Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

164. Nexus HWR 25-2 AI

Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters who all come from different media. Support the official releases!

Nexus HWR 25.2 AI:

"A Capri-Sun for Ben," Asuna put down a juice pouch in front of the brown-haired boy at the dining room table. She reached over him and leaned over the table, making Ben lean away as she was so close that he felt uncomfortable; this was Kirito's wife after all. "And a Coke for Dash," she said as she put the red Coke can down in front of the blond boy across from Ben.

"Thank you," Dash said with a bright smile at the woman who stood back up straight and smiled back at him.

Kirito looked into the dining room from his kitchen. Their house had a wall between the rooms, but only the top and bottom parts of the wall along with the frames on the outside, leaving the middle of the wall open with a counter on the dining room side of it. There were three stools under that counter in the dining room, and on the kitchen side of the opening the counter was thinner where Kirito was chopping up some veggies to toss in the salad Asuna almost finished. While he cut them up with a small smile on his face, he was watching the three in the next room at the top of his peripheral vision. Are any of them real? Ben's not treating this very much like VR, and neither is Dash. Then again, I'm acting natural too… Why is that? Why haven't I told the two of them that we need to go yet?

Kirito's gaze shifted to his wife who he spent the last hour making dinner with. She's exactly like Asuna in every way. How did they manage that? The program scans memories, and somehow it created her out of mine? The game crafted her- it, he corrected himself. She's not your wife, she's an it! Kirito bit down hard as she turned his way with the same smile on her face, but her smile dropped down a little and a concerned expression came to her face at the sight of Kirito's grimace. He tried to fix it, but she was already heading back into the kitchen and rushed over to his side. She wondered if he did not want the kids in the next room noticing, so she whispered when she got up to his side, "What is it, Kirito-kun? Is something wrong?"

"No, of course not," Kirito said, smiling at her again to show everything was fine. She still looked a little concerned, but she turned to see the salad was just finished and clapped her hands together. "Let's start eating! I'll bring in the ham, okay?" Asuna opened a drawer in front of her to get out some pot holders, and Kirito nodded before grabbing the salad bowl to head into the dining room with.

Kirito walked away while Asuna headed to the other side of the kitchen to put the ham she recently took out of the oven onto a serving plate to bring to the table. As Kirito walked back out with the salad, he asked, "Where'd Dash go?"

"Bathroom," Ben said. He leaned to his right in his seat and peeked through the opening into the kitchen while he did. As soon as he spotted Asuna was out of range, he snapped up to his feet and leaned over the table to get closer to the man who was calmly putting down a salad. "Get a grip," Ben whisper-shouted at the man in front of him. Kirito's eyes bugged out and Ben narrowed his eyebrows more, lifting up his left wrist and showing Kirito the glowing green watch on it. "This is virtual reality."

Is that how he's staying in control? He knows he doesn't have the Omnitrix anymore, so seeing it reminds him. Unless, this still isn't the real Ben. I thought both of them could be projections made by my mind, but he looks serious. They all look real though. I could ask him questions to figure it out, but my mind was scanned so whatever the real Ben knows, he knows. At least, whatever I know that the real Ben knows, Kirito stared into the kid's green eyes silently, and the younger boy leaned back from the table. "Have you really lost it?" Ben asked, a panicked look on his face as he looked beyond Kirito to check if Asuna was coming yet. "Am I the only one who still has a grip on what's real? You and Dash, what's wrong with you guys?"

"We'll talk about this later," Kirito said. He's real. That's real panic. Right? Don't doubt it. Either way, he wants to focus on getting out of here, and that's what I should be focusing on too! He wouldn't want me to focus up on that if his programming is to keep me inside.

He does remember, Ben thought in relief. "Wait a second, no," Ben hissed. "Why later? We're on a mission!"

"What mission?" Asuna asked, walking out of the kitchen with a plate in her hands.

"Uh, an important," Ben started, but with the girl who just made him dinner looking into his eyes, he could not come up with a way to finish that sentence. She's not real though. Kirito! If you remember our mission, then how do you not remember that you don't have a super hot wife?! It's just the VR giving you what you want! I wanted the Omnitrix back. Dash wanted, I still don't know, but I'm trying to figure out what it is. Ben looked the other way as Asuna, because Dash started talking as he came back from the bathroom and distracted Asuna from Ben's failed response to her question. She smiled and responded to the happy boy with blond hair who ran back to his seat, showing off his speed to Asuna who looked surprised, then clapped for him in amazement. Dash, Ben thought while looking across the table at the kid who could not stop smiling. Why did you come here? Why did you choose, to escape to this world? You could have just ran home if you wanted to leave. You could have told me first!

Dash had been looking away for too long, and Ben realized it as the kid turned away from Asuna and then shifted his gaze straight to the ham in the center of the table. "Dash," Ben said, but the kid across from him pretended not to hear. Ben knew he could see him in the top of his vision, and Ben leaned forward while saying again in a stronger tone, "Dash, look at me."

Dash froze with his hands wrapped around a fork and knife, and he lifted his gaze to Ben's hesitantly. Then, Dash tilted his head and asked, "What's up?"

"We're breaking out of here," Ben said.

Kirito's eyes darted back to Asuna, and she turned from Ben to look at him with a confused look, as if asking, 'What is he talking about?' Kirito's chest felt like it got ripped open at that look, and he started at Ben, "Just, hold-" Kirito bit down and turned to Asuna, then back to Ben, then to Dash who spun to him in shock now. Did Dash not think I was real? Wait a second, if he's been in here for a while, he must have had a version of Ben in here too. Is that why he was acting weird? He figured out that the Ben with him was the real Ben? And he just realized I'm real too. Did Ben not tell him as soon as they met up? Was Ben trying to make it out like he was a computer program? What if he really is?

"Am I missing something?" Asuna wondered. "Like, an inside joke between men?" she said, putting on a manly voice and then laughing afterwards. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face as none of the other three at the table said anything, though they all looked at her with expressions of dread.

Why is she so real? Kirito thought. I thought I would be able to tell the difference. I thought it would be like in movies, where the hero says that they couldn't get all of her perfections, imperfections, everything right! She's Asuna though. She's exactly, Asuna. Kirito's fists tightened so hard and he clenched his teeth in pain, Except that she's not.

"Kirito, what's wrong?" Asuna asked seriously, getting out of her seat at his agonized look.

"Dash, we came here to get you out," Ben snapped to the boy across the table from him. He spun to Kirito, "Isn't that right?" He asked in a harsh tone.

Kirito turned his way, and he did everything he could not to turn back to the girl looking at him and awaiting an explanation. Kirito nodded once when Dash turned his way, and Asuna called out, "Kirito! Tell me what's going on right now!"

"I'm not going," Dash said. Then he sped away in a blur so fast that neither Kirito nor Ben could call out for him before the front door was open and he was gone.

"I'm going after him," Ben called out. Dash did not hesitate to run and he was not going to hesitate either to keep up with him.

"Wait," Kirito said, reaching out and grabbing Ben by a shoulder when the boy was about to run past him. "Listen closely. We still remember the outside well, which means that other people in here do as well. I am sure that we are not the first who are going to try and break out, which means that there are going to be programs in place to stop us."

"Kirito!" Asuna started marching around the table. "Stop ignoring me and tell me what's going on right now!"

"One of those programs is already here," Ben said, and Kirito's glare got harsher down into the kid's green eyes. Ben's eyes widened at that glare, and he turned and grabbed Kirito by the front of his black long-sleeved shirt. He curled his hand into Kirito's collar and snapped up at the older teen who went wide-eyed himself, "Get a grip, Kirito. That isn't your wife. You don't have a wife!" Asuna froze where she was a few feet away from them, staring at Ben in confusion and then turning to Kirito who looked her way so reluctantly. Kirito turned back to Ben as the kid continued after seeing Kirito's expression, "Some beautiful girl doesn't live with you, cooking your food! You aren't married! Do you really not remember?!"

As Ben shouted it, something caught Kirito's gaze and made his head slowly start turning left. He was facing Ben who had his back to the hallway leading to the front door. No one heard the front door open, since Dash had left it wide open after running out a minute ago. That was why the small girl was able to sprint straight inside without slowing down. She booked it down the hallway then cut into the next hall which Dash had taken earlier to go to the bathroom. Kirito's head completely turned that way and Ben turned too once the girl had run past him but before cutting down that hall.

"Yui!" Asuna called out, a frantic tone in her voice that made Kirito spin to her in confusion.

"What's, going on?" Kirito mumbled, shrugging Ben's hands off of him and then running after his wife who ran down the hall and cut into the same room next to the bathroom that the little girl just ran in.

