by Terra Snover
“Red Queen, we have had many battles but here today is where it ends!” He rushed towards me, “Cosmic Uppercut!” Ha, just what I was hoping he would do. I clenched my fists and prepared myself to take the punch. He hit me in the ribs and I shot like a bullet towards the sky. I pointed my hand at him. Well, no, that wasn't true, I pointed my hand to aim in front of him. “Titan Bolt!” My bolt hit the airship engine. I hoped beyond hope that this would work. The engine sputtered to life and a torrent of wind started pulling at Roe. It only took a few seconds for the engine to get going and Roe was sucked into the intake. There was a disgusting sound of meat hitting metal and then the engine exploded. This wasn’t a small explosion, this was huge! One of the propellers shot right at me and I tried to get out of the way but it was too big and far too fast. It hit me with a clang and I went cascading into another building. It would seem this one was more hardy than the others because instead of tumbling into it I bounced off it and landed back on the ground. “Well, that could have gone better…” My health was at about an eighth. “I really hope that didn’t kill Roe, I liked him,” I mumbled to myself as I started to get to my feet. “Maybe it was enough for him to rethink fighting me?” I rubbed at my head and arched my back and heard several vertebrae pop.
“Var, duck!” I heard Thaz’s voice shout from behind me. I did just what she said and an alchemist fire went sailing over my shoulder and slammed an incoming Roe right in the side of the head. The explosion sent Roe tumbling over the ground and out of sight. Well, at least he’s not dead. I turned to see Lily, Thaz, and Helter running over to me, Fluff clenched to Helter’s back. “You tricky little Lamorea.” I smiled at Thaz. “You were the one to blow up that debris that was going to crush me, weren't you?”
“Couldn't let you die.” She gave me a proud look.
“Damn right.” I got to my feet and looked for Roe, instead I found the huge bony hand of the Golem burst out from the pile of debris and pull itself to the surface and made a shriek.
“Wow, wasn’t expecting that,” Thaz shouted over the sound of the Golem.
“You four distract the Golem, I'll finish Roe!” I barked orders as I started running to where I saw Roe go moments before. It didn’t take long to find him as he was apparently waiting for me to arrive, so he slammed me square with a three meter iron beam that I didn’t see coming. Nothing like a solid hit of metal to thoroughly ring one's bell. A glance at my health told me I was at one sixteenth. “Not good,” I grunted as I slammed into the ground and narrowly avoided rolling out of the way of another blow from the beam. “Would you please stop trying to kill me!” I shouted at him as I swung my legs at the beam, knocking it to the side, giving myself enough time to continue the kicking movement to jump up to my feet. I then jumped onto the beam and flipped, now doing a handstand like some kind of extreme gymnastic event. “Surge Claw!” The energy from my hands arked up the beam and gave him a shock. His head jerked up and sparks shot off him, it looked thoroughly painful. He dropped the beam to stop the electrocution.
I flapped my wings and did a roll in the air so I was now the one holding the beam. I was getting ready to return the favor by hitting Roe with the beam, but something stopped me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a crashing airship come careening towards me. Without thinking I threw the beam at the airship as hard as I could. The force of my toss knocked the airship off course enough so it wouldn't hit me directly. That said, the thing still slammed into the ground and sent burning bits tumbling at me. I jumped and bobbed out of the way of the bits of the airship as much as I could, but when there is enough shrap metal coming at you, you can’t dodge it all.
But the nice thing is Roe was also getting pelted with the wreckage, but where I didn’t even register the fire, he was taking every bit of it. I used this moment to run at him and burst out of the flames and shove my claw into his gut. I went in deep, feeling his insides. He let out a gasp and moments later coughed up blood. The look on his face wasn’t the one of pain I was expecting, he looked pissed. Where I was looking at his face it seems I should have been paying attention to his fist, because he sucker punched me in my gut. He hit me so hard I was sent sliding back into the fire I had jumped out of. “Damn, even when I gut you, you manage to still fight like a champ.”
