"Come on." Lisa whispered in a shaky voice.  "Enzo!"

"We can't just leave him!  He…"  It was too late, though.  Calisto wasn't stupid enough to shake Zip's hand, but he was too much of a coward to do anything else.  He just stood there and trembled and let Zip reach out and put his hand on his forehead.  He gave a short little scream and went to his knees, and the golden child dropped from his arms and rolled to our feet. Then he was silent.  And after a nano he stood, and all three of them turned to look at Lisa and me.

"Crash!  Let's go."  Lisa was still shaky on her feet, so I wrapped one arm around her waist and held her against me and half-dragged her down a green-lined passageway, as fast as my legs would carry me, cradling the gold child in my other arm.

"Wait!  Enzo, I'm so very sorry if I've hurt you!  Come back!" Zip's voice called after me.  I heard footsteps behind us.

"We've got to hurry!" I hissed.  "Can you stand on your own?"

"I think so." Lisa rasped. 

I released her waist and grabbed her hand and broke into a run, still needing to pull her along as best I could.  We came to a three-way intersection and after a nano's hesitation, I dragged her down the left-hand passageway.  I sent my mind out and tried to shift the walls, but I couldn't do it while I was running – it was too deleted hard, I had to concentrate to see the patterns.  "Wait!" I panted.  I closed my eyes and tried to block out everything as best I could, and after what felt like an hour I managed to close of the passage behind us.  "Crash…  That won't hold them for long…"

"Oh, Enzo..."  Lisa sobbed deeply and buried her face against my shoulder, crying uncontrollably now.

"It'll be all right." I whispered, my insides wracked with fear and indecision guilt and a million other emotions that I couldn't control.  I gently tugged Lisa's ripped tunic up over her shoulder as best I could and hugged her.  "I'm sorry, Lisa.  I'm so sorry."  I could sense the others close, getting closer, but she needed a few nanos and that's all there was to it.  After what had happened – and almost happened – I couldn't blame her.  So we knelt and I let her cry for a bit and just held her and felt helpless to do anything else.

"Enzo, when he…  When he was lying on top of me I could…  I could feel his…"

I bit down hard on a sudden urge to retch.  "He'll… He'll never touch you again.  It's OK, I promise.  I'd never let him hurt you."

"Enzo, he-"

"Don't talk, OK?  Just rest for a nano."  I kept holding her and she sobbed a few more times, more and more softly.  "Are you OK?" I whispered, knowing as soon as I did that it was a stupid question.  Of course she wasn't OK – but the others were on the far side of the wall of green now, I could hear them as well as sense them.  "We have to move – I'm sorry.  They'll catch us."

"I know."  She squeezed me hard and pushed herself to her feet.  "Let's go."

I tried to smile.  "We'll be all right – I promise."  I stood and grabbed her hand and we took off at a run.  I heard a crash behind me and turned my head to see the User teetering on his feet behind us.  I was confused for a nano and then I realized – he'd jumped the wall.  Of course that should have been impossible, but I couldn't tell that to him.  "Crash!  They're splitting up."  I slid to a halt and shifted the patterns in my head, blocking him off from us for the moment.

"What do we do?" Lisa panted.

"Keep running for the nano!  He can jump a wall but if he doesn't know which one to jump, we'll be all right."  We ran again for a few millis, and then I stopped and shifted the passageways around behind us.  I couldn't find the User right away but I didn't sense him close by, so I slid down to my bitmap and leaned against the wall of the passage, panting.

Lisa slid down next to me, holding her tunic in place with one hand.  For some reason the sight made me so sad that I almost started crying on the spot.  "Are…  Are they close?"

"Dunno."  I took long, deep breaths, trying to fill my lungs up as fast as I could.  "Better whisper…  Just in case."

"Enzo…"  Lisa put her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes.  "You led the User to us, didn't you?"

I didn't say anything right away.  I closed my eyes too, and tried to imagine we were sitting under a tree in the woods behind the girls' dorm.  "I'd never let them do…  Do that to you.  Never."

"I knew you'd save me."

"Lisa!  I…"  I did start crying now, a little, and kissed her hair.  Sim or not, dark or golden, her hair would always be beautiful.  "I haven't saved you from anything.  We're in bad trouble."

"I know." She whispered.  "What now?"

I was trying to think of all the possibilities, all the options – but I couldn't find any that I liked very much.  I remembered something Matrix had told me about the infected Guardians he'd met while he was lost in the net.  "I think they can communicate with each other – y'know, without talking.  Somehow Daemon lets them do it.  So they'll split and try and track us, hunt us until they have us cornered.  Then…"

"I didn't really believe it was possible.  I didn't think the stories were true – how can she infect a game?"

