So sorry for the wait everyone. Lockdown over, its been a mad first week back. I hope this is worth the wait.

Chapter 7

This was so stupid! Well, some of this was stupid, the rest of it was just wrong, on so many levels. What happened to Gordon was wrong. Keeping him sedated almost all the time was wrong! That son of a bitch, the Hood blackmailing his brothers was so, so wrong. But the fact he wasn't allowed to help or even just go and sit with his brother in the infirmary, that was just plain stupid! Alan rolled over in his bed trying to get back to sleep. He had woke up some time ago from a horrific nightmare about Gordon being dragged away into the dark by... something. He couldn't see by what... or who. But he could remember the cries for help. What made it worse was Gordon was screaming specifically for Alan to help him! Alan could honestly say he had never actually heard his brother scream in the real world. His ego would never allow it. Somehow this made his nightmare even more unsettling. Now he couldn't decide if he was too freaked out or too pissed off to get back to sleep. By now it was 1 am. He should just give up on sleep, at least until his brothers were home. With or without an antidote, sleep wasn't going to happen. The blond sat up in bed running over the last day. He hated listening to his brothers fight. He hadn't been able to offer so much as an opinion before been asked to leave the room. For some reason, his older brothers were determined to keep him out of this.

He knew why. The three smoother hens felt they had already let one baby brother down, which again was pretty stupid in his opinion. As a result, as the remaining youngest, he was getting the remaining overcompensating paranoia treatment.

Flashback

Scott had reluctantly accepted the Hood's terms in helping him find and trap the Mechanic. Upon his return from the infirmary, he contacted Lady Penelope and Parker to begin the search. It wouldn't be easy, but a man like the Mechanic didn't tend to do things quietly. Anyone looking for him would know what to look out for. That was when the shouting had started. Alan listened from his room as Scott defended his ground against Virgil and John, even their Grandmother had gotten involved. Kayo though present, strangely didn't seem available for comment. So it was hard to know where she stood in all this just by listening.

Virgil had argued that the best cause of action would be to inform the GDF about the Hood's plan. That way the Mechanic could at least have the option of being taken into protective custody. All the family was in agreement with this, including Brains. He in particular seemed to have some empathy for the Mechanic, now he knew about the mind control he had been under. Their Grandmother was also quick to point out the repercussions of intentionally committing a crime would certainly affect their trusted relationship with the GDF. John added to the growing pile of consequences of helping the Hood would be indirectly sealing their own fate for a later date. All very legit points. At least they were legit until Scott blew them all out of the water. Even from upstairs, Alan flinched when he suddenly heard his eldest brother yelling.

"WE ARE LOSING HIM!" He yelled, but his anger was overshadowed by such despair, it rendered everyone in the room speechless. "Have you all forgotten why we're doing this!? Have you not heard Gordon screaming? Have you not heard the silence? … That's lasting longer every time he wakes up. How long will it be before we never hear from him again? Gordon is just disappearing right before our eyes and we are all just sitting here talking about it like we have the luxury of time." Way to bring reality home. "No! I will NOT sacrifice him!" Scott continued. The hardest part about being the leader was being the one to make the hard choices. As much as they all hated it, the reality was either them having to choose the fate for either Gordon or the Mechanic.

"None of us want to sacrifice Gordon!" John snapped, offended that the idea had even been suggested. They had all been watching Gordon suffer... That was all they could do. Watch. Something that didn't come naturally to any of them. Even being on Thunderbird 5, he was being spared nothing this time. He knew his little brother wasn't just slowly dying here, he was being driven mad. It was beyond any kind of cruelty. "But there has to be another way?" He pleaded. Though their lives were filled with danger, the family had always seemed untouchable. That another answer was just waiting to fall out of the sky. More often than not, it did. But not this time and it was just hitting them how vulnerable they really were.

Scott looked at them all with a beyond frustrated expression. "Another way? Have any of you been listening?! We don't even know how much damage has already been done to Gordon's mind." Scott turned to the engineer. "Brains is there any other alternative that could save him now, because if there is, I want to hear it! Because I don't want to do this?!" He already knew there would be no answer that he would like. But it seemed the discussion wasn't yet over.

"Do you really, seriously think the Hood is going to just hand over an antidote, even if by some miracle we do give him the Mechanic? His life's mission is to knock us off one by one. For all we know, he could just give Gordon something that will kill him in a month! Or demand even more from us before he hands it over. Whatever we do, we lose." Virgil said in the same tone riddled with despair.

