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Disclaimer: I do not own the Mutant X characters. However, all of the children are mine. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only. No profit was, is or ever will made. No infringement intended.
Time Jump
Chapter One
“Adam,” Cristina’s voice rang through out Sanctuary startling Adam and Emma. Adam jumped, while Emma just started laughing. Adam shot his girlfriend a look before answering.
“Yeah, Cristina.”
“We got him and are bringing him in now.”
“Alright. Did everything go as planed?”
“For the most part Adam. The G.S.A (Genetic Security Agency) beat us there but we stopped them.” Shalimar jumped in before Cristina could answer.
Emma looked at Adam and was just about to answer when they heard a groan over the line.
“What was that?” Emma asked concerned.
“That was Brennan.” Jesse said agitated and then to Brennan he said “Stop moving.”
Brennan looked at Jesse with a look that made him believe that if Brennan could move his right arm he would have strangled him.
“Hellooo. What’s going on? What happened to Brennan?” Adam’s voice came over the com-link worried and slightly peeved that nobody was telling him what was going on.
“Brennan fell during the fight and got over powered by some G.S.A agents. We think his arm is broken and his shoulder is dislocated. He’s also got some cuts and bruises.” Cristina said looking over at Brennan as Jesse tried once again to clean the cuts on Brennan’s face and arms but Brennan wasn’t going for any of it. Jesse finally gave up and looked at Shalimar.
To Shal he said, “Will you come and clean your boyfriends cuts please. He’ll behave for you.” And then to Adam he said, “We should be there in about 15.”
Adam answered “Alright, I’ll get everything ready for Brennan. By the way how’s the new mutant?”
“He’s fine, but I was a little too zealous. I knocked him out.”
Adam smiled to nobody in particular. “That’s alright Cristy. See you when you guys get here.”
“K, bye.” With that she turned off the com-link and looked over to her boyfriend and sighed, her face loosing some of its usual brightness.
Jesse frowned “What’s wrong?”
“Hmmm, nothing I’m just tired. That guy took a lot out of me.”
“You shouldn’t have over done it, hon,” Jesse said giving his telekinetic girlfriend a hug before going to save Brennan who at the moment was being tortured by Shal and obviously in a lot of pain.
“Come on Brennan, just hold still, and stop being such a baby,” Shalimar argued with Brennan.
“No, I won’t hold still, no matter how much I love you that still hurts and I’m not a baby.” Brennan replied defensively through clenched teeth to his girlfriend while trying to get away.
Shalimar frowned and raised her fist like she was going to hit him. Jesse was startled by this and went to stop her before she could hit him but stopped when he saw Shal put her fist down and pulled Brennan into a kiss. Jesse smiled and went back to the front of the Double Helix to help with the landing.
As they landed the man woke up and freaked out. “Where am I” Who are you people? Let me go or else!”
Adam who had joined them a minute earlier with Emma said “ Calm down and we’ll explain everything but right now I need to make sure Brennan’s okay.”
“No let me go!” the man screamed and twisted in Jesse’s grip causing Jesse to wince when he stomped on his toe.
This time Emma tried to get through to the man. “Nobody’s going to hurt you. We want to help you. What’s your name?”
The man didn’t answer but instead punched Jesse in the gut causing him to let go. The man then caused a blue haze of bright to fill the Double Helix. Everyone shut their eyes until it was gone. When they opened them again the man was gone.
“Where’d he go Adam?” Jesse asked recovered from the punch he had received.
Adam sighed “I don’t know. Let’s get to the lab. I need to fix Brennan’s shoulder and set his arm.”
Everyone agreed to this and left to go to the lab. When they were half way there they noticed something was off. Sanctuary looked different somehow but no one could place why. Then a young lady with blue hair walked down the hall from the other direction. When she them she gasped and dropped the book she was carrying and screamed.
“Uncle B!”
“What” came the reply over the com-system. What scared them was that it sounded like Brennan.
“You might want to come here quickly! I’m by the lab.” She stood where she was and starred at them as if daring them to make a move. A minute later a man showed up behind her. Shalimar gasped. It was Brennan, he had gray in his hair but it was Brennan all the same.
“What’s wrong, honey?” The older Brennan asked his niece confused to why she had called him.
Melody just starred a head and pointed. “That.”
