Chapter 20: The Body Snatcher
"Jess you can do it, just mass and he can't blast you. If he hits you then he could control you too." He set me down on the couch but I was feeling better now and got up. "We need to trap him, and then figure out how to get this mutant out of him."
Shalimar and Lexa came running in and stopped a few feet from us, "he's in Adam's lab with the doors locked, we can't let him get into the system," Shalimar said looking at us.
Lexa put her arms up as if to stretch but instead knocked Shalimar out with her elbow then fired at laser towards us,
"Mass!" I yelled getting behind Jesse as he did so. "What the hell! Now he's got Lexa…" Looking down Shalimar was clearly going to be out for a while.
"Hold on..." Jesse instructed and I felt my stomach sink as he phased us through the floor to the bottom floor of Sanctuary.
"Ugg..if I didn't think I was going to barf before I sure do now…" Clutching my stomach we started running to the control room.
"Wait…where's Brennan?"
Jesse cursed before answering, "he said he was meeting a friend and wouldn't be back until tonight."
I sighed knowing we could really use him right then. "Do you have a plan? Please tell me you have a plan…" My ears picked up on the sound of Lexa's shoes against the floor coming our way so I sped up the pace as we just kept running.
"Well he's in Adam's lab so he can't control the computers or Sanctuary much from there…I'm betting that he set off the alarms while trying to access Adam's files from in the lab. The only thing we need to worry about right now is not getting killed by Lexa; once we take care of her then we can go after Jeremy…er...the mutant."
We turned a corner and waited, "ok…I'll take care of Lex; I just need you to watch my back for me."
Looking up I saw the pipe lines that went through Sanctuary, jumping up I was able to get a grip on one and pull myself up…I'd wait till Lexa was right under me then attack before she could fire. When I saw her coming I got prepared with eyes flashed ready to kick some butt. To my surprise Jesse jumped out into the hallway to get her attention, I almost gave myself away to yell at his stupidity. However it worked and Lexa came down the hall firing at Jesse. I came down on Lexa feet first, knocking her to the ground.
She yelled and attempted to go invisible but my feral eyes could still her clear as day, "that won't work on me Lex" I growled and attempted to hold her down with my body weight and struggled to keep her hands pointed away from me."Lexa! I know you can hear me, you need to fight the control he has over you," part of me didn't want to hurt her so I tried to give her a chance to come through.
Growling…but this time it wasn't coming from me. "Lucy?" She started barking and I turned my head to see she was snarling at Jesse, "damnit Lucy back down!" I commanded but she didn't move from him. "I'm going to take Lexa down and put her in the cell with Adam…seems like a good idea." Lexa squirmed under me trying to get her arms free, "oh the revenge I could have right now…" Sighing I stood up holding her hands to point at her back so she wouldn't be able to fire at me or destroy anything. After putting her in with Adam I ran back up to find both Jesse and Lucy gone; the only person who seemed to not be gone was Shalimar...who was still out cold on the floor when I ran back up in search of Jesse or Lucy.
"Okay Jeremy!" I rose up my arms in defeat, "what do you want, hm? Leave my friends alone and I'll let you have whatever you want."
Looking around I waited for something to happen but nothing did. Giving up I sat down by Shalimar and looked at the clock wondering how long this was going to go on.
My eyes flashed and I got back up to my feet when I saw Jeremy coming down the hall. "Stay back!" I warned and he stopped.
"Val…it's me, he's got Jess now."
My brow rose in suspicion until he fell against the wall and slid to the ground. Rushing to him I felt his head, it burning hot and his shirt was soaked in sweat, "you have a fever."
He cleared his throat, "I missed you..."
My eyes rolled in an automatic response, but shortly after the fact I was glad he didn't see it. "Come on…we gotta cool you down, where is he?"
Jeremy pulled away from me, "Shit" he paused "To kill Adam".
Quickly I got up and was going to go but Jeremy grabbed my foot, "wait! It's too dangerous; if you get him weak he'll just jump into you."
I shook my foot free, "I can't just let him kill Adam." Running as fast as I could to get to the containment area and saw the door was already opened. "STOP!"
Jesse had his hand around Adam's neck; since the host no longer was in Jeremy the psionic effect he had on Adam and Lexa were gone.
"Killing Adam isn't going to solve anything! Samuel ruined your life…not Adam." My feral ears picked up on the sound Lexa; she must have been using her abilities to get closer. The host massed Jesse's arm, tightening the grip around Adam's neck. I could see Lexa about to kick him and held back from attacking him. Surprised by Lexa's sneak attack, Adam fell to the ground and the host in Jesse's body was falling on top of Adam. Then something began emerging from Jesse's back and flew at me.
"MOVE!" Jeremy pushed me out of the way and held up a plastic box sealing it with the mutant inside; "take it" Jeremy said giving it to me before leaning back against the wall, passing out from his fever.
Jesse and Adam took him to lab and we met a confused Shalimar along the way.
"The mutant had worn down Jeremy's immune system by overusing his abilities for such a long period of time," Adam explained while placing cooling packs on his arms, legs and forehead.
"So…how long has this mutant been in him?"
Adam scratched his head for a minute, "My guess is right before or after the plane crash…"
Grabbing a lab chair I sat down by Jeremy and looked over at the box, "Don't worry. He's contained in there and will be destroyed soon. He knows too much about Sanctuary and is a risk to anyone around him."
