Author's Note:
Unfortunately, this will likely be the only update in September due to LIFE. I apologize that it's also a shorter one, but when I get LIFE in order I hope to be able to finish this story. I anticipate this will be completed before the end of 2012. Please enjoy!
Chapter Thirteen: Storm
"J.J.! You're all right!" exclaimed Garcia, sprinting ahead of the rest of the original group to embrace her tired-looking friend.
"Yes… it was a wild trip, though," said J.J. "When I woke up I was in this dark forest clearing, with no recollection how I'd gotten there."
"Yeah, it was super spooky," said Yukari, shivering. "We could hear things in the forest…"
"Who all did you have with you?" asked Prentiss.
"Myself, Yukari-san, Amagi-san, and Satonaka-san," answered Fuuka.
"The five of us wandered around for a bit," said Chie. "We tried to find our way out, but it seemed everywhere we went it got a little denser and worse… and then we saw… well… um…"
She trailed off as if embarrassed to continue. There was a pause as all the younger girls looked to J.J., who sighed deeply before explaining.
"My sister," she said. "It was my sister, the one who committed suicide. She… blamed me for everything. She tried to make me doubt my ability to do my job, to help people…"
"That was your Shadow," said Hotch. "A dark aspect of yourself-."
"Yeah, Yukiko and Chie explained that to me, as did Fuuka and Yukari, sort of," said J.J. "It's strange… it seems there are different kinds… anyway, I… kinda lost control of myself when she started insinuating I couldn't be a good mother and I… told her off. She said she was a part of me, I refused to acknowledge that and…"
"She attacked you," finished Hotch.
"Yes," said J.J., nodding. "Fiercely. But, thanks to these girls, we were able to defeat the Shadow and move on."
"Before we even got there, I might add," said Mitsuru.
"Yeah… it didn't leave us anything to fight," said Akihiko, sounding very disappointed. "And here I was looking for a good tussle…"
"We did notice something else, though. There was another Hell, one about halfway between J.J.'s and here," said Mitsuru.
"It was a carnival of sorts," said the freshly-rebooted Aigis. "But… I regret that I have no information further."
"Me either," added Fuuka. "I detected no signs of human life, and only minimal Shadows…"
"Well… it can't be for any of us; we've already all found our Hells pretty easily," said Prentiss. "Could it be for one of you?"
"None of us from Inaba, most likely," said Naoto. "We had our versions of these so-called "Hells" in the Midnight Channel."
"And I believe Tartarus qualified as such for those of us from Iwatodai," said Mitsuru. "Though, to be fair, it didn't function in quite the same way."
"Speak for yourself…" said Fuuka. "That time I was trapped in there definitely qualified as hell for me…"
"Hotch, I hate to say it, but I'm beat," said Morgan. "I think we should call it a day…"
"As do I," said Hotch. "Our time to find the Unsub is running out. And who knows how long we've actually been in this world… we should try and touch base with Rossi outside the world and-."
"YOU HAVE SURVIVED THE TRIALS!"
The loud, ringing voice had returned. Everyone immediately moved into battle positions, Yosuke, Kanji, and Morgan going as far as summoning their Personas in preparation for battle. But as they looked around the sparkling, misty sky, they saw nothing. When the voice spoke again, though, they did sense a very faint flashing going on way up in the sky.
"I may have been… hasty… in denying you from Nyx's Embrace… your…"
His voice cut out and for a moment the others glanced at each other quizzically.
"… join… and this world will replace…"
"Uh… is it just me… or is our creepy voice man having some trouble being… creepy and… voicey… today?" asked Garcia.
"Yeah, it's like he's having trouble broadcasting to us," said Prentiss. "What's his deal?"
"… will find that I can be… … very forgiving… … only… your… choice is…"
"We can't actually hear you, you know!" Yukari shouted, snarkily.
"… talking to…. Useless bitch…"
"Excuse me?!" snarled Yukari.
