The guards from El Dorado were charging, coming closer and closer with each passing second. The supposed future Challenger and Summerlee just looked at Challenger, awaiting a decision just like Roxton, Malone, Veronica, and Marguerite were.
"Challenger!" Veronica shouted, trying to get him to decide faster.
The guards were nearly on top of them now. "Okay," said Challenger, "let's defend against this attack first, then we'll decide!"
The five explorers got out their weapons and braced themselves for a fight against the gold skinned guards from El Dorado. As he set up his shot, Malone heard something, a faint voice. It was Summerlee, "You don't have the time," he had said. Malone ignored the words at that moment, focusing on their attackers.
The first six of the twelve went down immediately. Challenger, Malone, and Marguerite each got off a shot, Malone and Challenger with their rifles, Marguerite with her pistol. Veronica nailed one of them with one of her knives. Roxton was able to shoot two of them. However, the other six were right there. They didn't have time to set, so they had to improvise. Roxton, Malone and Veronica managed to do most of the damage, rendering the remaining six guards unconscious. Challenger and Marguerite stood tough, but had trouble overpowering any individual guard going one on one.
After the battle had ended, Challenger and the others re-gathered themselves. They examined the situation once more. Still, the questions remained; who to trust; a Challenger from the future or Summerlee? Was either one of them real? Once again, Challenger was looked upon to provide all the answers.
"Which one of you are we supposed to go with?" Challenger asked, more to himself than anyone else, "you," he said looking to his futuristic self, "you say you're from the future, but how did you get here, by what means did you use to time travel? You," he said, now looking to Summerlee, "how did you know where to be and when to greet us here?"
"George," the futuristic Challenger said, "you – we know that science opens the door to countless possibilities, just think what think what the future might hold. There is no limit to what can be done!"
Challenger looked in awe, but then Summerlee spoke, "There's no more time to waste! All of you have to come down here right now!"
"How do we know it's not a trap?" Marguerite asked him, yelling over a rumbling noise.
"It's too late," Summerlee shouted, "I'm sorry my friends!"
They ran toward him, but the opening where he had been trying to get them to enter, the opening in the ground, closed up just as fast as it had opened.
Challenger and the rest of the group turned around to face the man claiming to be Challenger's future self. This being the truth was held with much skepticism by all of the explorers.
Challenger stepped toward him; he took aim with his rifle. "I think you have a lot of explaining to do," Challenger told this person standing in front of him.
"What are doing?" the man said, his voice sounding just like Challenger's. Then, he stood straight up, his eyes widened, he dropped his cane, and fell to the ground, holding his chest.
"Oh no," said Challenger, running up to this man.
Roxton joined him, "Is he okay?"
"I don't know," Challenger said, "he's alive. I think… I think he may recover, but there's no way to tell for sure at this point, at least not with my knowledge of medicine."
"Well," asked Roxton, "what do we do now?"
Challenger stood up, "We can't stay here, with all those people from El Dorado trying to restrict us to the city. The best thing to do now would be to take him back to the treehouse. If he recovers we can get all the information we need from him later. Either way I don't see any reason to stick around here."
"Fine," said Veronica, "then let's get going, it'll take a few days to get back to the treehouse from here."
Using a variety of branches, they were able to construct a flat, lightweight device to carry this Challenger from the future. The device was crude, but effective, and best of all it didn't take very long to make. Malone and Roxton carried the unconscious future Challenger, and they all walked back to the treehouse without incident.
Two days later, just as the sun began to go down, the six of them reached the treehouse. They put the future Challenger in the guest room, and arranged shifts to watch him, in case he awoke, or in case he died.
That evening, after dinner, Marguerite was on watch. She was sitting at his bedside, examining some of her gems, when the man began to stir.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"Oh, yes," the man said, again sounding identical to the Challenger they all had come to know so well, "I'll be okay, I just need a few…"
"Challenger!" Marguerite called, "he's awake, too bad he just missed dinner."
Challenger came running in, "How do you feel?" he asked himself or so it appeared.
