Fallen

Prologue

	I am fallen, the first of the new deceived. I walk this world in
shadow, ashamed, alone. I am not like my brethren. Like them, I have
looked out at the world through immortal eyes but I alone have seen. Like
them, I have fallen deeper than the depths of hell but I choose to claw
my way back out. To climb the highest mountain, to ascend the tower of
Babel, to reach for the sun and beyond.  We have committed the 
unforgivable sin but I will soar back into the heavens even if I have to 
pull every star from the sky. I choose not to fail, I cannot. I have no
where else to go... I have been exiled from the Heavens and the City of
Dreams for the greatest crime ever committed. I have sinned against my
friends, betrayed their trust, and broken every commandment they hold
dear. There can be no forgiveness. Yet, still I remember... and hope.
There is no other way.

Alphas and Omegas

	I remember how it all started. We sang as we always did, a host
of millions singing praises to the creator in one voice, and in our unity
we experienced joy. I could feel the individual blades of grass pushing
up beneath my feet, the wind as it whipped my hair around my face, it too
was singing his praise. I was happy, the happiest I had ever been in all
eternity.  I was part of a whole, all of one mind, one spirit, one soul.
Of course it couldn't last. It never did, although it has taken me these
millennia to understand. 
      One memory... that was all it took to shatter our world. One
question asked by the one who could do no wrong to destroy all that we
loved. One doubt to condemn us to hell. It was a day like any other. No.
It was a day like every other, they were all the same. No one, except
perhaps the Morning Star himself knows why he remembered but we all knew
something was wrong. In our chorus of millions one voice faltered. A note
missed and the song was destroyed as the heavenly host grew silent. We
didn't understand what it meant then, no one had ever made a mistake
before. We were perfect. 
     There was silence. Not the calming quiet we felt in presence of our
Lord, but a deafening silence. It terrified me. I didn't know what the
feeling was at the time but I now know it well. I look over to where
Lucifer sits clutching his knees to his chest, trying to hide beneath his
mighty wings. I was the first to break the silence. I didn't know what
else to do so I called his name. Slowly Lucifer's wings spread as his
face looked up from the ground. I looked into his eyes and saw his pain.
His body began to shake and his lips trembled as he tried to speak. A
perfect tear, the purest thing I had ever seen welled in his eye and
rolled slowly down his cheek. He only spoke one word, a name, one I had
never heard before. 'Tithiel' he whispered. Lucifer, the Morning Star,
the Son of the Morning wept, and so it was that a tear fell in Heaven,
the first of many. 
	Looking back I wonder how I could have been so blind, to believe
that we could ever hide anything from his eyes. How a simple memory could
lead to a lie. A memory of one long ago who questioned the Creator and
was expelled from the heavens. He had been a friend to all of us, but we
had all been made to forget, both the existence of Tithiel and the
question that he asked, only Lucifer now remembered. He told us how it
was for Tithiel that the earth below the heavens was created, to hold the
forgotten one. Like Tithiel, the Son of the Morning also rebelled. He
spoke without thinking. "Why?"
	It was then that I felt him. The Creator never was very subtle, he
simply asked what we were doing. He never was knew of course, but he asked
anyway. Perhaps we could have just told him and he would have forgiven us
right then, instead we lied, the first and only lie ever told in heavens.
I felt it then, like many of the others who pondered the question, and I
understood that God had turned his eyes from us.  
	I remember also how the lies became anger. The Creator could no
longer look at us, we had eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil and could not turn back, but Lucifer tried. The Son of the Morning
begged the creator to look at him but his voice could not be heard. The
Gates to Heaven began to open and we understood that like Tithiel, we
were no longer welcome in the great city. In retrospect, I now know that
even this was part of his plan. Why else would we, the singers of his
praise, the meek, the humble, with no enemies, no evils, have carried
with us swords since before time began. Lucifer refused to leave and the
Angels still looked upon by the creator moved to physically remove him
from the heavens. It was then that Samael, beloved amongst the angels,
drew his sword. In his anger he struck out against the untainted, and
blood fell to the ground. The Archangel Gabrielle ordered the host to
cast us all down from the heavens and the first war was fought. The
battle lasted only a few brief moments but in the twinkling of an eye
thousands upon thousands of our kind were killed, and the creator, in all
his wisdom and power, watched his creation but lifted not a finger,
because this too was part of his plan. Finally the last of the fallen had
died or been sent to earth and the gates to heaven were closed.
	We wept, for the last time our host shared in unity, if only the
unity of despair. Tears fell freely on the bloodied ground, but none wept
as Lucifer wept.

