Well, now we were all in the same body. Locke was always a part of me, of course. Theia had possessed us, then we possessed Jazz. We had very quickly gone from three (technically four) girls riding two dinosaurs, to being one girl (still technically four) with no dinosaurs. That last point was sad, but at least we were safely away from that army of robot dinos. That had been an awful lot of prehistoric cybernetic monsters, and none of us had thought to bring the Aloy girl from that Horizon game.

  On the plus side, this was a good way of helping the other two get caught up on what was actually going on. Not only could we shove information into Jazz’s head as easily as we did with Theia, but I had Locke right there to help answer any other questions they would definitely have.

  And while they were doing all that, I was able to take control of Jazz’s body, with her permission, to keep moving. Those three could focus on a whole Q&A session without making us lose any precious time. Because I really didn’t want either of these warring factions to reach the damn rift.

  So, they discussed everything. Meanwhile, I just made Jazz hop down from the boulder and carefully moved through the jungle toward the sound of fighting. Most of my attention was devoted toward watching out for any more of those dragonfly drones, or any other problems that might decide to jump right out of the trees to attack us again. I was only keeping about ten percent of my attention on what the others were talking about, trusting Locke to deal with it.

  It really was a little weird piloting Jazz’s body. She was just different enough physically for me to feel awkward walking around as her. Especially when I was already nervous about everything. The other girl was a solid six inches taller than I usually was, which was basically the same height as my Jacob self. But that was throwing me off even more because she definitely wasn’t built like Jacob. I kept expecting to walk and balance the way my male-self did, but it wasn’t the same. It was just a lot to get accustomed to while trying to quietly sneak through the thick jungle.

  On the plus side, I had an even better assortment of powers for sneaking around unseen. Not only did I retain access to my item sense ability and my ghosts to play lookouts, making it basically impossible for any of those robots to get anywhere near me, but Jazz had some helpful abilities of her own. Like that mistform, so we could slip through very narrow spaces or just move over ground that was filled with noisy sticks and such without making any noise.

  Beyond that, she also had this fun darkness camouflage power that made her body partially fade whenever she was at least somewhat obscured by shadows, as well as another one that shielded our body heat and other things like that from being detected by any scanners they had.

  It certainly seemed like Jazz had been trying to catch up with Roxa when it came to stacking powers that made it easier for her to sneak up on people. Not that I was complaining at all. They were very useful abilities to have right now. And speaking of useful abilities, my direction sense was doing a nice job of making sure we didn't get lost out in the thick jungle, especially considering how much the noise of all that fighting seemed to be distorted and echoing. It was like the sounds were coming from every direction. Between that and the dense foliage all around us, if we had been stuck depending on that, we probably would've ended up wandering around in circles for so long we'd eventually catch up with whatever time period the next rift was in. And yes, I realized how absurd that was.

  My ghosts were spread out as much as possible through the jungle, keeping their eyes and ears open. They had already spotted more of those dragonfly drones scouting the place, and helped lead us away from those patrols. Not to mention all those much larger robot creatures that were still out there. It seemed like most of them had spread out to search for us, leaving them isolated alone or in pairs. But I didn't even consider trying to attack them like that. There was no doubt in my mind that the second there was any sign of us the entire army would pop up out of nowhere. Whether it was the little drones or one of the larger dinos by itself, avoiding any contact at all was the best move. We couldn't give those people any idea where we were.

  Finally, after carefully winding through the thick foliage of the prehistoric jungle for ten minutes or so, I saw the edge of the treeline up ahead. The sound of fighting had grown louder and louder over those past couple of minutes, until it drowned out everything and made it hard to even think. This wasn't just some simple skirmish. There was a full-on war happening out there.

  Staying low and sticking to the shadows to take advantage of that power, I crept closer so I could see what was going on with my own eyes, even as I was checking through the vision of some of the ghosts as well to get a full view. And what I saw wasn't exactly encouraging.

