Arma woke up in a daze, trying to recall what happened last night as his vision slowly adjusted into focus. Everything was so foggy that it was like he was staring a deep never ending black pit. He could remember being drunk and going outside at one point because there were stars, or was it his imagination?

That’s when he realised that he was not alone when a soft barely audible snore drifted to his ears, shattering his foggy vision to an abrupt sharp and proper vision.

Heart in his throat, he glanced sideways to find a mop of ivory black hair. Grey eyes travelled downward to peer at the innocent, sleeping face of none one other than Zessica. For a moment, he wondered if everyone looked younger as they slept, more tolerable and incapable of trouble. He wondered why they she was sleeping on his arm as a makeshift pillow with one arm over his chest when all the fogginess of the memory block cleared away, drowning him of memories of all the embarrassing things he had done while intoxicated at the time when he followed small drunk Zessica outside. He blushed furiously when he remembered the kiss but he contemplated lying back down.

Now he remembered why she was there. By the time he went home, Sophie and Feyone had already placed everyone back in to separate bedrooms which was free on the second floor while Zatch placed an unconscious Phoenix on the sofa. Sophie and Feyone was about to catch up to him but it seemed like they didn’t have to worry now. That’s when Arma carried a dozed off Zessica up the stairs to her room. He had placed her on the bed and someway along that line; he must have passed out too. He felt pathetic at himself, sleeping next to the girl just by passing out when he felt the sensation of the bed within his touch. Still if he hadn’t passed out, he would have missed the opportunity to watch the girl sleep.

‘...Cute...’ Arma thought, chuckling as Zessica exhaled out a soft inaudible snore. It felt nice to have Zessica dozing on his arm, to be completely vulnerable and trusting him to keep her safe, enveloped in the warmth. Arma liked this way more than he supposed to or would like to admit, and the thought of it made his cheeks grow into flames.

He decided to try and shimmy out of her weak grip while not waking her in the process, recalling that there were guest in his home. If one of them, either Phoenix of Euphino caught him like this, no doubt they would misunderstand something horribly and he would end up having burnt marks with bruises decorated all over his body. The thought of having Euphino and Phoenix teaming up together was enough to make him shudder.

Taking her arm gently, Arma slowly lifted it from his chest and tried to wriggle his arm free. He managed to succeed in both departments he shuffled backwards, a grave mistake. Unbeknownst to him, he was at the edge of the bed. So when he stepped back, he landed on his rear end without fail, taking the covers with him on his journey to the floor. A pained moan escaped from his lips and somewhere along the unfortunate event, Zessica bolted upward from bed, her hair dishevelled in a groggily manner which blocked her view. 

“Ow...Shoot...” Arma hissed lightly, rubbing his sore back.

“Are you okay?” Zessica asked, her voice very deep with sleep. She opened her eyes and brought one hand up to wipe the dreariness away. Panic flared but he quickly corrected himself. Last night, nothing had happened. They both fell asleep pretty quickly. She was still wearing the hoodie and black shorts she wore yesterday, meaning they both had went outside while she was in her home attire. Looking at himself, Arma realised he was still wearing jeans and a grey shirt even with the sneakers on.

“Arma?” Zessica asked worriedly, her emerald green eyes mingled with concern. The attention held gaze left Arma to feel more self aware than ever and recalling what happened last night. His face burnt once more when he could not stop remembering that moment. He couldn’t believe that he had the nerve to kiss her. Was he that drunk to have his inhibitions removed completely? Then again, didn’t she return the feelings?

“I...Uh...-

“If it’s about the kiss you don’t have to worry. We already kissed once” Zessica interrupted, her voice much clearer and Arma felt his face grow even a deeper shade of red. He was screaming inwardly, wondering how in the world Zessica figured him out and how she was able to blatantly state it out loud so naturally. Is there anything, in this world that would perturb her a bit more? This tolerance and nonchalant behaviour was just unnatural!

“Wh-wha...I- How are you so freaking calm!”

“Maybe because we both have the same feelings for each other? Maybe because I love you just as you love me? ” Zessica surprised Arma as she flashed him a genuine playful grin, making him splutter nonsense again. Once again he was taken aback at how straightforward and deadpanned she uttered it out. She even said the ‘L’ word! A word he didn’t have the courage to say enough yet! This was so unfair!

“Hehe... I am just teasing you Arma. Even though the love part is true. I love you!~” Zessica added mischievously, drawing the last straw.

“ZEEEEEESSSSIIIICCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Arma yelled furiously, stretching her name impressively while feeling the heat radiating out of his face fumingly. He could feel the blood boiling beneath the skin of his face and it was horribly uncomfortable. Zessica simply giggled lightly before she plopped out of the bed and gave an offering hand for him to get up. Grumbling, Arma took it anyway as Zessica started speaking once more.

