And as I watch the embers of life fade,
I realize all I know is jaded,
as I watch my life pass me by,
all I can do is wonder why...

As I see dreams best left unseen,
I want to cry out and scream,
from the horror, the pain, the misery,
of not knowing anything.

I struggle to keep the flames burning,
as the shadows around me are turning,
just waiting to close in, and steal me away,
to a place I know nothing of, where I hold no sway.

I'm swept up in a tide I can't see,
and the path I find is awfully lonely,
my mind is lost, all around it's night...
and I know I'm a toy for someone's delight.

Birth - Chapter 1

A heartbeat. Beating slowly. Slower. Slowing... I can't even tell if it's real anymore. There's blood. It's barely moving. It's slowing too. I feel pain. Pain all around me. I can't breath. Something's wrapped around my neck. I can't breath... I'm going to die. I don't want to die! I love my life! I don't want to die!!!

"Heh. This one will be perfect. Cut the cord." Snip. I'm blind. My eyes hurt, I can't help myself, I'm crying. I still can't breathe, even though the wrapping is gone. Smack. Heat flares through my rear, and a burst of air surges into my lungs.. painful air. It feels so... dry. I can't do anything, I wail. It's solved my probelsm before. My eyes open, and I still can't see. It's too bright, too painful, but I can't close my eyes. It's beautiful, the light. Where am I? Where is the warm darkness? Why am I breathing this way? Things are starting to show in the light... really big, weird things. Are those what I see with? Yes... they have eyes too, and they're looking down at me... I want to go home. I don't like the aliens.

* * *

"Hymna, you'll be late for work if you just sleep all day." I open one eye, staring over the edge of the plumped pillow and across the room at mother. What was that bizarre dream? "Get up sleepyhead." Ah geez... I hate mornings... I groan as the other eye opens now... the light sure is bright this morning. I sit up in bed, holding the covers to my chest as I raise my other hand to cover my mouth. Yep... it's definitely Monday. I watch Mother leave the room, and sigh. I hate Mondays. Who doesn't? I slide out of bed, leaving the covers there of course, and stand in my black satin bra and panties.. mother would have a fit if she knew I was going out buying lingerie already. Not that it does me any good. To the mirror!

I step in front of the mirror on my door, frowning as I look into the pools of my reflection's dark purple eyes. Weird eyes. I hate my eyes. I stand about... hmm... last time I checked it was about five feet and six inches. Yep, I'm a shorty. I've got somewhat dark skin, not too bad really, and I've got really cool red hair, not too long. The stuff sticks out everywhere, and I like to spike it with gel when it's wet. Of course, my parents absolutely detest it. I've filled out in all the right places, otherwise I'm trim and it's pretty obvious I take care of myself. So why don't I have a boyfriend? It might be because of these... I hold up my arms, rubbing the scarred wrists and sighing softly. Nah, I never tried to kill myself. Though I'm tempted sometimes... it all seems so futile ya know? Anyway, sometime a few years back, right about when I started having the dreams, these weird scars formed on my wrists, my neck, and my cheeks... and the cleavage of my breasts.

They're patterns, though I don't know what to make of them. The ones around my wrists look like I've been wearing some kind of... thorn bracelets or something. Around my neck is just a solid band of crimson red, like I have some icky, disgusting rash... My cheeks? Two mirror imaged lightning bolts, from my ear down to my chin. As for my chest... I can't help but sigh. It looks like the same lightning bolts, but they're so thin, it looks like someone went at my chest with a ragged knife. Hell, I wouldn't date me. The doctors don't know where they came from. They don't hurt... well, for the most part. Ah well, enough about this crap. I've got to get ready for work... drown my sorrows in boring routine.

I head to the closet, sifting through my clothes. I always pick my clothes out before getting into the shower. The less people see of my scars, mother included, the better I feel. T-shirt, blue jeans, and... aw damn. I can't wear a scarf, it's not cold outside anymore. I'll have to wear the collar with the bell... I'd much rather be picked on for what I'm wearing than what I am. As I reach down to grab my boots, I realize the other scars, the few I tend to forget about... yeah, on my shins are three red slashes, evenly spaced by about four inches. As though some monster clawed me. And around my ankles are two stars. All of the marks are precise. I'd think someone played some horrible prank on me if they hadn't been with me for the past three years.

Anyway, I grab my boots, a pair of simple white socks, and some simple white panties and a lacy white bra for today. It's kind of awkward trying to carry all of this to the bathroom, but I manage, only to realize I forgot the gloves and spiked bracelets. Back to the bedroom. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. My bedroom's really really simple. It's really small, because I'm supposed to move out soon, so I got the smaller bedroom in the house. I've got a bunkbed, a desk with my computer on it, CDs all over the place, a small TV on a stand, my closet, a bookcase, and a single dresser. Most of my books are about games and the net. They're my specialty, after all. I'm a game tester. One of those jobs where nobody really needs to know you.

So back to the shower. I step into the small bathroom, and lock the door behind me. I set my clothes in the sink, because it's dry right now, and the spiked bracelets and gloves join them. I like being clean, but showering is always an ordeal. I step into the shower, taking a deep breath as I grab a small towel, and pull the curtain closed. I grab the showerhead, turning it away from myself as I reach for the nozzle... Oh god, I'm such a goofball. I drop the showerhead, reach behind my back, and unclasp the black bra, tossing it over the curtain. I take a moment to admire my full breasts, and the fact that it's very cold this morning. Oye. I step out of my panties and toss those over as well. I like the neat look, but I kind of wish I grew some body hair somewhere other than just the top of my head. Being hairless kind of makes me feel like a little kid. Though you'll never catch me telling anyone that! Just a little V or something might be nice... oh well. Whatever. I turn the nozzle, and quickly grab the thrashing, enraged showerhead before water gets everywhere.

Now, why is showering an ordeal? Because I have to do it very carefully unless I want to end up in pain. The water is the one thing that sets off flares on my scars. It's like someone's rubbing acid on them. I don't get burned or anything, but it hurts like a real bitch. Why? Don't ask me, I don't know how I got them in the first place. Anyway, I carefully soak the towel with the water facing away from me, then quickly run the water over myself in a rinse... and I can't help but wince against the sudden urge to cry as soon as the water touches my breasts. Not only is there the usual agony of the goddamned curses on my body, but I left the water too fucking hot! Quickly I turn the ater away, needing a moment to catch my breath, blinking rapidly. I turn the nozzle a little bit to the right with my free hand, and sigh softly. Here we go again.

Oh yeah, that's another thing, and very annoying too. They seem to soak up water. I don't mean they get puffy or something... ewww... but the water doesn't sit on them like it does the rest of one's skin. It sort of sinks in, and then it's gone. I guess that's helpful, because I'm not very thirsty very often, but obviously, it's freaky as hell. I asked the doctors if I was a mutant. They didn't find any radiation around our home... A quick rinse and wince, then I can run the soapy towel over my body... which oddly enough doesn't burn like the clean water does. I should just see if I can get the water to automatically be soapy, but how would I rinse then? Ah well... gotta get under the breasts.. every nook and cranny... I run the towel along my legs as I sigh again. Rinse, and complete. I pull the curtain aside, wishing I could start just one morning without it sucking ass.

Panties equipped, bra on, shirt applied, obviously I get dressed. The T-shirt's a little too tight but it'll do. The collar's too small, but maybe people will think the red outline is chafing or something. I look at myself in the mirror, scowl, and strap on the bracelets. I grab my dark blue, sparkly toothbrush, the whitening toothpaste, and get to work maintaining my perfect little smile. Why do I bother? I don't know, plaque tastes icky. To my room, to grab my bookbag, CD player, keys, wallet, and of course, the skate attachments to my boots. "Bye Mom!" I call out as I run out the door. The CD player is in my right hip pocket, the keys and the wallet on the left. The skates are attached to my boots as I look up and down the street. I hate the city. It stinks and it's so noisy... that's why I turn my headphones up to the max, and blot out the noise with my own, before skating down the street and through the crowd.

It's so hard to ignore the stares sometimes. I swear, I'm this close to unleashing my Tae Know Do on the next kid that points at me. Across the street when the signal says we can walk... I'm heading to the lab where I work at. They like to have us work in one general area. So they can make sure they're not wasting money on us. As if I had anything better to do than lose myself. Today I'm supposed to be testing one of our new virtual reality simulator types. Along with a few friends of course, we can't test out the chat lines and party formations with only one player. Ah, here's the place. A boring looking tall white building, about 5 stories. I skate up to the door, then fish in my wallet for my access card... Hymna Marnetta, age twenty-one. Our identification cards. Hey, we don't want just anyone waltzing in and destroying our work. There's a soft click, then the door opens, and I skate inside, closing out the commotion of the rest of the world as I powerdown the headphones.

The first floor is for hardware. I've never even been in the department, because right next to the door is the stairs, and my floor's the third floor. Never been past it, never bothered with the other floors. So I take off my skates... I don't need to be reminded of the time I almost busted my ass falling down the stairs... and I head up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Second floor, Third floor, my door. Oh, there's another reason I haven't bothered with the other floors. We need ID cards for these doors too. I swipe it through the scanner, and the door opens a moment later, with that same click. Really, I don't know why the security is so uptight. A few people look up as I enter, then look right back to their work. It's just Scarface, after all. I take a deep breath, and try to keep the little bit of dignity I've got as I cross the first room, where all the computer game testers are. That is, standard keyboard, monitor, CPU games. Not my department, though I've tested a few of those.

If I recall correctly, this is the last day of testing the VR unit before we unleash it on the net. The next room is filled with computers and five large virtual reality units... really, the final unit's not going to be anything more than a pair of goggles that make you look like Cyclops out of the X-men, but we use really large units for our testing, just so that glitches are easier to find and because we don't need to worry about needing to quickly jack out to answer the phone or something. The computer guys handle that stuff. We just play all day, testing out features, really. Jack, Krynn, Taylor, and Daisy are already jacked in, the entire VR unit sealed around them. They're a pretty nifty metallic purple, and you can see where they split apart.. it's a little unnerving though, being trapped in these things, but you get used to it. I must be late...

"Hymna, why are you late?" I look over my shoulder as I set the backpack next to my VR unit.. oye, the boss noticed. I stand up and shrug slightly.

"Ha ha... umm.. traffic?" I say weakly. Geez, I could have made something up. My stomach growls, and I wince. It's not going to be a good day. Dr. Jackson just gives me this look, like I'm scum. If I wasn't so good at gaming I think I'd be fired. He points to the VR Unit, and I take my boots off, and promptly duck in, closing my eyes as the unit seals behind me, enveloping me in purple metal and shrouding me in complete darkness. I can't help but shiver.

"Password." A metallic, blank voice addresses me, as I open my eyes. I'm surrounded by nothing but white, except for directly in front of me... there's no real up or down, and it's sort of disorienting. In front of me hangs a blue keyboard, and over that, a bar, so I can see what I'm typing. I'm wearing armor... not very much of it, but it's there. A dark red in color, outlined in gold, it's a brazier with really nifty dragonhead-like shoulderpads. I wish they'd given me move than these black shorts and this red metal pair of shorts to go over them. Damn pervert gamers. The brazier isn't covering up too much either. Oh yeah, to my back is strapped a ridiculously large silver broadsword. I could swear silver didn't make a good weapon in real life, but apparently that doesn't matter. What matters is that it's ridiculously big, shiny, and does immense damage in battle. "Password."

"Alright alright." sheesh. I stop spacing out and reach forward to quickly log myself in. The asshole admin made my password ScAr30-12. Jerk. If I was a hacker... The blue keyboard and the bar seem to fade away as I stand there. My hand goes to my hip, and I wait... this had better not be a bug. One time the game took so long to load I almost fell asleep while it was loading. Stupid computer techs didn't bother to open the VR unit for me. Told me to just give it a bit. The blank white all around me suddenly fills in, and I'm standing on top of a castle. The dungeon I logged out from. Good, the random login spot glitch has been fixed. It's a simple but large castle, with three stories to it, but it stretches as far as I can see. I'm on the roof. It IS a dungeon after all, it has to be huge. The sky is a dark red here, with lightning rippling through the clouds. If I could really feel the rain that was dripping down my body, and not just little sensations, I'd think it was real. Time to get to work.

"Where am I going today, Rondo?"

"Hymna, you need to get to Sector si... oh. Umm, head for the Jungle of Izoria. We need to test the monsters there for any last minute touchups. Don't use the warp-orb though, we're looking for anything out of the ordinary today."

"Gotcha..." ugh, a lot of running and a lot of walking for today. These things give you a real workout mentally, even if you aren't actually moving 'outside.' There are monsters on the roof, but all you can really see of them is faint shadows for the most part. Most monsters ambush you, springing up from the ground to catch you by surprise, and also to save the game from crashing, because there's only a gazillion monsters crawling all over Kalimdor. That's the name of the game world, mind you. I take one step, and whoosh, up from the ground springs a giant yellow tentacle slug, twice my height, and a good twenty feet long, with green spots over its body. Poisonous. I heft my blade and grit my teeth. This should be a short one, though.

The slug lunges at me, and I narrow my eyes at the single floating blue eye deep in the slime's 'skull.' I leap to the side, as if my armor's all of weightless, and I twist, my blade sliding through the slime like it's jelly, which I suppose it it. The slug is unfazed, but some quick chanting launches my fireblade spell, fire sizzling up from the handle of my broadsword and scorching the jelly, sending the slug rearing back in pain. "Hah, take that!" The slug goes into a faint retreat, keeping it's side to me, preparing for its' next attack... I've got this one memorized. The green spots bulge along its side as I crouch, blade readied before me, tensing... A row of dark green, poisonous tentacles shoot out, in an attempt to whip me and poison me, and I leap high, of course, unnaturally high thanks to the game. Tentacles whip at the path below me as I launch myself over the slug, and come down rolling across the ground, dirt flying up after me before I spring it my feet, turning and skidding.

"Shit!" I've attracted something else's attention... a green slug. Now that's a higher level slug, one I'm not ready for yet. My fire blade barely does any damage to the damned things, and they're just too fast. And with a yellow slug? I'd better finish the yellow off and get the hell out. I dash back towards the yellow slug, chanting, and duck low a moment, avoiding one lashing tentacle before lightning crackles though my blade and I leap forward in a high pounce, blade coming up and over my head... I launch myself clear into the slime even as my blade cleaves down, on and through the eye, the slug giving a loud roar of protest that leaves my ears ringing before it begins to melt into the ground beneath me. Right, the green. I quickly grab the gold coins falling to the ground and take off, dashing towards the stairs to level two. I'd run to the edge of the castle and just leap off, but there were traps just waiting to snag players down there, and it didn't matter what level you were when you met those. And you respawned miles away in that boring ass town, Ogden, the farming town. I shiver at that, then blink as I suddenly fall forward, falling hard on the ground, blade clattering next to me. A purple tentacle is wrapped around my leg, the green slug closer than I thought it was... I grab my blade, and swing at the tentacle.

I can see the slime hardening, like steal.. my blade bounces right off, leaving a small chip... one or two hit points down? That's ridiculous. I told them they made this thing too fucking hard! Three more tentacles shoot out, and whip me across the face, causing me to wince as my head turns and the VR unit gives me small jolts to let me know my character's in pain. Nothing serious though. Not yet. I bring my blade to bear again, and meet the returning tentacles with it even as the slug continues to drag me towards its mouth and the floating red eye in the center of its head. Two tentacles go flying, caught offguard... but the last wraps around the hilt of my blade, and the blade is tugged into the slug's belly... fuck. I should have left the gold.

"Need a little help?" Jack grins, standing just to the side of the slug, who hadn't even noticed him until he spoke. Hell, neither had I. Jack stands around five feet, clothed in purple robes littered with all sorts of mystical runes and chains, wearing a wide brimmed hat and a scarf wrapped around half of his face and neck. All I can really see of his character is the dark blue eyes and the frail hand clutching the strange spear and staff combo he uses.

"Hurry up!" I hate being saved. The slugs are weakest against magic, you really can't hurt them otherwise. And clearly, magic is not my strong point. Jack begins to chant, waving the spear around, as I try to tug at the tentacle around my leg, to keep from being terminated before Jack's spell finishes... He releases the spearstaff, the staff being outlined in flame as it hovers in the air before him, before it suddenly turns and darts forward, fire ripping into the heart of the giant green slug as an ear piercing shriek fills the air. I blink as the slug starts to flash, then glare at John, who's smiling like a dumbass. "What's your pro...!" I never get to finish the sentence as the slug explodes, sending me reeling into the pure darkness of termination, waiting to be respawned.

"What happened?" Rondo speaks in my ear, a bit too loudly. I wince, hanging there.

"Jack got me killed. Again." I hate player killers. Especially when we're supposed to be working!

"Ah well, give me a second and you'll be back in..."

"You've lost forty zenrai and twenty lore points." the cold computer voice says. The darkness begins to shimmer, and I give a sigh of relief as it starts to fill in...

...And I'm standing on a giant pink mushroom. All around me is a field of nothing but rainbow colored mushrooms, all of them a good twenty feet in height. From the ground floats small blue dustbunny looking things... spores? "Rondo? Where is this?" I wait a good few moments, and there's no response... is this a joke? "Rondo? Hello?" What the hell is going on? "Ouch!" I slap at a small mosquito, and it buzzes away as I rub at my arm, frowning slightly. Damn bugs. A shadow flies over the mushroom, and I blink, looking up and raising a hand over my eyes so I can see better, the sun's out in full here, and they did all they could to make it too damned bright. "A phoenix...?" I distinctly told them not to put these in the game! I don't like birds, and how the hell are users that don't use magic going to fight life-giving birds of fire anyway?

"Get away from me!" I yell, the bird turning in the air, and diving towards me... I'm doomed. I have no weapon. I'm not a magic-user. I look around, then move to jump to a different mushroom, but darkness flashes around me, and everything fades away, but the mushroom, floating blue spores, and the sound of the diving phoenix... Are we being hacked?! That's impossible, we're not even on the net yet! I turn to face the phoenix, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. I'll just report this huge bug when I get out. Might as well make the most of this. The huge phoenix, it must be twelve feet from beak to tail alone, streaks in, its beak a deadly rapier aimed to dive between my legs.. and envelope me in the flames of its passing wake when I'm pushed over it. No thanks. I dart to the side at the last minute, but the right wing clips my back, and pain surges through me as I wince and stagger, my back feeling charred as I drop to one knee, gasping for breath, tears springing from my eyes... It hurts so bad, I can barely breath. I gasp for air, blinking, but I realize that my armor actually took the brunt of the heat.

Wait a second... pain? Tears? I look down at my hand. Yes tears. And I can smell. The heated metal doesn't smell good, that's for sure. When did they figure out how to program this? I turn quickly, to face the phoenix, but it's already upon me, hovering just over the mushroom. A blast of heat hits me as it fans its wings, and I brace myself against the wind as it narrows its eyes at me... deep golden eyes, full of passion and anger, life, love, and death. They're getting too good at this... The wind picks up, and I find I can't simply brace myself... there's nothing to hang onto... I try to run against it, and maybe dive forward, but as I leap I'm suddenly blasted bwards, hurtling head over heels, dizzy, confused, I see fire and the mushroom spin past, again and again... I'm starting to feel sick, and I twist my body, trying to get some sense... before I realize I'm falling away from the mushroom, falling into an abyss. And the phoenix is following me.

It streaks for me, and it's obvious where the beak is going now. I close my eyes, and prepare to start yelling at Rondo when I get terminated again... there's warmth, then heat, then burning as the air burns around me. My eyes open, just in time to see the beak of the giant bird dive into my chest, blood, very realistic looking blood, spurting out and around the plunging beak as I scream. My heart seems to swell, and I'm in agony... the scars are there, in the game world, I see them, and they're burning hotter than the sun as I scream, and my heart explodes, everything spiraling away...

* * *

"I plan to have this thing run perfectly."

"That will take gods and goddesses."

