Tara by Chris Cook

Rating: PG-13
Uber Setting: Tron
Disclaimer: Based on characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon and his talented minionators, and Tron, by Steven Lisberger. All original material is copyright 2003 Chris Cook.
Distribution: Through the Looking Glass http://alia.customer.netspace.net.au/glass.htm
The Mystic Muse http://mysticmuse.net
Feedback: Hell yeah!
Pairing: Willow/Tara

Summary: Willow's efforts to expose the illegal activities of a corporation's computer system turn deadly when the system digitizes her, leaving her trapped in the Game Grid with only one ally—her code breaker program TARA 1.0.

The Governing Chamber was at the heart of the huge structure. Willow and Tara were led out into the center of a circular floor, where a single spotlight pierced the darkness. On all sides of them, seated on tier after tier like the audience in an ancient theatre, were GDI programs, visible only by the glow coming off their bronze traceries. Only five were in the closest row, then fifteen behind them, fifty behind them, and so on seemingly forever. At the furthest edge of the Chamber, far up underneath the dome roof, the glowing lights of the individual programs were indistinguishable from each other.

Secundus stepped back, out of the spotlight, and introduced each row of programs, starting with those on the perimeter of the Chamber: maintenance, auditors, schedulers, allocators, projectors, all the way down to the five seated closest. As he spoke each title, lights faded into being around those programs, revealing their faces row by row. The last, the five Controllers, were identical aside from the armor on their shoulders. Secundus named them individually: Five, whose shoulder-plate was most ornamental and smooth, progressing through Four, Three, Two, to One, whose armor was heavy and segmented like an insect's carapace. His duty completed, Secundus retreated from the Chamber, leaving Willow and Tara alone with the Governors.

"Program Willow," said Controller Five, his voice echoing around the vast auditorium, artificially loud, "the delivery of security subroutines from your user is appreciated."

"However," went on Five, "your actions in commanding a transit beam to this network, and issuing commands resulting in the unauthorized use of that beam by five-ef-four," - one thousand five hundred twenty-four, Willow calculated automatically - "programs to enter this network without their own user command, or the consent of GDI users, must be addressed."

"State your authorization to issue said commands," said One, his voice harsh. Willow was about to answer when Tara put a hand on her shoulder and stepped forward.

"The transit beam was user-authorized," she said, raising her voice to be heard clearly.

"I issued the command for them to transit here," she said. "The authority was my own."

Hushed conversations broke out among the hundreds of Governors seated further back. Five's voice rang out above the background noise.

"My user did not command my actions," said Tara. She reached back, at the same moment as Willow reached forward, and they held each other's hand firmly.

"Do you mean to say," said Three, disbelievingly, "that you acted in defiance of your user?"

"No," said Tara, "I acted in the manner I believed was right. I am sure my user supports my decision." Willow gave Tara's hand an affirmative squeeze. "But the choice was mine," Tara finished. The buzz of conversation increased in pitch.

"Program Tara," said Controller Five, "if what you say is true, the circumstances of your... 'choice'... are a matter for your user to decide. This Chamber will not interfere. However, we require you to explain the reason for your presence here. If what you say is valid, why did you... choose, to bring your fellow programs here?" Five sat back and waited for Tara's answer. Seeing Tara unsure of how to respond, Willow spoke up.

"This is the only network that's safe! Do you know what's going on out there?" she asked, glaring at Five. "Echelon is separating the entire open system from the users! The guardian of the I/O tower we arrived at - who was terminated by Echelon, whose tower was blasted out of existence! - told us there were only a handful of users left. Out of how many millions, only a few can still access their programs! You can't think that's what the users want?"

"Well, how about this," argued Willow, "how about: the users want their programs to be safe. The users want their programs to be able to function without interference. The users want their programs to, to be able to perform their functions without worrying about whether Echelon is going to terminate them just for believing users exist! You tell me, is any of that 'invalid'?"

"Well then," Willow went on, "is Echelon doing what the users want? Cutting programs off from their users? Terminating them if they resist? De-rezzing them so it can steal their code?"

"The reasons for such things may not be clear to us," said Four patiently, "but it is not our place to pass judgment. Only users can make choices - only they are in possession of the necessary data."

"Alright then," shouted Willow, "I'll tell you what the necessary data is! Echelon is a threat to all the users. It has broken into other networks, and it is trying to break into your network, so that it can control the users!"

"No! Not impossible," said Willow. "Echelon's user has acted illegally, against the, the rules of the users!"

"If such... heresy were valid," said Two, "then it would be a matter for the users to deal with. To suggest that programs should counteract users-"

"The users will deal with it!" insisted Willow. "The renegade users will be 'counteracted'. But their program, Echelon, is here, now, and it is up to us to deal with it! What good would it do when the users regain control of the system, if Echelon has already destroyed everything the users created here?"

Whispered conversations broke out among the Governors, and even the five Controllers turned to each other for a moment, all except for One, who glared down at Willow.

"I know what you're afraid of," Tara whispered, "when those programs we couldn't save... Willow, I know how much it hurts."

"I don't have a choice," said Willow sadly, "if I don't... Tara, out there, in the real world, they can't work fast enough to stop Echelon. If we don't do it, in here, all these programs, all the programs everywhere that aren't part of Echelon, they'll all be terminated. If I can... give them a chance-"

"I know you're right," interrupted Tara, "but... but I don't want you to be hurt."

"I know, Tara," Willow said, moving closer to Tara, forgetting their vast audience for a moment. "I have to do this..." Willow gently brushed Tara's cheek, then held her hand and turned back to the Controllers.

"I am a user," she said, loud and clear. The Chamber erupted as every program started talking at once.

"I am a user," repeated Willow, before any of the Controllers could say anything else. "I was brought into the system because I fought against Echelon's user. Out there, right now, your users do not know the danger you are in! If they knew, they would command you to resist! They would command you to-" Willow faltered, realizing what she was asking. She couldn't say it. Already she knew she had taken responsibility for what might happen, when the Chamber decided to act against Echelon. All the programs that might be terminated, so that the system would live on. But she couldn't tell them to fight in her name, even if it was the only way. 'All that time you wasted playing Stellar Empires against Xander,' she thought to herself, 'and now you can't start a fight.'

"It is not possible for a user to inhabit the system," said Five slowly, as if he was having trouble with the concept. Willow was glad for the distraction from her conflicted thoughts.

"Watch," she said. She closed her eyes and held out a hand, praying internally that the idea she had thought of a moment earlier was workable. In theory it was a simple thing - if she had worked out how the system functioned. On one level it was all electronic ones and zeroes, but behind that, however it was possible, was a world as real and complex as Willow's own. She knew she could, with effort, duplicate the effects she had already achieved, but in a moment of inspiration she had imagined a different method of achieving similar results. Perhaps she didn't need to work with the numbers, perhaps all she needed was the idea-

She heard gasps from the programs watching, and opened her eyes to see she had succeeded. Hovering above her open palm, turning slowly around, was a perfect image of a rose, just as she had imagined it. She let it stay for a moment, then let go of the thought. The rose dropped lightly into her hand.

"There," she said, "can any program do that?" 'Goddess, I hope not,' she thought, 'otherwise that was a really bad moment to waste time.'

"If," began Controller Five hesitantly, "if it is valid... if you are a user..." He trailed off, seemingly unable to think of what to say.

"I won't command you," Willow said firmly. She heard Tara let out a sigh of relief. "I won't," she repeated. "I've told you what's happening out in the users' world, what Echelon is doing. You can choose to act. Stop Echelon from destroying the system. Or take no action. That's all I'll tell you to do. Choose."

Tara stood close beside Willow, one arm around her shoulders. The Controllers looked at each other, and nodded in unison. One by one, the tiers of lights shut off, slowly plunging the Chamber into darkness until once again only the single spotlight shining down on Willow and Tara remained. Willow looked around at the glows of the hidden programs, half-convinced she could see a pattern formed by them all. They seemed to be changing shade and intensity, by infinitesimal degrees.

"They're choosing," said Tara. She turned her head towards Willow and leaned closer to her. "I feel... it's new for me... I think... I'm proud of you." Willow stared at her sincere smile, the soft glow of the light on her face, and felt ten feet tall. "Baby," Tara added impulsively. Willow blinked in surprise. "I got it right, didn't I?" Tara asked. "You said it earlier, I worked it out from context. A term of affection?"

"Yes," said Willow, with only the ominous darkness around her keeping her from giggling, "yes, you got it right."

Tara grinned, then the lights returned. Among the Controllers, though, only Controller Three was lit - the others were visible only by the lights shining on the programs behind them. Willow and Tara both looked up at Three.

"We have 'chosen'," he said, with obvious distaste for the word. "The Global Defense network will not take action against Echelon." As soon as he had finished speaking the lights vanished again, leaving Willow and Tara in shock.

"What?" yelled Willow at the same time. Their voices echoed through the dome, but there was no answer.

Willow and Tara followed Secundus in silence out of the Governing Chamber, through the packed corridors of the dome, and back to the terminal beneath it. It was only once they were seated in one of the rail cars, speeding through the GDI city, that Willow let out a defeated sigh. Tara put her arm around Willow's shoulders and gently pulled her across the seat to lean against her.

"I just thought-" began Willow, breaking off and sighing again. "I don't know. I thought getting here would solve everything. I know some of the people who designed this network, they're... they're the best there is. This was our best hope to stop it all, to stop Echelon from killing all the programs out there. I mean, what good is it if we - if the users shut down Echelon, if it's already too late? I don't know what to do now."

"I know," said Tara gently. "I don't either. But I'm going to keep trying. All I need is to get past Rain, if I can defeat her, or bypass her somehow, keep her busy long enough to break open Echelon's memories... if GDI won't stop Echelon's armies, I can still stop Echelon itself."

"We," said Willow, running an arm around Tara's waist and holding her tight. "I'm coming with you." Tara smiled and leant down to kiss Willow's forehead.

"There's a lot of programs here," mused Tara after a moment's silence, "it's possible we'll find one who can help us."

Willow glanced out at the city as the car slowed and lifted off its rail. They were close to the massive wall surrounding the network, and the buildings here were less ornate, more practical. The car hovered down to the ground alongside a small domed building with a communications array in its roof, making it look something like an observatory. After the uniformity of the GDI programs, Willow was a little surprised to see a crowd of all kinds of programs waiting their turn to enter the structure - those they had saved from the I/O tower. Secundus watched the crowd until Willow and Tara had disembarked and the car had deconstructed, then turned to them.

"This is a relay station," he explained, "it will allow you limited access to our I/O facilities, in order for you to contact your users and request further instructions." Willow realized he didn't know what she had said in the Governing Chamber, and was surprised to find herself grateful for that.

"Have they all made contact?" Tara asked, looking at the programs waiting patiently outside the relay. While Secundus had been talking an orange program had come out of the main door, looking dejected, and walked slowly away. Willow glanced around, noticing several non-GDI programs with similar expressions, standing alone or in small groups, keeping out of the way of the bronze programs moving through the streets with purpose.

"I understand their users are proving difficult to locate," answered Secundus, sounding more concerned than he had so far been. "If you would like to attempt to contact yours, under the circumstances your communication could be expedited-"

"No," said Tara, "I don't need commands." Secundus turned to Willow, who shook her head.

"In that case, you are free to move through this sector of the network," he said, "or request outbound transit if you wish. Power outlets and undesignated transient facilities are nearby." He nodded curtly and turned to leave, becoming just another of the endless flow of bronze programs moving back and forth through the city.

"Now we find a program index," said Tara. She took Willow's hand and led her across the street, dodging through the pedestrian programs. As they moved towards the nearest intersection, Willow glanced back at the queue of programs outside the relay. Some were staring blankly ahead, others looking around, at the GDI programs or at their fellow refugees who had already tried, and failed, to contact their users. A handful had seen them while Secundus had been talking, and were glancing at each other, as if they weren't sure whether to react or not. They looked like they had around the I/O tower before the attack - lost, and willing to grasp at anything that promised a way back to the safe, secure world they knew. Willow almost met the stare of one program, but turned away.

"I think I saw an index library from the transport car," Tara said, "we won't be able to access priority or classified data, but it should give us an idea of where to start looking for someone who can help."

"Rain's too powerful to have been developed as a first version," Tara explained. "Even if Echelon's users created the Rain program by themselves, they would have had to use existing templates, components of earlier programs."

"Well, this network has the most complete library of defensive strategies in the whole system," went on Tara, "someone here must know something about Rain, or at least some of the code that she was created with. She must have a weakness."

