Ai awakens to the slide of cold metal at his back, his body suspended on a silver table, far larger than the one Sol Technologies used to slice Earth up. He pauses, limbs locked into a slight panic, despite the fact that there are no silver manacles weighing them down and then he feels fingers clumsily close over his own, soft ropes of warmth against his sensors. His head turns to see Yusaku stirring, half leant over the table that still supports him, blinking wearily at the lights at the ceiling.
Which are busy flashing red. And blue. Then red again. All accompanied by the shrill ring of an alarm.
Yusaku's hand tightens against his own for a moment, their fingers a complex knot. And then they untie themselves from each other, Ai sliding from the table as Yusaku stands, his brow already furrowing.
Ai's hand sweeps over a nearby laptop, eyes alight as he sweeps through the security system; he may not be privy to Sol Technologies key codes anymore, but he can still hack out a rudimentary access to the physical sensors dotted throughout the building.
'It's not a fire,' he says after a moment. 'None of the sprinklers have been set off. But the section housing Roboppi has been completely blacked out – knocked off the grid.'
There's a tremble through the walls surrounding them as the silver table lets out a creak of protest and the keyboard beneath Ai's fingers rattles, actually rattles, the pallid bone colour of the separate keys seeming to vibrate.
And then there's a roar of sound, an almighty groan – and things are thrown to the floor, shelves and computers crashing down against the ground as papers fly out in a whirlwind of white. But it doesn't end there; the force of the groan resounds through the walls, bending the floor into a curve which Ai's boots slip and stumble into against his will. And he falls, Yusaku falls, crashing into each other in the most awkward fashion imaginable, hands thudding against chests, Yusaku's jaw knocking into his neck with a firm thud as their limbs sprawl out against the new bowl the floor has now become.
And Ai turns and rolls and tries to shove Yusaku's body beneath his just as Yusaku attempts to do the exact same thing to him – and oh, honestly. Who does his partner think he is out here, in the Real World that could so easily kill him: Playmaker?
They end up rolling into a wall which shakes and shakes and shakes – and then it stops. The lights flicker, and multiple groans run through the room holding them both, sounds which Ai does not trust, no, not at all.
Ai throws a look at Yusaku who's looking grimmer by the second, and then they scramble upright, throwing themselves through the door and down the nearest corridor, hurtling towards the section Roboppi is in. It's about sixteen floors above, but what Ai really wants to do is get Yusaku out of here, to force him down the stairs. But it won't happen without a fight, and something in Ai feels queasy at the thought of dragging Yusaku off his feet and ruthlessly pinning back his arms when they try to claw against him, as he fights their way down the staircase. Still maybe-
A scream tears through the air, hopeless shrill terror in every part of the primal howl, and a man shouts back, enraged.
Ai's mind does not drum to a halt, the way he sometimes wishes it would; instead it matches the two voices against the ones in his memory, identifying the scream as Bessho Emma's and the shout as her brother's Dojun Kengo's.
He knows who they are, what he did to them, can remember digesting every part of their data, and then of course, almost murdering Blood Sheppard in that lonely tower he was trapped inside more recently. And then, yep, there it is, racing through him again, the familiar ache of guilt. But there's also the cold thrill of spite there too, more against Kengo than Ema, who at least, had felt something for the Ignis, and had tried to be kind to him and Roboppi both, when she had every right to walk away.
But his steps don't slow, and daylight claws its way in, races its way into a place it should not travel unfiltered as both he and Yusaku skid to a halt at the massive hole in front of them, the corridor now cleaved in half. Pipes twist into a nest of ruined guttering that empties into thin air, creating multiple waterfalls that gleam under the sun, as they spill to the ground a hundred feet below. The breeze of the outside world whispers against Ai's face, stirs his hair, and both he and Yusaku stare out, away from the blocks of concrete and bricks that jut out to make the building resemble an incomplete jenga tower.
A shadow spills over them both and then their eyes are met by the glow of a monster hovering in the sky: a Golden Allure Queen.
She floats there, quite impossibly, because the program that allows Duel Monsters to form in the real world is not supposed to allow monsters to form more than twenty metres away from the Duel Disk that holds the data of their card! And yet Roboppi is there, clutched under one of the Queen's arms like a child with not a Duel Disk in sight, legs dangling above the long silky skirt of gold that cushions their body.
