Polar's POV:
I breached the other side of Jester's rift, landing neatly on all four paws.
Looking up, I noticed that it was dark outside, heavy fog forming a misty barrier that even the moonlight couldn't penetrate.
The lightlessness was suffocating, forcing me to buckle onto my knees and press myself against the cold ice.
Wait... Ice?
I clawed at the floor, shocked to feel the frigid water of the Antarctic on my paws.
We were in the Southern Ocean, that was for sure.
Tentatively stepping closer to the edge of the hole, I pawed at the ice, peering down into the depths.
As soon as I dipped my snout, I was promptly shoved into the water, clumsily fumbling and dropping in.
"Woah!" I swiftly resurfaced, sneezing water out of my nose. "What was that for?!"
"Sorry, I didn't know you were there!" 69 called out where he was, spread-eagle on the ice. "I just came in through the rift and you were right in front of me, I couldn't catch myself in time."
Pulling myself up, I shivered as my being came in contact with the freezing air. "It's fine, I know you're not built for these conditions."
Awkwardly pushing himself onto his knees, 69 faltered for a moment, struggling to adjust to the new environment. "This is going to take me a bit."
Stick came up from behind him, pulling him by his shoulders and onto his feet. "C'mon Optimus Prime, I'm gonna lead you all to my temporary research center."
I turned my attention toward 69, clearly worried for him. "Do you need some help?"
"I'm fine," he grunted, shifting his weight on the ice. "As I said, I just need to adjust. The terrain here is ridiculously slippery and I hate it."
Jester levitated over to us, hovering a few inches off the ice. "Can't you use your thrusters and float from there?"
The mercenary robot sighed. "No, those are used for supersonic flight. Even on my lowest setting, it could send me a couple yards."
"Maybe just fly straight there?" I suggested, shaking out more seawater from my pelt.
Stick's heavy Canadian accent came from the front of the group. "You can't fly. Where we are, there's danger all around us. This is a different dimension, there's obviously going to be some sort of abomination ready to tear us to shreds."
"You're paranoid, but you're right." 69 replied, glancing at the now-closing portal. "But how do you know there's danger in the sky?"
As if on cue, a raucous series of blood-curdling shrieks came from the sky, primal and relentless with ferocity.
I flicked my ears back, putting my paws over my ears to try to drown out the noise. "What sort of Australian creature is that, a banshee?"
"Much worse," Stick muttered, opening up his laptop. "By the sounds of it, it's probably some sort of prehistoric atrocity that went too long without eating. Oh, and it has wings."
Once I assumed the cacophony was over, I slowly flicked one ear to the sky, swiveling it around and aiming for the source.
With a quiet squeak, I let the sound waves map out my surroundings, providing me with an internal glimpse of the terrain around me.
Echolocation was a gift from my orca side, and it was quite useful considering how poorly our conditions were at this time.
Closing my eyes, I examined my mental map.
We were on flat ice for miles, with the occasional ice floe in between.
Beneath my feet were miles of deep ocean, sending a chill down my spine with the idea of what creatures lurked in the water.
The fog was gradually dispersing, the moonlight slowly filtering through.
To the south, the ice gave way to a rocky shoreline, which had a plateau of various blooming, Antarctic flowers.
69 and Stick were both in my direct line of sight, which was good to know.
Jester... Wait.
Jester's not on the ground.
He's in the... Sky?
He's in the sky.
Another object was airborne with him, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.
Whatever it was, it was unfamiliar to my senses and I didn't like it.
Opening my eyes, I looked up at the sky, only to force my head down at another ear-piercing screech.
"THAT'S IT! BOW DOWN, FEATHERY CREATURE! SHRIVEL BEFORE ME!" Jester's manic war cries echoed through the air, paired with the agonized screams of whatever he was attacking.
Powerful wings beat through the air, clearing the fog above us.
Sharp, silver claws gleamed in the moonlight, each one serrated and ready to rip and tear into flesh.
A long, whip-like tail lashed out onto the ice, sending up a wide corona of shards and splashing water onto the surface.
Tensing up, I nervously backed away, knowing this was some sort of draconic creature.
"Wait, dragons have feathers?" 69 questioned, coming up beside me. "I didn't know that."
"I thought that was a pterodactyl," Stick commented, looking up at the large creature. "I think Jester might have found his match."
Deftly weaving his way around the creature's muscular form, the masked man made his way onto its back, grabbing it by the neck and trying to take it out.
"YEAH, TAKE THAT YOU VILE MONSTROSITY! PERISH AT MY HANDS!" Jester cried, hoisting himself on the dragon's neck and pummeling it with his fists.
Feathers were pulled, punches were thrown, and more screeches cut through the air from both sides.
One was of anguish, the other of excitement.
Either way I was genuinely stunned to be witnessing the events being played out before me.
"Should we be running?" I mumbled, turning to Stick.
The engineer shrugged. "You can if you want to. This battle would be perfect with some popcorn."
Plummeting through the water, the dragon crashed through the ice and sank into the depths with one final, pained cry.
"Yeah! Great job, Jes!" 69 called out, laughing. "Good show!"
My ears perked up at the mention of the masked man's name. "Wait, where is he?"
With the fog rolling back in, the familiar, suffocating feeling of blindness closed in on me. "Jester? Jester!"
I tried to pick up a scent, but the sheer cold numbed my nose.
My sight was rendered useless, forcing me to rely solely on echolocation.
Letting out a faint squeak, I mapped out my immediate area.
69 and Stick stood safely behind me a few yards back, also calling out and search for Jester.
The large dragon-creature-feathered-thing sank into the depths, its declining heartbeat slowly fading from my ears.
Bubbles surged up from the water, marking its final resting place.
Small seabirds flew above the fog, nabbing the tiny feathers the dragon shedded, possibly to build a nest.
Other than that, I couldn't sense anything.
Jester had completely disappeared.
Unless he had gone down with that dragon thing, it was a possibility.
Like the Antarctic flowers blooming in the distant rock shore, a terrible, heartstopping thought sprung up in my mind.
What if Jester had actually died to that thing?
What if we lost him?
My breaths became quick and shallow, forcing me to buckle onto my knees.
Dizzy with overwhelming thoughts, I was caught in a whirlpool of terrible, haunting memories that threatened to drown me.
Stick called out to me, but his words only contributed to the atrocities and visualizations I was re-experiencing at that moment.
Battling on a ship, weapons clashing, battle cries called.
Clank.
Clank.
Swish.
Rip.
The second I heard the sound of blade piercing flesh, I let out a scream of sheer agony, though I wasn't hit.
I could feel the pain, though.
Every single bit of it.
The vision was so strong... I couldn't breathe.
69's powerful arms wrapped around me, trying to keep me in place as I shuddered and trembled during the recurring nightmare.
I couldn't feel what Polarix Aquaticlaw was feeling, not at all.
Captain Tia Aquaticlaw's pain was what was fresh in my mind, and her last moments were brutal.
Desperate to take a breath, I braced myself to experience the last of the nightmare- Death.
My consciousness slipped away, both in real life and in Tia's point of view, leaving me in a state of limbo.
The pain was gone, but the memories were burned into my brain.
I would never forget such a tragic event.