CHAPTER NINE
MAD SEASON
Author's Note: Yes, the title of this chapter is from the Matchbox 20 song. Listen to "Mad Season," because it helps describe the chapter, especially from Matrix's point of view.
"NO!"
Mouse gripped the arms of her chair so hard that her fingernails dug into the leather. Her head was flung back as tears streamed down her cheeks and she screamed. There was no meaning to her scream, just a long wail of anger and fright, much resembling a wild animal's ferocity when a loved one is killed.
She doubled over, taking deep gulps of air. Though she still clutched the sides of her chair, she could feel her body tremble.
She freed one hand and wiped the tears away from her face as well as to tuck some hair behind one ear. "How is he?" she asked in a hoarse voice.
On the other side of the comm. channel, Dot was momentarily silent. She had never seen Mouse break down in emotion, but the act she had just witnessed made her core-com ache fiercely for her friend.
"He's in surgery right now," Dot answered softly. She glanced at the clock; it read 0300. "He's going to be in for eight more micros. I'll call back soon."
Mouse wiped her eyes again. "Ah just wish Ah could be there —" she started.
Dot wished she could smile, but it felt like her face muscles had frozen. She swallowed hard and said, "Avi — Countess Avina — says that her doctors are the best for the next five systems. They'll keep Bob alive." What an awful thing, to think ahead to the sad but entirely possible situation that Bob might not survive.
"Take care, Dot," Mouse said. She pressed her hand against the screen.
Dot did the same. "Thank you, Mouse," she whispered.
She waited for the hacker's face to disappear from the screen before Dot curled up in her chair and wept loudly, safe in the confines of an office where no one could reach her.
As the connection broke, Mouse leaned back in her chair and finished crying softly. She had just escaped from Chidis less than a microsecond ago. . . .
Grimly gripping Ship's controls, Mouse took a last, quick glance at the primitive system before launching Ship into the air. She didn't expect to make it past the Guardian transports already popping into the system, but the User's good grace was with her, as she would soon find. She circled around Chidis, thankful that Ship blended in easily with the midnight sky, and found the perfect spot to pause and inspect the Guardians. They were landing around the hotel where she and Ethan had been staying. . . . Mouse clamped her lips tightly together and shook her hair out of her face, as if to defiantly tell Daemon that she had remained uninfected, and Ethan was the one who had saved her.
The Guardians couldn't see her. To be safe — I haven't been so worried about safety for a long time, Mouse realized. Then again, I haven't had bloodthirsty Guardians on my track for awhile, either. — Mouse checked again; the Guardians were leaving their ships to go inside the shabby hotel. None of them looked toward the black, rippling data sea.
Mouse sent all her power to the engines and gripped the throttle. Ship blasted off at a record speed for the edge of Chidis. The thin line of the atmosphere that separated the system from the chill of the Web was visible up ahead. Mouse increased her speed, not daring to look back; she kept her eyes ahead, focusing her gaze on Chidis' system limits. Ship broke through the protective portal around Chidis and sped through the Web. Mouse hadn't seen any Guardian transports since then.
Now there was another disaster. Their lives were slowly breaking down; why not add such a chilling event to the mix?
What was Mouse supposed to do now? She was torn between what she wanted more than anything to do and what she knew was right and would keep her and her loved ones processing. Not only was Ray in immediate danger — now Bob could delete and she wouldn't be there. The thought made her stomach clench, but she knew there was no way she could make it back to Azrael. She had to save Ray.
"Ah don't understand," she whispered to the air. "Who would be so low as to do this?"
Matrix ducked back down as another squad of Azrael's CPUs streaked by. He waited until he was sure they had left before he cautiously stepped out from behind his temporary hiding place, the back of a restaurant that had been shot up by the Guardians.
He had no idea how long it had been since the ambush. From the slowly growing amount of guards coming from the Principle Office and the few subtle streaks of color that had begun to appear in the navy blue sky, he could guess that it had been a few microseconds.
He didn't know what he would do when more searches would occur. The CPUs were combing the sectors for any survivors or injured sprites. Matrix wasn't too tired, and he knew he could escape the CPUs if they came for him; he was still running on the adrenaline from the attack.
What is wrong with you? he raged at himself for the thousandth time. He'd used every word he could think of to criticize himself: stupid, reckless, random, careless —
How could I do that? I didn't even think he was there!
That's right — you never think. You're hopeless. The Games took all of Enzo out of you. Everyone's better off with the copy anyway.
He had wanted to talk to Bob about Enzo, back when they were working through war preparations in Mainframe. But he had lost the chance, and now it looked like he would never be able to confess his anxieties over the drastic differences between him and his carbon copy. Bob could be deleted right now, because of the bullet from his Gun. The thought made Matrix sick. He had shot at his hero! He was low. Low and degraded.
Something burned at his eyes, making his head ache. Matrix felt his cheek and realized that a tear had slipped from his eye. His whole head hurt, from the stinging in his eyes to a dull ache in his temples. He clenched his fist, but it still shook in anger.
A growl built in his throat. Without warning, he punched the brick wall beside him and was rewarded with the sound of a loud crack. Matrix swore and pulled his hand back, immediately regretting his action to let his anger out. His bruised hand throbbed in pain, but it wasn't broken.
A CPU was hovering over another shop nearby. Hearing the noise, it turned a searchlight toward the renegade, but Matrix ducked out of the way. He waited breathlessly until the binome decided that there was nothing there and turned the light another way.
