"Sir?" the thick double doors opened, revealing a younger and much more feminine face than what had been there earlier. Naturally, the opening of the door happened at the worst possible time, and another golf ball skittled across the floor to bump against the door next to the secretary’s foot.

"What the hell do you want?" The CEO growled angrily, looking like he was debating burying his nine iron in the secretary’s rather nice-looking face.

"We have a development on the Meridiana Mission." The secretary stuttered for a second as she heard the faint creaking of leather, then realized that it was only the CEO sitting down in one of his chairs.

"Really." A raised eyebrow said it all.

"The secondary objective failed. Dr. Zacharias made a statement to police last night about an attack on his home, which, apparently, was sliced to pieces by several defences."

"What about the status of Subject Alpha?"

"Unknown at this point. However, there is an unsubstantiated report that the team has suffered over 90% casualties in the conflict."

"Hmm. When are the survivors arriving for debriefing?"

The secretary blanched slightly, knowing her response was not going to go over well. "Sir, the survivors are in police custody, charged with the murder of one Sara D’Arnise, as well as about three dozen other people, all of whom were unnamed."

The CEO frowned, clipping the end off of a cigar. "D’Arnise, eh? Sounds like something she’d use. Is her body recoverable?"

"No sir. Apparently, it was lost in the ocean."

"Great. that’s just what we need. Well, get out of here. I need time to think, so cancel all appointments for the rest of the night."

"Yes sir."

CyberSix sat at the small desk where she had normally marked homework until the incident last night. Currently, only two items were sitting on the scarred and scuffed wood, both of which had been gifts from Sara. The first one was the metal brooch that had been given to her after Sara had been tossed into the hospital when she had been shot. The metal had been scuffed, partially wearing away at the image of the two older people holding the hands of a young child.

The second item was much less distinctive, being the letter that Sara had given her. Six wiped at her eyes, which were still red and puffy from her reaction to seeing her friend die, and then picked up the envelope. Carefully inserting a fingernail underneath the crease in the envelope, Six pulled slightly, opening the small object with no effort. Six began to read the letter, having decided to get it over with. However, she couldn’t help the new tears that filled her eyes as she slowly read through Sara’s final message, noticing that Sara’s handwriting had a natural elegance that seemed to characterise everything Sara had done.

‘Dear CyberSix,

Six finished reading the letter, feeling oddly ambivalent towards the message. On one hand, she was crushed at not being there to have at least one heartfelt conversation with Sara, but at the same time, she was feeling relieved because Sara had gone out in a way that she was prepared for. Sighing to herself, Six pulled on her gloves, deciding to go out and relieve some tension. Leaving the window open, she didn’t notice the letter get caught by a short gust, sending the piece of paper to the floor. There, slowly flapping in the breeze, the final two words of Sara’s message remained.

The house was darkened, seeming to look more like a hulking shadow sitting on the edge of the street than a home that had seen mainly good times. Six gently landed on the front step, reaching up to where the spare key had been taped to the eaves trough. *Huh. Smarter than putting it under the welcome mat. Wish I had thought of putting the key on the top of the door instead of under my own mat. Probably would have kept Lori out of my place on more than one occasion.*

Six unlocked the door, opening it and switching on the light to the foyer. She closed the door behind her, locking it almost by habit. Slowly, she walked through the house, gently touching the things she knew, smiling wanly when she noticed an open binder on the glass table in front of the TV, filled to the limits with reports on the students Sara had dealt with on a daily basis. Six sighed, closing the binder. Upstairs, the guest bedroom was immaculate, and, as it hadn’t been used in a few weeks, was beginning to collect a fine sheen of dust.

Six finally entered Sara’s room, which she had been in only a few times before. The room accurately reflected Sara’s more ditzy side, as there seemed to be a perpetual feeling of ‘whoops’ through the room. Six opened up Sara’s closet, and staring at her was the cobalt blue dress that Sara had worn to the city’s 400^th anniversary bash, which had been hosted by the mayor.

Six smiled wanly as she remembered the verbal havoc Sara had wreaked on the party, namely with the revelation that she was the singer that had torn gaping holes in the profit margins of all the other musicians popular in the city. Six slowly removed the dress from the closet, holding it against her body as a comparison. Sara’s dress was a good four sizes smaller than Six’s slim frame, and Six remembered one incident almost seven months ago where Sara had virtually dragged Six into her house, and literally saved Six’s life.

