Summary: Colonel Scarlet covers for Colonel Blue at a security conference.
Notes: So, who is still with me after the events of Missing? TRIGGER WARNINGS for this story for the same reasons as well.
Explosion
2098
Colonel Blue sneezed violently in his bed in Skybase's medical bay, "Paul, while I know that you're currently hell bent on finding Black and Rhapsody," he wheezed. "It's been nearly two months, I'm pulling the plug for the moment."
"Adam, if Rhapsody is still out there…"
"She's almost certainly under Mysteron control," Blue cut Colonel Scarlet off. "And Black will surface eventually, usually when you least expect it, when he does you and Mahogany have my full permission to do what it takes to put him out of his misery," Blue sneezed. "But as I said, it's been nearly two months, Paul, and as you can see I need you to step up and cover for me for a few days."
Scarlet sighed in defeat, Blue was right of course, he had to start moving on, and with Adam sick in bed it was his duty to step in and take over the running of Skybase and Spectrum as a whole.
Resolving his nightmare's about Dianne was just going to have to wait…
"What do you need me to do, Adam?" Scarlet asked.
"The security conference, that I was due to attend tomorrow, in New York," Blue replied. "I need you to attend in my place, take Mahogany, Amber and Turquoise with you, they need to have a quiet mission for a change."
"Who's being left in charge of Skybase?" Scarlet asked.
"Captain Grey," Blue replied.
"White, still in your doghouse with him revealing my and Mahogany's identities to International Rescue?" Scarlet asked.
"He can stay there a little longer," Blue growled. "I fully intended for when IR found out the truth about Mahogany's Mysteron status, that they would know who exactly who he was when they did, in an attempt to stop something exactly like this from happening," Blue sneezed again. "Next time they quietly get in contact, we are going to have to come completely clean, and let the chips fall where they may."
Scarlet nodded, keeping the the parts about the Mysterons that IR didn't know about were now starting to hurt the people involved more than help, and the lack of contact was starting to get to Mahogany, "I agree," he replied.
0o0o0
Kesha Tracy Hackenbacker, watched as her younger brother Alex, and his husband, Timothy Rigby, played a game of frisbee with her older set of twins, Lucy and Luke, and Scout's son, Scott, better known as Carp, because even though his namesake died years before he was born, it was still too painful for the elder Tracy's use the name for anyone else.
Her cousin, Shane, sat down beside her, ever since Shane came back from his encounter with Spectrum, he seemed to be hanging around her a lot more often than he used to, and while he didn't get in her way, it was still odd behaviour from Shane, because Kevin was the one he gravitated to more, "You know Alex and Tim might need some reinforcements soon," she commented.
"I'll join them when Kev catches up," Shane replied. "He's currently helping Phia with her mystery pair."
Kesha smiled sadly, thinking about the twins that Sophia had with Daniel, the now, according to her mother and aunt, Captain Turquoise, not that anyone other than her, although Kesha strongly suspected Scout had guessed, on the Island actually knew that.
Daniel still had no idea that he was a father, Kesha had went off her rocker at Briar when she found out Dianne had called when Sophia was in labour, had he patched the message through, they might have been able to get Daniel to the Island in time, especially with Thunderbird One at their disposal, the fallout would have been rather spectacular, but worth it to see the two parents together.
Sophia fully planned on having Dianne passing a message back to Daniel, when they were meant to meet at family gathering, a couple of months prior, with several dates to when they could meet again in person, so she could finally inform and maybe even finally introduce Daniel to his children.
But then the Mysterons decided that they wanted to kill Dianne and make her their new puppet.
Two months later, Sophia was still bitter about whole business.
Turning her attention back to the children, Lucy who had been chasing Carp tripped suddenly, and badly skinned her her knees.
As Kesha stood up, to check on her daughter, the twin bond that she shared with her late brother, Kallen, a bond that should have died with him, flared up suddenly, and she had a brief vision of Daniel's startled face, before suddenly going offline.
