"Sub-resynced by kehn@forums" "Hello." "My name is Violet." "And I was born into a world you may not understand." "Coming up." "Holding air speed." "Echo: altitude forward, and lateral direct." "Numbers falling fast from here." "On my mark." "3...2...1..." "Mark." "Hard Lock -- engaged." "Valves -- primary and secondary." "Amazden pressure breach." "Amazden" "Freeze." "It's a trap." "Stay where you are." "Don't move." "All hands down." "All clear sir." "Touch nothing." "Obviously." "Hemophages." "No surprise." "Flat-space technology." "Dimension compressing." "Very rare." "It's odd." "What was their exit strategy?" "How did they expect to transport the blood out of here?" "Unless there was no exit strategy." "Then what's the point?" "Well -- what if they didn't come to take the blood out?" "What if they came to infect it?" "My God." "Ross." "Poor bastard." "Yes." "I was born into a world you may find hard to understand." "The trouble began when an American weapons lab discovered an obscure virus that had been around for centuries." "They tried to modify it, to create faster and stronger soldiers." "But instead, they created a more contagious form of the disease." "A strain called HGV." "Hema Gophagic Virus." "And that's when the disease got out." "Everything changed." "As previous ages were defined by terrorism this one was defined by fear of disease." "The medical establishment took it upon itself to protect its public." "At first, requiring victims to wear identifying armbands and rounding them up in special camps and facilities." "Until finally people just stopped hearing from them." "The trouble began for me the day I learned I was pregnant." "The same day I lost my husband my future, my life." "I contracted the disease and lost my baby." "With those few on the outside I formed a resistance." "Went underground -- and began fighting back." "And so began the blood wars." "And now, the leader of the militant medical establishment, running this phobic world" "Is Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxis." "Vice-Cardinal, as you know, our campaign against the hemophages has been highly effective." "We've managed to eradicate almost all of them." "But sir, the few that are left have proven incredibly determined." "Terrorist attacks are at their highest level ever." "It's not because they're determined it's because they're desperate." "Because they know we're on the verge of wiping them out completely." "For the last 10 years, in partnership with laboratories for latter-day defence" "I've overseen the development of a weapon that can locate and kill every hemophage on the planet in a matter of days." "Is there an E.T.A. sir?" "Now." "A courier is retrieving it to bring here to the Arch-ministry as we speak" "XPD-154:" "Clearance Classified Courier." "I'm expected." "Reverse-engineered DNA identification: in process." "Remove your head covering." "Remove your eye covering." "Preliminary verification: substantiated." "Please." "Have a seat." "Mind if I ask what's on the menu?" "The usual:" "Retinal testing to detect the presence of existence of contacts or dives." "Metabolic sensing to make certain your metabolism is within human range." "Pulse." "Respiration." "Just have to make sure you're -- human." "If you really were a hemophage we would have already detected tissue repair at a micro-cellular level." "So what would happen if one were to fail any of these tests?" "Nothing good." "Please remove all articles of clothing, and proceed into the scanner." "Your clothing and personal items have been sterilized, XPD-154." "May I ask you a question?" "Feel free." "Do you know what this about?" "Should I?" "No." "It's highly classified." "But I 've been cleared to debrief you, because your consciousness of the gravity of the situation may increase your motivation to complete." "I've never failed to complete." "The hemophages are a dying species, on the verge of non-existence." "We have developed weapon that will push them past that brink into extinction." "If this weapon is so important" "Why not have it delivered by armored convoy?" "The armored convoy you refer to is departing the facility as we speak." "The hemophages will do anything in their power to stop and immobilize it." "It is of course a decoy." "XPD-154" "You'll be receiving a case, containing a weapon." "I don't have to tell you." "Under no circumstances should you open it." "You're right." "You don't have to tell me." "Identify." "XPD-154:" "Clearance Classified Courier." "Copy XPD-154: you will be Ven-secting." "Everything in order, XPD-154?" "100%, Commrade Doctor." "You're quite certain, everything is in order?" "Positively." "Empty your DNA to confirm receipt." "I can only