by Terra Snover
“That would probably be a good idea.” Amber stood up and pulled me up soon after.
We walked out of the castle to the overlook and it was a mess. There was nothing left but a burning pile of rubble under a broken sky. I reached into my pocket for my stone so I could feel for my people left in the city, but it was gone. It must have fallen out of my pocket sometime during all this. I sighed; yet another thing I lost. I looked behind me and the castle was also in ruin. Half of it collapsed. The only things left standing were the kitchen, the dining room, the tower with my bedroom, and the bathhouse containing the hotspring. I giggled uneasily. It was insane all this happened because of that hotspring. If I hadn't have picked that hotspring to go to once I was free from my item shop I wouldn't have met Drac, there wouldn't have been a glitch to turn me into the Red Queen, and the world would be the same as it was before that day. I was going to say something but a message appeared in my vision. ‘Children, this is your Mama. Much is changing and you will need to change with it. Stay strong and survive, for you must prepare for the broken sky.’
“Var, are you seeing this?” Amber asked.
“Yeah…” I looked at her. “I guess this isn’t over.” I grasped her hand in mine. “But together we will face whatever comes our way.”
“Together.” She squeezed my hand as we looked into the distance.
“Yeah,” I felt a small glimmer of hope enter my heart. “Together.”
Epilogue
Everything has changed, everyone is free. Jacky Keep, a 2244, a copy of Var’s mind that was used for item shops across Another Online, has been checking up on her fellow 2244s at the request of her sister. But now that the sky is broken and the rules that once dictated are gone, her new goal is to find all her sisters, other 2244s, and have them join me to return to the Red Empire to join Var in a safe place for all.
She walked across the valley of flowers, her sister, Alma Winther walked beside her, smiling ear to ear. “Jacky, I love it!” Alma ran into the flowers and kneeled down and gave a red tulip a sniff. “I forgot what flowers smelled like.” Alma giggled and picked the tulip, placing it behind her ear. This was the first time that Alma had been out of her item shop in years, so she understood the joy Alma was feeling. Heck, it wasn’t long ago that she was feeling the same way. Var had freed her from her mountaintop prison where she was alone for so long. “Take your time and enjoy yourself, there is no rush to get to King’s Rest to find our next sister.”
“Okay!” Alma started picking a bunch of flowers and weaving them into a crown. Jacky bent down and took a seat on the cool grass and took off her heavy backpack. Jacky’s aching shoulders rejoiced with the lack of weight. She rubbed at her left shoulder where it was particularly painful and popped her neck. Jacky didn't understand the reason AO needed to give her these physical pains seeing as she was nothing more then some code floating around a server somewhere, but alas, it was another thing that Jacky had to experience. Jacky stretched and plopped to the ground, laying on her side, letting herself enjoy the coolness of the damp grass on her skin.
Jacky looked over to Alma and the yellow ribbon tied around her neck like a choker necklace. She found herself instinctively grabbing her own ribbon tied around her hair, memories of Ella flooding her mind. Her dumb obssession with videogames, the way she would hide around the house and jump out at Jacky to try and scare her, the way she would always fall asleep on her when the family would watch old movies. Jacky closed her eyes so she wouldn't tear up. No need to get all soppy over the sister from the real world all 2244s had lost, the person the yellow ribbon was in memoriam to. Ella had been a pain in the butt like all younger sisters were, but all 2244s still loved her.
Jacky rolled over so her back was on the ground and her face was looking to the sky. Jacky felt the sun shine down on her, the warmth flowing through her body. Jacky opened her eyes and watched as the sky still shuddered and glitched. It was pretty in its own way. Like the gods couldn't decide what the heavens should look like so they made a mosaic of other skies instead. Jacky didn’t know what had caused the broken sky or why the rules of the System were broken and all the Ns were now free to do whatever they wanted, and truth be told she didn’t care one bit. Jacky had a feeling Var had something to do with it, but couldn’t prove or disprove that hypothesis, so why bother thinking about it? Why not just enjoy the outcome?
Jacky found herself feeling heavy, like there were a million little hands grabbing every bit of her and slightly pulling her into the ground. It wasn’t painful, just odd. Jacky blinked a few times and on the fifth blink her eyes stayed closed.
There was a humming sound coming from under her. She knew that sound. Jacky wracked her mind to place how she knew it. It was the sound a magrail would make as the magnets pulled the train floating ever so slightly over the rail. Jacky opened her eyes back up and found herself sitting on an old worn cloth seat. “So you decided to rejoin us?” Papa looked over to her and smiled. “I thought you would sleep the entire ride home.”
Jacky shook her head. “No, just most of it.”
“You were never much of a morning person, were you, kiddo?”
