A/N: Again, thanks to those who have reviewed. It's always nice to share the Cal and Niko love :) I must admit, writing this fic totally fulfilled my need to thoroughly hurt Cal and have Niko angst over him, so it's always nice to know I'm not alone in that desire.

CHAPTER THREE

Promise and Goodfellow were already at the apartment when he returned home. He did not meet their eyes as he shed the doctor's coat, letting it fall in a heap on the couch. It wasn't until he was seated stiffly in a chair at the table that he realized his entire face was taut with emotions, tears burning in futility behind his eyes.

Because he'd seen Cal. He'd seen his brother, touched him, talked to him. And nothing was any better. Cal was hurt, drugged up, and there was nothing Niko could do to change it.

"They don't think his injuries are life threatening," Robin said at last. "At least, not anymore. Anne was adamant about that. He's going to get better."

It was little consolation at the moment. "Yes, but how do we get him out?" Niko asked, his voice grinding out the question.

"That will be difficult," Promise said softly. "They're treating this case with far more secrecy than even I would have suspected. They did not divulge any details to me, no matter how insistent I was or how much money I tempted them with."

"I do not care about what we do not know," Niko said shortly. "I want what we do know. What we can do. The list of our limitations is long and it does not help us get Cal out."

Robin looked a little uncomfortable, shifting as he eyed Promise, who, for her part, was impassive. The puck cleared his throat. "We know the hospital wants to test him."

"But they would need consent," Niko asserted. "They cannot just test him indiscriminately against his will. I am not sure how that helps us. We need to be focused on Cal's rescue, not the hospital's secrecy or their plan or anything else. Just Cal."

"We have to think, Niko," Robin said, more insistently this time. "About what the hospital has planned so we can find our best opportunity. It may seem tedious, at best, but I promise you, it's our best hope."

Niko kept the puck in his steady stare, but Robin did not waver. Neither did Promise, composed and resolute by his side. It was hard to admit, but they were right. It went against his protective instinct, but he needed to listen. Jaw locked, he flattened his lips. "So what is their next step?"

"Well, given what I've been told, they want to start more extensive tests. Blood work, bone marrow, urine--you name the bodily fluid, they want it and they want to see what's in it."

Niko scowled at the thought.

Goodfellow hesitated and went on, carefully now. "I know they want to pursue endurance tests--see how far his body can be pushed, what it can handle before it just gets exhausted. Psychological tests are down the line."

Niko's throat constricted at that. Psychologically speaking, Cal was stable enough, but he knew his brother had more than his share of issues. Being half human, despised by his mother, and taken to hell tended to do that to a kid. And he had a feeling that these doctors wouldn't want to unearth Cal's problems to help him.

"But that's all later. The next thing they want to do, once he's cleared from the ICU, is to take him back up to surgery. They seem to suspect there may be more going on inside him that's worth exploring, and they'd like to see it first hand, probably take some tissue."

At this, Niko was seething, his rage barely contained. He tilted his head, leveling Robin with a deadly stare. "They wish to turn my brother into a lab rat?"

Goodfellow smiled sheepishly. "Cal is rather unique."

"Cal's my brother," Niko snapped. "And no one will take anything from him without him consent."

"And if they obtain consent?" Promise voiced softly.

Niko's throat tightened, his jaw tight. "Why would he consent to being tested like some kind of science experiment?"

Promise's gaze was steady, unwavering, but it was Goodfellow who followed her statement up. "But when Cal wakes up, what's he going to say? He doesn't exactly have a way to get out of this one--he can't just tell them he fell into toxic waste as a child and think they'll let him go."

"They cannot hold him," Niko insisted, shaking his head adamantly. The world functioned in certain ways, simple ways, and he did not wish to entertain alternatives.

"Niko," Goodfellow said, and his voice was compassionate--too compassionate. "Can't you see? That's why they're keeping him sedated. They're already petitioning the courts to have the hospital named his legal guardian. They don't intend on letting him make his own decisions, and I fear that once they've started their testing, Cal won't be able to fend them off."

It made sense. Too much sense.

He set his face grimly. "We cannot let that happen."

"And how are we going to stop it?" Robin asked, his voice somewhat resigned.

"We don't," Niko said, the plan forming in his mind. "Let them obtain their consent. By the time they are ready to start testing, Cal will be gone."

