I don't own Cyberchase. Max is mine.

Chapter Seven
Dream Fast

Digit awoke from sleep mode to warm feathers and a feeling of well-rest. Looking out the window, he saw that darkness had already come. And Digit realized he should have been back to Control Central four hours ago. Yet, when he tried to move, he found something heavy pressing down on his wings.

Digit panicked for a moment before realizing it was Max's head was resting on his body. Her sinuous frame wrapped around him with both paws holding him to her throat. The position was reminiscent of their times aboard the Grimm Wreaker. The times he and Max slept side by side had been the only good times they had. It was like their dreams were the reality and the reality was the nightmare.

While Digit wanted nothing more than to reflect on the similarities and differences of this time, he knew he had to get back to work. He struggled against Max and managed to slide out. Unfortunately, he had also awakened Max.

"Going some where, Didge?" The gargoyle said with a yawn so large, Digit could almost see down her esophagus.

Digit stretched until his joints popped back into place. "Yeah, Max. I should've been gone hours ago. I can't believe I slept this long." He said.

"Motherboard said you had been awake for a good thirty-six hours. By that time, you were already running on back-up batteries. I'm surprised you hadn't gone to sleep sooner than that." Max said. She stretched like a cat then settled back on her haunches; mismatched eyes fixed upon the cyboid.

"Thirty-six hours, is that all? I thought I had been awake longer than that." Digit said.

"Doesn't seem like much, does it?" Max said, nodding in agreement.

"No."

Silence.

Cyboid and cyborg-gargoyle stared at each other as though uncertain what to say next. Digit wished he didn't have to leave. He didn't get to spend much time with Max anymore. Now that she was on the run from Hacker, she didn't have enough time to sit and chat. Nor could she stay on a public site for too long either.

"I didn't mean to wake you." Digit finally said.

Max shrugged as though it didn't matter. "I'm a light sleeper. I needed to get up anyway." She said.

"Since when are you a light sleeper? It used to take forever for me to wake you up in the morning." He pointed out.

Max glared at him. "I've always been a light sleeper. I was just ignoring you. Unfortunately, I didn't figure you being so bloody persistent."

"Sure. I bet that's what it was." Digit said, in a teasing voice.

Max's lips curled over her fangs in a growl as she lowered her head in a threatening manner. Digit playfully slapped her muzzle with a wing. Max laughed and Digit laughed with her. While Max could be big and scary when she wanted to be, Digit had known Max long enough to know she would never purposely hurt him.

Digit rubbed Max on her pink snout, his laughter died out and his face turned sad. "I wish we saw more of each other, Max." He said.

Max's tongue found the tip of Digit's beak. "So do I, Didge. So do I."

"Promise me you'll come visit Control Central more often." Digit said.

Max let silence stretch between them a moment and Digit knew her answer would be no.

"When this is all over, I'll be able to stay in Control Central with you and Dad and Motherboard." She finally said. "We'll be a family again, Didge. But now is not the time."

"When will the time be?" Digit asked.

"When you-know-who is dead and his evil destroyed. Also, I need to get my cyborg body back." Max said.

"Why? You look pretty good as a gargoyle to me, Max." Digit said. Max stretched out, again, and Digit rested on her paws.

"It's not the same, Didge." Max told him.

"You mean about being a social outcast now?" Digit asked.

Max nodded, gravely. "Yeah."

"I see." Digit said.

Again, silence. Then,

"It's not that I don't enjoy being a gargoyle it's just . . . it feels weird waking up in the morning and listening to a heartbeat instead of the familiar hum of my inner-circuits. I have veins and arteries and blood, not canals and tubes and oil. And when I look at myself in the mirror, I expect to see a kid with messy brown hair. What I see is a monster with half a face and two robotic body parts." Said Max.

"Well, what do you like about it?" Asked Digit.

"I like the speed. The freedom to fly wherever I want -"

Digit glanced up at Max's immobilized wings still strapped to her sides and cocked an eyebrow at her.

"- when I can fly." She added when she caught her friend's meaning.

Digit nodded in understanding.

"I like being bigger than most people. And I like that you-know-who is now afraid of me." Max said.

"See, there is a bright side to this after all." Digit said.

"I suppose you could call it a bright side." Max admitted.

"Well, aside from all that other stuff you need to do beforehand, you do know you can come back to Control Central at anytime, right?" Digit said.