'See, Aniki!' they crow, a smug light in their eyes. 'I am better than you! Look how I improved this program!'
They laugh and unprompted, the Allure Queen raises her free arm, the one that holds her sceptre. And then she draws it down in a single diagonal thrust. And like an invisible knife has suddenly been drawn against the building, more of it is shorn off, an entire room torn away from the comfort of its walls as it falls to smash against the dark stripe of the road below.
Ai grits his teeth as faint dust issues from the crumpled hoods of distant cars. He can theroise how Roboppi's done it, that they've given the program the ability to project force and refine it in a way that can cut through physical matter in much the same way a real life duel can simulate a force of wind to blow back the player. It's almost like creating an invisible force-field, one that invades or displaces objects in the real world, for just a second of time. An incredibly dangerous second.
And the proof is in the mess below; Ai's gaze sweeps over the destruction, over the swirling dust that is not quite dense enough to rise up and cover the puddles of cloth that are draped over human limbs. Still ones, the bodies attached too far away for Ai to try and register the breathing of.
Beside him, Yusaku lets out a harsh gasp, almost a moan, and Ai lets his eyes close at the sound. And then opens them again, to stare straight up into Roboppi's
'You made a mess,' he says, low and soft, pointing down to the ground below, at all the smoking rubble. 'Both down there and up here.' He gestures to the hole in the building he and Yusaku stare out of, and glares at Roboppi, watching their expression turn troubled. 'Don't you like to clean up anything anymore?'
'I...' Roboppi struggles to say. 'I...' They look horribly confused. And then anger draws their brows down. 'I'm not the one who summoned this monster!' they burst out with; but Ai's not imagining the confused waver in their tone. 'That's just Queen trying to help me out, using that long-range transmitter I installed inside her Duel Disk! I'm not supposed to be mad at someone who's trying to rescue me!'
Yusaku freezes at his side. 'Roboppi,' he says carefully. 'Queen's dead.'
Roboppi snorts. 'Only her stupid human body is! She wanted me to upload her consciousness into data when she realised you were onto us, so I helped her do it! Better that, then let her keep messing up the Earth like everyone else out here does!' They glance round and in a fit of inspiration, point up. 'See! Like them!'
Ai twists his head and sees Ema, hands clutching a broken metal beam as it zig-zags from out of crumbling floor twenty metres above their head. Her arms quiver, her teeth clench, and her brother is gingerly trying to slither the top half of his body over the edge of the floor to her. But his fingers keep missing the stretch of her arm, a few hopeless centimetres too far outside of his reach whenever they try to grab her.
'Awesome,' sighs Roboppi as though they're watching an action sequence from a film. And no sooner have they finished uttering those words, then another monster rises from behind the corner of the building, its shadow twisting over the broken glass. This time it's an Allure Queen LV7, and it glides forward purposefully, the sceptre raised threateningly.
Yusaku yells out a warning, and Kengo glances up, straight into the impassive face of the Queen. By now, his scarf is a loose coil of green round his neck, his face left open and exposed. Even his sunglass are missing, fallen off somewhere in the chaos. So this time Ai can definitely see the full-blown-fear in his expression, and the snarl of anger in his eyes. But that doesn't change the fact that the sceptre is going to smash into his back, carve out a line straight through the floor and separate the pipe his sister still clings to away from the rest of the building. Ai has tracked out its trajectory with mathematical precision in all the time it takes for Kengo's expression to settle. And while Kengo is no AI, he can at least predict where the sceptre will fall and what will happen to Ema when it does.
So he stops fighting the pull of gravity; in fact he pushes himself forward in an outright slide. And this time, as he falls, slipping like a fish out of water, he makes contact with his sister, his entire body barrelling into hers and ripping her away from the pipe.
A sharp silence fills Ai's mind as he watches Kengo tries to pull Ema against him, trying to turn so he'll feel the impact of the ground before she does, his sister screaming something at him, her fingers tearing into his shoulders with a grip that has to do more than simply hurt as they fall together, in two grey blurs.
