"I was never a bitter person. The person who I used to be got lost. Ever since I knew I wasn't going to keep my baby, nothing could ever make me happy again. I lost everything that day: a daughter, a spouse, and a sister.

"It's amazing though…how things worked out. Of the three I lost, one came back to me…and she turned out to be perfect. But I couldn't see it. Long before, I had closed my eyes, so angry at the world. I hated everyone and everything; I blamed them because my life was taken away. I just wanted to die, Siv. And one day, I couldn't take it anymore.

"I locked myself in my bathroom. Then I looked at myself hard in the mirror and thought, 'Well, this is truly it. You think anyone will miss me when I'm gone?' I held the razor against my skin, pressed hard, and drew it back. I watched the blood slowly pour out. It felt as if all my pain, anger, and sadness were escaping my body just from that single cut. I went in for another but I suddenly stopped. I came to realize what I was actually doing. So, I broke down on the floor and cried and cried…and prayed for forgiveness.

"I'd been so selfish for trying to take my own life away. There were people that needed me more than I thought. It was then did I think of my daughter. Of all people she was the one who needed me the most. You know what I saw when I was just about to drag that razor across my skin again? I saw my child's face…and at that instant, I opened my eyes."

Java looked back at Siva and sighed deeply before she continued to speak. She could feel her tears coming and it stung her eyes. "Whatever I did in the past, I'm sorry. I never meant to be so condescending…and just so greedy. I never really told you this enough but I'm so grateful that you're my sister."

Siva couldn't help it. She actually cried more than Java, to the point where her breathing became sporadic. "The past is past, Java. I forgive you," she said between breaths. "What do you mean you lost a sister?"

Java pulled away from her sister for a moment, Siva crying actually made her a bit apprehensive. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I could cry over anything nowadays," she replied, "but you didn't answer my question."

She smirked at her reply then shook her head. "You were always the crier in the family. Ebony was always the whore. Siv, you don't know this but our little sister slept with my boyfriend. I found this out when I saw her leave Noah's house…right after I told him I was pregnant. The girl was flushed, and you know how Ebony gets right after she's gotten some."

"Yeah that too," she said as she wiped a few of the tears away, now calming down. "I just…I can't believe you didn't tell me about this before."

"I didn't know how to. I mean, this is the first time I told someone."

"What about Noelle? Doesn't she have a right to know about this?"

Java glanced at Siva before she crossed her arms, "She doesn't need to know."

"Why not? Why'd you choose me instead of her?"

"Because I've screwed things up with her," Java said quickly.

Siva shook her head then looked hard at her sister. She thought about Java's words. The whole reason as to why she wouldn't tell Noelle is because they were in conflict. Java was always afraid of being judged by who she was and that's why she kept her guard up. She'd never opened up to anyone, not even to her own parents. "Janelle, that is not a good reason. She is your kid, now go speak to her. She needs you right now and with Max gone, you're going to be the number one person she can rely on," she said firmly. "You two will get through this, I know you will. Don't take this the wrong way but of all things, Noelle is the one you've done right. You did not screw it up. Just please…just take that step."

"How can I? She doesn't want to speak to me."

Siva shook her head then gave her the infamous family smirk. "That's where you're wrong, Java. Yesterday she was afraid of you, not because you were drunk but because she thought you wanted nothing to do with her. She's afraid of being judged and she thought you'd be the one to do so. The girl never had a family remember?" she paused for a moment, "So she never learned what a family functioned like. She never knew that a family does not judge each of its members. So where does this sound familiar? She sounds an awful lot like you."

Java sighed deeply and contemplated Siva's words for a moment. "Yeah she does," she smirked.

"I want this thing between you two to end. Please, the kid doesn't need any more stress in her life. It's not good for her and you know that."

"I know, I know, Siv," she sighed. "I will talk to her, don't worry."

Siva nodded then smiled slightly. Then she looked over her shoulder to see Lex standing up against the wall. "You can come in, you know."

He stepped in and took a seat on the bed next to Siva. "I just didn't want to intrude. Is everything okay now?"

"Yeah, Lex. Everything's fine." Java stood up now and looked in the mirror for a quick second to fix her makeup. "I'll just head back home…and…uh…Lex, take care of my little sister." She walked out of their room then out of the mall.

In the computer room of Ram's Palace, Byte sat next to him while she awaited Java's arrival. "Are you ready for today?" Ram asked.

