A/N: This story, while appearing to be a simple continuation of 'HEPHAESTUS' (which it is in a manner of speaking), is a merger story. It combines elements of both 'FROZEN IN TIME' and 'HEPHAESTUS'. As such, you can safely assume that anything that happened in either of those stories is carried on in this one.

In short, this is a 'merger' story.
It will also serve to bring both of those stories to a close.
Unlike a certain television series did to us.

Frozen In Time - Rescue

Part I - Discoveries

Up in the front engine, Layton was discussing the upcoming section of track with Bennett when Roche came all but running up to them.

"Layton! We've got bad trouble."

With the past several days being rather peaceful for Snowpiercer as a whole, Layton didn't anticipate the news being anything worse than another localized skirmish in the Market, which were fairly commonplace.

Turning to his second engineer, Layton favored him with a small smile. "And welcome to my day." He commented before turning to his head of security. "What sort of trouble, Roche?"

"Just came from the border." The man replied, indeed looking like he had run the entire distance of the train. "The guards there were attacked."

Layton's tone took on a more serious note now. "Attacked? By who?"

Roche took a second to catch his breath. "Apparently Wilford managed to sneak onto Snowpiercer with several of his jackboots."

At the mention of the man's name, Layton practically exploded right where he stood. "Wilford!? What in the...WHAT WAS WILFORD DOING ON SNOWPIERCER?"

Roche briefly set his gaze on the second engineer, a warning this was about to get worse. "He came for something, Layton. Something he appears to have wanted very badly to risk such a forward attack."

"Which was?"

Roche paused again, knowing Layton was not going to like the answer. "Hephaestus."

Layton froze as he simply stared back at the man, letting the word sink in. "Hephaestus? Wilford kidnapped Hes?"

"Well, from the looks of things down by the border, the man didn't go willingly." Roche explained quickly. "Nearly tore up car 987. I'm guessing trying to fight off Wilford's jackboots. I would certainly never want to take that man on one on one."

Layton tried to focus on protocol for the moment. He was already trying to sort out the situation with Melanie's daughter being held hostage and barely able to keep his head engineer focused as such. The teenager had only been on Big Alice for a couple of days, and Wilford had assured her safety by way of a brief phone call a few hours after the incident. Only reiterating again that 'She needs to learn a lesson about stealing', before ending the call.

But none of this had done much to settle Melanie's panicked nerves over her daughter's situation.

"Is the border re-secured?" Layton asked.

Roche gave a curt nod. "We got an army down there now. If he tries to come back, he'll find it a little more of a challenge this time."

Layton stood thinking for a moment. "He won't come back any time soon." He finally stated.

Roche didn't share his friend's feelings on the matter. "This is two attacks in as many days, Layton. What if...?"

But Layton shook his head. "He has what he came for." He replied, again falling into pondering the situation. He hated going to Melanie with this. She was barely functional as it was with Alex being held on Big Alice. Telling her Wilford had successfully also taken Hes would just serve to push her panic up several more notches. Not only was he a citizen of the train, but she saw him as a personal friend.

Shaking his head again, and knowing he had no other choice at the moment, and no time to even consider any others, Layton turned back to Roche.

"Make sure the Breechmen at the border stay there. I want no less than thirty at the border at all times. In the meantime, I'll...talk with Melanie." He added with a bit of hesitation, giving a quick glance to Bennett before turning back to Roche. "She knows Wilford best. We'll see what her take is on his next move. I'll meet you at the border in an hour. Let Wilford's border guards know we are going to have a meeting. And if he doesn't show at the border," Layton added with a stare as hard as his tone, "we can have it in his engine room. His choice."

Layton watched Roche leave with his orders. He then turned to Bennett, who was staring back at him with much the same feelings of what they were going to face going to Melanie.

"I need to get Melanie's take on this before our next step." He offered by way of a justification. "See what she thinks he's likely to do next."

"Andre, she's just barely able to get through the day as it is. It's only been two days. She's still fighting her fear and worry about Alex."

"And every day we wait, Wilford has another day to plot and plan. Our best course of action is to strike fast with him."

Bennett sighed in resignation, knowing Layton was right. Wilford was likely already three steps ahead of them as it was. It was time to close the gap.

Stepping past Layton, he headed for the doorway to the main engine. "She should be just down in the main panel room."

But Layton quickly grabbed his arm to stop him. "Hold on. This doesn't require an army, Bennett. I want this to be just a friendly chat. She sees both of us coming, she'll know something's up."

Bennett gave him a highly skeptical look. "You've lived with her for all these months, and you still think THIS is going to be a 'friendly chat'?"

Layton consider the situation for a second, then gave the second engineer a quick nod. "All right. Let's go."

Bennett didn't even bother to give his head apprentice a backward glance as he walked past him. "Mr. Bertolt! You have the helm."

Not questioning the second engineer, or his own personal good fortune, the apprentice eagerly took the helm, immediately calling out confirmation of his assignment to the others as Bennett and Layton left the front engine room and headed for the main engine.

All the way to the area where the head engineer was working, the two planned out a strategy to keep her from getting overly upset at the news. They laid out just telling her Hes had been abducted, but no other details that indicated the act was violent or that Hes may have been hurt. About one thing Bennett was absolutely correct. The past two days since her daughter was detained on Big Alice, it was all Melanie could do to focus enough to read an engine report let alone anything else. At night she simply laid in the bed, staring at the ceiling for hours while Layton tried to calm her down and allow her to get even a few hours rest. On the second night, out of sheer desperation, he had even suggested a night cap, but finally resolved nothing short of plain knocking her out was going to give her more than a couple of hours sleep each night.

