Chapter 52 - Salvation

Salvation
Rulia tried to cough but couldn't, feeling as though she was drowning. Despite feeling sick, she held her breath and took a look around. She was floating, white light shining from all directions. However, the light looked glitchy, spots of grey appearing here and there. Rulia waded forward, a hand outstretched. As her hand touched something solid, the light ahead shattered into pieces. And as she continued forwards, her hand passed out the substance she was floating into normal air. Rulia struggled harder, forcing more of herself out. In a final push, she fell out of the substance, landing on a metal floor on her feet.

However, a huge bolt of pain shot through her right ankle. Rulia cried out in agony, falling down onto her left knee. In an effort to cease the pain, Rulia grabbed her right ankle and pulled at it. Unexpectedly her hand went through her foot, the torment suddenly stopping. She could feel something twitching in her hand but when she brought it up to look at it, she was unable to see herself or what she was holding. Remembering that she was still wearing the One Ring, Rulia was about to pull the ring off when she suddenly received a splitting headache.

Rulia cried out again, her hands taking hold of her head. The twitching object fell to the floor with a clink. The headache quickly subsided. Breathing heavily, Rulia looked at the ring on her middle finger, even though it was invisible. As soon as she thought about removing it again, her headache returned full blast and her hand felt as though it was burning. But Rulia bore the pain, fighting against the agony. The ring and her hand faded into view, the pain disappearing once more.

Relieved, Rulia sighed, her sight fixed on the shaking bullet on the ground. It was silver, relatively small for a bullet but very painful. Rulia picked the noticeably clean bullet and absorbed it into hammerspace. Her immediate concerns covered, Rulia looked around. She was in a long corridor, with glitchy white walls, a large metal door was not far off, closing one end of the corridor. Rulia recognised where she was immediately, having seen it briefly last year. Her past presence here two years ago, however, was a little less brief.

"This is the Arctic," murmured Rulia with caution. If the Arctic had been left the way it was since last year, Gensokyo would not have any access to the Arctic due to the protective Sonic Barrier and White Noise surrounding the area. Except via Sasaki.

Naluri said The AI Director was controlling Gensokyo. Sasaki was its ticket in.

But wait.

Rulia put her hand to her head in concerned surprise. How did she know about that? She had been taken away by Misaka at the Mall in Japan. But how did she even know that? She was unconscious at the time.

Rulia looked down the long corridor. She knew about Rokiahi fleeing Japan. The loss of Chamber and Void. The Alien Queen and Little One. Rokiahi's exploration of Castle Doom. The loss of Cirno, Alice, Ilse and Solace. And finally the revelations of Naluri before she and Rokiahi were placed under statis.

But that wasn't it. She knew what happened last year too, all the heavily guarded secrets. The Death Note. The DeLorean. The Hand Canon. Haruki. The Daughter of Liberty. She knew exactly what happened for some reason... as though she had been reading it.

It struck her.

Rulia went up to the White Noise blocking the next call along to hers and hit it. It shattered to reveal-

"Chamber," she mouthed. Chamber, mostly intact except for his missing eye, was floating in the cell. Rulia reached a hand inside, feeling as though her hand was in water.

A statis field.

Of course the Arctic had statis fields. But their whole point was to freeze everything in them. Rulia took her hand out and looked towards her own cell. She was oddly immune to statis. Her thoughts went to The First Year. Rulia had been imprisoned in the Arctic for an entire year. She certainly wasn't immune back then. Also, how come Rulia could stop bullets with her mind? That definitely wasn't an ability of hers before.

Rulia looked back at Chamber. Chamber had the entire story inside of him. He had the answers to everything. Why she had these abilities, why the world had descended into chaos, why Chamber was even here after being blown up. Maybe even why Doomsday happened. Rulia had managed to access the story earlier or Chamber had been leaking it. One or the other.

She reached her hand back in towards Chamber. But instead of just the watery feeling of the statis field, Rulia's headache returned far stronger than before. The burning feeling in Rulia's left hand with the One Ring also came back. In addition, her right arm in the field began to experience severe pain, getting stronger as she reached further towards Chamber.

Rulia tried to ignore the excruciating torture, forcing her arm more into the statis. The agony just ramped up even more, Rulia gritting her teeth, one eye closed. Something was trying to force her back.

"Show me the future!" roared Rulia at Chamber, "How does this end?!"

