XXVI

"You… were beautiful in the real world, too"

Subaru turned, eyes wide in surprise, towards Edo, and stuttered, "E-Edo… I…"

Yet she was interrupted by the sudden sound of many people running. She looked up and saw some twenty characters in identical and very familiar armor running towards them, Silver Knight at their lead. They quickly surrounded them. They were trapped between the swords of the Knights and the cliff face.

"Lady Subaru," shouted Silver Knight, "please distance yourself from the hacker named Edo!"

Subaru looked between a surprised Edo and a determined Silver Knight, finally saying to the last, "What is the meaning of this, Silver Knight?"

"CC Corp's orders, Lady Subaru, now please distance yourself from the hacker while we proceed to bind him," he repeated.

Before Subaru could say anything else Edo was on his feet, glaring between her and the Knights.

"So, Lady Subaru," he said bitterly, "you managed to distract me for long enough so your troops could get into position. I praise your ability for deceit, Lady, I suspected nothing; but you were completely wrong if you thought you were going to be able to defeat me."

"No, Edo! It's not that! I didn't…" Subaru's frantic attempt to explain was drowned out by Silver Knight's order to attack and by the shouts of the other Knights, leaping towards them, swords first. She looked up at Edo, and saw he was surrounded by a sort of shimmering aura, like the horizon on a very hot day. The aura expanded to swallow them all, and for a brief moment, all was silent, except for a strange buzz inside her mind, then everything went dark.

XXVII

Tsukasa sat in the blank space that had once been the realm where Aura slept. He did not know how long he had been here, how many days had passed outside. He sometimes thought he lapsed in and out of consciousness, but there was nothing definite to mark the passing of time inside this unchanging place. Therefore, he simply sat, thinking. He needed to work out where Aura was, and what she had meant by "finding himself". Yet he always seemed to end up thinking about other things. How awful his life had been outside The World; how he had never actually held Subaru in his arms except in this mirage of a reality and probably never would; and, mostly, about how he was going to die, to fade into oblivion, with so many things he had not done, should have done, when he had the chance. He remembered crying for what seemed like hours, here, all alone. It was curious, he thought, how Subaru had cried on his shoulder a few times, yet he had only shed tears this once since they had met. Subaru always seemed much more mature, much stronger. She was, he supposed; it was simply that he had few tears left after the hell he sometimes called life. Who cared, anyway?

She cares, said a somehow surviving voice of sanity in his mind. It brought back memories of a friendly, beautiful face, and a promise made, a promise…

His thoughts were interrupted by an almost heard scream from far away. With it came an unnerving chill, as if a small part of him had suddenly died. In horror he realized who had screamed and recalled the images he had seen in his dream.

"Subaru!" he shouted, as if willing his voice to have the power to stop what was already happening, maybe already happened. He almost felt how her head would fall like a dead weight onto the keyboard of her computer. The crash would break her headset and shut down her computer, but it would not matter, because it was too late… too late.

He shouted her name again as he got up and disappeared from the blank domain, leaving it exactly the same as it was when he entered.

XXVIII

Subaru woke up and noticed she was lying face down in some sort of springy, spiky material. Her whole body ached, like when she had a very bad cold, and her head was filled with searing, white-hot pain that made it difficult to think. It slowly died down, though, and it was replaced by questions. Where was she? What had Edo done to her inside the game that now hurt her so much? Why did she have the odd feeling that something was fundamentally wrong? She carefully rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. She was instantly greeted by a cheerful shining blue sky dotted with small white clouds. In a sort of daze her hand closed around some of the material she was lying on and pulled it to her face. The material presented some resistance to being dislodged, but soon she was holding a handful of the green blades in front of her eyes. Grass. She was lying on grass under a blue sky… and it all seemed strangely familiar. Then she felt what was nagging at the back of her mind since she had woken up. The spiky feeling of grass against her skin extended around all her body, including her legs. She could feel her legs, and that was impossible. She tried to move them and, to her growing surprise, they seemed to respond perfectly. Filled with puzzlement but, at the same time, exhilaration, she slowly stood up. She was slightly unsteady, as she didn't readily remember all the movements she had to do, but she managed to walk a few steps forward. This was absolutely impossible, the only place she could walk was…

…a familiar axe lay on the grass, beside her, as if it was a welcome sign…

…The World. She slowly looked around and, indeed, she recognized this place as part of Dun Loireag. Still in a surprised daze, almost believing it was all a dream, she bent down and picked up her weapon. She slowly stroked it's edge with her thumb, and instantly a sharp pain shot through her finger. She stood there looking, eyes wide, at the drop of blood that slowly grew bigger until it fell to the ground, giving a splash of crimson to a blade of grass.