Ben reached his hand out, then he clenched it and growled, "God damn it, Kirito." He ran after the man, thinking, Dash is too fast. I can't catch him on my own, even if I go XLR8. I need Kirito's help in here. Besides, I can't just go get Dash and leave. We need to get out of here together. All three of us! Ben reached the bedroom doorway that Kirito had sprinted into, and he froze behind the man who stepped forward a little while looking at the small girl who was digging through a bag Kirito had seen her pull out from under her bed.

"Yui! Where have you been?!" Asuna called out in a panicked voice. "I had the police looking everywhere for you-"

"Not now, 'Mom,'" the girl put her hands up and made air quotes which made Kirito's bottom lip tremble and lower. Ben got a confused expression on his face too as the girl said that, and he turned to Kirito to see if he knew what was going on. Yui found something in her bag and pulled it out, and Kirito's breath caught in his throat at the sight of a NerveGear. She lifted up the virtual reality helmet and Kirito thought she was going to put it on, only for the girl to rip the visor off of it and then run to her desk where there was a computer. "If I install my new program functioning into this visor, I can show Yuno!" She turned and smiled at her mother who was standing behind her with such a confused look on her face as she shook her head around. "Don't you get it? This way, he'll also be able to see which people are real and which ones are just programs like you and Dad."

Yui looked past her mother towards the door where a black-haired man stood staring at her with a dropped jaw and trembling expression on his face. She spun away and back to her computer, but her hands did not move back to the keyboard. Yui slowly turned around again, and she whispered, "Why aren't you scolding me too?" Kirito took another step into the room. Ben stared at Kirito in so much confusion that it was starting to get scary. Ben took a step back, as Kirito froze in the middle of the little girl's room.

"Y-Yui?" He whispered. "You're, you're not just, part of the VR, are you?" Kirito asked, his voice choking up as he said it.

The girl's eyes opened huge and water filled them, rising up on her bottom eyelids and then spilling over. Her lips quivered, and she whispered in a hoarse voice, "Papa?"

Kirito's eyes welled up, and then the girl jumped off her chair and ran towards him. "Yui!" Asuna shouted as the girl ran by her, and then she stared in shock as Kirito had tears in his eyes as he dropped down to his knees on the floor and wrapped his arms around their daughter as Yui did the same to him.

"Yui," Kirito whispered, holding the girl to him tighter and closing his eyes as he pressed the side of his head up against hers. He heard her sobbing into his ear, and he gasped out, "It really is you." He held her so closely and felt warmth come from the girl he had never held like this before.

"Kirito," Ben began from the doorway, and Kirito's eyes snapped open wide. Kirito stared forward in horror, then his gaze lifted up to the light-orange-haired girl staring at him and Yui with tears filling her own eyes. Asuna's tears looked to be of sadness and frustration though at why she was being left out of this embrace. Kirito winced at the sight of her tears, and Yui felt her Papa's twitch and turned to see where he was looking.

Yui turned to her mom, then spun back to Kirito and said in a hurried voice, "That's not Mama."

"Yes I am!" Asuna shouted, bringing her hands to the side of her head with a panicked expression on her face. "Please Kirito, not you too." Kirito spun to her, and Asuna whispered, "You can't. She said we both were fakes, and we were trying so hard to find her."

"Were we?" Kirito whispered, because she had not brought it up once since he had gotten there.

"Yes!" Asuna yelled, her panicked look turning into a crazed one, like she thought she was losing her mind at the way the two of them were acting towards her. Neither Kirito nor Yui could stand to see her look like that, even if they both knew she was not real.

"Asuna," Kirito whispered, standing up and then biting his tongue as he got ready to talk to her.

"Are they," Ben began from the door.

The small girl who stood in front of Kirito looked around his legs to the kid in the door, and her eyes widened before she spun back to her computer and ran to it around her unmoving mother's legs. "Papa! I'm going to make a few of these for you and your friend too, okay?"

"That's great, Yui," Kirito said in a soft voice. He told his daughter it in a proud voice while stepping towards Asuna and looking deep into her eyes. She was crying now, and Kirito rose a hand and put it up against her right cheek. "Asuna," he whispered.

Yui froze at the computer, glancing over her shoulder and then wincing at the look on her Papa's face. She spun back to get to work faster, while Asuna pressed her cheek into Kirito's hand and rubbed her tears off in his palm with her eyes clenching shut. "Kirito, I feel like I'm going crazy," Asuna whispered. "I love you. I love both of you, so much." Yui's face twisted harder and she winced, tears building up in her eyes again at the sound of her mother's pained voice. "Why are you two both, treating me like, like I'm not-"

"Kirito," Ben started, stepping farther into the room and interrupting the woman who was causing so much anguish on his comrade's face. "Is this, real?" Ben asked. Kirito did not turn away from the woman he loved, who he had always loved.

"Asuna's my wife, Ben," Kirito answered softly. "Even out there, in the real world," Asuna's eyes opened up as he said it and stared back into his. "We were married. She was, everything to me. And Yui, is an Artificial Intelligence we adopted as our daughter. She is my daughter," Kirito said and the girl behind the computer smiled through the tears spilling down her face. Kirito glanced towards Yui's back as he said that, but he turned his gaze back to Asuna and continued in a pained whisper, "This is everything I've ever wanted."

Yui stopped what she was doing at the computer and turned to her Papa in shock. Kirito had continued while staring into Asuna's eyes, "You, to be alive again. Yui to be with us. Yui to have her own body, to be a real person." Kirito shook his head and then pressed his forehead forward into Asuna's while looking deeper into her eyes. "But this world isn't real. I'm trapped here. Ben is too, and Dash, and Yui. But Asuna, I watched you die, so I know this can't be the real you in here." Kirito shook his head while pressing it into Asuna's, while her eyes opened wider and her tears stopped. "I came here to save the people trapped in this virtual world. It's just like Aincrad, only a million times more realistic. But Asuna, I can't save you from this world, because you're a part of it."

"No, no! I'm me!" Asuna exclaimed. She grabbed Kirito's arms firmly and said, "After everything we've been through together. Can't you tell? It's me, Kirito-kun."

Kirito shook his head and looked so sadly into her eyes. "I wish it was. And I know, that you know everything about our lives together. I bet you could name every last detail. Asuna, it doesn't matter if this you isn't the real one. I love you." Kirito shrugged his shoulders to get her arms off of his. "But as much as I do, I have to get out of here. The real Asuna would want me to escape, to help everyone else escape." She shook her head at him and opened her mouth to argue, but Kirito said, "Asuna, don't you find it weird, that Yui has a body?"

Asuna froze and her mouth stayed open, her lips trembling. "Th-That's because," Asuna began, her eyes slowly growing wider and wider.

"You never noticed?" Kirito asked, his heart breaking at the look of growing realization on her face. "You have my memories of you, Yui's too," Kirito whispered. "So then why haven't you ever wondered about that before? Why are you just noticing now, that our daughter from a virtual world is sitting there at a computer? Why is it that a couple of teenagers have a house in the suburbs? How can we afford this? Neither of us went to work today! Asuna, this isn't real! None of it is real!"

"I'm real!" Asuna shouted back at him. "What if I'm, an AI, like Yui?!" Asuna yelled.

Kirito froze with his mouth open, and Yui's fingers froze over her keyboard. "So, so what?!" Asuna shouted, grabbing the sides of her head and then breathing heavy breaths to try and calm herself down. She calmed herself more and more, then she lowered her hands and frowned at the boy in front of her who was frozen with his jaw dropped. "What if I am?" Asuna asked. "What if I'm, just a program? Does that make me any less real? If so, then you don't consider Yui real either, which means you aren't the real Kirito!"

Oh my God this is way too realistic, Ben thought as he took a step back. Is this a program trying to get Kirito to stay in the game? Or is this actually…

"That's not what I- you can't be-" Kirito tried starting.

"You don't believe me?" Asuna asked. She frowned and clenched her fists at her sides, and then her face lit up like she had an idea. She grimaced after it lit up, and she looked like she was in a lot of pain as she opened and closed her mouth a few times. "Then I'll prove it to you. I, can accept that this isn't real. You're right, there are things in here that I can't explain. But, but if I wasn't real, if I was just a part of this world!" Asuna had water building up in her eyes again, and she shouted, "Then why would I choose to help you?!"

Kirito took a step back with eyes bulging as wide as possible. Asuna took a step forward when he stepped back though. "That's right. I'm going, to help you! Even if it means I lose you," she said that last part with a tear falling from her right eye. She reached up and wiped it off with a strong brush of an arm. "Because seeing you look at me as if I'm not the real Asuna, is a thousand times worse than anything I've ever imagined. It's like my heart is shattering into a million little pieces." Asuna shook her head around and hardened up her expression to prevent any more tears from falling. "And if there really are people trapped in here like Yui kept saying, then it's our job to help them."

