Reincarnation...of sorts

Feeling a chill down his spine, Alex groaned inwardly, hoping that the boss wouldn't take it out on him too bad since the whole situation was out of his control. From what little Alex knew of his mysterious boss, he was a caring person for those he trusted, and a wrathful demon to those he didn't like.

Looking forward to hanging out with his sister, Alex was finally able to take a moment to look at Melody and saw that she was widely different from the slightly grouchy younger sister that he remembered.

While a lot of people can profess to have beautiful relatives and all that, Melody had always given off an aura of sorts that gave off warmth and an overall friendly feeling. However, despite how loving she had been this morning and at his work, Alex could easily pick up on how she had changed. Melody's once warm and caring aura had seemed to only be a ruse, changing into an ice-cold wasteland. Still beautiful and silent but would chill a person to the core should they linger too long.

Going to Melody's favorite bakery shop, Alex sat down with Melody. After ordering, the siblings sat silently for an uncomfortable amount of time before Alex looked towards Melody and asked a question that had been simmering for a while.

"So, care to explain what that was all about? You didn't tell me before about a so-called lunch date and I don't believe I forgot any special occasion." Seeing Melody begin to give her obviously rehearsed response, Alex stopped her. "Before you say anything, I know you have changed, and I hope you trust me enough to tell me the whole truth."

Seeing the very rare stern face of her older brother, Melody knew that the story she had come up with on the way might have satisfied Alex's curiosity at her behavior. However; after having finally reunited with him again, she couldn't bear lying to him especially when Alex was looking at her so intently. Regardless of how Alex would react Melody just hoped that this time she would be able to keep him out of harm's way and forge for them a better life. Sighing deeply, she was still torn on if she should keep the secret anyway.

Looking at her brother's concerned gaze, Melody knew she couldn't lie to him. No matter how he might react, Melody looked Alex straight in the eyes, and slowly told a brief overview of what had happened to her other life that had caused Alex to die.

"I realize that what I am about to tell you may sound unbelievable and complete nonsense, but I hope that you keep the questions to the end of my story." Nodding and eating his own New York cheesecake, Alex kept quiet.

Eating small bites of her Tiramisu and sipping her green tea, Melody took a deep breath. "For me, this day had occurred differently in my past. When you were at work, those thugs from earlier got into a fight and you were dragged into the middle of it." Tightening her fist till her knuckles began to ache, Melody felt Alex's hands softly cover her fist and nod for her to continue. Relaxing her tense nerves, she continued. "You were sent to the hospital due to your injuries and because of those thugs, you were sent into a comatose state."

"Our family would never be able to support the medical costs of keeping you alive for any long period of time or potentially to help you recover so you ended up slowly withering away in the house. Our so-called family refused to help at all, and I decided to cut ties with those people forever."

"I had never felt so lost and alone before…it destroyed my sense of safety and trust I could ever have in anyone else. There were thousands of times where I thought I was better off just dying there beside you, ending my pointless misery and pain that everyone had brought upon us. All that kept me going was my vengeance towards the bastards who killed you and how their precious reputation and connections had kept them from any sort of punishment."

It wasn't until your boss had come by the funeral and offered me a way to settle the score and build myself up to a point where I could snuff them out forever. It took me years to get my footing and even more to where I would unravel just who was backing those punks. When I had finally gotten to a point where nothing could stand in my way, one of the main forces that had kept me going had fizzled out. Due to a special occurrence, I was able to request one thing and all I could think of was being able to reunite with you one last time before I passed. I don't remember the details of just how they were able to transfer me back to this time, but here I am."

Realize that her tea and dessert had long been finished, Melody nervously looked towards her brother. Fearing what she might see, Melody was shocked to see Alex licking the reside of his cheesecake off the fork. Seemingly as if her whole take wasn't shocking or worth caring about. Sighing deeply, Melody realized that there was no way Alex would believe her story. Even if someone had told her the same, she would have probably reacted the same way or even colder. "I knew you wouldn't believe me…" Melody muttered under her breath.

Finished ordering another cheesecake to-go, Alex looked over to Melody with confusion. "What do you mean? I believe you one hundred percent."

"Huh? But why?" Melody had experienced a lot during her years leading up to this and it wasn't the first time she had thought of this very conversation happening. Even more so after she had come back this morning.

Alex just smirked evilly. "I had a chip installed in your heart that tells me when you are lying to me or not. Have you ever remembered a time when you could lie to me successfully? You ca…" Looking over to Melody and seeing her giving him an icy death stare he coughed loudly and stopped blustering. "Uhhh I just had a feeling that you were telling the truth. A big brother never reveals his secrets since it was tough getting you to give me a tell when you are lying to start off with, please don't hurt me!"

