/~Williams'~/
20 YEARS AGO
The forest was quiet in that way it only gets when something very awful is about to happen. The thick canopy above filtered the harsh light into pale veins across the ground, like Nature herself considered why I was doing an atrocity and didn't want to witness it.
I wiped the sweat from my brow with a trembling hand. My bones ached, not from age, but from wear. Over thirty five years of battles and twenty years of running, twenty years of trying to survive a world that was supposed to be a game. Nova City had branded me a traitor, a criminal, a man with tech too dangerous to exist. And maybe they were right.
The warp gate glowed in the center of the clearing, its swirling static pulses illuminating the roots and dirt beneath it. I had pulled this design from scraps of lost dungeon code, snippets of forbidden tech, remnants of theories once buried by the devs of this game. An unstable monstrosity held together with skill mods and old avatar abilities.
It wasn't meant to be perfect. It was meant to be possible, I felt it was my destiny to discover it.
"Brenda," I whispered, looking over at my wife. She stood near the console, her dark eyes filled with something between fear and belief. For some reason she trusted me. Even now.
Even when I shouldn't be trusted.
I hated what I was about to do. I hated that it was her in the tunnel. But someone had to go first. And it couldn't be me. If something went wrong....I had to be the one to fix it.
Contrario was nearby, sitting on the rock he always liked. Nine years old. Too smart for his age. Too quiet. He had no avatars, no connection yet to the system like we did. That was intentional. I didn't want him to be like me. But you can't outrun legacy. It hunts your blood like a zombie after brains.
I activated the console, my fingers dancing over the holographic keys. The hum of the warp gate deepened. Brenda stepped into the tunnel. Transparent shielding slid shut around her.
"Are…..are you sure about this, Will?" she asked. Her voice was steady, but I knew it trembled underneath.
"The illusion of peace is what is keeping everyone here like dogs served bone everyday," I said. "I can't keep living like this. We can find a way back. Earth, Brenda. That is our real home, that's where…." Turning to look at my nine year old, innocent and just staring up into emptiness, "....Brenda, that's where we belong"
She nodded. One final nod. The kind you give when you're ready to fully trust someone with your soul. I was the devil and she had just signed her soul over to me.
I was a crazy scientist but still Brenda loved me this much.
Then all hell broke loose.
The sky cracked with sonic charges. Energy bolts whistled through the trees. Nova City operatives. Four, no six…..no, there's more of them. They descended from the treetops like reapers in silver cloaks.
TARGET ACQUIRED. WARP SIGNATURE DETECTED. ELIMINATE THE DEVICE.
"NO!" I roared.
I called forth my avatars. Warden X. Mag-Shield Prime. Demon Argo. They flickered in around me, summoned through sheer instinct. Blades against bullets. Shields against code disruptors. I fought with everything I had, my limbs moving before my mind could catch up.
Contrario was screaming.
"LET HER OUT! DAD, LET HER OUT!"
His tiny fists pounded against the tunnel glass. He didn't understand what was going on. Or maybe he did understand in his own way. Maybe he understood more than I wanted him to.
Brenda was inside, palms against the glass, her mouth forming words I couldn't hear.
I fought like a man possessed. My avatars fell one by one, code bleeding into static as they absorbed shot after shot. The agents weren't trying to kill me, not at first. They wanted the gate. But once they saw I wouldn't let it go, they changed their plan.
One last agent. One last blow. My blade shattered his armor, and we both collapsed.
Smoke curled in the air. My leg was broken. My HUD flashed red warnings. Life force is critically low. Code unstable.
I crawled to Contrario. He was still crying. Still banging. My little boy.
I placed a hand on his chest.
"I can't protect you anymore...not the way you need," I said amidst ragged breathe.
From my inventory, I drew out Stray. My rogue companion. A last-ditch avatar born from experimental AI routines and half-legal tech. I wasn't sure what would happen if I bonded him to a kid with no system sync.
But I had no choice.
I forced the link. Injected the avatar into his dormant code stream. He screamed. His eyes turned white for a moment. A shockwave erupted from his chest, knocking me back.
I coughed blood.
"I'm sorry...son..."
I crawled toward the console. Toward Brenda.
"Deactivating the warp...hold on, love...I can stop this. I can..."
Too late. A shot during the fight had nicked the power core. The warp field glitched. The tunnel flashed violently. Brenda looked at me one last time, eyes wide with fear.
"NO!" I screamed.
The gate exploded.
Fire. Shrapnel. Code distortion everywhere.
Then black.
—-----------
/~Contrario~/
PRESENT TIME
When the dust settled that day, everything was buried. The lab, the gate, the attackers. My mom.
Only I survived. Stray's shielded energy had wrapped around me, protecting my tiny body beneath a dome of cracked data-light.
I didn't die that day.
But a part of me never left that forest.
And I swore never to forgive my father.
I could still smell the scorched edges of the past. The memory-dungeon was quiet now, unnaturally so, like the ruin itself was mourning. The dust from the shattered library files lingered in the air, but Renn stood beside me, shifting his weight like he was holding back a hundred questions. His eyes were fixed on me, but not in judgment. Just curiosity....the painful kind of curiosity.
"You never told anyone, did you?" Renn finally asked in a very low voice. "That...Stray wasn't your choice. That you were given it forcefully."
I didn't look at him. I couldn't. My hands were balled at my sides, my fingernails digging into my palms as if pain could keep me in the present.
"No," I said. "I didn't, they had no right knowing that about me."
Renn took a step forward. "That explains it. Why you've only ever had one avatar. Everyone thought it was some gimmick, some weird handicap or a strategy. But all this time…"
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
Stray wasn't just bonded to me. He was burned into my code, my data, my identity. My father did that. He tried to save me and cage me all at the same time.
Renn exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck. "I...I don't even know what to say."
"Don't say anything at all"
"But with how you're feeling right now I just have to say....but I don't know what to say" he replied.
I turned to him. "Then don't say anything." My voice came out flatter than I intended, but he flinched anyway. I stepped closer, leveling my eyes with his. "You don't get to say a word about this. Ever. Not to Jennifer. Not to base. Not even to your own ghost or your reflection in a mirror."
Renn's face tightened. "Contrario—"
"Dont!." My voice was sharper now. "Swear it. Swear to me, Renn. If anyone else finds out about this, the wrong eyes could come hunting for me. Eyes that might not even part of this game anymore."
He hesitated for a breath, then gave a short nod. "Fine. I swear. I won't tell anyone."
I nodded, holding his gaze for a moment longer. I had to believe him. I wanted to believe him.
We stepped back into the corridor of the buried facility. Most of the ceiling was collapsed, some stonea hanging by fragile threads of rebar. Renn activated his comms and called base.
"This is Renn. Sector V-43, west point. We need pickup. Two survivors. Immediate evac."
He moved ahead to scout a safe path. I followed a few steps before turning back.
I stared at the wreckage of the library. It wasn't just data. It was my data. My family. My origin. My curse.
I pulled a plasma detonator from my belt and silently armed it, then tossed it through the cracked entryway.
I didn't wait for the boom, I didn't need to. I turned and walked.
Behind me, the memory-dungeon erupted into fire and steel, a roar like the voice of a buried god who has just come to life. The past could stay there, beneath rubble, smoke, and silence.
Because if it didn't… someone else would dig it up.
And I wasn't sure I'd survive that again.