“We don’t have to start right away. I mean we don’t have to let the others know right now. We can take things slow, like one step at a time. Baby steps k?” Zessica gave a small reassuring smile as Arma scratched at the back of his head awkwardly. Knowing the full meaning behind those words, Arma felt her voice soothing and nodded hesitantly.

He was thankful that to find that the person who he liked, who happened to share the mutual feeling, was understanding and mature. It made sense since she was older than him. At this recollection, he did feel his stomach drop lightly but the thought of her still accepting him nonetheless lifted his spirits immediately.

It only occurred then that after he confessed, in a very bizarre way at that, he realised just how terrified and ecstatic he was. A part of him said it would work out, while the other part says that it won’t. Even if it won’t, they would still remain the friends right? There was just no going back to being strangers. They were too close for that.

By the time they stepped out of the room and strolled downstairs, Arma could not suppress his surprise when he found that all nine of them were present in the kitchen, Feyone included. Instead, she was even cooking with a bright pink apron on along with a wooden spoon. Phoenix and Stabs were with her too, both wearing a purple apron and cracking eggs. However, unlike Feyone, Phoenix seemed livid.

“Arma, you lazy buffoon! How long were you planning to sleep the day away?!” Phoenix snapped the moment she caught him in her sight. Arma shuddered, remembering that some days; Phoenix would be like a bear with a sore head, or like a dragoness. Right now, the said dragoness was fuming in enraged anger. From the way Stabs was gesturing his arms wildly behind the oblivious Phoenix, Arma gulped, getting his message. He would have to be very careful around the fiery girl or she would end up burning everyone’s breakfast. It seemed like the hangover had left her in the bitterest mood from all eleven of them.

“Oi fool! How long are you going to make me wait you slowpoke?!”

Remember that last statement about Phoenix having the bitterest mood of them all? Scratch that please.  

“Y-yea!” Stabs whimpered lightly before stirring a bowl of some ingredients in frenzied speed while Sophie gave Ophelia a withering look.

“Don’t treat him like he is your slave Ophelia” Sophie pointed out boldly to which Ophelia simply shrugged her shoulders, purposely brushing her off. The silver haired girl pursed her lips tightly together till they were even whiter than they already were. Caterpillar patted her shoulder lightly, slowly breaking the tension and encouraged her to eat a bowl of left over cookies in which Arma remember winning in one of the trials of Blessed Combat.

“Where the hell is Zessica anyway? If that girl won’t come here in one second-

Arma blinked and tune her out as he quickly glanced sideways. He yelped lightly, noticing that the girl who was beside her was now gone. He turned around, fully rotating three-sixty degrees while the others gave a peculiar look. However, most of them realised what had happened. Arma on the other hand was left astonished. He was sure his partner had been with him just a moment ago without a doubt. Where’d she go?

“Phoenix, if you keep getting riled up you will eventually grow old with wrinkles.” A small polite voice spoke out. Blinking, all eyes turned their attention to the fourth figure beside the three individuals who were in the cooking department. Stabs, Phoenix and metaphorically, Feyone blinked at Zessica who was leaning in to observe their progress. The others blinked again, before one of them finally lost it.

“GYAAAAH!” Stabs screamed in a not so manly voice and on impulse, the bowl he had within his hands went flying. Even the egg carton which Phoenix had in hand was sent thrown in the air, joining the bowl of batter. Feyone instinctively landed a few feet away from the girl, the wooden spoon replaced with a cleaver in hand as she poised herself to attack but quickly refrained herself when she realised it was just a girl.

Meanwhile, everyone else’s eyes were widened, with the exception of Alois who was dozing off while sleeping upright. When the egg carton flew open with the contents in it flying out, everyone sprung into action. Arma dived in and caught two brown eggs while Sophie leaped back from her seat and caught one. Caterpillar dived on the counter and caught one as well while Ophelia impressively caught two just by reaching out.

Zatch did not help when he activated his Major of Phasing or Intangibility, making the last two eggs flied through him as he grinned sadistically. Arma would have punched the lights out of him if the curly haired lad didn’t caught the last two in the last minute.

Euphino caught them by accident. He was about to jump off his seat to but ended up toppling the whole stool over, forcing him to fall backwards. Arms flying, he miraculously caught the last one unknowingly and the rest of them sighed in relief. The whole commotion had woken up Alois before he muttered something and feel asleep again. Phoenix, who seemed to lose her bitter temper, apologized profusely along with Stabs, who went as far as to kneel and bow to apologize. Feyone just stared sceptically at Zessica who stared back impassively.