Matrix sighed in relief and mentally rebuked himself. He had almost gotten caught. He would have to be much more quiet.
He glanced up at the lightening sky and decided that he would have only a few micros left of dark cover until he had to find somewhere to stay.
Matrix silently sneaked around the edge of the restaurant with practiced ease. His gaze darted around until he was sure the coast was clear, then he sprinted to an alleyway between two buildings.
As he let his eyes adjust to the darkness, he scanned ahead of him with his cybernetic eye for any unwanted visitors. The motion made him think of his treacherous act, and he felt a wave of nausea. His lip trembled, but Matrix took a deep breath through his nose, drove the thoughts out of his mind, and decided that he would meet whoever might come to him.
As he cautiously stepped forward, he felt someone's eyes on him. Matrix spun around with a soft cry, ready to attack, but it turned to one of surprise when he saw the thin form of Kode.
"What are you doing here?" Matrix growled.
Kode swaggered toward the larger sprite, his eyes bright and a cocky grin on his face. "When I heard about the attack, I had to come to see how it all turned out — especially your part in all this."
Matrix's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?" If everyone knew, he was as good as deleted.
"I heard it all," Kode replied. "About poor AndrAIa, too." Matrix opened his mouth to demand what Kode meant, but he never got the chance.
"I figured Andi would need some emotional support," Kode continued.
Matrix's cybernetic eye glowed red in outrage. "Don't you lay a finger on her," he hissed.
"And how would you stop me?" Kode smirked. "I bet they'd all arrest the random sprite — the murderer — before actually listening to you."
Matrix yanked Gun out of its holster and shot at him. Kode jerked to the side, then tugged the weapon out of his grip and held it with an eerie calm. Matrix backed away, his core-com hammering. The look in Kode's eyes gave him a feeling worse than the jaggies.
Kode grinned and said, "Couldn't delete me when you had the chance; can't delete me now, either. You always fail — Boy."
Matrix flinched at the word, then frowned in puzzlement. He leapt forward and wrenched Gun from the other sprite's grip.
Kode drew his fist back and punched Matrix in the face. Surprisingly, the punch knocked the large sprite to the ground.
Kode gave him another leer and left, humming a low tune to himself. Matrix watched his retreating figure, fury making his face grow hot. He groaned, but he couldn't get up. He may have still had adrenaline in his veins, but his processor was tiring with all this information. How had Kode gotten here? What had happened to AndrAIa? Without a second thought, Matrix would delete anyone who touched his lover.
Enzo Matrix shuddered. Deletion. He'd experienced it more times than he would ever have liked to remember in the Games. Those had been tough hours, when he had won and lost meaningless Games as a way to survive. He had killed viruses who terrorized systems, but he had also caused the deaths of innocent sprites and binomes.
It's not my fault, he wanted to shout. It wasn't my fault those times happened. It's all in the past; it can't hurt me now.
But it looked like some of the horrors from his past — namely, one very irritating orange sprite — had returned to bite him in the ASCII.
It was a few nanos later before he was able to push himself up. Matrix leaned heavily against a wall, breathing hard. His aching hand tightened around Gun as he closed his eyes and tried to force the horrible reality of the situation from his mind.
Enzo had never in his life seen so much suffering. He didn't remember anything from the war against Megabyte — that was all in Matrix's memories, not his — but the first ten milliseconds he spent in Azrael were enough for him. The sight of deleted bodies on the streets and the devastation and sometimes obliteration of the buildings around him sent shivers up the young sprite's spine. Nevertheless, he was set on finding Bob and the others, and that dedication outweighed his fright at the system's destruction — but just barely.
Enzo was able to sneak past the squads of CPUs milling around the Principle Office without being noticed. He ducked between ambulances as injured sprites and binomes were loaded into them and sent to the hospital. The little sprite checked around for the blue-and-silver form of Bob, but his hero was nowhere to be seen. He began to grow nervous.
I bet Bob's at the hospital, helping the injured sprites, he thought. Satisfied, he approached the nearest medic and asked, "Where's the hospital?"
The binome gazed thoughtfully at the little boy. "Funny, I haven't seen you around recently," he said. But he had work to do, so he pushed aside the comment. He pointed to the north. "The hospital is there."
Enzo grinned. "Alphanumeric! Thanks." Without a word, he zipped over the way the medic had pointed.
He wove between the full ambulances parked outside the hospital and entered through the huge doors. Enzo checked around him for any sign of Bob, Dot, or the others, but he saw no one he recognized.
Finally, he went up to the front desk. The secretary, a kindly looking female binome, smiled down at him over her glasses. "Hello, little boy," she said. "Who are you looking for?"
Enzo swallowed, trying to contain his nervousness. "Yes. I mean, I'm looking for Guardian Bob. Is he here, maybe helping some sprites?"
The secretary consulted her organizer while Enzo waited anxiously. Finally she looked back up and said, "Guardian Bob is listed on the second floor."
"Thanks," Enzo said. ". . . Hey, what's on the second floor anyway?"
The secretary looked again at the organizer then back at Enzo, and her expression changed to one of shock. "Oh, dear! That's where the operating rooms are. It says here that Bob is in surgery right now."
Enzo's core-com skipped several beats. "What?" he whispered. "Wait, wait," he said loudly, "is he okay? What happened?"
"Specific injuries aren't listed," the secretary said as she glanced back at her organizer. "But I believe he was . . . Oh, dear, he was the sprite who was shot in the Principle Office during the ambush."