Why? Kirito thought. Why is she so, exactly, like Asuna? Why am I going to have to leave her all over again? Why am I being punished like this? Slap! Kirito's eyes shot open wide as her hand hit his cheek, and he saw Asuna's face right in front of his own. She was frowning at him and he leaned back at that look, and she said in a harsh voice, "No spacing out on me now. I just told you that I'm helping you, so what's the plan? I'm assuming you did come in here with a plan?"

"Kirito, don't tell her," Ben said, walking farther into the room and stepping up on Kirito's side. Asuna looked down at Ben and he felt bad at the realistic look on her face, but he continued anyway, "We still don't know, if she's really trying to help us. If we tell her-"

"Then what?" Kirito asked. "Our minds were already scanned. That's how they got everything so perfect." Ben's eyes widened as that made sense, and he looked up to see Kirito's expression had gone back to looking serious, but more focused now than he had since Ben first saw him at the front door of the house. "But they're going to regret making it all so perfect," he said, and he smiled at the girl in front of him who smiled right back. "Because a perfect Asuna, is one who would fight with me against this prison of a world."

"She could betr-" Ben started.

"Trust me," Kirito said. Ben's eyebrows narrowed down as he heard that. "I believe in her."

"I'm finished with the first set," Yui said, interrupting the others as she ran over holding up a single visor with a strap around it so someone could keep it on their head. She glanced up at her mom who smiled down at her, but Yui quickly turned away to Kirito and handed him the visor. Kirito reached out and grabbed it, then he noticed Yui's crushed expression and his eyes shot open wide again.

"Oh Yui," Kirito whispered, dropping to his knees again and pulling her head in close to his chest. "I'm so sorry."

Asuna brought her hands up in front of her own chest and held them there tightly with a look of sadness and pity on her face. She looked like she wanted to drop down and give Yui a hug too, but it would have been inappropriate considering the reason the girl was crying.

"Mama's, dead?" Yui asked. Kirito had mentioned it while talking to Asuna and did not see the way Yui's face crushed in that moment.

Kirito just held the girl tighter to him. "Yes, but this Asuna right here," Kirito continued, pulling back from his daughter while the Asuna on his left stared down in shock at what Kirito just started saying. "She has all the memories of your Mama. A version of her that remembers every moment the three of us ever spent together. Even if she isn't your real Mama, it's okay to treat her like she is, okay?" Yui stared at her Papa in stunned silence for a few seconds, then she slowly nodded her head while turning towards Asuna. Asuna's watery eyes shifted towards Kirito's back with a soft loving smile that he did that to help her as well.

"Alright," Kirito said as he stood back up straight. He put the visor Yui gave him over his head, and his first move was to turn to Ben and look at the boy. He narrowed his eyes at the shorter figure who had a dark blue tint around his body. Then, he turned and looked at the other two. He lifted his hands and looked down at their blue veil before nodding. "Okay, so a blue tint means other players. Other real people trapped in Paradis," he corrected himself, because he had to remind himself that this was not a video game. "Asuna, you have no tint around you, and Yui, you're, red?" Kirito said, sounding nervous as he did.

He lifted up the visor since Yui was so red that it was less a tint and more a veil blocking her from his vision. She had a guilty look on her face as Kirito stared at her in worry, and he asked, "What is it?" Ben got nervous, wondering if this girl had been tricking them the entire time. Red inside of games usually meant enemies, so he got ready with his Omnitrix.

"It's the system," Yui said in a sad voice. "Whoever's in control of it labeled all of us programs as hostile entities."

"All of you programs?" Ben wondered, walking closer to this strange young girl. She looked only a couple of years younger than him and had long black hair that fell down over her shoulders and halfway down her back.

Yui wore a red t-shirt and a white skirt, and when she looked at him, Ben could not tell that it was not a real girl looking his way. She explained to the boy, "I'm not the only Artificial Intelligence that got brought to Nexus. We all appeared here around the same time, whether or not we had been destroyed on our old worlds. We had our own share of fights and wars inside the system long before anyone from the outside world came inside. Love Machine was especially hard. It was devouring other programs and we all had to work together to stop it." Yui became quiet, and then she whispered, "We're all separated now. We had to go into hiding when the Sith came. They were able to create new programs, overwriting old systems and coding to start 'Paradis.'"

"I don't get it," Ben began. "Are you saying that for the last two and a half years, you've been inside this computer? Who even created it then?" Ben thought about how all the AI's appearing at the same time sounded oddly similar to his appearance on Nexus, and he came to the belief that the two happened at the same time. This question made his heart start racing though much faster than before.

"Two years, five months, and fifteen days to be exact," Yui corrected Ben. "And that is a mystery to me as well," she said in a curious tone. "We checked the system log when we first found the central Core of the digital universe."

"Hold on, you know where the Core is?" Ben asked.

As soon as the words came out of Ben's mouth, he knew it was a bad choice to use them. Two of the people in the room with him were reliant on the system staying running, and Ben's question implied that he was going to try and damage the Core. Kirito's glare was the harshest of the three, and Ben continued quickly, "The only way to expel the people controlling the system while still keeping Paradis running is going to be through taking back control of the Core, right?" Ben asked in a rushed voice. It made sense to Asuna and Yui who agreed with him, but Kirito kept glaring at the younger boy.

If you can't figure out how to expel the Sith from the system, what do you plan on doing, Ben? I won't let you hurt my family!

Kirito is gone. I doubt I can get him to leave this place anymore. If we don't find a way to shut down Paradis, he'll "offer" to stay and keep trying to find a way to do it without destroying them. All I can do now, is try to stop the program before he completely turns against me. Ben grimaced and thought, You were the one warning me about the programs in here. How do you know this isn't exactly how Paradis got everyone else? His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched at his sides. Don't look, he told himself with a dark expression on his face. If they show up again, never look at them.

"…and the system log showed us something that didn't make any sense. Even though we had just appeared here, the system itself had existed for much longer." Ben was snapped from his thoughts by what Yui was talking about, and Kirito's eyes widened too before narrowing in on his daughter. Yui continued while the shocked boys stared at her, "The system existed long before any of us were brought here, and before any of you were brought to Nexus either. This digital world existed, or someone created it, so that us programs would have someplace to go."

"Why would they do that?" Ben asked.

"Why bring any of us to Nexus?" Kirito asked in a darker tone. Ben turned sideways at the taller teen who continued in a low voice, "We don't know. We don't know the purpose behind it, but whatever the reason for bringing them here, they were considered real enough to be brought across the multiverse to Nexus just like we were. If they're that real, then that makes it even more final." He turned to Ben and looked deep into the kid's eyes, "No matter what we do here, we don't destroy this system. Even if we can't find a way to shut down Paradis, we do not destroy the system in its entirety."

"Kirito," Ben started.

"I mean it, Ben," he said. "I'm deadly serious. You're, my friend," Kirito stated it and Ben's eyes opened wide as he did not know if Kirito had said it before. "I mean that too. But Yui is my daughter, my real daughter. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

That if I kill your daughter, you're going to kill me, Ben thought. He nodded his head once firmly at Kirito, and the older teen nodded back at him, glad Ben understood.

"Then let's get Dash," Kirito said. "He knows this place isn't the real world. We have to get him out of here."

"I know where his house is," Ben started. He turned from the family in front of him and walked to the door of the little girl's room. "I saw his family, and he was happy with them, but I couldn't see why he would come in here to be with them instead of going to the real ones out there."

"We'll figure it out," Kirito assured the younger boy whose tone sounded so frustrated that he could not understand what Dash was thinking. He turned and looked at the woman next to him, and he whispered softer, "Together." Asuna's hesitant look disappeared as Kirito said that, a more assured and serious look returning to her face as she nodded back at him.

---

"I could really do with one of those visors right now," Ben muttered while he, Kirito, and Asuna jogged down a sidewalk in the residential suburb not far from Dash's house.

"I could give you mine," Kirito started while reaching up for his headset.

"No. Keep yours," Ben snapped at the man whose arms froze and then lowered back down while his lips curled lower as well. Ben glared sideways at Kirito in an uncertain way. He did not hide his distrust of the older teen who was suspecting that Ben did not trust him only for Ben to clearly show that lack of faith without hiding it at all. "You need to remember what's real, Kirito. I didn't even look at my parents when I woke up. I opened my window and flew out without taking one look at their faces, even though it would have been the first time I'd seen them in over two years. I'm not going to lose myself in here. So keep your Goddamn visor on, and don't you take it off for anything."

