A/N: Part 2 of Round 3 - Write three chapters with a total of 4.5k words
Word Count: 1.5K
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"My memories? What the hell are you talking about?" Sebastian said, frowning at the mild expression on Solomon's face. How could he look at me like I'm the one who's lost his marbles? Sebastian thought with irritation.
"I'd like to show you something," Solomon said, rising to his feet. "I'm sure this will help explain everything to you."
Sebastian's first instinct was to snarl at the man, but what happened to him earlier was still fresh in his mind. He must find out what those images meant.
"Alright, I'll play along. But if I'm not satisfied with your explanation, I'm gone. Deal?"
"Fair enough," Solomon said, nodding.
"Fair enough? Father, you can't just let him-"
Solomon clamped a hand on Tobias' shoulder, silencing him with a stern look. Sebastian wasn't really interested in Tobias' opinions, but it made him wonder why Solomon had cut him off that way. Was it just because he was fed up with his son's belligerence or was he preventing him from revealing too much? Sebastian added that tidbit to his list of questions to ask later.
"I'm sure Sebastian will find no reason to doubt us after seeing The Machine," Solomon said, smiling beatifically at Sebastian.
"We'll see," Sebastian said, jumping to his feet.
Solomon nodded and walked down the corridor. Sebastian and Tobias walked side by side in silence. When he reached the end, Solomon glanced back at the younger men before turning right. It was very brief, but Sebastian still caught the impish glint in the older man's eyes.
"Try to behave yourself, Chase," Tobias said. "I don't want you upsetting my father unnecessarily with idiotic questions."
Sebastian snorted. "Well, you better refrain from talking, then." He was disappointed when Tobias didn't rise to the bait. Casting a sideways glance at the man to see if Tobias was rolling his eyes at the remark, Sebastian was bewildered when he saw amusement instead of annoyance. Will this man never cease to surprise him?
"We're here," Tobias said, stopping in front of Solomon. Behind the older man was a metal door very similar to a submarine hatch door.
"Are we going underwater?" Sebastian said before he could stop himself.
"No, but we're about to enter a room with a strictly controlled atmosphere," Solomon explained as he slipped paper shoe covers over his gleaming, black oxfords. After making sure that both feet were perfectly protected, Solomon grabbed a pair of white, long-sleeved overalls and stepped into them. Tobias took two pairs of shoe covers and two overalls from the rack and handed one of each to Sebastian. While putting on his protective gear, Sebastian glanced around and took stock of his surroundings.
In his preoccupation with Tobias' fluid demeanor, he failed to notice the glass doors that had slid apart to let him into this small ante-chamber. It was as white as the rest of the hallway and had an antiseptic smell that reminded Sebastian of hospitals. Cold air was blasting from a large overhead vent, cleansing them of unwanted debris. Sebastian followed the two men's example and zipped his overalls all the way up to his chin. Strangely, it seemed to fit him perfectly, like it was actually made for him.
"Are you ready, son?" Solomon asked, peering up at him with a twinkle in his dark eyes.
"As ready as I can be," Sebastian replied with a chuckle. He found that he could never really get mad at Solomon. The Toledano patriarch was just too amiable to dislike.
Solomon gave his son a short nod. Tobias nodded back and slowly turned the valve wheel that served as the door's lock. There was a sharp click followed by a soft hiss. Tobias pulled the hatch door open and stepped over the threshold. Goosebumps broke out on Sebastian's arms, not entirely due to the colder air wafting from inside, but also because of another attack of deja vu. He could swear that he'd been to this place multiple times before. Even the smell, which was different from the antiseptic odor of the ante-chamber, was as familiar to him as his left pinky. It was comforting. It was calming. It smelled like home, though not the one he had just left.
