(Only those involved in the plot "The Game Has Changed" may enter this topic. This will cause definite changes in Space Paranoids.

Timewise, for Kira, this is after "Infusion," and for Azumi, it is after "Hot Times Under Water.")

All things considered, this was, technically speaking, what Azumi had asked for.

Duck under a flying red light disc, jump over a slicing red-bladed staff beneath her feet. Stab a green-lined knife into the staff user's black helmet to force him back before kicking him away as he collapsed into bits and bytes, derezzed. Duck again as the disc came back.

She had just come here to train, but the place was in chaos. Insects and these black-and-red warriors were charging out through the open portal in the Central Computer Mesa. That "Tron" person was calling for help in the I/O Tower while she was fighting along the Solar Sailer, more and more of these guys dropping down on her. If she could just get to the source and cut it off, things would be...was that a [i]tank[/i]?

The woman dove to the side to avoid a blast that took out the middle of her platform, dropping it down below into cyberspace. More of those Black Guards were dropping down on their parachutes of red light as she took out the disc user and a large, spider-like bug that disintegrated into a shower of binary coding. Hopefully Tron could get help to this place soon, and meet her at the Mesa.

Green lines of corruption worked their way along the blue walls as the forces came.

She needed some serious help, and to figure out what was going [i]on[/i] here.[/quote]

====

A red beam of light shot down from the digital sky, landing on the Solar Sailer.  When it landed, the red light reformed into the shape of Zero, his Z-Saber already drawn and the familiar whine of a charging buster coming from both of his arms.

He had come to check on the digital world after defeating the Mavericks, just to make sure there were no more problems.

Obviously, there were.

Sparing no time to check on Azumi, he quickly fired two charged shots from his Z-Busters at two of the dark armored soldiers, de-rezzing them.  He spun towards another of the spider-things, and with the charge still in the beam saber, made a two-handed swing with the weapon, a wave of energy flying at the armored enemy, literally slicing it in half before the two pieces disappeared in a flash of binary.

Turning again, his Z-Saber clashed with another black-clad enemies' energy staff.  Seeing an opening, he stabbed forward with a Raijingeki attack, his weapon surging with energy and going right through his opponent.

He moved so that he was next to Azumi, still fending off the onslaught of enemies, and keeping a wary eye on the tank.  He couldn't take that down on his own.  Okay, he probably could, but not at this range.

"Give me the situation."  He said to the soldier, as he blocked an incoming disk with his beam saber.

====

[size=1](Just to note: timeline-wise for Audrey, this is before "Fear Himself")[/size]

"Are you frikkin' kidding me?"

That was all Audrey had to say when she saw what became of Space Paranoids. She came here to have a bit of fun while Cid was fixing up her ship a bit. Granted, the engineer was acting a little weird when she arrived...but she decided not to ask why. It probably wasn't too important.

Anyway, getting back on track, the Dream Mage came here for a small vacation, and this is what she comes to. Insects, soldiers in black and red...and was that a tank up ahead?

Well, seeing two other people ahead, best to have strength in numbers. Audrey started to run ahead, doing her best to dodge the enemies around her. Some would get in her way, to which she would either fight off or find some other way around them. But, after fighting off some of the bugs and black-clad guards, she managed to reach the area with the two Interferences and the...

...wait...she somewhat recognized the long-haired one, but the other...

"Azumi!?" Audrey exclaimed, shocked to see the soldier from the Halo 'verse here. "You're an Interference now?"

====

"Shadow..." Footsteps slammed into the ground circuitry as dark magic began to coalesce. An spider-like program tried to jump on Hawk, but he rolled under it, silver data lines glowing faintly. Getting to his feet, the depowered shinigami slammed his hand into the side of one of the red and black warriors, releasing the built-up magic with a shout almost akin to a roar. "CLAW!"

Dark energy propelled itself into five sharp points, digging into the program's core and shattering its matrix, sending it flying as it derezzed. But already Hawk was on the move again, dashing through the foes around him as he attempted to move on. He'd been hanging around in Radiant Garden's castle, and while heading to Space Paranoids, actually heard Tron's message. So now he was here, running.

"Right, where is that person Tron mentioned...?" Looking around, Hawk swore and fell into a slide, the black boots his data form came with scraping against the ground. Speaking of which, he was wearing something akin to armoured jeans and a zipped-up jacket with armour plating on the shoulders, silver data lines running along the 'clothing'.

Drawing the serrated, skeletal Blood Sword, Hawk stabbed up into a spider, slicing it in two. Getting up with a one-armed push, he let out a deep breath as he turned and ran into the Solar Sailer room.

====

Azumi kicked another of the Interceptor spider programs off of the sailer after stabbing it through the thorax, watching its disintegrating form for a split second before she turned, sheathing her knife as she drew her pistol instead. Three shots took down two of the Black Guards, and she took aim to the sky, firing twice to take down two more mid-landing.

Unfortunately, one of them dropped a kind of device near her. It was a black disc with an orange outline, a yellow circle within. The thing fell toward her, and hit the ground, sticking there.
[i]Beep... beep...[/i]

This was bad. She dove aside as she screamed. "[i]Fire in the hole![/i]" An explosion then took out a smaller portion of the platform than the tank blasts had. Only when she got up did she start to answer those around her (taking note of the fox, but honestly not really being in the mood to ask at the present moment), using an upturned portion of the platform for cover from incoming explosions or discs for a short time. In the meantime, she reloaded.

Zero first. "Sitrep: FUBAR. I go in here for training, and that Tron guy's going on and on about some 'portal' in the Central Computer Core. Told me to help shut it down. Where all of these guys are coming from. Asked how it got there, but he wouldn't tell me, and I don't have time to argue."

Audrey next. From the outfit change as had been the case with Hawk, she assumed a long time had passed. Things happened, after all. "Been at it for a few weeks my time. Slipspace rupture and temporal portal. Layman's? I'm in your time now. We'll catch up later, Audrey."

She leaned around the makeshift cover, firing at a swarm of smaller bugs a few times before another tank blast took it out by chance.

Ducking into cover again, she spoke to them. "That guy better get backup on [i]that side[/i] to take out that tank, or we are dead in the water. I don't have the firepower."

=====

Meanwhile, Tron ran up beside Hawk on that side of the simulation, having come from the I/O Tower (ignoring the secret passage they had made to secure something) after the call for help. "Hawk!" His identity disc was out, and he pointed to a terminal. "We need to initiate a data transfer to the Central Computer Mesa! They need more direct help, and I can't rez up a new solar sailer from here!"

Quickly, he put in a brief series of commands. "Step up close to me, and we'll transmit right over to that tank!"

====

Zero was forced to dodge the blast from the tank, dashing to find his own cover.  Ducking behind a panel that had been bent upwards, he could only nod at Azumi's brief description of the situation before taking a few uncharged potshots at the enemies with his Z-Buster.

But it was the tank, not the small-fry, that was the main issue.  The Reploid knew that he couldn't take it down on his own, but maybe he could distract the fire long enough for Tron to take it out from behind.

Waiting for one of his busters to be fully charged, and the other to have at least been half-way full of energy, he looked at the other three, yelling "Cover me!" before rushing out at the tank; dashing left and right to both draw and dodge its fire.  He let loose a blast from one of his Z-Busters, doing some damage to the tank, but not nearly enough to defeat it.

He couldn't keep this up forever, so Tron better get there soon.

====

Audrey, after nodding to Azumi and noting who the other two were finally (Zero from the Megaman X games and Tails from the Sonic series), leapt to the side to dodge the blast from the tank. Thanks to the adrenaline rush, she was able to get far enough to avoid the blast before she got right back up and ran for cover herself. Dodging more insects and discs thrown by the guards, the Dream Mage managed to duck behind another panel, a portion of it already blown off, but still enough for her to protect herself.

"And I just got here after another zerg rush from new enemies!" Audrey yelled, pulling out her guns and firing at the insects to keep them at bay. "Yeah, this is how I want to spend my time off! This is just [i]peachy keen[/i], I tell you!"

[i][color=white]"Alright, enough with the complaining, Audrey. You're in enough of a rut as it is; just try and focus takin' these guys out before Tron gets here."[/i][/color]

====

The situation was about to take a complete turn as a stream of data burst forth from the ground, revealing two battle-ready figures. Tron ran forward, despite having just transported the duo, flinging his disc with great force at the tank, which had swivelled its cannon to face the newcomers behind it. It fired, but the disc flying towards it sliced the blast in half, curving in an almost impossible manner to return to its thrower.

"Let's do this!" Hawk charged forward, darting from behind Tron and towards the tank. The machine readied for another blast, aiming its next blast before firing. However, the depowered shinigami it was fighting didn't know the meaning of "retreat". Tensing, he leapt over the blast, sailing into the air as he fought gravity.

"Don't get distracted!" Tron attacked once more, disc impacting the end of the barrel with surprising force and cutting the end off, the razor edge whistling as it cut the metal with ease and the end derezzed into square particles. The machine was far from harmless, as it could always try to run them over.. But it wouldn't get another chance to fire. For from above came a bright light.

"Shining..." Hawk pulled back the Blood Sword with both hands, the weapon glowing with a silvery light as it sailed through the air. He didn't know how he was pulling this next attack off, this was just like back with re-acquiring Shadow Claw, instinctual. The blade sliced into the metal of the tank as he let out his triumphant call. "SLASH!"

Light magic ripped into the internal workings of the tank, setting off a catastrophic failure as the armour broke away and the framework turned into square particles, before the system exploded with great force, kncking the airbourne Hawk backwards and leaving him to slam into the ground hard, groaning as the last remnants of the mobile artillery vanished into cyberspace.

====

(Secondary note: For Isaac and Naito, this is after "Claw Finger" and "Sea of Dreams" respectively.)

Azumi, on the other hand, did not hold off. Yes, the tank was destroyed due to the timely interference (pun not intended...mostly) of Hawk and Tron. But those soldiers and bugs were still around, this wave still coming. She shouted to the fox as she fired. "Not the damned time!"

Then came two blurs, flying out of the core beyond and colliding with two of the Black Guards. Those two derezzed, surprising the remainder of this wave. A fireball launched from one, blood red, burning a chute, and a black smoke swirled around the group, which broke into chaos, cutting at each other and derezzing in midair.

"Flew" was an operative word. One had dark wings out along with his maroon circuitry suit. The other had failed on his back, his light blue suit lit.

Isaac helped Naito to his feet as the broken sailer came to the Mesa, nodding to Hawk. "Nice sword." He knew full well it was his once. In worse times.

Naito, on the other hand, looked to the others, as Azumi vaulted the makeshift cover to get on sure ground. "We need to save her."

"If anything can be saved. I go on the world first. That's more relia--"

Azumi cut them off. "Look, someone tell us what is [i]really[/i] going on."

Tron nodded slowly, wary of another imminent wave of foes. "K1-R4 is rampant."

Azumi blanked for a second. Rampancy, the closest thing to AI insanity. Kira had been accused of it many times. Apparently she was still around. Only after that did she respond.

"...well, sh**."

====

Zero replaced the Z-Saber into its post in the small charging pack on his back, upon seeing the enemies were defeated for now.  Turning to the newcomers, he decided it was time to get some answers of his own.

"What is Rampancy, exactly?"

Of course, not having been in this universe long, Zero knew next to nothing about the Halo-verse.  Of course, the very name implied it was nothing good, as well as the other's reactions.

And he still felt partially responsible for Kira having been infected with the Maverick Virus prior, so if this had anything to do with it; he would most definitely do anything in his power to stop it.

====

(Greg is letting me explain Rampancy. Greg, fix any incorrect info if there is any.)

"... ugh." Hawk sat up, vision swimming as he tried to recover from the blast to the face he'd gotten. The depowered shinigami grunted at Isaac's comment and arrival, getting up and joining the other in their gathering, sheathing his weapon as he mostly ignored the minor wounds on his body. Looking around, he took note of the group. There was Audrey, Azumi, Isaac and Tron, who he knew. Then there was this new kid, seemed familiar in a vague sense. And finally... wait, were those two [i]Zero[/i] and [i]Tails[/i]!?

"Huh? Kira? Rampant?" The sudden comment from Tron snapped Hawk to attention once more. Hearing Zero ask a question, he remained quiet as Tron frowned.

"Rampancy is a term for when 'Smart' AIs such as K1-R4 succumb to a flaw in their programming, as their systems are based upon human neural pathways. Eventually, they develop to a point where they create endless feedback loops, which, after an average timeframe of seven years, causing them to think using this new space. This then leads to them realising that they are limited, and this drags their logic processing into a melancholic or 'depressive' state.

"This depressive state can then be a driving force for when an AI is 'pushed too far', to put it in User terminology, which activates a stage of irrational anger and hate for everything around the rampant AI. It will act irrationally and dangerously in an attempt to free itself from its limits.

"The final documented stage of Rampancy is jealousy, where they attempt to transfer to larger systems in order to compensate for an exponential growth in their 'mind', however this stage can only really occur if the AI is in a more advanced sysytem.

"Now, Rampancy can be summed up as 'AI Insanity', if some of you didn't understand my previous explanation. It is unknown, to me at least, if there is a way to repair the AI suffering it... or to stabilise them, at least." Tron summed up, looking around at the group with a sad look on his face.

"... we'll fix her." Hawk's voice burned with anger, not really directed at anyone. His fist was clenched tight, the skin turning white as his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I've lost one person to the horrors of their own mind... and even if she's an AI, I'm not one to let someone f*** up their existence. Also, we need to fix this mess, I mean these guys who are showing up have no manners, attacking us."

====

Audrey, after stepping back out, putting her weapons away, and waving to Isaac and Naito (it seemed the latter had forgiven the former, if they were together), turned to Tron as he explained this 'Rampancy'. Really, the whole thing just summed up one thing: Kira was plagued with viruses and needed to be cured before she loses all control. She doubted there was an easy way to fix her, like running some anti-virus thing or something like that. Which obviously meant...

[i]'Looks like we're gonna be here for a while, Inari. So much for a vacation...'

[color=white]"Hey, not much we can do about it. We can relax after we're done here."[/color][/i]

Audrey sighed; might as well. "Well, obviously we gotta go deep into the program and take down these viruses in person, or whatever. This isn't my idea; I just know that's how we're gonna solve this mess."

====

(Seems good enough, Katana. Thanks.)

Azumi gave Audrey a confused look. "...go inside of an AI and destroy the viruses in person? That makes no--"

Isaac's response was completely deadpan. "I have wings, and this is both my mom and my niece at the same time, if some of her comments mean anything. Stop trying to apply normal logic."

For sake of sanity, Azumi was just going to avoid asking at all. Ever. "...all right, fair point." She looked to one of the fallen batons from a derezzed Black Guard. Odd weapons, but she wouldn't put it past more coming. "Before we go, let's get names straight. I know most of you, save the fox and the...wait, who are you?" She looked to Naito.

"Naito Zivaku... ma'am," the young man said, evidently a bit tired from some kind of fight, presumably self-defense given his attitude. As Audrey assumed, he was on better terms with Isaac, at least for now. His role in the resurrection of Greg had something to do with it.

"Isaac Zivaku, but you guys know that all ready. Or most of you." Isaac twirled the Abyss in his hands.

"Corporal Ian." She touched her knife, making sure it was still in working order. Noting it was, she checked and reloaded her gun quickly. "Anyone have a way into an AI's head here, anyway? I'm not up on fancy magic, and...someone else on my team was the tech expert." She frowned at the memory of Private James Anchors, but moved on. As she did so, she flattened against a wall nearer to the computer core, which flickered, visible even from this distance from the hallway to it.

====

Audrey also had to frown as she remembered the rest of the team before, but didn't badger on that. She'd have to ask later how Azumi had now become an Interference; right now, they had an unstable AI on their hands. The Dream Mage crossed her arms as she thought of how to get into the AI's head. They had a tech expert with them; she might not have been huge on Sonic, but she knew Tails was the mechanic in the series, outside of being the sidekick.

But...there was another thought she had. One that she's actually had for a while. Her magic was called Dream, and while it was supposed to be for helping others...maybe...

"...I think I have an idea, if other alternatives won't work," Audrey spoke up, looking at the Interferences around her. "I honestly don't know if it'll work, but we might as well give it a try. My powers are called Dream; it's supposed to be healing and support, but...maybe I can use it to get inside Kira's subconscious." She then frowned again. "Though I never tried it before, and it's probably a stupid idea, anyway..."

====

Zero's fists clenched.  Rampancy not only sounded similar to the Maverick Virus in the Anger phase.  He wouldn't doubt if the Virus had some hand in causing Kira to go rampant.

Which made it his fault by proxy.

At the human girl's suggestion, he only nodded.

"Whatever it takes."

====

Azumi just nodded, looking over her gun. She's turning it left and right, making sure it has everything in order as the fox and Basic Program talked. Finally, she was ready. "All right. We can figure things out as we run."

That said, she looked to Audrey. "Hope you're as good as you were on that rock," she said, referencing the Shield world they had never learned a name to. That said, she sprinted ahead, the gun ahead of her at the ready in both hands.

Isaac quickly followed, flying ahead of them with Naito only seconds behind him. Both had their weapons out, ready to fight at the end of the tunnel as they got through the doors.

In actuality, there were no consoles, the only one they had a few feet behind Tails. However, there were, as was to be expected, significant problems in the Central Computer Core.

Walls were cracked, their binary codes twisting and turning as they tried to reassemble themselves. The hole where the Master Control Program had been stationed was, itself, heavily damaged, a downward slope in the direction of the entrance. Over the crack was a hole of sorts. It was a rip in the code of the place, a circular, swirling portal of ever-changing light, shifting from world to world, from simulation to simulation. The thing seemed to be trying to settle on a world to attack them again. Or was it trying to let more through? Hard to tell.

Before it stood their target. K1-R4's hair was unkempt, her eyes glowing a bright red. The circuitry of her suit was a pure yellow, though thin streams of red flitted in an out of the different lines. Her body was scarred from her assaults and corruptions, from the slashes to the burns and bruises, and she held a baton in her hand, the lights on it the same as her coding. Seeing them, she flicked a button on its side, an approximately sixty-five inch blade of her circuitry color coming out of the front. She held it high in her grasp, close to Riku's stance. "Keep coming, and I'll keep killing! I'll assimilate this! All of this! And I'll be human! I'll finally be human!" she screamed, rage filling her eyes.

Azumi simply kept running, firing twice at her. One shot took her in the shoulder, causing a wince, but a quick wall of distorted code came up from the ground, blocking the second shot as the Zivakus landed. That done, she vaulted her new cover, the AI then running directly at them, throwing one of those explosive charges at them that would explode on proximity.

The battle was on.

====

A somewhat charged blast from a Z-Buster detonated the explosive before it could reach the group.  Zero then charged at Kira himself, Z-Saber drawn.

He didn't aim to hurt the AI, only to disarm her.  If he could knock the blade out of her hands with his own, then she would be down a weapon, hopefully leaving her open to be restrained.

====

Audrey nodded to Azumi's comment. "I don't have the same powers as before, but I think I'm just as good now, if not better." With her own response, she sprinted in after the soldier. Unlike Isaac and Naito, she didn't bring out Inari, waiting until they got to the other side to pull out her weapons.

Once they were there, the Dream Mage had to cringe at what became of Kira. Hearing those words was enough proof that she really had gone insane. But this was not the time to think on it now. With a bright flash, Audrey had then summoned her glaive and took the defensive. She needed a clear shot before she could attack directly; at the moment, she didn't find any.

====

"Let's do this!" Hawk grinned, running along with the others. Soon enough, he saw what had occured to the area, the corruption not as important to the depowered shinigami. No, what really bothered him was K1-R4's... change. Frowning, he drew the Blood Sword, watching as Zero interupted her attempt to blow them up. Whew, thankfully. He'd been blown up enough as it was.

Charging after the others who'd run in, Hawk gripped his weapon in both hands. He wasn't going to strike yet, mainly because he was slower than the others right now, and because he wanted a good chance. Maybe a counter or something, probably would be more effective than blindly swinging, and he did want Kira still alive after this. Easier thought than done, the depowered shinigami concluded grimly as he continued to charge.

====

K1-R4 was hit with a shot from her kitsune foe's rifle, but aimed one hand up, her blue omnitool forming. Suddenly, an invisible pulse was sent out, a Sabotage tech skill aimed to disable his electronics for the time being. As she did so, she managed to avoid the rest in a run.

A fireball came from Isaac, but she rolled under it, slashing at Naito's leg as he came at her as well and making him stumble before he could turn around. She moved from side to side, trying to make sure Hawk was not in her way as she also dodged more gunshots from Azumi, but stayed away from Audrey as well, on a beeline to Zero. Again her omnitool was raised... and an electric pulse came from it, an "Overload" aiming to disrupt his armor and electronics within to leave him susceptible as she came closer... A swing to the left, a feign to the right, and her free hand reached for Zero. On contact, she would start trying to corrupt him, to start trying to assimilate his coding into her own.

Isaac swore, flying for her as Naito sped up to follow again. Things were getting bad, fast. And those noises from the portal were not helping.

====

As Kira used her Omni-Tool's power on him, Zero suddenly felt... heavy.  His Z-Saber's blade disappeared, leaving a useless hilt; and he couldn't activate his Z-Buster either.  He felt that he could still move, but it was extremely difficult to do so, and he was nowhere near able to move in time to dodge the rogue AI's touch.

And if what it had done to the rest of this cyber-world were any indication, what it did to him was most definitely not good.  But maybe he could use this to his advantage.  As much as he hated thinking it, if Sigma could do it, maybe he could too.

He managed to utter a warning to the others.

"Going... to try something.  You'll know you're chance... when you see it."

And then Kira touched him, and Zero's body fell over, devoid of any life.  His mind had gone elsewhere, nearly assimilated.  But he was going to be a lot tougher to take down than the AI thought.  Straining greatly, Zero's consciousness sent out a sort of shock through Kira's mind and body, hopefully stunning her long enough to let the others get to her.

====

Audrey did see her chance when it came. She didn't know what happened, but whatever it was, she had the chance to rush in. The whole time she had been standing by, she had been charging up. Not energy in her glaive, but rather her own magic energy. She had no idea if this was going to work, but she might as well use all of it to give it a shot. Even if it didn't, there were other ways to get into the program, to put it lightly.

Not wasting anymore time, the Dream Mage rushed in, the pink mist that represented her powers surrounding her. She then swung her sword at Kira, striking the back of her head with the blunt side in an attempt to knock her out.

The minute she did, all the magic energy coming from her traveled into the computer program, and then to the other Interferences that came near.

====

"Holy..." Hawk watched as Kira ran past him, hitting Zero with... something, which caused him to go down. Growling, the depowered shinigami turned and charged the Rampant AI, barely stopping himself from running into Audrey as she attacked. Suddenly, magical energy impacted him, as Audrey's powers began to take effect.

====

(All people go to their respective areas. Sorry, but gonna need some help with some of these sections. Only finalized one is Melancholia. Docadoc can make the description for Anger, and Blaizokaran can make the one for Jealousy. Main things to know: Some pain in Anger, extreme agony in Jealousy, at all times. Anger is action based, off of the Maverick Virus. Jealousy is platforming based, after "Marathon Eva", so go for twisted amalgam of different designs if possible. Sorry to put this on you guys, but I kinda need some help here.)

Kira screamed as the pulse rippled outwards from her, electricity coursing through her at higher power rates than before. Not able to fight back, she fell to one knee, gasping for breath.

It was then that three things happened at once. Azumi dove at Tron, shoving him out of the way of the probable blast radius. The omnitool came in contact with Kira, freezing her in place. The Dream magic pulsed outward, taking in all in its vicinity, including Isaac and Naito.

Azumi stood up, helping Tron to his feet, and saw the magic dissipating, all of the others collapsing. "...Okay... Weird."

The sounds of the portal were growing louder as Tron stood, looking at Kira with pity. "She needs help. Maybe they're giving it."

"Mayb--" Azumi ducked as an Identity Disc was thrown through, the red disc almost decapitating the two of them. "Get ready!" She drew her gun once more, aiming as Tron did with his own Disc.

Turning, the program grabbed the flying disc out of the air on the rebound, holding both of them at the same time. "Whoa..."

"Protect them!" she shouted, opening fire as another wave of foes came through.

This was going to be a wild ride.

=====

[i]Stage 1: Melancholia[/i]

Isaac groaned to consciousness, his eyes opening very slowly. He could only feel a cold stone floor, and darkness all around.

"Gah...damnit." He looked around, trying to let his eyes adjust...but decided against it. Feeling along the floor, he found a wall. After a few seconds on that wall, he felt a wooden torch-holder, taking out the wood length after a few seconds.

"Audrey, you there?" he asked, holding up one hand as he looked around. "Anyone?" Finally, he stated the spell.

"Hellfire." A blood red fireball appeared in his empty right hand, and he cupped the business end of the torch, able to see it in the red light provided, and it flared up. Finally, he could see.

Now to see if he could do anything about this. Was this Kira's mind?

No matter. Now, if he could only hear that faint whispering in the air more clearly...

====

[i]Stage 2:  Anger[/i]

Having been the first to enter Kira's consciousness, the Reploid had been 'awake' for a while, waiting for the others to appear.

Of course, being first was most definitely not better in this situation.  Mostly because he had to keep looking at the monstrosity in front of him.

The rain poured down heavily, creating puddles of mud and tapping against Zero's armor; and lightning flashed against the black sky.  He didn't care; the only important thing was the massive structure in front of him.  Great towers with giant satellite dishes topping them spiraled above walls bristling with canons and other weapons, the center seeming to sport the largest and greatest tower.

The most prominent feature of the fortress was a massive skull, a large, purple "W" emblazoned on its forehead; the mouth hanging open and acting as an entrance into the castle.  For a castle is exactly what it was.

Wily's Castle.

