Red woke up somewhere else.

They just blew up, right? Shot in the back with a heavy plasma rifle. Fucking snipers. Shields took it and broke, but the impact still hurt like hell. Straight to the ground, could barely move. Then that fuel store went sky-high, because, of course, they never teach privsec how to fucking aim.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And their back still hurts. Not as much as it should.

...where the fuck are they? Blossom trees. Weird-coloured grass - too blue. And, uh, it's all floating. Chunks of earth suspended. Bridges between some of them. Endless sky void. Clouds.

Oh.

Yeah, they're dead. Super dead. Like, vaporised-in-an-instant dead, courtesy of what must have been at least forty brand-name hydr/ox fuel cells rupturing in concert. Bet not many people have been killed that quickly. Gone in an instant.

Red stands up. They see something in the distance, some far-off glint. Something shiny - radiant, even - atop a small white plinth. They look the opposite direction. Islands are catching fire, and it's getting closer. That's.. probably not good.

Wind rushes. A huge, fiery dragon dives past, like something of legend. It's not a dragon in the same way Red is. It's animalistic. It's damned massive. It's got wings.

"Fucking hell," the clearly-not-a-proper-dragon mumbles to themself under their breath, shaking off the shock.

The giant burning creature swoops around again, crashing into an island, knocking it close enough to jump to. It seems unharmed, rising to a hover off to the side. Red makes eye contact. It looks expectant. The moved island leads a little closer to that shiny thing. There's.. sort of a path.

Well, it's that or the encroaching flames. Red swallows their fear, breaks into a sprint, and leaps across.