- Chapter Ninety-Four -

That's The Way It Is

Landmasses looming jagged with a massive bazaar the crowning jewel of the dock, every tiny little detail that might have been visible was obscured beneath a veil of rapidly shifting desert sand. Baked from the bones of painted clay, houses and towers alike pierced the early dawn sky; sanguine scarves danced hypnotically in the breeze as canvases in a multitude of colors covered stands that were gradually filled with goods. And that was to say nothing of the strong aromas that wafted over the water's edge.

Alexandria! A glittering monument alive more in recent memory than in real-time activity, to be fair to the denizens it was still much too early to catch the celebrated bustle of commerce, the fantastical stage of mystery and awe. Besides, even if they had arrived at the peak of trade hour, the mastermind and his three companions were far too harried by the invisible clock to make their transportation to Cairo wait.

Sky blessedly calm and still as misty gray as the sea on which they fled, the young man tilted his head heavenwards as his female associate (and sister) came to terms with her newest arrangement. Salty air a comfortable reminder of a time before the facts had changed his entire outlook, a part of him wished that he could go back to that serene state of ignorance. But no, the truth was out there now, and he was not the sort that could leave matters be.

Brain wound tight and mettle the same as his father's, once he had fixated on a thing, the young man had to see it through to the conclusion, even if that meant wasting his entire life chasing only one goal. Curious to know if she was anything like that too, he broke the silence, "Tell me something, if this were to all conclude in your favor," while that seemed unlikely, it seemed a prudent question to put to the heiress, "what would you do with your life?"

Mind a veritable garden of untended thorns that didn't even have a pittance of thought for another, the young woman had ventured out of the room and had stopped just shy of the door. Uncertain about what to do with herself, she had sunk to the ground, arms tight around her body as she gently rocked with the motion of the speeding boat. Silent all this while, before now they had only glanced every so often at one another.

After several long hours had passed them by - as told by the sun visibly changing position in the beaming sky, the colors bleeding into the samey hues of the tide - it had almost seemed that neither would speak for the duration of the cruise. Despite fully intending to ask him everything she possibly could, when the salty air had hit her face it had stolen her nerve. Panic swelling to an all-time high, Daniella could only gulp like a helpless guppy before the maw of a starving street cat.

"..." Closing her eyes against reality and envisioning something that could give her back her voice, the young woman finally managed to form the words, "...I don't know."

Flirting with the serious topic of the future off-and-on without ever actually committing to anything, Dells managed better when living in the moment. Obviously even that was not the perfect answer to avoid these attacks, however it had gotten her through the weeks better than thinking of the future. Even the near-future. But now that the question had been poised...

"Before all of this, I always just assumed I would finish school. My mother would have sent me somewhere prestigious and noteworthy." Vaguely aware that prestigious and noteworthy tipped the same line, Dells answered so naturally that it seemed robotic, the light in her eyes dying a little at the mere thought. Snapping back to the present, the young woman paused, hiccuping when it came to the subject of her mother, "probably someplace with an impeccable business course."

Uninterested in the minutiae of her mannerisms, the young man moved to sit at her side, nodding more to himself than his unwitting guest. How unimaginative. Of course that was the woman's plan for the girl. "But what is it you wanted?"

Tickled pink at the prospect of digging her teeth into more than the most basic vanilla versions of history, the only other things that Dells could honestly say she enjoyed about her life was the athletic pursuits. Track and field (albeit without Jay gawking at her in public), anything involving being out in fresh water (as evidenced by the shape of her shoulders), and being out there on her bike. The bike that her mother had used to weasel Sam out of hiding and into her life...

Daring herself not to think of what could have been, the heiress did allow herself to think of all the others she had met on this crazy adventure (if being unconscious and locked away for the parts that weren't a glorified vacation could count).

Making acquaintances with thieves, locksmiths, former mercenaries, historians, journalists, and rogues - to say nothing of the psychopaths and gangsters - it had shown the heiress that there really was more to life. As a little girl, all Daniella had wanted was to be like a pirate from those days of yore, but she had allowed her mother to convince her that that was crazy... Impossible. Wrong. And lo, the thing she always thought could bring her back to her dearly departed father was the very same thing that had killed him!

Seduced by the idea of turning it all in for a life of adventure, it was unfortunate that her mother had done such an astonishingly good job of crushing her dream that she doubted it even now. Exploring the few parts of the world that still hadn't been discovered, finding hidden caches of gold-filled chests and dusty artifacts... Even without thinking of any specific names, it was a very real option. However, the thing she still lacked, that vital thing that could see her dead if she ventured forth without it, was guidance. A partner. Mr. Drake had Sullivan teaching him the ropes, Elena had her husband (and a much better head to begin with), and even Chloe had Nadine. There was always a mentor, and...

Well, that ship had sailed, hadn't it?

Focus shifting to her knees, Daniella drew in a deep breath, "No. That's the last thing I want. It probably makes me sound insane, but what I always wanted was to find my..." Dells caught herself at the last moment, "Our father."

At those words something happened, a strange look creeping up the mastermind's lips until it was plain to behold, curling his default hard-to-impress sneer into a genuine smile. Maybe this would work out after all.

