Author's Note
Well, that took a while, but here we are, at the last two chapters. I couldn't hurry them! Thank you, dear readers, for joining me on this journey. It's been wonderful!
Nicole
Live-giving energy poured down on Hazel and the Lead as they stood directly beneath the Central Core. Hazel could see its energy radiating into the walls of the chamber and realized that the power for Deloria City and much of the network came from this source. It felt almost peaceful and for a moment, Hazel thought that it would have a positive effect on the Lead. Who would want to destroy something so beautiful? Encompass it, yes. Embrace and envelop it, perhaps even appropriate it. But destroy it?
"There will be nothing of any of you left." The Lead gazed up at the core. Then she turned her glance on Hazel. "You can still think for yourself, despite my user power. I'm not sure how that happened, but it will make what I'm going to do all that more pleasurable. Knowing that you are aware of it all."
Hazel's voice was low. "I'm warning you. You're entering a big error."
"Oh, am I?" They both tried to penetrate the other's mind, to see the moves the other was planning.
Hazel noticed movement near the entrance to the chamber. "My whip gave me a taste of you, a glimpse of you." Her eyes glowed dark red. "I'd like to really see what you're made of."
The Lead experienced a brief moment of hesitation, a sliver of doubt. Then her own eyes flashed white with hatred. "I am Huntrix, Leader of the Rovers. I reject my user and I will destroy this world. You want to go against me? You old, worn out, excuse for a dictator? Very well."
She took a step back and pointed her finger at Hazel. "Open a gateway to Landfall! Activate the laser! I command you to send me out!"
The command tore at Hazel's mind. It was impossible to resist. With a rebellious shout, she flung her arms outward. The Lead was thrown across the chamber as if struck by a giant invisible hand. She slammed against the wall and was pinned there, held fast.
All around Hazel spun the massive, red beam of the MCP. But this time, she released herself fully, the beam becoming nearly opaque as it whirled like a cyclone toward the ceiling, engulfing the Central Core and blasting through the roof. Faster and faster the beam of light spun until it seemed to stop moving and a giant face stretched wide across the surface, opening its eyes. The Lead could see the figure of Hazel, shining brightly, standing at the center of the beam, arms still outstretched, still facing her. The beam reached high into the blackness of the digital sky.
"What are you doing?" The Lead screamed. "Obey my commands!"
Hazel replied, the giant face of the MCP speaking in unison, her wry expression showing on both of her faces. "I'm trying. I can't very well send you out if someone kills you first, now can I?" Her voice reverberated through the room.
Hazel turned around, lowering her arms. The face on the beam turned at the same time. The Lead squinted and could just barely make out what she hadn't seen before. Four warriors had entered the chamber and the only thing between them and her was Hazel.
Hazel watched her friends as they stood looking at her in horror. Tron and Wulf were most struck by the sight of their old nemesis and master, alive and powerful again.
"Tron," Hazel's voice echoed through the chamber as both she and the giant face spoke the words. "How fitting that you should be here, at the end."
"This will end no differently than last time." Tron shifted his gaze to the figure of Hazel in the midst of the beam, brandishing his disk.
"I know," she said.
The Lead's voice rang out. "Throw them back! Pin them to the wall and release me!"
Hazel flinched, then obeyed, throwing out her arms to the side. Retribution, Wulf and Tracer went flying backwards, smashing into the chamber wall, held fast against it. But Hazel's power passed right over Tron, just as it always had.
His face held pain, uncertainty. He glanced up at the Central Core, a bright glow within the red of the MCP's beam. Its energy was now contained in the beam, pouring into it, pouring into Hazel. The city would be growing dark.
"I can't resist her command, or my hunger, much longer," Hazel's voice was agonized. "Destroy me, Tron."
Tracer screamed from the wall, "No!"
With a cry of anguish, Tron raised his disk and threw it with all his might. It seared through the beam toward Hazel's chest. She closed her eyes.
A white disk screamed through from the other side of the chamber, racing past Hazel's shoulder, and smashing into Tron's disk. Both disks went spinning up and circling around. The Lead strode right through the giant beam, past Hazel and out the other side, getting between her and Tron. Her disk raced to her hand and she caught it, just as he reached up and caught his own.
Locking gazes with him, she said, "Put your disk away."
Tron felt the power of her command as it slammed into his mind…and was extinguished. He smiled darkly. "Underestimating my user. Bad mistake." He threw his disk.
It arched around behind her and she deflected it, throwing her own. Tron leaped, twisting in the air to barely avoid the lethal throw. He caught his disk as it came back to him.
The Lead watched him, ready for an attack. "I'm not letting you destroy my way out of here."
