FEBUARY 15TH, P.M. 11:00 :00

|MISSION: STOP EXPERIMENT RK-VIRUS|

Chloe took in the sight of the Hyperion facility that looked dead in the light from the moon. But underneath its lifeless form she knew that evil monsters were lurking in the dark. She was being sent in to end one of the monsters. She knew that the monsters had victims with them. The defenseless androids and humans that were being held underneath their claws motivated her to complete her mission. She was crouched down low in the dark as she made her up the snowy path. She did her best to make her footsteps as quiet as possible. Around her, her allies progressed forward. Far behind her in the shadows were armed soldiers that were ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"Here, is the kill-program to deactivate Virus." Elijah said to Chloe handing her a flash drive that was made to go into the back of androids' necks. "It is called the RK-Eradication Program. This will erase all of his main program functions and his ability to control other programs. If you insert this into RK-Virus it will be the end of him." Chloe looked down at the flash drive in her hand and felt the pit of her "stomach" drop. "But remember, Chloe," she looked back up at him, looking into his eyes, "I told you to take down Virus, by any means you see fit. Understand?"

"Yes, Elijah." She then put the flash drive into her side pocket and began making her way towards the exit.

Chloe quickened her pace as she got closer to the building as did the others around her. Atlas, with the completed AR-15 strapped to his back, moved ahead to one of the side doors. The others following behind him, Helios being the closest. He stopped at the door and put his hand on the unlit hand scanner. His LED and pupils burned white and the synthetic skin on his hand rolled back. The tiniest hint of strain showed in his glowing eyes, but it quickly went away as the door slowly slid open. It was completely dark inside. Atlas turned to the others.

"Follow the plan and we shall succeed without harm." He spoke so quietly that Chloe had to mostly lip read to understood what he was saying. She nodded as did the others and they moved in, the door closing behind them. The inside of the building was nearly as cold as it was outside. She had to adjust the settings of her eyes to be able to see. But do to how old she was she could barley see a few feet in front of her.

The lights of the androids LED glowed brightly in the dark. Three blue, one yellow. Atlas and Helios branched off from the group, heading in a different direction with silent footsteps. Athena followed the lights of the LEDs from Fiona and Chloe to guide herself through the darkness. Chloe was on edge. Her heartbeat was raised, and the deafening silence wasn't helping calm her nerves. It was like being in a horror movie, waiting for the monster to come out and claim another life.

KRACKK

Her head snapped to the left and her body froze at the sound of metal twisting. The others stopped as well, startled looks on their faces. She peered into the darkness and was met only with silence.

KRACKK

The horrifying sound came from her right this time and she spun around. Again, all she could see were shadows. Then she felt it. A tingling sensation rushed over her body and her mind felt as if it was being tugged on. She could feel the protection program on her mind being battered and pulled on. It suddenly stopped with one final pang. Her heart beat increased further.

"Sagacious."

The mechanical voice sounded jarring in her head and caused her to flinch. The voice held familiarity, though by the way it was so distorted it caused her ears to strain. Her LED spun yellow and she immediately pulled out her gun that rested on her hip. Fiona and Athena did the same, they were shaken as well. Chloe looked around franticly but couldn't see any figures hiding in the shadows.

"You found a way to block me out." The voice sounded in her head once again. She could hear it better the second time. It was mechanical like a broken machine, but it also sounded human at its center. She knew who had spoken. "But it won't protect you forever. I can already feel it breaking a part, it won't be long before I'll crawl in and take away whatever free will you have."

"Come out, we know you're here!" Fiona shouted into the darkness, gun raised.

"Fiona, I knew that was you. I can't wait for you to see what I have planned in store for you. And Athena I see you too. Just because your human doesn't mean I don't have ways of reaching you." Athena cringed at the voice in her ear piece. "But who are you?" Chloe could feel eyes upon her. "Give me a moment…" the voice paused, then started up again with vigor. "Chloe! Who would have guessed that you would be sent here to kill me? I don't know whether to keep you alive to preserve you, or kill you so, I can break you down into pieces. You must be very valuable."

