before?" He turned back to his 'big sister'. "Shal, I'm really sorry about this, but I think we need to tranquilize you. Just so nothing happens. I promise, Brennan and I will look out for you."

Shalimar made a face, but not, as Brennan feared, the look that suggested her feral nature was about to take over. He held his breath, but Shalimar only asked with a plaintive air, "do you have to?"

Jesse grimaced. "I think so. Adam wouldn't have told us to if he didn't think it was best."

Shalimar sighed. "Okay." She held out her arm. "Where do I get it? The arm? The back? Neck? I've got a bare thigh here."

Jesse stopped Brennan from unlimbering the trank gun. "I think we can take one of the darts and administer it a little more pleasantly, don't you?"

Brennan nodded soberly. As much as he enjoyed kidding Shalimar, the thought of shooting her hurt. Even if it was only a tranquilizer dart. They were team mates. Shalimar had saved his butt more times than he cared to count, and the thought of deliberately picking up a gun and aiming it at her… He wrestled one of the extra darts out of his pack. "You gonna let us do this, Shal?"

Shalimar sighed. "Yeah." And gave a half-smile. "You can come and get me. I won't bite."

"It's not the biting that I'm worried about." But Brennan and Jesse approached the feral cautiously, Brennan with the dart in his hand.

"Now I feel really guilty," Shalimar complained, allowing Brennan to take her gently by the arm. The elemental was clearly afraid that she would suddenly bolt. "I lead you on a wild goose chase up this mountain, and now you get the pleasure of carrying me back with snores echoing through the foothills. You can always trank me later, Brennan," she suggested hopefully. "Then I can walk down the mountain."

"I'll manage." He prepared to stab her with the dart, amazed at how hard it was to do the task himself. It was so much easier from a distance, with the gun. He almost wished that he had. How did doctors and nurses learn to do this?

"No, I really think I want to walk."

Oops. Rising hysteria in her voice. Brennan's stomach tightened uncomfortably. Time to dart her now. He drew his hand back.

Shalimar's own hand flashed out and knocked the dart away. It flew out of his hand and rolled onto the dirt.

But that wasn't all. One leg slammed out in a devastating kick, and Brennan went flying back to land on his backside. Another swoop, and Jesse too went flying.

"Get her!" he yelled.

Brennan scrambled for the dart, for the trank gun, anything. Adam had been right. Trank her from a distance, don't give her a chance to fight back, no matter how calm she appears at the moment. He pulled the gun into position, aimed swiftly, and fired.

Missed.

No, that wasn't fair to his aim. His sight was true, but Shalimar anticipated his actions and ducked with super-human speed. She dodged the dart and took off, escaping. Her path took her dangerously near the cliff, but that didn't bother the feral. Running on the edge was just the adrenaline she craved.

"Shalimar!" Jesse yelled. He ran; he was close enough to intercept her. And he was the only one with the power to hold her safely for as long as it took for Brennan to inject her with the life-saving tranquilizer. He leaped on top of her, grabbed her around her chest, and phased solid. "Brennan! Get the dart!"

Brennan didn't bother looking for the dart that had been kicked out of his hands. He grabbed the final dart in his pocket, pulling it out as fast as he could. There was no time to waste. As soon as Jesse ran out of breath he would be forced to un-phase and then Shalimar would be loose and running.

Shalimar yowled with rage. There was no other word for it; there was nothing human in her cry. She struggled in Jesse's rock hard grasp, trying desperately to escape. But the molecular's arms were too strong to be overcome.

Brennan advanced. Shalimar saw no chance, no way to slip out of Jesse's embrace. There was only one way to escape.

She butted her head against Jesse's. He grunted; it hurt, but in his solid state it hurt her more. He refused to let go.

She butted again, this time not seeking to escape but to set him off balance. It worked; the duo started to topple over.

"Jesse!" Brennan yelled.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Jesse refused to let go as the pair lost their balance. They were too close to the edge of the cliff, and the dirt was too unstable. It gave way. Jesse and Shalimar disappeared off of the cliff in a shower of rocks.

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"Adam! Adam!"

"Brennan!" Adam interrupted his computer search at the panic in the elemental's voice. He scrambled to clink on the link. "What's wrong?"

"It's Shalimar! She went completely wild, and she fell over the cliff! They're both gone!"

"What? Brennan, slow down. Tell me what happened."

"We went to trank her, and she went wild. Jesse grabbed her, intending to keep her steady while I administered the trank, and she took him off the cliff with her!"

