“What have we done?” moaned Kepa. “We need to go back and get Maite.”

Marina was half pulling, half dragging him through yet another dark tunnel. Kepa didn’t know where the others were, if Marina had simply abandoned them too. All he knew is that his stomach was revolting against him with the thought of Maite lying on the cold stone floor.

“And what?” asked Marina in a biting voice. “Get caught ourselves? How would we be able to help anyone if we get caught too?”

Kepa pulled his arm free of Marina’s grip. “When did you get so cold? The Marina we met seemed much more… compassionate.”

Marina sighed, her shoulders slumping as she did. Kepa saw her face soften in the flickering light of the drone that floated above them, guiding them through the tunnels. “I’ve been doing this a long time. Fighting de Lancre, looking for the zatiak. Living through these… what did Maite call them? Bubbles? And when they pop, everything is undone. It’s hard to see the people or the things that happen in these bubbles as real.”

“They are real to us,” said Kepa, rubbing his chest where Donny McCowen’s bullet had pierced his heart. “Just look at you. You’ve changed. You’ve let them change you. Even if the people in the bubbles don’t remember what happened, you do.”

“Egia da. That’s true. And I’ve lived through so many of these. How many have you lived through?”

“This is our third bubble.”

“Three?” Marina laughed. “I can’t even remember my third. That was so long ago.”

“How many have you done?”

Marina’s eyes wandered absently for a moment. “At least one hundred, I think.” She shrugged. “I’ve lost count.”

“A hundred?” exclaimed Kepa. “How many zatiak are out there?”

“Too many. I feel like I’ll never finish.”

“I can understand how you can become jaded, doing this over and over, watching friends and family die, only to do it all over again. It has to wear you down.”

Marina nodded. “Bai. But, you are right. It is no excuse for becoming so cold. If I lose my humanity chasing these zatiak, it isn’t worth it.” She turned to Kepa, the weak smile on her face betrayed by the sadness in her eyes. “It’s good to have your… optimistic perspective.”

“You can say it. I’m naive. Maite often says so.”

“Optimistic, naive, idealistic. Whatever you call it, don’t lose it. It will keep both you and Maite sane during this ordeal. Now, let’s get to the safe house and figure out how we will rescue her.”

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“What’s going on?” asked Kepa as the robed figures scurried from station to station.

“We’re getting ready to evacuate,” replied Marina. “They are getting too close and we can’t afford to be caught, not a single one of us.”

“Where will we go?” asked Maite. 

“We have several spaces like this scattered in the underground across the city, with advance scouts to keep them prepped in case we need them. We’ll be ok, but we need to clear this one out and leave as little usable evidence as possible. They can’t find out who we are or where we are going next.”

Maite and Kepa watched as Argia dismantled her monitor system. Rather, as it folded in on itself, the edges coming together, the screens curling and folding up, until ultimately collapsing to a small cube about the size of a Rubicks cube from their own time. The rest of the equipment in the hall was doing something similar. 

“That’s amazing!” began Kepa.

“Shh!” warned Marina. “This is all pretty standard stuff for this time. No one from this time would be surprised by it.”

Maite nodded, the wonder still visible on her face. “It’s still pretty cool.”

Marina let a smile crack her grizzled face. “It is. Consider that I grew up in a time where lighting came from fire and stories came out of the mouths of elders.”

“We’re ready,” barked a man that Kepa recognized by voice to be the one who had drug him here and he assumed was Marina’s right hand.

Marina nodded. “We’re going to checkpoint dorrea. You all know what to do. Go your separate ways, reconvene there in…”

An explosion interrupted Marina’s orders as the doors to the hall burst from their hinges and erupted into a million pieces. Within moments, three uniformed officers on hoverboards burst into the room, followed by multiple spherical drones.

“Nola? How?” bellowed Marina but before she could get an answer, the drones were swarming the room, bolts of energy firing in all directions. 

Marina grabbed Kepa and Maite’s arms. “This way!” she yelled, pulling them to the desk as some of the robbed figures huddled behind tables, firing their own weapons back at the spheres that rolled through the air above them. Other drones spewed smoke that sunk into the room. The smoke stung their eyes as they half followed and were half dragged by Marina toward the desk.

As Marina led them back to her desk, it suddenly moved aside, revealing stairs that went down into inky blackness. 

“Come!” she hissed, pulling Kepa’s arm so hard he thought she might dislocate it. He turned to grab Maite’s hand when a bolt of energy hit her in the back. She immediately fell to the ground.