Kesha wasn't aware that she had collapsed until she felt Shane's hand on her back, "Keys! What happened?" He asked. "Are you alright?"
Alex, who had picked up a shaken up Lucy, Tim and the two boys, had also come to check on her, "You alright, Sis?"
Kesha was not alright, she rarely was when the bond went offline, the great feeling of emptiness, the loss of connection, it made the loss of her brother one thousand times worse, even though at times it was a relief when the bond decided to torture her.
The emergency alert siren, suddenly went off calling all available personnel to the lounge.
"Oh no," Shane muttered. "That had better be a coincidence."
"Why wouldn't it be?" Alex replied. "You know something we don't?"
Shane stared at Alex, before muttering, "Maybe," as he helped Kesha to her feet.
0o0o0
Colonel Blue stared at the read outs on the screen, as he gently rocked his hysterical wife in his arms.
Captain Grey, had sent her down to medical where Dr. Burgundy had given her a mild sedative, as Dr. Fawn gathered his gear for an emergency extraction.
The meeting room, of the security conference that Blue was meant to be attending had just had a missile fired straight into the middle of it.
There wasn't much hope for any human survivors…
Blue shut his eyes softly, as tears started to leak out from the sides, it was meant to be him, and Captain's Navy, Copper and White at that conference, but he had to come down with the flu, so he sent Scarlet in his place.
Blue bit back a sob, whether or not Scarlet and Mahogany survived, would depend and how close they were to the blast and how intact their bodies are, Scarlet had been in some real doozy's in the past and come out of it, but Amber and Turquoise were a different story.
When Daniel and Sean joined Spectrum, Blue knew that there may be a day that he sent his son and the boy he saw a nephew, to their deaths.
And it looked like that day had come.
0o0o0
Dr. Fawn looked over the scene of destruction with sad eyes, there had been no survivors according to the life sign scanners.
His main task was locating the bodies of Scarlet and Mahogany and get them out of there before the retro metabolism kicked in and exposed them for what they were.
Fawn's team, which consisted of Captain's Navy, Copper, White, Ochre and Magenta, was the first team sent in, they were to mark any body that they discovered as they went to make it easier for the medical examiners to do their jobs.
After several minutes of searching, in which they found the body of the GDF's Colonel Wayne Rigby, they finally found the bodies of Scarlet and Mahogany in one of the more sheltered parts of the room.
But that wasn't the biggest shock, it was finding Amber and Turquoise underneath, and both were still breathing, not without injuries, but it appeared Scarlet and Mahogany took the brunt of the blast to protect the human officers.
Fawn didn't waste any time, "Get a medical team down here stat," he ordered. "Tell them that we found survivors."
0o0o0
Sophia watched as the plane with her cousin Alex and his grieving husband flew away from the Island.
Her mother, uncle's John and Alan, Aunt's Belle and Kayo, as well as Aaron, Ginny, Simon and Winry, had gone with them to offer support to Timothy and his mother, Roslyn, over the death of their father/husband, Colonel Rigby.
The feeling on the Island was somber as the family that was left on the Island quietly went about their business as they reflected on the times that they had spent with the GDF Colonel.
Sophia had just put Dani and Damien in the play pen with the other young children when the news bulletin came though, "This is Ned Cook, bringing to you the identities of the deceased in the missile attack of the world security building in New York, that the government of the independent state of Bereznik has taken responsibility for."
Sophia had mostly tuned out the bulletin, as most of the people whose names were being read out and pictures shown, were of people she didn't know or have business dealings with, only looking up when Rigby and the WASP personnel were mentioned, until, "And Spectrum Officers," the image on the screen showed four coloured rectangles, in lieu of photos. "Colonel Scarlet, Captain Amber, Captain Mahogany and Captain Turquoise."
Sophia didn't see Virgil and Geoffrey pause in their painting, or hear Geoffrey mutter, "Damn."
