'Okay, Harrier; I'm prepared for the worst. Tell me what's happened now.'

The blond man sat heavily in the chair opposite. 'It's the Screaming Queens.'

'No.'

'Yes, Starling,' he sighed. 'They were shot down over Terra Tropica. The scouts found what... what remains of them in the Wastelands.'

Starling rest her head against her palm. 'Every week we lose more people. Our so-called resistance was small to start with. What're we going to do?'

Harrier shrugged.

'Yeah, I thought so,' she huffed. 'That's everyone's answer to everything these days.' She gave an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders and slumped back against her chair. 'Nothing's going right.'

He hesitated. 'And at your end?'

She raised an eyebrow. 'My end? Oh, you mean how I'm stuck here next to the radio all day? No, nothing's happened here either. Radio silence, as per. Nothing but static. Nothing, nothing, nothing.' With each word she banged her fist against the table.

'They will come back,' he said.

'Ha,' she scoffed, 'they will, will they? It's been a year, Harrier. A year. They were just kids and they went out there alone. Face it, they're not coming back.' Her voice cracked. 'They're dead, and maybe that's a good thing.'

'Don't say that.'

'No, I think I will. Listen, Harrier, we're fucked - oh, for God's sake don't flinch it's just a word - we're fucked out here; Terra Rex won't be secure forever. We're all going to be imprisoned or killed by the Colonel and it'll happen sooner rather than later.' She crossed her arms and scowled.

Harrier sniffed. 'I have faith in my terra,' he said coolly, 'we are still strong.'

She laughed mirthlessly. 'Of course you'd think that. We're not strong; our forces are dwindling, our supplies are running out. It's only a matter of time before Terra Rex is invaded or blown to pieces.'

He stood and stared down his nose at her. 'I know you think you're being realistic, but this cynicism has to stop. They can destroy our homes, they can starve us, they can enslave us, but as long as we live they will never take our Atmos away from us. It is the people, not the land, that make Terra Rex strong. And the people are still here. We are still here. We need you, Starling; we need you to be strong, we need you to lead us, and you can't do that if you give up. And we really can't afford to give up.' With that, he made for the door. His hand on the doorknob, he turned back to her. 'The Storm Hawks are the greatest Sky Knight squadron of our time. They'll be back.'

'I just hope you're right.'

Piper drummed her fingers against the table impatiently, bouncing her knee as she stared out of the window at the swirl of black-grey smog.

'It won't be long now.'

She looked up. 'Hey.'

'Hey,' Aerrow said. 'You seem nervous.'

She stopped fidgeting and sighed. 'What if it's not there?'

'She says it is; the crystals -'

'What if she's reading them wrong? What if we never get back?'

'That's a lot of what ifs,' he said. 'And when has she ever been wrong?'

Piper shrugged. She leant her forehead against her hands, elbows resting on the table.

'Piper,' he said softly, 'we're going to make it. We're going home.'

'They might not take us back, considering,' she whispered.

He placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. 'It's gonna be okay.'

'I feel so trapped here,' she said, 'all this cloud - it's like a prison. Like - like the sky really is the limit and we're stuck here, trapped under this cloud like it's something solid. I feel like we're back in the Great Expanse.'

Aerrow grimaced. 'Let's just hope we don't run into any sirens again.'

She glared at him. 'I'm being serious.'

'I know, that's why I'm not. I know what you mean, about the whole feeling trapped thing. But you can't let it get to you too much - we'll be out of here soon. We'll see the sky again.'

She tried a smile. 'Promise?'

'Promise.'

They both jumped when Finn slid into a seat next to them. 'Man, this is taking forever,' he complained, slumping forwards to lean against the table. 'After everything we've been through here, who knew that this'd be the hardest challenge we'd face in the Far Side?'

'Have some patience, Finn,' Piper chided.

Finn huffed and slid further against the table. 'I'm bored.'

'Yeah, we know, Finn,' muttered Aerrow, 'we're all bored.'

The Condor lurched, and they all jerked forwards with it. Piper and Aerrow stood, running to the window; the grey cloud had become illuminated by an eerie purple glow and lightning darted through the smog as they moved closer to whatever it was that was emitting the light.

'We have to go through that thing?' Finn cried.

Stark against the clouds was what appeared to be a huge crack in the sky; the lightning shot out from it, and the crack undulated and throbbed as if it was something organic, something with a pulse.

'I guess so,' Aerrow muttered, 'someone should tell Junko. We don't really know what'll happen when we go through this thing.'

'Let's just hope we come out where we're supposed to,' Piper said. She turned to where Stork stood at the helm. He gaped at the crack in disbelief.

'Are you ready, Stork?' she called.

He shook his head. 'We're doomed,' he said flatly.

Nevertheless, he guided the airship towards the crack and squeezed his eyes shut as they broke its surface. A high-pitched, hiss that sounded almost like static filled their ears, unbearably loud; for a second, the Condor was filled with a blinding purple light. The light faded fast, and a thick black darkness descended over them. The hissing was replaced by deafening silence, and the only thing any of them could hear was the sound of their own heartbeat.