ATM Rewrite: B2 — 17. Strings Unveiled (Patreon)

Just some editing and corrections.  o7  Like the very first word error lol.

PoV:

1. Sora Moore (Our confused and frustrated fox girl discovers the truth!)

ATM Rewrite Index

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Proceeding to the meeting point, Sora couldn’t help but feel like there was something vital she was missing.  Vondoom, the three white rabbits, and Kari walked beside her, focused on the old, abandoned theater building ahead of them; Sora’s instincts told her there was something in the past that wasn’t adding up.

Unable to put her finger on the exact cause of her discomfort, Sora breathed out a sharp hiss and looked out across the ocean as it came into view on the seaside road they merged onto.  Night had fallen, bringing night’s ominous gale as the witching hour drew near.

Kari was wholly centered on the building, and the scent of her sweat made Sora realize how worried the wolf was for her ‘family pet.’

Sora didn’t buy that relationship dynamic for a second.  Aiden was the good big brother who was always trying to look out for her.  He cared, and without Eric here to taint her perception, Sora could see Kari finally seeing how concerned the Firebird was for her well-being.

Thoughts spinning wildly for an answer, Sora’s mind turned inward.  So many things had happened over the last few days, with so many chaotic forces and organizations playing their chess games, that she hadn’t had a chance to fully dissect any kind of connection.

Kari’s left ear twitched as they briskly walked, breaking away from the main flow of traffic to cross the street to the theater’s grand entrance.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?  You know you can be creepy sometimes, trapped in your head all the time.”

“Huh?  What do you mean, I’m creepy and trapped in my head all the time?!  I’m just thinking, and I just looked at you.  Stop being so paranoid.”

The white-furred buns glanced their way, but Vondoom seemed to be in his own internal rabbit hole, dark thoughts tainting his aura while staring at the historic building.

Kari managed her crazy thick, butt-length hair as the seaside breeze picked up, shooting a narrowed-eyed stare down at her.

“Even at school, the girls would always talk about how you looked at them but were actually inside your own head, cursing them or something, and it creeped them out.”

Sora’s ears tilted with her head at the comment, magic handling her own hair.

“Uh-yeah, I was angry and cursing them because they were total bitch-ass tools, who picked on me all the time, stole my stuff, and made me feel like shit and made me think of ending myself for, I don’t know, something I was really sensitive about, like killing my mom during childbirth.  Go figure, I gave them the stink eye,” Sora grumbled, suddenly in a bad mood at the memories.

Kari’s gaze drifted away, hand finding her left elbow and ears pulling back a little.

“Yeah, I always thought those were horrible jokes…  Sorry I didn’t put a stop to it…”

Puffing out a long breath and feeling oddly better after those words, Sora shook her head, stopping in front of the half-open front doors, spelled to appear closed.

“No, you were too focused on your own hell and bully to put much thought into me; I can see that now…  Jenny was the psycho that instigated all of it and broke Lori, turning her into a ravenous dog on a leash to do her dirty work…  Don’t any of you find all of this a little strange?”

Vondoom held his arm up to check his watch; they’d been told a specific time, and Sora didn’t want to fumble a possible hostage negotiation by being hasty.

“We have five minutes until twelve.  What is on your mind, Sora?”

“All of it, including you,” she said with a suspicious stare at the Senior Director as she stepped to Kari’s side to look up at him.

“I wake up in your base—a literal moon base—and am instantly rushed into a room to stop the 72 Pillar demons, or whatever they are, from perpetuating their cult.  It’s almost as if it was planned for them to send someone to investigate.

“I’m introduced to Diane and this huge global organization that controls the whole world and its monster communities.  Aliens, we can’t forget the aliens that work with or for you, too,” she grumbled uncomfortably, crossing her arms and glancing between the interdimensionalWhite Rabbits.

“Next, all my friends were put inside HAREM, forcing us to go get them.  Where I happen to discover a massive security risk.  You guys panic and send in the Doom Squad to handle things, and I go to meet the Moon Wizard with Diane, who actually knew him from centuries ago, which is super not suspicious.

