Before we begin, I'd like to apologize for not updating over the past few weeks. Things have been really crazy, what with the holidays, work and my ovewealming desire to play Fallout 4, and don't worry, I've already got a few ideas for fics involving Fallout.
But the real delay came when I fell down and hurt my hands. I won't go into the details, but needless to say I couldn't use my computer for a few days. But I'm better now and back on track, so let's get going already!
Last time Found our heroes facing the unpleasant truth that one of DiDie's creators was none other than Sugō Nobuyuki, the very same lunatic whom imprisoned Asuna in ALO and tried to dominate the world with mind control. Matters were further complicated when DiDe forced Kairi to suffer twice as much in order to save Calvin and Liza from opposing torture devices. But now Kairi has to chose to save either Chrissie or Travis, for one must die in order for the other to live. 'Nuff said, on with the show!
Chapter 9: Penultimate Peril
"Now the real game begins," said DiDe as she smiled insidiously, "for that key, while it does fit both locks, it will only work once. Whichever lock you use it on first, the key will then break. You can save one friend this time, only one. Any attempt to pick the locks or remove the traps otherwise will result in the victim's immediate deaths. So, which will it be? The boy or girl?
"Oh, I almost forgot. One of them has the EVE syringes on him or her. If that one dies, then they die like anyone else in ALO. Whatever they have on them disappears as well.
"So, which one will it be, Kairi? The moment of truth has come. Which friend will you save and which one will you allow to die? You've got five minutes to make your choice, five minutes until your soul is forever crushed! Tick tock, Kairi! Tick tock!"
DiDe then vanished, laughing like the vile creature she was as a digital clock appeared and began counting down from 5:00.
"Is it me or does DiDe forget a lot of important things?" Kairi asked.
"She does seem a bit absent minded," said Yui,
"You're realizing this now?" Asuna asked.
"Uh…I hate to disrupt your symposium on the metal status of an evil A.I.," said Lisbeth, "but aren't you forgetting something?"
At that Kairi looked at Chrissie and Travis, both of whom were franticly trying to get out of their chairs, muffled cries of fear and urgency from their mouths from around the reverse bear traps.
"I didn't forget," said Kairi, "and relax, I'm going to save both of you."
"You heard what DiDe said!" exclaimed Albion, "those traps are gonna go off and kill them and that key you've got will break after one use!"
"I know," said Kairi, "which is why I will use it twice, so to speak."
"Are you alright?" Leafa asked, "did you hurt your head or something?"
"She's just been through a lot," said Trillian, "crushing one hand, electrocution and cutting her arms, it's taking a toll on her mind."
"I'm fine," said Kairi, "I've never been thinking clearer. I knew exactly what to do when DiDe said I had to choose between Chrissie and Travis.
At that the two captive survivors of Rapture struggled and shouted even harder, desperately hoping that Kairi would make her choice before it was too late.
"Well, don't just stand there while letting the time run out for dramatic effect!" exclaimed Klien, "what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to ask a question," said Kairi, "does anyone know a duplication spell?"
"Duplication?" Asuna asked. She then smiled with eager understanding, "Oh, I get it."
"Get what?" Kirito asked.
"This," said Kairi as she brought the key over to Asuna, whom chanted a spell and, with a flash of magic, created a second, identical key.
"Wait, can you do that?" Mercedes asked as Asuna and Kairi walked over to the back of the chairs and simultaneously unlocked the reverse bear traps, pulling them off from Chrissie and Travis.
"Oh, thank god!" exclaimed Travis as Kairi and Asuna freed him and Chrissie from the chairs, "thank you, Jesus!"
"I thought you were an atheist," said Chrissie, "if you should thank anyone, thank Kairi. She's the one who saved us after all." She then looked at Kairi, "thank you so much, I owe you, big time."
"I'm just glad you and the others are alright," said Kairi.
"You may think that now," said DiDe as she appeared next to Kairi, "but not for much longer."
"Haven't you had enough, lady?!" snapped Klien.
"Why should I stop when the game is almost at its climax?" DiDe asked.
"Because the game already climaxed, you malfunctioning bag of bits and bytes!" said Felix, "Kairi saved all six of her friends without killing any of them!"
"Game's over, bitch!" said Mercedes.
"Oh, really?" DiDe asked as she smiled insidiously, "tell it to them," she then indicated Calvin, Liza, Rachael and Joshua as they glared coldly at Chrissie and Travis.
"Why are you looking at us like that?" Chrissie asked.
"Don't insult us by playing dumb, Chrissie," said Rachael, "you know what we want and we mean to have it."
