by Nightflower
The sky was brilliantly blue and high,
and dabbed with puffs of white clouds. A small, cool breeze
ruffled her short black hair, as she watched her kin relax and
enjoy themselves.
A little boy was turning cartwheels on the soft, green turf. He
looked about eight, with knobby knees and black hair. There was a
woman who looked like both of them, but more like herself, except
with softer features and long, black hair. She watched the little
boy as he fell onto the grass again, and she laughed, helping him
up. The woman, a girl, really, looked up and smiled to her,
waving. She smiled back. Ahead, a man watched the sky by the
cliff. He was dressed in a somber black, with intimidating
features, but there was tenderness in his eyes. He turned back to
see his little family, now sitting down to have a picnic. She
smiled at him and motioned him to join them. He smiled back,
slowly, as if he was unused to it; then walked over and joined
them.
Her sister unpacked the lunch basket and handed round little
sandwiches. The wind picked up and nearly snatched a napkin out
of her hand, but she grabbed it with quick reflexes and laughed.
She felt a small tap on her shoulder and she turned around. It
was her little brother, smiling. "I got this for you,"
he said shyly. She hugged him and he gave her a small red flower
which she graciously accepted.
Suddenly its bright red color darkened and turned black. Black like night, black like death. She frowned... now it was wilting. What..? There was a sudden BANG! She looked up. Must be thunder, she thought, Oh, must it spoil everything? Please don't rain.
"I'm bleeding...oh God, I'm
bleeding!"
She looked up, startled. Her sister... she was looking at her
with that face... oh, why was it so familiar? Shock, denial,
horror... her hands were covered with blood... her clothes..
"Goodbye sister... I love you."
No! No no no no no no no no...
She fell away from her, down the cliff. But she was not alone..
the little boy... her brother.. frantically, she tried to grab
his hand, to save him.. but.. oh no...the cliff.. it was
crumbling... he was still falling... She couldn't stop crying.
But somewhere, whether inside her or behind her, she couldn't
tell.. there was the sound of clapping, and dry chuckling.
She turned around, wiping her tears. Her
other brother. Midnight Five. He was clapping, with a sinister
grin on his face. "Long live the King," he said, before
turning into... She cried out, and shot up in her bed.
She panted, and tried to will the images away. A dream... it
was only a dream.. but it was so real. Kayla.. 29.. all
lost.. all gone. She inhaled the night air and slipped
outside. It was cool outside, but she was used to it. Her cape
flapped in the wind, signalling to any citizen of Meridiana that
all was well. Her shadows played against the building walls,
quickly disappearing, they were so fleet. She closed her eyes as
she launched herself off another building. It helped her relax,
to simply move around the city. But it did not clear the images
out of her head.
It was two years after her death, and
one year after her own amazing recovery from the explosion in the
forest. The forest where she was buried..at first, she was
concerned that the blast might have buried her sister in rubble,
or set the meadow on fire.. it was one of the first things she
had checked. But it was fine. It had been far enough away from
the dreaded monster and Kayla was still resting peacefully there.
And then she was gone, as fast as she
came. Kayla, who had outsmarted the humans, outsmarted her
creator, and even cheated Death, had been shot by a childish
clone.
There was a familiar presence behind
her. She turned around, startled.
"Good evening sister."
She stared at the city, while Midnight
Five pondered this, fascinated. "I am intrigued... tell me
more."
Von Reichter.
Nothing you love is lost.
Lucas, she thought tenderly, as she saw him sleeping
peacefully beside her. She kissed him on the forehead.
"Rest, my love," she said, getting up, "I won't be
gone long." She dressed quickly, and silently opened the
window.
Kayla, she thought regretfully.
She sighed and stopped. I miss you.
It wasn't fair... For years, she
had been alone. She had accepted her uniqueness, that she would
never again see any of her kind. And when Kayla came, her sister,
the only cyber other than her to survive, fate had ripped her
away so quickly... they had spent no more than three months, only
three months, with her.
Cybersix felt tears welling up in her
eyes again and she bowed her head to hide them. Sometimes she
wished she had killed the boy, Jose, who was responsible for her
sister's death. But fate played no favorites; he had suffered
enough. Jose was not a good successor for the reign of his
father, and their mad creator, the Dr. Von Reichter. It was not
long before he and his goons fled out of the mansion they lived
in. She had not heard from him since.
The dreams of Kayla were still there,
mixed with reality, but it was not her sister who was behind her.
It was Midnight Five, another creation of Von Reichter, who had
appeared in Meridiana not long after the explosion of the Isle of
Doom. The Midnight series was Von Reichter's second attempt at
producing a loyal superhuman race: they were an improvement over
the Cyber series, faster, stronger, and programmed to go offline,
unless they were totally obedient to their creator. Yet
Midnight Five was alive, the last of the Midnights. But he wasn't
loyal to Von Reichter... this Cybersix was certain of.
Cybersix smiled, wanly. "Hello
Midnight. I don't see you very often lately."
"I have been very busy, working for
the construction company."
