"Please!" "Please!" " You should not have run." " Don't shoot!" "I know!" "You must work out." "Ow!" "Ow!" "I'm sorry!" " I'm sorry!" " You will return to the factory." "I don't think so!" "Arrgh!" "You will return to the factory." "I will." "I'll return to the factory." "Um...your rocket boot's unlatched." "COMPUTER:" "This is a secure area." "Do not enter." "COMPUTER:" "Access is denied." "COMPUTER:" "Warning." "Methane leak." " Euww!" "COMPUTER:" "Warning." "Methane leak." "Warning." "Methane leak." "One Hurricane, extra nasty." "That's nasty." "Hel, what is that?" "Oh, Hel and Sarge!" "Thank God!" "What happened to you?" "Fight in the ladies' room?" "The ladies' room?" "!" "Newsflash." "Do you remember me being sucked up into a Bailey, flown off to a Betrayer factory?" "I escaped, thanks for asking." "I've been trying to get back here for weeks." "Oh, my God!" "500 years into the future, she will enter a world where machines rule the Earth." "Mankind has been driven underground." "And Cleopatra is about to discover there's no place like home." "ln the year 2525" "There are women with the will to survive" "Fighting for a brand-new day" "Nothing's gonna get in their way" "And in the year 2525" "Three women keep hope alive" "Joining forces to reclaim the Earth" "Looking ahead to humankind's rebirth" "Who the hell is she?" "Wh...what's going on?" " Whoa!" "Time out!" "Are you crazy?" " Don't move, Betrayer." "Betrayer?" "!" "I don't believe it." "Oh." "Does my butt really look that big?" "Excuse me?" "Oh, guys, it's me." " One more step and I'll burn you." " I am not a Betrayer!" " She must be the Betrayer!" " Sure, right!" " Shut up!" "You shut up!" "No, you shut up!" "Oh, enough!" "Control bursts, maximum setting." "On three." "One..." "W-Wait!" "No!" "I'm Cleopatra, I swear!" "I was taken to a Betrayer factory with Lily." "I waited for you to come, but you never did." " Two..." " They did all kinds of tests on me." "They wanted to know about The Voice, but I didn't tell them anything." "I swear." "Hel, please, it's me." " How did you escape?" " You don't believe her?" " Ssh!" " But she..." "There was some kind of an explosion." "The factory must have been attacked." "They sent a Betrayer after me." "It feels like I've been running for ever." "This is crazy." "I am Cleo." "You guys know me." "We've been hanging together for months." " What do you think?" " I think we need help sorting this out." "Containment fields." "No!" "Let's find out who's who." "Could I at least get some clean clothes?" " Gee, what are Betrayers wearing this fall?" " You tell me." "You're the Betrayer." "So, can you tell which one is the real Cleo?" "I would have said if I had come up with a reliable Betrayer test." "Come on, you really think we could have been working with the Betrayer these past few weeks?" "They are designed to mimic the person they duplicate exactly." "How would we know if any of us were a Betrayer?" "Hel, if there is a Betrayer on the team..." " Yes, I know, Voice." "She's seen our weapons, our defence systems, everything." "But we rescued Cleo from that factory." " You blasted her Betrayer duplicate yourself." " I blasted a Betrayer, but maybe they made more than one." "Backups." "So there could still be a Betrayer out there of my sister." "Maybe." "I don't know." "OK." "Suppose you're right." "That would mean Cleo - our Cleo - was able to fight her way out of a Betrayer factory single-handedly." "Ow!" "Huh?" "She has a point, Hel." "OK, look." "We blasted that Betrayer factory to pieces." "Maybe, if she was being held nearby, she escaped in all the chaos." "And eluded a Betrayer for nearly a month?" " Well, come on." " I'm not going to answer that." "Cos you don't know." "Fine." "Most embarrassing moment:" "Lester Nizwicki." "Behind the field house." "Root beer schnapps was a contributing factor" "All right, we all know you've been programmed with my memories." "Doesn't prove a thing." "I can't believe you guys are fooled by her." "Listen to her voice." "I don't sound like that." "Do I sound like that?" "Sarge, it's me!" "Remember?" "I gave you your first exfoliating facial." "And oh, oh, what about the slumber party?" "You guys had a slumber party with the Betrayer?" "!" "That's so uncool." " I am not a Betrayer!" " Neither am I." "I'm Cleo." "It's not true!" "I'm Cleo!" "I suppose we could kill them both." "What?" "Anatomically, chemically, they're identical, right down to a molecular level." "There's no way to tell who's the Betrayer till it starts shooting the place up?" "Maybe there is." "Mauser, you said they're exactly the same on a molecular level." "You have something, Hel?" " They're both living tissue, carbon-based." "Wouldn't the rate of decay of their atomic structures tell us their exact ages?" "Yes, the Betrayer Cleopatra shouldn't be more than a few weeks old." "Scan 'em, Mauser." "Why didn't I think of that?" " Nervous?" " As if." "So, can we use this to detect other Betrayers?" "Yes, of course." "If we can get them to stand still long enough for me to take a complete chronomolecular scan." "Well?" "She's just what we'd expect." "Age 21.632 years." "What about me?" "The chrono scan indicates she is..." "22.3 days old." "She's the Betrayer." "It's a mistake." "I'm