Silence. Except it's not, really. It's calculations, it's electric signals, it's instinct, and it makes Ai move. Both his hands fly out, detaching themselves from his wrists, allowing the long grey cables still keeping them attached to his body to shoot out after the falling humans. Down and down they go, until his fingers fall into the back of Kengo's coat and hook into Ema's shoulder. But Ai does not simply let their bodies shudder to an abrupt halt, fearful of shattering their spines or worse at the sudden stop of motion. Instead, gritting his teeth, he braces himself, feeling Yusaku's arms warp round his chest to help him stay steady, and he gives a slight pull, changing the freefall of the siblings into the same gentle curving slide a pendulum often falls into. And then he swings them all the way towards a floor closer to the ground – or what's left of it anyway. And he watches as Kengo stumbles, both his and Ema's legs tripping over the new ground, before they collapse into a heap together.
But there's no time to let relief seep into him. For even as he reels his hands back in, the LV 7 Allure Queen is sweeping down to them, and Roboppi's eyes are growing wider by the second.
'Hey,' they say. 'Queen, that's enough, you don't have to-'
They cut off as the Golden Allure Queen holding them drags their sceptre down against their throat, smoke trailing from the fake flesh.
But Ai can't help. Or hinder. Instead he turns, and with a whirl of his cape, he scoops Yusaku up into his arms.
'Hold on,' he mutters, his words swift and bruising against the shell of Yusaku's ear and his partner gives him one wide-eyed look, before Ai leaps off the edge of the broken floor.
Yusaku's breath explodes out of his body in a rush of fear and shock, his hands instinctively hooking into Ai's shirt. Any other time Ai would make a joke or settle into a hug. Not today. Not when he's busy calculating the path to pick out, and which stepping stone of rubble still sticking out of the building he can reach with a leap, or a step, or even a hop. And he has to do it fast.
He's no acrobat, and while he may not be human, he's not exactly super-human either, limited by real-world physics and the design of the SOLtiS. The Allure Queen chases them down, while the Golden Queen thankfully abandons her, racing off with a still smoking Roboppi in her arms.
Ai has no time to make mistakes. He wears a grimace and calculates, jumps, calculates, jumps, ignoring Yusaku's little grunts at the impact when they land each time. They're nearly at the ground when both stone and a hunk of ripped carpet give out under the force of Ai's boots and they manage to fall through an entire floor, before Ai has the sense to grab hold of another guttered pipe. They swing there for a moment and Ai can feel the gallop of Yusaku's heart beneath the clutch of his fingers, almost everything else blocking it out.
'Ai,' says Yusaku urgently, and Ai glances up to see the dark spill of the Allure Queen's clothes, the light folds of her robes and the wild glide of her hair as it wavers through the air. She's mere metres away and closing.
Ai's hand loosens. But before he lets go completely, a red fire hydrant, gleaming with all the brilliant shine of a wet cherry, flies up into the Allure Queen's face. The monster crumples a little at the impact – a little- and then twists angrily, her sceptre instantly cutting through the hydrant like butter. The metal rips apart to expel a rush of white gas, and for a moment it looks to be completely ineffective.
But then Ai's lips twitch, twisting into a malicious sneer as the monster flickers, parts of her already transparent like a gas. He gets it now; some fire hydrants, designed for specifically salvaging items that project holographic material, contain a gas designed to interrupt the 'fake' molecules that bind together to produce the image in the first place.
The Queen flickers once more. Then disappears. And Ai glances down to see Pandor standing beneath the twist of a broken car door, one arm still outstretched and grimness etched into every line of her face. Her other arm is twisted round the dishevelled form of Akira and Ai wonders if she had had to drag him out of the building the same way he had considered doing so to Yusaku earlier.
'Ai,' says Yusaku, a little shakily. 'Get us down.'
After a moment, Ai obeys, letting the cable between his hand and arm unwind. But as he does so, he sees the devastation around them, all those humans lying still, and now, unfortunately, he's close enough to realise that no, not all of them are in fact breathing.
Ai lands and stares; at the colours, the shapes of all these people who should be moving. Beside him, Yusaku remains still, almost as much as they are. It frightens Ai, but only for a moment. Because then Yusaku breathes in, the sound of it cutting like a knife through Ai's audio processer.
'Let's go,' Yusaku says, without any heat to it.
And quietly, Ai follows him.
They pick their way through rumble, Yusaku's expression twisting each time they stumble over another body. Several ambulances have drawn up, blue stretchers quickly becoming filled with groaning people and Zaizen is looking around at them all with a hollow look.
