Milo hated to admit it, and it made him feel incredibly guilty whenever he thought about it, but he was avoiding Dakota. Milo felt bad, because he knew that Dakota was still his friend, but everything that he did just felt off. Dakota's eyes didn't look the way that they should, his tone was slightly different, he seemed to not care about things that had been really important to him before. There were all these little things that felt wrong, and Milo didn't like to see it.
Though he was trying to avoid seeing Dakota, because he knew that he would just get upset to see his friend not acting like himself, and then Dakota might be hurt that Milo felt like he didn't know him anymore, Milo didn't forget about Dakota completely. Whenever Dakota went into sleep mode for the night, always at exactly 11:04, Milo would check in on Dr. Doofenshmirtz to see what progress had been made so far.
For the first few days, Dr. Doofenshmirtz didn't seem to get anywhere, and Milo was starting to wonder if this wasn't something that could be fixed. The thought that this was going to be permanent made Milo really nervous. He didn't want to lose Dakota completely, so maybe he should get to know this new version of his friend, but he was hesitant to do this. It felt like if he accepted that this Dakota was here to stay, then he would have to completely let go of the Dakota that he'd come to know.
It was all so complicated, and Milo felt like no matter what he did and what happened, they would all be hurt.
Finally though, Doofenshmirtz seemed to have some good news about Dakota's programming.
"Do you know anything about coding?" Doofenshmirtz asked as he grabbed about a dozen different books and notebooks. The shed was an absolute mess, but Doofenshmirtz seemed to know exactly where to find what he was looking for. He must have a method to his madness, even if the method only made sense to him.
"Not really," Milo admitted. "Me and computers don't really get along all that well," All technology mixed badly with Murphy's Law, but computers were especially prone to malfunctioning around them. Milo considered himself lucky that things had only now gone wrong.
"Well, every line of code serves a different function. It's what tells Dakota what to do and when," Dr. Doofenshmirtz said. He opened one of his notebooks and all but shoved it in Milo's face. "I think I reached a breakthrough. I was able to figure out what one of the lines said, and I can use it like a Rosetta Stone of Squip programming to translate what the others say."
"What does the line do?" Milo asked. It looked like just a bunch of random numbers, letters, and symbols to him.
"If I'm right, it basically tells Dakota when to think for himself and be selfish," Dr. Doofenshmirtz said. "Before the reboot, it would apply whenever he wanted it to, just like normal people, but now, if I'm reading the code right, it only happens when he thinks he's in danger."
"That's not fair." Milo frowned. He may try to not put his own desires above anybody else's, but he would hate not being able to be selfish unless he had permission. That just defeated the purpose. And though Dr. Doofenshmirtz said that Dakota had been like normal before, Milo didn't think he was. He remembered how Dakota had always done things that Milo had wanted, even if he didn't want it for himself.
Dakota may have been capable of thinking for himself, but he had felt like he hadn't been allowed to, so he still hadn't. Even when this was all fixed, would Dakota still feel like he could only do things if he was given permission? Milo had agreed to be Dakota's host and partner, and he would stick to that, but he really didn't want to be his boss or master. They were friends, they were supposed to be equals. That shouldn't be so hard.
"Can you undo it?" Milo asked stiffly.
"Oh, yeah," Doofenshmirtz said without hesitation. "All I have to do is make the condition invisible, and at least that part of him will be back to normal just as soon as he is rebooted again." This should be great news, Milo should be excited, but somehow he felt even worse.
Milo found himself unable to sleep at all that night. He just lay there on his bed staring at the ceiling for a few hours. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed his phone and without thinking twice about it, he texted the first person he could think of.
To Amanda: you awake?
Milo hadn't expected a reply, but a minute later he got a response.
From Amanda: No.
From Amanda: What's wrong?
Milo bit his lip and glanced at the time. It was after one in the morning. Most people would be asleep, even if they didn't have school in the morning, but Amanda was very particular about her schedule. She insisted on getting exactly seven and a half hours of sleep every night, and she had a tendency to freak out when anything didn't go according to plan. She was doing her best to learn how to adapt, but Milo didn't want to push her too far.
However, he also really needed someone to talk to right now, even if just for a minute.
To Amanda: its nothng im fine
To Amanda: go bak to slp we cn talk tomrrw
Just seconds after Milo sent the message, his phone rang. Milo felt slightly guilty but mostly relieved to see Amanda's name. He answered his phone quickly, before his family could be woken up by the noise.
"Hey, Amanda," Milo said quietly.
"Just because we're texting doesn't mean you can forget about proper grammar," Amanda said quickly. Milo found himself smiling, feeling better just hearing her voice. He didn't even mind that she was basically lecturing him. It made everything feel more normal.
