“What are you guys lookin’ at?” Kristen heard a voice. Disoriented, she turned to see the speaker, a young man lying in a hospital bed with a leg harness. She couldn’t answer, no matter how hard she thought, her mind was blank. Looking around, she saw several of her colleagues with similar expressions to hers, all standing in front of the large 4th floor windows of a Hospital Bedroom looking in the direction of the parking lot.

She spotted a bunch of police cars, officers standing around them - all of them looking bewildered and their cars parked strangely around the lot. Scanning around longer, she noticed a familiar young boy.

“Darith? What the heck is he doing...” She whispered to herself, then her mind came to a few realizations. Her first worry immediately became Liana, she rushed out of the room and through the hospital corridors, spotting more confused doctors and nurses as they slowly got back to work.

“Liana?” She called out through the floor, checking each corridor. Remembering that she had left her near Jaese’s room, she headed down a floor, but as she exited the stairwell and looked through the long hall, she saw Liana’s wheelchair, empty.

“Liana?!” Kristed shouted, no longer concerned with the volume of her voice, causing others to look as she rushed towards the wheelchair. She reached it, looked in the empty room, then glanced around at others passing by. “Have you seen Liana, the girl with the arm cast?”

“No… I don’t think so…” a passing doctor replied, rubbing his head. He kept talking but Kristen didn’t listen, she called out again.

“LIANA!” She looked into several more rooms. Then a thought popped into her mind - Darith. She rushed back to the Stairwell and ran down to the first floor, then towards the lobby, pushing past everyone without any concern until she reached the front foyer and waiting room of the hospital, where she saw Darith walking in. She felt relieved for a moment, but at the same time taken aback - everyone around had looks of confusion and bewilderment as she had - but Darith did not, he looked at her and smiled.

“Mom!” He said, with a look of relief as he rushed across the lobby and hugged her, to which she happily embraced him. “Mom are you okay? Are you hurt?” He asked.

“Yes I’m fine.” She replied. “Why would I be hurt? What are you doing here? Nevermind, have you seen Liana?”

“I - well… wasn’t she with you?” Darith asked, avoiding eye contact with his Mom as he feigned glancing around the Hospital to look for her. Kristen watched his eyes carefully.

“Darith this isn’t funny. If you know where she is, tell me. She can get seriously hurt if you keep -” Kristen was interrupted.

“I’m here!” Liana called out, coming out of an elevator in her wheelchair, approaching the two of them. Kristen quickly turned to see her and rushed over, Darith following.

“Liana! Where were you?”

“I was just caught up in the Elevator… you know… I was trying to find what floor you were on!” Liana replied hesitantly.

“But I saw your Wheelchair, it was empty!” Kristen replied. Liana forced a shrug.

“Wasn’t mine.” Liana replied. Kristen let out a sigh. for a moment doubting herself, then carefully eyed the two of them.

“And why did you come here Darith? What about school?” Kristen asked.

“It’s finished… I just came to hang out, yknow.” Darith replied.

“Right.” Kristen paused. “My head’s feeling a bit weird. I’m going to take the rest of the day off and get my things. Both of you stay put.” Kristen replied, then rushed off further into the hospital.

“Phew.” Liana said once she was out of earshot.

“You think she believes us?” Darith asked.

“I wouldn’t.” Liana sighed. The two were quiet for a moment, just now finally having time to compose themselves. Looking at Liana, Darith noticed her arm and neck trembling slightly.

“Are you okay?” Darith looked her in the eyes.

“Y-yeah… probably just the adrenaline.” Liana replied. He watched her silently for a moment, then glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to them.

“I need to rethink this game’s mechanics. Those City Guards specifically. Up until now I’ve been afraid of them, but it seems like their punishment is really easy to avoid. First Jacob, then this - that guy even used a spell to avoid them from interfering in our fight in the middle of a city.” Darith said.

“It’s almost like the game doesn’t really care what happens to people who aren’t playing.” Liana replied.

“Yeah… I don’t think that’s what their true purpose is. If I had to guess, their job is to protect the game itself, not the players or non-players. We still don’t really understand how all of this is possible.”

“So that means nothing’s really stopping players from using spells like that Thomas guy?”

“Yeah. If people keep getting new and stronger spells, things might get even worse. I think…. I-” Darith hesitated for a moment, and Liana watched his expression carefully.

“We should try to beat the game and end this before it gets out of hand?” Liana asked, predicting what he was going to say.

“Y-yeah, but that’d mean we would lose our character bodies.” Darith replied. The two both looked down at their feet, each thinking over.

“I don’t want the whole world to get destroyed just so I can walk.” Liana replied after a few moments of silence.

“It’s not fair. In the Desert, and in the Frozen Caverns we met so many players enjoying the game for what it was without hurting others. Just because of a few bad people... There’s got to be another way.” Darith said in frustration. He looked to Liana in her wheelchair, thinking for another moment. “What if we do it?” Darith asked her.

“Do what?” Liana asked.

“What if we protect people from the bad players? We do what the City Guards are supposed to be doing?” Darith replied, and to this suggestion, Liana seemed to regain hope.

