Chapter Text
"So... what exactly did I miss from all that time?"
Jasper was sitting at the plastic table along with the rest of them. They had all gathered around a single cluster of chairs: August, Jasper, and Arnold sat on one side, while Oliver and Venti mirrored them on the other. Jasper lifted his head, looking among the group. "Oliver mentioned something about a... COVID? Whatever that meant."
"Uh... yeah," Oliver nodded sadly. "It was a massive global virus outbreak. It started around 2020. It's still kinda lingering around now, but it's not nearly as bad as it was."
Jasper blinked, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline. "Shit..." he breathed. "That kinda makes me glad I skipped all of that. Was... was it bad?"
"Not as bad as some of the historical plagues, but it was still incredibly dangerous," Oliver said. "But yeah, maybe that's the one single silver lining about you missing the last decade."
Venti looked back and forth between them, listening intently. Since he wasn't from their world, he was slowly piecing together the chaotic history of Earth from what he could gather. The same went for Arnold—even though he was technically from this world, his mind had been completely rewritten, so he didn't remember any of it anyway.
"I'm guessing Obama isn't the president anymore?" Jasper asked.
"Nah, it's Trump," Oliver replied.
Jasper stared blankly at the table for a second. He blinked rapidly, then snapped his head up to look at Oliver with a deeply confused expression. "The rich guy?"
August let out a loud snort. "You sound exactly like Doc Brown when Marty McFly told him the president was Ronald Reagan."
Jasper let out a breathless, exhausted laugh, shaking his head. "Seriously, this is what this is, isn't it? I'm essentially a time traveler."
"Honestly, this situation is a lot more like SOMA if anything," Oliver pointed out. "You're basically Simon Jarrett."
August immediately pointed a finger at him in agreement. "Yes! We are all exactly like Simon Jarrett. These transfer chairs are basically just the Haimatsu Pilot seats from that horror game."
Oliver slowly turned his head to stare across the table at August, his expression deadpan. "So... you know all the lore to Soma, but you don't know what Kingdom Hearts is?"
August blinked. "Really? We're bringing that up again?"
Arnold snorted quietly, quickly covering his mouth.
Venti shook his head, a giggling fit bubbling up in his chest as he looked at his boyfriend. "You seem to be incredibly protective of whatever this 'Kingdom Hearts' is," he teased.
Oliver just rolled his eyes playfully.
Clearing his throat, Jasper shifted his attention to Arnold. "So, what's his story?"
August quickly leaned over, dropping his voice to a hushed whisper near Jasper's ear. "Try not to call him by his real name. He prefers Richard right now. Apparently, he went through the exact same thing as you—his mind was rewritten to fit the world he was sent to. But unlike you, he only remembers that timeline. He has absolutely zero memory of his real life."
"Oh," Jasper murmured sympathetically. He offered the younger teen a gentle wave. "Hello."
Arnold looked up shyly. "Hi," he replied softly. He stayed quiet for a moment, his eyes darting nervously from Venti to Oliver, before he finally spoke up again. "I don't really understand what's going on... I just... I really miss my boyfriends, and my friends."
Jasper paused. "Boyfriends? Plural?"
August offered a soft, reassuring smile. "He's mentioned them a few times. He was trapped inside the universe of Wreck-It Ralph. Apparently, three of the racers in Sugar Rush became his boyfriends. He's polyamorous."
"Huh," Jasper blinked in surprise.
August looked at him closely. "You do know what Wreck-It Ralph is, right? It—wait, no, you definitely should. It came out in 2012."
"Right, yeah, I do know it," Jasper nodded. "I watched it when it first hit theaters. Fun movie." He dropped his gaze back to the table, rubbing his temples. "This is all just so insane... I can clearly remember my childhood here, but... my brain is also flooded with memories from the Wasteland. Like, when we were talking about presidents? I remember Obama perfectly, but... a huge part of my brain insists the last real president was from pre-war America."
"That's the Fallout lore talking," Oliver said gently.
"Right." Jasper let out a heavy sigh. "And... B-Billy." He looked away, his voice faltering slightly. "I... I actually played Fallout 3 a lot before I got sent into the world. But for the life of me, I don't remember Billy being in that game at all."
Oliver looked up. "Billy isn't from Fallout 3. He's a side quest character from the fourth game."