"Yeah, of course I am," she replied.

"Good. Because today is a very…very important day. You will embark upon your greatest challenge yet. Trust me, Byte, you will enjoy this one," he said sheepishly before he wheeled away. He entered the computer room where he met Java then Byte. "Java, it's so nice of you to join us."

"I wouldn't miss this, my love," she smirked as she handed Noelle the Reality Space visor. She simply nodded to the kid for her to put it on. "All systems check, you're ready to go," she muttered.

Byte put the visor on and sat back in her chair.

She found herself in a forest once again. It looked very similar to the setting Ram used when she did the so-called promo shoot. There was a new tweak to the system though. Before, she saw snow but didn't feel the coldness of it all. Now, she could feel the crisp breeze and the cold powder on the ground. When she exhaled, she could see the smoky fog exit her mouth. She walked now with her feet covered in mid-calf length, chocolate colored suede boots. Her body was sheltered by a long, navy blue bomber jacket with a hood lined with sable colored rabbit fur. It fit nicely in which the jacket hugged her curves and it was long enough to where it touched her knees. She tied it in the middle with a matching blue belt since what she wore beneath the jacket just made her too cold. Beneath the jacket she wore a dark brown, almost black leather skirt that hit the middle of her thighs. On her torso was a scoop neck, cropped top which allowed her to bare a significant amount of midriff. Strapped to her back was once again a canister full of arrows and in her left hand was her bow.

Now she crouched down and watched an army of men come toward her. She heard a small twig break behind her which caused her to turn around quickly. Now instead of an unoccupied piece of land behind her, there was now an army of her own. It consisted of about ten people, all dressed in the same colors as the young commander. "Get your bows ready," she whispered to them. She now saw that her army was only half the size of the opposing side. She reached behind her and grabbed an arrow from the canister with her right hand. Then she placed it carefully on the bow and pulled back. She held her breath, aimed carefully, and released.

The arrow sped through the air and finally it landed in the unprotected neck of one of the leading soldiers. She watched him fall then she turned to her army. "Attack!" she commanded to her men.

Each of the men brought out their bows and arrows and shot them through the air. Byte watched as the large army decreased. She watched though as the opposing team brought out their arrows and lit the tips on fire. "Fan out!" she yelled as she saw an arrow fly through the air.

She bolted out of the area and grabbed another arrow. She shot at the men as she ran up to them. Right when she, along with about six of her men, reached the opposite team all of them had changed weapons. About two of them men were armed with axes and wooden shields while the other four had the simple double edged sword and shield. Byte however had a spear, a wooden spear with a steel tip.

She looked around the battlegrounds for a bit then saw a glimmer to her left, about two-hundred yards away. Right before she had the chance to run, a man attacked her.

As he was just about to swing at her with his sword, she blocked his attack with her spear. When she was about to retaliate, the man sliced deep into her jacket and on to her forearm. She quickly freed herself from the jacket as it was slowing down her performance. Finally, she attacked him.

Not only did she use the spear to her advantage, she used it like a bow staff. She spun the thing quickly as the man tried to penetrate the sword into her torso. As he stopped, she stopped and attacked him by first giving him a nice stab in the leg. The two fought endlessly, until finally he brought down his sword on her spear.

Now with two sticks in her hands she still fought against him, the way she did with Damien. However, she'd forgotten that the man had a sword in his hands, not a bow staff. He shortened her sticks until she was left with nothing but two six inch pieces.

As the man was about to raise his sword again, she threw the piece with the spear tip at him. She watched him fall to the ground until she was attacked again by a smaller man, about her height. He had an ax in his hands but she was quick to kick it out of his grip.

She grew tired quickly as the two fought with their fists. She tried to fight back as hard as she could but suddenly, the guy punched her in the face then followed it up with a back hand slap. The girl faltered, both in Reality Space and reality.

Java watched as her daughter tried to fight on the computer monitor. She glanced up at the girl and noticed that from beneath the visor, blood dripped on to the girl's uniform. "Ram, what's happening? She's not supposed to feel a thing," she said.

Ram looked down at his laptop and smirked. "That's where I've added the tweak."

Byte fought once again and this time, she landed a punch to the guy's face. She kneed him hard in the stomach and stabbed him with the remaining piece of her spear. Once he was down, she ran as fast as she could and as far as she could toward the piece. She could see it now. It was only about fifty yards away. As she was about to run some more, she felt the edge of a sword come down and slice her backside. She shrieked in both worlds and in the game, she fell to the ground.

"Ram, the kid needs a break!"

"Alright!" he yelled back and stopped the game. "Get her visor off then."

Java quickly moved over to Noelle and pulled the visor off as Ram exited the room. "Kid, you only have five minutes to get back in the game," she said. She shook her head as she saw that Noelle's nose had begun to bleed and her lip was split open. "Shit, there's no way you're going back in there."

"Java, my back, my back," she said as she fought to catch her breath. She unzipped her uniform to reveal that her tank top underneath had been soaked through with blood.

As Noelle pulled off her uniform, Java saw that there was a huge slice on her back. It extended from her left shoulder blade down to the right side of her lower back. She lifted the back of the girl's once-white turned red tank top to find that the cut was so cleanly made and that it was a slightly deep wound.

She struggled to breathe properly. Every time she inhaled she felt as if the wound tore through more of her skin. She looked back at Java and shook her head. "I don't want to go back in there. I'm starting to feel every hit," she said quietly.

"Yeah, that's Ram's new tweak to the system," she said as she held a towel against her back to stop the bleeding. "Damn, we need a medic in here," she then said into her communicator and turned to the girl, "You aren't going back in there. It's too dangerous." Java said to her. She then handed the girl a tissue to stop the nosebleed.

"Then what…are we gonna do?" she asked.

Java gazed at the ground then looked back to the kid. "I'll go…there's no way, I'm letting you have all the fun," she smirked.

Once the medics arrived, they quickly got the bleeding on Byte's back to stop. They got the girl to stand up and moved out of the way. "Go kick some ass," she said quietly. She walked out of the room, just barely able to make it. She breathed deeply as she leaned against the doorway.

"Commander Byte, are you okay?" Damien asked.

"The hell does it look like?" Byte replied and took a step forward. She sighed, glued to the door frame.

Java worriedly looked back at her daughter while a few guards cleaned up the mess the girl made. "The game's taken a toll on her body. She's burnt herself out. God I hope the baby's alright." She sighed as she approached the girl carefully. "Noelle…" she said quietly and placed a hand on the shoulder.

Byte blanked out for a moment with her gaze on the ground. Her eyes somewhat shut as she tried to look back up at Damien.

Damien looked back to Java then back to Byte. He approached her carefully as well. Right at the second he was about to speak, the young commander hit the floor. He caught her upper half though and he scooped her up. He looked to Java then nodded to her, "Go on, I'm gonna take her to the hospital."

"Okay, I'm trusting you with her," she said, almost as if she was warning him.

He gazed down at Byte then back to her mother. "Don't worry. She'll be fine," he said. He then began walking with her in his arms to the hospital nearby.

Java watched him leave and then went back into the black room where Ram waited for her. "I'm filling in for Byte, if that's alright."

"Yeah, looks like the kid couldn't handle it. I'll turn off the new setting for you though," he said then gestured for her to begin playing.

Java slipped on the headset and found herself in the same exact setting as Byte except she wasn't in her own body. She was playing as her daughter. Swiftly, she got up from the ground and saw the part of the key just out of reach. She turned around and looked at the man who was the last to hurt Byte.

Java faced him now with a katana sword in her hand. As he jumped up to avoid her attack, she brought the sword down on his foot and pretty much left him with a nub for a foot. Once the man hit the ground, she brought the single edged sword down on his neck. She wiped the sword off quickly before she ran toward the piece. Along the way, she punched, stabbed and kicked her way to the piece. Now that it was within arm's reach, Java smiled slightly. "Well this was easier than I thought," she said.

She grabbed the key and finally the screen went pitch black. She took the visor off and realized that she'd been playing for a good ten minutes, only a third of the game time Byte usually had to play. No wonder the kid had fainted once again. The strain and game play was a lot rougher on the body and now that their key player was expecting, no wonder she became so weak. Java even felt a small headache but thought nothing of it.

At the hospital, Damien waited patiently for Byte to wake up. He sat next to her bed side until he saw her stir slightly. He thought she was coming around but soon found that she didn't. After a good twenty minutes, she finally awoke.

She found herself attached to a machine and also found her right hand stuck with a needle that led to an IV bag. She looked over to Damien, just bewildered.

"You fainted," he answered the question she had yet to ask. "The medics are running some tests on you."

"What kind of tests?" she asked as she felt a bit groggy.

