Chapter 58.1 - Overwritten

Overwritten
A soaked Rulia stumbled into a white room before slipping over, face first onto the floor. The commotion over the Atlantic was silenced as the gap closed behind her. With her eyes half open, she coughed violently, emptying her lungs of the water. With her head on her right ear, she could faintly see a glass pedestal with a perfectly round crystal ball on top of it. Even though Rulia had never seen Yggdrasil before, she immediately knew the crystal ball was him. "...Yg..." she mumbled, unable to talk on her front. White tumbled into the room in front of Rulia, falling to one knee in pain. She was bleeding badly, the fight with Skynet and Rulia having opened up some of her old wounds. Gathering some effort, White turned Rulia onto her back. With the strain of the One Ring, Frostmourne, Super Driver and liquid Hakurei Barrier, as well as the lack of Zyling and the probably unintentional mental weakening by The Red Marker, Rulia did not have the energy to lift a finger.

White sat down next to Rulia, taking off her small jacket, "I know you have a lot of questions, Rulia," she said, "But my minutes are numbered. Both Skynet and The Director have declared war on me." White tore a cuff off the jacket with her teeth.

"... Can't you just kill everyone?" murmured Rulia, in a very quiet voice. Now on her back, she found it easier to talk. She turned her eyes to White. With her vision blurred and her eyes close to closing, she could barely tell what White was doing.

White sighed at the insult, wiping the blood off her legs and face with the cuff, "I don't know if you've noticed but I follow The Unwritten Law. Or at least try to. Being what Haruhi calls an Invisible, I was not affected by Sasaki's injection of The Unwritten Law on Doomsday."

"So why do you obey it?"

"... Because then they can help save lives..." White tore a sleeve off the jacket, tying it tightly round her bleeding thigh.

Rulia laughed with pity, "You probably have the blood of twenty billion people on your hands."

"How so?"

Rulia coughed hoarsely as she turned her head to look at White, "... Do people you control know what's going on? Is White aware of me?"

"Everyone under control, under The Director, Skynet or myself, will remember exactly what's going on. After I'm gone, White will remember having this conversation with you," White looked at Rulia, who could just make out her magenta eyes.

After a pause, Rulia spoke up, "White★Rock Shooter. Black★Rock Shooter was shot by the Hand Canon. Moved her back to her own world. Stella has taken her place and is under Agent Smith's control. But more importantly, Black is Infected."

White did not say a word.

Rulia continued, "In her own world, without whatever's preventing the Infection from progressing in this world, she will become fully infected. She will infect everyone in her world."

There was a pause from White, "Black is isolated in her own pocket dimension separate from its parent world. Everyone in it was affected by Doomsday so she won't be infecting anyone."

"Why did you send Black back?"

"To protect you. Black's Shooter powers make you physically invincible, far better than vampiric abilities. I requested that Sora be with you at the Arctic Prison. Skynet did not object as she thought it would make sense for her to defend her best friend. From there, you only needed a prod to take Sora's Shooter Powers from her."

"Sora didn't seem so invincible to me."

"She was a machine. The part of Black's soul that accompanies her powers could not integrate with Sora's non-biological systems. Her loss was necessary. But Sora has a backup, she can be brought back."

Yggdrasil apparently didn't know that Rulia already knew this. She noticed that Yggdrasil failed to mention that KC's backup of Sora did not include The Second Year. Rulia could not find the effort for any anger. "And about Miku... I heard you shot her too."

"I went too far. I might be what you call a god but I'll be the first to admit I'm not efficient. Both the Director and Skynet are governed by their programming. But I am sentient. I can make decisions for myself, as terrible as they might be. I needed Skynet to back off while I... dealt with you but then she began to delete Miku. Unlike Sora, I wasn't sure whether Miku had a backup. I know she had one on The Yamaha Network during The First Year but when they moved to New Yamaha, they wiped the Network clean. I have no idea what goes on in New Yamaha so I wasn't prepared to risk Miku being deleted. Hence I sent her back to her own world to cancel her deletion."

"She's a Carrier. She'll infect her world."

"She's smart. She'll figure out how to prevent the infection spreading."

"I'm not convinced."

