The Golden Chain
by Abelard

part 1

****AUTHOR’S NOTE: Five years into the future, Sonny finds himself in a desperate situation. His best chance for survival is to turn to a onetime friend: Alexis, who is now the head of the Cassadine’s global financial empire. He discovers he must marry Alexis to save himself.****

Sonny stood in the light rain at midnight, leaning against his limousine as he talked with Benny, barely able to see Benny's face in the dim alley.

"Romero and Dryden have turned for sure. I know they're targeting Paredes next. And Magali - once they go after him, it's a done deal," Benny said.

Sonny nodded soberly. He was in the middle of the worst war of his life. Most wars were fought with guns and knives: hits were conducted in the open, messages sent from one faction to another. But this one was different. This one was insidious and silent. Sonny's enemies had banded together and made some kind of pact to unite against him. They'd started to buy off Sonny's own men, who were beginning to siphon off the earnings from Sonny's territories to their new "bosses." And it was only a matter of time before these once-trusted lieutenants would be told to move against Sonny personally, and try to take him out.

"Boss, you know this is serious. I've tried to call meetings with the heads of the other families, but they haven't even returned my calls. Such disrespect, I don't know what to do with," Benny said, shaking his head.

"They don't care about disrespecting you, Benny. They're getting ready to hit me and you," Sonny explained. "They know you'll stay loyal to me, so they're getting ready to eliminate us." Benny was the only person left in Sonny's organization that he could still trust with his life. Jason was long gone, as were Johnny, Max…all of his best crew. The men who'd replaced them were obviously mistakes, lapses in Sonny's judgment. Sonny realized he was poised to pay for his lapses with his life.

Benny looked away from Sonny nervously and said, "We're in a rough spot, boss. There's only one solution I can think of, but it's a long shot."

"I told you, Benny, I'm not leaving town. I won't give up to those cowards. If they're going to come for me, they won't have to look all in some South American bungalow. I'll be right here, where I've always been," Sonny vowed.

"But I'm not talking about giving up. I'm talking about finding a way for you to hold onto most of what you have and keep yourself safe," said Benny.

"Alright, let's hear it. What's your grand plan?"

"Sonny, it's time to accept that you're not gonna survive this alone. You need an ally. Someone with muscle and means. Someone who can give you protection for a while, so you can lay low. Not forever, just long enough to regroup, to reclaim what's yours."

"Benny, every boss in the country who was sworn to stick by me is now lined up against me."

"I'm not talking about a boss in this country."

"Who, then?"

Benny sucked in his breath before speaking. He knew this was going to be a risky, tricky proposition to make to Sonny. "Alexis. She's in charge of all the Cassadines' interests now. She can give you the kind of cover you need."

"What?!" Sonny was stunned almost into silence. Alexis had left Port Charles five years before, when her nephew Nikolas had renounced his title and position as head of the family, claiming he wanted to be a person, not a Prince. Sonny had heard that since Stefan had no desire to return to that post, Alexis assumed control. She took her daughter and moved to Europe, where she could be closer to the Cassadines' centers of power. She'd also changed her name. She was now known as Princess Alexis Cassadine.

But there was too much in Sonny and Alexis' past for Sonny to consider her an ally. "Alexis has no interest in whether I live through this war," he said emphatically, amazed that he had to remind Benny of such an obvious fact.

"Well, er, I'd thought that, too, but then, just on a whim, I made a call…"

"What?!" Sonny couldn't believe what Benny was saying.

"…and her people indicated that she might be receptive to the idea. So I started to press the issue…"

"Benny, what the hell are you doing, going behind my back?! Don't I have enough of that without you joining those traitors?"

"I did it to help you, Sonny!" Benny protested. "I knew you'd be too proud to consider it on your own, and you told me to dig up some options, so….This is our best option!"

Sonny was furious, but he understood what Benny was saying. They were almost out of options. If Sonny didn't want to face certain doom, then they had to explore everything. "What did her people say?"he ground out.

"Boss, they can give us everything we need. If you can get to London, they'll meet you there and set you up as a part of their entourage for as long as you need. They'll help you strategize against your enemies and fund your actions against them. They understand your life is at stake, here, so they'll have full security on you at all times."

Sonny frowned. "But what does she want in return?"

Benny braced himself. "Fifty percent."

"Fifty?!"

"Just of the legitimate businesses, Sonny. Her guys said they won't touch a dime of the rest. But her main guy - someone called the Vizier, or something like that - was very insistent about a certain point of the deal. He said this part was non-negotiable."

Sonny didn't like how that sounded. "Give it to me. What is it?"

"He said that he couldn't let the Princess engage in a long-term deal like this with you unless they could be absolutely sure of your loyalty to her. He said you're going to have to enter into an arrangement that's 'binding by the laws of man and God' before they feel they can allow you to come into her circle."

