Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation. Gravitation belongs to Murakami Maki-sensei and her… associates. Whoever they are.

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"The world ended the day I woke up and I realized I was alone. When a part of me that was never there disappeared ultimately before being known by me and every single color in this world was faded into black and white.

"When loneliness began seeping into every pore of my being and the echoes of a non-existent past began eating away at our home. My home.

"Loneliness. Incompleteness. The world ended when those took over my life."

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Tear
02 – When did the world end?

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The Internet had been mankind's greatest invention. It was arguable but anyone you ask would have said the same thing. The Internet brought people together, made the distance between two people from two different continents seem non-existent as programs allowed them to talk, to chat, in real time. It became another dimension of sorts, another world were information was almost infinite. It was at its peak –everything was and everything must have looked like it could only get better – when the end came and the world entered an almost literal blank page in history.

Eiri lifted his left hand to adjust the antique reading glasses he wore while he let his right dance on the keyboard and touchpad expertly as he navigated in the vast, and ancient, simulated World Wide Web. The glasses were something he found at a small antique-shop downtown. By all means, he didn't need them – what with the nanomachines in his eyes that made up for whatever eye defect he was born with – but the feeling it gave him whenever he worked, especially in nights like this, was especially comforting. He liked the way the glasses seemed to accent him and he accented it – he imagine if he had lived in the time before nanotechnology, he would have had to wear one.

"Where do we start?" he muttered under his breath, his lips slightly curved into a tiny amused smirk as he sat back and stared at the blank explorer on the screen and the blinking text-line. He hadn't thought about this and it certainly hadn't occurred to him to ask K about it but he seriously had no idea where to start when he had the chance to. Now, he was, most probably, alone in the building and asking one of the nightshift janitors or bodyguards didn't sound too productive.

"Guess we'll have to make do." He sighed but grinned inwardly as he rolled up his sleeves and typed the first thing that came to his mind. The world's most powerful search engine at that moment had to have some roots dating back to the time before the Dark Age and he decided he would be more than obliged to test that theory.

enw . Googol . 89f . com

The first thing that came up after the reasonable loading time was a simple linkage page that made the blond specialist quirk his eyebrows. He examined the page quietly and noticed the text on the top left – it read '89f . com'. All the other underlined-links on the page lead to sites that began with the acronym 'www' and that clued him in on how the ancient web worked.

On his next try, he typed in a much simpler sequence; www . Googol . com

The website he was directed to looked to be no better than the last one but it was an improvement. Eiri was about to declare the simple page a dead end when he caught the words 'search engine' in one of the sentences. He followed that particular sentence and found himself with a link that proved his previous theory right.

The next words he typed onto the address bar left him with a feeling of dread as if he had stumbled into something far bigger than it seemed.

www . google . com

A much simpler but more professional looking page loaded and he stared at the page apprehensively. The simple logo image, text box and the small collection of links on top of it were deceptively innocent, he knew, and he was suddenly overcome with the question that had no definite answer.

The sound of keys being hit was distant, almost non-existence, as his fingers typed in the question.

When did the world end?

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Basked in an eerie glow of blue that came from the artificial garden's built-in lighting system, Seguchi Tohma, President of SUe Industries, offered his blonde guest a smile while his servant served tea the traditional, Japanese way. In the background, the almost eerie echoing sounds that came from a shishi-odoshi created a private atmosphere as it pierced the silence rhythmically.

"For what honor have I been invited to Mr. Seguchi's famed Japanese garden?" Seguchi's visitor asked after a while, watching the servant as she made her leave with a bow, with a lop-sided grin. "You train your servants well, by the way. I'd never had the honor to be in here but it seems like they came from an academy of highly specialized butlers and maids."

Seguchi chuckled and batted his eyelashes playfully as he eyed his visitor and then the transparent substance in his ceramic cup. "They do have Academies as you say in the Asean countries. Especially in Siam. But, no, Himiko – the girl who served us tea just now, is not from Siam or any other Asean countries – she's just a Japanese-culture enthusiast." Seguchi stopped and his voiced dipped as he added, "Like my wife. But let's have none of that, Mr. Crawd Winchester."