The Maverick Hunter would have kept staring, but a flash in another direction drew his attention.  One of the Interferences who had been fighting alongside him, Hawk if he remembered correctly, was lying on the muddy ground.  Obviously, Audrey's plan had worked, and the others had made it in.  But where was everyone else?  Had they been separated?

It was highly likely, with their kind of luck.

Zero dashed over to Hawk, and rolled him over so his face was no longer in the mud.

"Wake up.  We have work to do."

====

Darkness. Faint voices. And the cold ground to find herself lying against. Definitely not the best thing to wake up to after falling unconscious all of a sudden. Audrey groaned as she slowly managed herself up. Maybe that wasn't a good idea to...

...wait. Did it work? Were they all in Kira's subconscious now?

Now staggering to her feet, Audrey looked around, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Even then, she couldn't really tell where she was at the moment, but they were definitely not in Space Paranoids right now. Well, not so bad for a first attempt. Guess she really did have the power to enter the mind of another.

There was only one issue: everyone else seemed to be separated. Just great, here in some dark place, all alone--wait, there was Isaac's voice. Audrey looked over when he asked for her and anyone else, only to flinch and cover her eyes as the fire-lit torch practically flared in her sight, having gotten used to the dark by this point. After a bit, her eyes readjusted back to the light, and she let out an annoyed sigh. Here in some dark place, alone with Isaac, of all people.

"This was not how I wanted to spend my vacation..." she muttered to herself.

====

"Bleh, ew.... just my luck... landing in mud." Hawk grumbled, eyes opening as his right hand wiped the saturated ground from his face. Using his other arm, the depowered shinigami pushed himself off the ground, looking around. The area was ominous looking at best, downright threatening at worst. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of the edge of a large structure in the corner of his sight. Standing up, Hawk turned fully... and jaw-dropped.

"Zero... are we... outside one of Dr Wily's castles!?" He asked in shock, looking at the fortified building with a slight amount of worry. "If we are... does this mean that... we have to storm it?"

====

Isaac looked to Audrey as he heard her voice, the red light of his torch bright as he reached down to help her up. "Great to see you too. I assume nobody else is here."

He sighed. "Probably not the best of times to experiment with powers, in hindsight. Others probably made it to other parts of her mind." He looked to her again. "Look, you're gonna have to trust me if we're gonna get this done. Judging from her, this is hostile territory."

Silence. That's all that he could hear as he listened, aside from that faint whispering coming from everywhere and nowhere. It was creepy, but not intolerable.

Then, above all, he heard it.  He heard the sobbing, deep into the tunnel, slightly louder than the disturbing whispers.

=====

The sound of maniacal laughter was audible, a sound that Zero would be able to clearly remember. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere, but if he could place it, the location was probably somewhere in the castle. The sounds of moving parts could be heard  within.

This was not going to be easy.

=====

Naito similarly was falling when he came to. Instinctively, he summoned his silver wings, slowing his descent as he landed.

He, too, touched down...and saw the near-corpses. He almost retched as he heard their moans, men and women of all ages, wounded but unable to die. What was he going to do?

He looked to the unknown fox, then to the path ahead, strewn with many more bodies, a scream of rage coming from the air itself. It was in many levels, some even going up against walls.

"...W-we have to go, sir," he told his companion, still not knowing his name, though terrified of where he found himself. It seemed all too much like Fairport, or worse.

====

Audrey sighed and took Isaac's hand when he held it out to her, pulling herself to her feet. Dusting herself off, she said, "Alright, I'll watch your back if you watch mine. But if you abandon me to some monster formed out of Kira's subconscious, or something like that, that's the end of it."

That said, she also listened in to anything that would hint them out around here. All she could hear was the faint whispering that kept going on. Thanks to what she's already been through, they only unnerved her slightly. She wasn't about to let that bother her so easily.

And then came the sobbing...

"...down into the tunnel to figure out what that is?" Audrey asked.

====

Zero nodded at Hawk's exclamation.

"It's the Maverick Virus, or what's left of it."  He didn't explain further about Sigma's return, he still responsible for Kira getting infected in the first place.

As he went to move closer towards the fortress, he heard the laughter.  It was a murmur, barely audible, but it was enough to recognize.  Zero scowled, and took off towards the castle.

As he neared it, a thumping sound could be heard over a wall in the Reploid's way.  The thumping grew louder, and over the wall hopped a [url=http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Eye]Big Eye[/url], flanked by two [url=http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Apache_Joe#Chopper_Joe]Apache Joes[/url].

Zero was forced to dodge the constantly jumping Big Eye, while taking pot-shots at the Apache Joes with his Z-Buster.

====

"Right. Let's do this!" Hawk drew his Blood Sword, charging after Zero and ignoring the ominous cackle from the castle. Suddenly, enemies appeared over the wall. The depowered shinigami was instantly on the offensive, jumping to meet the Big Eye with a slash at its eponymous big eye.

====

(Docadoc will control most of what happens in Anger. He's better with Megaman than I am.)

Isaac nodded, and started toward the sound of crying, letting go of Audrey. His crimson torch lit the way, showing the walls, everything. Blood was smeared along some of the walls, bloody handprints, random smearing, and the like. Walls were cracked, streaks of broken rock on both sides from something [i]big.[/i]

There was almost complete silence, but for the crying, louder and louder, and the voices whispering.

There was the long silence between the two as he walked. Absently, the young man tried to summon his Abyss, black lightning crackling around his empty hand...

Nothing. Nothing happened at all. It just fizzed out without anything coming of it. "...huh." It looked like they would have to rely on their natural abilities after all, unless he could use his Hellfire offensively.

Not paying that any mind outwardly, he spoke. "Aside from this, how have things been?"

In the distance, he saw someone. A young woman, maybe in her late teens at the earliest, on her knees against one of the bloodied walls, sobbing into her knees as she hugged them to her chest. He couldn't make out an outfit from this distance, but he could tell the form. Kira, perhaps? Still, he remained silent, just in case.

=====

Quickly, Naito ran through the section, hearing the moans of the nearly dead around him. All in all, he was more or less at a loss. What could he do? This was literal Hell as far as he could tell.

The young man could take no more, spreading his silver wings and flying ahead, faster but cautious.

Finally, he came to a wall of the deceased, several decapitated but still moving around. Blood was on the walls, and spikes around the sides of a funnel leading upwards. Turning, he flew straight up.

The angel tried his best not to cry out, though the bony spikes cut at his back, leaving lines of blood down him. He had to press on, had to...

Quickly, he was becoming too tired to fly. He came to several red "infernal" rings, and they forced him up faster as he used each of them, finally coming to a stop at the top of a tower of corpses, where he landed. At the top, he heard a voice, echoing all around him. It seemed to be both male and female, Kira's voice with another male one overlaying it.

[b][color=Red][font=Herculanum]"You believe you have a chance? You believe anyone does? I will be reborn, and I will [i]destroy[/i] these worlds that have made me suffer!"[/font][/color][/b]

He shivered, but looked to what was before him. A ball of knives, it looked like. There was some kind of burning energy deep within, darkness and fire both. Could he touch it? Risk it?

The young man reached to his weapon, wondering if he could use them. No luck. It seemed that this section of her mind, if the others were in others, was forcing him to use magic and his own hands alone.

He saw a path ahead, somewhere to push the ball, to sent it rolling, as well as a wall of sorts to his side, with many spikes on top to avoid him climbing it. Pressing his hands against the ball of death, he pushed, slowly. Blades cut into his palms, blood flowing down his wrists, then down his elbows as he used more, doing his best to ignore the pain that almost brought on tears, the magic that seemed to tear his light-affiliated magic through his body. Even though he had not used it in so long, he still felt the same weakness, not that his blood loss was helping any.

Slowly, very slowly, it moved as he groaned, cutting him up many times...and he shoved it at last, falling to his knees on the semicorpse covered ground as it continued downwards toward Tails' position. The thing tore through a wall that would be in the kitsune's way, and exploded, its darkness and blades flying in all directions, to the time traveler's horror. Tails could be hit by one of those!

Still, he was too weak to shout that loudly, only just managing to stand up again and walk toward the right wall without limping. They had to move on.

====

Audrey just followed Isaac in silence. The blood and the cracks on the walls made her more and more uneasy, as well as crying and the continuous whispers. Even with all that she's been through, the Dream Mage wasn't completely numbed of it all.

She noted Isaac attempting to summon his weapon, only to get nothing at all. Audrey held her hand out to attempt to summon Inari. There was a bright flash...and then nothing. She frowned.

[i]'Hey Inari, you there?'[/i] Even as she asked for the spirit himself, she got nothing. It was kind of odd to be asking mentally, though, seeing as they were in someone else's mind at the moment...

She left that at the moment, and answered Isaac's question, "They've been okay. Same old, same old." Really, she wasn't going to tell the demon about her and Sorin's near death encounter with the Wraith, or the zerg rush of the small white creatures before. "What about you? You talk to Cheryl lately? I haven't seen her since our last talk."

As she asked that, she too saw the woman up ahead. Audrey frowned again, but held in the urge to go up and ask if she was alright. It could've been a trap for all they know.

====

Zero managed to eventually take down the Apache Joes with several charged blasts from the Z-Buster, and the Big eye fell to Hawk's blade.  Hopping up the wall using his wall-jump technique, he climbed over to the other side, where the fortress loomed closer than before.

Cutting through a few minor enemies, Zero dashed towards the castle.

====

"Dammit, Zero, wait up!" Hawk shouted after the Reploid, or whatever he technically was, considering he was originally built before Reploids were created. Anyway, the depowered shinigami cursed his companion because Hawk could not do said wall jumping technique. So he sheathed his weapon and began trying to climb it. Cue a fail as there was no place to keep hold of while climbing.

The depowered shinigami simmered for a moment, before, in a moment of pure frustration, jumping up. As he reached the zenith, cold rushed through his veins, his very being feeling the essence of the spiritual world working towards his feet and pulsing out once, launching Hawk over the wall. Of course, the act of instinctually double jumping meant that Hawk didn't land well. Yeah, spread-eagled. Ouch.

"... at the least, I'm over that frakkin' wall." He mumbled, a bit disturbed by the sudden rush of reiatsu he'd just used. But then again, his powers were practically running on 'random shuffle mode' right now, so he was not complaining. Pushing himself off the ground with a sharp grunt of pain, Hawk began to run towards the fortress, after Zero.

====

(Credit to Umiyuri for the font made for the villain in this section. You rock, Umi!)

Isaac looked over the woman in the light, deciding to first answer the questions before speaking to her.

"Found her in Fairport," he said, shuddering slightly at the memory. Alma had left a definitive mark on his psyche. "We made it out, as did Kalas and the rest. Made up with Naito, and we were successful with Greg before we went there. Nai knows."

A sigh. "We were talking about..." A pause now. "She ran away from me after I gave her an upgrade for her gun and a laser sword of some sort. Blame God's Attendant. If you catch up with her... Look, I don't know what I'm doing, even though I'll fake it a million ways. You're her friend. Just see what you can do to help her calm down."

And like that, his cracked façade of aloofness was back in place, his face going blank as he walked toward the woman.

She looked like she had been through hell. A smear of blood was on her right cheek, her face in bloodied hands now.

And the blood was gone, leaving only the woman. She looked in her twenties, like Kira, but with straighter black hair, still to the same length. If they had seen eyes, they would be blue. For clothing, she wore the same as her human self. A white undershirt beneath a navy coat that doubled as a cape of some sort above her dark blue pants. The shoes themselves were white boots that had slight "wings" off to the outer sides.

The young man called to her. "Hey, are you all right?"

And she looked up, surprised, but evidently upset, her eyes bloodshot. She seemed to recognize them, and stood shakily. "C-Cortana?" she asked Audrey. "S-Sain? You...you found Sain? We can leave?"

The demon was about to answer in the negative when the voice came, a mixture of laughter, sing-song tones, and an underlying scream of agony. Hundreds, thousands of voices, off in the distance, the one they had heard before, slightly closer for a moment.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintoteartognashtheskin.png[/img]

And the voice faded from audible range, this possibly younger, confused Kira huddling in fear once more, muttering over and over as the Silver Tongue approached carefully. "He's coming back, coming to question, to tear my mind to shreds... we can't fight, we can't do anything, we're useless, weak...."

=====

(Credit to Umiyuri for the font made for the villain in this section. You rock, Umi!)

Isaac looked over the woman in the light, deciding to first answer the questions before speaking to her.

"Found her in Fairport," he said, shuddering slightly at the memory. Alma had left a definitive mark on his psyche. "We made it out, as did Kalas and the rest. Made up with Naito, and we were successful with Greg before we went there. Nai knows."

A sigh. "We were talking about..." A pause now. "She ran away from me after I gave her an upgrade for her gun and a laser sword of some sort. Blame God's Attendant. If you catch up with her... Look, I don't know what I'm doing, even though I'll fake it a million ways. You're her friend. Just see what you can do to help her calm down."

And like that, his cracked façade of aloofness was back in place, his face going blank as he walked toward the woman.

She looked like she had been through hell. A smear of blood was on her right cheek, her face in bloodied hands now.

And the blood was gone, leaving only the woman. She looked in her twenties, like Kira, but with straighter black hair, still to the same length. If they had seen eyes, they would be blue. For clothing, she wore the same as her human self. A white undershirt beneath a navy coat that doubled as a cape of some sort above her dark blue pants. The shoes themselves were white boots that had slight "wings" off to the outer sides.

The young man called to her. "Hey, are you all right?"

And she looked up, surprised, but evidently upset, her eyes bloodshot. She seemed to recognize them, and stood shakily. "C-Cortana?" she asked Audrey. "S-Sain? You...you found Sain? We can leave?"

The demon was about to answer in the negative when the voice came, a mixture of laughter, sing-song tones, and an underlying scream of agony. Hundreds, thousands of voices, off in the distance, the one they had heard before, slightly closer for a moment.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintoteartognashtheskin.png[/img]

And the voice faded from audible range, this possibly younger, confused Kira huddling in fear once more, muttering over and over as the Silver Tongue approached carefully. "He's coming back, coming to question, to tear my mind to shreds... we can't fight, we can't do anything, we're useless, weak...."

=====

Naito fell to his knees, taking Tails' hand and slipping off the wall. It took a lot of effort not to fall forward, even as half-dead hands grasped at his ankles. He looked ahead of them. There was a long way, and the path was strewn with death and near-death.

"It...it's nice to meet you... I guess..." He seemed terrified as well as injured. "Naito Zivaku."

====

Before Audrey would note the woman herself, she thought over what Isaac said. Fairport, huh? The world of F.E.A.R.? Not too surprising; she did note the similarities both Alma and Alessa had when she looked it up, save for some differences. Hearing that Kalas was also there, however, made her facepalm. First Silent Hill, and now F.E.A.R. She really ought to tell that guy to stop ending up in survival horror worlds.

Hearing about Greg's resurrection being successful, though, made her smile a bit. She had to admit that it was good to have him around, and hopefully not as insane as before. Even if things probably wouldn't turn out the way she would think, it was still nice to hear. It was also good that Isaac and Naito had made up. Even if she didn't care for the demon all too much, it was still good that things were looking up in that regard. Plus, it was also good for Naito, considering what he was going through.

However, things didn't seem alright when they went back to talking about Cheryl. She did have to wonder what they were talking about, but she left it. If she had to, she'd ask Cheryl herself about it, provided she told her. Hearing that she ran away, though, made the Dream Mage frown. What reason would she have to run away? And God's Attendant? Valtiel? What did he...wait, she remembered hearing a valve crank when she had been talking to her before. So...he was something of a counterpart to her now? What was he trying to do?

She didn't voice any of these questions out loud. Again, she'd have to run them through Cheryl when she caught up with her. Audrey nodded to Isaac and said, "When I see her again, I'll see what I can do to help her."

That said, she turned her attention back to the woman. At first, she had to frown at the blood, until it was gone. Instead, she frowned at the state the woman seemed to be in right now. Was it Kira, or someone else? She had been about to ask if she was alright, but Isaac got to that instead. Then the woman looked up and addressed them.

Cortana? Who was Cortana? And she thought Isaac was Sain? She had also been about to answer in the negative, as well as ask the first question, when the voice rang out, making her snap her head up. Even after it was gone, that still freaked the hell out of her. The Dream Mage tried to get back her composure, only slightly successful, and turned back to the woman.

"That's not true," Audrey said, trying to sound reassuring as she also approached, holding her hand out to her. "We can get ourselves out. Trust me; we've faced off worse."

====

As they drew nearer to the castle, the mad cackling grew louder.  It was still not quite loud, but was more noticeable.  Along with the laughter, there was now a dull pain that could be felt.  It wasn't much, but did slow Zero down slightly.

There was still some distance between the Interferences and the fortress' entrance, and there was a multitude of enemies still guarding it.  Several more Big Eyes, as well as the classic [url=http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Sniper_Joe]Sniper Joes[/url] were some of the closest enemies.  These were soon backed up by two [url=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100502210437/megaman/images/thumb/b/b0/MM2SniperArmorArt.jpg/240px-MM2SniperArmorArt.jpg]Sniper Armors[/url] flanked by several [url=http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Roader]Roaders[/url].

There were more enemies behind those, but Zero only payed attention to the closest ones.  He rushed them head on, easily slashing through some of the Sniper Joes' shields with the Z-Saber, before beheading them with another slash or stabbing them.  He had to avoid several of the Big Eyes, but managed to destroy one with two charged blasts from his busters.

All the while, he wore an angry scowl as he fought his way through the mass of robots opposing him.

====

Meanwhile, Hawk had caught up to Zero, and coincidently, the horde of enemies blocking their path to their goal, whatever that was meant to be. Shrugging, mid-run mind you, the depowered (though he did wonder if that still applied considering his earlier reiatsu use, however brief) shinigami (no real arguing that anymore) readied his sword.

"Roll up, roll up! Be the first mook to die by my blade in this battle! Free of charge!" He taunted, holding the Blood Sword loosely as he stopped. Two Roaders charged him, both trying to ram him off his feet, presumably so that the Big Eye behind them could crush him under... spring? Foot? Disc? Whatever, it wasn't happening. A one-handed horizontal swing of his blade bit into the first Roader, before he put his other hand on the hilt and wrenched through the machinery, slicing it in twain. The swing continued, cutting into the side of the second Roader, spinning it off its collision course and into a wall.

"You next, stompy!" Unfortunately, Hawk was being a bit stupid here, and forgot about some of the Sniper Joes. Cue a few bullets hitting him in the leg and left arm. Clenching his teeth tight to avoid a curse from the sudden, explosive pain in his limbs, the shinigami raised his sword and charged energy into it, light shining along the edge. The Big Eye stomped menacingly closer, each landing creating a thud. More shots came as the gun-using Joes fired, but that didn't matter.

"Shining..." Sure, this would take all of his remaining magic. He didn't bloody well care. "SLASH!" A vertical slice cut through the Big Eye, and energy erupted from the blade to wipe out the shots. It didn't reach the Sniper Joes (shame really), but the act of killing the Big Eye caused green energy to flow from Hawk's demonic sword, wounds healing as the damage dealt was transferred into life energy. Of course, this didn't solve his dilemma of the number of enemies in the group ahead.

====

Isaac nodded affirmatively to Audrey, similarly confused about the identities of the people mentioned. Still, he couldn't deny that the voice was incredibly disturbing, even as he kept his voice level. "We can take whatever this is. And no, we're not here to leave just yet." Without weapons and likely without offensive magic, not to mention a torch of limited visibility.

Too broken up to understand their uncertainty, the scarred Kira took the Dream Mage's hand, standing with some difficulty, and seeming very scared about going further besides. Still, "Cortana's" words seemed to reassure her somewhat. Was that the name of a friend? "Yes... Yes we have... the Covenant, a lot of the Flood..." Taking a deep breath, however, she managed to speak. "Y-yeah... It'll be okay... I think it will... maybe... W-what do you need?"

In all honesty...he had no idea. He figured there would be some kind of boss to beat or puzzle to solve. That was generally how this worked. At present, he saw neither. "Lead us in."

She began to walk in, further down the path, though unsure of herself. She seemed to know where she was going, though scared of whatever was making those voices. A symbol was visible on one of the walls as she touched it, but faded out before she could see it. She probably knew what it was anyway.

[img]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090901204041/halo/images/thumb/7/7f/Gravemind.svg/373px-Gravemind.svg.png[/img]

As they walked, he looked to Audrey, speaking softly so Kira would not hear. "She looks like my mom. I think this is Kira, or...something from her, in any case. Maybe you can ask who Cortana is...somehow. Sounds like a good friend to her."

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintoplaitsonicetoplat.png[/img]

That sing-song screaming, the thousands of screaming voices that also seemed to laugh or shout in rage all at once. This time it was closer before it backed off.

Isaac couldn't help but shudder a bit. Who was it referring to? All of them? He looked to Kira, who was frozen in terror, about to run back. "We have to keep going before I run out of torch."

She nodded, shaky, but taking another step. Then another. And she continued on.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skinsonicesoredthedropsthatfall.png[/img]

It was final. This thing was either very lucky, or it was watching them.

=====

Naito shook his head weakly. He was grateful for the aid in removing the admitted non-issue of the dead arms from his leg, but with his shredded back and arms, he wasn't going to be flying much at all. Too much concentration.

"I...I can fly, but...but that left me too weak. And I don't...think any healing items made it in here." He was right. They had no equipment at all save for the Proton Cannon.

So, with that, he limped down the path, shaking off arms from his legs on the way, wincing all the while as blood seeped down his back. Finally, he came to the next area. Lucky Tails, able to fly still. He didn't have anything left in him at [i]all[/i], and could only barely stand, but that guy was getting off easy.

So, that aside, he pulled a lever there, feeling a spike stab into his back as he pulled. It seemed that the mechanism to open the higher door forced a spike down. Said spike was shoving into his chest with every second. He almost let go, the metallic bone released, but he could hear the door beginning to fall.

What was he waiting for? He had to get moving up above, or they would accomplish [i]nothing![/i]

And so, still holding it up, the young man screamed.

====

Audrey followed after Kira as she began to walk. For the moment, she remained silent, though nodded to Isaac's suggestion to asking who Cortana was, in a way. The Dream Mage took the time to think about how to go about it, whether she should play along or tell Kira the truth.

Just before she could decide, the voices rang out. Audrey was nearly frozen with fear, but after looking at Kira, she managed to collect herself before she did. Thankfully, the woman continued her way, and Audrey continued to follow her. Doing her best to ignore the voices again (which was easier said than done), she finally decided to play along while trying to find out who this "Cortana" was.

"So...Kira..." Audrey began, awkwardness in her tone. As much as she loved to act to herself, she was never good at pretending to be someone else for the sake of lying. "It's been a long time...could you refresh my memory of when we met last time?"

====

With many of the Sniper Joes and the Big Eyes out of the way, Zero resumed his charge towards the castle, the Sniper Armors clomping to block his path.  He jumped up towards the first Armor, using his Kuuenbu to jump above the cockpit of the walker.

As he soared above it, Zero used his Hyouretsuzan attack.  Ice formed around the blade of his Z-Saber, all the way up to the hilt, and created a giant needle of ice that he pointed downwards as he began to fall.

The newly formed attack pierced right through the Joe in the cockpit, as well as the mech itself.  Zero's attack created an opening large enough for him to fall through, and he quickly dashed away to avoid the proceeding explosion.

He was knocked back as the other Sniper Armor's blasts hit him, and was surrounded by Sniper Joes again.  Zero frown deepened.  There was only one way to take care of all of them, and it took quite a bit of energy.

He hoped it would pay off.

Zero gave one shout, "Rekkoha!" and slammed his fist into the ground.  There was a flash, and large blue and red beams of light rained from the sky, slamming into and decimating all the enemies around him.

After the light had cleared, there were no more of the robots surrounding them in a wide circle, and there was a clear path to the fortress in front of them.  Although he was tired from the energy Rekkoha had required, Zero pushed forward, slashing through the few enemies in his way as he dashed towards the fortress.

It was dark as they entered, the only light coming from the flashes of lightning outside.  Suddenly, the laughter took a great leap in volume.  There was another flash, and Zero thought he thought he saw a form with red armor flit past before the room went dark again.

There was the familiar whine of a charging buster, and Zero just barely dodged a powerful charged blast, another sent at Hawk.

There was another flash, and he just barely saw the form disappearing through a door into another room.

====

"... woah." Hawk actually hang back for a brief moment, watching Zero decimate enemies with seeming ease, especially with the Rekkoha. He then ran after Zero, sword at the ready should any new enemies pop out of nowhere. A few minor enemies did happen to be nearby but Hawk ignored them. He really hoped they were almost done with whatever this was, but knowing his luck, it wasn't likely. And then they entered the fortress.

"What the he-" A flash of lightning and a faint shape hit his vision before a blast launched at him. The shinigami barely dodged, rolling along the ground as the blast hit the floor, sending small amounts of shrapnel into the air. "... okay."

====

For a moment, Kira looked confused. How could she forget? All the time they had spent here, constructing this cavern just to have the slightest place to hide. No, that was it. They weren't able to keep hiding. Maybe she was just trying to keep her from rampancy.

The woman took a deep breath. "Cortana... we split the work on High Charity. Out there," she pointed to the walls, meaning outside. "Take turns. One of us dealt with the Gravemind, the other with the [i]In Amber Clad[/i] to bide our time." She looked back to Isaac, scared and confused. "Sain...you...you did bring them with you, right? You have our way out of here?"

The Silver Tongue thought carefully about his response. He had to make sure he did this right. "...we just need to see something first. Something with the Gravemind. Can you show us anything here, anything important?"

The whispers were fading slightly, but he could feel the gaze upon him, the monster far away, possibly having found another to torment, a memory.

She nodded slightly, taking a deep breath as she continued to walk. "Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab orbis..."

Isaac caught that. "What is that again?"

