Chapter Text
Sphere 211 stood tall in the Lost City. People walking by would occasionally marvel at its height, but the few tourists would quickly move on. Only so many people were allowed into the Lost City to visit, everyone else either lived or worked there and restrictions had only gotten more stringent.
Nobody was typically allowed in and security had only intensified with so many people angry about the situation Luther had put them in. Only one group of outsiders had made it to the top and lived to tell the tale.
That was something Blair was prepared to pay for. She let them in, she brought them to restricted areas of the building. They had free access to every floor, secure information, offices, everything that Sphere kept under lock and key could of been exploited by them if they wanted to.
Instead when she returned she found her brother's unconscious body and a company in shambles without any kind of leadership to turn to. People were scrambling to get their normal work load done under the unending questions of players of the Eternal Sphere, the news, rival companies. Everyone was demanding answers the minute the whole game went offline.
Berial was wounded but not so wounded that he couldn't personally submit a medical leave notice to recover from a broken wrist and a concussion. Belzeber was recovering from being stabbed in a fight and Azazer had reopened multiple injuries from his previous encounter with Fayt's group that he hadn't given time to heal.
She was largely on her own for two weeks and that was enough to make her realize she couldn't run Sphere on her own. Her team tried to help but they didn't have the experience she needed. They were being bombarded with questions on all sides that they couldn't answer. She gave a simple statement and tried to simply focus on what little she could do.
Once Berial returned he was working away on an outline for a game like a man possessed. His wrist had healed somewhat in the weeks since but she noticed him stretching it more.
"What's gotten into you?" She asked as she saw him type out a draft with more vigor than she had seen before even when they were working in close proximity regularly.
"Inspiration struck." She watched as he shook a cramp out of his hand. "I'll be submitting an outline to Team Apris by the end of the month."
For a moment she lost her train of thought. So much has changed yet he was already working on a passion project. "This seems to be a step in the right direction, keep up the good work for now."
"'For now'?" She saw a message ping at the bottom of his screen. She only saw the first few letters but knew who it was from. Her own team was working with him on something, how unexpected.
"I wish that I could simply say to focus on that but unfortunately we need to focus on some more pressing matters sooner rather than later." If only Luther hadn't left such a complicated mess to clean up.
Berial paused typing. "Oh?"
"Luther has showed no sign of waking up but there's still brain activity. Very active brain activity at that." They had arranged for Luther to be transferred to a secret location. Emotions were high, an attempt on his life wasn't out of the question.
"So he's not brain dead at least."
"Precisely, I have some theories I want to run past you and," She sighed. "And Belzeber."
"So you want me to contact him, correct?"
"Would you?" She didn't want to make the first move out of fear of him retaliating. Belzeber was volatile and she needed his input, her getting the title of Owner temporarily would push him over the edge. Berial at least earned his respect as his equal as opposed to a 'lowly programmer' like herself. He might listen to him.
Might.
"Let him know that there's possibility of a promotion if he behaves."
"Are you sure?" Berial couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. That had gotten him to turn his entire chair around from his desk.
"Yes." She wasn't.
--
She met the two former executives the next morning. Belzeber was still recovering, having just narrowly had his major organs run through by Albel. He still wore makeup as usual, as little as it did to conceal the scar that marred from under his jawbone to the upper corner of his right ear.
"What's gotten into you? A promotion?" He looked uncertain. She couldn't entirely blame him, they had never gotten along due to her relationship to Luther and his own petty grudges. "Or is this a trick?"
I'm not like you.
"Quite the opposite, actually. I," She took a deep breath. "Need your help."
"Oh?" He folded his hands under his chin. "Go on, this I'd love to -" He paused when he looked at Berial who seemed to be pinching his forehead in frustration. He rolled his eyes but unfolded his hands and sat up straight. "Very well, what do you need?"
"I have a proposal to make as well assuming you won't misuse your power." She was unsure of enlisting Belzeber in particular. He was unpredictable and hyper focused on getting what he thought he deserved. Berial seemed content to continue his directorial duties but Belzeber's ambition was a danger if left unchecked.
Unfortunately she needed people who were experienced, unafraid to get their hands dirty.
"I'm listening." Belzeber brushed some hair out of his face and devoted more attention to Blair where as before he had been playing on his communicator.
"Actually it's for both of you, I need your experience." She crossed to the other side of the room and flicked on a few monitors where news about the Eternal Sphere's sudden deletion, confusion about if it that was permanently gone or if it was being held hostage by a rival.
Every other article provided a scathing opinion about Luther's decision to delete it over what it assumed was a small bug.
Clearly, One paper started. Mr. Lansfeld A.K.A The Owner allows ego to get in the way of providing a stable experience for the player.
The public didn't know the whole story, as she hoped. It sounded ridiculous.
"First off," She slid past a few more articles claiming that the golden age for Sphere was over. "Thank you both for preventing any leaks. Your efforts paid off."
"Of course it did, I have my ways." Blair didn't know what Belzeber meant by that but she didn't dare ask.
"Regardless, thank you."
"So, is this why we're being promoted." Belzeber was growing impatient, she could hear it in his voice.
"As I said, I need your experience." She said once more. "You're both good at public statements and coming up with a cover story."
"What you need is a distraction, something to take the heat off your delusional brother." Belzeber waved his communicator clutched in his hand. "It's been a month with nothing from us beyond 'please be patient with us while we get our shit sorted out'." He rose the pitch of his voice, possibly to mock her.
She ignored his childish taunting. "I need a cover story from you. Maybe something about Sphere's restructuring?"
