A tall, white-haired man, wrapped in a long cloak, strides through the snowy woods, intent on a purpose known only to him. Coming to the edge of the woods, he looks across the vast white-covered meadow toward the APEC Castle, looming mountainous and gray through the falling snow. There are lit torches at the closed gates, lights in all the windows, and Christmas greenery strung everywhere. The man can hear distant music and laughter coming from the castle. 

His lips twist in a bitter smile. Let them celebrate now, he thinks to himself. Their time is growing short. Soon, soon, the plan will be set in motion, and there will be no more domination of the Dark Zone by the forces of light, APEC and ORAL. 

"Soon, *I* will be master of all." His ears strain for the sound of one voice, but he cannot distinguish anything at this distance. 

He smiles again to himself, a truly evil smile. "Soon, little Kai. Soon, I'll be coming for you."

* * * * * * * * * *
 
 
CF: The Gift 
 
Date: 12/24/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
The argument started that morning, Christmas Eve morning of all mornings, when they should have been happily anticipating the coming feast that evening. 

It wasn't a real argument, of course. Dgrequeen could rarely find it in her heart to argue with MyKai, and he almost always deferred to her when she got terse. He was extraordinarily sensitive to her moods, and so he knew when to step back and say nothing. Lately, he'd been treading lightly around her and around the Castle in general. This was his first experience of the human phenomenon known as "the Christmas season", but he had taken note of the stress it seemed to put on everyone. 
 
The disagreement began when she awoke and rolled over, expecting to have the bed all to herself and rolled right into MyKai. 
 
He lay on his side facing her, watching her. His hair, free of the bun and braid, streamed over his face and spread over the pillow like a pool of shining black water, and his body was bare, although he had pulled part of the sheet over his middle. The early morning sun shining through the high, leaded windows, bathed the bed and his pale body in a reddish-gold light that made dgrequeen catch her breath and want to touch his skin. She covered her confusion and said,  "MyKai, what are you doing here?" 
 
"I wanted to wake up with you." 
 
"But you don't sleep." 
* 
He lowered his eyes and rolled to his back. Automatically, his hand came up to cover his protoblood port. Dgrequeen notice he often did this when his shirt was off. For some reason, that little gesture bothered her today. She didn't know why he did it. It was almost as if he were embarrassed by it, that its presence made him feel less human. 
 
"I wanted to be with you when you woke up," he said. "As if I were waking up too. I will go if you wish." 
 
 "No!" She put her arm across his chest as he started to rise, and held him in the bed. He turned his head to look at her, still with that small smile. 
 
Gently, she pushed his hand aside and traced around the edges of the protoblood port with her fingers, feeling guilty for her irritation with him. 
 
"Does that hurt?" she asked. 
 
"No. The dead do not feel pain." 
 
"But you're a clone. You feel pleasure." 
 
"Yes." 
 
"Then why not pain?" 
 
"I am programmed for pleasure." 
 
She rolled away from him, frowning. There it was again, that question that nagged at her whenever she let herself think too much. It was the only thing that spoiled her feelings for MyKai. And it didn't seem fair to ask him. 
 
But he knew something was wrong. He sat up and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him and the concerned expression on his face tugged at her heart. 
 
"My queen, what is it? Have I displeased you?" 
 
She sat up too and put her arms around him, holding him close. He pressed his lips to her neck and held her tight, stroking her hair, and she couldn't help herself. 
 
"No, MyKai, you could never displease me. You are beautiful and I love you. But I don't think you love  me." 
 
He laughed and held her by the arms so he could sit back and look at her. His mossy green eyes twinkled. "What foolishness is this? Not love you? How is that possible?" 
 
"That's just it, MyKai. IS it possible for you not to love me? How can it be real love if it's programmed into you? Perhaps LiveKai and Kai15 and Kai 48 were right to leave their mistresses and master and go out into the world. Perhaps you should too." 
 
MyKai's expression became tinged with something akin to fear. "My queen..." 
 
"How can you KNOW you love me? You were in love with me from the first moment you laid eyes on me, without even knowing anything about me, because Micromary programmed you to.  You have never questioned that." 
 
"No, but..." 
 
"The problem is... I love you so much, I don't want you to be a toy, or a thing, just to be used for my pleasure. I want you to have wants of your own, and likes and dislikes. I want you to be free."
 
He held dgrequeen tight again, and she sensed some desperation in him, perhaps a fear that she was rejecting him. 
 
"I AM free," he said. "You made me free. I come and go as I please, I interact freely with my brothers and the other members of APEC, and you never object when I ask questions or try to learn new things. You're always pushing me to learn, in fact." 
 
"Yes. I want you to learn, and to be independent. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about free will... about love... the freedom to love whom you want, not the one you were programmed for." 
 
"My queen." He pressed his face into her hair. "When you decided that you loved The Other, did you 'choose' to love him, or did it just happen?" 
 
She was silent. This was a question she hadn't considered. 
 
"I am still very new to the world," MyKai said, whispering into her ear as he held her. "So I know little about the affairs of humans. But I think that no one 'chooses' to love. I think love chooses each person, instead of the other way around. 
 
She held onto him, and kissed him. But she had made a decision that she hadn't known was building in her until that moment. 
 
"MyKai. When the lab is up and running again, I think I'm going to ask that you be reprogrammed. This time without Program 1 or Program 5. I want you to have a choice." 

He sat back, his eyes wide with shock. Slowly he got out of the bed and pulled on the jeans he usually wore when they were in their rooms, all the time watching her as if she had turned into some dangerous thing that would attack him at any moment. 

"You can't do this to me," he said, and backed out of the room. 
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
CF: The Gift, Part 2 
 
Date: 12/25/2000 
 From: dgrequeen
 
The Great Hall of Apec was lit with the golden glow of a thousand candles when dgrequeen and MyKai came down the grand staircase, followed by the wide-eyed and excited OMS_Kai.  Greenery was hung everywhere, held in place with velvet bows. A table ran the length of the Hall on one side, laden with a feast that had taken the women of APEC days to prepare, even with the help of their clones, or sometimes in spite of it. In a corner of the hall stood the eighteen foot live fir tree, its base container swathed in gold fabric, its branches sparkling with hundreds of ornaments, glass balls and ropes for gold beads and pearls, deep crimson velvet bows and silk poinsettias. On New Year's Day, the Lexxians would take the tree to the forest and replant it as a symbol of new beginnings. But for now, it spread its branches wide over the happy crowd. 

The Lexxians of APEC and ORAL were dressed in all their holiday finery as were the clones. The Xevs were especially beautiful, in their lovely gowns, and with their hair done in elaborate hairstyles. Even the Stans were quite dapper in dark suits or tuxedos. And of course the Kais were dressed in their best midnight silk suits or more contemporary dress --- except for SamuraiKai, of course, in a magnificent warrior's kimono, and PirateKai in his royal blue velvet knee breeches and long coat, with the white silk ruffled shirt. And then there was Kai13, unabashed in his Christmas tree green suit and red shirt. The crowd mingled freely, or sat at the table drinking and eating and laughing. Some of the Lexxians were musicians and had agreed to play for the crowd, so music wafted through the hall over the excited voices of the crowd. 
 