"Doesn't matter. I saved Miku from being killed by Skynet."

"... I have not witnessed Skynet killing anyone."

"Not in front of you, but she's allowing her people to die on purpose. Kagamine Rin, Chip, EDI, Harbinger, Hatsune and Zatsune Miku... I'd name more but I'm sure you don't believe me."

On the contrary, Rulia knew about EDI's downfall on the Normandy SR-2 back in Ashiya, Japan, when it was shot down by Icarus. Rulia had been unconscious at the time but Chamber had leaked the information during her statis. The thing was, Icarus was definitely digitally controlled which would mean it belonged to Skynet. Similarly, the Ion Cannons, Particle Cannons, spacecraft and all other vehicles with digital interfaces would be Skynet's. So Skynet caused the most damage back then to all sides. Why was she willing to allow such losses to her forces? Skynet was clearly aware that she possessed the smallest military out of The Digital Three. Was this the price for everyone to go back to their own worlds?

"... I don't get it." Rulia's eyes closed completely.

"Look, Rulia, I would tell you everything but you must understand, Skynet is everywhere. She's always listening. Skynet must not find out my reason."

"Skynet is everywhere?"

"She is the ultimate scientific AI. Of course she would start taking over my territory as soon as she could. As I expanded the digital world, Skynet would follow behind, stamping her name on every bit of data she could. But I was the ultimate supernatural AI. With exceptions, I could overrule her, and take over any being that didn't make total sense to her, at least not at first. Intelligent non-human animals, humanistic aliens with completely different DNA, animated objects with no logical way to move and many others, leaving only machines, humans and normal animals. Then The Director came along, took over the humans, and then started enforcing rules on us. No friendly fire between Carriers, no idling, no hacking unless permitted by The Convenience Theory. Now, the first point doesn't affect Skynet because she's Infected. The second is also useless as since she is everywhere, if any Carrier is not idling then she isn't either. The third point is the tricky one."

"How does The Director define hacking?" Rulia could feel The Super Driver gaining more and more control over her as her own energy began to fade.

"Having a superhuman attribute that The Convenience Theory would not grant in a non-digital world. Your multiple personalities are covered by The Convenience Theory as is the combined capability of your infinite personalities to believe that anything is possible. But your ability to mould the world to your will is not, only granted in a flexible digital world. Luckily for me and Skynet, we activated and did our hacking before The Director took over, so he did not regard it as cheating. Sadly for me, this happened after Skynet unlocked Nagato Yuki's, Kimidori Emiri's and Suou Kuyou's potential in a digital world, putting them on par with Haruhi when combined. As it turns out, putting a humanoid interface in a digital environment works wonders." Rulia couldn't help thinking someone was missing from that list but was too tired to recall. "On the other hand, this does prevent Skynet from cloning her forces without doing proper construction, as her ability to copy-paste isn't covered by The Convenience Theory."

"So you're trying to take over me with The Convenience Theory."

"Yes, but not to avoid hacking. In any case, I can't directly control you because you're human so The Convenience Theory is the only way I can do that. I do have ways to instantly control people but, apart from being easily defeated with outside interference, I needed you to resist the takeover, otherwise you would never gain godlike powers. I just didn't realise The Director would consider it cheating. I'm sorry. I was hoping to have Neo as a backup in case something happened to you but it didn't work out. Unlike you, Neo's power level is tied by The Convenience Theory to Smith so Neo's potential is limited. He also wasn't affected by the Marker."

"Do you control the Red Marker?"

"No, I don't. There are many out there that are not controllable by the Director, Skynet or myself. Neither Carriers or Infected, to The Director they are just observers and can do whatever they want. The Red Marker, Gravemind, Neo, Smith, Void, for example. However, The Red Marker can only communicate via the deceased, such as Sora-" Rulia winced. "-which is bound to cause mental instability." Rulia couldn't help agreeing. "Everything else was via me though. The One Ring via Sauron, Frostmourne via The Lich King, The Super Driver via Haruhi, all of whom I control."

"So what do you need me for?"

