Chapter Fifty-Three Special Edition

                                    

                                          
Author's Note on this Special Edition chapter: it is a tease for Dark Nine Regalis, a side-story to this universe, it's in the POV of the escaped human in the mega-city Kor Hold. If you're not interested you don't have to read it but it's here if you do. Next chapter will be back to Diana's POV.
DARK NINE REGALIS: Chapter 6
Kitty's POV
I am in awe of the place I've stumbled into. I used Regalis' ET portal and a secret key with no name, now I was in an empty city on an unknown planet. All alone.
Or so I thought.
I had been wandering the halls of a massive alien structure, until I saw spaceships arrive and two Kor squads moving around.
I wasn't seen simply for the fact I had been far away, gazing out a window.
When I realised I stumbled into a sacred Kor place, off-grid and unmonitored, I immediately scrambled for a solution.
I only had one option.
Go back to the ET portal. I had a second Key for Regalis' home world. I could have picked Earth but I didn't trust my home world either.
Panic stricken that the ET portal was too close to the Kors who had wandered into the building, I decide my only bet for now is to hide and simply wait them out.
So, I don't stay up on their level, knowing this place is massive from what I'd witnessed so far, I choose to descend. The mega-city was massive and this was the pyramid like structure in the centre. It would have countless places to hide.
I find ramps that lead down, sometimes sets of wide steps, sometimes long stretches of space until I reached yet more ramps.
I was getting exhausted of moving down, and I wonder if I'll even be able to make it up and still have enough energy considering I don't have access to food or water, so eventually I stop moving down.
I move left, toward a strange deep purple glow. I move into the room, which opens up into a huge flowerbed, the soil is a strange silver.
I don't feel like touching it, so I follow the path and move deeper into the garden, which has some artificial lighting in the ceiling, keeping everything growing.
As I move inward, I feel uneasy, like I've just walked into a haunted place.
All I'm surrounded by are strange alien plant life, the strange soil, and the darkness of this place. 
But I like that it's dark.
Eventually the path winds and leads back to the beginning. 
I don't walk back around, instead, I sit down and let the curiosity in me win at the end.
I dip my toe into the silver soil – and nothing happens. It's not acid, it's not bad, it's just a metallic colour. I dip my whole foot into the silky softness and it is like touching powdered glitter. It feels good and sends shivers up my spine, my nerves delighted with the exquisite softness.
I put my other foot down and then I stand in the garden. 
I feel fine, so I walk into the flower bed and low lying shrubs. I find fern-like leaves overhanging one another, creating a makeshift shelter. I get the urge to crawl under, turn around and lie down. The soil touches my back as I rest my head on a small artificial rise in the landscape. Perfectly at ease, with no bugs to disturb me, I stay like this, forgetting the whole universe.
I forget my family wanting me dead, prioritising money over blood. I forget Indigo Bar, Fissure Metro...  Our Tcno... the IIA... what's designated as legal freedom... what's a drive for citizens of the Universe and what's not.