Chapter 10: Fighting Fate

“Emma? Can I come in?”

Emma gets up off the bed and unlocks the door, letting Jesse come in.

“Emma, are you ok?”

“Yeah. Fine, Jesse.” Emma says and plasters a fake smile on her lips.

Jesse sighs. “Emma, what was that about? Back there, you and Adam?” Jesse says as he and Emma sit down on her bed.

“I was tired of him keeping secrets from us. Jesse, every time I walked into a room he was in, I could feel his secrets trying to escape. When Shal’s father mentioned Adam, I could feel the change in him, he started radiating guilt.”

“But did you have to be so harsh on him. He’s allowed to have secrets Emma. We all are. We all do.” Jesse says, trying to reason with her.

“Jesse, I…”

“Emma. What’s wrong?” Jesse whispers.

I’m mutating again, I can barely control my powers, and I know that I am going to die by the end of the day. Emma desperately wanted to tell him this, she could see and feel his concern for her.

“Emma, I can help,” Jesse pleaded.

“Jesse…my powers are increasing, they’re getting stronger. I can’t handle them.” There she had finally said it.

“Does this have to do with that whole pond incident?” he asked suspiciously.

“No. This is different. That was me connecting with you, Brennan, Adam and Shalimar all at the same time. This is…” Emma searched for the right word.

“What Emma? You can tell me,” Jesse pleaded with his eyes.

Emma didn’t know if she could tell Jesse that she was mutating without telling him about the precognition.

Don’t tell him. He won’t understand.

But I have to tell him she argued with the little voice in her head. Maybe he knows a way to keep me from Fate, maybe he can help me.

No he can’t help. He’ll get scared, Adam will find out and will run endless tests on you. You’ll be trapped. They could get scared, they could kick you out.

They wouldn’t do that to me, we’re family.

Families don’t stay a family forever, you know that Emma. Remember your parents? They left you, you waited for them but they never came back.

She came up with a response as a compromise between the two voices. “My Telempathic range is getting wider, I’m able to hear thoughts now.” Emma says slowly, revealing some of her problem, but nowhere near all of it.

“Telepathic? Isn’t that a good thing Emma? It means you’re getting stronger.”

“No Jesse, it’s making me weaker. I can feel emotions, hear thoughts, it’s driving me nuts. My head is killing me. I can never be alone anymore, not even in my mind.”

“Emma, it will take time. You’ll get better. Remember when you developed you Psi Blast? At first you couldn’t control them and now look at you.”

I don’t have time Jesse, that’s the point. I wish I could tell you.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” Emma says, deciding she should leave the conversation at that.

“Adam wants us in the computer lab. He’s worried about Shalimar and Brennan.” I doubt worry is the right word.

“I’ll be there in a second.” She says as Jesse leaves her room.

If only she could buy herself some more time. If she could avoid going to Naxcon…she needed to escape Fate. She needed a way to keep away from the building. Emma doubted there was a way, but maybe Adam would decide to send them somewhere else, maybe the building wouldn’t blow up. Maybe they would escape. Maybe…

Emma sighs. She leaves the room to go help Adam and Jesse, feeling another headache coming on.

Standing beside him at the computer, Emma and Jesse try to track Shalimar and Brennan at Naxcon.

“Damn it. Why the hell haven’t they called in?” Adam mutters.

“Because their com links have gone dead, Adam.” Jesse says as the two red dots on the computer screen disappear.

“Because Eckhart knew that they’d be coming.” Adam answers himself.

While Jesse tries to relocate Shal and Bren, Emma notices something odd on the computer she is working at. “Adam, there’s a call coming in from Naxcon.”

Adam whips around and faces the computer she is working at, “Patch it through.”

“Hello, Adam. Have you missed me?” Eckhart appears on the transmission screen. He looks back to normal, no fake skin and white hair. Oh God no. Emma thinks, worrying that her precognition is slowly coming true.

Jesse and Emma back away from the screen as Adam gets closer. “You’re looking more like you old self, Mason.” He says.

“Feeling like a million bucks. It’s amazing what a new hair cut can do for one.”

“What have you done with Brennan and Shalimar?”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to come and see for yourself. And, Adam, time is of the essence,” Eckhart answers as he the transmission fades.

Picking up some kind of special gun, Adam starts to walk out of the room. “Where do you think you’re going?” Emma calls after him.

Looking back at her and Jesse he snaps, “Well, you ought to know. You seem to know everything else.”

“Look, Adam, I didn’t want it to happen this way.” I didn’t mean for anything to happen this way.

“None of us did,” Adam states.

“Well, wait, what are you doing?” Jesse asks. “Your DNA is the last piece that Eckhart needs to control mutation. Are you just going to deliver that up to him?”

