CHAPTER 23: THE MACHINES

JACK FOSSE:

Sarah's blood spilled across the metal. She gasped, groaning, her limbs writhing slowly as she clutched for her life. I was helpless; she was millions of miles away, and there was nothing I could do to save her life. She looked at me, and as the last of her blood spilled out of her body, she whispered something that I would never be able to hear.

I yelled, sitting quickly upright and looking around in the darkness. I gasped for air, feeling a tight constriction in my chest. When my eyes adjusted to the dark, I looked over and saw Sarah, thankfully still asleep, nudged against my body's warmth, even though I felt so cold. Seeing her, knowing she was safe, I finally managed to take a deep breath. I laid back down and cuddled against her back, holding her tightly and breathing into her.

I woke up the next day, feeling distinctly unrested, and I found that Sarah was still asleep. The sun had just barely managed to peek over the horizon, but I was wide awake. I snuck out of bed, put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and made my way to the kitchen. I put on coffee, and I heard the basement door open. I looked around as Gibbs walked in, and he nodded to me.

I pressed the button on the coffee machine to brew it, and Gibbs checked the pantry.

"Gonna go grocery shopping today," he said conversationally. "You're running low."

"Well, we're feeding a dozen people," I said with a grin. "I didn't need this much food when I ran the pizza place."

Gibbs grinned as well. "You ever hear from them?"

I shrugged but didn't quite meet his eyes. "Every once in a while. Couple people asked why I up and quit. I gave them the runaround, talked about family issues."

Gibbs nodded, and as the coffee finished brewing, he poured us both a cup.

"Anyone else up yet?" I asked.

Gibbs took a long drink and shook his head. He then chuckled and said, "I don't know if Tobias and Diane ever got to sleep last night."

I smiled widely. Nothing I could possibly say about Diane Fornell's arrival could do justice to the fact that a man had been reunited with his wife after years of grief. I heard footsteps approaching and looked around to see Ari strolling in. I felt my chest seize up, and I stood frozen, watching, until Gibbs poured a third cup of coffee and handed it to him. Ari took it with a nod of gratitude and took a sip. I watched this phenomenon with baffled surprise, but I didn't comment on it.

"We gotta come up with a plan," Gibbs said. "We fight the Hunters like that again, we're not gonna make it out alive."

Ari nodded in agreement, and I said, "What have you been thinking?"

"I don't know," Gibbs confessed. "I'm outside my wheelhouse, as usual."

"I would think Theas would have some insight for us," Ari noted.

Gibbs grunted in agreement.

"Probably, but he won't stick around long enough to give it to us," I stated.

"And that's why I'm calling a general assembly."

We looked around to see Theas walking into the kitchen. I looked around for a portal that he may have walked out of, but I didn't see one.

"A general assembly?" Gibbs inquired.

"Well, I think we've exceeded the audience of a boardroom meeting," Theas said. "And I have been compiling information on Nok and his Hunters. I've got a bit of firsthand experience, but I wanted to dig into anything else that Keeper records might have."

"And how much would you have that R and I wouldn't?" I asked. "Because Luca looked, and he couldn't find much."

"That's because it's above his paygrade," Theas explained. "We've opened all the secrets of the multiverse to him, but there are still records of confidentiality. His focus is on the Macrobreach and enhancing your combat capabilities."

"And you're here to illuminate us on this information we dearly require," Ari said.

"Later," Theas assured him. Ari frowned, but Theas ignored it. "Right now, there's a Microbreach."

"Seriously?" Gibbs said. "Can't someone else do it?"

"This ART is the team assigned to this planet," Theas told him. "It's your job to get it done."

Gibbs sighed, shaking his head.

"Let's get it over with," I said, resigned.

Gibbs and Ari nodded in agreement.

"Should we get Fornell and your wife?" Ari asked me.

"Uh," I said, looking around awkwardly.

"Yeah," said Sarah as she walked in. She was fully dressed and had her rifle holstered on her back.

"Wait, what?" I said, looking at her. "What do you mean?"

Sarah stared at me. "I'm ready to go on the mission," she said.

"But-But I thought you were going to stay home today and get some work done," I said. "Like, at your job."

"I quit," Sarah told me. "Didn't I tell you that?"