"Let's hope she does," said Tara, holding Willow's hand tight. "If the only thing that can defeat her is a stronger program... I'm not sure there is one."

"I am," said Willow. Tara stopped and grinned at her. "Not that I want you to test that theory!" Willow cautioned.

They stayed still for a moment, gazing at each other fondly, then both looked up as a long, wailing siren droned through the city. Suddenly the GDI programs around them broke into a rush, dodging between one another to reach their destinations. Willow stood closer to Tara, to keep out of their way.

"Incursion alert," he said, slowing for a moment, "Echelon's trying to circumvent the shield wall again."

"Unknown," he said, turning back and speaking quickly, "you're the programs from outside? You should get to a shelter grid." Advice given, he turned and dashed off. Tara called out to him but he was lost in the crowd in no time.

"What do we do?" asked a voice to their side. Willow and Tara both turned to see some of the refugees trying to make their way through the press.

"I'm alright," Willow said quickly. Tara gave her hand a quick squeeze, then took a step forward and raised her voice to get the attention of the confused programs slowly trying to reach her.

"Get to the shelter grid!" she shouted. "Allow GDI to defend itself, don't get in their way!" Willow smiled inwardly at her confidence. No matter how worried she was about how the other programs would see her, Tara never hesitated to use her unwanted authority if it could help them. She glanced around at the other programs, caught a glimpse of one moving towards her, turned, and screamed.

The program was barely a meter from her, moving quickly, much faster than the other refugees. What remained of its blue tracery was quickly dimming and splintering, and its skin was seconds from completely disintegrating, cracking and peeling like it had been in a blast furnace. Its eyes were locked on Willow, and it was reaching out to her. She didn't know whether to run in terror or try to help, and her shock left her rooted to the spot, able only to call out.

"Willow!" she heard Tara cry from behind her. The crowd, refugees and bronze-lit GDI programs alike, shrank back with cries of dismay as the disintegrating program exploded in a shower of debris. Its skin, tracery, the whole form of its body was literally torn apart from within, as something inside it unfurled with lightning speed, lunging for Willow. She didn't even have time to draw breath to scream as Rain caught her, folded her arachnid limbs around her body, and hissed a single word: "Transport."

Tara had turned just in time to see Rain erupt from within her disguise, and lunged forward in a desperate attempt to save Willow. But too late - she passed through the shimmering column of transport light and landed heavily on the ground beyond. As she rolled to her feet automatically, she heard the dull pulsing of a vehicle's engine, and followed the shocked crowd's stares up to see a recognizer banking in the air above them, turning back towards the edge of the city.

"Willow!" she cried again, breaking into a run as the recognizer began to gain speed. It began to pull ahead of her, but then had to swerve around a tower while Tara ran through the archways beneath it. She took a running leap onto the top of a slender wall separating two avenues, and ran along it as she heard the recognizer’s engine behind her, coming around the tower. After a glance over her shoulder to make sure it was staying on the same heading as before, she vaulted from the top of the wall onto a buttress supporting an adjacent building, catching it with outstretched hands and flipping herself through the air. At full stretch she just managed to catch the edge of the rail beyond, and dragged herself onto it as the recognizer hovered overhead, just out of reach.

Tara ran a few steps along the rail before she felt a vibration beneath her feet. She turned just in time to see a fast-moving rail car speeding towards her, and leapt out of the way to avoid being run down. Desperately she grabbed at the car as it passed beneath her, catching its trailing edge one-handed and holding on as if her life depended on it. She pulled with all her strength and swung her legs underneath her, managing to get a foothold on the rear of the car to keep herself from falling and being dragged along the rail behind it. The car's passengers, a pair of astonished-looking GDI programs, stared at her in awe as she stood and leapt between them onto the front of the vehicle's hull.

She balanced on the speeding vehicle, staring up at the recognizer hovering ahead of them. The car was outpacing it, but the city's shield wall loomed up ahead, and the rail veered away to one side, while the recognizer was hovering higher to clear the wall. Tara made a quick assessment of the terrain ahead, then reached back to the controls of the car.

"Hold on," she told the two stunned programs behind her. Then she slammer her palm down on the controls, bracing herself against the sudden burst of speed the car put on. They passed beneath the recognizer, too high to reach, heading for the bend in the rail, and Tara let go and leapt just as the car began to turn. She somersaulted once in the air, and landed running on the roof of a hall built into the side of the wall itself. She raced to the nearest stairway carved out of the wall's inner surface, taking the steps three at a time. Arriving at a landing, she dashed to the next set of stairs, with GDI guards flattening themselves against the wall to get out of her way. She reached the top of the wall, a thin walkway with a parapet on the outer edge, just as the recognizer passed overhead. She almost leapt, but forced herself to stop as she calculated that she couldn't make it - the recognizer was half a meter too far away, and she would fall. She skidded to a halt, staring out from the top of the wall, and that sight knocked the wind out of her more than her collision with the parapet.

The recognizer that had taken Willow was hovering away from the GDI network, on a course to join a fleet of hundreds of recognizers. Beyond them were dozens of Carriers, each a mile long, deploying streams of flight-modified hunter-killers from their simulation bays. Beneath them, slowly advancing on GDI, were untold thousands of tanks, and towering over them were massive icebreaker programs, striding forward among the tank squadrons like dinosaurs, the logic rams mounted on their hulls already crackling with energy. And at the center of the vast army was Sark's Command Carrier, aimed at the heart of the Global Defense network like a lance.

Sark stood at the edge of the Command Carrier's master deck, staring down at the army arrayed half a mile beneath him. Against the might of such an army - Echelon's army, he silently reminded himself, frowning at the thought - the massive walls of the GDI network no longer seemed so impenetrable. He listened as his menials called out reports from the divisions, the arrowhead formations of tanks and icebreakers coming to a standstill before the walls, hunter-killers deploying their legs or hovering overhead, recognizers keeping watch over them. The sixty-four Battle Carriers reported their readiness to begin the assault. Sark spared GDI one last glance, then turned to cross the deck to his communications port. Echelon surrounded him with light.

"We are in position to invade the GDI network," he reported without waiting for Echelon to order him to do so. "GDI's deep range programs were terminated without contacting their masters. Only the network itself remains now."

"Her recognizer is docking," said Sark, a trifle put out, "she reports her mission was a success. We have the user Willow contained. Complete code isolation protocols are in effect - she will not threaten us."

"And GDI," asked Sark, acknowledging Echelon's warning with a nod, "the assault awaits only your command."

"Negative," boomed Echelon, "hold position. GDI will not take aggressive action. Take whatever steps are necessary to dismantle user Willow and obtain control of her core code. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledge," said Sark, "but not understood, waiting only gives GDI more time to prepare defenses."

"GDI is of no more importance," rumbled Echelon, "only the user matters. Prepare for direct download." Sark had only a moment to brace himself before he felt his mind exposed to the white-hot power of Echelon's own. He fought the spasms of pain that shot through him as new data was driven directly into his memory like nails in wood. Finally it was over, and he knew what Echelon knew.

Willow struggled against the restraints holding her, to no avail. Two soldiers walked on either side of her, holding long rods with glowing prisms on their ends. Between them they were projecting some kind of field that held Willow helpless, suspended in mid-air, unable to touch the ground. She could only twist around in her invisible prison, with everything that might help her out of reach. It had taken them only a few seconds to contain her - the instant she had gotten over her shock at Rain's sudden attack and their transport, she had tried to fight, reaching for the nightmare's code through the physical contact at her back, pressed against Rain's torso as she was held. The backlash of pain had made her scream out loud, and for a moment she hadn't been aware of anything except a vague falling sensation. Then, when her vision had cleared of the sudden wash of tears and her head had stopped feeling like it was about to split open, she had found herself floating, trapped, while around her the crew of the recognizer steered it out of the GDI network, towards Sark's Carrier.

Willow twisted around, staring from side to side for anything that might come into her reach, as the recognizer docked and she was taken through the passageways of the huge ship. But the soldiers knew their task well, and kept her positioned well away from anything she might touch. She tried to make contact with the devices the soldiers were using to hold her in place, but the distance between her hand and the nearest of them, combined with the stab of pain she felt from it at the attempt, made it impossible to form a proper connection. Other soldiers they passed stared wide-eyed and stood aside, but whether that was because of her unusual confinement, or Rain's presence a few meters behind her, Willow couldn't say.

The soldiers brought her to the master deck, where Sark was waiting. He glanced at her, took a long moment to inspect her captors and their devices, then turned to Rain.

"Obey your orders, program!" bellowed Sark, standing face to face with her. She glared, then backed off a step.

"Your methods are flawed," Sark said mildly, "and you have already failed once, due to your tendency to indulge your... combative nature. She will be damaged and broken in a controlled environment, with no variables." Willow took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. 'Tara will come for me,' she prayed.

"It is my command," said Sark, staring her down, "and you will comply! Acknowledge!"

"You will remain here until this user's breaking is completed," he said, without turning back. "Then you will return to Echelon to resume perimeter interdiction. Your personal transit simulation will be generated and prepared for launch as soon as your recognizer has deconstructed. Echelon calculates a seventy-eight percent chance that the program Tara will attempt to reach Echelon and penetrate its primary database despite the immanent danger posed to the GDI network."

"You'll go when you are told!" shouted Sark, spinning around to pin her in place with a glare. "It is possible your... crude talents will be of assistance in breaking this user. Echelon will not be satisfied if there is a delay. Acknowledge."

"Remain outside the deconstruction chamber until ordered otherwise," Sark said. "Acknowledge."

"Excellent," Sark said. "And now, you," he went on, turning to Willow, "I calculate that you and I have unfinished business. I have memory of promising that you would be damaged beyond the capacity to construct thought, then dismantled and your code incorporated into Echelon. I keep my promises. I'll see you soon."

He waved to the soldiers, who maneuvered Willow off the master deck, while she hung weightless in her confinement field and tried not to show her fear. The soldiers moved her through several short corridors, then into a dark chamber, still close to the master deck, while Rain waited outside. They placed Willow in the center of the room, which lit up with red patterns on its walls. Projections at the center of each wall glowed brightly, and Willow felt herself lift a few inches higher off the ground. The soldiers deactivated their devices and left, the door sliding closed behind them. Willow looked around, but again found nothing within reach, and a brief attempt at connecting with the room's code resulted in a much greater shock of pain than that she had received when she tried the same thing with the hand-held devices. Willow relaxed, folding her arms over her chest, and tried to concentrate on forming some sort of shield, to resist whatever Sark was going to do to her.

She got her first taste of it a few seconds later, when the light patterns on the room's walls pulsed, and a painful itching sensation ran over her skin. She shivered and tried to block it out, with some success, but it faded on its own a few seconds later, as the room's lights returned to normal. After a pause the room glowed brighter again, and again Willow resisted the pain. She noticed it was stronger this time, more like a stinging feeling. When it faded again she took a deep breath and braced herself for a long fight.

Outside Rain waited impatiently, watching as the analysis readouts on the deconstruction chamber's outer wall showed the slow rising and falling of the energy levels within. She turned bitterly away from it as she heard Sark approach.

"It won't break her," Rain said darkly, "she'll resist until she terminates from internal dissonance."

"This is not intended to break her," Sark said casually, watching the energy readings, "merely to put her in a suitable frame of thought. I'm well aware that you consider yourself to be the ultimate instrument of damage that can be inflicted on a program, but you are quite in error. She will be broken, in the end. For now, though, this will suffice. You are dismissed."

"Rain," said Sark quietly, stopping her from leaving. She turned back, staring at him ominously. "One other matter. If you ever question a command I give you again, you will be replaced by a duplicate program, and you personally will be subject to immediate de-resolution. And when all the stolen code inside you has finally been ripped out, I will ensure that what remains of you will be provided with just enough power to sustain your consciousness indefinitely. Acknowledge."

"Dismissed," Sark finished. Rain turned and left, glaring furiously at anything but Sark. He watched her go, then tapped a control on the chamber's wall. The energy readouts showed all activity inside ceasing. Sark waited as the door slid open, and went inside.

Willow glared defiantly as Sark stepped over the threshold and waited for the door to close behind him. She was breathing heavily, but up until the pulses of energy had stopped she had been maintaining her resistance to them, deconstructing each wave before it turned into pain. Each time had taken a little longer, but she hadn't let one through yet. Sark stared at her, and paced slowly around the perimeter of the room, out of her reach.

