"Forgive us sir, but are you the real deal?" Kensi asked.
"Real deal?" Vance said.
"With all due respect sir, about a month ago we encountered a V.I. that was fashioned after you." I said.
"That thing is still in use?" Vance asked.
"Yes, sir." Callen said.
"I told Hetty to decommission that thing years ago." Vance said.
"Well, sir, it seems that the thing still has it's uses." Sam said.
"That it does. I'm sending coordinates for you to land. I'll get the details when you arrive." Vance said, and then motioned off screen for someone to cut the feed.
"Got the coordinates." Sam said, and then plotted a course to the pad.
As we were approaching the pad we could see Director Vance and his council of advisors waiting for us.
"It's been too long." Vance said, after we all had stepped off Callen's ship.
"Too long it has." Sam said.
"Question for you: Do we still call you Director Vance, or can we just call you Vance?" I asked.
"You will show our leader the utmost respect given the position he holds." One of the advisors said.
"Director Vance it is." I said.
"For the time being, just address me as Director Vance." Vance said.
"Noted." Kensi said.
"If you follow me, I will tell you what I have learn since coming out here." Vance said, and then turned and walked away.
Two hours later, after taking a shower and putting on fresh clothes, we met Director Vance in his command center for a brief and debrief.
"I know that the reason that you are out here is because you are looking for the Omega clearance code. I'm also aware that the code has been split up into three sections." Vance said.
"That's the going theory." Callen said.
"And that's were our information ends." Sam said.
"Your information begins." Kensi said.
"I have good news, and I have bad news." Vance said.
"You know I like my dessert first." I said.
Director Vance's council looked at me sideways, but Director Vance did not miss the meaning.
"I found two sections of the code." Vance said.
"Please tell us that it isn't in any settlement?" I asked.
"No, it's in the middle of cannibal territory." One of the advisors said.
I give off a face of thoughtful contemplation while Sam said. "How is that going to help us, Deeks?"
"It's in No Man's Space, as opposed to deep inside some impenetrable strong hold." Callen said.
I chuckled, and then said. "Give me ten good men, and I'll impregnate the whore."
"Crude, but effective." Vance said.
"That's not the exact quote, but I'll let it slide." Kensi said, chuckling as well.
"Where in No Man's Space is it exactly?" I asked.
"Here." Vance said.
One of the people in the center brought up the map, and then zoomed in onto the spot where the ship crashed.
"How far is it from the front line?" Kensi asked.
The map pulled away from the ship, and then showed where the main area where the two sides where fighting.
"Got a stupid question, but are there any raiders in the area?" I asked.
"As of right now, no." Vance said.
"But that could have changed since the ship went down." Sam said.
"Bingo." I said.
"No because the raiders have had bigger fish to fry." One of the aids said.
Next thing we saw was the raider outpost, and there was activity. A lot of activity.
"Are the raiders being accosted by the Aeons?" Kensi asked.
"Yes." Vance said.
"How long that been going on?" Callen asked.
"Since our ship went down about a week ago." Vance said.
"Can I get a look at the two lines of code that you have a acquire so far?" I asked.
"Bringing it up on screen." Vance said.
"For your eyes only." I said.
Director Vance gave a sideways glance, and we locked our eyes for a good minute before he said. "Everybody out of the room."
"But sir." The council began.
"No exceptions." Vance said.
There was a lot of grumbling, but the room emptied out.
"What was that all about?" Vance asked.
"There's a reason Hetty gave Deeks that body, sir." Sam said.
Director Vance brought the code fragments up on the screen, and I scanned them. After scanning it I shut down to do the work uninterrupted.
"What's going on?" Vance asked.
"Deeks is scanning the code, and he wants to do so without any interruptions." Callens said.
"Does he do that often?" Vance asked.
"No, I don't." I said, returning to the group.
"That was fast." Sam said.
"We have a rat in the nest." I said.
"How can you tell that?" Callen asked, and Director Vance nodded his agreement.
"These are the codes that you gave me." I said, and then put the two-code sections on the screen.
"Okay." Vance said.
"Here is the code when you first got it, and here is the code in it's current state." I said.
I showed a timelapse view of the code changing over time. Everyone could see the tampering in the code.
"Do you have any idea what this means?" Vance asked.
"Nope. I just know that someone has tampered with the code." I said.
"Think Eric and Nell could make heads or tails of it?" Kensi asked.
"I don't know why they wouldn't be able to." Callen said.
"Honestly, we should call them in before we complete the code." Sam said.
"We should also get the last section before doing that." I said.
"I can see the change, but how do we know that the third section hasn't been tampered with." Sam said.
"Deeks." Callen said.
"Yeah." I said.
"What if the code isn't tampered with in the classical sense." Callen said.
"What are you saying that it has something written into the code?" Sam asked.
"Why not?" Callen asked.
"Checking the code for any written, or playable message." I said.
It took me a minute, or two, but I found what we were all looking for. I put it up on screen for everyone to see.
"What are we looking at?" Kensi asked.
"Coordinates." Sam said. My sensors were picking someone right outside the door, I signaled to Callen to take over.
"What are you—"
I shushed Kensi, and then stepped out of the room. Everybody carried on with a conversation, until I came back in with the interloper.
"It seems you found our rat." Vance said.
I sent an electrical shock through the person's body, which caused the man to writhe in pain.
"Deeks was that necessary?" Sam asked.
The next thing we all saw was fried equipment falling off his body.
"Director." I said, handing him over to Vance.
