"Why did you have to do that?!" Yusaku growls, fed up with Windy. They've never been close, and he could never understand why Lightning's okay with such a wild card but this! He was about to win but instead the Ignis decided it to be a good time to let one of the Hydradrives monsters loose!
Windy lays on the slab Yusaku wakes up on and kicks his feet childishly. The patronizing A.I has been nothing but nonchalant the whole time. Letting him rave while pretending that he did nothing wrong!
"Tsk, my dear playmaker, mine was just a contingency plan," Windy replies, waving a finger around like a disapproving teacher. "You're still human after all. We have to make for that."
"I was about to win," Yusaku snares, clutching his fists. Damn it! He'd been so close to getting what he wanted. If he'd won, Yusaku would have brought Takeru with him to Cyberse world, let Lightning, Flame, Ai and Windy bicker amongst themselves over humanity and finally have that self-righteous terrorist out of the picture. Realistically he knows it would take a lot of convincing but Takeru's told him enough about his life. If Yusaku tried the right buttons, he might have gotten him to let the Ignis figure it out on their own without them. They could rebuild Cyberse-
Decode Talker, Honeybot, Backup Secretary, Firewall Dragon... all of them. His family and friends had betrayed him. Hell Power Code talker activity fought against him. The memory's enough to get him to freeze. Why?
"Yoo, hoo! Playmaker, did you crash or something?" Windy says, standing up but still waving his hand around trying to get his attention. "Lightning is going to kill me if you caught a virus or something."
"Playmaker," calls a deeper voice. Bowman 2.0? 3.0? Yusaku's lost track of how many times Bowman got remade. Though both Lightning and him seem pretty happy with the current version. Or at least this one is coherent enough to push back against the Ignis.
"What do you want?" Yusaku snaps. Would sometime alone be too much to ask after falling into the abyss of cyberspace? He glares at Windy before looking over his shoulder at the two other A.I in the room.
"Didn't I teach you better manners?" Lightning Chides from his place on top the other A.I's shoulder. Swear the only reason Bowman's designed like this is because Lightning's overcompensating for his size. How his ego fits into his tiny body Yusaku will never know.
"Apologizes for the interruption," Bowman says, walking into the chamber. Lightning might have had a hand in his gaudy aesthetic but he's certainly starting to develop his own personality.
"What do you want?" Yusaku repeats, crossing his arms and waiting for the unnecessary commentary.
"While in that case-" Lightning starts but Bowman talks over him, "Join with me."
"What?" Yusaku asks, taken off guard by the question. Join with him? "What the hell does that mean?!"
"Jumping the shark, a bit aren't we? I think Playmaker still has a few good duels left in him," Windy offers, shrugging. Yusaku doubts he cares. He probably just wants to keep fucking with him.
"Not at all. Playmaker did a fine job against that fool," Lightning replies, grimacing. "However that's not good enough, we know where everyone stands now and we don't have room for errors."
"You mean human error," Yusaku replies, glaring at the Ignis. After all this time Lightning still doesn't think he is capable?
The Light Ingis waves off his concern, "Yes."
He gestures to Bowman and continues," I did say he needed a human touch."
Yusaku grits his teeth. He'd assumed that meant helping test the other A.I. Lightning might have been designed as a dueling A.I but he can't seem to program that ability into his creations.
Before he can rip into Lightning for suggesting such a ridiculous idea Bowman puts his hand up to silence them. Then places it over his chest where his heart would be if he had one.
Yusaku scowls he has no desire to make up for that absence.
"It would be an honor, but I will not force you." Bowman sounds sincere about his intention but that doesn't stop Yusaku from snapping at the Ignis smirking over the man's shoulder.
"And you? You're not one to take no for an answer."
Bowman shakes his head, "You have my word Playmaker you will not be forced into this."
"You'll agree in due time, so I'm willing to hold off for now," Lightning replies and glares at Windy. "While he's processing, we have things to do. Like rebuilding the castle you destroyed!"
Yusaku can't help rolling his eyes. How do these two manage to do anything when they can't agree on what they're going to do next? Though it's better than hearing about how he's going to agree to join with Bowman. What does that even mean?
He tunes out the bickering going on between Windy and Lightning about the Wind Ignis' actions during the duel. Instead, he keeps his eyes on Bowman. Searches for any indication that A.I might be lying about giving him the time to decide for himself. Of course he's not going along with this insane idea. Yusaku would like to keep his autonomy. Still...
He shakes his head. This is absurd. All of it is. So Yusaku situates himself against the wall watching them bicker until Windy goes off, followed shortly by both Lightning and Bowman. Not long after he walks out of the room too. A walk might help him figure out what to do next. Standing there with the only other person in the room unconscious isn't helping.
