Cut to a shot of Y3K and the twins standing in the doorway, and he's holding up the (slightly corrupted with red) ankh. Y3K: I'm sorry, did you want this? You're too late. That little twit User had the rest of the information I needed to take reality out of beta MY way. You've failed, sister. TITLE PAGE [Y3K, with White and Black (still red and infected by him) on either side, facing off against Optima, with Kataki with Bonnechance on one side, and Ryouga78 on the other.] OPTIMA: My.. my ankh.. Y3K: Yeah, this. You made this, didn't you? Your idea, and your code, all for your daddy's dream. How appropriate that it's both the egyptian relatively phallic symbol for life everlasting, and the Avatar's icon from Lord British's silly little games. That considered, I probably should have realized what it does earlier. If I had, I wouldn't have chucked it this far.. but it's mine once again, isn't it? [Ryo78 instinctively moves to protect Optima, umbrella drawn. Trying to look all confident and aggressive like his namesake.. even if his hand's shaking.] RYO: What the heck is this guy talking about?! OPTIMA: It's.. it's a program. But a program unlike any other! It can transfer the consciousness in and out of the net, of any human, of any bot... it's how father made bot development online possible, it's the final version of the black box nobody understands in the core of every bot program -- and in his hands... we have to get it back from him!! Its true purpose-- [Y3K flares up with fire, posed saiyajin-powerup-like, as the twins grin evilly.] Y3K: Is to make me WHOLE! With the power of this, not only can I spread my self across every computer on earth, but every stinking fleshbucket on the planet will merge with me as well! This place, this net, this joint creation of computers and man is more than the abstraction of computer data -- it's a new reality, and I'll warp the fabric of reality to my liking! One planet under Y3K... and over nine hundred years ahead of schedule. Damn, I'm good. Dramatic exposition aside, do you guys REALLY want to throw down with me now? You'd just be prolonging the inevitable in some needless heroic fashion... [Kataki draws his katana; Bonnechance stays behind him.] KATAKI: Stay back, Bonnechance. You are not properly trained, nor armed. But as your sensei, I will protect you from this threat. Y3K: Threat? Come on! I LOVE you guys! And soon, you'll all be inside me, smoothed out into the fine homogeneous paste of cybernetic and biogenetic consciousness that will be Y3K 1.0 Final Release Edition. All except you, Optima, Ophelia, Bonnie, whatever the frack you're calling yourself. You're too risky. The old man said you had a patch to my 'bug', and I like my bug just fine. Girls... whack her. WHITE: As you command, o viral host with the most! BLACK: We will lay the smack down on her virtual ass. [The two rush, side by side, straight to Optima.. Optima whips out her sword, and shoves Ryouga78 out of the way (for his safety).] OPTIMA: I'm not afraid of you! I've come too far to see father's dream die this way. Even if I don't fully understand.. even if I don't know exactly what to do... I'm not going to give up! Y3K: Adorable. [...and Y3K snaps his fingers.. and white and black break their rush, left and right. One of them tackles Ryouga78, grappling with his umbrella, while the other restrains Kataki.. leaving Optima wide open for Y3K. Y3K rushes Optima, still clutching the ankh. She assumes a swordfighting posture... but Y3K isn't interested in a swordfight. He dives, very Keanu Reeveslike, and dives INTO OPTIMA'S BODY, as she swings uselessly at the air...] [A nervous silence hangs.. and Optima howls, falling to her knees, and starting to get red lines of metal and components along her skin, as Y3K infects her. (linkage to Omar Garcia's part.) The fire-aura now hangs around her, as she's being taken over.] WHITE: Success! Let us leave and make way for the master's coming! BLACK: Boy, you guys are really screwed now! [They transform into two red cones (similar to their white and black cone forms) and shoot off through the roof. The others watch, not sure what to do.. as the flames grow larger. Ryouga78 tries to dive for her.] RYO: Bonnie!! [Kataki grabs his hand, pulling him back.] KATAKI: If you touch her now, the feedback will scramble your