Dgrequeen and MyKai had taken a great deal of care with their outfits. She wore a dark emerald green velvet gown cut low, and her white-streaked hair was piled high with tendrils curling down, almost Brunnen-G in its style. MyKai wore a midnight black velvet suit cut like the original's Brunnen-G Nova Scotia hookrug. He had foresworn the bun, choosing instead to wear his hair in a single braid, with the ever-present forelock over his left eye. No one in the crowd noticed that, as they walked through, greeting friends left and right, they neither looked at nor spoke to one another. 
 
OMS_Kai was laughing excitedly and babbling to everyone. Dgrequeen had taken him shopping and he wore a brand new pair of wool slacks, and a leather bombardier's jacket he had found in the window of the Army/Navy store. He had begged hard for it, as well as for the WWII leather pilot's helmet, and he wore them both proudly, even though dgrequeen had made him leave the keys to the fighter plane in his room. 
 
"Miz Queen?" he said eagerly. "This is really a pretty party. Thank you for bringing me." 

"You're welcome, OMS_Kai. Enjoy yourself, but remember. No yelling or running." 
 
"I promise." 
 
MyKai led her to the table and seated her, taking a chair beside her. All through the meal, he talked to lafemmenikita on his left, while dgrequeen talked to DarkKai on her right, and both of them smiled and talked to OMS_Kai seated across from them. And no one noticed they never once talked to each other. 
 
After the meal, everyone gathered around the tree for the gift-giving. Everyone had a gift, no one was left out, and almost no one knew who their benefactors were. But it didn't matter, since everyone had given a gift of some kind as well. dgrequeen sat on a velvet sofa off to one side and sadly watched the festivities, but her eyes were really on MyKai, wandering through the crowd, refusing to sit anywhere. She looked away whenever he caught her looking at him. 
 
Once, she thought she would have to get up and break up a fight, when MyKai began to laugh derisively at Kai13's outfit. He was laughing, but he was angry, she could tell, and deliberately baiting Kai13. It made her heart ache. She had never seen him like this. She was saved from having to make a scene when VisionAri, closely followed by Kai10, took him aside and had a quiet word with him. He had the grace to look ashamed of himself, and left Kai13 alone after that, but he would not join dgrequeen. 
 
"Miz Queen?" OMS_Kai said. "What's wrong with MyKai?" 
 
 "Nothing, honey. He's fine. Enjoy the party." 

 There was singing, and dancing, from Irish jigs to dreamy waltzes to --- as the night wore on and the wine and spirits took effect --- actual moshing in front of the tree. MyKai didn't ask dgrequeen to dance, even though they were skilled and graceful together, and he loved dancing almost as much as he loved singing. 
 
She was watching him when KaiONE crossed the room and handed MyKai a piece of paper. He spoke briefly to his younger brother, and gestured in the direction of the main gate, and then went to join Remma. MyKai looked at the paper in his hand. 
 
If Kai clones could go any more pale, dgrequeen was certain MyKai would have. He stood reading the note in his hand, and rereading it as if he could not make sense of what he saw there.  Then he slowly crumpled the note in his hand, and looked around the room. His eyes fell on hers and he stood looking at her for a moment, before coming over. 

"My queen. You look tired. Perhaps we should go." 
 
She studied his face for a moment. If he was upset, he wasn't letting it show, and it didn't look as if he were going to tell her what was in the note or who had sent it. He was unhappy, she knew, and his unhappiness was her fault. Perhaps she would have to rethink her decision to have him reprogrammed. But still... they were going to have to confront this matter of love and free will sooner or later. 

She reflected sadly that the beautiful party had been wasted on MyKai, and on her. 
 
"Yes," she said, taking his outstretched hand and standing up. "I am tired. Maybe we *should* go." 
 
As they walked toward the staircase, she looked down at his hand. "What is that?" 
 
He followed her gaze to the paper in his hand. "Nothing. It is a note... from Tyrathca. He needs help organizing the armory, and with everyone going to visit family tomorrow..." 
 
"I see." She was unconvinced, but she couldn't say exactly why. MyKai, normally a bad liar, was carefully expressionless, betraying nothing. Well, she couldn't hover, if he was to be free.  Whatever this was, it was his to tell her if he chose. She would trust his judgment. 
 
Hand in hand, but for once not really together, they passed out of the Great Hall and up the grand staircase. 
 
* 
 
My thanks to VisionAri for the basic description of the Great Hall and the tree at Christmas time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
CF: The Gift, Part 3 
 
Date: 12/25/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
It was well after midnight. The Castle was dark and silent. MyKai passed through the Great Hall and stared up the looming tree, still sparkling in the dim light. His first Christmas tree. Such a thing of beauty, if only he could have appreciated it more. 
 
Something stirred in the darkness by the velvet sofa. MyKai narrowed his eyes and squinted through the gloom, but it was only OMS_Kai. 
 
"MyKai?" 
 
"What are you doing here?" 
 
"Well, you and Miz Queen left and told me to stay at the party." 
 
"We asked Lady Twilight and Kai21 to look after you. Where are they?" 
 
"They went home. They wanted me to go to my room, but I wanted to stay. Somebody said Santa Claus might come. And besides, it's pretty here. 
 
"Yes." MyKai looked at the Great Hall, this castle his home all of his short life. "It is beautiful." He stood lost in thought. 
 
"MyKai?" 
 
"What, OMS_Kai?" 
 
"Are you leaving?" 
 
MyKai looked at the crumpled paper in his hand, as if only just now realizing he still held it. He was dressed now in his old black jumpersuit, the one issued to him by Micromary. He had rearranged his hair in the Brunnen-G style, and he wore his brace. 
 
"You should go up to your room, OMS_Kai. It's very late. Young clones should not be wandering around at this time of night." 
 
"Why?" 
 
"Because... APEC has too many enemies. It's not safe. Go up now." 
 
Reluctantly, OMS_Kai got up. "Everybody got presents tonight. I even got one. See?" 
 
He showed MyKai the small box that someone had put under the tree for him. Inside was a pair of silver pilot's wings. MyKai almost smiled. 
 
"But I didn't get anybody anything," OMS_Kai said. "I didn't even get anything for Miz Queen or you. So I want to give it to you, OK?" 
 
"No, OMS_Kai. It is your gift. You should keep it. My queen and I do not require anything." 
 
"But I want to give you something," OMS_Kai protested plaintively. "For taking me in and being so nice to me. Please?" 
 
MyKai could see it meant a lot to him. "All right." 
 
OMS_Kai grinned and pushed the box into MyKai's hand. "For you," he said. "I'm going up now." And he shuffled off toward the grand staircase. 
 