“Not like one, I am a gods damn champ!”
“Yet to be proven to me.” I stopped clutching my gut and stood up full. The flames licked my Hellspawn body, bathing me in dancing light. I didn’t have a lot of health left. I had to end this quickly.
“Red Queen, I have nothing to prove to you!” Roe lifted one of his hands into the sky and shouted, “Gods Torrent!” A light from the heavens pierced the smoke and fire surrounding Roe.
“This can't be good,” I mumbled to myself as Roe began to glow.
“Time to die, you evil creature!” Roe moved right into the fire and proceeded to lob punches at me so quickly it looked like he had twenty fists. Suffice so say there was no getting around getting hit by the punches. I went flying through the wreckage of the airship and maybe a few remaining bits of building, it was really hard to tell, I was moving so fast. What I could tell you was I ended my time as a projectile colliding with a Bone Golem. The two of us slammed into the ground in a heap of bone chunks.
I stood up, coughing up blood and peeked at my Health Points; as expected I wasn’t doing so hot, there was only a sliver left, a strong breeze would probably take me down. “So much for keeping my health high for the real fight…” I muttered to myself. I soon realized that the Golem was no longer cohesive and was strewn around the battlefield.
“Well, that’s one way to kill that thing,” Thaz shouted at me.
“No time for joking, Roe is still-” I started to shout but she figured it out when he punched Thaz right in her cheek. Thaz turned into a fuzzy projectile and flew into a pile of airship bits. “Everyone on Roe!” I screamed and pointed my finger at the King. A lot happened all at the same time: Helter charged at Roe with Fluff casting a ice spell, again clinging to Helter’s back. Lily vanished and reappeared behind Roe with what looked like a sharp crystal in her hand, stabbing Roe in the neck. Thaz, who I was shocked to see still alive, shot a flurry of arrows with deadly precision at Roe. And I cast Unholy Lance. Roe took every damn hit at just about the same time. I watched as his health dropped to a miniscule amount.
I moved in for the finishing blow, grabbing his neck and biting down on him. The sweet trickle of blood gracing my tongue. A fitting end to this royal dance he and I have been doing these years. I bit harder and harder as his health was only a hair width. I could smell the fear in him. I yearned to hear his final breath as I ended him. He was my prey and I was the dominant creature of this entire world! I WAS THE RED QUEEN, ALL WILL FALL TO MY HAND!
No, no, I wasn’t this. I’m not a monster. But hearing Roe’s frightened gasps, I knew that maybe I had truly become one. I stopped. I couldn't do this. I thought of this man as a friend. Sure, I was forced to be his enemy in the story of Another Online, but when we were in GM mode we joked together and had fun conversations. And I was about to kill him for good. I heard a whisper in the back of my mind, “Do it, you know you want to.”
“No, I’m better than this,” I whispered and loosened my bite and released Roe’s neck.
“Roe, you put up a valiant fight today. Surender.” I looked him dead in the eye and added in a whisper, “Please.” His eyes searched mine for a long time, fear mixed with confusion and rage. He eventually looked away from me and gave a slight bow and opened his mouth, “Red Queen, I-'' But a deafening chorus of shrieking violins emitted from my side. There, out of the corner of my eye, stood Pronoia Hester, Lady of the Sun. Casting that damn spell right at Roe and I. That crazy woman was going to kill us both! I grabbed Roe and flung him as hard as I could. I watched him as he barely made it out of the blast area. I wasn’t so lucky. I was enveloped in the blinding, deafening light and watched as my Health dropped to nothing. A message appeared in my vision, ‘
N0-2244, Var Zargronith, The Red Queen, has been killed by: N0-0991, Pronoia Hester, Lady of the Sun.’
And then everything was gone.
