Bubblegum Crisis:Tales of the Immortal Knight Saber (Part 1: Crusade's End) 

By Kain The Seeker 

AKA Andrew Graham (Kaintskr@aol.com) 

CMA Disclaimer: Bubble Gum Crisis/Highlander and all related characters are property of their
respective owners. Collin Waters and Warren Bath are mine. :) 


Neo-Tokyo Spaceport , 12 August 2056 

Nene stepped out of the terminal and into the balmy heat of a Japanese Summer. It was like
breathing soup after 10 years of artificial habitats on the Moon and beyond. Almost immediately she
started wishing that she was back on the Moon, and found it hard to believe that she had lived in
comfort with both this heat and the gravity. She was sweating before she had even left the cover of
the terminal, not a good sign . 

She flagged down an autocab and threw her bags into the backseat and sat down beside them. I
just want to get to my hotel and get a nice long bath, one thing that she missed in space. 



Neo-Tokyo Spaceport Hilton , Room 2113, 12 August 2056 

She tried contacting Amanda the second that she had gotten in the room, but the televid's database
claimed that there was no such person in the entirety of the Greater Neo-Tokyo area. Figures, that
she would go deep just when I could use a friend, Nene thought as she started emptying her bags.
The job was going to be hard, especially since not many Immortals would be here. Not that she
blamed them with the close proximity of Genom here. 

She looked outside her window and realized how much had changed in the last 20 years. When she
had left Japan 2 decades ago, she would have seen a beautiful sunset from the window. Now it was
blocked out by squat monolithic menace of the Tower. It sat there looking like a big grave
monument, as she opened her shielded case and pulled out her last piece of equipment. 

She held the saber up and looked at the Tower in the growing shadows of the evening. I wonder
how many others died in the creation of that abomination, she asked herself, as she sat down
with a whetstone and started sharpening the blade. 



Genom Genetics Research Facility #3, 12 August 2035 

Nene wished for a way to wipe her brow, she was even willing to give up all the new toys in her suit
for it. It was hot and muggy, even though she was in a hardsuit. She tried to ignore it as she used her
laser to cut through the outer shielding of the building's secure comm system. She pulled the shielding
off and extended her suit's I/O probe into the mess of wiring that lay within. 

The pseudo-metal probe writhed like something alive for a second as it interfaced with all the
commline, while her suit computer sorted through the data that came in. She found the lines that she
need quickly and started about ensuring that she had had a good link with them. 

As she adjusted the links, sections of her display lit up showing building schematics and video feeds.
She smiled, like taking candy from a baby. She tagged the lines that she would use and started
rigging bogus footage and sensor readings for her penetration. 

"This is Nene, I'm in." , she whispered over the suit's secure comm line. 

"We're on our way.", came the reply. 

She moved further into the duct system pulling up the facility schematics and using her autocompass
to place her movement as she went. Every now and then she would place a charge, but her primary
job was to reach the mainframe. 

Priss and the others coasted in on the moonless night. Each of the knights went their own way and
set up a series of charges that would bring the whole building down. Meanwhile, Nene had found the
mainframe and linked with it. She brushed her way through most of the computer system without
trouble and upload a virus that would destroy all traces of the research that was being done here. 

"Package delivered, I'm on my way out.", she whispered over the radio as she eased out the link
with the computer. 

"Don't linger, Nene. This place is wired to hell and back", Priss sent. Nene didn't bother to answer,
she was already backtracking. That was when the first of the files she had left to watch the system
kicked off. Before she was even able to glance at the location, two more also flagged red. 

"Shit, guys we've got trouble.", she yelled as she looked over the video feed. Boomers, and lots of
them. "My exit through the tunnels is a total wash,looks like a squad of boomers at least." 

"No shit, get yer ass to the roof, Nene. We'll meet you there and evac you.", Priss sent back over
the radio. From the sounds of it, the other's had met up with even more boomers. 

She triggered her suit's cloaking field and started working her way up the building, but it wasn't as
fast as she liked. Even with Priss and Linna training her for over a year, she didn't feel ready to tango
with a boomer solo. She came onto the roof with a pair of boomers following close on her heels and
maybe more on the way. 

"Nene, move your ass!", Linna yelled as she sprinted across the rooftop to the plane. 20 yards to
go. 

" Coming mothe....", she was blown to the ground by an impact from the back. She felt a burning
sensation in her stomach. For a second she couldn't move, then she rolled over to hide behind a
heating vent. 

She leaned against the vent and looked down at the hand that she had fallen on. It was covered in
blood, with a lot more on the ground. Everything was spinning, blood loss and shock she told
herself as she cued the suit's autodoc. What she got back was bad, she knew it. She heard the
other's calling her, as if from a long distance. 

"Damn," she whispered as she cued the entire stimulant reservoir of the suit and cut the telemetry
data. Her blood roared as the chemicals took effect, and she wasn't spinning anymore. The suit's
bladders inflated to keep her wound closed. Not that it would matter long. 

"Speak to me Nene.", Priss called over the suit radio. "Tell me where you are so we can get you." 

Nene shook her head and cried as she took in the suit's tactical feed. 

15+ boomers and sensors said more on the way. She knew what the result of that fight would be.
She keyed the suit's radio. 

"Forget it, Priss, I've a hole in my suit from front to back and ....", she swallowed nervously and then
coughed up blood. Not long to go, she thought as she continued. "Leave me." 

"No! I won't do it." She could practically see Priss looking for an opening to leap to. Sorry, Priss,
but I can't let you die with me, she thought as she tagged the detonation program and blew up the
front of the building, this is one job I have to go alone. Any place that could have been a safe area
was now gone, and the plane was forced to pull up from the blast. 

"Nene, what the hell do you think you are doing", Priss screamed. She knew what Nene was doing,
but couldn't believe it. 

"Saving your ass for a change.", she said calmly. Funny how death made it easy to do what was
needed . Tears made it hard to see as she typed in the final override. "Mackie I love you and ....I'm
sorry." Please God, she thought as she cut out the radio and punched in the final code, give me the
strength. She punched in the code and watched the numbers count down from 20. Shadows fell on
her and she looked up at 5 boomers standing over her, and some savage part of her howled in glee
as charges detonated. 

The building shuddered for a second and leaned to one side. She slid out from the sheltering vent
and fell in a jumble of pipes. Then she went numb, and saw fire rise up from all sides of her with a
roar in her fading sight. The blast lifted her up into the air, and she fell back into the fiery ruin as
darkness claimed her. 

Neo-Tokyo Spaceport Hilton , Room 2113, 12 August 2056 

Nene dropped her sword, her hands were shaking to the point that she hugged herself to stop them.
The pain is gone, she reminded herself, I am not lying on the bottom of a hole covered in steel
and concrete. 

Amanda and Warren had warned her that coming back might bring back bad memories, but the
young immortal hadn't expected them to start so soon. She had expected to be hit by more familiar
sights. It was looking at the Wallcom that made her realize something she had forgotten. The date. 

She had died 20 years ago, today. She poured herself a triple shot of Jack Daniels and tossed in
some ice. It burned as it went down. She sat down and drew in a ragged breath. I have got to go
out, she told herself, stay here and you'll go crazy Nene. 


Neo-Tokyo Club District, 12 August 2056. 

An hour later, found her sitting at the bar of 'Hot Legs'. She was pleasently surprised to find that the
club was still open, and under the same name. She smiled at the reflection in the mirror. With her hair
waist long and styled in a new wild look, and the black leathers she was wearing she didn't have to
worry about being recognized by anyone that might have seen her 20 years ago. Not that it was
likely, most of the people looked to be less than 25 and dressed just as wildly as she did.
Immortality had given her the time to find a look that she was confortable with. 

She spun the stool around and looked over the club floor. The music and styles had changed, but
were still cutting edge, and the place was still packed to the rim. 'Hot Legs' could always be counted
on for the best and most current in novahot rock and roll. 

She had almost forgotten her earlier mood and was ready to get down dancing with a nice stud she
had given the eye, when she spotted them. They were all here, clustered in a booth up in back.
Apparently, she thought, I am not the only one that has memories about today. She looked over her
friends and compared them to what she had known about them over the last 2 decades. They had
not been idle . 

Linna was almost unchanged, but for a few grey hair or two and laugh wrinkles, she could still look
to be in her 20's. She had always been a great dancer and finally gotten her lucky break, then moved
on to become a choreographer as the years went on. Nene had followed her career through Vid and
the Net. It was good to see her friend successful and happy. Even if she...., Nene refuse to
complete the thought, and wallow in the self-pity that would follow. 

She looked over at Priss. The singer was still fit and hale, after all she toured and sang continuously.
Nene had all her albums and had followed her carrer from the first meteoric rise in the charts to her
ascension to legendary performer status. Even saw her once in the Lunar Dome, paid a scalper
almost a year's salary for seats in the nosebleed section . Her first big international hit, Fallen Angel,
was Nene's favorite. It was nice to see that Priss had risen to the level of immortal rock legend with
all the other big names. Holly, Priestly, and the rest. Good to see you again Priss. 

Then came the last resident of the booth, Sylia Stingray. She had spent more time in the Net studying
the genius than the other two. Her mentor had never really stood out in the world, she preferred to
keep herself in the shadows. With Nene's death, had come the end of the Knight Sabers. Nene
couldn't help but feel guilty about that. Afterwards, Sylia had nearly vanished from the planet. 

She had taken to writing papers, and had become quite well known in the scientific community. In
fact, Nene had studied her articles in great length while teaching at Tranquillity University. The
Stingrays, Mackie and Sylia, spent a lot of time on private projects and made it a point to stay out of
the limelight whenever possible. It was strange to not that not once in all her papers, did Sylia ever
mention or hint towards the hardsuits. She covered as wide an area of science as her father,
everything from Astronomy and Genetics, to Nanotechnology and Robotics. 

She looked closely at her past mentor and friend and realized that her death had weighed most
heavily on Sylia's shoulders. It showed in the eyes. 

Nene felt guilty, her death had been a significant factor in her friend's withdrawal from the world.
With her death, the Knight Sabers had died, and in that passing a part of Sylia had died also. I wish
it could have gone differently Sylia. 

She discretely took a booth beside them and listened in on what they were talking about. It took
some effort, but she finally realized that nothing was being said. They were all waiting for a The
Moment. 9:48 PM, Tokyo time. The time at which she had died 20 years ago in a long destroyed
Genom research complex. One of their watches beeped and they all raised their glasses in a toast. 

"To Nene Romanova", Sylia said with her eyes glittering in tears. Nene was surprised, her mentor
had never been very emotional. "To Nene", the other two echoed with tearful eyes. 



Nene slowly walked out of the club, she couldn't stay. It was a private, sacred moment, and to linger
and listen to the three women would be more than she could handle. She leaned against a wall, and
looked up at the stars. It had been 15 years since she had seen any of them this close, and she was
sorely tempted to tell them. They had accepted her death, now she had to. 

