Siberia

The rest of our voyage was spent, every member of the League, applying their skills in any way they could to right the ship. Henry and Mina were working with the ship's doctors in the infirmary; Allan, Nemo, and Sawyer were busy plotting our course of travel and action; and I was busy studying the remnants of the bombs. They were interesting little things, I was fascinated with their technique. Shattering glass to set off the bombs! Ingenious!

I was sitting at my desk, researching, when a knock came upon my door. It was short, curt, and demanding, not like Henry or Mina. I stood up and answered the door, to find Allan standing there.

"Miss Amelia,"

"Yes?"

"We are in need of some, special, dynamite."

"What kind?"

Turns out, Allan had had a "feeling", that Skinner would tell them something along the lines of them needing heavy firepower. So, I was directed to design and construct 5 bundles of timed dynamites.

"You'll need to set them for 10 minutes or so."

Allan informed me that I had 28 hours, just a little over one day, till we reached Siberia.

I worked for the next 8 hours straight, not stopping for anything, until Henry walked in. He had gained permission to enter my room without knocking. I heard him coming, so when he put his hands on my shoulders, I wasn't surprised.

"Dear," he had taken to calling me, "please stop, you've done enough for one night."

It was one o'clock in the morning, and I had constructed all but one of the dynamite, and I still needed to make the timers.

"But,"

"Now, Amelia."

I smiled and, putting down my work, got up to face Henry.

"Amelia," he said, becoming solemn, "I need a word with you."

"Okay," I said, and he led me over to my bed, where he sat me down next to him. He held both of my hands in his, and looked me dead in the eye. His eyes were deep brown, almost black, filled with so much chaos and confusion.

"I was told that if there ever was a time to prove myself, it would be when we reach Siberia. Nobody knows what to expect, that's why they'll need Hyde."

"Okay, then Hyde will need to come out." I said matter-of-factly.

"I want you to promise me something," he said, "if Hyde does come out, if I'm forced to release him, promise me that you will do your best to stay away from him. Promise me?"

"Henry," I said, letting go of his hands, seriously, "I'm not as fragile as you think I am. I'm not some breakable toy, that you have to defend from the other kids."

My cockney accent was creeping back in, and I stood up.

"If I was so fragile, then how did I survive on the streets for 15 years? Why did James choose me for his serum? How did I get by all these years if I'm so fragile I can't handle your ego?"

Tears of anger and stress were welling up in my eyes.

"Amelia," Henry started, standing up with me.

"Henry," I said irritated, "just shut up and go away."

Henry sighed angrily and stormed out of my room, slamming the door behind him.

I was too angry to break down, but that didn't stop the tears from flowing. I sat back down at my desk, and began working again. We were going to be reaching our destination in 17 hours, and I had a lot to do.

By 9 o'clock the next morning, I was completely finished with the dynamite. I personally delivered them to a dozing Allan, who recommended that I take at least a couple of hours sleep. But I was running on pure adrenaline from my and Henry's fight, and the nervousness of the oncoming threat.

When I got back to my room, I collapsed on the bed and didn't awake 'til 4 o'clock that evening.

When I awoke, I realized that, we'd be arriving in 4 hours! I jumped up, rejuvenated, and ran to my desk, where I began to restock on my custom made explosives; the shooting stars, the smoke bombs, the mini-dynamite, even some stink bombs. Only an hour into this, I stopped a kitchen boy in the hall and requested a pot of tea, or coffee, or whatever they had down there. I knew it was almost time, so I began equipping myself. I put on my traveling dress, but soon decided that it was pointless, and ripped off the skirt, leaving my brown, sleeved corset, my many pocketed pants, and my thick boots. I braided my hair, and shoved all of my weapons into their designated pockets. When all of this was finished, I was summoned by one of Nemo's officers.

It was time.

We all met in Nemo's meeting room, and were all given heavy winter wear, made of the most fascinating, and beautiful fabric, I'd ever seen. We were made to wear, long leather trench coats, and thick, white parkas, with fur lined hoods, all over our regular wear. As we were readying ourselves, I caught sight of Henry. I was still frustrated with him, and I could tell he was extremely angry with me, but, I guess, I kind of missed him. Mina came over to me, and talked as we readied ourselves.

"Here," she said handing me something.

I took it, to find it was a long, thin knife.

"It's light, it's durable, and it'll take care of you."