"Huh?!" Jasper's head snapped up. "Wait, what? But... Doctor Barclay explicitly told me the machine was calibrated for Fallout 3. Fallout 4 isn't supposed to come out until next year! Or... well, you know what I mean."
Oliver and August looked at each other.
Jasper rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of it. "Well, I guess that explains why I didn't recognize Billy from my old playthroughs once I woke back up. I just assumed I missed a quest or something. Strange... wait. You said it's 2026? Heh... Fallout 7 must be out by now, right?"
Oliver blinked. "To be brutally honest, they haven't even released Fallout 5 yet."
Jasper stared at him. "Well, that is slow as fuck."
Oliver snorted. "Yeah, I know. I mean, we did get Fallout 76, but..."
Jasper's face contorted into the most baffled expression any of them had ever seen. "76? Why the hell would they make 76 before they made 5?!"
Venti looked back and forth between Jasper and Oliver, completely lost.
Oliver couldn't help but laugh. "It's called that because it's based around Vault 76!"
"Oh!" Jasper breathed. "Okay, I see now."
"Sadly, the game got terrible reviews at launch," Oliver added. "It was an online multiplayer survival game. Though, considering I've technically missed the last four years, I have no idea if Bethesda actually managed to fix it." Oliver glanced over at Venti and had to laugh at how adorably confused the bard looked. "Poor Venti. So lost."
Venti cracked a bright smile, leaning his elbows onto the table. "I truly am! These 'video games' you all keep talking about... it seems to be something everyone in this world loves. They must be fantastic!"
Jasper squinted at the anime boy. "What's his deal again?"
"He's from the world I was sent to," Oliver explained fondly. "He somehow managed to break out of the game's world to follow me here."
"Huh," Jasper muttered. "And what game was that again?"
"Genshin Impact," Oliver said. "It's a massive open-world gacha game, It came out in 2020. Which is why you've never heard of it."
Jasper sighed heavily, resting his forehead against the cool plastic table. "What do we even do now? When we actually manage to leave, I mean. We can't exactly just... walk back into normal civilization. If anything, we've all been declared missing persons for years."
Oliver swallowed hard. He hadn't even let himself think about that yet. He suddenly realized that whatever plans he had for his college degree were probably entirely completely out the window now.
"I was still in high school," August muttered. "So I have absolutely no idea how that's going to work. You see this kind of crazy stuff happen in movies, and everyone just magically goes back to normal afterward... but this is real life. What are we supposed to do?"
None of them had an answer. The reality of their situation was just too heavy to process.
Breaking the oppressive silence, August stood up and walked over to the shattered vending machine. He carefully reached his hand through the jagged glass. "Does anyone want a Snickers or something?"
Grrrroooowll~
A loud, rumbling noise echoed from the table.
"Damn, someone's hungry," August chuckled, turning around.
Jasper gave a weak, embarrassed laugh, his cheeks flushing pink. "That was me. I guess the adrenaline is finally wearing off. Yeah, I could use a Snickers."
"Well, like snickers say: you're not you when you're hungry." August pulled out a handful of chocolate bars and tossed one to everyone, except Venti, who politely waved it away.
Oliver giggled as he peeled the wrapper off his candy. "You really don't like this candy, do you?"
"Nope!" Venti shook his head playfully, leaning his weight comfortably against Oliver's shoulder.
Oliver took a happy bite of his candy bar, perfectly content to snuggle against his boyfriend's side.
August leaned against the vending machine, watching Oliver and Venti's closeness with an amused smile. "I just find it incredibly funny how almost all of us ended up finding someone within the fictional worlds," he mused. "You got Venti." He smiled at Oliver, then glanced at Arnold. "Richard over here got his Sugar Rush racers." Then he looked at Jasper. "And you had Billy, right?"
"I really don't wanna talk about him right now," Jasper said quickly, averting his eyes.
"Oh—" August blinked. "Okay, sorry. And I ended up dating Pete Boggs! Honestly, I'm just so glad I met him. Because dealing with those giant, horrifying spiders completely alone would have sent me to a padded room."
"Had you ever played that game before you got sent into it?" Oliver asked.
"Actually, no. I'd never even heard of it," August admitted. "My dad picked the world for me. Even though I technically volunteered for the experiment, he didn't let me choose the it. If it were up to me, I definitely wouldn't have picked Grounded. I would have gone with something significantly less bug-infested." He looked at Oliver. "But you played your game before you went in, right?"
