THE ALTERNATE PATH

Nami woke up first. She felt something was weird, as if everything seemed to be rather... familiar. Nevertheless, she rose from her bed, and went to prepare breakfast. As she was spreading butter on a piece of toast, things kept getting back to her. Had she lived this moment before?

She watched as Checky and Luminous got out of their room, stretching themselves as they walked to the table. In a few seconds, she thought in her mind, she would be serving the plates of toast onto the table, and Phantom would be the last to exit the room, upon which he would borrow her note and pen.

True enough, as Nami had just served breakfast, Phantom broke out of the room. "Hey Nami, do you have a pen and a piece of paper? I just thought of something that I really need to write down now," he asked.

"No way..." Nami thought in her head as she went and reached for her pen and note.

Phantom borrowed Nami's note and pen and hurriedly scribbled down what he heard from Aria's mouth just as the others were having their breakfast. Strangely, his mind could remember it rather clearly, if not perfectly.

When he was quite sure he jotted down all of it, he brought it to the table, where he studied the poem as he chugged down some toast, ignoring any ongoing conversations at the table.

"What are you reading there?" asked Luminous, feeling curious. He scooted over to Phantom who was sitting beside him, peering toward his note.

Phantom did not react, but merely continued staring at his note while chugging another piece of toast down his mouth. He did not even flinch as Luminous got behind him to read whatever was on that note as well.

"What exactly is this?" Luminous asked again, but still Phantom was too concentrated. In his mind was the mind-boggling tangle between words that he himself had volunteered to take the responsibility to untangle them. It didn't really seem to make sense, even if he tried hard to read between the lines.

"What could she be trying to tell me?" thought Phantom over and over again. As romantic and poetic a person he was, this poem seemed too complicated and sophisticated for him. Nevertheless, he continued trying to decipher its meaning. Luminous went back to his breakfast as he couldn't quite stand literature.

Phantom was startled as he heard someone knocking on the front door. He raised his head to the direction of the door as Nami stood and got to the door.

When Nami opened the door, she seemed surprised. It was a policeman and a policewoman.

"Hello, we're currently looking for this guy," said the policeman as he produced a picture. It showed a portrait of someone rather familiar. But it wasn't a typical photo that had been taken from crime scenes or a passport-sized photo. Rather, it seemed to be painted on, like a work of art. "Do you happen to know him?"

Nami studied it as the first thought hit her mind. It was Phantom's face.

She turned her head as she glanced towards Phantom, remembering vividly what had happened.

"Ah, I see him from here. Very nice, please tell him to come over, we would like to see him to...interrogate him," said the male police without waiting for Nami's reply, as he peered in and saw Phantom sitting at the dining table.

Nami watched as Phantom hesitated. "I'm not coming over," said Phantom as he went back to study the poem.

"This is an order. You are required to be here immediately now," the male police officer raised his voice, to which Phantom stood up and said, "I'm going back to the room."

However, having said that, Nami saw that Phantom came to the door instead. "No..." Nami shooked her head a little watching how everything started to unfold. She did not listen to the absurd messages of the police. All she was thinking now was how to get out of this situation. And she needed to be swift.

"...And we shall now carry the execution ourselves on the spot," said the male police, jerking Nami back to reality. "No!" she thought, "This is it! I need to do something before Phantom..."

Suddenly, as she started to panic, things around her started to slow down dramatically. It was as if she had been in some kind of movie and someone controlling it had slowed it down a few times, only that she seemed to be the only one at normal speed. But it was not over. The hands of the male officer, which now seemed to be emitting some darkly aura, was coming down very mercilessly, albeit very slowly, aiming for Phantom's head. Nami had no idea what exactly was happening right now, but she had no time to think about that. It was now or never.

By instinct, Nami grabbed the arms of the male officer, directing his arms away from Phantom as they were still charging slowly straight. But she did not plan on diminishing the powers about to radiate from his arms - she had no idea how to do that. Instead, she turned his arms so that what they were aiming for was his companion, the female officer, instead of Phantom.

And then everything went back to normal. The others paralysingly stared as the hands of the male officer, which initially headed for Phantom's head, suddenly strayed off course and grabbed onto the head of the female cop instead. It caught her by surprise as she stood stunned, seemingly unable to break free from his grasp, while the male officer's hand glowed. He, too, was surprised, and tried to retract his hands before worse things happened.

Alas, he did that, but it was too late. A curiously purple-coloured smoke was seen rising from above the female cop's head, and shortly after she fell to the ground unconscious.

"ORCHID!" yelled the male officer as he knelt down. For a few times he tried calling for her response, but received none. "You! You're..." Luminous suddenly came to realisation when he was cut off.

"You imbecile... YOU KILLED MY SISTER!" the male officer yelled as his rage emerged from within him. He no longer bothered about hiding his identity. A dark smoke encircled him while energy radiated from him, slowly revealing his true form.

"Lotus!" Phantom, Checky and Luminous all gasped. They tried their best in summoning their spells, but they still failed. They could only watch as Lotus slowly came to being, cackling with power and ready to strike at any moment possible.

"You will pay for what you have done to Orchid!" Lotus bellowed as he made his first attack. He charged a dark energy bolt with his hands and shot it towards them mercilessly, intending to annihilate them once and for all.