"You…you quit?" I said, baffled and horrified. "Why?"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "I'm sorry, are you the only one who's allowed to quit your job for all this?"

"Well…well, no," I said, finding myself hunching up. "It's just…you know, I thought…."

"I mean, we make more money with the Keepers than we did when we were both working," Sarah told me. "Like, a lot more. So, I don't see the problem."

I didn't have an argument for her, but I knew I didn't want her to go with us. I just didn't have a way to properly express that to her. Gibbs, Theas, and Ari were avoiding eye contact with either of us, but when I nodded, they all prepared to depart.

Theas nodded, and he opened a portal for us. "You know the drill."

The four of us walked through the portal, and we stepped out onto a sprawling prairie. The sun shone down through a cloudy sky, and I looked out to see a landscape that had a small dirt road crawling through it along with thickets of various types of trees including palm trees, despite the total absence of any source of water. In spite of the fact that it was early April, it felt like a warm day in the middle of the summer.

"Brazil," Sarah answered before anyone could ask, looking at her phone.

Gibbs and Ari looked around, but neither of them said anything. Nothing looked immediately out of place.

"So, what do we got this time?" Gibbs asked. We all looked at him, and I spotted the wry aggravation in his eyes. "Killer robots? Stray kittens?"

"The years have made you more cynical than I remember," Ari noted.

"Yeah, well," Gibbs said, "I don't like being the errand boy."

"At least we get paid," I reminded him. "And better than we did in our old lives."

Gibbs didn't respond. We walked towards the dirt road, on the lookout for anything unusual. I considered all of the Microbreaches we had encountered so far. Cadetises, Sabakay, Fylvie and the Hunters, the Trachamyne. All were drastically different in scope. While the Cadetises were successful, the rest of the Microbreaches were far from it. Fylvie was killed, and meanwhile Kauyu and his Hunters were displaced somewhere in this universe. And then Sabakay, the Malphen Tribe, and the Trachamyne. Something caused them to be wiped from existence. And while R and I had afforded some resources to this phenomenon, they had been so busy with the Spatial Hunters and the Macrobreach that they hadn't made much progress.

And yet, what was even more peculiar to me was why Kauyu and his people hadn't been hit by the phenomenon. As far as Theas knew, they were still operating in this universe unopposed, and I couldn't figure out why they were allowed to reside here while other Microbreaches weren't. And why did the phenomenon only target Microbreaches? The Macrobreaches hadn't been hit at all by this, even those who witnessed Microbreaches being wiped away. There was a lot that didn't make sense, and the deeper we dug into the Macrobreach as a whole, the more confused we were.

The four of us almost made it to the dirt road when the ground rumbled under our feet. We all came to an abrupt stop, exchanging uneasy glances before looking all around us. I looked down and saw a series of cracks in the ground spreading out in a line around us.

"Everyone be ready to move," Gibbs said, gripping his rifle.

We all readied our own weapons, looking around as the ground trembled more violently. The ground then burst open, knocking Sarah, Ari, and I aside while Gibbs held his ground. Something that I couldn't immediately identify while tumbling across the ground. I looked around as the creature stood on six legs, roaring menacingly while looking around at us. It was about ten feet tall with pink and dark-red skin. Its lower body was a bit like an insect, with six long legs that sported claws on each, as well as two arms that were poised to kill. Its head was large, with a flat face and fanged teeth.

All of this made this beast terrifying enough, but it had mechanical weapons and armor, including large blasters on its arms.

"I don't like this universe," Ari complained as he aimed his pistol.

"Hold on!" Sarah yelled.

Ari didn't hear her, and he fired several shots at the creature. The shots did little against the beast's armor, and it spotted Ari before letting off an earthshaking roar.

"Back off! Back off!" Gibbs ordered.

Ari scrambled backwards, and the creature aimed its blasters and fired a pair of large, red blasts that carved out a large, burning crater in the ground. Ari was thrown several feet by the blast, and meanwhile, I fired an arrow at the beast. The arrow hit and let off an energy pulse, buffeting the beast. Gibbs fired a shot while Sarah sprayed the creature with her rifle, and it took several steps back while pieces of its armor were knocked off. Missiles fired from the creature's back, and we threw ourselves down as fire and rubble blasted up from the impact. I scrambled away as the beast rampaged, its limbs tearing up the ground in its efforts to attack us.