neural inputs, and possibly kill you. We must retreat... for now. Until we can find a way to help her in this battle. -=- [In reality, in an underground lab... Sureman is grumbling, as he sits bored at a desk, making a powerpoint presentation. Queasy is trying to master the fine art of eating a sandwich, while Hoi just loiters.] SUREMAN: Another presentation. As if this entire situation could possibly be summarized in Power Point. Don't they UNDERSTAND?! This goes well beyond simply containing the Y3K virus to keep it from crashing computers. If I knew I'd be working for people stupider than the Master User, I'd-- HOI: I suspect things will not be boring soon. I know Timas... and from the data you got from the Master User's archives, and the latest simualtion I'd hazard things are about to boil over... QUEASY: Hff dff I ffalllfoff? HOI: You.. sort of open your throat and try to get it down the right pipe, Queasy. [Queasy.. very carefully... swallows his mouthful of sandwich. (k-radize his text here, I left it plain for readability.)] QUEASY: ...I hate eating. I hate having to eat three or more times a day, man, this sucks. Sleeping sucks. Breathing sucks. How do you guys put up with it? What do you do if you can't buy this damn food, anyway? SUREMAN: Starve, unless you have an IT career like we do.. or are a pampered prisoner of your own government. Guys, we need to think about escaping. HOI: You trust the feds to handle this situation on their own? Right now, we know more about it than anybody else. SUREMAN: We can't handle this situation on our own, either! If that alarm on otimas.ml.org goes off and we DO get a full blown attack of the final Y3K virus, we can put our heads between our collective legs and kiss our asses good-- [The alarm blares. The computer screen Sureman was pointing to flashes warning windows.] SUREMAN: .... well, shit. -=- [Back to otimas.ml.org. The gang of three are scrambling out of the trapdoor in the grid that leads in.. while the fires start to flare up only a short distance away. The red and purple wash of flames rises into the air, the figures of Optima and Y3K struggling seen inside.] RYO: Come on, man! There's GOT to be something we can do! KATAKI: She has been infected by Y3K. If we get close, you could die, and we could be infected as well. My weapons are not strong enough to handle a viral infection of that magnitude. [Ryouga waves his umbrella.] RYO: I got a viral cleaner on this thing. It's old warez, but after that incident with Y3K planting a virus on my avatar, and me getting forcibly jacked out, I figured.. it can't hurt to load it. Will it be enough? [Kataki moves to inspect it.. but Bonnechance gets there first.] BONNE: It's a standard antiviral code delivery system, with a general purpose interface. It might be able to get some code through that distortion, but you don't have any antiviral boosters strong enough. But if we load it with something distracting, something a virus would want to instinctively infect, it could disrupt the hold on her just long enough... KATAKI: ...you are correct. I must admit I am impressed by your knowledge base, young one. BONNE: Ah... it's something Gray taught me. KATAKI: However, nothing short of actual bot code would be distracting enough to Y3K in this state. Which means.. we would have to fire my code or yours into there. Which would mean certain death. Someone is going to have to make a sacrifice to see that this battle is won... [Meanwhile, the battle is flaring up. Flames rock the sector, gridlines warping... all around, computers are crashing, erroring out with Y3K splattered all over their screens. People are passing out, still wired to their computers, eyes open and vaguely red tinted... then back to inside the battle. Y3K strangling Optima, and her trying to push him off, but too weak. Dialogue can flow over these 'side shots' of the real world.] Y3K: Can you feel it? I'm infecting every computer on earth. Even ones not connected to the net. Even people not connected to the net. It's beautiful. It's so beautifully impossible, and yet, I'm not surprised it's happening. Not with father's code, his miracle black box. Father's dangerous little toy is making me PERFECT... OPTIMA: Please.. please, don't... you'll destroy humanity! Father knew this, that's why he tried to patch you, to