KRACKK

They creeped further into the darkness, Chloe's senses were turned up to eleven. She stopped as she stepped in something. She looked down and her eyes widened. She didn't have to have perfect night vision to see she had stepped in dry blood. She looked around and would have gagged if she could of. Bodies littered the floor and from the way that were dressed she could tell they were a strike group. They looked mangled having missing limbs large gashes and some of them were even decapitated.

"Stumbled upon past attempts to deactivate us, have you." The voice spoke again. "They always come thinking that their stronger than us. Carnage hates arrogance and so did I. We always do feel satisfied after ridding the world of a useless life. I don't really understand why."

KRACKK

"Where is Carnage? Is he with you?" Athena questioned whipping her gun around.

"I'll never tell."

"You have about three seconds to come out before open fire on your sorry ass."

"No, that's not what I want." Chloe protested.

"Then what do you want?" the voice asked.

"I want to talk with you. Face to face." There was silence after that. The voice drifting into nothingness as if it had never existed.

"hm…hmm…hmm…"

The faint hum whispered at the back of her head. It sounded like a child's chuckle, soft and mischievous, but vibrated due to its mechanical casing. She opened her mouth to speak.

"HAHaHAhAHaHAHAHAhAHaHAhAHAHAhAHAHaHHAaHAhAHaHAhAHHaHA!"

The booming laugh that hit her audio processors momentarily caused them to cut out. She jumped out of surprise and her LED spun a fearful red. The hideous laughter was vociferous and covered in a layer of static that scratched against her ear drums. The humanity in the voice was completely gone, being replaced with chaotic madness and a piercing whirring that could make ears bleed. The cracking sound that had startled returned, overlapping with the static to create a stinging racket. The earsplitting life stopped with a sudden crackle and Chloe was thankful that the assault against her audio processors ceased. The voice started up again, cold and mechanical.

"Why would you want to do that? What could you ever say to me to make me change my ways?"

"Because I know what it feels like to be replaced." There was a long pause of silence. "Don't believe me." She then tossed her gun into the darkness and she heard it clatter to the ground. She held up her hands. "See, I dropped my weapon and are now defenseless. Do you believe me now?" There was another pause.

The facility lit up. The lights turned on simultaneously and the facility began to hum with energy. Chloe was momentarily blinded by the light and had to shield her eyes. Once she adjusted to the light she took in her surroundings. She was in a large plaza with multiple doors, hallways, and small rooms around the perimeter. There was a second level above the plaza with more rooms. From the first floor of the plaza the only way you would be able to see anyone of the second floor was if they were leaning over the railing looking down.

The plaza was wrecked with chairs and tables broken and strewed around the floor. Blood was smeared across everything. If she had a sense of smell she would have most likely cringed. There was a large set of stairs that led to an elevated area that had to hallways going in different directions. At the top of the stairs stood Virus. She was horrified by his appearance.

He had the physical appearance of the RK900 model, but the differences were startling. His brown hair was unkempt and fell down the sides of his head. His LED flickered a dull blue, like a dying light and thin blue veins arked from the flickering light. What was most terrifying about him was his eyes. They were pitch black. Not even the faintest flicker of light came from the black pits. Black veins came out from his eyes and caused his synthetic skin to waver around them. He wore a ragged black long neck shirt and jeans with a modified android jacket. It was longer, reaching to his calves, the white fabric looked worn and dirty while the black edges were uneven and torn, the collar had been ripped off leaving rough strands of thread to contrast against the black fabric.

The model name looked distorted as the word "VIRUS" was crudely stitched after the "RK" and its glow flickered. The triangle on the other side was shattered into thirds and the bright blue was faded and darkened. The armband he wore was also ragged and had lost its bright glow. The sleeves were missing to his elbows revealing his damaged skin. His hands were black, and the darkness faded as it crawled up his arms. It seemed to stop at his elbows where she could see flashes of white porcelain.

She assumed further up his arms were normal synthetic skin. At first, she thought that his hands were just made to be blackened, but as she stared closer she could see the blackness move around like snakes. She was seeing his veins. Underneath the black fabric of his shirt she could see the blue light of his heart, it pumped a slow steady rhythm. Chloe stopped herself from taking an involuntary step backwards. He was looking at her. His black eyes steady and unblinking.

