Final chapter! I hope it's not too scattered. Thank you all so much for reading - especially those of you who commented along the way. You guys are the reason I keep coming back! :)

I'm working on another two-part fic at the moment, so I will be back! Add me to your author alerts and the instant it's up, you'll know! :)

Thanks again! Lisa xx

x

"I can sign them, Gi. It won't take long."

"Thanks, Ma-Ti." Gi leaned back into her seat tiredly. The doctors weren't happy about her checking out, but Gi and Ma-Ti wanted to get out and find the others.

Kwame had said the geo-cruiser wasn't up to the flight back to Russia and then on to Hope Island, so Gi and Ma-Ti were joining them in London.

She waited quietly for Ma-Ti to finish dealing with the forms and the police. They'd found no evidence of Plunder having taken anyone else, but there were phone records to Robert, and the payment Linka had made in exchange for Wheeler. The cards Gaia had provided them with had been more than enough to convince the Russian government that the Planeteers were a genuine international agency.

There was an international alert out for Plunder's arrest.

Gi looked up automatically as the elevator chimed.

"Mishka?" She straightened up in surprise.

He looked down at her with a slightly anxious expression. "You," he said. "Gi?"

"Yeah. Is everything okay?"

He looked around – presumably for Linka.

"She's not here," Gi said. "She's in London."

"Ah," Mishka said, nodding. "Da, good."

Gi glared at him. "Nice."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "And you – what has happened?"

"Bullet in the shoulder," she said. "I'm fine."

"And Linka?" He put his hands in his pockets, standing there awkwardly. "She is not hurt?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Gi asked in exasperation. "She's been through so much, Mishka. I couldn't possibly begin to explain it to you."

He shrugged again.

Gi squinted up at him. "So what are you doing here?" she asked. "Everything okay?"

"Oh," he said, motioning towards the elevator. "Da. Natalya is in."

"Is the baby okay?" Gi asked. "Has she had it?"

"Nyet, she has not had it yet. There is a high heartbeat. They are keeping her in to make sure everything is all right."

Gi nodded. "When is she due?"

"Uh – two months." After a moment he took the chair next to her, sitting quietly. "Are you here alone?" he asked. "The other Planeteers are in London?"

"Ma-Ti is here, somewhere," Gi said, nodding towards the front desk. "He's signing me out, and trying to convince the police we're not criminals."

Mishka nodded.

"So do you know what you're having?" Gi asked curiously. "A son or a daughter?"

"A son," Mishka said softly, smiling.

Gi nodded and got to her feet as she saw Ma-Ti appear at the end of the corridor. "Well, I hope everything goes well," she said. "Maybe one day he'll have a little sister too."

Mishka blinked and looked down at the floor. "Da, maybe."

"Why don't you just call her?" Gi asked softly. "Just to say hello. Just to ask if she's okay. This mission..." She shook her head, and she sounded tearful when she spoke again. "It was bad, Mishka. Dangerous, and scary. Especially for Linka."

He dug around in his coat pocket and pulled out a rumpled envelope. "Could you give her this?" he asked, handing it to Gi.

"It's not going to make her feel awful, is it?" Gi asked coldly.

He shook his head. "It is an apology," he said. "But..." He sighed, and avoided her eyes. "Things are still going to be difficult for me," he said. "I am not ready to talk to her just yet. Just give her the note, please." He gave her a slightly apologetic look and walked past her and out the door.

"Was that Mishka?" Ma-Ti asked, joining Gi.

"Yeah." She turned the letter over in her hand and tucked it into her pocket. "Come on. We've got to get to the airport."

x

"My ring would not work," Linka whispered. "I thought that proved everything..."

"Maybe Ma-Ti has an answer for that," Wheeler murmured tiredly. He stroked her hair.

He had never been so exhausted. He felt as though he was about to collapse, and there were moments where he seemed to wake up and realise he'd been dozing with his eyes open. Things shifted and swam in front of him, and his head throbbed.

The airport hummed around them busily, but he and Linka stood still, holding one another tightly as they waited for Gi and Ma-Ti to arrive.

"There they are," Kwame sighed gratefully, waving at the Water and Heart Planeteers as they emerged from the terminal. He felt an instant wave of relief now that the team was together again.

They all embraced, Linka and Gi huddled securely in the middle.