“I-it’s been a while since she last did that...” Arma chuckled nervously, both amused and terrified with what just happened. True to his word, other than disappearing into the shadows in battles, it had been a while since she scared the living soul out of people in a normal lifestyle. Ophelia just gave him a cynical look as Caterpillar chortled lightly. Sophie just gave him a look of incredulity while Euphino groaned.

“It has indeed.” Zatch nodded in agreement that caught Zessica’s attention.

“Last did what?” Zessica asked innocently, cocking her head to one side. It was obvious that she was telling the truth. Most of the time, she never really knew when she made people jump out of their skin with her sudden appearances. After all, she was just like any other normal person and probably thought she had a normal presence like any other human being. However, now that Arma thought about it seriously, this lack of presence was disturbing him slightly.

Sure he had the opposite problem of having too much presence with the core of the AI, and mind you he still didn’t know what the true power of it was, he was still troubled with the lack of presence. It had helped him thousands of time but once again, it wasn’t just natural. Was it because of the ‘gift’ in her? Was that it?

“Ow...” Arma’s eyes instantly landed on Zessica when he realised the small voice didn’t come from her. Nonetheless, she was also reflecting some sort of pained expression which she heavily disguised it with a frown as Alois pressed his forehead with his fingers, kneading it thoroughly.

“Are you alright Alois?” Euphino asked with so much concern, for a moment Arma was surprised. Then he realised that Euphino too shared his decent moments of being caring, probably because of the after effects of having a hangover, or after Zessica turned him into an ‘astronaut’ last night. Alois was cringing lightly, which contradicted so much with his absentminded expression. His eyes were closed and the gap between his eyebrows was furrowed.

“Yea...headache...” Alois muttered weakly and at the same time, Zessica swayed slightly, not so much that it looked serious but enough to catch some of their attention too.

“Zessica? You too?” Phoenix asked warily, brushing her hands on her apron before ripping it out from her and tossing it aside. The shorter girl nodded weakly, rubbing her finger on her forehead too to ease the throbbing headache. Phoenix, on motherly mode, placed a hand over Zessica’s forehead only for her eyes to expand into large saucers.

 “It’s not much but you caught a fever...again...” Arma blinked before he groaned lightly. He was sure that the frequent fevers were going to be the end of Zessica. How was she able to catch a fever so quickly too? Just a while ago, when she was on his arm as a makeshift pillow, he was sure she wasn’t having a fever then. How was it possible for her catch a fever so soon?

.... Wait...that was too quick. Ridiculously quick. Impossibly quick. She caught a fever way too quickly.... Should he be worried about this? Before anyone could offer both the Children of Misfortune to rest, Zessica straightened up suddenly, her complexion paler than earlier but still strong as she usually was.

“I’ll get some aspirin for both of us. Carry on.” Zessica waved nonchalantly, walking towards the golden stairway and strolling upwards. Arma watched her go when he felt a pat something rubbing against his leg. Glancing down, he chortled lightly when it was none other than Lucky. He bent down lightly, hesitantly stroking the back of Lucky’s ear before gaining confidence to tickle it under its chin.

“Looks like Lucky finally opened up to you” Stabs noted and Arma was about to reply when Euphino cut him off, albeit unintentionally of course.

“Hey, you are burning up too. Are you sure you are alright? You seem fine just a while ago.” The curly haired boy pointed out, his hand resting on Alois’s now pale forehead. When Euphino let go, Phoenix checked his temperature too and her red eyebrows disappeared into her hair lines. Arma noticed Zatch frowning suspiciously at Alois and Arma what he was thinking. Two Child of Misfortune, catching a fever at the same time, coincidence much? Then again, Caterpillar seemed alright and another part of Arma reasoned that they were both weak and have a frail body so he was probably dwelling on it much than necessary.

Still, what was this uncomfortable feeling?

“So Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb caught a fever huh? No wonder, since both of you are bean sprouts.” Ophelia commented lightly which earned a very disbelief look from the silver haired girl. Caterpillar was about to stop the heated fight that may or may not happen but Sophie beat him to it.

“This is not the time to be commenting on their weak bodies Ophelia. Your opinion is not appreciated.” Turning to Alois, her voice went gentler. “Why don’t you rest at the couch? Maybe this is one of those temporary ones that will go away when you sleep?”

Alois seemed to consider, thinking it deeply before nodding. Arma felt the uneasiness grow when Alois’s complexion paled a bit more and his face growing red at the second. He ignored Lucky for a moment, making it hiss at him disapprovingly before skipping up the stairs, probably to join wherever his ‘mistress’ was at.

