Will froze as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. The eight-story building looked typical for any high-rise you would find in the Tower, and it stood in the desert sand as though it was always meant to be there.

Moonlight glinted off its surface, and the building's shadows lengthened. Something moved inside the upper floors of the high-rise, and Will felt cold. He took an uncertain step backward and cursed when the sands underneath his feet began to ripple again.

Another building rose up from the depths, and he was sent hurtling across the desert once more. The dunes crashed around him as the building resurfaced. Will waited for the desert to calm down and lay still in the desert sand as he watched the two buildings.

Shadowy forms flickered past the windows, and cold sweat drenched Will's back. There was something oddly militaristic about the two structures with their harsh angular sides and thick fortified walls. He didn't want to go anywhere near those buildings. Not taking his eyes off the windows, he carefully got up, but this time he had learned his lesson. He made sure not to disturb the sands as he got to his feet. He stayed still as he felt the sands lap against his feet like the tides at a beach.

"Will, are you there?" asked Becca.

"Yeah," said Will. "Something weird happened again."

He quickly explained the situation to Remy and Becca, who were equally as confused about what the visions could mean.

"Can you make sense of any of this?" asked Will.

"Are you picking up on any weird kind of sensations? Anything off-putting?" asked Remy.

"You mean, other than whatever this is?" said Will as he raised his hands, palms out in front of him. "My psion field seems unusually sensitive, and my hearing is sharper for some reason."

"Anything else?"

Will paused. "I'm feeling... this constant tremor from underneath my feet. It's odd."

"This is good," said Becca. "This could be a rough translation of the rift beast's senses. Keep poking at it."

Will looked around, reluctant to try walking again. He bent down and grabbed a stray brick in the sand and tossed it away from him.

The sand broke into a ripple where it landed, and Will watched the concentric circles of dunes flare out from it. The circles grew bigger as they approached his feet, and he felt the vibrations travel up his leg and through his body until it reached his head.

Will stood as a lightning rod for the vibrations racing across the desert surface. He could tell where each ripple originated from, and depending on frequency and amplitude, he could track everything around him. It was a weird sort of echolocation, except it wasn't from sound but the tremors in the ground.

"Woah," Will breathed out and relayed everything that happened back to Remy and Becca.

"Yes, some progress," said Remy. "A few more of these, and we are golden."

"The connection is fading," said Becca. "How are you holding up, Will?"

Will winced as he felt a sharp pain in his right knee. "Yeah, my psion reserves are dropping fast."

"Break the connection and stabilize yourself," said Becca. "We can now try a different sequence."

"Got it," said Will. He stopped feeding the shard with his energy, and the connection was severed. His field still hovered around the crystal's edges and slowly started harmonizing with it once again.

After a few minutes, he was ready once more. "I'm good to go," said Will.

"Great," said Becca. "Now remember, you are trying to trick the crystal neurons into thinking that it is still attached to the rift beast. Do not panic when you see anything off-putting. Be calm at all times. Everything must be slow and smooth; we don't want to spook it."

Remy snorted. "You are anthropomorphizing it too much. It is just a dead piece of rock."

"It is not dead." Becca clicked her tongue.

"Says who?" challenged Remy. "Who can survive with half their brain gone?"

"You should know," said Becca. "You're half braindead."

"Damn it! walked right into that one," Remy chuckled. "You win this round, princess."

Will cleared his throat. "Any day now, guys."

"Alright," said Becca. "The sequencer is set. Connecting in three, two, one..."

The etherite jolted like it was struck by a live wire, and the sequencer did its magic. Pulses raced down the shard, but this time in a much more precise and controlled way. Will felt his field move along with the pulse until it clicked into place again, but this time in a different configuration.

The world shifted around Will, and this time he was hanging upside down from the roof of a cave. Will windmilled his arms in panic, but his feet remained stuck to the roof.

"That's it," Will exclaimed. "I'm officially weirded out."