"That thing said one of you has some EVE syringes," said Joshua in a slightly unsteady tone as he pointed at DiDe.
"You wouldn't happen to be holding out on us, Chrissie?" Liza asked, "or you, Travis?"
"Of course not!" snapped Chrissie, "I'd share my EVE if I had any to spare. But look at me! I'm in the same kettle of fish you lot are."
"What is she talking about?" Silica asked.
"Withdraw symptoms of the drugs," said Xenophon.
"Haven't any of you noticed the paleness and clamminess of their skin?" Beatrice asked, "the sweating, the contracted eyes, the random twitching of their hands? All signs of withdraw from an addictive drug."
"Good grief, you're right," said Kirito as he looked at the Rapture survivors.
"How'd it get so bad?" Kairi asked, "you were fine just a moment ago?"
"That thing said we were injected with normal EVE," said Rachael, "and if we don't get more soon, we'd all go crazy."
"And one of us brought plenty of EVE into this artificial world," said Joshua, "someone who is being a selfish bastard!"
"I'm not selfish!" snapped Travis as he scratched the back of his left hand.
"Then share with us, Travis," said Liza as she, Calvin, Joshua and Rachael closed in on him, "share and share alike."
"And let you parasites suck me dry!?" shouted Travis as his left hand crackled with electricity, "I think not!" he then aimed his hand at Liza and blasted her with a bolt of lightning, sending her across the room where she collapsed twitching to the floor.
Kairi, Asuna, Kirito and the others could only watch as Joshua, Calvin and Rachael rush at Travis. He managed to hit Joshua with another blast of lighting before Calvin and Rachael tackled him to the ground.
"Get off of me, you blood sucking freaks!" shouted Travis. He then blasted both Calvin and Rachael with a Sonic Boom that sent them flying across the room. Travis got up and used Telekinesis on both to levitate them up into the air, then slammed them both together, before dropping them to the floor.
But then Liza threw and hit Travis on the head with one of the disarmed reverse bear traps, the cold iron hitting him on the forehead and knocking him to the floor in a dazed heap.
"Is he…?" a horrified Silica asked.
"No," said Liza as she helped Calvin, Joshua and Rachael back up, "but he'll soon wish he was."
"Stop this! Now!" shouted Chrissie, "what the fuck's wrong with you people!?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong with us!" shouted Rachael, "we're turning into fucking Splicers! That's what's wrong with us!"
"You're just going through drug withdraw," said Asuna, "I know you're in a lot of pain right now, but…"
"You don't know anything about our pain!" shouted Liza as she nearly lost her balance and leaned against the wall, "right now I feel like my whole body's on fire and freezing at the same time!"
"I feel like I'm half drowned!" shouted Calvin.
"I feel like I'm being eaten alive!" shouted Joshua.
"I feel like there's maggots eating their way through my brain!" shouted Rachael.
"Well, I feel pretty lousy myself!" said Chrissie, "but not enough to make me lose control! Any suffering can be overcome!"
"But Travis isn't suffering," said Liza as she regained her balance and stood straight, walking towards Travis, whom was slowly but surely pulling himself together.
"He doesn't have any symptoms," said Calvin as he, Liza, Joshua and Rachael stood around him, "I'll bet, aside from one dozy of a headache, he feels perfectly fine. I wonder why that is?"
"He's not fine! His hand itched," said Calvin.
"Damn…right my…hand itches," said Travis as he groggily pushed himself to a seating position and tried to stand up, "I probably touched something here that I'm allergic to."
"Bullshit!" snapped Calvin as he pushed Travis down, "you've got the EVE and you're holding out on us!" He then searched one of Travis's pockets and pulled out an EVE syringe.
"You have been holding out on us!" shouted Rachael. She then punched Travis in the face, breaking his nose.
"NO! Give them back!" cried Travis as he ignored the blood dripping from his nose, "I need those!"
"We need them more!" said Liza.
"Where'd you get them!?" Joshua asked irately, "how long have you had these!?"
"Tell us before I rip your ears off!" shouted Rachael.
"It was back in Rapture," said Travis as he wiped the blood from his nose with his sleeve and stood up, "in The Proving Grounds, where Chrissie, Tess and I were going after the dimensional doorway device. I was hurt and told Chrissie and Tess to go on without me. I lost my remaining special EVE syringes, but there was a Circus of Values nearby."
"So you injected yourself with regular EVE," said Kairi, at which Travis nodded in acknowledgement.
