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Beck was in disarray. Bodhi had died only cycles ago, and here everyone was just going through life like nothing had changed, like one of their best mechanics hadn't been derezzed by the hands of those faceless sentries. Standing at the entrance of the garage, Beck stared at the fleets of Recognizers patrolling the cities. Fantasies filled his head of what he could do to those Recos with the right resources, and the right timing. The statue of their incredible leader they dropped would be a great example, wouldn't it?
He turned away to detail his plan when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Quickly turning, he saw a datapad falling out of the sky, landing on the ground about twenty feet away. Beck rushed over and picked it up. The screensaver said only two words: Death Note. Beck opened up the datapad and scrolled a few pages, quietly reading out loud.
"The program whose name is written in this datapad shall derezz." He whispered.
What a dumb prank. Probably Dash or Copper's handiwork, they thought it was funny, threw it out the window and wanted to see what would happen. Simple as that. Beck started walking to his quarters in the garage when Mara intercepted him.
"Hey, Beck. You okay?"
Beck jumped. "Hey, Mara. Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"
"Just seeing how you're doing. It's okay to talk about it, you know that, right? We're all grieving in our own way."
"Except you're not!" Beck snapped, "You're all pretending like Bodhi never even existed! Like the Occupation has been here for eternity!"
"Beck-"
Beck closed the door to his quarters without looking back. He threw the datapad onto his desk without a second thought and fell onto his bed. Trying to sleep, all his thoughts kept drifting back to the seemingly-innocent datapad. What harm was there to trying, really? They already knew the name of the sentry who'd executed Bodhi, Karn. Beck picked up the datapad and scrolled through a few more of the elaborate rules.
If the cause of death is not specified, the program will simply derezz without any apparent source.
Surely if a sentry derezzed on the spot the Occupation would make an example out of someone, right? It would let Beck know quickly whether or not it worked. He grabbed a pen scribbled Karn's name into a blank page. Now all Beck had to do was wait and see if it worked.
The next cycle Beck realized how frivolous this whole thing really was, there was no way on the Grid that a datapad from the skies could just derezz a program. It would be absolutely ridiculous. If that was the case though, why did Beck get almost excited when a Reco landed directly outside the garage?
A platoon of sentries marched in formation off of the Reco as Pavel calmly strolled down the platform without a care in the world. He surveyed the group before him and projected himself onto the Reco's monitor.
"Greetings, programs." Pavel said, disdain clear in his voice, "As of last cycle, one of our sentries dropped dead. We believe it was from a virus that originated in this wretched place. Sentries, go ahead and search the premises."
Many of the mechanics rejected but Beck was ecstatic. It had worked. Even if the sentries found the Death Note they wouldn't see it as anything more than a datapad, although that would be difficult considering how he'd hidden it. He'd begun to lose hope but now he realized just how great this really could be.
No one actually cared for the Occupation, right? The Grid would be better off without them there to ruin any more program's lives. Beck couldn't just risk the Death Note falling into the wrong hands either, it was too dangerous of a weapon for that. Yes, the safest hands were his own. 'The Savior of The Grid' did have a nice ring to it, after all.
The sentries left unsuccessful. Despite the assurances they'd be back, Beck heavily doubted it and life moved on. After his shift he raced up to his quarters immediately and opened the Death Note, his plans already in motion.
"You're certainly inspired, aren't you?" A voice said behind him.
Beck turned to see a program floating in the air. He had a mohawk and glowing circuits all over his face, weaving in electric patterns all through his lightsuit. Beck noticed that this program had another Death Note at his side.
"Who are you?" Beck asked, attempting to keep his voice calm.
"Call me Cyrus." The program said with a bow, "I am a shinigami."
"A god of death."
Cyrus snapped his fingers. "Yes, good, you know your history. I see how enthused you are to use the Death Note, normally programs won't even go near the thing once they realize it's power. But you, Beck, no, you're different. You're rageful. You're more alive than any of them are now, anyhow, so maybe that shows what's important."
"So why are you here, Cy? To take my soul?" Beck asked.
"Cyrus," He corrected him, "Take your soul? Is that the lore programs are spreading nowadays? Terribly inaccurate. No, Beck. I'm just here to watch."
"What do you mean?" Beck asked, surprised.
"Every now and then a shinigami while drop a Death Note into the Grid, you've probably heard of a few incidents of them. Typically they get covered up, fly under the radar, that is if the program even uses the thing once they realize what it's capable of... Of course, we can't help that now, can we?"
"Are you telling me I can use the Death Note all I want with no consequence?"
"In essence, yes."
There was a glint in Beck's eye as he looked down at the datapad. "Just the name of the program?"
"As long as you're picturing their face and have their name, yes."
The mention of a face reminded Beck to read the rules more carefully, but he'd have time for that later. Grabbing a pen, he wrote a few names inside.
Pavel
Paige
Tesler
CLU
Cyrus laughed quietly behind Beck. He quickly turned away toward the window, pretending he wasn't watching Beck's killing spree.
"What is it?" The mechanic asked after another laugh.
"Oh, nothing at all. This is just so entertaining."
Beck kept writing names, ignoring the occasional chuckle behind his back.
Cycles passed. Argon's Occupation leaders kept falling with no cause. Clu, however, stayed diligent, and very much alive. He kept sending leaders to Argon to replace those who derezzed, but in only a few cycles they were dead too. Dyson was gone now. Locals dubbed the killer as 'Kira', and there was just as many supporters of his killings as there were protesters.
Clu had gone to lengths he never wanted to again, this program had given him trouble in the past, but if he helped now maybe it would be worth it. The sentries walked in the room with the program in chains, dropping him at Clu's feet. The program got up easily, undoing the chains as if they were never there. Clu hated him so much, he exemplified everything wrong with the Grid in it's current state. All the things he needed to fix, apparent in this one Iso who just couldn't seem to stay dead.
"Hello, Clu." The program said, disdain and anger clear in his voice.
"Hello, L. I need your help."