Oliver nodded vigorously. "I did!" Then, he shyly rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing. "Probably a little too much, actually! Haha... I was always a bit slow on keeping up with the deep lore, but I was completely obsessed with the gameplay." He glanced down at Venti. "And—"
"And you definitely gawked at him on your screen way too much, didn't you?" August teased smoothly.
Oliver's face instantly flared bright crimson. "What?! No!" He whipped his head toward August, stammering defensively. "I—uh! Well... okay, maybe just a little bit..." He snuck a glance at Venti. The bard looked slightly confused, clearly not understanding the exact context of a "screen," but he definitely understood the teasing tone. Realizing how much Oliver adored him, Venti flashed a wicked, triumphant little smirk.
Oliver quickly turned away, unable to handle his boyfriend's smugness. "Let's just say I got incredibly overexcited anytime Venti showed up in a quest..."
A soft chuckle rippled through the group.
"Funny," August noted. "I think you're the only one out of all of us who was actually exposed to the media beforehand. Like, you actively had a fictional crush on him before you got sent into the world. I mean, we can't really say the same for Richard, since we don't know his past."
Oliver's blush slowly faded as August's words sparked a sudden thought. Why did Doctor Barclay suddenly start asking for people's consent? Even then, he was doing it in a completely manipulative way, hiding the brutal truth about the stasis period and how long they'd be trapped.
He desperately wanted to read more of those hidden documents.
As the other boys began to settle into a lazy, post-snack lull around the break room, Oliver subtly tugged on Venti's sleeve. "I'm going to go take another look at those files," he whispered. "Wanna come?"
Venti was facing the opposite direction.
"Venti?" Oliver whispered again.
Slowly, the bard turned around. He had puckered his lips dramatically and had wedged one of his dark teal braids firmly between his nose and upper lip, mimicking a thick blue mustache.
Oliver blinked. "What?"
"Pffft—!" Venti completely broke character, wheezing out a loud snort of laughter. The braid dropped from his face as he covered his mouth, shoulders shaking. "The look on your face was priceless!"
"What were you even doing?!" Oliver giggled.
The commotion drew the attention of the others. August just playfully rolled his eyes, turning his chair around to lean back against the wall.
Oliver smiled, shaking his head. "Venti, you are so random sometimes."
Venti giggled again, straightening his posture.
Oliver gently rested his hand on the bard's shoulder. "So... do you wanna come or not?" he whispered.
Venti placed his hand over Oliver's and nodded firmly. They both quietly stood up and slipped out of the break room, unnoticed by the rest of the group.
"There are just way too many boxes in that room," Oliver murmured as he and his boyfriend hurried down the dark corridor. "But I really need to read more."
"I don't blame you. I'm curious too," Venti agreed.
They reached the end of the hallway and turned into Extraction Room 3. Stepping carefully over the massive metal door Venti had blasted off its hinges earlier, Oliver took a deep breath, staring up at the towering mountain of cardboard.
"I mostly want to find files that explain his actual experiment process better," Oliver said quietly. "Or, even better, files on his most recent plans. Though, I'm not sure if his newest notes will even be in here... unless he has tape and boxes to waste."
Oliver stepped up to the box they had already sliced open. Peering inside, he sifted past the top layer of folders, grabbed a random manila envelope from the middle of the stack, and pulled out the stapled documents inside.
New Age In My Experiments:
Notes: I have hired a new, trusted assistant: Claire Davidson. She was in a rough spot and desperately needed a job in her scientific field, and I was the only one she could turn to. Normally, I would never take the risk of hiring an assistant to witness my work.
Claire has attempted to challenge my ethics. She insisted that I must start acquiring explicit consent from my subjects. Originally, I had no intention of listening to her and planned to terminate her employment immediately. However, I have noticed a fascinating anomaly: when a subject is genuinely excited or willing to enter a Fictional Universe, their Avatar experiences a significantly lower rate of system failure. I have yet to determine the exact neurological cause behind this, but the data is undeniable.
Therefore, starting in 2014, I will begin asking for "consent" from my subjects. However, I will strictly withhold the true duration of their stay, as well as the agonizing reality of the stasis process.