Brennan looked over to where she was pointing. “Holy Shit.” Was all he could say when he saw Jesse, Shalimar, Adam, Emma and especially himself.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Everyone was silent for several minutes; it was Adam who finally broke the silence.
“What year is it?” Adam asked suspecting that what was going on was directly caused by the new mutant, which Adam had found had connections with time.
“It’s the year 2020, Adam. Why did you hit your head and forget?” came a voice from behind them. When they turned around, they were facing an older Jesse, who had just returned from grocery shopping by the look of the bags in his arms.
Before Adam could answer the blue haired girl spoke up. “Uh, Dad. That’s not Adam. Not from this time anyway.”
The older Jesse looked up from the paper he had pulled out and dropped the bags he was carrying. “What’s going on?” he asked shakily.
Jesse looked at his older self and said “That’s what we’d like to know and why did she call you dad?”
Melody, who was still standing by a silent Brennan from her time rolled her eyes. “Oh gee, couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m his daughter could it. My name is Melody by the way.”
Jesse looked confused. Melody smiled this time and said “Opposed to her.”
Adam smiled next and began to talk again but didn’t get too far as he was interrupted again. A tall young lady turned the corner where Melody was. She was reading a book and didn’t see everyone. Melody began to say, “Casey, watch….” But was too late, Casey walked smack dab into her father.
The two of them landed in a heap on the floor and her book went flying, skidding to a stop by the younger Brennan, who had in all the confusion forgotten about his arm and shoulder, feet.
“Oh, sorry dad. I didn’t see you.” Casey said getting up.
“That’s alright, but now do you understand why I told you not to read and walk at the same time.”
Casey smiled sheepishly as she nodded. “Where’s my book?” she said looking around. Brennan picked it up with his good arm and brought it over to her and glanced at the title before handing it to her. The book was ‘Leaves of Grass’ by Walt Whitman. Casey took it and said “Thanks.” When she looked up she gasped. Casey looked back and forth between her father and Brennan.
“What’s going on?” Casey asked.
Her father said to everyone “We’re going to figure that out now. Let’s go sit down.” To his com-ring he said “Adam, Emma, Shal, Marcus, Cristy can you guys meet me by the dojo, please?”
When they got to the dojo, the others were sparring as they had got there first. Marcus who was sparring with his mother looked over when they entered and missed a block. For that he received a punch to the head and went down. For some reason Emma ran over to see if he was all right, even as his mother leaned over him.
“Are you all right, hon?” His mother asked concerned.
Marcus opened his eyes and said, “No, I’m not. I’m seeing double.” indicating to Emma who was also leaning over him. .
His mother was obviously confused but when she straightened she saw what he meant. She was looking at herself.
“What’s going on?” She asked to no one in particular.
The younger Adam cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying to explain that but everyone wants to know what’s going on but no ones listening.”
The older Adam reached down and helped Marcus up. As he was doing this he said, “Why don’t we all sit down and you can explain.”
Everyone nodded and took a seat, the past Mutant X team in one spot and the future team in another. There was one thought on the past teams mind as they did this. “Why did Adam look basically the same?” Brennan, still in shock from the events and still oblivious his dislocated shoulder and broken arm, was the one to ask this question.
“Before you begin Adam, I got a question for the uh other you.”
The older Adam who already knew what the question as he had been asked it many times before replied “I’ll explain it later. It’s a rather long story.”
Brennan nodded and the younger Adam began to explain.
“For one it’s obvious that we’re in the future. The question is how far.”
Marcus answered “What year is it in your time?”
“2003.” came the response from Shalimar.
“Then your 17 yrs into the future. It’s the year 2020.” Marcus continued. Everyone was stunned by this and was silent while Adam continued.
“The new mutant we tried to help had a connection with time. I just wasn’t sure what it was but now I think it’s obvious that he had the ability to move through time and he used it to get away from us.”
The older Adam, all thought he didn’t look that much older nodded and spoke. “It seems that it might have backfired and he sent you guys into the future instead of himself.”
Everyone nodded to this and the younger Jesse spoke up. “It doesn’t matter how we got here, we need to figure out how to get back.”
This was agreed upon and the older Emma began to introduce the three kids but was interrupted by Brennan. “I’m sure this is really interesting but MY SHOULDER AND ARM REALLY HURT!” he said as the pain came back full blast.
