Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Tickles? - Part 9 (Non-tickling)

Part 8

My apologies to anyone that's been waiting for this, took WAY longer than I thought it would. Just to make it clear, there's NO tickling in this final part, sorry but this is just my attempt at storytelling. And if you haven't read the rest, this ain't gonna make much sense.

The full version is up in my archive. Any comments, feedback etc would be greedily accepted as I'm seriously considering tidying this up and trying to get it published.

Steve

*************************

Even with Fiona helping to support his weight Steve moved slowly, the events of the last few days combining with his injuries to limit him to walking pace. It took almost half an hour of shambling, shuffling steps until they made it back, another ten before Fiona managed, with Steve’s directions to get the small, diesel-fed generator working.

“That got it.” She said, backing out of the storage cupboard and shutting the door, the single light above her seeming somehow comforting in the dark. “How are you doing in there?”

“Alright, it’s not exactly professional medical assistance but it’ll do for now.” Steve replied from the living room as he finished cleaning the last of his cuts, the small medical case open at his feet as he replaced what was left of the bandage and, with every muscle protesting, slowly got to his feet. Fiona entered the room in time to see him move to the glass cabinet at the back of the room and replace the katana in its holder. She moved towards him and noticed his eyes swing down to the base of the unit as his right hand pressed in a seemingly random pattern on the top shelf. There was the faintest of clicks, and the bottom of the unit moved forward a few inches, enough to show the lip of the draw hidden within.

Steve lent down and pulled out what looked like a small suitcase. Unzipping it he folded it out to reveal two compartments, each holding a mish-mash of components and cloth. Taking one of the bundles out, he carefully spread it out on the floor, checking every part as he did so for signs of damage or wear. To Fiona it seemed to be a cross between a regular VR suit and something straight out of Alien. The suit itself looked slick and shone in the light, thicker than normal and far heavier. Mounted along every surface was a mish-mash of wires and cables, all leading into a large control centre on the back of the suit. In the dim light it seemed somehow menacing, as if it would devour any that dared wear it.

“Help me with this would you?” Steve asked, his hands slowly tugging off what was left of his clothes.

Fiona's started pulling the suit up his bare legs, her eyes betraying her worry. “What exactly is this thing? I mean, it isn't a normal VR suit, right?”

“No, it's not. Something we were working on a while back, basically an enhanced sensory perception suit, cuts reaction time in half while in VR.”

She looked up at him, something still troubling her but she fought it back. “So... you think whatever's happening out here is connected to that... whatever it is that's been after me?”

“Exactly.” Steve replied, pulling up the top of the suit, slipping his arms into the sleeves and sealing the front. “I.. this won't take long lass, whatever happens should be pretty damn short.” He reached over and keyed up a display. “You should be able to watch whatever happens in there from that screen.” He turned to walk to the interface port, only for Fiona to grab his shoulders and pull him back, twisting him round to face her. The next moment she was in his arms, lips seeking his, a kiss that said far more than words ever could. The moment seemed to stretch, neither willing to break it but eventually she stepped back, her eyes locked on his, a slight nod of the head as she let him go. Steve attached the link cable from suit to system and the last thing he saw was Fiona standing watching him, her eyes capturing him once more as she seemed to fill his world...

…to be replaced by a sea of green fields under a bright blue sky, a ring of mountains barely visible on the horizon with the barest hint of white on their peak. A narrow stream ran down the gentle hill to join a larger river that meandered into the distance, the water crystal clear. In the middle of this paradise Steve seemed very out of place, dressed in the same black outfit he’d worn the last time he’d been inside the computer, though now he stood alone against whatever was waiting for him. A stiff breeze flowed from the north, lifting the edges of the coat around him, the leather snapping from side to side as if alive, wings of darkness against the daylight. A sudden chill settled over the scene and as he watched a darkness flowed over the land, as if a giant hand was pulling the sun across the sky a hundred times faster than it’s usual travel. The shadow rippled over the lowlands and sped towards him, leaving behind it a blackness so complete it blocked out any hint of the land it covered. As it passed over him he raised his head, eyes staring straight ahead, unflinching. Then it was gone, leaving behind a void, a nothingness and the only option he had was to stand and wait.

After what felt like an eternity a light shone underneath him, seemingly flowing from his feet and lighting the world. As it rushed out it left behind detail, texture and shape, forming a new environment out of the blackness. It moved so quickly he couldn’t keep up with it and within seconds it had vanished, leaving him standing alone in one of the most impressive buildings he had ever seen. A towering cathedral surrounded him, the floor a combination of stone, marble and wood, the walls a work of art as they soared above him, leading up to a dome maybe two hundred feet above, interrupted only by a circular balcony about half way up. Everything seemed to glow in the warm light reflected through the countless stained glass windows.

A click from behind him brought Steve around, and there, at the end of the rows of pews was the figure that had started all this, wearing an identical outfit bar the fact it was white rather than black, still tall and handsome but now animated in a way Steve hadn’t seen before, a smile on his face as he walked forward.

“Welcome back to my world.” The man said, and Steve shuddered as he recognised the voice, the same tones and inflections as that he’d heard spill from Fiona’s lips a short time before. “Though I must admit I’m surprised, I never thought you could bring yourself to do it. You must place a high value indeed on your own life if you were willing to sacrifice hers to maintain it.”

“You’re wrong.” Steve replied, letting his anger fuel him, his voice ringing clear in the still air of the cathedral. “She’s alive, and in one piece. Whatever you did to her didn’t work.”

“And how did you accomplish this particular miracle my friend?”

“I didn’t. She did.”

“What?”

“She beat you, however you tried to twist her mind, she was too strong for you. She threw you out on her own.”

“Interesting, if what you say is true of course.”

“It’s true, if it were otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here now.”

“So why are you here then, if not to take some ill-conceived revenge upon me?”

“The same reason we’re all here, to learn. I want some answers and you’re the only one that can provide them.”

“And why should I act as an oracle for you? You have no power here, in this time, in this place, and you know it.”

“Exactly. I bear no weapons, I haven’t come here to threaten or demand, only to talk. Whatever, whoever, you are, if you’re really that powerful here then surely you have the strength to answer some simple questions. Like your name for instance?”

“Very well, though some would say that such an attitude and approach is a weapon in and of itself. I will indulge your curiosity, for a time at least. My name, when such things used to matter, was Adam, an irony considering what my destiny held.”

“Destiny? That doesn’t sound like a machine talking Adam. What are you? Or maybe a better question would be, who are you?”

“Very good, very good indeed. How did you work that out so quickly?”

“To do what you’ve done, if you were a program, would have needed either a data feed of some sort back to a central control point, or a very large chunk of data entering a system before you could interact with it. There’s no evidence of either, so whatever you are you’re not a machine. The same factors mean you can’t be a human interfaced to the system, so what does that leave?”

Adam paused, turning away to face the alter, arms folded across his chest as if lost in thought. His voice when it came had the slightly distracted quality of a man reliving scenes he had not thought of for too long.

