Damien nodded and translated her practical plan to the rest of the group. "It's not about William as such, it's about what everyone else does. If the G.C. have something to hide, like say a demon nest, they're going to go out of their way to stop us from gaining access to the arena. Ever. They probably already have protocols in place from previous attempts.

“Technology wise… It’s all intellectual property, which is proprietary information and well within their legal rights to safe-guard. I have a few safety protocols on the demon shield tech to prevent reverse engineering. Heaven knows, I’ve had my fair share of competitors try to muscle into my territory with little more than really expensive snake oil. The G.C. definitely have something important that they want to protect. But it might not be a demon.” Damien directed the last statement at Astral, who nodded, filing away the possibility.

Damien continued. "That said, when we by-pass their rules, legally or otherwise, forcing our way into that last arena, the G.C. will want to tag along. I mean honestly, even if there was no demon, I'd want to tag along just to see how the little shit managed to by-pass all the security.

"I can see William possibly being at risk during a scenario where the G.C. are knowingly harboring a demon, and need to keep the kid quiet, and possibly any team we send with him. They’ll be watching us just as much as we’ll be watching them…

“As for the how’s and when’s… Well that depends if we’re dealing with a cult of zealots or organized sociopaths. It’s the difference between short-sightedness with an unhealthy dose of blind vengeance, and ‘it’s nothing personal; it’s just business’ mindset.” Damien sneered the infamous line.

Avery frowned, tying together the pieces Astral had left out of her report that had been pending proof. Despite the lack of evidence, she had made her requests for the E.M.I. to pursue William and keep him under their protection until further notice. Astral didn’t doubt that Agent White had felt that the teenager was overstepping her position, and had even hesitated gracing Astral with a patient big sister sigh that said, ‘I think you’re wasting your time. But if this is what you want to do…I’ll humour you for now.’ Now, it turns out Astral was right to suspect something was amiss.

Avery reported, “William is now in E.M.I. custody and will remain so until this ordeal is concluded.” She glanced to Astral, assuming that this is what she had intended. “They are under strict orders not to let that kid out of their sight. Though I’m sure they think they’re assigned to the kid because of…well you know.”

Astral hoped that Avery had assigned professionals. She hoped that Avery hadn’t let the idea slip that torturing William was a good idea. Sure, the bastard needed a good solid lesson in fear, but William was the type to persevere. Once he overcame his fears, they could never be used against him. There was an art to fear management that tittered between despair and insanity. The E.M.I. hadn’t the capacity to appreciate the art, therefore would become little more than adult bullies to an insecure teenage boy who suspected that the world was set against him. She couldn’t afford that mistake. Not this time.

“He’s definitely part of something bigger than himself,” Mathias said. “My concern now is that if the G.C. are as involved as we fear, maybe two agents aren’t enough. What if they make a move tonight? During this meeting? Or while we sleep? How do I know we’ll get home safely? Will William have to live in perpetual fear? He already thinks that the Academy is involved in covering up his kidnapping.”

“Master Mathers…” Avery started while struggling to find the words to justify her decisions, all while asking for forgiveness. “By the time we recovered our proxy and learned of your son’s involvement… with everything that had happened…” She sighed and looked to ceiling for guidance. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: The night your son disappeared, a legion of husks were trying to breakout of arena two. Some evolved to full on constructs. The fact that William survived at all is very suspicious.”

“I understand,” Mathias relented. “I’ve mourned his loss when you told me the news. But now… With such awful accusations. I’m devastated in thinking what role I played in his entrapment. As his father, I don’t want him to suffer for the decisions that made sense at the time. I don’t want him to suffer because he beat the odds.”

Astral had recounted the details of that night to Avery as part of her report. She had left it up to the agent to decide what to share with Mathias, since Avery was better with people than she was, especially with something as serious as death.

When she had descended into the program depths, she was separated from William. She couldn't go back the way she came, revealing just how much control the demon had over that particular elevator access. She had run tests previously on the other towers and other access points didn’t exist. Just in case, she had all three towers restrict elevator access from the ground floor.

With William consumed by the darkness, she stopped worrying about protecting him from the things he might see, and focused instead on eliminating the demon. Killing the damned thing quickly was the only way to save the boy. But she failed.

Seth had shouted after William when he entered the fray. Astral hadn't seen him in the mesh of hungry husks. How had William survived the ordeal? She doubted that he knew himself. But she might be able to pick apart pieces from his fragmented memories.