"Can we go home?" Gi croaked. "I'm done. Fuck Plunder."

Wheeler snorted and Linka let out a choked laugh. "Da, I want to go home too."

"Me too," Kwame breathed. "Come on." He took Gi's hand and the others followed them out of the airport.

"Where's the geo-cruiser?" Gi asked.

"Not far. Away from the airspace. It's shielded from sight on satellites and computers, but not from the eyes of regular people," Kwame said, leading her along. "We had to hide it."

Gi just nodded tiredly as they waited in the long line for a cab.

Ma-Ti fumbled in his pocket as his phone rang. "Great," he muttered, glancing at the screen. "I bet this is the Russian police trying to arrest me."

The others snickered, their combined mood bordering on hysteria. Linka leaned heavily against Wheeler, convinced that she was asleep and just the barest instincts were keeping her upright. She had stopped paying attention to anything – trusting Wheeler to sweep her along and get her home safely.

Something snapped her back to awareness, however.

Ma-Ti had shut his phone and sighed, turning to the others. "They've found Plunder just outside of London. They're bringing him into the city. We've got to go in."

"Now?" Gi asked weakly. Kwame put his arm around her.

Ma-Ti shrugged. "In the morning. We may as well get a room for the night and get it all over and done with tomorrow."

Wheeler sighed. "When this is over, I'm takin' time off and I'm not leaving the beach on Hope Island. I don't care what Gaia says."

"I'll back you up," Gi muttered.

x

Time slide by, skipping like a record. Wheeler had very little recollection of the time spent in the hotel. He could remember arriving, and the desk clerk looking at him like he was a drug addict. When he'd looked in the bathroom mirror he'd realised he looked like one. He and Linka had simply tumbled into bed and curled around one another, not waking until Ma-Ti had hammered on their door fourteen hours later.

Now Wheeler and Ma-Ti were sipping lukewarm coffee out of cardboard cups in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for Gi and Kwame. Linka was asleep on Wheeler's shoulder.

"Hey Ma-Ti, tell me somethin'," Wheeler murmured.

"What is it?" Ma-Ti asked quietly.

"Linka's ring wouldn't work after Plunder pushed me out of the helicopter. How come?"

"She thought you were dead," Ma-Ti answered, glancing towards Linka. "She had already convinced herself the rings weren't going to work because you weren't there to support their power anymore. Same reason she shut her mind against me. On one hand, it was just too painful to have a connection to me when she was grieving so hard – and on the other, she didn't really believe she'd hear me anyway, because you were gone and the connection we all have was broken."

Wheeler kissed the top of Linka's head. "Is there any way we can get out of doing this?" he asked, referring to their impending meeting with the police.

"Don't think so," Ma-Ti sighed. "I'll try and speed things up where I can, but I usually find it difficult to influence people of the law, for some reason."

"Probably something to do with your complicated morals," Wheeler muttered, draining the last of his coffee as Kwame and Gi finally arrived.

"Sorry," Gi apologised, yawning. "Hard to get dressed with just one arm working."

Wheeler glanced towards Linka. "She was gonna come in and help but she's –"

Gi shook her head. "I got it, it's okay. Let's go and get this over and done with."

x

Thanks, little buddy, Wheeler thought tiredly to Ma-Ti as he and Linka finally emerged from the interview room. Ma-Ti gave him a slight nod in response, looking tired.

"We don't usually allow that, you know," the detective muttered to Wheeler. "Having the two of you give your statements in the same room like that."

Wheeler squeezed Linka's hand. "We appreciate you making an exception," he answered.

"You should get some sleep," the detective said, squinting at Wheeler now that they were in the bright lights of the waiting room. "How long have you been awake?"

"Years," Wheeler sighed. "But I want to ask another favour."

"Can't say I'm really in a position to grant you one," the detective answered.

Linka looked up at Wheeler curiously.

"I want to get a message to Plunder. To see him."

"No way," the detective scoffed.

Wheeler almost staggered as he felt the force of Ma-Ti's message.

Allow it. Just this once.

"I mean – I couldn't, it'd jeopardise the whole thing," the detective stammered, his eyes darting around as though searching for the strange voice he'd heard.

Allow it. There will be no problems.

Baffled, the detective shrugged.

Wheeler sat Linka down in the seat between Gi and Kwame, who was dozing in the corner.

