Chapter 21: Trapped

Larry fell into the sea of never ending darkness, unsure about what was around him or where he was. He was dimly aware of Squall falling along beside him, but he paid the SeeD no mind. Suddenly out of the darkness a light flashed and after a moment of blindness, Larry could see land below him.

The land below him was vast, and Larry could see a large river below him, with a massive island in the center. In the center of this island, a large structure that looked like a massive tower sprouted out of the ground. Around this tower walls went off in a perfect circle, making the whole area look like the spokes of a wheel.

This was all he had time to take account of as the wind began to blow into his eyes, forcing them to tear up and blind him. That was when he began to panic, and he cried out in fear, hoping against hope that somebody –anybody- could save him. Blinking his eyes frequently, Larry gasped as he realized that the water below him was only a few hundred feet away. In desperation, Larry called on the Force and threw his hand out in front of him, and he paused in the air for a moment before he continued his fall and smacked in to the water, losing consciousness.


Of course it had to happen somewhere. There is always a beginning, an index patient that tells the beginning of the epidemic. In this case, her name was Jane Kuhn, and she was a sixteen year old high school student. Her mother, a woman named Helen, had failed to rouse her daughter from bed and gone in to investigate. When she arrived, she discovered that daughter was not only asleep, but still plugged into her newest possession: the DreamLand device.

This was not the first time that Jane had overslept while playing that game, so Helen Kuhn knew exactly what to do to forcibly eject her daughter from DreamLand and get her up in time to make the bus to her class. When she punched the proper button necessary to eject her daughter, nothing happened.

Frowning, Helen pushed the button again, and then a third time. There was no visible reaction either in the system or from her daughter, Helen began to get concerned. She knew the dangers of removing the DreamLand device while the player was still plugged into the system, so she decided to call up a DreamLand representative with the phone number printed on the side of the device itself.

When the caller claimed that she had never heard of somebody not waking up when prompted to do so by an outside source, Helen slammed the phone down and stomped away before dialing the family's doctor, who in turn realized the seriousness of the situation and alerted the authorities from there.

That was all that was needed to get the ball rolling.


The President of the United States attempted to keep his face blank, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to do as he heard more and more of the words that came out of the Chinese representative's mouth. Oh, using DreamLand had seen like such a simple and easy way to meet securely and without pomp and circumstance, being able to meet behind closed doors and get things done without politics, but he had been wrong. Very wrong.

The President was beginning to realize that no matter what, politicians and diplomats would always be the same. Whether in the real world, over the phone, or in some fictional high-tech hologram, they will always act the same way.

Case in point was the Chinese leader, who was fervently denying that they was anything out of the ordinary about their recent and abrupt war games that were taking place in the Sea of Japan, no matter what military and intelligence experts thought.

The French and the Russians were just as annoying, despite their uneasy alliance through NATO, who used every available opportunity to ridicule the American foreign policy. As if they could do better!

Suddenly the Chinese leader stopped talking, and the President jumped in the gap. One nice thing about DreamLand was that the words spoken were automatically translated through computer program in perfect accents, making it appear as though every representative were fluent in each other's language.

"I am sorry, but I believe that I must ask for a recess. It is nearly three in the morning in Washington, but I will be sure to take what you say to heart, Chairman," he said to the Chinese leader.

Germany and Japan quickly put in their own agreements, and South Korea was quick to follow. All were extremely tired of hearing what China thought about America's implications.

"Very well," China said, "We shall pick up this discussion in two weeks?"

The President nodded and began to log out of DreamLand, but nothing happened when he completed his procedure. Frowning, he tried to log out again, but couldn't.

"What the…"

He looked around and all of the leaders where looking at one another, "Why can't we leave?" France asked, "This has never happened before."


John Call was furious and in pain. Those two factors forced his office workers to shrink back from him in fear as he exploded out from his office, slamming the door open.

"Find him!" John Call snarled as he jumped on his Director of Security (In Game), "Find that bastard who plays Harrod the Barbarian, that filthy stinking Ta'veren!"

"Y…yes…sir!" the chief said and quickly turned his eyes to his computer screen, as though he were really trying to locate the person on the screen itself.

"Sir?"

John turned to see Todd Jacobs standing with his arms extended with a folder in it, "We've got problems," he said.

"Yuna!" Rikku shouted in alarm as Number Three struck at her with one of his forked blades, "Run!"

The Al Bhed girl tried to stall the attackers from taking her cousin, but it was no use. Another of the God Killers came up behind her, and struck her over the head using a very heavy hammer, and Rikku crumpled.

The High Summoner Yuna unleashed a small barrage of spells at her attackers, but they only slowed down the onslaught of her attackers, and Yuna turned and ran up the sandy path toward her village of Besaid, on the southern most island in Spira.

"She's getting away!" Number Three shouted as he took off after her.

"She won't get far!" Number Four shouted, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder, "Number six is at the village!"