  First, it was obvious that this wasn't a natural clearing in the jungle. Hundreds of trees and bushes had been practically vaporized by what was probably ship-mounted weaponry, and it looked like all those robot dinosaurs had done a very good job of flattening out what was left. At least, everything that the two hundred foot long, fifty foot wide, fork-shaped ship we had seen take that hit hadn't destroyed on its own as it came crashing down and slid violently across several miles worth of territory before finally coming to a stop against a hill. This whole part of the previously pristine jungle had been completely wrecked by the arrival of these aliens.

  And now there were two very opposing forces carrying out a violent battle in that newly-flattened area. One of those forces were the first aliens we had seen, the ones who had seemed to be working for an intergalactic rare animal collector. They were the lanky, seven-foot tall beings with four arms and blue-green skin. We had only seen six of them before, but apparently there had been a lot more back on their ship, because I saw at least a hundred of those people out on that battlefield who were still on their feet, and plenty of others who were already dead. Yeah, I could sense that too. There was an awful lot of very fresh, very potent death energy out in that field.

  Interestingly, however, it seemed like all of the deaths I could sense came from those particular aliens. No one on the other side had died. No one biological anyway. Probably because no one biological seemed to have set foot on the actual battlefield yet. They had just sent all those robot dinosaurs out to fight for them. There were plenty of those scattered around, some intact while others were… less so. Dozens of broken, smoldering metal bodies littered this whole area.

  After a moment of thinking that, I started seriously considering the possibility that there weren't any biological beings on that other ship at all. Seriously, would that be all that crazy given everything else we had seen? What if this was some sort of Transformers situation? What if those robot dinosaurs weren't the tools of whoever was on that ship, but were the actual crew themselves? That could totally be a thing. Hell, look at Galahad. He was already definitive proof that it was perfectly possible to put a biological mind inside of a cybernetic body. Not to mention advanced artificial intelligences like Andromeda or the Robin System that didn’t require a biological start to work from. The point was, there was really nothing impossible about the idea that the robot dinosaurs out there might actually be the aliens themselves, one way or another.

  Okay, Jazz’s mental voice put in suddenly while I was considering that, I just want to say that if that's actually a real thing, I vote that we side with the race of Dinobots. That's too awesome.

  Theia piped up then. You want to ally yourself with the same creatures who very recently tried to kill you? There was a very brief pause before she continued. Come to think of it, and with an added moment of self-awareness, that is perfectly in keeping with your typical strategy. Carry on. But I will say, if they have harmed a single scale on Bowser’s head, I reserve the right to kill them painfully.

  Belatedly, I realized Bowser was what the girl had named the Allosaur she had been riding. Doug and Shiori had both been getting her to play some of those Mario games before all this happened. Not that it had been going exactly the way they thought it would. Theia actually thought it was horribly unfair that the mean red and green plumber brothers kept rudely intruding every time the poor spiky turtle guy was trying to show the princess how he really felt about her.

  Yeah, that was a whole thing, but now really wasn't the time to think about that. Instead, I simply reassured the girl that the ghosts I had left behind back there were reporting that our dino friends had been left alone as soon as we disappeared. Our pursuers didn't care about them. They just wanted to find us. And if they did, they’d probably try to kill us immediately, which might put a bit of a damper on Jazz’s goal of joining up with the cool robot dinosaur people. But hey, as Theia herself had remembered, it wasn't exactly completely unheard of. As the good Doctor Manakel could attest to himself. I had already ended up with some truly odd alliances.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Looking out over that battlefield between the two alien ships once more, I carefully asked, So, is everyone caught up enough for the moment? Because I kinda feel like if we don't get out there and find that rift before any of these people manage to get to it, the entire timeline will end up being as broken and shattered as the trees that used to be standing right over there.

  I have many things I would like to ask, or talk about, Theia noted casually, but all of it can wait for a better time. I think we know enough for now. You have been even busier than usual.”

