In Which Justina Learns a Little Too Much and is Forced to Flee

Author's Note:

Since I couldn't find Masters of the Metaverse when trying to label the show this is for I'm saying it here. This is a fanfiction of Masters of the Metaverse, a Zombie Orpheus Entertainment show that broadcasts live every Monday from their twitch channel.
It also includes memories of Pax's brilliant Masters of the Metaverse stories. "Need to Know" mostly but also "One more chance" and "Affairs Of The Heart And The Metaverse"

This isn't cannon.

"The library will be closing in 30 minutes."

Justina lifted her head from her hands. Another day of searching and she still hadn't found anything substantial. It had been five weeks since her concern for her husband and got her banned from the high school where he used to teach. Five weeks since a mysterious woman had confronted Justina and told her that Tom was dead. Five weeks since they had threatened her. Since she had disbelieved them. Five weeks since her concern had changed into a full-blown panic. Four weeks since they had followed through, gotten her fired, frozen her assets, gotten her mother removed from the PTA and almost arrested. Justina and her sister had gotten their mother into a retirement facility to keep her out of jail. A retirement facility she no longer could help pay for.

All of this had steeled her resolve, whatever they were hiding it was bad and she wouldn't leave Tom in the middle of that. Thomas. He had always hated the nickname Tom as much as she had always hated Tina, and yet that's what they called each other. She didn't exactly regret leaving him. They had gotten to the point where something had to give. But she couldn't accept that moment as how things really ended.

She carefully closed her notebook and pulled the smudged orange rubber band around it. She tucked it carefully in her bag next to the notebook with what information she had been able to find out about Tom and his new employers. She had stopped using digital means to keep her notes weeks ago, it might seem paranoid but she wasn't sure it was possible to be too careful anymore.

Not that there was much in there. It was like Tom had disappeared down a rabbit hole in the school's basement and there was nothing left to go on. When she had started searching she had tried to find out who the woman in grey had worked for. Then she'd tried to figure out if the woman in grey even existed. She'd kept calling the school, Tom's old co-workers, hell she had even tried reaching out to Nick Kreiger although they hadn't spoken since the day after she left Tom. He hadn't answered and she hadn't expected him too.

It hadn't taken her long to realize that just trying to find out information anyone could see wouldn't be good enough, so she started researching less easy ways of getting access to the information she needed. That went in a second, much more filled, notebook. The next step, of course, would be figuring out how to actually apply one to the other. She sighed again and rubbed her eyes. There were, she glanced at the clock, 26 more minutes until the library closed and only three minutes left on her computer session. The libraries system stopped letting you extend your time if it would mean being logged in after the library was closed.

She was tired, down to her bones, but she felt close to something. Maybe something that would make a difference. She watched the last couple minutes countdown in the corner of the screen.

It hit zero, the screen switched over to the library's logo and the login page. She put on her coat, looked around the workstation to make sure she had everything gathered into her bag, and headed out. As she passed the front desk she smiled and nodded to Maria, the librarian working there. Maria waved back as she passed. Justina pulled out her keys before she walked out the front door, but there was no one waiting for her today. She unlocked her bike, twisted the handlebars back into alignment with the front tire, and rode home.

The next morning Justina was back at the library. She locked up her bike, and then looked toward the still closed doors twisting her wedding ring around on her finger. Noticing the motion, she carefully removed the ring and tucked it into a small inner pocket on her coat, which she then zipped closed. She had a habit of spinning her ring around whenever she thought of Tom which had resulted in a nasty blister on her ring finger, so keeping the ring safe in her pocket had become a bit of a ritual to her.

When Diane, the librarian who worked morning shifts four days a week, opened the door Justina nodded to her.

Diane smiled back asking, "Found what you're looking for yet, Tina?"

"Not yet, Diane, but getting close, I think."

"Oh yeah? I hope it's worth it."

"Me too."

Justina slipped through the door and walked directly to her favorite computer. She dropped her coat over the back of the chair, sat down, placed the notebooks from her bag to the right of the keyboard where she could take notes easily, and put her bag by her feet. Every motion was precise and practiced after a few weeks of daily research. She settled into her routine. Flipping her notebook open, she began researching what a "piggyback" was when used to talk about computers.

A couple hours passed, a couple pages filled. The day promised to go much the same as yesterday, the day before, and the day before that.