"Then get me them." two aliens talking. I open my eyes. I'm small again, I must be a baby. Everything looks huge and large to me... I'm in some kind of metal cage. The bars hurt, I can't get comfortable with them. They're cold, and tears come to my eyes. I notice there are other babies in the room, and most of them are crying, outright wailing at times. The two aliens are men, in laboratory suits, one with black hair and glasses. The other one I can't see, but I can tell by his voice that it's a man. "I don't care how long it takes. This is going to make us rich beyond our wildest dreams, Jackson."

"It's dangerous... they might all die, you realize." Yep.. it's my Dr. Jackson, the one who hates me. I can't really get what they're saying.

"I don't want anyone to know about this project who doesn't need to. Eliminate any problems. If they die, nobody will know, and we'll just try again." the man's voice spoke, and I shivered. They must be talking about people. The other babies seem to be listening intently as well.

"Yes sir..."

"Do you understand the potential gain we might have, if we can get this on the net and working? I want several gods and goddesses on the project. You will be in charge of the leader. So make sure you pick the best out of these...." I can see a hand motioning by the corner of my cage. He must mean... us? What kind of dream is this? The other dreams never showed me this... Something stings my leg, and I cry out, crying like the other babies. I have the sense to look down though, and I see the scars... the three slashes on each shin, and the stars.

"I don't understand..." I whisper softly, as everything begins to fade around me, and I grab at the vapors of the dream as it slowly streams between my grasping fingers. "I don't understand..."

"This one'll be perfect." I heard Dr. Jackson vaguely say, before everything is gone once more.

Burning - Chapter 2

Rondo frowned as the computer feed burst into static. "Damn respawns. I think we have a glitch." He brought up a chat program, sending a message to the programmers. "Hymna's connection was blasted when she went to respawn..." he bit his lip, thinking, before typing again. "...we need this fixed right away. Look into it." He blinked, looking at his message, then quickly hit send. The sound of two of the VR containers opening was heard as two of the other CPU operators rose to their feet.

"See ya tomorrow Jack." Jack looked just like his character, skinny as a bean and tall enough to almost rival the purple VR units in size. He grinned, holding up two fingers in the peace sign, his classic 'yo' and 'see ya' symbol, as he ducked out the door. Krynn followed shortly after, a woman who looked like the project had drained her. She smiled weakly, and waved, her dark grey eyes looking tired as she stepped out of the room. "See ya tomorrow Krynny." Rondo frowned. Looks like they were taking off early... well, it was Christmas tomorrow. He was greatful they had come in the first place. "Hymna, you ready to come out?" he said into the special speakers they had set up. Static. "Damn, did she fall asleep?" Rondo stood, moving towards the VR Unit.

The noise of a gunshot stopped him, coming from the left. "What the..." the other techies stood. Dr. Jackson's office. It was the only other room connected to the VR room. He always said he wanted to be close to where all the real action was. Rondo was the first to the door, the dark-green haired man opening the door and looking in.

"Obsession..." Dr. Jackson sat there at his desk, staring out the window. The light of the sun reflected like a star off the Magnum held in his shivering hand. A look to the ceiling revealed where the first shot had went.

"Dr. Jackson! What are you doing?!" Rondo rushed into the room, as the Magnum clicked. Blood painted the far left wall, along with bits of skull, and a smoking bullet. Rondo gasped, taking a step back, the other techies staring from the doorway. One of the men began to cry behind him.

"We've got an emergency!" the loudspeaker rang out. "A fire's broken out on the first floor!" the hardware department.

"Shit..." Rondo muttered, then he ran to the door, opening it. "Get out! Everyone out before the sprinklers turn on! We'll be fried alive!" all the equipment, and water, mixed together? The techies began herding out the door, shaking and scared "Help the others out of the building!" Rondo looked to the Virtual Reality Units, and started towards Taylor's unit. A few buttons along the side of the glittering purple chrome, and the unit opened, a blast of slightly cool air hitting Rondo in the face. Taylor stood there, the VR goggles on his face shimmering with activity. They made him look like Cyclops fromt he X-men. Rondo reached up, and hit the switch on the edge of the goggles.

"Rondo, what the heck're you doing?" Taylor whined, the somewhat pudgy gamer blinking a few times as he tried to get himself oriented.

"There's been an emergency, fire on the first floor. And Dr. Jackson.... just get out. Hurry, you've got to help the others!" there was the sound of a large explosion, and Rondo turned to see the floor under Jack's unit crumble, cracks running through the tiling, before the floor caved in under it, the sound of shrieking metal ringing throughout the room and causing them both to cover their ears as it fell to the second floor. There was a loud scream of agony and a sickening crunch, and then it continued on. Rondo paled slightly, and shoved Taylor towards the door "Get the fuck out!" He rushed to Daisy's unit.

Rondo's fingers ran over the buttons even as the crackling sound of the tile began to sound from the floor beneath him. Too much weight, and with the fire ravaging the foundation of the building... "We can't get down the stairs!" someone yelled. Rondo shook his head as the blast of chilled air hit him. A moment later, Daisy staggered out of the unit, blinking and trying to lean against the unit.

"No time! Get out Daisy!" Rondo shoved her towards the door again as he started towards Hymna's unit. That rude push saved Daisy's life, as the floor gave out. Rondo looked over his shoulder, and covered his ears even as Daisy stumbled out, terror-stricken. The sight of the plummeting purple was lost to him, though, as he looked back to Hymna's unit. Cracks ran from the corner, spreading throughout half of the room now, and Rondo could see fire creeping up from the second floor through the holes already made. "Damnit!" He leaped forward, as part of the floor gave out. Someone began shrieking over the intercom.

"The fire's everywhere! The fire's on every floor! Aghhh! It burns!" a loud, ear-piercing scream filled the air, Rondo covering his ears as the scream was joined with the sound of shrieking metal.

"No!" Rondo cried as Hymna's VRU fell through the floor, fire springing up through the new hole as the floor continued to give way, seeking to drag Rondo with it. He turned, and bolted, running to the stairway. People were huddled there, some running up and down the stairs, desperate to find a way out. Rondo stared at them all, taking a few deep, smoke-filled breaths, then coughing. He was too slow. But he had to do something. "Everyone calm the fuck down!" He yelled, blue eyes looking over the people as they froze. This was why he was head techy. "I'm going to get us out of here, calm the hell down!" Down the stiars, four steps, then he leaped over the railing, and repeated the procedure. Fires raged over the first floor. Even from the stairs Rondo could see that the door operator was destroyed. "Shit..." he looked to the hardware room, the door closed shut. There had to be something...

Rondo blinked. The hardware room had a fire extenguisher! The fire should have been stopped... he cursed the hardware people under his breath as he pulled off the white lab jacket. He bundled it around his arms and his head, then vaulted over the railing, straight into the inferno. Tears rolled down his face as the fire clung to him, flames raging through the fueling clothes and over his skin as he roared and charged forward. The hardware door burst open with a crash, Rondo tumbling through, tossing the flaming labcoat back out and beating at his pants, before he realized. There was no fire in the hardware room. Yet. Another VRU crashed through the ceiling, machinery sparking and crumbling under it as another small fire broke out in the corner. The VRUs were crumpled, ruined beyond repair... except for Hymna's. "Hymmy..." Rondo murmured softly. He could save her! He grabbed the fire extenguisher off the far wall and began fighting the flames in the corner, before turning his attention to the inforno between the stairs and the door.

"Everyone get down here!!!" he yelled, wincing as he tried to manipulate the fire extenguisher. His hands were burned, and no doubt he was ruining them, but he had to do something. A moment later, Taylor vaulted over the railing, landing next to him, and took the extenguisher, yelling over the crackling flames "The fire truck's on it's way!" Rondo nodded slightly, and turned, limping back into the hardware room, and towards Hymna's VRU. He had to try... he had to hope she was still alive. He stepped up to the VRU and ran his fingers, painfully, over the buttons. He waited for the blast of cold air, then frowned. Nothing? Again, fire burst out, though this time from under Taylor's fallen unit. "Shit, shit shit shit..." Rondo turned, and looked around the hardware room. Worthless machines, melting compact discs and DVDs, VR goggles... a crowbar, next to wooden packaging. Rondo moved to pick it up, and swiped the wood further away from the fire, giving a sigh of relief as he heard people rushing out of the building.

Back to the VRU. Rondo hefted up the crowbar, and took a deep breath, wincing as more pressure was applied to his wounds. He might die, but he wasn't about to give up, even if it left him more scarred than Hymmy. He grimaced, working the edge of the crowbar between the sealant of the virtual reality unit, and then throwing his weight against the stuck crowbar. The VRU refused to give, and Rondo fell back, wincing and holding his now injured, possibly broken right arm. He grit his teeth, tears streaming down his face, before he rushed forward, hitting it again. And again. And again. He had hit it six times by the time Taylor came in and forced him out, careful not to touch the pulverized right arm as he lead Rondo out. A handful of people stood outside, staring at the flaming building as Rondo and Taylor joined them, Rondo teetering on the edge of consciousness, staring at the ground. There was a crumbling sound, and people stepped back, gasping, as brick and glass fell from the fourth floor. The building was giving in...

Sirens rang out down the street, the fire trucks fast approaching as Taylor and Rondo stared at the building. "So many lost..." Taylor murmured. Rondo looked to the door, hoping, praying that someone else would make it out. He hoped everyone would make it out, but someone in specific. He was human.

"No..." he murmured, as Daisy staggered out, falling to her knees and heaving. A techy quickly rushed to her side, pulling her away from the crumbling building, as hoses were connected to fire hydrants and a real battle against the fire was waged. "No..." Rondo felt himself being lifted onto a cart. The Ambulances were here. Rondo closed his eyes, whispering softly. "No..."

* * *

I open my eyes to a strange sight, the again, many things have been strange lately. Did I fall asleep? Past me rush streams of numbers and pictures. I'm floating down a tunnel, and I can't help but feel like I'm in some weird type of hyperspace as I'm propelled down the tunnel of numbers and... places. Yes, places, I can recognize a few of the pictures of the game world. What's going on? "Rondo?" No response... he must have went on a break? Where am I going? There's darkness all around, then a blinding, burning flash of light, like in my dream. My hands go to my face, shielding myself against the blinding, flaring light, before it begins to fade, and I frown, lowering my arms...

I'm on the castle dungeon roof again. Did I respawn finally? That took forever... that other stuff must have been a dream. Across the sky flashes our introduction message... "Merry Christmas fellow Gamers. Please see a Counselor if you need help orienting yourself." Thunder breaks the strange silence, before the game's music begins. Some brand of techno, if I recall. Why did the music stop? I look around, to find the top floor of the castle plain and flat, and shadowless. No monsters? No anything, really. It's like someone rebooted the entire system while I was jacked in. We were warned not to do that... Maybe that's why I fell asleep? I shake my head, and start towards the edge of the dungeon, peering down. Damn, the traps have already rebooted. I frown, and for a moment, numbers swirl around me, and my eyes widen. What's going on? A picture forms before me, of the ground, and it swells, surrounding me...

I drop to one knee as I find I'm on the ground below, blinking and staring at it. What is this? I haven't heard of this skill, and if anything, I should have lost experience for respawning, not gained. I stand up, and dust myself off. That's right, I forgot to ask. I can still feel... the ground actually feels dirty and some of the dirt is stuck to my knees. Bleh. I dust myself off, and speak up. "Rondo, what's going on?" No response... this is getting frustrating. Am I the only one jacked in? "Friends list." A small transparent window appears before me, with the names of my co-workers... no one's online. No one's in the game but me. Are they playing some kind of trick on me? "Calm down Hymna..." I take a deep breath of the fresh air, and look around. The monsters are starting to spawn in. Lucky me. Well... if I'm the only one in the game...

I want to go to the weapons shop. I take a step forward, and the numbers begin to swirl around me. I'm liking this new spell. I step into the portal, pictures and numbers streaming by me, flashes of green data. Was that my password I just saw? Apparently there are letters too. How they managed to program this, I'll never know. As the picture of the weapons shop approaches, I look down to the strange glowing bolts on my chest. My scars are glowing a bright crimson. I must look demonic. I giggle softly as I step into the weapons shop, not so disoriented this time. Hmmm... well, I can't get anything special. I'd need a blacksmith for that. But I can grab a crystal blade. The thing is almost as long as I am tall. Hah. I move to pick it up, but oh my lord, the thing is bloody heavy now. I have to hop backwards as it tumbles from the shelf, stabbing into the ground where my feet were. As though I set it to automatic, a small blue sweatdrop appears on my forehead. Well, it certainly represents how I feel, but I didn't order that. "Feh." I stare at the crystal blade, then look over the weapons. Guess some simple short swords are going to have to do. I'll just use two blades for a while, and switch to my usual single blade when I can handle it again.

I should have the strength for a crystal blade though, if not the zenrai. That was the currency used here. I grab a belt from the shelf, and strap it on, tucking the dual blades neatly into it, then wishing my way over to the next door armor shop. Better to make sure I don't abuse this spell though. Get too lazy and my strength and stamina might start dropping. And goodness knows I don't want to be some mageling like Jack. Ah well. At least the armor still changes into skimpy outfits for me, or I wouldn't be able to wear anything. That done, it's time to jack out! Tomorrow's Christmas! I grin, happy for my early presents, since I'll get a real headstart compared to everyone else when people start logging in tomorrow, as I reach up to tap the VR goggles just past my right eye. Nothing... Three taps later and I'm still standing there. That's odd...

"Rondo...?" all of this is too odd. I grab some boots off the shelf, and start for the door as I hear the first merchant dealer logging into his account. Must be a pre-order. Some of the VR sets were sold early, so the merchants can beat the normal players to the stores and get themselves established. A few guards are already logged in outside... Decked out in full plate mail, with helmet visors and feather plumes and crystal blades. Really powerful gamers, but they're not allowed to go very far. They probably will have another, normal player account to experience the world. Two look towards me, frowning slightly.

"No normal gamers should be logged on yet." A soft voice says from behind me, and I turn to face a female knight, clad in chainmail that's a little too revealing. At least she has pants on, unlike me. Across her back is slung a heavy broad axe. Trouble.

"Yeah.. well..." I was an original player, but what am I supposed to say? "Just running a few last second beta tests." I smile, and give her Jack's little two-finger display of charm.

"I see. Sorry about that, was just making sure." she smirks at me, brushing violet hair from her face. "Magenta wasn't an eye-color choice for us normal players." I blink a few times, then blush. I'm not supposed to have magenta eyes. And my scars are supposed to be gone... I see her eyes looking to those, and I look away.

"Yeah... that's alright." I wave to her slightly, and turn to go.

"My name's Tsunami." I look over my shoulder at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Player name, or character name?" I smile slightly.

"Aren't we supposed to be roleplaying here? Character name, of course." she rolls her eyes at me, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah... My name's..." do I want a character name? I guess I am the character... she frowns at me. She could always just look it up with the character message relay, but she's a roleplayer, like she said. "Hymna."

"Hymna Marnetta?" Tsunami frowns at me. "You even get a space in your name... unfair..." she raises an eyebrow. "You sure you're not a hacker?" How offending. I turn my back to her, and numbers swirl around me as I step into my portal, heading to the cathedral of storms, a nice little church full of monsters on a dark mountain on the other side of the world. It's a long trip, and I sit down in the swirling tunnel, watching the picture grow, smiling.

* * *

Tsunami stood there, blinking as the swirling numbers faded in the air. "How... odd..." she reached up to scratch at her violet bangs curiously as two other knights, archers, walked up to her.

"Lady Tsunami...?" They kneeled to her, and she shook her head, violet locks flying about for a moment.

"You saw her? Hymna?" She looks down to the heavily-armored archers. They weren't as armed as the knights witht he spears and polearms, but the plate that was fitted to their chainmail looked like it would weigh far too much, in real life.

"Yes milady." they replied in unison. Good roleplayers. Her friends, of course, she wouldn't have anyone else close to her in the guild until they earned it.

"Find her. I've never heard of that spell." she frowned. "I think she's a hacker. Don't harm her though. Jut study her." she waved her hand dismissively. "She can't be far. No one's learned far-range teleportation spells yet." The knights looked at each other, then back to Tsunami.

"Milady, shouldn't we begin our training, so we're ready when the other gamers show?" Tsunami smirked down at him.

"This is your training. Study her, and report to me, and I will award you some experience." she winked at them, and they both rose to their feet. A moment later, and they were gone. "I think I like this job." Tsunami murmured softly, smiling.

* * *

The diseased looking giant blue frog rolls its one good eye at me, leering at me as I stand on one of the pews. A spiny long blue tongue flicks out, lashing out at me as I leap up and over it... at least my speed and jumping hasn't been sorely affected. The tongue stabs into the pew, holding there a moment as my short sword comes down hard on it.. leaving only a gash. "Fuck. I hate these damned weak weapons." I mutter as the tongue retracts, and I leap to the side, to avoid being grazed. The frog hops, turning its back to me, revealing the hard spines that run along its back, shivering and clattering. I dive behind the pews as spines stream from its back, stabbing into and through pews and clattering off the walls. The sound of stained glass breaking fills the air. It'll regenerate later. I close my eyes, concentrating, and the numbers begin to swirl around me, even as I hear a soft ribbit, and then some heavy leaping. A flash of green numbers, and a picture of the offering before the pews, before I re-appear, kneeling, behind the poison-dart frog. It starts to turn, even as my blade flashes out, ripping through its good eye and trailing a bunch of ugly, green scum from the now blind eye as the frog shrieks, retreating, and I cover my ears.

"You're not getting away from me!" I hate when my experience points run away from me. Flashing numbers swirl around me, as my blades ready, and I flick some of the green slime off of my right blade... a moment later I reappear before the frog, leaping out the door already. It's dark outside, and the mountain is steep, ripping with thorn bushes and hazards to give gamers a hard time of finding the treasure up here. I fall back on my back as the frog comes down, both blades coming up, supported by the very ground beneath me as I dig the hilts in. "Oh no..." I forgot. I can't afford to do crazy little stunts... the frog crashes down on the blades as they plunge into its gut, thick slime hitting me in the face before it comes down on top of me, and I feel myself being crushed, crying out and trying to push the dying mass off of me. Pain... I think my legs are broken, but I can't really feel them. Tears run down my face as I begin to beat on the frog, too weak to push it off, but my blows grow weaker by the second as darkness begins to close in... and all I can think is damnit, I'm just not having any luck with monsters these days.

* * *

Beating heart. Thumping loudly in my chest as I open my eyes, looking up. A crib? The top of my cage is open, and someone smiles down at me as my magenta eyes blink a few times. Mother? Yes, it's mother. "Mama..." I hear her say, as I reach up for her, unable to reach her. "Can you say mama?"

"Lady." I murmur. Was that my first word? How come I didn't call her mama first? I always have been strange... Dr. Jackson's face appears at her side, as he looks down at me, and I realize the crib is moving. "We'll have you home soon enough." He looks to Mom now, and says something... I can't hear him. Why can't I hear him? He's clearly speaking in a normal voice. Mom nods, looking down at me with a grim look on her face, as she reaches down to caress my cheek, and I weakly grab hold of her wrist, holding onto her. "Lady." Dr. Jackson chuckles. "Daddy." He winces, and turns away.

"Take good care of her." I hear him say, as he disappears, heading back the other way... I feel something deep down inside myself shattering, and I close my eyes, drifting back into the darkness, willing the dream away.

* * *

"Hey are you alright?" The cleric squatted next to Hymna, trying to keep the big white hat he wore from falling off. He fancied he looked like some kind of pope. He poked at the girl "Maybe another healing spell..." he began to chant, his hand glowing a faint yellow as he reached out and touched the scar on her chest lightly, sending the command to heal her to the database. She looked alright, he'd already put four spells into healing her. She'd been here since he first logged on, just lying here with the two blades sticking out of the ground next to her. She opened one eye, looking up at him. Magenta. He blinked, then took a step back, eyes narrowing slightly. "Hey..." green numbers floated in the air around her and the swords, and a moment later, she was gone. Charlie frowned, taking his hat off to scratch his head lightly.

