Fragmentary Passage: Deelel

Fragmentary Passage: Deelel
Date of Scene:	04 July 2013
Location:	Deelel's Dreams
Synopsis:	Programs do dream in their down time, they tend to be a bit more orderly in such. Yet it's little different than those dreams those who created them have. Still this downcycle something happens, Deelel becomes aware she's dreaming and this is not a normal dream. What awaits her? What is the intent of the mysterious program she encounters in her dream?
Cast of Characters:	Riku (Aka: Unknown Data), Deelel
Tinyplot:	Fragmentary Passage

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Riku has posed:
Downcycle time. Sometime this will mean dreams, fragments of information put together into new and sometimes startling configurations. Pieces spun together to form landscapes.

This dream however...

There is a distant recollection of dark water. A column of it overhead and extending into an sky overhead roiling with storm clouds. A stained glass circle is underfoot but it is tarnished and shrouded, the texture glitching and partially obscuring the picture.

The sector is completely empty save for a single lighted platform connected by a white thread of energy that winds around the inside of the dark column of water to a grid distortion somewhere along the upper side of the face. The platform runs alongside that ragged, splintered hole.

Faruja's voice can be sensed more than heard, as if calling from a great distance away. There is a feeling of their voice but the words are almost too distant to make out. They seem as vaguely familiar as the stained glass.

"..such a far way... the road.."

A silvery illumination and the sound of lightcycles and people moving around come from the crack in the world.

Curiouser and Curiouser.

Deelel has posed:
Sleep, Deelel had had a busy day poking about what was going on with Faruja. She's drawn some rather horrifying conclusions about what was going on with the Chalice and her sleep cycle was troubled. After all Programs do dream much like their user creators, still said dreams fade rapidly as something else is going on at this point.

She looks about at the strange information fragments, wondering about the nature of strange Pieces. The strange dark water was not an alien thing to her but she looks out at it at the huge column of it wondering just what was happening however she sees stained glass, it's broken. It's just plain out , not functioning properly, as it keeps glitching.

Deelel is unable to make out the full picture due to the damage but she starts to move on ahead. It's funny how logic can break down in the dream of even a creature born of fairly heavy order. Perhaps it's just an echo of her makers or perhaps something else? There are no answers as she head for the hole to try to make way through it if she can.

Then comes a voice she knows, the voice of a man she's very worried for that something sinister is going on in his life with that damn chalice but comment makes her wonder as she peers out and hears lighcycles, more so there's people moving about. Programs? Users she simply can not tell. Undaunted however Deelel pushes onwards trying to reach the source of the strange sights.

Unknown Data has posed:
There is a crackling feedback static, a general feeling of the voice fading. Light pours from the cracked space and at the top of the light-line that the platform rises along, there is a magnificent grid city that sweeps across the perceptual line and up the rising terrain.

The Sea of Simulation can be seen in the far distance, a crescent of dark water being carefully traversed by glowing boats. Everything is in a much higher resolution than home, although not all at once. Where she stands and the surrounding buildings are of the 8-bit style, but further into the clipping distance things shift and change as if skipping entire generations towards the boundaries of sight.

Although movement and activity is very active, there is no sign of red anywhere. No orange or yellow. Blue and white extending to a sparkling vanishing point. But there are no programs around Deelel but one.

A white lined program stands not too far from the hole as if waiting for Deelel to emerge. "Greetings, Program."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel pauses as the voice fading then there comes light, she almost rises her arms to shield he eyes from the sudden change in illumination yet nothing else happens to her directly. She can see a grid city like none she's ever seen before, no that's not quite right memories of her home the Flynn OS match up with this she sees the light boats and then a system a system like she'd never seen before, it starts out 8-bit but moves on the farther as she looks she sees several generations of systems side by side.

Given her nature and primary function she can't help but be distracted by the beauty of such a place.

Something does get her attention there are no programs here, no one at all for the moment she starts to look about wondering where is everyone. The city seems maintained and intact so someone has to be around to keep things defragmented, right?

Then there's someone he almost looks like a system monitor as she remembers them back from Flynn OS and that's somewhat of a surprised but he's right there as she comes out of the hole, she turns to him and replies.

"Greetings, Program. I was starting to wonder where everyone had gone."

Unknown Data has posed:
"This system and it's processes have been.. temporarily halted while you and I speak." And as soon as the words are out of their mouth, the entire system does in fact, pause. An entire world holds it's breath before the plunge.

