They fought their way down to Earth, through sheer force of will. Most of them badly injured, only Marc's absolute determination holding them together, keeping them fighting. Keeping them alive. All hope was gone. There was only Marc.

They d-jumped straight into the Auberge, one of their number having visited once, many years ago.

They had to blast walls out of the way to get their crated equipment, weapons, and wounded into the small cavern where the one-way time-gate sat.

It was supposed to be protected, but who'd have thought the Rebellion leaders and the Angel of the Abyss himself would manage to make it to Earth. Everyone had expected them to make a run toward the further planets, and then outward. Who'd have thought they'd come back to Earth!

The six armored ATVs were, they knew, barely small enough to fit into the chamber for the time gate. Their equipment was similarly packaged. That meant they had to hold off all of Earth, all of the coadunate universe,  so they could cycle the time-gate 8 times.

It was Marc himself who would go last, he the one who woke up Madam Gudarian and unceremoniously dragged her down into the cavern. She was a fiesty old bird though.  She looked the leader of the Rebellion in the eye and said, "The world will be well rid of you," with great dignity and set the machine to cycle through.

At the other end, no one expected anything to appear in the Pliocene in the middle of the night. People and supplies were always, always! sent through at dawn, thereby hopefully giving the new residents of the Pliocene time to acclimate and find safety before nightfall.  So, no one was watching the platform as it lit up and translated through millions of years the first ATV.

It rolled off the platform and set up a perimeter to protect what followed.

What followed were crated supplies (all illegal to go through the time gate) and four more ATVS.  The last one, Marc's, would soon follow.  But .. as the others waited, suddenly they were being attacked. Who what?  Aliens?  How did aliens arrive on this far distant Earth? There'd been no warnings of such a thing.  But the Rebels had fought off fiercer enemies and these aliens seemed only armed with primitive weaponry.  Even so they were powerful nonetheless, and operant.  So, when Marc and his ATV came through the gate, there was a full-scale shooting war going on around the time gate. Several aliens fell dead.  Then Marc himself risked death to rescue the survivors in the one damaged ATV.  The psychic attack came at the worst possible second...

Marc screamed, and came awake.

Tabitha jumped.  Reno, sitting beside him, went pale.  "You're hurt!"  Reno accused, moving out of the way as healers swarmed into the room.

Marc's eyes began to clear;  he was breathing heavily, his heart pounding. He raised a hand to his forehead and it came away streaked with blood.

"What is it?" a healer asked, as they tried to dive into his mind to see what ... All they met with was an adamantine wall. None of them could penetrate it.  Tabitha, watching, said nothing at all.

"I..." Marc managed. "A nightmare. I'm fine."

Reno pointed. "Blood!"

But in the wink of an eye the blood was gone.  And the man the Refuge knew as Marc Rogatien sat there, now calm and alert.

"I apologize for upsetting everyone. Merely a bad mem.. bad nightmare."

Stephen had sat through all of this watching Marc. He knew it had been more than a bad nightmare.  But all he said was, "Welcome back to the world of the living. Now tell me where Doni is."

Tabitha, shaking her head at Stephen sent Reno out after some food.  She then checked over Marc herself, gave him water and an enigmatic look he ignored, and withdrew, leaving the two men alone.

Marc, although sitting up, had his eyes closed.

"Tough memories?" Stephen asked.

Marc's eyes opened and he regarded Stephen evenly. "I've some experience in trying to remake the world. The job isn't easy. Nor is it always pleasant."

"No," Stephen said, "I never thought it would be."

"Now, Doni. May I show you?"

Stephen  could feel a probe from Marc into his mind. He nodded.

Stephen saw what must be an edited replay of what he'd been about when he'd been pounding away trying to reach Doni.  He saw the potential destruction his actions might have caused had not Marc began cutting off his sources of power. Then he saw himself bundled into a dark metallic tank of some sort and left to Liam to handle. Then he followed Marc's travels afterwards. Marc, having measured, marked and considered where the fragile end of his bond to Doni ended, returned to where Stephen had been battering away at a 'door.'

