Nikolas Cassadine took one long look at Luke Spencer.

“You are joking, aren’t you?”

“Nope.”

Nikolas shook his head, backing a few feet away from the older man. “No way. No way in hell.”

“Come on Nikky,” Luke grinned. “You know that you’ve always wanted to drive one of these.”

“This is nuts. Absolutely nuts. You have to be crazy.”

“You know you’re not the first person to tell me that.” Luke paused. “Of course he was trying to freeze the world and we know how that turned out.”

Nikolas glared at Luke.

Luke smiled unrepentantly. “Come on. You have to admit that it would make the perfect diversion.” He gestured behind them. “You come through the front door driving that and wrecking havoc while V and I sneak in the back and grab Lulu.”

“We don’t even know that Lulu is in there.”

“Of course she is. This is Faison’s base of operations and the bastard won’t let her out of his sight.” Luke frowned. “The damned bastard is probably cowering behind his door because he knows that I’m coming after him.”

Nikolas frowned. “Somehow I don’t think all of this is about you. Faison wants Lucky to suffer and he doesn’t seem to give a damn who he hurts along the way.”

“Which is why we have to do something. We get Lulu out of there and he has no hold over Lucky.” A second’s pause. “It’s the least you can do since you stole his girl and drove him from his home in the first place.”

Nikolas winced at the reminder of what his contribution to Lucky’s pain was. “I didn’t know he was alive when I fell in love with Liz.”

“But you damned well knew it when you married her.”

“Look, I am not going to justify my actions to a man who used to kill people for a living. If I remember right, Lucky had some problems adjusting to your new career.”

“All right!” V stepped in between the two men. “You too can play who hurt Lucky the most some other time. Right now we have to concentrate on rescuing Lulu.” She placed a soft hand on Nikolas’s shoulder. “It’s not that bad a plan.”

Nikolas stared at her in amazement. “For God’s sake V it’s a tank. A World War II tank to boot. Even if by some twisted miracle it’s still operational, I haven’t a clue how to drive it.”

“It can’t be that different from a Jag, can it?” Luke asked.

“Fine. You drive it.”

“Can’t. I’m better at sneaking than you. I’ve got the best chance of getting into that villa without being seen.”

“Don’t you mean “we” have the best chance?” V asked with arched eyebrows.

“Uhh. Yeah Right. We have the best chance.” He grinned again as he looked back at Nikolas. “Either way that leaves you in the driver’s seat.”

“There’s no way that I can drive that tank. It looks like no one’s moved it since the war ended.”

“The farmer says it works. Apparently he’s a military buff so he’s kept the tank in working order. He even offered to let me take it for a test drive before we bought it.”

“We have to buy it?”

“Of course. You can’t just rent a tank you know. Besides if we rented it we’d have to worry about dents and scratches and stuff like that. This way if it blows up it’s no big loss.”

“Unless I’m in it.” Nikolas pointed out.

“Like I said,” Luke began and then stopped when V began to twist his little finger. “Anyway the tank is perfectly safe. There will be tons of hard steel between you and all the bullets and missiles and explosive devices that Faison’s men will throw in your direction.”

“Hey I saw Saving Private Ryan five times. Don’t try to tell me that tanks are indestructible.”

“Yeah well I saw Tank Girl three times and I think you are vastly underestimating the toughness of the tank. Especially this baby. Look at her. All sleek lines. Solid steel.”

“Rusting bolts.”

“Details, my boy. Details. The point is that she’ll do the job.”

“I don’t like this,” Nikolas began, “but you’re right, the most important thing is rescuing Lulu and since I don’t have a better plan-”

“No plan is better than a Spencer plan.”

“Like I said, since I don’t have a better plan, we’ll try it your way.”

“I knew you’d come around. After all Cassadine manipulation is a Spencer specialty.”

“Luke?”

“Yeah Vlad Jr.”

“Shut up.”

Silence.

“Ouch. Someone’s in a bad mood. Look, why don’t you sit here and sulk while I go see if our friendly neighborhood tank dealer knows where I can scare up some gasoline.” Luke patted V on the shoulder as he left. “See if you can get him to smile a little.”

V watched Nikolas and smiled softly. “It will be okay, you know. I mean it’s a crazy plan but it might just work.” She paused. “Luke may be crazy but he’s crazy like a fox you know, cagey, unpredictable...”

“Insane.”

“Sometimes. When he has to be I imagine. But that’s not a bad thing is it, I mean we’ve all been insane at one point or another. I definitely was when I decided to drop everything I worked for for a relationship that was doomed from the start.”

She sat down on a bale of hay and after a second, Nikolas joined her.

“Relationship can be hell.” That was him, master of the understatement Nikolas thought wryly.

