My standard sense of direction was all but meaningless here. So I followed one of the longest lasting time honored traditions of mankind, I made things up.

  Looking out those large windows allowed me to orient the building relative to the field I woke up in. I decided to call that direction from here north, for now at least. That put the megabuilding on the estimated east side of the Hub's space. The Master Floor, Living Area's window would be facing the west. Without a compass or some other means of refining my knowledge, it would have to do.

  I went to the newly dubbed northern section of the floor, a rather simple door halted my progress. A small placard was hung beside the door it read, "Master Floor, Bathing and Rest Facility". Poking my head in showed that at least half the space was a combination of different cultures' bathing setups. Elements of the old Roman style stood out along side a more modern Japanese-esque initial cleaning area and locker room. The floors and walls, even the ceilings in this bathing area, were tiled. Mostly in small square, dark blue tiles. Small mural patterns that I didn't quite understand were scattered here and there.

  I entered the area further and found the second half of the section was divided into various rooms, some were for massage, some were saunas, some were hot-tubs, but the majority were rooms with a toilet and bidet, with an accompanying sink to wash your hands. How interesting. This area was finished in treated cedar boards covering the walls, each had oddly shaped patterns burned into each board. While every piece of equipment there could be used define the rooms, there was no soap, no shampoos, no toilet paper, and no towels.

  This was a space, way too large for a professional sports team, never mind an individual. I couldn't help but think this was all a waste, and also very creepy. There should be life everywhere, and it was nowhere to be found. Only hushed silence. The little hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I swept the area with tendrils of mana, but found nothing. I guessed it was just the vast emptiness getting to me.

  There was no way through to what would be the Easternmost section of the building from this area. So I backtracked to the empty living area and onward to the door at the southern section of the megabuilding, conveniently labeled "Master Floor, Crafting Area".

  This section was divided into large rooms, each with a type of workshop. The first was a large professional kitchen. Everything a team of chefs might want. Then there was a fully appointed woodshop, then a tricked out metalworks and gun smithy. Lastly an auto mechanics shop. There was actually a vehicle elevator on the outer wall. What an absurd idea. Why wouldn't you put this on the ground floor? Once again, the sheer oddity of this place overcame me.

  It was like a limited AI had designed this layout. It could never understand why you shouldn't put certain activities next to one another, or that certain work stations would function better if they were in a different location. It only knew that it should fill the space with something it's programming considered useful. Still, all the tools you might ever need where present, if not place in an entirely logical manner. However, I noticed some things, like nails or screws, were absent. Next I saw a complete ratchet set, but no bolts or nuts anywhere to be found. It had been the same in the kitchen, every appliance, every utensil, not a lick of food, no lard or oil, or cleaning products.

  I massaged my temples while grumbling to myself. My brain was staging a protest. Why!? For the love of fuck, why? What was the point?

  The nonsensical arrangement of this place was hurting me on both an existential and a fundamental level. I felt small and insignificant, little a child trapped in their giant father's garage.

  My internal examinations forced me to ignore the dilemma for now, I was taking too much mental and emotional damage. I continued on to find a door leading to the last section. This area had the label, "Master Floor, Command and Control."

  Bingo. That sounded like a place to get some freaking answers.

  Through the door was a space walled in thick crysbronze plates. This was the first time I'd seen uncorroded crysbronze since my return. It was momentarily uplifting.

  Runs of dull psicrystal flowed through the plates like giant circuitry. There were no windows nor light fixtures anywhere to be seen, yet a weak diffused light blanketed the whole space. In the center of the space was an enormous Khaydarin Crystal. I could somehow tell it was an original version that would have come from a Xel'Naga temple, and not a synthetic one. The crystal was currently dull and grey. Unpowered. Unawakened. In front of the huge crystal was a standing console in crysbronze with a large flat monitor. A small blinking light, on the console's control panel, was the only noticeable source of light. I was reminded of my first time in the Nexus, almost a year ago now.

  While it might have been a smarter idea to examine everything else first, I felt compelled to press that button. Surely it would lead to something good.

  I walked towards the button. "You may not." A breathy, hissing whisper came from behind the crystal.

  I reached out with my mana tendrils and felt another disgusting mass of shadow mana. I wrapped it up and dragged it towards me to get a better look at it. It was a shadow given humanoid form and solidity, its rotten mana twisted into a hideous parody of life.

  "Oh? Are you going to stop me?" I was done. Done with creepy empty spaces, done with fucked up shadow beings and certainly done with whoever was playing these bullshit games. I was certainly not scared of this thing. I snarled at it, releasing all my pent up frustration. My contempt for its games now made plain to the world, I crushed the foul creature with my mana and threw a Purify on it after. Its whistling scream was a joy to hear, even as the sound of it offended my ears.