Oliver finished reading the first page. He glanced over his shoulder to see if Venti was reading along; the bard was practically reading over his shoulder.
"You okay?" Venti whispered. Seeing Oliver's tense expression, he leaned up on his tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. "You don't have to keep reading these if they're upsetting you, you know."
"No, it's okay. I need to know." Oliver flipped the first page over and began reading the second sheet.
New Age In My Experiments (Page 2): Test Subject: Jasper Daniels (Male, Age 19)
Notes: I met Jasper at a computer sciences convention. I learned the young man was eager to further his education, so I offered him an "internship" in my lab.
Following Dr. Claire's advice, I informed him that he would be adventuring into virtual worlds. Naturally, he did not initially believe that physical, inter-dimensional travel was possible.
I did not disclose everything. I omitted any mention of the stasis period, as I am certain he would have backed out of the program. The world he has been assigned to is from the Fallout franchise. Originally, I intended to use Fallout 3. However, a fourth game is slated for release in the coming months. I have decided to calibrate his machine for Fallout 4, anticipating that the Fictional Universe will latch onto the collective consciousness of the world. (The Fictional Universes manifest from human thought and written concepts long before the media's physical release).
I am undecided on whether I will actually compensate my subjects financially. Perhaps, when the time is right. I will continue to document Jasper's journey in the Main Terminal. Documented Year: 2014
Oliver carefully angled the paper so Venti could read the final lines. He furrowed his brow, completely baffled. "I don't understand. My avatar is classified as Prototype 1... which means it was the very first model." He pointed at Jasper's file. "Jasper went in a decade before me. If my avatar was completely broken and experimental, why did Doctor Barclay practically dust it off and use it on me after he had already built functional ones?"
Venti rested a comforting hand on Oliver's back, gently rubbing circles. "I don't know, love," he muttered.
"And look at this—" Oliver tapped the paper. "He deliberately switched his destination to Fallout 4. I bet when he first pitched the idea to Jasper, he promised him Fallout 3, but just conveniently left that detail out of his final notes."
Venti reached over, tapping a specific sentence near the bottom. "He also claims he was going to pay you all."
Oliver rolled his eyes, a bitter scoff escaping his lips. "Pfft, yeah, right." He flattened the paper out. "I highly doubt that. And honestly? Even though I'm broke, I don't want a single cent of his dirty money. He was literally kidnapping innocent people before Claire forced him to stop. Remember that first file we read?"
Oliver handed Venti the Jasper document, reached back into the box, and yanked out the very first packet they had discovered. He pointed aggressively at two specific names: Billy Anderson and Ashton Blackwood.
"Look at this," Oliver said, his voice trembling with anger. "Billy literally burned to death, and Ashton is lost forever in the system. One was a ten-year-old kid, and the other was a teenager. I don't want this monster's money. As I said, if it wasn't for Claire he would have continued all of this. And to be frankly honest, he's still doing, just with a different tactic,"
Venti's expression darkened. "I agree with you completely, babe. As an Archon, what this man is doing is a foul, unforgivable sin. I would have every divine right to smite him where he stands." Venti crossed his arms tightly. "Sadly, my divine powers like that are completely severed at the moment..."
"I know," Oliver sighed, leaning against him. "You're cut off from Teyvat. And even if you were still there, you can't reach Barclay from inside your world anyway."
Venti glanced at the towering stacks of boxes. "And you're right. He is still kidnapping people. August and Arnold are just kids too."
"Teenagers, but yeah," Oliver corrected. "Doctor Barclay is absolutely finding loopholes around Claire's rules."
Oliver picked up the New Age packet again and flipped to the third page.
New Age In My Experiments (Page 3): Test Subject: Oliver Radcliffe (Male, Age 22)
Notes: Still adhering to Claire's restrictive guidelines, I recruited another young man from a local college under the guise of an internship. I have opted for a different tactic this time: I am reviving Prototype 1. I believe the original model still holds immense potential, and I need to run further tests.
The year is 2023. He will remain in stasis for a full 4 years to ensure absolute synchronization with the avatar. I theorize this is why previous iterations of the prototype failed—I rushed the stasis process. At the time of writing, Radcliffe is safely asleep in stasis. Once he awakens in his designated world, I will transition all further documentation to the Main Terminal. Documented Year: 2023
Oliver looked up, "So he basically threw me in a broken prototype just to see what would happen."
