"Brains, get him back!" Jeff whirled on his engineer. "I don't care how you do it, but I have to know what's happening!"
Brains fairly flew out of the Lounge, headed for the Cliff House, with Tin-Tin on his heels. Jeff watched them go, his eyes briefly meeting Penelope's before settling on Kyrano. "Tell me they're still alive," he whispered desperately. "Please, Kyrano."
Kyrano closed his eyes. His mind was whirling, he could hear the mental cries and jumbled thoughts of those aboard Thunderbird 2.
But he could also hear someone else.
One face made itself clear in his mind. He started as the face sneered, then disappeared completely.
"Tin-Tin to Base, please respond."
Jeff whipped around the edge of his desk to the console on the wall behind it. "I'm here."
"We've established Thunderbird 2's position with Alan in Thunderbird 5. Two is still airborne. She's struggling, but she's still up."
"Can you get them on the comm?"
"Not on Thunderbird 2's. Alan's trying their chronometers as we speak."
"I'm on my way," Jeff said. Penelope left the room ahead of him, but Jeff noticed Kyrano was not moving. He spoke his name softly.
"I must maintain my concentration," Kyrano whispered, eyes remaining closed as he reached one hand out. "Lead me."
Jeff took his friend's hand, placed it in the crook of his arm and followed Penelope into the hall. He could feel Kyrano's strength flow into him as soon as they touched, and marveled at this man who shared his life...the lives of all his family members.
He swallowed the lump in his throat as the thought of his family members solidified. Had he come back from being just the shell of a man only to face what would be the end of life as he knew it? Come back to face death? He couldn't think about it. Couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that four of his sons were quite possibly not coming home.
Not coming home.
Oh, God.
They reached the secret entrance to the Cliff House. Penny stole a glance at the pair as they entered – one with eyes closed to the visual world, doing all within his power to protect and serve the family he had given his life to...one trying desperately to stave off fear of the incomprehensible.
If ever he needed you, Kyrano, she thought, noting the stricken look on Jeff's face, it is now.
"He's blocking our transmissions, I can't get through on the comm. Radar's sketchy, but he's out there. I saw the ship, I know he's there! Gordon, man the missiles! John, I need attitude back!"
There wasn't a word uttered as Gordon and John fairly ran to carry out their respective orders. Virgil struggled with Two's steering yoke as it vibrated and twisted beneath his hands. Sweat poured down his face, his uniform showing darker where it was soaked with the sweat from his body. He rose to his feet to afford better leverage, throwing the ejection switch that would loosen his pilot's chair.
But the chair didn't move. He turned and kicked at it as Two's nose fell. "Goddammit!" he cursed, pulling back on the yoke. He leaned his entire weight backwards, muscles straining beneath his tunic, half-turning his body as she lurched to the left. "I can't keep her steady!"
"I've got him!" a faint yell came from somewhere behind him. "I see him, small jet bearing 2-2-0. Firing!"
"Virgil, attitude control is completely gone, elevator control losing fluid. I can't get back in there to patch her up, that part of the mechanism is melted away!" John gasped as he ran into the cockpit.
"I have to put her down," Virgil said, looking out the cracked cockpit window in front of him. "I can't keep her airborne all the way to Base. There's no way."
They heard an explosion and for a split second thought Two had been hit again. Their brother quickly put that theory to rest.
"Got him!" Gordon cried, quickly appearing behind John. "He's down, he's hit the water."
"Get Ned and Adi up here now!" Virgil barked.
"You're ditching?" Gordon asked.
"Affirmative. Go now!"
John and Gordon ran through the door into the pod, unstrapped Ned and Adi, who were white as sheets, and pulled them back into the cockpit.
"I'm in the jump," John said after strapping Ned into one chair. Gordon strapped Adi into the other, then took the third as John pulled down a jump-seat and buckled the harness around him.
"Dropping pod," Virgil said. He pressed a button.
Nothing happened.
"It won't drop! The electromagnetic seal is locked!"
"I'll do a manual," John said, loosing himself from the jump-seat.
"John, no!" Gordon said as he fumbled with his straps. "You could get sucked out when it drops!"
"We have no choice, now stay put!"
"Is Scott secure?"
"Yeah, Virg, I double-checked – he's as tight in that sickbed as he can be."
"John may not get the pod loose in time," Virgil said, still using all his weight to pull back on the yoke, trying his best to keep Two in the air. "If he doesn't, we're going to hit a lot harder. Assume crash positions."
Gordon, Adi and Ned bent forward over their knees, hugging their legs. Each sent silent prayers to the Fates for their safe landing...or at least a landing that wouldn't take all their lives.
"Come on, Johnny," Virgil ground out. "Come on..."
"No!" Tin-Tin gasped.
"What is it?" Jeff asked, ripping away from Kyrano and running toward the large screen in front of which she stood.
"Two has crashed, Mr. Tracy! She's down!"
"Jeff! What on Earth is going on?" Ruth panted as she trotted into the Cliff House.