It wasn't a door in any real sense, instead it was a wall of energy, or time, or something that stood between Stephen and Doni. Marc was there, examining the doorway, considering it, sending his own probes and shots of energy into it. Nothing dented it. Until... something very subtle and shaped very tightly managed to spiral through.

"You found her," Stephen said when the replay ended at that point.

"Well, I found where the leak is, that you sensed. The doorway there is not just physical. It is dimensional. The area is slightly out of phase with our reality. Someone has to be using a massive amount of power to keep that alignment. I think, if we hit the place right, we can bring down the power grid that supports the science that creates this phasing and get into it.

"It won't be pretty, and it won't be surgical. It'll be ripping a mountain down into its roots, with you grabbing Doni and getting her the hell out of the way while I pull the thing down."

"Have you ripped apart mountains before?" Stephen asked.

Marc instead of telling him, showed him. A view of a rocky peninsula. Delving down into the heart of the mountains, following the geology of the area, finding the weak spot and then pouring in massive amounts of energy. The mountain crumbles and the sea, massive crashing waves, take out the rest of the peninsula, leaving the sea flood a massive shining silver plain.

"That's the plan," Marc said. "I delve under the area where the power is generated. I find the weak spot, blow that, you grab the girl during the ensuing blackout and we get you two safe."

It was now a full 24 hours since Marc had awoken and Stephen had been almost frantic to get him to finally move to get Doni. To make things worse, Marc had disappeared for about 6 of those hours, saying only he had arrangements to make. Stephen had considered, quite seriously, attempting yet another lone attack on the doorway that stood between his bond and Doni.  Only Tabitha had stopped him.

Now, he and Marc, looking fully recovered now, stood on the aerie deck of Marc's home on Home. it was fully dark. The stars were alight. The city below them going about its business as if nothing whatever were amiss. It made Stephen's blood boil to think that someone had kept Doni all these years, doing God knows what to her in the interim.  All the years lost, all the time wasted, and he... he left emotionally crippled and politically feeble because he'd wallowed in his grief, accepting what everyone said, that he had to adjust to Doni being dead.

Yet, at some deep level, he'd known. That was why he'd never healed. That was why he'd obsessed about her, about their bond.  It had been a brilliant strategy to sideline him. It had worked fabulously. Perhaps they'd even given him those tantalizing glimpses now and again on purpose, to torment him further, to castrate him in a way that had to be harder to bear than any other, surely.

He paced, the dialog in his head going round and round, his memories, his bitterness, his overwhelming need...

"Here," Marc said, walking out onto the decking. "Put this on."  As he said it Marc tossed, effortlessly, a black one piece suit at him. When Stephen caught it he staggered under its weight.

"What is this?" Stephen asked, despite himself curious. It looked a bit like the sort of suit pilots used to help them handle G forces. Or astronauts.

"It is designed to thwart psychic attacks against your body. I'll spare you the helmet, as it is painful and hard to get used to. But this will provide a measure of protection should someone come upon you when you are snatching Doni. Keep yourself between any attackers and her and it will also serve as a shield. It can save you from any weapon now available too. High velocity heavy duty weaponry will smart, but will not penetrate the suit. It will keep you whole and alive. No sense rescuing Doni if you end up dead, is there."

Stephen opened his mouth to protest that last, that it was worth his life to save her, but then he closed it again. Marc wanted to change the world. Well, so did he, Stephen.

Marc, Stephen noticed, was wearing a similar outfit.

Reno, who'd come to home with them, joined them on the deck now.  He looked nervous.

"You understand your orders?" Marc asked.

"Yup," Reno replied. "I hold the fort, or die trying.  Got it."

"It is imperative that you find a way to hold them off until you know that Stephen and Doni are back at the Refuge. Then, peel out yourself."

"And you?" Reno asked, casting his eyes down, well away from Marc's.

