Ava leaned back in her chair, running both hands through her hair. Things had been moving so slowly lately. She had thought that having Merlock always looking over her shoulder was a nuisance, but now that he was gone, she felt like she couldn't get anything done. Even programming a system to find the powers he had left for them took way longer than it should. She stared at the screen and watched as numbers slid past the screen. Maybe she needed some help with this…

She could ask Robin, but he was spending almost all of his time either in his room or training alone. Clay was an option, but the poor guy knew nothing about what she was doing. If she asked him to help he'd probably make things ten times worse. Aaron was out on a "mission" again, whatever that meant. And Axl and Macy were working in the kitchen, making dinner. That left Fletcher. She frowned. Where was Fletch anyway?

Something hit the back of her chair, rocking her forward a little bit. Ah, there he was. Speak of the devil, or in this case, think of the devil. Ava turned in her chair to shoot a glare at Fletcher.

"You're lucky I need your help with this." She said, turning back around, "Get over here and stop shooting stuff at me."

Another shot hit the back of her chair. Ava contemplated killing him, but then decided against it.

"Fletcher."

"Alright alright!" She heard him jump out of where he was sitting and cross the floor, "No need to use my full name."

"I can use your full name when you're being a dick if I want." Ava responded, looking at him from the corner of her vision. He had his bangs pulled back away from his face with small eagle shaped hair clips.

Fletch leaned up against the console with one arm, using the other to mess with the hem of his shirt. "So what does the great great amazing Ava need help with?"

For a second time, Ava contemplated killing him.

"Haha. Very funny." She said in place of murder, "I need you to use your magic and see if you can find any errors in the programming I have set up. I'd usually have Merlock do it but, yknow. He's gone."

"Right."

There was a brief silence where the two just thought about their shared loss, and then Fletch shook his head. Probably to get rid of any sad thoughts. After all, Merlock had reunited him with Clay just before being torn apart. Ava twirled a lock of her hair around one finger and let out a sad sigh.

"So," Fletch finally said, "How does this work?"

Ava looked up at him, and then at the screen which was still flashing numbers in patterns.

"Merlock said he could feel when something was slightly out of whack. Like it was something buzzing in his ear."

"And I hear the 'buzzing' how, exactly?"

Ava gestured to the console with one hand, rolling her eyes at Fletch's sarcasm.

"Connect your magic to the Fortrex, Fletch. Then I'll run a quick scan of the program.. Just let me know if anything feels weird and that'll give me a vague idea of where I need to work on things."

Fletch nodded, and set both arms on the console. Within seconds, the Fortrex's systems shuddered from the new magical input. Ava ran the program scan and watched the screen.

Every time Fletch said "here" she hit a button, and soon a long list of mistakes started to fill another screen. Ava cringed as she watched the list grow longer and longer. Good god, how did she allow herself to make that many mistakes? Fletch twitched from where he was standing.

"Ok, what do I call a 'feeling of someone pouring itching power onto my clothes'?"

Ava instantly shoved Fletch away from the console, severing his connection with the Fortrex. Merlock had only talked about that feeling once, and that was when somebody had been hacking into her signal. She, and the rest of the team, couldn't afford her systems being tampered with right now. No matter how flawed they were. She instantly sent her tracing program into effect, only to watch in slight horror as an error message popped up.

Whoever was messing with her programming had known exactly what her tracing program was set up like, and had taken it down first. The only person who knew that both from personal experience and from helping her work on it was-

Robin entered the room.

"Hey Ava," He said, smiling, "How's it going in here?"

Ava was suddenly reminded of how Allie had acted like Robin was a bomb about to go off a few days ago. A sick feeling began to form in her stomach.

"Hey Robin," Fletch said, sitting up from where he had landed on the floor, "You just missed Ava throwing me to the ground for no reason! So there's that!"

Robin laughed and walked over to help Fletch up, Ava drew back from him slightly, and thanked god that he didn't notice.

"Ava," she jumped slightly when Robin called her name, "What're ya throwing Fletch for? Anything wrong?"

She paused, and glanced at the screen. "No. The program was done being run and I just didn't know how to get Fletch out of the system."

Robin's smile faltered for a millisecond, then returned. Ava held her breath, hoping that the lie would pass, and then silently let all the air in her lungs rush out when he shrugged. Looks like that lie would work, even if for a little bit. Fletch rubbed the back of his head with a grumble.

"Sure it wasn't payback for shooting stuff at your chair?" He asked, annoyance in his voice.

"You could call it that, too." Ava said absently, "Just get out of here before I decide to get 'complete payback'."

With a roll of the eyes and a half-assed wave, Fletch turned to leave towards the kitchens as Robin turned to leave towards the holodeck. Ava watched Robin with a frown.

Why would he disable her tracing software? And was he hacking into her system himself, or was he helping someone from outside get in? She grumbled to herself and turned back to her work. Looked like she'd have to be extra careful from now on. That, and keep an eye on Robin.

((Title take from Jon Bellion's amazing song Maybe IDK. This fic is actually being built into a playlist ;0))