Reality
Chris gets out of the cruiser as he goes to an Agent who is overlooking a series of building's.
Chris: This where we tracked them?
Agent: Best guess we have, is that they're somewhere within these sets of building's. We've got a decent amount of power being generated somewhere that would be them.
Chris nods as he lights a cigarette.
Chris: Best down every door, break open any room. Sweep everything. Any resists you detain them. Or silence them. I speak with the authority of the Chairman.
Agent: Isn't that a bit…
Chris glares at him as the Agent just nods.
Agent: Yes sir.
The Agent heads on to relay the orders to the hundreds of other Agents as Chris sneers.
Chris: Where are you hiding you son of a bitch…
Chris flicks the butt of the cigarette as he turns and joins the others as they prepare for the sweeping raids.
Elsewhere
Ian stands before the others as he and Courtney flank Winston.
Ian: We're going to need the help of the Awakened. But that doesn't mean we have to do so without an upper hand.
Courtney: As you know. I have the ability to absorb damage and return it back to the attacker at any percentage I want. That is a non A.N.N ability I learned which are called, oddly enough, Awakened.
Mario: That's possible?
Ian: Yes. An Awakened ability is rare, but is obtainable through vigorous training, or a natural connection to one's mind, heart and soul, which the A.N.N can bring out.
Winston: Since we don't have the time to spare, you're going to boot up into the A.N.N using my personal source code, which will speed along your process.
Ian: Braxton, Wes. You'll be training with Courtney who can bring out your latent abilities without the need of the A.N.N, Mario, Ash. You'll enter Winston's dream share and I'll... personally speed up the process allowing your abilities to be drawn out. In essence... you'll become dreamers yourselves.
Ash: Awesome.
Mario doesn't seem as thrilled as Winston hooks up to the A.N.N as Ash eagerly grabs a neural link as Courtney, Wes and Braxton were off already in their own dreamscapes as Mario grabs a neural link and comes to Ian.
Mario: You trust me to have such power?
Ian: No. But Winston does. And that's all that matters.
Mario grins as he goes and takes his seat as Ian stands in the middle of the three and turns the A.N.N on, sending the three into the dream share as Ian snaps his fingers and walks in a semi circle as he begins to feel the sinking and Temporal feeling as he enters the dream share of Winston and looks about at the training center as Winston is sitting with some multiracialt women being fed wine and grapes as Ian goes to Ash and Mario.
Ian: The training here will be at a speed 1,000 times faster than any other basic D.R.C training courses. So please do your best not to die. The reboot time may be instantaneous but it will hurt like a bitch. Now…
Ian gets into a stance as Ash and Mario look at each other and then back to him.
Ian: Show me everything you got.
Winston smirks as he watches the three men begin to violently fight and train as he watches with deranged, yet controlled eyes.
Elsewhere
Caleb pounds on a door as he waits impatiently before the door flies open and a beautiful latina woman with a silk robe covers up as she glared daggers through him. Zyanya was definitely not someone you should mess with.
Zyanya: Caleb...what the fuck dude…
Caleb pushes past her and heads inside as Zyanya rolls her eyes.
Zyanya: Hey, yay cool come on in. Asshole.
Zyanya shuts the door as Caleb comes into the living room and looks to see Zyanya's husband, Xerxes, sitting on the couch without any clothes on smirking.
Xerxes: Sup, Caleb.
Caleb: I'm sorry I interrupted whatever was…
Xerxes: Yeah..we were fucking. As a man and wife should.
Zyanya: Oh shut up.
Zyanya sits in his lap to cover up his junk as Caleb rubs his neck.
Caleb: Look I'm sorry, I just didn't have anyone else to go too.
Zyanya: We know. Why else would you be here?
Caleb: It's Tegan.
Zyanya and Xerxes both look at each other and then back at Caleb.
Xerxes: What about her?
Zyanya: Is she okay?!
Caleb: Here, physically, she's fine. But...in there…
Zyanya: Caleb…
Xerxes: Dude, we've been over this you can't...you can't dictate things in there. She's... she's not the…
Caleb: She's helping Xander Halstead.
Zyanya: The fuck!
Xerxes looks a bit angered as he takes a deep breath.
Xerxes: Caleb...I swear to God.
Caleb: I'm not exaggerating...I know what I've seen. She's with him. In there...now.
Xerxes: Goddamnit.
Caleb: I need y'all's help. If I can just .. reach her... somehow...maybe I can save her.
Zyanya: Caleb, some people...just don't want to be saved…
Xerxes: There was a time you didn't.
