The stars suddenly gave way for dark clouds, and the air became instantly breathable once again. They flew up the eye of an unfathomable storm, yet the twisted tunnel of clouds were still. Ahead of them at the end of the clouds was nothing but flame-shrouded light, and behind nothing but darkness. Its true nature was unknown, it was merely just a gateway. A gateway that should never have been reachable.

For mile after mile the clouds turned from dark grey into a muted silver. The world around them eventually grew brighter, dyed a more vibrant orange hue with every minute that came by.

It still only grew brighter, and it burned. They both shielded the eyes as much as possible, the heat began to rise, the burning light hurt.

Yet as quickly as this luminescence came upon them it too vanished...

Their eyes weren't open when the city's Skyline appeared before them. When they finally looked upon it the dawning sun hung behind them. The glorious skyscape of the long Fallen City rose from afore them. They were both in silent awe as they descended slow upon it. The rising spires were like shards of brilliant crystal, reflecting amuted light in rays as if through a thin fog. Their shadow ran across the towers and boulevards, across the rippling ocean and eventually faded to as another within the mighty City.

"That's the…" Carola had tears in her eyes, as Gale himself was still speechless. His eyes cast themselves upon the Spires once more as if for the first time.

They couldn't hear the song of the City, yet they felt its emotion. It welcomed those that fought for it with a view that would stain their vision forever.

Even the sight of it looked new. The vessel curved down, flying between the broken tips of many towers, and the remaining tops of others. Each of them was ensnared and encompassed with a tranquil mist, one only viewable by earthly eyes. The decay was ever retreating, the cracked and desolated ruins, the corpses of Humanity's imagination had regained a spark of life. The towers' silent flatlined beat reached that of a faint pulse, one marked by the flow of faded colour through its flesh and bone. As aliens in this world, it was only amongst them he could hear them.

Each spire sang a different song, they hummed with the radiance of a thousand solos, each one that passed by sang to them. Even after every day that he slept and walked the City, Gale had never heard such a resonance before. This song was sung from the City's will or power, but the wind echoing through the empty halls. It resonated up each spire and reverberated down the causeways. It was a song born of pure nature.

"It's beautiful… How could we ever make this?" Carola dried the tears on her shirt, Gale turned his head back to her, he had tears too.

"We all did." His eyes never left the cityscape. "How could they ever abandon it? Who could ever, either willingly or unwillingly, destroy this place..."

Now that they were here the whole experience was different. The towering spires of the City's heart fell away behind them, casting them across the crystal clear ocean. The water shimmered anew, even as it hung low and drained. The seabed breaking its surface glimmered with the sparkling light of a distant prism, a distant light. The sea radiated it upwards, its surface like a deep sapphire. it was without a ripple. It too was now pure.

As they made headway for the City's distant edge they came across it through good fortune alone. Like a tour of the City's greatest landmarks…

He had to see it once more.

And he could on the horizon, The Tree rose like a lump on the water. Its lower canopy glistened even from this distance, sparkling in the light of the perpetual dawn. The ShardShip skimmed the water's surface, kicking up a long trail of spray once more, marking a path like a pen with foam.

Gale's mouth dropped wide as they saw the Tree in bloom. Its crystal flowers scattered light of a thousand colours across the clear ocean. It radiated back up from its crystal bottom, reflected like an eternal mirror. Each flower told its own story, another believing in the wondrous land humanity had crafted from its beginning. The tree waved to them as they passed. The flowers shimmered and glistened, some falling from it in a snow of sparkling light, igniting the roots in all colours.

The ShardShip rushed towards the City's main district. The water gave way for the coastline interwoven with stone and crystal. It's surface's cracks withdrew slowly. People walked its causeways, flew between the buildings, and as Gale watched towers began healing themselves even further. Their shards soared upwards to their peaks, whilst those cast afloat drifted down to merge to the greater whole with titanous rumbles unheard by all else.

Humanity, at least some of it, had returned to the World of Dreams, the City Inbetween. Yet it wouldn't be enough.

