Lyra crouched on the ridge of a rooftop, gazing into the sunset that made Mac Anu so famous. Folded tight against her back was her new pair of wings, feathers fluttering in the breeze, covering the new weapon clipped to her armor.

She knew what these wings meant. She knew how highly revered such items were in The World. She was beyond lucky to have them, and they were something more than a rare item, or just another accessory. They were a status symbol. If she wanted, she could become a goddess to the other players.

But she'd been a goddess to someone once, and that hadn't gone so well.

She shut her eyes to take a deep breath. Nothing but the stale mid-winter air of her room. No fresh, pre-industrial Mac Anu air. Sometimes she hated the detail the game had, the way it enveloped her main senses; it always made it such a letdown when she needed a breath of fresh air.

But opening them again, she saw The World spread beneath her, ready for her adventure once she chose to leave her gargoyle's perch.

No, she'd not abuse her items for status. She'd not abuse the right she'd been given by CCCorp, either – the break they'd given her, allowing her to retain her ears and tail instead of being banned for having them. How she'd gotten lucky at that tournament was beyond her... Perhaps it was just that they believed she'd be more valuable if she was allowed to stay. They thought she'd lead them to the other hackers, that they'd get hold of an entire clan for the price of letting one walk the streets. After all, it'd been less than two weeks later that the crackdowns started. With so many characters being deleted, so many people being banned...

Behind her, one of the wider waterways seemed eerily empty, as though the dock was meant to house a ship long gone.

She'd done the only thing she knew to do to protect them. Either way was betrayal, but at least this way they could keep playing. Her call to Arcion had been quick; “Disband the clan. None of you can ever speak to me again if you want to stay safe.” Her calls to her “children” had been longer, more apologetic. “It's a mother's duty to protect her children. You can still call me, but please avoid me in the game.” Maybe they'd understood, and maybe they had spread the word, because the few times she did pass one of the hundred or so players that had made up the Figment Raiders, they'd looked at her with sorrow or even gratitude in their eyes, instead of anger.

That was all she had to be grateful for. For the last four months, she'd been a walking booby trap. Too many times she'd accidentally accepted a party with someone who had a minorly hacked character. But CCCorp was running surveys on every character she partied with, every character she even tried to trade with. Certainly, it must have been more time-effective to them than trying to monitor every character, and they'd assured her she wasn't their only trap. Just the same, she'd grown sickeningly accustomed to administrative personnel dropping in on her at random times, sweeping off another person she was just getting into the dungeon with, or she'd just completed a trade with. A few deserved to be stopped, their hacked items or powers giving them disproportionate strength or other powers that weren't allowed. But most were like hers; innocent cosmetic changes, things to make their character fit them in ways the game's interface didn't allow by default.

Her ex-clan might not have been angry, but there were certainly those who snarled at her when she passed by. She'd been blacklisted somewhere, and it told in how hard it was to trade with anyone anymore.

And this would continue for two more months. That was if CCCorp kept their end of the deal and chose to let her live normally again, once her probation was up.

She felt just a bit sick any time she considered it.

No, she was no goddess, not to these people. If anything, she was damning more and more of them with every step she took through The World.

She could leave, but that would prevent her from ever making up for the things she'd done to hurt them. Lyra had decided that well before, after just the first innocent – in her eyes – person had fallen victim to her probation.

If she stayed, she could someday make a difference. One random player meant nothing to the corporation, but she was growing in fame of her own accord. She was already a high-ranking officer in one of The World's most prominent clans, and she'd made a habit of bulldozing her way through every tournament that came up.

CCCorp couldn't easily ignore The World's Number One Duelist. Someone like that could have millions of their members on her side overnight.

So that's what she'd become.

Another tournament was starting in just three days. She had so little time, but she knew she had to gain more power during that time, get hold of the armor and levels that would give her the edge on the competition. By the end of the year, she needed to be competing in the big leagues, up with the high level players, and that meant getting past these Level 40> tournaments.

She had a long ways to go.

But Lyra would do it, for The World she loved, and for the family she had abandoned.

With a whush of the Chaos Gate, Lyra left behind the cobblestone streets of Mac Anu for the rickety bridges and dirt paths of Dun Loireag.

Oh joy.

Lyra still hated this place; even with the knowledge that programming safeguards were set in place so that she couldn't fall off the edges of the rather high cliffs, it still made her unbelievably uncomfortable. Before she could think to stop herself, the words that always came to mind whenever she saw the root town left her mouth. “Why the hell would anyone build a city in a place like this?”

Her palm and her forehead tried to meet in real life, which resulted in a minor amount of pain when instead her VR goggles were smashed into her face. “Ow,” she muttered, starting to remove the equipment to check for damage, as she was quite sure there'd been an audible crack and she was hoping it hadn't been her nose.

“So you've said before,” called a voice from near the edge of the pedestal, causing her to drop the headset back on to look for the source of the voice.

A girl with long black braids sat there, the only person in the direction the voice had come from. Lyra studied her for a moment; she looked familiar, but after a while, everyone started to, since even The World's extensive character options started to get (heavily) repeated after the first twenty million users. She selected the girl to find out her name – Harru – and was still confused.

“Were you talking to me?” she stammered, at a loss for a better response. It was a stupid question, of course; the small chat log in the lower left corner of her screen showed her text in green, which meant it had been specifically whispered directly to her.

“Of course I was,” was the girl's only response, still in whisper. She didn't bother to look over at Lyra, instead still gazing off at the horizon. “You've said that the last three Sundays, too. I thought you might have been a bot or something, at first.”

Last three Sundays. Great. This time she made sure her facepalm was in game, to avoid any pain. She didn't know what disturbed her more; that she'd so consistently done such a thing, or that this girl had noticed. She actually wanted to be a little creeped out by it; was she stalking her or something? It was unlikely, but it had happened before; some previous opponents would follow her, waiting for a good opportunity to spring a rematch on her, while some player killers would sometimes consider their prey for days at a time, especially if they wanted their items – and her wings made her a prime target.

“How would you know,” she snorted, sounding more offended than she actually was. If she sounded rude enough, hopefully she'd get this chick to leave her alone so she could get her items and get going for some levels.

“I meet with some of my friends here for a dungeon or two, each weekend around this time. I always know they'll be here soon because I'll here you complain a little before. It's amusing, actually.”

Nekkiko was glad that her real life blush of embarrassment couldn't show through to The World unless she wanted it to. What was this girl's deal? Was she talking to her just to get a rise out of her? She snorted again, anchoring her thumbs on her hip armor, the closest action to putting her hands in her pockets she could take. It made her feel a little bit better, but not as good as just walking away would have.

Curiosity killed the cat and all that, though, so she stayed put and opened her mouth again. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because we're about the same level... Actually, to tell the truth, I've passed you a bit, but I just thought it'd be interesting to adventure with someone so... prone to repetition, I suppose.” Harru stood as she spoke, but Lyra was too busy rolling her eyes to care until she was much closer. The girl's tone was so condescending; the only thought going through her head now was that she wished Harru was a man so she could kick him in the nuts. “Besides,” she continued, and something moved in a way it shouldn't have atop her head, drawing Lyra's attention back, her eyes wide behind her mask in slow realization. “You're like us, so I thought you might enjoy the trip.”

Atop the girl's head, what Lyra had originally thought to be a bow, was a pair of orange and black ears that twitched and turned in an all too familiar way. Behind her danced a long, slender tiger's tail, the fur detailed enough to flutter in the wind the same way her bangs did. And Harru was not afraid to motion to either one.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh. Shit.