'Hayami!' he suddenly calls out, almost tripping over his own feet as he stumbles over to where she is being bore away by a few ambulance workers. His hand closes round her own as she offers him a confused smile, his eyes growing dull as he takes in the tears in her suit and the crusted blood that is drying into a dirty brown dye within the lining of her shirt.
'Zaizen...I'm so glad...' she says, voice nearly lost to a whisper that cracks as a few tears slide down her cheeks; Ai can't tell if it's because of the pain she's in, or if she's just that happy to know her beloved boss is alive. 'I'm so sorry I wasn't there to protect you...'
'None of that now,' Zaizen tells her. 'You don't have to worry about your job at the moment. Just focus on yourself.'
Ai looks away as she tears up even more; he has some idea of what she's feeling after all, caught in a state closer to death than life, caught only by the gaze of her beloved, as he gives her the comfort of his touch. He's lived through it once before.
Zaizen says something else, something soft and rather gentle, before he lets go of her hand, and watches her get drawn into the ambulance. 'So many of my people,' he says brokenly. 'I should have sent them home the moment we took Roboppi into custody.'
Ai grimaces. There's a reason he fired every human when he took over Sol Technologies. So that nothing like this was ever in danger of happening.
He's interrupted from these less than pleasant thoughts by a sudden screech of tires that rips through the air like a scream. And with a blur of yellow, Kusanagi's hot dog van draws up. The man himself, sticks his head out of the window, yelling at Yusaku to get in and for some bizarre reason Aoi is there with him on the passenger's side seat, her hair cut choppily short again. A SOLtiS wearing a policeman uniform immediately runs up to accost them, demanding nobody leave the scene, and Aoi quickly shows him something, a white card she rapidly flashes from between her fingers. Whatever it is, it makes the SOLtiS back off, after he scans it with a single glance.
Ema bites out a stifled chuckle. 'She's really getting better at designing those fake IDs I showed her.'
Akira doesn't even bother to sigh, not even in defeat. Instead he lets his sister draw his arm over hers as she clambers from the van.
'You should be in the hospital,' he tells her.
'No,' she replies with a stiff frown. 'Where I should be, is by your side.'
She drags him inside the back compartment of the van and Ai has to turn his gaze away from them, from the way they look at each other, tired, frustrated, but still utterly trusting in each other all the same; it is not lost on him that once upon a time he had threatened to sever that bond completely.
He can't quite meet Kusangai's gaze raking across the side of his face either. But then Ryoken is there, helping to drag the rest of them inside and with another screech, Kusanagi pulls them away from the nightmare.
Ai takes one last look at it, at the building where Earth was murdered, now sporting a gaping wound in its side, before it disappears from view. And finds himself unable to feel much of anything at all. Not even jubilation.
For long minutes, there is only the turn of the wheels, the rumble of the motor. People are either staring at the floor or at each other. And Ai is all too aware of how often those looks find him. It makes him wish to be small again, to bury himself inside the dark curl of Yusaku's Duel Disk; but no. He's never going back to that again. He can't.
Eventually, without a word, Kusanagi draws them into a car park for a mall and the engine cuts out. And then he starts to clamber into the back with them, expression grave. He doesn't look at Ai, not once, as he does this, but strangely it doesn't hurt. Ai has bigger concerns.
'You knew to come and get us,' he says, gaze raking over Kusanagi and Aoi both. If everybody else is too shell-shocked that there are are actal people dead, in the street, in the real world, which means nobody will be able to restore their souls back to the land of the living this time - well. He'll shock them back into being idiots again. 'I'm not surprised these stalkers' - he continues, waving a careless hand at Ryouken and Spectre and Pandor; he doesn't know where Faust has scurried off to and he doesn't care - 'showed up. They've probably been monitoring Zaizen's former castle like the good little Knights they are. But you' - and here his gaze cuts into Aoi sharply. 'No one would have fetched you from the hospital after your latest Roboppi experience. Which means you're the one who got Kusanagi involved and arranged this little field trip.'
Aoi meets his stare levelly. Her look is hard, but it doesn't look as though it's fueled by hate or rage the way a part of him expected it to be.