He watched as a medic entered the room with three fresh syringes. "Well they're about to do more blood tests," he said.

She nodded then tensed up as she saw the needles. She glanced back at him, growing just a bit fearful of the damned things. She was hesitant to give the medic her arm but when the medic suddenly grabbed it and slipped the needle beneath her skin, she obviously had no choice. Byte shut her eyes as she couldn't watch them take her blood.

"So the Commander has a weakness," Damien smirked.

"Yeah. Doesn't everyone?" Byte replied.

He scoffed then looked back at the medic and back to her. "Well, you gotta do this regardless. They want to make sure the baby's alright."

She froze for a second, unsure of how he found out. She shot a look back at him, still confused. Before she spoke again, he answered her question once more.

"When I brought you in, they asked all these questions…I think they may have had Java on the communicator. Whatever I didn't know, which was a lot, she answered."

Byte simply nodded then sighed once the round of syringes came to an end. She sat there uncomfortably with Damien. She worried about the impression she gave to him now since he discovered the big secret. She watched as the medics brought in another machine. This time it was an ultrasound machine. "Maybe I…uh…should go," she heard Damien say.

The medics carefully hooked up the machine and moved it over to Byte. "You can stay if you want," she replied. In actuality, she wanted him to stay because she was scared. She feared that there may have been something going wrong with the baby and it worried her. In days like these, nothing was really available to them. As the medic lifted up her shirt and squirted some clear jelly on to her flat stomach, he placed some weird looking gadget on the jelly. Suddenly the room went quiet until they heard a faint heartbeat. Damien stopped in his tracks and looked back at Byte. He moved back over behind her with a smile on his face as the heartbeat became louder and louder.

The medic nodded, "He or she's got a strong heart, all I see is a healthy baby. But as for you, Commander, you need to take it easy for a while. Try to lay off Reality Space if you can." He then pointed to the monitor before them and froze the image on the computer. "There it is."

Damien stared at the computer screen as he smiled. He looked down at Byte before he gestured for the medic to leave them for a moment. "There's your baby," he said to her.

She stared at the black and white image on the screen and said nothing. She was just overwhelmed, so much so that it brought tears to her eyes. She looked back at Damien while she quickly tried to stop her tears. When the medic came back in, he printed out copies of the image they all saw. Then when he cleaned everything up and let Byte alone, Java walked in.

"You just missed it," Damien said. "Byte's baby is a strong one, just like her mother."

"Hm, I bet," Java smirked. She saw the pictures on the table and picked one up. She couldn't help but smile. "Damien, could you…uh…just give Noelle and myself a few minutes alone?"

"Sure thing," he said. He nodded to the both of them and exited the room.

Java looked down at Byte after she set the picture back down. She sighed quietly as she watched the kid cry quietly. "Listen, kid, I never got to thank you for what you did last night," she began. She sat on the edge of Byte's bed now. "But that's not really the reason why I'm here. I'm here because I wanted to apologize for what I said to you. I realized that it was wrong for me to be so harsh, especially since I went through the exact same thing. I know I hurt you, kid," she paused for a moment to try and subdue the oncoming tears, "it's just that I…I wanted to do my best to keep you from ending up on the wrong side of the road. But now as I look at you, you're exactly where you need to be. Those things you said…about Noah. Well, you were right. He never loved me…and amazingly he showed that when he slept with Ebony. Max is different, I can tell. He loves you, kid, and I think that's all that matters at this point." At this point, Java inhaled deeply as she tried to speak some more.

"Alright, come on," Noelle finally said as she struggled to keep it together. She held her arms out and the two hugged each other tightly. From there, the two finally broke down and had a much needed sob.

"Oh stop your blubbering, Noelle," Java said after several moments.

She smirked as she looked back at her mother once she pulled away. "I've never really seen you cry this hard…or actually cry that much," she said.

"Yeah, I know," she replied while she quickly wiped her own tears away. "It's like a whole new thing to me. I actually have feelings now."

Byte smirked at her sarcasm then looked around the place. "Thank you by the way," she said quietly.

"No, no, thank you…for what you did last night. Me finishing the game is just a way of paying you back," she looked over her shoulder for a moment. "The person you should thank as well is Damien. Right when you passed out, he caught you and carried you here. The boy pretty much took care of you. I didn't have to do a thing for once. He's a nice boy, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's a very…very nice boy indeed," Byte replied slowly.