"But we can't do that!" said Chrissie, "Dr. Tenenbaum told us that normal EVE would only make our addiction worse and turn us into Splicers!"
"I know!" shouted Travis, "but what could I do at the time!?"
"Waited until Chrissie or one of the others came back," said Kairi, "or something, anything other than giving in to addiction!"
"You've never been addicted to a drug, Kairi," said Xenophon, "you don't know how powerful and dominating a sickness addiction can be."
"You sound like you know from experience," said Beatrice.
"I told you all that I'm semi retired from the Night Scholars," said Xenophon, "what I didn't tell you is that the mission that made me walk away was the mission that took away my ability to walk. I lost both legs below the knee and have been wheelchair bound for seven years, during which I became addicted to pain killers and alcohol, a dangerous combination for anyone."
"But you're not anymore, right?" Trillian asked.
"I went to A.A. and other support groups," said Xenophon, "but the desire, the gnawing need to pop pills and take a drink, I'll always have it. Some days I can completely ignore it, others it's nearly all I can think about. The creation of VRMMORPG's helped things a lot. For the first time in years I could walk and so much more.
"My condition and addictions left me an antisocial where I wound up driving away my friends, my colleagues, even my wife and children, I was such an asshole. I nearly made my doctors and caregivers give up on me, and I wasn't that much of a social person to begin with, long story. But then I discovered the Full Dive system and all its wonders."
Xenophon then looked at Kirito and Asuna, "very few know of this, but I was one of the first to have a fully functional Nerve Gear, a gift from Kayaba Akihilo himself."
"No way," said an astonished Klien, "that murdering psychopath helped you out?"
"Were you one of the players trapped in SAO?" Kirito asked.
"I never got a chance to preorder a copy of SAO," said Xenophon, "just having the Nerve Gear and being able to walk again, even in a limited virtual environment, helped me pull my life back together. I was able to resume my work with The Night Scholars to a certain extent; I couldn't run around saving the world, but I could help with research and development in ways of defeating the darkness.
"Of course, I was devastated when I heard what Kayaba did. I nearly fell off the wagon and started drinking and taking painkillers, but Dr. Armitage herself reassured me that I was stronger than drugs, stronger than depression, stronger than the darkness that threatened to claim me.
"I was able to keep going, one day at a time, throwing myself into my work and healing the rifts with my friends and family. I was so absorbed with my own life, I completely missed the release of the AmuSphere system and launch of Alfheim Online.
"But when you exposed what Sugō' Nobuyuki had done, Kirito, I thought that was the end of VRMMORPG's, until you gave everyone the means to create their own games, leading me to establishing myself as a wizard in Forgotten Realms Online. The rest is history."
"That's a very touching story, man," said Joshua, "but there's still the fact that this mother fucker!" he pointed at Travis, "HE's been holding out on us!"
"He's more than holding out," said Rachael, "he's more along towards becoming a Splicer than we are!"
"I am not becoming a Splicer!" shouted an outraged Travis as he scratched the back of his hand again, "I've got this under control!"
"The fuck you do!" shouted Calvin as he grabbed Travis's arm and held it up, revealing a large red welt on the back of the hand.
"A mutation mark," said Chrissie, "they start small but soon they'll be all over. It won't be long before you start raving like those mad creatures we left behind in Rapture."
"I am not a Splicer!" shouted Travis, "and I'm not raving! If anyone's raving, it's you! All of you! You're all crazy! You all want to kill me! You want to rip out my insides and wear my skin like a dress! Well, I won't let you!" he then reached into another pocket and pulled out a second syringe.
"HE'S GOT MORE!" bellowed Joshua as he, Calvin, Lisa and Rachael tackled Travis and ripped his pockets open, spilling half a dozen syringes onto the floor.
"NO! THEY'RE MINE!" raged Travis as he and the others began fighting over the syringes.
"Stop it! You're all going to kill yourselves!" shouted Chrissie, yet her words fell on deaf ears as the five of them continued to fight.
"Well, Kairi?" DiDe asked, "what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?" Kairi asked in an accusing manner.
"I can end this here and now," said DiDe, "I can end the game and allow all of you to log out. I can even tell my creators to return you to the real world, and I'll bet you, six of one or half a dozen of another, that they will.
"But you have to pick one of your friends to die. Right here and now. Choose who dies so everyone else can live. As for the five who wake up, there's plenty of real EVE waiting for them"
"That's right!" said Liza as she and the others stopped fighting, "one of us dies and the rest go free!"
"This stuff isn't even real!" shouted Joshua as he tossed the syringes away.