"Shit, I shouldn't have come back yet." Warren had been right, she wasn't ready and things hadn't
changed enough yet, but she had to do her job. 

It was nice to know that you are missed though, she told herself as flagged an autocab. One last
stop for the night and she would be ready to go back to the hotel and face the night, whatever
dreams that she had. She looked back in the night's drizzle, and decided that sometimes your past is
really gone forever. 



She knelt by the marker, brushing away the leaves that had blown over the plots. Her grave was
empty, Sylia had finally made up some likely excuse for her death and missing body to give her
parents a reason to grieve. The two markers beside hers weren't, she understood that she would in
all likelihood outlive her parents. Even before becoming immortal, they had her late in life and by the
time she had left home they were in their mid-fifties. She placed the flowers on their graves and
bowed her head. 

"I finally came back home Mama and Papa, sorry that it took me so long", she silently hoped that
they had forgiven her. She stopped short, what she was going to say cut off by the approach of
another car. She slid back into the shadows and waited for whoever it was to leave her alone. A
single person stepped out of the car and walked in her direction. 



Sylia walked to the marker, more by instinct than any visual cues, it was a familiar place. She came
to think and talk to Nene. She had been her foil, something to test ideas against when Mackie wasn't
available to do so and a reminder what the reality of her actions could bring. Why is it that I feel so
guilty, she asked her fallen friend, about your death and not the others that I caused. 

Nene's passing had been a hard time for her, and the end of the Knight Sabers. She used a variety
of methods in her battle against Genom and hired others when force became a necessity. These
days, however she tended to work more in the shadows and behind the movements of stocks, the
media and such. 

It wasn't as hard on the conscience, she reflected as she laid the lilies on the gravestone. She
turned at the sound of movement behind her. She looked into the face of her past and knew that she
had finally run out of time. The assassin lifted her hands and showed Stingray the 40 cm talons. A
type C, she guessed, one of thousands produced over the years by Genom and sold all over the
world. They were hard to fight in a hardsuit, and she didn't even have her gun. It was in her purse
back at the car, might as well be on Mars, she reflected bitterly as she backed up. 

She tripped over headstone avoiding it's first slash at her. It was toying with her, but she couldn't risk
injury if she wanted to escape. She lay on the ground, stunned by her impact and looked her killer in
the eye. She would go into the next life knowing that she had faced her death with honor. 

The boomer moved in for the kill, only to lurch forward and to the right as a blade emerged from it's
breastbone with crunch. It was kicked all the way over from behind and the attacker yelled at her
while trying to free the blade from it's back. 



"What are you waiting for! Run, dammit.", the blade came free with a little difficulty and the young
woman helped Sylia up and pushed her back towards her car. "Get moving Doctor Stingray, I will
keep it busy while you get away." Sylia tried to reason with the girl, but she was pushed rudely away
as the girl swore at her, "Get moving, it's already recovering and you are it's target not me. Go!" 

Nene stabbed downwards as she turned to face the boomer, hoping to get another shot at it's neural
linkage or a power coupling. It's redundancies had already kicked in and it rolled to one side and
snapped out a kick into her ribs. She reeled backwards and the boomer got to it's feet with inhuman
speed and grace. She pulled away from a slash and was only just successful in avoiding having her
throat cut. She spun around and screamed at Sylia, blood gurgling out the ruin of her right cheek. 

"Run!", Sylia ran. 

The boomer slashed at her arm trying to disarm her. She countered with a whirling parry that took
most of the fingers on the left hand. She smiled and circled to keep the distance as the fingers landed
on the ground. Her ribs were healing, but having bones rub together hurt almost as they did breaking
and she was winded. 

The boomer, seeing a weakness, changed it's tactics and move for a closer range of attack. She was
tackled by the machine and lifted up into the air. The bear hug wasn't the worst she had endured, but
still it was painful as the ribs cracked audibly . She felt one pierce her lung as she slammed her saber
down into it's chest. 

It dropped her roughly to the ground and turned to walk away, determined to find and finish it's
primary target. She was simply a removed obstruction. Till she stood back up and hissed painfully as
she staggered forward to face it again. 

"We aren't done yet, machine.", it was incapable of doubt and disbelief, yet it had never encountered
a human cabable of enduring such punishment and still able to fight. It lunged at her, and she tried to
meet it's attack, but her injuries slowed her tremendously and she couldn't. It sank the claws into her
gut and twisted. She screamed in unspeakable agony, and didn't have the strength to do anything as
she was pulled once again into it's grasp. 

Then it's head exploded in a shower of red and gray, and she landed hard on the ground. She
embraced the cool darkness that rose up to meet her. 


"Mackie, help me get her in the backseat.", she heard as she was laid gently in the back seat. Still,
ribs were jostled and the pain returned her to full awareness for a second before passing out again. 

"..... Mercy Hospital is closer..." she heard as she regained consciousness. She tried to sit up but
was gently held down. In her present state, she couldn't resist. She recognized the voice as Sylia's. 

"No hospitals," she croaked through a sore throat. The boomer had tried to crush her windpipe
sometime during the fight. She didn't remember that. 

"You'll die without immediate help.", she cut off the rest with a curt gesture as she tried to see. Her
eyes weren't working, did the boomer gouge out her eyes too? 

"I can't go to a hospital, " she gritted through the pain of her own body trying to heal itself. 

"No! I can't let you die", she could hear Sylia think of her first death and putting the blame on herself.
"You just hold on for 10 minutes and we'll get you help." 

Not likely, she thought grimly, a hospital would mean certain discovery. Guess I'll just have to
finish the job myself, she thought as she twisted to the side hard. She screamed in agony as loose
ribs and half-healed ones ground against each other and tore through tender flesh. 

She was rewarded by a warm sensation that spread over her chest and was followed by a familiar
numbness. About time, she thought as death enclosed her in it's cold embrace again and took away
all her pain for a short time. 



Sylia checked her savior's pulse, it was thready and then flickered and was gone. She knew it was
futile to try CPR. Too much bloodloss. Reaching down she eased the now unseeing green eyes shut.
Who were you, and why did you do it, she asked the corpse as she wiped the blood from the girl's
cheek. 

Another nameless face to add to the ones that Genom had piled at the feet of her and her father.
Why did it have to happed tonight of all nights? She ran a finger through the girl's hair and
thought how simular she looked to ... 

She stopped and looked again. Did a mental comparison and was dumbfounded at what her mind
told her was impossible but her eyes showed her. 

"Oh, my god." Mackie looked over his shoulder at her. 

"What is it sis?" He asked. "Are we too late?" 

"It's Nene." I've lost her again. Mackie nearly knocked her onto the body as he swerved after
hearing her. 


Neo-Tokyo, 13 August 2056. 

Nene sat up with a gasp. It was always a shock to be dead one moment and alive and intact the
next, with your last memory being of dying. The gift of Immortality, she thought to herself with a
bitter smile. 

She looked down at the bed she was in, and then to the person that was sitting beside her looking at
her in disbelief. Dr. Sylia Stingray, Ph. D,Nobel Prize winner, sat looking at her with disbelief and
fear. She ran a shaking hand across the young immortal's face. 

"Nene-chan, is it really you?", Nene took her hand into her own and smiled at her. 

"Yes, Sylia" 

"You're alive. I'm not going mad am I?" 

"No, it's me. I'm sorry Sylia, I wanted to tell you but...." she was cut off by a slap to the face as the
other woman screamed at her, suprised by the venom in her voice she took a few seconds to
recover. Not at herself, but a residue of the years of self-hatred and loathing. 

"How could you let me think that you were dead. Don't you know how I felt when I saw you die?",
Nene caught a hand and looked in the eyes of her old friend. It wasn't anger at her, she realized, but
self-loathing for sacrificing someone else in her vendetta with Genom. Sylia had feared that she had
become the very thing that she had fought. Sylia looked at her with tearful eyes, "How could you let
all of us think you were dead?" 

"It wasn't easy." 

" 'It wasn't easy'", Sylia screamed with outrage, "do you know how many nights I woke up
screaming your name, thinking 'what if' I had done something different. Maybe sent Linna in or gone
in my self or pushed your training hard. Made your suit stronger, more armored." Nene snapped
back at her, the years of anger and frustration boiling up to the surface. 

"What makes you think that it was easy for me. I've had to live a lie, become someone else. Leave
the country. I lost everything that ever mattered to me. I couldn't come home to bury my parents. To
know that you all were alive and to watch from the shadows and not share in your successes. I lost it
all. I lost my life, my friends, my family....", her rage guttered and died to be replaced by the old pain
and regret, ".... I lost Mackie..." She looked up at her old teacher when she felt Sylia touch her
shoulder. Her tears were mirrored in those eyes. 

"It hasn't been easy for you, has it?" Sylia asked as she helped Nene up. 

"No, it hasn't", Nene sniffed and wiped her eyes before looking back at the older woman, "Friends
?", she asked. 

"Friends", Sylia agreed and pulled the smaller woman into a hug, "now go get cleaned up and we'll
talk over breakfast. Okay?" 

"Okay" 


Nene stepped out of the bath and pulled on a robe reluctantly, baths were rare off of Earth and it
was one creature confort she had missed. Her clothes were a wash she noted, only the jacket was
salvageable and even it was marginal. She walked out into the pool area and sat down across from
Sylia. She poured a glass of orange juice and leaned back in her seat. 

"I can see there are a lot of questions that you want to ask, let me tell you what happened and some
of what I am entangled in .", she went on to explain briefly what had happened and what she had
become. Leaving out only her current job. She talked about Immortals, the Game, the Gathering and
the Prize. She watched her look nervously at the saber. "It was a gift from my teacher, Warren of
Bath", she explained as she checked it for damage and sheathed it, "made in the 1600's by a spanish
master, and the greatest work that he had ever made. Warren gave it to me just before he died." 

Sylia watcher her handle the sword with a grace and confort that only came over time. Her own
lessons in swordmanship told her that Nene was quite at home holding it. The calluses on her hands
were molded to fit the handle like no other person's. She was, upon reflection, quite a different
person from the Nene that Sylia had lost years ago. Some of the other things that Nene had told her
were equally unbelievable. 

"You're Dr. Anastatic Petrovich? The lecturer on Nano-programming and engineering at Tranquillity
University." She had almost every one of Petrovich's papers. 

"Da," Nene replied in her best Lunar/Russian accent and a short mock bow. 

"Sis, are you awake? How's Nene", came the call from the doorway just before Mackie came it.
Nene rose with a smile and greeted him "I'm fine Mackie, care for some breakfast?" She motioned
to a seat. 

"Shit, Nene, I knew what you told me; but I didn't really believe it was possible till now." Sylia's
quick wits caught the inference and she angrily locked eyes with her little brother. Nene broke her
rage before it could explode with a gentle explanation. 