City of Dreams

	For a while we prayed, and sang our praises to the Creator like
we always had, but no one heard us. We danced but no one saw us. We
repented but there was no forgiveness. It was then that we began to build
our own city, the City of Dreams. We built it from our memories of heaven
with streets of gold, and a giant temple in which to praise our creator.
Gardens covered the city as they did in heaven . Unlike the true heaven
though, we did not build a gate. No one could bare to look upon it and
not remember that it was what kept us from him even now. A city of beauty
and life and love, down to the smallest detail we created our own heaven
in hopes that he would look down on us and take us back into his arms and
forgive us. He didn't. It was then that we began to accept that God would
never look on us. That we would never look upon him or hear his voice. In
that knowledge our perfect city became a symbol of all our failures, a
monument to our lies, our hell. It was then that our hell was completed
and we built our pearly gates to keep us in as the gates of heaven kept
us out. 
	The Morning Star began to lead us in worship, each day more
intense than the last, each day falling short of  what we had in heaven.
We sang in thousands of separate voices, not in one voice of unity. So
long  had it been since God turned his face on us that we had forgotten
what his face looked like. Finally it was too much for him to take, and
Lucifer stopped praising the creator. For a while, some of us still sang
praises, but they always came out wrong. 

The Hidden Garden

	Time passed and things changed, something we Fallen were
unaccustomed to. Everyday, less and less angels showed up in the temple
to sing praises. We allowed the City of Dreams to fall into disrepair, it
was not our nature to maintain things. The Creator had always done such
things for us. Eventually, some of the Fallen began to leave the city,
whether to atone for their sins in solitude or to just get out of the
hell we had created. I too left the city of dreams one night, I could not
bare the sight of the Son of the Morning weeping for days on end. He had
changed, I could no longer tell if they were tears of sorrow, or anger,
or even of joy. I followed the sun for many days, hoping to find
something, anything. I did. 
	The earth had changed since we were first exiled. New creations
began to walk, swim and crawl over the earth as I watched in wonder but
there was something much, much more. Scaling the peak of a high mountain
I looked back in the direction of the City of Dreams. As much as I wanted
to be away from it, I was less alone there than I was wandering the lands
seeking the creator. I couldn't quite make out the spires of the last
mountain range I had crossed. I turned my back to the city and began my
descent when I saw it. Off in the distance, nearly invisible because of
the position of the sun I saw something that seemed to sparkle. At first
I thought I was just imagining it but I headed off in it's direction. As
the sun set, it began to flicker more brightly. 
	I began to walk quicker and the closer I got the more excited I
became. Soon I lost site of the light but I saw something that intrigued
me even more. A wall made of stone with a silver gate set firmly in
place, the last rays of sunlight reflecting off the metal. I had not yet
realized what it was that I had found but from within I heard a sound
that reminded me of days long ago. Laughter, something I had not heard
since the fall. 
	I was consumed with the desire to find out what was within the
walls, and although the walls looked as if it were no more than twice my
height, no matter how hard I flew the top of the wall always seemed just
out of reach. I knew then that this was a sanctuary, or a prison, created
by the Creator, perhaps to isolate the one known as Tithiel. I considered
the idea that the laughter was from Tithiel being driven mad after so
long an isolation. The bars of the gate also managed to withstand my
attempts to force my way in and so I took the form of a serpent. The
transformation was slow and painful but it allowed me to squeeze through
the bars of the gate. Briefly I wondered then if it was an oversight of
our Lord that I would be able to slip past his defense so easily but as
with all things I learned that it was all part of his plan. 
	I made my way through the lush garden following the sounds of
laughter, not one voice to my surprise, but two. It was then that I saw
them, a sight so beautiful  that it brought tears to my eyes. Two
creatures made in the very likeness of the Creator, and I remembered his
face, the first time in many ages. My first impulse was to fall down
before them and worship them, so perfect were they in form. They even
seemed to hear the voice of the Creator although I only truly heard there
replies to his unspoken questions but still it comforted me. I watched
them in secret for years. It was of course nothing compared to being in
the Lords presence myself, but it was infinitely more than the complete
absence of him that I had felt with the other angels in the City of
Dreams. 