"Oh?" Belzeber didn't look up from his communicator. "Not much of a distraction, who cares about some internal titles? So, what, you're the president now? Plen-"
"Belzeber, let her finish." Berial interrupted his rant before it could even get started. Whatever their relationship was Belzeber respected Berial enough to listen though he didn't seem to respect anyone enough to stop playing on his communicator.
"We're instead going to unite, the three of us will be making plans as the leaders of Sphere from," A clatter rang out as Belzeber dropped his communicator on the table. "I thought that would get your attention."
"You'd better not be messing with me." He was struggling to keep his emotions in check.
"I'm going to focus our efforts into locating Luther's consciousness. Berial, I may need your technical assistance but otherwise continue as you were."
"So you're effectively stepping down as Owner?" Berial asked. He hadn't spoken much. Granted, Belzeber had more or less hijacked the conversation with his airing all his grievances and enjoying a victory lap.
"Reorganizing it." She turned to Belzeber who had a shit eating grin plastered to his effeminate features. "Belzeber, you talk to the press. And act like a professional, no more playing at meetings."
"And tell them what?" He clicked his tongue and leaned forward, wincing as the movement placed pressure on the still tender flesh that had healed over the deep wound Albel had left him with. "You should give me a little more unless you want me to completely obliterate your brother's already dead reputation."
"As co-owner I'm letting you decide. I'm choosing to trust you with this."
"'Co-Owner'?" He looked far more interested as she knew he would. "Oh I really like that sound of that."
Most of her interactions with him before Luther's coma were in passing. There was too big a gap between their respective positions
He was hyper focused on his one-sided rivalry with Luther. Blair could take advantage of that.
"So, we're keeping Luther's status and whereabouts a secret then." Belzeber was already typing away. His complaining had stopped as soon as he had the chance to not only turn Luther into what he saw as a joke but do do it as a job.
Frightening. Blair thought as she watched Belzeber type away on his communicator. "Y-yes, I think that would be best. The Eternal Sphere is no longer being supported as of Luther's retirement." She could of swear he shuddered at the word.
"Easy." He jolted down a few more notes. "I'll have that out tonight then. Complete with an apology for the discontinuation of the Eternal Sphere."
"Run it by me first, alright?" Blair already knew she'd have to put up guardrails with Belzeber.
He groaned. "Fine."
"Are you sure you're up to the task? You nearly died last month." She knew it was a little late to be concerned about that. She really did want to take care of some things before focusing all her efforts into finding Luther. Belzeber had been given the option to attend from home but he turned it down. She figured he felt well enough to work when it was something as simple as controlling the narrative.
"I'm bored sitting around all day, I don't know how the masses do it."
'Masses'? Blair wanted to scream.
"Don't be a snob, Belzeber."
He shrugged at Berial but backed off. "Fine. I suppose that's all you need of me, co-owner?" The venom to his tone seemed to disappear with the last word.
At least he's happy.
"Yes, thank you." She would be glad to put some distance between them. He appeared to whisper something in Berial's ear who shook his head.
"Tomorrow." Was all he said.
"Bah, workaholic. I'll see you then." With that vague parting sentence he practically sashayed out of the meeting room.
The tension seemed to ease slightly with his departure. "Don't worry about him."
"I'll try and trust your judgment on this…"
Trust; that was all she could do.
--
"Yes, this is good." Blair said as she looked over the file Belzeber had sent her. She was surprised by how detailed it was. The jabs at Luther were there but they were more subtle than she had expected.
If he believed it or not was a different story but he had successfully laid out the groundwork for them to try to salvage Sphere's reputation and lay the blame at Luther's obsession with something that had lead it to ruin.
He's not even lying. He must have been planning what to say for quite some time.
"My next suggestion would be to tear down that gaudy theme park Luther made." He said from the video screen. True to his word, he had a statement ready to go for the next morning and had wasted no time signing his name with the title 'Co-Owner of Sphere'.
"I agree. It's just a waste of fol now. We need that to cover the costs of trying to retrieve Luther's consciousness."
"Mmhm, I'll have that announcement ready to go out tomorrow as well." She didn't particularly enjoy seeing him have so much fun knowing the underlying reasons.
Every single task he did was to further smear Luther's name and he was practiced in the art of that. Having the go ahead to publish his grudge, a title at the top of society, and knowing that Luther was incapacitated was practically everything he ever dreamed for.
"Can I really trust you?" She asked him plainly. Sure, he got everything he wanted but he was greedy.
"Of course you can't." He said as frank as could be. "I tried to kill you, I'm not so stupid as to think you're able to trust me because we share the same status."
"I'm surprised to see such self-reflection from you."
"I'll be here when the pressure starts to break you."
That was the Belzeber she knew and tolerated. "You have my thanks?" She wasn't sure what to make of his words.
"You said my experiences are needed, this happens to be most of my day." She watched him continue to type on a screen outside of her view. "You know my father is furious with your brother, correct?"
Daguon had a reputation that followed him into retirement. The lawsuit with Eleanor had been humiliating and the accident that claimed her had happened to occur shortly after her victory.
He neither confirmed or denied the rumor that he orchestrated that. He simply handed off Sphere to Luther, secured his son a high ranking job, and retired.
"Are you sure he won't be a problem?"
"I'll keep him at bay, I'm enjoying rubbing his fa…Never mind." He must have finally seen the irritation written on Blair's face.
"Good night, Belzeber."
"Night." He quickly left the call. Blair slumped down in her chair and rested her hands in her face.
"Fuck."