With white-knuckled desperation we wrenched the rusted levers from their housing in time to ensnare the spindled forms of the scurrying hordes within the mouth of the gates as they activated.

As their frames unfurled and the essence of their dying rattles entwined with the energy of the gates themselves, a strange alchemy seemed to transpire as the two positive charges collided, repelling one another with a hideous force that detonated in a vacuum of singularity.

The universe seemed to invert and turn upon itself, as a million stars imploded and great swathes of reality were torn screaming from their firmament, ripped asunder and scattered to the darkest corners of endless unfathomable aeons.

It is not enough to state that the strange setting in which we had striven so desperately was destroyed. For in its absence, a deeper sense of loss pervaded the now spiralling emptiness in which we were suspended. And yet amidst it all, we remained aware.

Adrift.

Alone.