Chapter Nineteen

/

RJ slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry and he knew it was from the blow to his head. He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. He had no idea how long he'd been out. He'd completely lost his sense of time.

"Well, well, look who's decide to join us," Demetrios said as he sat down in a chair in front of RJ.

He focused on the man and instantly recognized him from the photos. "You're Demetrios Cassadine."

Demetrios, having lit a cigar smiled. "At your service."

"What the hell do you want with me?" RJ snapped. "Why give that information to my father all those years ago? What do you want?!"

Before Demetrios answered, RJ heard a noise behind him. His eyes drifted to the left and he caught sight of Helena. Immediately, her finger went to her lips, motioning RJ to stay quiet. Something inside RJ told him to trust Helena.

He averted his eyes from her and looked back at Demetrios. "You know, it doesn't matter what you want. You won't get it. My father is dead and when Sean Donnelly and the WSB find me, you're gonna be sorry you ever…"

Demetrios laughed. "Sean Donnelly? Oh, my boy, you can stop waiting for Sean Donnelly and the WSB to break down the door. Let me tell you a little secret about your godfather, Sean. He was born in Moscow to a woman named Ekaterina Rostova."

RJ's eyes widened.

"Ah, I see that name rings a bell," Demetrios taunted. "His birth name was Valentin Rostov."

Traitor, ran through RJ's mind. Sean was a traitor.

Demetrios took a puff on his cigar. "Such a shame, really. He'd given me valuable information over the years. I was a bit sad to have to kill him."

RJ started struggling against his bindings. "I'll kill you! You're a dead man, Cassadine!"

Demetrios chuckled as he reached out and rested his hand on RJ's leg. "Now, now, calm yourself, nephew-mine. This is no way for the Cassadine prince to behave."

RJ felt the bile rise in his throat. He already knew the truth, but to hear Demetrios acknowledge it out loud set RJ's guts on fire. The fact that he had even a drop of Cassadine blood made him want to scream.

"I'm no prince, man," RJ spit out.

"Oh, but you are," Demetrios told him. "So was…is your father."

/

"Doesn't look too difficult," Luke said into the headset he wore. "I only see three…no, four guards on the northeast corner."

"Okay, here's the plan," Frisco instructed. "We've got all side covered. We're going in together. Storm the cabin, overwhelm the captors and get RJ out. From insertion to extraction, no more than fifteen minutes. Fire only if necessary and for God's sake, no hit RJ. Okay, go."

Frisco and John moved first with Robin and Patrick behind them. Robin had only taken a few steps when out of the corner of her eye she saw two figures in the distance. They looked familiar, and after a quick study, Robin knew why.

The gun fell from her hand and she was about to yell out when a hand clamped over her mouth. Frisco was right beside her.

"I saw them, too," he said quietly.

"Saw who?" came over their earpieces; it was Luke.

Frisco didn't know how to say it. "Robin and I just saw two more people enter the cabin. I don't know how, Luke, but…I'd swear for all the world it was…it was Robert and Anna."

/

"Why did you give that file to my father?" RJ asked, his breathing starting to slow as he calmed down.

Demetrios stood. "I don't believe in secrets. My dear half-brothers Mikkos and Victor never saw fit to mention our own family history to me."

"How did you find out?"

Demetrios smiled. Oddly, RJ noticed that it was very similar to his own smile.

"My brother Victor didn't cover his tracks as well as he thought he did when he took young Larisa's baby boy and gave him away," he revealed. "A few people had an inkling of what had gone on between her and Mikkos and were watching."

"You mean Helena's sister, right? Ekaterina Rostova?" RJ asked, noticing Helena flinch slightly at the mention of her dead sister.

"Exactly," Demetrios revealed. He was a bit surprised RJ had so much information. "Among a few others."

"Who?" RJ demanded. "Who else knew the truth? Why did you want my father to know who he was? Who tried to kill him back in…?"

"Enough!" Demetrios yelled suddenly. "I have plans to enact. Cesar, will you please show our guests in?"

Faison was becoming very uneasy in his alliance with Demetrios. The man had become far more unstable than he'd realized. Nevertheless, he nodded and stepped to open the door.

/

"Oh, my God," Robin muttered. "It's Faison. RJ was…you and he were right, Patrick. It's him. He's alive."

"We go now," Frisco ordered. "Now!"

/

"What guests?" RJ questioned as he turned in his chair as much as he could.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw two people enter the room and his heart began beating wildly in his chest. Despite the nearly seventeen years since he'd seen them last in the flesh, RJ immediately recognized his parents.

Tears came to his eyes.

"Mom, Dad," he said softly, barely managing to contain the sob of joy he wanted to let loose.

/

Demetrios flinched when he heard gunshots. Faison jumped into action, tearing his obsessive eyes from Anna.

"You fool!" Helena spat at Faison. "You were followed."