"Jesus, what does that mean?" Sonny wondered.

"It means you have to marry her."

****

It took two more weeks of Benny's cajoling and arguing, and two successful hits on men who'd remained loyal to Sonny, to convince Sonny that the Cassadine offer was his last, best hope. It looked more likely by the day that his entire organization was going to be co-opted, and unless he got the time and support he needed, he had no chance of winning against the consortium that opposed him. Finally, to Benny's relief, he told Benny to arrange for a conference via telephone with just him and Alexis to solidify the deal.

It was so strange to hear her voice again, after so many years. Stranger still to consider the possibility of them working together, for his benefit, again. There'd been a great deal of anger between them when she left. A hundred issues were left unresolved. But once, they'd been such good friends that Sonny could still honestly say that no one on the earth knew him, the deepest darkest him, as well as Alexis did.

"Looks like you're in quite a spot, Sonny," Alexis said over the phone. She sounded brittle and flippant. Different than the woman he used to tease and flirt with when she'd lived just across the hall.

"Why are you doing this, Alexis?" Sonny asked. That she would be willing to put all the resources of her vast network behind him was unfathomable to him. They'd spent the last few years considering each other enemies.

"Well, call me sentimental, when Benny said you were facing imminent death, I felt I couldn't turn my back on you. Even after…everything. And I'm not coming out of this with zero, by the way. Benny told you about the percentage?"

"Fifty percent, Alexis? That's quite a cut."

"Please, Sonny. I could have asked for seventy and you wouldn't have had a choice. As it is, I'm not being a tyrant. I'm not forcing you to accept me as majority holder."

"You're not willing to be the minority player, either," Sonny pointed out.

"An equal split is fair, for what you're asking."

"Then what about the marriage? Is that what you call 'fair'?" That condition was just as unbelievable as the fact that Alexis would be willing to help him in the first place.

"Oh, that. Yeah, that was Menshikov's idea. I've gone back to the old ways here in the old world, and apparently, there's a sort of honor code that my father's people insist I have to uphold. They know you and I had a friendship that turned sour, so in order for us to do this deal, they want us to marry just for the duration. They think we won't turn on each other if we're bound by law and religion. It's just a formality. But my people won't let me do it, otherwise."

"Aren't you the princess, now? Don't you say what deals you can and can't do?" Sonny challenged.

"I have their loyalty by playing by the rules. I've gone back to the way things were done before Stefan, before Stavros, even. Back to the ancient ways. I'm not going to break with the traditions my people respect just to make you happy. If you don't want these terms, then fine. I'll go on with my day and you can wait to be killed. Do you think I'm going to sit here and beg you to let me save your life?" Alexis asked coldly.

Sonny sighed. Obviously, the marriage was some arcane test of allegiance and nothing more. Alexis' people had already said the union would be dissolved as soon as Sonny had accomplished his goals. And there was the fact, too, that this was his only alternative. "Fine. I'll do it. I'll be in London by week's end."

"Just have Benny let my people know the details. Oh, and Sonny, there's one thing I want you to know before you come."

"What's that?" Sonny asked.

"I'm sure you remember my daughter, Kristina? You're her biological father." Alexis said as casually as if she were talking about the forecast for rain.

Sonny nearly dropped the phone. "What the….How dare you…"

"Before you give me some speech about how much I've betrayed you by keeping her from you, or some such crap, let me just point out that you're playing father to a child who's not your own, and you've been able to justify that on nothing besides the fact that you dislike A.J. Quartermaine and think he's not safe. Well, guess what, Sonny? I dislike you at least as much, and you're not half as safe as he is." Alexis' voice was cold and bitter.

"But if she's mine, then I have rights…"

Alexis laughed. "She's not yours. She'll never be yours. If you try to pursue visitation rights in court, I swear to God, Sonny, I'll have Michael taken away from you in less time than it'll take you to fly to Heathrow. Don't think I can't do it. It would be easier than Carly's virtue."

Sonny was beside himself with rage, but hardly knew what to say. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because you would have figured it out as soon as you saw her. I just wanted you to be prepared. Relax, I'm not a monster. You can be friends with her for as long as you're with us." Then Alexis said, enunciating each word clearly, "Fight me on this and you'll lose, Sonny. I'm the only chance you have of surviving your war. You need me, and I don't need you even a little. Take my offer as it stands, or get Michael ready to go to your funeral."

Sonny grit his teeth and squeezed the telephone so hard he thought he'd shatter it with the force of his fury. But he was in a corner. Alexis held the threads of his fate in her hands. "I'll see you in London," he muttered, and smashed the receiver down.