Robin looked ready to question, to prod further, but Niko was already moving, determined and steady down the hall, into his room where he closed the door.

-o-

Promise had brought food, but Niko hadn't touched it. Goodfellow had returned to the hospital, working Anne for more information, but was now eating absently, chewing on a decadently stacked deli sandwich and popping fresh veggies into his mouth. Promise had left Niko's sandwich unwrapped in front of him, his favorite, but he hadn't even spared it a second glance.

Not when they had business to attend to. He'd spent days looking for his missing brother. Now that he'd found him, Niko's only concern, his only focus, was getting Cal back where he belonged--with him.

Plans were flitting through his head--forming and morphing, refining and finalizing. It was plotting born of desperation and need. It was all-consuming, and he barely felt the eyes of his friends tracing his even pacing in front of them.

"Niko."

It was Goodfellow's voice, but devoid of its usual licentiousness. He tried to ignore it, his mind tuning in on the problem at hand.

"Niko."

His concentration broke; his patience shattered. "What?" he snapped, turning toward his friends and looking at them for the first time in hours. And it was like seeing them for the first time--the worry on their faces, the tiredness drawn in their features. Immortal and supernatural or not, this was wearing on them. They wanted answers--almost as much as Niko did--and if the resignation on their faces meant anything, they had had no more luck than Niko had in coming up with an adequate solution.

"Do you have any ideas?" Robin prompted. "Or are you simply going to wear away the floor until you fall right through?"

Niko ignored the joke, ignored the lightness, and instead exerted his mind again at the problem at hand. "We need to get Cal out."

"This is sounding vaguely redundant," Robin said.

"This is Cal," Niko snapped. "We will get him out."

"Unless you want to own up to your identity and out Cal, then I'm not seeing many options right now."

"It's not an option," Niko said shortly. "We have a life here. Cal is already on the run from the Auphe. We cannot avoid every civilization."

"Nor do we want you to," Promise added gently.

Pausing, Niko looked at her, then at Robin again. They were watching him, careful and calculating. They had gotten him this far, but Cal was Niko's brother. They all knew the rescue plan would come from him.

Cal would probably laugh at him right now, roll his eyes over Niko's angst. Not that Cal wouldn't understand it or even appreciate it, but because Niko had always been a man of action. Niko had always been the one doing and moving and planning, dragging Cal, sometimes against his will, wherever Niko deemed best.

Niko had ignored all rules and regulations when it suited him. Laws were moral codes that could be used at his discretion, but they had never limited him. Authorities were well-intended and necessary on a whole, but not for them.

It was time to stop soft-peddling and get his brother back.

"If they will not let him leave of his own volition," Niko said evenly, "then we will extract him by force."

Promise raised an eyebrow and Goodfellow swallowed carefully. "They have him under 24 hour surveillance."

"We've tackled worse," he said, nearly dismissively. He looked meaningfully at Promise. "Now would be a good time to use any contacts we may have at the facility."

"My contacts are not that good," she said. "No one would be friendly to us in that way. I only know humans there, ones who are more interested in money than ethics."

Goodfellow shrugged sheepishly. "Anne is all I've got. Given more time, I might be able to persuade some others--"

"We have no more time," Niko said curtly. He didn't have time to ponder, no patience left to consider alternatives. He simply needed a plan. He'd worked with fewer resources before and still prevailed. He would do it again. "We will rely on simple subterfuge and manipulation."

"And how to you propose we do that?" Robin asked. To the puck's credit, there was no trace of skepticism in his voice.

Impassive, Niko shrugged, the plan coming to him before he even thought about it. "We will coordinate the escape," he said. He nodded at Goodfellow. "You will be in charge of creating a distraction, something large enough to attract the attention of the entire floor. I assume you, of all people, would be capable of such a feat."

Robin's mouth evened into a thin line, but he nodded reluctantly.

Niko turned his eyes to Promise. "You must have the transportation. We will find a place to park, out of the way but with easy access to main roads. We need to clear the area quickly and without being detected."

Promise's eyes were steady and she raised her eyebrows. "And what will you be doing?"

"What I always do," Niko explained. "Taking care of Cal."

"And when do you suppose this will happen?" Robin asked. "Last I checked, Cal was still in guarded condition in the ICU. Even Anne says he's not fit for travel--not even by our standards. And as far as I know, we can't support Cal on a ventilator in your apartment."