"There is a calamity that has yet to befall it, and that too will be understood in time." There is oddly enough though one thing that is still moving. There is a large and very jarring digital readout placed high up on a distant tower. The readout gives an indictator of '1100 in binary.

"What is it that you believe is most important to a free system? Come, and walk with me. I will not disturb your downcycle long. But there are questions.. and perhaps answers.. that I might give, that you would not otherwise obtain freely."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel understand the cocnept but processes being halted what the heck is up with that? She's not imporant for all her actions shr realizes she's just another basic, for the most part. Well within the system anyhow, she was just an media program there or even here in an even bigger city. The talk of calamity did get her attention as she listens for a moment as she looks up at the tower and sees the indicator of 1100 so the system had 12 time units but what sort of time scale was it on? Cycles? User Time? She had no idea for a moment.

The other statements get her to raise an eyebrow at this point but along she goes as he asks her programs she pauses for a moment. She thinks before she follows. Wait did he say downcycle? Was this what the users called a dream? Blink normally such thoughts would wake someone. That doesn't happen at all and she answers.

"I came from a free system, where there was order but even the ISOs who ware born without purpose had a place to figure out what to do with their lives. A free system should be free of fear and be able to trust both the system admin and the system monitors to not abuse their power to the detriment of the other inhabitants of the system itself.

Unknown Data has posed:
"Wise words." The program says "But trust is something that is difficult to earn. It cannot be given with a title, for that way lies abuse. Even more difficult is learning whom that power and that trust should go to."

A moment of pause. "I am curious however. Did they contact you at all? What thoughts did they attempt to put in your head, pulling you to one side or another without your consultation? For certainly there are dreams.. and then there are dreams. Some of which laden with hidden processes."

The program tsks. "And here I thought only viruses proclaimed a course of action and then sought to subvert others. Apparantly.. some users do it as well."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "No it can not be if anything my life has proven that you need to be careful on who you trust."

She follows with him pondering on his words about trust however she tilts her head seemingly a little surprised at his words and not sure what he means. She wonders about his words for a moment as she thinks it over.

"Yes, I ween a ... user reduced to being a stray."

She thinks about his words it's curious she's also seen the possible state of Faruja as well and she seems to be taking the time to process the worlds of the unknown program. She thinks long and hard on it as she continues along.

"Are you speaking of my recent system restore? That was done by one of our kind...or are you getting at something else?"

Deelel may be utterly unaware of what she's caught up in, from the sounds of it, or she's playing null unit.

Unknown Data has posed:
"Ah yes. The system restore." The program nods sagely. "The heartless are symptomatic of the larger problems and thus, in a way, these things are still connected." They gesture to the city of light besides them as they walk along a luminous street.

"You already know all things are connected. After all, all things must be for an orderly system. Yet when someone messes with the variables.. then you begin to have.. concerns. That is why I am here, because of those concerns." The program turns towards Deelel, voice distorted and unclear.

"An outside force has essentially attempted to access your program illegally, and that of others they have chosen and I am here to offer information as to why. And how the situation, benign as they might make it seem, may be turned to the advantage of systems still in peril or already failing."

The program chuckles very softly as they walk. "Would you like to know more?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "They are a user space virus, plain and simple."

The thoughts of how many systems they consumed it not something to think abut it but the worst are the shadow lords. She knows her world and the world of users does seem to have a connections of some sort she's never quite figured it out however as she pauses at the mention of her core programming being accessed gets her fairly surprised at this. She also takes a look at this unknown program uncertain if he is not doing the same thing as the ones he's speaking off. After all he is here in her downcycle is he not which really means that accessed her illegally, she remains quiet on that as she's not sure just what's going on. Gathering information never hurts so bringing up such a point would be unwise.

"What purpose do you think they have for me? I been unaware of anything strange."

She'll follow him for now he's not given her a reason to brush him off she's curious, perhaps a little suspicious given he's /here/ after all.

Unknown Data has posed:
"Perhaps that is something that you will discover for yourself. I am one who would rather a program make decisions for themselves rather than tell them what they are to beleive. After all, if I did that, what would make me any better than those seeking to manipulate you from a distance?" The program shrugs.

"No. I would rather an honest accounting than one of deception. But such upfront matters will have to wait until you have seen a little for yourself."