Despite the healing, despite the glory they had witnessed since flying its skies once more, albeit totally anew… It's death rattle was ever present.

A spire ahead of him began to lean, its base letting lose a shroud of debris as it collapsed onto its neighbour. The impact showered the second spire with broken crystals, rocks, metals and dreams. Covering its surface in a web of cracks and pits and splinters as its neighbour broke apart, crashing to the causeway far below. The assailant crashed to the ground, whilst the defender stood barely upright.

It wasn't enough...

"Hurry it Gale. Let's not fail now…" Carola ordered, and sure enough the City whipped by faster and faster. She saw some people fly alongside them, only to peel off into the depths of the City's skyscape. The bridge appeared ahead of them. They made for ground, swooping the vessel down the causeway to its end.

Someone was awaiting them.

The vessel had slowed but it still rushed over their head as they raised their hand in greeting. Curving around gently it set lay between the arches, slowly descending down the bridge. Coming to a peaceful rest at their side, the canopy opened before it had made touchdown.

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"Whose that?" Carola mumbled as they disembarked. their form was muted in the haze that filled the City. Like the twists and turns of dreams hid their being. Gale watched the apparent stranger carefully.

"Dad?" The voice asked the man staring him down. He looked little different from when he left. In that world it was unnerving.

"Alban." Gale held his hand out to him. "Welcome to the City."

His flightsuit clad son seemed hesitant. Not just because of the affection but the gauntlet like mit that covered his hand. "You can't hurt me Son."

On touch the mit began to rust and rot under Gales bare skin. The decay was thick, yet it remained whole. Gale looked down, and yet sure enough. There, under boot, even on the Bridge itself their footprints were of cracks and dust. They didn't belong there…

Gale smiled. His plan might just work.

For the moment though, something else mattered more.

"You have something to say." Gale was stern. Carola watched as Alban gave a halfhearted shrug. Gale's body stiffened briefly in a mix of rage and pain.

"You were right, I was wrong. The way you've been is also wrong. I have nothing to say." Alban's eyes panned across the world around him. He took it all in, there was so much to learn, and so much to unlearn now. "Cory wants to get you sectioned."

"There you are Carola, after a lifetime of telling people the truth, they still think you're mad." Gale waved off the comment, even if his companion looked on with hate in her eyes.

"You're just letting that happen? Even with all the proof?" She spat.

"You can't ever change someone's opinion, so there's no point even trying." He grunted, Alban watched his Dad carefully, the man was surveying his surroundings. Seeing it through fresh eyes the next steps unfolded in front of him. The argument was carefully tuned out. The whistling wind in the City, the only thing that spoke to him.

He took careful steps up the bridge. His steps were shaky, in fact every movement had an unnatural jerk to it. He came to its threshold. The vast expansive skyline caught the light like it was backed by a dawning supernova. The faintest wisps of colour straddled the towers, tiny black smudges marked the presence of others, living out their dreams in this once forgotten world.

He almost considered leaving it as is. The City had a new form now, and even seemed to have regained a new life. Yet as the balance of probabilities moved into its favour a distant tower crumbled away. There was no echoing crash, the rubble and debris merely drifted into the sky around it. The new world was being built upon the bones of the ancestors'…

That could not be allowed.

Under inspection it was an endless war. Towers would rebuild and regrow, yet the tainted decay would strip them bare equally quickly. All the while their tainted presence lay footsteps of ruin across its strongest bastion. The flowing light scattered underfoot, illuminating his and Carola's bodies with a million coloured facets.

He knelt down, running his fingers with care across the crystal surface. Runes and symbols of all languages adorned its surface, telling the tale of the City for all who spoke it.

Under his touch it cracked and splintered, no matter how gentle he was. Only enough to tarnish its pure, unbroken surface. He could draw on it like a painting, one that would last for all time.

He brought his fist down upon it, no harder than one smacking their hand on a table. Yet he might as well have gone at it with a jack hammer. The surface ignited with a brilliant flash of lightning, fading in a blink of an eye to leave nothing but scarring cracks across its engraved surface.

