"The Past is the Beginning" -Chapter 4
Title: The Past is the Beginning
Author: Shannon - shannyfish
Disclaimer: I do not own "Warehouse 13" or its characters, Syfy and other people do. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: My take of the aftermath of the Season 3 Finale - “Emily Lake” & “Stand”
Warning: Season 3 Finale Spoilers. Seasons 1-3 are fair game.
Author's Note: Okay! So thanks to one of my FANTASTICAL reviewers, they pointed out the fact that I may want to look at the timeline for the two episodes! And I did! So, thanks for that! Also! Reviews make me happy :D And I’ll write faster too! So, keep that in mind!
. . .
Chapter 4 - “Forgiven”
“Some people bear three kinds of trouble - the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have. “ ~ HG Wells
“What the hell do you think you’re all doing?!”
The sound of Steve’s voice, even though he was obviously confused and pissed, brought great joy to Myka’s soul. Even though they had him, she’d still been worrying about what could still happen. Having him conscious and talking brought solace.
“Steve!” Claudia squealed.
The car swerved for about a second, but it wasn’t anything to be too worried about. Steve’s voice had been enough to pull her from her slumber. From the looks of it, they were close to home.
“Do I need to drive?” Pete asked.
“You may have to,” Claudia said. “I’d really like to hug my Steve now.”
“What is this? Warehouse road trip?” Steve asked as he peeked over and took in everyone.
Myka smiled up at him and then moved to straighten up. She had to admit, that was probably the best she’d slept in a car. She smiled at HG. “Thanks for being a pillow.”
“You look a little better,” HG said as she pushed some stray hair back out of Myka’s face. “I’m ordering a good meal and lots of sleep for all of you.”
Myka smiled at the tone. She could see the other woman as a mother. Maybe her life had been set off the tracks with her daughter’s murder, but HG Wells was a good person deep down…she just forgot that sometimes. “I think I could be okay with those orders…”
“You know…” Steve started.
“You were undercover,” the rest of the car chimed up together.
“The Mystery Van missed Scooby, so we had to pick you up,” Pete teased.
“I’m Scooby?” Steve asked.
“Do we even know who the rest of us are in that twisted mind of yours, Pete?” Myka asked.
“Twisted?” Pete asked as he looked back at them. “This…from the genius that brought you the Pete Cave.”
Myka laughed.
“The…Pete Cave?” Steve asked.
“It’s made of epic win!” Claudia said over her shoulder.
Pete pointed to Claudia. “We got Shaggy up front.” To Steve. “Scooby in the back.” To HG. “Velma.” To Myka. “Daphne.”
“And you’re Fred?” Myka asked in amusement. Pete nodded. She reached out and smacked him. “Why am I Daphne?”
“I couldn’t make you Velma, Mikes…”
“Why not?”
“There’s a certain level of coolness about Daphne,” Pete said and then looked to HG. “No offense.”
“Since I have no idea what you’re all talking about, none taken,” HG told them.
“We’re hoooooome,” Claudia announced as she brought the SUV to a complete stop and hit the unlock button.
They all looked out the front window at the warehouse. It was a beautiful thing. Myka still felt sick inside at the memory of it burned to ash. This had to work. “We’re so going to get it.”
“I was doing my job, but I ended up kidnapped,” Steve pointed out.
They all exited the vehicle and took their time doing it. “It was that or die,” Claudia said as she helped Steve out of the SUV. “And I choose life.” She threw her arms around him and held him tight.
Myka was trying to contain herself, but she found herself hugging Claudia and Steve. She laughed with soon it was a group hug. Of course, HG wasn’t in the hug, but she was close by. Myka smiled brightly. “The Scooby Gang is back together,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
. . .
Entering the warehouse had been done very slowly and with much caution. Of course, they didn’t get far before they were spotted by someone. And by far, it was Artie’s office. Myka frowned a bit. It wasn’t just Artie there waiting…it was Mrs. Frederic, Leena, and Jane. They were so dead.
“Oh good, you got the bat signal,” Claudia teased.
There were no smiles. They were so dead. “Before anything’s said, this is all my fault,” Myka spoke up.
“I thought we were a family?” Pete asked.
