Colin sighed as he removed the FMD from his head, stretching out and noticing a long-ignored soda can that he’d put on the desk several hours back and had simply forgotten about. It was terrible now, but he drank it anyways, a grimace on his face as he choked down the now flat and warm liquid. Finished with it, he chucked it into a recycling bin…and felt his hands start to shake. Yeah, it had been several hours since he’d bothered to check out in the real world. It wasn’t night just yet, although that might change shortly. He was so tempted to get a nap and perhaps sleep, but he somehow doubted that it would have been peaceful after watching the Juka Sprites die to Jula’s troops as they marched through the Axis Mundis. He hadn’t seen what had happened everywhere else…but he had certainly heard about it. He shuddered with both repressed rage and sorrow to what had happened to that race, butchered by Saol and Jula. He hoped that, somehow, somewhere, a few had survived. It was so unlikely, but he had to hope. It was so unfair that they would all be slaughtered so that Jula could have her damn field, and even moreso when viewed in The Swath. The child’s head that had been mounted on a pike…

He shuddered, moving away from the computer even as his avatar, Takua, sat in a grassy field next to a temple. At least they had completed that place, or at least the field portion of it. Saol was dead, he’d landed the Coup De Grace himself with the first boulder of an OrGan Don. The Wild Hunt, and it’s general, were dead. A brief smile came to mind at what Kira and Nemera had done…and just how scary it was that they were both thinking the exact same thing. He really didn’t need to have Nemera thinking like Kira or the other way around. That would just be…way to much badass bitch in one place. He smiled even more at that thought, even though his mind was busy trying to cope with just what might happen. That expression died though when he remembered what Nemera was going through. Swath Sickness. If they didn’t get into the dungeon soon…she would die. In real life, unless he missed his guess, as well. He was hoping that Sidhe was doing everything he could to help her out as she suffered, and knew that she’d hate the thought of help even though she needed it.

Legs complained as he walked around the house, checking out the front window to see that Gillian had left sometime while he was online. At least she had not disturbed him, such a thing while in combat may have been…well, disastrous really. He certainly didn’t want to think about what would have happened if it had been in that final fight with Saol. A few seconds of not paying attention would have been fatal. He stumbled over to the bed that he wouldn’t be sleeping in for a while longer and collapsed into it, allowing his weary body to rest for just a bit. The comforting sheets lay under him, and the fact that he could just lay there was wonderful. He might not have needed the break from combat like the Comatosed members of the Eventide Crescendo did, but his mind certainly needed that break. His body was fine, his mind was tired, and he just lay there for several minutes, thoughts a vast blankness.

When he finally rose again twenty minutes later, he was feeling much more refreshed than he had been. Damn how those fields always made him feel…and it was going to get worse, so much worse. The dungeon was likely to be shorter in how much time it took…but that just meant that each horror would come closer to the last, cramming it at them until they just wanted to leave.

Of course, they couldn’t do that, which was the part that really sucked about the whole thing. For each horror that they faced, it was just another thing that they had to get through, one more thing that they had to stand. But he kept on driving himself onward and kept on going back, even though it was becoming increasingly obvious that that might be the only thing he didn’t want to do. A strange, and scarily comforting, whisper slithered across his mind. Inserting things…how he didn’t want to go back. That they were all against him. Madness. They couldn’t be like that, and he’d seen it. But that thought was there, edging in, always insisting. Pointing out that things had gone oh so perfectly to plan in several ways for all sorts of people. Perhaps Gyl was really the one disconnecting people to weaken them…after all, Centrus had vanished instantly when Nemera needed him most and then two more while they were fighting Saol. How…coincidental.

He forced himself away from those thoughts, striving for what he felt was the truth. It was just the actions of several hackers on the Highers side who were attempting to find and kill them, or at least chuck them out of the field by disrupting their net connections. There wasn’t a traitor in their midst…there couldn’t be. He shook his head violently to clear out that clinging thought, failing entirely. He tried his best to ignore it though as he moved to get himself some food. What food would it be though? There was hunger…but no craving for anything at all. Strange, because usually he was able to tell what the hell he wanted to eat. Nothing that he could think of sounded good right now, and in the end he just cut himself a slice of sourdough bread and munched on it.

He paused for a moment before finding another pepsi. He didn’t know why, but he wanted one, to savor it. Maybe he was afraid that he wasn’t going to be coming back from the dungeon inside of Juk. That was certainly likely, considering just…what the hell they were going to run into. He still remembered how close it had been for Centrus in Gan. It was only because Raven decided to go into a coma that the Fist Fighter was still in this world. In Vak, two had gone. In Gan, one. From what he could guess, nobody had been infected by so much Twilight that they had slipped into The World fully in Rue. What about this time? It averaged out that one person fell each field so far…the odds weren’t that good for him. Raven had made three, Sekai only one, and Raquar two. Again, that averaged out to two fields per person…and he was the only person who had been in Gan, who had been with the Eventides before. To put it lightly, the likelihood that he was in serious danger was…quite high.

But that same logic was also dragging him straight into the dungeon. Plus, he wanted to go, as foolish as it may have been. They needed him. They were down from the eleven people (if one counted Kira) to nine (with Alana) now. He needed to go back…he was one of the more powerful people there at the current point in time. Technically, he was right in the middle of all of the people that had joined Nemera and Sidhe…but it sure as hell felt like he was powerful. Maybe that was because he had killed so much…in comparison with what he was in Gan. There, he had been the weakest member of the party. Now he was midway up the chain, and in his thirties. Low thirties, but his thirties nonetheless. Plus, he was the only one other than Sekai who had been through a field before and, apart from Sidhe and Nemera, they were the only two who could really warn people or try to guide them. Oh right, and Kira as well.

Okay, so maybe that didn’t all provide a stable basis about why he should go back…except that he wanted to. For all of that danger, it provided him with something that he both could and couldn’t define. It gave him a purpose, one to log on and help the world out in some way, to even help a few people…and then there was more there. He couldn’t even begin to say what else there was there for him, only that he still, even after the field, wanted to go back. Shit…there just wasn’t any other option for him, even though he knew the sane thing, one that might just save his life, would be to run as far and as fast as he could from that group. Especially since Centrus wasn’t there anymore…it wasn’t like there was anyone from his home who would be around to see him fall, who would know what had happened.

Yet…he wasn’t scared of that comatose possibility. If he truly thought about it…he wasn’t sure that it’d be that bad. Pain, death, always fighting…but at the present moment his life wasn’t that great either, and he’d met people that he’d like to continue to talk to inside of the game. His parents had thrown him out and his mother was waiting for him to crawl back. He did have plenty of money in case he needed to pay for a hospital bill when he got out of a coma…and he refused to think that he’d die there. He admitted that that was a possibility, but he refused to believe that it would happen. Hell…he had a chance of dying in real life, or being imprisoned and tortured by the Highers for the rest of his life, as it was right now. He wasn’t trying to get himself killed…he just didn’t think that he would, in fact, die in The World. At least, he could desperately hope so.

What it came down to when he was being brutally honest with himself was that he had no problem with going comatose. He might regret that thought badly later on, but right now it was an almost surprisingly attractive proposition. He’d always been more at home in games than in real life…and failed horribly at communication in both. He slumped down at his seat again with bread and soda in hand and ground his hands into his face.

“Why do you hate the real world so much?”

He sighed, looking at the soda while rolling her question around in her mind. She looked visibly upset by something…which was odd, because he didn’t see why she should be. All he was doing was…okay. So he was making a choice in his life that would drastically affect both of them. There was that…and, that voice whispered with just a bit more of an edge to it, maybe she had something to hide. The girl had something that she wasn’t telling him the truth, that there was so much there that she wasn’t saying at all…

His voice, when he finally spoke, was as tired as his mind was. He was done trying to rationalize it to himself let alone anyone else.

“I don’t hate this world, I just…wouldn’t mind going to the other one. I don’t want to go there enough that I’ll actively pursue it, but I’m not going to run away from the Eventides to protect myself from that.”

Her lips curled into a sneer though and her voice turned harsh and mocking as she lashed out at that statement.

“And what will Gillian think when she comes in to find your comatose body at the keyboard? What will Ian think when he has to come visit you in the hospital room where you’re on life support, a heart monitor beeping in the corner? What about Todd, or Alex? What will they think? They may not know the reason why instantly, but if they see you while you’re comatose….”