As annoying as this girl had been so far, Lyra wasn't inclined to turn in more people than she had to. But the girl had deliberately pointed out her hacks, so now Lyra was trapped. If she just ignored the girl, and she was under surveillance at this exact moment – which, chances were good, she was – she could be penalized for it, even accused of being an accomplice. But if she chose to party up with the girl, the Knights or an Administrator would be on them before the end of the first dungeon level, taking off with Harru and any of her friends that came along. If that happened, they'd find a way to tell their friends outside of The World, and Lyra'd be blacklisted with another dozen circles inside the community she was once a proud part of.

Her only real option was to try and shake the girl, make her leave of her own accord, then report her to the authorities as soon as she could. She'd leave the same kind of note she usually did lately, in order to protect herself: “suspicion of association with other hacked characters. I recommend a few day's surveillance before capture, in order to maximize payoff.” The words sickened her to write each time, because she knew in a way she was just damning more people, but it was better than being publicly flamed and attacked. Indeed, it was the only way she knew to convince the administration to wait long enough after her meeting with people for them to not suspect she was why they'd been caught.

She had to wonder how long it would take before they caught on to her little trick, and what punishment they'd have in store once they realized it.

“So what's your answer? Hello? You in there space case?” Harru was waving her hand back and forth in front of Lyra's eyes, trying to get her attention. As was her habit lately, she'd stopped to think and forgotten to start again.

“Ack, I'm sorry, I was talking to someone irl,” she lied, shaking her head. “I'll take care of it later, don't worry!” she half-yelled, purposefully only partially covering the microphone. It was good for making the lie believable – damn if she didn't hate her newfound ability to bullshit people though. “I'd love to, but I think I'm gonna have to say wait till next week or something. I've got a lot of errands to run before I go leveling today, so I'm gonna take a while-”

“That's okay,” Harru smiled, cutting her off. “I've got a few items to pick up myself, so I'll just tag along. The others aren't here yet, anyway.”

Lyra frowned down at the shorter character, wondering how exactly something so sweet looking could be so forward. But by now, the member address and party invite were already on her screen, and the rules she'd agreed to meant she had no choice but to click yes.

It was time to do her community service.

Sometimes, she wished she'd gotten the death penalty instead.

Harru, if nothing else, was obnoxiously good at two things: following and talking. Lyra lead her virtually everywhere in Dun Loireag, from the Magickery to the Weapons Shop to the Grunty Farm (Mokona was looking as cute as ever) and even on one of the back trails of town by a picnic area Kiwi had once dragged her to.

She backtracked quickly from that one, though, after remembering the rockslide that ended their lunch early.

She'd later regret that, after realizing it might have been a good way to lose Harru permanently.

They headed back towards the Chaos Gate only after Harru shut up long enough to check her Flashmail. “Oh, yay! Liam and Dobie are ready to go! We should hurry,” she'd declared, grabbing hold of Lyra's wrist and dragging her across the next bridge far more quickly than the fox was comfortable with. She shut her eyes and just went with it, letting the shorter girl – a Twin Blade, she had learned during the half-hour long ramble – lead her careening through town.

But aside from the height, there was another reason Lyra avoided looking ahead of her. The girl reminded her so much of some of her favorite clan members... Both in her appearance, and in her volume and mannerisms. It was the sort of sass and spirit that had made the Figment Raiders such a fun group, and if anything, the talkative nature of its members had just helped them bond faster, since they got through enough topics in an hour to find at least a dozen things in common, a task that took most people a few weeks.

She wondered if Harru knew any Figment Raiders.

Then she crossed her fingers (the ones on the hand that still had circulation) and prayed that if she did, they weren't coming along on this little venture.

“Dobie! Liam!” Lyra opened her eyes when she heard the Twin Blade giggling and greeting her friends. Somehow, she'd actually sped up further on her last rush to meet them; Lyra made a mental note not to let any lighter classes drag her around ever again, and another one to replace the soles of her boots that night.

Once she'd sufficiently shaken the feeling back into her right hand, she turned her attention to the two players that Harru was now merrily chattering away with. As she'd predicted, they were both hacked as well, made into Animas. Dobie's was overall a fairly basic hack; he had a set of black pointed ears and one of the stereotypical large, spiked, red dog collars around his neck. Against the huge black and steel armor he wore – the trademark of Heavy Axe classes – along with his all-but-shaved black hair and the two sharp black lines going down either side of his nose, it was a very tasteful hack; for all she knew, the collar was even a rare costume item, not a hack like the ears.

Liam had taken a much more obvious approach to his hack. His entire head was covered in a layer of gray and white feathers, from the crown of his hairless head down under his high green collar. The feathers continued out along his arms, protruding from beneath the golden guards that were strapped to his forearms, ending only at mid-finger, though his fingers were black beneath them, as though he wore skintight gloves. More striking than even the feathers, though, was his face; it had been edited to be the round, striking face of a great horned owl, complete with huge golden eyes and protruding beak that moved as he spoke.

Lyra had known only one other bird hack before, and he'd never made his quite this extensive. Liam had obviously invested either a lot of time or money into his character's model, because while his huge, almost unblinking eyes were still haunting, everything about him looked appropriate and in proportion; it was overall very well thought out.

As she ventured closer, she started to realize that not only did each feather shift in the wind, but that on some the individual barbs teetered. It was amazing detail – Koushiro had never bothered to equip his that same way. She wasn't even sure her own official CCCorp released wings did that.

“Yeah, she's the one I told you about.”

She jerked her attention back towards Harru, realizing that she'd been gawking for quite some time. “Er, hi?” she offered, wiggling the fingers on one hand in greeting.

“You appreciate good art, I see.” Liam's voice was far deeper than she'd expected it to be, but she was too busy being embarrassed about being caught staring to care.

“Well, it's very intricate,” she admitted, blushing. For a moment she stood there, trying to ignore the way all three of them were staring at her, twisting her fingers into the ties of her arm wraps while her foot tried to find a stone to kick.

Finally Liam broke the silence again with a chuckle. “Have a look, then,” he offered, holding his left arm closer to her. “My only regret is that I could only afford about 40 types of feathers, so if you look too closely, you start to notice the repitition. I was able to make up for it with a good randomizing program, though, and by varying the shade slightly.” Lyra stared in awe, reaching up and running her fingers through the feathers. They moved under her touch, which proved that they really were interacting with their environment, and not just set to automatically waver to simulate wind.

“It's amazing,” she whispered, smoothing back down his plumage before taking her hand away and backing up. “Most people I've run into have had physically transparent additions... It took my brother and I about a week to figure out how to get mine to be touchable.”

“That's nothing,” Dobie laughed. “Harru and I met because I offered to fix her programming about a year ago. Somehow she made it to level three before anyone noticed that her tail just hung there limply. Now it reacts to all the emoticons, though I'm not quite done with the latest update.”

“And I still don't really like how you've got it for some of the dances,” Harru whined. Sure enough, when her hands went to her hips, her tail curled, the tip twitching in irritation. “I wish you'd hurry up and fix it.”

“Hey, I will when I have the time. You know as things stand, with Betty working nights now, I've got to watch the kids more. I barely have time to get on this once a week.”

Harru sighed, nodding. “I know. I just miss having you with us more. I'm thinking of starting another character so Liam and I don't get any further ahead of you. At the rate we're going, by next week, we'll be in a low enough level field for me to be bored to tears and you'll still be getting killed.”

Nekkiko listened quietly, her voice muted for the moment. She was honestly starting to cry as she watched them interact. This was a group of friends, probably close to a decade older than her, who probably had no other way of spending time together. Dobie seemed to be married – either way, he had young kids to take care of. Liam had too much money to be anything but one of those rich middle-school genius types or a successful businessman, and Harru made them laugh in ways she was jealous of.

And because of her, they'd probably never see each other again. She pushed up her helmet just enough to wipe her eyes. “I'm becoming such a sap,” she muttered, pushing her hair behind her ears before dropping the visor back over her eyes.

