Author's Note: Hello :) Sorry for the delay and sorry that this is so long, I just didn't want to part it again. Sooo after the last chap, of course there're some more sexy things in here ;)

ENJOY and REVIEW, my lovely programmes!

END OF LINE

CHAPTER 6

With one hand at the back of his head and the other holding his disc, Kyto lay on the bed of his apartment. While looking through the files, his thoughts revolved around what had happened yesterday between him and his best friend Castor. If he wanted to tell somebody about it, he wouldn't be able to find the right words, since it has been so unbelievable. The tingling sensation that had emerged during this incident now overcame him every time he thought of him, of Castor.

Castor, Castor, Castor...

His name steadily crossed his mind and even if he wanted to get rid of it, he wouldn't manage to do so.

On his way back to his apartment, where he had planned to recall the the events from last night, he had discovered a small shop in he lower level he lived in, which stocked illegal files, including one called 'User Knowledge 8: LOVE - Theory&Practice' he had made off with unobstrusively. It contained much text, though, before reading it, Kyto concentrated on the images shown in it. Drawn pictures of male Users with weird hair and a wooden instrument, looking up to a window in a tower a female User with pointy hat was standing in, were stored in this file, as well as illustrations of women in long white dresses and ones of erotic nature following. The latter were the ones he was more interested in at the moment.

On these pictures various couples were practising what he and Castor had done yesterday, in the most different styles. Sometimes Kyto had to take a closer look, zooming into the image or twist it, in order to understand what was happening on it. When he opened a picture file showing two men in the same position he and Castor had been in 2 millicycles ago, he had to close it at once, since the sight of it sent another wave of arousal through him.

Kyto closed his eyes, allowed Castor's scent, Castor's touch, his eyes filling his mind completely.

He had to see him again. Now.

Kyto put his disc onto his back, leaving his apartment as fast as he could. Through the light rail, it didn't take long until he already approached the elevator to the End Of Line Club, the doors of which opened suddenly.

The sight took Kyto's breath away, his heart began to race, the tingling sensation spread again and he smiled involutarily.

Castor, seemingly in thoughts, exited the lift, strolling over the small square in front of it towards his light roadster. He looked different than usual, was wearing a long, close-fitting coat with a high collar, which stuck out from the waist in a pleated way to emphasise his slim shape even more, and a top hat, whose brim seemed to be out of glass, glowing in white and perfectly to his cane thereby. His makeup was modified in such a way that his eyes appeared catlike, emphasising its colour even more by the darker edging.

"Hey, Castor!", Kyto called, as he finally found his breath and the courage to do so.

The man in white looked up, grinning widely. "Hello, lovely! Did you sleep well after such a demanding night?"

Kyto came to a stand next to him. "Yeah. And you?"

"It was a rather short, but restful sleeping cycle. Thank you for asking."

"Castor, you..." He laughed, felt the heat rushing into his face. "You look amazing!"

"I know, thank you.", Castor replied with a smirk. "Are you on your way to the EOLC."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you..." Kyto looked to the ground, since then he could keep the urge to fling his arms around his neck under control.

"Really? Do you need anything?"

"I... uh... I wanted to ask if you are in the mood of spending time with me before the club opens..."

Castor inhaled hissing. "Weeeell, I already have plans for tonight, hence the getup."

Kyto's smile faded. The memory of Castor wrapping his arm around this groupie girl forced its way into his thoughts, but his mind-self slung it away with a thick metal club. "Oh... Which plans?"

"I am invited to a party here in the top level. Everybody who is anybody has to show up there. Besides, I have to do business there anyway, so I just wanted to start out. Some other time, yes?"

Kyto forced himself to smile. "Okay."

Castor eyed him for a moment. "After the first time one can get quite impatient, I know. But there is nothing to worry about, Kyto. I won't distance myself from you, I only do this after a one-night-stand, but what we had yesterday was fantastic and I absolutely plan to repeat it. So no pouting now, okay?"

A smirk played around the young programme's lips again. "Okay..."

