I don't own Cyberchase. Max is mine.

Chapter Eleven
Absolem

Since helping the Cybersquad rescue her father from Hacker's clutches, Max returned to her search for a new home away from home. And she was being very specific about the kind of place she wanted to stay in.

It had to be out of the way, uninhabited with intelligent life or cyborgs, and covered with a dense jungle just to toy with the Hacker's scanners – something Max loved doing more than anything else in all of Cyberspace.

Max and Marbles had ceased speaking to one another since communications could be picked up by anyone or anything. Communications could also be tracked and that was the last thing either one wanted. Max and Marbles also ceased speaking to Motherboard lest Hacker was monitoring Control Central's communications as well. In essence both Marbles had exiled themselves for the good of Cyberspace.

Max didn't know what Marbles was up to, or if he had located a new source to help him cure Motherboard's virus. She only wished she could've gone with him but quickly realized it was best if they remained split up. That way they could divide Hacker's attention between them which would provide them both with a chance to finish their tasks. As long as Hacker was focused on finding Max, Marbles could continue his research. And as long as Hacker was focused on finding Marbles, Max could spend her time looking for a hideout and figure out how best to get rid of him. But first, she had to find a hideout.

And she knew of someone who could help her.

1

Absolem1 Adair was an all-knowing and ever-vigilant borg. His very presence radiated wisdom. But his wisdom never came free.

Max knew that when she went to see him. She was reluctant to travel the distance to Absolem's Cybersite – a place known as Foresteria – but every borg she spoke to told her to talk to Absolem.

"Absolem can help you. He's absolute. He's Absolem." They would say.

Max let out a low growl, thanked those that did speak to her, and took off to find a new source. Again, she was directed to Absolem but Max had no desire to see Absolem. Not only did he charge a nominal fee for his information, but he was also known to give information away to anyone who wanted to know anything and had the snalfus to spend. Therefore, even Hacker could go to Absolem and ask anything in exchange for snalfus. Absolem was every willing to spread gossip which could work against Max no matter how she looked at it.

Finally out of any possible leads, Max turned her face to Foresteria and flew off to there. She stopped on the way to Foresteria at a bank and took a much valuables as she could out of her vault – aside from snalfus, Absolem was also a fan of trinkets which he could see at ridiculously high prices for snalfus – stuffed them in a sack she had borrowed from Shangri-La, and took off.

Foresteria was Cybersite covered entirely by trees. Warriors of Shangri-La were known to come and go, cutting off only bad branches from trees to make their ornate weapons. Max had come here, too, with a warrior crew and spent the night amongst the trees until she could understand the "voices of nature" as Master Pi had called it. Now, she came here for a different reason. And she didn't like why she was doing it.

Absolem lived in a house built into the side of a cave. He dug the cave out himself, a task which took several eons to complete, and built his own house, which took him a few more eons to complete. Rumor had it that Absolem had lived there since he left the Red Warriors eons ago. Rumor also told two different stories as to why he was living there. One, he deleted his superior officer in a fit of rage. And two – which was the most likely of cases – Absolem despised the company of others. Whether either was true or not was of no concern to Max. She was there for one reason and one reason alone.

"Absolem! Harken to me. A fellow warrior of Shangri-La calls to you." Max shouted as she stood at the base of a hillock below Absolem's house-cave.

The great wooden door opened and a slim figure, dressed in a skin-tight, ruby-red robe and a woven belt of blue around his waist, stepped out onto the hillock and stared down at the gargoyle blow him. Absolem's hard features looked like they had been carved out of steel with a blunt chisel, and maybe they were. His skin was a dark-caramel color, his dark eyes slanted, and his black hair was long and gathered into a knot at the top of his head. From his lip sprouted a thin fu man chu. And he carried a long, twisting staff carved out of the wood of Cyber-oak tree and polished from eons of use.

Max inclined her head with as much politeness as she could muster for a deserter of the same warrior caste she had learned from in eons past.

"Absolem. I am Max. I humbly come before you to seek your help."

Absolem said nothing but seated himself on the hillock in a cross-legged position and laid his staff over his lap. He nodded for Max to continue.

"Days of darkness are coming upon us and I fear they will be here soon. Master Pi has selected me for a dangerous mission. A mission to stop the darkness and draw out the evil that spreads in our world like poison that is drawn from a wound. Will you not help me?" Max raised her head, this time and her pink eye met the gaze of Absolem's obsidian ones.

Absolem remained silent for a time while he continued to stare down at the humbled gargoyle.

"Your reputation proceeds you, Max Marbles. You call yourself a warrior of Shangri-La. But you are no warrior of Shangri-La. You are a deserter, like myself. Only you still answer to the call of the gong when Master Pi summons you while I am free to ignore his summons." Absolem said.

Max trembled at the harsh truth he had just spoken. True, she had deserted before Master Pi could call her in to be admitted as a Shield-maiden, but her loyalties still lie with the warriors and the master who stood with her the entire time she was in training.

"There are few who are privy to that information." Max said, plopping into a sit. "How do you know who and what I am?"

Absolem shrugged. "To know that comes with a fee. But I do not think that is what you came here for."