"How odd." he turned to look at his two companions, a sorceress clad in blue and green robes, with same-colored markings on her face, and a tall cat-man, with dark red fur on his chin and ears that made him look like he was trying to look like Wolverine. Feline ears pricked up as Johnson put his heavy axe away.

"Tell me about it." he muttered. "Ungrateful wench. Should have left her." He looked to the sorceress, who nodded.

"No way. We're aligned with good, we get experience for that kind of stuff." Charlie grinned, then blinked, and rubbed his forehead. "I mean... it's the right thing to do. It's what we're out here for, right?" He always had to remind himself he was supposed to be roleplaying. The cat-man and sorceress scowled at him. "That was weird... let's go find Taylor. I'm sure he'll know something."

"No thanks. That guy gives me the creeps." Sara spoke up now, rolling her eyes and tapping her oaken staff on the ground. "And he's a murderer. I heard he player-kills anyone who he doesn't like."

"Yeah, not exactly a model counselor..." Johnson let out something between a growl and a purr. "Hey, you think we can tank him?" he looked to Sara.

"Maybe..." she frowned, tugging some brown hair from her face as her emerald eyes settled on Charlie. "With some back up."

"I'm not going on a hunt." the priest crossed his arms, frowning at them.

"We're always on a hunt, Charlie." Sara nodded sagely. "That's what a quest is." Charlie continued to frown. "Besides, all you have to do is stand back and heal us if we get too beat up."

"If he comes after me..." Charlie started.

"Then you run, and I'll cover you." Johnson nodded. "Someone needs to show that guy up, wipe that smirk off his face."

"Three against one?" Sara smiled, tilting her head.

"He loses EXP, one on one or twenty on one or whatever. I'd like to see him drop a few levels. Wouldn't you?" Obviously, PKs (player-killers) weren't much liked in Krynstar.

"I guess..." Charlie murmured, while Sara nodded. "Let's see what the treasure is first?" The three turned towards the cathedral, and froze. On top of the cathedral stood a short man, five feet tall or so, with his back turned to them. His hair was spiked backwards, as though blown back by some high-powered wind corridor. He wore no armor, just a black tunic and black leggings. At his side hung a small crossbow, and across his tunic was slung a bandolier full of fletchettes and bolts.

"Looking for me?" Taylor looked over his shoulder, ruby eyes shimmering slightly. A very nice effect. Charlie took a step back, gasping, as Johnson drew his axe and Sara moved between the cat-man and Charlie.

"Nice of you to make it easy..." Johnson muttered.

"Your question. I have things to do, you know. Don't waste my time." Taylor turned to face them, as lightning rippled through the sky behind him, revealing purple clouds, and a red scar running from his right eye halfway down his chin. A grin spread across his face.

"Damn heavy gamers..." Johnson muttered under his breath, before speaking up. "We were wondering if you'd heard about a special warp spell?" One feline ear pricked up.

"Use the warp-orb you dumbasses." Taylor's eyes narrowed.

"No no... some girl did it earlier. Without even chanting." Charlie piped up. He moved to the two holes slowly regenerating in the ground, pointing. "She was lying here when I healed her. Then these numbers swirled around her and she... faded out. But I can tell she didn't die, because the respawn point.. and furthest warp point... is at the bottom of the mountain." he pointed.

Taylor frowned slightly. Was this what Tsunami... Daisy... had been fretting about? "What did she look like?" Charlie went into his description, and Taylor's eyebrows raised. Hymna? Was her mother playing, or something? A VR set had been sent to Hymna's house, had been sent to all the original gamers' houses, actually. "Hmmm..." Taylor pondered, ruby eyes looking out over the group now as he pondered. He'd just have to find out. He'd flown back home to Florida, but a trip back up to New Jersey was no big deal. Or he could call. But he didn't want to accidently call during the funeral or something... for that matter, maybe he should just wait till things cooled down. An e-mail or two to get things arranged would do.

"Well?" Jonathan grunted. Taylor grinned at him, holding up a warp orb, a small little blue metal sphere that glowed a faint green as Taylor's form shimmered. Charlie looked down, watching him reappear further down the mountain, before Taylor began to dash past traps. "Asshole..." Jonathan growled. Charlie looked to Sara, and they both nodded slightly. It was worth looking into.

"Check the sorcerer's manual, Sara. I'll check the cleric's." Jonathan frowned. "You check your manual too, Johnson. She didn't look like a magic user." Johnson nodded. Sara's form turned to a dark black shadow, before that faded away as well. She logged out, quickly followed by the others.

* * *

Rondo opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling to the hospital room. He was covered in bandages, and he hurt all over. His arm was held up in wrapping, and he sighed softly. Next to his bed sat an IV line, along with a small table... a VR set. Apparently it had been sent to his bed instead. He'd have to ask the doctor to help him put it on later. For now, he sighed, and closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

Rondo of Reality - Chapter 3

Daisy made her way silently through the light blue operator barrier, closing her eyes as she stepped through in silence. Her footsteps could be heard echoing throughout the walls of the round, tall building she had entered. The System Operators' meeting room. She made her way silently down the spartan, narrow hall that circled the inner auditorium, passing door after door.. each door was outlined with a purple glow. Only the name of the character or that character's owner, labeled on each door, could activate the portals. To keep confusion from spreading from within the System Operators meetings, of course. Daisy made her way to her own door, her mithril spear held at her side as the Amazoness looked at the door in silence, thinking to herself. She brushes a lock of fiery orange hair from her face, before tapping the barbed head of the spear lightly against the door. The purple outline shimmered, then disappeared, as she silently stepping through.

Rings of balconies circled the auditorium, much like an operahouse. It was a simple place, only used for speaking and displays. The center of the auditorium housed only a single stage, so a speaker, teleported from the balcony when they voiced the need to speak, could address the others. Displays and the like popped up in message windows instead. "Hmmm..." Daisy took her seat, looking around. She was early. A few warriors, mages, and even a ranger or two were sitting down on their own balconies, but more of the system operators had yet to arrive. Perhaps she was early? She tapped her spear, once, and a small, two-dimensial window opened before her, to reveal her operating systems clock. Damn Microsoft. And damn these people. She was late. Where was everyone? The blue window was dismissed with another tapping, as she looked down at the stage in the center of the auditorium, frowning.

"Welcome to the System Operators meeting." a disembodied voice spoke from the stage, before a mageling, clad in black, shimmered into view, invisibility spell wearing off as he 'faded' into existence. Jack. "The meeting shall be short today, as we have several issues to take care of, but we don't know enough to seriously address them yet. So bear in mind that any information you have to share would be highly valued during the meeting..." that meant interruptions for important reasons would be appreciated. Jack usually hated to be interrupted. The Administrator demanded respect. "First off, I'm sure at least a few of you have discovered that we are encountering a few problems with virii trying to break into the system. So far we have been able to repel these attacks, but we believe we know where they are coming from. Certain forces in Krynstar are trying to cause problems and bend the rules." Jack's eyes narrowed slightly as he held his staff high. Several two-dimensional windows shimmed around balconies, before a display opened.

A clear picture of Hymna's face flickered into view. From the town, when Daisy had met her under the guise of Tsunami... Daisy frowned slightly. She never said Hymna seemed like the hacker type, just a bitch. Jack must have found some other leads. "We believe this is the source of the problems. I want her eliminated. We will have no tolerance in this type of situation." A moment of silence passed as Jack waited, tapping the spell staff lightly, before he turned. "Set the guilds to capture her if they can. I'd like to figure out how she's been hacking the system before we disable her access." Daisy had to admire how Jack didn't betry the fact that he knew Hymna in the least. Well, either admire it, or be outright disgusted by it. Daisy said nothing, keeping her thoughts to herself as she listened to the Administrator continue on.

"Work on the multi-world program is going well... we have four other worlds other than Kalimdor that players can look to travel to in a few weeks. However, I want to know who created this particular abomination, and why we can't seem to delete it without trashing this sector of the Gameverse." Jack tapped the spearstaff again, and Hymna's picture was replaced with a very odd picture... of endless multi-colored mushrooms that seemed to be sitting in space. Careful observation showed that they were curved though... a planet of mushrooms? And phoenix soared through the air over them, fire trailing behind it... "No one authorized the creation of this monster. Why is it visible anyway? I want everyone to look into this as well. Maybe we have a rogue developer on the loose..." Daisy shook her head, and stood. Strange things were happening, and the game had only been unleashed a few weeks ago. She turned and left the balcony, scowling as she faded into dark shadow, then evaporated, logging out.

* * *

The basement of the castle is strangely empty today. The jellies that crawl around here are newbie fodder. Easy place to relearn my strengths and weaknesses. But it's time for a break... The basement is of course, the castle's dungeon. I haven't gone into the secret rooms yet. Those are heavily guarded. I sit on an old table, that looks as though it is decaying, designed to stretch a prisoner's legs and arms until their bodies are ripped apart. I wonder if anyone is actually going to put this to use, and shiver. I've been thinking, though, about things more close to home. The NumVerse. That's what I'm calling the place I 'tunnel' through when I wish myself to places... The message board too... I went to have a look at the signs in Crailmorn, the place I met Tsunami in. Someone put a bounty on me for hacking.

How can I be a hacker? I'm trapped in this universe, in this game. The last thing I would do is will virii into it. I've encountered a few, too. They look like vapors in the air, and make it shimmer like on a hot summer day. They're clear things, and seem to float around aimlessly... they don't really do anything to players. But sometimes they make their ways into monsters and traps, and increase their powers and statistics exponentially. I've seen it... a green slime taking out several very powerful rangers chasing me on the roof. Then there was a green jelly that proved to be the bane of five newbies before I helped them put it to rest. At the least, the experience increases dramatically too. At least, that's what they say.

I blink, hopping off the table. I heard something. A sniffle? I reach over my shoulder, to draw the plain broadsword I've managed to loot off of a player killer who came after me. I still keep the short swords though. Two weapons at once, who knows what new techniques I can come up with? I step out of the room, moving silently and hugging the wall as I make my way into the dark, torch-lit hallway. Another sniffle. I carefully avoid the drops of water from the ceiling, and the uncomfortable humidity in the dungeon, as I make my way silently down the hall, passing cells and torture chambers. Shadows are hard to spot here, so it's important to be on your guard for the few telltale signs of the monsters. I can take a few hits now without being crushed to death, but I still don't know if I can afford to... die. Some soft slurping can be heard up ahead, like the sound of some dog licking his master, just much louder.

Up ahead, a guard stands at one of the jail cells, clad in plate mail, a crystal sword hanging at his side. His helmet covers his whole face except for a slit over his blue eyes, and the strange slurping noise is large shaggy wolf at his side, blue furred with white stripes over his eyes. It's licking its' lips. That noise shouldn't be that loud... Silence falls as the wolf stops licking its' lips, but the sniffling begins again as the guard chuckles. "That's what happens when you steal. Three days for you. Don't do it again, or it'll be a week." I frown, holding my position down the hall and waiting, glancing around. Is this a player character...? The wolf sniffs, then looks up at me, growling loudly as the guard's hand goes to the hilt of his blade and he turns to look at me. "You!"

I take a few deep breaths as the guard continues to glare at me, drawing his crystal blade and a large metal kite shield from his back with the symbol of a ruby tear decorating the center of it. "Me."

"You're the hacker that's messing around with the monsters! You're to be terminated!" the guard announces. Yep. Definitely a player character.

"I haven't hacked anything in my life." I grit my teeth. The wolf moves to its master's side, and the guard promptly charges forward, shield coming up high as he moves to barrel into me, shoulder and shield first. My clumsy broadsword isn't going to do me much good against that armor... As he approaches, I wait until the last moment, before I dive straight towards him, numbers swirling around me as I dive into the Numverse... I pass through him, and the numbers and pictures swirling around me turn a deep red. I hear something... a heartbeat? How real did they make this game?... before I roll forward, landing on the ground behind the guard andcoming up on one knee just in time to slap the wolf's maw away with one leather clad hand. The guard gasps, quickly turning, as I cast a quick glance towards the sniffling.

A child sits in the cell, rubbing at her eyes. Occasionally she sniffs, her cheeks wet with tears, and in her hand is held a teddy bear, which she clutches to her chest. At her side sits a longsword, nearly as big as she, and on her head is a crystal tiara. I look back just in time to see a heavy crystal sword swinging for my head. MY own broadsword turns it aside, and I roll away, having to keep on the evasive... I need a plan, damnit. The wolf growls, and lunges for me as I come out of the roll with a hop, leaping to my feet and starting to run, only to feel paws on my back and hot breath on my neck is I'm thrown forward and slam into the bars of the jailcell. The wolf topples over even as pain fills my mind and I fall back on my ass, broadsword dropped at my side and clutching my face... Blood. Did I break my nose? I pull my hands from my face, trying to concentrate on living first, but both the guard and the wolf are staring at my bloody hands.

"...How did you do that?" the guard asks in a soft voice.

"How did I do what?" I wish I had some tissue. And I'm starting to get a headache. I wince, looking down to my blood-smeared hands.

"Program the blood. It looks so..." the guard shakes his head, crystal sword coming up again. "So you are a hacker!" What was he going to say? Real? I draw both short swords now, and stand. I can't tank this guy and his wolf. I need help. The guard lunges forward, and I duck forward myself, numbers swirling as my hand snakes out, the sword turned low to catch at the keyring on his belt... I appear behind him a moment later, the keyring that had been on his belt sliding down to my hand. The guard turns, a confused expression on his face, until he sees the keys in my hand... He grins triumphantly, though, as my unencumbered sword drops, and I pick up the keys... blood springs freely from my shoulder as I grab it, starting to pant. The wolf leaps again, and I NumJump again, this time stright to the cell. The guard is prepared for me this time. Even as the key slips into the cell door, I feel the crystal sword plunging through my back. The sword hits the door, pushing it open, even as I stare down at the blade, painful fire buring through my stomach before being followed by an icy cold.

My blood pools on the floor as the sword is pulled away, and I fall to my knees, clutching at the wound. Everything swirls around me like a dream, and I pray to whatever god is listening that I'm about to wake up, as the colors fade to numbers, and the walls to zeroes and ones. I'm falling away... Is this my reality? Is this the end? What is happening to me? Numbers...

"Get up! Die with honor, coward!" I hear a voice, far away... numbers fly past me, filter into my ear. I blink a few times, looking down to my stomach... no. The blood is not numbers. The sickly metallic smell is real. This is my reality. This is where I exist and am. This is my life. I close my eyes against the numbers, falling into darkness as I sway, and concentrate. Charles had healed me with numbers. Everything was based on numbers, just like in the other universe, everything is based off of electrons, protrons, neutrons, and vacuum. The other world's formula is just more complex. I focus on the data Charles' hand fed me, and I open my eyes reaching down to the blood on the floor below me.

"Fine, I'll finish you. A beheading is only appropriate for the havoc you've caused to the system. Then I'll lock you away." The respawn point was probably covered, but I know I wouldn't respawn anyway. The numbers swirl around the blood on the floor, collecting it, and I hear the guard gasp behind me as it is drawn, slowly, back into me. Numbers meld with cells, slowly restoring my flesh, though I'm not partly numbers as well, as the icy cold fades away, and colors and things slowly return to normal. I note one last thing though... the scars on my cleavage were numbers as well. And I have a new scar on my stomach from the looks of it... I could mend but not restore the original... How depressing. I look up, to the little girl who stands in front of me now, her teddy bear held up to the guard.

"You! Don't move or I'll reset you too!" The girl's face is hidden in long blond locks, and I see her mouth "Move." as she holds the teddy bear up towards the guard. I roll aside, leaving the guard confused and uncertain. The wolf lunges towards the little girl as I snap up my broadsword.

"No! Leave her al..." I start, when the teddy bear's eyes suddenly flare red, and then I notice it... the vapors swirling around, and into the bear, as the girl steps back, dropping it. The bear starts to grow, pure white claws stretching from its paws as it rises to a full seven feet. The eyes are filled with a fiery red, and on its' shoulders are spines that stand a good foot tall. Barbed. These same spines line a long scaly tail behind the past-time teddy. Its' claws are a good two feet long... I shiver, backing away from the abomination as the wolf is batted aside like a toy, crunching against the wall across the way. "My god..." Summoners? But that vapor mist was there...

"What in the nine hells?" the guard blinks. He takes a step back, sets himself, then lunges forward, the crystal sword plunging into the bear's stomach as it growls. That spiny tail whips around, and slams against the guard knight, sending him staggering back though the spines can't pierce his armor. The claw, on the other hand, can. Particularly where the slit on the helmet is. I gasp as the helmet is crumpled by the heavy, yet piercing thrust of the much too fast bear, and the guard hangs there, lifeless, the long claw protruding fromt he back of his head... I watch a small number stream collect above the body, hovering there, and vaguely, I hear a "Damnit..." before it swirls through the air, back towards the nearest respawn point...

The bear turns towards me, growling, vapors shimmering over its' black-spined shoulders as though it is burning up. "Dismissed." the young girl says softly. There's a flash, and then the corupted teddy is lying ont he floor, once again a silly toy, the little girl staring down at it, then kneeling and picking it up. She looks back to me, and grins slightly. "Thank you lady."

"How old are you?" I frown, slowly standing up.

"Eight." The girl sniffs. It might be true. She lives in that kind of world. Hackers come in all shapes and sizes, and she is surely the one.

"Why are you hacking the system? You know they're blaming me and a few others." I frown at her. She tilts her head.

"Aren't you hacking too? Anyway, what's your name, lady? Mine's Sammy." She giggles softly.

"Hymna..." was I hacking? In my own way? No one else could jump through the NumVerse or use data to put their character's back together. Data that wasn't programmed, that is. Did I make my own programs, then, and force them on the system? Apparently I did... "Are you the only one?"

"No." Sammy tilts her head, smiling. "There are several."

"Why?"

"Because the game isn't finished. We want more from it." Never satisfied. That seemed to be the way several people lived life. Not satisfied with life, not satisfied with the game. Their own 'reality' transferred to every realm they ducked into in their futile attempts to escape from life. Which, in the end, was all around them, even if it was defined in numbers now.

"I see. I want to speak to your leader." I frown. Well, I have to do something, don't I? If people start walking around with invincible monsters everywhere, I'm going to end up dead eventually and a lot of people are going to go through hell trying to play without knowing how to hack.

"He'll find you." Sammy giggles, then a warp orb is drawn from her robe...

"Wait!" she's gone. I stand there alone, with the fallen wolf in the dungeon, as a computerized female voice fills the air.

"Rondo's online." my friends' list. So it IS working. How come the other's are never on?

"Message Rondo." I wait, tensing a moment, then sigh with relief as a two-dimensional window opens before me, the word *sighs* being the only thing on the plain white window. "Hi Rondo... Long time no see?" I'm not exactly sure what to say. I can't just start babbling about everything, can I? "What happened? Send message." I frown, and wait. The silence and the waiting pressures me, and I start to pace around the room, eyeing the wolf corpse across the room. A window pops up a moment later, querying for a chat. "Accept."

Another window opens, this time a chatroom. A tunnel for talking with other's on your friends' list, as well as watching what's been said filled in as text. Very helpful for logs... if you can access them from a computer.

"Hymna? Is that really you?"

"Yeah... it's me... Scarface. Why can't I log out?"

"Logout...?" he sounds a bit lost and far away. I frown.

"Yeah... I've been trapped in here for what must be weeks now..."

"It has been..." Rondo falls silent. Why's he being so weird? "You're not dead?"

"Of course I'm not dead!" What kind of question is that? "Why would I be?" Well, excluding the pains I've been through so far. But he wouldn't know I was trapped in here... would he?

"The fire. It burned down the building. I saw your VRU fall through the floor. I couldn't get it open..."

"What fire?" There's a long silence.

"How have you survived in there all this time?" Rondo asks after an uncomfortable moment.

"I..." there was a fire? "I don't know..." I say softly. A fire? Am I still alive there? Nothing's making sense to me anymore...

"I'll get you out, Hymna. Don't worry. You won't be locked in here for too much longer."