"Hmm," Venti murmured, tracing a finger over the page. "I suppose that answers why you were put in it after Jasper."
"Yeah, it does," Oliver said, tracing the text with his own eyes. "But wait... look at this." He pointed to the exact same phrase that had appeared in Jasper's file. 'Main Terminal'.
"If I'm not mistaken, that was mentioned in one of the other documents August read too," Oliver realized, looking around the cluttered, windowless room. "This bunker isn't that big. We've checked every single room. There's no other place a massive 'Main Terminal' could be hiding."
"Maybe it isn't in this building?" Venti suggested with a shrug.
Oliver's eyes widened. Venti was absolutely right. They had zero idea what the exterior of the bunker actually looked like. There could be an entire complex of buildings out there in the snow. "We could just have you blast the front door down... but August was right. It's freezing outside. The temperature in here is completely climate-controlled at least. If we blow the door off and realize we're fifty miles from civilization, we'd be trapped in here with a massive hole letting in sub-zero winds. We'd freeze to death."
"Then I truly hope this Mark fellow returns soon. He sounds like a very interesting person to help," Venti noted.
"I wonder if Mark is from one of the Fictional Universes too? Doesn't sound like he's from my world..." Oliver said.
Venti gently nudged Oliver's shoulder, pointing at the packet. "There's one last page stapled to the back."
"I know," Oliver braced himself, flipping to the final sheet. "I bet anything this one is about Arnold."
New Age In My Experiments (Page 4): Test Subject: Arnold Harper (Male, Age 16)
Notes: I am writing this document a few months post-extraction. The operation was a complete success—even more so than Daniels'. While Daniels barely retained fragments of his original world, Harper's mind wipe is flawless. There are virtually no faults within his rewritten consciousness.
We did experience a minor system hiccup that nearly derailed the project. At first, I feared I had celebrated prematurely when the target world was suddenly rewritten by an unknown entity (I am still investigating the cause, though I suspect the dark creature, Nerraw, is involved). However, Harper's avatar managed to pull through the anomaly intact.
This might be it. This boy might be the perfect subject.
To achieve this, I was forced to disregard Claire's advice entirely. I kidnapped Harper. However, I believe I have done the boy a massive favor, as his real-world home life was highly abusive. The last time I monitored his feed, he was having the time of his life within the Fictional Universe. Thanks to me, he is living the life he always deserved.
I will wait for the opportune moment to officially patent my transfer machine. Once secured, we can drastically expand our testing pool and generate billions from these locked, hidden worlds. Documented Year: 2025
Oliver aggressively shook his head as he finished reading, thoroughly disgusted. "So he did go back to kidnapping. He literally stole Arnold." Oliver let the paper drop to his side. "And he even had the nerve to make up a twisted savior complex excuse for doing it."
Venti took the paper from his hand, checking the back to see if there was anything else, but it was blank. "Hmm... are there no documents regarding August's transfer?"
Oliver scanned the dozens of untouched boxes. "I guess since August was his absolute last experiment, those notes haven't been archived yet. They might be in a different box, or... maybe they're on that Main Terminal."
"Oliver? Venti? Where did you guys go?"
August's voice echoed faintly down the hallway. The others had finally realized they were missing.
"Come on," Oliver said, grabbing Venti's hand and pulling him toward the door. "Once we finally find a way out of here, we have more than enough physical proof to lock Doctor Barclay away for the rest of his life."
~~~~~~~
It was nighttime once again. Another long, strange day had finally come to an end, leaving the group stranded with the lingering, exhausting question of when exactly they would be able to leave this place.
But Venti was restless.
"Why can't I sleep?" the bard whispered to himself.
It wasn't just because he was in a bizarre new place. He was well past that initial shock, and besides, he had his boyfriend right by his side. Oliver was currently pressed heavily against him, dead to the world, his mouth hanging slack with a tiny trail of drool escaping the corner of his lips.
Venti couldn't help but giggle softly. Reaching down, he gently wiped the drool from Oliver's chin. "Silly," he whispered affectionately. With a quiet sigh, he leaned against his boyfriend, resting his head on top of Oliver's.