The program vanishes in a flicker of movement and error code distortion.

The clock while they have been walking has been omnipresent. It has most certainly followed them, like a piece of the background itself in which everything else revolves.

A power line flickers on, white and unassuming as it cuts away from the city into the outlands and dips downwards into a strange tunnel complex that juts from the unpowered terrain.

Deelel has posed:
The program's worlds does not go unheeded, whoever they are they did come to talk to her but they were very cryptic as well at the very least she's going to watch herself for any strange behaviour, so there was something going on she was not aware of.

She nods her head once at his words she's clearly not discounting him out of hand but still they are an unknown and the last time they went charging off into said unknown they ran into CHIEF and all the DPS crew in a very dark alley. That could have ended so poorly as she's about to say something and then he's gone in a poof of error code.

She looks out and about wondering where he might be the Clock has been a very big thing it's like it's following her she wonders about the clock as everything flickers and now she's in the out lands. This was bad she can?t be here long she can and will run out of power in a place like this. Still she presses on ahead just what /is/ going on here. IF there were not enough things going crazy in her life.

Unknown Data has posed:
The power line that roams out into the outlands continues, even when life and power should wither and fade this far out into the wastes. Through the tunnel it runs along the floor until it reaches a small complex deep in the outlands.

A number of terminals line the walls here, with a scroll of data in the middle of the the room that continually flashes with the occasional string of error codes and bad data.

The clock is here as well, a digital readout on three sides all still saying '1100' as each terminal flickers to life as Deelel enters.

There are a number of symbols and words on each terminal that shimmer and glitch when they are read. There is a vague feeling of unreality around these terminals, a shifting within the infrastructure of the word as each printout is read.

Here is what they say.

Utter Silence -- On a black console near the back of the room.
Wayfinder-- on a white console near the front of the room.
Dark Margin -- A console in red text near the middle.
Victory-- in yellow text on a console attached to the left wall.
Dividing Line -- in blue text on the right wall.
The Last Key -- On a dataplate just in front of the waterfall of data in the middle of the room.

A small sequence runs at eye level from a pop up display. "There is never time enough for everything." and then it closes with a faint pop.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks about the power line as she continues tor roam about, she sees that it's still going she continues to follow and is now looking about the terminals there's certainly lot of input to partake in which she starts to check out she notices the clock here it's still reading 12, and she wonders just how much time she really has. There's something going on about her.

There's two parties which have an interest in her for unknown reasons. That leaves her a bit on edge about things as she checks out the terminals and the things they looks over. She notices each one seems to be a message on several of them. She looks at everything and knows she'll not be able to check them all she starts to check her various possibilities.

Something isn't right right it's an old system yes it's 8bit just like Encom OS, yet something isn?t right it feels like a copy something just doesn't click right. Places where data should be crisp are not and so forth. She looks about once more as she knows she's going to have to check things out.

Eyes focus on the Wayfinder console and starts to investigate it she understand she'll only be able to check a few if that message is to believed and something about that one draws her attention to check it out.

Unknown Data has posed:
The sound of the ocean. It should be an uneasy making noise but somehow it seems to impart other implications with just the auditory data alone. The phantom water laps across the floor of the data archive complex. There is a pressure, then the smell of the ocean. The soft baking prickle of sun on skin. The warm and moist winds blowing through the tunnels.

A woman's voice, tinny and indistinct like hearing their voice through a seashell. "Somewhere out there." There is a smile that can almost be heard in the voice of the woman. The hope and at the same time.. doubt. Worry. All so carefully wrapped away.

"--there's this tree with star-shaped fruit. And the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. As long as you carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You will always find your way back to eachother. An unbreakable connection."

Golden sand. A distant and dusky shore comes in for a moment, impossibly remote.. and then goes out like the tide. The data archive returns, but there is something in hand. A data fragment. A five pointed star, fragments of code bound together by a symbol in the center.

It glimmers faintly with a blue light. It is pieced together carefully, like fragments bound together by wire, holding with it all theconnections made and lost. The paths that have lead to this day and this hour.. and the choices.. good or bad.. that make up those connections.

"It's true. What she said." and the voice sounds vaguely like Riku as the program leans against the wall. We all stand together in this. We all make choices and have to live with the consequences. What will you choose, I wonder?" --and again, they fade out of sight.