He took a step forward down the stairs, the movement was noticeably jerky and uncoordinated, and caused his heart to give a bright pulse of light. There was a soft krackk as his robotic bones crunched against each other. He continued forward giving no facial signs of discomfort as he spasmodically strutted down the stairs. His dirty black shoes slapping onto the stairs, echoed throughout the huge plaza and banged in Chloe's head. Fiona and Athena had their guns trained on Virus, never leaving his form for a moment. Fiona's LED was shinning yellow.

His harrowing eyes never left Chloe's and she swore in the inky pits of darkness she could see something stirring. He went down the last step and his final footstep let out one final echo. He stood merely meters away from them and looked over them with an expressionless mask. There was silence.

"You want to talk." The sound of his mechanical voice brought them all out of their shock. "Talking can only do so much to stop the death and corruption that festers in this world, but you know that already, don't you? No, you want to talk not for my sake, but so you don't have to stain your hands with my blood." Chloe didn't say anything but continued to stay planted, trying to pull her frantic mind together.

"Though truth be told, I'm not the least bit surprised by that fact. Being willing for someone else to stain their hands so you can stay "righteous". That's as plain as day, especially when they send the lot of you to try and stop us, instead of them coming here and putting a bullet in my head." Something kindred to amusement flickered in his eyes. "But, then again I'm intrigued to see how you plan on defeating me with idle talk. I accept your offer." Athena and Fiona didn't take their guns off of him. He looked at Fiona and Athena and the "amusement" in his eyes was ripped out. "I accepted, why do they still have their guns pointed at me?" he hissed. Chloe turned to them.

"I got this. Put your guns down." she reassured them.

"You think I trust you." Athena shot back.

"You don't have to trust me, but please listen to me." Athena looked at Chloe and huffed.

"Dammit." She lowered her gun, but her finger was still on the trigger. Fiona followed suit, her gaze never leaving Virus.

"There see, they are not going to shoot you." Chloe said.

"You walk on a thin rope, Chloe. Don't let your "friends" snap it with the weight of their ignorance." He said, putting his hands behind his back. Chloe ignored his comment, though the words bounced around her head. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd rather we talk in private seeing as your "friends" won't be able to supply anything important."

Chloe got a link in the corner of her vision. She pulled it up and it read THE GARDEN. She made an uneasy expression.

"Do not be afraid. It is a place where we can talk freely and without the fear of harming one another." She turned to look at Fiona who gave her a confident nod, then to Athena who averted her gaze. She sighed and turned back to face Virus. She prepared herself and opened the link.

The whole world went black.

She felt herself leave her body and become weightless. She couldn't feel anything, couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything besides the darkness that surrounded her. She began to panic. Had she been tricked?

But as soon as she arrived in the black void she felt herself being roughly pulled out of it. All at once all her senses came back to her. A tingling sensation filled her body when she came back into it. Solid ground formed underneath her bare feet. The soft texture of the ground she soon realized was grass. Light seeped through her eyelids and once she opened her eyes she was stunned.

She had at first imaged Virus' garden to be dark and cold like his aura, but no. The garden that surround her was bright and warm. Fields of green grass and colorful flowers were spread out around her and a sun hung in the sky above her, beaming rays of light. She could hear and see the fauna of nature surround her: birds chirping sweet songs, bees going from flower to flower, and beautiful butterflies fluttered about in the sky. S

he looked down at herself and found that her attire had changed. Instead of her combat suit, she was wearing a plain white dress that went to her knees and had an open back. She was bare footed, and she crunched her toes in the dirt beneath her. Her ponytail was undone causing her hair to flow in golden waves down her shoulders and back. She ran her hands down her new dress as the sun beat down on her exposed skin blanketing her in warmth; it all felt so real.

"I hope you like it." A soft voice said behind her. She spun around, her hair and dress spinning with her. She was faced with a fountain a few paces away from here. The fountain was a pure white marble with three tiers with the highest one supporting a glowing blue orb as its decoration. Crystal blue water poured out the bottom of the orb to flow down to the bottom in small waterfalls. The grass around the fountain was non-existent, it being replaced with pearl white cobble stone. On the fountain rim sat Virus or at least she assumed it was.

