Cavendish knew that Dakota was confident in working for P.I.G., but Cavendish didn't feel nearly as good about it. Bob Block didn't treat them horribly in the same way that Mr. Block had at B.o.T.T, but he didn't exactly treat them well either. At least, he didn't treat Cavendish well. Bob Block barely acknowledged him at all. He assigned Cavendish to essentially be an extraterrestrial janitor, and it was embarrassing. Cavendish was capable of so much, and nobody bothered to even give him a chance. It was frustrating.

Cavendish wanted to complain to someone, but he didn't dare. The last time he had voiced his displeasure to Dakota, the Squip had gone out of his way to set up a situation so that Cavendish could do what he wanted most, to save the world. Dakota had given him the chance to save the world by putting it at risk. They were incredibly lucky that they'd been able to defeat the pistachions not just once, but twice.

Cavendish was still worried about the pistachions, even though Bob Block had assured them that the situation had been taken care of. When they'd started working for P.I.G., the first thing that Dakota had done was ask Bob Block to use a time machine that he had procured to take Orton Mahlson back to his own time and then eliminate the pistachions in the past when they're vulnerable. They didn't know for sure that they had taken down every single pistachion with the soda, and the best way to ensure that they didn't become a problem again in the future was by making sure they didn't become a problem in the first place.

While Cavendish was frustrated with his work, and he was concerned about the pistachion situation, the thing he was most worried about was Dakota. His partner hadn't seemed exactly like himself lately, and Cavendish knew that Bob Block and P.I.G. had something to do with it. When Cavendish and Dakota were given an assignment, Cavendish suspected that Bob Block didn't really care about their work, but what he was most interested in was seeing how Dakota worked. When they weren't working, Bob Block was having his researchers look into how Dakota worked and functioned.

Their boss was treating Dakota like a fascinating tool, not a person, and Dakota didn't seem to care at all. Dakota acted like he was incredibly pleased with their new working situations, and Cavendish didn't understand it at all. He was already frustrated with his own situation, but looking at Dakota's situation made him feel even worse. It was horrible.

With every assignment they were given, Cavendish felt more and more frustrated. They were cleaning up after aliens, and Cavendish didn't even know what three quarters of the things they picked up did. Dakota knew what the alien trash was, but apparently he was unauthorized to talk about it. It was incredibly frustrating to work with, and Dakota frequently acted like everything was fine.

Cavendish tried to be optimistic, but it was difficult for him. Dakota was doing his very best though. He was even using his connection to Milo to try to convince the boy to stay away from their work, so Murphy's Law wouldn't get in the way. Considering how fond Dakota was of Milo, and how much he liked being around the boy, it was a touching sacrifice

Their days off were the best. That was when Cavendish could relax, Dakota wasn't bothered by P.I.G., and they didn't have anything they had to worry about. They could just enjoy each other's company.

Unfortunately, those days were few and far between. More often than not, Cavendish had to deal with his demeaning work. It was insultingly simple, and yet they still struggled with it. He tried to tolerate everything as best he could, but one day a straw finally broke the camel's back and Cavendish lost his patience.

Their assignment for the day had been a mistake. They'd spent hours cleaning up trash in a parking lot, only to be told that it wasn't alien trash that they'd been dealing with, but just regular human trash. It was humiliating, and Cavendish couldn't take it anymore.

Even worse was that Dakota had no sympathy for him. There was something going on with him, and neither of them knew what. Dakota suddenly became distracted and unfocused. If Cavendish didn't know any better, he would think that Dakota was being affected by something that caused Squips to malfunction, but they were just in the parking lot. Nothing in the area should affect a Squip. And Cavendish himself certainly couldn't feel a thing. Things that affected Squips actually affected the computer in the host's head. If something was happening, Cavendish really should feel it for himself.

Cavendish wanted to help Dakota, but then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He focused his attention completely on what he saw and he couldn't help but stare in shock. It was an alien spaceship, and, wait a moment, was that a person being lifted into the spacecraft? Someone was being abducted. That was an emergency. This was far more important than the clean-up work that Bob Block wanted them to do.

"Dakota, are you seeing this?" Cavendish looked towards his partner, who was sitting and resting his head in his hands. "Dakota, what are you doing?" Cavendish walked to Dakota. He put a hand on his shoulder, only to pull back when he felt Dakota's form flicker. Something was definitely wrong. "Dakota!"