Until Justina felt a brush against her thoughts, something inside her mind. It was not unpleasant. It felt almost like someone she didn't know, but had always known, had walked into her home and started making tea. The feeling grew as a presence made itself comfortable inside her body, her soul, her mind. A presence that felt like grace and speed and the constant edge of wariness. Of a prey animal prepared to run. But overwhelmingly, with the feeling of excitement. She was giddy and confused, out of her depth and fully prepared to wade in deeper. The presence pushed Justina out of the way, and inside her own mind she protested.

Hey!

~Sorry, sorry!~

And it eased up a bit.

~What is this?~ Her own hands caressed the edges of the computer screen in front of her.

It's a computer. Seriously, stop it. You're making me look weird.

The presence eased up a little more, and Justina returned her hands to the keyboard.

~A computer?~ There was a moment of confusion, and then it was like the presence remembered but with Justina's memories. The giddiness rose again.

~This Metaverse has electricity!

Metaverse? Justina was confused by the term.

~Honestly, I'm not really sure.~

There was a brief memory of a cheerful furry fluff-ball with big ears and big eyes hanging upside down from a vine by their tail. They were happily telling her, "- what you are, my little pilot! You're a Metaverse traveler yourself now!"

"I'm... I'm... A hero?"

The fluff ball cock their head, setting them swinging. "You're a pilot. One all full of non-sequiturs it seems. I like that! Your heroic-ocity is all up to you."

"Oh."

"You wanna try exploring?!" They swung and hopped between vines until they dropped down behind a short pillar of glossy black stone with strange swirling patterns etched across it. They poked their head out from behind it, eyes glittering impossibly. "The Metastone can take you somewhere close! And you can come back with stories, right?"

Justina recognized that it hadn't been her memory, concluded that it was one from the presence in her mind, considered doubting it but dismissed the impulse because she could tell it had been real. The same way she could tell her own memories were real.

Do you… What's your name?

~Oh! How rude. I'm sorry, I just got so excited. I'm Xanaria.~ A resigned feeling creeped into her thoughts. ~Please don't call me Ri.~

Justina felt a connection, a first thread of kinship. I'm Justina, please don't call me Tina.

~I promise I never will.~

Justina smiled, and she wasn't sure which of them had been the one to do so.

~Now, show me this computer please!~

Well, it holds and stores information and this one is connected to a bunch of other computers that also store information. So you can ask it things and it might know the answer.

~Oooh! Ask it what a Metaverse is!~

Ah, Justina was brought back to earth. Why don't you ask your fuzzy friend, I'm working on something right now.

~What were you doing with it?~

Well, someone I care about is in trouble and I've been trying to figure out where he disappeared to.

~Oh, and the computer can scry him for you?~

No. Well, maybe sort of. It might show me his trail if I can ask right. I've been researching how to exploit loopholes and bypass security to find out where he went after he left the high school where he taught. That was the last place I know he was.

~Why haven't you asked it yet? You've been here for weeks.~

I have asked, just apparently not in the right way. I've been researching how to make it... Justina struggled to make what she'd been doing fit the metaphor that seemed to be working for Xanaria, make it… umm…

~You aren't threatening it are you?~

No! That's not really… It can't actually think. I'm trying to figure out ways to… get it to tell me things other people have told it not to tell me. It's like... it's a library and I'm trying to find an open window into a section that is normally only for a select few people.

~Why don't you show me.~

What! I'm not ready yet, I'm barely starting to understand this stuff.

Xanaria picked up her open notebook. ~Why not? You obviously were able to write about it.~

Justina closed the notebook. I was just copying things down, taking notes you know.

Xanaria opened it again at random. ~What does this bit mean? What's a "command line"?~

It's a thing computer programmers use to do all sorts of stuff. I don't really understand it, and I can't access it on the library computers. Not as far as I can tell, anyway. But someone said, Justina flipped to the page were she had written the quote down, A graphical user interface makes the easy things easier, but a command line make the difficult things possible.

She hadn't written it word for word. She'd been trying to use her own words for most of the notes she'd taken. It was an old college trick that had seen her well through the years.

~What about this bit here?~ Xanaria flipped to a page later in the notebook.

That's about how to skip past a password protected page, but it only works if the system is at least 5 updates behind the latest patch.

~Well, let's try that.~

But what if it doesn't work?

~Then you can come back and try something else. I asked you what two random things meant and you were able to give me an answer for both of them to some degree. Now show me what you've learned and lets save your husband!~

Justina didn't ask how Xanaria knew who she was looking for. She had probably remembered in that weird shared way they currently had when Justina was thinking about him.