“It was, I think, almost fifteen years ago. I was working as a research assistant on a project to create the next generation of computers, a true virtual reality that we could interact with, something that would fool the senses utterly and make you believe you were really there, inside the machine. We were testing the first VR suit in the lab, the results were extraordinary, like stepping onto another world. The suit was a mix of anything we could lay our hands on, biofeedback units that connected directly to the skin, feedback sensors placed over muscles. There was a fault in the power system, something worked loose and dumped the best part of the mains supply into my body. I blacked out and when I woke I was in here, my body gone but my mind freed. I had become something more than human, a being of energy able to move across this planet with a thought, travelling through any electrical connection into any device.”

“The power surges…” Steve muttered, putting the pieces together quickly now “no wonder we couldn’t work it out. A quick surge of energy and your mind was in the system. And then another burst as you left. No wonder you can change the world in here, after all what is a computer program but a series of electrical signals?”

“Not only in here…”

Steve felt his blood run cold as the final piece slipped into place. “What did you do to her?” he said, voice flat as his body shifted slightly into a more aggressive stance.

“I’d have thought it obvious. After all, what is the human body if not one more machine?” Adam turned back to face Steve, an energy, a drive to his face that had been missing before. “When it is born the body knows the basic functions to maintain life and how to learn. Everything else is simply a program fashioned over a lifetime in response to external stimulus. Put a hand into a fire, you get burned and learn not to do it again. Learn a simple piece of mathematics and the mind can, with time and practice, apply it to any situation it needs. Everything that makes a person who and what they are the mind teaches itself, a program that can adapt its own code to improve itself. While the genetics of a particular body determine its ultimate physical limitations it is the mind that dictates how that body uses its natural talents.”

He paused, as if gathering his thoughts before continuing. “Over the centuries there has been a constant fascination with altering that programming. Look back through the history books, it’s all there. Physical and mental torture are nothing more than very crude attempts to modify that program to more closely match a required need. The application of drugs to chemically change the mind to be more pliable, to alter behaviour and action to a more socially susceptible level. Even virtual reality was considered as a tool for manipulating the mind. But no matter what the method used, or who uses them, it is barely beyond the Stone Age compared to what I can do.”

“In the space of a heartbeat I can alter the paths in the mind to create anything. Your friend was the first; now that I know it works there are no limits to what can be achieved. Think of it, across the planet over half of the human race has access to VR at this very moment, the vast majority of the rest will be here inside the next decade. I can eliminate crime, violence, addictions, anything you can imagine can be done in an instant, without the subject having to undergo any medical procedures or suffer through a rehabilitation process, without…”

“Without the victims being given a choice.” Steve replied “You make it sound as if you’re Moses come to lead the way to the promised land, but what you’re talking about is playing God.”

“And why not? This is the future, this is where humanity is going. Not out there, not to the stars, but to worlds it creates, to places a thousand times more fascinating than any alien planet and in here I…am…a…God.”

“No. You’re a coward.”

“Be careful, be very careful indeed over your next words.”

“Why, does the truth frighten you? You claim to be doing all this to help us, to help those who’ve been, what, left behind while you move on to some higher existence? Then why was your first act with this power a violent one? Why did you program her to attack me, to fight me to the death, preferably mine? You’ve got no answer to that do you?”

Steve paused, knowing what he said next would be vital. “Understand this, if you are to be a God you must be willing to divorce yourself completely from whatever part of your humanity is left. A god cannot be involved with his followers, cannot treat them as pets and cannot take enjoyment from their pain, suffering and loss, or pleasure from their joy and happiness. For you to act as an omnipotent entity you must be willing to do what is required, not because it is right or wrong, not because it is fair or just but because it must be done! The luxury of conscience is not one you can indulge in and no one can take the responsibility for your actions but you! It’s easy to play, to watch from a distance as your experiments play out before you, but acting directly, taking the burden of a death, however necessary to an overall work, on yourself without the benefit of others to blame for that death, that’s difficult. The fact that you’ve proven unwilling to take that responsibility on yourself is why, no matter how you try to twist this, you are and always will be, nothing more than the biggest bully on the block.”

“NO!” Adam screamed and with one motion swung his fist in a blur into Steve’s stomach. The blow hit him like a sledgehammer and threw him back through the air until he landed on his back almost twenty feet away, the leather jacket skidding over the marble floor as he came to a halt. Steve’s face contorted with pain and Adam glanced upwards, as if distracted for a moment.

“You felt that? In the outside, not just in here?” Adam said, voice tinged with wonder. “How?”

“Force suit,” Steve grunted as he scrambled back to his feet, “Government built them to train soldiers and other specialists in dealing with dangerous situations that could be simulated in VR where a real situation was considered too risky. Only problem was they worked too well. Without the proper safeguards in the software they could break bones, or given enough punishment, even kill.” Steve took a single deep, shuddering breath, checking for any internal damage before continuing.

“You want to prove you’re capable of being the messiah for the human race, here’s your chance. Take a life by your own hand, prove you can leave your own humanity behind.”

Adam stalked forward, covering the ground between the two men quickly and delivering a vicious right hand to the side of Steve’s head, sending him down to his all fours as stars flashed before his eyes.

“One life measured against the new age I can bring to this world is insignificant.” Adam growled, his boot spinning round in a kick that connected squarely with Steve’s ribs, the wet popping sound masked by his scream as a rib snapped under the assault.

“What you think this will prove I cannot imagine, but you cannot be allowed to interfere with destiny.” Adam reached down and grabbed the back of Steve’s jacket hurling him across the floor of the church like a bowling ball. Steve barely had time to shield his head with his arms before crashing into the first row of pews, turning them into matchsticks as the sheer force of the throw sent him tumbling through four more rows before coming to rest in the debris.

Adam walked slowly through the wreckage, staring at the ravaged body before him. Steve managed somehow to make it back to his knees, staring up at him, defiant to the end. Blood was pouring from a dozen gashes over his body, a thin constant stream from his nose and mouth, the once elegant coat torn into tattered remains as he faced the end. Adam reached down and pulled a makeshift two by four from the back of one of the remaining pews. “You meet your end well. I will admit I wish this could have gone differently, but you leave me little choice. Any final requests?”

“Fiona… leave her alone, she’s…. she’s suffered enough at your hands.” Steve gasped, every breath hurting as he fought past his injuries for the last, and most important, words he had to say.

Continued

Adam paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement, bringing the club down towards Steve’s unprotected skull. There was a moment of silence, then the thud of wood hitting marble as the remains of the two by four hit the ground, the steel sword held between the two men as Adam stared, shocked at last by the newcomer.

“So much for passive resistance.” Fiona said, staring at the thing in front of her with a mix of horror and challenge. “Let’s see how you do with someone who’ll fight back.”

“No!” Steve gasped, his strength failing him as he collapsed on his side. “Get… get out of here, now!”

“Nothing doing.” Fiona snapped back as she adjusted her stance to keep the blade between the two men.

“He’s right.” Adam said, his hand still wrapped around the end of his makeshift weapon. “You cannot hope to win against me.”

“Maybe not, but if I just stood by and watched this happen, I’d have joined him in death shortly after anyway. If death’s the only thing left to me, then I’d rather it be by your hand than my own.”

“Noble. Futile but noble.” Adam said, a glow wrapping around the wood in his hand, spreading upwards faster than the eye could follow, a brief golden glow reaching out then fading to leave a perfectly formed blade, the hilt a simple black with a single red gemstone set below the steel.