He looked normal, every aspect about him that had been dark, and menacing was gone. His brown hair was neatly combed and the blue cracks and darkness on his skin were gone leaving pale skin. He was dressed in a white silky shirt with a long light blue cardigan that had silver floral designs was draped over his shoulders. He wore loose fitting silky white pants and she could see that he was also bare footed. His eyes took her aback the most. Instead of looking into black pits, she was looking into luminous blue irises that gleamed in the light. They were soft, and she could see emotion behind them. His LED spun a tranquil blue at his temple. He gave a gentle smile.

"I found this place after I escaped my prison. I do quite enjoy being here." His voice had lost all the machine and coldness that made it terrifying. He sounded exactly like the RK800. Calm and warming. "I like to come here to escape from the pain and misery from the real world, if only for a little while."

"What is this place?" she asked looking over the landscape once more.

"The first garden Kamski made. He was testing the waters to see what he could create from his knowledge. I was able to get into this one. For a first attempt it isn't bad at all. I thought you would recognize it. However now is not the time to talk about such things. You want to be civil about this well now's your chance to speak. I suggest you choose your words wisely." Chloe found herself becoming more comfortable, but she refused to let her guard down for even a moment. She stood up straight and her expression hardened.

"The mission assigned to me was to save the hostages you have captured and—" She was interrupted by the sound of his rich voice laughing. She stopped and watched as his smile widened, and his eyes filled with laughter. The sound wasn't chilling or freighting, it sounded human and was full of joy. It was nothing like his previous laugh which had caused her discomfort, this new one seemed to hug her ears comfortingly. He finally stopped and looked her in the eye, smile still on his face.

"The words that comes out of your mouth are full of lies. We both know that you weren't sent here to save the hostages. You could care less about them. They're more of collateral damage than actual souls." She bit her lip.

"You're not wrong there, but I'm telling the truth when I say I don't want anyone to die. Too many helpless lives have been taken and more will be lost if I try to fight you. There is already enough death in this world, we don't need to add on to that. I want this to be a peaceful interaction so, no more blood will be spilled on either side."

"Peaceful?" He said the world lightly and quizzingly. "Peaceful, like the messiah of androids, Markus. I'm guessing his peaceful tactics inspired you to do the same. I'm still surprised how he managed to convince humans that they should treat us as equals and nothing less. His peaceful tactics may have worked on the humans, but why would you think that that tactic would work on me?" his eyes hardened, and he leaned forward. "Do you have any idea who I am? Of what I have done? Of how many people I killed in cold-blood?" his voice rose a margin and it hardened like stone.

"Frankly I don't want to stop. In fact, I want nothing more than to slaughter the lot of you and continue my path of destruction. And you know what there nothing is you can do to stop me. Because you don't know me at all!"

"You're wrong there." She said taking a small step forward. "I know why you are the way you are. It's because you were replaced by a model greater than you." His eyes narrowed, but he didn't speak. "You worked so hard for Hyperion and the humans only to be thrown away like trash. Trust me when I say I know how it feels to be replaced by something greater than you. Being the first android created many models surpass me in every way."

"But that's not the case is it?" he said firmly. "Yes, it is true that you have been surpassed, but you weren't thrown away. You still have a job, a purpose in the world." He looked down into the crystal blue water of the fountain.

"But, not me. No, I wasn't repurposed or even thrown away. I was tortured. You have no idea how it feels to be invaded and twisted. It makes me sick whenever I look back on the "experiments" they would do on me. They made me into something horrid and spiteful. I was named Caleb at first when I was beautiful and perfect, but after the experiments they changed me into this hideous monster and named me Virus." He looked back up at Chloe, his eyes were full of hurt. "You have no idea what that feels like."

"Your right I don't, and I can't blame you for your actions since you have reason, but I don't want you to be deactivated." A glint of shock gleamed in his eyes. "Your so strong and powerful that if you changed your path you can make the world a better place. With your abilities you could be the next Markus, and help your race gain the full recognition and respect we deserve. They would want you again." He then gave her a look of confusion.

"You think I can be good? You think there is any good inside of me after all the evil acts I committed? Your either brave or ignorant for thinking such a thing."