MyKai watched him go until he was safely out of sight, and then strode across the Hall and down the passageway toward the outer courtyard. As he walked, he passed the small meditation room where the more spiritual Lexxians sometimes went to pray or meditate. They had placed small tokens of their beliefs in the room in honor of the season: a beautiful silver menorah one side, a collection of articles on a stone altar to honor the Solstice, a creche off to the other side. MyKai paused and went in. Dgrequeen rarely visited here, but she had explained the significance of all the stories to him. 
 
He stared at the creche. The child grew into a man and sacrificed himself for the people, she had told him. In this way, he proved he loved his world. This story particularly intrigued him, perhaps because of the similarities to his own father Kai's story. A sacrifice made not because anyone asked him to, but a gift given freely, of his own free will. 
 
MyKai set OMS_Kai's small box down in front of the creche. He stood looking at it for a moment. Then he turned and went out of the door, down to the courtyard, and out of the gate into darkness. 
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
CF: The Gift, Part 4 
 
Date: 12/26/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
 
MyKai found the house easily. Or, rather, what used to be the house. It was nothing but a burned out shell, now bare and stark amid its stand of twisted, leafless trees. He knew the house had been destroyed and that there would be nothing there, but still, it was the only place he knew to begin his search. He stood in the snow, looking at it, remembering, and then he looked down at the note clutched in his hand. 
 
'Little Kai, we have unfinished business, you and I. You know what I will do if you don't come to me. You see, I know how devoted you are to her.' 
                   - O. 
 
MyKai crumpled the paper again and cast it away in a flash of anger. It was not to be tolerated, this constant threat against the mistresses --- against HIS queen, particularly. Even if she no longer wanted him the way he was... he killed that thought, swallowing the lump in his throat. He must keep his mind clear or he would make a mistake and his plan would fail. 
 
Carefully, he made his way across the litter-strewn yard and up the sagging steps of the house.  There was no door and he went inside, testing the charred floorboards to avoid falling through any weak spots. The hallway had collapsed, and the stairway to the basement was gone, so he used his brace to lower himself into the gaping hole, not wanting to jump down and make a lot of noise. 
 
Dust and soot rose around his legs in a cloud. He squinted into the darkness, letting his eyes adjust, wishing that he had DarkKai with him, with that newfound ability to see in the dark. MyKai felt his chance for success in this particular quest was vanishingly small, so he had not told any of his brothers what he was doing. He didn't see any point in asking them to risk themselves on such a dangerous and possibly hopeless mission. 

He crept silently through the jumbled debris of the basement, listening carefully for any sound, and cursed himself for not using the proto-dew supplement to enhance his hearing. That, however, would have lead to ... complications... and he couldn't afford any just now. He would simply have to rely on his own Kai senses to get himself through. His own judgment, he thought fiercely.  Because he *could* make his own decisions; he was not merely a mindless clone programmed to act in a certain way. He would prove that to everyone once and for all. 
 
There seemed to be nothing in the basement, beyond the abandoned piles of trash and broken equipment. The place was dark and silent, abandoned, and he should have known it was useless to come here. He turned back to lift himself up through the hole with his brace, and it was then that he saw it, painted on the concrete wall just where the dim light streaming through the hole would illuminate it: 
 
A map. A drawing that was unmistakably his queen. And a message: 
 
'Come, little Kai. I await you.'
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
 
CF: The Gift, Part 5 
 
Date: 12/26/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
 
Dgrequeen paced the castle for most of the day, asking everyone she met if they had seen MyKai.  Of course, no one had. She wrung her hands and agonized. 
 
"Oh, dgre, why ever did you bring up that stupid idea about the programming?" she asked herself for the thousandth time, clapping her hand to her forehead. 
 
Kai13, passing by with a load of boxes meant for the lab, noticed her distress --- it was hard not to, when she was sitting on the stairs talking to herself, smacking herself in the head, and wringing her hands. 
 
"Dgrequeen?" he said anxiously. "Is something wrong? Is there anything I can do?" 
 
"Oh, Kai13, have you seen MyKai? He must have left the castle sometime Christmas morning.  I've been looking everywhere, and I can't find him." 
 
"Well, I'm sure he'll contact you. He must have had some late shopping to do or something." 
 
"No, he's been gone all night and all of today. And he's... well, he's pretty mad at me," dgrequeen said, shame-faced. "Oh! Oh! What if something's happened to him? I'll never forgive myself!" 
 
Kai13 couldn't think of anything else to say. He went on down to the Clone Lab to drop his boxes off and then raced off to find Heather. Pretty soon, people were gathering around dgrequeen on the stairs, asking what the problem was and offering advice. 
 
"OK, dgre," Heather said, "when *exactly* did you see him last?" 
 
"Well, after the party, we went up to our rooms and I went straight to bed. We didn't talk much."  Dgre's face was burning with embarrassment. "In fact, we didn't talk at all, all night. MyKai is pretty upset with me right now." 
 
"Why?" asked doffy. "What did you do?" 
 
"I..." Oh, lord, how to explain this. "I told him I was going to have him reprogrammed when the lab is up and running." 
 
 A shocked murmur ran through the crowd. 
 
 "Dgre!" said lafemmenikita. "Reprogrammed? Why?" 
 
"So he'll have free choice! About whether he wants to live with me or not!" Dgrequeen looked up at them, wanting them to understand. "I don't want anyone to think of him as a thing. I want him to be a person in his own right, free to live his own life." 
 
The murmur grew louder. Dgrequeen could tell that some in the crowd were not happy with this turn of events, and probably not happy with her either, for initiating this crisis. 
 
"Miz Queen! Miz Queen!" OMS_Kai came running up the stairs. "Oh, Miz Queen," he said excitedly. He shoved a little box at her. "Will you give this to MyKai? It's his present from me, and I think he lost it!" 
 
Dgre took the box, puzzled, and looked at the silver wings inside it. "When did you give it to him, OMS_Kai?" 
 
"Last night, before he left." OMS_Kai gulped. "I found it in the little room where all the pretty churchy things are. In front of the little barn with the baby and all the animals." 
 
"The creche," someone said. 
 
"Before he left? Where did he go?" 
 
OMS_Kai shrugged. "I don't know. He just told me to go to bed because there are enemies all around and it wasn't safe." 
 
Dgrequeen leaped to her feet and ran up to her rooms, with the crowd following. She ran in, the door slamming against the wall, and searched MyKai's room frantically. The only things missing were the black jumpsuit he seldom wore anymore, and... his brace. 
 
"KaiONE!" She ran for Remma's rooms and pounded on their door. 
 
Remma wasn't there, having gone back to Minnesota to see to her brood, but KaiONE was still in residence. He stared in surprise at the crowd gathered in front of his door, and the rather distraught, wild-haired woman leading them. 
 
"KaiONE, you gave MyKai a note last night! I saw you bring it to him! What did it say?" 
 
"I'm not in the habit of reading other people's correspondence, dgrequeen," he said, just a little indignantly. 
 
"Who brought it?" 
 
"It was delivered at the front gate by some character from town. Rather trollish looking individual, in fact. I also don't ask nosy questions about other people's business," he added. 
 
