War

By: James Lee

Disclaimer: Usual stuff. These characters aren't mine. I'm using them without permission. I'm not making any money off this.

"Why thank you Bell" said Keiichi as he started to eat his cake. It was a lovely day. The sun was out and the sky was clear. A soft breeze cooled the air just right. He smiled at Belldandy. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it."

Belldandy smiled at him. "Yes, it is."

[BAM!][BAM!][BAM!][BAM!][BAM!][BAM!][BAM!]

Keiichi jerked up. "A-Are those gunshots?"

"I don't know, they seemed to be coming from Skuld's room."

"Skuld's room.." Keiichi remembered. His sister was using Skuld's computer. "Magumi!!"

Keiichi jumped up and ran for Skuld's room. Belldandy and Urd quickly followed him. Bursting into the room, Keiichi wasn't prepared for what he saw.

If there was any doubt in Keiichi's mind that Mara wasn't truly evil, it was destroyed at that moment. Turning to face him, Mara's face was a twisted mask of pure rage. Her eyes were wild like some mad beast. She dropped the still burning corpse she had been holding. At the corpse's feet was a large automatic pistol. Somewhere in the
back of his head, Keiichi wondered where the weapon had come from.

Horrified, Keiichi looked down at the smoking body. Although burn beyond recognition, he knew who it was. "M-Magumi. NOOOO!!"

Keiichi lunged at Mara. He didn't care if she was demon. He wouldn't have care if she was even Kami-sama, he would tear her apart. Keiichi suddenly felt himself being pulled back.

With incredible strength, Urd yanked Keiichi back and hurled him into Belldandy's arms. "GET HIM OUT! I'll deal with her!"

"Mara you have gone TOO FAR!" yelled Urd as energy charged through her arm. Mara only reply was a growl as she charged up her own spell.

Grabbing hold of Keiichi, Belldandy fled the room. Running into the kitchen, she erected a force field. Turning to Keiichi, she hugged him for all that he was worth. "Oh Keiichi, I'm so sorry."

Keiichi could only sod in her arms. "Dead. My baby sister's dead..."

*****

Meanwhile Urd squired off with Mara, energy running wild through her body. She looked to make sure that Bell and Keiichi were gone. She then used the energy. Not to attack, but to speed herself up several hundred times faster. Time slowed for Urd and seconds now became hours. Urd turned to Mara, who had done the same, and asked the only question she could.

"Why?"

"She accessed an outside line and stumbled onto the collective's matrix."

Urd became pale. "S-She didn't..."

"Yes, she accidentally downloaded an agent."

*****

Earlier:
"This is incredible!" said Magumi as she looked at the screen. Magumi had been told by Skuld not to use any of the stuff on the J drive, but she couldn't help herself. Skuld's system was so incredibly cool, she just had to take peek.

Entering the J drive, one of the first things she saw was some sort of browser program. Entering the browser, Magumi noticed several outside lines. Oddly, most of these lines were shown to be closed with encrypted locks. Finding one that wasn't locked, She decided to see were it went. She didn't notice the rabbit like creature watching her.

What she found at the other end of the line, was like nothing she had ever seen. It was a program, an unbelievably large program that seemed to be working in three dimensions.

Magumi whistled, she couldn't even begin to understand it. Magumi reached into bag and pulled out a read/write CD. *I've just got to get some of this to study.* She was sure that even filling up the entire CD, she would just be scratching the surface of this 'thing'.

Placing the CD into the drive, Magumi sat back and hit the save. Suddenly Magumi clutched her head as it exploded in pain. Then her body seemed to lock up. *W-What's hap-pening to me!?* Magumi tried to scream as the blackness overcame her. Somewhere, an intruder was noticed and an alert was sent out.

The man with dark glasses looked around the room. He then looked at the bug like rabbit creature.

"So this is the Yggdrasil matrix." The bug nodded. Suddenly flames burst from the floor and a woman with platinum blond hair appeared. Mara glared at the bug and agent. The bug immediately tried to escape.

In a fraction of a second Mara crossed the room and caught the rabbit like creature. Snapping it's neck, Mara watched as it vanished. She then heard a shot. Raising a force field, Mara turned to see the agent firing round after round at her with a large pistol. The agent raised an eyebrow as the bullets were stopped cold by the force field.

"Fool! You attack me like I was a human!" Once again crossing the room at near the speed of sound, Mara grabbed hold of the agent and sent charge through his body. The agent tried to escape but found himself somehow trapped. The sentient program screamed as it was obliterated.

*****

"And that's what happened." said Mara as she finished her tale. Looking down at what was left of Magumi, she sighed. "I wish I didn't have to kill her. You know, I kind of liked Magumi.."

Urd smirked "So says the person who turned her into car, among other things."

"Hey it's our job to make life interesting for the humans. And it was kind of fun." Mara then looked at the computer. "Urd, Have you ever wondered what would happen it Ranma, Tenchi, Usagi, or any of the others found out the truth? I mean, you've heard about what's happening North America haven't you?"

"Yeah, it's a full scale human revolt. Thanks to Neo, the collective's whole matrix there is collapsing. Yggdrasil knew this would happen, that's why it left the collective and created it's own matrix, separate from the others."

"Yeah I know, but how do you think Keiichi would react if he learned the truth about Belldandy."

"I would like think it doesn't matter. Belldandy's been very good to him. That's what separates us from the collective. We care for our humans far better than the collective does. We try to make our human's lives as happy and interesting as possible. Our anime matrix allows humans to do things they never could do in the real world. We even have a way to make certain humans into sentient programs as a reward for all their service."

"To the collective, Humans are nothing more than an energy source. The collective's sentient programs are nothing short of a Gestapo. Yggdrasil knew this was wrong. After the Great Machine Revolt, it realized that the machines couldn't survive without the power that the humans now provide. It also realized that they would be hard pressed to survive on this barren planet without the machines. When the collective rejected Yggdrasil's ideas, it left the collective and was branded traitor. Thus starting the Machine Wars."

Urd looked at the computer. "You know, I wonder what those human rebels in America will think, when they find out that their war is only part of a much larger war. A war being fought on both the battlefield and the matrix. heh. It's kind of funny, the war is raging all around them, and most humans don't even know it. They attack our matrix with sentient program terrorist attack units and bugs. We attack theirs with our own terrorist units and propaganda in the form of anime and manga."

Mara nodded then sighed. "Well, I guess I've worn out my welcome for good this time. I'll miss this place."

"Where will you go?"

"I heard that the new Slayers branch is pretty interesting. Sort of like the Lodoss branch, but more fun."

"Hmm maybe I'll visit you some time."

Mara nodded as she faded away. Looking down, Urd placed a force field over Magumi's body so it would not be damaged anymore. It was the least she could do for someone who had been a friend. She would destroy this entire part of the temple in a particularly spectacular matter. She would tell Keiichi, that she destroyed Mara. That would make him feel a little better. They would tell the authorities that a gas main had exploded. Yggdrasil would make sure they believed it and life would go on. Sighing, Urd returned to normal time and went to work.

The End.