Defying the Darkness
Chapter Eight

AndrAIa hadn't gone straight home as she had originally intended. She didn't want to be home right now. She was sitting in the shadow of a large residential building in a somewhat out-of-sight, out-of-mind place. The area bore a strong resemblance to an alleyway, and no one really had call to go there unless they were collecting the garbage or fleeing a fire. From the looks of the dumpsters, the second of those events was the most likely to happen.

One of her legs was stretched out on the ground, and the other was curled up so she should rest her chin on her knee. She had wrapped her arms around the folded leg and simply cried. She didn't make a sound, but the tears flowed down her cheeks like small rivers, falling in large droplets on her wrist-guards before shattering into a thousand smaller droplets that seemed to disappear. She needed Matrix. She loved him so much...how could he turn her away? She really wished that slap she had given to Ray had actually hurt him - not just made her point known.

Perhaps if she talked to Dot something could be worked out. At absolute least, she and Matrix would have a level-headed mediator to keep their purpose defined. She wondered why no one had told her he was back. This hadn't really occurred to her until now, and it only registered with her now because she had considered speaking with another member of the Matrix family - one who would certainly have know he had come home.

Wiping the tears from her face, she decidedly set a course for Baudway and the apartment.

------

Matrix was pacing the floor with enough intensity to potentially bore a hole in it. He had been doing this for some time now, waiting for Bob to drop by. He didn't want to pull him away from something important, but he really needed to relay what he had just done to the Guardian to gain some perspective on it and decide whether or not he had acted in error.

Naturally Bob, having an uncanny ability to arrive where needed when needed, entered the apartment just when the Renegade was about to pull up a Vid and get in touch with him.

"Bob, do you have a few nanos?" The green sprite asked, barely giving his host a chance to enter.

"Yeah, sure! What's processing?" Guardian 452 didn't have a full realization of how much Matrix had worked himself up, and so when faced with a rather speedy and Enzo-like telling of the concern, he was forced to interrupt much as he had when the GameHopper was a child and ask him to slow down. "Now, what is going on?"

The younger of the two sprites began again, this time with a considerably higher level of coherence.

"I went to see AndrAIa, and -"

"You what? Matr -"

The Renegade threw a hand up that asked for silence from Bob.

"I know, alright? I know." He huffed, resuming his story-telling. "I went to see her - saw her heading to Mouse's ship and when I got there..." He paused, deciding to sit down, and in doing so giving the Guardian a chance to do the same. "When I got there I found her sucking face with Surfr." The silver-haired male was again going to interject, but before he could be given that option, Matrix continued his account of what had happened. "So after that I spoke with her briefly and told her that we couldn't be a couple right now...or, really, that I couldn't be with her at the moment. I'm starting to think I made the biggest mistake of my life. I mean, I've only been here for a few micros, and...well...yeah." He shrugged and stretched his legs out straight.

For quite some time, neither sprite said anything, and then Bob quietly asked,

"Did you hit him?" Clearly he referred to Tracer.

Matrix shook his head, responding with a simple "No."

"Ironic." The Guardian stated. "That is perhaps the one time I would have encouraged you to clean his clockchip."

"But what do I do about AndrAIa? I told her that we could try and pick things up later..." The Renegade's perplexed tone gave Bob absolutely no directional compass to guide him to an appropriate response.

"Well...what did she say?" He asked cautiously.

"She told me it wasn't fair." Shrugging, Matrix put a hand to his forehead. "I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

Bob was now the one who swayed his head from left to right in negation.

"No, you're not an idiot, Matrix, but you should probably speak to AndrAIa about this and figure out if this was the best course of action or not." The Guardian stood up. "She's a very reasonable sprite, and I'm sure that if you two talk this out, you'll be able to find a solution."

Just as this was said, Glitch made a very brief beeping sound, and Dot was calling to him through the keytool.

"Bob, is Matrix over there with you?" She asked, compassionate concern in her voice.

"Yes, why?" He could hear some kind of background noise, but it was too garbled to be deciphered.

"AndrAIa's here...and I think she and Matrix need to talk to one another."

Not giving the Renegade a say in the matter, Guardian 452 declared: "We're on our way."