"I'm okay," the future Challenger repeated, "just my heart acting up again, but I took my medicine before I left. I just need some time. I haven't had this much excitement since… well, since I was here."
"You mean," Challenger asked, "you didn't come back on a return expedition?"
"Well," said his future self, but then the older Challenger grabbed his chest, "I'm still not in the best of shape…"
"It's okay," Challenger told him, "rest tonight, but in the morning you'll have some explaining to do."
"Sounds good to me," said the future Challenger getting comfortable.
"In the mean time," Challenger asked, "is there anything we can do to help you?"
"No," his counterpart replied, "nothing. I just need a little rest – recovery time."
Challenger left, and a few hours later they would all retire for the night, leaving the treehouse very quiet.
That night, most of them were asleep, aside from Veronica, who had not slept since seeing her father.
Veronica was in her room, sitting on her bed, looking down at the ground. She perked up, hearing a noise. She paused, listening carefully. She didn't hear anything else. It must have just been a creak, she told herself.
In the guest room, the future Challenger woke up, startled. He stared up to see someone at his door. He sat up. "You," he said, it was man, walking towards him, "but that's… Oh no."
Veronica heard a large thud, and this was no creak. It seemed to have come from the guest room. Veronica sprang up and ran in that direction. She saw a man running from the guest room she tried to catch him, but he, whoever it was (she couldn't tell), ran fast. She grabbed his shirt, and held tight. However, the man had powered his way out of her grip. The shirt was torn, and the man kept moving. At this point, Malone, Roxton, Marguerite, and Challenger were up and on the scene as well. They came out just in time to see this person jump over the treehouse railing, land on his feet below, and run off.
Veronica hadn't moved, she just stood there in the middle of the room holding the fabric from the shirt. Malone was the one to notice. "Veronica," he asked, "what's wrong?"
She stood there, looking puzzled, "This fabric," she explained, "it seems familiar somehow. Like I should know where it comes from…" Her words trailed off.
Seconds later, Challenger, who had gone to the guest room to investigate came back out. "This isn't good," he informed the rest, "the person who broke in here has killed my future self."
"Now why would anyone do that?" Roxton wondered.
"I don't know," Challenger replied, "but now we have no way of getting answers."
"So what are we going to try and do now?" asked Marguerite, "the sun will be coming up soon."
"Yes," said Challenger, "and then we'll have to bury the body, and… and move on, I guess."
"I don't suppose any of us will be able to get any sleep until then," said Roxton.
As it turned out, Lord Roxton was correct, and nobody was able to sleep. A few hours later the sun came out, and the explorers decided it was time for breakfast.
"Veronica and I can go find something to eat," Malone offered, and of the two of them went to the elevator.
"Now," Challenger started, "we should go find a place to bury him."
"I'll go," said Roxton, "I'm guessing you don't want it too close to the treehouse."
"Right," said Challenger, "we'll want it into the jungle a ways. Maybe you should take Marguerite with you."
"Oh," said Roxton as he armed himself, "that won't be necessary. I won't be far. I'll fire two shots if I get into trouble."
"Okay," Challenger agreed.
"Be careful," Marguerite added.
"Well, Ms. Krux," Roxton said, remembering what Marguerite had once told him, "someone might actually think you cared."
Marguerite smiled, "You are the best hunter, and I've developed a taste for Raptor."
Roxton returned her smile, tipped his cap, and headed toward the elevator.
Outside Malone and Veronica were walking around trying to find berries or an animal to hunt or something. Suddenly, Veronica stopped and Malone kept walking.
"Malone," said Veronica thoughtfully, "I think I know why I recognized that fabric from the attacker."
"Why's that?" asked Malone.
Veronica felt funny, nervous in some way, as she explained to Malone she allowed herself to slowly step backwards. "It's a unique fabric from a shirt that was belonged to…" she bumped into somebody, she turned around to face, "…Daddy?" She was shocked to see him standing there, looking more alive than ever.
The man smiled, "Hello Veronica."