"Thanks Mina." I said smiling at my vampiric friend, as she pulled the provided trench coat over her own.

"Amelia," she said, "you're tough, everyone knows that. But you can't take on the world like you seem to think you can. To tell you the truth, darling," she looked at me, hoping I would take this easily, "compared to some of us, you're still just that kid off the streets of London."

I couldn't say anything to that, and I was in no mood to. So I just attached the knife and its sheath to my belt, and shouldered on the thick, white parka.

"Thanks for the knife Mina." And I began to walk away.

"Amelia," she called from behind me, "I didn't mean to say that you can't kick some serious ass when we get in there. I just meant that you should realize that your back is covered."

As I turned, I realized that the rest of the League, surrounding me, was, in fact, looking at me with a smile. Even Allan. I smiled back to them, not looking at Henry. I was too ashamed to.

***

We traversed the tundra of Siberia, through one of their famous snow storms, for about 2 hours, lead by Allan, to where Skinner's message said he would meet us. We came upon a hill, and lo and behold, there was, what I thought to be, Satan's castle. It was a castle all right, but with flames spurting out of random places, and black, billowing smoke clouds floating out of smoke stacks that reached to the sky. I heard Mina utter a curse, and most of the men Nemo had brought were uttering frightened Indian phrases. We stood and looked at the hellish palace, and I noticed that Henry was standing beside me, but not close enough to talk to.

Later, Allan had found us a cave to wait in, the cave where Skinner had told us to wait. Allan was outside keeping watch, and we all built a fire in the cave. I sat alone, in front of it, and looked over the knife Mina had given me. The blade was a good foot long, but only two inches wide just below the hilt. The hilt was big enough for one of my hands, and thin, so that I could spin the blade around rapidly in my hand. The hilt was engraved with words in a language I was not familiar with.

"La spre seek lumină în întuneric de places" said Mina, sitting next to me, "It means, 'To seek light in the darkest of places."

"What language is it?" I asked.

"Romanian." Mina replied, "It was used in the hunt of many evil creatures by Dr. VanHelsing, himself."

"Wow," I said, amazed.

"I have no other need for it," she said looking at it, thoughtfully, "and I wanted to make sure it went into worthy hands."

"What makes me worthy?"

Mina laughed, "You're a brave girl, Amelia."

"Girl?" I said laughing.

"Well, compared to how long I've lived, you might as well still be in diapers."

Suddenly, there was a growling, coming from the entrance to the cave. Mina and I looked at each other, and all of the League went out to see what was going on. We came out to see Allan, just putting his gun down, and looking thoughtfully at the snow.

"Allan," said Sawyer, "what is it?"

"It was nothing," said Allan, "just an old tiger, sensing the end."

"Perhaps." Said Nemo, looking at Allan, suspiciously.

Out of nowhere, Mina let out a scream.

"Easy darling, it's just me." Said Skinner's amused voice.

"Skinner, what the hell?" exclaimed Allan.

"I've been waiting all week to do that." Said Skinner, still amused.

Everyone just looked in Skinner's general direction, frowning.

"Good to see you all too." He said, mildly offended.

"Now, if you all haven't noticed," his voice moving towards the cave, "I'm butt naked in the middle of Siberia."

Later, in the cave, Skinner had packed on several layers of clothing, painted his face a ghostly white, and put on his ever-present sunglasses. He described the castle to us as he ate some warm soup. It was as hellish inside as it was outside. Skinner told us that all the things that Dorian had stolen from us were being used against us. M had kidnapped hundreds of scientists, and their families, and while the families were put in the dungeons, the scientists were forced to develop mass production of all the specimens.

"He'd have himself an army of vampires, Hyde's, invisible assassins, flying agents," said Skinner, serious as I'd ever seen him, "he's even making replica's of the Nautilus."

"The Nautiloid." Said Nemo, horrified.

We all knew that we were the ones to stop it, and that it had to be stopped now. But the question was, how?

"The only way to end this," Skinner said, "is to free the scientists, and destroy that hellhole."

"We also need to make sure that those specimens are destroyed and out of M's hands." Said Nemo.

"And that the bastard dog himself is either dead or in prison." Said Allan.

We all nodded in agreement.

"There are several large boilers, and, if one were to use enough dynamite, they would be the end of this all." Skinner explained.

Allan looked at me, noticing the irony in the coincidence, and I grinned back at him. Thank God for my love of explosions.