Jeff pondered the man's words. One more night with Lucy before he was going to lose her again but keep his sons, or keep her but lose his boys.

This was going to be the hardest decision he had ever made.

That night was easily the worst night of Jeff's life. He thought that the nights after Lucy had died were horrific, but somehow this felt worse. So much was riding on whatever happened in the morning and nothing would ever be the same again. He and Lucy spent the night talking the last 23 years over.

He wasn't the only one having difficulty.

Sally Ruth and Grant had retired early, but they spent the night talking. She told him everything that had happened since he had gone, there was pride and tears and so, so much talking.

Kyrano and Kayo spent the time researching. Kyrano had an idea what was going on, but he needed more information. And he needed to know where his brother was likely to be. Nothing was going to be easy tomorrow, but that wasn't unusual for a Tracy. It certainly wasn't anything he hadn't needed to do before as security for iR, but it was nice to be doing this with his Tanusha by his side.

At 5:30 am sharp there was a banging on the door. They were all downstairs, working on their first coffee of the day, and exchanged glances. Kayo moved first, checking the door, she threw it wide open with a most un-Kayo-like squeal.

On the doorstep stood Gordon and Alan.

Both looked confused but pleased to see her, and the hugs were tight. Kayo led them to the kitchen, where there was absolute silence as the two youngest Tracy's tried to come to terms with seeing their mother and grandfather alive and well.

Ruth, Grant and Lucy took the boys into the living room. They had so much to catch up on. Jeff wanted to join them, but he needed to work on how to put things right. The five came back after about an hour and joined the three in the kitchen, where a start was made on breakfast.

It was almost 10 before Alan shouted that he'd got him. In the almost four hours since they had begun looking they had amassed a lot of information, both on what was the object was and where the missing family members were.

They took a well-earned break to see what Alan had found. And he had found a certain Hiram Hackenbacker as an engineer and professor in, of all places, Denver. Kayo had found Penny precisely where she should be, in Foxley Heath, England. NASA had confirmed to Jeff that John was indeed on Mars, but if he wanted to talk to him they could arrange a connection for two that afternoon, which Jeff gratefully agreed to.

No one had found hide nor hair of Virgil.

Ruth and Lucy prepared lunch for their hungry hoard. The boys had been working so hard, and they would need their sustenance.

By one o'clock Kyrano had managed to finish all his research into the stone his brother held. Gordon and Alan had managed to work out where The Hood was currently and had managed to get specs for the building. No one was really that surprised that it was Tracy Towers that was.

Kayo and Jeff had built on those blueprints a plan on getting into the building.

They discussed everything over lunch, starting with the stone.

'It's called the Dreamstone. Thankfully I still have some contacts in this timeline, and the man I wanted to discuss this with was still the same person, one of the very few people that survived the destruction of our temple monastery back home.

'The stone pops up in history right back to Egypt, the first recording in the Indus Valley over 4,000 years age. Then again in Carthage, Cush, Rome – even the Maya have images of the gem.

'Every time the Dreamstone appears the civilisation that has it is destroyed or disappears within a couple of months.

'It is associated with various gods, most notably the Greek god Dolos, the god of lies and deception, and the Maya associated it with Dechalafrea Ero, the god of lies and chaos. It is said that he created the Dreamstone as a way to manipulate humans. The stone itself has the power to grant one wish, but it came with a cost – he would take that which the wisher treasured the most.

'When a civilisation uses it as a whole it always led to them imploding.'

Jeff slumped in his seat. 'You mean my wish could destabilise the world?' He was most relieved when Kyrano chuckled and shook his head.

Kyrano placed a hand on Jeff's shoulder and squeezed. 'I doubt it, Jeff. My brother is too selfish to share the stone with others, but he saw an opportunity to get one over on you that was too good to pass up. My contact still has some digging to do, to see if there is a way to reverse this without needed to storm my brother's stronghold.'

Kayo then went over the plans they had made for getting into Tracy Towers. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this would be the hardest part of the plan.

The vidcomm cut any further discussion, and John appeared in front of them. He looked good, and he ran his hand through his hair as he listened to his dad explained what had happened.

'I must admit, Dad, going to sleep in a hotel and waking up on Mars is definitely the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.' Jeff was pretty sure that was the understatement of the century.

Everyone then left to allow John time to catch up with his mother and grandfather, knowing that it would be intense for them all.

There was still much planning to be done, supplies that would need to be gathered. Jeff got in touch with Brains, who was most delighted to hear from him. He took the explanation in his stride, not even saying 'I told you so', as he had the right to. Brains said that he would meet them in New York if they needed to go there, he could be there in around four hours.

Supplies arranged, the eight of them sat down to eat dinner. The chat was subdued, both Ruth and Jeff holding hands with their respective mates.

Halfway through the door knocker banged. Frowning, Jeff got up to find out who it was, Lucy following closely behind.

He wasn't sure who was more shocked.

Virgil stood there, same as always in his blue jeans and plaid shirt, frown upon his face.