Castor gently grabbed Kyto's jaw, pulled him down to himself and kissed him. "See you soon, my pretty overload." With these words he got into the roadster and hit the road.

Kyto let out a deep sigh. Then he took a quick look around to make sure that noone was around and hopped up and down then squeaking.

Zuse already noticed all the many programmes standing at the entrance of the building from afar. Every time such an event took place, masses gathered, mostly programmes from the lower levels, in order to catch a glimpse of the members of society's upper class. Rarely, very rarely, it occured that they let one in thereby, if one of the party's guests spotted somebody who appealed to him or her. Most probably, several of these programmes here hoped for such a miracle as well, however, Zuse knew exactly that it wouldn't happen, not with this guest list.

While slowly driving up, he observed the invited programmes, how the door of their car was kept open for them and how they walked into the building, not deigning one look at the cheering programmes behind the railing. As recently as half a cycle ago, he would have hated them for doing that, for regarding themselves as something better, just because they were written for a purpose that enabled them to live an unbrudened life, or they reached this goal by working for CLU. Or both. Zuse had had to work hard for his current position, just like his best friend Susan Gifford, who had, during her time as Arris, the champion of the games, insisted on giving every single one of her fans an autograph for hours. Back then he had watched her full of admiration as she was carrying out her generous deeds, had loved it when they begged for an image file of the two together, as if they wished for them to be a couple.

But now... Zuse would love nothing better than to pass by those programmes, wrinkling his nose, too. They didn't deserve his attention at all, since they had adored Susan at first and then let her fall, backstabbed her. He hated all of them. Though, he knew he couldn't show it, had to keep it for himself and act as polite as always to not risk his good reputation without which he wouldn't have anything.

So, when he got out of his light roadster, he just put on a wide smile, waved at the cheering programmes, but totally ignored their begging calls for autographs, as he strolled towards the folding doors straight ahead in the most elegant way. Though, in the middle of the way he stopped once and threw his top hat into the crowd, which was followed by loud squees. A broad-shouldered man opened one of the doors for him, but before he entered, he turned around once more and gave his fans a wink.

Almost all the invited guests seemed to be present already, standing around some round tables next to the u-shaped long bar, running from one side of the huge hall over its back and up at the other side again. At the centre was a dancefloor, where many had assembled, but it was wide enough to provide everyone enough space. On the whole this wasn't an efficient concept at all, in Zuse's opinion, since by the narrow circumstances during dancing in a club, for example, the systems of its guests overheated easier, making them order more drinks, though, here this seemed to be meaningless anyway. The prices here were overexaggerated, everyone knew that, but all of the guests had such an immense personal budget on hand that it didn't state a problem at all, on the contrary it made most of them feel even richer than they actually were. Zuse wouldn't order anything here. He definitely wouldn't charge his identity card for such a trash they sold here, not in the slightest.

With that in mind, he just walked past the bar, directly towards a certain programme at the very back of the room. His name was Bernstein, the organiser of this event, although Shaddix and Zuse preferred to call him 'Cunt in Shit-Coat', since he was an extremely smug man without having any reason for being that way. Despite boasting and nagging he wasn't capable of any skills. Everything he had was either stolen or dropped into his lap. Bernstein, the talentless, moronic lucky beggar. He wouldn't be able to survive in this cruel world, if CLU wasn't his main financier.

As Zuse reached him, whose back was facing him, he tipped onto his shoulder with his cane, whereupon the man turned away from the female programme he was talking to at the moment.

"Castor!" He carried out a long-winded gesture with the glass in his hand.

"Bernstein.", Zuse replied dryly.

"To be honest I am surprised to see you here. I can't remember putting you onto my guest list, my extravagant midget."

"Oh, I guess your walnut brian just plays a trick on you, dear! Which mentally retarded programme wouldn't invite the most popular club owner of the Grid to a high society party?", Zuse laughed buoyantly.

"You the most popular club owner? Well, the numerous guests in MY club said something else..." Grinning, Bernstein sipped on his drink.