The Clock reads '1000'

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is surprised at this the sound of the water, but it's got some importance Deelel while dreaming is on some level aware this isn't quite a dream, not quite reality but something of the utmost importance is going on here. She listens to a woman's voice she listens she looks and listen thinking about bonds. She listens she knows about that, she thinks that's a wonderful things she pauses for a moment as she takes in the information before her. She looks back at the clock she understands now there are important things for her to hear, yet she can not get all of them. She can only pick and chose what she thinks is best.

She looks up at the clock at it ticks down, the bonds of friendship those who helped make her strong. TRON, Avira, Faruja, they'd helped her to keep going in the chaotic world o the users. There were other too another name came to mind Isaac a user who understood perfectly what she was, loved music himself and had worked with her. It had been a profound experiance but there's little time for memories. She's down to a count of eight on the clock.

She moves her way towards the Dividing Line to see what awaits her there.

Unknown Data has posed:
The data archive around Deelel's feet cracks and splits apart with a sound like splintering glass. There is a short fall through dusty air and past reddish black stone carved by the evidence of massive combat.

There is a tower of material that seems to have been pulled from the starry sky in the distance, impossible in scale to be so huge even at a distance of many miles. The landscape is broken up into small areas of frozen time. The battlefield has been chopped up into these artfully displayed dioramas and filled with programs and empty suits of armor bearing ancient and rusted blades.

There are hundreds of thousands if not more ancient blades peppering the terrain. The blades are rusted and ancient and dead. Inbetween these places are corridors of dark glass that extend out into the distance. In fact, the entire battlefield seen from a sufficient height would paint out a stained glass window much like how this dream started. Each island tells a silent story of loss and struggle. Victory and defeat.

Time is wrong here. This is not just one time or one place. The tower with a blazing bluish moon above, vaguely heart shaped and imperious, is a constant as much as the clock was before. They are changeless and enduring. They stand apart from every other scenes with comes in an endless stream of variants. The clothes and attitudes and armor changes but the reasons stay the same.

There are just as many cries for vengeance as for salvation. Just as many big dreamers whose whims would save the world from itself or conquer it. Just as many who reach for the impossible. For the return of those they love. Of worlds lost to darkness. For the salvation of a nation or a city or a town. For the resurrection of the dead.

And the moon overhead and the tower is the line drawn in the sand pitting all these hearts against each other. Other forces can be felt in the background as well. Viral agents and seeds of darkness planted here and there in the silent panoply. Sometimes innocuous and sometimes overwhelming and ominous. LEXUS is here, facing off against Deelel in one silent diorama. All profiting from the bloodshed, no matter which side 'won' -- prolonging and escalating the conflict. Pursuing their ends while the world burns.

The unknown program is regarding a trio of warriors in armor, an unarmored elderly man holding one of their number by the head. Holding them off the ground as a stab of ice races across their armor. The program walks his away around the small island unhurriedly.

"Events do not stop simply because their reasons are forgotten. The sorcerers meant to hide it. To bury the worlds in forgetfulness and rewrite the story to their liking. But that is not how the universe functions. This story.." he gestures to the picture before him and then around them. "And every story begins the same way. And it will end the same.. without due caution and preparation."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is now reaching the next archive and she takes a step back as the archive splits apart like breaking glass. She looks about to see a dower and she's not sure about it for a moment. She looks at the broken landscape her eyes daring about at this point. There are keyblades, more keyblades than she ever thought were possible here. Still it doesn't feel right, this feels like a war zone, no what's the human term? It's a graveyard all the blades here have fallen and their wields have fallen with them.

A old dream comes back to her for a moment a half memory that was never purged in the morning, from now until you are derezzed. She understood now those who wield those weapons are one till the day they die.

Each place is a story a tale to tell is that?s what happened here she pays close attention to each bit. There's been so many, by the Users themselves this is so much older than she ever thought. The motives are all ones she can understand but some others feel different then comes one she does not expect.

She sees her own suicidal stand against LEXUS, that is a night she can not forget. He offered to let her go if he had the server. His word he'd never trouble her again. The price? Every last basic on the server would be at his mercy and he would use it to whatever dark designs. She had realized she was going to die that night and had made peace with it. She'd fought with everything she had against LEXUS. She can't forget the fear though when LEXUS attempted to consume her in an more horrific way than even the MCP might muster.