"Thanks Rondo..." I think. But I'm really not sure if I want to be free anymore. What did that other reality hold for me? Less. But... I haven't seen mother in ages. I sigh. "Meet me in Crailmo... no, nevermind that. Meet me in Sector Six, Rondo."

"Alright Hymna, talk to you later." Now to wait. "Oh wait. It'll take me a while... I sort of just got started..." Oh great. My one salvation is a newbie. I groan.

"I can wait..." the chatroom closes a moment later, even as I hear thudding footsteps. Platemail.

"She's down here! With her weird hacker friend! We can all take them though." Really, it sounds like an army. The numbers swirl around me as I make my way to Sector Six, the Jungle of Izora, the quick and easy way, leaving the guards to storm into an empty hallway, confused.

Seriously, it's been a while since I've been compelled to really sit and concentrate on something other than an RPG or a drawing.
But I'm glad I read these first three chapters of what is already, and looks to be even more of a very entertaining and enthralling adventure.

I think you do a fine job of painting pictures of the various locales in the VR world, and the detail in the "little" things (character equipment, PKers, memorizing enemy attack patterns etc.) evoke familiar images and scenarios that help make readers, players in particular feel right at home with this.

I be hooked aunty mushy~! Looking forward to more.

Johnson looked down from the high branch of the dead reaper tree, watching Charlie tend to Sara's wounds next to the scythe like limbs that now hung limp from the large monster. He looked back to his axe, sunk in the tree's side, and shook his head. Gritting his teeth, he took a firm hold of the handle, and stood on the branch, hissing. Both feline ears pricked up as he tugged once, twice, and then thrice, the notched blade flying out of the tree trunk so suddenly that Johnson was sent spinning right off of the branch, flailing wildly. "Aieeee!" He landed some distance away with a loud crash; axe thudding into a nearby tree as he landed in a heap. Charlie sighed as he looked up from a fully healed Sara, who was smirking at the cat man.

"This is the place?" Charlie scowled, reaching up to adjust the overly large white hat with the golden cross in the center of it. He started towards the muttering Johnson as Sara chuckled softly.

"This is where the hackers got in." Sara confirmed, standing up. "So it has to be the source."

"The Jungle of Izoria..." Charlie murmured, as he laid one hand on Johnson's back, beginning to chant.

"Supposedly the system never went out of its way to fix some of the bugs around here." Sara motioned towards the reaper tree even though no one was watching her. "That's why the monsters are too hard or too easy, and so... different. It's a breeding ground for trouble." Sara stood up, lightly touching a blue-green mark on her cheek as she made her way over to Charlie's and Johnson's sides.

"So why are we here?" Johnson managed to untwist himself, with the help of the healing spells, and now sat upright, looking at Sara, then glaring at his once more stuck axe some distance away.

"Certainly not to goof around." Sara tsk tsked. "We're here to learn. Maybe we can find a way to bend the rules without outright hacking."

"You know we're not much better than the hackers if we use hacked tools..." Charlie murmured.

"We're 'better' than the hackers? And how are they worse?" Sara tilted her head, looking at the pope-wannabe and smirking.

"We follow the system. This is how things are supposed to be, we do what's right. The hackers... that girl... they twist and ruin the system, and it screws up everything for everyone else." Charlie gave a sagely nod, before continuing. "If we do not put a stop to such radical ideas and practices, it will get out of hand."

"You both realize this is just a game, right?" Johnson called from his axe's side, once more fighting to yank it out of a tree. Sara and Charlie fell silent a moment, then nodded.

"Yes..." the said simultaneously.

"Then no need getting so worked up about how people play it. Leave that to the people who do this for a job." Johnson slowly padded back over to the group, his great axe resting easily on his shoulder as he chuckled. "We're here to play. We play. It's all about fun, eh?"

"The hackers..." Charlie started.

"The hackers make it interesting. More challenges, hopes, and fun, if you will." Johnson chuckled again. "More curiosities than we already had."

"More trouble." Charlie scowled.

"More monsters." Sara stated, clutching her oak staff of twisting oranges and blues to her chest as she stood.

"Like I said, trouble." Charlie replied, looking to Sara. He blinked, and then ducked, as a flaming arrow soared over his head, holding his hat in place. "Hey!"

"Look out Charlie, we've got company!" Johnson was already leaping at the respawned reaper tree, giant scythe branches cleaving the air as it tried to catch the agile cat-barbarian.

* * *

Rondo walked in silence, giving the occasional nod to passing fellow gamers as he made his way through the desert town of Karhonir. One of many waypoints to the Jungle of Izoria. He came to a stop in the center of the town, standing next to the only fountain in the town, a simple fountain with a statue of a star in the center. "Hmmm..." should he head to the weapons shop? Hymna and himself had never gotten to test the beasts of Izoria... He looked over his shoulder, at the sharp, notched edges of the halberd he used for a weapon. He'd fashioned it himself, and was pretty sure a trip to the weapons shop wouldn't be all that much helpful. He was another one of those stranger players, with spiky dark green hair, somewhat short, and dark yellow eyes. Not many of his features where visible, what wasn't hidden by the karate-style gi he wore, was hidden by the bandage wrappings, dark gray, which covered him from head to toe. He'd gotten the idea from the hospital. The bandages were enchanted though, to enhance defense, and for that reason he hadn't bothered to stop by armor shops for anything more than boots since his quest for the Jungle had begun.

"How did she get there so fast...?" He muttered, eyeing the friends list he generally kept open, or routinely checked. He'd been traveling for days already, only taking a break when he actually felt exhausted or needed to log out, and for the occasional message. She was waiting for him. He had yet to see her offline, and he had something he really wanted to check out when he logged off today. He checked the time... "Nah..." a few more hours of travel, then he'd log off for today. He should have told her to meet in the town. But he really wanted to check out the bugs in the Jungle, that they'd never fixed. A few people passing him by gave him odd looks, and he realized he'd been standing there for quite a while... he marked the waypoint on his warp-orb, and continued forward, heading for the southern exit to the town while he pondered. Those pale yellow eyes swept over the sand dunes that awaited him as he sighed softly, wondering just how many fights he'd get in. Maybe he could earn some points to put into his agility. He silently made his way out of the town, smiling slightly as he walked, looking up to the three suns of Kalimdor. "Here we go..." he murmured, as the ground beneath him began to rumble, and he came to a stop, knowing that if he tried to walk right now he would stumble.

Silently, he reached back, unstrapping the halberd and bringing the metal-stemmed weapon to bear before him as he tensed, waiting. Four pincers burst from the sand to his right, followed by a gaping maw filled with rows upon rows of teeth, tinted green with poison and acid. A spitter leech. Usually huge, ranging in length from a mere twenty feet to a special monster programmed in at eighty feet. Lots of hit points, barely any weak points, swift, blind, but death to newbies and many veterans alike. Rondo loved it. The spitter leech lunged forward, and from the size of it's maw, with a diameter of five feet, Rondo estimated it to be a good thirty feet long as he turned to the side and skipped backwards, the giant leech soaring past and burrowing into the sand where it landed. The halberd lanced forward into the worm's side, inflicting a few minor wounds as the length passed, Rondo twirling the staff to land cut after cut, before pausing. The tail flashed past, covered in spines, and Rondo leaped backwards, dodging the flick thrown at him, then rolling to the side to in turn escape the death rushing up from below as the worm once more greeted the hot desert air, this time with a loud ear-piercing screech to help it 'see.'

Rondo winced, quickly rising to his feet as the spitter leech hovered about him, a good ten feet of it sticking up above the sand. It swelled, the gorgeous maw closing as the worm gathered itself, and Rondo prepared himself as well, the halberd twirled a moment before being held slightly behind him, to his side. Rondo set off in a dash, to the right of the beast, sand kicking up behind the green-haired mummy as the spitter leech tracked him, maw opening as a giant glob of burning green acid was launched at the running weapon master's path. Rondo darted to the side as the sizzling goop hit the sand, a sickening smell filling the humid, hot air as Rondo rushed straight at the worm, the halberd blade held low before him as though he were about to do a pole jump over the spitter leech. The spitter leech hissed, sensing its' miss in the smell of its' own acid... but too late. The halberd end drove into it even as Rondo crouched where its' body left the sand, and with a loud deafening roar, he leaped straight up, the halberd blade ripping through the worm and leaving black blood in its' wake, staining the sand. Rondo's roar was joined by the worm's, as it instinctively tried to pull back into the sand... the last thing the monster 'felt' before termination was the halberd splitting its maw, some it its' teeth flying up and into the air.

* * *

Dia, yet another of Daisy's many faces and names, crouched in the dark alley, the ninja peering over the list of logouts and respawns over the past few days. "Idle... no. Respawn... no. Logged out... no..." she hissed softly. Clad in black, no one noticed her crouching there, silver eyes narrowed in frustration as she threw the papers to the ground, which disappeared into smoke immediately. She was on one knee, and around her huddled five other ninja, who watched her intently and silently, awaiting orders. The flash of light on steel and mithril was the only indication anything odd was about in the alley.

"We'll get our own answers." Dia chuckled softly. She made a few motions with her hands, and a program loaded, displaying a past message from the logs to her fellow ninja. "We will terminate her ourselves. Before she becomes stronger." The other five nodded. A moment later, six black-clad figures raced across the roofs above Crailmorn, deadly silent.

* * *

I sigh softly, watching the cat-barbarian taking blow after blow from the monster I failed to prevent existing. I've been sitting in a tree nearby for hours now, I don't know how many, watching them wait for something to happen. Just a game? Maybe for them. I don't feel so guilty about my goof-up, hearing them put it that way. I could swear the sorceress saw me, though. I rub lightly at the scar on my right cheek, my other hand rubbing the new broad sword resting across my lap lightly as I think. The Jungle... something is going to happen here, and very soon. I can feel it. It's not in the numbers. The ones and zeroes tell me nothing. It's a feeling... maybe the tension in the air. This is a great place to train though.

I've noticed the little girl about from time to time, though I don't know if she's seen me. The sorceress is right. This is where the hackers have found their ways into the gaming system, because this is where security is easier to breach. I could probably find the rift they use, and seal it, if I wanted to. I wonder if the hackers want to put an end to me. Or if they want to be friends? Rondo says they've been posting on the message board lately. They call me 'The Roleplayer' even though the whole role is sort of forced on me... I've met a few of them too, while they've been out here tinkering. Some welcome me. Some run away. Some hate me. Jealousy? I don't understand. There are so many things I don't understand... I'm not sure if I like what they're doing or not. Some of the hackers abuse their power, would come here just to player kill with the monstrosities they create. Others are trying to elevate the game, making new challenges and sending them out into the world, or forging new weapons and quests.

I don't want to choose yet. I'll choose later, when I can talk to Rondo... Yes, that will work. I watch as the sorceress once more claims the kill, the reaper tree catching on fire as it gives a final swipe, stealing the odd hat from the suddenly vexed looking cleric. Numbers swirl around me as I giggle softly, and I am gone to the outskirts of the jungle, sitting at the base of a tree, hanging vines tickling my shoulders now. I like the NumVerse. I sigh, and close my eyes, tilting my head as a slight wind picks up playing with my red hair, curling a single strand around one finger...

Something thunks into the wood not an inch from my face, and my eyes open as I quickly shuffle to the side, staring at the moon star embedded deep into the tree trunk. I am mortal. I must remember that... I look in the direction it came from, and spy nothing, as I slowly rise to my feet. I draw the heavy broadsword; listening... the wind is gone. A ninja skill that adds force to the throw. I helped configure it. As the wind picks up from the east I turn, broadsword coming up high, and a ninja star shrieks off the flat of the blade, flying up into the air. Player killers. They must not know whom they're dealing with. I grin, turning to the west, and bat the black streak of metal right back into the trees.

* * *

"Pompous bitch..." Dia murmured softly, crouched low in the grass, the camouflage outfits disguising the ninja perfectly. Subtle shifts in the lazily waving grass showed her where her other ninjas slowly circled the defending girl...

* * *

I blink as the wind picks up from not one, but three directions, creating a small gust around my feet. Numbers swirl, and I Numverse a few feet ahead, coming out of the Numverse in a roll as a fourth ninja star flies over my head. Where were they? "Come out and fight me, you cowards!" I yell, looking from side to side and tensing. Damn them. I slowly begin to turn about, so that no one can simply walk up behind me, and catch a glimpse of dark blue eyes narrowed at me, before they disappear into the high grass of the outskirts of the Jungle. Fuck this grass. My broadsword is put away, before I draw both short swords, outlined in burning red flame as I sweep away another ninja star, and promptly fling them a short distance away into the dry grass. It catches as I draw my broad sword again, wincing as a long cut opens on my left forearm, blood dripping into the grass.

* * *

Dia stared at the blood, then a slow grin began to come across her face, as she stood up, moving away from the quickly spreading fire around them. What luck. The false Hymna must also be the lead hacker... Not even the hackers could tap into their own character sources. From her belt was pulled a long katana as she gave a low whistle, and four other ninja, clad in tan ninja garb, rose from positions all around Hymna, katanas at their sides.

* * *

This is not good. To say the least. I look around, and all around me are player killers... Fire begins to blaze around us... I've set it to go in a straight ring, thinking to trap them... Well, I'll just have to give it my best. The bonfire will keep them from running too far and flinging ninja stars at me, at the least. Each is at a point about... oh, I'd say fifteen yards from me. Numbers swirl around me.

* * *

Four ninjas closed in as the broadsword cleaved into the hay bale before Hymna'd even stepped out of the Numverse. Four katanas were swung simultaneously, slicing high and low, up and down, dancing around each other, yet never touching, as the ninja moved to finish off the warrior quick and easy... only to find there was nothing but air where they stood. Quickly they stepped back, turning to look around, only to find themselves outside the fire ring. "How..." started one of the smaller ninja, before they spotted the sorceress standing a small distance away, already chanting another spell, staff held high. The two ninja stars thrown her way were intercepted by a barbarian catman, thudding into the buckler strapped into his wrist as he charged with a roar.

Three ninjas rushed forward, katanas drawn once more. The fourth toppled to the ground, and Charlie beamed triumphantly as he rubbed the metal scepter he used. "I got one!" He'd come around the ring of fire the long way.

* * *

Dia blinked as her ninjas vanished in a suddenly blue flash. Hymna stood there, with only a few minor scratches on her armor and body, blinking as well. Her broadsword, as well as the bale of hay, was gone though. Dia grinned once more. The others were expendable. "You're mine now, hacker..." she purred softly, her blood-red katana dancing with the firelight as she dashed towards Hymna, who turned to look at her.

"Wait!" Hymna cried, hands coming up. Dia laughed, leaping high into the air, katana coming up high as she planned to deliver a fatal cut to the surprised bitch from shoulder to gut.

* * *

I stare at the rising ninja like a deer caught in headlights. There's nowhere to run really, but I have to do something. I run straight forward, diving under the leaping crazed woman and into the grass as she leaps over my head. I hear the spat curse behind me, and thank the programmers for all those enhanced jumping abilities they gave the ninjas. I crawl through the grass, trying to make my way towards one of those fallen short swords... if I can just arm myself, maybe I can actually survive this.

The katana that stabs into the ground before my face ends that idea.

* * *

Victory is like the sweetest chocolate. I eye the slowly dying flames, and my fellow ninja engaged in battle, before grinning down at the hacker trapped below me. "Going somewhere...?" I purr, pulling the katana out of the dirt. She can't possibly teleport lying as she is. The curved blade is pulled up high and to the side... one quick stroke, and the hackers will be lost. Jack can stop worrying... he'll smile on me by the end of this day. "Let's add another scar to that pretty body." She'll respawn, sure. But there'll be people waiting for her. And they won't be Rondo...

The katana sweeps down, whistling through the air sweetly, singing my favorite song as I sweep it. I can hear the sweet wind gasping, cut by my blade as it sweeps down... then a most horrible thing happens. The song comes to a screeching end... as a metal staff catches my blade. What the fuck?! I turn to the side, leaping back, and curse, as numbers swirl into the air and the hacker queen appears a few feet away, crouching and panting. She knew fear. Too bad I couldn't fulfill what she'd seen coming... I narrow my eyes at the man before me, wrapped in bandages. My katana... I don't have my katana. I didn't even notice him disarm me, and I stare at it as it thuds into the ground nearby... "How..."

"Is there a problem here?" He tilts his head, grinning at me, and I look down to the point of the halberd, a little too close to my character's gut for my comfort.

"Rondo!" Is it really Hymna? I look at her, then back to the grinning programmer, then take a step back.

"Not at all." I hold my hands up, a gesture of peace... or in my case, a secret way of winning the battle. He turns, and my program loads, three shuriken launched from my belt and at the back of the weapons master as the pull of the string on my wrist dislodges them.

* * *

Rondo chuckled, stepping to the side as he turned. One shuriken flashed past, swiftly followed by another. The third instead met in a sudden clash with the strange bandages Rondo wore. A thin blue aura formed around Rondo, shimmering, as the shuriken flew off with a shriek, and he pressed a small button in the shaft of his weapon. The unbladed end of the halberd was secretly a sheath, to a long knife held in the base, and out it slid, wickedly plunging right into the stomach of the treacherous ninja, followed by a loud gasp of surprise as Rondo tsk tsked, looking over his shoulder. "Not at all." He threw a thankful wink to the cleric nearby, who swept into a low bow, before turning to look at the heavily wounded ninja, who was draining away. "Any preferably last words, Daisy?"

"How dare... you help... that hacker..." Daisy hissed at him. The game's programming made her speech actually sound as though she were dying. Programmers were just too thoughtful these days. "You will pay!" Rondo drew the blade from the wound ninja's stomach, her hand going to the dark red, but not too bloody, wound, as she fell to her knees. "We'll catch you! Watch your backs!" the character fell over into the grass. Johnson gave a sigh of relief as the two remaining ninjas ceased their test on just how strong Sara's magic shield was, seeing their leader fallen... they turned and fled, taking off towards the desert respawn point, silent as death.

"Hmmm..." Rondo wondered vaguely if that was skill or luck, as he turned to look at Hymna, the frown on his face as his pale yellow eyes clearly stating that she had some explaining to do. Hacking? No, Rondo did not like hacking. Though what he would do, if she were a hacker, he did not know. Sara, Charlie, and Johnson slowly made their way over to Hymna, and Charlie kneeled.

"Do you need healing, miss Hymna?" he offered. "Group player killers are pretty cheesy." of course, that wasn't why they'd come to Hymna's aid when they heard the battle music begin playing, but she didn't need to know that. Might as well get on her good side. That's what Sara had said.

"I'll be alright..." she murmured in reply, looking up at Rondo, then back to the others. "Thank you for saving me..." she wouldn't have left, not while waiting for Rondo. The ninja might have actually caught her if not for the people around here.

* * *

I realize, here on my knees in the field, surrounded by a ring of dead grass, my fire defeated by Sara's magic, that I cannot stand alone, or I will be crushed... here, in the game that has become reality, I need allies. And here, in the dark hours of the night, when I sit alone and stare at the stars I helped create, I realize something else. I need friends.

Hymna sat in the once-again slain reaper tree, watching Johnson fight to once more pull his axe from the dead monster as she giggled softly. Nearby, Sara and Charlie sat in the dirt, drawing and making small plans for future adventures. Rondo watched it all from before the reaper tree, leaning against it as though he had all the time in the world, his halberd propped up against the monster as he patiently waited. "A party..." he chuckled. An abstract sorceress, the pope, a catman who should be using throwing axes, a warrior who couldn't tap into her own skills, an outlaw at that, and himself. Rondo crossed his bandaged arms over his chest, looking down at the ground. What more could he ask for? He closed his eyes, and whispered under his breath.

"Open message. Send to Hymna. Where'd you find this band? End message." He gave a deep sigh. Better running around and playing outlaw on the net than sitting in bed staring at the ceiling all day. He was almost good to go, but the doctors wanted him to stick around. He hated that. He wanted to go home. Rondo sighed as he was prompted to accept Hymna's message with a soft beep. "Open message."