His eyes acknowledged the fact that she had a point, wincing as the spear found home. That was one of the only things that would piss him off and upset him if he was comatose, that his friends would have lost him into that world. Sure, they could still go and talk to him and visit him in there, where The World had become his world, but that wasn’t the same as the real world. In The World, it was possible to die so much quickly, so much more painfully, than in this world. A PKer fifty levels higher, like what he had thought Tyrant to be, might find him and make mince-meat out of him while he didn’t have a party. That was…the crux of the matter wasn’t it though. Friends. Ties that bound him to this world and the ties that bound him to The World. Ian…would understand if he went comatose because he was fighting for the Eventide Crescendo. After all, he had gone into Juk as well even though he knew the consequences. The possibility that he wouldn’t return to the real world was there, he took that chance just as his friend had.

Everyone else…well, there had been a few remarks about how much more lively he seemed in the past week than in the several weeks and days prior to Gan. Granted, he was also struggling with the remnants of Dread Code Vampirism and thus had avoided people at times so as not to see them as meat, food of some kind…but he was still looking somewhat better. He had found himself a purpose within the Eventide, and they might…understand if he sacrificed something to further that purpose. After being listless for nearly a month, perhaps for far longer now that he thought about it, he had something, a purpose again, and that had re-energized him.

“No…they won’t enjoy it, but at least Ian would understand it. Gillian wouldn’t, but she wants to…I don’t even want to think about what she wants to do right now. I don’t understand it and I don’t want it anyways. Alex and Todd would get it if I explained it to them and you know it. My mother…I don’t know what either of my parents would think right now, but I don’t even know if they’d pay for my hospitalization.”

He took a bite out of the bread, noting that, oddly, it seemed almost tasteless at the moment. The drink of the soda in his other hand wasn’t though, the fizzling burn going all of the way down his throat. He shook his head, looking at the girl who had taken up a position in the seat across from him. She still looked pissed and worried, but she also had the point in the argument, and that was why he was worried about it. If he didn’t care about what other people thought and what the reactions would be if he went comatose…well, the point was, there were things that he could only do in this world, it was just that the view that he could see…the two worlds were balanced. He could see the pain and suffering, but also the fun times in both of them. One he was born in, but it was when he was in the virtual world that he felt more at home…although, really, that wasn’t that great of a difference. Not when he felt so disconnected at times from this one.

He shook his head again, trying to refocus his eyes on the window that let in a sliver of light from the outside world. It was getting later in the afternoon…nearly night now. How much longer would they have to wait for Gyl to get away and set up somewhere else? Did he have time for a short nap? It’d have been great to have gotten one…he wasn’t sure how long it was since he had last slept anymore, but it had only been for three hours or so. Even a two hour nap would have been wonderful to get. Instead, he finished his bread and slipped the FMD back on, slipping back into a comfortable position as he reanimated his avatar within The World.

Takua looked up from under the bridge in Mac Anu, glancing around and checking to ensure that he was still where he had parked his body and that there wasn’t anything he should be aware of. Nothing came to mind instantly, and he stood up, moving from his position under the bridge to the side. His Ruem Wings slipped out of his back, sparkling ice crystals and water allowing him to lift off and fly up from the river to the building above him. Sure, some players commented on it, but everyone knew it was legal…just incredibly rare for someone to have. He smiled at that thought, knowing that he was one of the few people in The World who could fly like that. Well…few was a comparative term. He really didn’t want know just how many hundreds could actually do that, or thousands, but the vast majority of The World didn’t have the coveted items.

Unfortunately for him, it appeared that Ondine wasn’t done interrogating him yet. Perhaps, he wondered as he listened to her talk, she was just trying to keep him out of the Eventides for some reason. That, he thought with a tiny grin, was futile.

“If you can’t be sure that you’ll even have care in a hospital, how could you go? Are you even sure that your hospital could take having a full time coma patient inside of it? Are you really sure that your money could handle the strain of, potentially, years of being in a coma?”

He rolled his eyes as his feet settled to the roof, wings retracting to his body. He wanted to be done with this argument, because every question she raised had valid points to it, ones that he had already had to think about. Hearing her bring up the same damn points, ones that he had to acknowledge there were truths in, was aggravating. He paused for a moment though at that last part…wait a second…

“You’re just taking these objections from what I’ve already thought about aren’t you?”

He never even saw the slap coming, but it left a sting on his cheek once it connected. That, he thought even as he stared at her in shock, was always a strange feeling. That he could feel something that nobody else could. Why would he be able to-

“Of course I’m not fucking taking these from you! These are valid points that you admit have truth in them, and yet you want to do it anyways. Dear GOD Colin, do you want to die?!”

He rounded on her, eyes still widened enough because he’d obviously hit a nerve, and a rather bad one, when he thought he had something. Well shit, that had turned out rather badly. Now how did he get out of this one? He didn’t want to die and didn’t see how she was equating going into The World completely with a death sentence, because he sure didn’t see it.

“I won’t necessarily die in this world if I’m careful and if I take steps to ensure that I’m around someone who can help me. And that’s all still an if, nothing is certain. Hopefully I’ll still be alive and well, perfectly healthy, when we’re done with the dungeon. But nothing you are going to say is going to change my mind. I’m going back because they need me.”

He almost didn’t hear her next words, muttered low enough that they nearly slipped under his plane of hearing.

“I warned you…”

He shrugged it off, wondering what the hell she was talking about and ignoring it for the time being. He didn’t want to deal with it right now. Then again…what did he want to do? He could go out into a field and grind on some poor monsters for a little bit, which would work although it might be slightly boring. He could say hi to Vesica…and decided to put that off for a bit. If he was going to nap, he’d put his character there and pass out in the chair. His feet hung off of the rooftop as he thought, staring out into the sun that burned into his eyes. The inversion that his sight suffered from was gone for now, and he tried to relax in the rays of color. What was it about his mind that was so…fucked up? He had Gwyneth, she died on her own. Now he had Ondine, who had been…concealing herself? Add that to his sight inversion…and he had what exactly? Two people in his head, and his primary sense had started to screw up. What…was next?

He sighed and looked down at the populace of Mac Anu. What was it that made him so different from the rest of humanity? He knew from psychology that people could have multiple personalities, could talk to them, and things like that. But if he had that…that didn’t explain the inverted vision at all. Sure, he could go with the explanation that he’d gotten off of a cracked out dream the night before, but he hesitated to truly use that as what was going on. It was all he had, but it seemed way, way to much like a fantasy or a nightmare than real life. Something that wasn’t real. Not something concrete that he could touch and say that yes, it did exist. There had, had, to be something that he could identify that would tell him what separated him from ‘sane’ humans. But he didn’t know what it was, and it was starting to piss him off. Why couldn’t he just be like a normal person and not have to deal with…a smartass woman who liked to beat the shit out of him? He heard a slight laugh with a sound that he could only describe as odd behind it, a sickening sound that had his head whipping around to look for Ondine. He thought it was her voice…and he found one of the oddest expressions yet on her face. A cross between sadist, worry, and fear all at the same time…and it showed in her voice as well. There was a single word to describe that, if only he could…

Twisted.

It hit him like Saol’s thrown blade. Something was so wrong about her face it was almost alien in nature. The Wavemaster blinked multiple times in succession, fumbling with what to say. Maybe, he realized belatedly, she did have a point…or maybe, a voice whispered, she knew something that he didn’t. Which was why she was looking at him with pity. But he was ignoring her…so she was pissed off. But she wouldn’t just out and out tell him because she wanted him to suffer, wanted to laugh as he writhed in whatever torment was about to visit him. And so, the slithering whisper continued, she really was only leading him on, making him anxious, trying to upset his mind even more so that he wouldn’t be prepared for what as about to happen…assuming that she wasn’t just lying.

He shook his head, knowing that she could read this thoughts…and how disturbing that was. His own thoughts were able to be interrupted, read, manipulated…wait. Why had he said manipulated? He couldn’t think of any time that Gwyneth had changed his thoughts…but would he know? How could he know if she was changing how he thought? No no, he was being paranoid now. Nothing would come of that, and he didn’t have any proof in the first place.

The boy was suddenly afraid of himself. Why was he so paranoid? He hadn’t been just a few hours before…and then suddenly things began to change while he was in Juk. Why had he started to suspect everyone around him.? He tore himself away from the rooftop, leaping down from the building with his wings carrying him gently to the ground before dashing to the Chaos Gate. He needed a field to think, and he knew just the one. Not Vesica’s home, but one that he had visited once before, nearly a year ago, with Gwyneth. It was famous, but that was besides the point. The first time he had been there, the statue had shocked him for several minutes. This time, he needed the atmosphere that he could remember there. Maybe…maybe it would help him. Somehow. In some way, it had to.