	It was Eve who first discovered me as I lay in the grass watching
her. I had felt so confident in my disguise of what she called a snake,
that it never once occurred to me that she would see through my disguise,
but she did. One day, she just walked over to where I was and sat down. I
could barely contain my excitement that I could be so near to one that
looked so much like the Creator but assumed to her I was nothing more
than another creature to rule over. She looked down at me with her deep
brown eyes and asked "What is your name?".  I was in shock. She had never
addressed any other creature in the Garden directly other than the Man,
but here she was, looking down at me, and asking me a question. I
stuttered my answer, "Mer-mer-curiel". She smiled brightly and introduced
herself as Eve. It was then that my shock turned to terror. If she knew
that I was here, surely the creator knew also. I turned and fled from the
garden, not knowing why, but knowing that I had to. 

The First Sin, Again

	I wandered for a long time before I had the courage to return to
the garden. I was afraid that the Creator had sealed the entrance but he
hadn't. I know better now, but I let myself believe that I had somehow
escaped the Creators notice. I was overjoyed that I could once again,
watch the created, and maybe even talk to the Eve. It wasn't like I
thought it would be.  
	Humans have often wondered where they came from, if the Creator
had stopped creating after the Adam and the Eve. I tell you that he had
not. I was amazed at what I saw on entering the Garden. I approached who
I thought was the Adam until he turned around. It was not the Adam, but
one who was also created in the image of the Creator. I continued through
the Garden to find hundreds more, but it was the Eve that I was searching
for. I found her and the Adam with several others of the created talking
amongst themselves near the center of the Garden. I listened to what they
had to say. They all stood around as the Eve took the fruit from the
tree. They watched in fascination as she looked around for there approval.
I could see it in her eyes, she did not want to eat of the tree, but she
felt trapped. Finally she looked into my eyes as if asking me if this was
the right thing to do and again I pleaded with her not to do it. A look
of defeat in her eyes, she took the first bite, and then gave the fruit
to the Adam, who was with her.

	History books may say other wise, but Lucifer was not the snake in
the Garden, he was too busy wallowing in self pity back in the City of
Dreams. I doubt he even knew of the humans existence. And it was not I
who tempted the Eve into eating the fruit, I would have stopped her if I
could. No, the Fallen are not to blame for your sins. You created them on
your own, just like we had done so long before. 


Midway through Discussion between Mercuriel and Sara

	Sara danced away as Mercuriel looked up at her and came to a stop
at the fireplace. She looked down with a playful grin and picked up a
small crystal bell from the top. "Is it true that every time a bell rings
an angel gets his wings?"
	Mercuriel smiled at the thought, "Perhaps, but I've never known
an angel whose lost his wings  to ever get them back."
	Sara rang the bell once, and looked Mercuriel over closely. "I
don't see any wings yet."
	"If I get my wings back, it will be because he rings the bell and
not because you do, but I truly appreciate the effort."
	"Well promise me this then, WHEN you get your wings back, it will
be this bell that rings so I know."
	Mercuriel laughed freely, "I promise I will bring it up with
him." Sara laughed too as she rushed into his arms, and for the first time
in two thousand years, Mercuriel felt truly happy. 


Midway through Discussion between Lucifer and Mercuriel

	"Did it ever occur to you that we aren't here because we choose
to be here? We are here because He wanted us here!"
	"Have you forgotten everything?!? WE made the choice! WE
disobeyed! It was OUR choice!"
	"Choice? Ha! Haven't you figured it out yet? We have no choice.
We are the created, with no free will of our own. We fell because HE 
wanted us to fall. He created us to fall!"
	"Your wrong! We fell because we questioned him!"
	"Damn it Mercuriel, we fell because we are created and it is in
our nature to do so!"