Enzo turned and ran to the elevator. He slapped the "up" button repeatedly, but it moved too slowly. He ran to the stairs and took them in leaps, two at a time. He was breathing hard by the time he reached the second floor, but it meant nothing to him. His brain was still trying to register what he had been told.
It's not true! Bob's the greatest Guardian there is. He couldn't get shot. He couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't! It didn't process.
Enzo flung himself around the corner, his breath coming raggedly. Right in front of him were the large doors of the OR. Through the window he could make out the green-clad doctors and a head of spiky silver hair.
"No!" he screamed, but he was cut short by a gasp from his sobs. Enzo could barely breathe, he was crying so hard. Every head turned to look at him, but he didn't notice. He rushed to the nearest nurse and demanded, "Let me in! Let me in to see Bob!"
The nurse put her hands on the hysterical youth's shoulders and tried to calm him down. "Little boy —"
"Let me see him!" Enzo yelled.
The nurse looked to the OR and turned a sympathetic eye on Enzo. "Oh! I'm so sorry, dear. But you can't get in right now. You can visit him when the surgery is over, at 1100."
"No, no, I want to see him now!" Enzo wailed, flailing to get past her. He finally slumped to the ground, his energy drained from crying. "Bob," he sobbed quietly, then he screamed again, "BOB!"
Dot had spent the last half a micro with AndrAIa, trying to make the game sprite remember her life. She had talked with one of Azrael's staff of talented doctors, who had been able to scan AndrAIa's head and make a verdict.
The time it took a victim to recall past memories varied, unfortunately. AndrAIa had hit her head hard in the ambush, the doctor had told Dot, and it was likely to take her a while to remember her home and the sprites she loved. The doctor hadn't had the time to make very detailed tests, but he had determined a few small yet helpful facts. While AndrAIa could remember nothing of her time in the Games with Matrix, or the battle for Mainframe, she confessed to recalling bits and pieces, the most prominent being memories from her time in the Games, before she met Little Enzo.
The doctor told Dot this in hushed whispers, and she glanced twice at the young Game sprite. AndrAIa wasn't even listening, however; she twisted her hands in her lap and stared outside at the Principle Office, as the last of the fires were extinguished by Azrael's hard-working firefighters. She had no idea that she had nearly been deleted in the largest of those fires; there was no reason she needed to know.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but they're bringing in some more victims from the ambush. They've all been injured close to deletion, and I must be seeing them now." The doctor tried to keep his words polite, and Dot knew that there were others who had suffered many more injuries than AndrAIa. She nodded in reluctant agreement, and the kindly doctor apologized and hurried toward the next floor. After the doctor left, Dot informed AndrAIa that she was going to take a short walk and would be back in fifteen micros. AndrAIa nodded and smiled with the long-lost innocence she had had as a child but had lost in the Games.
Dot sighed unhappily at the thought of that conversation and forced it out of her mind for the nano. There was too much to think about already, the worst being a sad, scared thought: Will Bob survive the night?
She walked past patients who sat with their families, and she felt a twinge of pain for Bob. She couldn't wait until the surgery was over and she could be by his side again.
She needed to go by the OR again, if only to ensure herself that Bob was in safe hands. As Dot rounded the corner on the second floor, she heard strangled shouts coming from the front of the operating room. She quickened into a run.
"BOB!" she heard someone scream, followed by soft, choked whimpers. Dot rushed over to where a nurse stood with a small green-skinned figure. She stopped in her tracks, as her breath caught in her throat. "Enzo?" she asked quietly. "Enzo!"
"Dot!" he shouted, flinging himself into her arms and bawling into her side. Dot was here, she would make things all right, he thought at first with his usual faith. Then a darker thought overshadowed his first: Dot can't save Bob. Only the doctors can. He sobbed harder, wishing that he could feel safe but instead feeling completely alienated.
"Oh, Enzo," she whispered, stroking his hair. "I'm so sorry."
He pulled back to look at her. His eyes were red and wild from crying, and dirty tearstains ran down his cheeks. "How could this happen to Bob? He can't be shot, he can't!"
"I know, Enzo," Dot whispered, her voice shaking. "It's horrible. But Bob's going to be okay, he will —"
"Why aren't you crying?" Enzo demanded.
"I am!" Dot replied, her voice cracking. Against her will, her resolve broke and tears ran down her face. She squeezed Enzo close as he wrapped his arms around her waist, and together the Matrix siblings cried outside the operating room.
Dot finally pulled away and knelt before her brother. With shock, she noticed that when she did so, he wasn't as small as he used to be. Enzo had grown a little bit, and when she knelt, he was eye-level with her.
"There's no use in standing out here for eight micros," Dot said. "Bob wouldn't want us to be sobbing over him for that long, anyway. I think AndrAIa could use a visitor."
Enzo nodded, and they started to walk off. The nurse caught Enzo's arm and murmured a word of comfort to him. He smiled shakily and let Dot lead him off.
They took the elevator to the third floor. As they walked down the hall toward Room 108, Enzo asked, "How is AndrAIa? Was she hurt?"
"Sort of," Dot answered. "You see, Enzo, she hit her head, and she has amnesia. Meaning, she doesn't really remember anything but bits and pieces. So she might not know you when you walk in."
Enzo nodded, but he looked frightened out of his young wits.
"It would be really good for her if she had someone she could connect to her past," Dot encouraged.
