NaNo Day Eleven update

I've had a headache most of the morning and haven't been able to get rid of it the usual way. I just took something for it, which means I'll be flat on my face and snoring in a few minutes, but I'm at 30,000+ words.

The story is called Axon, a science fiction futuristic dystopian.

A dedicated teacher in a futuristic utopia learns that the world is not what she believed when she is imprisoned in the virtual world of Axon after a supposed "accident." Her daughter Fiona will pay the price for generations of sedition and treason unless Nix can break free from her coma and take over Axon.

Axon Excerpt:

What is the rule of individuals?

Nix glanced around, wondering where the voice came from. It sounded familiar.

The rule of individuals is that the weak want to become strong and the strong want to become powerful. Her own voice, half remembered from her childhood, echoed back at her from the white walls. She'd been very young, and very naïve.

Very good. Does this also apply to nations?

Nix remembered her confusion. The light confused everything. There are no nations.

Isn't the Council a nation?

Of course not! The Council got RID of nationalism!

It had been her mother, Nix remembered. She usually remembered her mother as an old woman, still spry. The subversion had started very young.

And yet the Council struggles to eliminate all outside influences. Isn't that the act of a nation? It works to increase its power, as a strong individual would do.

Nix buried her head in her arms to block out the light. It couldn't be that way. She couldn't think of the Council as a representative of everything they claimed to vilify.

There are no outside influences, young Nixi insisted. The Council got rid of...

Why would she be thinking of these things now?

Exactly. Her mother's voice again. "The Council got rid of all outside influences, which means that now it is unopposed."

Nix squinted into the light, hearing the words come out in her own voice. "Nationalism was a restraining force, making sure that no one nation could gain too much power." She clamped her mouth shut, but the rest of that statement still rang in her memory.

With no restraints and without competition, every nation will expand to its full strength. According to the law of the individual, the only goal of the organization is its own power, not the good of others.

Young Nixi: Yes, but...

Either it is or it isn't, Nixi. Either you carry the law the Council teaches to its full extent, or you abandon it altogether. You can't stop half way.