"Ugh, what?" Dakota groaned and looked up at Cavendish. He looked exhausted, not like himself at all.

Cavendish stared at Dakota for a moment before he remembered the urgency of the situation. "We may have a problem. There's been an alien abduction," Cavendish gestured behind him where he'd seen the spaceship, only to see that it wasn't there anymore.

Dakota stared blankly at where Cavendish was gesturing. "...Alright, I give up, what am I looking at?"

"I...I don't understand," Cavendish said. "I swear, I saw it," It took Cavendish a moment to realize that he actually knew a simple solution to convince Dakota. "You can access my memories and thoughts, can't you?"

"Uh, normally I'd say yes," Dakota said. "But right now I don't think I can do anything. My systems are going haywire." Cavendish didn't understand how that was possible. Dakota was his Squip, he was programmed into his mind, and yet he didn't feel anything. This seemed concerning, but what was also concerning was that Cavendish was confident that he'd seen someone be abducted. That had to be his priority right now.

"Maybe...maybe P.I.G. will have detected an alien spacecraft," Cavendish suggested desperately. They worked with aliens all the time, Cavendish couldn't imagine something as big as an alien abduction falling under their radar. "Yes, I'm sure they'll know. Let's go," Cavendish grabbed Dakota's arm and began to pull him along. There was no time to waste.

When they got to P.I.G. headquarters, at first they weren't allowed to see their boss, as the man was busy and he and Dakota weren't exactly top priority to most of the other agents. Cavendish knew just how he could get an appointment with Bob Block.

"My friend here is a Squip," Cavendish pulled Dakota slightly so he stood front and center. "He has been central to one of P.I.G.'s projects, and he's having some issues right now. If you would kindly tell our boss that Dakota seems to be malfunctioning, it would be greatly appreciated," Cavendish spoke with confidence, like the agent he was speaking to would be a fool to not bring him to Bob Block.

The agent called up their boss and a few minutes later, almost in record time, Bob Block came striding towards them. "Cavendish, Dakota, it's great to see you boys again so soon. Please, walk with me," Bob Block turned and led them deeper into the headquarters. Cavendish hurried to keep up with their boss. He had to pull Dakota behind him, because the Squip was really out of it. Cavendish wondered if Dakota was even aware of where they were.

"Sir, something happened earlier," Cavendish said.

"I bet," Bob Block stopped in his tracks and leaned closer to Dakota. He seemed to be studying him, though unlike Cavendish, Bob Block wasn't the least bit concerned. He looked as calm and collected as he usually did.

"No, sir, it's not that," Cavendish pulled Dakota away from Cavendish, both because he had something more urgent on his mind, and also because he didn't like the way that their boss was examining Dakota like he was just a tool that Bob Block wanted to know how it worked. "I saw an alien abduction."

"I know you want to impress me and do something worthwhile," Bob Block said slightly condescendingly. "But there have been no reports lately of spaceships anywhere near earth, let alone the practicing of unauthorized abductions,"

"Sir, I know what I saw," Cavendish insisted. "I…"

"What happened to Dakota?" Bob Block asked, like Cavendish had never mentioned the alien abduction. It was clear to Cavendish that he wasn't going to be getting any assistance from his boss, but he wasn't going to give up.

"I'm not sure, sir," Cavendish said honestly. "You know that Dakota is not just connected to me, but also to a boy. Perhaps something has happened on his end,"

"Milo?" Awareness finally returned to Dakota's eyes. He looked at Dakota in alarm. "What's wrong with Milo?"

"I don't know," Cavendish said gently before he turned to his boss. "Perhaps me and Dakota could go check up on him, just in case," Cavendish suggested.

"Yes," Bob Block agreed. "Do that, and report back to me as soon as you find anything. You know I don't like being left in the dark about anything,"

"Of course, sir," Cavendish said. "And, uh, if you have the time could you double check on that alien abduction,"

"Yes, yes, of course," Bob Block smiled at him, and while he seemed nice enough, Cavendish found it difficult to trust his reassurance. He would hope for the best, but assume the worst.

"Come on," Cavendish grabbed Dakota's arm and pulled him along. Dakota was still really distracted, but there was at least a sign of awareness in his eyes.

"Are we going to go see Milo?" Dakota asked slowly.

"Not at the moment," Cavendish said apologetically "I have some research to do,"

"But you said Milo might be in trouble," Dakota said urgently.