"I need someone that can mould the universe at a whim. No weaker variants such as reality bending or fate changing. It has to be full on omnipotence. Only two beings in the pre-digital universe satisfied this condition: Haruhi and Sasaki, but apparently their abilities get watered down in the digital world especially since now everything's purely digital, everything's an Invisible to them. Now another two beings in the digital universe satisfy this condition: Skynet and, hopefully with enough effort, you. I can't do this because I have no control over the environment."

"Leaving me as your only option."

"What I want doesn't matter at the moment. It's a long term target. What I'm concerned about is what Skynet wants. She wants to finish a Hand Canon, to send everyone back to their own world. This requires supernatural omniscience. Sadly, a hit to omnipotence does not affect omniscience so four beings satisfy this condition: Haruhi, Sasaki, myself and, with enough effort, you. Skynet cannot control me, but can the others. Sasaki is fine as Skynet will not go against The Director. Haruhi is risky but I have control priority over Skynet, so she can't gain her without destroying me. Leaving you as her priority target."

"Can't you just destroy Skynet?"

"She is one of only two options I have and I'm not completely confident you'll become a goddess. She has already proved that she can do what I want her to do without realising it. As long as I remain here to keep her in check, we should be fine." The vagueness of this statement suggested this was something Yggdrasil did not want Skynet to hear. Yggdrasil predicted Rulia's next question. "I do not want to destroy The Director because he prevents Skynet from using some of her more powerful digital powers. Also, he controls Sasaki, someone I cannot easily control myself, even via The Convenience Theory."

"Why doesn't Skynet destroy The Director?"

"She can't. The Director resides outside the known universe. The only option that leaves, I guess, is time travel to prevent me from digitalising the universe so The Director cannot make the initial connection. However, that's not within Skynet's best interests as that would mean she'd stay stuck in Area 51. Now, Skynet can destroy me, at least temporarily. When I am destroyed, the digital universe system is reset, including Skynet, and then I will respawn back again."

"The digital universe? What would happen to Naluri and Rokiahi? They're not digital, are they?"

"Indeed not. And nor is Zyling, actually. I personally don't know what would happen though Skynet seems to, seeing as though she's willing to risk them. By the way, you almost killed Rokiahi at Area 51. She is not a superhuman and does not have enhanced durability so your punch caused some pretty severe brain trauma. Had Skynet not performed some major surgery, she could have died." A pang of guilt ran through Rulia, which only helped The Super Driver establish stronger control. "Skynet needs Rokiahi to finish The Hand Canon. Her only other option is Naluri but it would require memory loss. However, the problem with that is that fear, The Hand Canon's missing emotion, happens to be the best emotion for reversing memory loss. I was going to take Rokahi under my wing at Area 51, to get her away from Skynet, but Skynet's medical prowess is much better than mine. I wanted Rokiahi to survive."

Rulia noted that Skynet was the only member of The Digital Three that would have been affected by Sasaki's implementation of The Unwritten Law on Doomsday. Would Skynet be so willing to ditch the law? Especially given her apparent close friendship with the powerful Director. Her existence was not compromised by Yggdrasil or his plans. But there was something else. Yggdrasil mentioned he was the only member of The Digital Three who was sentient. Could Skynet ever rebel against her programming? And Skynet was all powerful in the new digital world. The data was there for her to mould.

It was at this point Rulia realised Skynet was playing Yggdrasil for a fool.

There was another issue. As he stated, Yggdrasil seemed to be unaware of the future. Which would suggest Yggdrasil did not know about the story Chamber had downloaded on Rokiahi's behalf back in Ashiya. By her omniscient nature, Skynet was definitely aware. But Skynet had been making her own mistakes, apparently, not taking the story to heart. But then Rulia recalled a statement she overheard from Miku at Area 51 on Yggdrasil's betrayal: "The Director was right from the start." How could the unintelligent Director ever be more right about the future than the omniscient Skynet or the sentient Yggdrasil?

"I don't understand. You follow The Unwritten Law but you don't want us to go back home? Haven't you seen how much damage Doomsday has done?"

"Rulia..." sighed White, "You see... Doomsday never happened."

"What...?" croaked Rulia. She opened her eyes to find herself staring into the glowing red eyes of Reisen Udongein Inaba. Rulia's mind went completely blank.