Marco regretted opening the door immediately.

The explosions from before were muffled. These were completely unadulterated. Fighter planes flew overhead further south.

"That way is the Empire Assembly building!" Sabine yelled as we ran out of the X Flier and towards the doors of the hospital. She pointed in the direction the planes were flying towards.

We barged through the doors of the hospital and were greeted by an empty lobby. The whole building was dead silent with no energy running through it.

I called Uma. No response. Her location was on, though. She was here.

"Stay on this floor, Jozeey and Sabine," Marco commanded.

"We're going to the floor she's on," I finished.

"We need light," Grady noted. It would be darker in here away from the glass doors. Especially up the emergency stairs.

"Find the stairwell, and I'll light it up," Marco said.

We looked around in the dim light and found the physical, low-tech door to the stairwell.

"Floor five hundred seventy-four," I gasped, "I'll levitate us."

I got a sturdy telekinetic hold on Marco and Grady and I flew us up.

"Grady, tell me immediately if you sense anything," Marco requested, "This is suspicious."

-----Daniela-----

I stood next to Jozeey and Sabine, but they couldn't see me or hear me. They probably weren't even capable of thinking about me.

I was loyal, though. I knew I would be able to find help in such a magical world.

Jozeey and Sabine were both very anxious. I could see and sense it.

The loudest explosion so far happened just a block or two down the street. I heard screams for the first time.

They ended after another explosion.

I looked out as Jozeey did. A tear fell down his cheek.

I spotted the woman and her child before he did, but he didn't take too long to see them, too.

"Look!" he exclaimed, "We have to help!"

Sabine opened the doors and the two of them ran out. I had nothing to lose, really, so I followed them.

As we got her attention, something got mine. A hovercraft was flying—falling—from the sky towards us.

Sabine reached the woman and her child and enveloped them in a dome of darkness.

Jozeey and I had no such luck. The ship crashed into the white concrete maybe three meters from us. It wasn't too far away from the hospital entrance either.

Jozeey was on the ground bleeding from his chest. I could see a chunk of metal lodged in it. I enveloped him in shadows and hovered him into the air.

As I turned around to make my way to the hospital I saw a strange white gas being emitted from the vessel that had just wrecked itself into the ground.

I moved too slowly. Jozeey, who I was carrying in front of me was hit by it first. Immediately he was enveloped by it and captured. The gas was turning into an amber-like solid.

I screamed as my right leg was caught in the amber gas. Then my hips and my torso. I held my hands up in the air and tried to transmute into a shadow state like I learned from a fifth year student.

My neck was enveloped and then my face.

-----Carlos-----

We reached the floor that Uma was on. Marco opened the door and we emerged in a floor as dead as the first one.

"Over there," Grady pointed at the nurses' desk.

She walked over and pressed her hand against the wall behind the desk. She walked behind it and there was nothing.

"There's a door here," she said, "I don't know how to open it. It must be some sort of portal."

I did know how to open it. I placed my hand to the right of where Grady pressed and the door opened.

"It's compressed space," Marco noted.

"No," I said as I stepped through, "It's a pocket universe of its own."

"That way if the hospital gets destroyed this place isn't destroyed, too?" Grady speculated. She knew a lot about science fiction, but she didn't like to show it.

"Exactly," I said we closed the door behind us.

Grady led us through what seemed like just another part of the hospital. This part was windowless, but there were fluorescent lights. There was noise here.

Uma hovered herself to us from around the corner of the hallway at breakneck speed.

"What are you doing here?!" she yelled. Uma reached for my face and kissed me on the forehead.

"We're here to save you, but I guess you're fine," Marco was slightly bitter.

"Until the ground troops are deployed. We tried to put panic room wards on the door but they didn't work. This is only supposed to be used in lights-out emergency. It wasn't designed for war."

"So what if the building falls? Where is everyone?" I asked. I was suddenly nervous about being in here.

"I don't know about the building," she responded, "But all the patients are here. There weren't many to begin with."

"So I don't think you want to be rescued," I murmured.

"Sorry," she moved some of her long curls away from her face.

"So what do we do now?" I asked, "Uma, you're the only one who can help me figure out this whole mess I'm in."

"I have a job to do, child," Uma closed her eyes and sighed, "I can't leave these people."