"I said nothing of the sort," Cavendish said sternly, but not unkindly. "I'm sure Milo will be just fine, but if someone has been abducted, I can't just leave that alone,"

"Wait...wait a second," Dakota stopped in his tracks, pulling Cavendish to stop as well. "Why are you so obsessed with saving a stranger who may or may not be in danger when someone we know might also be in trouble?"

"I can't in good consciousness leave someone in trouble," Cavendish said.

"You're wanting to leave Milo in trouble," Dakota said unhappily. Cavendish crossed his arms.

"Now who is obsessed?" Cavendish knew that Dakota seemed to care more about Milo than he did about anyone else. Cavendish sighed. They were going in circles now, and it wasn't doing them any good. "Dakota, aliens are our job,"

Dakota's expression darkened. "Our job...this is because you want to be acknowledged by our boss?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Cavendish said defensively. He shifted uncomfortably. "...And that's not the only reason,"

"Why do you care so much about what our boss thinks about you?" Dakota asked.

Cavendish didn't know why Dakota was even bothering to ask. He was in his head, he knew why. "I wanted to be respected," Cavendish said in a raised voice. "I want someone to look at me and recognize that I'm worth something,"

"I respect you," Dakota glared at Cavendish. "Milo and the other kids respect you,"

"Well, yes, but-" Cavendish began, but Dakota cut him off.

"But you don't care what we think about you," Dakota shoved his hands in his pockets. He flinched as his form flickered, but Dakota shook his head and pushed through it. "You want to be seen as important by someone who matters,"

"Dakota, that's not what I meant," Cavendish said as he felt his temper rising.

"No?" Dakota raised an eyebrow at him. "Then what is it?" Cavendish blinked. He knew there was more to it, but when he tried to think it through, he found himself at a loss. Dakota watched Cavendish for awhile before he finally shook his head and seemed to give up on expecting an answer. "Forget it, do what you want, I'm going to go find Milo," Dakota pulled away from Cavendish and began to make his way down the hallway. Cavendish was about to go after him when Dakota suddenly froze and his whole form glitched in a way that it definitely shouldn't.

"Dakota," Cavendish ran to his friend and put a hand against his arm. Dakota didn't react at all. Cavendish spun Dakota around so he could look him in the eyes, and something was definitely wrong. Dakota's eyes were both sparking, which wasn't unusual, but what really bothered Cavendish was that his orange eye looked much duller than it normally was. Dakota's eye was usually glowing, but right now it looked nearly lifeless.

"Dakota, what's wrong?" Cavendish asked. "What do I do?"

"...He's scared," Dakota said quietly. "I can't feel anything else from him,"

"...It's okay," Cavendish said. "I'm sure that Milo's fine,"

"But what if he's not?" Dakota asked desperately. It seemed Milo wasn't the only one that was scared. Cavendish understood Dakota's fears, but he thought that his partner was overreacting. Milo was a tough child, he was really strong and resourceful, he could handle himself. Cavendish was sure that by the time he and Dakota might find where Milo was, any danger he was in would have already passed.

Cavendish frowned and tightened his grip on Dakota's arm. This all felt incredibly wrong. Dakota wanted nothing more than to get to Milo and help him, and Cavendish didn't think there was a problem. Cavendish was still desperate to prove that he was worthwhile and could be a good agent, and Dakota just didn't understand it. They were in conflict with each other, and Cavendish just didn't think this was working.

If this was just the first time that they had such issues, Cavendish would think this was just a one time thing, but this seemed to be more of the rule than the exception. Cavendish liked being with Dakota, and he knew that Dakota felt the same way, but for what both of them needed and wanted with their lives at the moment, it didn't seem like they could get it with each other. They were just pulling each other in different directions, and neither of them were actually going anywhere.

"Dakota, I think we should go home," Cavendish said slowly. "You need to get some rest, and I have some things I need to think through."

Dakota blinked. There was a lot of unawareness in his eyes but finally he nodded. "Yeah, okay," Dakota said. Cavendish again began to pull Dakota along. He wasn't kidding, they really were going home, though Cavendish for one wasn't planning on staying for long.

On the way home, Cavendish thought things through. He had an idea of what he wanted to do, but he was hesitant. He'd already hurt Dakota once because he hadn't thought that they'd been good as partners, and he wasn't eager to do the same thing, but he didn't think they were good for each other, at least not right now.

Cavendish knew what he had to do, he just didn't want to.

