______________________
MegaTokyo 2034
Renewal 
   A BGC Fanfiction
by Deunan (deunan@aol.com)
and
Kaintskr (kaintskr@aol.com)

Note:  This is the next fic in the series of fanfics that
includes:
Face-To-Face, Patience, Of Victory and Failure 

Those and other fics can be found at:
http://members.aol.com/deunan/index.htm
or you can email a request to deunan@aol.com 
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Part One: (All times realitive to the last events of Of Victory and Failure)
 

THE NEXT MORNING:

	Mackie awoke slowly basking in the warmth of the embrace.  A slight
sigh escaped his lips in contentment at the feeling.  His eyes opened to see
the face.  "So beautiful," he whispered brushing his finger tips across her
cheek.  Nene rolled over in her sleep now facing away from him.  
	"Don't leave me, Mackie.  Please don't," she cried out, like a lost
child, caught in the midst of a dream.  He wiggled over to her whispering
into her ear.
	"I'll never leave you."  Then he kissed her forehead.  She murmured
something incomprehensible and relaxed once more falling out of the dream
into a deeper sleep.  It was a lie.  He exited the bed grabbing his clothes.
He took one last look at the sleeping women then pulled on his clothing 
quietly and entered the elevator.  Within moments he was back in the 
basement.
	His power armor still stood were he left it last night.  Nene's 
hardsuit still lay in the open hardsuit locker.  The ammunition and weapon
boxes were still open; the two interface 'soft' suits lay piled on the floor.
He left the basement and into the garage section.  In one corner lay a large
object covered by a drab gray tarpaulin.  He pulled it off reveling the gray
and red paint battlemover.  
	It was fully repaired from its battle with the Knight Sabers .  The
 vulcan cannon was replaced, and the J-1 system was totally restored.
  -Even if I die, I'll still win.- He mused grimly.    With the micro-neutron

bomb, he'd be able to do what his sister did not, destroy Genom.  The 
megacorporation would be destroyed in one single Earth shattering blow.  
With the battlemover, he could battle his way into  the very heart of the 
tower and detonate the bomb vaporizing the insides and having the blast be 
contained in the massive arcology.  
	He never fully understood the rage and fury that had taken over his
sisters life when their father died.  He was too young and too naive.  Now,
It had taken his sisters dead for him to gain realization.  He closed his
eyes feeling the raw emotions stirring inside him.  So powerful, they rivaled
the raw energy pulsating within the nuclear device tucked in the DD 
battlemover.  
	He was a monster.  The massacre he had inflicted the previous night
had proved it too him.  The news reported over one hundred dead.  Those 
deaths were so abstract to him, they mattered weighed nothing on his 
conscience.  He deceived her, Nene.  
	Last night they bonded, a joining of the souls in an act that was 
both pleasure and pain rolled into one.  Last night, he said that he would
stay with her.  He said the same thing only moments earlier.  He looked up
at the open cockpit of the battlemover.  -It would be so easy.  I can pilot
it; the systems were what I modeled my own armor on.  Then why is it so hard
to climb in?  The good of the many over the good of the few.-   He reached up
to pull himself in and stopped tears welling in his eyes.  Two sides of him
battled onward.
	-I want to live!- one side cried remembering his lovemaking with 
Nene.  
	-I can't let her pass unavenged!- the other screamed remembering the
blasted crater where his sister's hardsuit had self destructed to buy the 
time Nene, Linna, and Priss needed to escape to the Sky Carrier.  He 
collapsed to his knees hugging himself tightly as the maelstrom of emotions
wracked his body.  
	He sat there, in front of the gray and red battlemover, for a time.
Fighting to find a center, a balance between the conflict within.  Then, he
recalled a day long ago.  The memory was so dim it seemed almost like the
images of a half remembered dream.  
	Sylia was holding him gently rocking him in his arms and humming to
him in an effort to comfort his grief stricken heart.  Their father had just
died.  He remembered the pain, the loss, and the feeling of emptiness that
would die only in time.  
	No, he couldn't inflict that pain on some many others, wives, spouses,
lovers...  If he did, then he would be doing his sister a greater injustice 
than leaving her unavenged.  He rose tossing the tarpaulin back over the 
battlemover and walked to the garage door opening it up.  He caught a 
glimpse of the sun rising over the horizon.  -Sylia, I'll take up your 
weapons and fight Genom.  I'll avenge your death, but I'm not going to let it
destroy me in the process.-  He closed the garage door and made his way 
back up into the penthouse.  Sylia would be proud.  
	Carefully, he entered the warm bed and lay his head on Nene's 
shoulder.  She stirred awaking slowly.  
	"Mackie,"  She breathed, "I love you."  He kissed the nape of her 
neck.  
	"I love you, too."		
			*		*		*
TWO DAYS LATER