"Funny that you call 5 numerous." Zuse's amused tone turned into a faked compassionate one. "They must have forgotten to pay, though, since I could have sworn that I saw the entrance of your 'club' boarded up when I came here. Bernstein, you seem so pale all of a sudden! Are you sure you are feeling fine? Oh, a closure must be so horrible!"

Bernstein's expression reflected discomfort. His looked in every direction, just not in Zuse's. "No closure, nonsense! We... we're renovating!"

Zuse raised his brows. "Really?"

"Yes. They'll all love it. You should brace yourself to lose some of your regulars to me, since it will be bigger and more bombastic than everything they've ever seen!"

"Yes, the vast construction site within this oppressing darkness behind the shutters of your 'club' must be stunning."

Bernstein glared at him. After a pause of silence, he raised to speak again: "Can't you chatter on to someone else, Castor?"

"Oh, believe me, I'd like nothing more than turn around and attend to something else, so that my sense of aesthetics does not feel offended by your ugly visage anymore. But I can't. Not before I talked to you about a... let's say delicate matter." He darted a glance at the woman Bernstein had spoken to earlier and cleared his throat. "A matter which requires absolute discretion."

The man frowned and turned around, spotting the woman standing behind him, what he obviously didn't expect. "Why are you still here, huh? Don't you see we're busy?! Fuck off, bitch!"

The woman pouted and scuffed off.

Zuse had to shake his head to get rid of the shock caused by this incredible coarseness. "Anyway... You're still in contact with the systemadministrator, am I right?"

The programme laughed out loud. "If you want me to put in a good word for you, you're more stupid than I thought!"

"No, there is no need for that anymore. I..." Zuse took a short look around to check, if anybody was eavesdropping their conversation. "I want you to bring him something." Still letting his eyes wander through the room, he handed a small cube to Bernstein.

"What's that?"

"Information. There's nothing more you need to know. Just bring it to the central office and deliver my regards."

"And why don't you do it yourself?"

Zuse finally turned to his counterpart again. "You have been seen mixing with CLU douzens of times. Everyone knows about your cooperation with him. And let's be honest, YOU do not have a reputation that could suffer from such activities. I, however, do."

"Ah, because of this Zuse-guy, right? Nobody would beg for his help anymore, if they knew about you being in cahoots with CLU."

Zuse didn't say anything, just kept smiling.

"Alright, Castor. I'll do it, but only if you tell me more about this information."

"I believe, you must have misunderstood me. This is not you doing me a favour or a deal, where you can demand any kind of return service. CLU wants this information and you will deliver it to him. Full stop." He leant forward. "Unless you aim at a visit from Rinzler and his black guards, of course..."

The colour completely drained from Bernstein's face. He swallowed, while Zuse kept piercing him with his gaze. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, making him turn around. A young woman was standing in front of him.

"I am sorry to interrupt you... I just wanted to ask of you want to dance with me."

Zuse eyed her. She had light blue circuitry colour, was slim and quite short and wore a high, dark brown ponytail and a wide smile.

At her sight, Zuse's expression lit up as well. "You know, sweatheart, it surprises me that you pretty little thing haven't been invited to a dance already." Turning to Bernstein, he said: "Get this done as fast as possible, yes, my dear?", before he already got dragged to the dancefloor.

The music that was playing now was calmer than before, with a steady, pulsating rhythm, so that Zuse just spun the lady around, bringing her into a close dancing position in front of him. She seemed surprised, needed a moment to get used to the posture, but with Zuse in the lead she quickly got the hang of it.

While moving slowly to the beat, she said in a seductive tone: "If someone told me that I would dance with Castor himself only one cycle ago, I would have called the program crazy."

Zuse laughed charmingly. "And still you just walked up to me, asking for a dance as the very first of this evening, full of determination and completely without fear in your beautiful eyes. How come that you didn't have such confidence just a cycle ago?"

"Well, many things can happen in a cycle."

"How true..." Instantly, pictures of Susan forced their way into his mind, which he mentally shoved away to be able to only concentrate on the woman in front of him.

"Yes, for example, I got I new job through which I got a chance to get onto the guest list of this party."

