Peter and Hu Li were drenched by the time they got back to his father's brownstone. "I have someone with me, Pop," Peter said as he got to the door.

"Don't call me Pop," Caine said, irritably.

"No headway I take it," Peter said, setting the bag just inside the door. He knew it wasn't him that his father was frustrated with.

"No." He said, with a sigh.

"So, Hu Li, This is my father, Kwai Chang Caine. Father, this is Hu Li. She knows a bit about those flowers."

Caine looked up from his work. He was tired and he was no closer to figuring things out. "If you can help I would be grateful." He said. If Peter trusted her enough to bring her to him after the altercation with Leanne, then he would trust his son's judgment.

She looked up at Peter and then walked toward Caine. "Okay, the first way I'm going to help is to get you out of this room. There's too many of the damned things in here." She said.

"I can't leave…"

"If you don't leave you'll wind up in the same condition as your friend. The flowers steal qi and they poison you." Hu Li held out her hand to him.

"Come on Pop, let's get you away from those flowers and I'll find something to put them in to seal them up." He frowned a moment. "That will work won't it?" He asked Hu Li.

"It would be safer to get rid of them entirely." She said, "But since I know you won't do that, try something like glass something impermeable."

"Right," Peter said, moving quickly as she walked out into the hallway with his father. He opened the french doors and every window he could find, then searched among his father's things until he found a gallon-sized glass jar. He dumped the bag of flowers into it without touching the flowers themselves and closed the lid on it tightly. This he wrapped in garbage bags.

He put his father's work in smaller jars and cleaned the counter and sink then washed his hands up to the elbows.

Caine sank to the floor in the corridor and leaned his head against the wall. He wished Peter was not the one in there clearing the room. It worried him. "Then it does not steal life in the literal sense," Caine said.

"No, they don't." She said "And don't tell anyone I helped you guys. I'm in enough hot water with his royal crankiness."

He laughed a little at her turn of phrase. "I will not tell anyone." He said. "You do not have to stay in his service. We would help you to be free."

"So Peter keeps telling me, but I can't leave until my family is safe." Hu Li said.

Caine nodded. "We must do what we must to protect those we love."

Peter joined them and sat down as well. "I have things cleaned up and put away. I opened all the windows. I hope nothing gets wet. It's coming down cats and dogs right now."

"Things dry." Caine said "She told me the flowers steal qi. It could be that is why I did not see a second life force within Leanne."

"She'll be relieved to hear that. Do you think he's, I don't know, distilling qi into something more potent?" Peter asked.

"Anything is possible with that man." Hu Li said. "Think of the worst thing you can imagine and then go darker. He's a monster."

"Does he have your family here or in Kunlun Shan?" Caine asked.

"I don't know." She said. "All I know is that I can't afford to piss him off."

"You've been here a while. You don't speak like the others… ahm… Wukong and Sparrow." Peter said.

She nodded "A couple years. He won't let me go home until I get that book."

Peter frowned. "I'm sorry. If I didn't think giving him what he wants was a bad plan, I would give it to you."

"I know. One of these days his threats are going to win, you know. You're a nice enough guy, but that won't slow me down."

"Why does he not ask Leanne for the book himself?" Caine asked.

"Why do you call her Li An, her name is Li Na. What are you verbally dyslexic?" She asked, not really expecting an answer. "I asked him the same thing, he said I was being difficult."

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Sun Wukong slipped quietly over the garden wall, dropping to the ground. He knew the gardens well. He had been the guardian of the peaches of immortality after all. Even if it was a title bestowed, in part, mockingly.

He flew up into the branches of the trees, searching for just one ripe peach. Just one. It was the wrong season. The wrong year. So close, there were a few that looked as though they could almost be ready to eat…almost. Almost was not good enough. He sat on the limb and cried. He would not be able to help his friend. His other selves were searching the world to find another way to save the Holy Priest, but would it be in time?

"Wukong?" A feminine voice asked, it was at once regal and gentle. "Why do you cry? Surely you do not need another peach. You have had one from each type of my trees. Another will do you no good. Come down that I might see you."

" Xi Wangmu!" He dropped down from the tree, landing on one knee with his head bowed, uncharacteristically humble before the Queen Mother of the West.

She bent down and cupped his chin, bringing him gently to his feet. " Tell me why you cry over unripe peaches?" The look in his eyes broke her heart.