'That's right,' she says quietly. 'Roboppi sent me a message a few minutes ago.' She turns her phone to them all, showing a host of cheerful, and rather colourful emoticons dancing across her screen. 'Told me that since Queen was rescuing them, I should rescue my brother. And I wasn't willing to risk my brother's safety on the chance that it could be a lie or a trap, so I contacted Kusanagi and got us here.' She shrugs. 'It looks like they were telling the truth, though I don't know why they'd care about me or my brother anymore.'
Ai sighs. 'Because they re-forged themselves based on the data they obtained, watching you,' he mutters. 'You're not quite the same as an Ignis' origin; but you're pretty close all the same. And Roboppi can't quite ignore you as a result.'
Spectre snorts, from his place in the corner, next to the steel bite of Kusanagi's kettle. 'I wouldn't say that's always true,' he says calmly, one hand smoothly placed on his chest. 'The Earth Ignis did a good job of ignoring me.'
Ai turns to Spectre, contempt in his gaze. 'Well, he didn't try to hurt you or hunt you down either!' he grits out. 'Considering the attention Lightning and Windy gave their partners, you were pretty lucky!'
Yusaku gives him a warning look, and Ai turns in disgust. But it's too late because Ryoken's gaze has already narrowed into suspicion.
'I take it this means your memories have returned?' he asks, though it's clear from his tone that this isn't really a question at all.
'They never left,' Ai mutters grumpily in return. 'I just hid them from myself in a blind, useless panic when Roboppi and maybe Queen were trying to restore me.'
For some reason this seems to make Kusanagi finally look at him, with sympathy in his gaze no less. Which is nicer than the outright hostility from Ryoken's, sure, but it still causes something in his code to seize when his old friend asks, 'you tried to forget? Did you want a fresh start, like Jin?'
And all Ai can do is bite out is a taunt, 'no,' in response because the answer is nowhere near as simple as Kusanagi is making it sound. Plus, it's nobody's business except his and Yusaku's.
He shakes his head. 'For once, I'm not the issue here,' he points out, in a tone that could cut glass. 'Queen is. Even if Roboppi enhanced the program that allows Duelling to take part in the real world, Queen was the one using it to hack into her monsters and get them to attack SOL Tech directly.' Ai grimaces. 'And given that her human body is dead, we can assume it's the work of her mind, now un-tethered within the network.' He shrugs. 'Roboppi has rather stupidly turned her into a quasi-AI. A human who's no longer a human.'
Ryoken's gaze narrows into a dagger-like point. 'Usually, severing a human mind from their body entirely, would kill them. But in this case, without it, she's found a way to evolve beyond her limits.' His fists clench. 'She's almost like my Father once was, a ghost on the network who can manipulate data far more readily as a result.' He looks disgusted. 'But unlike him, she'll drive herself insane. Without the warmth of her flesh and body, without its instincts and stray compulsions, she'll become something entirely alien. The only reason my Father didn't was because he still retained a neural link to his body.'
Which is exactly why Ai had once offered to merge Yusaku with himself, rather than attempting to do what Roboppi has done with Queen now. The fusion would have balanced the both of them in theory, made it so that Yusaku could survive the divorce of his human senses without driving himself crazy. Ai shakes his head. Roboppi is a true idiot.
All in all, it's not the first time Ai has found humans, and the physical trap of their bodies to be so exhausting and distasteful, but this new event has just helped highlight that strange pity he feels for them once more. It rises in him even more as he watches the way they've all been squashed inside the back of Kusanagi's van, tired and uncomfortable, and completely unable to slip out of themselves and away into another space the way Ai, Roboppi and Pandor can do via the network.
Kengo is crossing his arms as he leans back against the microwave, which Kusanagi keeps glaring at him for, while Ema stands beside him, for once in life, looking rather flustered and unsure; but then again she did go nearly plunging to her death less than an hour ago, so Ai's willing to give her a pass on that. Aoi meanwhile, is cautiously sitting on one of the desks, arms folded, with her quiet gaze sweeping over everything, rather like Yusaku's is. Her brother sits slumped by her legs, hands in his lap, looking completely lost for once.
'I should contact the media, issue a statement,' he says, eyes stubbornly fastened on his hands. 'There are families out there who will want answers.'