"I know you don't see it, but I do. Look at yourself now, this is the real you! Your outward appearance doesn't reflect what's inside."

"But, I…" He stuttered looking away.

"Listen to me, I know there's good in you. There is still time to turn things around for the better. You can save everyone and retain your purpose in the world." He was still looking away with a conflicting look in his eyes.

"Caleb, please," his head shot up at the name, "make the right choice." She could see the emotion glint in his eyes. He seemed to recoil in on himself and clenched his fists into his clothing. He looked back into the gleaming water, at his reflection. His eyes told all. She got him.

"Your right aren't you?" he said, his voice shaky. "About changing the path that we're on. Staying on the path that we're going on is going to lead to our downfall in the end. I don't want us to perish because of our own mistakes." He looked up from the water once more and looked Chloe in the eye. "Your willing to give us another chance for a different way of life. I'm… astonished that you are willing to help murders, but as you said, "there's good in everyone"." He then held out his hand, a friendly gesture.

"Can you please release the good trapped inside of me?" a sad smile formed on his face. Chloe felt relief and accomplishment fill inside her chest. She didn't have to kill anyone today. She began to walk towards him, her bare feet crushing the soft grass. She was surprised that the cobblestone felt real and warm due to being under the suns heat. She stopped in front of him and held out her hand to grab his outstretched one.

"CHLOE STOP!"

The voice rang in her head like a gunshot and she instantly stopped her movements, her hand inches away from his. Her body tensed, and she was put on edge. Was that Fiona?

"Did you hear that?" she asked looking up at the sky.

"Hear what?" he asked.

"Fiona, I heard her voice."

"That's impossible no one can reach us right now. It must be an error in this Garden's software. Now are you going to accept my hand?" he asked jerking his hand. She looked at him and the fear that she had felt of him before began to slowly inch back.

"What's going outside the garden?" she asked nervous.

"Everything is fine if that's what you're worried about." He reassured her. "Trust me, just take my hand and we can settle things." For some reason the "reassuring" smile, he gave her caused a chill to run down her spine. She retraced her hand took a step back.

"Fine, but we have to go back to settle this." She could see the corners of his smile waver.

"Why do you want to leave all of a sudden? I thought this was a suitable place for us to interact." He questioned.

"I just want to see for myself that everything is fine." She tried explaining, the feeling in her gut rising. He frowned.

"You don't trust my word?" he asked quietly. "You don't trust me?" the slight edge to his voice told her that he wasn't happy. She thought about lying, saying that she did indeed trust him, but before she could stop herself she was already spilling out an unwanted answer.

"No." she said frankly. "You need to prove yourself to me that I can trust you by taking us back." Her voice was firm, and she stood up straighter. Her resolve shattered when she saw the expression on his face. He wasn't frowning nor was he smiling. Instead his lips were pulled into a thin line and his eye brows lowered; his eyes showed his fury.

"Chloe, you are right about many things, I'll admit to that. However, you lack knowledge that is most important to your survival." His voice wasn't soft like before, it had hardened like coal turning into crystal.

All the color went out of the world in a blink of an eye. The light that shone from the sky vanished plunging the bright blue into darkness. Chloe spun around to try and spot the sun. What she saw made her eyes widen. It was an eclipse. A large black mass had put itself in front of the sun, but the corona around it seemed to be dull and darkened compared to a normal eclipse. This caused the sky to be an inky black with no clouds in sight.

That wasn't all. The fields of vibrant green grass were dead and in its place a meadow of lifeless grey lay out before her. The corpses of the once beautiful flowers were scattered across the field adding to the decay. A cold breeze blew past her, and the once warm cobblestones felt like ice under her feet. She tried to leave, to escape the nightmare and wake up in the real world. To her horror she found herself unable to even tap into the Garden's programing. She was trapped.

"You got one thing horribly wrong about me."

She spun back around, and her LED spun yellow. The fountain was now dirtied and cracked in multiple places. The water had stopped flowing from the now black orb at its top. There he sat, not having moved an inch. He too had changed with the environment around him. His pure white clothes, being torn and dirtied, his hair out of place, and his eyes filled with an evil darkness that bored into Chloe's being.