"Congratulations!"

"Thank you. I got to know so many interesting programs the last cycle and I went to the games for the first time and then it even was such an exciting one like 'Her Fall'!"

Zuse just nodded, looking away. He definitely didn't want to think about this so-called exciting game, far less talk about it.

"Apropos." Zuse's eyes fixed onto hers again. "I heard you spent some time with this Susan. Have you two been friends?"

"I'd rather call it a manus-manum-lavat-relationship."

"A... what?"

"Comes from Seneca, a User-philosopher of ancient Rome. It means that Susan gave me what I wanted and I, in return, gave her what she wanted. That's it.", he lied. "So I don't really know, if I could claim to have been one of her friends, it was more like..."

"Manus manum lavat.", she said, smirking.

Zuse smiled lightly. "You're a fast learner."

She laughed, looking to the ground for a moment, while Zuse let his gaze wander around the room in thoughts.

"Nevertheless... they say you knew her very well..."

Nothing changed about his relaxed expression, though, within him there had been a sudden swing of mood. What had he just seen in her eyes? Had it been fear? His good knowledge of programme nature completely unveiled the woman's frame of mind to him: Even though she was trying hard to mask it, he saw that she was slightly nervous. The way he could assess the situation, this pretty programme intended to get informations about Susan. Zuse didn't know why, but he knew he had to be extremely careful now to keep protecting his best friend.

So he just replied with a shrug, smiling at his counterpart, while pursuing the dance in the most perfect way.

"Did you know about it in advance? That she was a copy of a User."

He laughed. "No, of course not!"

"So... She didn't tell you anything about herself?"

"That would've been hardly possible. Every now and then you have to talk to each other in between the pleasures, you know?" Amusement sounded in his voice.

"And what did she tell you?", she asked still with a Smile on her face, seemingly relaxed, but Zuse noticed her impatience.

"Hm, let me think... For instance she would perceive the top level as more pleasant than the lower ones. Are you feeling the same way or have you always been living up here, my dear...?"

"JackiX. And well, I do perceive the top level as pleasant, indeed."

'Clever choice of words.', Zuse thought. Apparently, she wasn't keen to disclose anything about herself either.

"For example it's easier to make friends here, due to the lesser scepticism.", she continued. "Did Susan do the same here? Make friends?"

"You mean apart from me?"

"I thought you weren't friends."

"I said I wouldn't know, if I could claim to have been her friend, though, now that I gave it a thought, I'd say you could call the thing between her and myself a friendship."

"Even though she didn't tell you much about herself?"

There an inner rage overcame him, which he could keep to himself just barely. "I tell what I know about her." He gently pushed JackiX away in a short dance posture and pulled her back in a light twist, so that he stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist, during the dance. He spoke quietly but emphatically, feeling her body stiffening a bit at his words: "Susan Gifford would have loathed such parties, where programmes refused to share their wealth with the poorer ones, although they would be nothing without them. She would have hated the music, the guests, the location, simply everything, except one thing she would have loved for sure..." He spun her around in an elegant way, her lightly widened dark eyes looking into his silver ones. "She would have loved to dance with me, just like we do it. And believe me, I would love to dance with her right now as well."

Her expression reflected guilt. Obviously, she regretted to have drilled him with questions, Zuse's mind couldn't find an other explanation at short notice.

As a harder beat and more casual rhythm began to spread, he enlarged the gap between them to a few inches, about to continue to dance with her in another way, but she gently pushed him away from her.

"Sorry, I'm a bit out of breath.", he laughed. "I'll quickly get a drink at the bar, okay?"

There she already wanted to rush off, though, Zuse grasped her hand. "I come with you."

"No!", she replied quickly with a smile, a bit too quickly for Zuse's liking. "I also want to freshen up a bit, you know?" The voice became softer, more seductive, as she got closer to him, putting her hand onto his chest. "Don't worry, I'll be right back. Just stay here and warm up a bit, because when I come back I'll brim with energy and then let's see if you're still in the lead, okay?"

He eyed her, grinning. "Alright..."

