Chapter 22:

Larry and Squall made good time going upstream toward the nearest bridge and the city around it. There was nobody around, and the only sound Larry could hear was the sound of running water from the river. A crow cawed ominously from its perch in a nearby tree, and Larry shivered softly.

"Where is everybody?" he wondered out loud.

Squall shrugged, "Who cares. They'll be in that town, so it doesn't matter if they're out here in the countryside."

Larry raised an eyebrow at Squall's uncaring demeanor, he had a really bad feeling about the lack of people in the countryside. It was unnatural to see no signs of life anywhere in DreamLand, there were always users or NPCs everywhere.

Finally, they came to a small path that lead to the closest village, and they made much better time getting into the village. When they neared it, however, it appeared just as deserted as the rest of the countryside had been. All the doors and windows closed and boarded up, and another desolate wind blew through the village.

"Nobody's here," Larry said.

"Clearly," Squall said crossing his arms, "Something's wrong."

Suddenly Larry heard a whinny of a horse, and he looked toward the river to see a whole group of men on horseback coming down the bridge and into the town. Unsure about how to react to the sudden presence of the men, Larry quickly scooped up his lightsaber after he realized that they were in uniform, and armed.

Squall simply crossed his arms and leaned up against a wall, cool blue eyes following the men as they came toward him. The mounted men spotted the two and began shouting and pointing until an older man with a pair of golden knots tied to the shoulders of his uniform. The men quickly approached Larry and Squall and encircled them, weapons drawn.

"Now who might ye be?" The man with the golden knots on his shoulders asked with an extremely thick accent, "And why do ye be in the town of Jualdhe? Do ye not know that Tar Valon be unda' siege! The city do be evacuated to the main island, and there do na be anybody outside the city but tha rebels, so now, tell me, who are ye?"

Larry chewed over everything the man had said before carefully answering, "My name is Harrod. I'm a traveler who did not realize that this city was under a siege, and who might you be, good sir?" Larry began, deciding on trying to be polite.

"My name do be Jerian Majer, Captain in the Tar Valon guards, blessed be the White Tower and Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, The Watcher of the Seals, the Flame of Tar Valon, the Amyrlin Seat. But I do ha' a hard time believin' that you did na know about the Tar Valon siege, and I have na' seen two people of your dress before. So, I'll ask ye again, who are ye?" the guard captain said, and the soldiers on either side of him began to shift uncomfortably in their saddles and look around them.

"Travelers," Squall said simply, "As my companion said."

Larry wished that Squall was not trying to stare down this Jerian Majer, but there was nothing he could do about that now. The Guards Captain snorted loudly, "In those clothes? I doubt it. You've come from nearby, and you're up to no good. You're comin' with us ta the White Tower."

Larry braced to ignite his lightsaber, but Squall cleared his throat and Larry looked at him oddly. The expression in his face told Larry to stay his hand, and Larry quickly shoved his lightsaber back into his uniform, carefully hidden from full view.

"Whatever," Squall said.

"We were heading that direction anyway," Larry said casually, "An armed escort would be nice."


"And I say that we gotta go back for Harrod!" Fox shouted, "He's as good as dead if we don't go!"

"You'll all die if you go back there!" Nikita shouted back, "Hyrule is crawling with Trollocs! Plus we need to gather the rest of the Ta'veren! How can we do that if we're attempting to find a needle in a haystack? There's no guarantee that he's even alive!"

"We have to try!" Tex exclaimed loudly, her hand on her sword in a white knuckled grasp.

"No!" Nikita stated firmly, "And that's final!" Standing up behind her desk, she turned and opened the door to her office, showing them that the meeting was over, "We're going to be at the Westlands soon, which we believe that the next Ta'veren is at. I suggest that you get your team together and prepare for the next mission. Alright?"

Fox opened his mouth ready to argue again, but he closed it after he watched Nikita raise her eyebrow. Tex threw up her hands and stomped out of the room, with Fox in tow.

When the door closed behind Tex and Fox, the two immediately set off for the squad's 'sleeping' quarters. They would want to hear the verdict as soon as possible, but both Tex and Fox did not want to be the bearer of bad news.