Of course, on the flip side, Harru didn't know how to shut up.

“This is fascinating and all, but... if I'm going to join you, it'll have to be soon. Mom's got dinner in the oven.” It was a bit of a lie; tonight's dinner would consist of whatever she bothered to put in the microwave for herself, since her parents were out to dinner, but that didn't matter. She really did want to get moving – she had levels to gain! And if anything would let her get away from these three before she damned them on the spot, it'd be knowing she was some little high schooler.

“Right, we should get going,” Dobie agreed. He started to turn towards the Chaos Gate when Harru grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Wait, Alash just signed on. I'm seeing if she wants to come join us.” He nodded, and they all went back to waiting as Harru went blank for a moment.

'It's amazing how much cuter she is when she's not talking,' Lyra mused.

“She's coming!” Harru cheered, hopping into the air victoriously. The men both chuckled, adding in that it'd been a while since they'd last seen her.

Lyra just stood to the side and waited, trying to decide why the name Alash sounded so familiar.

A moment later, a green-dressed Wavemistress appeared just a few feet away, and it was obvious even from behind that she was a full anthro, as it was a paw, not a hand, that gripped her staff. “Over here!” Harru called, and she turned around, a grin spread across her face as her gaze met her friends-

She stopped smiling when her eyes fell on Lyra, and she in turn felt no urge to smile when she stared back into the icy blues. The kitty's tortoise-shell coloration was totally unique, and between it and the sea-green dress she was wearing, Lyra knew why “Alash” was such a familiar name.

She'd been a member of the Figment Raiders.

The time between when their eyes met and Alash had vanished in a flash of golden rings had been less than three seconds, but in that time, Nekkiko felt like she'd lost an hour's worth of breath.

“Now why would she have run off like that?”

Lyra was pulled back into the game by Dobie's voice, but she was unable to bring herself to turn and look towards the him, her eyes and screen instead still focused on the exact spot the little Wavemistress had been a moment before.

Behind her, the discussion continued between the three friends, but all their guesses couldn't be farther from the truth. Lyra knew fair well why Alash had run; she'd gotten the memo. She, like most of the other members, knew to steer clear as much as possible. Passing in town was unavoidable, but posed no one any threat. But so much as engaging the fox in conversation could be hazardous. She was certain the others had passed the news on well, as she'd asked them to. She was certain that was why Alash had run; to escape before her friends could pull her into the party with Lyra, damning her to their same fate.

'Smart girl,' the fox thought, sighing in relief and letting her eyes shut.

“Oh, she sent me a text message.”

Lyra whirled around a little too quickly, catching Liam's attention, though when she blinked at him and made a face, he merely shrugged and looked back to Harru. 'Shit. She knows them irl. They might know about the FR, then... but if they do... why did they still...' she puzzled over it for a moment, then let out another sigh as she realized they must not know... But that this meant Alash would have to live with knowing why her friends had been captured.

Harru's head was bowed as though she was looking at something in her hands; irl, she was likely looking at her cell phone, and the VR helmet's motion tracking was just causing the pose to be mimicked. “Apparently she's having net trouble, it shut off as soon as she signed on. Well that sucks.”

“We should go ahead without her, then, so that we make the best of the time we have. She might not be back until after one or all of us has to leave.” Liam made a few steps towards the Chaos Gate, and the others quickly followed.

Lyra watched, slightly confused, before following along. 'So he's the leader, then?' she pondered, traipsing up the steps to stop beside the others. 'And here I thought Harru was.'

But Harru did indeed quickly take charge again; it seemed that Liam was just the one that insured things actually got done, and that Dobie was just along for the ride. Overall they were quite the motley crew, but they were also hauntingly familiar of a past life for Lyra. So far they operated like not only her clan but indeed most her groups of friends had throughout her life. And as she glanced between them, she couldn't help but feel that she fit perfectly in with the three, silently thinking of how they could have been friends in another time.

But she'd felt that way about almost all of the people she'd had to turn in; they were kin that she'd been forced to spy upon, those that she was forced to let perish in order to allow herself and her cause to continue on in the game.

They were the price she had to pay.

She hated trying to think about it, trying to rationalize it. Lyra knew that she was probably only half of sickened by herself as any of the players standing around her would be if they knew the truth. The fact that she even tried to justify it just made her feel worse. There was only one justification that made a dent in her crime, and only one reason she allowed that justification to be necessary.

This was not her doing. This was the administrators' doing. She had been left with almost no choice in the matter – in the end, they were responsible.

And in the end, she'd stop them. She'd free her people again.

“Martyr,” she muttered. The others stared. Her forehead and palm met again. 'There I go again, queen of thinking aloud.'

“Just leafing through the keywords I got recently, laughing about some of the words.” 'Laughing about the irony,' she added silently, 'and wondering which sense of the word really applies best.'

“Why don't you choose the keyword, then? Since you're the guest and all,” Dobie offered, patting her on the back. “Then we can blame you when we get lost in the dungeon!”

It must have been an inside joke, from how it seemed to hit a nerve with Harru. “Oh, come on! It's not MY fault we always get the super-deep dungeons. Besides, they're good for lots of EXP!”

“You mean lots of boredom when we're faced with the same types of monsters for the sixtieth portal in a row.” Dobie was standing over the smaller tiger girl, the dispute somehow amusing, just from the sheer size difference between the Heavy Axeman and Twin Blade. “You always choose the keywords, anyway, unless Liam's after some item. Let's just let the new girl try. Or are you afraid of picking bad teammates instead of just fields?”

“No I'm not,” Harru snorted in a way totally unfitting a girl the age Lyra thought she was.

“Alright, well, if you're sure?” She just wanted the discussion to end. She missed her noisy little Twin Blade, long banned from the game. They all nodded, though Harru did so with her arms crossed and attention turned elsewhere. So Lyra started flipping through the list.

Her eyes skimmed over the full list of keywords as she tapped the random button over and over, searching for a field that wouldn't instantaneously kill them all. Their quick-meters at the bottom of the screen showed Lyra, now the leader, to be the lowest level of the bunch, with her 27 compared to Liam's 31, Dobie's 32, and Harru's 36. She needed something that she'd be able to survive, without boring the others to death, which meant risking a bit higher levels of monsters than she usually liked to.

A few words caught her eye as she flipped through, and finally she selected the field by hand, laughing to herself when the words she chose happened to give her more or less exactly what she wanted.

They'd be going to a Level 31 Earth field:
Θ Reckless Confused Martyr.

The ground and sky here told two completely opposing stories. The ground was a sea of sand, golden grains that rose and fell as far as the eye could see, though the tallest hills were just barely above Lyra's head. The sky was dark though, graying the landscape with clouds. It was almost like they were taunting the ground, holding the promise of rain over its head with no intention of actually ending the desert's drought.

“Wow, good job picking the depressing place, Lyra.” Harru's face was scrunched as she stared up at the sky. The fox just shrugged in response, staring up for a moment herself, looking for any sign of sun or darker skies; but the whole sky was the same, a pale, mottled gray, the direction of the sun barely discenable from the way it glinted through the clouds to the west.

“Sorry. We can choose someplace else, if you want, but this place looks alright to me. We're pretty close to the dungeon, as things stand.”

Liam pulled out a Fairy's Orb, revealing the contents of the field to the entire party. There were only a handful of portals spread across the field, just eight total, and almost all seemed fairly far away. “There's two portals between us and the dungeon. Dobie, do you want to clear this one?”

The Axeman nodded. “Yeah, I'm at twenty-four fields total, one more before I win the bet.”

“Geez, you got there already? Didn't you and Keesh just start that bet like, a month ago?”

