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A Matter of Honor	By : purenightshade Category: M through R > Mutant X Views: 1578 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Title: A matter of Honor

Author/pseudonym: Nightshade

Author websites: http://www.angelfire.com/anime/makosmusings

Characters: Adam, Jesse

Rating: The ratings vary from chapter to chapter, but it�s intended to be NC-17

Pairing: Non-shipper, non-slash, involves original characters

Status: incomplete

Series/Sequel: series
Spoilers: As of yet, no spoilers

Disclaimers: All Mutant X characters are copyright to their respective owners. Honor and Claudia are my original characters and should not be taken or used without my permission.

Summary:A New Mutant�s powers start to evolve out of control and it�s up to Adam and the team to help put them back under control. An old friend of Adam�s returns to haunt him.

Send all comments to nightshade@catlover.com
Episode 05: Gone again
Honor flopped down on her large, fluffy four poster bed and stared up at the canopy above her. She�d just gotten out of a very hot shower and had changed into a set of clean and loose fitting clothes: baggy black jeans and a dark purple turtleneck. Her hair, still damp from the shower, was braided and tied with a strip of bright red ribbon. At home and in her own room, she felt comfortable, but lonely. It had been nice to socialize with unfamiliar mutants if only briefly.

Her thoughts wandered back to that brief moment she�d spent in Jesse�s arms and she blushed, remembering how warm and gentle he�d been, how comfortable it had been to be there. She�d never thought anything like that would happen. When Jesse had asked her to stay, it had come as a complete surprise, never mind when he�d kissed her hands. That tentative first kiss made her wonder if she had Brennan and Jesse�s powers confused as it had sent an electric shock running through her body.

She would never admit it to anyone else, but that had been her first kiss. The kids in school had all been afraid of her, and so had scorned her. None of the boys had ever expressed an interest in her, so she�d never even been on a date. Jesse had been the first man to show any interest in her.

She shook her head. It was useless to dwell on it. It was highly unlikely that she would ever be in that position with anyone ever again, let alone Jesse. She knew she would have to go back to Sanctuary, if only to have more tests done, but she made herself promise that any trip back would be kept short. She refused to set herself up for disappointment.

Part of her mind told her that she was being silly, that she should just let herself go and do everything she could to get back to him, but the more rational part of her mind told her to let the whole thing go and get on with her life. If she ever wound up in that situation again, then she could go the way the other part of her mind wanted, but until then she forced thoughts of Jesse out of her head.
In her own room, Claudia curled up on her bed, a good book in one hand and a tall glass of orange juice within easy reach on the bedside table to her left. She was wearing a pair of cutoff cotton shorts and an oversized long sleeved blue silk shirt. As was her habit when at home, she was barefoot. She�d been reading for nearly two hours and still hadn�t gotten past the page she was currently staring at and the juice remained untouched. Frustrated, she tucked her bookmark between the pages and closed it, sitting up.

She stood and walked over to the window, leaning forward to rest her forehead against the cool glass. Free from the distraction of the book, her mind immediately went back to what it wanted to dwell on.

Adam Kane.

It had been a shock, really, seeing him again like that. She�d hoped never to lay eyes on him, but it would seem that life wasn�t going to let her have her way. Truth be told, she was quite surprised that she hadn�t killed him on sight, which is what she�d always imagined would happen. Maybe it was the presence of the others, or maybe it was that she�d found Honor. Who could say? She found it incredibly ironic that Adam was the only person who had a chance of finding a more permanent solution to Honor�s problem and yet all she wanted to do was wring his neck.

She sat down in the armchair beside the window and curled her knees up under her chin. He certainly didn�t look like the Adam she remembered. Admittedly, it had been many years since they�d last seen each other and people did age after all.

Claudia snorted at that thought, staring at her hands. Despite being only a few months younger than him, Adam showed his age a lot more than she did. He also hadn�t had his genes messed with.

She sighed. This is a fine mess I�m finding myself in, she said to herself. I can�t hurt Honor by getting rid of Adam, but I�ll never have inner peace if I don�t. Funny thing is that I know what advice I�d get if I asked for it. �Talk to him and work things out�. That�s a laugh. I know him far too well for that. I know what he�ll say to anything that I might say to him, so it�s pointless to do so.

She paused, standing up and looking back out the window. Let him help Honor. After that, he�s expendable. I can do away with him with a clear conscious and finally lay my past to rest. Before he dies, he needs to suffer as he I did, know the depth of the pain he caused me. Part of me almost hopes that he doesn�t remember what he did before then. That way I�ll have the pleasure of making him remember.

She smiled to herself. If he does remember, it�s no loss. This sounds like a good plan. Satisfied with herself, she went back to her bed and settled in to read.
Back in Sanctuary, Jesse paced the length of his room, cursing under his breath. In his mind, he was going through an entire list of ways to see Honor again, but none of them were even remotely plausible. He raked his fingers through his hair and sat down on the edge of his bed for a brief moment before getting up and pacing some more.