"Why'd ya have to go an' stalk out like that?" Fox demanded, "I woulda' brought her around eventually."

Tex stopped in shock, "You would have brought her around huh? I doubt that even Harrod himself would have been able to persuade that stubborn woman with a mind trick, much less a redneck who can't even put a proper sentence together!" she shouted at him.

"Now wait just a gosh darned second! Just cause I'm a hick don't mean I can't argue for something I want. You don't gotta go of and blame me like that!"

Tex pulled herself up to her full height and moved as though she was going to point his finger into Fox's chest, but at that moment a masked man stepped out of an adjoining corridor with a drawn rifle. Fox's eyes widened as he and the gunmen's gaze met, and he quickly grabbed Tex by the shoulders, and threw her to the floor.

The gunman opened fire then, spraying the corridor with rounds. Fox, who was still standing an flat footed, was unable to move out of the way. Flinching as the bullets hit him, Fox fell to the floor screaming in pain.

Tex instantly reacted, producing her sword while she rolled out of her fall. Then as she came up on her feet running toward the gunman. The gunman instantly shifted fire concentrating on her, but Tex was too close by then and knocked the gun out of the man's hands.

Pulling her sword back, she slid it onto the man's throat. Then she pulled off the mask off of the man's head. Surprised, she realized that the person she was looking at was Whitestar, her former commander before the mutiny.

The albino man looked down at her, his face grim.

"What are you doing here!?" Tex demanded.

He looked at her with pale emotionless eyes, "To take back what was ours," he said. With a quick movement, he produced a pistol and pointed it directly into Tex's stomach. He smiled and just as Tex frantically moved to push her sword into his head, his head exploded in a splatter of blood.

The rest of Whitestar's body slumped to the ground, and Tex numbly turned to see Fox sitting with his rifle raised carefully in his hands from his position on the ground. Nodding in satisfaction to himself, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped backwards jaw clenched to keep from screaming.

Then suddenly, and almost comically late, an alarm klaxon began to resound throughout the ship, along with a mechanical voice, "Intruder alert! Battlestations! Intruder alert! This is not a drill! I repeat…"

"Well ain't that just lovely," Fox said through gritted teeth, "Was that Whitestar? I thought that albino freak seemed familiar."

"Yes, it was," Tex said putting up her sword as she leaned over him, "Comeon, we gotta get you to see the Doc."

"For once, I won't argue with ya," Fox said grimacing in pain.


"What's going on?" Link asked looking around frantically.

"I don't know," Section admitted, "It sounds like someone got onboard who we didn't want on."

"How can they do that? Aren't we flying?" Link asked.

"That's right, but it's possible to…" Section was cut off with the sound of gunfire erupting outside. Red and Leo reacted instantly, throwing their helmets onto their heads and chambering the first rounds into their weapons, flicking the safeties off of their rifles and heading out into the hallways.

Beyond looked up, at the first sounds of gunfire and then positioned himself in-between Section, Link, and the door.

"Find out who it is," he said sternly to Section. I hope it's not my brothers…another conflict with them again would be too soon.

Section quickly produced her MUT and began tapping away into it, quickly accessing the surveillance systems inside of the Pride. Flipping through the screens she quickly found the firefight that was just outside of the door and down the hallway. About half a dozen heavily armed and masked men taking cover around corners, firing shots at Red and Leo and the quickly forming force of people that were attracted to the firefight.

"Who is it?" Beyond asked, looking briefly over his shoulder, "Can you recognize anyone?"

"No, they're all masked," Section said.

"Great," Beyond said, "We need better security…"

"You're telling me," Section said, rolling her eyes. Flipping through the security screens again until something else caught her eye. Moving unmolested through the ship was another column of unarmed men, about a dozen of them. One of them had his face uncovered though, and seemed unconcerned about who was in front of him, as though he was not expecting any trouble.

"I think I recognize their leader though," Section said, "But I can't remember his name."

"What's he doing here?" Beyond asked as the sounds of gunfire came closer.


Lt. Commander Fury was not in a good mood to begin with. First the botched operations in Hyrule, the fact that they were run from the system administrators, and now they were under attack. As though to top it all off, he was not sure why he was still in-game, even though his time had expired over an hour ago.

