“Jock’s taken a group of players hostage. They’re in the canteen, we think that he’s planning on killing them, and broadcasting the kills,” Biyu reported as she leaned against the wall. Her face was blackened from the smoke of her burning intelligence centre. She’d managed to get her people out, but the anti-player rebels had also sabotaged the fire-fighting system. With Mai busy elsewhere, the intelligence centre had been completely gutted.

“You look like shit,” Mai placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder, using the other one to lift her chin. “You okay?”

“I resemble that remark,” Biyu tried to laugh but it turned into a hacking cough. “I can’t tell if their beef is with the world at general, or the players, because they’re trying to burn the whole fucking place down regardless!”

“I don’t think that they can decide either,” Mai passed Biyu a water bottle. “Right now, they’re settling for venting on the nearest target they can find. This base. And the players we knew were actually loyal to us.”

“How many have we lost?” Dakota had caught the end of the conversation as she arrived with the survivors of her Chosen.

“Players, about five so far. Loyalist rebels, no fatalities, but the medical post is swamped. We have everything from bloody noses to serious burns. Jock’s got over ten loyalist players.”

Everyone’s mouths turned down slightly at the term players. There was a palpable tension, even amongst those who had already known the truth.

The way it had affected them had been bad enough, but Mai could see that they all felt just as bad for those who had only just found out. Probably worse as they could see what they’d been suffering written plainly across the faces of people they cared about.

And Mai did care, deeply, for each and every one of her people. No matter what they might accuse her of, she would always deny any allegation that she didn’t actually care for them. She would happily die for any of them if required.

“We need Jock to see sense. To understand that the players he has aren’t the problem, they’re a symptom of the problem, and they’re loyal to us. And if we play our cards right, and spread the word, we might well attract even more players to our ranks. We’re going to need them when we take the upper city back.”

Silence greeted that last, and she realised that everyone in the near vicinity was staring at her.

“What? It’s not like we’re going to let them get away with treating us like this. We’re people, just like those other arseholes. I touch a wall and I feel it. I kill someone, I feel their blood on my hands. I get cut, I bleed. And I fucking love the lot of you. We’re people. They’re people.”

A few heads nodded, Dakota and her people along with Biyu muttering agreement as well.

“Take me to Jock. Let’s see what I can do.”

“Jock, we need to talk,” Mai stood before the canteen door. She could see that a number of objects had been piled up against the doors, so hadn’t even bothered trying to push her way in. She felt vaguely ridiculous standing outside the double doors waiting for an answer. When there was no reply she banged on the door, three times, then stood back.

Outwardly she tried to project an air of calm, but inwardly she was a raging tempest of emotions. Fear, anger, sadness and even guilt warred for dominance, resulting in nothing but a feeling of nausea and the desperate need to urinate.

“For fuck’s sake Jock! Open the fucking door!” She stepped forward and booted it hard. Her patience was wearing thin, and she couldn’t afford to be seen to lose face in front of her people. Other than Jock’s group, managed to lock down a number of other splinter groups, preventing them from causing any more trouble whilst she dealt with their ringleader and her former friend. She’d also spent as many control points as she could fixing the damage before any of the other factions could take advantage.

“Yeah, you’d like me to fucking obey you, Mega Minion!’ Jock spat from behind the doors. “Why the hells should I do anything that you tell me too? You’re not playing me like you played the others!”

“I’m not playing anything! You met me after I can from being literally neck deep in shit and the Culling! I only found out the truth myself recently. And you can’t blame me for keeping it a secret considering what’s happened since you found out!” Mai didn’t bother keeping her voice down. What she had to say to Jock she had to say to everyone listening. And everyone was listening. There wasn’t a rebel not on the walls who wasn’t listening in to their conversation.

“So it’s my fault that this has happened is it?” Mai’s brown furrowed in confusion as she tried to work out what he was saying, then realised that Jock was referring to the situation they found themselves in now. Not the revelation of the truth.

“No, Jock. It’s no-one’s fault,” she said in a softer, sadder tone. “It’s what I feared would happen, as it’s what I wanted to do when I found out the truth. Instead, I worked to restrict the players, have them come to us for any missions, and give our people a chance to grow far beyond what the system would have allowed.”

“You played us,” came the vehement reply. If words could kill, she would have been flensed to the bone. It hurt to the core of her soul to hear such hatred in the voice of someone she loved as a friend.

“No, I bided my time so that we would be in a much stronger position before I told everyone the truth. I didn’t want everything we’d worked for to come down around our ears. Jock, please. Let the players go, they’re on our side.”

“No! They’re just playing the damned game. We’re better off without them, and I’m going to broadcast exactly what will happen if we get our hands on them.”

Mai winced at that. From conversations with General Ayres, leader of the Ghosts, she knew that players felt pain. Most were able to dial it down to a twenty per cent setting, but there was a disturbing number of players who had entered Nether City in what they referred to as “Hardcore Mode”. They felt one hundred per cent, and it was utterly beyond her why anyone would choose such a thing. Not only that, but they would also come back with new personas on the same setting.

She looked over her shoulder at Biyu and motioned her over.

“How many hardcore players has he got in there with him?” she whispered to her intelligence officer.

“All of those in there are hardcore. Most of our loyalist players are hardcore. We give more of a challenge than the other factions. The only other faction with more hard core players is the prisoners.”

“Makes a perverted kind of sense. Who’d go for the skill set that prisoners are offered anyway?”

“You don’t want to even find out the sort of things they get up to,” Biyu grimaced at the thought of the intelligence she’d gathered on their enemies.

“Don’t ever feel the need to share,” Mai held her arms up in mock surrender. “But essentially we have a problem. Jock’s going to kill the players, and they’re going to feel every single thing he does to them, whilst it’s broadcast over both of our worlds.”

That felt strange. Worlds. She’s never thought of it that way. However, she felt that in theory it was more like alternate universes with a portal through which only the denizens of one of the universes could travel.

“We’re going to have to go in there,” Biyu kept her voice low, not even looking in the direction of the canteen. “And they’re not going to go down quietly either.”

Mai tried not to blink at that, tears prickling the corners of her eyes. She knew she wasn’t going to win Jock around, and that the only way of saving the players was going to end in his death. His and the lives of the rebels with him.

“They don’t get to respawn,” she whispered hoarsely. “If we kill them, they’re gone forever.”

Biyu placed both her hands on Mai’s shoulders.

“And if you let him win, we’ll have the players turn against us. Maybe even the programmers if there’s enough of an outcry. In which case, they pull the plug and we’re all gone. Forever.”

Biyu held her gaze, eyes intent, until she gave a small nod.

“Get ready. I need eyes on the inside of the building, and make sure that no-one we have even the slightest doubt about has line of sight. When we go in, we go in prepared, and hard.”

Biyu nodded and gestured to a couple of her people to follow her. Mai turned back to the canteen and stared hard at the doors. Not getting any of the answers she was looking for, she left to prepare for what she believed was going to be the hardest fight of her life.