She looked at him strangely. Images of her father getting stabbed through the chest with a spear raced through Veronica's head. Veronica took a step back, and pulled out her knife, unsure of what was going on.
"This can't be," Veronica told him, "you're dead."
"No," the man said gently, "you don't understand. Let me…"
"I saw you die!" Veronica said, nearly fully convinced that this man couldn't be her father, but she was still a little hesitant to attack him, in case she was wrong.
"Veronica," he said, more forcefully, and putting his hand on her wrist trying to prevent her from being able to stab him, "put the knife down!"
His strength was overpowering in comparison to hers, which supported the argument that this wasn't her aged father even more. Veronica struggled, but she didn't have the strength to fight back against this man.
"Step away," a voice said, before long Veronica realized that it was Malone, "I said, step away from her."
The man let go of Veronica's wrist, he glanced back, seeing Malone standing there, holding a rifle aimed at him. The man quickly ran off, his speed very impressive.
Veronica stood there, rubbing her wrist, which was sore after the guy who looked like her father had grabbed it.
"What was that all about?" asked Malone, "Was that really him?"
"I don't think so," Veronica said, "but I'm not sure, we never did find the body."
"But how could that be possible?" Malone asked.
"It's not possible," said Veronica, looking at the situation more realistically, "something's wrong."
Malone and Veronica returned to the treehouse. They told Challenger, Marguerite, and Roxton what had happened.
"Strange indeed," Challenger had been saying, "there's not much we can do now except be careful. Roxton, you did find a good place to bury the body of my future self, didn't you? I suppose we should do that next."
Roxton grabbed a rifle and pointed it at Challenger.
"What are you doing?" Challenger said, some what amused because he assumed Roxton was playing some sort of joke on him.
"None of this adds up," Roxton said, "Summerlee, the cave, Challenger from the future, Veronica's father, dead, but now alive. I must be dreaming; it's the only rational explanation. If I'm right, this will make it all better…"
"And you're going to test your theory, on Challenger!" Veronica exclaimed. Everyone was too distraught and shocked to hear the elevator start coming up.
"He's gone mad!" observed Malone.
"Roxton," Challenger said, "surely we can find some other way of figuring all of this out. Put the gun down…"
"This is the only way," interrupted Roxton.
"John!" Marguerite exclaimed, not believing what was happening.
"Yeah," said someone new, "that's me."
"Roxton?" Malone said, looking at the new man in the room, "than that means that he's…" referring to the man with gun, "…he's, what then?"
"An impostor," said Veronica.
Roxton, the real Roxton, didn't hesitate. He quickly aimed his rifle, and shot the fake Roxton. It took several bullets to get him down.
They all walked closer to examine the fake Roxton, who seemed to be dead now.
"There's no blood," Malone observed.
"Ah, yes," Challenger added, "and the future version of myself, never had any blood either."
"So," said Roxton, "there is something, or something's, going around impersonating people, and the only way we can tell who's real and who's not is to…"
"…see if they bleed," Veronica finished. She took out her knife, and pricked her finger, showing everyone the blood. Then she gave the knife to Malone. "It's the only way we'll know for sure," she said. Ned nodded.
Malone's finger bled as well. The knife was then passed to Roxton, who also bled. Challenger's finger oozed out with blood as well. Then the knife was passed to Marguerite.
"Oh no," she said, "I'm not going to cut myself, no way!"
"It certainly sounds like the real Marguerite," Roxton noticed.
"Not good enough," Veronica said.
"Can't you just trust that I am who I say I am," Marguerite argued.
"You have to do this," Roxton told her.
"Fine," she grabbed the knife from Challenger, "this is stupid," she said. Then she pricked her finger, and showed it to the rest of them. "Satisfied?" she asked sarcastically.
Veronica grabbed her arm, which Marguerite found offensive. Veronica examined the blood from her finger making sure that it was real. She let go of Marguerite's arm, and Marguerite pulled it back distastefully. "Very," Veronica told her.
"And what," Marguerite asked in frustration, "is that smell?"
