Thank you for reading I hope you are enjoying my fic!
A special thanks to shfox153, earth-fairy2006, Pand and MadMutant for reviewing!
Author's Note: - Italics is the dreamscape
Chapter Two
"Adam you there?" Jesse raised his hand and spoke into his comlink 'Yes Jesse' he heard him reply a few seconds later.
"We've got a problem, Brennan and Shalimar have been taken" Jesse once again spoke into his comlink 'okay, I want you two back here. I will try and trace them' although Adam tried to sound confident, Jesse could hear the worry in the older man's voice.
"We're on our way" he replied before cutting the connection and looking over at Emma who was staring at him, her eyes full of concern for their missing friends.
They arrived back in sanctuary a short while later and rushed to the lab to find Adam.
"Did you manage to trace them?" Emma asked hopefully.
"No, whoever took them must have removed their rings, what happened out there?" he asked.
"Brennan and Shal went outside to look about, we stayed to keep an eye out, he then called saying a girl was being chased by a group of men, by the time we got outside they had cleared the floor with them, but another two men appeared and shot them both with a tranquiliser gun, we tried to stop them but they had mixed a poison with the sedative. There was nothing we could do but let them be taken" Jesse explained
"Adam. It was a set up, one of the men was psionic I think he had been blocking my ability to read them inside the club, one minute I sensed nothing then I got a hit of the other guy, I sensed anger and hatred, it was especially directed towards Brennan" Emma told them.
"What about him was he a new mutant?" Adam asked.
"No, I don't think so but there was something strangely familiar about him. I mean I have never seen him before but there was just something there I can't explain" Emma replied.
"Well, why don't you two have a look through the mutant database and see if you can id the psionic, while I speak to my friend in the police department and see if he knows anything else that can help"
"Sure" they both replied in unison.
A couple of hours had past, Jesse was looking through the list of psionics that was on there database he still hadn't had any luck finding the guy they were after and fatigue was starting to set in.
"This is no use we are never going to find him" Jesse said to himself out loud spinning round in his chair, he rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair, looking up he noticed Emma fast asleep on one of the lab beds, sighing he stood up and walked over to her, he bent down to wake her so she could go to bed but when he saw how peaceful she looked he decided against it and instead fetched a blanket and gently covered her up before heading over to see if Adam was having any more luck than him.
"Hey, have you found anything?" he asked yawning.
"I have gone over this police files and I can't find anything in them of any use. I have managed to find all of the missing people on the mutant database, one of them is a feral, two are molecular and two are psionic basically I think they were in the wrong place at the wrong time" Adam said while absently flicking through each mutant profile.
"Adam, that's him" Jesse shouted pointing to the screen. Emma was woken by him shouting and jumped up and ran over to join then.
"Are you sure?" Adam asked him while reading the screen.
"Oh Yeah" He replied.
"He's right Adam" Emma agreed.
"Well, his name is Simon Fitzgerald, according to the police report he was the first to go missing, that was two weeks ago" Adam explained.
"He didn't look all that missing to me" Jesse said angrily hitting the counter.
"Calm down Jess, we are all upset but we need to keep a level head" Emma softly spoke "Who reported him missing?"
"His wife" Adam replied pausing to look back at the screen "He has a twin sister, called Isabel, she is a psionic too"
"Lets find her maybe she can help us find him" Jesse said while trying to hide a yawn.
"Jesse go to bed, its late, there isn't anything we can do this late at night, we will go see her tomorrow" Adam ordered.
"But" he tried to argue.
"No buts, you are not going to do Brennan or Shalimar any good in this state, you are exhausted, go and get some rest, both of you" Adam placed a caring hand on Jesse's shoulder as he slowly nodded and headed out the lab and towards his room.
"Adam you need to go get some sleep as well" Emma said noticing how drained Adam looked.
"I will Emma just as soon as I finish up here"
"Okay but don't be too long" she smiled and left the lab to go and try to get some rest although she knew that none of them would get much sleep.
Shalimar woke up and glanced at the clock on her nightstand it read 630am, she then rolled over to face her husband, she couldn't believe how even after being married to and waking up next too Brennan for six years she still never tired of watching him sleep, she smiled and leaned over and softly kissed him, he began to stir and slowly opened his eyes to see her smiling at him.
"Morning handsome" she said leaning forward and kissing him again although this time he returned the kiss rolling over so he was lying on top of her.
"Morning yourself" he said breaking the kiss "did you sleep well?"
"Actually I had this really weird dream, we were both mutants, you could shoot electricity from your hands and I had the speed, senses and agility of a cat, we were part of a team called mutant x who helps other people like ourselves" she explained.