".dlrow tcefrep a si sihT": she managed to read the ending but she could bare it no longer. Rulia pulled back her arm, her headache clouding her vision. She screamed in mixed fury and distress as she fell to her knees, hands holding onto the head. The pain disappeared for a third time. Panting, Rulia opened her eyes to see a faint reflection of herself in the white floor. Her mechanical ears, that were normally white, had returned to its alternate black colour, the way it had been when she had been brought in by Doomsday, though had been restored to White during The Second Year.

Rulia looked towards the huge doors marking the entrance of the Arctic. If she couldn't get her answers here, she could use the internet. That's how Rokiahi did it.

She walked towards the doors, her red eyes glowing, dark brown roots growing down her arms to form two cannons, once again in the form she was imprisoned as two year ago. Pointing the cannons at the doors, Rulia fired two thick beams, striking the doors. The two doors folded in on themselves, shooting straight off their heavy duty hinges. As they flew back, they began to dissolve in midair, disappearing completely before they could hit the floor. But what caught Rulia's attention was-

"Sora!" called Rulia in amazement, her eyes and arms turning back to normal. Sora was standing in the entrance room of the Arctic Prison. A massive clean room, with only a water exit to the outside world. next to her was a slick black car and floating on the water was a relatively small warship with its name in white letters on the side: HMS Thunder Child.

"Sora!" called Rulia again with added happiness, slowly gathering running speed towards her best friend. As she ran forward, she felt a little tingling sensation. Sora seemed shocked at seeing Rulia, shaking her head and hands at her, shouting something inaudible. Rulia ignored the gestures and took hold of Sora's hands in relief, "Sora, it's really you!" Sora looked intact despite her meeting with Lynette earlier that day.

Sora still looked dumbstruck, "Y-Yeah," she looked back towards the corridor, "How did you get through the Sonic Barrier?"

"The what?" Rulia turned to see huge speakers on either side of the doorway. She had just ran through the invisible Sonic barrier with no effect. That explained the doors, why she couldn't hear Sora and the tingling.

"The Sonic Barrier," explained Sora, "It completely vaporises things going through it. Like the doors." Rulia already knew this from her reading, but Sora didn't know that. "Look, Rulia, you need to get back in there. It's too dangerous out here."

"But we need to find Rokiahi and Naluri!" protested Rulia, "They're in trouble!"

"Haruhi and Miku will track them dow-"

"But the Three Kingdoms are all in this together!"

Sora was surprised, "How-? Why-?" How do you even know that's true?"

"Naluri said so! Before she was put in statis!"

"... Statis? By who?"

Rulia closed her eyes to think. As she had read, it was a Statis Chamber that had captured Naluri and Rokiahi. But who owned it? It didn't particularly strike her as a Gensokyo like building, being very alien. Alien? Things began to click together in Rulia's head. Alien. White★Rock Shooter was an alien. The youkai of Gensokyo weren't human by species. Nor was Ganondorf. Naluri thought the Alien Queen was under North High control. Haruhi mentioned a year ago, she and Marisa weren't human. ...Human... Everyone on Gensokyo's side was human. That explained the massive shake up of administration between North High and Gensokyo. It explained why Sakuya, Sanae, Mokou and Youmu were still with Gensokyo but the ghost Myon wasn't. What was Yamaha? It was obvious, everyone in Yamaha was an android, like Miku, or other form of digital being, like Yuki. Pokémon and Digimon might fall into this category. If not, they'd definitely fall under North High.

This conflict was never about politics.

The AI Director was in control of Gensokyo. Yggdrasil, maybe, was in control of North High... Then...

Rulia stepped back from Sora with a serious look of disbelief on her face, "Who's in control of Yamaha?"

"What?"

"Who's in control of you?" repeated Rulia, getting angrier by the second. Rulia could feel her temper rise, but was not sure it was all her doing.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" retorted Sora, catching onto Rulia's annoyance.

Rulia's headache kicked in once more, Rulia groaning in pain. Her right arm clattered as dark metal armour formed over her fingers, sheets of metal sliding upwards, fitting into place up to her shoulder with loud clangs. Sora stepped back this time, her left eye igniting blue, her body adopting a black, white and blue colour scheme.