"Thunderbird Two is now down, Mother." Ruth's eyes grew wide, her hand moving to cover her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Jeff steadied himself with a hand on the back of a nearby chair. "Now listen to me, all of you. I want Thunderbird 4 launched immediately. Tin-Tin, you take control of that. I know it's a longshot, but I want her in the water and out there as fast as you can make her go."
"F.A.B.," Tin-Tin replied, running out of the room at full-speed.
"Brains, we need containment for both 1's and 2's crash sites. And we're going to need to get the survivors medical attention as fast as we can. You take Tracy One, get to Australia and get me a helijet out to the site."
"F.A.B."
"Survivors?" Ruth cried out. "Jeff, these are your sons! They're more than just rescue casualties!"
His face showed no emotion. He was in Colonel mode and she knew it.
"Mother, you're going to be part of this, too. I want you and Kyrano to take the yacht to these coordinates with Penny and Parker," he said as he pointed at the map on the screen. "Run her hard if you have to, but get there quickly, and have Med standing by. I'll take the seaplane out."
"All right, Jeff," Ruth replied, glad for something to do. She and Kyrano took the elevator that led down to the island sand. Parker waited for it to return as Penelope approached Jeff.
"You shouldn't go alone," she said.
"Penny, if I have to pull anyone out of that wreckage, I'll barely have room for me to fit in there with them."
She looked at him questioningly.
He grabbed her hand, squeezing it quickly as the elevator arrived. "I'm okay, Penny. Don't worry."
She bit her lip, then nodded and got into the elevator. Her eyes held Jeff's until they were out of sight.
Jeff looked back up at the map, where a red dot pulsated in the spot Thunderbird Two had crashed. He pressed a button on the panel before him. "Base to Thunderbird 5."
"I've been on open, Dad," came Alan's strangled voice. "I can't do anything..." His voice trailed off in a whisper.
"Yes, you can. I want to know why you couldn't get through to any of their chronometers, and if that situation still exists."
"Yes, Father, they're still dark. Five's computer seems to think the transmission is being jammed at the source."
"That means whoever brought them down is still out there."
Alan hesitated a moment before replying. "Affirmative."
"Alan, you keep trying to raise them – any way you can think of. I want you to keep Brains, the yacht and me on your screens at all times. I want regular updates from all team members, and I want you to maintain an open channel with me."
"F.A.B., Dad," Alan replied, his voice sounding just that much stronger now that he had something helpful to do.
"I'll contact you from the plane. Base out."
It crossed Jeff's mind as he ran into the elevator that he was acting the exact same way he would've acted before the building fell on Virgil...before the building in Manhattan had fallen on him. It crossed his mind as he ran across Thunderbird 2's hangar that he hadn't shown a single sign of weakness and that despite the overwhelming odds against his sons' well-being, he was operating at full capacity and nowhere near a breakdown.
It crossed his mind as he hoisted himself up into the seaplane's cockpit that perhaps the Universe was using this as a means to put him back into where he was supposed to be in his life – in charge, in command...back into the Jeff Tracy he used to be.
As he started the seaplane's engines, he had to resist the urge to tell the Universe exactly what it could do with its plan.
"You're not taking my sons," he growled to the unseen enemy at hand. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"What the hell?" Virgil shook the cobwebs from his brain as he rose from the cockpit floor to look around. Adi and Ned were unconscious in their chairs. Alan was sitting in Thunderbird Two's pilot chair, slumped over the control panel. Virgil frowned. Alan? What was he doing there?
He ran back to the sick bay and found Scott unconscious in the bed he'd been strapped to, with John half-covering him and unconscious as well. He could feel that Thunderbird Two was bobbing on the ocean waves, so he knew they'd hit. He went back to the cockpit, staring at his youngest brother hunched over the steering yoke.
"Alan wasn't here. Why is he in my chair? It doesn't make any sense!" With that, Virgil reached out to shake Alan awake.
His hand sailed right through him.
"No," Virgil breathed. "Oh, my God. I'm..." His eyes widened as he stumbled backwards...and right through Two's hull. He looked around and found himself standing on...on...the ocean. "My God, I'm...I'm dead!"
"I've got Four going fast as she can, Mr. Tracy, but I'm still approximately 5.4 hours from target."
"F.A.B., Tin-Tin. Alan, where's Grandma?"
"They're just under thirteen hours out, Father. Brains is ten minutes from landing at the Royal Australian Air Force Base in Townesville. He's in uniform and the RAAF has agreed to lend International Rescue a helijet."
"Good. Any luck with raising anyone on Two?"
"No, Father, and in fact...well, it's the strangest thing, and it may be nothing."
"In this situation, nothing's nothing, Alan. What is it?"
"Well, just as Thunderbird Two crashed, the radar seemed to skip. For just a flicker of an instant, part of the image winked out, and I thought I heard them."
"Them?"
"All of them, Dad. Scott, Virg, John, Gordo...all of them. But it came and went so fast it didn't really register until now."
"Well, run a diagnostic on the array but don't take it offline. I want every ear Five has tuned to that area."
"F.A.B. Thunderbird Five listening out."
Jeff's fingers tapped at the seaplane's steering yoke. At the speed everyone was going right now, he'd be the first on-scene. And that's exactly how he wanted it. If they hadn't made it...it had to be Jeff who discovered it for himself. His teeth ground together against the notion that they were gone...four of them couldn't be gone, just like that. They just couldn't.