Slowly, Six put the dress back, then sat down on the bed, looking around the cozy room. Sighing, she picked up something that was resting beside the dim vial of sustenance on Sara’s night-table. Six examined the picture, wondering how she could have crumbled so easily when Sara had asked for a picture. The simple picture was of Sara, her right arm wrapped around Six’s neck, and both women grinning from ear to ear. Six smiled ruefully, then carefully placed the picture back on the night-table. "I hope you’re in heaven right now Sara. You deserve the relaxation."

The small cove was faintly lit by the semi-phosphorescent waves, but more light was being emitted by the moon, mostly hidden by wisps of clouds that slowly scudded across the night sky. The waves lapped slowly against a curled form, slowly pushing it up onto the beach. As the form rolled slowly in rhythm to the swells, three small lights glimmered at its right wrist.

The first artificial light was a dim red, quickly fading to black, but still gleaming darkly. The second one was a dull red as well, also turning black, but at a much slower speed than the first crystalline light source. The third one, having taken some form of damage, only showed a few gleams of bright blue light, but it seemed that not much more than splinters remained of the light source’s original form.

The rest of the form was mostly hidden by shadow, but the moonlight reflected off of the silver edges of a long, black blade. Slowly, as the moon began to fall behind the distant mountains, the long blade began to glow, bathing the small cove with a lurid, meat-coloured light. The light grew stronger with every passing moment, then pulsed once, sending a bolt of red light into the skies.

On the ground, as the blast of unearthly light faded, the body shuddered, curling tighter for a second before gasping, dragging in air. Then, throwing its head back, the figure screamed, a wailing moan of agony and despair that echoed over the area like the harbinger of death itself.

The form slowly pushed itself into a sitting position, its legs curled underneath it. Trying to move its left arm, the form found that the limb was completely useless, so instead, it pushed itself to its feet by using its right arm. Once standing, the form slowly turned towards the south, and, seeing the immediate path blocked, it turned and began to walk into the jungle, moving slightly stiffly, as if it was not in complete control of its own appendages.

Fifteen feet from the jungle, a sliver of moonlight played over the form’s face. Dripping, lank red hair covered much of the form’s face, but, partially swept back and away, the hair did nothing to hide the gaping wound where an eye was supposed to be. Instead, there was a ragged, torn hole, with tiny tendrils of flesh dangling into the gaping wound. With a good angle however, it could be seen that not only was the eye missing, but everything behind it was gone as well. Half of the brain, as well as much of the back of the person’s skull was simply missing, proving, without a doubt, that whatever the being was, it was definitely not living.

All of these revelations, however, went unrevealed, mainly due to the fact that nothing was there to record the event, with the exception of the distant stars. However, one final change occurred before the form disappeared completely. The long sword, still gripped tightly by the form’s left hand, slowly changed colour. From a deep black, matched only by the depths of the ocean, the sword slowly shifted to a lighter hue, turning almost cobalt in shade. However, it still had some silver in it, though the silver was no longer confined to the edges of the blade. Instead, it mixed in with the more prevalent primary shade, swirling around slowly, and constantly moving as the form disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Disclaimers and Copyrights:

-Kayla owned by Nightflower, ½ of team Wong.

-Stryk 12/ Erin Cheng owned by Syberkat, the other ½ of team Wong.

-Hazel Smith owned by Sita/ Surferchick.

-Maggie/ M17 owned by Evil Maggie, aka Maggie Griffin.

-Dr. Reba Pearce owned by Qween of Mars.

-Dr. Anthony Zacharias, and everything ever invented by Dr. Zacharias owned by Ptah Aegyptus.

-Sara, Techno 2274/ Jess and GenCore (and affiliates) owned by Me/ FreakoftheUnivers.

-CyberSix, Lucas, Von Reichter, Meridiana, and who knows what else, as well as a hefty chunk of inspiration, are owed to Carlos Trillio and Carlos Megelia, both of whom managed to bring the original characters to such wonderful lives (though it may not seem that way in the books).
 
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