A chain from the floor took hold of Rulia's armour arm and pulled it downwards. This was immediately followed by a cannon blast from the Thunder Child. The shell shot through the air only to stop in midair in front of Rulia. It pointed towards Sora and thundered towards her instead. Sora, summoning the Black Blade, threw an upwards sword swing, cutting the shell in two. The halves tumbled onto the floor behind her, the Thunder Child not detonating them. Sora stepped back even more, more chains shooting up and restricting Rulia's movements, wrapping around her.

"Sora!" shouted Rulia, her eyes glowing a hungry red, "Who are you?!" The chains exploded, the force of her left arm's blast, which had transformed into a cannon again, eradicating the links of metal. The ground around her had turned pitch black from burns.

Rulia started walking towards Sora who continued backing off. The car suddenly extracted two guns out the bonnet and began firing fast rounds. Rulia did not respond, the bullets slowing in the air, coming to a stop and then falling to the ground. She walked on top of them, crunching them into dust. Rulia twirled her head round before nodding towards the car. Her hairtail followed her movements, swirling round and then shot at the car's bonnet, the sharp hair armour piercing straight through the black metal. Using her right armour claw, Rulia her hair armour, in turn pulling the car towards her. The car began ejecting white smoke, likely stun gas, from underneath. Rulia smashed her claw through the bonnet, the hissing of gas stopping. As she ripped apart the car's insides, Rulia could feel information flowing from it before it was cut short as the car's power failed.

Rulia growled, "KITT's not as impressive as he sounded." She tossed KITT over her head backwards. He landed upside down on his roof, crunching his ceiling, loose parts littering the area. Rulia looked back at Sora, "What are you hiding?" she asked as she began walking again.

"Rulia, you've got to realise what you're doing!" plead Sora, backing into the wall, "It's me, Sora!" Her blue flame blew away, Sora returning to her normal colours.

Rulia did not stop, "Who's controlling you?"

Sora grit her teeth, "I'm not being controlled!"

"What are you scared of?"

"I'm not scared-!"

"What are you scared of?!" shouted Rulia, now directly in front of Sora.

Sora bit her lip. Suddenly, her eye ignited again. Two chains wrapped round Rulia's ankles from behind and puled, Rulia falling onto her front and was dragged backwards. Rulia tried to stop herself by clawing onto the floor, which was only mildly successful as more chains grabbed onto her legs. Sora summoned the ★rock Cannon and fired a blue laser beam at Rulia. The brief charge-up time was enough for Rulia to lift her own cannon at Sora, countering the blue beam with a red one. Loud crackling echoed throughout the room as the two blasts cancelled each other out. However, it was clear Rulia had greater power her attack than Sora did, the red pushing back the blue.

Sora jumped out the way of the incoming red, only to be struck through the right shoulder by Rulia's hair armour, demonstrating its impressive range. The pull of the chains, along with the hair armour clicking back to its normal length, pulled Sora to the ground along with Rulia. Before Rulia could grab Sora, Sora pulled the serrated armour out of her, causing extensive damage to her shoulder. Healing red liquid flowed out of the wound, quickly repairing her skin. Rulia flicked her head towards Sora again but Sora deflected the armour with the Black Blade.

As Sora scrambled to her feet, Rulia knew the chains were her main hindrance. She quickly turned onto her back and fired her cannon at the roots of the chains, destroying them and stopping the pulling. As more chains attempted to replace them, they all paused in midair ahead of Rulia, who was able to affect them just like bullets.

But as Rulia jumped back onto her feet, she was tugged strongly from behind, many chain pulling back on her hairtail. Unlike bullets, the chains were far quieter, Rulia unable to react quickly enough to stop them. Struggling to stand up straight, Rulia glared over at Sora, who appeared to be keeping her distance.

Suddenly, Rulia disappeared from sight. It was followed by a faint click and rattling as Rulia's hair armour reappeared, the chains and armour falling to the floor. Sora could not react before something punched straight through her abdomen, splattering red liquid over the floor. She could feeling her digital systems being compromised.

"What are you scared of?" repeated the invisible Rulia, her right arm smashed through her former best friend's body. As Rulia faded back into view, her white shirt was covered in the red liquid. Her hair was now tied simply into a loose ponytail, having released it from the armour.

Sora quickly swung the Black Blade, in her right hand, at Rulia but Rulia saw it coming. The sword stopped centimetres from Rulia's neck, Sora unable to force the sword to move the distance. "When did you gain these abilities?" Sora growled.

Rulia was not listening, "Area 51," she discovered.

