Continued from #1 - Logging In

Yemai felt her pulse surge faster. Faster, and faster.

She saw the blue of the control point fade back to grey. Surely, the other team would come soon.

She had to be ready. She readied her shield, and disappeared from sight. In her left hand, she held the Divine Avenger--a sword that she had acquired after Tate's "death."

"You bastards," she whispered. Whatever she said couldn't be heard by her User. "I'll make you all suffer."

She thought about Tate. She remembered how she had to watch him degrade day after day after dying countless times in the Clockworks, fighting innocent creatures. He had been more in pain everyday, with each death, and he caused more death among the gremlins. It didn't matter to the Users. The Users simply killed and fought their way through everything, destroying entire legions in a matter of minutes. When they finally died, they would easily rise again. Some Users died so much, their Spiral Knight would begin to forget things. Names. Faces. Lovers. Tate had finally succumbed to the abuse, crushed by the mere trauma of dying and reviving. Now, he was a soulless creature, and dead to her.

She would avenge him. She was glad her User favored the Divine Avenger. It was fitting of her mood. The Users had taken away her friend, her lover from the world. Although it hurt with every death and every game of Lockdown she was forced to partake in, she did it with vigor. As her body was controlled by the User, the system giving undeniable urges to strike, guard, throw objects, etc., she felt good. She would kill other Spiral Knights, she knew that. But most of the ones on Lockdown were soulless; it did not matter. No, the victory would come when she gave the Users a fit. Their pain and complaints were her pleasure.

As the timer of the match ticked down, she could feel a person coming.

Quick as lightning, she was hit by a large purple sword. Her invisibility cloak had worn off, and she was open to the Spiral Knight that had rushed right in front of her.

She gave the knight a nasty look of hatred. "For Tate!"

Then, she saw his face.

Two pains came to Yemai. The first came from her soul. The second came from the next slash of the accursed sword, Gran Faust. It was the sister sword of the Divine Avenger.

Yemai cried out to the heavens as she lost her will to fight. She was on the ground, "dead," as the Users called it. Sure, she would revive in a few seconds, to rise again. But that did not mean that every death did not hurt. She was hurt. She was hurting.

She caught the last glance of the person that had knocked her down. Instantly, at her command, her program retrieved her desired information: the Knight's name.

It was Tate.

Yemai screamed.