Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Fifty: Reality Strikes Without.

Dawn should have known that stepping into a portal without knowing where the other end led to was a bad idea. Then again, she didn't exactly do it of her free will.

Now she was falling, plunging head first into something that guaranteed pain, because there were no such things as soft landings.

It was pitch black as she fell, the only source of light being the eerie white glow that shined from her pendant. Dawn had her face pointed downwards, her eyes squinting against the darkness in an attempt to make head or tail on where she was.

"I never knew you could glow," Dawn frowned and held the necklace towards the edges of what she hoped was a pit and not some sort of endless volcano.

She was positive that this fall wouldn't kill her, but it would break enough of her bones to get the pain across. There was a reason portals were banned in all nations but the South-West Alliance, most of the nation's citizens only needed a good bodywork and buff and they'd be crystal after enduring the bashing of the portal. The unpredictability of the damned thing had caused too many deaths for it to ever be approved anywhere where humans were the majority. 

At least the fact that she could still complain proved that she was alive. Maybe after this she could boast being the first human to make it out of a portal.

Something sharp hit Dawn across the chest, sending her spinning and out if balance.

Maybe not.

The professor tried to right herself and slow her descent, preferring to land on her legs than on her head—experience had taught her that it wasn't the brightest thing to do. Though there was hardly a thing that could kill her, she was far from immortal.

"Hezekiah!" She screamed, realizing that she was still falling quite fast and it didn't seem like she was going to stop unless she hit the bottom.

Quiet, girl. A calm voice said in her head. Close your eyes.

Dawn did as she was told with making a fuss, not because she was scared but because she was curious. Who exactly was instructing her at the moment? For a second she played around with the thought that it was Eva, but it was unlikely. The voice didn't belong to a woman, yet at the same time it didn't belong to a man.

Brace yourself. They said again and Dawn took in a deep breath. She didn't want to die now, not when she had made it this far. Her love for science would not allow it. She still had so much to understand.

The mystery behind the fog still eluded her, as did the missing piece of Earth her father had shown her. Right now humanity thrived on the knowledge of all. Scientists were the most respected profession next to soldiers. The perfect knowledge of human anatomy had led to the Enhanced and Nobil. It had led to her—a near immortal being with the ability to heal.

And yet it couldn't save the Earth from being invaded. The shields were useless against the fog and all their weapons —

Having lost her concentration, Dawn fell face first against the surface of the pit. I should be dead, she thought at first, in disbelief, pushing against the unbelievably soft material beneath her palms. What is this?

The voice in her head pipped up again, appearing to have predictions her confusion. Your safe place.

Dawn blinked and watched as the darkness around her receded. She looked to her side, shocked to find herself staring at row upon rows of chained men and woman kneeling on the road. It was the main road that stretched from Auro to the gates of the capital city. Strange men with marked faces paraded the prisoners along the road, shoving them to the ground at times when they were not fast enough.

Dawn was relived to see no children among the sombre men and women but couldn't help but wonder where they could be.

Hurriedly, she pushed herself off her bed. She was in her lab, tucked safely behind the walls of the capital building. The one she had seen crumble into nothingness.

"How is this possible?" She asked the air, hoping the voice in her head would reply. This was surreal. Teleportation was not strange to her, but it was absurd to be here without a connection being set up.

No, the voice said, it is absurd to be here because it shouldn't exist.

Dawn felt her mouth dry up as she thought about all she had gone through this past month. The voice was right, the capital had been under attack, it's buildings shouldn't look so untouched. There was no hint of battle anywhere, no sign of corpses or scattered weapons.

With a growing throb along her temple, Dawn realized that she was at a loss. What was real anymore?

You are about to find out. The voice answered.

The walls around her crumpled and once again she was falling. The feeling was getting old but Dawn couldn't help but feel a tinge of unease. This was not how portals worked. Where was Hezekiah?

Dawn somehow found herself stumbling into another room, shocked to see her sister staring back at her, her eyes wide with shock.

"Lee?" The professor asked in confusion when she saw the tears glistening in the Nobil's eyes.

"I'm so sorry," the doctor took a step towards her and Dawn took a step back. Something didn't feel right. It was the way her gut churned, her skin tingling in anticipation of an attack. But that didn't make sense. There was no way Rhea Lee would try to kill her now of all times. . .right?

"What are you talking about Rhea Lee?" Dawn asked, instinctively on the defensive. Now she noticed the blood that ran down the sides of her sister's lab coat, forming a pool beneath her heels.

"We couldn't save him," she cried, and Dawn's eyes shifted to the bloodstained mask and gloves her sister wore, positive they hadn't been there before.

"I don't understand what you're saying." Dawn told her.

"Dee, he's dead," Rhea Lee sank into the pool of blood and slowly dissolved into it, "Corey is dead!"

The world now seemed to be falling around Dawn. This time her body wasn't drowning in the abyss, but her soul was. "You're lying. . . He can't be—"

The view changed to the inside of a hospital room, not giving Dawn enough time to process what had just happened to her sister—to Corey.

The walls of the small room were a pale blue and there was only one thing in it. Dawn remembered it clearly because she had built it. It was a stasis pod, the only one of it's kind. Made of only glass, it's purpose was to preserve the last breath of a dying person for as long as possible till a way to save them could be found. Of course it never worked. Keeping a dead man on the brink of life was a bit too farfetched, even in the 26th century.

Still, Dawn could not bring herself to take a closer look, afraid of what she would see, empty pod or otherwise.

Go! A forceful push sent her forward and soon she was hunched over the pod, tears forming in her eyes when she saw Corey's glassy pair staring right back.

"Cor—"

Before she could get her bearings straight and understand what was happening, Dawn was back at the window in her lab. This time the streets were not filled with prisoners, instead she saw herself shaking hands with the men with strange markings from before, the scanty remains of the Cipher Squad standing behind her.

Now, everything faded into black with a ball of light floating in front of her. She saw a woman with circles cut out in her cheeks staring back at her, as though the light was some sort of of mirror.

"Now tell me," Dawn was shocked to hear the voice in her head speak out loud, "what is real, and what is truth?"

Listening to the strange lull of the  woman's words, Dawn felt the steady pain of her mind collapsing and embraced it with open arms. There was no way anything she saw was real. She would never accept it as her truth.

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