"That's good," encouraged
Cybersix, "You've learned so much in the short time you've been here. You're fitting in quite well. Better
than-" And here she sighed, still caught up in the painful
memories of Kayla, "-some people might anyway."
"Is something bothering you,
sister?"
"No." she shook her head.
"It's nothing, it's-" She looked away, and wiped her
tears. "I haven't been completely honest with you, Midnight
Five. I am not the last Cyber on earth, or at least I wasn't. For
a brief time, I met another. But she's gone now."
She smiled. "She was the 338th...
and she has lived a very different life than I. She insisted on
being called her given name... Kayla. She felt that 'Cyber 338'
was like a barcode, cold and impersonal. She was-" Here, she
shrugged helplessly. "She wasn't the easiest to get along
with. She was difficult sometimes, too independent. But I loved
her, and it was fun when she was with Data 7 and me; we'd take
out monsters together, Fixed Ideas, and sometimes just watch the
sun rise over the city like you and I do now. She wanted to
leave, actually, but she never got the chance to." Cybersix
bit her lip.
"How did she die?"
She sighed. "Jose shot her. Right
after she killed one of Von Reichter's creatures that he sent
after me... he didn't know that there was another cyber alive,
you see. Von Reichter died not knowing."
"Jose... the little boy?"
She nodded. He was silent for a moment. "From what you had described of him... it does not seem capable that he could."
"That's the irony of it. It was so unbelievable... for a moment, it wasn't even registering.. it was as if my body had gone into denial. But it was true.. she was dying and I did nothing but watch her." Cybersix's voice became thick with emotion. Midnight Five watched her, almost passively. He wanted to do something to console her, but his hands felt awkward and clumsy. He didn't know what to do, so he stood there. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry...I'm all right." She gave him a tiny smile. "I wish you had been here when she was alive.. she was interesting."
"She sounds interesting," replied Midnight Five eloquently. There was a brief silence as brother and sister watched the sun rise over Meridiana. "Well, I must go now. I have to go to work."
She nodded. "So do I. I hope to see you again soon."
She returned to her apartment to find Lucas awake. He had opened one of her dressers and had rooted through the stuff. Cybersix paled; it wasn't so bad normally... they always shared their things and secrets now.. but not that. Not that. That dresser had Kayla's things.. a memory too painful to share very often even with Lucas, her love.
"What are you doing?"
Lucas smiled at her. "Hey Cybersix, don't worry... I was missing one of my papers and I thought it might have gotten mixed up with your stuff when we.." And here he chuckled.
"Don't.. please... stop."
"Hey, lighten up," said Lucas casually, his tone still jovial. He teased her often, harmlessly and she liked it; but sometimes he wasn't very bright. When she had to hide her identity, she was grateful for that, but sometimes he never knew when to stop. She looked at the book in his huge hand. No, that wasn't his papers.. that was hers! It was Kayla's diary! Oh please, don't open it.. as much as she loved him, the book was old, and fragile, and he was about as graceful as an ox.
"Give that to me," she said, her voice high and strangled.
He laughed again. "Geez, you're really uptight. I really think you should loosen up some, you're too tense." He glanced at the book in his hand. "What is this, your journal? Ooh! Let me see what stuff you wrote about me!"
"No, Lucas! Lucas!"
He stood up and held it out of her reach, still teasingly, playing keep away. She could so easily take it from him... but she didn't want to hurt him. And the book was old.. its pages were nearly crumbling now.
"Now.. onto the dirt," he laughed trying to read it while still straining to keep his back to Cybersix, who was still trying to grab it.
"La la la.. huh? This is all in German. Hmm... didn't know you could write German."
"I don't..I- I can't," she said desperately, "You see it's not mine, it's.."
"Shh.. wait. I can read a bit of German, stayed there a couple of years. This is interesting.. where did you get this?"
"I.. It was- it was Kayla's. It's her diary, she-"
"No, it's not her diary. I don't think you've even read this.. this is... there are lab notes here. Like Von Reichter's. This book belonged to a woman named Marryn."
"Marryn?" Cybersix gasped. Marryn was Kayla's grandmother, and Von Reichter's lab assistent. Marryn knew everything that that crazy old man did. If in Lucas' hand were the secrets to Von Reichter's research...
"This is really interesting.. we really should give some of this stuff to the government.. some of these notes she wrote here are years ahead of genetic science. It could really help you too.. there's notes on sustenence.." He flipped a few more pages. "Hey! Brain transplanting... like Data 7. Neat.."
Cybersix stopped struggling and sat down next to him in awe. "Really?"
"Yeah. Like I don't know a lot of German, just about one word in ten, but.. Wait a second."
"What?" Cybersix was dying of curiosity.
"Wait." He paused, reading, then frowned. "This is interesting.."
"Don't leave me hanging like this!" she exploded. "Tell me!"
He ignored her outburst. "Well...I can only understand a few words, but... that says electricity.. that says sustenance.. that says... that says.. 'resurrection'. Cybersix.. this is the experiment used to bring Kayla back fifteen years ago!"