Frightened of the unknown, he selected the keywords frantically and warped away, trying to calm his madness. He shouldn’t be frightened of anything, there wasn’t anything around him that should have provoked that, right? Which meant that it was inside of him somewhere. Or he was afraid of himself and what he could do. That was true, especially within the Eventide Crescendo and the damn Higher fields, but he wasn’t usually afraid of what he could do outside of that. Ever. Yet that assurance was there, sinking deeper and deeper, as well as the ice-cold answer that something was terribly wrong.

Takua looked up at the grand cathedral that appeared before him, the famous field; Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. He took a moment to pause take in the great building before him, not entirely immune to the atmosphere of the field. Still though, he took off at a run, Ondine felt but not seen around him. That was another thing that he was unnerved by…how could he see and feel her? Normally multiple personalities were only inside of the mind or they took you over, he hadn’t read a single case where they could actually be seen or touch you in some way.

How fast he had gotten to the doorway was contrasted by how slowly he walked between the two rows of benches. There was the statue, chained and upon the altar. Eight different chains bound it…and when he had tried to read the plaque all of those months ago, only three of them were legible. He walked forward slowly now, the music playing in his headphones, coupled with the sad statue before him, made him want to treat this area of The World with…reverence. He was so focused on what was in front of his eyes that he didn’t notice anything else, could only stare at the figure on the altar. What would happen, he thought to himself, if she could speak? What sort of story would she tell?

What sort of story would he ever be able to tell?

He stared upwards at the statue’s face, oblivious to everything around him, and began to think. Tried to figure out where it had all gone wrong. What had changed him from a socially awkward gamer into the person he was today, a freak. Someone who could see and feel and talk to someone who was not themselves every hour of the day that didn’t exist to anyone else. Was it going to be that way no matter what he had done? What if he simply hadn’t had to kill that man all those months ago? What if he had managed to not kill him? He knew that stress triggered all sorts of things from his classes in psychology, the chances that whatever he had was because of that event was…approaching unity. Gwyneth had appeared directly after that, so it only made sense. But why? If he hadn’t done it, he’d have died and that would have been that. He shouldn’t have gone there, not with only a note from some random offline person that he had never met. Never should have allowed himself to piss the man off. Never…

He switched, unaware that he had done so, from thought to speech as he gazed at the plaque. His voice shook both from the atmosphere and from his rapidly devolving thoughts.

“Was it just because I had to defend myself? I…was never religious, but is this your retribution? I once thought that you had to exist, only a month ago, but that was all a dream, a…fake. If that…dream is to be believed, then I know why now. But if it was merely a dream, then I’m no closer to figuring it out than before. Ondine is here now, so the reasoning doesn’t make any sense. What did you mean Gwyneth, when you left? Why did you have to vanish, to die like that? What am I anyways? Human, yes…but…what about everything that’s happened? Normal people…”

His voice broke as tears began to fill his eyes. Something was wrong. It was like he was crumbling, the edges and his core turning into a liquid sloshing around at some giant’s behest. The tiny rock before the hammer. His control and who he was seemed to be changing, slipping, everything that he had known and trusted turning to dust beneath his fingertips. His hands in both worlds dug deeply into his palm, nearly breaking the skin. He didn’t sob, but the tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to get a hold of himself. He couldn’t though, and shook his head wildly as if he were trying to free himself from demons, from something that he simply couldn’t comprehend.

“Everything went wrong! I don’t…even know where it all started. Why I’m so different from everyone else, why I can’t…be the same. Normal people don’t have to go through this, they never ever…have this happen to them!”

Slipping faster now, sand draining out of himself as panic set in. What was happening? His hand raised up to his eyes and he stared at it as if he’d never seen it before, his nails dug in so hard as to raise pinpricks of blood.

“Something’s wrong, and I don’t know what. Not Juk, not any of that, something with me and I can’t figure out what it is! It’s there, I know it is, I can feel it and there’s nothing I can do to stop whatever it is from advancing, from taking over, and it’s been there for a long time and I don’t know what it is!”

Babbling now, aware that he was speaking for the first time but unable to care, helpless to stop himself as his fears and worries and what he felt like came bubbling out of himself. Control, where was his control and will? For that matter, where was Ondine? She seemed to have vanished, and now he was alone with his thoughts…but he wasn’t. There was a presence there, an alien, malevolent entity that encroached on his every moment.

“My thoughts aren’t mine anymore, they’re read, there’s something there and I can’t stop it. Aren’t one’s thoughts supposed to be sacred? Aren’t they supposed to be one’s sanctuary? Why aren’t mine? Why am I the one who’s thoughts are open for other people, at all times, that are read, that are changed, that…are encroached upon?!”

Questions asked to an uncaring universe that echoed his own words back at him as he stared blindly, frantically, into the tears that coursed down his face. Hot, burning his skin, but unable to stop them anymore than he was able to stop his mind from moving, dragging him along like there was a chain made of titanium wrapped around his foot. Moving him closer and closer to an edge that crumbled beneath the crashing waves of a storm that he could not fully comprehend.

“Why?”

There were a few moments of expectant quiet, but the air surrounding him spoke of more, that he wasn’t done with the madness that had gripped his mind. He was trying to organize his thoughts…and failing as it jumped from one to another.

“Juk was fine, apart from the horror, so it can’t be from that. I could tell, I know I could. Gan was different, that darkness isn’t present yet. The only…twisted works have been what happened to the original occupants. That’s not enough to do this, so what could have done it? Gan? I should be done with that by now, shouldn’t I? It started there again, this feeling. Especially after my vision fucked up in the field, and after Xander…but it’s not the same. Only what happened in the field itself carries any resemblance to this…and it isn’t the same. Something’s changed, and…I can’t…”

He broke off again, blinking to clear the tears. His hand was a blurry mass through the tears, but he found it fascinating. Why was it shaking so badly? Was it even his own hand?

Was his body his own?

“Ever since Gwyneth died, I’ve been confused. This feels so much like her, and it should from what I know…but that’s wrong because that isn’t the case. I…nothing is how it seems, it can’t be. This is all wrong. This only happens in sick stories, in fiction. Fantasy. This is real life…right? I shouldn’t…can’t…feel this way. Everything I know shouts that this is wrong, that I’m missing something. I should know what’s wrong. This…madness…it says as much. I know some psychology…why don’t I know this?! The feeling won’t go away. It’s alien, foreign, and it shouldn’t be there, but it’s always there, always clawing at me, seeking an opening and I-“

He broke off, shuddering as something seemed to break deep inside of himself. What was going on?

Maybe if he had been a better state of mind he would have heard the soft steps behind him, the swish of fabric. Instead though, he was sitting on the ground when a soft voice spoke behind him.

“Takua-san...?” Am... am I not mistaken? Is... Takua-san in... in some kind of trouble?”

He practically jumped in shock as sounds caught up to his scrambled brain, an overload of signals that technically deafened him. He whirled as quickly as he could, tears still running down his face, feeling the shock and the agony still swirling around him, oozing out of his pores. His eyes glazed over even more than they already had when the Archer’s voice permeated that aura enough to be recognized. She was wearing a…Kimono if he wasn’t completely wrong, although his state of mind was enough that he very well might be. What was she doing here? Why was she here now of all times? Why, he thought as he started to shake, was she here to listen to all of that? How much had she heard? Pieced together? Did she know what type of a freak he was? Not a monster, but not human either…but he was human. Just not in the way that everyone else was. Thoughts came flashing in and out as he tried to resist the urge to run, to flee, eyes widening much to the point that her own would.

His eyes, even without all of the information that being comatose would offer, gave enough about his state of mind. Wild and uncontrolled, afraid for some reason, and with all of the crumbling state of his self. Gone was the tactical Wavemaster of two hours before who had put together a plan that had killed Saol. Here was a boy, close to shattering before what he could not understand but was afraid of. A whimper escaped his throat, a blatant response to her question, before, suddenly, his entire form stiffened. As if his body had seized up. But only for a moment, it relaxed a moment later…and a soft, hysterical giggle escaped from him. Quiet, but all the more mad because of that. His voice, when it escaped, was high pitched and frightened. She took a few steps backwards when he did so, not that he could blame her…if he was even really aware of such an action.

“Trouble? Trouble? I don’t even understand what’s going on in my mind, what is happening with my thoughts. How could I not be in trouble? I can’t…even think. I can’t keep my thoughts my own, and I don’t even understand that. I can’t stop what’s going on because I can’t understand it at all, even though I know that whatever it is it’s bad and should stop now, but I can’t because something’s wrong and I’m crumbling and falling and I can’t stop that either. I’m not there, but I am, and I’m slipping and there’s the cliff and that’s the last place I can go because I’m finished if I go there. First someone dies because I needed to live, and then another person does the same, assuming that I’m not completely insane and dreaming it all up, assuming that I actually know what happened to me and what’s going on now. Only that second person didn’t need to die, the first person I didn’t need to kill, and I’m going crazy and I can’t figure out why or what’s wrong.”