Fury picked up his two HE pistols and checked the sites and magazines before stepping out of his bunk. He would have to make for the bridge, because that was where these borders would be coming in from. He still wondered just how they had managed to get onboard.

Walking swiftly, he was amazed that he was the only one in the halls. But then again it was unusual for there to be anybody but officers on this level of the deck anyway, and there was no nearby gunfire.

Turning the last corridor to the bridge, Fury's eyebrows rose as he saw the backs of large group of heavily armed soldiers moving swiftly down the gilded corridor. Their rear guard jumped as Fury suddenly appeared from around the corner.

"Contact to the rear!" the man shouted and raised his rifle. The other team members reacted instantly, ducking and spinning bringing their guns to bear. Fury reacted just as quickly, pulling both of the pistols out of his holsters and leveling them at the rearguard, quickly firing two shots from each pistol. The rearguard slumped forward, dead.

That was all he had time to do before he had to jump back behind the corner again, bullets pinging past him and into the walls. Waiting for the fire to die down some, Fury considered his options. He was trying to get to the bridge, where he was sure somebody was at. His problem was the obvious: a bunch of armed men in his way. Suddenly the shooting stopped and in that silence came a voice:

"Is that you Fury? I recognized your shooting."

That voice hit something in Fury's memory, but it had been so long…

"Recon? Is that you?" Fury shouted, "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Look Fury, it doesn't have to end like this. All we want you to do is give us what was ours to begin with, and we'll leave you be," Recon shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Fury asked angrily, "You left! You mutinied! None of this belongs to you!"

"The Index Fury! Give us that!"

Fury was shocked, he did not even know where the Index was being kept due to its extremely dangerous and addictive nature.

"I can't do that Recon!" Fury shouted as he popped out into the corridor and fired off a couple shots down the hallway before ducking back to avoid the return fire.

"I'm sorry it has to come to this then," Recon said and Fury could hear the sounds of advancing footsteps. Breathing easily, Fury eased his last frag grenade out of his pocket, pulled the pin, and flung it down the hallway.

A second later, the grenade detonated sending fragments down the hallway. Fury heard screams and a lot of shouting before he ducked out into the corridor again. The first two people were already limp and not moving while the next three were rolling around on the floor in pain. He quickly fired two rounds into each of the writhing attackers before returning his attention to the rest of them. The remainder of Recon's squad was in a retreat toward the bridge, firing blindly behind them.

Keeping low, Fury picked out Recon because he was the only one who had not covered his face. He figured the mutineers had died at Halo, but he supposed he had been wrong. Firing carefully at the retreating Recon, but he managed to avoid each shot until Fury had to pause to reload his pistols.

Suddenly the remainder of Recon's squad turned around the moment that they reached the door and trained their weapons on Fury. Instantly getting in the prone, he picked up the last body in the hallway and used it as cover. Bullets bounced all around Fury's legs and arms, and he knew that this was an extremely bad place to be.

Suddenly, the bridge door opened and Nikita appeared along with Bobby and James. The three High Command members caught the attackers off guard and they all swiveled to bring their weapons to bear on them, but Nikita simply grabbed the closest intruder's weapon, hit him in the face with it knocking him down and then fired off three precise rounds into the masked man's face.

James flung balls of fire from his hands, which caught their clothing on fire. Bobby had what looked like a fire axe in his hands, and quickly swung it down onto a man's head as though he were chopping wood, splitting the man's skull. Fury used the distraction to come out from behind his cover and open fire again. Finally, with an amazing amount of luck, the last remaining member of the attack force was Recon.

The man seemed utterly unconcerned, "Just give me what belongs to us and I won't have to hurt anybody."

"You're joking right?" James snarled, his hands beginning to glow blue, "You're the only one left!"

"Perhaps," he said shrugging, and then he produced a large round sphere, "But if I die, then so will all of you!" he shouted and with a flick of his wrist, the silvery orb began to glow.

Reacting instantly, Fury, who had been moving up on Recon the whole time, pushed Nikita and James backward into Bobby and together they fell through the bridge door. With his other hand he fired a shot into the bridge door controls, shorting out the circuits. The blast door slid shut, and Fury quickly tackled Recon to the floor. The orb fell out of Recon's hands and began to chime and flash quicker and quicker.