"I asked him not to tell anyone that I was alive.", Sylia looked as Mackie and took a deep breath
before she could ask him the question on her lips. 

"How long have you know?" she asked him. He hesitated a moment before replying. 

"Ten years or so, ever since I went to Luna for the Lunar Symposium on Physics in '45." 

"You met her at the conference." Nene answered for Mackie with a smile and a shake of her head. 

"No, he saw me in a play I was starring in.", she looked shyly at Sylia, who couldn't believe it. Nene
had been the shy introvert when she knew her. 

"What play was it?", she heard herself ask. 


Luna, Tranquillity Bay Colony, March 2045 

"Cyrano de Bergarac? Are you serious, Stingray; that sounds as dull as opera.", Carlos Delgatto
asked as Mackie dragged him into the theater. Mackie rolled his eyes at the ceiling, this from a man
who dealt with subatomic particles for a living. 

"Trust me Carlos, I was told that the show is quite good and you'll like it. Cyrano is a great play."
Mackie pushed his friend into a seat, "besides, if you didn't come, Helena McConnel would have
taken the other seat, and you know what she is like." It was common knowledge that Dr. McConnel
didn't care two wits for Mackie's marital status, she wanted him bad. 

"Alright, but you owe me", his friend grumped back. He like McConnel, but she wouldn't give him
the time of day. 

Mackie took an instant liking to the show, the opening scene with Cyrano's insult contest always had
him smiling. He was eight again, reading through his sister's library and using his mind to picture out
how the scenes appeared. 

Then She stepped onto the stage and out of the mists of his past. Impossible. He couldn't believe it,
but he was certain that no one could be that perfect a duplicate. He spent the rest of the show in a
state of shock till the last moments before the end. Then he rushed backstage to meet her. 

She was standing with one of the show's producers toasting him and celebrating the show's brilliant
opening night. He walked up to her and gently touched her shoulder after she didn't turn at call of her
name. 

"Nene"., he looked in those brilliant green eyes and knew it was her. 

"I am sorry, you seem to have me mistaken for someone else. I am Anastastia Petrovich," a short
bow, "and you are?" 

"Mackie Stingray, I'm here for the Symposium." 

"Ah, yes, I have read some of your papers, Dr. Stingray, but I must be going now," she smiled as
she turned and hurried away. He didn't care what she said, he told himself, he knew it was her. 


Mackie pulled the kitbashed cipherpick out of his pocket and inserted it into the slot. Amazing what
you can make in a school electronics lab and the neighboring computerlab. 

Seconds later the box beeped and he entered the residence of one Anastastia Petrovich. 17 year old
Grad student according to the records that he had pilfered, and the sole surviving member of the
Petrovich family. Recent Lunar citizen and scholarship winner. 

The room looked like that of any grad student, printouts piled high on the desk with textbooks for
company and all manner of clutter scattered around the room. His search was precise and cautious,
he had trained under the best when he had been growing up. Sometimes, even the good guys have
to do a little B&E , he wryly. 

He was about to give up, and was pacing around the room when he found it. He had leaned against
the wall beside her locker and something clicked. He looked at the arm outside the locker, and
slowly place the other inside. Then he pulled the clothes to one side as he searched for some manner
of catch. 

It didn't take long to find and disarm the alarm and open the concealed door. What he found made
him catch his breath in surpise and shock. 


Anastatia , or Anna to her friends, cued up the Holoprops one more time. This time only a 1/4 of the
set was out of focus. She sighed with frustration and picked up her datapad to look over the control
setup one more time. 

"Try realigning the emitter len's controls to a tighter beam.", a voice called from behind her. 

"Ah yes, that seems to have done the trick. Thank you very much.... Dr. Stingray," she finished as
she faced him. 

"It's me, Nene. Mackie. You don't have to hide from me." 

"I am not this Nene person that you think I am Dr. Stingray," she turned away before her face could
betray her, "I've never even been to Japan . I was born in ...." he cut her off, reeling off the facts that
he had found in the campus computer system. 

"... Paris, to Russian emigree parents. They were killed in '37 in a shuttle accident and you were
turned over to a guardian till you turned 15 and applied for Lunar citizenship so that you could study
here.", he paused before continuing, "a good story but you missed one little fact that kept it from
being perfect." 

"And pray tell what is that?", she asked with a humoring expression. "This", Mackie held up the pink
hardsuit helmet. She looked from it to him, they both knew that the lie was over. The stage lights
highlighted the facture that ran from the front to back, and Mackie had seen the blood inside. He had
seen the helmet in his nightmares for years. She sighed and looked up at him. 

Nene, not Anastatia Petrovich. 

"Hello Mackie, Long time no see," she said with gallows humor. She patted the bench beside her,
"have a seat we have to talk." 

"How can you be alive?" he asked, " I watched the hit you took and saw the explosion engulf you.
Nobody could survive that." 

"An Immortal can, Mackie," she answered and told him about what she had become. Mackie
listened only half believing what she told him, his thoughts were on other things. 

"Sis is going to be glad to know that you're alive. So will the others. I can't wait to," she cut him off
with a curt slash of the hand. 

"Mackie, you can't tell them." 

".... But Nene..." 

"Not ever, Mackie. They saw me die that day and dead I am going to stay to them.",she swallowed
nervously before continuing, " It wasn't easy, but I had to leave and start over. You and the others
went on about their lives, I can't just walk back into their lives and expect no questions. I can't go
back now, despite what you want to the contrary." 

"Why not!?", he stood and paced angrily before turning to face her, "Just tell me that, Nene. Why
Not? Do you know what we went through after that damn night! Sis pulled into a shell and I still
have to fight to get her to come out and interact with others, and Priss --she crawled into a bottle for
almost 5 years..." 

"Do you think that last 10 years were a cakewalk for me? That only you people suffered?" She cut
him off suddenly, a black rage on her face that he had never seen, " What about me? I lost
everything. My life, my job, everything I ever loved or cherished, friends, family..." she stopped and
turned away from him, her shoulders heaving from the tears, "....you" She turned around a looked at
him, all the strength gone from her voice, "I'm 30 Mackie, and still look 17 or less. Don't you think
people would notice that I didn't change?" 

"Nene, we could've ...." 

"What? Moved around every 10 years or so, you growing older till people think you are my father,
my grandfather while I stayed young? Me, wondering if I could handle watching you grow old an
weak and waiting for you to die while I carry on. Forever. You, wondering if I will be killed some
night by another Immortal eager for my Quickening? Or, maybe you would be used by an Immortal
as bait to bring me in, maybe even killed to hurt me.", she shook her head grimly, "No, Mackie. I
loved ...love you, but I couldn't pay that price then, and I won't pay it now." She reached up and
delicately touched his face, as if he was made of the most fragile glass, and finished in a husky
whisper, "You mean too much to me." 

Mackie stood there as she walked out the room and thought about what she had said, before
walking out to the deceptively young woman that stood outside looking at the Earthrise overhead.
He wrapped his arm around her and gently turned her around to face him. She was crying and he felt
sorry for the misery that he had caused by his selfishness. 

"I won't tell anyone, Nene, I promise", he told her as he handed her the helmet. 

"Not even your wife.", she asked with a bittersweet smile. 

"Not even her," he said , "Nene, it just sort of happ....", she stopped him with a touch of her finger to
his lips, then stood on tiptoe to kiss him one last time. "I understand, Mackie, really I do. I want you
both to be happy, it's just...," she looked away before finishing, "I wish that it was me. Kind of petty
isn't it?" 

"No, it's not." 

She strolled down the hallway and gathered her gear into the helmet, and stopped at the doorway
for a second. She never looked back. 

"Goodbye, Mackie." She said and then walked out of his life again without a second glance. He
wiped the tears from his eyes and had to force his throat to open enough to reply in a hushed
whisper. 

"Goodbye, Nene-chan." 


Mackie looked at the moon from his window, as his wife wrapped her arms around his waist. 

"You're kind of quiet tonight, Mackie. What are you thinking about?" 

"A promise I made to a friend, dear.", Goodbye Nene-chan, he said to the starlit night. 

Neo-Tokyo, 13 August 2056 

Mackie had left an hour ago, to give a lecture, and left the two to talk things out. Sylia and Nene had
used the morning to catch up on the years. They told each other about the changes and trials that
they had gone through. 

Sylia had sunk into a funk for a little bit over lunch, trying to think on how to approach the matter
that was on her mind. Nene looked at her, reading some of the thoughts that were going on in her
mind. Finally she put her fork down and confronted her. 

"Okay, spit it out Sylia, you want to say something, but you think thatI won't like what you have to
say." 

"You have to tell the others, Nene." 

"I can't. You know that." 

"No, the moment that you came back into my life all your reasons went out the window. Maybe
Mackie can live that lie," she was surprised at the amount of willpower her brother had used to keep
that promise for 10 years, "but I won't." 

"Why? All it will do is open old wounds that are best left closed and forgotten." 

"Those 'old wounds' are just scabbed over , Nene and maybe it is time that you set about healing
then. Priss took your death pretty hard...." 

"I know, I sort of kicked her onto the short and narrow 15 years ago when she was in Paris.", Sylia
arched an eyebrow but continued undaunted by the admission. 

".... and you need to tell Linna also", the wineglass snapped in Nene's hand. She never had that
type of temper before, Sylia thought as she reached over to her bleeding hand, "... to heal the
wounds that you carry, before they consume you..." 

Nene looked into the deep blue eyes of Sylia Stingray and saw the same wisdom that Warren had
shown 12 years ago on one drunken nights rambling when he had said nearly the same thing. God,
Warren I miss you so much. I wish you were here to help me get this straight. She sighed and
wiped the blood off of her already healed hand, and nodded. 

"Alright, I'll talk to Priss.", Sylia looked at her patiently till she gave in... "and Linna too." 



Neo-Tokyo, Hot Legs, 13 August 2056 

Priss sat on a stool in the center of the empty stage, playing some of her favorite classics from the
20th and 21st century. Blues, Jazz, Metal, R&B, Fusion, all types of music. The type of stuff that she
rarely heard these days outside of her collection or in the few jam sessions that she had with her
band. It helped her think and find her center to fugue through the old masters she thought as she
stopped to retune the old Gibson. 

She owned Hot Legs and kept it running for the young up and comers to have a place to play. She
hadn't played live here in years. She kept the memories of her gigs here alive by playing from time to
time and telling herself what it was like. She started up a new song as she relaxed and tried to think
of the next direction she would take her music. She sighed irritably, it wasn't working this time. Not
that she would ever need to cut another record, she had plenty socked away from the years as a
Superstar on the rise. Not like the money that she had spent all over the place as a Knight Saber. 

She looked at her watch, Sylia had said that someone would be by to see her soon. She had agreed
to meet this old fan of her's as a favor, but this was getting a little late and she had a flight to catch for
New Orleans later in the night and she wanted to visit Linna before.. 