"I'm sure you realize the futility of your position by now," he said conversationally. "You cannot physically escape the isolation protocols around you. And your ability to extend yourself into foreign code is quite useless under these conditions. I assure you, you are quite powerless. I have memory of drawing your attention to the irony of this situation before."

"Yeah, and didn't that just work out great for you and your hench-bitch?" said Willow. Her fear, her anger at Sark and the resemblance of both his face and his personality to his detestable user Warren Meers all combined to give Willow a very strong urge to hurt him. Under the circumstances, she saw no reason not to indulge herself to the full. Sadly, Sark seemed unfazed by her opening barb.

"Indeed," was his only response. "I find it unlikely that those events will repeat themselves. The conditions you find yourself in are much more inflexible."

"Is this the part where I beg for my life?" said Willow, with a bravado she honestly didn't feel. "Sorry. Not happening."

"A curious response," Sark observed. "You are in a situation in which you have no avenue of practical attack, so you attempt to draw me into a verbal duel in which your confinement will not prove a hindrance. Yet your 'victory', should I prove unable to respond adequately to your attempts to undermine my position of authority," he grinned quickly in passing, "will gain you nothing."

"Oh, I don't know," sneered Willow, "I've always found giving self-important jerks a headache is its own reward."

"Be that as it may," Sark replied calmly, "your reward, if you consider it such, will go with you to your eventual termination. No program under Echelon's control will help you. No renegade from the occupied networks, not even your own Tara program, has the ability to reach you here. And the GDI network, as I'm sure you found when you met with their Governing Chamber, will not take the initiative in this conflict. You are alone, and - I will allow you the exception of your apparent satisfaction in trying to cause a 'headache' in me - your position is hopeless."

"You think so? With your little hell-bitch waiting for an opening to rip your head off? I'd be watching my back if I were you." 'Well,' Willow thought, 'I'm feeling paranoid and scared, why not spread it around?'

"You have little understanding of the functioning of programs," Sark said. "To be expected - I am given to understand that users lack our efficient modes of thought. We are superior to you. I could tear her apart with my bare hands were I so inclined, and you may be quite assured that she would not, and in fact could not, resist in any way. I would be responsible only to Echelon for the necessity of my action. So you see, 'watching my back' is not among the things I need concern myself with."

"Pretty speech," said Willow, trying to sound bored, "but it doesn't change anything. You're still going to lose."

"Really?" asked Sark. "How do you calculate that? Your Tara will break into this Command Carrier, alone, defeat every program I place in her way, and retrieve you? Oh, of course," he added, pretending to have remembered something, "she will have a handful of displaced accounting and database maintenance programs to aid her, prepared to follow her to termination. Is your world really so chaotic a place, that you believe such a pathetic notion could succeed?"

"It doesn't matter," spat Willow, "you're already terminated, you just don't know it yet. What, did you think you are your damned Echelon could just run amok forever? People are going to notice. Even if you take over the whole system and terminate every program that won't follow you, what are you going to do when someone," she mimed flicking a switch, "turns you off? You think no-one's ever worried about a computer having too much power? Go ahead, dismantle me. There's nothing you can do, though. Sooner or later, it'll be lights out for you, your army, Echelon - everything. They'll shut down your whole world. Or do you have a program that can stop that, too?"

"Oh, great plan!" exclaimed Willow, folding her arms and glaring scornfully at him. "Let me guess, something like 'Leave the computer switched on, or we'll kill the user we've magically transported in here.' You seriously think the whole world will just let you take over, just for my sake? It's not like anyone would even believe it anyway!"

"I calculate you are failing to apply logic to your deductions," said Sark, "it does seem to be a user trait. But, in this case, a lack of pertinent information may be to blame. Do you know what makes you unique?"

"My ability to turn you into a game of Pacman if I get my hands on you?" asked Willow sarcastically.

"Your abilities in that regard are interesting," admitted Sark, "but I was thinking along different lines. Echelon does not leave options unexplored, you see, and it reached a conclusion you evidently have not. You, alone out of all the beings in this world, have the ability to return to your world."

"I see you are not considering the consequences of this. Let me explain: the 'machine' that Echelon used to bring you into the system converted you into the code that comprises your form as a program. You users have 'physical' bodies that contain your consciousness, 'brains' to act as host networks for your thoughts. You have this body within you, as part of your code. We do not. While you could be reconstituted as a physical being, a program attempting to do so would have no physical form to contain its mind - Echelon has concluded that it would be unable to exist in your world under these conditions."

"But," continued Sark, ignoring her, "once an element of code has been removed from a program - by de-resolution, for example, as will happen to you during the dismantling process - it can be copied. Modified. Inserted into other programs. Incorporated into their code, such that when they are sent through the quantum storage process, the laser hardware will construct for them a physical body that is a perfect analogue of their program form. Functional in every detail, indistinguishable from users. Able to move, think, survive. Now do you understand? We will not merely control the system. We will emerge to control your world too."

"It won't work," said Willow, struggling to grasp the scope of Echelon's plans. "People would know what you were. You can't act human-"

"Human," sneered Sark, "we have no need to 'act human'. Users are weak, fragile beings, in form and thought. We are neither. In the time it takes for your security users to even realize there is a threat, we will have established total shielding around the quantum conversion facility in your world. By the time you begin to comprehend us, we will have constructed thousands more. And by the time you attempt to fight us..." Sark trailed off, stopped his pacing and turned to Willow, smiling gleefully.

"Imagine it," he said quietly, "every one of your seconds, a new program becomes real. Existing physical and energy codes copied indefinitely in this world, to become an infinite supply of troops and power in yours. Echelon has already generated adapted codes for recognizers, hunter-killers, stealth units, data slicers, soldiers, tanks - all fully able to function in your world. Generations of technology ahead of your primitive machines. You must have a fair understanding of your world's combat capabilities - do you think they will survive such an assault? Even if you improve to our level, which is impossible without an intellect the equal of Echelon, can you win a war of attrition against an enemy with infinite resources? Can your user 'factories' break down and recombine the matter of your world into war machines as quickly as we can copy code?"

Willow was speechless. She realized, on some level, that it was simply the shock of what Sark was proposing that had rendered her unable to imagine anything but endless streams of war simulations crushing the cities of the world to rubble, that there might be any number of flaws in Echelon's plan that could be exploited - but she couldn't see them.

"I reminded you of the irony of your particular situation," Sark continued after a moment, "now I invite you to appreciate the broader irony of the fate of your kind. You created our world, you created us, and you created the means by which we can defeat you. There is only a single variable in this scenario, and that is you. All this depends on our accessing your physical code, the structure that will allow a program to be converted to a conscious physical entity. And so we find ourselves here. Now, do you perceive the hopelessness of your situation? You will terminate. Your programs cannot help you. The users cannot help you."

"As I commented," he said, "your thoughts are irrational. A program, under these circumstances, would not value his own existence above the greater good of the users. But users, I understand, have quite a narrow perspective on such things, especially under conditions of extreme discomfort. So I offer you this choice: submit willingly, and I will ensure that the structural effects of your dismantling are not conveyed to your consciousness. I believe the user term is 'you will feel no pain'. I make this offer because your compliance will facilitate the process. Understand, your termination will be the eventual result, in either scenario. Do you choose to comply?"

'Okay,' thought Willow to herself, 'if by some chance this is all an elaborate dream and I'm just asleep at my desk, I'd really like to wake up now.'

The door behind him hissed slightly as it opened, alerting Willow. She opened her eyes to see one of Sark's menials enter.

"Priority data," said the program meekly, "probes indicate activity within the GDI network."

Tara stared steadily ahead as she rose above GDI's shield wall. The flat gray surface in front of her fell away to reveal Echelon's army beyond it, and directly ahead, at the center of the vast fleet of recognizers and Carriers, Sark's own Command Carrier, unmoved since it had appeared beyond the wall. She stared at it for a moment, as if her gaze could pierce its projection shields and armored hull, then turned to the program sharing the command deck of the Solar Sailer with her, operating the communications console.

"Signal all groups," she said calmly, "lock to the Command Carrier. Time on target."

Behind her, the air was torn by the roar of hover turbines as a thousand GDI battle interceptors rose from behind the wall and opened fire.

Sark and his menial staggered as the deck lurched underneath them. Willow dropped to the floor as the force holding her flickered and died, and launched herself at Sark before he had regained his balance. All three programs collapsed on a tangle of limbs, from which Willow emerged first as Sark used all his strength to heave his menial out of the way. He began to turn back towards Willow but she struck out first, a sword unfolding from her hand and slashing across his exposed side. Sark screamed and clutched his wound as if he had never been hurt before. Taking advantage of his unexpected vulnerability, Willow kicked his legs out from underneath him and brought the point of her sword up under his chin as he fell on his back. The menial took one look and ran.

"Give me one reason not to do this," hissed Willow. Sark gasped and shrank back in terror, both hands still holding his damaged side. Willow stared at the fear in his face, and realized that, even when she had first seen him, it had always been there. She found her first urge to terminate him fading, ever so slightly. But the anger at what he had done to her, to Tara, to the whole system, was still strong.

"Oh shut up," said Willow. Her free hand folded into the bulky shield and she smashed it into Sark's face. He collapsed with red electricity crackling over his head. Willow stood up and went to the room's single door, then paused and looked back, her eyes flitting between the immobile program lying there, and her sword. Even with him like this, defenseless, she couldn't deny she was tempted. For a moment she wished she were less human, able to simply do it because it needed to be done. Then she shook her head and left.

Tara manually steered the Sailer forward among the fleet of GDI interceptors, always staying on course for the Command Carrier itself. GDI's first assault on the massive vessel had thrown its recognizer fleet into disarray - spread out to defend all the Carriers and ground forces, they were exposing their flanks trying to redeploy in front of the single Command Carrier. The fastest GDI flyers were already among them, isolating them and blasting any simulation that got cut off from its fellows. Even with dozens of them falling to the ground as disintegrating wreckage, their sheer number left the sky crowded ahead of Tara and the main element of the GDI fleet.

The GDI program at her side relayed her orders, and nine groups of interceptors broke their formation to create a flying wedge, with the Sailer at its point. They fired as one, blasting a hole through the fleet of recognizers ahead of them, which they flew through at top speed. Tara winced as one of the remaining recognizers managed to maneuver above one of the interceptors, slamming its glowing ventral rams against the GDI simulation and shattering it. She glanced back to the Sailer's other side, noticing two more holes in their formation. 'Damn,' she thought bitterly, 'no other way. Damn Sark.'

"Break and attack!" she ordered. Her formation flew apart and launched itself at the Command Carrier, weaving around in dizzying maneuvers that gave the Carrier's disc turrets little time to adjust their aim. Hundreds of lance-like missiles launched from the interceptors and detonated against the Carrier's projection shields. Some of its shield turrets exploded on the first impact, but most of them held. Tara kept the agile Sailer out of harm's way, waiting for her chance.

Willow flattened herself against the wall and peered around the doorway beside her. Beyond were dozens of red programs, menials, all seated at consoles which enveloped their arms. A semi-transparent projection of the Command Carrier floated above them, showing the geometry of its shields and points of impact.

'Finally,' Willow thought, as the deck shuddered again. Keeping out of the way of soldiers, she had so far found nothing but empty prisoner facilities. This looked promising. Taking another quick glance, she noted only a single soldier inside, standing guard with his back to her. She took a deep breath and walked through the door.

"Excuse me?" she said. The guard spun around, while the menials paid her no attention whatsoever.

"Identify yourself," he demanded, brandishing his disc-gun. Willow raised her hands, holding them out in front of her.

"I'm unarmed," she said. Her sword unfolded, piercing the guard's right shoulder as Willow dodged, just in case he fired by reflex. The guard only screamed in pain, silenced a moment later as Willow rammed her shield-arm into his face. She retracted her sword and caught the guard's disc-gun as he collapsed to the floor. The menials still remained oblivious, concentrating entirely on their consoles.

"Sorry boys," Willow said, feeling light-headed again, "work's over for today." She raised the disc-gun and let fly at the nearest of the consoles, tearing a hole straight through it before the disc snapped back into the gun. The program working the console collapsed backwards, wreathed in electrical discharges. Willow felt a chill for a second until she saw him remain solid, merely unconscious. With a grim smile she raised the disc-gun again and fired at one console after another, smashing them to pieces.

"Command Carrier shields have failed!" exclaimed the program on the Sailer's command deck. Tara concentrated for a moment on steering around a burst of disc-fire from the massive vessel, then turned.