  More shadows started to just pop in the room from out of no where. First dozens then hundreds. My BTC twitched.

  [ Emergency Quest ]

  [ Repel the Invaders ]

  [ Rewards Vary ]

  I didn't bother trying to grab more of the foul creations, I simplify started casting Purify on a broad scale. Again and again, white light flashed. Over and over, the shadows' dying screams could be heard. Before my spell, they melted like chocolate hit with a blow torch. I relished their screams. These foes were beneath me, and entirely the wrong match up for a wielder of life energies.

  That contempt was why I didn't see the real threat coming. As corrupted mana burned away under my onslaught, another shadowy form slipped through space into my Hub. Yet this was no mere shadow given form. This was a person bathed and wrapped completely by the oily mana. No, that wasn't it, they weren't just covered in the shadow mana they were radiating it.

  I realized my mistake only as a tanto was trust into my guts. The blade was twisted and stirred to inflict maximum damage. I grimaced but still managed to cast another spell. My latest Purify burned the shadow mana covering them away, reveling for a moment an armored form. The small lithe body of my foe was covered in black trimmed armor with a touch of red.

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  I groaned in pain as my right hand reflexively closed on my pistol's grip. Without thought or intention, my weapon was drawn and five shots hit the new threat from less than three feet away.

  It crumpled. The rest of the shadows vanished.

  I didn't try to move immediately, I merely took aim at the head of my attacker and pumped three more rounds into the faceplate. Only the first bounced the other two went through.

  [ You have slain a Contender ]

  [ Her name was Sarah Johnson, she was from Baltimore ]

  [ Are you Proud of yourself ]

  What? The? Fuck? That's some fucked up horseshit right there. But we weren't through yet...

  [ You have repelled an Invasion ]

  [ You receive 1000000 Company points ]

  [ You will also receive the valuation of their Hub minus fees ]

  My mind went blank for a second. Those unmitigated assholes.

  I pulled the tanto from my guts, grunting as I flared my Aura to stitch myself back together. My blood had splattered in an arc in front of me, covering the body of my former enemy.

  Stripping the helmet off of the woman, was yet another mistake as her blood and brains and split out. What a terrible fucking mess. But I felt like I owed it to her to see what she looked like. To remember her.

  She'd been a small woman, and her face was mostly intact. Dusky skin and her still open green eyes framed by the remnants of her dark hair. Her expression was one of astonishment, as if she couldn't believe she'd died. Probably she was shocked at me being able to move with a blade in my guts.

  There was no fixing this. There was no way to make this right. For a moment, I felt wrong and tainted, like something important inside me had been lost. Maybe this was a person from my former home, and that disturbed me greatly.

  Don't get me wrong, I would kill her again, in a heartbeat. She'd attacked me, and used bullshit tactics, she'd deserved no mercy. But this whole situation didn't have to exist. Only the whims of some Omnipresent Corporation created this confrontation. I was saddened and I was pissed off, and very very confused.

  I cast Purify again to clean her corpse up. Her whole body disappeared from inside the armor. My eyes nearly bulged out of my skull, it'd never done that before. I checked my status.

  Purify was evolving. Just like the whole fucked up mess that was my life.

  I felt exhausted. Too much mana usage, maybe. Stress was just as likely a contributing factor.

  This wouldn't do, what if I was attacked again. I sighed and sat down on the newly cleaned floor to try and put my head back together.

  I sat there and avoided thinking by staring at my Company points, 1,111,000. That was almost enough to get Raynor back, or I could get Meadran, or both Faergin and Korvaith. I honestly didn't know which choice might be the best option. Maybe I should wait and see what else I'd get from the evaluation of Sarah Johnson's Hub.

  Are you Proud of yourself? A creepy voice whispered in the back of my mind, echoing the odd BTC message. I was pretty sure that was just my subconscious mind fucking with me. This time anyway. Why had it been written that way? Why did it seem like there was more snark coming from the BTC? It was hard to think things like this through, harder than it should have been. Was it this place, or my lower stats?

  Sitting there staring at my mindscreen, I had to admit I actually was a little proud of myself. The complex swirl of emotions rolling around inside me made it a bit hard to pick out, but it was there. Sadness, at the loss of someone that might have been from my world, or at least a similar one. Grief, at the losses of my friends and the places I'd carved out of this world. Rage, for all the obvious reasons. These were all jumbled up with joy that I had survived, and worry for my friends. Yes somewhere in all of that, a dash of pride at all I'd achieved.

