Pixelate 3: Final Stand

Chapter 23: Splitting Back Into Two

Two weeks later...

Risa: "(groggy) Uh..."

Everyone has awoken in the hospital, some for the third time in the past year.

William: "(groggy) Again?"

William and Risa share a room.

Risa: "(shaking head) Well at least we weren't killed and we won."

A knock is heard.

William: "Go ahead."

Walker and Caleb enter the room.

William: "Third time."

Walker: "At least your all okay. I had just visited everyone else and I just wanted to remind you all that school is back in session in two weeks."

William: "(sarcastically) Great."

Caleb is hugging the dog.

Walker: "I just want to ask if you don't mind helping Caleb out on day one. He'll be a sophmore and he won't let go of Echoes."

William: "We can handle it."

Caleb has a look of relief on his face.

Caleb: "(relieved) Thank you."

Walker: "Thankfully none of you were critically injured, only drained."

Risa: "Bio-Link Z took a lot out of us."

Walker: "I've also gotten into contact with the head of Tomorrow's Knights. We've been working on separating the code for the games, but you'll still be able to log in while the merged state is still present."

Risa: "So is Anti-Aegis disposed of?"

Walker has a worried expression.

Walker: "We don't know."

Another knock is heard.

Risa: "Go ahead."

Zack enters while attached to an IV bag.

Walker: "I guess you got to talk a bit."

Walker and Caleb leave.

Zack: "So Shining Hope is finished huh?"

William: "Yeah. It was cool while it lasted."

Zack: "We can still hang out, but I guess our guilds are now kind of rivals."

Risa: "Well we've still got a bit before we're okay to leave."

Risa sees a copy of one of her manga on her side.

Zack: "I think that was your stepmom."

Risa begins to flip through the pages.

Zack: "(smiling) Well see you guys later."

Zack leaves to return to his room.

However, unknown to anyone...

Aegis: "(in pain) Why can't we merge?!"

Austin and Aegis are attempting to recombine.

Austin: "I presume that our code was altered when we separated, so our seemingly perfect code counterparts had in a way, became no longer able to sync."

Aegis: "What went wrong?! We had them until they used that program activated!"

Austin: "We let emotion get the better of us."

Austin begins to have binary surround him and Aegis.

Austin: "We must purge emotion from our systems."

The two begin to fall asleep.

Aegis: "When will this finish?"

Austin: "A month minimum."

The two fall asleep as the code completely wraps them.