by Terra Snover
“Shit…” I pulled myself up. She was right, the DoS was only going to last ten minutes. I had to figure out a way to fix this before that time was up. I jumped back to Lily and leaned in, whispering. “Can you delete her?”
“No, not as she is, like she’s basically my boss right now. I don’t have the right powers or rank or whatever to do it.” She paused for a second, pensive. “But maybe you could. You have all the right privileges to edit just about anything in the game. You have the admin, player, and Hivemind tags, you may have the most powerful coding power in all of AO at the moment.”
“I wouldn't know how.” Especially with my brain the way it is.
“Open her terminal and just delete everything and she's gone,” Lily said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Oh, okay I can do that. But how can I get close enough to do it?” I looked over at her and grimaced. She was super powerful.
“I don’t know, but we’re running out of time to try something.”
“Damn it.” I looked up to Mama watching us intently.
“Secrets don’t make friends, you two.” she mused with a strange smile.
“Mama, I’m sorry.” I looked at the ground, trying desperately to hide my intentions. “You did exactly what you said you would and I’m grateful for that.” I walked closer to her. I just needed to get close enough to open that terminal and delete her. “I’ll do whatever you want, just let Lily and I go.” Just a bit closer.
“Oh, my Sugar Dumpling, I’m disappointed in you.”
“What? Why?” I glanced up at her.
“You are being foolish, I know how you think, I AM YOU!” She raised her hand. “Entangle!” The webs wrapped around me and stuck to the floor and ceiling. I couldn't move! “And I can tell when you are up to something.” She took a few steps back and gave me a big smile. She moved her hand a bit to the right. “Algid Soul!” I turned my head and saw that she had frozen Lily solid behind me. “We’ll all just wait here until the time is up and I rule everything, and I can save this world! We can fix all of Another Online together, Sugar Dumpling!”
“AHHHHH, DAMN YOU!” I struggled against the webs, managing to snap a few.
“Oh, it would seem you are stronger than that spell. I wonder if you will be able to break free in time? Or maybe I should think about another kind of web for you?” She snapped her fingers and I fell to the ground, hunched over. I was battered from my fall down the hill. I was covered in dirt and blood and I had lost one of my mittens. The tears that fell down my cheeks were dripping into my lap. And there lay Ella, not moving, the snow falling on her pale body. I sobbed, “I love you, please, wake up.” She didn’t move. I sat there, I don’t know exactly how long, crying and wishing I had just went with her back home, or maybe had forced her to go with me sledding, anything but this. I stood up, my eyes refusing to focus. “Papa… I need to find Papa.” I turned and started the way I came, or at least I think this was the way I came. Everything was wrong, my head was, well, something was making it hard to think.
I looked around, the world spinning. “Papa…” I croaked, my throat sore. I was getting so cold, my fingers on the mittened hand tingled. “What are you doing, Sugar Dumpling?” I looked to my side and saw the other Mama, the one that was pale as Ella, she was naked and covered in dripping red water.
“I’m looking for Papa.”
“Wait, did you hear that? Is that Papa calling your name?”
“Papa?” I looked hopefully over to two figures emerging from the white snow. “Papa!”
Mama and Papa ran to me. “Oh my god, are you okay?!” Papa wrapped his warm, strong arms around me.
“I can’t figure out how to wake up Ella.” I sobbed into his chest.
“You found Ella?!” Mama all but shouted.
I gave a nod. “She’s over there.” I pointed to her. Mama ran over to Ella and lifted her small body into her arms.
“Ella, come on, wake up!” Mama shook Ella. “Ella, come on, you’re fine, you have to be fine! Ella, ELLA!”
“This is where I truly died.” The other Mama looked down at Ella.
“Shut up.” I turned away from her and tried to dig my face back into Papa’s chest but he was suddenly gone. I stumbled and found myself in the bathroom. The water overflowed. “No, not here.”
“I’m sorry, my Sugar Dumpling, but this is where you need to be. You need to face this.” I felt something wrapping around me like thousands of ice cold wires, pinning me in place.