"All right." Adam thought swiftly, a cold inferno of fear racing through him. "Are they alive?"

"Shalimar is. She's trapped on a small ledge. I can hear her growling, and I can sometimes see her if I lean over the cliff. She's pacing back and forth."

"Not too far," Adam said, alarmed. "I don't want you falling as well. Jesse?"

"I can't see him, or hear him. He's not answering his comm. But, Adam, Shalimar's gone completely crazy. All she does is growl, like an animal!"

"You still have the trank gun?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid if she goes under, she'll fall off the ledge. It's not very wide, Adam." The elemental paused. "Look, maybe if I go down there, I can get her to calm down, maybe administer the tranquilizer. I can find out what happened to Jesse."

"No!" Adam commanded. "No, we can't risk you falling as well. Stay there until I can come with ropes and pulleys. Just watch, and see if Shalimar will calm down on her own."

"I hope you're coming up with some good news on your end, because over this way it looks pretty bad. You get an antidote yet?"

"I'm getting there, Brennan. I'm getting there." I hope, he added to himself. "Listen to me. Just watch her, and see if you can spot Jesse or contact him on the comm. link. Keep me posted. I'm going to get Emma and we'll come out to help. Just stay calm. We're coming."

Which is when he found Emma collapsed on the floor of her bedroom.

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"Emma!" Adam exclaimed. He hurried to her, helped to get her up onto her bed. It took only moments to determine that the empath was all right but exhausted. "Emma, you have to stop doing this to yourself. You can't help Shalimar if you wear yourself out."

"I'm all right," Emma lied. "I'm just a little tired."

"Hah." There was no fooling Adam. "You went out again, didn't you? Into the psionic planes? Looking for psionics? Or for Shalimar?"

Emma nodded slowly. Her head hurt just to do that much. "I found Shalimar, but I didn't find anything else. Adam, I think you were right in the first place. It has to be something internal, not a psionic. I touched Shalimar's mind, and it was awful! It was like trying to link with an angry lion. It's as if Shalimar wasn't there."

"Her feral nature is taking over," Adam agreed. "But, Emma, I couldn't find anything wrong physically. The blood samples I took all came back normal. It can't be her genetic structure."

"But, how…?" Emma trailed off as a new idea came through. "Maybe it's not a psionic, maybe not even a mutant. It could also be a normal human, giving Shalimar some sort of poison that I haven't been able to trace."

"I came up with the same thought," Adam agreed.

"And that would explain why I was able to calm Shalimar," Emma pushed. Adam raised his eyebrows: when was this? Emma squirmed. "A little while ago. I felt fine," she added quickly. "And Shalimar needed me. I was able to soothe her. I felt it; she was cooperating with Brennan and Jesse."

"Right," Adam said grimly. "She cooperated so well that she took herself and Jesse off a cliff."

"What?"

"Which must have happened right after you got out of her mind," Adam realized. "Whichever it is, psionic or poison, you calmed her enough for the guys to get close to Shalimar. The moment you stopped," and he glared at the girl for extending herself too far, "Shalimar's feral nature took back over and drove Shalimar out of control. Brennan says that she's totally feral. She's worse now. He can't get through to her."

"Then I have to get out there!" Emma exclaimed. "Adam, the closer I am to Shalimar, the easier it will be to get into her mind."

"No. You're in no condition to go anywhere," Adam contradicted. "And furthermore, I don't think it's in anyone's best interests for you to get close to Shalimar at this point. I've been doing some thinking about how Shalimar has been acting. What's the thing that has most often set Shalimar off?"

Emma began to see. She sank into a bed cushions in a smaller heap. "Me. Whenever the guys say something about me, Shalimar loses it."

"Right. Instinctively she knows that you are the one person she can't fool. So if you go waltzing over there, Shalimar is going to leap straight for you and try to tear you limb from limb. Which is why we can't have you going out there. No, we need another plan." Adam began to pace back and forth, turning over idea after idea and discarding them as ineffective or worse. He stopped. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Emma, you rest. When we get Shalimar back here, I'm going to use you to keep her calm so that I can work, but only when we have Shalimar in a controlled environment. That's the only thing I can think of. I'll need more samples if I'm going to go hunting in the dark for whatever poison someone is giving her, and the only way to get those samples—unadulterated by tranquilizers—is to have you work with me. Which means that I need you in top form, not passing out from being over-extended. Hear me?"