“I’m not going to let Brennan and Shalimar suffer for my mistakes.”

“After he gets what he wants,” Emma tries to reason, “he will kill you.” And me.

“I didn’t say I was going in unprepared. I have a plan,” he says, holding up the gun.

“Good. So do you want to fill us in?” Jesse asks.

”What do you mean, ‘us’?”

“Yeah, ‘us’.” Jesse laughs. “It took me twenty-eight years to find someone to believe in, Adam. I’m not just going to throw that away.”

Realizing that she will have to go with them, and that she can’t fight Fate, Emma says, “Let’s do this.”

Walking along the above-water-suspended hallway of Naxcon, Emma, Jesse, and a very determined Adam are stopped. It’s the same blonde man from the flower shop and from when they went to make the trade for Haines. Adam looks him in the eye and says, “I’m Adam Kane.”

“I know you are.” the guy responds, then turns around and scans his eye in the retinal scan. The elevator door opens and allows them access to the secure area.

Fear is evident in Emma’s face and voice as she says, “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

“It’s our only chance.” Adam answers. Knowing that she is walking into death, but that she can’t fight Fate, Emma follows, realizing that it’s more important to try to save her teammates than to try to stop Fate from killing her.

Walking out of the elevator and onto the balcony of Naxcon’s underwater laboratory, the three can see Eckhart, the one-legged man, another Feral, Shalimar’s father standing around talking. Trapped inside a green force field are Shalimar and Brennan.

“Adam, it’s been a long time.” Mason Eckhart says when he sees them. “Of course, being in the pod made it seem even longer.”

“How’d you get out?” Adam says, getting right to the point.

“You don’t think I’d devise a trap without a back door for me to wriggle out,” Eckhart explains. “Six months in, any pod that I hadn’t coded the locks on was automatically reopened.”

“I was hoping you’d have used some of that time to think about all the damage that you’ve done,” Adam says as he, Jesse, and Emma walk down the stairs to the main level of the room.

“Beautiful, as sanctimonious as ever. Actually, I did use my time for thinking. I thought a lot about you, and what I planned to do when I got out.”

“How long have you had my files?” Adam snaps.

“I had the files as soon as you saved them. But it took my people until just a few months ago to break the encryption. You always were the best. And now your brilliance and your DNA will change the world in a way you never had the courage to--.”

“It wasn’t about courage.” Adam cuts him off, “It was about the fact there are some things that people shouldn’t try to control.”

“Adam, I thought you’d understood. Destroying disease, creating a race of perfect humans, turning on genes to make people live forever. These are dreams that people like you live for. Thanks to your research and your DNA, I’ll be the father to a whole new race.” Eckhart walks over to one of the computers and brings up a video feed. On the screen Adam can see a whole bunch of pods holding undeveloped new mutants.

“What’s going on?” asks a surprised Shalimar’s father, obviously he wasn’t aware that this was happening in his laboratories. “That’s not the agreement. You can’t do it. I won’t let you.”

“I’ll keep my end of the bargain. Your daughter will be returned to you cured, as soon as I get what I want,” Eckhart snaps at him.

Adam looks at the other mutants in the room and asks them, “What about your friends here? What have you given them besides a lot of pain? All he’s given you is a life that’s’ going to end…very soon.”

The blonde man, who is standing on the stairs, looks Eckhart in the eye and asks, “What is he talking about?”

“Why do you think he needs my DNA?” Adam continues. “He needs it to perfect the process of mutation, because you’re just rough drafts. I mean, that’s why your friends died, that’s why you’re going to die. What? You forgot to tell them this, Eckhart?”

“That’s enough. I need the samples. Take him.”

“I don’t think so. This is an electromagnetic pulse generator. It’s strong enough to fry every piece of electronic equipment in this building.”

“Really, Adam.” Eckhart laughs. “It showed up on the sensors the moment you walked through the front door. And that’s when it was rendered unworkable. When are you going to learn that I really am a step ahead? Take him.”

Great plan Adam! Emma thinks as the other mutants attack.

As the Feral lunges at Adam, the blonde throws an energy ball of pain at him. As Adam falls to the ground, the guy turns on Emma.

Jesse runs over to one of the side computers and tries to break Shalimar and Brennan free of their prison.

As soon as Adam has regained his balance, the one-legged guy whips a crutch in his face, just missing breaking Adam’s nose by inches.

“Lady, you’re about to have the worst day of your life,” The blonde man says to Emma as he forms another purple energy ball of pain.

