Dark knew something was wrong when the fake Alexander did not defend himself. So Dark discarded the sword he could not use any ways and slapped the appirition...to discover that it was real. Or at least it felt real, "Alexander?" Dark asked in disbelief.

Dark followed Alexander's instructions, running alongside him having yet realeased Alexander's hand. "Do you even know how to get us out of here?" Dark asked wondering how one even beats a dream.

(sorry internet died then was with-held from me)

he laughed. i do not, i have not ever gotten this far he sped up dragging dark along. we must hurry though, our time is nearly up! he swung a corner and took an incline, there were no visual clues in this maze of a nightmare but he needed none to find his way from a dream. he keppt on, soon the dusky dark began to streak a sunset color. they were nearly there! he turned to look at the prize, his lord running hand-in-hand with him through the dark his pale skin aglow and his black shining looks loose and flowing in a wind made entirely from their running. he dared to smile at the other. they turned another corner and the world burst into light, they flew along as if on wings through the swirl of it. he could feel the edge of the world touch his outstretched fingers even as he kept his eyes on the others, close, so close! he could feel it pull at him now as the world began to break away he opened his mouth to share the words.....and a great black void came from below and swallowed the boy whole. his rapture turned into a scream as he was pulled out of the dream-

-he woke with a gasp. he lay sprawled out over the other. the boy still slept and he cursed, again he had failed, again he let the darkness win. he wrapped his armes around the other the best he could. he would not let the nightmare take away his lord.

(I wasn't on anyways)

Dark ended up following Alexander. Though Alexander claimed ot have no idea he seemed to know where he was heading. "What is with the sky?" He asked as he was dragged along. Whenever he had nightmares before they had always been during the daytime hours. Then Alexander disappeared and Dark was alone once more. The voices, once Alexander was gone, started right up again. But one stood out amoung the rest, "You would have killed him had he not shown his hand."

he shook the poor boy awake. "no, you will not stay without me" the other's eyes snapped open as his head bobbled

The fist thing Dark saw apon his rough awakening was Alexander, who was also awake. Dark curled into him and asked, "Was that you?" dark hoped not, his nightmares were not places for friends to visit.

"it was, and i confess the other time and once again before that. i think i see why i am here, i must break your curse and free you from the nightmare" he did not realize he was manic sounding to his lord, he was still high off of the chase. "it must be destroyed"

Dark gave Alexander a slightly wierded out look, then shrugged. "It hasn't caused me any harm before, I don't think it will be starting now." Dark claims not voicing the fact he has never before had a nightmare like that.

he growled from on top of the other. he did not see the difference between hurting the body and hurting the mind and this nightmare was doing it's damnedest to tear a gaping hole where noone could see. he helt the other tighter. "let me help you"

Dark gave a light sigh and wrapped himself closer to Alexander. "But I don;t want you to end up getting hurt by my dreams." Especially now that they seemed to react more violently to Alexander. "They seem to want to hurt you and I don't want you hurt."

"mmhnmmm..." he reveled in the squeeze, forgetting for a moment he was not to do that sort of thing anymore "it knows my intentions, it wants to kill me for interfering but i want to do it for you" he laid his cheek against the other's. i can feel you all the time, your joy is my joy, your pain is my pain. these dreams are no longer only yours to fight"

"Sweet words," murmered Dark knowing there was more to that phrase but forgetting what. "And I won't sleep if my dreams want to kill you."

his eyes popped open though he did non know when they had even closed. "i will not die unless you desire it. that is the truth"

"But sometimes the truth is just lies made to look pretty." Dark whispers. He deperatly wants to believe Alexander's words but he cannot. His mind presents him with logical reasons not to.

"and sometimes we must blindly put our faith in something even when we are not sure the results will be in our favor. not every flash of metal is fool's gold" he did not know where the words came from, they were not supplied by the book or taken from a story. he did not however question it, surly there was a reason

"But every smile a mask and every laugh, a hidden pain." Dark knows this is not completely true but it is the closest thing he can think of. "Faith is made to be broken just like promises."

he lay there and tried to think of the right thing to say but nothing he came up with sounded right. he buried his face in the other's hair and took a deep breath. he searched in himself for what he himself believed to be true and found something. he offered his reply softly and without authority" then i will have to keep making my promise until it becomes a truth"

'Repition of a certain phrase or idea until it become ingrained in memory and one believes it to be truth.' The though popped in unbidden and Dark gave a sigh. Dark knew of it because it was occasionly used as an alternate form of psycological treatment. He did not speak his though though and just hummed his approval of Alexander's statement.

he knew enough to know the other had not spoken aloud but he wanted to tell the other that that was in essence the main pillar of faith. without it nothing could hold fast. he knew the discussion was not resolved though so he said nothing and simply laid there offering what little comfort he could.