The younger Mutant X team gasped and apologized to Brennan over and over again. They had forgotten about his injuries. Both Adams led Brennan to the lab and fixed his shoulder and put a brace on his wrist, which was broken and not his arm. They couldn’t put a cast on it as it would put too much pressure on his shoulder which needed a day or two to get rid of the swelling and then they would cast it. They explained this to Brennan and left him in the lab to sleep as he was dozing off as they were speaking.
When they joined the others again they were going to talk and introduce the teens but it was decided that they would do that later and go and talk to Snitch now to see if he knew of any new mutants with time travel abilities in the area. They made a plan and set to work. It was agreed that the two Adams would stay behind with Brennan and the three teens. This was disputed by the teens, who wanted to go. When it was settled the group left leaving both Adams and Brennan with three very pissed off teens.
The future Adam looked over at the teens and said. “Oh come on guys. Loosen up. You can help us monitor things from here.”
This did not impress the teens on bit. Marcus shot his father a really rude image which made him cringe and stormed off presumably to his bedroom. Casey growled and flashed her eyes before following him. Melody was surprisingly calm.
“Alright. If you need help I’ll be in my room.”
The past Adam was amazed at how maturely and calmly she was taking it but thought “Oops, spoke too soon.” because as Melody left she set fire to the garbage can, which was over flowing. The future Adam grumbled as he rushed to put out the fire.
*****
In the Double Helix the past team was in awe as they looked over the helix. It was a bit bigger and could now hold more people but that’s not what amazed them. What amazed them was that it was, like Sanctuary, so much more sophisticated than it was in their time. The radar was much better and could pick up on things three times as far as the other one could. The stealth shield now blocked heat signatures as well so nobody could see the helix even with night vision goggles.
“Who exactly is Snitch?” Cristy asked
The future Jesse started laughing along with the rest of the future team. “What?” Cristy asked feeling embarrassed.
The team sobered up and the future Jesse answered. “Nothing. It’s just that Snitch isn’t exactly what you would call a who.”
“Nope, defiantly not. He’s more of an it,” Future Brennan broke in still laughing.
Emma shot them both a look and then said to her past self and the others. “He’s one of our informants but his mutation is aqua-feral so he looks kind of different and some people have no respect.” She finished looking back at the older Brennan and Jesse.
As they landed outside of an abandoned boathouse the past team nodded. An aqua-feral was someone who had fish DNA along with being a water elemental. They were very rare, so it surprised them to hear of one.
When they exited the Helix everyone knew something was off. They were immediately surrounded by people dressed in complete black. The team members all took fighting stances and prepared for the up coming battle. The younger team members all thought the same thing as the fight began. “These people look like G.S.A agents but they can’t be.”
Or could they?
Jesse blocked a punch and sent one of the people, flying unconscious into a wall. He glanced over a Shalimar who was fighting along side herself and Brennan (future). Shalimar pounced on one on them guys and kicked another simultaneously. Brennan sent a teas coil into one of the men.
When the fight was finished a moment later they gathered in a group. None of them were worse for wear except for a few ripped articles of clothing.
“Who are they?” Jesse asked the future team.
Jesse's answer came from himself. “They would be the G.S.A”
Shalimar, Jesse and Emma gasped but Emma was the one to speak. “But they're gone. I mean we don't even have them in our time anymore.”
Brennan nodded “They were gone but after Eckhart's death a man named General Mark Stryker took over and re-instated them. The G.S.A is now a ruthless killing unit for a psychotic madman.”
He team nodded vaguely-remembering Adam saying something about Stryker during a battle with Eckhart.
The future Jesse spoke “I’m going to make sure Snitch is all right” When he received a nod from the rest of the future team he took a couple of steps and disappeared.
“Where did he go?” Shalimar asked confused.
The remaining members of the team smiled and Brennan answered. “Our abilities have advanced more since your time.
Emma was about to ask what advances happened when she sensed a mass of people coming their way. “They have re-enforcements coming just around the corner. Lots of them.”
