Flashback

Cowering away in a small corner of the concrete room was a small girl. She was about seven years old and very much underweight for her age. She hugged her twig-like legs, upset at the fact that she'd just been terrorized again. The guys that bullied her just minutes before took all of her food, a week's worth of scavenging and saving. Now she knew for a fact that she'd be going to sleep hungry.

She saw a shadowy figure loom over her and it caused her to poke her head out from her arms. Her watery grey eyes observed the figure once more. Once she found that it wasn't one of the older boys, she placed her head back between her knees with her arms up against her forehead.

"Hi," the figure greeted. Its voice wasn't the deep, nor was it squeaky. It was just the voice of a young boy, raspy with a hint of juvenility. The boy stepped out of the darkness of the room and moved closer to the girl. He kneeled down, observing the shy girl. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked up at the boy once more. She found that he was just a kid about her age with sun-kissed skin and blonde, tousled hair. "They might get me again," she quietly replied.

"What'd they do?"

"They took my food and I worked really hard for it too," she said, very much frustrated.

He sat next to her on the ground and smiled. "I have some candy bars. We can share," he suggested. After a few moments, he got to his feet then extended his hand to her to help her up. "My name's Max. What's yours?"

"Noelle," she muttered as she took his hand.

The two youngsters walked back to a small corner of the dilapidated building where Max hid his belongings under a pile of trash bags. After rifling through the material, he brought out his only candy bar. "It's my last one," he frowned, "Why don't we split it?"

"Okay," Noelle smiled.

Max easily divided the candy bar and handed her the bigger half. As the two of the ate, he periodically peered over his shoulder then over at her to make sure no one would sneak up and try to steal their meal. Once finished, he waited for her to finish. When the girl's half of the candy bar was devoured, he suddenly jabbed her on the shoulder. "Tag! You're it!" he cheerfully yelled.

"What? Hey!" Noelle replied, dumbfounded.

"C'mon, try to get me," he grinned and ran off.

She chased after him with a smile on her face. She ran after him some more until she tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Gotcha!" she laughed. But soon she found him frozen, slowly becoming fearful.

"Hey, come on. I tagged you," Noelle said. She walked out in front of him to see what he was staring at. "Oh, it's only Siva…don't be scared." she shrugged.

Siva smiled slightly, "Well hello to you too, Noelle. Who's your friend?"

"His name's Max."

"And what were you and Max doing?" she asked curiously.

"We were playing tag,"

She nodded then gazed down at the two youngsters. "Be careful, you two. Neither Zoot nor Ebony is in the best mood, so don't get them mad. Go ahead and play, just keep the noise down." Siva warned.

"Okay," the girl replied then she turned to her once more, "Where's Java?"

Siva shrugged, "I don't know. I think she might be hiding away somewhere with her food or she might be in her room. Whatever it is, she said she was busy."

"Hm…oh well then," Noelle said. Once Siva left the two of them alone, she turned to Max and tagged him once again. The game of tag went on for about an hour until both of them were ordered to head back to their bunker. Then about four months later, the inevitable happened. Ebony turned her back on her family…and it was all for power. Java, Siva and Byte's "loyal" relative had just sentenced all of them to death. While being detained by the Locust guards, the older two of the trio put up quite a fight, in which it took three men each to control each of them. For the little one, however, it only took one big man.

While being carried away, Noelle had spotted Max amongst the crowd of people. She kicked at the guard, screamed, and punched, just so she could get back to her friend. The man's grip was strong and soon enough, her actions proved to be useless. Her gaze then fell upon her friend. "Don't forget me, okay?" she pleaded with her small voice able to travel amongst the jeers and yells of the crowd.

"Okay," he replied. He watched the guard take his helpless friend away. He didn't know what to do and soon he became frustrated with himself. Angry, he ran off. He chased after the guards, though, carefully hiding amongst the rubble. His little chest puffed as he watched the guards throw the three girls in the "jail cell". After observing the chain and padlock on the door of the cell and he came up with the perfect idea. He knew they couldn't climb the cell because it contained barbs scattered amongst the chain-link fence. Escaping the damned thing would mean they'd have to get a tetanus shot at the end.