Wandering around the life sized doll house for what felt like hours only made the whole castle seem claustrophobic. Still thinking about what his next step should be, Yuskau decides a visit to Cyberse World is in order. A reminder of why he's doing this will set him right again. If not he could always join with Bowman.
"What the fuck does that even mean?!"
Yusaku slaps his hand over his mouth immediately. He didn't mean to shout that out loud, it's just such a ridiculous notion. He glances around the hallway he's backtracking through to see if anyone else might be around. For whatever reason Lightning chose to make his hideout with enough rooms they could house most of Den City. Though the handful of them only use maybe an eighth of the space. Meaning there isn't anyone around him. Even Haru is likely off making sure Bowman doesn't fall down another staircase.
That's what Lightning means. He wants him to make up for the parts still missing in the other A.I. He's going to be sick. Instinctively he runs for the grand entrance door around the corner. The usually weightless door doesn't budge. He tries to force it up again, and again, and again but nothing. Giving up on trying to force the wall open Yusaku looks to the coding for it instead. If he can't open the door, he'll erase the door. The Ignis can fix it later.
The code lashes out at him when he tries to access it, though. Sending an electric shock pulsing out when he touches it.
"Aaahh!"
"Aaahh!"
No wonder he named himself Lightning.
"You Lose"
Though at least he never picked up a flare for blinding whites. It's probably the only reason he didn't slip into a panic from the shock too. At least not entirely. The door refusing to open and then reacting negatively to him set him on edge. That shouldn't happen.
Time to try a new door then. Yusaku hurries down towards the back of the stupid papier-mâché castle. There has to be another way out of here. Turn after turn the hallways all start to blend into each other as he hurries around each corner. Until a solid metal door catches his eye.
Intrigued Yusaku stops and gives it a try. Surprisingly it opens without a hitch. Opens to a jail cell with a cage barely big enough to fit a small animal in the middle.
"Yusaku!"
"Aqua?" He replies, sprinting for the cage. It's definitely her voice coming from inside it.
"What are you doing down here?"
She'd also be the only one to know it's him under his avatar without an explanation.
He looks inside and she stares back up at him with her hands together by her head, happy to see him but curious as to why.
"Lightning locked me up," She replies. Her previous happy expression falls. "I wanted to see my origin, but he had another idea as always."
Yusaku quickly breaks eye contact and stares at the ground. Of all of them Aqua shouldn't be the one locked way. Without thinking he tries to open the cage.
"Yusaku wait!" Aqua shouts too late. For the second time that day an electric shock runs through him. This time it's stronger causing him to stumble back. Yusaku slumps down the wall behind him.
"Are you alright?" She asks.
No, no, he's not. His day really can't get any worse at this rate...unless there's something else with an unknown electric current waiting for him!
"I'm fine," He replies, and she stares down at him knowingly. Of course he can't lie to her.
Aqua crosses her arms before asking,"Yusaku who's side are you on?"
Good question, he'd like to know that too. He'd say Lightning's but knowing the A.I basically wants to erase him in favor of making a more perfect A.I makes that shaky at best and flat no if he were thinking straight.
He can't say anyone else either though, even his own. Yusaku has never been good at looking out for himself.
Aqua kind of reminds him of scolding mother though so he chuckles seeing her pout at him like this for the first time in years.
She sighs, "Those two were not a good influence at all were they?"
"No, neither Lightning or Ai should be left alone with a sack of flour let alone a person," he replies, suppressing the urge to laugh again. Yusaku is pretty sure he's lost his damn mind but it's all ridiculous. Maybe he should just go off and live as a hermit in some uninhabited space of Link Vrains? At least then he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with any of them again.
"Yusaku, why are you here then?" She asks.
"I was searching for a way out of this minotaur maze and stumbled on the door here," He replies shrugging.
"No, I mean why are you still here. We're in a cave in Cyberse world," She points at the door. "That cave dwelling menace linked this space and his castle for ease of access."
"What about you?" Yusaku asks, finally deciding it'd be a good idea to get up before Lightning or someone else comes by and throws him in a cage.
"Do you want to get shocked again?" Aqua replies incredulously. Then her eyes turn up and she laughs. "Besides, you're not the only guest I'm expecting today."
Didn't take long to figure out who she's talking about. Earth, the one Ignis he 's yet to see in a while. The Earth Ignis must have been going mad not having her around.
"Please tell him to hurry up if you see him on your way out," She says, gesturing for him to leave.
Yusaku stares at her for a moment not wanting to leave like this but there's nothing he can do if Lightning's coded everything against him.
