The Restoration Protocol

21 || and then there was nothing

Nothing could have prepared Mariko for the sight awaiting them back at Wynsmith. Not Julian's warning. Not Abe's message. Not even the soon-to-follow realization of Wynsmith's inner-city stations being shut down. And upon learning this, Julian expresses additional concern, as he claims he had used the PIPTIA station near his shop to travel here in the first place. Now evidently, they are left with no other option but to use the station located just outside the city's borders. Just as they did with Hollowmire.

Could a beast have attacked Wynsmith, too? Mariko asks herself in that moment. But she discards the thought just as quickly. If it were that easy to explain then Julian would have done so, yet for some reason the man insisted upon everyone seeing it for themselves.

On the contrary, Mariko soon finds herself wishing it could have only been a beast. A monster, capable of being slain, perhaps even by Soleil herself, what with her offensive capabilities having received an upgrade since the last time they found themselves threatened. But there is no beast. Rather, upon setting foot outside the Wynsmith Outer-City Station, the disappointing reality of Paracosia becomes glaring and cruelly apparent.

It's...gone.

Wynsmith is gone.

Not in ruins from a devastating attack or the disastrous wreckage left behind by a natural disaster. Only a void. A void of darkness that connects the former capital of Paracosia to the untouched grass surrounding the PIPTIA station by way of flickering pixels. Throughout the void, too, these pixels can be seen blinking in and out of existence. Floating. Suspended. The longer Mariko stares at them, she can feel her head swaying, as though they're messing with her depth perception. The void could be ten meters long, or ten thousand. She would believe either. What remains indisputable is that the entire city has been swallowed up by it — or, what Mariko fears even more, it was deleted.

Maybe she's jumping to conclusions. At the same time, it's hard to overlook the pair of bold white words floating amidst the void's center.

—NO DATA—

These words are what draw Mariko's attention even before she fully registers that what she's looking at was, in fact, Wynsmith. Like a spotlight on an otherwise empty center stage. There is no overlooking it.

"It...wasn't like this when I left it..."

Julian's voice is the first to break the unsettling silence. And even that much he does tentatively, as if afraid to disrupt the delicate atmosphere that has fallen about them. Mariko is afraid, too. It's colder here than she remembers. As her focus gravitates to Soleil, the pit in her stomach grows deeper and deeper. She can't read Soleil's expression. Not a distinguishable, solitary emotion pours from those widened eyes of hers. Shielded by a wall of denial. A misspoken word could shatter it.

"We were...too late...?"

"Don't...jump the gun, princess, we don't know that," says Sebastian, though perhaps with a little less conviction than he would have liked. Soleil doesn't seem to process any of it regardless. With everyone standing still, the sounds of approaching footsteps appear to have the effect of a reverberating bell inside her ears, stealing her attention in an instant.

Abe has arrived. Emerging from the PIPTIA station behind them, he stumbles out into the open without at first raising his head to stare out at what's ahead of him. He came here in just as much a rush as everyone else: his wild blue hair in a crazy mess, clothes unkempt and befitting of the mad scientist vibe he possesses. Hastily, the android finishes shoving his little journal into one of the many pockets of his long, yellow and black coat. Then at last he looks up.