"Okay," Enzo said haltingly. "Anything to help AndrAIa."
Dot knocked on the door, and again she heard, "Come in." She came into the room; after a moment's hesitation, Enzo followed.
AndrAIa sat in a chair beside the bed, reading a data file. She looked up and smiled at Dot. "Hi Dot."
"Hey, AndrAIa," she said with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"My head still hurts," AndrAIa answered, frowning slightly. Her eyes lost their focus for a moment.
Dot leaned forward eagerly. "Do you remember something?" she asked.
AndrAIa shook her head, and her gaze returned to Dot. "Nope," she sighed. She looked past Dot and saw Enzo, and her expression immediately brightened. "You're that boy," she said with a dreamy smile. "You're the boy that I met in my Game."
Enzo swallowed hard and glanced nervously at Dot, then at AndrAIa. He stepped forward cautiously and said in a soft voice, "Uh, yeah. My name's Enzo."
"I'm AndrAIa," she said cheerfully. Enzo shuddered despite himself, then hoped AndrAIa didn't notice. But she was already staring over his head at something rooted in the deep corners of her processor.
It was sick. Absolutely horrifying, that the normally clear-headed Game sprite was lost in the depths of her own foggy memories. She couldn't even remember his name, for User's sake! He was supposed to be her true love — okay, so Matrix was AndrAIa's true love, but his name was Enzo too! Enzo shivered again but took her hand in his, and AndrAIa smiled down at him, her eyes still taken with a blank look. She didn't understand what was going on, but as long as there was someone to take care of her — like the nice woman Dot, or the adorable little boy Enzo — she would be all right.
Finally, 1100 came. Dot waited silently outside the operating room. Enzo was sitting in a chair next to her, swinging his legs aimlessly and reading a data file.
Dot had discussed with Avina and the head of security how they would help the citizens of Azrael recover from the ambush; she left Enzo with AndrAIa, in Room 108. Dot had returned to the hospital to take AndrAIa back to the apartment she had lived in before the ambush. Since Dot had found no way in which to jog AndrAIa's mind, she was hoping that something from before the ambush could rekindle AndrAIa's memories. Dot had come back to the hospital, and she and Enzo went to the second floor to wait out the last awful millisecond before Bob would be released from the OR.
Dot and Enzo had come to the second floor, trailed by one of the newly promoted guards from Avi's sub-circle of security; Dot had noted him following her around for the last few micros, and she decided to accept the protection, even if she could take care of herself. She had considered sending Enzo away, worried that he would crash if something were to go wrong with Bob's surgery, but her brother insisted on accompanying her. There was no one else who could be spared to watch Enzo, anyway, so Dot had no choice but to allow him to come with her.
She hadn't talked much with the mercenaries since the ambush, because they were helping Azrael as well as they could. Dot also briefly wondered where Stripe was. The Protector hadn't appeared since Dot had last been in Mainframe, but somehow Dot knew that the silent woman was around her.
Dot couldn't see anything through the glass; it was the fifth time she had rushed to the window in the hope of catching a glimpse of Bob. She was usually a patient sprite, but having to wait to find out Bob's fate was slowly driving her random.
She reluctantly returned to her chair by the doors of the OR. Other sprites and binomes sat next to her, also awaiting news of their loved ones. Dot mentally berated herself for momentarily forgetting that she wasn't the only one experiencing an agonizing wait for news.
Dot gazed at a female sprite sitting next to her. The woman, several hours older than her and with lime green hair that had the same static nature as Mouse's, was watching the OR's doors. She tried to look calm, but the rigid set of her body betrayed her own worry. She noticed Dot staring at her, and she straightened up self-consciously, with an embarrassed glance at Dot.
"Oh, no, I'm sorry," Dot hastily apologized. Trying to make up, she added, "I know how you feel."
The woman slowly smiled at her. "Someone you love has been injured?"
Dot nodded. "Yes. He's in surgery right now. I'm waiting for news."
The woman clasped her hand over Dot's. "I'm so sorry. Was it serious?"
Dot swallowed thickly. "I — I'm afraid it might be. I'm not entirely sure. You see, he was shot."
The woman's eyes widened. "Oh! I'm so sorry." She looked down for a moment. Then her gaze returned to Dot's, and she said, "I'm waiting for my brother. He was also shot." She said the words haltingly. Dot thought, She probably feels the way I do — maybe if I don't think about it, it won't be true. But it is.
She wrapped both her hands around the woman's. "I guess we're both in the same situation."
"Seems so." Her new friend gave a small sniffle. "He's my little brother, you know. Only a couple of hours, but I feel like I need to look out for him."
The woman's comment made Dot think of Enzo — and Matrix. For the first time since she had heard of Bob's condition, she wondered where her other brother was. She realized that he was the only one she hadn't heard any news from, and she felt a little shiver of anxiety.
"What about him?" the woman asked with a nod to the OR.
Dot realized she was talking about Bob. "He's my — I'm not exactly sure. We just started dating."
The woman gave her a warm smile and tightened her grip on Dot's hands. "We can only pray, then."
"You're right." Dot felt the slight burning in the corners of her eyes, and she ducked her head for a moment.
A sprite wearing blue scrubs came out of the OR then, a surgical mask hanging around his neck. "Miss Matrix!"
Dot jumped out of her seat, her throat tight. The doctor held his hand out to her. "My name is Dr. Qwerty. Please come with me." Dot nodded and started to follow him.