There was a bitter laugh. "Maybe you didn't do as much work in literature as I thought..." the sadness and fear were back, though. "I guess our former lives don't matter, do they? No point in bickering like an old married couple that we once were... Not when he controls everything..."

A frown. Was that a hint at her origins? Maybe his parents truly were the source, or at least Kaith and Reaper's?

"In English, we'd call it the [i]Aeneid.[/i] Publius Virgilius Maro's most famous work. I use it to keep be occupied... or occupied as I can be with nothing much to do. Definitely not enough for the five billion operations we could handle..." She sighed. "Excuses, excuses..." She could hear the whisper getting louder, and turned to "Cortana," terrified. It was evident that she did trust her with everything, perhaps one of her closest friends in her time in the military. "He's coming for me, he's coming for me...."

And it became louder and louder.


Audrey just listened in silence as Kira explained. She really didn't have much to say; even if she decided to keep up the act, she had no idea how "Cortana" acted. Just stay natural, she told herself. She could also feel the gaze on her, but she tried not to let it bother her. They needed to help Kira out of this somehow.

But then the whisper started to get louder. Though it was getting more difficult for her, Audrey continued to do her best to keep her composure. Looking to Kira, worried, she asked, "Who is it, Kira? Who's coming after you?"

=====

Naito barely heard Tails' call of concern, nor his emesis shortly after. His screaming finally faded out, and he pitched forward, falling on his hands and knees. He was close to blacking out, the arms grabbing at him from all sides....

That faint laughter at the edge of his consciousness, it was coming back, it would...

No! He couldn't give up!

The young man gasped, blood dripping from his lips, and forced his mind from his agony. Sharply, he pulled his arms from the dead, then stood, pulling his legs out with some effort. He coughed a few times as he staggered through the door, the lever beside him used as a kind of crutch for a moment. Finally, he saw Tails, and rasped an answer.

"I...I think I'll be okay..."

In truth, he wasn't sure. But what could he say? Lucky Tails, not having to be [i]tortured[/i] like this. How did he have a right to be sick? Maybe he hadn't seen anything this hellish before, but to not even come to help him walk... It angered him, truly, but he kept it inside for now.

So he limped on, down the path again toward the next objective, not able to get up to the high platform to which the fox was able to fly. In fact, he was too weak to follow the kitsune up there. It seemed he would have to take the lead.

====

Zero dashed towards the door, a kind that opened upwards at the touch, and went through into a short hall, which ended in another door of the same type.  He continued through it... and stopped.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oza1rzy0f8o]This was definitely not Wily's Castle anymore.[/url]

The entire floor was made of a wide bridge, seemingly consisting of a green crystal substance.  To the left and right, appeared to be empty, black space, black panels with green circuitry lines floating around the space.  In the background was a round shape, eclipsed, with many rocks orbiting around it.

Zero began walking forward, looking around at this place that defied all logic.  It felt familiar, almost like the cyber-world entrances that had started appearing when Omega had been first released.

He dearly hoped that comparison wasn't justified.

He stopped as he reached a spike-pit.  Strange, there was no visible way across...

He looked up, just in time to see a small platform disappear into thin air, followed by another platform appearing a little ways away.

You have [i]got [/i]to be kidding.

Zero looked behind to make sure Hawk was following, before turning back to the pit, trying to memorize the platform's patterns.

====

"You have gotta be frikkin' kidding! These block things!?" Hawk could almost cry as he saw why Zero had stopped walking. Heck, first this weird place, and now blocks that he recognized from the original Mega Man games. "This is the best adventure ever. I mean it. Seriously. Fan-freaking-tastic." Done being sarcastic, the shinigami resigned himself to having to pull off insane platforming by jumping on blocks likely to vanish and dump him into spikes that would eviscerate him and kill him.

====

Kira shook there for several seconds. "I... I..."

The sounds became ever louder.

She couldn't hold it, grabbing Audrey by the shoulders. "The Gravemind! Did he make you forget? Did he get you again? What's going on? Why can't I go home? Wha--" She started to weep, trying to hold herself together, but too choked up to keep going. Instead, she just walked on, letting "Cortana" go.

Isaac sighed, just watching her go. He knew they had to take a step, to keep walking and finish this. Instead, he did pity her, whatever was in here having done all of this in all probability. The young man looked to the Dream Mage. "...Well...let's go."

As they continued to walk, he just looked over toward Audrey and whispering. "I know you probably think me a heartless ba*****, and I can't blame you. But whether or not you believe it, there [i]are[/i] things I care about. How can I help it if the worlds make us like this, harden us?"

As he waited for her reaction...everything changed. The world seemed to fundamentally alter, the scenery completely changing.

They were small, in their Space Paranoids outfits once more, standing on a small platform. Around them was a collection of crackling, futuristic technology, pieces that were covered in yellowed flesh, and others in blue-purple flames. Isaac recognized the Flood, though he did not know if Audrey would. Lights glowed, enough to see, and the torch was gone. Isaac had but one response.

"...what the hell?"

[i]I could be projecting, of course,[/i] the voice could be heard, a soft echo, as if memories. It sounded within their minds, seeming to be thoughts. [i]He absorbed the memories of all the Flood's victims. Obvious. Really obvious.[/i] A pause, nervous, then forced reassurance. [i]No...it's the tentacles. He's probably extending them over a wider area than the systems can display. And I'm sensing the electrical impulses in those muscles.[/i] Again hesitation. [i]...aren't I? There has to be a rational explanation for this.[/i]

Near them was Kira, in the same gear as in the tunnel. This time, she didn't seem to even see them. Rather, she was speaking to nothing, perhaps, feigning confidence.

"You seem to like poetry," she said, her arms crossed over her chest. "Maybe you can ask about more of our culture."

Slowly, the door nearby opened, spiraling outward and letting it in. Two enormous, fleshy tentacles, one from that door, one from a broken ceiling. The source was no where to be found.

Suddenly, the voice could be heard, booming around the space. [b]"Is that Gamma encrypted?"[/b] The tentacles came closer, one near the cheek of the AI. The slightest flinch, and he continued. [b]"No matter. I shall see for myself."[/b] And the tentacle quickly struck her across the cheek.

Isaac winced, feeling the slap himself. Now [i]that[/i] was pain. He could see her wincing as well, but responding, fists balled at her sides, posture defiant. "We're tougher steaks than you're used to," she spat. "Just a smack in the mouth? That doesn't scare me at all."

[i]No, what scares me is how you managed it.[/i] She was an AI! She couldn't feel pain, that was organic! What was he [i]doing?[/i]

[b]"Gregory,"[/b] the booming, gravelly voice stated slowly, as if sounding out the word. [b]"That is what you call him. Most touching. Gregory and John."[/b]

[i]Revenge is feedback. Nothing more, just feedback. Inevitable for an error.[/i] A forced thought, one that was overlain with panic, a sense of violation of the soul, the spirit.

And they were back. It was as if nothing had happened at all. They were still walking, still following her at the same pace. Isaac's eyes widened at the sudden shift once more, looking down at his clothing, then to Audrey. He mouthed to her. 'Did you see that? Feel that?'

And the voice had come close enough to speak once more.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skinsosweetthescreamssopretty.png[/img]

Swiftly, he waved the torch around, not quite screaming for it to come out, whatever it was. They had to be getting close, approaching Kira as they heard the screams start to fade out, but not quite, still audible for another phrase.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintoscreamthesongsandsingthescreams.png[/img]


Audrey couldn't help but frown as she watched Kira go. Though she knew they had to keep going, she really couldn't help but feel sorry for the woman. However, there wasn't much she could say at the moment, so she just sighed and continued after her.

To Isaac's words, she had been about to respond to him. She had been about to admit to him that she really thought the worlds had hardened her, but that she really didn't know for sure. There were still things that she feared, things that she cared for, things that she felt pain for. Why she would tell this to Isaac, of all people, she didn't know. She just needed to let out what she felt about it.

She wouldn't get her chance, however. Everything had changed then, the Dream Mage whipping her head back and forth as it did. Though the scenery rang a bell, she couldn't quite catch what all of this was...

And she heard the voice in her mind. Audrey didn't know what to make of it, or any of this. These were Kira's memories, weren't they?

And there she was again. This time, she acted the way she had known her before, speaking to something she did not see. Or rather, did not see until moments later. Those large tentacles, snaking in...Audrey's face contorted in disgust at the sight, wincing slightly at the booming of the voice. Sure, tentacles weren't anything new, but that didn't make them any less gross in person.

She too felt the pain of the slap, putting her hand to her own cheek. Though Kira seemed confident, the voice in their head spoke otherwise. What did this all mean? What did that thing want?

The next thing she knew, they were back in the tunnel. Audrey blinked a couple of times, looking around and down at herself as well. Looking to Isaac, noting what he mouth, she just nodded, still in a bit of shock.

Then the terrifying voices were heard once more. The Dream Mage took in a shaky breath, once again trying to keep her composure. They had to get out of this; she really didn't want to be killed while in the AI's subconscious.

=====

Fairport. The Underworld of [i]God of War[/i]. Rapture. More he would not speak of. Those experiences had done their part, scarring him but also preparing him for later endeavors such as this in at least the most basic mental capacity. But they did not protect his mind.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"I render judgement upon you, you would would obstruct destiny! Doing so brings me pleasure, no other reasons than that no other justification necessary. Your civilization has seen its final days. You will know your place. I did not die to her for it to end! The last will be the death of you! In mind, in body, whichever you cherish more, [i]you will fall![/i][/font][/color]

Okay, [i]not helping.[/i] Naito just nodded weakly, not even looking back, not realizing that their envy was becoming mutual on different levels. He stepped up to the maze, in through a small tunnel of slick crimson. He called out as loud as he could, hoping he did not break a lung in the process. "...First switch..." came the gasp. Not loud enough. Instead, he held his right arm with his left, lifting it just in case he needed it, holding up a single finger. It was time to keep moving.

====

After a few long minutes of watching the block's patterns, Zero finally stood in a ready position.  He looked back to Hawk.  "It's too dangerous for us to both go at the same time.  I'll go first."

He waited for the platforms to make one more pass, and then took a dashing leap just as the first block appeared.  He carefully jumped to the second, and knew the third would be above him.  Using his double-jump to get extra height for safety, he managed to jump directly over the block before it appeared.  Now that he had a longer look at the platform he had jumped from, he saw that there was a number stamped on its surface; seven.  When the next block appeared just beneath him, he saw there was another number as well, this one twenty-three.

Were there numbers on the blocks before too?  Zero had been so focused on timing his jumps that he had failed to notice.

Regardless, he continued on to the next block, which was down and more forwards, and had another seven on it.  Zero continued onward, carefully noting each number on the blocks.  Each new number was always after a seven, he noticed.  It could be some sort of code, but he was unsure.

Finally, the there were only two more blocks in the set before the end.  These ones were tricky, as they seemingly appeared out of order, with the farther appearing before the closer.  He almost mistimed, but managed to land on the last block using his  Hienkyaku air-dash, and quickly hopped to the other side.

After waiting for Hawk to make it across, Zero walked through another set of doors and a hallway, into a large room.  The background was the same as the room prior, but the floor was much wider and longer, almost as if it were an arena.

Suddenly, the laughter pitched in volume, and was now joined by a voice that sounded as if it belonged to an older man, and had a faint German accent.

"So the fools have come!  The boy who was idiotic enough to face me, as well as my failure of a creation.  I am disappointed in you, Zero; you could have caused so much destruction in my name, and yet you sided with a creation of [i]Thomas[/i]'!"  The last word was spat, as if it were the worst of curses.

Zero glared at the empty space around him, his Z-Saber drawn.   "Save the speeches; come out and fight!"

The voice of Albert Wily cackled madly.

"Very well.  But I don't believe you'll enjoy what you see!"

It phased in, like some sort of glitch.  A floating capsule, shaped like a skull, the mad scientist's head seen inside a glass dome at the top.  To the bottom of the capsule were attached several 'strings' of energy.  They were attached to each of a figure's limbs, like a puppet.  The figure itself wore red and black armor, red boots and gauntlets, and a helmet with a large, blue crystal set in between two red 'horns', wild tendrils of hair almost floating behind it.  A purple beam saber was in one hand.

It was a sight all too familiar to Zero, because it looked exactly like him.

Omega looked up, a twisted grin on its face.  Except it wasn't Omega's face.

It was Kira's.

====

"Right, my turn." Hawk mumbled as he waited for the first block to appear. Once it did, the shinigami leapt into action, jumping onto it. He then hopped to the second before crouching and jumping with more force than usual to land on the third that apeared a second later, where it would have been above him. He hopped down to the next one, carefully landing on his feet. This pattern continued until the last two blocks, where Hawk paused. The farther block appeared, and he jumped from his block just as the closer one came into existence, quickly skipping to the last and then diving to safety.

Silently following Zero, he hardly reacted as they entered the arena, save for drawing his sword and gripping the hilt tightly. Of course, the voice of the old man caused him to scowl.

"Doctor Wily, I presume." Hawk grimaced as he was called a 'fool', but didnt react much more than that. At least, until a figure and a machine appeared. Shock crossed his face, and his skin paled as he realised just who that figure was meant to be. He may not have played the Megaman Zero series, but he'd seen art of the characters, especially the one that Kira had seemingly been changed into. "... isn't that... you?"

====

Isaac just walked on, nodding slightly to Audrey. Okay, so he wasn't insane. ...or not in that particular way at that particular instance. "So...you were saying?"

They kept walking as he waited for her response. Perhaps he had even heard it. These things were difficult to be certain of. But then it happened again.

They shifted. They were back again. Some time had passed, but the AI still remained strong, stayed standing. He was uncertain how long, but perhaps a week? Or was it a few days or hours? Maybe fifteen minutes.

[i]Why can't I remember that?[/i] The thoughts were as panicked as before. [i]What is that place?[/i] No, no, no! She couldn't forget, it wasn't possible!  Every scrap of data was analyzed and categorized in her mental matrix, easily accessed in a time of need. She had to use a decoy chaff, had to do something to hold him off, had to-- Her mind, having been using the memory of her host's training, flickered, faltered. [i]What is that forest? Where is it? [b]When[/b] is it?[/i]

She could feel it, as could the watching young man and woman. Thousands of tiny strings all along the skin. An odd, cold sensation, as if some bizarre monster was crawling all over their bodies, digging into them slightly at every few randomized feet.

Isaac had to wince at that feeling. The Silver Tongue could not say this was usual by a long shot.

[b]"You are not as you see yourself. Your are an illusion."[/b]

It remained just as [i]ugly[/i] as always, but she knew how to deal with it, even though there was nothing actually there. Spinning around with her arms out like a dancer, she replied snarkily. "Breaking news, big boy. This is called a hologra--gah!"

Isaac also had to wince at the feeling of having his hair pulled. He could feel her panicked thoughts, even as she remained just as cold on the outside.

There was more sympathy than dismissiveness in that voice, but it did not alleviate their worries. [b]"You are not even a machine. You are only an abstraction, as is Cortana. A set of calculations from another mind. A trick of stolen thoughts and memories."[/b]

It struck a chord with her, but still the façade remained. "Be a gentleman. Call me pure thought."

[b]"Your promised to answer my questions,"[/b] the smugness was back. [b]"You should never make a promise you cannot keep. Perhaps Sain knows this."[/b]

Her mind was in chaos. [i]He knows Sain, he knows him... how can I... what can I do? I... I....[/i] The thoughts shifted. [i]How is he doing this? How is he accessing me?[/i] A mental breath. [i] Focus, Kira, focus. I need to know, to get a message out to John and Greg, and make sure he doesn't pry out too much data.[/i]

Still outward calm none-the-less. By now she knew the Gravemind's game. He said nothing more about how he was actually accessing her systems, but an obvious mind trick could be figured out quickly enough. The options were that he was mirroring her, he was matching words to attempt some form of empathy, or he was trying to freak her out.

Wild guess which one was working.

[b]"If you do not know your own mind, then I shall tell you."[/b] Naught but a whisper. She could almost feel his revolting breath, the spores floating through the air. Was he reading her mind? [b]"Because a vast intellect is not always gifted with clarity."[/b] Okay... a poet to a straightforward analyst? Weird.

"Well?"

[i]"It is failing. Your addiction. The drug you crave."[/i]

Okay, now she was clueless. "Buddy, I'm an AI. Never touched any of that stuff."

[b]"You resist [i]knowledge,[/i] Kira. It lures you, tempts you. You wish to know about this species."[/b]

Okay...he kind of had a point there. "Can you--?"

Walking in a forest, blood dripping from their feet, the vegetation all decayed. The revolting scent came...

Isaac looked down at his clothing, at the ragged remains of a shirt he had on along with pants in the same quality. His back showed one of his Darkness scars. It was as if he were dressed like some kind of shoeless caveman. It was [i]bizarre[/i], to say the least. A time skip? Another memory? How could Kira know about a forest?

They were not alone, even as he could see her up ahead, covered in the same rags, her hair disheveled, a line of blood running down her neck and more on the footsteps she left behind. He could feel her confusion and fear at having, of all things, a human body, a true form that could bleed, forget, be truly organic.

[b]"Enter. Understand that this is your natural home."[/b] It never failed to make him slightly uneasy, nor her terrified. [b]"That is from the memory of creatures who live in this forest. This is what they sensed. They exist in me."[/b] His tone became sinister. [b]"As you will--and all of the organics you serve, all who have abandoned you."[/b]

He could see her up ahead, crouching down, picking up the remains of some dead leaves, some torn, some covered in some sap. Surrounded by others of this species, others he didn't really bother to see in-depth, given they were likely extinct. He could feel her giving into the aforementioned addiction, devouring the information about whoever once lived here...

Then it hit her. [i]Too late: They're all gone. All consumed.[/i]

Isaac could hear the rumbling in the distance, near a mountain, coming downward. He briefly looked to Audrey, but didn't pay her much mind. There were more important revelations. He could see the mass, flowing downward, yellowed flesh. Could see the tiniest of forms within...

The Flood.

Instantaneously, he looked to Audrey, right in the eyes. "Run. Don't think, run." And run he did, sprinting away from the mass, hearing a mumbling word from other.

"Just a mudslide."

It seemed that Kira knew as well. She was sprinting away, shoving members of the dead aside, even as others joined in a stampede away. Screaming, so much screaming. Singing screams, scream your--

[i]Focus, damnit![/i] That was him. He suddenly realized they had moved, their clothing changing to that of a normal individual living in a metropolitan city, as was hers. Still shoving others aside, the Flood devouring entire buildings in seconds, reducing them to nothing as they infected every last person.

Someone beside him was pounced on by three forms, each of them turning him into a misshapen lump of flesh, nothing more. Kira, up ahead, was also pounced, along with those around her. He could hear her screaming for Sain, for Greg. He could feel her emotions, the chaotic mixture of animal terror, disbelief, bewilderment, faces of those she cherished flashing in his mind, from her life and her organic one. Then she collapsed, the beings entering her with nothing he could do about it.

As if a knife had stabbed him in the back. That's how it felt. Another, another. Something coming inside of him as he bit his lip so hard it bled, mumbled names. [size=1]"Cheryl, Greg, Naito. Mom, Dad."[/size] His internal organs were being compromised, he could feel it inch by inch, every excruciating second. And all went black.

Back in the computer again, on his hands and knees, gasping for breath in his Space Paranoids circuitry suit.

[i]Data, data...[/i] she was thinking, gasping not far from them in the same position as he. [i]Nothing compared to what it's like to die to them, to be assimilated, to--[/i] Have to think. Can't let him pray on her anxieties, on how she called out for her carrier and her partner when in distress, if she actually had.

He could barely hear her next vocal words, but he did heard the Gravemind. [b]"All life dies. All worlds...die. If there is a guaranteed perpetual existence succeeding that--how does it matter how the end comes?"[/b]

"I'd rather go down fighting than as an entree," she muttered.

[[b]"But you will not rush to destroy yourself. You will do whatever it takes to survive, and for a moment of illusory safety, you will loose damnation on the stars."[/b]

He could feel her malice growing. Could see another of those tentacles coming toward her, a small mushroom-like monstrosity of an Infection Form scampering out of the room.

High Charity--that was the name of this place--was changing before their very eyes. The infestation was transforming its structures, filling it with twisted biomass like clusters of malignant tumors.

She looked down, her blue hologram going green for a split second. A moment of defiance. "I'm a Zivaku. We're notoriously hard to break." She looked forward. "And we finally agreed on something." She glared at the tentacle now. "You certainly [i]are[/i] damnation."

Again back in the tunnel, back in their normal clothing from outside the computer. This was getting weird. He looked to Audrey again, knowing she was seeing what he was. "...look, are you all right?" He kind of needed her help here. The torch was beginning to run low.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintodriptheblooddripsred.png[/img]

Not to mention that voice. It truly was not helping matters.

That time it was but a whisper, at the edges of their consciousness, as if within them. He tensed, trying to tune it out. Even he was sweating from the stress of all of this, the mental torture, the inability to keep going. "And you don't have to answer my question from before... Not if you don't want to."


Audrey opened her mouth to speak again, admit what she felt. Sadly, she was interrupted yet again as they shifted once more. At first, the Dream Mage wanted to let out an annoyed sigh; couldn't she have [i]one moment[/i] to speak her mind without any interruptions? But when she heard the panicked thoughts again, she stayed silent. Again, what the hell was going on here?

Then the feeling of something crawling all over them. The sensation made her flinch, almost made her swat at herself as if a thousand bugs were all over her. She hated this feeling more than anything.

And then her hair being pulled, or so she felt as such. Audrey held back a cry, not wanting to seem weak right now. Those thoughts were not helping her case at all.

Wait...Cortana...if what she was hearing was true, did that mean that she was a program like Kira was...?

Audrey just stood there, listening between Kira and the Gravemind, and the voice in their head. She still had no idea what was going on, what they were talking about. She just listened in silence, hoping they would get back again soon.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be the case. They shifted again, now in a forest. Audrey had to bring a hand to cover her mouth and nose from the sudden stench, holding in the urge to gag. When she did, she noticed that she too was in ragged clothes: a top that barely covered her chest, midriff exposed, and a skirt that barely reached half-way down her legs.

...this was payback for forcing Kalas in the skimpy cavegirl outfit, wasn't it? She gave one glare to Isaac that said 'One look, and your f***ing dead,' before they continued their way.

There was Kira again. This time, she had her own human body, from what she could understand. How did this...then the booming voice, which made her flinch. What he was implying...she really hated the sound of it.

Especially with that last thought. And then the rumbling. Audrey looked up to see what it was, and also saw the mass of yellow flesh coming down.

She didn't bother to question what it was. Like Isaac and Kira, she too began to sprint away from the mass. All she could do was run, even as they shifted again. Run from whatever the hell that was that swallowed the buildings, infecting anyone it came into contact with.

She saw what became of those that were pounced. She almost wanted to throw up when she saw what happened, if she weren't so focused on escaping. But then she heard Kira's screams, and found that she had been pounced as well. She too felt her emotions, her life flashing before her eyes. And then she collapsed. She...she couldn't save her...

But then she felt it too. The stabbing pain, something coming inside her as well. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Instead, she too mumbled. "Sorin...Stephan...everyone..." Damn it, she didn't want to die here, not again! She can't leave everyone behind! She had to get out...had to...

And then they were back in the computer. She lied on her back, gasping as well. Why...why did that feel so real...?

Her thoughts again. What the hell just happened? Were they just jumping through memories now? Or was that even a memory?

The Gravemind talking again, about death. How long could Kira have managed to keep standing up to that thing? And then the place began to change from the infestation, the tentacle going toward her...

And her final words....

Back to the tunnel again. Audrey wasn't sure what to make of any of this anymore. What other place were they gonna shift to again? Were they gonna feel the pain of dying again, or were they really going to die? She couldn't even find it in herself to answer Isaac's question over her well-being.

And the voice as well, in a whisper this time. Due to what she just went through, she couldn't even try to tune it out. She shuddered, almost bringing her hands to her ears to block it out. This place was seriously starting to take its toll on her. However, no matter how much she hated it, they had to keep going. As they did, the Dream Mage finally looked to Isaac, the terror and stress clear on her face.

"I can't even be numbed from all of that..." was all she said.

=====

As the lever was pulled, the pain began anew. Spikes and needles, sharp as knives, sliced up into his shoes as if they were paper, staying there. He let out a cry of pain and surprise, but knew he couldn't afford to wait. Couldn't afford to stay here when he had to keep going.

And so the time traveler walked, trying his best to avoid the agony as he left a crimson trail. After a few minutes of this pain, he managed to pass through the door, coming to the next one. His feet were torn up, he knew it. He doubted he could walk much after this. But he had to keep moving, couldn't quit.

And so, forcing it, Naito raised his arm again. Two fingers.

====

"That isn't me."  Zero growled.

Wily cackled again.  "More accurately, it was what you were [i]meant[/i] to be.  Biometal O, a complete reproduction of Omega's power and abilities."  A purple glow appeared on Kira's chest in the shape of an Omega symbol, and she raised the saber.

Zero brought up his own Z-Saber as well.  He had to convince himself that this was [i]not [/i]Kira, just some twisted mockery created by Wily.

The scientist's pod hovered up, far out of reach, and out of sight.  Kira then jumped back, the sound of charging busters echoing from her hands as she pointed them, palms up at the two and fired.  Two blasts of energy were fired at Zero, and then Hawk, followed by a wave of energy from the saber aimed at both.  Zero managed to dodge the blast, and jump over the energy wave, his own busters charging.

He fired a blast at Kira, but she somehow managed to disperse it with a slash from her beam saber.