"I dunno." I sighed.  "But I've seen it before."  I pictured the labyrinth in my head again and changed the passages immediately surrounding us.  I could feel the others out there, close but not so close that I could tell exactly where they were.  "I didn't think there was such a thing as the no-win scenario, but I guess there is…"

"What?"

I sighed.  "We have to lose the game."

"What?  Lose the game?  But-"

"Listen."  I took her sweet face in my hands and stared into her eyes.  "The User won't try and win the game, now – he wants to lose.  If we win – even if we manage to stay uninfected, we'll bring two infected cadets back to the Academy with us.  We already have everything we need for the User to win except the minotaur's horn – if we can get that, somehow, we can bring them to the center of the labyrinth and the User will win.  We'll be trapped in here, but at least the Academy will be safe." 

"What about us?"

"We'll survive.  Matrix did."  I tried to smile.  Being lost in the games wasn't first on my list of goals, but at least we'd be together.  "We'll go into game-sprite mode and leave with the game.  Zip and Calisto will probably be nullified – they won't be expecting us to lose.  So we can ditch this infected game in the next system and…  And try and find our way home, somehow.  Bob and Dot will find out, they'll look for us."

"Game-sprite mode?  But what about…"

"What?"

"Never mind." She lifted her head and smiled bleakly.  "You're right.  We have to try and lose the game."

"What is it?  You have GS mode, right?  Bob said all the cadets' icons were upgraded when they downloaded the protocols…"

"Of course I do.  We'll be fine – we'll be together."

I stared at her, trying to puzzle out what was nagging at my processor.  "Your father!"

"Enzo-"

"It's your father, isn't it?  Your icon is half codemaster – GS mode might not work!"

"It doesn't matter.  You were right – we-"

"No!" I hissed.  Oh User, how could I be so stupid?  "You could be nullified if we lose the game!"

"Or I might not."

"It doesn't matter!"  I wiped tears from my eyes and kissed her forehead.  It didn't matter if Lisa never spoke to me again after this was over – there was no way I was risking her code by losing this game.  I didn't have the right.  "We'll just have to win the game, that's all.  And deal with the consequences."

"But Enzo-"

"No!  No, no, no."  I squeezed her to me as tight as I could.  "I'll never let anything happen to you. I can't.  We'll survive somehow."  There was a sharp pain, like a burst of fire in my processor.

"Enzo!  What is it?"

"They're close!  Come on."  I stumbled to my feet and we took off down the passageway, only to see Calisto's form appear straight ahead of us, grinning.   We spun and Lisa started to run back the way we'd come from, but I grabbed her hand.  "No!  The User's there, I sense him…"

"What do we do?"

In a nano of panic I did the only thing I could think of and opened a gap in the wall next to us.  I yanked Lisa through and hurriedly closed it behind us.  Unfortunately I hadn't had time to think about where it would take us, and it led us into a dead-end passageway.  "Crash!"

"Fly!" Lisa hissed.

"What?"

"You can fly, can't you?  Those wings?"

Typical – I'd totally forgotten about that.  "I…  I guess so.  But they won't support both of us – too much weight!  I'm not even sure I could figure out how to do it with just mine!"

"Try!"  She grabbed my hands.  "One of us has to stay uninfected until the game is over, to warn the others!  If you can fly, you can-"

"No!  I can't!"

"Enzo, think!  You have to!"

"No!"  I could see that, logically, she was right – it made sense for me to try and preserve myself any way I could.  But I couldn't – maybe at heart I was just a basic little kid, but if that's what I was I couldn't be anything else.  Not yet, anyways.  I loved Lisa and I'd never leave her, not ever.  Maybe logic didn't have to be right all the time.

"Enzo, please – just go.  I'll be-"

"No."  I kissed her on the mouth, and I'm being totally honest when I say I did it because I couldn't think of any other way to shut her up, and I knew we didn't have time to argue about this any more.  She just stared at me, eyes wide.  "I love you.  I'll always love you and I'll never leave you, never.  Let me concentrate for a nano, OK?  Please?"

"OK." She sighed.  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, and the others were so close they were like a bad headache.  I managed to form a picture of the maze in my head and figured out where we were.  I knew Calisto was on the other side of the wall I'd just pulled us through, and I knew the User was somewhere behind us.  I didn't know exactly where Zip was, but the only direction we could go was straight ahead.

I heard a loud crash, which I knew was the sound of the User landing after another of his impossible jumps.  It sounded frighteningly close, too.  I opened a gap in the wall in front of us and pulled Lisa through, knowing this was another dead-end, leading us back to where Calisto was.  But I saw that if I cut through the next wall we'd be in a long passageway that led to a three-way junction, and that could buy us some time.  I opened the way and we went through again, and I stopped long enough to seal it behind us.  Then we took off at a run towards the junction.

What I was learning was that moving the maze around with my mind was tiring – exhausting, even.  Combined with all the running we were doing I wasn't sure I could keep it up much longer.  By the time we got to the intersection of the three passages the maze was a blur in my mind and my legs felt like wet noodles.  "Which way?" Lisa whispered.