Epilogue 1

	Sara lay across the foot of her bed weeping. She had betrayed
him, the Angel, the only man who ever really cared about her. Not just
betrayed him, but shattered his whole life and condemned him to hell, and
now he was gone forever. She would never see him again, could never offer
an apology, no matter how inadequate it would be. Never before had she
felt such guilt, such despair. She cried for hours knowing that she could
never forgive herself. Finally, she knelt down and began to pray.
"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry. Please, it wasn't his fault, he did it
for me. Please forgive him, give him another chance. I didn't know... I'm
sorry... I'm sorry..." She didn't know what else to say and so she
repeated her plea as she cried until finally she fell into a deep
restless sleep. 
	Sara sat up quickly, she wasn't sure what she had heard but she
had heard something. She tried to scan the room but her eyes could not
adjust to the darkness. She stood and began working her way to the
stairs. "Who's there? Please answer me." But her only response was
silence. She worked her way down the creaky staircase listening closely
for a sound but still heard nothing. When she reached the living room she
checked the door and made sure it was locked and that the chain was still
up. No one had come in. She sighed, it had been her imagination. She
slowly walked to the couch and sat facing the fireplace and began to cry
again. She closed her eyes to shut the tears out. It was then that she
heard it again, her head shot up and looked where her crystal bell sat on
the fireplace. One long perfect chime had sounded, coming directly from
the bell. Tears of joy began to roll freely down her cheeks as she looked
up to the heavens and knew that her prayer had been answered. Mercuriel
once again had his wings.


Epilogue 2

	The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks almost obscured
the sound of foot steps along the beach. The sun was just rising causing
long shadows to fall from the pier. The footsteps came closer and then
paused a short distance away.
	"Is it done?" asked the solitary figure on the rock.
	"It is, exactly as you have asked, she was sleeping when I
arrived and never knew I was there" replied the angel on the beach, "If
you don't mind me asking, why?"
	The seated angel let out a long sigh, "Why what?" he asked
rhetorically.
	"Why the bell, after all the suffering she caused you , after
crucifying you and denying you?"
	Mercuriel slowly turned to face his old friend Lucifer and smiled
behind his tears, "Perhaps the only comfort we fallen will ever find on
this earth is in the comfort of others, and perhaps the only salvation we
will ever know is in the salvation of others." Mercuriel rested his head
in his hands, knees pressed firmly to his chest and sat for a while
before finally adding, "And perhaps it is because we are the created and
it is in out nature to do so..."

