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Edward had to pound on the door to the adjoining rooms three times before it was opened. Maria was standing there, looking slightly alarmed. He couldn't help but notice that her robe was askew, and that she showed a remarkably well preserved body underneath. He pulled his eyes front and center.

"What's wrong?" he asked hurriedly.

"It's Alexei. I'd say the transformation is taking a hold of him now. I remember the pain of my first time."

Maggie pushed past the adults and into the rooms. "Close the door! He's already loud enough to be heard from the outside. We don't need people coming to investigate if we can help it."

The older woman sniffed the air a moment. "Did the noise break you away from something?" She was trying to be polite.

"Nah. We were finished, though I may need to hit the bathroom again. Housekeeping will have a hell of a time getting the; well, cleaning the rug."

Her great aunt rolled her eyes.

Maggie went to her great uncle. Sweat was beading up on his brow. "No fun, is it?"

He managed a weak smile. "No, no it is not. I don't think all the vodka in Siberia would alleviate the pain. Had I known what I was avoiding, I might have thought better of this."

"I lost my mother while I was undergoing mine. Sadly, I was in a hospital because my father thought that I was sick. Mother knew better, but she complied with his wishes. Things got ugly and I ended up in the foster care program."

"Gregori told me there would be pain, but I have never felt anything so severe in all my life." He paused to grimace before continuing. "It feels like my body is trying to tear itself apart."

"It does. I think you may have it worse than I did. Your body has been stuck in this exact form for a long time. It's probably like trying to wake a dragon from its slumber." She slipped off her ring and slid it over a free finger. "Here, add this to the others. I don't know if it'll help with the pain, but it should give your body the ability to complete the change."

He shifted on the sofa, groaning as he did. "Thank you little one. I am not used to kindness. So thank you from the bottom of my heart."

She kissed his head. "Anything for family uncle."

Edward smiled down at her. "You have a good heart Mags."

She whipped around. "And you own it now, so don't misuse it."

He picked her up and squeezed her until she thought the rest of his, uhm; fluids were going to come out in a rush. "Not in a million years."

They ordered coffee and several bottles of Fernet Branca to accompany it. The cart arrived, and the portinaio began pouring when he noticed Alexei.

"Signore, Il ragazzo malato?"

"Yes, but he'll be fine," Edward answered.

"E 'contagiosa?" he asked, backing up in alarm.

"No!" Edward assured him with a laugh. "Il ragazzo è malato di malaria."

The man remembered his English. "I'm so sorry sir. If you need a doctor, we can call one at any hour."

"Thank you. But this will pass. We will stay up with him, and if he worsens, we'll call right away I promise."

Maggie asked the man for an ice bucket filled to the brim. He left to retrieve it. She looked at Edward. "I wanted ice water when I was sick with the transformation. A lot of it. I'm sure he has no stomach for coffee or liquor right now."

Maggie was likely correct, and neither of the others argued her point. He was burning up with a fever. Edward's transformation had been uncomfortable but fairly quick, and Maria remembered hers all too well. They took turns making him drink as they enjoyed their coffee laced with a little of the Italian liquor.

Maria opened the conversation."Will we be meeting with Leonardo while we are here? I am most anxious to meet him."

"I suspect he will make an appearance. We cannot see the pope for two days hence. I think that he would like to make it sooner, but he is a busy man and all. I'm sure he's busy doing God's work."

Maggie sipped her coffee, and then with a mischievous smile, poured in more of the flavored alcohol. "The master is a great man. I think that he will be rather intrigued by you and uncle."

Maria nodded. "Not nearly as much as I am with him. Father mentioned him a lot, and urged his engineers and inventors to be more like him. He even gave him honorary citizenship to Russia, posthumously of course."

"Then I guess it's still good, for he wasn't really dead, now was he?"

Her aunt smiled. "No, but a lot of good it would do him today."

It was Edward's turn. "Maggie and I are going to return to the United States. Getting you in could prove problematical, but once we are there, I don't think anyone will question your presence. Would you like to stay?"

"Son, your offer is welcomed, but I think it would not be as easy as that. "

"Why not? "

"I don't know. In my country, outsiders are always looked upon with suspicion. Yours is getting to be more like the way Russia was moving away from."

"And then stalled out. Putin is taking the country back to the former regime. Still, there is much more freedom in my country than in yours. But if you wish to return to your family in the wilderness, I would not be the one to try and stop you."

She held the china cup to her mouth and inhaled the fumes. "I would love to see my sister again. My heart is torn between returning to the wilderness and living a more normal life. My girls can take care of themselves just fine, but I hate to leave them all the same."

"We have time for you to decide. Come with us, and then decide from there."

