STEAL YOUR HEART64

By JEN

STEAL YOUR HEART

CHAPTER 64

Nikolas, or the boy who *looked* like Nikolas, stared back at Jax unflinchingly. Smoke began to seep through the bottom of the door. Jax covered Lucas’s face and took the teenaged boy’s arm. “You have to come with us,” Jax said.

The teenager hesitated. “I shouldn’t do that. It’s forbidden, actually,” he said.

Jax gave him a perplexed look. “What’s forbidden?”

“My leaving here,” he explained. “I shouldn’t even have left the room – just those pesky self-preservation skills of mine kicking in, I suppose. But still . . .I shouldn’t have left the room. It was like breaking the most sacred of commandments.”

Everything about him was exactly like Nikolas. Everything except his voice. He had a smooth, very cultured speaking voice that was very familiar to Jax, although he could not for the life of him place why.

“What room are you talking about ?” Jax asked.

“The secret room. The one under the lab. The one where the fire started. You do know that the fire was deliberate, don’t you?”

“An attempt to kill you?”

“Among other things,” the boy said with a shrug.

“Well who set the fire?”

“Mikos.”

“No that’s impossible. He was tied up. Tied up *and* wounded - unable to use his hands.”

“Nothing is impossible.”

A fireball burst up the stairs and the door was blasted open. Lucas began to sob. Jax grabbed the teenager more forcefully. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I assume that you want to live, right? So kick those self-preservation skills of yours back up into high gear and let’s go,” Jax said taking Lucas and heading to the tower opening that led to the roof.

The teenager hesitated only for a second before following. He was going to do it. He was going to be free of this place. To hell with all the mind boggling ramifications that would go along with it - all he knew right now was that to live he would have to go with Jax. And he wanted to live.

Jax got Lucas up onto the roof and then reached to help the Nikolas look-alike , but the agile boy needed no assistance as he easily got up. Jax followed behind him and was relieved to see the helicopter hovering above.

“There he is!” Jerry said. “Lower it. Come on, lets go!”

The pilot lowered the chopper. The teenaged boy melted into the shadows on the roof, although Jax was aware of exactly where he was.

“Jax, are you okay?” Jerry yelled as Jax handed him Lucas to put in the chopper.

Jax nodded. “Is Brenda okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’s fine. Frantic about you, though. Come on, get in.”

“Take Lucas down first,” Jax instructed.

“Jax, are you nuts? This whole place is gonna blow!” Jerry reminded him. “Besides Brenda will kill me if I come down without you.”

“Jerry, just do it, okay? Tell Brenda that I’m fine and for her not to worry, and then come back up here. *Alone*,” he said giving Jerry a ‘trust me and do this’ look.

Jerry didn’t ask any questions but only nodded and made a motion for the pilot to take the helicopter down.

The boy who looked like Nikolas emerged from the safety of the shadows.

“Who are you?” Jax asked him.

“Is your brother coming back?” the boy asked, ignoring Jax’s question.

“Yes. You know my brother?”

“I know *about* him,” the boy said with a shrug. “I know about all of you. Why didn’t you go with him? He was right you know – this entire complex is going to explode.”

“If you know that then why did you hide? Do you have some sort of death wish?”

“I do not.”

“And yet you wouldn’t have gone with us in the helicopter, would you?”

“How do you know that?”

“You slipped into the shadows so fast it was obvious you didn’t want anyone to see you. Now, do you mind telling me who you are? I suppose we can dispense with the obvious -- you’re not Nikolas, are you?”

“No.”

“A twin?”

“Nikolas doesn’t have a twin.”

“Maybe not one that he knows of. But you look exactly like him.”

The teenager shrugged. “There are reasons for that.”

Jax gave the boy a probing gaze. “Reasons other than the normal genetic ones?”

The kid just smiled.

“What’s your name?” Jax asked him.

“You can call me Seven.”

“Seven? Like the number seven?”

“I am number seven.”

Jax shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Nikolas-7. The seventh.”

Jax gazed at the boy for a long moment. “The seventh *what?*” he asked slowly.

