edited June 24 - slight edit to Mrs. Frederic's thoughts at the end, for clarity.

ch. 88 - you are here - posted June 17 - FINAL chapter - finally!

Author's note: After the Season 3 finale in October 2011, I started planning this fanfic novel to "fix" the cliffhanger, and get the characters set up for an alternate season 4. After two and a half years of writing, I have finally reached the end of this novel, and this project.

I hope you have enjoyed the story. Thank you for reading. :)

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"It's time to go."

Myka looked up, startled at the familiar voice.

The woman standing there, in her pink suit, peered over her glasses and watched them expectantly.

Leena gasped. "Mrs. Frederic."

Myka felt Helena's hand grip her right elbow. "Do you see her?" Helena whispered.

She could only nod in response. Since we can all see her, Mrs. Frederic is really here.

Pete hurried past them and walked up to Mrs. Frederic. With one finger, he gingerly touched her arm. "Hey, it's really you. Guess you're feeling better, huh? Welcome back!"

Mrs. Frederic moved to stand near Artie, but she looked directly at Myka. "I understand," she said, "the Warehouse will be implementing some new policies. No more secrets?"

Myka swallowed and found her voice. "To fight successfully against MacPherson, every agent will need all the available information, so we can coordinate effectively."

For a moment, Mrs. Frederic studied her and Helena, who stood beside her.

"I need to run an errand," Mrs. Frederic said, "to New York City. I understand there's another new policy, where agents are not permitted to travel alone. We always take backup?"

"Yes." Myka nodded. "Backup is crucial for our safety, and for our effectiveness."

"You spoke of backup files, too," Mrs. Frederic said. "We have some, in my office in New York."

Office? Myka thought. She has an office?

"I need to go there, for just that reason," Mrs. Frederic said. "I need some information, which means checking those files." She pointed at the two women. "Both of you will accompany me on the trip." She nodded at Pete's grandfather. "Raymond, we'll need you, too."

Claudia charged toward Mrs. Frederic, but the Caretaker spoke first.

"Claudia," she said, "you and I have many topics to discuss. You'll go with us, to New York. And please bring the Durational Spectrometer with you."

The last statement caused Claudia to hesitate, puzzled.

This is not a dream-message, Myka thought. But it's almost as unsettling as those dreams.

Mrs. Frederic continued. "We received a FedEx package today, from Hong Kong, addressed to you, Claudia. For safety reasons, I took the liberty of opening it." She reached into her pocket, and retrieved a small object.

She held out her hand to show Claudia an old pocketwatch. "I believe this belongs to you. Your old family heirloom watch?"

Claudia took the watch and studied it with her head bowed.

Artie spoke up excitedly. "MacPherson must have realized it wasn't the artifact, and sent it back. Did he include a note? He loves to leave taunting little notes."

"Just a general threat," Mrs. Frederic said, "to whoever survived to open the package."

"Allow me go to Hong Kong now," Helena said. "I will locate MacPherson and put an end to his threats, once and for all."

Mrs. Frederic shook her head. "Not yet. We're going to New York."

An angry voice cut them off. "What about Steve?" Claudia raised her head to stare at the Caretaker. "There must be something you and the Warehouse can do."

Mrs. Frederic sighed. "I cannot make any promises." She stared back at the intense young woman for several moments.

"Wait," Claudia said. "I didn't hear the word 'no.' You didn't say that's the end, either." She looked at the Caretaker questioningly.

"First, the New York errand," Mrs. Frederic said. "We leave immediately."

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Their limousine stopped on the busy Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Mrs. Frederic exited the vehicle and looked up at the marble facade of the old building.

A little bit like coming home, the Caretaker thought, to my second home. I just hope no one has disturbed my office. She glanced up and down the sidewalk, past the marble lion statues. Surely MacPherson must still be in Southeast Asia somewhere.

Mrs. Frederic noted the elder Agent Lattimer and Agent Wells getting out of the limousine. But that's why I brought agents for backup.

As Agent Bering stepped out onto the sidewalk and stared up at the historic building, she chuckled. "The New York Public Library? Your office is here, in the library?"

With a nod, Mrs. Frederic led Claudia and the three other agents up the wide exterior steps and into the building.