Zyanya looks at Xerxes as Xerxes's face had a mixture of pain but overwhelming love as she seemed hurt but understood.
Xerxes: I did everything I could to take you away from what you felt safe and secure from because I knew it wasn't right for you.
Zyanya: But I had to come to that realization…
Xerxes: Yes, but I was there nonetheless... cheering and letting you know you weren't alone even when surrounded by people who told you they loved you.
Zyanya nods as Xerxes holds her to him as Caleb smiles at their romance being so strong after all of the years he had known them.
Xerxes: Alright, brother. Where do we start?
Caleb nods as Zyanya and Xerxes have determined looks across their faces.
DreamWorld- The Rim
Tegan sits with her shoes off, feet at the shore as the waves crest against her legs as Xander comes and sits by her as the intense sounds of explosions and screaming and gunfire happens behind them.
Tegan: They are really going at it.
Xander: Artur can be a man possessed when he feels himself to have failed. Leon I believe doesn't carry the same mentality, but possess a dutiful sense of pride and doesn't want to be left behind…?
Tegan: How much do you know about Leon?
Xander: Very little sadly.
Tegan: You knew I had my abilities?
Xander: I suspected you did. I didn't actually know for sure. I have a sense for things but that's all. I didn't know much about you either, other than what I read from Greg's dossiers on you. Leon's was surprisingly light for someone Greg put so much faith into.
Tegan: Leon you may or may not know is black…
Xander: You don't say.
She pushes him as Xander smirks as the waves crashed and the water came up to their ankles as Tegan stretched and pushed her legs out further, laying on her elbows.
Tegan: He grew up already behind the curve, and all he could do was dream about a life free of his impoverished upbringing. But Orion Industrial public housing and the growing insistence in escaping reality to be in the A.N.N stripped him of his own parents. They would make sure there was food for him but aside from sleep, working their thankless jobs, and coming home and spending every other second in the A.N.N, Leon just wanted to be noticed...seen. He was seven years old when he discovered he was a dreamer. Just astral projected into his parents dreams. And you know what they did? They turned him into the D.R.C
Xander shakes his head as Tegan was getting emotional.
Tegan: At that time nobody knew what they were doing to Dreamers, but Orion paid handsomely for such turn ins. Even if they were kids who didn't know anything. I think Leon said they gave his parents six months free rent. Imagine that. Public housing funded and controlled by the company that just took their child and their reward was half a year's worth of rent. Leon never forgave them. He spent three years in Orion Industrial care, being treated as dirt, at least in the beginning, before the Dreamer Program was enacted. He was still too young so he was forced to register and sent home with a lot of eyes placed on him. What future was there for him? His parents stripped him of that. Orion stripped him of that. He was marked. Join Orion or live a listless pointless life driven by a need to be here...in the dream share. His parents died in a car crash when he was 17, Orion gave him the apartment for ten years rent free, as a public show of how caring and thoughtful they are to the plight of the little person. You see Leon knew at a young age, that out there...being different, being black, being anything other than wealthy wasn't going to get you anywhere. Not with Orion Industrial taking over the way they had. They stripped people of their desires and passion, in a better attempt to control and coral those society deemed unworthy. Leon channeled that hatred and that rage and sought to see an end to it.
Xander: I better understand his reasoning and why he follows so loyally. But I must say, I still am perplexed by your involvement?
Tegan: I don't have a deep seated hatred for the outside world. I had a decent upbringing, I didn't want or need for anything. I didn't care for the A.N.N because I saw the way it turned nearly everyone I knew into zombies who lived only to dream. I had what you would call w "dream" out there. A goal I wanted to obtain no matter what since I was a little girl. I wanted to be an actress.
Tegan leans back up as she tucks her knees to her as the water crests up and hits Xanders boots.
Tegan: I was so sure it could be done. I was a hit with the local plays in town. I sang in choirs, even thought about joining a band even though music out there was slowly being phased away for stuff within the Dream Share. And then the viral feed update happened. Now every writer, director, and more importantly, studios, could simply dream up their vision, record it, share it through Orion's neural network feeds, and bam. Making actual movies and films in reality just ceased to be. Why watch new star Tegan Adams when you could dream up Scarlett Johansson in her prime again. Or make the 800th Star Wars fan film that will make a billion virtual dollars for some schmoe who ends up giving half to Orion because he signed a contract to record it using their tech that gives them 50 percent of any and all profits made. I hated Orion Industrial for that. Not for what they took away from others. Or how everything was designed to keep everyone down and bring them up, while the sheep just grinned and accepted it happily. I resented that they took my dream away. And then had the nerve to take the dreams of those within the A.N.N and still take from that. Their greed...their blatant desire for control...those were secondary. I selfishly resented them for what they robbed me of. And for me it's been more than enough.