“The seventh Nikolas. Come on, Jax. You know what I’m getting at.”

Jax rubbed his jaw slowly. “Meaning there were six before you?” he said.

“Correct. None of which survived.”

“Survived what?”

“Existence.”

Jax shook his head “Are you enjoying this little fantasy your spinning? And who gave you the script, Mikos or Tony? Or maybe it was Stefan?”

“Fantasies are for children. I am not a child. And I don’t find it necessary to lie to you,” the boy revealed. Again his voice was strangely familiar.

“Oh really. Is that a fact?” Jax said skeptically.

“It is a fact.”

“I’m not much in the mood for games, you know. I think you’d just better tell me who the hell you really are,” Jax said.

“Well . . . I suppose you could say that I *am* Nikolas, but I’m *not* Nikolas. You understand that, don’t you? It’s a statement that contradicts itself, and yet it’s perfectly true. You know exactly what I mean, Jax, I know you do. You’re just having some difficulty wrapping your mind around the concept. Now my question to you is, are you going to tell anyone?”

# # #

A helicopter came back up on the roof carrying Jerry alone. Jerry landed it and raced over to where he saw his brother and another figure.

“All right, Jax, can we get the hell out of here now?” Upon seeing the Nikolas double Jerry stopped in his tracks. “Oh christ,” he said in a stunned voice. “You mean the little squirt was tellin’ the truth?” he said referring to Lucas, who had been babbling on about two Nikolas’.

“It gets wilder,” Jax assured him. “This kid’s name is Seven, as in the number seven. The seventh of seven. He says he’s not a twin, Jer.”

Jerry gazed at the teenager with great scrutiny but saw no signs of facial plastic surgery or any other kinds of surgical alterations which could have given him a face so identical to that of the young Cassadine heir. “Of course he’s a twin,” Jerry decided. “He looks just like the Cassadine kid. Right down to the mole. He’s got a better haircut though. And he’s in better shape.”

“I don’t think they’re twins, Jerry,” Jax repeated. “I think . . .this kid is what Mikos and Tony were hiding in the secret room.”

“Says who?” Jerry asked as they all headed towards the chopper. “*Him?* You’re gonna believe some Cassadine, Jax? You know that lying comes as easily to them as breathing.”

“I don’t think he’s lying . . .about this,” Jax said.

“About what?” Jerry asked, catching Jax’s drift and not believing that his brother was buying into this bizarre nonsense.

“About who he is, Jerry. About *what* he is and how he came to *be.*”

“Oh for christ’s sake, Jax, I don’t want to hear any of this mumbo jumbo now. You know you’ve been hanging around that guy Mulder too damn much because you’re starting to sound as off the wall as he usually does,” Jerry muttered as they all got into the helicopter.

“I can’t be seen,” Nikolas -7 said quietly but with absolute seriousness.

“You won’t be,” Jax promised him. “Yet anyway.” Then he turned to Jerry. “Jer, I’m taking off with this chopper. I’m going back to my house. You go get Brenda and Kieren and bring them there. And tell Brenda to call her father and make sure he comes there too. If anyone can confirm or deny this, it’s Victor Collins. Oh, and don’t tell any of the WSB guys about this yet.”

Jerry gave Jax an incredulous look. “Jax, will you stop this insanity? First of all there’s no way in bloody hell that I’m going to go back down there to Brenda without you again! That woman is fit to be tied and I’m not about to have her taking out her aggression on *me.* And second of all, this boy is not a man made invention, for god’s sake! He’s just little Nikky Cassadine’s evil twin or something -- the inferior kid that they kept hidden in

the basement because he was an embarrassment to all that is Cassadine.”

Jax rose an eyebrow. “He doesn’t look inferior to me,” he pointed out. And it was true. In fact, if the boys were twins, it would seem that the rebellious, not-always-loyal Nikolas would be the one the Cassadines would have locked away in a basement.

“This is not science fiction!” Jerry said in frustration.

“Jerry, this is the *Cassadines* we’re talking about here. The people who created a weather machine from a diamond. A weather machine that could have destroyed the whole world, I might add. These are the people who managed to come back to life after being frozen to death by their own machine . . . I’m not making any of this up. You know it all happened.”