"Security!" Vance said, and a security detail came in. "Take this person to the brig. We'll deal with him later."
The man was escorted out of the room, and then Kensi asked. "Now, where were we?"
"The coordinates are to a location in Unknown Space." I said.
"Do we know what's at the exactly location?" Callen asked.
"No, but let's access this message that is attached to them." I said.
There was a moment of silence while I brought the message up.
"If you want to complete the Omega clearance, you must come to my tomb and get it." A distorted voice said.
"Can you tell who it was Deeks?" Vance asked.
"Do I have to answer that?" I asked.
Most scanners wouldn't have been able to cut through the distortion, but Hetty gave me the top equipment in the galaxy for such moments.
"Give us your best guess." Sam said.
"First guess is it's the man who extended our lives beyond their natural limits." I said.
"And…" Kensi asked.
"His name is Albon Crowley. Though I've heard rumors he had a sadistic streak in him." Vance said.
"What's our play?" Kensi asked.
"The four of us will go visit Crowley, while Director Vance gets in touch with Hetty." Callen said.
"We're going to have to do things differently." Vance said.
"How do you propose we do that, Director Vance?" Sam asked.
"Deeks and Blye will go visit Crowley, while the three of us head back to the Core systems to get the necessary preparations in place for when they return." Vance said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kensi asked.
"This isn't a discussion. On top of it, it was Hetty's plan anyways." Vance said, and then exited the room.
"Again, Hetty gave Deeks that body. Must be something only he can do." Sam said, and then the partners exited the room.
"Let's go princess." I said.
I saw Kensi bristle at me calling her princess but laughed it off. Kensi and I looked each other in the eyes, but she cut me off.
"Later." Kensi said.
"Kill joy." I said.
Kensi took my hand, and then gently rubbed the back of it, winked at me, and then exited.
"I love it when she plays hard to get." I said.
Kensi had been stopped as I exited the room.
"Director Vance has instructed me that I take you to the ship that you are use for the upcoming mission. If you would follow me, please." The woman said.
"By all means, lead the way." I said.
The woman took us on a winding path through the bowels of the building, deeper than I thought was possible.
It was a good thirty minutes when we finally got to the ship that we were supposed to use. I was little taken back by the design.
"I see that you noticed the ship, and the paint job that we had given it." A voice from behind us said.
Kensi and I both turn to see Director Vance behind us, coming to give us a private brief of the mission we are about to leave for.
"It's a RS Senonian frigate, but the design is that of an occultist." I said.
"Good eye, Investigator Deeks. Albon Crowley is the long descendent of Aleister Crowley." Vance said.
"I didn't realize there were still remnants of that man walking around." I said, swallowing hard.
"That's not common knowledge Deeks." Kensi said.
"Albon isn't into the occult. From the reports, he just like the paint job." Vance said.
"Is there anything else we need to be aware of before heading out?" Kensi asked.
"Take these." Vance said, handing us a nondescript cylindrical object.
"Are these standard issue among the occult?" I asked.
"No, but we are going need you to surrender you weapons before leaving." One of Vance's aids said, joining the conversation.
"It's okay Kensi." I said
Both of us had a mental flash back to the time we had gone undercover in the cult back on Earth ages ago. We surrendered our weapons and took the cylindrical objects we were given.
"I take it you are familiar with this item?" The aid asked.
"Yeah." I said.
"I'm not." Kensi said.
"I'll fill you in on the way to the Albon." I said to Kensi. I looked at Director Vance and asked. "Where is the rendezvous location after we get the final fragment?"
"The coordinates are in the Nav computer. Just enter the three-five-nine-delta-echo-indigo into the computer, and then jump to hyperspace." Director Vance said.
"See you on the other side." I said, and then Kensi and I bordered the ship.
Star Ocean-
Sam and Callen were already heading back to the core ahead of Director Vance. The partners were silent, but they were mostly thinking about the other half of their team.
"We both know they're going to be okay." Sam said.
"I know." Callen said.
"Let the love birds be without worrying. I wouldn't be surprised if Hetty has remote access for when Deeks tries to download the last code fragment." Sam said.
"I wouldn't put that past Hetty either." Callen said.
Star Ocean-
Kensi and I were laying naked in a tangled mess on the bed when another memory escaped from the dark recesses of my mind.
"What?" I asked.
"You know, if we do this, this changes everything." Kensi said.
"So, what do you wanna do?" I asked.
"I don't wanna have to choose." she said.
"Then don't. Then don't choose." I said.
"You know, that's not how it works. What do you think's gonna happen?" she asked.
" I don't know. I don't care." I said, shaking my head.
Kensi was on the verge of tears as she asked. "What are you doing to me Deeks?"
Kensi leaned to kiss me, as I said. "I'm falling in love with you."
"I love you too."
My pupils went pinpoint, and then went back to normal size. I took me a moment to realize that it was another one of memories had slipped free, and Kensi, God bless that woman, she took this memories intrusion in stride. I see the seductive smile that I haven't seen since I stayed behind to buy people time to flee, and the bough broke. I just broke down in tears, which scared Kensi.
We just lay there, not speaking, but just existing. After I had cried myself out, we kissed and then drifted off to sleep.
A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is a month late, but I'm losing my desire to continue writing stories. I have no intention of rushing this story to completion, but it is a struggle completing it. I was hoping to put this note in a much later chapter, but that's no longer feasible. I'm going to complete this story as organically as possible, but this will be my last story.