Seguchi clasped his hands together and he transformed from a simple young man into a calculating businessman in a matter of moments. "I would have liked to discuss things with both of you but just you, Mr. Winchester, will be fine." Seguchi explained. "In fact, maybe it is better this way…."

"What exactly did you want to talk to us about?" K snorted, arching an eyebrow in sarcasm, "or What do you want to talk to me about now?"

"Simple." Seguchi unclasped his hands and began weaving his right hand in the air in some form of elaboration. " 'The Missing Piece' Project." The hand motions stopped abruptly as Seguchi balled his hand in a fist and eyed his guest seriously.

K frowned, unsure of his superior's actions, but waited and at last, Seguchi smiled at him, almost too innocently.

"The walls are soundproof and my garden isn't just famed for its amazing, artificial, beauty. I like to conduct my private businesses here with the certainty that I shall have privacy."

"Whatever do you mean, Mr. Seguchi?" K asked sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest as he made a mocking smile. The smile seemed to have amused his superior and Seguchi was suddenly chuckling softly.

"I meant, what I want to tell you must not leave these walls." He paused, "Or am I contradicting myself after having said earlier I had wished for Eiri's presence as well? Well," Seguchi watched the quizzical look on his guest and then sighed before continuing, "It can't be helped now."

"You're being unnaturally paranoid, you know? Mr. Seguchi?" K pointed out darkly and then noticed the dark bags around the President's eyes.

Seguchi smiled, softly this time. He rose from his seat and turned his back on his guest, facing the northern side of the garden and clasping his hands behind him.

"The Missing Piece – it was a mistake." Seguchi said softly, finally as he bowed his head slightly.

"You were the one who suggested it though, Mr. Seguchi. Your underlings were just blindly following your orders so what is the problem?" K said quietly behind him and he laughed lightly at the point his employee had made.

"You're right. But – I should have never made that decision. I'm just realizing." Seguchi paused and tilted his head upwards, eyeing the makeshift star-studded sky above them. "I received a call today." He turned around and eyed K seriously, "From the Prime Minister."

"The Prime Minister…?"

"He had inquired about the project's status, whether it was a success or a failure." Seguchi paused once more as he swallowed, "The government has been monitoring this project for a while now and for a reason. I realized than that my personal reasons for chasing after this dream is nothing compared to the price…"

"I'm not quite connecting this very well, Mr. Seguchi." K said indifferently, throwing a hand motion or two to emphasize his stand, "I don't understand your source of paranoia. But I'd let it pass – your garden—"

"You're not connecting it with anything because you don't know anything." Seguchi said slowly, in dark, bitter voice that cut through his guest's sentence like a hot knife. Crawd Winchester smiled apologetically and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm afraid I don't understand then."

"Mr. Winchester, would you do me a favor of refreshing my memory on the latest world events that are war-related?"

K arched an eyebrow but nodded anyway at his request. "Northern Kimchi has been rumored to be creating missiles that can reach other countries – most likely ours. China is still pursuing Formosa for breaking off from it and basically, war is in the air."

"That's the point." Tohma said softly and K gave the blond a questioning frown. The SUe Industries President walked away and tilted his chin upward before continuing.

"What you know can't hurt you, but in this case…" the President began and then stopped, frowning, "You see, Mr. Winchester, all of this has happened before, in some other way many years ago."

"What are you…" Before K could continue his question, Tohma lifted his left hand and dozens of projected screens appeared around the garden displaying old news' reports among scans of many hand-written accounts of – K couldn't quite believe his eyes – the war itself. The longhaired blond shot up from his chair and stared at his employer in disbelief, mouth open and unable to form the right words.

"You see," Tohma explained as K went over one of the reports; a detailed account on the progress of the last Sino-American war which happened in the 21st Century. "We knew all along."

"And what… what you're saying… is that?" Winchester managed to say finally after the shock resided, "—that…?"

Seguchi Tohma walked towards his employee and brought a screen with him, placing it right in front of his employee. He watched as the blond American's eyes scanned through it, widening.

"Not everyone knows about this but we may just be repeating what had happened before. Heading to destruction just like our ancestors…" Tohma paused and added, "If they were our ancestors at all. So far, only countries which are members of the ICo know about this and they keep track of developments within their countries, keeping a tight lid on information.. or developments like the…." Tohma took a deep breath, "Like our MPP."