This is getting me nowhere, he told himself. Truth be told, the thing that�s frustrating me the most is her coldness. She didn�t even look at me after we left my room. Why? Did I do something wrong? Or is she just embarrassed at having almost done what we almost did? Does she have a boyfriend? He shook his head violently. No, that can�t be it. If she did, why would she have even let me kiss her in the first place?

He sat back down on his bed, shoulders slumped and his head resting in his hands. It had been three days since he�d last seen Honor and it already felt like an eternity. There hadn�t been any excuses to leave Sanctuary since their return. Being cooped up wasn�t doing him any good. He felt that if he had to stay inside for much longer, it would drive him insane.

Once again, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. It was Adam. The older man walked in and sat down beside him. He was silent for quite some time before he spoke up.

�You liked her, didn�t you?�

Jesse looked at him, startled. �Am I being that obvious about it?�

He smiled. �Yes, actually. I don�t need to have Emma�s powers to know how you feel.�

�Really now?�

�If I hadn�t seen Claudia again, I would have been alright, but seeing her again is doing bad things to my head.�

�Who is she really?� Jesse asked, curious. �What you�ve said about her doesn�t match up with what you�ve just said.�

�I�ve explained this to Emma, but I don�t really think she understood. Even with her powers, I don�t think she can understand. Like I told her, Claudia and I grew up together. We were inseparable in school. The last time I saw her was the party after I got my doctorate. This was shortly before I started working at Genomex. She never did approve of my work in genetics, but it was what I enjoyed, so she never really said anything more than that. My memories of that night are very vague as I was quite drunk at the time.�

�You? Drunk?� Jesse asked incredulously.

Adam scowled. �That�s the same reaction I got from Emma. Why is it so difficult to believe that I was young once, too? You went back to 1978. You saw that for yourself.�

�Sorry.�

�Anyways, looking back on that night, I think that I must have been starting to fall for her. Seeing her again was quite the shock as you can imagine. I don�t even know why I�m telling you all this. Maybe I�m just trying to keep you from making the same mistake I did. I don�t know what I did to make her hate me so much, but I wish I did. If you really do have feelings for Honor, let her know.�

�How?� Jesse had a pained look in his eyes. �I haven�t been able to get out of Sanctuary.�

�There�s no reason for you to stay here. Jesse, you�re a healthy young man. Don�t be embarrassed. No one here will hold it against you if you want to go and see her.�

�Are you serious?�

�Quite.� Adam smiled again. �Is there anything more pressing to do around here? If you stay, you�ll mope. The coordinates for her house should still be in the Helix�s computer. Take a car and go. If there�s an emergency, we can get a hold of you through your com ring.�

Jesse hesitated a moment before getting up. He grabbed a jacket and took off, leaving a stunned Adam behind. After a moment, he chuckled softly and stood up himself.

�That was way too easy,� he said to himself as he walked back towards his lab. �If only the solution to my problem was so simple.�
With the location of Honor�s house clutched in his hot little hands, he took one of the cars in the garage and took off as fast as he could. It had taken very little urging to get him to do this. He was kicking himself for not doing this earlier. He turned the radio on, letting the tunes blare. As he drove, he prayed that she didn�t reject him. If she did, he�d deal, but he�d rather not have to go through that again.

He pulled up to her house and immediately got the feeling that there was something very wrong. Things were too quiet. When they�d dropped her off three days ago, the house had been bustling but now it looked dead. He got out and went up to the front door. Seeing that it was open slightly, he pushed it the rest of the way open and looked inside. His eyes widened in shock.

On the ground in front of him were members of the household staff, all of them dead. The smell was intolerable.
�Is anyone here? Hello?� he called out, trying to determine if anyone was still alive. He raced around and looked in all of the rooms, and saw the same carnage everywhere. When he reached the second floor, he heard a muted weeping sound and followed it to its source. He paused in front of a large door, hesitating a moment before cautiously pushing the door open. The sound got a little louder. He went in.

Jesse looked around. Against one wall was a large four poster bed, a vanity on the other beside a desk that had a closed laptop sitting on it beside a large stack of papers. There were several bookshelves against the far wall containing books of varying sizes and degrees of use. It looked like a girl�s room, but lacked the posters of attractive young men that would have normally decorated rooms like this. Instead, there was a large poster of a reclining Russian Blue cat and several framed photos. Stuck into the corners of the vanity were snap shots of people he assumed were the friends of whoever lived here.

On the other side of the vanity was a small table with a large framed picture of a smiling couple. The woman looked very familiar, as did the little girl perched in the man�s lap. In front of it were several candles in various stages of use and a zippo with something engraved on its surface. He didn�t look closer at it.

He followed the source of the sound into a private bathroom. The door was hinged to open towards him, so he turned the handle and pulled. Locked. The sound of crying stopped instantly. Acting solely on impulse, he broke the door down, getting a terrified shriek out of whoever was in there.