Alois stood from his stool, tumbling only once but it was enough to make everyone except Ophelia to quickly react before sighing in relief. Smiling weakly, Alois slowly went downstairs, his body leaning on the golden railing, not trusting his own strength. When his white hair disappeared from view, Euphino grumble lowly.

“I am gonna see if he successfully went to the couch instead of collapsing on the floor.” No one objected as he stood and scampered downstairs too. After all, he did seem to strike as a troublesome fellow, not in a delinquent like way, more of a naive airheaded way.

“This is so weird, both of them catching a fever at the same time. It’s too sudden.” Caterpillar pointed out in which everyone else had pieced together by then.

“I agree, but I can’t make anything of it yet. It’s abnormal. It is no news that Zessica is prone to be sick almost once a week but this is...extreme...” Zatch added lightly. Ophelia seemed to about retort something that would no doubt infuriate someone but refrained herself from doing so. Despite how uncaring Ophelia seemed right then, there was an unmistakable apprehension glistening in her eyes.

“Come on Alois, the couch is just there! You can’t be that sick!” A voice filled with scepticism and incredulity drifted to the first floor. It was no doubt belonged to Euphino and even though he didn’t mean to, the tall lad realised that he was now eavesdropping in the muffled conversation. He felt guilty for a moment, till he realised he wasn’t the only one curious.

“My...chest...hurts...it burns...so dizzy...” Alois mumbled lightly and Euphino just simply shrugged it off, trying to assure him that it was going to be alright. At first, there was no noise in the house until all of them heard a loud thumping sound. All of them would have jumped if it weren’t for the fact that the sound came from two directions, one above and one below. It was soon followed by some clatters and very worried meows of a cat.

“H-hey! What the- don’t just collapse like that! Shoot! A-Alois? GUYS! HELP!” Euphino yelled at the top of his voice, his voice just as panicky as the cat. With some bizarre telepathic messages passed back and forth from each player, they split into two groups. Phoenix, Arma, Stabs and Ophelia quickly darted upstairs as Sophie, Feyone, Zatch and Caterpillar darted down.

They ran past the free rooms and into the short girl’s bedroom which lead them straight to Lucky who was meowing urgently once it noticed their arrival. Noticing the bathroom door wide ajar, Arma was the one who quickly ran towards the bathroom first and his eyes were immediately zeroed on the ivory black haired girl...lying motionlessly on the cold tile floor inside, pills scattered everywhere with the healing stone showering her with furious electricity.

“Zessica!” Arma yelled and crouched down towards her who was barely conscious. Soon, the others followed as he lifted the ivory bangs from her hair and touched her forehead, ignoring the electricity only to retract it away quickly along with a surprised yelp.

“The hell?! You are burning up! Too much too!” On cue, Ophelia forcefully checked Zessica’s temperature too only to quickly pull back momentarily, her eyes widened in disbelief.

“This temperature is impossible!” Ophelia cried out, unable to believe it. “Hey sacrificial bastard! Don’t just stand there! Call the doctor or the ambulance! She won’t survive if she continues to heat up at this rate!” Stabs yelped before nodding furiously and disappearing out the door. Sophie was about to lecture Phoenix but the concern over Zessica won over from the former.

“Carry her downstairs! To the others!” Phoenix ordered and without hesitation or asking any questions, Arma quickly picked the limp yet frighteningly heated up body, ignoring the healing stone’s powerful electricity and darted downstairs. The others quickly followed and weren’t surprised to find Alois in a similar state. Once Euphino caught them dashing towards them, he quickly updated them that Alois too was burning up at an unnatural temperature and the healing stone was not helping the young boy in any way. When Stabs scampered down, he had already called an ambulance and it was soon on its way.

That’s when something else happened that took everyone by surprise. Lucky the black feline was watching the others worriedly, till it too started to spark out electricity. This caught everyone’s attention since there was a third little on being showered by electrical energy. Arma watched it twitch and turned in a grotesque fashion, making his heart sprint.

“What’s wrong with your cat?” Ophelia spat out bewilderedly, unable to hide the horror in her voice. Arma couldn’t answer for he watched the cat in a trance-like state when the cat fell limp on the floor, still twitching vigorously. Eventually, the other witnesses saw the black feline turned from a realistic cat to a robotic one with wireframes. Dread settled on Arma’s chest when the cat fidgeted uncontrollably and gradually, burst into millions of pixels. Lucky, was gone.