She snaps out it after a second as she sees more a new image a trio of warriors. She sees the drive of the fighters she watches the old man grab one and she grimaces she sees what could be coming, perhaps a glimpse of how she might end. She follows watching trying to learn what's gong on her. She listens the talk of the Sorcerers, she knows of two personally. Isaac who has done nothing but throw himself in harms way and Merlin while strange has done much to aid the restoration of Manhattan but could all of them be so begin she's not sure here. Either way she knows the clock is going to tick down more and she does not dally too long. She must move to the next data archive she has to retrieve as much of this information as she can before that clock runs down. She's certain she won't get it all she has to choose wisely, but she has little to go on.

She looks to massive cascading waterfall of data that one has had her attention for the last time. She's becoming aware there is something going on but she also knows there's two parties with an interest in whatever is going on with her. She will not back down and she presses onwards towards The Last Key. What awaits her there she does not know.

Unknown Data has posed:
The archive dissolves this time with the force of an explosion. A collison of great forces against each other that reaches out and rends the paper thin tissue of this dreamlike reality. Another flare of brilliant and piercing light sears across the reforming landscape like a spear.

A curtain of stars and galaxies makes up the terraced pathways of this tower to the heavens. Welcome to the tower, which stretched so far away in the distance, It is now LOOMING and Immediate. The tower itself seems crafted out of starstuff with the empty space in every direction giving an incredible vista of a ruined and barren world. The world of the diarama with great scars and ravines having carved the landscape.

Darkness has tainted and and corrupted the land. Light has seared and scorched it. A beam of darkness from the top of the tower collides with the spear of light and a pressure wave explodes from the antipode of forces that sets the tower to noticeably quaking. An earthquake of tremoring force shudders through the floor.

The moon is the primary focus in the sky above. It is straight overhead, large and close enough almost to touch is a pillar of twilight energy. This spire of energy reaches up to the moon of this world. The radiance which had been felt even at such a far distant remove as a majestic presence is now almost overwhelming.

A powerful radiance pours down along with that eerie blue light. Pure threads of energy pours down along that spire of energy like a waterfall. That moon above? It is the nexus of perfect interconnection. A web that spans a universe. A complete and terrible unity waiting for a controlling hand. Power in it's purest context without mortal filter or constraint. The price, and the stakes, of this contest going on all around him.

Along the stairways and corridors of the starlight tower are the dead. Armored figures lay where they fell, discarded soldiers in an unknown war. The battle continues unabated up about, massive surges of light and darkness exploding against each other.

Shards of crystal rain from the sky at every impact.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel was not expecting the fourth of July archive, it just dissolved with the force of an explosion. With little further warning more things happen. The dream scape is changed forcefully by some sort of light, which pierces the landscape leaving it changed by it's passing.

The basic mind is reeling at all that she's seeing. She has to wonder what is she mixed up in, keyblades? There seems to be so much more about them than Sora or Mickey have ever let on. Should she somehow remember this dream she may be trying to seek some answers out of them about what is going on.

There are other pressing concerns at the moment Right now though a curtain of the very cosmos of the world beyond he own is before her. She looks at the pathway of the tower that is before her and it's something that almost seems o defy logic. She looks at the diorama which has been damaged so. Too much darkness will consumed things but too much light also burns. Then the tower start shaking from the force of earthquake. Deelel has to fight to keep her balance and she looks up to see the Moon.

Things are just rapidly changing and this entire thing she's caught up feels like the power, so much power sop much power with nothing to guide or control it's use. Power seemingly to be used without any care or concern save for the master of it's desires.

She's taken aback for a moment she sees so many fallen soldiers from some war. Users never die clean as her people do. Their bodies can remain for cycle or more. Like a final defiant moment to having lived once that the world can not erased right away. She continues up past the fallen soldiers or attempt to even as more shards rain down upon her from on high.

A strange urge posses she halts by one of the fallen and attempts to see their face, to remove the helmet and see who was this person? She has no idea why just that ... this is something perhaps most of the world at large has let slip into the sands of time. If she can not do so she will quickly move on, perhaps this is foolish? Still she might be able to get a better idea of whom these people were.

Unknown Data has posed:
It is nobody you know. A human in his mid fourties with bleached hair matted with blood and sweat. The open eyes are empty and lifeless, the expression tragic in ultimate defeat.

Not only lifeless but hollow, as if a light that radiated outwards has completely charred them and the rest of his twisted white armor from the inside out leaving nothing but this ashen shell.

