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Summary: A bridge has appeared. The sky will never be the same again.
Porta Interpono is Latin for, "the gate between".
Prospicio is Latin for, "to look into the distance".
Porta Interpono
Chapter One: Prospicio
"I want to go in."
"Uh... What?" snaps Prompto sharply.
"Noct, you can't really be thinking..."
"We all know it isn't safe," comments Ignis.
"All the tests came back negative for contaminants, right?" he asks, turning away from the large monitor to look back at them.
"True," hesitates Ignis, much like he does when he does not like what is being said but cannot refute it.
"But look at what happened to the people that were in there!" cries Prompto.
"Teams have gone in with suits and have not returned," states Gladiolus.
"And the only one man that managed to come back, is barely alive," finishes Ignis.
"But it was not the air that made him that way."
"Because it killed them!" cries Prompto again.
"But it wasn't anything in the air," he calmly states again. "All the men were wearing airtight suits. So it was something else."
"Noct, we don't know enough..."
"And we never will unless someone else goes in," he interrupts Ignis.
"Why you?" demands Prompto.
"Who better to fight whatever is in there?"
This they cannot argue against. As far as a fight, he was the best to send in. It was just, for obvious reasons, they had reservations about doing that. Right now he knew they were running out of options and he was that last option to figure out what was really going on. Their earlier mistake had been only sending in a minimal amount of security for a select group of scientists. They had not been prepared for the loss they suffered in there and they still had no idea what had killed those people. He was tired of sitting on his hands and waiting for answers that were not coming and he did always prefer a more direct approach. The recent change of events was allowing him to be able to exact that too.
"Noct, the scientist who did make it back... he didn't come back..."
"With all his marbles," blurts out Prompto.
"He was traumatized," he says patiently. "From the vid feeds that we did see, I am sure I cannot blame him. But they went in completely unprepared. At least I will be more cautious."
"Are you sure?" asks Glad.
"Noct," Ignis says to gain his attention. "It's not just the guy that went in that's been effected either."
"Yeah, people have been seeing some freaky stuff from just watching those feeds," says Pro.
"Noct," says Glad, looking at him closely. "Did you see something?"
"I did not see anything mysterious other than what you guys saw," he says firmly and that was not a lie.
"Let me get another team assembled..." tries Ignis.
"Nobody will volunteer after what happened to the first group," he states flatly.
They all knew this to also be the truth. After witnessing the sheer terror on the one survivor's face when they managed to pull him back through to their side, nobody wanted to willingly go back inside. Inside the dome that had suddenly appeared from nowhere, within the city limits of Nihilsomno and torn his kingdom into panicked chaos. They had been sending drones to take pictures of the surrounding areas but it was not long before even those stopped working once they reached the inside. All they could manage at the moment was to have cameras set up just outside the parameter looking in, but that was not really helping them either. They needed eyes inside. Thousands of people had been caught inside it and from what they could see, they were all dead. Not just dead either. It turns his stomach to remember the images of all those bodies and he does not savor having to see them in person, but must do what he must do. This was a war and he could not be faint of heart.
Many were saying it was Etro's gateway to the Underworld revealed. If that were true then it would be that only those within it's silvery walls would be effected. Which was not the case. People on the outside were being effected as well and some of them had been no where near the dome.
"Then I'm going with you," says Glad.
"We all have to go," states Ignis.
"Can't let you have all the fun," affirms Pro.
"Not all of us can go," he insists, looking between the three of them. "Glad, stay with Ignis and monitor our progress. As far as we know it is only the video that stops working once inside. The mics work just fine."
"Noct, what if what happened to those people happens to...?"
"It won't," he reassures Ignis. "I need to go in."
"With suits, Noct?" asks Pro.
He shakes his head in answer.
"Do you know where you want to go?" asks Glad.
"Yes," he answers. "And I need to get there soon."
Many try to stop him, but he will not be deterred from entering. It takes longer than he anticipates to reach within the confines of the dome, but he gets there. It is like walking through what hell would be like. There is a chill in the air that has nothing to do with a low temperature. It is eery and dark, tinged with an unnatural putrid green glow. The sun does not shine here, in what appears to be a world cloaked in perpetual night. A fake night. A night of death that had no end to unspeakable of horrors. Mask-less and without any protection from the elements, he can feel and smell the stench of decaying death but he does not waver and he does not stop. His feet feel guided as he walks about the streets of what was once one of the more prominent areas in the city until he reaches the tower that he knows he needs to go to.
When he reaches the roof, he walks onto the iron laden flooring that looks out over the rest of the city skyline. However it is not the view that has brought him here, but the misty silhouette of the one who stands on the roof with him. The figure slowly materializes on the other side of the room before him, walking steadily closer and solidifies from mist to solid. It is a man. A dark man whose face he cannot see for the Kabuki mask covering his face. He wears a black overcoat trimmed in green and has equally dark hair. A figure darker than black. Not an ordinary man. One who does not belong. His long coat billows in the tainted winds as they regard each other.
"Did you do this?" he demands, but the dark man does not answer.
"Someone is coming," the dark man says in warning. His face looks up above them for a moment before turning to stare at him pointedly.
When his eyes follow and looks up, he is taken aback to see that there are no stars lighting the sky. There is no moon either. There is nothing but a black void above them and is somehow more terrifying than the sight of all those melting bodies in the city streets below them. His startled blue eyes fly to the dark man.
"The stars have fallen," the dark man says. His voice sounds right inside his head rather than from his ears. It echoes in his mind like a mantra.
The stars have fallen...
The voice propels him awake and he jumps up in preparation of a fight that is not there.
"What?" he whispers to himself as his eyes slowly focus on surroundings of his bedroom.
A dream.
Then he hears it. A faint popping noise before the sounds of a huge crash rocks the entire city. His furniture trembles. His paintings clatter against the wall. His various figures and books fall to the floor. It is not even a few moments later when he can hear the sounds of cries and the rushing of panicked feet just outside his doors and he knows... he just knows, that his dream was not a dream at all.