Reeds watched the violet lines across the chamber brighten in sequence as the man crossed the park.
A slow pulse through the seams of the pod, the pattern followed him too neatly to dismiss. When he ducked behind a concrete planter, the light softened. When he moved again, it returned.
Rupert had noticed.
"The alien egg likes him."
The northern side of the EDF perimeter was collapsing. Soldiers were falling back by sections, firing in controlled bursts while civilians streamed past them toward the southern roads. The infected had arrived in waves rather than one mass, which somehow made it worse. Every street fed another handful into the park. Some chased the fleeing civilians, others followed the gunfire, and a few simply ran at whatever moved closest.
Through all of it, the civilian kept heading inward.
His shooting was terrible.
Reeds watched him miss at close range, jerk the muzzle down, correct, then dump two more rounds into the same infected before it finally dropped. There was enough familiarity in his movement to suggest training, though not the sort that survived regular use. He knew how to keep the pistol away from his own body, knew where to look when moving around cover, but he was still a complete novice.
The civilian reached the crater. The chamber brightened.
Several EDF personnel noticed now. One technician stopped packing equipment and stared. A soldier turned away from the northern line for half a second before someone shouted him back into position.
The man stood in front of the pod.
And placed his hand on the 'glass' surface of the cryochamber.
This was still a terrible idea.
The difference was that I had remembered something useful.
Besides the roles in combat like DPS, Tank, or Support, characters in the game possessed attribute classifications.
Pyro, for heat and fire.
Cryo,for cold and freezing.
Electra, for electricity and energy concepts.
Kinetic, for laws of force and motion.
Toxis, for chemical and biological weaponry.
Nano, for nanotechnology and reconstruction.
Photon, for light and power harvested from it.
And Void, for exotic physics that bent the observable rules of Sci-Fi.
Lunallu was an Electra + Photon character. Characters could have more than one attribute.
The most important thing here, was Lunallu's Photon attribute that came from one of her Augments.
...
The surface beneath my palm warmed.
A faint vibration passed through my fingers.
Then the chamber lit up.
Purple lines raced outward from my hand, threading along seams I hadn't even noticed before. The dark front panel shimmered. My own reflection stretched across it strangely, distorted by the oily surface.
Then the reflection disappeared.
The grey sky vanished next. The trees. The soldiers behind me.
The world turned white.
The material of the case became transparent from the point beneath my palm outward, clarity spreading across it in a widening circle.
Something pale appeared behind the glass.
Hair.
A shoulder.
A face.
My breath caught.
There she was. Actually there. The Violet Warden.
—A status screen appeared before me.
✦✦✦✦ Lunallu VerionlightLunallu stood upright inside the chamber with her eyes closed, shoulder-length royal purple hair floating lightly around her as though gravity worked differently inside. Dark fabric hugged closely around her body beneath an uneven coat, and thin lengths of metal rested around her arms and waist. Chains.
For all the gunfire around us moments before we entered this white space, she looked peaceful.
Then Lunallu opened her eyes.
Bright purple, the embodiment of lightning. They found me immediately.
No confusion. She stared straight at me.
Her expression changed.
It wasn't dramatic. Something around her eyes loosened first, while the rest of her face remained strangely still.
"...Doctor."
My stomach tightened.
"...Hi."
A woman fell out of the sky from a universe that shouldn't exist.
Lunallu raised her hand. Her palm settled against the inside of the chamber, directly opposite mine.
For a while she simply looked at me.
Her gaze moved slowly across my face.
She looked like she was checking whether I matched a memory.
The cryochamber opened, and Lunallu fell forward.
I immediately caught her. Her chest pressed against mine, one of her arms slipping over my shoulder while the other hung limply between us.
Soft. And big.
She was lighter than I'd expected, though that might have been adrenaline doing its usual work of convincing me I was briefly stronger than I actually was.
"...Whoa."
Her hair brushed my cheek.
For several seconds, she didn't move.
Neither did I.
The gunfire was gone.
That was when I noticed it.
No screaming. No soldiers. No infected pouring through the park.
Nothing.
The crater had disappeared with everything else, leaving only the two of us and the open cryochamber surrounded by endless white. There wasn't even a horizon anymore. The ground existed because my feet were standing on something, although looking down didn't make that fact any easier to understand.
Lunallu stirred against me, stiffening my body.
"...Doctor." She slowly found her footing. I kept one arm around her until I was reasonably sure she wouldn't collapse again, then let go.
Her hand remained on my shoulder a little longer. I couldn't get used to her touch.
When she finally stepped back, she looked around.
"What is this place?"
She looked down at her palm. A small discharge of lightning crackled.
"I feel... weak."
She's looking... for her weapon?
"I was hoping you knew."
Her eyes returned to me.
"...You brought me here."
...There it was. Expectation. I knew that look now.
They looked through me, as the ever-knowing strategist.
The Doctor.
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.
[Recruitment Result]
★★★★ Lunallu Verionlight
Below it, another notification unfolded.
[Confirm Recruitment Results?]
The button sat there waiting.