Or Shane, shaking is head, muttering, "He's not dead, he can't be dead, I shot that bastard point blank in the the chest five times, bastard walked away without a scratch…"
Or Kesha's horrified look as she looked at the screen and then at Sophia.
Who was standing stock still in the middle of the lounge.
0o0
Gordon Tracy, who was sitting at his father's desk, looked at his daughter, "Are you okay, Phia?" He asked.
"It's not true," Sophia said, in a tiny voice, that had Gordon out of his chair moving toward her. "Please Daddy, tell me what I saw isn't true."
Gordon said nothing as he wrapped his daughter in a hug.
"No, no," Sophia whimpered. "NO! It can't be, Daniel is okay… n-n-NOOOOO!"
Gordon, who was now having a hard time hanging onto his wailing daughter, asked, "Sweetie, what does your Daniel have to with this?"
"TURQUOISE IS DANIEL!" She shrieked. "He is the twins, FATHER!"
Gordon nearly dropped his daughter in shock, he'd done the math, and he had ruled Turquoise out considering all unofficial contact with Spectrum had been banned, well before the twins could have been conceived, so how could he be the father of Dani and Damian? Unless…
"Err, when did Sophia last see Turquoise?" Geoffrey asked.
Kesha sighed, "When the her twins were conceived," she said, slowly. "The that week she had off where no one knew where she was? She was with him."
Gordon really wanted to facepalm, he should have known that the girls wouldn't give up their relationships with the Spectrum Officers that easily, even the information that Mahogany was a Mysteron, didn't shake them, like they already knew or guessed.
At least Mahogany wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Gordon looked down at his broken-hearted daughter in his arms, at any other time the girl would have been read the riot act, and she still had a reprimand down the line, but right now, dealing with the fact the man she loved and the father of her children was dead, was punishment enough.
0o0o0
Kallen Tracy very carefully looked over Daniel in his hospital bed on Skybase, he had to be careful not to touch any of the lines pumping fluids and medicine into his friend's body.
It had been a very close call, both he and Scarlet were in a condition the Doctor's called Level 2.
A Level 1 death, was what normally happened when one of the Mysteron officers 'died.'
A Level 2 death, was when they became Casper the freezing ghost, while their bodies healed from massive injuries.
A Level 3 death, meant that you were actually dead dead.
Daniel and Sean had also suffered from massive trauma, even though Kallen and Paul took the brunt of it, and were being kept in an induced coma, to give their battered bodies time to heal.
They would also have some scaring from burns and shrapnel, but the biggest fear now was brain damage, but they wouldn't know how bad, or if there was any until they woke up.
Kallen looked over at the disembodied form of his father-in-law, apparently they could see and hear each other when almost everybody else couldn't, but Clara could hear Kallen when he talked.
And Paul had been very restless since his consciousness came to, "Okay," Kallen grumbled, at his father-in-law. "What's bothering you?"
Paul looked at Kallen, "You don't hear that?" He asked.
"Hear what?"
"A woman screaming for help," Paul replied.
"Ah… No?" Kallen looking at his father-in-law as if he had ten heads. "I'm not hearing anything other than the sounds in this room."
"What's going on, Kallen?" Clara asked, causing all the conscious people in the room to look at her.
"Your father is hearing voices," Kallen explained. "That I obviously can't hear."
"Are they coming from anywhere nearby?" Clara asked. "Could be another one of us calling out."
"Huh." Paul replied, as he made a decision. "I'm going to see if can find the source."
"Do you want me you come with you?" Kallen asked.
"No, stay with Clara and Daniel," Paul replied. "I could be chasing geese."
"Let us know if find something," Kallen replied, as Scarlet left the room. "He's gone to see if he can find the source," he told Clara.
0o0o0
Not long after her father had left, Lieutenant Chartreuse, called Coral over the communicator, "Lieutenant Coral," he said. "You have a call from someone claiming to be your aunt?"
"Aunt Carrie?" Coral asked. "Why would she be calling?"
"I don't know," Chartreuse replied. "But she sounds very upset."