"We will wait, then," Niko surmised without hesitation. "We wait until Cal is taken off the critical list and then we put our plan into action before the doctors have a chance to subject him to anything else."

Both Promise and Goodfellow appeared pensive, their minds going over the plan, considering it and its caveats. The puck licked his lips. "We'll be cutting it kind of close."

"There are no other options," Niko answer brusquely. "We will look at the schematics of the hospital, eye our best routes. In the meantime, we can visit Cal in turns. I want to be sure my brother is being well taken care of."

Goodfellow looked uncomfortable, shifting awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. "I'm afraid there can't be any more visits," he said.

Niko remained impassive, but it took all his willpower. "Why?"

"Apparently Dr. Konokovich's references didn't check out," Goodfellow said. "They figured it out shortly after you left. The hospital thinks it was a security breach, some attempt from an outside source to assess Cal and steal their glory. This is big for them--they need the grant money. They've doubled his security, for his safety, of course."

"You're telling me that I do not have ability to see my brother?" His words were measured, even, teetering on the brink of sheer anger.

The puck sighed. "It's a risk we can't take. Not if we intend to get Caliban out of there." He looked up and met Niko's eyes, and Niko could see the remorse there. "If there were any other way, you know I would help you do it."

Robin was a liar, he was a scam-artist, he was a manipulator. But he was Cal's friend. It hurt, it hurt like hell, but Goodfellow was telling the truth.

None of them liked it, but there wasn't a thing that any of them could do about it.

With a deep breath, Niko steeled himself, looking steadily into the eyes of the only two people other than his brother that he had ever opened himself up to. A vampire and a puck--the only two friends he had. The only people he could ever trust with his little brother's life. "Then we will wait," he said. "And at the first hint that Cal is scheduled for surgery, we will move."

Promise's and Goodfellow's eyes did not waver, their countenances did not flicker, and Niko knew if they couldn't pull this off, then no one could.

-o-

Awareness was a funny thing. Cal didn't care much for it on a regular basis. Sure, it was necessary, but it seemed his life usually required so much effort. He would never be an average Joe who could spend his life oblivious and happy. Lucky saps. Never knew how good they had it.

Cal's life was perpetual awareness, of readiness, of alertness. So much so that the times of pure rest--unadulterated sleep or mindless TV watching--were usually coveted times, rare and hard to come by, which no doubt was as much Niko's fault as it was the Auphe's.

All that was on a normal day.

Today was definitely not a normal day.

Just because oblivion could sometimes be appealing didn't mean that he wanted to be trapped there. He liked the choice of being able to leave.

That was a choice that was still being denied to him.

This time, however, he was at least aware enough to recognize that, which was an improvement. That, and he could remember things. Like that he was in a hospital. And he'd been shot. That breathing wasn't really the easiest thing in the world at the moment. And damn it, he was alone.

,

So his memory was still intact, but that sure as hell didn't make the memories any easier to make sense of. Because, okay, getting shot--well, he could remember that. The whole twitchy gunman and hysterical cashier. He'd played hero, much to his own dismay, and apparently this was his thanks for his good deed. Screwed the hell up in a hospital, flat on his back with tubes and wires in every nook and cranny of his body, including one that seemed to be uncomfortably crammed down his throat.

Okay. So maybe that much he could get. But that didn't explain the docs and their creepy bedside conversation. Tests? Exploratory surgery?

Anyway, last he checked, hospitals were not for him. Not for some freakish half-Auphe experiment. Niko would never stand for that kind of crap.

Which really was the problem.

Niko wouldn't stand for it, yet it was happening. Because Niko wasn't here.

Cal prided himself on being an adult and independent and capable, but, damn. He wanted his brother.

That alone was all the incentive he needed to push back the waves of sleep that seemed to be suffocating him. Enough to make him open his eyes.

The result wasn't as instantaneous as he wanted, and it took a good minute before his eyes really cleared. It took another moment after that for him to make sense of the room around him.

He'd seen hospitals before--on TV. He wasn't sure he'd actually been in one. Sophia sure as hell wouldn't have sprung for one and Niko had been far too smart to risk taking him to one, so that left them up to his imagination. And he had to admit, this looked pretty much like he expected--neutral, dim lights, machines every which way. The only thing missing was some hot chick weeping at his bedside or someone wringing his hands while angsting for him to wake up.

