About three weeks passed and Byte was back on the job. Everything healed quickly just as that special bath intended. One thing that the bath missed though was her mentality. Since she had gotten back to her job, the girl was less patient with others and less forgiving to everyone around her. Even by this time, Ram had promoted the girl to Commander. This meant more responsibility but at least her duties would be shared with Java.

Byte sat in the computer room typing away at figures and numbers. She heard the door open behind her and she turned around. Standing in the doorway was a guard with a virt at his side. The girl looked familiar and after a couple of seconds she placed the face with a name. It was Lex's deputy, Dee. Like many of the people in the city, Dee annoyed Byte especially with her supposed feistiness and sarcasm.

"Commander Byte, we've got the virt here." The guard nodded to her and closed the door behind Dee. Byte then brought out a few papers for her. The papers were for a promotion for up and coming broadcasts on City Net. "Alright, you are to read this in front of the camera within the next fifteen minutes. Read it, study it…just make it look good."

"What's the meaning of this?" Dee asked.

"We need this read by a virt so it looks much more appealing to the rest of your people," Byte explained. This girl was already beginning to annoy her. She thought her explanation was pretty clear and concise. How could anybody be confused with it? Then again it was Dee who she was talking to.

"Well I don't think I want to do it," Dee retorted.

Her tempter began to rise. The people around her saw it, even Java. She was seated next to Byte and was obviously eavesdropping on the conversation between her daughter and the nasty virt. "Oh this girl doesn't know what she's getting into," she heard Java mutter to herself.

Byte sighed deeply, "It's an order."

"And what'll happen if I don't do it, Byte?"

"If you don't, your precious little Mall rats will get a visit from us. You wouldn't want that now would you?"

The virt smirked then crossed her arms. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh wouldn't I? As far as I'm concerned, you've got a spy living under your roof…Cloe. Since she's been hanging around with Ved, who knows what she's stolen," Byte explained with a smirk.

"Yeah? Where's your proof?"

Byte chuckled before she answered. The virt only seemed tough but she knew that on the inside, she was weak like the rest of them. "I don't need proof," said Byte. She inched towards Dee and got up close to her face before shoving the papers towards her. "You know who I am and what I'm capable of. Now don't disappoint me," she growled then gestured for her to be excused. The guards escorted the girl out of the room, leaving Byte to go back to work on the computer.

After a few minutes, Java watched as one of the guards approached her. She knew that one of two things was going to happen. They'd either be scolded by the new commander or they'd get their heads chewed off. Either way, it wouldn't have been good. Byte turned around in her chair obviously frustrated with the cadet's news. [i]"Oh no…Noelle, keep your cool. Don't be irrational now,"[/i] Java thought,

The virt actually made a break for it instead of attending the public broadcast and there was only five minutes left until show time. Java looked back at Byte as the grip on her chair tightened. [i]"Oh here we go,"[/i] Java thought.

"FIND THAT VIRT! Within three minutes, I want her here and ready to go. Got that?" Byte yelled.

"But Commander-"

"I don't want to hear any excuses, especially coming from you, Private! Move!" she commanded.

"Losing your cool lately, kid?" Java asked as she approached Byte. In secret, she was actually scared at this point. Her daughter was actually being more explosive than her.

Before Byte could answer, she heard one of the guards over the headset. "What? You've got her? Good. Bring her to me." Byte then looked back over to Java and shrugged. "God how do you deal with all of this?"

"I don't," she smirked.

The guard brought Dee in within a matter of seconds. Byte approached her and shook her head upon seeing her. "You damn fool. It's only a broadcast, what'd you think it was? A death sentence?" she sighed deeply and placed a thick bracelet on the girl. "Next time, don't expect me to be so forgiving." She held the remote in her hands and twisted the knob slowly. The device quickly brought the girl to her knees. "You're on in one minute." She then switched off the remote and brought Dee to a seat in front of the camera.

Byte crossed her arms as she watched the girl vigilantly. "Make sure she doesn't run off again," she muttered to one of the guards and tossed him the remote. She finally walked out of the computer room for a short break. Outside the hotel she saw Max and a virt talking to each other quite closely. She watched the two of them for a moment with squinted eyes then went back inside the hotel. She sighed deeply as she sat in a chair in the lounge. She was soon met by Java, who took a seat next to her.

"Bad day?" she asked. Lately Noelle had been acting different and not a good different. Noelle's temper has gotten worse, maybe a little worse than hers.

Flashback

"Are you serious, virt? You think you can get special attention around here? A virt's a virt now go on and get your stuff out of here. I don't care if you lose out on business," she said. The tone in her voice clearly expressed her annoyance with the virts.