	
	The darkness, the frequent glow of the overhead lights, it 
seemed so deceptively calm and peaceful.  She gunned the throttle.  The
wind hollowed around her as the Rpm's almost redlined.  The headlights of
an oncoming car emerged from the darkness blinding her for a moment....
	-She put her hand up to ward off the blinding headlights that were
illuminating the entire area.  She clutched her side feeling the effects of
the
partial 'road rash'.  A single female figure climbed out of the car.  
	The women was dressed in a business suit and a pair of dark shades.
She rose quickly whipping out her knife coming at the women with an overhead
strike.  She didn't even see her move and found herself in an arm lock face 
pressed against the hood of the car.  The knife was in the women's hands.
	"You got the passion, and the purpose but you need to focus or they
will eat you alive...,"  The women said sharply.  She tried to struggled only
to feel the pressure on her arm increase.
	"At least give me the dignity you gave, Hiro.  Hope you bastards rot
in hell!"  She cursed seeing the bloody motorcycle wreck in her mind's eyes.
She couldn't believe her ears; the women was actually chuckling.
	"You've mistaken me, Ms. Asgirii, for someone else...."-  
	
	Priss blinked out the blinding effects of the glare and pulled off 
onto the shoulder, a ridge overlooking the city.
	-What did you see in a me?  I was nothing just a b-class loser in a
crappy town full of them.  You said I had passion and purpose...where the
fuck has it got me now?-  She rolled up the sleeve of her riding leathers
seeing the old wounds that adorned her arm.  Their were dozens like them
across her entire body.  -Lovers...friends...-  Her gaze shifted to the
massive tower rising above the horizon even in darkness.  "I WON'T LET YOU
TAKE THEM, GODDAMN YOU!!!"  The rage welled up flowing over her climaxing in
one animalistic cry.  She collapsed to the ground feeling completely spent,
emotionally and physically.
	-Is that what you loved...the passion, that uncontrollable force?
I admired you, you know.  You were so much better than I was: calm, 
controlled,  everything I wasn't.-  She pulled herself into a sitting 
position against the bike.
	"Love,"  she murmured trying to remember what if felt like.  It had
been so long.  -But love, Sylia?  Why couldn't you have told me?  At least 
you would've given me a chance.  At least you could've let yourself be 
human....What were you so afraid of?-   
	The painful feeling swirled in her stomach creeping to her chest,
guilt.  "Where the fuck has that passion got me?"  She repeated feeling the
cold stabbing feeling.  -It got you killed, Sylia.  Its my fault....-    	 	
But the hollowness wasn't there with the pain.  It was almost as if she'd
turn around...  A part of her wanted to feel the pain to take in all the
anguish, yet another part of herself was being gnawed by doubts. 
	 Her eyes fell onto her arm seeing a scar (healed long ago) on her 
wrist, then her hand touched the tender spot of the puncture wound on her
stomach, and her fingers brushed a tear from her eyes.
	A cycle of pain and loss... -They all saved me for a reason.-  She
rose off the ground and closed her eyes feeling the weariness and pain of the
old wounds.  -I guess they're all telling me something.-
	"Its time I lived my life the right way."  As she straddled her bike
starting it up, she took a glance at the tower rising oppressively in the
distance.  One day, she vowed, she wouldn't have to see it towering over the
city.
	