RJ managed a laugh. "No Helena, he wasn't. I activated the tracking chip in my watch."

Demetrios had just pulled his weapon when the door slammed open and Frisco, John, Luke and Aidan stormed the room.

Frisco's eyes went immediately to RJ. He had tipped his chair over and was out of immediate danger of being shot.

"Faison!" Luke yelled as he shot in the direction of his adversary.

"Ah, ah, Helena, not another move from you," Victor said as he stepped up to his sister-in-law.

"Perhaps you should all take a step back," Demetrios said.

Frisco saw that he had a grenade in his hand. Luke hadn't taken his eyes off of Robert and Anna while Victor made sure Helena didn't make any sudden moves.

"Well, well, I didn't foresee this complication in my plans," Demetrios said. "However, I can work with it."

"Um, could someone untie me?" RJ asked from his position on the ground just as Robin and Patrick stepped into the cabin.

Her eyes immediately went to her parents. Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked at them while RJ stood and joined her.

"Mom?" she asked softly.

Robert didn't take his eyes off of Demetrios, but Anna finally looked at Robin and RJ.

She took a tentative step forward and tilted her head to the side. "Robin?"

Robin let her tears fall at the sound of her mother's voice. "Yeah, Mom, it's…it's me. Oh, my God, you're…"

Anna pulled Robin into her arms and held her a moment before reaching for RJ as well. He slowly moved into his mother's embrace.

And it felt all wrong.

/

Luke's attention had shifted only for a moment to Robert and Anna, but it had been enough for Faison to back up slowly and exit the cabin unnoticed.

"Damn it!" Luke said when he realized what had happened.

"What is all of this about, Demetrios?" Helena asked, never taking her eyes from Victor.

"You don't know, Hells?" Luke demanded.

"I followed Demetrios in an attempt to discover what he was up to," Helena revealed. "I knew he was planning something but I didn't know what, or who it involved."

Pulling away from their mother, Robin and RJ faced Helena.

"You expect us to believe that you didn't know the truth the whole time?" RJ questioned, his eyes constantly drifting between his parents and Demetrios.

Helena laughed. "Of course I knew the truth, you daft child. I've spent the last thirty years trying to protect that secret; trying to make certain your father never learned his true identity. I believed my mission a success until I heard rumblings from some…associates that a couple calling themselves Robert and Anna Scorpio had surfaced in 2008."

RJ knew then he and Patrick had been right. Helena had no interest in exposing the truth.

"What about you?" Patrick spoke up, looking at Demetrios.

"Yeah, what do you hope to gain from all of this, Uncle Demetrios," RJ demanded. "You don't really believe you can use my father to…"

"I've been using your father for seventeen years, boy!" he snapped. "Your mother as well, and your beloved Sean Donnelly."

Helena watched her brother-in-law. She hadn't forgotten that he'd killed her nephew, Sean; Valentin.

"Helena's dear sister Ekaterina, known better to you as Brighton O'Rielly was quite helpful to me for some time before her attack of conscience," Demetrios told them. "She tried to eliminate Robert for me once, long ago. When that didn't work and she later informed me that he and her own son, Sean, had become involved with the WSB, I saw another opportunity."

"Enter Faison," Robin guessed. "You knew he was obsessed with my mother. You used that to…"

Demetrios smiled at his great-niece. "Correct you are, Robin. When Ekaterina informed me of your parents' first meeting and subsequent…involvement and Cesar's obsession, I saw my opportunity. I had a meeting with Valentin and made certain he understood what needed to be done."

"He's the reason they died," RJ said. "Sean, Valentin set it up, didn't he? He helped Faison grab my mother and…the WSB set up that explosion. He convinced them that my mother needed to be eliminated because she was a double agent. Right?"

Demetrios tipped his head. "Yes. Only Faison had begun acting on his own. What was supposed to be a WSB sanctioned kill turned into Faison trying to kill your father and take Anna for himself. I couldn't have that. It had become apparent to me my plan would work much better with your father alive."

"But Faison blew the boat before the WSB got there, didn't he?" Aidan joined the conversation. "He wanted to kill my Uncle Robert so he could have Aunt Anna for himself. He didn't expect her to die, too."

Everyone was slowly moving around the room. All eyes were still on the grenade Demetrios was holding. If he pulled the pin and dropped it, they were all dead.

"Correct," he confirmed. "They were both confirmed dead. Imagine my own surprise when I received a call from Valentin informing me of their survival. Oh, they were gravely injured, but they were alive. Over the years they recovered, were re-trained and put to work for me. They eliminated many of my enemies on several continents."

"So, what now?" RJ wondered. "You have my father and me. Let everyone else go."

Demetrios laughed. "Oh, no, I cannot do that. They will remain here while you and your father will come with me to Moscow. We have a throne to claim."