Megatokyo 2034

The Stingray Legacy
A Face to Face fanfict

By Kain The Seeker    
AKA Andrew Graham (<A HREF="">Kaintskr@aol.com</A>)  
          
Inspired by stories by Deunan (Deunan@aol.com)
          
CMA Statement: Insert standard 'please don't sue me' disclaimer.
          

Mackie paused at the door. It was like standing in front of a tomb. Sylia's
personal work area, her sanctum. The one area that no one had been allowed
access to. Despite the fact that she had been dead two weeks, Mackie still
hadn't taken the time to break down the security systems around it.
It seemed- profane to do so.

He had so many other things to do. Fires that had to be kept  damped down or
they would flare up and consume all things around them. Linna, he and the
others had to keep a watch on  her almost every minute of the day. She was the
worst of the  survivors, but the others had wounds too. 
          
 Mostly, though he didn't open the door because it was an  admission if he did
so. An admission that his sister was  dead. It was hard enough to move from
day to day surviving without finally admiting that.  
        
This morning, Mackie had lost the luxury of hiding from the  truth. He
received an anonomyous email in his account. No explanations or instructions,
just a single 15 code of letters and numbers. He had bent his considerable
skill with  computers to try and backtrack the messages origin.
          
Fifthteen servers and a dozen nations later, he gave up.  Still not sure where
it came from, he knew who had sent it.  Sylia. It was a timed delayed message
that she had set up days, possibly weeks before her last mission. With out a
proper disarm code, it was finally sent to him.
          
That brought him in turn to where he was now. In front of  the Door. He looked
at Nene, who merely nodded and waited.  He still couldn't believe that she
loved him so much. She kept him going, holding him when the screams at night
became too much. Without Nene, Mackie Stingray would have died days after his
sister.
          
He placed his hand on the display and waited. It hummed and there was a sting
as a piece of skin was sample. Another light snapped up and locked on his left
eye. -DNA anaylisis, palm prints and voice codes. Sis wasn't taking any
chances.-
          
A computer voice requested access. He reeled off the code that he received.
The door hissed gently and the bolts deep within retracted. The computer
displayed the instructions that he was to enter alone. He looked to Nene, this
was something that he didn't want to do alone.
          
"Go on, Mackie. I'll be waiting here for you." She said as she pushed him
gently through the door. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the door started
sliding back into place. It locked into place with a hiss, and as the bolts
shot back into place, Mackie couldn't help but compare it to the shutting of a
tombs door.
          
Nene watched helplessly as the door slid shut, struggling to maintain her
calm. She didn't like it. She looked at the shut door with despair.
          
"Please come back to me Mackie." Unspoken was the request to  the dead woman
to send her brother back to her.
          

"Hello, Mackie." Sylia's voice came from behind him. He spun  around and saw
her face on a nearby display. -Only a recorded vid of her,- He closed his eyes
as the pain of his loss stuck him once more, -she's really gone.- "You are
looking well, little brother. Sorry that my real self couldn't be here to
share this news with you." Mackie looked up in shock. She nodded her head on
the screen.
          
"Sylia?" he asked as his voice shook to much to go any further. She smiled a
bittersweet smile, and shook her head.
          
"Not quite, but close enough to answer to that name. I contain most of the
memories and experiences of Sylia  Stingray."
          
"Not all of them?" The image smiled and shook her head.
          
"No, Sylia didn't trust all that she knew with anyone. Even an electronic
version of herself. Have a seat, we have a lot to discuss."
          
"So, you are here to advise me on what to do with the Sabers next?" She shook
her head sadly.
          
"No, I won't be around that long. I am here to ensure that you know the truth
of why I did it. All of the truth." The seat's headrest extended a web of
induction pads. "Put them in place Mackie, and the truth will be explained."
          
"And if I don't?" He asked as his stubborn streak started to rise.
          