Roxton sniffed the air, "It's coming from…"
"The guest room," he and Challenger said simultaneously.
Led by Challenger, they all made their way to the guest room. Challenger went up to examine the body of his future self – or at least that's what they had all assumed. The body looked odd. The skin, even the clothing, which now looked almost like a part of the skin, as if there was nothing else under it, was shriveled up, like a raison or a sun-dried tomato. A faint hissing sound could be heard. Challenger touched the face, and lifted on the skin. A hole formed as the skin was easily torn and a large amount of gas was released into the air. Gas that was no doubt inside the skin of the Challenger who had claimed he was from the future.
"This is amazing!" said Challenger.
"More like disgusting," Marguerite said.
"Do you know what's going on?" Veronica asked Challenger.
"I believe so," he told them, "it all revolves around the clouds surrounding the plateau."
"How do those clouds of mist and vapor relate to what's going on here?" Marguerite asked.
"You see," Challenger explained, "I've always known and suspected that there was something strange about those clouds. Now I know why we could never get any closer to them. You see, the clouds, are laced… with lifeforms!" They all stared at Challenger as if he was insane. "Hard to imagine at first, I know, but think about it! A race of cloud-like beings able to create these shells around themselves, impersonating anyone or anything they want to."
"So, then why are they everywhere all of the sudden?" Malone asked.
"My guess is, that device that Veronica's father built is the key. It increased the mass of the sun's rays, but the sun's rays don't just travel in one direction. They're irradiated from the sun, so they're shining everywhere. The device that increased the ray's mass, didn't just increase the mass of the rays traveling down, but of all the rays that passed through traveling in different directions, at different angles! Somehow, the increased mass of the rays disturbed these beings that live in the clouds, caused them to leave there homes and come here."
In awe of Challenger's deduction, Roxton said, "You're bloody brilliant Challenger."
"Okay," asked Malone, "now we know where they came from. The question is: how do we get them to go back?"
"A question I cannot answer for certain. I would assume that these being's return to their home in the clouds would be natural."
"They seem to be fairly intelligent," said Marguerite.
"Yes," Challenger agreed, "perhaps even more intelligent than ourselves."
"Which is what makes me wonder," Marguerite said, then paused. This caught everyone's attention because Marguerite sounded nervous and it was very rare that Marguerite sounded nervous.
"Wonder what?" asked Roxton.
"What if it's not just a simple case of them not knowing how to get back?" Marguerite was asking them, "What if we started a war? These creatures, they may be out to get us for disturbing them in their home among the mysterious clouds."
"If she's right…" Challenger stated, startled.
"…Then we don't have a way to fight them," Veronica said as she walked off. Everyone else looked around at each other, somewhat surprised to see such a shaken Veronica. After a few moments, Malone went to follow her.
"Veronica," said Malone as she stood by the railing.
She jumped and looked back, "Malone," she said, relieved, "what do you want?"
"Do you really think it's a good idea for any of us to be alone?" he asked her.
"I appreciate the concern, Ned," she said, "I really do, but do you really think it matters? How we are we supposed to deal with these cloudy beings?"
"I'm sure we'll figure something out," he said optimistically, "Challenger will come up with a way to sort all of this out. Besides, we don't know that they're out to get us anyway, this could all just be a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" Veronica said, "they're out to get us, Ned. They want to kill us. What other reason would they have for impersonating my father, and Roxton?"
Malone put his head down, realizing that she was correct, "I guess you're right."
Veronica looked out into the jungle, "What's that?" she said pointing to something.
"What?" Malone asked, joining her at the treehouse railing.
"That!" she said pointing to a clear haze that seemed to distort what they could see through it.
"I don't know," Malone said.
"It's moving toward us," Veronica said urgently.
Malone could feel it around him. He stood there, with Veronica at his side. They both looked all around seeing nothing, but whiteness, the air felt thicker, as if they were caught in a net of some sort. Malone felt his feet leave the ground, he looked over at Veronica, but she could not explain what was happening to them anymore than he could. Suddenly, Malone's eyelids felt heavy. He knew this was no time to take a nap, but he couldn't keep his eyes open. Before he lost consciousness, he looked over at Veronica again, and noticed that she seemed heavily fatigued now too. Then, everything went black.