Just then someone walked in and distrubed her train of thought. She was slim and had long hair tied
off in a pony tail, and wore shades into the darkened club. Priss turned and started to pack her gear
and slid the Gibson reverently into it's case. 

" 'Bout time you got here," she said as she picked up the case and turned to look more closely at the
approaching form, there was something familiar, "Sylia said that you saw some my early
performances here, which ones did you see?" 

"A lot of them, mostly between '31 and '36, just before I left Japan for a while. I saw your show on
Luna too. There was one particular gig back in '33 that I liked." Priss could have sworn that she had
heard that voice before. 

" Which one?", she asked, more to get the younger woman to keep talking as she approached. 

"December 21st, in the ADP building." Priss turned cold at the date, she stalked towards her visitor
with rapid steps. She hadn't performed that night, she was too busy trying to keep boomers from
destroying the ADP building that night. The only people that had heard her sing that night were
Knights. Who are you? 

"Who the hell are you....", she asked as she ripped the shades off and looked into the smiling face of
a woman who had been dead for 20 years. 

She looked at Nene for long seconds before she could talk again. "I've finally gone around the bend,
you can't be alive. I saw you die." Nene took her by the hand and walked her over to the bar and
sat her down before replying. Good thing too, Priss didn't feel too steady on her feet all of a sudden.

"It's me Priss. Nene. Alive and well.", she said to the singer gently, still holding her hand. "Sylia found
me out last night and she made me tell you tonight." 

"How could you be alive and so..." she looked at Nene, "so young, you haven't aged a day." 

"I am not like you Priss, I am an Immortal. There have been others of my kind from the first days of
Pre-history. We died, once, and then come back to life. Frozen at the time of our death. Last night I
took on a C-series boomer with nothing other than this," she pulled a saber from her coat, "it beat
me to within an inch of my life, in fact I died in the back of Sylia's car. Do you see a scratch on me?"
Priss sat and listened to the tales of how Nene had adjusted to her new life and moved on with it. 

"No, uh Nene, I have a question. Was it you that I talked to at Jim Morrison's grave back in '41."
Nene smiled. 

"Yes, it was." 


Paris, France, 24 December 2041 

Priss stumbled into a kneeling position beside the grave, cradling the bottle of brandy with
exagerated care. She looked up at the sky, it was cloudy and stormy but no rain as yet. Perfect
weather, she thought moddily as she sipped another shot from the bottle. She had finally scored a
couple good hits in the Underground circuit of Neo-Tokyo, but hadn't made the big time. Genom
had blacklisted her, and even the other labels wouldn't risk that much to make the kind of money
that she could bring in. So, she had taken her bike and the money that she had left from her records
and the Sabers and left Japan to see the world. 

Somewhere along the line, she had discovered that she hated herself. All the failures over the years
had weighed on her shoulders like a plummeting shuttle. The roar of the crowd wasn't enough
anymore, to keep the faces of her failures away. She had tried liqour to help, but it didn't stop them
from coming to her in dreams. She looked at the headstone, You figured it out didn't you, she
asked silently. 

Fame wasn't worth the price that she had paid. Too many lives ruined. Sho's mother and Sho himself
trapped in an orphanage where she couldn't get him. Sylvie and Anri, both losses to her own
incompotence. Nene. All of them had died, while she the failure had lived on. Paying for her failures
with their lives. Not after tonight though, she promised herself as she looked at the flash of
lightning just out side the cementary. It raged for long seconds as she drank heavily from the bottle.
Too bad I won't go out with such a bang, she told herself as she pulled the blade out of her jacket
and tried to muster the courage to push it home. 



Nene staggered away from the body, trying to keep from collapsing from the aftereffects of the
Quickening. She had't really wanted to fight Owen, but he had to pay for killing Warren. She smiled
at the thought that her mentor's life and power resided within her now. He would at least be
remembered as a good and honest man for as long as she lived. She wished that she could have love
him like he had loved her. 

She staggered into the graveyard, holding her stomach wound with one hand and her sword with the
other. She had to get clear of the battle site before the police or others found the body. Doubtless
Owen's watcher was even now filling out his final report. 

Now, Nene don't be bitter about the little busy bodies, she told herself as she staggered into the
shadows of the graveyard looking for a good place to hole up and heal before getting the hell out of
France for good. Too many Immortals like Paris she thought to herself, and one of them will be
wanting the head of a 5 year old Immortal who had taken Owen Glaskill's head. An 800 year
old Immortal, she couldn't believe it herself. What was I thinking , she asked herself as she slid her
saber into it's hidden shealth. 

She stopped just short of a gravesight to her left, someone was there and she didn't want to be seen.
She was about to move on when she recognized the woman lying by the grave mumbling drunkenly.
It was Priss. She stopped and listened to her friend's drunken ramblings, saw the knife and acted
instantly. Instincts and reactions developed over the last 5 years had her by her friend before she
could stop herself. 


Priss brought the knife with shacking hands to her breast, and placed it over the heart. 

"This time, I'll get it right for once." She told herself steeling herself against the pain. One more
second and it will be over she promised herself. 

Just before she could plunge the knife home, someone grabbed her hand and applied presure to her
thumb to make her let go. It hit the ground with a noisy clatter and she fell ackwardly to the ground.
Rough hands lifted her up and shook her. 

"What the hell do you think you are doing, Priss? Things getting too hard, so poor little Priss is going
to end it", the hands let go and she fell to the gound roughly, "that's not the Priss I knew. Wake up
and get on with your life woman! You have talent, use it." 

Priss looked up groggily at her assailant, and cried in disbelief. Another face from her past failures
had come back. Nene Romanova looked down at her angrily, and Priss couldn't take it anymore.
She fell forward and grabbed her dead friend in a hug from her kneeling position. 

"I tried so hard, all those times, Nene. I tried to save you all . Sylvie, and Anri and ... you." Tears
streamed from her eyes as she continued, "but I couldn't get it right. I always blow it." Nene knelt
beside her and looked her in the eyes sternly. 

"You didn't fail me, Priss. You couldn't have saved me, I was dead the minute the pulse blast
punctured my suit.", she raise a bloody hand to eyelevel, "and you know that Anri and Sylvie were
doomed from the second Largo, .. Mason , manipulated them into escaping to freedom. You saved
them by helping them stay free. Do you want to help us, Priss?" Priss nodded, to scared to speak as
Nene continued, "Live. Get on with your life. Go home to Japan and find that man of yours and
show those bastards that they can't keep everyone quiet and SUCCEED. Forgive yourself,most of
all." Priss slumped as if a great weight had been lifted and Nene eased her to the ground to sleep it
off. She wiped her hands on her jeans and put one to her sleeping friends face. "Live, Priss. All that I
ask is that you don't give up on life.." She slipped into the mists without another word. 


Neo-Tokyo, Hot Legs, 13 August 2056 

"I had always thought that it was just a dream, or vision, brought on by the booze", Priss told Nene
as she poured herself an orange juice. She didn't drink as much now, trying to keep that monkey at a
distance, as well as cigarettes. When she had awakened the next morning, it was like having been
reborn, and she knew that she wouldn't get a third chance. "You know that I wrote 'Fallen Angel'
thinking about you." 

"I kind of suspected that. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you then Priss. It's just that I died in front of you
all and every Immortal that I know has told me that it wasn't good to try and go back to your old life
afterward. Too much karmic baggage, so to speak." She stood and held out a hand, "Friends?" Priss
took it and pulled her into a hug, then watched as Nene turned and made for the door. 

"Yea, and Nene?" she asked as the younger woman turned, "don't take 20 more years to come and
see me again." Nene smiled and nodded as she walked out the door, Priss thought about how much
her old friend had changed. She might be a young face, but her soul was centuries older than anyone
Priss had ever seen. "Oh,I do understand Nene, after all, Who wants to live forever?" 


Nene walked about six blocks from Hot Legs before she came to a stop at an acceptable vidphone.
The camera was busted and the screen was spraypainted over with a variety of gang logos. She
dialed the call in and waited for the connection to be made. 

"Joe's Place, what can we do for you?" 

"I was wondering what a White Russian and a Virgin Mary would cost?", she asked casually for the
benefit of any listeners. 

"That will be 23.25 ma'am.", came the reply just as smoothly. 

"Thank you," she said and hung up. She checked her watch, 40 seconds total, definitely not enough
for a trace from a random phone. Now to do some shopping for her job. 



Neo-Tokyo, Spaceport Hilton, 13 August 2056 

She walked into her hotel room, pushing the door closed behind with a kick. She had hit several
different places; 6 clothes stores, a couple of electronic stores and at least 2 grocery stores. She put
all the gear on her bed and started to separate them according to type. The gowns were of a
particular synthetic fiber, and along with the 8 kilos of sugar, the biggest part of her haul. The
electronics and batteries were all small and easily carried. 

She moved into the bathroom with the sugar and put it into the tub, filling it with hot scalding water
afterwards to held the sugar dissolve. The gowns, batteries and electronics all went in also. Then she
took her earrings off and clipped them to one of her rings before adding them to the witches brew in
the tub. 

Triggered by the heat and fueled by the abundance of sugar in the water, the nanites set about
constructing newer and more complex nanites as per the programing she had given them. In a couple
hours, those nanites would come online and start moving according to the programming set in them
and would have the items she need made within 12 hours. She checked her watch, and walked out
the bathroom. Pausing to grab her coat and phone, she walked out the door and headed outside. 


Twenty minutes later, in a park picked at random, she pulled out the phone and slipped a specially
designed chip into it. She dialed another number from memory and waited for the satphone to
connect. The second that it connected, she started her countdown. 

"Joe's Place" 

"It's me, I will be ready to go in 36 hours.", she told her contact quietly as she counted the seconds. 

"Why the hell that long?", came the reply. 

"I have some unfinished business, that I need to settle before I can do the job." 10 seconds, she told
herself as a frustrated growl came over the line. 

"36 hours, and then you do the job as we planned, regardless of your 'business', understood?", the
line went dead before she could reply. She hammered the phone into the concrete edge of a nearby
fountain. 

Why is it, that I always wind up dealing with the rudest Watchers in the world, she asked
herself as she watched the secure phone melt like ice in the summer sun. Times like this she missed
Annabelle, her first Watcher, with a passion. She also regretted that she couldn't tell Sylia that she
was finally going to finish the job on Project: Lazurus. Twenty years after it killed her the first time,
she hope that it didn't do it again. Too many lives counted on it. The Game counted on her success 


Neo-Tokyo, Tiny's Pool Hall, 13 August 2056. 

Sylia walked in to the smoke filled bar/pool hall and felt suddenly like she had stepped back in time
twenty years. Fargo was playing pool in the corner by himself, still wearing the same nasty gray suit
but with  hair to match now. He looked up as she approached and a genuine smile appeared on his
face. 