He'd never quite believed in prayer. He'd never believed in a God or in the Masters Kyrano always spoke of. Be that as it may, as with most humans, in his time of need he prayed. Prayed to whatever entity or entities would listen. Prayed for the lives of those he loved more than anyone or anything else.
Please let them live.
Jeff stared out the cockpit window at the ocean stretching out to the horizon. I'll even close down International Rescue if it means I can have them back. Anything it takes.
Just the thought sent chills up his spine. But Jeff was determined. This whole association with International Rescue had killed so many people in New York. It had almost killed him and now...four of his five sons?
Anything it takes. Just please...please...don't let them be gone.
It seemed to Virgil that it had been so long since Two went down. Where was his father? Surely he knew they'd crashed.
He'd wandered through the cockpit and sickbay yelling, screaming...anything he could think of to try and wake the others, but it was no use. He couldn't touch anything. He couldn't figure out why he was able to stand and walk on the ocean and Thunderbird 2's floor, why they felt solid to him when he couldn't feel the bulkhead or his brothers.
He hovered near Scott and John, nervously chewing on his lip as the minutes ticked by, as the pod began to take on water. John obviously hadn't been able to release it from the magnetic seals before they'd crash-landed in the Pacific. They couldn't be that far from Base. What was taking so damn long?
He walked back out through the hull and looked at Two's tail. Sure enough, it was slowly sinking beneath the waves. His brothers, Ned and Adi were all unconscious. There was no help in sight, and Virgil was...he was...
"I can't be dead," he whispered, ripping the hat off his head. He wasn't surprised when it came to rest atop the ocean right next to him. "But if I'm not dead..." He shook his head. "There's no other explanation. I must be dead. I must have been killed."
But wait.
"If I was killed...wouldn't my body still be in Two? And where the hell did Alan come from? He's on Five."
He rose to his feet, again wandering into the cockpit. That's when he heard the communication. He looked around wildly, trying to determine the source of the voice. Then he saw the glow coming from Alan's arm.
"Yes!" he crowed, crouching down to peer into the watch. His eyes widened, for he didn't recognize the face looking back at him, nor the voice that accompanied it.
"Alan, come in! Alan, can you hear me? Come in!"
"Who the hell are you?" Virgil asked. The stranger didn't seem to have heard him any more than those nearby. He looked a little closer at the man's clothing. He was wearing...an International Rescue uniform. But it wasn't just any uniform. Virgil thumped backward onto the floor, unable to tear his eyes from the comm link.
"You're wearing my uniform," he breathed.
"Alan!" the voice tried again from the watch, more insistent this time. "Alan, come in! It's me, Ben! Come in, Alan! Come in!"
Virgil swallowed hard. "Ben?" Why did that name sound familiar somehow? He got on his hands and knees and scooted closer to Alan's hanging arm to better see the man's face.
His hair was a mixture of light brown and blonde. His skin was lighter than Virgil's, but still he looked tanned...almost like Gordon. His eyes looked to Virgil's artistic senses like light brown sugar crystallized. His face was very much the shape of John's with a longer nose and square chin.
"He looks like...like a Tracy," Virgil said aloud, though he knew no one would hear. "But I've never heard of a Be—" He stopped in mid-sentence, his mind racing.
Yes. He had heard of a Ben. But...
"That's impossible!" he cried, moving in for yet another look. "It...it can't be!"
The face disappeared from Alan's watch. Within seconds, he heard the voice coming again, this time from Gordon's arm. Virgil crawled over. "It can't be," he whispered.
"Gordon, come in! Gordon, this is Ben, do you read me? Do you read me?"
"I don't understand!" Virgil rose to his feet and rushed outside, shaking his fist at the heavens. "What's happening?" He looked around as though expecting something...a white light, a dark chasm...anything...to appear. But there was nothing but the light blue sky...the yellow sun...the azure waves...and Thunderbird Two bobbing next to him.
"I don't understand!" he cried. "Help me! Please! Somebody!"
Nothing.
"Anybody," he whispered. "Anybody..."
Jeff circled Thunderbird Two, unable to believe his eyes. He'd come across her pod first, over five miles back. Now he watched as the nose started coming up out of the water, her tail having sunk beneath the waves, weighing the ship down in the ocean. The wings were still sticking up above water, but not for much longer.
Not seeing signs of life anywhere outside Two, he guessed his sons were in the cockpit area, with Scott possibly in the sick bay considering the extent of his injuries as reported earlier by John. If that was the case, Scott had very little time left before the compartment filled with water.
Brains would be there soon with the helijet, but Jeff doubted whether Two would stay afloat long enough for there to still be a chance for those inside. He had little choice but to try and go after them himself.
"This is Seabird to all units. I have visual and am going to land to begin the search for survivors." Jeff swooped around one last time, checking his instruments as the plane skirted the relatively calm waters. "I need ETAs, now!"
"This is Brains," was the first reply. "ETA now .two minutes."
Tin-Tin was next. "Thunderbird 4 ETA .three hours."