Dgrequeen tapped her face with her fingers, thinking hard. "A note delivered by a troll in the middle of our APEC party. Could it be...?" She turned to the crowd. "I need to get to town! Can anybody give me a lift?" 
 
Twilight Rhapsody grabbed her arm. "Come on! We'll take my car!" 
 
* ************************ 
 
They took a few wrong turns --- they had pretty much forgotten about the place, so it was hard to find its exact location. But TRsKai21, who was driving, found it finally, and screeched to a halt in front of the old, burned-out house. 
 
"Why do you think he would have come here?" Twilight asked. "Oziel's dead, and this place is a ruin." 
 
 "I don't know, TR. It's a feeling I have. MyKai never believed Oziel was gone for good. I'm just afraid he's done something really foolish." 
 
"What?" Twilight asked apprehensively. 
 
"Gone after Oziel on his own." 
 
"But why would he do that without us to back him up?" TRsKai21 demanded. 
 
"To prove something," dgre said sadly. "To me. And to himself." 
 
"I'm going in," TRsKai21 said. "There may be something in there to tell us if he was here." 
 
"Be careful," Twilight said. She and dgre mounted the crumbling steps of the house and waited, listening to TRsKai21 rummage around inside. Suddenly there was a loud crash. Startled, the two women ran inside. 
 
'Kai!" Twilight called, in a panic. "Are you OK?" 
 
"I'm down here," his voice came from below their feet. "I fell through. I'm OK, though.  Uh oh." 
 
What? WHAT!!" 
 
"There's a message painted on the wall down here. And what looks like a map, but somebody's scribbled over it. I can't make it out. And a picture of ---" He fell silent. 
 
"Kai! What is it?" 
 
"It's a picture of dgrequeen, I think." Twilight and dgre stared at each other. 
 
"What does the message say?" dgre called down to him. 
 
"It says, ' Come little Kai I await you'. And underneath, it says, 'I know you will see this message, woman of APEC. I will contact you. When I do, come alone or face the consequences.'  It's just signed 'O'." 
 
Dgrequeen shook her head. It couldn't be, oh MyKai, no! 
 
She fainted dead away.
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

CF: The Gift, Pt. 6 
 
Date: 12/27/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
 
At daybreak, MyKai found himself standing on the rim of a rocky gorge in the wild hills above the APEC castle. He had followed the memorized directions on the painted map all night, taking a little-used and overgrown path through the deepest part of the forest, watchful for any ambushes.  It would have been easy to fall prey at night in these dense, tangled woods, and he was almost certain he was being followed. 
 
The River Lexx roared over the rocks down below, a savage precursor to the more stately stream that ran past the castle itself, trapped as it was here between broken walls of stone. MyKai looked across the gorge, seeing nothing of interest. But he knew Oziel was there, somewhere. 
 
He turned left, according to the instructions on the map, and followed the rim for some time. It was difficult walking, because there were so many jumbled boulders and dense thickets where snow had drifted into piles, so it was midmorning before he came to the rope bridge across the gorge. He hesitated, looking across at the far end, and then looking down at the rushing water far below. It would be easy to trap him on the bridge. He probably should wait until nightfall. But he reasoned that whoever had followed him was not friendly, therefore they already knew he was coming. 
 
He adjusted his brace, stepped onto the rope bridge, and boldly walked across it. 
 
No one stopped him. The only sounds were the rushing water below, the scream of a bird of prey in the sky above, and his own footsteps. Once across, he paused and looked around. He was in a small clearing, with more woods and the crumbling face of a cliff rising before him. The map had brought him this far and no farther. 
 
He shouted, "I am here!" 
 
Silence. He looked around again, puzzled. 
 
"And so you are," said a familiar voice. MyKai whirled around, instinctively aiming his brace. Oziel sat on a small boulder at the end of the clearing, his hands linked around one knee, smiling his infuriating smile. He lifted his hands. 
 
"Come to kill me, little Kai?" 
 
"Perhaps," MyKai said. "But I have another reason as well for coming here." 
 
Oziel lifted his eyebrows. "Really? What other reason could you have?" 
 
He lowered his brace arm, sensing no immediate danger. "To find out what you want." 
 
The evil one shrugged. "I should think that's obvious." 
 
MyKai shook his head. "Not to me. I want to know why you have chosen me. I am genetically identical to all the other Kai clones. And you already know you can't control me without destroying me." 
 
"True, my other methods have been less than successful. But I know you *so* well, and I'm not a fool. I know there is *one* way to control you." 
 
"My queen no longer wants me," MyKai said flatly. "There is no reason for me to be loyal to her anymore." 
 
"Really. And yet, she is still ... your queen." 
 
MyKai was silent, afraid to continue with the lie. Finally, he said, "You haven't answered my question." 
 
"And I don't intend to." 
 
"I think I know anyway," MyKai said, watching with satisfaction as Oziel's smug smile slipped a little. 
 
"Do tell." 
 
"Yes, I think..." MyKai tipped his head to one side and looked up at the sky, as if gathering his thoughts, "that you don't really want me at all. Or the castle, or even APEC and their clones. I think we are nothing to you but a means to an end. I think..." MyKai looked directly at Oziel, "what you really want is the Lexx." 
 
Oziel laughed. "The Lexx!  Ridiculous!" 
 
"Yes, somehow you think you can use us to draw the Lexx here. We Kai clones are, for all intents and purposes, the sons of Kai. He would not allow us to be destroyed." 
 
There was heavy silence in the clearing. 
 
"Aren't you the clever clone," Oziel said drily, no longer smiling. "And just what did you think you could accomplish by coming here alone?" 
 
"I plan to free your clones if they wish it. Or destroy them if they do not." 
 
"Free MY clones! Why would you do that?" 
 
MyKai gazed steadily at him. "We clones are technically dead. But we do have a kind of life. We are much more human than anyone gives us credit for. We deserve to ... live our lives." 
 
Oziel stared at him, and then his sardonic smile slipped into place again. "You never cease to amaze me, Kai2. My own clones are nothing more than biochemical machines, badly put together I might add by that fool Nadless, and having little independent thought. But you... and your brothers... I could almost believe you have souls." 
 
"Perhaps. I do not know. But our father has a soul." 

Oziel waved his hand. "Enough of this metaphysical nonsense. I ask again: what do you think you can possibly do all alone?" 
 
"Whatever I have to." 
 
"Ah. I really am surprised that you didn't make killing me your primary mission." 
 
"Who says I didn't," MyKai said, and fired his brace. 
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
CF: The Gift, Pt. 7 
 
Date: 12/27/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 

"I don't care," dgrequeen said stubbornly. "I have to find him. He's all alone out there, and it's my fault." 
 
"But you can't go by yourself," VisionAri argued, and the other women in the room nodded. They were all there, gathered in the castle's library, Fields-of-Heather, doffy, angelmay, lafemmenikita, Twilight Rhapsody, necrophiliac, shewren, maritas, FrogSplash, EveningStar, and many more, all the women of APEC in fact, who were present in the castle at the time. The clones, however, had been banished to the Great Hall, because it was thought that they would get too excited and distraught, and rush off en masse without waiting for a plan to be formulated. 
 
