Alone In The Woods

[Emily Arca]

A flash of black smoke appeared, and through it, a ragged Emily Zzott stumbled through. She walked a few more steps before falling to her hands and knees, short on breath. Her wand untucked from her coat as she fell and skipped across the floor, what floor there was. She looked down at her arms, breathing heavily. Her coat and pants were fulls of nicks and cuts, battered and bruised from years of living in refuge, deep in the forests of surrounding areas. Her limbs were sore. There were black spots under her eyes. She hadn't slept soundly in months; years, even. She took another deep breath and crawled towards her wand, picking it up and coming to one knee. She took a time to look at it. It was chipped in some parts, and had a long scrape down one side. Hikaru told me this was indestructible. She took a deep breath. Nothing is. Not even me.

She tried once to climb back to her feet, but she was too weak. With a sigh, she sat back down. She rubbed her forehead with her left hand and felt a cool metal brush against her skin. She looked at her hand. My ring. Right. This is my only option. With a reluctant swipe, she covered the ring with her opposite hands thumb and index finger. Kai. She could hear the name pulsating in her head. Listen to me Kai. I need your help. She waited. No response. KAI. Listen. it's me, Emily. Do you remember me? No answer. That's ridiculous. He can't not hear me. If he was thinking, I would hear him. He can't not be thinking can he? She scoffed at the idea. Well if anyone is NOT thinking, it'd be him. She took her hand off the ring. She paused to think, and wrapped it with her fingers again. K2323. Listen to me. I need your help. Can you hear me? She heard a faint noise. Her eyes glimmered with hope. What's that? I can't hear you. Think clearer! She pressed the ring next to her ear, half-hoping it would have some effect. She continued to hear the noise, but couldn't determine it. She sat motionless, ring nearly impressed into her ear, listening. Finally, she could make out the noise. It was static; similar to the noise a malfunctioning television would make. Oh no. Oh God no. This isn't what I think it means. It can't be.

She sighed heavily, and covered her eyes with her hand. Only one person can help me now. On the brink of desperation, she clasped the ring again. She held it so tightly the outside of her hand began to turn white. Hikaru. My Master. Please. Help me. She waiting for a response. The seconds that passed seemed like years. Please... She thought inwardly. "Please Hikaru, please answer me!" She had started speaking out loud. She was nearing a point of desperation. Her tension was palpable. "ANSWER ME!!" She yelled. She forced her eyes shut, ring still grasped in her hand. And, just as she had with K2323, she began to hear a slight buzzing noise. No response. No...No... "NO!!" She screamed, clutching her knees desperately. After a while, she held her hands openly in front of her eyes. She say the ring, dull and worn from her many years of refuge. "STUPID RING!!" She threw it across the plains, and heard the faint clinking of the ring with the ground in the near distance. It must be broken. It has to be broken. They can't be...they can't be dead. When that word passed through her mind, she lost all control. She closed her eyes and pushed him fingers against her now shut eyelids. And there, out in the plains of the Outerverse, Emily sat, weeping silently, over the death of her former master and friend.

[K2]

When the ring hit the ground, something... Happened. A faint shimmer, a glow -- the reflection of the Outerverse's 'sun', perhaps, off the ring. Or, maybe, just maybe, the shimmer of the ring was from something else. No, it couldn't be the sun. The sky was dark right now. Something was in the sky far above the Outerverse, something dark, taking it completely, and whatever that darkness was, it was unrelenting -- there wasn't a ray of light shining down. So, what had caused the ring to glow?

After a beat, a very frightened K2323 appeared, a bit confused. This K2323 had changed so much in the last thirty-something years since he and Emily had last met. Some days, he looked like an old man. Other days, he looked like he was still in his twenties. Right now, he looked like he was about forty -- he was feeling weak. It was obvious that he had been fighting recently, facing off against some powerful enemy, and that right now, he wasn't in his prime condition. Far from it.