"Subaru!" a familiar voice cried out from behind her. She turned around to see Tsukasa running towards her, panting. He tripped over and nearly fell down, but managed not to, and continued sprinting towards her. He stopped in front of her and just stood there panting for a moment before looking up at her and saying, "Subaru! You're all right!" he seemed strangely surprised at the fact. He was smiling at her as if he was glad she was there, as if he wasn't expecting her to be 'all right'. She was thinking of how to start to explain what seemed to have happened to her when he leaned forward and hugged her.

She felt his warmth of his skin against hers, the soft caress of his breath against her. For the first time she noticed he smelled slightly of grass and trees and fresh countryside, like one who has been traveling the wild a lot. All this provoked strange and chaotic emotions to explode in her mind, and added to her confusion. Scared, not of him but of the feelings he produced, she pushed him away and took a few steps back until her back was pressed against the cliff face. Tsukasa looked at her in confusion and puzzlement. He looked hurt by her rejection and took a step backwards, away from her. She wanted to talk to him, to explain, but she couldn't get her thoughts ordered enough to speak, so she just stood there clutching her axe as if it was the last thing real in the world.

She saw Tsukasa's eyes dart towards the cut on her thumb, and then towards the small streak of scarlet on her axe. Realization seemed to dawn on him from nowhere in particular and he took a timid step forward, towards her.

"You can… feel?" he asked. The only response she gave was a very small and afraid nod.

He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She flinched slightly at the touch, but then relaxed, and found it was indeed calming.

"Who did this to you?" he inquired. She waited a few moments until she was sure she could speak, and answered.

"E… Edo" Tsukasa lifted his eyebrows curiously at her answer.

"That strange Wavemaster? Why? And where is he?"

She shook her head and said softly, "I don't know"

"Have you tried to… you know… log out?"

She shook her head again, and, without saying anything else, she raised her axe slightly off the ground, activating the log out command. Absolutely nothing happened, as if the command had never existed, never worked at all. With that, any delusion that everything could possibly be a dream or something else was wiped away, leaving only the crude and cruel reality. She felt small, weak, defenseless, and trapped. She shivered, and felt tears rising to her eyes, but Tsukasa wrapped his arms around her before they could fall, and his warmth kept even the memory of tears away. She hugged him back and they stood there for a long time, basking in each other's touch. Yet not even Tsukasa's warmth could completely banish fear and doubt from her mind.

"What will happen to me now?" she asked, her voice trembling, "what will happen to us?"

He looked down at her and smiled reassuringly. "It will be easier now," he answered, "if Edo trapped you here, he will surely know how to release you… maybe release me, too"

The words were sincere, and she felt slightly better. Yet the feeling of being perpetually trapped in a dream or nightmare persisted, like an icy stroke to her mind that only exceptional warmth could send away permanently. As she looked into his eyes she knew there was only one way she would get that warmth, one simple way they both knew, both wanted, and both knew should not happen. They made a decision.

XXIX

Edo stood atop the cliff and looked down at the two characters kissing. He contemplated how easy it would be to delete the ivory-haired Wavemaster from the World, maybe even affecting him in the real world. That way Subaru would be his, instead of with that strange character with unusual data. He wanted her, in The World and in the other, in Tokyo. She rightfully belonged with him, of course, it had been obvious in the way she looked at him, and that… Tsukasa… person was tricking her, stealing her. He would show him. Unusual data or not, it was still data, and could still be easily deleted completely from the net. He looked at the character named Tsukasa and a watery, shimmering aura slowly appeared around him. He smirked, and concentrated.

XXX

The busy, perfect, working man calmly finished his message as a young blonde woman, who looked very strange in the perfect suit, glowered at him in bristling anger. He slowly turned towards her and calmly awaited what she was going to say.

"You can't delete him just like that! That's… that's murder!" she shouted.

The man did not flinch or lose any bit of his calmness. He knew very well this was going to happen, and was expecting it, as always. He liked things turning out as planned.

"We all know you are very sentimental" he said, "and we respect your opinion. Yet you are very impractical. The measures taken to neutralize subject epsilon-delta-omega are simply the ones necessary…"

He hadn't finished the sentence when the girl shouted at him again, "you… you're evil, Takashi!"

The man looked at her for exactly the time necessary for her to calm down enough to listen, and said calmly, "you need to calm down, Maha"

The girl glared at him one last time before storming out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. The sound echoed through two or three floors of the building. Everything was going exactly as planned.

TO BE CONTINUED

[AN: Please pardon my muse. The poor thing hiccupped and changed my plot completely, so the promised "conclusion" to OBLIVION turned into more of a cliffhanger. I'm sorry, and I promise most of the questions made in OBLIVION will be answered in its sequel, REBIRTH.]