A/N: Hey all! I am NOT proud to say, that you guys are 100% caught up with me... That's right. The next chapter, after this one, isn't even finished. That's how busy/distracted I've been.

But, things have JUST finally gone back to normal, and I can begin to sink my energy back into Defying Code. This happened to me towards the very end of Wrecking Limits, as well... I went through nearly a whole month or two where it was near impossible to write because, well... I didn't want it to end :(

I'm maybe 10 chapters away from the very end of this story. And that is what has me so anxious. Because I have so many ideas and etc. for Rectifying Origin that I CANNOT wait to get to. Sometimes writing everything in between the key plot points has me dragging my feet.

I just hope you guys are still entertained. and I hope you're prepared. The next installment of this weird brain child of mine is likely going to be the biggest rollercoaster yet. :D

Song Listened To: Trajectory Burn by Adam Young

*Chapter 158*

"Stop, Zed, stop!" Tessa suddenly wailed in dire panic.

Zed choked a scared noise, though as if she was attempting to cut the electricity out of a light source that had been quickly turned on, he immediately pulled his lower body out of the warm safety of her being. He grimaced in pain, and as much as he desperately tried to stop everything from happening, at all costs, he knew he was too far gone to quit cold turkey, from the standpoint she had made him halt production. Through the pain of suddenly coming to an aggressive stop, so sharply, he accidentally let loose his coding onto her bare stomach and shirt. He shivered a hard tremor of growing pain and, as he gripped himself in cold knowing, his hazed eyes glossed the front of Tessa's body in stark realization; though he immediately was thankful everything had killed her shirt, as opposed to her actual self. He raised his eyebrows in hard, embarrassed surprise and felt as if his face had turned a hot purple, as everything came to a gentle end. He gawked at what could've accidentally happened amidst the poor communication that was displayed.

"Tess!" Zed urged in loud panic, though he largely panted and stabbed his scared gaze into hers.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Tessa's scared voice whimpered, though she attempted to unglue her fingers from the harsh grip she had on Zed's upper arms.

"What happened?" Zed worried in cold fear as he could feel his heart race in what was an overflow of joy, quickly turned to life-threatening panic.

"Zed, the baby, it's heartbeat," Tessa stammered on her words as she gently shoved on Zed's chest, to cue him to sit up. In a wobble of hard confusion, he sat back on his knees all while nervously holding himself, so no more mess was created. With one swift movement, she pulled her pants up, zipped them, eagerly got up from the couch and ripped her shirt off of her body. She threw the mess to the ground, whirled around, spread her hands out in scared surprise and gave Zed a scared look of rushing emotions, her skin plagued with goosebumps underneath her black, sporty bra. She stammered on, "The baby's heartbeat, I-I could hear it!"

"You did?" Zed urged as his hands began to shake. He quickly, and bashfully, tucked himself away and with a half attempt to stand, he wobbled slightly and ran his fingers across his scalp, as if to somehow begin to align himself back to the grid, "I-I didn't hear anything, is that why you stopped?"

"Yeah, I just got scared, the baby's heartbeat, Zed, I could hear it's heartbeat!" Tessa worried as tears welled in her eyes. She covered her face in a wash of a humbled mess as she continued on, through her tears, "I-I lost concentration, I just kept thinking of what would happen if we failed and I got scared, Zed, I'm sorry!"

"Tess, it's okay," Zed stammered, though he finally let an embarrassed chuckle loose as he stepped closer to her and merely glanced at her now messy shirt, which was lay strewn on the ground, "Better to kill your shirt than, well... You..."

"It was so loud, it was so perfect," Tessa whined as she continued to keep her face covered. She gripped her bangs and shook her head, "I never want that heartbeat to go away, I never want it to stop existing... What we have to do could result in killing the baby, too, I just don't... I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this!"

"Tessa," Zed eased quietly as he pushed closer to her and eased her into his embrace. He squeezed her to his broad chest, and though he wanted to try and disagree with her, he shut his eyes tight and buried his face into the top of her head. He breathed a soft, long sigh into her hair and dared to let a sneaky smile escape, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you did that to test my self control."

"You nearly failed," Tessa muttered into his chest, though he breathed a hard laugh.

"But I didn't," Zed urged, "I-I mean... We'll need to wash your shirt, but I'm glad that's the only damage. Next time, try and warn me juuust a few seconds sooner."