Okay fine. It can't hurt I suppose.

Justina realized she was nervous. She was about to find out if she had just been wasting her time. How long have I just been putting this off?

Justina thumbed through the notebook, more for comfort than anything. She had gone over the notebook every night after the library closed trying to understand it better. She could have found the right page in the dark. The one where she had started spitballing how to apply her new theoretical knowledge to the real world problem she had.

This is my first idea.

And she set about manipulating the high schools web page, trying to get beyond it and into their personnel files. A few failed attempts later and she was getting discouraged.

I should really come back later once I've learned more about all this stuff.

~Oh, come on! This is cool! Keep going, I'm sure you'll find something. Besides you keep taking notes about how you failed, surely that will help you find the right way.~

It was hard to back down in the face of such enthusiasm and after a few more failures Justina finally hit the jackpot.

The high school's athletics program was trying to get more people interested in their teams by posting a webpage that had tabs for each sport, and profiles for all the players. It showed school pictures, their best times, high scores, and brief quotes from each. But more importantly, to Justina anyway, in order to show they care about academics each student profile showed their grade in the class they were most successful in. To do that, the website called that information straight from the student files to automatically update day to day. The software had been slapped on after the main website had been finished and Justina was able to follow it back to the student files. And from there she could access the classes they were in, and who their teachers were.

And they hadn't yet removed the teacher file for one Thomas Wells.

There it was, a shiny new lead. There was a memo there clearly from before he had left entirely, requesting his final class of the day get taken over by someone else so that he could pick up an extra job tutoring children for an organization called The Exploration and Informational Program.

~You did it! Now you should look up Metaverse, you got me curious.~

Ask your fluffy friend. I finally have a lead, but not an answer. It's time to keep looking. Justina smiled then. And thank you. For pushing me to try the next step. I'd grown so tired of failure.

And she searched. She found no more on The Exploration and Information Program than she had found on The International Felonies Program at the start of all this. She went back to the school files, and found a letter of recommendation Principal Jerry had supposedly written. It reads like an example from an online tutorial. It was lukewarm and vague and for a moment she felt angry at Jerry for his half assed attempt, before she remembered that it had worked well enough to get Tom the new job. And that Tom getting the job was the real problem. But the letter was directed to The Program Manager. No name even. Just the title.

"God, Jerry's a lazy ass-hole." Justina muttered.

She heard some titters to her right. Startled she glanced over and saw that the space next to her had been taken up by two kids, maybe 12 years old. She been too absorbed to even notice them arrive. They were crowded together, one in front and the other almost perched on his shoulder. She couldn't see what they were playing without leaning over.

"Uh, sorry." She said.

They glanced at each other and giggled again, ignoring her. A little embarrassed she returned to her work. She searched "The Program Manager," before thinking it through. Of course it came up with nothing. Or rather pages and pages of irrelevant results.

She kept looking, and she kept hitting dead ends. Websites that had disappeared, broken links, weird unrelated search results that yielded nothing more than a strong desire for brain bleach. But it was odd, clearly the place had existed enough for Jerry to write them a recommendation letter and for Tom to apply to. And when she searched, she should have at least found some false leads. But she didn't. And that alone was enough to make her feel like if she could just learn some more about how to look behind the surface, she would really be onto something.

"The library will be closing in 30 minutes."

~Well, at least you got some more notes for your notebook. Maybe you'll find something more tomorrow.~

Yeah, I hope so. Justina stretched her arms and cracked her neck, then she tucked her notebooks away for the day. What was it you wanted me to look up? We only have about 15 more minutes left on the computer. It couldn't hurt to look.

~Oooh! Yes, see if you can find out what a Metaverse is. I mean, besides this being a Metaverse.~

Yeah, okay. Justina typed in the word. The search results scrolled down, something about the future of the internet, and permanent linked 3D virtual spaces.

Then the screen went black and the lights all went dark.

Justina froze startled. Wha-

~Oh shit oh shit oh shit! Run!~

As a confused babble rose around her from the other library patrons and staff, Justina pushed back from her computer so fast the chair spun away and hit the corner of a bookshelf were it fell over. It lay on there, one wheel spinning wildly.

She grabbed her bag, slinging it haphazardly across her back. She dashed down the row of computers and whipped around the corner toward the main doors.

But she skidded to a stop when they came into view. There was a teenager rattling frantically at the wide glass doors.

Maybe I could break through them?

But then she saw a sleek black SUV pulling up, all tinted windows and shiny paint. A thousand movies worth of menace radiated from it's every movement.

