At this point, I was at my wit's end. These place was just too fucking weird.

Seriously, how was this place even able to exist? It just made no fucking sense!

"Forgive me for asking, but is there a particular reason you all were so shocked that the...creature that just came through the portal was attacked by a flock of birds?"

My gaze settled on Cassandra. "The creature is called a Leshen, and it is said to possess the power to control animal and plant life via magic, such that the birds should've been immediately enthralled by the creature and fought for it as an army of slaves. And yes, I can confirm those tales are true."

"I see. Is it possible to coexist with this creature?"

Tristan beat me out in answering that. "Yes, but Leshen are ferociously territorial."

"True enough...I have an important question, directed at my companions rather than our guests."

Tristan's gaze was inscrutable. "Shoot."

"Should we tell Nigel about this when everything is said and done? And if so, do we tell him the full truth or leave out the more...fantastical elements?"

To my surprise, it was Sean answered that. "We tell him, but only the less fantastical parts. This is weird enough as is, and I doubt it would be a good idea to drag Nigel into something this big."

The rest of the group acknowledged this point, deciding to let the topic rest.

'Commander, this is Synais'.

Yes?

'Just want you to know, Aloy is making her way toward the Shadow Carja capital. I doubt it will be long before Helis captures her. Also, the Man in the Wall gave some magical substance to the research team working on adapting the nullifier to work on all forms of magic. He said it was an aphrodisiac, and that he wanted you to 'stop being so paranoid about it driving people mad with carnal desire'.

...Oh. That was nice.

'Yeah. You want to try and rap up things wherever you are and get back to the Zero Dawn Earth?'

...I'll leave when I understand what this place is.

'Alright, fine. Also, a Tenno using Protea is headed your way to pick you up.'

Good to know. Also, people are staring at me, so I think I need to end this conversation.

It just so happened that Elise decided to speak up just as I finished my chat with Synais. "You having a conversation with someone else?"

"Yeah. They wanted me to hurry up and get back on the other side of the portal."

"Does that mean you're leaving now?"

"Not until I help you figure out what this place is."

"Sweet. Anything else we should know?"

"I have someone coming to guard me/pick me up."

Sean decided to interject into the conversation at this point. "Are they from a video game we might know of?"

"Depends. Does the name 'Digital Extremes' mean anyting to you?"

Sean blinked in surprise. "You've been to Warframe?"

"Yes."

Cassandra was unaware of the significance of this, but the rest of the group seemed pleasantly surprised...okay, most of the adults were also somewhat confused.

"Neat. Which one is it?"

"Protea."

Sean tilted his head in confusion. "Huh?"

"You wouldn't know about it - I don't think she's been added into the game yet."

I wasn't exactly sure when Protea was/would be added into Warframe, only that it wasn't right now - she hadn't dropped in Summer 2019.

"Oh. I see...You got any ideas what, exactly, this place is?"

I was not surprised he changed the subject back to this location, but I was still at wit's end there. "Nope. Gonna check my mini-probes now, see if they found anything useful."

Starting with my oceanic probes, I began looking over their examination of the ocean floor and...whoa.

"Um, you said that out loud."

I glanced at Vivian. "How much?"

"Just the whoa."

"What did you find out?"

Glancing at a curious Elise, I merely projected my finding onto nearby screen.

"This is a map of the sea floor for the surrounding area."

Said map was primarily a mixture of rocky outcroppings covered in coral and sandy seabed. Particular focus, however, was drawn toward a set of underwater caves.

Sean was not exactly sure why this was important. "Why are the caves of interest?"

Without missing a beat, the map updated, showing a probe had traveled through the network and ended up exiting into an outcropping bordering the open ocean.

This time, Elise was the perplexed one. "So it traveled all the way to the open ocean, big deal. Your mapping of the area shows that the open ocean isn't too far away, so I don't see why this is so odd."

The map promptly adjusted to show the distance the probe had traveled between the entrance and exit of the cave.

That gave everyone pause, unsurprisingly.

The distance from the cave entrance to the open ocean was quite a few miles as the crow flies. The distance between the entrance and exit of the cave, also as the crow flies?