The subsequent minutes were a blur between flashes of images and what was really there. The room was bigger than he had expected. The walls were of the same material as the room he woke up in. Unlike those, however, this room's walls were populated by monitors of different shapes and sizes. Running alongside or above them where thick, chrome pipes that protected hundreds of cables. He couldn't tell how he knew that, he just did. And right smack in the middle of the room was a contraption that was as strange as it was familiar. It was a silver sphere, with numerous prongs and cables attached to its top. It sat on a circular dais where rows and rows of multi-colored buttons, dials, and blinking lights ran around its entire circumference. It looked like something straight from a sci-fi movie.
This couldn't be a prank, Sebastian. It's too damned elaborate!
Not for a sci-fi movie producer.
And do we know any sci-fi movie producers?
Well...
We don't, so shut up.
"This is The Machine," Solomon said, pulling Sebastian out of his internal soliloquy.
"Does it look familiar?" Tobias said, eyes narrowing at him.
He wanted to say that it did, but he didn't. Part of him was still reluctant to jump aboard the Toledano bandwagon. Instead of replying, Sebastian walked over to the machine and knelt down to inspect the dials on the dais. They weren't really dials, but more like...clocks!
"It took us five years to rebuild it. And even then, we didn't know where or when you ended up in," Solomon said.
"Rebuild it? Why did you have to rebuild...whatever this is?" Sebastian asked as he slowly rose to his feet and turned to Solomon.
"Because it was destroyed when you-"
Before Tobias could finish his sentence, he was pulled away into a corner by his father. Their voices were low, but Sebastian could still hear their conversation. Chalk it up to his strangely overdeveloped sense of hearing.
"Tobias, we're not even sure if Sebastian was the one who activated it," Solomon was saying. There was exasperation in the older man's voice.
"Who then? He's the only one who knew the code!"
"The code was compromised, Tobias. There was a breach, remember?"
"Really? Are you sure about that, Father? We only assumed that there was breach when the machine blew up!"
"We knew that the Institute had already infiltrated us. They sent people to sabotage our projects before. We knew they would try to stop the launch-"
"What if he was the one who sabotaged the launch? We shouldn't have trusted him. We should've stuck with your design!"
"His design was far more sophisticated than mine."
"But yours was working just fine! We didn't have to go forward. We were doing okay with it going to the past. Why did we have to change anything?"
"Elizabeth believed-"
"Don't bring her up, Father! I agreed to help you rebuild this thing on one condition. That we use it to find out who...who killed her," Tobias' voice broke.
Sebastian couldn't pretend not hearing anymore.
"Who's Elizabeth?" he asked.
The reaction to his words was instantaneous and not what he had expected. Tobias growled and ran for him. He moved so fast Sebastian didn't have time to sidestep the hard body that collided into him with such fury. He tasted blood the instant Tobias' fist connected with his mouth. He lifted his arms to protect his face from Tobias' pummeling hands, but the man only moved to his sides, abusing his ribs.
"Don't you dare mention her name! Don't sully her name with your filthy mouth! We should never have taken you in! We never should've trusted you! You're a curse to this family! You killed my sister!"
Sister? Elizabeth was Tobias' sister?
"Enough, Tobias! Enough!" Solomon bellowed. He was trying to pull Tobias away from Sebastian, but the younger man was too heavy for him.
Sebastian jerked his legs in an attempt to dislodge the raging Tobias from his midsection. It wasn't as forceful as he wanted but with Solomon's help, Tobias tumbled to the side, giving Sebastian the opportunity to scramble away from him. Normally, he would be kicking the man senseless by now, yet all he did was sit on his ass and swipe the blood from his throbbing lips.
"What is wrong with you?" he snarled at Tobias who was panting heavily, eyes boring holes into Sebastian's banged up face. "Do you always beat up strangers at whim?"
"Unfortunately for me, you're anything but a stranger."
"I just met you yesterday, man! Are you out of your effing mind?"
Tobias laughed bitterly. "Believe me, Chase. Yesterday wasn't the first time I'd laid eyes on your sorry face. I've known you for years."