He was hyperventilating and he knew it, eyes wide as if trapped in a nightmare from which there was no escape. Another crack, another loss of what was going on. His thoughts weren’t even in line, weren’t making sense, and he felt the comfort of catatonia beckon to him. He resisted that though, with every fiber in his body, screaming against that possibility because it stood against everything that he was for. Sweat streaked down his body in the real world as he tried with a physical effort to pull himself together…and failed. He collapsed into sobs on the floor again, knees buckling without the strength to hold him up. Now that crying was audible, echoing in the vastness of the cathedral.

He barely heard her rushing over to him, that mixture of concern and confusion showing even in the way that she ran over to him. Oddly, his brain decided to throw in the knowledge that that was, indeed, a Kimono that she was wearing, and a very nice one. The part of his mind that was still rational cursed that he should be able to even deduce that before it too was swallowed up by the panic surging through him. She reached out for him though at the last second before she spoke, touching his shoulders and trying to look at his face.

“Takua-san? I-I don't, I'm afraid I don't understand. What happened? What cliff are you talking about? Who's died? Takua-san, please, please calm down, I don't understand what you are saying.”

He froze the second the hands touched his shoulders, rationality flickering through to his brain in shock. He had just felt her touch him…but he wasn’t comatose. Wasn’t Immersed. But something had clearly touched him in that exact second that she had, and his eyes went wider than they already were, tears drying up in a split second as his entire body froze. Something else was there. Who? What? They were watching him, had been for some time, and it wasn’t Sekai. But his expression didn’t change as Sekai stared at him with all the anxiety in the world, confusion and a sense of despair filtering through the shock. He stared back, uncomprehending for several seconds…just looking at her as the tears started once again. The shock was gone again, that lightning bolt of reason submerged by how good it felt to have someone, anyone, touch him. The impossibility was still there, stronger than ever, but he simply didn’t care and his face convulsed as a fresh sob shook him like a terrier does a rat.

Something about her voice though broke through the confusion that still roiled in his brain, provided a stable ground for what was currently a critical meltdown. Some of the madness retreated, starting as if from the places he was being touched (how was he feeling that?) and extending to his eyes. He tried to control his voice now as he responded, but he knew that it would take a special miracle if she even understood him. Gone was the concern that she shouldn’t learn about Gwyneth or Ondine, banished to the far reaches of his thoughts.

“I killed someone by blowing their brains out over a year ago. I got shot in the side at the same time. I could have held back, I could have stopped. Something broke then. Something changed. Gwyneth was there, suddenly, but she was only there for me. Nobody else. A month ago she died, vanished, for my sake because I was going to die. How did that make sense if, now Ondine is here? You can’t see her either, but she’s here and I can see and talk to her and she’s supposedly Gwyneth’s sister. But the explanation I got for why Gwyneth had to die doesn’t work out if Ondine is here. I’m close to crumbling and the rationality is gone and there are these thoughts that are coming from some place I can’t identify. There’s an edge that I’m about to go off of somewhere, maybe it’s my mind, maybe it’s my body, something, and I can’t do that because if I do that I…I’m doomed is how it feels. But I can’t even identify what that edge is, so how can I stop myself from going over it?”

The feeling returned with a sudden vengeance, and the sensation of hands on his shoulders vanished abruptly as he started to sob again. What had he just said? He could barely remember now for some reason, and it felt so important to remember it. Something…critical had just happened. But what? The pattern shifted and that stable ledge seemed to drop down even more…tilting…and he felt the slide happening, a wave bearing down on him and about to smash him into the oblivion. Inevitability moved like a freight train, as inexorable as the tide and as powerful as one of the legendary Elites that he had heard about. Something that promised only to destroy him unless he was able to ride that wave, but he couldn’t even understand what the wave meant, how it would attempt to annihilate who he was, let alone fight it, and agony wrenched at his face again.

“Takua-san...”

He could tell, barely, that she was getting confused by what he was saying. That wasn’t surprising. He’d just gone on a babble-spree from what he could tell, and the only person that might really make any sense to was himself. Without being him, she was going to be hopelessly lost, and he didn’t truly know what to fix. Well, for one, he should explain things…if he could get the hyperventilation under control

“I'm here.”

That could do it.

The Wavemaster froze the moment that he heard Kira’s voice, panic, instant and harsh, welled up inside of him. Not who he wanted to see right now, not when he was this weak and he’d told her that he’d be strong enough to endure Juk and he was falling apart at the seams. But she was there, his mind informed him, and there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. For that matter, where had either of them come from? Had they been…sleeping in the cathedral? He maintained enough mental balance to realize that he had just committed a massive intrusion of privacy, especially because of what he thought the two of them had relationship-wise. His mouth opened to apologize…and then Kira spoke up.

“Are Gwyneth and Ondine familiars of yours? Perhaps the spirits of someone deceased who was close to you?”

Shit.

He hadn’t told them about Gwyneth or Ondine and hadn’t meant to, and now there wasn’t much of a chance that he could avoid that. Well, some things had just started to move along in ways that he was definitely not prepared for, which was annoying. Perhaps he was starting to get a bit of his mental balance back if he could figure that out? He was quite pleased with himself for being able to deduce that…and then realized that if he was having trouble with that, his mental faculties were about the same as a five year old child. Maybe that was why his voice spilled out in a manner that was as controlled as it could possibly be while still being confused. It was the truth…as far as he knew anyways.

“I…shot and killed a guy in the Real World after he had shot me in the side. It was maybe a week later that Gwyneth first appeared, when I was…stressed out enough that I collapsed in my chair while playing The World and went to the hospital. She always explained herself as another person, someone else inside of me. A part of me that hadn’t been there before. That was…maybe a year ago. More. Just a month ago…things happened and she died. Or she just vanished, I’m not too clear on that. This morning, I dreamed…right before you found me Sekai, that she had left me a message about what really happened. I thought I had killed her, she said that it hadn’t happened that way. But she said that it was because my mind couldn’t handle her as well…and then, in the Templum Krake, Ondine appeared while I was exploring and said that she was Gwyneth’s sister.”

His words were going faster and slower, as if he weren’t in control of his own speech. He wasn’t, and the paranoia started to set in as well. The voice whispered that he shouldn’t be telling this to them at all. After all, he hadn’t told anyone because of what they might think if he spoke to people that weren’t ‘real’, and then he went off telling them. That wasn’t logical now was it? He should truly be shutting up right now, if he wanted to protect himself. Kira especially could use that information to her advantage now couldn’t she? He shoved the thoughts aside, but that required concentration…which meant that he was far less in control of his voice. He had heard Sekai’s low, soft gasp when he had told them that he had killed someone, had shot someone. Shit, she hadn’t known, only Kira had. Whoops.

“But if my mind couldn’t handle Gwyneth, than how come there’s a sister who comes out over a year later? They’re both supposed to be…either parts of me, or they’re things that only I can see, and talk to, and feel as well. But that explanation is wrong, has to be wrong. Because it doesn’t make any sense. I’m missing something, because that dream might well be a lie. So I lost Gwyneth and Ondine’s now here, and they’re both able to read my thoughts, and can take control of my body if they wish so. Hell, it happened in Juk while I was in the Mines. That’s nothing I can categorize and it makes no sense at all…”

Something was there. His eyes seemed to glow with an inner fire as he reached for the knowledge that was right in front of him, seemed to dance there. He knew, or should, and it was right on the tip of his tongue. What this was. But the moment passed, and he closed his eyes in pain. What was wrong? Why couldn’t he control himself right now? How many times had he…intruded upon both Kira and Sekai recently? Shouldn’t he be running, leaving, so that they could do what they needed to do? Like sleep?

He shivered…and tried to speak again in a more rational voice. One that belied how torn up he still was feeling…and how that feeling of shattering still remained inside of him. How could he get rid of that? How could he get through Juk with that still there? He didn’t trust his mouth though…and shut it. Only for it to open back up a second later with a sudden grin that didn’t match at all with how he looked or felt.

“Yes Ondine? Would you please stop standing on Kira’s head and get down from there, that’d be wonderful, because if I start laughing, I’m not going to stop, and someone’s going to want to kill me.”

