It was a concept that was beyond her.
She understood many things. A very many things, or she wouldn't have come so far. And, as she had increasingly learned, not all things can be learned from tomes. Or as humans called them in this age, "books".
A young elevator operator, or so she looked in her royal blue attire, stood on the edge of a sidewalk in front of a large department store in a small town in Japan. Her head was tilted to one side as she studied the building in front of her. A large cut above her rather yellow eyes dripped blood down her nose, though her clothes remained in perfect condition. Somehow. It wasn't obvious how none of her blood had gotten on it, or how she had clearly gotten some scratches and cuts beneath her outfit without it tearing.
It was the look in her eyes, however, that spoke of how broken she had become through whatever ordeal she had been through. Whatever task that had managed to injure her in body had clearly taken more of a toll on her mind.
Not that she was entirely sure she had one.
She also wasn't sure what had brought her to this place now. Only that it felt... close to home. Like there was something here for her. Only two places she knew of felt like that. The place she had abandoned, and the location of her task. She wondered which of those that this department store was related to. The outside walls, other than possibly the endlessly looping music were certainly not going to tell her anything.
She stepped forward to within the range of the front door's automatic sensor, revealing that she was favoring her right leg. She didn't stop to admire the ingenuity of having the door notice that she was there and open for her, as she once would have. Something drove her forward. Into the elevator that would take her elsewhere in the store, she ended up with someone who studiously ignored her presence. She did not press any of the buttons, though she certainly wanted to, merely allowing the elevator to take her where it willed. The other person got off of the elevator in front of her, though she managed to exit without the door closing on her.
She only made it a few more steps before a blue-gloved hand sought and found purchase on a nearby wall to help her balance. She needed rest. Why was she pushing on? Because she must. Because heneeded her to. But hadn't she failed again? It would hold against Despair fine without her while she recovered again, wouldn't it? But she didn't know how long she would have to leave it to try to rip him down from the sacrifice of his making before she would be able to do anything about it.
If she would be able to do anything about it.
While her partner for the elevator ride had long since passed out of sight when she was able to lift her head again, there was a group of young humans that was walking across her vision, apparently headed from one area of the store to another, talking and laughing. Leading them was a short-haired girl with quite the grin on her face, dragging along a sandy-haired boy with headphones around his neck who was clearly distressed. Right behind them was a girl with long black hair who was so amused by what was in front of her she had both hands up to cover her mouth, and her body was shaking hard enough she was having trouble walking. Trailing her was a girl in pigtails making sure that the black-haired girl kept her feet and smiling. Behind her were a tall boy in a black t-shirt and wearing a coat without wearing the sleeves walking side-by-side with a short boy in a deep blue cap. Ambling next was someone in a suit. Perhaps a bear suit? The zipper made it stand out about as badly as the elevator operator.
But it was the silver-haired boy smiling indulgently in the back that caught the elevator operator's attention. And through the feeling that she felt from him, she knew who the rest of them must be.
Chariot, Magician, Priestess, Lovers, Emperor, Fortune, Star, and... Fool.
The Wild Card.
Just like him.
The group of young people were moving quickly. She had to ignore the pain of moving to go fast enough... just fast enough to follow them. Her injuries didn't matter; her fatigue didn't matter. She had to follow them, even if she didn't know why. She only knew that she must.
"Chie!" She had managed to get close enough to hear them as they settled into chairs around a particular table. "I don't make enough money to constantly be treating you all!" It was the boy with the headphones speaking.
"But it's a celebration!" The short-haired girl seemed insistent. "We all passed our exams! We all get to move on to the next year!"
"Some better than others," Headphones Boy said, somewhat in a mope.
"What was that?" Short-Haired Girl said dangerously.
"N-nothing!"
"I'll treat."
The group turned to him.
"N-no! That's too depressing, senpai!" The twin-tailed girl said with a frown.
"Rise-san is right; I will do the honors," the boy in the blue cap stated, rising.
There being no overall objection to this, the rest of the group remained while the boy in the cap went off to do... whatever it was that they were arguing about. The elevator operator sat at a table where she could hear but not see the group, as best she could tell. She still did not know why she had ended up here, but she was reasonably sure how to find out.
"What a year," Headphones Boy said with a sigh.
"We definitely had a very busy year," the long black-haired girl said. "And we weren't the only ones, even if we were at the center."
"I hope Inaba is safe now," the tall boy said. "I don't want to have to beat anybody down if I don't have to, you know..." He trailed off.
The boy with the blue cap came back to rescue the now flustered tall boy. "I'll need some help with this," he said.
A general movement of the group moved toward where the boy had leaned around a corner. But he stayed behind. "I need to take care of something real quick," he said. "Yosuke, you owe me a favor, right? Could you get me mine? I'll be back in two shakes."
The headphones boy gave a lazy little salute. "I got it, partner."
The rest gave him a questioning look, but he shook his head, obviously unwilling to tell them what suddenly had come up. Lingering the longest was the girl with the black hair, who finally smiled at him and bowed slightly before going with the rest of them.
A moment passed. Then he rose as well and walked in the opposite direction of where his friends had gone. Instead, he was heading straight toward where the elevator attendant sat hidden behind a short wall and a potted plant. He walked around the obstruction and tilted his head to one side as he regarded her. "You know, I see the resemblance to your successor."
Well, that confirmed it, now didn't it? Her surprise was probably written all over her face.
