Chapter Three

      Jeff almost felt like crying. Even if over his emotion he had made a cover of stone, this was too much for even him. He held a deep sadness in him for Shanka, Ki’ace, Ki’eva, Max, and yes, Eric. The members of one of the most hated hacking groups, mostly hated by the guardians, who could never catch them 'till now, were now nothing more than a word on some hypertext lost in the Net. He knew what he had to do, and one of them was to follow these dreams and hallucinations to their source. But first he would go to the Zed village that Ki’ace and Ki’eva came from and tell the elders that they were dead, not something he cared to do, but it was the least he could do.
      Sliding out of the booth, he slowly walked towards the door. He stopped as he felt something hit his leg and then the floor. He looked down and saw a small human child, a boy no more then six.The boy looked up and almost seemed to shiver at the sight of Jeff.
      "Sorry.. Mis..ter.. I didn’t see you," he said softly, as he slowly stood but kept his small, blue eyes on Jeff.
      "Where’s your mom" asked Jeff calmly. The kid pointed his shaky hand at a woman at a booth on the other side of the café. Jeff thought for a moment and adjusted his shades as he took the young child’s hand and led him back to his mother. "Believe you lost this?" he said to the lady.
      She didn’t even notice that the boy had left and was shock, but she smiled at Jeff. "Thank you I’m sorry if he troubled you," she said, as she picked the boy up and placed him next to her.
      "No not at all," he said and turned. As he walked to the door, he heard the kid.
      "Mommy.. That guys a hacker," he said a little louder then he should have.
      "Ya.. How do you figure?" she said, playing with the kid.
      "Because he looks like the guy that was on the news last night, you know? The one that the Guardians thought they blew up!" he said.
      She turned and look back to see that Jeff was gone, and she shook her head. "Your seeing things," she said softly and returned to drinking her coffee.

      Jeff stood in the alleyway, a short distance from the former Hacker HQ. The place was swarming with Guardians and CPU’s. But he didn’t care about them as much as what he needed. He watched as they pulled out the unit he needed and unbelieving set up the portable portal generator. Jeff watched in amazement as the guardians walked away and back into the hole which they'd used to enter the base.
      Jeff moved quickly to the generator, quickly turning it on, and he began typing in the address of the Zed system.
      "Hey! You! Back away from that!" shouted a voice.
      Jeff kept working on the key board. He had to do it now or lose any chance of getting to the village.
      "NOW!" boomed the voice.
      Jeff, now more than a little annoyed, turned around and gave the sprite a strong look of anger. "Can't you see that I'm busy?" he asked nonchalantly. And without even thinking, he pulled his pistol and fired a shot at the sprite's leg, knocking him to the ground. "Damn...Hate to do that," he said and hit the final key. No sooner than a portal flashed open, that every CPU in the place came sailing out and at him, weapons drawn and aimed at Jeff. "Damnit," he said to himself, as he aimed his pistol roughly at the CPU’s and fired ofs a volley of shots, as he backed into the portal and into the tunnel of light.

      "The Subject has become random... He has become an individual," came a voice from the darkness.
      The room was dark, aside from a light that shone down into the middle. A wooden table was barley visible from the dim light, and a few hands were folded and laid on the table and were the only confirmation that the voices came from people, but the races were unknown, since any skin was covered from view with gloves.
      "He was programmed to fit his part... Now he has. I don’t see a problem," said yet another voice.
      "The subject was to be a hacker. He has and was to be in the base when the attack occured. He wasn't. Now he is in the Net."
      "The Subject is still within our tracking range, as long as the unit stay’s inside him. And since he doesn’t know he has it...he is still under our control," said a strong voice.
      "Enough you two. Now...any idea where he could have gone?"
      "No," all replied at the same time.
      "This is not good. We believe that his memory blocks have begun to give; he will start to remember things."
      "It could lead to the entire operation. We aren't safe," said another voice.
      "Project should have been scraped long ago. It’s been over 50 years, and the O.R.S. will run low in his system. Without the stem shorts he will have to come back as before."
      "Yes, but before he knew to come back, he wasn’t given that command this time."
      "I hope that you two will figure something out soon. With all we know, he could be looking for us now, and I don't think he will be too happy."