The Wavemaster wanted to laugh when he saw Ondine’s hurt reaction as she stepped down from the head of the Long Arm, and even more so when he saw both of the girl’s reactions. The person that Kira sought was long gone by the time her hand flashed with power as it tried to hurt something that it just couldn’t touch. Ondine gave him a hurt expression and gave a pout that the wintery Long Arm couldn’t see. Still…as much as he wanted to laugh at it all, he couldn’t. Even the miniscule humor that he could feel wasn’t enough, not compared to what was going on in his head. Their admittedly good attempts to figure out what was wrong and calm him down were, he realized, helping a bit. There was a barrier now, something under him, a barrier between that long slide that promised madness or worse. Something that was getting stronger the longer he forced himself to remain calm…even though the absolute certainty that whatever it was that had driven him into his panic and fear wasn’t gone. It was simply waiting now, lurking and biding its time until he was more vulnerable to its suggestions and thoughts.

“There's more than one way to kill a spirit, I know several and am sure I can investigate several more. If this Ondine doesn't get the hint, I'll remember to seek her out later and make another example out of her the same way Nemera and I did of Saol.”

Kira had certainly tried to freeze Ondine, Takua knew from the flash of icy power that had come from her hand that it was a very good thing that nothing solid had been there. Hell, even her Familiar was powerful enough with Rue, and that was just the familiar. He didn’t particularly care to be hit with something from the former High Priestess of Ruem. That would, he thought, be a little painful. Sekai's expression had been more than a little humorous and he wanted to laugh but...he just couldn't. It was only a momentary diversion before his mind went right on back, ignoring her threatening statement entirely.

It was scary, he realized, to know that one’s mind could not be trusted. He rather wished that he could continue on as usual, but it wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t return to what he wanted it to be. The logical part of his brain was fine, he could think…but he couldn’t explain the rest of it. He did know that, as much as he had never intended for them to learn as much as they had, they had helped in some way. He winced again as he realized that he had interrupted what was undoubtedly sleep for them, or at least some alone time, and here he came bringing his troubles in again as he seemed to do so much recently? Had it really only been a week since they had first met? They’d seen each other practically…hell, how many times was it? Three times? Four times? Somewhere around there. Not bad when they were in The World and could have completely missed each other. Terrible because, each time, he’d freaked out because of Gan or something else. What, he thought with a weak smile, a shitty way to introduce yourself to someone.

“A common enough threat out of the likes of you, I have heard it myself at least seven times each time I see you.”

What he didn’t see, having his face down and concentrating on thinking, was a certain feline enter the room by coming out from one of the booths within the Cathedral. He heard the voice, it just didn’t truly penetrate to his head just yet. A swish of the tail, and that characteristic attitude that she owned the world and everyone else simply hadn't woken up to that fact yet accompanied the snow leopard.

“This is what happens when you young ones go without training for too long, well? I believe you are to be scratching my ears now, especially since I've come to this accursed place to find where you were at this time.”

“You might want to look up.”

He blinked as he did just that…and found Vesica staring him in the face. His eyes went wide as what she had said penetrated his brain. She butted her head into his shoulder and more or less instantly demanded that he pet her. His hand flicked out almost without his own volition and started to scratch right behind the ears. He looked back and forth between the three other people (if Vesica could be considered a person) and organized his thoughts. Much to his surprise, it was almost successful. There were several that were still out there causing chaos, but that was the best that he could say since he’d started the freak out.

“Oh…right.”

She had just commanded him to scratch her, he realized belatedly, and he’d done it without actually comprehending that she had said that. Just what did that mean, he wondered blankly. He also wanted to figure out just how this looked to Kira and Sekai, because it looked like Sekai wanted to know what the hell was going on for several reasons. Had she never met Vesica?

“I’d…err, ask you why the heck you’re here, but I think that’s fairly self evident.”

He moved his hand a little bit to refocus on the right ear, going for one spot that she had been particularly appreciative of in the past few days and he hoped she would be again. The claw against his leg had been noticed very early on.

“I don’t think she’s a spirit. I don’t know what either of them are, despite their claims, because I don’t think that it’s true. There’s no proof that they’re lying, but it’s just…different. Then…there’s that thing in my head that isn’t her, but that’s not a person. It’s just a…”

He struggled for a word to describe it fully, lapsing into silence for several seconds. His mind throbbed with heat as he tried to find it, a painful burning that refused to go away, as he tried to confront what he was running from and yet trying to fight.

“force, if you will. I know that it’s me…and yet it’s not at all. It whispers things that aren’t true to me as if they were, and I know they’re false. But there’s more behind that than just the whispers, it’s just not there yet.”

He relaxed slightly as he realized just how insane he must sound at the moment. He hardly understood how they were just listening to him babble like that. It must have sounded like he was a raving lunatic, especially because he wasn’t even sure what it was that he felt either.

“Anyways, I’m sure that I’ve taken enough of your time th…a…t….”

He tried to stand up…only to suddenly be aware of the blackness that was sweeping over him, blanketing him with darkness as his mind retreated. His form just fell over, toppling to the floor. From his mouth, incredibly soft snores could be heard…he’d fallen asleep in the real world, body exhausted as well as the mind, and sleep claimed him.

Takua winced as he slowly woke up, the sudden light hurting eyes that had become oversensitive as the tears had stayed in his eyes. Yeah, that was always a good reason not to cry before going to sleep, because it always sucked when one woke up. Then again, he didn’t even know why he’d broken down like that in the first place really, so it would have been hard to stop. Well, that wasn’t accurate. He knew why he was crying, but he didn’t truly know the source behind it and why he had been in such a panic. He couldn’t just dismiss it though. It was still there, lurking, as well as the absolute assurance that he had been right to panic. Yeah, the day wasn’t going very well and…wait. He wasn’t in Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground anymore. What had happened in the first place.

He twitched as he remembered, vaguely, passing out right in front of Sekai, Kira and Vesica. Oh…right. Vesica had gotten there. Which probably meant that he was now in her field. How ironic, he had planned to go there to sleep if he was going to, or at least visit her, and she’d been the one to find him. His head throbbed as if in the vise of a migraine or headache, and he tried to shake it out. Right, so he was probably inside of the cave where Vesica lived. So…where was the feline? Well, it’d probably help, he thought with a weak grin, if he actually opened his swollen eyes to take a look around now wouldn’t it? He winced as pain lanced through him, light not being the best thing that his eyes wanted to see right now. Shaking his head as he tried to figure out just what the hell was going on, he was able to successfully deduce that he was inside of the cave that served as Vesica’s home. After a moment of trying, he determined that he had, in fact, woken up enough to be able to move around, and tumbled from the rock (ice?) ledge that he’d been placed on.

Were he able to feel the thump as he hit the floor, it probably would have hurt considering the state that he was in. As it was, he simply staggered back upright and blinked several times to get his bearings inside of the cave. He couldn’t see Vesica still, so she probably wasn’t around…maybe outside of the cave? Waking up even more, he stabilized himself and started to walk over to the exit, looking at the long tunnel carved in solid rock and ice. It was, he thought to himself as he walked up through it, as if he were currently under a glacier. Maybe the creator (was it Kira?) had deliberately done that, or Vesica had added that as a personal touch. Or it was an accident. In any case, he squeezed his way out of the crack that led to the main part of the field itself, looking skyward to see the marvel of a snowstorm…complete with lightning. It was nice to know that he could always find a storm to give him a lot of lightning and thunder whenever he wanted…even if it was only virtual.

He wandered over the ledge, looking out over the field proper for the camouflaged snow leopard. She’d be nearly impossible to see in her home environment…something that she had no doubt used to great effectiveness in the past. He continued to stand, gazing out over the landscape…wondering.

Why did he feel like he was waking up from a long sleep? Like he was truly seeing something, or was about to, for the first time in years? Things that he had taken for granted were thrown into sudden, radical new light and he was forced to believe them or not. He had never…truly looked at his life. At what was going on to him, and what was happening all around him. Sure, he had asked questions, but it didn’t feel as if they were all the right ones. Now, slowly, he was asking them. Why did he feel this way in the first place? What was wrong with him to make him need to ask questions about his very existence, Ondine and Gwyneth? At least, he thought to himself, the panic had stopped…but why? Why had he panicked like he had…and why had the support of three people, two of which were AI, calmed him down?

None of this made sense. He had panicked…because he had been asking too many questions, because something was wrong in a way that had to do with the core of his being. Because, he realized, there was something within that core that didn’t belong, that was there and had been there…he just hadn’t been able to tell until now. He was no longer alone in the center of himself, but the thing that had joined him was nothing that he wanted, nothing that he knew. Maybe that unidentifiable fear had stemmed from worrying about losing who he was, or just for as simple a reason as the fear of something encroaching upon himself. The edges were clear. Paranoia was the only one that sprang to mind at the moment…but was Ondine and Gwyneth part of that as well? It only made sense given what they were and what they could do. What else? His vision had inverted in Gan, and for the days following it…but now that he really thought about it, he couldn’t truly remember taking the trip to a doctor’s office that he thought that he had.