"You mean Gordon loses!" Scott corrected bitterly. They could clearly see that this choice was making him sick to his stomach. "Do you think I don't know how many ways the Hood will likely screw us over! … Or what else he will be asking for next, like our technology. Our power source. Hell, why doesn't he just move his whole base onto Tracy island? Do you think I don't know what he is planning? He has us over a barrel and he knows it." He looked at the oncoming dread on all their faces. "So we should just sit back and do nothing?! Watch Gordon lose his mind at 21 years old until he doesn't even recognise us any more? Could you really live with that Virgil? John? Gran? Because I can't. I'll fight the Hood to the end, but I won't sacrifice any of you." Scott's voice cracked as though his will had finally broken. Alan leaned closer trying to eavesdrop but it seemed the conversation was concluded. They had no choice and they knew it. If they had any chance of saving Gordon, they had to do what the Hood wanted. Alan let himself slowly slide down the wall, feeling all the helplessness that was crushing his family. So now International Rescue was working for the Hood. This was not going to end well.

As moral dilemmas were put aside, the next step was finding and trapping someone as powerful and resourceful as the Mechanic. That was where the Hood came in. He was only too happy to help there. Now all they were waiting for was for Penny and Parker. It was another 6 hours before they had gotten in touch again. There was nothing solid, just rumours of a factory suddenly going dark. But it was more than enough to go and check out. John remaining as the eye in the sky, Scott, Virgil, Kayo and even Brains had left the island in Thunderbird 2 and the dark and bleak mood they had left in seemed to have lingered behind. That had been 16 hours ago. With only one message from John to say they were all ok so far, was the last they had heard. Now all Alan and Ruth could do was wait and hope that this would turn out alright.

End flashback

The teen had had enough. He wasn't allowed to take part in this insane plan, but they sure as hell weren't going to keep them apart a moment longer. However bad Gordon was, he could handle it, he convinced himself. He didn't know how he could do it, but if he could somehow help Gordon from slipping away, they wouldn't be at the mercy of the Hood. That bond between the two was something none of the other brother's had ever been able to fully explain. Even Alan couldn't explain it, but somehow Alan just knew that it was him that Gordon needed.

Just wearing his loose T-shirt and shorts, the teen slipped on his sneaker's before quietly sneaking down to the infirmary. On the way, he found his grandmother had planted herself in the lounge, set between the infirmary and the communicators in case Scott and the others called. Alan went to touch her but stopped himself. Though asleep, she looked exhausted. The stress of watching over Gordon and just waiting and waiting for answers seemed to have really aged her lately, and yet she wouldn't rest. The teen had to admit it when it came to protecting her boys, not even the Hood could match her. How he would love to get the two of them in the same room and see who's ruthlessness could win. He knew who he would bet on.

Upon entering sick bay he found Gordon asleep. His expression at ease but his stillness made Alan stomach clench. There was a hologram monitoring his heart and brain waves, indicating that everything was currently peaceful. Alan noticed the sedative drip feeding into his hand. Though he knew the reason for this, he couldn't agree that just keeping Gordon asleep was going to help anything. Hallucination or not, this was a battle of wills and he would always bet on Gordon, than over some stupid toxin. He knew they were all going to be furious with him for reducing the dosage, just enough for Gordon to start coming around.

Alan made his way over to the machine. All he had to do was turn down the sedative drip and he would start waking up in an hour or less. The teen hesitated, but it was almost like something was pulling Alan towards his brother... Like Gordon was calling to him to do it. He had to try. He had to know how bad this was. Alan turned off the machine and released the tube from his arm before climbing onto the bed beside him.

"Hey, Gordy. It's just me. Sorry, I know you're asleep..." He waited a moment for any movement, but the blond remained motionless. "If only you knew what was going on out here. You would be furious. But we didn't know what else to do... But I had an idea see. I figured it's when you're awake, that stuff messes with your head. But when you sleep, it's kinda like being in a coma, and when you were in the coma before, after that W.A.S.P crash, the doctors said you could hear us when we talked to you." Settling in beside him. "I don't know if you can hear me, but in case you can, I thought maybe you could just listen?" The teen took his brother's hand as he thought a moment. "I got it. Do you remember years ago, I was about 9, you were about 12... and a seal pup had appeared on our beach. I think you called it a 'Phocidae.' Anyway, it was so cute. You dragged us all down there early in the morning. We thought we were just going to look at it, but it turned out it was in trouble. Remember it had some plastic net caught around its neck. Must have been from a fishing boat or something, and you had us chasing it all over the beach. It took us about 4 hours, we were freezing. But we couldn't stop laughing every time Scott or Virgil and even John tried catching it and they ended up landing face first in the sand. Remember I caught it by the tail, and somehow you calmed it down long enough to cut it free." Alan whispered the story, giggling at the happy memory. "By the end of the day, you had made it your best friend. Do you remember the look on Dad's face when we asked if we could keep it as a pet? And you wanted to keep it in the swimming pool. And you wanted to call it... Trevor! for some strange reason. Great choice by the way." He chuckled with sarcasm. "We always wanted a dog. Technically a seal is a sea dog... But it was weird wasn't it? Out of all the places it could have ended up, it came to our beach. Not a normal spot for them to come, but it needed help and it was like it just knew where to come too -" Alan was suddenly cut off when he felt Gordon squeeze his hand. "Gordy?" The teen quickly looked him over, but he didn't stir. The monitor was still showing a calm beat. "Gordy, can you hear me?" He held his breath with a mixture of fear and excitement.