"But the real stuff is there, back with our bodies!" said Rachael, "All we have to do is kill one of us." She then looked at Travis, "he's already part Splicer! Better to kill him now before he goes on a gibbering rampage!"
"Do it now while he's still sane," said Calvin, "while he's still human."
"Better dead than a Splicer," said Liza.
"You bastards!" snapped Travis, "after all we've been through!"
"No one is killing anyone!" snapped Kairi, "we're not letting DiDe get the better of us."
"But he's a Splicer!" snapped Rachael.
At that Chrissie slapped Rachael, "so am I! So are all of us! We stopped being human the moment we first injected ourselves with Plasmids. But just because we're no longer human, doesn't mean we have to sacrifice our humanity, all to satisfy the sick, twisted desires of a bunch of sick, twisted fucks!"
"Yeah, remember the real enemy!" said Kairi, "Columbina and her Foundation X allies!"
"And that sick, twisted fuck who created DiDe," said Xenophon.
"Sugō Nobuyuki," said Kirito.
"No way we're playing his games anymore," said Kairi. She then grabbed the syringes of EVE, threw them down and stepped on them until they broke, spilling the blue fluids across the floor.
"Oh, you're no fun anymore," pouted DiDe.
"You were never fun to begin with," said Kairi.
"Says you," said DiDe. She then smiled insidiously, "then again, my sense of fun may have just gotten a reprieve. My creators, specifically Sugō Nobuyuki, he just finished and installed my combat software."
DiDe then summoned a black and gray saber with a wickedly hooked tip and assumed a fighting stance, "I may not have broken your spirit, Kairi, but I'll be damned before I let you back into the real world alive!"
"That's rich, considering that you're supposed to be from Hell," said Kairi as she summoned her Keyblade, "you wanna fight? Let's fight!" With that she and DiDe rushed at each other and began exchanging blows, their weapons sparking on each impact that was so fast, they were little more than blurs.
"Look at them go!" said an impressed Kirito as he and the others watched.
"Shouldn't we help them?" Chrissie asked.
"No, this is Kairi's fight," said Asuna, "to interfere would be an insult."
Just then Kairi and DiDe broke apart from their fight, stopping a few paces from each other. Kairi was breathing heavily and scratched in a few places, while DiDe looked as if she had barely exhorted herself at all.
"Not bad, Kairi," said DiDe smugly, "not bad at all."
"You're not so bad yourself, for a simulation," said Kairi as she wiped sweat from her brow.
"I'm way more than a simulation," said DiDe, "I'm the one who is going to help Foundation X take over this pathetic world."
"Not if I can help it!" said Kairi. She then rushed at DiDe again and the two resumed their battle, exchanging more sparking blows, yet the creature had a slight advantage as more and more of her attacks got past Kairi's Keyblade and delivered minor wounds.
But then DiDe grabbed Kairi's arm with her tail and jerked Kairi forward, knocking Kairi off balance and forcing her to drop her Keyblade, which vanished before it hit the floor, while at the same time pulling Kairi in and stabbing her in the torso.
"NO!" shouted Asuna as DiDe pushed Kairi off of her black saber. She ran forward and caught Kairi as she collapsed.
"You cheating bitch!" shouted Klien as he and the others readied their weapons.
"My house, my rules!" said DiDe. She then accelerated and attacked Klien, whom barely got his katana up in time to block a devastating attack that sent him crashing into the wall.
DiDe then rushed at Agil and Lisbeth, whom managed to keep their balance as DiDe attacked them. The creature then lashed at Silica with her tail, knocking the young Cait Sith to the wall.
"Eat dragon's fire, you fiend!" shouted Xenophon as he aimed his staff and blasted a stream of fire at DiDe, whom opened her mouth wider than any humanoid creature should be able to and swallowed the flames without so much as sweating a drop.
"Hell is hotter than any dragon's fire," said DiDe smugly. She then spat a stream of even hotter fire at Xenophon, whom tried to cast a deflective shield, but it failed and he was consumed by the fire. When the flames died out, there was no trace of Xenophon at all.
"Oh my God! You killed him!" shouted Mercedes. Screaming with rage, she rushed at DiDe, intending to stab the creature in the heart with one of her wooden steaks. DiDe merely stabbed Mercedes in the heart with her black saber, causing Mercedes to stop in her tracks and vanish in a burst of crystal polygons.
DiDe then rushed at and stabbed Albion and Trillian, causing them to vanish in crystal polygons before they could even get their weapons up.
