When Stefan finally allowed himself to give in to his exhaustion he'd gone up to his bed at Windermere, but when he woke up he was in his room on Cassadine Island. As soon as he realized what had happened he tore the island apart looking for his sisters, nephew and niece. When there was no sign of them, no sign that they had ever been there, Stefan took his anger and frustration out on the breakable objects around him. Every time he thought he'd had a lead on his family's whereabouts he'd find that he'd been lead there on purpose. No matter how hard he tried he could not figure out who kept sending him on wild goose chases or who was helping them do so. He felt as if he were failing his sisters and the last thing Stefan ever wanted to do was fail Alexis yet again.

After pouring himself a drink Stefan sat by the open terrace doors. He couldn't seem to stop the memories from washing over him the way the waves below washed over the sands. With his eyes closed he could see himself and Alexis playing pirates in the cove, or him and Stavros as very young boys playing Romans, but without fail the moment he remembered Stavros Helena would invade his thoughts like a dark shadow. Things could have been so different if not for Helena. He hoped that wherever she was she was suffering or better yet rotting in hell.

Stefan opened his eyes and looked down at the picture he held in his hand. He was sitting on a bench in the garden with Stavros sitting to his right and Alexis standing to his left. All three of them had genuine smiles on their faces. It was a rare moment, a rare and precious moment in their lives together. For that fleeting moment in time the three of them were truly siblings and happy to be so. And then Helena came home and once again the moments between them were fueled with hate and torment.

Setting the picture aside Stefan stood and turned around. The glass in his hand fell to the floor as he caught sight of the man standing across the room watching him. All the color drained from Stefan as he met the dark eyes of a ghost; a ghost who brought all of his emotions, all the hurt, anger, and desire of a boy who only wanted his father to be a father.

"Hello Stefan." Mikkos said after staring at his son for several minutes. He, like Kristina, favored his mother more then Mikkos, but unlike with Kristina Mikkos did not find this comforting. He found it chilling and almost unbearable. "Well? Aren't you going to greet your father?"

It took several moments for Stefan to find his voice and reorder his thoughts. It shouldn't really be any surprise that Mikkos was alive, but it was. It hadn't ever crossed his mind and for a moment he wondered why. After all, his father was capable of a lot, why not resurrection? "Good evening, Father. You are looking well for a dead man."

"I found death to be quite disagreeable." Mikkos replied. "So I came back."

"You've hidden from us all this time?" Stefan asked. "Why? And why show yourself now?"

Mikkos waved the question away as if it were a gnat. "None of that is of any importance. I am here to discuss business."

This was all so surreal but Stefan managed to keep a cool head. "Where are Alexis and the others?" As soon as he'd seen Mikkos he knew. Their father had his sisters stashed somewhere along with Nikolas and Samantha. "Are they alright?"

"They and the children are well." Mikkos replied. "They are safe, well cared for, and together."

"I want to see them." Stefan demanded.

Mikkos poured himself a drink. "You will see them again, back in Port Charles, when the time is right. Now, let us get down to the reasons for this meeting."

"And what reasons are those?" Stefan asked. It was like living through a dream. Stefan couldn't take his eyes off the man. If this truly were a dream Mikkos would look the way he did the last time Stefan saw him, but this man was older, and somehow different than he remembered.

"My girls of course." Mikkos answered.

Stefan bristled at his father's comment. "You mean my sisters."

Sam and Nikolas had gone over every single inch of the massive house and they both had noticed places where phones should have been, but were missing. So there were phones in the house they'd just been taken out. That's when their exploration turned into a treasure hunt. Sam figured that their grandfather would need access to a phone, and they figured that he'd have it in his study, so that's where they started their search. With Nikolas acting as a look out Sam picked the lock on the study door and any lock on cabinets or drawers they couldn't access.

"Ha!" Sam cheered after pulled open the deep locked drawer of Mikko's desk. "I knew there had to be one in here." Once she had the phone she started looking for the jack, finding one alond the baseboard under the desk. "There it is."

Nikolas got excited when he saw Sam with the phone and moved away from the door. He went over to her quickly as she began dialing. "No, Sam, you have to dial one and then the country code."

"What's the country code?" Sam asked. Nikolas showed her how to do it and of course the number she dialed was Jax's. "Dad!"

"Sam?" Jax said in surprise. "Sam, baby, where are you?"

"Mom's old house." Sam replied. "We're ok, we're someplace in the Alps or something. Dad, Mikkos has us!" She managed to get out before she screamed from surprise when someone grabbed her wrist and yanked on it. She had a death grip on the phone as she yelled, "Mikkos has us!"