"I work in the Rare Book Division," Mrs. Frederic said, "on the preservation of its antiquities. As a librarian, I keep a small private office."

"Antiques," Claudia muttered, "stored in a large old building. Figures."

Quickly, Mrs. Frederic led the agents on a winding path through the library's hallways and stairways. They arrived in a short secluded hallway with noticeably aged carpet that led to a single door.

She unlocked the door, and while the others stood in the hallway, Claudia and Myka scanned the room with the Durational Spectrometer.

"No sign that anyone has been in here," Claudia said. "But the projector review only shows us the past five hours."

Mrs. Frederic sighed. "Five hours' worth of reassurance is better than none. I want to believe that MacPherson has not left the Asian continent yet."

She led them into her small office, which itself resembled a library. The walls were lined with shelves stocked full of books and numerous antiques. "Raymond, you'll guard the door and hallway."

Raymond stood in the doorway. "Mrs. Frederic wouldn't say, even if we asked her." He pointed to Myka and Helena and then himself. "But I know why she chose us for this errand. We three have something in common."

Myka raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"And what is that, Agent Lattimer?" Helena asked.

"The moment we see him again," Raymond said, "we're willing to kill MacPherson."

Myka and Helena nodded at each other in silent agreement.

Claudia put on some purple gloves. "This is a mini-Warehouse, right? So some of these antiques aren't just collectibles, are they? You stash artifacts here in your office."

"Only a few of these objects are dormant artifacts," Mrs. Frederic said. "A few more objects are stored here for security reasons, because of their rarity and value."

Mrs. Frederic moved to stand behind the large wooden desk in the center of her office. The desktop held stacks of file folders, several small stacks of books, and several objects she used for decorative paperweights. Valuable and irreplaceable objects, she thought.

Hidden here, under my protection. From her desk, she picked up a gold-plated sphere, about the size of a grapefruit, and held it out to show Claudia. "You may recognize this, because of your recent background research about Nikola Tesla."

Claudia studied the small sphere. "It looks like the urn with Tesla's ashes, in the museum in Belgrade." Her eyes widened. "Is that a copy in the museum, and this is the real urn? You hide Tesla's ashes in your office?"

"Not his ashes," Mrs. Frederic said. "I hide Agent Tesla in my office."

From the sphere, she extracted a Janus Coin, reinserted it, and turned on the holographic projector.

The projection produced the form of a very tall, thin, elderly man with salt-and-pepper gray hair, wearing a rather antiquated business suit.

The man smiled warmly. "Irene." His voice was deep, with a slight eastern European accent.

Helena stared in amazement. "Nikola? Is it really you?"

Tesla studied her with equal surprise. "I could ask the same of you, Helena. My physical body died years ago, but you, you look as if you just arrived from Warehouse 12."

Mrs. Frederic felt her pulse racing as she interrupted them. "Nikola, I must ask you. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Meeting here, in your office," Tesla said. "Another Regent had died, and we discussed some Warehouse security issues."

Still secure, for the moment. She felt her pulse slow down. "And you haven't seen anyone else since?"

"No, who else would I see, besides you?" he asked.

"We're fighting a traitorous agent, James MacPherson," she said. "He's worked for decades to destroy Warehouse 13. One of MacPherson's associates was responsible for the deaths of many Regents and several agents."

She paused when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an unusual expression on Agent Donovan's face.

Claudia was smiling. "Tesla, the inventor of my favorite gun," the young woman said rapidly. "Your designs are amazing. I'm a fan, a student, of your work. I even had ideas for some changes, uh, small adjustments, really." She put her hand on her forehead. "Whoa. You're here. I have at least a million questions."

"Agent Tesla," Mrs. Frederic said. "Allow me to introduce Agent Donovan."

Tesla studied the young woman thoughtfully. "Claudia? You're the Caretaker. Or rather, the future Caretaker I saw in the dimensional rift. You sent me the Pocketwatch Device."

"Claudia," Mrs. Frederic said, "your time travel discussion will have to wait." She turned to the projection of the tall old man. "Nikola, I have another question for you. Recently, the Warehouse has repeatedly sent a strange and urgent message. I'm hoping you have some idea about what it might mean?"