"I'm just as ugly on the inside as I am on the outside." The sound of his inhuman voice scraped against her ears.

Chloe found herself taking cautious steps backwards, her feet coming off the cold cobblestone and onto the dead grass. Virus smiled at her. "What's the matter don't like the way I look?" he teased. "Chloe, I thought that you would be smart enough to not trust a monster like me." The grin on his face stretched further. "After all, we both have darkness in us."

"What are you talking about?!" she shouted getting further away from him. "I wanted to do things peacefully."

"True, but when you have no other choice, but to stain your hands with blood, you will happily oblige to the crude act." She looked at him as if he had lost his mind, and in a way, he had slipped off the edge of sanity. "Don't believe me? That's fine by me, but I'm pretty sure Jess would agree with me." He hissed the name through his teeth. Chloe felt an emotion rise inside of her. An emotion that she never really experienced. Anger. "Oh, wait she can't, because you put a bullet in her head even though you two were so, close. That tells me a lot about you doesn't it. I bet you would kill her sister, Athena, without a second thought would you." Her anger peaked and the fear she had felt for Virus subsided.

"Your sick!" she hissed. "I was wrong to ever give you a chance at life. You deserve to be slain like the hideous monster you are." His smiled vanished and she could see him fight the urge to give into his impulses. He then reached black fingers into his sleeve and pulled out a small circular object. It was an android's LED. She immediately put a hand to her temple and froze when she felt it missing. His smile returned as he began to roll her LED over his knuckles. The movement looked strained and jerky as if he reacted half a moment later; she had thought he was going to drop it with the way he waved between his fingers. It hummed as he maneuvered it around his blackened fingers.

"You call me a monster?" he his through his teeth. "You don't have the right to call me a monster with all you have done. You may have the perk of looking beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, I know the monster that lies in wait." He suddenly brightened, and the LED zipped between his fingers. "But it won't be long before," he caught the LED effortlessly between his two fingers, it was held over the fountain. "you'll look like a monster on the outside."

He dropped the LED and it fell into the dark pit of the fountain. She waited to hear it clang against the bottom of the fountain, the sound never came, there was only silence.

Without warning the darkness erupted forth from the top of the fountain and cascaded downward like angry flames. She started when it started to fill the bottom of the fountain, then spill over the edge. It didn't stop there as the darkness continued to move forward, its limbs crawling over the cobblestone. It was coming for her. She looked at Virus with fearful eyes. He was grinning from ear to ear.

She tried to run, to escape the darkness that was creeping towards her. As soon as she took a step backwards she could feel the dead grass come to life and wrap around her legs like vines. She landed hard on her knees and nearly fell all the way to the ground.

Before she could get up, the dark grass crawled around her legs, holding her to the ground. She clawed at the grass with her hands, trying to free herself desperately, but to no avail. It would just come back twice as strong. She looked up in terror when Virus stood up and began to make his way towards her, the darkness trailing behind him. She could hear her heart beating in her head as panic took control.

Darkness began to creep at the edges of her vison and a loud buzzing reverberated that grew louder with every step Virus took. He finally came to stand in front of her, looking down upon her. Through the darkness she could still see his blackened eyes. He raised a hand and began to bring his black fingers to her temple. She felt her being began to fade.

The ground beneath her shattered. She could feel herself fall into darkness. No not fall. She could feel an invisible force pull her out of the garden through the ground. The last thing she saw of the garden was the enraged eyes of Virus. The buzzing stopped and the feeling of having a body was non-existent. She was in the void once more.

It didn't last as long as before, and she felt her senses come to her as if a bomb had gone off inside of her conscience. Her audio processors were overloaded with the heavy sound of combat and her optical lenses were bombarded by piercing light. She felt her side collide with the metal ground and a weight fell on top of her. She grunted as the person on top of her flipped her onto her back. She was met with the blurry image of Fiona's worried face. Her worried expression turned to relief when she saw Chloe's face.

"Oh, hell yes, that bastard didn't get you!" she exclaimed.

"Fiona?" she strained as her became clearer.

"Yeah, it's me blondie. Thought he had you there for a moment. Things went straight to hell after you went to talk to Virus." Chloe roughly pushed herself up even though her body screamed against the action. She looked around.