So…now he couldn’t remember things that he had done, or had remembered something that he hadn’t. That was worrisome. His sense of vision and hearing had been preternaturally keen inside of Juk, to the point that it had hurt him. That wasn’t good either, some kind of senses overload. He couldn’t come up with anything else at the moment, which was good…but the list that he had so far was bad enough on its own. How much more was there that he couldn’t remember or wasn’t thinking of at the moment? He shuddered for a moment involuntarily…and got another one. He could feel Sekai’s hands on him, even though that was impossible. He could have understood that had they still been in Juk, but not in Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground.

“Are you feeling better boy?”

There she was. Right behind him. Go figure. He smiled and turned around to face her, not even trying to banish the anxiety from his eyes. She’d have known that he was lying in the first place, and it wouldn’t be good to tell a lie that everyone knew was a lie. To his own surprise, his voice was calm and level when it finally came out. He’d rather expected it to still be shaky, but it wasn’t. It was revolting how much a few hours of sleep had done for him.

“Not really. I won’t be until I figure out what’s wrong in the first place, and then take steps to fix it.”

There was nothing from the feline as she padded up to the boy, none-to-softly nudging her head under his hand. There was a soft chuckle as he picked up where he had left off belatedly before, scratching as best as he could without actually either being able to feel it or control his hands perfectly. He was content to just do that for a minute while his mind took off, trying to figure out what it was. He wanted to say that this was a disease of some kind, one that he knew…and couldn’t remember. All of the parts fit with a pattern that he could see, but the whole picture wasn’t readily apparent. Maybe he just hadn’t spotted what would clinch it for him yet. He sighed, wondering why, and when, his life had turned into such a complicated mess.

That was when an idea popped into his head. Sure, it might not be the most intelligent one that he ever had, but hell, it promised to be fun…and he might be able to avoid getting parts of his body embedded in solid ice this time.

“Hey Vesica, wanna fight with me again?”

There was no change in her posture or facial expressions, and for a second or two he thought that she hadn’t heard him. Then she leaned casually across him to the other hand…and promptly sunk her teeth into it. Now he saw the expression of someone so freaking smug that it was liberally oozing out of their pores. As his arm started to ice over entirely, that damn liquid in her teeth rendering one arm immobile, she spoke with an infinite amount of glee in her voice.

“Let’s begin.”

There were several, rather sudden curses about felines and one particular one that had just earned his ire that burst from his lips. That only brought a bigger smile from her, one that just infuriated him like no other. God damn every thought he had about going easy on her just flew out of the window. He’d either have to find the real High Priestess, someone by the name of Onida if he remembered correctly, or Kira would get yet another chance to laugh her ass off at him. Son of a bitch. At least it wasn’t the one that held he freaking wand…and he had to remember to never challenge Vesica to a duel unless he was well away from her and was sure that she couldn’t DO that. Oh my god he wanted to kick her ass suddenly.

He cast Ap Do upon himself instantly, knowing that he’d need the burst of speed in order to keep up with her even slightly. She was fast and he knew it. After a moment, he dug out the Firedrake Bone, making sure that his Stormlord Rod was ready to be pulled out at a moments notice. She was Rue, which meant that his Vak would be useful against her. Unfortunately, she was also incredibly dangerous with her own Rue…and he hadn’t even really seen any spells out of her. Unless one counted her final phase, and that giant ice spike that had nearly pegged him to the wall. Granted, he was thirteen levels higher now, but he somehow didn’t think that it was going to be much easier. A final thought struck him even as she practically vanished from his sight, her speed allowing her to run circles around him.

Was a Familiar’s power linked directly to her High Priestess?

It would be interesting. He wasn’t sure what had gone on before, but Kira hadn’t been able to solidify herself more than six times before when he first met her after Gan. Between then and now, she had solidified herself several more times than the simple six she claimed to be able to do. So her power had obviously gone up…but did that mean that Vesica’s would go up as well? That was an odd thought, and one that he’d have to pursue in the future.

He was a little bit more trained this time, so he could actually follow where she was…but it still wasn’t going to be pretty. Again, he’d have to wait for her to come and attack him, not the other way around. That was annoying, because he was used to being able to attack, not waiting for the other person to do so. Plus, he was a Wavemaster, which meant that taking a hit was not what they were meant to do. Well…actually, now that he thought about it, could he hit her? He could, barely, see her. If he used a BiVak Kruz…the chances of her dodging were good, but she’d likely attack him directly afterwards. That would let him take an opening. He could also use a BiVak Rom to limit where she could go, if he was willing to take that risk. He fidgeted…and in that moment, she attacked. He caught a small glimpse of her turning before a huge feline barreled into him, claws reaching out even as he dropped to the ground, casting a BiVak Rom on the area that he thought she would land in. He didn’t totally escape damage, long hard nails scoring down his back as she whirled around. She had, however, landed directly in the fire tornado that swirled around, incinerating the ground and her fur. It was only half done though when she took off again…and escaped the BiVak Kruz that he had cast to nail her while she couldn’t get out.

Perhaps it was only because it had lightly hit him, but his back didn’t freeze over. Sure, the parts that had been hit fell out as little chunks of ice, but the whole torso didn’t turn into Iceman. On the other hand, she looked like she’d gotten fried…which implied that he was now more powerful than her, rather than the other way around. Yes, he was going to enjoy that, especially with how the next spell was going to go. He switched wands out for a different one as the cat rushed up and began swiping at him, forcing him to back up repeatedly as he plotted his strategy. The first part of it was rather simple, just a regular Rai Rom. The electric tornado burst on top of the snow leopard as she darted away, but only for a moment. It had just ended when she came springing back…into the Vulcan Ch that the Wavemaster had summoned only a moment before.

The burning phoenix clashed in the middle of the air with Vesica, spitting her out the other side of the explosion and causing her to bounce on the ground away from the Wavemaster. Takua abruptly pulled up as he registered her condition…the burnt skin, how heavily she was breathing…how much damage she seemed to have taken. Perhaps he had been taking that just a bit too seriously? Shit. He took a few steps forward, preparing to apologize, when ice slicked over every injured area on her body. His eyes went wide and he backpeddled, understanding what he was up against now. No, she still definitely wasn’t weak. Shit. Even if she was slower, with that much ice on her body acting as both a shield and muscle, her hits were a shit ton harder. His SP hadn’t suffered that much, which was a good thing. Now she was slower than him though, which meant that he could get the hell away from her. He did know how to get past this stage of the fight though, even if most people didn’t. He flipped out the Great Elite and smiled slightly. He didn’t want her to take an elemental critical and die after all, and it was fun using the Lanceor Ch on the staff.

That summon charged forward, a woman carrying a battleaxe bigger than her own body. Granted that she was less than six feet long and the whole battleaxe, including the shaft, reached that height, so it wasn’t really that impressive…but still. Its real power though rested in the electric bolts and lines of force that swirled around the metal head, crackling with power as it head directly for Vesica. She snarled and took it head on, putting a claw straight through the summon’s chest. It didn’t break apart and explode as a level one summon would have though, it held on to its form long enough to swing the massive weapon through the armor that Vesica wore around her, causing it to explode like it had last time…although, unlike last time, Takua was pressed firmly into the ground and was behind the hill when bolts of ice flew off into the sky.

That did mean though that her next power was active. Something that meant that he was nowhere near safe where he was on the other side of the hill. That point was proven when a spike of ice as long as his forearm blew past his head as he stood up. His eyes widened as he took in the cat who wasn’t just sitting, but charging at him with a great orb of ice forming in her mouth again. Casting a desperate GiRai Don at her while switching to another staff, he hoped that she wouldn’t get another shot off.

He was wrong of course, but she had to stop long enough to put the glimmering white bolt through his stomach that his spell was able to hit her. Three lightning bolts went home as he healed himself with a Repth, although he was sure while he was doing so that she just had to be ready to kill him in a moment. Thankfully the ice nail that was nearly a foot long did magical damage, which was the only reason he was still alive. He got up, health still a lot lower than he liked…to find Vesica twitching on the ground. Now he was worried. She hadn’t ever twitched like that before…even though she had stopped the fight before she was truly defeated. Like she was doing now. The feline staggered upright, a snarl on her face from being defeated…even though she was obviously happy to have gotten the fight in the first place. Like master, like familiar apparently. His left arm was still completely frozen over, which meant that he had to figure out how to get rid of it. After a moment of switching armor, he hit them both with two La Repths in order to get their health back up to maximum, or at least close enough to max. At least he hadn’t killed her with that spell. He wanted to believe that it would take significantly more damage to do her in, but with how she looked…he couldn’t really believe that.