"Stay here?" he asked.

She nodded. "I do not want to see him. Be careful."

"Yeah." He kissed the top of her head. "Love you. Be back in two minutes."

Gi took Linka's hand and they watched Wheeler follow the detective out of the room, towards the final interview room. The room where Plunder remained after being interrogated and charged.

He sat in a chair in dark coveralls, his hands handcuffed in front of him. He looked up in surprise when Wheeler was shown in.

"Your hair's looking a bit flat today," Wheeler said, standing aside for the guard to step into the room with him.

"Full-body conditioner isn't allowed in prison, I'm told," Plunder answered, raising his eyebrow. "But speaking of appearances, you look like you've had less sleep than I have."

"Trouble sleeping?" Wheeler asked, glaring down at him.

"Last night I saw Bleak naked." Plunder blanched. "Tell me you'd sleep soundly after seeing that."

"Ugh." Wheeler clutched his stomach and leaned against the wall.

"How's blondie?" Plunder asked smugly.

Wheeler clenched his fists, knowing that if he touched Plunder in here he'd probably be thrown in jail alongside him.

"Feelin' better now we're about to go home," Wheeler answered. "She's out there." He nodded his head towards the main office.

"And she didn't want to come and say hello?"

"Not particularly," Wheeler said coldly. "Got your defence all sorted out, Plunder?"

"I have something up my sleeve," Plunder answered haughtily. "We'll meet again."

"Maybe," Wheeler conceded, staring down at the floor. "The world seems to be like that, these days. The bad guys are winning a lot more than they used to."

"It's a glorious time for us all," Plunder said dryly.

"I wanted to come clean," Wheeler said. "About Baryshnikov."

"Ah, how you got away? Do tell. It was the one thing that dampened the whole experience, really. Well, that, and having two Planeteers survive after I was sure they had been killed."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Wheeler muttered.

Plunder smirked.

"So you really haven't woken up to it?" Wheeler asked, folding his arms across his chest.

Plunder blinked. "Woken up to what?"

"Baryshnikov. Under that fur coat and the wig and the makeup and the eye contacts, she looks exactly like my wife."

Plunder gaped at him, before his face went purple and he leapt at Wheeler in a rage.

"No!" he roared. "It wasn't her! Impossible!"

He was wrestled back into his seat by the guard.

Wheeler leaned down and looked Plunder in the eye – he was breathing heavily and his eyes were bulging. His face still looked purple.

"Big mistake, underestimating Polina Vetrova," Wheeler whispered. "Don't ever do it again."

Plunder barked a short laugh. "Next time I won't hesitate," he snarled. "Next time she's dead before she hits the ground."

The guard cleared his throat. "Time to go, I think, Mr. Armstrong."

Wheeler smirked. "Yeah. Next time, Plunder. Next time, you're barbeque. Remember that."

x

"Hey, what happened to Robert?" Gi asked tiredly, shifting her head slightly against Ma-Ti's shoulder.

Wheeler smirked. "He cracked as soon as the police showed up. Confessed everything. He's got a whole heap of other charges against him too, thanks to what he did trying to blackmail Plunder."

"I have never looked forward to the end of a mission so much," Kwame sighed. "We are almost home."

"Good thing, too," Wheeler said anxiously, glancing at the flashing lights across the control panel in front of him. "The geo-cruiser looks like she's on her last legs."

He glanced over his shoulder at Linka. She was still asleep, curled up in her seat beneath his jacket.

The geo-cruiser shuddered, and Kwame and Wheeler both winced, gripping the controls nervously.

"There," Kwame breathed with relief, pointing. Hope Island had just come into view, shimmering on the horizon.

"Oh, home," Gi mumbled, letting her head fall back onto Ma-Ti's shoulder. "Bed."

"Bed," the others echoed gratefully.

Linka jerked awake and looked around, disorientated.

"Hey babe," Wheeler said, feeling cheerful all of a sudden. "Just in time to help us land."

She rolled her eyes. "You can handle that on your own, I think, Yankee. Are there any lights up there that are not flashing?"

"The auto-pilot," he answered, quick-as-a-flash.

Regardless of the geo-cruiser's battered condition, Kwame managed to land them gently on Hope Island's landing pad.

They all clambered out gratefully, realising that finally, it was over, and they were home.