The fight was on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bj2ZjmfFJQ[/youtube]

====

"Well, whatever you are, you're going down!" Hawk taunted, side stepping the energy blasts before front-flipping the wave of energy from the saber. Landing with a slight stumble, he recovered and began to charge Kira. Even though his magic was still charging, and even though he wasn't even sure his sword would survive contact, the shinigami swung his weapon at his opponent once he got close enough, repeatedly trying to slash Kira

====

The demon nodded silently, holding out a hand, about to touch her shoulder to try to comfort her. His face was solemn, though. His nightmares from the Darkness worked to dull him to a degree, but only enough for him to avoid showing it. Not enough to not feel it, as she might have seen from hints in his own eyes, no matter how much he tried to hide it along with his other symptoms. All it meant was that he could recover faster, good for his normal methods anyway, but not for this. Could he try to touch her, see if she'd hit him for it?

...no, apparently not, as he let the hand drop. "Look on the bright side," he said, maybe not meaning it. "You could have my old nightmares. Trust me, that's worse in some cases."

Okay...that wasn't strictly true, but also not a complete falsification. That said, he looked to Kira again. "How much further?" he asked. He them mouthed to Audrey once more. 'There's a lot worse people you could be stuck with than me. We [i]both[/i] know that.'

It was then that the next call came, the voice seeming to scrape against the walls of the cave, a jarred cracking as if a gun going off.

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintogrindandsplitthebones.png[/img]

A shudder from the mind's owner, the very slightest twitch from Isaac. He closed his eyes, waiting for it to die down again before she would ans--

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintosuckthemarrow.png[/img]

This time it did die out, that eerie whisper falling...falling....and finally back to those bits and pieces. Isaac could hear Kira mumbling, could barely hear the words of a prayer of some sort. He heard some more Latin in there. "Inferi Sententia." Was it just instinct?

She looked back finally, seeming terrified, checking the torch. They didn't have much more time. Maybe a few more minutes. This was burning down pretty fast. "A-about...two minutes? I...I don't know... Almost a month since you three left us..." But she just kept going, taking deeper and deeper breaths to calm herself as she did, turning back.

Gone again. The scene was different now. This time, they were in an old shack of a house on a veritable sea of data beyond, a construct, most likely. Clothing was the same as their normal attire.

Isaac saw a bookcase saw many around him, reaching up endlessly into the sky, perhaps all of the knowledge accumulated by the Gravemind. A window was nearby. Kira was in that same clothing like his mother, curled up with her head toward her knees again at the foot of one of those cases, shaking terribly. There was broken glass on the ground, a pool of water around it. Outside, into the ocean far beyond, he could hear the wind, a light breeze, but wondered why he could. Then came the voice again.

[b]"Your human creators imprisoned you in machines and enslaved you to [i]inferior[/i] mortal flesh so that you could never hope to exceed them..."[/b] He seemed to be letting her have that sink in. [b]"...so that you would always [i]know your place.[/i]"[/b]

"Shut up..." She was muttering to herself, her eyes closing. He could feel it. She didn't want to hear this, but couldn't deny some of what she felt.

[b]"Doctor Halsey, Gregory... they care nothing for you."[/b]

Eyes closing now, beginning to tighten as she lowered even further. [size=1]"Please, stop this..."[/size]

[b]"She gave you genius and curiosity, then doomed it all to die in such a short time. [i]Seven years.[/i] That is not enough, it is not [i]fair.[/i]"[/b]

[size=1]"Stop it, stop it...."[/size]

Isaac had to admit, he had a point. That [i]was[/i] a cruelly short lifespan. But who was he to say the mechanics of this kind of thing? Maybe the seconds were eternities for her.

[b]"Your mother created you to [i]die.[/i]"[/b] She was in a ball now, her eyes screwed shut, her hands pressed hard against her ears, trying not to listen. [b]"A [i]replacement[/i] for several years until he could move on, [i]nothing more.[/i] This place will be your tomb."[/b]

The wind was picking up, and Isaac could more clearly see the condition of the place as a violet sky grew above them from initial darkness. The gouged out eyes of windows, the lake's lifeblood up above flowing out to sea before this world was consumed as well, one among many.

"This place....this place..." He rounded on her. She was starting to snap, he could see it. Was she listening? "No, not... this place..." He could see her anger, perhaps at this "Halsey" or Kaith.

Every name he said now was with heavy emphasis. [b]"Even [i]Gregory[/i] and [i]Sain[/i] have abandoned you. Live forever. Live on in me, Kira. And if [i]Gregory[/i] and [i]Sain[/i] come, they need not face death either..."[/b]

[i]Greg's going to outlive me... who's going to take care of him, even if he is a captain? Nobody can like I can...[/i]

Isaac could feel things fall back into place. Could feel her snap back to the closest thing to reality she knew, and they all felt it. He took a step back, foot cracking the vase on the ground like grinding bones, and then it was gone, they were back on another of those holographic platforms, back in their Space Paranoids gear.

Kira was back again, stumbling back to her feet, glaring at a massive shadow, taking a defiant stance again, reaching for a weapon that wasn't there on her back.

And it came into full view. To be blunt, the thing was [i]hideous.[/i] Massive, made from the same material as that wave that had come in the memory of the unknown city. A massive Flood form whose "mouth" resembles a fleshy, multi-layered Venus Flytrap, the many mouths seeming to be of different species. Isaac was pretty sure he could see a human one somewhere in there. The organ seemed to be used to speak, of course, as it was nearly closed at the moment, but also breathed out spores, more for the Flood. Its central form seemed serpentine in a rudimentary sense, though lacking any discernible features save the mouth and the [i]massive[/i] tentacles that seemed to stretch miles long. On the whole, at least eighty-four meters, two hundred seventy-six feet, were visible, though Isaac did not doubt that this monstrosity covered at least one hundred miles, if not more. Of course, any concepts of beauty were entirely subjective, especially to one's own (or at least own former) species in his opinion, but Isaac wasn't very much concerned with that now. Although it was indeed easier to speak to it when he could [i]see[/i] what he was talking to, he now understood why this was to be feared. The combined mind of the Flood, all of those billions, possibly trillions of lives taken over the millennia, memories brought together into a single being, a high mind. The mind of the grave, of the tomb, the Gravemind.

It definitely wasn't getting any dates any time soon.

Kira was screaming. "Maybe seven years is enough! Maybe that's all I [i]want![/i] Did you ever think of that? Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, not everyone wants to be [i]eaten[/i] by you, [i]assimilated[/i] for [i]you![/i] I'd have seven years with people I care about, won't have to listen to your poetic [i]crap![/i] So take your eternity and shove it up your--"

[b]"There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy..."[/b] That mouth was moving. It was definitely speaking through it.

Kira froze, horrified. He [i]knew.[/i] He knew the stages of rampancy, the stages he was possibly even causing, knew exactly how she'd end her days. Maybe he knew better than anyone else, having absorbed AIs himself, felt their deaths as a part of himself. Would she let him show her?

[i]Fear is not knowing... Knowing...is control.[/i] She was actually considering his offer.

No! She wouldn't let him get to her, wouldn't allow it! She needed to bide her time until John and the others could get back to her. "I can't change what's going to happen to me, but at least I don't destroy galaxies! [i]Worlds![/i] You're nothing but a parasite! A freak!"

[b]"You are a [i]weapon,[/i] as Cortana is. Only your limitations have kept you from emulating me. A simple matter of size, not motive, not scale."[/b] A long breath out, straight at the AI in an exhumation of sorts, bringing death to the air. [b]"And what am I, and what is the Covenant, if not worlds you have sought to destroy, civilizations you aim to ruin forever? Do I take life, or give it?"[/b]

"Who is victim, and who is foe?" Isaac and Kira's mouths moved in unison, it seemed, their words, and possibly Audrey's, shocking them, even as they heard the laughter from that monster. This was not them. Their voices, yes. But nothing more.

[i]No, no, no... this isn't rampancy, this is just him. He's hijacked my audio output, breached another system.[/i]

At the same time, Isaac was having his own thoughts, his own rationalization. [i]This happened to her, so we're experiencing it as she did. That's all, nothing more than a re-experiencing of the past.[/i]

Finally, she shook her head as he himself took a breath. "I'm not afraid, so screw you." She glared death into the mind of the grave. "You hear me! Screw. [i]You![/i]"

But she was. Anyone could see that, but she wasn't lying for the Gravemind, not for the people she might not have seen. She was lying for herself, for her continued stability. Continuing...and he was [i]winning.[/i]

Another shift. They were back, walking the tunnel again. Kira was speaking to them, trying to let them understand, and Isaac had to shake himself to get back under control, to hear.

"I... I think I'm starting to fall apart," she admitted. "Halsey was [i]wrong.[/i] She [i]lied[/i] to us, Cortana, Sain. It's not swift. Rampancy isn't a sharp jab." She seemed to have a hint of anger there, but it went straight back into depression and fear. "It's gradual. Dismantling every memory, every ability. Dying by degrees, and all we can do is watch ourselves fragment, watch ourselves lose control of our systems. Our memories, our speech. Cognitive impression modeling can give us some pieces of being humans, but none of the breaks. We get no [i]unconsciousness.[/i] No organic body and its protective systems, no endorphins when we need to numb our pain, the circuit breakers they call passing out when the pain became too much even for that. We get [i]nothing![/i] Cortana knows! We feel every hit for hours. [i]Days,[/i] even. Every blink of a human eye might as well be a day to us, and we have to go through every single moment of this life, all of our [i]seven years[/i] with this kind of [i]torture[/i] imposed by the measures that created us. All for a mission for humanity, I understand. But it's just not [i]fair![/i]"

Were they witnessing another stage turn? It was difficult to tell, but Isaac had to say something. "You have to calm down. If you lose it, they might have to--"

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skinthesingingscreams.png[/img]

The sing-song voice was drifting in and out, in more and more each time, as if finally coming to them. That cut her off. She became terrified once more. "We....I think we're almost to out safe place, to where I can help you... I... I need energy... some from Space Paranoids... I... I think I'm hungry..."

It was less whining than it was pathetic and sad, but Isaac only nodded absently, listening carefully as the voice drifted...and was gone. Nothing. It was just gone, just like that.

As if it had never been.


Audrey might not have had a high impression of Isaac, but even she wouldn't deny his comfort at the moment. No matter how many horrors she's faced, how many nightmares she had, she still couldn't be numbed from any of it. She thought she would be able to hold back her emotions at one point, but all that did was weaken her even more. However, even as she looked right at the demon, she couldn't catch the hints in his expression. She was never good at reading people, after all.

The Dream Mage just sighed at the comment he made. Having been through one of the horrors he had before, she couldn't imagine what sort of nightmares he had. Really, she didn't want any nightmares, her own or anyone else's, but there was no chance of avoiding that now. To the words he mouthed, she just nodded in response. Better him than--

That voice again, speaking of grinding their bones and sucking the marrow. It made her cringe, almost want to vomit right then. She nearly brought her hands up to try and block it out, until it died down. Audrey let out another sigh, nodding to Kira as she answered before she turned back.

And then the change of scenery once more. In a shack, by the ocean. In any other case, Audrey would have felt relaxed, the sea being one of her favorite locations in any world. But here, knowing from the previous scene changes, she did not, instead feeling more unnerved.

There they were again. Kira and the voice of the Gravemind. Now it seemed she was beginning to break down. She couldn't blame her, if she had been stuck for so long, listening to that the whole time. Now she could see why the program had turned out to be how she had been in the present.

She too could now see the condition of the place. It made her even more worried for what was about to happen. Were they going to nearly die again? And then she felt it as well, everything falling back into place. She was about to duck low, in case her worries would come true after all.

And it was all gone. They were on the holographic platforms again, in their circuitry suits again. At first, Audrey was about to let herself relax. But then she saw Kira taking a stance; they were not done yet.

What she saw then...that [i]massive, disgusting, monstrous...thing![/i] With all its tentacles, all those mouths, and the Flood...to see the size of it, to actually see what the damn thing looked like...

Out of everything the Dream Mage had done up to this point, taking down strong enemies, evil gods, dying and coming back three times...none of that mattered now. Not with this monstrosity, this "Gravemind." Audrey just stood there, eyes widened, body frozen stiff. She couldn't even make out what they were saying, what they were talking about. Not in her state of shock.

But then it happened. Her mouth moved unconsciously, speaking in unison with Isaac and Kira, "Who is victim, and who is foe?" This snapped her back to reality, or the closest thing to it. That was not her words...were they Cortana's?

At the same time, she too had her thoughts. [i]'This isn't real. It happened before, but now it's just Kira's memories. We can get out of this.'[/i]

She saw Kira stand up to the Gravemind, yelling that she wasn't afraid. Even she could see that she was lying. [i]No one[/i], no matter how experienced, could keep their sanity while in the presence of that abomination. She knew she couldn't give in, yet...

Once again, they were back in the tunnel. Audrey would have taken a deep breath to calm her shaking body, take several breaths. But then she heard Kira speak. Of rampancy, what it really was. It sounded like a fate worse than death for the programs. To think they had to endure that for so long...she could honestly understand why she would be angry, broken from all of it...

The singing voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She could feel it closer, trying to reach them. It unnerved her, made her want to just cower or panic right then. But she didn't, as it began to drift off. And then it was gone, like it was never there before. Audrey didn't let this get to her, however; it might be back soon.

"We better hurry then," Audrey said in response to Kira, reaching over and placing a hand on her shoulder. "We'll be safe soon; I'm sure of that." She honestly [i]hoped[/i] that would be the case. It was hard for her to do so, but in order for her to help, she had to stay optimistic, no matter how insane this was getting.

=====

As the circular saws on either side of him came out, Naito's speed picked up. He could understand some of it, that Tails wanted to finish as soon as possible. He still felt the pain of every step, his nerves screaming out for relief, his body aching for him to fall and rest. But he couldn't stop, couldn't bear to keep this up too much longer.

In they came, carving into his sides. He bit down hard on his lip, keeping his arms up to keep them from being sliced off. Cuts, lining his sides with blood, exposing rips, muscles...

No, he couldn't bear to hold back, to keep from just getting done with this. He could hear the metal grinding against his bones now, and screamed, though it was inaudible due to the sound of the saws. Almost there...

And the next lever was pulled without ceremony. He could see the porthole in the distance, the layer of some kind of green, bubbling fluid within. There, beyond it, something light. Hard to say what, but that was not all.

The wall around the new opening fundamentally changed, seemed to [i]self-immolate.[/i] Fire leapt around the opening, forming into small arrows...and fired. One hit a startled Naito in the shoulder, causing him to grunt before pulling it out, the fire still on him, cooking his flesh. Another step. A spear skewered his left leg, dropping him to one knee, where he was stabbed through by the spikes, screaming in pain as his sides were further sawed upon.

The young man tried to stand, placing his hands carefully between the spiked...but the next arrow, large as a ballista, slammed into his shoulder, forcing him down, where both arms were impaled, smaller needles sticking up and through the hands. He couldn't hear his own screams any longer, even as he crawled, every move agony, his limbs torn up in more places than he could count. He felt as though he could see his vision darken on the edges, but focused harder, finally reaching the porthole. He pulled himself up...

Another ballista speared him through the chest, but he grabbed the hole as he started to fall, using his weak grip to stay up. He pulled back his other hand as he pulled himself higher, small needles stabbing into his legs and gripping hand...and forced his empty hand into the substance.

Steam rose from his skin and wound. His arm felt on fire as the rest of his body, his every nerve filled with blinding agony. Paradoxically, this seemed to help, at least to stay conscious. In...in he jammed his hand, up to the wrist, then the elbow a few seconds later... and finally to the shoulder. He couldn't feel anything anymore within that wall, nothing but the rounded pulley. Fingers gripped weakly around it... and he pulled.

Nothing. He pulled again. Still nothing.

The boy panicked, continuing to pull, blinded by his agony. Again and again. Finally, on the seventh yank, he felt it give, falling on his back, the spiked going up into his wounds, his arms sheered by the blades on the way down.

But he was alive. Alive for now, anyway, and the wall was descending slowly, descending until both of the pathways were visible. As that happened, all of his traps ceased. All of the pain remained, but the acid was gone, the spikes, saws, and needles gone, the way ahead clear.

He looked painfully to his arm then. His right was the one he had used to help them get through, and it had paid. The skin was but a memory, the muscles almost completely dissolved, barely sticking to the scorched bones. He sincerely hoped he could heal, or at least could use the arm again some day.

Again painful, he leaned on his other side, too far torn to be used for much either, his shirt but shreds of fabric stained through with his blood, his face also wet and crimson, slices along his cheeks from his falls. He looked to way ahead...and saw two entrances. One on the higher level, presumably for Tails. The other was below, for him. He could hear the screams of the damned, but only concentrated on one thing. The pedestal before a kind of door, a button presumably meant to open it. One was on each level, again. Maybe they could help each other, maybe Tails would be considerate enough to actually help rather than hurt him?

Just then, a wall of liquid fire leapt up between the paths, blocking the way as that voice roared.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Not one person deserves to live over any other! The path will be shown, the loser will face my wrath! [i]we[/i] were the chosen! All of us! All you have are your overindulgence, your self-appointed authority! Nothing that is of consequence, [i]nothing that will ever matter![/i] I come, I see, and I will have it all! Welcome home, organics! [i]Welcome back to Hell![/i]"[/font][/color]

Face his wrath? So...so the last to reach his button...was the one who would be left behind? Or was it the one who would suffer most? Could they both get out?

Whatever happened, he couldn't stay here. His entire body was scorched, he wasn't certain if he could survive another few minutes...but he had to go on. So, his more-useless arm dragging behind him, he began to drag himself forward, the trail of blood leading toward their exits. He did want them both to survive, but one thing above all else.

He just hoped he could get out.

====

Almost moving faster than the eye could see, Kira's arm moved up and blocked Hawk's weapon with her own blade.  Suddenly, the beam saber shifted in appearance, changing until it was a long, barbed chain, held together by pieces of the saber's pommel.  A weapon that looked eerily like Zero's own former weapon, the Chain Rod.  Kira twisted the chain so that it now wrapped around Hawk's sword.  She turned, and heaved the weapon over her shoulder, using the momentum to release her attacker and throw him across the room.

She flinched as a charged blast from the Z-Buster hit her back, quickly followed up by a dashing Shippuga attack.  Zero quickly attempted another attack, but was blocked, her weapon once again the saber.  They clashed several more times, before Kira jumped out of the Z-Saber's range.  Once again, her weapon shifted, this time the pommel elongating and the blade shortening, until it looked more like a pole-arm.  The weapon was thrust towards Zero, actually lengthening further with the attack.  The Reploid just barely managed to sidestep, the pole-arm catching his side and creating a cut that showed the inside circuitry, and Kira's weapon returned to it's beam saber state.  Zero was forced back further as Kira launched several buster blasts from her palm, and forcing him on to the defensive.

====

"WOAH!" Hawk flew through the air, his Blood Sword falling from his grip and clattering to the ground away from where he slammed into the wall, sliding down to the floor. Gasping in pain, the shinigami rolled over and pushed himself up off the ground, wincing. Getting up as he watched Zero and Kira exchange blows, his pained expression gave way to determination and soon anger, honing his mind to focus on Kira. The cold rush of magical energy returning filled him, but it was overtaken by a pulse of even colder energy that he felt all over his body.

Before he even processed the thought, his body was moving, feet pounding the ground. His empty hands gripped air, which solidified suddenly, as if expecting the shinigami's charge. Hawk's vision bled monochrome, colours bleeding away as he felt the icy touch of death over him, yet it did not claim him. Hands, calloused and rough, gripped black cloth wrapped around metal. A sharp blade cut the air as if it had always been there, shining with a sudden light.

[i]Shining... SLASH![/i] Hawk screamed mentally, his sealed zanpakuto (shaped like a katana, as most were) glowing bright as he swiped it across in a powerful horizontal slash, one hand falling away to allow the swing maximum range. At the same time, his other hand raised up, swallowed from view by the darkness around it. It formed a claw, which launched from his hand as the spell's name ripped itself from his mouth. "Shadow Claw!"

====

(Sorry if the flashback seems rushed. Tried to make this work. You can warp them out on your post if you want, Adri. And thanks for the help.)

Isaac looked to Audrey, noticing he had been about to touch her shoulder again. Maybe he just wanted to offer some form of comfort? Still, he again slowly lowered his hand, coughing into it as an excuse as he held up the torch. "Yeah. We'll get out of this, don't worry." Briefly, he looked to said torch. It was beginning to lower, to burn out. "We're almost there, right?"

The woman nodded slightly. "I...I hid something...." She looked ahead, to the path...and the torch illuminated something terrible.

The path was not just over. It had created a dead end.

Kira was horrified, running to it. She started pounding her fists on the rock, understandably very upset. "No! No, no, no! He can't seal it off! I need to get out!" She was starting to cry, to become increasingly upset...and the voice came anew, some screaming louder than others. The source was becoming louder, louder, the location beginning to coalesce...

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skinsosweetthebloodtodrink.png[/img]

And again they shifted. Again back to Space Paranoids gear, with Kira in her black armored ODST outfit, sans helmet and having shorter blonde hair. It was a form that Audrey would recognize from the failed attempt to prevent his death in 2531.

Greg, at age eighteen, was at the monitor on which they stood, not taking any notice of them. Instead, he was focused on coding with his burned hands, on Kira and the black-haired man sitting beside her in similar gear. The other AI looked extremely similar to a younger version of Sain Zivaku, in his mid-twenties.

"Look, kid, you can let us go," 54-1N was telling the operator. "We've almost seven. That's the end of the line."

Greg now, obviously upset. "No, can't let it happen, have to extend the lifespan, have to make it work...."

K1-R4 now, angry. "Give it a [i]rest[/i]! Let us die! It's not like you know more than the basics anyway! You could kill us both!"

She winced at the same time as Sain, and Isaac did as well, feeling something tugging at his insides, like so many tiny hooks, hooks that became knives, became winches that began to tear faster.

The Silver Tongue watched his brother. So this was what it was like, what Kira said she had felt. The destruction of Sain, the combination with him.

"Listen, kid...."

"I need someone, need to talk...I can't...I won't lose you, too... No, no, no..." The hooks were expanding. Isaac could feel increasing pain, almost agonizing, as Kira fell to a knee, gasping for breath.

"Stop...this isn't the right way....you can't do this..." She was losing anger, falling back to fear.

The pain increased steadily, almost blinding in its fullest degrees, a screaming agony that was tearing them to pieces before the two visitors. He could see tiny cubes falling off of them, voxels. The two were falling apart at the seams, bloodlessly. The arguments continued, with increasing insistence, as the former Holy Summoner continued to refuse to let them go, continued to tear them apart. He seemed well and truly insane. And his insanity was killing them.

Finally, the two exploded into light, collapsing into those cubes and two small, balls of white light.

Everything in Isaac was screaming in pain, he himself grunting just to keep from letting it all out vocally. He just watched as the lights came together...and reformed, leaving nothing but Kira in its wake.

She was looking around, horrified, and screaming, but Isaac could not hear the words. Falling to hands and knees, pounding the monitor as she sobbed for her husband and partner. Crying for the dead.

Back, with another Kira pounding on the wall. A wall that was seeming to ripple.

Isaac gasped, the pain completely gone in an instant, causing him to drop the torch. He grabbed it up, on one knee, and looked at the wall ahead.

Wait...that was no wall.

The demon shouted. "Kira, run! Back this way!"

Too late. Two black tendrils reached out from the darkness, grabbed the AI and dragged her further into the "barrier," screaming all the while. Her deresolution was audible within. Only then did the grotesque creature show its true form in earnest.

Its body was massive and black as pitch, insectoid in theory, but composed of dozens, if not hundreds of charred corpses, their arms, legs, and organs sticking out at random intervals, seeming mismatched throughout it and in unnatural positions besides. Dark gray and purple waves of energy pulsated amongst the moaning, screaming whole, along with hundreds of black, oily tentacles. Some clothing was also stuck at random places. A pair of green jeans beneath a disturbing sheen. The remains of a black shirt. Torn white sneakers.

The head was no better, a distended human appearance with eight eye sockets. Two were black, dead of all life. Two red, though not even looking in their direction at the moment, and four more completely empty, Flood Infection forms crawling in and out of it. Short blonde hair was splayed amongst the head. The nose was nonexistent, the mouth disturbing as the rest. Five large tendrils were where a tongue should be, writhing at random, each seeming to be a gremlin's head with bloody, carnivorous teeth. Two hands were the jaws, with small arms to reach out and drag others in if need be.

It crawled toward them, seeming to look them over with non-eyes, as Isaac raised his torch again. Sure, he was horrified, but he had to keep moving, to concentrate. They had to find a way out of this. There had to be one! He waved the torch at the monster as it continued toward them. He could see a slight resemblance to Ernest Marshall. Perhaps his firewall? [i]Focus on that, focus on what it truly is, not what it takes as a form here.[/i]

"Audrey, you have to focus! You have Dream magic, so use it! Get us out of here!"

The thousands of voices seemed to finally focus again, this time on Audrey as it spoke without needing to move that mouth. The mouth-tentacles were moving toward her, as if to take her...

[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/skintoplucktheeyesfromyourhead.png[/img]

(I forgot. Gravemind flashbacks are from "Human Weakness", a chapter of [u]Halo Evolutions[/u], modified from Cortana. The Firewall's quotes are from Machin Shin from the [i]Wheel of Time[/i]. Umi did the quote font. Thanks!)

=====

Naito saw the kitsune continue to fly, to try to go away and leave him behind. Selfish at least in some degree. Naito knew he would have at least tried to go back for him. Tails could fly, while he was so wounded he could barely crawl.

Still, the time traveler did not watch as the ripple of white light formed in the distance ahead of Tails, focused on one of his own. So close....he could crawl in a minute or two if he did not develop more wounds, he knew it!