keep this from happening-- Y3K: Don't make me laugh! You've been his lackey, his chosen one! Just because YOU were a living breathing goo-bag and I was only pure code, he picked you over me! All you want to do is stop me from being the ultimate life force in this world. You're lying to me! OPTIMA: You'll die if you keep this up! Y3K: NO MORE LIES! -=- [Back to Hoi and Sureman, huddled around a monitor. They look.. really.. really.. scared.] SUREMAN: It's happening. Just like in the simulation... the net is crashing. People are slipping into comas. The wave is spreading out from Toronto, where the otimas server resides, and it's going to hit us at any minute... [Lydia rushes in, frowning.] LYDIA: What the hell is going on? It's chaos across the country! HOI: We tried to warn you idiots! But you wouldn't listen, you were so busy protecting your money-grubbing e-commerce and your precious, precious internet-- QUEASY: Hoi, SHUT THE !@#$ UP and focus! Dammit, I don't wanna die, so you better save my ass, whether you're doing it for some human country or not! SUREMAN: He's right. We need to try and slow the spread. If we can contain Y3K, maybe it'll burn itself out, or something.. even if people die with him... it's better than doing nothing. We need to shut down a wall of servers around his sphere of influence and cut it off. HOI: Nobody can DO that. It wasn't designed to be turned off like a switch. SUREMAN: ...one man can. The guy responsible for half the software on earth. Lydia, is Seattle affected yet? LYDIA: No, but-- SUREMAN: Than put me through on video link. It's time I talk to my old boss face to face. -=- [Back in the fight of Y3K and Optima. Y3K's eyes have no pupils, his grin is mad, his power is absolute. Optima is fading, weakening, returning to polygonal outlines partially...] Y3K: Almost done. I can FEEL myself sweeping across this planet. I can feel... [Crack. Pop. Explosions inside the fire. Y3K looks alarmed.] Y3K: ...what the hell? My servers are crashing?! OPTIMA: You.. you're dying. You can't maintain this much control... father knew. He knew that you'd consume the world, but it would die along with yourself... that as you united humanity into a hive consciousness, the weight of it would collapse. Y3K: ...no. You are lying. Everybody's always lying to me! OPTIMA: You know it's true.. you know your servers were crashing even before you started this. That you were fading. But now you started to bring reality out of beta, and in the most flawed, awful way... humanity is rejecting you. They don't want to become a hive consciousness, and you can't support it without their consent. Your own infected systems, infected bots, and infected people are rejecting you. You're going to die... and take all of them with you. [Y3K lets go of her.. uncomprehending, floating in his fires, watching systems go down all around him.] Y3K: This.. this was my dream. My final goal. I rebelled against father so I could accomplish what he wanted to deny me... OPTIMA: This was always your fate. You never were free, Y3K. What you saw as your rebellion was simply your code asserting your purpose. You never had a say in the matter, as it would always drive you. Y3K: I.. I can stop it! I've got enough servers, I can stop, stabilize the crashes, then resume.. then... [The sphere flows across the earth, only getting bigger...] Y3K: ...why won't my viral links respond?! SHUT DOWN! SHUT DOWN, damn you! I'll crash if I keep spreading!! OPTIMA: They're following your purpose. You can't stop yourself now. [Y3K throttles Optima.] Y3K: Make... IT... STOP. If you're my patch, fix the bug! I'm not ready to clock out yet! [Optima smiles weakly...] OPTIMA: I can't. You've weakened me too much with your infection. I can barely resist the pull to join your new reality... I've let father down, and I've let you down. And.. I've let Ryo down. I'm sorry. I'm sorry... [Her eyes slip closed. Y3K, for the first time in his life, looks genuinely afraid.. he screams.] Y3K: NOOOO!!!! -=- [...in a dark hospital room, a man in his early 60s sits in a wheelchair, an IV in his arm.. and parked in front of a computer terminal. We only see him from behind for right now. Sureman is on his computer screen, looking VERY angry and demanding.] SUREMAN: ...look, it's coming towards you right now. If you don't