Summary: Post the assault. Where do they go now? With an unknown future Mutant X must turn to Lexa whose unknown past may be their only chance at redemption.
Disclaimer: If I owned them then there'd definitely be a fourth season. Alas, no on both accounts, but one day...
Author's Note: I wanted the pace of the first chapter to be fast in that whenever you need time it's never on your side. Anyways it will start slowing down and we'll get some corny moments and action and drama, aw hell we'll get all the genres in here by the end...so stay tuned.
Also I want to give a special thanks to mfkngst for taking the time and reading this before I posted it to fix some of my loose ends.
New Beginnings
Chapter 1: When This Began
(Recap of 'The Assault final scene.)
"Where the hell do we go now?" Jesse asked, as the Dominion building behind them exploded.
"We need to find Adam. I mean everyone here except Jesse is living under a death sentence," Lexa said all business.
"Yeah but Sanctuary is gone, the Helix is gone, the D...Dominion," Shalimar started, looking at Brennan for an answer.
"They think they won, but it's not over yet," Brennan started but was cut off by what was left of the building exploded leaving the flames to consume the rubble. "It will be if we don't move. Come on." The four followed him, starting off for an unknown future.
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Shalimar took the lead. In the darkness and in the sanctuary of the woods none of the others could tell where they were going, except the feral. Heading north, they dumped their com links off before they had gotten too far from the burning rubble so the Dominion didn't have any chance at tracing them. Momentarily forgetting about the subdermal goveners that were still attached to Lexa and Jesse they had Brennan disengage the device from the back of their necks.
Finding a road had been out of the question since the Dominion could very well be after them at this exact moment. The four most powerful mutants weren't about to let the Dominion find them without breaking a sweat.
Her feral senses told her civilization wasn't too far so she quickened her pace, glad to see the others could keep up. Once they'd returned to civilization they had to figure out what to do next. The Dominion would be after them, now that they had become a threat.
Once they established a location the next thing would be finding Adam. Three of the four did not know if they had treatment that permitted them to live past their expiration date and if untreated Adam was the preservation to their demise.
First thing's first, Jesse had said, trying to focus the team to the task at hand, still being in the woods. They needed to find somewhere they could get back on their feet and stand a fighting chance against the Dominion.
All had made suggestions none of them had really gotten a thumbs up from all four of the mutants, but the ideas began to narrow as desperation began to set in. It seemed as if Lexa's idea was best suited for their predicament.
Her aunt lived in a small town in upstate New York. Since each member's family and basically whole life was known to the Dominion that excluded their suggestions, but Lexa had a piece of her background that not even the Dominion knew about. That would buy them some time.
Concern for the safety of getting her aunt involved wasn't an option. The Dominion would eventually find out of her missing past and her aunt would become involved one way or another. So up state New York it was.
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An hour had passed and Shalimar's senses had told her there was a medical center of some sort nearby. The first thing Shalimar knew they needed once they got back into civilization was to find a hospital or somewhere they could get their wounds taken care of.
"Shal, where are we going?" Brennan asked as he and the others followed the feral who made her way through the city, knowing without their knowledge where they were suppose to go.
"Finding a hospital so you and Jesse can get cleaned up," she replied.
Nodding his understanding he looked over at Jesse, besides his own arm Jesse had gotten knocked around and had been through electrical torture.
Not long after Shalimar had led them in front of a small medical center. Lexa had refracted the light allowing them to enter without being detected. Finding a supple room Jesse had disinfected his cuts and checked Brennan's arm. Fortunately the bullet had grazed his arm, which was a good thing, since now he didn't have to remove a bullet from Brennan's arm.
In less than an hour the two boy's wounds were cleaned up to the best they could at the moment. They exited the hospital without being detected and made their way for the second and third part in their plan which was money and new id's if they wanted to get on an airplane.
Brennan feeling a little better, had gotten in touch with an old street partner of his. The reunion was business as usual and Brennan was able to collect four new ids for the team.
Handing everyone their id's Jesse pouted in defense. "Forbes, oh come on. Do I look like a Forbes?" he asked.
The others looked him over; all nodded a 'yes'. He shoved the id into his pocket muttering about the name as they started for their next necessity, money. Lexa had an alias account in case of a situation such as this. Being a mercenary didn't leave much room for trust or dependence on others. With a cash flow they bought plane tickets.
All was going well as they boarded the plane, except the only ones that got seated next to or anywhere near each other, for that matter, were Jesse and Lexa. Brennan was in the front sitting next to a screaming baby and a perky teenage girl that had a bit of a crush on him.
Shalimar was in the middle of the plane, she seemed to have gotten lucky with a sweet old lady that had fallen asleep once the plane had taken off and a college student who was too engrossed in his studies to pay any attention to her.
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In the back in a two seater row Lexa and Jesse sat, seemingly somewhat uncomfortable by the closeness that the airlines provided but the two started to warm up to the idea, after all their relationship was starting to take shape of that which had been forming over the past few months.
"So Lex, what's your aunt like?" Jesse asked, trying to start up conversation and truly interested of this new idea of getting to know more of Lexa's past. Lexa had her head leaning back, resting against head rest of the seat. Somehow Jesse had gotten the aisle seat and she was crunched between him and the window.
She looked out the window; her mind it seemed had followed. Without so much as a look his way she answered. "The kind that you write reports of a role model about," she said, being as vague and dry as Lexa always was.
"Come on Lexa, we're gonna meet her once this plane lands. Why not share some good old stories of how she used to take you fishing and how you caught the biggest fish anyone had ever seen."
