"The past never ends and the future never begins..."
citation from the opening monologue of "The Wall", an Early Edition episode.

Prologue
26 hours ago

The sprite looked at through the window of her office. Outside it was happening a beautiful cycle transition, or, to use an Userworld expression, a beautiful sunset. Smiling due to the beauty of the phenomenon, she guarded her things in the purse and she left.

"Good middle cycle, mrs. Matrix." her secretary greeted her.

Kathleen Barron Matrix smiled.

"Good middle cycle Allison. And I see you later!" She waived before the door of the elevator closed. On that moment, a vidwindow opened up.

"Hi Kathleen!" A black-haired and green-skined sprite, as well as her, but with black eyes, wearing a laboratory coat appeared in the vindow. The red tie was crooked. A smile showed up in her mouth.

"Hi, Andrew. How are you processing?"

"I'm fine. And you?"

"Me too. How are the things going in the laboratory?"

"They are alphanumeric!" He smiled and whispered. "Today we will make the definitive experienment."

"Already?! I thought that she was marked for the next second..."

Her husband appeared surprised.

"Didn't you read the report of progress?"

"I didn't get... We had problems with the negotiations with the System Gauss about the new inductors factory." She sighed, tired.

Andrew understood very well. Kathleen was the kind of person that liked to solve the problems once and for all, but she also insisted that the solution helps both sides of the discussion. But that is difficult when it works with Roger Bandwidth, representative of the System Gauss...

"But did you get to solve the problem?"

She gave a playful smile, and answered with fake petulance. "Of course yes!"

He laughed.

"Well... We discovered some shortcuts in the process. We are already preparing the experiment to test the Recompilator ".

"Wow! Does it seem that you got, it is not?"

"I hope... And Dot and Enzo?"

"Dot is working in her diner, and Enzo, you know him, if he isn't playing with Frisket, he will be with Dot." Kathleen shook the head, amused. "Those two are more tied than zero and one!"

Andrew smiled.

"They really are...... ops! I have to go!" "Okie... Good-bye. And stow that tie!"

"Hey!"

She laughed, while the vidwindow closed and the door of the elevator opened.

"Good middle cycle, Mrs. Matrix."

"Good middle cycle, Mr. Steph. And I see you later." She waived for the guard of the door of the building.

After arranging her purse in the shoulder, she discompressed a zipboard and she arose on it. Her destiny now was the Sector Baudway.

Dot Matrix, 18-hours-old, was seated in the counter in the restaurant that she intended to open soon, checking the stock records. It was when she heard a well-known voice:

"Hey, Trinity!"

Dot didn't get to avoid a grimace when she heard her nickname. And only a sprite that called like that her.

"HI Mom." she said with a resigned sigh.

"Hi Dot. How are you processing?"

"I'm fine. And you?"

"Me too." Kathleen sat down in the chair beside Dot and she looked at in turn. "And how are your diner going?"

It was impossible that a sprite that had half of the neural interface at least didn't notice that the two women were mother and daughter. The resemblance was impressive. If Kathleen went a little newer, she could pass as Dot's oldest sister.

"I was verifying the records of the stock." A small smile appeared in the face of the newest sprite. "And soon, we will be serving the fastest food in Mainframe! Hey, do you want a energy shake?"

"Sure."

Dot typed a command in her organizer and from the end of the counter left a glass of energy shake such fast, that went by them a to blink of eyes and left the diner itself.

"'The fastest food in Mainframe'?" Kathleen repeated, while she looked at surprised for the route of escape of the glass. The answer that Dot will give after her weak smile was cut when a five-hours-old sprite entered running at the building and jumped in the arms of Kathleen.

"HI MOM!"

"HI Enzo!... Well... you are a little weighed for that, did you know?" She put the hyperactive sprite in the ground.

Enzo should not have heard the remark (fact that hadn't surprised none of them) because he discharged to speak that he was playing with Frisket, and that it now knew a new trick and other more things.

At Kathleen and Dot were looked and smile one at the other. When Enzo began there was no way of reducing his audio clockspeed...

"Well, big boy, tomorrow you can continue your story, because now it is hour of sleeping."

"Ah Mom!" Enzo protested, in spite of already to be yawning.