------

Dot and AndrAIa had been sitting and chatting for some time now. The GameSprite had stopped her crying quite some time ago, but she still wore absolute heart-break on her face. As soon as Matrix and Bob entered the apartment, she had snapped to attention, her cheerless eyes gazing at her Lover raptly.

The first words said by any of the four sprites upon their coming together were spoken by Renegade Matrix.

"I don't want to risk having Enzo hear any of this," He told the other three almost inaudibly. "He's seen enough of my mistakes as it is."

Soft murmurs amongst the group finally produced the general consensus that Matrix was correct in seeking to keep this matter from the child, and so, to answer the call of duty, Guardian 452 proceeded to call down the hallway to Enzo's closed door.

"Hey Enzo, how about a little Circuit Racing?" Bob had turned back to the group to keep abreast of the primary event as best as he could, and in mere nanos he heard the young sprite's hurried footsteps behind him.

"Circuit Racing? You're on! C'mon Frisket!" Enzo slid into the main room, his shoes squealing on the floor as he came to a halt.

No one had been expecting what they saw when the boy made his entrance, for he wore his Guardian uniform, proudly placing his hands on his hips and holding his head high to show it off.

"Well now Little Sparky, don't you look sharp!" AndrAIa was the first to make a statement to him, but the others weren't far behind in their praise.

"Lookin' good, Kid." Matrix declared, smiling slightly at his copy, and Dot looked betwixt them approvingly.

"Yes, Enzo. You look fantastic..." She tilted her head to one side as her own smile grew. "...but you are growing up far too quickly." The latter portion of the statement had been said lightly, but were fully true to Dot's opinion of her youngest sibling.

The adults of the room exchanged glances swiftly, and for a nanos all that mattered was that eager Enzo Matrix stood before them as a Version One Cadet.

"Alright, Cadet Matrix," The Guardian began. "You ready to race?" A brief flash of envy flickered on the face of the Renegade in the room, but it was gone again as quickly as one could blink.

"Are you kidding me!" The child exclaimed eagerly. "I am going to completely offline you!"

"Over my deleted bitmap!" Bob retorted, ushering himself and the Cadet out in the process while the two of them continued their banter, the dog following closely behind.

This left only the troubled couple and the

------

Ray surfed over Mainframe, taking a final look at the city that he had considered his home for a short time. He and Mouse were no longer an item, and he seriously doubted that he and AndrAIa would be come one. Had that one fateful kiss gone another way, the Surfr would have no issues with leaving the system, but he knew - he just knew - that the lovely GameSprite had felt something when his lips had caressed hers. Even in her upset he had seen it in her eyes.

However, Matrix had once again come home, and with his return Tracer knew there was no chance of getting into AndrAIa's heart. She had unwaviering, almost blinding love for him, and that put Ray out of the picture. The only way he would be considered now would be if her current relationship fell to shambles over what Matrix had witnessed...and that wasn't exactly the best premise to hope for.

The Surfr had made an all-around disaster out of things, and he knew he wouldn't even factor into the equation that would repair his destruction. He had handled the events poorly, and had completely lacked his usual skill with tricky situations. That being the case, he also recognized (or rather surmised) that he no longer had a place in this system. It was time for him to return to his surfing, of which he had been increasingly neglectful after returning Megabyte to the Mainframers.

These were the musings that occupied his mind as he took what he presumed would be his last look at Mainframe. It was a shame really..before that banquet everything had been perfect. He and Mouse had been content, he had found a good friend in AndrAIa, and he and Matrix had even been getting along reasonably well.

He would have to give them all an apology, if nothing else, but he knew fully that this was not the time for it. Perhaps he would send word back to them in a few cycles, or consider making another brief visit, but as it was now, it was best to stay out of the way. Bearing that in mind, he swiftly made his exit from Mainframe at the ports of the Data C:\, holding his head high and not looking back. He was again Ray Tracer, the WebSurfr, the adventurer...the vagabond.

------

Dot had assigned herself as the mediator between Matrix and AndrAIa, to keep anything from getting out of hand, and to hopefully find some kind of resolve for them. The Aqua-haired sprite had been seated on Dot's sofa, and the Renegade sat on the coffee table in front of her, so that they could properly face one another. The had chosen to seat herself in a ZipChair beside both of them so that she might be more of an observer and referee than a participant.