"What?"

"You fear Area 51, don't you?" Rulia murmured.

Sora was surprised, "Wha-?"

"But why do you fear the undead?" Wouldn't that come under Yggdrasil's jurisdiction? Aren't you three the best of friends? ... You know Area 51's covered in five Hakurei Barriers and four layers of unbreakable adamantium so why are you so scared? How do you even know the makeup of the walls of Area 51?"

Sora grit her teeth, chains grabbing Rulia by the ponytail and pulling again. Rulia kicked Sora backwards, tearing her arm out the android and reopening the wound. Before Sora could stumble back, Rulia grabbed Sora's right shoulder. With her foot at Sora's waist, Rulia gave a strong pull of her own, ripping Sora's arm off her body, spraying more red liquid. Spinning round and tightly holding Sora's dismembered arm still holding the Black Blade, she cut through all the chains at once, demonstrating the sharpness of the weapon. Facing Sora again, Rulia pulled Sora's arm off the sword's handle and tossed the appendage aside, sending the weapon into her hammerspace for herself. Sora's abdomen once again healed itself but her shoulder was unable to reproduce the intrinsic design of arm, instead continuing to leak liquid.

"So who are you?" inquired Rulia, beginning to advance on Sora for the second time. Sora staggered backwards, holding her shoulder gash with her left hand, eventually backing into the wall. Rulia stepped straight up to Sora and without warning thrust her arm straight through Sora's midriff. Sora was fully aware Rulia was searching for more information.

Reaching under her shirt, Sora pulled out a glass cylinder with a metal top and bottom. Inside was a small crystal, beginning to spin round. "I never realised you hated me so much to cause me so much pain, Rulia." The cylinder was emitting a low humming sound. "We were the best of friends before, we can be best of friends again." There was a whirling noise as Sora's eyes lost their shine. The flow of information to Rulia slowed to a crawl. Sora had been deactivated and formatted. She was not coming back any time soon.

Rulia's left cannon arm, retracted its roots back, revealing her normal arm and the One Ring. Her eyes fixed on the cylinder, Rulia picked the cylinder off Sora's hand. She recognised it as the self-destruct bomb from the VOiCE Vocaloid PV but the crystal inside slowed down, Rulia managing to stop it somehow and sent it to hammerspace. Denying Sora her final farewell, Rulia continued to scan for information, making use of fact that deleted files can still be recovered. She repeatedly came across Sora's memories of the times the two had spent together during The Second Year, triggering a sense of longing. Then she came across the big revelation.

"Skynet."

Skynet was a murderous sentient AI from the world of Terminators, having made them herself. Essentially a virus with no body of her own, she was the ultimate being to take over other digital characters, with the possible exception of the goddesses. Rulia was about to extract her arm from Sora when she came across something else.

"Puppetmaster Rokiahi?"

Rulia could feel her anger growing as she scrounged for more information to make the mysterious message clearer.

"The First Four: Rokiahi, Rulia, Chamber, Void."

Not quite related but that was all she could find. She looked at the determined expression frozen on Sora's face and sighed. She bowed her head forward, touching Sora's forehead with her own. "I'm sorry, Sora. But I need your power." There was a loud crunch as Rulia crushed Sora's hard-drive in her chest with her right hand, permanently preventing Sora from ever booting up again.

Sora faded back to her original colours as Rulia stepped back, pulling her arm out of the Vocaloid. Both of them were stained with red. Rulia's right arm armour clicked out of position, withdrawing down to her fingers and folding out of sight.

Rulia took one last glance at the standing and lifeless Sora before looking towards the HMS Thunder Child. The ship side hatch opened on Rulia's mental request. She was fully aware the Thunder Child could normally only be used by Vocaloids and those with access codes so why could she control it?

Rulia walked up to the water the Thunder Child was floating on and looked at her reflection, becoming more aware of what she was doing and what she had done. She knelt down, took a handful of water and splashed it on her face, washing the red off. As she wiped her face, her left eye ignited with blue fire, her complexion getting paler and her hair and clothes turning jet black with the exception of her now white tie. The white star of Black★Rock Shooter was proudly emblazoned on the left side of her black shirt.

Rulia opened her eyes with purpose, the blue flame sparking in conviction. The AI Director, Yggdrasil and Skynet had made themselves an enemy. She was not alone either. There was The Second Four after all.