"This is Tracy Six," came Ruth's voice. "Our ETA is ten hours, twelve minutes."
"F.A.B. on all counts. Alan, keep on an open line with my comm unit. Leaving Seabird now."
"F.A.B., Father." Alan's voice was tense. Hell, Jeff couldn't blame him – up there orbiting Earth able to do nothing more than talk into a microphone when so much was on the line so far beneath him. He was tense and he was right here in the middle of things.
But in the middle of what?
Jeff pulled his polo shirt off and removed his shoes and socks, leaving only his khaki shorts. He stood on the plane's pontoon, gauging that he had less than fifty feet to swim. Not far at all. He took a deep breath and dove in.
Virgil watched Seabird land, ecstatic to see the familiar plane, and even more ecstatic to see his father climb out of the cockpit.
"Father!" he cried, running across the ocean toward him. "Father!"
But as he came to a stop in front of him, he realized his father was looking right through him. As though...as though he weren't there.
"Dad?"
Tears sprang to Virgil's eyes. He thought maybe he was delusional...that maybe he'd been dreaming the whole thing, or that he was just somehow wrong about his current condition.
But as his father stripped off his clothing, he realized he hadn't been wrong about anything. Jeff couldn't see or hear him. He jumped back out of the way as his father dove into the water, chiding himself afterwards that he hadn't really needed to move at all.
Because technically, he wasn't there. He hadn't made it. The others were alive, and for that he was grateful. But he...he was a lost cause. He swiped an arm across his eyes and headed for Two. It may have been too late for him, but his brothers, Ned and Adi weren't dead yet.
Maybe if Jeff couldn't see or hear him, maybe he could somehow...sense him? Sense him...wait...Kyrano! Virgil wondered where Kyrano was. He thought for sure he'd be able to hear him. After all, he could do all these other supernatural-type things – he'd have to be able to hear Virgil. He'd have to! So...if he could stick around long enough to make it back home with everyone, maybe he'd get a chance to say something to them through the only hope he thought he had left – Kyrano.
But for now, he had to make sure Jeff got the others out alive. There would be time to mourn his loss later.
Jeff checked everyone's pulse, thanking the stars and heavens that all were strong and steady. It was nearly impossible to keep his footing as Two balanced nearly vertically, tipping from side to side as the waves hit her. He skidded down into the sick bay, relieved to find both Scott and John intact. But...where was Virgil?
"Alan."
"Yes, Father."
"Alan, I've accounted for Gordon, Ned, Adi, John and Scott. They're all alive, but unconscious." Jeff looked down at his feet. They were hidden up to his shins in water. "I'm getting John out first, then Scott. The sick bay's filling up. What's Brains' ETA?"
Alan's voice and face mirrored the relief Jeff heard in his own voice. "He's just now over you. I'll instruct him to lower the rescue cage."
"F.A.B."
"Dad? What about Virgil?"
"No visual yet, but I've got to get the others out of here now. Keep trying to locate his GPS signal."
"F.A.B.," Alan responded quietly.
Jeff bent down and struggled to hoist John up and over his shoulder. "Damn," he grunted. "Why did almost all of them have to be bigger than me?"
Just then, Thunderbird Two keeled to its right side, throwing Jeff off-balance. He and John slammed into the bulkhead just behind Scott's sick bed, but Jeff didn't lose his hold. "Oh, no, you don't," he growled. "Not when I'm right here to save them, you don't."
The sideways tilt afforded him better footholds, and Jeff made his way back to the top hatch within three minutes. There, hovering right next to the opening, was the rescue cage.
"Brains, I'm putting John in the cage now. Don't bring him up yet, I've got to get Scott out of there."
"F.A.B."
Jeff half-threw John across the small space and into the open-sided cage before disappearing back into the cockpit. He retraced his earlier steps back down into the sick bay and was horrified to see that the entire lower half of Scott's body was underwater.
"The water's coming in faster!" he yelled as he unstrapped Scott from the bed.
"Father, can you get them all out in time?" Alan asked, alarmed.
"I didn't come this far to fail," he replied, using the water's buoyancy to help get Scott over his shoulder. Sweat began to mingle with the water droplets on his face and body as he struggled to get Scott up to the hatch.
But their weight moving on that side of Thunderbird Two upset the balance and with a great groan, she tipped completely sideways, her right wing disappearing beneath the waves. She hesitated for a moment before rolling right over onto her top.
"Shit!" Jeff cried as he and Scott were thrown backwards. He looked up in time to see water rising fast in the cockpit now that the hatch was several inches underwater.
Thinking fast, Jeff hauled Scott to the cockpit and settled him on the bulkhead, leaning him up as best he could to keep his head above water. He jumped up, grabbing hold of the steering yoke and pulling himself up with all his might. He cursed himself for having let his health go after being rescued from Tracy Tower. Before that, he knew doing something similar to a chin-up would've been fairly easy. Now? It was all he could do to keep hold of the yoke, let alone get himself up to what was the cockpit floor.
