A/N: Thank you SnidgetHex and pallysAramisRios for reviewing!

Chapter 2

Cris's head was reeling, and not just from the weird dizziness in his skull, but because his dead captain was standing before him, alive and well.

"This isn't real," he muttered.

Vandermeer took a step closer to him. "It's very real."

Rios had no idea how this was possible—and his mind was still screaming at him that it wasn't. "Where am I?" he snapped. "How did I get here?"

"I'm sorry about the methods," Vandermeer replied. "We couldn't risk the synths finding out about us. But it was important we talk."

"You want to talk? Alright." Rios surged to his feet to confront the phantom of his nightmares. "Let's start with the fact that I saw you shoot yourself. Therefore, you can't be real."

Alonzo looked grieved and shook his head. "Whatever you saw, Cris, it wasn't real. The synths that came to the ibn Majid that day kidnapped me and implanted false memories in your mind."

Cris stared at him incredulously. "Why would they do that?"

"So they could gain information about Starfleet without anyone realizing they'd taken a high-ranking prisoner. So no one would come looking for me."

This didn't make sense at all.

"What about the Black flag directive we received from Starfleet Security?" Rios asked.

"All part of the synths' plan to cover it up."

Cris sputtered at him. "I- I covered it up! Because you had to go and blow your fucking brains out!"

Vandermeer just looked at him sadly. "The synths manipulated you. They have sleeper agents planted throughout Starfleet, just like the Romulans did. Only, the synths were manipulating the Romulans too. They orchestrated all these recent events in order to get the ban overturned. They knew the Romulan plant in Starfleet Security would initiate the Black flag directive any time synths were encountered, and they used that to cover their tracks when they kidnapped a captain of a starship."

"Why would they do that?" Rios asked again.

"For my knowledge of Starfleet codes, proceedings, secrets, personnel, you name it. All so they could pick who to replace with their own." Alonzo's mouth thinned. "There are many others. Just look through a list of accidental deaths and suicides."

Cris shook his head again, having trouble processing all of this. "Where the hell are we?" he demanded.

"A safe location, off the grid," Alonzo answered. "I needed to talk to you because you're in grave danger; the entire galaxy is."

Rios frowned. "What do you mean?"

"From the synths. And you're shipmates with two of them."

Rios's brow furrowed in confusion. "You mean Admiral Picard?"

Vandermeer nodded. "And the Destroyer. The Romulans weren't wrong about her. Those two will lead the way for synth domination."

Rios couldn't hold back a scoffing snort. "You're wrong. The Admiral would never be involved in something like that. And Soji had a chance to summon some higher synthetic beings from another dimension, but she changed her mind. Because of Picard."

"It was all staged," Vandermeer said.

Rios backed up, shaking his head. "You sound crazy, you know that?"

Alonzo spread his arms beseechingly. "There were no beings from another dimension, Cris. It was all a farce to make the Federation believe the synths were the 'good guys'. But they're not. They're not human. They're vicious and cunning and patient when it comes to playing the long game to become the dominant species in the universe."

"No," Rios denied. "Let me out, now." He strode toward the door, but it didn't slide open for him.

"Picard is one of them," Vandermeer called.

"His consciousness was transferred to a synth body," Rios countered. "It's not the same thing."

Alonzo shook his head. "No, Picard was replaced with a synth copy years ago. This story they concocted was just a way to further legitimize their cause."

Rios finally shot the old man a glare. "Were you there?" he asked angrily. "Because I was. I know what I saw. I saw the Admiral dying. Just like I saw you die!"

"Smoke and mirrors."

"If that's true, why didn't you come find me before now?" Rios raged, storming closer. "I spent ten years blaming myself for your death!"

Vandermeer closed the distance and grabbed the sides of Rios's face. "I thought you were dead, kid. What those synths did to you, they did to me too."

Cris tried to shake his head in denial, but his captain's grip was firm and restraining. "Why? Why would they do that?" he asked again, voice breaking.

"I told you, they're heartless beings. And they will destroy everything if we don't stop them. That's why we need your help. You're the only one who can get close to Picard and the girl."

Rios recoiled sharply, wrenching free. "You can't be asking what I think you're about to."

