In the end, it wasn't much of a hunt.
Dot was pacing the corridors, Hack and Slash cowering in silence beside her as she thought frantically, pressing her fingers to her temples and pushing-
The sewers beneath the Principal Office? Those might help her get out, but she needed to get in... The air ducts that traveled through the ceilings? Maybe, but for that to work she'd need a map and-she opened up her organizer again, hoping desperately…
Nothing but static. The communications were still down. With a shout, she hurled the organizer at the wall and sunk down to the floor, dropping her head in her hands.
How long had she been out here? How much time did she have left?
User, she would give anything for a decent virus scan right about now.
She heard Hack and Slash roll to a stop alongside her. "What…" began Hack. Neither of them had spoken for so long. "What are you…"
"G-g-g-" Slash started. If it were any other time, she would have felt terrible. She had never shouted at them like she had before, but doing so had frightened them into a disturbing silence.
"Going to do?" Slash finished.
She had no idea.
"An excellent question, Ms. Matrix."
She raised her eyes slowly. A VidWindow had opened right in front of her. In its frame, a closeup of Megabyte, holding her brother by the throat as he squirmed desperately, gasping for breath. Hack and Slash trembled, holding each other as they started backing down the hallway.
"All out of ideas?" The virus pouted exaggeratedly. "How disappointing. I expected much more of you, my love."
She shivered. "Don't," she said. "Don't you dare-"
"Don't what?" asked Megabyte, the picture of innocence. "This?" One claw flashed out, stopping beneath Enzo's right eye. He whimpered, trying to twist his face away.
"No!" she cried out, as Megabyte laughed. "Don't touch him- Don't-"
Oh User, it was happening again, her worst nightmare come true. She was going to lose him. Because of her… just because she was still here, still processing, Megabyte was going to hurt him. Oh, Enzo. Not again…
Ever since Megabyte had revealed himself, the guilt-her old friend, familiarly managed-had been building inside her, threatening to overspill. She could handle it, she told herself. She was used to handling it. She had kept it tamped down.
But the terror had finally overcome the guilt, now. She was petrified. Her brain was spinning.
They were trapped here. They were all going to be deleted. All of them. It was all her fault. All of it. She couldn't breathe.
She had tried so hard. She had given all of herself, and she thought it had been just enough. But then, in the end, it wasn't. And there was nothing else left of herself to give. She was so tired.
She was so tired of this.
"Don't," she said again. It came out as a gasp. "I can't- I'll do anything-"
"Anything?" Megabyte asked. She watched Enzo's face. He was terrified, but trying to be brave. For her. Because of her. She couldn't lose him again.
Anything.
"Yes," she whispered.
Megabyte's leering face filled the screen. "Beg me."
Another VidWindow, now. Bigger. Louder.
"Attention, citizens of Mainframe. This is a… personal message for the hacker, the game sprite, the renegade… and the guardian. I am pleased to inform you that your command-dot-com-the lovely Ms. Matrix-and I have come to an agreement. She has surrendered herself to me completely on the condition that I spare her brother from deletion."
A pause.
"How trusting. How brave."
And then: a slash of metal, and a cry of anger and pain. Someone was screaming.
"Come and find us," the virus sang. Slowly, he began to laugh.
The VidWindow shut.
"No," Matrix said, staring at the space where the VidWindow had been in disbelief. "No!" His arm shot out, denting the wall beside him, but he clenched his fist as if he didn't even feel it. He spun around to face Bob. "Whose scream was that?" he demanded. "Could you tell?"
"I think… I think it was Dot's." Bob felt sick. He had had nightmares like this: Megabyte, enraged and insane, Dot screaming. "Why would she do this? What is she doing?"
The two of them had made their way to the Principal Office's small armory and were stockpiling weapons, loading themselves with anything they thought would give them a chance. Glitch had whirred in disapproval, noting the futility of trying to stop a Class 5 Trojan Horse virus with bullets, but Bob had ignored it. Loading a gun was something he hadn't done for a long time, something he had told himself he'd never have to do again outside of a game. But for now, at least, it made him feel a little less helpless.
"Oh, User…" Matrix began. "We have to get back to them, we have to get back to the War Room-"
Bob shook his head. "That's exactly what Megabyte wants us to do, we're going to walk right into his trap! Dot has to have a plan, or else she wouldn't-"
"You mean, she wouldn't give herself up to Megabyte? What kind of plan could this possibly be? I don't know if you've noticed, Bob," Matrix continued, sliding another gun into the waistband of his jeans, "but she hasn't exactly been in the best headspace lately."
She has surrendered herself to me completely. Megabyte's voice replayed in his mind and Bob shuddered, not daring to think about what that meant.
She wouldn't, he told himself. She wouldn't. His jaw clenched as he hefted the gun he was holding, the cold weight bringing back all the memories he tried to keep buried.
She wouldn't, he repeated to himself, to silence out the voice that was whispering to him: Too late, cadet...
Matrix grabbed another round of bullets and headed for the door. "I'm going after her. And when I see Megabyte, I'm going to do something you should have done a long time ago."
The words Matrix threw at him made his heart clench. He was right. If he had just done what he was supposed to do… What any other guardian would have done… But no matter what he did lately, it seemed like someone always got hurt.
Dot's scream echoed in his mind.
"Enzo, wait!" Bob called, as Matrix stalked off through the armory doorway. "We need to stay together!"
Matrix stopped, but didn't look back. "What do you think I'm doing?" he said, his voice cold. "I'm going to help my family. You can stay with me, or you can stay behind."
"I'm coming," Bob said, before Matrix could start to walk away again. "I'm coming. Just wait." Almost without thinking, he grabbed one more weapon, a dagger, from its place on the armory wall, and bent to slip it into his boot before hurrying to catch up.
"You guys are my family, too," Bob told him, as they started to jog down the hall, but Matrix didn't reply.
A/N: Hope you guys are here for this, because if you are, there's more coming. Please review, it makes me happy :)