by David Petrie
"That's true." She laughed, her smile returning.
It warmed Max to see her after his time alone. "So I assume we've got a boss to take out here before we head back." He bounced the ball from one hand to the other.
A low rumbling from the ground answered him.
"You had to say something like that, didn't you?" Ginger said as the rock around them broke apart in a glowing burst of light that forced Max to close his eyes.
Upon opening them, he found that the earth below his feet had been replaced by a clear pane of glass a few hundred feet wide, a slight glare from the sky being the only indication that it was even there. Max dropped to his knees clutching the ball tightly as everything below fell away into the same swirling vortex that they had traveled through to get there. The dark blue of Noctem's night sky showed through the bottom as the rock of the Sphere's surface twisted and flowed deep into the impossible opening beneath him. It was at least a thousand feet down.
"I really wish the floor wasn't transparent right now," Max yelled over the volume of the portal as he stood up. The glass under his feet squeaked with each movement as if it might crack at any second.
"I'm still blaming you for this!" Ginger yelled in his direction as she and the others steadied themselves, each dealing with the vertigo of the view.
"Can we get out through there?" Kegan pointed down.
"You should be able to," Kira said, as if something else was telling her the answer. "All you have to do is jump." She pointed to the edge of the platform off in the distance that was a little hard to see.
Max snapped his eyes back to her, anger flaring as he caught her wording. It sounded like she didn't intend to go with them. "What do you mean by that?"
"Carver told me that I had to work things out here. I have to stay. But the rest of you can get out if you leave now."
"When the hell did you talk to Carver?"
"It's kind of a long story."
He moved toward her. "Well, there's no way we're leaving you here. So you can cut that crap right now."
"Yeah," Farn stepped to his side.
Kira frowned and chewed her lip but didn't argue.
"Umm, guys! Something's here," Corvin pointed toward the center of the glass platform.
Max followed the line of his finger with his eyes.
The stone sat a few dozen feet away. He recognized it instantly, having seen it earlier, just before the fight with Death. It was the tombstone from the crypt below Alderth Castle, complete with a clone of Kira sitting on top. Max squinted at the figure then gasped. It wasn't stone. His vision snapped back to Kira who stood calmer than he expected. He looked back to the stone. The figure was gone. Then suddenly, it was standing in front of them. He didn't see it move. It just sort of appeared a few feet from Kira. For a moment it stood there, its pristine skin almost glowing, covered only by a semi-sheer strip of white fabric that seemed to drift around its body, making no effort to hide much.
"What is it?" Farn shifted her stance, ready to fight. "Another nightmare?"
"No," Kira said without turning away from her copy. Its face remained emotionless as she looked at it, tilting her head to one side. It mirrored her.
Max noticed Kira's bottom lip tremble for an instant. She shook it off and nodded as if accepting something unavoidable. Then, to his horror and disbelief, she took a step toward it.
"What are you doing?" He flung out a hand in her direction.
Kira said nothing as if she couldn't hear him, her face falling into the same blank stare as her copy as it matched her stride to close the gap between them.
Max was moving before he realized it. He didn't know what the thing was, but one thing was clear, it wanted his friend. Just before it touched her, the basketball left his hands. Whatever made him decide to throw the ball at the thing, he had no idea. He had guns. He could have shot it. Something about raising a weapon at something that looked like his best friend removed the option from his mind.
Jasper, the basketball, hit the naked fairy clone in the face, then bounced off at an odd angle. The copy stumbled backward, the attack causing no real damage other than making Max look rather stupid. Farn stepped closer to the real Kira, her gauntlet held in front even if her barrier wasn’t active.
The thing recovered, looking confused as if it didn't understand the situation or why it had been struck. Then it scrunched its face in anger as a loud metallic ping emanated from it. A wave of invisible energy swept past him, feeling similar to when Kira had done the same thing to stop the War Dragons earlier. Then it felt different.
Pain, sudden and endless, ripped through Max. Not the dulled pain of the game, but real, excruciating, unbearable pain. It was as if every nerve in his virtual body screamed at once. He went limp, and his mind collapsed. Everything hurt: his teeth, his organs, his head. Hell, even his hair. He hit the glass in a lump, unable to control himself as he spasmed against the squeaking glass. Inhuman screams erupted from all around him at a volume that he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't heard them. They were the screams of creatures or beasts, primal and raw. His mind drained as he realized that one of the screams was his own.
It was as if someone had set his brain to receive the maximum amount of pain possible. In fact, that was probably exactly what was happening. It was worse than any torture ever created by man. Even if he could somehow survive it, he would never recover from the trauma. None of them would. It had already destroyed him the moment it started.
Max writhed in a puddle of his own saliva as his mind tried to escape his body. Sounds bled through, from where he didn't know. There was panicked shouting and the clanging of equipment carts. The pain in his body tore him to shreds, and he slipped through a vail in his head toward the noises that pierced through from someplace else. He couldn't make out what the voices were saying, but he focused on one anyway in an attempt to cling to something before it was ripped away from inside him. He didn't choose which voice to focus on, but in retrospect, he must have. It was Milo's. More importantly, it was Milo's real voice, not Alastair's. He hadn't noticed that they sounded different before, but they must have because he knew they were. Suddenly, he wasn't sure which world he was in. The pain surged through his every fiber, but he also felt his rig against his back. Then he heard it.