"It is not the peaches." He said.

"Do you miss your place here?" She asked. She walked to a bench under one of her peach trees and sat down.

"No." He said, following obediently. He sat on the mossy ground at her feet. It had been a mockery nothing more. He had eventually learned that.

"Wukong, do not make me drag it from you one question at a time." She said. "Tell me what this is all about."

"The Holy Priest is dying." He said, picking at his fingers like a little boy who has to explain why he is in trouble this time.

"What holy priest is this?" She asked. Xi Wangmu reached out and gently took his hands in hers. She had never seen him so upset.

"Lo Si. He came here from Shambala to find a way to defeat the Evil One." Wukong said.

"Worthy quests are not all that is required for immortality." She said and wiped away his tears. "There is no sadness in continuing his cycle of incarnations."

"He was already immortal." Wukong insisted. "But now he is ill and his strength is leaving him."

"Are you sure it is his immortality that is the problem?" She asked.

"What else can it be?" Wukong asked. He explained everything to her, from meeting Lo Si to the moment he had snuck into the garden to find another peach.

She stroked his fur lightly, soothingly. "I am sorry so many of your brothers are gone." She said. "If there were any peaches ripe I would give one to you for your friend. He does indeed sound like a very holy priest. You may take some of the leaves from the trees. Perhaps they will help him feel a little better if mixed in a tea."

He nodded sadly. "Thank you." He said and rose to his feet. "I must go."

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Julian tried once again to call his sister's cell phone. It went straight to voice mail, and the voice mail was full. He didn't know where to look and the weather was becoming nightmarish. He thought about calling his mother but changed his mind. Instead, he dialed Peter's number.

Peter answered on the second ring. "Hey, Julian." He said. His father and Hu Li had gone back into the apartment and he was standing in the doorway watching.

"They arrested my father again this morning and Amelie lost it. She ran out the door and I haven't been able to find her. I wouldn't be worried but she's afraid of thunderstorms and she's out there alone-"

"Where are you?" Peter asked.

Julian stepped out of the coffee shop he had ducked into to look at the address. He told Peter and went back inside.

"I'm on my way. We'll find her. It'll be alright. Just go inside, have a cup of coffee, and stay where you are."

"Thank you," Julian said

Peter closed his cell phone. " I have to go, Pop. Amelie is out in the storm somewhere and Julian can't find her."

Caine nodded. "Do you need my help?" He asked. He didn't think he should stop working on trying to help Lo Si, but a teenage girl lost and alone in the coming storm was important as well. Not just any teenage girl. Laura's daughter. Peter's sister.

"I don't think so. If we can't find her I'll call Mary Margaret." Peter said. "I'll check in later." Fifteen minutes later he parked in front of the coffee shop and got out of the car. By the time he got inside, he was drenched once more. He found his brother's table and sat down with him. "Do you have a vehicle here?" He asked.

Julian shook his head. "We were going to get something today but we didn't get to it before they came to arrest him again."

"That I don't understand. He made bail, it's a B&E charge, there should be no reason for them to pick him up again."

"They mentioned the DST." Julian said "Apparently it's something that he's wanted for in France. I don't know how to deal with any of this. I don't know either of my parents anymore… if I ever did. It's worse for Amelie. It's why she ran out of the hotel."

"It's possible she got on a bus. There is a bus stop down the block from the hotel. So what sort of things would she be doing back home if she had run off?"

"In Paris, she would have gone to the Seine. She loves the water. As long as it is not falling from the sky."

"We'll go to the river here first. This storm is only going to get worse and the river is exactly where we don't want her to be."

Julian nodded and followed his older brother out to his car. "Thank you." He said.

"For what?" Peter asked as he started the car and turned on the heater. They couldn't afford to get chilled. "She's my sister too."

He didn't know Julian or Amelie well at all. He knew the waitress at his favorite restaurant better than he knew his flesh and blood. But that didn't make them any less his flesh and blood.

He pulled out into traffic and drove toward the river. "I think we can skip the port and the warehouse district," Peter said. "The parks have a couple of shelters we can check out, just in case she got caught there, but if I remember teenaged girls as well as I think I do I'd have to guess she'd have gone to the more touristy shops."

"Probably," Julian said.

