From the storm

Scientists didn't know what to make of it, but the media called it the Phantom Eye. 

It was a time storm, the first of its kind. When a single entity disturbs the flow of time in multiple realities all at once it causes a rift in the timeline that may cause those realities to converge on one another. Like stitching pieces of cloths together. This is what was happening that night. 

In situations like this, chances of temporal displacement multiply ten fold. Basically, some thing or some one could be mistakenly pulled into another reality not of their origin. Gates from other worlds could open in the space around us as realities converge.

However, what made the phantom eye so eye catching that people came out of their homes to watch it on a stormy night, and why it became the most talked about phenomenon in the history of the world was its light show. 

With every flash of lightning, shadows of giants, dragons and creatures unknown to mankind flashed in the clouds, like shadow puppets. The sounds and roars could be heard as well. Clear as day. It was like there was a whole new world hidden in the clouds. 

That was actually one of the theories as conspiracy theorists and half the world tried to figure it out in days to come. Others thought it was a warning for the end of days, manga fans thought an Isekai adventure was coming, most thought of aliens. But no one on the ground knew anything, only ATLIS did...because this world belongs to them. 

Back in the ATLIS, this caused a panic. "We managed to get 38's cerebral feed back?"

I heard them say in the back of my mind. I pulled my head back to see Hope's face and to try to hear clearly what was being said through my mind, as we entered the clouds into the storm. The damage that had been done to my chip resulted in a malfunction that let me reieve audio feed as ATLIS forced its way into my system.

When we entered the clouds and broke through chaos of the storm, another voice whispered, "Don't make the same mistakes."

This one wasn't from ATLIS but it was familiar. As it whispered, I remember seeing myself in a different world holding Hope's dead body in my arms with the world around me burning and ATLIS crashing to the ground. Like I had been pulled into another world somewhere in the future.

It felt like one of my hallucinations or maybe a dream, but I could feel Hope's cold pale skin in my arms. The smell of ash and blood burned my nostrils. There was nothing left, the world was no more. Then in the distant black smoke I saw a shadow approaching. It had no face and no solid form, just two white holes in place of eyes, it's form waving in the wind.

At this point I could still hear the voices from ATLIS curiously bickering in the back of my mind like distant echoes reporting to Zeus. "Sir," they said. "38 seems to be experiencing mild temporal displacement."

"Reality of displacement!" Zeus commanded. 

"Alpha-01, sir! He shares a mind with an Alpha Variant." The scientist reported. 

"It's not JINX?" Zeus exclaimed. "Identify the variant."

I really was seeing things from another timeline, one where the choices I made took everything from me, one that would soon become my future. 

Suddenly, everything felt cold, my whole body felt numb. This shadow reached out its hand towards me and said gently. 

"Such pain filled eyes. Forgive me if my trials were too harsh, but you have proven yourself worthy. Come, child, become one of my Archons. You stand as the last of the chosen." It spoke slowly and clearly, and had a commanding tone behind its gentle voice.

I knew I recognized the feeling when I saw this shadow, it was JINX. But he was different, he wasn't anything like the monster Zeus showed me, the monster that possessed me, this was an intelligent and rational being.

'What the hell is going on?' I thought to myself.

Before I could make sense of this vision, I was hurled back to my reality by Hope's voice calling my name. The pod descended faster as we neared the surface. 

When I tried to reassure her that I was fine, lightning struck our pod, damaging it and caused it to start spinning as we descended, then everything went black. My mind was gone for a few hours after that. 

Before I woke up, a robotic voice spoke in my head, in the darkness of my subconscious mind. I could read what it was saying like words on a computer screen, but it was like a dream so I thought nothing of it.

[Variant has suffered severe skull fracture. Searching for traces of metahuman DNA to use in the healing process.]

[None found. Subject appears to be purely human.]

[Backup skin cell fusion accepted. Cell regeneration will commence in...]

[3...2...1]

Then my eyes creaked open, and I found myself staring directly at the sun. Feeling warmth of its rays made me feel like I was from another world, the melodious sound of birds chirping in the distance and the fresh air I enhaled added to my vision of paradise. 

How long had it been since I felt the sun? How long had it been since I took a breath of fresh natural air? This feeling reminded of that sunny day in the part with my parents, playing and laughing together. It had been a while since I had thought of that memory as beautiful. 

For a moment I couldn't bring myself to move...until I noticed that Hope was no longer with me. The pod had been opened and she was gone, no foot prints, no evidence of anything left behind. It was like she was never even there. 

As I stepped out of the oble shaped contraction I found myself in an a field of trees, the tallest I'd ever seen. 

I did experience loss of balance and mild vision distortion as I struggled to readapt to Earth's gravity. It was heavier than I remembered. 

I began walking in a random direction in hopes of reaching the edge of the forest at some point. I slipped a few times, and tripped more times than I care to admit because my body felt a little too heavy. On ATLIS, the artificial gravity was a little lower than that on earth so my body still moved and reacted like it was in that gravity. 

But now that I think about it, maybe I slipped so much because my mind was elsewhere. I couldn't stop thinking about Hope and why she'd leave. She couldn't have been abducted and with our brain chips dead there was no way ATLIS could find us, plus they wouldn't leave me behind. So, where had she gone?

Simply shifting my weight slightly didn't keep me from tumbling down a steep hill, but I fell in a pond and found some water that way. Though it didn't help that I couldn't swim.

I struggled and waved my hands around shouting for help until I realized my feet had touched the ground. 

Yeah, I felt dumb for a minute but nobody had seen that so it's fine. What really turned my head upsidedown was what I saw in my reflection. 

I sank my hands in to scoop up the water but in my reflection I saw someone else. The me I'd seen in my dreams, and I wished he would have stayed there because seeing someone else as your reflection, I learned, is one of the top 10 scariest things in the world. 

Right up there next to seeing a snake in the toilet and reaching the ground when falling in a dream. I couldn't move for a few seconds and stayed silent as I tried to comprehend the fear and shock that was staring up in the pit of my stomach. My body had no idea how to react, not even my hallucinations could do this to me. 

As if this wasn't scary enough, he decided to calm me down by speaking to me. Speaking!

I watched him raise his hand slowly, independent of mine and say to me in a stern and clear voice. 

"Don't...freak out."

So, of course I freaked out. I struck the surface of the water to scatter the reflection as I flinched and tried to sprint out of the water, slipping on the mud. 

When I finally made it out of the pond my heart couldn't stop racing as I sat on the grass staring at the water, like something was going to jump out. 

Then I heard him again. 'Micheal,' he said, 'You need to calm down.'

I looked around me but all I could see were trees, nothing else, so, I dismissed it as one of my hallucinations. 

I immediately closed my eyes and repeated under my breath, 'it's not real, it's not real, it's not real' 

'No,' he persisted. 'I am real. You created me. Open your eyes and let me explain.'