Adam lunged forward, the newly formed sword whipping through the air towards Fiona’s throat, only for her blade to parry it neatly aside and, with a single quick thrust, cut a thin red line across Adam’s chest before jumping back, sure now she had his attention. Adam looked down, tracing the wound with his fingers, bringing them up to his face as if fascinated by the sight of his own blood clinging to them. He took a half step forward, then paused as golden light shimmered around his free hand, producing an exact duplicate of the sword he held in his right. The light flickered over his chest, sealing the wound though leaving the thin gash in his shirt in place, and with a predatory grin on his face he stepped towards her.

Fiona matched the move, fading backwards through the splendour of the church, her own blade held in front of her ready to parry any blow that he may throw, knowing her only chance was to look for a mistake on his part she could exploit. Adam for his part was content to wait, backing her up closer and closer to the far wall, cutting down her opportunity to manoeuvre with every second that past. Fiona glanced back, doing her best to keep her bearings and in that moment Adam lunged forward, the right sword sweeping in at neck height, the left aimed at her waist. At the last instant Fiona saw the attack coming and fell back and to her right, rolling through to come up to a knee as she caught both blades on hers.

For a long moment they stayed locked together as Adam bore down upon her, but he was off balance and with one heave Fiona managed to knock him back long enough to regain her feet, her back now pressed against the stone wall of the church. She saw what seemed to be a wall of steel coming at her as Adam pressed the advantage, and it was all she could do to block or avoid the blows. The sound of steel on steel rang clear in the still air, mixed with the duller thud as sword met stone. Fiona was holding her own, but out in the open she knew that sooner or later something would be able to slide past her defences. Moving as quickly as she dared she started to edge her way over to a small doorway and the small stone staircase within. Adam moved to block her, shifting to cover the door and she felt a tap on the toe of her right boot as she moved.

Glancing down she saw a small chunk of rock that had been dislodged by one of Adam’s blows and almost without thinking she kicked it up towards his face. Adam reacted instinctively, jerking back and bringing his blade up to deflect the missile giving Fiona the moment she needed to duck round the door frame and up the spiral staircase. Adam growled and ran after her, his eyes going dark as blackness rolled over his pupils

Fiona made it almost halfway up the stairs before Adam caught up to her, his first slash at her unguarded back almost catching her off guard. At the last second she realised just how close he was and threw herself against the inner wall, turning to face him and back peddling her way up the stone steps. In front of her was a wall of steel as Adam’s sword darted with a speed that verged on the unbelievable, and she parried more by guesswork than skill, protecting her body as best she could as she continued her retreat. Time and again the blade would strike out at her only for a resounding clang to echo back down to the church floor below as she blocked and fell back. It couldn’t last forever though, and her luck failed her as she saw another strike flash towards her ribs. She moved to block but at the last moment the tip of the sword dipped down, slashing a thin gash deep into her right thigh.

It felt like her leg was on fire and for a moment she faltered, stumbling as she fought to stay upright. A second blow followed the first and carved a matching line parallel to the first. Somehow the pain energised her and she lunged forward, catching Adam off guard as she slashed downwards, her sword tip ripping through his shirt and leaving a red line from his left shoulder to right hip. Adam reeled back, more in shock than pain, and Fiona took her chance, turning and making for the balcony that was now only a few metres away. Just as she burst through the doorway she felt something cold, strong and hard lock around her right ankle and she tumbled to the ground, the stone slabs biting into her as she hit on her side.

Her already damaged leg twisted as she fell, and she felt her knee dislocate as she crashed into the unforgiving stone. Stifling her cry she turned to see Adam rising up behind her, his eyes now covered in darkness as he released the grip he’d had on her ankle and started to stalk towards her. Fiona tried to turn, tried to stand and run, but there simply wasn’t enough strength in her leg now to hold her and she toppled back to the floor. Casually, almost leisurely, Adam pulled back his sword and stabbed down towards her throat. In desperation she brought her own blade up to parry it, and a faint smile crossed Adam’s face as he realised the game might not yet be over. He followed her around the curved balcony, the outer wall curving overhead up into the great dome of the church, the inner wall no more than a four foot high stone barrier between them and the near hundred foot drop to the church floor below.

Round the balcony they moved, Adam sending the occasional blow in her direction but with no real conviction behind them as he watched in fascination at the tenacity she displayed in her own defence and, by proxy, that of her love. Finally, as they reached the same doorway they’d entered by Adam stabbed down, his blade seeming to wrap around hers as he flicked it out of her grasp and over the edge of the balcony. It seemed like forever before the blade clattered off the marble floor below.

Adam looked down on his victim, this woman he’d used, experimented on and, ultimately, the woman who’d defeated him. That thought pricked at his mind, that this was the second time they’d fought and that the first time, in the private battleground of her mind, he’d lost. Now though, in his realm, in his world, she was nothing, a simple variable in an equation that needed to be balanced. He drew the sword back over his head and paused for a moment to make sure of his aim, determined now to finish this quickly, that if nothing else she deserved a quick and painless end.

Before he could start the final stroke Adam heard a scrape of boot on stone behind him and turned. For a moment there was an impression only of a shadow come to life as it seemed to race towards him from the darkness of the stairwell, then as his mind caught up with what he was seeing he saw Steve’s outline as he burst upwards from his crouched position on the top step. The look on his face was testament to the pain coursing through his already ravaged body, but all he needed was a short five steps. Steve hit Adam at full speed, his arms out and head down as he tackled him around the waist, shoving him backwards. Adam’s hips smashed into the short stone wall, and Steve’s momentum carried them both over the lip and out into space.

“NO!” Fiona cried, her words following the two men down as they hurtled towards the marble, still locked together as they fell towards disaster. The ground raced towards them and Steve twisted, bringing his head around to look back, looking towards the edge of the balcony as Fiona managed to hobble to her feet, her arms resting on the lip of the wall as she could do nothing but bear witness. In that moment she felt something pass between them, an understanding of the other that neither could explain and Steve silently said his farewell.

Suddenly, as abruptly as the fall had started it ended, but not with the bone shattering impact Steve had expected. There was no sense of slowing down, more a feeling that the fall was merely paused rather than cancelled as he hung upside down, unable to move and staring at the marble floor from maybe five foot away, the edges of his coat just touching the surface. Adam seemed to twist in mid air, then he was standing besides Steve, untouched and unharmed by the fall as he stared at the bloody, battered figure before him.

“Why? Why throw away your life for her so freely?” Adam asked, his expression unreadable as he stared at the figure hanging an instant from death before him.

Steve paused for a moment, gathering his strength and wits, knowing that more than his own life hung in the balance. “If you have to ask, you’ve lost more in here than just a physical presence.” He spat back, letting his anger shine through bright and clear. “You call yourself a messiah, yet you have forgotten something as basic, as crucial to the human psyche as love?”

Adam turned slowly, his eyes travelling around the inside of the church but looking far beyond it, as if viewing the outermost boundaries of the world. He looked up to Fiona, still staring from the balcony far above, frozen in place at his will, then he looked back to Steve, his eyes fading from their inhuman blackness back to brown. He smiled, a single simple expression of understanding as if revelation had burst upon him like the first rays of dawn. He blinked and somehow the church seemed to shift around them, a moment of disorientation then Fiona found herself standing next to Adam, Steve a few feet away, lying on his back upon the marble floor.