	
			*		*		*
THREE DAYS LATER

	The cardkey was swallowed up by the reader.  It seemed forever before
the reader confirmed her identity letting her into the basement.  Scanning
the room and seeing no one present, she entered.  
	Weapons and all manner of ammo were scattered all around the room and the
hanger outside. Mackie had evidently started to plan some sort of 
assault.  She spied a 9mm already loaded and quickly snatched it up.  
Hugging it to her chest, she entered the elevator.  Her heart quickening the
whole time in both fatigue and anticipation.  Her breathing became ragged
as the body registered its weakness.  
	She was so weary.  Weary of the battles and the dying.  -Irenes 
lifeless body hit the ground with a hollow thud blood running onto the 
pavement.... "You heartless mercenary bitch!!  All you care about is the
money!!!" Priss screamed.-
	It seemed like eons along the last time she had enjoyed a full nights
sleep.  Peaceful sleep with the nightmares. No, she couldn't sleep; the 
nightmares would come then the voices repeating over and over.  -Coward- they
said over and over.  Screaming in pain, she clutched her head letting the
gun drop.  
	"Stop, oh please make it stop,"  she whimpered in mental agony tears
running down her face.  The elevator reached the roof top, and the pain 
faded away.  
	-It's so beautiful- Linna told herself as she watched the sunset. It 
had been 3 days since Sylia's death and she still couldn't sleep without 
seeing the explosion.  -Or the voices- -Coward-. The words tore through her. 
Priss' bitter anguished screams as she pulled her back into the waiting 
plane mixed with the Irene's body being dumped onto the road.  All her pain
rolling into one maelstrom of bitter anguish.
	She tried to keep the pain and tears inside, like all the pain she 
had gone through over the years, but couldn't.  -At least this time, I can 
make it go away- She told herself as she pulled out the gun. It felt almost 
comforting to feel it's cold surface on her face as she rubbed the muzzle up
against her cheek. _Coward_ She shuddered at the voice of someone who had
 lost all reason to live. -I hope this makes up for my mistake-  She placed 
the barrel softly against her temple.  She started to squeeze the trigger.  
Only have the gun snatched from her grasp.
	"Why?"  Priss snarled pulling out the magazine and ejecting the shell
in the chamber.  After all she went through to keep the 3 of us alive?" 
Guilt was the first thing that crossed her mind, but it was washed in a rush 
of frustration and anger.
	"I could have saved her, Priss."
	"No you couldn't have."
	"My hardsuit was still functional, and I had the speed..."
	"The suit was marginally functional..."
	"I could have done it ..."
	"Against dozens of intact boomers with no backup. You're fast Linna, 
but you can't out run lasers."  
	"I could've saved her!"
	"No, you couldn't have."
	Linna screamed in wild outrage and lashed out with a kick.  The blow
struck Priss in her upper leg.  Her bones screamed in agony at the pain.  The
pain drove Priss to her knees.  Priss looked up grasping her leg, into 
Line's eyes seeing the rage and guilt.  A look she held many times before.
She hurled the gun off the roof.
	Linna watched in morbid fascination as gun flew over the edge into the
darkness.  "-So much for the quick and painless way out.- She took a step 
closer to the edge of the roof.
	"Linna,... I was wrong, It wasn't your fault..."
	"Yes, it was! I could have saved her. I was fast enough, but I was.. 
afraid, oh god, I was so afraid."  She remembered the pulse pounding fear
that drove her.   
	-Linna what about!!-
	-You heard her, run damnit, don't turn back-
	-INCOMING!!!-
	" Please come down. If you jump, it will be my fault," her voice 
dropped down to a husky whisper, "just like Sylia's was...."  The elevator
door opened once more, Mackie and Nene ran out.
	"Linna!"
	"No!"
	Linna looked around her, seeing things as if for the first time. She
had always felt that she was the stranger in the group, looking in from the 
outside. Alone and never truly belonging. Now she had a family, she had 
always had it, just never realizing it till now.
	Mackie saw them all, the pain, the suffering.  He looked around the 
collected survivors for a time before finding the right words to say what he 
felt was needed.  "Sis did what any of us would have done, I..." tears start
to flow but he pushed on, " I know that her death hurt us all, but would have

any of us done it any different in her place?"
	For long minutes, they stood there silent as they all considered the
answer to that question. They all knew the answer, without a second's 
hesitation. They would go quietly without a second thought to save the others
. It didn't make the loss any less painful, but it helped convey the depths 
of Sylia's unspoken feelings for them. 
	And Linna stepped off the edge still haunted by her own demons but
never alone.  She had a family; she had hope.
			*		*		*  

