"Ruby... Is that... Is that really you?"
The graceful operator twirled around and her velvet-red skirt swished about her ankles.
"Yes. It is me. Who did you expect?"
"I... I don't understand. How did I get here?"
Ruby couldn't help but pity her disoriented colleague who lay sprawled on the wooden floorboard.
"Poor Steel. I don't think anyone has seen you look this lost before. But then again, things were so easy back then."
Ruby held out her hand, but Steel refused it and forced himself to his feet. After a quick glance around the old shack, his first question was,
"Where's Sapphire?"
"Slow down, Steel. There's really no need to be so worked up."
"I need Sapphire. I need her so we can get back to our job and complete our assignment."
Ruby had to suppress a sigh. "There is no more assignment. It's completed."
"But the trigger-"
"The trigger's been taken away."
"It's not. Sapphire and I were on assignment. We were just about to destroy the trigger when-"
"When you were trapped. That whole assignment was a trap. Or at least, a second-level one."
"What?"
From the next room, somebody cleared his throat and said politely, "Excuse me, Ruby, but I think I would do a better job at explaining. No offense, really."
A red-haired man with a shiny waistcoat rolled out from behind the corner on a swivel chair. In his hands were metal tools and on his face was a kind smile. Ruby looked at him wearily and uttered, "None taken."
"Silver," Steel mumbled.
"Hello, Steel. I was just assisting our friend Ruby with some complex machinery. She knows how good I am with these, I must say she called the perfect man for the job. What queries do you have, Steel?"
"Where am I."
"You, Sapphire and Ruby had been assigned to this abandoned shack. A disastrous combination, I must say. The entity that has been after the three of you for quite some time trapped you and Sapphire in a work of fiction. Ruby destroyed the trigger, and the assignment is complete. But no one knows where the both of you have gone, or when you're ever coming back. That's why Ruby summoned me to build a communication device that can connect directly to both of your minds. It's still undergoing testing, so I don't understand how you're out of the trap already, Steel, with Sapphire still missing."
"And what about that second-level you mentioned, Ruby?"
Ruby stepped forward. "It turns out that this is a trap as well. All of this, is a first-level trap. A first-level fiction. The assignment where the entity trapped you and Sapphire in is a second-level fiction."
The pieces clicked now. "So that was how..."
"How what?"
"That was how I escaped from the trap! I realised that the entity itself was fictional. That was how I freed myself from it, from what you call the second-level trap."
"And what about Sapphire?" Ruby asked, dissatisfied.
What about Sapphire? Steel asked himself. When no answer came to his mind, he lowered his head to stare down at the floorboard.
"I certainly don't look like I know that, do I?"
The words came out less stern than he had intended. Silver watched him with a rare concern.
"Don't worry, Steel, leave that matter in my capable hands. As soon as I've made sure the machine is running smoothly, we can use it to communicate with Sapphire."
"Get on with it."
Knowing Steel, Silver simply smiled, snorted, and swivelled over to the room next door.
"Now," Steel turned to Ruby, "How do we get out of this... first-level trap?"
"We don't," she said calmly.
"What?"
"We don't get out of it. We never do. We've been in it all along, since the beginning of Time."
Ruby strolled out the door of the shack and stepped out into an open field. The shack was situated on a grassy hill. Afternoon rays from the sun overhead brushed life onto the luscious green blades. She needed some fresh air after the hours spent working indoors with Silver.
"What are you talking about? How do you know this?" Steel demanded, following her outside. He squinted from the glaring light, unaccustomed to the brightness after being trapped in the dark for so long.
"We have always been," Ruby said, her voice distant, her eyes on the fields of grass.
"Been what?"
"Fictional."
Steel forced his eyes to follow her gaze. Perhaps if he got into Ruby's mood and saw what she saw, he might just understand what she was saying.
"I have a right to exist in reality. We all have that right. Who- or what- took it away?"
"No one did. We never had that right."
"That's impossible."
He knew it wasn't. He wished it was. He could sense Ruby beginning to lose her patience with him.
"How far does this... fiction... extend to? To Sapphire and I? To you, Sapphire and I? To Silver? To what?"
Ruby closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.
"To all of us and to everything that concerns us."