“We are,” Myka said, confusion filled her features as she looked over at Pete. She thought back to what she had just said. She didn’t think she’d said anything wrong. She’d taken responsibility for everything, but why shouldn’t she? She’d been the one to go ahead and make the final decision to use the artifact and to put the plan into play. Pete reached out and took Myka’s hand. He squeezed it for a moment and their eyes met.
“Then let us do this together,” Pete told her.
Claudia reached out and grabbed Steve’s hand and then took Pete’s hand. “I wouldn’t take back anything we did, Myka. So, I guess that means we’re definitely all in this together.”
“And…I suppose I did assist,” HG spoke up.
“What have you done?” Jane asked.
Myka looked down a bit. She was really worried about what was going to happen. Jane was pissed, that was clear. Mrs. Frederic was silent and…scary looking, so typical Mrs. Frederic. Leena looked…well, Myka really wasn’t sure what to think. And Artie…
“What can’t any of you listen?” Artie demanded. He looked to Pete and Myka. “I expect you two to be role models for that one,” he said as he pointed to Claudia. “And what do you all do? Go off… Steal the regent’s key, hack a regent file…”
“They saved our lives,” Mrs. Frederic spoke up.
Everyone was silent.
Myka’s eyes went wide and she stared up at Mrs. Frederic. How did she know? Was Mrs. Frederic a telepath? Or…was it just an artifact? Myka tried to stop thinking about everything for a moment, afraid that Mrs. Frederic could really read her mind.
“May I have the watch, Agent Bering?”
Without even really thinking about it, Myka reached into her pocket and pulled out the watch. She looked down at the watch for a moment and noticed that it was still ticking. There was still time left until they caught up to when she’d originally turned time back. “How did you know?” she asked as she looked from the watch to Mrs. Frederic.
“Is that really important?”
“No,” Myka said quietly. She held it out to Mrs. Frederic. “I had to use it… You don’t understand.”
“How did you get that?” Artie asked.
Myka turned to look at Artie. “You gave it to me. You said that you didn’t think you could fix everything that needed to be fixed…and…we didn’t bring it up to the others. We knew Claudia would want to go, but there was no way that she was in the right mind to go. And Pete…well, I think the two of us decided that I could be more level headed and convincing… Though, we may have been wrong about that,” she said, her voice getting quieter at the end. She looked down. “We did what we thought was right.”
“Something really bad would have had to happen for you to offer up an artifact to fix the past,” Mrs. Frederic said, turning to Artie.
“Like what?” Jane asked.
Myka looked at them all. “Do you want to know?”
“There’s still time for that reality to become this one,” Mrs. Frederic warned as she held up the still ticking clock.
“That’s why we summoned you all here… Jane has the bracer… The barrier will go up if the warehouse is threatened. With us all inside, then we’ll be safe…” Myka had never been told that she had to be quiet about the events she saw, so she was going to take full advantage of being able to share what had happened. And in some ways, she hoped that it scared the crap out of all of them. She was the only one who would have to live with those memories…and that was okay with her as long as her family was saved.
“Care to share what happened?” Jane asked Myka.
Myka looked to Mrs. Frederic. Jane may be Pete’s mom and a regent, but Mrs. Frederic (as scary as she was) still ran the show as far as she was concerned out of those present. She wouldn’t say anything unless Mrs. Frederic gave her permission to do so. She felt that was fair. Though Jane was obviously a regent, Myka felt like her loyalties lay closer to the warehouse…and really who was closer than Mrs. Frederic? They knew how connected she was to Warehouse 13.
“Go ahead, Agent Bering,” Mrs. Frederic told her.
She nodded and then looked around. Looked at all those they’d managed to keep safe. “Artie allowed me to use the watch in order to save the warehouse…and a lot of those we care about,” she started vague. Myka pulled in breath. “We started things like we normally do. I argued with Jane and Pete said there was no use arguing with her.”
“You’re not supposed to say those kind of things in front of her,” Pete whispered.
