Chapter Four: A Break in the Armour

Timmy was left puzzled by Tecna's reaction. He was sure his compliment would get her to open up somewhat. It was genuine, Timmy had meant every word. What was it that was keeping Tecna so distant? He remembered Brandon saying it had to be much more than her experience in the Omega Dimension. When Tecna was having her nightmares, she wanted his protection even though she didn't know anything about him but his name. Any other time, she was forced into doing everything and didn't share anything with anybody, not even the trusted Mrs. Faragonda. So, he returned to the elderly lady's office to report to her what his findings were.

"Did you find anything new about Tecna?" Mrs. Faragonda asked.

"Not much other than what was put in her progress notes." Timmy told her, "Although I have discovered what her coding project is. She was working on a security system that can detect our presence and tell her so that she can hide before we come to her suite."

"You're a very smart young man, Timmy." Mrs. Faragonda said, "However, I am warning you that Tecna is an exceedingly difficult person to get to open up. If she found out that you told me about her project, she might not ever open up to you."

"I just thought you should know, I thought it might be able to help her." Timmy admitted.

"This is good to know, but unless Tecna is harming herself or is in danger, what you find out about her is to be kept to yourself. Normally, new findings are to be reported to me, so you did do the right thing. It's Tecna's trust that I'm concerned about." Mrs. Faragonda told the young man firmly.

"Understood, Mrs. Faragonda." And with those final words, Timmy left her office.

During dinner that night, Timmy was looking over the notes he'd observed from Tecna.

"Ah, the lovely and mysterious Tecna from Zenith." Another voice spoke up behind Timmy. He spun around to be greeted by another one of his co-workers. There stood a man with long black hair in a ponytail and cobalt eyes. He had a slender build, but not by much compared to Timmy.

"Yes." Timmy answered, "My name's Timmy, I've been assigned to her now. Do you have any words of warning for me as well?" He remembered all too well what Brandon had told him, if he found anything out about Tecna than what everyone already knew, that was going to leave him a broken man. Timmy never understood how, it was too soon and he didn't have the information.

"No, but I do understand that you have extensive knowledge of her realm's culture and trade. You have an advantage that no one else before you did. You can connect with her the way I connected with Flora. My name's Helia by the way." The man told him.

"I tried, I got as far as seeing what she was coding and as soon as I figured out what she had started to program, she closed it up on me." Timmy explained.

"Tecna seems to be a fragile one." Helia sighed, "Zenithians still have the capacity to feel loved, and Flora can sense that she has lacked the experience. It's apparent that all Tecna knows is hurt." Timmy knew that all too well, but the question still remained. How had Tecna been hurt?

"Have you been assigned to Tecna?" He asked Helia.

"No," Helia said, "Our values clash dramatically. I do take a gentle approach, which Tecna does need, but she needs more than that. As I said, you can bond with her in ways that I can't. I'm a nature lover."

"I see." Timmy looked at Helia for a moment before looking back at his notes. As Timmy pondered more about how to get Tecna to open up to him, another idea came to mind.

Another week had gone by, and Timmy came in to Tecna's suite to give her breakfast. Now that she knew Timmy figured out that she was developing a warning system, she had completely given up on it. The same scenario had played out where Tecna had jumped from her place sitting in the far corner of the room and miniaturized in order to hide.

"Tecna please, come out." Timmy begged, "You have to eat, you're too malnourished." But Tecna just sat in her hiding spot, wishing he'd just go away and let her starve. However, Timmy wouldn't allow that to happen, and he moved slowly towards where she hid.

"Listen, if you come out and eat something, I'll show you this brand-new video game I just got." He pressed, and Tecna's eyes widened with intrigue. Timmy didn't expect her to crawl out from behind her palmtop and revert to her normal size. As promised, he took the game out to have her look at it. Her eyes widened even more in awe as she observed the front of the case.

"It's the newest release of the series, I've been waiting for months for it to come out, and I thought you'd like to play it too." He told her. Tecna had never been invited to play video games in her life. From a young age, all she had ever known was high-achieving academics and a job in programming. She was not allowed to engage in anything fun. So, she ate her meal without defiance, and Timmy went to get his game console. Tecna watched in curiosity as he set everything up and put the disk in the drive. As the game started, Timmy handed her a controller. Tecna looked at it skeptically, observing its buttons, and looking at it from multiple angles.

"You… haven't played a video game before, have you?" Timmy finally realized as he saw Tecna looking at the controller as if it was a piece of technology that even she hadn't seen before. Zenithians were supposed to have the most advanced technologies in the Magical Dimension, in every field from business to entertainment. To see Tecna discover a piece of technology that was so primitive in comparison to her realm's advancements was even more worrisome to Timmy. But now, he knew he had gotten something out of her. Something no one else had thought to try before now. Tecna nodded in response to his question, and he began to guide her through the controls.

"These arrows make your camera move, X is to shoot, and press A to jump." He explained, "Do you want to try a practice round?" A smile crept on her features as she looked up at his reassuring face. And so, Timmy started up the game. However, the game was too fast for Tecna that she couldn't keep up. As the green GAME OVER text flashed on the screen, she put the controller down, and Timmy could see it in her face that something was wrong. It wasn't so much about not being able to play the game, it was a much deeper level of insecurity than that.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Ever since the day they met, Timmy's voice always sounded so comforting to Tecna, and he took her hands in his, "You'll get the hang of it, you'll see." Tecna looked up at him briefly in surprise, he did not criticize her for her failure. He was encouraging her, something she had never encountered before.

"Come on," He said with a reassuring smile, "want to keep practising?" With a little hesitation, Tecna finally agreed. After hours of playing, she was able to pick up the game quite quickly. Pretty soon, she was shooting the opponents left, right and centre. The brightest smile that Timmy had ever seen was spreading across Tecna's face as she won her first practice session.

"You picked it up pretty fast," Timmy told her with a smile of his own, "You're amazing." Tecna turned to look at him, she had not been told that in her life. It was different than when she had showed him her coding project. She had learned something entirely new and, indeed, she did get the hang of it. Just as Timmy said she would.

"Let's make a deal, if you eat your meals for me, I'll bring all my video games and I can teach you how to play them, okay." Without hesitation, Tecna nodded with a big smile on her face, letting her guard down in the prospect of having fun.