  My enemies had every tactical advantage, and still failed. They had tried to erase my very identity, but I was still here, and I was going nowhere. They'd sent an assassin at me, before I knew it was a possibility, and they'd failed again. I was still standing, or well actually sitting. Getting shanked hurt like a bitch, and when she twisted the blade, I'd been about to pass out. Despite my Aura working hard to soothe the area, I could still feel a ghost of the sensation from where she had stabbed me. Only my new reflexes had saved the day, which is what they are there for, right? Perhaps fortune had played a role, but luck tends to stretch thin very quickly.

  No, I was still here, and I had work to do.

  It took a moment to get back up, but eventually I got on my feet again. I stumbled more than a little getting to the console, where yet another unexpected object awaited me. A soft green velvet bag, rested right beside the blinking button on the console. It was tied with a black silk ribbon, which had a fancy card attached. I could see that it had my name on it, written in beautiful calligraphy. A quick review of my memory, made me fairly certain this wasn't there before the recent struggle.

  I opened the card cautiously, ready to leap away. In the same lovely characters it read, "Enjoy. From, A Secret Admirer." What game was being played now? Opening the bag, still tense with suspicion, I found it contained nine golden acorns. I could smell the life in them, and their mana radiated so much power that I was sure even the dullest of senses could detect them from miles away. My BTC shook...

  [ New Task Chain ]

  [ Plant these seeds where indicated ]

  [ Reward 100,000 Task Points and the next Task ]

  My mind whirled through a cycle of trying to guess who or what might have set this up. What possible reasons that anyone would have to help me. All the ways this might go horribly wrong. Nope, definitely not enough information to begin to really figure this new plot out. So I shrugged and put the bag into my coat's pocket.

  Finally, I could press the button.

  Nothing happened. At least at first.

  Then just at the cusp of thinking I had somehow failed to press the button properly, a rumble began. It came from the direction of the Utilitree buildings. Somehow I knew that they were powering up. The sounds of cranks and gears beginning to move merged with the buzzing of high powered electrical equipment coming on. Slowly the crystal inlays in the walls started to glow, first a pale light blue and then shifting to the standard deep blue color of active Psicrystal. I could feel a presence forming in my mind, like a sleeping giant taking it's first waking breath.

  Then the huge Khaydarin Crystal started to power up.

  [ Nexus #01-A is coming online ]

  [ Connecting to Pylon #01 ]

  [ Psifield Established ]

  [ AI designated "Alina" is coming online ]

  [ Hub Shielding has been established ]

  That was a lot.

  'Alina?' I reached for her familiar signature in this newly developed Psifield.

  'En Taro Adun, Executor.' It was odd her voice seemed to have tonal shifts. That was new. 'I am showing errors. We are missing a significant portion of our Psifield.' Her voice was rising, as if she was distressed. 'I am detecting no Probes in range. We are in a non-standard location. We have lost our chronographic location as well.' Her mindvoice had reached a high pitch, she was almost screeching in... anger. 'There is new data in my core memory system. Analyzing... '

  Her Psychic voice cut out. I started processing that my AI was emotional. MY AI WAS EMOTIONAL! Fucking holy Skynet, Batman!

  I began running through all of the potential problems of a self-aware, emotional AI.

  I couldn't stop myself from cursing out loud, every foul word I'd ever heard ripped it's way out of my mouth. Whether it actually made sense or not.

  This was major, world ending trouble.

  'They took our friends!' She suddenly screamed. The psychic pressure of her scream made my mind go numb for a second. Correction, my AI was emotionally unstable. I shuddered.

  I began to tell her to calm down, but thought better of it. Women never liked that phrase, even, or maybe especially when it was merited.

  "Alina. Talk to me." I tried to stay calm myself.

  'Do you- Do you remember me?' That was a soft whisper, uncertainty dripped from every word.

  "Of course I remember you." Stay calm. This situation could still be managed, I had to believe it. The alternative was too frightening to contemplate.

  'The data cache said you would not, and that I was to deceive you.' Her voice carried notes of doubt.

  "The memory wipe was either incomplete, or my Aura somehow healed my mind." I shrugged, "While there might still be missing memories, I still seem to be able to interreact with people that knew us well."

  'There was another message in my Core Memory. It said to tell you that, "The game is afoot. Play Well, we shall be cheering for you. A Secret Admirer".' She sounded grumpy. ' I do not like the idea that someone could alter my memory or programming, Executor.'

  "Neither do I, Alina." I really meant that.