"I didn't think I needed to, everything was on point until... Until that happened," Tessa wrinkled her nose as the two lightly pulled away from each other, "I think the heartbeat was sparked once our coding began to line up. It was trying to give life to the baby. And, it worked for the seconds that it had... It just scared me, and I lost concentration."

"It's okay," Zed shakily assured as he watched Tessa pick up her shirt, from the ground.

She let her hand come alive with her still silver coding and, with a calm gesture, she cued the orb of the code room to approach her. Zed curiously watched her make herself comfortable in the midst of the control of his game. She tabbed into a few things, on the brightly glowing orb, and before he knew it, she had materialized herself a new shirt and sent her messy shirt away. She was now dressed in a comfortable mint tank. She straightened it out, over her body, her meticulous hands and fingers lovingly felt the fabric as she bashfully, and nervously, let her eyes slide to Zed's, from across the living room. Zed's orb took it's kind cue to leave the two alone, once more.

"You, quite literally, scared the life out of me," Zed uttered through a huff of a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head and glanced down at the ground.

"I'm sorry," Tessa demanded, in such a tone that lead to suggest she maybe wasn't as sorry as her words promised. She gestured her hands in an angry fashion, "At least I said STOP. How would you feel, if you suddenly heard the very heartbeat you were longing to hear. You'd lose concentration, too!"

"I'm not blaming you, Tess," Zed defended gently as the tremble in his hands continued, he held his fingers to his bare chest.

"It's hard enough losing your kingdom, your family, everything you know," Tessa urged as she began to pace, as if the act of their undying love suddenly had no weight of exhaustion on her. Zed huffed a hard, tired breath and felt every muscle in his body tingle from the result of the work that had just taken place. She loudly continued on as she lingered near the kitchen island, "But to wonder if you're not only going to lose your life, but also your very first baby? I-I'm sorry, I just panicked... I don't think I would've if I hadn't have been graced with THAT earful... That was really difficult to listen to, amidst nearly being deleted."

"I-I'm sorry you were the only one to experience it," Zed eased as gently as he could, he slowly dared to approach her, "I... I would've yelled at you to stop, too, if I were in your position."

"I would give up being Queen... I would fork over Sugar Rush," Tessa's voice grew stern and quiet as her dominant gaze pierced his, "I would lose all of it, gladly, if it meant the safety of our child, Zed."

"I agree," Zed eased tenderly as he was successful in gaining closeness with her, "I would do anything to keep you guys safe... I-It's just hard when said task is keeping you safe from, well... Myself."

Tessa furrowed her eyebrows just barely, assessed the front of Zed's strong chest, and drew her eyes back to his in a slide of growing, heightened dread.

"I know this is difficult, and the better option seems to just sit back and not risk anything," Zed continued on sternly, "But... We HAVE to keep trying. We have to. We don't have a choice."

"I know," Tessa whispered, a few tears trickled down her cheeks. She inhaled a slow breath through her nose and, what was an attempt to gain clarity for the moments they were in, her eyes fluttered with the reel to hold back tears. She gave Zed a knowing look, cocked an eyebrow and lightly shrugged, "H-How long do we have to wait before you're, uh... Well, ready, again?"

"Uh," Zed choked with a bashful smile as he scratched his chest and looked down and to the side, "I-I'd say maybe twenty minutes... I don't know how long Lickity will be willing to take those pointless flights around the game."

"Yeah, I don't know, either... SHEESH it reeks in here," Lickity suddenly blurted as she pushed into Zed's creaking front double doors. Large slabs of beautiful white wood that were even heavy for Lickity to get through. She uttered a grunt, tucked her wings tight to her body, and assessed Tessa and Zed from across the gap, "So? Any good news you can give me? Aside the fact that you two certainly know how to fill a room with an overload of pheromones. "

"Gross," Tessa spat.

"W-Well, uh... Good news is, Tessa's still alive," Zed stated dully, though just as he was about to continue on, Tessa interrupted with a soft laugh.

"My shirt didn't make it, though," Tessa gestured to the new mint shirt she was now wearing, to insinuate her other shirt had been soiled. Zed flinched once Lickity let out a loud wail of a laugh.

"Zed, you're supposed to uh... Well, keep it INSIDE-"

"I-I know, I'm not stupid!" Zed loudly cut Lickity off, waved her away with his bandaged hands and trudged over to his shattered kitchen island.

"Is that what that power surge was, then?" Lickity eagerly pressed as she moved deeper into the loft, as if to get comfortable and potentially join the two for the re-charge time it'd take Zed to be ready for round two.