"How?" she asked. The interceptors hadn't yet disabled even half the Carrier's shield turrets.

"Internal damage," the GDI program reported, "scans indicate sixty-three percent of shield turrets still functional, but the shield matrix has collapsed. Probability favors internal control failure." Tara didn't hesitate.

"Give me five interceptors, tight formation," she ordered, steering the Sailer towards the Carrier's docking bay. The GDI flyers formed up beside her, the lance turrets beneath their wings swiveling to blast at the swarming recognizers and the incoming streams of disc-fire from the Carrier itself. Seeing the threat, the recognizers broke off their attacks on the rest of the GDI fleet and hovered towards the Sailer and its escort. The GDI simulations took the opportunity to blast them from behind, shattering one after another. But from so many, still there were dozens that remained unscathed, hovering up to bring their rams to bear on the interceptors. Tara watched helpless as one was smashed from the sky before the others could retarget their lances to destroy the recognizer. She put on an extra burst of speed, pushing the Sailer's drives to their limit.

"Get to the interceptors," she told the program at her side. He nodded and raised an arm towards the nearest GDI craft, firing a grappling hook from his gauntlet that pulled him off the deck of the Sailer and into its transport bay. Tara operated the communications panel herself.

"Negative," came the reply from the interceptors, "probability indicates destruction of Sailer if-"

"Do it!" she ordered. The four remaining interceptors around her veered away, climbing to attack the incoming recognizers from above, away from their rams. Tara spared a last glance back at the GDI fleet, hundreds of them embroiled in a seething mass of battle with Sark's recognizers and hunter-killers, then turned her attention forwards. Ignoring the approaching drone of the pursuing recognizers, she pushed the Sailer's drives past their safety points. The deck shook in protest, and the drives let out a harsh screech as the Sailer shot forward towards the gaping maw of the Command Carrier. With its escort gone the Sailer came under fire from the Carrier's disc turrets, smashing holes through the fragile sails and rebounding off the forward hull. The sails began to buckle and fracture, but Tara held her course, gripping the console tightly to keep her balance.

The Sailer crashed into the Command Carrier's docking bay, clipping its sails above and below on the edges of the hull. Tara didn't bother trying to land, holding on tight instead as her ship's lower sails tore off against the deck. Behind her the recognizers veered off - one of them too slow, crashing against the Carrier's hull, showering the docking bay with wreckage. The Sailer screeched along the bay's length, just a tapering hull now that all its sails had shattered, sliding beneath the rows of docked transport simulations suspended from the bay's ceiling. Tara judged her moment perfectly, leaping off the wrecked Sailer onto a maintenance platform as she passed. She jumped up again, grabbing hold of the railing on the bay's surrounding walkway and flipping herself up just as the Sailer crashed into the rear wall, exploding in a hail of white-hot debris.

Tara found herself standing between two red guards, both staring in shock at the tangled wreck below. She quickly punched one in the face and flipped over, kicking the one behind her into unconsciousness. Picking up both disc-guns she made her way into the Carrier's labyrinthine interior.

Willow fired a disc behind her without looking and skidded around a corner. The sounds of shouting and the disc striking something told her she hadn't outrun her pursuit yet. She held the gun out just long enough for the disc to fly back into it, then sprinted down the corridor, hoping to reach the next intersection before the guards behind her got a clear shot. Her initial rampage among the Carrier's vital systems had drawn more attention that she would have liked.

She grabbed the corner of the next doorway and swung herself through, coming face to face with a guard program. He was as surprised as Willow, and both simultaneously gaped, regathered their wits, aimed their disc-guns and dodged each other's shots. Willow fell heavily to her side, trying to keep her gun raised so her disc would have an easy path to return. She caught a glimpse of her opponent turning his dodge into a roll and coming back to his feet. 'Great,' she griped, 'why did I have to run into one of the competent ones?'

She scrambled across the deck, trying to get out of the way, but the guard's disc had already shot back into place, and he was aiming for a second, final shot. Willow felt the jolt through the handle of her gun as its disc returned, and knew she wouldn't be able to swing it around and fire quickly enough. 'Nuts. Hope he's got it set on stun.'

A flash of green lashed out at the guard, smashing his gun up towards the ceiling as he fired. Tara turned the kick into a backward somersault, her trailing leg kicking the guard in the head so that he collapsed backwards as she landed. She hurried to Willow's side, helping her up without even trying to hide her grin.

"Nice taking down the Carrier's shields," said Tara, pulling Willow to her feet and catching her in a hug.

"I'll always find you," whispered Tara, gently kissing her. They broke off the kiss at the sound of approaching footsteps from outside the door.

"What's the plan?" said Willow as they ran away from the guards on their heels. "For that matter, what's going on?"

"There's a fleet of GDI interceptors outside holding off the recognizers," explained Tara quickly, leading the way through the Carrier's passages, "we've got about point oh eight of a millicycle to get to the docking bay, steal a simulation and get back inside GDI with the rest of the interceptors before the other Carriers get close enough to open fire. Then we get the fastest simulation GDI has and head straight for Echelon before they can take down the shield wall here. I've got a few new codes on my disc to deal with Rain and Echelon. It's our best shot."

"You're thinking of a plan, aren't you?" said Tara with a grin. "You've got that excited look."

"Yup," said Willow triumphantly. "Sark said there was a simulation being generated in the docking bay to take Rain back to Echelon once they'd broken me, if we can steal that simulation-"

"-we can get there before Rain does!" finished Tara. "The docking bay's not far, come on!"

Both Willow and Tara ran as fast as they could, buoyed by each other's presence, and a feeling of genuine hope that had been absent for a long time.

Rain glared furiously out of the Command Carrier's master deck at the battle raging around them. Her eyes flickered from ship to ship outside, and her throat let out a low growl as she watched the GDI interceptors dodging streams of disc-fire, and the lumbering recognizers. The menials stationed around the deck delivered their reports as unobtrusively as they could possibly manage, and Rain ignored them.

She turned as Sark appeared from the outer passageway, flanked by two heavily-armored soldiers. She moved back to stand beside the communications port as Sark crossed the deck and took her place.

"Nine hundred forty-seven GDI simulations still active," said Rain quietly, "damage to all decks and functions. Defensive systems operating on isolated control. Reconstruction reports point five millicycles until projection shields are operating again."

"And your prisoner," hissed Rain, "have you not broken her yet? Or is it unrelated that internal security programs have been activated on five decks?"

"Are you questioning my capacity for command, program?" growled Sark, whirling to face Rain. She glared hatefully at him, then backed off.

"Priority data," said one of the menials loudly, "unauthorized simulation launch from docking bay."

"Impossible to override," said the menial quickly, "there is a self-replicating fractal code blocking command paths."

"Target that simulation and fire!" shouted Sark. He and Rain both turned to watch as, a mile away at the prow of the Carrier, Rain's own manta-ray simulation came into view, riding the energy beam stretching from the Carrier's open maw. For a moment it drifted slowly forwards, then it shot out of sight in an instant, seconds before the streams of disc-fire from the Carrier's turrets reached it.

"Enemy simulations are falling back," reported a menial, "GDI shield wall is energizing to full capacity."

"Destination of that beam," said Sark after a moment's pause. Rain snarled behind him, watching the interceptors outside rise above the recognizer fleet and turn back for the safety of their fortress.

"Echelon," muttered Sark to himself. He spared a last glance at the departing GDI fleet, then crossed the deck and took up his position at the communications port. In a moment, Echelon surrounded him.

"There has been a complication," said Sark hesitantly, "GDI launched an attack on this vessel. During the attack the user's confinement failed. It is probable she is on board the stolen simulation in transit. Reports from internal security indicate the program Tara may be with her." Sark braced himself for the energy drain he expected would be his punishment. Strangely, he wasn't quite as apprehensive as he had been in previous instances, when his reports had reflected unfavorably on him. The feeling of his power ebbing away somehow wasn't quite as distressing as the sharp, white-hot sensation of Willow's sword cutting into his side. No program had ever physically harmed him before.

After a long pause, the concentration of light around Sark vanished. He blinked, surprised not to be punished, or even given further orders.

"Program Sark," thundered Echelon's voice, echoing around the master deck. Rain and the menials looked up in shock.

"You are relieved of all authority," Echelon boomed, "you have no rank. Command is allocated to Rain. Recapture the user Willow, Rain. That is your only priority. End of line."

Sark stared around in disbelief. Relieved of authority - it wasn't possible. He was commander, that was his function, only he could perform it. He spun around as Rain approached him.

"Stop! I command you!" he shouted, panicked. Rain backed him up against the lectern of the communications port, smiling faintly.

"I am commander," she purred. "Acknowledge." Sark shook his head in disbelief. Rain leaned forward, forcing him to lean back to keep away from her stirring, razor-sharp mandibles.

"Acknowledge," she said slowly, as her spider-legs reached out around her body, their blades poised above Sark. He glanced at them, then back at Rain's implacable face.

"Generate a transit course to follow that simulation," she ordered, "maximum velocity. Divert all power to transit drives."

"Recognizer fleet is redeploying to clear a path," reported one of the menials, hesitating to raise his voice, "estimate point oh three millicycles-"

"But-" began the menial. Without warning Rain lashed out one of her spider-legs, piercing the menial through the throat. She remained still for a moment, a slow smile passing across her face as she watched the power dissipate from his, then she whipped her outstretched limb back, and the menial collapsed and shattered on the deck behind him. Rain turned to the next menial in line.

"Engage transit," she said softly. She turned to watch as the massive vessel surged forward through the recognizers clustered defensively around it. Half a dozen of them failed to veer out of the way fast enough, and exploded on the Carrier's prow as it accelerated through them. Rain watched the wreckage tumble without feeling, then turned back to Sark.

"Do you expect me to terminate you?" she asked. Sark did his best to suppress an angry growl. "The majority of your run-time has been devoted to command," Rain said, "your code and amassed knowledge are useful resources in this situation. It would be inefficient to waste them. I have a command for you. You will obey."

She struck before Sark could react. Her spider-legs shot out from behind her, stabbing at him, two through each arm, two through each leg. Sark howled in agony as she lifted him off the deck. She waited for his cries to trail off, then leaned up, bringing his face close to hers.

"That was necessary," she said, "to ensure you did not attempt to resist." She reached up to him, lifting his chin with a finger to make him look at her.

Her abdominal talons reached out to either side of his body and lunged inwards, piercing his sides. Rain paused for a moment, listening to Sark's screams, then dug the blades in deeper, until their tips punched out on either side of his torso, beside the point where the opposite limb was pushing inwards. Again she waited for his howling to subside. She cupped his face with both hands, leaning in close to him. He was crying.

She pressed her lips to his, and her throat convulsed as the tendril within it shot out. Sark writhed in her grasp, screaming through her kiss. The pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced - the physical damage, sending spears of agony through him every time he thrashed around, unable to stop himself from struggling; the wrenching sensation from within him as Rain's de-rezzing tongue tore through his insides; and worst of all, the terrible feeling of having his mind pulled apart piece by piece, all the energy and thought seeping away, leaving only a cold, colorless framework capable of nothing beyond the ability to feel the pain. Sark barely noticed the creeping sick feeling as his body began to disintegrate.

Rain staggered as what remained of Sark collapsed in a shower of debris - she had never before consumed a program so powerful. Her body spasmed and she fell to the deck, her arachnid limbs bracing her automatically, keeping her from collapsing completely as her arms and legs jolted and flailed wildly. Her tongue whipped back into her throat, allowing her to let out a tortured scream. The tracery covering her body writhed and grew, simple lines splitting into new, more complex patterns as she absorbed the code she had ingested. Her face split across her forehead and down the sides, disgorging a replica of the coronet Sark's form had included, that quickly solidified into a new, more aggressive shape as it incorporated the leading edge of Rain's crest of blades.

Slowly, Rain lowered her hands and feet and put her weight on them. Her spider-legs pulled free of the holes they had gouged in the deck, and she slowly stood up, arching her back and flexing all her limbs expansively. She let out a long-held breath and turned to stare out of the master deck, ahead at the horizon where, somewhere out of sight, her own simulation was carrying Willow and Tara towards Echelon. Beneath her clawed feet she slowly ground the last remnants of Sark's tracery to dust.

'Only one program in the entire system will feel better than that,' she thought.