"What now, Challenger?" Roxton asked him.
"I guess the next logical step would be to get rid of these… skins." He handed it to Roxton, "Dispose of the one that looked like you as well."
"Okay," said Roxton, "anything else?"
"No," Challenger decided, "that's all we can do for now. If only we could find one of them, communicate with it. Go and take care of the dead ones, you can get Malone and Veronica help you with moving the other fully intact body."
Roxton walked off leaving Challenger and Marguerite to ponder their next move.
As Roxton came to the out to the kitchen area of the treehouse he knew that Malone and Veronica were there.
"Well, what are you to up to…" he asked, but cut himself off, surprised to see them kissing, "I hope I'm not disturbing you," he said.
"No," said Veronica, "what is it?"
Roxton had a strange feeling that something wasn't right. It just felt like this scene before him was out of place, but the feeling soon passed, and he got back to business.
"I need help taking this body out of the treehouse," Roxton explained, "get rid of these ugly things."
"Ugly?" said Veronica, seeming upset by Roxton's comment.
"Well," Roxton said, holding the futuristic Challenger skin out, "how would you describe this?"
Veronica was about to speak again, but Malone stepped forward, "It is pretty gross."
"Yeah," said Veronica, "I suppose it is not the most attractive thing after all."
Roxton found this little conversation to be quite odd. He had noticed that neither Malone nor Veronica used any contractions. He also was surprised by Veronica's comment that seemed to defend the cloud beings. She seemed like the one who was against everybody recently. Roxton shook off his bad instinct, figuring that the trauma surrounding the death of Veronica's father and then seeing the double had taken its toll on everyone. After that, the three of them disposed of the two dead impostors.
The next day, the five of them set out into the jungle, hoping to find a another impostor, or at least some clue that would allow them to figure out what was going on.
Soon after they left, Veronica exchanged a look with Malone, but no one else seemed to notice. Then, she said, "I think I see something. Follow me!"
Veronica led the way through the jungle, Malone right behind her. They kept a fast pace. Roxton stayed back behind all of them, wanting to keep an eye on the group, Marguerite stuck close to Roxton.
After several hours Marguerite came up right to Roxton, and whispered, "Something isn't right here."
"I agree," Roxton whispered back, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this thing we're following. A thing that only Malone and Veronica have seen."
"I know," Marguerite said, still speaking in a low whisper, "and do you recognize where we are?"
"It's not the same route," Roxton said to her, "but we're very close to the farming fields that they use in El Dorado."
"I think we should do something about this," Marguerite said.
"I agree," Roxton said, "Hey, hold up for a second."
Roxton walked over to Veronica; Malone was by her side. He looked at them, ready to start talking, but then he gazed directly into Veronica's eyes. He noticed something, something that might explain their strange behavior. He looked deep into Malone's eyes, and saw it there two. Their iris's and pupil's were wavy, as if not really a solid, but a gas.
"Who are you?" Roxton demanded, "Don't try to lie to me, I can see it in your eyes!"
"Yes," Challenger said, "I see it too."
Malone and Veronica looked at each other, and then they ran, heading for the field where Veronica's father had built his machine, the field where they had seen Summerlee. Roxton, Challenger, and Marguerite pursued the two.
They entered the field and caught up to Malone and Veronica.
"What do you want?" Challenger asked them, "we know you're from the clouds, but what is your purpose here."
"The clouds," Veronica explained, "yes, that is where we live. We use them to hide ourselves from people like you; people who would destroy us."
"That was never our intention," Challenger pleaded, "we didn't find out about you until recently. We didn't know we'd invade your space when we built the device."
"You seem intelligent," said Marguerite, "so, why don't you just go back and forget the whole thing?"
"This is our mating season," Malone said, "our young were frightened by your intrusion, and like the rest of us, they fled, they couldn't survive outside the clouds yet."