"And I'm not letting you take it."
Again, the disks flew.
Hazel was only slightly aware of the battle taking place in front of her. Her eyes were turned upward to the Central Core. It still shined golden, pouring all that energy and life down upon her, promising power beyond comprehension. Her own power encircled it, but she kept it from touching the core through sheer force of will. Everything within her was screaming for the core, desiring it, her hunger wailing for completion in it. Even the Lead's command was barely keeping its hold on her in the face of her own nature, her own need. If she allowed herself to consume the Central Core, all would be lost.
"Tron…hurry…"
"We gotta help 'em!" yelled Wulf, straining to free himself from the wall.
"The Lead's controlling Hazel somehow," Tracer's mind was racing. "It must be her user power."
"But it didn't work on Tron," Retri added.
"Nothing works on Tron," Wulf said, "except pure physical force."
Tracer looked at the face of the MCP. It was pained, looking upward and he knew it was a reflection of Hazel. He could barely make out her glowing figure standing in the center of the beam, her face turned up. He knew she wouldn't be able to hold out. Closing his eyes, he summoned all his user power, releasing it in a blast of energy against Hazel's hold on him. He fell to the floor.
"What in the grid did you do?" Wulf gasped.
Tracer staggered to his feet. "It's a user thing!" He raced away from the wall, barreling past Tron and the Lead as they fought. Enduring the shock of entering the beam, he ran to Hazel and took her face in his hands.
"Look at me!"
Her eyes were locked on the Central Core, a ravening fire in them.
"Hazel!" He pulled her face down. "HAZEL!"
Her eyes met his.
Tracer nodded. "You can do this."
She shuddered. "It's tearing me apart."
"I know you can do this!"
"No." Her eyes showed desperation. "The hunger…is who I am as much…as much as anything else. I will be who I am." She looked at him pleadingly. "Help Tron. Fight the Lead so he is free to…to stop me."
"I won't let him kill you."
"He has to or we are all lost."
He still held her face in his hands. "But I'll be lost without you." He leaned in and kissed her, resisting his own hunger no longer.
She responded in kind, her arms around his neck, his love giving her a brief moment of freedom and clarity. She pulled away, touching his lips with her fingers. "You'll be all right." Their eyes met. "You'll see it through. I died a long time ago, Tracer. This time, it's by my own choosing. Please do this. For me."
Their minds connected and for a moment, Tracer caught a glimpse of the chaos she was enduring, the power she was holding back, her absolute iron will. He held her gaze for a moment…her eyes seemed as deep as eternity. Then he stepped away and turned from her. He didn't look back. With a shout, he ran forward, bursting from the beam.
Tron had just caught his disk and was now deflecting the Lead's as it came at him, rebounded and came at him again. The Lead stood about twenty feet away from Tracer and saw him as he pulled his disk from his back. He threw it and she ducked and rolled just barely avoiding being sliced and derezzed. She sprang to her feet, catching her disk just as Tracer barreled into her, both of them crashing to the ground and rolling away.
"Go, Tron!" He yelled.
"NO!" the Lead screamed as Tron turned toward the massive beam of the MCP.
"I'm sorry, Hazel," he whispered. He took a deep breath and threw his disk with all his skill and might.
Hazel saw it coming. A calm fell over her. She had held out long enough. Her doom approached and she welcomed it with open arms.
And then, the instant Tron's disk entered the beam, the world around her seemed to grind into slow motion and everything grew quiet. The disk sliced through the air toward her, a blue trail streaming behind it…but so slowly, as if they were all under water. She sensed a familiar presence as light seemed to radiate from the disk, like mist, filling the space around her. She watched its slow progression toward her, mystified. Easily, slowly, she raised her hands to receive the disk, grasping it as simply as if it had been handed to her.
She was struck by a sudden influx of power and programming that made her body go rigid. Alan's touch, coding from the disk activated for just this moment, designed for her, flooded her mind, her body, her very being, changing her. A thousand-thousand hands gripped the disk with her. A thousand-thousand voices rang in her thoughts, all thinking, feeling, existing together. As one. One being. The thousands of lives stolen by the MCP were freed, choosing to become one with her, filling Hazel like a rushing ocean. All of their wills fused together and spoke through Hazel's single, clear, ringing cry:
"I AM!"
Outside the beam, Retri and Wulf fell from the wall, released, landing on their feet. Retri raced to Tron's side, her disks raised to throw at the MCP, but Tron pushed her arms down. "No! Wait!"
"She'll destroy the core!"
"No! I trust her!"
"You trust the MCP?"
Tron looked right at Retri and laughed with shock at his own answer. "Yes!"