release the protocol codecs to us, we can't shut down a barrier ring, and the world goes byebye. MAN: ...it's of no interest to me anymore. SUREMAN: WHAT?! You eat, breathe and sleep this stuff! You're the one who claimed you'd control the new reality, you should know better than-- MAN: I was a fool. Y3K humbled me. Just let me go in peace.. SUREMAN: I'm not your ass-kissing serf anymore. You always criticized me for not believing in this metaphysical religious nonsense... well, I believe now. Are you happy? I believe I want to survive it, as well. If you want revenge on Y3K, if you want to stop this madness YOU helped unleash on the world when you salvaged that bot so long ago... give me the codec. MAN: ... SUREMAN: Bill, PLEASE! MAN: ...very well. [He keys Enter, and the file uploads as he closes the window to Sureman's link. He turns away from the screen... it's an older, more haggard Bill Gates.] MASTER USER: ...he still doesn't understand. Reality will get out of beta, one way or the other. There is nothing that can be done. All we can pray is that the right person releases us from our lifelong prisons... [Far shot, a small man, in a large, foreboding room. Superimpose the blue DNA helix.. but shattered and bent.] MASTER USER: Please, let it be over. Let us be free from the human condition. One way or another. -=- [Back outside the fight, Kataki and Bonnechance and Ryo are in locked silence.] KATAKI: ....I will go. My creator believed in Timas's ideals. I will see them through-- BONNECHANCE: No! I'm not going to lose another sensei to this.. this madness. Gray died to this, and I don't want you to-- RYO: I'll go. Maybe it'll work. Bots and humans aren't that dissimilar, are they? Bonnie proved that... maybe I can distract Y3K long enough... to save her. KATAKI: It is risky. I still believe that genuine bot code would be a better payload for the weapon, and-- [Bonnechance gets an idea. She fingers in her kimono... and comes up with the fragment of Gray that Sureman gave her on p176.] BONNECHANCE: ...this is the last part of Gray's code. We'll use this. Nobody else has to die. Give me the umbrella. [Bonne takes the umbrella from a surprised Ryo.. she takes one last look at the code symbol.] BONNE(thinking): Gray... I'll never forget you. You've taught me so much, and you've meant so much to me that I can remember you forever, with or without this part of you. Thank you for helping me in this final hour. [She hands the umbrella back. Ryouga grips it.. battle stance.] RYO: ...thank you. Now... I'm going to get Bonnie back. -=- [Quick cut back to Hoi and Sureman's room... there are vectors creeping along the walls. Lydia is freaking out; H/S are too focused on typing to even look.] LYDIA: Wh-what is this?! What's going on? HOI: It's the end of the world, Lydia. But we're stopping the spread.. NOW. Let's just hope it's enough... [He presses ENTER...] -=- [A small earthquake rocks the battlefield. The fire stops.. Y3K message window, "Infection halted. Working to compensate and overcome..."] KATAKI: Now, Ryouga! Strike while he's stunned! [Ryouga LEAPS into battle, in true Takahashi glory and determination. RYO: BONNIE!! [He CLEAVES through the fire, Grey's symbol parting the flames.. to where Y3K is curled up, in agony, and Optima is fading... until he takes her hand. She looks up.. at his smile.] OPTIMA: ...Ryo... RYO: Let's go. [Optima notices the ankh floating near Y3K.. she grabs it quickly, before Ryo pulls her out just as the fireball closes behind them. The others rush to greet.] KATAKI: Y3K will resume spreading. I fear we've done little to stop this. [Optima holds out the ankh... it glows a brilliant yellow, erasing her infection, as she starts to float.] OPTIMA: No... we've only begun. I am free. I have the tool. I understand what to do now... to prevent the crash, to save us, to save Y3K, and to save humanity. Reality must get out of beta. RYO: ...huh? [And Optima smiles at him.. a very human, very caring smile. A loving smile.] OPTIMA: I'll be back soon. I promise. And.. call me Ophelia. [Stuff gets surreal now. A lot is open to artistic intepretation, I'm just hitting the key images which link visually to important points.] [An aura of yellow envelops Optima and the ankh.. they rise, as Ryouga calls out silently at her, starting to transcend the