Zuse held his eyes fixed on her, as she wound through the dancing crowd towards the bar.

What was this young woman up to? Why did she want information about Susan? Was she a member of a new resistance, perhaps? Improbable. He'd never seen a rebell that as wealthy as to be part of such an event, with the exception of Susan of course. But maybe this woman was an exception too. An other possibility was that she was just driven by curiosity.

Suddenly, a programme positioning in front of him blocked his view of her, making him wince. He looked up, directly into Kyto's smirking face.

"Kay!", he exclaimed in surprise.

"They're not partying as hard as in the EOLC here, but it's still nice.", the black-haired said, while slowly dancing to the music.

Zuse laughed, trying to look over Kyto's shoulder and moving him to the side step by step to not lose JackiX out of sight completely. "It's great to see you here, but how did you go past the doorkeepers?"

"I simply said you were waiting for me in here and they let me in."

"I don't think this was the reason they let you pass." Zuse shortly took his gaze from JackiX, looking into Kyto's dazzingly green eyes. "Most of the male guests here are not attractive at all, however, they have to keep up the good image of this event. So, of course they let you in. You and I, dearest, we bring the sex appeal. Although... it is to say..." Something interesting caught his eye, making him speak slowlier. A man had come to a stand next to woman he had danced with, seemingly talking to her, although they were not looking at each other. "... it is to say that... attraction... is a matter of opinion."

"What do you mean?", Kyto asked, whilst getting even closer to Zuse.

"Some perceive a programme as attractive that we don't.", he answered in thoughts, still fully concentrating on those two at the bar, whereby he wasn't quite aware of Kyto cautiously letting the fingers of his right glide over Zuse's side.

"For me YOU are attractive...", he said in a teasing tone, eyed his dancing partner's body he had longed for so badly.

Zuse laughed, but didn't take his gaze from the two programmes. "Thank you, pretty boy, but you just gained the freedom to explore this world. You don't know what it has to offer yet. Besides, I guess, you are still a bit intoxicated by yesterday's occurrences." The man looked at the your woman, grabbed her arm, so that she did the same with him. They seemed to have an argument.

"Well, these... occurrences from yesterday are the actual reason why I came here..." Zuse felt how Kyto put his arms around his neck, dancing very close to him, which let an unexpected twitch of arousal rush through him, totally interrupting his thoughts. "I want more of that... now..."

Zuse eyed Kyto with a grin, watched him rub himself against his body to the rhythm of the song in smooth movements. This gorgeous view let Zuse's train of thoughts lie fallow completely, just let him answer with the gentle touch of his hands and slow hip circles, until a sudden call, which was drowned out by the music, made him remember what he was actually about to observe instead of this body in front of him.

His head flipped to the side. He could only just spot JackiX getting dragged away by this man, before the two disappeared in the masses. Frantically looking for them, he quickly stated: Kyto, I am sorry, but I really have to-"

"I got an illegal book about Users with pictures of people having sex. I had to think of you at every single one of them and... oh, it felt so good...", Kyto interrupted him breathing, solely focussed on the man in front of him and the friction between them.

He wanted Castor. At once. He needed him, had to have him.

Zuse swallowed. He tried to completely concentrate on the search for those two programmes, though, Kyto made it extremely difficult for him. His body wanted to attend to the one of his counterpart, but his mind desperately reacted against it, recalled JackiX' face to make it easier for him to identify her in the dancing crowd. Hectically, his eyes moved from side to side, trying to catch sight of her in an almost fanatic way. "Kyto, please, I'm bu-"

"Fuck me."

The words, breathed into his ear full of lust and desire, let Zuse freeze. At one blow his concentration faded away. A shiver ran down his spine and he exhaled slowly, closing his eyes for a moment, before lightly shook his head. "Kyto, it's..." He looked up into these dazzingly green eyes. "It's really naughty to say something like that in public." Zuse let his hand wander down Kyto's chest, making his counterpart's breathing heavier. "Really, really naughty..."