"Alan?" The whisper was so quiet, had the room not been silent, he wouldn't have heard it. Alan watched his brother blink a few times before opening his eyes. They were still unfocused and half asleep. Alan wasn't sure if his brother knew that he was real. "Alan? He repeated, this time sounding upset. "I'm sorry Alan, I tried to save you all. But I couldn't stop him. Please don't leave me here alone." He whimpered.

"Gordy listen to me, it's not real! All that bad stuff you're seeing, it's just the compound messing with your head... You have to fight it!" A few tears escaped the teen. Gordon blinked at him as though he didn't understand what Alan was saying, so he took Gordon's hand placing it on his face, trying to enforce just how real he was. "I'm not dead Gordy. None of us are dead. Whenever you see something bad, just tell yourself it isn't real!" Alan begged him. He had to get through to him!

"Not real?" Gordon repeated. There was definitely some relief present for a second, but the more Gordon woke up, the more Alan could see that he was slipping away again as the toxin set in. He felt Gordon start to shake. "Alan he's coming! You have to hide!" He said in a growing terrified tone looking towards the door. "I can hear him!" Alan frowned as he listened to his breathing quickening, becoming short and raspy.

"There is no one here Gordy. Please you have to calm down." But he was already getting out of bed. To Alan's confusion, he didn't head for the door. Instead, he made his way to the corner of the room before sitting down on the floor, trying to make himself as small as possible by burying his face in his knees and covering his head. Alan followed him over, kneeling down in front of him. "Gordy stay with me! What's wrong?"

"I don't want to go with him, Alan!" He whispered terrified.

"With who?"

"The Beast! He's coming, Alan... He's coming to take me away again!" Gordon cried. The room was still very dark, with only a little dim light pooling from the bedside lamp, but Alan could still see how petrified his brother was. He genuinely believed someone was coming to get him.

And who or what was this Beast?

Alan's heart plummeted. This was not going how he hoped. "We are not going to let anyone take you, Gordy, I swear. Scott, Virgil, John and Brains and Kayo are going to fix this and make you well again. I promise." Alan said, trying and failing to hold back the tears. He promised himself he was going to be strong. But the more the sedative wore off, the less reality Gordon seemed to have. This was why Scott wanted to keep him asleep. "Come on Gordy, lets get you back to bed." Alan tried to help him up, but Gordon just pushed himself away further into the corner, trying to make himself even smaller. "Please Gordy. I'm not going to leave you." He made Gordon look at him. "You need to trust me. You're going to be fine!" He kept on trying to reassure him, even as the tears started to fall.

The unexpected sound of the siren made them both jump. It wasn't as loud in the infirmary but it was enough to make Gordon pull even further away. "He's here." He whispered.

Alan stood up as his communicator activated. "Alan I need you in the lounge." His Grandmother's voice came over the communicator. She sounded frantic! Something was happening. It couldn't be a rescue. Scott had told the GDF they were shut down for now... Which meant it had to be about them. They could have the antidote? Alan quickly wrapped a blanket around his brother. "Stay here Gordy, I'll be right back."

"He's coming for me, Alan!" Gordon grabbed his brothers hand continuing to rant. Alan didn't want to leave him, but he had to find out what was going on. He would be safe locked in the infirmary just for a few minutes.

"Gran?" The teen quickly ran upstairs to find her talking to the hologram image of John. There was an edge in their voices that he didn't like. "What's going on?" They both looked around at him. Ruth was about to ask why he had just come from the direction of the infirmary, but there was clearly something more urgent going on. "Are Scott and the others back?"

"No," John said gravely. "Kayo sent a distress call. The GDF is heading to her location now. She's ok, but she's trapped." John said his hologram working frantically trying to trace his sibling's last location.

"What about the others? John, what's going on?" Ruth made her way over to the desk but she couldn't even pick up any life signs from their trackers.

"I...I know they found the Mechanic. Everything was set, but something went wrong. Now there is something blocking their signal!" John said without taking his eyes off whatever he was doing. "The Mechanic vanished from the radar about an hour ago. I can't track him either. He must be cloaked!"

"I need to get out there! John, can you give me their last known location?" Alan asked as he quickly went to sit on his chair that would transfer him to Thunderbird 3 but John stopped him.