"That's four dead," said DiDe, "and soon to be five," she then looked at Leafa, whom was casting Heal spell after Heal spell on Kairi, yet it did little more than staunch the flow of blood from Kairi's wound.
"Leafa…get…get out of here," gasped Kairi as she tried to stand up and summon back her Keyblade, yet was too weak to even sit up.
"No! I won't let this thing hurt you anymore!" shouted Leafa as she stood up and drew her sword, "and I won't let it hurt anyone else!"
"Brave words," said DiDe, "brave and foolish!" she then rushed at Leafa faster than the blond Sylph could react and prepared to cut her head off.
But then there was the flash and crash of metal on metal. Both DiDe and Leafa blinked in shock as Kirito stood in front of Leafa, blocking DiDe's black saber with his two swords.
"Get away from my sister, you psycho program!" shouted Kirito as he shoved DiDe back by sheer force of his blades on hers.
"My creators often wondered about Sword Art Online survivors," said DiDe, "especially those who spent the majority of the game fighting to open up each Floor. One would have to be lacking a basic survival instinct to want to risk their lives against increasingly powerful monsters."
"It was either that or resign ourselves to living out our lives in a fake world," said Asuna as she stood next to Kirito with her rapier ready, "while our real bodies atrophied away. I admit, it wouldn't have been so bad, especially if you had someone you cared about to live with, but yeah, we did what we had to do to win back our real lives."
"Which is why we have to keep fighting," said Kirito, "to stop wicked men like your creators from ruining innocent lives, like Kairi's."
"Don't get me started on innocence," said DiDe, "you want to know why evil is so intent on destroying innocence? I'll tell you, because it's fun!"
"Which is why we're going to send you back to hell where you belong!" said Asuna.
"Bold words, Asuna the Flash," said DiDe as she moved into a fighting stance, "if you and your beloved Black Swordsman Kirito wish to die so badly, it'd be my pleasure to grand you death!" she then rushed at Kirito and Asuna so fast she was little more than a black blur.
Kirito and Asuna rushed in as well and the three met in a fury of blades and sparks that the human eye could barely follow.
"This is insane!" said Lisbeth as she and Agil helped Klien and Silica back up, "all we wanted to do was help Kairi and get some XP and items."
"And now four of our friends are dead," said Silica as tears began to well up in her eyes.
"It's just like back in SAO," said Agil.
"No, not like in SAO," said Yui, "they didn't die. Trust me; Xenophon, Mercedes, Albion and Trillian are alive."
"How can you be so sure?" Lisbeth asked.
"Because I am," said Yui, "Xenophon's hacker friends, they restored some of the safety protocols to the dungeon. We can still feel pain, but we won't die."
"But Kairi still can," said Lisbeth, "she's really here, remember?"
"How is she, by the way?" Klien asked as he looked at Kairi and Leafa.
"I've stopped the bleeding for now," said Leafa, "but she needs more than healing magic and items. We've got to get her out of the game and back to the real world before her mind decides that she's really dying and she really does die."
"And before DiDe decides to go after her again," said Lisbeth.
"Don't worry about that," said Klien, "if I know Kirito and Asuna, and I knew them pretty well, they'll have DiDe vanquished in a heartbeat or two."
But then the fight ended, leaving DiDe scratched and bleeding from over a dozen minor wounds, while Kirito and Asuna lay on the ground, bleeding from dozens of wounds each, while DiDe kicked their swords out of reach.
"MAMA! PAPA!" shouted Yui as she flew towards her in-game parents, only to be idly swatted away by DiDe.
"I'm so glad we had this battle," said DiDe as she looked at Kirito and Asuna as they struggled to get back up, "really, I am. My wounds only prove that there's still a ways to go for my creators to make me perfect."
"You'll never be perfect!" said Kirito as he and Asuna helped each other stand on unsteady feet, "there'll always be something higher, something that'll always be out of your reach!"
"And don't forget, you were made by humans," said Asuna, "the most imperfect beings on Earth!"
"True, but some humans are less imperfect than others," said DiDe smugly. "I may not be able to kill you for real now, but by the time you're able to log back in, it'll be too late to save Kairi," she raised her black saber, "and enjoy the real world as you know it, it's gonna change real soon!" she laughed at her own pun as she rushed at Kirito and Asuna.
"NO!" shouted Leafa as DiDe aimed her saber at Kirito's heart. But the point of the blade stopped a millimeter from contact.
"Huh?" Kirito asked as he realized that DiDe was frozen in place. He stepped to side, just as DiDe resumed her lunge, overbalancing and falling flat on her face.