At last he was able to swing his body up, his legs catching the chair Adi was hanging upside-down from, her long hair swaying gently as his movements shook her body. He blessed the strength of the straps holding them all in their chairs as he took a deep breath and let out a loud grunt, throwing his torso up to grab Ned's upper body. If he could just reach the manual release, get the floor hatch open...he could get them out through the nose.
"Father, Brains says you've flipped over! Are you okay?"
"Working...on it...Brains, get over the nose, I'm going to try and get it open."
"F.A.B."
Jeff reached out and grabbed hold of the latch, twisting his body to loosen it. To his relief, the hatch door fell away to the ceiling below, and Jeff just barely caught the edge of the opening. Two's rescue cage, thankfully, was still latched into place. Otherwise, he mused, he might've become hamburger if it'd fallen on him.
He allowed himself to fall to the ceiling, and surveyed the scene for options. He had to get them up into the compartment between the cockpit and the outside hatch, which was on the bottom of Two's nose. The cockpit had at least ten inches of water in it now and there was no telling how long their air bubble would last. He grabbed the hatch door and leaned it up against the side of Two's hull, giving him a sort of makeshift ramp. Though steep, it was all he had to try and get his boys and their passengers out of there alive.
He turned toward Scott, whose mouth and nose had slipped completely underwater.
"God! Scott!"
Virgil watched in disbelief as his father singlehandedly went about rescuing every single person aboard Thunderbird Two. He thought maybe he should be upset that his 'bird was about to become a new home for underwater life, but couldn't summon enough emotion about it to care at all. That surprised him, but then he supposed he was so worried about everyone that Thunderbird seemed inconsequential now.
If only he could help. Jeff looked exhausted, and he'd only just pulled Scott from underwater – Virgil got the idea that if his heart were still beating, it would've stopped when he'd seen Scott fall over. At that thought, he checked his pulse and was surprised to feel that he had one.
"How can I have a pulse if I'm dead?" he asked, though he knew he'd receive no answer. He watched as Jeff pulled first Gordon, then Adi and finally Ned up into the compartment now above them. But he was frustrated because he couldn't get up there to check on their progress once that feat had been accomplished. No matter what he tried, he could do nothing but walk horizontally into and out of Thunderbird Two.
"I wish I was up there to see what's happening," he said softly, straining to see up into the compartment.
Just like that, he found himself standing in...literally...his brothers. Gordon and Scott were piled atop each other, and his own legs went right through their bodies. For a split second it creeped him out, but he forgot about it, and even forgot to wonder how he'd gotten there at all, when he heard his father cry out.
"Dad?" he looked on helplessly as Jeff's face contorted in pain. The older man groaned and leaned back against the upside-down rescue cage as he lifted his foot up to rest against his knee. Virgil saw a large gash along his arch. Blood poured out of his foot, covering Ned's and Adi's legs. Jeff looked around, and grabbed at Gordon's sash. He pulled it away and wrapped it 'round and 'round his foot, stemming the flow of blood as much as he could.
Virgil looked down into the cockpit – only to find that he could no longer see it. The water was mere inches from the floor hatch now. His dad was running out of time.
And there wasn't a damn thing Virgil could do about it.
"Mr. Tracy, I-I'm bringing up the cage, it can't hold a-any more."
"Hurry, Brains. The water's almost here!"
"F.A.B."
Jeff watched as the water cleared the cockpit floor hatch and began rising, wetting the back of Scott's uniform. He could only stare for a few moments as horror set in. There wouldn't be time to get them both out. The water was coming up so fast, and Brains couldn't possibly get the cage unloaded and sent back down in time to pick both Gordon and Scott up.
He leaned down and hoisted Gordon up, pushing him through the hatch that led to open air. He shoved him over to the side of it just as the water rose to Scott's ears. He lifted Scott's top half out of the water, holding him close to his chest.
"Brains! I need the cage back down here now!"
There was no reply. Jeff knew his engineer was moving as fast as he could to get John, Ned and Adi out of the cage.
"Father, what's the situation?"
"It's not good, Alan. I've got Gordon up on the nose, and I'm about to get Scott up there, but we've got a good ten inches of water in here already."
"Brains!" he heard Alan cry into the comm system. "Brains, get that cage down there now! Now, Brains!"
Jeff summoned every last ounce of remaining strength and shoved Scott up toward the hatch. But Scott's larger frame was too much for what Jeff had left, and his arms gave out, both of them falling back between the rescue cage and the grabs, and through the next hatch into the cockpit below.
As they floated down toward the cockpit ceiling, neither of them moved.
Virgil's face was red, tears streaming down his face. "No! No, Father! Scott!" He couldn't get out of the damn compartment. "Dad! Scott!"
He ran outside and looked up. The rescue cage was still up in the helijet. He looked around wildly. "I could get where I wanted to before...how...how did I do it...?" He closed his eyes, trying desperately to remember. Then he opened his eyes...he knew.
"I wish I was down in the cockpit."
And just like that, there he was, standing on what had once been the ceiling of his beloved cockpit, but now served as a strange sort of concave floor. He was momentarily surprised that he could breathe, but then remembered why. Pushing that thought out of his mind, he stared ahead of him where both Scott and their father were floating unconscious.
