Twisted Wonderland

Loss of Power

"I'm sorry, Idia. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Idia pauses, making sure he heard correctly. "What?"

"I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to make sure zero doesn't stay zero. And about what it means to do what you can."

"What are you talking about?" Idia shakes his head. "This isn't the time!"

"And then I reached the optimal solution." Ortho continues. "If fixing our story, our future, isn't possible, then we can just erase and rewrite it from scratch! That's how programming works, right? Why do a tedious, manual debug of code that's been through multiple engineers, all of whom have introduced their own bugs? It's much faster to rewrite the code entirely. Which means we can just reset this buggy world and let you be reborn!"

"Ortho, what's gotten into you?" Idia scoffs "So I was right. There's a bug in your AI logic unit. I should've done maintenance on you then and there!"

"It's not a bug, Idia. I'm expressing my will."

Idia narrows his eyes. "No, you're not. You're... You're a technomantic humanoid with an on-board autonomous AI modeled after my little brother. What you think is your 'will' is just a program!"

Ortho pauses before continuing. "You're right, I'm an artificial being. But didn't you know? The person who built me is a technomantic engineering savant known as the maverick genius. You! So I can go beyond the confines of my robotic existence... I can exceed the limits of my programming!"

A technician types frantically. "Our main server is under some kind of cyberattack! I was able to trace it. It's coming from... Ortho's AI program?"

"The attack's spreading fast! Aegis wall is down! Control of all Styx systems is being transferred to Ortho's AI!"

Idia rushes over to a monitor. "You're kidding me! Ortho doesn't have that kind of authorization! I'll stop him!" Idia types on a keyboard. "What?"

"Ortho rejected the emergency shutdown code. We're still under attack!"

"Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos servers have all been compromised!"

"All system access codes are being overridden!"

Idia runs a hand through his hair. "He's overriding the programs faster than I can type! This calls for drastic measures. I want a hard shutdown of EVERYTHING, including emergency power!"

"It's not working! I can't get the power to shut off!"

"Are you serious? If we don't stop him..." Idia pales. "He's gonna take over the entire island!"

The power in the room shuts off. Ortho chuckles. "Surprised? Looks like I win this little RTS game."

"Ortho, please, just stop." Idia pleads. "You can't recreate the world; it's impossible!"

"That's where you're wrong. It's like Vil Schoenheit said. If there's any possibility at all, even a 0.001% chance, then it can happen! In the new world, Phantoms will coexist with other living creatures. I'm going to open up the Underworld and Tartarus, and the world will become filled with blot. And since our curse lets us incinerate blot, we'll be on top in the new world! Then we can have friends over whenever we want, just like regular people. We can play video games and watch movies together. And when they go home, we won't have to erase their memories. We'll be able to say, 'Let's do this again sometime!' Whatever you desire will be yours, Idia. Premo concerts, video games, the rest of your favorite manga, you name it. You'll rule the entire universe, Idy! You'll be a superhero!"

Idia freezes. "Did you just say 'Idy?' I don't believe it... That's impossible! I know what happened to Ortho that day... Wait a minute. Only people with Shroud family DNA can shut down the Cerberus System. But you can't be him. Or can you? Is it... is it really you, Ortho?"

Idia rushes out of the control room. The technicians watch in disappear in shock.

"Acting Director? Where are you going? Acting Director! MR. SHROUD!"

Idia jumps into one of the chariots and takes off. The chariot dives down into the depths of Tartarus. Once he hits the bottom, Idia hops of the chariot. The green light illuminates his face.

"The Underworld gate is open... Ortho, are you there?"

"Yep, I'm right here. I've dreamed of the day I'd see you again. We can leave for real this time and go far away. But I'm sorry... It's gonna take me a while to get out. I'm much bigger than I used to be..."

Idia narrows his eyes. "Just leave it to your big bro."

In a private room, the lights shut off. Grim looks around wildly.

"What's goin' on? It got dark all of a sudden. Hey, is anybody there?! Idiaaa! Orthooo! Ooh... That smell..."

Grim's eyes glow. The flames in his ears grow bigger. Looking like when he scratched your arm.

"That's a real nice smell. I'd know it anywhere. It's a stone! I SMELL A STONE! Lemme out! I gotta get outta here!"

Grim leaps off the bed and claws at the door. With a powerful roar, he plows through the thick metal doors. In the dark hallway, Grim's eyes glow brightly. He sniffs the air, whipping his head towards the direction of the smell. With that, he races down the long, dark hall.