Notes: Written for the YGO Rare Pair request meme, prompt "Fillershipping (Noa x Rebecca), "I've died before. I wonder if that will effect where my soul goes in the end.""
"I'm not so sure about this."
Rebecca looks over her shoulder, fingers still pattering automatically across her keyboard: just a few more lines of code, and her project would be complete. "Oh, now you tell me?" she asks a bit saucily, but can't hide a tiny undercurrent of tension. "You do realize I'm five minutes away from giving you what you've always wanted, right? Something you never would have dreamed of when you were still a backup file buried in the bottom of the KaibaCorp network? And you do realize I've been putting all this effort in on my time, with my money?" She gestures to the figure lying prone on the workstation before her, wires plugged into its mechanical brain. "At least two years' of tournament funds, right here!"
"I know." The boy's face - just pixels on yet another computer screen, pixels after which Rebecca has modeled the face of her secret project - darkens in thought. "But I can't help it. What if I don't belong in that world anymore? I won't really be a part of it, for one thing. And I've already died once. Almost twice. I wonder...if this doesn't work...if it'll affect..." He bows his head. "And even if it does, will I be welcome...?"
"Id-iot." Standing up, Rebecca walks to Noa's monitor and flicks it with a tiny, decisive finger. "You're no different than the rest of us. Files leave traces in computers, just like people leave traces in other people. So no matter where you end up, you'll always be staying right here!" Grinning, she sticks out her tongue. "Besides, I've got you backed up, just in case."
Noa looks up, offers a shy little smile; Rebecca's heart pounds, and she tells herself it's just because she's excited to be so close to completing her grand experiment. It can't be solely for this little boy's sake, this kid she'd found buried among forgotten programs...This stupid kid, having second thoughts on the greatest day of his life!
She offers him a wider smile, inputs the last few line of code. "Come on," she tells him, hooking all the computers to her boy robot, and with a final flourish hits Enter; Noa's smile widens, flickers, fades as the transmission begins, but she knows soon enough she'll be seeing it again. "Let's bring you back into the world!"