"I guess you can start first, AndrAIa." The bespectacled sprite announced, sitting back and waiting for things to begin.

"Oh...okay..." Hastily the GameSprite gulped back her anxiety, and calmly said: "Enzo, I don't think it's reasonable that you can be so unforgiving of me after what you did."

Matrix didn't wait on a cue from Dot.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to forgive you." He replied. "I said I couldn't forgive you right now."

"Tell me why not!" This demand was given to the Renegade without anger, but with heart-broken exasperation.

Both of them looked at each other with unfaltering love, as if to spite all that had happened between them.

"It's just too much for me right now." He whispered, leaning closer to AndrAIa. The female Matrix had faded into the background completely, and no heed was taken of her presence whatsoever.

"What do you mean?" Simple answers were not going to be sufficient for the Artificially Intelligent sprite; she wanted a valid explanation, and she had determined that she would not quit until she had one.

For a moment no one drew breath. Matrix was going to have to tell her one of his deepest truths, and he didn't know if he could bear the idea. There were things that some sprites simply did not share with others, and now he was going to have to bare himself to AndrAIa or risk losing her forever.

"It's too hard..." He kept his words to a whisper. "It's like...all of my dreams and hopes and plans were taken from me when I was a child, and the only way I was able to get things back on track again was to do things I hated. I...had to live off of my hatred." He clenched his own knee until his knuckles paled. "Then I made new plans, new objectives, and as soon as I achieved them, I found something worse again waiting for me. It just keeps happening. I start to get things in order and make my life work, and something new and worse gets in my way." The Renegade bowed his head - an action that was becoming all to frequent. "AndrAIa, no matter what I do...no matter how hard I try, everything I touch always falls apart. I'm not going to let that happen to us." He reached out and snatched her hand. "I can't."

"We can work through this, Lover..." The GameSprite hoarsely murmured. "We'll fix it."

Soundlessly, Dot left the room to give the couple their privacy. She would still be within earshot, but would no longer watch them in the fashion of a voyeur.

"Yes, we will," AndrAIa's hand on Matrix' chin pulled his gaze to her. She looked so sad, so determined...so loving. "But not yet." He stated weakly; she was shredding his resolve with each passing nano. "If I don't fix myself, how are we supposed to fix us? It'd be like trying to use a fragmented file..."

It was AndrAIa's head that now tilted downward. She knew this was true; it was just so hard to make the correct choice. She could practically hear what Phong would say. That which is right is rarely, if ever, easy. Abandoning her composure, she threw herself into Matrix' arms and hugged him as tightly as her strength would possibly allow. He had done much the same, holding her to him as though for dear life.

"I don't know when," The muscular male buried his face in the lean woman's soft, sweet-smelling hair. "But you have my word that I'll come back to you. I will devote very second, every cycle to being the sprite I was meant to be so that I can be deserving of and you and give you everything you deserve in return."

They held their embrace for a small eternity - it had to last them both an infinite amount of time if they were to succeed in their efforts. Hence their resolution had been uncovered. It wasn't perfect, but then again, nothing ever was.

------

Ray had left the system indefinitely, and Mouse had to re-establish her hard exterior after having grown soft from the Surfr's affections; Matrix was going to work each and every nano at discovering the normalcy that had been stolen from him in his youth, and AndrAIa had chosen to do as her heart instructed and wait for him; Enzo the copy had begun to step into his own, finally laying claim to his Cadet status.

Bob and Dot? They had done everything within their power to hold the entire lot together. They had been the catalysts for the commencement of the repairs, for the most part, and although they had not been able to take care of everything, they had done their best and had helped lay the foundations for better times ahead. That was the best they could expect. It would be some time before they realized how much stronger the experience had made them as a unit, however, they had indeed been rewarded for their work by becoming closer to one another.

All that remained now was for Renegade Enzo Matrix to hold to his word and commit to his own betterment. It was time to shake the dark shroud that had been suffocating him and take back his life. It was time to hope again.

It was time to hope.

------

End.