"Cause I like the idea of the suspense killing you," she said with a smile, finally looking his way. He gave her a puppy dog look, laughing she decided to give him a little incite, after all he was going to meet the next best thing she had to a mother growing up.
"Well okay, there was this one time we were at her ranch and," smiling Lexa couldn't help herself for what she said next, "we decided to go in the woods. Then we passed by the lake and decided to go fishing. I remember I swear I caught the biggest damned fish anyone had ever seen and well you know how it goes."
"Oh come on," Jesse insisted.
Lexa gave herself a moment to think of a memory that she'd be willing to share. Then one sprang to mind. "Leo and I used to visit our aunt when we had...'troubles' at home. The only problem with that was she had a lot of last minute travel arrangements. There was one time we came racing up her driveway catching her as she was pulling down the driveway about to leave for one of her trips.
When we refused to go home she took us up to her house and told us we could stay until we wanted to go home. We were both scared of being left alone without her, since she was always there to protect us from whatever we ran from. She sat us both down and told us she couldn't always be there for us, though she wanted to be and that we had to look after each other, when we did that nothing would harm us. From that point on Leo and I started looking after each other. Once Leo started having his own 'troubles' I was the one to take care of him, I had to be strong for him. He needed me."
Lexa sighed. Noticing this Jesse put an arm around her shoulders. Stiffening from the touch at first she began to relax once she felt comfortable by the closeness and realized the intention of the gesture.
"Sometimes I feel like I could have, I should have done more, but then I realized how much I did do for him."
"You did what you could do. Most things don't turn out the way you want them to," Jesse comforted.
After all they had been through it seemed that now their relationship had surfaced and neither one of them could deny it. Hell, they lost everything they've come to know, who would they have if not each other?
Lexa thought of Jesse, what they had been through. After he nearly died was when she realized her true feelings for him. She remembered that nearly same feeling she felt when her brother died. It struck deep within her heart. The compassion he showed her when she'd admitted to her misguided mission that sent Brennan and Shalimar into a death camp for mutants, all that she went through to save him from the Dominion's experiments, and just everything that had brought them to where they were now.
She'd always thought caring for someone was a weakness, but all the things she went through for her brother, damn that was her Achilles heal, and now with him gone she had Jesse. She just hoped she could be stronger for Jesse.
Lexa rested her head against his shoulder, finding a new form of comfort and a new strength. She knew she didn't need to be strong for Jesse, together they would be strong. Taking a deep breath she fell asleep, for once letting down her guard.
Jesse smiled when she put her head on his shoulder. Lately she had become more open of her feelings for him and he clutched with both hands to that affection. When she first came to Mutant X she was so closed and guarded even as feelings started to bloom between them. It had been a battle to win her trust but as he felt her sleeping next to him he knew it had been worth it. His thoughts turned to this year and to the many struggles of surviving it.
The near deaths, betrayals, trust building, friendships, feelings, and just everything, it seemed, had happened for a reason. Now Jesse was where he wanted to be, at her side and with the everlasting Mutant X team that had been harder to kill than cockroaches. Now they needed something to help them get back on their feet, Jesse just hoped they could. Hoping the rest of the team was long before due on their expiration date.
Without realizing it Jesse had fallen asleep too, his head rested on top of Lexa's. For any passengers that had seen the pair asleep next to each other would not have any doubt that the pair was anything less then a couple.
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In front of them Shalimar had sensed the change of emotion between her two teammates and friends. Turning she couldn't help but smile at the sight she thought she might never have seen. Sighing she looked ahead at Brennan. They were now on a new level in their relationship. Just where would it take them?
She nearly laughed as she saw Brennan's little teeny bop give him a drawing with little hearts all around it. Once this flight was over she decided it might be best to let him know how she felt about him being too friendly with other females. She smiled, 'maybe later', she decided.
Damn, her feral senses were driving her crazy being on this plane like sitting ducks; well her human senses were driving her crazy for that matter. Though tired she couldn't allow herself to sleep, not until she felt they were safe from danger, but she knew that feeling would not pass, not with a new enemy and a new list of obstacles that awaited them.
Frustrated she contented herself with watching the movie on board, 'The Punisher,' how fitting she mused, as Thomas Jane had returned to find his family dead and now started out his 'punishment'.
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Brennan let his mind drift. Not only was he concerned for the safety and future of Mutant X but his seating arrangement would drive any sensible person insane. Fortunately the three month old baby had fallen asleep giving him a bit of peace. However the thirteen year old would not stop staring at him and when she wasn't ogling over him she was drawing him pictures. He just hoped to hell he didn't have any witnesses behind him otherwise he'd never hear the end of it.
Away from the people that sat next to him his mind returned to what lied beyond the plane. Where would they go from here? Lexa, Shalimar, and he himself still might need treatment for their genetic structure. Maybe they could find someone else to help them or maybe Adam could find a way to get in touch with them and figure out the procedure that saved Jesse.
Brennan took a drink from his 'Molson' curtsey of the stewardess. Like Jesse said worry about one thing at a time, so Brennan sat and waited for the next thing to worry about after they landed.
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Author's Note: Relationship wise I could have stayed with how the writer's had them deal with it throughout the season, but I figured they've lost everything, enough of the tiptoeing around. Besides Shalimar and Brennan would be on a new level of their relationship, Lexa and Jesse confessed their 'care' for each other so that's still starting to bubble and I decided, hell, it's my fiction I'll take this to a new level and let them grow since now they're away from 'home' (Sanctuary).
If there is anything that differs from Mutant X history, etc I haven't seen every episode so give me a break and besides it's my fiction, which means I am God here and can do what I want. Muhaha!