I am on a ROLL! Whoo, another update! The hiatus was good for me! This chapter is pretty juicy and you may recognize some stuff. Slowly but surely we are reaching the end of this long tale.

This has been my longest book yet) Falling to Rise only had 32 chapter and we are already almost at 40!

Though Falling to Rise is a series lol.

~~~~~

GAME OVER

Chapter 37 [5]

~~~~~

Adam woke, but he wasn't in the dark and empty void he normally found himself in after death. He was elsewhere. A dark room.

Who are you? Adam heard the soft whimper of a child. Adam squinted to peer into the dark room, the only light that fell was the light of the moon through the small, barred window.

"Er, d-do--"

It's ok child, I'm a friend, Adam spun to look behind him. He was separated by a wall of bars and on the other side was a woman. A soft and familiar green glow surrounded her.

I want to...go home, Adam looked back and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he was finally able to make out the small and huddled form of a small child. This was a cell, he was experiencing yet another vision of sorts. It seemed that after each death his visions of the past(?) were getting clearer.

These visions were also connected to his present, there was no way such an uncanny similarity was just a coincidence. Not with everything that happened between Ty, Jason, and Seto being almost mirrors of events he saw when he died before.

Don't worry, I promise I'm here to free you, just promise me to be quiet. Can you do that? The woman placed gentle hands on the bars.

What Adam didn't understand, was, what he was supposed to do with these visions. Were they warnings? Hints? He never really had them before he joined the AHD. He didn't even know why he had them.

Adam saw the little boy nod. Good, I'm ԍboH. The woman took out a set of keys and unlocked the door to the cell. She approached slowly, why don't you tell me your name?

I'm....Innocence.

Nice to meet you Innocence.

Was Adam dreaming....or did he hear that right? Innocence? No, that wasn't what was weird, what was weird is that he heard a name. Before all he hear was garbled nonsense and here he could hear a name. Was it the boy's real name, or was there another reason.

Take my hand, it's time for you to go home.

I can finally see my mommy?

Yes. The woman nodded.

He felt these visions were telling a story. From the first vision he had, to the ones he had now. A missing child, conflicts over this child, and now the rescue of this child. It was just like now, just like what Seto and Jason had done. But why was everything seemingly repeating.

Adam shielded his eyes, as the world around him changed. He was no longer in a dark cell, but instead he was in a--Adam covered his ears.

A battlefield.

Around him were a blur of fighting figures, all of which never touched him. He wasn't really here of course.

A purple light erupted in the distance, it was dark and devouring and Adam was mesmerized by its terrible beauty. But as quickly as this dark and powerful light came it vanished at the sound of a scream. Adam didn't notice the cracks in the ground. Adam was too deep in a crowd to fully make out the situation, but his ears still picked up on parts of a conversation.

μtɓuԍɹtƧ... Adam felt like he recognized the voice but he wasn't sure.

μtɓuԍɹtƧ...why? The same male voice spoke. Adam craned his neck over the crowd of people who were fighting just moments before. Whatever happened after that flash of purple light was big enough to make whatever battle happening stop. But he couldn't see what was going on.

There seemed to be a moment of silence before a female voice spoke in a loud and commanding tone, Stop fighting! There is no need to fight! We do not want to rage war, we only want our Prince back! We are a peaceful kingdom, and so we only want peace! Will you still fight for a battle that leads only to bloodshed! Or will you stand down, we are all human here, we are all under the Gods care, why must we fight when we should live in peace! Her voice was not the same as the one from the previous vision. This was definitely not the woman who helped the child.

The little boy? Was he the prince? Didn't the other women return him? Wasn't that what the other woman was trying to do?

Don't move ԍɔuɒԍɓuԍΛ! You are done, do not instigate any further quarrels! What was going on? Was she talking to the man from earlier? Were they done fighting? He couldn't see! Adam tried to push past the soldiers, but found his hands went right through them. Of course! He was such an idiot, this was all a vision, it wasn't real!

Give our prince back to us, we want only peace--

Peace? You want peace? Who was this? Adam walked at a faster pace until he broke into a slight jog. He just needed to follow the voice, for now there were three voices, Peace, coming from the woman who sent her loyal subject into the castle and had a man killed, for what, to find a child. You had a man killed for peace! Don't ask for peace when you've already lost it!