"Of course," said Challenger, "this is storm season, you use the storm clouds as a place to reproduce."
"Yes," Veronica confirmed.
"So," Marguerite said, "now all your young our dead and you…"
"…want revenge," said Veronica.
"We didn't mean to kill your children," Roxton shouted.
"Or so you say," Malone countered.
"If only we could find a way to get them to understand," Challenger was saying.
Then, out of nowhere, a storm came, and the bright sun became covered by gray clouds. The wind hollowed and blew furiously. Lightening flashed across the sky, and thunder rippled throughout the field. Raindrops started to fall. When one of these drops would make contact with Malone or Veronica it would go right through them. Putting a hole in their skin suits, and causing vapor to leak out of them. Within seconds of the rain starting, the skins folded down and the vapor inside them rose into the storm.
"Not the real Malone; not the real Veronica," Roxton said, happy to have been the one to initially figure things out this time, "but then where are they?"
"Over there," said Marguerite, yelling over the sounds of the storm. She gestured to the far end of the field where Veronica's father had built the machine. There, they could see Malone and Veronica tied up, back to back, just sitting there, waiting to be rescued.
The three ran to them, and untied their friends. "So," asked Veronica, "what do we do now?"
"We have to find a way to let these beings know that we never intended to hurt them!" Challenger replied, "there's only one person who I think could do that, you're father, Veronica."
"Too bad he's not here," she said softly, barely heard over the noise of the raging storm.
"We may be able to contact him though," Challenger speculated.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Roxton asked.
"Just before the sun ray's broke through the ground," explained Challenger, "we saw your father's face in a ray of sunlight. Shortly after that, we saw Summerlee – Summerlee who believed in communication through telepathy. So, if we reach out with our minds, we might be able to contact your father in some sense, get him to make the cloud beings understand that we would never want to hurt their young. Quickly everyone, join hands, focus your thoughts on Veronica's father! With any luck, we can get a message through!"
They joined hands, and started to focus on their task. All around them a horrible storm was afoot. It was almost like a hurricane or a monsoon, with trees being blown over, and torrential rains pouring.
Not known to the explorers, on the other side of the field, there were six gold skinned guards from El Dorado that had spotted them.
"It's the outsiders," one of them said, "we must capture them!"
Once again there were guards charging, spears in hand, not as many, but this time the explorers were unaware of their approach.
Whatever the five of them were trying to do, it worked. After a few minutes they stopped reaching out for Veronica's father. The storm clouds broke, and the sun shined.
Just as they let go of each other's hands, six guards ambushed the five explorers from the golden city. Roxton and Malone had each managed to shoot one of them, but there were four guards left, and they had simply caught the five explorers when they weren't ready.
The four guards restrained Marguerite, Roxton, Veronica, and Malone. Despite their efforts to break free, they were held down successfully, and could not escape the trap each guard had them in. Only Challenger was still free.
Challenger was getting ready to start rescuing them, when he turned around, hearing a rumbling sound behind him. There, in the same spot as before, he witnessed the ground open once more.
And again, Summerlee popped up, and tried to coax them to come with him. "Come with me," he said, "time is even more limited this time, so you have to hurry!"
"We're a little tied up at the moment," Malone said.
"Oh no," Summerlee said, observing their present situation, "well, George, there's still time for you to come. Don't let this opportunity go to waste! Join me back in civilized England!"
Challenger smiled with excitement, but then looked back at the others. "I can't just leave them," he told Summerlee.
"But there isn't time to save them," Summerlee explained.
Challenger turned back to the others.
"Go on Challenger," Veronica told him.
"Show the Zoological Society that this place exists!" Roxton exclaimed.
"You can come back and get us on your return expedition," Malone said.
"Go on," Marguerite said, "save yourself."
"Listen to her, Challenger," Roxton said.
Challenger took a few steps toward Summerlee, but then turned back. He couldn't just leave the rest of them there; he had a responsibility for the lives of those people on his expedition.