"We have to go get Sabine and Jozeey. We'll go back. We still have..." Marco checked he timer, "four minutes."

"Be safe," Uma said as she held my hand, "Take the subway tunnels. It may be worth the risk. Go!"

I hovered the three of us out the door and back down the stairwell.

"Two minutes!" Marco yelled. As we reached the bottom of the stairs.

I shot us forward and then there was impasse. A translucent amber blob covered the doors.

"Shit!" Marco grunted as he blew a flamethrower at them.

Nothing.

"Second floor!" I yelled.

I grabbed us again and flew to the second floor.

"One minute!" He exclaimed as we reached the window. He broke it and I flew us out.

As we landed on the street, I saw the X Flier light up and leave as quickly as it could.

"Shit!" Marco yelled again.

I looked at the amber. Inside it was Jozeey laid out flat four feet above ground. An odd position.

Sabine came out from under a dome of darkness down the street. She collapsed to her knees and she seemed to be choking. I flew over to her and she was crying.

"I—I," she couldn't get the words out.

"It's alright," I whispered. Amidst the explosions and groaning of metal not far away at all, I got to my knees and held her in my arms.

"We have to go," I said to her, "I'll take you, don't worry."

I levitated us and brought us over to Grady and Marco.

Fighter planes shot at the hospital. The explosions were deafening once more.

I screamed and brought a telekinetic force field around us as a giant chunk of concrete fell down on top of us. The towering building began to collapse in slow-motion, almost.

I grabbed Grady and we zoomed away as quickly as we could. Marco flew on his own now.

Where are we going? Marco thought out to me. I had been a long time since he spoke to me without aggression or sarcasm. It was also weird for him to assume I could communicate telekinetically.

I honestly don't know, I responded to him alone. We continued to fly away from the battle sounds of the demolitions.

Face it, the subways are probably crowded out of control, he speculated, It'll be a massacre.

I tried not to think about it.

I didn't have to.

Fighter planes passed over us shooting at the buildings. The screaming of glass and metal falling was terrifying.

We swerved onto another street to avoid a skyscraper that fell before our eyes.

Grady yelled for me to watch out. I barely managed to avoid the long antenna of a building falling down into the street.

We have to try to teleport, I thought to the three of them.

Call it deus ex machina, Grady thought, but I found a teleportation facilitator in the Modulator. The files say it makes it—UP!

I listened without question and I'm glad I did. Marco and I flew vertically and avoided a tower that fell in our path.

It should protect you in teleportation, she continued, and keep you on target.

Lend me your energies, then, I broadcast.

Wait, how did we teleport in the first place? I asked Grady.

"I don't know!" she yelled.

Odd.

I wouldn't be able to keep this up for very long and I doubt Marco was having an easy time either.

An explosion went off from the side of a building. We flew right through it only because Marco had the reflexes to deflect the flames. Then I saw a shimmering patch of air not too far ahead of us.

You're flying right into it! Marco thought out to me.

The shimmering air ripped open and the familiar landscape of the End was visible through it.

"Better there than in a war zone!" Marco yelled.

We passed through the portal and into the End. The cold air of the End starkly contrasted to the hot air of the flaming city. We were safe here.

Except not.

I lost my telekinesis and the three of us rolled into the ground.

-----

I woke up in a healing chamber. My arms and legs were twisted at impossible angles, but it didn't hurt. My limbs were very slowly moving into positions that better resembled human anatomy.

Marco tapped on the glass tube that enveloped me and rolled his eyes. I guess we're back to that.

I couldn't speak. I looked down at my bare chest and found a gaping hole with ribs sticking out of me. I could vaguely see my lungs inflating and deflating.

"Activate the Energy Modulator, your healing chamber is draining the entire base," he said through the speaker.

I couldn't respond.

"Just think these words. I'll read them out to you: Entity Carlos Galván request to activate emergency healing sequence. Incur error code 279A-dash-TUOP."

I repeated the words in my mind as he said them.

I could feel my aura seep out of me and accelerate the mending of my bones. My ribs adjusted into their regular position and I could see the skin close over the gap.

I could speak again.

"What in the name of bullshit was that?" I gasped.

Marco opened the chamber and reached out to grab my hand. I took it and he pulled me up.