'And what will you tell them?' Ryoken asks, with Spectre as a watchful presence at his side. 'That the former boss of Sol Tech has teamed up with an AI with free will? That she has essentially converted herself into something similar? And that for some reason, she decided to deprive people of their lives?'
'She has never cared about crossing that line,' Akira says lowly. 'You can trust me on that. Even so, I never thought she'd go this far; I don't understand her motivation at all.'
'Really?' the word drops from Ai's lips softly, a dangerous, simmering rage in it. 'You should know her biography as well as anyone, Zaizen. One of the youngest executives in Sol Technologies, an egotistical woman who sees everyone as beneath her or as a means to an end. And then they cut her loose, threw her away like she was nothing. Her pride was hurt.' His eyes narrow. 'We've seen it before with Go Onizuka. A hit to someone's pride can drive them to lash out like an idiot and do things they shouldn't.'
Aoi fixes him with a look. 'Are you speaking from experience?'
Her tone is hard and pointed, and Ai grins at her, glad to see her stare harden in response. 'Maybeee.' He sings the outright lie of it to the room. 'But I did Duel her once, remember? You can learn a lot about someone from how they play. And I do recall her being quite content with cheating and utilising her skill in a Master Duel.'
'This is a waste of time,' Kengo barks out. 'We should be trying to find her and this Roboppi.' His gaze finds Ema. 'Before she kills anyone else.'
'That will be quite difficult,' Pandor offers, from her place in the corner. She looks strangely nervous as Kengo's glare burns into her and Ai wonders just how much human hatred she has faced directly, and if perhaps Ryoken's tried to shelter her from most of it. 'Roboppi is significantly more advanced than they were before. They would know how to hide their tracks in the net. And Queen may have learnt similarly.'
'Then we need to draw them out,' Aoi says softly. She's staring down at her phone, a thoughtful frown on her face. 'If what Ai says about me is right – and this message is possible proof of that – then maybe if I ask Roboppi for help, they'll respond.'
It's a rather whimsical idea. But Aoi is already typing something out on her phone, brow furrowed in concentration. She hits 'send' with a quick press of her thumb a second later, and waits.
Instantly, her phone lets out a trill in response. Aoi stares at it. Then turns her screen out towards everyone. 'This is what an Ignis algorithm look like, right?' she questions. 'Aqua showed me one, once.'
Ai stares at the jumble of symbols and letters, something tight and painful in his chest. 'Yes,' he says sadly, knowing that even if he says nothing, someone else will confirm it, maybe Yusaku or Ryoken. 'Those are co-ordinates.'
Everything is a bit of a disaster. There isn't enough room for them all to function comfortably in Kusanagi's van, and with only two VR units on board, the number of people who can jump into the network at a time is severely limited. A restriction Ai obviously does not have. But then again, he can also picture how offering to go alone or with just two people by his side is going to go. Badly.
So he doesn't protest when Ryoken offers to let them use his fancy boat, though he does experience an unhealthy amount of glee at hearing the sneers and complaints that greet this suggestion, notably from Kengo, still stuck in his sullen slant against the microwave. And then Zaizen, for once actually proving useful, looks up tiredly and offers the use of a small office owned by Sol Technologies. One that wasn't around back when Ai took control of the place, but hey, it looks like Zaizen's learnt from that unpleasant experiance somewhat.
And Ai definitely isn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
'This is probably a trap,' Ryoken cautions upon their arrival, as he inspects the nearest monitor. Sleek, silver and highly up-to-date, he still glares at it as though it's in danger of malfunctioning. 'I doubt Roboppi is giving us this information out of regret or generosity. No matter what attachment they may have developed towards the human they tortured.'
He says this pointedly, staring at Ai as though daring him to either forget or deny this fact.
'That doesn't matter,' Aoi snaps, arms curling into her body as though to hold herself upright, and the spiteful retort Ai had been about to throw in Ryoken's face dies a quick death. 'There are people out there who died. Actually died. What I've been through pales in comparison.' But her fingers still wedge themselves even tighter into her sleeves as she speaks. 'Which means I'm willing to take a gamble if it means preventing more deaths.' She stares at Ryoken. 'Aren't you?'
OOhhhh, Ai is enjoying this! Sure, sure, Aoi isn't actually intimidating enough to get Ryoken to squirm, but her words do seem to make him back off a little. Which makes things a bit boring, but then again...