"I hear you, Adam. But—"

"No buts. Get some sleep. Now, Emma."

"What about you?"

Adam frowned. "The only thing I can do right now. Brennan needs help to get Shalimar under control." He carefully didn't say anything about Jesse. Was the molecular alive or dead after falling off the cliff face? Adam didn't want to admit the possibility even to himself. "Brennan and I will get them all back here to Sanctuary. Then I'll fix things."

I hope was left unsaid.

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Brennan lay himself flat on the ground, the better to spread his weight over the largest possible area, peering over the edge of the cliff. He could barely see the ledge where Shalimar continued to pace. He looked for the feral, even the slightest glimpse of her. There she was—no, wait. Shalimar leaped effortlessly onto the next ledge over. The second ledge was no wider than the first, but the feral showed no hesitation, landing in the very center as easily as a mountain cat.

Good. It was easier to see her on the second ledge, even though the sight tore at his heart. Shalimar was truly all animal now, growling and sniffing at the various plants and stunted shrubbery that grew into the face of the cliff. Brennan had called to her not ten minutes ago, and she had answered him with a savage snarl, leaping up only to fall short of the top of the cliff. Brennan's heart had been in his mouth as he watched her drop back to the ledge, only relaxing when she arrived safe but furious at being unable to reach her foe. Her mind may have been gone but she still had the reflexes of a cat, landing on her feet every time.

There was nothing remaining of Shalimar, that he could see. The blonde ringlets were now dirty and bedraggled, and she was as likely to go on all fours as to stretch up on her hind paws, sniffing the air for the scent of her prey. Brennan couldn't see, but there was no doubt in his mind that her eyes had gone cat-golden; no humanity left in them.

The tranquilizer gun lay at his feet, ready for use, but Brennan didn't see the point. If he shot her now—assuming he could from this angle—she could easily fall off of the ledge to the valley below and her death.

Shalimar leaped back to the first ledge, disappearing from view for an instant. Then Brennan saw her again, a flicker of dirty blonde hair flying in the wind.

Of Jesse there was still no sign. Once again, as he'd done for the last fifty times over the last hour, he brought his comm. link to his face. "Jesse? You hear me, bro?"

"Brennan?"

Yes! The sound was tremulous, the voice weak, but alive!

Brennan all but pounced on his comm. link. "Jesse! Where are you, man? I can't see you."

"On a ledge. No way up or down." There was a pause. "Shal's here, too." Another pause, longer this time. "She's not looking too good, Brennan."

Neither are you, by the sound of it. But Brennan didn't let that thought come out in the open. "You into a little rock-climbing, Jess? Adam's on his way with some rope, but it'll be a little while. Soon as we have a safety rope, you can crawl up the face of the cliff."

A cough. "Ah, I think I'd better pass on that, Brennan. I'm pretty sure that my leg is broken. Don't think it's gonna work well enough for rock climbing."

Brennan swallowed hard. Great. That meant rappelling down to a narrow ledge, trussing Jesse up with some sort of sling, and hoisting him bodily up the rock face. "Maybe it's only sprained."

"I'd like to think so, but there's some jagged stuff coming out through the skin that looks kind of like bone. Little bit of blood, too." Jesse was working hard to keep cool, that much Brennan could tell.The molecularcontinued, "I'd really appreciate it if you could tell Adam to get a move on. Shalimar's got a funny look in her eye."

"That's her feral look, bro."

"I know. And I'm feeling like the blue plate special."

Brennan went cold. Shalimar wouldn't… She couldn't…But, right now, there was no telling what she was capable of. What he could see of her was sheer animal, pacing back and forth and working herself up into a frenzy. She would blink into his view and then, snarling, stalk out. If he didn't know better, he would say that there was a mountain lion on that ledge. "Jesse, I think you'd better describe very carefully what you see."

There was silence.

"Jesse?"

"Right here, Brennan." If anything, his voice sounded weaker.

"Describe it, bro. I've got Adam on the way."

Sigh. "Two ledges, both approximately twelve yards long but only three or four wide, five at the widest. I've got a boulder and a shallow cave on my side. Shal's got nothing on her ledge. She's open to the wind."

"She's not staying on her side, is she, Jesse?"

"She was here a few minutes ago, but jumped over to where she is now. I don't think she likes being too close to me."

"Right now, that sounds good. I don't think I want her too close to you, not in this state. She look pretty comfy over there?"

Silence.

"Jess?"

"Yeah. I guess. Just…don't take too long, okay, Brennan?"