Megabyte leaned back in his throne, tapping the tips of his fingers together as the door opened and the guards stood aside. Sir Matrix walked in, a grim expression on his face as the soldiers behind him carried in a body.

"Well, sire," Sir Matrix said, nodding his head quickly in allegiance, "It seems like you got what you wanted. She's dead."

Megabyte looked at the body and his face changed. He seemed to glow, almost with.excitement. Sir Matrix frowned at him.

"Yes, so she is," the king said. He had been waiting for this moment almost all his days in Mainframe. Every day he dreamed that the commander behind the CPU's would be finished. That she would end her days of leadership against him so he can take over. Even with Bob in the web, his path to glory was always blocked by this one sprite.

"Take her away," he said finally. Sir Matrix stayed where he was, watching as the soldiers carried the body away. When they were gone the knight stepped forward.

"Sire, the others have been taken to their cells," he said, "what do you suppose we do about them?"

"Public execution," Megabyte said casually, reaching for his wine on the side table. "It's what they deserve, isn't it?"

Sir Matrix didn't say anything. Megabyte chuckled.

"You must be getting soft," he said, "after all, Ray betrayed the entire kingdom. Dot tried to kill me, and Mouse went against my order and saved her. And well.AndrAIa." he smiled to himself. Matrix narrowed his eyes at him. "Well she's something, isn't she? She's also the Amazon Queen, enemy to me. And her whole tribe is gone, so what good is she?"

"The only reason she fought us was because we fought her," Matrix pointed out.

Megabyte raised his eyebrows. "Are you defending her?"

Matrix remained quiet.

"I believe you are defending her. I am very much disappointed Sir Matrix, for questioning my judgment." A smile formed on his face as he remembered Dot. "She was your sister, you know."

Matrix looked up at him, surprised.

"The woman they just took out of here. Let's see, what was her name? Ah.yes. Dot.Matrix."

Sir Matrix looked at him in disbelief. "Wha.?"

"Do you remember? When you were younger, living with you mother, your father, your sister. In the middle of the night soldiers rampaged the house, destroyed everything.killed your parents."

Sir Matrix's eyes widened.

"You and your sister had the same mark of the family on you, the tattoo on your soldier. We knew you couldn't be kept together, it would be too difficult. You were the boy, so we made you a page. Dot, however, was the girl. And there was no use for her. She became a common slave, working for her food."

Matrix was now shaking his head. "No," he said.

"It's true," Megabyte's smile was getting larger. "You parents are dead, and now so is your sister."

"No!" Matrix lunged at him. "No!"

The guards standing in the room caught hold of Matrix before he reached the throne and held him back. Matrix fought back and more guards came, holding him back. Megabyte chuckled evilly and set his wine glass back down on the table.

"No!" Matrix continued to yell, "No! I will get you for this!"

Megabyte stopped laughing and leaned forward. "And you know what's funny?" he said. "Your parents died because they were accused of treason. And you know what's funnier?" He paused for a long moment, allowing his words to sink in. "They were innocent," he whispered.

"No!" Matrix burst forward and several guards nearly fell over as they scrambled to regain control of him. Megabyte started laughing, amused.

"Take him away," he said, "he'll die the same way as the others."

***

Phong was a young sprite in those days, no older than 1.9. His father was the castle doctor and at the moment he was taking a stroll through the castle getting some errands done for him. Phong usually loved getting out and talking to the servants and slaves. He liked to make them feel like something, something worth talking to. Most of the time they felt they were the lowest beings in the system. He enjoyed making them feel better.

Today though, was different. While he was ascending the staircase out of his father's part of the basement, he saw several guards carrying a beautiful young woman toward the back. Right away he knew they were going to bury her. Either that or just throw her aside. But she didn't look dead.at least not dead enough to be buried.

"Stop!" He yelled, causing them to stop in their tracks. He rolled forward, frantically hoping to reach them before they changed their minds. "Stop!"

"What do you want?" one of the soldiers demanded.

Phong reached the girl and examined her quickly. His presumptions were correct. She wasn't dead.

"This girl." he began, but caught the looks in their eyes. They wanted this girl to be dead, they seemed to be saying.

"Leave her with me," he finally stammered. "We might be able to use her- at least my father. The doctor."

The soldiers looked at him doubtfully. "Okay," the leading soldier said, "we'll carry her down for you."

Phong smiled, relieved as he led the soldiers toward his quarters in the basement. It was small and didn't have much light, but it had a bed, a table, and several medical books his father was teaching him about.

The soldiers laid the girl on the bed and quickly left, feeling a bit spooked from the room environment. Phong watched them go, then returned to the girl.

She was breathing, but hardly noticeable. He quickly went over to his desk and took some instruments from the drawer. He sighed heavily, hoping that maybe he'd be able to help her.

***

Bob remained in his hiding place, leaning against the wall and carefully concealed behind the thick curtains. He hadn't the strength to keep going. Dot was dead, his friends were captured. He couldn't go on alone.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, willing the tears to go away. It was no good to him now if he cried because it wasn't going to get him anywhere. Nowhere at all.