Then he took the grinning programme's hand and pulled him through the dancing masses. When they reached the backside of the hall, Kyto spotted a long corridor, flooded with red light, in front of which a woman stood behind a counter, smiling at them.

"Hello!", Zuse greeted her. "A room for two, please."

"Just a nano.", she replied with a beeping voice, typing something into the luminous screen right in front of her. "With toys?"

"No need for toys." The white-haired eyed Kyto lustily. "Not yet..."

Kyto, curiously peeking into the red corridor in the meantime, saw one of the many doors on its sides opening and two totally relaxed women strolled out of it, holding hands. Gazing after them, he asked Zuse, who was handed a card and guided Kyto through the corridor: "There're really rooms to rent for something like that?"

Zuse laughed, whilst comparing the numbers and symbols on the card with those above the doors. "You are so sweetly innocent. But don't worry..." When he found the right door, he held the card on it, whereby it got unlocked. "... I will cast all this innocence out of you." He pushed the door open, pulled Kyto inside, slammed it shut behind him and already yanked his head down to his to press his lips onto those incredible soft ones.

Instantly Kyto felt this unbearable, but wonderful tingling sensation in his stomach. A moan escaped his throat, which Zuse quickly used to thrust his tongue into his counterpart's mouth in an almost brutal way. He grabbed his hips, pushed them forwards so abruptly that Kyto's back hit the wall behind him, before Zuse lifted his right hand, buried its fingers in the young programme's black hair and yanked it back with a quiet growl, so that he could continue his work with his mouth on the now bare neck.

Kyto, wrapping his arms around the man in front of him, gasped, had his brows furrowed out of pain and the accompanying ecstasy. He didn't know why, but how Castor treated him right now, rough, ruthless, predatory, aroused him enormously. Instinctively he raised his left leg, whereupon he immediately felt the hand ceasing from his hair, sliding under his thigh and together with the lower part of his body pressed it hard against the white-haired programme at one go, which made Kyto moan once again.

Suddenly a dull scream sounded.

Zuse stopped sucking on Kyto's neck at once, looking around. "What was that?", he asked in an alarmed tone. The voice had sounded familiar to him, though, his nearly overloaded system wasn't able to identify it.

Kyto laughed. "Apparently, someone next door has as much fun as we have." He grinned at the white-haired, who still stared in an other direction with an suspicious gaze. He waited for another short moment, then Kyto gently stroked over his jawline, turning the man's face to his, where he kissed him passionately.

Zuse tried to fully concentrate on Kyto's tongue, carrying out a dance with his own inside their mouths, on his leg in his hand and his pelvis, moving in cricles against his, whereby he could perfectly sense Kyto's stiff member through the tight suit, however, the scream resonated in his head, distracting him.

He hissed, pushed away from his counterpart and said: "Turn around."

Kyto gave him a questioning look.

Emphatically, he repeated: "Turn. Around."

He took his hips and swung the young programme around by himself. Kyto let loose a confused sound, as Zuse's thumb ran down his spine, so that the upper part of his black suit disappeared. He bent forward, licked over the black-haired's neck, sucked on it, even bit it lightly, which made Kyto shiver with pleasure. Though, his inner embers blazed up to a real rage of fire only when he felt Castor rubbing his pubic area against his backside in a slow rhythm and thereby squeezing the hard-on in his trousers firmly between his thighs.

"Please, Castor, fuck me...", he moaned almost whimpering, which was followed by a muffled dark laugh of the man behind him.

Suddenly another scream rang out, this time it was more like anxious shreeking.

Both spun around in shock. After a short moment of silence, Zuse took the disc from his back and dashed off. Kyto followed him out into the corridor and to the next door, where he hit the reception-card-scanning part with the glowing edge of his white disc and kicked it open.

They stood in the door frame, having their widened eyes fixed on the young woman with no longer high, dark brown ponytail and pale light blue circuitry colour, who lay on the ground next to a bed frantically breathing and staring at the cubes in her hand, which crumbled from the gaping wound on her stomach.

While Kyto just stood there with his mouth agape, Zuse regained his composure. "Kyto, get help! Go!"