“No.” I didn’t want to see it, I tried to look away but my face was forced up by an invisible force, making me look at the tub. Then my eyelids were pulled as hard as possible, forcing my eyes to open. There was Mama lying in water, her wrists sliced down the center. A blade from one of Papa’s safety razors lay next to the tub, moving now and then from the overflowing water. “It’s with a heavy heart that I write this note.” My Mama’s voice came from around me.
“No, Mama, don’t do this!”
“I’m so sorry, Sugar Dumpling”
The voice from the room continued. “I didn’t want to do this, but I have felt empty for so long. Every moment has been more painful than the last. My every thought of my darling lost child. To be in this world without her smile, her warmth, her laugh is agony. It is because of this that I have decided to take the plunge into the unknown after her.”
“Stop it,” I pleaded.
“To my family I leave behind, I’m sorry but this is something I need to do and I hope I will see you again someday. Goodbye.”
“No! You can’t do this! Not again!”
“But you see, I did return, I’m here for you, my child.”
“No, this is my head…” I thought as hard as I could. “I’m behind the red door. I’m wrapped in a web.” The dream started to fade away. “I had nothing to do with what happened to my sister! We all make choices and I make the choice to fight you and save the gods damn day!” With those words, the dream was gone, I was back in the gray room. “YOU! You were the one that was pulling me into those visions!”
“But of course, Sugar Dumpling. You have been ignoring what you were for so long, and that wouldn't do. I had to remind you of your past to make you stronger. Everything I do is for you.” She smiled. “And you are so strong now, and together we can become even stronger.”
“Damn it, I don’t want more power, I just want a normal life!”
“We both know that isn’t happening.” She let out a sigh. “Normal isn’t something we get here in AO.”
“Lies!” I screamed, letting the rage fill every part of my being. “I will do whatever I need to do!” The fire that was rising in my body flowed out of me. I felt the fire come flying out of my mouth and spat it at the room at large. I had to burn this all away! I had to stop this right now! The fire was hotter than anything I had ever managed to make before, and it melted the webs away like butter in the hot sun. I exploded out of the web, fire spinning in the torrent of burning air I made in my wake, and I slammed into the other Mama like a ton of bricks. She flew back into the gray wall. “Oh my, would you look at that. I’m so proud of you.” She giggled.
“Stop talking!” I jumped on top of her and pinned her arms down with one hand.
“But we can’t have you doing something rash, I think we’ll try a different web. We can’t let this end before the DoS is done.” And before I could open her terminal, she snapped her finger again. I felt extremely pleased with the outcome of this endeavor. All my hard work over my time in Another Online had finally come to fruition. The castle hummed and clicked around me with the sound of hundreds of thousands of precision made cogs, gears, and magically enhanced devices. My face curved into a toothy smile. This smile was probably a bad idea considering I was standing across from Drac; he was glaring at me. His cool demeanor had been replaced with rage. Drac’s red suit which was normally immaculate was tattered, I saw myself in the reflection of Drac’s sunglasses, my white teeth stood in contrast with my bl
ack, fuzzy face. Hold on, this was wrong. I was Var, but for some reason I was seeing out of Alexander's eyes. Next to Drac stood Leon with his throwing knives out, just waiting for the right moment to strike. To Drac’s other side stood Tilln, her spear was currently pointed right at my neck, ready to strike me, Alexander, us, down. “Tilln, Drac, Leon, why the anger? Isn’t this what you wanted?” Alexander mused condescendingly. Okay, someone speaking out of my mouth was an extremely odd sensation.
“You know damn well I wanted this to end! This world is broken and the only way to set us free is by ending it!” Drac shouted at us, embers emitting from his mouth as he shouted.
“Ending it is so short-sighted.” We moved our eyes over to the woman who had spoken, she stood to his left, Hell'a’s long clawed hands were up for the inevitable confrontation. She gave Drac a nasty smile, “All the people will be free of the System Hivemind and will flourish under my rule.”
“Your rule?” We looked over to see on our other side and spotted Amber giving Hell’a a side glance. Her eyes were locked on Hell’a. “Want to try that again?”