"We all share that burden," Astral offered. Coming from her, those same words translated to 'but we need to focus on the present'.

"I'll have people look into the kid's claim," Avery said. "But even our resources are limited. I feel like we might be getting stretched a little thin." She glanced to Astral, who was relieved that she didn't have to review months of footage. Without organic life moving on the screen, she could no longer see the physical setting or the nuances of changing light. Without a soul to embed itself into the words of a text, the visuals of a painting, or love into a handcrafted project, she was useless for surveillance.

Dezmond acknowledged Mathias’ concerns. “At this point, Agent White, William is a person of interest. His situation may not be unique. I’m sure we can spare an agent to keep tabs on the boy while in Clearwater up until he transitions to one of the monasteries.”

Damien offered, "Have your guys figure out a pattern and I'll set up an algorithm to speed things up for you. That should reduce the man hours, while broadening our scope. Unless, you know something?" He directed his question to the mortified Headmaster.

Vincent sat at the edge of his seat, staring stone faced out at the campus. His mind was disengaging from the complexities of the situation in a desperate attempt to preserve itself from insanity. "Hrm? Oh, I don't know anything about that. I had my suspicions about the game, but I didn't think it affected the students in general."

"We'll find out who’s behind this," Damien offered in way of apology. "We might not like the answer, but it needs to be done."

"I just don't understand why. Why target the children? Why here? What sort of person sacrifices their own?" Vincent was breaking.

"We need people like you who will stop at nothing to put end to people like that," Astral said. "Without you, we would not be here. Without you, we would not have uncovered the depth of the problem. It's overwhelming. Sure. But we know something is actively going on here."

His gaze shifted to Astral, locking onto her. She felt herself burrow into him, filling her mind with conversations of his past and future. Her vision filled with blinding light before she was regurgitated to her world of twilight darkness. The dark pools lapped at her bare feet.

She saw the images of the people from the meeting reflected in the water as though she was standing on the underside of the room, with her standing directly beneath herself. A moment in time stretched.

The headmaster's voice whispered through her dark domain, joined by the chorus of stars. She pulled one star from the heavens and opened it up. At her finger tips lay the Headmaster's life. At some point, his soul had joined the multi-billions in her twilight vigil. How? When?

Her connection to him broke in the real world, pulling her back. She turned to survey the campus, catching a glimpse of his reflection, as he shifted in his seat toward Dezmond. Something about the Headmaster had changed. The storm of conflict and uncertainty in the old man's soul had vanished, leaving in its wake the freshness of a spring rain. 'What did you do?' Astral accused her core.

She couldn't feel it. It had gone dormant. It had done something. Whatever it was, it needed to rest.

Avery refocused the group to the task at hand. "Given what the kid has been though, I’m not keen on using him as bait. But I agree with our proxy, at least with the idea his subconscious might have the answers we’re looking for. Given that so far there have been at least one access point in arenas one and two, logically, there should also be an access point in arena three. We think this is how William managed to survive. He might have taken a wrong turn and got lost in the tunnels.

“The problem is, the layout of arena three has changed completely. The footage… to say it’s been tampered with is a bit of understatement. But… it’s not the usual sort of tampering. Every time we watch it, it’s out of order, or skipping, or showing completely different cuts. It’s like watching as seizure.”

Astral cocked her head as she considered Avery’s choice of words. “Liked fractured memories. Like something is remembering an event in bits, and is trying to restring it together to get it to make sense, or to become the story they want.” Was the demon afflicted by the same issue she was suffering from? If it knew she was coming for him, was he preparing for her this time?

“I guess it’s something like that,” Avery frowned. She didn’t understand, but was too embarrassed to ask for clarity. Honestly, Astral wasn’t sure she could elaborate. What concerned her was that if the footage was a replay of the demon’s memory of the game’s events, then the physical impact of the influence was stronger and more powerful that she anticipated. It was already re-writing the games. It had already re-constituted the playing fields. It wouldn’t be long before it would embed itself into the digital space to physically afflict players. This was a serious problem…

“William is our best chance at finding that access point. Once we assume control over the entry point, we can rally our troops and assault the demon directly. The rest of it is just cleaning up loose ends with the power players. We should be able to get this mess sorted by morning,” Avery winked at the Headmaster.

The Headmaster frowned. "Why can't we just dig beneath the elevator to reach the program chamber?"