"LOOK OUT!" yelled Luminous as the three of the three of them braced for impact. However, just as the bolt was about to land, it suddenly changed its course and headed towards Lotus's direction. Just when they thought the bolt was about to hit Lotus, he reached his hands out and caught it like a basketball. Then, in the most unexpected way, Lotus himself seemed to be dispelling the bolt as they saw the bolt eventually neutralising within his grasp.

Lotus himself did not quite know what had happened. The bolt was not supposed to come back to him, and it definitely was not within his control to reach his hands out and neutralise the bolt. It was as if the whole process of charging and shooting the bolt was entirely reversed.

The three of them turned and saw Nami standing against Lotus, one arm out and her hands emanating hints of energy, as though she had been the one deflecting the bolt. Her eyes were glowing and she was definitely not herself at the moment. "You want your sister back?" she asked, in a cold and echoing voice.

Just as she finished asking, she swiftly raised her arm, her hand glowing even more and acting as if holding something in it. In an instant, Phantom, Luminous and Checky felt the ground trembling as they saw Lotus slowly losing power and transforming back to that male officer. The body of the female officer magically rose as Lotus's hands went back to her head, and as if giving her life, the curiously purple-coloured smoke went back to her head, and she was alive again. In a few moments, the male officer took out the document again. After a few moments of reading and some strange gestures, Lotus and Orchid backed away from the apartment. Everything was exactly what had happened moments ago, but the whole course of action of the two of them had been reversed entirely.

As soon as Lotus and Orchid disappeared and the ground stopped trembling, Nami collapsed on the floor. "Nami!" Checky, being the first to notice, called out and attempted to support her.

"I'm-I'm alright, I just... feel weak, that's all," said Nami, panting hard. So that was it. That was her power that Rhinne had mentioned.

"Come on mate, you need a bit of rest," Checky said, carrying Nami back to her room with Phantom's assistance.

"If Lotus and Orchid could find us here, I don't think it's wise to keep staying here. We need to move," said Luminous.

Nami thought of her encounter with Rhinne and her advice on matters. Rhinne was right. She would need to meet up with Soro and Ruriko before they start thinking of going back. But how? And Rhinne said something about finding those who were not with either of the three of them. But who were they and how should she know who were the ones that were with the other two?

The four of them were at Nami's room where they decided it best to discuss matters pertaining to their return. Checky took out the list which contained the names of disappeared characters in the game. He gave it to Nami, who reached for her pen as soon as she received the list. "Rhinne said something about meeting two other people. She said the other heroes on this list are currently with either of them, and there are some who are not. We need to meet up and go to the place where those who are not with either one of us are now."

"Wait, you met Rhinne?" asked Phantom.

"I dreamed of meeting her." Nami decided not to disclose too much information about how she managed to alter their fates.

"So, who are the ones not with the three of you again?"

"I don't know. She didn't tell us much. I think I will need to use the process of elimination," said Nami as she used her pen to cross out the names of Phantom, Luminous and Checky. Checky looked towards the list, finding out that there was still a considerable number of names left.

As Checky looked towards Nami for the next move. For a moment Nami sat as if contemplating something, or rather, staring blankly into the space. "Nami? Hello?" Checky called out, but Nami seemed completely oblivious to his presence.

"Earth to Nami, are you there? Come in, Nami..." Checky called out as he waved his hands in front of Nami.

"I know who they are," Nami said, right after she came to. She took her pen and crossed out more names, leaving only two of them uncrossed.

"You... what?" Checky felt bewildered. Did Nami actually know something out of mere nothingness? She did not respond, but merely went to the MapleStory forum, seemingly knowing her next move.

Nami started typing what seemed like a private message. In the 'Recipients:' box, she typed in two usernames. Nami personally was not quite familiar with them even on the forum but somehow she knew it was the two of them.

Title: OPERATION SETBACK

Soro, Ruriko,

We need a time to meet up. Get your people to dress in suitable clothes and come to Seoul, Korea. Use any means necessary to bypass immigration. Make haste. We will discuss more on this once we're together.

Reply to me once you have arrived. Let nobody in the forums and around us know about this.

Nami

PS: Don't question how I managed to find you guys out.

"Wait, how do you suddenly know about all these info?" asked Checky as he saw the information in the message which to him seemed like it came out of the blue.

"It just... came to me. I don't know why, but I just know." Nami actually had no idea how she knew it was Korea they would need to head for. Was it part of her powers that let her know about the backgrounds of Soro and Ruriko, who were the ones not with them, as well as their locations?

Meanwhile, Phantom got back to reading the poem-like text he took down earlier in that day. Something seemed to hit his mind especially after what he had experienced.

"Enchantment and sorceries permanently sealed... so it seems like whoever travelling from the Maple World to here will lose his powers. That explains it."

"Hey, you still reading whatever that thing is?" Luminous asked as he turned towards him. Phantom merely nodded. The text seemed clearer to him now, but he still had questions in his mind.

Now was the poem trying to hint at something about Nami's powers?

A/N: Hey guys, after this chapter, it will be quite some time before I can release another chapter because I will be returning to my hometown for 1.5 weeks this coming Chinese New Year and I won't be able to bring my computer back with me. But, I shall be bringing my trustee notebook and pen so that I could draft out the following plot for this story.