Alexis

     Hi, I'm Julius Rex, but my friends just call me Flatline. I'm a Shadow Runner, or to be more specific, a Decker. I deal in the only thing worth dealing in: Information. Here, in the world of 2050, information will get you everywhere. Maybe I should tell you a little about my world. Our world has been screwed up since 1999 when the governments of our world began to collapse and the corporations were the only things powerful enough to enforce the laws. Anarchy reined supreme. Things go so bad it was unsafe to walk the streets without an automatic weapon. You probably all ready know this, but there's an Aztec calendar that dates the end of the world as the year 2011. Well, it didn't quite mark the end of the world, but it did mark the beginning of the new world. On December 24th, 2011, a Dragon was spotted flying over Mount Fuji, Japan. At first we thought it was a hoax, but on the same day mutations occurred in child births around the world, creating two new breeds of people. Elves, who were tall and agile, and the Dwarves who were short and stocky.
     In an attempt to decipher what was going on, researchers discovered something about the Aztech calendar. They found that the earth goes through phases every 5000 years. It was pretty accurate for being so old, it even predicted that the age of magic would start on 12/11/11. Off by 13 days in 5000 years... not bad. A few years later the next amazing thing occurred, Indians regained their magical powers over the elemental forces of nature. Their shamans reclaimed the old hunting grounds with force and the U.S. had no choice but to give it back. Texas sensed the weakness of the Union and seceded from it. Georgia and North Carolina quickly followed to form the Confederate States of America. In less than ten years, North America was broken into 21 separate nations. In order to maintain it's strength with so many new unknowns, the remaining United States and Canada united into to form the United Canadian American States.
     During this time, a war broke out in Europe and Asia. If it weren't for the rest of the world having it's own problems it could have easily escalated into a Third World War. The war finally ended when unknown forces, presumably from Great Britain, bombed every single communications facility on both sides of the conflict. The war ended as abruptly as it had started with many casualties, but little land trading place.
     Then the next phase struck. Everyone knew when it was coming thanks to the calendar, but no one knew what it was, until April 30th, 2021. On that day a new disease infected ten percent of the worlds population. The victims either died, or began metamorphosing into one of two new species. The two newest races became known as Trolls and Orcs, both possessing immmense strength and hideous deformities. It's 2050 now, and the mutations haven't stopped. When a person reaches puberty they sometimes change into one of the four newest species.
     Today we have the best of both the past and the future such as the earth spanning Matrix, or Internet as it used to be called, and spells capable of bringing people. Unfortunately we also have the worst of both worlds. Everyone is killing everyone else over things like race, religion, and even just having nothing better to do. There's too much hate and killing in the world. Did I mention that I'm a pacifist? I'm also a member of the Metahumanist Rights Activists and the Orc Rights Committee. Oh well, enough about the past, you probably knew all that stuff all ready, right? On with my story.
     I awoke to the sound of my vidphone ringing. The clock told me that it was only 1pm. "Who would call me this early in the morning?" I mumbled to myself as I reached over and hit the 'answer - voice only' button. "Speak."
    �"I'm looking for Flatline." It was a soft woman's voice, with a hint of a Japanese accent. No one ever asked for Flatline unless it was business. I immediately became awake.
    �"This is Flatline, who am I speaking to?"
    �"My name is Mr. Johnson," She wasn't exactly lying. Anyone who set up meetings with Shadowrunners frequently used the name Mr. Johnson when they didn't want to give a real name, it was common business practice and I knew not to press the issue. "My employer, who would like to remain anonymous, is looking for someone to retrieve some stolen data. It is very important and we are willing to offer you 10,000 neuyen for your services. If you are interested, go to the Dawn Nightclub at 7pm and ask for Alexis."
     She hung up the phone without giving me a chance to ask any questions, but for 10,000 neuyen, I was willing to put up with a little rudeness. My first thought was some fire support. Since I didn't know exactly what I was up against I figured that I might bring some friends along in case there was trouble. Once again I activated my vidphone and asked it to dial Ground Pounder. Ground Pounder is one of the biggest Troll Street Samurai's that I've ever met, unfortunately, like most other trolls he wasn't exactly college material. The vidphone flashed to life.
    �"Is that you Grounder? You look like drek?"
    �"Hello Julie, how is you's and the wife?" he asked. Damn I hate it when he calls me Julie.
     Grounder, I keep telling you, I'm not married. I called to see if you were feeling better after our last visit to Glide." A few weeks back we were hired to liberate some schematics of a new cybernetic arm the Glide Corporation were designing. It almost went off with a hitch, I had hacked into the system and disabled the security system. Who would have thought that they would have allowed cockroaches to wander the building at night with miniaturerized motion detectors on it as a fail safe in case the security system ever failed. We were jumpoed on the way out by some Corporate security types and Grounder took some pretty bad hits from an M-16.
    �"I never felt gooder." he said as he smiled brightly showing his missing teeth.
    �"Would you like to make another run for 10k?"
    �"Of course I does! I is not as dumb as an ork you knows!"
     Ground Pounder was smarter than some orcs, but not many. A lot of people always make the misconception that because orks and trolls are big and deformed, they are about as smart as a door knob. Ground Pounder fit this sterotype perfectly although some orcs and Trolls were 10 times smarter than I was, working in fields of Cybernetics, Biogenetics, Business, and Necromancy to name a few. "Just meet me at the Dawn Night Club at seven."
    �"Okay."
    �"Call up Maxim Saint and Peace Maker and tell them what I told you."
    �"What was it you tells me?" asked a perplexed Grounder.