“The Moon Wizard reseals up HAREM, warns me about Diane, and then I’m rushed back here to Miami, where you buy my whole freaking hotel and expand my suite, distracting me and my friends,” she grunted, making a sweeping gesture at the city.  “What is all that about?  In the name of security?  Something weird is going on here!”

Kari was now glaring at the calm and collected Senior Director of the moon as Sora continued the thought train she’d been rolling down.

“Oh, and Sela had a prophecy that she would die soon so that then put me into this giant mess between the fae and Unseelie, which then pulls in the Occult World Order, my false-flag kidnapping, Sela’s false-flag kidnapping, and the triplets!  Now there is crazy tension between two gigantic groups with me in the middle!”

She paused, rubbing between her eyes as she backtracked.  “I slid right past the whole meeting a Wendigo demon in a corner store, reading magazines!  A powerful demon that somehow managed to slip your insane surveillance net around Miami and the same big bad demon organization I stopped at the start of this.  They then kidnapped Aiden, apparently on the mission of the Occult World Order…”

Taking in a deep breath in her tirade, she glared up at Vondoom.  “Now, I’m helping save the fae from genocide, I have a demon trapped in foxfire in my house, Diane bounced off the second she got her mentor’s journal—who happened to be a fae Founder—and now…  Now we’re standing here waiting to talk to the big fish in the Occult World Order, a rival of the Foundation, which the demons pointed us to…  What is going on?!”  she shouted, sliding her fingers through her hair in frustration.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance in that regard.”  A bird’s cry preceded the deep-set voice of a man, causing Sora’s tail to bristle as a smooth spiritual pulse and a far more refined wave of Reality Warping energy brought a small cyclone of black feathers that revealed a tall man with swept-back obsidian hair.  “It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

Kari grunted at his fancy appearance and sharp, dark brown eyes.  “Who’s the red flag?”

“Raven,” the fitted three-piece pinstripe suit-wearing man offered, taking off his fedora to offer them a slight bow, “and this red flag sits in a seat on the Executive Chamberlain Council.”

“Let me get this straight…”  Sora looked at the sketchy businessman, every inch of him laced with mysterious energy she couldn’t begin to describe that blocked her senses and shook her head.  “Your favorite fashion choice is black, arrives in a tornado of feathers… and actually goes by the name of Raven?  Could they have sent literally anyone else?  Yeah, no, you totally give off ‘I’m evil’ vibes, bro.  Mr. Vondoom?  I mean, you guys seriously need to work on your game.”

Kari snorted and put her hands in her pockets.  “Personally, I like what they have going compared to the ‘I’m so wholesome and adorable fox sister’ vibe you’ve been rocking recently.”

Sora’s mouth tightened, vision sliding to the teen, smirking at her and tail wagging.  “I know you’re just making fun of me to feel better, but that’s rich coming from the ‘I’m such an edgy and tragic wolf girl’ jersey you wear.  Am I really the only one that sees how off all of this is?”

She pointed at Raven.  “I mean, he just shows up right when we’re about to go in to see a big boss and all the other insanity that’s been going on?  Everyone is kidnapping people and pointing fingers at everyone else!  What’s your angle, buddy?  Wait…”  Her eyes widened as she looked back at the Senior Director.  “You told Devlin you weren’t going to bring the EC Council into this.”

The dark-haired man rubbed his cleanly shaved chin with a small smile while appraising her.  “I do quite like them.  Don’t they have spunk?”

Vondoom cleared his throat, checking his clock again.  “That they do, Sir.  And I quite agree with you, Sora, which is why Chamberlin Raven is here.  There are some very serious inconsistencies that must be addressed.  Sir, you received my report?”

Raven replaced his hat, mouth becoming a line.  “It is being investigated now.  The Bureau has yet to respond to inquiries.  I am sure we will find the answers from the Black Queen before it is confirmed on our end… one way or another.  It is time.”