Max nodded. "Yeah. Motherboard said I can come see you guys at anytime. But, I'd rather not drag you guys into something I'm supposed to do."

"When it's all be said and done, you'll come back, huh?" Digit asked.

Max nodded. Then, broke out into song.

"When it's all been said and done.

There is just one thing that matters.

Did I do my best to live for truth?

Did I live my life for you?

"When it's all been said and done.

All my treasures will mean nothing.

Only what I've done

For love's reward

Will stand the test of time."1

Digit wasn't exactly sure what to make of this. He had heard Max sing the song before, she used to sing a lot in her cyborg days. Now that she was a gargoyle searching to end the existence of an evil borg – and possibly her own existence – the words struck Digit as strange. Almost like Max was accepting the fact she may or may not survive the fight that was to come. Digit felt his coolant freeze.

"Max, promise me you'll beat him. Promise me you'll beat him fast and soon." Digit said.

Max swallowed. "I promise, Didge."

For some reason, Digit didn't believe her.

1

When Digit departed from Shangri-La, Max headed down to the reflection pond. Master Pi was already there waiting for her. Max had already discussed having a dream fasting with him earlier and Master Pi agreed it would be a good idea. Warriors were known for taking dream fasts at least a couple of times in their existence, as it was used as a means of finding ones-self. Max had done the dream fast once so she knew what was to be expected. But she hadn't done it since her scuffle with the Magnetite and she wondered how different it would be.

Master Pi held up a clay goblet. The goblet contained the potion necessary for dream fasting. Max had no idea what the potion was made from since only Master Pi made it and he wouldn't pass it on to anyone unless he was coming to the end of his existence.

"Drink." Master Pi told her, tilting the goblet in Max's direction.

Max lapped up the potion, holding back a grimace of disgust – the stuff was nasty! - until it was gone. Immediately, she felt sleepy and her head fell to her chest.

Master Pi watched the cyborg-gargoyle for a moment before drifting away. Max would dream fast for a few hours, now. It was considered rude for anyone to accompany them while they fasted.

0

Max felt like she was falling into a pool of water – or rather, molasses. It was a familiar feeling, one that previous fasters used to speak of whenever Max asked them before she started her own fasting. But it was still a bizarre feeling nonetheless.

Once the falling stopped, Max looked around. She was fronted by a mirror which contained a still of a part of her life. She eyeballed the mirror before touching it with a claw. Immediately, the mirror parted like liquid and Max stepped through.

The scene unfolded before her:

She was in a semi-dark room in Control Central. It took Max a minute to realize it was her father's workroom, a place of solace for him where he could plan out and work on his inventions in peace. The blocky communications unit mounted on the wall being the only connection between the workroom and Motherboard's control deck.

Dr. Marbles sat on his stool at his bench with a halogen light glowing above his head. An array of tools lined the wall and jewelers tools sat in their box at the back of the bench. Max saw a pair of bare feet on the bench and she moved off to the side to see better. She wasn't worried about Marbles seeing her. These were her memories, everything happened just as it was supposed to and to this memory-Marbles, she didn't exist yet.

Max's eyes went to the body on the bench. It was a miniature version of her just before she was brought to life. She watched her father screw one last wire into place on her chest, insert a memory chip into her skull, then step back. Memory-Max opened her eyes, looked at memory-Marbles and smile.

"Dada!" She said, arms reaching out to him with fingers making grabby gestures.

Marbles smiled with relief and picked her up. Her toddler-sized body fitting neatly in his arms. "My name is Dr. Marbles. But you can call me Dada or dad or whatever you like."

He hugged her, then set her back on the bench while he sat on the stool and rubbed his chin in thought. "Now, what shall I call you?"

Marbles tried a few variations, voicing them outloud. Then, he smiled and said, "I'll call you Maxanne Marbles. Max for short. What do you think of that, Max?"

Max smiled. "I like it, Daddy." She said.

"Good." Marbles said.

He picked her up again and carried her out of the room. He took her from room to room, showing her everything Control Central had to offer. Then, he introduced her to Motherboard who smiled warmly at her.

"Very good, Marbles." Motherboard said. "You have made a very beautiful child."

Marbles blushed. "Thank you, Motherboard." He said. "But she is more than just a child to me. She is to be my daughter. Do you know what the first word she said was?"