glad we got that cleared up." "Now, could you please get me out of here?" " I'm not a Betrayer!" " Don't move!" " Hel, it's me!" " Stop!" "Hel, please!" "Is she dead?" "That was way too easy." "If that really is a Betrayer, then why isn't it healing itself?" " No pulse." "I think she's human." " What?" "!" " Are you sure that test was right?" " There's always a possibility of error." "Hel, what's your status?" "I may have just killed Cleopatra." "OK, if she's a Betrayer, why is she bleeding to death, not ripping our heads off?" "I don't know, but cover her." " Did you kill her?" " Faint bio-signs." " Is she a Betrayer?" " The test was accurate." "Biologically, she is only three weeks old." "She is the Betrayer." " Good." " There is another problem." "Why is there always another problem?" "I'm reading a strong micropulse transmission from the lab." "It's coming from her." "A kind of distress beacon, perhaps." "Makes sepse." "A Betrayer goes down, it sends out a call for backup." "Great!" "We just sent an invitation to every Betrayer in the hemisphere." "I'll try to jam the signal." "I'll go check the perimeter defences." "Good, and I want her back in containment." "Make sure the field holds this time." "" " I'm detecting traces of polymorphic Betrayer alloy coming from her wound." "She's healing herself, though much more slowly than the normal Betrayer regeneration" " process." " Why?" "I don't think she knows she's a Betrayer." "The Bailies implant human memories into the Betrayers, right?" "That's what makes them so hard to detect." "Yes. the final stage of creating a Betrayer must be to implant it with a set of subliminal orders to infiltrate, to protect oneself, to kill as necessary." "We destroyed the factory before this Betrayer got its final programming." "She escaped, thinking she was me, and did the only thing she could think of." "She came home." " I don't believe it." " I know it's difficult." "No, I can't be a Betrayer." "I was born in Phoenix, Arizona." "I remember my family." "I had a dog named Mister Pants !" "Look!" "Look!" "I fell when I was eight years old on my rollerblades!" "1 2 stitches." "See?" "Those aren't your memories." "I'm not a Betrayer!" "Show her." " Manual defence system is armed, Hel." " Gotcha, Sarge." "Get back to the lab." " Our guest is awake." " On my way." "Hel. we've been given a tremendous opportunity." "We have a fully operational Betrayer in our hands." "I'd like to see how much we need to stress her body to break down the Betrayer alloy." " It could give us a real edge." " She's not a crash-test dummy!" " She is a Betrayer." " What about Mauser?" "He used to be a Betrayer, but you fixed him so he wouldn't hurt anyone." "Can't you do the same for her?" "I don't have time to explain neuro-synaptic encoding to you, but trust me, it's not the same thing." "Her programming is far more advanced than Mauser's ever was." "No offence, Mauser." "But it could take months to decode her synaptic net." "And her Betrayer friends are close by." "Mom told me that weird things happened in LA." "I figured she meant like drugs." "That's so freaky!" "I was just thinking about Mom." "It's that same brainwaves thing." "Right." "I was thinking about the last time that I talked to her." "Yeah, she called the night before I went into the hospital." "I told her..." "You told her that you'd see her at Thanksgiving." "I didn't make it, obviously." "I miss her." "Me too." "And Stef and Jordan and Johnny." "And how we used to go out disco-bowling on Saturday nights." "But that didn't happen to me either, did it?" "It's a good memory, either way." "Excuse me." "Just need to take a few readings." "Doesn't he remind you of that guy from EI Segundo?" "The one with the hands?" "Yes !" "Yes!" " Mauser's some piece of work, huh?" " Too bad he's not programmed for..." "Tell me about it!" "Proximity sensors !" " We may have caught a break." "There's just one." " So far." "Don't let it take me!" "I don't want to hurt anyone!" "We won't let that happen." "Cleo, stay here." "Both of you." "Bye." "Voice, arm the neutron curtain." "You're too Glose." "Hel" " Do it!" "Armed." "Come on." "Just a little closer." "Dammit, come on." "What are you waiting for, you dumb pile of polymorphic alloy?" "Voice, now!" "Let her have it!" "Let's go!" "Mauser!" "Containment field!" "Now!" " Take cover!" "" "Go!" "I'll cover you!" "Cleo, no!" "Hey, over here!" "No!" " Fire!" " I don't know how!" "Just think it." "OK!" "No!" " Did I get it?" " You kicked its butt, girl!" " Awesome." " Easy." "Do I get a gauntlet now?" "I don't think you need one, kiddo." "You can heal yourself." "I..." "I don't know." "That's what Betrayers do." "You saved all our lives." "That's what humans do." "Try." "You can do it." "She may be too badly damaged." "Mauser's right." "No!" "You can't give up." "You can't leave me." "Hel and Sarge and Mauser, they're my friends now, but you know who I was." "You know about Johnny, and Mom, and every stupid, crazy thing I ever did." " With you around, I'm not so alone here." " You'll be OK." "No, I don't want to be OK!" "It's not good enough!" "Thank you." "For what?" "For the memories." "Don't you give up, dammit!" "Don't go!" "Off line." "Next week: 112 The Last Stand"