The instant David crossed the gate's threshold, reality decided to take a vacation. His stomach lurched as space folded in ways that would make an Escher painting look sensible, and time... time just gave up entirely.

–Warning: Unauthorized Gate Access Detected–

–Checking Authorization Parameters...–

–Warning: Void Energy Detected–

–Error: User Classification Undefined–

–Recalculating...–

–Error: Timeline Desync Detected–

–Initiating Emergency Protocol...–

–Warning–

–Warni–

–SysOveride:Σ–

–Compensating...–

The System's errors flickered through David's vision like a debugging routine having a stroke. He had just enough time to think 'this might have been a mistake' before existence decided to play jump rope with his consciousness.

It felt like being stretched through a pasta maker while someone shook his brain loose and took a peek at his thoughts. Colors that didn't exist painted themselves across his awareness as the gate pulled him through whatever passed for space between spaces. The Cuddlebugs pressed close, their tiny forms clinging to his fur as reality continued its impression of a pretzel.

When the universe finally remembered how to behave itself, it dumped him unceremoniously onto cold stone like yesterday's trash. David lay there doing his best roadkill impression for a moment, waiting for his internal organs to catch up with the rest of him.

"Holy shit," he groaned, his wings twitching spasmodically. "That felt like it took two weeks." He pushed himself up on shaky limbs, blinking hard as his vision slowly refocused. "Note to self: Gates suck ass."

Captain was already moving, organizing the other Cuddlebugs into a defensive perimeter with military precision. Their fluffy tails bristled as they surveyed their new surroundings, ears swiveling to catch any hint of movement in the vast corridor they'd landed in.

David's jaw dropped as his vision finally cleared enough to take in their location. The hallway stretched away into darkness, its ceiling high enough that his night vision couldn't quite pierce the shadows above. The walls rose like sheer cliffs of polished stone, their surfaces covered in flowing script that seemed to catch what little light existed and redirect it crazily.

"Well," David muttered, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

His talons clicked against stone that bore subtle patterns - geometric shapes that formed larger designs when viewed from above. The walls themselves seemed to pulse with faint energy, crystal formations jutting from carefully carved recesses at regular intervals. Their soft glow cast everything in shades of azure and gold, creating shadows that danced like living things.

Faint scents drifted to him in ways that made David's snout twitch - old stone and newer passages, the lingering musk of various reptiles that had passed through recently, and something else. Something that reminded him of ozone and ancient things better left undisturbed.

An experimental blast of Echolocation painted a picture of the immediate area that made his fur stand on end. The architecture wasn't just big - it was precise in ways that spoke of purposes he couldn't begin to comprehend. Every angle, every intersection seemed to mean something, though the meaning escaped him entirely.

"Right," David growled softly, spreading his wings. "Let's see what's behind door number 'what the actual fuck' shall we?"

David kept to the shadows near the ceiling as they progressed, his claws finding purchase in the raised reliefs that decorated every surface as he glided from cover to cover. The Cuddlebugs moved in formation below, with Captain taking point and the others maintaining a watchful perimeter. Even Helpful seemed to have caught the mood, their usual enthusiasm tempered by the weight of ancient stone pressing in from all sides.

His Pack Sense pulled him forward with surprising clarity, though the strength of the signal made him suspicious. After the chaos of the gate travel, anything working properly felt like a trap waiting to happen.

The corridor eventually opened into what might have been some kind of antechamber, though 'chamber' felt inadequate for a space that could have housed a small neighborhood. Doorways large enough to accommodate Claire's full bulk lined the walls, each one marked with symbols that pulsed with that same crystal-enhanced luminescence.

"Because apparently normal doors would be too easy," David muttered as he drifted to the stone floor, studying the nearest entrance. The artwork around its frame caught his attention - scenes depicted in gold and deep blue stone showed reptilian figures that walked upright, their forms graceful despite their obvious power. They weren't quite human-shaped, but something about their poses suggested intelligence.

Helpful darted forward suddenly, drawn to something glinting in an alcove. Before David could call them back, they'd already made contact with what looked like an ornate piece of metalwork.

The resulting discharge sent the tiny creature pinwheeling through the air trailing smoke, their fur standing completely on end.

"And that's why we don't touch random things in the creepy...whatever this place is," David sighed, catching the stunned Cuddlebug before they could crash. "You okay there, spark plug?"

Helpful chirped weakly, their tiny form vibrating slightly as residual energy dispersed through their fur. Captain shot them a look that somehow managed to convey both concern and 'you're a dumbass' simultaneously.

