USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FIFTH ASSIGNMENT- 'The Pagoda'

"Faith....faith is belief beyond reason, I try to avoid this.

But I am convinced that we have a chance to achieve victory- to prevent the death of almost all sentient beings, humans and machines alike. This is all I have left right now!"- Melkor`s voice is growing louder.

"I am unconvinced your attachment to many of those lives is..."

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"... not beyond reason either. Certainly those guided by..."

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"... reason alone supported such means, long ago."

Berserker kind of lowers his head in the darkness none of the others can see it. He thinks about Azreal he does feel bad about how quickly he turned on him.

"So then what are we going to do now?"

"Reason and feelings are not mutually exclusive, aren`t they?"

Melkor shakes his head -"But you are right, I am not sure about great many things and I will propably never have time to consider it... but still, reason dies alongiside sentience. Genocide is not reasonable. I don`t want millions of sentient beings to die, and it is one thing I am convinced of."

Ares raises his MAC10 to the darkness.

"Enough of that, Mel," Ares says. "Yeah, we're back. You know why we're here, no need to really talk about it."

"Your breathing," Heph comments. "It sounds different."

"No, they are not exclusive, Melkor. But..."

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"... that puts your statement about faith into a different context. Of course..."

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"... as it is partially your fault that they are to die, some may say your..."

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"... claims may lack some conviction; that this is personal. Ares... I see..."

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"... you are no more patient. There is little you can do whilst you cannot see. But my dear Hephaestus, you..."

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"... are correct."

The light is increasing very slowly. You guys are in a fglass partitiion of a large and very long room; Melitus is talking from the far side of that room but you cannot make out anything down there yet.

"What has changed since we last met?" Heph asks as the light steadily increases.

"It is hard not to lose faith," Klez comments, "when all you have fought for leads to your inevitable death, especially when I had not wanted anything to do with the Door by the time we reached it."

"You did not stop your friends, Klez. The..."

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"... responsiblity is, I am afraid, collective. That is the nature of teams such..."

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"... as yours. You are happy to claim the benefits; you must also accept the consequences. Hephaestus... much has..."

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"... changed, some of it the doing of you and your friends. A shame, I feel, that you did not..."

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"... talk with me more last time. I woulkd have killed you, but you..."

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"... were too impotant."

There's a large object down the far side of the room- larger than an iron lung, A major furniture feature.

"I didn't want to play your games, last time," Heph says. "I had better things to do. Still, I was too important. Why?"

"The key, Hephaestus. You were to retrieve the key."

"You knew that at the time?"

"The situation was beyond my control. If I had tried to stop the opening of the Door, Jericho would have murdered my friends and taken the Key."

"Of course, Hephaestus. And you may try and..."

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"... justify your actions, Klez, but you would not have..."

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"... stopped your friends if you could. And Jericho you..."

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"... could have dealt with."

"Tell me how a weather program can discern the future, then."

"You speak of that as if it is extraordinary."

"My future isn't exactly the weather forecast."

Melkor laughs again.

"To some it may be so, Heph."

"I'm sure."