"Good luck," the woman called.
Dot looked back and smiled gratefully. "Thank you. You too." The woman smiled sadly and nodded.
Dot and Dr. Qwerty walked through the doors of the OR. "Is he all right?" she blurted out.
Dr. Qwerty smiled. "Yes, he's fine now. He made it through the surgery easily, thank the User.
"I'm sorry, but you can't see him right now," he said answering Dot's next question. Seeing her face fall, he put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "Bob just came out of surgery five milliseconds ago. He needs to rest. But I promise that the nano he's ready for visitors, I'll send you in."
Dot nodded reluctantly, knowing that she could only agree with Dr. Qwerty and do what he said.
"Is that all you wanted to tell me?" she asked. Dot wasn't particularly happy that she would have to wait even longer to see Bob, and she just wanted to be away from the hospital, away from all the pain and suffering that had become a large part of her life.
"No, there's something else," Dr. Qwerty answered. "I have something that I think you'll find great interest in." Her interest perked, Dot followed him to a room whose walls were covered with charts of the sprite body and medical forms.
Dr. Qwerty held up a plastic bag with a small, shiny object in it. Dot leaned close and was shocked to see that it was a bullet.
"When we took this out of Bob's body" — Dot couldn't mask the pained expression that swept over her face — "one of the boys took this and analyzed it. He later told me the specific type of gun this bullet belonged to. I'm no expert, but I believe that can help us greatly to figure out who shot Bob."
"Why should that matter?" Dot asked confusedly. "Didn't a Guardian shoot Bob?"
"We don't know who exactly shot him," the doctor replied, "but from the looks of this gun, it wasn't a Guardian."
Dot's pulse had quickened. "Then what kind of gun is it?" she asked.
"He said it was from a" — Dr. Qwerty paused to read the label on the bag — "model M16_248 handgun with cybernetic connection.'" He looked at Dot. "Does that give you any ideas?"
Dot barely registered his last words. When he read the model name, her knees buckled and she would have fallen had she not grabbed onto the table for support. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until Dr. Qwerty said her name several times and shook her, and Dot looked at him, and her breath expelled in a long gasp, and she did collapse. Dr. Qwerty had noted this, and he brought a chair for her to fall back into.
Dot put her head into her hands and said nothing for several nanoseconds. Her mind raced with the burning feeling of unyielding anger. But the anger couldn't help but be weighed down with fright — and confusion. The bullet was clearly from Matrix's Gun — but why, why, why would he have shot Bob?
Slowly, she began to piece together events from before. Matrix had been acting strangely ever since that second Tessa and Kode had come to Mainframe. He hadn't even gone into the second Game cube that had fallen that second, something a sprite with even half of Guardian codes would certainly do.
Suddenly Dot understood why Matrix hadn't reported back to them after the ambush. How could he, with the enormity of what he had done? Somewhere in all her outrage, she felt pain for her brother.
Did he even do that of his own accord? She wondered. What if he were driven to it, or —
"Dot, are you all right?" Dr. Qwerty asked for the third time. Dot came back to reality with a small gasp. She looked up at the concerned doctor and tried to regain her composure. "Dr. Qwerty, I need to — I have to meet with the Countess."
He nodded. "I understand." He helped Dot to stand, even as she protested that she was fine.
She swallowed, trying to keep a calm front. "Thank you for giving me the news, and you'll keep me updated on Bob's condition?" she asked.
"Of course, Miss Matrix," he said. As Dot went for the door, he called after her, "I'm sorry."
She looked back, swallowing her sob. "So am I."
It seemed as if Bob were reliving the same moment over and over. Each time was worse, as he watched the small silver bullet fly toward him, smoke trailing off its edges. He watched, helpless, as it tore through his armor, pushing him to the ground, and pain blossomed in his side, and he would be swimming in the pain, until it finally overwhelmed him.
He watched that scene again, as if out of a .mov. But this time the darkness from where the bullet came parted, and he watched Matrix stand with his Gun raised, the muzzle pointing at Bob. Green veins appeared at his temples, as his right eye glowed bright red. The veins spread across the young sprite's face, down his neck, across his arm and to Gun. Bob yelled for him to stop, trying to get through to Matrix. Matrix didn't hear him, and he tightened his finger on the trigger. The bullet came, ripping through metal and flesh as Bob fell to the ground, feeling his energy pool around him.
His feverish processor struggled through the dream, trying to tell him something. Bob could barely think over the pain. The only thing he understood was that Matrix had shot him. Enzo Matrix, the sprite who had been a little boy so little time ago, only wanting to be Bob's friend.
By going into the Web he had failed that boy.
Bob screamed and screamed.
But no one could hear him.
Avina had thought that she couldn't get any more surprised, but Dot's news nearly made her fall out of her seat.
"Let me get this straight," the young Countess muttered. "Matrix shot Bob?"
Biting her lip, Dot nodded and twisted her hands behind her back.
"I don't believe it," Avi whispered. "But he's your brother, you said."
"He is," Dot answered, "but he's not the Enzo I knew. The Games changed him, made him bigger and angrier and more dangerous. But I had no idea they would make him into a completely different sprite."
"User, Dot, I'm so sorry," Avi offered quietly. She had no siblings, so she couldn't fully sympathize with Dot's situation. From what she had learned about the Matrix family, though, Matrix's part in the ambush was liable to rip the already unstable group apart.