Motherboard's holographic head shook back and forth.

"She called me dada." He said, proudly.

"I am glad." Motherboard said. "I am glad she has fully accepted you as her father and not as her creator."

"So am I, Motherboard. So am I."

The scene quickly fast-forward from there. Max watched herself grow up. She watched herself sleep and heard Motherboard tell her stories about the Shield-maidens of Shangri-La and sing her to sleep. She saw herself assist Marbles with Motherboard's repairs. She saw herself head off to Shangri-La to begin her training. She saw herself leave Shangri-La for home. And she saw Hacker for the first time.

The times before meeting Hacker was relatively pleasant. Her father at least had time for her. Now, that Hacker had come online, Marbles had little time for Max. He and Hacker were constantly busy keeping Motherboard up and running. Max wasn't jealous, she understood their time together was essential for keeping Motherboard healthy. But did Marbles really have to ignore her?

Maybe I am jealous. Max thought, watching her younger self sitting forlornly in a corner, pretending to polish her nunchuks while she watched her "brother".

She never called him brother, not to mention she never felt the need to call him brother. Marbles had introduced him as his assistant, not his son. His relationship with Hacker wasn't like his relationship with her. At least when he introduced Max to people, he always said "This is my daughter, Max." When he introduced Hacker, he always said "This is my assistant, Hacker." He had used the same lines when he introduced Hacker to Max, so Max could only assume Hacker was not meant to be part of the family.

She never liked Hacker, that much was obvious. Hacker took her father away from her. Not to mention, there was something dark and unpleasant about him. Something evil.

Max used to warn her father about Hacker. There had been a few instances where she caught Hacker in her room and something went missing. Marbles had talked to Hacker about it. Of course, Hacker always had an excuse ready on hand.

"I was just looking at this shield. I found it so fascinating, I wanted to analyze it." He said.

"Next time, Hacker, please ask Max before you take anything." Marbles said, taking the shield from him and passing it back to Max.

"Of course." Hacker said with a slick grin.

Max hated that grin. It was a smile that blended oddly with his sickly-green skin. And his eyes never reflected the friendliness his smile tried to convey. His eyes were dark, like a train-less tunnel. Covetous, tricky, false. She could come up with quite a few adjectives to describe how she felt about him.

Max had tried telling her father how she felt about Hacker, but Marbles wouldn't listen to her.

"Max, I know I have not been spending much time with you lately. But you know how important my work is. You were not here when I needed you so I made an assistant." Marbles hugged his kid firmly but gently to him. "I know you do not like him, Max, but he is my assistant. So, try to be nice to him, okay."

Max agreed to try to be nice to him. Hacker was nice to her, too . . . in public. But neither one liked the other. That much was obvious. Max tried very hard to hide her contempt for Hacker. But Marbles could still tell Max hated his assistant.

Max remembered meeting Digit for the first time and disliking him for being created by Hacker. However, wherever Max went, Digit followed. Max eventually got used to his company. Then she started to like him. He was pleasant to have around. Soon the two became fast friends, inseparable as they come.

Then, Max remembered Hacker's betrayal. She remembered Digit shaking her out of sleep-mode. His face looked worried.

"Digit? Digit, what is it?" Max asked, stretching and yawning.

"It's Hacker. He's in the control center working on Motherboard right now." Digit said.

"So?" Max said. She didn't understand the difference right away.

"So! Instead of putting something in, he's taking something out." Digit said.

"Like what? He works maintenance, Digit. It's his job to take something out." Max told him.

"Uh, call me ignorant, but I don't think an encryptor chip is supposed to be removed." Digit said.

"WHAT! He's taking out Motherboard's encryptor chip! Why didn't you just say so?"

"I thought you would get my clues! You're supposed to be smart, you know." Digit said.

"Never mind." Max growled. "Just get Dad. Tell him to come up to the control center right away. I'm going to prove Hacker was bad news from the very beginning."

Digit saw the look in Max's eyes and knew better than to argue. He powered up his propellor and took off toward Marbles' room.

Max slipped into her gi, tied on her belt, and stuffed her nunchuks into her belt. As a second thought, Max grabbed her sparring staff off their brackets on the wall. Then ran out of her room, down the hall, took the elevator to the top floor, and rushed onto the control floor. She saw Hacker, with the encryptor chip in hand, slip out from under the terminal, carry the chip to a large safe and drop it in.

