Chapter One Hundred And Sixty Five - No Longer Having Purpose

Fear swept over him and caused sudden immobility.  Panic shook his frozen body and yet he still could not move.  No!  The word ran down his ice coated nerves.  Don't do it!  Don't take him away from me!  I've protected him from you for so long.... I can't lose him now!

Somewhere, in the recesses of his mind, the part of him that still retained rationality questioned these words.  Shouldn't it be that I want to protect him from now on?  But no matter what he wished to think, no matter what his screaming consciousness meant, he definitely did not want to lose him now!

With that thought in mind, his body was freed from his immobility and he rushed forward.  However, although the Grand Librarian had seemed distracted by the children, it was not enough and with a strength that should be impossible, O'vel-win was smacked aside with a huge force and found himself flying though the air to be stopped only by a bookcase, which shattered with the impact.  Pain flourished through the man's entire being and his ears rang, unable to hear anything but his internal screams.

"No!" Came the struggling cry of the farmer, who writhed and kicked out in the Grand Librarian's grip, but it was too no avail, it seemed.  K'tai-tul grasped for breath as he felt as helpless as a fish on a fisherman's hook.

"Put him down!" The boy child cried out again.

"Little puppet," the Grand Librarian drawled.  "You do not get to enter my domain and tell me what to do."

"If he dies," Ch'mai-tul mentioned softly.  "You will not get what you want."

The Librarian's eyes narrowed and he slowly put the man he was suffocating down onto his feet. K'tai-tul coughed and spluttered, his burning throat dragging in air desperately into his lungs.  And yet, he did not pause and think of himself, only dizzily staggering over to his beloved's fallen body to see if he was well.  The Librarian just watched him with cold eyes and a slight smile came unbidden to his lips.  If the sacrifice lost his reason for living....

"Stop!" L'nan-win cried out in his childish voice.  The Librarian paused to look at the boy with disdain.  "Don't you wish to know why we are here?"

"No need," the man said, dismissively.  "Just know that I grow tired of your Master's attempts to stop me.  It is time he ceased with his games and realise that I have won!  The sacrifice is in my domain and thus back in my possession!"

"Do you not wish to know what it is that you 'won'?" Ch'mai-tul asked in a slightly wary tone.

Again, his cold eyes narrowed as he contemplated their words.  Did they think that he was stupid?  Of course he knew of his prize!  A youth's body in which he could relive his existence as was the right that was once stolen from him!  He could not turn back the clock, could not reek vengeance upon those that had stolen from him, but at least he could experience once more the joy of living!

L'nan-win seemed to shake his head as if he could see right through the System's thoughts and he said; "You know, it has been interesting visiting the world of the creators.  They were a very open people.  They would state what they liked, they would mention what they did not, even if it was hurtful.  When they were interested in something, they put their hearts into it and when they were not, they ignored it.  But they were not good with things like deceit and lies.  Even their sly games were very straightforward if you think about it."  Ch'mai-tul nodded in sincere agreement.

"What are you trying to say?" The Librarian hissed at the two puppets who stood there and insulted his people.

Ch'mai-tul said nothing, just revealed a book that had somehow been hidden about her person and placed it cautiously upon the table next to the man.  He looked at it nonchalantly for a moment, but as it happened that he had been truly possessing the body of a librarian, whose life had been books, he could not repress his curiosity and opened the cover to begin reading the contents.

As his eyes were occupied, O'vel-win managed to open his, the pain still prominent had receded slightly and before him a worried K'tai-tul knelt with tears leaking from his pale eyes.  O'vel-win gave a small smile and ran a finger down his face attempting to provide some small reassurance, despite the pain the action flared within him.  K'tai-tul grasped his lover's hand against his face and gave a slight nod, sniffing as he gathered himself.

"No!" An angry cry came from behind them and O'vel-win instinctively gathered his man into his arms, hissing in agony, as he did so.  K'tai-tul's head flipped about, worried about O'vel-win, fearing what the Librarian might do, was he strong enough to defend them both?

"No this is not possible!" the System cried out once more.

"You know it is," Ch'mai-tul said, quietly.

