46 years ago

Boran sat on the benches of the gymnasium as his friends shot some hoops, his best friend Cecilia took a seat next to him,

"Hey Boran isn't it your birthday today? You're ten now right?" she asks him scooting a little closer to him and smiling. Boran nods and looks over at her,

"Yep finally caught up with you, well for a few months anyway." He chuckles and she giggles and nods turning her attention to their friends playing basketball. After a brief moment, she speaks up again,

"Can you spend the night at my place, you know since your mom is.." she trails off and Boran looks down at the ground shaking his head.

"Nah, she never lets me anymore" he sighs

Cecilia frowns, then reaches into her backpack, pulls out a gift, and hands it to him. His eyes light up and he grabs it. Looking down at it and opening it he sees a handmade pair of mittens with both their names on it. His eyes tear up and he looks up at her crying,

"I've never gotten a gift before," he admits and her smile wavers, after a moment she pulls him in for a hug.

"I'm sorry," Cecilia says.

After what feels like an eternity a voice pierces the moment,

"Boran! Get down here!"

Boran looks down and sees his mom. All his friends slowly make their way out of the gymnasium except for Cecilia. She grabs his hand and walks down with him. Boran's mom appears to be in her late 20s or early 30s. Aside from her cold, unfriendly demeanor, she is quite beautiful. As they approach his mom narrows her eyes and looks at Cecilia,

"This is a family matter. You should be getting home young lady. And when we're on the topic, a young lady like yourself shouldn't be holding hands like that. You don't want people thinking you're a harlot now do we?" she spits at her and Cecilia looks at Boran and whispers,

"Bye..."

As Cecilia leaves Boran's mom turns to him and slaps him,

"Want to tell me why I got a call from child protective services about some sort of bruising found on you?" She grabs him by the collar of his shirt and pulls him up.

"I..Someone...saw it" he gasps as his mother holds him in the air.

"And? What did you say?" she asks increasing her grip.

"I said I fell down the stairs!" he gasps again and she scoffs tossing him on the ground.

"Good boy." She says condescendingly and grabs his wrist, tugging him along but he pushes her off. She glares at him.

"What are you doing? We're going home," she says strictly but Boran shakes his head

"No, I need to grab my gift, it-" Boran is cut off by a kick to his stomach as he topples over.

"Don't you ever say no to me!" she yells standing over him before continuing,

"Listen to me Boran, you are not my child you are my property and property doesn't have a say in anything" She grabs him forcefully again. He stares above her and sees one of the large fans start to rattle and flicker.

"Mom-" he tries to warn her but she yells in frustration throwing him onto the benches,

"Fine get your stupid fucking gift you-" she doesn't get the chance to finish her sentence as the fan finally dislodges and lands right on top of her with a loud crunch. Blood sprays all over Boran and he stands there in complete shock.

46 years later

As the Stranger takes on the appearance of his Mother and walks towards him, the skin slowly falls off of her and Boran takes a step back looking for any way out, He runs out the backdoors straight into a rock wall, and the sudden hit snaps him back to his senses and he can see he's no longer a kid and Clair and Kit are standing still with glossy eyes, he smacks their arms and they both snap back to it quickly swimming to the submarine as the Stranger growls,

"NO! Get back here!" It yells floating after them but a large bony hand grabs it by the face and slams it into the ground kicking up sand and silt, even through the cloud they see Deacon struggling against the Stranger, the three of them reach the submarine and cycle the airlock looking at each other and running to the lab grabbing new necklaces and making sure they have the fragment of the Stranger, the code, and the green crystal.

As they're running out Clair grabs her journal and tucks it in one of the waterproof bags before joining the others at the airlock. The cycling starts and they swim out of the sub to the gateway, they see the Stranger rip Deacon in half and look around not being able to spot them. This time they all keep their hands on their necklaces and approach the gateway.

Boran pulls the purple crystal out and a whistling tune starts playing, as the waterfalls pull away to reveal a bright shining rift, Clair pulls out the green crystal and the rift stretches open, A hand reaches through it and one by one they grab ahold and are pulled through, Clair goes through last seeing the Stranger attempt to get through the rift but she's pulled through just in time.

Through the rift is the unexpected...Land, they're on a coastline...the one who pulled them up stares down and smiles,

"So you finally made it through the rift, welcome to our world travelers " Dr. Lillian smiles