The pain throbbed in his hand as Gale pulled it back, surveying the damage. It felt so wrong to lay harm upon it, yet he argued it like the greatest of leaders. It would have to be a worthy sacrifice, no matter the outcome.

"It's no decision for one man to make." Alban called from behind him, he looked back to see Carola approach him. "Leave this place as it is. It'll serve its purpose for a new world, nothing more."

"I had to tell him… He worked it all out." Carola explained as she knelt beside him. She took a glance back at Alban. "He's a clever sod."

"The material composition of the City is not of our world Dad, it cannot exist in it. If people doubt it, and don't forget that most will, after a few hours it'll be barely dust!" He explained, very firm, and very clear. "You are sending this place to a quick demise. Get on that ship and come home."

"The Shardship made it!" Gale barked back, pointing to the awaiting craft, patient and loyal as always. "And we're alive alright aren't we!"

Alban matched his tone without hesitation. "Look how much damage that thing has!"

"The City has proven that when people believe in it it gains strength!" Gale swept his arm over the towers. "They were nearly all smashed to hell and back only days ago! This place was dead and now look!"

"I know Dad I saw it…" Alban paced towards him, his steps undoing Gale's own of decay and ruin. "Leave it be. Let it be, even in its current condition it is a wonder that will drive mankind to a new dawn."

"It's not enough!" Gale turned to Carola, his tone entirely changed like the argument never happened. "It hurts, but it'll break through."

"Why use hands?" She asked, spinning up onto her feet. Gale smirked as she drew out her pistol, arming it and primed. He recognised the motions of an experienced wielder. She looked back. "Ready?"

"Trust me. Please. Don't do this." Alban begged. Yet he was ignored.

Gale reeled back, as Carola levelled her weapon across the Bridge's width. As his fist came down she fired.

The crunch of bone on stone was punctuated by the crash of a gunshot. The bridge flashed bright, the cracks weaved its surface to flash again once more. Cartridges clattered against its surface cracking it further with each landing, as flicks of blood splashed from Gale's already torn fist. Each drop aswell left a splash of red surrounded by a small halo of ruin. They were insignificant compared to the damage of their masters, the bridge's surface split like a spider web. Not emanating far. Yet nonetheless the damage persisted.

They worked in time, hit after hit. Shot after shot.

With another strike it grew wider.

And another.

The City felt it. Towers rumbled and shook under each impact. Like the walk of ancient titans the City rippled under its strength. Light flickered throughout, the bridge itself eamed to ebb with even more colour, it was fighting back.

"Enough!" Alban shouted, smacking the weapon from Carola's hand. He caught Gale's bloodied fist, dragging the man onto his back even as he gasped in pain. He was face to face over him. "This has gone too far! No further!"

Gale growled, his face slowly contorted into a snarl. He drove his free hand up, connecting his fist to Alban's chin in a blow that made his whole body lurch back. From both force and surprise, the look on his son's face was, understandably, one of utter betrayal.

Alban stepped back as his father got to his feet, brandishing a bloodied hand with a pointed finger at him. He didn't say a word, the gesture alone meant it all. Alban kept back peddling until he found himself at the bordering wall of the City.

Gale grimaced in pain, he closed his fist once more, hearing the joints crack loudly...

That was Alban's last image of his father. He watched the man turn, reeling back once more. He leant back on the wall in defeat, at least he'd tried. A tear flowed into the blood on his chin. He mourned the turn of events.

Alban felt the tug of the real world, even as he begged to stay and see it through. The descent of that fist seemed so slow. His last sight in that City was its impact, shattering up its length it exploded in shards of glass and crystal. The ebbing flow of colour morphed into a sheer flash of explosive light…

As his vision faded away, and the sensation of waking began to hit…

Most strangely, he felt the cool of that wall still as his mind transferred from one world to another. Yet before his eyes opened he felt it part…

Where it went he didn't know.

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