confirm receipt of the container, not its contents." "That's acceptable." "Opening the case is strictly forbidden, you understand this." "Perfectly." "The contents are set to self-destruct in event of non-delivery, in exactly 9 hours from now." "What is your condition, XPD-154?" "Are you functional?" "XPD-154, Clearance Classified Courier." "Get on the ground." "On your knees!" "On your knees!" "Get down." "What the hell is going on?" "You were entered and processed through this gate 15 minutes ago." "Then it wasn't me, you dumb son of a bitch." "Check my ID." "You gotta mite!" "I repeat XPD-154." "Are you functional?" "I don't know what you are talking about Commrade Doctor, I am 100% functional." "Security breach!" "Security breach!" "Stand yellow alert!" "Stand yellow alert!" "Intercept." "Intercept!" "Inner defense wall!" "Unarmed intruder." "Unarmed intruder!" "How did the hemophage get past the screens?" "We don't know sir, maybe meta-suppressants to subordinate the blood characteristics." "All security to their stations!" "All security, report to their stations!" "How did she do that?" "She must have some sort of gravity leveler." "Well, whatever it is, it's out now." "She's not going to make it out of this complex alive." "Sir, we've ID'd her." "Plague victim." "She was confined to this facility for experimentation until she escaped, after the forced termination of her pregnancy" "12 years ago." "Violet Sangt-Jacques Sheriff." "Tell me I'm wrong!" "You're wrong." "Why are you doing this?" "Because I hate humans with every fiber of my being." "I'll kill every single one of them, almost as quickly as they'll try and kill me." "You used to be human!" "But not anymore, right?" "I got sick, and now I'm something less than human." "Something worthy of extermination." "It's academic now, isn't it?" "You won't make it out of here with that case." "Watch me." "She's there on the ceiling!" "Shoot!" "Shoot!" "It's me." "Did you get it?" "Yeah." "But they're serious about not letting me keep it." "Fine." "The objective is the destruction of the weapon." "If you can't make delivery -- destroy it." "Copy that." "Will terminate and destroy." "No, V." "The attack on the blood bank failed -- You cannot!" "Under no circumstances can you look inside that case!" "If you are compromised, you must destroy it immediately!" "Read?" "Read." "V. What the hell is going on?" "I'm clear." "I told you to destroy the weapon." "I said I'm clear." "You have the case?" "Affirmative." "Bring it in." "What's your status?" "The needle." "In the Shinwago." "10 minutes." "Bravo, V." "Bravo." "No one but you could have pulled this off." "It's not a weapon." "What are you talking about?" "It's not a weapon, it's a child." "A human child." "You opened the case?" "What difference does it make?" "I risked my life for nothing." "I think I had to know what I was willing to die for." "You see?" "Nothing." "Nothing." "It's not a weapon." "It's a child." "It's both." "It's a weapon and a child." "Its blood is swarming with cultured antigens that would kill all of us!" "On contact." "If they atomize its tissues into the atmosphere." "It would be like insecticide, to people." "Like you and me." "It would find us." "And, it would kill us." "All of us." "Nerver, wait, if there's an accelerator for HGV this child's blood" "Then, so's the counter-analogue for decelerating it." "What are you saying V.?" "A cure?" "Wouldn't it be better than infecting innocent people?" "This child could provide the choice." "If there's choice, V -- I have already made it." "It's a child." "You can go now, your work is done." "It was a protection." "Don't ever think it -- it just turns out I was right." "We're gettin' the hell outta here." "She went up!" "So go after her." "The Blood-she-more control the top10 floors of this building." "Whatever they want -- give it to them." "Watch me." "Hey." "What are you doing up there, huh?" "Hey." "It's a nice view, huh?" "Why don't you -- uh help me up so I can see it too?" "Here." "Give me your hand." "Give your hand." "Help me up." "Come on." "It's okay." "What do you think you're doing, huh?" "You trying to get yourself killed?" "Come on!" "Stop it!" "Seal the building." "Any other 'Phages inside I want them hunted down and killed." "Violet Sang-Jacques Sheriff." "Easy, Violet." "Do you know who I am?" "How could I not?" "Tyrant." "Egomaniac." "Narcissist?" "That about sums it up, doesn't it?" "Yes it may be true, I may have quirks -- but that doesn't mean I'm stupid." "And it certainly doesn't mean that you make a single move, without me knowing about it." "You would have killed me a long time ago." "Listen." "The boy is useless to you, he's -- laboratory