No sooner when Lucky disappeared, the electricity on both Alois and Zessica sparked out even brighter, the force of it all almost stumbling everyone else back, and to make it worse, Caterpillar hunched down and hooked his hand at the back of his head, groaning loudly. Sophie instantly suspected him to be suffering too since he too, was a Child of Misfortune just recently. However, she was instantly proven wrong when she saw the ring of his eyes alter from grey to blue, meaning that person had taken over.

“Sawyer!” The unknown person cried out, grabbing Arma’s attention. In the midst of it all, Arma narrowed his eyes at Caterpillar, or more accurately, the guy who was possessing Caterpillar’s body at the moment. He knew that there was only one person, beside Zatch, Stabs, Phoenix and Zessica knew of his real identity, and this person in Caterpillar’s body was no doubt that person.

“Oliver?!” Arma cried out, putting the right amount of inflection to give away his shock and surprise. Caterpillar nodded briefly before pointing at the two limp figures before them, barricaded with the healing stone’s power.  

“Use the core!” Oliver, the identity of the boy possessing inside of Caterpillar cried out frantically. Arma blinked, cursing his slow processing ability.

“What?!” It was just at that moment; Arma noticed a change in both the Children of misfortune. From where the stone was fused onto them, digital like veins with the accompanying colour started forming from the origin of the stone. It spread like wildfire through out there bodies, covering them from head to toe and spreading across their faces too. Both of them were cringing lightly despite how thoroughly weakened they were and the storm arrived.

Arma didn’t notice what was happening at first, but a while later he realised the veins were spread across their body like a puzzle. A skin of one puzzle piece after another, the brunette realised that they floated from their body till it disappeared, leaving an empty shell in its place. One by one it disappeared and the speed of it escalated dramatically, causing everyone to blanch.

“N-no...This isn’t happening...” Ophelia muttered lightly, clutching her head at the voices that taunted her. Her knees were shaking so much; she eventually let it buckle underneath her, letting a small portion of pain shoot through her.

“N-not my fault...it’s not my fault....IT’S NOT MY FAULT! NOT MY FAULT! NOT MY FAULT! NOT MY FAULT!” Sophie was taken aback when she saw Ophelia lose her cool for the first time in public. She never seen the Rising Star Prodigy broke down and the way she was losing her sanity right then and yelling something that made no sense, the silver haired girl knew something was terribly wrong.

Stabs quickly rushed to her side, patting her on the shoulder gently and whispering soothing words but Ophelia wouldn’t hear of it, objecting every hope Stabs tried to place within her while Arma was at loss at what to do in this phenomenal. Bit by bit, both Alois and Zessica were disappearing away, and he had no idea what to do.

“Use the core Sawyer! Use it to see the chains!” Oliver yelled, his voice rising to octaves. At first, Arma was about to question his motives and how he was able to just use the core of the AI to see whatever the hell he was talking about. However, as soon as the skin puzzle pieces started deteriorating away at a faster rate, Arma swallowed the remark and quickly tried to find a mirror. According to the letter the Phantom Dancer wrote, he vaguely remembered the trigger of using the core was his Major.

Phoenix was the first person who realised what Arma was trying to do and quickly opened her inventory. Within seconds, she skimmed through her list of things and quickly took out a flowery hand mirror the moment she saw it. Without another word, she quickly passed it onto Arma who glanced at his reflection without a second of hesitation. Instantly, he felt something click inside of him and his surroundings flashed briefly before he saw something bizarre.

He was still in the room with panic stricken people but he saw what Oliver was trying to make him see. There were two, both of them were silver. Alois had one chain while Zessica had another, the chain originating from the healing stone which extended up towards the ceiling where it disappeared from view, the destination of the other end unknown.

Then he knew why the two Children of Misfortune were disappearing away. It was those damn chains. From where the chain joined the healing stone, some sort of flow of energy was taken from the stone and was spreading across the chain with their corresponding colour towards the ceiling of that unknown other end. This chain, it was draining the two player’s life. He had to destroy it.

“You only need to break one chain. All these chains are connected together. If you take out one chain, the rest will break as well.” Oliver instructed urgently as Arma nodded obediently.  The others remained silent, unable to help for they could not see the chains which Oliver and Arma could. So they just remained there, feeling helpless and putting all faith on Arma’s hands once again.

It was easier said than done. Every time he tried to grab the chains, his hands went through it as if it was nothing but a figment of his imagination. However, Arma knew better and he knew that the chains were indeed there but the damn thing would not allow to be touched. Temper fraying and realising that half of Zessica’s and Alois’s body had deteriorated by then, Arma was becoming desperate.

Suddenly, like a truck speeding down the highway, it hit him, literally. Wincing, he glanced up to find Feyone, still comically wearing her kitchen apron but holding out the handle of her sword at him. At first, Arma stared at it, unable to get the message when Sophie jumped up abruptly, deciphering her offer faster than him.

