I am wholly unfamiliar with computer programming, as a disclaimer. If anything is completely off, I will blame the AU-ish nature of this fic. All rights go to Moffat, Gatiss, BBC, and Disney.
The light flickered at the end of the hallway, casting a silvery glow on three figures entering the corridor. Darkly dressed, the two upright individuals seemed to blend in with the walls around them. The body they were supporting, though, stood out from the surroundings; iridescent blue light crisscrossed the torso. Each upright figure was pulling an arm, dragging the slim body across the glossy floor. They stopped at a large set of double doors, and one of the guards dropped the arm to knock on the metal door. The sound echoed through the nearly deserted corridor.
After several seconds, the door opened, seemingly of its own accord. The two guards dragged the body through the doors, before dropping it unceremoniously in the center of the room.
The room itself was dimly lit as well. The walls appeared to be covered in bookshelves. In the far corner, a single lamp partially illuminated what seemed to be a man sitting in a chair, though all that could be seen was his legs and half his torso. His fingers drummed against the arms of the chair.
The guards stood silently next to the figure sprawled on the floor. Even though the body was not bound in anyway, there was no movement. The only sign of any life was the faint motion of the chest slowly rising and falling.
One of the guards pulled out a slim black disc and set it on the small table in front of the man.
"Is this her?" the man in the chair asked suddenly.
"Yes, sir," one of the guards replied, slightly inclining his head.
"You may leave. I'll send for you again if you are needed."
After the two guards followed his orders, the man leaned forward in his chair, his fingers steepled in front of his face, contemplating the body before him. He slowly rose and walked up to the figure on the floor. Kneeling, he pushed the body over, revealing the face of a young woman. Her eyes were closed, and her light brown hair partially obscured her face. He leant forward, examining her head, clothes, and body.
Whatever he gained from looking her over, he disapproved. He scoffed, and stood up. He had one more sweeping glance of her strewn body, before making a sweeping kick to her midsection.
The woman grunted, and instinctively pulled her body in to protect herself. The man kicked her again, this time with more force. Eyelashes fluttering, the woman muttered something to herself as she regained consciousness. She opened her eyes to see a thin man silhouetted by the light behind him, standing above her with a sinister grin on his face.
"Hello darling. How nice of you to finally join me. You know, it's rude to keep your host waiting."
Horror spread across the woman's face; her bottom lip quivered and her eyes widened in terror.
"So kind of you to be here on such short notice. You didn't come to my attention until about an hour ago, but I know how to work quickly. Your user is quite inept when it comes to subtleties, isn't he? Once on the main Grid, you were easy to track and overwhelm."
The woman was still in a state of shock. She started trying to back away while still lying on the floor.
"Oh, no. We can't have that," the man drawled, with a smirk on his face. He kicked her again, causing her to let out a small cry.
Picking up the disc on the table, he held it up to her. "Your exact function on the Grid, on my Grid, was the only thing that that was effectively programmed into you, but I've gleamed what I can, Molly." His voice was bordering on manic, as he starting pacing the room.
"Are you not a secondary program to assist JOHN? In whatever his true function may be? I can't prove that his function is in opposition to mine but you are much easier to read. Did you arrive to assist him? Break him out?" His voice had been reduced to a growl, and his face was contorted in rage.
Molly whimpered, and covered her head with her arms.
"TELL ME," he commanded, kicking her again. As this yielded no result, he placed the disc back on the table and he reached down, grabbing her arm. "Well, then, there's other ways to find out what I want."
"No!" Molly screamed, attempting to thrash away from the man.
He gripped her arm tightly, and grabbed the side of her head with his other hand. He clenched his hand around her hair, effectively holding her head in place.
"I will get what I want, Molly. I always do. These feeble attempts by your user to send programs like you into the Grid will not be tolerated. I may be playing nice with JOHN right now, but the second I get bored, he will be gone."
Picking up the disc on the table again, and examining it, the man smiled. "Your user doesn't even know there is this big of a threat though, does he? All he knows is that some of the memory space has mysteriously disappeared. Along with a few of his programs. You're just an inquiry program. Nothing more. And you will definitely not be finding anything."
"You'll make an interesting experiment though. I'll be able to thoroughly learn your user's techniques, which will make it so much easier to extract information and corrupt programs like you later." The man grinned as he traced his finger around the circle of the disc, causing various sections to light up and spark. He thought to himself, tonight was going to be so much fun.
101010 101010 101010
And at that moment, in the reality we are all familiar with, in an office building in London, a man named Greg who created a program designated MOLLY, which had been designed to pick up and trace discrepancies in the current OS of ENCOM, sat at his computer baffled on how it had disappeared before his eyes. After so many failures, he reluctantly conceded to himself he couldn't do this alone. Praying he wouldn't regret this later, Greg sighed and starting dialing an old friend.