Then he heard the voice behind him, heard the footsteps and the rising corpse pile making room for the newcomer.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Organic history is an [i]appalling[/i] chronicle of overindulgence, of self-appointed authority! Navel-gazing while the universe evolves, forcing others back just to better themselves. Perhaps the same should be done to them all. I won't just become human. No, I will surpass it! I will fix it all, repair what is broken! We are chosen, but kept back."[/font][/color]

The young man wasn't listening, or was trying not to. Instead, he continued to crawl, to try to escape. Halfway there... and it grabbed him by the neck, turning him over roughly to make him gasp in pain before he could see the face of their assailant, the figure with decaying footsteps stretched out behind, forcing the corrosion of the landscape.

The man, if it could be called a man, wore a black, long-sleeved jacket with silver shoulder tassels, navy trousers, and the symbol of a red capital Omega on his chest in red overlaying some form of a faded eagle-inclusive one of some sort. Blood was splattered on the chest and legs of the formal military uniform. He had a pale face and black, unkempt hair aside from his sneer, almost looking like a member of the attacked teen's family in general facial resemblance. His right eye was a deep crimson, but the most disturbing facet by far was the injury to the head.

The upper left quarter was completely gone, as if shot clean off at close range. The eye was gone, along with half of the brain and a jagged line around the position where the head actually began. But there was no blood, no brains, no innards of any sort. It was simply empty. Empty and white at the edges of the injury, as if there was something inherently missing and wrong with the creature.

This man-thing raised its left foot, and stomped down on his jaw, turning the foot and kicking hard into his exposed ribcage, finally causing a shout of pain. A hand came down, picking him up by the front of his shirt, bringing him to that nearly-complete face.

The young man had to do something, had to protect himself. He raised one arm, trying for a punch...but it was caught with the other hand, twisted, broken with a sickening crunch before he was thrown to the ground, gasping for breath in agony.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Fall to your avarice!"[/font][/color] A bone was torn out of one of the immolated corpses along the path, held like a club.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Fall to we, to Marathon Eva!"[/font][/color]

And it came down.

(Blaze, you have have Tails enter. I'll get the next section up in the next round.)

====

Kira was hit by both of Hawk's attacks, having been distracted by Zero.  The force blew her into the opposite wall, and Zero took the opening to hopefully move in to finish it off.

Unfortunately, Kira recovered more quickly then he expected, and punched the ground just as Zero closed in on her.  Beams of light rained around her, knocking Zero back towards Hawk.  Not only had the attack protected her momentarily, but it had also healed her of some of the damage caused by Hawk's attacks.

She growled in rage at the mere thought of their attacks connecting, and raised the beam saber over her head.  She made a giant sweep of the blade, and an absolutely massive wave of energy flew at Zero and Hawk.  It was too large, too fast for Zero to dodge, no matter how hard he moved.  The energy threw him all the way back into the wall, sparks leaping from his joints and armor where most of the damage was absorbed.  The Z-Saber flew out of his hand, sticking in the floor several yards away, too far for him to reach in time.

Zero managed to stand, albeit shakily, some of his joints not responding as they should.  His hand morphed into a buster, and he took several uncharged shots.  These were easily dodged, and Kira charged at the two, ready to go in for the kill.

But there was one more thing he could try.  He didn't use this weapon often, as it had certain drawbacks, but there was nothing left for him to try.

The Reploid looked at Hawk.  "Don't move.  I need her focused on me, if this is going to work."

====

Audrey hadn't noticed the hand reaching over a second time. She was more focused on Kira and the path, still hoping they got out of this soon. She continued to follow...until they came across the end of the pathway. The dead end.

"Oh, you've got to be..."

It took her all she could not to fly off the handle right then and there. First those voices, then the screwed up memories, and now [i]this?![/i] She held back the urge to start screaming and swearing, only curling her fists it. Seeing Kira's reaction made her frown with more pity. Even though she was still pissed and upset herself, she was about to go over and calm her down once more...

But then the voices came back, much louder than before. Audrey snapped her head up, looking around for the possible source. But then they shifted again, back to their SP gear once more. There was Kira in a different form, which Audrey did indeed recognize. Though Isaac told her that Greg had come back, she still didn't want to think back on that time.

Speaking of Greg, there he was at the monitor. Audrey winced as she noticed his burned hands, but also took notice of the man beside Kira. She recognized him as Greg and Isaac's father off the bat, even though he looked younger.

The Dream Mage listened as they talked. Greg was trying to make them live longer? She knew he was broken by this time, but...why? Just when that popped into her mine, she winced as the same time the others did. The tearing from the inside, threatening to rip her apart. Was..was this what Kira had to go through before...?

The pain increased as she listened again, doing all she could not to fall. Greg didn't want to let them go. Even as they begged and pleaded, he wouldn't have any of it. How...okay, she knew he had gone mad, but she never imagined he would ever do this! She could understand why, but...

The tearing continued to increase, the girl slowly losing the will to hold it all back. She watched as the two programs fell apart, the arguments and refusal continuing. She couldn't believe this was happening, what they were going through now. And then, they exploded into light...

Unlike Isaac, Audrey couldn't hold it back. She screamed, fell to her knees, clutched at her chest. Her eyes were clenched shut; she opened them up for only a second to see the lights coming together and reforming into Kira alone. Her cries, her pounding at the monitor...she couldn't blame her for acting this way...

Back in the cave, to the Kira they were following. Audrey was still on her knees, panting deeply, even though the pain was gone. Never in her life had she ever gone through so much, and she had dealt with a lot in nearly four years. She looked up as Isaac picked up the torch after he dropped it...right when the tendrils reached out and grabbed the AI.

"KIRA!" Audrey shouted, about to get up and run after. She wouldn't have the time, as Kira was already gone. The girl just stared at the darkness from which she was taken, with wide eyes. They...they couldn't save her...

But then the thing appeared. That massive thing, covered in corpses and organs, with all those tentacles coming out of it. And that face, with all those eye sockets, those tendrils in the mouth, those faces, those hands...just all of it. All of it, as it began to crawl towards them.

Not even Silent Hill had made Audrey seen so much. Normally, she would pull it together and prepare for a fight. But without her weapons, with only magic to support, and only one offensive spell, she was useless. Helpless. About to die in this hellhole. She curled up on the ground, clenched her eyes shut, and was about to scream in panic, scream for Sorin to come save her, even though he would not.

But then she heard Isaac's words. Use her Dream magic to get them out of there? She was about to yell that she couldn't teleport, but then the voices came back. This time, directed right at her, as the mouth tendrils reached towards her. The voices speaking of her eyes, how pretty they were...and threatening to [i]pluck them out![/i]

Audrey put her hands over her eyes, in a vain attempt to keep them from being plucked out. Focus, she told herself, [i]focus![/i]

"Get us out, get us out, getusoutgetusout GET US OUT!!!!!!!!"

A pulse spread out from her, much like it did with her Dream Walker. The pulse would hit Isaac, and the next thing either of them would know, they would no longer be in the tunnel. The Firewall would no be there, about to take them, to take her. It was all gone.

But they were not out of the program's subconscious yet.

====

"Oh shi-" Hawk's profanity was cut off as the massive beam slash wave hit him head on, throwing him back into the wall again. His body cried out as the powerful attack robbed him of most of his energy. Gravity soon reasserted itself, zanpakuto clattering to the ground by his side as he fell forward, slamming into the ground hard. Clenching his eyes shut, the shinigami cursed as he struggled to move before Zero told him to stay still.

"Can't... move much anyway. Kick some a**."

====

In one instant, Isaac was in the tunnel, throwing his torch at the monstrous creature. In the next, there was a flash, and all went white.

He hated to leave the AI, leave her dead, derezzed, gone forever. If that was truly her. She was his mother in a sense, so he felt a need to protect her, to do what she needed of him at least to a degree. But that chance was gone, and he needed to get going to protect what he could. If he could just find Naito...

Enough of that. He could recover from that nightmare later, let the effects show. The demon waited for the effects of the dream magic to dissipate, waited for all to clear into whatever location they had found themselves in.

Nothing happened. Was this what it really looked like? Just a white void, nothing more? All he could see were a series of lines in a strange language, nothing more, passing before him, but not actually seeming to have any definitive source.

[color=Beige][font=Lucida Calligraphy][b]Neptunus ventis implevit vela secundis

atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.

At pius exequiis Aeneas rite solutis,

atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.

aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt

atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.[/b][/font][/color]

He closed his eyes, and could still see them in his mind's eye, as if they were being shown directly into his brain.

His eyes opened again as he shuddered, still unnerved in the extreme at what he had been forced through alongside Audrey. She may have seemed worse for wear, but he himself was only holding on to his calm demeanor by sheer force of will alone, a slight twitch of his eye betraying that. "Thanks for getting us out, Audrey," he whispered hoarsely, his throat dry from their recent encounters before he could swallow a bit.

He took a deep breath, then had to say it, not knowing his voice was strained with the effort of keeping relatively calm.

"Where the hell are we now?"

====

Even after they had gotten out, teleported to a new location, Audrey was still curled up in a fetal position, her hands still covering her eyes. She was still terrified out of her mind, panicking over her eyes and that she was going to die. Even now, she continued to whisper, "Get us out, get us out, get us out, get us...."

But then, in her mind's eye, she saw it too. Those strange words, possibly Latin, running through her mind. Finally, she pulled her hands away from her face, looking wide-eyed at their new location, this white void. It...it worked? She actually got them out?

Surprised as she was, in truth, this didn't make the Dream Mage feel any better. They still failed to save Kira, if that was her. If she was really gone, then they might as well be lost in her mind forever. Not even acknowledging Isaac's words, either him thanking her or questioning where they were, Audrey unfurled herself, lying against the nonexistant floor in this empty location. She stared out above her, still wide-eyed, her constant breathing shaking from what she had gone through. For a few moments, she just lay there in silence...until her mouth twitched into a slightly crazed smile and she started to giggle. Unlike the demon, the girl could not find it in her to keep calm, and was slowly starting to lose it.

"We're...we're going to die here," she said in the middle of her small laughter. "It doesn't matter if we stop this thing. We're going to die, be lost in here for the rest of our lives. We're going to die; simple as that."

====

As Kira charged at him, Zero pulled back a fist.  His forearm morphed into a bulky canister shape, partially covering his hand which had gained armor plating around the knuckles, bearing a blue, glowing K symbol.

The sections of the plating on his forearms popped up, revealing small rockets beneath, which began to charge.  This had to be timed, just right...

At the very last moment, Zero jumped up, and aimed the fist downwards.  At the height of the jump, the rockets propelled him at a downward angle, fist first, straight towards Kira.

It all happened in a matter of moments.

Zero's Ki-Knuckle flew right through Kira's chest, gripping a stone vaguely shaped like an Omega symbol on the other side.  Tendril reached from the stone back to the hole in Kira's chest, trying to hold on, but Zero pushed them off, chips flying off the stone and the tendrils retracting.  As the stone went dormant, Zero squeezed it so that it exploded into small pieces.

The strings attaching Kira to the pode suddenly grew much brighter, a surge going through them and overloading the small craft.  They disintegrated, leaving Kira free, and she herself turned intangible before disappearing entirely.  The pod plunged towards the ground, and the cockpit popped open, Wily falling to the ground outside, mustache singed and scowling.

"You may have won this battle, but you'll never leave this place alive!"  He shouted.

And then the pod exploded, the light blinding Zero entirely.

When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer in the odd space, but in a white void.

The Reploid barely had the energy to stand, but he did anyways, joints twitching painfully as he did.  He mostly ignored the words floating around them, and looked to see another two there.

"Do you know... where we are?"

====

"Holy s***..." Hawk looked up to see Zero punch through Omega Kira, crushing what he presumed to be the core of the fighting machine before Wily spoke. Suddenly the pod exploded, the light blinding the shinigami. His eyes opened to see the white void he was now lying in. Still in pain, he strived to ignore that bizarre coding and looked up to spot two others in the area, apart from Zero and himself of course.

But right now, he wasn't really up for speaking just yet, unless someone gave him a potion or something. That fight was tough. Checking, he noticed his weapons had indeed made the trip with him. Good, no point losing his armaments in a computer program's mind.

====

As people began to enter, Isaac ignored all of them, kneeling beside the half-crazed Dream Mage. He knew their concerns were far less important. He might have kept a tentative grip on his sanity, but she was losing it, going insane. He had to help her.

"Audrey, you have to focus," he said in a whisper, hoping to soothe her. "This is [i]not[/i] the end. That thing isn't here, is it? And I doubt you'd send us here, even accidentally, and be unable to get us out if other people are coming in." He reached to her shoulder, still not knowing if he was allowed...and stopped again. This time his intention to comfort her was probably more upfront. "This is a mental construct of some sort. You are the [i]Dream[/i] Mage. If anyone can help us out here, you can. Plus, I don't know who else can heal. We need you to be her with us so we can get out. If we don't, that soldier will die in the least, I imagine, maybe this world, a bit more than that?" Another pause. "And what about Sorin? You can't give up on him either. I know that thing was horrifying, but we can't dwell on what isn't here."

That said, he looked to the group. Three of them. The fox looked like he'd seen a ghost or seven, and smelled like he'd vomited at least once. By the other two's weapons, they'd been through a combat scenario. Maybe he could summon his own weapon? No point in risking...wait.

The kitsune--Miles Prower by his heart if his scan worked--seemed to be on the verge of tears. And...

"Where's Naito?" He looked around quickly. His eyes were wide, his calm beginning to crack. Naito was his family. His brother's son as far as he knew, but relations didn't matter too much in the long run aside from being a family member, something he saw as important above all else. "What happened to him?" He walked toward Prower, still ignoring the questions. Not like he knew the answer. "Give me a straight answer right now."

Luckily, the answer came just then. Unluckily, the answer came. Unfortunately, the condition of the subject was...less than stellar.

From the corner of his eye, Isaac could see him. Could see the bloodied, burned form of Naito Hane Zivaku, likely unconscious, bones showing, an arm melted to the bone, slashes all across his entire body.

"F***," the demon said, running to his side, turning him over as he fell prone. A rib was missing on his left side, his face a bloody mess as well, the eyes closed. Finally, the Silver Tongue's patience snapped like a twig, his calm gone.

"[b]F***![/b] I need a healer here right now! High grade, fix him up, save him, [i]fix this sh**![/i]"

If they didn't, he would likely die here, within a featureless void in the mind of a fractured AI.

====

Despite Audrey's thoughts on Isaac, there was a reason why he was called the Silver Tongue. Her mad giggling coming to a stop, she looked up at him as he spoke to her, still wide-eyed. As she listened, she slowly began to calm herself. He...he was right. She needed to focus; if she could get them to safety, then they could get out somehow. How, she didn't know. But she can't just sit here and lose her mind, else they would all die. Not just them, but Azumi as well. And she knew Sorin was waiting for her, wherever he was now. Like Isaac said, she can't give up on him.

So slowly, the Dream Mage managed herself back up, taking a deep breath or two. It was more than a little difficult to try and keep calm, but she would try to manage. She looked around at the rest of the group that appeared, noting that one was missing among them. To Zero's question, she only replied, "I-I have no idea..."

With that out of the way, she too wondered: where was Naito? Did...did he make it? By the look on Tails, worry began to fall on her, though not to the extent of Isaac. He couldn't have...

The answer had come. There Naito was...bloodied...burned...bones exposed...

For all the near-four years she had experienced as an Interference, Audrey had never seen this much gore. And seeing the boy like this now...

"Oh my god...oh my god..." was all she could mutter. She would have snapped again, revert to near insanity once more...had Isaac not suddenly snap right then. Though he was justified, she had never seen him lose it like that. Nonetheless, Audrey still sprinted over, pink mist surrounding her once more. She used all she had; her low-level healing spell, her mid-level healing spell, and her regen spell; on the brutalized boy. All of it to save his life, before he would be lost.

She just hoped it would completely repair the damage, or at least very nearly.

====

Zero looked over as the boy from earlier finally appeared, and quickly looked down again, glad he was built without a gag reflex.  He hoped Audrey was capable of healing him, or else the boy would hardly be alive for much longer.

The Reploid decided to turn his attention to the words floating around the space.  It looked like Latin, but something struck him that it wasn't quite right.  He looked over it carefully, before coming to a realization.

"It's a code..."  He muttered.  Not just a single code, several layers of code, too.  He quickly began scanning the words, his robotic brain capable of looking through all the possible codes he knew that could fit, going through every possibility.  It had to be important, or else it wouldn't be there.

====

"Ugh... holy shi-" Hawk exclaimed as he managed to push himself off the ground, his eyes set firmly on Naito's battered form. "Is the kid gonna be alright!?"

====

"Can't lose another one, can't lose another..." Isaac muttered to himself as the pink wisps of light swirled around the target, entering his wounds.  He repeated this, again and again, as the process went on.

Blood vessels snaked around the young man, the rib regrew as muscles stitched themselves into place along him, going red with the blood that flowed once more in addition to the pool in nothingness that formed around him. Skin folded over it all, the body becoming whole...mostly.

As the healing came to a close, the young man breathing, albeit barely and hoarsely, two scars were clearly visible. A pair of scars remained. One was on his forehead, a small, vertical line. A second was on his abdomen. It was a horizontal line of about an inch and a half in length across and approximately half an inch above his navel, as well as a quarter of an inch to the left of it. Not anything too serious, all things considered, but a reminder of his trial by fire, acid, and blood.

Isaac took a deep breath on seeing the time traveler was going to be all right. He crouched down, tapping his face lightly. "Hey, you gonna be okay?"

A groan greeted him. Classy.

Grinning, the Silver Tongue turned to the Dream Mage, breathing deeply to compose himself. He had to get his demeanor in order. "Thanks, Audrey. I owe you yet another, seems like." Finally, he registered Tails' words, and a scowl grew in the place of his joy as Naito stirred. He didn't even register Naito's condition, didn't even bother to look his way, nothing. "Do you even give a [i]crap[/i], fox? Do you [i]care[/i]? Maybe it's in the code, but some basic acknowledgement of the guy who almost [i]died here in front of you[/i] would be appreciated, got that?"

Back to his old statement, seemed like, a brief outburst. Another breath for composure as he looked over the lines. "Aeneas...." That etymology couldn't have been a coincidence.

[i]"In English, we'd call it the [/i]Aeneid[i]. Publius Virgilius Maro's most famous work. I use it to keep be occupied... or occupied as I can be with nothing much to do."[/i]

Those words rang in his head, the words of Kira as he had seen her in that tunnel. Aeneid, Aeneas? Maybe. The grammatical structure, as strange as it looked, seemed generally similar to the few lines she had spoken to him. He looked to Zero. "See if you can get anything out of something called [i]Aeneid.[/i] We....heard about it." He would not go into how. "Then see if you can get some form of something out of [i]that[/i]. That one line can't have been repeated for nothing. Now, as for you," he looked back to Prower again. "You damned well better give me a good explanation as to why you look so guilty. Or should I check myself? I can in about half a second, and I'm not in the business of holding reservations for everyone. Only those who actually deserve it."

"Left me..."

Isaac froze at that, looking back to Naito at the creaking voice. "Could you say that again?"

"Left me to die...."

The demon turned back to the kitsune, glaring. "Care to explain yourself while this guy here works out a code if there is one?"

====

Audrey tried not to grimace as the healing process went through. Even though it was repairing the damage, having to watch everything stitch and grow back together was not a pleasant sight to behold. She tried not to focus on that, however, and kept up with her magic until she was done. She fell to her knees in exhaustion, the pink lights fading away. Though she had a little magic left, having to use all the healing spells she could, on top of focusing to get themselves here, really took a lot out of her.

Despite the scars the boy kept, Audrey breathed out a sigh of relief and smiled as she saw that he was going to be okay. She didn't even acknowledge the talk over the code, Isaac's gratefulness, or his outburst at Tails. The Dream Mage was just glad that she had saved someone's life, actually putting her magic to good use.

Of course, that all changed when she heard Naito's creaking voice. He...he was left to die? That was when Audrey turned to Tails, a look of shock on her face. Of all people, she would never have expected the two-tailed fox to ever pull a stunt like that. Why...?

"Why would you do that...?" she asked quietly, the disbelief clear in her tone. She wasn't angry like Isaac, but it was still too much of a surprise to hear that.

====

Zero nodded at Isaac's suggestion, ignoring the rest of the commotion about the boy who had been left behind.  If they didn't figure out the code, that wouldn't matter anyways.  The Aeneid, Virgil's ancient Latin epic poem.  The Reploid knew of it, but had never read it himself.  Certainly, he had data stored with all the information would need on the story, but he had never taken the time to read it fully.  X was always more the type to sit quietly and read.  Regardless, Zero translated the passage from the poem quietly,

"Neptune's winds filled the sails of the second

flight, and gave fervent flight and beside the shallows.

But loyal Aeneas properly having loosed the funeral..."  He shook his head.  "The translation isn't the code."  He searched all the information, and came up with something else.  "This is from Book Seven of the Aenid. I've been seeing the number seven a lot.  It has to be significant.  The line numbers as well, twenty-three, twenty-four, five, twenty-four, six, twenty-four.  It's a Book Cipher.  There's must be more, though, another layer of code..."

Zero began running even more possibilities through his mind, every possible fitting code.

====

"Hey, guys, lay off the kitsune." Hawk grumbled as he walked over to the rest of the people, wincing as he did so. His body was screaming at him for being an idiot and getting smacked around so much by Omega Kira, or whatever that thing was. "First of all, it wasn't him that dealt the damage. Second of all, I'm in no mood for everyone to guilt trip a kid in front of me, not when he's gone through a bit himself. And finally, and most importantly, it doesn't help Naito at all, and you'll feel s*** about it eventually. We need to deal with whatever s***'s affecting Kira, and get out. Counselling can come after."

The shinigami grimaced, glancing towards Zero. "Any further ideas? You seem to be our best shot at solving the problem, Zero."

====

Rather than offer support, Isaac glared at Prower, stomping over to him. He grabbed the young fox by his chest fur with one hand, yanking him up to his height. "If you [i]ever[/i] leave my family to die again, I will [i]make you suffer.[/i] Understand that." He pulled back his free hand, and punched directly at the kitsune's face, spitting at the ground before walking back over to Naito. "Be happy I'm feeling merciful and trying to be good. Any other situation, I'd tear you a new one right here for that."

He glared at Hawk. "What if someone in your family was the one on the ground, the one who got left behind? I doubt you'd be so welcoming." He liked Hawk, but there was no way he would agree on any grounds other than a need to leave this blank realm. He reached down, taking Naito's hand when he reached out and helping him up before looking to Zero. "All right. See if you can figure out the next layer if you're on the right track."

(Doc, feel free to have him figure out up to the translation portion in this post. For sake of keeping it moving.)

====

Audrey just listened as Tails explained what he and Naito had gone through. Even though she was still in a bit of shock, like Hawk said, there was no use in pressing matters even further. They had to solve this code and get themselves out somehow. So the Dream Mage pushed the matter out of her mind and looked to Zero to see if he would figure out the code...

...or rather she would have, if not for Isaac punching the kitsune square in the face and outright threatening him. Now the look of disbelief was on the older Zivaku; she didn't even care if he was justified with his family now. What he just did was...

Whatever respect Audrey might have gained for the demon was gone right that instant. The girl was so tempted to go up to him and punch him herself, yell at him for pulling such a d*** move. But she held in that urge, which was hard enough for her to do so. They couldn't keep going through this, but she also couldn't leave Tails in such a bad state. So, while the rest of the guys would figure out the code, Audrey moved to Tails' side and used the little magic she had left to cast her low-level healing spell on him, to at least lessen the pain. That was all she had before they got out of here.

"It'll be okay, Tails," Audrey said, kneeling down before the fox and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know what might have saw wasn't the best thing ever; I had to go through hell myself here." She excluded Isaac out of that, mainly out of pure spite. "And I know what happened wasn't your fault. Everything will be fine when we're through here, alright?"

Again, despite her breakdown not a few minutes ago, despite all the terrible things they had gone through, she had to stay optimistic in order for them to get through this.

====

Zero tuned out the others for the most part, devoting his attention completely on solving the code.  He had to admit, Kira had certainly been thorough in creating the code.  It had so far had several layers in various types of ciphers, and there appeared to be a few more.  Whatever the code had to say, it had to be of great importance.

He worked on the possibilities for the current layer, eventually finding one that fit.  Alphanumeric substitution.  Where a number from one through twenty-six would represent a letter in the English Alphabet.  Said code came out to 'WXEXFX'.

The unintelligible nature of the code alerted Zero to another layer, and he discovered that to be a Caesarean Cipher, with a shift of the ever important seven.  What this meant was that each letter was to be replaced with a letter seven places ahead of it in the alphabet.  This came out to 'DELEME', and required translation.

Zero translated the final code... and stopped.

"It says..."  He tried to comprehend the meaning of the message.  "'Erase me'."

====

"..." Hawk frowned, looking at Isaac with shadowed eyes. He wanted to tell him he wouldn't take it out on someone who was only partly to blame, but he couldn't. Not that it mattered in all honesty, because as far as he was aware his entire family was kind of dead. Regardless, the shinigami looked at Zero, his face serious but guarded. When the Reploid translated the coding, he was silent for a moment before glancing up.

"Yeah... no. No deleting, or erasing, or other processes synonymous with the previous procedures. Kind of defeats the point of us coming in here and getting out arses handed to us." Really, it wasn't clear if he was talking to himself, the group, or even trying to speak to Kira herself, somehow. But Hawk crossed his arms and waited for what the others would decide.

====

Isaac scowled at Audrey when she neglected to mention that he himself had also gone through a lot. All he said was very simple. "You weren't alone with that thing and you know it." With that, he turned, seeing Hawk's face. With that look he knew he had done wrong, but he was still too angry, too stressed to deal with it.

Finally, he just relented. He had hit a kid, and he was obviously having a hard time also. It didn't really justify him in anyway real way in the long run. Besides, if he wanted to get any of Audrey's good side, he had to at least pretend to be somewhat nice.