“She’s asking you to take the sword. It’s made by the AI right? It should be able to cut through anything right?” Sophie asked and Feyone nodded, nudging the tall lad the sword, beckoning Arma to take it. With much at stake, Arma took the sword warily. It was cold to his fingers and some sort of smoke emanated from its edges as while the blade shone proudly. Sucking in a deep breath, Arma aimed at the chains and cut both of them in one swift move.

At first, nothing happened, nothing seemed to change. Then, Arma watched as the chains started to singe like the end of a cigarette butt and the entire chain went black. It was then severed completely and the whole thing dropped on the floor before disappearing completely. Right on cue, some sort of whirlwind formed around the two Children of Misfortune, barricading them and throwing the others back.

 Arma found himself flung back and skidded through the carpet floor before he caught his bearings by going on all fours. Euphino was pinned at the couch and was clutching it with his life on the line where as Stabs was holding Ophelia tightly to himself, protecting her from the oncoming force. Sophie, Oliver, Zatch and Phoenix were pinned to a nearby wall, hugging each other tightly against the whirlwind.

Feyone was the only one unperturbed with the wind, standing close at the two like she had been before, as if she couldn’t feel it. However with the way her pink hair was flying about wildly, Arma knew that she was just stronger than the rest of them to be able to stand on her own. In an odd sense of way, Feyone looked freaking majestic holding it out on her own.

The whirl wind was brief as it soon died down almost immediately. Arma quickly scampered up and rushed towards them and could not suppress a long happy sigh to find both of them were fine, their body back intact and breathing properly. However, they were still perspiring badly and running a high fever that didn’t seem promise him that it will die down soon.

“Augh...where is the stupid ambulance when you need them?!” Euphino groaned pathetically before weakly crawling towards the two unconscious Children of Misfortune. Alois was grimacing lightly, his eyes still closed while Zessica was in a similar state.

“Can’t...breathe...” Alois eventually croaked, his voice barely like his own.

“Ngh...” Was all Zessica could mutter. Arma was about to resort to make Stabs and him carry one of the two and quickly make a dash for it when, seemingly after a century, the door burst open and the medics finally arrived.

The things that happened later were quiet a mess. Swears of the tardiness of the ambulance were uttered out loud, questions regarding injuries were queried, a few more cat fights and brawls, questions regarding whether Feyone was the culprit to which Sophie defended strongly and threats of demanding all of them to be taken in the ambulance were shared. Soon enough, both Alois and Zessica were on the stretcher and only Arma, Stabs and Phoenix were taken in.

The trip to the hospital was even more of a nightmare. Turns out Zessica and Alois weren’t the only ones who suffered. There were tons of other players too, all of them coincidentally happening to be Children of Misfortune. There were number of players who were hysterical and Arma couldn’t blame them. All of them witnessed the handicapped players slowly disappear and suddenly regaining their bodies. It was just too overwhelming to accept so easily.

Standing outside the emergency room was also more deeply pressuring than the condition of the hospital itself. There were already 39 Children of Misfortune taken in to the emergency room and their friends and family sat outside, waiting for the doctor with the white coat to announce the statuses. The rest of the bunch except Feyone, in which Arma assumed Sophie must have taken her back,  arrived around fifteen minutes later, all of them having their faces red with haste and panting for air, obviously indicating that they ran all the way.

The wait for the news were so long, the afternoon quickly turned to night and the nurses had assured the concerned family members and friends to go back home and rest. They assured them that they will call them the second the doctors were done aiding the patients. Arma watch as most of them begrudgingly went home while the others seemed to make the chairs as a make shift bed, persistent to stay till they were sure that their loved one was alright.

“Let’s go home Caterpillar, your health haven’t been faring well itself right?” Sophie ushered six hours later, pulling the worried boy away. Arma didn’t know what happened to Oliver but he assumed that he must have left the moment the ambulance arrived. However, Caterpillar, who was completely confused and kept in the dark about what happened several hours ago, didn’t seem so willing to leave. With more reasoning and a few protest from Caterpillar’s part, Sophie and Caterpillar left reluctantly with the promise of meeting again once they hear the news.

Euphino left soon after with Zatch ratting him out at the fact that Euphino hadn’t slept well for the past few days. Phoenix, who was already worried sick for both Zessica and Alois went as far as to threaten Euphino with fire to get him out. Of course Euphino relinquish without a second thought, knowing that he didn’t need to add any more necessary worry on the fiery girl and that he would save her from any security guards from kicking her out too.

