DMCA-o-rama, part 25: To Arkand.

"Thanks for coming with me, Mousey," she said, her breath shattering into the frigid air surrounding the two of them.

"Hey, no problem," she replied, hovering a few inches above the white tundra that extended in every direction. "It's been a while, huh."

"Ten years," replied Nyatasha. She furrowed her brow, and stared into the distance, walking slowly towards their destination.

They travelled in silence for a time, Nyatasha focused on her goal, while Mouse kept one pair of eyes on her friend. Nyan shivered slightly, tugged on her coat, and continued on.

"Couldn't we have just void portalled closer?" attempted Mouse.

"No," was the response. "We might miss something that way. Just, keep your many eyes out for anything off."

"Okay," shrugged Mouse. "Seeing lots of snow here. Oh, and ice. Some water too, just frozen. Hey, a pole-er bear!  Hey, mister pole-er bear!"

The bear ignored her.

Nyan smirked to herself, and kept walking.

...

"It's here," said Nyan, gesturing to a flat plain of snow.

"Looks the same as everywhere to me," responded Mouse, eyeballing everything close and far.

Nyan got to her hands and knees, and started scratching the snow away, then paused.

"Mousey," she stated flatly, not bothering to look in her direction.

"Yeah?"

"I know when you're lying to me."

Mouse put on her best surprised face. "Whuh, whattaya talking about?" she attempted.

"It tastes different when you change things," she explained, still not turning around. "This is important, Mousey. Please, please don't do this...thing you do."

A single drop of sweat formed on Mouse's brow, but was quickly dispersed by the icy winds before it was noticed. "But," she tried.

"Please," pleaded Nyan, her voice quivering.

"Okay," surrendered Mouse. She brought her left hand in front of her, and waved it in a tight circle. Whatever she thought she was protecting her friend from wasn't worth hurting her like this.

The ground before Nyan dissolved from cold tundra to colder steel, revealing a round hatch embossed with six letters.

"Arkand," read Nyan.

...

"N-420," read Nyan. "This one's labelled N-420. Aethel."

"N-422," read Mouse. "Nyanders."

Nyan paused at the last tank in the row, the one labelled "N-423". Inside was a soft, pink liquid. She tapped the glass with her hand.

And then she was on the other side of it. The warm goo surrounded her, nourished her, relieved her tummy when it hurt. And the whole while, she felt a presence outside of it. Someone staring at her through a single eye.

"Nyan?" said Mouse, trying to get her attention.

Nyan seized for a moment, her eyes wandering until they met Mouse's gaze. She was outside again. "Mouse?" she attempted.

"You went somewhere for a while, are you okay?"

"No," she responded. "I don't know how, but I remember here. I remember being in there," she said, gesturing to the pod. "But it doesn't make sense. I remember going into the ice. I remember Goro saving me. This memory doesn't fit."

"We'll keep looking," said Mouse. "If I were to guess, the answers would probably be behind that big obvious door over there."