Coral sighed, "You better put her through," she replied.
It was a couple of moments then her Aunt's face appeared on the holo projector, "Clara!" Carrie Metcalfe exclaimed. "I saw the news! Are you alright? Sorry dumb, question, you're not okay, Do you need me to come to help with some things? Funeral arrangements? A babysitter for Tian? A-"
Coral threw up a hand, "Whoa, Aunt Carrie slow down," she cut in. "What are you talking about?"
"Clara, what kind of shit show are they running up there if they have not told you yet," Carrie replied. "The security conference missile attack, your father and husband are on the casualty list."
"Er… What casualty list are you talking about there Aunt Carrie?" Coral looked at Major Green, who was holding another communicator with an open channel to Colonel Blue, Blue hadn't been allowed into the room with his son because of his flu. "As far as I know Spectrum hasn't released any information to the public regarding the incident."
Green pressed a couple of buttons to link her communicator to Coral's, "If one of my Officers released information, without my clearance," Blue snarled into the line as the connection was made. "Their ass is grass… Carrie, what did that report say about Paul and Callum?"
"Well hello to you too, Adam," Carrie replied. "The report said that they were dead… Daniel and Sean as well."
Blue swore violently, followed by a round of coughing, "Carrie, while it's true that most of the people in the strike died," he wheezed. "None of them were Spectrum personnel."
"The guys managed to find a more sheltered spot to hide in," Coral explained. "They are alive, but in a bad way, the doctors have got them stabilised but it's going to be touch and go, for next few days."
Carrie blinked for a couple of moments, then sighed in relief, "Well, I guess I jumped the gun there, didn't I?" She laughed hysterically. "Well, I wish the boys a speedy recovery, if there is anything I can do let me know."
"You can let the people that know that Paul is Scarlet, that you know of, know about that news report jumping the gun," Blue replied.
"Will do," Carrie replied. "Keep me in the loop, Clara, I want to know when everyone recovers… Also, Clara,"
"Yes, Aunt Carrie?"
"Have your father call me, when he wakes up," Carrie continued. "It's time we seriously talk about what he wants to do for retirement, I want him to be able to enjoy his golden years, he's spent too many years on the coalface already."
"Yes, Aunt Carrie," Clara rolled her eyes, knowing full and well how that conversation was going to go. "Talk to you soon."
"See you later, Sweetheart," and with that Carrie was gone.
"Too bad that Carrie doesn't realise that retirement isn't exactly an option for us," Coral heard her husband mutter darkly. "The moment we leave Spectrum it would be a toss up between the Mysterons and the boffins in the Research and Development department to who gets us first."
Coral looked in the general direction to where her husband was, he wasn't wrong, the vultures wanted to take her, and now her daughter, as soon as she was born.
"But that's not the biggest problem at the moment," Mahogany growled. "Who else saw that news report?"
Coral gasped, "Aunt Serena, Uncle Adam," she gasped. "You better get in contact with any family members that know Daniel is Turquoise…"
Blue swore loudly, "Serena, call your mother, I will try and get in contact with my brothers, and get Karen to call her mom," he growled. "We better nip this in the bud, fast," he sighed. "Thankfully we don't have to worry about Sean's family, Ian and Elaine will see to that."
"What about Kesha and Sophia?" Dr. Fawn spoke up. "How do we get a message to them?"
Coral heard Mahogany swear loudly, "They don't allow personal communication," he snarled. "And we are essentially banned from talking to them."
"What about the communicators?" Coral asked. "Can we leave a message on them?"
"We have to," Mahogany replied. "And hope someone actually checks them."
"That would require someone actually checking them," Fawn, also replied, because he couldn't hear Mahogany in his current state. "But it's better than nothing."
Coral stood up, "I will go get mine," she replied. "I need to check on Tian, anyway," she looked in the general direction of where she sensed her husband. "Are you coming with me or staying here, Hun?"