"Don't worry, Lightning might be a conniving idiot but he won't actually hurt me," She says and he wants to argue. The Ignis would hurt anyone to get his way. He's learned that the hard way more than once.
It also occurs to him that there might be a silent alarm either on the door or the cell that he didn't consider before. It'd be best to go now before someone else shows up to check on her. Earth better be on his way here.
"Fine," He concedes.
"Be careful Yusaku,'" She says and Yusaku turns around to head back out the door. Maybe being a hermit really wouldn't be so bad.
"Good-" Yusaku pushes on the door again but it's sealed shut like the entrance. At the end of his rope he bangs his fist against it over and over hoping to see it move. He stops after a few seconds wondering if it'd be a good idea to try to hack it but a phantom shock tells him not to try that option again.
Lightning knows he's in here.
"I'm sorry," Aqua mummers.
"It's not your fault," he says looking back at her kneeling in her cage defeated.
Yusaku shakes his head and walks back over to the spot against the wall he'd been at a minute ago. At least now they have the time to catch up. How much time he's not sure. Lightning did say you'll agree in due time. He could be stuck in here until he agrees with their plan. If anyone other than Aqua was in the room with him, he wouldn't have lasted very long.
"So that's what's been going out there," Aqua says after he explains his side of things. She rubs her chin lost in thought for a moment before continuing. "Sounds like you'd be better off as a hermit. Though it seems like Soulburner is genuinely worried about your well being."
"Genuine but naïve. I doubt someone who can barely use a mouse will do much against Lightning," he replies but she crosses her arms again snickering, "He almost beat you didn't he?"
Almost isn't good enough when your enemy is an unforgiving A.I that will keep your body around to use you as a puppet. Or in Yusaku's case fuse him with another A.I. Maybe he should let him. It's not like his plans are going to play out. The Cyberese monsters left him, Ai comes back when it's opportune to him and Lightning wants to rip his personality into shreds and fit it into Bowman who's on board with the idea too. Takeru's the only one he could probably go back to without question but how long until he pulls him back into a battle he doesn't want to be in? He doesn't want to be the hero Takeru thinks Playmaker is. He's done with being used.
"Yusaku," Aqua sighs, picking up on the change in his attitude.
"It's fine," he says, and the air around them goes silent again.
If only things hadn't changed. If that self-righteous arse didn't attack Cyberse world. Maybe things would have turned out differently.
It's anyone's guess how long passes between them before the door to the cell swings open.
Yusaku springs to feet immediately thinking it might be Lightning or Bowman. However, it's the Earth Ignis that comes flying through. Heading directly for the cage in the center with Aqua inside. Unlike when she or Yusaku tried forcing the lock on it. It opened, allowing Earth to open the cage.
Did Lightning not think of their relationship? Did he not think Earth wouldn't come looking for Aqua? Hard to think he'd make that kind of oversight but here they are.
"See Yusaku, I told you he was coming," Aqua says, floating over to him. Earth glares at him for taking her attention away from her hero. Seems he still hasn't figured out how to tell her he loves her. Somehow he's still a few levels higher on the social awkward scale than him!
"I did not see you there Yusaku," Earth says, trying to play off his mild frustration over his rescue not going as planned.
Aqua picks up on it and grabs his hand in an attempt to drag him towards the door. She replies to his childishness with, "Thank you for coming but we should be leaving now!"
"You coming?" They both look at him waiting for an answer before Earth decides to take the lead and rush out. "I see so that's the decision you made."
What decision? Not wanting to stick around much longer he puts asking him about it on hold until the castle walls around them fade into the jagged walls of rock. Aqua stops at the mouth of the cave with Earth and waits for him to catch up.
"So what are you going to do from here?" She asks, holding Earth in place.
He looks at them and frowns. It's clear he doesn't fit with them either.
Yusaku forces a slight smile and replies, "I'm going off on my own for a bit to work things out."
"You should go back to the humans," Earth states flatly. "It is the side you belong on."
Yusaku turns in the opposite direction and starts walking. He didn't need to hear that from the Ignis who's refusal to pick a side will come back to bite him. Lightning is going to force him too soon enough and he doubts Earth wants to seek out Spectre.
"Take care!" Aqua calls after him but Yusaku continues walking through the broken remains of their home. Some twisted part of him wants to laugh about the whole situation. What better place to be than where he wanted to be at to begin with, even if he's alone. Seems he got part of what he wanted.
Yusaku pulls his deck out and throws it in the air. What use does he have for blank cards or bonds anyway?
ooo
Lol drama queen but I don't blame him.
Its been my new years resolution to finish this fic...we'll see how that goes! Shouldn't be that much more.
Ttyl dear cabbages!