They prepared yet a gain for battle. Brennan walked in front of the group as the men appeared. They were all confused but didn't say anything when they received a smile from the older team. Brennan stood in one spot and concentrated. Suddenly the breeze began to pick up and soon there were two twisters demolishing the so-called re-enforcements. When they were all down Brennan allowed the breeze to return and the twisters to dissipate. He turned around like nothing happened and walked back to the group and smiled. Unknown to him or the others a man raised a rifle to his eye and fired.
The group turned toward the sound even as Jesse went down.
The future Shal saw this and grabbed him by the arm. “Go into the shed quickly,” she called running as fast as she could while still supporting Jesse.
When they entered and shut the door she placed him gingerly on the ground. Cristy saw Jesse and was at his side in a moment.
“Jesse.”She said shakily as she watched Emma put pressure on his right side and guessed that was were the bullet had got him. Jesse didn't answer he was unconscious.
****
Instead of going to her room Melody went to the garage and found Marcus and Casey getting into one of the cars. She joined them and after a minute they sped off to the location. Like hell they were going to be left behind.
When they had arrived they found agents littering the ground. They knew their parents had been here but where were they now. Casey used her feral abilities to scan the buildings for them before she could she picked up on something that made her blood freeze. Blood, but whose?”
Brennan woke up feeling distinctively uncomfortable. He tried to roll over on to his right side but immediately laid flat on his back as pain shot threw his body beginning with his arm. He groaned and looked around the med-lab trying to figure out why it looked different and then he remembered the day’s events. As he got up the Adams walked in.
“Where do you think you’re going?” past Adam asked him.
Brennan lay back down and dejectedly said “Nowhere.”
This time the future Adam replied. “Damn straight.”
“Where is everyone?” Brennan asked cringing as the past Adam removed the brace on his right wrist, so it could be casted.
Future Adam answered. “They’re all went to see someone who might be able to help sent you guys back to the past.”
As he finished Brennan let out a small yelp. “That hurt. I thought you were going to wait a day before you put a cast on my wrist.”
Past Adam spoke as he prepared to take a scan x-ray of Brennan’s wrist to make sure it had remained set before they casted it. “We were going to but we decided that it would be in the best interest of your wrist to do it now.” When he finished speaking and looking at the scan he nodded to his future self, who began to cast Brennan’s wrist.
Brennan began to ask the future Adam a question but was cut off by the beep of an in coming com transmission. The future Adam went over to the console and pressed a button. “Go ahead.”
Jesse’s voice immediately filled the room. “Adam, we’ve got a problem. There was group of G.S.A waiting for us and a sniper.”
The past Adam spoke. “Jesse is everyone all right.”
“No, I uh.” he paused for a moment. “The past me got the sniper’s bullet in the side.”
The Adam’s both took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. How soon can you guys get here?”
Past Shalimar answered. “Probably about 20 minutes.”
The future Adam spoke this time. “Try to make it sooner and keep pressure on the wound.” After this he closed the transmission and looked at his past self and Brennan. Two fifths of the past team were injured. If things kept going the way they were there might not be a past team to send back to the past.
Brennan broke the silence a moment later. “Did the 3 teens go with them?”
Both the Adams shook their head’s. “No, why?”
“I was just wondering because it’s awfully quiet around here.”
Both Adams stopped what they were doing and froze for several seconds. Brennan was right. It was too quiet around here.
The future Adam called out to them through the com-system. “Marcus, Casey, Melody? Where are you guys?” When no one answered he checked their positions using their com-rings. “Shit” he thought as he discovered they were close to their parents’ position.
“Brennan.” he called through his com-ring.
“Yeah,” came the reply from the future Brennan.
“Where are you guys?” Cause we’ve got a problem.”
Brennan replied. “We’re still in the shed. We can’t leave. The bloody sniper’s still out there. Why? What’s the problem?”
The past Adam spoke up before the future Adam could. “Because Melody, Marcus and Casey are about 50 feet from your location.”
Cristy heard this and her future self along with her spoke. “Shit. You’re joking right.”
Past Brennan laughed. “I wish he was but they’re gone.”
Future Shalimar sighed. “We’ll get them, k. When we do they’re in for a world of trouble.”
With that the transmission ended and the tree men in the lab stood or lay in Brennan’s case in silence; feeling extremely sorry for the teens.
Melody and Marcus starred at Casey waiting for her to say something. Finally Marcus got fed with waiting and poked her in the back.
Casey turned around. “What?”