He has no trust in me at all right now. He did listen to what I said about not shutting the systems down though. He had to have. I won't let you hurt any of them, Ben. We're not enemies right now though. Unless, I should stop him from- whoa whoa. Kirito shook his head around. What am I thinking about? It's true though. I can't let him hurt Yui. Ben doesn't understand. I don't want him to be my enemy. He's strong. He has his Omnitrix back- that's not the reason!

Oh fuck me. Fuck me fuck this. Ben darted a look from Kirito to Asuna who just reached a hand out and put it softly on her husband's shoulder as if understanding how difficult this must be for him. Ben squinted his eyes in frustration then snapped his gaze back forward. "Let's pick up the pace! Dash is hiding from something, and he doesn't want to leave because of it."

Kirito and Asuna looked confusedly at Ben. "It's the only thing that makes sense," Ben muttered. "Because he could have just gone home to Pao if he wanted to live like this. So he's hiding from reality. You saw the way he looked when they came back at the Wizard King's."

"The 'Wizard King?'" Asuna wondered at Kirito who shook his head as it was too much to explain right now. "And that's the real world, that you want to get back to?"

"Shut uuupp," Ben hissed. He glared towards the woman who stopped short and stared at him with huge eyes at the infuriated way he just snarled at her. Ben darted a look to Kirito who narrowed his gaze angrily at him and even curled his fists. "She's a- you're making assumptions that she's an AI, and not just a program sent here to stop you!"

"I'm not trying to stop you. Either of you!" Asuna exclaimed back at the boy who she seemed to have upset so much right there just with her questions.

"Nexus is crazy. Don't let her convince you that it isn't real though," Ben warned Kirito without looking back at the woman. Her offer to come with to 'help' them seemed to Ben more like Asuna giving herself more time to convince Kirito to stay. More time for him to fall in love with this fake version of his wife. Asuna stared at Ben in shock at his argument though as she understood what he thought she was doing, and she looked down in horror herself as if questioning if that was her actual reason for coming. Ben's head tilted back at that guilty horrified look on her face, and he whispered, "If you really want to help us, then try- just try, not to do that."

"Ben." Kirito stopped his young friend who curled his lips in such frustration back to his older comrade. Kirito just nodded back calmly at Ben though. "Lead the way. Let's get to Dash."

Ben took in and released a huge breath. "Okay. Okay! Come on!" He turned and started running again.

Kirito trailed back a bit and then jogged with Asuna a safe distance behind Ben. "He's just worked up," Kirito said to the girl who shook her head in complete understanding. It was the same reason Kirito's tone remained collected even with Ben shouting at his wife. "I can only imagine what he's thinking right now," Kirito admitted, feeling sorry for Ben after seeing the panic in the boy's eyes a second ago.

Am I the only thing that's real in this whole world?! Ben held back tears as he ran down the sidewalk. His heart was racing and his chest hurt as he darted his eyes around and saw people driving cars. Families in their yards. Regular people conversed together while their dogs on leashes played with each other. Get Dash. Convince Kirito to leave. RUN! Forget shutting this place down. Kirito will just try to kill me if I do that. Oh this is so fucked. The normalcy of the world around him made the feeling of being in a cage that much worse. The fact that it felt so real was bad, but the worse feeling was that the only real people in it with him were not even treating it like a cage. Are they real? Is Yui's visor a trick too?

Ben hated to consider it. Is any of this real? What if they're just giving me this mission? A mission to save Dash and Kirito? I could be convinced. I don't think I would leave without them. Would the Sith give up on the idea of making a paradise for me, as long as it keeps me trapped in here?! Tears filled his eyes. "Dash," he whispered under his breath. "You're my best friend."

If you don't believe me. If you don't, leave with me? I'll… I'll convince myself that you aren't real too. That my friend wouldn't let me get trapped in here because of his selfishness! You're a hero, Dash. You too, Kirito. If you knew that I would get stuck in here with you trying to get you both out, then you wouldn't stay. You would leave! Unless, you knew that I'd run otherwise- but then you wouldn't be programs. Right? If you decided to stay, knowing that I would leave and be convinced that you were programs, then you wouldn't stay, because your programming would force you to come with me and prevent- Ben reached up and grabbed the side of his head. My brain feels like it's bleeding!

"Up ahead," Ben snapped, recognizing a house with red siding that he had located before due to it looking like the Parr's house in Pao Town. "Let's go. The family knew who I was. They recognized your name too, Kirito, when we said where we were going. That you had invited us over. I didn't even think about texting you with the cellphone I apparently have in here. That was a smart move inviting us."

"I…" Kirito started. Ben glanced back and looked at his friend who paused but then added softer, "I scrolled up through my messages. I don't know, how it works really. But I think I may have stepped into the place of the Kirito here. My consciousness-"

"Or it was all just generated right when we got in!" Ben snapped back at him.

"But we're in the shared world with Dash, and he's been here for several days at least." Kirito's counter made Ben grind his teeth. "And he definitely had versions of us in here. He'd met the other Kirito. I could tell by the way he looked at me when he realized that I was from the outside. The world generates so much, including-"

"Why did it bring us together?" Ben snapped. He shook his head around. "It doesn't make sense. We want to get out together. Why do that? Why make it easier?"

"Because maybe it knew that we couldn't accept our perfect worlds in here if we knew that our friends weren't with us," Kirito replied. Ben spun his head back in shock that Kirito had an answer to questions he was so frustrated at because he could think of no good answer. "Maybe it knew that we would immediately rush away from our 'paradises' to find the real versions of each other. To find the real Dash. It was a contradiction in their program they couldn't get around. Because the world that would most likely keep me inside is the one with the real Yui, and they know that the real Yui is creating counters to them that would have shown me that a programmed Dash and Ben weren't real. That I had to go find them! So they had to bring us all together to prevent that."

"That… that makes a lot of sense," Ben replied softly. "Then, maybe our world is the only connected one inside here? Unless the other Resistance teams who came in- they might. I mean, if they were motivated enough, they may have found passages to each other's worlds too. Right? But for some reason they got caught. Trapped? All of them?" Ben whispered even softer. "All of them. I can't imagine that we were the most motivated of everyone. I mean, I'm pretty awesome, but there has to be more in here, Kirito. Even more that we haven't seen yet."

Ben turned down the driveway of Dash's house then walked up the path towards his front door. Asuna had giggled to herself and gave Kirito a sideways look after Ben called himself awesome, but Kirito was thinking too deeply on what Ben just said to get distracted by her cute look right now amused by the younger boy's ego. He's right. To imagine that we're just the best and that it won't happen to us would be careless. Ben knows not to be careless. He's seen us all die. He's experienced what happens when he goes in underprepared. He still does it anyway though. Because he is that much of a hero. He is that awesome.

Kirito admired the boy he followed up towards Dash's door. He went to Zodd with no backup. He came here to Paradis without hesitation even knowing that no one has ever made it out before. He stood up to Luthor when every last one of us were beaten down. You're wrong, Ben. You are different. I believe that you'll be the one to make it out… And I'm glad you refused to let me come in here alone, because I'd still be eating with Asuna right now, or reuniting with Yui, while you're the one pushing us forward. I can't turn on you. I can't let you hurt them, but I really can't turn on you either when I know that you're right. Way too many people have fallen to this place, or fallen "for" this place, and I'm just one of many. So is Dash. I have to be stronger! Fight against Paradis.

Ben knocked on the door in front of him. "Wait, what am I doing?" He muttered to himself. Ben grabbed the knob and turned it. He opened the door inwards while Bob was still just standing up from his couch.

Bob Parr looked at the door in surprise that whoever just knocked would open it up without waiting for him. He smiled though as he saw Ben there. "Oh good. I was wondering what happened when Dash came back so quickly. Everything alright?" Bob looked past Ben to the other two who stepped into the doorway after Ben ran inside and straight to the stairs. "Uh, Ben… Kirito?" Bob wondered towards the older teenager for an answer as Ben had just ignored him to run upstairs.

"This is my wife, Asuna," Kirito greeted Bob. Helen came walking out of the kitchen, and a girl with black hair closer to Kirito's own age went walking past in a hallway with a pair of headphones over her head. Violet glanced over then quickly sped off as she was in too casual of clothes and not expecting guests at the moment. "Asuna," Kirito turned to his wife quickly. "Would you mind, talking with the Parrs?" She lifted a small smile at him, and Kirito looked back to the confused parents who glanced at each other wondering what was going on. "Me and Ben need to talk to Dash."

"Is he alright?" Helen asked. "He ran straight up to his room when he came back here. I thought he was eating with you-"

"He's fine. We just need to talk," Kirito was not as rude as Ben, but he did start inching towards the stairs and then just shook his head and started up.