Vandermeer leveled a deadly serious look at him. "A reckoning must come, and it must start with them."

Rios backed away from his former captain, who seemed like a different person all of a sudden, someone Cris didn't know. But then, he hadn't seen it coming when he turned out to be a cold-blooded murderer either.

Except, according to Alonzo, that hadn't happened at all.

Cris tried to shake the cobwebs still clinging to his brain, muttering to himself, "None of this makes any sense."

He knew Agnes had confirmed Picard was dying, so unless the synths were faking that… And Soji, she was just a kid. Picard had risked everything and crossed the galaxy to find her. If he was in on this master plan, why would he do that? And what about Jana and Beautiful Flower? Cris had talked with them, and not once had something seemed off or fake with them.

…But it had just been him and the two of them in the mess when Vandermeer came in and shot them in cold blood. Could they have done something to Cris there? Messed with his mind without him knowing?

But no, that didn't explain this wild tale of Picard and Soji and the rest of the synths on Coppelius. They had wanted to declare war on organic lifeforms, but only because they had felt their very existence was threatened. Soji was going to do it, until Picard changed her mind. Picard…Picard and Soji…synchronized actions.

"There was a body," he choked out. "I brought your body back to Starfleet Headquarters…"

"They swapped me out with a synth dud," Vandermeer replied. "Only those who looked closely would notice the difference, and they had inside men planted where they needed."

No, it couldn't be… God, his pops was alive.

Cris felt a rush of dizziness and staggered, shooting a hand up to hold his head. Vandermeer hurried over to grab his arm and guide him back to the bunk to sit.

"What did you do to me?" Cris mumbled.

"Nothing. The synths on your ship have been dosing you with a toxin to make you more compliant to their ideas and suggestions. You're going through withdrawal."

Rios squinted at him dubiously. "That's impossible. My ship's sensors would have detected that." Or certainly Emil would have.

"Remember who you're dealing with," Vandermeer said, taking a seat on the cot beside him. "Synthetic beings can influence organics and machines."

Still, the whole thing was too wild to comprehend, and Rios was having a hard time believing it. But the harder he tried to think it all through logically, the more he felt his thoughts slipping like sand through a sieve. He felt sick and dizzy.

"Why the hell did you kidnap me from my ship?" he snapped angrily. The others were all on Earth, there was no one around there. And if the two synths were gone, why hadn't Rios started feeling withdrawal symptoms before now?

"Too many eyes and ears there," Alonzo said, his voice slightly muffled.

Cris squeezed his eyes shut against pulsing pain inside his skull. Vandermeer clasped his shoulder and then rubbed it comfortingly.

"It's so good to see you again, kid," he said after a few moments. "You got gray."

"Yeah, well, that's what comes from watching your old man blow his brains out and then Starfleet discharge you on psychological grounds and tossing you out to the wrong side of the galaxy," Cris muttered.

"I'm sorry that happened to you."

Cris looked up. "How did you escape the synths?"

"I was a prisoner for a few years before a Romulan scout ship found the synth base and rescued me."

Rios straightened with a frown at the mention of the Romulans.

Vandermeer gave him a look. "I'm not saying the Romulans haven't acted in bad faith themselves, but we do have a common enemy."

"Are you working with them now? Is that what this place is?" Rios demanded.

Vandermeer sighed. "I'm not working with them, kid. I'm working in the best interests of Starfleet, of the Federation, of all life in this universe."

Cris shook his head. "You're wrong about Soji and Picard. We went through a lot together out there. I trust them."

Alonzo looked at him sadly. "You don't trust your old captain?"

Cris hesitated, then answered, "Of course I do. But you've been gone, locked away as a prisoner. And how do you know the Romulans who rescued you didn't trick you into believing a bunch of lies to support their cause?"

"What about the fact those synths kidnapped me in the first place?" he countered. "Made you watch a fake version of my death in the cruelest way possible?"

Rios didn't know what to say to that. "That wasn't Soji or Picard," he responded, but it sounded weak in his ears. The room was beginning to contort and spin again, and he groaned as he swayed where he sat.

Vandermeer braced him and eased him down on the bunk. "Easy, kid. You'll get through this. I'm right here."

The world blurred and darkness descended once more.