"You were never going to get your hands on the index," Fury said grinning. Recon only looked shocked, and that was when the corridor erupted into smoke and flame, consuming the bodies of both of the entangled men, and unknowingly to them, their souls.


Larry felt a sudden chill, and he had some idea as to what that meant. Something had gone wrong somewhere, probably with somebody that he knew. He had been getting those feelings a lot lately, as though something was happening to everybody in DreamLand all at once, and nobody knew why.

"You feel that?" he asked Squall, who sat across from him in the cell.

"What?" Squall asked, "I didn't feel anything."

"Nothing, forget it then," Larry said, slumping back against the wall and surveyed his surroundings again. It was a typical cell, crossed iron bars with torches as the only light. The only padding on the floor of the cell was a thin layer of straw that was laid out to provide the barest amount of comfort possible.

The guards had done a very thorough job of searching Squall and Larry, and had taken almost everything from them. Although they did not know what it was, they had taken both Larry's lightsaber and PDA. Not that breaking out would be difficult, having the Force on his side. He was also sure that Squall had something hidden up his sleeve, but Larry was not sure what.

Though he had little idea of where he was at, he knew that he was in the basement of the large white tower that was in the middle of the island. He had been brought in through a rear entrance which lead through the kitchen and into the dungeons past a number of surprised looking women.

What really concerned Larry was what was happening around him, and what was happening to the clan. With his PDA gone, he had no real way to communicate with his squad or his clan. In addition, he was fairly certain that John Call would be searching all over to find him, and he was in no condition to fight a school girl with a pen knife, much less a system administrator, or John Call himself.

Suddenly the in the distance, Larry heard the sound of a heavy door scraping open. It had been the first time he had heard any such door open, the guards had all left the way that they had come in. A few minutes later, a short woman dressed entirely in white clothing with dark hair and dark eyes came down into the cells. She glanced serenely into the cell, and the walked on to the cell next to theirs.

"Egwene!" came a startled woman's voice from around the corner, "So good to see you!"

That was all Larry could hear because the two women's voices dropped below what he was able to hear. He exchanged looks with Squall, but the leader of SeeD only shrugged and continued to study the wall across from him.

A few minutes passed, and Larry heard the heavy scraping of the door again, and another woman, dressed in the same garb as the first woman who came through. This one was carrying platters of food and a large pitcher of what Larry could only hope was clean water.

Blinking suddenly, Larry realized that he had never been hungry in DreamLand. Not even when he had been hungry in the regular world, but now he felt ravenous. Why was that?

The woman glanced at both Squall and Larry, and then blinked. They refocused on Larry and then she dropped both the platter of food and the pitcher of what turned out to be water. This attracted the attention of the other woman in the white dress as well as three other women whom Larry had not noticed that had been sitting at the far end of the hall.

"What is it, Nicola?" One of the three women asked, clearly irritated at the interruption.

"Oh! Covarla Sedai! I did not see you there. This man, he is Ta'veren!" the younger woman said pointing a shaky finger at Larry.

"And just how do you know that?" one of the other women demanded.

"It is a talent I have," Nicola said shakily, "Along with foretelling. I told Silviana Sedai that when I first arrived at the tower."

"I see," the first woman said and she turned to Larry, "What is your name?" she asked crisply.

"Harrod," he said simply, "And yours?"

That seemed to offend the women, even the youngest who was well beneath the rest of the women. Unsure why this was a problem, Larry just waited for his answer.

"I am Covorla Baldene of the Red Ajah!" she said finally, "Why are you in this cell?"

Larry rolled his eyes, "As I told your captain of the guards Jerian Majer, my friend and I were traveling here and were picked up by one of his patrols. We did not realize that the city was under siege."

Covorla snorted loudly, "You, girl," she snapped to the woman who had dropped the platters of food, "Go inform Tarna Sedai about this Ta'veren and then come back down here."

"Yes, Covorla Sedai," Nicola squeaked before turning and moving out of the room very quickly indeed.