"Well... the Cathedral of Storms I guess... I think they're following me, but I don't know why..." the message read. He read the black text with one eye open, and then dismissed the window.

"Reply to Hymna." another window opened before him, this one clear and small. "Is that so... why don't you just ask them...? End message." as he spoke the message slowly grew fitting to the number of words, before it disappeared, sent to the warrior. He drummed his fingers on his elbow, staring at the ground now, even as he promptly the reply message to open, causing it to look like it was propped on the ground when it opened.

"Have I said much to them so far? I... you know I'm not good at parties... we never got to try them out. That was Jack's division..." Rondo chuckled, moving to stand straight as he drew his halberd near. The dangling scythes, held on impossibly thin and whip-like vines, began to rise, the dead gray vines spasming for a moment, before a deep dark green began to flood through them from the base of the tree, as though they were being shocked back to life.

"Reaper's up!" Rondo called, as the scythes began to weave around them, two vines swinging down for Rondo's head as he stood there, savoring the quality of the sound, of whistling metal ripping through the air. The halberd's blade came up high, deflecting one half of the pincer attack to the side as Rondo stepped into the arc of the right swinging vine, deflected scythe marring the path of the left, a loud twang echoing for just a moment in the air, before the sound of a hissing catman could be heard. Hymna stood up in the tree, racing from branch to branch and hacking at whatever vines turned to the sorceress, Sara, who stood just a short distance away, holding her staff high and chanting. Reaper trees could only be brought down by doing substantial damage to their vines, unless of course they wanted Johnson to sit there all day chopping at the trunk. But what experience would be gained that way?

"What're you doing?!" Charlie yelled at Rondo, who still dodged and weaved, toying with the two swinging blades right at the trunk of the reaper tree. There was another program to this tree that kept people from attacking the base. Rondo wondered if he could pull off a quick stunt... he ducked under a swinging scythe, then turned, and the halberd quickly slashed forward at the base of the tree, once, then again, making a swift x in the tree's bark. All the reaper vines rose, leaving Hymna and an awkwardly swinging Johnson blinking, before they began to descend towards the trunk's offender. Twelve reaper vines in total.

Rondo ducked low; waiting for just the right moment... he leaped straight up, over the first two reaper vines, which sunk into the trunk of the tree. The agile fighter landed lightly on the flat of the third reaper vine, laughing as he quickly pushed off again to avoid the fourth, watching the bundle of vines slowly grow beneath him... "Look out you cocky bastard!" the flat of the sixth reaper vine caught Rondo in the side of the head, sending him tumbling through the air to land in a daze by the side of the tree, as Charlie rushed to his side. Sara was thankful for the blundering fool, though. She unleashed an explosive fireball upon the few-trapped vines, the ball of flame hitting the side of the trunk with a thundering roar, flames engulfing the vines that began to wriggle furiously in the side of the tree.

"I'm alright I'm alright..." Rondo blushed, thankful for the bandaging. "Six..." He'd done eight before. He had a thing for stupid risks.

"That was dumb." Hymna remarked, dropping down from the tree as the remaining vines slowly turned a dead ash gray, dropping to the ground. She looked up to the rest of the group. "I think we're wasting our time here though. These trees are boring." she scowled at Rondo, kneeling next to him as he sat on the ground. "Don't do that again?"

"Pffft." Rondo rolled his eyes, and chuckled. He watched the flames dying out, the tree pretty much unscathed save for the x carved into its' trunk. "It's just a game. Just having a bit of fun." He shrugged at Hymna.

* * *

I shake my head, biting my lip as I stand back up. He doesn't understand... how can he? I have to explain it to him, later. "Why are we here, anyway? What are we waiting for?" I turn to look at the three newer players, crossing my arms over my chest, feeling just a bit self-conscious about the scars. Sara chuckles softly, looking at me. She thinks they're character design, probably. I roll my eyes, and focus on the Pope instead. "Well?"

"This is where the hackers are supposed to be able to breach the system." Charlie shrugs at me, and grins. "We want to see how they do it." What's the point of that?

"What for? Don't you think that's a bit risky?" I blink, something coming to mind, and I frown at him. "You're not with those ninjas are you?!"

"No no no!" Charlie holds his hands out in front of him. I get the feeling he's telling the truth though. If they were with the ninjas they wouldn't have saved me back at the cathedral. I close my eyes, and rub the back of my neck.

"Ugh... I'm sorry. I just don't get why these people are chasing me."

"The same reason they're chasing the hackers." Sara spoke up. I open one eye, to find she's standing at Charlie's side, leaning casually on his shoulder. "They don't trust them. They don't know what they can do." Rondo looks up at Sara, and I stand, biting my lower lip.

"They got in because of us." Rondo's mumbling. I look down at him, and scowl.

"What do you mean?" I tilt my head, tugging on one annoying red strand, which continues to curl back unlike the rest of my hair.

"We were supposed to test this Sector, Sector six, for bugs, remember?" Rondo looks up at me, frowning. "But we couldn't. There was the respawning issue... and then you disappeared. Just before..." Rondo fell silent. I nod slowly. I remember, I had been thinking about it before the ninja and her own party caught me off guard.

"I know where the hackers are." Rondo stares at me, those dark yellow eyes seeming to bore into me... just numbers right? What was he going to say, anyway? "I'm sure we can find some of them at the rift." I look up at the others, tilting my head again, smiling. I hold out my hand. "I'm Hymna, by the way. I'm sure you know, but I don't think I ever actually said it."

"Hymna." Rondo stands up, and glances to the others, then looks back to me, tilting his own head slightly, and then motions towards the trees. I know I'm blushing as I look at him curiously, and I bite my lower lip.

"Yes...?"

"Can I speak to you for a moment?" Rondo doesn't wait for a reply; he knows I need to talk to him anyway. He starts towards the trees, and I look to the others. "Sorry...we'll be right back..." I nod to them, give them a weak smile, then hurry after him, grabbing my fallen broadsword as I pass the sleeping reaper tree and strapping it back onto my back as Rondo sits down in the shadows of the nearby trees, and I move to join him.

* * *

Rondo looked at Hymna through one eye for a good long moment, something the young man often did off the net as well. She blinked a few times, looking back at him, before glancing around just a bit uneasily. He couldn't blame her. "Hymna... aren't you tired?" She looked as though the question had caught her off guard, her eyes opening wide for a moment.

"N...no..." she blinked a few times, dark purple eyes focused on Rondo now.

"Not at all? When's the last time you logged out?" The blank look on Hymna's face caused him to frown just a bit. "Check the log in window. You haven't forgotten everything have you?" They were the original testers and programmers. If anyone should know such things, it should be her. Hymna frowned, then rubbed her forehead.

"Oh my god... I forgot all about those... I haven't even bothered to look at the skills and stat windows..." she groaned. Rondo blinked.

"You mean that ring of fire wasn't some sort of new skill, nor the weird number thing?" Hymna slowly shook her head.

"I conjured the fire... I thought I could handle the ninja easily enough. But I'm not fast enough, or strong enough... it's like I'm a newbie all over again." Rondo rolled his eyes.

"Well update your statistics then, silly girl." He chuckled, and placed his hands on his knees, sitting cross-legged, as he waited.

* * *

"It's been about a month since I logged in... When we were testing..." I murmur softly. "Stat page, open." I look at the basic window that opens before me, displaying strength, dexterity, you know, all the basic roleplaying game statistics. Rondo is staring at me through the somewhat clear window, before he leans to the side, looking around it. I know he can't see it, but what else would I be looking at.

"You haven't rested for a month?" I rub the back of my neck, feeling uncomfortable now. I just haven't felt sleepy. Maybe the occasional sit or break to rest my mind, but not sleepy.

"Well, I've taken breaks and just sat around sometimes, you know, watching the stars and stuff..." Now how's this stat page going to work for me if I'm flesh and blood in this false world? Well, I guess I don't need to bother putting many points in constitution, just a few. Strength and dexterity, I definitely need points in. "Two points, strength." As I speak, the scars on my body suddenly flare red, growing warm, then hot, though not painfully so. I stare down at my cleavage, reaching up to rub at one as I turn a deep hot red, and Rondo doesn't seem to have a problem staring, either. The scars... I close my eyes, and reopen them to the Numverse. The scars are, of course, zeroes and ones, unlike the rest of me. I myself can only see flesh and blood, but where the numbers swirl over my breasts and legs, I can see small streams of numbers seeping into the rest of me, reinforcing and strengthening me. So experience is still worth something.

"What are you doing?" Rondo says, and I look up at him, and frown. His character is, of course, a complex combination of swirling zeroes and ones, sitting before me. Most of the numbers in the Numverse are an annoying lime green, but where Rondo's eyes and brain would be, the numbers are dark red, amazingly compact, the color of blood. The numbers go beyond zeroes and ones, and I can't even begin to read them, swirling and twisting and curling around each other as I stare. "What?!" Rondo sits up a little straighter as I blink, the Numverse disappearing in a flash.

"I..." I don't know what to say. How can I explain it? "I can't log out, Rondo."

"All you have to do is reach up and press the switch next to your right eye." Rondo scowls at me.

"There is no switch next to my right eye..." I say softly. Rondo looks at me a moment, then sits back on his rear, rubbing at his chin now and looking up at the tree behind me.

"Maybe in the accident..."

"The fire." I tilt my head, looking at him as his dark yellow gaze falls on me once more. "Three points dexterity."

"You should become a warrior mage. Put some more power behind your conjuring and stuff." Rondo looks away, towards the others, who are no doubt getting somewhat impatient by now. The sounds of the reawakening reaper tree let us know they'll be occupied enough though.

"That's an idea." I'm not letting him off the hook though. "Tell me what happened." Rondo sighs, closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath.

"The lab burned down. I haven't seen what was saved yet. I'm in the hospital, was burned by the fire saving people." Rondo's eyes open and he looks at me, those dark yellow eyes shimmering slightly, as though he's about to cry. He takes another deep breath as I frown. "Your VRU went through the floor, and I couldn't get it open in time..."

"You mean I'm locked in there?" I blink a few times, looking to the bandages around his arms now as he slowly nods.

"It's possible that the... fall damaged the unit somewhat. I'll go back to the lab, and see what I can find... I doubt they moved you. Considering they think it was a freak fire and no one's in a hurry to do a damned thing about the incident." Rondo grits his teeth oddly, and I frown at him.

"What?"

"Someone fed the cops a bullshit story. That there was a fire hazard on the second floor, and that's why the building burned down. And no one's looking anywhere into it. You know, just before the fire, Dr. Jackson killed himself? Right about the time you went offline..." Rondo fell silent, looking out towards the swaying reaper tree again.

"Class change options..." I murmur, a small window opening before me. Warrior Mage is locked out, the words grayed over to show it's not an option. A moment of diving into the Numverse, and tinkering with the weave of numbers, changes that. I don't know how to become a legit warrior mage. And I'm just trying to survive, really. So I'll bend the rules a little. "Class change, Warrior Mage." I murmur, and the Numverse around my shoulders shifts for a moment, before a blue cape, with golden frilled shoulder pads, forms on my shoulders, and a minor staff of oak rests in the grass next to me. My broadsword remains, but the two short swords at my side suddenly crumble into dust as I look down at the staff. "How?"

"...He shot himself." Rondo watches me silently now, and I can tell that he's been trying not to think about this, but hasn't gotten it off of his mind whenever he can't occupy himself.

"...Why...?" I murmur, looking at Rondo.

"He knew." Rondo nods slowly. "I'm sure of it. I don't know how, but he knew there was going to be a fire." Rondo slams his fist into the palm of his left hand, growling. "I'm going there. Tonight. There's got to be something."

"Tonight? What time... oh. Time window." the tiny window opens. It's seven o'clock already. "We should tell the others..."

"What will you do tonight, Hymmy?" Rondo looks at me curiously now, eyeing the staff at my side.

"I will train, and wait for you. I... want to know what's going on..." I sigh. Will I be here forever?

"Alright. I'll try not to take too long." Rondo stands, and holds out his hand to me. I take it, blushing as my free hand grabs for my new, small staff, and we duck out of the trees.

* * *

"Damn doctors..." Rondo muttered, hands in the pockets of his jeans as he stepped out of the hospital, looking up and down the street. He looked much like his character, though his hair couldn't even hope to be as spiny and crazy as his characters, and his eyes were a bit more vibrant. He was also a good half a foot shorter. It was raining, and the small umbrella the nurses had given him weren't much helping. He waited for his taxi, muttering under his breath. He'd had his things sent home already. They'd be waiting for him. He had someplace else to go. A small yellow taxi pulls up, a dark skinned man looking up at Rondo from the window. "Martin Avenue, 2011." The taxi driver nodded, and Rondo stepped back as the door was held open, before he slide inside, closing it behind him.

The lights flying by made shadows dance in the taxi as Rondo reflected. He wasn't a pretty sight. Maybe he should just wear the bandages forever. No doubt his skin was twisted and ugly. The taxi driver kept glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes every few minutes, then frowning, as though he wasn't supposed to notice. Rondo bore it all in silence as he rode, just watching the rain hit the window, before being brushed aside by the windshield wipes. Some of his bandages were wet from his short wait in the rain. The rain felt good, cool to the touch. He gave a soft sigh as the taxi driver came to a stop next to a corpse of a building. Windows shattered, half of the second and third floor torn open for the entire world to see inside. No one was in there. Rondo could feel it. It was dead. He shook his head, and tugged a few dollars out of his wallet, forking them over to the cab driver as he slid out. "Thanks." He could walk home from here.

Rondo stood next to the dead building, looking up at it as lightning flashed, illuminating the ghostly building for a moment. Rondo ignored the water that splashed on his legs from the parting taxi, took a deep breath, and headed into the darkness of the first floor, digging around in his pocket a moment. He drew his lighter, moving past the stairs, the metal banister partially melted, ruined. Water dripped down on him from the floor above as he tried to shield the flame from the curling wind and dripping wet. "Damnit." he muttered as he stumbled into the hardware room. Of course, before clues, he wanted to come find out the answer to the biggest puzzle. He moved forward in the darkness, the hardware room somewhat drier than the hallway, though where the VRUs had fallen, water rained down in small waterfalls. "Hymmy..." he murmured softly, making his way across debris and ash. A loud creak from above gave him pause, and the light was snuffed out for a moment as he listened.

Silence. He waited a few moments nonetheless, before the flame was unleashed once more, his shining light in the darkness. The fire shined off the wet, dented purple surface of the VRU in question as he approached, hunching over the light so the falling water wouldn't affect it. He leaned forward, bringing the light up slowly... before he gasped softly.

Hymna's unit was open.

Just a bit. Enough to barely see inside. Someone had used a torch to open it. Someone had beat him to it. He leaned closer, the flame coming higher; crawling up till it was barely inches from the VRU and his own face. And then he saw her.

Hymna was dead. The gruesome gash torn in her throat was open for the world to see, the blood caked and old. Now that he'd seen it, he could see the trail down the VRU as he gasped, bile rising in his throat as he took a step back, gagging. A spark flew from the edge of the VRU, drawing his attention as he glanced up, knowing he was going to throw up. Someone was up there. He heard the slow deliberate click of the pistol from the shadows of the third floor. He had to get out. A killer, and his own vomit would commit him if someone else showed up later. Thunder rolled through the building, loud and roaring, and lightning flashed, illuminating the rooms in bright white as it crackled.

Jack.

Rondo gasped, and ducked away, as the light reflected off the bright purple surface of the VRU. Jack cursed as the bullet ricocheted off the VRU and wide of the mark. Rondo stumbled away, making his way fast for the exit. Jack didn't even try to catch him. He moved to the ripped wall of the third story, the thin man chuckling lightly as the gun thudded softly on the ground next to him. "Goodbye Rondo." he whispered, sinking into the darkness, as Rondo turned the corner, fast on his way home, his own bile making its way into the sewer nearby.

* * *

Hymna blinked at the simple message that stared back at her, waiting for her response. She shivered slightly, biting her lower lip as the small staff fell to the ground at her side. She'd asked him what he'd found...

"What the hell are you?" was his only reply. Hymna closed her eyes, trying to will away the painful tears that welled in her eyes. He hated her. Like the others. What had she done? Why had he left her? She looked at the others, who had actually volunteered to take turns being with her during the night, sleeping in shifts while she waited. Who knew when the hunt from the ninjas would be on again?

"What am I..." she murmured softly, picking up her staff, and sighing as she turned towards the trees, and began to walk slowly.

"You're a friend." Johnson peered down at her from the shadows above the catman's eyes eerily shining out of the darkness.

"You don't know me." Hymna looked up at him, her lower lip trembling as she took a deep breath.

"Then help us out." Johnson grinned, the shadows making him look like he was trying to imitate the Cheshire cat. Hymna looked back at the others resting on the ground, then looked back to Johnson. She sighed, and then looked back down to the ground. Johnson leapt to the ground, leaving his axe stuck in the tree above as he landed rather quietly, then moved to Hymna's side. "What happened?"

"Rondo hates me..." Hymna murmured softly.

"Why?" Johnson reached forward, lifting her chin with one finger, to get her to look at him. Hymna's purple eyes stared into the cat man's as she took a deep breath, her eyes shimmering, before another small tear made its way down her face. Johnson blinked, then frowned.

"Because I'm a freak..." Hymna whispered. Johnson blinked again, one feline ear pricking up as though to accent his curiosity.

"A freak? If you're a freak, hell, we're all freaks." Johnson frowned at her.

"I..." Hymna didn't know what to say. What was Rondo's problem, then?

"Did you reply to him?" Johnson patted her shoulder lightly. "I'm pretty sure it's just some simple misunderstanding."

"I..." Hymna repeated, her voice low, then sighed. "I haven't..."

"I'll help you out. Maybe Rondo just has trouble with women." Johnson chuckled. Hymna nodded slowly, blushing as she started to look down at the ground again, before Johnson propped her chin up again. "Be proud." Johnson chuckled, before sitting on the ground, taking her hand and pulling her down to sit with him.

"Of what...?" Hymna murmured. Johnson looked at her quietly, but didn't reply as he motioned.

"You know. Come on, let's do this message. We can't have our party breaking up after just one day can we? Besides, he makes a good distraction. I don't like taking all the hits." Johnson nodded to the reaper tree. He naturally was the tank of the group, being the barbarian. Though a rather clumsy one. Hymna sighed and nodded slightly.

* * *

Rondo frowned at the email he received, simple enough. "I am Hymna." He shook his head.

"Hymna is dead. Who are you?" He sent the reply, then waited, somewhat angry that some imposter had come on and taken her place. And why had Jack been there, trying to kill him? Had he been the killer? "Is this Krynn?"

"No... This is Hymmy... What do you mean I'm dead? I feel pretty alive."

"Prove it." he quickly typed the reply.

"Well... umm... let's see... My password is ScAr30-12. You're the only one who knew, because you had to do that editing on the accounts, remember?" Rondo sat in front of the computer screen, the only light in his entire room, thinking in silence, before he typed in his reply.

"...I'm sorry. We'll talk tomorrow... I need sleep." he pulled away from the computer, and sighed. He still didn't believe it. How could he? He'd have to talk to her face to face. He had to find answers.

* * *

One thought echoes in my mind, as I lie there, staring at the starry sky. He doesn't think I'm real.

I touch it,
It shatters,
It was all just a dream...

Like glass,
does it matter?
Why do I want to scream?

It looks so real,
it hurts, I feel,
but they all say it's fake...

What's wrong with me,
why can't I see,
I must have made a mistake...

Because my glass dream,
is falling apart,
and I can't stand the sight.

When the hammer comes,
to break it to shards,
I find I have to fight.

My glass dream,
is mine to live,
it's my reality.

Just because,
they say it's glass,
they can't take it from me.

The friends are real,
they feel so warm,
I don't want them to go.

The world I feel,
the feelings too,
doesn't any of that show?

My glass dream,
My reality,
My life, though maybe sad.

They take it from me,
They claim it's silly,
And that makes me so very mad.

I'll defend it,
with my life,
'cause I have nothing else...

But my dream,
of thin glass,
of thin vapors and ice that melts.