Myka smiled a bit. “Claudia hacked Atlas 66. We didn’t know at the time who Emily Lake was. We went to Cheyenne and found out…and when we did…pieces just started to fall in place. If Claudia hadn’t done that then there is no doubt in my mind that Sykes would have gotten to her before we did. We went back to her apartment; we didn’t exactly know what was going on then. We thought it was some elaborate hoax and that she’d somehow escaped from regent jail. Steve Tesla-ed us and he and Marcus took Emily Lake.” She squeezed Pete’s hand as she continued. “We went to the regent vault and got the orb with the Janus Coin.”
“Did you know that Agent Jinks was undercover?” Jane asked.
“No, not then,” Myka said. “We were on our way back to the warehouse when Pete pulled over and we argued over destroying the Janus Coin. Claudia and I were against it,” Myka explained and then glanced over at Helena before looking back at her captive audience. “Pete and Helena were agreed on destroying it. Helena said that she’d rather live on through Emily Lake if that meant keeping the world safer and not letting the Janus Coin falling into Sykes’ hands.”
“I don’t know if it’s possible for me to be so noble,” HG spoke up.
“You said it was a moment,” Myka told her with a smile. She was glad that they hadn’t destroyed the Janus Coin. It was comforting to have HG there, even though she’d tried to destroy the whole world in the past. “Marcus and Steve showed up. They wanted the coin. They managed to use an artifact to control Pete, who ended up throwing a rock at my head. Claudia ran off with the coin and that’s when Steve revealed his mission. Claudia gave him the coin.”
“This is where it goes down hill, right?” Pete asked.
Myka nodded and tried to hold back tears that threatened to fall. She was so happy she didn’t have to relive the horrific event, but it was still hard retelling it. “Steve left us with a clue. Skybrook 3. It’s a hangar. We went there… They were gone. Pete found Steve first…then Claudia…and then I went up there. They killed Steve.” Tears had unleashed themselves and all she wanted to do was to hug Claudia and Steve. She could see the looks on Jane and Artie’s faces. She wasn’t sure which one of them was more horrified. “If you’d been there… If you’d heard Claudia’s scream…” she managed to get out.
Arms were wrapped around her and she sucked in air. Pete was holding her and Claudia was rubbing her back. She was pretty sure that she heard Pete whispering something like “It’s okay, we’re here” but she wasn’t sure. She closed her eyes and allowed him to hold her for a moment before she wiped the tears away, banishing them. “It was really hard… I haven’t had time to process…” she said as she turned towards them. Pete had let her go, but he was really close still. “Claudia was pretty much gone. Pete was half gone. And I… I just had to focus because I was really close to losing it.”
“We re-focused on Sykes. We had to get to him. We tracked him to Hong Kong. He was going to the Ancient Regent Sanctum underneath a restaurant there. They needed Helena for Cataranga’s Chess Lock. He was sure that she knew the secret to unlocking it.”
“I haven’t ever heard of a Chess Lock before,” HG spoke up. “Cataranga was my teacher…at Warehouse 12.”
Myka nodded. “Sykes ended up sacrificing his tech kid to the Chess Lock. He made you put me in the chair and you focused…and finally figured out the trick. The Chess Lock opens a portal from the sanctum in Hong Kong to the warehouse. But while we were in Hong Kong, Marcus went to the B&B and tried to kill Leena the same way he’d killed Steve. He shot a canon at the warehouse, which forced the barrier up to protect it. He managed to lure out Mrs. Frederic, but Mrs. Frederic and Claudia stopped him.”
“And what of this portal?” Jane asked.
“Sykes stepped through with Pete under his control. From what I understand, he forced Pete to get him the bracelet. He scared you a couple of times by using Pete…but that wasn’t his goal. He wanted to destroy us all,” Myka explained. “Helena and I managed to get the portal open again and came through to the warehouse. We managed to get the artifacts all back and Sykes died while trying to chase after Jane through the portal.” Myka looked at Jane. “You made it safely through the portal to Hong Kong and you were on your way back the last I knew… The portal broke and wouldn’t re-open.”
“There’s more?” Artie asked.
“Sykes left a bomb in the wheelchair he brought into the warehouse. It was constructed with a piece of brick from the House of Commons. Apparently it had absorbed a concussive force during World War II.” Myka pulled in a deep breath. “The barrier wouldn’t go down…and we didn’t have much time. We couldn’t get it to deactivate. We thought it was all over. Helena managed to redirect some of the barrier from outside of the warehouse inside to bubble Artie, Pete, and I.” She looked over at HG. “I don’t know why you didn’t put it around the bomb.”