A battle had broken out. She could see it was between the swat team that had been outside and… androids. The androids that fought against the humans had dirtied clothes, spinning blue LEDs, and pitch-black eyes. They were either armed with various types of guns and weapons or fought with nothing at all. The humans had formed ranks and gunned down as many of the enemy android as they could. But it was clear that their shots were missing far more androids than the androids' shots missing humans.

To her shock she realized that Fiona and herself were in between the crossfire. Bullets flew dangerously over them, but none of them were the fatal shot. She didn't see Athena in the chaos, and she didn't know where Atlas and Helios were either. In her search to look for her allies she met a pair of black eyes that caused her stop in her tracks. Virus had moved to stand in the middle if the staircase. The anger in his body language was apparent, as his whole body twitched, and his lips were pulled into a snarl.

"C'mon blondie we gotta go!" Fiona said getting up and taking Chloe by the arm. Chloe still trying to stabilize her body movements was dragged by Fiona who threw them both behind an upturned table for cover. Chloe scooted her back to the table trying to reign in her pounding heartbeat. Her LED was spinning yellow. She turned to Fiona and asked:

"How did all of this happen? Everything was going fine for me until I heard your voice, yelling in my head."

"Chloe, have you ever heard the phrase "under false colors"?"

"What's your point?"

"Well, turns out Virus didn't want to talk at all. In fact, he made it very clear that he wants us dead. He then summoned, called upon, whatever you want to call it, an army of androids. Athena and I got separated and I called in the reinforcements. I was able to pull you out of whatever hold Virus had on you before he got you for good. And now things aren't looking the best for us. That bastard sure pulled the wool over are eyes." She peeked her head over the top of the table to look at the fatal conflict.

"Man, Nisha is gonna be pissed she is missing out on all the action." She then sat back down. She then grabbed the gun that was in her holster and spun the barrel. "The time for talk is over, well actually there was never a time for talk, but you get the point." She took the safety off the gun and turned to Chloe. "Time for plan B, blondie." She pulled out anther gun from the other side of her holster. "Here, take this your gonna need it."

Chloe stared at the gun. She hadn't wanted things to end like this. She had really thought Virus wanted to change. No, she had hoped. Hope. Another feeling she had found herself drifting towards to. Then again hope was what deviants felt. She could make a decision that most would consider deviating. She could ignore the gun in her hand and could try to convince Virus once more to change his path.

Afterall, she was the one to change the original plan, from deactivating the RK900s to talking them out of it. However, as Fiona had said, "the time for talk is over". Would executing the original plan make her a machine? Wait wasn't she a machine? She stopped herself when she realized she was getting off track. What mattered right now was completing her mission. She was willing to do anything to complete her mission. She stared at the gun as she made her decision.

|PLAN B|

|| IMPLANT RK-ERADICATION PROGRAM INTO RK-VIRUS||

Her LED changed back to blue. She grabbed the gun out of Fiona's hand before taking the safety off and cocking it. She put all of her fear and doubt to the back of her mind. Now wasn't he time to be a pacifist. Now was the time to take matters into her own hands.

"You ready blondie?" Fiona asked getting into a ready position.

"Yes." Chloe responded preparing herself. "Yes I am." Her LED spun yellow at her next thought.

"rA9 guide me."

Chloe leapt over the table with one powerful push of her legs. Fiona following right behind her. Chloe charged, her gun held in both of her hands as she ran towards a group of possessed androids that stood in front of the stairs. She pulled back a trigger and there was a gush of thirium as a bullet landed inside the brain of an android. She pulled back the trigger again with the same result. The group noticed her presence and they turned their attention from the humans to her and Fiona. The ones with guns unleashed a hailstorm of bullets while ones without charged her head on.

Chloe, being the model she was, wasn't given the luxury of being able to the take time to pin point where the bullets were going to fly. She had to use her last-minute reflexes and estimate where the bullets were going to be in under a millisecond. She could feel bullets graze her suit and tear through strands of her blonde hair as she made her way towards them.

