A/N: Hi all! Long-time reader, first time publisher speaking, hoping you liked the little teaser. This idea popped into my head after I saw the final episode for the first time, and just wouldn't leave me alone... :) I'm still trying to muddle my way around posting on this site, so please bear with me a bit. In the meantime, here's chapter 2 before I head off to work!
Oh yeah - and the italics in this chapter ARE intended.
Becker hadn't known what Matt was doing when he felt the truck take off underneath him. Instinctively, he'd reached out and grabbed the side of the cab to steady himself, and happened to catch the looks of terror on Abby and Connor's face as the truck hurtled away from them.
A split second before it happened, Becker suddenly realized what Matt was doing, but it was far too late at that point. The truck had raced into the anomaly as Becker closed his eyes and ducked his head.
When the truck rolled to a stop, he could hear shouts and the sound of fighting. Opening his eyes, he saw that the truck had stopped in a wooded area that he didn't recognize. The anomaly that had been in the truck next to him was gone, he noticed as he climbed down from the cab.
The sound of a door opening and Matt's angry voice brought him out of his visual exploration. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Just along for the ride," Becker quipped.
"You're not supposed to be here."
"Funny thing about that, you should really learn to check your blindspot before you take off in someone else's truck with them in the cab," was Becker's response, anger seeping into his voice.
"This was my mission," Matt stated. "My job to finish."
"Hey, it wasn't my choice to come along on this suicide mission," Becker retorted. "You were driving." Suddenly, gunfire close by stopped their conversation cold as they both whipped out their EMD's and looked around cautiously. After a moment, Becker turned to Matt. "What say we finish this argument later, away from the fight?"
"Agreed." The pair flanked each other, eyes constantly moving over the immediate area as the sounds of a battle moved closer to them.
"Where are we anyway?" Becker asked.
"I think the better question is 'when are we?'" Matt answered. The bushes to the right started to shake, and both men trained their weapons on the area. Wordlessly, they were ready to fight whatever was coming through those bushes.
The gallimimus leapt over their heads before they knew what was happening. They spun to see it running away from them, then looked at each other in confusion. Gallimimus usually didn't run from prey, so that had to mean…
"It's being hunted," Becker hissed.
"By what?" Matt asked. "There aren't many creatures that they're afraid of, and I don't hear a Rex nearby."
They had moved a few metres from where the gallimimus had just been, when three quick figures darted past them. They raised their weapons again, only to lower them when they heard female voices.
"Don't let it escape!"
"Where is it heading to?"
"If we follow it, it could lead us to a nest!"
The voices all sounded vaguely familiar, but the tones were almost unrecognizable. The tallest and shortest of the women sprinted as fast as they could, while the third, wearing a hoodie underneath her ammunition round, held back and pulled out a walkie talkie to speak into it. "Tracking device still online?"
A very calm, familiar male voice filtered through the radio waves. "Yep. He's moving pretty quick, but it'll stay on 'im."
"Connor?" Matt whispered, his eyes meeting Becker's.
"Got it," the woman in front of them replied. "What about that anomaly that we just saw?"
"It's gone. It was there maybe a few seconds, but vanished. There's no sign of it at all."
"Ok. I'll tell the others and we'll head back to base."
"Be careful. I'll keep you on comms if you need anything."
"Thanks." The woman stood, and paused, giving Becker a minute to recognize the spiky blond hair sticking out from the front of the hoodie. She then took off after her fellow fighters, giving Becker and Matt no other choice but to follow her.
They came to a clearing to find her gone. There was no sign of life other than the foliage. Casting careful looks around, the boys were taken by surprise when Matt's left knee was kicked out from under him. He was slammed into a nearby tree and held there as Becker whirled around, EMD raised, to find a weapon pointed directly at him.
"One move and you're both dead," the familiar low female growl stated. "Why are you following me?"
Matt's face was to the tree so he couldn't see who it was, but Becker now had a full view of a heart-shaped face and cold grey-blue eyes behind the blaster. He lowered his EMD, and stepped backwards. "Abby, it's us."
Abby stopped solid at the sound of his voice. Still keeping Matt against the tree, she slowly turned her head just enough to be able to see Becker out of her peripheral vision. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in recognition. She whipped around to see Matt's profile against the tree, and immediately released him in surprise. Matt rolled his shoulders to loosen them as he turned, all the while Abby's eyes were darting back and forth between the two men. "How is this possible?" she asked, her normally steady voice trembling.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked calmly.
