The Stratoknight was quite simply the largest aircraft in the world, with the most carrying capacity. It had been hastily developed during the last war as a method to deploy supplies and, eventually, entire frames. The process of hooking up a frame for transport had been compressed in the game to 30 seconds when done properly on the ground.

From the information she was receiving from Signa’s AEGIS destroyer, she didn’t have that kind of time. Hundreds of unaligned players who might have been otherwise left out of the clusterfuck brewing on Isabela had decided to make their individual last stands on Cristobal and were now bearing down on the otherwise insignificant island. Getting off here without entanglement would require one last little leap of faith. Stood upon the peak of the hill as she was, her frame came briefly back into view to Tatsuta in the creek bed below. It didn’t go unnoticed.

From Tatsuta’s perspective what happened next was that the Stratoknight she had earlier transferred to NoCro burst through the low clouds in a steep descent, then atop the hill the Ghost lit its engines at maximum and leapt off. Skimming low over the foliage, they met somewhere in the nearly ballistic descent and the Ghost braced itself for the nose-up by holding onto elements of the aircraft. Then both disappeared below her personal horizon. If either had made it, it happened out of sight from her perspective. Tats ran her machine down to the coast just in time to see the SK disappearing off northward in a sharp ascent with NoCro’s Ghost securely fastened to it. She took in a breath and sagged, unaccountably relieved that the seemingly desperate maneuver had worked. Desperate perhaps, yet performed with little to no hesitation.

“Godspeed, you crazy bitch.” she said. The battle for Cristobal had only just begun. She found herself giving a salute with her remaining arm, vowing then and there to make it off the island.

—

Linear, who was now cradling Noel’s more or less lifeless body, was suitably impressed. Her wide eyed expression she displayed to her husband via the rear view mirror.

“She… did it.” she said, almost not believing it herself.

Her husband in the front seat had not seen any of the events, but the way his wife had described and reacted to the it in question told him most of everything he needed to know. He tightened his grip on the wheel briefly.

“You said she’s under the control of something else.” he said, “Could it be… her? You know who.”

Linear raised her eyebrows in shock, evidently not having considered the question. Her expression softened as she did so.

“It could.” she admitted, “I don’t know if I’m ready to conclude that.”

Linear ran her hand along Noel’s black hair. That would be a sad fate indeed, far worse than anything else her Progressive sickness had in store. Her eyes drifted to the tower PC they had taken from Noel’s apartment.

“We could look for signs of it in her PC.” she offered. Rej made a growl.

“DC her now.” he said, decisively. Linear looked to the progressive harness affixed to Noel.

“It might kill her. She seems deep in it.” she said. Rej drummed his fingers along the wheel and set his brow in thought.

By now they had arrived at the private medical facility which had been prepared for them by Chain and had Noel loaded up onto a proper stretcher. The girl—the woman, rather—seemingly had no ability to open her eyes. She seemed to be taking that rather well from her side of things, but who knew what she was really thinking. Linear was still tethered to her and was a bit reluctant to sever that given how many unknowns were involved. Reflecting upon those, she decided to open up communications with her charge once more.

“Remember when I said you weren’t going to die over there?” she said.

“Not so sure about that?” came the response. As Linear accompanied the stretcher as it was wheeled into the darkened clinic, she gave a stiff nod to no one in particular.

“I don’t really understand. Mysterious things are admittedly happening.” she said, “I shouldn’t have said that earlier. If you can’t open your eyes, we might have bigger problems.”

There was a period of silence which left Linear somewhat uncomfortable, but eventually Noel broke in:

“It’s fine. I… had my own doubts.” she eventually said.

“So you thought your life might be in danger, when you fought that girl?” Linear said, somewhat in disbelief.

“You don’t know what I’m seeing here. I’d have to be a fool not to consider it.” Noel relayed, simply. Linear took in a breath. Her credibility had taken a big hit.

That meant that when Noel fought Tatsuta, there was at least some small part of her that was prepared to die. That meant a lot. It actually meant everything.

Linear cut off her communication to Noel for the time being and turned to Rej as she accompanied the stretcher upon which Noel’s body was laid. There was a nurse there on night shift, but largely the clinic was darkened.

“She’s at least capable of instantiating relspace.” Linear said, sharply.

“Did she?” came the response, from her husband.

“I don’t know, but some of the things she did seemed unlikely, if not downright impossible.”

“Does she know?” her husband asked, in a hushed voice.

“No…”

“Fuck me.” Rej mumbled, “Wanna know what I think? I think she’s in D-World. Comatose. The whole fucking game world is, and this one for sure.”

Linear, not believing this immediately, pried open one of Noel’s eyes with her fingers even as the stretcher she was loaded on was being rolled forward by the nurse. No response from her pupils to the change in light. No questions coming in from the person on the other side either, which would be expected if one did this to even a Progressive in a standard VR situation.

“Ohhh…” Linear moaned, “Maybe.”

Rej held his temples. He had long, silky black hair falling down to his shoulderblades which even Linear had cause to envy. A harshly sculpted face gave a clue to his eastern European origins. He was dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans which were perfectly fitted to his slim figure. He stood about half a head taller than Linear.

“So uh,” Linear said, “What happens if I disconnect her from me?”

Without giving anyone involved even a moment to think about it, Rej reached behind Linear and yanked the cable out which supposedly linked Noel to the events in ACO. He seemed to have braced himself for it, as a time traveler would when plunging a knife into baby Hitler.

“What the heck!” Linear protested. She didn’t go for the cable, though.

“Babe this is exactly what we were afraid of.” Rej said, “Diva isn’t going to disappear into the abyss because she lost a fight a few years ago. She had to have more than one contingency for her death. We fought her. You know. If she couldn’t preserve her existence she’d leave her legacy to a puppet successor. That’s what I would do. This is exactly the timeline I’d expect for that. It’s soon enough to take revenge, late enough that we’re all complacent.”

Linear, still following along with the stretcher as it was wheeled into an equally darkened hospital room, had some reservations play across her face as she checked Noel’s pulse. Still beating, it seemed. Rej’s action hadn’t instantly killed her—nor would it have, if his theory was correct. Finally she voiced one of them.

“She seemed human enough.” she said, weakly.

“How would you know? You were vulnerable to Diva’s drive, too.” Rej shot back instantly.

Perhaps if Linear had not chosen her identity so completely she might have found some counter or line of argument, or pivoted to a new line. Since she had chosen to be a human woman, however, she stifled at Rej’s very-good-point and then stalked out of the room in a huff. He gave a sigh and ran a hand through his long black hair, then leaned over the prone figure of Noel. He turned to the nurse on duty.

“She’s not waking up. You all do what you need to.” he mumbled, to her.

It would be better from his perspective if Noel were simply to die here alongside even the potential of the revival of their hated adversary. All he had to do was lean over and strangle her. It would all be papered over and he would suffer no repercussions. The thought crossed his mind and fled, repulsive as it was, leaving only a painful wince on his face as evidence as to having even thought it.

The pointlessness of such an act only occurred to him moments later. If he was right, this girl was still inside the game. That necessitated an entirely different method of dealing with her, if she was indeed the enemy he took her for.