"Long time no see, how is the best customer I ever had doing now that she is out of the big game?",
he reached over and took a pull on the long neck, "I thought I saw the last of you back in oh.. '36 or
'37." 

"I heard that you had retired too Fargo, why are you still working the same dives that you did way
back when." 

"Oh, mostly for nostalgia," he smiled broadly, "and to keep the hand in the pot so to speak, I still do
the odd job every now and then but mostly I am retired and happily teaching economics in some
nice little school on the good side of town. So, Doctor, what can I do for you tonight." 

"I need you to do some checking on a name, actually two names; and see what you get for the last
20 years. The subject is known to have spent time on Luna and in Paris, but don't limit yourself to
where you look. The material is in there," she slid the envelop across the table and started to leave
before turning to ask one last questions, "aren't you going to make a pass at me?" Fargo was the
eternal tease in the old days and had always flirted with her. 

"No, I learned my lesson a long time ago, you're too much woman for me.", he smiled, "I'm married
and the wife is insanely jealous of me sharing my gifts with other women. I will have what I can to
you as soon as possible." 

With that Sylia walked out of the pool hall and vanished into the night. Fargo pulled out the pictures
and data that was included with them. He looked over the files for a time, pausing to sip his beer on
occassion, Anastatia Petrovich and Nene Romanova were the names. The two pictures looked to
be suprisingly similar but there was one difference. This Nene Romanov had to be at least 40 now,
and that would make Petrovich her daughter. Why did Stingray want to know about these two he
asked himself as he walked out of the bar and into the street to put his worker bees to the task. At
least with Sylia each job was definitely going to be interesting. 

Neo-Tokyo Net, 13 August 2056 

Nene sat by the marker in the Net, it represented a marker placed on Luna. Annabelle Cooper, it
read. She smiled at the holo image that stood beside it, Anna had been a good friend and her first
Watcher. She had discovered Anna after leaving France, the young woman was determined to
follow Nene no matter where she went. One day while they were still in quarintine she had spotted
the girl's tatto and waited till later to confront her. 

Over the years that followed, the two had become good friends and shared a lot. It had been nice to
have someone that knew her secret and would keep it forever if she asked. Anna had been fearful of
the other Watchers at first, they had a more severe attitude toward Immortal/Watcher relations.
There was a faction that liked to interact but they tended to get pounded pretty hard by the senior
watchers, but Anna finally learned that being on Luna gave her a degree of immunity to that type of
persucution. There weren't any other Watchers on Luna permenantly when Nene was there. 

She thought of all the discussions and debates that they had on the Prize and the Gathering. It had
been a good time, till Nene and her had been caught in a blowout. She tried hard to fix the leak
before the air ran out, given Anna the emergency airbottle and finally afixiated while hoping that her
friend would survive till help could arrive. 

It did, but not in time. She awoke to find that Anna had placed the bottle on her and quietly died.
So, that she could stay on Luna without any explanation of a mircaculous resurrection to be
explained away. 

She had been luck the surgeons told her, they must have arrived within 5 minutes of the air running
out. She knew otherwise, Anna thinking that she was going to die for sure had sacrificed herself to
keep Nene's secret. 

She hadn't figured out exactly who her new Watcher was, but she wasn't really looking either. One
friend dying for her was enough. She punched out of the net time to check her gear. 



Neo-Tokyo, Shining Light Condoplex, 14 August 2056 

Nene stopped nervously at the entrance, why am I doing this to myself she asked. Because you
promised that you would, she replied. She closed her eyes and steeled herself for the coming
confrontation. One part of her wanted this meeting more than anything that she could think of, while
another hated the very thought of going into that apartment and seeing her best friend after 20 years.
Especially considering what had happened after her death. 

Nene was confused and terrified, moreso than she had been since she had first become an Immortal.
Now she truly understood why she had listened to Colin all those years ago and looked up Warren
as a teacher. 

She could still remember the day, 20 years ago when she first experienced Rebirth. It had been the
most terrifying day of her life, till today. 


The ruins of Genom Research Facility #3 14 August 2036 

Nene sat up gasping with pain, only to discover that it was only a fading memory. She tried and was
rewarded by a stab of real pain in her leg. She had a half meter long shard of steel sticking through
her leg, she noticed as she tried to stay awake. 

When the room finally quit spinning, she reached down with her eyes closed and in one swift motion
pulled it out with the help of her hardsuit's enhanced strength. Her scream of pain rang off the metal
beams and pipes above her, but the pain faded with astound rapidity. 

She took stock of her wounds, and was suprised to see that the terrible wound to her stomach was
gone. There was a layer of dried blood where it should be and she could feel skin and burnt skinsuit
through the front and rear of the suit. She pulled off the leg sheath to check the wound, worried that
it no longer pained her. The last thing that I need is to go into shock from blood loss, she told
herself giddidily. 

She wiped away the blood on her leg and was suprised to find that she had only a small puckering
scar where the spike had been only minutes before. 

"I must be seeing things" she said to her self as she tried to stand in the suit and failed due to the
immobile weight of it. She cued a diagnostic and waited for the battered suit to reply. 

What she got back was bad, even worse than she could have thought. The artifical musclature that
made the suit so strong and mobile was for the most part shot beyond the capacity to be repaired.
As was most of the communications systems she noted. In fact when the final tally came up about
the only things remaining functional to any degree were the laser, computer and multiprobe with a
60% margin of power remain at current system status. The was about a day and a half. She would
need to tear out what she didn't need if she expected to use the suit. 

She popped the suit and started stripping armor plating, taking a good long look at the holes in the
lower torso, and a slash that run up the outer right leg. She shouldn't be alive she told herself, but
who are you to complain she finished. The myomers and exoskeletal systems of the legs and torso
when next, she kept only enought power lines to ensure that she would be able to keep the
remaining systems running. The right arm was already done for and the only reason that she hadn't
had her arm crushed in it was that it had been almost completely torn free somewhere in the fall.
That went into the growing pile of unsalvagable junk. The steath systems were also done for, but
most of them were based in the suit's armor anyway and she knew that she couldn't carry them. 

Next came systems that she couldn't fix or wouldn't need. Radio was a wash, everyone of her
circuits were fried and the countermeasure systems that she would have loved to use in the case of
boomers also joined the pile of junk. Most of the computer was still sound, but she had her doubts
on it remaining so. The laser and multiprobe were bundled together on the frame work of the left
arm's powerclaw and she packed the remaining useful powerpacks into the torso. The bad ones
were put on the pile. 

She donned the kitbashed suit and cued a revised system diagnostic. The arm and chest plate
registered good for about 60 to 80 hours not including any use of the laser. That would eat power
faster than anything else in the suit. Her helmet was added so that she could use the cracked inner
display, and she looked it over before putting it on. There was a fracture in the top that covered over
half the helmet and the outer face plate was half gone. She fingered the corresponding gouges that
ran above and below the sheild and didn't want to think how close she had come to loosing her
head. She pulled up the suit's lowlight and turned to find her way out of the ruins of the research
facility. 


She sat down and looked at her autocompass entries, trying to make sense of them. The building's
collapse had been as nearly complete as Sylia had wanted, and the old map was next to useless in
the tangle of pipes, beams and fallen walls. The blast had been planned to tear the bottom out of the
ground floors and let the entire building fall within itself. There were extensive sub-basement facilities
and she was most likely several levels down for the surface. 

It was then that it happened. A soft roar of static that rubbed across her like a harsh summer wind.
She took a bearing on the location of the feeling and started to follow it only to have it suddenly
cease. She sat down and rested trying to think on what she had just felt, when it happened again
only closer this time. She ran to the feeling, knowing somehow that there would be an explanation in
what was going on with it. 

She found the security door when close to the source of her feeling, and stopped short. The thing
was huge and with no power available in the complex hard to open. She was about to try one of her
probable routes when she thought that she had heard something else inside the room. A shout of
pain. That settled it for her and she started pulling the door's locking system apart. 

An hour and a half later, she inserted the tip of her multi-probe and prayed as it wiggled through the
melange of wires and fibers. Whe the green light came up on her helmet display, she pushed power
into the link and keyed in the unlock command. The lock hissed open and she cut power quickly,
and grabbed the door and pulled with all her strength. It was 10 minutes before she had huffed and
puffed the heavy blast door open enough to slip in. 

What she found was bad. The lab had been occupied during the blast, evidently Sylia's sources had
been wrong on that count, even if the rest of the facility was vacant. Almost everyone had been
crushed with the collapse of the back wall and the other body was on an examining table with a
good meter and a half of rebar impaled in his chest. It hadn't been a clean or quick death from the
looks of it. Nene swallowed back the taste of bile and looked around some more, pausing by the
body to check it. It was still warm, she must have heard this poor man's death screams. She eased
the eyes shut and wrenched the bar from his chest and threw it aside then covered the body with a
cloth. 

Turning away from the man on the table and taking care of the bodies that she could reach in the
rubble, she then looked over what she could find in the lab system and their print outs. Most of it
was way above her head and involved DNA sequencing studies of the test subject, presumably the
poor man on the table, and how they could replicate his DNA in another subject. 

Why would you want to do that, she wondered as she leafed through the notes. Then the FEELING
returned and she turned to face the direction it came from. She turned just in time to see the body sit
up on the table and look her way. She slid to the floor in a near faint as the man got off and held out
his hand. 

"Colin Waters at your service my lady," he said with a broad smile and a bow. She put out her hand
and he kissed it gently, Nene could feel the blush crawling up from her neckline. 

"Nene Romanova, glad to meet you Colin. By the way, can you tell me what the hell is going on?
Like why everyone isn't staying dead anymore?" 

Colin laughed heartily and shook his head merrily before sitting down beside her. 

"Not everyone my girl, just you and I. You see, Nene, we are special," he leaned in close and gave
her a conspirator's wink as he paused for dramatic effect, "we're Immortals, I will explain while we
look for something to eat. Okay? I'm famished and I sure you are too." 

Nene's stomach growled at the mention of food and she nodded as they stood to look for something
to eat. Colin continued as he pulled open cabinets and drawers in all the offices ajoining the central
examining room. 

"What you felt when I revived is called the Quickening. It is the very life force of an Immortal and all
those that he has slain....." It seemed like hours passed as Colin told her of the Game,an Immortal's
Quickenings, the sanctuary of Holy ground and the Gathering. Finally he put down the instant ramen
that he had been eating and looked at her. "You are taking this quite well, Nene." She shook her
head. 

"No, I'm not, but till I can come up with another explanation it will have to do. Are you planning to
take my head when we get out of here, Colin" 

"Goodness no, girl, I owe you my life and if I had the talent for it I would take you under my wing
and teach you myself. Instead, I will recommend you over to a freind of mine by the name of Warren
Bath.", better him than Conner, Colin thought to himself. The Highlander always had a weakness
for redheads. "But for now, we need to concentrate on finding a way out of here, yes." 