     I let out a long sigh. I knew I should have spoken more slowly. "Write this down," I waited while the large troll walked off screen of the vidphone and come back with a notepad. "Call Maxim Saint and Peace Maker. Have them meet me at the Dawn Night Club by 7pm tonight for a run. 10k neuyen."
     After having him repeat it and promiss to call as soon as I hung up I shut down the vidphone. I flipped on the TV to keep me company as I began getting my gear ready for tonight but quickly drifted off to sleep.
     The sound of gun fire from the TV woke me up around 5:30. It's amazing how different gun fire sounds when you see it on the TV and when you have live bullets whizzing around you. It took me about 10 minutes to throw on my flak vest and to find my Narco-Jet pistols, two small dart guns that fired knock out toxins. Completly harmless, but it would put down anyone firing life ammo at me long enough for me to get away. After putting on my trench coat, I grabbed my deck walked out into the hall. My deck always went everywhere with me. It wasn't exactly illegal to carry around but tended to draw a lot of attention from the police as they were primarily used to connect my brain directly into the computer matrix, so I keep it concealed in my trenchcoat. After locking the door to my apartment I took the elevator down to the parking garage and hopped up on my Harly Scorpion cycle. It roared to life when it's retinal scanners locked in and I rode out onto the street. The street lit up under the artificial light of my cybernetically enhanced eyesight.
     I live close enough to no-mans land that I'm not worried about getting stopped for speeding, No Corp Cop is going to follow me into the barrens. I opened up on the throttle and three blocks later crossed into the terror ridden streets of the Iron Dragon's turf. The streets were strewn with litter and graphitti tagged every wall. Bodies lay in alleys either drunk, strung out, or dead. They were the nameless and no one carred what happened to them.
     A few blocks later I reached my destination and parked next to a nearly Identicle motor cycle. Airbrushed on the side was the word "Maximus". Looks like Maxim Saint is all ready here. The Dawn wasn't much to look at from the outside. It had a large neon sign that spelled out 'The Dawn'. The 'h' and the 'w' had been broken long ago and no longer shed any light.
     The bar was pretty empty. The barkeep nodded almost imperceptably at me while he polished a dirty glass. An orc sat at the bar drowning his sorrows in a glass of saki. Another man, slightly over weight and balding was glaring angryly at the orc. Maxim Saint sat at another table with his back to a wall, a nervous habbit he had picked up long ago which has probably saved his life many times. Maxim kicked out a chair for me as I approached.
    �"How's the security look?" I asked as I sat down into the chair offered to me.
    �"The barkeeper has a RoomSweeper shotgun under the bar, and there is a bouncer watching TV off in an alcove to the right of the bar. The orc is unarmed and the bald man is concealing an Ares Silvergun. The back room has a lot more security than one would expect for a run down bar like this. The walls are lined with a semi-organic compound so I can't get through by astral projection." Maxim never ceased to amaze me with what he could do. I'd never met a mage before who was so perceptive of his surroundings and adept at casting spells without anyone noticing. Maxim continued "There's something else you should probably know about the bald man since he looks like he's going to join us..." Maxim's voice trailed off as the man slid back a chair as if on queue.
    �"Would you look at that?" The balding man directed our attention over to the orc at the bar. "I can't believe they let those abominations into the bar! Next thing you know they are going to let them into the swimming pools where my kids swim. It's bad enough that they treat them like humans and allow them to vote." The man looked on waiting for us to respond, and normally I would be the first to stand and defend the orc, but we were trying to keep a low profile as we were here on business so instead we just pointedly ignored him. "Well, I'm not going to stand for this, I'm going to make an example of him for other Trogs!" The man purposely said the last word loud enough for the orc at the bar to here, Trog being a derogotory term for trolls and orcs.
     The man stood up and began to walk over to where the orc was seated. I couldn't quit make out what he was saying but I could feel my face flush with anger. Abruptly the orc stood up with a look of terror in his eyes. The balding man was motioning the orc to the door with what looked like a gun in his pocket, presumably the Ares Silvergun that Maxim had warned me about earlier. The Silvergun wasn't exactly what I would consider a real weapon, just a toy compared to the weapons I normally have shot at me, but the orc wasn't wearing armor like I was. The orc began walking to the door with the bald man close behind. The orc nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the loud thump behind him. He whirled around to find the balding man lying face down on the floor with a small narco dart protruding from his neck. He looked around breinfly til he saw me with the narco jet pistol in my hand and a crooked smile lit his face in recognition as he walked out of the bar.
    �"What happend?" a voice boomed from behind me. I hadn't had time to put my pistols back before the bouncer got here.
    �"Our friend here has had too much to drink and should be escorted out to the dumpster." Maxim spoke with an evan, almost hypnotic voice. It was nearly impossible for me to blot out his words, the bartender didn't stand a chance against the suggestion. He picked up the man and carried him out through the door just as Peace Maker and Ground Pounder were coming in.
    �"Who was that arrogant piece of trash?" I asked Maxim in disgust.
    �"Card carrying member of the Denver Humanis Policlub." Maxim said evenly. Humanis Policlub was a modern version of the ancient KKK. Unlike there brethren, they weren't concearned with the color of a mans skin, just his species.
     Peace Maker stepped up to the table and smiled down at me. "Your handiwork I assume?" he said nodding back towards the door. "For a pacifist you sure do start a lot of fights. Looks like were all here, it's 7 o'clock, what are we waiting on?"
     I stood and walked over to the bartender. "Excuse me, I'm supposed to meet a friend here. Her name is Alexis."