"And you," Covorla said, sounding even more disgusted as she turned to address who Larry could only assume was the other woman dressed in white, "Clean up this mess that Nicola left. Be quick about it!"

"Very well Covorla," the other woman said smoothly. She made it sound as though it were her choice, when Larry could clearly hear that it was not. The other two women with Covorla seemed to bristle especially.

"And then you can visit Silviana for not showing proper respect to an Aes Sedai, now run along girl." Covorla said coolly, almost as though she had expected such.

The woman dressed in white simply nodded her head and went about collecting the spilled food and water. The three women gave one last long glance at the two men in the cell, and then walked back toward the other cell and out of sight.

That was when something occurred to Larry: he had never met an NPC that had ever referred to him as Ta'veren. Few enough players knew the term, so how in the name of the Dream had they known that?


As what happens with epidemics, people finally start to realize what was going on. Players in DreamLand were not waking up after the mandatory five hour maximum, and nobody knew why. All over the nation people were being checked into hospitals for coma like conditions. Eventually the news stations picked up on the stories and then the major networks.

Calls began to flood into the Headquarters of DreamLand Industries demanding an explanation or directions on how to reverse the problem. All callers were greeted with the same reply, "We apologize for the problems, we're working around the clock to fix them normal service should return shortly."

This reply would only work for so long, and then the demands for an greater explanation finally resulted in a reaction from the executives in DreamLand Industries. The company announced that they would be holding a press conference in which the company's founder and president, John Call would make an announcement about the malfunctions in the DreamLand device, or as the press was beginning to dub it, the "DeathLand device."

John Call appeared at around two o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon on all of the major network news stations: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and others. Dressed in a suit and tie, he stood behind a podium on a backdrop of the DreamLand logos, he appeared to be a center of calm in a storm of panic that was beginning to sweep the better part of the nation.

"Good afternoon," John began, "There has been much concern in the past few hours about the DreamLand device. Users have been unable to log out or leave the system, putting them into a coma-like state. I regret to say that this has been the end result of a really powerful glitch that has been exploited by a number of users within the system that has resulted in the lockdown of the system. Our administrators are attempting to track down these users and close the glitch that has formed, and also trying to reset the servers in order to force the users to log out. I would request your patience, and also need to inform you that nobody is to enter DreamLand until after this glitch has been resolved. Thank you. Questions?"

The reporter from the New York Times raised his hand, "Yes, you said that this glitch was user caused? How can users cause such a massive lockdown when they cannot manipulate change within the system?"

John nodded, "Good question. That is because we believe that the users responsible for this glitch have done this on purpose, more then likely with help from professional hackers. We will be correcting this security as soon as the servers are reset."

NBC raised her hand, "Yes, how long do you think it will be to fix all of this?"

"A day," John replied instantly, "I have no doubt that this will be resolved as quickly as possible. One more question. Yes, you," John finished pointing at the correspondent for the Washington Post.

"What state are the users in right now?" the older graying reporter asked.

"They're still in game, but they no doubt realize that there is a problem because they have not been kicked off yet. All game play will continue as normal until after the servers are shut down," John explained, "Now if you excuse me, I have a lot of work to get done."

John walked out from behind the podium and out of the room quickly, glad that nobody had decided to ask what happened when people actually died in DreamLand.


"Eh, you in there!" Larry heard as he groggily pulled his head out of the straw. A large man dressed in the garb of the Tar Valon guards was standing at the bars of his cell.

"What?" Larry asked groggily. Then he jumped to his feet in shock, he had been asleep? What was going on with him?

"The Amyrlin Seat wants ta see both of ya," the guard said without preamble, "On yer feet!" he said to Squall.

Squall got up and Larry waited as the man unlocked his cell and then walked out at the man's prompt. With the man leading them down the line of cells, Larry got a chance to look into the other cells that lined the walls. Most of the people in them were unwashed and, by their clothing, poor. Wondering just where he was, Larry found himself standing in what looked like a guard room. Another two guards were standing in the room, talking quietly amongst themselves, but who caught Larry's eye was the dark haired woman who was dressed in a solid white dress. The same one who had fingered him as Ta'veren.