David's ears swiveled suddenly as something echoed from deep within the complex - a sound too distant to identify but close enough to remind him they definitely weren't alone in this maze. His nose confirmed what his ears suggested - other creatures had definitely passed through here recently, their scents a complex mixture of scales and...

Is that fear? I almost forgot what that smells like, I can't blame them though. This has 'ominous' written all over it in 100 foot tall flaming letters. Kinda weird to think I can smell fear with a good enough sniffer. Claire could probably tell me what they ate for breakfast too. Maybe I should invest in a Mutagen for that later.

"Alright team," he whispered, stuffing Helpful into the thick fur of his mane like a dejected ornament. "Let's try to avoid anything else that looks like it might still have juice, okay?"

The Pack Sense led them through a maze of corridors that seemed to follow some alien geometry. More than once, David could have sworn they passed through the same intersection only to find subtle differences in the artwork - like someone had built this place with floor plans specifically designed to make it hard to navigate.

Each new chamber they encountered held fresh wonders that David wisely chose not to investigate too closely. Strange devices of crystal and metal sat silent in alcoves, their purposes lost to time. Some still hummed with residual power, while others bore scorch marks suggesting Helpful wasn't the first curious explorer to learn about the 'no touchy' rule the hard way.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"You know," David mused, watching Captain herd the others away from a particularly interesting-looking piece, "I'm starting to think this place wasn't built by the local union."

The walls told stories he couldn't read - scenes of what had to be daily life for whoever had built this place. Markets clearly filled with goods he couldn't identify, gatherings that might have been ceremonies or might have been official functions. In each depiction, the reptilian figures moved with a grace that seemed at odds with their obvious strength.

More interesting were the scenes showing what had to be other species - massive herbivores and predators wearing decorative pieces that suggested domestication or friendship. Some bore what might have been armor, others carried objects that could have been tools or weapons.

"I can't fucking believe the tinfoil-hat weirdo's were right," David muttered, studying a particularly detailed mural. "Fucking...lizard people with pet dinosaurs. Of course. Naturally."

A slight shift in his Echolocation picked up something ahead - a change in the acoustics that suggested a much larger space. The Pack Sense tugged him forward with renewed intensity, though whether that meant Claire was actually closer or just that the signal was bouncing weird in here was anyone's guess.

They emerged onto a balcony overlooking something that made David's brain temporarily shut down for maintenance. The space beyond stretched away into darkness, its true scale impossible to gauge even with his enhanced senses. But it was the columns that drew his attention - hundreds, maybe a thousand of them, each one a canvas for what had to be the most ambitious art project in history.

"Holy shit," David breathed, his wings spreading slightly in shock as he balanced on a thick stone railing. "I think we found the premium tour package."

Cautiously, David glided down between the towering columns, each one thick enough that Claire could have coiled around it comfortably. The Cuddlebugs spread out in a loose net below him, with Captain coordinating their movements through subtle chirps and tail gestures.

The first row of columns told a story he could almost grasp - the rise of a civilization. Reptilian figures discovering fire, crafting tools, building the first structures. But something was off about the progression. The jump between discoveries seemed too quick, too... directed.

Either these guys speedran civilization, or someone gave them a hell of a walkthrough.

The next series of rows showed advancement after advancement - patterns that might have been mathematical formulas, structures that grew more complex with each new image. The beings themselves seemed to change too, their forms becoming more refined, more purposeful.

What caught David's attention the most were the strange circular diagrams that kept appearing between scenes. At first he thought they were just decorative, but something about them nagged at his memory. The patterns reminded him of those documentaries he'd half-watched late at night - diagrams of planets and orbits, but with details he'd never seen before.

"Wait a second," David breathed, his ears perking forward as circled back to study one particularly detailed scene. "Is that supposed to be... Saturn?" The rings were unmistakable, but the artwork showed features he was pretty sure nobody had known about until they'd sent probes out there.

The art progressed through what seemed to be their golden age - massive cities, marvels that put their current ruins to shame, and something else.

Something that made David's wings itch with sudden anxiety.

Gold and crystal traced patterns of energy or light or... something flowing between the reptilian figures, their forms almost luminous in the artwork. The scene showed hundreds of them gathered around what might have been a device or might have been an altar, its surface etched with symbols that seemed to shift if he looked at them too long. Whatever they'd discovered or created, it had transformed them - later scenes showed them with a sort of inner radiance, their scales replaced with flecks of crystal that pulsed in time with the others.

Then came the war.

