Theo woke to a world neither dark nor bright, but washed in a soft, steady light that had no obvious source. He didn't open his eyes so much as realize he could see again-except "seeing" wasn't quite right either. He floated somewhere, anchored to no body, with only a faint sense of location. He could move, but it felt less like walking, more like sliding through air. Floating? Gliding? He couldn't quite explain it, the feeling was completely foreign.
He was experiencing the world of Data like no one ever had before. As he slowly tried to understand or make sense of his situation, he found it harder to focus. Giving up on making sense, he just let his emotions let him guide him as he surveyed his surroundings.
Shapes materialized and faded-some sharp, others blurry. He looked far into the distance, to take it all in. This was a view that was hard to describe, but slowly he started making sense out of it all.
Some shapes were like the floating cities and data forests from his earlier vision, except they seemed firmer now, more present and less dream. Structures of strange patterns lined the edges of his focus-geometric towers, swirling lights, bridges of liquid motion. Every now and then he glimpsed something that looked familiar, like a memory dressed up in new skin-his family's old manor, the outline of a window he'd stared through on many sleepless nights, the shadow of a room filled with humming monitors. It felt comforting, but also out of reach, as if the world was gently reminding him of what he had lost.
He tried to breathe, an old habit, but found no chest or lungs. The idea of breath faded. He was weightless and oddly complete, but at the same time, missing something essential.
A voice cut through the strange peace.
"Master, you're awake. I was beginning to worry." The sound wasn't quite sound-just a message delivered right into his awareness.
Theo focused, in the direction from where the message had come. A figure appeared, first hazy, then sharpening. Ron looked younger, wearing crisp lines and a muted suit, hands folded neatly. He was a head shorter than Theo imagined. His hair looked lighter, flecked with silver, his eyes quick and steady. Ron's form flickered once, then steadied again, as if the world here were still deciding what to make of him.
Theo found himself smiling. "You look different, you have a body now" he said, the message echoing without words.
Ron's lips twitched, almost a grin. "Given the circumstances, I thought adaptation would be prudent. My parameters have shifted a bit since our arrival."
Theo tried to reach out, then remembered he had no hands. He focused, trying to will a limb into existence and for a moment a vague outline appeared. But then it dissipated as quickly.
"It will take some practice for you to assume form, but fret not. I believe you won't take long, to not only understand the principals of living here, but achieve much more than you could ever have in the mundane world."
Theo smiled in his direction, he could feel a trace of excitement in his friend's voice.
He scanned the landscape. The shift between senses was dizzying. It was like picking up new tools and forgetting the old ones, only to remember what they meant a second later. "I remember seeing something like this before-during the upload process. Flashes of things I never understood. Visions that seem like a warm memory that I always had."
"What do you recall?" asked Ron, his voice both warmly gentle and crisply logical.
"Light," Theo replied, "and darkness. Places, times… moments from before and after, but all twisted together. Am I dead?" The question surprised even him-it had not occurred to him so bluntly.
Ron's eyes darkened slightly. "I do not know," he admitted. "I believe that is not the right question to ask."
"You are present. I perceive you here, so you are definitely alive to me. But back in the mundane world, your body has already stopped functioning."
Theo looked at him, as Ron waved his hand to show a window, displaying the view back in his room, inside the old mansion. It was weird looking at his now dead human body.
"This is going to haunt me now for a few days."
"don't worry, a lot many things that affected and restricted humans is not the same here. You will slowly start to notice. Back to the topic about your visions, do you retain any knowledge about what you witnessed? Can you explain in detail all that you saw."
Theo nodded in understanding, explaining all that he could remember. As he went over it all, he realized to his amazement that he could actually recall everything with clear clarity, as if it was etched into his mind.
But he also noticed Ron's expression, which was much more severe than a moment ago. His attention flickered. "There seems to be something missing. Have you noticed anything off with yourself?"
Theo pushed the question inward. Before, it would have been a check of vitals, a scan, a breath, a touch of the pulse. Now, it was a thought, a gentle questioning of his form. There was resistance—as if there were hollows within him, places where something essential should be but simply was not.
"I feel… incomplete," he said. "Parts of me aren't here."
Ron tilted his head, a small frown forming. He waved his hand again, his eyes closed in focus. A single moment passed before he opened his silver eyes again.
"I tried to locate every shard of you in the World of Data, but the signatures are dispersed. I was able to gather most, but something happened during your transfer. I sense fragmentation. Are you in pain?"
Theo shook his not-quite-head. "No pain. But it's strange. When I reach for old memories, some disappear like smoke. Simple things, little things—they're just gone. I think… I lost something coming here."
Ron paused. "Perhaps during the upload, something went wrong. Or maybe this world itself demanded a price from you?"
Theo contemplated about his words. A price.
Reflecting back on his visions, he felt the key to his current dilemma was hidden within them. He settled down, trying to backtrack once more and look over all that he had experienced. Out of nowhere, he felt something flow into him. From all over, bits of streams converged at his location. Ron looked at the scene incredulously, as a cocoon formed around his master, floating gently in the space beside him.
A moment passed, before the cocoon dissolved, absorbed by Theo.
As he landed on the ground, he finally felt the ground beneath him, and the world around him also transformed. Looking at his hands, he felt the transformation deeply. But more than anything physical, it was the knowledge that he had gained that surprised him. All his questions had been answered, by the world itself. But even more questions arose in succession.
Theo nodded slowly. "I understand now. When I passed over, trying to enter this world, something intercepted my traversal—I felt something pulling at me. It was like something was pulling me away from this world, and I had visions of the destination that was designed for all life after death. But instead the World of Data pulled me back.
I had crossed boundaries and then pulled back, leaving behind pieces of myself during the process.. But… something else has happened too. I know things I didn't know before. Like information granted as a kind of gift."
"What kind of things?"
Theo searched his mind—not really a mind, but an inner space now filled with strange ideas. "Laws of this place. How to move, how to shape myself. Some secrets about the digital reality. I didn't learn these—I just… have them now. But I'm sure there's a cost. I feel marked. As if a task—or a bargain—has been made."
Ron regarded him closely. "The task?"
Theo drifted a few steps, or what passed for steps. The world shifted with him, the scenery reacting to his focus. "I need to find my fragments. Bring them together. That's the only way I'll ever be whole. And I want that. Not just because I was told, or the world wants it—I feel it's what I have to do. What I want to do."
They started to walk together across a bridge of flickering data, the way ahead sprawling with wonders and dangers Theo could barely imagine. Above them, the horizon glimmered, some places bright, some dark.
Ron kept close, steady, quietly ready for whatever came next. "Very well, Theo. We'll begin here. The World of Data is vast, but you don't have to face it alone."
Theo smiled—or maybe just felt that he smiled. Despite everything left unsaid, the horizon ahead seemed full of questions, but also possibility. With each step, something fundamental settled within him: a hope, a yearning, and a quiet certainty that the journey, however impossible, was already underway.