Chapter 36: "Where there's a will, there's a way."

When the light slowly faded, or perhaps when his eyes finally got used to it, Nikko looked around him. Wherever he was, it certainly was not in the dark, barely held together depths of a ruined temple in the midst of a South American rainforest. There was a floor below his feet – he could feel it – but he could see no walls, no floor, no ceiling: only luminous white light. Four figures hung in that light, so still they might be dead, yet their skin glowed faintly with the promise of life. Nikko looked from one face to another, picking out the tiny details that identified each individual. He knew them all. Well, he knew one. He recognised the other three.

"Mom?" Nikko fought the trembling hoarse voice that escaped when he reached the fourth figure. It was his mother, as healthy as the day he had last seen her, if perhaps a little older. Not much though. Not as much as she should be. But then, the other three couldn't be as young as they appeared either. Not if what he knew about them was true. A faint noise called his attention back to the well-loved face before him. "Mom?"

Haley stirred, her eyes opening as if from peaceful slumber. She looked down upon the young man watching her with bated breath. She frowned, studying his features. "Nikko?" Her hand drifted up to her son's face. "I dreamed of you like this…"

"I don't think that was a dream, Mom," Nikko told her, raising his arms to help his mother descend the invisible step to his level. Instantly, Haley's legs buckled under her. Nikko's arms tightened around her, lifting her back to her feet.

"How long has it been?" Haley gasped, shifting her grip to around her son's shoulders.

"Too long, Mom," murmured Nikko, "too long."

"He said it would be longer than it seemed," sighed Haley, persuading her feet to take a few tentative steps forward.

Nikko frowned. "Who did, Mom? Who said that?"

"The man," Haley frowned. "The fourth man. The one who gave me his space."

"A man like these guys?" Nikko asked, pointing up at the three silent figures they were now passing.

Haley looked up and nodded, a smile flickering over her face. "Yes. You know who they are?"

"Yeah, your friend looked me up in New York two years ago," scoffed her son. "He could have mentioned you!"

"They're guardians," Haley smiled, looking over her son again. "They guard the doorways. The man you met: he guarded the door where I disappeared. When I touched the sun carving and it brought me here, it woke him up. He was confused at first. He said it should have killed me. But here I was, so he said I must be here for a reason. I asked him, begged him, to send me back. I told him about you. About how I had a husband and a son out there, waiting for me, or mourning for me. But he said that wasn't my path now. He promised me he would watch over you. Seemed to think you were important. He insisted I was here for a reason. Put me into stasis where you found me. Promised you would find me, if he was right about you. But he wouldn't say more. Only that it wouldn't seem so long this way."

"I don't suppose he told you how to get out of here?" Nikko wondered aloud, searching the blank light for some sign of an exit. "Or even where 'here' is, for that matter?"

Haley shook her head. "He just said that was the wrong question, or something like that…"

"That's not the question?" Nikko supplied, shoulders dropping in resignation.

"Yeah, that was it," Haley nodded, looking round. "You've definitely met him then!"

"Yeah, Dad was after a crystal skull that had showed up at auction and this guy turned up. I thought he was nuts at first, but then…"

"Turned out not so much?"

"Yeah," Nikko nodded. "So he put you into stasis somehow, then he left."

"I was already out by that point," added Haley. "I have no idea how he got out."

"No, but at least we know there's a way," shrugged her son. "Plus, I got here a different way from you. Maybe we can use that. Either way, if he got out, so can we."

"I guess so," his mother agreed. "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Nikko blinked, his eyes turning to focus on something entirely internal. "Yeah," he murmured. "Maybe you're right."

XXXX

9 days after the fall

Calvin knew he was not the only one to spot the difference in the screams. His guards, who had been lounging against the furniture around him, were suddenly alert, like dogs hearing the rattle of the door at dinner time. Their eyes were fixed on the door Righetti had vanished through. Their hands were on their guns. Whoever the next person through that door was, Calvin thought, they had better be one hell of a shot.

He forgot who he was dealing with. The guards didn't even have time to turn round.

"Vincent!" Cal called, spotting the familiar figure at the far door. "Over here!"

Vincent waited until he was by Cal's side to ask how he was.

"I'm fine," he replied, rubbing the red rings around his wrists where the ropes had been. "They needed me. They have Juliet, though…"

"Not any more," smirked Vincent, confirming his comrade's hopes. The smirk turned into a smile when he saw Calvin's body relax in relief. "She is safe, Calvin."

"I heard her scream…"

The older man's features darkened. "So did I. I assure you, her assailant found her injuries revisited on him with interest. He will not be hurting anyone else."

"Righetti's dead?" Cal queried.

"I am afraid I neglected to pause for introductions," Vincent growled. "If you mean the worm in the suit, however: no. He managed to wriggle away while we dealt with his underlings. It appears he prefers not to sully his own hands with such work."