The artwork shifted dramatically - scenes of conflict that spanned beyond anything David could properly grasp. The colors grew darker, the gold and lapis giving way to deep reds and blacks. Their enemies weren't really shown directly - just abstract shapes that filled him with a deep sense of unease, appearing to consume anything they touched. The reptilian figures fought with weapons that looked more like crystal sculptures than anything meant for violence, facing off against patches of distorted carvings that the artists had somehow managed to make look wrong even in carved stone.

"Right," David whispered, watching Captain gather the Cuddlebugs closer. "Because this place wasn't creepy enough already."

The next rows showed them losing - cities falling, their strange weapons proving ineffective against whatever they fought. But then something changed. The art showed them adapting, modifying their crystalline technology somehow. The abstract horrors began to falter, pushed back by forces that the reptilian figures had learned to wield.

Victory seemed within their grasp. Until it wasn't.

The final completed rows showed their civilization rallying one last time, but the triumph felt hollow. Unfinished. Just like the columns themselves.

The last few rows stood incomplete, their surfaces barely sketched with outlines. Tools lay scattered at their bases, crystalline implements fallen in mid-task as if their artists had simply vanished between one moment and the next.

David hovered near the final columns for a moment, wings beating slowly as he studied the unfinished work. Something about those abandoned tools made his stomach clench as a long sibilant hiss crawled out from between his fangs. Whatever had happened here hadn't been gradual - the artists hadn't just walked away or died out slowly. They'd disappeared in the middle of their work, as if something had just...

The Pack Sense tugged at him again, pulling his attention toward the far end of the vast hall. His Echolocation painted a picture of massive stone doors standing open, leading to what had to be somewhere important judging by the scale of the entrance.

"Because obviously the creepy history lesson wasn't the main event," David growled, gesturing for his team to regroup. "Let's go. Keep your eyes open Team, I'd rather fight another Dark Star weirdo than deal with whatever did this. Easily.'"

The throne room, if that's what it was, made the hall look modest. Crystal formations larger than houses jutted from the walls and ceiling, their surfaces catching and amplifying the ambient light until the whole chamber seemed to glow from within. The floor bore patterns that might have been decorative or might have been circuit boards - David wasn't entirely sure there was a difference anymore.

But it was the bodies that caught his attention.

Dozens of skeletal forms lay scattered across the chamber, their bones a stark white against the dark stone. Each one wore shattered armor that might have been technological or might have been ceremonial - crystal and metal merged in ways that suggested both beauty and deadly purpose. Weapons that looked more like abstract art pieces than tools of war lay where they'd fallen, their fractured surfaces still glinting faintly after who knew how long.

"Well," David breathed as he landed just outside the entryway, his voice barely a whisper as Captain pressed against his leg. "I guess we know where everyone went to die."

His eyes were drawn to the far end of the chamber, where a massive throne of crystal and stone dominated the space. Unlike everything else they'd seen, its surface was simple, unadorned and roughly hewn - as if decoration would have somehow diminished its purpose. A single skeleton sat upon it, wearing armor more elaborate than the others. Its skull was turned toward the ceiling, jaws open in what might have been defiance or might have been laughter.

The Pack Sense pulled at him again, but David remained near the entrance. Something about this place felt... final. Like he was looking at the last page of a forgotten story.

Captain chirped softly, drawing his attention to movement among the scattered remains. The other Cuddlebugs had found something - crowding around a piece of crystal that pulsed with faint light, barely visible beneath a fallen warrior's outstretched hand.

"No," David growled, remembering Helpful's earlier mishap. "Nobody touch anything. This place has enough dead bodies without us adding to the collection. Have some respect."

He cast one final look around the chamber, trying to imagine what it must have been like in its prime. What kind of civilization had built all this? What had they discovered that changed them so much?

And what the hell were they fighting that was so terrible they'd rather die here than try to run? I know a last stand when I see one. The doors are weird too, why open them at all if you're fighting that hard? They've gotta be like...at least 8 feet thick? Isn't the point of a door to keep things out? Was this a blaze of glory type of thing? I'm so confused.

The Pack Sense tugged again, more insistent this time.

"Yeah, yeah," David muttered, spreading his wings. "I hear you Claire. Though I really hope wherever you are makes more sense than this place."

As they left the chamber of the dead, David couldn't shake the feeling that he'd witnessed something important. Something that might explain why Earth had been chosen for... whatever the hell was happening to it now.

But those were thoughts for another time. Right now, he had a friend to find.

Assuming, of course, she hadn't gotten herself into anything too weird while he was catching up.