“I was probably thinking of keeping you safe… I’m sure I wasn’t thinking brilliantly,” HG spoke up.
“The bomb exploded. We lost Helena… We lost the whole warehouse… There really wasn’t anything at all left…” Myka told them, tears running down her face again. “We found out that Mrs. Frederic had died at the B&B.” She shrugged. “What other choice did we have?”
“James MacPherson left me that watch,” Artie said. “He told me I would need it one day. I never believed that…” He was quiet for a moment. “Now, I do.”
Myka looked to Mrs. Frederic. “Are you angry with us?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Mrs. Frederic told her.
Myka just nodded. She looked down and pulled in breath. Her eyes darted back up to the other (more frightening) woman. “How much time is left?”
“Twelve hours,” Mrs. Frederic said after glancing down at the watch. “I don’t want anyone to leave this office.”
Everyone nodded and took a moment to find somewhere comfortable to relax a bit. Myka shadowed Pete. She really couldn’t think anymore. She needed to be with them, with her family. So, she stayed close. She found him pulling her to him. An arm wrapped around her and she allowed some of her weight to shift to him.
“You did good, Mikes,” Pete told her.
“Maybe we should convince them to let us go to the Pete Cave,” she suggested.
“I wouldn’t push it,” a voice spoke up.
Myka straightened and looked over to see Artie standing right there watching them. She could feel his eyes on him. She felt like she needed to explain…to defend… But the words wouldn’t come. Myka hated the thought to think that she’d disappointed him. But instead of him yelling at them all, she found him hugging her. That wasn’t something Artie did that often. She hugged him back and smiled.
The embrace was brief and pretty sure he was hugging Pete, Claudia, and Steve all in turn. “The kids did alright,” he told them. “I’m proud of you all.” He turned to Myka. “Especially of how brave you were…”
“I don’t think it was brave…” Myka argued quietly.
“Believe me, you are brave,” Artie told her.
. . .
TBC…
Author: Shannon - shannyfish
Disclaimer: I do not own "Warehouse 13" or its characters, Syfy and other people do. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: My take of the aftermath of the Season 3 Finale - “Emily Lake” & “Stand”
Warning: Season 3 Finale Spoilers. Seasons 1-3 are fair game.
Author's Note: Okay! So thanks to one of my FANTASTICAL reviewers, they pointed out the fact that I may want to look at the timeline for the two episodes! And I did! So, thanks for that! Also! Reviews make me happy :D And I’ll write faster too! So, keep that in mind!
. . .
Chapter 4 - “Forgiven”
“Some people bear three kinds of trouble - the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have. “ ~ HG Wells
“What the hell do you think you’re all doing?!”
The sound of Steve’s voice, even though he was obviously confused and pissed, brought great joy to Myka’s soul. Even though they had him, she’d still been worrying about what could still happen. Having him conscious and talking brought solace.
“Steve!” Claudia squealed.
The car swerved for about a second, but it wasn’t anything to be too worried about. Steve’s voice had been enough to pull her from her slumber. From the looks of it, they were close to home.
“Do I need to drive?” Pete asked.
“You may have to,” Claudia said. “I’d really like to hug my Steve now.”
“What is this? Warehouse road trip?” Steve asked as he peeked over and took in everyone.
Myka smiled up at him and then moved to straighten up. She had to admit, that was probably the best she’d slept in a car. She smiled at HG. “Thanks for being a pillow.”
“You look a little better,” HG said as she pushed some stray hair back out of Myka’s face. “I’m ordering a good meal and lots of sleep for all of you.”
Myka smiled at the tone. She could see the other woman as a mother. Maybe her life had been set off the tracks with her daughter’s murder, but HG Wells was a good person deep down…she just forgot that sometimes. “I think I could be okay with those orders…”
“You know…” Steve started.
“You were undercover,” the rest of the car chimed up together.
“The Mystery Van missed Scooby, so we had to pick you up,” Pete teased.
“I’m Scooby?” Steve asked.