Gibbs climbed to a knee and fired a tracer shot, which stuck itself in the beast's thorax as it fired another pair of laser blasts. Gibbs ducked down and backed away while dust rained down on him. Sarah provided him support, firing a steady stream of blasts that kept the creature occupied.

"What the hell is this thing!?" Sarah demanded as she and Gibbs backed away.

Ari took up a firing position fifteen feet away so that he could take well-aimed shots at the beast's weak points without fear of immediate counterattack. We all tried to surround it, but the creature's quick attacks and powerful weapons made this difficult. I fired a Slicer arrow that severed several pieces of the creature's armor. Gibbs fired a shot that narrowly missed one of its blasters. The shot came around, homing in on the tracer shot and hitting the creature's body. The creature fired a pair of blasts which crashed into the ground at Gibbs's feet and knocked him down.

Sarah and I tried to close in, but the beast slashed me in the arm, causing me to fall over while Sarah was forced to dive down to avoid a missile. Ari fired several shots at the creature's head, and one of these hit its jaw, causing it to roar in anger. The creature turned its full attention on Ari, whose teeth gritted as he braced himself to evade. The creature charged towards him, and a blaster on its back fired automatic laser fire. Ari barrel-rolled away as the ground was torn apart by the weapons fire, and meanwhile, while I was still laying on the ground, I fired a Slicer arrow.

The arrow hit the beast's back and knocked off a chunk of its armor, and this gave Ari the distraction he needed to fire a shot into a vulnerability in the beast's neck. The creature staggered, and Gibbs shot it in the abdomen while Sarah put several shots in its side. The creature backed away from us, growling while looking around fretfully. We closed in, and the creature quickly burrowed into the ground. It was out of sight before we could stop it, and we tried to listen for signs of where it was digging. We all readied our weapons, and I was blasted aside as the creature burst out of the ground.

I heard several gunshots as I slammed into the ground, and I felt pain shooting through my already-injured arm. I looked around as several explosions raised into the air from the creature's weapons. I looked around, recovered my bow and quiver, and I fired an Explosion arrow at the creature's feet. The explosion, which punched a wide crater into the ground, knocked the beast off its feet while several pieces of its armor clattered away.

"Aim for its weapons!" Gibbs ordered.

We all fired our weapons, and the creature's arm blasters and missile launchers were quickly destroyed. However, we were too slow to stop its laser cannon, which opened fire and forced us all down. Ari was hit with several shots, and he yelled in pain while collapsing down. I fired a Slicer arrow, which severed the laser cannon and left the creature disarmed. It was still dangerous, although it had learned that we were too. We surrounded it as it backed away, growling threateningly although not attacking.

Ari, bleeding profusely, managed to sit up and aim his pistol while clenching his jaw in pain.

"Do we finish it off?" I asked apprehensively, not even daring to look at Sarah.

Before anyone could answer, the beast dug down, disappearing from sight as it tunneled away.

"Dammit," Gibbs breathed.

Ari yelled out in pain, and I ran over to him to examine his injuries. Gibbs walked over as well, bending down as Ari laid down. I tore open his shirt, examining the three blast wounds in his torso.

"Well, you lost some skin, but it's not too deep," Gibbs said.

Sarah came over, pulling out some medical gauze that she padded against Ari's injuries. He stayed as still as possible for her, and within a few minutes, her work was done. Ari massaged the gauze, and he nodded in gratitude to Sarah.

"We're not going to be moving for a while," I said.

"No," Ari grunted. "We can't let that thing find civilization. Leave me here. Track it down."

"Go," Sarah said. "I'll stay here with him."

"No," I complained. All three of them looked at me. "I–I don't think that's a good idea," I said, feeling quite awkward as they all stared at me.

"You don't trust me," Ari said. There was no accusation intended in his tone, but I could tell he was somewhat offended.

"No, it's not that," I said. "What if that thing comes back? It'll take all four of us to take it out. We shouldn't split up."

"Jack," Gibbs said. "We need to find that thing. If it finds a town, people are gonna get hurt." I searched wildly for an argument, but I didn't have anything. "We need to go, Jack," Gibbs told me. "That's an order."

