In the background, Jason and Inari seem to have wandered off in a different direction, looking around the clearing at an odd collection of artifacts, perhaps souvenirs of Margie's explorations in virtual reality. Cadena appears lost in memories of his previous companion as he contemplates the garden. Tracy knows immediately what's going on: this is an 'instanced' mode where everyone gets to feel like they are personally interacting with the quest-giving NPCs, without having to wait for the others to be able to get a word in edgewise. No doubt Jason, Cadena, and Inari are having their own discussions with the WHITE.
A golden robot that resembles Kimon stands before the statue of Margaret Elizabeth Arcadia, where the plaque proclaims her birthday... but a blank space remains where her death date would have been. Its voice is not Kimon's however, for it sounds like a choir of voices, all genders and ages, speaking one after another. Unlike the BLACK, it is harmonious.
"I sense frustration," not-Kimon says quietly. "A soul in search of answers. A hero who has yet to claim her sword. You yearn to prove yourself. How may we assist you, daughter of the Sorceress?"
"That's.. really grandiose," Tracy notes. "Uh.. well.. can you tell me how Lady Tracer is doing?" the girl ends up asking. "I mean, is she happy? Has she changed at all over the past few years?"
Not-Kimon tilts its head at Tracy. "Yes."
The clearing grows strangely dark, as if a cloud were passing overhead.
"How has she changed?" Tracy asks, biting her lower lip. "Is she.. is she me? Did you.. did your predecessor make a copy of me somehow, like with Jason?"
There's a presence behind Tracy, though she didn't sense anyone walking up to her.
Feeling her neck tingle, Tracy nervously looks back over her shoulder to see if there's really something there.
Even though there are no clouds in the sky, the area seems somehow dimmer. Behind Tracy is a thinner, paler version of herself, dressed in fantastic armor. High level gear, she can't help but think - blue-glowing runes cover the flaring shoulderpads of some black metal, but the midriff is left bare, displaying a white belly with several piercings through the navel. An anachronic laser machine gun is slung over her back. She shimmers, as if she's not really there, one hand to the long cutlass on her hip, and behind her, ghostlier still, is Fuseli, the winged nightmare.
"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" says the other girl - Lady Tracer, she guesses. "Of her. My player." She looks Tracy over critically. "Somehow I thought you would be..."
"Younger?" Tracy replies, trying to finish the sentence in a way that's at least not too disappointing. "You dream of me?" she asks.
Lady Tracer's lips turn down a bit at the edge. "Not anymore. Not for a long time. It's just been me for a long time, me trying to be the Champion of the Light, me fighting against screaming hordes of the Dark, me looking for the Vampire Queen Sasha's minions and maybe someday I'll get to take her down once and for all." She looks reflective. "Maybe there's a poem in that."
Facing the image fully now, Tracy nods, and says, "So.. you really don't miss me then, I guess. You're better than I was. But you aren't me, just.. what I wanted you to be."
"Miss you?" Lady Tracer comes closer, taking her hand from her sword, laying her hands over Tracy's. Her breath should be warm but it feels chilly to Tracy. "I miss you more than the plant in boulder's shadow misses the Sun, more than the dying bird misses the winds... You gave me guidance, you chose the path and I only echoed what you were in the moments you couldn't be there yourself. But you never came back. What could I do?"
"I can't come back," Tracy claims, starting to tear up. "I tried, but.. I can't be your player anymore. Just someone in your shadow. I miss you, but I don't know if I can be with you without.. without feeling inadequate. I was very young back then, and certain things took on a lot of importance to me. I felt like you'd taken everything I worked to create and made it your own, and I just didn't fit in anymore. Everyone preferred you to me once you became the Champion. I just wanted to know if you'd.. grown up too. If you were a real person now."
"Everything I've ever done, I only did in your name. How can I take away what is yours?" Lady Tracer whispers, leaning close to Tracy, lips to her ear. They are nearly of a height, but Lady Tracer is a bit taller, a lot thinner. "I don't know what it means to be a real person. I only know that when I look at the dread Nightlord, the fell hordes under his command, I think, what would my player do, and I know that she would fight, and she would win."