"Dot." he murmured, covering his face with his hand. "I'm sorry.I'm sorry."

He didn't know how long he sat there, but when he removed his hand, he was startled to see a face poking between the curtains. A rather.square face.

"Aaagh!" He cried out, startled. He jumped to his feet and the owner of the face fell back, letting out a yell of his own. Right away Bob recognized it and jumped out of the curtains.

Mike the TV was scrambling across the floor, dressed in royal robes. When he saw Bob standing there, dressed in peasant clothing, he quickly stood up and dusted himself off.

Bob squinted at him. "Mike?" he said.

Mike stood up straight. "Yes, that is me," he said, "I am jester to the King, you might you be?"

"Oh my User, MIKE!" Bob swooped him up and hugged him tightly. "I'd never thought there'd be a DAY in the NET I'd be happy to see you!"

"Whoa! Let me go!" Mike shoved him away. "Just who do you think you are? Take your hands off me, or I'll.I'll notify the guards!" He dusted himself off again. "Now I'll ask again. Who are you, and what you were doing back there?"

"I'm Bob," he replied, "I'm looking for the system clock. I was back there because."

Mike looked at him, more curious now than stern.

"Because someone I loved very much just.left."

"Oh?" Mike stepped forward. "How extremely sad, and for me to walk in on that. How about I cheer you up? I have some wonderful merchandise in my room, like the Bucket o' Nothing! Yours for only ninety-nine-"

Bob clamped a hand over the TV's mouth. "NO!" he yelled. "No, thank you, but you can help me out."

Mike pushed his hand away. "Help you out? And what exactly do you think I should do?"

***

Mouse leaned her head between to of the bars and sighed heavily. "This is it," she said, "I'm going to die today."

Ray walked up to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay," he said, "I'll be there with you."

"Gee. Thanks."

AndrAIa sat in a corner in the cell, hiding her face in her arms. She hadn't said anything the whole time. This was the second time she had ever been in here, and now she knew for sure that she was going to die.

There was a long silence, which was then broken by the opening of the iron door. A man was shoved inside, following a yell and the slamming of the door. AndrAIa frowned as the man pounded against the wall. She got to her feet.

"Matrix?" she barely breathed the name out.

The man turned around slowly, seeing the three other sprites staring at him. Fear he saw in their eyes- well, only two of them looked fearful. AndrAIa looked almost.worried.

He held up a hand at Ray and Mouse. "Don't worry," he said, "I'm in here just as much as you guys are."

AndrAIa stepped forward. "What happened?" she asked.

"I don't really know." Matrix walked forward toward her. "The King wants us all publicly executed."

She nodded. "I know."

"I'm sorry I got you in this mess."

"You didn't do anything. I'm Amazon, you're knight.we're supposed to be enemies."

"Yeah, we are."

"The King.my sister- Dot, he killed my parents, I." He blinked. "I."

"I'm sorry."

He nodded. "I."

She leaned toward him and kissed him gently. He kissed back as Mouse and Ray watched on, eyes wide.

"Well will you look at that," Mouse commented.

***

Phong sat beside the girl, praying that she would be alright. Already in the last hour her breathing had returned to normal. Now if only she would come out of consciousness.

There was movement and he quickly jumped up, hoping against hope. He reached for the water on his tableside as she opened her eyes and looked up at him. She winced and reached up to her wound. It was cleaned and bandaged up.

"What happened.?" She asked, her voice raspy.

"Drink this," he said, handing her the cup. She reached for it and drank thirstily. He smiled at her.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked.

She grimaced as she remembered all that happened. "Hazy," she replied. "Very hazy."

"What's your name?"

"Dot."

"Ah. My name is Phong. I got you from the soldiers and cleaned you wound. Everyone thought you were."

"I almost was," she said. Suddenly a raging headache hit her and her face twisted up in pain. She leaned back against the pillows.

"Calm down," Phong said, "It's just all the energy rushing back there. Rest awhile and you should be fine."

She smiled at him through the pain. "Thanks."

***

"You want me to take you to the system clock?"

Bob nodded. "Yeah, that's all you need to do."

Mike hesitated. "Hm.I don't know.I'm not so sure. Taking you there could risk me my job- heck, even my life!"

"What difference is accidentally saying a bad joke and having your head chopped off for it?"

"Hm.good point- but.!"

"I promise we won't get caught."

"Yeah, but it's in Megabyte's sleeping quarters, we can't get there! Not only is it heavily guarded, but if we get caught it puts more bad marks on our death boards!"

Bob frowned. "Why would it be in his sleeping quarters? It doesn't matter. Fine. Just tell me where it's located, and I'll go there alone!"

Mike made a face. "Ooooooh, but I don't want you to go alone! I won't be able to live with the guilt if you get caught!"

Bob smiled. "So you'll take me there."

"Yes, I'll do the stupid job, I'll take you there."

Bob smiled. "Thank you very, very, very much!" He picked the TV up again and hugged him. "I'm not usually like this, but I think you've just saved my bitmap!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Mike muttered, pushing him away. "We've all got our ups and down, haven't we?"