"I'll come with you," Mahogany replied, at the same time as Blue growled, "Try not to walk though any of the personnel, if you go with your wife, Mahogany, I don't need anymore of my people in medical."
Coral heard her husband laugh, "S.I.G." Mahogany replied.
0o0o0
TRIGGER WARNING, I don't have to explain why, if you read Missing if you want to skip this part that's fine, I'll meet you below.
0o0o0
Paul, at first, wasn't sure if it was a good idea to stray so far away from his body.
But the urge to find the source of the screaming and crying, overruled those fears, and Paul figured that his body would call him back when it was ready for him to return, like he did the last time this happened to him.
The next non problem Paul faced was getting off Skybase, but it turned out all he had to do was pass through the outside walls and simply glide down to earth.
He didn't know where he landed, Skybase had started making its way back to the UK when the Bereznik's took responsibility for the attack, but he found himself in some kind of warehouse district, and he got the sense that there was more than one Mysteron around.
Not a good sign.
Not knowing if the Mysterons in the area could sense or see him, Paul snuck quietly around the area, he spotted a couple of Mysteronized people in various locations, standing unnaturally still as they kept watch.
Come to think of it, Paul thought as he followed the now whimpering voice toward its source. There are lot more Mysterons around here than usual, odd, because when they usually pull off an attack there's normally no more than three.
Paul frowned, he didn't know what the Mysterons were up to, but regardless of what he found here today, he was going to have grab Kallen and a couple of squads of men to clean out this nest, as soon as he recovered from his injuries, because this many Mysterons in one location was not a good thing.
As he passed through a door of a well guarded corridor he found the source of the crying…
Dianne was lying in a bed, crying softly, with her hands tied above her head to the bed's headboard.
Black was sleeping next to her, his arms and legs wrapped her around her body possessively.
In that moment, Paul forgot that he wasn't in his own body, as he charged toward the bed, fully intending to free Dianne from Black's hold.
Paul realised his mistake as soon as his hands passed through the restraints holding Dianne and he only just barely managed not to touch Black.
Waking Black up with Dianne in such position, was a bad idea, if the Mysteron possessing Conrad's body realised he was there he could hurt her more than he clearly, judging by the blood stains of already healed wounds, already had.
Paul wanted to throw up, he had found Dianne but there was nothing in his position that he could do to help her, not until he returned to his body and got the reinforcements he needed to take out this place, "Dianne…" he murmured, into her ear, not sure if she could hear him.
Dianne jerked violently, her head moving from side to side, clearly she did, "Paul! Where-"
Paul quickly put a hand over Dianne's mouth, not that he could have silenced her, but he hoped she got the message, "Dianne, you have to be quiet," he hissed. "You don't want to wake Black up."
Dianne's eyes went wide, as she forced her body to go still, as Black stirred for a moment then went still again.
Paul waited until he was sure Black was asleep, before he spoke again, "Dianne, I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner," he murmured softly. "And I'm now going have to ask you wait for a little bit longer, but I can't help you while I'm like this, I'm coming back Dianne, believe me, nothing is going to stop me from getting back to you and getting you out of here."
Dianne looked around the room, "Paul, how?" She whispered. "Where are?"
Paul explained to Dianne what happened to him and how his ghost? had gotten to her location.
"Stay while you can," she whispered, after a few moments. "Please?"
So, Paul stayed by her side, talking about non sensical things, that had happened in the last couple of months trying to distract Dianne from the fact that Black was still curled around her.
Paul was in the middle of telling Dianne a story of Tian projectile vomiting into Daniel's face, after holding her above his head and not realising that she was gassy, when he heard a whimper from beside him, and it wasn't from Dianne.
Black was crying in his sleep.
And clearly it wasn't the first time Dianne had witnessed something like this, because she whispered, "Paul," as she jerked her head down at Black. "Watch."
Paul wondering what she was getting at looked at Black, as he started sobbing hysterically.
After a few moments another sound started coming through the sobs, a sound of pleasure?
