Endure.
Endure.
All Lily could do was endure.
A pain so visceral it was indescribable coursed through her being.
Yet as she did her vision began to twist and blur, her sense of pain fading until nothing remained.
The entire world around her had faded away in fact.
All that remained was a black void, one of dreamless sleep that was all too common to her.
However this was different, strange, as if it wasn't the same darkness she was used to but something else.
Yet nothing would come from standing in place so she began to walk aimlessly through the dark.
Her footsteps echoed around her, the sound of it was oddly familiar and comforting but not fitting for where she was... no that's not right.
She knew where she was now.
As the darkness gave way it confirmed her thoughts.
Lily was back in the hospital, that all too familiar hospital, yet the lights were low... as if the hospital was running on emergency power, something she'd only seen once.
The hospital was well kept but surprisingly empty, there was no one around, not a patient in sight... all except for one.
After a long walk Lily found it, her room, and inside... was her, still lying in her custom Reflection bed, the lights still showing that it was operational.
If she was in the bed though... then how was she seeing this? Was it another dream? Some kind of trick her mind was playing on her?
No, it didn't seem like it, not this time anyway.
This felt real, much like the world she was experiencing inside the reflection currently... then again who could say what was real at this point?
Every day trapped within the reflection felt like another step towards blurring her concept of reality and fiction, it was hard to even tell who was an NPC and who was a Player anymore.
Perhaps this was reality she was seeing and this was some strange out of body experience, there would be no way for her to know, not now anyway. All she could do now was look at her frail form hooked up to the machinery that barely kept her alive day by day.
She was trapped there, unable to move or do anything on her own, all she could do was watch the world and the people pass her by.
Now she'd pass by as well, leaving behind this sick and unmovable shell to venture deeper into whatever this place was. So with one final glance and a sense of unease setting in, Lily made her way through the hall and began making her way towards an exit.
Much to her surprise as she passes some of the other rooms she finds other bedridden people hooked into differing Reflections, some being the therapy chair models and others being the standard retail helmet. Yet aside from these people the hospital is empty, why was that? It was clearly well maintained and looked after but... there wasn't a soul to be found.
Yet when she finally made her way to the exit door something stopped her, a strange sensation overtaking and freezing her in place.
"You don't want to go out there, not yet."
Her own voice echoed from behind her, calm and collected yet wrong in the weirdest way. It was as if someone or something was using her voice to hide its own.
Turning around she saw herself, well, how she looked in the game that is. It was a perfect replica except for one little detail, there was no light in those eyes, not a single glimpse of life to be seen.
"Who- Who are you?" Lily asked with hesitation, taking one step back towards the door in case this figure tried something.
"Hmm... I suppose you can consider me the only being who is truly above you. The others might claim to be but if you really tried you could strike them down." The doppelganger speaks with such a cold tone that it sends a chill right down Lily's spine. "You have no reason to be afraid though, I don't like to intervene like this... I'm only here to set you back on the course you need to be on."
"What path would that be? Where am I right now?" Lily stands her ground this time but is freaking out right now, her instincts are yelling at her to run, that this is someone scarier and stronger than anything she's ever seen before.
A wide smile forms on the Doppelganger's face as it takes a couple of steps forward and extends a hand to Lily. "You're seeing the future, one that you're not yet ready to bear witness to." With just a few more steps they were right in front of Lily, their hand just close enough for her to take if she really wanted to. "Let me guide you back to where you came from, you still have unfinished business there after all."
There was a moment of hesitation until Lily finally reached out and took this Doppelganger's hand. It was... warm, comforting even, different from the cold and cruel look on the creature's face.
Instantly it pulled Lily close and whispered to her.
"Hold your breath and remember who you are, it'll be easy to forget if you don't hold on."
Before she could even question what the figure meant she was being pushed away, her body falling down into a pool of water that wasn't there before. The hospital, the world, everything was fading away as she quickly began to sink deeper and deeper down into this pool.
Bubbles began to rise past her, each one seeming to contain something within. Places, people, events, countless untold things that bled into her mind one by one as she sank deeper and deeper, but she had to remember who she was.
All that mattered was getting back, following Six's advice, and getting out of the game. Nothing else did, not even this weird "Vision of the future" if it was even really that.
She just had to remember who she was.
Her name.
Her appearance.
Her life.
She just had to keep that right as she drifted further and further down... everything blurring away until-
"Hey- she's waking up!"
Suddenly a voice snapped her to her senses, and instantly she found herself back in the game... on the ground as well, no longer in the tower.
Surrounding her were Laurence, Aranea, and Shade... Ryder was a few feet away, seemingly keeping watch in case something came to attack them.
"For the love of- what happened up there? You didn't come down and when we found you... well it looked like you'd died!" Aranea was the first to ask the questions.
Lily didn't answer right away though, she just turned her head and looked at The Gap, its presence still lingering in the sky... and then she realized something as she looked at it.
If that really was the origin of magic then why was it here, why summon it here... and how was that even possible?
"It's because of what this place is." Six speaks in her head, his voice calm but holding a bit of intrigue just beneath the surface. "What you're seeing is an incomplete and modified version of The Gap, and one that's likely already been here since the previous cycles that Shade talked about."
Six's ghostly figure appears again, moving towards where Ryder was sitting now, his eyes fixed on The Gap.
"That thing ignores the laws of time and space, forcing itself to exist once it comes into being just once... at that point it always has been and always will be in that spot."
Now fully confused by this she looks over to Shade, her eyes focusing on him. "Shade, you've never seen this thing before?"
Shade glances back, his eyes showing just as much confusion as hers. "What, no, I've never even heard of this thing before! How would I-"
Shade pauses, his hands shaking now as looks back at The Gap, his eyes widening.
"No, I have seen it before... but I forgot? How?! I've remembered everything else perfectly thus far! There's no way in hell I'd forget about something like that!" Shade's voice is growing more hysterical as he takes a step back now, making sure to avoid Lily in the process.
"Maybe it's got some kind of amnestic magic?" Aranea throws out cautiously. "After all if you can't remember it then either you're lying... or something managed to mess with your mind."
"Does that really matter anymore?" Ryder finally chimes in, as he stands up. "Let's get back to Resovult, there's not much we can do here now anyway."
"Just go off and leave that?! It could destroy us at any time!" Shade yells at him.
"Easy there." Laurence calmly interjects while helping Lily finally stand up. "While you were panicking earlier I examined the ritual and it's already locked in place, nothing could undo it now except for a god."
A sorrowful laugh escapes Shade now, his confident demeanor completely gone now as he looks back at The Gap. "So, we're screwed then? Whatever comes out of there will come out of it?"
"Seems that way." Laurence replies with a shrug. "All we can really do is regroup with the others and prepare for the worst."
A dreadful quiet falls over the group now, the reality of the situation sinking in as they prepare to make the long trek back to Resovult. However one person stays behind, looking at The Gap for a moment longer.
Ryder gazes into deeply, the reality of it burning into his mind and a small chiming filling his ears.
That noise was all too familiar too him, one that he loved with his whole being and yet despised it to the core of his being.
All he could do was chuckle at this, before turning and following the group... his path was clear.
All that was needed was a little more time.