That night as Java and Siva were asleep, Noelle woke to the sound of rustling amongst the bushes nearby. She watched the outside of the fence carefully from where she lay then inched closer to Java, who was soundly asleep. Seconds later, she heard the unnatural rustling again. She grew a bit fearful of what may be out there and dug her head into the woman's arm. Wide-eyed, she watched the outside once again.

Max poked his head out from behind the bushes. Quietly, he crawled up to the entrance to the fence, right in front of Noelle. "Look what I got," he whispered.

Noelle smiled slightly and crawled up to the fence, "What is it?"

"They cut through the chain," he explained. He got to his feet now, placed one part of the thin chain between the teeth of the cutters, and squeezed. After an apparent "SNAP!" he quietly pulled the chain off the door. He looked over his shoulder now and noticed that the sun was creeping slowly through the sky. "I better go…you guys have to hurry," he said.

"Okay," Noelle replied. She moved over to him then hugged him tightly, "I'll remember you forever, promise. What about you, do you promise again?"

"I promise," Max said with a warm smile.

After the two pulled away, Noelle moved toward Java and nudged her on the shoulder. "Java, wake up," she whispered.

The woman groaned and just rolled over to the other side, "Not now, Noelle."

Now the girl shook her arm, "But Java, the door's open. We have to hurry!"

From there, Java's eyes shot open. She got up quietly then pushed Siva, "Siv, wake up!"

Once she woke up, they all saw that the sun was creeping up through the sky slowly. "We have to run from here," Noelle heard Java say as the woman broke out into a jog, so the little girl could catch up. Siva, however, ran faster than the two and was quick to reach the end of the Locust camp.

"C'mon, Java!" Siva yelled.

End of Flashback

Early the next morning Byte crept out of her room fully dressed with her communicator and phaser in their rightful places. She was ready for the day of work ahead of her, despite what had happened. The usual bustling of the other Technos comforted her in some weird way. Upon entering the computer room, she was greeted by Mega.

"Nice to see you up," he said.

Noelle smirked then sat in front of one of the computers, "I just wanted to get back to work, that's all." Quickly, she turned on the computer in front of her and began typing up her report for the game she was working on for the virts. She sighed as she quickly typed away at numbers and figures. "Expected participation rate…eighty-five percent," she muttered to herself.

Noelle had been working for a few hours until Java came through the doors. Once she did, she stared at the kid for a moment, curious as to why she was put to work. She took a seat next to her as she was just a bit surprised to see her daughter functioning. "Hey, kiddo, what are you doing?"

"Figuring out data for the new game," she replied quickly.

"But why? Did someone put you up to this?"

"No, I just wanted to work. That's all," Byte smirked. "Did you know that about eighty-five percent of the population will be participating in the game? It's…incredible." She looked at her mother, who was just staring at her. "Something wrong?"

Java shook her head, "No. It's just that I'm a little bit amazed at how fast you've come back to work."

"Well there's work to be done and I just didn't want to put such a burden on you," Noelle explained.

"But you know what I think? I think you need to…uh…take it easy. You know…have a whole tub of ice cream to yourself, don't even bother to put on makeup, and just stay in your pajamas the entire day while you do absolutely nothing."

The girl sighed, "No, that ain't happening."

"As you wish," Java replied with a shrug.

At that moment, Ram wheeled his way toward Byte. He gazed at the girl with an impish grin on his face. "Ah, my young commander, it's nice to see you today and boy do I have some news for you."

"Yeah? What is it?" she asked.

"I have a new mission for you to complete…and trust me it'll be worth your time. I'm going to give you some time to think about it but what I'd like you to do is to do some tidying up. With the new game coming up, I want the virts to think that our system is 100 percent safe. So, those virts we tested on…I want them deleted. I want all evidence disposed of, Byte," Ram explained.