  Jazz made a noise of agreement both mentally and out loud. Which, since we were all sharing the same body for the moment, was a little strange. Even more so when she spoke with the mouth. With her mouth, rather. “Yeah, I thought we were caught up enough before, but we were definitely missing a lot. Now… well, I sure as hell hope we have the full story, but like she said, we can talk about it later. I really want to see this Reap--sorry, Ankou Archive of yours. And meet all these other yous so I can see what it’s like to be on a whole island of Flicks. Like Locke.” With that, she added an easy, “Speaking of which, thanks for walking us through all that, Locke. And thanks to, uh, everyone else in there.”

  Don’t worry about it, Locke replied easily, after all, many of us still like the idea of being a reporter like our dad. We might have a lot of distractions, but it's fun to think of how to catch people up with what's going on. Even if the possession thing is a bit of a shortcut.

  With that settled, we all split into our own bodies once more. Well, the three of us who had separate bodies did, anyway. I stepped out of Jazz, staying low in the bushes beside her to avoid attention while looking around until Theia and I spotted a bird in the distance. It was doing its best to give the battlefield a wide berth. Which made me feel a little guilty when the Seosten girl used my silver knife to stab us in the throat. And yeah, it was a strange feeling to begin with.

  A strange feeling? Locke echoed in disbelief. How about a really freaking absurd feeling? This is the Seosten who spent a fair chunk of last year trying to kill our girlfriend, and we’re just cool with letting her literally stab a knife into our throat because we trust her to pass the damage to something else? I mean, yeah I’m right there with you on the trust thing, but still. It’s pretty wild.

  Pretty wild was one way to put it. She wasn’t wrong, this was a lot when I stopped to think about it. Things really had changed so much since last year. Okay, if you thought about it, me being fine with letting anyone stab me in the throat really meant things had just changed a lot, period.

  Still, trusting Theia not to actually kill me aside, I still felt a bit bad as she passed the damage to the bird and we watched it plummet lifelessly out of the sky while Theia appeared next to us.

  “I really hope that bird wasn't important,” I murmured under my breath before focusing on the battlefield. “Okay, so we need to find the rift before any of those people do. It has to be out there somewhere. Fortunately, it looks like they're still busy with each other. But let's not depend on that.” And yes, part of me was worrying about how much would change from these people killing too many of each other over an energy source that hadn't been there originally. What if they were supposed to be doing something else important for the direction of this planet? Like, off the top of my head, what if either or both of their ships were supposed to end up somewhere else for some people to eventually find? Or--hell they were aliens, what if them dying here changed the timeline for the worlds they had actually come from? This might be changing things for another planet too. There were just so many ways that this stupid fight could really screw things up.

  But do we know that it wasn't there in the timeline we're accustomed to? Locke pointed out quickly. Maybe this is still completely normal to our timeline. It could just be the way things went as far as our reality is concerned. We don't know if these rifts are actually a change at all.

  That was a fair point. Plus, it wasn't like we could change anything about it now anyway, so it really wasn't worth obsessing over. We were just going to have to do the best we could and hope that everything worked out the way it was supposed to. There really wouldn't be any way to tell just how much was changing, if anything, until we eventually made it back to our own time. For the moment, we had to deal with what was in front of us. Namely, two alien groups fighting over the rift. A rift that I was pretty sure neither of them understood. They had just sensed the energy and were having a big spat over it. Like people fighting over a damn gold mine or oil well.

  A gold mine or oil well that they don't realize has a nuclear bomb under it, Locke put in with what sounded like a grimace. Mostly because they don't even have the concept for nuclear bomb.

  Theia had been studying the battlefield ahead of us that whole time. Finally, she spoke up. “They all appear to be trying to keep one another away from that lake directly behind the robots’ ship. It's the only thing both sides are paying attention to besides just killing each other.”

  I looked that way, not with my own eyes, but through a couple ghosts who had snuck around. Sure enough, there was a small lake behind that crashed ship. And it really did look like these guys were pretty intent on both getting to it, and stopping each other from doing so. That had to be what we were looking for. We just had to get to it first to send me through. Which, since they were all being nice enough to distract each other, might even be possible if we played this right.

