Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: This episode had the gang taking on alternate Valda, who was attempting to move the Warehouse to China so he could turn it into the Warehouse of the alternate timeline. His plan was to use a mind-controlled Claire as the new caretaker, but the Warehouse team manages to free Claire from his control. They also use an artifact to transfer Claire's crazy psychic powers into Valda before erasing him from the current timeline. The transfer of the Warehouse is stopped, but at the very end of the episode Artie and Myka see the compass activating again, a sign that the transfer may be going ahead regardless. This chapter takes place at the B&B just after the discovery of the reactivated compass. Several of you asked me for a reunion of all three Donovan siblings, so I decided to write my own version of that in a way that ties into the episode. Enjoy!

The Beginning and the End

"I still can't believe you guys actually have a portal to China," Claire said as she walked into Claudia's room and sat down on the bed.

"Out of all the crazy things you've seen today, that's the one you find hardest to believe?" Claudia asked drily.

"No, I just think it's cool," Claire told her excitedly. "You could just jump through the portal and go see Hong Kong whenever you wanted."

"Hey, there's an idea," Claudia said with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "You got any plans Saturday?"

Claire laughed.

"I do now," she said, leaning back on her elbows. Claudia grabbed her laptop from her desk and carried it over to her bed where she sat down beside her sister.

"Josh should be online in a sec," she said, opening up the laptop.

"What did you tell him?" Claire asked curiously.

"Just that I had something to show him," Claudia said. She opened Skype before looking over at her sister with a grin. "I thought we'd surprise him."

"Oh, he'll definitely be surprised," Claire assured her. She looked over Claudia's shoulder at the Skype window. "So you can actually use this to see the person you're calling?"

"Yup," Claudia told her. "It's kinda like the Farnsworth, but in color."

"That is so Star Trek," Claire said with a shake of her head.

"Tell me about it," Claudia said. "Some days I still can't believe how far technology has come. Dad would have a heart attack if he could see it."

"Seriously," Claire agreed.

"There he is," Claudia said as a little pencil appeared in the chat window. She looked over at Claire. "You ready?"

"Absolutely," Claire said.

"Okay, now don't say anything until I tell him," Claudia told her. Claire nodded.

Claudia pushed the call button and the sound of the beeping tone filled the room. After a few seconds the video screen appeared with Joshua's face in the middle. Claire had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from saying something at the sight of her brother. Claudia quickly checked the screen to make sure Claire wasn't in the frame before glancing over at her to make sure her sister could contain herself.

"Hey, Claude," Joshua's voice said.

"Hey, Josh," Claudia said innocently.

"So what's going on?" Joshua asked curiously. "You sounded really excited on the phone."

"Well," Claudia said with a grin, "something happened today that I thought you should know about."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Joshua asked with narrowed eyes.

"What?" Claudia sputtered. "No! Is that seriously the first thing you thought of?"

"Well, that or you accidentally ended the world," Joshua said calmly. "But since we're still here..."

A muffled sound caused Claudia to look over at Claire, who looked about to explode with laughter.

"Is there somebody else there?" Joshua asked curiously.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Claudia informed her, returning her attention to the screen. "And no, it's not a boy. Actually, it's someone you know. And they are very eager to see you."

"Who?" Joshua asked.

"Drum roll please," Claudia said dramatically. She scooted over a little bit and turned the camera so that both she and Claire were in the frame. Joshua's jaw dropped and his eyes looked as if they were trying to come out of his head.

"Claire?" he asked in shock.

"The one and only," Claire said with a smile.

"But... how?" Joshua sputtered. "Artie said there was no way to wake you up."

"Well, clearly Mister Hairy Brows was wrong," Claudia told him. "Although I really can't take any credit for it. It was actually Pete, of all people, who figured it out. See, there was this alternate timeline thing a while back, and apparently an evil regent crossed over and tried to steal the Warehouse for experimental science, so we transferred Claire's psycho energy into him before erasing him from existence."

"Come again?" Joshua said in confusion.

"You know what, it doesn't matter," Claire said with a shake of her head. "I was there and I'm still not sure I get it. The point is that I'm awake and I'm cured."

"That's... that's amazing," Joshua said. The smile on his face was one of the widest Claudia had ever seen. "It's really good to see you."

"You too," Claire told him. "Claude says you're in Switzerland doing some kind of super sciencey stuff."

"Yeah," Joshua said with a nod. "I get to work with some of the top minds in the world. It's basically geek heaven. Plus Switzerland is a great place."

"It sounds so cool," Claire said. "I'll have to come and visit."

"Actually, I have some vacation days I haven't used yet," Joshua told her. "I have to give notice that I'll be out of the lab, but I could probably get off by next week. I could fly out to South Dakota and we could all spend some time together."

"That would be awesome," Claire said excitedly.

"Oh yeah," Claudia said with a grin. "The Donovan siblings are back together."