      Jeff’s arrival in the system was not a pleasant one. No sooner than he'd come out of the portal than he was tackled and disarmed.
      He hit the ground of the tent hard, his eyes closed.
      "Your highness, we caught this human coming through a portal. He put up a good fight. Three of our warriors will be out for a while," said a voice of a woman.
      "I don’t believe it! Jeff?!!" came a voice of a friend he knew and trusted. Slowly lifting his head, he opened his eyes, and through the blur he saw a face he thought he never would see again. "Ki’ace?" he said softly.
      Ki’ace sat on a wooden throne before him, dressed in the Clan's attire. "Get this man to De'cael...now!"
      "But your highness..." one of the Zeds began.
      "NOW!" she roared.
      The two Zeds nodded and picked Jeff up. Jeff closed his eyes, not having enough energy to keep them open.
      A moan escaping from the human let the Zed standing guard know that he was finally awake. "So...you awake?" it said, trying desperately to talk.
      "Yes. You not bad at speaking" said Jeff as basically as he could.
      "I will get Highness," he said and turned to leave, when he stopped and knelt.
      "Go," came the voice that Jeff trusted.
      "Ki’ace, before I ask why you are the leader of this village...tell me...how in hell did you survive?"
      "No Jeff.. You tell me about this..." She said and tossed something at him, hitting his chest, and Jeff opened his eyes.
      Picking up the small disk, Jeff looked at it carefully. "Looks like a tracking disk. Where did you get this?" he asked.
      Ki’ace looked back at the two Zed guards and they left. She sat on the bed. "Your lower back...from where one of my Warriors slashed you. The doc removed it when she was checking your wounds. We deactivated it, and I want to know why you have it."
      "I’d like to know too. Which has lead to me to another reason for being here."
      "And the reason you came here before?"
      " Your funeral" he replied and sat himself up.
      "That takes four days" she replied.
      "I know... Wasn't going anywhere for a while, but since you are alive -thank the powers that be- you gotta come with me," he said with a grin.
      "And that would be to where?" she asked. Even though should could scan his mind and find out, she liked the games he played.
      "Mainframe" he said softly.
      "Why are you going there?"
      "I know someone that can help me. And I’m on a quest."
      She looked at him strangely and shook her head. "I don’t know Jeff. A quest? And that would that be?" she asked.
      "Don’t ask. But I could use your help. I mean it’s got to be better than being the leader of a village."
      " Jeff..." she began, "listen, I can't leave for another three days."
      "You've got that long to decide. Either way.. I’m going" he said. Pulling the blanket up over his shoulders, he adjusted himself on the makeshift bed. She stood and walked to the flap of the tent, looking back.
      "Three days" he said softly.

      The lights from the outside shone through the open flap of the tent, thus awakeing the human known as Jeff Freeman. As he opened his eyes, his whole body came alert in one quick jolt, as he awoke to the faces of three young Zeds looking at him. "Some Security," he said to himself, noting the fact that the guards let these Zeds into a tent that held a human. But Jeff figured that if they were going to do anything, they would have done it. "Alright. Alright. Shows over; out," he said.
      The Zeds looked at one another and then back to him. Jeff sat up and tossed the blanket aside as he got up. The three Zeds giggled and ran out. As Jeff slowly walked to the tent flap, he noticed that his jacket and shirt where gone; the only things that covered his upper body where bandages.
      He walked out of the tent and noticed that the guard was gone. He stretched and looked out on the village. It was rather large. Many tents were set up, and in the middle was a rather large and elaborate tent, which he figured was the place Ki’ace ran the village from. "Hmm. Basic Principal Office," he said and began walking down the beaten, grassy path.
      Since the Zeds only looked at him then returned to the things they were doing, he figured that he would be pretty safe in this system.
      "Hey Old man!" came a female voice from behind him. As he turned, he was knocked to the ground by a blur of yellow.
      "Ki’eva?" he asked, looking at the youngster's face, as she sat ontop of him.
      "In the Fur!" she said happily. "Good, maybe you can come too. But anyways, you mind getting off me?"
      "Oh yeah," she said, and stood to help him up. "So where we going?" she asked.
      "Well, before I tell you that, I have a few questions."
      "Like?" she replied.
      "Well where is you sister? And also, how did you guys stay online?" he asked.
      "Well, Ki’ace is most likely attending her court. Most likely talking about you. As for us being alive, I'll tell you on the way," she said, taking his hand and leading him to the central tent.