“What can I say? I've gotten on and cleared out a field almost every day since then. I usually don't have time to do anything else, though, since it takes so long to trek across the fields.”

“Well that would explain why you're still the lowest level of us, then. It's no fun if you don't go find the Gott statue, too! You gotta go through the whole thing!”

Lyra sighed as she listened to them argue about the best use of their time for a couple minutes, trekking to the top of the nearest dune in the mean time. To her surprise, Liam followed her, stopping beside her. She looked over at the owl after waiting a minute for him to speak, hoping the gesture would finally rouse him.

“They're always like this,” he said with a slight chuckle. “You'd never believe I was the youngest, would you? But I am. Dobie's thirty now, and Harru isn't far behind... But I guess acting like teenagers inside the game is their way of keeping away from life's responsibilities.” Lyra simply nodded as she listened to him speak, her eyes fixed off on the horizon. “I never understood the reason for escaping... This is just a game, to me. It's an interesting, complex, well made one, but it's really no different than spending my time on Monopoly or Solitaire. In the end, it's just another way to pass the time between work and sleep.”

She nodded again, looking down at her feet instead for a moment, kicking just to watch the sand spray from the impact of her boot. “I'm probably too young to understand that sort of thing. I'm one of those kids who never knew a time without the internet, and who thought the world was ending when Pluto's Kiss happened.”

“Everyone under the age of fifty thought the world was ending, though for different reasons.” He shook his head and chuckled, and Lyra thought for a second about what it would sound like if an owl did laugh. “All I was worried about was my thesis. I was two pages away from being done with a seventy page paper, when suddenly my computer stopped working. Imagine my relief when I heard that the teachers' computer had stopped working, too... I was too young short sighted back then to see the larger implications.”

“Then what did that make me? I was just a grade schooler. All I cared was that I couldn't play The Sims over Christmas break.”

He laughed again, causing Lyra to smile; she was always best at getting along with the quiet intellectuals, despite her own penchant for randomness and being loud. Liam seemed like a nice guy, so far... she'd have to see about questing with him again, with or without his louder companions. “There's a Myst Springs in this field, and I've been meaning to upgrade my weapon for a while. What do you say to coming along, young'n?”

“Oh, we're going to start that now, are we?” She couldn't help but giggled, but she agreed to come along anyway. She wondered what it might be like, a Spring in the middle of the desert, whether it would be an oasis or just like every other one in the whole game. “Are the others coming, too?”

Liam turned back towards the other two, calling out to them. “We're going to the Springs. Where are you going?”

“Dobie's gotta clear the field, so I'm going with him. You got a Speed Charm so he can keep up with me?”

“I'll do you one better!” Lyra called, half leaping, half sliding back down the dune towards the others. “Ap Do!” she called, pointing her hand at Dobie to cast the spell on him. He looked a little surprised when the series of silver clocks spiraled around him, signifying the increase in speed.

“How'd a Heavy class manage to get ahold of Time armor?” he half-whined, looking at her skeptically. “You must have some nice friends.”

She shook her head, blushing thoroughly. “No, that's not it. I managed to get it myself... I didn't know it was such a big deal. I know a few people with these.” She tapped her forehead, meaning the Time Headband sitting beneath her goggles. “Sure, it took a few Speed Charms, but I just followed the Rule of Left.”

“Rule of Left? What?” The look on Harru's face was a bit comical, her ears flattened over her braids.

“Yeah. It's a rule that my friends and I came up with. You always try left first in dungeons, then straight, then right. It came from once when we realized that the right way through the dungeon we were in seemed to be all left turns.” Litter had come up with the rule almost two years before, when they were all in the single digits, long before any trouble had started.

“That's weird.” It was obvious the tiger didn't really care about the rule, now that she knew it wasn't any Big Secret or anything like that. “Of course, now we've wasted like, half the time of the spell, so can we get a Speed Charm anyway?” She looked at Liam expectantly, who shrugged and tossed the little scroll to the Heavy Axe, who in turn shoved it into his armor. It seemed like the kind of exchange that happened a lot, which made sense since the other two were much faster classes than Dobie.

She blinked and looked back at Liam, realizing for the first time that she had no idea what class he was. Probably a Fist Fighter, since she'd seen no weapons on him so far, so she didn't ask. He certainly wasn't a heavy class, judging by his armor, so that meant they'd be reasonably balanced, and that was all that mattered for now. Besides, she didn't want to sound stupid – only n00bs couldn't tell what class someone was.

“So we'll meet at the dungeon in about twenty minutes?” The others nodded in agreement, turning and setting off in the opposite direction of the Myst Springs. “You ready to go?” he looked at Lyra, who nodded, her eyes fixed on their receding icons on the map. “Okay, then you should probably use that spell of yours on yourself, too. We're not in a hurry, but it'd be best to even out our speeds, anyway.”

They too left as soon as she'd cast Ap Do, setting off towards the springs. The gap between their levels and classes meant she was still slightly slower than him with the spell activated, but it evened things out well overall. For a couple minutes they were completely silent as they trotted across the open desert, leaving Lyra preoccupied with her own thoughts and on the lookout for stray monsters.

The lack of conversation was killing her, though. It was one thing if she was completely alone while playing; in those cases she could simply put on some background music and lose herself in the game. Even despite how social the fox was, she was okay to be left alone in the field, especially on days like today where she simply wanted to train and gain a few levels. But there was another person here, and that only served to enforce her need to talk. She cleared her throat once, but Liam said nothing, which prompted a more obvious but less intentional sigh from the fox.

“What is it?” he said with an air of nonchalance that made her shiver.

“Nothing, really. I guess I just wanted to talk.”

“About what?” She blinked and stared at the owl, whose wide eyes gazed back at her, almost challenging her to find something to say. But her delay made it obvious that she had nothing, so she just sighed again. “You're just like the others... wasting your time talking when you could be thinking instead. It's funny how our minds demand constant stimulation...” He shook his head and turned forward again, continuing towards the Spring.

Lyra could feel every hair on her body standing on end at his word, and there was a tiny touch of anger under the surface; even if she did talk a lot, she didn't think any less. “Actually,” she started, coming up with a question just so she could be right, “I did have a question, but I just wasn't sure if it'd be rude or not.” He nodded, not bothering to look back at her. “What's “I just wondered, do you guys usually split up like this? It just seems really unusual for a party.”

“We do what makes the most sense. There's no time for me to be dragged all over the field while Dobie fulfills his bet, and I don't think either of them wants to listen to me talk to Monsieur. This is the fastest way to get everything we want done.”

The fox nodded quietly, pondering the idea. She wasn't really sure why anyone would play the game together without actually playing it together, but it made sense as she started to think about it. With twenty-five million people in The World, it was only natural for a large variety of playing styles to exist. For every lover of standard, balanced, three-to-five member parties like herself, there was bound to be someone who never partied at all, going through the entire game as a loner. And on the flip side, there were people like the pack of 200+ n00bs that had rushed the bridge in Mac Anu back in December.

That had been the day Lyra had learned that you don't sign in on the day after Christmas, and that CCCorp had been forced to revise party size limits again. She wasn't really sure what the limit was now – probably around a dozen – but she knew it wasn't infinite anymore.

“It works,” she agreed quietly, thinking aloud as the idea filtered through her mind. “You've got the safety net of having someone to ressurect you if you get killed, without the pressure of working together constantly.” Liam just chuckled in that way she was all too used to hearing by now. “I couldn't do it all the time, but I understand why you would now.”

“We always do the dungeon together,” he added, stopping at the crest of a drift. “I know the others play without me, but I haven't completed a dungeon without Harru since I was level ten.”