Adam broke through and he halted. In front of him was a man holding a sword to the sky and just up ahead were two other peoples. Out of the two armies that stood all around, the two people ahead stood out. First, a woman bleeding all over the grass, a black sword on the ground behind her. Her hair was like the night sky, a blackish blue, she was strong-willed, Adam could tell. No weak-willed person could stand with wounds that grave and face an entire army with a face as kind as hers.

He was in awe.

The man slightly behind her next to the cast away black sword that Adam realized was really freaking familiar had silver hair lined with purple streaks. His red eyes were full of concern and then the man who had his sword raised to the sky lowered it, and TnT began to fall.

Everything around Adam erupted into panic. People were now fleeing in fear and fury as explosions sounded and debris flew around. Adam insintively ducked as chunks of rocks flew for his head before harmlessly passing through his body. The silver-haired man rushed to help the woman but she pushed him back..

Adam saw magic seep from her body as the man she pushed away retreated with her sword. He screamed as he saw her blown away by an explosion.

Why! What was he supposed to see! Where was the little boy that was supposed to be here, supposed to stop this war?

Adam wobbled as the ground cracked and trembled below him. He furiously looked around. Where was it? Where was the respawn button? He needed to get out of here, he didn't want to be here! Where could he respawn!

Why did this have to happen to him, he didn't understand! What were these visions trying to tell him?

The ground below gave way, and Adam felt himself sink. What a familiar feeling, and for a single moment, over the horizon, safe from all the chaos, he saw it. He saw the silhouette of a woman carrying a child before she turned and fled over the hill.

Then Adam fell, the vision melted away into darkness, and the screams and explosions muted into silence.

He was back, facing the familiar words that read GAME OVER. He wondered if this was made as a joke by Jason, whatever unlucky sap had the fortune to try out his amulet would find out soon enough their life was a game to Jason. That unlucky sap being him, and he was the one who realized his life was essentially a game.

His head was reeling from everything he saw and was forced to take in.

Everything he saw was in the past, he was sure of that, but the past was quickly becoming the present. Was this a telling of the doom that would befall Rekrium, if so, why? Why was Rekrium being singled out, what had they done to deserve any of this??

And most importantly, why was he the one subjected to seeing these visions.

Adam kneeled and buried his face in his hands. He was tired of being ridiculed and insulted. He was tired of being a dumb human. He was tired of receiving dumb visions that didn't make any sense to him.

He looked up and saw the button to respawn, he could just not press it. If he didn't press it he would never have to face the same ridicule, or the same life.

He could ignore everything the visions told him, whatever the point of them was he didn't care. He didn't need to care, right?

Adam knew how selfish that was, for him to casually cast away the lives of his friends and his family, especially since it was his fault their lives were screwed up.

If only he'd gone to get help when Ty was questioning Jason, he could still be alive and Ross wouldn't have to suffer through the responsibilities of a job he wasn't ready for.

If only he hadn't gotten Jin and Barney involved. Barney would have graduated to a full fledged AHD member and Jin could be on his way to climb the ranks of the DROP Force.

But their lives wouldn't get better if they died, he didn't forget what he heard in the End. The Enders were planning for a war, and with the vision that he saw, the events of the past would become the reality of their present.

Rekrium would fall, and it would once again be his fault if he did nothing about it.

Adam crawled forward before he forced himself to stand.

GAME OVER

And below it....

Respawn

Adam held his hand over the button; he hesitated. Was he sure, could he do it? Could he still remain true to his dream, his dream to be a hero, or was there no reason to?

Adam chewed the bottom of his lip and pressed the button. His eyes opened to the darkness of his room. How much time has passed? Unlike real players that respawned immediately, he did not. Who knew how much time passed as he watched that vision. Adam needed to hurry and warn somebody.

Adam stood up but immediately fell down as a wave of sickness fell over him. He shuddered in pain, his limbs felt weak and almost bruised, he coughed. Adam slowly sat back as soon as he finished coughing and placed a hand on his head. The lightheaded feeling would not vanish, but he had to tell someone.

