It was the eternal night of the space.
The eternal night that enchants with its shining and scares for its darkness.
The eternal night that can't be bothered by any sound.
The eternal night that can be compared only to another eternal creature, who moves herself in it from the beginning of the universe, dragging a long black dress and a shining sickle.
The Sister of the space Night.
The Death.
A creature who equally makes you hold your breath when she appears.
A creature who lightly touched his face many years ago.
A creature who let him go only to chain him with new and more heavy chains.
There was a deal between him and her.
His life for the dead of the ones he hated.
Life.
Was it life his own?
Or just a pale imitation?
The jealousy for who wasn't like him hit him hard.
Painfully.
He wasn't an Outrider.
He knew he wasn't anymore.
In his fear to die he gave up his life.
Fear.
Funny that a man like him could have experienced it.
He, the terror of the universe... scared.
Alone.
In front of a beautiful woman.
Who promised him the end of all his sufferance.
In exchange of his surrender.
In exchange of his surrender.
Beautiful, terrible and cruel.
Without heart, without feeling.
With that cynic, cruel smile that he half saw under that lowered black hood, so lowered that it made look her eyes only two lights in the darkness.
Her movements so graceful and seductive like the one of a lover while she was preparing to... terminate him.
To terminate him... and that unsupportable pain.
Where did that pain come from?
Surrender himself to her, he, who never surrendered to anyone, and stop this sufferance.
That pain... where did it come from?
He floated in the night without memory, without conscience.
He should be lost.
That should be the explanation.
And he was so tired...
Who was the cause of all this?
She smiled again coming nearer.
It was her personal play and he was surrendering.
Ah, another victory... so sweet the taste of the victory...
Sweet... victory... he wanted to win someone... but who?
"Be quiet child." Her hypnotic voice echoed in his head with an amused note while the woman's red lips didn't move at all "You will have peace in a moment. Be quiet. The sufferance will end soon, you'll see..."
He gazed at her while his gaze became blurry.
He didn't understand... he had to understand... he still had to do something... to end something...
But what was he doing before that moment?
"Quiet darling. In this way you'll end only hurting yourself. Surrender yourself to me. I will not hurt you." Her hand was stretched out toward him.
He gazed her.
Surrender yourself.
They have to surrender.
We'll destroy them.
We'll win.
They have no choice.
A mass of broken, unfinished pictures filled his memories.
And it gave him horrible pain.
His life, his battles, the last battle and than... that damned light...
The light should be the cause.
God, how he hated the light!
He looked at the black dressed figure with hate.
Now he knew who she was.
Now he knew who he was.
He knew what was happening.
And what she wanted from him.
And he didn't want to give it to her.
The figure looked at him shaking his head, disapproving.
It would be not easy.
"How? How did this happen? Why? Who is the guilty?"
Hot blood fed by the fire of the spirit of War.
And by the spirit of Life.
The Goddess of the Death and Eternal Peace hid under her hood an admired and compassionate gaze.
"The answer is inside you. You lost. Why do you want to continue to torment yourself? Come with me." And she held out her hands to him, inviting.
Begging.
Compassionating.
He hated compassion.
"No", He screamed with all himself "No!" He screamed, more to himself than to her.
Don't allow yourself to give up!
Her gaze lowered for a moment then returned on him allowing him to grasp the complete truth about his dead.
The humans... those weak creatures... inferiors... they were the guilty... they... he will destroy them all... yes he will destroy them all... all... even the universe to have his revenge... now he had only to wake up... and organize his soldiers...
"You don't understand my poor friend. You can't awake. You lost. You are... dead. Oh come with me. I give you the peace and the sufferance will end! Hurry, before it will be too late! Life is a malediction for men sometimes!"
Dead? Him? No, it wasn't possible, it wasn't true, he couldn't believe her, no, never...
And then, all of sudden all became blurry.
The hated light, the darkness, again the hated light, again the darkness... and the figure of the Death less real and more sad...
"Come with me! Hurry!"
"No." He murmured understanding "No. Let me go. I'll give you someone else in exchange. A lot of them."
The light... even if he hated it he had to follow it.
Her voice became smaller while her words reached his hears "Don't go. That will not be life! Don't go..."
It was his last Outrider memory.
The last memory of his past life his cyborg mind had.
He examined it many time before that time.
With attention.
Carefully.
But his cybernetic mind didn't understand it.
Oh, the dream was right.
His own wasn't life anymore, like that, without true emotions.
All he felt were memories of his past existence.
Surreal.
Nemesis, the terror of the universe, was nothing compared to that man, alive, who was fighting against the Dead.
That man... Was he that man?
They still shared only a thing now, the hate for the light.
And he would keep that man's promise.
He would realize his revenge.
And doing it he would get back his life.
A sound in the room was noticed by his sensor and made him turn toward his guest.
That boy with cold eyes.
A member of that damned race.
And like him equally consumed by the hate for it.
Without fear.
Without respect.
Cold and manipulator.
While the fire of the War was burning his soul.
If he was still an Outrider Nemesis was sure he would have smiled at him.
So similar to himself!
And so equally dangerous!
Dangerous.
Similar to him.
Able more than he probably knew.
And still unable to use fully his potential.
Would he burn himself like his past self did?
It would be a pity.
But Nemesis knew he could survive to the loss.
He could survive to everything.
He was immortal.
The Dead herself let him free.
His young Commander represented his past self.
That past, those emotions that his cyborg mind couldn't understand anymore.
Maybe he should let the boy alive when all would end with their inevitable victory.
Maybe.
But he knew he would not do it.
And the boy too knew it.
That young demon was dangerous.
And Nemesis liked that.
Or better Nemesis knew his past self would have appreciated it.
But he was rational.
The enemies had to be destroyed.
The dangers had to be removed.
In which order...
This was Fate's duty to choose.
For now he could only observe.
For now he could only wait.
The day of the revenge.
And to taste the hope that, at last, this could give him some entertainment and the chance to have back his soul, that soul that was stolen from him the day in which he awakened as a cyborg... and with which he wished to be together again... to have back again a life... to make vain the Death's worlds... no, he couldn't die...

Author's notes:
Nemesis is an interesting character. A complex, silent, cold, manipulator, determinate bad guy. As character in some ways I like it a lot. He represents the darkness perfectly in more than one way. And often he's simply exchanged for 'one of the bad guys'. As for me he's much more. That's why I let him have a story all for himself. He deserved it.