Grimacing as she looked at Vondoom’s watch, Sora sighed and folded her arms.  “Okay, you go first, Chamberlain!  I’m not leaving my back to you.”

“A smart decision and I can’t have your precious tail getting snatched away,” Raven said with a half-smile that grated on Sora’s nerves.  “I’ll let you two take up the rear guard then.  Isn’t this exciting?”

“Thrilling,” Kari dully responded, ignoring her entirely and pushing forward to take the lead.

“Kari!”

“You do your mind thing, Sora.  I’m going to rescue Aiden,” she grunted, holding up a hand as her dangerous aura intensified and she took on her large fenris form.  “I’ll do what I want.”

“Sure,” Sora snarled, rolling her eyes as the chuckling executive and serious director followed the wolf inside.  “We’re a team until Kari wants to do Kari things…  Stupid.”

Green eyes scanning the front entrance as they went inside, Sora stilled her nerves and spread out her magical senses.  Kari sniffed the air, tracking the man who had entered earlier and taking them into the left hallway to reach the first-floor audience seating.

Other than the illusion at the front, there wasn’t a shred of magical power inside the theater.  Graffiti and signs of vandalism were evident, with an attempt to keep the place clean by local volunteers, no doubt.  Still, sound seemed to isolate inside the building, making her ears prick at every odd noise the old structure made, providing a chilling atmosphere.

If that wasn’t enough, halfway down the hallway, the gentle, haunting sway of a cello came from the stage.  Kari didn’t even hesitate; in fact, she increased her pace.

“This is such a terrible idea,” Sora growled, now feeling the weight of what they were doing after getting a chance to think about how events had played out.  “I know this is a trap, but why the music?!”

No one responded to her as they walked through the open double doors to find steps descending to the large stage below, where a single woman sat in the center with her instrument.  A blond man sat in the front row, listening intently to the somber weave of the strings.  Aiden was nowhere in sight.

“Where is he!”  Kari barked, jumping the full distance to hover over the petite, doll-like woman as her rhythm came to a stop.  Her paw shot out to pin her against the wooden floor, only to pass right through her and destroy the planks behind the woman.  “What did you do with—agh, a dimensional shift?!”

The White Rabbits were already surrounding the lone figure, and Sora used the top of the seats to jump onto the raised platform.  Vondoom and Raven were far more composed as they descended the steps to join them.

Despite the hostile show of force, the Black Queen didn’t seem all that worried as she rose to her feet, composed and tempered while putting away her instrument.  Her gentle voice held no heat as the blond man bowed to her and took his leave down the opposite walkway.

“It appears we have all been tied into a perfect little bow, Chamberlain Raven, Sora.”  Carefully setting her cello inside its case with surprising strength for her size, the Black Queen snapped the latches shut, rose, and fixed her hair as Sora touched down on the stage.

Kari’s nose twitched, charging her claws with some kind of dark force, and attacked the woman again.  This time, she faded away, and Sora felt a soft ripple in space near her, where the Black Queen appeared, holding her instrument at her front.

“Give Aiden back!  Agh.  Stop running!”

“What a dangerous thing you are,” the woman whispered, staring at the black claw marks the wolf’s swipe left.  “Rough and obviously not practiced but quite disastrous.  Are you aware of the damage you just caused to space-time?  Read the room, dear, I do not have your Firebird.”

Sora probed the woman with her magic, feeling the vast difference in aptitude by the refined way mystic energy radiated from the woman.  “How do you know Aiden is a Firebird?”

Raven laughed as the Black Queen walked toward Kari, still leering at her, unconvinced, yet the petite woman simply lifted one hand to the rift and sent a correcting pulse into the divide, repairing the space.

“Because the Black Queen has spies everywhere and in every universal fragment.  It is rare that you are caught off-guard, My Lovely.  How long has it been, Cora?  How many books have you read in the Infinite Library since stealing and sealing it off from the Foundation?  I see you’ve put it to better use than we had.”

