Author's note- I do not own characters and make no profit. Sincere thanks to my beta, Valawenal.

Chapter 15, There's No Place Like Home

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"I am not," Jake said injecting as much emphasis as he could on the words, "one of your characters."

Lex smiled and said nothing.

"I'm not."

"As you wish, Jacob. You still haven't told me. Why do you hesitate to try to solve this by preventing it from happening?" Lex stroked his long white beard thoughtfully.

"And you still haven't told me what Apollo did to Cassie."

Lex flicked a hand as if to swat away the comment. "I believe I did explain this to you. I sent Apollo to heal her injuries. She was in distress and I felt for her."

"You know what I am getting at," Jake said. His clipped words belied his impatience. "What exactly did he heal?"

"You can ask over and over and over again. My answer remains the same. I do not know. You want me to tell you that Apollo cured her cancer. I truly wish that I could, but I honestly do not know what Apollo did. Free will, remember? I used my writing to urge him to go to Cassandra. I wrote the idea of helping her. To some extent, I succeeded. But Apollo is selfish and arrogant. He thinks only of his own pleasure because that was how I created him. Selfless acts are not in his nature. I am sorry, Jacob."

Jake bowed his head and regarded his clenched hands. "If I do not prevent all this from happening, does that mean that it really did?"

"Does the Guardian Eve have scars from her battle in Athena's temple?"

"So, to summarize" Jake said, "I can prevent all this and my friends will not have suffered. But if Apollo really did cure Cassie's cancer, then that will not have happened either."

"A dilemma, to be sure."

"How do I decide? How can I make a decision that will impact them so much? I am not a Titan or a Greek god. I don't want to toy with their lives like this."

"Yet another question I cannot answer for you."

Jake smiled wryly. "I thought you said I was one of your characters. Shouldn't you be writing this answer for me?"

Lex returned the smile. "I thought you insisted that you most certainly were not one of my characters! Alas, my dear Librarian, you will need to be the author of your own decision. I have no doubt that you will look deep into that grand heart of yours and make the best choice."

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"Zeus, dear. This mortal has very important information for you."

"Hera, be gone. I am busy."

Busy reading the book! By golly, this plan is going to work! Flynn controlled his urge to do a little happy dance.

"I think you will want to hear what he has to say, dear husband. He claims that the book you are so engrossed in has some perilous qualities. But if you are too busy…" Hera said, barely trying to hide the disdain in her tone.

Zeus growled and looked up. He was big. His long hair and beard flowed down and over what appeared to be a quiver full of lightning bolts. Flynn took an unconscious step back. Was he imagining it or were those actual sparks shooting out from the god's eyes? He gulped and lost any desire for happy dancing.

Zeus spoke…well, actually it was more of a roar. "What? What is so very important that you interrupt my reading?"

Nonplussed, Hera gestured Flynn forward. "Mortal, take the book and show my husband the exact page you told me of."

Flynn thought that Hera had the creepiest smile he had ever seen, and dealing with creepy entities was the first line item in his job description. Zeus, however, was showing no signs of relinquishing his hold on the book and was regarding him with a chilling scrutiny.

"Ah, Great and Powerful Zeus," Flynn said, "you should look at page 157."

Hera's breathing quickened in anticipation while Flynn felt that the air in the room had suddenly grown thin. Zeus looked from Hera to Flynn and then back to Hera again. She stood her ground complacently. Flynn stood his ground as well, though his ground felt like it was experiencing an earthquake that would rate a 6 on the Richter scale.

Flynn had just about given up hope of success and was surreptitiously scoping out possible escape exits when Zeus looked down at the book and slowly began to turn the pages.

Excellent. I just need him to keep turning those pages until he gets to the right one. I'll just casually reach over to point out the page and touch it. Gotta remember the emotion part. Only gonna get one shot at this. I need to really want to go into that book. Focus, focus. Think desire. Think need. Think want. Gotta really feel it to make this work.

"Page 157," Zeus said. "And what is so perilous about this page?"

Before Flynn could respond, the door to the chamber flew inward with a splintering crash. In strode an enormous muscular giant of a man.

"Zeus, you traitorous wretch!"

"Atlas! Who released you? I will end you both!" Zeus shouted as he pulled a crackling hot lightning bolt from his quiver and hurled it across the room.

Oh, crap! Flynn leaped at the book and thrust his hand onto the open page. I really want to get outta here!

His hand tingled, and a bright light seared into his cornea. Flynn heard a booming sound though he couldn't quite tell if it was from the book or the thunder that accompanied the lightning bolts flying overhead.

With a gut wrenching pull, Flynn was yanked from the god's chambers and dumped in another world. He landed with a splash. He was on his butt, waist high in cold salty water and feeling very confused.

A beautiful woman stood before him, head tilted with a questioning look on her face.

Flynn had a thought. He knew it was an important thought. But like a dream that slips away in the early morning light, he could not seem to hold onto it.

"Book…" Flynn muttered, trying desperately to tug on the last shreds of memory as they fled from his mind.