“Sometimes. Sometimes they can be heaven. When it’s the right person for the right reason.”

Nikolas hesitated. He’d spent the last few weeks fighting his attraction to the beautiful redhead and if he was smart he’d make some excuse to walk away and...

“Simon wasn’t the right person?”

“I don’t know. He might have been. But the reason was wrong. I was...feeling hurt because of somethings people I thought of as my friends were doing. Simon...was a way out. A boost to my ego. My friends didn’t seem to want me around and he did. It was as simple and as ugly and as complicated as that. It was only after a few months went by that I realized what I had done and things kind of blew up on me.”

“Which is how you ended up on an island in the middle of the Caribbean?”

“When you jump ship in the middle of a trip around the world you can’t really be choosy about where you end up. At least it allowed me to be a cop again.”

“You like being a cop?”

“I love being a cop,” V replied in soft affirmation, her voice tinged with melancholy. “Somewhere along the way I let myself forget that, but never again.” She stopped and looked at him, looking into the depth of his sable eyes despite her promises to herself not to. He’s married, she reminded herself mentally. Married. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

Nik smiled. “I’m easy to talk to. You could ask any of my friends and they would tell you that.” He gave a short harsh laugh and stood up restlessly. “Accept that I don’t have any anymore. Friends that is. The best one I ever had.... God I hurt her so badly so many times that I think her cutting me out of her life was an act of self-preservation on her part.”

“Emily?”

Nik nodded. “Do you know she was the first real friend I ever had? The first person who was ever my friend just because they liked me. Not because they wanted something out of me or because they were afraid of my family or they just wanted to be close to a Cassadine. Emily just wanted to be my friend. And what did I do? I used her. I shut her out. I ignored her.” Nikolas stared at the tank unseeingly. “It was strange you know. I took Emily for granted. I thought her friendship would always be there for me.”

“But you lost it?”

“I threw it away,” Nikolas replied bluntly. “After Lucky ...died, my whole world became about Elizabeth. I can’t even explain why really. I always liked Elizabeth, I valued her friendship, I envied her and Lucky what they had together, but I was never interested in her that way. Never. Then when Lucky was gone, it was all about Elizabeth. I had to make sure she was happy and secure. It was almost like I had to love her because I knew Lucky couldn’t anymore and somehow I felt like that was my fault. Like if I had been a better brother, if I had never told him about what happened to my mother, if I had never come to Port Charles....Lucky would have been safe in his own home that night.” Nikolas kicked his foot randomly into the pile of hay. “I fell in love with Elizabeth and I asked her to marry me. It was...one of the best times of my life. It was also one of the worst because Lucky returned.”

“And you felt guilty.”

“I felt every emotion you could name.” Nik’s words were anguished. “And guilt was right there up at the top. But I couldn’t let go of Elizabeth. I couldn’t give her up, I couldn’t walk away. Not unless she asked me to. And she didn’t. She chose me. Even knowing he was alive, she chose me. I’d been prepared to lose her and instead I lost the brother I had just gotten back.” Nikolas turned back to V. “Luke was right. I owe Lucky this. Whatever might happen, I have to do this. I have to make right what went wrong. No matter what it costs I can’t let Lucky be hurt again.”

“You can’t undo the past Nikolas.”

Nikolas exhaled slowly. “No no I can’t.”

“And I thought you said that Lucky was with Emily now?”

“He is. I still can’t believe how much Emily has changed. She’s brilliant at business. I mean technically AJ runs ELQ but the whole world knows that Emily is responsible for keeping that company going after Edward’s murder. They have three patents pending on new projects that will net them millions in the first few years alone- projects that Emily spearheaded through. She’s tough as nails, something I can attest to since she has managed to block Stefan from gaining a hold on ELQ over and over again. I admire her even if she does everything possible to avoid being in the same room with me.” He sat down again on the hay bale. “Emily and Lucky....they fit you know? Lucky honestly loved Elizabeth back then, but I think even if he hadn’t been kidnapped he would have outgrown his first love. Elizabeth needs to be protected, cared for, nurtured. She’s like a rose you know. Lucky is Luke’s son. Roses aren’t what a Spencer needs. He needs a partner, someone who will stand up to him when he’s wrong and not be afraid to tell him to his face that he’s an idiot and someone who would walk through fire for him. Emily is that kind of person. She always has been. She’s what a Spencer needs.”

“And a Cassadine?” V sat next to Nikolas and pressed her warmth against his side. “What does a Cassadine need? What do you need?”

“Me?” Nikolas closed his eyes and thought of the mess his life was in. He’d been happily married despite everything- until he had realized that the wife he loved had never really loved him. Once again, Nikolas came in second. “What do I need?” Nikolas took a deep breath. “I need my sister to be okay. I need my brother to be my brother again. I need my best friend back in my life.” He looked into her eyes and found their green depths sinking into him. Locking onto him. He lowered his mouth a few centimeters. “But most of all I really need to kiss you.”