Tracy really does start crying now, and has to wipe her eyes. "Maybe when this all settles, I can try again to play with you," she promises. "But.. I have to face the real Sasha first, probably soon. I need an edge against her, but I'm not sure what. I think she can turn invisible now."
The ghostly icon of Lady Tracer hugs her player quietly. She feels insubstantial. "That power among a myriad others, she can summon minions and she is a master of disguise and form. But I know you will meet her in fair battle, and you will triumph, my player."
Closing her eyes and hugging back as best she can, Tracy asks, "Could you defeat her? If we were together again? I can change shape now, and maybe match her Avatar like that. But I don't know what abilities you've gathered over the years."
Not-Kimon whispers softly, "She is not blocked from you. She has never been locked away, daughter of the Sorceress. You have chosen the path of the rogue. But your choice can be reversed."
Lady Tracer is still a moment. "I don't know. All I know is that if you don't try, you won't defeat her."
Fuseli whinnies, stamping at the ground. Its attitude conveys perfect faith in its Link. Of course she can defeat the Vampire Queen, if she can just bring her out into the open.
"Do I need to become Sasha in order to beat her?" Tracy asks out loud, but mostly seems to be asking herself. "Ever since I left you, Tracer, I feel like that's what I've been doing; trying to become the enemy. I don't think I want to though, even if it makes me her equal. But.. I wouldn't really be alone if I had you and Fuseli again.. I want you back. If I'm going to fight Sasha, then it should be with you.. it's what you've been working for too."
Lady Tracer lifts her head, her eyes looking into Tracy's. "If that's what you want... I have missed you so. Hold me close, let my icon be yours once more, my player." She closes her eyes, purses her lips.
Tracy pulls the insubstantial woman close, closes her eyes.. and kisses.. herself?
The world warps around Tracy -- or perhaps that's just the way it feels. The lips are ghostly and chill, but Lady Tracer's embrace grows warm and more substantial... Wait, that's the way the armor feels, snug and comfortable around her, not even the midriff feels exposed, thanks to the magical spells protecting her. She feels like she's finally come home. Fuseli, standing behind her, nuzzles her cheek lovingly.
And where Lady Tracer was, there is a ghostly black cat. It gives Tracy a look of ultimate disdain before stalking proudly into the distance.
The WHITE bows its head. "Welcome back, Champion of the Diadem," it says.
Tracer reaches up to rub the side of the Nightmare's muzzle. "It's time Queen Sasha felt the chill of her own dark soul," she says with a thin-lipped grin."
A storm approaches, Fuseli somehow conveys to Tracy though she doesn't say anything. On the horizon where the endless seas meet the sky, there are indeed dark clouds gathering.
"This world has served it's purpose, perhaps, and is encouraging us to move on to the next," Tracer notes, looking at the clouds. Turning back to not-Kimon, she asks, "Will the green vortex lead to the pages of the Gloaming, where my nemesis waits?"
"It is a source of power," the not-Kimon robot says in the WHITE's choir of voices. "The arcane heart of Tesliem beats with the essence of a thousand whales of the stars. You must sever the link or the Convergence will grow and the BLACK will reign over the Earth."
Tracer grins. "Tesliem," she says. "The Heart of Darkness itself. Will it be guarded by the usual Empire rabble, or by the legendary General Irongrip himself?"
Not-Kimon smiles faintly, or perhaps that's just the way it tilts its fox-shaped head. "You will meet a great and powerful enemy. So say the threads of fate." It looks toward the horizon. "The storm of the Convergence is growing. It will wash this universe into the sea of possibilities. Is there aught else you would ask?"
"What will happen to me when I step out of the convergence zone?" Tracy/Tracer asks. "Will I revert to my normal self again?"
The WHITE says quietly. "The universes are being brought together. The realm you call virtual will overlap with the realm of the Earth. You will remain Lady Tracer until you leave the locus of the Convergence or you end it."
"You should rejoin your friends," the not-Kimon says. "The storm looms. Beyond that path, a bridge will take you forward from here."
"Thank you, Lord White," Tracy says, and goes down on one knee before the robot. "I will strive to be the Champion in name and action, and preserve the separation of the realms, as my mother did before me."
The WHITE bows its head... But when Tracy looks up again, it is gone.