AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is based on the X-Files episode of the same name, and is an alternate version with original characters. The focus is on Maitreya's attempts to escape the virtual world and the other characters' attempts to stop her.

I do not own the character of Maitreya. The other characters are mine.

Enjoy the story!

"Clear!" shouted Player One.

"Clear!" called back Player Two.

"Clear!" echoed Player Three.

"Did we get 'em all?" asked Player Two.

Player One looked at the small video screen attached to his arm. TARGETS ELIMINATED IN LEVEL: 37. TARGETS REMAINING IN LEVEL: 1.

"One left. Come on, guys. Let's finish the job."

The three young men, among the first to play this new, ultra-realistic virtual reality game, reloaded their game "assault rifles". Weapons at the ready, they darted into a side corridor and entered a large, empty room, fanning out, pointing their weapons into the darkness...

"Whoa," said Player Three suddenly.

A woman had stepped out from the shadows. With her long dark brown hair, blue eyes, and high-cheekboned face, she was stunningly beautiful. Her body was just as spectacular. She wore a tight white T-shirt, skintight black leather pants, and knee-high black leather high-heeled boots with razor-sharp stilettos. Black leather gloves covered her hands, and a shiny metal bracelet adorned each of her wrists. The tight shirt showed off the outline of her perky 34C breasts, and a hint of her hard six-pack abs was visible between pants and top. She was tanned a deep brown, the darkness of the skin on her arms and stomach emphasized by the contrast with her white shirt. Her upper arms had visible muscle tone even when she wasn't flexing. Slender but muscular, she looked to be about 5'9" and 135 pounds, although her high heels boosted her height to over six feet, making her tower over all three guys.

"Holy shit," said Player One.

"What a babe," added Player Two. All three guys, their little heads fully in control of their thinking, had lowered their weapons.

"Who are you?" asked Player One.

The woman looked straight at him with her piercing blue eyes. She said nothing for a few seconds, as if sizing him up, then spoke in a clear, confident yet feminine voice:

"I am Maitreya. This is my game."

A crossbow suddenly appeared in her gloved hands. Before any of the men could react, she fired. A steel bolt impacted Player One in the center of his chest and he collapsed to the ground.

"GET HER!" shouted Player Two. He and Player Three both opened fire with their assault rifles, but Maitreya had already begun doing a series of standing back handsprings, elegantly backflipping away from them. As she disappeared into the shadows, Player Two bent over the body of Player One while Player Three kept watch with his weapon.

"Holy fuck," reported Player Two. "He's dead. Like, fucking dead for real!"

"How the fuck could that happen?" demanded Player Three. "The game's not supposed to..."

"Quiet. I think she's coming back." The faint clicking of a woman's high heels on the stone floor came from the distance, the sound slowly growing louder. The two men pointed their guns into the darkness, their hearts pounding.

She emerged from the shadows, this time holding a spear in her right hand and a shield in her left. Both guys opened fire, but Maitreya raised her shield, positioning it to keep herself covered, the bullets clanging harmlessly off of it.

Suddenly, she hurled her spear right at Player Two with a throw that would have made an Olympic javelin thrower envious. The spear impaled him through the center of his torso, the tip exiting out from his back. Player Two stood ramrod straight for a second, then collapsed.

"NOOOOOO! FUCK!" Player Three kept firing, but the deadly woman used her shield to block all the bullets, drawing a sword in her right hand as she continued advancing on him. Player Three's assault rifle clicked empty. He reached for another magazine and discovered that he had none left. With a curse, he threw his rifle down and drew his sidearm. He fired half a dozen shots, trying to catch her off guard, first aiming for her ankles, then for her head, but she lowered or raised her shield in time to block each bullet.

Maitreya was almost upon him now. She looked at the frustrated expression on his face, smiled, and dropped her shield, standing still in front of him, holding her sword in a two-handed grip and twirling it rapidly, the heavily developed muscles in her forearms rippling underneath her dark brown skin.

Thinking he had her now, Player Three fired a shot at the center of her chest. There was a clang of metal on metal. Somehow, she had deflected the bullet with her sword. She continued to stand there, still smiling at him.

"Shit!" He fired again. This time, her arm somehow got into position before he knew what was happening and the bullet bounced off the metal bracelet on her wrist.

"No...no...how can you..." he moaned.

She moved, a flash of brown hair, brown skin, and black leather, and with a quick series of one-handed cartwheels and front handsprings covered the remaining distance between them. Player Three fired twice more, both rounds passing harmlessly between her legs as she was upside down. She landed elegantly right in front of him as his pistol clicked empty.

She looked straight into his frightened eyes and spoke in an emotionless voice, like a scientist recording a laboratory fact into a tape recorder. "Player Number Three. Brought a gun to a swordfight. Lost."

Her blade suddenly flashed twice. Player Three felt a horrible pain. Looking down, he saw that she had cut off both of his hands, which were now lying on the floor next to the empty pistol. He began screaming, continuously.

She smiled at him for the last time. Then, with a single swift swing, she cut off his head.