Oh, and I don't own canon characters, MFE does, yadda yadda yadda.

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Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 2

'Finally! That was so uncomfortable.. at least now I can lie here for a moment... before getting up.' Taking a deep breath, he shoved himself upright, and, swinging his legs over the side, he stood. And looked down. And had to stop himself from laughing.

The slim and beautiful Daemon stood only chest high to him! She was tiny.. yet had the powerful presence of a virus fifty times her size. Leaning against the table for support, he nodded his thanks.

"Now.. for your information.." She nodded and blinked lazily, as if to remind him that his life was running out. "You said that every Guardian bows to your will?" Again the lazy blink and nod. Oh, he was going to enjoy this... "You're wrong."

She came to attention instantly, eyes slitted and claws out, and the ferocity that blazed forth from her made him take a step back involuntarily. Her voice was sweet poison that made his shoulders twitch at the single word, "Explain."

Trying to regain his composure once again, he cleared his throat and tried to hide his intensifying pain. "Well, you see... I come from a system by the name of 'Mainframe'. Ah.. I see you've heard of it?"

Daemon had blinked in shock, and now leaned back against the table. "Tell me more..."

"Yes, well, Mainframe was also home to a certain Guardian.. one named Bob. I had sent him to the Web to die a while back, then turned my attention to the young cadet he had apparently recruited. My current appearance is due to their.. recent return from the Web..." Megabyte let his voice trail off as Daemon nodded.

"That is reason enough. We will talk more later, when you are somewhat.. recovered." She waved a hand, bringing up a VidWindow at the same time a group of Guardians marched in through the door. She spoke to someone on the other end of the window, "Set up the reconstruction chamber.. I have someone in need of it. He will need to be patched up - temporarily, at least. More modifications will depend on what happens next."

Megabyte watched the infected sprites warily as they surrounded him, then turned back to Daemon as she cleared her throat.

"Go with them, Megabyte.. I will take care of everything. Trust me..." The last that the badly damaged virus saw of her was that wicked smile.. just before the first filelocker froze him in place.

********

Daemon smiled and hummed to herself as she watched her slaves drag the filelocked Megabyte away. She'd have to ponder his new look.. as badly damaged as he was, he would need a complete makeover. One that would match her own might be best.. the two of them seemed to understand each other perfectly.

Of course, she would also need to have some way of controlling him, just in case he decided to turn against her. But if he had been in Mainframe, then he might have come into contact with the first webspore she had sent to that system. If he -had-, then it might explain how he had been able to survive the Web.

Pondering that bit of information, Daemon wandered down a hallway to one of the many rooms in the center of the Guardian Citadel. Locating the one she sought, Daemon stood and watched as Megabyte was lowered into an energy bath, then unlocked from his temporary prison.

Watching his fall and resulting splash into the energy brought a smile to her lips, then strode into the room. Seeing the sprites and binomes jump at her sudden appearance, she watched them carefully, ready to pounce on anyone who made the slightest mistake in her presence.

She walked over to the energy bath and looked in to see Megabyte held down to the bottom of the tank by strong steel bands. He was struggling against them feebly, and Daemon shook her head.

"You have to breathe in the energy - you may drown, but it's not as if I'm not going to bring you right back. Don't worry about it my dear, you'll do fine." She patted the top of the tank, then watched as Megabyte gave in and inhaled the specially-charged energy. He choked and twisted as the now-sealed tank was swung up into a vertical position.

She watched as his battered body twitched and finally came to rest, then began to float in the reinforced transparent tube as a new wash of energy was forced into it. Pressing a button on one of the panels before her, she brought up a full scan of his system and the damage that had been done to it.

'Oooh.. this is interesting.. he had a self-destruct? And it's been drained? Now how did he manage that? Hmm.. this panel on his arm.. it used to connect to some sort of restraining collar.. maybe he did the same sort of thing that I'm going to. But I will at least place it inside his body.. which means that I'll have to install that bit of hardware inside myself as well.'

Daemon grinned and called up schematics for the exact model she wanted. Without even turning, she called one of the sprites over and demanded a unit brought to her immediately.

Under her orders, the tube started to return to its former position, and finally opened up, revealing the motionless Megabyte. Daemon blinked and looked down at him, and was struck by the line of his jaw. He seemed so innocent lying there like that... innocent, and entirely helpless.

A panting Guardian ran up with the control unit and its reciever and placed them in her hand. Placing them both on the panel beside her, Daemon turned her attention to Megabyte's cracked chest armor.

