To say that seeing Magus again was a surprise would be putting it lightly. He could have been the end of my ability to live my life with any form of freedom and because of that, he had made a place in my heart where people that I absolutely detest go to burn. I could feel a change in the air and in my companion's personalities the instant that they all recognized him and remembered what he had done to me. It was like a tongue of fire had just licked its first taste of refined fuel and was about to explode with power, consuming all the reason and oxygen in the room.

"Caution is advised. Everything that I know about Magus the Second demonstrates that he is a vindictive and greedy version of his original. There has been too much time that has passed while he has been unaccounted for that prevents me from fully predicting what he has done to end up sitting there." Meditati stated clearly as she banished her displays and stood gazing at the lounging figure with arms crossed and contempt. I could see that her change of posture was a ruse however because I could still feel that she was frantically running countless searches and simulations behind the scene. She just didn't want to give away her power or capabilities.

“Kevin, wait on using the Global Arbiter Control key, please. I am working with Nurse to make sure that there aren’t any hidden planet-wide weapon system safeguards set up in case he loses control of everything. He knows that your Guest account is powerful and probably set up some nasty surprises in case you can make something happen.” George whispered into my head as I felt the strain that my AI suddenly went under. They were trying their best to head off any threats and to make sure that I could take control of the Arbiter and the solar system without a hitch.

"Caution is advised…" Magus muttered, repeating Meditati's first words, as he studied the data around us. "So, you have cheated the System again with your broken guest account? I detect that that woman is a more powerful version of AI than citizens are given. Almost as though you stole a military-grade AI somehow." Magus said as his eyes lit up with glee.

I stood there, staring at him. I knew that I couldn't be touched, at least my personal self anyway, but I had no way of knowing what he had planned and had set in place in order to end up waiting to ambush me on Earth's Arbiter. Instinctively I wanted to simply blast him with all of my swarm, having them tear this place apart until we could find his Personal Live Matrix, but Meditati’s and George’s advice for caution moved me to first wait and see what cards he had to play.

"Regardless, it doesn't matter," Magus said as I heard Tutor's voice speak into my ear even though her lips weren't moving. "From the very instant that we arrived we have been attacked with highly illegal software. It seems that he has managed to acquire a military device designed at taking over other Tela's VR and Personal Live Matrixes. Each attack seems to be intent, not on killing us or you, but lobotomizing us all so that he can take us apart and study us at his leisure."

“So, why are you here?” I asked, feeling relieved that everyone was still doing their part and were intent on winning this conflict. In the back of my mind, I still remembered just how powerless I had been the last time I had gotten caught by this mad Tela. If it hadn’t been for luck and Meditati helping me, who knows where I would be?

Probably under a microscope in a lab.

Magus’s eyes narrowed to slits as he considered me for a moment. His breathing hissed out between his teeth as he spat his answer back at me before visually calming himself down.

“I am here to take everything back and to crush everything you hold dear. It is only fair, seeing as how much I have lost because of you.”

His eyes wandered between several displays before he slowly sat forward toward me. He was still using the avatar of a native alien in the Haoolla Defender game world, so his double-jointed hairless body still resembled a lanky gorilla.

“Since you have adequate safeguards against hacking, and I don’t know the location of your ship and Personal Live Matrix you are going to listen to every word that I have to say and obey me completely.”

“Like hell, I will.”

A low vibrating rumble escaped his lips as he rested his long hands on the table while he watched me. My AI standing around us might as well not have existed for all the attention he gave them. For a brief moment, I wondered why he hadn’t noticed that something was off about Nurse.

As I thought that I spied her eyes rolling in humor in response to my thought. Oh, right, she wasn’t letting him know anything about her, other than that she was just another AI standing next to me. I could tell that she was busy though, a cloud of my swarm was rapidly digging through the outer shell of the Arbiter as we spoke. She was having to be extra careful for some reason which puzzled me. She spoke inside my head just like Tutor had done as I wondered why.

“Arbiters are old technology from back before the Tela had grown complacent in their superiority. There are safeguards in place, like standalone monitors, that watch for any hacking attempts both physical and digital. I am having to go slowly so that I can locate them all at the same time.”

“I always enjoyed the inevitable victory of breaking pets. I will make sure that you regret those words. I can’t say which I am enjoying more… the knowledge of the pain that you are about to endure or the sweet victory over my original that will come from our encounter.”

“What?” I asked as I heard Invicta hiss next to me before she muttered “It's go time!”

Her words made my gaze leap toward the little screens she had laid out in front of her that were monitoring my family members. Above each window, there appeared a red warning label that shouted that there were incoming hostile entities. Some of the hostiles were people with hidden weapons and others were satellites in orbit that had suddenly moved to exist in space to coincide with my family's locations. Clearly not for non-violent reasons.

“Get him talking Kevin! It should be easy from what I know of him. I need you to draw out what he is doing because he hasn’t actually done anything. He has just been sitting there passively. This is all scripted and it seemed to have tripped remotely once you arrived. I will know it when he lies and will be able to work on intercepting his attacks before they can do any lasting harm.” Meditati said urgently in my ear, spurring me on to let this villain get his monologue out.

“Break me? What are you talking about? What have you done? Why aren’t the Planet Barons here as well?” I asked as anger flared inside me. He went straight after my loved ones without any remorse or options given.

“Well, you see Kevin.” Magus laughed as he finally commanded something to happen in the air between us. A display appeared showing the image of my father in the air between us. After a couple of seconds, another image appeared next to it, causing the image of my father to shrink slightly, which showed the image of my mother going about her day.

After another couple of seconds, another feed popped open, and then another.

“Those are just live feeds. They don't connect to the system that is behind the hits that he has set up.” Meditati whispered as I listened to Magus. If they were live feeds, then I knew that I had to do more to get him to connect with whatever he had planned so that Meditati could locate and hack it. The feeds were open windows, probably hidden cameras that were tracking my family members and his intended victims.

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“I paid, using most of what was left of my wealth after you messed up my living situation, to buy the rights to become the sole Baron of this remote solar system. The Barons are all gone, thinking that I wanted to own this remote speck of dust to escape my fate at the hands of the masses and my original. Sure, there still are several thousand vacationers, a pittance of active income really, but that wasn’t the main reason why I bought this place out…” He said as he paused, pointing a long finger right at my head.

“You messed everything, EVERYTHING up when you let my indentured workers escape.” His hand trembled with rage as he shook his finger at me.

So that was why he had fled and left his Core so fast. It was to get away from being imprisoned by the Tela authorities once everyone found out that he had been using many of his Citizens as slave laborers. They became his once they caught his corrupt attention.

With a visible effort, he lowered his hand and tried to calm down before continuing.

“The main reason was to catch the little insect that had found a way to bugger up the Tela’s System.” He said as a smile crept back on his face as more and more live feeds kept popping into existence between us, every earlier image still shrinking slightly to accommodate for the new arrivals.

“Oh, no.” I heard Invicta whisper beside me.

Oh, no was right. Magus had gone beyond just my immediate family members with targets. He was targeting everyone that I had ever come in contact with. Invictus didn’t have enough swarm in place to protect the growing number of potential victims being shown.

“You see, Kevin,“ Magus began again, clearly finding glee in the sudden look of fear on my face. “I could have just purchased an Assassination or Calamities package from the Barons and saved myself some cr, but that wouldn’t have been satisfactory to me. That would have limited the number of people that I could kill to a thousand or ten thousand respectively. The Barons really do not like their little vacation worlds being rocked too hard or often, choosing to only allow mass deaths in wars or remote locations.” Magus said as more and more images appeared between us.

These were people that I knew, had met, and who had had a part in shaping my life.

“More's the pity really. Sometimes you just need to smash as many bugs as possible to get the pleasure of power that you crave.” Magus said as I lost count of how many screens had opened up between us. Hundreds, thousands, and more faces appeared as Magus targeted people that I had gone to school with, worked with, and been friends with during my travels during my life on the planet.

“With complete access that becoming a Baron offers, I got access to your entire existence. Tracking your life and everyone who you came into contact with was easy. Don’t worry, your parents will be left for last. The killings will start once the last recorded person you came in contact with is on display… which might be any moment now.” He said with clear hungry anticipation.

A red blip appeared in the air in front of Magus that caught his attention.

“What is this? I thought I had turned off all but the most important alerts.” He said as he opened a window and began looking into what the disturbance was.

My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I was having an impossible time remaining calm.

This could not happen! This travesty had to be stopped!

I could feel my vast swarm reflect my heart, like a great cry of rage at the monster who threatened those whom I loved.

“Well, surprise, surprise. You are even more full of surprises than I expected. It seems that you brought with you a new form of weapon or light show.” Magus commented as he studied the late report coughed up by the Arbiter security system about the rapidly expanding globe of light that was rushing through everything.