"Takeba, cool it," Mitsuru hissed. "We need to figure out where he's coming from…"
"It's no use; the clouds block Hathor's sensors," said Garcia, who had taken the opportunity to Summon as well.
"Maybe if I can get Frigga to blow the air away…?" suggested J.J. tentatively.
"… Hotch, what'll it be?"
"Me? Why ask me, then?" asked Hotch.
"It's no secret, you're the leader!" the voice shouted, stronger and clearer than before, at least at first. "From everything I've seen of all of you, you're the one who can most easily persuade the others! It's your decision…"
"Forgive me, but we couldn't actually hear your proposition," said Hotch. "Perhaps you'd like to come out and meet with us face-to-face?"
"You dare… to…" the voice started to cut in and out again. "Higher… than any other… expect… I shall NEVER… to your requests…."
"This is ridiculous, Hotch, we're not getting anywhere," said Prentiss.
"Yeah… it sounds like his voice is coming from everywhere," said Reid.
"Whoever you are," Hotch called to the sky. "We are unable to fully understand you. Our offer stands. Meet face-to-face and we'll discuss our joining Nyx's Embrace."
There was a pause with only faint distant flashing, but, at least for the time being, it seemed like the man had totally lost his ability to broadcast. Then, there was a loud stream of furious expletives and a much brighter flash went across the shining sky above them, followed by a loud crack of what sounded like thunder. The shockwave knocked them to the ground.
When Hotch opened his eyes, he was surprised to find himself and the rest of the others lying on the floor of the Yasogami computer lab. Slowly, everyone got to their feet, looking around. Almost everyone's faces were pale, and some were still shaking.
"It seems we have returned," said Mitsuru.
"Yeah… this is definitely our world," said Rise. "Is everyone okay?"
"A little bruised and banged up, but not nearly as bad as some of our cases can be," said Prentiss.
"How'd we get sent out of the world?" asked Reid.
"I think… the servers are down," said Garcia, who had already returned to her computer. "Yeah… every single North American server went down. That's very strange, they usually don't do maintenance for a few more days…"
"Well Rossi did say that there were storms all over the US," said J.J. "Maybe the place where the servers are based got hit?"
"That's a distinct possibility," said Garcia. "Almost all over the servers are centrally located in… Missouri, I think.."
"So we can't access this world unless the servers are up, then?" asked Naoto.
"Seems that way. I can't log in," said Garcia.
"Just as well, then," said Hotch. "We should regroup and see what Rossi has come up with on his end. Kevin as well."
They took over an adjacent classroom, leaving Garcia to her own devices with Fuuka's assistance. They poured over all of the information they already had, but nothing jumped out at them initially. After half an hour of unproductive deliberations, Garcia walked into the room, a triumphant look on her face.
"I've done it. I hit a breakthrough. I was able to hack onto one of the main Nyx's Embrace servers, and I got everyone else's characters figured out," she said, grinning. "As well as the accounts attached to them and their hierarchy in the group."
"That's great, Garcia!" exclaimed Reid.
"Good work. What can you tell us?" asked Hotch.
Garcia sighed. "Well… sorry… but that was the only good news I had. The bad news is that… well… Nyx's Embrace is far more massive than we'd expected. Each server has its own division, and each of those has several hundred members. So… although I have some leads… I don't have any definite names."
"Still, it's a starting point. I think we can safely assume our UnSub is most certainly one of these members," said Hotch.
"Yeah. And probably not a low-ranking member. With all his knowledge of the game and this ability, I imagine he'd be a higher-ranking official in the guild itself. Eliminate anyone who has been brought in before our first victims appeared," said Morgan.
"Which servers were your victims on?" asked Akihiko.
"Some of them had multiple characters on different servers," said Garcia, flipping through her highlighted notes. "And these weren't arranged by server, so it'll take me some time to organize them…"
"Do what you can with that, then, and look for any overlap," said Hotch. "Then we'll cross-reference that with higher-ranking officials and come up with a better list of suspects."