Quivering ever so slightly as the dying chill of the moonless night washed deep into her bones, Daniella looked to the transitioning horizon, blotches of ink drying in the coming morning, stars bursting to soft roses. Dawn always had been the loveliest of times, though now it was quickly becoming the most important. Spending the new day breaking over the sapphire sheets in the company of her kin, growing comfortable with the brother she had no reason to doubt; yet above all there sat that evening in the grove.

Until her dying day, there would be no more a pivotal moment than those lost hours whiled away in the dirt.

"So..." chewing on the earned fear that speaking up would earn a punishment, the heiress decided to chance it, to ask all these questions that ran rampant in her head, "...what's your story? You don't really look like him, yet something about you does seem familiar."

Indeed the young man was not nearly as blessed as his sibling to share such a striking resemblance to their father, but that wasn't to say that he was outright his mother's spitting image either. Mirroring her most strongly in the golden honey that filled his studious hazel iris and the beauty mark on her mouth, Rafe's genes had passed along a certain longness of face, a sharpness that bit.

Arching a thick brow that was not immediately comparable, he acknowledged their previous encounter, "We actually have met before, but it's true that we should have been introduced much sooner..." Catching the understandable confusion that flickered across her countenance, he clarified, "I was on the team that recovered you in the city. Given how doped up you were, I can hardly blame you for not remembering."

Rafael the most memorable part of the experience if only because he had tagged along to keep an eye on her condition, Dells distantly recollected Sam mentioning another person in passing. Nadine's son, if memory served, and... Hmm, the thief had straight out said that he didn't trust the kid, that something about him had failed to sit right. Could it have been the hidden fact that they were really siblings? Or, was it his unspoken motive that Sam disliked?

"You're Nadine's son, right?" Picking up a strong sense of retroactive reserve, the heiress turned from the shimmering surface of the sea to study her supposed brother.

"Wyatt." Confirming his name if nothing else, the soldier had put much and more on hold to pursue this. How could he not, when the only child that had been legitimately recognized had fallen right into his path?

Figuring long ago that it hurt nothing to be upfront with his sister about his origin and his reasoning, it seemed to him that she was the type that would respond best to honesty. It helped explain part of her relationship with someone as rough around the edges as her dear Sam Drake. "You asked me my story? I never got to meet him," speaking of their father with an all-to-familiar reverence, when it came to his mother there was something deeper, something icky that held him back, "I didn't even know my mother, not at first."

No better way to communicate his tale to the young woman than to merely tell it, he held back none of the rawness, none of the bitter truths. "Unlike you, I grew up an orphan, poor as poor can be. Lacking purpose and direction, it wasn't long before I became a soldier. I fought for my country, and I found no love, no glory. I fought for mercenaries, and it was more of the same... If not a more chaotic version." A ghost of a grin appeared at the recollections of blood and power that surged behind the scenes.

"Eventually," after a lengthy search, "I found Nadine, and she told me everything. She couldn't handle me, you see. I got that, having followed a similar enough path in life. But when she told me about my father, about how he died, something occurred to me."

[Long Before The Ball Got Rolling ]

Newly armed with the identity of his biological father as well as the cause of his death, Wyatt had a certain notion... rather, he had seen a problem with a solution, yet no one willing to pull the trigger. Formulating a plan on how to correct this sore oversight, the soldier had amassed his moderate earnings for a grand venture. The problem was that it simply wasn't going to be enough.

Frankly it was always going to be a problem, however that hill would only steepen with time - first it had been a matter of discovering the exact location, and then it had quickly became about the money. Living with a roommate to save every last cent, Wyatt Ross had taken on a reputation for accepting dangerous jobs that paid ludicrously well. And it still wasn't enough. Finally breaking down and admitting that he couldn't do it himself (maybe he could have amassed enough resources by the time he was in his late fifties, but who had that level of patience?!), the soldier thought to reach out to his other family.

In the course of his research on the life and businesses of Rafe Adler, Wyatt had continuously encountered pictures of the same comely librarian-esque woman. Severe fringe having nothing on the stern permascowl that haunted every editorial that wasn't paid for, the woman was a constant staple in the background, a shadow that hounded after the man. Even off-camera, her presence was felt everywhere, from having credit as the main author of various approved pieces to her name being included on legal documents.

Obviously Nadine had to include such a prevalent figure in the story, however, for whatever reason the mercenary had kept mention of Rafe's paramour to a minimum. Fairly certain that it wasn't entirely jealously, Wyatt had known of Wen Bai well before digging into public record and finding the paper trail.

Daniella Adler was another story. Mention of an heiress to the vast Adler empire scant at best, outside of a few articles documenting the birth of a daughter, her mother had kept the little one's existence very low-key. A commendably wise move in his opinion, that did dissuade the soldier from using his sister in any of his plans, if only because he loathed operating with such little information to go on. Yes, at times it was a necessary evil that needed to be contended with, but as his family (and perhaps the ultimate wild card), it was best not to get her involved prematurely and squander a valuable opportunity.

Her mother, on the other hand...

Seeking to confront the gatekeeper as civilly as he possibly could - and on her own turf at that - Wyatt had set an appointment to meet with the ever-moving business tycoon.