"And he wanted to kill you," I added.
Adam nodded silently and watched Jeremy's core body temperature starting to drop. I began to realize that all this time Adam was probably under the influence of the host as well. When thinking back I realized one important question hadn't been answered:
"Adam? Who's The Order?"
Adam took a seat, "The Order is…a group of men and woman...not so much like the Dominion, rather its opposite like Genomex. My guess is our mutant here was recruited by them after he obtained Jeremy's body. There really isn't a lot of information on them; all of what I have was from a single source that claimed to work there, she went to the restroom at the place we were meeting…when it took her a long time I decided to go look, she was dead. No doubt in my mind they killed her."
I looked over at Jeremy, "what? Are you saying they might kill him?"
Adam nodded, "but I'm not going to let them, I did a scan of his body and found a device they implanted on his lower back, it contains a poison to be released into his bloodstream at their command."
Looking away from them I tried to make sense of this, "does he know...anything about all this? Wait…of course he doesn't. Are you going to be able to remove it?"
"As soon as his body temperature returns to normal I'll start on it, since we have no idea when they'll release the poison."
I was just glad that Jeremy was still unconscious, there was no telling how he'd react to this, and most likely he'd leave Sanctuary as fast as he could to go after these people.
An alarm scared me awake; I realized that I had fallen asleep in the lab chair while waiting for Adam to get that thing out of Jeremy. Rubbing my eyes Adam came in and raised the lights, "you let me sleep?"
He started washing his hands, "yes, seemed like you needed it."
Getting up I looked at the monitor that read stabilized. Adam started removing the cooling pads and moving Jer flat onto his stomach on a table. "There anything I can do?"
He nodded, "make sure he stays still and use the monitors to tell me if he's stable. I gave him a sedative to keep him out when he started to regain consciousness while you were sleeping."
I took my place and Adam already starting opening Jeremy's back with a laser. Biting my lip my eyes managed to look away to watch the monitors.
"His heart rate is going up…"
Adam said nothing but continued the procedure.
When I looked over I saw the device, it was wrapped around what looked like a vein. 'Oh my god...' I thought- knowing that the slightest misstep could cause him to bleed out. "Can't Jesse phase it out?"
Adam whispered a no in response.
I saw the others standing outside the lab watching us.
"Got it," Adam said holding up the small vile with tweezers.
Looking over I was relieved to see that he had done it and that somehow he managed to slip it through the tangle of veins. He placed the vile on a tray and started moving the veins back in place. Jeremy's heart rate didn't seem to drop back to normal till Adam started healing the opening he made.
"Thanks Adam," I gave him a hug once he had taken off the gloves; hearing him laugh made it worth it since I wasn't too keen into hugs either.
The others came into the lab and we just hanged around waiting for Jeremy to wake up. Jesse and Lexa had left to order pizza, which got the three of us talking when Shalimar told us that Jesse had been planning to propose to Lexa. It was strange hearing that Jesse and Lexa might get married, 'cause I didn't think that Lexa would be able to settle for one guy or any guy that she could really get along with. And if those two were to get married what would that mean for the team? Sure I was being a little selfish with my thoughts but I couldn't help it.
The only thing that broke me from my thoughts was screaming; Shalimar and I took off out of the lab to find Jesse bent down holding a box to Lexa, who must have screamed.
She looked over at us with teary eyes, "Guys…I'm getting married!"
Shal held in a laugh, both of us were just shocked to see Lexa showing so much emotion, something we weren't used to.
"That's great Lex…I think I lost an old bet with Jer."
Shalimar gave Lexa a hug, "we're both happy for you two."
I gave Jess a punch in the arm, "hey! How come I didn't know! Geeze and I share everything with you!"
Jesse rubbed his arm, "yeah…and sometimes I wish you wouldn't share."
I rolled my eyes, "you're just asking to get punched again aren't ya?"
He held up his fist and massed, "believe me…I can punch harder."
Shalimar grabbed me by the arm, "I think we should let these two be alone for a while, don't you think Val?"
"Uh…oh yeah, but don't forget about that pizza, I'm starving."
When we got back to the lab we let him know that it was a false alarm, also that Jesse had proposed to Lexa and they were engaged now. Then we noticed Jeremy had woken up somewhat and told him a little about what had happened. At first he refused to talk unless we told him what Adam had done to him. Part of me was still angry at him for disappearing in the first place, and now I hoped to finally find out why he had done it, well…not now, I would wait a while.
Once the others left the room Jeremy sat up and took my hand, "I made a mistake…back then. Adam and I got into a fight before the mission, and he said something that really made sense…which was that the problems with the team were my fault…the arguing between you and Lexa, you and me and Adam and I. And I left at probably the worst time possible. You were right to slap me, but Val I've changed so much. Before the plane crash I managed to get the life that we had wanted, remember? Come home with me Valerie?"
I squeezed his hand, he knew nothing of what had happened to me since he left and I was beginning to learn how much he had accomplished.
"I can't…I tried living without the action and constant sense of danger. But I can't let you leave again, stay here and be a part of the team. We could use your help and take out this Samuel guy, please? I just don't feel my job with the team is done yet."
I don't think it was possible to do any more convincing….unless…no, that would work but that would be a backup move.
Jeremy looked around then back to me, "I'll stay…but only 'cause you want me to and to be your body guard."
He smiled and I leaned in to whisper in his ear, "You can guard my body anytime baby."