I groaned, even the effort to concentrate long enough to pick a direction painful.  I pointed towards the left-hand option, which took us generally towards the center of the maze, and stumbled and almost fell.  Lisa half-carried me a few steps down the corridor until I squeezed her arm.  "Rest." I panted.

"OK."  She helped me sit down – I think I would have just fallen over otherwise – and I leaned over against her, eyes closed.  "Are you all right?"

"Tired.  It's…hard.  Moving…the maze."  I think I was more exhausted than I'd ever been in my life.  My brain was trying to wander and think about what would happen even if we somehow survived the game intact – there's be infected cadets running around the Academy and even if we got through that, somehow, I was facing the prospect of Lisa never wanting to be with me again and that was enough to make me cry just by itself.  But I forced it back onto the nano at hand – I had to get Lisa out of this, somehow.  It was my fault we were in this mess anyway.

"Enzo.  Poor Enzo.  You're such a stubborn thing, if you'd just listen to me and fly away from here-"

"No.  Never.  I won't leave you."

"I know." She sighed.  She kissed me on the forehead and I have to say, for someone that I knew would never forgive me she was being really nice.  But we had to stick together to survive, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  "Just rest.  We're safe for a while."

"Not for long." I panted, still out of breath. 

"How long do you think we'd have to do this – to win the game?  How long do we have to hold out?"

"I don't know."  I opened my eyes and squinted at the moon, which still looked disgustingly high overhead.  It was probably way less than halfway to the horizon from its starting point, when we'd entered the game.  "Too long."

"We'll manage.  I know you'll keep me safe."  Lisa smiled and squeezed me.  "Like always."

"Yeah.  Like always."  The words definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth.  "If that output Calisto had run away when I told him too, maybe we could have gotten him to touch the User and win the deleted game for us and we wouldn't have to run all night!"  I looked up at the sky again.  "I don't know if I can do it, Lisa – there's three of them, and they're talking to each other, tracking us.  They're getting closer and I'm so tired.  This is bad – very bad."

"I know.  Just do your best.  We'll just have to try – I'll help you as much as I can."

"I know."  I forced a smile and groaned as I pushed myself upright.  "We better get moving.  I can feel them getting closer."

"What does it feel like – seeing them inside your head?"

"Like a dull headache.  Except when they're really close, and it's like a sharp pain.  They're like bright spots and when they're close it's like looking at something that hurts your eyes."

"Poor Enzo.  I hope it doesn't hurt too much."

"No – not too much."  I still had to kind of half-lean against her as we walked, and I think she knew I wasn't in great shape.  She wrapped her arm around my waist and locked my fingers in hers, and it made me feel a little better.  "Thanks."

"How do I feel in your head?"

"Perfect."  I smiled at her.  "I'll miss you being there when the game's over."

"Have I told you that you look cute with a beard?"

"Stop!"  I couldn't help but giggle, it was such a silly thing to say and a silly time to say it.

"Enzo, what would happen if we were to leave the labyrinth?  You know – just find the exit and go?"

I thought for a nano.  "I…I dunno.  Nothing, I guess.  I don't think we can leave – I don't think this world exists outside the maze."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed.

"Besides – even if we could, wouldn't it make us that much easier to find, out in the open?  At least in here we have places to hide."  I sighed and turned to her.  "Um – you couldn't do any… codemaster stuff – could you?"

She smiled a little.  "What sort of stuff did you have in mind, Enzo?  I'm not a magician.  I'm not even a full codemaster."

"Sorry!  I know.  I shouldn't have asked you…"

"It's all right."  She squeezed my hand.  "Nothing I could do would be much help – and I couldn't do anything inside a game cube, anyway.  It wouldn't work."

"Oh."  I could have kicked myself for even bringing it up.  "Sorry."

"If I could save you, Enzo, I'd do it in a nano.  But we're going to have to find another way."

"We will.  I promise."  The passage we were in took a ninety-degree turn to the left.  "Hold on a nano."  I took a deep breath, trying to muster up the energy to see the maze in my head again.  My ability to sense the others was getting weaker – I couldn't pinpoint where they were anymore, just a very vague sense of a direction that might have been wrong anyway, for all I knew.  I concentrated on creating an opening in the wall in front of us.

"Enzo!"

I opened my eyes and, much to my surprise, I was sitting down.  I felt Lisa's cool hands on my cheeks.  "What…"

"You left me for a nano." She whispered shakily.  "Are you OK?"

"I…  I must've fainted or something…"  There was an opening in the wall, anyway.  "C'mon, let's-  Oh, Crash…"

"Enzo!" She caught me as I fell again trying to stand.

"I'm all right."

"No you're not!"  She cradled me against her.  "Just stop this, OK?  Don't delete yourself.  I need you."