"It feeds off of suffering," Dianne whispered. "Not just mine."
Paul stared at Dianne, knowing that she couldn't see his face, he knew full and well something of Conrad had survived his Mysteronization, and he knew Conrad would have some massive psychological trauma, but to witness a Mysteron enjoy such a thing in such a way…
Was part of the reason why the war of nerves had gone on for so long was that the Mysterons were enjoying their sick little games?
Paul suddenly felt a tug and he realised that his body was calling him back, "Dianne," he called out. "I will be back for you, I'm not going to leave you here much longer, as soon as I'm cleared I'm coming back."
"Paul," Dianne sobbed. "Hurry."
"S.I.G."
0o0o0
You can come back now…
0o0o0
Shane Tracy walked out of the infirmary on Tracy Island, after checking in on Sophia, who wasn't taking Turquoise's death well.
Kesha had suggested getting in contact with Coral, but after she had been interrogated on what she knew about Spectrum's Mysteron's the idea had been nixed, after she admitted that she thought Coral was the Mysteron daughter.
He huffed in frustration, he knew that the elders were overreacting when it came to those officers, from what memories he had managed to piece together of his brief time as a guest of Spectrum, he was pretty sure Mahogany was Kallen, but he also knew that after the way he woke up after he was returned to the island, if he mentioned it to the elders without proof, they would think he was stark raving bonkers…
Well, more so than usual, to the point that they might lock him with padded wall…
Hence why he was hanging around Kesha a lot more of late, it didn't take him long to realise the twin bond between the siblings didn't die, so he was using her as a way to keep track of his estranged cousin and also act in his stead if Kesha ever needed help, because Kallen wasn't in a position to do so.
He found Kesha with his older sister, as they settled, Sophia's twin's, Kesha's younger set of twins, Kally and Kerian, and his niece, Harriet, down for a nap, when Kesha suddenly started laughing hysterically, in relief.
Scout obviously thinking their cousin was going nuts, asked her if she was alright.
"It's back," Kesha replied, hugging herself. "It might drive me nuts sometimes, but it feels a whole lot worse when it's gone."
Scout looked at Kesha like she had grown ten heads, "What feels a whole lot worse when it's gone?"
"My bond with Kallen," Kesha replied, absentmindedly. "It's been offline the past few days but now it's back."
Whatever response Scout had in mind was lost when Shane let loose a loud whoop, and crushed both Kesha and Scout in a hug.
"Shane!" Scout exclaimed. "What's your damage?"
But Shane didn't care about his sister's and cousin's protests, Kallen was alive, the annoying bastard had managed to cheat death once again…
0o0o0
The moment Scarlet woke up, he was fighting to get out of bed.
"Steady on there, Scarlet," Dr. Burgundy exclaimed. "You are not completely healed yet."
"Get out my way, Doctor," Scarlet snarled. "I need to talk with Adam."
"You need to stay in bed and let your body finish healing," Burgundy replied. "Whatever else is on your mind can wait."
"NO, IT CAN'T!" Scarlet roared, tears streaming from his eyes.
Dr. Fawn, Mahogany and Coral, looked at Scarlet in shock from across the room.
"I found Dianne," Scarlet sobbed. "She's alive, and being held prisoner by Black."
Mahogany was now sitting up on his bed, "Dianne's alive?" He questioned. "She's the one that you have been hearing crying?"
Scarlet nodded, "She is being abused by them," he snarled. "And she is counting on us to get her out!"
Notes: Now Paul knows Dianne is alive all he has to do is retrace his steps and save her...
So, Paul's sister knows Kallen, as Callum Evans, because she is also a friend of the Tracy family, and if Paul mentioned Kallen by his real name, she would be bound to recognise it. Carrie hasn't met him as Mahogany.
Tian, is Kallen and Clara's daughter. I have Pachinko Brain, I write the stories demand to be written first, then I put them in order.
International Rescue now know Turquoise is Sophia's lover and baby daddy, and they also think he's dead…