CHAPTER TWO

The first thing Sapphire saw when she passed through the portal was the fog. A thick, grey fog that completely surrounded her, whirling and curling around her almost as a living being. She tried to advance, but she soon lost her bearings completely: it was impossible to orientate in such a dense formation. She had no choice but to stand still and rely on her probing skills. Her eyes turned a brighter blue and she tried to analyze the fog surrounding her. But as soon as she started getting a feedback, she also realized what the fog was: an alarm system to warn some kind of entity that someone had stepped through the portal.

She immediately compared it to a spider and its web. Of course, she was the prey. Now the question was: was the spider poisonous?

She felt it approaching: the fog was somewhat thinner now, as if giving way to its owner. But she still couldn't see clearly, and she never realized that the threat was approaching her from behind. The moment she perceived its presence, it was too late: she felt an incredibly powerful entity invading her mind and taking control of her body. A terrified scream was her last conscious action.

ooo

Steel waited for five minutes, but Sapphire did not come out from the portal, so he decided to teleport to the town.

As soon as he got there, though, he realized that his partner was nowhere to be seen. He asked around if a blond woman clad in a blue dress appeared out of thin air like the other people who lost their memories, but all he got were negative answers. He waited ten more minutes, then decided to teleport back to the forest.

When he got there, he knew for sure that something terrible had happened to Sapphire. Not only she was uncharacteristically late, but he was also starting to harbor a very ominous feeling. His instinct never failed when Sapphire was involved.

He tried to call her mentally, but didn't get any answer, not even a faint glimmer of her lively mind. It was deeply upsetting to feel completely cut off from her: even when they were physically apart, their mental connection was a tangible presence constantly linking them.

He waited five more minutes, then decided to step in and look for her inside the portal. He was about to walk through the trees, when a sudden wind pushed him back. The portal opened, roaring, and a blue-clad figure started to come out from the thick fog that was pouring out from the other side. Sapphire. Or what looked like Sapphire, but didn't act like her.

Everything about her was wrong: her expression, her way of moving, even her aura. And, above all, her eyes. They weren't blue anymore: they were an alien shade of purple. Steel tested their mental link, but all he could hear in return was a disconcerting silence. He tried to call her out loud. "Sapphire? What's wrong? What happened in there? Sapphire!"

She didn't seem to hear him; she just kept approaching him with that blank expression on her fine features. When they were almost a foot apart, she raised her arms, as if she wanted to touch him. He instinctively took a step back, but then he felt ridiculous: he couldn't be afraid of Sapphire. Unless, he thought, she wasn't really her. At least, not completely. Maybe she was controlled by the entity inhabiting the portal. If that was the case, maybe he should let her touch him: he might be able to analyze the entity through a direct contact, maybe even communicate with it.

So he stood his ground while Sapphire got closer, and didn't move out of the way when her extended hands touched him. The moment she grabbed him by his shoulders, he knew that he had made a terrible mistake: whatever was controlling Sapphire's body was now sucking up all his memories.

He tried to yank away from her hold, but he soon found out that he couldn't: her strength was outstanding and he could not cope. He felt like a sponge being brutally squeezed.

He soon realized that the entity was not just sucking up his memories: it was taking time away from him. Years were taken by the tens in a few seconds, and all his long experience as a time agent was rapidly fading, sucked up by the entity inhabiting his partner's body.

His brain started to shut off, leaving way to his parasympathetic system. As soon as he stopped acting rationally, his primeval survival instinct kicked in, and his body temperature started to drop dramatically, rapidly approaching absolute zero.

Sapphire was still grabbing him and soon began to be covered with frost, but Steel never realized it: he was quickly blacking out, yielding to the year loss and the temperature drop. When he collapsed, he broke Sapphire's spasmodic hold, and they both fell to the ground, unconscious.