I looked around the white space.
That explained something. This entire place felt like the old recruitment screen given physical form. The game had always paused at the end of a pull until you acknowledged what you'd received.
Apparently this was how it's translated into reality.
And once I pressed Confirm, I had a very strong suspicion the pause would end.
Back to the eye of the storm.
"Doctor."
Lunallu was staring at me.
Really staring now.
The quiet around us had given her time too.
...That was probably bad.
Her expression was difficult to place. There was relief in it somewhere, but also hesitation. Something much older than the few seconds we'd spent together. She took one step closer.
"Where were you?"
I knew this was coming. Just not this quickly.
"Where was I?" Her brows tightened.
Towards that moment of fragility, I...
...gave Lunallu something large enough to stand inside.
"...I crossed over."
Her expression stopped.
I continued before she could ask.
"I don't know what happened on your side after that." I dropped to the floor and stared at the... white space below, avoiding her eyes.
"Whatever brought me here, I don't know. All I remember was falling through the sky."
She was listening.
"I spent a long time here."
"In... this white space, you say?"
"No. This is... my ability. I don't know how many more times I can use it for, but I used it to get you out."
"Get me... out..." Lunallu seemed to have some awareness of the cryochamber. She looked back, where it was.
"In this contraption... I was..."
"Luna. I came from a similar pod like yours."
"..."
She accepted the name "Luna" a beat late. It seemed like the name settled properly. I internally sighed in relief.
That's right. This was a term of endearment only reserved for the Doctor, I recalled.
"Doctor. You... crossed through a Gate?" Lunallu's eyes narrowed.
Gates. In Cyber World Online, it was a loose definition referring to warp technology. Lunallu's friendship quest explored a plotline involving this. Actual extraterrestrial creatures attacked Cyverse because of its misuse.
To her, it's the most probable explanation. And to me, ...the most convenient one.
"I don't know if it was a Gate. My memories were hazy, ever since the incident with Hazel."
Lunallu paused at the introduction of a name.
It was a test.
And Lunallu... met my expectations.
"...I... see." I observed her facial expressions, as if memories were trying to enter her head.
"...So it happened then." She confirmed.
...The test was a success.
I can have characters recall memories from any point in their lives.
And next.
"You don't... recall anything after that?"
Lunallu wore a pained expression, and shook her head, as if she didn't want to recall any further.
"Those bastards summoned Gates... and took... Hazel. Doctor... you were there. I-I see, I dragged you into this..."
Her voice weakened toward the end.
Guilt settled across her face so quickly that mine probably wasn't much better.
I hadn't expected that. Or maybe I had. That was the problem. I knew enough about Lunallu's story to throw Hazel's name into the conversation. I knew the Gate incident existed. I remembered pieces of that friendship quest, scattered cutscenes and dialogue I'd gone through. What I hadn't known was what Lunallu herself would remember once I gave her the thread.
Mira came back immediately.
Sitting in my apartment. Asking questions.
My stomach tightened.
I'm doing it again.
This time I knew I was lying.
The difference was that Lunallu wasn't falling apart. She was taking what I'd said and fitting it into a life she already remembered.
All I'd done was place myself somewhere inside it.
"...Luna."
She raised her head, responding to my words oozing sincerity.
"Don't decide this was your fault."
A small silence.
Lunallu fell to her knees.
"But... i-it's... I... can't remember...!"
[Warning. Character Emotional Flux Detected.]
...Don't overcorrect. Just bring her to my side.
I need her. To kill zombies.
"...I remember you."
Her expression froze.
"I see you clearly, in my memories."
"U-uuhh...!"
"In my memories, you were the same person as I remember."
Recalling every bit of emotion I had for my ex-girlfriend, I placed my hand over hers.
"!!!"
What was the line again? Her dating event had one of the cheesy ones, but it raised a lot of favourability.
If I recall, it was...
"I'll hold your chains down."
"...!!!! W-Wha..."
She lowered herself beside me in the white space, leaving a small distance between us. Her fingers locked against mine.
Lunallu lowered her gaze, her expression unreadable.
...Maybe that's enough?
[Affinity has increased by 30.]
"Luna?"
"E-Eh? What's... eh?"
"Are you okay?"
"You... uhh... I, uhh ...I'm better."
She spoke, malfunctioned.
I guess that's enough, for now. I glanced at this ethereal beauty before me, and heaved a sigh of relief internally.
It'd be foolish of me to think this was enough to convince her to fight for me. But in this situation, the initiative was mine. Until things cleared up, I could use her plenty.
"Okay. ...For now."
I looked at the interface before me, with Lunallu looking at me a little more calmly than before.
Refraction was Lunallu's first Augment.
Three Augments existed for every character. Normally you unlocked them by pulling additional copies. CWO had kept the system mercifully simple compared to some other gachas where you needed to drag the same poor bastard home six more times. At least for the 4-stars, the acquisition method for augments were a little easier.
Here, apparently, I too, had a shortcut.
[Augment Booster ×1]
I selected Lunallu, who appeared under the "Character Roster" tab.