"Sure, I'll think about it," she replied and turned away once Ram wheeled away to another Techno worker. She handed Java the papers she'd just typed up. "So, what do you think?"

"Well if you ask me, I think that new mission is a bit too risky," Java said.

"No, no, I mean the report," Noelle replied.

"Oh," she smirked. She read over the report quickly, "So, let me get this straight…the virts are split up into two teams and they have to find the key that you hid?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. You think Ram will like it?"

"I think he will. It's easy to understand and it'll get everyone involved. I like it because it's easy to publicize for," Java said.

"Okay, I'll go show him," Noelle nodded and went off with the paper to go see Ram.

Java watched the girl explain, in great detail, the concept of the game, game play, virt involvement, and the expected participation rate. "I think it's a great concept, Byte. Go ahead and get PR started on that with Java. It's so nice to have you working so hard even after the recent tragedy."

Byte nodded slowly, Ram's words hitting her harder than she thought. Her eyes glistened slightly as she fought her tears. She smirked instead, just to hide her sadness.

"Have I upset you?" Ram asked.

"What?" Byte said and shook her head, "No, no. Besides, I have just as much work to do around here as anybody else. I don't see them having any excuses to not do any work."

"That's what I like to hear, Commander," he smiled.

She nodded then walked back to her computer for a quick moment. "I'll be back, I have to go see our PR speaker…whatever her name is."

Java turned to her now, "Oh, the one with the black slicked back hair? Kinda chub chub? She really needs to get out of that man's uniform."

"Chub chub? Well I suppose she's on the chunky side," Byte chuckled. "Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna go talk to her."

"Have fun with that, Noelle," Java smirked.

Flashback

Max trekked along the outskirts of Techno territory as he kept a diligent watch over his post. He'd just finished boot camp and this job was his first task ever as a Techno. He took it very seriously, of course. But after four hours of keeping watch over just one area, he inevitably grew bored.

"But Java, why's it my job to show the new guards around? They couldn't get an old guard to do it?" he heard someone say.

Max turned around to the voice momentarily and his green eyes squinted. There he saw a young girl about his age with wavy brown hair and caramel colored skin. He was only able to see the back of her but once he saw the girl's uniform, he figured that she was just another one of Ram's wives. [i]"Perhaps it's Siva."[/i] He sighed softly then folded his hands behind his back.

About a minute later, the girl turned around and headed toward him.

Along the way she tied up her hair into a pony-tail and let some of her bangs sweep over her right eye. She looked at the guy in front of her and immediately took notice of his appearance. She froze for a split second, thinking she'd just been hit by a bus. She couldn't believe what was in front of her…the most handsome guy she'd ever seen in her entire life.

From only the two seconds that she stared at his face, she took note of his deep-set green eyes, his perfect nose, tight lips, and angular jaw line. Of those features, the one she couldn't get over was his eyes. They seemed so pensive by the way they were squinted, even though they were slightly over shadowed by the few strands of light brown hair that fell over them. But once she stopped in front of him, his eyes seemed to soften.

He stared at her for a few moments, simply amazed. Her face looked so familiar to him and then he remembered. The girl's eyes gave it away. It was the same pair he'd seen just years ago, back when he was with the Locusts. "Noelle?" he said as a smile crept over his mouth.

She looked up at him, slightly confused and slightly offended. "It's Sub-Lieutenant Byte to you, Guard."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But…it's me," he said with excitement.

Still confused, she stared at him. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Max," he replied.

Her jaw dropped as she smiled widely. "Max! What? It's really you? God I can't believe how much you've changed."

"I know and you too, Noelle…er…Sub-Lieutenant."

"No, no, it's fine. You could just call me Byte," she laughed.

He smiled once again, "I just can't believe we ended up in the same tribe again. What are the chances?"

She shrugged and chuckled lightly, "So how've you been? I mean, it's been so long."

"I've been good…well actually, great, since I found you," he joked. "Don't think I didn't keep my promise from years ago. I didn't forget about you."

"I'm glad you didn't. I mean, how else would I be able to thank the guy who saved me?"