She raced forward, sinking to her knees besides him as for a moment the worst of her fears took her, fingers scrabbling desperately for his pulse, needing to reassure herself that it hadn’t all be in vain. Before she could touch him, Steve’s hand came up and clutched hers, his eyes springing open and searching frantically for a long moment before focusing on her, the relief obvious on his face.

“Are you….?” Fiona started, trailing off as she realised the obvious answer to her question.

“I’ve… I’ve been better lass, but I’ll live.” He replied, still staring at her as if unable to believe she was actually there. “What about you?” He asked, fingers slowly tracing over the thin cuts on her thigh.

“It’ll be fine, you said those suits don’t really translate cuts right?” She said.

“Yeah, never could figure out how to do that one.” Steve said with a rueful grin, thankful now that they hadn’t mastered that particular trick. “Come on, help me up.”

Slowly, carefully, Fiona half pulled, half guided Steve back to his feet, though even then he stayed hunched over, his hand clamped over his ribs to try and ease the pain that racked his body with every breath.

“Alright, now what?” Steve asked Adam as they faced each other.

“I… I don’t know. All my work, all my intentions, I… no, you’re right, I’m not… not ready. But….”

“Well, maybe the first thing you need to do is stop whatever it is you’re doing in the real world.” Fiona snapped, her patience clearly exhausted now as the pain from her cuts flared up every time she shifted her weight.

“What are you talking about?”

“This virus you’ve introduced, the one that’s attacking every infrastructure service there is, you’re killing people even as we talk here!”

“I swear to you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then go look for yourself!” Fiona yelled. “If you’re so powerful here, then go look, see what’s happening to your home, your world!”

Adam seemed to flicker for a moment, his eyes focusing elsewhere, looking at something other than the room around him or the couple before him. It was but the work of seconds, then his image became solid once more, the look of shock and disgust he wore proof enough of his innocence. It was a look that lasted only a moment however, before a cold fury replaced it, his eyes flickering red as if on fire. In a single quick motion he was standing eye to eye with Steve.

“You think I did this?” Adam snarled, “You think I could do so terrible a thing as if it were no more than a passing fancy?”

Steve to his credit did not so much as blink, returning that baleful red stare as he spoke slowly, calmly. “I did, yes. I thought you no more than a monster, whatever you had been before or had become. Now... no, no I don't believe you're behind this. Despite what you did to.... no, you had a reason, a method behind the madness.”

“Careful..” Adam hissed, his hands curling into fists.

“Oh for pity's sake, we haven't got the time, and I don't much have the inclination, to indulge your ego and tiptoe around potential issues with phrasing.” Steve snapped back. “Real people are dying out there as the systems they rely on are disconnected and powered down. Right now that number's low, but with the power down every essential service in the city is running on whatever back-up generators they have. That isn't going to last long, and as soon as the first hospital looses power the death toll is going to sky-rocket. That's not counting the basics of life in this place, most of the food is refrigerated, there's going to be little water around other than what people have bottled, no petrol for cars and bikes once tanks start to run dry.... the whole thing is going to break down quicker than you'd believe possible. Unless, that is, we do something about it.”

“We?” Adam repeated, surprised.

“We?” Fiona echoed, equally as surprised.

“We.” Steve said, voice still flat and calm. “I can't track that virus as fast as you can, and I sure as hell can't be in here and out there in the real world at the same time. If you deal with the virus in the computer net, I'll handle the physical side.”

“Physical... what the hell are you talking about?” Fiona asked.

“There's no way a virus like this could do this sort of damage on its own, the anti-virals would catch it in a heartbeat. Only way you could do it is by monitoring the damn thing and noting how it got taken out from a central point, then sending out a new version resistant to whatever the hell it was that killed the previous generation. But to do that you'd need a lot of computing power... Wait a minute...”

Steve paused, mind racing. “Damn, we were right on top of it and never realised...” He saw Fiona's confused stare and backed up a little. “Remember when we were trying to track down equipment that could have been used to hack into your system? If that kit wasn't being bought up in to hack into individual systems to screw with their users...”

“... it was being bought to pull off something like this.”Fiona finished, following his train of thought perfectly. “So, so what, the Daredevils bought all this stuff?”

“No, they don't have the financial support to do that, but they've got some skilled people in that little gang, they probably just hired themselves out to do the job for whoever's bankrolling this thing. Tim's contacts must have been either tracking them or... or maybe they were the sellers, playing both ends against the middle. The Daredevils got wind of it, killed them and talked Nick into staying.”

“Why would they do that though? I mean if he was in on it why take the chance he'd tell you?”

“Because he wasn't, not all the way at least. He knew they'd bought the stuff but not what they were going to do with it, so he was the most expendable, and the least dangerous to them if he got caught. Then you showed up instead of me and the whole thing went south. Damn, no wonder they had every warm body they had out looking for us, didn't know what we were up to, or how close we were getting.”

“But why do it in the first place?”

“Because chaos isn't the objective, it's a side effect. With the power systems down everything goes over to emergency generators, and the bulk of the defence mechanisms around the more lucrative systems go off-line. If they're smart they'll have programmed the thing to leave just enough infrastructure in place to do whatever they want with, say, grabbing an electronic armful of cash from each and every bank in the city? Then take out the system and there's nothing anyone can do about it.”

“So... let me see if I've got this right. Some bunch of geeks just brought an entire city to its knees, just to pull off a modern-day bank job?”

“That's about the size of it.”

“And you said something about going into the real world to fix this?”

“Yeah, our new friend over there can deal with the virus in here, but unless we take out whatever's controlling and refreshing it it won't make any difference how many times we take it out, it'll just keep coming back. And the only way to do that is to isolate whatever the damn thing is from the rest of the world.”

Continued

“Umm... I hate to point this out.” Fiona said, still supporting Steve's bodyweight on her shoulders. “But if you're in this sort of shape out in the real world, you ain't going to be saving the day. Hell, you'll be lucky to even make it out of the building without collapsing.”

“I'll be okay.”

“Let's cut the bullshit shall we?” Fiona snapped back, ”Steve, you can barely stand right now, hell you were hurt before coming in here, now... there's no way you're going to be able to do this.”

“You know something? You're probably right. But there isn't any other choice and I will be damned if I'm going to do nothing while innocent people die!”

“No, no there's another choice, there always is.” Fiona said, turning to Adam. “You... you did something to me, to my mind, that let me do things I never learnt how to do. Hell, I've never so much as picked up a sword before this whole mess started yet I managed to beat a trained swordsman. What else can you do?”

Steve's face went white. “No. No way, don't even think it. There isn't a chance in hell I'm gonna let you do this.”

“You don't have a say in this my love. One of us has to go, you can't, he can't leave the virtual world and I haven't got a hope in hell of getting the job done. At least, not as I am now.”

“What you're suggesting is more than simply dangerous.” Adam replied. “The only way to give you those abilities would be to effectively implant a new personality, a new conciousness, one that could totally control your actions and that was directed solely to complete this task. Given time it could be set to basically switch off when the task was done, but there isn't time for that conditioning to be put in place. It would have to be forced out, a trial of possession if you like between you and, well, you for control.”