PART TWO:  A Year later

	The camera lens magnified and adjusted the image beaming a near 
perfect image to the small screen.  She saw them.  "So close," she murmured
brushing her fingertips across the double screen.  Mackie and Nene walked 
down the street hand in hand while Linna was casually was grocery shopping.  
The dull pain began to work into her breast once more.  "Cut off
surveillance.
Return home," she commanded.  The two boomers disconnected the video link and
began their journey back to the tower.  
	-Why do I do this to myself?-  Sylia leaned her head back against the
headrest of the padded chair.  On her desk lay hand written reports of the
various, trusted, spies monitoring the Knight Sabers.  Even though second 
hand information, the pain, the loneliness, were still there.  Then the icy
hand of guilt would follow.  
	-Would they understand?-  The voice of her mind asked once again.  
Did they know the cold rage that consumed her?  Would they understand the
knowledge that they were the only ones that could stop Genom?  Could they
ever know weariness and the pain that threatened to overwhelm her every 
single day she began her battle with Genom?
	-No, they can't.  That's why you did it.  That's why you can never
tell them.-  "That's why, I'll be ever alone," she murmured.  She hurt them
all.  
	Mackie was almost unrecognizable.  A haunted expression lay in his eyes.  
	Nene had hardened herself and seemed to carry the burden of healing
the others herself.  More often that not, taking their pain for her own.
	Linna... -Forgive me- was forever scared.  Her once indomitable 
spirit had shattered.  Even a year later, she was still picking up the 
pieces.
	And Priss...the fire of vengeance had tempered her, renewing her 
anger, refining it to a razor's edge.  A cold forbidding look lay across her
visage.  
	-I am beyond forgiveness....-  An ironic feeling past through her.  
She had hide her feelings so well for so very long even know she wished she 
could cry to let the pain flow from her.
	"Ms. Stingray,"  A familiar feminine voice called entering the massive
office.  "We may have a problem."  Sylia welcomed the interruption from her
thoughts.  
	"Yes, Katherine?"  Madigan was an unexpected...bonus of her victory
over Quincy.  The lavender haired women sat across from her opening a manila
folder onto the desk.  A photo of a middle aged man stuck out prominently.
"William Bane, heads up a chemical processing plant in South America.  He
knows something is wrong about the planning group," Madigan refereed to the
cabal of executives, once headed by Quincy, that truly ran Genom's..special
pet projects.
	"-is increasing his popularity with the people.  If he disappears or
is arrested, public opinion would bale him out.  He's digging in deep."
	She took no notice of Madigan's words concerned with her own thoughts.  
With the information from Quincy's personal files, the members of the
planning group fell from power or disappeared one by one save Madigan.  The
women seemed more that eager to eliminate her rivals and consolidate her own
powerbase.  It was an ackward arrangement, but a highly profitable one for
bothsides.  
	"Use whatever means necessary to deal with the problem," she replied.
Madigan left and went to deal with the chemical plant executive / drug
dealer.  
	He would be dead before morning.  It would most likely look like an
accident.  -Has it become so easy to kill?-  Genom's pet projects and illegal
operations had to be stopped.  Many police agencies around the globe were 
leaked information.  In other cases the Knight Sabers, guided by her unseen
hand through Fargo and other fixers, would be sufficient.  More times than
not, Quincy's cadre of assassins were needed.  Their was no choice.    
  	-Justice cried out for them.-  The voice replied.  So many had died.
If not by her own hand but by her will.  	
	-Justice, the good of the many over the few...- The voice replied.
It seemed so weak and unconvincing.  She rose and looked out over the city.
	Wearily, she rested her forehead against the cool glass.  It seemed
like an eternity ago when she could settle conflicts by donning a hardsuit.
-I won.  But at what cost?-   -Have I lost my soul, my humanity?....I am so 
tired of it all.-  
	Now most of the dark evils that Quincy had left behind were gone, but
there were still a lot of problems. The thing was the ones that were left
existed in shades of gray, things not quite evil or good, but with measures
of both.  Corporate expansion, weapons trade....so many more.  They were 
the ones which gave her the hardest time. The shades of gray, balancing 
benefits against the impact on humanity were wearing her down. It was here
that Madigan and her argued the most.  
	She ran her finger down the ridge of scar tissue on her shoulder, a
reminder of how close Fargo's shot had come to really killing her. The 
s-shaped scar seemed to be a dragon cut in her skin.  Her hand reached into
her pocket.  She turned leaning her back against the glass holding up an
object she acquired a year ago.  It was from an antique shop...or she found
it lying in the old ruins of Tokyo...a dozen scenes played out in her mind's
eye but, for the life of her, she couldn't remember which one was true.  It
seemed so long ago...  
	It was a gold necklace with a unicorn shaped charm.  The light seemed
to twinkle of the dangling unicorn.  She had bought it for Priss.  Her 
birthday was in a couple of weeks.  -The dead don't give gifts.-  It was an
impulsive move.  
	She betrayed the Knight Sabers because the needs of the few were
outweighed by the many and for justice.  All the questions were
answered, save one.  
	I love you. She had mouthed those words to Priss, one year ago. -Why?
What was I thinking?- She slammed a fist on the meter thick window in 
frustration.  Their was no logical reason, no explanation that would allow
her to rest at night. 
	She had hidden her feelings so long, what had made her slip her
guard?  Priss didn't sense anything from her.  She never did see the stolen
glances or the silent observation.  She had no reason to tell.  -I'm 
torturing myself.  I can't go on like this...-  Sylia stepped away from 
the desk and took her overcoat.  She left the tower, alone.
			*		*		*
	
