Disclaimer: If you don't know by now, you obviously haven't been paying close enough attention.

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Queen of the Crashed

By

The 18th Angel (aka DaemonFan)

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Chapter 1000- Rebirth and Death

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      Matrix stood just far enough from the energy shield not to feel too much of its heat. Scanning the surface with his artificial eye, he sighed in frustration. Cracks were emerging all over the surface of the shield, expanding with frightening speed. Soon they would be big enough for everyone to see. Just behind the cracks, in the center of the shield, a shape was forming.

      He jumped when a hand fell lightly on his shoulder. He spun around, his hand going for Gun.

      "At ease, soldier. It's just me." AndrAIa smiled nervously, trying to lighten the mood.

      "Sorry." Matrix said quickly. "Can't be too careful."

      "Well the lady who almost had Gun pointed at her begs to differ."

      "Sorry." Matrix said again, feeling sheepish. "You just caught me at a bad moment." He gestured behind him.

      "It's hatching?"

      He nodded.

      "How fast?" AndrAIa asked.

      Matrix shook his head. "They're not going to make it back in time."

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      "I do not think you have been telling me everything." Daemon said, surveying the wreckage where the girl, Terabyte, had vanished.

      "We haven't really got time to spell it out for you." Turbo replied.

      "I suggest you take the time." Daemon said. "We have not even reached Mainframe and people are attacking us. What is there that they do not want us to reach?"

      "Can't you just do what we tell you?" Turbo asked.

      "I am not one of your little Guardians!" She snapped getting in Turbo's face. Despite their height difference and the fact that she had to stand on her toes to look him in the eyes, Turbo was hard-pressed not to back down under that stare. "I am the Word! I take orders from no-one!"

      "Please Daemon." Bob stepped between them, anxious to avert a fight he knew Turbo would lose. "If we took the time to explain what has to be done, we would get there too late to do it."

      For a moment it seemed that Daemon would argue the point. Finally she nodded.

      "Very well, Bob. But I expect an explanation soon."

      Bob nodded thankfully; at least one crisis had been averted. Turbo signaled to a young Guardian who saluted and used her Keytool to open a Portal. Daemon took a step toward the shimmering sphere, but Bob caught her arm.

      "Maybe I had better go first." He said. "If you show up out of nowhere...uh...I mean...some people might get the wrong idea."

      Daemon nodded and stepped back.

      "After you, Bob."

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      "Matrix!" Matrix turned to see his sister running toward him, calling his name and waving. Clash was right behind her, followed closely by Mouse and Ray. "Matrix!"

      Dot was out of breath by the time she reached him.

      "What is it Dot?" AndrAIa asked.

      "Matrix..." Dot said, gasping for air. "Need you...go...inside..."

      "What for?" Matrix asked.

      "Just...trust me...okay?"

      Before Matrix could respond, a Portal opened up next to them. A moment later, Bob stepped out. He seemed surprised and a little upset to see Matrix.

      "Dot..." He began.

      "I tried!" Dot said.

      "What is wrong with you two?" Matrix asked. Then he noticed the Portal rippling behind Bob. Someone else was coming through. Gun practically leapt into his hand when he saw who it was. By the time the figure stepped out of the Portal, Matrix was in the perfect position to blow her head off.

      Daemon regarded him with a blank expression, staring calmly down the huge barrel.

      "Oh. Hello Matrix."

      "What the dell's going on here?" Matrix demanded.

      "Calm down!" Bob said, trying to push Matrix's arm away from Daemon. "She's here to help!"

      "Help?" AndrAIa asked. Matrix seemed to infuriated to speak.

      "She's on our side, trust me." Bob insisted.

      "How is she even alive?"

      "It's a long story..." Bob began.

      "Which we do not seem to have time for." Daemon said, brushing past Matrix and staring at the energy shield. "If that is what I think it is."

      "It is." Bob said.

      "Then I fear you have freed me for nothing." Daemon replied. "Even my power may not be enough to destroy her once she is decompressed."

      "So what are you waiting for?" Matrix finally seemed to have found his voice. "Kill her before she decompresses!"

      Daemon shook her head. "It is too late."

      As if on cue, the angry red dome shattered, sending what looked like shards of glass flying in every direction. The shards evaporated into nothingness before they had even landed, leaving only a cloud of smoke where the shield had been. In the center of the cloud stood Exabyte.