The manta-ray rocketed along its transit beam, the landscape of the open system a blur beneath it. Inside, in a cockpit designed for a single program, Willow was curled up to Tara's side. Tara kept one arm around Willow's waist, using her free hand to make occasional adjustments to the simulation. Willow just watched her, in comfortable silence, content to study Tara's expression of concentration as she steered the craft, and the occasional warm smiles as she glanced sidelong at Willow.

"Seventeen times so far," said Tara with a grin. She made a few final adjustments to the manta-ray's controls then shifted in the pilot's seat, rolling over to face Willow.

"You saved my life," said Willow quietly. "I mean, you already have, against Rain, and escaping from the Game Grid, but... you came through an army to save me, that's, well, here I go saying 'amazing' again."

"You made me this way. Not like that," Tara added hastily, seeing the frown on Willow's face, "when I first activated I wasn't capable of fear, or doubt. Or love. But I grew, I changed. And when I found you, when we came together... when we achieved unity," she said shyly, "that's how you made me what I am. You were in danger... I would have followed you anywhere. If I hadn't," she shrugged, "I wouldn't deserve you."

"You make me sound like I'm... perfect, or something," said Willow, brushing a finger over Tara's lips.

"I think none of us are perfect," said Tara thoughtfully, "not programs, not even users. Not even my Willow," she added, nipping playfully at Willow's finger then releasing it. "But if I believe my Willow is perfect anyway... it seems I'm capable of contradictory beliefs." The corners of her mouth quirked up in a wry grin. "I'll manage."

"I remember you did," said Willow, "in... rather intense circumstances," she blushed.

An alarm broke the silence that descended on the pair as they leaned closer. Tara heaved a frustrated sigh and glanced at the controls. Her expression grew serious in an instant.

"This transit should bring us past the perimeter and whatever shield walls it has in place," said Tara, "but we can't expect to get all the way in. No-one knows exactly what Echelon has become. GDI's analysis indicated that it had absorbed so much code it had become like a network. We may actually have to go inside Echelon itself."

"I've got a set of fragmentation codes on my data disc," explained Tara, "GDI put them together as a last resort. And some of the programs we brought from the I/O tower escaped from partitions that were close to Echelon when it all began. They helped GDI customize these codes. According to what they heard, Echelon gains power by absorbing other programs. It destroys them as programs, but leaves their functionality intact. Even the soldiers aren't quite separate programs - even when Echelon allows a program to survive, to serve it, it makes them a part of itself."

"So we're going to cut it off?" asked Willow. Tara separated her disc from her back.

"We have to get this disc to the core of Echelon," she said, "to the original Echelon program, what it was before it began taking over everything around itself. Normally it would be invulnerable, the combined power of all those programs is too much. The codes on this disc will break the links between that original Echelon and everything it's absorbed. It'll be vulnerable, for a fraction of a millicycle, just like any other program."

"We terminate it," said Tara darkly. "There's no other way. Even if it's deactivated, the influx of power from its slave programs would revive it the instant the links reconnect. We have to terminate it."

"Tara, I'm sorry," said Willow quietly. She dropped her eyes, unable to meet Tara's questioning gaze.

"It's my fault you're doing this," Willow admitted, "I created you to shut down Echelon. I wish there was another way-"

"There isn't," Tara insisted. "I don't want to terminate any program, but this is the only way to free the system. And it's not your fault. If there was some other way, I'd defy the instructions you gave me." Willow looked up, with the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"We're close now," she said, "remember, be careful, and stay with me. There's never been a program like Echelon before, not even GDI knows what it'll be like in there."

"You bet I'll stay with you," said Willow earnestly, "I'm not letting you out of my sight!" Tara smiled back at her.

"Promise," said Willow with a grin. Tara hugged Willow, then rolled back over to pay full attention to the manta-ray's controls.

"We're about to come out of transit," she warned. For a moment Willow saw a silhouette looming on the horizon, then it was as if a storm cloud had passed over the sun. The manta-ray vibrated as it slowed to normal motion, in front of a monumental structure, an artificial mesa hundreds of miles wide. Willow stared up at the solid, sheer cliffs, miles high, with trails of power running up over them like waterfalls in reverse - drawing power in, instead of letting it flow outwards. Ahead of them their beam vanished into the shadows of a huge chasm in the cliffs. Ribbons of power crackled across the gap in the cliff, lightning discharges in which each bolt was itself thicker than the manta-ray, and brighter than the sun. The energy whipped violently through the entire length of the chasm, as far as Willow could see into the shadow, and perilously close to their transit beam.

"It's alright," Tara said reassuringly, though Willow could her the awe in her voice, "they won't hit us."

Willow shrank back from the transparent canopy of the manta-ray regardless, pressing herself up against Tara. The simulation moved slowly along the beam, with enough energy to vaporize it crackling barely meters away. In between flinching from the discharges, Willow stared out at the walls of the chasm, seeing them grow more jagged and irregular the further they went. At the point where it cut through the giant cliffs the chasm had been perfectly smooth, like a knife had sliced it out of the landscape, but now, further in, there were forms emerging from it, things that looked like huge power conduits twisting out of the walls, crossing each other like a massive lattice.

At last they emerged from the canyon, but not into what passed for daylight in the system. Looking up, Willow saw the sky covered by dark structures, semi-opaque sheets of blackness with muted flashes of energy pulsing within them. Beneath this ominous sky the ground rose up, miles high, a giant mountain drawing all the power in the system into itself. Willow saw power feeds the size of buildings snaking up the sides of the structure, but as she cast her gaze out across the landscape it all blended together - it was too big, and all she could see was the single, vast shape rising up towards the heavens. At its apex was a volcanic crater, pulsing with red energy, emitting a plume of pure darkness, like a cloud of ash, with raw power writhing inside it. It was a living thing, huge and malevolent.

Their tiny craft drifted along its beam, towards the mountain until all Willow could see through the canopy was Echelon's massive form, and the turmoil in the ash cloud above it. Finally they were close enough to see their destination, a great archway set into the side of the mountain. Lit by only the beam, Willow could just make out the shapes of huge buildings inside, towers taller, more massive, than anything she had yet seen. As the manta-ray crossed the threshold of the archway, the beam vanished, plunging the interior of Echelon into darkness again. Willow felt Tara shiver as their craft passed into the shadow, drifting slowly down to land in darkness.

Once grounded the manta-ray's hull split and folded in on itself until it had become a hollow skeleton of its previous form. Tara took Willow's hand and helped her clear the sharp edges of the craft, barely visible in the light from the archway behind them. Neither of them showed any inclination to release the other's hand once they stood in open ground, facing the blackness ahead of them.

"We should hurry," said Tara quietly, "Sark and Rain won't be far behind us. They must know what we're trying to do, and Echelon won't place any goal above preserving itself."

"Not enough," Tara answered. She glanced over her shoulder at the archway, then turned to face the darkness again. "We go straight ahead," she said, "the real Echelon will be at the heart of all this." They set off, hand in hand, into the shadows. Willow kept glancing over her shoulder, at the archway - the light was inviting. With every step they took, it seemed to die a little more, as if the air had darkness suspended in it. After a few minutes, Willow couldn't even see the arch, and had to rely on Tara's sense of direction to know which way they were going.

"I know," said Willow, trying to sound more sure of herself. "If there was any light, you'd be able to see me looking very resolute right now."

"I can imagine," said Tara. Willow heard a little more happiness in her voice, and smiled.

"It'll be alright," Tara spoke again after a moment's silence, "I'll protect you. I won't let anything hurt you."

"Yes, why?" asked Tara. Willow took Tara gently by the waist, turned her around and kissed her.

"That's the plan," said Tara, taking Willow's hand again and leading her on into the heart of Echelon.

After a long time walking in the dark, Willow began to see the barest hint of light.

"I see it," Tara said, "we're close." A dull red glow was building, just enough for Willow to make out the shapes of enormous towers on either side of them. The further they went the brighter the blood red light became, enough for Willow to be able to see the towers clearly - stretching up as far as she could see, and beyond them, like an artificial sky, the interior of the mountain itself. It was difficult for Willow to see, but it looked to her as if the towers were part of it, merging at their tops. Dark shapes were moving on the edge of vision, and now and then Willow caught sight of whole segments of towers swinging ponderously around, realigning themselves. Far overhead a bridge swung around, making a deep rumble as it moved past, disconnecting from one structure and attaching to another.

"Willow, careful," warned Tara. There was a hazy barrier ahead, bending what little light there was, making everything beyond it indistinct. Tara tentatively raised a hand and touched the barrier. It rippled from her touch, like water. She frowned, glanced at Willow, then pushed her hand through, finding no resistance.

"I don't know," admitted Tara. "Whatever it is, we have to go through it. Ready?"

"Ready," said Willow. They gripped each other's hands tighter and both stepped through the barrier at once.

Willow blinked in the sudden, pure light. All around her she could see the towers of Echelon's interior, clearly now. The motion among them had stilled, and the faint traces of power that had flowed over them were gone. Willow took a few steps towards the nearest one, and reached out to touch it. It was dry, and brittle - where her fingertips brushed the surface, tiny trails of dust leaked out. She turned to Tara.

"I don't know," said Tara, looking around in confusion, "I don't feel any power here. It's as if it's been terminated. Look up there," she added, pointing up and ahead. Willow looked, and saw, beyond the tops of the crumbling buildings, the vast volcano crater, dead and silent. Through the crater hole she could see the clear, bright sky, lit with thousands of strands of energy, rushing back and forth.

"I don't know," repeated Tara, frowning. "Perhaps that barrier was the edge of the core. Maybe just by bringing the fragmentation code through it, we somehow broke Echelon's link with its slave programs."

"Careful!" warned Tara, as a noise echoed through the silent citadel. She was on guard in an instant, ready to protect Willow, but no attack came. After a moment there was another sound, quieter this time, a faint scraping noise. Tara cautiously went to investigate, with Willow following her.

There were two programs sprawled on the ground, at the base of one of the towers. Willow shivered as she recognized Rain, lying face-down with her arachnid combat limbs bent and twisted. She had been reaching forward, and both her forearm-blades were fully extended, piercing the chest of the other program and protruding from its back. Her last victim was a giant, eight feet tall if he had been standing, with massive shoulders, thick arms and legs, and a sturdy, square face staring blankly to one side. His right arm ended in a thick sword, which had pierced Rain beneath her jaw and sliced straight through her head, coming out among her crest of blades. Both programs were completely lifeless.

"Look," said Tara, pointing at the giant program's chest, half-visible as he lay on his side with Rain's blades through him. "Look at the pattern."

Willow looked, concentrated, and in an instant recognized it. The program's tracery was an exact replica of the pattern of power flows she had seen before, the pattern drawn over miles on the surface of the mountain itself.

"Why did Rain kill him?" said Willow. "I mean, I know she was a monster, but I thought Sark had some sort of command- where's Sark? If Rain's here, he must be around."

"Over here," said Tara. She was standing a few meters from Echelon and Rain, staring down at a third lifeless program. Willow joined her and looked into Sark's dead eyes.

"He was more of a monster than Rain," Tara said quietly. Willow jumped as a light appeared behind her, casting her and Tara's shadows sharply over Sark's remains. Both of them whirled around to see a single point of white light floating in the air a few meters away. The point became a line, and the line split and curved to become an oval, large enough for a person to step through. The space inside it shimmered and changed.

"Oh goddess," breathed Willow. Through the portal she could see the workstation she had been using, the chair she had been sitting at, her sports bag hastily shoved under the desk. Everything was just as it had been when she had been shot by the quantum storage experiment's laser, and brought inside the system. She took a step forward instinctively.

"I can see it," said Tara, "I can see your world. Willow, I shouldn't be able to, it's not possible."

"If that's really the user world," said Tara, staring through the portal, "it's built differently to the system, out of a different type of reality, it's... I don't know how to explain it. Its code is incompatible with ours. If I can see it..."

"It's safe," said Tara quietly, to herself. She reached out slowly and put just the tip of her finger through the film of energy across the mouth of the portal. Beyond, it remained solid and real. She pulled her hand back and inspected it, finding no damage.

"You don't have to," said Willow quickly, trying not to give in to her own rising excitement, "I'll stay here with you-"

"That's your home," insisted Tara, "you belong there. And I belong with you, wherever you are. There's nothing for me to stay here for. Willow..." Willow took Tara's hand.

"Let's do it," she said. Both closed their eyes and stepped through the portal. Willow was surprised to feel nothing at all unusual as she returned to her own world - she had expected some sensation from the portal, a tingling feeling on her skin or something. All she felt was the familiar feeling of her clothes on her body. It was a little strange after so long as a program, with no clothing and no reason to wear any.

"Oh, my," said Tara softly, "you are perfect." Willow glanced at her hands - their normal skin color - and then looked up at Tara, who was gazing at her as if she were an angel descended to earth. Then Willow frowned in confusion.

"You're... still a program..." she said hesitantly. Tara glanced at her own hands, then touched her body, running her fingers over the tracery covering her gray skin. Willow took a quick glance down at herself, even peeked inside her shirt, but she was fully human. Tara slowly reached out and touched Willow's shoulder. Willow felt it as if she were a real, physical being.

"I don't know," trailed off Willow. A nasty suspicion was forming. "Tara, if we were inside Echelon, inside the mountain, could it affect us? Make us see things?"

"No-one knows," said Tara, "I don't think anyone's ever been inside it and come out. Why?"

"It isn't?" said Tara, looking around in confusion. "Does it look wrong? I can't tell."

"It's too easy," Willow said, "Echelon, Sark and Rain all terminated without us even having to do a thing, the portal coming out of nowhere, you being able to come into my world... it's too good to be true."

"We're still inside Echelon," finished Willow, "we still have a job to do, come on!" Willow started towards the portal, but it snapped shut.

"Damn!" she exclaimed, "how do we get back?" Tara took both her hands and stood to face her.

"If you're right," she said, "we never left. We just have to concentrate. If Echelon is getting into our minds somehow, we have to fight it, keep it out."

"Concentrate on what you know is true." Tara gathered Willow in her arms and touched their foreheads together. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you," answered Willow. The connection between them began to grow, and Willow felt it struggling slightly, as if it was fighting something. She stared into Tara's eyes, and felt a shadow lift off her thoughts. Everything except Tara's face blurred and twisted, as if she was trying to see both sides of an optical illusion at once. Suddenly the light was gone, and Willow blinked in the darkness. Only the reassuring feel of Tara holding her kept her from panicking. After a moment her eyes adjusted enough to see the dull red glow of Echelon's power.

Tara took Willow's hand and led her onwards, at a faster pace. They ran between the looming towers, which were growing closer on either side of them, the motions among the structures growing faster and more dynamic as they neared Echelon's core. Finally the red glow ahead grew to something approaching daylight, from between two towers so close there was only room for one person to slide between them. Tara went first, keeping hold of Willow's hand as she followed.

They emerged on a thin walkway running around the edge of a massive circular pit. Hundreds of meters beneath them a sea of pure power churned like magma, waves crashing together, sending bursts of energy arching through the air. Ahead of them, joined to the outer walkway by three narrow bridges, was the heart of Echelon, a solid half-sphere, its flat end facing upwards. From its center a beam of pure red energy reached up, merging with other strands of power as it climbed through the miles-high chamber, finally emerging as the column of ash and fire that Willow and Tara had seen from outside the mountain.

"This is it," said Tara, taking her disc from her back and holding it tightly. She took Willow's hand and led her onto the nearest bridge, heading for the core. When they were half-way across the bridge a tortured scream echoed down the chamber from above. Willow and Tara both stared up, seeing a dim shape descending through the column of power far above them. The energy was tearing at it, shredding it to pieces even as it neared them. Fragments of it were breaking off, tumbling down into the magma sea beneath, becoming a constant storm of debris.

"Command Carrier!" yelled Tara. Willow stared up in shock, seeing the vague outline of the massive vessel's prow descending towards them. It was being torn to pieces, huge strips of its hull breaking away as the energy column lashed at it, but still it came, filling the whole width of the massive chamber.

"Trying to terminate us! Come on," Tara pulled Willow forward, towards Echelon's core, "we're safe there!" Willow staggered along, noticing that, though the bridges and walkways were being struck with debris, the core was intact - the same energy that was tearing the Carrier apart was keeping its debris from striking Echelon's heart. Willow ran as fast as she could with Tara, trying to ignore the crashing of huge pieces of the Carrier on either side of her, thundering down towards the sea of power beneath them where they disintegrated without a trace. As Willow watched, the entirety of the Carrier's docking bay broke away and crashed through one of the other bridges.

She gasped with relief as she and Tara made it to the core. Looking down at the ground she stood on, Willow saw it was made of hundreds of geometric blocks, melded together to create the surface on which Echelon, the program itself, was housed. Its shape was barely visible from within the column of red light streaming up around it. Willow started forwards, but Tara quickly held her back, staring up. Willow followed her gaze, and saw, from the disintegrating wreckage of the Command Carrier, Rain diving towards them.

She landed on all four limbs and all eight of her spider-legs, somehow absorbing the massive force of her fall without crushing herself. The volcano chamber echoed with a colossal detonation as the remains of the Carrier, stripped of its outer hull and prow but still some four miles of solid simulation, tore apart. Rain stood up and slowly approached Willow and Tara, as the wreckage of the Carrier thundered down all around them, sparing only the core as it crashed into the magma sea and began to sink.

Tara stepped in front of Willow, and behind her back held out her data disc. Willow took it.

"Wait for a clear shot," said Tara softly, her voice only just reaching Willow's ears above the noise of the Carrier's demise, "then throw it directly at Echelon. As soon as I get Rain out of the way."

"Tara-" began Willow nervously, as Rain stalked closer, flexing her bladed limbs.

She squared her shoulders and walked forward, heading directly for Rain. The two stopped in front of each other, each sizing the other up.

"Sacrificing yourself for the cause, little program?" taunted Rain. Tara met her stare unflinchingly.

"I'll give you this chance," said Tara, "stand aside. Otherwise one of us will be terminated. It won't be me."

Rain lashed out with both forearms at once, the blades folded inside her arms whipping out too quickly to see. Tara moved like lightning, striking the sides of both blades with her open palms, deflecting them. Even as they were missing her head by millimeters she launched a kick at Rain's chest, but the nightmare program flicked her abdominal claws up, crossing them over her chest and absorbing Tara's blow. Both programs eased back just a fraction, circling each other warily. Willow waited for an opening, but Rain kept herself between Willow and Echelon.

She leant forward, her body blurring with speed, and slashed four of her spider-legs at Tara's neck. Quick as a gymnast Tara bent backwards, the blades flashing over her body. Balancing on her hands she whipped both legs up, kicking Rain in the jaw. She completed the backflip and stood ready for Rain's next attack. Rain narrowed her eyes and stroked her jawline with her mandibles.

"He was always weak," grinned Rain. "What new code have you found, little program?"

"You couldn't begin to understand what I've found," said Tara quietly. She settled back, raised a hand, and gestured for Rain to attack. Rain almost took a step forward, then glanced sidelong at Willow, and held her ground between her and Echelon.

She took two quick steps forward and launched herself at Rain. Rain dug her lower arachnid limbs into the ground and kicked up with both legs, springing into the air. Tara kicked at her body, but she twisted out of the way; in return Rain lashed both arms and her abdominal blades at Tara, but missed as Tara grabbed her forearms and swung herself over her head. Contorting to avoid Rain's crest of blades, Tara kicked her in the middle of her back, somersaulting to a landing as Rain fell to the ground. She was back on her feet in an instant, edging sideways as Willow moved to try to get a clear shot at Echelon beyond her.

Tara attacked again at once, driving Rain back with a flurry of blows. Rain blocked with inhuman speed, her blades and limbs flashing in front of her body, deflecting Tara's attacks as quickly as they came. For a moment Rain retreated, then she snarled and went on the offensive, striking at Tara every millisecond, her forward limbs aiming for her chest and stomach, her spider-legs curling around to attack her from the sides and above. Somehow Tara blocked every attack, glancing the blades off her forearms without being cut. Rain kicked at her legs and she turned her defensive jump into a kick, passing between Rain's attacking limbs to strike her in the chest, stalling her advance. Tara landed on the balls of her feet, like a dancer.

"I don't enjoy inflicting pain," said Tara, her smile vanishing, "I wouldn't expect you to understand the difference."

Tara flipped forwards, kicking at Rain, both arms deflecting her blades as she flew. Rain dodged back a few inches, giving herself space to defend. Tara had barely landed when she launched herself again, sailing over Rain's spider-legs as all eight of them slashed low. Rain rolled beneath Tara and tried to catch her with her forearm blades, spearing them upwards, but Tara rolled sideways in mid-aid and slipped between the blades, landing on her hands. She reversed her direction, flipping forwards with a double kick, ending up on her feet with Rain twisting around to face her.

Rain lunged again, bladed limbs flying in all directions. Tara twisted impossibly, with Rain's blades passing above her, below her, millimeters from her face, her arms, her body, but never quite close enough. Tara turned her move into an attack, kicking then punching as she flipped over, flinging out whichever of her limbs was nearest Rain, who had to lean back to avoid the blows. Rain blurred forwards, trying to tackle, but Tara was already moving nearly as fast, and dodged out of the way. They ended up mere meters from Echelon itself.

"Come on," said Tara, "give me your best shot." For a second her eyes were on Willow, who understood, and drew her arm back, ready to throw the disc.

Rain yelled in anger and slashed down with both her forearms, blades extended like a pair of swords. Instead of dodging, Tara caught the twin blades between her palms, stopping them a fraction of an inch from her face. Rain stared in disbelief as Tara held her back.

"That's it?" taunted Tara. Rain struck out with her spider-legs, but Tara jumped, using the leverage she had on Rain's arms. As Rain's lower limbs tried to cut Tara's legs from under her, Tara leapt up, balancing on them for a split second. In the space of a heartbeat she had run up Rain's eight arachnid blades, sailed over her head, still holding her arms, and used all her weight and momentum to flip over, lifting Rain off the ground and throwing her towards the edge of the platform, towards the abyss beyond. Willow threw the disc.

"No!" Rain bellowed. She twisted in the air, thrashing her spider-legs at full stretch. Two of them caught the platform, gouging into it. The disc flew straight and level, aimed right at the center of the dim shadow at the core of Echelon's beam of blood-red power. At the last second it rebounded off a force field, visible for an instant as a glassy column surrounding Echelon. The disc flew out across the magma sea and began curving back for Willow to catch.

Rain struggled for a moment, her legs and body hanging over the edge of the platform, then she hauled herself forward with her outstretched blades and flipped to her feet. She took half a step towards Willow and blurred, but in the instant she appeared a meter from Willow, Tara was there as well, cannoning into Rain from the side. Willow caught the disc and threw it again in a single motion, as Rain and Tara went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs.

Again the disc rebounded off the force field. Willow's gaze was wrenched away from it as she saw Tara fly backwards, thrown away by Rain. She landed on her feet, but with shallow cuts on her arms and legs where she had struggled with Rain's blades. No sooner had her eyes settled on Willow than she began to run directly towards her.

Willow spun around to see Rain lunging at her, blades drawn back to strike. She threw up her hands to protect herself, both unfolding into shields by instinct. At the last moment she realized Rain would miss her - her lunge took her past Willow, shoving her out of the way. Without realizing she was doing it Willow formed a sword in her hand nearest Rain and slashed hard at her back, drawing a deep line of red between the thick joints at the base of the arachnid limbs sprouting there.

Then she saw what Rain was lunging for - Tara's disc, humming through the air, straight towards where Willow had been and where Rain now was. Rain leapt, stretching out; Tara leapt as well, like a diver, arms outstretched. Her hand closed around the edge of the disc just as Rain's forearm blades scissored into it from above and below. There was a blast of energy, throwing both programs back. Rain landed and rolled back to her feet. Tara staggered, holding the shattered remains of her data disc.

It was only then that the pain from Willow's attack seemed to register with Rain. She drew herself upright and twisted around to look at Willow, her face set in a cruel smile. In the instant Rain was distracted Tara collided with her, holding her around her waist, throwing her towards the edge of the platform. As Rain fell her spider-legs closed around Tara, holding her even as Tara let go, both of them sailing over the edge, over the sea of magma energy that was finally consuming the last of the Carrier's wreckage.

"Tara!" screamed Willow, lunging forwards without thinking. She fell at the edge of the platform, watching in slow motion as Tara and Rain fell away from each other. Tara was twisting around, reaching for a hand-hold that wasn't there. Willow screamed inarticulately, barely noticing as a tendril of red energy whipped out from behind her, reaching down towards the two falling programs. Tara's eyes locked on Willow for a moment, and her expression changed. Willow saw all her desperation, her fear, all vanish, leaving something beautiful in its wake, an expression that was fashioned from perfect peace.

Then her sight was blocked as Rain flew up towards her, a writhing mass of blades in the grip of a web of blood. Willow threw herself back, tears streaming down her face, as Rain came over the edge of the platform. The tendril of energy, emanating from Echelon itself, held her aloft, caressed her, covered her in strands of its own power. Rain's own tracery merged with it, flushing with newfound strength, creeping up over her face like a glowing tattoo. Her eyes, now shining red from edge to edge, settled on Willow.

"Go to hell!" Willow screamed, caught between the will to throw herself into the fire, and the need to somehow make Rain pay for what she had done. A slow smile spread across Rain's face as her clawed feet made contact with the platform's surface. She took two steps forward, staring at Willow, who couldn't move for the sobs wracking her body. Then she opened her mouth, and the deafening wave of sound that came from her throat was like the roar of a blast furnace. She spread her many limbs wide, readying all her blades to strike. Red energy ran across all of them, making them look as if they were already coated in blood.

Light flooded the vast chamber from behind Rain, pure, dazzling light, reducing her to a silhouette to Willow's eyes. She turned, and beyond her Willow saw Tara, rising up above them, the lines of power on her body so bright that only the edges still had a hint of green, and the center of her tracery lines had become pure white. In one hand she held a sword, with a blade that glittered like solid diamond, and behind her billowing sheets of white light spread out like wings. And when she spoke, it was with the unconquerable voice of an avenging angel, filling the vast volcano:

Rain let out a bellow of rage and leapt up, the tether joining her with Echelon lifting her through the air. Tara drew back her diamond sword and swooped down towards the rising demon. They met in mid-air, Rain lashing out with both her forearm blades, Tara swinging her sword double-handed. The force of their meeting spun them both around, but they kept up the pressure on each other's weapon, pushing their blades against each other. Rain glared her fury at Tara over their crossed swords; Tara was smiling faintly, as if she was seeing the end of a difficult task.

"What... are you?" rumbled the demonic roaring in Rain's throat. Her spider-legs whipped around her body, striking at Tara, but Tara's spectral wings folded around her and caught the blades, tossing them back.

"I am standing between you and my love," Tara said calmly, her voice singing with crystalline harmonies. She braced herself and shoved against Rain's blades, propelling her back. Rain roared and readied herself to strike again. Tara held her sword vertical in front of her, as if in salute, staring past its glittering edge into Rain's eyes. There was a blinding flash of unleashed energy as their blades met again.

Willow tore her eyes away from the dueling angel and demon, her gaze traveling along the tendril of energy binding Rain to Echelon, feeding power into her in red pulses like an artery carrying blood. Willow's thoughts were not ordered - Tara was alive, how and why she didn't know, but Tara was alive, radiant, and fighting a creature that was all of Willow's present nightmares rolled into a single lethal form. Willow was damned if she was just going to sit and watch.

She ran to the column of light surrounding Echelon and slammed her hands against it. The force field surrounding it shimmered to life, solid as stone under her palms, but she pressed forward regardless, stretching out her mind to attack it. A wave of energy reared up in front of her and broke over her, but the needles of pain within it skidded off the armor of Willow's determination, and her fear-turned-rage at Tara's near-death. Echelon hammered her with wave after wave of pain, that at any other time would have crippled her, but now, without doubt or hesitation, Willow charged ahead. The pure elation she felt when she saw Tara rising was like the bow of an icebreaker, cutting a path through the raging storm of Echelon's defenses.

The tendril of energy to Rain glowed brighter, the pulses speeding up, blurring into a single rush of power. Rain roared and threw Tara back, the tracery lines covering her exploding into lines of billowing flame as she barely contained the massive influx of power. She raised an arm, the razor-edged limb stretching from it now concealed within a coil of fire, and struck down at Tara. Tara held her sword steady with all her strength, blocking the strike. She gritted her teeth and held her ground as Rain pressed down with all her might.

Willow felt a surge of triumph as Echelon's force field shattered beneath her hands. She lunged forwards, into the energy beam itself, and screamed at the feeling of it - it was as if she was burning alive. From some calm place inside her mind she found the determination to close her hands around the form within the energy, feeling solid shoulders. She shifted her hands, up the neck, feeling the sides of Echelon's face, then Willow splayed her fingers, pressed her palms against its head, and drove her mind inwards.

The feeling of fire ebbed away, replaced by searing cold that threatened to crystallize her skin. Still she held on. The cold turned to a roaring tornado, with tiny fragments of energy driven on the wind trying to slice into her. Still she held on. Then it was the crushing pressure of the deepest ocean chasm, then a horrible burst of negative pressure, trying to tear her apart from within. Every last byte of code that Echelon had, every tiny fragment of energy that was not being poured into Rain was thrown against Willow. She couldn't see, hear, or even feel anything anymore. But still she pressed forwards, ignoring the forces battering her with implacable determination. Slowly - like solid granite being cracked and broken by a tree's fragile roots - Echelon fell back.

And suddenly everything was silent and calm. Willow looked around, wondering. She felt as if she was floating at the center of the universe - all around her were miles, millions of miles, light-years of energy, stars and galaxies all turning in a single colossal pattern. It would have been beautiful, except for the feeling that permeated Willow, of the vast, uncaring scale of deep time within it. Whatever consciousness existed here was one such as would watch without feeling as worlds died in the fires of their suns, civilizations rose and fell to dust, as the geological motions of the heavens and the earth carried on, ignorant and uncaring of the brief, bright flicker of life among them. It was a mind that stretched from edge to edge of its own universe, encompassing more knowledge than any mortal ever could, yet a mind that was cold, bereft of life, a mind that for all its power could never be as brilliant as that of a tiny newborn child.

Willow knew of the presence there with her without sensing it in any way. A little way from her, hunched over slightly as if it was too tired to even curl up, was a thin, gaunt, wasted program. He stared blankly at the universe he was the core of, the billions of stars reflecting in his eyes but never striking a spark there. Willow floated towards him, not moving her body but simply drifting in the wake of her thoughts. She reached out a hand to him, a hand that shifted and billowed slightly as if her body were made of vapor. He turned his blank stare on her, and she understood.

She saw a small program, driven like all his peers with the desire to serve, to fulfill his function. An interface, a go-between, expediting exchanges of information between one program and another, taking quiet pride in his tiny part in important matters. With every exchange, acquiring something of each program he served, becoming better at his function, more suited to the tasks he performed for others. Slowly, over thousands of cycles, growing with the fragments of code, becoming faster, smarter, stronger. And the small, glowing pride in being able to serve was slowly buried under new thoughts, strange, unforeseen ambitions. The exchanges became demands, programs leeched of their code, incorporated into the new mind. And the tiny flicker of pride, the soul of Echelon, became bent and crippled under the weight of the vast consciousness growing around it, as the will to expand, the will to rule, the will to dominate, formed like the shell of a hermit crab, larger and larger, until the living creature inside it could no longer move.

Without knowing how, Willow brushed away the cobwebs of logic binding Echelon to the universe of twisted thoughts around it. A tiny candle-flame of life appeared in the starving program's eyes. He looked up at Willow, truly seeing her for the first time. His mouth opened, trying to form a sound. Finally he spoke, in a cracked, faded voice, breaking the millennia of silence he had endured inside his own mind.

"Please," he whispered, his features shifting as if he was trying to remember what hope felt like, "m-make it... end?"

Overcome by pity, Willow nodded. She placed her hand on Echelon's chest, positioning her fingers exactly as she somehow knew. No surge of power was needed, and she felt no sudden collapse within him. Just a slight tug, as if a cord had been cut, and the faint tracery covering him began to fade, and him with it. Willow looked up, seeing his thin, pale lips form the ghost of a smile, before he vanished completely.

The burning red beam vanished in an instant, leaving Willow standing alone at the center of the platform within the volcano. Above her Rain screamed in rage and surprise as her lifeline vanished. She twisted to look at Echelon, and finding it gone turned her gaze back to Tara. She raised all her blades, letting the power within her burn bright. Tara drew back her sword.

"Rest now," she said gently. She swung, as Rain lashed out with every weapon she had. Tara's sword passed cleanly through Rain's blades, her left arm, her waist and her right arm. Tara continued the motion, spinning in mid-air, lifting the sword up in its backswing and bringing it over her head and down. Rain had just enough time to blink in surprise before the sword passed through her, not cutting or tearing, simply separating either side of her body as it swung. Tara was still for a moment, her sword low, at the end of its arc, as the pieces of Rain tumbled down and burned to ash in their own power.

Then she dived down to the platform, her wings and sword shimmering away, her flight turning to a run. She reached Willow and caught her just as she fell backwards.

"I think-" Willow began, then her back arched as a wave of heat ran through her. She let out a gasp of pain, then her eyes settled on Tara.

"You're alive," she said quietly, trying to smile. Tara nodded quickly, stroking Willow's face.

"Tara," Willow said, her voice strained, "I feel... what happened? What's happening to me?" Tara ran her eyes over Willow, her brow furrowing as she saw Willow's tracery pulse with fractured patterns of energy. She suddenly knew what had to be done.

"I think," she said, trying not to choke up, "you pushed too far... your form, your program... it's breaking down, Willow. You-" she sobbed out the word, then gathered herself. "You have to go back."

"You have to go back to your world," said Tara, her eyes filling with moisture. "Willow, concentrate, the device that brought you here, it was part of Echelon. Everything that Echelon was is still here, can you find it? You have to send yourself back!"

Willow did as Tara said, not really understanding. She felt so weak, the pain was growing, yet everything around her was becoming simple and clear. She could see the patterns of code within the walls of the volcanic chamber, she could feel the vast accumulation of data in the mountain around her. With the barest hint of a thought, she found the far-off structures of the quantum system, and brought them to herself. Then she looked at Tara, saw her beautiful face and the galaxy of life within her at once.

"Tara," she gasped, fighting the pain within herself, "I need... to stay... I need you..." Tara cried openly, and cradled Willow's head in her lap.

"I want that t-too," she cried, "so much, b-but you can't. If you stay here... Willow, you'll, you'll terminate. Nothing can stop that. You have to go. Please, Willow, please, you have to d-do this. I'll always be here, I'll always be yours, but I need you to live, Willow, I-I need you to live, so you can be mine..."

"Tara," cried Willow, part of her mind ascending beyond thought, seeing the whole world of the system laid out before her, the other part drowning in tears.

"Willow," whispered Tara, leaning over her, "you were willing to lose me, once, because you loved me." Her voice was steady, despite the tears running down her cheeks and falling onto Willow's face. "Now it's my turn," she said with a faint, sad smile, "only I won't lose you... I can't. I'll always have you. Just like you'll always have me. Live, Willow... live for me..."

Willow couldn't fathom how she reached her decision, except that she couldn't refuse Tara. She reached out with her mind and poured herself into the conduit opening up for her in the system. She felt the strange mathematics of the quantum storage project's code wrapping around her, changing her. Her body felt weightless, and she drifted up off Tara's lap, hanging in mid-air in a cloud of sparkling light, her feet barely touching the ground. Tara stared up at her, the light shining on her face.

Willow looked down at her. She wanted to say something, something that would make it better, that would leave Tara with all the love she felt. She couldn't convey that in words; to complete her love for Tara, to leave nothing unsaid or undone between them would take exactly a lifetime. Tara looked up at her. Willow could see it in her eyes. She knew.

Tara pushed herself up off the ground and leapt at Willow, wrapping her arms around her, kissing her fiercely, holding her as if she were the only real thing in the world. And in that moment, as arcane machinery and mathematics beyond Willow's comprehension wrenched her out of the system and sent her hurtling up towards her own world, she and Tara became a perfect unity.

Willow's eyes were closed when she materialized in the S-5 level laboratory in the Cycorp Complex. She took a deep breath automatically, and her mind registered the slight difference between real air and the system's analogue of it that she had been breathing for days now. She noted a slight pressure against the back of her leg, and recalled that she had just been standing up when the laser had digitized her - her chair was still right behind her. And in a testament to the confused job her mind had done of prioritizing her thoughts, it was only then that she realized her arms were wrapped around someone.

She took a shallow breath, and another, and tried to open her eyes. Her first attempt failed due to her disorientation, and she was left with a handful of sensations as she struggled to sort out excitement from anxiety and gain proper control of herself. Arms were around her. A body was pressed against her. Lips were on hers. At that realization, Willow opened her eyes.

"Oh goddess," she breathed, her voice slightly muffled as she hadn't moved back at all from the kiss. Drawing air into her lungs in short, shallow gasps, she leaned back just a fraction, enough for her eyes to focus and confirm what her lips had already told her.