“Do we even know who the rest of us are in that twisted mind of yours, Pete?” Myka asked.
“Twisted?” Pete asked as he looked back at them. “This…from the genius that brought you the Pete Cave.”
Myka laughed.
“The…Pete Cave?” Steve asked.
“It’s made of epic win!” Claudia said over her shoulder.
Pete pointed to Claudia. “We got Shaggy up front.” To Steve. “Scooby in the back.” To HG. “Velma.” To Myka. “Daphne.”
“And you’re Fred?” Myka asked in amusement. Pete nodded. She reached out and smacked him. “Why am I Daphne?”
“I couldn’t make you Velma, Mikes…”
“Why not?”
“There’s a certain level of coolness about Daphne,” Pete said and then looked to HG. “No offense.”
“Since I have no idea what you’re all talking about, none taken,” HG told them.
“We’re hoooooome,” Claudia announced as she brought the SUV to a complete stop and hit the unlock button.
They all looked out the front window at the warehouse. It was a beautiful thing. Myka still felt sick inside at the memory of it burned to ash. This had to work. “We’re so going to get it.”
“I was doing my job, but I ended up kidnapped,” Steve pointed out.
They all exited the vehicle and took their time doing it. “It was that or die,” Claudia said as she helped Steve out of the SUV. “And I choose life.” She threw her arms around him and held him tight.
Myka was trying to contain herself, but she found herself hugging Claudia and Steve. She laughed with soon it was a group hug. Of course, HG wasn’t in the hug, but she was close by. Myka smiled brightly. “The Scooby Gang is back together,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
. . .
Entering the warehouse had been done very slowly and with much caution. Of course, they didn’t get far before they were spotted by someone. And by far, it was Artie’s office. Myka frowned a bit. It wasn’t just Artie there waiting…it was Mrs. Frederic, Leena, and Jane. They were so dead.
“Oh good, you got the bat signal,” Claudia teased.
There were no smiles. They were so dead. “Before anything’s said, this is all my fault,” Myka spoke up.
“I thought we were a family?” Pete asked.
“We are,” Myka said, confusion filled her features as she looked over at Pete. She thought back to what she had just said. She didn’t think she’d said anything wrong. She’d taken responsibility for everything, but why shouldn’t she? She’d been the one to go ahead and make the final decision to use the artifact and to put the plan into play. Pete reached out and took Myka’s hand. He squeezed it for a moment and their eyes met.
“Then let us do this together,” Pete told her.
Claudia reached out and grabbed Steve’s hand and then took Pete’s hand. “I wouldn’t take back anything we did, Myka. So, I guess that means we’re definitely all in this together.”
“And…I suppose I did assist,” HG spoke up.
“What have you done?” Jane asked.
Myka looked down a bit. She was really worried about what was going to happen. Jane was pissed, that was clear. Mrs. Frederic was silent and…scary looking, so typical Mrs. Frederic. Leena looked…well, Myka really wasn’t sure what to think. And Artie…
“What can’t any of you listen?” Artie demanded. He looked to Pete and Myka. “I expect you two to be role models for that one,” he said as he pointed to Claudia. “And what do you all do? Go off… Steal the regent’s key, hack a regent file…”
“They saved our lives,” Mrs. Frederic spoke up.
Everyone was silent.
Myka’s eyes went wide and she stared up at Mrs. Frederic. How did she know? Was Mrs. Frederic a telepath? Or…was it just an artifact? Myka tried to stop thinking about everything for a moment, afraid that Mrs. Frederic could really read her mind.
“May I have the watch, Agent Bering?”
Without even really thinking about it, Myka reached into her pocket and pulled out the watch. She looked down at the watch for a moment and noticed that it was still ticking. There was still time left until they caught up to when she’d originally turned time back. “How did you know?” she asked as she looked from the watch to Mrs. Frederic.
“Is that really important?”
“No,” Myka said quietly. She held it out to Mrs. Frederic. “I had to use it… You don’t understand.”
“How did you get that?” Artie asked.