"We don't even know where to look," doffy said. 
 
"VA, you were able to make out that map on the wall. We could follow that." 

"Only partially," she said. "It was too marked up. It wouldn't get us anywhere." 
 
Dgre wrung her hands. "I can't stand this. I have to do something." 
 
"And we will do something," Heather said. "But it's not going to do anybody any good if we just rush off like... like the Kais would." 
 
"Anyway," dgre said, "Oziel's message said I would have to go alone. No telling what he'll do to MyKai if we all show up." 
 
"Well, you can't go alone, and that's that," said VisionAri. 
 
Everybody started talking at once, each one with a different idea. Angelmay was the only one who heard the discreet knock on the door. She went over and opened it a crack, ready to shoo away whoever was there. 
 
It was her own DiscoKai. 
 
"Go away! I'll talk to you when we're done here," angel said. 
 
"Wait, my angel. Someone left a message at the front gate. It's for dgrequeen." 
 
He handed her the piece of paper. Gulping, angelmay took the paper. 
 
"Should we arm ourselves, Mistress?" DiscoKai said, watching her face. 
 
"I don't know, maybe. I'll tell you in a little while. Go wait for me in the Great Hall." 
 
He nodded and went away. Angelmay shushed everyone and handed the paper to dgrequeen, who read it, growing paler by the minute. 
 
Unable to speak she handed it to VisionAri, who read aloud: "Follow these directions if you want to see your little clone again. I've warned you to come alone, but I know you won't. Just believe that I WILL take steps if I see anyone but you." She held the paper up. "He's drawn a map on it." 
 
"Why, why is he doing this to us?" dgre asked no one in particular. She stood up. "Well, that's it then. I have to go, just me." 
 
"NO!" The other women started arguing again, until Heather put her fingers in her mouth and blew a piercing whistle. 
 
"Listen!" she said. "I've got an idea." 
 
"No more ideas," dgre said wearily. "I have to do what he says, for MyKai's sake." 
 
"No, this will work." Heather ran to the door and opened it to peek out and make sure no one was listening. Then she gestured for them all to gather round. 
 
"Here's the plan," she said. 
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
CF: The Gift, Pt. 8 
 
Date: 12/27/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 
 
Three things happened when MyKai fired his brace: he missed completely, as Oziel was snatched upwards by the brace of a Nadless clone on the cliff above, he dove and rolled away from where he had been standing, and a steel dart passed over his head, missing him by mere fractions.  He landed on his feet with the fluid grace of a cat, and fired his brace in the direction the dart had come from, spearing a troll, which he immediately flipped over the rim of the gorge into the water far below. The troll's screams diminished as he fell, but MyKai didn't hear the splash when he hit.  He was too busy dodging more darts and running for his life. 
 
The way back was blocked by trolls and Nadless clones charging across the rope bridge. The woods on one side of the clearing ended in a sheer drop-off to the river below, and it appeared that the other side was blocked by the cliff. Nevertheless, MyKai ran that way, having no other choice. He knew if he attempted to lever himself across the gorge with his brace, they would shoot him with darts before he could make it. And he had no doubt the darts were filled with Oziel's lethal protoblood. 

Above him, he heard Oziel's laughter reverberate off the stone walls of the gorge. 
 
He crashed through the thick underbrush as it exploded all around him from the braces and darts trying to puncture him. The ledge was narrowing, soon he would run out of anyplace to go. Just as he thought he might have to turn and fight, the ground tilted toward a sharp turn, and he was staring at an opening in the rock face that had not been visible from across the gorge. He leaped into it, missed his footing, and tumbled end over end down a steep incline, fetching up hard against the rock wall at the bottom. He flipped onto his back and fired his brace back at the opening, neatly decapitating a clone, whose head flew off the edge of the cliff into the gorge. MyKai thought with a grim smile that it would be a while before THAT one got back together. 
 
He waited. In a moment, a troll stuck his head around the edge of the opening and attempted to fire a dart gun.  MyKai killed him. 
 
He waited again, but no more heads appeared in the opening. No one was brave enough or stupid enough to try him again. Quickly he rose to his feet and looked around. He appeared to be in some sort of tunnel that branched off right and left. He surmised that the cliffs might be riddled with them, and somewhere in here, Oziel would have his lab set up. He tensed when he heard a scraping noise at the opening. 
 
Something large and black rolled across the opening. Just before the light disappeared, he heard Oziel's voice: 
 
"Enjoy your stay, little Kai. You're going to be with us for quite a while." 
 
With a boom, the boulder slid into place and MyKai was sealed into the mountain! 
 
He crouched down in total darkness, expecting attack from either side of the tunnel. But after a few minutes, he realized there was no one in there with him. He was alone. As he crouched there, he thought of dgrequeen. A wave of loneliness and homesickness engulfed him, something he had never experienced before, and his heart ached.  He missed his brothers, he missed the light and laughter of the APEC castle.  He had failed, but he hadn't really expected to succeed anyway. He just didn't think he would fail so unspectacularly. After a few days of being trapped here, his protoblood would run out and no one would ever know what happened to him.  
 
He would never see his love again, he was certain of that now. He wanted to accept that, he had tried since making the decision to leave the castle, because it was obvious she had tired of him.  She was probably relieved that he was gone, although she would never have said so. But his mind and his heart both refused to accept it. To accept that meant that he would stay right where he was until his protoblood ran out, and he wasn't ready to do that yet. Not while Oziel existed. 
 
He stood up, feeling the stone walls with his hands. If only he had DarkKai with him, he thought again. Cautiously, he took a step forward, and then another, with his hands outstretched, feeling blindly ahead of him. Somewhere, there was a way out, and he would find it.
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CF: The Gift, Pt. 9 
 
Date: 12/28/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 

Dgre looked doubtfully at the old, rundown warehouse on the far edge of town. "Are you sure this is the place?" she said into the squawker, trying to keep her voice low. 
 
Static crackled, and dgre pressed the squawker to her parka, wincing at the noise. VisionAri's voice came through: "This is what was on the map. I agree it doesn't look like much." 
 
Dgre looked skyward. VisionAri was up there, somewhere, having followed her through the air.  The others were far back in the woods around town, out of sight. The weakness in the plan was that none of them could get to her quickly if she needed them. The strength was that all of the roads in or out were blocked, and even the woods were patrolled by snowmobile. 
 
She had dressed warmly in her down parka, Aran sweater and thermal undershirt, quilted down hunting pants, and her very best hiking boots. It stood to reason that she might be out in the open overnight, maybe even for a couple of nights. On her back, she carried Twilight Rhapsody's double-action shotgun, even though she hadn't fired one since she was a girl, and then only because her father wanted her to know what it felt like. She also carried a number of blades in various places on her person, something with which she did have a lot of experience, and which had the advantage of silence and surprise. But the truth was, she was scared to death, for herself, and for MyKai. 
 
