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The blood had stopped flowing sometime ago. Now a thick crust of dark red made a crescent on the Keeper's brow. His surroundings came to him in long distorted waves, whites on grays. When he tried to sit up, his stomach lurched violently, nausea ripped through him like a hook through a fish. He flattened his palms against the ground to steady himself, clenched his teeth and looked up, the whites flared and settled back into grays. Standing over him was the S.E.A.B.O.L.T., looking down at him as if he were in an aquarium.

He pushed his tongue against his teeth, squinting up at his captor, "Where am I?"

The S.E.A.B.O.L.T. seemed to grimace, then replied, "You're here."

The Keeper finally got his knees under him, and sat up a little more, reaching up and touching the blood crescent on his head, "What are you?"

Again the grimace, and the Keeper thought it wouldn't reply before it seemed to come to the conclusion, "I am not human."

"Do you know I'm a Keeper? Do you know the penalties for actions taken against a Keeper are severe?" Things were coming into focus again, the pain slowly being replaced by rage.

When Subject: R had infiltrated the Archives in VChicago the Keeper's first instinct had been to strike, but stayed his hand in hopes of following R back from where ever he'd come, taking a chance that he'd be led to more of the rogue agents. It was a risky move, to be sure, there was no guarantee the Keeper would have been able to read R's shift signature well enough to follow it, but it had worked. Officially speaking, the Keeper wasn't supposed to know about the four rogue agents, no one was, but there were few things a Keeper doesn't know, especially Keeper Darnell. The Keepers usually do not concern themselves with the going-ons of VChicago, or Central Zero for that matter; all four subjects would have been safe enough to walk the halls of the Archives until a Controller noticed them for all a Keeper would care. No, a Keeper's life was one of historical duty, intellectual pursuit, mental and physical perfection brought through the faith of their order; their place was not to get involved with the outside world, only to chronicle it, in minute detail. But, one of the rogue agents had made the mistake of taking something from the archives, and that could not go unpunished. And so the Keeper shifted as well, following Subject: R through the hole in the ether, and his gambit had paid off, he had been led straight to Subject: V. He had been about to place both the agents in custody when he had been attacked by something from behind, and the rest was only vague from then until now.

"You claim you are not human?" Keeper Darnell demanded, steadying himself on his feet. "Then you don't care about the consequenses of your actions?"

The S.E.A.B.O.L.T. looked as if he were trying to explain something to a child when he responded, "Caring is for the weak."

The world seemed to skip a beat, the gray flared into brilliant white, a tidal wave of sound crashed against the perception and the Keeper Darnell had wrenched the S.E.A.B.O.L.T.'s head from it's body, the seven-pound apendage left to hang against it's torso, a tether or circuitry weeding out of it's neck.

The Keeper held his palm out, his eyes slits, the Omni Bible's spine made a heavy smack as it landed in his hand, and he was gone.