Anyway, I am curious as to what you did to get your revenge. What kind of job did you end up doing or whatever to get back at them? Those guys seemed pretty well connected and rich if what you said about them getting off scot-free."

Rubbing her temples but smiling at her brother's goofy antics, her tense heart was finally able to relax slightly. Knowing that she had someone to share her troubles with despite how outlandish they were felt…comforting. Following Alex's lead, Melody also ordered another dessert but this time being a fruit tart and a refill on her green tea.

Melody knew that just because she had gotten her brother back that neither of them was safe just yet. Looking over at her brother savoring a few bites of his cheesecake, she smiled again. If her future guildmates had seen how much she had smiled today, they would gouge out their eyes in disbelief.

"Oh right, the main reason I was able to get to a point to get my revenge was through RotA."

Sweeping up the last few crust crumbs, Alex snapped his fingers. "You're talking about that new VRMMO game? Reign of the Aspics or something like that? The one game the thug leader talked about right?"

"Reign of the Aspects Alex. And it is the main reason why I was able to support myself financially as well as build up my influence to get my revenge against that murderer and those behind him."

"How? It's just another 'New, Never Before Seen Game that will revolutionize the world gaming scene' situation again isn't it? Firestorm tried with their Virtual World of Plightcraft, EZ tried with their Galaxy Wars: The Rise of the Royals. Heck, even Bentendo was highly regarded for their try with Fink's Adventures in Lorule. While all of those were supposed to be widely successful, none of them really were able to make good on their promise of revolutionary gameplay. What makes this one different?"

Genuinely surprised at her brother's comment, Melody jabbed back. "Wow, I'm surprised you know so much about the gaming world. I always took you as an ignorant girl chasing weirdo."

Clutching his chest and crying slightly, Alex weepily sipped his tea.

Ignoring her brother's slightly fake actions, Melody continued. "While that may be true of those games, the reason why Reign of the Aspects ended up revolutionizing not only the gaming sphere but the entire world was mainly due to not necessarily the game itself but the way it operated. Built from the ground up by a low-key mysterious company called Radiance, they came out of nowhere and created the game called Reign of Aspects."

"While everyone now has Neural Ports that assist us in most facets of our lives from communication, travel, currency, medical, and everything else, there have obviously been those in the gaming community that have been pushing for more immersive experiences which is a much harder leap than what many had thought was possible. Despite VRMMOs have been attempted for a while, no one has truly satisfied the public since there is a difference between viewing through a character in a world and BEING the character in a whole new world."

"Anyway, that all changed when Reign of the Aspects came out on the scene and almost every company and gaming community overlooked it as being another random indie company trying their hand at being the next big thing. Despite their skepticism, the meteoric rise in popularity and word of mouth that Reign was able to garner quickly pushed both it and Radiance to the spotlight in just a couple days."

Reign was able to simulate a 98% realistic experience never before imagined before and it owes its success due to an AI that operated the entire game. AI has always been strictly in the realm of sci-fi and while humanity has always been pushing the limits of ingenuity and technology, creating a fully functional and self-improving system that can think for itself has eluded becoming reality. Its name is Eilyria, and due to various concerns about security and safety that would come from building such technology due to..."

"Movies."

Melody glared at Alex for interrupting and he quietly poured himself another cup of tea trying to act as innocent as possible. "As I was saying, Radiance was able to create an AI that even governments intensive research was unable to find any threatening features of the AI. After about a week the game had gotten so popular that even billionaires and high-level corporate entities, even those outside the gaming sphere, were attracted to the game and quickly invested in Radiance which still evaded anyone's ability to locate or contact outside of the game.

While the sudden rise of such a new company should have sparked some political controversies, Radiance had somehow proved to be able to prevent such disorder and calm the worries of the various governing parties before the game had released. Of course, don't ask me how it was able to do such a thing; but regardless of the reasons, Reign of the Aspects practically became a second life for all walks of society. Due to this the ability for players to make a livelihood off the game wasn't practical to every player but when billionaires and thousands of companies invest into the game it became much more feasible for a good majority to make a living off just playing a game. You can imagine how well it worked out for those that were on top."

Looking at the time, Melody finished the rest of her meal. "Anyway, it works in our favor that we can be one of the first people to enter the game. Come on Alex, we don't have much time till they start selling."

"Alright! Let's go!"

Long finished his portion of sweets and tea, he packed up and followed Melody towards the store, curious about what their new future would hold. Promising to never let Melody feel alone ever again.