"You know that if I spend too long writing a message, my phone might explode," Milo said. "And sometimes even when I write things out, it changes itself. Remember that time I sent you a message of complete nonsense,"
"Oh, I remember," Amanda said, sounding tired at just the memory. "Milo, what's wrong?"
He sighed and leaned back against the headboard. "I don't know," He said. I just have this friend of mine who hasn't been acting like himself lately. I want him to go back to normal, because I don't think he's happy like he is, but now I don't even know if he was happy before either."
Amanda hummed quietly. "Has your friend said what he wants?"
"Not exactly," Milo frowned and brought his legs to his chest. "He says he wants whatever I want. I don't think he knows how to choose things like this for himself." Milo took a deep breath. "I don't want to force him to do anything, but I also just want my friend back."
"Oh, Milo," Amanda sounded sympathetic. "Have you talked to your friend about this?"
"Not really. I've been, well, avoiding him." Milo winced. He could just imagine the unimpressed look she would be giving him if they were talking face to face. "I know, I know I'm not being fair, it's just...it's really hard."
"I know that," Amanda said, and she really did sound understanding. "But don't you think it's really hard for your friend too?"
Milo was quiet for a moment. He hadn't given a lot of thought about how Dakota felt. Normally he would, but after the reboot, Dakota had been acting a lot more like other Squips, like a supercomputer. Dakota acted like he seemed to know exactly what Milo wanted, and maybe he did, but it was still unnerving to think about. Dakota had also been acting less emotional, it was so easy to believe that Dakota no longer felt any emotions at all, but that wasn't fair. Just because Milo didn't understand just how Dakota felt didn't mean that he wasn't feeling anything.
"I want to help him, but I really don't know how," Milo said.
"You could try asking him," Amanda said, like it was that simple, and maybe it was.
"Yeah, I probably should," Milo said. It was way past time that he tried to understand exactly what was going on with this version of Dakota. Milo glanced at the clock and winced. It was really late. "I should probably also let you get some sleep too."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Amanda asked. "I don't mind staying up a little later if you need to talk." Milo could hear the reluctance in her tone, but he knew that if he asked her, she would stay up and continue talking to him.
"I'm okay," Milo said. He felt a little better, at least good enough to get some sleep himself and properly talk to Dakota tomorrow.
"Well, if you're sure," Amanda said hesitantly. "You know you can call whenever you need something, no matter how late it is."
"I know," Milo smiled. "Thanks, Amanda,"
"I'll call you tomorrow," Amanda promised. "Goodnight,"
"Night," Milo muttered. He hung up and rubbed his eyes. He still felt a little conflicted, but it had calmed down that he realized just how exhausted he felt. He was ready to get some sleep. Milo lay down on his bed and finally let himself doze off.
Milo woke up a few hours later to the alarm on his phone going off. He didn't even remember setting it. Milo groaned and began fidgeting with his phone to try to turn off the alarm, or at least silence it, but it just wasn't cooperating. Finally the screen on his phone went staticy for a second before going completely black. His phone had turned off.
Well, at least the alarm had stopped.
Milo sat up and glanced at his window. It was morning, but still really early. Dakota was probably still in sleep mode. Milo knew that he could easily just wake him up, but he didn't quite feel ready to talk to him. He needed a little bit of time to gather his thoughts. Milo got out of his bed and decided to go out for a short walk around the block. It would probably take a little longer than it would for someone else, because of Murphy's Law, but it probably wouldn't be too bad.
While Milo had expected a delay, and was ready to account for it, things went a little overboard, even on Murphy's Law standards. Two hours later, Milo found himself wandering around the woods near town, barely knowing how he got here.
Milo looked around. He had a lot of experience in these woods, but he didn't recognize this particular area. Though he knew that he really should head home and talk to Dakota, he also wanted to explore. It was really good to keep at least a mental map of anywhere he could end up.
Milo decided that he could spare another half an hour to look around before heading back. Milo adjusted his backpack and set off. After walking for ten minutes, Milo realized that something was incredibly wrong. He was in the woods, the wild, and yet there was nothing wild about it. Milo hadn't been attacked by wild racoons or squirrells. He couldn't even hear a bird. This was really weird. Something was wrong.
Milo looked around, feeling a little nervous. Once he was aware that something was wrong, Milo noticed that a lot of the brush looked pulled back and ruined, like something had crashed through here. The dirt on the ground also looked really broken up. Milo hadn't noticed it before, as dirt always looked really chaotic and uneven, but this looked different.
Milo followed the dirt, wondering just what he was going to find. Milo walked for another few minutes before he saw a very familiar looking ship. This was the Octalian ship. They had crashed. Milo felt absolutely terrified. The Octalians may have abducted him, but he knew they hadn't meant any harm. He desperately hoped that none of the Octalians had been in that ship when it crashed. If anyone got hurt, it would have been because of issues caused by Murphy's Law. It would have been because of him.