"Shal sweetie you have some imagination, but that is just one of the things I love about you" he told her as he leaned in to kiss her again.
"Oh yeah, so what else do you love about me?" she asked pulling away
"Well let's see" he pretended to be deep in thought "I love your personality, your strength, your beauty, your stubbornness and most of all your body" he said before capturing her lips in a passionate kiss just as things were getting heated they heard there bedroom door being opened.
"Perfect timing as usual" Brennan groaned as he rolled himself off her just in time, as a small boy jumped onto his chest.
"Hey kiddo" Brennan said to his son while rolling over onto his side and tickling him.
"Daddy stop" the young boy tried to say through his laughter "Mommy make daddy stop"
"Oh I don't know it looks like to much fun" she said tickling his other side causing the boy to laugh even more, she suddenly stopped when she felt a wave of nausea hit her and she jumped out the bed and ran to the bathroom.
"Shal, you ok honey?" Brennan asked as he got out of bed picking up their son and following her to the bathroom.
"Yeah, I think I must be coming down with the stomach flu or something I'll be fine" she said from her place at the toilet, before another wave hit her.
"Josh go play in your room and daddy will come get you in a minute" Brennan said putting his son down.
"Okay daddy" he replied running to his room.
Brennan watched his retreating son before turning and walking up and kneeling down next to Shalimar who had her head resting on the bowl, he reached over and felt her forehead "you don't have a fever, do you want me to call the doctor?" he asked.
"No that's okay, let's wait see how I feel later" she replied standing and going over to the sink to wash her face. "Can you get Josh ready for me; I don't want him being late for Pre School?"
"Sure, you go back to bed and I'll bring you some water" he said as he headed out the bathroom.
"Thanks, Bren"
Brennan was in the kitchen making breakfast when Shalimar entered dressed for work, she sat down at the table next to Josh who was eating a bowl of cereal.
"Are you feeling better baby, you hungry?"
"No, I think I'll just have some water, I can always get something to eat in work later once my stomach settles"
"Okay, you sure you're well enough to go to work? I could always phone your boss and tell him you won't be in today"
"That's okay Bren, it's only an upset stomach I'll live" she smiled as he handed her a glass of water. "Thanks honey"
"No problem" he said kissing the top of her head.
"Oh, Brennan my dad is picking Josh up from school. I'm going to Jen's straight from work, she is still taking Bryan leaving pretty hard so I thought I would try and cheer her up"
"That's fine, I will see you when you get in then, try not to be too late, I want to finish what we started this morning" he smiled leaning down to kiss her. He then turned to look at Josh "Be a good boy at school and I will bring you home a surprise" Brennan told him as he kissed the top of his head.
"I will daddy. Love you"
"I love you too, kiddo" he turned to Shalimar and kissed her again "and I love you"
"Get out of here before you are late for work" she said laughing "Brennan?" seeing him look back "I love you" he laughed and headed out the door.
Emma walked into the kitchen of sanctuary to find Jesse sitting staring into a cup of coffee "Morning did you get any sleep?" she asked sitting down next to him.
"Not really, I dozed off a couple of times but I couldn't get the images of Brennan and Shalimar lying helplessly on the ground out of my head. We should have done more Emma, why did we let them be taken?"
"Jess, there was nothing we could have done, so there is no point beating ourselves up, lets just concentrate on getting them back" Emma tried to hide her own guilt knowing one of them had to stay strong although she was finding it hard to block out the feelings of guilt and worry that Jesse was sending of in waves. She decided it was best not to tell him that she had tried a number of times throughout the night to get a hit off either Brennan or Shalimar and had got nothing, she was herself starting to fear that maybe they were already to late. Pushing all her thoughts aside she continued "Adam managed to find an address for Isabel Fitzgerald so let's go see if she knows where we can find her brother" Jesse nodded and they both headed to the helix.
They arrived at the apartment and knocked on the door but there was no answer.
"Jess, phase the door I can sense someone is home"
"No problem" Jesse took a deep breath and touched the door allowing himself and Emma to enter the apartment, at first they seen no one then Isabel appeared out of the bedroom.
"Who are you, how did you get in here?" she shouted angrily
"My Name is Emma and this is Jesse we wanted to ask you about your brother"
"Simon I haven't seen him in months"
"I know you are lying" Emma aimed a psionic blast "Should we start this again?"
"So you two are new mutants? Well two can play at that game" she too aimed a psionic blast "What do you want with my brother?"
"Look we aren't going to hurt you, your brother kidnapped two of our friends last night we just want them back" Emma explained lowering her defences and the psiblast vanished.
"I don't know where he is, I last saw him two days ago, he came here with a friend of his and asked me to join them. He said they were working with a secret agency to take down some dangerous mutants who were out of control" Isabel also allowed her psiblast to vanish after sensing that they were telling the truth about not being a threat to her.