~Other way! OTHER WAY!~

Justina wirled and dove back into the library.

Maria watched her arrive and watched her go, shocked. Then she looked out the doors to see the car come to a stop outside the building. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a voiceless, "Oh."

Justina and Xanaria ran past the water fountains and the hallway that led to the bathrooms. Justina would have continued running straight, but Xanaria knew a little more about being hunted.

~Turn! We have to try and lose them, don't get cornered!~

They took a right into sci-fi. Behind them they heard the sound of glass breaking, and Maria's familiar voice started to shout "Hey! You can't-" but then yelped and was silent.

Oh, God. Do you think she's okay?

~No time!~

Justina took a hard left, darting across an aisle and into the heart of History. The shelves here were older, and sturdier, but taller too. She wished had taken more time to actually explore the library in the last month she had been frequenting the place. When she ran out the other side of History, Xanaria guided her toward Juvenile Fiction and away from the deeper recesses of the Dewey Decimal system. There wasn't time to explain why, but somehow Justina knew that it was because Xanaria recognized the light as having a more natural quality. Hopefully that meant there would be a window in an outside wall and therefore maybe an exit.

In the same way, Justina knew that they had four pursuers. Two with heavy footsteps in solid boots, each step a command and perfectly in sync. One that moved in spurts with a dancers grace, her feet tapping out patterns as she moved ever forward. And one who was almost silent, moving carefully and steady. This last was a hunter's footsteps, and it made Xanaria want to scream.

Juvenile fiction was shaped, not in rows like most of the library, but in three layers of cornered sections surrounding an open corner of the building filled with soft low chairs and benches as well as a ridiculous number of well worn brightly colored stuffed toys. One wall contained the promised windows, but instead of one big window there were lots of little ones with thick wood framing between each little panel. No way out there. The other wall had a door in it. Not the emergency exit they had hoped for, but one labeled with an "employees only" sign and with the symbol for stairs underneath the words.

~This is not a way out!~

Should we go back?

~No, Sleeping Goddess, no! They're too close!~

Panic spiking once more, Justina ran to the door. It was unlocked. Her momentary relief was dulled when she found herself in a narrow hallway with no windows. On the far wall were two doors. Past the doors was a narrow stairway that continued straight from the hallway and rose up out of sight. The first door turned out to be a broom cupboard with only a tiny window high up in the far wall. The second was locked.

I guess that leaves the stairs. She thought grimly.

~Hurry!~ Xanaria begged.

With no better options left, they sprinted up the stairs. At the top was another doorway, it had no handle, just a plate to push on. Just as she was reaching it she heard the door from the main library open. It would almost have been better if it had been flung open but instead it opened almost casually. None of the footsteps were bothering to hurry now. Justina pushed on the door. It opened easily and she hurried through it, but not before she heard the sound of a pleased high pitched giggle from behind her.

Beyond the door at the top of the stairs, they found themselves facing a big room full of tall shelves. They were made of plain silver metal and stuffed full of cardboard boxes. Justina didn't pause to look at the printer paper signs on the end of each shelf. She just ran, that giggle still echoing in her head.

~Sleeping Goddess, don't stick to a straight line! Zig zag! Take a sideways path now and then, anything! This room only gives cover in one direction! We have to get beyond it!~

So she ran as randomly as she could without backtracking. She ran between tall metal shelves that all began to look the same. She ran past a little nook with some cushion chairs around a low table and an old refrigerator against one wall. She followed the wall for a while looking for a break in the shelves so she could dive back in, but the next break came when she reached a corner of the room. She blinked and paused gasping raggedly for breath. She had gotten all turned around and she wasn't sure which wall it was she was facing. There were a couple pieces of paper taped to the wall here. Makeshift signs you would never find in a section of the library frequented by the public.

One pointed back the way she came and it said "Bathrooms." The other pointed sideways and said "Restorations."

~Bathroom? It would be messy but we could climb down the hole escape the building!~

That won't work here, our bathrooms are designed differently. No escape. Restorations sounds like a big room, maybe they'll have a fire escape there!

That was when they heard the door open and a calm voice ordered, "Spread out."

~Okay, go! Go!~

They ran in the direction of the arrow. Xanaria heard the two sets of heavy footsteps, still in perfect sync, turn in opposite directions as they headed out around the edges of the room. The light erratic ones changed tone, they were joined by the clink of metal and a slight groaning as the shelves shifted.