All in all, it was rather anticlimactic, and really, maybe he'd appreciate it more if he knew where Nik was and if he could breathe.

He was awake alright, but he wasn't totally with it. His body was still in that heavy state, where he felt like his limbs were cased in concrete. He could look around, blink a little, but beyond that, he was completely helpless. Which really wasn't ideal, not that he was sure what he wanted to do if he did have full control of his body.

His musings stopped short, when the door opened. It was hard to see because he still couldn't really move his head, but the white coat-clad figure made his way to his bedside and picked up his chart. He was in the middle of several notations when the guy finally noticed that Cal was, in fact, staring at him.

"You're awake, I see," the guy said, which was far too obvious a statement from a man who was supposedly well-educated. On top of that, his voice was really far too friendly for a guy that Cal had never met and that he sure as hell didn't trust.

"My name is Dr. Hill," he said. "I was the surgeon who operated on you after you were shot."

Cal just stared, not that he could do much else. It didn't matter where this guy had looked inside of him, Cal didn't trust him. He couldn't. Not with the guy's short-cut bleached-blonde hair and winning smile. There was something damn sinister about this guy and Cal didn't need his Auphe sensitivity to figure that out.

"I will also be in charge of your ongoing care," he said.

Ongoing? Somehow, Cal didn't like the sound of that.

"You're getting stronger, but we're still very concerned about the possibility of infection," the doctor explained. "That's why we've kept you on the ventilator--to be sure your lung heals sufficiently. It's also the reason for the sedation, which I'll be sure to administer to you before I leave. If you become much more aware, you'll fight the tube, and that would be most unpleasant."

It would be more unpleasant if Cal rammed his shoe up this guy's pompous ass. Unfortunately, he'd have to work on the whole moving thing before he got there.

"We have a lot planned for you," he said. "You're quite the interesting fellow, but you can tell us more about that after the exploratory. I imagine we'll be spending lots of time together. The courts have granted us legal guardianship, since we couldn't find your true identity. These tests are for your own good. We need to know what we're dealing with, what you've got going on inside of you--and what dangers that may or may not cause you."

Dangers? Like the ability to make rifts in time and space? That was something he could control--usually. It wasn't like he was about to implode from the inside out. Sure, his Auphe daddy had tried without success multiple times and Cal was sure he had many painfully defunct half-siblings buried out there somewhere, but there was nothing physically wrong with him. As for the psychological mess, well, that was Cal's business and his alone and if anyone was going to protect him, it was going to be Nik. And why did Cal get the distinct feeling that these tests were not about him?

"When you wake up from that, we will remove you from sedation," he said. "Once your body has healed, we can move into other things." The grin broadened. "We have great things planned. You'll be famous. Medical marvel. I'll save you the news clippings."

News clippings? Famous? None of that was good--at all. All the publicity would just make him a sitting duck for his disgruntled Auphe relatives and it sure as hell didn't sound like Dr. Happy was ready to let him go on his merry way when this was over.

This was why they'd avoided hospitals. Right here. The medical marvel. Science couldn't look the other way with Auphe anatomy apparently, and it looked like that was going to take away what little freedom he had in life. It was going to keep him sedated, trapped, secluded--away from Niko. The more famous he got, the harder it would be for Nik to break him out.

Because Nik would try. He knew that. As soon as Niko caught word of where he was, he didn't doubt his brother would be there.

So where the hell was he? He needed to get out of here now--before it was too late.

The doctor was still talking, smiling, rambling and walking to the IV. Cal's eyes followed him, desperate and pleading. Surely, this guy could have some compassion. Surely, he wouldn't keep Cal from his family.

But that was exactly what he was doing, Cal realized as he watched the doc inject something into his IV. He was keeping Cal out, keeping Cal under until he had no choice but to follow along, until there was no way he could get out of here and go back to his normal, screwed-up little life.

The drugs were fast, and they were good and Cal fought a sudden urge to cry. He might never see Niko again. He might be stuck here, and he couldn't even move, he couldn't even stay awake...

His eyelids were drooping, and his awareness was fading again, fast and silent and any struggle he had was futile as it all went away again.

-o-

The hardest part was waiting.

Patience was a virtue that he'd elucidated to Cal frequently, but there was a difference in being patient for the right girl to come along and waiting for the prime opportunity to break one's little brother out of the hospital.