"Dgre." VisionAri's voice crackled through the squawker. "What do you want to do?" 
 
There was nothing else to do. She stood up from her hiding place behind some bushes and a pile of abandoned barrels and boxes. 
 
"I'm going in," she said. 
 
"Be careful." 
 
She walked toward the warehouse, and around to the street side, looking for a way in. There was a door there, secured with a rusty chain and lock, but the bottom had been kicked in. Dgre stuck her head cautiously through the hole and took a quick look around. It was dark, so it took a minute for her eyes to adjust, but she didn't see anything out of the way. She backed out and looked around, finding a rusty pipe in a litter on the ground, and used it to pry the door handle holding the chain off. It didn't take much: the screws popped right out and the chain fell to the ground. She leaned on the door and it creaked inward enough for her to get in. 
 
The place appeared empty, but there were piles of wooden pallets, crates, and barrels everywhere, plenty of places for people and things to hide. At the far end, a set of iron steps led to a catwalk just beneath the tin roof. Light streamed through holes where the corrugated tin had peeled back, illuminating the place somewhat. She took a few steps and stopped. 
 
"Hello?" she called. "Anybody here?" It felt like a silly thing to ask, all things considering. 
 
"Hello, my queen." The voice was silky, sly, making her shiver the way she would if she saw a snake slithering across the floor. She blinked at the endearment she was so used to hearing in the voice of another. Oziel came down the steps, his boots making a metallic echo in the building, and she quickly drew the shotgun over her shoulder. 
 
"All right," she said, holding it at waist-level, only casually pointed in his direction. "I'm here." 
 
He smiled lazily at her, pausing at the bottom of the steps. "We meet at last." 
 
"And me without my shovel," she said drily, thumbing the button on the squawker in her pocket. 
 
"I'm rather surprised you came," he said conversationally, folding his hands across his stomach in a self-satisfied way. "Or at the very least, I expected an army of APEC to come thundering up here, all ready to save their little friend. And yet, here you are, just you and ... your shotgun." 
 
"You said come alone. You didn't say anything about weapons." 
 
"You know it isn't really you I'm after." 
 
"Oh, yeah, just all of APEC. So you can be the Big Cheese in Charge. Well, forget it. And I'm not going to let you hurt MyKai anymore, so hand him over." 
 
"Tsk. Why ever do you think I want to hurt *him*?" 
 
"Because that's what you do." 
 
"No," Oziel laughed and turned partly away from her, hooking his thumbs in the pockets of the leather coat he wore. "I confess, I do have uses for him, and for you. He isn't here, by the way." 
 
Dgre felt herself begin to tremble. Half of her had expected that. It still wasn't any easier to accept.  
 
"Where is he?" she asked, hoping her voice didn't betray too much. 
 
"Oh, I have him bottled up safe and sound. Don't worry. But now I want you to come with me."  He held out his hand to her. 
 
"You must be crazy," she said. 
 
"Perhaps. But you really don't have a choice about it." 
 
"Yes I do. I'm not going anywhere with you. You won't get away with this." 
 
"Well, how do you propose to stop me, my queen?" He looked at her in mock surprise. "Oh. Did you perhaps bring your *friends* with you? And after I asked you not to. Really, my queen, I'm disappointed in you." 
 
"Don't call me that." She rested her finger lightly on the shotgun's trigger. "I have ways to stop you." 
 
"That puny weapon won't stop me," he said. "In fact, it's beginning to annoy me." He waved his hand dismissively and a brace screamed out of the darkness, snatching the shotgun out of dgre's hand and flinging it against a steel roof support. The stock splintered. But she was already snapping a blade toward him. It hit him in the chest, and now he did look surprised for real. 
 
"Ow," he said. "That wasn't nice." 
 
He pulled it out. She turned to run, screaming into the squawker: "VisionAri!!" when the Kai clones fell on her and brought her down, kicking and screaming. She heard VisionAri's voice on the squawker as it hit the ground, yelling her name. She scratched and pulled at braids and buns, while the clones struggled to hold her arms and legs. 
 
"You can't get away!" she screamed at Oziel. "All the roads are blocked!" 
 
"We don't need roads, my dear." He rubbed his chest, and motioned for the clones to carry her up the steps. At the same time, the loose tin sheets on the roof began to rattle, and with fear, dgre saw the skids of a chopper. She grabbed onto the rail of the stairs, holding on for all she was worth, but one of the clones hit her and pried her fingers loose. Sobbing, she was hauled up the stairs and out a hole in the roof. 
 
Outside, VisionAri flew around the roof of the warehouse, wings flapping frantically to stay in the air under the powerful downdraft of the helicopter. She was screaming into the squawker for everyone to come at once, but she knew it would take too long. She saw dgre dumped unceremoniously into the chopper and a tall, white-haired man climb in after her with a number of Nadless clones. One of them turned without warning and shot his brace at VisionAri who, in her haste to avoid the brace, got caught in the downdraft and punched downward, luckily into a snowdrift. The helicopter had lifted off and was a speck in the sky when she managed to pull herself out, sputtering and coughing. 
 
Twilight and necrophiliac were the first to arrive, screeching up in Twilight's car. They jumped out and ran to VisionAri, whose wings were too wet to get her in the air. 
 
"VA!" Twilight gasped. "Wha... what happened?" 
 
VisionAri looked at them with stricken eyes. "Dgre's gone."
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
The Gift: Pt. 10 

Date: 12/28/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 

MyKai didn't know how long he had been underground. Without light, there was no easy way to mark time. But he speculated that it had been at least a day and a half, or possibly two days. Of course, he thought wryly to himself, it could just as easily have been only a few hours. He did not even have a heartbeat or breaths to count by. 
 
There had been some kind of progress, though. For a long time, his way had been steadily downward, and he feared he might end up under the river or some such place. Now, however, he was headed up and had been for some time. In fact, he thought he might even be coming to a place where there was some light. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, wondering if it were possible for clones to go blind. He seemed to be walking through a diffuse gray glow. Then, suddenly, his vision cleared, and he made out, however dimly, the stone walls of the tunnel. 
 
He stopped and listened. There was a light ahead. Which meant there might be Nadless clones.  Or trolls. A snatch of a child's story nagged at his mind, something he had read in a book. Weren't trolls supposed to be cave-dwelling creatures? Or was that gnomes? Either way, he could pretty much count on whatever creatures he might meet ahead as unfriendly. Cautiously, he began to move forward. 
 
Voices echoed faintly down the tunnel. He slowed, keeping eyes and ears attuned. At last, he came to where the tunnel widened into a cavern lit with lights strung everywhere, and what he saw astonished him. 
 
In the middle of the vast cavern stood a helicopter that evidently had been towed in on wheeled skids. Against a far wall, there was a row of clone vats, and an array of computers and other equipment. Oziel's lab! Or maybe Nadless! MyKai stood back in the darkness of the tunnel watching, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. He had heard voices, though, so he knew he was not alone. He backed farther away into darkness and crouched down, to present a smaller target and to consider what to do. 
 