"Yes Aunt Maria, do come with us."

"I might child, at least long enough to see my little sister. You know I was so excited when I heard of her in America, and was very much saddened to learn it was only an impostor. Now I find it hard to believe that she is still alive, but having found my little brother, hope remains I guess."

Edward poured himself another cup. "I can assure you that she is alive. It will come as a shock to her, I'm sure, to find out that two of her siblings are still alive. We will have to go to a different place first, when we get back. I don't think I'm quite ready to spring all of this onto her just yet."

Maggie gave him a look but asked nothing further on the matter. Whatever he knew, he was going to keep it to himself for the moment.

He looked at her and winked. "You'll see."

More coffee was ordered as they stayed up long the night and into the early morning hours. At around six, Edward pointed out something that the others had missed. Alexei was sleeping now, and as he shifted back and forth in his discomfort, his covers slipped to the side. His pants were now two inches too short. Restating that more properly, his legs were now two inches longer. His arms were equally elongated and his torso seemed to have expanded.

When he woke up, it was to the concerned looks of his family. He rubbed his eyes. "What's wrong with you all?"

Maggie patted his hand. "Nothing is wrong with us. How are you feeling?"

He patted himself down. "I can't say for certain. I don't hurt as badly, but I feel sort of stretched out. And I'm starving!"

It was then, as he was gesticulating, that he noticed his hands and arms. He glanced down to see his feet sticking out far past the cuffs of his pants. "I seemed to have grown some," he said in an understated way.

"So it would seem. The question is, how fast and how far will it go?"

He looked at Edward. "What do you mean?"

"This is beyond me. I think the rings may work too well right now. It seems as though your body is working to catch up, but if it does, you will soon be as old as your sisters, in appearance that is. You are already comparable in age to them."

"So you think I could grow and age until I am nothing more than a doddering old man." He turned to his sibling. "No offense dearest sister. But I have been locked in the body of a boy for so long I don't wish to miss the best physical years of my life."

"Understood and the apology is accepted. There is nothing wrong with growing old, but I see your point. It's hard to jump from one stage to another with the benefit of enjoying the prime years."

He sighed. "Yes, exactly. It's hard to be taken seriously when you look like a newsboy your whole life. What I wouldn't give to be able to walk into a bar and not have to have my men rough up the bouncer just so I can get a drink."

Edward was looking him over. "Alexei, I'd like to suggest that you give up the rings for a little while and allow your body to make the necessary adjustments without any further enhancement from their power. In the meantime, I'll call a tailor and have some new clothing fitted for you. From your present lucidity, I'd say you were done growing for a day or two, maybe three if you're lucky. That'll be enough time to see the pope and the master and maybe get a few answers."

"But why haven't I transformed?"

"You are, a bit at a time I guess. Don't push it. I think it's about as different for one person as it is another, and like Maggie said, you've been stuck in one form for a long time. Don't ask for more than your body can deal with right now. I'd say we should all try to get some rest and worry about things later.

The three sleep deprived individuals went to catch a few winks of sleep, waking up a few hours later feeling less tired, but still half exhausted. A large breakfast was ordered, and then a second as Alexei wolfed down food at an incredible pace. Maggie watched him with mild amusement.

"Uncle! Save some for later!"

He spoke around his mouthfuls of food. "I wish I could! I feel like I have an empty cavernous hole in my belly. The more I try to fill it, the less it seems to happen."

Edward watched him for a moment. "Do you think you can create something from nothing?

"Meaning?"

"Meaning...well, let's not discuss this now. Maybe we'll broach it when we see Leonardo."

It took several hours to find a tailor, and after measurements were taken, a few pre-made pants and shirts arrived, as did a pair of shoes, underwear and socks. Alexei looked at himself in the mirror, noting his height compared to Maggie's.

"This feels and looks strange to me. I have only ever looked and seen a child's body in the looking glass, not anything more. I recognize the face, but nothing else. Compared to you, I am now much taller."

"And you will be taller before the process is completed, I'm sure."

"Yes little one, but how much will I age in the meantime? My sisters are old, but not beyond their years. Me, I have been trapped in a never changing hell. Now, it seems my body is in a hurry to hasten the process. I may be nothing more than withered bones in a matter of weeks, maybe even days."

"Now don't go saying things like that. I'm sure we'll find a balance."

"Yes, but will you find it before I get wrinkled and decrepit?"

She had nothing to say to that.

Edward patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be fine. I think the rings helped you a little too much, but then again, growing up to a suitably-aged body isn't all bad, now is it? Getting to the appearance of an adult is what you want, especially if your features happen to look only a third of your age."