"Do you know who his friend is?" Jesse asked speaking for the first time
"He said his name was Jefferson Eckhart. I didn't get a good vibe from him, which is why I turned them down"
"Eckhart" Jesse and Emma said in unison looking at each other.
"Yes, do you know him?"
"We don't know this Jefferson but we did know another guy called Mason Eckhart not a nice person although he is dead now" Jesse explained.
"That was his father; he said that the four mutants who killed him were top of the new mutant wanted list"
"Oh great! Just what we need another Eckhart out there" Jesse mumbled.
"Look I know you don't know us but we could really use your help to get our friends back. You said you got a bad vibe from him was there anything in particular, something that could maybe help us?" Emma asked
"Not really, I mean they never said much. I have always been able to judge pretty early on what a person is like, it is part of my gift and let's just say there was nothing good about him he was full of rage and hatred. He really freaked me out. I don't think he was very happy that I turned him down but Simon is pretty protective and told me I should think their offer over and he would come back and see me in a few days"
"What mutant power does Simon have?" Emma asked
"He is a psionic, with the ability to enter someone's subconscious and create a new reality for them a dreamscape of sorts, they remain unconscious but don't realise it, as far as they are aware they are wide awake and in the real world" she explained
"That doesn't sound too bad" Jesse said
"There is a down side of it" Isabel told them
"How did I know you were going to say that?"
"Simon doesn't have any control of what happens after he creates it, in a way it acts like the real world, but anything that happens in the dreamscape affects the person's body as though it actually happened for real"
"So we just have to hope the reality he created for them is nice and peaceful" Jesse asked
"It doesn't work like that, you see it doesn't matter what he created for your friends, they are still in danger. The mind is such a fragile thing, even though they will not realise it isn't real, deep down in there subconscious they will know something isn't right causing them to attack the dreamscape I have seen it before" she tried to explain.
"How do they attack it, do you mean they can get out themselves?" Emma asked not quite understanding what she was being told.
"No, it takes a psionic to release them from the dreamscape, I'm sorry this is quite hard to explain, as far as I know Simon has only done it once before to three of our friends, a party trick or so we all thought until two of them died I managed to get the third out just in time" she told them fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.
"What happened to them?" Emma asked putting an arm around Isabel trying to comfort her she could sense the sorrow she was feeling.
"Simon created a mountain climbing scene for them, it was going great and they were all having fun until the rope connecting them snapped and they fell I managed to enter the dreamscape and grab onto one of them but it was too late to save the others"
"I don't understand how they died though if it is all just a type of dream" Jesse asked
"Their minds believed it was real so their bodies reacted to the trauma, they looked just like they would have if they had fallen it was awful, Simon was never the same after that he hates his new mutant ability now in fact he hates all mutants" she sobbed.
"Are you sure that this wasn't just a coincidence, I mean how do you know all dreamscapes will end in the person dying?" Jesse asked.
"I don't, not for sure but I don't think you want to bet your friends lives on it"
"Would you be willing to help us get our friends back?" He asked
"I don't know what I can do?"
"Come back with us and speak with Adam he is our boss of sorts, we can sort out where we go from here. You said Simon was going to contact you in a couple of days maybe we can use that as a way to find our friends"
"Okay, I'll help I don't want to see anyone else hurt"
The three of them headed to the helix and made there way back, they used the visual cloak on Isabel to prevent her knowing the location of sanctuary. Once inside they removed the cloak and headed to the lab to fill Adam in.
"Hi, my name is Adam Kane, you must be Isabel"
"Yeah, your home is amazing" Isabel said still in awe of the size sanctuary.
"Thank you, now what have you found out?" he asked looking at Jesse and Emma.
"Adam you aren't going to believe who is behind this, his name is Jefferson Eckhart, did you know Eckhart had a son?" Jesse replied.
"Actually I didn't he never mentioned anything about his family" Adam was shocked he knew that Eckhart never talked about his personal life but he had just assumed it was because he didn't have one. Jesse, Emma and Isabel filled Adam in on everything they had discussed with each other back at Isabel's apartment.
"Well now we just have to wait on Simon contacting Isabel and hope Brennan and Shalimar can hold out, Isabel are you sure you are okay with pretending to join their team?" Adam asked
"Yeah, I really don't see any other way"
"Won't Simon be able to tell you are faking?" Jesse asked.
"No he has never been able to read me just as I can't read him, we never understood why"
"Just remember Jesse and I will be there to back you up if you need it" Emma said
They all stayed silent knowing the next few days were going to be long and they prayed that Brennan and Shalimar would be able to hold out until they got to them.
TBC