Digging her nails into the crack, she gently worked the slabs of armor apart until she could fit both hands into the crevace. Then, taking a deep breath, she tensed.. and heaved open Megabyte's chest with a resounding *CRACK*.

Ignoring the horrified reactions of her slaves, Daemon picked up the control's reciever and placed it into Megabyte's pulsing core. She then pressed the armor together again, and tapped another command into the panels. The tube sealed and returned to its upright position.

Daemon turned around to view the room at large, her arms drenched in energy. As she strode past her shivering workers, one engineering sprite couldn't suppress a shudder as Daemon walked past, and so became Daemon's next victim.

********

Relaxing back in her office, Daemon sketched out her design for Megabyte's new look. The deep blue would clash with her bright blue markings, so that had to go, of course.. hmm.. maybe.. black? Black would look good.. but with just the bright blue it would look too stark.. it needed something to spruce it up a bit.

Daemon paused for a moment, letting her eyes roam around the room. A flash of gold from her headdress caught her eye, and she smiled. Gold? Black, blue and - gold? No.. using gold would put him on a rank with her, but.. silver? Oh yes... Silver she could see. Black, silver and blue.. the combination would be simply delightful.

Grinning widely, she tapped in the specifications and added the colors, then sat back and admired Megabyte's new form.

A sudden beeping made her sit up as new readings ran across the screen, and Daemon stared in shock. Megabyte's code was breaking apart? How? Why? There was no reason for it to do so..

The she saw a single line of code that wasn't unravelling. It looked different from the rest of him, it looked.. familiar, somehow. Quickly cross-referencing it against other code patterns she had, she waited for something to come up. Tapping her nails on the polished surface of the desk, Daemon wondered why she had reacted so strongly. It wasn't as if she knew this virus very well... but she had the oddest feeling about him..

The beep from the console startled her so much she scratched deep furrows in the desk with her claws. Blinking and wondering again at her reaction, she looked at the display screen and frowned.

"WEB code? What in the Net is Web code doing in him?" Running another scan over Megabyte, she noted the tiny remains of web code that was embedded in his own, and ran it against her records. Since he had mentioned that he came from Mainframe, if the web creature had attacked him, the traces would match... and it did.

So.. since the parts of his body that had been affected by the Web was withstanding this - unravelling of his code, the smartest thing to do would be to get more Web code and splice it in to stop the destruction. The only drawback to this plan was that she didn't have a web spore. Well.. she'd just have to get one then...

Opening up a half dozen VidWindows, she called a group of pilots together and gave them a simple task - enter the Web, locate a WebSpore and retrieve it for her, as soon as possible. As for their motivation.. she played for them a tape of the death throes of the pilot who had failed her. Smiling sweetly at their terrified faces, she cut the channel and began to wait...

********

Megabyte had no idea where he was, if this was a dream or a nightmare, real or imagined. The last thing he remembered was seeing Daemon's face above him telling him not to worry, to breath the energy into his lungs. Then when he did, the searing pain, the pressure inside him, and still, her serene smiling face... then nothing. He had felt like he was floating for a while, then drifted until his feet touched the ground.

Opening his eyes, he found himself looking at.. nothing. There was nothing around him, just a rather blank greyness. No floor, but he was most certainly standing on something. no walls, no ceiling... nothing at all. Then he noticed something else.. he wasn't hurting anymore.

He looked down to see his armor, whole, complete, without a blemish or mark, without even that damnable dent that Matrix boy had put in him. He snarled viciously at the memory of that humiliating episode. Who could have known the boy would grow up like that? Bah.. at least he could hope they'd died in the system crash.

Remembering the shock he'd felt when Enzo Matrix had punched him, he felt the region where he'd been dented. Yes it was whole.. but what was this? A glowing line was tracing itself down his armour, and it itched. In fact, it hurt.. no.. it more then hurt, it-

Megabyte screamed as his chest was ripped open, spilling forth a bright light into the greyness. It shone on a small glowing orb that moved towards him, and no matter how he tried to move, Megabyte could not escape the orb. It came closer and eventually entered his chest, which then sealed up behind it, leaving no mark.

Gasping at the sensation of pain, it took Megabyte a few heartbeats to realize that there was a new sensation... something inside him was moving. It had to be the orb, but what was it doing? Spreading into his arms and legs, through his chest and into his head, Megabyte had no way of stopping the spread of the unknown object.

He felt it spread all through his body, then, in one terrifying moment, take control. He tried to scream as control of his body was taken from him, but couldn't even make a sound. Was this what infection was like?

