Prologue (Part 3/3)

One such situation, had occurred when she had been visiting their parents' clinic and had felt a sense of danger. She had just mentioned to father that she felt something or someone dangerous approaching the door to the clinic. With concern in his eyes, their father had picked up a metal rod that they used as a door stopper, for when they needed to keep the door propped open. Situating himself just off to the side of the closed door, he faced the direction of the way the door would open, while everyone else found cover. Just a few moments after that, a dark shrouded figure, in torn and bloody clothing had kicked the door open with a rifle in his hand and started to raise it up with his finger on the trigger. Their father brought down the iron rod, in a quick strike on the gun barrel. RATTATATA! The gun went off, shooting several slugs into the tiled floor of the clinic, stirring up a splattering of debris. Having evaded the initial gunfire, and in continued motion, their father followed up with an additional strike to the shooter's head. The would-be assailant then fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Thereafter, he was treated and restrained in the clinic until the local police were able to come and pick him up. The authorities never did come back to clarify the situation after taking away the bandaged and bloody shooter. The police however only seemed all too happy to confiscate the gun for their own purposes. This, was just one notable incident of many that she was able to have a sense of. Inaaya was blessed and cursed with this gift that too often gave uncertain feelings that didn't allow enough foreknowledge to act upon. But the sense was still there, and she was determined to discover how to use her gift for the good of those she loved. It was in this moment as they both were enjoying their impromptu lunch, that she had the strongest expression of fear and terror come upon her. Turning wide eyed towards her brother, she got up from her seat, ignoring her plate of food as it spilled over the floor. "Come Now!" was all she shouted as she yanked upon her brother's arm, causing him too to drop his plate at the unusual display of strength from her. Quickly gathering his feet beneath him, in alarm at the intensity of her gaze and voice, he followed her to where she led him. Without any further words, Inaaya led him to the entrance to their mostly dirt basement. Together they opened the latch to the underground room that held the majority of Naathan's computer and technology projects. Stepping back behind him, she cast one quick terrified look behind her at the front door, then turned to face him. With reddened and glistening eyes, she then pushed him backwards into the cluttered room. A look of bewilderment and strong concern filled his face, as Naathan fell past the stairs and crashed into the messy pile of various wires and other hardware, scattered throughout his workplace. Pain stabbed at his right side from a jagged edge of metal which dug into his tight woven shirt. That pain was promptly ignored as he sought to regain his footing amidst this surprising development. Inaaya then struggled to close the hatch doors behind him, as he strove to get up and make his way to the stairs to help her down as well. Staring back at him as she struggled with closing the doors she shook her head, her red eyes leaked sparkling tears. His last look at her face before the doors sealed him into darkness showed an expression of sorrowful resignation. Not a moment later, as darkness enshrouded him with the closing of the doors, an all-encompassing shockwave impacted the house. A moment of weightlessness encompassed him as Naathan was then tossed about, crashing into various corners and walls of the small basement. The tremendous shaking of the earth resulted in him breaking bones and tearing skin from the various instruments and miscellaneous equipment spread throughout. Then his consciousness fell into darkness, as his vision faded. .... Scattered moments of pain were felt from amongst the larger numbness that plagued his body, as Naathan came to with flashes of faint evening light. His vision was a complete blur as he tried to take in his seemingly unreal surroundings. Attempting to reach around himself by hand, he could only feel numbness and pain. The heavy smell of ozone, however, made him fear for the worst. Several attempts later, after trying futilely to pull himself up from the pile of shrapnel that he lay upon, he gave up with a loud warbled cry of anguish. Not even his voice worked amidst his wrecked body. Despair filled him as an image of his sister entered his hazed mind. If he was feeling this terrible after the earlier shock wave, then how much worse off was his sister likely to be. "Enaa . . Enaa!" Even her name was not able to properly escape his mangled lips as he called out to her. After that effort, which Naathan put into calling out her name, the darkness of his vision began to overwhelm his powerful mind with a growing haze that threatened to pull him back into unconsciousness. As his few remaining senses began to fail him, he began to feel something extra. An unusual sensation that he had never before felt began to envelop his mangled body. A soft ethereal voice broke the silence. "Brother. . ." The voice jolted him back awake, yet it was spoken with such warmth that he had never before heard. "Brother . . . I feared that I had lost you." The voice of his sister enveloped him like something spoken to him within his very soul. "Seestr?" He called out to her. An ethereal touch hovered over his lips. "Shhhh . . . don't force yourself. You are badly hurt, and in need of help." Her voice calmed him even as he failed to see where she was. A fuzzy warmth filled the space he was in, and an image filled his mind of his sister, as if she was in an incorporeal form hovering right beside him. "I'm sorry brother . . . I will be going away . . . *sob* . . . I feel myself fading here, and something is calling to me from . . ." She appeared to struggle a moment at finding the right words, finally ending with ". . . the beyond." Her eyes had taken on a far-away gaze, as if peering through layers and distances unknown. Then returning her gaze back to me, she said. "I don't know if I will ever be able to return. But you need help in order to survive. This is . . . all that I can do for you." Greater warmth gathered about him, as within his imagination, his sister's image appeared to be concentrating a large amount of light and warmth upon his figure. Movement could be felt all around him as his body seemed to become an attracting force of sorts; a force which drew a large part of the scattered electronics towards his prone form. Searing pain and numbing sensations came in scattered waves, as he felt his flesh ripple with uncontrolled movement. Movement and time blurred in hyper-speed around him, as if he was in a bubble in which this anomaly solely existed. In the end, feeling drained of energy but somehow more complete, the pain previously felt was as if it were but a distant past. All that remained was a dull ache, and a weird metallic and mechanical sensation. His body felt alien, and yet familiar. It was like putting on a well-worn and fitted jacket for the first time in that winter season, but far more intimate. "This is all I can do for now . . ." The voice of his sister sounded weary and tired. "It is my hope that we will be able to see each other again sometime in the future. Stay strong dear brother." The presence of his sister drew away from him, and for the first time he 'opened' his eyes and saw his surroundings in clear definition. A glowing transparent form that vaguely resembled his sister, was floating a few steps away from him. A feeling of great sadness spread forth from that figure, as she reached out a hand that tore at the space in front of him. *SKREEEEEEEEXXXX!