I let my feet touch the floor softly and then I stood up.

"Where's Grady and Sabine?" I asked. They weren't in the healing chambers next to mine, "Are we with the scientists?"

"They're okay. They're watching reports of what's going on back on Montressor. The scientists found you, apparently, and opened a portal for us," he responded.

"What about Dania and Stacey? And the other guys?"

Marco took a moment to think, "We can't get a hold of Noah because of him being in the government and all busy. Logan is on the Cryogenic Squad fighting off the androids. I think Dania and Stacey are in the enchanted chamber. I'm pretty sure it's packed by now, I don't think there's another place like it at the UM."

I took a step and Marco put my arm around his shoulder to support me. I was glad he did because my legs were still somewhat weak.

We walked through those long, drab halls again until we were in the command center.

Rela, the head scientist waved us over to her computer everyone was gathered around it. The scientists' faces were pale with dismay.

I saw the city skyline and its conical shape peaking in the center of the city. The protruding Assembly Building had a force field around it that was now cracked as hundreds of shooting fighter planes buzzed around it.

"That's the most important government building in the entire empire," Rela murmured, probably not even to us, "Even worse: millions of people live and work there."

All at once, the cracked blue forcefield flickered away and in a matter of seconds the tower collapsed to the artillery of the Liadans.

Rela and the rest of the scientists gasped and wept as the building came down. The few of us from Earth couldn't know the magnitude of the situation.

"Rela," I asked after a few moments, "What do we do now?"

"We wait for this to be over," she said without taking her eyes off the screen.

I saw an enormous spaceship descending from the outer reaches of the atmosphere and into the city's airspace. It covered a third of the city, probably.

"That must be the Liadan mothership," Marco said in a very relaxed tone.

The ship was onyx black and it was very simply a flying saucer. It hovered above the city ominously and released more fighter planes.

"Can you portal us into that thing?" Marco asked.

"Why would you want to go there?" Rgle was appalled.

"To kill the main computer. That should stop the rest of them," he speculated.

"That's not how the Liadans work," the young scientist shook his head, "They are all individual entities, they all just are infected with the same mind-control virus. And the leader is an android as well, not some sort of mega computer."

"Then we can kill it," he said all too calmly.

"You wouldn't be able to. That's a war ship. It's fortified beyond belief. There are hundreds of layers of security. Additionally, we wouldn't know where to portal you to. We can only find aura signatures and the androids don't have auras."

Rela spoke for the first time, "You're going back home."

"What?!" Grady exclaimed.

"I'm portalling you back to Earth," she continued, "You are not safe outside your homeworld."

She took the images of the city being destroyed off the screen and opened the portal software, "Prepare a portal to their auric origins,"

"But Rela, we just have to hold off a while," the young scientist resisted.

"We can't go home," Marco protested, "Not after we found out about all of this."

"Our friend is dead!" Grady yelled, "The rest are still at the UM!"

"Rela, please don't make them go," the young scientist pleaded.

"Helrin, that is a direct order. Begin the calculations while I allocate the energy,"

"You can't!" he exclaimed.

"Do it or you're off the team. This is the most prestigious astrophysics lab in the Empire. Do you really want to give that up?" she menaced.

He gave us a face of defeat. He tried. Helrin went to his computer and began typing away. The Origin language symbols moved across he screen as he did.

I noticed him gasp and turn slightly to look at Rela, who was concentrated in typing as well. She didn't notice. He was planning something, definitely.

Rela stood up after a few moments. She guided us to the portal room. Before we went in, Helrin gave me a nod.

"We won't be able to portal you back," Rela commented, "You'll have to find your way out of Earth on your own. Sorry."

The End portal emanated it's eerie energy. Its presence spoke of the mysteries and unspeakable power that lay in the furthest reaches of the universe.

The portal still had its cosmic window thing going on, and I was glad that this one thing was unchanged, at least.

"Go home," Rela said.

"Wish us luck," I told her.

Marco had his arms crossed. Grady was crying. Sabine was emotionally blank and silent.

I didn't need his support to stand anymore, but I grabbed Marco's hand anyway. He held my hand and I could tell he was barely able to contain his rage at all of this. I understood. Still, I grabbed Grady's hand and she grabbed Sabine's.

In unison, we stepped through the enigmatic rip space.