"What the home?!" exclaimed DiDe as she picked herself off. "Sorry," she said to Kirito, "Meant to do that. Where was I? Oh yeah, taking your digital life!"
Screaming with battle lust, DiDe rushed at Kirito again, only to pass right through him as her form flickered and briefly changed color.
"What is this!?" exclaimed DiDe, "why is this…" that's as far as she got before she began spouting gibberish.
"What's happening to her?" Agil asked.
"Either she's attempting to speak Venusian," Beatrice asked, "or our hacker friends are working their mojo."
…The Real World…
"We've been hacked!?" exclaimed Dr. Remington as he and the others saw red warning windows on all the computer screens.
"Impossible!" said Dr. Weatherby, "Foundation X has the best computer security ever created!"
"Do you doubt your eyes?!" shouted Dr. Winchester, "our security has been compromised! Not only is DiDe being taken apart bit by bit, Hell House is also being deconstructed. And as if to add insult to injury, our external security has been compromised as well!"
A screen showing a view from a security camera showed several unconscious guards, while another view showed a team of black-suit special ops battling and overcoming more guards, while a third screen showed Dr. Armitage and several other people entering the building.
"It doesn't matter," said Sugō, "I'm sure you Foundation X types will have the situation resolved momentarily."
"And just how do you expect us to do that?!" snapped Dr. Winchester.
"With those fantastic Gaia Memories of yours," said Sugō, "just pop one into your bodies and become some kind of horrific monster that'll tear those invading fools to pieces within seconds."
At that Dr. Remington pushed up the sleeves of his business suit-like lab coat, then opened the collar, "I have no Living Connector."
"None of us do," said Dr. Weatherby, "we were never selected to become Dopants."
"There's only one thing we can do now," said Dr. Winchester as he went to one of the computer terminals and activated a program, summoning a large shimmering gray doorway, "evacuate."
"With all relevant data of course," said Dr. Remington as he connected a portable hard drive to the main computers and began downloading, while the various technicians began an orderly retreat through the doorway.
"What?" asked a disbelieving Sugō, "you're running away without a fight? Without destroying those fools online?"
"We have what we originally came for, mostly," said Dr. Remington as the hard drive finished downloading. He placed it in a metal briefcase, "enough to carry on somewhere else."
"As for Kairi and her companions," said Dr. Weatherby, "as for Columbina's wishes that she be destroyed, we can say that we tried."
"Her wrath will be legendary, but we're under contract with the Foundation," said Dr. Winchester, "she can't touch us."
"So it's away from this world and on to the next project," said Dr. Remington.
"Well then," said Sugō in a thoughtful manner, "a choice between exile on another world or spend the rest of my life in prison, I prefer exile." With that he started towards the doorway.
"I don't think so," said Dr. Remington as he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Sugō, "you're not part of Foundation X and never were."
"You were just a means to an end," said Dr. Winchester, "and expendable asset."
"And your usefulness has long expired," said Dr. Weatherby, "farewell." With that the trio of dark scientists stepped through the doorway, which vanished after them.
"BASTARDS!" shouted Sugō, "ungrateful bastards! How dare they betray me like this after all I did for them!?" He then saw the security cameras showing the special ops team securing the room where Chrissie and the other Rapture survivors lay, followed by Dr. Armitage and her entourage.
"Then again," said Sugō as he smiled with mad glee, "I may be able to turn this around." He turned back to the main computer and began typing rapidly.
…Hell House…
"I may be glitching up like there's no tomorrow," said DiDe as she managed to stabilize herself for the moment, "But I can still complete my primary function! I can still kill Kairi!"
"We won't give you the chance!" shouted Chrissie as she levitated one of the chairs and threw it at DiDe, whom barely dodged it.
"Let's fuck her up!" shouted Rachael as she grabbed a rusting piece of metal and rushed at DiDe, while Joshua and the others also found blunt objects and rushed at DiDe. The creature managed to force them away from her, only for Liza to hit her with a blast of ice, freezing her legs to the floor.
"I've got a game for you, bitch!" shouted Travis, "it's called 'Let's Kill The Demon Bitch Who Likes To Torture Innocent People!" he then summoned a tornado that lifted DiDe into the air and tossed her to the floor hard.
"You really need to work on your imagination," said Lisbeth.
"I thought it was a good name," said Travis irately.
At that DiDe bellowed a bloodcurdling roar and lashed out with a wave of purple fire that hit everyone left standing, sapping them of their energy and collapsing them to the floor.