“How could we do something like that?”

“There’s got to be a way. Tons of spells we haven’t learned yet - if we learn the right ones we can make sure no one else gets hurt.”

“But Thomas was part of a guild, what if there’s a whole bunch of people in it like him?” Liana replied.

“Then we give them all Game Over. We get stronger and we make sure that nothing like this happens anymore. We’ll gather all the players like us to take a stand against the bad ones.” Darith said with confidence.

“Do you really think that’ll work?”

“Yeah. If it doesn’t, we’ll try to beat the game instead. but I want to at least try.”

“Okay… okay let’s do it! Thank you, Darith.” Liana smiled at him, tears swelling up in her eyes.

“No problem, you’re not the only one who likes their game body better.” Darith said while failing to flex his arm muscles.

“No, I mean, thanks for coming to save me.” Liana replied, to which Darith shrugged.

“That’s what Knights of Justice do.” He said with a smile.

“Who’s a Knight of Justice?” Kristen asked as she approached them from behind them in her casual attire. “Ready to go home?” She asked. The two nodded cheerfully. “Great, I can’t wait to get there.” Kristen said in a sinister tone.

The three of them drove with few words said between them. It wasn’t until they arrived back at home and shut the door behind them that Kristen spoke up.

“Alright.” She said in a commanding tone. “The two of you are going to tell me what the hell is going on.” Kristen said, shocking both of them into looking at her.

“What do you mean?” Darith replied, avoiding her eyes.

“You’ve never come to the hospital to just ‘hang out’. Not to mention your classes ended 30 minutes before you showed up, so unless you became a world record sprinter overnight or have a jet in your pocket, that means you left school early. And you -” She said, turning to Liana. “I saw your wheelchair empty. That’s twice this week I found it like that. I don’t know who you got to carry you around in the hospital, but this isn’t a joke. You could cause more damage to your body if you keep being reckless like that.” She finished, looking at them.

The two nervously looked at each other.

“Well, I was just coming to play that game with Liana, it’s really fun.”

“Please don’t tell me you are missing school for a video game.” Kristen snapped back.

“No, I didn’t, I just came after class.” Darith said hesitantly.

“Darith don’t you dare lie to me. That’s how it started with your father, just like this.” From this, something snapped in Darith’s mind and Liana watched his expression change.

“I’m nothing like him!” Darith shouted back.

“You’re acting like he did. Lost his job from missing too much work to play games, just like you’re trying to get out of school. Then the next step is staying at home doing nothing with yourself for the rest of your life. I knew giving you a day off was a mistake.”

“I didn’t miss any classes!” Darith shouted back. “I go to every single one just to make you happy, just to keep our damn promise because you’re so scared I’ll be like him.”

“You think I want you to go to classes for me? That I made you promise to go for my benefit?” Kristen shouted at him.

“Of course! None of my friends’ parents are as strict about it as you.”

“It’s because I care about you.” Kristen replied.

“If you cared so much then why’d you leave me alone with Dad all the time.”

“Mom, Darith, stop!” Liana shouted, getting both of their attention finally. As they turned, they saw her standing, now in her game body. Both eyes wide open, moreso for Kristen. “Darith was telling the truth, he was in Class but he came to the hospital to help me out a-” Before Liana could finish, Kristen fainted, falling backwards, with Darith able to move to catch her before her head hit the floor. He then looked at Liana.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, since the City Guards suck, I figured… y'know. I wanted you guys to stop fighting.” Liana shrugged nervously.

“C’mon, help me carry her to the couch.” Darith replied, and the two carefully moved the unconscious Kristen into the living room. Once she was settled down, they took a step back. “You’re going to have to explain it to her, I don’t think she’ll want to hear it from me.”

“You should apologize and explain it. Your mom was right, you know, she just cares about you.”

“She said I was acting like Dad, when I’ve been trying so hard to not be like him. It just got me so mad.” Darith replied angrily.

“Look at it from her perspective, this game stuff is really weird and she doesn’t know what has been happening like we do.” Liana replied.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He said hesitantly.

“Good, so you apologize and explain what's happening. If you tell her what's going on then I bet she’ll stop making you go to class. Y’know, protecting all the people from bad players and stuff.”

“I doubt it.” Darith replied.

“I’ll go make her favorite tea for when she gets up.” Liana said, a spring in her step. As she walked past her wheelchair she began folding it into a smaller form, then tucked it beside the coat rack. “Won’t be needing you anymore.” She smiled to herself.

As the kettle from the kitchen began to whistle, Darith watched over his mother on the couch as her eyes began to slowly open, and she looked up to see Darith’s face.

“That’s twice in one day.” She mumbled while rubbing her head.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you. I don’t want to be like Dad.” Darith said, as she sat up.

“You’re not. I’m sorry too...” She paused with a disfigured expression. “Di - was Liana just standing?” Kristen asked.

“Yeah. Let me explain everything that’s been happening.” Darith said, then took a deep breath preparing to start.

“Wait, wait, before that.” She paused. “Did she also just call me Mom?” Kristen asked, this time in a whisper.