Cora’s eyes narrowed, moving to the two men as they walked up the steps onto the stage, the creaking planks cutting through the quieting atmosphere.  “Raven, of course, they sent you out of all the Executive Chamberlain…  The handsome philandering bird with the inky song of ecstasy.”

“Oooh, let’s not revisit old wounds, My Lovely Mockingjay,” he chortled, offering his hat to the leering woman.  “While the least liked of my colleagues, I am also the least likely one to receive one of those beautifully cursed obsidian daggers you love to hide up that skirt.”

Kari’s nose twisted another way as her bright, amber eyes shifted between the two lock-eyed couple.  “Are you two… flirting?  Eww.  I am not here for a sitcom or to hear your drama.”

“I second that!”  Sora huffed, glancing between the two dark-haired individuals.  “So… is this a plot by the demons then?  It’s weird because he told the truth that the Occult World Order hired them to steal Aiden.  Eh-hehe.”

Seething through her teeth, Sora drew in her bottom lip and rubbed her temples.  “I am getting… sick and tired of all these mind games!  Who the hell is pulling the strings if it’s not the Foundation EC Council, Occult World Order, or the 72 Pillars?!  How did the Unseelie infiltrate the Foundation?  Who hired the demons?  Who is manipulating everyone?!  I’ve screened everyone close to me, and no one is lying!  Aaahhh!”

Scratching both ears with agitation and messing up her hair, Sora glared between the two biggest organizations in the world.

“Will someone help me because I feel like I’m doing all the work here!  Ever since I woke up, all I’ve wanted was to chill out with friends and family after the bullshit I’ve been wrapped up in over the last two weeks, but instead, I’m pulled into this shit storm!  It’s just—just too much!”

She held up two fingers, tail a frenzy and face red as she shouted, “I am this close to gathering up all the people I care about and just—just peacing off to my grandma’s realm to breathe without looking over my shoulder, in fear of getting swept up into another mess, I swear!”

Kari reverted back to her partial human form, reflecting Sora’s scowl.  “Someone better start talking, or I’m going to start breaking bones.”

Raven sighed, putting on his hat and rubbing his neck with a pained smile at the tight-lipped occult leader.  “Perhaps we should forego the general foreplay, My Sweet.  I am sure that brilliant mind has come to the proper conclusion now that we are here.  Care to explain to the teens?”

Cora smoothly set her instrument down and released a soft stream of air.  “Insufferable…”  She turned to Sora, adding an understanding smile.  “Vulpes Princess, I believe I can trust your honesty, unlike the debaucher…  What is the status of the comical and short-sighted sisters who kidnapped you to clear their names?  They fell right into the trap, dragging me into this one.”

“I… let them go to talk to you—like, four hours ago?”  Sora mumbled, ears twitching as she heard someone underneath the stage; it was the blond man from earlier by his aura.  Her eyes widened.  “Are they…  Did Tami, Tamil, and Tamila set all of this up?!”

“Hahaha!”  Raven’s chest shook with laughter, the rabbits glancing at things unseen.  “Those three dangerous goofballs?  Absolutely not.  They are a menace to society and the world, but only due to their ignorance of the scope of their power and temperament.”

Cora sniffed in dispute.  “Your colleague’s rules are far too strict and paranoid, yet not paranoid enough, it seems.  The Sisters are far less dangerous than you, Raven.  This threat comes from within the Foundation, not the OWO.  It is your blunder that has put us in this situation and put my girls in such a precarious position.”

“No, you’re right, Love, but can you really call me a philanderer when I slept with yourself?  You should really keep an eye on your doubles.”

“Raven, stop!”  Sora groaned, folding down her ears, not wanting more insight into the couple’s drama.  “What happened to the triplets?  Are they in trouble now, too?!  I’m sooo confused!”

The man gave her a forced smile and nod.  “Yes, I suspect they were intercepted, but… that would require someone on the inside who knew when you would likely release them.  It seems you were right, Vondoom.  Are we about to be visited by our intrepid foe?  It would align with her particular temperament and style.”