"What was the message?" Tesla asked.

Mrs. Frederic nodded at Myka. "Please describe your dream."

"I was asleep, in my bedroom," Myka said. "In my dream, I saw Mrs. Frederic, standing in my room, talking to me. When I asked her if this was a dream, she said, 'It's time to get up, Myka. It's time to go.' I asked her where I was going. She answered, 'Back to the beginning. Find Claudia.'"

Tesla gaped at Myka, speechless.

"Nikola?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

He nodded slowly. "I've heard the first part of that message before." He cleared his throat. "I was asleep, in my apartment, in New York. I dreamed that there was a bright flash of light, inside my room, and a woman with white hair appeared and spoke to me."

He turned to look at Claudia. "Only it wasn't a dream. It was a temporal distortion, a dimensional rift. The woman said, 'It's time to get up, Nikola. It's time to go.' And she started to explain, that I had to return to Warehouse duty, that I had to go, in her words, 'Back to the beginning.'"

"What beginning?" Helena asked.

"As the Caretaker explained it," Tesla said, "Nazi Germany and their never-ending warfare had overtaken most of the future world. She instructed me to use the time-travel device to go back and try to prevent Hitler and his military forces from succeeding. But even before World War Two, I was instructed to travel back even further, to the beginning of Warehouse 13."

"You and Edison," Myka said, "were the main designers of the Warehouse."

He nodded. "In 1932, Nazi spies broke into the Warehouse and stole numerous powerful artifacts, which they used to overpower and conquer country after country. The Caretaker instructed me to travel back, before the looting occurred, and redesign the security and defenses for the Warehouse."

"So the Nazis never stole all those artifacts," Myka said. "They'd have to fight their war with more conventional weapons, and they lost."

"Back to the beginning of Warehouse 13," Helena said. "Back to the architectural drawing board."

Mrs. Frederic felt a surge of energy. "Yes, that's what the Warehouse is telling us. In order to win our war against MacPherson, we need to go back to the drawing board and upgrade this Warehouse." She smiled at Tesla. "Our new generation of scientists will redesign and remodel Warehouse 13 and all its systems. Claudia and her brother, Joshua, are physicists."

Claudia shook her head. "Josh is never going to believe this. I don't believe this." She looked from the hologram to Mrs. Frederic. "We're taking Nikola with us, right?"

"Yes, yes," she said, "Agent Tesla must come out of retirement. We need all the help we can muster."

Claudia rummaged around in her messenger bag. "I've got to phone home. So much news."

Mrs. Frederic turned to address Helena. "Agent Wells," she said, "as our leading scientist on staff, you, of course, will direct the redesign project."

A single tear ran down Helena's cheek. "Of course," she whispered.

"Our new policies," Mrs. Frederic said to Myka, "are already benefitting us, and it's only our first day back on duty."

Myka chuckled and smiled back.

One more matter to discuss. Mrs. Frederic straightened her pink suit jacket. And then we'll be on our way home.

"Now, Raymond," she said, "if you and the other agents would please wait outside in the hallway, I just need to pack a few more things. I'll join you momentarily, and we'll return to South Dakota."

Raymond Lattimer ushered the others out and closed the door.

Mrs. Frederic turned to Tesla's hologram form. "Before we discuss it with the other agents, I want your opinion about a case, unusual even by Warehouse standards."

"Unusual in what way?" he asked.

Hurriedly, she grabbed an old briefcase. "I need more information," she said, "about bringing an agent back from the dead."

From her desk drawers and bookshelves, she retrieved numerous paper folders, a book, and a few objects. She packed them into the case.

He stared at her, puzzled. "We've never done that before."

I've never died before. Warehouse 13 had never died before. Both deaths undone because several agents insisted on changing the rules. She thought of Claudia's role in the previous events. We've never had a future Caretaker quite like Claudia before. Perhaps it's time to change a few more rules.

"True," she said. "But we've never had artifacts from Warehouse 2 before, either."

"You found the Lost Warehouse?" He frowned in thought. "How?"

Time for us to go back home and get started on this new future. Mrs. Frederic smiled at her old friend. "That is a very long story."

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THE END

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footnote - The character of Agent Nikola Tesla would be played by actor Leonard Nimoy.