A prompt appeared immediately.
[Use Augment Booster on Lunallu Verionlight?]
Current Augment: 0 / 3
Next Augment: I — Refraction
I almost sighed from relief. The plan hadn't fallen apart yet.
—Confirm.
Light briefly gathered around Lunallu.
She stiffened.
Her hand went instinctively toward the chains at her waist as faint violet lines travelled beneath her clothes and disappeared around her collar.
"Doctor?"
"Give it a second."
"What did you—"
The light vanished.
Her eyes widened slightly, as if she'd understood the changes happening to her body.
She looked down at her hand.
A shimmer passed across her fingers.
For an instant, they disappeared.
Then returned.
Lunallu stared.
"Refraction." I pretended to speak calmly.
She looked at me.
"You..." Her expression changed again.
"You restored an Augment."
[Affinity has increased by 5.]
Her fingers slowly curled.
"I thought..."
She stopped.
I waited. Nothing followed.
The interface updated, as I thought something.
Was it that easy to increase affinity?
[Augment I unlocked.]
I stared at the description again.
This was the important part.
Before I pressed Confirm and threw us back into whatever remained of the park, I opened Lunallu's status properly.
"Let me take stock."
By the time I was finished with formulating our escape plan, Lunallu was still staring at her hand.
I pressed Confirm.
The white space shattered.
Lunallu remembered the Doctor differently.
That was the first thought she had when colour returned to the world.
Noise followed.
Gunfire. Screaming. Boots scraping over broken earth. The rotten stench of something that had once been human.
All of this were explained by the Doctor, so she wasn't unprepared.
There were no immediate danger, she thought.
So for one brief moment, Lunallu heard none of it.
She watched him.
The Doctor stood beside her exactly as he had inside that impossible white space, except now there was blood dried against his clothes and exhaustion carved openly across his face.
Older?
No.
Perhaps.
Something about him was harder.
Something else was softer.
She couldn't decide which unsettled her more.
His face was right.
His voice was right.
The way he called her Luna was right.
Nobody else called her that. Nobody else had ever been allowed to.
He remembered Hazel, her little sister.
He had restored an Augment she herself had lost without hesitation, as if reaching into some unseen place and returning part of her body to her was simply another thing the Doctor could do.
And yet—
There were gaps.
Tiny ones.
His eyes lingered a fraction too long when she mentioned the Gate. He had looked at her chains as though recalling how they worked rather than seeing something familiar. Even the way he'd touched her hand in the white space carried an uncertainty she didn't remember.
Lunallu had known men who lied.
She had chained several of them.
The Doctor did not feel like one.
That didn't mean he was telling her everything.
But then, when had he ever? The Doctor was an enigma, surrounded by many operatives.
There, she was by his side too.
The memory turned fuzzy.
At least there was something she clearly recalled that the Doctor... didn't remember himself.
It was as if she too, had a massive gap in memory from what the Doctor and her had recalled with the Gate incident, and fleeting memories of sadness ten years later.
Ten years. The Doctor had vanished for ten years.
She'd imagined his death often enough that eventually the thought stopped producing tears and became something colder.
Now he was standing beside her.
He had crossed worlds.
He had come for her.
That should have been enough.
For now, it was.
Someone shouted at them. They were wielding some outdated weaponry.
To Lunallu, they were kids playing with toys.
"Luna!"
Hearing the Doctor's uncharacteristically shrill cry, she nodded.
Then one of the chains at her waist loosened. It didn't clatter to the ground. The metal slid through the air with an unnatural smoothness, almost weightless, until the end stopped beside the Doctor's wrist.
He instinctively pulled back.
Lunallu stopped immediately.
"...Doctor?"
The chain curled around his wrist.
Cold metal.
[Chained] She felt the effects of her ability.
"...I'm not paralysed." His face seemed perplexed, for some reason, Lunallu found it rather cute. The Doctor in her memories was a more guarded man, it seemed almost impossible to surprise him.
And yet here, he seemed... weaker. Like he'd lost his powers, and a level of confidence. So she spoke, amused: "It only happens if you resist. Doctor."
He looked at her, as if appalled by the idea. Lunallu found it strange, yet found it more endearing this way.
Cute.
In this new world she'd found herself in, with the Doctor, how many more new experiences would she have with him?
"Do it." The doctor's voice cut her drifting thoughts. He was treating the situation seriously, so she should too, as the bare minimum for a proud operative like her.
"...Okay."
Refraction.
Lunallu looked down at her joined hands.
A faint shimmer travelled along the chain.
Then fingers disappeared. Wrist followed.
The world bent around them. Her own hands vanished.
The Doctor disappeared beside her, though she could still feel him through the chain.
A strange comfort.
The surroundings were alien. The soldiers carried primitive rifles. The city beyond the park had architecture she'd never seen, and the creatures rushing through it smelled of death.
Nothing here belonged to her. Except the person at the other end of the chain.
Then the Doctor tugged once, lightly. It zapped him.
Lunallu's eyes narrowed, finding it amusing.
"Let's move."