Dot looked back to Avi. "What have you learned about the Guardians since the ambush?" she asked, and Avi was glad to direct their conversation to another, if not very pleasant, topic.
"For one thing, we wouldn't have any processing Guardians —" Avina made a face. "I keep forgetting they don't really process. Anyway, we wouldn't have any prisoners if it weren't for your mercenaries. Eide Cobra and Dram Freeware brought down at least thirty Guardians with file-locks without suffering serious injuries. Dram Freeware saved our ASCIIs too, when the Guardians were going to delete myself and my guards.
"We've taken the Guardians, in their stasis fields, inside one of the top floors in the hospital. The room is surrounded by guards, and our best scientists are working on the captive Guardians."
Here Avi looked grim again. "Unfortunately, we've got a huge problem. Those scientists haven't been able to learn anything from the Guardians. The nano they take the Guardians out of the file-locks, the Guardians cease to process. One doctor told me that there was absolutely no life in those sprites the nano they met open air. Their veins were all black, and their bodies were empty. Other Guardians are gone before they even open the stasis fields."
"Daemon doesn't want us to know anything about her plans," Dot concluded, and Avi nodded in agreement. Dot sighed and rubbed her forehead with one hand. "At least Daemon didn't get control of the system and you as a host."
"The cost of my safety was the destruction of the Principle Office and deletion of those I know and love," Avina sighed, her eyes darkened with emotion that a young woman shouldn't be burdened with. The air was thick with her guilt. Dot knew what it felt to be responsible for an entire system and to watch comrades die. She'd been responsible for more lives than just her own since she was Avina's age.
A two-sided VidWindow popped up between them. On its screen was a binome from the communications center in one of Azrael's large skyscrapers. "Your Grace," he addressed Avina with a salute, then the side facing her turned black as the officer sent his attention to Dot. "Miss Matrix, we have an urgent message for you from Sector 6." Dot nodded, and the binome's face was quickly replaced with another.
"It's AndrAIa," Dot said after consulting the message. "She says there's something wrong." Her violet eyes were clouded as she turned back to her fellow ruler. "It looks like we've found Matrix."
Avi's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "AndrAIa is the Game sprite, who has amnesia?" she asked. Already on her way out the door, Dot nodded hurriedly in answer. Avina laughed without mirth under her breath. "Daemon's really out to get you guys, isn't she?"
Dot paused in the doorway. "She's been out to get us for minutes. This time it looks like she has." She said no more but hurried for Sector 6.
Matrix quietly opened the door and slipped inside the apartment he and AndrAIa shared in Sector 6. The pale walls seemed to shift and twist into the shapes of the others' faces, hissing the angry accusations he knew would come. Matrix shut his eyes, trying to ward off the taunts. But the illusions remained, burning their words into his mind.
I've gone random, he thought simply. Matrix groaned and dropped onto the couch, head in hands.
A sound made him sit up quickly. His gaze darted wildly around the room, until he saw AndrAIa standing silently in the doorway.
Matrix sighed in relief. "AndrAIa!" He went to embrace her, but AndrAIa's trident snapped out full-length, and Matrix stopped to avoid being impaled. "AndrAIa, what is it?" he asked slowly and cautiously. He studied her face, but her eyes were cold.
"Get out," she ordered quietly.
"What?" Matrix asked in disbelief.
"Get out of my home," AndrAIa repeated in a low voice.
"I live here," he argued.
"No, you don't," AndrAIa said, her voice growing angry. "Now get out." She glanced at Gun, and her expression immediately darkened. She took a step back, her eyes wide. "Oh, User . . ."
Matrix reached for her, but AndrAIa backed farther away. "Don't come near me with that gun," she whispered. "I've heard about what you've done, you — you son of a null!"
Matrix was taken aback, and he wondered what in the Net she was talking about. His core-com suddenly shuddered with the frightening thought that AndrAIa knew what he had done to Bob. If she didn't defend Matrix, no one would.
"DrAIa, please listen to me —" he started, his voice uncharacteristically gentle as he tried for a second time to approach her.
AndrAIa screamed and lunged with her trident. Matrix dodged it again and stood in place, watching her carefully. Something was seriously wrong with her, and he was scared.
When he made no move to attack her, AndrAIa opened a VidWindow to the Principle Office. "Help, he's at my house!" she shouted.
Matrix grabbed her and held a hand tightly over her mouth. "What is wrong with you?" he hissed.
The message had already been sent. Matrix turned as CPUs appeared in the doorway, guns at the ready. Matrix knew he couldn't fight them all, so he released AndrAIa. She gasped and stepped away from him.
"Everyone, calm down," a voice called. Dot stepped into sight and signaled for the CPUs to lower their weapons.
Relief and apprehension washed over Matrix — his sister, here to straighten things out; but how would she treat her brother, the murderer?
AndrAIa ran to Dot. "He was — here, in my apartment," she gasped. "He — he almost attacked me!"
"It's all right, AndrAIa," Dot assured the game sprite. "Matrix is a Mainframer, like Enzo and Bob."
"But — but he had a gun," AndrAIa whispered.
For the first time, Dot looked at Matrix; her expression was hard as stone. She turned back to AndrAIa and said, "Would you feel safer at the hospital, AndrAIa? You could visit Enzo again, or get an energy shake and calm down." Matrix's processor whirled with confusion and weariness from the previous night. How did Dot know to come here? he wondered blearily. And why is Enzo here too?
AndrAIa nodded haltingly. "Just — don't let him come back here," she whispered.
