A/N: Dum...Dumm..Dumm...This is the second to the last chapter...I'm winding down
on this one and starting another one.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Alexis poked at her breakfast disinterestedly and said, "What are your plans Stavros? I'm on a tight schedule and you are wasting my time."

Stavros scowled, "I don't know where this attitude came from but I don't like it, we move according to my schedule and under my rules. And on another note, my mother is coming out of hiding today, I need her by my side and seeing as how she appears to be worthless in anything else that I have her do she's better under my wing. Tell me about our son Zander."

Alexis groaned in disbelief, "Do I really have to tell you about Zander? Didn't you have enough information to know what he's about, and what he stands for? I'm not going to waste my time in useless conversations."

Stavros slammed his cup down on the table and had the pleasure of watching Alexis flinch, "I'm tired of your carefree demeanor, I will have your fear if nothing else. I think I deserve it after everything we have been through don't you?"

Alexis leaned back, "Did you know I was sick while I was gone from your side? I retreated inside of myself emotionally to deal with everything that had been thrust upon me in the last couple of months and you know I came to a realization."

Stavros crossed his arms in question, "Really, I'm interested to hear what this wonderful realization was. Do tell, dear fiancée of mine, do tell."

Alexis smirked at him, "I came to the realization that I hold all the cards in this game. If at any time, I choose to I can have Sonny, Luke or any of the other Cassadines I have with me sweep my family to an undisclosed location and I can take the throne from you. I could be the one running all of this and all I have to do is to prove that you couldn't possibly be the son of Mikkos Cassadine."

Stavros felt the smile fall from his face, "And how do you propose on doing that?"

Alexis leaned forward, "It's actually very simple, it's another one of those trump cards that I hold. You see I have the DNA of my father of file and there's nothing you can do to destroy it. A simple DNA test should prove paternity and then dear Stavros we can see who will be left standing and I promise you that it won't be you."

Stavros threw his napkin down on the table and stalked over to her in anger and jerked her arm to his side, "And you think I'll just let you do all of this and what sit back with a smile on my face? What kind of fool do you take me for Alexis?"

Alexis met his anger with hers head on, "A big fool if you didn't know what you were up against, didn't you find it interesting that Zander magically appeared out of nowhere right when I needed him. Didn't you find it interesting that Luke, Stefan and myself joined forces to take you down and it's all of us and another person against you and you don't even know the identity of the mystery person who's moving all the strings behind the scenes." Alexis was grateful that she had been able to get away and make a phone call to Luke only to find out about the revival of her father and what it meant to their little game.

Stavros dropped her arm and said, "And I suppose you are just dying to tell me who this mystery person is so you can what? Destroy me, kill me or so say you dethrone me."

The door opened and Stavros was left speechless as Helena Cassadine was pushed inside the door with Mikkos behind her with a gun trained on her back. The next moment happened as if in slow motion as Stavros dragged Alexis to his side and swiped the knife from the table and held it steadfast at her throat as the two men stared each other down.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"The kids are still sleeping."

Sonny nodded even as Carly came and sat down next to him and sighed as she sipped on her cup of coffee.

He turned to her in question, "What are you doing out here? I thought you would be preparing for the days events."

Carly shrugged, "Last I heard we were all in a holding pattern until we hear more from Luke and Stefan. I just needed a moment of peace to ponder where I go from here."

Sonny stopped his own thoughts of Alexis and said, "Where you go from here? What are you talking about Carly?"

Carly motioned indoors, "Jason and Kristina are together, together and I have to learn how to live without Jason in my life."

Sonny scowled at the thought of Kristina in Jason's arms but put that thought process on the backburner so he could focus on what was at hand which was that Carly thought she needed to live without Jason in her life, "Carly even when Jason was in any relationship you were still his friend and you were happy for him when you weren't insanely jealous."

Carly shrugged, "I always want what I can't have. I had just decided to be in love with him again when he started falling for her and I knew that he deserved it, he deserves this Sonny. I've taking so much from him, I took the chance from him to have a normal life alongside a normal woman who can give him the children he wants and the love that he deserves without having to worry about the latest scheme she will get into that will probably and them all in jail, I just had to come to the realization that I can't ask anything of Jason because I've asked too much of him already."

Sonny started to laugh softly and Carly slapped his arm, "I'm pouring my heart out to you here and you laugh? You laugh seriously?"

Sonny chuckled at her anger, "Carly I never thought I would see the day that you would grow up. You are growing up and putting your needs behind those of the man that you love, it's a wonderful sight to see and although I know its hard you have to look at the benefits. You will be able to see Jason truly happy for the first time in his life and that's something that he deserves, that we all deserve and you will be fine your gorgeous and deserve to be with a man who loves you completely and without reservations and has a large bank account and an never ending amount of patience, hey I wonder if the pope is single?"

Carly shot him a look full of daggers as she stood up and went back into the house, "Funny Corinthos, very funny."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"You know this is almost comical," Alexis spoke up from her position against Stavros's chest with a knife trained on her jugular, "No I'm serious. Here I am being held by my rapist and the father of my child while my father has a gun trained on the woman who gave birth to my rapist. This could only be a Lifetime movie. Now really, are we going to talk about this like civilized adults or is there going to be bloodshed?"

Mikkos felt the stirrings of pride touch his heart as his daughter bravely confronted the memories of her mother's death even while a knife was trained on her jugular. "Stavros it's your move, just now that if one ounce of my daughter's blood is spilt I will kill your mother without hesitation."

Stavros tightened his grip on Alexis as he held her steadfast against his chest and Stavros smirked at the man who had been his father for all those years and said, "Kill her, what do I care? She can never do anything right. She obviously didn't warn me that you were alive and in transit to the house, so she's expendable to me."

Helena met his crazed eyes with her disbelieving ones, "Stavros, my darling. All I've ever done is for your benefit, you can't be serious."

Stavros scowled, "I asked you to ensure that the bastard that I created with this one be dealt with appropriately and what do you do? You allow him to live for all these years and actually forge a bond with her and then when you decide to have him murdered you can't even do that right. He was never to have been born, you are a constant disappointment to me and whether you live or die is of no consequence to me."

Alexis smirked from her position on Stavros's chest at Helena, "You really struck a winner with this one Helena. Not only does he despise you, he retains all of your faults and parades them in front of you as a reminder of how incompetent you really are. I can't wait to tell Stefan about how worthless you really are and how he needn't have worried about what you thought of him because you were a non-event anyway."

Stavros jerked her against him tighter and sighed uninterestedly, "I grow tired of these games," He ran the knife against her throat but not enough to cut her vocal cords but enough to draw blood.

Alexis met Mikkos's eyes as she wondered about his next move. Was he going to allow Helena to live or was he going to be true to his promise and shoot her?

Alexis didn't have to wait long as Helena fell to the floor moaning in agony holding on to her bleeding leg.

Stavros rolled his eyes as he stared at Mikkos, "Not even that you could do right. Why didn't you shoot her in the heart? It's painless and less messy that way."

Mikkos trained the gun on him as Alexis reached for the napkin on the table to stop the bleeding that was trickling from her neck. "For one reason dear son of mine, I want her to suffer. A quick and painless death is too easy for her, it's too easy for the both of you, what I have planned for you is going to last a long time."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Thoughts Please:)