The boy himself was thin yet subtly strong, with lengthy twisted black hair laced with dark cobalt feathers, tied back in five braids. It made him appear nearly feral, dark glowing blue eyes staring at Kurious as if he was a meal to be slowly devoured.

“What are you doing here?” questioned the frightened orange haired young man, swimming backwards in the water in a subconscious attempt to escape this figure from his dreamscape. The water seemed to swirl around him, as if feeling his growing discomfort.

“Why Kurious…I am insulted, I have come to learn about you of course.” The Jacker gave a haughty uncaring smile, revealing a pair of white elongated fangs. He tapped the top of the water, and it seemed to stop it’s turning, pulling away completely from Kurious’s cold naked form.

Kurious narrowed his eyes and gave a dark glare. “Do not hack my programs whoever you are, they’ll bite back.” His voice seemed to have changed, this young man might be so, but also he possessed the knowledge and skill of three thousand years worth of genetic engineering.

“I wouldn’t doubt it beautiful Kurious.” The Jacker laughed, full out laughed at his threat, the orange haired boy growled and used his own connection to the system to try and activate his firewall programs. But alas they were already disjointed and forced into a sealed file that was to far from his reach.

The Jacker’s smile faded instantly, as if a snap that had never been, and he gave a distinctly unhappy glare. “Do not do that. I do not want to fight you.” He spoke voice filling with the tone of unchallenged power.

“I will do as a please! “ Hissed Kurious attempting to log into his programs once more, he failed. A screech poured from his lips as he fell to the bottom of the now parted pool, shocks of distinct pain where wrapping around his nerves and pulled them tight, tweaking every one until he screamed in utter agony.

The unnamed Jacker moved forward, leaning down to gently lift up Kurious’s head, staring into his eyes, the boy noticed then that his companion had the most beautiful blue eyes. Odd to think in such a moment as this particular companion was staring at him as if he was about to die, maybe he was.

“You are so beautiful…so alive. We will meet in the real world very soon Kurious. And then I shall take you as my own.” He leaned forward, whispering such a sultry seducing laden phrase into the orange haired mans ear, and he tried to block it out. To not hear such things, love, outside of matching was nearly always cursed and forsaken by the system. It countered productivity, and limited growth within a person’s purpose and their application to their protocols.

“You will not forget me. Never, not in your entire life…” the beautiful Jacker whispered, then moved his lips over to seal against Kurious’s own.

Warmth, beautiful lovely warmth seemed to flutter into Kurious’s heart, mending it in ways that he did not even know, with one instant.

Then the Jacker was gone.

He could feel the chilling white stone beneath his feet as he sat atop the large flat building. This time was odd, such lovely lights covered the city, New York he thought absently. The Jacker was holding a small penny, with the face of a man he did not remember engraved upon it. He liked this time of history, moving fast into an unknown future; with no real knowledge of space nor of the way the universe was made.

Some part of him thought that his original base was from this time, before The System had spread over all of the planets including this Earth.

His thoughts strayed to the beautiful orange haired Kurious; such lovely hatred had fluttered through the boy’s heart when he had appeared, as well as cautious curiosity. The Jacker gave a small snort at the thought of anything more emotionally evolving for him; he was a machine, though within Kurious’s eyes he saw something of resounding emotion that he could not explain.

The Jacker supposed the only way to truly find what was really there, and how deep it ran, would be to seduce the lovely, and alluring Kurious.

He would be his soon enough, with the help of a dear old friend.

Kurious was silent as Thero smiled at him, taking his hand and holding it inside his own larger one. “Really Kurious it must have been a glitch, don’t worry over such things.” The green-eyed man spoke, though normally his voice and tone was soothing, for some reason Kurious could not help but be utterly annoyed with him.

“Is that not what we despise? Choosing to ignore reality? Please do not give me such idea’s, I do not wish to become like the mindless masses.”

Thero winced, the twitch seeming oddly comical on his long dark tan face. “Well excuse me but I’m just saying…it could have just been another hacker. “ he replied in a moderate tone, glancing his eyes away from the shorter man.

“Please Thero refrain from insulting me, no Hacker on the system at that current time could have gotten through my firewall. This man managed to totally dislog them and seal them in a zip file until he chose his leave.”

Kurious replied, now picking up a delicate olive on a toothpick and eating it, the sour taste twanged on his tongue pleasantly (though he was the only one on ship who desired such odd foods of bitter persuasion)

Thero took his hand away in a snap glaring away silently, his brooding manner rising over the normally most charming of his expression.

“I didn’t mean to be rude Kurious. I was just trying to help.”

He spoke looking at the other, eyes seeming to possess a certain harmed quality. Kurious mentally winced at his painful speech; he had forgotten that this was not Chang or his Maria to whom he spoke. Thero had very much been raised as an aristocrat and his manner as well as the way he viewed the world showed it in every blink of his eye.

“Its alright. I did not mean to offend you Thero. It is just slightly insulting to be so easily defeated when I am so close to my final achievement…does it not bring to light that there are beings and species for which control the system even more accurately and easily than our own? Who are they? What do they want?”

He spoke silver eyes staring at his pathetic plastic toothpick idly.