* * *

Hymna sighed, sitting in the grass on the outskirts of the Jungle of Izoria, the high grass up to her shoulders as she stared up at the sky, basking in the sun and silence. Next to her stood Sara, looking about warily, frowning slightly... The catman and the cleric were off in the woods, talking about something or another.

"Why are we here...?" the colorful sorceress frowned, looking down at Hymna. It had been a long night, and Rondo still hadn't returned from his last logout.

"To take a break... looking at the sky always makes me feel rested. Plus it helps me think." Hymna spoke softly, looking over to Sara now. Sara stared down at Hymna, one hand tight around the staff in her hand as she frowned.

"What? What's the point?" She looked up towards the sky, and had to admit, it was a beautiful sight, the sun still rising up and casting amber across the sky. But no one hopped on games to watch the sun rise. "We could be doing other things. Sitting around is boring." she scowled.

"I wouldn't expect a sorceress to complain about taking time to think..." Hymna murmured lightly, then turned slightly to look up at Sara. "You know I've been worrying all night. I don't want to run around fighting monsters and acting like everything is fine when it isn't."

"I keep forgetting you can't log out..." Sara muttered.

"And if I could? I'd still probably be sitting here thinking, if things were bad like this." Hymna scowled up at Sara.

"Why?" Sara tilted her head. "It's a game. You're supposed to have fun. Besides." She waved her hand. "It's all fake." Hymna stared at her a moment, the woman looking faintly pale, before she slowly looked away, looking out over the grass.

"It's not fake." Hymna frowned slightly, feeling a slight headache coming, for the fourth time this morning. She sighed softly.

"You helped create it! Of course it's fake. It might as well be glass. Really pretty glass, but glass." Sara rolled her eyes.

"Life is like glass." Hymna looked back up at Sara now, frowning. "You don't know when it's going to end. You could die any moment for a gazillion reasons." Hymna tilted her head now, frowning. "Everything is like glass, in its' own way." Hymna pondered now, looking back to the sky. "Well... almost everything."

"What are you talking about?" Sara scowled down at Hymna, who was sounding just a bit crazy.

"I'm saying that the 'outside' world is just a bunch of different coding no one knows how to read." Hymna waved her hand. "And this world is just simpler coding we know how to write." Hymna frowned. "We're the same people in different shells. It's still real, it's just definition definitions and rules. Everything we can interact with or that can interact with us is very real. And certainly what we perceive." Hymna crossed her arms now, sitting up somewhat in the grass and frowning again. Sara looked down at her a moment, the sorceress biting her lower lip, before she looked out across the grass.

"I can't 'feel' or 'smell' anything more than the scanner tells me to smell. I'm not really a part of this world. It's a creation. It's like a dream."

"And the rest of life isn't? So you're 'scanner' outside of 'the game' is just a different type we don't understand." Hymna shook her head. Why was she arguing about this? "Nevermind... forget it. Maybe I've just been trapped here too long."

"She has many valid points." Johnson approached from behind, without Charlie. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at the two as Hymna looked over her shoulder at the catman, curiously. "The net is very real. But it is only as real as we accept it to be, really. Like we say a dream is a dream, but that doesn't really make it any less real." Sara and Hymna both just stared at Johnson, whose feline ears lowered a bit self-consciously. "What if you went into a coma where you dreamed, and never woke up? Wouldn't that mean your dreams would be your reality, limited by what you can perceive? Maybe it's not 'the' reality for everyone, but for you, what else could there be?"

"I guess that sort of makes sense..." Hymna murmured, looking to Sara, who shrugged.

"Who cares? Can we get a move on now? Where's that green-haired punk?" Sara huffed, blowing a long strand of brown hair from her face.

"Not just yet. Charlie did a class change. He's trying for a mage cleric now, he says he doesn't like sitting back all the time." Johnson chuckled. "Everyone seems to be into all that flashy magic these days. Anyway, he's practicing." His tail slowly curled around his leg as he spoke.

"How do you do that?" Sara eyed the tail curiously, frowning.

"What?" Johnson looked down. "Oh. I don't know, whenever my mind wanders it just reacts like that." He shrugged. "Probably has to do with the scanner."

"The scanner just scans brain waves, a human wouldn't have brainwaves for cats. Besides, the other cat people don't have their tails acting weird and the like." Hymna smirked up at Johnson, who was beginning to feel embarrassed. He began to blush a faint red.

"I... well..." Jonathan looked away. "I don't know."

"You're blushing." Hymna tilted her head. Both Johnson and Sara turned to stare a bit blankly at Hymna.

"What?" they said in unison. Hymna blinked, looking a bit confused.

"I said you're blushing." Sara looked at Johnson, who turned red.

"No he's not. The character models don't do blushing and crying and the like yet." Sara eyed Hymna curiously.

"Yes I am..." Johnson muttered, looking away again. Hymna and Sara fell silent, before Sara looked back to Hymna.

"You're so weird, Hymna." Sara frowned at her, then looked out over the grass. Hymna smiled slightly, looking over towards the trees now.

"Did he lose the pope hat?"

"Yep. Thank goodness. Anyone could spot us from a mile away." Johnson grumbled.

* * *

Rondo crouched in the nearby tree, listening quietly to the rest of the party chattering away. She sounded like Hymna. She looked just like her. Though Rondo hadn't seen Hymna really opening up to anyone before, he'd known her to space out when they were testing the game. She liked to sit around admiring random sites and lying around in the grass. Just enjoying herself. Rondo shook his head, looking back to Charlie, the white and blue robed cleric mage standing a safe distance from the reaper tree and tormenting it with airborne weaving flames. "Not real..." Rondo muttered, looking back to Hymna, the sight of the VRU coming to his mind, of the light reflecting off the metal... of him getting closer, the stench...

"Damnit." Rondo shook his head, and began to make his way down the side of the tree, frowning. He had to talk to her. He had to apologize. Besides, he wasn't going to get any answers about her if he just ran away. But what business of his was it anyway? He could back away now, and just go back to playing the game like a normal player.

"Hi Rondo." Hymna frowned up at him, and he realized his feet had carried him right to her side while he'd been thinking. He cursed them for betraying him.

"Hymmy..." he murmured, then sighed. "I'm sorry." He dropped down in the grass next to her, on his knees, with a slight nod to Johnson and Sara as he sat.

"We need to talk." Hymna's voice was stern. She had every right to be angry, really, now that he thought about it. He'd think she was fake if she wasn't mad. He felt a rather firm grip on his arm, and turned to look at her, and blinked. Things were flashing past them, impossibly fast. Darkness and cold, with the occasional streaming light. Space? And then they were sitting on a giant mushroom in a field of many colored mushrooms, Hymna smiling slightly as she looked at him.

* * *

The field of the phoenix. I let go of Rondo's arm now, to scoot back slightly and turn to face him fully, sitting cross-legged now. "I am real." I reach forward to poke him lightly in the chest. I'm still looking through the Numverse, seeing things in ones and zeroes.

"I don't feel it... but I sense it..." Rondo murmurs while I think. I close my eyes, and take a deep breath, then open them again as I poke him lightly again. A faint jumble of red, a ripple, flows across the numbers across Rondo's chest, before the red flood seems to condense, flowing into that red mass... what is that? The brain waves? "What...?"

"You feel it? You feel me?" Rondo stares at me, confused.

"Faintly..." I touch him again, lightly, frowning slightly as he slowly nods. "How...?"

"I'm not sure..." I murmur. I willed it. Maybe it's because I'm all a 'red jumble' like his mind. Maybe that's what lets me make the connection... but if I can connect like that, what else can I do? Rondo frowns at me now.

"Where are we?" He looks around, slowly standing.

"The mushroom field. It's where I went, when the... fire happened." Rondo looks down at me, and I can tell he's got something to say, but he looks uncertain... "What's wrong?"

Rondo runs a hand through his hair as he begins to pace on the giant mushroom, trying to get at least somewhat comfy. I guess I could have went to the cathedral or something. "Open message to Johnson. We'll be back really soon guys, wait up for us. End message..." Rondo stops to look at me now, tilting his head.

"How can I put this..." Rondo frowns, crossing his arms as he sits cross-legged before me, dark yellow eyes staring into mine as I blink a few times. "You're a ghost."

"What?" First I'm not real, now I'm a ghost...

"You're... gone. But you're here." Rondo looks away, towards the pinkish sky, and I know I'm staring a bit rudely. We're trying to keep things smooth, after all... so I look away, to the sky as well. "I went to the ruins... you're dead, Hymna."

"That's not possible." I frown. "I'm right here, and I'm just fine." Usually, anyway. "I think I've been surviving quite well lately, thank you."

"Your throat was slit, Hymna. Someone got there before me." He looks to me now, and I can tell from the look in his eyes that he speaks the truth... but how? An illusion...? "Maybe... maybe when you died outside of Krynstar, the brain waves continued to exist in this realm?" Rondo shrugged, having no betting idea.

"No... if that were true, I'd still be another normal player, just logging out would... kill me." I frown at Rondo, who nods slowly, biting his lower lip.

"Jack has the answer." He slams his fist into his open palm, something he does often when thinking or making a statement... "That bastard was there. I saw him. He tried to shoot me. Hell, I think he's the one who killed you." Jack, my tormentor. The administrator. Did he send the ninjas...?

"Dia, the ninja I PKed, was really Daisy." Rondo nodded slowly. "She had been on my friends list at first. Then I noticed the posts on the message board... I think Jack was the one that killed you... or rather.. your shell." He nodded slightly, not sure how else to put it.

"Jack..." damn him. What can I do when they come for me here, though? I look at my finger, then at Rondo, pondering slightly. I can give. Can I take? I can feel if Rondo touches me, I feel warmth and cold. I bleed, I mend. And I know, now, that I won't respawn when I die. "I have to learn more."

"Yes, we do. I'll figure out some way to learn of our enemies..."

"No. I mean about myself, and what I can do." I look up to the sky again, and vaguely wonder, again, who made this place anyway. "And why the administration doesn't simply delete my account."

"To be honest, I don't think they can. But they can force disconnections and keep accounts disconnected. But because of how it's all put on the Networld, many things can't simply be deleted. The closest thing would be to... eliminate you." I sigh, looking down to my lap now. "I won't let that happen." Rondo reaches forward, his warm hand caressing my cheek slightly as I will him to feel it, and he chuckles lightly. "You're beautiful, you know that?"

My heart stops.

* * *

"Man, they sure are taking their time." Charlie scowled, crossing his arms and eyeing Johnson and Sara, both of whom were sitting in the grass looking up at the sky. "Can't we do something while we wait? They could find us easily enough."

"Shhh. We're thinking." Johnson waved at him a bit absently. Charlie scowled as he sat behind them, looking about.

* * *

Dia stared down at the dark gray metal boot before her, watching the strange smoke slowly curl around it. She could swear she smelled the stench of death, though that wasn't programmed into the game. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it." She tried not to glance at the spearhead of the staff, stabbed into the ground right next to her, but the ninja couldn't help herself. "How did you fail? You had many, against a lone fool."

"She has friends... I would have had her."

"You were slow." Dia's eyes widened a moment, before they closed.

"Yes. Rondo made it there in time." A blow to her pride, being beaten down by the bandage boy. "I failed, but I will not fail again."

"Because you cannot afford to go alone again. Others can do that." Jack turned away slightly, the turned boot bringing up a tiny cloud of dust. Dia blinked as a strange cold began to spread across her chest, a numbing icy feel, as though her flesh was freezing. She gasped for air, her hand going to her chest as she fell in the dirt at the mage's feet, gasping. "Do not fail me again." Shadows curled around the grinning mage like a thick mist, before spiraling into the sky and thinning, leaving nothing in his place, and Dia gasping as the cold slowly fled, crawling in the dirt before the Cathedral.

* * *

The phoenix perched on a mushroom a short distance away, watching Hymna and the key from a short distance. The flaming bird cocked its' head to the side, listening to the child speak with the key, and slowly bobbed its' head. Things seemed to be going as planned... almost. But things also seemed to be getting out of hand. The runes on the child had been activated, had drawn her in and trapped her in the universe of the game. But how much would she learn before she was slain? And what of the other? There was much at stake... She hadn't turned out to be the hateful person they'd all expected. The phoenix decided it was glad for that. The other had no problem with hatred, and it held a stranglehold on the others' heart. But why?

She probably had every reason to hate everything, yet here she was, trading caresses with the key. He had every reason to be perfectly happy, but he hated all about him. The phoenix would have to meet with the others. Things needed to be decided.

* * *

"Wow, you guys came back." Sara smirked at Rondo and Hymna as they sat with Sara and Johnson in the grass. "We've found the hackers. Or rather.. Charlie did." Johnson rolled his eyes.

"So... where is he?" Hymna blinked, and Rondo groaned at the grim look that came to Johnson's face.

"They took him." Rondo and Hymna frowned, before Hymna looked towards the trees. A little girl looked out at her from the shadows, smiling slightly as she reaches up to adjust her crystal tiara. Sammy holds her teddy bear up, then waves with her free hand, before turning, disappearing into the shadows.

"Why would they do that?" Rondo muttered.

"Because we're being summoned." Hymna slowly stood, and started towards the trees. Rondo was quick to start after her, while Sara and Johnson lingered.

"Eh? Can't he just log out anyway...?" Sara murmured.

"Maybe the hackers found a way to disable that, at least temporarily." Johnson shrugged, standing and dusting himself off. "In any case, he's part of the team. Let's go." Sara paled somewhat, though no one but Hymna could see it.

"We're going to fight the hackers?" the dread in her voice, however, was quite obvious.

"If it comes to that." Hymna spoke over her shoulder. The four stepped into the trees, not sure what to expect, but ready all the same.

Dia watched them from afar, crouched in the grass, and slowly followed after them, wondering just what to make of it all. Termination. But first, study. She followed slowly behind, crawling through the grass, with an almost-feline grace, her gaze boring into the back of Rondo, the one who had stolen her glory. She'd make him pay. She didn't know how, but she would make him pay.

Rondo glanced over his shoulder, the back of his neck feeling slightly itchy as he felt he was being watched. "Hmmm..." he looked out over the grass, then shrugged, looking back to Hymna, as they headed for the hackers' rift.

Well, I've sat down and read it all... Whenever I read Rondo, I think I'm reading Ronso... (=P Yes, I've said it before, but I'll say it again.)

The plot is intriguing, the characters are well built, and bar the thing I mentioned in IRC (which you explained to me, and which now makes sense), I think it's well written. There is a lot there to read, but I am following more or less what's going on.

Keep on writing it, revising it and developing it. In time, it'll grow and you'll start to surprise yourself with how well you're writing. Good luck with it!

Dia watched the group below fanning out, the sorceress and the two dual class mages attacking a small force of lizard men with a barrage of minor spells. The catman and weapons master held their own enemies at bay not to far away, axe and halberd swinging and slashing in a complimentary dance as Johnson and Rondo stood back to back, surrounded by at least nine of the scaly beasts. The group wasn't really pressed, lizard men came in large mobs because they were weak, and the group was anxious to get to the rift. Dia had noted the escaped hacker girl drifting in and out of the trees and shadows a short distance ahead, always leading, but never letting the group catch up. The glimmer of Sammy's tiara caught Dia's eye, and she looked up, narrowing her eyes slightly as she looked the hacker over.

Sammy stood silently in the shadows, her face devoid of emotion, the girl surrounded by five bodies of the lizard men, verily slaughtered by the girl and her long sword. Dia shivered, unsure of what to make of the people below. She vaguely considered launching a few shuriken at the casting mages, but she slowly shook her head. Jack would be pissed up she ruined this now. She narrowed her eyes, studying the moves of the group as one of the lizard men reached Hymna, who drew her broadsword and set herself. Mages weren't allowed to use broadswords like that. Dia shook her head, muttering. "Impossible..." How did Jack expect her to take down this group? She'd caught Hymna alone and surprised before, and the girl clearly didn't know how to fight, but as she watched the lizard man fall, cut in a sickening cross all the way from its' right shoulder to its' left hip, Dia found herself a bit worried. If she and Hymna fought again, Dia might not come out on top next time.

Rondo would be her target, then. She'd get to Hymna a different way. She'd make Hymna want to delete herself. But how? They couldn't delete the account; Rondo had been making a point of making himself well known on the boards and around the net. Maybe she could capture him? That was risky... Dia drew herself from her thoughts, standing on the high branch as she realized the group was once more on the move, leaving the slain, ash gray monsters in their wake as they passed, Sammy disappearing once more into the trees. A light jump sent her into the next tree, as she followed after the group, silently following.

* * *

Hymna frowned slightly, walking alongside Rondo and Johnson as they took the front of the group, being the strongest of the group. Johnson had suggested Hymna travel in the middle, since she couldn't respawn, but Hymna wanted to be at the front when they found the rift. Besides, the hackers might not be as welcoming to the rest of the group. Rondo took note of that frown out of the corner of his eye, then looked back to the leading girl, whose blade dripped the blood of the lizard men along the path, also helping to lead the way when she occasionally disappeared into the shadows.

"Bloody vines..." Johnson muttered, pushing away some of the thick green vines hanging all about the jungle. Sara was thinking to herself behind him, occupied with her own thoughts about recent events, in particular, her talk with Hymna on the outskirts of the Jungle of Izoria.

"Can we take a break?" Sara chirped up, loud enough that, hopefully, the little girl would hear. She did, coming to a stop at the same time as the rest of the group, who turned to look at Sara curiously. "I'm hungry." She shrugged apologetically. Johnson and Rondo sat down on the ground, their weapons rested across their laps, as Charlie took up a spot nearby, leaning against a tree, and Hymna scaled another tree closer to Sammy, to study the hacker girl as her mind wandered.

"What do you do, anyway, Johnson?" Rondo shrugged slightly, looking at the catman, who looked away, to where Sara had been swift to log out. There was a short pause, and Rondo sat in silence, letting Johnson collect his thoughts and figure out what he wanted to say.

The barbarian looked back to Rondo with a frown on his face, then gave a heavy sigh, looking down to his own lap. "Nothing anymore." He crossed his arms, both dark red furred ears pricking up slightly as he frowned.

"Why not?" Rondo himself had no job at the moment, since the project was clearly finished, but Johnson hadn't been a part of the project. Besides, Rondo felt that there was more to what the catman meant with his simple reply.

"Well, I used to be a biologist." Johnson frowned, then looked to Rondo. "Biology and some computer stuff." he waved his hand absently.

"What happened?" rondo was pretty sure you didn't just 'stop' being a biologist or a scientist.

"I..." Again, his gaze dropped to his lap. Rondo wondered if he should press as the silence grew uncomfortable, drawing a look from Charlie. "I made some bad choices." Charlie shook his head slowly, closing his eyes. "I got in the wrong kind of project. They decided they didn't like me. Took my wife and my daughter..." his voice trailed off and he fell silent.

"You're here to escape." Rondo mused aloud, rubbing his chin now as he looked at the catman, whose house must seem awfully empty now. "Did they get caught? Have you exposed them?"

"I don't even know where to start. The cops aren't any help, they looked for all of a few days before they just threw in the towel and said they must have left. They haven't been found." the cat man's voice was riddled with misery, and Rondo found himself suppressing the urge to sigh along with Johnson.

"So now you don't do anything?"

"What is there for me, out there?" Johnson opened one eye to look at Rondo.

"I don't know." Rondo replied honestly. "But you won't know unless you try to find out." Rondo shrugged, looking up at Hymna, then to Sara, before his gaze returned to Johnson. "You blame yourself?"

"How can I not...?" Johnson looked down at his hands, now resting on his knees, open towards the sky. Rondo took note that the catman was shivering, and frowned. What could he say? It wasn't his fault?