The sound had been seared into his memory by dozens of movies. It whined, piercing his ears as his thoughts tried to comprehend it. A voice yelled, "Clear!" The noise thumped, then began to whine again. His mind clicked into place as the medical team struggled to defibrillate his friend. He didn’t have to see to know it was Kira they were trying to save. He focused on a single thought, grabbing onto it through the screaming and the pain. He had to find her. He had to let her know he was there, that she wasn't alone.
Max screamed from somewhere in his mind. Somewhere that had remained sane. It sounded human, if only a little. He pushed against the blinding agony, fighting to see at least a glimpse of what was happening. The glass was cold against his face, and he struggled to open his eyes. A few seconds later, he realized they were already open. They were dry and aching as if they wanted to burst from his skull to escape his fate. He shifted his head until he found Kira only a few feet away. It may as well have been miles. Farnsworth seemed to be thinking the same thing as she clawed her way toward the fairy at a snail’s pace. Then he saw the copy still standing there, wearing his friends face.
It might have been the agony coursing through every cell of his body, but something was off about the creature. His mind raced through a maze of synapses, trying to work out what it was. Then it was clear. So clear that he couldn't believe that he’d trouble seeing it. It looked scared. It wasn't the terror in his friends’ faces around him, but a fear that came with a lack of understanding, like a child that had crushed a butterfly by accident. It hadn’t meant to hurt them. How could it even know what pain was? It wasn't human. It was something else, something born from the system. Something that couldn't seem to exist alone.
; Max glanced back to Kira, who was somehow forcing herself off the glass. Her silver hair hung in her face as she raised her head. She looked to be regaining some of herself through the pain. He wondered if she was aware of the danger she was in. Farn still crawled closer. He followed her lead, scraping his way forward. A glimpse back showed him Ginger, struggling to aim her grappling line at the creature from the ground. She bared her teeth like an animal as she fired.
The copy vanished just as the line passed through the space where it had been. It reappeared on its knees, its eyes only inches from Kira's.
Max's heart sank as the two fairies knelt face to face, like a mirror. He pushed toward them despite the knowledge that he would never make it in time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Farn. She wouldn't make it either. She must have known it was pointless, too, but she didn't stop either. Max focused his attention back on the two Kiras kneeling on the glass. A voice in his head told him to draw his guns, to save her. It screamed at him, telling him that he could stop it. It was right. All he had to do was pull a trigger, but before he could act, both fairies closed their eyes and leaned forward, their foreheads touching for an instant.
Suddenly, the voice yelling inside his head was drowned out by another chime that hung in his mind, this time softer, almost kind. Almost beautiful. Like the string of a harp. The clone of his partner vanished in a swirl of shimmering dust that encircled the remaining fairy, joining together with her own as her wings materialized for a moment before fading back into her body. Then Kira fell motionless to the glass.
A wave of energy swept past Max as the steady note hummed in his head. He could feel it reach into his mind, silencing the signals causing the pain and erasing not only the torment but also his memory of it. He knew he had been in agony seconds before, but he couldn't remember it. The trauma faded from his thoughts like a dream as his senses returned to their razor-sharp state of normalcy.
Max flicked his eyes toward Kira's unmoving body. He wasn't sure how, but he knew the gentle sound was her trying to save him and the others. He just hoped she hadn't paid too high a price to cause it. On instinct, he glanced at the digital ink on his wrist to check her health. It was full, fifty out of fifty. He did a double take as he realized his stat-sleeve was active again. The mission clock blinked red at its edge with just under ten minutes remaining. It stopped ticking, then disappeared altogether. They had done it. The quest was finished.
Max glanced down at the portal back to Noctem's servers, its blue glow filling him with hope. Then his heart sank as a second portal formed above in the sky, the clouds swirling in the opposite direction of the ground below. A deep crimson shining down, creating a space of violet energy surrounding them in between. Max stared up at it, realizing who the new gateway was meant for. He scrambled to Kira, meeting up with Farn at her side. The others were still trying to get their bearings when the menu options inked onto their forearms navigated automatically to their logout tabs. Anger pulsed through Max's mind as the text on his arm that read, sign off, was highlighted.
"Oh no, you don't!" Max yelled, looking down at his unconscious friend. "You're not going up there. I'm not leaving without you!"
He had to get her out of there. He had to bring her home before he was forced to log out. Max glanced to the edge of the glass platform, its edge too far away to carry her. He’d never get her through the portal in time. He dropped down to lay on his side next to Kira and pulled her small body close against his chest. He was out of options.
Farn followed his lead, laying down and sandwiching the fairy between them.
He drew one of his pistols and placed the muzzle against the glass surface that supported them. A desperate hope beat in his chest. If I can break the glass, we can fall back to Noctem, together.
