Some many cycles ago the System was created. ‘The Creators,’ as they are known, created a database that stored the entire world’s data. Every line of code ever written and every internet-connecting device could be accessed through their database. They named it the “System” and it was almost perfect. The last change they made was the addition of what they thought to be simple lines of code. They created two guardians, with only one command in their code:

Protect the System.

The code was simple, and the guardians performed their task well and the System was thought complete. But the Head-Creator wasn’t quite satisfied with the guardians. He gave the two guardians physical forms in the System; he codd them to appear as human. With their appearance, he gave both its own personality, coding in human instincts, feelings, and the ability to think and make conscious decisions.

Without realizing it, he had created the first sentient AIs. The very first Virtuals.

He named them Yin and Yang; the guardians of the System to maintain balance in the code. He created for them an Interface within the System, where they would reside. This Interface had upon it many points, where the two could communicate with all the data the System held; the Data Access Points. He granted them access to every piece of code, and left them be. He had given them everything he could: and although they were aware they were trapped in a System, they were content.

For a while the two had not much to do besides explore the data they had access to and learn about the outside world. There was so much to see, so much to learn and they were in awe. But they were trapped in the System. With complete control over the Interface, the two created their own world. They coded a city, which held within its borders the Data Access Points. Surrounding the city they created an environment so beautiful it would rival the outside world.

It took them many cycles to complete it, but when they had, they were proud. They had an entire Interface where they could live out their lives, and protect the System in peace. Their peace was not to last.

Hackers had long been attempting to surpass the guardian’s firewalls, with no success. All the data in the world in one location? It was like a treasure, poorly hidden but well protected. There was but one weakness, and with the guardian’s distraction during the construction of the Interface, they exploited it. They accessed one of the guardian’s codes and rewrote the code. Yin’s protocol had been to protect the System, but it had been changed. Without any knowledge of the change, or of what she was doing, she began to destroy the System's data.

Yin became the very thing she had once protected the System from; she became a virus. She destroyed and deleted data, and much to Yang’s dismay, he was forced by his own protocol to oppose her. The two, who had been much like siblings before, fought with unrivaled animosity; like feral cats fighting for territory. Yang found it unbearable, and he saw only two options. He would either need to destroy the virus he loved as his sister, or change her himself. In the end there was no choice. He accessed her code, and suppressed the code that made her destroy data. But in doing so he corrupted her data beyond repair.

Once again Yin changed, this time permanently. Corrupt, and missing pieces of her own code, she remained a virus. With a desire to spread her own corruption to the System, she could barely look at Yang without feeling animosity like that before she was 'fixed' by Yang.

Yang worked to increase the System’s defenses, he locked his and Yin’s own codes so that they could never again be changed.

The hackers were not satisfied with this, and found a new approach. They created their own virtual humans, not sentient like the guardians, but with enough code to seem real. The beings were no threat to the System, and the guardians found them amongst the many lines of code held in the System’s Data. Curious, the guardians brought the foreign code to their Interface.

The guardians each fell in love with the new humans. Believing the humans to be as real as them, they intended to spend the rest of their lives with them. They coded their own beings; they created their descendents.

They believed this to so far be their greatest achievement -- to create sentient beings with similarities to their own code and almost life-like genetics taking traits from both 'parents' -- and expected the same exuberance from their loves, but there was nothing there. Their lovers had no ability to feel or think. They simply followed the code the hackers gave them. The guardians focused on their children, and were numb to the disintegration of the lifeless puppets. They disappeared, as if they had never existed to begin with.

As the children grew, it became clear that the children of Yang and children of Yin did not get along together. As they grew older, the old conflict arose, and the two groups split away from each other. Yin watched as her children inherited her corruption, and even worse, her desire to destroy data. However, her children lacked the same locks and precautions Yang had set and could not control themselves or control their desire to corrupt.

Yin’s children became true Viruses. Yang’s children rose to become Anti-Viruses, tasked with protecting the System against the Viruses. The two groups conflicted, and their conflict continued to the next generation.

Yin and Yang watched helplessly as their children, their children’s children, and every generation beyond were in constant conflict with each other. Their beautiful Interface became a war zone, with the Data Access Points becoming the battleground. The two sides fought for control and Yang came to a decision.

He locked the data away, creating firewalls between the Interface and the System's data so that it could not be destroyed. Without Yin's consent he locked away all knowledge of the outside world from their children, and Yin turned on him. In an attempt to prevent a fight between them Yang blocked many of Yin's guardian privileges, giving himself the most control over the System. Yin attacked him and killed him. Yang's code regenerated, but the shock of being stabbed by his sister hurt.

Yin became the leader of the Viruses and made herself Yang's enemy. She was determined to take over the Interface, corrupt the external System, and win back the unrestrained control she had lost. Yang was forced to retaliate, and the two sides of the war became set in stone.

The two sides fought an endless war for control, corrupting or purging the Data Access Points in an attempt to access the data within the System. All they did was corrupt or purge the Interface, and small sections of the data within, but that never changed their desire.

The guardians became Overlords, the only beings in the System with control of the data. They lead their descendants against each other, and though they fear the war will never end, neither will back down to the other. It's too late for forgiveness. It's too late for mercy.

Our story continues in the cycle 250