Sometimes I wonder if I'm giving away too much of my soul. Every chapter seems like therapy. But I just want you all to be happy. Forgive my cheesy rhymes. I'm sorry that I've not been on TvTropes lately; I just can't deal with it , and I don't know what's wrong with me. Thank you for reading. Enjoy this last installment of the second story arc. A good song for the...interesting scene inside the artefact is "håll om mig nu," because that's the song I thought of when writing it.

I can't look you in the eyes

Am I an enemy here?

Maybe it's only a fluke

Do you know what time is near?

You don't?

I do.

Never leave me again...

Garrett, you're my only friend

Chapter 23: Broken Dreams, pt. 3

As the artefact unfolded around them, Amber began to sweat. Closed spaces were never her favorite place to be. Despite still being able to see the ceiling of the warehouse, the large metal structures that had risen up from the floor were tall enough to obstruct the view of their friends.

Shining, curved and more deadly than it seemed, this place certainly felt familiar. Just from glancing at their surroundings, Amber recognized exactly where they were.

They were standing on the inside of a gigantic, warped clock.

At either side of the three captives were large gears. If that wasn't enough, these gears also happened to be moving. On top of that, they were as sharp as swords.

If they stood in the middle, they would've been safe. But the three of them couldn't stay there forever. Amber didn't want to put Minoru in any danger, and she doubted that he would be able to get out of this contraption on his own.

She looked ahead, to where she imagined Dr. Lestat was standing. If she was going to survive, then she'd have to pass this test, wouldn't she?

"You're crazy," Garrett watched as Amber let go of Minoru and looked out to the ever-changing landscape of the artefact. "You won't last even a minute!" He could see a definite pattern with the sharpened gears, and surely Amber could as well. But she was human. Her body was not capable of navigating a path through that minefield without serious injury. If anyone was to get out of here, it was him. And even then, he was sure that he would need some significant repairs at the end of it.

"I'll take that chance." Amber watched the enormous clock with a careful, even gaze. There was a certain rhythm to the way these gears slid from side to side and continued to spin. If Amber closed her eyes and listened...she could almost hear a song emerge from the deadly contraption. Besides that, there were many "safe spots" if you looked carefully; places where the gears would not collide with one another or cross. It was just getting there that was the problem.

For the first time in years, the heiress pointed her toes and outstretched her arms to her sides.

Her eyes opened, and she let out a shaky breath. It was showtime.

Even with these legs, she could do it if she believed.

"Amber, wait!" shouted Garrett.

The girl bounded out onto her deadly stage.

…

Meroko. She didn't want to do this, but she had signed a contract. Being a star wasn't always sugar and roses. She tried not to narrow her eyes at the Persocom sitting next to her. It wasn't that she was jealous or even hated Miku. She just didn't like her very much. Her or any of the Vocaloid-'Coms never really rubbed her the right way. Especially not Len, that creepy little shota...

Even the way Miku was smiling at her felt... disgusting. As if she were secretly plotting her demise! Or looking down on her, or...

'Calm down, Meroko... why are you so paranoid?'

Instead, Meroko should have felt sorry for her. Miku was a lot like Momoko-chan, another Persocom pop idol, in terms of contact. However, unlike Momoko, Miku was far older in terms of concept. Why, just the other year she was a mere hologram. And even before that, she was only an image and a voice bank.

Her longevity was what irritated Meroko the most.

'Stupid bitch should have stayed in the 2D world,' she couldn't help but think spitefully.

This interview with her was probably the last crazy-straw, though. The ditzy-looking reporter had even decided to cosplay in a colorful wig and outfit, so she wouldn't look too out of place next to the two Persocoms. Her makeup was layered on so smooth and thick that if Meroko didn't know any better, then Reporter Izumi Kuroko had even better skin than she did.

"I hear that you have memories of every performance you've ever done, even when you were still a hologram. Is that true?" said Izumi, motioning to Miku.

"Yeah, it is. I think my top two favorite places to sing were that talk show host in America, and when I opened for Lady Gaga."

Meroko tried not to roll her eyes. As a Persocom, Miku should have had a much better pronunciation of other languages than she did. Even more so than the normal Persocom, because her base Vocaloid program had been translated into so many languages already.

When they unveiled her, her company had boasted of how she was able to sing in almost any language. But right now, she had just said "Raydy", instead of "Lady". Meroko had grown up in America, but she didn't speak Japanese with an accent, like Miku did with English.

'Just use your English voice bank, for crying out loud!' thought Meroko.

"...he looked at me like he was a perv, but he was still a nice-o gai," continued Miku, her green twin tails swaying.

Izumi smiled as it were the funniest thing in the world. "Oh Miku-chan, you're too funny! Ahahaha..."

'Kill me. Just fry my CPU and recycle me into spare parts.'

Still, Meroko kept that smile on her face. Otherwise, she would have rung the other girl's neck. She didn't need any lawsuits right now.

"So Meroko-tan," began Izumi, turning to the pinkette.

Meroko's ears twitched.

'There she goes, making my name sound cutesy again. My body is designed to be way more developed then that old geezer next to me, so why the hell—,'

"Why do you think the three most popular Persocom idols have names that all start with an M?"

'What kind of a question is that?'

Meroko's smile faltered by two millimeters.

'...If I could barf, I think I'd be doing that right now.'

So hold me

You've locked into the target

Hold me

In this dizzy deux-dance

Come on, let us prance,

Come on and hold me, now

…

It had been so long since she danced. A sane person would have stretched first. However, she had no muscles in her legs left to pull, so that would have been futile.

Garrett could not stop her, nor Minoru. Her other friends could not clearly see what she was doing, but if they could, they would have shouted in bitter protest.

'I am one with the air and earth.'