"I will not be defeated by a bunch of weak, pathetic, ugly bags of mostly water!" shouted DiDe, "I am superior to anything organic! I am the apotheosis artificial intelligence! I am perfection personified! I am…!"
"Shut Up!" shouted Felix, whom had withstood the energy sapping flames behind his shield. He then grabbed one of the disarmed reverse bear traps and threw it at DiDe, hitting her on the head and knocking her to the ground.
"You want death?!" shouted Felix as he grabbed the other reverse bear trap and ran up to the disoriented DiDe, "you want pain and suffering! Here! EAT IT!" he then slammed the iron contraption into DiDe's face, then hit her again and again, "EAT IT TILL YOU CHOKE, YOU SICK, TWISTED FUCK!"
Bellowing with rage through a mouthful of broken teeth and broken cheek and jaw bones, DiDe blasted Felix with a stream of demonic fire, knocking him into the air and onto Beatrice.
"She's…she's unstoppable!" said a horrified Lisbeth, "how do we kill her?"
"You can't," said DiDe as she stood up, her form flickering and distorting again, "I am invincible."
"No you're not!" said Yui as she stood up in her human form, glaring defiantly at DiDe, "not so long as there are good people willing to fight and die in order to keep the light going in the face of the darkness!"
At that DiDe laughed like the out of control monster she was, "oh really?" she asked as she walked up to Yui, "and what's an obsolete mental health program like you going to do? Huh? Well? What's a child like you going to do? Bite my ankles?"
"I'm going to stand here and do nothing," said Yui as she held her hands behind her back, smiling innocently.
"You're what?" a confused DiDe asked.
"That's right, I'm gonna stand right here," said Yui, "and let my big sister do the real work."
"Programs don't have sisters," said DiDe, "Programs don't have families at all." That's as far as she got before Kairi got behind her and stabbed her in the back with her Keyblade, the tip of said Keyblade piercing and exiting through DiDe's digital black heart.
"Go to hell, DiDe!" shouted Kairi as she pulled her Keyblade out of the creature's back. DiDe gave a surprised grunt and turned around to look at Kairi.
"Inconceivable," said DiDe as Kairi swing her Keyblade and cut the creature's head off. Both pieces fell to the floor and shattered into crystal polygons.
"Is she dead?" Silica asked as she and the others recovered and stood up.
"Derezzed," said Beatrice remorselessly.
Just then the walls around them flickered, distorted and vanished, leaving our heroes and allies atop the hill as the thick, lightning-flashing clouds boiled away.
"Well, that was a little anticlimactic," said Lisbeth as she dusted her clothes off, "But all in all, I think we had fun."
"Fun?" asked Klien, "Fun?! That was nuts!"
"At least none of us died," said Asuna, "be thankful for that, and speaking of which," she then walked up to Yui, "that was both incredibly brave and incredibly stupid what you just did, Yui-chan."
"That manic could have destroyed you," said Kirito as he walked up to her, "how do you think your mother and I would have felt if something happened to you?"
"I know it was risky, mama, papa," said Yui, "but I had to do something. Someone had to stand up to that bully."
"I'm glad she did," said Kairi as she walked over, "considering how crappy I was feeling just now, I wasn't sure I'd be able to sneak up on DiDe without a distraction."
"Speaking of which," said Asuna, "how are you feeling now?"
"Never better," said Kairi, "whatever was hurting me and all of us, it went away when Hell House vanished."
"How did that happen, by the way?" Felix asked.
"You can thank Xenophon's hacker friends," said Mercedes as she walked up to our heroes and allies.
"You're alright!" said an overjoyed Felix.
"I told you so," said Yui smugly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Mercedes, "So is Xenophon. He called me just now and told me to log back in so I could give a message," she then looked at Chrissie and the other survivors, "hold on to your asses, it's about to get a bit bumpy."
"What?" Chrissie asked, just as she, Joshua, Rachael, Calvin, Liza and Travis all vanished.
"What happened?" Kairi asked.
"Dr. Armitage's team has secured the Foundation X lab and has Sugō Nobuyuki in custody," said Mercedes.
"I hope they hogtied the molesting prick," said Asuna grimly.
"Me too," said Mercedes, "anyway, Dr. Armitage figured out how to log out Chrissie and her group. They should be waking up and receiving medical care by now."
"What about Kairi?" Yui asked, "how's she going to get back to the real world?"
"That's coming," said Mercedes, "the team from the Night Scholars, they're having a little trouble figuring out how to operate the machine that digitized Kairi."
"Can't they get one of the Foundation X brains to tell them?" Leafa asked.
"They all got away except for Sugō," said Mercedes, "or so Xenophon told me."