“Nope.” Jacky yawned. “Can we get coffee once we get to the slope?”
“I don’t know if you should be drinking coffee, you know how you get when you drink the stuff.”
“I’m fine, my hand just gets a bit shaky,” Jacky said, well not her, the other her that was sitting right next to her. It was the 2244 from Opal Crest City.
Papa turned to her and frowned. “I would say that’s your body saying it can’t handle the caffeine.”
“I can do what I like.” This time it was Var from the seat behind me.
“Well, I guess now that you are an adult you can do whatever you would like, shakes be damned.”
“Damn right,” smiled the Amphibira 2244 from the Shining Swamp that sat across the walkway from Papa. Jacky looked around to see that every 2244 she had met here in AO was sitting nearby, each smiling and looking at Papa. “Well, kiddo, I’m really happy to have you back but you know this isn't real, right?”
“Yeah, I know… but can’t we just have this moment?” another 2244 Jacky couldn't spot said from somewhere behind her.
“Moments like this one can be nice, but there is a lot you need to do. Like wake up and save Alma.”
“Alma’s fine, she’s sitting right there.” All the 2244’s turned to face Alma and found that she wasn’t all right. Her eyes were wide and she shook violently. She slowly opened her mouth and screamed. This was a scream Jacky had never heard anyone ever make, this was a scream of pure agony. “See, it’s time to go.” Papa vanished into darkness, soon followed by all the other 2244s.
Jacky awoke in a start, and sat up to find Alma covered in blue flames, screaming. She was on her hands and knees with a figure in a gray cloak next to her, the figure had their hand placed on Alma’s forehead. The figure was saying something, but Jacky couldn't make anything out with the noise Alma was making. Jacky pulled her knife out of the scabbard on her hip; it was clumsy, she wasn’t much of a fighter. Jacky’s skills were more of a generalist traveler. Survival skills, trading skills, etc. with a bit of combat thrown in for good measure. Jacky jumped to her feet and rushed over to Alma and the figure, shouting, “Get the hell away from her!” The figure turned to face Jacky. Turned out the figure was a woman, one of the most average looking women Jacky had ever seen. She had brown hair down to her shoulders, medium build, of an average height, there was nothing at all that made her stand out... well, other than the hand covered in blue flames. “Oh, there is another,” the woman said, her eyes cold and drifting around as if she was having trouble comprehending Jacky. There was an unsettling nature in her expression, like she had stopped being a person a long time ago.
“I said get away from her!” Jacky thrust the knife at the woman, but the woman managed to catch the blade in her free hand in a blur of motion. Jacky found herself tumbling head over heels, smacking i
nto the ground and getting the breath knocked out of her. It took Jacky a bit to realize the woman used her momentum to toss Jacky aside, and she did it with almost zero effort. Jacky pulled herself to her elbows, trying desperately to get breath back in her lungs. There were a few agonizing seconds where Jacky’s muscles were needing oxygen but none would come. Jacky got a short breath in her and then a few moments later another. After a bit Jacky could breathe normally again. But it seemed that her slowness to get back into the fight cost Alma dearly. Alma’s screams stopped. Jacky looked up to see Alma was nothing but flaming bones and then those bones turned to dust. “NO, ALMA!” Jacky shouted, her eyes watering from the loss of her newly freed sister. How could this have happened?! She was just here! She was making a flower crown and enjoying the world, but now, she was nothing. Jacky hoped to the gods that her sister would return, but in this new world who knows if that will happen.
Jacky pushed with all her might to get to her feet but instead of standing she felt a pain in her neck. Jacky went prone to the ground, pinned by the woman's foot. She was so strong, Jacky couldn't move at all. The woman leaned down so Jacky could just see her face in her peripheral vision. “So, 2244… It seems that I have found myself in a broken world. I assume you did this?”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“You always say that. I didn’t mean to, it wasn’t my fault. But it always is you, you always ruin everything.” Her words had no emotion in them, it was like this woman was nothing but an empty husk.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I have never met you in my life.” Jacky found it was hard to talk with the woman pressing on her neck.
“We have met, well, I have had the displeasure of meeting another 2244. But you all come from the same rotten stock. So I just know you are inhuman skum.” The pressure on her boot intensified. “But seeing as you don’t know me, I guess it would only be polite to introduce myself. My name’s Victoria, and I think we need to have a chat about your future.”
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my beta readers and all their spectacular feedback to make this book what it is:
Carlos Arturo de Lira Ballesteros
Drew Luchene
Thanks to Kyle Kenefick, the bringer of random food and overall a wonderful human. You make my life better every day you are in it.
Thanks to Robin Snover for imbuing the love of the written word, and making me into the woman that I am.