Too much light burns just as readily as any darkness. There are several more cataclysmic crashes in which the entire tower shakes as Deelel makes their way upwards. The Starlight tower seems on the very threshold of coming apart. At some point in which Deelel looked away the darkness has devoured the endless vista of the world below the tower.

This is now the single last foothold left as contested bastion. And it is not done.. the darkness reaches up to the lower reaches of the tower and it is there that the millions of eyes can be seen. A solid sea of heartless in many thousands of different forms are clawing their way up the tower towards the spire. They crash against the base of the tower.

It trembles.

They will be here soon.

At the very apex of the spire there is nothing to mark the great contest of wills except the energy spire that connects the tower with the stark and immediate moon. Even the din has been sucked from the air leaving the top of the tower in ringing silence.

Hanging in the middle of that pillar of energy is a sword.

But.. it is no more a sword than it is a symbol. It is a concept rather than reality. The intricate traceries jutting from the entwined spirals and curves are completely unsuited to a weapon used for anything more than decoration.

But it is FAR from decorative.

It is the last guardian. All that stands between anyone wanting to enter the spire of energy. It is a last battered sentinel with massive cracks and battle damage having wounded the ancient weapon, glowing lines tracing each and every one of these faults.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel didn't expect to know the man, she looked at him for a moment. She takes a moment looking at that expression as she moves to close his eyes. She looks down at him for a moment longer there's nothing else she can do. She turns up and starts moving as fast as she can. It's funny how does she keep ending up in situations like this? She can't turn her back on what's happening here. Another world, another time? She doesn't know all she knows is everything before her feels real. Perhaps that?s enough.

Too much light can burn, too much light can be as dangerous as the depths of the darkness itself. With there being too much light there is no compassion, no forgiveness no redemption and no atonement just unrelenting judgement.

She she continues her trek upwards she sees the tower won't last longer. Also too much darkness is as bad as too much light the darkness is consuming everything She feels a pang of terror as she sees the darkness come and consume it. Something else is coming.

The heartless are coming and she now breaks into a faster run as fast as she can go. She sees the sword she understand she doesn't know what to do here for a moment then something strikes her. She reaches for the disc on her back. She looks down at what's coming whatever this thing is it's a concept perhaps of a sword. The sword from which all swords across the worlds have come. It is the only thing left to protect this thing from the heartless.

No perhaps not, or has Deelel has lost herself in the dream or a memory or not? She just feels compelled to act because she is there her disc is in hand it hums to life. She's seen something in her travels beyond her world. Something she understand now it's always better to go down fighting and now she looks to the cracking blade.

The light disc in her hand hums with the reassuring hum that it's ready to fight and the tide of heartless are coming. Is there anything she can do? Is this reality or is this fantasy? She doesn't know at this point but the Heartless are coming. By her user, there are so many, it's a ocean of the monsters. More of them than she ever thought possible...

Unknown Data has posed:
There is an intense feeling from behind as if something was observing her. Weighing and considering, like an extremely deep scan that pierces straight through straight to the core processes. It is not good or evil. It is simply proud.

And it reads.. reads.. and reads.. and reads..

The energy field expands slowly at first. The heartless reach up in an endless black tide, stretching far overhead and crashing down towards Deelel. The energy field feels like cool, refreshing energy and passes over her without a sound. The field shielding her as she is made ready to defend against such terrifying odds.

The darkness crashes against the light barrier with that presence looking on.

Data overload.

Just sheer, unadulterated raw feed from both light and darkness colliding with such spectacular force that the presence behind her shattered and whose last arc threw her back into the data archive hard enough to slam into one of the walls.

All the consoles are blank and silent. The data stream is almost completely red with error text. The unknown program stands there looking at it, turning as if expecting them and offering to help Deelel to her feet.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is being watched. She can feel the presence she's sure of that. She knows what a deep system scan is, after all, she's had one preformed upon her, very recently at the hands of someone else. She recalls that event very well. It did fix her but this scan deep into what she is is more than anything she's ever felt before. She feels it getting down to the deepest reaches of her code.

She's being checked on a level perhaps even deeper than a normal process she sees the energy field expanding she tries to make ready with her disc and they are coming for her she moves to fight but is that even needed? Then the field hits her.

