Chapter IX: Far and Away (Get Away)

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

This one is very heavily influenced by yet another great movie - Fallen. To the point that I attempted to match a really incredibly well-done scene and ended up mostly going with it play-by-play, it's that good.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

We were running again. And I wasn't even sure why. I had a moment of dim awareness - my sides were burning. "St-stop!" I called out, legs stuttering to a halt as I collapsed against the wall, gulping for air.

The others paused, turned. And then it hit me. A bulbous blue-white mass of sickly flesh and cables, like a human soaked too long in deep ocean water. I got one very clear look at it, right before one of those cables snaked up and plugged into my jack.

I blinked and the world vanished, replaced with some Matrix construct of my mind. I recognised the decor. What I didn't recognise were the crystalline branches creeping up my yucca plant, standing neatly in the corner. I took a few steps forward, to check it out, when something thunked behind me. I spun - a book. It was just a book. I moved over to pick it up, return it to its shelf. The title: Don't Be a Fool, by Naya Than. Naya-

I turned back around. The crystalline branches had engulfed my yucca, and were slowly creeping along the furniture to either side of it, long vines of sparkling gems. Looking at them for too long, it hurt. Felt like electricity lancing through my eyes. Made the space behind them feel squeezed and trapped. Too small.

I flung the book at it. One of the branches shattered, but so did the book. Shards of it, like a broken mirror, floated in the air. I just stared at it. My Jack allowed me to process the inputs of the Matrix into something that would make sense to me. Something 'real'. This just… my brain twitched.

I whirled again, batting away another tendril of crystal that had grown out of the wall and slowly, secretly snuck up behind me. Apparently that was all it needed, suddenly putting on a burst of speed and snaking up my arm and throat and slotting firmly into my datajack.

Shit. Help!

My brain burned.

I could feel my mind crystallising, piece by piece. The oddest sensation of black ICE I'd ever experienced, but somehow I was entirely calm. I was distantly aware that was a bad, bad sign, but I couldn't get my mind together enough to care. I was just floating in the refracting light.

A dull voice rambled madly, words like power and hatred and order popping out of the thrashing sea of mutters.

And then something in my head clacked with the echoing slide of industrial lighting, the gentle refraction broken immediately by a blaring spotlight.

"GET OUT OF MY WIFE", a familiar voice roared, shaking my mental worldspace like thunder.

The crystal shattered, releasing me back into the real world.

I fell to my knees and the blue/white… popped. I was covered immediately in some of the foulest rotgut I'd ever had the misfortune to encounter.

Both Chloe and Max were at my sides, trying to help me up. Neither of them gave a shit about the gunk. I couldn't hear their voices though, everything outside me was muffled. Which gave me the space to hear Nathan's chuckle and "You're welcome."

"Ex-wife." I snapped. I paused. "And thanks."

Then the world faded back in, just as Chloe and Max stopped talking to stare at me oddly. I shrugged, tapped my temple. "Nathan."

They nodded. Enough said. "Speaking of, where's the place?"

"It should be ahead." Nathan flickered into being, pointed. "I didn't have half as much trouble getting in here. Whatever DEUS remnant is fucking with this place might've moved it around. The original AI had almost complete control of the building - this chiphead is following in its footsteps."

We dashed for the spot he pointed out, shoving open another non-automatic door (and what was it with that crap here? I hated that DEUS and I had some similar interior design tastes) and barging in to a small, cramped room.

"We're here."

"If you're trying to do the quote, Nate, it's "They're here." and we already fucked with the spirits." Chloe shrugged. "Think you missed your shot."

—

In the far wall - a safe! "Is that it?"

"I think so-" Nathan walked up and poked at it. His hand went right through. "Get it open and we'll see."

I grumbled, but did so. We needed it out. The safe was a cakewalk, barely three seconds to get open. Inside was an odd apparatus holding a prominent chip. I plucked it out. "Is this the thing?"

"That's the one. Now, upload it into me so I can decode the memory."

"Alright, I-" I paused. "How do I do that?"

He sighed. "I'm in your head, Vic. What do you think?"

"I'm not uploading that into me-" I started,

"You want the Dragon Hoard, right? You want revenge, right?" He leaned in. "You aren't going to back down now, right when we're really getting started?"

I growled. "Ugh. Fine. But I'm checking it through my deck first."

"If you think your itty bitty board can handle it, go ahead." He wafted a hand. I scowled again, slotted the chip.