"Sorry, but nothing of "Ah mom!"." Kathleen caught Enzo in her arms, since now he slept openly, and she asked Dot. "Do you help me to place this energy core in the bed?"

"Sure!" She answered, laughing.

== == == == == == ==

After placing Enzo in the bed, Kathleen gave a kiss in the sleepy boy's forehead.

"Good dreams." she murmured.

She went to the room of her apartment, in Sector Beverly Hills. Dot waited for her.

"And then?"

Kathleen shook her head. "I don't understand how he seems a little devil during the uptime and an angel when he sleeps."

Dot only shrugged.

"And daddy?"

"Didn't I tell you?"

"No."

"Uh-oh... Well, perhaps today your father tests the Recompilator."

"Tonight?"

"Yes. And that reminds me that I need to go there!"

"Do you want a hitchhike?"

They went down until the garage of the building, where Kathleen had already been sorry of having accepted her daughter's offer. The reason: the vehicle that would take them until the Sector Nastran, in Mainframe B was Dot's motorcycle. Dot clicked in her icon, changing from her normal jumpsuit to a tight black outfit. Mounting in her bike, she asked her mother:

"Will you come in?"

Kathleen looked at once again for the white and red sporting motorbike. Not that she didn't trust Dot: she knew that the daughter was an excellent motorcyclist - the fact was simply that she didn't trust in those machines. But she had noticed the smile that Dot had given to her insecure glance.

In a sigh, Kathleen clicked in her own icon, adding a leather jacket, and mounted in the machine.

Dot turned the ignition key. The motorbike roared. The oldest sprite placed the helmet quickly.

"Hold on!"

Kathleen held daughter's waist with force in the moment in that the bike comes out in high-speed of the garage.

"And then? Will you come back with me or will you wait for dad?" Dot asked while they crossed the Mosaic bridge, that tied the Twin Cities.

"I will come back with your father!" Kathleen answered. A motorcycle trip was enough for her for one downtime!

Dot had noticed the reason of the answer and she smiled. And just to tease her mother, she accelerated.

Kathleen looked at for the sides, trying not to think in the high-speed. Suddenly, her face become serious, even with rage, due to the that had seen.

The Silicon Tor.

The place where Megabyte, a virus that tried to infect Mainframe, conspired. Kathleen only prayed that a cycle the User put an end with him... Her thoughts were interrupted due to the fright that had when Dot made a close curve when leaving of the bridge.

They continued until they arrived in front of Pentium Institute building. It was a great complex, in a remote area of the Sector Nastran.

Kathleen said goodbye to her daughter, and she went up the stairway that led to the reception of the institute. She removed an identification card from her purse and passed it in the reader.

"Say your intention."

"Talk with Dr. Andrew Matrix, director of Pentium Institute."

"Say your name."

"Kathleen Barron Matrix."

"Vocal spectrum analysis confirmed. You can enter."

She cannot avoid a sigh, while she opened the glass door. All that security could be considered exaggerated, but considering the type of researches that happened here, it was necessary. Nobody wanted to think in what could happen if some research happened accomplished here dropped in the wrong hands. The fact of she had access to the institute it was one of the little advantages of being the Executive President and CEO of Datagrid Corporation.

"Hi, Mrs. Matrix."

"Hi, Mr. Hobton. Could you take me to the laboratory of my husband?"

"Sure."

She and the security guard went by the sterile hallways until they arrived in a double door with the registration: Project 686.

"I will inform dr. Matrix ". After typing a password in a keyboard beside the door, the guard entered in the laboratory.

Kathleen waited, whistling a tone and crossing her arms. She thought of the Project 686. The project Second Chance, created by her husband. She knew the intention of the project very well: to recuperate the sprites converted in null by the Games.

The guard reappeared.

"You can enter."

She entered in the laboratory and she couldn't contain a surprised whistle. The equipment used in the experiment was impressive. The pulse generators, that would be used to refragment the nulls, had the double of her height.

"Hello, Kathleen."

"Hi, Andrew." She kissed the sprite.

"Dr. Matrix?" Christopher Ethernet, the energy flow technician, called him.

"Yes?"

"We already gauged the pulse generators and now we are verifying the font code identificators."

"Ok."