"Flynn?" the woman spoke with a melodious French accent. "What book? I thought we were going to use the cannon."

"Cannon?" Flynn examined his surroundings in wonder and confusion. They were in some type of wreckage. "Where are we?"

"Cherie, are you injured? Did you hit your head? We are trapped in the pirate's ship. You said we could use the cannon to escape. Mon Dieu, Flynn! What is wrong with you?"

"Cannon! Yes, of course! That is exactly what we will do!" All traces of that nebulous thought about an important book and the sense of urgency that accompanied it evaporated. Flynn felt energized as he leapt to his feet. He tugged the strap of his leather satchel up over his head and tossed the bag carelessly aside onto a broken wooden beam, where it toppled off onto the flooded deck with a soft splash.

"Simone! Help me move this cannon! We need to turn it to face that wall."

Flynn and Simone laboriously pushed the rusted cannon across the ruined deck of the pirate ship. Nearby, water seeped into Flynn's satchel and soaked the notebook within. Ink floated off the paper as the words blurred until all that was written was illegible.

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Jenkins turned the knob and cautiously opened the door to the main room of the Annex. Almost as one, Eve, Ezekiel and Jenkins leaned in for a look.

Flynn sat passively at the table in the center of the room, precisely where they had left him. He was staring blankly at the Book of Myths, which was somehow emanating an air of innocence.

"Flynn?" Eve entered, gesturing for the men to follow. "Did you go?"

"Yup."

"And?"

"Epic fail."

"What happened, mate?" Ezekiel asked. Eve could feel his breathing on her neck as he craned his head to see over her shoulder. Using the discipline of her strict military training, she resisted the urge to swat him.

"It wasn't page 157."

"Mr. Carsen," Jenkins said with his trademark huff of annoyance, "perhaps you could be a tad less cryptic in your explanation of your endeavor and put a modicum of effort into debriefing us."

Flynn grimaced at the rebuke, glancing at Eve for emotional support. She stared back at him with what her fellow soldiers used to refer to as 'Eve's Stone Face'. When he still failed to answer, she snarled and said, "Spill it, Librarian."

"My plan hit a small snag. It was working smoothly until this huge, angry guy came storming in and Zeus started throwing lightning…actual lightning, mind you. And I was a bit too busy dodging lightning bolts to notice that the book wasn't open to the precise page I wanted. And it turned out to be a much earlier chapter, like way earlier, even way before you folks came along. It was actually an interesting story. I don't know if I told you about this one or not, but I was trapped in a pirate ship with this gorgeous lady vampire and…"

"Flynn!" they shouted simultaneously.

"What? It was a good story." His voice faded out in the heat of their collective glare. "Okay. Sorry. There was water."

"Water," Eve said dully.

"Yeah. Lots of it. My bag got soaked. The notebook got soaked. All the pages were wet and the ink ran. I never actually got to read the stuff I wrote. It was illegible. I ended up throwing that journal away."

Eve heaved a tired sigh. "Great. Now what?"

"Perhaps we should…" Jenkins began to speak but his words were abruptly aborted.

A blinding light flashed through the room as the floor shook with such force that Eve was knocked off her feet. For an instant she saw Flynn, his mouth opened in a surprised O as he was flung from his chair. She neither saw nor heard Jenkins, though a high pitched yelp from behind her put a location to Ezekiel. Then, all sound was eclipsed by a swooshy boom.

Eve found herself flat on her back, looking up at the high ornate ceiling a few stories above. The book-filled mezzanines circled the main room. While she had used the mezzanines countless times, she couldn't recall a time that she had actually taken a moment to study that very impressive ceiling. Her revery was interupted by a moan from one of her colleagues, though she couldn't identify which one.

Eve's brain instructed her to get up and check the status of her charges. Her body said no. A compromise was in order.

Remaining on the floor while her body took inventory of possible injuries, she mustered up enough energy to do a roll call. "Flynn! You okay?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Jenkins?"

"I am a bit shaken but essentially unharmed, Col. Baird."

"Ezekiel?"

"This crap needs to stop. I mean, like right now. It's a bloody wonder I haven't broken any bones. What if I broke fingers? Huh? Do you even know how important healthy fingers are to a thief? Have you any idea what kind of precision goes into picking a pocket? My fingers are delicate instruments! My fingers are like Picasso's brushes. Do you even care that…"

"Ezekiel! Stuff it! Are you okay or not?" Eve indulged in an eye roll that her headache promptly led her to regret.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"Me, too."

"Good. Now that we know that everyone is….Cassie?"

"Yeah. Me, too. I'm okay, too."

"Cassie?" With a speed that she immediately regretted, Eve sat up and stared. She spared a few seconds to explore the thought that she had hit her head harder than she realized. She swiveled her head- slowly and gently this time- to examine her colleagues. Their identical incredulous stares confirmed her own shocked perception.

There before them, also sprawled on the floor, was a young woman. She was covered in grime, dressed in tatters, and had tangled, barely recognizable red hair.

Cassandra had returned.