"Tell me what she likes to do or things she might collect…"

"She paints. She and our father go to art galleries. I don't think she really likes it though. She just does it to please him. She really loves horses but there isn't likely to be anyplace there to find live horses… ahm… She reads a great deal. She likes overly sweet coffee drinks. She would live on them if she could. Chocolate… I don't know… there is more but none of it is coming to mind. I had to struggle to remember this much."

"It's okay. You're worried about her and that can make things difficult. If something comes to mind, tell me when it pops up." Peter said reassuringly.

Julian took out his phone and called his mother. "Has she come back to the hotel yet?" He asked.

"No, she hasn't. Julian, I want you to come back. I don't like the idea of both of you out there in this."

"I'm with Peter. He's helping me look for her. I'm not out here alone. We'll find her."

"Be careful. The radio is saying that this is a tropical storm. Find her and get back here as quickly as you can."

"I will, Mom."

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Leanne read to Lo Si from his favorite book. She had promised Caine she would stay with him and that was what she would do. Although with the way the winds were whipping around outside, she was beginning to think that there wasn't going to be a choice.

He reached over and patted her hand. "You do not need to stay with an old man. You should be with Peter."

"Peter has other obligations." She said. "He has people to take care of and does not need me hovering at his side."

Lo Si scoffed. "He is a good man, and a good priest, but sometimes lacks a certain wisdom." He said. "He needs someone to give him a reason to be careful."

"Hmm… like you and his father are careful?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't be impertinent." He said with a smile.

" If he were meant to be a contemplative, cautious priest he would be in a temple or monastery, and the world would be a colder place because of it."

Leanne knew that he was the reincarnation of the Kwai Chang Caine whom she met so long ago. He hadn't been one to put his safety before others then, and he wasn't that sort of man now. She had thought that he had left her to save his own skin back then, but she had a clearer vision now. He had thought that he was protecting her by leaving. Being mistaken hadn't made his intentions any less honorable or selfless.

"Perhaps so. But I would like to be able to see another generation of the like of Kwai Chang come into being, to watch them grow and achieve their destiny. I cannot do so if he does not live to be a father."

"You also cannot do so if you don't let the doctors do what they need to do." She said.

"They can do nothing but delay the inevitable."

"They can delay what may not be inevitable." She countered. "They can give Kwai Chang time to find a way to reverse what has been done."

"There are other things, more important things that he must do." The Ancient insisted.

"I don't need saving, Lo Si." She said gently. "I do not need to live forever. I will happily grow old at Peter's side. I know that you only seek to undo the evil my grandfather has done. It's alright."

"It is not alright." Lo Si said. "If I could be certain that it was only your immortality that would be affected I would accept that even though I know it would cost you greatly. But I do not know that it would not take your life as well."

"Now is not the time to worry about that." She said. "Now is the time for you to rest and to heal."

"You are a stubborn woman." He said, giving her a petulant glare.

"Fortunately for me, Peter doesn't mind so much."

"Perhaps there is more wisdom there than I had previously thought."

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Caine handed another bowl over to Hu Li. She wasn't an apothecary but she was a capable assistant. "Does he talk to you about his plans?" Caine asked.

She shook her head. "No. He tells me what he wants me to do and I do it. We don't converse."

"Would you tell me if he did?"

She thought about it a moment. "I would tell you that he told me, but not what he told me."

"A curious distinction."

"I'm not loyal to him." She said "I despise him and everything he does. But I cannot betray him. My kin will pay the price. He has already killed most of the monkeys. I will not be the reason the foxes die too."

"I understand," Caine said as he mixed another set of herbs with the milk from the red flowers. "There are ways to tell me things without telling me things."

"You're as bad as Peter." Hu Li shook her head. "I don't need help."

He put two leaves into her bowl. "Grind those together."

"Unless you want to get me that book." She said. "It's not like he doesn't know what's in it. It was written by him."

Caine paused a moment. "How is it he does not already know what is in the book? He is an intelligent man, certainly, he would have memorized the recipe for his elixir." He was speaking more to himself than to Hu Li.

"You would think. I know that his papers were taken from his home in Kunlun Shan and that whatever he needs out of that book was in those papers." It was nothing that could be considered a betrayal right? It wasn't a secret. It was just the reason he needed the book. … Right?

"It would be less likely that he would have memorized the entire book," Caine said with a nod. There was something strange going on. Stranger than he had originally thought. He wondered what all of this had to do with the Shamballa prophecy. He began to wonder if any of this had anything to do with the elixir but perhaps something much more sinister.