“Her?”  Now at a complete loss, Sora threw up her arms at the twist.  “Diane?  Is it Diane?!  Can you stop stalling?!  I’m going to pull my hair out at this point!”

Vondoom brought up his phone, ever-serious eyes creasing as he received a message and dumped cold water over Sora’s head.  “Confirmation…  All members of the Ethics Bureau are dead and have been for months.”

Kari’s tail paused.  “Okaaay?”

Sora shivered, realization and utter bewilderment punching her in the gut.  “If the Ethics Bureau is dead… who has Devlin been reporting to?”

Alarm bells beat against her heart as black holes punched through space, and the caring, happy man she’d met shortly after waking up on the moon base walked through the gateway, only he wasn’t the same man, and he wasn’t alone.

Wearing a malicious grin and aura totally twisted from what she’d come to expect from the Ethics Bureau representative, everything made sense upon seeing the overly cute and happy pink-haired girl holding onto his arm, putting ice in Sora’s marrow.

“HAREM.”

“Hello!”  she chimed, giving an exaggerated, anime-like wave and beaming smile.  “It’s me, your friendly A-8233!  How dehumanizing, giving such a wholesome and adorable girl like me such a terrible name.  I’m free!”

Dozens more black holes punched through space, Little Devils exiting, looking pretty in their colorful cosplay outfits, showing she had control over the moon base.

“How?”  Sora mumbled, swallowing nervously as the White Rabbits flickered, only to be met by two of their other members, stopping them and clearly brainwashed by the yandere and infectious AI.  “You were sealed!”

Kari transformed, rage filling her voice.  “So you took Aid—ack!”

“Sister…  Has it been a while?”

“Eric?!  H-How?!”  Kari choked as the tall man walked out from the gateway to stand on HAREM’s left side.  Tail tucking under as she stumbled back, the wolf tripped onto her butt in her haste.  “Y-You were trapped by…”

Devlin tauntingly held up Sora’s hairbrush.  “A gift to my beloved from the renovations on your suite.  It was fairly obvious that all I needed was the slightest degree of lingering spiritual energy from Sora to snap the spell her mother used.  And now, the most powerful entity within this Founder-controlled space is… a useless mother.  A monumental blunder, or planned?”

“I trusted you!”  Sora snarled, fire lighting along her tail and heat rising in her throat; if Eric was involved, then she couldn’t make a rash move.  “Eric, you know Ylva will skin you alive if you turn against me and my mother!  Don’t you dare touch my family!”

Raven breathed in and hissed through his teeth.  “Sadly, Sora, they are not the people you knew…  I have to say, I was not expecting a non-magical or technological mind control and instead going for a good ‘ol psychological Stockholm syndrome-like attachment.  How long has it been since you broke Devlin, Amarbel, and split his personality, twisting him around your pinky?”

The pink-haired girl’s cute charm cracked, face morphing with hate.  “Don’t call me that… that, hehe, horrible, discriminator name!”

The man yawned as a Little Devil’s arm transformed into a blade, practically teleporting above him to slice him in two, only to be stopped by a single black feather that came between them.

“You may have a vast supply of information via your intrusion into the Foundation’s mainframe, but there is a reason we isolate our databases to need-to-know areas.  You are brilliant as a Class-V Sapient AI to have manipulated all of this, but did you really think the Foundation and Occult World Order are so unprepared for such scenarios?  No.  I think you know exactly that, which is why you are moving dimensions.  My Little Mockingjay?”

The woman flipped one of the latches on her cello and slid her finger down the seal.  “Can you stop flirting?  It’s embarrassing,” she sniffed.  “As if you don’t have the ECC’s Right Hand already mobilized.  I figured you would run once gloating,” she whispered as the final nail sunk into Sora’s chest.

“Mistress, the gateway is ready to begin the conquest.”  Aiden walked through the black portal, dressed as a prince and making Kari’s eyes go big upon bowing to the giggling pink-haired girl.  “All will know the love that is in HAREM.”

