Disclaimer: Dustbunny doesn't own Yu Gi Oh! Show of hands, who already knew that?
A/N: And here we have the revamped version of Virtual Fantasy. There's not much difference from the original. I just cleaned up a few basic errors. If I missed anything, please let me know! Oh, this fic is, of course, still dedicated to Lady D, who planted the idea of the couple in my head. Thanks goes to her for beta-reading the first chapter for me.
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Silence. Darkness. These two things overtook his senses. No sound... no light... not anywhere. In one sense, it was peaceful, even lulling. But in another it was eerie and empty. Why was it silent and why was there no light? Where was this place of emptiness? How had he gotten here? For what reason? And why did he have the odd feeling that he wasn't all there..?
Slowly, ever so slowly, he began to pull up bits and pieces of information. He was in a database of some sort, a game of one kind or another judging by the program that he examined. But this only resurrected old questions and gave birth to some new. Where exactly was he? Why and how? Had he not been destroyed with his father? After a moment of pondering, he realized that, no, he couldn't possibly have been destroyed. If he had been, he would have a rather well difficult time wondering over whether or not he had been. The thought was ridiculous in itself.
But, if he had not been destroyed- which obviously he had not been- what did happen? Why was he overcome with the strong, strange feeling that he was incomplete as of now? It occurred to him that the only part of him that now "lived" was his virtual self, the collection of data formed by his father. His father... if he himself had not been destroyed, then what of the old man? Was he floating around here somewhere as well? The possibility would have made him shudder, if he could have, and, in a way, he did.
The time to worry about that wasn't now. Surely if Gozoburo too lingered in this system he'd of made himself known. Getting upset over the slim chance that they'd somehow wound up together within the universe of cyberspace had so far done no good except to make him lose his train of thought. He was but a computer file, cyber data. Computer data is forever. Even if it was deleted, it was shipped off into yet another part of this digital land. It would always be there. It was all a matter as to whether or not someone in the world could locate the data again. That, he supposed, was what had happened in his own case.
Was this what he'd been forced into, what he'd forced himself into? An eternity of dark, silent nothingness that contained not even his full self? Or rather what self he had left. He had, after all, died six years prior. He had no true, solid body to call his own. Even if his virtual counterpart was fully re-digitized, he would not be truthfully connected in body, mind, and soul. Did he even have a soul anymore? Perhaps his true soul had gone along with his body those years ago, leaving only his mind to suffer. At least he still possessed the ability to download information from the web. Maybe by keeping up with the events of the world he could manage to keep himself sane. As appealing was the idea to be the world's first digital hobo/ wacko, he'd rather steer clear of the position.
Yes, the idea was plausible. After all, his data had been able to slip simply enough into the game system. Perhaps he could even somehow become part of the game, control a small piece of it to make it more interesting for the players. He was so pleased by his new plan that he almost missed the subtle occurrence going on with his own programming.
It was an odd feeling, like he was being pulled back together. He began searching though the databanks for the answer to this new problem. Quite suddenly he realized that he was moving his right arm. This wouldn't have been odd except that only moments before he'd been without the limb. Similar things were happening with other missing parts of his digital body. Again he searched for the cause. It didn't take long to find.
The game that he was in, he realized as he paid actual attention to the system for the first time, was quite advanced. His own data had melded with that of the game and it was looking upon him now as a broken file- which he actually was in a way. As the system now recognized him as being part of itself, it had automatically set itself to the task of repairing him. He was slowly but surely becoming whole again- at least as whole as he could get.
He wasn't sure why what happened next hadn't occurred to him before. It was so obvious an event to occur. However, he did not see it coming and, most likely, would not have been able to do anything of it even if he'd known. He had gone from a floating, aimless blob of information to a solid- in a sense- being. It was only natural that he'd fall. And fall he did, all the way from the sky where, for whatever reason, the system had decided to repair its broken file. Luckily, he was not fully recreated when he hit tree after tree and finally hard ground so he didn't receive the full force of the impact.
It was in the same spot that he'd landed that he laid for several moments before trying to move again. And it was in that spot that he continued to lay when he discovered just how futile the attempt was. And it was in this spot that he heard a sudden intake of breath and delicate footsteps rush toward him accompanied by a sweet voice.
"Are you alright?" the worried voice asked urgently.
All right? Did he look all right to this girl- for he was quite sure the voice was that of a female? He tried to turn toward her to relay the sentiment out loud. He failed miserably. Who knew so much pain could come to a person made up of strategically placed zeros and ones?
Forcing his eyes open and barely seeing through the lights that insisted on dancing in his way, he looked upon the face of this new presence. The face was delicate and twisted in concern, the eyes large and bright, the hair long and a color that the proudest of ravens would envy.
"Mo... ku... ba..?" he choked out in confusion. He could see waves of emotion pass through the eyes of the person beside him. Recognition, happiness, suspicion, confusion- all rolled up into one nice little package that was this person's features. Noa's final thought before giving in to his all-expense-paid trip to La-la Land was, Why the heck is he wearing a dress?
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Noa awoke on a comfortable bed in an elegantly furnished room. Sitting up slowly, his gaze fell upon a small figure sitting in a chair beside the bed, hunched up and asleep. The figure began to stir at the same time that his vision fully cleared. It looked so like Mokuba, but, upon further inspection, was definitely not. This person was a girl.
"You're awake," she stated the obvious with a tired smile. She stretched a bit and stifled a yawn.
"Yes, I suppose that I am," Noa replied. "But where am I awake exactly?"
"You're in my palace. I'm Queen Meyari," she told him. Then, after a short pause, "How do you know Mokuba?"
He looked at her a moment before answering. How in the world did she know Mokuba?
"I'm his brother," Noa told her, taking note of the appreciation and admiration she now looked upon him with. "What about you? How do you know Mokuba?"
"It was he and the other heroes that saved my kingdom," she told him.
That statement had all but lost him. Calling upon the information that was now part of his digital coding, he searched for the logic behind her statement. According to the files that he checked, a player was indeed supposed to go on a quest involving assisting the queen and her kingdom, but the way she spoke...
Noa rapidly searched through more files. Ah ha! The entire record of the past game was stored in the memory. However... it was part of the mainframe memory. Should she be able to recall the past games? She didn't even know that she was within a game, after all.
Before Noa could put his question to the maiden now standing at his side or check further into it himself, a loud tremor shook the ground. Noa fell back against the bed pillows, whilst Meyari was sent to the floor.
Pulling himself up, Noa looked out the window beside him up at the deep red sky that rumbled with thunder and was flashed into life by lightning. Darkness spread throughout the land and blocked out any signs of sunshine. A cruel, sinister laugh sounded from apparently nowhere. It was a laugh that Noa knew well. He shuddered as a cold sweat broke out across his body, and braced himself against yet another tremor.
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Dustbunny: And here we are again at the bottom of the first chapter. So many memories- mostly because this is almost the exact same as the original first chapter, sans dub names and a repeated sentence
Marshmallow: Well, we hope you enjoyed this little teaser of a first chapter. If you want to see the next you'll have to review!