The guard shook his head as he hung up the phone. He drug both children out of the room and through the house until they got to where Johann and Alexis were. As soon as Sam saw her mother she kicked the guard in the shin and ran to her.

"Sam?" Alexis asked with concern as she wrapped her arms around her daughter. "Baby what's wrong? What's happened?"

The guard spoke in Russian as he said, "They found the Master's phone and called out."

Johann raised an eyebrow. "How? It was locked away in his desk, in his locked study."

Alexis was smirking. "My daughter is very resourceful."

"I called Dad." Sam said as she looked up into her mother's face. She didn't want to say more than that, didn't want to admit in front of them that she had told Jax a clue, but her eyes told her mother everything. When she turned away from her mother she looked at the men in the room. "My Dad is going to find us and you're all going to be very sorry!"

Johann just shook his head as he dismissed the guard. "I do not understand, Princess. This is your home and yet you continue to act as if…"

"It was my prison." Alexis cut in. She was starting to sound like broken record. "I didn't come here of my own accord, Johann. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will. We were forced away from our home and the people we love. I've read over what my father left for me to go over and I guess I can understand part of his reasoning, but that doesn't change the fact that we are in fact his captives."

"Your father has his reasons for wanting you here and for the ways he brought you here." Johann said in defense of the man.

Sam snorted. "Bet he had his reasons for going all Mr. Freeze and trying to turn the world into the world's biggest ice cube too."

Johann frowned even deeper. "The Master had good intentions."

Alexis shook her head. "Johann, please don't. That man was a villain and there's no making excuses for him."

"He is not that man here." Johann replied as he looked at Alexis as if she'd been five and had just kicked him again, just the way Sam had kicked the guard.

"I miss the man I knew here." Alexis admitted. "But he's gone, Johann, you don't know the man I was raised by, the man who hurt me deeper then anyone ever could." She pulled Sam close and held her protectively. "There are just some things I can never forgive him for."

"You're absolutely sure she said Mikkos?" Luke asked as he glared at Jax.

The tall blonde man nodded his head. "Yes, Sam said Mikkos had them, and that they were at Alexis' old house."

Luke slammed his hand down on the table, which caused Carly to jump. "That's impossible! I killed him! I saw him die!"

"Wouldn't Mikkos make sense?" Jax asked. "With everything we've learned? Every lead we've followed is tied to Kristin Bergman. It had to be either her or him and since everyone we've talked to says it's a him..."

"Mikkos Cassadine is alive." Luke said in a way that made Carly move closer to Jax.

"Who's Mikkos Cassadine?" Carly asked carefully.

"More of a vampire then I thought." Luke answered. When he turned and saw the spooked look in his niece's eyes, he calmed him self and sighed. "He's Alexis, Kristina, Stefan, and Stavros's father. He's Helena's husband. He's also bit of a mad man. Some years ago, just after Sam was born in fact, he tried to pull a Pinky and the Brain. He's actually a brilliant man, a logical, scientific man who could have done so much good if he hadn't been so twisted."

Carly listened to her uncle's story about Mikkos and the weather machine and was finding it hard to believe. "You need to stop watching reruns of 70s comic book shows."

Luke laughed. "I wish it were just an episode of cheesy 70s camp but it's real, Caroline." He then looked up at Jax. "And if he is alive then we need to rethink our plans. When we find this hidden estate we'll need to sneak in and we'll need to be armed."

"Armed?" Jax asked. "Luke is that really necessary?"

"It's better to be safe then sorry." Luke replied. He then turned to look at his niece. She wasn't going to like what he had to say, but there was no way he was going to take her anywhere near Mikkos. He loved the girl, and her mother, to much to put Carly in that much danger. "I think it's time for you to head home darlin."

"Not a chance in hell." Carly replied. "I'm not going anywhere until Sam, Kris, and Alexis are safe."

Luke shook his head. "With Mikkos in play this just got a whole lot more risky, Caroline. I'm not going to put you in that kind of danger. You're going home and that's that."

Jax nodded in agreement. "I'll make the arguments. She can go back on the plane bringing in Jerry."

"Good." Luke said. "Jerry's a good man to have on this." He looked at Carly and then pulled her to him and hugged her. "It'll be ok Caroline. Jax and I will get them back safely, I promise. And I'll make sure you're the first person Sam calls."

Carly wasn't happy about this but she didn't argue. In all the time she'd been home and back with her mother, her uncle had never once hugged her. The fact that he was doing so now let her know just how bad he thought this was about to get. "Be careful."

Luke hugged a little tighter. "Don't worry about your ol' uncle Luke, niece. I'd be more worried about facing your mama when you get home."

Carly thought about that and groaned as she buried her face in her uncle's chest.