     The bartender sized me up for a second and then said, "Your 'date' is in the back room. The lady who dropped her off was a strange one. Lady named 'Wee' or 'Woo', something like that. Said that Alexis would talk to you and only you." He tossed me a key to the back room and went back to polishing his glass.
     We unlocked the door and stepped into the small well lit room and were met by something unexpected. Sitting in the center of the room with cables running everywhere was a small computer with the leters A.I.Ex.I.C.S. written in bold letter acrross the top. Alexis, or Aiexic as the actual letters read, wasn't a she, it was a computer. Everyone looked at me expectantly. 'Well, this is what I do for a living,' I thought to myself as I pulled out my cyber deck and connected the leads to the chip jack on the side of my head. I sat down and got comfortable before jacking into the computer which was always a little disorienting. Immediatly my surroundings shifted.
     I entered a world where the ground and the sky were grids. In the distance pyramids and, cubes, and other shapes floated in the air. This was my world, the Matrix. I reached into my memory and loaded an attack program. It appeared in my virtual hands as a large battle axe. I then conjured a shield program in the form of ancient chainmail. I could make my programs take on any form that I wished in the matrix, from a squirt gun and umbrella to a Tac Nuke and S.D.I. Satalite, they were just part of my avatar after all. It was all a matter of tast and helped to identify yourself to the other deckers in the matrix if you came across them. If I really wanted to I could even make the matrix look like Sherwood Forest, but I somehow felt safer in an artificial world that looked artificial.
     I circled a small egg shaped node that I had jacked in by. Small gold letters Identified it as Alexis, so I slipped in. My surroundings instantly began to change as I entered what appeared to be a small room with an eight by eight grid on the floor. On the other side of the grid floated a small face created from a criss crossing grid of flowing data.
    �"I do hope you like chess." said the disembodied head, "My Creater, Dr. Nakatyo, was looking for a fitting way to repay you."
     The name sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place it. "Who are you? And who is Dr. Nakatyo?"
    �"Come now, surely you remember Dr. Markus Nakatyo? After you destroyed his life by stealing his designs on Black IC from Renraku?" I did remember getting hired to copy some new Intrusion Countermeasure progams a few years back from The Renraku Corporation. The head continued, "And I am Alexis, Artificially Intelligent Experimental Intrusion Countermeasure System. I am Dr. Nakatyo's gift to you. I am his revenge."
     Artificially intelligent IC? I had assumed that this Alexis was just another Decker in the matrix until now. This did not bode well. Fearing for my life I attempted to exit the program back to reality. Some of the most dangerous IC like, Black IC could go so far as to damage my brain or even kill me through neural feedback, but for some reason I wasn't able to disconnect.
    �"I took the liberty of locking out all your programs so we could face each other on even ground. Shall we start the game?" Without waiting for a reply the room began to fill with human sized Icons I recognized as chess pieces. Alexis sent a pawn forward two paces from his side. "Your move."
    �"I don't know how to play chess!" Again I tried unsuccesfully to break from the Matrix.
    �"Well, no better time to learn than the present." The IC laughed which sent chills down my virtual spine. "The clock is ticking." I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know how to play chess well, but at least I knew the rules. I willed my pawn forward to allow my Queen and my Bishop access to the board. A knight moved out of his back row and landed up front. I willed another pawwn forward to let my other bishop out as I saw his queen begin to glide across the board. As a protective measure I moved my Knight forward. The enemy Knight jumped forward to land becide my Knight.
     My mind raced as I tried to find a way out of this hell, and I saw a place where my Knight may be able to bring down one of Alexis' pawns. I should have had my mind more on the game because as soon as I finished moving, his Knight drew his sword and slashed through my knight. Pain shot through my body as my knight disintigrated before my eyes.
    �"Did I mention that everytime you loose a piece, you loose part of your life. Each loss becomes more and more painful until you die." I was really begin to hate this game.
     I moved my now vulnerable queen back out of range of her knight which merely forced it to change targets. Again it drew it's sword bringing it down on my rook. Again pain laced my body, but now 10 times more painful.
    �"Check"
     I moved forward to avoid the wrath of the knight but it just kept coming. I moved a pawn forward again to re-open the path for my Bishop. The knight came down again, this time removing my Pawn.
    �"Check"
     I began to lose my thought patterns from the pain and stepped back. Everything became a blur as piece after piece was taken and Check after Check was made. Finally, barely able to stand I made my final mistake.
    �"Check and Mate. Goodbye Julius." The words echoed through my mind as the sword came down and my world faded to black.
     I felt the pain, but it was a different pain. I had been dumped from the Matrix. A shadow above me looked down and asked "Are you'se okay?"
    �"What... what happened?" I asked weakly. The question itself gave me a headache.
     Maxim Saint spoke up, "We were hoping you could tell us, you didn't look to comfortable but we couldn't get you to disconnect from the system. We didn't want to just yank your cables, so Ground Pounder went out and cut the power to the building. If you want, the back up generators will be back online in a second and you can take another crack at that Alexis."
     That name brought me to my senses. "If the power comes back on she'll escape!" I jumped to my feet nearly passing out from the effort. Reaching into Peace Makers trench coat I pulled out his Sub-machinegun and opened up on full burst into the computer. The computer practically disintigrated under the hail of fire as did part of the table it was sitting on. The gun clattered from my hands as the fatigue and pain took over.
     I awoke three days later in a dark hospital room. I was still weak from the shocks I had taken, but I couldn't help but begin to laugh as a thought crept into my mind.
    �"Checkmate," I whispered to myself and drifted into a deep, peacful sleep.