"No Alan. We don't know if they're even still there. The Mechanic could have taken them, or if it's a trap. I'm not sending you into that. At the very least we need to wait until Kayo is back-"

"Right, that's it! You have all been keeping me out of this like I'm some stupid child that can't possibly understand anything. But I am a Tracy and a Thunderbird. And now I am the only one left!" Alan shouted at them both. "I have every right to protect my brothers! You all need to get over this guilt because it's going to take all of us to save Gordon!"

"Alan Tracy -" His grandmother started, but John's image distracted them as it suddenly began to flicker. This was followed by a rumble from outside. It sounded like an engine of one of the ships, but it was too loud to be T2?

"Alan its n... th.t we hav. dou... in yo.!" But John's image was cutting out. "Someone i..s into my !"

"What the -?!" Ruth began as she looked around. There was a rumbling sound now coming from the wall.

"Someone is coming up Virgil's launched tube!" Alan quickly went to take a defensive stand next to his Grandmother as the wall activated and the new figure appeared in the room.

….

Gordon had remained where he had been left in the corner, trying desperately to cling to the little pieces of reality. He was certain Alan had really been here... He was so sure he had been real...

"It's not real Gordon! Whenever you see something bad, just tell yourself it isn't real!" His brother's words replayed in his head. It's not real? He repeated to himself. But was Alan saying 'it wasn't real' well, real? That was loaded headache. But if it wasn't real, that would mean his brothers were still alive... The Hood, the Beast... the monsters crawling their way out of the dark towards him had just been in his mind - Is that the ocean he could hear -? No focus Gordon! Stay here... alone... in this dark room... He couldn't shake the feeling that something... No! Someone was stalking closer to him. - Think of something else... something nice. Gordon again buried his head in his knees, wrapping his arms tightly around his legs. Why could he hear the waves in the distance growing closer? Why was the floor under him suddenly swaying?

Gasping, Gordon found himself submerged in cold water at the same time as the floor vanished. He felt the wave hit him. The aquanaut was shocked to find the infirmary and night sky gone, and replaced with saltwater. Looking around, he realised he was in the ocean. His favourite place. The sun was shining and the waves were blue. There was a white beach in the distance. Though the sudden change in location was surprising, this time he wasn't afraid. This was his paradise. Though he was sure it couldn't be real, it felt it. Even the smell of the saltwater was unmistakable... Now wearing his full-body wet suit, he pulled himself up onto his surfboard and started making his way towards the oncoming wave. He could feel the wind in his hair. He could even feel the splashes of the water on his face as he started to pick up speed. Was this real or just a really vivid dream, he couldn't at all be sure, but right now he didn't care, mainly because he didn't seem to have any control over it, so he may as well make the best of it. He hadn't been surfing in a year. Next to scuba diving, this was when he felt the freest.

Lost in the thrill of riding the wave, he didn't see the dark silhouette coming up beneath him until he felt it under his board and push it over. Instantly, his dream became a nightmare, Gordon went head first back under the waterline. He felt the impact as he crashed into the shallow rock before the wave pulled him forward again, spinning him helplessly around like a rag doll before pushing him down, crashing him once again onto the shallow rocks. Pain shot up his side and then again up his head. Shock took over as he tried to take in a breath and saltwater choked and flooded his mouth and nose. The vile bitter taste of it clogging his throat made his lungs tighten and automatically start to gag, but only more water replaced it.

As the current started to pull him into a rotation spin again, the aquanaut told himself not to panic and to just go with the spin until he could right his position and push himself up. He managed to break out of the current and swim himself upwards. Coughing as he broke the surface, Gordon frantically looked around for any sign of the shark that must have tipped him off his board.

"It's not real!" He told himself, but this felt too damn real for it not to be. What felt, even more, real was the new presence around him... stalking its way towards him... Whether he was swimming in the ocean or locked up in the infirmary, he knew someone or something else was now here, coming towards him.

He saw his board floating not too far away and knew he had to reach it. Gordon started swimming as fast as he could... But just as he was about to lay his hands on it, something cold and sharp grabbed him around the waist and legs, yanking him straight back down under the water. He couldn't see what was holding onto him as he was dragged deep into the depths. But the grip restraining him spiked, and a burning pain tore through his body. More bitter saltwater silenced his agonising scream and his surrounding of aqua-marine blue vanished as it clouded over in deep red!

Choking on more of his own blood than seawater, he tried to swim back to the surface, but the grip of the shark still wouldn't release him. That was when he saw him... It wasn't a shark at all.

It was the Beast!

Mean while in the real world, "I am sorry kid, but I can't let you be used as a weapon against me." Said the Mechanic trying to keep a grip on the young aquanaut before yanking him up from the floor and forcing him over his shoulder. He hated having to use the taser on him, but the kid wouldn't stop struggling, and he had to work fast before the others got free.

Not much sense I know. But next chapter should fill you in.

But please review your thoughts on what you think went wrong for the others.