And the last person he'd expected to see when he appeared in the Outerverse was Emily Zzott, the cute girl who'd stayed by his sister's side during those days. He saw her, and images went through his mind. Unfaithful. Cheating. Kiss. Death. He shook his head, trying to forget about those times -- things were different now. He was married, and couldn't let himself be roped into that kind of thought. What was Emily doing here, crying, in the middle of the forest in the Outerverse?

"Em...ily?"

Before he could say anymore, there was a loud, resounding bang that echoed through the sky. The invader in the sky above, the Virus, had just broken through another one of the Outerverse's defences. Things were going very bad right now. The entire Outerverse was in danger, and this was hardly the safest place to be for either of them. Glancing at Emily, the fear in K2323's eyes once more, he told her, "We need to go. Now."

This was not like K2323 at all.

[Emily Arca]

Emily slowly looked up. She was still breathing uncontrollably, which was cut short but a short gasp when she saw a tall, middle-aged man standing in front of her. For a moment, she just sat there in a stunned silence. She wasn't expecting anyone to be here. She regained her composure and managed to scramble to her feet. She backtracked as she clumsily drew for her wand. Her breath was sharp and quick. On her third attempt of fumbling with her wand, she managed to pull it out and point it at the mysterious man who had appeared in front of her. She just stood there for a few seconds, trying not to blink, trying to regain her breath. She stared at the man. Staring, staring. There was an eerie silence. The man looked relatively familiar, but she couldn't trust anyone now. Finally; "WHO ARE YOU?" She screamed. Tears were still occasionally rolling down her face. This would normally be a time she would try to stay calm and collected. This time, she didn't even bother. "WHO ARE YOU?" she shrieked again. She waited for an answer. But before one would come, she continued further.

"I know who you are!" She took another step back. "You're from Starclan! You're here to kill me!" Another step. "You won't fool me! You can't! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Her voice was shaking as she yelled. Her arms with which she held her wand was trembling. "You'll never kill me, you hear?" A deep breath. "YOU CAN'T KILL ME. I'M EMILY ZZOTT!" She was mostly talking to herself now. She was hysterical. She took one more step back and waited.

[K2]

His eyes went from a state of worry to a state of confusion once more, and then to a state of... sadness. Was this what Emily had truly become? A paranoid, scared girl in the forest, so dulled that she couldn't even hold her wand properly. If he'd been an enemy she would well have been dead by now. She was obviously unable to control herself right now. He didn't blink as she held the wand towards him, her body language suggesting she'd strike at any moment. She honestly had no idea who he was, and why should she? So much had changed in the last number of years, and he probably wouldn't recognize himself right now if he looked in a mirror.

He'd been sitting in his study, pen in his hand, writing a letter to Logan about moving forward against Kai's aggressiveness. He'd barely heard her enter the room, and he looked up from his desk to see her there. Emily. He knew Kai had been interested in her, but if he wasn't mistaken, Emily had turned Kai down. But what was K2323 saying, anyway? He had Julia back home -- and his son. He couldn't -

He watched as she took another step back, yelling at him, accusing him of being a Starclanner, a race which he was pretty sure was extinct these days. She was trembling. Shaking so hard. She took another step back. He could practically hear her breathing. If she took another step back, she'd be against the bark of a tree. She was not in a clear mental state, and she was very dangerous right now -- too unaware of her surroundings. And he only had a few minutes to get her out of here before that thing in the sky tried to come after them.

In a brief instant, he was gone from Emily's sight... But she would suddenly feel him. Heat radiating off his body. And he could feel her body heat. She felt so warm, and he wanted to embrace her in a hug and tell her that it was all right. No, he wanted to feel her emb- Stop. Don't. His hands were firm but relenting, wrapped around her arms -- it wasn't a hostile gesture. It was one that would establish his power, and hopefully to tell her she could be safe with him. He was in the tight space between her and the tree, hands wrapped around her.

"Emily," he told her softly, almost whispering, "It's me. K2323. Trust me."

