Noel wheezed and slumped forward onto her face. It was the dead of night and there wasn’t going to be anyone outside. Everyone was asleep. If she chose some random door to pound on there was absolutely no one who would open up, not in this neighborhood. A nominally normal person might here find some well of inner fire of self-preservation that was the birthright of all animals. That was not the case here, with her, now. The long chain of humiliation and tragedy that had brought her to this point wasn’t exactly going to end if she got up and managed somehow to find help. In fact it was going to get a lot worse, and she was going to meet her end within a year as a drooling and crazy ward of the state, pointlessly using up resources in some hospital somewhere. If something could have been done differently, she knew not what, and anyway it was pointless now.

It seemed like the end and it certainly would have been, except for a tiny thought that intruded upon her dulling consciousness and grew ever larger.

No-chan isn’t going to die like this!

Noel herself had run out of the energy and oxygen to form complex thoughts. As if it were someone else doing, it, she felt herself place her palm against the carpet and draw herself up, then yank the junk drawer of her desk out. She twisted her hand such that the drawer upended after being pulled away and all of the contents went spilling off to the side. From this pile she picked out the glittering pistol. Her vision was growing dim and dark, but she could still feel the grip in her hands. It wasn’t her body that was weak, here, it was her mind.

The pistol grip felt cold in her hands. Her hands felt cold. She dragged herself to her feet and stumbled out of the door, and draped herself over the steel banister that faced the parking lot. Picking out the nearest car she could see there, she leveled the pistol on it and attempted to fire upon it to set off its alarm. She couldn’t pull the trigger, not with the strength she had left. She remembered then that she had ejected the bullet that was in the chamber and would probably have to rack the slide again to chamber a round. That was when her strength finally failed her, and she collapsed onto her back and fell unconscious.

—

A few moments passed and she felt her awareness returning to her slowly, as one wakes up from a long sleep. It felt like she was laying in a flat sandy puddle, being surrounded on all sides by about an inch of water. She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at the cloudless starry sky, then tilted her head off to the side to observe a nearly infinite mirror-shine of utterly still water that stretched all the way to the horizon. A line of mountains in a dim, dark blue haze rose up from the horizon, destined to forever remain at the same distance even if one walked towards them.

A typical person, should they arrive at this strange place after those events, would surely think they were in an afterlife of some sort. Noel held off on concluding that, just yet, because she’d been here before. It was the rarer winter version of the Sandbox, which was itself based on the Bonneville Salt Flats and served as the default environment of Absolute Conviction Online. When she turned her gaze back forwards, she saw that she wasn’t alone here, either. Or perhaps that was a matter of perspective.

At her feet was a girl much like herself. She wore a frilly black dress and her lips were painted a scarlet red, the same color as her ominous eyes, and she had long, shining black hair. Just over her head hung the famous constellation, Cygnus, appearing now to be crashing down into the earth. This was the time of year when it became the Northern Cross, since the imagery of the swan flying headfirst into the ground was not as nice. When this girl saw Noel was awake she gave her a vicious smile.

“…No-chan?” Noel croaked out, “Where am I?”

“You’re dead, you dumb bitch!” No-chan said, almost gleefully, “You went out like a sucker, too.”

“I tried.” Noel said quietly. No-chan shook her head sadly and formed an x-shape with her hands.

“No, that was me.” she said.

Noel couldn’t rightly dispute this. That being the case, she laid her head back and looked up at the stars. What else was there to say. This act put No-chan out of her line of sight, and she heard her alter-ego give a huff of indigence at that. Yes, that was her. Noel cracked a smile, even under the circumstances. No-chan responded to the slight by walking forward until she towered over Noel’s hips, one heeled boot on each side of her. Her shadow put her hands on her hips and looked down disapprovingly.

“Pathetic.” No-chan said, “I’ve always hated you the most. The good news is, it's No-chan's turn!”

“Have at it.” Noel deadpanned.

No-chan huffed out a laugh and lowered herself until she was sitting on Noel’s torso. Her shadow slapped both of her pale hands down into the water on either side of Noel’s head. Finding the situation with her doppleganger a bit intimate and awkward, Noel attempted to direct her gaze to the side. This was foiled when No-chan gripped her by the chin and turned her face back until they were again meeting eyes.

“Let me make myself clear.” No-chan said, “You died. You wanted to die, and you did. I don’t want to die.”

“This is a moot point.” Noel said, “We’re dead.”

No-chan shook her head.

“I didn’t say that.” she said, “I said you were. Your life, which you were prepared to throw away, should be given to someone who really appreciates it.”

“You?” Noel said. No-chan nodded vigorously.

“It’s my time!” she said.

Noel’s first thought was that would be a grotesque and absurd turn of events, to give control of her life to what amounted to an evil cartoon character she roleplayed for fun. But on the other hand, why not? It’s not like anyone could have done worse. This was just some delusion her dying mind was playing out, anyway, in its final moments. Albeit, a curiously lucid and detailed one. That fact gave her enough pause to seriously think about it before speaking.

“Alright.” Noel said, after some hesitation, “You’re right.”

No-chan burst into one of those insanely worrisome smiles she was good at, and patted Noel on the cheek. The girl leaned forward until both of her forearms were flat on the ground beside Noel’s head, sending out ripples into the infinite shimmering surface of the shallow pool. They were nose to nose now. Noel suddenly felt frozen in place, unable to look away. No-chan leaned forward and brought her crimson lips down onto hers, and when she closed her eyes she felt herself falling through the floor again.

When her world stopped spinning she was dry again, cold again, and felt the same concrete she had collapsed onto earlier. What hadn’t changed was that there was a woman lightly straddling her, and they were locked in a similar sort of embrace. Similar yet different. She opened her eyes when the woman drew away from her, and what she saw was even more strange a turn of events than if it were her alter ego No-chan.

It was the woman on the shirt she was wearing. She had a jointed, robotic body, but her lips were soft enough and her breath was hot. The woman seemed pleased to see her awake, but also somewhat distracted.

“Azure?” Noel managed to choke out weakly. The woman, Linear Azure, only gave her the briefest of nods and a little reassuring smile before directing her attention elsewhere.

“Rej!” she said, craning her neck to the open door of Noel’s apartment, “She’s awake. Get the tower, let’s go!”

Azure then swept Noel up into her arms and held her close as if she were a precious child.

“W-where are we going?” Noel said, still weak and stunned. The hospital? Azure began to walk the pair of them down the metal stairwell, and Noel saw a man emerge from her apartment carrying her tower PC.

“Shh. Don’t worry.” Azure said, and flashed her a smile, “Nice shirt, by the way.”