Max rushed in with a yell and knocked Hacker's legs out from underneath him. Hacker yelped in surprise as he fell to the floor. Max quickly sat on him and pointed the edge of her sparring staff at his neck.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." Max warned.

Hacker grinned at her. "Why Max, what are you doing here?"

"Stopping you from making a huge mistake. I knew you were bad from the moment I met you. I tried telling Dad but you somehow managed to slip out of everything. You somehow managed to evade my accusations. But now I've caught you and you won't get away this time."

"Is that what this is all about? You think I'm evil, huh?"

"I don't think you're evil, I know you're evil. I just saw you try to unplug Motherboard."

"What? That? I was merely analyzing the encryptor chip, that's all."

"By putting it in a safe?"

"That's not a safe. It's an analyzer."

"It looks like a safe to me."

"Well, it's not a safe."

"Still looks like one. Has a few combinations on it. No viewer. It's a safe."

"Is not."

"Is to."

"Is not."

"Is to."

"It is a safe." Marbles said as he strode into the room.

Digit cracked the code, opened the safe, dropped the encryptor chip into Marbles' hand, and watched him reinstall it.

"Because of your actions, Hacker, you are no longer welcome here." Motherboard said.

Max watched as Marbles drained Hacker's power grid and sent him on his way. Memory-Max quivered with excitement, not daring to even say "I told you so" to her father who was already kicking himself for not listening to his daughter.

Max watched as Hacker snuck into her room while she was still in sleep-mode, rolled her into a bag, and ran off with her – Max had always wondered how he kidnapped her and now she knew, he had stolen someone's cyberscooter to do the deed.

Max watched as Hacker flogged her with her own sparring staff then used Magnetite on her. She watched as her body changed from all mechanical to all organic. She writhed on the floor as her circuits and other robotic devices twisted into organic organs. Max remembered the process as being more painful anything else. Max watched as Hacker jabbed at her with a high-voltage cattle prod; demanding that she submit to his will. Max stubbornly told him to boil his head.

Max remembered helping Digit save a Cybersite from darkness. Then, throwing him out of the Grimm Wreaker when Hacker realized what the two of them had done. Max remembered launching herself out of the open door, wings spread to catch herself and float away – there hadn't been enough room for the required ten-strides so she was relying on gravity to keep her way.

Max remembered hearing two shots coming from the Grimm Wreaker. She felt something warm and wet hit her on the leg and arm. Then, she screamed as the dematerializing agent ate through her skin; turning everything it touched to ones and zeros. A little had splashed on her face and the agent ate away at her eye.

Max remembered flying to Shangri-La, crashing just outside the gates. She remembered Master Pi and the warriors taking her in and taking care of her. She remembered them calling her father and Ada Lovelace. She remembered seeing the places where her limbs had been before, the stress of laying still while Ada measured and Marbles taking notes. She remembered the tedious hours of fittings and the stress of trying out new parts. She remembered the pain of having everything fixed to her body with a soldering iron and the jolt of having her ruined nerves connected to the prosthetic parts.

She remembered watching Marbles and Ada leave Shangri-La only to find her again on Cybersite Mobeus. She watched the two borgs approach, face expressionless.

"Why Ada . . . Matthias. Did you forget something?" She asked.

"I require something of you. Please respond truthfully." Marbles said.

The gargoyle sat on her haunches. "Okay. Ask away."

"What is your name?"

She gave him a cocky grin. "So, figured it out now, have you? I wondered when this was going to come up and I'm surprised it hadn't come up sooner. I gave you all the clues to my identity and yet Master Pi figured it out before you did. It's about bloody time you figured it out though. You were supposed to be a genius." She said.

"You haven't answered my inquiry." Marbles pointed out.

"Do I really need to? If you have any questions about my identity, ask me a question you wouldn't think I would know."

Marbles asked her to name all twenty Shangri-La Warriors, which she did, thus proving her identity as Marbles' daughter. The three hugged one another. Then, Marbles took a step back.

"Max." He said.

Max looked at her father who now stood with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. "You heard what Master Pi wanted me to do, didn't you?" She asked.

Marbles nodded. "Affirmative. I can't say I approve." He told her.

"I didn't expect you to, actually." Max said.