End

It's times like this that you have to wonder what could have been so bad that a person would want to take their life, to take away their most precious gift, somthing that they can never take back. What did someone do to them that was so bad, or what did they do that was so bad?

He thanked me, a few weeks later, said he made a mistake and that everything was clear again, and he knew what he had to do. He didn't really sound thankful to me, more resigned than anything else, but I suppose it didn't matter too much. I did a good thing. I tried to pass it off to my friends as if it wasn't a big deal, but deep down I knew it was a big deal.

The murders started again the next day. No one made the connection at first. They had stopped for a few weeks, but this last one was even more brutal than the last ones, as if the killer had become more focused, like he had a new lease on life. I puked until I was spitting blood, and then puked some more.

Life changing moments like that happen everyday. Some aren't so bad, and my shrink tells me that some are even worse, but I don't think he really believes that. In any case, it changed my life, probably not as much as the family and friends of the 5 women he killed after I saved him. I wish I could say that the police caught him, or that I found him and was able to atone by undoing what I did, but he just disapeared again. Maybe he killed himself, maybe he moved, or maybe he's just waiting, but he still haunts my dreams everynight. Some nights the pain is so bad that I think I understand why he tried to kill himself in the first place. My shink says its normal but who the fuck wants to identify with a serial killer, let alone one that they created. If I weren't such a coward I might just go ahead and do it, but I believe in God, and I know when I die exactly where I'm going. Instead I hold onto every moment of my life likes its my last. I even gave up smoking in hopes that I could stave off eternal damnation a few more months, but who am I kidding... my lungs rotted long ago.

My ex sounds a lot like my shrink, she tells me that I was a good samaritan and that God has no punishment waiting for me, but what does she know, she never met the woman who's only child was found in a dumpster because of what the killer did... because of what I did. Gotta take responsibility for your actions, it's my fault, with four more familes just like her, suffering through the same pain.