Maybe Venti just missed Teyvat. He hadn't confessed it to Oliver, but a deep, gnawing worry about being away from Mondstadt was eating at him. The nation could survive without its Archon—it had done so for centuries—but it still didn't sit right with him to leave it behind like this. Worse, his divine connection to his world was completely severed. Something terrible could be happening in Mondstadt right at this very second, and he would never even feel it.
He took a slow, steadying breath. It's fine, he reassured himself. It'll all be fine. Mondstadt's fall isn't meant to happen for at least another billion years... it's fine.
Distracting himself, Venti began running his fingers gently through his sleeping boyfriend's hair. He didn't want to burden Oliver with his anxieties; the poor boy was stressed enough as it was.
His expression softened as he gazed down at Oliver's peaceful face. "Never would have expected myself to do this again," he murmured, a fond smile gracing his lips. "Running around with some mortal boy." He gently played with one of Oliver's braids on the back of his head. "I love you, Oliver."
He leaned back into the chair, letting Oliver snuggle comfortably into his lap. As Oliver shifted in his sleep, his nose pressed close to Venti's stomach.
The bard shook his head in fond amusement. "Even in your sleep, you're drawn to my tummy."
Venti let his eyes wander the dim break room for a moment before finally letting them flutter shut.
Thump
Venti's eyes snapped open. He glanced down at Oliver, who was still fast asleep, his mouth slack as he let out a soft snore.
Scanning the room, Venti saw Arnold sprawled out across a table, while August was hunched uncomfortably over the back of a chair. Jasper was out cold too.
"What was that?" Venti muttered.
There was nothing in the room that could have made that strange thumping noise. "Must have been nothing," he told himself, though his heart beat a little faster. "This world is highly advanced, right? Maybe it's just heavy pipes, like in Fontaine..."
His gaze swept past the open doorway, then instantly snapped back.
Venti blinked, his eyes widening in pure disbelief as his stomach dropped. He wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him in the low light.
Oliver was standing in the doorway.
Confused, Venti looked down at the real Oliver snoring in his lap, and then back at the door.
The figure lingering in the door frame wasn't his boyfriend. It was the digital avatar Oliver had used in the Fictional Universe.
Venti was still struggling to grasp the complex science of this world, but he certainly wasn't stupid. He knew this shouldn't be happening. Why was an empty digital shell standing at the door? How was it even moving without anyone piloting it?
The avatar slowly pulled back from the frame, ducking out of sight and disappearing down the hall.
Venti swallowed hard. He looked down at Oliver. "Please don't wake up, baby," he whispered, carefully and methodically untangling himself from his boyfriend. Once he had gently maneuvered Oliver onto the adjacent chair, the bard slipped away from the table, taking light, silent steps to avoid waking the others.
Standing in the center of the room, he took a deep breath to steel his nerves. He didn't know what was happening, but he prepared himself. He drew upon the faint, lingering traces of Anemo energy he had left, ready to summon his bow if things turned violent.
He crept toward the hallway. As he rounded the corner, he was startled to see the avatar just standing there.
It was completely motionless, its dead, lifeless eyes staring blankly straight ahead. It looked almost as if it weren't entirely physically there.
"What are you?" Venti whispered.
It looked exactly like Oliver's form from the realm it got sent into. The same dark braid hanging down its back, the same chocolate-brown skin, and the same large purple eyes. But the spark of life was entirely missing.
Very slowly, the avatar turned its head toward a door across from the break room.
It was the one room August had explicitly warned them not to enter—the room housing a portal rim. To keep everyone safe, August had ordered that it remain strictly off-limits.
The avatar began to move toward it. Its movement wasn't natural or human; it moved with a stiff, robotic stiltedness. It pushed the double heavy doors open and slipped inside.
Venti watched in stunned silence for a moment before letting out a soft gasp. "W-Wait—" he hurried over and pushed the door open.
He had expected a normal laboratory room. Instead, he found a small, square concrete space dominated by a descending staircase plunging deep underground.
Walking to the top step, Venti peered down. He could see the bottom, but the stairs fed into a long, dark corridor. He couldn't do anything from up here. The shrinking silhouette of the avatar told him it was already making its way down.
Venti gulped, taking the stairs one by one. 'Come on, Venti. Don't be scared. What is this compared to the things you've seen?' He slowly descended into the concrete hallway.
At the very end, he spotted the avatar standing perfectly still, its back to him.