Milo quickly ran to the ship. He rushed inside and froze when he nearly ran into a familiar face.
"Cavendish?" Milo stared at the man in shock. It had been so long since he'd seen Cavendish. Milo knew that he and Dakota had recently started working for a group that investigated aliens and other paranormal things, but it was still odd to see Cavendish in this crashed Octalian spaceship.
"Murphy?" Cavendish looked equally as shocked to see him. "What are you doing here?"
"I got lost," Milo looked around the ship. It didn't look like there were any Octalians around. "Is this where you've been hiding?"
"I'm not hiding," Cavendish huffed and crossed his arms. "I'm trying to accomplish some work here." Cavendish sounded as proud and stubborn as ever. Milo didn't know exactly what work Cavendish was doing here, and he didn't think he'd understand even if Cavendish explained it to him.
And hearing that Cavendish was working, Milo realized something incredibly wrong with that. He had no problem with Cavendish doing his own thing, except that he was here doing it by himself. Cavendish was supposed to be Dakota's partner, and yet Cavendish was here, and Dakota was back at Milo's place, completely different because of a reboot. A reboot that Milo suspected had something to do with Cavendish.
"What did you do to Dakota?" Milo asked. It came out more accusatory than he was comfortable with, but he couldn't help it. He was scared, he wanted his friend back, and he hated that Cavendish kept on hurting him..
"Dakota?" Cavendish's expression shifted to one of concern, though it quickly turned to a defensive look. "What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know," Milo said honestly. "He rebooted, and he's been acting weird ever since."
"Rebooted?" Cavendish looked alarmed. "When? Why?"
"I don't know why," Milo said. He told Cavendish the exact date that the reboot happened. Cavendish paled, a look of recognition in his eyes. Whatever had happened, Cavendish seemed to know about it. "What did you do?" Milo repeated.
"I...I only erased his memory," Cavendish said. Milo's eyes widened in alarm. Only erased his memory? There was nothing only about that. "It was just his short term memory, just a few hours worth."
"But why?" Milo asked.
"Things just weren't working out between us," Cavendish said. "We wanted different things, so I thought it would be for the best if we went our separate ways for a bit,"
"You didn't have to mess with Dakota's systems to do that," Milo said. Cavendish looked defensive again.
"Now wait just a moment, I did nothing of the sort," Cavendish said. "Dakota's had his memory wiped before, and it did no permanent damage to him. It didn't touch his systems."
"Well, something did," Milo said. "Because Dakota's programming has been changed, and it didn't happen on its own,"
"Why do you think I had anything to do with it?" Cavendish asked.
"Right after Dakota rebooted, he said he couldn't connect to you," Milo said. "He thought it was because of the same thing that caused the reboot."
"He couldn't connect," Cavendish muttered. He took off his hat and looked inside. "I...I just didn't want him to find me. I didn't think that it would do something like this,"
Milo felt chills go down his spine. "What did you do?" Milo wanted to ask it sternly, but his voice shook and was really quiet. He was scared to hear the answer. Cavendish grimaced and held out his hat. Confused, Milo looked inside. He didn't see anything at first, but then he saw something taped to the inside of the hat. Milo frowned and pulled it out. It took him a moment to recognize just what he was holding. "A...a magnet?"
Cavendish sighed. "Yes, a magnet," Milo looked at him in alarm. Mixing magnets with computers was just asking for trouble. How could Cavendish have knowingly put a magnet anywhere near his Squip? "I just...I didn't want our connection to get in either of our ways."
"You could have just asked him to back off," Milo said. While Dakota was protective of those he cared about, Milo knew that if it was so important to Cavendish that he did something on his own, Dakota would respect that.
"Yes, I know," Cavendish said regretfully. He put his hat back on. Cavendish sighed. "You said that Dakota's back at your place? And he's changed?" Milo nodded. "I want to see how he's doing,"
Milo didn't know exactly how either Cavendish or Dakota would react to seeing each other, but they really couldn't avoid each other forever. Milo knew that Cavendish and Dakota, while they didn't understand each other, they did care about each other.
"You might not like it," Milo warned. He knew that he certainly didn't like it.
"I don't care," Cavendish said stubbornly. "I need to know exactly what I did." Cavendish was trying to take responsibility for what he had done, and Milo really appreciated it. He hoped that Dakota appreciated the effort too.
Milo was a little worried that Cavendish showing up would ruin any progress that Dakota might have made, but he had to take this chance. Maybe if Cavendish saw just what he had done to Dakota, he would stop doing things that could hurt him.
A/N: I think this story's almost over. I've thought about covering the whole Octalian thing, complete with them going to Octalia, but I don't think it'll be necessary. It would probably happen in pretty much the exact same way in the show. I'm just going to finish up this whole rebooted Dakota arc, and that'll probably be the end of this story.