Dipping into the budget with the idea that 'you have to spend money to make money', standing outside the intimidating iron skyscraper in trousers that were tailored for a shorter man, he steeled himself for the worst. Suit a plain enough shade of blue to not draw immediate attention yet expensive enough to get him inside the room with only a handful of condescending sneers from the receptionist, he had left his hair alone so that Bai might see a hint of her old co-worker. It was a toss-up if that was a wise idea or not, however it couldn't hurt to prove that he was indeed related to at least one person he claimed to be the offspring of.

Everything hinged on Bai, not only as the executor of everything that had been passed on from Rafe to his daughter but as the person that meant the most to him in life.

[Shall We?]

Envious that her brother had been trusted enough that he had been told the truth outright from the very beginning, Daniella wondered what this epiphany was. Had the soldier-boy intended to leave it at that, it would have been quite cruel. "And...?"

Making actual physical contact for the first time since she had joined him outside, Wyatt placed his hand very briefly against her wounded shoulder. Having counted every last battle scar that now shaped the surface, he watched the heiress wince beneath the gesture. "Hopefully you'll manage better in Madagascar."

Madagascar...?! This being the first she had heard of their destination, Dells went slack-jawed when it hit her why they would be going there of all places. "You don't mean...!?"

Pleased to see that this young woman really could have been his sister after all, based on their parentage it would have rang insincere if she hadn't possessed something of a brain. "I do. For the last three or four years of my life I've been excavating the remains of Libertalia."

Close as he was to clearing the wreckage of a certain collapsed cavern, purchasing and maintaining the equipment quickly drained his finances, almost to the point that he was spending faster than he could earn. With money running short, it had only made sense to speak with someone that could have loaned him what he needed to keep going... except, she would hear none of it. Throwing him out into the streets with immediate orders to keep him away, at this point it seemed as if there was only one way to get her to hear him out...

"That's where you come in." Responsible for assembling a handful of old suits that were more than a little sore at the businesswoman for one reason or another, he had tried to wrangle them to order, but... Well, suffice it to say that they had their own ideas, and once given the courage to act, they weren't about to listen to some nobody.

Unsurprised to hear that it came down to her when so far all of this whole mess came back around to who her parents were, Dells became even less certain of this boy. "Oh?"

Weary of losing the worm before he had the rod, Wyatt shook his head, "It really isn't personal, but she won't listen to me otherwise."

Never again going to go to bat for the monster that she had formerly identified as her mother, it stood to reason that Wyatt knew from experience. And it wasn't quite so terrible as him only speaking to her for the entire sum of what he felt he was entitled to as their father's overlooked secret son. Mouth dry, the heiress meant every word that she said, "I would have given you whatever you asked for." Had he only just come to her, all of this could have played out very differently.

Reading the disappointment and hurt clear on her face, the military mastermind found himself to be more annoyed with the girl than he anticipated. Odds were always going to be stacked mountain high that miss moneybags would attempt to barter her way out of this ordeal. Now that it was actually happening, it bothered him that she sounded so confident that she could just give it away so freely. "As if you could." Scorn strong, the soldier scoffed at his sibling, "Short of you killing your mother and directly stepping in to seize the reigns for yourself, you will never have that kind of agency."

Affronted as she was, Daniella knew deep down that he wasn't entirely wrong about that. "Well, I could have at least tried."

"I don't need your sympathy!" Drawing a line in the sand, Wyatt only needed what was owed him.

Stung silence hung between the pair then, stretching ever on as the boat cut through the churning oceanic waves in wet chunks of foamy spray. Breaking this wall down before it could harden, the heiress accepted her position with what grace remained, "So you aren't going to kill me outright?"

Amused by the bold resignation in her tone, a wry smirk tugged at his lips once more, "Outright?" That hadn't been his plan, but that wasn't to say that his men would see it that way. "No."

Following the leader in sharing a grim chuckle, Dells quickly sobered as she solemnly realized that the possibility was still on the table.

Author's Note:

So it's not really super relevant in terms of plot/story beats or anything, but in small ways like word choice, it should probably be noted that I've been listening to a LOT of both 'The Phantom of the Opera' and it's sequel 'Love Never Dies'. Yeah, there's a sequel! I actually was told about it in high school, but being incompetent on how the internet works, it never occurred to me to actually look for it. Then the lock-down/quarantine happened, and Andrew Lloyd Webber actually put out some of his plays/musicals for free on Youtube for 48 hours each. So I was finally able to see the show version of the Phantom! Then being super curious and slightly better at the internets, I found the sequel! Then it was put on Youtube that very same Friday, all of two days later, but eh. Point is that I found it and watched it, and have since been completely obsessed, listening almost exclusively to the music ever since. So yeah, a solid week of Phantom-y goodness! Personally, I find that the 25th Anniversary actors were AMAZING and hands-down my pick for musical versions of POTO, however, I stick with the 2004 movie as my favorite. (watching it on constant repeat, I realize after all this time that it might be my actual favorite movie, but that's a really hard call for me).

Best random recommendation on Youtube! EVER!

Apologies for that tangent.