Yuna ran on and on, hiking her skirts up above the knee so that she would not get tangled up in them while running. Wakka, she had to find Wakka, he would help her. She passed underneath a waterfall and up a hill. At the top of the hill, she stopped and caught her breath.

When she looked up, her eyes instantly caught smoke coming up from the valley where her home was nestled. Crying out, she continued to run down the hill and into her village, where a nightmare greeted her eyes.

Besaid was on fire, a goodly portion of the tents that the islanders slept in were ablaze and people were split between attempting to flee the village and fight the fires. She caught sight of Wakka giving orders, when a small man made eye contact with her.

She knew every single one of the villagers by face and she knew that this man was not one of them.

"Wakka!" she cried out and the red headed man whipped his head around. It was at that instant that the short man began to run at Yuna, a scythe in either hand. Wakka saw the man coming and stepped in front of him, and the smaller man bounced off of Wakka's enormous girth. He really had been putting on weight since Lulu had become pregnant…

Yuna ran, hoping that Wakka could hold off that other attacker just long enough for her to get away. Running past burning tents and screaming people, the High Summoner sought frantically for escape. The only place she knew that was safe now was the Temple, and maybe she could barricade herself in…

She heard a cry, and glanced backward just to see Wakka fall over backwards, blood spraying from his chest and a very grim man advancing on her. Scrambling up the steps, Yuna slammed the door shut behind her and bared the entrance.


"Sir?" the Director of Security (In game) said to John, "I have not found Harrod yet, but there is a situation in Spira…"

"Get the Agents down there," John said gruffly. His back still hurt! That shouldn't have happened.

"You don't want to know the situation?"

"NO!" John shouted back, "Just deal with it! That's what I pay you for, right?"

"Y..yes sir!"


"She's locked herself inside," Number five said.

"Pity," Number four said as she stopped pounding on the door with her large mallets. The muscular woman acted as the God Killer's blacksmith, and she was not only one of the best smiths in DreamLand, but she had the body to match.

"How do we flush her out?" Number three asked.

"Easy, we smoke her out," Number four replied as she began to move toward one of the burning tents.

"What if she dies?" Number three asked, "Number six will not be pleased."

"She won't," Number four said curtly as she grabbed a flaming timber.

"I would stop that if I were you," one of the Agents said who had just materialized in the center of the village.

"Or else you will be made to stop," the second Agent said.

The God Killers turned around away from the village to stare at the advancing Agents with a look of disgust on their faces.


Larry gasped as he sat upright in a reflexive motion. The world spun around him and he frantically tried to focus and recall where he was. Next to him sat Squall, facedown in the sandy beach that the two were sitting on.

Quickly, he sat up and looked around him. Across the lake was an enormous walled city, in the center of which sat a white tower which shot straight up into the sky, like a shaft of bone. Around the tower was a city wall

Getting groggily to his feet, Larry looked across the lake at the city chewing on the side of his cheek to attempt to get his thoughts together. The area around him was open and grassy, and in the distance Larry noticed a large bridge that spanned across the river, like a piece of ribbon which spanned across the distance.

Oddly, there was no traffic on the roads that were nearest to Larry, even the village at the foot of the bridge seemed to be closed up and disserted. Despite the small town's abandoned look, he decided that he would start looking for help there and if he could move on to the larger city that was across the island.

Remarkably all of his gear was still intact, and he was still dressed in his Clan Hunter's olive drab uniform and black boots. A cold wind whipped across the open plain and Larry shivered, a reminder that he had just taken a plunge into a very swift and deep river. Producing his PDA he flipped it open to check how much time he had left in game. To his astonishment, the numbers flashed "0:00" over and over again.

"That can't be right…" he muttered as he stared wide-eyed into the display.

"What's not right?" came a cold voice from behind where Larry was standing, and Larry turned to see Squall standing on his feet, rubbing his head with his hands. Larry snatched up his lightsaber and kept his finger over the activator button, relaxing only slightly when Squall made no move to attack him.

"Nothing," Larry said quickly, shoving his PDA into his pocket.

Squall remained silent, studying Larry intently, "I remember you. You were the soldier on the ring that SeeD first went to. Why are you here?"

Larry shrugged, "I could ask you the same thing. I saw you in that…room with John Call. You and a bunch of your SeeDs."

Squall nodded briskly, "We had tracked a traitor to there, you just happened to be there at the same time. And then I ended up here."

"Why have you been tracking our clan?" Larry asked bluntly.

Squall's face hardened, "You ask a lot of questions. I'll ask one, what were you doing with the traitor?"

Larry consented, "I was captured by his goons for doing something that I believed right."

"What did you do with my interpreter?" Squall asked again, "She was unaccounted for after Irvine caught up with you on Nar Shaddaa."

Larry searched his memory, and then remembered the interpreter that was on the Pride which had given him some confusing gibberish about Allied being John Call and a traitor or something. Well at least "John Call" and "traitor" was beginning to make more sense, "You mean Emma Varch? She's fine, being held onboard the Pride in the detention center."