"Come on then," she said briskly, "The Amyrlin Seat does not like to be kept waiting," and with that she turned and strode out of the room, the door opening in front of her as though invisibly held by a very large man. Larry paused and wondered, how did she do that?

Squall brushed past Larry and moved through the door, "Come on," he said, "Maybe we can get out of here."

They followed the woman at a distance of about five feet up numerous stairs and curving walkways until she took a left turn off of a corridor that was covered in finely woven tapestries. Sensing a draft in the air, Larry shot a sideways glance over at Squall who felt it too. All Larry knew was that executions happened outside, meetings with the leaders of countries did not.

Tensing to go into action, Larry began to reach out in the Force looking for some hint of intent. What he sensed was…horses. A stable? Confusion clouded his mind and senses, but he remained alert already knowing there was more to this then met his eye.

"Where are you taking us?" Squall demanded finally.

"To the Amyrlin Seat," the woman replied easily, and she stepped out of an open door and into a stable, just as Larry had predicted.

The stable was deserted, except for the horses, but Larry could sense another program lurking somewhere in the shadows, and he was not proven wrong. Out of the shadows stepped a second woman, shorter and less pale then the first. But she had dark hair and the same white dress, she was the other woman who had been in the cells earlier.

"Who are you?" Larry demanded.

"An Amyrlin Seat in exile," she said easily, "My name is Egwene Al'Vere. And you two do not belong here. Especially a Ta'veren, so I think it is time for you to go."

"Why?" Squall asked.

"Because I told her why, and she believes me," sounded a deep voice from the shadows of the stable. Fumbling for his lightsaber, it took Larry a moment to realize that it was not there.

"Who's there?" he demanded, reaching out in the Force but could feel nothing.

"You know me," the voice said, "Both of you do," And a man dressed in a cloak stepped forward with the hood pulled over his face.

"Then show us your face," Squall demanded, his glare icy.

The man dropped his hood to reveal a face that was round and had a thick beard on it. Larry did not recognize the man, but Squall reacted instantly.

"You!" he snarled, "Traitor!"

"You are close," the bearded man said, "But you have me mistaken."

Squall began frantically searching around for something he could use as a weapon, "Why all the prelude, why drag it out? You've come to finish me off, huh? Well get on with it!" he began to babble loudly.

"Be still, Squall Leonhart. I have not come to kill you," the bearded man said, "I have come here to help you."

Larry was still extremely confused, "I have never seen you before in my life," he said.

"Yes you have," the man insisted, and then suddenly his features began to change, he became taller and leaner and his beard disappeared. Suddenly the face jumped out at him, and Larry knew who he was.

"You!" Larry said surprised, "But you're dead!"

"I wish," he said, "But I think it would be better if we don't go by the name you saw me with last time on Nar Shaddaa, but rather call me Carth."

"Why don't we just call you by your real name you slimy piece of dragon poo!?" Squall demanded.

"Calm down, Squall," Carth said easily, flashing a long sword at him. Larry recognized it instantly as the same weapon he used to use when he had been with the Clan Hunters, "And I'll explain everything, but not here. We need to get away quickly."

Turning he looked at Egwene and the other girl, "My offer still stands, Egwene and Nicola. You can come with us if you want."

Egwene, the one who had been waiting for them, shook her head, "My place is here, I must reunite the White Tower before Tarmon Gai'don, or else die trying."

Carth nodded sagely, "And you Nicola?" he asked, "Someone like you has a lot of potential, provided you use it correctly."

Nicola seemed to be unsure of what to do, but after a moment she firmly shook her head, "No. I will follow the Mother to reunite the tower, any way I can."

Carth grinned, "Alright. You should get back inside, or else the Aes Sedai will miss you."

"Remember what I told you about Rand," Egwene said, "Get to him quickly, and maybe you can convince him to do what has to be done here."

"I assume you have a way out of a city under siege?" Larry asked curiously.

Carth turned and nodded, "Of course."

"Why should I follow you, traitor?" Squall snarled.

"Because if you don't, you'll die here," Carth answered easily, "Besides, I'm not a traitor, John is."

"Don't toy with us!" Squall snarled, "You are John."

Larry frowned before saying slowly, "That's what that SeeD interpreter said about you, after we captured her at the bar on Nar Shaddaa. That you were a traitor, but she seemed to think you were John Call."

