I know, i promised, the last chapter. A long haul indeed. 2296 words for the last chapter itself. Please read and review, ill take reviews for the entire fic to. Enjoy.
Chapter eleven – The beginning, Fides (Lat.: Promise)
Day 1
Her eyes slowly opened. Something was different. She was not only herself, but she could also sense other systems run in the background. Just like after her first reboot. Her systems were damaged. Both the hard- and software. Nothing serious, but she was currently incapable to walk, her daylight sensory system was the only one online, she couldn't recharge by light. And those were just a few. It was also dark in here. And cold. "Hideki". She was scared.
Chitose had tried most of the thinks she knew. But she couldn't find Chii or Takumi. It was almost like they disappeared of this planet. Normally she could tap into either one of their tracking system. That, the main OS and the Chobits system was the only one no-one had ever been able to crack. The systems were always online, even when the persicom was shut down. As long as there was battery life, there was a link. But now, there was nothing. She was very worried for her daughter and son, but also for Hideki. He was going nuts. Blaming himself for what happened, and being unable to do anything about this, she was afraid he would do something rash. She decided to call in Minoru and Zima, but they wouldn't be her for another ten minutes. And she knew time was of the essence.
Day two
Minoru didn't understand. What could have happened? Chitose explained the inner working of the tracking system to him. He was amazed by its simplicity, but he also knew it was the last system to go down. So why didn't she respond. Even if the core of a persicom was ripped apart, it could hold out for at least 48 hours. So why did it shut down? Perhaps Zima found something out. H picked up the phone, and noticed the picked up a ringing one. "Minoru, its Zima. I need you at Chitose's lab, now." That was all. Minoru put the phone down, and called Yuzuki to get going.
When he arrived Chitose and Minoru were already there, he met with Hideki on the way, so they were all here now. "Listen up." He started. "I've done some digging, and I found out something you're not going to like."
She sat against the wall, worried, and plugged in. There was a power socket there, so they did want her to survive. But just who were they? She assumed the syndicate, but until she saw a face, she couldn't be sure. Suddenly, she heard a small sound. The door had been unlocked. Was this the moment they were going to kill her? "O god, please don't let them kill me. I have to say goodbye to Hideki. Please god, I love him, let me live" she started to pray without thinking. As the door opened, she saw a silhouette that looked familiar. She realized it was Takumi. "Brother, please help me" she whispered. He was silent for a long time. "I'm sorry sis. I can't help you now. This has gone beyond my control." Suspicion, but most of all, fear rose in her mind. "Takumi? What do you mean? Help me. Please." Her mind raced, but she couldn't make sense of it. He closed the door, and sat next to her. He was silent for a long time, unable to speak. "They found me when I was deactivated. They patched me up, and changed some things in my programming. They know more than you think. They programmed software bombs in me, and set one off to prove it. They destroyed a memory sub with that. You have no idea how it feels, Chii. No idea at all. That is what a human must feel when one of his limbs are blow of. This way they convinced me to help them. To work for them. I did some covert jobs for them, until you did your thing. They decided I should infiltrate, and at one point take you out. To bring you here. I held them off for as long as I could, but they threatened me again after their own failed attempt. I had no choice Chii." He looked at her, with what Chii thought were desperate eyes. "I had no other choice." Chii got furious, and tried to hit him with her left arm, but Takumi was faster. She hit the wall, which got a dent in the stone the size of a basketball. "You bastard! How could you! You're my brother! I trusted you!" She felt tears swell in her eyes, but couldn't stop them. She didn't want to. He got up, and walked to the door. "Stop! Are you just going to leave me here, waiting for them to kill me?" She yelled at the top of her lungs now. He stopped, but didn't turn around. Instead, he hang his head, and spoke in a sad, soft tone. "I wish that was what they'd do, sis, I wish that's what they'd do."
Day three
Zima stood up, while his eyes came back into focus. "Way to many phone calls" he thought. Ever since last night he's been calling and calling. He was trying to find out where Chii was held, and where Takumi was. He wasn't afraid they'd trace his calls. Ever since he got out of the syndicate he's been building his own private network, which stood at a direct opposite of there's. Heavy firewalls, loads of fake servers, and Dita. She was willing to give her life for the cause, which he didn't particularly enjoy, but he did see the necessity. She wrote her own programs, so that, when ever anyone came close enough to do Zima any harm, her subs would connect with the attacker, and blow there software out. Along with herself. She thought he didn't know, but she was fooling herself. Within his network, he knew everything. That's why Takumi surprised him. He was a first class actor. That much credit for him. However, he was no match for Zima's experience. He had him. He was smart, staying in the area. Going up mount Fujisan was indeed brilliant. Zima should have guessed, because there was a small syndicate stronghold there, but it was a surprise nonetheless. Now, all that needed to be done was select a team to get her out. Zima closed his eyes, and sat down again. "Once more" was his thought, as he got lost in his gigantic phone book again.
As Chii woke up, she noticed there were monitoring cables hooked up to her. Fear crawled its way into her systems, as she wondered what they were after. Soon, data began to flow in. slow at first, but somehow she was unable to stop it. The servers trying to get in were to strong. Chii started a counter attack, and got through the first wall. She saw that the attacking server was in fact only one. Immensely strong and there were several others waiting. She also saw its directive. Her eyes went wide, as she through everything she had into the fight. She screamed in horror.