"The truth, and everything that you need to continue my war, will be destroy
with me in a matter of minutes. You go on  with your life, and hopefully
someone will eventually take up the call to battle. It's your choice Mackie, I
won't force you like I was." He looked at the screen for long seconds trying
to read the inscruitable face on the screen,  it was as unreadable as Sylia's
had been. Finally he 
relented, he had to know. He nodded to the image and before  he change his
mind the images rose up and swallowed him whole.
          
Finally the rush of images and information stopped and  Mackie threw himself
out of the chair with a soul rending scream. He landed on his knees and wept
as all the illusions of his life shattered under the brutal truth. -How could
he do it? To his own children?- He asked himself. Sylia waited as he lay on
the floor and fought for control. -Father, how  could you?- He looked up at
the screen.
          
"Why?" he asked. Sylia looked sadly at him, and she took her  time as she
choose her words. "Why did you fight for his  damn dream after knowing what he
did to you.. us?"
          
"Quincy, and Genom. He finally saw them for what they really were, Mackie. And
he knew then that it was too late for him to fight. We would be his warriors
and the builders of the future that he dreamed of." As she spoke the ice in
her  voice broke and the true feelings that both Sylia's  harboured showed
through.
          
"You really hated him didn't you?"
          
"No...Yes, he left a girl to fight a war. There is more  Mackie, I... would
understand if.. you walked out now." Tears ran down the image's face. "It is a
bitter cup to bear, and I won't do what was done to me... It has to be  your
choice." Resignation replaced the hatred, and Mackie  looked at the screen as
he sat back down and readjusted the leads of the induction web. He looked up
at the screen, all  that remained of his sister. -So much pain, Sylia, why
couldn't you tell me when you were alive? Why all the secrets?-
          
"I'm ready." He said with a queasy stomach, wondering if he was. Then the
memories came to him again, this time more intense. Sylia's life played
through his mind. Minutes passed as he was held helpless under the deluge of
the past. 

He saw a young Sylia recieve the data cartridge and come away greatly changed.
An older Sylia building the first  hardsuit, then the next one with Dr. Raven.
Diving through hundreds of possible recruits, looking for the few special
people that would become her warriors. Her knights for her  father's crusade.
          
The day that she met Nene, after the young hacker broke her ad on the net.
Walking up to Linna at that one recital and convincing the dancer that should
do more good as a knight. That night on the road when she first found the one
person  that she truly hungered for. Priss. Saving the savage rocker  from
herself then and many times after. Her hunger and  desire crushed by the need
for the damn crusade. Fearful of telling Priss, for more reasons than seemed
possible. 
          
The he saw himself through his sister's eyes. Love and concern were the
feelings that she sent him from the grave, fears that she was leaving him a
task of inhuman size to carry on. The playback finished in a rush of love and
regret. -I love you Mackie. I always did and always will. Don't forget that,
no matter what- Sylia's voice whispered to him.
          
Then it was over.
          
He looked up from the chair, tears running down his face. Sylia looked back at
him, a bittersweat smile on her face. -I never really knew you Sylia, why
didn't you show me this side before now.-
          
"Mackie..?" The image looked a bit nervous, "did I,.. I mean the real
Sylia,... tell Priss." Mackie had seen the last words mouthed by his sister
before Nene and Linna had pulled her away from Sylia. It was one of the few
intact images in Priss' hardsuit memory banks.
          
"Yes, Sylia. You two were happy..." Mackie cringed inwardly at the lie, but he
didn't want to give his sister, even a second hand copy, anymore pain. "You
didn't have much time together, but you were happy. " She smiled again, a
great weight gone from her face.
          
"That's nice to know. I always wished that I had the guts to  tell her
earlier." He could hear the building hum that was most likely a  EMP warhead
in the computer console in front of him. "I'm sorry that it had to end like
this Mackie. There are a lot of things I regret, and Sylia did too. Just
remember that I love you Mack..." The hum ended as the EMP capacitors reached
critical level and discharged. Every bit of electronic gear in the computer
fused under the onslought of the massive EMP surge. The image winked out as
the monitor burned out.
          
