milliways_bar | Cycle 001/002

They’d been on the Animal Kingdom world (as they’d come to call it) for about a year.

They’d spoken to the three rulers (once they’d learned enough of the language), and won their favor - Magnus was even training with the Bear to become stronger.

But they still hadn’t decided whether to give the crew the Light. They needed time, they said, to see if they crew was worthy of it.

Nobody had any idea just how little time they had.

Just as they were brought before the court, and they were debating, it happens.

Lup could tell this time - she notices the color fading from the grass and the trees, and the sudden taste of bile in the back of her throat.

The crew looks to the sky, and sees that same black storm forming in the sky.

It had followed them.

—-

Dark tendrils and shadowy figures descend from the sky - all them shaped a bit differnetly, but all made of the same dark, liquid-like material that bleed a bright cacophony of colors. They grasp at the ground, at the animals - and then at the three royal beasts. They vanish, the Light along with them.

The crew scrambles for the Starblaster. Magnus is running around, helping all the animals he can. Lup shoots volley after volley of fire at the creatures, trying to buy the others as much time as she can. She manages to take down one of the scouts - but it’s not nearly enough, and they are soon overwhelmed.

Magnus is in the process of helping a pair of bear cubs, and when the group turns around, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Taako has to practically drag Lup with him as they make it back to the ship, and, unable to wait any longer, the ship takes off.

—-

Davenport navigates the ship through the jet-black tendrils that mark the atmosphere, and manages to leave the planar system safely.

The air around the crew begins to shift and wobble once again, as it did when they entered this system - but this time, light begins to collect around the Bond Engine that powers the ship, and shimmering threads begin to knit themselves into the shape of a person, before the cockpit is filled with a blinding flash.

And when the light fades, everyone is standing on the deck - in, Lup realizes, the exact same spots they were in when they entered the Animal Kingdom’s planar system. And, yes, Magnus is there, too, looking very shaken.

They rush to greet him, asking what happened.

“I…” It takes Magnus a moment to find his voice. “I think I just died."

Lup notices that Magnus even has the same black eye from the bar fight he got into the night before the launch - Merle, too, notices the cut on his forehead from that same bar fight.

The last they see of the planar system behind them is the giant cloud of darkness descend, pulling the entire plane into its may, and a great flash of light is seen from within its depths.