"Max, I don't like the idea of you being out there trying to destroy somebody. Even if it isn't a good person." Marbles said.

"I know." She nudged him with her muzzle and he leaned into her. "I take no joy in doing what he wants me to do. But it must be done."

"Negative, Max. It doesn't need to be done. You could let it go. Just, let it go."

Max pulled away from him. "Yeah, it does, Dad."

"Max! Just let it go!" Marbles told her.

Max rubbed her muzzle against him. She loved how much he cared about her, but she couldn't let it go. He had done too much damage to her . . . He had caused her too much pain.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I can't let it go. I'm sorry."

"Max . . . I can understand why you feel you need to do this. But I can't condone what you're planning to do." Marbles said. "I forbid you from carrying out this terrible thing."

He folded his hands behind his back, officiously. Max hated seeing him like this and as much as she respected him, she felt she had to remind him of his position over her before things got out of hand.

"It's not really up to you right now, Dad. Nor is it up to me."

She explained how Master Pi figured out it was her and how he decided it was up to her to put an end to Hacker's evil. Marbles hung his head and Max approached him.

"Dad, please know I love and respect you. I take no joy in knowing I am to take the life of another borg but it must be done. If he can discipline me without a second thought and turn me into a beast using Magnetite, then consider what he can do to another borg. Consider what he can do to you. That's why I have to do it. I have the means and the tools necessary to do this job. I don't do this out of disrespect for you, but for the safety of Cyberspace. That much has and always will be of great importance to me."

"As long as you promise me one thing." Marbles said.

"What's that?"

"That once you destroy him, your desire to destroy will end there."

"Come on, Dad, I'm not a mindless killing machine. I might be a gargoyle now but that doesn't mean I lost all the borg stuff either."

"Promise me!"

Max stared at him long and hard. "I promise."

Marbles looked at the bright, pink eye locked in on his golden-brown eyes, and he knew he could not sway her from her mission. Although he didn't like the idea of Max turning into an assassin, he nodded. "Okay, Max. I understand. Please, be careful."

"I will." Max said.

Max relived everything after that. The hours spent looking for a new home only to be sheltered by a cyborg teen. She remembered meeting the Cybersquad and helping them on a few of their adventures. Then, when everything came back to present day, Max was ready to awaken.

But she didn't know she was waking up to a nightmare.

1

While Max was reliving her memories in a dream fast, Digit was heading straight for Control Central. He had tried contacting Motherboard a few times but she never answered. He had hoped Motherboard would send him a portal so he didn't have to fly the distance. Unfortunately, nothing ever usually works out for the cyboid.

It took him only a few hours to get to Control Central. Right away, he knew something wasn't right. It was barely even eleven o'clock and Motherboard would still be awake, running systems checks on herself. The lights should still be on but they weren't.

Digit knew he should turn around and go back to find Max or Marbles. But he didn't think that was necessary. What if he dragged them away from something important only to have it be something out of his own imagination?

"Come on, Didge. You're no coward. Check it out." Digit told himself.

"I will." He responded back.

He fluttered to the docking bay and let himself in using the keycard Marbles had given him a while back. The bay doors hissed open and Digit propelled himself up the nearest shoot to Motherboard's control center.

At first, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. But then, Motherboard's holographic image caught his eye. Her face was green and so was the background. Motherboard glared down at him with what could only be described as hate.

Digit recognized it right away as the Mean Green. Hacker had once had his girlfriend, the Wicked Witch, cast a spell on Motherboard to make everyone mean and green. The end result had made Motherboard act strangely. But, this time, it was like she was fairly normal with the exception of the look of disgust she showed for her friend.

"Motherboard? What's going on?" Digit asked.

"What do you mean, what's going on? I've just taken over Cyberspace." Hacker said from the doorway.

"Yoinks!" Digit said in surprise as Buzz and Delete fell upon him and dragged the hapless cyboid to a cage.

Hacker strode, purposefully, to the cage and leered in at his prisoner. "Motherboard was left unguarded while you and your silly earth-brats and that fool Dr. Marbles were playing doctor with that idiotic reptile."

"Max is my friend!" Digit said.

"Don't I know it." Hacker said. "Now, you're going to tell me where Max and Marbles are, right now."

1"When It's All Been Said and Done" by Don Moen; First two verses