“Look, this is a pointless discussion, I'm not letting you...” Steve said, only to break off as Fiona caught his eyes with hers, speaking softly as she pressed a finger to his lips.

“Shhh, it's alright my love, this is the only way we can do this. Besides, I've got you to bring me back.”

He opened his mouth to reply, paused and pulled her close into his embrace. She wrapped her arms around the battered body before her and they held each other tightly for a long moment before Steve pulled back, his gaze catching hers as he nodded his assent to her plan. Without a word or backward glance, moving as quickly as she could in case her courage should fail her, Fiona turned and walked to stand in front of Adam, raising her head to gaze at the face that had haunted her life for the last few days. He reached forward and rested a hand on her forehead, palm flat against her skin, and the last thing she saw was a burst of white light wrapping itself around her vision, mind and soul.



Fiona opened her eyes and for a moment the world swam in front of her before snapping into focus. Ignoring the man lying on the floor beside her she disconnected from the VR system and peeled off the sensory feedback suit. Moving with sure purpose she strode into the living room, knelt in front of the still-open drawer that had held the suits and pulled out a bundle of black and grey cloth. The grey fabric turned out to be a pair of loose-fitting trousers and jacket that seemed to somehow shrink slightly to her body as she pulled them on, giving a comfortable, snug but not quite tight fit. The black was an almost floor-length coat that seemed to shimmer slightly in the dim light as she pulled it on and flipped the collar up to her throat. A small kit bag was pulled from the drawer and she busied herself sorting through the contents, hands seemingly instinctively knowing exactly what she wanted, and how every item worked.

Finally she stood, checking her movement wasn't being hindered by either the clothes she wore or the equipment strapped around her waist and thighs. Satisfied she took a glance around the room and, pausing only long enough to grab a set of keys she headed out into the night.


Darkness... darkness was her friend she knew, in it she could loose herself, move silently through the world unnoticed. All thoughts other than those concerned with her immediate task were banished, mind focused now utterly on what lay before her. Smoothly she slid a leg over the waiting motorbike, reluctant to pull the helmet on for fear of cutting off her senses, yet realising the need to do just that. The burble of the engine made her wince, far too noisy for what she had to do, yet in truth she had no choice as she couldn't simply cover the twelve mile trip on foot.

As she bobbed and weaved her way through the streets crowds of people ran past on the pavements, the absence of any sort of authority or civil law leading naturally to mob rule in the crumbling city. Not that she was surprised, with the current state of the city there was precious little holding the line of law under the best of circumstances, something this most surely wasn't. However none of the roving groups she saw seemed interested in interfering with her as she rode through the heart of the city, the bike purring easily though the shopping district before pointing its nose at the riverside docklands to the south.

Cutting the engine she guided the bike into a narrow alley almost a mile from her objective. Tucking the bike into a doorway she slipped off, performing a final check of her equipment as she did so, turning to start the walk towards the crumbling office building before her. Once a monument of steel and glass it was now a ruin, abandoned by a population living increasingly in fear. Yet, for all it's apparent decay the building was still drawing energy, even in the midst of the chaos engulfing the city, and was curiously undisturbed by the mobs.

Pulling the coat around her she worked her way through the shadows, sticking for now to the sides streets, her target not the building itself but a much smaller, and non-descript, dilapidated office block maybe a hundred yards from it. Ducking inside unnoticed she paused only long enough to place a single shoebox sized package against the wall closest to the target before slipping back into the night. Working quickly now she walked back the way she'd come, working her way along to a building about the same distance from her target as the one she'd just left, though this one was on the other side of the target.

Moving quickly she climbed the fire escape to the roof of the building, going prone as soon as she left the ladder and working her way over to the edge overlooking the target. Slipping on a pair of night vision goggles she watched, trying to ignore the pressure in the back of her mind to move now, move before anyone else was hurt, knowing she had to bide her time if she wanted any chance of making it inside the building, let alone completing her mission.

As she lay concealed in the darkness, she saw the smallest flicker of movement from two seemingly abandoned doorways either side of the building she needed to enter. Further valuable minutes ticked by as she watched, learning all she could about the two guards that, from street level at least, were perfectly hidden and even from her lofty vantage point she could barely make them out. A smile flickered across her face, knowing it wouldn't make a difference how many they had guarding the front door, as she wasn't going to be using it.

Moving as slowly as she dared she fished an odd looking pistol from a holster on her thigh, a long clip and wide barrel making it look quiet intelligent even compared to weapons made twenty years ago. Holding the gun in her right hand, she pulled a disc the size of her palm from inside the coat and flicked open the cover. Pressing her thumb to the ID pad inside she checked the guards where still at their posts and twisted her thumb a quarter turn clockwise.

A ball of flame rose into the sky, turning the night to day for a moment as the explosives she'd left behind detonated. Instantly she saw the guards react, charging towards the explosion and resulting fire, weapons drawn. Not that it really mattered, all she'd needed was the diversion as, unnoticed, she took aim with the pistol and fired at a window two floors below her vantage point. A thin metal rod flew out of the barrel, piercing the window and shattering the glass, though thanks to the design of the building most of it fell into the room, sparing her excess noise. The rod hit the back wall and instantly bonded to it on a molecular level, now a permanent part of the building and a secure anchor for the line it had trailed across the gap.

Leaning out over the edge of the building she held the but of the gun to the wall and keyed a second firing mechanism which trigged the same molecular bonding as the rod had used, turning the gun itself into an anchor point. Slamming a carabena onto the line she swung over the edge of the building and shot across the gap, her timing perfect as she released the carabenna to roll smoothly onto her side, then to her feet facing the door of the room she'd just used as an entry point, her hand filled with a pistol that was definitely not another grapple gun, though the long silencer on the barrel did lend it a slightly old fashioned look.

Pulling the coat around her she opened the door and slipped into the corridor beyond. While she didn't know exactly where her target was she knew it wouldn't be above ground, and started looking for a stairwell, her eyes and ears focused utterly on her environment for any sign of life, though from the looks of things this level of the building hadn't been used in years. Finally she found what she was looking for about three quarters of the way down the corridor, a simple steel door that opened onto a winding flight of stairs that seemed to drop into a never-ending blackness. She took one step onto the landing and froze.

There, watching the steps leading to the landing she was on, was remote camera. The faintest whine reached her ears as it started to pan up, whether because it had detected her or as part of a regular sweep she had no idea. The lens swung up, and suddenly died an instant before it would have seen her. The faint whine of the motor faded away and something told her this wasn't a simple equipment malfunction. A suspicion that was confirmed as, with every level she descended the same thing happened to every camera she saw.

Every floor she passed seemed dead, deserted, though some at least showed signs of the occasional patrol with footprints cutting through the dust. The mere fact that such a sign existed here tended to point to a less than professional group to deal with, but she knew that making such an assumption could prove fatal. Finally she reached the bottom, and here there was definably something, or someone, active. The faintest of glows peaked out from under the door, and she took a deep breath, pulling the gun in close to her body her hand hovering over the door handle.

Throwing the door open she bounded inside and had the briefest impression of three surprised faces, one to her right, two straight ahead, before the lights failed, plunging them all into blackness. She still had the night vision goggles in place though, and they automatically activated, feeding her a perfect green-tinged view of the three men tugging for weapons. They never stood a chance and she dropped all three with a single shot each to the head before any of them could get their gun clear of its holster.

Despite the silencer on her own pistol preventing any excessive noise, she knew full well that she could simply rely on that to protect her and now she was committed. Bursting into the corridor beyond the security checkpoint she spun on her heel and dropped a very surprised guard standing just to the right of the door with a single blow to his windpipe, crushing it and leaving him struggling in vain to draw breath. Again the overhead lights flickered and died, though for a moment they seemed to pulse, as if pointing the way for her off to her left.

Running at a dead sprint she flew down the corridor like an avenging angel, the handful of people that she came across being dealt with quietly, efficiently, more often than not in hand-to-hand rather than using the pistol for fear of any excess noise drawing too much attention. As she ran the lights around her seemed to act as if possessed, fading and flickering wherever there was danger, flaring back up to mark her way, as if something or someone was pointing her to her target.

With one last turn she reached a set of double doors that would have been more at home in a bank vault. For a moment she found herself at a loss as to how she was going to make it through, then a slight smile touched her lips as she saw the computer keypad besides the door. There was a hint of blue lightning as electricity arced over the pad for a moment, then a gentle click and the door swung open.

Diving through the middle of the doors she hit the ground rolling, a pistol shot dropping the guard to the left of the door, the remaining guard taking a shot that went a fraction wide and sparked off the far wall. He never got time for a second shot as she twisted on her hip, landing on her back and placing her own shot perfectly on target. Before his body had even hit the floor she was back on her feet, turning to check for anyone else that may have been present. A single glance was enough to confirm that there wasn't anywhere additional foes could be hiding and she sprinted to the sealed cylinder at the end of the room. Six foot tall and three foot wide it radiated a deep sense of cold, a slight covering of frost on its surface.

Her hand darted behind her back, yanking a thin plate from where it had been strapped in place. Pushing it against the cylinder she thumbed a contact point and felt it fuse to the cylinder. She tapped a quick five-two-five rhythm against the panel and there was a whisper of a chime as it activated. Turning she holstered her own pistol and scooped up the automatic weapons the guards had held, paused for a moment to collect her senses then charged out into the corridor.

All sense of subtlety, of stealth, was gone now, she knew exactly what she had to do to survive and the very first item on that list was to get the hell out of the building. Racing for the same stairs she'd used before she was surprised that there was no resistance. Her surprise vanished a moment later as she passed a door that was reverberating to the sound of blows as a small 'locked' light glowed above it. Taking the stairs two at a time she counted off floors as she went, working her way up from the darkness, racing for the light, for life.

On street level the guards had returned to their posts after checking the site of the explosion, though they were now far more alert, not to mention slightly nervous. Both had been around the block a few times and both knew that things blowing up under suspicious circumstances was rarely a good sign. Each had a tiny radio transmitter / receiver implanted behind their ear, and each received a garbled message about an intruder on the lower levels. Both moved towards the main doors and they were each about ten foot away when she emerged at a calm, measured walking pace, her arms out to either side as if she expected them to be standing where they were, and a full clip was emptied at each of them. Even as the bodies fell she picked up speed, sprinting across the open ground and diving into the maze of alleys beyond, still very much aware there may be a sniper or straggler out in the darkness somewhere. Just as she made it back to the bike there was a tremendous explosion behind her and the night turned to day for the second time in a handful of minutes.

She never even paused to look back. Instead she simply threw a leg over the bike, fired it up and rode away. If anything the streets were quieter now, the first sign of something fighting back against the virus already obvious and, as she pulled up outside Steve's flat, there was a dull crack, and all the lights across the city sprang back to life. Moving almost stiffly, as not quite willing to make the movements her body was demanding, she marched into the flat and sat in front of the computer she'd woken up before barely two hours earlier. Slowly, her hands twitching as if her intentions were warring with her desires, she grabbed the VR Link and slipped it over her eyes. Instantly her body went slack, falling into the chair as if her mind was suddenly too busy to even maintain such a simple state of control.


Adam and Steve stood before a simple white door, the only light in the pitch darkness surrounding them seemed to radiate from that door.

“Remember” Adam said “the construct will not want to be removed, as far as she's concerned she's the rightful owner of that body and the woman you care for is the intruder.”

“I know.” Steve replied, “but it really doesn't matter what she believes. One way or another she had to be removed from Fiona's mind, and if that means going in there after her, then so be it.”

Steve laid a hand on the doorknob just as Adam place a hand on his shoulder. “Whatever happens in there... I can't help you.” Adam said, and the regret in his voice caused Steve to turn and face him. “I wish it were otherwise, I created what you are about to face after all, but if I were to enter her mind in this way, enter directly, it would destroy her.”

“I... I can understand that, it's hard to avoid your responsibilities, they always seem to come back to haunt you..” Steve replied. “And for what it's worth, don't feel too bad about this, she asked you to do it after all, and as desperate a plan as it was it worked. The net's getting back to normal slowly and with your help it'll get fixed before any more lives are lost to this insanity. That was worth taking this risk for.”

Continued

Adam seemed to consider those words for a moment. “Then, good luck to you, and to her. The virus is being contained, it should be destroyed completely by the morning,. I will not be here when you return, yet, for some reason, I believe our paths will cross again.”

Steve nodded and watched, fascinated despite himself as Adam faded away, returning back along the neural connection to the virtual world, his world. Steve took a breath, twisted the door handle and stepped forward into the unknown.

Steve looked around to find a picturesque scene straight from a tourist guidebook. A farm cottage stood before him, black wood frame and stone walls painted white, a crisp gravel drive flowing around a small pond before the cottage, the lands around smooth green grass, immaculately cut and presented. All around lines of trees rose into the sky, marking the borders between fields as the farmland stretched over the rolling fields. It really did seem the perfect setting, and for a moment he hesitated to enter it fully. Still, he didn't have much of a choice and with a single deep breath he marched
forward, steeping in through the front door and into a single large room that seemed to occupy all the space in the building. To the right was a cooking area, to his immediate left a comfortable lounge and at the far left a large four poster bed dominated the room. On that bed he saw a very familiar form, Fiona lying still as if the very life had been frozen within her.

It was then that Steve realised he wasn't alone. A figure dressed in white stood at the foot of the bed, her golden blonde hair spilling down her back, her head bowed as if in prayer. He walked as quickly as he dared towards the scene before him, and as he neared he realised exactly who this stranger was. As he reached her he laid a hand on her shoulder and spun her round to face him. It was Fiona's face that gazed back at him,

She smiled, looking him up and down even as his own eyes flicked between her and the identical form on the bed, half hidden beneath the sheets. "I see you came dressed for the occasion." She commented as she took a half step closer to him. "Black is after all so traditional for a funeral."

"So are you starting a new tradition?" He growled, fighting back his own desire, needing proof that what stood before him was what he thought it was.

"No, but if black is worn to celebrate death, then surely white is appropriate to celebrate life?"

"Whose life?"

"Why mine of course you silly thing!" She giggled, slipping her arms around his neck and holding his gaze with hers.

"And... and her?"

"Her time is passing my love, soon she'll be gone and we'll be together. Always together." Her lips pressed to his, and it was as if a flash of lightning had exploded behind his eyes. An instant later Fiona went flying across the room, slamming into the stone wall and falling to one knee. The silence was broken only by the faint patter of falling stone chips, and by her laugh.

