Strighton often found it hard to contemplate human existence billions of centuries before; the never ending wars against one another, the incursion into other timelines and parallel dimensions, and even the hundred millennial conflict with the first formation of the Human Empire. Now, here they all were, dancing, laughing and enjoying the final days until time's end. It was a long rough road from where they had come. But even as he watched Lilly smile while waltzing away with his friend, he wished this unnecessary celebration had never become what it was. He never felt comfortable around these fake people. As much as they would smile, shake his hand with delighted greetings, he knew they'd all turn around and mock his presence.

Nobody in this room, other than Lilly and Wes, took his mission of peace and acceptance to heart. He could name several leaders in the room plotting a some sort of strike against another and taking out lives without a care in the world.

Every fifty years he would be sent here as the representative of their galaxy, and every time he hated coming to these parties. He was thankful this would be the last.

Dancing away on the floor of sparklingly crystal, Wes and Lily continued to glide across in perfect synchronicity. The music shifted into a new song and the dance floor began to change as it morphed into rounded loops and arches that stretched to the ceiling. The people continued to dance away as their feet met with the new shapes and curves. Then they began dancing inside the loops, on the side walls of the massive arches and seemed to defy gravity as they moved about around the shapes. So long as they were dancing and touching the floor periodically, they would be able to dance on whatever the crystalline would form next. Soon it morphed into large star shapes, half moons and spinning globes. Wes and Lilly found themselves on top of one of those globes and swayed to the elegant music.

"Mind if I ask you something, Ms. Lilly." Wes grinned. She nodded in contentment. "Are you and Max...uh....well..."

"I am just his aide." She said with a sad look. "And I don't think people would accept me as anything but that."

"Why should they care?" He scowled and brought her closer. "What are you to them? Hm? You are fantastic in every way and he is a damn fool not to love you. Why not tell him so?"

"Because..." She struggled to speak. "Well, you know what I am. Everyone knows who and...what I am."

"Screw them all!" He grunted. "Oh! Uh-um, pardon my language, young missy."

"Thank you for that,” She stated, giving a tender stroke of his right cheek. "But I don't want to cause trouble for him. Or you..."

“You needn’t worry about me, my dear Miss Lilly,” He grinned and spun her around. “There isn’t a varmint who could dare tangle with me. And if they dared to challenge Max or you… well, I’ll give them what for… right up the—“

She quickly pressed her finger to his lips to silence him. “Ah-a-ah! Remember, a lady is present, yes?”

“Indeed you are,” He bowed slightly to her. “Forgive this ol’ cowboy and his roughness.”

“Gladly,” She grinned with a nod. “You’re a good friend, Lord Adams…”

“Please, Lilly, call me Wes. Such formalities are unnecessary amongst friends. I don’t hold to such titles. Max might, but not I, dear madam.”

He moved to kiss her, and she quickly recoiled in surprise. The look of sudden realization came upon his face and he stumbled to apologize.

“I-I-I’m so… I didn’t mean to… I…”

“You forget yourself, Lord Adams.”

“Lilly, I’m so terribly sorry… it’s the music and… and the beauty of a creature so fair before me, I—“

She quickly jumped off the globe and landed hard to the floor. Like a cat, she landed on her feet and ran off. Wes stood there with his hand out realizing he had upset her. The globe spun downward and moved him off of the dance floor . He cursed himself for being so thoughtless and took a drink from his flask. Lilly tried to hide her tears, but she wiped one off of her cheek and stared at it. In all her years, the emotion of being with Max Strighton was taking its toll. Yes, she would like nothing more than to be with him exclusively, but she wasn't capable of giving him what he truly needed. Lowering her hand, she saw him on the far side of the room trying to get to her. People were blocking him and dignitaries would try to talk to him. She could see his desperation to help her out.

She simply gave a coy smile and turned about. It would be better if she was not in the room and keep out of sight. But as she made the turn, something or someone blocked her path.

"You!"

She looked up and saw two massive cybernetic humans glaring down at her. They were covered in metal, with flashing LED lights, cybernetic implants embedded in their heads, torso and various other areas. They looked very menacing with all that technology all over their human frames. She gasped in horror and tried to step away. She didn't realize another one was standing behind her and she bumped into it. Terrified and with no where to turn, she was forced to look at them.

"Holo-gen!" It said in a synthized voice. "You are a Holo-gen! We detected your presence. You cannot hide from us, abomination! Your people destroyed many humans."

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"I-I-I'm so sorry...I..." She said in fear.

"I will do the universe a favour." It bitterly glared at her. His cybernetic hand rose up to her throat and surged with blue bolts of energy around the tips of the fingers. "I will rid it of the last one of you, Holo-gen filth!"

As the energy drew closer, her face began to shift and scroll, like a computer screen, she was unable to move and begged the enhanced human to let her go.

The universe was cleansed of Holo-gens by the human cyborg beings nearly five hundred centuries ago. Holo-gens where hybrid holograms that could take solid form at the genome level. Originally they were created to replace robots and androids, mainly because they were easier to manufacture and program. The first of their kind were built into the sex trade and then later introduced into skilled labour. But as the generations progressed, they became self aware and turned on humanity. It was hard to determine a Holo-gen from a human as they continued to evolve. Eventually, humans had to revert into cybernetic form to detect and combat the Holo-gen aggressors.