"The ICo will not do anything to us, that I know for sure. But what ultimately worries me is the effect this will have regarding the other countries."

"If we can do it… If we succeeded then…the chances of them succeeding to perform this… exists, right?" K trailed away and walked back and forth.

"And if we had actually succeeded in bring the whole World Wide Web back, that would include the massive government mainframes they had before. The information they guarded under layers and layers of firewalls and was virtually inaccessible by normal people back then would be but a piece of cake compared to the firewalls and other anti-hacking systems we've set up in this age and era. And that means they would have access to many weapons' secrets, including the catalyst to the War."

"I hope we didn't." K bit his lower lip and Tohma smiled.

"I hope we didn't too. I hadn't thought about it." He paused, "I didn't think it would work. It's virtually impossible by all means. And even if it could succeed, we would have needed a whole city to store all working mainframes we've found and even then we wouldn't… couldn't have even ten-percent of the World Wide Web running."

"You didn't think it would work."

Tohma sighed and made a motion with his hands then the screens disappeared into thin air with a static sound. The shishi-odoshi made a striking sound that left them with a sense of foreboding.

"Of course, I didn't. I did it for Mika." He tilted his head up and felt the telltale moisture in his eyes grow, remembering his wife's state. "I did it for her mind, for her soul to find rest."

"But it worked." K stated finally, almost pointedly. "And that means—"

Tohma smiled in the face of doom.

"We come back to your previous statement, Mr. Winchester. The other response would have been – they could already have had access to it by now and we are, once again, slowly ticking our way to non-existence." He paused and walked calmly towards his chair before sitting down quietly and whispering softly.

"Don't tell Eiri, I don't think he was meant to hear this. I want you to destroy it, Mr. Winchester. As soon as possible… without telling him. Without ever telling him."

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The search results were, to say the least, redundant. Eiri scoffed under his reading glasses at them while he drank his fifth mug of coffee. There were links to song lyrics – lyrics that didn't even have the whole phrase together, just the words scattered all over it. There were results that contained that phrase – one was a tasteless, badly written erotica in some website washed in pink and purple barely being a hundred words where both participants were male. Eiri imagined the author of the story had the writing abilities and brain-functions of a twelve-year old. Not one of the ten results displayed on the first of the hundred pages contained a result that was vaguely interesting and, or news related. Eiri told himself the second page would most likely not have anything vaguely related to the unsaid question in his mind but he clicked onto the second page anyway, the boredom and isolation compelling him to do so. And he was right, for the most part until he found his eyes stopping at the description on one of the results.

…a sense of complete and utter loneliness wherever I go, an empty void within everyone, an apprehensive frown…. 'Do you love me?' I find myself asking eventually in …that's why the world has always felt wrong.

Eiri swept his eyes up, an unfamiliar excitement feeling his very being. It was like he was being pulled into it, like it called to every cell within his body.

A sense of belonging.

The thought occurred to him suddenly and moments later he found the mouse pointer hovering over the result's title, not quite sure when he had guided it towards the link.

:Lost Voice:

He took a deep breath and clicked in. Moments later after the page loaded, he found himself staring at an eerily familiar picture of an apartment's austere living room quarters yet sure that he had never seen something like it in his life. It was the background paper – a weird yet fitting choice for one, Eiri thought – and he had unknowingly stepped, not quite literally, into someone's online diary.

And nosy or not, Eiri found himself unable to resist the urge to read it because he felt he had to.

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And if there was one thing he found himself doing more than often – it was taking the longer route home always, without reason, without point. It was like wandering, but not quite because he was on his way to his empty apartment, and it was also like waiting for something to happen. Because that longer route allowed him to luxuriously pass by a park. And he couldn't pinpoint when he'd started to frequent, or grow a liking to that park.

He just did.

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A/N: Screw editing, once more. XD This one's at the backseat right now while I work on other stuff, but might as well post this chapter while I think on how to continue. Such a fic whore -(nyuk)- But anyway, more cryptic mysteriousnesssssuu! Lol. I'm glad I'm rid of this chapter finally :-D