"No, I have not." Max shrugged the sack from around her neck. Then, she hooked the sack's strap over her tail and placed the sack carefully in front of Absolem. "I've come to you because no one else knows where I should go. All the signs point to you, for you are all-knowing and ever-vigilant. You can help me with this task. I need only answers to two questions."

Absolem stared the sack. "You bring valuables. Obviously you do not have money to give me."

"No. Any snalfus I had I gave to Motherboard and my father for their own needs. What is in this sack, are all the valuables I am willing to present to you."

"What kind of valuables?"

"Gifts from my time at Shangri-La. I have no use for them. Not at this time."

Absolem seemed to think about this a moment. Then, "Very well, I shall answer two questions. Only two, as you have requested." He said.

Max dragged the sack toward her with her tail. "I'll pay whatever price you desire."

"You have nothing else in that sack I want. Anything else will cost you what you do not have." Absolem said.

Whatever that's supposed to mean. Max thought.

Absolem waved a hand at her. "You may begin your questions now."

"I need a place to stay. A place out of the way, uninhabited by all life except for that of nature, and contains a dense jungle so no scanners can find me. Do you know of any such place?" Max said.

"You want to remain in exile, is that it?"Absolem asked.

"Yes. Until the time when I must rise up and purge Cyberspace of the evil that is coming." Max answered.

Absolem continued to stare, unblinkingly, at Max. Then, "So, you have been given a mission – a mission you are unprepared or unready to do. You have been given the task to destroy the borg known as The Hacker, is that it?"

Max growled deep in her chest at the mention of his name, but she needed Absolem alive so she did not attack him. Her pink eye flashed, dangerously. "That is true." She said.

"I thought as much." Absolem said. He leaned back and stared straight up at Foresteria's sky. "You are on a fool's errand, Max Marbles. If you weren't ready to take up the mantle of Shield-maiden before you deserted, you are surely not ready for this task that has been set before you. Master Pi, for all his wisdom, has given you a task you cannot and will not be able to finish. You know this, do you not?"

"I may not be ready now, but I soon will be."

Absolem shook his head. "No you will not. You failed to come before the Red Warriors and accept the mantle of Shield-maiden. Therefore, you will fail at this task as well."

"Not after everything he's done to me. I will defeat him because of everything he's done to me."

"That is precisely why you will fail." Absolem pointed out.

"Explain." Max said with a headtilt.

Absolem sighed. "You carry hate in your heart. You hate him because he tortured you. You hate him because he nearly killed you. You hate him because he made you into something you're not. You desire vengeance, and when someone does something out of vengeance it will always return to them ten-fold. Hate and vengeance cannot exist in the heart of a Shield-maiden. It will only lead to trouble."

"Well, as you said I am not a Shield-maiden. And I'm not doing it for me."

"Oh but you are doing it for yourself. It has always been about you, never about anyone else."

"No. I'm doing it for my father and for Motherboard."

"Are you?"

"Of course I am."

"So, you're telling me that you don't really hate him. You don't really despise him for the hours of torture he placed upon you. You don't really despise him for transforming you into the very creature Cyber-citizens hate. And, you don't hate him for the loss of your arm, leg, and left eye. Is that what you mean?"

"I do hate him for all that and more, yes." Max admitted after a pause.

"Which is why you will fail."

"I won't fail."

"Yes, you will." Absolem said. "You will fail because of everything you just admitted to. You are not a warrior of Shangri-La, you are not a Shield-maiden, you hate your enemy, and you desire vengeance. Four reasons why you will surely fail in your mission. Not to mention, you are running away from your problem."

"I'm not running."

"But of course you are. Why else are you looking for a place to hide away? True, you don't want him to find you because you will surely be destroyed when he does. So, in essence, you are running."

"Am not!" Max protested.

"Are too." Absolem said in the same, exact tone Max had used.

"I am not running. I need a place of solitude. Master Pi gave me this task with only one requirement. I had to destroy the evil with no more force than is necessary. I'm a gargoyle. Force is in my nature now. I need a place where I can think – where I can meditate – on how best to do this."

"And what will Master Pi give you in return for your efforts? A new life? A new body? What?" Absolem asked.

"He will give me my body back. That's all I need is my cyborg body back."

"That is not all you need."

"Explain." Another headtilt.

"You need forgiveness. When you destroy your enemy, you must also forgive him. He tortured and mutated you, that much is true. He almost killed you as well, yet here you are. His evil has spread throughout Cyberspace like a plague. You have had eons to destroy him, yet you hid like a coward."

"I wasn't ready."

"You still aren't."

"I will be."

"Not until you can tell yourself you can forgive him for every evil he has ever done. Not just the evil he has done against you, but every evil he had ever done against your creator and Motherboard. Everything. The virus, the kidnappings, the attempted deletings. All of it. Can you do that?"

"Not yet." Max said. "And maybe not ever."

Absolem sighed. "I'm going to give you a little bit of advice, Max, only because I like you. You have a good heart and a wonderful soul. You remind me of me when I was your age, only I was never a female nor was I turned into a gargoyle and tortured to near nonexistence and insanity."

"Get on with it." Max said.

Absolem smiled. "That's another quality we share. We're both impatient." Max glared and Absolem laughed which was strangely light compared to his rough features. "And we both have spunk."

Max's glare deepened.

"Very well. Here is my advice. Forget about him." Absolem said.

1The name "Absolem" is taken from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland