You wake suddenly.

Alarm bells blare in your head. Your emergency protocols activate, and information leaks into your grid -



Without losing a beat, you move to intercept. You check the areas in your network in order - the school first, where there's nothing. The retirement home, where -

Oh.

It's here. It's coming this way. You move through every room, one by one, checking on the occupants, until you reach Ms. Best. After a second of determination (you might be destroyed. is that worth it? it always must be.)

...you make the decision to protect her. But - But -

How? You could cleanse the curse with fire, but maybe that won't be enough. It is a curse of darkness. And you remember when %ADMINISTRATOR_NAME_MISSING% fought the darkness with her blade of light. You know what light is.

It is fire without warmth.

Fire that does not burn anything but the dark.

You curl yourself around Mrs. Best.

You draw your grid around her in a criss-cross cocoon.

You tighten your gridlines into a tight weave,

and you let your power flow.

Your gridlines grow bright.

Your gridlines shine like the sun.

Your fire flows into light,

and the light becomes solid.

A wall of light.

A shield.

You say:

i am a wall.

i am a shield.

i am the fire that protects.

And the curse responds:

Death is coming.

Death is here.

And then,

you collide.







And then,

you power down.