Even though Arma didn’t want to, he told Phoenix to go back as well. Phoenix was the closest person he had as a sister and to see how pale and scared she was, he knew that she needed to be outside for a change of scenery. The depression in the hospital was not good for her heart. Phoenix immediately declined this.

“No! I want to know what’s happening to them! I want to know whether they are alright! I want to beat the culprit who created this massive second Taboo!” Phoenix yelled furiously, clearly enraged at the fact that Arma wanted her to go home with so many things occupying in her mind. He was about to reason with her when Stabs tagged in.

“He is right Phoenix. I think it’s best to go home. All this worry is eating you that now you aren’t even thinking straight. You need to calm your blood down a bit. I’ll stay here and I promise I will tell you when the doctor comes out okay?”

“B-but-

“Phoenix, let’s go home. I think you been out for too long. If you want to find out who the culprit was then come with me. Help me find it back home.” Zatch cut her off placing a firm hand on Phoenix’s quivering shoulder. She was about to retaliate, trying to come up with valid reasons why she should be here with Arma but quickly swallowed them up and angrily stared on the white tile floor when she realised she had none to say. Tears of frustration finally spilled down her cheeks and struck on the tiles, breaking Arma’s heart instantly.

“Sshh...It’s gonna be okay. She will be fine. Both of them. They may be weak but they are stronger than you think.” Arma hushed lightly as Zatch wrapped one arm around her shoulder. This only made her sob into her hands more, tears of grief and worry finally seeping out of her system. Arma stood up from his chair and ruffled her hair fondly, whispering gentle and comforting words along with Zatch.

It took her a while to calm down, wiping away the tears shamefully before smiling. Both of the childhood friends knew it was forced since it didn’t reach her baby blue eyes but none of them commented on it. A few more words of comfort passed from one another, a small hug shared between the tall lad and the fiery girl, Zatch finally reeled Phoenix away and the two disappeared outside the door, leaving only Arma, Stabs and Ophelia in the waiting room.

Fifteen minutes passed and not a word was shared among them. Arma would admit that he was slightly surprised that Ophelia remained in the hospital with them so far. One would have thought that she didn’t care about her former partner anymore but now that Arma knew that Ophelia was just any other normal human being like she always was, he couldn’t help but sympathise with her too. She was a mystery, like Zessica. There are times where her words would contradict her actions and at times where it was vice versa. It was almost like she didn’t know what she wanted and only relying blindly on her heart and instincts to follow.

“What do you think was the cause of it?” Stabs finally asked twenty minutes later. He was looking at both Ophelia and Arma, which was a surprise in itself. Around a few days ago, he was scared of Ophelia but now, he was treating her like she was one of them. Arma knew something must have happened between them but he was so overridden with worry, he didn’t ask about it.

“I don’t know...”

“It’s not my fault...” Ophelia said simultaneously, making both guys to look at her perplexed. Ophelia was staring at one point of a distance, teeth and fists clenched tightly, looking as if she was about to cry herself. What she answered just now, it was the same thing she had screamed back in the house, when the horror began. What did she meant by that?

“It’s not your fault Ophelia. Ignore the voices. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known something important.” Stabs assured lightly, easing some of the tightness from her jaw and fist only slightly. Arma blinked, realising now maybe could be the best time to ask what their relationship was. When he asked, Stabs blushed furiously before realising what Arma meant, only to give a mousey apology.

That’s when he told Arma everything. How Ophelia was just some vessel the Phantom Dancer chose to bear all the memories of different people, how these memories would eventually have a will of its own and haunt her, how Stabs was actually the missing cousin Zessica was looking for this whole time, the BlackWood Project was related to the monochrome world he owned till Phoenix accidently lost it and how Zessica was the one who created the Taboo.

Of course, he couldn’t believe the last two statements, in which Stabs readily filled in by a theory they both had come up with in the morning.

“Before we go to the theory, you must know that Ophelia told that some hooligans came out of nowhere and tried to take Zessica away from her, saying something that she had something that they need. They were going on about domination and power and how this would be life changing. This sort of triggered a panic attack in Zessica and BOOM! Taboo occurred.” Stabs elaborated as Arma frowned lightly, still trying really hard to absorb each and every detail as quickly as possible.

“That’s when the contradiction comes in. We wondered what it meant since in the letter, the Phantom Dancer said something that the Taboo occurred after he split the AI to ‘gifts’ but from what Ophelia had seen, Zessica had already had one of the ‘gifts’ before the Taboo” Arma felt something click in his mind when he realised what direction Stabs was going at. His blanched face was all it took for Stabs to know that it dawned on the tall lad that something was clearly afoot.