  I was just starting to think that maybe we shouldn't have separated already so we could use that mist form to get across the battlefield without being seen. But I wasn't sure there would be anything to kill down there so Theia could get out of me before I went through the rift. A fish, maybe? Either way, there was no way to know if her possessing me when I stepped into that thing would be fine or turn out very poorly. Given the stakes we were dealing with, it was probably a good idea to just not test anything like that now. No matter how much part of me was seriously itching to get some fresh, tasty new data. No, this wasn't the time to test things.

  Jazz spoke up slowly, voice hesitant. “Maybe we can go the long way around and come up on the other side of the lake where they're not paying as much attention? We'd just need to hurry.”

  My head shook. “Nah, don’t worry, I can get us over there, no problem. I was just worried about all of them dogpiling us before we could get under the water given how much attention they’re paying to it, but now that I think about it, maybe I can teleport us under the water to begin with.”

  The other two exchanged looks at that. But since I had shared everything with them already, I didn't need to explain what I meant. Instead, they just stepped in closer. Which wasn’t really necessary, but I appreciated the gesture of trust. I had just told them I was going to try to teleport us across an active battlefield and underneath a lake, and they reacted by stepping closer to me instead of backing off. It wasn’t quite ‘let someone stab you in the throat so they can stop possessing you,’ but still.

  This was going to be interesting. I had never tried to teleport straight from land to being underwater before at all, let alone with the added stress of possibly being shot at if I screwed it up. It was… yeah, here went nothing. We really didn’t have time to practice. So, I just told the others to activate their underwater breathing spells, did the same myself, and focused on the spot right around the middle of the lake, visible through one of the ghosts who was floating invisibly just above the crashed ship.

  Here went nothing. Or, to be more accurate, here went all of us. With that simple thought, I instantly transported us not only to that spot, but about fifteen feet under it. Just like that, we were underwater. It was actually easier than I’d even hoped it would be. I’d expected to maybe have some sort of problem with teleporting under a surface like that, even if it was just water. But nope, the second I focused and made my intention clear, there we were. My breathing spell took just a moment to kick in, and then I was looking around, taking in what I could see. Theia and Jazz were right beside me, so going into water hadn’t thrown that part off either. Good to know.

  More impo--okay not more importantly, having both of them safely here was definitely important. Equally importantly, it wasn’t hard to tell where the rift was from here. Mostly because there was some sort of large, fancy submarine parked right underneath us, at the bottom of the lake. The thing was shaped like a stingray with a glass top, and it was sitting over a large crack, about thirty feet long and three or four feet wide, on the lake floor. Given the waves of distortion I could see emanating out of that crack, I was going to guess that that was where the rift was. And jeez, if we were already seeing waves of energy like that, this had to be a powerful rift. Were they all that strong?

  Oh yeah, and then there were the underwater robot dinosaurs swimming around the crack, like they were guarding it. Dozens of the things were making sure nothing came near, and I saw another couple go swimming out of the bottom of that submarine. So whoever owned that thing was definitely in control of the robots. But who were they?

  As if in response to my silent question, Jazz grabbed my arm and pointed down to one part of the dome in the large submarine. Which--yeah, my question was definitely answered. In a way that raised so many more. Because bustling around on what appeared to be the bridge of the submarine, clearly controlling the robots out there, were several grayish-green, skinny aliens with bulbous heads and oversized eyes.

  Fomorians. The aliens controlling the robots were Fomorians from long before they had been taken over by Cronus. Like, over a hundred million years before that time. They were the original, pre-Cronus Fomorians, right here on Earth. But… but… what?

  What?

  What!?

  Joke Tags: Killing The Bird Led To The Complete Erasure Of That Character The Audience Hated! Good Riddance To York Agnew. Of Course You Don’t Remember Him? He Was Erased!