She feels cool, like she's just been fully recharged. There is this feeling in her that she's ready to take every last heartless on before her with actual hope for victory. She has faced things beyond her but this feeling of hope that she can do some is somewhat different than the feeling of. Defiance born out of doing the right thing even knowing the cost of doing such. She's going to strike and then something happens as everything blows out. The darkness hits the barrier she moves to fight and then something overloads.

There's too much information, the light and dark in their most pure form hit her. The presence behind is gone and she's thrown into the archive. She hits hard she hits so darn hard there's an impact crater and voxels coming off the wall where she hit. She's now starting to slide down the wall as whatever passes for gravity is taking hold of her once more. She's just dazed hurt and trying to get back on her feet. There is help coming for her . She accepts it as she gets up with his help.

"... I have seen things but it seems my access to the archive is lost. There was a war... so many dead and this man. There was no life in his eyes and ... three stood against him. Despite knowing their odds"

There are things she should have seen she knows but that's it there's not much more she can do now then try to recover and process it. There is an understanding the Heartless? All the lost worlds are part of something bigger. Something that most of the multiverse has ... forgotten. Something that it has forgotten which may come back to haunt everyone.

Unknown Data has posed:
"We all make our choices and then live with their consequences." The program says as he guides Deelel out of the archive. The outlands stretch in all directions now. There is no sign or sound of a city in any direction. Grid bugs seethe and swarm at the very edges of the clipping plane. "Those three you saw chose freedom for many others and kept none for themselves. One of many such tragic fates in a universe out of balance."

From the outlands spring images as they walk, as if the screens were created, then powered, then dissolved even as they past them. The first screen is of CLU and his army. TRON city and Argon. "He, who should have chosen benevolence, chose instead ultimate order. Light and reason has very little place for the imperfect. He too knows there is something wrong.. and deals with it in his own way. As do we all."

Another image, SARK. "A petty tyrant constrained by his limitations. A dinosaur who thrashes and stomps to prove his power and yet proves only his incompetance, fostering the same resistance that he tries so hard to crush."

Another image. LEXUS. "And some serve no master save themselves. Let there be none but the self, is how viruses usually operate. Let there be no world save his own and the void." A faint snort. "For that is the ultimate master of such beings. Nothingness. The call to emptiness and an unraveling universe."

The program turns to face Deelel. "The old ways should never be forgotten. Keeping your head down and your voice quiet will not save your grid from deletion. Will not save all of the worlds from the harrowing that is to come. Come with me." the program extends a hand. The jagged cracks of the outlands have formed the faint image of a cul-de sac with Deelel on one side and the program on the other. "And all this, and grids still lost, and worlds still foundering need not be lost forever."

Deelel has posed:
Deelelthinks for a moment on the other program's words. No they didn't they fought to the bitter end in that graveyard of keyblades. How many had fallen to get them to that point? Would any of them even be here right now if not for what those three did. She honesty wonders the scale of what's going on is beyond anything she'd thought of before. There was something gigantic going on behind the scenes and there's a feeling? She might not even be here now seeing this if not for people like those three knights who made a stand.

"I see..."

She then sees something she does not think she'd see. She follows along and there's an expression of shock on her She knows this city she knows Argon it was her home she knew it in the golden age of Flynn OS. It wasn't like this. Beck had made a comment about Clu. She stare she wees her home she sees the army. This is what Beck's been fighting?! The other program could see she knows the place she's shown.

Then comes SARK, old sark was a dinosaur yes a dangerous powerful one. He was set in his way but she'd seen users much. SARK is summed up pretty well all things considered given what the program was like. She says nothing as she recovers from the shock of seeing her home like it was. Thoughts of several friends in the come to mind. She has to push those thoughts away there are more important things to worry about.

LEXXUS has indeed become a horror in and of itself. Neither virus no thing from user space., he was an abomination by any standard more or less. He was a creature, a creature from outside. Still this being taking to her was aware of things or did LEXUS get pulled up from her mind along with everything else? Clu army there were craft she'd never seen before so where did those come from? It's too hard to think on that she nods in agreement.

"I have never kept quiet more kept my head down. It has kept my grid safe because I did take a stand."

The fallen solider, who'd been trying to fight the darkness, the three knights and their last stand play through her mind again. From now on until the day you are derezzed. That thought echoed again in her mind.

She looks at him silently not yet giving an answer to his question she's thinking. It's not a pause of fear, she thinks about other voice that woman speaking of bonds. Clearly she's thinking if there are two sides pressing against things...she's clearly caught in the middle.