Dot nodded and sent some CPUs to escort the distraught AndrAIa to the hospital.
"Dot, what's wrong with AndrAIa?" Matrix demanded.
"In a nano, Matrix," Dot said coldly. He knew that, like AndrAIa, Dot only called him Matrix when she was furious. "We're going to the Principle Office."
Matrix followed Dot, noting disdainfully that they were being accompanied by several CPU binomes. "Dot, I demand to know what happened to AndrAIa," he said again.
"Wait a nano," was her neutral reply. Matrix growled at her back. Nerves and anxiousness clawed at his belly, and waiting for news made him feel as if he were going to truly go random.
When they reached the Principle Office, Dot led Matrix to her temporary office. Binomes shied away, watching Matrix fearfully. He gritted his teeth and focused on following Dot.
Dot declined to have CPUs accompany them inside her office, and she closed the door. The Countess was sitting on a bench, but Matrix didn't spare her a glance, so intent was he on finding out what he had missed.
"What happened to AndrAIa?" Matrix repeated in exasperation.
Dot turned to him, her face still stony. "She has amnesia."
"Amnesia?" he repeated in a low voice. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it! The sprite he loved didn't recognize him, or remember the times they had shared? That was as bad as losing her forever.
"Yes. It happened at the ambush," Dot replied.
"AndrAIa . . ." Matrix whispered to himself, stunned and angry and frightened, all at the same time. He passed a hand over his face and slowly repeated her name, his voice trembling and heavy with remorse.
He glanced at Dot for any sign of her own sadness, but her eyes were strangely icy. For a moment Matrix felt searing rage course through him. How could Dot act so uncaring when the woman he loved had been injured and had lost her memories?
Because Bob was injured twice as badly and could be deleted right now, his processor answered him with the brutal realization.
Matrix dropped his hand abruptly. Just as quickly, his anger turned to shame; it was as fresh as the moment he had seen Bob's fallen body. "Dot — how's Bob?"
Dot barked a harsh, bitter laugh that Matrix had never heard from her and fervently wished never to hear again. "How's Bob? How do you think he is?" She caught her breath sharply and mentally berated herself for her temporary loss of control. Avina, barely noticed by the two, watched on gravely.
"We don't know." Dot's voice was eerily quiet now, and she looked strained beyond her limits. "He came out of surgery a little while ago, and he's been resting. The bullet hit him hard; it missed his organs, though, or else he would have been deleted." Matrix flinched at hearing the gruesome details spoken with such cold calm.
Matrix had never been good with words; now, he could think of nothing that would begin to explain what he had done. He just wanted to say that he was sorry, but that could never resolve the rift he had torn between him and his family.
Dot had to stop beating around the bush; she deserved to know the truth, however horrible it would be. She pursed her lips and was silent for a moment before she looked him square in the eye and demanded, "Enzo, how could you do that? How could you?" Her voice cracked with the emotion of trying to choose between him, her brother, and Bob, her love.
"I mean, what were you thinking?" Dot asked, her voice starting strong but dropping to barely a whisper in the end.
"Dot —" But Matrix didn't have any words to say. He had no idea how to tell his sister that yes, he had shot Bob, but he didn't know how or why. "Dot, I'm innocent — I am! Why won't you listen to me?"
Dot crossed her arms over her chest and said, "All right, then answer me this: Did you do it?"
That's unfair, he raged to himself. "I — I did," Matrix replied, "but I — Dot, I had no idea! Something was wrong with me!"
Dot looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "What's happened to you, Enzo? You used to be so . . . so little and innocent. But when you came back from the Games, you were different; you had changed too much for me to recognize you. I — I feel like I don't even know you anymore."
"Dot," Matrix gasped, disbelieving.
Dot's chin quivered, but she continued in a soft voice, "You're reckless, and uncaring, and lost in that dark place sometimes — almost all the time, now. You just — you just shot him, with no reason!" Her voice rose to a yell; it chilled Matrix to hear her out of control for a second time. Dot clapped her hands over her mouth, but her eyes glistened with held-back tears, and she was visibly trembling. Nothing had hurt her as much as this moment, when her world was ripped apart by two men she loved with all her core-com.
Matrix stepped towards his sister, continuing forward even when she flinched. "Dot — it's still me. I'm Enzo."
"I'm not so sure," she whispered, turning away.
"That's it," Avina growled. "We're going to end this." She quickly pulled up a VidWindow to the chief CPU. "Chief, I need some officers here."
"Dot, no," Matrix pleaded. "Tell me you're not — you wouldn't —" But Dot didn't reply; her eyes were on the floor.
The doors to Dot's office were flung open, and a squad of Azrael's CPUs marched in and surrounded Matrix. He barely fought as they bound his hands behind him, but he stared at Dot in anguish and continued to protest.
"It's for the best, Enzo," she tried to explain, but he wouldn't listen. She wasn't even sure she believed it herself.
Matrix was torn between burning rage and horrible sadness, and he didn't know which to do: delete someone or break down sobbing.
He tried to wriggle out of the cuffs on his hands, but the CPUs had bound his arms tight, and he was imprisoned. When the officers pushed him in the direction of the doorway, he realized the horrible end to this situation.
I won't go to the jail! he raged in his mind. I won't rot in a miserable cell when AndrAIa is lost in her own mind, and my family doesn't trust me!
Seeing the look of fury that flashed across Matrix's face, Dot braced herself for an attack. Matrix almost flung the CPUs against the wall in his anger, but he was weighed down by a heavy weariness from the horrible battle.