* From that movement, reality itself screamed in denial as if the laws of time and space had been shattered, in the most painful way possible. Naathan's hands reflexively moved to cover his ears, but to no effect. The alien sense and cry resulting from his sister's actions, assaulted his psyche and entire body. A vortex of energy spread forth from that tear in reality, and Inaaya's ethereal figure, appeared to be buffeted by the myriad of energies, rushing in and out of that tear. Only a moment had passed, while time stretched off into eternity, but in the end, she phased through that passage. A single strand of energy was left behind, which weaved itself into his body. "Goodbye dear brother . . .." That last whisper floated on the winds of that alien energy. Too soon the tear in reality fixed itself, with no visible sign that it had ever been there. Silence however, reigned after that moment of excruciating sensory overload, as if the world and reality itself needed a moment to recollect its bearings. Just lying there, making the effort to take measured breaths, required all the energy that Naathan had as his body fought to find some normalcy after chaos. Gradually, his senses and sense of awareness came back to him, but in addition to the normal five senses, something else was felt. It was a kind of static interference, similar to the warmth he felt when his sister was speaking to him in their last moments together. But instead of warmth, it felt like a subtle electric field buzzing around him, attempting to fill or guide him. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had no time to dwell on it. Pushing those sensations to the back of his mind, Naathan finally made his way out of the basement with now working limbs. He gazed about himself with strong feelings of loss and despair at the scene surrounding him. Nothing, except little scraps from the house lay around the exit of the basement. Gazing out across the expanse in all directions, it could be seen that whatever had caused the explosion or earthquake, had been focused upon the higher populated village center. Minute scraps of clothing dangled from his body, and fell by the wayside while metallic gears and wires that had merged with his flesh, reflected the dull evening light. Of this, Naathan was completely oblivious, or at least paying no attention to, as he single-mindedly focused on his search. He was desperate to find out what happened to the rest of the village. The unknown, yet suspected fate of his parents was at the forefront of his mind, as his emotions tore at the loss of his precious sister. Leaving the small field of debris and scattered remnants of his home, he made his way towards his parents' clinic. His breath became ragged in distress, as he took in the progressively more-sparse surroundings, which showed that nothing living remained there. Not a sign of life, or even death, was spared to be shown. The only notable distinction, was a series of strange cloudy stones spread across the ground, that faintly glowed in contrast with the darkening sky. His eyes narrowed in worry and desperation, as he followed the lighted view to reach the center-point of the village. As he progressed, he noted how the frequency of these stones and intensity of their light appeared to be increasing. Finally, after reaching what appeared to be ground zero, as portrayed by the depression in the earth, there was a single large mass of glistening stone, that shone like a beacon in the dark. It buzzed with energy from several feet away, and left behind a feeling of searing warmth with prolonged exposure to its proximity. By this point, the feeling of electrical static surrounding him had become deafening to the senses. Cluttered scraps of knowledge, that he had never before encountered or fully understood, seemed to be pushing their way against his mind. Hidden knowledge lurked about the edges of his thoughts, as if tempting him into forgetting his grief and to experience all that it had to offer by opening up his tightly shut mind. Despair welled up within him as he gazed about at the desolation surrounding his only home. He intimately knew at that moment that no one else had survived. This final loss of his last close family members broke something deep inside of him, as he screamed out at the heavens. "Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" His cry of deep anguish fell deafly upon the empty and silent surroundings. Falling to his knees, his head bowed with shaky sobs tearing at his frame. Only then did he stop making the effort to block his mind off from that which plagued his overly stressed psyche. As the walls fell, unmeasurable pain laced with mismatched pieces of knowledge filled his thoughts to overflowing. Blood streamed from his eyes, ears, and nose, while the taste of wet iron filled his mouth in reaction to the mental strain, pressing upon him with the onslaught of information. Naathan blacked out as the influx of knowledge became too much for his conscious mind to handle. As his comatose form fell to the ground, his body leaned forward and slid into the depression in the earth. In the end, his twitching, restless, and bleeding body lay sprawled upon the brightly shining stone and crystal at ground zero......Everything that had occurred, everything that he and his sister had experienced up to this point, had led to this joint outcome. This had set the massive stage where they would be needed in two separate worlds and realities, that were far from being finished with the terror of war and strife. For due to the unsuspecting actions of a terrorist organization, something ancient and powerful was once again waking from its deep slumber upon this earthly realm. Something integral to every individual human being, animal, plant, and even element was waking. They were all struggling to break free from the mundane shackles that held them repressed. A new era was on its way to an ignorant world, and we as humans, were woefully unprepared for what was to come.