Adam slowly stood up and he used his dresser table as a crutch until he felt safe to move, did he have the strength to climb the cliff?

Adam coughed heavily again, his teeth stained red as a splatter of blood stained his hand that covered his mouth.

What the...blood!? Adam's vision blacked out for an instant and he found himself on the ground a moment later.

"Who's there!?" Adam looked up and winced, his throat was aching now, why? "I said who is there?" Seto came in through the doorway and saw Adam, "Oh, it's you, I see you must've failed--"

Adam interrupted with more coughing before clutching his throat, it felt like it was on fire. He squeezed his eyes shut hoping he could ease the pain.

"Adam?"

"H-help," he gurgled.

Adam's vision went spotty and he fell over. He had the faint idea that he felt Seto yell his name before rushing to his side. But he wasn't sure.

He was in the void again. Once again the same, taunting words floated ahead of him.

GAME OVER

What Adam didn't understand was had he died...again! All he did was he stood up and died literally only moment after. Adam felt his throat, he was pretty sure he choked on blood, but why?

Adam looked up at the floating words again, he blinked and for a moment he thought the words flickered. Adam stared intently at the words again, but whatever he saw didn't seem to happen again.

He expected another vision, but after a few moments of silence he concluded that nothing would happen this time. Adam walked to the button and firmly pressed Respawn.

~~~~~

"Adam, what the nether was that!"

Adam opened his eyes to see Seto standing over him his face flushed red in anger. Adam sat up, but there was no lightheaded feeling this time. He shrugged to Seto, he had no idea after all.

"I just died again, I'm not sure why though. I stood up and started coughing blood and then I died."

"Notch dammit, did you drink your own piss? People don't die like that."

"I mean I died before, my head was...cut off--"

"So what, you respawned with half-healed injuries? Are you telling me there is something wrong with your amulet?"

Adam gasped and grabbed his amulet, It looked fine--on the bottom surface of the clear glass was a small crack. He only noticed due to the way the light reflected off glass, he gasped, "It's...it's cracked! SInce when?!"

He needed to find Ross, maybe Ross knew how to fix it. He hoped they had all made it back to the AHD and none of them were too worried about him, though they probably though he was...dead...

"Where are you going?"

"I need to find Ross, he can fix the amulet, and then I something important to tell Captain Mau about the Enders!"

"What!? What about the Enders?" Seto flared.

Adam waved for Seto to follow him before he dashed out of the cave and followed the floating candles to the ravine pathway.

Too much was going on, could he even remember all he needed to tell her? Should...should he tell her about his visions and how he was beginning to think something in the past was happening again?

He was worried about whether she would believe him, he trusted his friends, but this was a whole different situation. He was already ridiculed enough, would this just make things worse for him?

Adan shook his head, he couldn't think about that right now, the important thing was warning everyone about the attack. He didn't know when, but it sounded like it would happen soon.

He just hoped he wasn't too late.

"Adam, wait, I'll bring us both up," Adam stopped climbing the ravine and Seto waved his staff over the two of them. The familiar churning in his stomach and brief pain made Adam gasp as they teleported to the top of the ravine.

And lucky for him he saw the cars that took him and his friends roll into the premise. Not a moment too soon.

~~~~~

COUGH (If the second part of the vision is not familiar, you should look back at CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX)

Yes, Adam died again after dying in the End. This is due to the crack in his amulet caused in Chapter Twenty-Four. The damage is catching up to him, this can be seen as a glitch. I wonder if Adam has the time to fix his amulet???? :/

QNA!!! Since it has been a while since I was able to do consecutive updates, how about a QNA to refresh all of your memories! Simply ask a question, if it is a question I can answer then I will answer it; if it will spoil too much I will let you know. (I am willing to let a bit of information slip for your benefit though.)

;)

Other than the questions, any theories? Thoughts? Anythign you just want to say in general?

(All your support and encouragement has been very helpful. I've been able to write a lot, and hopefully, for a little while I try and keep up the 2 updates minimum a week. Though I may switch back to my every other story every other week schedule in the future so keep an eye out on any updates on that)

~CATtheDrawer