The virt then lunged at her. "Just who do you think you are?" she yelled and landed a punch to his gut then another to his face once again. Once he was on the ground she kicked him in the side until he grabbed a long piece of wood and swung it at her. She blocked the attack with her arms. The virt stood up and tried again and was successful at hitting her in the side. After a moment, he tried blocking her next attack with the piece of wood but she punched right through it. Byte heard footsteps behind her and then Java and Siva yelling at her.

"Noelle calm down," Siva said to her as Java held Byte back as an attempt to stop her from attacking him. The guards separated their fellow Techno from the virt.

The virt scoffed and backed his head to spit on the girl. He threw his head forward and clear saliva sped through the air, landing on the girl's boot.

Now she wanted to kill him but Java stopped her since the grip on her arm was strong. "C'mon kid, let's go," Java muttered as she pulled Noelle back then began leading her to the base.

"Yeah to hell with you and that whore! What is she, your mommy?" the virt yelled.

Byte tried to get him once more but Java pushed her back. Instead of Byte retaliating it was her mom. Quickly Java landed a punch on the virt's nose and walked off with daughter in hand. "That, Noelle, is a proper motherly greeting. Forget the milk and cookies," Java smirked. As soon as they were far enough from the scene she stopped and turned to the kid, who was huffing with anger. "Alright, kid…you've got to stop this-"

"He attacked me first! What was I supposed to do?" Byte yelled.

Java was taken aback by her tone. She shook her head and sighed softly. "I know, I know. You can't just let these virts get under your skin! The moment you lose your temper then you're simply telling them that they've won. Before you get back inside, I want you to cool off."

Byte nodded slowly then impatiently crossed her arms. "I'm calm," she murmured.

"No you're not," Java replied as she stepped back into the hotel.

End of Flashback

"No…I'm not having a bad day. People are just being so difficult today!" Byte sighed softly as she called a guard over to her. "Get me a drink…a nice cocktail…you know how I like it."

"Noelle," Java scolded.

"What? Did you want one as well?"

Java sighed then smirked slightly, "Actually yeah."

"Make that two then."

She turned toward her daughter as she chuckled quietly. "So tell me what's up. You're losing your temper faster than ever before…that incident with that virt with the pink hair certainly proved it. You know I don't say this often but if I'm actually a little bit afraid of you right now."

"Nothing's up." Byte looked over to the guard and took her drink from him. She sipped the drink slowly and let the alcohol burn on the way down. "Actually, there's one little thing. I saw Max with some virt…a female virt and they were talking quite closely, trying to be all secretive. I don't know what to think of it…what do you think is goin on?"

Java shrugged. Max meeting with another girl? Now that didn't surprise her since she knew the boy would screw up some way with Noelle. "I don't know. But I know what's going on with you," she sighed. "You're stressed out…and you're taking it out on the people around you. Let me tell you, kid, that ain't a good thing."

"I'm not stressed out, Java. I'm fine…everything's fine."

Unconvinced, Java crossed her arms and stared at the girl. "Then how do you explain all of the explosiveness, barking orders, and torturing virts. You've imprisoned more than twenty of them-"

"So?"

"In two days, Noelle? That's not normal." And it wasn't normal. The average Techno only "imprisoned" virts if they disturbed the peace. Usually such a thing would occur only twice a day.

"How do you think I got this position? If I was 'nicer' then I'd still be a rank lower."

Java sighed deeply before speaking. "Then maybe that's where you need to be."

Byte stared at her in disbelief. Before she spoke though, a guard approached her.

"Commander, there are some Aphasias coming to see you," he muttered quietly to which Byte stood up and began to follow the guard out.

"Noelle, where are you going?" Java asked, concerned.

"Outside," she replied curtly then disappeared around the corner.

Java sighed and stood up as well. "Forget it. I know exactly what you're up to," she muttered. She walked down the hall on the opposite end where Byte walked. She came to a door and knocked on it. In response, Jay answered. "Jay, you need to get out to the front."

"What? What's wrong?" he asked.

"My daughter is what's wrong. She's up to something and I'm scared. I….I just don't want anything to happen to happen to her so could you just…"

He nodded and walked past her slightly. "Where'd she go?"

"Front of the hotel."

Her eyes narrowed in on them once again. There they were, Sam and Quaid along with three other Aphasias. She wanted so badly to delete them on the spot but the guards stood in the way of that. Any irrational actions taken place here would immediately be reported to Ram and Ram had already given her a warning. Suddenly she saw the guards break down. Apparently their phasers were no match to their baseball bats.