      Ki’eva related the entire story of there escape to Jeff. As he was out and about they had detected a portal opening with the scanners that they had tapped into the PO with. Since Max was in charge he knew that they would be safe in as many systems that they could get to. Since Ki’ace and Ki’eva‘s system was the farthest away, they would go first. When they arrived they tried to contact the rest of the group, but with no luck.
      " So there is a chance the rest are alive..." said Jeff, as they neared the tent.
      "Good a chance as any," she replied and looked at the two guards. Jeff figured that were talking telepathically since they were nodding as if agreeing. As one Zed and one half-naked human walked into the tent, they stepped into a heated debate.
      "He had a tracker in him. For all we know, an entire group of humans could be coming to kill us!" yelled one of Zeds out loud in perfect English. Seemed it was custom to learn to talk in this village.
      "Jeff wouldn’t be working for anyone like that! I trust him," said Ki’ace as she defended Jeff.
      "Did you scan his mind?" asked another Zed.
      "No I never have, but I trust him!"
      "Maybe you should," came again the voice of reason. The entire Zed population in the tent turned and looked at Jeff, who had Ki’eva hiding behind him. She never did like being part of the center of attention.
      "If it will make you all feel better, then you can all scan my head. Maybe you guys can help with some answers I need," he said, as he made his way to the front of the tent, where Ki’ace sat. "Scan me; I can't put up any defenses, so go ahead," said Jeff.
      "Jeff, this is not needed. I can-" began Ki’ace, when she was interrupted by a Zed.
      "No," he said, "We can, so let's do it. Or do you want him to hide something?"
      Ki’ace sighed heavily, as she thought deeply.
      "Ki’ace," said Jeff softly. She nodded and Jeff sat on the ground in front of her. "Go for it," he said.
      Most of the Zeds were satisfied that since he was letting them scan his mind he wasn’t a threat, but a few took no chances and gathered around him. Jeff closed his eyes, as the sight of the Zeds gathered around him. Then, darkness.

      " Amazing.. There is nothing here!" came a voice that was not Jeff’s, so it wasn’t hard to figure out it was a Zed.
      "Yes...but look at this," came another Zed voice from the darkness.
      "What is it? " came another Voice.
      "False memories. This means he may not be what he claims," came the voice from before.
      Jeff decided to speak out now. "What do you mean false memories? What can you see? I must know! I need to find out about myself!" he shouted.
      "We can hear you human. Calm yourself," came a female Zeds voice, and before him, three Zeds appeared: two males, one female, each holding a small glowing ball.
      "We have decided you must see these. Since we now believe you," she said and held out the ball along with the others.
      Jeff reached for them, but they pulled back. "Be warned!" all said at the same time, as if speaking as one person. "This will explain a lot, and we know of your plan to follow your dreams to their source. These will help. But doing so may lead to something you may not like."
      Jeff nodded and stepped forward. The balls shot from their hands and hit him hard. He snapped out of the blackness and was looking at the top of the tent.
      "What did you do?" asked Ki’ace.
      "Gave him the truth," said the female Zed, as the trio stepped back.
      Jeff stood and looked back at Ki’ace. She held a worried look on her face, even though she tried to hide it. Jeff looked back to the trio, each standing by silently. He slowly stepped off the raised flooring and walked to the door, the court watching as he walked past Ki’eva and out the door.
      "Court's over.. Return to your business," said Ki’ace calmly, the Zeds all looking back to her and seeing the look on her face, quickly leaving the tent.