Max shrugged, "I don't know. I think a simple 'thank you' will be fine."

"Are you sure about that? Did you want a new area to keep watch over? Something nice?" Byte smiled.

"No, no. It's completely fine. Just think of it as a nice gesture, no gifts in return," he replied humbly.

End of Flashback

She walked out of the room with the papers in hand. She strolled into the hallway and found her aunt and her father. It wasn't her Aunt Siva, it was the other one; the one that Java considered the devil reincarnate; and the one that her mother said, "was short, nasty and started with the letter 'E'". It was Ebony.

"So you actually made it to the Technos," Ebony said to Noah.

"Did that come as a shock to you?" he asked.

"No, not really. I wonder what my older sister actually said. She must've been thrilled," she said sarcastically.

"She wasn't too thrilled, as expected. Neither was Noelle."

Ebony smirked then stopped walking, "Well the apple never falls far from the tree."

"What do you mean by that?" Noah smirked.

"Oh didn't you know? My sister's daughter…or rather….your kid…is knocked up. Like mother like daughter. It's a shame, though; Byte's fate fell just the same as Java's. She doesn't have a father for her kid too. Well I guess that's what you get for whoring yourself around," Ebony explained.

At that moment, Byte walked up to her two relatives with a slight smirk on her face. "So is that what you call it? You're really one to talk, Ebony, especially since you're always after everyone's sloppy seconds. I'm sure Noah's living proof."

"Oh really, Byte? So where's Damien again?" she asked.

Noelle shrugged, "I don't know but have you checked your room yet?"

Noah finally stepped in between the two girls, "Noelle, where do you get off speaking to your aunt like that?"

"Well I don't know, after she turned her back on her own family and sentenced us to death, who knows where I got it from?" Byte replied sarcastically.

"Her mother, that's who," Ebony murmured under her breath.

"And what makes you think you can discipline me like that?" Noelle then asked.

"Because I'm your father," Noah explained.

"I'm surprised you didn't choke when you said that," Byte smirked, "maybe you shouldn't have choked seventeen years ago…because around here, you're nothing but a damn guard." She glared at him then took her leave. She walked hastily around the corner and found Damien just walking out of his room.

He saw her making her way towards him but didn't do much. Instead, he gazed at the ground and let the girl pass. Behind him he heard Noelle speak to the officer behind him.

"Look, I just need it to look good. Do whatever you want, I mean the basics are all here. You've got two teams, red and blue, and one objective. All you have to do is advertise the fact that they need to be scanned before they can play," Byte told her.

The woman nodded and smiled as the girl handed her the papers, "You've got it, Commander."

When Byte was about to pass Damien in order to leave again, he stopped her. Damien gently grabbed her by the arm, "Byte, wait."

She sighed deeply, "What."

"Look," he paused, "whatever I said to you yesterday, I hope you're not mad at me because of it. If you are, then just forget about it, okay?"

"I'm not mad at you, Damien. Why would you think that?"

He shrugged then moved out of the way for passing Technos. "I don't know. I think it's just by the way you've been acting. I heard you talking to Java, and I just want you to know that I'm sorry that I've intruded. I've intruded on what could potentially be a family. I know you've been through a lot, Noelle, don't let me take that away from you. I don't want to be the one to come between you and Max and your baby. You three belong together and as for me, I'm out of the picture. When Max comes back-"

Noelle sighed softly and shook her head while her eyes began to well up once she gazed at the ground. "He's not coming back," she said quietly.

"What? What do you mean, Noelle?" he asked. He approached her carefully as he saw some tears fall to the ground.

She struggled to speak. It was clearly expressed by how her ears began to turn red and her breathing became long heavy gasps. "Max is dead," she finally said.

Damien sighed softly and gazed down at the girl. "C'mere," he whispered while he gently wrapped his arms around her. He held her closely as he rocked her slightly. He could hear her sob and slowly break down in front of him. No longer was she the emotionless commander who always kept her guard up, she was now the vulnerable and fragile girl that he was holding in his arms. It almost felt like he was protecting her rather than trying to impress her. "Come on, we should get you back to your room. I don't want people to start talking."