bred." "Vegatative." "Practically brain-dead." "Just give him to me." "And you're on your way." "And then you can use him to kill me and everybody like me." "He's not what you think." "No?" "What is he then?" "He's my son." "Hey Daxis." "What?" "You're full of shit." "Cover your ears!" "Cover your ears!" "Metro 5 is boarding" "Stand clear" "Doors closing" "Damaged?" "Are you damaged!" "?" "What am I doing?" "Hey!" "Park it!" "Right there!" "Don't make me have to tell you twice." "... Sit!" "Don't get any cute ideas, either." "The only reason I saved your life is because whatever's in your blood can save mine." "If they corner us, suffer no delusions." "I will kill you." "Damn it!" "S-Squadron entering station -- contain and search train" "Metro 5 is boarding" "Garth, it's me." "I screwed up!" "I screwed up bad." "The case had a kid in it." "I crossed Nerva." "I know." "He called." "Don't even think about bringing it here V." "Damn it Garth, this kid might have the answer in him." "And I'm just gonna be lucky to get him out of here alive." "I need your help!" "I'm sorry V... ." "Myresearchistooimportant to jeapordize for a single child." "Goodbye V." "What part of those bullets whizzing by your head didn't you get?" "Do you understand anything I'm saying to you?" "Okay." "Let's start simple." "They had to call you something, right?" "Do you have a name?" "I'm Violet." "Hi, pleased to meet you." "Your turn." "Go." "Six." "You." "We gotta go." "Dammit!" "Gimme your arm." "Give your arm!" "Now you listen to me, Six." "Or whatever your name is." "I might not be able to get you where I want you to go, but I sure as hell am going to get your blood now." "Now gimmie your arm before I take the whole thing!" "You think those people are bad?" "Well let me tell you something." "The real monster, you don't want knocking down your doors, mate." "If I scream we'll both be dead." "Daxis doesn't know you can speak, does he?" "What do you know about what's going on?" "There's a war going on to the death between humans and hemophages." "And Six, you're human -- and" "I'm a hemophage." "Wait!" "Listen!" "Do you remember I said that there was something in your blood that could save my life?" "Well " " Daxis." "He put something into your blood." "He grew something there." "And whatever that is, those antigens," "They may hold the key to saving my life, but they were put there first and foremost to kill me." "To kill me, and everyone like me." "So ... thesemen?" "Yeah, Six." "They're after you." "Right now -- you're the most valuable object on this planet." "Unbelieveable, V. You jeapordize everything, by coming here." "The humans want me." "Nerva wants me." "I don't have any place left to go, Garth." "Besides" "You have all my guns." "So what's his story?" "You tell me." "Can you make an assessment?" "" " I'll need to draw some blood." "It'll take a few hours." "Sweeper Team A, inform ArchmMinister Daxis we have the remaining hemophages cornered on the 21st floor." "they're right beghind me." "The lights!" "Go night-vision." "Take them apart." "Switching to emergency backup lighting system." "So ... areyougoingtokillme?" "Think you can?" "I think you and I have matters of mutual self-interest to discuss." "Sit down." "Humans are celebrating something." "Where is this?" "When I was a kid, and I was just a little girl" "I used to dream about this old, dusty road." "And this road would go on, as far as the eye could see." "And there was all these little white flowers growing around the edges, and it was such a -- peaceful place." "There was a happy place." "But then, you realize, when life settles in around you places like this don't exist." "You're dying." "Yeah." "I am." "I'm sorry." "Do you read?" "Allright." "Look." "Commrade." "Lover." "Life." "And this one." "This ..." "This one was gonna save mother." "But, I got sick and and ..." "all that became impossible." "You're not lookin' so good." "I need to transfuse you." "Just be thankful you didn't convert with light sensitivity too." "You do this?" "What is it?" "I'm not sure." "It looks chemical..." "But, it seems to be done in the pre-collapsed form of Western notation, so it was -- probably him." "What is he?" "I know what he's not." "He's not someone who has a single molecule of vampire antigen in his blood that's what he's not." "He's not someone who's any good to us." "We can't reverse-engineer a cure out of his blood." "What?" "And if that's not bad enough, the kid's hot, Violet -- practically radioactive." "He's got a tracking device in him that's accurate to about 100 meters." "We're shielded in here." "I don't understand why would Nerva want me to get him so badly?" "And why were the humans guarding him so closely?" "I don't