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Date Posted: 18:00:43 08/07/01 Tue
Author: FawnDoo
Subject: The very long night of......

Off somewhere in the distance there was a voice......."Let me have a look at him." and then................

******************************


He spun in a timeless arc, neither here or there, in or between. His memories were disjointed, moving between past and future as easily as one walks from one room to another. He was, in the truest and most complete sense of the word, gone.

And yet.........in the deepest wilderness, there is order. In the wildest storm, calm. In the midst of nothing........something. He perceived it as a light at first - one almost bright enough to blind anyone who dared look upon it. In time the light faded, leaving behind a figure cast in shadows. His sensations were numb as he and the figure regarded one another.

"You knew there would be a reckoning."

He nodded.

"A price to pay. Yours will be a high one indeed."

Another nod. It was nothing but the truth.

"You bathed me in the dark light of a perverted science. Sullied my name. Cast into blackness and despair what once was light and hope."

The figure took a step forward, becoming slightly more visible. Eyes could be seen, glowing embers that spoke of a heat long since dissipated. It did not leave the shadows, he noticed.

"I cannot." The figure spoke with a certainty that brooked no argument. "You made sure of that. Only you can change that, if it is within you to do so."

For the first time he found his voice, pale and weak as it was in comparison to the other. "That is what I am trying to do."

For the briefest second, a melody could be heard. A voice whispered in his ear, "Too little, too late."

"No............."

The figure moved in shadow again. "That is what you believe, and that is why you will fail. You stole from others what Gods themselves do fear and cherish in equal measure - you must know punishment."

"A reckoning."

This time, it was the figure who nodded. "A reckoning. You must redress the balance. Make right what once went wrong, and know no peace until your debt is repaid. Your past has led to this future, and only the being it has made you become can undo the damage wrought."

He noticed a barely perceptible spin in the nothingness around him. Suddenly he was engulfed in stars, amidst a cosmos of staggering beauty and stark emptiness. The figure was beside him.

"You believe your journey down the path of cold and darkness is complete. You try to convince yourself that you have come into the light. That is why you are ready to move on. That is why you are trying to die."

He could do nothing but offer another mute nod.

"You are wrong. A final act of darkness lies before you, if you so choose it."

He looked at the cloaked figure. A tendril of shadow coiled past his face. "I thought I had put myself beyond choice long ago."

"This is not true. You may choose to trust in the goodness of others at your moment of greatest crisis, or you may act according to your own true nature, to be one last time the being you were born to be. At that moment and at no other before or after your choice will be before you. And the consequences of your choice will be born from that moment."

He did not need that explained. "Salvation?"

"Or damnation. Such is the nature of choice. Either way, there must be atonement. Only the final destination alters, not the journey."

There, in the distance, a star twinkled. He had the vaguest impression of speed, and then he was there. He and the figure regarded the far-off structure spinning in space. He could feel the people within.

"A crucible. This place, and others, will bring you to your moment of choice. There the truth of your nature......and the truth of your end, will be revealed to you."

He was moving closer and closer to the structure now. Closer, closer and quickly past it, to another, smaller structure nearby. As he was about to hit it the first face streaked past him.....then another......then ten more........fifty.......a hundred more......a thousand........ten thousand...........

He saw himself, near death, closer to giving up and letting what would happen, happen. He knew now that was not the way. Knew that, for the first time in memory, he had a choice.

It was a unique feeling.

******************************


"Welcome back to the land of on-line systems." Muldoon's gruff voice rang in his audio sensors. He looked about, realizing he was on the deck of the Nova*Beacon's bridge. Ebonhawk, Mercado, Dark Star, they were all there.

He sat up, slowly, aided by Ebonhawk. Turning to the human, he simply said, "Thank you."

"No problem, it's what I do. I've managed to repair some of your systems, and your auto-repair gadgets can cover the rest. I'm not too sure though, your systems have been modified quite a bit from the standard. Are you going to be alright?"

At that, even though he could feel new power and vitality coursing through his circuits, FawnDoo found he had only one answer.

"I don't know."

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