There was an odd pressure in my temples as whatever-it-was downloaded into my head. And I could feel Nathan's attention on it, something almost whirring in my brain as he- "Frak!"

"What?" I blurted. "Did something go-"

"It's not complete." He appeared back out in the room, looking furious. "I decoded the whole thing, but there are parts missing."

"You're lying." I blurted, without thinking.

He scowled at me. "I'm not, I swear. You think I'm enjoying this drek?"

"Fine, fine. What did you get?"

"…are you sure you wanna do this here?"

"Nate…"

"Fine, fine. We need to go to Tenochtitlan."

"Aztlan?"

"Yeah, you know, the capital of Aztlan, heart of the Aztechnology Blood Magic empire? It, what, used to be Mexico before all the political shit went down?"

"Central America wasn't just Mexico. Didn't you study history?"

"I got drunk before those lectures. Do tell, Vicky."

I sighed. "There were a dozen or so countries there that Aztechnology annexed, annoyed, or otherwise integrated. Not just Mexico. Read a fucking book once in a while. Why are we going to Aztlan?"

"The memory. There's a doc in Aztlan who helped me with the process. Maybe they'll have the rest? Or know what the frak I did with it."

"That's… damnit, I-"

The walls began to whirr, something clicky and clacky growing in the storm of sound. DEUS had found us again. "Lets buzz - We should probably have this chat someplace else."

"Agreed."

We ran. Dear God, we ran.

—

Somehow, we made it back to the elevator unbothered. It rocketed downwards, away from the nightmare and back towards reality. Something of the horror shuffled off me during the descent, like sweeping the dust off before coming indoors.

We stepped out of the elevator and back onto that promenade, Nathan flickering back out of view. The three of us paused for a moment, just mulling through everything that had happened. "We have to let someone know about… all of that."

"What?"

"There are thousands of people living here, Ice. If anything upstairs got-" She shuddered. We paused for a minute. "We have to tell someone."

"Yeah. I mean… who would we tell?"

"Nana would just try to sell it to the highest bidder. Anonymous message to the government?"

Our silence said enough about that idea.

"Do you think that was really DEUS?" Max asked quietly.

I shook my head. "Fuck no. DEUS is dead. The crash killed it. Whatever it was up there, it wasn't an AI." I took a deep breath. "It must've been one of DEUS' experiments, trying to get out of containment. Find a jack to pass on the problem to, then it can just… walk right out of here." Both of them looked at me, expressions sceptical. Rude. "Look around us. Everything down here is fine. You really think this place would look like this if any of those experiments had gotten free?"

I spread my arms wide to gesture to the crowds, which made me notice the looks of shock and disgust. The bruises and bloodstains across all of us drew a lot of attention, horrified civilians taking long roundabout routes around us. Except for one.

A tall, thin elf, greying at the temples was walking along, whistling. I dimly recognised it as an old rock song. One of the few that had survived both crashes.

He stopped a few steps away from us and chuckled. "You're quite the optimist, Ms Chase. This place is a carefully cultivated illusion: be it the corps, the governments, or the monsters upstairs. There are plenty of people who profit from the appearance of normality."

I looked at him for a long moment. "The corps left this place before DEUS did. And the government doesn't have the money for anything like this. So, you're saying-"

"I'm saying nothing. Merely remarking on the paradox of your assumptions." He chuckled again, some echo of the song in his words. "I'll see you around, Ms Chase."

Before I could respond again, he turned back around and started ambling off into the crowd, this time singing the lyrics. "Time is on my side, yes it is, Tiiiiime-"

He bumped into another person, a dark-skinned young human, and they took up the tune. "-is on my side, yes it is." The person kept walking, grinning back at me. Behind them, the elf stumbled, looked confused, before drawing his coat tight and hurrying away.

The person extended an arm, gently tangling their fingers along a woman's hair before tapping her on the hand. She didn't even flinch, just took up the song without breaking breath. "Now you always say, that you want to be free. But you come running back - just like I said you would, baby - you coming running back, to me-e-eeee!"

The woman warbled a flair on the end of her tune, singing out into the vast mezzanine. Nobody else reacted to her, so she leaned in toward us, and I saw blue-white crystal behind her eyes. She grinned, a clever, vicious little grin. "This place is mine. Leave me alone, I leave you alone. Capische?"

We ran. Dear God, we ran. Leaving the monster behind us, laughing all the while.