"They're going to drown, they're going to drown!" he cried. "No! No, this can't be happening! Not them, too, not them, too! No!" Virgil ran up to Scott, knowing it wouldn't work, but unable to just stand by and watch his brother and father die.
"Scott!" he yelled. He took a deep breath. "SCOTT!" He watched his face intently. Had he just seen...no, it must be his imagination. "Scott! Wake up! Scott, come on, now! NOW!"
It wasn't his imagination.
Scott's eyes snapped open. He opened his mouth, but just as he might've actually taken a breath he realized he was underwater, clamped his mouth shut and looked around wildly. He felt Jeff's hand against his back and turned around, eyes widening. He grabbed his dad, then looked up, where he could see faint light through the water. Kicking wildly, he pulled them up and up.
"Yes!" Virgil cheered. "Yes, yes, yes! Go, Scott! Go, go!" He resisted the urge to sob, instead choking out, "I wish I were up on the nose!"
In the blink of an eye, he was there. He looked down just in time to see Scott's head pop into the few inches left in the compartment below. Scott gasped and coughed, choking on the water as he struggled to lift his dad's head above it.
The rescue cage lowered, startling Virgil as it came right down through his body. He cursed silently and stepped off to the side – had anyone been able to see him, he would've looked like he was standing out in thin air. Virgil watched intently as Scott pushed their dad up and out onto Two's nose, then hauled himself up as well. Scott took in the situation, evidently confused as to what exactly was happening. On hands and knees, he checked for Jeff's pulse.
Virgil knew by the look on his brother's face that there was none.
"No!" Scott cried, pumping furiously on his father's chest, stopping to puff air into his mouth. "Dad, no, come on – come on!"
The water rose.
Thunderbird 2 was nearly under.
Scott looked around wildly. He rose and grabbed Gordon, crying out in pain as his broken right arm snapped out of the splint Virgil had placed on it. A flash of white blinded him for a moment, but he fought to remain conscious. His vision cleared and he was able to unceremoniously dump Gordon into the rescue cage. He turned and grabbed his father, whose lips had started turning blue.
"Dad!" Scott cried, throwing him into the cage on top of Gordon. He winced as he crawled in next to them. "Bring us up!" he yelled into his watch. "Now!"
Scott continued CPR as best he could in the cramped quarters of the cage. But no matter how hard he pounded on his father's chest, no matter how big the breaths he puffed into his mouth, Jeff was not responding. It seemed like forever until the cage reached the helijet. Brains' worried face approached.
"Brains! Quickly, I can't resuscitate! He's dying, he's dying!"
Brains grabbed Jeff from Scott's arms and pulled him out into the floor of the helijet. "Are you well enough to fly?" he asked, grabbing an AED from under the seat upon which John had been laid.
Scott looked at his arm, hanging painfully at his side. Then he looked at everyone strewn around the helijet cabin. "Damn right I am," he ground out, grinding his teeth against the pain shooting through his body.
Brains pulled the AED patches out and placed them on Jeff's body. He watched the readout and his brow furrowed. He pressed a button and Jeff's body jumped off the floor as the machine sent a shock into his torso.
Still no pulse.
"Brains!" Scott cried as he took the helijet off auto-pilot. "Did you get him back?"
"Not yet! Just get us to Townesville, now!"
Scott threw the helijet into its highest gear. Through the haze of pain and confusion, he mentally replayed what he'd seen in the back. John was laid out on one row of seats. Ned Cook and his girlfriend where half-lying, half-propped into the other row of seats. Gordon was still in the rescue cage, and his father was...
Scott tried not to think about his father's current state. If anyone could revive him, Scott knew it was Brains. Suddenly his heart felt as though it, too, had stopped.
Someone was missing.
Oh, my God. Virgil!
He hadn't seen Virgil anywhere – not in the cockpit, not in the nose compartment, and not here on the helijet.
"Brains! Where's Virgil?"
"Not now, Scott!"
Scott heard the AED administer yet another shock.
"Goddammit, Brains, where is he?"
"Your father couldn't locate him!"
Couldn't...couldn't locate...?
The world suddenly seemed to stand still even though the helijet was moving rapidly through the sky toward its destination.
Couldn't locate him?
And that's when he realized there was a pain worse than that of his broken arm and whatever other bones he knew weren't quite together in his body.
He couldn't feel him. Like...like an appendage had been torn away. In an instant he knew...Virgil was no longer there. He fought the sob that caught in his throat, but it escaped all the same.
Virgil...oh, God...no.
It was all Scott could do to keep flying.
Virgil paced the floor, watching as Brains repeatedly shocked Jeff with the AED, repeatedly gave him mouth-to-mouth, repeatedly pounded on his chest. He couldn't believe what he was seeing – couldn't believe his father wasn't coming around.
He realized he'd never really contemplated his father's mortality. Sure, they'd all been worried when the tower had collapsed, but somehow Virgil had known their dad wasn't gone. It was as though...as though Jeff were superhuman somehow, invincible. Like...no matter how bad he got, no matter how much danger he was in or how sick he became, that he would never...could never...die.
He was their father. He was Jeff Tracy. He had always been there, and he always would be.