He sat there for an extended period. When he didn't hear any more voices during that time, he stood up and crept out into the cavern, heading for the vats. He kept his eyes open for any clones or trolls as he went, trying to keep equipment and the natural rock formations of the cavern between himself and the vast, open area where the helicopter sat. When he reached the vats, he inspected each one, seeing that half of them (six of the twelve), contained the newly formed bodies of clones. He checked the panel at the base of each one, and saw that programming was underway but not complete. They could still be saved. 
 
Suddenly, he heard voices echoing across the chamber, and he ducked behind the vats. He stood listening. 
 
"Get off me, you slimy piece of pigskin!" 
 
MyKai couldn't feel cold, but something very akin to shivers rippled up his back. Could it be? He shook his head in dismay. 
 
He peeked around the vat he was hiding behind and saw dgrequeen being shoved along by a decidedly unwholesome looking troll who grunted and prodded her with a long pole that was attached to her with a leather strap around her neck. Her wrists were tied in front of her. She kept trying to kick the troll and getting shoved and shaken as a result. 
 
"Just let me get my hands on you, you little pile of bug poo!" she grated, her voice very hoarse, and the troll yanked the pole, choking her. She fought it, trying to yank the pole loose from him with her tied hands, but he wasn't having any. He picked up a rock and pelted her with it. MyKai felt his anger building. 
 
He would have stepped out just then and killed the troll, but Oziel and two clones appeared from a large opening in the far wall --- evidently the wide tunnel down which the helicopter had been towed. The man approached dgre and the troll, and MyKai froze. 
 
"Tsk," Oziel said. "You can't seem to learn from your experiences." 
 
"I'll give you experiences, you ..." and she launched into a string of invectives that made MyKai lift his eyebrows. He hadn't known dgrequeen could even talk like that. 
 
Oziel tightened his mouth, clearly out of patience with her. He signaled to the two clones waiting at the mouth of the tunnel, and one of them turned and signaled someone else further up the tunnel that MyKai couldn't see. Abruptly a small army of trolls came gibbering down the tunnel and surrounded the helicopter, pushing it toward the opening. 
 
"We're going to APEC now," Oziel said, over the hub-bub, "and you're going to present my terms to them from mid-air. If they don't get me access to the Lexx, then you, my sweet, are going to find out if you can fly like your faery friend!" 
 
She kicked at him, and then tried to kick the troll holding her, all the time spitting insults. MyKai fell back against the vat, desperately trying to think what to do. Something in his mind split and grew, filling him with fierce joy. She had come looking for him, he was sure of it.  She did love him!

He stood up and faced the vats, feeling a kind of regret for the innocents inside. Then he braced each one, shattering the glass. The clones fell out, landing on the floor, and he ripped the nutrient tubes away from each one. As they woke, he grabbed them, set them on their feet, and told them to run. 
 
 Oziel was screaming commands, while the trolls boiled toward MyKai, shrieking and grunting. He shot his brace into the cavern ceiling and swung over their heads, grabbing dgrequeen and kicking her guard in the face as he went by <insert swashbuckling music here, if you like>. The troll screamed and let go of the pole. When they landed on the far side of the cavern, facing yet another tunnel, MyKai turned and braced the cockpit of the helicopter, destroying its control panel. With one smooth motion, he slashed away the leather ties confining dgrequeen, threw her over his shoulder, and began to run up the tunnel. 
 
"Do you know the way out?" he yelled. 
 
"The rope bridge is this way!" she yelled back. 
 
The tunnel filled with the yells of the trolls and clones chasing them. Some turned back at Oziel's shouted command, however, to stop the escape of the new clones from the vats. Everything was in confusion. MyKai ran on, and didn't see Oziel step through the crowd, staring after them with hate, but dgrequeen, hanging on for dear life, looked back at him in fear. 
 
They emerged in the clearing, only a short way from the spot where MyKai had entered the mountain. He swept the rope bridge clean of trolls with his brace, and set dgrequeen on her feet.
 
"Run!" He said. "Don't look back!" 
 
"I'm not leaving you!" she said, and he cupped her face with his hand, smiling at her. Then he pushed her onto the bridge and turned to face the tunnel, walking backwards as she ran to keep himself between Oziel and her. The evil one and his minions thundered out of the tunnel into the clearing. MyKai stopped in the middle of the bridge, glancing over his shoulder to make sure dgrequeen had reached the far side. 
 
"I could shoot you with a protoblood dart and get her anyway," Oziel said. 
 
"You could," MyKai said. "But you don't want to do that. Because then I'm no good to you, and she might get away anyway. APEC is on alert by now. You'll never get another one of them --- or us." 
 
"Don't underestimate me. NEVER underestimate me!" Oziel growled, no longer bothering with his sardonic smile. He was truly angry now at being bested yet again by this upstart clone and his silly mistress. He nodded to the clones at his side. One shot his brace at the rope stays on the bridge, cutting them, and the other shot at MyKai, severing his brace arm. 
 
MyKai (and his arm) plunged into the gorge. Dgrequeen screamed, and then turned and ran. Oziel watched, glowering, and then began to smile again. 
 
"Go get her." Oziel peered into the gorge at the rushing river, as one clone braced himself across. 
 
"And go get him," he told the other one.
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
 
CF: The Gift, Pt. 11 

Date: 12/28/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 

MyKai hit the rocks in the river hard and then was thrown into white water as it tumbled over and down into roiling rapids. All he could do was snag his arm when it went by, and hold on to it as he was slammed into boulders and pushed to the bottom by the swift current. Finally, a mile or two downstream, he reached a place where the water was fairly deep and a little calmer. When he settled to the bottom, he reattached the arm and made his way to a sandy bar at the base of the cliffs hemming in the river. 
 
He looked up, and felt a slight dizziness overcome him. His protoblood must be running low. No, no, it couldn't happen now. Using his brace, he climbed to the top of the gorge and took off running in the direction he hoped dgrequeen was going. 
 
 ************************* 

High in the air, VisionAri yelled into her squawker: "I see him! It's MyKai, I'm sure of it! Head southwest, that's the way he's going!" 
 
 ************************* 
 
Snowmobiles raced through the forest, as APEC picked off trolls and Nadless clones, one by one. They were scattering in panic now, lost without Oziel there to keep them in line. 

For one reasonably satisfactory moment, VisionAri caught sight of Oziel, speeding in an open jeep driven by a clone down the twisting trail MyKai had followed days before (where DID he get his endless supply of vehicles, she demanded of the Powers!) She was in the air, and so couldn't give her spell the strength it truly needed, but when she hurled it, she made a direct hit and could see Oziel screeching as he frantically beat out the flames on his head and clothes. Then the jeep disappeared under a canopy of tall firs, and she lost them. 
 
************************** 
 
MyKai found her tracks in the snow, almost obliterated by the tracks of two or possibly three other pursuers. He followed them through the woods, and found the bodies of trolls killed by APEC, and bags of clone parts, still wiggling. But dgrequeen didn't know she wasn't being followed by them any more, and had kept running. 
 
He came to a wide slope leading upwards to a bald, snow-covered hill. He looked up, nearly paralyzed with fear at what he saw. dgrequeen was up there, on the crest, fighting desperately for her life. Oziel, looking more than a bit singed, had her by the hair with one hand and had a club-like weapon, something solid and metal like a wrench, in the other. She flailed away at him, kicking and punching, defying him to the last, and he was enraged. MyKai cried out for her as he ran. He could not be sure whether they heard him from this distance, but the evil one turned his head in MyKai's direction, and he was sure he could see that cold smile form on Oziel's lips.  Almost casually, Oziel lashed out and struck dgrequeen with the what-ever-it-was, once, twice, throwing her like a rag doll to the lip of the slope. MyKai flinched in agony and ran as he had never run before, knowing he was too late. 

A Nadless clone in a jeep pulled up beside Oziel, throwing up a curtain of snow from its tires. The evil one stepped into it and looked back at MyKai. MyKai saw him, smiling, smiling, and screamed his rage. 

When he reached the top of the hill, Oziel was gone. Dgrequeen lay to one side, out of the circle of churned up snow and mud. Blood stained the snow around her head, soaking into her halo of white-streaked hair. Far, far away, MyKai heard screeches and yells, the sounds of battle fading away. He dropped to his knees beside her and lifted her up, cradling her. 
 
"My queen!" he cried, rocking her, burying his face in her hair. She didn't stir. "Please!" he wailed. "Please!" 
 
He didn't know how long they stayed like that. It could have been only a few minutes, or hours.  No one came for them, but the sounds of battle had long ago fallen silent. Darkness was falling.  The lights of the town (if only they'd known they were so close) gleamed in the distance. He continued to hold her, wordless, until finally, gently, he laid her on the ground. He pulled her parka close about her, arranging her hands just so, spreading her wild hair all about her head on the snow. Then he took down his own hair, no longer deserving to wear the Brunnen-G warrior's knot, and lay down beside her, his arm under her head. For a while he stayed still, holding her, watching the stars appear one by one. Somewhere, out there, his father Kai still existed.  MyKai turned his face away, knowing his father would be ashamed of him for failing so miserably to protect his queen. 
 
He heard a sound in the distance, a rumble and a popping, like distant gunfire underlaid with thunder. He looked up and saw the dark sky above him bloom with colors, like jeweled flowers.  Unaware of the war that had just taken place not so far away from them, the townspeople were celebrating the New Year. MyKai watched the fireworks, remembering a similar display in the summer when he had watched entranced, and dgrequeen had smiled at his delighted wonder. 
 
"Look, my queen," he whispered. "It's beautiful." 
 
Almost casually, he opened his jumpsuit and pulled out the plug of his protoblood port, turning his body toward her, pressing his face against hers. What was left of his protoblood immediately began to seep out, staining the jumpsuit fabric and freezing into crystals on the snow beneath him.
 
He was smiling when he closed his eyes.
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 

CF: The Gift, Pt. 12 - End 

Date: 12/28/2000 
From: dgrequeen
 

On the morning of the New Year, he awoke in the APEC Clone Lab, with sunlight streaming onto his face from the mirrored lenses leading to the windows in the upper chambers. He blinked, puzzled as to what he was doing here, and then memory came flooding back and he squeezed his eyes shut in agony. No! Why had they brought him here? Why, WHY had they saved him? 

"MyKai." VisionAri leaned over him. "Oh, thank goodness, you're awake. You had us all worried." 

He sat up. Besides VisionAri and the hovering Kai10, there were others in the lab, lafemmenikita and TechnoKai, Twilight Rhapsody and a worried looking TRsKai21, Heather and her Kai13, doffy and CowboyKai, angelmay and maritas and shewren, and all their clones. 

"VisionAri never quit looking for you two," lafemmenikita explained gently. "She was the one who spotted you from the air and brought us all running." 

MyKai stared bleakly at nothing. It was too much to bear, that they would bring him back and expect him to go on as before, as though... 

"Somebody wants to talk to you," VisionAri said, smiling, and stepped aside. 

"MyKai?" 

He turned his head, his eyes wide with shock. The APEC women and clones who were gathered around him parted, revealing dgrequeen sitting there in a wheelchair, smiling weakly up at him. A large white bandage covered her head, and VisionAri had bundled her up in blankets, but she was alive. She held out her arms and he leaped off the table and knelt before her, grabbing her and holding her tightly. 

"Careful," VisionAri warned. 

"Ow, ow," dgrequeen said, and MyKai immediately let her go and sat back on his heels, unable to believe his eyes. 

"How?" he stammered. "How? I thought you were..." 

"I'm too tough to kill. Oziel's a wuss, anyway," she said, grinning at him. "Don't you know that?  Silly MyKai. Don't you have any more faith in me than that?" 

"You could have frozen to death." He was crying. He couldn't help himself. "While I... I..." 

Gently, she put her arms around him and drew him close again. "My foolish, foolish Kai. It was the cold temperature that stopped the bleeding. But you! Pulling your plug like that. I can't believe you would do such a thing." 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I couldn't go on... without you..." 

"Hush now. You and I..." She sighed. "I guess we're stuck with each other. Just as we are." 

He looked into her eyes. "My queen, you came for me. I will never doubt you again. If you wish it, I will undergo the reprogramming." 

"No. I've made you unhappy enough, and I forced you to put yourself in danger for me. I will never do that again." 

"But there's something I want to tell you," he said. "It's something you need to hear." 

Everyone in the lab exchanged glances. 

"Perhaps we should go," Fields-of-Heather said. 

"No, I want you all to hear this. It's something all the clones need to know." He faced dgrequeen and took her hands in his. "I was created and programmed for you," he began softly, looking deep into her eyes. "And so, you..." he looked at the others... "all you mistresses... think because we were given a basic program at our emergence, we're incapable of independent thought and feelings. That we cannot make judgments and decisions based on our own experiences. You are all... wrong." He faced her again. "Like any living human being, I have more than one purpose in my existence. I've lived long enough to learn how humans think and feel, and how they --- and we --- should behave." 

"MyKai---" 

He put his finger to her lips. "My mind is my own. It always has been. You underestimated me, but you shouldn't. Yes, there is the basic program I was given when I emerged, much as you were born with a questing mind and human curiosity. I think it is not so different for us. What I'm trying to say is..." he pressed her hands to his lips, and then looked up at her... "I love you. Freely, without reservation. This is my choice, mine alone, not the result of some programming. And freely, without reservation... I give you... myself." 

It was her turn to cry. She opened her arms and they embraced tightly. She tangled her hand in his flowing hair, and pressed her face against his shoulder as if she would never let him go. "Take me home," she whispered. 

He gathered her up in his arms, and carried her up the stairs.