The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan flashed a kindly smile before patting her on the shoulder, "Thank you, that can't have been easy to say."

"No, I...didn't do anything worth being praised over," Claudia shook her head obstinately. There was a lot more she could say to him but, to save her own life she would have to put his in danger.

A mere 'notification' was nothing compared to that.

Hao Xuan walked towards the portal but paused right in front of it.

"I will see you soon. Would you mind waiting for me here?" he asked without turning back.

Taken aback at first, Claudia nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, of course, I will be right here. Please...be safe."

Hao Xuan had an indifferent smile on his lips but she couldn't see it.

'There is some good in her after all. I can trust her...for now.'

Having gauged her value he continued on and silently vanished into the portal.

The first thing he felt was extreme vertigo. It was like stepping off of a highrise but instead of falling down the gravity shifted at the end and he stepped onto the side of the building.

Obviously not expecting something like that to happen from the get-go, Hao Xuan stumbled and fell to the side into a bush.

[What the fuck?!]

He meant to curse internally but his thoughts resounded in the air around him. It was like an echo with its own delay to match it.

Curious, he stood up while examining his surroundings and tried to recreate it with something completely random.

[Hello? Potter?! You dare? Do you know who my father is?!]

And just like before it happened again. But rather than a simple echo, it felt like he was talking to himself from somewhere outside his own body. It didn't feel like a simple reflection of sound waves.

"What a weird place," this time he spoke out loud and felt the stark difference. His voice didn't carry off for too long but the air felt heavier.

He was standing in a dimly-lit forest surrounded by some of the most normal trees that he had seen in a very long time. In fact-

"I swear I think I have seen this place before..."

The tree trunks were rather thin and long with the branches growing in a spiral pattern halfway up. The leaves were pointed and thin almost like needles with a sharp sweet odor.

There was white light coming in from the top left illuminating everything for miles. The source was probably a full moon but it was mostly hidden behind the thick canopy.

He took a couple of measured steps forward and immediately froze. The ground was soft and covered in moss and algae but that cold soft squishy feeling was not something he could ever forget.

"It was a dream. I used to see this place in a dream when I was young."

And when he came to that conclusion his heartbeat jumped instantly. It was almost like an automatic reaction rather than something conscious.

"Then is it also..."

Hao Xuan turned around halfway with stiff robotic movements to look behind him and as expected, the other thing he saw in his dream was also there.

A crooked little wooden house resting cozily in the middle of nowhere.

There was smoke coming out of its chimney with a light in the window by the door. A soft shadow occasionally flickered by the fireplace.

Hao Xuan exhaled deeply and saw the vapor flare in front of him like a dragon's breath.

It was the most bizarre and powerful feeling of deja vu that he had ever had. The only difference was that he remembered very clearly what it was.

"Baracus...am I awake?" he asked in a daze.

*Beep*

"Affirmative. All biological functions are within nominal range," he immediately responded giving Hao Xuan some much-needed reassurance.

"Good. Then the second question, is this place...real?"

Baracus went silent for almost 15 seconds while Hao Xuan's gaze remained locked on the shadow being cast in the window.

"Error: Cannot establish Realspace parameters."

"What does that mean?!"

"Unable to ascertain-"

Seeing as Baracus was about to throw out some other terminology that Hao Xuan was not familiar with he got a little angry and muttered through gritted teeth, "In.simple.fucking.words!"

*Beep*

"The physical laws are shifting. Reality is being manufactured around host body."

"Manufactured?" Hao Xuan's brow furrowed upon hearing the word but before he could say anything else a series of bright red errors appeared in the top left of his vision.

[Error: Unable to Load Data due to Sensory Overload]

[Warning: Unidentified Data Stream Detected]

[Loading Countermeasures...]

[Countermeasures unsuccessful]

[System Shutting Down]

"Oi, what the fuck you mean shutting down? HEY! Do you hear me?! Baracus?!" Hao Xuan hissed as loudly as he could given the current situation but to no avail.

For the first time since the nanites were inserted into his body Hao Xuan felt their connection completely cut off.