      The wind blew calmly through his hair, as Jeff sat on the small grassy hill, looking out at the sea.
      "Not many can sneak up on me," he said as Ki’ace got within earshot.
      "You can learn a lot from a village that adopts you," she said, as she sat next to him, the handle of her trident in her hand.
      "Ki’ace, the world I knew no longer exists."
      "What do you mean Jeff?" she asked.
      "They...found the truth, and I know why my dreams haunt me." He looked at her. "Because they ain’t dreams." She shook her head, not understanding. "I’m remembering Ki’ace. The disk. That was in me to find me if I got out of their control. I am now."
      "Still don’t understand, Jeff," she said. Jeff took the handle from her hand and let the trident unfold. It was modeled off of the Game Sprite AndrAIa, and if you took off a few things such as the bottom blade, it would look like a copy.
      "You know your history. That’s why you created you weapon off of AndrAIa‘s trident, right?" he asked.
      "Yeah," she replied. "You remember that when young Enzo became friends with young AndrAIa that he was shocked to find out what she was, right?" he asked.
      "Yeah. Still don’t understand what you’re getting at."
      "I’m having the same feeling right now...only it’s not with that game sprite, but with myself," he said calmly.
      "What are you, Jeff?" she said, completely intrigued.
      He slammed the blades of the weapon into the ground. "Another mistake in human history."

      Ki’ace walked out of her tent silently, so as not to wake her aides, which she didn’t care for, but they were forced on her. She held Jeff’s shirt, jacket, and holster with gun in a nice bundle in her hands. This was the day he was to leave, and she decided to go. Everything was set for her departure. She had a trusted Zed to take her place as the leader, and had Ki’eva watched over. She couldn’t take her on this mission.
      As she worked her way to Jeff’s tent in the early morning, she knew she would only see a few Zeds out, but as she made her way through the rows of tents she noticed that a large group of Zeds were gathering around something. She made her way through the crowd, and when she made it to the center, she could not believe her eyes.
      Four Zeds guards lay knocked out on the ground, but that was not what the Zeds were looking at. They were cheering on a warrior Zed that was facing off against Jeff.
      "Think about it human. I defeat you, I win enough hides to last me through next year," she said with a smirk.
      "That’s if you can land a blow," he replied back and commenced in his attack, moving fast, not allowing the Zed to return a hit, but play defense.
      "Not bad, Zeddie, but not good enough." With that, he jumped up into the air and delivered a power kick to her face, sending her flying back into the crowd. As he landed, the Zeds where helping her up. Jeff took his stance and smiled and motioned with his hand for her to try and attack.
      As she was about to attack a shot rang out into the morning air. The crowd looked to where it had come from and saw a very unhappy Ki’ace. "To work. All of you. Cale’da, you take the rest of your fallen warriors and get them treated." Her voice was strong, that of pure power. "And Jeff...you come with me!" The Zeds helped take the fallen warriors away, and Ki’ace threw Jeff’s jacket and shirt at him.
      "Ki’ace?! What's wrong?" he asked as if he done nothing at all.
      "Fighting," she said softly. "We don’t have any of it in this village, and you participating in it dose not help me in any way. Now get that shirt and jacket on, and here’s your gun. The portal opens in 10 minutes," and with that she left.

      As the portal flashed open, Jeff had just finish adjusting his holster.
      "So where are we going?" asked Ki’ace.
      "Resonate," replied Jeff. "Closest system, and has the fastest transports other than the Super Computer and Mainframe. Though we'll be moving quickly, two groups will be on us when we come through, and I’d like to keep it quick," he said, as he walked into the flashing ball of light.
      Ki’ace took one last look at her home, and with a sigh, she stepped through and awaited what fate would bring her. She stepped out into a ally as the portal closed and noticed that Jeff was out in the open.
      As she walked through the very clean ally, she was a little apprehensive about being seen in public in this system, but she heard it was safe. No sooner than she joined Jeff than a taxi stopped in front of them.
      Jeff opened the door and slid in. Ki’ace just stood there. "Ki’ace, we need to go. Got a train to catch," he said, and she slid in next to him, closing the door with a slam. The taxi sped off.
      "Whoa...a Zed! Don’t see many Anthro’s around here! And a Zed too! Man! Wait til my wife and kids hear about this!" exclaimed the driver, who was a yellow skinned sprite.
      "If you would, don't say anything. We like to keep a low profile.."
      "Why? You guys the Flip Side Felons or something?" He asked.
      "No.. Just people that would like to get tothe transport terminal as fast as possible," said Jeff calmly, as he adjusted his glasses.
      The driver nodded, but kept his eyes on the Zed through the Mirror.