Gaia was waiting for them, looking worried. "Are you all right?" she asked them, hurrying forward.

"We're okay," Gi answered, smiling bravely. "But can we have some time off, please?"

Linka started laughing, but then burst into tears, and they all huddled together, sinking to the ground as one and leaning towards Gaia as she knelt and opened her arms.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I had no idea it was going to be so dangerous and so difficult."

"It's not your fault, Gaia," Wheeler answered tiredly. "We know you'd never do anything to hurt us."

She sighed and reached over and tousled his hair gently, like an affectionate mother. "You should all get some sleep," she said. "Don't worry about anything. Just recover."

Kwame sent a stern look towards Gi. "Some of us may need the help of a hospital."

"I'm fine," Gi promised, wiping tears from her eyes. "I just need to lie down. And you can fly me back to the hospital at any time in the geo-copter."

She remembered Mishka, suddenly, and dug around in her pocket. "Linka," she whispered. "Here."

Linka took the envelope without really looking at it. "What is it?" she asked.

"An apology," Gi said, squeezing her hand. "From your brother."

x

"Want to be alone?" Wheeler asked, stroking Linka's damp hair.

She shook her head. Showered, towelled, and dressed in an old t-shirt and cotton briefs, she was sitting cross-legged on the bed, Mishka's letter in her hands.

"It is dated so long ago," she said. "He wrote it and carried it around with him."

Wheeler kissed her forehead. "Are you going to read it?"

"I do not think I could take it, if it turned out to be bad news," she said tearfully.

"Gi said it was an apology," Wheeler whispered.

Linka nodded, and braced herself before easing the envelope open. Wheeler stretched out on the bed beside her, bare-chested, and she lay alongside him and rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder as she unfolded the single sheet of paper inside.

"What does it say?" he asked gently, smoothing his hand over her hair.

"My dear Linka, please forgive me," she whispered. "I am sorry for causing such a rift between us. I hope one day I may have the courage to bridge it again. Love to you always, Mishka."

Wheeler sighed and held her as she sobbed. "Wish he'd had the courage to elaborate a little," he grumbled.

"It is hard for him to admit mistakes," she whispered, wiping her eyes. "This is more than I ever expected from him."

Wheeler kissed the top of her head. "You okay?"

She burrowed into him. "I need sleep," she answered softly.

"Me too." He reached over to the end of the bed and doubled the blanket over, pulling it over their bodies. "Sweet dreams, babe."

She kissed his bare skin drowsily. "You too, Yankee."

x

"I vote we retire," Gi muttered, easing herself down onto her back, pillowing her head against Kwame's leg.

"It has been three days, and you have complained of boredom at least a hundred times," Kwame answered.

"I'll get used to it," she answered, closing her eyes. "Doing nothing is nice."

"Compared to our last mission, yes," Ma-Ti agreed. "But something will come up. An oil spill, or deforestation, or –"

"Dude, stop," Wheeler groaned. "I'm not ready for any of that yet."

"I don't expect you to be," Gaia answered, joining them. They were all sprawled on the sand watching the waves roll in as the sun set.

"No deadline for going back to work then?" Wheeler asked, absent-mindedly tracing patterns on Linka's arm as she leaned against him.

"Take as long as you want," Gaia answered. "If you decide you won't ever be ready to go back –"

"Gaia!" Linka said in amazement, sitting up straight. "Of course we are not giving up..."

"Not recovering is not the same as giving up," Gaia clarified gently. "But I'm glad to hear you say that, Linka."

"It's gonna be a while before I'm back to normal," Gi sighed, motioning towards her injured shoulder with her good arm.

"No hurry," Wheeler muttered. Of everyone, he was the least eager to get back to work – though nobody seemed to be expressing serious desire for things to go back to normal.

"Just rest," Gaia answered, leaving them again. "Recover."

"Recover," Linka sighed. "I am not sure that is fully possible."

Wheeler kissed her temple. "We'll be okay."

"We have each other," Ma-Ti agreed, taking Linka's hand. "We will always be okay."

Gi groaned. "Do you have to be such an optimist all the time?"

Kwame chuckled and put his hand gently over her mouth. "I am agreeing with Ma-Ti," he said. "We are together. That is enough."

Linka nodded and squeezed Wheeler's hand, smiling up at him. "More than enough," she whispered.

x

THE END