Warnings:
AU, OOC, yaoi, angst, fluff, cybergeeks.
This is...different from our usual writing style. ;_; Sorry.
For Melissa Maxwell. ^_~
Pairings: 2x1-centric
It's the last piece to my gear, my head visor. Black and shiny, it looks like swim goggles, almost, except they're wider. It's circular, giving me panoramic vision. I slip it on, and suddenly I'm not standing in my room anymore. The disorientation only lasts a few moments, I'm used to it by now. I've been visiting it for almost a year now.
I stand in a field of golden wheat, swaying gently in the breeze. I can feel the wind, actually slapping my face gently, chastising. There's no one else around...
"Shinigami," I whisper. My password from this golden gate and inside it. Before the word even leaves my lips, the scenery was fading, dissolving into little bytes and megabytes of information. Beyond the wheat and a little farmhouse in the background, there is nothing. Blackness.
Taking a deep breath, I mentally call up my hard drive. Calling out, slowly: "C:\Panacea\Tech\Deathscythe". What I need to get around. In a flash of bytes rearranging themselves, it appears, my metal monster, my creation. Only Relena's, Wing Zero, compares. Great minds think alike.
I'm the pilot. It took so long to get used to flying it, but it was worth it. I zoom into darkness and a few seconds later, I'm there, on the outskirts. From here, I know that reality and Panacea intermingle. I've seen people die here, and I did nothing to help them. You don't know if some people are really trapped here, or if they're just bytes, data it uses to keep us busy, to keep itself happy. I don't know how a computer could have a mind, but it does. It thinks. It breathes through its creations.
A lonely man stumbles up to Deathscythe, clutching his black robes. A Priest. Nothing more than an animated character set up by Panacea to try and confuse its players. And we're all players. It's a twisted game.
"Hello," he says, bowing politely. I turn on the speakers and speak.
"Hello, Father." My voice sounds loud and brassy, but it doesn't matter. "How are you today?"
"Fine fine," he mutters, waving his hands. "I know what you've come for." My heart skips a beat; he's not a character. Characters follow certain specifications; they can't skip small talk. They don't know any better...
"Who are you?" I demand.
"Doesn't matter," he brushes me off. "Call me Father Maxwell, if you want." And I freeze. Maxwell. Duo Maxwell. It must be a coincidence. Panacea can't touch the outside world; it only knows me as Shinigami.
"There are rules to this game. He insisted that you have a guide."
"He. Who's 'he'?"
"Heero Yuy. The boy Peacecraft brought to Panacea." He shrugs. "He's a good hacker. Panacea wants him."
I snort. "Panacea's a computer. You're just another kid like me." He smiles, but says nothing. Maybe I've fried his circuits or something.
"I used to be," he admits. "But I lost. And now I'm part of it. It is part of me." There's a dead look in his eyes that I don't like.
"So you lost to Panacea. So what? It's just a game." He snarls at me, and I jump back, though I am inside my machine and he is only a forty year old man. Harmless. But he feels harmful, and I always follow my gut instincts.
"So if you lose to Panacea, you'll become like me. And so will Heero." I grit my teeth; always Heero. How pathetic, for Peacecraft to use him to blackmail me.
"But it's just a virtual reality simulation. It's not real." He laughs.
"Let me show you how real it is."
End Part Two
Ariana and Bianca
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