Melody spoke. “What’s going on? Did you find them?”
“Yeah, they’re in the shed, but I also picked up on blood.” She paused when Marcus and Melody gasped. “I don’t know whose it is and I think there’s a sniper in the building.” Casey finished pointing to the old apartment building across from hem.
Melody smiled. ‘You want to check?” When Casey nodded she created a huge fireball, which didn’t bother Casey who had over come her fear of fire, and threw it toward the building.
Instantly a shot rang through the area and the three teens gulped. There was indeed a sniper there. What were they going to do now?
They sat in silence for several minutes before anybody came up with an idea. It was Marcus who came up with a plan. “Guys, I could connect with him and distract him while you two go around the building and take him out.”
They agreed and after a few minutes of deliberating everyone left to do their parts. Marcus stayed where they before and concentrated. Once he found the mind he wanted he made the person believe it was surrounded by fire and couldn’t escape. Casey and Melody snuck slowly up behind the man and with a quick punch or two he was knocked out.
Meanwhile in the shed the past Jesse wasn’t faring so well. The bleeding wouldn’t stop and he seemed to get weaker and weaker every minute. Cristy sat by his side continuing to out pressure on the bullet wound while holding his hand gingerly. The future Cristy was clinging to her husband (future Jesse) extremely worried. They all knew what would happen if past Jesse died. There would be no future Jesse or Melody.
Nobody spoke for what seemed like hours but finally Brennan (future) got fed up with the silence. “We have to get out of here, now.” He said stating the obvious.
The future Shalimar looked at her husband and said one word. “Duh.” Brennan for once was speechless. The group was just about to try something when the shed door jiggled open.
They all gasped and took fighting stances, while Brennan created a ball of electricity in his hand. Just as they were about to attack they saw that it was the teens. They grumbled and relaxed, Brennan cutting off the flow of electricity as he spoke.
“What are you guys doing here? You where told to stay at sanctuary! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?” he yelled. When he was finished his rave the past Emma, Shalimar and Cristy snickered quietly. Brennan was the last person they expected to see yelling and punishing for disobeying rules. He did it all the time.
Casey answered her father quietly. “We’re in a lot of trouble but we couldn’t very well sit around and do nothing. Now could we?”
As she stopped Melody spoke. “Yeah, I mean Christ our very existence’s being threatened here.” To emphasize her point she motioned to the past Jesse, who wasn’t doing so well at the moment.
Marcus spoke in an attempt to calm everyone down. “We’re sorry but we thought you could use a little help. Let’s go.”
The past Emma spoke. “We can’t there’s a sniper out there.”
The three teens smiled and Casey spoke. “Correction. There was a sniper out there. We’ve all ready taken care of him.”
The adult starred at the teens for several minutes before anyone moved. Brennan ( future) picked Jesse (past) up carefully and carried him to the Helix. The future Shalimar went to the car with the teens went to the Helix. When everyone was situated they were off.
“Adam.” Cristy (future) called out.
The response came quickly. “Yeah.”
“We’re on our way and we have the teens.”
The flight to sanctuary was done in silence. The teens all prayed silently, they knew that they were in big trouble and the worst was yet to come.
Upon arrival to Sanctuary Jesse (past) was rushed off to the med-lab, where the Adams were waiting. The team could only wait and pray. If anything happened to him the future was in great danger. Nothing would remain the same. To make matters worse the team could already tell that Jesse was weakening considerably. His future counter-part was looking worse by the minute; he was pale, sweaty and could barely stand on his own.
Once everyone had assembled into an area where they could wait to find out about the past Jesse they were joined by the past Brennan who was looking extremely miserable in his cast. There was silence in the room for many minutes before the future team exploded at their kids.
“What the hell were you thinking?!!!” Emma screamed at her son.
“You should know better than that Casey, I mean what would have happen if the man had seen you guys and shot you?” Shalimar asked her daughter while her husband sat and starred at his daughter thinking of an adequate punishment.
The yelling and arguing continued for several minutes, with the remaining members of the past team starring dumbfounded at their future selves. None had expected to see certain people of the team, namely Brennan yelling at three teens for disobeying orders when it was something that he did almost daily. Things were starting to calm down when they took a turn for the worse.