"But-"

"Just stop.  Is this really doing any good, anyway?  They know you can change the walls around – it's not like they're just going to go wherever you want them to."

"Crash."  Even keeping my eyes open was too much effort.  I let my body relax and felt the soft warmth of Lisa's against me.  "But they…have to – Zip and Calisto anyways.  They can't…jump the walls, I don't think."

"The User can.  And it's just luck, staying away from the others.  They'll keep walking until we stumble into them, no matter how many times you move the walls around."  I felt her slowly stroking my hair and heard her sigh.  "I wish this was all over and you could sleep, Enzo.  You're so tired."

"I'm fine." I mumbled.  "I just need to rest a nano."

"Take as long as you need, Cutie.  Save your strength in case they corner us.  We'll go as soon as you're ready, OK?"  She kept smoothing my hair and I felt her start to rock me a little bit.  I don't think she even knew she was doing it.

"Stop, OK?"

"Huh?"

I opened my eyes and she was frowning at me.  "If you don't stop that I think I'm gonna go to sleep in a nano." I smiled weakly.  "It feels too good."

"Oh.  Sorry!"

"If I could just stay right here, I'd be happy forever."  I meant it, too.

"Oh, Enzo…"

"I love you."  I raised myself up and kissed her cheek.  "Let's go, OK?  I promise we'll get out of this.  We'll be OK."

"I know, Sweetie."  We hugged and sort of repelled against each other to our feet.  "Are you sure you can walk?"

"Nope."  My legs felt like printer cables, but they held.  "Yep.  Let's get going."  We inched forwards through the gap I'd made in the wall and I looked back, debating whether I could find the strength to close it behind us.  "Interface it.  Let them try and decide which way we went…"

"Now what?"  Lisa was starting to sound almost as tired as I was.

"They're close again.  Crash it, I can feel them!  What if we go to the center – the heart of the labyrinth?  Zip couldn't follow us there – we've got all the other items and his horns are still attached to his head.  They'd lose if he did – I'm sure they know it."

"Maybe." Lisa smiled sadly.  "But you said they can communicate with each other.  Wouldn't they just send Calisto or the User in to infect us?"

"Cursors.  I don't know what to do, Lisa.  I just don't know.  I'm too weak to keep this up much longer and they're getting closer.  I don't know what to do!"

"Shhh.  We'll figure something out, it's OK."

"Crash."  I knew the end was coming closer – I could feel the noose tightening around me and there was nothing I could do about it.  The worst thing was that I couldn't save Lisa – that's what I really hated.  It was my fault she was in danger and I couldn't even save the girl I loved with all my heart.  What would Matrix think of me now?

"I hear something." Lisa whispered.  We stopped and listened, and after a nano I heard it too – footsteps on the other side of the wall of the passageway.  One of them was right there – listening for us, no doubt.  If it was the User, we were as good as infected.

I put my finger to my lips and closed my eyes, trying to at least determine who was there.  My head throbbed and I could barely stand, but a picture formed in my head, fuzzy as it was.  There was something recognizable about the energy, something familiar.  I opened my eyes and silently mouthed "Zip."

"What now?" Lisa wordlessly replied.  If I was right about it being Zip over there, I didn't think there was any way for him to get at us yet – there didn't seem to be any access to the passage we were in from the one he was in, not close-by anyway.  I was too tired to get a clear picture.  If I was wrong and it was the User we were toast anyway.  I pointed that we should keep going the way we were going, and we tiptoed on as silently as we could.

We stopped every few steps, listening for footsteps, but we didn't hear anything.  If Zip had heard us he's have told the others where we were, that was a sure bet.  Our corridor came to a T-junction and I pointed to the right, away from where we'd heard Zip.  Lisa nodded and we turned, holding onto each other for support as we walked.

We'd taken maybe fifteen or twenty steps when Calisto's form stepped into the corridor, well in front of us.  Lisa gasped and squeezed her arms tightly around me.  He didn't see us right away and we spun, took a couple of steps in the other direction but before we got to the T-junction Zip appeared, just on the far side of it.  If we'd turned left instead of right we'd already be infected, but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference now.

Lisa and I were holding each other tightly and I quickly measured the distance in my processor, my heart pounding.  There was no way we'd make it to the junction in time – Zip was closer than we were.  I dragged her a couple steps in the other direction but Calisto had spotted us and he was coming closer.  We were trapped.  I heard a soft, "Oh, no!" escape my lips.

"Oh, Enzo." Lisa whispered.  "Enzo…"

"I'm sorry."  I blinked tears out of eyes and turned back to Zip, who'd be the first one to reach us.  There was no way I could open a passage now, not in the state I was in – and I didn't have time anyway.  All I could think was how I'd let the girl I loved down when she needed me.  "I'm sorry, Lisa."