When they got back to the apartment, Cavendish pulled Dakota in and pushed him gently onto the couch. Dakota blinked and looked around. "Oh...we're back,"

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Cavendish suggested. "You may feel better after you rest, and if Milo is feeling trouble with his Squip, he may do better if you're sleeping." Cavendish knew it was manipulative for him to say, but he was doing what he thought was best.

Dakota grinned slightly, closed his eyes, and leaned back. Cavendish waited tensely for a few minutes until he knew for sure that Dakota was in sleeping mode. Cavendish sighed and moved to the back of the apartment, where they kept an alien device they had gotten on one of their assignments.

One time they were sent to recover an alien amnesia device, and something that should have taken them five minutes took them all day. Cavendish had hated that assignment with a passion. The amnesia device had made him act like a fool, and somehow it was strong enough to not only mess with the memories of an organic being like a human, but also the memory database of a computer like Dakota. Not only had Dakota forgotten about the events that lead up to them finding the alien amnesia device, but he also seemed to forget hours more than Cavendish had, and he took longer to recover. For a few days, Cavendish had been sure that Dakota's systems were permanently damaged, and Bob Block had similar concerns. He'd put Dakota through all kinds of tests and trials to make sure that everything was okay before he was comfortable enough to give them more assignments.

Cavendish still didn't know exactly what the alien amnesia device did to Dakota, as he'd been influenced by it at the time as well. No permanent damage had happened last time though, and Cavendish had to trust that the same would be true this time. He had to believe that would be the case.

Cavendish pulled his glasses down over his eyes and aimed the device at Dakota. "I'm sorry," He said. "But this is for the best," Cavendish would say that to himself as many times as was necessary until he finally believed it.

Dakota didn't behave irrationally the way that Cavendish knew he had when he'd been under the influence of the alien amnesia device. He just seemed to sleep. Cavendish wondered for a moment if the device had failed, but he had seen it activate. Perhaps the device wasn't working quite the same because Dakota was asleep.

Cavendish wanted to leave, because if he was going to leave Dakota behind the very least he could do was accomplish what he was setting out to do. If he could prove that someone had been abducted, especially if he could save them, then all of this would be worthwhile. It had to be.

Cavendish sat down at the desk and took his hat off. He pulled off his hat and set it upside down on the desk. He opened the desk drawer and pulled out a small magnet and some tape. Cavendish put the magnet in the hat and used the tape to secure it in place. He'd heard somewhere that if an agent wanted some privacy from their Squip, they could use a simple magnet like this near the computer.

Cavendish didn't know for sure that this would work, but he had to at least try it. If Dakota woke up in a few hours and saw that Cavendish wasn't there, he would be desperate to go find him. Their connection would make it all too easy for Dakota to find him, which would defeat the purpose of Cavendish leaving.

Cavendish didn't want to mess with Dakota's systems, which was why he was careful to keep the magnet at a fair distance from his mind. He didn't want to scramble Dakota's hardwares, just confuse them a little bit, just enough for him to not be found. Cavendish was sure that in the long run, Dakota would be all right, even with the magnet. Afterall, he still had Milo's computer hardware to rely on. Cavendish knew that Dakota didn't need him.

After getting the magnet situated, Cavendish put his hat on. He watched Dakota carefully for a moment and let out a breath of relief when he didn't see his friend's form so much as flicker. There was no rainbow colored glitching. The magnet wasn't too powerful. Dakota would be alright.

Cavendish straightened his jacket and, with one last look towards his partner, he walked out the door.


Five hours later, that evening across town Milo, who was just calming down from his adventure with aliens that he'd had that day, cried out in pain when he felt a sudden, searing feeling in his head. It almost felt like his head was burning open.

"Milo?" He felt Sara put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I...I don't know," Milo took a deep breath, wincing as he rubbed his head. The pain hadn't gotten better, but he was a little more used to it, and Milo had always had a high tolerance for pain. Milo realized that he was familiar with at least the location of the pain. "Something's up with Dakota,"

A moment later, Milo heard a voice in his head that sounded really similar to Dakota's, except there was something really weird about it, something wrong.

'SYSTEM REBOOTING.'


A/N: Just when I got Cavendish to be a decent person again after trying to delete Dakota, I have him go and do this. He's just an interesting character, so fascinating to write. I hope I was able to give Cavendish a decently reasonable explanation.

On another note, I'm looking forward to what I'm writing later. Let me ask you guys, do you know what can sometimes happen when you take a glitchy or slow computer and restart or reboot it?

You may just be able to fix it.