“You could have waited until during the fight to try and freeze my arm dammit. Getting me while I was still scratching you behind the ears was a cheap trick.”

Oh, and that smug look came back in a flash, a blatant teasing grin that even fit a feline spreading across her features. She looked like she was about to freaking preen for a moment before she replied.

“You’re the one who suggested to have a match, I simply chose when to start.”

At least she didn’t seem pissed for someone on the verge of death, at least if he was looking at her and gauging her health correctly. Bleh, that was annoying. He couldn’t really tell just how much health she had left, or if she was actually in danger of dying at the moment. She didn’t seem ready to kick his ass because she was near death…was that just the way she was or because she wasn’t really close to dying.

“Yes, yes you did. Now would you mind getting this ice off of me? I had Kira do it last time, but I don’t really think that she’d like to see me again so soon after…”

He trailed off, remembering what he had thought. He was intruding way to much into her and Sekai’s space recently, and it was…something that he shouldn’t do. Especially since they had been fucking sleeping beforehand. And then he’d freaked out right in front of them…and told them about Gwyneth and Ondine. That was something that he hadn’t been prepared to tell anymore, but he’d done it anyways. Not something that he’d wanted to happen, but it had, and he couldn’t really undo that anymore now could he? Hell, he was sorry that Vesica had come out there…why had she come out anyways? Had Kira called her or was she just wandering around looking for him?

“I’m sorry for making you three see that. I just…panicked, badly. Maybe if I knew what was going on, I’d have been able to stop it. I’ve been a wreck lately, but I don’t even know where this is coming from.”

There was a moment’s silence as the snow leopard drew closer, nuzzling the ice for a few seconds before she backed up and looked at him fully in the eyes. There was just a bit of irritation with him in those orbs of her own, chilly winter-blue staring into his own.

“Don’t apologize boy. Everyone has their moments when they are weak. It may be true that you should be stronger, but if you’re lost and are frightened, the natural reaction to have is to panic.”

She didn’t get rid of the ice if she was able to though, but a smile regained command of her face, along with a rather…sadistic looking smirk.

“Now why would I want to take the ice off? It looks good on you. I’m actually tempted to put it on your other arm as well and send you off to Kira.”

Her voice suddenly changed to something that way perfectly innocent…were it not for the mischievous gleam in her eyes or the way her right paw extended its claws outward, a few inches of something that he definitely didn’t want in his body touching his leg.

“You know you want to scratch me behind the ears.”

He laughed, but he made sure that his good hand was a safe distance from Vesica’s mouth or claws anyways. Unfortunately for her, he was quite serious about getting the ice off…before Kira saw it on him. Before he went back into Mac Anu for a little talk he was going to have to have with Centrus. He needed to get a promise from him, one that would ensure that things, even if they went to their worst logical conclusion, would be fine. But he didn’t have time to search for Onida, wherever she was, and he didn’t want to bug Kira again. Plus…if he were Immersed with that kind of an injury on him, assuming he didn’t have enough time to naturally heal, he’d be in incredible pain throughout the dungeon proper.

“I’ll pass on scratching you for a bit. But I really do need you to remove the ice…if you can. I can’t go to Kira for this one. Not this time.”

She looked at him oddly for a moment before her eyes narrowed and locked on his body. Her head tilted though, an obvious demand for him to continue, to explain why he needed it now, and why he couldn’t go to Kira. He fidgeted for a moment, but steeled himself and started to talk.

“The next time I see her, I’ll be going back into a dungeon where…some really bad things are likely to happen. I need my arm unfrozen before I go back to Mac Anu. I’ve already had her do it once, and I’ve been such a pest recently she deserves a break. She might not care, I do. Plus, if I go to Kira, I’d have to feel the burn on my arm when we’re in the dungeon. If you have a different way since you made it, I was hoping you could use it. If not…it’s another few minutes or hours where my arm can heal. I can’t search for Onida to shatter the ice either, because I don’t know when I’m going back to that field.”

There was nothing at all for a minute, just the two of them staring at each other. It looked as if she were evaluating everything that he had said…and what he hadn’t said as well. Finally, she spoke, completely serious.

“What is this dungeon that will make you feel things in my world, and what bad things are going to happen inside of it?”

He sighed, looking for a way to keep it as short and sweet as possible so that he wouldn’t have to go into a long discussion with her about it. He picked his words carefully and attempted to get the maximum effect out of them that he could.

“There are a series of fields with a substance called Dread Code within them. This code will make those outside of The World think that they are inside of it until they either leave the field or go beneath the minimum concentration needed to put them in this game. However, if you are touched by this Dread Code, there is a chance that you will be put into a coma and reside permanently in this world. The makers of these fields are evil and sadistic, and so a group of us, including Sekai and Kira, are attempting to stop them.”

This time there was no hesitation at all from the snow leopard. Whether it was devotion to her master or finally gaining an understanding of why he needed the ice off of his arm, she gently blew on the ice…and all across his arm, the solid water began to liquefy. Within seconds, all of the ice had dropped to the ground as a liquid, and his arm was free once again. There was a brief nod of thanks before he turned towards the exit that he could use to gate out of the area. He hadn’t taken a step, however, before he turned around and looked at Vesica.

“There is a chance, however small, that the next time you see me I will be in your world. Before I go though, I have a question. Why did you say that I held both the scents of a man and of a woman the last time I was here?”

While the first sentence was met with a nod, the second only with a confused look that signaled that something was very, very wrong. He hadn’t begun to identify what it might have been when the snow leopard spoke again, and even if he couldn’t actually see it, there was the mental image of someone with a raised eyebrow in front of him.

“I never said such a thing. Does the cub need to have his ears checked?”

The Wavemaster stared at her in shock, almost unable to believe that. She had to be lying. He’d spent far too much time thinking about that for it to have never been said. He wanted to say that she was lying…but he hadn’t caught her in a lie yet, and she was too confused for it to be anything but the truth. But she was lying, said the voice inside of him, she had to be. Who did he have to trust but himself? She was a familiar, no less than Kira’s familiar, and thus was untrustworthy. Dismissing the thought, he shook his head and walked away.

“Hey!”

He glanced back at the snow leopard, the question lining in his eyes as she remained on the snow covered hilltop they had fought next to.

“If you don’t come back here after you’re done with this field, you’ll be turned from a Wavemaster into a Human Iceblock and stuck in the wall somewhere. Just a thought that you would do wise to pay attention to.”

He grinned at her ‘humor’ before he warped away. After a few seconds, he touched the ground in the field where the temple stood. He spared it only a glance, knowing what had gone on inside was important to him…because it has fully aligned him and because it was where he had met Vesica, who was fast becoming a friend to him. But he had work to do, and there would be a talk he wouldn’t like to have coming up very quickly, assuming that Centrus was still around in Mac Anu.

There. It was vague, but communicated what he needed to talk about. If anyone tried to intercept that, they wouldn’t know a thing…which was entirely the point. With any luck at all, he’d understand the urgent tone and respond shortly enough. While he waited for a reply, he warped into the Root Town itself. He didn’t know how much time was left before Gyl finished setting himself up and rallied them all, but he knew that he had to be ready, and done with this business, before then.

Of course, he had only just warped in when the sound of a waiting flashmail pinged softly in his ear.

Well, go figure. All he needed to do was wait here at the chaos gate for a little bit. He casually leaned against the wall and waited for his Fist Fighter friend to arrive. It shouldn’t take that long.

Centrus approached, ignoring warnings from the bird chirping in his ear. Tak was on a mission, and even if Az smelled trouble, the silver-haired boy could do little else than welcome him. He extended a hand to the Wavemaster, offering a handshake that would be turned into a hug.

“Don't suppose this is a public conversation, is it? Perhaps we should move somewhere a bit more...secluded?”

Takua smiled swiftly, glad that he had picked up on the message that he had tried to convey. He took the handshake instantly, more than a little aware that he was gripping it a little tighter than he should have. Well, that was a dead giveaway of his mental state.

"By all means, your choice too."

The Fist Fighter let out a light chuckle. Takua raised his eyebrow. He was in for it apparently, because that never meant anything good. He’d learned very early on that there were times when Cent was amused that you did not want him to be amused. This was probably going to be one of them…especially with the next words out of his mouth.

“You'll regret saying that. Raise your hand for me, and start saying things that sound like Keywords?”

Takua looked at him strangely. He was going to recite keywords…and Centrus was going to do what? This, he decided, was going to be quite interesting.

"Alright...I suppose. Ready when you are."

“Go.”