He stared at his feet stuck to the roof and tried to move. It didn't budge an inch. Will clicked his tongue, and instead of pulling his feet away from the roof, he slid it to the side. The tension holding him to the roof went away, and he managed to free one foot off of the roof.

Will experimentally took a 'step' forward and attached his foot a little bit further along the roof, and the foot was stuck fast to the ceiling. He repeated the process with his other leg, and soon he was walking along the roof with no problems.

"Will, what's happening?" asked Remy.

"You're not going to believe this," said Will and recounted everything he had seen.

"Do you think walking upside down is supposed to be literal?" asked Remy when he finished, "or is it an error in translation."

"I'm not sure," said Becca. "In either case, we have to keep exploring. Will, you are very close to getting full control over the crystal."

"Right," said Will. He could feel it too. The crystal had been harmonizing with him, and it was slowly being converted to match his personal signature. Pretty soon, there would be no clash between their signatures, and he could use the shard freely.

"I think a few more rounds should—" began Will when a few loose rocks behind him crumbled to the floor. Will whipped his head around, but there was nothing behind him.

"What is it?" asked Remy.

"Not sure," said Will slowly. "I thought I heard something."

The cave remained silent, and Will shook his head.

"The sequencer is up," said Becca. "Ready for the switch?"

"Yes," said Will, still looking around the cave. It remained remarkably empty.

"Sequencer active. Connecting in three, two, one..."

The world shifted once again, and Will dropped into a boneyard. Large skeletal remains were scattered about the cemetery, and the whole place was eerily silent except for the occasional rattle of discarded bones. He barely spent a scant few minutes there before he jumped into another sequence. He continued world-hopping, and with each new iteration, he saw more bizarre sights.

He passed through incomprehensible mazes, an upside-down flying mountain, and giant floating eyeballs. The moon hung suspended in the sky with each iteration, and he was currently making his way through a dense tropical jungle.

Will's neck prickled with each passing world. There was something off about all of them. As he cut through the dense underbrush and giant evergreen trees, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed.

"Talk to me, Will," said Remy. "What's going on?"

"Remy," Will whispered. "There is something wrong."

"What is it?"

"There is something other than me in here," said Will.

"The crystal?" asked Remy.

"Yes... no, I don't know," said Will. He looked around at the dense green canopy with trepidation.

"Do you want to switch?" asked Becca.

The trees rustled behind him, and Will went very still, hiding behind a tree. A large shadow passed over him.

"Will," Remy called out to him, but he didn't answer. The shadow moved away, and Will crept away from the tree. A twig broke underneath his feet, breaking the silence of the forest. An excited chitter came from behind him, and something large and hairy came charging at him.

Will took off sprinting past a thicket of trees. He slid down a ditch and kept racing away from the shadow. A roar followed him, and he heard trees crashing behind him.

"Switch! Switch, right now!" Will yelled.

"Switching now," said Becca. "In three, two, one— Wait, what's that?!"

Will felt a wrenching sensation as the etherite crystal went through a rapid sequence of field patterns all on its own.

"Oh shit!" yelled Remy.

"Will, don't connect with it!" Becca screamed. "That is not ours. The shard is acting on its own."

"Abort! Cut the connection right now!" yelled Remy.

Will desperately tried pulling away, but the connection held firm. It gripped him like a vice and pulled him in as the world shifted.

Will came tumbling down a rabbit hole and slammed headfirst onto a hard concrete floor. He felt around him, disoriented, and touched cold hard steel. It smelled of rust and blood and creaked as he pulled at it. Will raised his head with a shuddering breath and followed the rail lines extending further up the tunnel.

He was back in the subway.

"Psion channel damage!" said Remy. "His field is going haywire!"

"The crystal signature is changing!" said Becca.

Will's breath came in gasps as he lay there frozen. Ice raced up his veins, and shadows writhed around him, clawing at him with taloned fingers. A long horn pierced the tunnel, and the rail lines shook.

"Can you hear me, Will?!" yelled Remy. "Snap out of it!"

The rushing train was all he could hear, and his friends' desperate pleas were drowned out by the rail's baleful wail.

"Will!"