Future Jesse had crunched over in pain and was to everyone’s horror slowly becoming transparent. Nobody could speak, they all knew what this meant: Jesse was dying or already dead and the future was changing. Melody looked at her father in complete shock. It was all she could do. She too was disappearing.
Emma (future) began to speak. “This is……” she didn’t get any farther as at that moment Jesse and Melody disappeared completely leaving them all in shock. Everyone was silent for many minutes as the shock of the event slowly wore off and the severity hit them all full force. It wasn’t long before everyone was crying silently. The Cristys were still sitting silently still in shock until finally the tears came and they were sobbing into each other uncontrollably.
No one knew what to do Mutant X had just lost three members one present and two future. Critsy (both) felt the most lost, she had just lost her husband and daughter and one would never get the chance to really know them. The teams sat for the first time since the fiasco began in a tightly knitted bunch waiting for the inevitable news they knew the Adams would soon bring. Jesse was dead and Melody was gone forever.
The Adams were in shock. They couldn’t believe that they had lost Jesse. They wouldn’t believe it. Jesse was an important member of the teams and their family; they wouldn’t let him give into death. Suddenly as if being brought out of sleep by a bucket of cold water they sprang into action. The past Adam charged the paddles and passed them on.
“Clear!” Future Adam said as he applied them to Jesse’s chest and watched as his body was pushed off the table by the shock. They both looked up at the monitor willing it to show a rhythm but it didn’t. The flat line remained. Still refusing to give up they continued this for several minutes until with great remorse they stopped. Jesse was gone and they knew that Melody would be too. The feeling of failure and grief swept over them and hung above their heads like a dark cloud.
The Adams sighed and began to shut off the monitors around Jesse. When this was finished they walked slowly toward the room the others sat in. Neither knew what was going to be said as the team undoubtedly already knew the outcome. Tears began to trace the lines of their faces as they neared the room to hear the sobs and cries coming from both the future and past teams. They entered slowly, guilt overcoming them again immediately. They had failed to save a member of their team, their family and had lost three people because of it. Both teams knew they would never be the same.
No one spoke until the emotional exhaustion and shock stopped the tears that would come again later. Everyone felt lost, nothing seemed real. “W-What do we do now?” Future Cristy asked.
“I don’t know.” Past Cristy replied through silent tears. “We still need to get back to our time, now to...to..........”She stopped as the silent tears became sobs once again. They would have to go back to their time and bury Jesse. It was something that none of them wanted to do.
Trying to take everyone’s minds off of what had happened and the emotions of it (past) Brennan spoke. “Adam, you never did tell us why you look basically the same.”
The past and future teams gave Brennan a weak smile. They all knew what he was trying to do and to be honest they were all great full for the distraction. It helped that the past team was a little curious too. The future Adam was about to explain when the two teens got up and left. Everything that had happened was a little too much for them to take in.
“I’m going to go make sure they are okay.” Future Shalimar said as she left, this was the excuse she needed to be alone right now. She and Jesse had been the first and longest members of the team, she already missed her surrogate brother fiercely.
Sighing, the future Adam spoke. “First off you are familiar with the differences between a mutant and a new mutant right?” Getting blank stares from the past team he explained. “A mutant is someone who is born with special abilities without any changes made to their DNA, they’re natural. A new mutant is well you guys a result of changes made to save your lives.”
Understanding but more than a little confused the past team nodded and waited for him to actually answer Brennan’s question.
Taking a deep breath and wondering if he should actually tell them Adam spoke. “I’m not really sure how to put this but basically I’m a mutant. I had dormant mutant genes and they were activated by an accident that happened or rather will happen.” He paused motioning to past Adam with his hand. “Needless to say, I can heal, myself extremely quick and I age slower than well...you get the just, right?” He hoped they did because this conversation was making him very uncomfortable.
Nobody answered for several minutes as they tried to digest the information. Finally they all nodded. “We understand.” Past Emma said.
Now that the explanation was over they were left with nothing to do or think about and were slowly dragged back into the depression among other emotions or losing Jesse. Silence was once again the popular theme in the room as memories were thought about and plans were made.
****
Future Shalimar had found the two teens sitting by the meditation pond lost in their own thoughts. For the first time during this whole fiasco she realized that it was Melody’s birthday today. When all the time travelled stuff had begun it slipped her and probably everyone else’s minds. A new pain brought itself up as she went over and sat beside Casey and Marcus.