Alexei smiled warmly. "If only. I have longed to have some good years living like a normal person. I do not blame Gregori for his good intentions, but he left me hanging now for nearly a century. That is much too long to be stuck looking like a child."

Maria consoled him. "I am sorry little brother. Had I known, I would have been there at your side, you can rest assured. I don't know that I could have done anything about it, but I would have given all the love a sister can give."

Edward moved away quietly. There were times when family was meant to be together. Maggie noted his disappearance almost immediately. She snuck up behind him and stuck her fingers in his belt loops. "Where are you going?"

He reached behind and tickled her sides. "I was leaving so that you could have some family time together."

She pulled him backwards, causing him to overbalance and fall. He landed with a thud on top of her. "Mags! You're going to hurt yourself doing stunts like that!"

"Shut up father. Someday soon I'd like to call you husband, but in the meantime, I'll refer to you as my parental unit. So, either way, you're family you idiot, so don't you dare walk out during a family discussion, do you hear me?"

He was actually taken aback by her logic, and it brought a slight tear to his eye. "Sorry Mags. I wasn't thinking like that. I was thinking genetically related."

"What the hell does genetics have to do with family? Family is the ones you love. Sure, we share the same genes, but until we found each other, it didn't make us family. Now we are, and the hell if I'm going to lose it over any technicalities."

Just then Maria and Alexei walked in to see what the fuss was about. They coughed and went to leave. Maggie yelled at them to stop. "I was just reminding this oversized lunk what family is all about. Sometimes he thinks too little, and sometimes he thinks too much. I'm hoping to have him steer a course somewhere in the middle. He was thinking that he wasn't family. I was just whispering in his ear that he was."

Maria held out her hand to help him stand. Maggie mischievously held onto his belt loops, causing her aunt to collapse onto the floor with them. Much laughter ensued, and by the time they dried their eyes, it was time to get ready and go see Leonardo.

A limo pulled up outside the hotel, but not before Maggie had tracked down the cleaning staff and promised them a hefty tip to clean the rug and not report it. She then scampered to their transport and they were off. The ride through Rome was like before, but for some reason the bright skies shed a new light on the old city. Everyone rode in silence as they stared out the windows at the blur of historic buildings, and at the sidewalks filled with people going about their ordinary, normal lives.

Once the limo reached the Vatican, it was directed to the same semi-underground chamber they had visited when they were meeting with Cardinal Medici. That gave Maggie a chill. She had no fear of the man, who was now dead, but she didn't trust her ability to get free of this place a second time. The first was a fluke; a wonderful fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.

The door to the stairwell opened up, and there was Emile, looking quite handsome in his suit. He was still speaking in his own tongue, which meant that his speech was recognizable to all but Alexei, who had forgone wearing one for the moment.

"Hello my friends and welcome back!"

"Hello Emile!" cried Maggie as she ran up and gave him a hug. "You look wonderful!"

He looked himself up and down. "Yes, I think I do to. And I owe it all to you. Now I have food in my stomach and a roof over my head, as does Corrine. We have much to be thankful for."

"And how is the master?"

"He is gentle and caring, though he is endowed with more than I thought to be possible..."

Maggie actually went red in the face. "No stupid, I meant how is he doing?"

Emile turned red too. "Sorry. He is doing fine. He is quite anxious to see you."

Edward stepped up, and looked down the stairs. "Why is he down there?"

The boy stood tall. "He had been placed in charge of the former cardinal's collection. The pope found the placement to be ideal on many levels. Not only did it hide the master from discovery, it also placed him in a position where he could do the most good. Who else better to sort through artifacts and documents but the man who was likely behind a lot of the more important ones?"

Edward relaxed. It made sense. "We'll follow you then Emile, though I think we could find our way easily enough."

They went down the stairs; level after level, until they reached the rooms the cardinal had called his own. It had hardly changed, but there, sitting behind the large desk, was Leonardo. He looked up from a sheaf of papers, yellowed with age. "My friends! You have overwhelmed me with your return! I felt in my old bones that I would never see you again!"

Edward gave him a long hard look. "Is that so?"

The master grinned sheepishly. "No, I knew you'd return. But I am still overjoyed that you have come back to me." He looked at Edward with a quizzical face.

Edward put out his hand as if to shake, but when the other grasped it, he pulled him to his feet. "We have a few things to discuss my friend, and I think there is no time like the present."

Leonardo looked mildly ashamed. "If it's about the twins..."

Edward shook his head. "What you do in your free time is none of my business. What you did to me, now that involves me intimately."

Maggie suddenly looked concerned. "Why, what did he do to you?"

Even the master looked confused. "But I have only done what I thought was the best for you my friend! What could I have done to spike your ire?"

"You have created a monster my friend, and for that, I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you."