Data Legend Chapter 11

Restored

Joshua and Elly stirred a bit before sitting up straight immediately, gasping.

Everyone else in the Medical Center looked at them with concern.

“Well…?” Alyssa asked.

The siblings looked at their father, seeing the black mark that was on his forehead was now gone.

“Dr. Muller I’m gonna steal your phrase… Let this disease pass from this world.” Joshua grinned. “He’s gonna be fine.”

Tomoe smiled, bringing a hand over her mouth. “Gabriel...”

Erhuard sighed in relief smiling himself. “He’s alright…”

“Thank goodness…” Naomi beamed.

“... Bro… Are you crying?” Vincent asked looking to Lucas.

“It’s freakin’ allergies!”

Everyone gathered around Gabe, leaving enough space for his children to keep close, both holding his hands.

“Papa…?” Elly asked. “Can you hear me?”

“Mgh…” Gabe’s eyes scrunched a little before they finally opened up slowly, looking at his surroundings.

“Hey… Time to wake up…” Joshua squeezed his hand a little. “Can you hear us?”

“Nice and clear.” he answered, looking to Elly. “Elly-Girl…”

She smiled, kissing his head. “You’re okay…”

He kissed her cheek. “Yeah… Thanks to you and your brother… Thank you.”

“Anything for our Papa…” Elly nuzzled him.

“Darn right.” Joshua grinned.

Gabe chuckled ruffling their hair. “Awesome kids.”

“Hee…”

“Ack! Daaad!” Joshua laughed.

“Gotcha.” He smirked.

“He’s really alive…” Tomoe smiled.

“Oh yeah Papa…” Elly looked to the others. “You got other visitors…”

Gabe looked to them surprise in his eyes. “When… Did you all get here?”

“Right when Joshua got hurt if you’ve already forgotten but that’s not important.” Maria cracked one of her knuckles. “What is important is that you got a knuckle sandwich coming your way!”

Elly got in a protective stance, giving her best puppy dog eyes.

“We just fixed him! Don’t break him again please!”

Gabe sat up bringing Elly into his arms. “Look into her eyes Maria… How can you beat me up in front of that face?”

“GACK!” Maria growled. “AH COME ON! JUST ONE-”

Elly whimpered.

“You… Are evil… Fine! But when we get back to Earth I make no promises!” She shook her fist at Gabe. “Mark my words one day this year THIS will be used to make ya hurt. Then I’ll fix ya and make it hurt again!”

Elly leaned back into her father, whispering in his ear.

“She’s scary.”

Gabe couldn’t help it. He started laughing. “Oh sweetheart you haven’t seen even half of it!”

The rest of the team came closer, all happy to see him alive… Tomoe especially.

She brought her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

“Sorry… Just…”

“I know…” He brought an arm around her. “I’m so sorry I made you do what I did… That wasn’t fair…”

“You’re okay… that’s all I care about right now…”

“Though… There is one thing I do remember…”

“Hm?”

He tipped her chin up. “Everything is fixed… I’m in remission.”

She pulled back, gasping. “You mean…”

“I literally am okay now… I’m not sick anymore.” He smiled. “Virx and Jivin assured that.”

“That’s right. His lungs are as perfect as they come.” Virxinia said proudly.

Alyssa smiled. “Thank you…”

Gabe looked at everyone shaking his head. “I swear even though I have all of my memories as Alistair… The real me is still shocked at how fast you kids grew up…”

“Time does that.” Joshua chuckled. “Three years and we were all given time to grow up.”

“Yeah, attack of the tall people.” Lucas laughed. “Swear I’m still trying to catch up.”

“Eh Luc that’ll be futile… Cunninghams are freakishly tall by default.”

“Yep.” Joshua laughed. “Bean poles for all, even Amy is one.”

“Amy… I haven’t seen her in years… How is she?”

“She’s doing alright… Misses you like crazy. She’s still playing guitar too.”

“I’ll make sure to visit her…” Gabe sighed. “A lot to catch up on...  But it’ll be worth it… But there’s one thing that’ll need to get taken care of before all that…”

Todd came forward.

“I think it’s high time we wrapped up this mission.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Let’s end this.”

Look out Terra… Cause here we come.

------

They’re gonna need help…

He kept quiet as he moved through the halls, trying to keep his mind focused. His head was still ringing from the hit he took… but he was glad for the hit.

Broke this darn thing on me…

He found himself at his destination. Before him was a set of controls and one giant monitor.

The master controls… if I just tweak it a bit… That’ll throw Terra off..

He got straight to work, his hands flying across the keys as he scanned through each protocol.

Lowering security sensors… Shutting down control collars on captives… Now I just need to-

“Beta?”

He froze looking behind to see Vern behind him, a questioning look in her eyes.

“V-Veronica…”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Just VERN, please. What are you doing?”

“Adjusting the system under orders.”

Vern looked at the changes, her questioning look still remaining.

“Who’s orders? I doubt Terra would want a system failure.”

Beta was silent.

Vern gave a smile. Not a nice one… but one that seemed of disgust.

“I see how it is… trying to save yourself. Just like every other Virus. You really think, helping us, will make us think differently of you? Please.” She narrowed her eyes again. “Sure, we did give Todd a second chance but those were different circumstances… You however… All you’re concerned about is yourself and trust me when I say this… The Data Children and Children of the Fire will not welcome you with open arms… since they’ll know if something else comes along, you’ll just follow them so you won’t die.”

Beta cringed.