"I'll be fine. And I'll be extremely pissed if I have to divert any energy to save your sorry ass if you don't follow my instructions to the letter."

"Uh, right," Reno answered.

Marc turned back to Stephen. Stay here until I tell you to join me. Concentrate on your bond, and where it ends. In a few moments you'll feel me inside your head, following that trail to Doni. Come with me mentally. Remain here physically, until I can break take out that powersource and end that dimensional shift. Then, get to her as fast as you can. She'll probably be unconscious so it might not be all that easy to find her," Marc added with a worried frown.

"I'll find her," Stephen said.  He was certain he would, and that certainty rang in his voice.

"Right," Marc said. "Give us 10 minutes, then I'll be ready."

Marc and Reno left him to his thoughts.

In a downstairs room, Marc climbed into a tank, as Reno hooked up computer leads and checked readouts.

"Are you sure you need to use this thing? It makes me nervous," Reno said as he checked the readings one more time.

Marc was snapping on a helmet, and as he settled it onto his head Reno shuddered as he watched hundreds of microscopic needles penetrate Marc's skull. The readouts began to swing wildly for a moment then settled down.

"If I have the extra power why not use it," was Marc's last words as he lay down and a glass dome swung up and over the tank. The tank began to fill with a viscous liquid that had a very unpleasant oder.

"Yes, I know," Marc said into Reno's mind. "One day I will get around to improving the formula on it, but somehow or another there always seems to be more important things to do."

"Right. Well, I'll have the shower hot and waiting for you."

"Right," Marc replied and then vanished.

Up on the decking Stephen had put on the pressure suit. It fit him like a glove. He donned the gloves and the boots and waited, his heart pounding, his fears rising, his needs nearly drowning him in memories and regrets and hopes and...

"Are you ready or are you too busy indulging your emotions?" Marc's voice asked in his head.

"I'm ready, damn you," Stephen hissed.

"I'm off," Marc said and Stephen began to concentrate on that bond and where it ended, and he could feel Marc as if he were a tiny spark following that  winding ribbon of awareness. It was transparent and almost non-existent in places but Stephen's determination would find it again and Marc would go further. Then, they were there.

t wasn't long before Stephen began to lose all awareness of his surroundings.  He staggered and fell into a chair. His eyes saw a landscape nothing like the normal one around him; instead it was filled with shifting colours and raging energies, and half-formed thoughts and deeds. It was all potential, future pluperfect.

Stephen, gazing into that world, could see, as if it were a physical thing, the thread that led to Doni. His awareness dived after it, struggling to keep close to it as it shifted and wavered in that confusing landscape of colours and energies.  It was loose at one end so it could whip around, driven by the shifting currents that constantly altered the landscape.  But he knew he'd found that doorway once, so he persisted.

It seemed like forever that he followed that single strand, that fragile connection to Doni. And he had to concentrate every erg of his own energy on doing it, so he was startled when suddenly he sensed something near him. It blazed golden in the darker landscape. Somehow he knew that was Marc.  Marc, burning up energies both his own and belonging elsewhere, his brain expanded and enhanced somehow, capable of 'seeing' far more than seemed possible.  He seemed to be able to almost predict the currents that tried to shift that fragile thread to Doni away from them, so Stephen concentrated on the thread and let Marc do whatever it was he was doing to speed their passage along it.

Then suddenly the two of them crashed into a barrier that looked intensely black. It was as if it was sucking in all light, all thought, all existence into its blackness. Stephen began to feel despair. Then, he began to gather energy to himself and smite that blackness making it open.

But he found his ability to do this somehow blocked. Again!

And in Stephen's mind he heard, "Save your strength to get her out of here. Wait. Patience!"

And the golden glow that was Marc seemed to dive down, down, into the roots of the planet Home, into the swirling magma and core energies of the planet. Stephen, with a part of his mind, could 'see' Marc sifting through the layers looking for a fault line, a flaw, a trace of unnatural energies woven into the core of Home itself.