“Maite!” screamed Kepa as he jerked his arm free of Marina and rushed to Maite’s side.

Maite lay on the ground, looking straight up at him. “I can’t move my legs,” she said, tears flowing down her cheeks. 

Marina grabbed Kepa’s arm again. “We have to go! Or they’ll catch all of us.” She looked down at Maite. “We’ll find you.”

“Zer?” cried Kepa, anguish carved in his face. “We can’t leave her here!”

“And we can’t carry her either!” barked Marina back at him. “Your leg isn’t fully recovered, and she can’t move. If we don’t go now, they’ll catch us too.”

Kepa looked pleadingly at Maite, tears filling his eyes.

“Go! Zoaz! I know you’ll find me, if not in this bubble, in the next” said Maite.

Kepa nodded, wiping tears from his eyes as he rushed down the stairs with Marina. Maite watched as the desk moved back to cover their escape.

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100 episodes?!? Who would have thought! I have no idea who might still be reading this, but if you are and you enjoy it at all, I’d love to hear from you!

“In this time,” began Olatz/Marina as they walked toward a large monitor screen that was manned by a young woman, “he has called himself Zalazar, a bit ironic as Salazar was one of the few who resisted the persecution of the Basque witches.” 

Turning to the young woman, Marina continued. “This is Argia. She is our primary eyes out there, watching the government’s movements, looking for any glimpse of Zalazar.” 

The young woman, who was dressed in the same robe as everyone else but had her hood pulled down to reveal her bright blond curls and her dark eyes, looked up at them. “I haven’t seen any hint of him for quite some time,” she said. “Though there has been some extra activity at his home.” Argia pointed at one of the video feeds on her large monitor, which was covered by hundreds of different windows that flickered back and forth with images. The one Argia pointed to showed the top of a tall tower. On the roof, there were a number of the spherical drones flying back and forth, landing and taking off continuously. “There are more drones than normal,” continued Argia, “though I haven’t seen more people.”

“I’m sure they are huddled in their tower,” said Olatz/Marina. “Keeping their hands clean, so to speak.”

Maite looked over the huddled robed figures spread out through the hall and then at Kepa with her eyebrow raised. Kepa simply shrugged.

“How are you able to watch de Lancre, I mean, Zalazar’s place, so closely?” asked Maite. “Don’t they see you watching them?”

“Argia is hacking into their video systems, so we are watching them through their own drones. We have our own drone nearby, though not so close as to be in visual distance, that receives the feeds from Zalazar’s drones and sends them to us.”

“That’s pretty clever,” said Kepa.

Argia smiled at him. “Thanks! It wasn’t that hard, really. Sometimes, those in power get a little too overconfident in their own abilities.”

“You are too modest,” said Marina. “Argia is one of the premier computer scientists of the country. She is a literal genius when it comes to computer systems.”

Kepa noticed Argia blush as she turned away and back toward her monitors. 

“Anyways,” continued Argia, “beyond the extra drone activity, I haven’t seen anything else of note.”

“I suspect that activity is due to our new friends here,” said Marina. “Can you tell where they are going?”

“Not from this,” said Argia. “Our drone only receives feeds from the drones in the area. But,” she continued as she pointed to another video feed, “there is more activity in the plaza where we found these two.”

One of the video windows centered on the monitor and grew. Maite recognized the plaza where they had encountered the woman on the hoverboard. The plaza was filled with drones and several other uniformed people who were scouring the area. 

“They are looking for a way in,” said Marina with a sigh. She turned to the hall, her voice filling it as she spoke. “Everyone, we are in code Gorria. Be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.”

Murmurs filled the hall as all of the robed figures began to scuttle from one station to the next.

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“Olatz…?” began Maite.

The woman smiled at her. “Marina. I’m in here.”

“Marina, then. What is this place?”

Marina/Olatz looked out beyond where Maite and Kepa were sitting at the array of people working at their various desks and stations. She sighed. “It’s the resistance.”

“Resistance?” asked Kepa. “Against what? It seems so perfect out there. So clean. So lush. All of the technology is wonderful.”

Marina nodded. “On the surface, it certainly is. And, admittedly, almost everyone lives a health, productive life. But there is an element of control to make all of this happen. The cost of all of this is a loss of autonomy, of privacy.”

“So, you’d all rather throw all of this away to be able to do… what, exactly?” asked Maite.