The words echoed in her ears along with a thousand voices telling her a thousand reasons why this was a bad idea. Still, for some reason she found herself nodding.

And as his lips descended onto hers, she knew that for that split second nothing else really mattered.

The villa gardens

Anna sat quietly on a wrought iron bench, watching Robin play a few feet away from her. She was tired and the headache that had began earlier was returning with a vengeance. Strange thoughts were running through her head. Images she knew couldn’t possibly be true. Images that scared her because she knew they meant that she was losing her mind.

Again.

She took a look around the garden, absently noting the beautiful flowers in a myriad of colors surrounded by soft, gentle shrubs. Cut off from the rest of the villa by a wall of bougainvillea, this part of the garden looked like paradise.

It just didn’t feel like it.

She shivered slightly. Ever since this morning, she couldn’t fight the feeling that something was wrong. Or to be more accurate, something was just not right.

And she knew when that feeling started. It started when she had looked at that young woman, the strange young woman in the plaza who had fired a gun in the air. There was something about that young woman....

She halted that thought in mid-sentence when she saw a familiar figure appear in the garden.

She frowned, wondering what why the chauffeur was out here. She started to stand up and approach him when she noticed that his attention wasn’t on her.

It was on her daughter. Her Robin.

“Lulu,” Sonny’s voice was quiet as he stepped past Anna towards the young girl. “We’re leaving.”

A look of pure relief crossed Robin’s face and a smile, the first genuine smile that Anna could remember seeing in a long while, broke out She put down what she was playing with and began to walk, then run, to Sonny who grabbed her and held her tight.

Furious, Anna grabbed him. “Let go of my daughter.”

Sonny gently set Lulu aside and then turned to face Anna. “She’s not your daughter. She’s not Robin.”

Anna pounded on him with her fists. Sonny’s arms remained at his side. “Let my daughter go or I swear to you I will have my husband’s men hang you for touching her.”

“No you won’t.” Sonny’s voice was gentle. “You won’t because you know I’m telling the truth. You know Anna, somewhere in you is a voice that is screaming at you that that little girl is not your daughter. She’s not Robin. And Faison is not the man you love. He’s a monster. An evil horrible monster who has more people than you can imagine. And most of all he’s hurt you Anna. He’s taken you from your home, from your family, from your real daughter.”

Anna shook her head. “Faison loves me. He rescued me from the WSB. He saved Robin and reunited us. He would never hurt me.”

“All he’s done is hurt you.” Sonny caught her hands and stilled them. “Who hurt your back Anna?”

Pain shadowed Anna’s eyes. “The WSB. When they discovered what I had done, how I had betrayed them, they had me put in a prison. They used to...whip me to get me to behave. They would have killed me if Faison hadn’t rescued me.”

“Anna you have it wrong. All of it. He’s told you so many lies so many times that you don’t know what to believe.”

“I know that’s my daughter.”

“No, no she’s not. Her name is Lesley Laura Spencer. Her family calls her Lulu. Her parents are Luke and Laura Spencer. She was kidnapped by Faison out of some twisted vendetta he has against her brother, Lucky Spencer.”

“You are wrong.”

“You know I’m not. You know I’m not.” Sonny gently turned her face so that she was looking right at Lulu. “Look at her Anna. Really look at her. She’s not Robin. That is not Robin.”

“Move away from her!” A harsh voice cut into the stillness and Sonny looked up at the face of a young guard and the barrel of an automatic rifle. “Move away from her now.”

Anna stared at the young man in shock. “What are you doing?”

“I have orders to bring you back to the villa. No matter what.” He pointed the rifle at Sonny. “Back away from her or I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

“I think not.” Frisco stepped out from behind the bougainvillea and pressed his gun against the top of the young man’s head.

“Lower your weapon or I’ll blow your head off.”

The weapon stayed where it was. Frisco fired. He watched with distaste as the body fell. He didn’t like killing, but this man was one of Faison’s mercenaries not an innocent bystander and with Robin’s life on the line he wasn’t playing games.

He didn’t like killing but he would do whatever it took to get to Robin.

Anna stared at the dead body on the grass in shock while Lulu gave a small whimper and grabbed back ahold of Sonny.

“I told you that I would grab Anna and Lulu my way,” Sonny hissed.

“I don’t have time for your way,” Frisco replied calmly as he took the gun from the dead guard and hoisted it over his shoulder. “More importantly Robin doesn’t have time for your way. This place is going to explode, literally, and I need Anna and Lulu as far away as possible when it does.” He locked eyes with Sonny. “That was the plan, remember.”

