Chapter 3

After a while, Tim forced himself to his feet and staggered off in a random direction. The pain was nearly unbearable. All he wanted was to stop the agony. There had to be someone around, someone who could help him. He couldn't find the knife in his back, but he could feel it embedded deep into his flesh. Every so often, the pain would suddenly flare up, as if the dreamer was pressing it further and further into his back.

The pain was so intense that he couldn't think clearly. He just walked. At some point, he ran into a tree and fell to the ground again.

But he couldn't figure out why this was happening. If he'd really been stabbed in the back, he'd probably be dead by now, but he wasn't. Did that mean it wasn't really happening? ...but even if it was a dream, he'd learned that dreams could still be real.

...but he didn't know.

The pain flared up again, and he screamed out, rolling onto his back, trying to pull something away...and he saw a dark shape hovering above him. He couldn't discern any details...because there weren't any.

It was just darkness.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Turn off here," Tony said, gesturing to the small park in the middle of nowhere. Was it real? Did it matter if it was or not? Regardless, that was the direction he felt as though Tim was.

Gibbs said nothing for or against his suggestion. He just followed it. There was a lake where there shouldn't be a lake, but he stopped the car. Tony quickly got out and looked around.

"McGee!" he called out.

He tried to feel where Tim might be, but there was a nebulousness to the feeling he had. It was as if Tim was everywhere and nowhere.

Gibbs got out of the car, too, but he stayed where he was, not moving. Tony noticed and turned back.

"Boss?"

"You look. I'd better not go too far."

Tony nodded and couldn't help smiling just a little bit. It wasn't every day that he had more freedom than Gibbs...that Gibbs was letting himself be hemmed in by rules.

But then, this was a strange world they lived in and Tony couldn't help wondering how it was that Gibbs had become involved in it.

As he walked out of Gibbs' sight, he called Tim's name more than once, but he didn't hear any reply. He still couldn't figure out where Tim might be. It was like he had stopped existing...which was a very worrying thought.

...then, he thought he saw someone, lying motionless on the ground. It was an indistinct shape.

"McGee!" he shouted and ran through the trees to the clearing.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim stared up at the black shape hovering over him. He feebly raised his hand, showing the weak glow of his tattoo.

"That cannot hold me," it said with a guttural laugh.

"Who are you?" he asked, gasping through his pain.

"I am not a who."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony saw Tim lying motionless on the ground.

"McGee!"

He turned Tim over and checked him for any injury. He appeared to be fine...only unconscious.

Then, Tim's eyelids fluttered open.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled.

"Getting you out of here, McGee," Tony said.

He put an arm under Tim's shoulders and lifted him to his feet. Tim slumped against Tony without making any resistance.

"Let's go. You can tell me what happened later."

"Not...over yet..." Tim said.

"It is for now," Tony said firmly.

Tim just let his eyes close all the way and said nothing against the idea. Tony dragged him through the trees, back toward the car.

"Boss! I found him!" he called out.

"Where?"

"Out in the trees. Seems pretty out of it."

"Bring him over. I don't think we should stay here."

Tony couldn't agree more. There was a bad feeling about this place. He didn't want to hang around any longer than he had to. He dragged Tim over and he could see Gibbs.

"Don't worry, McGee. Gibbs knows."

Suddenly, Tim started whispering. Tony couldn't understand what he was saying.

"What was that, Probie?"

Tim's grip on Tony got much stronger. He lifted his head and looked at Tony and suddenly, the bad feeling got infinitely worse.

Tim had no eyes.

Not black eyes. Not white eyes. Not glowing eyes. Not his normal eyes.

No eyes...just two bottomless pits of blackness.

Tony tried to let Tim go, but he couldn't. Tim held him fast and forced him to look into those two gaping black holes that seemed to be sucking him in. Tony felt his own eyes widening as he tried to lean away but couldn't.

"'In every horror beauty can be found,'" he whispered and grinned. "Come and see!"

Those black holes seemed to get larger and take up the whole world. They were all that existed and there was no end to them. Tony couldn't hear anything. They swallowed up all sound and life.

"In order to create, we must destroy!"

The voice roared in his ears, swallowing up everything else.

Then, there was another roar. Multiple roars and a violent scream that threw Tony out of those bottomless holes and dropped him to the ground. He landed heavily on his back and stared up at the empty sky, breathing heavily. He couldn't even think about moving. What had just happened? What was going on?

He heard someone running toward him and then flinched away from the hand on his arm.

"Tony. You all right?"

Tony blinked and his sight started to come back. He turned his head. Gibbs was leaning over him.

"Boss...what happened to McGee?"

"I shot him."

"What?"

Tony sat up quickly and looked over at the motionless body. He wrenched himself away from Gibbs and scrambled toward Tim. He rolled him over and saw that, not only were there no eyes, there were also no eyelids. Just gaping holes.

"Tony!"

"Tim," Tony whispered.

He felt sick.

But then, in a horrible moment, Tim's mouth smiled and then opened wide in a bloodcurdling scream that carried the force of an explosion with it, forcing Tony back.