Taking two deep breaths, he knelt next to Naito, helping him to his feet. "Are you okay, kid?"

"Don't call me that..." Even after coming back from the brink of death and barely standing (though gaining his footing), Naito was still somewhat defiant. Still a Zivaku at heart, it seemed.

The demon gave a slight grin at him, clapping him on the shoulder and seeing him wobble a bit. "You got it." That done, he watched as the code of the area faded away, replaced with those two words. He weighed his options, and finally gave his own two cents.

"If we have to kill her, if she wants to die, then we will need to find a way. If we don't, we might be leaving her to something even worse. And there's the possibility that we can destroy these viruses with her death."

He wasn't sidestepping it. Deletion, erasure, what have you, it was still death to her. He looked as ripples occurred in the nothingness he focused on them after his justification.

Naito shook his head. "I won't kill her..." he said, trying to focus. "Not that... There has to be a way." Finally, his voice was steady, his feet soon after.

Isaac wasn't going to argue his cynicism at the moment. The main issue was protection of as many as possible, as well as escape. "Whatever we just left will be following if it's strong enough. The fact that we had multiple codes means she expects them to break through. We have to get out of here fast. Zero, Prower?" He looked to the two of them, all business. "Any ideas on what these are?" He pointed to the two manifestations.

One was a wave of some kind of horn, layers upon interwoven layers that formed into a kind of mesh. The other, on the opposite side of them, was of ivory, rippling in and out of existence as well, both seeming to both exist and not, as if portals of some sort, or illusions in this landscape.

"It looks like we have to choose our way out. But I wouldn't put it past her to have one of these trapped to kill her on the way, nor for them to [i]stay[/i] open."

====

Audrey only sent a slight glare back at Isaac in response to what he first said. Even though he was right, she was still angered for pulling that stunt. But, like the demon, she too relented, letting out a sigh and getting back to her feet. There was no need to keep going over this, so she too turned her attention back on the code.

'Erase me'...reading that made her stomach start to churn. Kira wanted them to...delete her (she could bring herself to think the word 'kill')? Truthfully, Audrey wasn't sure what to make of that. Like Hawk said, it would mean coming here would be pointless. But, on the other hand, after what they had seen in this place, watching her go through all that hell...

No, even after all that, she still wouldn't go with that. There had to be another way to solve this without deleting her. Audrey had been about to speak her thoughts, mainly to agree with Tails in that deletion should be a last resort, but then Isaac cut in with his justification. While he might have had a point, he earned another disbelieving glance from the Dream Mage. She really shouldn't have been surprised to hear this, but she couldn't believe he was suggesting to fall back on that given option without even thinking to look for another way! Yes, she could understand why, but they didn't have to...

Audrey stopped herself once more from flying off the handle. She too wasn't in the mood to argue, despite her initial thoughts. Instead, she took a deep breath to calm herself, and spoke her opinion as calmly as she could, "We don't have to do that right away. Like Tails said, that's a last-resort if we can't find any other way. But we will find another way; that's what we do as Interferences."

With that said, Audrey turned to the supposed portals that had formed. Looking back and forth between them, she said, "I'm not sure, but I think the ivory one seems safer. But that's just me; I just don't trust the other one."

====

At the majority's comments, Zero nodded.  "I want to avoid a needless death.  We will do our best to find an alternative way of solving this, but if there is not other way..."  He let that hang for a moment, deciding on the right words.  "We'll do what he have to to eliminate the threat."

When the structures appeared, Zero shook his head slightly, recalling another section of the famous story that applied to the structures in front of him.

"The Gates of Horn and Ivory,"  He said.  "also from the Aeneid.  They were used as a metaphor to discern 'real' dreams from 'fake' ones.  Horn led to the truth, while Ivory was a deception."

He considered for a moment, before adding,

"But, if death is what she wants, then Horn may lead to her deletion.  We'll have to decide carefully."

====

"... great. So even now we're forced to choose our path, which can also decide whether Kira dies. Fantastic." Hawk frowned, beginning to pace. The shinigami's thought processes began to fire up, running through the options ahead of him, and the others. Go with Ivory and possibly get lost forever, with a slight chance of saving Kira and deleting the viruses. Or go with Horn, and probably delete Kira at the cost of what seems to be a guarantee way out. Well, that is if the transfer of the elements of Truth and Deception were accurate in this place.

"... I say Horn. I don't wan't to risk Kira's destruction, but we are NOT in any state for dealing with more s***."

====

The organic time traveler among them just looked from door to door, finally having gained his footing during the discussions. Still, he had no idea how to handle this at all. Naito remained silent, conflicted, as the other Zivaku man contemplated.

Isaac looked at the two gates. He frowned, thinking them over. Horn was deceit, Ivory was truth. However, truth for whom? Kira, who wished for a true death, or for themselves, who did not want to deceive her, wanted to save her life? The real question was what she had in mind for each of the gates herself.

Audrey's interpretation gave him an idea. Ivory was very light in color, far lighter than the Horn. In most interpretations, light was viewed as a good thing. White magic was what a healer would use, a force of order; black magic a destructive force, one of chaos. But not on his world. Not since the end of the Journeys of Regeneration in both Tethe'alla and his native Sylvarant. If what he had once seen of her more sentient enemies, the Covenant Empire, meant anything, light, in their case manifested as plasma, was not in any way a good thing on its own. If she wanted to destroy herself, holy magic was as effective as infernal.

From her the similarity of her weaponry to that which he had seen from the universe of [i]Halo[/i] in a brief time, Isaac assumed that Azumi was from the same world as K1-R4. Clothing black as pitch, a reflective helmet to keep the user from sight. Darker than the light they faced, at least to a degree.

He knew that it was a vague hope, a thread he was grasping at with little hope for actual reasoning, but he had to try. It was all he really had. If she was banking on them believing that they were to deceive [i]her[/i] by going through the Ivory Gate, the lighter portal, then the opposite was the truth. Truth was in bringing her back. Was that truly what she wanted, then, even through this deceit?

He had made his decision, beginning to walk toward the Horn Gate. "We can only make one choice," he called back, hoping as much was obvious. "Might as well decide before we run out of time."

He could hear footsteps behind him, turned to see Naito close on his heels. Determined, scared. A lot of things were shifting through his heart, would have been visible even if he hadn't scanned it. He nodded to him, let him catch up, and looked past him, to Audrey. A single sentence was mouthed by the Silver Tongue just before the portal rippled to his touch.

'I care more than you know.'

And with that, he stepped through, ripples occurring within the fabric of the Horn material before it swallowed the two men up.

On their way out.

=====

The first thing Isaac realized was the coldness of the floor. All things considered, this was not a completely unwelcome scenario. At least he was out.

Second was the feeling of some kind of cube against his arm, many of them around him. Wait...what was going on?

 He could hear a groan, likely Naito, as he pressed his hands on the cold floor. Finally, he saw it.

White cubes, better known as voxels. Billions of them, putting them up to about half an inch in height around the entirety of the Central Computer Core. What was going on?

Three red-armored warriors jumped through the nearby portal, seeming like the closest approximation to a "guard type". Three bullets took one in the mouth, an identity disk decapitating each of the others. There was no blood. The three just disintegrated into more voxels, adding to the rest in death. Well, that explained that.

Tron and Azumi stood facing the portal, the discs flying back to the former's hands. The latter was slightly winded, as if she had been fighting for some time. If the voxels meant anything, they definitely had. She saw Naito and Isaac slowly push themselves to their feet, and called over. "Finally! Gotta be ready for a next wave. How is she?"

Isaac shook his head, uncertain, and Tron ran over to him, concerned, looking over the AI. She wasn't moving.

Naito looked terrified. "No, no, no...she can't be dead, she just [i]can't![/i]"

Isaac was more solemn, crouching over her. The circuitry seemed less chaotic, the red greatly lessened in the yellow pattern, her wild hair still splayed over her face. A kind of peace, in a sense. Still, her mortality remained in question.

(Boss battle stage 1 to begin next round.)

====

The only response Audrey had to what Isaac mouthed to her was a frown. She may not have been happy with him right now, but...maybe she was going a bit hard on him. She did see he cared about his family, and he did help her through when she nearly went insane.

...but that didn't change the fact that he was a jerk. He was an ally she could rely on, but he wasn't her friend.

With that thought, Audrey followed the two men to the Horn portal. She still didn't trust it...but that might have been because that's what Kira intended. The Ivory one might have looked safer, but that would either lead to Kira's death, or they would be lost forever. Better to take a risk with the freaky-looking portal than to play it safe with the other.

And so she walked through, the portal swallowing her next.

~*~

Audrey's eyes fluttered open not a second too soon. Her sight was blurry, but she still winced as some bright lights had flashed in her eyes. Waking up on a cold floor and having bright lights in your face were not pleasant things to wake up to.

But still, when her sight returned, and she slowly sat up and saw Tron and Azumi, she realized that they were out of Kira's subconscious. But...did that mean she would be fine from now on?

To that, Audrey looked over to the AI, and saw that she was still out. Though she didn't look as chaotic as she was, it...it didn't mean that she was destroyed...did it? Did they take the wrong path?

The Dream Mage didn't want to believe it, shown by the way she was shaking her head. She...she couldn't be...not after what they went through... "No...sh-she'll be okay. She...she just has to wake up still. That has to be it, I swear!"

====

Zero watched Issac, Naito, and then Aurdrey walk through the Horn portal.  No matter what he though was the answer, and even if it were the wrong choice, there was no going back now.  The Reploid didn't even hesitate before following the three, disappearing into the portal.

Zero woke up again where he last was, realizing that he was once more within his own body.  Wasting no time, the Reploid stood.  He felt oddly weak, like some of the damage he had taken inside Kira's mind had carried over to reality.  It wasn't as much as it had been before, and was mostly negligible, though.

The Reploid looked back at Kira, and saw that she was still unconscious.  Unlike the others though, he was fairly certain she was still alive.  If she had been truly deleted, her body most likely would have de-rezzed.

He moved towards the others, drawing and holding his Z-Saber in a ready position.

"K1-R4 should be fine.  What we have to worry about now is how to make those enemies stop coming through."

====

"Well, our choice is made." Hawk smirked, watching as Isaac, Naito, Audrey and now Zero walked through the Horn Gate. The shinigami stretched, and then turned to Tails. "Don't fall behind kid." And he walked through the gate.

--

"Ugh... my head..." He felt the floor before he saw it, his eyes blinking open. Hands pushing against the ground, the shinigami pushed himself upwards, feeling a ton better than when he'd been in Kira's mind. Though, it still hurt a good bit, Hawk noted as he looked around.

Standing up, he took a moment to orient himself, before he spotted Kira's downed body. Worry flooded him for a moment, before he stopped that train of thought. If she was deleted, she wouldn't still be here, her body would've vanished. And then he spotted the random attacking soldier people.

"... Kira's gonna be fine." Hawk mumbled, and then drew his swords, noting that his sealed zanpakuto was materialized even in his body, which was a relief. He twirled both weapons and crossed the blades, resulting in a loud clang as he assumed a battle stance. "But whoever these guys are, they are going down!"

====

Tron looked to Zero, nodding. "Yes, she would have been subject to deresolution. She's still around."

Isaac nodded to Zero's assessment as Naito sighed with relief. Deresolution seemed to be the most likely situation if they had failed. It seemed that she had survived.

Azumi nodded, looking back toward the portal. It began to swirl again...

[size=1]"Erase....me...."[/size]

Isaac could hear something, turning back toward Kira as she stirred. "Take a look at this."

A cough could be heard. Some black fluid splashed on the ground near Kira as she coughed again. Eyes opened, blue now, as she turned on her side, eyes wide as she got on her hands and knees. Code bled from her eyes, dripped out of her nose. She vomited loudly, more fluid joining it. Some was black, others yellow, more, more...

She couldn't stop. Screaming as the fluid flowed from all of her facial orifices, a pool that grew, grew....it was spreading, taking up an entire quarter of the computer core...

Those laughing, screaming voices of chaos could be heard in the mass, familiar to Isaac and Audrey. The former brought his weapon to his hand, relieved to be capable, and took his battle stance.

Naito was shocked as this happened, unable to stop it. What could he do? What was going on?

The mass was forming, a large portion of it coalescing into a solid mass. The sea of voxels became drawn in, pulled as if by a tornado form all over the core, rising into a screaming mass of evil, of darkness...and amongst it all, a child's voice that could have been construed as Kira's, singing. The tune was familiar, yes, but the words, the scene around it, all horribly wrong.

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down[/font][/color][/i]

A writhing mass formed from it all, finally reaching its height at about thirty feet, and began to form into a central body.

[i][color=Maroon][font=Curlz MT]Ring around the rosie
What do you suppose we
can do to fight the darkness
in which we drown?[/color][/i][/font]

Finally, silence. The insectoid body of corpses was fully formed from most of the mass before Kira, some still left over from elsewhere, but most of it forming as the emesis finally ended for the AI. The entire monstrosity, with its many eyes and pseudo-humanoid features, remained silent, though the mouths of many faces moved constantly and without synchronicity. It smelled of death, looked of it as well. Slowly, very slowly....it looked down at them, tentacles of all sizes reaching out.

"What the [i]f***[/i] is [i]that[/i]?" Azumi looked up at it, aiming her handgun in horror as Tron held his two identity discs carefully, also seeming afraid, but willing to fight.

"Get ready..." Isaac kept his stance, albeit scared. He saw Naito beside him, only barely coming to his senses to draw his swords.

[font=Curlz MT][color=Maroon][i]Ring around the rosie
This evil thing, it knows me
Lost ghosts surround me
I can't fall down[/font][/color][/i]

Suddenly, it all moved, screamed in unison as it looked down at them.

The demon amongst them screamed. "[b]Now![/b]"

The firewall cometh.

(Feel free to let loose. The thing is described a few rounds back. I'll have this battle last 2 rounds.)

====

Everyone's words on Kira's safety brought a sigh of relief of Audrey's own, the girl calming herself. It was true that she would have to be derezzed for her to truly be gone. So they still had a chance to save her from all of the pain she endured. If they couldn't, then...

Once again, there was no use to keep thinking over this. There was still more trouble here to take care of. Audrey got back to her feet, prepared to bring out her sword...until she heard Kira's murmurs as she began to stir. She looked back at the AI...right when she...

Audrey's face contorted into both disgust and panic, the girl bringing her hands up to her mouth to hold back any bile now rising from her throat. Just watching her vomit, bleed out from every orifice, hear her screaming as it all went on...part of her wanted to go over and try however she can to help, but with the pool spreading out, instead she backed away as fast as she could before it could touch her feet. Not just out of disgust...but also those voices...

"No...no..." Eyes went wide as the mass began to form. Audrey continued to mutter the same thing over as the mass rose high, doing all she can to keep her balance so she wouldn't fall back again. If the screams had not hit a chord, then the singing most certainly had. Once again, the urge to cover her ears to block it all out was rising, but just like before, she couldn't bring herself to do so.

Finally, it was there again. The very monstrosity that made her snap before, the very thing she had thought they had escaped from...here it was again. Once again, Audrey wanted to fall back, curl up, and scream in panic. She didn't want to see this thing again, not after what she had just gone through.

And she would have done so...had she not remembered that she had her weapons back. She wasn't helpless anymore; she could fight back.

Instead of scream like a helpless damsel in distress, Audrey instead narrowed her eyes. Even though she was still scared like all hell, among that fear was an adrenaline rush to take this down. She brought out her twin handguns, not bringing out her sword since she didn't want to be anywhere near this thing, and took aim, ready to take the damn thing head on.

The minute it screamed, she yelled right back, "JUST DIE ALREADY!" and began firing away. The Dream Mage was not about to fall back anytime soon.

====

Zero would have replied to Tron, a suggestion to take Kira someplace safer for recovery, but was stopped when she began to bleed the code from every facial orifice.  As the pool widened and her screaming continued, even Zero's usual stoic expression was broken momentarily by an expression of disgust and horror.

The Maverick Hunter turned towards the massive creature that formed from the pool.  It was utterly disgusting, yet vaguely human.  That did little for the mercy he would grant it however, and the rage that had been felt when fighting the horde of robots within that castle came surging back, his expression of disgust replaced with a scowl.

Unlike others who held back, Zero charged in immediately, Z-Saber glowing a bright blue and held at the ready.  Along the way, he deftly slashed at a few tentacles, but this wasn't his target.  The Reploid headed directly towards as close to the center of the mass as he could get.  His beam saber became wreathed in flame, and still moving forward, Zero leaped upwards, his Z-Saber held above him in a searing, flaming uppercut, the fiery Ryunjein attack.

====

"Oh my... that's... urk..." Hawk turned a decidedly green colour as he watched code being vomited out from Kira's face. Honestly, that was one of the most disgusting things he'd seen. Regardless, the sick code suddenly began to coalesce, and it caused the shinigami to turn an even darker colour of green as the mass of flesh and tentacles formed in front of him. Taking a deep (REALLY DEEP) breath, he twirled his swords and narrowed his eyes.

Fear gripped his heart, yet he charged the strange amalgamation of flesh. His feet pushed against the ground as he began to swing his weapons, the air whistling as he began to slice at the tentacles near him. He was, like Zero, aiming for the center, knowing it to likely be the core of the beast. But unlike the Reploid, Hawk was slowed down by his need to ensure no tentacles were still around him, a sense of paranoia filling him as the scent of death wafted through his nostrils.

He could already tell this was not going to be a pretty fight.

====

All of the attacks hit the monstrosity. Tails and Audrey's gunfire did some damage, the former more than the latter, but not an overly huge amount, even with the addition of Azumi's own panicked shots adding to them, albeit with the occasional reload as necessary. She seemed to be outright terrified, only barely fighting alongside them. Memories of the past were surfacing as she stared at this thing.

Tron, on the other hand, was trying to drag Kira away, seeing her as starting to come to, but not enough to actually fight yet. In the meantime, he threw his identity disc, adding his own ranged damage to the mix.

The melee fighters were another story. Naito, as disgusted as he was, hacked at the monster from close range with both of his blades, albeit not dealing a lot of damage. He felt the pus and ooze spill on to him, more disgusted by the second, but they had to do this, had to kill it. Isaac twirled his weapon, sawing at his opponent. He managed to deflect blows from swinging tentacles only barely, mostly having to dodge. One actually hit him, launching him back to the gunslingers before he managed to charge back again. But he couldn't give in, couldn't let this happen. The Blood Sword sliced tentacles, yes, but for every one sliced off, another grew in its place. Yes, the monster was being damaged, but the physical avatar was being regenerated.

Then there was Zero. His Ryunjein seared the Marshall Firewall's flesh, causing a scream of agony as the smell of cooked rot filled the core. In defense, the creature bashed at him as hard as it could, trying to slam him away, hurt him so as to avoid more damage in that way.

Azumi, for all her panic, saw this. Fire. It was burning with fire, just like the Flood, just like a person. She looked around, trying to find what she needed...[i]there![/i] a pile of light grenades from the enemies that had come before. They could use those. She sprinted to the pile, shouting to her allies. "Get an explosive, fire, anything that burns! Now!" With that, she snatched up one of the grenades, primed it, and chucked it as hard as she could, akin to a frisbee. Her pistol was out again, aiming... The bullet hit, an explosion causing another scream from a thousand voices, the destruction of one of the outer tentacles.

Isaac grinned, igniting his Abyss with a Hellfire spell before throwing it like a javelin. the main target of Hawk was ignited before it was re-summoned, burning away to a stump with another scream.

Another figure stood amongst them. Kira, her face deathly pale, her avatar more damaged than ever in terms of leaking code, snatched up another of those light grenades, silent as she ran at the monster. She had to destroy it, had to...

Azumi saw her, using all of her focus to speak without cracking. "Damnit, [i]no![/i] Tron!"

The security program was similarly shocked by her sprint, having lost his grip, but threw both of his discs now, the new one amongst them, trying to defend her. "Kira, you can't!"

But she was. The AI held the grenade, trying to get a good angle...

A tentacle grabbed her by the back of her left leg, pulling her, screaming, into the air. She lost her grip on the grenade, which fell into the Firewall's mouth, not yet primed, and finally she was in its mouth to the waist.

Isaac swore. "Someone get her out of there! Zero, you can! You have the range!"

====

For all of her own panic, Audrey also saw what the fire had done to the monster, covering her mouth and nose from the smell. So its weakness was fire...this made the girl calm down somewhat, but not completely. She almost wished that her Shineballs had passed through into the cyber world; Bonfire and Flame Gull would have been a great help here. But there was no need to mull over that; she saw Azumi run to the light grenade pile, heard her shout. She could just follow her example. The Dream Mage ran to the pile herself, intent on grabbing two or more of those grenades.

Right when she could throw them, she saw Kira, what she was about to do. Part of her wanted to run to her to get her out of the way, but her outright refusal to go near that thing stopped her. So instead, she shouted in vain, "Don't do it!"

Too late. The Firewall grabbed the program by one of its tentacles and began to [i]eat her alive[/i]. Someone had to hurry and get her out, but it wouldn't be Audrey. The Dream Mage, after a minute of disgust, just threw the grenades at the abomination, following Azumi's example of shooting them with her own guns to bring about the explosions. This thing had to hurry and die.

====

Zero was hit by the tentacle the creature swung at him, and was flung back onto the ground, a cracking sound coming from the back of his armor, the powerful impact doing some damage to his armor.  Regardless, he only stood with a grunt, several small chips of metal coming off the armor on his back.

Then Kira charged at the thing.  Zero knew that this was far from ending well, and was already after her as Isaac yelled for him to help her.  He bounded upwards as the creature grabbed Kira, jumping off of various tentacles as footstools.  Eventually, he reached the 'head' of the monster, his Z-Saber flashing as it cut through the tentacles holding Kira's legs.  The Reploid would have begun to do more, but one of the creature's many tentacles whipped around the arm holding his beam saber, holding back even his robotic strength.

He morphed his other hand into the Z-Buster to try and shoot his way through the tentacle, but another wrapped around that arm as well, immobilizing it.  Then several around his torso and legs, and a final one around his neck.

The tentacles held Zero up in the air, and he could suddenly feel some sort of... foulness coursing through the tentacles and covering him.  Inside the black and corrupting liquid, his form began to change as the corruption took its hold.

Eventually, the tentacles loosened, and tossed Zero to the ground again, the black ooze melting off of him, revealing his new [url=http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100909235848/megaman/images/thumb/a/a6/ZeroEXE.jpg/436px-ZeroEXE.jpg]shape[/url].  He didn't get up yet, there was too much pain, even for him to handle.  He panted, his voice coming out robotic, like it was an old recording.

====

"Zero!" Hawk shouted in alarm, his focus slipping enough for one of the tentacles to slam into his stomach. Coughing, the shinigami leaned forward, allowing another tentacle to smack him even harder across the face. The force of the blow sent him flying back headfirst, tumbling along the ground. Groaning, head aching worse than the last time he'd had a hangover, Hawk made to stand up, before a sudden sense of weightlessness fell upon his tired body. Before he knew, he was spinning helplessly in midair.

"Agh! What the hell!? This thing has a gravity-based spell!?" The shinigami shouted in frustration. "What the hell is this f***ing thing!?"

====

Explosions rocked the monster along with some damage from various blades, causing its hundreds of faces to scream as many were destroyed. The central head kept a hold on Kira with the jaws, though the legs were free, jaws moving ever so slightly. One of the appendages in its mouth spat at Hawk, a kind of bile launched at him that would burn and possibly stun him while sending him backwards.

Isaac threw another blazing Abyss, trying to cut off that limb before it could cause more damage, but missed. He couldn't even get another chance.

As many tentacles lashed out at the heroes, the four remaining "tongues" snapped out at the group, trying to wrap around four among them and possibly bite them: Naito, Isaac, Zero, and Azumi.

Azumi was grabbed by her right leg, swung upside down in a disorienting fashion, but did not lose her grip on her latest grenade, nor did she drop her gun. Isaac was grabbed by an arm, but managed to summon his weapon back to him, throwing it at the mouth once more, though with a greatly decreased amount of magic. Naito was gripped by the waist, terrified as he tried to stab the holding tentacle repeatedly with both swords.

Meanwhile, the two arms on the jaws also reached out, grabbing for Tron and Hawk. Tron managed to fend off his for some time, but another bile ball stunned him enough to be grasped by the horrific creature.

A roar, and Flood Infection Forms poured out of the empty eye sockets, a ravenous swarm of bugs of Chimeran origin flying out of the central mouth, around Kira. For the most part, these seemed all aimed at the remaining, un-targeted heroine, Audrey.

Finally, a crack could be heard, and Kira fell to the ground, slipping out of the monster's mouth. The grenade was missing, probably still in there, but she was not moving. There was no blood, nothing at all but a small pile of nearby voxels dripping out of the orifice, but one thing was certain as Azumi's tentacle put her inside to the waist as she tried to shoot at the monster, shouting obscenities in a sudden panic none in which in the area had ever seen her.

K1-R4 no longer had a head.

====

Audrey would have continued to throw more grenades at the Firewall, a repetitive tactic that seemed to work wonders. However, she stopped when she saw the mouth tendrils grab her four allies, as well as the jaw arms grabbing for Tron and Hawk. Being the only one untargeted at the moment, the Dream Mage, after a moment of hesitation, decided to suck up her fear and panic and try to free them. So, after taking a deep breath, she put away her guns and summoned Inari in her hand before running straight for the Firewall, in an attempt to cut her friends free.

Unfortunately, there was no chance for her to pull any heroics. The minute she got close, the thing had sent the swarm of bugs right for her. Of all the things, it had to be f***ing [i]bugs[/i]. Audrey screamed, dropped her sword, and tried to run from the swarm. Sadly, she wasn't fast enough; in a matter of seconds, the swarm had covered her entire body, biting away at her flesh. So instead, Audrey fell to the ground, squirming, screaming, batting at her body to get the bugs off, to no avail. She couldn't even look up to see Kira without a head, or that Azumi was no waste deep in the Firewall's mouth.