"I'll get to work on that right now," said Garcia, returning to the computer lab.
"As for the rest of us, let's return to the Amagi Inn and try to ease our wounds and pains," said Hotch. "We should touch base with Rossi, too."
Back at the hotel, after a long dip in the hot springs and a hearty meal, the members of the BAU plus Akihiko, Naoto, and Mitsuru sat in Hotch's room. They were finally able to conference call Rossi on a video monitor.
"Hotch! Good to finally hear from you. How are things there?" asked Rossi.
"You wouldn't believe the day we had in that world," said Hotch. "How are you doing in the US?"
"Atrocious, and that's an understatement," said Rossi. "Have you seen the weather lately?"
"No, we haven't…" said Prentiss. "How bad is it?"
"Here…" said Rossi, spinning his camera around to face a television.
There was a gasp. The weather map on the television screen showed a virtually solid mass of green, yellow, and red covering a majority of the United States. Below the map was an emergency bulletin about catastrophic extreme weather.
"What's going on over there?" asked Prentiss.
"It's a disaster," came a new voice, and they were surprised to see a soaking-wet Agent Seaver join Rossi when the camera was turned back. "There's a record number of flood warnings country wide, and currently 58 tornado warnings and climbing. There's already been panic; the storms came out of nowhere and are of biblical proportions."
"This… this is insane…" muttered Prentiss.
"I know this is crazy, but… do you think this could have something to do with the other world?" asked Naoto.
"How do you figure?" Morgan asked.
"Well, when we were exploring the Midnight Channel, we started to notice the fog had begun to leak out into our world… you may have seen reports of the impenetrable Inaba fog a couple of years ago," said Naoto.
"So you think the storms we're seeing here might have something to do with the internet world?" asked Reid.
"It's a possibility," said Naoto. "We did see distant flashes and thunder in the other world today…"
"We'll have to keep that in mind," said J.J. "Rossi, have you learned anything else on your end?"
"Unfortunately, no," said Rossi. "The weather here is even worse. My flight diverted twice before I finally got here, not to mention several roads are closed due to flooding around Quantico. I'm setting up camp here. One plus to this is that Strauss is stranded for now, so she can't get into the office."
"A blessing in disguise I guess," said Hotch. "Dave, if you hear anything at all, let us know."
"Same to you. That analyst Kevin Lynch said he would be getting me all of Garcia's info as soon as she had it compiled. We've been running on generator power for a good part of the morning," Rossi explained.
"Well… stay dry," said Morgan, earning an eye roll from Agent Seaver.
"And you guys stay safe; there's no telling what our UnSub is capable of," Rossi replied.
They closed the call and sat in thought for a few moments. The chaos of the weather was one thing, but if that was truly something being caused in the internet world, they were going to have to hurry and deal with that.
"Tomorrow, I think we should enter the world and go after our Unsub… or whatever the voice we keep hearing in there is," said Hotch. "We need to put a stop to this before the storms spread worldwide."
The next morning, Hotch was awakened at 5 AM by pounding on his door. He rolled out of bed, picked up his gun, and headed for the door. He could hear Dojima's muffled voice on the far side, and he slowly slide the door open. The man was in a panicked state, his eyes wide and filled with terror. Unfortunately, he was unable to tell Hotch anything in English, so Hotch was mostly just politely confused until the noise finally awoke Akihiko who wandered out of his room, yawning and scratching his eyes.
"Sanada, what is he saying?" asked Hotch, desperate for a translator.
"Just a moment…" Akihiko said, asking Dojima something in Japanese. When he replied, Akihiko's eyes also grew wide and terrified. He turned back to Hotch. "His daughter, Nanako… and your analyst Garcia… have disappeared into the internet world."
Author's Note
As always, thank you for your patience; I hope you enjoy this story!