And perhaps it was not so much the waiting, but it was how utterly disconnected from Cal he was while he waited. He'd sat by his brother's bedside through numerous ailments and injuries. He'd nursed Cal, fed and bathed him, and Cal had scared him more times than he could count, but at least Niko had always been there. As though he believed as long as he was next to Cal, as long as he could touch his little brother and talk to him, then Cal would never leave.

Knowing Cal was drugged up and hurt in some cold and sterile hospital where Niko had no access to him was pure torture.

Promise and Goodfellow stayed with him, coming and going in even increments. Promise merely sat near to him, brought him food and drink, but was otherwise silent, letting her presence alone offer the solace she knew Niko would never accept. Goodfellow came with loud stories and dirty jokes, sprawling over the furniture and making every attempt to cajole Niko from his misery by sheer annoyance alone.

They both cared; it was that simple. They both worried about him, and he knew they both worried about Cal. This waiting game was easy on none of them.

But there was nothing any of them could do. The plan was in place. The details were ironed out. All they needed was confirmation from Goodfellow's nurse companion that Cal was scheduled for surgery. Until then, they couldn't risk it. Niko's cover was already blown, and the security surrounding Cal had doubled according to Goodfellow, ever since the hospital had attained legal guardianship. They couldn't afford getting caught. Loitering at Cal's bedside would have made Niko feel a lot better, but it would only put Cal's escape at risk.

His brother was running from enough things. He didn't need doctors and the media on top of it all.

So, waiting. Far too much of it.

He'd already scoured the apartment, cleansing every nook and cranny under Promise's patient eye. Goodfellow had merely raised his eyebrows as he reorganized his books in ascending order by size in the cheap bookshelf in the living room.

Finally, he pulled out his weapons, starting with his own, all neatly arranged in the back of his closet. Knife by knife, he extracted them from their sheaths, sharpening them to a dangerous point before polishing them until his reflection was vividly clear in their silver blades.

He replaced each one in order, hanging them purposefully, carefully, and feeling emptier with each one.

Restless, he went to Cal's room, sifting through the mess until he found most of the pieces of Cal's equally impressive weaponry collection. There were far more guns, and none of the knives seemed to still have their sheaths, though Niko knew they all existed somewhere.

It didn't matter.

He set to work, thorough and tedious, gun by gun, knife by knife, until his brother's collection was splayed neatly on Cal's dresser.

He was so focused, so intent, that he was out of weapons to clean before he was ready. Breathless, he looked around, desperate for more, for something to do, something to make him feel less impotent.

But there was nothing. Nothing he could do. Nothing to be done.

This was Cal's room, Cal's space, but Cal wasn't here.

Just Niko. Niko and Cal's weapons, neatly laid out, a gleaming island of cleanliness in his little brother's room.

Niko's heart skipped a beat.

Cal would never stand for it. He'd gripe and whine and toss some clothes on top of the dresser to hide the order. That was just Cal's way.

But Cal wasn't here.

Cal wasn't here.

The knowledge weakened Niko's knees and he found himself perched on the edge of Cal's unmade bed, tears burning through his eyes and down his face and Niko didn't know how to care.

There was a sudden knock on the door, and Niko's eyes dried immediately as he looked up. Robin was standing there, and if he noticed the tears, the weakness, he didn't comment.

"Cal is doing better," the puck said. "We have a day of waiting, at most. We should get some rest tonight, and be prepared for tomorrow."

Niko straightened, his fears passing to his subconscious. Those were idle thoughts, wayward weaknesses. There was no time for that now. Now was the time to rescue his brother. "Then we will get him out tonight," Niko said, pushing himself to his feet. "Go home, get your things. Promise will be here shortly. Call the minute you know anything more."

Goodfellow nodded, moving away from the door.

Niko gave his brother's room one more look. The empty cups, rumpled clothes, the neat row of weapons on the dresser. The only thing missing was Cal.

With a deep breath, he moved out.

Cal wasn't here. But he would be soon.

-o-

Wakefulness refused to come to him.

Which really figured. The one time in his life he wanted to wake up was the only time he really couldn't. Whatever drugs they were giving him, they were damn good ones, and effective, too, because he didn't feel anything. Vague sensations, sure, and distant noise, maybe, but that soft feeling of floating was as pervasive as ever.