      Ki’ace looked at the city from a window inside the Transport terminal. Resonate was a pretty city, but already she longed for home.
      "Come on.. we leave in three minutes," said Jeff, as he walked up to her, holding their tickets.
      "Yeah, alright." she said softly.
      The two of them made it to the transport just in time. The transport they were getting on was one styled off an old human train. The long silver body seemed to go on forever. Both of them sat down, with Jeff by the window.
      "Jeff.. Tell me something," said Ki’ace softly, "why Mainframe?"
      "The Advanced Guardian Training Center is located in Mainframe. There is someone there I need to talk to," he said as he looked out the window. "Won't be there long: a day at most."
      "Tell me the truth, Jeff. Tell me all of it," Ki’ace said in her strong voice.
      "Loading up," was the last thing Jeff said, as the train moved out of the station and in a flash was moving through the wormhole that was the Net.

      " And so class, as we can see from the battle for the Alpha systems, even with more firepower and troops, one person can take out and entire army," said the sprite in front of the class, half of which were asleep. She stomped the ground with her foot, a loud echo filled the room and the sleeping Guardians awoke. "Alright. Now as we can see from the logs of the battle that..." she began again but stopped, as two figures walked into the class room through the back door. "Um, never mind class. Instead, go to the library and read up on early twentieth century combat, starting from World War 1 to Desert Storm. Class dismissed," she said, and the Guardians quickly filed out of the class leaving only one sprite, one human and one Zed.
      Jeff slowly walked down the aisle clapping his hands. "My, my, Ms Matrix. Still boring the classes, I see," he said to the teacher. The teacher, who by all means looked like Dot Matrix, who she should since she was her decendant, smiled as Jeff walked closer.
      "Oh Jeff. Such the quick wit." She said as she removed her glasses. He stopped in front of her, she looked up at him, and with a quick jolt, slapped him a crossed the face.
      "Guess I deserve that," he said.
      "Considering that you almost cost me my job and got me killed! You should thank your lucky star’s that I don’t have a Matrix complex!" she yelled. She took a deep breath and let it go, placing her glasses back on her face. "How did you get in here Jeff?"
      "Front the door. Guess they should watch the tour groups better. Now I need you help, Dos."
      "What now?" she asked with her arms crossed.
      "I need something," he replied.
      "And that is?" she replied, as she leaned on her desk.
      "Guns lots of guns."

      "I’m going to be in so much trouble if we get caught," said Dos, as she entered the code to the armory door.
      "Wouldn’t be the first time," replied Jeff as the door opened.
      "Let’s make this quick, alright? I don’t like this," said Ki’ace.
      The trio walked into the massive armory, but Jeff didn’t need to look around; he saw what he needed right in front of him. As he walked to the gun rack, he unzipped the duffel bag. That one held Dos’ sports clothes. He wasted no time taking what he needed. "This has happened before? Why do you let him do it?" asked Ki’ace.
      As much as Dos was impressed with Ki’ace's ability to talk, she was more impressed with her question. "Because...he’s saved my life so many times it’s not funny, but the last time things went to far, and we parted ways. Didn’t think he'd still be living."
      "Is that the only reason?" asked Ki’ace.
      "No. But Matrixs never give away secrets," she said softly.
      Jeff zipped up the duffel bag and returned to the two women. "Alright we can go," he said, and he walked out.
      "What got his back up?" asked Dos as she walked out with Ki’ace.
      "Wish I knew, Dos. He’s got something bugging him. Don’t know what." She sighed as Dos closed the door and locked it.
      " Hey, you! What are you doing down here? Hey...stay back," came a voice and then silence. The two females ran down the hall to see Jeff sliding the body of a guardian into a corner.
      "By the powers that be! You didn’t kill him did you Jeff?" asked Dos.
      "No, since I don’t care to take out the entire guardian population here. Now...let's go before he wakes up," said Jeff, and the trio left as silently as they came in.

      "Thanks Dos, I owe you," said Jeff, as he and Ki’ace stood on the docks.
      "Yeah, well, when you come back from whatever your doing, I don’t want to know! I take it out of ya," she said and punched him lightly on the shoulder.
      "No prob. See you then. Ready, Ki’ace?" asked Jeff. She nodded and she extended her hand out to Dos who took it, and they shook. The two then walked up the ramp to the waiting transport.
      "I got a feeling you're not coming back from this one Jeff..." said Dos with a tear in her eye, and she watched as the transport moved out of the docks, just as Ki’ace and Jeff got on. And it sped off to an open portal.