When Marc found it Stephen felt his heart leap with hope, energy, anger to fuel his needs and his desires. Doni. They'd find her and release her, he knew this!

And then Stephen was tumbling in a vast whirlpool of energies.  He envisioned reaching out and hanging onto his narrow connection to Doni. He hung on desperately to that thread and the universe they were in seemed to explode into uncontrolled chaos. Stephen at one point saw the blaze that was Marc flare up and then go dead.

The wall between Doni and Stephen crumbled and Stephen leapt forward to reach her, his body, almost without his willing it, suddenly uniting with his awareness.

His body fell to a hard floor. Lights flickered uncertainly. And Marc's voice in his head, "Get her. Quickly. I'm..."  and the voice died away.

Stephen rose, creating a light for himself with his Awakened skills. He stood a moment, questing for that faint thread. There. Back there. He began racing down wide, deserted corridors, full of dark crates or closed and darkened doorways. He rounded one corner and saw blood and gore that was once a living person. Several living persons. Then he found the thread. Doni! he screamed in his mind and transported to where he knew she was.

Reno stood on the decking overlooking the main city of Home. The x-lasers were fired up and ready to take out anyone or anything thing that tried to interfere. Stephen's mostly uninhabited body lay senseless in a chair nearby. Reno scanned the heavens with eyes and senses, searching for someone becoming aware of their activities.

And then... and then the mountain under them seemed to shiver. It heaved as if it had become molten to the core. Reno gasped as he grabbed onto a railing. Otherwise he'd have been thrown over the railing and down a thousand feet to the city below. Stephen's body winked out and that was Reno's cue. He popped back down to the shielded and protected room where the contraption that kept Marc alive sat.

But... the readouts were wrong! The were spinning wildly, and red alarms were blinking, audio alarms wailing. Something was wrong, very wrong. The entire complex then shifted and began to slide downward, the rubble of Marc's aerie beginning to rain down onto the reinforced ceiling of the protected room where Marc's equipment and Reno were both shuddering with the quakes and the din of a world collapsing around them.

Reno hesitated. If he did as Marc said, would that strand Marc in the interstices of dimensional space?  He didn't know. But if he didn't get himself and the equipment out of there they would both end up crushed under a mountain turned to rubble.  So, as he heard in his head the Awakened on Home react in horror to a part of their city shaking itself to pieces and raining down on some of the most densely populated areas of Home, Reno activated the switch that would translate himself and the equipment back to the Refuge.

And poof, they were gone, and he was lying on the floor, feeling like a mass of bruises. The equipment protecting Marc was dead.

Marc knew the moment the equipment he wore and depended on went dead. He could hear nothing, see nothing. He was lost, alone. Either Reno had betrayed him (highly possible as someone else in that position had done it before) or... or the mountain he'd just turned into slag was the one his aerie had sat on.

Ah. Well. A fitting end then.

Tommy had been pacing his office, worrying about what was going on with Stephen and Marc and would they actually bring Doni home. He was trying hard not to chew his fingernails. Reno's were manicured after all.

That was when the calls from Home began coming in. Pleading for all Healers and anyone else who could help to rush there to help with a disaster in the city.

Tommy paled as he thought about that. Had to be related, didn't it?

Then he had Reno screaming into his mind:  "HELP!"

Tommy followed the voice and transported to it to find Reno half dazed, standing outside the shed where they'd stored Marc's mysterious equipment.

There were tears on Reno's cheeks. From pain possibly since one of Reno's arms was hanging a bit crookedly. Or...

"We've got to figure out how to get this equipment back on line. Marc is stuck in there," Reno said as he led Tommy into the vault like affair, the door left open at this point.

"In there?" Tommy repeated looking at the metallic coffin sort of thing with leads hanging out of it.  There were a lot of computer types of things hooked to it and they were all dark. Cables snaked around, many of them broken and snapping with power going nowhere other than into the first person to step on them.