"That's right!" Carth said exasperated, "But I can explain all of that once we get out of the city. You remember what I told you?"

"Yes, of course," Larry said.

"One of them is here, the Dragon Reborn resides on this planet. I needed to get you before you let slip that you were looking for him, or else you'd be dead too," Carth said, "Now I've arranged horses, those will help us later."

"Which ones?" Larry asked.

"These," Carth said, pointing out three ready saddled horses, "I can't wait to see the faces of the Aes Sedai who find out that their horses have disappeared."

With a nod to Egwene, he mounted his horse and both Larry and Squall followed suit. Egwene focused, and Larry swore he felt something surge in the girl, but he was unsure what. That was when a vertical flash of light appeared in the center of the darkened stable, and expanded to fill a space much like a doorway in the center isle. As his eyes readjusted to the darkness, he realized that through it he could see a road and some surrounding countryside.

Quickly moving into the Light, Carth guided his horse through the open gap in the air and onto the road on the other side, "Come on! Hurry!" he shouted.

Not really sure how to ride a horse, Larry experimentally leaned forward in the stirrups and up against the saddle. To his relief, the creature shuffled forward through the door, its hoofs clopping off of the cobble stones in the road. Squall followed shortly behind, his face still demanding an explanation.

Turning through the doorway, Carth called, "Good bye, Egwene! Tarmon Gai'don comes soon, and the White Tower must be whole to face it, one way or another."

Larry turned around to see Egwene nod before the open doorway between the stable and the road disappeared. In its place stood a road that coiled around low hills and down into a marshy city with bridges and a lot of small rivers that ran through the city.

"Where are we now?" Larry asked.

"Illian, the capital of the country it was named after. If I can still read the code correctly, I believe that the Dragon Reborn is currently residing in the city. We should make haste to go and see him there, and convince us to join us. I trust you've been gathering Ta'veren like I told you to do?" Carth asked.

"Yes, but we've only got one. We ran into some difficulties in Hyrule," Larry said.

"Difficulties?" Carth asked, as he turned to face Larry.

"Somebody was there trying to get him already, another clan called the 'God Killers'," Larry explained.

Carth frowned in confusion and then shook his head, "I don't know about that."

"Look Ali…Carth, just what the hell is going on here?" Larry demanded, "I deserve an answer out of you."

Carth sighed, "Alright, I'll tell you everything. I believe we have the time for it. But first, I believe you lost something Squall," reaching into his cloak, he produced a blue gunblade, like the one Larry had seen the SeeD leader use on the few occasions he had had to fight him. Then he turned to Larry and handed him his Lightsaber and his PDA, which Larry checked quickly.

"How did you get that?" Squall demanded, "And how do you know I won't just cut you down where you stand?"

"I don't," Carth said simply, "But I don't think you will, not until you hear what I have to say."

Squall took the gunblade and sheathed it at his side, "You've got five minutes, and you should be lucky I'm going to give you that. After then, I'm turning this entire countryside into ash, with you in it."

Carth nodded, stroking his bearded face, "Remember who taught me to use Hyperion, Squall? You may find that more difficult then you would believe."


The President of the United States looked up in surprise as a door suddenly appeared at the end of the chamber, and John Call entered. Relief sounded around the room from all of the various heads of state as the founder of DreamLand appeared.

"About bloody time," the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said in relief.

"Indeed, I thought we would never get out!" the French president sighed.

"I must say I'm sorry," John said, "I had no idea you gentlemen were using DreamLand. Mr. President, your aid only just called to tell me that you were still hooked up to the machine. We've been having trouble with the whole system, everybody in it is having trouble logging out, just as you gentlemen appear to be having."

"Right, but now that you are here; it should be no problem for us to get out of here, correct?" the Russian President said.

"Oh yes, you can go," John said, "I just need to modify your profiles so that they can leave."

Drawing nearer to the closest of the World Leaders, the Australian Prime Minister, John grabbed both sides of the man's head and began staring deeply into the man's eyes. What looked like electric bolts flew off of John's fingertips and into the man's temples, and John's gaze became intent upon the Prime Minister's eyes. Suddenly, though the other's could not see it, the man's face turned to true horror and he tried to cry out but he vanished from the room before a word could escape his lips.