She launched into the air suddenly, as if she had taken flight. Two gears zoomed by, cutting the hem of her dress into fringes. Amber did not pause, but slid nimbly over the ground, hanging right. The slots for the gears made it difficult for her to put her feet flat on the ground, so she had to tip-toe around them.

A gear popped from the slot Amber had planned to cross. She heard it just in time for her to lift her leg up sharply, nearly touching her face. After this, the girl could not sigh in relief, though. As the gear rolled away, another cog came flying at her, and she turned, sashaying in a diagonal to the left. Remarkably, Amber was not even halfway to the edge of the artefact, but already she was feeling sluggish.

Her arms bent out of the way of two gears that slid past on her sides.

She continued this dangerous dance for thirty seconds more.

'Just a few meters left…'

Up ahead were two rods embedded in the ground, and on it were several gears, placed horizontally. Leaping over a low-spinning blade, she noticed the timing of these gears were slightly off. The gears were actually winding around the rods without any visible support, and as they revolved, one would pass one over the other.

However, with each pass, the delay between them meeting grew larger. With the pace she was moving, Amber would probably not clear them. Not without losing something, at least.

Without hesitation, Amber approached the first gear quickly, and as it was at chest-level, she had to duck to clear it. But she was not quite that fast, and it very nearly sliced her head off.

In the second before it cut into the flesh on her throat, something extraordinary happened.

Even Garrett couldn't believe his eyes as, just like in the movies, everything slowed down.

Amber leaned back and sprung to her feet just as she survived past the gear. Everything sped up to normal time once more until the second gear came close to slicing off her legs.

Time obeyed once more.

It flowed like molasses.

'Toes pointed. Wrists up...'

From that, Amber was able to do a lithe dancer's flip over the incoming gear, and when everything sped up once again, she bounced over two more obstacles. A few zig-zagging gears launched themselves at her, and it happened again. With pointed feet and rounded arms, the girl weaved through the glinting steel circles, spinning as she did.

'There is is, the edge!'

Everyone was certainly surprised when Amber finally cleared the boundary of the artefact, sprung over like a kangaroo, and landed right on top of Johan, her arms already primed to grab his throat. Johan reacted just as fast as any Persocom would. He moved his hammer to protect himself. However, she had planned for that.

Again, it looked as if time slowed to a crawl.

This time, Amber's nose started to bleed. All the same, she brought her palm and slapped his hammer on the side, pushing it away. At that, Johan widened his eyes in surprise. He was to correct himself, but, by the time he anticipated her next move, Amber had already grabbed him around the neck.

"Don't move," she warned, "move and you're dead." Her voice was low and sharp, like the hissing of a snake. She did not look at Dr. Lestat, who was quickly thinking of repositioning her gun.

Minako, who had seen parts of the impossible feat, could not give a logical explanation for it. She knew not of any time-based spells that were able to be activated wordlessly, so she could only stand there and speculate. She had the urge to message Yuzuki, but she wasn't sure if this Dr. Lestat would follow through on her promise or not. However, with Johan in Amber's clutches, she was rethinking that.

Amber's hand tightened around John's neck, but unlike a human, he did not gasp in pain or for lack of air. He leveled his gaze with the heiress and frowned. Johan could sense the electrical charges lingering around her fingers, but he said nothing. Apparently, during her escape from the Arcana of Time, she had prepared this delayed spell. She merely had to activate it, and he would most likely be fried beyond repair.

"Let us go, Lestat," said Amber, her stare full of ice. "Or I will kill your friend, here."

"How do I know you won't just kill him anyway?" responded the woman through gritted teeth.

"I'm not you; that's why."

Dr. Lestat gave her a long, curious look.

"Ha." The doctor let out a short laugh. "I see." She lowered her gun and closed her eyes. Melinda would have looked at the girl now threatening her friend, but she felt weary. Even using her artefact had been draining. Her arm was gone. Her son was gone. The Game probably would have brought him back to her, but at what cost?

This girl, this desperate girl was willing to kill her only friend left.

Her friends had not killed Melinda to save them. They could have easily done that.

But the warning of The Game rang true in her mind: 'Kill or be killed.'

She had been going about this all wrong. Dr. Lestat had claimed that she wanted her son back, but what she really wanted was to see him again. That wasn't the same. She wanted to laugh.

But the only things that came forth were bitter tears.

This girl, she had known from a young age. For the sake of this game, the doctor had betrayed her and her father.

For the sake of her son...she had become a murderer.

Was that any way to honor his memory? What kind of person would he have seen in her eyes if they met again?

'I'm sorry, Shinji.'

"Johan...Don't hurt these people." Melinda looked into her partner's eyes, raising the gun. She pressed the barrel of it to her temple. "Live well without me."

The Persocom broke free of Amber's grip so suddenly that she fell backwards in surprise. Johan reached out futility, to stop his Master, but...

"Good...bye..."

A gunshot rang out.

"No!"

The artefact disappeared in a soft glow of lights, leaving behind a Pactio card, now colored in greyscale.

Crying, Johan held the body to him as the others looked on, unable to speak or move.

Amber swore she could see the woman's soul drifting off into another dimension.

I believed in seeing you

Again

May, June, July

Spring, Summer, Winter

Only waiting for that day

Remember?

Remember that?

...You probably don't

If anyone would actually like to make that country that I wrote about, I'd be happy to hear ideas on how to start that. You can call me Kurokochōhime. Or not. Either way, I want to be queen of Rolitania.

I feel like I just made this really anti-climactic.

Oh and to answer a question: Minako is special, but she's not "special". In this universe, all Persocoms have the ability to awaken their higher consciousness, given the right conditions. Or a certain bunny.

I'm glad I'm not on hiatus anymore, because I love you guys. The last chapter is already written, and I'm only building up to it. Bye bye for now.