Marina shrugged. “That’s the thing. It doesn’t matter. We just want the freedom to live our lives without oversight. You saw those drones at the airport. The second anyone steps out of line, there they are. We are always being watched.”

“What do you mean, we, anyways?” asked Kepa. “You aren’t even from this time.”

“No, that’s right,” continued Marina, “but I’ve spent a lot of time here. And de Lancre has been here for a while too.”

“You said that,” said Maite. “Where?”

“He’s part of the government. In fact, all of this surveillance grew when he appeared in the timeline. I believe it’s all because of him and his search for the zatia.”

“Ah,” said Maite, a smile crossing her face. She turned to the group of people behind her. “I think I understand. You don’t care about any resistance. They are your way of finding the zatia, of fighting de Lancre.”

Marina scowled. “Of course I care. This body, Olatz’s body… it is my flesh and blood. I want a future that is better for her.”

“But, you would sacrifice them all in a heartbeat if it meant getting that zatia.”

Marina’s scowl deepened as her face turned red. “What would you have me do? Sacrifice all of reality for them, when the moment we find the zatia it will all reset and they’ll never even know?”

“No, I understand,” said Maite. “Just don’t try to dress your motivations in this noble cause. It’s unbecoming.”

Marina stood, her face scrunched in anger. Some of the resistance fighters closer to where they sat noticed and began murmuring, pointing at Marina, Maite, and Kepa. Marina let out a long breath and sunk back into her chair.

“I’ve been doing this too long,” she said. 

“Look,” interrupted Kepa. “We know how it is. Well, at least a little. It’s hard not to view all of the people in these bubbles as something expendable, when we know the bubble will pop when we find the zatia. But they are still real lives. We have to treat them like real people.”

“De Lancre doesn’t,” replied Marina. “And if he wins…” She left her thoughts unsaid.

Maite nodded. “It will suck. But we can’t allow ourselves to sink to his level. We can’t dehumanize ourselves. Or any victory will be for nought.”

“I used to share your optimism, so many lifetimes ago.” Marina stood again, this time her face calm. “I’m glad you are here. I needed to reconnect with reality.”

Maite nodded as she stood. “So, where is de Lancre exactly?”

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The ladder led down into a subterranean room that, while seemingly ancient, was filled with technology that Maite could never have imagined. The walls were brick, their edges work with age. Bits of mortar flaked off. Maite wondered if the walls could actually support all of the massive infrastructure she had seen above them. The ceiling was high and curved, with arches sweeping across. Maite couldn’t tell if they were decorative or functional.

Lights hung down from the ceiling, illuminating desks and chairs that were filled with people. If Maite hadn’t known better, it almost looked like an office cubicle. Most desks contained someone madly typing away on empty air, or gesticulating on invisible screens in front of them. Others were huddled around what seemed to be some kind of coffee maker. At the far end there was a larger desk with chairs arranged around it. Maite could see someone stand up from behind the desk as she descended the ladder. In fact, all eyes were turned to her.

Her feet hit the ground and she stepped aside as her guide came down next to her. “Over there,” it whispered, pointing to the large desk. The man who had taken Kepa was already leading him in that direction. Maite nodded and followed, keenly aware of all of the people watching her. She noticed that most didn’t wear the flamboyant costumes she had seen on the surface. In fact, most were covered in non-descript robes that hid most of their features. She couldn’t even tell which were male and which were female.

The man half carried, half drug Kepa to the large desk and laid him more gently than Maite expected in one of the large chairs encircling the desk. The figure Maite had noticed before moved around to greet them. “Kaixo!” she said, a smile spread across her puffy face.

In contrast to all of the others in the room, this woman did not wear a cloak, though she was not dressed in any spectacular garb. She was overweight, her clothes, a relatively simple ensemble of a white button-down shirt and black pants, were a little tight against her large frame. Her hair had gone grey with age, though there was a twinkle in her eye that Maite instantly recognized.

“Marina?” she gasped. Kepa, still distracted by his non-functioning leg, looked up, smiling in recognition.

“Marina?” repeated the shadowy figure that had ushered Maite through the tunnels and now stood by her side, shaking its head. “This is Olatz, our leader. Show some respect.”

The woman called Olatz winked at Maite before turning to the figure next to her. “No need to be rude. I’m sure they are a bit disoriented, after all of the commotion. Give us a moment, would you please?”

The figure turned seemingly to look at Kepa and then Maite, though Maite couldn’t see into the hood to actually discern any features. With a huff, the figure and the man that had helped Kepa gave a nod to Olatz before leaving.

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