4.04: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Word.

[nofileext]

There's a tiny hourglass on a choker around Daemon's neck. It's always been there. At the moment she was first compiled, the sand was all in the top half of the glass, and it's been slowly draining through ever since.

Now, as she stands at the threshold of Mainframe's Principal Office, the last grain of sand comes to rest.

Daemon stops dead in her tracks. As she speaks, her words seem to echo in the infected ground and sky around her:

"I am Daemon.
I am not an entity; I am a time.
My time is now.
The Word is CRON."

"NO!" Bob gasps. "Not a Cron virus..."

Daemon's body shimmers, blurs, then dissolves in a cascade of orange sparks. All that's left is a vaguely person-shaped mass of green light where she stood. (Is this really Daemon? Was the girl just another puppet, another vessel for the Word?)

The light flows upward and outward, losing its shape and coherence as it goes. It spreads through the system, through the open port, through the portals still open above the Principal Office. Every system in the 'Net is bathed in its green glow.

Throughout the 'Net, every sprite, binome, and numeral who remains touched by the Word stops dead in their tracks, just as their mistress did. They close their eyes and begin counting down.

"111100... 111011... 111010..."

Comments

[notascreensaver]

No. Oh no.

"I've seen this before!"

It was not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

Well, Bruck can tell that this is a Bad Thing from that reaction. However...

"Why are they counting down?" That's said in a rather nervous bout of confusion.

[queenofmay]

"And what's a cron virus?"

Marian understood panic, if not why, though she had come to understand the 'virus' term lately.

"Actually, better would be just telling us how to stop it."

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

Tommy looks very worried.

"I'm not sure that we can stop it. Generally something or someone blowing up and then glowing green is a pretty bad sign."

Especially when large numbers of people then begin a countdown immediately afterward.

[steadfastknight]

Where there had been a car, there was a sprite, catching himself in the middle of a skid with one hand against the street's surface - that'd burn later, but he'd get over it.

A timed payload. Why hadn't any of his scans told him--

"Oh heavens," he murmured as he stood, staring, worried - he could disconnect, but--...

"I'll live." Because he had to.

[seker-pride.livejournal.com]

"We have little choice but to find a way to stop it, or our efforts will be wasted."

He looks at those still infected. They seem ... oddly ... blissful. As blissful as one could get when counting down to one's suicide.

"Would be a shame to have gone to all this trouble for nothing."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"This is hardly ideal," says Matilda. "What are we going to do?"

It's Tommy she looks to. He seems to have been the most sensible of her companions so far, and despite his apparent pessimism, perhaps he can be persuaded to pull something out of his metaphorical sleeve.

[command_dot_com]

"Bob, can you hear me?"

Dot has him supported over one shoulder walking him towards the gathered army from Milliways.

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Dot..."

Once, in a Gamecube, Bob saw a clock that was badly broken but still running, its cracked and rusted gears grinding together as it feebly tried to chime the hours. That's kind of how Bob feels right now, as he works desperately to keep processing, to tell Dot what's going to happen.

"Cron v-virus... end to all things... t-total crash..."

[nofileext]

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Hexadecimal grabs the ailing Guardian up off the ground and into her arms. He droops like a rag doll in her arms as she dances him around the platform in front of the Principal Office, singing something that might have been a waltz if it had any meter or tune.

[mendanddefend_archive]

The world is spinning. Why is it spinning? Bob fights to keep his eyes open. Everything is in motion except...

"Hex? What... what are you doing?"

[nofileext]

"Don't worry, my love," Hex croons as she dances with Bob--her Bob, her Guardian. "I will care for you and make you well, then you will love me as I love you--totally!"

[command_dot_com]

"Get off him!"

Dot grabs the now over-powered virus's shoulder.

...Prrrrrobably not the smartest battleplan.

[nofileext]

Incensed, Hex fires a quick burst of energy at Dot, knocking her away. Bob is hers, spammit, and no interloping sprite is going to change that. Even if they have slept together. Even if they love each other. Hex loves him more, and soon Bob will love her back.

Epilogue

[nofileext]

Welman collapses, breaking apart into a squirming pile of nulls. Hexadecimal is gone; there is nothing to hold the improvised body together anymore.

The binomes have stopped counting--good thing, too, since they had gotten down to 01 by the time Hex got to them. They look around, blinking in confusion, like they've just been roused out of a sound sleep.

The war is over. We won. All that's left now is to pick up the pieces.

Re: Epilogue

[mendanddefend_archive]

Like the Guardian who's still sprawled on the ground, for example.

Re: Epilogue

[command_dot_com]

"Bob? Bob?" Dot puts her hands to her face, is he...still with them?

Re: Epilogue

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob's eyes flicker open. He tries to smile, but it comes out as more of a grimace.

"Hey."

Re: Epilogue

[command_dot_com]

"Stay with us, okay? You mustn't leave me. Not again. We need you." Dot leans over him stroking his chest, like she's scared he's going to disappear. "I need you."

Then... all of that pent up anxiety and emotion just breaks over the firewall, and she starts sobbing, crying onto his chest. "I love you. Please don't go. Stay... Marry me."

Re: Epilogue

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob's having a hard time following her words. It's taking an enormous effort just to stay conscious. He's losing the feeling in his fingers, and what he can feel hurts like hell, and he's just so tired...

Wait.

Did Dot just say what he thought she said?

She did.

Bob looks up at Dot, and a genuine smile crosses his face. "I th-thought you'd never ask..."

Then he gasps as another surge of pain floods through his system, and--

and--

("But how will our love survive?")

and everything just fades out.

("It won't. I'm sorry.")

Bob's head sags back against the pavement. He's not moving. His body is becoming more and more transparent by the picosecond.

Re: Epilogue

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

A small portal appears on the scene, briefly displaying the chaos of the Web before two sprites step through. Both are Surfers, although one of them is usually a Kourier.

"Hey!" YT exclaims, grinning, as she steps through. "Look who I...oh, shit." She has, as one may surmise, just noticed Bob.

Re: Epilogue

[l33t-mouse.livejournal.com]

Right now, Mouse is not in the mood to show her usual enthusiasm at seeing Ray again. She just gives YT a flat, sadness-tinged look that seems very out-of-place on her, and embraces her confused boyfriend without a word.

Re: Epilogue

[nofileext]

"What's processing, love?" asks Ray, hugging her back. "We saw the infection disappear, isn't it all... oh."

Re: Epilogue

[l33t-mouse.livejournal.com]

Mouse nods. "We...we ain't got through clean, sugar." Pause. "An' it's partly on me."

Re: Epilogue

[nofileext]

"How's that, then?" he asks, pulling back to look her in the face. "Did she get you?"