Chapter 2

Roll woke, breathing a silent sigh of relief. As she had for the past four nightmare-free days. It was such a relief, to be able to wake without fear, without feeling as though she didn't sleep an instant.

"Hey, Rockman," she greeted the blue navi who had just appeared in her PET.

"Hey Roll," Rockman grinned. "You're looking better."

"I'm feeling better. I'm so relieved to be able to sleep without waking up in a cold sweat."

"But we don't sweat."

Roll shrugged. "It's a figure of speech."

Rockman scrutinised her carefully. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded, feeling a rush of warmth over his obvious concern. Rockman couldn't hide his relief that she was now free of her disturbing dreams. The idea of Roll screaming in terror every night made him very uncomfortable.

And it seemed a very odd time for him to notice how beautiful she looked when she smiled.

Giving himself a mental slap, he dragged his mind back to the reason he had come to her PET. "By the way, Netto wants to know if he can look over Meiru's biology notes later."

Roll giggled. "I'm sure it'll be fine with Meiru, as usual."

"She does seem to bail Netto out more often than common decency would require," Rockman muttered ruefully.

Another giggle. "It's only because she-" Roll cut herself off, biting her lip before she revealed too much.

Rockman was so transfixed by the image of Roll's full bottom lip wedged between her teeth that, at first, he didn't register her broken sentence. But then his mind caught up.

"What? Because she what?"

"Never mind!" Roll squeaked.

"Come on, tell me," Rockman cajoled.

A shake of the head was his only answer.

"Roll…"

"…I can't tell you, Meiru swore me to secrecy."

"Oh." A pause, and a smug grin slid across Rockman's face. "Got anything to do with Meiru being in love with Netto?"

Roll's wide, shocked eyes were all the answer he needed.

"I knew it."

"How did you find out?" Roll hissed. "It was meant to be a secret!"

"I have my ways."

"You liar…I bet you just guessed!"

"Well…yeah."

Roll laughed, then turned serious again. "You can't tell anyone, okay? Not a soul."

"My lips are sealed," Rockman vowed, raising his hand as though to take an oath.

"Keep 'em sealed," she huffed.

Rockman was still laughing as he jacked out. But not before calling, "By the way, I'm fairly sure Netto feels the same way about her."

Leaving a very shell-shocked Roll in his wake.

oooooooo

When Meiru went to sleep that night, Roll was still up and very much active. There was a lot to think about, she had discovered quite a bit today. She couldn't help a secretive smile at the thought that her NetOp's feelings for her childhood friend were returned. It made her want to jump for joy.

Except now she was in a moral dilemma. Should she 'help' them out, or let things continue the way they were? Her 'help' might turn out to be more of a hindrance in the end, but if left as they were now, would they ever admit it to each other?

In the end, Roll decided to let Netto and Meiru be. She made a silent promise she would only interfere in the most dire of circumstances. She couldn't think what those circumstances might be, but she was sure she'd know them when she saw them.

So Roll settled in for a well-earned rest.

oooooooo

Dark. Dark and trapped and scared and hurting.

"Come my little butterfly, one word, one simple word…and your pain can end."

"NO!" She wouldn't surrender, she wouldn't. Wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't.

But how it hurt! Like needles of fire ripping at her body, like a bath in electrified acid. He was angry, she knew he was angry. He was talking to her but she was fading. Fading from awareness into either unconsciousness or deletion. So far, it had only been the former, but she knew, if things continued this way, one day it would be the later. One day he would go too far and destroy her.

Strangely, the idea didn't frighten her. If she was deleted, she couldn't submit.

But then sweet oblivion shattered into splinters of agony as she was yanked back to the waking world.

"Don't faint on me yet, this is just the beginning."

She wanted to scream, but she was too weak. She wanted to cry, but she had no tears left. She wanted to rage and bellow and fight, she wanted to inflict on him some small fraction of the pain he had dealt to her.