"It would probably be more comfortable for you to sit in a chair if you're injured," the silver-haired boy said, indicating one that was right next to her. After a moment of staring at it, she rose and then slumped into it. He walked around and took the chair opposite the small table from where she sat. "Margaret may have told me your name, but I've forgotten it if she had."
"Elizabeth," she said in barely a whisper. But he heard her just fine.
"She wouldn't tell me much about what you're up to," he said. "Only that you thought it was important."
It was.
"So you show up where I, a Wild Card, could find you, injured. Did you think I wouldn't notice you there? That I would just ignore you?"
She hadn't known what to think. Or if she should.
He was gazing at her with the same penetrating gaze that she was used to from he - the one who wasn't here - had so many times. "Something went wrong." It wasn't a question.
She surprised herself by speaking. "It never went right in the first place."
His eyes snapped up to regard her instead of the table in front of him. "Then you make it right."
Now her eyes snapped, though she did not speak.
"It doesn't matter what you're up against. You're allied with Igor, and you're clearly related to Margaret. I can't imagine what you could possibly be doing that wouldn't be worth doing. And if it's worth doing, it's worth doing, no matter the setbacks or the injuries it may cause. No matter if it means challenging a god, or if it means challenging the manifestation of evil itself."
"But I can't," Elizabeth said. "I can't do it."
"Sure you can," he told her, leaning over the table conspiratorially. "You beings have powers that more than rival what we have." He indicated his friends, who were coming back to the table and looking over at him questioningly. "And look at the kinds of things we do. And I don't even know what your Wild Card got up to, but I imagine it was much the same thing we had.
"We only show up when we're out of our league in the first place," he said with a shrug. He rose. "The nearest entrance to the Velvet Room is in the shopping district east of here. Go see your sister." He chuckled. "Go see Igor. Creepy bastard he might be, but I think he'd like to see you."
Elizabeth shook her head, looking sadder. He sighed. "I'm sorry you feel so bad. Just... don't give up. I don't think Margaret would forgive me if I was the last one to see you alive." He walked back over to his friends who immediately started asking him questions about the strange person that he had been talking to, though Elizabeth was not paying attention to this.
"I betrayed Him, though," she said to herself. "I betrayed Philemon. I cannot go back now."
Her vision flashed. She could have sworn she saw a butterfly.
"You cannot go back because it is not yet time for you to go back."
Elizabeth snapped her head around, then around the other way, looking for the source of the voice, but it was nowhere to be found. "I... "
"You took on a task. And you still intend to complete that task."
She got the distinct vision of the half-mask, and she gasped.
"Did you think that I would not find the task worthy?"
The presence, which Elizabeth could just barely feel, vanished. There was a pause where it sank in. That she had not betrayed, merely changed. A glance over to where the current Wild Card's group was sitting and eating and laughing confirmed that he was still there.
She rose and waved her hand in front of her, bringing up one of her favored cards, flipping it, then summoning from it. After feeling the warm light of Diarahan cascade over her body, she turned to find the whole group staring at her. She smiled at the silver-haired boy.
"I have a request," Elizabeth told him.
"Oh?" he said, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.
"If Margaret were to challenge you, please accept."
While the rest of his party were clearly confused at this request, the silver-haired boy nodded. "I can do that. What will you do?"
"Continue."
Now he did smile. "Good. And let me know if we can do anything to help."
Elizabeth blinked. "Why, I think there is something that anyone can and should do." All of them looked at her expectantly. "Do not give into despair. Do not want for Death or Nothing. Live."
Now all of them were smiling. "That's all?" headphones-boy said with mirth in his tone.
"Whenever you help Hope, you help me, as well as my... friends," Elizabeth said, then she clapped her hands. "Now, since I believe I have a little more time before I must return... where does one obtain such food as you all are celebrating with?" she asked, her voice taking on a playful tone.
"Right over there," the boy in the blue cap said, indicating with his head a window a few yards behind him. All of the kids at the table were still in varying states of confusion.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said. "I think I shall partake of your 'celebration' before I return to my task."
As she walked away, she could hear the girl in the pigtails whisper harshly at the rest of them, and then most of them responding with various degrees of surprise. Elizabeth got her food (though apparently only one of her 10,000 yen coins was necessary, and she even got a few coins back as 'change'!) and returned to the table where she had been sitting. As both a part and not a part of the party that was next to her.
Knowing that she did not have very many opportunities to simply linger in the human realm and enjoy the many things that she had learned about it, Elizabeth took her time with the steak. It was a completely different, though no less satisfying, taste than the sweets that she adored when she had enjoyed the company of the one she was trying to save.
Reminded of the exact reasoning for her task, her mood sobered, but her resolve remained firm. She was only shaken from this line of thought when she noticed that all of the current Wild Card's entourage were getting up and leaving the food court. She overheard them once again, but this time she was sure that this was intentional on the silver-haired boy's part.
"I feel a little smaller."
"Why's that, Sensei?"
"We're not the only ones." Elizabeth watched as he made a motion with his hand... like breaking a card. The others stared at him. The boy in the blue cap was the first to switch to Elizabeth, but the rest did shortly afterward. Elizabeth lazily smiled back at them.
"C'mon. Nanako's been bugging me about how everyone did. She wants to celebrate too."
This effectively distracted most of the group, and they followed their leader as he headed back to the elevator. Remaining behind were three figures. The bear suit, the boy in the blue cap and the girl with the long black hair. All three lingered their gazes (or what passed for a gaze from a suit) on the elevator operator before turning and following the rest of their group. Elizabeth waited until no one else was in the food court before transferring realms.
Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone.
He smiled.