Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 654: The rifts.

Wilbert leaned back in his chair, the Solmiri imposter looking at the young Repairman with a flicker of something that might have been respect. He had assumed that she would put her family in that pocket dimension every repairman had and then find them a new home in another world.

The solution to all of her problems was very simple, yet she insisted on saving the rest of her kind. They had ruined their own world, were they worth saving? Once again, he thought of another trait the repairman council liked to see when recruiting; determination.

Classic repairman, she just had to find a way to fix her world! Whatever, it is her grave, he thought.

"The rifts," he said simply. "The gateways they use to send the monsters and the mist are still open. If you can find them and close them, you cut off their access to your world. You make the game too difficult for them to continue. They are bullies, Sunshine. If the toy breaks or becomes too hard to play with, they’ll move on to a different world."

He paused, a small, sad smile touching his lips. "You’re a good Repairman, aren’t you? So, do what you were trained for. Find the holes in your world... and fix them or in this case, close them permanently."

"So simple." Nine laughed. They had been agonizing over this!

Sunshine stood up, her jaw set. The fear was still there, but beneath it, a cold, hard resolve was beginning to form. "Where the hell do I start from? Do you have any ideas? The sooner I end it, the better."

Wilbert stared at Sunshine, and for the first time, the coldness in his eyes cracked. A wave of guilt, heavy and suffocating, washed over him. He looked at the maps of Earth_ a world he had helped break. Years ago, back on Xylos, he had been the lead architect of a manual: a ’Guide to Biological Destabilization.’ He had designed the templates for the very creatures now tearing through Sunshine’s home. He had been a coward, staying long after he knew the horror of his work, fearing for his own skin until he finally faked his death and fled to this flower-covered rock.

"I’m sorry," he whispered, so low Sunshine almost missed it. He shook himself and pulled up a detailed map of Earth on the glowing monitors. "You see these dark marks? These ink-blots on your geography. Those are the rifts."

He zoomed in on a massive, swirling vortex located somewhere in the East. "This one... this is the Mother Rift. It’s the primary artery. If you want to stop the bleeding quickly, you concentrate on this one first."

Sunshine didn’t wait. She didn’t have time for a tour. "System, she thought sharply, access Wilbert’s files. Copy everything. Don’t leave a single byte behind." She had to take the data with her because she did not have many chances to return to Solmiri.

It was not one of the worlds she had access to at her level.

Immediately, the room turned red. The monitors began to flicker with jagged warning signs, and a high-pitched alarm wailed through the small house.

"You could have just asked, Sunshine," Wilbert said, his voice completely calm as he tapped a few keys. The alarms died instantly. "No one can hack my system. Not even a Repairman’s system. I am the most dangerous tech and bioengineer currently drawing breath. They didn’t call me a genius back home because I was good at math; they called me that because I created the impossible."

His fingers danced across the control board, manually authorizing the data transfer. "There. Your system has the maps now."

Nine, who had finally stopped clutching his stomach, looked at the sophisticated tech and then back at the Wilbert. His mandibles twitched with worry. "Wilbert... if you’re supposed to be in hiding, won’t this trigger something? If the Xylas find out you’re helping us, they’ll turn this mountain into a crater.....this world...."

Wilbert smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression. "The Xylas think I died in a laboratory explosion years ago. As long as the two of you keep your mouths shut, I’m just a grumpy purple flower man in a garden."

Sunshine’s eyes widened. She got a sudden, violent case of the hiccups_ a sure sign her brain was trying to process too much information. "So... you are... you aren’t a Solmiri at all, are you?"

"I am a Xylas," Wilbert said. He reached up to his head and pulled. With a wet, suction-like sound, the long, tattered purple ears came off. Then, he peeled back a thin layer of camouflaging skin from his face. He shed his robes, revealing a body that looked like a strange, human-shaped gecko, but without the scales. He was smooth, pale, pink and possessed a long, twitching tail that whipped back and forth. His eyes were too big for his face, his fingers webbed together.

He was an odd mix of cute and weird at the same time.

The room was silent for exactly three seconds. Then, Sunshine and Nine burst into simultaneous, hysterical laughter.

"You’re... you’re a giant lizard!" Nine howled, pointing at the tail. "You have a tail! You called me ugly when we first met. I am more handsome than you."

"I am not a lizard, but a Xylas!" Wilbert snapped, though he looked more embarrassed than angry.

"Can I take a picture?" Nine asked, reaching for his device. "No one is never going to believe this. I need proof!"

"Absolutely not!" Wilbert barked, quickly pulling his camouflage skin back over his face and re-attaching the fake ears. "If you are tortured about where you took it.....I am certain you would give me up. Put that away!"

Sunshine wiped a tear from her eye, her hiccups finally subsiding. "Okay, okay. Gecko or not, you know their secrets because you are one of them. Tell me about the Watchers. Those giant birds that seem to bring the mist"

Wilbert’s brow arched under his fake skin. He pulled up a grainy image of the massive, feathered silhouettes. He winced as he studied the anatomy on the screen.

"Those... I don’t recognize," he admitted, his voice tight. "They look artificial. Strange. If the Xylas made them, it’s a new species created after I left. They look like they were built, not naturally grown." He twisted his lips. "They could also be Xylas. We are good at camouflaging ourselves."