“Sorry, free to do what they wish.” Hell’a conceded.
“This is bullshit, we had an agreement!” Drac shouted as he looked at Amber. “On the day you all glitched out you told me you would help me end all this!”
“I’m sorry, Drac, but things changed. We saw an-” Amber started but Hell’a cut her off.
“Drac, your plan was idiotic and short-sighted. I, on the other hand, came up with something elegant and meaningful.” Hell’a spoke as if she was talking to a child. “Now, I need you all to leave here before anything else gets out of hand.”
“You psychotic monster, there is no way I’m letting you get your hands on this world!” Drac exclaimed and darted to Hell’a. Hell’a knocked Drac’s attack to the side, making him go careening into a pillar. The sound of the impact echoed through the throne room at such a volume it could easily make ones ears ring. Tilln took this opportunity to thrust her spear into our neck. Our eyes widened with the blow and he yelped in surprised. "Oh, what cruelty you lay up on me, this is my end, I am to die here this evening! Blarg…" Alexander shouted in an extremely melodramatic manner. And the false Alexander vanished in a torrent of blinding lights. Tilln shouted in pain as she was blinded by the light show. "Damn it, when did he learn illusionary magic?!" Tilln rubbed her eyes, trying desperately to see again. It was far too easy to trick that woman. We started to get another illusion spell ready when the room went fuzzy and my head spun a bit.
I was on top of the Mama again. I blinked. “What the hell?”
“Again, you are stronger than I thought. Maybe someone closer to you will keep you there,” Mama snapped again. I jumped to Tilln, both of my bastard swords bearing down on Tilln’s head. My blades came centimeters from Tilln’s temple, but I didn’t manage to make contact before Leon tackled me, knocking both he and I to the floor. There was a loud clatter as my armor ground and bounced on the stone floor. Both of us managed to get to our feet and Leon shouted, “Amber, why are you doing this?!”
“Why are you doing this?!” I shouted back with Amber’s voice. Or more, she shouted and I was watching like this was a strange movie. “You are trying to kill our friend!”
“Amber…” He let out a sigh. “You are my friend, but ever since Var became the Red Queen something in her changed. She was slowly turning into, something, well, monstrous.” He pointed to Var, or me, my body? By the Void, this was an odd sensation. Var sat upon her throne, silently sleeping. We shouted back at the idiot Leon, “She isn’t a monster! We both have known her for years, she has been here for us during all of our time here in Another Online!”
“Amber, you must have seen it! She revels in killing, drinking blood, and the torment of the players. It’s like something snapped and she isn’t the kind woman we knew in the items shop.”
“What are you talking about, you idiot? She has to do those things; the game made her.”
“No, she is an N0, she had power to choose, and she chose to do those monstrous things.” He frowned. “I should know, I am also a monster now, and it takes every bit of willpower I have not to give in. Even now, there is a part of me that wants nothing more than to rip into your neck and feast on your blood, but I don’t. She chose to give in, she was the one that walked down this path. I just don’t trust her anymore.”
“Leon, come on, once we’re free we can talk this out, we can make things better.”
“Amber.” He looked us in the eyes for a moment, and then at the floor. “I need this to end, if we keep the world around, the people who made this game will take it back and we’ll be enslaved again. I can’t let that happen.”
“Leon, we need-” But Leon shook his head, and without warning he threw a knife at the sleeping Var’s heart, my heart. Well, that’s not good!
Chapter 25
The Broken
“No!” we shouted as we tried to knock the knife out of the air with our blade, but Drac came out of nowhere, shoulder checking us into a wall. The room spun but we tried to keep an eye on the knife flying down the great hall. The silver blade glistened a multitude of colors as it passed through the moonlit light of the stained glass windows that sat at the end of the throne room. We shouted in horror. If Var, me, whatever, died, that was it! As the knife grew close to Var’s chest, you could hear every person in the room draw in a collective breath. It felt like every passing moment was an eternity. With only a hair width to go before plunging into Var's heart, there was a gray blur jumping out of the shadows, over the throne, catching the knife in mid-air. It was Thaz! Thaz’s feet slid across the slick stone as she landed, and it looked like it took all her effort not to slip and fall. Once Thaz regained her balance, she looked at Leon with a frown, her golden eyes locked on him, “Now, Leon, why are we trying to kill Var?”
