Erin pulled a small device off her belt. “This’ll open a portal to the Ourorboros base.” She turned and looked at Tabitha, her face unreadable behind her armoured helmet. “It’s a little weird when you first step through. Just take a deep breath, and try not to think about it.” She activated the portal, a glowing, golden image of an angled infinity symbol. She stepped through and vanished.

“Try not to think about it,” Tabitha thought. “Thanks, Cerulean Steel. Like that’ll help.” She took a deep breath, stepped into the portal…

...and watched her entire life flash before her. She tried making sense of the jumbled images, but it was like trying to separate a picture with a thousand other layers on top of it. Choices made, choices abandoned. What her life was, is, will be, and could have been. All in a blur of colour and sounds.

Suddenly, there was a flash, and she found herself kneeling on stone steps, what was left of her dinner spilled out before her.

“Told you not to think about it,” Erin said, smiling.