“I remember. I just don’t remember terrifying a child part of the plan.”

“Trust me. She’d be a lot more terrified if Faison had his way. Better scared than dead is the way I see it.”

The intensity between the two men broke as Anna moved towards Frisco shakily.

“Frisco? Oh my God Frisco?” Her voice was brittle, as if it had shattered and then been glued back together.

Frisco’s demeanor as he turned towards Robin’s mother shifted. “Yeah it’s me Anna.”

“Frisco. I....”Anna paled and staggered backwards. “He killed Robert.”

Frisco caught her and steadied her. “I know. It’s going to be okay Anna. We’re going to make sure you’re safe.”

“He...he...he killed Robert and I had to watch and then he...oh God,” Anna fell to her knees as her stomach rolled and she vomited.

“Anna,” Frisco dropped to his knees by her. “I know he hurt you. And I swear he’ll pay. For what he did to you and to Robert and to Lucky and to Robin...”

“Robin!” Anna clutched Frisco’s leather jacket. “Robin! Where is she?”

Frisco caught Sonny’s eyes. His own expression tightened. “Faison has her, but I’m going to get her back. In the meantime I need you and Lulu to go with Sonny. He’ll take you someplace safe and Robin and I will meet up with you as soon as we can.”

“He’ll hurt her. He’ll hurt her just like he hurt Robert.”

“No he won’t. He won’t get the chance.” He brushed a tear off Anna’s cheek. “Robin’s tougher and smarter than he thinks. And I’m not going to let him hurt her.” He turned to Sonny. “Get her and Lulu to the rendezvous point. We’ll meet you there as soon as we can.” He paused and handed Sonny his cell phone. “If we’re not there in 24 hours use this. It will automatically connect you to the WSB. Ask for Sean Donnelly and tell him what’s happened. He’ll make sure that the three of you get home safely.”

With that, Frisco turned and disappeared.

“Come on,” Sonny lifted up Lulu and went to grab Anna. “We need to get out of here.”

Anna hesitated and stared in the direction Frisco had gone.

“I’m sorry,” she turned back to Sonny. “I can’t leave without Robin.”

Before Sonny could react, Anna took off.

Sonny stood torn between the desire to go after Anna and make sure she was safe and the need to keep the child in his arms safe. After a second, he reluctantly began to make his way away from the compound.

Inside the villa

Lucky made his way down the corridor cautiously, the gun he had confiscated from the first guard he had taken care of slung over his shoulder and ready to use. He had just turned a corner when he felt the cold metal of a gun pressed against his back and froze.

“I wonder what kind of bonus the boss will give me for returning his pet.”

“I wouldn’t bother.” Lucky’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. “If I know Faison and I think its safe to say I do, he’ll just fuck you over.” His voice dropped an octave. “And I do mean that literally.”

“Shut up.” The gun pressed further against him.

“You could be more polite.” A feminine voice piped off as a soft finger tapped the guard’s shoulder and he turned around to find himself staring into a pair of brown eyes framed with chestnut hair. “Telling someone to shut up is never polite. Now telling someone to be quiet or to ask them to refrain from talking or to remain silent or to....” Emily stopped as the guard fell at her feet as Lucky hit him over the head. “And I won’t even go into how rude passing out during the middle of a conversation is.” Emily concluded as Lucky stared at her open mouthed.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“Distracting him? Saving you?” Emily frowned as he continued to glare at her. “What do you think I was doing? Flirting?”

“I think you were risking your life something I distinctly remember telling you not to do.” He paused. “I could have handled it.” Emily sighed. “Lucky we’re in the middle of Faison’s compound and God alone knows the way out of here and until we’re on a plane out of Italy I don’t think either one of use will be safe.”

He held her gently by the shoulders. “I don’t want to lose you Emily.”

“I know.”

“Em.”

“Yeah.”

“Get down.” Lucky pushed her to the floor, covering his body with hers even as he reached for the rifle and aimed it with deadly accuracy at a guard down the hall even as a shot penetrated the plaster above their heads.

“Come on,” He grabbed her and urged her to continue down the hallway. “Just a little further.”

He kept his voice more confident than he felt as he glanced at his watch. Come on Frisco, where’s that distraction you promised.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, he could feel the rumble in the near distance and he pulled Emily to him as he pressed them both against the wall as pieces of plaster fell from the wall.

“That wasn’t an earthquake, was it?”

Lucky grinned. “Nope. That was a little distraction courtesy of Alex and some strategically placed bombs.”

“That was my second choice.” Emily shook her head. “Not to sound whiny or anything but can we get out of here.”

“Your wish is my command.”

“I’m going to remind you of that.”

“I know.”

To be continued.....