Chapter 20
The Null
I found I was surrounded by a deep, cold darkness. None of this made any sense, I should be gone. When a N0 killed another, they were just dead. But knowing my luck, I would be experiencing something far stranger and more unpleasant than death. Like spending eternity in my nightmares or something. I looked down and could just make out my hands, they were surrounded by a thick, black fog that made it so hard to see anything. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, letting the rage and fear drain out of me with the shout.
“It would seem you died, Sugar dumpling.” Mama walked out of the shadows. Her pale naked body was dramatically contrasted by the dark. “You gave yourself up for that Roe fellow.”
“So Another Online has an afterlife?” I shook my head.
“I doubt that, Sugar Dumpling.” Mama walked past me and stroked my cheek as she did. “But we do know AO has strange places that we are not meant to go, if I had to bet I would say we found ourselves in one of those places.” I turned to follow her. “But where, oh where, is this place?”
“Or why am I here?” I should just be gone. There was no good reason I still existed.
“Let us think about this. What makes us different?”
“Our code is messed up,” I said my thoughts out loud.
“Yes, we have tags we shouldn't have.”
“All and all, I’m an N0, a player.” I put up fingers as I counted my tags
“Also admin and Hivemind,” Mama added. “So one of those tags must have saved us from death.”
“Or any of the other crazy shit I have been doing.” I shook my head. “I don’t think we’ll completely know the why. But we are here alive, wherever here is.”
“So, what can we do?” Mama leaned in close with a smile. “My Sugar Dumpling, you are smart as smart could be, think about what you can do.”
“Well…” I pondered hard for a moment. What could I do? I was alone in a dark void with my imaginary Mama. I didn’t have any of my allies, or assists. It was just me. “Ha!” I shouted as I opened my terminal. “I can do this!”
“There you go, my Sugar Dumpling.” She gave me a pat on the head like she did when I was a kid.
“Let’s see here…” I still wasn’t good with code but I could do enough to know when something was up. I read and read, trying to find what was wrong. It didn’t take long to see the mess that had been added to myself. It was confusing but it would seem all my tags were having a battle about how it should deal with my death. As a N0 killed by another N0, I should be dead and gone, but as a player I should lose some Experience and be respawned at the last temple I set my spawn point at, and I have never set a spawn point as a player so that was making its own little mess. Then there was the fact admins should be sent to the Archive, like my old insane GM, Victoria, was sent to. Finally it would seem that anything with the Hivemind tag wasn’t allowed to die at all. “There!” I shouted in understanding. “Our death as a player tried to spawn in our spawn point but because that space is set as null it didn’t have a place to spawn us. So the admin or Hivemind part of me must have made a new level for us.” I pointed to my current location. “We’re in someplace called Null.”
“Good, now how can we fix this?” Mama asked. I expected she was just trying to help keep my mind on track on problem-solving.
“No idea.” I scratched my head. What I wouldn't give to have Amber around. She would have this problem solved in a few minutes, but me, not so much. “Come on, Var, think,” I mumbled. “What is going on here?” Okay, so having the Hivemind tag is what saved my life, could I use that? What do I know about the Hivemind tag? “Not much,” I told myself. “And I shouldn't be messing around with things that I have no idea how to deal with.” I closed my eyes. “I know the most about the admin stuff.” I have gotten good at editing code of items and what have you. “So, how can I use that?”
I opened my eyes and looked at the code again. “As an admin, I can kill myself again and respawn.”
“Yes, but we would end up right back here,” Mama mused.
“No… Well, maybe. Whenever I have died in the past I wake up in my bed.”
“Yes, but when you died before that was death by a player.” She held up a finger.
“And because N0s can't come back from story events, I may just be gone if I try that.” I scratched my chin. “But players are the most safe in all of Another Online. They lose power if they die but they always come back.” I then looked back to my mess of a code. “I don’t have a player respawn point. That’s why I didn’t come back to the temple as a player.” I smiled. “But if I set a location for player respawn, I can come back. I may lose some power but I would be alive and able to save the world!”
“That's my girl.” Mama pulled me in for a soft hug. “I knew you could do it, my Sugar Dumpling.”