And that was why she'd heard Lyra every week for quite some time – because they'd always been there together, ready to head off on their adventure. The pieces were falling into place so rapidly that the vixen was honestly shocked she hadn't noticed them together.

'I've been ignoring them on purpose... blocking out the site of other !nimas, not even noticing they were there...' The realization was almost sickening, and she actually had to take one hand away from her controller to cover her mouth at the feeling. 'I'm now programmed not to pay attention to my own people... In order to protect them, I've had to sever my ties with them completely...'

Her previous desire to quest with Liam again floated back into her head, and she realized that that couldn't happen, that she had no option to see him again after today. These three had become her prisoners the moment they'd invited her to party, and she would only have until they were a ways into the dungeon to talk to and get to know them.

After that, it'd never matter again.

Her utter preoccupation with that fact was starting to bother her. 'I'm getting almost morbid about this. I've done this to dozens of people before.' The fact that she was now over half done with her sentence, or that she had managed to evade causing any captures for almost a month, shouldn't have mattered.

But there was still something about Harru that had reminded her of her clan members – 'Ex-clan members,' she reminded herself, so that she wouldn't want to call any of them that evening – and the fact that they'd actively sought her out, actually chosen her to party with, instead of her being just another random person to quest with. Not to mention the problem of Alash...

She shook her head and came skidding down the hill, meeting Liam beside the Myst Springs just as he tossed his weapon into the pool. The action left her with a pleasant distraction, as she realized for the first time that he was a Whip Master.

Once more she tried to strike up conversation, hoping for further distraction. “You know, I've never really met a Whip Master before. How is it?”

“You're thinking of switching?”

She blinked. She'd not ever thought about it before, not really. There'd been a couple minutes where she'd considered going Fist Fighter, back when the class had first been released, but Whip Master had never even come to mind. “No... I like my sword... but I might make a second character some time.”

“If you like fighting with a sword, you won't like it. I was a Long Arm before, so it wasn't that hard of a transition, but we focus on status effects and dodging. A brute force fighter like yourself wouldn't enjoy it.”

She didn't ask how he knew, or why he'd make assumptions like that. By now, Lyra understood that Liam had probably not chosen the owl for himself, but had it thrust upon him by those around him – he was wise, probably beyond his years, though she could be no accurate judge of that. He was quiet, proper, noble, and didn't dwell on the important. He took what he knew and said it as he saw it. Less than an hour after meeting him, she'd already arrived at the conclusion that whatever he thought was true, likely was.

“You're the first know-it-all I've ever met that didn't act like one.”

Liam stared at her for a moment, unblinking, before she realized she'd said it out loud. Just as she opened her mouth to apologize, he shook his head. “Most people... aren't what they seem.”

He took a moment to study his new whip before holstering it and nodding toward the dungeon. “We've got about seven more minutes. Dobie has to kill all the monsters in the field himself, so we should probably just go wait for them.”

Lyra nodded and re-cast Ap Do before turning toward the dungeon, which they walked to in silence.

The map showed, courtesy of the earlier Fairy's Orb, that there were only two portals left on the field. Dobie and Harru were making good time, and so Liam and Lyra had wasted no time on their way to the dungeon. They paused outside the entrance – a giant seashell, half-buried in the sand – and waited for the others quietly, though Lyra tried to prod a few more questions out of her companion.

The others showed up about two minutes early, and for a moment, all rested while they waited for their HP to regenerate.

“Alash popped back on for a couple minutes, not too long ago,” Harru explained to Liam as they rested. “I sent her another message, telling her what field we're in. She said she'll try to catch up, but I bet she won't – you wanna come with me to see her after we're done here? I haven't gotten the chance to quest with her in a while.”

The owl simply shrugged in response. “If I've got the time tonight.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but I'm bored. Let's get moving.” Dobie stood up and cracked his knuckles before taking hold of his massive axe, slinging it over one shoulder. “Anyone have an item shortage?” He held up a half dozen health drinks in his other hand, to which everyone shook their heads, though Lyra double-checked her inventory afterward; was she really fully stocked? But it seemed that way, since she had a large supply of Mage's Souls and all sorts of healing spells on her. The HeavyBlade was still often surprised even at herself for being so much fonder of SP reg regenerating items, rather than anything that helped her health – but her SP was usually the first thing to go, the way she relentlessly threw spells at her foes, and tended to wind up heal bitch for what4ever group she was in.

“Everyone, toss Lyra a couple Mage's Souls. Since she's the lowest, she'll probably mostly be standing back, so she's gotta pull her weight by healing.”

She made a face. Even these new people had delegated her to the same thing; it never failed that she was either lowest or highest level, and so was doomed to being heal-bot. “I'm strong enough to take these bastards,” she groaned, activating Ap Do and Ap Ganz. “I'm gonna be up front with Dobie, where I belong.”

Harru shrugged, retracting her Mage's Souls. “Okay, your loss, but if you waste my Resurrects, I'm making you buy me new ones!”

On”That won't be necessary,” Lyra groan. It was partially her confidence that she wouldn't be defeated quite so easily, even if she would be stuck relentlessly firing off La Repth on herself throughout this dungeon... But there was a certain element of malice in her voice, too, as part of her began to be glad that this would be her only adventure with Harru. While she still didn't wish the eminent ban on the girl, she definitely was not saddened by the notion of not having to pay her back on the off chance Lyra did die a couple times during the dungeon.

“Everyone goes down sometimes. I'd be happy to resurrect you if something does happen, Lyra. Just don't make it a habit.”

“Why thank you, Liam.” For a moment she nearly spat a few words in Harru's direction about courtesy, but she decided that would only start an unnecessary fight, and she wanted to keep the atmosphere tolerable until the admins showed up.

“Let's go, then?” They all turned and headed in through the dungeon's entrance. The first room was, as was often the case, simply a short staircase with a few decorations nearby. The fox noted with much relief that this was, in fact, NOT a flesh dungeon as she'd been previously worried it might be. Instead, the walls were a dark blue, appearing to be natural but with man-made additions, like the perfect doorways and occasional paintings on the wall. She didn't mind the feel of the place ni the least, though the temptation to break the pots sitting on either side of the entrance was great.

They encountered their first portal a few rooms later, and Lyra was left to watch helplessly as Liam and Harru chased around a Phalanx and two Hysteria. Even with her Ap Do, she couldn't keep up with the higher level, magical monsters, but the two lighter classes kept up easily even without the Speed Charms they activated.

Dobie just leaned against the wall beside her, chuckling to himself as Harru was Confused for the third time. “They asked me once why I started raising a grunty. All I could answer was that I had to have something to do while they fought monsters like this, and that seeking out grunty food seemed as good of an option as any.”

The doors slid open as the last monster fell, Harru doing a victory dance near the exit. 'She was right, her tail isn't synchronized all that well,' the fox mused to herself, starting after the group.

“Two days later, we went through a dungeon with a lot of Thousand Trees. When I saw them the next day, they both had half-grown grunties.”

Lyra couldn't help but giggle at that, quickly realizing the irony... But it was quite true that different classes were more fit for different types of monsters. That was why it was best to have a mixed group on most trips, or to at the least stock up on lots of Bloods and Banes to make up for the differences.

She made a mental note to purchase a large number of Beast Bloods before the tournament.

“Looks like this whole 'go left' theory of yours is working pretty well,” Harru chuckled, pointing at the staircase in the next room. “That was record time for a first level of a dungeon.”

“If you think that's record time, then you have no idea the true power of the Rule of Left.” She grinned back, somewhat wishing that The World had the right kind of “get out of my way” grin to show the tiger exactly how she was really feeling about her little comments. 'It's like she gets ruder and meaner every time I turn around,' she thought with a sigh, watching Harru from the corner of her eye. When Dobie fell into place beside her, she debated asking him about this – was Harru always this way? Had she been this catty all along and she'd just not noticed until now?