"No, Dot, you can't do this!" her brother yelled desperately for a final time, wishing that somehow, someway Dot would see this error and let him go; maybe she would understand and help him, instead of contain him. But Dot stood unmoving, not even looking at him as the CPUs tried to herd him through the doorway and down the hall.
"Dot, I didn't — I didn't mean to do it! Please, Dot, don't!" Matrix continued to call until they reached the lift. Soon his shouts died down as he was taken to the lower levels of Azrael's P.O.
Avina gave her an empathetic look and quietly left. Dot almost followed the CPUs to the Principle Office's dungeons; but she knew she wouldn't be able to handle the look on Matrix's face, so instead she remained in her office as her brother was taken away, yelling her name over and over. She wrapped her arms around herself to still her shaking, but silent tears spilled down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Enzo."
The binomes handling Matrix pushed him down three flights of stairs, even as he continued to fight and cry out that he was innocent. One CPU removed Gun from the renegade's leg as they entered the dungeons through two heavy doors. The binomes shoved Matrix into a cell and went to close it off.
Renewed anger surged in Matrix's veins. He lurched forward for his gun. Azrael's CPUs were faster and tougher than Mainframe's, however, and several surrounded him in the blink of an eye and forced him back. The binome holding Gun removed the power cartridge and let it clatter on the stone floor. He passed Gun to another CPU, who hurried back up the stairs.
With their combined strength, the CPUs forced Matrix back into the cell. One pressed a keypad before the renegade could jump back up, and huge bars crashed down before him.
Matrix stared out in anguish, but there was no way out now. The CPUs hurried upstairs, and the huge doors closed again, leaving Matrix alone save for the binome guards who patrolled the halls outside the cells. Heavy, grief-stricken silence filled the atmosphere for several milliseconds.
"You've really done it now."
Matrix barely turned his head to acknowledge his Protector. "What are you doing here?" he muttered.
Rasta Mon didn't answer. He slowly walked toward Matrix, his arms crossed over his chest. He watched the sprite impassively, his eyes glittering behind his shades.
Matrix tried to meet his gaze, but he guiltily dropped his eyes.
Finally, Rasta Mon spoke. "What's wrong with you?"
Matrix's head snapped up angrily. "I don't know what happened, all right?" he said sharply. "I — it was an accident." He flinched at his own words, as he was reminded of the last time Bob had been angry at him: on the Saucy Mare, when he had nearly shot at Ray. He had spoken the exact same words.
Rasta Mon snorted. "I don't care what you say, but you're going to hear what I have to tell you." He reached out and grasped Matrix's arm; for his size, the Protector had a grip like stone.
Matrix tried to pull out of his grip but couldn't. "What right do you have to tell me what to do?" he snarled.
"You're right," Rasta Mon said sarcastically. "I'm only your Protector. I've only been watching over you since you were compiled, and I've only spent the last eleven hours trying to mold you into a good sprite. I'd leave this to Bob, your mentor — but wait, he's in the hospital," he sneered cruelly. "And your sister can't scold you because she has to endure the hell of praying that the one she loves won't be deleted! So, it's up to me to finally speak out.
"I don't get it, Enzo. You were always a bit bad, especially in the Games, but never like this. What in the Net could possess you to shoot your mentor?"
Matrix's throat worked several times, but no sound came. Finally he managed in a cracked whisper, "I don't know. I honestly have no idea. It's just — I saw something, and I shot at it, whatever it was. I thought I was doing the right thing. . . ."
Rasta Mon dropped his hand and disappeared, shaking his head in exasperation with his Protected.
Matrix rubbed his arm; where Rasta Mon had clutched him in anger there was a mottled bruise. He stood by himself in the cold, dark cell, feeling completely and totally alone.
Since the terrifying run-in with that large, dangerous sprite — AndrAIa didn't know his name and couldn't care less — AndrAIa had taken Dot's advice to return to the safety of the hospital. She was sitting in her hospital bed when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in, Dot," she called.
The door opened, but it wasn't Dot who came in. Instead, an ocher-skinned sprite AndrAIa had never seen before stood there, holding a bouquet of daisywheels.
She raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?"
The sprite stared for a nano, then he ran to her. He knelt beside her and clasped her hands in his. "Oh, AndrAIa! When I heard the news, I rushed here as fast as I could. How are you, darling?"
She frowned and tried to pull her hands back. "I said, who are you?"
The sprite gave her a look of shock and deep hurt and gripped her hands tighter. "What? You don't remember me, Kode, your love?"
"My — love?" AndrAIa repeated uncertainly.
Kode cupped her face in his hand. "Oh, you poor thing," he crooned, stroking her cheek. "You must not remember anything about us."
Somewhere in AndrAIa's processor, an itching feeling nagged at her.
"We came here together, with Bob and the mercenaries," Kode told her. AndrAIa nodded haltingly. "We were separated in the ambush, and I never heard any news until just a few micros ago. Then I got here to be with you in your time of need. I'm your Lover."
Her processor was trying to remind her that the man kneeling before her was her lover, AndrAIa realized. She smiled, glad that something made sense. "I can see why," she said in a sweet voice.
Kode smiled back and hugged her. AndrAIa hugged him tightly, yearning for comfort in this random, unfamiliar territory, and rested her head on his shoulder. Kode kissed the top of her head, and his eyes flashed a devious green.