"Yeah. Well, I think so. I think his body is in there. But his mind is, well, wherever the hell it is. Probably on Home still. He's gonna suffocate in there, or... turn to jelly or something if we can't get this stuff working again,"  Reno explained as he tried to manhandle a heavy piece of equipment and push it toward the sarcophagus.

Tommy pushed him aside. And at the same time sent a message to Cal, who was the only person he could think of who might have a clue about all this weird equipment.

Cal arrived, still wearing a shocked look. "All the healers are gone Home. Thousands may be dead there. Can't tell yet... What is this?" he finished as he looked around at the equipment and the black casket in the centre.

"Marc. He's sort of in there. We have to get it running or he's dead,"  Reno replied, going pale as he tried to use his arm.

"Your shoulder is dislocated. Don't use that arm," Cal said.

"Never mind that. Help me!"  Reno yelled. "He risked his life for Stephen now help me!  He's only got a few minutes!  Or we've lost him for good!"

"Okay, okay," Cal said, using his powers to delve into the mysterious equipment and try to make some basic sense of it. Well, he found the power couplings, and spliced them with a quick zap. Then he found the power switch and tried it. He was rewarded with audio alarms and red lights blaring.

"Kill the grey switch there," Reno directed.

The moment Cal did, thankfully the noise at least died out and gave them enough peace and quiet to think.

"Can't we just crack the container open and decant him?" Tommy asked.

"NO!" Reno replied. "He's... He's not all there. We have to get him power to get his mind back in there or .. or..."

"Okay, okay," Cal replied, thinking madly. He began tracing cables and splicing them together as fast as he could. As he did so, some of the red lights began to change to amber.


-----

And somewhere in the depths of space, between the place where Home was and the place where Earth was, Marc Rogatien was trapped in an armour plated body suit that let him move not a muscle.

He studied the situation and began to draw what power he could find from the nearby emptiness. And he slammed the suit against the walls that were holding him in place.  He smacked them, and hit at them, but none of them budged. He just couldn't draw enough juice to break the naturally occuring wall that protected one dimension from another. And he couldn't draw any power from his own equipment. Something must have put it out of commission. He could only hope that someone was trying hard to get it going again. Otherwise he'd die here, frozen and lost forever.

He smiled ironically. It had happened once before, when his so-called allies had purposefully tried to kill him. He drew deeply into himself and shut down all bodily functions not directly affecting his thinking.

----

"Amber. All we're getting is amber," Cal muttered as he had Tommy crawling into the subflooring. "What's going on down there?"

Tommy sent him a picture of the mess that was the even more massive cabling going directly to the machinery. "What the hell?" Cal commented.

"These," Reno showed him, "are to weapons systems. Leave them be. We don't need them now. We need these," and Reno showed him a set of blue cables that fed into the bottom of the sarcophagus.

"Right," Cal said and directed Tommy, squirreling away in the subflooring to zap here, and sap there, and splice that cleanly to that..."

And a whooshing noise marked the sudden startup of the coffin. Fluids began to flow through tubing, and a shushing sounded and red lights began to turn to green.


Marc felt it when his connection to his home base came back on-line. He grabbed every erg of energy from the machinery and transported himself back into the ceroceramic unit in a rush of need.

As he did so the lights dimmed and warning flashes began around Reno and Cal. Tommy, crawled out of the subflooring in time to see the sarcophagus readouts turn red, then orange, then green.

A screen began to flash.  "Translation complete" it read.

"Oh, thank god," Reno said.

He began entering a series of commands into the control panel and the cover became transparent. Inside lay Marc Rogatien covered in a viscous fluid that was draining out of the coffin. Then, as the last of the fluid was gone the cover began to retract.

"Marc?" Reno asked. "Marc?"

The helmet opened up and Cal watched intently as the tiny needle electrodes withdrew from Marc's brain, leaving the usual set of pinprick holes in Marc's skull. This time though the blood flow wasn't as shortlived as it usually was.

Marc's eyes opened.

"What's that stench?" Tommy asked.

"One day I'll," Marc tried to say then passed out.