He had a clear shot at the man holding Malone, so he shot him. Malone then wrestled the guard off of Roxton. As he did this, Challenger noticed Summerlee's head go down, and the opening close in. He could hear Summerlee say, "This was your last chance to go through the gateway…" With both Roxton and Malone free they were able to free Veronica and Marguerite without much trouble.
With all of the El Dorado guards either dead or retreating, and everyone safe, Challenger feared that he would now be confronted and forced to try and explain his decision.
Fortunately for him, Veronica wouldn't give him the chance. "Look at that," she said warmly.
Everyone turned to see the dead body of Veronica's father.
"Where has it been all this time?" Malone wondered.
"I'm not sure," said Challenger, "maybe our friends in the clouds were holding it."
"At least now we can bury him," said Veronica, accepting a burial as some sort of closure to his death.
The five of them hauled the body back to the treehouse, and buried the body right by it. The grave was crude, but would honor Veronica's father. That night after dinner, Malone and Roxton went out to replenish the water supply. When they got back that, they saw Veronica kneeling at her father's grave.
Malone handed some canteens to Roxton, "Go on up," he told Roxton, "we'll just be a minute."
Roxton nodded and headed to the elevator. He yawned, and decided he ought to get some sleep. Recent events had been exhausting.
Malone approached Veronica, who saw him coming, and stood up. Malone could see her holding back tears as he walked up to her.
"You always put on a brave face," Malone said to her softly, "and I know you're very tough, but it's okay to be sad. When you lose a loved one, it's okay to cry."
Veronica started to cry and hugged Malone, "I just can't believe they're gone. I look back on the time I spent with him, and I think, How could I have let this happen?"
"You can't blame yourself."
"I know," she said, "I just wonder if it'll ever get better."
"Not right away," Malone told her, "but in time, you'll heal. I remember when my grandfather died. I was only a boy. He had been staying at our house because he was sick and knew his time was short. One morning, I went to wake him up, and he didn't wake up – ever again. I thought I was the one who was responsible, I was the one that killed him. Over time, I realized that it wasn't my fault, and I let go of the pain that gripped me when I first found him."
"And now you're just fine with it?" Veronica asked.
"No," said Malone, "it still hurts, but I've learned to accept it as… as a thing of the past."
"I thought I had already lost them, I thought I would be prepared for this," said Veronica.
"It should give you some comfort that your father expressed pride when he saw what you had become," Malone said.
Veronica wiped her tears, "Yeah that makes it a little easier. Thanks, Ned," she said, as she looked up and gave him a short kiss.
After a brief pause Malone said, "We should probably go up to the treehouse now."
Veronica nodded, and Malone walked her to her room. She sat down on her bed. Malone walked for the door, but then stopped.
"Ned," Veronica told him, he came back in and sat next to her, "I haven't been able to sleep since I saw my father die. That won't change tonight, and I don't want to be alone. Could you stay up with me, we could talk?"
Malone smiled, "Sure. How does some fresh fruit sound?"
"That sounds… nice," said Veronica clearly exhausted.
So the two of them headed toward the kitchen, ate some fruit, and talked all through the night and into the morning.
The next morning, there was a conversation at breakfast that elaborated on what had happened the past few days.
"So," Malone was saying to Challenger, "you're saying that the clouds surrounding the plateau are controlled by the being's that inhabit them?"
"It's the only explanation," Challenger said, "it explains why the clouds seem to have a consciousness, like how they always seem to be moving away from us."
"What I want to know," Roxton announced, "is did we really see Summerlee, and would that passage, or gateway as I believe he called it, really have taken us off the plateau?"
"There is some mystery surrounding all of that," Malone admitted.
"Nothing to indicate that any of it were lies, though," Veronica said.
Marguerite joined the conversation, saying, "I think it was the real Summerlee, alive, well, and trying to rescue us."
Roxton looked at her with a shocked look, "Isn't that uncharacteristically optimistic for you?"
"Oh, Lord Roxton," said Marguerite, "haven't you learned yet, anything can happen in The Lost World."
The End