“I don’t think so.” Emma is quicker and shoots a Psionic Blast at him. He is standing a few stairs above her, so when he falls, he falls down the stairs. “It’s hard to share pain that you don’t feel, isn’t it?” Emma laughs.

At the same time, Jesse smashes the computer cables with a massed fist and manages to break Brennan and Shalimar free. “Come on.” He yells to them. The Feral leaves Adam and rushes Shalimar, who flips out of the way. At the same time the one-legged man goes after Brennan, spinning his crutch over his head and taking a swing at Brennan.

As Eckhart yells at his mutants to go after Adam, Shalimar’s father runs to the computer and starts typing something. After a few seconds, a warning alarm starts blaring from the computers, indicating to Eckhart that something is wrong. “You idiot! What did you do?” Eckhart asks.

Smiling, he answers “I opened up the steam valves. I released the pressure. It’s all about to go up.” Beside him, a gas pipe burst under the pressure. The room they are in is under water and now is starting to crumble under the pressure of the water. This then sends a chain reaction throughout the building.

“You always have to screw things up, don’t you Adam?” Eckhart yells as he and his mutants race up the stairs and into the elevator.

Grabbing Fox, Adam yells over the alarm, “How much time to we have?”

“About a minute, maybe less.” He shouts back.

“Is there another way out of here?”

“That way.” Shalimar’s father yells, pointing to a handle less door.

“Brennan, hit that!” Adam shouts, grabbing Brennan and pushing him in front of the door. Forming a tesla coil, Brennan blasts down the door.

“Alright. Great. Lets’ go! Go! Go!” Adam barks as Emma, Shalimar, her father, Jesse, Brennan and him dart through the small opening and climb up the safety ladder. “Go! Go! Go!”

The alarms are getting louder, the lights flicker off and the building is starting to shake as they run down the hall. Outside, explosions are taking place and the building is starting to break apart.

Reaching the beginning of the suspended area of the hall, Adam yells out, “Which way?”

“Go Right!” Shalimar answers.

The floor beneath them shakes and the members of Mutant X plus one fall to the ground. The floor tips upwards in front of them and they grasp the grooves in the tiled floor to hang on for dear life.

Holding on as tight as she can, Emma realizes that this is the final part of her precognition. The walls around them are crumbling and plants, desks and shelves are falling everywhere. Trying to pull herself up, Emma feels something pulling her down, an invisible force pulling her in the opposite way. Fate.

“Emma!” beside her Adam yells.

The floor tips violently and they all slide closer to their death. If any of them let go, they slide right through the window and into the water below.

All around her, everyone is screaming. “Hang on!” “Emma!” “Hold on!” “Alright!” “Brennan!”

Closing her eyes, Emma can see her life flash before her. From when she was just a little girl in Seattle, talking with spirits her parents would try to contact. Her high school best friend, Michelle and all the pranks they used to pull together. Working in the clothing store and using her abilities on the customers. That fateful night when she ran into Brennan and was rescued from the GSA by Jesse, Shalimar and Adam, where her adventure began.

When she and Jesse became deathly sick with a mutant-killing virus. Getting split into two separate Emmas by Brennan and an old friend of his. Breaking Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan out of the DoJo where a corrupt Adam had locked them and then turning Adam back to normal. Being forced to face her greatest fear, becoming blind. Going back in time to try and stop Ashlocke from killing Adam and making himself more powerful. Journeying to Kovakhstan to recover a top secret military weapon. Going undercover to stop the illegal use of drugs on inmates in a prison. Rescuing Shalimar when she was taken prisoner by spinal fluid drinking aliens. Saving Adam from the Tribunal when they kidnapped him. Helping Brennan to regain control of his powers.

The men in her life all flashed by at once: Caleb, Kyle and Tyler. Tyler, who died to save her. Her family: Shalimar, her sister, Brennan, her older brother, Adam, her father, and Jesse, what was Jesse to her? Looking back, she saw how much she cares for him, and how much he cares for her. Now she would never be able to tell him how she felt. If only she hadn’t been so blind. Even when he came to her a couple of hours ago, she was too blind to sense his true feelings towards her. She was too worried about escaping death to realize how he felt. Fancy that, a Telempath who couldn’t tell that a guy loves her.

“Emma! Emma! Hang on!” Adam is still calling her, like he knew she was falling. Was he suddenly feeling guilty for all the pain he had caused her? Had he forgiven her for exposing him to the team? Was he sorry he hadn’t helped her with her powers? Unfortunately it was too late to forgive him.

Fate pulls even harder and Emma realizes that she just can’t fight it anymore. If she let go it would all end, all the pain would go away. Inaudible to her teammates with the sounds of explosions and screams coming all around them from the crumbling building, she whispers, “Goodbye.”

The End