We held eye contact for several seconds, and I knew there was no avoiding it. I nodded, and when I looked at Sarah, I tried to hide my fear and desperation. She, meanwhile, gave me a look of confidence and determination.

"Try and get ahold of Theas," Gibbs suggested. "See if he can send you guys home."

Sarah nodded, and Gibbs and I set out. We followed cracks in the ground that indicated the creature's subterranean path, but after about a hundred feet, the trail disappeared.

"Must have went deeper," Gibbs observed. I glanced over my shoulder at Sarah and Ari, who were still within view and watching us. "Where's a thing like that go?" Gibbs asked. "What's it after?"

I shrugged. "Resources to rebuild its armor?"

"Is a thing like that smart enough to do that?" Gibbs asked me.

"We can go find out," I recommended. "Where's the nearest town?" Gibbs nodded to me indicatively, and I checked the map on my phone. "Well, there are a lot of small towns within the nearest few miles," I reported. "Oh. But we're also not too far from the state capital, which has almost a million people in it."

"Oh, well that would be a problem, Jack," Gibbs noted. "How far away?"

"A little over a hundred miles northwest of here," I reported.

"That's the direction it went in," Gibbs observed. "That thing's gonna get there a hell of a lot quicker than we are."

"Maybe it'll stop along the way," I said. "Plenty of towns on the way there."

"Let's get moving," Gibbs said.

IN THE EYES OF THE MULTIVERSE:

Sarah paced in a circle around Ari, who was trying his best to swallow the pain ripping into his body. He had his pistol sitting on the ground next to him while Sarah carried her rifle in her hands.

"You're anxious," Ari observed.

"Yeah," Sarah said unapologetically. "If that thing comes back here, you're not going to be of much help to me."

As Ari watched her continue to circle him, doing everything to avoid looking at him, he smiled. "Is that really what it is?" he asked.

She stopped, her grip tight on her rifle. "I don't watch the show," she admitted. "But I've still heard what you are."

Ari nodded. "You have issue with my background."

"Who wouldn't?" Sarah asked, somewhat angrily. "You've killed innocent people."

"They're only as innocent as the regime they serve," Ari stated.

"You're not doing yourself any favors," Sarah told him. "Nor are you making me happy I treated your wounds."

"I've never seen value in trying to atone for what I've done," Ari told her. "I own it. It's who I am."

"Do you ever feel like you're disappointing the people you care about?" Sarah asked.

Ari took a deep breath. "I have someone," he told her. "Someone whom I…confide in. Her name is Doctor Deena Bashan."

"Am I supposed to believe that you had someone who was a moral compass?" Sarah asked.

"Maybe not a moral compass," Ari clarified. "I didn't tell her everything I did, but she believed that I was doing good."

"And what were you really doing?" Sarah asked.

"As far as she was concerned, combating enemies of Israel and Mossad," Ari answered. "In reality, I was building my own retribution against my father."

"So, you had a girlfriend, and she had no idea who you really were," Sarah surmised.

Ari grinned again. "It's complicated."

"Mm-hmm."

"Have you never had someone like that?" Ari asked.

"Who? A confidant? Of course, I have Jack."

"No, not that," Ari said. "Someone you hated. A family member who made your blood surge with rage. Someone who sought to define you and only salvaged the worst parts of you." Sarah stared at him, taking in his words. "That is who my father was for me," Ari told her. "He made me into what I am. It seemed only fitting that the weapon he forged would come back and be his undoing."

"Okay, so let me ask you something," Sarah requested. "If your father crossed over to this universe right now, what would you do?"

Ari stared at her, contemplative. "That's a good question," he admitted. "Perhaps one day we will find out."

Sarah crouched down next to Ari, who watched her as her brain chewed on what she wanted to say. She finally looked at Ari and said, "For me, it was Nilus." Ari watched her, not speaking, allowing her to tell her story at her own pace. "Nilus Vera. He was…kind of a childhood mentor. He was the son of a guy my mom served with, and they were really good friends. So Nilus would come over pretty often, especially when our parents were on tour. We had a really close friendship when we were younger. And then we got into our teens, and he strayed off."

"He join a cult or something?" Ari asked sardonically.