Stepping back, John dusted off his hands, "Right, who's next?"


"So John created DreamLand," Carth continued just as they began to move through the city gates, "And his ambition began to consume who he was, and different parts of his soul began to become personified inside of DreamLand and deposited there. Before the world was open to the public, each of those persona fought one another for dominance, until the only one left came to control John in the waking world."

Larry was stunned, no word of anything like this had ever leaked out into the forums, or the media…nothing. Now it seemed he was in the presence of one of those very personas who had made up everything that was John Call.

"Why didn't any of this leak out?" Larry asked.

"Because all of this happened in a matter of minutes," Carth said, "While he, I, we were running a test for DreamLand. We all fought one another, except for one part of John's mind: loathing."

"Loathing for what?" Squall asked, "I don't think these guards trust us," he commented as they passed by a checkpoint of crossbowmen who were dressed in blue uniforms with a golden dragon splashed across their chest.

"I wouldn't trust you either," Larry pointed out, "You're dressed in black leather and chains with bullets wrapped around your belt."

"Loathing for everything," Carth continued to explain, "He stayed in the recesses of DreamLand until after there were only two left, myself and one other. Both of us were tired and exhausted from the fighting, and he consumed the other before he turned his attention to me. I managed to fight him off long enough to fade into the remote areas of DreamLand, which is why I'm still here."

"That doesn't explain why you betrayed the SeeDs," Squall said icily.

"Yes, it does," Carth insisted, "DreamLand was set up for the first time while he…we were still serving under your command. I a very long time hiding in here for John to actually begin using DreamLand in the waking world."

"So what does he plan to do?" Larry asked as he guided his stallion onto the first bridge that lead over a marshy swamp.

"Isn't that obvious? He intends to control your world the same way he controls this one. There is only one way to stop him," Carth said.

"Gathering the Ta'veren," Larry said, "Why?"

"It's the only way to overwhelm him with his own creations," Carth said, "But there's a built in safeguard against that. Once these Ta'veren start getting removed from their respective worlds, chaos will ensue. Sometimes with powers you cannot begin to comprehend, as what happened in Hyrule."

"What happened in Hyrule?" Larry asked quickly.

Carth turned around and looked, "The world is in ruins and overwhelmed by the minions of the Dark One, who ironically resides in this world. The Dragon Reborn is supposed to fight him soon, but it will result in his own death, or so says prophecy. That's bad for us, because we need him."

The riders rode on in silence and Larry started checking out the buildings and the people who walked through the cobblestone streets. Clearly, John Call had built this city based on Venice, as its architecture and abundant presence of canals. Who built a city on a swamp anyway?

"Carth," Larry asked, "Which part of John's mind are you?"

Carth snorted, and then looked around, "I am his ability to love," he said and then turned away, "We need to find the Dragon Reborn, look for the building with a bunch of Aiel around it."

"What's an 'Aiel'?" Squall asked.

He would soon find out.


Nikita looked down on the Westlands from the bridge of the Pride of Clan Hunters in silent thought. Why were they doing this? Why continue to go on this quest when all it resulted in was the death of her clan members. For what? Even Allied never told them what was going to happen when they recruited all of the people on his list, and more and more people were chasing them now.

Looking over to the Pillar of Spring, she watched as squads of the newly recruited ODSTs dropped to the surface, to begin their search for the Dragon Reborn. Though she wondered what good it would do.

Then she thought about Link, about how his home planet had been ravaged, and how they had been the ones to convince him to leave. He only hoped that he would be able to make a difference in the world around him. And where in DreamLand was Harrod? She thought he was the key to this whole thing, but not sure how. Either way, she had to find him and quick.


"Always an honor," Outlaw murmured as he flourisheddown into the square from the balcony from which he was standing. John Call had been right, of course, the fool was still going after the list of people that had been provided. Why, he was unsure, but he knew that it would lead him to wealth, and that was all that mattered.

Of course, killing the Jedi here would be too easy. He would wait…for now. Grinning, Outlaw twirled his cape and disappeared into the room, laughing madly.