"Hymna and Sara can't replace them." Rondo said in a somewhat hushed voice, so none of the others could hear. Johnson trembled, narrowing his eyes at Rondo, as though he were enraged, and for just a moment, Rondo wondered if the catman would fight him in denial, before the catman stood, and with a great sigh, gathered his axe and moved to lean against Charlie's tree, on the opposite side, staring off into the jungle in silence. Deep down inside, Rondo knew the catman was crying. Charlie cast a curious look Rondo's way, one eyebrow raised, the young mage cleric seeming to suspect him of being the source of Johnson's pain. Rondo simply shrugged at him. Maybe he was. But if he hadn't said anything, he felt sure that the pain would gnaw away at the man's soul. And he didn't really know the catman, but fighting along his side, he had come to decide that Johnson was reliable and a friend. He'd hate to lose the aloof barbarian, who suddenly was much deeper than he had seemed a moment before.

* * *

Not too far away, Sammy sighed softly, standing in the clearing. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty, watching the different members of the group she led on. The lost Hymna, trying to find the lost path to her life. The strong, wise barbarian feline who had made one too many mistakes and felt he had nothing to truly live for. The sorceress who had no real grasp on reality. Sammy knew of the ninja crouching in the trees, thinking herself well hidden, watching with narrowed eyes. Was she their scout? She didn't know anything of the mage/cleric though. He remained a mystery as the group traveled, not really opening up beyond showing his beliefs concerning the hackers. Sammy shrugged. She had been ordered to lead, not to think, and lead she would. She idly cleaned her long sword in the grass, before sheathing it, and looking away from the group, in the direction of the rift.

"Something's wrong..." she whispered aloud, speaking to no one, and no one was close enough to hear her anyway.

* * *

Sammy looks sad, even when she's not frowning. I watch her murmur to herself, before the sound of Sara logging back in comes to me in the tree. I turn slightly, legs dangling over the branch, so I can look down at the others. Rondo's staring off into the trees, as is Johnson, but I know what's on his mind. Me, probably in the VRU. He should take a break. But I know he wouldn't listen to me if I told him to take one. Not now, anyway. The rift is close, I can feel it. But something is wrong. There are no monsters wandering about, nor people. The whole area is uncomfortably silent. It makes me nervous. Maybe this was a bad idea?

* * *

Sammy stared at her empty friends' list with a look of confusion, though her face was once more blank. Where were the others? She turned, to look back in the direction of the rift, but paled as she found herself looking at the dark blue staff of the skinny shadow mage, wrapped in dark blue robes, that stood before her. His icy blue eyes gazed down at her from the shadows of the wide-brimmed hat he wore, and a slow grin came to his face as he tapped the spearhead of his staff into the dirt twice. "Well well well." Sammy leaped back a step, her long sword swiftly drawn as the little girl dropped her bear on the spot, the air around the bear rippling with energy as the bear began its transformation.

Hymna, Johnson, Rondo, and Sara all looked up at sudden commotion in the shadows not too far away. "Eh?" rondo queried, grabbing his halberd as he stood, and took a step towards Hymna's tree. "Hymna, we've got company!" That small step saved his life as a gust of wind picked up, and a cursing ninja dropped from the shadows of a nearby tree, not too far from Johnson and Charlie, landing lightly on her toes as she drew her katana.

"Really?" Hymna began chanting, somewhat low in the tree, her focus being the ninja as she held up the minor oak staff she'd been given with her class change. Johnson pushed off from the tree, and started forward, bringing his axe high.

"It's that nin..." Johnson was cut off as, suddenly, Charlie turned abruptly, his own staff colliding with Johnson's face with a sickening crack, sending the feline barbarian stumbling backwards, confused. Sara blinked, looking back and forth at all the confusion, before she narrowed her eyes at Charlie, beginning to chant, but paling slightly as the cleric turned to look at her, a strange grin on his face.

"How could you?" the words to the spell were lost, as she looked at him, confused. Charlie shrugged slightly.

"Taylor was very persuasive." His voice deepened as he tilted his head, absentmindedly hitting the stumbling catman with the staff once more, dropping him to the ground. Too strong... He was Taylor. Taylor had Charlie's account. But how? Sara looked to the fallen catman, who was slowly moving to stand, then back to Taylor, narrowing her eyes.

"You can't hold us both off." she began chanting again, her staff held high before her, and she struggled to maintain her concentration as a flaming arrow soared past her, a few inches from her face, to slam into the chest of the charging ninja, hurtling her against a nearby tree with a crunch.

"Damnit!" Dia cursed, dropped next to the tree, but quickly getting back to her feet. The katana dropped, and her wrist snapped three times in rapid succession. Sara felt the shuriken sink into her side as she loosed the lightning bolt into the charging Charlie's face, sending him falling on his back, sliding through the grass to hit tree behind him with a thud. He lay there, as Sara fell to her knees, and she knew her character was too weak, and that her role in this battle was over, as her skin began to gray and she felt herself fall forward into the dirt.

Rondo rushed at the ninja, one of the shuriken finding his shoulder as he dashed past the falling mage. He grit his teeth, the halberd held at his side as he drew near, Dia grinning as she quickly picked her katana back up. She met his charge this time, parrying the swinging halberd, then daring to counter as it was thrown out wide. The katana looped over the ducking Rondo's shoulder as he punched out once, then twice, driving the ninja back a few steps, but the katana snapped back up, going for his eyes. The two became locked in combat, trading minor blows as they danced next to Sara's body.

Sammy stood behind the giant bear, and none of the three moved for many moments, despite the noise behind them. Sammy narrowed her eyes, biting her lower lip lightly as she pondered. The Shadow Mage. The Hunter, she was sure of it. Was she really strong enough to stand against him? The giant bear lumbered forward suddenly, the ground shaking slightly as it lurched forward, and its' long claws lead the way as it roared loudly, intent on ripping the mageling to bits. One moment, it looked as though Jack was already out for the count, as the claws closed in. The next moment, three Jacks stood side by side in front of the bear, whose claws ripped through one now flickering image. Three chuckles came in reply to the attack.

"Good job Taylor." Jack muttered, three voices speaking in harmony as the spearstaff was released. It fell to the ground, all three of the spear staffs landing with a faint thud as the three Jacks leapt backwards, the center one still flickering. The bear stood, a bit confused, before starting forward again, deciding to continue chasing the flickering Jack. As it stepped on one of the spears, it suddenly roared, as though in great pain. Sammy blinked, then gasped, as shadows curled around her bear's foot, grasping at it, a dark portal opened between the three spears, engulfing her protector.

"You... cheat..." Sammy looked up at Jack as the bear thrashed, but the shadows wrapped around its thrashing arms, and it began to sink into the dark portal, inch by inch, then foot by foot, the roars becoming strange twisted screams a sickly, dark vapors curled in the air between the shadow mage and the hacker girl.

"Don't we all," said a soft voice behind her. Sammy turned to find the shadow mage looming over her, his angular face leering down at her. His grin was strange, and sent chills down her spine. Maybe it was the fangs. He lurched forward, and Sammy leaped backwards, fearing an attack from the shadow mage. She twisted to the side, and he fell past, smoke rising from his back as he fell in the dirt at her side.

"What?" she blinked, then looked up, to Hymna, who stood a short distance away, staff pointed towards Jack.

"It worked!" she exclaimed, pointing at the crackling energy, traces of the powerful lightning bolt still rippling across Jack's cloak as he groaned.

"You will pay!" he spat, the spit mixed with blood. Sammy gasped as a gloved hand wrapped around her ankle, and a strange cold sensation seeped into her bones. She felt her chest freezing up, and gasped for air, dropping to her knees beside the shadow mage as the world began to swim. He looked over his shoulder at Hymna, and grinned slightly. Not yet. It was too soon. Numbers swirled around Jack and the frozen girl, her skin a faint blue, and then, they were gone.

* * *

Dia and Taylor were gone as well. Dia had run when Jack had taken the child, using a warp-orb to make her escape. Taylor had to respawn. Hymna stood, looking confused as she looked to Johnson and a kneeling, panting Rondo, then to the fallen Sara, and finally, to the shadow spear that rested on the ground not too far away. "What happened?" She frowned, confused. Had they been led into a trap? Hymna moved to Johnson's side, handing him a few healing potions. "Here..." the grayish tint that had come to the cat man's skin slowly faded, and she gave a soft sigh of relief before moving to Rondo's side.

"I'll be fine." He grumbled, glaring down at the ground. There was another thing. Had Charlie betrayed them? Had Charlie even existed in the first place? What was going on outside of the net world? Hymna nodded to Rondo slightly, but set a potion near to him anyway, before she moved to the clearing with the shadow spear. She picked it up easily enough, weighing it in her hands. It felt cold to the touch, and sent shivers down her spine. She could feel the power in the thing.

"Jack..." she muttered. He had taken Sammy. Was that just another trap? Hymna considered the strange look that had come to Sammy's face. She considered the blue veins that had raced up the girl's leg, and had suddenly sprung up on her face as her skin took on the bluish tint. And then there was the Numverse. When Jack had touched Sammy, all of that red jumble suddenly had paled, had been seeping slowly into Jack's cold blue hand. Jack wasn't a red bundle; he was a cold, dead blue. She didn't know what to make of it. She looked to Rondo and Johnson. "We have to save her."

Rondo and Johnson looked to the spear, and Rondo frowned, as though he did not approve of her taking the weapon. Johnson sighed, and shook his head. "We have to wait for Sara to get back, first." He frowned. "I think I'm going to take a break." He cast a slightly worried look to the gray body of the mage cleric, and Hymna and Rondo both understood.

"You live near to him?" Rondo asked. Johnson nodded in response, his face a bit grim.

"I should have known when he got rid of the pope hat." He muttered, rubbing his forehead.

"Stop blaming yourself." Rondo replied, a bit sternly. He slowly rose to his feet, inspecting his bandages, before looking back to Johnson. "And be careful." Johnson raised an eyebrow, tilting his head.

"You know something."

"When I found Hymna, that guy was there, and he tried to shoot me." Rondo nodded slightly. "Be careful when you go to Charlie." He wouldn't say that Johnson might not want to see what happened to Charlie in the long run.

"He bled." They both looked up to Hymna, who stood over the bloody spit Jack had left on the ground where he had taken Sammy. She dropped to one knee, looking closer. "He bleeds. Like me." She said again, then looked up to Rondo and Johnson. "And he used the Numverse to escape. He must have left because he was outnumbered?"

"That, or he has a plan." Rondo muttered. "Maybe both."

"The rift. We can check the rift while we're still around here. We know the direction. Maybe we'll find something?" Hymna shrugged. "Johnson can lead Sara to us when they get back?" Johnson nodded slightly, his face a bit grim. "Then that's what we'll do. We'll figure out Jack together, when we regroup, and collect information." Hymna looked to Rondo, then nodded to Johnson, and waved. "Be careful." Johnson smiled slightly, as his form turned to shadow, and then that, too, disappeared, as he logged out.

Rondo and Hymna turned and started deeper into the Jungle as birds began to chirp and strange jungle predators returned to their usual roars, hisses, and noise. They walked in silence, not really sure what to think about what had happened, Hymna occasionally tugging on the edge of her cape, and Rondo tapping his halberd against passing trees as they walked. "Why would they want to kill me?"

"I don't know, Hymmy." Rondo sighed, glancing up at her. "I don't know." He repeated, looking forward again. They came into a clearing, stopping on the outskirts of what could only be the rift, the rising virii vapors heavy in the air before them over what looked to have once been a blood-red crack in the earth itself. The rift had been sealed. Hymna and Rondo did not move from the edge of the rift too soon. It took them a while to take in the blue-skinned people that lay silently around the rift.

A long moment of silence passed, as they stood there, staring, before Hymna whispered softly "We have to fight them."

"Of course..." Rondo frowned slightly.

"This is wrong." Hymna shook her head. "These people are dead." She turned to face Rondo now. "We have to bury them." Rondo looked confused, looking back to where Sara lay some ways behind them, then back to Hymna. "It's not the same."

"What do you mean?"

"These people will not respawn." Hymna frowned, looking down at a child, a young boy who lay near to the rift, lifeless. "I don't know how I know, but it's true. I don't think they live outside the Networld, anymore, either..." Rondo shook his head, and promptly dropped to sit on the ground, to think.

"We have to do something." He muttered. "But what can we do?" This was a slaughter. There were at least fifteen people lying around the rift. What had possessed Jack to do such a thing? Why had he killed these people? Why had he tried to kill Rondo?

"I need to rest." Hymna sighed. "I'm getting a headache..." she sat next to Rondo, and closed her eyes, shivering. He looked at her a moment, then pulled her into a hug, that he could only hope was comforting, and was somewhat relieved when she hugged him back.

* * *

The phoenix mused. They had argued about Gods and Goddesses. That they were cold, like calculating programs, and did not let interferences get in the way or mess up that which they had created, or that they burned with passion, fueled by emotions even man could not comprehend and that was how they governed. The phoenix was still not sure which was preferred. Things had taken an interesting twist, as the two didn't seem to like each other, in the least. Who would be the victor? Who would be the strongest? They would see.

The phoenix found itself wishing Dr. Jackson hadn't gone and terminated himself. Things would have been much easier with Dr. Jackson directing the two together.

I watch the water flow from my hair,
To the ground, through the air,
As I sit here in the rain,
In despair, full of pain.

I feel so alone, no one can see,
The darkness that has taken me,
They walk past, pass me by,
They think I'm happy, or I'm shy.

The shadows creep up to my feet,
They're so cold, worse than hellish sleet,
Talons sink their icy grip deep into the bone,
I wish I were never born; the crypt should be my home.

I watch the water flow from my hair,
As my heart is frozen, in despair,
As I sit here in the rain,
My world shattered, like glass so stained.

I watch the water flow from my hair,
But the truth is I can't see.
I'm lost to cold despair,
While hope stands next to me.

A fallen angel, hidden in her wings,
I sob, I cry, I hurt.
I dream of far off, painful things,
My heart ground into dirt.

My savior, my friend, stands over me,
And he gives off such a calm,
But my torment has me bound, not free,
Until I feel his palm.

He touches me when I'm alone,
The shadows leave my face,
He whispers hope into my ear,
Dreams of love and grace.

He's always there, just for me,
To catch me when I fall,
To remind me no matter how dark,
I'm not alone at all.

I love him, need him,
Now I see,
But his smile is so weak,
As I look up at him,
At his face,
I feel my heart will break.

His smile crumbles, and I frown,
As he comes down to the ground,
And up I go, looking around,
Before we switch off roles.

The shadows creep up to his feet,
They whisper death and lies,
I try to raise him to stand with me,
Those shadows I despise.

So long we've played this strange dance,
Full of love, yet no romance,
My friend, I plead to you, stand with me,
Together we have a chance.

* * *

Johnson walked down the street in silence, his hands in his pockets as the somewhat skinny, but muscular man made his way through the crowd. He stood tall, near six feet and a half, and most people moved to get out of his way as he walked down the sidewalk, scaring pigeons and intimidating old ladies as he went, glaring. He looked thin at first sight, but anyone looking carefully could see the corded muscles under the somewhat small T-shirt he had thrown on in a hurry, and his legs carried him with a pace that would keep a normal man jogging to keep up, but was rather normal for Johnson. "Charlie..." he muttered, coming to a stop at the corner of an intersection, standing amongst several giggling and chatting children. He ran a hand through his short blond hair, with dark blue highlights, and took a deep breath. He was still trying to prepare himself for whatever he might find. It was unlike Charlie to go around giving out any of his passwords, for any reason.

Johnson grit his teeth as several of the children looked up at him, then moved away slightly, to the curb. He felt like an ugly bear as he crossed the street, overtaking and passing the small group quickly and continuing on his way towards the apartment Charlie stayed in. What would he find?

* * *

Sammy slowly opened her eyes, to darkness. The little girl gasped, sitting up abruptly, thinking herself blind as her hands were thrust out in front of her, to feel around. She almost burned her left hand in the intense blue fire that suddenly sprung up next to her, on a flaming torch set a bit low in the wall. She scooted backwards, wincing and shielding her eyes for a moment, before her back hit the cold, iron bars of a cell.

"Ah, so you decided to join us."

Sammy looked over her shoulder, wincing, to see the shadow mage standing on the other side of the bars, outside of the square, simple cell. She couldn't see beyond Jack. Behind and around them was nothing but darkness. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, trying to push away the distinct cold feeling that was developing in her chest, a reminder of the fight in the Jungle. She could log out!

Jack chuckled as the little girl's form turned to shadow, the shadow quickly fading. In the fraction of a second it took that shadow to form and begin fading, cold blue dust began to form on the shadow, like sprinkles, holding and freezing it as it struggled to repeat. Sammy gasped, feeling as though she were being torn in two in her fight to log out of the game, both freezing and burning in hellfire as she wailed, caught in the vortex. A brief flash of that intense pain, and she was sitting on her ass, once more, in the jail cell, wiping frantically at the tears running down her cheeks.

"Aww, you don't want to play anymore?" Jack kneeled down next to the cell, grinning. He was amused by all of this. Sammy didn't really hear him though. She was staring at the wetness on her fingers, feeling the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"How?" she murmured softly, her usually steady, calm voice trembling as the hacker stared. So much time working on the game, breaking the codes, and now she was a part of it. Jack snapped his fingers, startling her and drawing her attention as she looked back at him.

"I'd explain, but it's far too much for such a simple mind." He smiled. "You're mine now." He stood then, crossing his arms and looking down at her with a smile. Sammy turned to face him, scooting back somewhat as she sniffed, trying to stop her crying and looking down to her lap, to the somewhat blue-stained dress, now dirty.

"Never." They never gave up in the movies, or in stories. Sammy glared up at him, trying to feel defiant, and showing it.

"Forever." Jack chuckled. "You can't go anywhere. You are bound to me, just as I bound the other fools." Jack narrowed his eyes at her then. "You don't want to end up like the others, now do you?"

"The others?"

"Your past friends, the hackers." Jack grinned. "Tampering with my world." he frowned a moment, then continued. "My game. And thinking to get her help." He closed his eyes, and licked his lips, thinking of the fun he'd had before sealing the rift. "They're mine."

"What did you do?!" Sammy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did he hurt her friends? The shadow mage suddenly reached out, his right palm held out towards the jail cell, fingers spread wide. There was a long silence as Sammy looked down to the ground, trying to think, before the whispers began. A chill wind began to pick up in the cell, whispers surrounding her, distant screams and cries, confusion, a child crying for help. Sammy's hands went to her ears, clapping over them just as fast as the cold wind stopped and Jack stepped back, shrugging.

"They were in the way and causing trouble. So I took them."

"In the way of what...?" Sammy closed her eyes, wondering if she really wanted to know anymore. "Why didn't you take me too?"

"Hymna. I want Hymna to be at my side. Together, we can change everything to our hearts' desire, and make sure this world never ends, is always new, growing, living." Jack smiled slightly. "We would be amazing working together. We would purge the game of the filth and continue with the potential, and we will grow." Jack licked his lips at the thought, looking to the torch across from him now, the blue fire dancing in his eyes. "Hymna knows you. She saved you. She'll try to, again. She's weak like that. And then, I will have her." Sammy shook her head slowly; eyes closed, her knees coming up to her chin as she began to rock slowly, murmuring something in reply. "What?"

"I said you're evil." Sammy said, a bit louder, though her voice was still hushed. Jack narrowed his eyes, but took a deep breath, one hand gripping one of the iron bars now as he forced a grin back to his face.

"I'm efficient. If I were evil, Hymna would be dead, and everyone else. I have that kind of power, you know."

"You bleed." Jack narrowed his eyes now, and Sammy winced as she felt the anticipated cold begin to swell in her chest, feeling her heart slowing within her. "You bleed..." her voice was faint, weak, and her lungs too frozen to get the words out properly. But he heard. Sammy coughed once, her lungs fighting the cold, then once more, before darkness fell over her, and she lay still.

"You die." Jack glared down at the blue-skinned little girl curled on the ground in the cell, hating her even as he took her. The Numverse swirled around them then, Jack working quickly to catch the red bundle of letters and numbers that swirled over the fallen shell that had been Sammy's digital body. "Mine." He pointed at the floating red mass, which began to move up, heading skywards to goodness knew where, before a cold, icy blue began to surround it, pulling it back slowly as Jack grit his teeth. "I'm not done with you, little girl. Not at all." She was his.