“No, I know no such thing. We just all *assumed* they were frozen to death,” Jerry reminded him, “no one ever really knew what happened to them, Jax. Obviously they didn’t die . . . until tonight.”

“Robert was *there*,” Jax reminded him. “Robert knew they were dead. He saw them. So did Luke Spencer. I mean how exactly does one survive that kind of deep freeze, Jerry? You tell me? Is it possible?”

Jerry had no answer.

“But they did survive, somehow,” Jax continued. “You know why? Because these maniacs have the technology, Jerry. They have the mad science to do these kinds of things that you call science fiction. And if they can do that then I sure as hell wouldn’t put cloning past them.”

“Yeah maybe cloning monkeys, or lizards or cockroaches or sheep or something, but . . . *human* cloning? I just don’t buy that. It can’t be done, Jax,” Jerry continued to be skeptical. “Especially not so perfectly like this,” Jerry insisted, as he gazed at the boy called Seven.

“Well if he’s the seventh attempt then it obviously took them a while to perfect it.”

“Jax,” Jerry groaned, shaking his head, not wanting to even think that any of this could be the truth.

“Don’t you want to know, Jerry? If this is possible? If this is true? Look, I’m sure my father-in-law will be able to confirm or deny this for us if he can get a look at this kid. This kind of science that pushes the limits is his forte. I’ll see you back at the house,” Jax said as he hovered the chopper low enough so that Jerry could get out.

“You can’t fly this home, Jax. Are you aware that your damned head is bleeding?” Jerry snapped.

“It’s just a little concussion,” Jax said.

“I’m not going to let you maneuver a helicopter in these winds with a ‘little concussion’” Jerry informed him.

“I can fly it,” Nikolas-7 said.

“Oh, right. You, a 17 year old kid, knows how to fly a high tech covert unit chopper?” Jerry said sarcastically.

“Yes, I do,” the boy said calmly, and making it impossible to disbelieve him.

Jerry stood there for a moment, gazing at his brother and then at the dark haired boy. He looked perfectly human. Well . . .maybe except for his eyes. There was something very detached and deliberate about them. Almost like they were devoid of conscience or deliberately chose to blur the lines between right and wrong. Whatever it was, it unnerved Jerry a bit.

“You watch your back with him,” Jerry said softly to Jax as Jax handed the flight controls off to the teenager.

Jax nodded. “I intend to. Just get Brenda and Kieren and meet me at the house,” Jax said as the chopper took off.

# # #

Jerry had a throbbing headache by the time he and Brenda, Kieren, Victor and Veronica got to the house. Brenda had given him a hot-tempered earful about letting Jax take off like that, and then she had begun to grill Jerry about what Jax was up to and why he wanted her father to be at the house.

“I would love to explain it to you, Brenda, but seeing is believing,” Jerry said as they headed up the walkway.

“Seeing what?” Victor asked. “Is this something that Jax found at Wyndamere?”

“You could say that,” Jerry said.

“Something besides the metal briefcase we found?” Kieren asked.

Jerry looked at him and nodded. “Oh yeah,” he said as they all went inside.

Jax was coming out of the kitchen when he saw everyone. But the only one he really saw was Brenda.

He smiled when he saw her and the minute she saw him she flew over to him, throwing her arms around him as he lifted her up off the floor and held her close to him.

“Jax! Oh thank god! Are you really okay?” Brenda asked, touching him everywhere. “Everyone kept coming out of Wyndamere except you and then I saw that whole place go up in flames and I just. ..I just . . .”

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby. I’m okay,” he promised her, giving her a kiss. “I’m just so happy *you’re* okay,” he said touching her as if she were made of glass. “When I was locked in that basement, I was really scared that you didn’t make it out of the house.” Then his hands roamed to her stomach. “And our little Jaxxy is okay too, right?”

“Yes,” she said, laughing and holding him tighter. And then all at once she slugged Jax in the shoulder. Hard.

“Ow!” he said not expecting that punch after the warm, loving, happy greeting they had just shared.