Squall nodded curtly, "I won't hurt you, for now. We need to get out of here and go somewhere where we can do more useful things. We might try that city," Squall said pointing across the river.

"You still didn't answer my question, why were you tracking my clan?" Larry asked not lowering his saber.

Squall sighed, "It doesn't matter now. We were paid to gather the Index by a clan, they paid us a remarkable amount of money, in gold."

"Who?"

Squall rolled his eyes, "They called themselves OX, but I'm sure that was a fake name. We met with two different people, first one was a big bald headed guy with a big axe. The other was a woman, can't say much more then that."

Larry recognized the description of the bald headed man and dropped his saber, "You are willing to work with me until we get out of here, right?"

Squall's face said that he'd rather fight twenty tonberries at once, but he nodded his agreement, "We should get into the city, if possible," he said. Larry lowered his saber and attached it to his hip before agreeing.


"This couldn't have come at a worse time," John said rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands.

"Not only is Hyrule lying in waste now, but the Three Kingdoms are exploding into sectional violence worse then anything seen since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, with the forces of Sun Jian and Liu Bei fighting over the splintered Wei territory. On top of that, it would appear that the situation in Spira has worsened with the burning of the entire village of Besaid."

"I thought the Agents had taken care of that situation," John said surprised.

"No, sir. They've been having…difficulty containing the situation."

"Show me," he said turning to where the large screen television was built into the wall. It flickered to life to show the village of Besaid burning. The camera focused on three figures standing outside of the temple, which was also in flames. No Agents were anywhere in sight, only the motionless forms of the NPCs that inhabited the village.

"That's…impossible!" John gasped, "Nobody can defeat an administrator!"

The rest of the table was silent, their eyes downcast toward the table.

"Very well," John said, "I'll address that in a moment. How many people are stuck in DreamLand now?"

"Several thousand," the Vice President of Operations noted, "That number will continue to rise as the people should time out, but they will remain in. In three hours all of DreamLand will be stuck inside of the game."

John Call grimaced, "So if I or any other admin attempts to log in to clear this situation, then we'll be stuck inside too, right?"

"That appears to be the case sir, yes."

"Can somebody give me some good news then?" John asked furiously.

Only silence answered him.


Slamming his door behind him, John Call walked into his office tiredly. Between the Harrod Ta'veren getting away from him and the premature springing of his trap, it seemed that everything had gone wrong quickly.

"I do have some good news for you," the cloaked man said from the corner of the room.

John started slightly and then turned to look at his visitor a little more carefully, "You dress like that even out of the game, Outlaw?" he asked.

The mercenary shrugged, "I like it."

"What good news?"

"Most of the leaders that you wanted are trapped inside of the system as well as the rest of the users," he said quickly, "But I was surprised that this happened so soon. Has something moved up the timetable?"

John Call smiled a little bit, "Apparently, but it was not triggered on purpose. Soon most of those residing in DreamLand will not find themselves in a dream, but in a nightmare. I have a little matter I need you to attend to. You and whoever you need to use will be rewarded for it."

Outlaw licked his lips nervously, "You want me to go back into DreamLand? How do I know that I won't get trapped in along with the rest of them?"

John Call sighed, "You really think I didn't build a back door into the system?" He produced Outlaw a card and handed it to him, "Put that information into your device, and you can come and go as you please."

Outlaw looked uneasily at the card, "What do you need me to do?"

"Do you remember that clan who took the index, and the Jedi who was with them?"

"Of course."

"Find the Jedi and kill him."


It had taken a long time, but finally the God Killers had gathered into their ranks the third of their sought after Ta'veren. Yuna the High Summoner was found in the Besaid Temple, on the verge of death from the flames that had collapsed the temple.

Luckily for the God Killers, they managed to revive the fallen summoner and take her alive to their base, where they threw her in a cell that resembled a tent that the villagers had used on Besaid. Next to her was Cao Cao, the former King of Wei, and another important Ta'veren inside of DreamLand. Only a handful remained in the game to keep balance against the forces of chaos and anarchy that were beginning to spread in certain areas of the game.

Already clans who had stationed themselves inside of Hyrule and the Three Kingdoms were either dead, holed up in their bases, or else attempting to evacuate the area by Stargate or in the starships that they had gathered. Refugees to steady areas of the DreamLand like Coruscant and Cyrodiil were already starting to notice an influx of newly orphaned users and clans fleeing other areas of the game.

But already rumors were beginning to spread about a lot of things, that the reason nobody could log out of the system was due to a team of hackers paid by the CIA to shutdown DreamLand. That Hyrule was burnt to the ground by a horde of orcs and goblins, and that the Hero of Time had been killed. That Balamb, Esthar, Shinear, and countless other nations had been blown off the map by invaders and beasts. Things were defiantly uneasy in the World of Dreams, but few people realized that they were about to go from bad to worse. Much worse.