Once they managed to destroy them all, it was deemed illegal to have, create or possess a Holo-gen by penalty of death. The law remained intact for all those remain centuries, until the start of the Human Empire. No one every reproduced a Holo-gen since then, and the science behind their designs was used for other things other than mimicking life. Lilly was the exception. Max had always had her by his side since his youth.

She was the only Holo-gen allowed to be created and Max made sure that she was given full authorization to exist. There would be no other allowed. This infuriated the cybernetic human core who remained in a galaxy far from the rest of the Human Empire. They made it their mission to purge any non-human life in case another Holo-gen uprising occurred again.

"Die, Holo-gen scum!" It grinned with delight.

"Excuse me!" A woman spoke stepping infant of Lilly. She was a young blonde wearing an pastel pink business suit with shoulder pads. She was beautiful, with full red lips and hair teased up in an 1980's fashion. She smacked the cybernetic creature's hand away and glared him down. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

"Our job."

"Oh really?" She scoffed. "This woman happens to be the aide to one, Lord Max Strighton. Not only does she have immunity from your ancient and barbaric claim, but she is a member of the Orion Galactic Union. So if you don't want to start a war...."

"Foolish, woman!" He laughed. "What do I care if a war starts with them? I would gladly end all life ahead of schedule if only to be the one to diminish the last Holo-gen in existence!"

"And what about the Emperor?" She responded back with her finger on his enhanced chest. "He's watching us you know? Maybe if he sees you starting something now, he'll send out the signal to power down your people and leave them helpless for the remainder of the time left!"

That caused the being to stop and think. It was true that the Emperor had the code to deactivate them. Once the Holo-gen War was done, the leader of their kind gave the first Emperor their kill code incase they themselves became dangerous. They were allowed to live on as they were, but only if they kept to themselves and never start a war. Cybernetic humans were just as, if not more, deadlier then Holo-gens. It would be a great dishonour to leave them deactivated and helpless. He backed away looking around for any monitors and motioned to the other to do the same.

"You are spared today, Holo-gen! But if you ever come near our presence again, we shall..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The 80's styled woman waved. "Certain death, you will be avenged...blah, blah, blah....push off already."

The three cyborgs moved away and charged through the crowd of leaders that had been watching with interested behind them. Once they were gone, the woman looked at Lilly and rubbed the frightened Holo-gens shoulders with concern.

"You ok?"

"Yes." Lilly nodded. "Thank you."

"No thanks needed. I'm Cassie."

"I know who you are." Lilly said fixing her victorian blue hat. "Lady Cassie May Wentworth, if I were you I wouldn't let Max see that you're here."

"Oh, you know about..." Cassie said with surprise.

"He tells me everything, remember?"

Cassie looked disheartened and was about to ask the Holo-gen more, but Strighton finally showed up to see Lilly. He quickly turned her around and held her by the shoulders with a concerned look.

"What happened? Are you ok? Damnit, I knew I shouldn't of come here."

"It's ok." She smiled. "I was in a bit of trouble but I had some help..."

As she motioned to Cassie, his eyes suddenly dimmed and stood rigid at the sight of the 1980's themed woman. His posture made Cassie take notice and tried not to take offence.

"Thank you, Cass." He coldly stated.

"Sure" She replied. The moment was awkward for both. But Lilly could feel the tension growing between the two. Cassie decided to break the silence. "So, how, uh....how have you been? You still on the council?"

"So it seems." He shrugged. "You still being you."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Oh I think you know." He folded his arms and glared at her.

"I'm not going to get into this right now." She said with frustration. She looked at Lilly and shook her hand. "Nice to see you again. Do take care of him for me. I doubt we'll meet again."

As she started to walk away, Max was about to say something to her. Lilly stood in front of him and held her hands out. She knew he was going to embarrass himself by getting a last word in, but it was too late to stop him.

"There she goes folks! Running away from me again, nice to know somethings never change, huh, Cass?"

She stopped for a second and waited. Cassie knew he had more coming and allowed him to finish venting.

"At least your back is the last thing I'll ever see. I'm so use to that kind of treatment from you."

The woman slowly turned her face as tears rolled down. Lilly was upset at Max and tried to speak to blonde woman. It was met with silence as Cassie continued out of the crowd and left the room. Strighton was unapologetic and instructed Lilly to follow him. She smacked his face with her hand and pointed at him in disappointment.

"Why must you always do that? She was at least trying. Can't you get over that day? She helped me after all."

"She left me Lilly." Max said with contempt. "You don't walk away from someone you love and never come back to say why. I tried...she didn't. You remember, fifty years and not a peep out of her. So don't think for a moment that few words now is going to change a thing."

"You could have least attempted to be more civil."

"Yeah?" He said to her. Looking around at everyone staring at him and whispering to others, he began to see that she was right again. Always the voice of reason was Lilly. He could never stay mad at her. At least it was one woman in his life that wouldn't walk away. "Yeah, I suppose I could have. Sorry."

"Oh, don't say it to me." She held up her hand. "Go to her, now. Fix this or you will regret it."

"I already do." He said walking away.

The victorian dressed Holo-gen watched as he walked in the opposite direction. It seemed he would be stubborn till the bitter end. A rift between the two former lovers that would never heal. In a way, a very small way, Lilly seemed ok with it. That would mean she could still be with him and Cassie would not. With a conflicted heart, she wasn't sure what was the right thing to feel.