brrrriiiiiiii brrrrrriiiii


he hated that little box

If Dark had any hopes of returning to sleep he quickly forgot it when the phone started ringing. "Who would be calling now?" Dark asked without expecting a responce. "Hello?" He asked upon answering.

he could hear a male voice this time and though his hackles were still raised he lost the urge to throw it across the room. the voice began talking about fishing and hacking things up and he lost interest

The longer Kadver kept talking the more worried Dark got. "I'll get on my computer immediatly." Dark assure Kadver as he got untangled and headed out of the bed room towards where his computer was. "Stop our little friend from accessing the fifth account and I'll release the other four. See if Mica, Kelly, or Sean is up too. If all three are up even better." Dark had his computer up and was already taking apart little bits of code to stop the bot. "I'm going to hang up now, call them to check if they're awake." Dark hung up the phone then focaused entirly on the computer.

he felt the other tense up then throw out a liteny of words that sounded like english but he did not understand it. he moved obligingly as the other got up to go to the computer. he lay there a minute or two longer looking at the discarded piece of equipment. he wondered if the other would be mad if he killed it. he slithered out of bed taking the blanket with him. it was cold enough that his borrowed underwear were not enough. he trundled out to where the other was typing. the furious clack of keys his only movement

Dark was only slightly aware of Alexander being up. "Sorry, we have someone trying to destroy all our hard work." Dark said feeling sorry for leaving Alexander alone so suddenly. "Dammit," Dark said with various other profanities. Before suddenly becoming silent. Whoever the hacker was, they were good. The bot was actually slightly like a virus and it copied itself onto one bank acount before allowing the other one to move to the next. Because the bots were always active and reporoducing themselves, it would be harder to contain and destroy.

Dark quickly answered the phone next time it rang. "Did you get the others?" He asked without waiting for the greeting.

"Yeah, only Sean and Kelly were up though."

"Good, tell them to find the original bot, these are breeders. Once the original is gone and stops sendout out signals the bots should stop breeding." Dark explained quickly to Kadver wanting to get back to his work.

"I'll tell them." Kadver said, "Keep your phone open though, I can have us all hooked up via on connecter to talk freely as we fix our little botty problem."

he looked at the screen and licked his lips "dark....let me try something"

"What do you want to try?" Dark asked wonder slightly if Alexander had ever really seen a computer.

"to eat it" was all he said

Dark blinked, then did a double take. "Eat it?" Dark was not sure about the nutritional content of a computer but he was sure it was quite low.

he nodded, it gave off a hum not too terribly different than the book and he had not eaten since the first night there and that meal not only messed up his day but sat poorly

"How do you propose eating it?" Dark asked wondering if Alexander was not completly awake.

he left the other's side for a moment and came back with a book and stood behind the other. opening it so that the other could see he began to read aloud. the words melted into nothingness as he went over them

Dark stared at Alexander before asking, "And you could do this to the bot?" That would be rather odd.

he looked right at the other "yes"

Well, Dark thought, won't hurt to try. "Okay, I'll bring up a bot code and we'll see if you can. I'm not sure it will work since bot language doesn't actually make much sense to someone not trained in it."

*he nodded and sat on the arm of the chair his blankets spilling everywhere. the other pulled up a strange little box filled with green letters and numbers. it made no sense to him but that did not matter. he touched the screen and it flickered each of the computers open programs turned off one by one until he found it. the entire code disappeared and an error message popped up asking for the c/ drive. he let go of the screen and did his best to heave over the side of the chair.

Dark almost dropped his computer in an effort to make sure Alexander was okay. A voice interupted before he could ask if Alexander was okay, "Dark, what did you do? All the bots seem to have disappeared." Dark stared at his phone, he had forgotten it was on.

"I..." Dark tried to figure out what to say. "I have a friend who... knew how to get rid of them perminatly." Dark said almost the whole truth but not quite all of it. Having a sentinet book/person eat the virus code was not a responce one gave if they wanted to be called sane.

"too much..haah" he felt sick, twenty-three copies two tasted alright but the other twenty-one were nasty to say the least. he tried to get himself back together "sid 'i'd do sokay?" he licked his lips again this time to get rid of the vile taste "urk, i..that'd was gross"

"You got the bots and everything else." Dark said with a slight sigh. Who knew how much Alexander had eaten from the computer. "Thank you for the help, but are you okay?"

The phone inturpted again but this time it was Kelly, "Dark, we can keep them down for a bit, whatever your friend did really helped. But this battle ain't over yet."

he nodded and stood up, he wobbled a bit but made it over to where his book sat discarded. he picked it up and flipped to the back looking. when he found the coding he took the book back to the other. he stuck his finger on the lines of gibberish, "that one, on top, did you write that?"