“More money for my pocket in the end, so it would seem. One more oddity to sell off to the highest bidder once this is done.” He said with delight as he settled back in his odd chair, letting the massive array of people that I knew move to hover off to the side. It was clear that he was looking forward to the start of the show, the execution of innocent people.

“So, you can drop your security defenses and become my pet, or we can both just sit here as we watch your world getting deleted one person at a time.”

“That is it! Kevin, use the Global Arbiter Control key now! It means that he has a connection through the Arbiter to whatever standalone network is broadcasting these images!” George shouted into my mind.

“Are you sure though? Are you sure that this won’t just set off Tela bombs all over the planet?” I shouted at George in my mind.

“No. We are almost to the core of the Arbiter, and we haven’t yet found Magus’s Matrix or an outside lead to how he might stop this attack.”

“So, you don’t know?!? What do we know?”

“We know that all of this was set up before we arrived. There are plenty of massively encrypted message packets sent out after he secured the rights to become the Baron of this solar system, but they all are “Black sent” to new destinations once they reach a Core. That means that they can’t be traced or read by anyone.” Meditati said as I looked at each of my friend’s faces in desperation.

I felt lost... on the edge of a nightmare. If I used the key and was wrong millions would die. As it was, in just a matter of moments the people that I met in my life would start to die as well unless I somehow let Magus take over my AI and myself.

It would have been funny if not for the fact that he couldn't gain any real control over me. The only control that he had or could have was to threaten those that I held dear.

I felt a soft hand on my arm and knew what I needed to do. To the outside world, all that happened was that I looked at Nurse for a brief second before she nodded, and her multi-colored eyes began to glow with an intense blue light.

“No, I won’t let any of this happen,” I said clearly, with more calmness than I had displayed a moment before.

Magus felt it the moment that I used the Global Arbiter Control key to rip his Authority away from his grasp.

He froze, shocked at what had just occurred as his brain struggled to catch up with the sudden change of events. One second, I was afraid and falling headlong into the trap of fear that he had built meticulously for me and the next second I was calm and collected as I showed my hand.

“That is preposterous! Those keys are impossible to get ahold of! You dirty, stinking, cheating, vile insect!” Magus yelled as he stood to his feet, banishing his chair as his anger boiled over.

“WE found him! We have his Matrix!” George shouted audibly as he and Nurse rushed through the last distance inside the Arbiter and into the core of the artificial planet.

I rejoiced when I heard the news, finally, this nightmare could end.

Why then did Magus just turn and keep his eyes locked on mine with a steady smile?

One of the tiny live feeds, which seemingly had finally finished displaying every last person that I had come in contact with during my life, suddenly turned red.

A low slow rumble of laughter leaked from between Magus’s lips as his eyes watched my expressions change from puzzlement to understanding.

He had just killed someone.

A couple of seconds later another little live feed turned red as well. It was happening just like he had said, just in reverse order from how they were all put on display.

“Stop him! Kill or hack the connection to his hit squad! Call them back!” I commanded as George turned white.

“I can’t Kevin. He didn’t connect himself to any of this. I can’t even get the Arbiter to stop them, they are all disconnected remote agents. Even he couldn’t have stopped this. He made it so that it would happen regardless of what he said or did once you arrived.”

Magus flopped back in his newly manifested chair, fresh laughter ripping from his throat with each tiny blot of red that incrementally appeared on each live feed.

“I told you to obey me, Kevin! I was just going to enjoy watching you suffer as each of your loved ones died until you broke down and gave me everything I wanted. But now you have gone and done it! If I can’t have your power over the Tela, then I will make sure that no one remembers you or your pitiful species!” He started to hack and laugh even harder as a new three-dimensional image of planet earth appeared off to the side.

“Ah! This is the best day ever! Now you get to watch as your whole planet dies once your mom and dad die. I made sure to set it up so that they were the last ones to go. Since you took my power away from me, you will have everything you hold dear taken away from you!”

“George?!?” I shouted, knowing clearly that he knew what I was asking.

“He had each of the planet sterilizer weapons fry their connection once he lost control of the Arbiter. There are many of them scattered around the planet and on the moon. I am sending swarm there now to wipe out their impending threat.”

“No, there is no need,” I said as I raised my open hand. I knew that I had to hurry, with every few moments that went by another life that I had met abruptly ended.

With that thought, I closed my hand.

“What swarm?” Magus asked as the earth suddenly went dark on all of the live feeds. In the three-dimensional image, it suddenly looked like an ocean of darkness had suddenly appeared and covered the entire planet. Even the moon was dark, wrapped completely in light-absorbing obsidian cr.