“Why did you leave like that?!” Brenda demanded, hands on hips. “Taking off in that helicopter with me not knowing if you were dead or alive!”

“Well Bren, come on, sweetie. *Obviously* you knew I had to be alive if . . .”

“And then you just send Jerry to tell me that you would meet us back here,” she continued, ignoring his interruption. “Didn’t you know how worried about you I was?! I was going out of my mind, Jax. I wanted to *see* you -- to know you were okay! I nearly killed your brother when he gave me your message.”

“Yeah, I can vouch for that,” Jerry said, rubbing his jaw, which Jax was shocked to see looked as if he had been slugged. Had Brenda done that? Jax’s aquamarine eyes widened in shock and he struggled not to laugh.

“Oh Bren, I’m so sorry,” Jax apologized to Brenda. “I had to get something off of the property immediately and I just reacted. I saw you from the roof so I knew you were okay and I thought Jerry would be able to convey to you that I was perfectly okay, but I should have seen you first – you’re absolutely right about that. I should have let you see me so you wouldn’t have been so worried.”

“Yes you should have,” she agreed, arms crossed.

He took one of her hands and kissed it. Soft warm lips tingling her skin delightfully. “Forgive me?” he asked softly.

“Always,” she said, kissing him. Their lips were intimately connected for quite a long moment during which they forgot they were not alone in the room.

“Oh come on, break it up you two,” Jerry muttered, wondering where Jax was keeping the Nikolas look alike.

Brenda gave Jax one more quick kiss and then she was flashing those adorable dimples at him as a smile lit up her face. “Jax, you would have been *so* proud of me! I found Nikolas and we got out of there and went and got the agents just like you said. I talked to them on that watch phone thing and they tried to blow me off, you know? To tell me that I was unauthorized to use this frequency,” she said mimicking the agent’s gruff tone. “But I told

him where he could stick his authorization.”

“Yeah, she was great,” Kieren said with a grin as he gave Jax a hug. “She had practically the whole agency there, and the director was looking all over for you, by the way. You’re going to have a lot of explaining to do to him, Jax. I mean you took off in an agency owned helicopter without saying so much as a world to anybody. You know he’s going to figure out that something is most definitely up. I’m glad to see you in one piece though,

partner.”

“Yeah I got lucky,” Jax murmured, thinking that if Nikolas-7 had not been in that house, the chances of Jax making it to the roof in his dizzy condition, would not have been very good at all.

“We’re so very glad that you’re all right, Jax,” Veronica said. “When we heard about the fire on the news, and that you were trapped inside with a little boy, we were in such a state!”

“So, do you think Mikos and Tony escaped this one?” Kieren asked, taking off his coat and the jacket of his prince charming outfit. He was glad this Halloween thing was over.

“I would have to say no,” Jax said. “But then again, after you see what I found in Wyndamere, you may think them capable of *anything.* Including escaping an inferno.”

Victor was bubbling over with curiosity now. “What the devil did you find, lad? I’m jumping out of my skin here!”

Ha, he thought he was jumping out of his skin *now*? Jax thought.

“You’ve certainly got us beyond the point of mere curiosity now, Jax,” Veronica added.

“Yeah, Jax, what is it?” Brenda asked, getting a little concerned.

“First, tell me something. Did you guys see Nikolas Cassadine when you were leaving the island?” Jax asked, setting them up for what they were about to see.

“Yes,” Brenda said. “He was fine.”

“Stefan was doting all over him,” Kieren added. “They were being grilled by Mac about the fire when we were leaving.”

“So then it would be impossible for Nikolas Cassadine to be in this house right now, wouldn’t it?” Jax said next.

“Yes, Jax. Impossible, unless the boy sprouted wings and flew,” Victor agreed, not seeing the point to this conversation. “Now are the riddles over? Show us what you found, son.”

“Okay. Follow me,” Jax said, taking Brenda’s hand, while everyone else followed them into the kitchen . . .

###

The WSB Director surveyed the damage to Wyndamere and was convinced that nothing within those walls could possibly have survived such an inferno. Not Mikos, not Tony and not whatever they were trying so desperately to hide in there.