"We? Professor Zond?"

Vincent shook his head. "Maggie and Solomon are still in Jerusalem. We did not think it wise to leave the dig unsupervised. No, my companion on this mission is not one I expected to stand beside in such circumstances. Nevertheless: he fought well enough and did not get in my way. He is with Juliet now."

"Nikko?" Cal frowned, now utterly confused.

Vincent shook his head. "A Mister Anthony Blake. The man Juliet has been seeing since last Christmas."

Cal felt his heart sink like a millstone. "Wait, what's he doing here? How did he even know where we were?"

"He claims he has a friend who owed him a favour and, as he had been expecting Juliet home some time ago and could not get any response from his attempts to contact her, decided to use said favour to track her down himself. He arrived at the dig site as I was preparing to leave and insisted he accompany me."

"And that doesn't strike you as odd?" Cal frowned.

Vincent looked at Cal and smiled. It was a smile he'd seen before. Too often!

"Of course it did," Calvin sighed. "Okay, let's get out of here. Where are they?"

Barely an hour later, after a brief stop to pay their hotel bills, and a bit extra to cover the damage, Calvin found himself sitting in the familiar surroundings of the foundation's jet, Vincent opposite him studying a chessboard. His eyes kept straying to the couple sitting further up the plane, and every time he dragged them back to the board. Juliet was with Anthony. She was happy with Anthony. He had come looking for her when she was in danger. He had found her, rescued her even!

And he had made Vincent suspicious of him.

Maybe it was Vincent's job to be suspicious of people, but if nothing else it would mean a substantial background check. Vincent had friends that owed him favours too.

XXXX

Darkness descended like a light switch had been flicked off somewhere. Perhaps it had. A switch of some kind, anyway. In the gloom, Nikko relied on his other senses while his eyes caught up. He could feel the cold stone under his hand, the raised lines of the star familiar and exactly where they had been before. It was as though his body had remained in the ruins, frozen, while his mind travelled to wherever he had been. Perhaps it had. Whatever had happened, he was certain of one thing: his mother had returned with him. She still leant on him, but she was there, and she was alive, and they were back. The scent of mouldering stone and rotting vegetation was just as he remembered it, though the temperature had dropped somewhat.

The shadowy world around them faded back into focus. Nikko turned, glancing up at the barely stable ceiling. Wherever he had gone, the structure around them had stayed up at least. How long would it hold, though?

"Come on, Mom: let's get out of here," Nikko muttered, steering them both towards the exit.

To say the others were surprised at Nikko's, and more especially Haley's, return would be to miss a perfect opportunity to use the word flabbergasted, though astounded or astonished would work too. None of them had met Haley before her disappearance, but they all knew her well enough from her photos and artefacts, and the numerous stories that Nikko, Solomon, and most often Maggie had told of her. Night had fallen fully while Nikko had been in the temple, so after some hurried introductions, Vincent led them back to camp.

"Do we stay here tonight or head back to the jet?" Calvin asked, one arm around Haley, supporting her on her other side.

"Doctor Cayce needs food and water, which we have here," said Juliet, "but she also needs rest and I need to check her over properly. That would be better done in the jet. We can sleep there tonight just as easily as here and with less work."

"We can also get airborne, head home," murmured Vincent. "I instructed our pilot to rest while she could and be ready to leave at a moment's notice. We can sleep while she flies. Besides, Doctor Cayce is not the only person who needs to be checked over."

"Me?" Nikko frowned, opening the door of the jeep and helping his mother into it. "I'm fine."

"We still need to discuss what just happened," replied Vincent, seating himself behind the wheel. "A jet is more secure than a jungle."

"We need to discuss a lot more than that," interjected Haley, turning to study Vincent's face. "Starting with who you three are, and I mean more than just names, and where my husband is!"

"Dad's back in New York, with Maggie," supplied Nikko, who had spent the walk back to camp relaying the reasons that had brought them back to the ruined temple without once explaining whom he meant by "we".

"Maggie? My Maggie?" Haley's face brightened. "She's still on the team?"

"She's our biochemical analyst," smiled Nikko in return. "She's the only person who gets to tell Dad off for, like, anything!"

"Not the only person," smirked Vincent. "I just don't get to tell him off in front of all of you."

"How is Solomon?" Haley asked, watching them both carefully.

Nikko winced. "He took a knock to the head. That's why he's not here, and why Maggie stayed with him. It's a long story."

"It's a long drive," shrugged Vincent, steering the jeep back through the darkened rainforest with considerably more care than he had on the route out. "Well, long enough for that, anyway, and secure enough."

Nikko nodded at the truth of this, cast a glance over at Cal and Juliet, already dozing side by side, and turned back to his mother. "Okay, so before Cal, Juliet was dating this really shady guy…"