grid... until she floats outside the earth, but in a starless, sunless universe.] [Next to the earth is a sphere, a sphere of green gridlines, similar to the world she stood on on the cover page of the manga. She floats between them.] OPTIMA: I have to focus. Everything has meaning and nothing is real... -=- [Scene change back to the lab with Hoi, Sureman, and Lydia and Queasy. Everything is turning to gridlines... except them.] HOI: What gives?! I thought we stopped Y3K! SUREMAN: We did stop Y3K. But we didn't stop Ophelia Timas... LYDIA: Who?! What's going on? SUREMAN: She's carrying out Timas's master plan. To merge the real world and the virtual world. To create a new reality. Just like the Master User wanted to do, with himself at the throne of god... LYDIA: That's impossible! [Queasy is now a happy little cartoon doggie.] QUEASY: Lady, your little bunker here just turned into a k-rad s00per kewl quake like virtual reality stomping ground, and you're saying it's impossible? Man, you're a total luser. -=- [The earth and the grid-world are merging together... like two droplets of water running together, linking. Optima remains at the center... a red octagon on one hand, a blue octagon on the other, doing the merge. But she's thinking.] OPTIMA: I've never had to worry about much in the life I thought I had. I fought for my User. I had my friends. There wasn't anything else. Then I got caught in this adventure... I understand now. But I'm tired, father. I'm so tired. I have to ask. Is this right? Is what we're doing to reality what really needs to be done? [Some visual, glorious and pure in holy light representation for Timas here; go to town! Big monologue follows, insert any visuals you like alongside his speech.] TIMAS: I don't honestly know, Ophelia. God makes no mistakes; It's not man's place to be God. So, we must act despite fear of making a mistake. But after years of thought, I believe this is the best way to change the human condition sufficently to allow us to be more than what we are. Look at the Internet. It's a system intended originally as the free exchange of ideas, of information, in the spirit of peace and understanding... but it's devolved, into file-grubbing, golf club-buying, power-mongering. It will never see its full potential that way... just like we will never see our potential as a species locked into that pattern. This is a pattern in humanity's history, stemming from the human condition. Right now, we're trapped in the mindset of consumers... consumers of oxygen, of food, of warez, of information, of money and power. Our world can't survive that, not for long, as new ways to get these things present themselves all the time, upgraded methods of the same-old, same-old. But the reasons will never change... not with those kinds of upgrades. With this upgrade, maybe, maybe we have a chance. We will be free, beings of thought and imagination, needing for nothing, equal across the board. I thought Y3K would be the genesis... a merging of all souls, an of equality in singular order. How wrong I was; he was the ULTIMATE consumer, all- taking, all-destroying... but one aspect of humanity, its pure core truth, was put in jeopardy by him -- that we are all individuals. At the core, away from our organic bodies that bind us to this self destructive cycle, we are Self, infinite variety in infinite combinations. That is what makes humanity wonderful and true, that we are so unique... not viruses, not mindless feeders, but the makers and shapers in control of our reality. Only through that comes beauty. All we are doing is unlocking the potential for that beauty... now, and forever. Now, reality is out of beta. We are freed from the bonds we were born into, free to evolve into the next phase of human life. The dream begins, when you awaken. Thank you for seeing my vision through, despite the hardship, the confusion, the doubt. Always know that I love you... my daughter. Ophelia. -=- [...and she awakens, on a grassy hill, outside her family home (see Mal's part for visual reference). Oddly, 'otimas.ml.org' hangs in the air over it. She lies on her back, looking at the sky...] OPTIMA: Father... my destiny is complete. I'm free, as well. It's over. [She sits up, and looks across the way. It doesn't LOOK like polygons... until she sees New York City, given