Port Charles police commissioner Mac Scorpio came to the same conclusion as his one-time boss.

“So it looks like the Cassadine secrets went up in flames with them,” Mac said to the director.

“So it would appear,” the director agreed.

“Of course appearances can be deceiving,” Mac added as he gazed at the curious looking metal briefcase that the director held in his hand. Mac had seen Jerry hand it off to him earlier. What was it? “Like I said appearances can be deceiving," Mac repeated, getting back on his train of thought. "For instance I find it pretty curious that Jax is nowhere to be found right now. And coincidentally his brother and ex-partner are not here either.

You’d think they’d want to stick around to go through the ruins, question Stefan or Alexis, find out how this fire started, locate this bomb they claim was in the house . . .”

“Obviously they had something more urgent to attend to,” the director said.

“Obviously,” Mac agreed. “But knowing those three -- well let’s just say I’d want to know what the hell they were up to if I were you.”

The director gave Mac an unreadable gaze. “Well you are not me, Scorpio,” the director pointed out. “And you weren’t a very good agent when you were under my either.”

Mac gave him a sarcastic glower. “Yeah well you always did have a preference for renegade agents who walk the fine line instead of agents like me who went by the book!” Mac muttered as he left to confer with the fire chief.

The director turned to Agent O’Connell. “Have you confirmed that this fire was started intentionally?” the director asked.

“Yes sir. It was. There are traces of accelerant all over a room that we think must have been the lab.”

“Did you find any bodies?”

“The heat was too intense. Anything inside would have been turned to ash.”

“The Cassadines were trying to destroy something inside of that house,” The director murmured. “Something they were willing to commit suicide in order to keep secret.”

“Well I’d say they were successful,” O’Connell said gazing at the devastation that lay all around them and the still smoking house which had just barely escaped complete explosion.

“Not necessarily. Come with me. We’re going to pay code name Wylie Coyote a surprise visit,” the director decided as he turned up the collar of his dark trench coat and began to head towards a waiting helicopter with O’Connell following.

O’Connell got on his walkie talkie. “Tiburon, you’re in charge. The director and I are en route to Jax’s place.”

The director took the walkie talkie from O’Connell and spoke into it. “And you are to tell no one where we’ve gone, Tiburon,” the director instructed him. “Neither are you to alert Jax that we’re on our way.”

“Yes sir. What do you want us to do here?” came the voice over the walkie talkie.

“Keep an eye on all of the Cassadines. I want to see their next move. Stefan seems mighty nervous to me and I wonder why. And alert me immediately if Helena Cassadine makes an appearance.”

The director clicked off the walkie talkie, handed it back to O’Connell and stepped into the helicopter.

As Nikolas walked around looking in stunned sadness at the ruins of Wyndamere, Stefan and Alexis were huddled together talking in hushed urgent whispers, wary of the nearby WSB operatives lurking about.

“They found no bodies,” Alexis whispered.

“Yes I know, but did you notice that we never saw Jax? When Jerry came down from the roof he had Lucas Jones. And the second time Jerry came down, he was alone and the helicopter took off.”

“You think Jax was in it alone?"

“That’s the problem,” Stefan said, his eyes deeply agitated. “I do not think he was alone...”

Alexis gasped. “You don’t mean . . .no, that’s not possible. He couldn’t have survived.”

“Couldn’t he?”

“No, Stefan! He would *never* leave the room. Even if it were burning to the ground, he wouldn’t leave it. He would stay there and perish the way he was taught to.”

“How do we know Alexis?!” Stefan hissed. “We never tested him with such an emergency. How do we know that his will for self-preservation did not supersede his usual obedience to my father’s commands?”

“Stefan, you had better hope you are wrong,” Alexis said feeling increasingly agitated. “If he’s with Jax then . . .oh my god . . .”

“I don’t even want to think about that!” Stefan snapped. “The seventh knows everything, Alexis. *Everything* And if he isn’t loyal to us then we are all in serious trouble.”

“What can we do?” Alexis asked. “Should we call Helena and tell her about this?”