It didn't matter for the moment though; the next portal was already activated, and this time the mix of monsters that emerged left something for everyone to do. Two Great Sled Dogs were now inhabiting the left half of the room, towards wish she and Dobie rushed. “After you!” he called, flashing a grin. “I already got a level off the field – you need the experience more than I do.”

She flashed back her own sharp teeth, readying her weapon. “Gladly.”

She was on the first sled quickly, going after the driver first. The head she was balancing on didn't seem to appreciative of her presence, though, and began shaking and snapping in an attempt to shake her off. “Knock it off!” she shouted, slamming her blade into the monster just a few inches from her own feet. It let out a startled yelp, and the driver took a swing at her for revenge. She quickly got out of the way by hopping onto the other head, yanking her blade back into her hands to take aim again. A chop of the reigns and the sled was out of control, both huge dog heads futilely snapping and barking at Lyra, causing them to swerve around erratically.

She was knocked off of the first monster by the second, and both were on top of her before she could get back to her feet. One head had a hold on her left leg, while the heads of the other seemed unsure which of her limbs to go after, snapping at each but missing repeatedly as she flailed violently. “Let go, damn't!” she shouted, swinging her weapon in a circle over her body. “Bad dogs!” She slammed the large counterbalance of her sword against the nose of the one whose fangs were sunk into her leg. It jerked back, visibly startled, and that gave her just enough time to roll herself away and find her feet again.

The fight didn't last too much longer; after she'd taken the first one down, she called Dobie over to help her with the second. “I'm trying, but they're way higher levels than me,” she admitted. “It'll go way faster if I'm not doing this alone.”

He expressed his agreement by slamming his axe through the body of the sled, taking the last of its HP. “More people means more damage.”

She switched head armor and cast La Repth to heal the group, unable to keep from smiling as they headed onward to the next battle. She liked the way they mixed it up in this group, playing off each individual's strengths and weaknesses; it was the way it should be, in her opinion, instead of everyone simply doing the primary thing expected of their class. Other groups she'd played with usually expected her to be up in front with any monster, using up most of her high HP in the process of smacking it into a bloody pulp – and apparently many Heavy Blades played exactly like that, paying almost no attention to their skills or spells. Dobie would have been expected to do the same as herself, while Liam and Harru would have hidden behind the two, darting out repeatedly to use a skill, inflict a good portion of damage, then retreat before they could take a hit.

Things like that were boring, and Lyra was glad to have, for the first time in months, found a group that really knew how to play, in her mind. They'd even taught her a few ideas she hadn't thought of before...

They descended the stairs to the third level in a murmur of victorious chatter, which suddenly silenced the moment the first set of doors closed behind them.

“Hmm? What's wrong?” Lyra asked, looking at the three, then back around the room. There was nothing unusual about it, unless you found the game's rather common dropoffs into blackness unusual; everything looked normal, including the portal floating on the other side of the room. “Did something happen?”

Party Disbanded

The words flashed across the screen, and a computerized voice recited the phrase. Her eyes widened as she spun back around. “What's going on? A server glitch?” Already her fingers were itching towards the PM button, ready to ask the Administrators she knew if something was going on. But she had her asnwer before any more questions needed to be asked.

“I've been watching you for a while, Lyra,” Harru began, walking towards her, her name now appearing in white – a neutral target, available as a friend or foe, capable of attacking or being attacked at will – instead of the green it had before. “Ever since my boyfriend first played with you, three months ago. Ever since his account that he'd worked so long and hard on got banned.” She licked her lips, and Lyra was surprised to find her back up against a wall – surprised because she didn't entirely remember backing up in the first place. “That first time, I thought it was just a coincidence... After all, that whole party got captured, didn't it, Lyra? Even you. CCCorp came in through their special little portals and took Tiwul away, but they took you and the others with him. So imagine my surprise when you showed back up online a week later, hmm?”

Harru's grin covered her entire face, her large eyes and the bow-like appearance of her ears a startling contrast to the pure anger in her eyes. “Do you know how much time he put into Tiwul? Do you? And Ranteq, after that?”

The names were more familiar than Lyra wanted to admit. She thought she'd shoved all their names and faces out of her mind – those of her victims, the players she'd either intentionally or accidentally gotten banned over the last four months – but both characters were fresh in her mind, and she remembered the well-rehearsed manner in which they were captured. The way that CCCorp would appear in the room, announcing that they were going to delete the accounts of everyone in the room. The way everyone would vanish, one by one, to somewhere – she still wasn't sure where – to be briefly questioned, before their data would be erased, and their account either permanently or at least temporarily banned. The way they would hoist her off as well... but she'd just sit there in Orejin's office, fill out a report on them, and after half an hour or so, log back off or return to the root town.

More than anything, though, she knew the way they would all start to scream and panic at the sight of the Administrators. And she remembered Ranteq, because unlike all but two or three others, it wasn't Orejin or the other admins that his cursing was aimed at; his eyes and words were aimed straight for her.

She remembered him because she'd been afraid of logging back in for a week, after the acid in his voice. It was only after receiving an Email telling her that if she tried to wait out her sentence, instead of playing during it, then it would only be elongated, that she'd finally returned to The World.

“When he got a new account to play as Ranteq, I thought everything would be okay. But he saw you, and thought it must have been a fluke, that you must have escaped some how... So he followed you. Like an idiot, he partied with you again. Got caught again. And that's when we knew you had to be working for them.”

Lyra didn't even try to stammer back at Harru. She just stared. Her finger hovered over the key to Flashmail... but she wanted to see what the Twin Blade would do, what she had to say. She wanted to hear the hate she had.

“People like you disgust me,” she hissed, standing on her toes to see eye to eye with the taller character. “So self-righteous... Turning in people of your own kind. You're no better than the child who tells on his brother for stealing a cookie, but has two in his own pocket. No... a child's analogy is too innocent for you. You're no better than a slave, reporting potential runaways to their master, in hopes of buying your own freedom.”

Nekkiko scowled at the comparison, angry that anyone could think anything from a game could be as severe as real life horrors... but said nothing, and left Lyra's face blank, unyielding as Harru raised her blade towards her throat.

“You've killed my boyfriend's account. Twice now. And what's more, now he's under fire for identity fraud, for creating a second account after being banned.”

She couldn't hold back at that.

“I'm willing to apologize for my crimes in this world, but I hardly see how I'm responsible for his in the real world.”

She could dodge the first blow only because of how wildly Harru swung in her anger, managing to duck away and take the girl's feet out from under her before she could turn.

“I'll kill you for what you did! I'll kill you and strip away everything you have!”

Her heart was pounding as she ran across the room; she knew the threat was only directed at her as a character, that Harru had no way and probably no intention of effecting her in life, but the pure rage in her voice terrified her just the same. Her eyes raced across her inventory; no Sprite Ocarina. She was trapped. The only way out was through the locked doors, and between her and that exit was not only three players of much higher levels than herself, but an entire portal's worth of higher-level monsters so that the door would open to begin with.

She finally pulled up the Flashmail screen, knowing that ironically, only one of the staff could save her now.

But the golden glow that had been shining from behind her was suddenly gone, and with the appearance of the monsters, the time she needed to call for help vanished.

There was no way she was going to be able to simultaneously wipe out the monsters behind her, avoid getting killed by Harru and the others, and send a Flashmail all at once. Orejin wasn't going to listen to her if it her mail wasn't detailed enough, and at any rate, it would take him a few minutes to rally whatever troops he was bringing along this time and show up. In fact, as far as they were into the dungeon, she was shocked no one had shown up yet.