The parents seemed like they were going to say something else, but Asuna stepped forward and complimented their interior decor. Kirito clenched his eyes shut as his fake wife attempted to help him in what was too confusing an action for him to understand.

Does she not want me to leave? I'm falling in love with her. No, I'm already in love. Because she's the same. A perfect Asuna. Kirito lifted an arm and wiped his eyes at the thought of that. Can't I stay? This isn't real! I promised the Resistance I wouldn't lose sight. I was so confident in that. How could I, so easily, break?

I forgot how much I missed her. How much I love her.

Kirito saw an open door where he heard boys' voices coming from. He jogged over and walked into Dash's room, and he noticed right away that there was not one but two beds in the room. Kirito looked to his right at one of the beds then down at the floor where a blond preteen was sitting with a smaller blond three year old in his arms who he was swinging up and dropping back down in a playful way that had the smaller kid laughing and smiling at his older brother.

"Dash, you have to know this isn't real," Ben begged his friend who ignored him and kept looking at the face of his baby brother instead.

Ben stood just past Dash's legs and in the middle of his friend's bedroom. "I know you know that," Ben snapped louder.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Dash called out while lowering his brother down and putting JackJack next to him. Dash stood up and he ran over to his closet, and he pulled out a plastic bucket full of toys that he slid towards the smaller kid who stumbled on shaking legs towards it then reached in and started digging through the toys. "I can't believe you just barged into my house though."

"Your house? Where even are we? Dash, what the fuck are you talking about?" Ben hissed. "You're lying. I can see you're lying."

"I'm not-"

"You are!" Ben yelled at him.

Dash spun angrily at Ben for raising his voice. He looked past and thought about his family downstairs who definitely heard that, but he just saw Kirito in his doorway. Kirito stared back at him into his eyes sadly but also in confusion as to how Dash was acting. "I'm not leaving. This is, this is my house," Dash stated firmly, crossing his arms then shaking his head around and running towards his brother who lifted up a robotic toy action figure. Dash pulled out a similar one but with wings and then started making plane noises with his mouth while flying it around his toddler baby brother.

"Hehehe," JackJack giggled while playing with the older boy.

"Is this it, Dash?" Ben wondered. He walked closer to JackJack and got down on one knee next to the toddler. "JackJack? That's why you're staying?"

"Stop," Dash started softly as Ben nodded next to him at the confused smaller boy.

"He's not real, Dash," Ben snapped. "This, 'kid,' isn't your brother!"

"Uhh, ahhh," JackJack didn't like the angry shouting right next to him.

Kiritio looked at Ben hesitantly himself now as he was upsetting that little kid. Is JackJack an AI too? Are all the programs here so intelligent that it makes them into AI? How do we tell? Kirito could see blue glows on the other two through his visor, but not on the toddler who was sniffling and starting to cry.

"Stop that, Ben," Dash warned.

"Are you giving up? You can have this life out there, Dash. So stop already! We need to get out of here-"

"I'm not leaving. This is my home," Dash declared. He shook his head like he had no idea what Ben was talking about.

"This isn't real!" Ben yelled at him.

"I know that!" Dash screamed back.

"Waaahhhh," JackJack started crying.

Dash ran up to his brother and pushed Ben out of the way. "Stop upsetting him!"

"That's not JackJack!" Ben snapped back at Dash, though he did lower his voice. I don't want the rest of his family coming up here and further convincing him. "Kirito knows that the Asuna downstairs isn't his real wife. Why can't you get that this isn't your family?"

"It doesn't matter if they're real-"

"Yes it does!" Ben hissed back furiously. "Your real family is out there? Are you abandoning them? Are you abandoning all of us?!" Ben exclaimed, and Dash turned back to him with shaking and uncertain eyes that grew wider at the pain and frustration in Ben's. "Are you even thinking about what it will do to them? If you just stay here forever?"

"I won't… not forever-"

"Do you wanna bet how many people said that same thing? All the people trapped in here who thought that they were stronger than the system?! That they'll be the ones to overcome it?" Ben gasped at him. "Can't you see that you're stuck? Please, Dash. You told me your mission is to get JackJack and bring him back to your family. So that you can have this life!"

Dash's eyes shook more and trembled full of water as Ben snapped at him. "To go back to your real family, so that you can live this life! How could you give up on it?"

"I didn't," Dash replied softly. He ran back over to JackJack who was looking at him in confusion and sadly too, though the toddler was only whimpering and not crying now. Dash smiled at the boy and grabbed him by the arms, waving them around in a playful way to get JackJack to smile again. He played with him and laughed himself, even while tears continued to fill his eyes while his lips curled and twisted in agony. "I should have played with him more. I should-"

"You can," Ben whispered back. He stepped closer to Dash and put a hand on his shoulder. "I promise. We won't stop looking for him."

"I'm staying," Dash hissed.

"You can't. You can't! The real one is still waiting for you to-"

"No he's not-" Dash started. He snapped it but cut himself off. He was too slow though.

Kirito's eyes bulged. He stepped into the room. Oh no. "Dash," Kirito began, while Ben was still frozen next to his friend. Ben's hand lifted off Dash's shoulder while his friend turned away sharply after seeing Ben's look in the corner of his eyes and realizing he did not cut himself off quickly enough.

"I'm staying," Dash just whispered again. "JackJack's here. We're a family," he said it softer. "It's not real, but I want to stay. I- I'm going to stay."

"Dash," Ben gasped at him. "Please, talk to me. What- what happened?" Ben barely got the question out in a raspier voice that he was struggling to find. Ben reached forward and grabbed Dash firmly by the shoulder again. He turned his friend to him and grabbed him by both shoulders. "What did you mean by that? JackJack's out there, right? I'm going to help you find him… what? What?!" Ben snapped at the kid whose eyes just trembled and finally started letting the tears pour out, which made JackJack start crying too next to him.

Dash shook his head to try and stop himself, but Ben would not let him pull out of his arms this time. "I can't go out there again," Dash whispered. "In here," Dash smiled down at the boy which caused JackJack to stop crying again. Through teary eyes, Dash smiled and said, "He's still okay. I, I see him and he's okay. It's not like that out there. Every second, of every day, all I see is- All I saw then, not in here! It's different in here."

"What did you see?" Kirito asked, stepping closer and up on Ben's left side closer to Dash.

"Ahh hahh," Dash stopped himself from gasping again and forced a smile while looking down at his baby brother he did not want to see him cry. But when he looked at JackJack's face now, he saw a different look to it over the actual face of the child. It was what he had been seeing outside of this place. JackJack's head was opened up, and Dash's face twisted in horror and pulled away. He saw Ben staring into his horrified eyes, and he looked back into them with tears pouring down his face as Ben still awaited an answer from him. "I… I was, so close. I was right there!"

"Where?" Ben asked.

"JackJack," Dash gasped. "He was… at the Saiyan Mountains. I- I found him," Dash's smile lifted at the corners for a second. "Good people were looking after him. Taking good care of him, the whole time. And then, then- ahh, Meruem he… The Ant King! He-" Ben and Kirito stared at Dash in horror as Dash's eyes slammed shut. As tears streamed down his face. He no longer cared about anyone hearing him as his voice started getting so much louder.

"I-I was right there," Dash sobbed. "And I couldn't do anything. Sora and Goku were there! And they didn't stop him!" Dash tilted his head back and his bloodshot eyes opened to look at his friends who stared back in so much agony and pity for him. "Meruem showed up, and he- he ate my little brother!"

Kirito clenched his eyes shut and turned his head to the side. Tears poured down Ben's face just hearing his friend's pain in those words. Dash kept going though, "He ripped open JackJack's skull and devoured his brains! Right in front of me! So no, Ben! I- I can't have this life. It doesn't exist out there!" Dash swung his arm towards the window and pulled out of Ben's grip on his shoulders that got weaker at what Dash had just shouted.

Ben only loosened his grip on Dash's shoulders though, because he was going for something else. He stepped forward and swung his left arm around the back of Dash's head, and no matter how fast Dash was, he could not stop Ben from grabbing the back of his head and pulling it into his chest. Ben held his other arm around Dash's back and held him as tightly as he could. "Jesus Christ dude," Ben gasped. "I'm- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dash."

"Ahh haaahhhh, ahhhhhh," Dash sobbed into Ben's chest.

Kirito glanced behind him to the door to the bedroom. He winced at the appearances of the people standing out in the hall. Their pained looks. Their confused expressions that did not understand what was going on here. He looked at his own horrified wife who stared back into his eyes sadly herself. This world is better, Kirito thought. It's horrible out there. No wonder people choose to stay. It's, peaceful here.