They charged at her like five angry bulls and she got her phaser ready. [i]"To hell with saving them."[/i] She pointed it at one of their foreheads and just as she was about to shoot, Jay grabbed her from behind and discharged her weapon. Three other guards came out with him and were quick to subdue the guys.

"Don't do it, Byte," Jay muttered as he held her tightly so she couldn't move.

"Whose side are you on Jay?" Byte yelled. She squirmed a little bit but came to a conclusion that she couldn't get out of Jay's grip.

"Bracelet them," Jay ordered. "If I let you go, will you calm down?"

She gritted her teeth, wanting to kill those boys. She felt his grip around her tighten up even more, "Fine!" Jay let her go as she grabbed the remote from one of the guards controlling them. She turned the knob clockwise and soon enough all five boys were brought to their knees. "Thought you could kill me?" she asked angrily.

"You killed our leader now we kill you," Sam said.

"Now that you've been arrested by the Techno's, you have no choice but to suffer the consequences," Jay said.

"Yeah? You wait, in the near future-"

"Boys, you have no future," Byte interrupted. She smirked as she twisted the knob some more. "I want them to suffer," she muttered to one of the guards and handed him the remote. Finally, she walked back into the hotel.

"Byte, what's been going on with you?" Jay asked as he followed her.

"What do you mean? I've been doing just fine," Byte replied defensively.

"You've been acting different. All you've been doing is working and barking orders at people. That's not the Byte I know and something's telling me that you're obviously hiding something."

Byte came to a stop in the middle of the hallway; she sighed deeply. It was true that she had built a wall around herself so she could block out all the recent events but Jay managed to weasel his way through. "I'm okay, Jay," she said, her voice quivering.

"Obviously not," he muttered then led her to the empty lounge. "Byte, tell me what's on your mind. I promise I won't tell anyone," he said reassuringly as he took a seat next to her on the couch.

She shook her head as she fought back the tears. "No. You're probably going to tell Java. She'll probably mock me for life"

"No, she's actually scared for you. She wants to know what's been going on. You know, Byte, she cares more than you think."

She finally acquiesced to Jay. "Alright, fine," she said. Reluctantly she spoke, "I was so scared, Jay, I mean you don't know how much I owe my life to you all especially Java."

"Yeah, I understand."

"No, you don't. I'm only human and I've only got one life to live. Yet, I've managed to live twice because of my mom. I just…I don't know…I feel guilty for putting such a burden on everyone, even her."

"Well I can tell you right here right now that you haven't put a burden on anyone. As for Java, well let me just remind you that you're her kid, she'd supposed to care this much. I don't want you to feel guilty for living so please just be easy on yourself and everybody else," Jay said. He moved closer to her, chuckling a bit. "Don't tell Java I told you but I think she's scared of you right now. Now go on and get back to work." He nodded to her and gave her a warm embrace.

After a moment or two, she strolled out of the lounge and out toward the hallway. She didn't notice Java though. While she and Jay were talking, Java was intent to listen in on the conversation.

She moved over and took a seat next to Jay. "You heard everything didn't you," she heard him say. She smirked before she put her feet up against the edge of the coffee table.

"I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't," she replied.

"She doesn't hate you, you know," he said. Bravely, he took her hands. They seemed quite small compared to his and a lot softer too.

What she wanted most was to kiss Jay at this moment and forget about her life with Ram. But she knew that couldn't happen. Not here, not now. "I'm surprised," she murmured quietly.

"Well, she cares more than you think," he smirked. He sighed slightly after noticing Java's reaction, "Funny…I just told her the same thing."

"Words, words, words…that same shit all over again," Java thought. Like everyone else Jay thought she and Noelle were the same. Of course they were. Only a mother and daughter would have the same traits but they certainly wouldn't have the same opinions on everything. Must Jay and others reiterate the obvious? She smirked then took her hands from him. This act of kindness as well as the many others he performed astonished her. The only reason anyone would do this kind of display of affection was if they had feelings for this person and he was certainly showing it. "Be honest with me, Jay. What do you want?" she asked.

Jay sat there dumbfounded. He knew damn well that she did not like to be kept waiting and because of that he had to reply quickly but not too quickly. Thing was, there were so many things he wanted to say but he couldn't articulate the words.

"Amazing, freakin amazing," Java thought. Jay of all people was speechless? Now that didn't happen often. Obviously, he had to think about it and obviously she didn't like that much. The answer to the question was simple…well simple to her. "Well? What do you want?" she asked impatiently, only to receive silence from the man. "Whattaya want?" she asked this time loudly.

Jay tensed for a moment as he finally retrieved the answer. "You," he finally declared. It was the simplest answer of all of them and how he couldn't say it surprised him.