Casey looked up at her mother with red, puffy eyes. “Why did this have to happen, mama?”
Shal sighed she had known this question would come. “I don’t know sweetheart.” She was going to continue but didn’t when she heard a quiet cry from Marcus. “Are you okay?” As soon as the words left her mouth Shalimar could have kicked herself, it was a stupid question to ask.
Marcus looked up slowly and swallowed. “Headache. Too many emotions.” Marcus had his mother’s pysonic abilities but lacked her controlled. His barrier wasn’t strong enough to keep out all the emotions that had been brought up.
Shalimar understood but didn’t know what she could do to help so she just nodded and pulled the two of them into a giant hug. Tears were running silently down all of their faces as they all just sat together around the pond when the hug ended.
“You’ve still got to find a way to get the past versions of yourselves back to their time don’t you?” Marcus asked after several minutes.
“Yes we do but with everything that has happened I think it best if we wait till tomorrow and get some rest today, besides it is too late to do anything anyway.” Future Emma answered before future Shalimar could.
The group had left the room to find were the three had gotten to. Everyone sat around the pond agreeing with Emma. It was too late and they needed rest, none of them were able to think clearly after everything that had happened and would most likely make a mistake. The quiet running of the water in the pond reminded them all how tired and drained both physically and emotionally they really were.
****
Unknown to all of them something was happening in the room they had all vacated; something that would be very good news for all. The room was just how they had left it except that two faint images of two people could be seen.
Slowly they became brighter and stronger until two very confused people stood in the room. “Uh, what’s going on? Where did everyone go?” Melody asked looking over to her father.
Future Jesse just stood there. He had no explanation. “They probably just left the room. As to what’s going on, I have no idea.”
Melody ran a hand through her blue hair and sat down. “Not that I’m complaining about being here or anything but weren’t we dead?”
“I don’t think we classified as dead just never existed but.....” Jesse was cut off by his daughter’s groan.
“You know you could stand to be a little less technical. Let’s just go find the others.” Without waiting for her father to answer she left the room. Sighing Jesse followed.
****
A groan escaped from Jesse as a tried to move but every move sent stabbing pain throughout his body. When he finally brought himself to open his eyes he saw nothing but white. Confused and scared he panicked and flung what was covering him to the ground. Hissing at the pain the move had caused he concentrated and found that it was a sheet.
Gulping he remembered what had happened up to the point where he had lost consciousness. The sheet just confirmed what he had thought. He had died but if that was true what was going on?
Shivering he touched the spot where the bullet had entered to find nothing but smooth skin in fact the incision’s the Adam’s had made trying to save him were gone too. Sitting slowly he tried to make sense of everything but couldn’t.
Deciding to see if he could find someone to explain what was happening he got up and made his way slowly to the door after removing the IV from his arm, they only thing the Adams hadn’t removed when he had died; the one thing that had in fact helped to bring him back.
Melody and Jesse walked slowly around Sanctuary trying to find at least one other person but they could find none. It was as if everyone had disappeared.
Sighing future Jesse stopped walking, “We are never going to find anyone. Why don’t we just use our com-links?”
Melody turned to her father, “You know I’m the one who is suppose to be complaining, not you. Grow up.”
Future Jesse was about to answer when he saw himself or rather the past Jesse walking slowly and aimlessly down the hall toward them. He was pale and almost every inch of his torso was covered in blood.
Melody looked to where her father was starring and rolled her eyes, “Finally we found someone, ‘bout time.” As she spoke she startled past Jesse out of his daze; it was obvious that he was still weak from whatever happened.
Taking a deep breath past Jesse finished making his way toward them, “Anyone know what’s going on? I mean I thought I was dead.” He spoke slowly as he leaned against a wall.
Melody didn’t give her father a chance to reply, “You were dead,” she stated bluntly before continuing, “We don’t know what’s going on anymore than you do. I mean one moment we were fading away and then we were back but everyone else was gone. We were trying to find the others.”
Past Jesse nodded, “Have you tried the com-link?”
Sheepishly both future people shook their heads. “We were just about to when we saw you coming down the hall,” future Jesse said.