They went until the control room. The other two sprites, Mica Noyce and Kevin Altair, Kathleen already knew. The young medical analyst shook hands, while Altair only made a gesture with his head to greet her. That had not surprised her. He was one of the main engineers of Datagrid, extremely competent, but everybody knew that Altair and Kathleen can't stand each other.

"*Seventh* verification concluded!" Chip Fortran informed through the intercom. Mica and Christopher threw a smile to Andrew when they noticed the field technician's tired tone. "Activate that soon!"

"Chip, we will work with great amounts of energy... if we will active the Recompilator, we needed to have the certainty that nothing will come out wrong." Andrew explained. Chip and he worked together 10 hours ago, the practical temper of a complementing the analytic mind of the another.

"Andrew, we checked the equipment seven times! If there was a defect, we would have found it! Come on!"

Andrew gave up.

"Ok! Test number 1 of the Recompilator!"

The technicians went to their positions. Mica left the control room.

"Activate pulse generators."

A buzzing came from the two sides of the laboratory.

"Okie, Chip. You can place our friend."

Kathleen observed Chip and Mica they place a blue null with yellow stripes in a chamber, in the center of the laboratory. Mica locked the door.

"Initialize the font code identificators."

Andrew looked at for Kathleen. She crossed the arms. She didn't flow more danger than them. Andrew understood and he gave her a protection glasses, that she put immediately.

"Activate identification."

A white-blueish light came out for the windows of the chamber, in the moment in that two robots, similar to tridents were positioned above the same.

"Mica, and the medical readings?"

"Ok."

"Kevin?"

"The pulse generators are at 60%, and in the chamber the weather is perfect." He smiled.

"Chris?"

"Stable energy."

"Began desfragmentation!"

The generators began to order pulses of high energy for the chamber, that had begun to vibrate.

"Our friend is well!" Mica answered, being early the question of the director of the research.

"Chip?"

"Vibrations inside of the expected!"

For a vidwindow connected to the interior of the camera, they saw the null to begin to change of shape.

"Pulse generators at 100% of the capacity!"

"Began decompression."

The pulses of energy changed of frequency. All the eyes concentrated on the vidwindow. The null had begun to grow and to assume the form of a sprite.

Andrew allowed himself a smile.

It was when the null-sprite it began to vibrate crazily and its body seemed to shine as if a breach had opened inside of it.

"CURSORS!" Chris screamed, when noticing the chamber shining, melting. " Energy in exponential flow!!! Energy in expo..."

He cannot complete the warning when the chamber and the generators exploded in a giant tear, deleting all of them in the room and in the sector...

Dot was in the middle of the Mosaic bridge, when she heard the explosion. She was turned, and she saw the waves of energy deleting the sectors of the twin city. The white and violet energy walked as a tsunami of several height meters.

"Mom! Dad!" Her mind screamed.

She only left that thought when the lethal energy that comes in her direction began to do the bridge vibrate.

Dot accelerated the motorbike and she accelerated the all it coulded, escaping from the energy flood. She looked back. The energy was already in the bridge, twisting it in a spiral. Only lacked more some meters for she reach Mainframe A...

It was when she was thrown by the explosion of a micro-tear for the other side of the bridge. She felt her backs burning due to explosion and the energy. The flood continued in her direction...

She tried to move, but she didn't get...

Dot closed the eyes.

Just lacking five meters so that the flood of exponential energy arrived Mainframe... it dissipated.

The only thing of Dot felt was a little hot wind.

Dot Matrix leaned against her destroyed motorcycle, seeing the shadows of the now distorted Mosaic bridge... tying to nothing...

The explosion had wakened up Enzo Matrix. Afraid and curious, he opened the window of his bedroom.. and he saw Mainframe B to shine violently and then he heard the deafening noise to silence and the dazzling shine to fade.

Enzo was very young to understand the reason, but he knew what had happened...

He shrank in a corner of the dark room and cried.

Mainframe emergency teams find Dot Matrix leaning against a wrecked bike, looking forlorn where before was Mainframe B.

A binome in the ambulance had treated the burns and she tried to do the silent sprite to speak something.

"Everything will be fine, girl!" The binome knew that the words sounded false and useless.

Dot turned the face for the other side, so that the nurse didn't see the tears. Dot knew, as well as her younger brother, that the world that she knew... had for ever disappeared.

But she could not know that the events of that cycle would reach her again, in the future...