Just two hundred meters.

And that wasn't all - examination of the surrounding area reaveld that the cave exit was significantly further from the island the park was on...which, somehow, was actually smaller than the one all of us were on.

Yeah, that was weird.

"..But...but...but..."

"Yes, Cassandra, this makes absolutely no sense," I said, smirking. "Also, this is just the least odd thing here."

The images displayed changed, now showing the island itself. Except Island was no longer really an appropriate term - this landmass was one-fifth the size of Australia.

And that wasn't even accounting for all the people living on it...some of whom were busy fighting each other for whatever reason. I didn't know why they were fighting, and for once, I really didn't care why.

At this point, my hosts had just settled for staring stupidly at the screen, unable to form any coherent sentences.

"Is there anything else you want add that makes this place weird?" questioned Viv.

"...The stars here don't match anything I've ever seen, in the past or the present...or in the future, according to Tristan."

I quirked an eyebrow at the boy named Lucas, genuinely surprised by his testimony. Then I gave the order for some of the mini-probes to start heading toward space.

It took only a few minutes for them to reach the exosphere and...wow.

Oh, the stars sure were different here. The moon also looked a bit different, having a few craters and mare that weren't on Luna.

The real difference was the Earth, though.

Not only did it not match up with what I knew and remembered, it was also a lot bigger. As in, even with the probes up high, I still couldn't see the curvature of the Earth.

"...I am now officially completely beyond the capacity to give fucks."

Viv glanced at me. "Did you mean to say that out loud?"

"Yes, yes I did."

"Okay. Also, our friend should be coming through the portal now-what?!"

Instantly, all attention was focused on Vivian. "What happened?"

"The Tenno is saying that something screwed up her frame. Most things are fine, but she's getting weird readings and having some trouble with her abilities...specifically, she can't get Temporal Anchor to work properly."

"Well, why could that...be a...problem..."

OOOHHHHH. Now things started to make sense...well, a bit more sense.

Tristan stared at me, concerned. "You figure something out?"

"...Have any of you guys ever noticed anything weird regarding the island?"

"...Well, we've always entered it with our vision obscured by something - either storm clouds, fog, and in the case of a mini-sub, murky waters."

Interesting...

"Why, exactly, is this important?"

"Well," I began, finally having some idea on why this place was so weird, "I think I might finally know why this place is so odd."

All eyes focused on me. I couldn't help but smile.

"See, this place is a deposition zone for beings from all across time, as the presence of so many time portals would indicate."

Cassandra nodded in agreement.

"Yet it appears that attempts to travel backwards and forwards in time here are met with failure, since my companion was unable to reverse time with one of her powers."

The group clearly had questions, but chose to remain silent until I finished.

"Additionally, the surface of this land does not match up with that of Earth at any known point in history, nor do the stars or moon... which could be explained if we aren't actually in history, in ongoing, passed, or yet to be."

Cassandra seemed to be getting annoyed at my vagueness. "Can you get to the point, please?"

I nodded. "I think the reason this land is so different from the rest of your Earth is that this land isn't part of Earth."

"What?!"

I smirked. "I believe that this land exists parallel and atemporal to your Earth. More simply, it is a land outside of time."

Immediately after I said that, everyone moved to raise objections...only to drop them. Wow, that was fast.

Cassandra, in particular, had a look of understanding on her face. "You suggestion is...odd, to say the least, but it does have its merits. And sounds more reasonable than any other possible solutions."

"That's what I thought."

Before anyone could begin a discussion, I raised my hand. "Look, I admit that this is a groundbreaking idea, but I need to get going. Now. And I would be remiss to leave Melissa behind."

"...Can we see you off?" asked the youngest of the siblings.

"...Sure, why not?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Standing on the other side of the portal, I took in a deep breath - it was good to be back in the Zero Dawn world.

"Is this where we part ways?" questioned Tristan.

"..Yes, I do believe it-"

Without warning, a pillar shot out of the ground and fired a beam of energy at the Protea, causing it to collapse in shock. Not missing a beat, it fire a burst of electricity at us and-

And then I blacked out.

XXXXXXXXXXXx

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!