~They're climbing, Sleeping Goddess, they'll be able to see everything from up there! And the hunter! Where's the hunter! I can't hear them anymore!~

Calm down. Just listen. Breath and listen. You know how.

Together they tried to run as quietly as they could without compromising speed. Justina tried to keep from gasping. After a moment they heard the fourth set of footsteps; whisper soft, dangerous, and coming down the middle of the room.

They found the door suddenly. It looked impossibly ordinary on such a terrifying day. The sign on it hung askew because the scotch tape on one corner had come loose, but it was easy enough to read. It said "RESTORATIONS."

Justina yanked the door open, dived through, and slammed it shut behind her. She looked in vain for a lock, then cast about for a moment for something to block it with. Then she remembered that it opened away from her. Abandoning that idea, Justina spun around and started forward scanning the room for the next step.

The room was full of work tables, many of which had books and materials scattered across them. But it was empty of people.

They must have gone home already.

~How is that important, right now?!~

I'm moving, aren't I? Just noticing.

On the far side of the room were three large glass windows. Hoping the building was up to fire safety codes and somewhere out there was a fire escape, Justina zigzagged between desks and stack of boxes.

Justina had only made it halfway to the windows when she heard the door slam open behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw two large men. One she recognized from the day outside the high school. Large, stoic, and menacing, his air of "bodyguard" was replaced with one of "hired goon" when he wasn't standing behind the angular woman in grey. The other could easily have been his brother. They were the owners of the heavy matching foot steps then.

Darting between them was a skinny young woman in a flowing white dress. Her eyes were shut tight and she wore a cheerful smile, like they were all just playing a fun game. A game she knew she was winning. The girl skipped sideways and hopped up on one of the tables without once opening her eyes. Hers must be the light and erratic steps.

That was all Justina saw in a moment, and quick as her glance had been it still earned her a barked hip on the corner of a table.

Justina gritted her teeth and kept moving toward the window. Xanaria heard the last of their pursuers enter the room. The hunter. Instincts screaming, Xanaria took control and threw them sideways and down. She was just in time. A crossbow bolt whistled past, right were they had been, and shattered the middle window. Justina felt something snap in her bag and hoped vaguely it had just been a pencil.

Heart hammering, Xanaria scrambled behind a sturdy work table and clung there shivering. Justina pulled back some control, and peeked out around the corner.

She saw the young woman first, eyes still closed, hopping from table to table, circling around to get between Justina and the windows. In a pleased sing song tone the young woman called out, "Time to give up now, this doesn't have to hurt. In fact, you could live a little longer if you come willingly and answer some questions."

But Xanaria's attention, and therefore Justina's as well, were locked on their final pursuer. They were short, and wide shouldered, their face hidden from the nose down behind a brownish grey scarf, and a wide forest green hood and half cloak covering the rest of their head and chest. They were barefoot, and already had another quarrel loaded into the crossbow which was aimed pointedly downward. To Justina they looked like something off the cover of a pulp fantasy novel. To Xanaria their every movement spoke of a hunter unchallenged in far too long.

"Come on now." Eyes still closed, Young and Creepy seemed to have decided to be the talker for the group. "You managed to find out far more than you should have been able to. We just want to know how you did it."

"And you'll let me go if I tell you?" Justina tried to buy time, she knew not to trust the girl even if she agreed.

How do we get out of this?

~I don't know! Sleeping Goddess, we've been cornered!~

"Well, maybe. But first we would have to make sure you don't remember anything, and is that really better than a quick painless end?"

Justina didn't know what she had expected them to say but it hadn't been that.

"It could be easy you know. If you keep hiding and running, Robin might miss," There was a quiet snort from the other side of the room that Young and Creepy pointedly ignored, "and then it would all be a lot more messy and painful and none of us want that."

"Jesus." Justina muttered. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Okay, well, this is your last chance. And let me be perfectly clear. We are curious about how you learned what you learned, but the most important thing is that you stop knowing it. So what do you choose?"

Justina was speechless, the blood draining from her face.

"Okay then. Robin?"

There was a click behind her. While they had been talking the hunter had moved unnoticed. Justina turned her head to see the crossbow come up. Xanaria was screaming inside her mind. She tried to move out of the way, knowing there was no time, her only thought that she had to get away. She lunged sideways, but also somehow inward and diagonal and upside down. She felt Xanaria ripped out of her body as the world exploded into waves of blinding white and pain. More pain than she had ever felt. She felt herself falling and falling and falling. Finally, thankfully, she passed out.