He picked three entirely random keywords out of a hat, or literally, just randomly sprayed out nonsense that he couldn’t even remember after he’d said it. It, obviously, had something to do with how they were getting to a safe place.

As the words left the Wavemaster's mouth, the small piece of paper that had been tucked inside Centrus's hands was quickly brought to his mouth. He licked it, smacking it against his friend's forehead. The paper faded, leaving only a kanji on the player's noggin. As Cent applied pressure there, he also used his left arm to touch the matching kanji on the right sleeve of his shirt. The three golden rings descended as they would if they were headed to a field, but it just looked as if someone had been messing with their party member as they Gated Out. When they were dropped, however, things were not as one might expect.

They landed on the rooftops of Mac Anu, a specially designed area hidden to any of those without the key program embedded in their character data as a tattoo or mark of some kind.

“Best use of temporary tattoos EVER.”

To say that the Wavemaster was surprised was like saying that the sun was bright. He blinked repeatedly at his surroundings as he tried to make sense of what had just happened...and decided to just give up. Sometimes, Centrus just had a little too much fun. But hey, there wasn't really anything wrong with that at all. He could agree, and would have been laughing his ass off right then if it weren't for the fact that he needed to talk. As it was, he just gave a few light chuckles.

"How many people have you done that to? I imagine that they were considerably surprised, just like I was. Asshole."

His words were delivered with a grin and a smile though, completely undercutting any seriousness at all. The next words that the Fist Fighter spoke, on the other hand, were definitely not humorous.

“Actually, no one. What goes on up here could get me banned.”

He seemed to be arguing with himself for a moment, muttering to someone to shut up before he clipped their wings.

“Sorry. Up here's where the magic happens. I brought you here because I can count the number of people who know about this place on my fingers, and there isn't a one of them I don't trust. We're safe here.”

That was...a relief. The mood dampened instantly at that, even though he was wondering why the Fist Fighter was talking about clipping someone's feathers. He shook his head and closed his eyes for a second. He had a few things to say, and one thing to request above all else.

"Good. We finished with the field portion of Juk, but Gyl had to run to get away from offline agents and we warped out to wait for him, so the dungeon, and the Juk Incarnation, are still there for us to go through. We lost two other people to disconnects forced by the Highers' hackers. I'm going back as soon as Gyl gets set back up...which is why I called you here. I have a request, one that you can say no to if you wish, but I've done the math and know there's a good chance I'm not coming out of this one."

He took a breath, forcing himself to finish it. He had to. There had to be someone who was prepared to deal with what might happen. He didn’t like saying this, as if it would cause this to happen no matter what…but there really wasn’t any other choice for him. Not when he was unsure of how his parents or Gillian would react, and his…best bet would be to have Centrus do this. The boy knew what could happen, would know why it was going to happen, and would be able to handle it. Hopefully.

"If I don't contact you...five hours after I go back in, can you check in on me to see if I've fallen into a Coma?"

For once, a serious face found itself marking the Fist Fighter. He nodded, slowly. he pointed over at a pond that rested on the rooftops.

“Over there, in the pond, there's a Minnow monster. Want to grab it for me? Careful, it bites.”

Well, that was his big request that he needed to ask. The next sentence though, had a puzzled look crossing his face. Why the hell did he need to go grab a minnow from the pond? Well, whatever floated Centrus’ metaphorical boat.

"Okay?"

He walked over to where the pond was and looking into the water. Ah, there it was. He said it bites people...well, there was nothing wrong with simply sticking his finger in for the fish to chomp down on. Turning around, he walked back with a fish using its teeth like a vise on his digit.

"Next?"

“Notice that it only did one damage? It's a level 0 monster. I ask you, why program a level 0 monster?”

Takua was understandably confused. Why would they put in a level zero monster, a minnow nonetheless, in The World? He didn’t really have an answer for his friend, but he put out what he had, however wrong it might be.

"Besides for decoration? I don't know...because it serves another purpose?"

“Even the smallest of soldiers can make a difference in the war.”

Centrus took off the minnow and chucked it into the pond again, his eyes meeting the Wavemaster’s own. Well, that did make sense. It also showed the boy just how his friend felt about his request…which was definitely something that he had wanted to hear.

“My old friend, if I don't hear from you, or happen to hear from Sidhe, Nemera, or Gyl, I'll take care of you. Back There You, I mean. Leave it all to me."

There was a small nod, and a few more things to take care of. After all…he hadn’t been that good about talking about what had gone on during that week after Gan. He’d been to busy either in The World or avoiding people to avoid the memory of being a Dread Code Vampire. So he might not have mentioned to Ian a few important things…like where he was living now. Something that just might be a little vital to making sure he was okay.

"Thanks. You know that I'm living with Gillian now? She should still remember you if she's home. If not, just let yourself in. I'm hoping that I'll be able to call and say that I'm fine and come to school as usual, but...I can't control what'll happen, and so I need to make sure that my body will be fine if I don't make it back to the real world. It should only be another hour or so until I go back, so it'd be in the middle of the night by the time we finish I think. Maybe we'll go back tomorrow...we'll see. I'll let you know when I go back, whenever it happens."

Centrus smiled. That wasn’t good…he’d gone from silly to serious and back already.

If you do go down, like Raven, I'll make sure they get the second IV in you, too."

That got him to pause. Second IV?

"...what second IV?"

“One for the solution, one for the Pepsi. Even comatose, your body needs it to function.”

That earned a grin. Asshole that he was, that was still funny as hell. Heck, he might even get to taste or feel the caffine flowing through his body…

"Aww, gee, thanks. I'll be sure to remember that. Well...that's all I really needed to tell you. If you don't have anything else...goodbye for now and I hope to see you in again in real life?"

“Well then, let's get you out of here.”

Licking his palm, the Fist Fighter slapped it against Takua's forehead. The three golden rings descended around them, sweeping them back to the Chaos Gate. Takua blinked once or twice as the suddenness of the transition. That was convenient…when did he get that power anyways?

“Before you ask, no, I didn't have to lick my hand that time. I just wanted to humiliate you. Have fun, kiddo.”

…oh that asshole. The boy scowled, not exactly amused…and yet he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from turning upwards. That was right before the seriousness of the situation crashed back down on him. Here he was…joking and laughing with a friend who wanted to be with him in Juk but couldn’t. All because of a few hackers who had gotten a hold of the internet connection and booted him. That…couldn’t have been going over very well for the boy. And there went his friend into the jaws of the dungeon while he was forced to remain outside and hope that Takua didn’t fall into a coma.

"...I am so going to get you back for that some day in the future. Just you wait. And I'm going to ignore the fifteen other times that I've said that as well, I'll do it this time!"

“I patiently await the day.”

One foot slid behind the other as a hand extended outward, sweeping in one majestic motion as the silver-haired boy took a bow.

“Now go on. You know how impatient she gets.”

Takua smiled one last time, but it was much more of a sad smile. He wasn’t sure what the future held for him, what with the feeling within himself and the promises of whatever horrors Juk held for them all. He closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them while fighting off a few sudden, stray tears. Damn his emotions for fucking with him at all times.

"Alright...and whatever happens? Take care of yourself Ian."

“You too, jerkface.”

The Wavemaster turned and walked away from his friend, retreating to the main bridge so that he could stare out over the water. He couldn’t tell what was going to happen any more than anyone else in the Eventide Crescendo could, perhaps even less so because of the chaos within himself. He wasn’t sure when it had started, but it was undeniably there at a time when he needed to be able to think. His hand tightened on the side of the bridge, knowing that, this time tomorrow, he’d either be able to feel it, or as he was currently. But he couldn’t know what would happen in Juk. Both with his mind and what he could feel moving closer to him, and what they would all find inside of a dungeon that would likely be more twisted than Gan was.

Ondine was next to him again, he realized, but he didn’t turn to look at her. Not now. Too much was in a flux, and he felt powerless over his own destiny again. He hadn’t felt like that since he had killed someone, and on that night things had felt out of control, a car on black ice. Out of control and headed for a crash. Yet he’d allowed things to remain in motion that would likely end with too much blood and horror, and just a bit of sorrow. Now, he waited for the flashmail that would send him onto a field that promised more than just another weapon against the Highers and a weakening of their arsenal. At the same time, there was the knowledge that something was going to be…so different this time from the last.

How different it was going to be, he couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Takua: 2 Levels, Artisan's Soul, 2 Mage's Soul

Note: After being given all the light equipment of your level in your previous quest, and given that you have no weapons for your class from 30-33 without them being rare, the Artisan's Soul is to help ease that a bit. You're in a bit of an interesting situation on that, so I apologize. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me a response or get a hold of me another way.