He saw nothing at first, but when he turned to look at the bathtub, he saw a figure wrapped in a thick blanket. He approached slowly and placed a light hand on its shoulder, causing it to flinch.

�Are you ok?� he asked softly.

The figure relaxed an looked up, peeking at him from behind the heavy folds. �Jesse? Is that you?�

Shocked, he pulled the blanket back. �Honor! What happened here?� He helped her up out of the tub.

Clearly, she wasn�t listening as she threw herself into his arms, weeping hysterically. Unsure of what else to do, he picked her up and took her over to the bed. Lying her down beside him, he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry, stroking her hair and whispering reassurances into her ear. Her sobbing slowed and died, replaced by the sounds of sleep. Sighing, he got up and retrieved the blanket from the bathroom, draping it over her. Satisfied that she would be asleep for some time, he activated his com.

�Adam, we have a serious problem here,� he said, hurriedly. �It�s a massacre down here. As far as I can tell, everyone�s dead except for Honor.�

�We�ll be right there,� Adam replied. �Do what you can for her for the time being.�

In the meantime, Jesse went back to the kitchen and grabbed as much food and drink as he could carry, bringing it back to the room. He was unsure as to how long she�d been in there. The others arrived faster than he would have thought possible and raced up the stairs to the room, finding Jesse sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking Honor�s hair.

�What happened here?� Emma asked. She was clearly shaken.

Jesse shook his head. �I don�t know. She hasn�t said anything. Not that I blame her. I have no idea how long she was in that bathroom before I got here. I got here; she identified me and promptly cried herself to sleep. She hasn�t moved an inch since then.�

Brennan shook her head. �Who would do this?�

�I�m more interested in who would leave her alive and yet kill everyone else,� Emma told him.

Adam looked up, a though crossing his mind. �Wait, Claudia lives here, too, doesn�t she?�

�Such was my understanding,� Jesse said, watching Adam take off down the hallway, looking in and rejecting room after room until he went into one further down. They went after him.

This room looked like it had been ransacked. There were blood stains on the carpet and foot sized holes in the walls. Unlike the rest of the house, it lacked a corpse. It was furnished much like the other room, but the colors were darker. On one wall was a large painting of a house. Beside it was a similarly sized painting of a large black horse.

�What�s the deal, Adam?� Brennan asked.

�This is her room,� he replied, looking around.

�And you know this�how?� Shalimar asked.

�I know those paintings. That was the house she grew up in and that horse painting won first place at a summer fair when we were teenagers.� He indicated the prominent color in the room. �Purple is her favorite color. Besides that, this is the year book from the year we graduated with our bachelor�s degrees.� He picked the black book up off her bedside table. He fingered the cover before flipping it open to a specific page. �Here.�

The four mutants crowded around him to look at the picture. It was of Adam and Claudia sitting in what they assumed was a library. They appeared to be studying.

�This was taken a few weeks before finals,� he explained. �Claudia was having trouble with some math problems, so I was helping her in exchange for some help in music.�

�You had problems in school?� Shalimar asked incredulously.

�I�m tone deaf.�

�We�ve learned more about you in the last three days than we�ve learned in the last year,� Emma commented.

�If you don�t mind, I�d like to be left alone here.� He suddenly sounded very tired.

�Sure, that�s no problem.� Brennan ushered the others out and back into Honor�s room.

After they�d left, Adam sank to the floor clutching the yearbook to his chest. His throat tightened. He wanted to cry. For the first time in years he felt the uncontrollable urge to cry. He feared the worst, that his best friend was dead. If she�d never come back into his life again, if he�d never known that she was still alive, this wouldn�t have been a problem. Seeing her again had brought up all of the things that he�d started to feel the last time. If she was really was dead this time, he had no idea how he�d react. The loss would be unbearable.

He stood and walked over to her vanity and looked at the items scattered over its surface. There weren�t many, but they told volumes about her. Her grad ring sat in its velvet lined box. The lid was open. Her mother�s pearls were in another open box. Gemstone pendants, a couple bracelets, a Celtic knot pendant, and the arm band she�d always worn were spread out in no particular order. He frowned. Her favorite ring, a plain circle of black hematite, and the jade pendant he�d given her for her birthday one year were missing.

He pulled a picture out from the frame of the vanity. It was very old and faded, but he could clearly make out a scene from her sixth birthday party. No one from school had wanted to come, so it had been just the two of them. It had been fun nonetheless.

That made little sense to him. If she hated him so much, why was that picture up there? Why was her yearbook where it had been? All of these mementos from the past out in plain view. Was this a set up perhaps? He shook his head. That wasn�t like her.

He sighed and sat down on the soft bed. Something else on the table caught his eye. He picked it up. It was a friendship ring. He had an identical one back in his room. They�d bought them in College on a whim. He would have thought that she�d thrown it out. None of this made any sense. He lingered a few more minutes before absentmindedly pocketing the ring, returning the photo, and leaving the room to join the others.
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A Matter of Honor