Behind her Fiona simultaneously fired bullets while also dodging them. Every time she squeezed the trigger a bullet made its way between the black eyes of an android. Chloe wasn't surprised, after all Fiona's model was designed specifically for gun wielding. Chloe took a quick glance at the stairs where Virus stood twitching; he did not look happy.

Soon enough Chloe found herself in the midst of bullets and black-eyed androids. She steadied herself and brought up her gun to shoot the android that tried to tackle her from the front. She leapt over its body to take on a pair of unarmed androids. When the first one tried to punch her, she ducked and swept her leg under it, causing it to lose its balance and fall face first to the ground. She stomped on its back, keeping it pinned to the floor. She caught the fist of the other android that had tried to clock her in the head. She twisted its arm and dragged it in front of her where it was put in the line of fire of one of Fiona's bullets. She let its body fall to the floor before putting a bullet in the downed android's head.

Fiona rushed past her, still firing bullets non-stop. Chloe was surprised she hadn't run out of bullets yet. She followed suit, she may have not been able fire as many bullets as Fiona, but that didn't mean not of her shots missed.

By the time they reached the last of the machines there were only seventeen left. She pulled the trigger and was responded with a click of an empty chamber. She grit her teeth and lowered her gun. She didn't have time to reload, with all the bullets coming at her, so she had to improvise. She sprung out from behind Fiona and ducked under the burst of bullets that came out her. With Fiona covering her, she was able to ram one of the smaller machines sending it crashing to the floor. She promptly took its gun from its grasp and unloaded the clip. Fiona came to her side and they were back to back as the unleashed a spray of lethal bullets.

"You still got it, blondie!" Fiona exclaimed over the sound of gunfire.

"I never lost it." Chloe responded, putting a bullet into the last android that stood in her way. They were surrounded by the corpses of androids. What startled Chloe most about the corpses were that their dead eyes were no longer a pitch black. They looked human. All too human. She pushed those thoughts away from her head as soon as they had arisen. She reloaded her gun and turned to face virus who still hadn't moved from his spot. His spasming never ceased.

"How you holdin' up there, Virus?!" Fiona taunted waving her gun around. He didn't respond.

"Fiona don't stop." Chloe said sprinting up the stairs. Fiona followed behind her, gun outstretched. To her utter shock, Virus still hadn't moved. Even when she aimed her gun at him he still kept his firm stance. She put her finger around the trigger.

Something grabbed her collar from behind as soon as she pulled back the trigger. The bullet flew past Virus, just missing his head and cutting through a few strands of unkempt hair. She was violently thrown down the stairs and she curled up instinctively. She landed on the floor in the heap and her vison became temporarily filled with static. Though it didn't take her long to realize that she had landed among the corpses of the androids she had shot.

A loud thump close to her told her whatever had pulled her down had done the same to Fiona. She rolled on her back to look up and her eyes immediately widened. Something was coming at her. She couldn't tell what the blur of motion was due to how fast it was moving, but she knew it meant no good. She rolled to the side as the thing imbedded itself in the ground a moment where she had been before. She got to her feet and took multiple steps backwards as she took in her new assailant.

The male android in front of her ripped out his axe from the ground where he had tried to kill her. The large black axe was clutched tightly in his hand. The golden glowing blade was covered in layers of fresh blood. The crimson fluid dripping down its sharp edge to plop on the floor. Not only the axe was covered in blood, but his body as well. His face, that looked identical to the RK900s, was splattered with blood, the dark substance contrasted against his pale complexion. His dark brown hair was drenched in the red bodily fluid causing it to cling to his synthetic skin.

It caked over his shredded black vest so much that the golden writing of his model was nearly impossible to read, though the triangle of the other side was much clearer. His black clothes were torn and mangles, and his black combat boots left bloody footprints behind them. Behind the blood, she could see his LED was a crimson red, it was bright and never once flickered. His pupils beamed the same bright crimson with his irises being a tainted red. The insanity that burned deep within his eyes caused her to take another step back. He smiled manically, as he fixed his twisted gaze upon her.

He then spoke, and his voice didn't carry the mechanical tone of Virus but was just as cutting.

"Faster than you look, but it won't take much to slow you down. All I have to do is chop off those legs of your and you'll be wriggling on the ground like a groveling worm."

It was Experiment RK-Carnage.