“I already know what she’s going to say. It’s the same thing I would say in this kind of a powder keg situation,” Stefan said quietly “He has to be destroyed before he destroys us.”

“Well first we have to assume he is even alive to be able to destroy us. And then we have to assume that he’s with Jax. We don't know if either of these things are even fact.”

“Well you are to assume both,” Stefan ordered her. “I have to stay with Nikolas. This entire night has devastated him and he is questioning this family more than ever. I;ve never seen him like this and I have to reassure him and reign him back in. You go to Jax and Brenda’s house and see if they have something that belongs to us.”

Alexis glared at her half-brother. “And what do you expect me to do, just walk up to the front door and ring the bell? And then what? Do I say, ‘good evening, sorry to bother you guys so late after you were nearly killed at the hands of my father, but could you please kindly return our clone to us?’ ”

Suddenly Stefan and Alexis both felt a hand clamp on their shoulders.

“Mr. Cassadine, this party of yours was an unmitigated disaster!” Edward Quatermaine told him. “And I will be sure to recommend that the hospital never hold a function anywhere near you godforsaken people again. We were all nearly blwon up to death by a bomb . . .”

“That bomb thing was just a rumor,” Stefan siad quickly,. ‘There was no bomb found on this propery.”

“*Yet*,” a passing by WSB operative said to Stefan.

Stefan felt a trickle of fear but covered it well as he tried to ignore the agents, police, FBI and firemen crawling all over the property looking for eveidence of a bomb and anything else they could use against the family.

Edward was still fuming at Stefan. “And then we nearly all burn to death in that fire hazard of a tomb you call a house!” Edward sputtered. “That poor little Jones boy nearly lost his life, not to mention Jax, devious corporate cut throat that he is, I happen to be very fond of him. And he was almost killed in your creepy mausoleum while his distraught, pregnant wife was in a panic never knowing if she would ever see him again. This whole town

should file a class action suit against you people for undue duress!”

“Edward, we’re so, *so* sorry about this,” Alexis said to him. “But you have to know that none of this was our doing. We were in as much danger as anyone else was tonight. It was just a series of terrible things going wrong and culminating in this horrible fire.”

“Grandfather, let’s go,” Ned called. “We want to go check on Jax and Brenda on our way home.”

Thinking fast Alexis took Edward’s hand. “I feel so *awful* for what Jax had to endure here tonight. And poor Brenda not knowing if he was dead or alive for those tense moments. And it was really Jax, his brother, and Brenda’s brother who just about saved everyone by getting us all out of the house. I really want to personally thank him. You know, I never did see Jax come out after all the chaos ensuing during the initial explosion.”

“Well you can rest assured that you won’t find his charred carcass in that mess. He’s fine. We got a chance to speak to Brenda before she left and she assured us that Jax had indeed come out of that unholy Armageddon. His brother saw him.”

“Oh, I’m so glad. Would you mind if I went along with you all to give Jax and his family my deepest apologies for the disaster that occurred here tonight?” Alexis requested. “I feel that we owe him so much. I don’t even know where to start.”

Edward patted her hand. “Of course my dear. You’re welcome to come with us to make your apologies. *You* however, are persona non grata, you blonde blood sucker!” Edward barked at Stefan. “Why, I’ll bet you’re not even sorry about any of this! First you allow that deviant hoodlum and my half-brain criminal grandson access to this party, and from there it all went to hell in a hand basket! And another thing...” Edward blustered.

“Grandfather, let’s go!” Ned pleaded as he took a shaken Lois and led her to the ferry that would carry them all away from the island. The smell of smoke that pervaded the island was sickening.

Alexis followed behind them, turning once to make eye contact with Stefan.

“Just let me know if he’s there,” Stefan said to her. “I will take care of the rest.”

Nikolas walked up behind his uncle, looking very troubled. “You’ll take care of the rest of what?” Nikolas demanded. He looked beyond frustrated. “Stop keeping secrets from me! I'm so sick of this! I want to know what the hell is going on here, uncle!”

Jen

IRFC

JJGA

J&B Angel

"One of the grandest romances this canvas has ever had" - Robert Guza, Jr.