Myka turned to look at Artie. “You gave it to me. You said that you didn’t think you could fix everything that needed to be fixed…and…we didn’t bring it up to the others. We knew Claudia would want to go, but there was no way that she was in the right mind to go. And Pete…well, I think the two of us decided that I could be more level headed and convincing… Though, we may have been wrong about that,” she said, her voice getting quieter at the end. She looked down. “We did what we thought was right.”
“Something really bad would have had to happen for you to offer up an artifact to fix the past,” Mrs. Frederic said, turning to Artie.
“Like what?” Jane asked.
Myka looked at them all. “Do you want to know?”
“There’s still time for that reality to become this one,” Mrs. Frederic warned as she held up the still ticking clock.
“That’s why we summoned you all here… Jane has the bracer… The barrier will go up if the warehouse is threatened. With us all inside, then we’ll be safe…” Myka had never been told that she had to be quiet about the events she saw, so she was going to take full advantage of being able to share what had happened. And in some ways, she hoped that it scared the crap out of all of them. She was the only one who would have to live with those memories…and that was okay with her as long as her family was saved.
“Care to share what happened?” Jane asked Myka.
Myka looked to Mrs. Frederic. Jane may be Pete’s mom and a regent, but Mrs. Frederic (as scary as she was) still ran the show as far as she was concerned out of those present. She wouldn’t say anything unless Mrs. Frederic gave her permission to do so. She felt that was fair. Though Jane was obviously a regent, Myka felt like her loyalties lay closer to the warehouse…and really who was closer than Mrs. Frederic? They knew how connected she was to Warehouse 13.
“Go ahead, Agent Bering,” Mrs. Frederic told her.
She nodded and then looked around. Looked at all those they’d managed to keep safe. “Artie allowed me to use the watch in order to save the warehouse…and a lot of those we care about,” she started vague. Myka pulled in breath. “We started things like we normally do. I argued with Jane and Pete said there was no use arguing with her.”
“You’re not supposed to say those kind of things in front of her,” Pete whispered.
Myka smiled a bit. “Claudia hacked Atlas 66. We didn’t know at the time who Emily Lake was. We went to Cheyenne and found out…and when we did…pieces just started to fall in place. If Claudia hadn’t done that then there is no doubt in my mind that Sykes would have gotten to her before we did. We went back to her apartment; we didn’t exactly know what was going on then. We thought it was some elaborate hoax and that she’d somehow escaped from regent jail. Steve Tesla-ed us and he and Marcus took Emily Lake.” She squeezed Pete’s hand as she continued. “We went to the regent vault and got the orb with the Janus Coin.”
“Did you know that Agent Jinks was undercover?” Jane asked.
“No, not then,” Myka said. “We were on our way back to the warehouse when Pete pulled over and we argued over destroying the Janus Coin. Claudia and I were against it,” Myka explained and then glanced over at Helena before looking back at her captive audience. “Pete and Helena were agreed on destroying it. Helena said that she’d rather live on through Emily Lake if that meant keeping the world safer and not letting the Janus Coin falling into Sykes’ hands.”
“I don’t know if it’s possible for me to be so noble,” HG spoke up.
“You said it was a moment,” Myka told her with a smile. She was glad that they hadn’t destroyed the Janus Coin. It was comforting to have HG there, even though she’d tried to destroy the whole world in the past. “Marcus and Steve showed up. They wanted the coin. They managed to use an artifact to control Pete, who ended up throwing a rock at my head. Claudia ran off with the coin and that’s when Steve revealed his mission. Claudia gave him the coin.”
“This is where it goes down hill, right?” Pete asked.
Myka nodded and tried to hold back tears that threatened to fall. She was so happy she didn’t have to relive the horrific event, but it was still hard retelling it. “Steve left us with a clue. Skybrook 3. It’s a hangar. We went there… They were gone. Pete found Steve first…then Claudia…and then I went up there. They killed Steve.” Tears had unleashed themselves and all she wanted to do was to hug Claudia and Steve. She could see the looks on Jane and Artie’s faces. She wasn’t sure which one of them was more horrified. “If you’d been there… If you’d heard Claudia’s scream…” she managed to get out.