He could hardly even think straight, which was maybe the worst of it. He remembered things in odd fragments--a piece of memory, a flash of sensation, but nothing he could put together to form a coherent thought.

There was dry-cleaning to be done, and a suit to be worn. He could see Niko standing with his arms crossed, tapping his foot in expectation. "We don't have all day, little brother."

And Cal was carrying takeout, and it smelled like Chinese, and he was trying to explain that it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't move any faster, that there was nothing he could do at all.

Niko just shook his head, looking at Cal like he'd grown extra limbs.

Looking down himself, Cal realized that there weren't extra limbs, just missing ones. Whole parts of him--gone, gaping.

He swore, trying to figure out where they hell they'd all gone to and why the hell he hadn't noticed until now.

"I can't trust you to do anything right," Niko told him.

Cal wanted to protest, but somehow couldn't find the words, because Niko seemed to be right, just like always (the bastard).

"We'll have to fix this," Niko said, only it didn't sound like Niko and Cal wasn't sure what he was going to fix. He was a monster from the DNA up and nothing was ever going to change that.

"No, but we might as well use it," Nik said, his blonde head talking but the voice was wrong, this was all wrong, and there was nothing Cal could do to stop it.

So he didn't. Instead, he heard the world buzzing, like some giant insect invasion, which really couldn't be very good, but sure as hell had to be better than this, and Cal floated away once more.

-o-

It was three in the morning when the call came. Niko had been in bed, but the idea of sleep was nothing more than a pretense he had adopted to appease Promise's watchful eyes.

He answered the phone on the second ring, before Promise even had a chance to rise from her perch in the chair in his room. "Yes," he said shortly. He had no time for games. There would be only one person calling him, only one person that mattered, anyway.

"Cal's condition has been raised to good. They've got him slated for surgery at 11 this morning."

"That's soon," Niko said, matter-of-fact.

"They want to avoid any legal or media snafus," Robin informed him. "The court's paperwork is signed, and they don't want anyone catching wind of that until after the procedure is over."

"We have to move quickly," Niko said, and he was already out of bed, reaching for his clothes.

"I'll be at the hospital in thirty minutes," Goodfellow assured him.

"I'll be there in twenty," Niko answered. He disconnected the call, pulling on his clothes in a fluid motion.

Promise was standing, already dressed herself, gathering her hair back into a braid. "We had planned on more time."

"We don't need it," Niko said. "It's only a twenty minute in-and-out job."

There was a flicker of concern in Promise's eyes, but she didn't let it manifest, and Niko was grateful. Instead, she smiled, slipping on her cloak. "Indeed," she agreed. "I sometimes forget how quick we can be without Caliban's incessant griping."

Niko grimaced a smile. "He can be rather cumbersome."

She moved toward him, adjusting her cloak into place before placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It will be nice to have him back," she said.

Pausing, Niko looked at her, gazing into her soft eyes, her beautiful features. He loved her. She was like a prized jewel to be cherished and honored. But for as much as he loved her, it meant nothing without Cal. Cal was everything to him, his entire world. It only took a week of living without his little brother to realize just how painfully incomplete he felt without his brother by his side. "Yes," he agreed finally. "It will."

-o-

This time there were voices, just like before, but they were gauzy and distant, like he was trapped underwater or listening through a paper-thin apartment wall.

"...vitals are stable," the one voice said, and Cal knew that voice, but not well, but knew it enough to hate it.

"And all the paperwork is in order?"

"We'll be able to open him up without any legal ramifications," replied the first, smug and elitist and damn sure.

"Do you think this boy knows just how much money he'll bring the hospital?"

A snort. Short and condescending. "Do you think this boy knows just how famous he'll make me?"

The darkness was rising again, and he was falling deeper into it, sucked into a vacuum where time and space had no meaning, had no purpose. This was a fight he would never win, could never win, and Cal tried to remember if he'd ever had a chance.

Against a bullet. Against the sedatives. Against the doctors. Against the world. Without Niko.

There were no tears to cry, and he had no means of crying them, as his awareness slipped further. The only thing this boy knew for sure was that he was probably never going to see his brother again. There were some things Niko could fight, some things they could both rally against, but Niko wasn't here and Cal had no way of making any progress and damn it all if the worst part was wondering if Niko even knew where he was.