Tim's body lifted into the air. He stood looking at Tony with those holes, body held upright by means of some unseen force. He looked like some kind of horrific marionette, his head leaning to the side. He just stared with that same frightening grin.

"'In the real world as in dreams...'"

The voice was nothing like Tim's. Nothing. It didn't even sound like it was coming from the body that had two bullet holes in the chest.

"'...nothing is quite what it seems,'" Tony finished, not even realizing he could.

"What if there is no difference between reality and dreams?"

There was a huge gust of wind that knocked Tony and Gibbs both backward. Tim's arms lifted with the hands hanging limply. Another screech pierced the air and then Tim vanished. Gone in a moment. There seemed to be some force associated with it because a shock wave flung Tony and Gibbs onto the ground.

They were left alone.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim found himself staring at the dark shape, almost forgetting his agony.

"What are you, then?"

"Darkness."

"What?"

"Know your darkness in order to fight the darkness."

Darkness vanished and Tim was staring up at the sky again. Was this a lesson? Another lesson? ...but why the pain?

As if to make the point more forcefully, the pain surged up and spread throughout him. He screamed out his pain. How long could he endure it?

He rolled over onto this stomach and tried to get to his feet. He couldn't. Instead, he crawled to a nearby tree and used it to help him pull himself to his feet. With one hand holding a low-hanging branch, he tried to find the knife in his back.

He couldn't. It was there. He could feel it, but he couldn't find it.

"Help," he whimpered. "Help me."

"No one can help you."

Tim lifted his head and saw Greta and Death standing there, staring at him.

"Why?" he gasped. "Why?"

"'In the real world, as in dreams, nothing is quite what it seems,'" Greta said.

"What does that mean?" he screamed out. "I don't understand! I don't know what to do!"

"'Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.' Goya."

"I don't understand!"

"You will die in dreams if you cannot use them."

"Dreams are not false."

"Help me," Tim said. "Don't just...just say these things. Do something!"

"He does not know why he is here."

Tim blinked.

"What?"

"He does not know."

Then, Greta withdrew into the folds of Death's cloak and the white and black swirled and was gone.

Tim reached out to the same two beings who had attacked him before, wanting help from any quarter, no matter who it was.

...but no, they were both gone.

Tim fell to the ground again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony sat up and stared at the place where Tim or Tim's body had been.

"What just happened?"

"Got me," Gibbs said. "Never seen anything like that before."

"It was like Greta," Tony whispered. "Like Greta in the real world."

"Greta?"

"The lady who didn't exist. Who had been dead for months. ...and the one who dragged us into the dream world. When she was in the house with us, she was like a puppet. Like Tim. Boss, is he dead? Am I too late? Did the dreamer kill him?"

Tony couldn't rid himself of the horror of seeing Tim dead nor of that feeling of being sucked into some fathomless world inside those gaping holes where Tim's eyes should have been.

"What did you see?" Gibbs asked.

"You shot him, Boss. You shot Tim."

"What did you see?"

"Holes where his eyes should be."

"What did he say to you?"

"What if there's no difference between reality and dreams?"

"That's all?"

"You have to destroy in order to create."

Gibbs came into his view and Tony stared at him with haunted eyes.

"He had no eyes, Boss. I've never seen him without eyes before. I've seen his eyes go black. I've seen his eyes white. I've seen his eyes glow. I've never seen him without any eyes. ...and you shot him. Why did you shoot him?"

"Because he was clearly going to kill you...or worse," Gibbs said. "That couldn't have been McGee."

Tony stared at the empty space where Tim had been.

"Tony."

He couldn't stop looking at it, couldn't stop seeing that horror there.

Thwack!

"Tony!"

"What?"

"Can you still feel him? Your tattoo thing."

Tony put his hand over that area of his chest. It was hot to the touch.

"Yes," he said with some relief. "I feel it."

"That wasn't him. I need you to focus."

Tony took a few deep breaths and nodded. An idea struck him.

"Boss...what if we've wandered into a dream somehow?"

"Then, we still need to find McGee, and we're in more danger than we would be otherwise."

Gibbs got to his feet and Tony finally felt as though he could look somewhere else. He looked around.

"Boss...where's the car?"

Gibbs sighed.

"I think you're right, Tony. We're not in reality anymore."

"Or maybe we are."

"Meaning?"

Gibbs put out his hand and pulled Tony to his feet.

"That...thing..." He couldn't call it Tim anymore. "...it asked...what if dreams and reality are the same? Maybe we're in both. Reality...which means we can get hurt. Dreams...which means that logic isn't going to dictate what happens."

Tony turned away from where the car should have been and looked around.

"Um...Boss..."

"Yeah?"

"There's a big...black...thing...coming at us."

Gibbs turned as well.

"We may be in trouble."

It had wings. It seemed to be the personification of darkness. It was huge, enveloping them in night.

...except for the bright red eyes that were coming ever closer to them.

"I think we're in trouble."