But if she had one wish, only one, it would be to escape. In either freedom or deletion, she wished to escape from him.

But she knew she did not have the strength.

She gazed malicious pools the colour of dried blood.

Roll jerked awake, realising there were tears on her cheeks. She stayed where she was for long moments, shaking and crying silently, overwhelmed by her nightmare and the terrible, heartsick despair that still cloaked her like a burial shroud.

"Meiru," she whispered, "Meiru, wake up!"

"Hm?" the girl on the bed stirred, blinking owlishly as she turned on her nightlamp. "Roll? It's two in the morning!"

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just-" Roll broke off, shuddering so violently her teeth chattered. "The nightmare…"

Meiru was awake instantly. "It came back?"

Sleep forgotten, Meiru stumbled to her PET, clutching the casing as lieu of hugging the frightened navi within. "Oh, Roll…"

Roll sighed softly, closing her eyes. Meiru wasn't really holding her, but the simple feeling of being cared for, being loved, restored some of her shattered self-control.

"It-it was different this time. There was pain, and there was that voice, but there was also…despair. I've never felt that…hopeless, abandoned, alone…as though the only way out was if I was deleted. I just can't describe it."

Roll barely noticed the tears slipping down her face.

Meiru sat back down on her bed, the PET clutched in both hands. "It'll be alright, Roll. We'll go back to Dr. Hikari in the morning, but in the meantime, get some real sleep."

Roll made a small, terrified sound, and Meiru hastened to reassure her. "It's okay, I'll watch over you and wake you up if you start to have nightmares."

"You shouldn't do that, Meiru," Roll protested. "It's a school night…"

"I'll just take tomorrow off."

"I can't have you missing a day of school just for me!"

"Roll," Meiru began and Roll knew it was useless. Meiru never used that tone unless she was completely and utterly determined, and when she used that tone nothing and no one could budge her. "You're my best friend, and I'm not leaving you alone."

So they remained that way – a girl sitting on her bed, clutching a PET and watching the slumbering navi inside, alert for the slightest hint of distress – until morning.

oooooooo

"NETTO!" Rockman bellowed at the boy dozing on the bed.

Netto leapt up, got tangled in the sheets, and then fell to the floor. "What! What's wrong?"

"Meiru's calling you," Rockman answered, trying not to laugh at the spectacle Netto presented.

"Oh, okay?" Netto yawned, sitting in front of the vid-phone as he did so. "Did she have to call so early?"

"Only early by your standards, Netto," Meiru chuckled from the phone.

Netto blinked. Meiru was looking rather sallow, her usually vibrant eyes looked dull and glassy, with dark shadows underneath them. Was she sick?

"Are you okay?"

Meiru smiled at his concern. "No, I just didn't get much sleep last night."

"How come?"

"Roll's nightmares came back."

"What," Rockman yelped, "Is she okay?"

Meiru held her PET up to the screen, revealing the sleeping navi inside. Roll was oblivious to the outside world, and yet her expression was strained, as though she were waiting for some sudden pain to strike her down.

"We're both taking the day off," Meiru whispered, replacing Roll's PET on the desk. "Then we're going to see your father again."

She sighed. "I don't know why they came back or what happened to trigger them in the first place, but we can't just sit back and hope they'll go away. We have to do something!"

"I get it, Meiru," Rockman piped up, "You stayed up last night because you didn't want to leave her alone."

In truth, while he knew it was completely irrational, he felt a little guilty. Guilty about his night of calm, undisturbed rest while Roll was writhing in the grip of unseen horrors.

"I've never seen her like that," Meiru admitted quietly. "She was shaking so hard…she actually cried!"

"She cried!" Rockman said, feeling as though Blues had just punched him in the gut. "Roll cried?"

Meiru gave a miserable nod. "I told you it was bad."

"It'll be alright, Meiru," Netto echoed his words from several days ago. "And me and Rockman will come with you after school."