Well...I'm going to be honest with you guys here. This will probably be awkward, but just bear with me.
This crossover was originally planned out between myself and DestinyQuill, based on a comment he made over a year ago on this story. A subsequent followup and plenty of worldbuilding later, and I had an idea of how to fit everything in. We were all set to ship, even had google docs with which to write with, and then...life happened.
Instant message responses paused for weeks at a time. I'm not going to divulge what happened with him, in a large part because I don't know myself, just that "schoolwork, leave it at that". So I eventually resolved to write it myself. And then it ended up being in an awkward position due to the wedding arc...yeah. So I'm putting the kibosh on it right now, if only so that I can get on with the main story (and my own sidestories) as fast as possible.
But to prevent any continuity snarls or anything else of the sort, I'm going to tell you all exactly what was intended to happen here.
In short, the original plan was:
CO0: Relocation; Rez and Aqua introduce themselves and upcoming events
CO1: Recreation; Rez plays at the bar, Aqua hangs out, the two note each other as "of interest"
CO2: Reaction; Rez attempts to deal with the "ghost" and Aqua gets an odd feeling due to this
CO3: Recollection; Explanations to the readers on both views of current events-ends with Rez failing to fix the "ghost" himself
CO4: Remaster; A misunderstanding which leads to a fight
CO5: Repurpose; By the end, the two are now friends
but that would be a cop out. So let's do this the right way, starting from where we left off, and being as nonlinear but descriptive as possible. You ready? I sure aren't, but let's get this gravy train rolling anyways.
The "data ghost" refers to the anomaly discovered in WH3, which makes up the "conflict" for the second half of the chapter. It's the same one referenced throughout all posted parts of CO.
Nikki is just a different name for this "Aqua" character. She's actually from beyond Rez's universe, and she came here to deal with an anomaly of her own: specifically, Rez's ghost. She's the one who Rez saw out the window in ID3; the storm is seen both there and in the first part of CO0.
By the way, what the ghost actually is is a person, named Kelly by the way, who (along with a benevolent organization from her own universe) tested out a multiversal transporter in an attempt to follow her daughter, which is completely unimportant to this crossover but it helps to know that people have good reasons to do (what turn out to be) relatively stupid things.
Kelly is a real person in a digital realm, though. Her presence scratches against things just by being there. She's unstable in this world, and not made of code, which makes it very difficult to interact with her. So what Rez is doing is attempting to code a module that brings her "down to earth", so to speak. But this will have consequences of its own.
As Destiny put it in our conversation: "Kelly will be nearly impossible to view on your end, because once she's finally stabilized, she'll be existing as physical matter, which wouldn't be something your systems would comprehend in the cyberscape. She'd appear as a null region, no data or anything even existing for the brief moment she remains in your dimension." Arguably this has already happened. Not sure if that makes this worse, rather not find out.
Nikki/"Aqua"/Aquarius herself is proficient in "Void manipulation". Even if she doesn't know what she's doing all the time. (I actually don't know all that much about her, or her personality or powers. Not that I haven't been told what they are, but that I'm not completely sure what level she's at. So I'm going to try and make proper assumptions here...or at least, keep it at a consistent point in her own, personal timeline.) Moreso, though, she manipulates weather and likes a good storm.
She's also unkillable, as she revives every time. Suicide is thus a valid option for escape for her; it just isn't permanent. But this doesn't come up here, so eh. What does come up is that she's practically a demigod, not with universal power but more than enough to win anything if she's not holding back. Let's not go further into that.
She's also on a completely nonlinear mission to save her multiverses. "Her" referring to that which she normally lives in...Rez isn't really a part of that most of the time, but something went wrong this time.
Anyways, speaking of Rez, he somehow manages to quarantine Kelly, but before he can apply any sort of patch Aqua busts in. Somehow. Just gonna say "void energy" and remember that I don't understand it either. Destiny put what happens next this way: "From your point of view, they'll be speaking a broken language if you can even hear their interactions at all, and Aquarius will eventually 'delete' Kelly as she punts her out of your dimension and into her own, at which point she'll actually attempt interaction with you." And then the ball is back in Rez's court, as he manages to refit what was intended for Kelly so as to better interact with Aqua.
They quickly realize each other were those from the bar in CO1. A misunderstanding leads to a fight, and after a show of force from both sides (and both pulling out numerous tricks, including Rez borrowing some attacks and defenses from bosses-the firewalls-and Aqua channeling various friends of hers, which includes the EoH from her world as well) which I was hoping to have set to music (I'm tempted to put this in the author's notes and put the fight scene in the main chapter position, but I just don't have the drive for this one. Maybe if you ask politely...maybe), Rez concedes but demands explanation. Aqua comes out into the real world, right behind him in fact (scares the pants off him), and gives it to him in exchange for explanation of his own. They end on a friendly note, Aqua unable to return after she leaves because Rez's world is disconnected in a weird way from hers. Same with the K-Project, same with his Equestria.
What matters in continuity is that Rez gave her plenty of ideas, along with some fun, and she'd like to reward him for this. He asks for something to better allow himself to experience his Equestria from his current position, and they manage to get an add-on to his scan working so that his computer can synthesize audiovisual feedback that creates an accurate simulation of the scanned item through his synesthesia.
Also, before he got home from the bar he received a text message from the princesses detailing the wedding, and asking for assistance with setup and security.
So...yeah. That all flubbed up, but I don't plan on leaving you guys with nothing. Wouldn't dream of it. What you do get is half cop out, half exposition, and I'm really sorry it had to come to this, but I felt like a mercy killing would have been ideal as opposed to a slog. I mean, if you really want to see this sort of thing, don't forget to ask the other guy about this to. Just...please don't be hostile, I'm not pointing fingers. Just stating facts. (Sorry, man. Maybe another time.)
But hey-this gives me more drive to write the things I want to write, as opposed to the things I feel I need to. And with any luck, I'll be able to get some chapters out over various holiday breaks.
So good luck, wish me luck, and keep living your good lives.