Nene looked up from the cut in the door, with only half a visor she tended to go blind for a time after
the cut until her eyes healed enough to regain vision. Luckily, Colin had remembered an elevator that
he had been brought down when he was first capture by Genom boomers. He had explained the
whole purpose behind Project: Lazarus and it made her angry to think of the lengths that someone
would go to cheat death. But who am I to criticise. 

She blinked and her vision swimmed back into focus. The hole was big enough for them both to
enter now and she led the way in looking carefully for dangers. The shaft was filled with debris but
seem on the whole to still be stable. She looked at Colin and he nodded grimly. It would be a long
climb, the sign on the elevator door refered to this as sub-basement 14. She did a mental count and
thought to herself, 20 plus stories, quite a fall. 

They took their time working upwards, cautious of possible dangers. They didn't want to risk falling
again, it might bring the entire tunnel down on them and neither like the idea of reviving in the not so
kind hands of Genom sometime in the future. They were halfway up when it happened. 

A beam shifted, swatting Colin and her off it and into the middle of the shaft. Colin plummeted like a
rock and she only barely caught herself on a jutting beam. Her landing cracked ribs but slowed her
fall. She landed clumsily, the hardsuit remains were unbalanced and unwieldy, and pulled herself to
her feet. 

"Colin, are you ...." she started as she looked for him. What she saw was worse than anything she
had ever seen. The beam had fallen on top of the Englishman and decaptiated him. His body still
twitched out blood to a head that was no longer there. Oh God no. 

She wasn't paying attention to the body, it was the feeling.. what Colin had called the Quickening
that had her attention, it was all around her and rising to levels that she had never dreamed of. It was
a wild and furious thing that called to her very being. She turned to face the storm of energy that rose
from Colin and cried out as the first bolt struck her. 

Whether in agony or ecstasy she was never really sure, but the fury that she had become a part of
had both in it. She was washed over with the feeling of years passing by, even though only seconds
passed, scenes of faraway times and places rushed through her mind. Colin in a breastplate and a
pike fighting in a battle, him sparring with another man for the fun of it, the soft kiss of a beloved
woman, all this and more than she could hope to remember passed through her. Lifetimes of
experiences; loves, rages, hopes, and everything that had been part of the man Colin Waters passed
by her eyes. And then it was gone, stored deep within her, never to be far from her thoughts again.
She collapsed to the ground, as the lightning subsided and the fires and dust settled around her. One
thought remained of Colin's life, as she pushed herself off the ground. 

"In the end, the can be only One.", she said as his gentle voice echoed within her, and her tears ran
down her face, "now, I understand Colin." Only it was too late to share it with him. 


Nene looked down the slope of the hill overlooking the ruins, and wiped a tear away. Colin lay
buried at the bottom of the shaft in a rough grave of concrete and steel. She watched as the laser
and power cells went critical with a loud roar, and the shaft fell in on that grave. Now, Genom will
have to find another test subject she whispered to the man's spirit. 

She put her helmet, one last symbol of her past life, under her arm and walked away. She had much
to do and might as well get on about it. Warren Bath had a studio in Neo-Tokyo's Starlight district
and she needed to tell him that Japan was no longer safe for Immortals and that Colin Waters was
no more. 

Neo-Tokyo, Shining Light Condoplex, 14 August 2056 

She stepped out of the elevator and pause bring thoughts of Colin to her mind, the Englishman's
legacy to her had been a center and balancing element that had allowed her to go on over the years
when she thought it would be impossible to do so. 

Give me a little of the calm, she asked his shade within her, I have one last thing to before I can
let go of my old life. She smiled as the ghost of his laughter passed through her, and she felt her
center strengthen. Thank you Colin. 

She stopped at the door and keyed in the combination that Mackie had given her. She pushed the
door open and walked in, trying to keep the bitter thoughts out of her mind. It was hard, but she had
dealt with them for almost twenty years. Mackie smiled as she walked in. 

"She's on the terrace, I told her that an old friend was coming by for brunch and that you would like
to see her." Nene nodded in response, she was too busy fighting her inner demons to answer.
Mackie took her through the living room and into the terrace outside. 

Linna Yazaki Stingray looked up from her notes and smiled at her husband as he brought her out to
the table. She doesn't see me, Nene realized, she see someone with HER HUSBAND. Nene
crushed the jealousy and pushed it in a corner of her mind. Her fists balled with the effort and she
willed herself into a more relaxed posture as Linna looked at her for the first time. The older woman
paled and her hands shook. 

"Nene?", tears rose to her eyes. She rushed over to the Immortal and twirled her around in a tight
hug. Her best friend was glad that she was alive, and she couldn't even force herself to return the
embrace. 

Selfloathing rose up and burned in the pit of her stomach. "God, I missed you so much, Nene-chan.
It seemed that when you died, a part of all of us passed on too." Linna finally released her and
looked at her closely. Taking in all the small details of her appearance, and shocked by the
agelessness of her. "How?" Linna asked. She knows, thought Nene, she was always able to read me
like an open book. 

"I .... didn't stay dead Linna," forgive her whispered Colin and Warren in the still center of her soul,
"there is a lot that I need to tell you." She sat down and looked at her friend, life had been kind to
her. She went on a told the story of her rebirth and the Immortals one last time. She watched as her
best friend cried at the deaths of Anna and Colin and could see the worry and understand as she
told her story. 

Then they just talked, about nothing in particular over the meal. Sylia had been right, she told
herself as she stood up and made to leave. It was a wound that needed to be healed, before it
consumed me. Just as she opened the door to leave, a small red bundle of speed sprinted by her
only to be caught and held up high by Linna. 

"Hey, is that anyway to greet a guest, little girl?", Linna put a 4 year old girl on the floor. "Now say
hello to your Aunt Nene before she leaves." The red haired girl bowed quickly. 

"Hello. My name is Nene too. Mama said she named me after her bestest friend. Are you bestest
friends with mama?", Nene knelt and hugged the girl, tears streaming from her eyes as she looked at
Linna. 

"Yes, dearie, we're bestest friends for ever and ever." Any doubt as to why she was doing this was
removed as she held the small child. It was for the future. 


Linna felt Mackie wrap his arms around her as she watched Nene climb into a cab and drive away.
She smiled as he kissed her on the neck. 

"I always knew she was alive, especially after the conference on Luna. You stopped having the
nightmares." She explained, "but why is she here Mackie? There was something that wasn't right
about what she is doing......" 

"Like?", he had learned to trust her hunches as much as the data he dealt with on a regular basis. He
knew science, she had learned about people. 

"Like she was setting her affairs in order, saying her good-byes," she turned to look at her husband,
"like she knew she was going to die and didn't want to leave anything unresolved. She's involved in
something Mackie and we have to find out what it is before she get herself killed." 

"Sis had some of the same thoughts as you and has been looking and asking around. Same sort of
thing Priss told Sis too. She's staying in town till we could figure out what is going on." 

"Now what do we do?" 

"We wait Linna, and hope that Sis can figure it all out before it is too late.", before Nene dies again,
they both added silently. 

Nene watched as the Condoplex retreated from sight, and then sat back on the seat with a long sigh.
She hadn't intended to reveal herself, but she couldn't get over the feeling that she had done it to find
a way to end things on a positive note. Warren had always said that you had to be ready to face
death with all your regrets behind you to truly stand a chance of winning. She could see the wisdom
of those words now. 

She gathered the gear from the hotel and started her work. She had 36 hours to be in position and
she had to get there with the best posible speed. 


Neo-Tokyo, Space Port Hilton, 14 August 2056 

Sylia slipped the passkey in her jacket before moving into the room with swift sure movements,
checking for all manner of devices. Nene had been her best student among the Knights when it came
to coutermeasures. The few that she found were easily eliminated. 

She looked through the trash, pulling the receits and noting what was bought. Except for the sugar, it
was just about what any tourist would buy. She moved on the the bathrooma and was stopped short
by what she had found. 

The entire bathtub was covered by a thick viscous gray paste that she recognized from long
experience. Inert Nanotechnolgy. Whatever she's built, Sylia thought to herself, it and Nene are
long gone. Sylia had this sinking feeling that thing were rapidly getting out of hand, and that someone
would have to end this soon. 

She stayed long enought to take a large core sample and the reciets. She pulled the phone up as she
drove away. 

"Mackie, tell the other's to meet me in the office in about 3 hours, okay? I need to talk to them after
I have checked out somethings. I will need your help there also." This looked to be getting out of
hand and she was sure that Nene was in it up her neck. 


The Genom Tower, Neo-Tokyo. 15 August, 2056 

Nene sprayed a wide circle on the darkened blast door and waited as the dissemblers activated and
went to work. She checked the suit's chronometer, it was just after midnight and she was already a
little behind the timeframe that the other's had set her. Lucky for her that she had been conservative
in her estimates from early on in the planning stage. The sprayed area of the door turned a dull grey
as the nanites did their chore. She waited for a few minutes past the active lifespan of the nanite, just
in case they were still active past their 5 minute lifespan. 

After she was sure that the nanites were dead, she kicked the grey section hard. The metal crumpled
and then fell to the floor as the brittle metal broke apart. She edged in the hole, taking care to avoid
the edges. From here on in, she reminded herself as she boosted the suit's sensors to maximum gain,
she was only going to be going deeper into the belly of the beast. 

Sylia's Apartment, Neo-Tokyo. 15 August, 2056 

Mackie looked up from the display, and turned to face his siser. He took the offered cup of coffee
and took a long sip. Sylia waited patiently as he put the mug down and keyed up a section of the
display. 

"This is possibly the most interesting sample I have ever seen. The culture is composed of several
dozen discrete types of nanites, there are assemblers, collectors, disassembler, and several different
types of manufacturers. As well as this little stranger," he pointed to another nanite that he had
highlighted, "I can't help but think that I have seen or heard of somthing like this before, but I can't
for the like of me remember where." Sylia looked closely at it also had the feeling that she had seen it
before. 

"It could be an Architech," she said refering to the theoretical nanite that would allow for
coordinating different types of nanites. An overseer/coordinator type that to date had eluded all
attempts to date. The biggest problem was coordinating several different architechs together as a
whole. "What is the final product supposed to be ?" 

"I'm not sure, but the portion that you brought back built this when I reactivated it." The screen
switched over to a show a section of arm and shoulder. "The cloth is a synthetic variant that is quite
 a bit better then kevlar, and the electronics that I added to the mix were broken down and
incorporated them into the weave. I can't help but think that I have seen this circuit and emitter array
before." 

"You have Mackie, it's an upgraded version of the stealth field that we put into Nene's old suit. Why
would she create a stealth suit? What is she up to?" 

Her train of thought was interrupted by the trilling of her phone. She stepped aside and talked for
several minutes before hanging up and turning back to her brother. When she finally signed off,
Mackie could tell that she was shaken by what she had heard. He walked up to her as she looked
out the window at the sunset. 

"That was Fargo, one of his associates had a meeting with Nene. She paided the man over 500
million yen for various plans and schematics." Mackie's mouth went dry, and it was several seconds
before he could ask the question that troubled him." 

"Where?" She turned and looked at him. 

"The Neo-Tokyo Tower. She going after Quicy. We've got to stop her, Mackie, before she upsets
everthing that we have done over the last 20 years." 


The Genom Tower, Neo-Tokyo. 15 August, 2056 

Nene sighted in on the back of the boomer's skull and waited till it had turned and started back
down the corridor before firing the compressed air weapon mounted on her shoulder. The dart hit
the base of the skull and immediatly started burrowing into the boomer's nueral circuitry. In seconds
the entire synthetic nervous system seized up. The dart also uploaded a small bundle of code that
altered the interface with the OMS and told the control systems that it was still on patrol. 

She pulled the boomer into the shadows and set the suit's scavenging systems to work.
Psuedo-metal probes slid into the boomer's inert form. Muscles and servos writhed and twisted as
the nanites took control and started reforming portions of the boomer over the skin suit. 

Long minutes passsed as she scavenged the boomer, and she concentrated on the suit's display. Her
skin tingled as the heat build up grew. The scavengers were efficent but she had to cut corners to
make the suit work on the short notice that she had been given.Their work was very heat intensive,
and she had not been able to design an efficent heat sink system that would be small enough. 

Finally the process was complete, and she took a deep breath and stood. The myomer and armor
were a comfortable weight and the ion cannon was fully active on her left arm. She flexed her right
arm and was rewarded by a conforting `snick' as the case hardened blade locked into place.
Perfect. 

She retracted the blade and powered up the suit's stealth systems. The sweat ran down her face as
she pulled the cover off the air duct and entered. The healing tingle of her body healing the burns
intensified as she keyed up the schemetics and mentally plotted her course. She stopped by a
communcation trunk and extended a probe line into it. Tense minutes pass as she hacked her way
into the computer system. Several layers of intrusion countermeasures later, she set the flags in place
and then upload the special program that she had been given by her allies. 

The program was very specific, it had taken almost six months to recode to her specific tasks. It
spread out and worked it's way into the background systems. She watched as it shimmered and then
vanished. It would work to keep her out of the active security systems as long as she didn't go to
overt in her actions. 


Sylia's Apartment , Neo-Tokyo. 15 August, 2056 

Priss and Linna listened intently as Sylia related all the information and ideas that she had found. Her
investigation had been through and she plotted the path of Nene's life after she had become an
immortal. Fargo's sources had been very fast and effient in the last day and a half, and she had
learned a great detail. Then she started to tell them about the hotel room and the suit that had been
constructed. Priss stood and looked out the widow at the setting sun. 

"You know, none of this would have happened if we had killed the old bastard in '33." 

"You can't use his methods, Priss." Sylia said quietly, they had gone through this arguement many
times over the years. Priss locked eyes with her for long seconds before finally relenting. 

"I hate it when you're right." Priss growled as she sat down. Linna stirred in her husband's arms. 

"There is a couple things that we have to remember. She's twenty years younger, and has something
that we don't. A headstart and a hardsuit." Linna stopped and looked at her sister-in-law. She was
smiling quietly. 

"You have hardsuits," Priss cut in breathlessly. Sylia nodded as she cued the display. A series of
very familiar suits came up. She started the second part of her breifing as the displays flashed up
particulars. 

"Several years ago, I started using some of my father's ideas along with a few of my own. I was
developing a new form of DNI, Direct Neural Interfaces, that would not become imprinted or
require rewiring the user's entire nervous system. I used the biological profiles that I had on us as a
base template, the hardsuits seemed to be the best possible testbed for the system." she looked up
to her friends before continuing, "I never intended for them to be used in combat. I could use all your
help, but I wouldn't presume to..." Priss and Linna smiled as Mackie cut her off. 

"Sis, you know that we wouldn't leave you in a crunch. Let's get Nene out of there before she gets in
more trouble." 

The Genom Tower, Neo-Tokyo. 15 August, 2056 

Nene called up the taps into the security system. The penthouse was empty except for her target and
his bodyguards. She sprayed the last of her disassemblers on the duct panel at her feet, and
deployed a grapple line as she waited to the nanites to go inert. It had taken almost 20 hours to get
this far and she had disposed of no less than 20 boomers in that time. Not bad for the weakest
Knight Saber, she thought as she readied herself for the coming battle. 

She took inventory and jumped onto of the effected spot. Her increased weight and gravity did the
rest. She dropped through the airduct like a rock, and started firing as soon as she cleared the
ceiling. The darts flew fast and furious towards the boomers. She detached the grapple and landed
on the floor with her saber fully extended. The displays fed her data as she turned to face the two
charging boomers. 

She was ready to meet it's attack when an ion blast to the back from it's partner. She smiled, the
traitor virus was more effective than she had hoped. Using her saber to pop the acess port open, she
extended a probe into the lock's control system and set the suit's computer to breaking the security
while she instructed the main systems that the boomer's security alert was a malfunction. As the two
systems competed, she waited covered in a cold sweat. Finally the computer won the battle and the
blast doors hissed open. 

She and her boomer took covering positions as the moved into the bedroom, as the doors locked in
place. The suit's display showed her target's position as being just in front of her, but the sight that
was in front of her was an empty room. 

How, she started as she looked around the room. A suspision started to creep into her thoughts as
she looked over the room again. No, she thought as she deparetly tried to think of any possible
mistake she could have made. There was nothing that she could see as a mistake. Then she heard
them behind her and she turned as a chill ran up her spine. 

"He's gone, Nene." she heard the familiar distorted voice say as she looked into the foyer. The
boomer turned to follow her gaze. The long pent up frustration and feelings of betray threated to
wear away her control. No, please not them. 

"You shouldn't have done this.", she said to the two hardsuited women. "You don't understand what
is going on here. You're not part of this." 

Linna and Priss took covering positions on the other side of the room as Nene and the boomer
moved into the room. At least she figured that it was them, the suit's color scheme were the same
even if they were newer and of a different styling. 

"You can't do what you were playing, Nene. We don't kill in cold blood. I can't let you take that
step." Linna said quietly. 

"You don't understand the situation, it's either Quincy or us." She yelled angrily. How could they do
this, she asked herself, this is not any of their affair. "Get out of my way, or I will go through you." 

"You can try Nene," Priss cut in. Nene didn't reply, her outrage washed away the cold control that
she had been maintaining. Her weapons went green and she moved. The ion cannon spat out a blast
and Linna rolled out of the way. The blood howled with her rage as she charged her old teammate. 


As she rolled out of the way, Linna lost sight of Nene's bizarre suit. The chameleon field, she told
herself. Nene had gotten a lot more agressive, the dancer noted as she continued her roll and
finished up with a backflip that barely got her out of the way of another Ion blast. 

As she landed, she scanned the room for an indication of her opponent. The ion blasts had burned
through room's paneling and there was smoke from the burning insulation underneath. She stepped
backwards into the smoke and looked for a sign of movement that would indicate her foe's
approach. Her suit's sensors were next to useless against the chameleon field, she would just have to
wait and use her own eyes. 

The smoke wavered and moved with no apparent cause, she fired the suit's lasers. At almost the
same instant, she was blasted backwards by an ion blast. She staggered backward, only barely able
to keep her balance. There was a shimmer and then Nene appeared. Sylia had been right the suit
couldn't substain the field under substained attack. 


Nene growled as the shimmer of the chamleon field failed and pushed the pain of her burning skin
out of her mind. The suit struggled to repair itself and disperse the heat from the lasers. Linna tried to
fire another blast at her, but Nene knocked her outstreached arm out of the way and snapped off a
backhanded slash at her. Linna blocked the attack with her arm and stepped back in suprise. 


Linna stepped back as she tried to get an idea of how to face this Nene that she didn't know. She
was at a disadvantage in several ways. She hadn't done any real fighting in years, and Nene had
apparently gotten a lot more experienced. Then there was the fact that Nene fought with a near
beserker rage that almost impossible to believe. She backflipped out of a slash and dropped into a
crouch and set herself up for one last desperate attack. 


Nene watched with a calculating eye as the dancer flipped backwards and crouched. Here it
comes, she told herself as she braced herself for the attack. The ribbons deployed and flashed out
with increadible speed, but Nene had seen this attack many times before and had learned a counter
from their battle the the DD battlemover. 

She caught the ribbons with her suit's power claw and pulled her foe off balance. Using her suit's
superior strength, she slung the hardsuit hard into a convient column before bringing the suit in close. 

Nene grabbed her and lifted the suit high up, blocking a kick to the head as she did so. The howling
in her head was almost unbearable. Linna looked on helplessly as the blade rushed up and pierced
the front of her suit and continued almost unhindered all the way through. 


"I'm getting too old for this shit," Priss growled through gritted teeth as she blocked a punch. The
boomer dodged the follow up kick with distressing ease. Twenty years of programming had made
the boomer's instincts a lot better in combat, not to mention she wasn't in the game anymore. 

She slapped a shaped charge into her palm and ducked under it's punch. The charge clamped down
on the bellyplate. She continue moving forward and triggered her jump jets just as she cleared the
boomer. She landed on the other side of Quincy's cavernous room as the charge went off with a
thunderous boom that shattered all the glass in the room. She looked at the boomer, the blast had
nearly cut it in half. 

"Linna, I'm clear. How are things going on your end?", she called as she ran into the adjoining room.
What she saw stopped her short in shock. All that remained of the two was a large pool of
darkening blood and a smoking boomer. Panic surged uup as she ran to the pool, "Linna!!!" 


Somewhere in Neo-Tokyo, 16 August 2056 

Linna sat up with a gasp, the last she remembered was the rasping of Nene's blade as it rubbed
across her ribs as it pushed through her chest. Her chest throbbed horribly and burned with every
breath, but someone had treated her injuries and bandaged her ribs. A bottle of blood plasma hung
beside her bed. 

"Awake at last, I see," she turned to look over at the direction that the voice had come from. Nene.
The redhead was sitting close by, and Linna was shocked at the condition that she was in. Nene
smiled, bitterly it seemed, as she explained , "The suit isn't terribly efficent at heat management and
your last couple blasts weren't any help. I had to take some shortcuts to meet my deadlines. Lucky
for you that I set up this basestation in case I had to bring someone back for care. Sorry about the
wound." 

"Why Nene? What possessed you to do it? You've changed, the Nene I knew wouldn't have ever
thought of killing a man in cold blood, even on such as Quincy." Nene turned away as she stood up
and muttered something inaudible. "What?" Linna asked her. 

"I said that he didn't give us much of a choice ." Linna could hear the frustration in her voice. "This
was least destructive option." 

"Us? Who else is involved in this insanity? What do you mean by least destructive?" Linna was
confused and Nene sat down with a frustrated growl . 