* * *

Johnson stared down at Charlie, the eighteen year-old man rubbing his forehead and standing in the doorway, looking to have just woken as he stared right back at Johnson. Charlie wasn't even dressed, wearing a T-shirt, boxers, and some socks. His room was a mess, as usual, looking as though a tornado had ripped through it. "What? You don't have to break my frickin' door down man." The expression on his face was sour as he rubbed at his eyes.

"You're alright..." Johnson blinked a few times, then frowned. "Man, you got hacked. When's the last time you were even logged on?"

"What?" Charlie clearly hadn't woken fully yet. "I'm dead tired Johnny. What the hell are you doing here?" Charlie scowled up at him. "You could have at least called first."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Johnson rubbed the back of his neck. What was that word? "Gomen."

"Feh. Come in come in." Charlie ducked back into his room, shying away from the eyes of the girls down the hall as Johnson followed him into the room, careful not to trip over the soda cans rolling about on the floor. Japanese cartoon posters decorated the entire room. Trash was scattered about, Charlie's bed wasn't made, and his clothes lay in a heap in the corner. The only clean things in the entire room were the bookcase and his computer, and their corner of the room. Three chairs and a small table sat in the center of the single room, with one of the chairs placed near the small fridge and television Charlie used.

"Welcome to the junkyard." Johnson muttered to himself as he dropped heavily into one of the chairs, earning a glare from Charlie. That glare was gone in a flash though, as he moved to the fridge and opened it up.

"Hey, you want anything to drink?" Charlie looked over his shoulder. "I got a new manga in the mail!"

"Good for you." Johnson didn't really care for the stuff, himself. He rolled his eyes, looking towards the computer. "Yeah, I'll take a soda, don't care which kind." The soda water set before him earned Charlie a glare. "Other than that."

"All right all right." he fumbled around inn the fridge. "You like grape right?"

"Sure." Johnson sighed as the purple soda was set before him, looking down at the small can.

"You asked when was the last time I was logged on." Charlie sat down in the opposite chair, sipping some brand of lemon-flavored soda. "I logged out in the forest. Had a friend over. We were watching one of those old shows. Which one was it?" Charlie snapped his fingers, looking down at his lap as he thought, before catching the slowly falling glasses and pushing them back up his nose.

"The forest?" Johnson looked up at Charlie.

"Yeah. When I was class changing. Made a great choice. You should try a class change sometime." Johnson just scowled, before the big bear replied.

"You got hacked."

"That's not possible." Charlie sipped his soda, then smiled at Johnson. "You know that."

"Then Taylor seized your account somehow. Weird things are going on man. You should have stuck around. Hymna and Rondo are waiting for us and Sara at the rift."

"My account? I hope he hasn't changed the password." Charlie looked cross. Would he have to go tinkering with the operating system all over again? Maybe it was that new person-to-person program he'd grabbed. "Where's Sara then? Studying?"

"No. She got PKed." Johnson looked at Charlie silently, then looked towards the computer. "We need to get our own answers."

"What do you have in mind?" Charlie frowned at Johnson, rubbing his chin.

"The servers we all play on are linked. I did some pinging and poking about. Sara's not the only one in our party who lives nearby." Johnson nodded.

"Hymna and Rondo live here too?"

"No. But they can't be that far away. I think I'm going to try and find them. Maybe I can get Hymna to give me her address. Tell Sara. We can all go. Make it a trip, maybe." Charlie pondered, tapping the center of his glasses as he thought, then nodded slightly.

"There's a new problem the administration is fretting over."

"Eh?" Johnson raised an eyebrow, looking at Charlie.

"The game. I haven't played for a bit, but I have checked the message board. People are taking the things in the game into their own hands."

"What do you mean?"

"There is an iron factory on the rise, being made by some of the stronger players. Some people are reporting player killers walking around with guns..."

"Guns... the game is getting a little too real for my liking." Johnson muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. "We can look into that stuff later." he waved one hand, and opened one eye to fix it on Charlie. "First we have to see the rift with Hymna and Rondo, and save Hymna's friend." Charlie glanced at his bookcase, then frowned, looking down at his table. "We might have to save Sara's character too. They might have had people waiting at the respawn point."

"I haven't seen Sara in a while. Let's go then." Charlie nodded, standing.

"In your boxers?"

"It's right down the hall." Charlie shrugged. Johnson stood with him, shaking his head as he followed him out of the room, and they started down the hallway.

* * *

"The Iron Factory." I stare at the message before me, a strange feeling running through me as I shiver. Jack was calling me.

"What's wrong, Hymmy?" Rondo tilts his head, standing over one of the finished graves, looking at me. He winces. "Other than this." He motions towards the rift.

"Jack messaged me. Sammy's at the Iron Factory." I nod slightly as I speak, then turn to look at Rondo fully. I have to save her. He knows it.

"We'll go when Sara and the others get here."

"No. It's too dangerous for you all." Jack would kill them, just as he killed the Rift hackers.

"You don't know how to find the Iron Factory. We have sources." Rondo nods slightly at me. He's right; I don't have access message boards and messengers beyond the game. I close my eyes, thinking, before I reach a simple decision. I'll find out, and then I will use the Numverse to get there myself.

"You're right. Sorry..." I turn away, looking towards the trees and biting my lower lip. I don't want to trick them. But I can't let them be put at risk. The idea of Rondo, a pale translucent blue, flashes through my mind, and I close my eyes. "Sorry."

"That's alright. I don't blame you." Rondo chuckles lightly. "Not at all." I sigh softly, running a hand through my red hair as I continue to ponder. What does Jack want from me? Why didn't he just kill us all? Is he stronger than me? My grip on the spearstaff, which I'm using more like a walking stick, tightens.

"We'll find them." For some reason, I feel rather sick.

* * *

Sara frowned slightly as she held up her new staff, eyeing the bejeweled crown with a slight feeling of disgust crept over her.

"You have served well. But it is not enough." Dia narrowed her eyes at Sara; the ninja crouched in the darker shadows of the barn.

"It was more than enough. You cannot comprehend the power Jack has put into that staff."

"It doesn't make me feel any better." Sara closed her eyes, thinking.

"You are a traitor. They will not trust you again."

"You gave me no choice." Sara murmured softly. She opened one eye, to find a katana resting lightly against her neck, Dia's cold gaze staring into her eyes.

"That's right. It's just a game." Dia purred lightly. "Just a little fun between PKers. You just steer them the right way, and we'll do the rest."

"For what?"

"To get rid of Hymna and Rondo. And then you and your friends can play in peace all you want. Just like you should." Dia smiled at Sara, who didn't feel one bit better as the ninja withdrew, making her way out of the empty barn, leaving Sara in shadow.

"What can I do...?" Sara stared down at the staff in silence. She'd respawned, and Jack and Sammy had already been there. Sammy had looked so weak. Jack scared Sara. He would kill them all, she was sure, unless she gave over Hymna and Rondo. But then, he'd kill them too, she was sure. But what could she do? She had to choose. Grimly, she rose to her feet, and followed the ninja out, watching the ground as she walked. If she went against them, Jack would kill Charlie and Johnson, and it would be all her fault. She didn't know Rondo and Hymna.

I'm dreaming. I know it, because I'm in a void. I feel nothing around me but a faint cold. There's no air, I'm not breathing. All around me is darkness, and my arms and legs are spread as though I am floating on water. But there is no water. Once or twice I've lifted my hand to see if I could see it, and I could not. I was weary. Now I'm resting. But I haven't slept for months on end. Living in the digital part of the multi-verse has allowed me to make greater use of my energy. I live off of data.

Something is out there, in the darkness. Something I am looking for. A soft voice calls out, and I can see, far off, a small candle in the dark. A little blue flickering flame, fighting a wind I do not feel. "Help me..." someone cries weakly, across the void. My feet touch something solid. The ground? I settle on the ground, hands going to my sides as I stand there, staring out towards the crying flame. What a strange dream.

Either the candle, or something else, begins to give off a bright light, and the light illuminates the space. There's no other word for it. I stand on the edge of a rift, a bottomless void, and on the other side, a child sobs, on her knees and crying for help. She is burning. She is the candle. The cliffs are made of dull gray rock and dust. Not a living plant or animal, other than the girl, is in sight. But around the cliff, even imbedded in the rift's side, trailing down into the void, are gray, laughing skulls. Their empty eyes stare into the darkness as they mock life for eternity. They seem ageless, and I feel the frost clinging to my spine in the very air around me. It's cold.

What kind of dream is this? "Sammy?" I tilt my head, looking across the rift at the little girl, as she looks up. I can tell, even from this distance, that those jade green eyes are Sammy's. Doesn't she feel the fire? Her eyes are dull, and I step closer, reaching out towards her, thinking to NumJump. No swirling numbers come to me, and I blink a few times, looking down to my hand, then back to Sammy. Her eyes aren't so dull anymore, as they take on a haunted look, and she stands, swaying. Is she hurt?

"Sammy what's going on?!" I call out over the rift, putting a hand on my hip and biting my lower lip. What can I do?

How to cross?

"Hymna..." A soft voice speaks, but it isn't Sammy's. Something wet falls onto my back, then trickles down as I quickly turn. Sammy's tormentor?

No. What I see is far stranger. I see Mother, standing next to a twist, giant purple virtual reality unit. The identification digits, normally a dark black, are a blazing fiery red. My unit. My mother stands next to the unit, in the rain, trembling as she peers in at something I cannot see. But I can feel it. Half of me is becoming soaked in the rain, as I rub my neck lightly, feeling a ragged wound there as I shiver with fear and a cold sinking feeling I can't quite figure out.

I am dead. I don't like this dream. A rift separates my mother and myself, much like I am separated from Sammy. I look back to her now, before wiping at the single tear making its way down my cheek. Have I died? Have I died... again? Is Sammy dead too?

"They'll pay..." mother whispers. But I can hear her clearly, as though she's standing right next to me. I guess she is, isn't she?

"Yes. Yes she is." Jack speaks, but when I look around, I don't see him anywhere.

"Get out of my dream."

"This isn't a dream." A gloved hand appears at the rift edge, closest to Sammy, but on my side, followed by another. The pointed hat comes up next, followed by those bright, piercing blue eyes, and that cold grin as he pulls himself up. He stares at me the entire time, and I find I cannot bring myself to push him. To end the problem.

"What is this then?" I grit my teeth, one hand going to the hilt of the broadsword slung over my back.

"You cannot log out, Hymmy." He licks his lips, then steps towards me, dust curling around his dark boot like smoke. I draw my blade, the sound of the metal being pulled from it's sheathe somehow reassuring in the sudden silence of the void, save for the falling rain and the occasional sob. "This is as close as you can get without dying."

"Where are we?" I hate him. Why has he done this to me? He knows. Why is he terrorizing me?

"Sammy's dead because of you. Well, almost. She's fading fast." Jack motions over his shoulder, towards the sobbing girl. "She'll be lost in the game forever."

"No..." I take a step back, confused. "You didn't."

"She is... was a brat." Jack chuckles darkly. He points over my shoulder. "And your nosy bitch of a mother is going to start asking too many questions and get herself killed too."

"How could you?!" I start forward, teeth clenched. Why hadn't I pushed him?

"That's right. You feel it, the burning. That's how you learn." Jack is rambling, and I don't care what he's talking about. I just want him to shut up. I narrow my eyes, my broadsword coming high as I hiss lightly. "You can still save her. Them both, actually." I freeze, no more than a few feet from him. I feel so pathetic right now. "Unlike you, I can log out. I can bring her back across..." he points to the burning Sammy. "And I can show your mother you're not dead." Jack grins, holding out a hand. "I can take away all of your problems."

"You made my problems!"

"Maybe so. But you've got to understand, you've got a lot of potential I can't afford to ignore, dear." I shiver, tensing up a little and trying to calm my breathing as I bite my lower lip. "You work with me. System Administrator."

"Administrator...?" I tilt my head, listening now. Mother and Sammy. "Of the game?"

Jack covers his mouth, a light giggle escaping him, before he closes his eyes, grinning, and clasps his hands behind his back. "Heck no."

"Then what?"

"Of the world." Jack motions with his hand.

"The game world?" Jack sighs, and rubs his forehead.

"No. All of the human race is run now, by electricity and money." Jack looks at me through one icy blue eye, and a small grin comes back to his face. "The game we choose to reside in is not the only place we might exist."

"What do you mean?" I straighten now, sighing lightly as my broadsword hangs at my side. A low wail comes from across the rift.

"The game is connected to the internet. The Internet is spread across the globe, used by nearly everyone except those that simply cannot afford it, and we of the world think they're being left behind, and are trying to get them introduced to the concept as well." Jack snaps his fingers. "We live here. We control this place."

I nod slowly, not exactly grasping what he's getting at. "So...?"

"We can go beyond the game. Everything is ones and zeroes. Because we have the ability to see and change, we have the ability to do as we please. To be Gods, if you will. Well, Demigods."

"Demigods?"

"You don't think we'd be at the top, do you? No, there are others, in even more powerful places. The games they like to live in differ, if games at all." Jack shrugs. "But we need many, many people to manage the Internet." Jack turns to look towards Sammy, burning in her cold fire. She's not in pain. She is consumed by fear, and dying. I shake my head, confused.

"Our job is to handle those that try to disturb how the network works." Jack looks over his shoulder. "From games to business software to military warfare. We are to terminate hackers and their programs. It is what we were made for."

"Terminate?"

"No one likes giving up. And jail doesn't seem to work. You'd think finding out what happens when you drop the bar of soap might change a few things, but no, they come back looking for new ideas, or they find themselves in even more powerful positions than before." Jack rubs his forehead lightly with one gloved finger as he closes his eyes. "It vexes me. We remove them with whatever force we fill is necessary."

"You killed those hackers at the rift..."

"Nah." Jack turns to face me, then grins, and shrugs. "I just made a few... extractions. Took a few of their ideas away from them, I guess."

"We found them dead."

"They're alive. They can't access the game anymore. I guess they might think a little differently now, what with me doing my tinkering, but they're alive all the same." Jack shrugs. "Besides, who cares? You didn't know them, and you'll certainly never meet them in real life."

I blink a few times, staring at him, then frowns. "You can log out." Jack eyes me, grinning, and shrugs. "How? How do you log out?"

"I have my ways. Would you like to be able to do that too?" I'm trapped. Jack has all the cards. This isn't an offer, it's a demand.

"What if I refuse?" I bite my lower lip, looking at Jack.

"Then everyone who knows too much won't know or say anything at all soon enough. We don't need people realizing that every single thing they do can be monitored, or that the very way they think and live could be altered by a handful of people." Jack smirks. "And we really don't need them knowing that some people are bred for no other purpose." Jack points over my shoulder now, and I look back, to my Mom, then back to him. "You call her your mom. But she's not."

"What?" I take a deep breath, trying to keep myself steady. This guy is a killer. He's a dirty player, and he's probably lied to me throughout half of this dream.

"It's not a dream, and I'm not lying. Your 'mother' was carefully chosen based off of your looks, so you could overlook the few physical differences very easily. You're programmed, Hymna."

"How are you reading my thoughts? And what the fuck are you talking about?" The broadsword is back up. Jack just grins at me.

"Ones and zeroes. Throw in a little hexadecimal. You're beautiful, Hymna. You have scars, but they make you look exotic. Yet you've never been close to anyone, and have always preferred playing games and using the computer to being with people. Even your relationship with your mother was shallow, at best. You don't even have a clue who your father is. Truth is, Dr. Jackson couldn't find a man to take his place." Jack shrugs again as my broadsword falls to the ground with a clatter. A clatter that sounds so very far away as I stare at Jack. "Oh, don't think he didn't care. If he didn't, he wouldn't have killed himself, I suppose. Then again, they probably programmed him to do that too." Jack suddenly looked very weary.

"You did this." I kneel, grabbing my broadsword. "You destroyed my life."

"You never had a life." Jack grins and shrugs. "The Iron Factory. You have a week. If you're not there by then, I'll have to assume you've declined my offer." Jack looks over my shoulder, and I know he's looking to my mother as he whispers

"Ta ta." He fades to shadow, then vanishes. I look over my shoulder.

My mother is gone. A strange darkness sweeps from the rift, both rifts actually, curling in the air, surrounding my like a fog. "Sammy! I'll save you!" I call out as the dark shroud masks her form. Emptiness surrounds me. Darkness.

* * *

I open my eyes, sitting on the branch of a tree, where I had fallen asleep. I look down, silent, as I hear talking below.

"We have to go. We can't wait for the others." Sara motions a bit frantically with her hands. "If we wait around too long she's going to die, and he's going to come for you guys too." She bites her lower lip. "The Iron Factory is near the Cathedral of Storms." That's all I need to know. Numbers swirl around me, and a few moments later, I'm stretched across one of the pews, sighing softly, as thunder rips through the silence of the cathedral.

* * *

Rondo nodded to Sara's words, half-listening as he glanced up the tree. Had Hymna gone off to think again? Something nagged at the back of his mind, that he should be worried, and should be on the move. He wrote it off as paranoia as Sara talked.

"He's going to kill." Sara tensed up, frozen, and Rondo stared at her, eyes going wide, before her form turned to shadowy vapor and she logged out.

"She's serious." Rondo frowned darkly. He was alone. Hymna had run ahead of him, and apparently, someone had just disconnected Sara. He had to follow, and he had to travel fast. Rondo ran a hand through his hair, then chuckled lightly. "Well, at least it's an interesting game." He sighed, and started stretching. He was going to be doing a lot of running.

* * *

Sara blinked as the VR goggles were tugged from her face. She trembled, blinking a few times as the bright lamplight of her room stung her eyes and her hand came up to shield her face. "I did what you asked!"

Charlie and Johnson both stared down at her, then frowned at each other. "Did what we asked?" Charlie tugged on the sleeve of Sara's shirt, to draw her hand from her face so she could see whom she was speaking to. She looked at Charlie, and her face promptly flushed bright red.

"I mean... uh... I thought you were my classmate. I promised to do her homework." Sara nodded nervously. She was sweating, and the room was cold. Johnson sighed.

"What did you do, Sara?" The bear of a man looked down at her, his face grim. Sara looked at him, shivering slightly, and considered lying to him. She instead looked away, to some far corner of the room, and gave a soft sigh before muttering.

"I saved your lives."

"Where were you? I thought you and Charlie might have been paid a visit by some bad people." Johnson frowned. "You were taking an awfully long time to get back."

"I got back, thank you very much. Look you two, don't worry about Rondo and Hymna." Sara turned to look at them both, and nodded. "I solved the problem." Charlie raised an eyebrow as he pushed his glasses up.

"The problem?"

"Jack won't bother us anymore." Sara nodded slowly.

"What changed his mind?" Johnson scratched his head.

"I was talking to the ninja girl, Dia. She said all Jack wanted was Rondo and Hymna, and he would be happy and leave the rest of us be." Sara smiled up at them. "So you guys don't have to worry about anyone showing up at our doors either. It's all solved!"

Johnson looked on the verge of exploding. Charlie's face was red, and he closed his eyes, trying to think. "You're saying you gave them up to save our skin." Sara nodded slowly when Charlie looked at her again.

"So what, they're just net people anyway. We don't know them."

"We do know them. Maybe we can't touch them and feel them, but they were, and are, our friends." Charlie looked down at Sara, then sighed. "Great friend you are, Sara." Sara blinked. How could they not be grateful?

"We're going back. We have to find the Iron Factory." Johnson spoke up. He was already at the door, and giving them both his back as he opened it. "They need every bit of help they can get. We saw that when Hymna tried to take on the ninja band. She's still learning and we vowed to help her." He stepped out. Charlie looked down at Sara a moment longer, frowning, then followed after, the door closing silently behind them.

Sara watched them go with a slightly confused look on her face, then looked down to the VR goggles that had fallen into her lap. She closed her eyes, and slowly picked them up and set them on the desk. "I think I'm going to take a break from you..." she stood up, and made her way to her bedroom, shivering and knowing she'd made a bad decision somewhere back there.