Unknown Data has posed:
Another image appears. The two trons at the arcade and the fight against LEXUS. "There will be more and greater attacks by such as these. The war will simply escalate because none know any other way. The world that you saw in the archive is a graveyard world. A testiment to a desperate arms race." The image cracks and then fades away. The figure does not push. Simply state plainly.

"Now the wheels have begun to spin again to crush any who dare stand against them until nothing remains but another handful of graveyard horizons. All that I ask is that you help me stop them. That you help me bring balance to the universe so that never again do the worlds live under these shadows of dread."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel knows this fight well she has stood beside TRON for a long time, and Beck is rapidly earning her trust. She looks the other program over and nods once. She knows the war that is going on behind everyone's noses. Behind all of the adventuring the exploring and even attempting to restore worlds there is something more going on. There would be fight, there would be struggle that is the nature of the world beyond the system yet? She considers what the program says.

She thinks back the archive she knew there was more she had to see there. Yet she'd only seen about half of what was there. She thinks about the words of the program speaks about the war that both sides will grind everything under in their struggle. There needs to be a balance to the universe or all will collapse. That is true from what she's seen. There is no lie about that situation but there is a problem.

Insufficient data, she needs to find out more of what's going on and there are possible sources she's aware of. Also what she did with DPS blindly running in without looking for information nearly got her killed, nearly ruined everything for TRON. She exhales a user habit she's picked up, along the way and looks to the other program.

"There is much about the nature of the wheels and the things causing them to turn. I still do not know there is insufficient data. Before I make enemies of those who have aided me in the past, or friends. I do not intend to insult you. You have given very dire tidings..."

She has not been hostile but it's clear she's aware there's so much going on she needs to seek more information, there seems to be something up with Merlin and his kin yet? Merlin had aided them with restoring Manhattan, Isaac was a flat out friend. Perhaps the program here is right, about everything she has things she needs to find out.

Unknown Data has posed:
The program considers this carefully and then nods, lowering their hand. "A wise choice, and a measured one. I am a seeker of many things, knowledge being only one of them. The search for it is always something I will respect, regardless of.. inclination." They pause and then nod.

"We shall meet again program. Do not let the road to knowledge weaken or defeat you. And perhaps, in time, you will share what you have learned? I will be.. most intrigued by your findings."

Fog rolls across the outlands, beginning to shroud it and fold it away as the program steps backwards and vanishes with a sizzling pop and an error code. The clock, which had displayed itself on the very floor of the outlands goes dark. The field of vision swiftly begins to contract until all is returned to that cylinder of darkness from which this all started.

Let the pieces fall where they lay.

Destiny or Distortion.

Dream or prophecy or nightmare.

All things in their places and at their own times.

There is a snapping, a breaking underfoot as the stained glass ruptures and Deelel begins to fall.

And wakes up. Nothing of the dreamworld comes back with you save the memories which seemed slightly removed and faded around the edges.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks at the Program for a moment nodding once as he leaves.

"We shall see, the seeking of information can be difficult. Still it's strange a program, a being of created purpose choosing to do something she was not made for..."

The nature of the search was gong to be hard but she had to find the truth she only hoped she could recall enough upon finishing the cycle before waking at the end of her down cycle. She watches as the out lands is covered with dog once more the clock meanwhile seems to go up. She looks up as everything returns to darkness.

She's not sure but then it's like stain glass breaking she can hear it and she falls. She falls for a moment then wakes up, finding herself in her recharge pod at the Shard Seeker's HQ. The thrum of it' systems comforting in the way a warm blanket is to a human. She takes a moment to detach the cables from her body and snap the hatch open.

She rises up looking out the dorm window, the sun's only now starting to rise and looks out the window the dream was mostly gone but some images remains several powerful enough to fade away even then? They were dull like an old somewhat damaged memory file but there was still enough somethings just didn't go away and Deelel was left to ponder the nature of this.

Users say dreams sometimes can be more than just one's mental ram dumping after a long cycle. Sometimes they can hold great importance such as this one. Still a face sticks with her a stand against horrible odds and something else. A Graveyard of weapons, what does it all mean?

Deelel rubbed the back of her head closed the pod setting it into idle mode, while she went to go make breakfast for some of the other Shard Seekers. She left the room still feeling something ... bad was coming but she couldn't remember what.