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      Bob's first impression was of a tall, thin woman. Even Matrix was at least a head shorter than Exabyte. As the smoke cleared, he was able to see her more clearly. Her features were perfect, so much so that she barely seemed real. Her pale aqua skin was completely smooth, not in the sense of well moisturized, but in the sense of polished glass or metal, too smooth to be alive. The same went for her hair, dark purple and flowing down to below her knees without a single strand out of place. Her face would have been beautiful, but for her eyes. They were pure black with only the slightest slivers of white, like a snakes eyes, to indicate pupils. She wore a long, flowing black dress that hid her legs completely, but left her arms and shoulders bare. On her chest, right below where the collarbones met, a symbol seemed to have been etched in glowing gold. It looked like an '8' turned on its side, the symbol of infinity. Exabyte stretched her arms over her head, as if waking up from a pleasant slumber, and regarded the Sprites and Virus before her with the casual contempt of a child getting ready to squash insects.

      "Well Bob." Turbo said. "You always wanted to study the User. Here's your chance."

      Not exactly wanting to step forward, Bob called out to the woman.

      "Are you...Exabyte?"

      "I answer to that filename." A cold, soft, deadly quite voice issued from her mouth, echoing slightly, though there was no logical reason why it should have. She seemed at once to be whispering and yelling, for her words rang across the park, though she barely moved her lips.

      "What do you want?" Bob asked.

      "Since when do mortals question the motives of gods?" Exabyte's voice now held a dangerous edge. Bob had to tread carefully.

      "Then you are...you are a User?"

      "No."

      "Then you're a Virus?"

      "I am not." Exabyte said, almost playfully.

      "But we thought..." Bob began.

      "You thought, that you're pitiful intellect could comprehend me." Exabyte snapped. "Obviously, you were mistaken. I am not Virus, nor Sprite, nor User. I have transcended such petty classifications. I am Everything!"

      "Why have you come here?"

      "Do you really want to know?" Exabyte actually smiled. The effect of a smile on that cold face chilled Bob to the very core.

      "I want to know if there's any way we can live in peace." He said.

      "You really want to know?" Before Bob quite knew what was happening, she was right next to him whispering in his ear. "You want to know what I desire? What I came her to do?"

      "Yes." Bob said.

      "Very well. I have come here...to kill!" Before he could react, her hand reached up and plunged into his chest, not ripping through, but sinking in as if he were made of liquid. White-hot pain filled him instantly. He would have screamed, but his mouth would not open, his lungs would not draw in breath. He felt his energy slipping away, not being stolen, simply vanishing. Dimly, he heard Matrix firing gun, but the bullets never even reached Exabyte, burning up a few pixels away from her face. Everyone seemed to be trying to help, but it was too late. He was going to die.

      And as suddenly as it had begun, the agony ended. A huge weight crashed into him and threw him out of Exabyte's grip. Bob sank to the ground, fading in and out of transparency, barely conscious. He looked up and saw Clash standing where he had just been, turning to face the User.

      Exabyte wore a look of undisguised rage. It contorted her face into a monstrous death mask. Without a word, she raised her fist and sank it into Clash. Bob, the only one close enough, was barely strong enough to raise his head; he could not intervene. As the assembly watched, helpless, energy danced around Clash's petrified form, as if he had been struck by lightning. In nanoseconds, it was over. An explosion shook the ground and a shower of sparks flew into the air. When they had faded, Clash was gone.

      Exabyte turned, looming over Bob. He tried to back away, but his body simply would not respond.

      "Your little friend bought you a few more nanoseconds of life." She said. "I hope you enjoyed them."

      She seemed about to deliver the killing blow when a small figure in a dark brown robe stepped between them.

      "Get away from him!" A high, female voice demanded. An instant later, a blast of golden light erupted from the robed figure, throwing Exabyte almost to the edge of the sector.

      The User got to her feet and sneered at them all.

      "Very well." She said. "I depart, for now. But when I return, you will all wish you had never been compiled!"

      With a flash of fiery orange light, she vanished, leaving no evidence that she had ever been there at all, except for one Sprite at death's door, and an empty, slightly charred patch of ground where another had vanished forever.

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TBC