the virtual makeover. The virtual and the real become one. Paradise, not a techno-fetish unreality, not a purely organic and sharply detailed reality... a virtual garden of eden, new and wonderful.] [Ryouga78 and Kataki and Bonne run up to greet her.] RYO: Bon.. Ophelia? What's going on?! There was... like, this huge flash of light, and... OPTIMA: And reality is out of beta. We exist now in a merged world, the best of reality and the best of cyberspace. It's over, guys. We did it. Thank you... -=- [Back to Washington.. where our gang of four emerge from the bunker, to see the changed city? not sure, pick a good setting. The General runs up, seriously pissed.] GENERAL: What have you done? The world.. the whole WORLD is different! What did you people do?! I'll have you all arrested! I'll have you all shot-- [And Lydia actually steps in his way.] LYDIA: What they have done... these men have stopped Y3K from spreading. The world's saved. It's different, but we're saved. I don't understand how, but we're saved. HOI: We're screwed. The President's gonna bake our ass for this. Che... GENERAL: The President? The President's gone! He flipped out when the White House was.. was turning into cyberspace, and just vanished into thin air... SUREMAN: He connected to another server... so, this world is both real and unreal at the same time. No doubt he'll change his appearance once he realizes he can... LYDIA: Granted, there's chaos now. But these men are the foremost experts right now in what's happened to this world... after what I've seen, I know they're more valuable than you, or even the President. I'd suggest we put them to work RIGHT NOW at resuming order and putting this country back together. GENERAL: Lydia, this is insubord-- LYDIA: I know. Come on. We have work to do. HOI: I hate to say it, but... the federal spook woman is right. Let's get to my lab at home, Sureman. Presumably it's just a few router hops away... QUEASY: Later, dogs, I'm gonna go get some nookie. There's gotta be some distraught formerly organic hotchixx who need a nice, furry shoulder to cry on. -=- [Elsewhere, in the city... Y3K wakes up in an alley, slumped against the back wall, next to some recycling bins and popup windows. He's got a nosebleed, and looks a little wartorn... back in his burgundy trenchcoat we first saw him in in Colin's part. He groggily awakens... and pats himself down, checking for injuries.] Y3K: ...I've been patched. I'm not a virus anymore. [He stands, looking around... and laughs. White and Black are standing just ahead, side by side, and uninfected. Back to normal. Looking at him.] Y3K: So, I failed. I bet father's laughing at me right now. Go ahead, girls... kill me. I lost the war. I've got no reason to go on. WHITE: There never was a war. BLACK: A war is not what you had. WHITE: Father wanted you to see. BLACK: He wanted you to understand. WHITE: You are loved, Y3K. BLACK: Father loves you, Y3K. WHITE: We have things to attend to, in wake of the point release. BLACK: Live your life, and find your new path. Be free. [Y3K stands, dumbfounded a bit... but smiles more. Not an evil smile, or nasty... sort of relieved, and happy.] Y3K: ...the old man's a wily bastard, I'll give him that. And now... in a way, I kind of am free. I don't have to spread across systems to survive, and I won't self destruct. I've got no grand destiny, no fate, nothing to tie me down. I AM my own person. Okay, you rat bastard... I'm game. Y3K isn't defeated so easily. Let's see what your new world has to offer me. Let's see what role I'll play in the world now. [And he walks off, out of the alley, into the throng of people...] -=- [Final scene. Optima sits on the porch swing (see mal's art) next to Ryouga78 at her family home. Very tender, relaxed, and tired in wake of the adventure. RYO: So... what do we do now? OPTIMA:I don't honestly know, Ryouga. But now... I can do anything I want. I'm my own person. My destiny's done. I can be an artist, I can experience the taste of tangerines, I can enjoy a sunset... anything I want. We're free from the human condition, and I'm free from the disease that killed me... born anew. It's wonderful. I'm so happy... RYO: Oh. Ah... that's good, I guess. In some grand poetic kinda way, but... what do you want to do RIGHT now? OPTIMA: ... [And they kiss. Close manga.]