But as Virgil looked down at his father...a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach grew and grew until he was sure that it had completely eaten away his insides. He watched as Brains lowered his head, as tears splashed from his eyes onto Jeff's bare, unmoving chest. He watched as he removed the patches and slowly put the AED back together, closing the case and shoving it back under the row of seats beneath John's immobile form.
"No," Virgil breathed. "Brains, what are you doing? Don't give up! Don't give up, you can bring him back!" Virgil's voice rose in pitch, becoming hoarse as he fought emotions that raged to the surface. "Brains, don't stop, you can't stop, please! Please! Brains, no!"
Brains wiped his eyes and rose to his feet. He stole a look up at the cockpit to where Scott flew the helijet, his right arm dangling lifelessly at his side. Virgil figured Brains knew he should go up and take care of that arm – reset it, perhaps, and splint it before they reached the hospital.
But Brains merely leaned back against the helijet's bulkhead, tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"No!" Virgil sank to his knees beside his father's body. "Dad!"
Jeff didn't move.
Virgil bowed over him and let the tears come.
Scott was stiff and didn't say a word as doctors and nurses ran into and out of the helijet gathering the passengers one-by-one onto gurneys and spiriting them into the hospital's Emergency Room. He couldn't even respond when they were asking him his name.
He just didn't care anymore.
He'd seen his father rushed into emergency surgery – for what, he didn't know. He'd seen Adi regain consciousness and watched as Brains hovered over Ned and John, alternately. Gordon, it seemed, was fine, as he was left pretty much alone in another ER bay. Scott felt them cut away his uniform and set his arm. He let them lay him back in the bed and put the oxygen mask over his face. He stared at the bright fluorescent light above him, his eyes dry and unblinking.
The light filled his vision, penetrating his mind as though moving closer, becoming brighter.
Virgil...did you see the white light?
No. No, no, no, no.
Did you see it when it came for you?
"No," Scott whispered hoarsely.
A nearby nurse turned. "Did you say something? Can you tell us your name?"
"V...Virgil," Scott whispered, eyes fixed on the light.
Was it there for you, Virgil?
"Your name is Virgil?" Hearing her speak that name caused his eyes to dart away from the light and to her face. She asked again, "Virgil, that's you?"
"No," Scott shook his head, begging her with his eyes, silently begging her to bring him back...to do the impossible...find his brother out there in the vast ocean somewhere and rescue him, bring him back to life.
I couldn't save you, Virgil.
His face turned back up toward the light. He felt empty. Hollow.
Suddenly he wished the nurse would do something wrong. Something that would take him away. Take him to Virgil.
Would I see the light, too?
Scott's eyes finally closed.
Virgil! his mind cried out.
His voice seemed to rise from deep within, rumbling forth like a train out of control, bursting from his belly, his lungs, with such force it blew the oxygen mask off his face and scared the living shit out of everyone in the ER.
"NO!" he bellowed. "VIRGIL!"
Virgil watched as the doctors and nurses worked on everyone. He saw that Scott would be okay, as his arm and other broken bones were being tended to. Gordon seemed okay, they'd left him alone in one of the bays. John had a head wound and some sprains and breaks from what they said, and Brains was doing a good job trying to tell the staff what had happened and who these people were. He looked briefly over at Alan, who was just starting to awaken, and wondered again how the hell Alan had gotten into the pilot's chair of Thunderbird 2 to begin with.
He was distracted from that thought as the gurney carrying his father was wheeled into the ER. Virgil watched, emotionless, as a team tried to restart Jeff's heart, tried getting him to breathe. Needles and paddles, pounding and puffing. But nothing worked. Virgil knew he, too, was dead, but couldn't keep that from making his heart ache as though he were as alive as the others and trying to handle the loss of their father.
He was glad Brains hadn't yet told anyone. It would tear Scott to pieces most of all, he guessed. What with the two main Thunderbirds completely destroyed, International Rescue would've been out of commission for a long time before they'd been able to rebuild them. But now? With Virgil and Jeff both gone? There's no way it would go on. No way.
But wait...if Dad's dead, too...shouldn't I be able to see him? Wouldn't he be here?
That thought brought something else to mind that had been bothering him, but that he hadn't yet had the chance to contemplate.
Where was my body?
"Excuse me, sir." Virgil looked up as a nurse approached Brains. "I have someone named Ben on the line. He says he's with International Rescue as well." Brains nodded and followed the nurse back to her station. He picked up the receiver and spoke as Virgil approached.
"Ben," he said softly, his voice hoarse. He listened. "We've accounted for everyone, yes."
"What?" Virgil asked incredulously. "What do you mean, you've accounted for everyone?"
"Yes, your father was able to rescue everyone, but something happened, I—I haven't had a chance to talk to Scott yet."
"No, he didn't rescue everyone!" Virgil practically yelled. "He didn't rescue me! I was already dead!"
"He's gone, Ben. I...we couldn't save him."
Virgil watched as Brains bowed his head, evidently listening to whatever this Ben person was saying.