Day four
"So that's the deal. What do you think guys?" Zima folded his arms, looking very content. The group was quiet for a while, all waiting for Hideki to say his say. It was his girl, his call. They could only advise. Hideki was quiet for some time, before looking up to his friend. "Can you do it?" he asked without questioning the mission itself. Zima to was silent for a moment. "Yes we can." Hideki stood up, and embraced Zima. "Then go for it. Do what you must, but bring her home." he whispered. Zima hugged him back. Up until now, he was working to find her, and then to make the preparations for the assault. Now that all was settled, he noticed how tired he was. How sick of the fact he ever worked for them. He was going to pay them back. But not yet. "I'll call the appropriate people, and I'll get some sleep. I'll be on my way in 5 hours." He held Hideki at arms length, while he looked at him, and the rest. Chitose, Dita, Minoru and Hikari nodded in agree mend. It was settled. Tomorrow would be the day of deliverance.
The unknown woman lay on the floor. Had she been human, she would lie in her own filth. However, she wasn't. She was a robot. A very sophisticated one, but a broken robot nonetheless. She didn't know who she was, or why she was there. Only one thing remained. The one thing that kept her going. That kept her alive and 'sane'. The few systems she was able to protect from the constant bettering of the others were protected with an encrypted code. "hidekifides132279473678881.9" Someone's name, promise in Latin and a time index, that referred to her memory. She didn't know who he was, what promise it was, and her long term memory was in the hands of the enemy. Al she knew she had to hold on. They would come for her. He would come for her.
Day five
They came closer. Only 3 more systems remained hers. Her memory, her emotional subs, and herself. She was crying on the floor she lay on. She had cried for a long time now. It would be a matter of minutes now. She could feel their prying fingers in her mind already. Suddenly, the door burst open with a bang. A beautiful purple haired woman came in, followed by a man. Both wore a black outfit, but somehow they looked vaguely familiar. The woman ran to her, a look of shock on her face. "Chii, are you ok?" she could only look up, as she heard the name ring through her mind. I meant something, but she didn't know what. Her memory was almost entirely gone. Another man came in, who looked very angry. He was yelling something at them. She couldn't make it out quit because of the noise from the other side of the door. She noticed screams, and clashing sounds. The angry man raised his voice to the woman. He didn't notice the other man, who now had a hateful expression on his face. The man who came in second grabbed the woman, and hit her in the face. She fell to the floor, but the first man grabbed him by his neck. He gave a big jerk, and the other man gave a scream of fear. Suddenly it was there. Her defenses fell, as a white light engulfed her. She saw Hideki and Takumi look at her, as Hideki's power arms pulled Takumi's head lose from his body, as her mind went to full power to bring enlightenment to her lost children.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a hospital. A private room from the looks of it. Hideki sat in a char next to her bed, face down on her lap. He was asleep. He still wore black, but he took off the power arms. She smiled, and laid a hand on the back of his head. He woke up, startled. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" she whispered. "Chii!" he said and put his arms around her neck. "Are you ok? The doctors said they couldn't be sure, because they couldn't get into your programming, and I didn't want to let them go to deep considering what happened. Zima and Dita explained to me what happened. I'm so sorry, I really am." She laid a finger on his lips. "I love you" she whispered, and kissed him. He kissed her back, softly, and they sat there for several minutes. There lips separated, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, her chin on his shoulder. "Don't ever, never leave me alone again." He padded her back. "I won't. I told you when we met. I'll protect you. No matter what. I promise." Promise. Fides. The time index referred to that moment. He looked her in her eyes. "What happened back there, Chii? When I killed Takumi, you glowed up again. Suddenly all the syndicate persicoms fell to the floor. They were dead silent." Chii looked out the window. Was she human, she would have a trauma. Perhaps she did have one. It was hard for her to recall, and something in her didn't want tot. She had to try though.
"When you came in, I wasn't there. I didn't know who I was, why I was there, I didn't even know who you were. Chii was gone. I knew people were trying to get in my mind, to hurt me. And that I had to hold on. But I couldn't remember for whom. The moment you tore off Takumi's head, the superservers broke through my last defenses. Or so I thought. Apparently, mother and father tried to build something like the ultimate defense. Project Love and Life it was called. It failed horribly, like all ultimate creations. They left the failed attempts and the documentation in my database, and for some reason, after the attack squad came for me, I unconsciously tried to finish it. I didn't get very far, but something must have worked. I put it up as a last line of defense, and when they entered, it flooded the servers systems with my emotional subs, and a giant sense of guilt. I build it to trigger suicide."
There was a moment of silence, when neither of them could speak if they wanted to. After a few moments Chii spoke up again. "I hope they did." All Hideki could do was wrap his arms around the one for him, as she started crying.
I've had fun writing this. I really did. I've had a lot of support from my suroundings, like Maus666, and my family. But dont forget TimeIncursion. Keep writing, keep writing. This chapter took unusualy long to write, because of its lenght, but also because to much happend in the story. Chii had to break, and be fixed, Hideki should be a hero (now thats a tough job ;-)). I hope you liked it though. not just the chapter, but the entire fic. I know i tried something very rare, and that it isnt finished yet. theres still no outcome to the acceptance of persicoms, but because of that, I'm doing an OVA! Read on, and for those to whom it may concern, Write on. The highest valeu a man can reach, is in his creativaty. Write on.
