Chapter Thirteen. Yes, this is the last chapter of A Black Heart. I hope it has been written to your satisfaction. Next on the agenda is to write A Sheild-Maiden's Strife, which will be a collaborative effort with my lovely friend, Kawaii Stella. BTW, she is writting a book series called Picking Up the Broken Glass. If you haven't read it yet, I would implore you to read it. Anyway, the two books will be connected so i would have to ask you read both since there will be information in one book that won't appear in the other.
I don't own Cyberchase. Max is mine.
Chapter Thirteen
Truths
Mathias and Ada made their way across Cyberspace to the exact spot Digit said he last saw Max. Mathias called in an all-stop and the Cybercoop stayed put. Then, he ordered the scanners to begin searching for Max's code. The results surprised him.
Three piles of information appeared on his screen. It contained bits of Max's own binary code, but it was also intermixed with data he vaguely recognized. It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing and he wondered why he hadn't put it together before.
"Mathias? What is that?" Ada asked.
Mathias' jaw tightened and his breath whistled through his mustache.
"It's gargoyle code overlapping cyborg." he said.
"Gargoyle? But I thought you said Max was here!"
"She was." Mathias said. He switched off the scanner and dialed Motherboard in. "Motherboard, I'm coming back. But first, please connect me to Digit."
"Will do." Motherboard said.
"Digit here." the cyboid said, his face filling the screen.
"Digit, I have something I require of you. Please respond truthfully." Mathias said.
"Of course, Doc. What is it?"
"Did Hacker do anything to Max, anything at all?" he asked.
"Well, he beat her, hit her, kicked her, electrocuted her . . ." Digit began.
"Electrocuted her? Why?"
"Well, that's the thing, Doc. Hacker used something called Magnetite on her."
"Magnetite?" Suddenly there was a new piece to the puzzle and it almost fit. "Digit, tell me what happened to Max when her hard drive crashed. Did something out of the ordinary happen to her?"
"Well yeah. She turned into a gargoyle." Digit said.
Mathias was silent as he pieced everything together in his mind. It all fit! How she knew the things she knew! The Dematerializing scenario! How she knew their names! All of it!
"Mathias?" Ada asked.
"Final load." Mathias said, disconnecting.
He wheeled the Cybercoop around and headed for Shangri-La. From there, he traced the gargoyle's route to Cybersite Mobeus. They found her taking a break on the small site and landed away from her. She watched them approach with an expressionless face and waited.
"Why, Ada . . . Mathias, did you forget something?" she asked.
"I require something of you. Please respond truthfully." Mathias 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." Mathias 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."
Mathias thought about it. "What are the names of all the Warriors of Shangri-La?" That ought to stump her!
"Does that include the ones in training?
"Negative."
"Okay." She took a breath. "Red, Jethro, Petrol, Dimitri, Leroy, Thaddeus, Simon, Percival, Cato, Mattimeo1, Blaine, Jodan, Ceasar, Cyrus, Cyril, Amin, Brand, Eli, Ferrid, Garrett, and Jareb." She grinned. "If you wanted to stump me, you would need something more elaborate than that."
Mathias felt his eyes brim with tears. "Max!" he said.
Her one remaining eye brimmed too. "Dad." she said.
The two ran to each other. Mathias flinging his arms around her neck and she placed a paw gently on his back and her muzzle on his shoulder. Ada was still while she tried to understand it all, then rushed in to join them.
"Max!" Ada said.
"Mom!" Max said.
They remained locked together for some time. Then, they broke away and Mathias scrubbed at his eyes.
"I thought you were dead." he said.
Max's neck snaked out and her tongue touched Mathias' face. "Aye. I figured as much. For a moment there I thought I was, too. If the Warriors hadn't found me, I would have bled to death right there in the snow."
"Praise integrated circuits they found you." Mathias said.
Max gave him a small smile. "Yeah. Praise integrated circuits."
Ada rubbed Max's scarring muzzle. "What actually happened to you? I mean, how did you get so badly injured? The stuff to make a Dematerializer is supposed to be temperamental and difficult to control."
"Not supposed to be, Mom. It is temperamental and difficult to control." Max said. "He discovered that if you freeze the gunk, the dematerializing process is placed in suspended animation. He has a special freezing unit on the gun. But once the gunk leaves the barrel, it immediately thaws out. It acts like liquid sap and spreads over any surface it touches.
"When I ran away, he shot me twice. Once in the arm, once on the leg. There was some splatter when it hit my arm and most of it got on my face. That's how I lost my eye. Once those body parts were gone, I was bleeding so profusely I wasn't even thinking straight. I didn't know where I was going or how I would get there. I was slowly losing consciousness from mass blood loss. Eventually, I fell asleep and dropped into the snow. I don't know how they found me but they did. And you know the rest."
Mathias took a step back. "Max." he said.
"You heard what Master Pi wanted me to do, didn't you?" she asked, looking at her father who now stood with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.
Mathias 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." Mathias 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!" Mathias told her.
Max stared at him. Mathias waited and Max began singing.
"Let it go.
Let it roll right off your shoulder.
Don't you know,
The hardest part is over.
Let it in.
Let your clarity define you.
In the end,
You will only just remember how it feels.
"Our lives are made
In these small hours.
These little wonders.
These twists and turns of fate.
Time falls away.
But these small hours,
These little wonders, still remain."2
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." Mathias 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."
Mathias actually gave her a headtilt. "Translate." he ordered.
"The day Master Pi came to see if I could join the Warriors, I made a promise that I would obey every order given to me by either him or the Red Warrior. I made the same promise the day I left Shangri-La. I promised Master Pi I would answer the gong when it rang. The gong only sounds when there is a mission to be had.
"He rang the gong and I answered. He gave me a mission and I fully intend to carry it out with or without your blessing. Either way, you do not have authority over me in this matter."
Mathias understood. He hung his head. Max didn't like seeing him like this either. She felt guilty pulling the Shangrinese-Warrior card but it was the truth nonetheless. She approached him and rested a paw lightly on his shoulder.
"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." Her paw slid to his back and she pulled him into her warm chest. "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."
"Why? Why is this so important to you?" Ada asked.
"Master Pi told me that if I do this one thing – not just for him but also for the entirety of Cyberspace – he can give me my body back. That's all I want is my body and my life back. I want everything back – everything that was taken from me when he took me away." She licked her father and mother gently with her tongue. "Please understand why I have to do this."
"As long as you promise me one thing." Mathias 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."
Mathias 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.
They looked up into Cyberspace. Out there, somewhere, was a borg with a black heart.
To be continued . . .
1Mattimeo – Son of Mathias the Warrior of Redwall in "Mattimeo", part of the Redwall Series by Brain Jacques, may he rest in peace.
2These are verses from the song "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas