Chapter 5: Daemon
Blue eyes.
Deep, huge, fathomless, beautiful blue eyes.
A dark-fringed liquid gaze that slid from one intruder to the next, and held them as effectively as a stasis field.
That was their first glimpse of Daemon.
AndrAIa gasped softly, stepping back against Matrix, who had haltingly lowered his gun. Blue gaze paused on the two, then swept on the others. A soft frown creased the pale forehead as the gaze paused on, then passed over Dot, delicate dark brows knitting slightly. Then those unbelievable eyes slid to Guardian 452, and pinned him.
A soft voice, pitched high and frail and almost sweet but for the reverberation throughout the room, assaulted the four from all sides.
*You have come to destroy me.*
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. The pale lips did not move. And the voice was the voice of a child. And for all the cold impersonality of the words, for all the still pale expressionless visage, pain flickered undeniably in those amazing blue eyes.
"User above..." Dot whispered again, unable to look away from the tiny pale form before her. Daemon...was a child. The all-powerful destroyer, the menace of Mainframe, the conqueror of the entire Guardian Collective as the Net knew it... a child. Dot�s processor had ground to a halt, unable to comprehend this unbelievable twist in events.
She was utterly petite, no more than five feet tall with the delicate figure of beginning adolescence, though there was a frailty to her that went beyond simply a slight build. Her skin was pure white with a slight bluish cast like skim milk. Silky dark hair was wound into two braided buns, tucked behind an elaborate silvery headpiece...and of course there were those incredible huge blue eyes.
A child. It was just unfathomable.
Daemon had found the intrusion interesting, but now was growing impatient. She had had her share of astounded staring sessions and was becoming thoroughly bored by this one, and the renegade Guardians had not yet made any reply to her. She frowned petulantly, tapping pearly fingernails on the arm of her chair. She leaned forward slowly, brushing a fingertip against the metallic devices nestled at the base of her throat automatically before speaking once more...or rather, transmitting her words to the processor which did her speaking for her, now that her vocal cords were no longer functioning.
*I am Daemon. I am the one you seek.*
From the corner of her eye, she saw the large green one shake his head, bemusement set in his expression. She turned her head to look at him again, speculatively.
The figure spoke again, again without moving her lips or seemingly making any other effort, though a fragile frown had settled over the pale features. Daemon leaned forward in her chair, the gesture accompanied by a faint mechanical sound. Dot looked on in somewhat horrified fascination as Daemon moved. When she turned her head to look at Matrix, the strange noises could be heard again, a louder whirring and grinding of machinery this time. Dot bit her lip as she finally had a clear view of what was causing the noises. Blindly she reached for Bob�s arm, shaking him from his own stupor and pointing shakily at Daemon�s half-turned back. Bob�s eyes widened as he saw, fingers tightening on Dot�s shoulder to a point that nearly caused her pain.
"I never...it�s...but it�s only in stories...it�s impossible..."
Dot shook Bob�s arm slightly, trying to follow his stuttering whisper. "What in the Net is it?"
Bob shook his head. "It�s...I /think/...it�s a viral device."
"A /what/?"
The green man had not said anything useful, nor had the woman at his side. Daemon sighed softly, settling back in her chair again. She couldn�t contain a wriggle of discomfort as the spines of Vice dug into her sides and back...it didn�t hurt anymore, much...most of the time...but it still didn�t feel good. She was tired, and bored, and uncomfortable. For a moment the glowing green fog of Vice lifted a bit from her mind, as it did at times when her feelings grew strong, and the faintest whisper of a thought and the tiniest pale picture threaded their way before her mind�s eye.
�I want to go home.�
�I don�t want to do this anymore�
�Mama, I want to go home.�
Vice caught her. It did that too. The thoughts and images were lost in a searing knife-edge of pain behind her eyes, and she couldn�t help it...she curled into a desperate fetal position, nails digging into the arm of her chair as she waited for Vice to let her go again.
�I�msorryI�msorryI�msorry...�
The four stared in shock as the tiny powerful being before them suddenly doubled over, agony written on her alabaster face as she curled around herself. A soft high-pitched keening echoed through the room as the spidery fingers of Daemon clutched at her chair arm, obviously overtaken by something they could not detect. AndrAIa hid her face against Matrix�s arm, and he in turn had to look away as well.
Bob kept his eyes trained on Daemon�s back, the viral appliance easily visible now. Pale metal dominated the slender back; a twisted cord of the stuff ran from the back of her head down to the small of her back. Spines protruded from the twisted cord at regular intervals, curving forward to cradle Daemon�s sides...at least, they appeared to cradle her until it became clear that the points were in fact embedded in her flesh, digging into her sides through the material of her white jumpsuit. Rings of the same pale metal marched down her left arm and leg, connected by metal strips which supposedly allowed for freedom of movement. An assortment of wires and sensors arrayed the rest of her limbs, and all the workings appeared to meet at the base of Daemon�s skull. The whitish-grey metal bands then seemed to split, continuing forward to meet in what was presumably the headband they had seen when Daemon faced forward. The entire device was like an exoskeleton...Daemon�s spine and ribs on the outside of her body instead of within it. And it was easy to see that the fragile form of the child within could hardly fight off the power of metal and virus encasing her.
So meticulous was his horrified observation of what had always been considered an urban legend at the Academy, so confused were his thoughts by the impossibility of the situation before him, that Bob didn�t notice when Dot left his side.
Not until she reappeared in his field of vision at the base of Daemon�s dias.