As the bard approached and peered around the avatar, he found himself in a large, boxy room cluttered with complex machinery. Sitting dormant right in the very center was a massive metal portal rim.
Venti hesitated.
Then, the avatar jerked forward, stepping into the center of the room and coming to a halt before the machine.
Venti slowly stepped inside. "You can't be Oliver, can you?" he asked, instantly realizing how stupid the question was. His boyfriend was safely asleep upstairs.
Standing at a safe distance from the avatar, Venti's eyes wandered away from the giant rim and landed on a piece of paper resting on a nearby workbench. He slowly made his way over and picked it up.
It was a typed note.
Attention Workers: Clients working in this building are strictly forbidden from turning on this portal until the time is right. It is for an upcoming experiment I have planned.
While running recent tests, I have located a massive spike of energy at a specific coordinate within the Fictional Universe grid. It appears to be a hallway of some kind—a source of immense power, though I cannot yet fathom its true nature. Readings indicate the presence of another portal rim on the other side. The portal rim I have constructed here is designed to infiltrate it.
However, my portal remains unstable. Several more tests are required before it can be safely activated to ensure the structural integrity of this building.
Please, only open this portal upon my direct command. -Doctor Samuel Barclay
Venti glanced up from the paper to see the avatar standing directly in front of the portal.
"What are you?" Venti demanded, his voice hardening. "And what are you doing?"
The avatar slowly turned its head to look at him. Suddenly, pitch-black flames erupted around its body, the digital skin glitching and distorting violently.
Venti's eyes flew wide open. His fingers involuntarily clenched, crushing Doctor Barclay's note in his fist.
The corrupted avatar took a slow, menacing step toward him. "I've been damaged," a distorted, unnatural voice rasped from its throat. "Thanks to that wretched Holder, and you." The avatar's eyes flickered a dangerous, glowing red. "This empty shell is the only thing sustaining me..." The entity glanced back at the portal rim. "I can barely see in this digital suit... so you are going to turn on the portal."
Venti was terrified, but he planted his feet, holding his ground. "I will not do that."
"Turn it on," the dark creature snarled, the black flames flaring higher around Oliver's stolen avatar. "Or I will kill you and every single one of your friends."
Venti desperately pushed for the wind. He tried to draw upon his Archon form, to summon a gale to blast the creature away. But there was nothing. An empty void where his divinity used to be. He couldn't do much of anything.
He had no choice. The dark creature was here, and if yielding meant keeping Oliver and the mortals safe, he would do it.
"O-Okay..." Venti stammered, dropping his gaze.
He approached the giant machine. He had no idea how to operate it, but after poking around the rear, he spotted a heavy main switch. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, the bard flipped it.
A low droning sound immediately emitted from the metal rim.
Venti gasped, stumbling backward.
A bright blue spark snapped in the dead center of the ring, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Then it sparked again, the flashes compounding until the entire room was bathed in an eerie blue hue. The mechanical whirring grew to a roar, the metal rim vibrating against the concrete walls that stood closely by it.
Suddenly, the erratic sparks spiraled into a swirling vortex, smoothing out into a seamless, glowing gateway.
Venti blinked, shielding his eyes as he peered into the active portal.
He wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at.
It appeared to be a hallway, but it was horrifyingly decayed. Doorways lined the walls, but the doors themselves had been violently ripped from their hinges. Beyond the empty frames lay a sprawling, bright blue void, swirling with a strange, cloud-like substance. Thick, dark, pulsing vines choked the walls, crawling wildly across the floor and ceiling.
At the very end of the corridor was a blindingly bright light.
The dark creature didn't hesitate. It stepped right through the portal.
Venti stayed rooted to the spot he was, refusing to follow.
Inside the decaying hallway, the dark creature paused, looking up and taking in its surroundings. "This is my work," it hissed in dark satisfaction. "I did this. But it's still not over yet."
Then, movement caught Venti's eye.
Emerging from the periphery of the portal's view on the other side, creeping up behind the dark creature from the other end of the hall, was a strange, crystalline being. The creature's body was covered in jagged blue shards, and in its hands, it gripped a gleaming golden weapon.
Venti gasped softly. He recognized them instantly. That was the entity the two Archons and Oliver had told them about.
The crystal creature raised its golden weapon, silently preparing to strike.