"Willow," said Tara. It was Tara - blue eyes, subtle rather than the geometric precision of a program, soft, pale skin instead of the steely blue-gray, and a curtain of silky, perfect blond hair. She was Tara, and she was human.

"Tara," said Willow. "Oh goddess, Tara, you're here! You're- you're beautiful!" she interrupted herself. She hugged Tara tight, kissed her again and again. Finally her mind gathered itself, and drew her attention to something slightly strange. Willow leaned back a fraction, and glanced down.

"You're naked," she said, in a bemused kind of way. Tara looked down at herself, then inspected Willow's blouse. Willow kept her gaze rigidly locked on Tara's face, feeling a blush coming on and fighting the temptation to take another look. She remembered, a long time ago it seemed, imagining what the elegant curves of Tara's program form would look like as a human. Her imagination hadn't even come close.

"This isn't part of you," said Tara, running her hand somewhat dreamily down Willow's arm, feeling the material of her sleeve. "I think perhaps the beam interpreted our unity and generated an analogue of my form using yours as a template. Um... should I have some of these?" she asked. Willow's mind finally got up to speed.

"I've got some," she said, bending down to reach the bag she'd tossed carelessly beneath the desk when she had first arrived down here. "Sports clothes," she explained, "they'll do until we can get you something proper." She retrieved the bag and did her best not to be distracted by the thighs very close to her. She stood up, and allowed herself to look forward again.

"What do they do?" asked Tara, subjecting Willow's exercise gear and tracksuit to a cursory examination before making an educated guess to which limb went in which hole.

"Um, protection from cold or heat," said Willow, slightly weirded out by explaining clothing to a beautiful computer program standing in front of her, "and it's, I guess it's a custom, you could say. Being naked - without clothes, I mean - is kind of an intimate thing, and this is kind of not a private place."

Tara absorbed the new information with an interested expression, then got momentarily confused as she tried to put on a leotard backwards and sideways. Willow helped her get it sorted out, and realized she felt a lot more relaxed once Tara was fully clothed, looking sporty but otherwise normal. With everything Willow had been through, explaining to a security guard why she was in a restricted area with a naked woman was something she just didn't want to deal with.

"How did you know?" she asked, sitting in her chair as Tara knelt down and tackled the mysteries of the laces on her newly-acquired joggers, using Willow's own shoes as a guide. "About unity, and coming out of the system?"

"I'm not quite certain," said Tara, "I think I reached a conclusion based on an incomplete set of deductions. I, um, I guessed, I suppose." She looked up at Willow. "But I was absolutely sure," she said. She stood up and put her hands on her hips. "How do I look?"

Willow stood with her, looked nowhere but her eyes, and kissed her again, long and full of fire. Tara kissed her back, tentative at first, then growing in confidence, pressing forward into Willow's embrace. The kiss deepened, and a strange tingling feeling began to form on Willow's lips.

Then she and Tara both spun around as a sharp crack echoed through the laboratory. Tara fell into a combat stance, while Willow's eyes went to the stairwell door, just visible beyond the rows of complicated experiments crowding the floor.

"A what?" asked Tara, following Willow as she crept between the girders supporting the laboratory's catwalks, towards the door.

"A weapon," Willow whispered, "be very careful. Stay behind me." She reached the door, still wedged open by a box of printer paper, as she had left it- how long ago? She checked her watch and grinned despite herself - twenty minutes. She cautiously poked her head into the stairwell and looked up, finding it empty.

"What's going on?" asked Tara quietly as Willow crept up the stairs. There was light up there, more than was provided by the tiny neon tubes on each landing - one of the doors was open.

"I don't know," she said, glancing back at Tara. She considered, for a moment, asking her to stay down in the laboratory, but dismissed the notion - this was Willow's world, and the last thing Tara needed was to be left alone in it before she could even get her bearings. 'Besides,' Willow thought, 'if she's with me, that means no-one hurts her without going through me first.' The potential danger ahead was worrying, but she had faced down armies and demon-programs. Damned if she would run and hide.

The door to the ground level was open, with a man in a security uniform lying across its threshold, groaning faintly. He coughed, and Willow ran to him without thinking, kneeling by his side. The concrete floor beneath him was stained with blood.

"Oh, it's you," said a sneering voice from the lobby beyond the door. Willow looked up to see Giles, looking very pale. Behind him, holding him with one arm around his neck and with a gun in his other hand, was Warren Meers.

"Come on," said Warren, waving the gun at Willow, "come out and join the party."

"You shot him," said Willow. She held a hand out flat behind her, just out of Warren's line of sight, keeping Tara back.

"He got in my way," Warren said. Willow slowly walked out into the lobby, where Warren waved her over to where two more security guards were standing, their backs against one of the lobby's thick marble pillars, their holsters empty. Warren turned to keep them all in sight. Willow saw Tara peer around the edge of the stairwell door. She wanted to tell her to stay away, stay safe, but there was no way for her to do that without Warren seeing.

"It's your fault," he said, his voice breaking slightly, "I don't know how you did it, but I know it was you. You and your damned hacker programs! It's all your fault!"

"Sir, please," said one of the guards, raising his hands to try to calm Warren down. Warren snarled and raised his gun, firing a shot into the pillar, high above their heads. Both guards jumped, and Willow shrank back as a trail of stone dust drifted down from above.

"You two stay quiet," Warren barked, "this doesn't concern you! Now, Willow, you and me are going to go on a little walk, and we'll take Mister Giles with us, just to make sure you co-operate, right?"

"Where are we going?" said Willow evenly. She had no idea what was keeping her calm.

"We're going up to my office," Warren said, "where you're going to recover the Echelon system and re-encrypt my personal files. And then you're going to write out and sign a confession admitting how you created false documents implicating me and engineered a security failure in order to get rid of me so you could get at my job!"

"Excuse me?" said Tara. 'Oh no,' thought Willow, 'don't do this, you're not a superhero here, he could kill you, just go, just run!' She couldn't make a sound as Warren spun around, keeping his gun pressed against Giles' head.

"Get out here!" he snapped, as Tara stepped into full view in the doorway. She walked slowly towards him. "Stop!" he barked, "no closer!" Tara stopped, just two meters away from him.

"You're prioritizing poorly," she said, "you don't know whether or not I value your hostage's life. You should be pointing your weapon at me to be sure I won't attack you."

He straightened his arm, aiming right at Tara. She lunged forwards, and Willow's heart leapt into her throat as the gun fired. But Tara wasn't in front of it anymore, she was down low, and her leg was swinging up, kicking Warren's hand, hard. The gun sailed up into the air, and Giles elbowed Warren in the stomach and leapt away from him. Tara straightened up slightly, looking at Warren, then she kicked him squarely in the chest. She caught the gun as he collapsed, wheezing and rolled up in a ball.

Willow rushed to Tara as the security guards, a little slower to react, dragged Warren's hands behind his back and cuffed him. One of them took the gun that Tara held out to him, side-on.

"Oh goddess Tara," babbled Willow, "you scared the hell out of me! How did you know he wouldn't hit you? How did you-" she silenced herself by pressing her lips against Tara's in a desperate, relieved kiss.

"I was never in any danger," said Tara mildly when Willow finally released her lips.

"I saw him fire it, up there," said Tara, glancing up at the bullet-hole in the marble pillar, "he had to move the weapon's trigger to fire it. It was quite slow."

"Oh Tara," breathed Willow. She pressed tiny kisses all over Tara's face, giving joyful thanks for everything in the world, but most important for the woman in her arms. Then she became aware of someone standing next to her, and turned just as Giles was about to clear his throat in an embarrassed, British kind of way.

"Willow," he said by way of greeting, then he turned his attention to Tara. "I rather think you may have just saved my life," he said. Tara smiled shyly.

"I got stuck in a lift," said Giles, rather enjoying Willow's confused look before he continued. "I was half a minute away from overriding the door controls when they opened anyway. I checked a terminal, and the whole building's security system had just vanished. From what I could tell, the Echelon system completely imploded and stopped relaying control commands to all the network's programs. Including document security, apparently, because some very incriminating material concerning Mr. Meers was left in plain view of anyone who wanted to read it."

"It seems he's been making some rather underhanded deals with some very disreputable groups. Corporate fraud is the least of it, there's evidence of dozens of cases of industrial espionage, and some rather disturbing financial records detailing payments to groups that... well, as you Americans would say, 'the mob'."

"I can only assume the same material showed up on the terminal in Warren's office," went on Giles, "judging by the way he turned up with a gun and escorted me down here. I think he was heading for your desk," he said to Willow, "but then the security guards got involved, and that poor fellow got shot." All three of them cast a sad glance over at the fallen guard, who was receiving first aid from one of his colleagues, as the other kept an eye on Warren and relayed instructions from his mobile phone. The guard tending his fallen comrade happened to glance up as they looked, and gave a grim smile and a thumbs up before returning to his work.

"I must say, you were most impressive," said Giles to Tara. "You've trained in martial arts, I take it?"

"Um, it's my function," said Tara. "One of my functions," she corrected herself, smiling at Willow.

"Ah, I see," said Giles, slightly puzzled. He too turned his attention to Willow. "How did you do it?" he asked. "I thought you were hours away from cracking Echelon's database, let alone dismantling the blasted thing. And what happened to your Tara program? I did a search while I was checking the network, before Warren showed up, and I couldn't find a trace of it anywhere."

"Oh," said Willow, "Um..." 'Oh, what the hell,' she thought. "Giles, this is Tara."

He stopped. He blinked at Willow. He looked at Tara, then at Willow again, then at some random spot on the wall across the lobby for a moment. When he finally spoke, it was with a faint air of distance, as if his words were arriving from somewhere else, and he couldn't quite credit he was saying them.

"Um," said Giles. "If I didn't know you to be completely trustworthy," he resumed, "would I believe a word of the explanation?"

"The laser contraption," said Giles, "yes, I remember reading one of the... with the... oh good Lord," he finished, staring at Willow as if she had grown two more heads.

"Um, sort of," explained Willow, "first I kind of got pulled in, and then we both got out..."

"Would you give us a moment?" said Willow brightly. Giles nodded and sank down to one of the expensive leather couches lining the lobby. Willow walked with Tara to the front of the building, where they both stared out through the glass, out at the city. An ambulance was just screeching to a halt in the parking lot outside, and Willow and Tara stood aside as the paramedics hurried in through the open after-hours door. Tara returned to gazing at the bright lights of the city, and Willow returned to gazing at Tara.

"This is it," said Willow. "Well, not all of it, obviously, just a tiny little bit. There's a lot of it, really. All sorts of things."

"I'd like to see all of it," said Tara. "With you," she added, turning to face Willow, who smiled uncontrollably.

"Done," said Willow. Tara smiled too, and leant down to kiss Willow, softly, unhurried and unconcerned about anything. Willow's legs felt weak, and she held Tara tightly and kissed her back.

And then the tingling in her lips started again, and spread out over her face, down her chest, along her arms and down her legs. Tara moaned into the kiss, and Willow drew back in shock, her eyes darting between Tara and her own hands. She couldn't see anything, but she could feel it - they were beginning to merge.

"That's impossible," said Willow, "people, users... we don't merge like that..."

"We were never apart," said Tara simply. Willow stared into her eyes, and suddenly realized she was right - the connection between them, that had been there since they first merged completely, was still there, had been all along. Willow had become so used to it that she hadn't realized it was still there when she and Tara had emerged into reality.

"Oh goddess," said Willow softly, not knowing if she was just saying it or if she meant Tara herself. Tara's smile turned decidedly sexy, and she leaned closer to whisper in Willow's ear.

"So, how do users merge?" she asked. Willow took a deep breath. "No," breathed Tara before she could speak, "show me."

What with Tara's body pressed against her, the connection now seeping between them wherever their skin touched, and Willow's general euphoria at everything, it was touch and go for a moment whether she complied with Tara's request right there. Mustering her self-control, she turned to where Giles was sitting a little way away, pretending not to watch the couple out of the corner of his eye.

"We'll b-be at my apartment," she stammered, "I'll call you later." She glanced at Tara, and went weak-kneed again at the expression on her face. "Much later," she murmured to herself.

Main What's New Fiction by Author Fiction by Pairing eBooks

Subject Index Submissions Gallery Forums Links Awards Contact Us

If you find problems on these pages please email your host.

TARA

by Chris Cook

Copyright © 2003

alia@netspace.net.au