He winced, turned around and ran off as fast as he could. Meanwhile, Zuse rushed to the open window behind the bed and could only just catch a glimpse of a man with short white hair and olive toned skin, looking up to him, before making off with his light cycle. Wasn't that the man who had dragged JackiX away earlier?

A cough behind him interrupted Zuse's thoughts. In an instant he knelt on the ground, supporting her head. "Don't worry, JackiX, I will fix that.", he said, while carefully taking her disc from her back. When he opened her code, he froze. Orange. Too much orange. Too many flashing error reports. He tried some programmer tricks, navigated through this jumble of files with insanely quick movements of his fingers, however, nothing helped. As a former interpreter, he had a broad knowledge of source codes, though, he couldn't perform miracles.

With sorrow in his face, he looked down at the woman beneath him, whose eyes widened even more at the sight of his expression, making her cough again. Zuse sat her up, wrapped his Arm around her, so that her torso was propped and her head leant against his shoulder. "Sh, calm down. It won't hurt as much, if you stop fighting, precious...", he breathed soothingly.

"C-Castor...", she croaked.

"I'm here, beautiful, I'm here."

"N-no, no... Yo-you...", she brought out, panting. "You... we... Susan..."

Zuse frowned. "Did you say Susan?"

"T-they... they think... she wants them to do that... But I..." She coughed again. "I don't want to..."

"Who thinks Susan wants them to do what? What did they want to force you to?" Zuse spoke quickly, since he was aware that he didn't have much time left.

"Re-re-res..." She cringed and screamed out, pressing her hand onto the spreading wound. Zuse held her hand, showed her how to breathe in order to calm down to some extent. Thick tears ran down her cheeks.

"Re-re...", Zuse wondered out loud. "Resistance! JackiX, do you mean a resistance?!"

She nodded, squeezing her lids together, as another piercing pain rushed through her body. Her circuitry colour flickered.

"The resistance wants you to do something, you didn't approve of!", Zuse concluded. "What was it, JackiX?"

"They... want to kill..."

His eyes widened. "Okay... Who is their target?"

"Nononono...", he whispered. "Who is their target? Is it CLU?"

Her breathing got slower.

"No, dammit, come on! Who is their damn target, JackiX?!"

She tried to say something, but there she froze and a dull veil lay over her eyes.

Zuse stared at the dead programme in his arms. The sound of quick steps and Kyto's voice reached his ears: "In there!"

The black-haired came rushing onto the room, followed by three sentries, who paused now. Cautiously Zuse put her small body to the ground, stroked over her face to close her lids. Then he stood up, turning to the others.

"There was nothing I could do.", he murmured and walked towards the shocked looking Kyto, who he now grabbed by his arm and pulled him out to the red corridor. "Come, let's leave. Now the crime scene belongs to the sentries." Kyto wanted to glance back over his shoulder, but Zuse prevented him from doing so. "No, Kyto. I do not want you to see a programme derezzing. So please, don't turn around and let's go."

Sipping on his drink, Zuse gazed into space.

He had brought Kyto, who had been totally haggard, to his apartment, whose safety measures he had pimped up even more, while telling the young man that he assumed the incident to be simple robbery, an act of mercilessness of evil programmes, since he wanted to keep the conversation he had conducted with JackiX shortly before her death to himself. He hadn't even told Jarvis, who had contacted him afterwards, since Bernstein had told him about the murder that had taken place at a party financed by CLU. Zuse had explained the whole situation to him in all honesty, just omitted the details about his connection to JackiX.

Now he sat in his club, thought about what happened and what could have been the reasons for this incident. JackiX had been a member of a resistance. A resistance... Of course there were still rebellious programmes, such as the ones who had hacked into CLU's database, but they were scattered individuals. Zuse hadn't considered it possible that shortly after the obliteration of Susan's resistance another organised troup could form, a troup that... planned to kill somebody. But whom?

The white-haired sighed and took the disc from his back. For a long while he just kept staring at the paused memory sequence that showed a man with short white hair and olive toned skin.