"How would he know?" Asuna asked, "how does he know any of this? I thought he was retired?"
"You never really retire from The Night Scholars," said Beatrice. "Now, if you all will excuse me, I have to log off." She then brought up her menu and selected the logout feature.
"That's it?" Leafa asked, "you're leaving just like that?"
"What else is there to say except for goodbye?" asked Beatrice, "so goodbye, farewell, amen and all that jazz." She then hit the logout button and vanished.
"Yeah, I've gotta go too," said Felix, "I've been online too much today as it is," he then looked at Kairi, Kirito, Asuna and the others, "it's been great, real great, hope to do it again someday." With that he logged out and vanished.
"I've got to go too," said Mercedes, "but this isn't goodbye forever, not by a long shot." She then looked at Mercedes, "Xenophon told me that you'll know how to get back to the real world when the time is right. Don't ask me what that means, I'm in the dark as much as you are."
"I understand," said Kairi, "and thank you, you and the others, for everything."
"You're welcome," said Mercedes. She then looked at Kirito and Asuna, "next time, though, we do things in Sunnydale. Oh, before I go, Xenophon said that the lab is in Shinjuku, he'll email you the address so you can meet with Kairi for real." With that she logged out and vanished.
"Shinjuku," said Kirito, "the enemy was really right in our backyard and no one ever knew."
"But we knew," said Kairi, "and we stopped them before they could unleash DiDe and whatever hellish plans they had on the world." She then blinked in surprise, "Xenophon was right, I do know what to do." With that she swiped the air with her left fore and middle finger, bringing up a simple menu that had only the logout feature. She pressed the button and a second window popped up.
ARE YOU READY TO LOGOUT?
YES NO
"I will be in a minute," said Kairi. She then looked at Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Yui and the others, "this is it. Thank you all for everything!"
"Like we could abandon a family member in trouble," said Asuna as she, Kirito and Yui smiled warmly.
"Wait, family?" asked Klien.
"Yui-chan did say that she an Kairi are sisters now," said Kirito.
"She was serious?" Lisbeth asked, "then…that must mean…"
"That Kirito and Asuna are Kairi's parents, sort of," said Leafa as she too smiled warmly.
"I barely remember my real parents," said Kairi, "so, if you'll take the job, I guess I can call you mom and dad." She then looked at Leafa, "and I guess you're my aunt."
"What?! I'm too young to be an aunt!" said a slightly whining Leafa.
"You're already my aunt," said Yui. She then walked up to Kairi, "if this works and you get back to the real world, then…"
"Then someday you'll be able to go there too," said Kairi, "and we really will be sisters."
"I can hardly wait," said Yui as she and Kairi hugged. Kairi then hugged Leafa, shook hands with Lisbeth, Silica, Agil and Klien, then hugged Asuna and Kirito.
"This is it," said Kairi, "goodbye, everyone, and thank you for everything!" She then looked at Asuna and Kirito, "And I'll see you in the real world soon." She then pressed YES and vanished.
"Now there goes a strange girl if I ever saw one," said Agil.
"And what a story this will make to everyone at work," said Klien.
Just then everyone heard the sound of dozens of people shouting with joy, then saw dozens of Sylphs, Salamanders and Cait Siths flying towards them.
"Well, you'll get a chance to practice your story on them," said Lisbeth, "as for me, I've got to go. See ya, everyone!" with that she logged out and vanished.
"I gotta go too," said Silica, while Agil and Klien nodded in agreement, then the three of them logged out.
"Someone's gotta tell them," said Leafa.
"Thanks for volunteering," said Asuna as she and Kirito pulled up their logout screens.
"And I think I left the light on back at Milliways," said Yui as she switched to her pixy form and flew off, while Kirito and Asuna logged out, leaving Leafa alone to face the oncoming horde of eagerly curious fairies.
…The Real World…
Just as Kazuto finished stretching the stiffness out of his limbs, his phone rang. He recognized the caller ID as belonging to Samantha's, "Hello, Samantha. Everything's okay now."
"I'm afraid it isn't quite okay yet, Kazuto," said Samantha gravely, "I'm sending a car to pick you and Asuna up and take you to the lab immediately."
"Why?" a concerned Kazuto asked, "What's happened?"
"I fear that while the main battle has been won," said Samantha, "Kairi is far from out of danger. I fear that the real battle has only just begun."
The End of Chapter 9
Next chapter finds the final battle for Kairi's existence taking place in the real world as Kazuto and Asuna come face to face with a demon from their past. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you then!