Arms were wrapped around her and she sucked in air. Pete was holding her and Claudia was rubbing her back. She was pretty sure that she heard Pete whispering something like “It’s okay, we’re here” but she wasn’t sure. She closed her eyes and allowed him to hold her for a moment before she wiped the tears away, banishing them. “It was really hard… I haven’t had time to process…” she said as she turned towards them. Pete had let her go, but he was really close still. “Claudia was pretty much gone. Pete was half gone. And I… I just had to focus because I was really close to losing it.”
“We re-focused on Sykes. We had to get to him. We tracked him to Hong Kong. He was going to the Ancient Regent Sanctum underneath a restaurant there. They needed Helena for Cataranga’s Chess Lock. He was sure that she knew the secret to unlocking it.”
“I haven’t ever heard of a Chess Lock before,” HG spoke up. “Cataranga was my teacher…at Warehouse 12.”
Myka nodded. “Sykes ended up sacrificing his tech kid to the Chess Lock. He made you put me in the chair and you focused…and finally figured out the trick. The Chess Lock opens a portal from the sanctum in Hong Kong to the warehouse. But while we were in Hong Kong, Marcus went to the B&B and tried to kill Leena the same way he’d killed Steve. He shot a canon at the warehouse, which forced the barrier up to protect it. He managed to lure out Mrs. Frederic, but Mrs. Frederic and Claudia stopped him.”
“And what of this portal?” Jane asked.
“Sykes stepped through with Pete under his control. From what I understand, he forced Pete to get him the bracelet. He scared you a couple of times by using Pete…but that wasn’t his goal. He wanted to destroy us all,” Myka explained. “Helena and I managed to get the portal open again and came through to the warehouse. We managed to get the artifacts all back and Sykes died while trying to chase after Jane through the portal.” Myka looked at Jane. “You made it safely through the portal to Hong Kong and you were on your way back the last I knew… The portal broke and wouldn’t re-open.”
“There’s more?” Artie asked.
“Sykes left a bomb in the wheelchair he brought into the warehouse. It was constructed with a piece of brick from the House of Commons. Apparently it had absorbed a concussive force during World War II.” Myka pulled in a deep breath. “The barrier wouldn’t go down…and we didn’t have much time. We couldn’t get it to deactivate. We thought it was all over. Helena managed to redirect some of the barrier from outside of the warehouse inside to bubble Artie, Pete, and I.” She looked over at HG. “I don’t know why you didn’t put it around the bomb.”
“I was probably thinking of keeping you safe… I’m sure I wasn’t thinking brilliantly,” HG spoke up.
“The bomb exploded. We lost Helena… We lost the whole warehouse… There really wasn’t anything at all left…” Myka told them, tears running down her face again. “We found out that Mrs. Frederic had died at the B&B.” She shrugged. “What other choice did we have?”
“James MacPherson left me that watch,” Artie said. “He told me I would need it one day. I never believed that…” He was quiet for a moment. “Now, I do.”
Myka looked to Mrs. Frederic. “Are you angry with us?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Mrs. Frederic told her.
Myka just nodded. She looked down and pulled in breath. Her eyes darted back up to the other (more frightening) woman. “How much time is left?”
“Twelve hours,” Mrs. Frederic said after glancing down at the watch. “I don’t want anyone to leave this office.”
Everyone nodded and took a moment to find somewhere comfortable to relax a bit. Myka shadowed Pete. She really couldn’t think anymore. She needed to be with them, with her family. So, she stayed close. She found him pulling her to him. An arm wrapped around her and she allowed some of her weight to shift to him.
“You did good, Mikes,” Pete told her.
“Maybe we should convince them to let us go to the Pete Cave,” she suggested.
“I wouldn’t push it,” a voice spoke up.
Myka straightened and looked over to see Artie standing right there watching them. She could feel his eyes on him. She felt like she needed to explain…to defend… But the words wouldn’t come. Myka hated the thought to think that she’d disappointed him. But instead of him yelling at them all, she found him hugging her. That wasn’t something Artie did that often. She hugged him back and smiled.
The embrace was brief and pretty sure he was hugging Pete, Claudia, and Steve all in turn. “The kids did alright,” he told them. “I’m proud of you all.” He turned to Myka. “Especially of how brave you were…”
“I don’t think it was brave…” Myka argued quietly.
“Believe me, you are brave,” Artie told her.
. . .
TBC…