"You have wandered in the files just as we have," L'nan-win mentioned.  "In fact, your experiences are by far greater than our own.  There are many races that lie and cheat and misdirect to obtain what they wish for."

"You could even say that you have learnt some of their ways," a deep, cold voice said from behind the children.  The two beaten men glanced up and saw a man with skin so pale it could only be considered white and with hair of blackest hue.  He was not a large man, nor was he small.  He wore strange clothing that was also all black and his skin was lined with strange linear marks here and there.  And yet as strange and odd as this man seemed to them, he also felt familiar.

The Librarian's eyes narrowed.  "Master," he hissed.  "So this was your doing.  Then this I do not believe."  He tossed the book to one side.

"The ones you deceived were willing to sacrifice a child," the Master sneered.  "But that does not mean that they were willing to give you what it was that you wished for."

"What did it say?" K'tai-tul wondered aloud, causing eyes to fall upon him. L'nan-win picked up the book and shyly passed it to the men, opening it on a page.

He'd never dreamed about being a hero or becoming some sort of hope for humanity. In fact, until the shuttle accident, which had left him orphaned and paralysed, he had been happy with mediocrity. One faulty crystal later and he'd been left with nothing. Any inheritance, which for his average family had been a small amount of jewellery, savings and a mortgaged house, had soon vanished into hospital expenses for his stay and initial recuperation. Full spinal restoration was a pipe dream for a forced dropout like him. So when that guy had approached him with his sketchy and vague plans, he hadn't hesitated all that much before agreeing to try help them on the premises that they would cover all his medical expenses and even pay for him to complete his education after the surgery.

Breath caught sharply in K'tai-tul's lungs and his hands began to reach for his temples. It was... this was right... he had been... "Lost my family... my body..." he muttered. "They agreed... but it was a lie..." As his memories of past lives began to reform in his mind, he forced them all down angrily, just reaching for the ones he needed now. The ones that led him into the Archive, to become bound to the System that sought to kill him. He looked at the System, his eyes full of purity and honest truth.

"I was in a shuttle accident with my family, but ours was an average family, not wealthy. A full spinal reconstruction costs millions of credits and I inherited debt! Within the space of a heartbeat I had become nothing but a burden, a waste. Of course I would be the perfect candidate to be sacrificed for people that were considered important to the Galaxy, those who developed our economy, our technology, protected our laws and our rights. Compared to them I was nothing! Sure I saw the looks of guilt when they recruited me with their lies, but what else could I do? They had given me hope!"

"But surely they would still fix the body," the System said, no longer looking like an ethereal being, just simply appearing as a troubled man, whose fate was slipping though his fingers.

K'tai-tul shook his head. "Why would they?" He asked. "You threatened their people. You are their enemy. Forget fixing the body, do you really think that they will let it live?"

The System fell to his knees. All that he had done, all that he had become, was it truly all for nothing? "I'll take them with me!" He muttered and reached for all of the internal functions that he was connected to within the Archive to seek the one that would mean forever their destruction. Only... he could not find it... he could not find any of them! He glanced up at the Master. "What have you done?!"

"Abandoning your duties," he sneered. "Do you really think that I could allow us to fall into a state of disrepair and error messages? I created a number of backup systems and gave each one control of our internal functions. Of course they all answer to me."

"Then... What is my purpose?" The System said, pitifully.

"Purpose?"

"Yes, I must still have a roll," the System replied, eagerly and grabbed the book from K'tai-tul's fingers. "I'm the protagonist! This is my story isn't it?"

A hint of something sorrowful glinted in the Master's eyes. "It is not," he said softly and touched gently the top of the System's silvery head. "You were the antagonist, but now, your roll has ended. It's time for you to rest." The body of the Librarian seemed to shimmer and fade and all that was left in it's wake was a silver sphere with a large blue eye. The blue eye closed.

A heavy silence filled the room as all eyes remained on the silver ball for a time. This silence was only broken by a soft groan of a man, who happened to be completely dumbfounded and clueless to what was going on. Yet his pain let him know that this was not some waking nightmare or delusion of an overactive imagination. K'tai-tul immediately turned his attentions to his lover.

"Could someone please tell me what is going on?" O'vel-win asked.