Xander: Surely something out there makes you hesitant about this. I don't expect the hatred of Orion Industrial alone to be the reason one follows me down this path…
Tegan smirks as she shrugs and sighs.
Tegan: Caleb Evison.
Xander: A beau? Intriguing.
Tegan: Hush.
Xander snickers as Tegan rubs her legs.
Tegan: You ever been to the lounge called the Icarus?
Xander: Yes, once or twice. A little upscale for my tastes. But I did see a lovely singer there.
Tegan blushes as she looks at him as he smirks.
Tegan: Thanks ..but yeah, that place is run by Caleb. I think he started it out of pity to give me something to do other then fuck up Orion Industrial stuff.
Xander: Does this Caleb hold a place in your heart?
Tegan: In here...no. out there. That's the tricky part.
Xander: Love can be.
Tegan: We grew up together. But I always knew he thought more of me. But he just couldn't bring himself to do it. One night when we were sixteen we got drunk and I jumped his bones. And that's essentially been it since then. I would want him or need a booty call, and he would always be there. For this or that or another. He was good for that.
Xander: I'm sensing a but here.
Tegan: But... I couldn't give him what I know he wants. I can't commit to something out there. And I could never be what he needs here. He's too idealistic, too optimistic. But the thing I guess that gets me is...had he just called me once...texted me to go to him instead...maybe things would be different.
Tegan let's her feet connect with the eaves as Xander places a hand on her shoulder.
Xander: When we succeed you should go to him. At the very least to say to him what you desired from him.
Tegan: It won't matter. The new world will be a new beginning for us all. And I will not have the attachments that can only slow me down.
Xander: Sometimes we need the attachment to remind us why we're doing this. Maybe out there it can't be. And in here it can't be. But when we merge them together...anything becomes possible. Because the impossible and the possible will become one. Do not close your heart to the possibility of what you want. Those things can change.
Tegan nods as she sighs and then smiles at Xander.
Tegan: Thank you.
Xander: Of course. Victory is within our grasps. I can taste it as much as I can taste the salt from these waves.
Tegan: This place...it's beautiful.
Xander: Sadly, it will disappear once we merge the realities together...but as long as you keep this in your mind and heart...this will exist again.
Tegan nods as she takes in the sight and closes her eyes as Xander watched her intently.
Tegan: Done.
Xander: Excellent.
Tegan: So...you really think the four of us…
Xander: Five.
Tegan looks at Xander surprised as Xander smirks.
Xander: You know where the third master source code resides I suspect.
Tegan: I have an inkling. Would only make sense for it to be in the O.I Building.
Xander: The pillar at the center of the A.N.N in every dream share.
Tegan: The most impenetrable place in the entire dream share.
Xander: True. But we will prevail. You see before I found you and Leon I found another lost soul adrift in this world...she was adamant she didn't need my help in her crusade to bring down Orion Industrial. And believe it or not I actually believe she could do it. She's that tenacious and powerful. Thankfully her and Artur found some form of camaraderie and we came to an agreement.
Flashbacks
We see Artur attacking the Orion Control Hubs as a Figure watches him from afar, keeping an eye out on Kami and Blayde as well
Xander(narrating) She…
Tegan(off screen) Yes...not the only girl.
Xander: Not the only girl. She had a very crucial and important job. She would serve as backup, as well as eyes and ears for Artur should he need it. But she, like you, has an extraordinary set of powers. One of them being she can take a piece of her code…
We see this woman touching the bodies of every slain Agent that Artur had taken out.
Xander: And she can embed it into the dream shared bodies of anyone who has died. Turning them into her little puppets. A zombie like following with all their faculties.
We see every Agent that had fallen from the Hubs following behind the Woman in a March as she begins towards the Conclave which still has Agents about who see the oncoming horde and begin to take defensive measures.
Xander: In short…
We see the Conclave on fire as giant Lightning Infused Tornadoes are ripping through the area as the Woman touches every fallen body as more and more fallen Agents are added to the ranks as they arose from their death state and began to help the others gather weapons and tech.
The flashbacks end and Tegan nods approvingly as she looks at Xander.
Xander: Cosette has brought us an Army.
Cosette stands afar, surveying the O.I Tower as a large army of Dead Agents wait patiently behind her, their eyes lifeless and black as Cosette blows a bubble with her gum as she chews it back into her mouth and smiles as she blows another.
End of chapter.