"You make it sound like we're a band," Claire said with a laugh.

"Well, Josh did play the piano," Claudia reminded her.

"That's right!" Claire exclaimed. "I completely forgot!"

"We could drag him to open mic with us," Claudia joked.

"No," Joshua said emphatically. "Absolutely not. I swore off the piano when I got out of middle school."

"I bet we could get him to play again," Claire said with a knowing look at Claudia.

"Great," Joshua groaned. "I had forgotten how annoying you two can be together."

"You know you love us," Claudia told him.

"Why, I'll never know," Joshua said. But there was a smile on his face.

"So Claudia's already told me a bit about what she's been up to at the Warehouse," Claire said. "What about you? What have you been doing the last fifteen years?"

"Well, I've spent the last three years at CERN," Joshua said. "Before that is a bit of a long story."

Downstairs the front door slammed loudly, and then Pete's voice yelled, "Claudia! Get down here!"

"Uh-oh," Claudia said with a wary glance at the door. She looked back at Joshua's face on the screen. "I have to go. The natives are restless. While I'm gone, you can fill Claire in on the compass incident seeing as it was all your fault anyway."

"How many times do I have to tell you it was an accident?" Josh asked in exasperation.

"What compass incident?" Claire asked curiously.

"Yes, Josh," Claudia said with a pointed look at the computer. "Please explain."

"It's a long story," Joshua said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck the way he always did when he was being asked to explain something he didn't want to.

"Twelve years long," Claudia said drily.

"I said I was sorry!" Joshua told her.

"Claudia!" Steve yelled up the stairs.

"I'm coming!" Claudia yelled back irritably. She looked at her sister and then at Joshua's face on the screen. "You two play nice."

She pushed herself off the bed and walked around the end of it to the door, leaving her siblings to catch up on the last fifteen years. She hurried down the stairs two at a time. Pete and Steve were talking worriedly as she reached the ground floor.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it," she informed them as she stepped into the living room. Both of them turned to look at her, and the worry on their faces immediately put Claudia on edge. "What is it? What happened?"

"It's the compass," Pete said. He sounded as if he were in shock. "It activated again."

"What?" Claudia asked in surprise. "No, no that's not possible. We stopped the Warehouse transfer."

"Artie and Myka were putting the compass back and it came to life again," Steve said quietly. "They're on the Farnsworth now with Mrs. Frederic trying to figure out what's happening."

"We tried to call, but you didn't answer," Pete said. He came forward to stand in front of Claudia. "Can you feel anything about the Warehouse? Is it really moving, or is the compass just glitching or something?"

"I... I don't..." Claudia closed her eyes and tried to focus on the Warehouse. It felt different somehow. "Something's definitely happening. It doesn't feel bad, but..." She opened her eyes and looked up at Pete. "I don't know."

"We should get back to the Warehouse," Steve said. "Maybe Mrs. Frederic will know what's happening."

"Or how to stop it," Pete said determinedly.

"Okay," Claudia said with a nod. "Let me go tell Claire, and then I'll meet you outside."

She turned around and dashed toward the stairs, running up them two at a time. The laughter of her older siblings was drifting out into the hallway as she reached her room. She pushed the door open and stepped in, causing Claire to look up. Her brow furrowed in concern at the look on Claudia's face.

"Is everything okay?" Claire asked.

"Something's happening at the Warehouse," Claudia told her. She stepped over to her desk and grabbed up her Farnsworth, sliding it into her pocket. Then she turned to Claire, who was still watching her with worry. "I need to get over there and figure out what's going on."

"Is it about what happened today?" Claire asked.

"I don't know," Claudia admitted. She walked over to the bed and held out her cell phone. "Here's my cell. I'll call you when I know something. There's food downstairs if you get hungry. The computer battery should last for a while, so you and Josh just keep talking."

She turned to go, but Claire's voice stopped her.

"Claudia?" she said. Claudia turned back around. Claire was watching her with caring eyes. "Good luck."

"Same from me," Joshua's voice said from the computer.

"Thanks," Claudia said quietly.

With that, she turned and headed out of her room. She went back down the stairs as fast as she could manage. If the Warehouse really was moving, then they didn't have much time to figure out how to stop it.

Pete and Steve were no longer in the living room when she reached the ground floor, so she pushed open the front door and stepped out onto the porch. She could see both of them sitting in Pete's car. Normally she would make a fuss about wanting to ride shotgun, but right now there were far more important things to worry about.

"Okay," she said, opening the rear left car door and sliding into the seat. She clicked her seatbelt before looking up at the two agents in the front. "Let's go save the Warehouse."

Hopefully this lived up to what you guys wanted to see. Since this story is almost over, I wanted to let you know that I also have an epilogue written for this story in addition to the final episode chapter, so there are actually two more updates left to go instead of just one. While you're waiting for those to be posted, please leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Thanks!