EPILOGUE

"Is something wrong?"
Adrian looked up to see Lucas' face filled with concern. "Oh." He tried to give his friend a reassuring smile, but it failed to surface. Kayla's dead, he thought bitterly, That's what's wrong. "I..." He hesitated. "My friend...from out of town...she passed away last night."
"Oh." Lucas looked at the floor. "I'm sorry."
"I didn't know her that well, actually," said Adrian softly, struggling to keep his tears back, "But she meant a lot to me."
"Did you love her?"
Adrian was surprised. "Well...yes."
Lucas stood up and put his hand on Adrian's shoulders. "Nothing you love is lost."
Then he hugged him. Adrian smiled, and closed his eyes, spilling tears down his face.

Two days later, they buried Kayla.
Cybersix chose a meadow in the forest near Meridiana for the spot. She thought it was fitting, since Kayla spent most of her childhood in the forest.
They had erected a gravestone there, with words and angels carved out of the stone by Cybersix herself. Julian tried to help, but Cybersix persuaded him not too, saying that her superstrength would help her.
They were having the funeral, Cybersix, Julian, and Data 7. Cybersix and Julian had dug the hole the night before, and now they carefully lowered Kayla's body, wrapped in cloth, into the hole.

"Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
All humans die
Since it's a must

But a beating heart
An eternal soul
A face of art
Eyes like coal

Where it's cold and dark
Where life's obsolete
Where there's no dove's lark
And so grows the fleet

There where once we
And now am I
For what I see
I wish where I lie ."*

She placed the paper by the gravestone, which also had the beginning words of the poem. She and Julian began to shovel dirt onto the clothed form. Data 7 respectfully lowered his head.
"Goodbye sister," said Cybersix softly, "Von Reichter will never find you now."

At Jose's mansion, things were not so serene.
"But father-" Jose tried to explain. He nearly fell off the desk, but steadied himself.
"Be quiet, fool! My creation was perfect, but it was you, you and your bumbling, that let Cybersix escape one more time! You, Jose, have failed me yet again!"
Jose gritted his teeth and stamped his foot. "I did NOT fail you, Father!"
"Cybersix is alive!"
"No! I mean, yes! But not her friend!"
Von Reichter raised his eyebrow. "Please continue."
"There was a woman with Cybersix who helped defeat your monster. But I shot her. I killed her, all by myself!" declared Jose proudly.
Jose's sadistic father was not happy. "You worthless- what good does that do to me? I want CYBERSIX dead, not some harmless human! Now we will draw attention to ourselves-"
"No! You don't understand, Father...she was not human, I'm positive! She was too strong....she must have been a Cyber!" Jose explained desperately, "Please Father, believe me..."
Von Reichter was angry now. "How DARE you! I witnessed the deaths of the Cybers myself! Do not lie to your father to get out of trouble. Now get out of my sight!"
"But I-" Jose tore at his hair and made a noise of frustration, then climbed down the desk and stomped out.
The techno came into the room.
"Tell me, my faithful creation, is it true what the boy says?"
The techno was reluctant. "She was very strong. But I heard Cybersix call her 'Kayla', a human name, and not a number. I did not get a chance to see her closely though."
"I see." Von Reichter sat back in his chair. "That will be all. Thank you."
He turned off the screen and pondered thoughtfully.
"Did not one, but two Cybers escape the day I put my greatest failures to death? Was there a really another child who escaped my watchful eye?"
He frowned. A child, young and innocent, looking up at him while he emotionlessly closed the door on them, those dreaded Cybers flashed through his mind. His fist clenched, then banged on the desk.
"Impossible! I destroyed every last one of them, except-" He spat at her name. "-Cybersix. I recorded the numbers as I led them into the gas chambers."
He stood up and stared out at the jungle. Such a big world...it could easily hide a small child.
He smiled cruelly. "No matter. Even if she was a Cyber, as Jose said, she's dead now. My clone made sure of that. I have nothing to fear."

Cybersix returned to her apartment with Kayla's things. Data 7, respecting her privacy, politely jumped out the window, leaving Cybersix alone with her thoughts.
She looked at the things she held in her hands. Kayla's katana, still stained with the blood of the monster. Cybersix touched its blade gently, as she thought about Kayla's strange and sad life. The dreams of a madman. Death. Resurrection. Running. Hiding. Japan. New York. Meridiana. The place of her death. Cybersix looked at Kayla's other things. Most of them were books. Clothes. There was a photo album...Cybersix opened it gingerly. There were pictures of a young Kayla with a smiling grandmother, laughing. A teenaged Kayla blowing out candles. Playing in the meadow. Kayla in Japan, in traditional ninja costume. Kayla in New York. Between two of the pages was pressed lovingly a dried rose. Cybersix took it out in wonder, then placed it back where she found it. The last thing was a bounded notebook with loose papers falling out of it. She opened it, but to her disappointment, it was all written in German. It must be Kayla's diary, she thought to herself.
She sat back on the floor, with the notebook in hand.
"My sister is gone."
The words seemed so final. So heavy.
"I am alone again."
She began to weep. As she wept, the book fell from her hands and onto the floor.
Cybersix was wrong. The notebook was not Kayla's diary, but Marryn's lab notes. For as if fell and its pages ruffled, there were notes of sustenance, Datas, Angels, genetic engineering, all written in German.
The book landed on the ground, open, but Cybersix paid it no attention. She could not read German. But if she did, she would have read this:

PROJEKT RESURRECTION
Die Taste zum Wieder beleben eine von Kreationen VON REICHTER ist Substanz und ....

(Sustenance is the key to reanimating one of Von Reichter's creatures as well as....)