“So our theory is the Phantom Dancer lied. He lied about the timing of when he split the AI. Zessica, who have the gift of... well as horrible as its to say this... the gift of self destructing this whole world, accidently triggered it on the day of the Taboo. She must have triggered it due to panic. Since the Phantom Dancer couldn’t erase people’s memories one by one when he is on the run, he found this as an invitation to wipe everyone’s memories clean in one hit so no one would know about the true existence of the AI.”

Arma nodded, slowly accepting it since it definitely made more sense than what Zatch tried to accomplish the other day. It also explained why Ophelia was the only one who knew what happened in the Taboo. She had the memories of the witnesses inside of her head.

“Why would the Creator and the Phantom Dancer create a self destruct option in the AI though?” Arma asked, noticing a small loophole. Stabs could only shrug which showed this was how much they had gone. Ophelia didn’t say anything further but occasionally, Arma could hear her mutter how it was not her fault that this sudden chaos which terrified most of the citizens on Wind Crest. She mumbled that it was not her fault and that this had nothing to do with her spilling a secret to Stabs.

Arma felt sorry for her again, when a doctor finally came out from the emergency room. Nobody seemed to have notice but when the doctor finally ripped out the mask from her face; Arma was amazed to find it was none other than Dr. Tear.

“It’s alright everyone. All of them are perfectly fine. Just a little virus, that’s all.”  Tear hollered out and the whole room was filled with tears of joy and sighs of content. Arma found the tension in his muscles relaxes as Stabs muttered a small thank you to God. Ophelia still remained quiet, probably still trying to defy against the voices in her head. Tear smiled at every family member and friend she found, till her eyes caught sight of the three of them. With a quick reassurance and short instructions to the nurse, she excused herself and strolled towards them. Instinctively, both Stabs and Arma stood up whereas Ophelia remain rooted on the chair.

“How are they?” Arma asked, his voice almost raspy as if he hadn’t used it for a long time.

“They are fine, but I got bad news for you.” Just like that Arma’s face fell and Stabs felt his nerves screaming in horror. Ophelia tensed too, not at all expecting it since the doctor has just announced that all of them were fine.

“It’s not legitimate bad news don’t worry” Tear chortled, waving at their startled expression which made them calm down again.

“What we had here was just another Taboo. All the doctors here had to operate on their healing stones since this was an abnormal case and we found out that there was a virus in them, all of them turning up at the same time. No one knows the cause and origin of it yet.”

“Virus?” Stabs repeated numbly as Arma frowned. He remembered the chains draining the life out of Alois and Zessica back in the house. That was a virus? That huge thing? What a deadly virus then.  

“Yes. Call it a glitch if you must but it seems logical since if you put it device wise, all these Children of Misfortune had been living with the handicap stones for as long as they could remember so there was bound to be some problems on the way. The ones who got their handicap stone recently are perfectly healthy. It took us longer than necessary since none of us knew how the stone worked and was formed. It was always been produced in a medical chamber of healing stones. We had to be very careful but we pulled through.”

“So what’s the bad news?” Ophelia queried in a crude voice, making Tear raise one eyebrow at her quizzically, realising the famous player was with them before responding.

“During the operation, the handicap stone had to be deactivated in order to remove the virus. Once we were done with it, most of the patients were able to have their body function normally again but for some patient like Alois and Zessica... it caused some sort of withdrawal. Alois has lost most of his strength so he can’t walk properly for a few days so the chances of him to show up in the Final Trial are fifty-fifty so there is a chance the system of the game would place him in fifth place by default.”

“What about Zessica?” Stabs asked, feeling as if the doctor was beating around the bush.

“Zessica... after the operation only now I can understand how much she needs the healing stone to keep her healthy. After seven hours of having her stone deactivated, her body isn’t back to par with how it normally functions but don’t worry, now that the stones are reactivated they should be back to normal, just not soon.” Arma frown, he did not like the tone the doctor used at the last part.

“When?” Arma asked challengingly, when Ophelia snorted into laughter. Both boys and the doctor turned to look at the Rising Star Prodigy, who was still laughing uproariously. Just by watching their priceless looks, it was enough to make her throw back and guffaw out loud again.

“Are you an idiot?! Don’t you get it?” Ophelia asked madly, the insanity returning in her eyes. Arma frown again, when the next statement made a chill to run down his spine.

“Oh this is brilliant! She isn’t going to take part in the Final Trial idiot. You are going to face all four of us alone without your precious shadow!”

Author's note: Sorry long chapter so a quick one here k? This is dedicated to a fello reader who had been really lifting my spirits up with her lovely comments. Any mistakes you find in this please notify k?

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