Flashback

"Good for nothing Techno!" a virt yelled. Suddenly he came toward the newly promoted Lieutenant and charged at her while her back was turned.

Max saw the virt coming at her and immediately he stepped in front of her. he swung at the virt, kicked him, and finally tackled him to the ground. "Get her outta here!" he yelled back to the other guards. He didn't wait any longer to continue to subdue Byte's attacker. After a few moments, he got the guy handcuffed, or "braceleted". He huffed for a few moments before he caught up with Byte and the other Technos.

He stood at her side once more with a slight smirk on his face. "That was a close one," he said.

She turned to him and noticed that he'd received a cut on his forehead. "Yeah it was….but you're bleeding," she smiled.

He touched the small cut, noticed the blood and simply shrugged it off. He simply continued walking with her back to the base.

"C'mon, Max, let's get you stitched up," Byte then said as she was already on her way to the Techno hospital.

He followed behind her and once they both entered the hospital, he took a seat next to her. "Listen…um…Lieutenant…there's really no need for you to come out here with me," he reluctantly told her.

"It's Byte," she smirked, "and it's really no problem. You took a guy to the ground for me and it's really the least I could do."

"Right back here, Lieutenant," the medic said to Byte.

She walked into the room first then Max did. As the boy took a seat, she watched the medic pull out a bottle of alcohol and a few pieces of gauze. But as he was about to swab Max's wound with the gauze, he was called away to attend to another patient.

Byte sighed, "It's gonna take forever to get this thing patched up."

He looked back at her then shrugged. "You wanna do it? I mean, it's [i]only[/i] a cut," he said and handed her the supplies.

"Sure," she replied. She took the bottle from his hand and soaked a piece of cotton in the liquid. After a few moments, she gently wiped the wound with the alcohol-soaked gauze.

It felt nice at first but suddenly the coldness from the liquid turned into violent stinging. Max's eyes watered slightly as he let out a small sigh.

Byte looked down at him with a slight smile, "What's wrong?"

He tried to summon up the strength to speak to her, but the stinging only intensified. "It's stinging…really, really bad," he whispered.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry, sorry," she said quickly and then blew against the wound.

Now that the stinging was relieved, the girl was quick to patch him up. After she did so, she sat next to him on the hospital bed.

"Thanks," Max said quietly.

She stared at him and simply nodded, "You're welcome."

He inched closer to her as he stared back into the girl's eyes. They drew him in closer and closer, while she moved nearer as well. The two stopped, just inches away from the other's face. The pause was short-lived, though.

Their lips met for the first time. It was the most gentle yet most daring kiss the girl ever received, well what made it daring was that they were in a room where anyone could walk in at any moment. But the duo didn't care. After the small peck, the two pulled away from each other. Byte shyly gazed at the ground as she bit her bottom lip. She looked up at him once more and found that he had a grin on his face. It caused her to smile as well.

Max stared at her for the longest time before both of them heard some conversation over their communicators.

"Guard Max should know that he's being promoted to Cadet," they heard Jay say. "Where is he?"

"Where's Byte?" Java then asked.

"I believe they're still out at the hospital," a guard said.

"I don't think it should take that long to fix a small cut," Jay said.

From that point, Byte shot a look back to Max. "We should go," she smiled.

End of Flashback

Noelle nodded and followed him back to her room. Upon arrival, she turned to him with a slight smile. "Thank you," she said, her voice now sounding fully congested.

"It's no problem," Damien replied.

She opened the door to her room where she sat on the bed. She allowed Damien in and sighed while she pressed on her communicator as she tried to summon the strength to speak. A sigh came out before she spoke, but then she forced herself now. "Java," she said quietly, her voice wavering.

"Yeah?" Java replied over the headset.

"You know that ice cream that you talked about earlier?"

"Yes, honey."

Noelle sighed once more as she fought to keep the tears at bay, "I think it's starting to sound really good right about now."