"What is it?" The girl's voice was wary, filled with trepidation as she stared at the oscillating vortex of energy and the snow that fell lazily around it. "I think it's a doorway." The man standing slightly behind her, taller than the average human and twice as broad, spoke with a calm confidence that managed to quell the girl's anxiety. At least somewhat. "Where does it go?" "I don't know. All I know is that it's been calling to me, ever since the day I was reborn." He preferred calling it that. Reborn. It implied that he was still somehow alive. "You're going to go through it, aren't you? That's why you brought me here. To say goodbye." "You were always a very perceptive young woman." A sad smile touched the man's lips, and he wrapped an arm around the girl to pull her close. "The longer I stay here the harder they'll look. They can't afford to let an asset like me run free. I've left clues that will lead them here, away from you and your mother, and if they follow me then so be it. At least you'll be safe." There was a pause and the girl wrapped her own arms around his waist. "Besides, it's not like they can kill me. The nazis gave it their best shot and barely even managed a scratch." "Will you ever be back?" "I don't know that either. Maybe. Or maybe this isn't a doorway at all and I'll just get sucked into nothingness." "No! You can't die! I won't let you go!" She grabbed him tighter, as if her childlike strength could restrain muscles that had crushed armored vehicles. In all reality, he thought they probably could. "It's alright. I'm sure this is a doorway." "I don't want you to go." "I don't want to go either, but as long as they think I'm still here, you and your mother won't ever be safe." "You can protect us. No one can beat you." "I've lost too many friends to believe that anymore. I have to leave." He turned and knelt down in front of her, pulling her into a tight hug, not wanting to ever let go again. He knew he had to, though, and set her back down several moments later. "Take care of your mom." Then he stood and strode through the snow to a woman standing next to a car. She was beautiful, this woman, though her eyes were marred by the glistening of unshed tears. "I wish you didn't have to go." "So do I. If there was any other way, I would take it." "I love you." "I know." He stepped closer and pulled the woman into a kiss, then summoned all the willpower he had and let her go, turning to walk determinedly through the portal to he knew not where. ------------------ He was in a room. A very large room. Filled with arches that let to yet more rooms, along with arches that contained more swirling portals like the one he'd stepped out of. there was a figure seated on a throne at one end of the room, skeletal in nature but he could feel the energy pulsing from it. It did not stir, and he dared not draw its attention, so he moved quickly and quietly, selecting another doorway at random and stepping through. ------------------ The first thing that hit him was the cold. The chill permeated his skin and even touched the muscle, but failed to delve further into his body. Even so, it was the most pervasive cold he'd ever felt. The second thing hit him when he tried to draw a breath, and no air entered his lungs. His first thought was water, but there was none of that either. There was none of anything, in fact, and he thought for a moment he had finally found something that could kill him. Minutes passed, however, and nothing changed. The chill remained, the air did not return, and his body continued to function. He must be more powerful than he had first thought, to be independent of the need for air. With the panic receding, he was free to turn his attention to his surroundings and was surprised to discover that he did not actually have surroundings. the only thing around him for miles was empty space. There was a planet not too far away, but to him it might as well have been unreachable. Until he got over the shock of being in space and remembered he could fly, at least. Descending to the planet's surface provided him with one new revelation after another, seemingly without end. Beings that stood like humans yet possessed extra eyes of limbs or a variety of other features he had never thought could exist on a life-form, cars that could fly just as easily as he did, buildings that very nearly scraped the sky, and images that floated in midair without seeming to have any source. If he hadn't been who he was and seen what he'd seen, it might very well have been too much for him to take in. His moment to take everything in and marvel at it passed quickly, however, as his eyes fell upon one dark void after another, each seemingly intent on eating away as much of the city as it could. He could feel these voids, somehow. It was an ache in his bones that told him of their wrongness, a sense of dread in the back of his mind that screamed at him to run. There was evil in those dark orbs, and for the first time in his life, he was not certain that he was prepared to face it. But James White was not the kind of man to shy away from his duty, and ever since he was a boy, long before he'd been reborn, he'd made it his duty to help the innocent. Whoever was causing this had to be stopped. To that end, James halted his descent above one of the larger orbs and stared directly into it, his eyes shifting colors from blue to dark red, then beginning to glow faintly, then brightly. Moments later, they erupted in beams of sickly red energy that lanced out at the center of the orb beneath him, dark energy cascading down to meet dark energy. He didn't know if the tactic would work, but something told him that physical force would be as much as useless, and this was his only other option.