"Basically," Sarah said, causing Ari to frown. "Nilus had met up with this group of people who had really radical views of the world. They felt that the marginalized should be the ones taking charge, and it should be done through open warfare. Their views and actions walked right up to the line of domestic terrorism. Before Nilus joined them, they had never managed to do anything significant. Just some anonymous online posts with a small following. But then Nilus came, who was way more intelligent. He started strategizing, planning out their moves and how to achieve their goals."

Ari listened, and he felt a small sense of familiarity from his own history. "What was the group called?" he asked.

"Some ridiculous Latin name," Sarah answered. "It basically meant Freedom by Fighting. When Nilus came into the fold, they started planning attacks. They robbed some rural banks to gain money, and they began working on strategies to start overthrowing small governments."

Ari nodded. "Intelligent. Fracture the country bit by bit to break down its strength. That's a good strategy."

"Yeah, and then Nilus tried to get me to join as well," Sarah continued. "He was…persistent. And persuasive. He used the fact that he had known me most of my life, as well as the fact that he was a few years older and had taught me a lot growing up, to manipulate me into believing his group was the way to go."

"Did you join?" Ari asked.

Sarah shook her head, but she had tears welling in her eyes. "I almost did," she confessed. "He had me hypnotized. When I saw what they were really trying to do, I left, but Nilus did everything he could to get me to stay. Including getting irrationally angry. I had to run, hide out for a few days until he finally left the city. I haven't seen or heard from him in almost eight years, and every day I'm terrified he's going to find me."

"How does your husband feel about this?" Ari asked.

"He's already said if Nilus ever finds us, he's going to kill him," Sarah told Ari. Ari raised an eyebrow, and Sarah continued, "Jack doesn't have patience for people posing a threat to us. He's spent our whole relationship making sure we're safe. And Nilus is the exact opposite of safe."

Ari nodded. "He is determined to protect what's his. I can respect that."

A bright glow caused them both to look around with wide eyes, and Sarah rose to her feet, gripping her assault rifle as she stood in front of Ari.

JACK FOSSE:

Blood smeared its way across the ground. Fires burned from battle scars in the earth. Gibbs lay unconscious, blood soaking his clothes while his rifle lay on the ground next to him. I tried to crawl away, my bow clutched in my hand while arrows had been scattered across the battlefield. Blood ran down the side of my head, and my leg smeared blood across the dirt. Heavy footfalls approached me, and an enormous leg pressed down on top of my back, pinning me against the ground. I grunted in pain and frustration, and the creature roared deafeningly and caused my ears to ring.

The creature opened its mouth, spreading its jaws wide, and metal panels glowed orange before emitting a ball of energy. I struggled, clawing at the ground to try and get away as light washed over me, but the creature's weight prevented my escape. I yelled in dismay, and then a bright blue glow mixed in with the orange. I looked up with wide eyes, and what looked like a large, glowing crack appeared in the air.

The creature's attack disappeared, and it looked at the crack as well. Reality itself seemed to burst open as a large, gaping hole appeared. A figure stepped out–a machine the size and shape of a human. Its wiring brimmed with electricity while its functional components hummed with power. Metal panels spread out across the machine, forming a kind of exoskin around it. Glowing, red eyes peered at the scene, passing from me to the creature. The creature growled, bent low, and it took its foot off me as it braced itself to attack the machine.

Out of the fracture came two more of the same machines, and they stepped calmly around to flank the creature. I scurried away, putting distance between the creature as well as the machines as they stared each other down. The creature growled, but the first machine aimed its arm at it and fired four ropes out of its wrist. The ropes, tipped with metal spikes, hit the ground all around the creature as it recoiled. Electricity surged through the ropes, forming an inescapable field that caused the beast to writhe in pain. I watched with my jaw hanging half-open as the machine kept the electricity going for several seconds.

The electricity field finally dissipated, and the creature swayed on its feet before falling over. The machines made no acknowledgement towards me as they walked slowly towards the creature. Each of the three machines secured ropes around the creature's limbs, and they dragged it through the fracture as all four of them disappeared. The fracture closed, leaving no trace of where they might have gone.

I heard a light groan, and I looked around to see Gibbs sitting up, wiping blood out of his eye. He looked around, seeing the aftermath of the battle. He then looked at me, eyes wide, and said, "What happened?"