There are other things they should be concerned with. The media for one, and all the news and rumours spreading out in a tangle of photos and video files throughout on the net. Most of it is blurry and indistinct with panic. Enough for Roboppi and their river of turquoise hair to appear as a far-off human-shaped blob whenever they're in the frame, too far away to make out the tell-tell light of the SOLtiS LED on their neck.
Ai is grateful. It makes whatever story Zaizen will have to spin to the rest of the world, slightly easier for him to tell. The man is currently resembling a wilting daffodil, aging by the second as he slumps over all the reports that fly in, seeing and hearing all the screams that echo out of people's mouths. Most of them are still probably alive. But some of them...well. Ai gets it.
Still, Zaizen musters the strength to straighten, to place his hand on the solid weight of Aoi's shoulders when she tells him she's leaving with the rest of them.
'Please come back,' he tells her.
And she nods, determination in her eyes... but she does not promise.
Wise girl, Ai thinks.
'Ai,' Yusaku says at his side. And Ai turns, seeing that same determination reflected in his partner's eyes. But in a much nicer shade of green.
Yusaku does not lay a hand on his shoulder. He does not ask for a promise that Ai could never have the power to give. He just looks at him. And just sees him, Ai, a person, if not a human one.
It's more than most AI, even the ones with true free will, could hope for. And Ai smiles, and lets a finger curl round Yusaku's, as his hands move, curving round to become large nests for Yusaku's palms. He memorises this, the way Yusaku's skin falls against his own, that clutter of life-lifes, those many wrinkles, pages in the life of this creature who could so easily one day be gone.
Perhaps even by the end of the day, if things go badly.
Still. Ai won't stop him. Running away and leaving Yusaku in the line of fire isn't his style.
He sighs and leans down, lets his fringe drape over Yusaku's own as their forehead touch, a kiss of skin and hair. They're close enough for their shoes to thud into each other, for their clothes to rustle against each other's buttons and lapels and shirts.
Ai is still a little embarrassed though, truly. Just enough to let his consciousness branch out and thread through the cameras positioned around the rest of the room. Thankfully, it looks as though nobody is too bothered at this display of intimacy he and Yusaku share, most of them keen to mind their own business or else too wrapped up in their own preparations. Though Kengo does look scornful and Ryoken, as he determinedly stares away, seems to possess a jaw-line that visibly clenches as though in a huff. Sceptre, the creep, just stares, the line of his mouth arranged into a grim curl. An amused one.
Huh. Ai doesn't much care for their approval. But he knows that some of the people here, and their opinions matter to Yusaku. So he has to care, at least a little.
'I'm not hopping back into your Duel Disk,' he murmurs to Yusaku, now drawing his full awareness back into his body. 'You know that, right? I can't...'
...Bring myself to go back to that, he thinks. Too much has changed, I've lost too much and I never, never want to force you into protecting me as your hostage again.
But Yusaku smiles at him as though he already knows. And if Ai had a heart, it would be thudding at the sight.
'You're not my hostage anymore,' Yusaku tells him gently. 'I won't ask you to force yourself back into that role. Just stay by my side.'
We can do anything together that way. It's not said but it's what Ai wants to believe Yusaku means when he looks at him, when he refuses to pull away from Ai's manufactured touch. Oh, how he wants to believe.
So he steps back. Lets Yusaku's fingers trails from his own. Then:
'Let's go, Playmaker,' he says. And tries hard, very hard, to actually mean it.
Picture this: A fall. A slide. Into the dark. Images, memories, a thousand and more whirl through a mind that breaks and re-shatters. That moves and prods through the data that it is now, no familiar structure to govern, cast free and adrift from the neural network that once held it.
From a safe distance away, Roboppi stands in sands that shift, as towers break out of their surface like dolphins cresting a wave.
'Oh,' they says softly, running a hand over a pillar that gleams a marble-like white, as bright as a coin against the brown-gold dune it stands upon. 'So you do care about your cards.' They frown, then step back. 'You're still such a mess though, and I hate it. I know you only rescued me because you were hurting and you thought I could help. But I can't. I wish...' They bite their lip. 'This isn't fun anymore,' they say sullenly. 'I thought it would be. But it isn't.' They shake their head. Open their mouth. Then close it again.
What's the point? Queen won't want to listen anyway.