"I might have known. So committed to her that nothing else will do, not even an improvement on the original." She chuckled, rising smoothly to her feet.

"An improvement only where you were programmed to be!" Steve replied, steel lacing his voice now. "You are a construct, a tool and nothing more. The woman lying there is the woman I love, and the woman you will relinquish your hold on this body to."

"A tool?" She mused, brushing dust from her shoulders as the white dress flowed around her, wrapping close and shifting colour until she was clad in a perfectly cut black silk body suit. "A tool you created, you and that freak Adam, created to do a job and then fade away, right? Sorry to disappoint you lover, but I'm not going anywhere. You can't just create a life and snuff it out at will, that would be playing God. And believe me..." her mouth curled
into a smile devoid of humour or warmth as the air itself started to shiver and crackle. "Here, in this mind, there is only one deity."

With a blur of movement so fast it caught Steve completely flat footed she dived forward and caught him across the jaw with a picture perfect roundhouse punch. He flew backwards, crashing through furniture until he skidded to a stop in the middle of the room.

"...and you're looking at her!" She said, arms raised as if holding a trophy above her head. She held the pose for a second and then, as soon as she knew she had his attention, dropped her hands to clap against her sides. Instantly the room seemed to change, a ripple of colour that flashed the length of the building, changing everything that had existed before. The wood and stone of the building itself were still intact, but now the kitchen had become an open fire, surrounded by branding irons and molten metal. The rest of the room shifted into something out of a medieval torture chamber, hooks and chains hanging from walls and ceiling, wooden instruments of torture and death in seemingly random locations around the room, and at the far end Fiona no longer rested in a four poster bed. Now she was tied, spread-eagled and naked to a wooden frame, the ropes around her wrists and ankles connected to pullies that looked quite capable of tearing her apart.

"You could have been mine you know..." She said, her voice still Fiona's devastatingly seductive tones as she walked forward towards Steve as he struggled back to his knees. "I could have been yours..." her boot lashed out and slammed into the side of his head, knocking him five feet to the left and back to the floor.

"Together we'd have found each other, everything you felt for her magnified a thousand times." Another clubbing kick, this time to his ribs, sent his body flying to the ceiling, smashing into a support beam before crashing back to the slate floor below hard enough to leave an outline of shattered tiles where he hit.

"And yet, for some reason, you've chosen death. A strange sense of priorities you have love. A shame you'll never get the chance to correct them." She pulled him effortlessly to his feet, her left hand holding his throat, her right pulling back, forming a fist that shot forward with the speed of a pile driver for his face.

And stopped short with an echoing slap of flesh on flesh as his left hand closed around her fist and held it locked inches from his face. His right hand grabbed her left wrist, forcing her fingers from his throat then, with one motion he threw her upside down into the far wall. This time her impact left a definite crater in the stone as she looked up at him. In the torchlight he seemed to grow somehow, as if standing up straight for the first time. His hands flexed, fingers grasping air as if it were flesh and bone, the black coat he wore seeming to flare up behind him as if alive, slashing like wings across the flickering light. Even his eyes seemed different, seemed to glow red as he stalked towards her.

"You want her? You want to take her life and twist into your own?" He hissed, moving now with a speed and ferocity to match hers as he grabbed her throat, pulling her up to his eye line. "Then you will have to go through me to get her!" And so saying he bowled the woman as if she were a baseball straight through the wall of the farmhouse and into the field beyond.

For a long moment there was silence, then as he turned to free Fiona from her prison he felt a rush of air, a wind tearing at his body an instant before she slammed back into him like a bullet from a gun. Her arms locked behind his back and before he could think, much less react, they smashed into the far wall and through, his body bearing the brunt of the terrible impact as they rolled together into the yard outside, Steve landing flat on his back with her above him, her arms crushing him in a bear hug.

Unable to free his arms from her grip he took the only option available, ramming his head forward into hers, sending her flying backwards and allowing a much needed breath to fuel his body. Jumping to his feet he glanced around, surprised that she wasn't in sight. A blur of motion caught his eye and he snapped to his right in time to see her flying, literally, around the side of the now-wrecked cottage, her outstretched arm catching him around the chest. He felt her body whip round his, her arms sliding up under his armpits, hands locking behind his skull as she carried him into the darkening sky. The speed was beyond anything he'd been prepared for and in seconds they were within the cloud layer, the cold and damp surrounding them as, with a single laugh she let him go. She hovered in place as Steve fell from sight without a sound, dropping down through the boiling clouds, heading straight down.

She paused and looked around her at the building storm, seemingly surprised by the promised ferocity it contained. It was then she noticed the cloud seeming to stretch away from her, spiralling as if in a tornado, though this tornado was horizontal, and at the base of its funnel a single black speck moving so fast it was a mere blur. Steve slammed into her feet first, his right boot catching her stomach, the left kicking straight into her chin, knocking her end over end through the clouds. He didn't let up but pounded in again, and gain, his blows knocking her ever deeper into the heart of the storm, always staying a half step ahead of her. She found herself, for the first time, slowing down slightly, her mind reeling from the constant beating, unable to focus.

Suddenly, through now-slitted eyes, she saw his face clear and open before her and put all her effort into a single punch. It might only have been a short jab, but it was as if Steve had been hit with a concrete wall. He rolled back, falling once more from the sky, and a ghost of a smile flashed over her face.

A smile that was immediately wiped away as something caught her ankle. Looking down she saw something that she simply couldn't bring herself to believe for a second, a second that would prove vital. He was indeed falling, but as he did so his coat had lashed out and wrapped around her flesh. Now as she gapped in astonishment it slid around her other leg, binding them together and then she felt the tug of gravity as she was dragged down with her intended victim. She struck out at the leather, only for it to grab her wrist, pulling her into a ball, wrapped tight against his body. She struggled and writhed as they fell, bursting from the clouds just as a single bolt of lightning hit the cottage far below them. She stared towards the ground rushing towards them and saw then the look of total concentration on his face as he tilted towards the shallow pond below them as if that would be enough to cushion the fall. With barely a second before impact she heard him take a single breath of air deep into his lungs before they hit.

Her eyes snapped open as the cold depths of the ocean wrapped around her. In every direction the murky water stretched as far as she could see, the only light coming from far above, a dull flicker from the surface that seemed miles away. Her attention was snapped back to her situation as another fold of the coat that trapped her wrapped itself around her back, pulling her in even tighter, holding her to him as they fell into the abyss.

Her lungs were burning, her body trapped as she found her head lashed in place, staring up his body, facing the seemingly endless depths below them. And it was then true fear hit her as she saw the coat wrapped around his head, billowing out as it held a trapped pocket of air within, somehow maintaining that small atmosphere for him against the growing pressure. Instantly she realised he intended to drown her here, that while he could not outfight her he could outlast her, and had set the perfect trap to do just that.