[Emily Arca]

Emily noticed the man disappear in front of her, but before she had any time to react, she felt some kind of unknown force; an invisible man, maybe, wrap around her. Her arms were pressed down to her sides; in her shock, she noticed she dropped the wand from her right hand to the floor. "LET GO OF ME!" She yelled. She turned back and forth, trying to break free. "LET ME GO!!" She yelled again. She squirmed around, and after much effort, she managed to escape the force's grasp, falling to the ground. She reached for her wand with her left hand, and scrambled to her feet in an attempt to run away. She noticed, however, as she attempted to run, that her legs were week. And, in an instant after rising to her feet, she found herself on her hands and knees again, clutching her wand in her scraped-up hands. Only then, when she was free, did she realise what the unknown voice had said. K2323? No. K2323 is dead. He can't be...No." She crawled to her ring that she'd thrown away and pressed it against her ear. Silence. She stuffed the ring in her coat pocket and turned around again. There was nothing, save for a tree standing in the middle of an otherwise flat plain of land.

She looked up at the sky. Nothing anywhere. "SHOW YOURSELF!!" She yelled; not necessarily wanting the unknown man to show up again. With desperation, she pointed her wand randomly around her. "You're not K2323!! He's..." She paused. Even if he was dead, she didn't want to say anything that would lead anyone to believe she knew anything more than she did. So, without another word, she started firing spells into the surrounding areas. "Ignis! Flamma! Fulgaralis!" She yelled and bolts of lighting flew from the tip of her wand. She watched them as they flew into the sky and disappeared from her view. Another flew off. Another. The last one struck the edge of the tree sitting in front of her, singing a large branch of it. She watched as the leaves burned, watching the smoke rise from the fire. She put her hand down on the ground. The branch of the tree broke off where it was struck, falling to the ground and continuing to burn. The cool embers glowed in her eyes. She sat there in a surreal, almost tranquil peace, as the fire burned the leaves from the branch into ash. As the last leaf burned from the branch, and as the last bit of smoke rose from the ashes, she placed her hand on her head. After a few heavily breathes, she fell back against the cold ground; and there she lay, unconscious and still.

[K2]

He watched, obscured, as she fired her spells, shouting her crazy shouts. He'd seen this before -- when his trusted general, Core, returned, he'd been insane too. And Kai, but then, Kai had always been insane. Hikaru... He shuddered, thinking of how insane she was. But Emily? Sweet Emily, the girl who'd always been the voice of reason to his sister, the trusted friend who had been his sister's rock? Seeing even her degraded to this state made him so sad, and as he watched her, hidden, a tear ran down his cheek. Everything really was different now, huh?

As she collapsed to the ground, K2323 emerged, the ashes of the burning tree taking form to reveal K2323 had been among the smoke and ash of the sole tree this whole time. Approaching the girl, laying upon the grass, her hair a mess, her face dirty with an expression of fright, he couldn't help but feel like this was all somehow his fault. He'd probably turned her into this. He'd probably done something -- said something -- to mess her up psychologically. But then, how could he not have? They had been kids -- all of them. His sister, his brother, Emily, the generals, himself. They'd been mere teenagers when all of this had started.

K2323's facial features started to shift now, his body posture and weight altering itself as well. His body and face went from that of a forty year old's to that of a young twenty-something. As his body changed, he felt the cool breeze of wind blowing past him, colliding behind him with the flames upon the tree. The Outerverse. He was going to miss it. But, for now, the best thing he could do was get out of here, get Emily help, find Julia, and then... Then, he'd have work to do -- stop this Virus. Rescue Hikaru. Get her soul back from that embodiment. Then, he'd leave again -- this time, he'd bring his wife with him -- they'd get away from all of this and join Mokai and the others.

Bowing down before Emily, he ran his thumb across her dirty cheek, moving her hair out of her face. Where was safe? He knew the answer. There was only one place to take her, one place that made sense right now. K City. His son would be able to help -- they had good medical services there, after all. The New K Empire. My, how the times had changed. Sighing, he wrapped his arms around her. Closing his eyes, he concentrated. K City was a long way away from the Outerverse, and he was tired enough as it was. This was going to take every last bit of energy he had in him.

At last, a bright light enveloped them, and off they went.