This story can be found at ArchiveOfOurOwn as well!

The corridor was brightly lit, making the already white walls even whiter. If he wasn't already used to them, they might have stung Ignis' eyes, but he'd been through this corridor enough times for it not to affect him anymore. He was walking at a quick pace. One might think he was in a hurry, but he wasn't. The project they'd worked on tirelessly for over three years had finally reached a stage where they might test it out. His fingers were tapping gently against the clipboard in his hand as he walked. How many times hadn't Ignis worked himself to the brink of death to get this whole thing green-lit? It was only recently, when he'd actually managed to prove the existence of other worlds, that the board was willing to listen to him.

Ignis stopped, taking a deep breath. He'd gotten here faster than he would've liked, but he also disliked being late. The boring gray door in front of him felt like it was taunting him. Of course he knew this was ridiculous. This whole situation was ridiculous! He was a scientist, not some bloody adventurer! Yet here he was, standing outside a room where the rest of his so called squad were waiting for him. Surely there were better suiting people for the job. Why should he lead an expedition into a whole new world? What of the danger?
"I suppose it's fine as long as they don't call us the Alpha team." He mumbled in an attempt to cheer himself up. It didn't work.

Ignis sighed and pushed the door open. Three faces immediately turned to face him. He recognized to of them right away. The first one was Cor Leonis, General. Ignis had spoken to him quite a few times. Cor also happened to be the man who had taught him basic self defense. The second one was Gladiolus Amicitia. The two of them actually had quite a history together. They were only a year apart. They had hooked up for a bit in their teenage years, but it had never been serious. What mattered was that Gladio was capable. Ignis turned to face the third man. He was younger than the rest. Blond hair, bright eyes and a big smile immediately greeted him. He had no idea who this man was.
"Good evening, Gentlemen." He said, walking further into the room. The blond immediately got up on his feet and bowed. He quickly straightened up and held out his hand.
"Good evening, sir! I'm Prompto Argentum. I'll accompany you as your photographer on this exciting adventure!" He exclaimed excitedly.
"Experiment." Ignis corrected him and shook his hand. This was going to be a long day. It wasn't the blond's fault. He seemed nice enough.

Ignis sat down with the three men and talked to them. He might as well get to know them if he was going to be with them in another world. He found out that Prompto loved spicy food and photography, no surprise there. He made a mental note of the man's favourite food. To his dismay; Gladio still liked those god awful cup noodles. He simply couldn't understand why. They were highly overrated and not nutritious enough. It didn't come as a surprise when they ended up arguing over it. He could hear Prompto laugh nervously in the background. The situation was annoying, but the dumb argument helped him to relax a bit. Cor only asked a few questions about the experiment that Ignis was happy to answer.
"Ah, it's simple. We'll be put into a machine that-" He paused, seeing that Prompto had a look of confusion. Simple version it was. He cleared his throat and continued from where he left off. "We'll be put into a machine that move our consciousness to this other world. There we'll have a... let's say avatar; that will let us move around and explore things as we need. And do keep in mind that everything that we experience in the other world will feel real. If you die there you will die in this world as well." He finished his explanation and nodded as Prompto raised his hand. The blond gave him an awkward smile.
"So... we'll not actually go to this other world?" He asked.
"Yes and no. It's... a complicated procedure and we're not sure it's safe enough to actually send someone over physically."
"Oh, but like... can we transport stuff between the worlds?" Prompto asked, clutching his camera. Ignis nodded and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Yes. The scientists that will monitor us can transport things to and from us. They'll also be the ones responsible for getting us in and out of there."
"Oh, okay. That's all I wanted to know."

Then came the preparations. Ignis was sad to take off his usual white coat. He was going to miss it's familiar weight. He wasn't sure why he needed to take it off in the first place since they weren't physically going anywhere, but the others had been adamant that he change. Something about their avatars or something. Ignis hadn't been listening. He'd thought about different ways to convince them that this was a bad idea. That they should send someone better, but he'd figured they'd just say no. At this point he was convinced that the higher ups hated him. He'd file a complaint to Mr. Izunia if he survived this pushed his glasses up as he inspected the selection of weapons in front of himself. He was expected to have something in case things got rough. In the end he simply picked a pair of daggers; since that's what he was the most comfortable with. Looking around. he studied the others to see what they picked. Cor and Gladio both had swords, but of different styles and sizes. Prompto had a gun. Why would a photographer know how to use a gun?

Ignis couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was rather rushed. One moment he was meeting the people he was going with, and in the next they were getting into their seats. He glanced around at his companions faces. Gladio was grinning. He guessed the man was excited to explore a new place. Stupid survival nerd. Cor was looking as calm as ever. Ignis couldn't help but wonder if the man ever panicked sometimes. He'd never heard of it. Poor Prompto was looking nervous, a good reflection of how Ignis himself was feeling on the inside. He felt nauseous. The feeling of uneasiness just wouldn't leave him. It didn't get better as he got strapped to the chair and hooked up to the wires. He knew he looked calm on the outside, but on the inside raged a storm of worry. What if it failed? What if it succeeded? What if something went wrong?
"Initiate starting sequence."
"Transport ready in a minute!" Ignis blocked out the yelling people in the background. He tried to remain calm. He knew these were all professional people and that they wouldn't let anything go wrong.
"Thirty seconds!" If anything did in fact go wrong, he was sure that they'd be able to fix it.
"Ten!" Ignis closed his eyes. He felt it was the better choice. He didn't want to be confused by the sudden shift in reality by keeping his eyes open. He wasn't even sure exactly what would happen once they'd hit zero on the countdown.
"Five!" Ignis let out a small breath. Ready or not, here they go.
"Safe travels!" Ignis felt like he was being flung through the air. He was aware of a faint pain in the back of his neck, but didn't pay it much attention. Everything got quiet and dark.

He slowly became aware of the light. There were sound all around him. They started out faint, but grew in volume for every second that passed. He became aware of the smell of fresh grass and the sound of water. The next thing he became aware of was how cold and wet his feet were. Slowly he opened his eyes and were greeted by a bright blue sky. There wasn't a single cloud around. He lowered his gaze. Trees, flowers and bushes surrounded him and a giant lake. If he concentrated he could see the other end of it. He looked down at his feet. He was barefoot and standing in the lake's water. The air was fresh and for a moment he just felt at peace. It was all ruined when the voices of his companions reached him and he turned around, ready to hush them, but stopped dead in his tracks. All three of them sported wings of different designs and colours. Slowly he reached up and just like he'd thought; his fingers came into contact with something that shouldn't be there. Why did they have wings? He could already see two of the others compare their wings.
"Where on earth did we end up...?"