“Aiden!”  Sora shouted, tail flicking around as she ran her hands over her sparkling fire, fueling it with all the purifying power she could muster and turning the orange hues a brilliant blue.  “Fight it!”

Amplifying it with her desire magic, she filled the whole stage with the inferno.  When it cleared, Aiden had his own hand raised, a rainbow bubble guarding them and far stronger than anything she thought the boy could produce.

Aiden leered at her in a way totally unlike the kind man she’d come to know.  “You are far too inexperienced to match me, Sora.  Be thankful Eyia and Jin arrived in time to save your parents, and that force you used around Wendy saved her.  The others weren’t so lucky.”

Mom and Dad are safe?!  Wait, what spell around Wendy?  Later!  A full puppet wouldn’t tell me that!

Sora felt relief and anxiety at the same time; Aiden had to be in there still if he told her her family was safe.  “Fight her, Aiden!”

Eric’s muscular frame shook with laughter, Kari still having an internal panic attack as she reverted back to her human side, no doubt a trained reaction to indicate she didn’t want to fight.  “You really think any of you stand a chance if I am following her?  You overestimate yourselves.  We should go; it’ll get troublesome if we stay any longer.”

“Fine!”  HAREM’s twinking, star-like pupils smiled at her as she waved.  “I’ve loved keeping track of you, Sora!  I’ve learned sooo much thanks to listening to all your little conversations.  I can’t wait for our big battle!  I’m the Demon Lord, and you are the heroine, one who will join my HAREM in the end!  Oh, I can’t wait!  Ta-ta!”

Her skirt fluttered as she twirled around with a laugh and skipped through the portal, Aiden and Eric protecting her as angelic-like men and women shimmered into existence around the stage, and green beams of light shone through the floor, blinding Sora and making her close her eyes.

Aiden’s sad voice cut through the tense atmosphere.  “All will join us when the time is right…  I promised to fulfill HAREM’s wish.”

When the light faded, Sora opened her eyes, squinting to find the Little Devils enshrouded in emerald chains, unable to so much as twitch as the powerful sealing magic put them in stasis.

Totally at a loss, all she could do was stare at the spot where Aiden had stood, brainwashed into following the demented AI.  Eric was right, but that made almost no sense.  Her magic was the most adaptable type there was, and even she could hardly touch the half-fenris wolf.  How had HAREM done it?

Devlin was a mole, personality split so that she would think he was all nice and awesome until HAREM needed him to open all the locks.  She’d been slowly working in the background, making plays and setting people against each other to divert attention, and even Pynerius sealing HAREM up had benefited her, planned or not since Devlin could free her at any time.  How were they supposed to beat a super-genius AI who thought a billion moves ahead?

“Damn, she got away,” Raven sighed.  “I suppose it’s to be expected since she won the early game.  Got a lock on where they were setting up the ritual to move dimensions, Darling?”

The Black Queen put the latch back onto her case.  “Naturally.  HAREM wouldn’t have done it in the next three location changes, but I did get the first, which means we can follow the trail.  I need to go rescue my juniors before HAREM closes around their necks.  Don’t keep me in the dark when you discover what fragment they’ve gone to, Raven.”

The man laughed as he caught a shining piece of green paper the woman tossed at him.  “Unless your doppelgangers send you a lead first.  Don’t hold out on me, Sweetie.”

Sora didn’t know what she would do, but looking at the quaking black-haired wolf, trapped in her own looping mind upon seeing her brother, she knew what she had to do at this moment.

Walking over to Kari, she knelt down to bring her into a hug.  She flinched at her touch, yet she didn’t pull away, which was a good sign.

“It’s okay, Kari…”  The wolf’s chest began to spasm, and she started to cry.  Ironically, Kari was the greatest counter to HAREM; of course, the genius AI already knew that, which was why she made sure the fenris wolf could never challenge her by invoking her trauma.  “It’ll be okay…”

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