	From the shadows she watched her.  She was so beautiful.  The music 
mixing with the lights, the frenzied shouting of the fans, the raw emotions 
pulsing in rhythm with the songs, gave an almost surreal feeling to the
scene.
Priss looked so much unchanged.  She could see them in her eyes.  The once
raw unharnessed look in her eyes was replaced with one more focused .  -She
has a purpose now.  Thanks to my "death".-  Sylia mused ironically.  
	A flicker of light caught her eye.  She looked up meeting Priss's
eyes for a single moment...  Sylia retreated farther into the shadows.  It
was where she belonged.  -A simple trick of the light and my own 
imagination.-  Their was no way Priss could have seen her.  
	Sylia closed her eyes letting the songs flow over her to feel the
emotions flowing through the lyrics.  The words seemed to weave and 
overlap....  
		'Searching for the whereabouts of my interrupted dream...'
		'...You, angel fallen to earth, live here and now'
		for the sake of tomorrow.'
		'They say cool stares are more tender than sympathy
		'My heart flutters; I can hear its beat'
		'...why not seriously let out the emotions that you embrace.'
		'Because we are born to be happy.'
	
	Then the songs stopped.  The lights died down, and the crowd calmed.
Startled, she shook herself from the trance that had taken her.  She looked
down in her fist.  The necklace was clutched in her hands.  She looked down
at it.  She cast the die.  Carefully, she worked through the crowds towards
the back of the stage.  And she stood before the dressing room door.  
	She raised her fist and pulled back slightly to knock.  It stopped
before contact.  Her eyes closed remembering the nightmares.  Priss would
strike her screaming betrayal cursing her.  Damning her cause...damning her.
And scorning her heart.  It was a pain that cut like a razor and twisting
like a dagger.
	Her resolve failed her.  She turned to leave.  -I am alone.  I belong
that way.-  She hugged herself to warm the cold feeling in her breast.  The
door opened silently behind her.  Two arms hugged her tightly from behind
driving away the coldness in her heart.  She tried to struggle...tried to
fight back but her instincts failed even before they could act.  
	She turned in the embrace looking up into those soft red eyes.  
	"Priss...," she struggled.  Their foreheads rested against each other
gently.
	"I knew you weren't dead."  Priss whispered holding her tight.  
The shield of ice shattered from around her heart.  
	"Priss, I...,"  The explanation died on her lips.  Tears rolled down
her face as the sobs wracked her body.  Guilt, happiness, pain, joy, 
shock...emotions pulled on her soul tearing in all directions.  
	"It's all right..Sylia..its all right."  Priss murmured humming a
soothing  note.
	She wasn't alone anymore.         

END

Author's notes.
The lyrics come from:

Konya wa Hurricane
Bara No Soldier
Mad Machine
Kodoku No Angel
Rock Me!
Asu E Touchdown

respectivly. 

	
The exact events of the night Sylia "died",  Fargo's involvement, Katherine
Madigan's arrangement with Sylia are all going to be dealt with in the
next installment: DEBTS (to be released...a long time from now)