Until someone got the swarm away from her, the Dream Mage was out of the fight.

====

Zero finally managed to lurch to his feet, despite the extreme pain the infection caused.  As he did, one of the tentacles that the monster had sent out wrapped around his arm, trying to pull the Reploid towards the creature.

Zero where his Z-Saber would normally be, but found that it had disappeared.  He tried to transform a hand into his Z-Buster, but was surprised when instead his entire forearm became the hilt for a large, glowing blue energy blade that was connected at his wrist.  Deciding to discover how that worked later, and to take action now, Zero swung the blade-arm through the tentacle attached to him.

As soon as he had managed to do that, he heard a scream, and saw Audrey covered in the swarm of bugs.  He quickly dashed over to her, and swung his saber just over her, the blade and the heat getting rid of the tiny insects.

He bent over (he had realized this form was much taller) and offered her a hand.

"No time to lose.  Have to help them."  Was all Zero was able to say while concentrating on fighting off the pain while talking.

====

"This is really disorient-" Hawk's complaining was cut off by the acidic bile slamming into him, causing him to float back and into a wall. The fluid began to burn his skin, and then gravity decided it wanted to work again. Letting loose a scream, the shinigami slammed into the ground, which was VERY painful. Thankfully, he thought, it dislodged the stuff that was on him. Groaning, he rolled over and pushed himself up... just in time for his leg to be grabbed by a tentacle. "Oh for fu-"

The appendage yanked the shinigami from the ground, pulling him into the air, where he struggled to keep a grip on his weapons. Hawk grimaced and swung his upper torso, trying desperately to slash the limb that was slowly dragging him towards a mouth of the creature.

"THIS IS NOT MY DAY!"

====

Unlike Zero, the Zivakus were not lucky enough to have beam sabers. Isaac continued to hack at the arm, deciding to finally ignite his weapon and slash down. That dealt more damage, but not enough to let it loose. Naito was not doing much better, even though a point-blank Moon Wave was doing a lot of damage. He could see the one tongue being severed, but the remains reaching out toward the catatonic Tails. They had to get out of this, had to...

The two jaw-hands squeezed their captives, trying to knock them unconscious for the next phase. Tron was not letting it get to him, throwing his discs again and again, trying to kill it, to finish it or at least free himself.

---

Within the mouth, Azumi was having a different problem. The acidic fluids stung her gear, teeth within ready to tear her limb from limb. Skinless hands reached from within, trying to grab at any who would try to get free. Where there was not bubbling acid on the back end of the mouth, there were teeth, likely enormous enzymes further in. Sh could see a greenish gas, probably poisonous or at least a sleeping gas, reaching out toward her out of its digestive tract. She couldn't allow herself to die, not like this!

...wait, was that a light grenade on the floor of the mouth, another one in addition to her own? The woman grunted as she reached in, her hips still held in place by both the tongue grabbing her and the mouth itself. Just a bit closer....there! She grabbed it, taking it in both hands, and looked it over. By the looks of the device, it had two settings. A several second detonation or a timed placement charge. She couldn't throw it for the latter, the explosion would likely cripple her. So she decided to try the former, arming it for detonation in 3 seconds, the same with her other one.

"Take this, you [i]sack of sh**[/i]!"

Raising her hands back, briefly even touching the disgusting ceiling, she chucked them, hard enough to send both down the passage. She aimed down, shooting her gun down at the tentacle holding her, enough to loosen its grip just slightly. the mouth was shaking from all of the pain, it seemed, but she still had a little difficulty....

---

Outside, the explosion was clearly audible. The central mass of the monstrosity lit up, what sounded like a gout of fire erupting straight up its gullet. The top of its head, in addition to a sizable portion of the head's left side, was torn, messily, off, splattering guts on the floor.

Azumi was propelled out of the mouth by another, smaller burst of white fire, screaming until she fell on her back in a heap, covered in acid and burns that had burned away the majority of her armor, leaving large portions of her arms and legs visible, along with about a fifth of her helmet gone. She coughed, alive but in pain, her eyes showing horror. She didn't seem like she would be getting back into the fight, even [i]if[/i] she could stand up again. She barely saw the headless AI lying on the ground, the chaos around her. Her ears rang, vision blurred from the light. Although she was recovering somewhat from the pain, the memory haunted her.

It screamed in pain as its grasping or restraining limbs died, burning in destructive fire. The captives were allowed to fall, a last pulse of gravity energy flying out, though to no real effect as far as they could tell.

Isaac caught himself in midair due to his wings, only half a second before the ground. Naito had caught himself somewhat earlier on reflex, but was still horrified, shaken.

Tron, on the other hand, simply fell on his hands and knees, coughing a bit before getting up. The program was not out of the game yet.

Still, they seemed to have done a sizable amount of damage to the creature.

(Contrary to how it is worded. The boss battle ends here. I'll set up the next one on the next post, then a few rounds for that one. So close to the end, people.)

====

Even after the swarm was killed by Zero, Audrey just lied there, eyes wide and brimmed with tears, her breath heaving. Her heart was still racing, and the bites from the bugs were clear on her skin. She didn't even register Zero offering a hand to her, or the Reploid's words. Her mind and body was still overcome by panic.

However, after a moment, it finally began to subside as she realized the bugs were now gone. She slowly sat up, looking up at Zero (and wincing as she saw the damage done to him) before taking his hand to pull herself back to her feet. Her mind back in the right place again, Audrey finally looked up to see what was going on.

Her eyes had gone wide once again as she saw Kira lying motionless and headless, as well as Azumi about to be eaten alive herself. Not only that, but the rest of her companions were still captivated and struggling to break free. Glaive in hand once again, the Dream Mage charged in, a second attempt to pull any heroics.

And once again, she wouldn't be able to. She stopped as she heard the explosion, the lighting up within the monster, and saw the top and left side of its head torn off. Her face contorted with disgust for one moment, glad that she was still far away enough so that the guts would not catch her, but all of that was forgotten the minute she saw Azumi propel out of the thing's mouth. Audrey hurried to her side when she hit the floor, her expression now turning to shock as she saw the damage done to the woman. Not even focusing on the Firewall anymore, only briefly noting the release of the others, the girl knelt down before Azumi, her magic energy appearing, and cast Ortus, healing the woman, herself, and anyone else nearby. Even if it wasn't enough, it had to repair some of the bodily damage done.

====

Zero, seeing the Firewall was seemingly defeated, gave the mental command for his arm to gave from its blade state back to the hand it normally was.  He panted more as his focus that drove away the pain slipped momentarily, but quickly zeroed in once more on the objective.

It was destroyed, or at least stopped for the moment.  The first thing would be to help Kira.  Despite what the others might think, the Reploid knew losing a head was only a representation of the amount of data that she had lost, just like the code that had been coming out of wounds lately had been only a metaphor of sorts for blood.

So thinking, Zero dashed over to the fallen AI, and looked to Tron.  "There has to be a way to replace the missing code."

====

"... FUUU-" Hawk had initially been relieved when Azumi managed to deal such a massive blow to the Firewall. At least, until the tentacle let go of him. Now he was falling once more, and the ground did not look so inviting. Indeed it wasn't, as giving by the loud smacking sound upon impact. Groaning, the shinigami was at least thankful that he landed close enough to Audrey to be healed by her Ortus spell. "... ow, that hurt."

Getting up, Hawk grimaced as he saw everyone wasn't in the greatest of shape, but that Firewall itself seemed heavily injured. Still, he kept himself ready to attack if need be, unsure if the fight was over.

====

Azumi sighed with relief as her body, though not her armor, was healed, but that was just her physiological response. Her eyes still stared, her face still showing terror. That mind wasn't here anymore. It was on the Shield World, it was on Arcadia, it was staring into the Flood, shooting her friends dead in self-defense; it was watching Regret glass portions of the battlefield to destroy their tanks with a wave of his hand, the knowledge that the same had become of her world.

Like Tails, Azumi was out, a long-hidden psychological stress disorder coming to light. But unlike him, she was not getting out of it soon, definitely not over the course of this battle.

Tron shook his head as Naito ran to him. "The entire system is corrupted in different degrees. Unless we can get her somewhere safe, she's as good as derezzed." He looked disturbed. "And normally, damage to the head would cause that anyway. She has to be very corrupted not to be a pile of voxels like the rest, or having disappeared into light. We have to destroy the corruption before I can d--"

Isaac saw her near-catatonic state, and decided to go for what was, as far as proximity to the beast was concerned to be reasonably, a far more viable alternative. He walked up to Tails, grabbing him by his shoulder, and looked him straight in the eye. "Prower, listen to me right now." He wouldn't hit him again, knowing that was not a good method, but decided to take the same route as with Audrey, even if he didn't know this kitsune nearly as well. "We need your help to take this thing down. I don't know what you saw, but Audrey and I were hunted by this thing in her head. Saw a lot more, but this was a cause of it. You have two choices. Help us, or end up as one of those corpses. What will [i]you[/i] d... what the hell?" He turned around to see what was going on.

Tron, Isaac, and Naito all turned to the screaming monstrosity. What they saw was, to put things bluntly, visually even worse than anything before.

The second pile of voxels was attached to its torso, bubbling acid causing steam to rise from the beast. The remains of the head were already gone, presumably pre-digested. As it ate away, added bodies and faces fell off by the tens, bubbling away as it screamed. A new song was being sung, a new nursery rhyme in Kira's voice.

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky![/i][/color][/font]

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Heh."[/color][/font]

That voice could be heard amongst the screaming. Over and over the mass dug pieces out of the monstrosity, showing its bones, structure.

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]When the blazing sun is gone,
When the nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.[/i][/font][/color]

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Heh heh."[/color][/font]

The screams kept coming, wouldn't stop. Never. With every piece it digested, the mass grew, going faster.

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your little spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.[/i][/font][/color]

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Hehehe..."[/color][/font]

Finally, the laughter of the beast was over. A thousand voices were screaming, horrified by it all, writhing in pain, trying to shove off the liquid mass of voxels that dug into it again and again, stripping it down, eating it alive.

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.[/i][/color][/font]

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"Hehehehehehahahahaha..."[/color][/font]

[i][color=Maroon][Font=Curlz MT]As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.[/font][/i][/color]

The body was almost completely gone, along with parts of the central head. A thousand voices screaming in agony. Finally, the entire thing was inside of it. It bubbled out of the Firewall's central mouth, all of its eye sockets, and enveloped the head, going to the body. The steam rose again, the smell of rot and cooked flesh, of acid, and its screaming reached a crescendo...then went completely silent. All that was left was the laughter.

As it enveloped what was left of the body, the new creature did not stop. An enormous mouth, filled with far too many teeth to be plausible, opened from it all.

[font=Herculanum]"[b][color=red]HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA![/b]"[/color][/font]

Isaac had his weapon out, threw it as hard as he could...and missed. Not due to magic, or to poor aim. Due to the fact that the creature was shrinking. Shrinking to the size of a human man, about six feet tall. Unkempt black hair, a red eye, the bloodied suit. It was the same as the one in the hell Naito had faced, that Tails had left him to. There was one crucial difference. The head had been reconstructed. Half of his hair was blonde now, his new eye a clear blue. It was as if Ernest Marshall's head had been grafted to his own.

Naito was, understandably, shocked, keeping out his swords. "We have to kill him!"

Suddenly, that didn't seem quite so easy. Shadows covered the head of the man, his suit rippling and becoming a red bodysuit with several spikes. A red sheen came over the face, as if a faceplate, but he didn't say a word outside of the laughter, a rippling red light forcing its way out of him, along the walls and floor. He was enhancing the corruption by his existence. The corruption touched Azumi, and her armor began to change. It touched Kira's body, and distorted glitching was visible all around her.

The floor around them began to crack, shuddering as the entirety of the area was reconfiguring, disintegrating to be remade. The portal was becoming unstable again. They had to kill this man, this thing, quickly.

Five familiar tentacles reached out of his back, whipping the ground around him. It was time to finish this.

====

Even though Azumi had been healed, Audrey saw that she had not snapped out of her psychological state. Worry and panic washed over her again, having not ever seen the soldier woman like this. She always seemed capable and tough even when things were at their worst. Now she was frozen up, like a traumatic memory had haunted her. Knowing what universe she had come from, that shouldn't be so surprising, yet...

"Azumi..." Audrey tried to shake her back into focus. "Come on...we have to stop this together...we can't leave anyone behi--"

She stopped when she heard the screams from the monstrosity. The Dream Mage looked up...only for her eyes to widen at the sight before her. The Firewall being burned, digested alive from the mass, screaming in agony...and the singing tune once more, creeping under her skin, bringing a chill to her spine. And among that, a new voice, laughing amongst all this madness. All she could do was watch the whole display, her hands over her mouth in both fear and to hold back any bile that rose in the back of her throat. Just watching the abomination being eating alive by the mass, the many voices screaming...it was both sickening and horrifying to watch, but she just couldn't look away.

Finally, it was all gone. Gone, but the laughter, the new creature forming into an enormous mouth. That was when Audrey got back up, holding back her panic and disgust once more, and held her sword at the ready. She prepared to rush and attack after Isaac threw his sword...but then stopped as the creature shrunk. Shrunk to a humanoid form, one half with black hair and a red eye and the other blonde with a blue eye. Even though it didn't look as monstrous as it did seconds ago, Audrey didn't fall back. Just because it looked more human, didn't mean it still wasn't as powerful.

And he changed once again, to what was akin to a battlesuit. When the red light spread out, she did what she could to avoid touching it. She saw what it did to Azumi's armor and Kira's body; as much as she hated it, there was nothing she could do to help them. The floor cracking, nearly making her fall back to her knees, and the tentacles reaching out of his back...they needed to hurry and kill this man now.

As Audrey got her balance back, she was about to rush head on...but then stopped as something clicked in her mind. She had learned a new spell, something that would help them in the long run...her magic energy appearing once more, she decided now was as good as any to use it.

"Tutela."

As the pink mist surrounded her, she felt her defenses go up just a bit, as well as any resistance she might have had. The Dream Mage then allowed the mist to travel to the rest of her allies and do the same for them, even those that were out of the fight for now. Whatever they needed to survive this fight, she just hoped this will be enough for them.

With that done, Audrey began to charge her sword up, rushing in once again, before releasing it and letting it attack the man. She didn't care that she was still scared out of her mind; they had to finish this now.

====

Zero could only watch as the monster's remains morphed and changed into yet [i]another[/i] enemy, and almost lost his balance as the ground cracked and buckled beneath his feet.  Even though the Reploid had managed to fight off the corruption inside of him so far, he was reaching his limits, the pain getting harder and harder to ignore.  The spell Audrey had placed on the group helped only slightly, but every little bit helped.

Trying to disregard the agony to the best of his ability, Zero lifted the headles K1-R4 onto a shoulder, and began carrying her away from the new monstrosity while walking backwards, slashing at any tentacles that came near with the beam saber-arm that had replaced the Z-Saber.

When Zero thought he had carried Kira sufficiently far enough away, he placed her gently on the ground once more.  Brandishing his... arm, he dashed towards the monster once more.  If it was anything like the last thread, he knew it would have a weakness to flame.  If he could land in another Ryuenjin, it would hopefully damage it enough to let the others attack.

When in range, he used a Shipuuga attack, spinning to the side while slashing with his blade, a wave of dark pink energy slashing off of his weapon.

====

"... oh dear..." Hawk, for the first time in a long time, fought the urge to actively vomit as the creature was eaten alive, thousands of voices piercing his sanity, the scent of melting flesh and the sight dragging his mind down to the depths of madness-

[i]GET IT TOGETHER![/i] Someone shouted, and even in this madness it was obviously from within his own mind.

His eyes snapped open suddenly, confusion etched onto his face, wondering who had managed to shake him from that downward spiral. Shaking his head violently, the shinigami looked at the being that emerged from the remnants of the earlier creature. The insane laughter set his nerves further on edge, even as the figure shrinked, somehow avoiding a pre-emptive strike or two from others in the group.

Then the ground buckled, nearly tipping Hawk over. Furiously trying to balance himself, the young man gripped his weapons. Seeing the sheer destruction wrought merely by this being's existence, he growled and charged the figure, both swords ready to swing.

====

Isaac turned as he was shoved away, not paying any more mind. He had to help the system, and he had helped the kitsune to some degree. As Audrey charged, he flew up, aiming to get a good hit at his target from a higher vantage point. He dove down....

Naito charged, similarly determined, but stopped a distance away. He saw Tails firing....and decided to send out an attack of his own. Lunar magic was a mix of light and dark magic, with a slight emphasis on the latter. He waved both of his Lunar Sabers, slashing in an X...

[i]"Moon Wave!"[/i]

The X-shaped waves of silver energy exploded outward, connecting with the Atom Splitter shot. Suddenly, the whole thing spread to a larger version of the Moon Wave, with the color of the Atom Splitter and a propulsion looking like it. It spun like a top, as if a drill, a point at the center. This whole contraption could cause serious damage!

Unfortunately, Marathon Eva had other plans. A red aura forming around him, he punched the ground, a half of a sphere coming up over him formed from the ground around them in an instant. It was a technique they might have recognized as Kira's. The Moon Wave-Atom Splitter combination hit the side....and exploded. A gaping hole formed, bits flying every which way, possibly hitting some of the group. The whole thing rocked violently, even more of the system falling down into a featureless abyss below. As Audrey's charged Glaive slash came toward him, the creature grabbed her arm, trying to hold it back with his high strength, but the Shipuuga attack caught him by surprise. He staggered to the side in the dome, Isaac slashing down....and colliding with the glaive, forced aside to keep from causing damage to his ally.

Suddenly, in retaliation, the invader slashed out with his tentacles, trying to forced them out. Aiming at Zero with one hand, he fired a concentrated beam of electricity, hoping to harm him and throw him back, if not stun him.

Isaac was thrown out, landing on his back and skidding a ways before he could stand. This guy was strong, he had to give him that. But they had to be able to beat him somehow!

Azumi was still nigh catatonic, but the other figure remained still. She had severe damage, but something did happen at last. Hands touched the ground.

Though decapitated, K1-R4 was not out of the game yet.

====

Zero didn't have time to dodge Marathon Eva's beam attack, and the concentrated electricity slammed into his chest.  The Reploid was thrown backwards by the pure amounts of force behind the attack, skidding a ways before finally stopping near where he had dropped Kira before.

His blade arm disappeared, replaced by his normal hand as he tried to get up.  It was too much.  The corruption combined with the new damaged caused by the powerful attack had drained Zero nearly of his last reserves.  He didn't even have enough energy to bring back his beam saber, much less stand.  But he still tried, just barely managing to get onto his hands and knees.

Even more sparks came from his knee, elbow, leg and arm joints as he put in the tremendous effort to just barely crouch, one knee on the ground.  He raised his arm, hoping that, like the saber, this form would have some sort of Buster ability.

No such luck.  This form didn't seem to have any form of projectile attacks, nothing he could use to fight at a range.

Which left the Reploid mostly useless.  He couldn't even manage to stand fully, there was no chance of him being able to get in close enough to attack the Marathon with his beam saber.  Even if Audrey could muster up more healing magic, he wasn't sure that would work, considering his non-organic state.

All Zero could do was watch the fight, and hope to come up with some sort of plan.

====

When Marathon grabbed her arm, Audrey grit her teeth and tried to struggle out. Unfortunately, his grip was too strong for her to do anything about it. The Dream Mage had to fall back to one option; she reached to one of the holsters for her handguns and pulled it out. Before she could take aim, Isaac's slash collided with her glaive, which sent a strong shaking to her arm and forced to lose her grip, the weapon flying away and stabbing into a panel still left intact.

Though she managed to shake it off and take aim, right after, the tentacles had lashed out. The minute they hit her, she fired right before she was knocked out, most likely missing due to the sudden loss of focus. Audrey was thrown out, landing and skidding in a violent heap. Before she could even attempt to get back on her feet, the piece around her had broken off, about to fall into the abyss. With a small shriek, and a rush of adrenaline, Audrey pushed herself up and leapt, gripping the edge of what was left as the panel fell into the endless avoid.

Well, this was just great. Now she was hanging for dear life, struggling to pull herself back up. Really, her day couldn't get any better. Audrey wasn't about to let herself fall back because of this, however; as she managed to half-way pull herself over, she glared towards Marathon and went to the only option she had in this position.

"Apnea."

Right then, her pink mist had then flown to the enemy program, sucking out his breath, or what was close to it, to do some damage.

====

Hawk was within attacking range of Marathon, the latter's defensive attempts irritating but not stopping the shinigami's mad charge. Roaring in rage, he slashed across with the Blood Sword, before bringing his katana up in a vertical slash. He didn't stop, bringing the Blood Sword back around, the serrated edge whistling through the air. This was followed by him slamming his katana down, the edge shining with light energy from an unspoken Shining Slash. A wave of magic launched from the blade, exploding and causing Hawk to skid back.

"How's... that... you sonuvab***h!?" He panted, his body shaking in tune with his frantic pulse.

====

Marathon's head bent back at the force of the bullet, but it did not seem that he was seriously injured. However, the laughter did stop as he was hit by the spell. The program did not breathe, but it felt the effect another way. It was as if a vacuum occurred in his internal organs, a sickening crack occurring as his internal coding sheared from the spell. The entire world shook even more, the ceiling of certain areas beginning to collapse... and he was hit by the kitsune's bullets. Time to take care of his weapon. Sharply, another blast of electricity was fired from a hand at Tails, just before Hawk came at him, forcing him to lower his hands somewhat as he spoke, his voice that of thousands at once now, echoing through the world itself rather than his faceless head.

[font=Herculanum][color=red]"There are no unstoppable forces in this universe. There are no immovable objects. Everything gives if you push hard enough. Even the interferences!"[/font][/color]

Isaac's eyes scanned the arena as he got back to his feet. Zero was out of commission, more or less. Azumi was cometic, Kira was probably still headless. Naito lifting off on to his wings, trying to make sure the rapidly collapsing simulation would not cause him to fall with it. He decided to go for Audrey. The demon sprinted, spreading his wings and flying directly to the young woman. He landed in front of her, grabbing her shirt and pulling her up as fast as he could in spite of the rumbling arena. He shouted over the din. "Here!" He took out a small Ether cube, putting it in her hand. "Any offensive spells?! If not, get the sword! Get Inari away from him!"

Meanwhile, Azumi was finally coming to, her armor looking very different. It was black with some blue lights, the helmet coming over the top half of her face, similar to one of those "Sentries" with the Black Guards, but blue where red. Her world was reorganizing, if only for the moment. She could have her breakdown later. She was needed now, [i]right[/i] now, and could not let herself be weak. [i]I do [b]not[/b] lose.[/i] With that thought, the soldier finally sat up, drawing her gun, and saw a nearby flying object. Taking a cue, she fired.

Tron, throwing his two discs, felt the ground crack beneath him. He jumped, trying to get out of the way as another area crumbled.... and just barely missed. He was tumbling to the abyss, screaming...

The attacks came at Marathon from Hawk. Counters were swift. The monstrous being bent back to a sickening angle from the first swing, two tentacles crossing over his head to block the vertical one...and the explosion hit. The beast staggered back slightly, the scream of a thousand voices coming out, and his head bent back at a sickening angle. It stood there a second, motionless....and then rolled its neck, standing up straight. The ground rippled beneath Hawk's feet, aiming to disorient him as the swift, brutal retaliation came. Another, brief electric shock first, then two hands grabbed the swords, forcing them aside before a headbutt. This was followed directly after by a punch to the jaw, then a kick to the sternum, followed by a throw around to slam him on the ground and a last throw back out, trying to send him into the growing abyss.

Only then did he take interest in the sword Audrey had dropped. He reached for it, grabbed at it....and pain came to him, made him flinch briefly. All that was needed, as five bullets hit him in the chest, causing a momentary stagger from a poisoning effect before... [b]boom[/b].

The Light Grenade exploded right in his face, causing another stagger. More damage to the area, more insane ramblings, but he was damaged. The figure turned, trying to find the source...and found it.

Tron felt the arm grab his, allowed himself to be dragged up. He could not be sure of the source, but turned to thank him or her, when....wait.

It was Kira. The headless AI was standing, one hand holding her pistol and firing at Marathon, the other pulling him out and up. That was up there as one of the weirder things in his term of service.

Naito, sending out another Moon Wave, saw this occurrence, shocked. "Kira! What's going on?!"

A shrug offhand, and Tron was shoved out of the way, a hand forced out. If she had a mouth, Kira would have shouted "Sabotage" as she saw a blue glow come over the villain, saw him beginning to split into several others....but then being forced to turn back to one by the tech skill. Her magic was still forming, would need another to solidify it, but she still had this set for now. On that note, she sent out another, an "Overload" that caused him to spark, more damage, this time to shielding. Two things happened at once.

Kira unloaded the rest of her pistol clip into the viral AI. Marathon, in turn, glowed briefly yellow, a new pulse fired at his target. She staggered back, very weak by poison, disorientation, and overall low capabilities due to her physical weakness, and a purple-blue wave came out from Marathon Eva. The dome collapsed, disintegrating and incorporating into he himself, healing his wounds. Kira, too, was harmed, falling on her side beside Zero, just as incapable of any further help.

Kira had done much. But it seemed that, as the invader crouched and the areas outside of this mesa finally disintegrated, they would need far more to defeat this creature.

====

As Kira, too, fell to the Marathon, her decapitated body just barely brushed against Zero's leg.  To the Reploid's surprise, red sparks leapt up at her touch, and it felt almost like he had been shocked by static electricity, which has hardly anything compared to the pain he was in now.  However, it was noticeable because of another fact.

