I'm a terrible person. I have, in the work below, attempted to write, in first person, for a show I've only seen once... a show that is, to put it lightly, WEIRD. Like, specializes in confusing you. So...if you haven't seen it, you won't understand this. And if you have seen it...you'll likely want to kill me, as I think I butchered it. But oh well.

I don't own anything touched by Margaret Weis or Chiaki Konaka, obviously.

Author's notes about the REMSG come after this travesty, at the beginning of Canto Two. I swear this is a REMSG story...

Judecca, Canto I: Lain

He recognized me. He looked me right in the eyes and said my name, called me "Lain." Immediately, though we'd never met before. Just like everyone in the Wired. Before they were reset.

"Lain," said the man with the strange eyes softly. Judging by the raspiness of his voice, I doubted he could speak in any manner but "softly." "Lain, I have a job for you."

"How do you know I am Lain?" I asked, apprehensive. No one should've known me...and yet, I'd been lonely. Even seeing Arisu again just wasn't the same. Had I made him appear?

He smiled at me, a gentle smile that still made me shiver. "Come now. Everyone knows Lain... or they did, until you proved yourself to be yet another martyr. The past exists separate from humanity, Lain. You're wrong about that. Perceptions can be changed. Realities cannot. I am Master of the Past and Present. What is memory to one such as I?"

"Kami-sama?" I stepped backwards. "The real...Kami-sama?"

The smile again; what was wrong with his pupils? They were malformed. "Oh, that was my goal. Once. And perhaps, now it is again. I am in need of a world, Lain. And I want you to make me one."

"I can't." I wasn't sure about that, though. Why was he bothering me? The first contact I'd had in so long, and already I wished he'd never laid those crooked eyes on me. I looked at him, hard. Delete. Delete. Go away. Forget me.

He laughed. He laughed at me, right to my face, and my confidence evaporated. "Fool. Yet it was a noble attempt. I commend you, Lain."

I sat down, hunched over with my back to him. "Go away."

"I'm not connected, Lain. I'm not from your world, so your rules don't apply. And I'm not leaving...until I get what I want."

Standing, I started to walk away, but I could feel my eyes on him. I turned. We faced each other. Both of us stared. Above us, the sun shone down, bleaching the pavement and splaying telephone pole shadows on the brilliant white expanses. Somewhere in the distance, a train rattled by. Still I looked, levelly, at him, trying to understand him. Still he met my gaze, and I saw the knowledge in his eyes—hourglasses, his pupils were hourglasses—that I could not reach. I had never been unable to access anything before. It made me frustrated. And, for some reason, lonely.

The train roared in my ears, and he spoke again. "Lain, I can help you. I know what you're seeking, what you've denied yourself. Sometimes starting over isn't good enough. I can send you friends."

"I don't need...friends." They were all grown up now. Reika, and Juri...and Arisu. Grown up, grown apart. Grown away.

"Don't you? A small girl like yourself doesn't need friends? I was under the impression they traveled in gossiping hordes."

"I'm not like other girls."

"I know. Yet you want to be, and I can help you become that. I want a world, and you can help me make that. It's not for me, by the way, the world, but for...another. I haven't found him yet, but when I do...he will need to be trained. Just a training ground, Lain. A training ground...for the hell to come."

"I don't believe in Hell."

"You believe in Kami-sama, do you not?"

"I might." Looking at my feet, the whole situation seemed suddenly unreal. I heard them, in my mind, heard my friends calling for me. They were going to Cyberia, and I was late for the discussion like always. I'd always be late now.

I looked back up again. "In this world...what do you want?"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was done. And he seemed to be satisfied.

He laughed again, a horrible wheezing sound. "So it is true, what they said about you in the Wired. Or, at least, what they said."

"Maybe so. But Lain is nowhere now."

He ignored me. "If you are nowhere, because no one remembers you...to whom am I speaking? What were you doing before I came along? You existed, Lain. Reality and perception are not connected. This world you have made me proves that." He bowed, and his form began to fade. "My thanks to you; fear not, I shall repay my debt. Your first friend shall come shortly, Kami-sama."

"I'm not..."

"Because no one worships you? Do you not still exist, and did you not just create? Think on what you have done, just now. Farewell...God."

He was gone. I was nowhere again. It was a warm late spring day, and the trains were running on time. I was wearing a heavy sweatshirt over my other clothes.

And in his wake, I was still cold.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0

a/n: If you think THAT's confusing, you should watch the original Lain! Don't worry, she won't be showing up too often...

Now back to people we know.