"You're both dead."
"What?" they both replied in unison.
She nodded. "You both went through that anomaly back at New Dawn and never came back. We all assumed you were dead."
The two men were silent as they grasped what she was telling them. "How long ago?" Becker asked.
Abby took a deep breath, the panic finally leaving her voice. "6 years." Becker's eyes widened almost comically. 6 years?! Before he even had time to digest this, Matt spoke.
"We just went through that anomaly a few minutes ago, and landed here."
"Well now at least I know we weren't crazy for seeing that anomaly that Connor can't find."
"Where is he, anyway?" was the question from Becker. "It's not like him to stay out of the field."
Abby fixed him with a confused look, forgetting that he was new to this time. "Connor hasn't been back out in the field since New Dawn." When the two men looked at her baffled, she went on. "A lot changed when you two left."
"What else?" Matt asked, considerably more worried now than when she'd first discovered them. He wanted to ask specifically about Emily, but didn't think that it was the right time.
"Come with me," she said, leading them along the treeline. They walked in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "When we finally got back to the ARC after you drove into the anomaly, it was pure chaos. The anomalies around the world had shut down and Convergence was over, but the damage had been done. Everyone had found out about the ARC and what we did. And every country in the world came to us to help them fix things."
"And people wonder why we liked to keep it quiet," Matt muttered.
"It took about a year, but we managed to send teams to each and every one of the Convergence anomaly sites," Abby continued. "One by one, they helped to clean up the towns and train new people to help out. Essentially, there came to be an ARC in every major city around the globe." Becker refrained from making a sarcastic crack about how they shouldn't feel quite so elite anymore. "Our ARC changed too. Personnel shifted around as some people left. There were a lot that weren't able to deal with what had happened, but there was always someone else willing to step up to the new challenge. We all retrained together, working to rebuild."
"Lester must have loved the dedication," Becker commented. Abby stopped short and turned back to them, a flash of pain settling in her eyes.
"Lester didn't make it." At their shocked looks, she went on. "He died a few hours after we found him and Jess at the ARC. The future predator that got him nicked a few major organs, and the medics didn't get there in time." As they drank in the fact that their boss was no longer with them in this time, Abby turned and pushed through a set of bushes. "Without him and you two, we were, essentially, leaderless."
"What happened next?" Matt asked.
"Someone else stepped up."
"Who?"
"Someone who already knew everything there was to know about the ARC. It was funny, really, how quickly and how easily it all came together. It was almost like everyone expected the power shift to happen the way it did." Abby smiled sadly at them, as she moved aside a set of branches and let loose a whistle before calling out. "Connor's got a lock on the gallimimus. He should be able to track it, no problem. But we've got a bit of a development here," she shouted.
The boys looked over her shoulder and saw the other two women that she'd been with standing near a cliff with their backs to them. Both had long, dark plaits trailing down their backs, and one was quietly speaking into another walkie talkie. The silent one turned to Abby for more information, and both Becker and Matt gasped.
"Emily?" Matt asked. He watched through the trees as the woman he loved stalked towards them. She was dressed in a pair of combat boots, dark green army fatigues and a green tank underneath a leather vest. She held a large EMD in her hand, and a smaller one hung from a holster on her hip. "Emily's in charge now?"
"No, she's the head of security. I'm the second in command, and Connor's the FCO," Abby told them.
Emily stopped short at the sight of the men with Abby, her mouth opening in silent shock. As she locked eyes with Matt, Becker turned to Abby again. "Then who's in charge?"
Abby looked at his confused expression, and then turned and pointed to the woman past Emily. "She is."
Becker followed the direction of her finger and watched as the woman turned away from the cliff. The long braid swung around her head in a bit of a dark red flash as she moved to hurry back to her companions. The woman walked with a definite sway to the hips, but they gave off the 'stay away if you don't wanna get hurt' vibe, giving her stride a definite purpose. She was dressed in a similar manner to Emily right down to the two weapons, only her garb was black and she wore an oversized leather coat with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. He could see scars and cuts on her toned forearms and the jacket looked familiar, but what caught his attention was what was around her neck.
A VERY familiar-looking set of dogtags.
Realization struck as he brought his eyes up to see her face and found himself staring into a pair of blue eyes that he'd never forget, despite the fact that this set was without its usual mischievous sparkle. "Jess?" he asked in disbelief.