know." "But whatever they did put in the kid, Violet -- It's killing him." "Some kind of aggressive antagonistic protein." "Very predictible decay." "It's got a shelf-life of about 8 hours." "The kid's toast, V." "Why are you doing this?" "He's just a child." "It's a human child, Garth." "And besides what you're doing here is too valuable to jeapordize." "Goodbye Garth." "You've got a tracking device in you." "We've got to get moving before it locks on." "Come on." "Daxis!" "My phone number changes every 60 seconds." "Disposable phone printing thank you" "Garth it's me." "I think they've been tracking my phone, better get moving." "" " Okay." "Violet?" "Maybe it's me." "Come on!" "Violet, wait!" "What are we doing?" "I would be neglecting my duties" "If I didn't get a growing-boy fat -- wouldn't I?" "Credit card." "Allright, so you take this over there" "And see if you can't find us something to eat." "Go on." "Six." "You should, uh, really put your mask up." "Goodbye, Violet." "It's urgent response team moving out" "Squad One: we got a visual" "What am I doing?" "It's not him." "secure lock down" "Initiate area quarantine procedures" "Six!" "Wait." "Six !" "Sorry, V." "Violet Sang-Jacques Sheriff." "What are you thinkin'?" "Not bletchin' war." "We're as fast as you." "We are as strong as you." "Yeah" "But" "Are you one tenth as pissed off as I am?" "Careful, V." "Gunfire will attract the human security teams." "You might win the battle, but you'd lose the war, V." "V, wait." "Don't you realize what this child has in him?" "I don't care what this child has in him." "It's not a vampiral antigen." "But a human antigen." "Lethal enough to kill every human on the planet." "Why would humans create a human antigen?" "What do I -- or even you care why?" "Daxis has offered us a most tempting proposal." "One that would finally even the odds for us." "So just walk away V." "Walk away." "Are you insane?" "You won't drop him." "You need him more than I do." "Enter." "What did they ..." "put in me, Violet?" "Don't you see?" "That mechanism..." "Daxis -- your father put inside you, it's a ... antagonisticprotein, it's very precise, and" "It's going to shut you down, Six." "It's going to kill you Six, if I don't find some way if I don't find some" "I just need some time, just need" "Hello Violet." "3-D me." "This is a surprise." "I want you to take out whatever you put in the kid." "Oh, I wish that was possible, but there is no cure for the antigen." "I don't believe you." "Just bring him to me." "The antigen dies with the boy, and neither of them are any good to anybody." "You said you were his father, for godsake." "No, Violet." "I don't have a father." "No?" "More precisely" "he's my clone." "Number six in a series of eight." "What...?" "What the hell difference does it make?" "He's a child, you monster." "Monster?" "And, what you?" "And, more importantly, what does that make him to you?" "Some sort of bizarre maternal surrogate?" "A vampire and a dying human child what a pathetic picture." "I'll make you another Violet." "One that's not broken" "You won't even be able to tell the difference." "I promise." "And I may even be able to help you with that problem you have in your own blood." "Trace." "Why track the call, I'll tell you where I am," "I want you to bring me the boy." "I'll bring you a lot more than that, you prick." "I have 700 soldiers here with me." "What do you really think you can do against that many men?" "I can kill them." "Arch-ministry." "Let's go meet your maker." "Auto guide on" "You can't make it in." "Thanks for the vote of confidence." "Haven't you been paying attention?" "Killing is what I do." "It's what I'm good at." "Hey ..." "I'm a Titan." "A monolith." "Nothing can stop me." "I can see it." "What the hell choice do I have?" "A very clear one." "To watch me die." "Or make me watch you do the same." "Are you mental?" "The antidote." "I told you, there is no cure." "You wouldn't create a human-lethal antigen without an antidote you could administer to yourself!" "And your man-ciples." "Very nice, Violet." "Well, yes." "There is an antidote." "And yes, when I get the boy, isolate the antigen and release it into the atmosphere anyone who wants to live will cue up daily at this door to get it." "I thought we were the ones you hated." "I thought we were the ones you were trying to wipe out!" "That's problem." "You were." "Past tense." "But now that you, and those like you are all but extinct what's someone like me, someone with a job to do going to use -- to keep order in a society that left to itself would sprint toward chaos like an olympic event." "We did our job too well." "Now -- must we make amends." "You disgust me." "It's a