We're all in this virtual space together.
Phoenice

You walk back through the now calm hallway, the sword clinkingagainst your thigh. The shield rests heavily on your arm, and the sceptersmooth against the skin of your palm. The path is silent as you walk along withonly the shuffling of fabric and metal around you, and you begin to feel Alonebut you know you are not.

You reach the virtual chamber where you first began quickly, andthe paths that you had been through to gather your companion’s souls were nowclosed off by coding that pervaded every speck of this place. One final hallwayremained to be explored, and you gulp, wondering about which twin if any youwould replace at the end of the path.

You take a deep breath and walk down it, holding the staff beforeyou. The coding scrolled lazily, fading from pitch black to an eerie glow of blacklit purple. Everything seemed distorted and the coding warped as you walkedalong. You are suddenly glad of the plain piece of metal the Sorceress leftyou, as it is the only source of true, natural light in this new space.

Ahead of you, you hear the mixture of laughing and crying. Youknow it must be the somber twin and her maniac sibling.

What do you do?

The four of themanxiously took off down the final hallway one of their comrades had gone down,Myos in the lead. Considering the state he and Zeke had found the others in, hedidn’t want to fathom the predicament that Razzy might be facing right now,especially in a place that screamed of the Empress’s influence as much as thisone did. The walls were entirely coated with the plush, velveteen surface ofthe spring pink, bedazzled in such a way with illustrious jewels that it lookedlike a quilt right on the wall. The floor underneath them was not the hardsteel that sufficed for the rest of the ship; it was a soft and rich fur thatlooked to be softer to the touch than anything Myos had ever felt. All of thewall trimmings were gilded with gold, and if he and Zeke had not investigatedthe other hallway, he would suggest that the Empress herself lay at the end ofthis one.

The hallway seemed tostretch on longer than the other ones, and soon the party was out of breathfrom sprinting so hard to replace their missing friend. Gasping for air, Myosrested his upper body weight on his legs, knees bending as his hands pressed onhis upper thighs to keep from completely slumping to the ground. Amaya leanedagainst the wall, brushing her hair out of her face constantly to keep from sticking,and Zeke was suddenly glad he lacked clothing on the upper part of his body.

“What are you threedoing, get off your asses, we gotta replace Razzy,” Achernar gasped out betweeninhalations of precious oxygen. Though she too desired rest, the thought ofreplaceing the missing girl was more prevalent in her mind.

“Why replace me?” a voicebehind the tall bluenette asked, and the woman whipped around to replace Razzyunharmed. She swept the other into a crushing hug, which the waxen girlreturned in confusion.

“Razz, we were worriedabout you!” Myos exclaimed, still hunched over from their previous fullthrottle sprint.

“Why?” The taciturn girlasked with a flip of her bob once the other woman had released her. “Thishallway led to a dead end. So I started heading back to see if we were all doneinvestigating.”

Myos chose to ignore herinteresting term for the five of them yelling at each other, dissolving theteam, and going their separate way, to focus on the, while extremelygratifying, unusual fact that she had not been ensnared in any way. “Are yousure you’re fine?” Zeke asked, picking up on the other man’s hesitation.

“Should I not be?” Razzyasked, tilting her head to the side and shuffling the uneven, chalky bangs infront of her face.

“No, you definitelyshould be,” Achernar said fiercely, daring the others to argue.

“Well, what’s importantis that you’re back!” Amaya said with cheer, clapping her hands together infront of her. “Now we’re all back together!”

“That means we can headback to that last hallway,” Zeke said, rolling his shoulders back andstretching his finely honed muscles in anticipation. The golden path would betheir yellow brick road straight to the Empress.

The others nodded, andthey made their way back to the room for a final time, albeit much slower thanthey ran down to replace Razzy in the first place. Achernar kept asking the girlif she was fine, to which Razzy kept confirming that she was, it was like a beebuzzing around a flower with how much anxiety the taller woman had over thesmaller girl. Myos found it endearing and said as much, only to have Achernarthreaten violence if he ever said anything so ‘fucking stupid’ again. Amayalaughed, and even Zeke cracked a smile. Myos let his gaze individually rest oneach of their star marks in turn, feeling his own that rested on his neck. Anoutline, to the rest of their full ones. Because he needed them. He wasn’twhole without his team. A hero needs his backup, his family, to ensure he cancontinue on.

And needless to say, Myos only felt like a hero with therest of his companions beside him.

Before they knew it, they were in front of the gildedhallway, faces set for anything.They could do this, Myos knew it. He had faith in theirteam, their small rebellion that came from nothing and rose like a phoenix. Thestars would light their path and they would overcome anything to assure thesafety of humanity.