Around Hazel, the world rushed back to normal speed. Tron's disk glowed like a blue beacon in her hands. Her eyes shone bright red. "STAND BACK." Her voice rang out and the shock wave of the sound commanded all of their attention. Even Tracer and the Lead stopped grappling with each other.
Hazel raised Tron's disk over her head, an offering to the Central Core.
"NO!" The Lead kicked Tracer away and sprinted toward the beam.
Hazel's vision filled with light as a flare of power from the Central Core reached down and struck the disk. There was a flash of blue light and then the core suddenly expanded, pushing outward, filling the MCP's beam, engulfing Hazel and turning the beam bright, shining yellow. The huge face of the MCP was obliterated as the beam spun, wind filling the chamber, forcing everyone back.
"Hazel!" Tracer cried.
The center of the chamber was a giant, flaring column of golden light and power that extended into the black eternity above the shattered tower ceiling.
"It's the end!" Retri gasped.
Wulf squinted against the light and wind. "No…look!"
Like a coal from the flames, Hazel stepped out from the beam, her entire body shining black, heat waves radiating from her skin, her eyes glowing white hot. The whip was in her right hand. She glanced around and her eyes locked on the Lead.
"You wanted to play me like a puppet." Hazel's voice was dark and dangerous. "You've only ended up playing yourself."
"Stay back." The Lead ordered.
The command washed over Hazel's mind and dissipated. "Tron's user gave me a little gift. Your power won't work on me anymore."
"Then how about this?" The Lead threw her disk with a shout. Hazel cracked her whip in the air, deflecting the disk. It angled away like a stray rocket into the spinning column of the core and was derezzed.
"Your previous command still stands, though," Hazel shouted at the Lead. She slashed the whip out and it wrapped around the Lead's neck. She yanked her forward so they were face-to-face. "Let's get you out of here." She pulled the struggling program toward the beam.
Tron and the others were held back by the gale-force wind whipping through the chamber.
"Hazel!" Retri screamed. "What are you doing?"
Hazel ignored them as she dragged the Lead into the beam. The Lead held tightly to the whip that wound around her neck, defiance in her eyes. They could neither see nor hear anything but the sight and pounding spinning sound of the flaring, golden column that was now all around them.
"Just kill me, user!" the Lead hissed.
"No," Hazel shook her head. "I'm going to give you everything you ever wanted."
The Lead looked at her with uncertainty. Hazel put her left hand on the Lead's shoulder.
"You want to be human," Hazel said, the whip beginning to crackle with red energy, "then be human."
The Lead gasped as something was drained from her through the whip. Part of her life force was being pulled away. She screamed.
Hazel staggered at the effort. She refused to take anything from the Lead into herself, forcing the End Code to remain the whip. The Lead was trying to pull away from her, but Hazel hung onto her shoulder, continuing to pour her will into the whip like a wall to protect herself. The last vestiges of the End Code, trapped in her weapon, fed hungrily one final time. On the Lead. On itself. And then the End Code was gone.
Hazel looked up at the wild, flaring column of energy that was all around them, soaring high above them. Pressing her consciousness out into it, she felt the Lead shatter under her grip into a million bits of data. A lancing pain ripped through Hazel's left side as she sent the Lead's essence up into the beam, and out to the real world.
As she released the Lead, the power of the Central Core slammed down on Hazel, forcing her to the ground, her consciousness lost in the overwhelming chaos of light and energy.
Tron, Wulf, Tracer and Retri were all thrown back by sudden twin blasts of wind and energy from the flaring column. It spun out of control, yellow flares of power searing the walls, leaving black slashes in their wake. And then…it was spent. The wind died. The column of light narrowed slightly and the flares vanished back into it. The floor glowed with energy, the highest concentration near the center, sending a beam of shining golden light into the sky.
They stood stunned for a moment. The Central Core was gone, but the floor still radiated with its power, reaching out to the city below and beaming up into the sky above.
"No," Tracer's voice was anguished as he and Tron ran to the beam.
"They're gone." Tron shook his head, sadness filling his heart.
Tracer stared mutely at the base of the beam, its shining emptiness. Wulf approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. "She saved us."
Retri surveyed the beam with awe. "She really did." She paused for a moment, then added, "You were right, Tron. To trust her. The MCP."
Tron gazed up at the sky, the golden beam stretching to infinity. "I trusted Hazel." In his memory she would forever be the face of the MCP. Completely changed. He ran a hand over his own redesign, the circuitry that stretched diagonally across his chest, the composition harmonic with his original glowing pattern. "Nothing is impossible," he mused. He turned his attention back to his friends and his forever-changed world.
