A/N: This story I began a while back. It seemed like a good concept at the time, and now I'm thinking I want to continue it, if only as a distraction from my writer's block from Sunrise, that beotch, but I don't know if I'll continue it. Whether or not I do is up to my readers.

Impossible Reality

Prologue

Looking back now, I knew from the very start that I could never trust them again. Humans. How disgusting. They will do anything for the advancement of their own species over others, even if it means creating a new form of life to assert their "authority" over to attain that endless superiority they strive to gain. Domination. It's all they care about. I know this - I found out the hard way.

I was merely their test subject for just one small phase of that struggle.

When I was born into this world, I quickly came to realize I was a part of a world within a world. This realm, called the Internet, had been created by humans as a means of entertainment, information, resources, and other specifics I will not mention. Within my reality, others like me had been "born" to explore the Internet whereas man could not. You see, it is a physical impossibility that our worlds should come together. I exist only in an electrical reality whereas my creators and those like them dwell in a separate domain. We can never meet on a common field, we can never touch each other, yet through a small window floating in space in my realm, we are able to see and hear and speak to each other.

At least, it was this way once, but long ago and never again. Not for me. I am what the humans refer to as a Navi, a personal Internet browser and data organizer. I am composed entirely of programming code - appearance, abilities, everything - and all of this is maintained and controlled through a highly specialized and advanced AI program. I can think for myself, I can act independently, and some would contest that I even have feelings.

Although I don't fancy that last part, I would not argue against it - as many who have fought me can tell you, I have been known to get a little... moody, shall we say, from time to time.

Once in my life, there was a human I actually trusted. I would even go so far as to say I cared for him. Although I am not by definition his son, he seemed to love me as such. I never referred to him as my father though; I always called him by his proper name, Dr. Cossack. He was a man of computer sciences and he was a genius by many human standards. After all, he did create me. He was also the one to watch over me, and he did so painstakingly. I began to trust him almost immediately after I awoke for the first time.

Cossack worked with a team of colleagues who also specialized in computer programming. I didn't like them so well, but my creator insisted that I allow them to test me. They had a plan for me: they wanted me to become the strongest Navi anyone had ever seen. Well, I cannot say I didn't like the idea, so I went along with it.

The tests were extremely easy. All I was to do was fight drone Navis and beat them. I was given experimental programs to play around with as I fought, and this is how I acquired many of my abilities. The only thing I didn't like, other than the scientists themselves aside from Cossack, was the Cage.

While I was not fighting, I was bound by restraints that let me move as I pleased, but denied me my other programs. In particular, they denied me the ability to be a Navi. I was not able to do anything more than think, move, or speak while I was restrained. As if this weren't enough to satisfy the humans, I was also held inside an electrical cage, the bars of which were composed of the same programming used to hold my wrists and ankles. They had a fear of me, the scientists. They worried I would take it upon myself to run awol through their mainframes and databases and other systems. In short, they did not trust me. That was perfectly fine with me - I didn't trust them either. Only Cossack had that in his favor, but even he betrayed me in the end.

I heard the drones talking about it one day. They said the scientists had something big planned for me, but their voices did them no justice. They way they mocked me and poked fun at me, I knew something was wrong. Shortly after, the pixels hit the fan. I was attacked. I don't know who they were, but they wouldn't fight the drones, and I realized the scientists had something to do with it. They came at me head on. The Cage had been disabled to allow the intruders in, or perhaps there was a malfunction on the outside. Either way it happened, I was freed. I fought blindly through them, all the while screaming for Cossack. He was deaf to my calls, and I knew then that he had turned his back on me.

In that brief moment when the ache of betrayal first hit home, I slipped and it nearly cost me my life. One of them caught me across the chest, cutting a deep injury right through a critical part of my programming. Something in me snapped, and I felt a rage like I had never experienced before. The rest of the battle was a blur to me. I remember hearing explosions all around me, screams of pain and terror as I deleted Navi after Navi, drone and intruder alike. In the end, I stood in the broken remains of the system, fluctuating pixels of the Navis I had defeated fluttering all around me. I'm still not entirely certain how, amid all of that chaos, the cloak managed to catch on my shoulder, but I stared at it for only a moment. In the next, I had it wrapped about me like a protective shield.

I never found out what happened to my creator or the other scientists who turned their backs on me that day, and I assume now that I never will. That was several years ago. I imagine Cossack would be dead now, his reasons for destroying any faith I might have had in humans gone with him. But with that incident came the change that forced me to become what I am today. My weakness and willingness to trust a human almost got me killed, and I will never forget it. I strive to become the strongest of anything that foul race has ever seen if only to show them the courtesy they showed me, and this scar I bear will forever remind me of it.

So here I stand, the most feared Navi of all the Internet. Few challenge me, and those who do never live long enough to wish they hadn't... Save one... and I still do not understand how he managed to survive my attacks. No program has ever suffered my wrath for long, yet he has. He challenged me once, and I set out to kill him for his gall, but he managed to astonish me with his resilience and I let him live.

Perhaps it was a mistake to let him go, but that he held out for so long against me intrigues my want for power. Not that I am insufficient as I am, but I suppose I have... I hesitate to use the word, inherited my creators' lust for superiority. Hacking into his Operator's computer systems will be simple enough once I find his location. All he needs is to jack in and his signature will be nothing to track. If there is a program that allowed him to fight me as long as he did and if it helps me any, I will have it. Nothing will stop me from returning the favor the human race did me so long ago. Once I take down this Navi, whether or not I use his own devices against him, let the world be assured of that fact. I stand alone against those who betrayed me, and woe to those who dare to stop me from my retaliation.

The injustice done to me will not go unaccounted for, and I'll be damned if I am deleted before I exact my revenge.