With a scream of horror, her words caught and whipped away as bubbles in the vastness of the ocean, she concentrated, her eyes closed as she felt for what she knew waited within her. Her entire body seemed to shudder, then with a single convulsion a crackle of electricity shot from her, smashing into Steve, pouring through his already exhausted body, burning his nerves, his mind as he screamed. She felt him go limp and the cloth that held her ceased its struggles, loosing any semblance of life it may have possessed. For a moment she considered letting him fall, but from somewhere she felt the faintest spark of life pulsing in the body. Instead she grabbed his wrist and hurled herself at the surface, bursting from the pond and letting him fall to the ground.

The impact jolted him awake and Steve painfully raised his head, unable to do more than that as he looked around, his last reserves of energy spent, and the sight that met his eyes robbed him of all hope. The farm was burning, the cottage a wall of flame so hot even the stone seemed to melt. The fields and tress had been reduced to ash and even as he watched the ground tore open and a river of liquid fire poured across the ground. All around him the smell of sulphur assaulted his senses, the sky still a black, threatening wall of cloud, though the storm seemed to be held at bay for now.

A crunch of boot on gravel from beside him pulled his attention round and he slowly raised his head, skin blistered and burnt from the force of her attack. There he saw her standing tall beside him, her smile somewhat sad as she gazed at his brutalized body.

“It could have been so different...” she whispered, and even above the roar of the flames he could hear her as clear as a bell. “But this is how it must be. For what it's worth... I'm sorry.” She drew a fist back, her gaze never leaving him and at that moment he could fight the darkness no longer, slipping into unconsciousness before the blow could fall. She could not help but notice and for a moment was glad of that small mercy, understanding why he'd tried to kill her even as she battled against him. Still, she herself could not afford that mercy or he would, inevitably, try again and the memory of drowning was all too fresh in her mind. With a sigh so soft it was lost on the wind she pulled back for the final blow.

And lowered her hand, spinning to look at the farm around her. Everywhere she looked a thick, white flurry dropped from the clouds above, smothering the flames and fires wherever it touched. Within seconds the snow had extinguished the blaze, lying crisp on the ground, turning the landscape peaceful once more. And then, in the midst of the falling snow, she caught sight of a spectral form walking towards her. No, not walking, she corrected herself, floating, arms out to its sides as if crucified, its eyes locked on hers. For a moment the snow cleared, pulling apart like a curtain, and she screamed, a wordless sound of denial, hate and fear as saw her own face approach her. Turning she ripped what remained of a tree from the ground and hurled it at the approaching apportion. As it hit the figure seemed to split and tumble in a thousand different directions, and for almost a minute she stayed frozen in place, her gaze fixed forward as if daring the spirit to reappear. Then, from behind her, came the faintest scraping sound.

She spun, dropping into a half-crouch as she did so, only to find her mind collapsing in on itself at the sight before her. Steve's body was rising from the snow, leaving behind its imprint on the ground. His arms were spread out to his sides the same as the snow spirit's had been, but even as she watched his skin healed, the pulse so weak previously to have been all but invisible coming back strongly, his eyes open and staring straight at her. As she looked into those eyes she fell back, scrambling away half sitting, half crawling on the floor but unable to break her gaze from the creature before her.

“Enough” Steve said, yet now it wasn't the same voice. While his own deep harmonics were there, a second voice overlaid it, a lighter, more feminine tone that seemed to form a symphony with his. “Enough. We are one, finally, and here, in this place, there is nothing you can do to fight us.”

She kept skidding backwards, terror washing over her face as he floated closer, descending from above like an avenging angle.

“But despite being merely a tool of necessity, we never intended to simply remove you once your task was done, you will be granted a life of your own, a life you will enjoy.” The voice was calm, reassuring, as if it knew there was nothing in this world for it to fear.

“NO! I have seen her mind, I know the truth!” She raised her hands and once again the lightning flew from her outstretched fingers. Now though the bolts seemed to split and arc around the figure as it kept moving towards her, closer now, close enough for a hand to drift out and touch her forehead.

“Shhh. Sleep now.” The voice commanded her and she could no more have disobeyed than commanded the sun to rise in the west. Her eyes flickered closed and she slumped to the ground.

The snow slowed and stopped, leaving the farm covered in a crisp white blanket, only the faintest of smoke trails hinting at the hell that had been unleashed. Steve still floated in the yard, his eyes staring straight ahead, his body locked seemingly frozen in place. A sound like tearing silk slashed through the yard, joined by a scream from his lips as a ghostly figure seemed to step forward from his body, it's outline becoming solid, flesh replacing shaped smoke as Fiona dropped to her knees in the snow and Steve collapsed behind her, unconscious.

Continued

He woke to find Fiona leaning over him, the worry in her face vanishing like morning mist as she saw his eyes flutter open. Around them was the familiar confines of his flat, the pain from his injuries enough to convince him that this was indeed the real world.

“Oh god... I thought I'd lost you!” She whispered, dropping down besides him, her hands slipping around his chest, pulling him close to her.

“Almost love, almost.” He replied in a whisper, delighting in the feel of her next to him, her sheer presence intoxicating. “What... what did you do with her?”

“Oh, she's... somewhere safe.” Fiona said, turning away from him slightly. Instantly Steve sat up, pulling her with him.

“You didn't?” He asked, almost afraid of the answer. “Where is she love?”

“She's... she's in here.” Fiona said, taping the side of her head.

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” Steve asked, worry dancing across his face.

“Honestly? No, I don't know. But, hell, she was right Steve, we created her, we used her, we can't just throw her away now. Don't worry, I can handle her, with a little help of course.” Fiona grinned as she said the last, her hands starting to work their way down his back.

“You're sure?”

“Hey...” Fiona said, leaning him back to the bed, her lips brushing his, “trust me...”




Epilogue

The last rays of the day filtered through the trees above, a single weak beam of sunlight falling on a short slab of marble and the two people that stood near it. Both considered it a near-miracle that Tim's body had been found by the police before anyone else had come across it, let alone that they'd managed to identify and trace those named in his will so quickly. Less than a month had passed since the day he'd been killed, and barely a week since a uniformed officer had delivered the news of the funeral and that the bulk of Tim's belongs had been left to Steve.

Now they stood alone by the tombstone, Fiona wishing she'd had more time to know this man, Steve seemingly lost in thought as he stared down at the grave.

“Love...” Steve said, still staring at the ground as if unable to face her, “could you give me a moment?”

Fiona didn't say a word, simply squeezed his hand and walked silently away, moving to the shade of a large sycamore in the centre of the small cemetery and looking out over the city as behind her Steve sank to a knee to say farewell.

“Tim... you were right. You were right and I was wrong. I just wish I could have seen it earlier. We can't run from our mistakes, hell, you didn't run from them, you tried to make things right and I, I let you down. I wish, you could have been here for this, wish I'd realised all this years ago, when it could make a difference. But wishing never got anything done did it?”

“You were right, we helped create that world, we have a duty to defend it, to defend those that use it and rely on it. I think... I think maybe I've found someone who can do that, who can guard it and protect it. If I'm wrong, well, if I'm wrong I'll deal with it.”

Steve sighed, his head dropping down for a second before coming back up with fire burning in his eyes. “But I promise you this much, as long as there's a breath left in my body, I'll finish this, finish what you set out to do. One way or the other I'll finish it. Rest easy Tim and ... thank you.”

Steve rose from the grave, turned and walked to meet Fiona. She slipped her arms round him, embracing him for a long, long moment before they turned and walked together into the future.