“Then what are you waiting for? Use it,” past Jesse said, agitated. He wanted to find out what was going on and he was tried of waiting.
Shaking his head, future Jesse said, “Okay, okay. Relax.” The only thing the comment got him was the glare he used on everyone else. Raising his com-link to his mouth future Jesse spoke into it, “Cristy, you there?”
****
The group had been sitting around the kitchen table for hours now, just trying to come up with a way to get things back to the way they were supposed to be; not to mention getting them back to where they belonged; their time. They truly needed rest, they weren't thinking clearly, but rest was something none of them had gotten since the mission had gone horribly wrong.
The entire group had heard the future Cristy’s com-link activate and the voice come through, “Cristy, you there?” None one could believe what they were hearing.
Cristy looked over to her past self for confirmation that someone else had heard it too and she wasn’t going insane. When she got confirmation she managed to stutter out, “Jesse?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Where is everyone? We’ve been looking for a while but can’t find anyone. We have no idea what is going on,” future Jesse spoke unawares as to the effect he was having on the group in the kitchen.
Tears were streaming heavily down both Cristy’s faces and the rest of the group looked like they weren’t very far behind. Neither Cristy could reply through the sobs running through them.
Future Adam spoke calmly into the com-link, “We’re in the kitchen, Jesse. If you would join us here we can figure out what’s happening.”
“Okay,” came through the com-link and then there was silence.
Everyone held their breath as they waited; moments felt like centuries but soon both Jesses and Melody came through the door. At the sight of them the tears the rest of the group had been holding back slid down their cheeks.
Future Jesse and Melody were immediately engulfed by future Cristy while the rest of the future group hung back to give them time. Cristy kissed Jesse soundly before pulling Melody into a hug that saw no end.
Past Jesse went through much that same thing, past Cristy kissed him but she ran her hands over his still bloody torso looking for the wound or the surgical incisions.
Finding none she smacked him, lightly, upside the head, “Don’t do that to me!” Jesse only nodded and pulled her into a hug, mindless of the blood.
It took twenty minutes before everyone was satisfied enough to sit down and try and figure out what was happening.
“What’s going on?” Past Jesse asked his arms around Cristy. “Not that I’m complaining or anything but I thought I was dead.”
Past Adam shook his head, “You were I don’t understand it.” Future Adam took this moment to inspect Jesse before leaving the room, much to everyone’s confusion.
Everyone stared after him for a moment, wondering what he was doing; then again it was Adam after all which meant a slim chance of ever figuring that out. Instead the groups moved toward their respective Jesses again. Marcus and Casey sat around Melody and the teens just talked, reassuring themselves that Mel was there much like the adults were doing with Jesse.
When future Adam returned the talking stopped and everyone looked expectantly at him, believing he had the explanation to what was going on. Future Adam took a deep breath and looked over the group, it was going to be a very long night.
“Do you know what’s happening?” Future Shalimar asked.
Future Adam nodded, “I believe I do.” He turned to the past Brennan, “You asked me earlier why I look basically the same.”
Past Brennan nodded, “Yeah but what does that have to do with what happened?”
“You’re going to need to let me explain. No interruptions okay?” Future Adam asked the group. Receiving nods to the affirmative he continued, “First thing you need to know are that there are two different kinds of mutants, the ones created by the research that happened at Genomex and those whose mutation is natural. I uh…”
“Had a dormant ability and something happened to activated it?”
“Yes, Shalimar,” he said when past Shalimar finished the sentence he couldn’t. “It’s a healing ability. I went back to the infirmary and the blood we were giving Jesse was mine. I think that the healing ability was transferred temporarily through the blood into Jesse…”
He was interrupted by future Cristy, “Then why did he die. I mean Melody and Jesse disappeared.”
“I suspect that there was a delayed reaction. I also checked over the heart monitor when I went back and it seems that there was a malfunction in it.”
Past Jesse decided that he really didn’t want to hear anymore, “Couldn’t we just leave it at the fact that I’m alive by some miracle and leave it at that. This is making me uncomfortable.”
The group agreed and moments later future Adam said, “You should all get cleaned up and rest. It’s been a very long day.”
With slow nods the group separated, each couple heading off to their own space; the future group showing the past group spare rooms they could use. The Cristy’s had a firm grip of their families not wanting to let go, lest they disappear again.
TBC