'Where the hell are they? The ONE time that I actually want those guys to be here....' She scowled as she began to smash at the Bone Army closest to her, hacking away at the skeleton repeatedly, inter-spaced with shouts of “La Repth!” every fifteen seconds or so; all four monsters had targeted her specifically, which meant that the damage was being racked up rather quickly. The lowest level monster facing her, one of the speedy Phoenix Queens, still had three levels on the Heavy Blade.

For now, Harru seemed to be standing back and watching, though she was still screaming at her. “I'll let the monsters finish you off! And if you do survive, you'll never be able to outrun me!”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Nekkiko found herself torn between amusement and disgust at that particular outburst; there was something about Harru's raving that screamed “classic villain”. She really expected her to spout off “I'll get you, my pretty, and your little fox hack too!” or something corny like that.

Her SP was falling fast, though, and she had to pull out a Mage's Soul, only to immediately use part of the SP back up on another La Repth from the damage inflicted in the time it took to use the item. Finally, the first monster crumbled to the floor, but that still left the other Bone Army, the Phoenix Queen, and Great Sled Dog.

It really, really didn't look like she was going to be able to survive taking them all out. She had just enough Mage's Souls on her to use one against each monster, but that would leave her almost defenseless against the human players that were waiting behind her. Somehow, she had to force them into the fight, make them take out the monsters for her; after all, the only way out was back through them, so she had to run that way anyway.

She took a deep breath, her thumb slamming forward on the joystick so that she ran, uncaring of the damage she was receiving, toward where Harru and Dobie were waiting, ready to attack her. Her other hand found the Flashmail form again, this time clicking the voice option.

“NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO SWOOP IN!”

She sent the urgent scream not to Orejin, but to his assistant Naieira, who was far more likely to respond to such an informal complaint. Lyra knew there was a good chance they were busy elsewhere, and she also knew that would be just her luck – for them to not show up the one time she wanted them to.

Her eyes flickered to the side as she noticed the missing piece to the puzzle standing near the door – Liam. Their eyes met as she ran past the other two, but the owl merely shook his head. “No, I'm not getting involved.” He didn't actually speak, but she could hear it in her mind, just from what she knew of him already. He wouldn't support his friends in their desire to PK Lyra, but he also wasn't going to turn around and fight his friends over someone he'd barely known an hour.

'PK me. They're going to PK me!' The thought finally hit home as she stopped a couple feet in front of the door, turning to defend against the onslaught of attacks Harru had begun. It frustrated her to no end that each of the Twin Blade's attacks seemed to be doing almost as much damage to her as her own – proportionately much more powerful, from class alone – were doing back to Harru. The nine level gap between them made Lyra's chances of survival almost none, and they both knew it. Even more than that, the fox knew that when Dobie caught up and added his strength, she would only die faster. She could only be thankful that she herself was not a Wavemaster or Archer, defenseless against their physical attacks, and that Dobie was the lowest level out of the trio.

Fortunately, when she looked over Harru's shoulder in search of Dobie, she saw that he was otherwise engaged with one of the monsters, and that the remaining two were fast approaching the Twin Blade's back.

“Think fast!” Lyra called, ducking away again just as the Phoenix Queen came at Harru's back. She hit the ground rolling, rising up just in time to have the second Bone Army descend upon her. The tiger had been thrown off balance by her opponent's sudden absence, and was now sprawled on the floor as the harpy clawed at her, but the player was sure to have the advantage again very soon; there was no monster in The World that could single-handedly defeat a player of a higher level.

Several dozen bones scattered across the floor as Lyra killed the zombie, and she had just enough time to down one of her remaining Health Drinks (a futile attempt to salvage a few SP) before Harru too felled her monster and was charging back towards her.

She switched head armors and cast Ap Do, charging back at the tiger with her blade outstretched.

What Harru had neglected to notice in her fixation on targeting Lyra was that hers had been the last monster for the portal, and so she'd just reopened the doors to the room. The fox had no intention of actually attacking her; instead, she veered off several feet away and raced for the exit, ducking through the door and back up the stairs. “Go, go, go!” she chanted at herself, urging her feet to go faster, though she knew the Ap Do she had cast was easily the limit of her speed. And Liam had still outpaced her earlier, so Harru, who had both class and level advantage, was sure to catch up within seconds...

'If I can just lock myself in!' she dropped her eyes on the door across the room from her, the path not previously taken. If there was a monster portal within it, and she could get through the door before Harru, then the door would seal between them, and Lyra would be safe for the moment. In the end, she'd still either die from the monsters or have to be let out by the staff when they arrived, but being killed by monsters didn't have the same side effects as being PKed did. If the monsters got her, all her items would still be in place, and only the EXP from this dungeon would be lost.

She could live with that.

She dove through the doorway, eyes tightly shut, expecting to hear the door clunk shut behind her.

But it didn't.

She opened her eyes again only to find herself sitting on the floor not of a typical large battle room, but of one of the smaller rooms containing various pots and a treasure chest.

Specifically, one that was also a dead end.

“No.”

She sat quietly, counting the seconds until Harru would arrive and she'd die. Even if the administrators caught her quickly afterwards, it would easily be a week before they gave her back her rare items – a holding period she'd experienced once before, when she'd dealt with a random Player Killer on one of her earlier surveillance operations. The objects that had been in the hands of a hacked character, even for only a few minutes, had to be thoroughly examined by the programming team before they could be returned to her, or at least that was the excuse. And that was assuming the Twin Blade didn't make it back to town and sell her stuff off before they could catch up to her – the Moumokuteki and the Mimiru's Sword could both fetch big money, and unlike her wings, were completely useless to Harru and everyone in her party.

“Oops, looks like foxy found a dead end.”

It was pretty much over. She was only even going to keep fighting back in hopes that the administrators would-

Ding!

A Flashmail! Lyra was on her feet and facing Harru again the next second, no longer afraid of not having enough time. Naieira had sent her back a reply, and that could only mean that they'd be here within a couple minutes, that she was saved! She could hold the tiger off long enough for that, she was sure, even if Dobie joined in the fight too.

“You're still not giving up? I guess you're a moron too, not just a traitor.”

Lyra snarled and pointed her sword at Harru. “You talk too fucking much, and your boyfriend's the moron, for letting an online game ruin his real life.”

“The game didn't... YOU DID!”

The fox managed to block one of the smaller girl's daggers as she raced forward, but the other sunk hard into her arm, causing a critical hit and setting her up for subsequent hits to be easy. “Get OFF!” Lyra screamed, shoving her off with her sword, all her weight braced against the weapon. She was panting as she took aim, preparing to charge again, to fight until those reinforcements arrived. Her HP had fallen below half again, though, and she wasn't sure if she should take the moment to heal or to attack... Taking her chances, she charged again...

“LaRue Zot!”

A dozen huge slates of sharp ice rose from beneath the Twin Blade, stopping Lyra in her tracks as she watched the girl stagger backwards, searching for the sound of the voice, only for the chant to be repeated. She leaped back, trying to evade the range of the spell, but was caught by the edge anyway, her legs visibly bleeding as she staggered away, staring at something in the previous room that the Heavy Blade couldn't see yet.

“Run, Lyra-sama!” came the same higher pitched voice. “I'll hold her off!”

Alash appeared in the doorway, casting OrGan Don at the Twin Blade this time. The fox was dumbstruck as she watched the rocks fall upon Harru, who in turn used Ol Repth. “Ri, Linker, go find the other two and hold them off!” To Lyra's amazement, the Wavemistress was directing two other players, apparently also here to save her.

But the only words the fox could find were the ones she stammered as she glanced towards the exit. “You... knew?”

“If I'd known it was you she was after, I would have stopped her much sooner, Lyra-sama,” Alash assured her, a weak smile on the catgirl's features before she turned to face Harru once more. “You've been protecting us these last few months! It's our turn to protect you!”