"It's all I can think about," Dash sobbed. "I failed, Ben. We all had missions coming to Aebrith, and I failed mine. I should have taken him and run back to Pao as soon as I saw him. I could have had this. I- I waited too long. I didn't think the Ant King would show up. I didn't think, I wouldn't be able to protect him. Meruem killed them all. He killed JackJack, and I- I couldn't do anything about it. How can I go home? How can I, face my parents?"

"Dash," one of those parents started from the doorway.

Dash pushed his head farther into Ben's chest. He could not bear to look their way. "JackJack's just fine, honey," Helen started while running into the room. She reached to put her arms around Dash, but Ben pulled Dash the other way as her and kept himself between Dash and his loving mother program. Ben glared at Helen who pulled her head back in shock at that angry look from her son's close friend who she knew well herself. "Ben," Helen began.

"Stop, just stop," Ben hissed in frustration. He let go of the hug but kept his hands on Dash's upper arms while pushing his friend back from him.

"What's going on?" Violet asked in confusion out in the hall.

"I don't understand any of this…" Bob began himself.

"Dash, look at me," Ben gripped his friend firmly by the arms as he held him at arm's length. "Look!" Ben yelled. He ignored everything else in the room and just made Dash open his red eyes and look back into his own. Ben's were the same bloodshot color but through the despair for his friend was an intensity that forced Dash into semi-focus. "Please, listen to me closely," Ben begged his friend. "You're a hero, Dash."

"I failed. I let him-"

"Meruem's too strong," Ben cut him off. "I know! It's not your fault. But your family? The real family waiting out there for you in the real world? They're still out there. This pain you're in, they'll have to go through double because you're not there! Because you're choosing to be a coward and hide in here."

Kirito looked in shock to the fourteen year old yelling this at his friend. "Ben," Kirito began harshly.

"You're a hero!" Ben yelled angrily at Dash who stared back with huge eyes at Ben's angry expression. "And I need to get you out of here. You should have come to me. You shouldn't have let it all bottle up and then just hid from it- you, you idiot!"

"I…" Dash started, and he sniffled in but then clenched his eyes shut again at the family he could see all around him in his peripheral vision.

Kirito closed his mouth and actually leaned back, deciding not to stop Ben anymore as he saw the shifting look on the twelve year old's face. I'm treating Dash too much like a kid. Ben thinks of him as an equal. As horrible as this is, Ben believes in Dash's ability to get past this more than I think he can… And Ben's right. He's going about this the right way.

"However horrible JackJack may have died out there, try to remember how Goku's described Other World." Ben reminded him, "Heaven's this great place."

"What about what Astaroth told us?" Dash asked. His eyes squinted open. "You heard what he said. What awaited us in Hell-"

"You're an idiot!" Ben yelled. Dash froze and his eyes bulged at that shout. "JackJack isn't in Hell."

"I don't know that-"

"Obviously a baby wouldn't be sent to Hell. You idiot! You're an idiot!" Ben yelled again at the boy who furled his lips farther down in annoyance as Ben kept calling him that. Dash did not like to be called it, but he did start listening because of how obvious it sounded when Ben was shouting it like common sense at him.

"The angels, wouldn't let me see him when I woke up up there," Dash whispered.

Ben's eyes bulged again. He was in Heaven! That's where Sora escaped to. It had to have been Sora who got away with them from the war. They wouldn't let you see him? Those fucking dicks. "Well then the angels are assholes," Ben said, and Dash laughed once before his voice choked and cut off. Ben smiled though that he got even one laugh out of his friend whose face was covered in streaks of tears.

"Whatever happens out there, Dash," Ben started. His voice sounded motivational and had Dash staring up into his friend's eyes and the convincing look on his face. "You have family out in the real world who need you. And who will be there for you. And, I'll always be there for you too. No matter what," Ben added, and he looked towards Kirito for help. Kirito grit his teeth but stepped forward and nodded firmly at Dash in agreement with that phrase they all swore on. Ben looked back into the shorter boy's eyes, and he told him, "You're my brother, Dash. I can't leave you in here."

My "brother?" Dash thought in pain while looking away from Ben and to the boy sitting next to him who his mother picked up as she was getting worried about the unstable older boys. Helen rocked JackJack in her arms, but the smaller kid turned his head and looked back towards Dash who he raised an arm towards. That, isn't my brother. He's not my real brother.

"Dash?" JackJack's high-pitched voice asked.

Dash bowed his head at the sound of that voice then looked back at Ben in front of him. His eyes were still wet, but he sniffled in and nodded his head back at Ben whose face lit up in hope. Dash lifted his chin up and looked ready to accept what Ben was saying. Ben took in a deep breath and then started, "Alright, Dash. We're deep in Sith territory. Inside a computer program designed to keep us here. Generating AI that believe themselves real so as to trap us inside. It's smart. It's what's trapped all the other Resistance members who have come in here, but we're not going to let that become us, alright? We're smarter than that."

"Are you making all of this up, Ben?" Violet snapped towards the boy who sounded ridiculous.

"No, they aren't," Asuna whispered. The others looked at Kirito's wife who had wet eyes herself but looked at the family around her. "I… am not the real Asuna. I know that. I can tell," she admitted while Kirito looked back towards her. She shrugged at him with teary eyes and apologized with a small smile, "I'm sorry, Kirito-kun. I'm so sorry."

"You don't have to-" Kirito began. He cut himself off though and looked around at the other people in the room looking way more panicked now as if they were all self-realizing what was going on in the same moment.

"This is fucked up," Ben whispered. He stared back into Dash's eyes while he said it. The younger boy looked horrified as he was just realizing himself that these might not just be stupid programs. "But that's how they'll convince you to stay. The understanding that they are real. Just not, the same. We have to get out of here, Dash. No matter how real they are. No matter how real this place is. It's all an illusion. A trap! A trap that Kirito and I willingly threw ourselves into, because we have to save you. It's horrible. And it sucks for us. And we're here because of you," Ben put the guilt onto Dash which made the shorter boy's eyes bulge even wider and shake as Ben guilt-tripped him. "So get ready. We're getting out of here, and I need you not to lose yourself. I can't do this on my own. Don't leave me stranded in this place, Dash. I already don't trust Kirito anymore. He's losing himself, and you need to help me drag him out of here too."

"Hey," Kirito started.

"It's true," Ben repeated without turning away from Dash who just spun his head towards Kirito in surprise. "I'm relying on you in here, Dash." Ben turned towards Kirito looking so anxious. "I want to rely on you too, but you've got to work with me then, Kirito. Or Kazuto. Should I call you by your real name until we get out of here?"

"You were, going by Kirito in the outside world?" Asuna wondered. She asked it of her husband whose whole body flinched at the question. Ben himself scrunched his face up and looked back at the young woman who pulled her face back as she realized she did that thing again that Ben had gotten mad at her about. She looked confused though, and uncertain herself now after hearing more about this outside world of theirs that sounded more unbelievable by the minute.

"Dash, sweetie, I don't really understand what's going on," Helen began. "Your brother is fine though. He's okay. It's okay."

"Son, you can-" Bob stopped talking and turned his head as he heard the front door open.

"Someone's here," Ben muttered. He lowered his arms from Dash's and ran for the bedroom door while others ran to the stairs and down.

"Papa!"

"Yui?" Kirito called out as it was his daughter's voice he heard downstairs. He ran down the stairs quickly then looked at the teenage boy around his age who Yui had brought with her. "And, who is this?"

"Yeah, who are you?" Violet asked in a harsher and more annoyed tone at who this random person in her house was. She blushed a little as the wavy-black-haired teen in a white jacket turned towards her though, as he was pretty cute. Bob glared at the young man though who seemed strong as well by the looks of him.

"I'm Yuno," the teen said. He had on a visor pushed up on his forehead that he lowered down over his eyes after greeting them. He looked around the room then to his right at the boys near the bottom of the steps. Yuno glanced down at his own arms that he lifted in front of him, then back to Yui on his right side. "Those three, are the other prisoners?"

"Yes!" Yui exclaimed at him. "It's you four. You're the real ones in this section. The only code that belongs on the outside. Digitized human beings," Yui called out. "But that's not important right now!" Yui ran towards Ben and handed him another visor she made.

"Do you have one for Dash?" Ben asked, motioning at the blond boy next to him who Yui just frowned at and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. I didn't have enough time to make any more. We have to get out of here!" Yui shouted.

Helen's frustrated expression at all these crazy events shifted just as her husband's did at the panicked look on that young girl's face. "Why?" Helen Parr asked intensely. Something was clearly going on here, and although it was difficult to believe all of it, there was no denying that something was happening.

