"I am not my own,

For I have been made new.

Please don't let me go,

I desperately need you..."

- "Meteor Shower", Owl City

She could remember the first time they had met – the small, 8-bit handyman had nearly wound up dead as she held him at gunpoint, upon him entering her game. Back then, she hadn't really cared about finding true love. But that was, unbeknownst to her, about to change that very day.

She could remember when they had teamed up to find and destroy the cy-bug that posed a threat to the whole arcade – though she had been reluctant at first, she just couldn't say refuse him. Something about the little guy made her feel sort of... safe. And happier than she had been for a long time. Even though, at that point, she didn't fully understand what that was.

She could remember their first kiss together – on the rainbow bridge connecting Game Central Station to the candy-coated world of Sugar Rush. She could remember the feeling of complete happiness, the feeling of the struggle inside of her finally taking its leave. So what if she was a tough-as-nails, stone-cold military commander? She knew, at that point, where she truly belonged.

She could recall nearly every single thing about his innocent, almost child-like face – his shining blue eyes, his large, round nose, his warm smile, and the way that his face always turned a deep cherry-red colour whenever she spoke to him, or was even just in his presence. She had always found that kind of cute. The fact that his feelings of love and affection for her always found a way to show themselves, and not remain hidden.

She could recall nearly every single nickname he had given her over the period of time that they had known each other. There were certainly many others, but the ones that stuck out the most in her mind were "Tammy" and "Dynamite Gal" (the latter being the less used, however, due to her own personal reasons and preferences).

She could remember how happy he had looked – and how happy she had felt – on the day that they got married. The last time she had even attempted to get married to the one she loved, it had gone disastrously wrong, and she was almost afraid to try again. But she persevered, and she became one with the man she deeply loved.

She could remember how happy she had been to have such a nice, loving man as a husband. The last time she had been that happy in any sort of loving relationship had been when she was with that scientist, Dr. Brad Scott. The man who had been killed on their wedding day. The man of whom she still mourned the loss every time she thought about him.

But it hadn't lasted. The older, retro games in Litwak's Arcade seldom did as long as they should have.

And now, as Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun of the Space Marines lay in her cold, uncomfortable bed, with nothing but the perpetual darkness that surrounded her home game of Hero's Duty for company, all she could do was cling onto those old memories of her beloved Felix, and try not to let the tears flow...

As she curled herself into a ball and tried, in a futile effort, to get to sleep, she whispered, through a quiet sob of anguish, the three words:

"I miss you..."