Reaching the place she was working, they found her with half of her body in a cabinet as she worked over some intricacies inside.

Bennett made a slight sound in his throat first to let her know he was there.

"Melanie?"

With her upper body still in the cabinet, she answered him with a short, curt order. "I'm busy, Bennett. You deal with it."

It was Layton who spoke up next. "He can't this time."

Layton watched her whole body go stone still. Whereas Bennett could be there for any number of reasons, his presence only spelled one thing to her.

Trouble.

Slowly angling her body out of the cabinet, she finally stood up to face the two of them. The serious expressions on both their faces shot her anxiety level up several notches.

"What...is this about Alex!?" The panic already was driving her tone up higher. "Have you heard something!?"

"We still haven't heard from Big Alice about Alex yet, Melanie." Bennett stated first, trying to put that worry at least in the background for now.

Layton quickly stepped up next. The point was to get her off of her concern for her daughter as much as possible and focused on the new problem. "There's been a new development." He stated.

But the statement had the opposite effect as Melanie's focus stayed only on her daughter and her panic etched up another notch. "Is she all right!?"

Layton tried to calm her growing fear as he stepped up to her, keeping his tone low and level as he spoke to her. "It's not about Alex, Melanie. It's about Hes."

Melanie's panic quickly switched over to confusion as she looked between the two men in front of her. "Hephaestus? Has something happened to him?"

Layton cast a quick glance at Bennett before delivering the news to her. "Wilford made a sneak raid on Snowpiercer, Melanie."

But it appeared the head engineer only heard one word of the message. "WILFORD!?"

Layton gave a slight nod. "He attacked the border, got on the train, and kidnapped Hes." He quickly switched to trying to do damage control with her now that the whole story was in front of her. "Now, we have the situation locked down. Extra border guards, everyone else is OK. What I need from you isn't anger. I need that logical brain of yours right now. For both Alex and Hes."

Melanie did her best to reign in her anger. Wilford was already holding her daughter, keeping Alex from her with no information on how she was. Now he made a direct assault on her train and took someone else close to her.

She faced the two men with a heated stare. "All right. What do you need from me?"

"You know Wilford best." Layton answered her. "What is his next move?"

Melanie fell into her silent contemplation Layton knew all too well by now. For several moments she simply stood staring ahead, but totally ignoring their presence.

But just as suddenly she seemed to come back to life.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Layton asked.

Melanie focused her attention on him. "He's waiting for our next move. He has what he wants. He has Alex. And now Hes. He's waiting to see what we do."

"Suggestions?"

Melanie kept her stare set on Layton. "A direct meeting. But I come along."

Layton quickly started to protest the suggestion. "Melanie..."

But the head engineer was already ready for him. "That wasn't a request, Layton. Things are tangled up enough. You don't know how to handle him in these situations. I have years of experience at it."

Layton felt he had the perfect argument for her. "Were any of those experiences negotiating while he held your daughter hostage?"

But the head engineer surprised him.

"A few."

"Really?"

"Not physically." Melanie replied. "But he often made it clear my decisions could directly affect my family." She paused as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Wilford never fights fair. He will always go for what he perceives is your weakest point. Right now, he thinks your weakest point is me. He needs to see I am still in this fight and you still have confidence in me."

"But if his game is to try and break you, won't seeing it hasn't worked yet cause him to up his game plan? Possibly do something to hurt Alex to get at you?"

Melanie shook her head confidently. "He's already tried that before. He knows how that goes."

Layton considered her words, then cast a quick glance at Bennett, who offered a slight shrug in response.

"All right." He finally agreed. "But understand, we are not there to negotiate for Alex. Not yet. I first want to know why he took Hes."

Melanie's answering expression bordered on condescension. "You honestly don't know?"

"Fine." Layton responded, letting a little of his own anger seep into his tone. "I know. But he has to know there are going to be consequences for his actions."

Melanie gave an audible sigh at his show of temper. "And this is why you need me there, Layton. You do not understand the man. He has his own agendas. And he can wait days, weeks, months...years...to carry them out."

"Then you can come along and give me an education on Joseph Wilford."

Melanie walked past the two of them. "You're going to need one in this case."

Layton followed after her. "Meaning?"

Melanie stopped abruptly, turning back to the two men. "What do you think is going to happen?" She asked pointedly. "You're going to politely asked for Alex and Hes back and he's going to agree?"

A deeply sarcastic smile answered her. "That would be nice."

The tone remained. "And Joseph Wilford is NOT a nice man." Melanie replied as she turned and started walking again. "He has what he wanted, Layton. Like I said. Now he's waiting to see what we do about it. And be sure he is prepared for whatever action you may think to take."

Layton reached out and pulled her to a quick stop, his mind already formulating a new plan. "Wait a minute."

Melanie quickly turned back to him.

"What about the action we don't take?" He asked.

"Meaning?"

"What if we do nothing?"

"That's not an option." Melanie replied in a solid tone.

"All right. Then he's likely expecting us to...make some direct effort to get Alex and Hes back. He'll be looking for it. But what if we take an action he isn't expecting?"