"Yui, what's wrong?" Asuna asked concernedly while walking up next to Kirito and staring down at her daughter.

"Agents are coming!" Yui shouted. She spun her head back to the front wall behind her, and she rushed back and slammed the front door that they had left open. Yui sprinted to the open windows and grabbed a string to close the blinds, but she froze as a red car screeched to a stop outside and turned to park on the sidewalk just past the front lawn.

Until that moment, Violet still just had an uncaring and annoyed look at all the theatrics. She froze though as she spotted that car pull over and nearly knock their fence down. "Hey, what's…" Violet's eyes shot open huge and her jaw dropped.

An elderly couple stepped out of the vehicle. As they stood up outside of the driver's side and passenger doors though, their bodies were already transforming. Their clothes shifted color and morphed into black suits. The pair turned into middle-aged Caucasian men with sunglasses on and earpieces in.

"What the…" Bob started, only to sprint in front of his daughter as those men outside pulled out pistols from their suit jackets and aimed at the house.

"Oh no," Helen's heart dropped in her chest. Dash turned towards his mother who covered her mouth in horror. She spun to her son though, who saw the look on her face of realization as if she just figured out that she was in fact a computer program. "Out the back!" Helen yelled at him.

"Mom?" Dash whispered in confusion.

"Dash! Let's go!" Ben yelled while spinning and racing for the kitchen and a back door he saw on the other side of it.

Bang Bang Bang

Chh- CRASH!

Windows shattered around living room. Bob Parr grabbed a couch and launched it through the shattering window out onto his front lawn and knocked the agents backwards, stopping them from firing for a moment. That moment only lasted for a second before a few dog-walkers and kids playing outside transformed into more Agents who all turned towards the Parr house and pulled out handguns too.

"W-Wait," Dash started. "Why would a program be trying to help me?" Dash asked, shouting at Ben who grit his teeth but looked back towards Dash who did not want to abandon his family in a gun fight.

Violet made a forcefield as more bullets started flying into their house. Helen and Bob jumped out the windows on either side of the front door though to head off those villains before they could get to their children. Dash watched this and yelled, "It doesn't make sense-"

"It does! They're trying to convince you that they're real so that you-"

"Dash! Help us," Violet shouted at her brother over the sound of Ben's explanation.

Dash spun to his sister, then back into the kitchen where the others in their group were looking back at him. He argued, "Why wouldn't the 'Agents' just appear in my house then? Why are they taking over random people outside rather than just appearing in here as one of my family?! Or as Asuna?! That doesn't make sense, unless they're real!"

"Damn it, Dash," Ben ran back towards his friend and took off his visor. "Put this on!" Ben yelled while putting the headset onto Dash's head and tightening the strap. "Look at me! Look at Kirito and that guy Yuno. Now look at Violet! Look at JackJack!" Ben yelled at his friend who turned his head to his sister who was giving cover for her youngest brother using one of her forcefields. Violet stared at him with a desperate look for Dash to help them. Dash just pulled his face back as his siblings did not have blue auras around them like Ben had.

"I won't lose track of the real world," Ben declared. "You keep this on, and you follow me. I can't trust anyone else in here, Dash. I need you more than they do!" Dash turned back to his best friend who looked just as desperate as Violet did. "I can't leave you behind in here. You know I can't, so don't trap me in here, Dash. You can't do that to me! You already forced me into this place. Don't make me stay." Ben grabbed his friend by the arm and ran for the kitchen. It was too difficult to force Dash to make the decision on his own. "You're coming with me, and that's all there is to it."

Ben clenched his eyes shut for a second but then snapped them open and focused straight ahead. "I won't leave you behind!"

---

"Into the rec center!" Yui yelled out.

"What is that?!" Asuna shouted while spinning and looking down an intersecting street to where she thought she saw cars speeding towards them.

The cars looked pitch black though and had weird white circular symbols looking like targets on them. "It's XANA! He's found us too," Yui called out. She spun to her dad and told Kirito, "Another of the programs that was brought here from the beginning, but it's working with the Sith. It didn't get designated as a hostile entity like the rest of us."

"XANA?" Kirito whispered.

Ben's fear spiked. "Oh God, you've got to be kidding me."

"What?" Dash asked, spinning to his friend who looked full of dread at the sound of that name.

"Friends we came here with. They told us about XANA from their own world," Ben muttered. "They said they destroyed it."

"It's just like on the outside," Kirito muttered. "It doesn't matter if people were already dead before Nexus was created. They got revived when we were all brought here. Same with the AI."

"That, doesn't make any sense," Asuna muttered, though she kept her voice quieter this time with only a quick dart of her eyes towards Ben in worry that he would start glaring at her once more.

"I don't understand why the Gods brought us here, but our friends do," Ben said seriously. He looked at Kirito who stared back in shock for a second but then looked down at Ben's right hand as Ben held it out in front of him while still running towards the large rec center building that Yui had led them across town to. A Keyblade flashed to life in Ben's hand. The green key-shaped weapon reminded Kirito and Dash of one very simple reminder. "We might not know the truth, but they do. They're trying to save that world out there, and we're helping them do it." Ben slashed the weapon to his side and it dispersed into light particles.

"What was that?" Yui gasped in shock. She was staring behind her with a look of disbelief on her face. "It had no code. I- I couldn't even register its existence."

"That's right," Dash whispered. "In Heaven before they sent us back, the Gods were all talking to Sora like… like he was the key." Dash gulped while wording it like that, as if that phrase about being the "key" made a lot of sense now. "Like it was up to him to save us all."

Ben nodded his head. I knew it. I heard the message the Neptunes had for him. Mxy made it clear as well. Out of the five of them who I believe will save us all, it's Sora. Sora stood in front of Goku first to save him from Luthor. He's the key. He's always been the key to all of this! And I watched him die. I saved his life. Turned back time. Ben realized he should be saying this aloud, no matter how crazy he would sound to the fake woman looking at him in disbelief. "We need to get out there, because we can actually impact whether or not that world is saved. We do! Every day we're with him, we're protecting the real world and all the real people in it. Gwen! All of our friends and families. The rest of them will come here looking for us too if we fail. We'll distract Sora from his mission. From Kairi! We can't do that," Ben declared with a look to either side at Dash and Kirito.

"What are you guys talking about?" Yuno asked the group. Everything they were saying sounded so insane to him too, and yet Ben's words seemed to be getting to the other real people there who became more determined to escape because of it. None of them had a good response though for their new comrade who just frowned deeper at their silence.

"Into the basement! Follow me!" Yui yelled while rushing ahead of the others. "Quickly! They're right behind us. More Agents and XANA are all tracking us. I can get us away for a time though."

"How?" Kirito asked while rushing up to his daughter.

"There's a false door in the rec's basement. Into the data stream between sections of Paradis," Yui explained. "I watched them build the back doors, so I know where they are. Paradis is newer than the digital universe itself. A cage we're all trapped in!"

"You're really, Artificial Intelligence?" Yuno wondered to his friend who looked back sadly at Yuno who could see her glowing-red outline through his visor. "I'm sorry that I didn't believe you, Yui. I just, assumed you were part of this world. Programmed in."

"I know you did," Yui whispered back.

"I'll bar the doors," Dash called out.

"Don't bother! They won't stop the security programs," Yui yelled back towards the blond boy who shrugged his shoulders but kept running instead of bothering with stopgap measures.

Ben gulped and glanced around at the ragtag group with him. We're leaving this part of the world. My parents are back there- no. They're not. Remember, Ben. Remember why you came here. No distractions.

"…Most people's paradises are too different from each other," Yui was explaining to her dad as they reached a door to a stairwell into the basement.

"Freeze!" A janitor down one hallway turned into an Agent in a black suit who instantly started firing towards the group.

A book floated up in the air next to Yuno who glared towards the Agent and swung a hand towards him. The grimoire glowed yellow, and wind shot off of Yuno's hand in a tornado-shaped funnel that blasted down the hallway and sent the agent smashing through a wall at the end of it.

"Whoa," Dash said while looking at the guy in front of him. "How'd you do that?"

"I'm, a magician," Yuno started to the kid who ran up to his side. The two looked at each other through their visors and examined the blue auras that surrounded each of them to show that they were both real. "What's it like out there?" Yuno asked. "On Nexus? I've been in here for a long time."

Dash's smile fell. His other questions faded away as a wave of despair crashed over him again. Ben answered for Dash who was going to have a hard time doing so. "It's bad. Meruem's taken down the Saiyans and the Kryptonians in the past couple of weeks. Though, we did destroy the Fire Nation. We did that, Dash."