He locked eyes with Farn. "Whatever you do, don't let go."
Farn nodded as the others gathered around, understanding what Max intended to do. The logout timer read twenty seconds.
Max didn't know if the glass was several feet thick or paper thin. He didn't even know if it could be broken. All he could do was hope. He tilted his head down, bringing his lips less than an inch from Kira's ear and whispered. "I know I can't save you. So I'm asking you to save yourself." He closed his eyes and tightened his finger on the trigger with one word in his mind. He repeated it over and over, "Please." Then he squeezed.
Logs
ArkConnect Systems message boards, one day after mission completion.
Topic: what the hell you idiots
ChronicTheHedgehog69: I know the topic already says what the hell you idiots but I feel the need to say it again. WHAT THE HELL?! YOU IDIOTS! I lost a level! An entire level when I died trying to fight those freaking war dragons. What I want to know is how the hell does a company that probably makes a billion dollars a day let a disgruntled employee into their system to mess with it. I'm ready to quit here.
EMPIREriot: My god, man. Use a comma.
WeWantsTheRedHead: I'm a little surprised at this too. I mean how bad is their security? And should I be concerned? Although, that fight was pretty intense. I almost don't mind that I got stepped on by a thousand foot tall ice dragon. I wish Carver had let the expansion play out as it was supposed to. I kinda get why they fired the guy.
HelveticaNue: Did anyone see that jackass who was fighting against us in there. How the hell does a Fury get something as broken as full auto pistols with what I'm guessing was infinite ammo? If anyone knows how he got them, let me know.
WeWantsTheRedHead: I thought that was awesome. I actually got stepped on partly because I was watching him like an idiot. I don't know how to get those abilities, but I assume it was a contract. So they were probably only one-time use, which would make it a little less broken.
ChronicTheHedgehog69: Dude was probably cheating…
AerithNOOOOOOO: I don't think there is a way to cheat in Noctem… just sayin.
ChronicTheHedgehog69: THIS POST HAS BEEN FLAGGED FOR INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE
AerithNOOOOOOO: Plus that guy wasn't alone, there was a Shield with him tearing shit up. She had two arrows sticking out of her back, and it didn't even slow her down. She killed me. I'm pissed I died, but I gotta admit, she was pretty damn badass.
ChronicTheHedgehog69: What the hell made them turn on us anyway. They tryin to troll?
DracoKiro: I don't think so, I saw a fairy on the ground with a reynard kneeling over her. The Fury and Shield looked like they were protecting them.
ChronicTheHedgehog69: That's bull. I didn't see that.
HipstersSuck: You were probably too busy getting killed. I saw the fairy too, but she was standing right before we all got kicked back to spawn. It's weird though, there's no pictures of her anywhere online.
HelveticaNeue: Checkpoint wiped everyone's recordings of the event. That's why there are no photos.
ChronicTheHedgehog69: Sounds like they're trying to cover shit up.
Message written and sent three days after mission completion.
To: MaxDamage24, Farnsworth, GingerSnaps, Corvin, and Kegan
From: Alastair Coldblood
Subject: Thank you again
Hi, everyone. Sorry I haven't been able to reach out to you until now. I've been fighting with legal for the last couple days. They've decided to keep the events of the mission quiet and are aggressively drafting additional documents for everyone involved. You should be receiving a packet to sign and return in the next couple days. I know it’s probably the last thing you want to do right now, though. On the upside, I convinced them that doubling your payout would help to ensure your cooperation, so there's that.
I still have a lot of work to do here, but it looks like everything should return to normal thanks to you. I really can't express how grateful I am. I mean, you literally saved a world. I know it wasn't easy, and I know that in many ways, you might never be able to look at Noctem the same. But I want you to understand that it still exists because of you. I know none of you have logged in since everythi
ng happened. I don't blame you for that, but I hope you will come back when you feel ready.
We are still working to find Carver, but we've had little luck. He seemed to have a well thought out plan to disappear in place before he started the whole thing. I know none of us will forgive him after what he did, but to be honest, I'm not sure we'll ever find him. I know that's not good news, but I told myself that I wouldn’t keep anything from you again. Unfortunately, that means the bad news goes unfiltered. Anyway, I hope to see you again. Until then, I'll keep you informed.
-Alastair Coldblood
Message written and sent seven days after mission end.
To: MaxDamage24, Farnsworth, GingerSnaps, and Kegan
From: Corvin
Subject: Trying something new
So I just logged in and changed my character class to a Blade. I'm now level one again. I know that seems drastic, but I felt like after everything that happened, I needed to change. I really wish Kira could see me right now. She said that Blade gear would look good on a reynard. She was right. It's pretty cool. Plus, I got a new eye patch and it looks pretty badass. You guys need to get back on, I could use some help getting levels.
-Corvin
Message written and sent seven days after mission end.
To: Corvin
From: Kegan
Subject: RE - Trying something new
That’s awesome! Blades do great in PVP; I could teach you a thing or two. I’ll get on tonight and help.
-Kegan
ArkConnect Systems message boards ten days after mission completion