Mackie leaned against the console, tears running down his  face. -Goodbye Sis-
he thought to the departed shade of his sister. Losing Sylia had been so hard
the first time, losing her again threatened to kill him.
          
"Good Bye Sis...."

          
Nene stuck her head in the study, Mackie had quietly walked out of the lab and
slipped by her as she napped. Instinctively she knew that he needed time
alone, and given  him a few hours alone in the study, alone with Sylia's
ghost.
          
Mackie stood looking out at the city, the weight of the world on his shoulders
as she eased quietly into the room. There were already changes in the way the
room was set up, the shrine that Sylia had kept in the corner had a new
picture and plague. Gone was the sibling's father, something told Nene that
was a signifigant point, replace by a picture of Sylia. He had finally
accepted that Sylia was dead.
          
The desk contained dozens of manuals that Sylia, Dr. Raven and Mackie had
produced on the engineering specs of the Hardsuits. Nearby two terminals
happily hummed away at their assigned tasks dealing with some element of suit
design or another.
          
"Mackie?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around his chest. He gripped her
hands in his own and kissed them before turning. She flinched a bit at the
pain in his eyes, then Mackie kissed her.
          
"I love you Nene." She could tell that he was reaching for her. Desparate for
something to keep his head above the flooding torrents that had consumed his
sister.  Breaking out of the kiss, she looked up to him.
          
"What now?"
          
"The war goes on. ...But on my terms.." He hugged her and whispered in her
ear, "together."

Priss and Linna moved around thier target. It was one of the last renegades
left from the group that had gotten loose this evening. Nene had piped the
info on the boomers from the ADP building. They close in on the boomer and
tried to  get in the last finishing move on it.
          
The boomer, aware of his foes abilities, turned and ran. Seeking to gain much
need space and distance, where it's weaponry would give it the advantage. Jump
jets popped open and it leapt to the sky. Five seconds burn would give it the
distance that it needed.
          
 It never got those five seconds. The third knight appeared from a rooftop and
slashed through it's exposed jets as it passed. The boomer crashed to the
ground with a mounstrous crash, leaking propellant and fuel. The three knights
closed in and took it apart in three smooth, coordinated attacks.
          
The blue knght led off by blasting the boomer back and allowing the green
knight to place a charge on it's upper torso while it tried to recover. The
charge let off and tore out a large chunk of the chest armor. The black knight
rushed forward and brought the monoblade up in a slash that tore through the
boomers chest and the exposed power likeage in the neck. It dropped to the
ground, it's head nearly removed.
          
In 3 seconds, the boomer had gone from a dangerous war machine to junk.
          
The lead knight, the black one, brought a beam cannon to bear on the boomer.
He fired a single shot to the chest that destroyed the secondaries.
          
He turned and looked at the other two knight. Mackie smiled, it was good to
take some direct action after the months of preparation and planning that the
Knights had been making.
          
"Knight Sabers, Move out!" He called out over the comm.
          
With his command, the armored knights vanished into the night.

          
          From the personal Journal of Mackie Stingray.
          
Expediency. It is an evil word to me. It was the expedient to for Genom to
kill my father for his secrets. It was expedient for my father to change my
sister and I to meet his hidden agenda. It was expedient for my sister to hold
her pain in, and not tell anyone how she felt.
          
It is expedient for me to fight the children of my father, boomers, instead of
the evil men that abuse my father's genius. 
          
Someday, I will be able to live with the screams of that night and find a way
out of using that word.
          
But for now, the war goes on. Because it is the most expident way to fight my
crusade.
          
But at night, looking up at the stars in the sky, I hold that last thought and
the feelings that came with it. My sister's love carries me through the night.
          
I love my sister and I miss her so.
          
Still, the war must go on.