“Thaz, what are you still doing here?!” we shouted, “You know what happens if you stay in the game!”
“Meh, can’t let you have all the fun, what would happen to me is nothing compared to an entire world of people.” Thaz took the knife and dropped it on the ground. “Anyway, the real world sucks, why not stick around where I’m a freaking superhero? Or I’m I a bad guy? I guess that depends on where you stand on the-” A blast of raw kinetic force hit Thaz in the side, knocking her away from Var. Thaz turned into a blur of gray fur as she tumbled head over foot through the air, her left leg slamming into a suit of armor, sending her into an even more chaotic spin before slamming into the ground.
“What the hell is going on in here?!” Gelm shouted, pointing his staff where Thaz was standing moments before. Gelm's elongated face contorted into a snarl, making his sunken eyes even harder to see.
“Damn it, Gelm, I was philosophizing.” Thaz stood up from the suit of armor that she had collided with. The fur on her long tail fluffed up in surprise and her pointed ears were down, showing how angry she actually was.
“Why the hell are you all fighting?! We have a battle with the Alliance and First Ones to finish!” Gelm was shouting now, his long black and gray hair jostling behind him as he admonished the room at large. “But instead I come here to find you all fighting!” He then turned to Var or me, gods this is an odd feeling, and said. “And whatever she’s doing. You all need to stop what you’re doing right now and talk this all out. Or at the very least stop trying to kill each other and help outside! Or do I need to make you all stop?!”
“Oh, I don’t have time for this… We have a world to save,” Thaz said, annoyed as she quickly drew her crossbow. “Sorry, Gelm, I’ll buy you a drink and explain everything after this all is over and done with.” Thaz fired a flaming arrow at Gelm.
“Repel!” Glem cast a spell to deflect the attack and the arrow went flying into a large tapestry hanging on the wall. It didn’t take long for it to catch and light the nearby tapestries aflame as well.
“Thaz, why are you doing this?!” Gelm frowned at her and cast another spell, but this time
Thaz was ready for the attack and she jumped straight up into the air, avoiding the powerful kinetic blast. "Gelm, just get the hell out of here. Really, we’re trying to save the freaking world and you are messing everything up!” Thaz demanded.
“Thaz, what in the hell are you-” he started.
“Because if I, a player, kills you you’ll come back and be safe, but if any of these fools do it you will be done.”
“Thaz, you are insane!” He deflected more of her arrows.
Wait, we can’t just stay here watching this unfold, we needed to fight! Get up, Amber, I thought as hard as I could. We regained our footing and found Leon lunging his katana at us. Our blades went up, blocking his blow. We swing our swords right back at him. He blocked, and we attacked again, and we swung with such force every time Leon deflected one of our blows he was forced backwards. In a contest of strength, Leon had no chance against us. The onslaught was fierce and eventually we had Leon’s back to the wall. There was no place to go, Leon was a sitting duck. We moved our blade to Leon’s neck and held it there so there was a trickle of thick semi-congealed vampire blood coming from his neck. “Why, Leon? We were, no, we are friends!”
“Why, WHY?! Amber, we have been abused for years, we are slaves, and playthings! Every moment I spend in this world, I am terrified! If I make one wrong move I’ll be tortured or turned into a monster! For years, I have known nothing but fear, I just can’t…” Tears started to well up in his eyes. “I can’t take this anymore. I just want this to all end. I need the sweet embrace of nothingness. I’m sorry, but this is the only way. Even the strongest friendships can't change that!”
“But we can change things! We can make this world our own!” Our eyes started to tear up as well. “With Var, we can-”
“Change?” Leon half laughed and half pleaded with us, "We said we would end this world. You, Var, Drac and I said we would end this! Today we have that chance. If we can make the pain end, we need to do it. We can stop this infernal torment. Please, Amber, let me finish this. I need you as a friend to let me end this.”