"Wait...did you call him 'your' father?" Virgil practically squeaked. "How could...oh, God, it's true." Virgil's mind reeled as his earlier thoughts about the identity of the mysterious Ben came back to him. And now Brains had called Jeff Ben's father.
That still didn't explain why nobody was talking about him being missing. Why didn't Brains know his body hadn't been found? Maybe he just didn't want to tell Ben about both of them?
Ben...this doesn't make any damn sense.
Virgil wished to hell he could find someone...anyone...he could ask what the fuck was going on.
"First I wake up to find out I'm dead. With no body in sight. Then I find Alan in my chair when I know damn well he's on Five." Virgil paced back and forth, not even noticing he was walking through both people and things. His voice escalated with each sentence spoken.
"Then somebody who looks like he's related to us tries calling Gordon and Alan on their comms. Then Father...dies...trying to save everybody else, and nobody seems to notice I'm missing!"
"Okay, Ben." Brains nodded tiredly. "Yes, I wish you could be here, too. I'll keep you updated. And...I'm sorry, Ben."
"This is ridiculous!" Virgil yelled as Brains hung up the phone. "What in the hell is going on? Ben doesn't exist!" He waved his arms in front of Brains' face but there was no acknowledgement. "He died when he was born!" Virgil fairly screamed. "He shouldn't be here!"
Virgil deflated, sinking to the floor as two doctors walked right through him. "He shouldn't be here," he whispered looking around like a small, lost child. "I should." He watched as Scott was given painkillers and lost consciousness, as Alan was told of their father's death, as John's ribs were bandaged.
"Why doesn't anyone realize I'm gone?"
"What should we do, Penelope?"
"Tin-Tin, seeing how Brains and Jeff were able to get everyone out of Thunderbird 2 but Virgil, I suggest we do two things. You scour the ocean, see if you can locate him. We'll look topside here. Parker and I will also check the pod to see if perhaps he is in or around that vicinity."
"You don't...oh, Penny, you don't think he's...I mean..."
"Of course not, dear. Virgil's got a good head on him. I'm certain he's holed-up somewhere safe and sound. But I want you to search, just to be on the safe side."
"F.A.B., Penelope," Tin-Tin replied, though she didn't sound like she believed the words any more than Penny herself did.
Penelope turned to find Parker just returning with his dive suit already on, and a second in hand for her. "Now, Mrs. Tracy, I need for you to keep your eyes on this screen right here. It's a heat sensor and will alert you to any warm-blooded activity within twenty miles of our present location. Please contact me immediately if you see anything at all."
"Will do, Penelope. Say, where did Kyrano go?"
"I don't know," Penny replied.
At that moment, Kyrano walked into the bridge, his face ashen, his mouth hanging half open.
"Kyrano?" Ruth frowned, rushing to her friend's side. "What is it? What's happened?"
"Virgil," Kyrano breathed. "I...I do not know."
"Oh, no!" Ruth cried, tears coming to her eyes. "He's not...?"
"No, Mrs. Tracy," Kyrano said softly, looking into her eyes. "I cannot...he is simply...gone."
"Gone?" Ruth repeated.
Kyrano nodded. "It is very odd."
Not dead but gone? Penelope frowned. That made no sense at all. As far as she was concerned, Kyrano, though dear and kind, was himself quite odd, and she wasn't about to forecast a conclusion before she had cold, hard facts as to Virgil's whereabouts.
"We're going in," she said brusquely, taking the wetsuit from Parker's hands, refusing to listen to one more thing about Virgil being dead. Or gone. "Mrs. Tracy, keep watch on that monitor."
"I will," Ruth replied, but her eyes were trained on Kyrano. He looked at her before moving to a nearby seat and sinking into it. "Kyrano?"
"Odd..." Kyrano mumbled, closing his eyes. "So odd..."
Virgil started. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, but it felt like forever. The ER was still bright, but as he looked around, he didn't see his family anywhere. He wandered around, trying to listen in on conversation. Eventually he overheard a nurse talking about "the hot International Rescue guy" she'd just taken dinner to. He rolled his eyes and said, "I wish I were with Scott right now."
He blinked and there he was, standing in a hospital room where Scott was sitting up in bed with a tray of food before him. Virgil frowned as he got a really good look at his brother for the first time since waking.
Something didn't seem quite right. Other than the fact that he had some broken bones. Scott seemed gaunt. His cheeks weren't full and healthy, they were hollow. His eyes seemed sunken. Of course, Virgil mused as he moved closer to the bed, that could perhaps be the result of what had just happened to them. He also presumed Scott was keeping any emotions he had about things bottled up, which always gave him that look of a hunted wolf anyway.
But no...there was something else. What was it? He just couldn't put his finger on it.
Scott fell back into the bed with a thud. Virgil towered over him. His eyes...they were so dead. So sad. Scott seemed like just a shell of a man...much like their father had become after freezing when he'd been caught under the federal building in Orlando.
He just didn't look the same.
Virgil was startled when Scott spoke. "Well, Dad, maybe you're finally getting to meet my little brother."
Little brother? What was Scott talking about?
"Say hi to Mom, Father," Scott whispered as his eyes closed. "And...to Virgil."
to Part V:
Justification >>