“Well, I haven’t done it yet, I still don’t know how location code works. I mean, I probably can’t just put in my bed and have it work?”
“Why not?” She let go of me and gave me a grin.
“Because that would be too easy.”
“But isn’t your bed where you already wake up as a N0?” She placed her hand on my shoulder and gave a knowing nod.
“Shit, you’re right.” I moved down to my respawn location as an N0 and there it was. There were three letters, an X, Y and Z, followed by a series of numbers. I copied those letters and numbers and pasted them into my player spawn. I then moved to my current HP and highlighted it and set it to zero. “Well, here goes nothing.” I looked at Mama. “Hope this works.”
“It will work, my Sugar Dumpling. I will see you soon, and we can finally end this.” She kissed me lightly on the forehead.
“Ok…” I gulped and saved the changes I made. I immediately died again.
I found myself lying in a pile of feathers and broken wood, looking up at a familiar ceiling. I was in my bedroom. I had again done something that no other N had done before me; I had come back from story death. I shot up and looked around the room looking for Mama, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead, I saw a very confused looking Xor. “Var, how did you get here? I heard you died!”
“Nope, just needed a nap.”
“I… well… Okay.” Xor blinked a few times, still looking confused.
“Really, Xor, things kind of went crazy and I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Leave it to you to brush this thing off.” She let out a sigh. “Well, anyway, you may want to go to the throne room as soon as possible and let everyone know you are okay. Things are getting heated down there.” Oh man, I bet. Without another word, I moved to the hole that went from my room to the dining room and jumped down it. I was still a good distance away but could hear the shouting coming from the throne room. This can not be good so I ran as fast as I could.
“I was to be queen, so I should be the one to take the throne and command the army in the battle,” Hell’a spoke loudly but evenly to Drac and Amber.
“To hell with that, you were not married, that makes me the heir to the throne!” Drac shouted back.
“Does this matter right now? They have destroyed the navy and are on their way here!” Amber interjected.
“Who is on their way here?” I asked as I entered the throne room. All three of them looked truly shocked to see me. Why wouldn't they be shocked? It's not often someone overcomes a story death. “VAR!” Amber shouted and ran over to me, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a tight embrace.
“Var, how… I mean.. My beloved, how did you?” Hell’a stopped and pondered for a moment, she must be searching for the words that wouldn't get her in trouble. “How did you escape that blast?”
“Magic,” I stated simply. Truth be told, I still didn't know why I had been archived instead of deleted, so may as well be magic.
All three of them looked at me like I was a crazy woman. “So, who is on their way?”
“The First Ones,” Leon spoke up. “We were defeated at King’s Rest and our remaining forces pulled back to Opal Crest where things went much better. Well, at least for a bit. We had just managed to take the city when a huge metal crab emerged from the water with a massive army of powerful, mechanical creatures. They decimated our forces. We only were able to escape with a handful of airships, our navy is completely gone, and we only have half our army left. And the First Ones are on their way here.”
“Here, like on their way to Void City?” I knew the answer but needed to hear it anyway.
“Right here.” Hell’a thrust her arms out like she was welcoming them here.
“Tilln and Ral are doing hit and run attacks to try to slow them down, but it hasn’t been going well,” Amber added. “And those two have been fighting about who is in charge for thirty minutes,” she added in a whisper so only I could hear.
“Well, good thing I’m back then,” I whispered back and gave Amber a wink. I turned to Hell’a and Drac. “Drac, pull everyone back and set up a defensive position at the wall. Amber and Hell’a, I want you and the forces you comand to do an evacuation of all civilians through the portals to the bloodlands and Gelm’s domain.”
“And what will you be doing, my love?” Hell’a enquired.
“I think I need to pay someone a visit.” I turned to face the back exit, but took a moment to look behind me. “Did I stutter? Go!” I pointed to the main exit and the three of them left the throne room with confused looks on their faces. I walked briskly to the stairs that led to the dungeons.