Her eyes widened as she looked off in the direction of the other two, Ri and Linker... sure enough, both bore ears and tails, the latter sporting a small pair of wings where her ears should have been.

“Thank you,” Lyra whispered, “but you-”

“No buts! Get out of here!”

She wanted to tell her that she shouldn't have come, that it was too dangerous to be here, that she'd doomed herself, along with Ri and Linker, and god knew how many others, but she knew it was too late for any of that to matter, and that was a guilt she didn't want to put on the well-meaning Wavemistress.

“Thank you,” she repeated, turning to run as another explosion of magic erupted behind her. “You're a brave one, Alash,” she whispered to herself, tears running down her cheeks. “I'm sorry. Get out as soon as you can.”

She reached the doorway and almost kept running....

But then the familiar woosh of transport rings filled the air, so many times over it sounded like a massive echo.

And she heard Orejin's voice, telling everyone to cease and desist.

And she froze in her tracks, turning around and staring back into the room. Not just Orejin and Naieira, but a dozen other minor staff members as well all stood in the room, wielding their various weapons at one or another of the hacked characters in the room. She didn't even bother looking behind her; she already knew that Arpeggio would be behind her, the short blades of his brass knuckles pressed into the back of her neck.

“Sorry we're late,” he whispered, and her face twisted into a scowl, her eyes fixed on Alash. If they'd arrived not even two minutes earlier, she might have escaped this fate, but instead there were two axes pointed at her face, her wand forgotten on the floor as she looked around in fear.

“So am I,” she hissed.

“You're alive, though, and I'll buy you some new healing items.”

She shuddered at how cheerful he sounded. But of course he was – he had just helped capture six hacked characters, and he had no way of knowing how painful this particular event was to Lyra. And that was how it needed to stay.

“Don't even bother.”

Everyones arms were quickly bound, including Lyra's – they always took her, too; always tried to perpetuate the illusion. Most of the staff in the room was over level 50, so not even the whole group together stood a chance, not that it mattered – if not right this second, then they'd just be banned before they could log back in. CC Corp always got their way in the end.

This time, she didn't play her part, she didn't act like she was upset, or fight against it. She just let herself be dragged across the room by Arpeggio, trying not to lock her eyes on any one person or spot for too long.

Alash was sobbing. There were no tears on her digital face, but the noises still came from her. Lyra watched for a quiet moment, then lowered her head, speaking just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

“I'm sorry.”

Arpeggio chuckled, figuring she'd finally decided to feign that she was fighting back. “I'm sure, I'm sure. Save it for the judge,” he proclaimed, jerking on her cuffs again.

The last thing Lyra saw before the ascending golden rings took everyone away was Alash staring at her, a small smile upon her face.

It was the morning of the tournament, less than six hours to go, and Lyra was sitting outside the gates of the stadium, staring at the people going by, wondering how things would go this time, wondering how to spend her day. She pondered, for a moment, going by the Pawn Shop, to pick up a few last minute items. She decided to do exactly that, after checking to see who she was fighting first.

Overall, she was doing whatever it took to get her mind off the events of a few days prior. She just knew she needed to be ready for the tournament, because this would be just one of a thousand steps towards making everything right again.

She stood, stretching her arms and letting out a yawn as she wandered towards the Entrants' Information desk, silently crossing her fingers that she had a good opponent first round – but not too good.

A familiar high-pitched voice shouted behind her, calling her name. It took her a moment to realize she was being spoken to, at which point she turned to see the source of the voice. “Lyra-sama! Waiiiit!” the girl called, running up to skid to a stop in front of her.

Lyra stared at the little Wavemistress in disbelief. 'It can't be.' But, as the cliché goes, it was; Alash stood before her, green dress, furred face, and all.

“How?” was the first and only word out of the fox's mouth.

“It doesn't matter,” she assured her, shaking her head adamantly. “All that matters is I can talk to you again! You can talk to everyone again. We missed you!” She smiled widely, reaching for Lyra's hand. “Come on! There's plenty of time before the tournament still. We can go get good seats, and talk about everything!”

“Not until you tell me what's going on,” Lyra half-snarled, taking her hand back away. She was happy to see the girl safe and sound, of course, but it was all far too good to be true. “Because unless I'm dreaming, this shouldn't be happening. You got captured. You were going to be deleted. It's not easy to get out of it.”

“Oh, it's no big dea-”

The fox put her hand up, glaring at the Wavemistress. “Yes, it is a big deal. I think I'd know how hard it is to get them to forgive a small hack like mine. Yours is far more extensive.”

She shook her head. “I just made the same kind of deal you did. Where I had to let them watch me in order to be allowed to stay. They said that I could keep my hack, and that you and I could work together. It was so cool!” She grinned wider, spinning in a little circle. “It'll be kind of like old times! Except, you know, that I was never a high enough ranking Figment Raider to spend much time with you.”

Lyra blinked. “What are you talking about?” They all knew the rules: no talking about the FR in town, outside of the ships. You never knew who was listening. The clan was gone, but that rule was an obvious keeper, as the danger to the others connected to the old clan was still quite obvious. As far as anyone outside the clan needed to know, the Figment Raiders were a distant, distant memory, just a band of hacked characters from early in the game's history, who had been banned promptly. They served as nothing more in The World's history books than proof that there wasn't safety in numbers. And Anima Mundi was supposed to just be a slang term applied to animal hacked characters by others. There was no such clan, and anyone claiming to know of such a clan was just perpetuating the urban legend. “There's no way in hell I've been in this game long enough to be one of the Figment Raiders. They were gone by 2009.”

“Lyyyraaaaaa!” Alash whined, taking her hand again. “You don't have to lie to me. I'm not some random person. I already know! The Figment Raiders aren't dead, they're just reborn! And you should totally come lead them again!”

“Alash... You don't know what you're talking about... I know there were a couple of us that quested together in the past, but that hardly makes us the rebirth of some hacker group. I can't even modify character data myself.”

“Why do you keep lying to me, Lyra-sama?” The pout on her face now was so large that she was honestly a bit scared the Wavemistress's lower lip might fall off. “I know everything already! You don't have to hide it from me.”

That was when Lyra realized the truth: Alash hadn't been let free to face the same fate she had. Instead, the girl had been sent here to make Lyra talk; to make her admit to her time as the Figment Raider leader, to let CCCorp have their prize.

“I think you have the wrong person, Alash. I've never been in a clan before the Swordbreakers. My loyalty is with those I love...” One hand reached to touch the ribbon around her neck, the other the goggles on her forehead. “I do whatever I need to to protect them. I'm Momma Fox for a reason, you know. And mothers protect their babies.”

Momma Fox... how long had it been? But she'd been called that... along with Fearless Leader, Crazy Lady, The Moonlight Shadow... She took a deep breath.

“Lying will only hurt you, in the end. But lying is not as painful as betrayal. That's because they're both the coward's way out; the truly brave will fight until the end, long after the coward has given up.

“Alash... Yesterday, I thought you were a brave girl for trying to protect me, even though you had to betray your friends to do so. Now, though, I realize you're a coward. I forgive you though, as long as you promise never to take the easy road again... Because I'll tell you, if there's one thing I've really learned...”

She smirked. She loved it when she could be corny like this; the motto was already emblazoned on her Member Profile, beneath her name and title.

“Giving up is never a viable option.”

She winked. “Good luck and adieu.”

Lyra chuckled to herself as she logged out of the game, pulling up her profile and leaving it proudly upon the screen.

Her title still said The Moonlight Shadow, and it always would.

Not everything had changed.

Lyra: +2 levels, + Green Guard, + Spirit Armor, x1 Gale Breath, x1 Ice Floe