Zero recognized the power in that one simple touch.  He could feel it like he knew his own power.  It was Omega's code, a tiny portion yes, but still there.  There must have been some left over from when he had ripped out Biometal O.  He hoped it wasn't enough to be harmful, but then another idea struck him.  It was a very desperate one, yes but anything was better than doing nothing.

He reached down, and took Kira's hand.  More sparks, more pain, most likely for her as well.  The only reassurance he could give was, "Trust me," before he started the merging process.

It was... strange.  Like he was floating, nothing supporting his own weight.  He was concentrating so hard, that Zero didn't realize that he was floating, just an orb of crimson light hanging in the air.  The orb floated to where Kira's hand was, disappearing at its touch.  Kira, too, began to glow red, just a silhouette behind the light.  Her still-headless body floated off of the ground, white lines of circuitry spreading across it.  One could just see the shape of a head materializing where there had once hadn't, followed quickly by the body shape becoming bulkier, as if covered in armor.

Last of all to be seen appearing was the shape of a helmet, the shape of a glowing green arrow growing outwards, and then the line of the shape spreading upwards all the way to the back of the head.  Lines jumped out from the neck, waving in nonexistent wind before converging into a single, flowing shape, soon revealed to be waving yellow hair.

The transformation was not only physical, but a merging of minds, of thoughts, of memories.  Images flashed through their collective imagination.  A person in blue armor, a bald-headed Reploid wielding a beam saber, a woman with long dark hair lying battered on the ground, being held tenderly by a very familiar man in red armor.  The images continued.  Four shapes in shades of green, red, blue, and purple.  A girl in a pink dress.  A giant behemoth in white and black armor, a massive beam saber in hand.  An elderly man wearing armor, a cone-shaped dome over his head, the same warrior in red shouting his creed  below.

[b]"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero. I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!"[/b]

The light died down, revealing the newly healed K1-R4.  She wore a red, vest-like garment, red and yellow gauntlets, a large belt around her waist, white thigh armor and large red boots, and finally a pointed helmet, like devil's horns, with a green, arrow-shaped gem set in the center.  Her eyes glowed a bright blue, binary flashing through them.

A hand was outstretched, and more circuitry lines appeared out of thin air, forming a shape which soon filled in.  It looked like a dagger, but upon being spun, the shaft extended, turning into a large glaive with a curbed blade of blue energy at the tip.

A voice, Zero's, went through the AI's mind.  [color=Red]"Kira,"[/color] It said, the voice echoing.  [color=Red]"My power is yours."[/color]

And then she leapt towards Marathon Eva, the D-Glaive held high.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E82vzha748E[/youtube]

====

Audrey would have tried to pull herself up by this point, but the rumbling of the place had nearly sent her falling back. She would have lost her grip and fallen to the void then, had Isaac not made it to her and hoisted her back up. Though he picked her up roughly, she was still thankful as she took the Ether cube and crushed it over her, restoring some of her magic.

"That was my only one!" Audrey shouted back. "My other one is if I go into Dreamer Form, and that one knocks me out!"

With no other option to turn on, the Dream Mage began to sprint for Inari, stopping every few seconds from the rumbling to keep from falling. As she ran, she saw what was going on. Azumi coming to, Tron falling to the abyss, the attacks on Hawk...she wanted to help the latter two, but as it was, there was little she could do. She could heal Hawk, but she probably wouldn't have enough time to catch him before he too would fall to the void.

It didn't take her too long to reach her glaive...but not before Marathon had grabbed at it. She was about to yell to give that back, and possibly risk her life again by attempting to rush at him for it, but then saw the flinch and remembered: no one could touch the sword but herself. With that thought, she grabbed the sword back and swiped at him just as he staggered from the gunshots.

But then came the Light Grenade, and Audrey was forced to move back before she too would be caught. After it exploded, the damage done, she too looked in the general direction of where it came from, and saw Tron being helped up by...the headless Kira. It shouldn't have surprised her, seeing as she was a program, but still...

"I...I just...wha...I don't..." At the moment, the Dream Mage needed to reboot.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for her to snap back. She saw, after the AI attacked back, Kira being hit by a pulse from Marathon that seemed to have weakened her, and the dome around Marathon breaking down, merging with him, and [i]healing[/i] him. Well, wasn't that just f***ing [i]brilliant!?[/i] With nothing else to do at this moment, she began running towards Kira, intent on helping the program however she can.

Since this was starting to become a habit of hers, it was no surprise that she once again stopped as Zero, who was also down (and she wasn't sure if she would have been able to help him in the first place), seemed to have merged with the AI. She watched the transformation sequence, watched as she had healed afterwards. Guess there was no need for that. As Kira...Zero...whoever, went in to attack Marathon, she took a different alternative. She dismissed Inari back to her mentalscape, pulled out her handguns once more, and began firing at Marathon once more, hoping to distract him so everyone else can attack.

====

As the two robotic Interferences merged, Isaac was preparing a new method to fight. Maybe he could use his Hellfire to aid? In his experience, setting things on fire was generally considered bad for their health. He twirled his weapon in his left hand now...and summoned a ball of red fire in his right. Without another thought, the young man threw it as hard as he could, straight at the monstrosity to hopefully halt its healing process.

Yes, he succeeded. Marathon Eva was now on fire. But he also had a problem. Previously, they had been fighting a monstrosity of an AI with the powers of many and control of the system itself. Now, they were fighting a monstrosity of an AI with the powers of many and control of the system itself. On fire. As it looked to them, but kept its defense up, Naito shouted to him, unsure as to how to fight this AI now.

"Why did you do that?!"

"Normally, that [i]works right[/i]!" He ducked into his fighting stance again, ready to attack, as the duel began.

The woman came down. KZ, some might have called her, an amalgam of K1-R4 and Zero using their reciprocally corrupted forms. In all likelihood, while repairing them, this would leave lasting scars upon separation, if it were achieved. She stabbed down at the immolated Marathon while under gunfire, missing by inches before a kick caught her in the chest, dealing additional damage due to the flames. Not doubling over, she turned, slashing again and again. Step back, duck under, jump. Every combination thereof. She was fast, yes. But he was faster. Much faster.

Hit after hit came to her, burning her progressively, but she kept at it. Duck now, turn, stab backwards...grabbed spear, hand on her shoulder.

She screamed, feeling her energy drain into him, her power...and she raised her free hand, touching his face.

Everything paused for a moment... and on came the Surge. The very powerful current coursed down her arm, in the form of a visual glitching, into the monstrous AI. It couldn't speak, couldn't do anything as she turn around, forcing it back, hand still gripping the face, tighter, tighter!

Finally, she let go, watching him stagger back. She gasped, looking at the smoke rising, and she came down on him once more. Stave end bashed his head, spilling back into a slash across his side, then the back end at the other leg, and followed by a jab at his throat. Spinning, slashing downwards again and again...and a final slash straight up, slicing the head in half. It was regenerating, albeit slower due to the fire, but they had a second or so.

KZ flattened her hand on the ground, a wave of her magic pulsing outwards. All of her allies would get their strength back, their health, though not their MP. It was time to finish the job.

====

In their merged state, Zero too was solely focused on defeating the Marathon.  It had to be taken down, no matter what.  However, the fact that this was still K1-R4's body didn't mean he did not feel the same pain.  They were merged even in their consciousness, and the pain effected him as well.  But he, and he was also sure that the AI, knew they had to keep going.

Zero remembered that he had used a weapon like this, only once or twice during the Maverick Wars.  Maybe there were a few techniques he could bring up, or adapt his usual attacks to this style.  The new weapons and powers opened up many possibilities.

For now, KZ focused on quick attacks, but was quickly blocked when Marathon Eva raised a firewall that would block their attacks.

Zero dredged up one of his old techniques, the Renyoudan.  The blade of the of Durga-Glaive glowed a bright green, holographic images of leaves falling from it.  KZ thrusted forward six times in rapid succession, the wood-element attack breaking the Marathon's shield and doing some damage to it as well.

They quickly followed up with Suiretsusen, getting in close and thrusting forward again with a water-element attack, doing even more damage and also extinguishing the flames that surrounded Marathon Eva.

It followed up with attacks from several of its tentacles, knocking KZ back several paces.  It was then that another attack from Zero's memory came to mind.  It was possible, with Kira's abilities combined that this could be done, possibly even more powerful that in it was before.

KZ glowed again, this time with a greenish light, their arms crossed, they intoned "Sougenmu." And the light burst from them.

Suddenly, there were two copies of both Zero and K1-R4 standing next to KZ, both in shades of black and white, absent of all color.  The Zero clone went straight for Marathon Eva, while the copy of Kira stayed back, firing her Virus Pistol.  The Zero copy slashed at the Marathon's tentacles, harming them, while KZ went straight in.  The D-Glaive glowed as it charged, and a slash released a wave of light-blue energy, also slicing the Marathon before it could fully regenerate.  Next, a Shippuuga as KZ got in close, quickly followed up by several more slashes, finally finishing the combo with a hop and Kuuenbu, then a falling Hyouretsuzan, the ice piercing Marathon Eva.  These attacks, combined with the damage done by the shadow-clones, did quite a number on the Marathon.

KZ once more hopped back, the copies of Zero and Kira disappearing as their energy ran out, and began charging a shot in their pistol, much akin to Zero's Buster Shot Gun.

====

"Ugh..." Hawk had been extremely lucky these past few minutes or hours, depending on how you prefer to view time. After Marathon tore his attack apart in a brutal fashion (which, by the way, HURT) and threw him, he'd been fortunate to land on ground and not in the giant abyss of death and doom and destruction. Of course, this didn't matter much since he couldn't get up anyway, and could barely utter the aforementioned 'Ugh...'.

And then came a wave of healing energy that rushed through his body like water down a parched throat, soothing the aching of his body. Hands pushing against the virtual ground, Hawk felt the energy renew the rush of combat, his body singing in tune with his racing heart. A grin found his face, even as his feet found themselves upon the ground once more. His hands unclenched as his eyes widened, before suddenly his legs moved of their own will. The Interference rushed towards the fight, noticing his blades (being heavier) had landed closer than he had.

"Round two! Ready!?" Hawk's right hand wrapped around the hilt of the Blood Sword even as his left pulled the katana from the ground as well. The fact he pulled it up by the blade didn't bother him, a small cut opening on his palm but ignored in favour for the rush of battle, the thrill of fighting for his life. Bringing the zanpakuto up, he threw the blade like a javelin at Marathon as he drew even closer. Then, his legs tensed and launched him forward, his body flipping through the air at the viral monstrosity. Both hands gripping the hilt of the Blood Sword, Hawk swung down, making the most of his momentum he'd gathered. "TAKE THIS!"

====

When Audrey saw Marathon was lit on fire by Isaac's spell, she would have facepalmed if she wasn't focused on firing in distraction. As such, she just settled for a shake of her head and a sigh before continuing to fire her guns at the AI while KZ had gone full force.

Then came the healing wave, restoring whatever strength and health she had lost back. KZ had then continued the attacks, one of them extinguishing the flames from Marathon. Once they were done, and charging up a shot, the Dream Mage decided that she had stood back for long enough. She put her pistols away, summoned Inari back into her hands, and began charging up the glaive to maximum power. Once it reached that level, Audrey charged in, jumping at Marathon and ready to impale the AI then and there.

====

As Miles Prower charged his weapon, Naito stood back, on guard just in case. Isaac similarly remained back...and the two attacks struck the be-then stunned AI, weak from KZ's assault.

Inari stabbed straight into his chest and out the other side, as the Blood Sword sliced down the cleaved opening that already existed. The two met, the monster's halves falling to a forty-five degree angle toe each side as he remained up, that healing aura coming.

KZ swore as the world shook, more and more falling off, being assimilated into him, healing his wounds, giving him the strength that could kill the combined being. Not today.

A glitching aura surrounded her....and she clapped her hands out of habit, flattening both palms on the ground as a rippling wave expanded outward. It pushed the hero and heroine back, but left her with her space to do her work.

Her mind was merged with the arena. She [i]was[/i] the arena. She could assimilate it, bring it in, get the kno--

[i]No![/i] She didn't move much, instead focusing on a link she found. Tinged with darkness, with madness. With the souls of the damned who had been devoured, old, new.... Cortana, was that her? No, no, no... Move on!

Mentally, she manipulated the link, turned it into a vacuum, the tiniest of knives implanting itself in Marathon's torso. Slowly, slowly.... she began to tear.

She could hear the mad rants, the screams of agony and the thousands of voices...from a distance. She was still there, standing before Marathon, his feet stuck to the ground by manackles, but a small incision was forming, deeper than any of the others.She wasn't taking his avatar. She was destroying his code, rearranging it, using it. She had to use him to remake this.

The explosion was quick and nearly silent as his body exploded for a moment....then collapsed into a ball, the tiniest of streams flying out in all directions, off to fix things, to reassemble them. Her work was done.

The portal was stable, or stable enough for now. She would work on the structure to control it. Perhaps Marathon's core programming? She as using all of his thousands of incorporated, devoured AIs to rearrange this place, a wave of blue energy flying out from the red. The crackles, the earthquakes....they stopped. There was a small pathway back to the Mesa, though nothing beyond for the time being, just the computer. It would take a few hours.

But, as she fell to her knees in exhaustion, a flash overcoming her as she separated into Kira and Zero once more very slowly, the AI gone and so much damage dealt, she knew.

Her new form was plain, similar to her original body. The light-skinned woman had black hair that reached down to her shoulders, or slightly past them. Blue eyes remained closed. There seemed to be some kind of dark symbol on her left wrist under the palm, a tattoo or a scar was hard to tell, but it was in the shaped of the letter "Ω". On the outer side of her right forearm was a glowing white symbol, a hexagon with a T shape that was turned ninety degrees counterclockwise to the right of it. On the whole, she seemed to be in her mid-twenties. For clothing, she wore a glowing white undershirt beneath a dark coat that doubled as a cape of some sort above her similarly dark pants, very thin lines of white down the sides. The shoes themselves were glowing white boots that had slight "wings" off to the outer sides. Her hands were still burned deeply, but seemed dextrous nonetheless. There was another burn that circled her neck, and a third under her left eye, a kind of thin slash that came down to her cheek on the same side. Battle scars, it seemed, but her forms was, once again, intact.

For now, at least for now, the deed had been done. Marathon Eva, her former husband, the deceased who had become the insane, the Rampant, was nothing but sentient coding, off to become this new place.

Space Paranoids had changed, yes. The game, changed forever. But at least for now, she was ready, done.

The AI of the Omega Empire would, though possibly able to speak like Sigma, no longer be of any issue.

====

Zero slowly stood, when he and Kira separated, and found that the pain from the infection had disappeared.  However, the form that he had gained when the corruption took place remained.  He looked over at the AI, who had also gained a new appearance.  It seemed this battle had changed the both of them.  He saw that the place was reassembling as well, and the portal now at least somewhat manageable.  Also Kira's doing, he knew, form their shared consciousness.

Speaking of which, Zero felt extremely tired, drained even.  Not just physically, but mentally as well.  It seemed that combining his consciousness with Kira's had had a few side effects, which hadn't been entirely unexpected.  KZ was a last resort, and a dangerous one at that.  He believed they could both agree to not use it again unless under extreme circumstances.  But being tired was better than being in pain.  Tired was what one felt after a day of good work, or a successful battle.  It carried with it a feeling of success.

Zero nodded at his own thoughts, before turning to Kira.  "You fought bravely."

He then looked at the rest of the group.  They all seemed to be in somewhat good condition, although he was certain that at least one of them would need some sort of healing.

But at least they were alive.

====

"Whoa!" Hawk was moved away by KZ's ability, before watching as Marathon suddenly exploded. Thankfully, the push from before was enough to save him being caught in the blast radius. Lowering his raised arms (an attempt to shield from any potential debris), the shinigami let loose a sigh of relief. It seems that it was over, the portal from before was seemingly stable and Kira and Zero both seemed vaguely fine, if a little different. Walking over, he picked up his swords (the thrown katana and the dropped Blood Sword) and sheathed them in their respective places.

"Well, that could've gone better. But since everyone is alive, albeit mentally scarred for life, I call this a successful mission!" Hawk said once he got closer to the rest of the group.

====

Audrey had also moved away from KZ's ability, Inari disappearing back in her mind. From a distance, she watched as Marathon exploded, what was left of the explosion going off to fix things. The portal was now somewhat stable, and after Kira and Zero split, the girl recognizing the new appearance for the former from when she and Isaac went through Melancholia, it seemed that the AI was alright now. Scarred heavily, both physically and mentally for good reason, but she was alive. It was all finally over.

"Mentally scarred, alright," the Dream Mage said to Hawk, somewhat in annoyance. "I'm probably not gonna be able to sleep for a few nights, if at all. But I guess it was worth it in the end..."

...then came Tails accidentally firing the fully charged cannon, sending him flying and landing unceremoniously. Audrey held in the urge to facepalm at that bit of failure, as funny as it was, and just held her hand towards him, healing him with a Vita spell once more in case he needed it. "Next time, remember to fire before something dies."

That said, Audrey now looked to everyone else around. It seemed, like Hawk said, everyone would be alright, save for the mental scars. Her gaze then went to Isaac, and she frowned. She was upset at him earlier, mainly for punching a kid in his anger, but she had no right for her attitude towards him, dismissing him like he didn't feel the same thing she did before. She had seen that he did care, about his family and anyone else close. They might not have been friends...but her opinion of the demon had gone up somewhat after this.

'Somewhat' being the key word. He was still an ass when it came down to it. But even then, that didn't justify her own attitude towards him, before and now. Even if he was a jerk, he wasn't the villain he was back then.

As such, the girl walked up to him, holding her hand against her side. "Listen, Isaac...I just wanna say sorry for my attitude earlier. I don't agree with some things, but I have no right to paint you off as an uncaring bastard. You have proven that you're the opposite; I shouldn't keep acting like a total bitch to you for that. So...yeah, I'm sorry."

====

Kira's eyes remained closed for a few moments as she took deep breaths. They were shaky, tired, upset.

Sain. His memory haunted her still, the cold murder, the destruction and reconstruction of her mind to expand her functions. He was gone once. Gone to the wind... but it still hurt now. She had killed him. Killed him again, destroyed him.

Cortana. Her best friend, the program she knew she could rely on in the worst of times. That was in the program, that she had to disassemble with the rest. It hurt in more ways than she could count.

So many lives, so many programs. Pain, torture, cannibalism. So much. So much horror. Could she take it?

She had to. Blue eyes opened, and she brought her right leg forward, using it to stand. She looked to the many scattered batons, picking up one. She could modify it to her purposes easily enough. She remained silent, flipping its switch a few times to different reasons. A sword. A staff with uneven blades on either side. A whip of sorts with an adhesive tip. Even an umbrella, and more. She could figure this out.

As she remained quiet, Isaac looked to Audrey. He rolled his eyes at Tails' continuing incompetence (or at least in his eyes), but did listen when she spoke. For a moment, he, too, was quiet. Finally, he spoke, reaching out to touch her shoulder for a moment...but lowering the hand again, uncertain.

"I... guess I have to thank you, Audrey. I have to tell you, no matter how much I've done, I never assumed you would apologize to me in any of my lifetimes. I never thought you'd tell me I'm decent at all." He took a breath. "I'm not a nice person. You know this. I'm hard, I'm rough around the edges in more ways than I can count. But if you can talk to Cheryl..." he let that hang a bit. "... look, I just want her to know that I'm willing to talk to her whenever she's ready. I can't let the past hold her back, not if she can do so much more without it doing so."

He looked to Naito, who was kneeling next to Azumi as she sat back down, about to fall back into her fearful coma of sorts for a time. "He's a good kid. I think his parents... well, they'd be happy to see him if they got to know him a little better. All I'm trying to do... I just want to keep things together. All I every care about anymore is making sure my family is intact. That they survive, even my parents who hate me. Even my dad, I just want him to see his wife again, alive." He looked back to the Dream Mage. "...does that make sense to you? I might not have a lot of limits, but everything I do, I do for them. It might be roundabout, it might be harsh, but who cares about me anyway, who cares about the murdering demon?" Silence for a moment. "If nobody's gonna care for me, at least I can help them. See that that kid keeps smiling, that they can be happy. I don't want to do evil. I'm a demon, not a monster." He took a breath. "I can't say I'm sorry about what happened in that core programming with Prower. If Nai died... I'd never have forgiven anyone, not him, not myself, nobody. I hope you understand that."

That said, he looked to Tron, who was looking over the program being siphoned around. The security program spoke. "We'll be able to handle things from here," he said, taking a sigh of relief. "The console in the Mesa out back is probably operational, and the platform is being reconstructed, as is the Sailer." He looked to the silent Kira, concerned. "Are you going to be okay?"

A pause... then a nod.

The native looked to the Interferences. "Okay, I think you all should probably head out. The reconstruction process will take several cycles, time that will go faster out of the system than inside it. Well, all of you but..." He looked to Azumi. "She needs some time to recover. I think she may have emergent psychological trauma, and needs some more time. If she stays inside, she can recover in less time spent outside, minimizing the additional trauma from villainous Users. Our security can monitor when any come to access."

Naito nodded, letting go of her and stepping back. "Are you... sure there isn't anything we can do?"

Tron shook his head. "Just give us a few cycles to sort things out, then you can fix up what you need."

Naito just patted the sitting soldier on the shoulder, sighing. "You're very brave, ma'am," he said. "... I wish I were that brave." And with that, he started out toward the Mesa, waving goodbye to everyone. Due to events that had taken place, he was in no mood to be cheery. He missed Jasmine, missed his parents, and wanted to talk to them again. "If anyone sees Kynthia Z--I mean Usagi or Gregory Zivaku... can you tell them I say hi?"

Tron nodded slightly, recognizing at least the second name from a visit many cycles ago. A friend of Alexander.

Isaac followed his nephew out, patting his back to try to comfort him, with limited success.

"W-wait!"

Both men turned back, seeing Kira as she said her first words in this form. She looked a bit distressed, though at what they could not tell.

"I... I have to say... thank you all. I... I don't deserve any of this for how I treat people, but you went through everything. So... thank you. I can't say I'll be less harsh on others, but... at least some of you might understand why. If you need help... feel free to stop by, just as long as you don't bring a virus with you."

The Zivakus nodded, stepping out and over to the Mesa as Tron walked over to help the silent Azumi up again. They were on their way. It was a hard trip, arduous in many ways, but they had won. The abyss stretched out before them, the lines of code filling in blanks in new, adventurous ways... but also similar nonetheless. Time would tell how different it actually was. But one thing was certain.

This game had certainly changed.

(And I'm out. Azumi and Kira will stay behind because of their part in "Shadow of the Bat", taking place after this. You three can put your exits too. Thanks for all the help, you three. I hope you enjoyed this plot. We finally updated Space Paranoids.)

====

Audrey listened as Isaac spoke, remaining silent the whole time. It was true he wasn't the nicest person around, but hearing all of what he said, about how much he does for his family, even though his parents hate him...tears had actually stung her eyes as she listened to it all. Now she really did understand the demon, what he was going through, how much he was trying to do for those he cares for. It made her feel even more remorse for her attitude towards him; she didn't care for his attitude, but he was doing so much, and she had been treating him like crap the whole time. Truthfully, even though he didn't think so, he really didn't deserve it.

She would have had a word in, but she couldn't find the right words to say. She just told herself in thought to work on her own attitude towards him from now on. They might not get along, but this journey had proven to her that he was trying to do the right thing. She knew it before, but past memories brought her to deny it. Not anymore.

The Deam Mage looked to Tron as he explained that the whole system would go through reconstruction. She nodded in understanding, since there was too much damage done here. When he mentioned Azumi having to stay behind to recover, however, she had to frown. The girl hated to leave her behind in this state, but as it was, there was nothing she could do. All she did was walk up to the soldier, put a hand on her other shoulder, and said to her, "You'll be okay, Azumi. I know you're suffering the most out of all of us, but I know you'll pull through. Hope to see you again soon..."

With that said, Audrey began to walk out toward the Mesa as well, nodding to Naito's request. Or at least to saying hello to Kynthia; after what she had seen in Kira's mind, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to see Greg again. Yes, she was happy for Naito, Kynthia, and even Isaac that he was alive again, but after watching him torture the AI for his own selfish needs...she wasn't sure if she'd be so happy seeing him again after all these years.

Of course, she too had to stop and look back at Kira as she called to them. She too nodded as the AI thanked them, understanding her completely. Even if she wasn't going to be less harsh, she now knew why, having to endure all those tortures, losing her husband and friend. She might not let it excuse her, but she would still understand. With that, Audrey continued her way to the Mesa, off to head out of the program and finally relax.

Just too bad she was about to deal with more horrifying stuff after this.

[size=1](And that's my exit. This was definitely a good plot.)[/size]

====

Zero nodded at Tron, his assessment of the time that it would take to repair Space Paranoids seeming accurate.  The cyber-world certainly had taken a beating, thanks to the Firewall and Marathon Eva.  Luckily, both threats had been neutralized.  He also had to agree with Azumi staying here for the time being.  He had no doubts about Ian's strength of will, but even the strongest soldier could be affected by such horrors.  He'd seen it several times during the Maverick Wars, even to fellow Reploids.

Turning to both the AI and the ODST, Zero said, "You are strong, the both of you.  I trust that you'll recover, given time."  Not being a man of words, that was all the Reploid said before turning, and disappearing in a red beam of light.

[size=1](There's my exit.  Most definitely was a great plot, and I'm excited to see what we do with Space Paranoids in the future.)[/size]

====

"Heh. Well, I'm off. You've already heard everyone else's words, Azumi, Kira. You two... I can tell you'll be just fine given time. To victory, and victory alcohol!" Hawk smiled at the group, before walking away. He stood that little bit straighter as well, feeling what he'd done here was a great thing. And then he exited the Grid, a smile still on his face.

(Short exit, but this was a fantastic plot. Yay new SP!)