Dash lifted his head back up and looked with sad eyes back to his friend. He rubbed his eyes quickly and then nodded that Ben was right about that. "You beat the Fire Nation?" Yuno wondered at the two in surprise and some disbelief.

"With our friends," Ben said. "Yeah, we did. We're going to beat all of them. Meruem and all his High Lords. You seem like you're pretty strong, so get out of here with us and help us-"

"If things are so bad out there, then how did you make it to this place to come inside. You're here to free us? On a Resistance mission?" Yuno wondered. "While we're in the center of Sith territory," Yuno continued as the pieces were not adding up to him.

"The 'center?' We're in the far north of… oh shit," Ben muttered and shook his head as he quickly realized what that meant. "The whole west coast belongs to the Emperor from Organization lands to the Great Wall. The Resistance doesn't hold any coastal possessions. You really have been in here a long time," Ben muttered near the end as Yuno looked stunned to hear that. "But maybe that's a good thing for you. Because you're not in the middle of the Emperor's lands, but the far north. While in the far south just above the Great Wall, our friend is leading a Resistance army against the Sith who are distracted right now because of him."

"So we have to move fast," Ben reminded everyone while they ran back the way they came but one floor down now in the basement. "Because we have no idea how the war effort is going, and our team out on the surface could get attacked at any time."

"It's right over here," Yui called around at the others. "Once we go through this door, we'll be out of the bounds of the reality that Paradis built for each of you. Into a data stream that might not obey the same laws that you're used to. It definitely won't, actually. Your mind will adjust to make it feel normal, but just try to keep a clear head and keep your imaginations in check."

"Uhh, what do you mean by that?" Dash wondered. "I feel like if you didn't say anything about it, I wouldn't have thought anything weird!"

"The data generating around us is doing so based off our memories and thoughts," Kirito theorized himself based on what Yui was saying. "So it's like Ben having his Omnitrix. Things we want to happen can happen in here. Even if we don't try to create them." Kirito glanced over his shoulders to his back and tried to do something that did not work just yet.

"Do you think…" Asuna began, immediately realizing what Kirito was trying to do.

"Your wings, you can get them back in there," Ben realized the same after hearing what Asuna started saying.

She froze completely though at Ben's question. "You… had wings out there too?" Asuna asked. "In the 'real' world?" She wondered.

"Don't-" Ben started.

"No! That, that doesn't make sense," Asuna said. "How? How could you possibly have wings in reality?"

Ben pulled his head back in frustration. He looked at Kirito who stared right back towards him so hesitantly. "Don't even try explaining it, Kirito. Don't say the words aloud and allow yourself to be tricked. Please. I know it's insane. Timmy and Wanda. Don't even let yourself think about it!"

"Whatever explanation-" Asuna started.

"Mama! Papa! Come on," Yui yelled at them. Asuna spun towards the young girl who frowned at her mother for holding them up, but Asuna scrunched her face up this time less accepting of their frustration at her every time she learned more about the outside world.

"Nexus, is crazy," Yuno admitted. "But it is real. We know that."

Do "we" know that? Ben wondered while staring straight back into Kirito's eyes.

"This is the door!" Yui shouted. Everyone looked towards the girl who pushed a metal shelf aside and knocked it over. Tools and party decorations stored on those shelves fell off. A wooden doorway with a rusty old knob had been blocked by the shelf. Yui grabbed the knob, and she pulled open the door. Asuna's face fell as she stared into the bright blue glowing data stream on the other side that pulled at Yui's body and turned her into a glowing mass of code. Further proof that this world was the fake.

"Follow me. The data stream connects hundreds of digital worlds to each other at the same time. Pathways between the worlds, consisting of hundreds of yottabytes of data all at once. Entire realities generating at all times." Yui's voice came out of her glowing data body that pulled into the stream outside of their world. Her voice came out more mechanical and scratchy from the vibrating mass of blue light. "Once we go through, we won't ever come back. We're heading to the Core, people! Let's go!"

Yuno took in a deep breath and ran after his friend he had known much longer than any of these people. He pushed his hands out in front of him that pushed through an ethereal wall and then just dove the rest of the way inside.

"Your daughter's really cool, Kirito," Ben called out while sprinting forward past Kirito. He leapt into the doorway head-first and yelled out, "AHHH!" It was a scary thing to do, but he had to stop hesitating. You two will follow me. I know you won't leave me screwed in here. Come on! Ben looked over his shoulder in a void that was one hundred precent not reality this time. There could be no argument against it, and he waited for the others once he was inside. Please. Prove me right. Come after me.

Please. I know you're both real, so I can't leave without you. I won't. Don't trap me in here forever. Please!

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Paradis Arc gets intense off the bat as our team gets chased out of their perfect paradise by Agents (the Matrix) and XANA (Code Lyoko) once Dash agrees not to stay stuck inside it any longer. Dash reveals to Ben and Kirito what happened to JackJack in the War of the Saiyan Mountains ;(. We meet Yui and learn about the creation of Paradis by the Sith, as well as how AI intelligence came to be on Nexus in the first place. Ben manages to avoid looking at his parents, but he's freaking out as Dash and especially Kirito are too accepting of the world around them. Tough to be in Ben's shoes right now, but he's pushing the team forward to try his best to escape still. Also, Yuno from Black Clover! A lot of cool characters are trapped inside of Paradis, so I hope everyone is looking forward to meeting them as our team makes their way to the Core. This is the last chapter that I had finished before this recent round of posting, so next time I get some days off work I'll try and finish up 25.3, but it'll be a bit. Just to warn y'all! That said, review response time:

Espada-001 chapter 163 . Feb 18

I honestly can't remember what was going on with Dash.
Last thing I remember about Ben was that he was forced to leave the Kryptonian city after Zod got his rear wooped. To bad Zod didn't have a star sitting in his capital like the fire lord did otherwise he'd at least be able to soak in it during his free time to quickly boost his power for the future.
As for Kirito I'm hoping that at some point we can get a slight retcon or some other hidden truth as to how Asuna died since eating a devil fruit together at the same time doesn't do anything but give one person a mouth full of crap for nothing. That's just me nitpicking though since you had that chapter posted before I'd even found this series.
(Remember those days? XD)
I'm glad to see some of my favorite Final Fantasy characters for a bit even if they're just on guard duty. Then we've got the Code Lyoko members joining up for the mission.
Honestly when it comes to the cyber world I've been hoping for some kind of indication that the various Digimon worlds could have been brought over as well since the base/mortal realm has an over abundance of Pokemon everywhere. On a side note if you decide to do anything with the digital world I would say that it would be a cool way for the rebels to hide a major base since its a closed off dimension that can support mortal beings and resources. Not to mention the digital world's time isn't always synched up with the mortal realm making it the perfect training ground for a certain training warrior. (Wink, wink :) )
Finally I will admit I'm a bit sad the Hell arc isn't up next but I've waited this long and I don't plan on going anywhere in the next few years so I'll just keep waiting.
Well I think that about wraps up my long review this time around so until next time, as usual I hope you have a wonderful day.

Last we heard from the Resistance Commanders, Dash had run off himself to deal with the Paradis problem. They called Kirito in the middle of his training with Lexa to send him there, which Kirito freaked out about since they sent HIM to go deal with a virtual world lol. And Ben showed up at that meeting right after getting back from Zodd and heard that Dash had gone there, so he went with Kirito to go find him. As for that retcon... nah. Two reasons, first is that it's already been well established and a lot of different plot points for Kirito came out of that moment. But secondly, the idea that eating a devil fruit someone else ate will give them a mouth full of crap, pretty sure that's never actually established in One Piece. All I found was that he answered a question in an SBS 20 years ago where he gave that answer that two people splitting one would make a crappy tasting fruit on the second bite. But then again, he probably also called it the Gum Gum Fruit 20 years ago XD, so Oda retcons his own work enough that I am in no way confident that he won't ever add something about two people eating the same fruit in the future, and he'll change his mind on how it works at that time, as he's never actually made a scene in the canon where that's acknowledged. Tifa and Barret show up but yeah, they're just hanging outside of Paradis. Code Lyoko are a bigger role and we can see that inside the system too as XANA chases after our group. As for Digimon... no spoilers :P, though we've got a lot of new characters popping up in the next chapter so look forward to that and give some guesses as to who'll pop up! And sorry to disappoint on the Hell arc, but I hope to get to that one much closer than the next few years *fingers crossed* so hope to give that to you guys soon! Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

uest chapter 163 . Feb 19

Virtual reality can't wait to see this ;)

And hey take your time

Thanks! Hope one day after you said to take your time wasn't too much time! XD This time it'll take a little longer, but hope you enjoyed this chapter of the VR arc! And thank you everyone for reading, following, faving, and reviewing to this story! 'Til next time!