For a length of time that felt endless, Magabyte was a passenger in his own body, then, with no warning, the hold on him retreated, giving him back control. Shuddering, Magabyte flexed his arms and shook himself sharply, trying to get rid of the feeling that he had been invaded. It didn't work - the feeling was still there.

Looking around at the emptyness, Megabyte was suddenly flooded with a desire to make those in Mainframe feel as helpless as he had. He could feel that they had survived, and knew that Bob would do anything to protect the system, and had probably managed to pull some kind of last-minute rabbit out of a hat. Bob.. and now Enzo Matrix as well.

As he pictured Matrix in his mind, he was amazed to see a ghostly image appear in front of him, as large as the sprite himself. Concentrating a bit harder, the image of the adult Enzo Matrix solidified to the point where Megabyte was able to walk around him.

"Interesting.. I can see that this place has certain.. advantages. I wonder though.." Megabyte reached out and touched the image's shoulder, and was less surprised when his hand touched solid flesh. "Hmm..." Raising an eyebrow, he concentrated a bit more, and the pseudo-Enzo turned his head and snarled at him. Megabyte grinned wolfishly, and unsheathed his claws. This would be rather.. enjoyable.

********

Daemon smiled contentedly as her Web pilots reported in, or as in one case, had their demise reported for them. She now had two webspores on their way in, and was quite pleased with herself. First, she would rebuild Megabyte and find out the rest of his information; second, she would rename him, and reasess his classification; third, she would decide if he would become one of her underlings, or if she would need to wipe his mind.

Now, all she needed to start the code splicing was for one of her pilots to get back, and everything could begin.

********

Megabyte threw back his head and laughed. Energy dripped off his razor-sharp claws as the shredded body of Enzo Matrix shimmered and faded as the sprite was deleted. That had been the fourth time he'd done that, and he had already destroyed Bob three times as well.

It had been rather satisfying, but still.. empty. He knew they were still out there, and he yearned to return to Mainframe and delete them for real. Banishing the pseudo-energy with a thought, Megabyte stared out into the greyness again.

What to do, now that the novelty of killing Matrix and Bob had worn off? Hmm.. maybe he should spare a nano or two to think about his captor, Daemon. Megabyte grinned and pictured her tiny form in front of him. The area around him began to change into the room he had been in before, when Deamon had put him into that energy tube. Megabyte let it change, and simply looked at her.

Now.. if he were in her place, he might keep her as an underling, simply for her looks. That she was also rather dangerous and powerful as well as being beautiful was more then attractive.. it was.. exhilerating. Letting his eyes roam over her form, he noted her vivid body markings, the way just the tips of her talons showed over her fingers, the fizzling spark of her eyes.. and felt something inside him.. change.

He no longer wanted to displace her, but rather, work with her. Megabyte knew he could help her in her ruling of the Net.. for all her power, she was still rather young. His experience working in tandem with her control could raise the entire Net into a new age of viral freedom!

Plus.. there would be the added bonus of being with her all the time. Megabyte always took pride in the way he looked, and knew he was quite attractive for a virus. He placed one hand on the front of the tube (when did he get in a tube?) and chuckled.

"Oh, my dear Daemon... what the two of us could do together... and just think of what we could do for the Net."

Daemon raised an eyebrow and smiled in spite of herself. "What we could do? You're assuming a bit too much Megabyte.. when did I ever say that I'd let you live after you'd given me your information?"

Megabyte froze in shock and stared at Daemon, horrified.

"You.. you can hear me?!?"

Daemon grinned at the look on his face, and motioned one of her slaves forward. The Guardian carried a small containment unit with a struggling webspore inside. Megabye stared at it with growing dread, then glanced back at Daemon.

"What.. what are you doing, Daemon! You never mentioned this before!" Megabyte pressed outwards on the sides of the tube he was trapped in, but the walls never shivered, not even when he struck out harder. Hissing at the pain radiating through his hands, Megabyte looked down, and hissed in shock.

His hands were starting to decay, the surface of his skin cracking and flaking, disintegrating even as he watched. Panicky and half disgusted, he met Daemon's eyes as she nodded and motioned towards the webspore.

"Your code is coming unravelled for some reason. The only thing that has been able to stop it has been the slight traces a past webspore left on your code. So.. my solution has been simple. Splice your remaining code with that of another webspore." The Guardian locked the containment unit onto the base of Megabyte's prison, then stepped back.

"It's the only way, Megabyte, the only way that I could find. Don't worry.. you should come out of this all right - if you come out of it at all. Now, before I release the webspore into the tube, is there anything you want to tell me? Hopefully you'll let me know what it is I want before you disintegrate."