"How about dropping 2000 tons of nickel allowed steel from orbit. They had a nice rock picked out
in the belt. Or there was the little bug that they dug up that had somewhere around a 90% fatality
rate. Maybe a couple tons of shredded ceramic fibers from orbit, that would reduce the city to a pile
of gravel." Linna shivered at the pictures that her mind conjured, Nene continued relentlessly, "How
about parking a couple of good old fashioned nukes at the Tower's front gate. Say somewhere in
neighborhood of about 2 or 3 hundred megatons." 

"But why, Nene?" 

"He's been hunting us, Linna. Project Lazarus was to discover what made immortals tick. Every
immortal that we have talked to has agreed that Quincy can't be allowed to succeed." She scratched
her face absentmindedly, it was visibly better. Almost completely healed. "He's too powerful
already, could you imagine what he would be like if he had a shot at The Prize? Boomers hunting
down other immortals and killing them in his presense. Do you really think that he would even give
lip service to the rules of the game? We'd go out with a bang in a short span of years, and then
mankind would never be out from under the thumb of Genom." 

"Nene, you can't seriously think that he could become immortal through this project of his?" 

"Not personally, but you have to realize that Immortals have existed for centuries without revealing
themsleves to mankind at large. Could realize what would happen if someone could come out and
prove beyound a doubt that we exist. Witchhunts beyond anything else in history." 

"Couldn't they do that right now? I mean from what you have been telling me that they have been
studying immortal for almost 2 decades. They have all the proof that they need." Nene merely smiled
and held up a data cartridge. 

"Had. The second part of my mision was to eliminate all evidence. There are a couple hardcopies
left out there somewhere, but I left enough shred and destroy orders in the boomers in the tower to
ensure that by now this is the only copy left in existence." She crushed it in her hands, "Now there is
none left." 

"What are your plans now?" Linna asked. 

Nene told her. 


Sylia's Apartment, Neo-Tokyo. 16 August, 2056 

Mackike looked at the resting man and pushed down a thread of anger. Quincy slept as he since
they had snatched him from the Tower. He marveled that the man, as he considered the depths of
subterfuge and manipulation that he was capable of. He had killed Mackie's father, granted by
ordering his aide Mason to do it. And they were protecting him from the woman that he had first
loved. Possibly with our lives, he added as he looked at the remains of Linna's torso plate. He
turned at the light touch on his shoulder. Sylia took his hand and walked him back into living room. 

"She's alive Mackie. Nene would have left her behind otherwise." 

"We can't be sure of that Sylia. She's changed. Priss said she went beserk when they confronted
her. Does that sound like the Nene that we knew all those years ago?" 

"Mackie, we don't know the whole story." He sighed and nodded. 

"Any news?" 

"Not yet, but I expect to hear from her at anytime now?" 

"What do we do then, sis?" He couldn't hide the frustration and anger for the woman that raised him
as a child. She started to say something when her terminal beeped. She typed in a command and
read the display as the letter was delivered. She looked up at Mackie with a smile. 

"Linna is alive. Nene sent a message asking for a meet to explain her side of this. We are to bring
Quincy, and all us are to come. No hardsuits." 

"Are we going to do it?" 

"We'll do everything she could ask, except for handing over Quincy so she can kill him." 


Priss slapped the barrel back and caught the bullet as it was ejected, she popped in another clip and
racheted the next round in. She slid the gun back into it's holster and patted it and the spare clips in
her jacket to make sure they were secure. She was suprised at the ease with which she had slipped
back into her old habits. She looked up as the Stingrays walked into the room, and fell in behind
them as Sylia signalled her. Time for action. She patted the gun and shortsword under her jacket,
hopefully she wouldn't have to use them. 


The Kanto Memorial Park, 16 August 2056 

The threesome stood waiting with a very reluctant Quincy. He leaned on his cane and waited with
them only with the assurance that Sylia wouldn't allow any harm to come to him. They watched as
the autocab pulled up and stopped. Two figures got out and walked into the other side of the
clearing.One stopped the other just short of the clearing. 

"Send Quincy into the clearing." Nene called to them as she stepped forward. 

Sylia started to reply but was cut off as Quincy gasped. She watched as he scrutinized the red head
as she walked into the clearing with Linna. Nene pushed Linna towards Mackie and pulled her saber
out from under coat. 

"Nene Romanova," she told him as the weapon came clear. It sounds like a ritual greeting ,
thought Sylia. "How long have you known?" Quincy smiled as he twisted his cane and pulled the
head off to reveal a concealed blade. 

"I suffered a massive heart attack two weeks ago, and when I awoke I knew. I had read all the
briefs from Project Lazarus. It helped to explain why I never had any children and couldn't emgram
my mind into another body." 

Nene smiled ferally as she advanced, and Quincy had a simular look on his face. They circled the
clearing, Quincy moving with suprising grace and agility. Sylia moved to stop them, but was stopped
by Linna. The younger woman shook her head grimly. 

"This isn't about us, Sylia.", She sighed bitterly as she continued, "It's their damn game." All they
could do was watch and wait. 

Nene met the slash with her saber and a smile. She pushed the bloodlust back and concentratd on
the rythym that the older man used his sword. She fell into the tempo and matched it. Quincy smiled
over the blade. 

"I take it that this is how you fools expect this... Game should be played?", he asked her as she
blocked his lunge. "And this Prize... is it all true?" 

"It is.", she said through gritted teath. He was good, possibly he had practiced swordsmanship to
keep himself in shape. 

"I look forward to gaining this Prize." 

"How, by having your machines track down and bring you every immortal for an easy kill? Sorry, it
isn't done that way." 

"Why, because it doesn't fit with the rules of your precious game child? And who is going to stop
me?" His blade bit hard into her arm and she screamed in pain as he twisted the blade. "You won't." 

Ignore the pain, she pushed forward and wrapped her hand around the blade and held it in place.
She pulled the elderly tycoon and thrust her own blade deep into his gut and wrenched it out. He fell
to his knees and she pulled the blade out of her arm and tossed it to one side. 

"Don't be so sure of that old man," she whispered as she raised the saber high and brought it down
on his exposed neck. There was a brief shock of impact as metal met flesh and bone, and then the
head rolled away from the body. 

She closed her eyes and lowered her sword as the body tumbled down onto the grass. She tensed
as the smell of ozone and the crackle of electricty signalled the beginning of it. Here it comes. The
first shock hit her hard and she screamed as the rapturous feeling ran through her body and soul. 

The four friends stood by and waited for the spectacle came to the end. They looked on in horror
and shock as the lighting coursed from Quincy to Nene. Finally, she fell to the ground, smoking from
the multible lightning strikes. 

Nene pushed herself up from her knees and swayed dizzily. A hand was there to steadly her before
she could fall back down. She looked up to see Sylia offering her a hand up. Nearby, Priss picked
up her sword. She licked her dry lips as she leaned her old friend. 

"I'm sorry, Sylia."she started but Sylia cut her off gently. 

"Later." 

Sylia's Apartment, Neo-Tokyo. 16 August, 2056 

Nene rested her elbows on the terrace and looked up into the night sky. She had spent most of the
night explaining why she had done it, and notifying the other immortals that Project Lazarus and
Quincy were no longer a problem. 

Immortals and Watchers all over the Solor systerm were resting much easier. The status qou had
been restore and the Game could continue without fear of interference. She didn't turn as the soft
footsteps approached her. Didn't look back, didn't have to. Sylia's quiet presence radiated radiated
itself like a beacon. Seconds passed before either woman could muster the courage to break the
silence. 

Finally Sylia broke the pregnant silence. 

"Why did you leave the party, Nene?" Nene sighed and turned to look at the elder Stingray. 

"I couldn't take the stares when you all don't think I notice. Like I would draw my saber and start
hacking away at the funiture or one of you." She looked at Sylia, "I wouldn't do that you know." 

"I... We all know that, but it is just that it is one thing to have you tell us about your world..." Nene
finished for her. 

"... and another to see the impossible up close." Try living it. 

"Then there is the rage that you have been barely able to control." Nene nodded grimly and tried to
come up with the words for her explanation. 

"Sylia, I can't tell you what I was thinking when I shoved two and a half feet of carbon steel through
the chest of my best friend. You can't begin to understand what it is that goes on when you take the
Quickening of another immortal. It's like...." she paused as struggled with the words, putting the
Quickening into mere words seemed almost profane, " the ultimate rush, you see ... no, live
everything that the Immortal has ever done, seen, felt or been in seconds. You never come out of a
Quickening the same way you were before. Fifthteen years ago, I killed the Immortal that killed my
mentor. He was 800 years old, and fought with a beserker rage. It has haunted me for years, and
took a large portion of my willpower to keep it from consuming me." 

"And now?" Sylia asked 

"It's gone, I finally mastered it in the battle on the Tower," she lowered her head in shame, "it just
about cost Linna her life." 

The two women looked out of the nightime sky for long minutes. Neither was sure of what to say
next. Nene finally broke the silence. 

"I'm going back to Luna." Sylia was shocked. 

"Why?" 

"I have a life there Sylia, all I have here is the past," she looked back into the apartment and watched
Linna and Mackie play with their daughter, "I envy you people. I would sell my soul to have that
type of legacy." 

"You don't have to go Nene." 

"Yes, I do. What do I have to hold me here? Just you four, you're all the family I have left. A job?
Lost that 20 years ago.", she looked back at Mackie and Linna before continuing quietly, "Part of
me still loves him, you know. Should I stay here and let the jealously of what they have eat me alive.
No, I don't want to look at them and see what I can never have." she looked at Sylia and stopped
when she saw the sly smile. "What?" 

"I think I could make it possible for you to have a child. Or at least, contribute genetic material
towards that goal. From what you told me, an outright clone is impossible, but I wonder if it would
be possible to selectively comb through your gene structure and use chimeric gene splicing to add
some of your genetic structure to a fertalized ovum from a donor. " She looked up to the stars
before continuing, "It should be possible, but finding the correct gene sequences could take years to
find. Interested?" Nene couldn't believe what she was being offered. A chance at the impossible. 

"Hell yes, I'm interested. What do you need ?" 

" You to stay for a while. Stay here with your family, Nene and don't run away again. Besides, I
could use someone that is young and resilient to help me as a troubleshooter. It could take years to
quietly take apart Genom. Deal?" Sylia held her hand out to her. 

Nene thought about this for a minute. Where could she go from here. She could return to Luna and
teachin, or go to Mars to participate in the Terraforming project. Perhaps return to Paris and reopen
Warren's dojo and teach swordmanship, maybe wander the Earth not staying in any one place long
enough drop roots. 

Or she could stay here and be a part of her adoptive family's life while hoping that she could one day
hold a child that was some little part of her own. It wasn't really that hard a choice she decided as
she took the offered hand. Don't have much to lose. 

"Deal."