"No, THAT wasn't my fault," Zed muttered as he began to pick up loose pieces of his counter, from off of the ground. Tessa gave the back of Zed's head a hard glare.

"That's not fair, I couldn't help it!" Tessa demanded, though Lickity continued to eagerly laugh.

"Looks like neither of you could keep it together," Lickity teased as she flattened her ears and approached the destroyed kitchen island, she eagerly eyed it and, without knowing what happened, she peered to Tessa in assumption that she created said mess, "You... Get mad at the island, or something?"

"This was my doing," Zed muttered, yet again, as if waiting around for his body to bounce back, with Lickity's teasing antics, was enough to make him not in the mood for the rest of eternity.

"But, you can't wreck," Lickity eased curiously, though Tessa largely shrugged and gestured to Zed.

"You're telling me," Tessa urged softly, "I was surprised too... I'm beginning to think Zed and I share the tiniest, most microscopic amount of coding. How else would he be able to wreck something?"

"That's odd," Lickity's demeanor gently softened, much to Zed's surprise, "I guess since his coding is technically in you, thus creating your paused bar... I would say the same thing is for Zed, except instead of a baby... It's wrecking power."

"You'd think it'd make swapping easier," Tessa said under her breath as she, yet again, rubbed her face in growing agitation.

"You had to stop cold turkey?" Lickity pressed, a cheeky smile began to sprawl her face.

"Yes," Zed said through clenched teeth, though he was hoping said frustration wouldn't seem aimed towards Tessa; he knew she wasn't at fault.

"Calm down, sassy-pants, you have all the time in the world," Lickity barked in Zed's direction. Her eyes honed to his being, her every sense was a million times sharper than their human senses.

"You try being calm in a situation like THIS, Lickity," Zed demanded, his voice began to grow angry. Lickity flattened her ears and gave him a challenging look. Every feather atop her head began to lightly sprawl with the heightened feelings.

"Don't get snippy with ME," Lickity's loud voice gained a level of darkness Tessa knew was also hidden well in her growl, "So, round one wasn't totally successful... You two are so in tuned with each other, you legitimately have nothing to worry about. Before you take out your frustration on me, try and gain a little bit of confidence in faith in your relationship, Zed."

Zed huffed a hard sigh through his nose, tore his gaze away from Lickity, and angrily peered down to the white tiles under his feet. His whole being seethed, though he knew Lickity was right. He clenched his fists, and amidst feeling the amazing writhe and twist of the attempts of a code swap, only moments prior, he relished in the strange mixture of good and bad. He shook his head lightly and felt guilt creep into his veins. He finally stabbed his eyes to Lickity's, which were still glued to his figure.

"So, you hit a blip," Lickity continued on, her deep voice was stern and powerful, the wrists of her wings lightly rested on the ground, though her body held still in a perfect, strong posture, "I don't care how many flights around the mountain I have to take, you KNOW I'll be patient. I'm not stupid... I know this is a dire circumstance."

Zed's agitated demeanor finally softened as he dared to slide his gaze to Tessa's, which peered to him in growing, needy confusion. She looked wholly worried, though also consumed with an overflow of love for him. He finally released a soft sigh of relief and gave Lickity his attention, once more.

"Sorry, girl," Zed eased quietly, which cued Lickity to let her strict posture of dominance sink, a little.

"No harm done," Lickity's voice was gentle, though deep. She glanced to Tessa, and back to Zed, "I'll check back in a little while... You guys will be fine. I know it."

"Thanks, Lickity," Tessa pressed as Lickity finally turned heel and began to saunter out of Zed's loft, once more. Tessa heaved a soft sigh, slumped her shoulders, and gave Zed her curious eye contact. She furrowed her eyebrows and, as she crossed her arms, she lightly eyed the shattered counter top before her.

"... What should we do, now?" Tessa quietly wondered, which cued Zed to ease up even further. He ran his fingers through his messy blue hair, though he winced at the dull pain the wounds of his hands still gave off.

"Why don't we... Just go into my room," Zed trailed off, though he gave Tessa a small smirk of a smile, as if to somehow, some way, re-kindle their little flame that hung in the open, roaring wind. He gestured to the long hallway, in which led to his room, "Why don't we discuss baby names... That'll ease the tension."

"That or make it worse," Tessa finally let a smile sprawl her face, though she followed Zed's tender cue and let him lead her, in a moseying saunter, towards his beckoning bedroom.