relative term, Violet." "Give me what I want." "Come and get it." "You won't have him." "Projection disruption" "There's just too many, V." "Just too many." "Six" "Violet - I'm here." "I'm here." "What's that sound, V?" "V, what's that sound?" "That's just the wind." "Just the wind." "Too late, he's gone." "Quarantine the corpse, get it to the Arch-ministry." "Maybe we can salvage something out of it." "And her, sir?" "Have an incendiary team sanitize the area immediately." "All personnel, prepare to leave the area Get the body on ice." "Prepare it for disassembly." "We go in for salvage at daybreak." "Yes, doctor." "All personnel, clear the area immediately" "Violet." "Violet." "Violet." "Violet." "Ga..." "Garth..." "You very thoughtfully subbed in for the incendiary team." "Your heart stopped three times, but after four hours of surgery and a lot of prayer" "We managed to save your life." "You what?" "Careful." "I was there, Garth." "I was there." "You brought me back." "And for what?" "So I can do it all over again?" "Why?" "Isn't it -- isn't it obvious?" "Why won't you ever let anyone in?" "Because" "these moments as beautiful as they are" "they're evil, when they're gone." "Violet." "It's me, Garth." "Listen: turn on the TV." "You're all over the place, every channel." "Listen to me -- Just minutes ago apparently ..." "I know you're in a bad place" "But what the boy wrote down on that piece of paper it has something to do with the HGV virus, I know it." "I can feel it." "Violet, if you can just give me a little more time." "V?" "Are you listening?" "Where are you?" " 10th artery, Westbound." "Stay on course, I'll converge in 15." "Arch-ministry, on approach" "Violet, we can't get in there." "It's impossible." "Why do you think we went through so much trouble to have you intercept the case before it got back to Arch-ministry?" "I'm aware of that." "What's the point?" "Retribution?" "The boy is dead!" "He's not dead." "What do you mean?" "I mean Six is alive." "Violet!" "How can he be alive?" "Wait!" "Look!" "What the boy wrote down on the paper." "It's the chemical foundation of what I am certain is a cure for hemoglophagia." "Daxis' researchers probably developed it years ago in the same lab that he was bred in." "Just give me a little time." "I can cure you." "I know it." "The antigen can't survive without a living host." "However we may be able to salvage some viable basic protein analogues that will save us time, in re-culturing the antigen in another clone." "Searching for ... concealed weapons" "Number of weapons found" "Many!" "I'm here to see, the Vice-Cardinal." "Yellow Alert!" "Yellow alert!" "Yellow Alert!" "Yellow alert!" "It's her!" "She's dead!" "Oh my god." "Single female intruder identified in security portal one" "Please remain calm pacification and neutralization is underway" "The boy's dead." "This is pure suicide." "Yellow alert upgraded" "Orange alert" "One woman against 14 men." "It's ridiculous!" "Have the gas guard waiting for her in the mortal sciences library," "I'm going to level her!" "Red alert!" "Red alert!" "Red alert!" "Red alert!" "You are all gonna die." "Is that all you've got?" "Violet -- the boy is dead." "You obviously don't have a clear grasp of what "dead" really is." "Allow me to demonstrate." "For godsakes ..." "Violet " "I'm unarmed!" "Not yet you're not." "No!" "You got hemo blood on me." "It is on!" "Yeah it is." "Yes, no doubt in a fair fight, you would beat me." "But that's not how I got where I am today." "Can you see me, Violet?" "No?" "Too bad you can hurt with only mild light sensitivity." "Unlike me." "What?" "That's right, Violet." "How do you think a lowly lab technician" "Made that meteoric rise through the ranks?" "What accident of providence do you think gave him those additional qualities?" "Yes Violet." "I'm like you." "My god!" "With the minor exception that I'm going to walk out of here alive." "Violet." "Violet!" "Do you believe in god, Violet?" "Do you hope he's merciful?" "Do you think he'll welcome you, into his arms, like the so very many you've sent his way?" "Hey, Daxis." "You know, after this" "I think you will." "Six." "Six, wake up." "Violet." "But " " I thought I was ... dead." "No." "You've just been reborn." "Violet." "Violet." "Violet!" "It's okay." "No, it's not." "Violet listen to me." "There's a cure." "Oh." "No." "We found it?" "Come on." "Yes, I was born into a world you might not understand." "But a world, as it turns out where hope still lives." "And my body -- will Garth be able to fix it?" "The way another had cured my soul?" "Maybe." "Maybe not." "But this I do know: all those still out there who spread oppression and "justice" and hatred:" "They better hope not."