“... It’s not like that…”

“Oh really?”

Vern lowered her gaze to the floor, a sickly laugh escaping her.

“You’re all the same… You just keep lying… and lying… clawing your way to the top till you get what you want… Well guess what? You get to the top… but you have many… many enemies at the end.” Vern looked at Beta with a deathly glare. “You took away everything I had to get here…. my children… my husband… None of us cared about control… all we wanted to do what to help others… Then you Viruses just come and ruin everything for your own selfish reasons. Trust me when I say this… I will never… EVER …. Trust a VIRUS!”

Beta was quiet, stunned as it seemed… least to Vern… but then something drew her attention. She hadn’t noticed it right away but the right side of his tinted visor was cracked… She could see one of his eyes perfectly… and to her surprise… she could see… shock in it… sadness...

“... I know you never will…” he started. “... and I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry… that I couldn’t save… or protect you when they showed up again…”

Vern stumbled back, confusion in her eyes.

“W-What…?”

Beta got out of the chair he was in, approaching her. Wasn’t long before he was right in front of her, his eyes locked with hers… Upon a closer look… His eyes were slightly different than that of the normal Virus. His pupils weren't slitted… and they weren't glowing either… They were just crimson red. He was silent as he reached up, tapping the side of his helmet, causing it to break down into bits… revealing his face to her.

A gasp escaped her mouth when the last of the helmet disappeared. She couldn't believe her eyes.

“Vern… It’s me…” Beta said… or rather… Joseph.

Tears escaped Vern’s eyes as she looked at her husband. It really was him… the gentle look… the features… the only thing that was different was his attire… and his eyes…

“Joseph… JOSEPH!” Vern threw her around him, burying her face into his shoulder. “Oh Esanii… you’re… you’re alive…”

Joseph brought his arms around her, holding her close.

“Yeah… was… just out of my mind for a few cycles… I’m so sorry what I’ve done to you and everyone else… I didn’t mean for it to play out this way… I really didn’t…”

Vern pulled back a little, cupping one of his cheeks in her hands.

“What did she do to you?”

“Sapped me of my free will… She injected a control virus into my system and used a helmet as a way of keeping it stable… Gabriel… broke it when he attacked me. The virus died rather quickly… I’m still recovering though and I can’t do much as it stands.” Joseph sighed. “The virus sapped the last of the powers had… I can’t get those back until Terra is defeated…”

“Reason your eyes are still red instead of the green teal color I know them for… You’re still sick…”

“Terra thought it out well… if the virus ever got killed I would be neutralized… But under it I still had power… makes sense considering all she wanted me to do while I served her…” He lowered his head. “I want to fix things so bad… but I can only do so much…”

Vern tipped his chin up.

“It’s still something Joseph… Especially what you’re doing right now…” She looked to the controls. “If anything… Team Advent...as I know them… can use any help at this point.”

Joseph followed her gaze, a determined look in his eyes.

“Then let’s give them that.”

------

“Esanii in sight, we’ll be there soon.” Ethan called over his shoulder.

“Remind me again why we can’t just go Phoenix Warrior on their sorry butts?” Maria asked, hanging on tightly to her Aquarca.

“We don’t got the power. We have no connections with the ancestors so in turn, nothing to allow the form to be taken. Doesn’t help with the Power Towers being down. Terra isn’t an idiot. She thought this out.”

“We should’ve killed her when we had the chance years ago…” Erhuard remarked. “But it’s payback time…”

“And I thought I’d never hear the kid go all vengeful again.” Gabe smirked. “But Terra is MINE…”

“Alright, here’s how it’s gonna go. Gabe, Elly, Alyssa and Marley will take Joshua directly to the Light Tower to deliver the disk. It’ll give us the upper hand. The rest of us are going to give them cover by going into the city and giving Terra trouble.” Ethan explained looking ahead. “After the tower is reactivated, it’s game over for the Viruses.”

“And game over for Terra.” Maria smirked. “Oh I wish I could see the look on her face.”

“If I had a camera I’d take a picture.”

“Ethan.” Todd said over the radio. “You… and the others might want to hear something.”

“What is it?”

“This is coming directly from the city. Someone within the security contacted me…. you’re not gonna believe this.”

There was a click as another audio came on.

“If anyone is hearing this, this is Joseph Frost. I repeat, this is Joseph Frost!”

Everyone was shocked… Gabe especially, he had thought Joseph was long dead… That Terra had killed him after he had tricked her. “Great Esanii…”

“Dad…” Ethan whispered.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, keep listening.” Todd said.

“I was able to hack Terra’s system.” Joseph began. “I was able to shut down the scans of the Out Lands and power down the control collars on all the Data Beings trapped in the city… and it seems they’ve taken to it kindly.”

There were other voices heard in the background. All varying from one another… but their message clear.

“LONG LIVE THE PHOENIXES! LONG LIVE THE KING! DOWN WITH TERRA!”

“Team Advent, this is the big moment here. If you can restore the last tower, Terra is done for. You will still need to defeat her regardless since she holds the last of Ark’s power… and not to mention has something else that belongs to a dear friend of mine. There’s no question, Terra does not come out of this in one piece. I’ll do all I can to help from here along with all the other Data Beings and those players you’ve brought in. I wish you all luck, and I hope to see you all by the end of this battle.”

The team looked to one another giving a nod. “You heard the man.” Lucas called. “This is the final battle! No screwing up!”


“And no mercy either!” Gabe added. “Terra dies tonight. No matter what!”