Byte watched each recruit slowly struggle through the boot camp course. It had been an hour and already, some of them looked like they were about to faint. She placed two fingers in her mouth now and emitted an earsplitting whistle. "Alright! Training for day one is over. You are excused," she said loudly. Once finished she turned around quickly. What she didn't notice, though, was that Damien was right behind her. When Noelle was about to make her hasty exit, she collided with him and the two nearly collapsed on the ground.
Luckily he had caught his balance while he held the girl close to him. At the moment the two of them were stable, he stared into her grey colored eyes. "You alright?" he asked with his arms still around her waist.
From afar, Java witnessed the entire ordeal. It brought a smile to her face as she just thought how perfect the situation was. "C'mon, Noelle….c'mon Damien just do something already!"
Byte looked up at him as she slightly felt comfortable where she was, in Damien's arms. She sighed then suddenly pushed herself away from him. She smirked, "Yeah, I'm…fine."
Damien watched the girl walk away quickly. He rubbed his chin with his left hand and smiled, "She knocked the wind out of me…damn." After a few moments, he took his leave as well. He followed behind Byte, who was headed for the computer room. "What's got you in such a hurry?"
She glanced at him quickly before entering the bustling room. "Nothing," she replied and walked into the room. There, she found Jay working with a few officers in charge of the mission. "Jay, what's going on with our troops out on the island?"
He turned around, "Not now, Noelle."
The look on his face seemed worried and the tone of his voice with the other officers seemed very affirmative. Something had to have gone wrong, Byte thought. Jay was usually relaxed when he worked. From here, Noelle had decided to eavesdrop on the conversation by pretending to be working on a computer nearby.
"How could we lose contact with those men?" Jay commanded.
"I don't know, General," a lieutenant replied.
Jay huffed and rubbed his forehead out of frustration. "Look, I want a group of you guys heading out there to repair our communication lines. I want you, McNeal, Stats, Wizard, and Files to head out there as soon as possible."
"But it could take up to three months to get our communications reestablished-"
"Then we'll do it in three months," Jay interrupted.
Before Byte could hear anything else, Damien sat next to her. She glanced back at him and then stood up. "Byte! There you are," she heard Ram say.
"Yes?" she said as she approached him.
"You've got a game to play today…actually right now. So come with me…Java, you too," he told her.
Byte looked back at her mother, just a little bit worried for whatever Ram had up his sleeve. She followed them into the Black Room, where she was handed her Reality Space visor.
"Byte, before we begin the game I'd like to inform you of a new twist I've added to the game," Ram began.
"Yeah, I start feeling pain. I'm sure I was well informed last time," she said.
"Oh it's even better, my young commander. The pain in Reality Space that you feel will only make you feel weaker. It won't hurt anymore, trust me. But what you'll feel is a bit of a lag…you'll feel as if you're moving slower and slower with more blows that hit you. You'll definitely feel tired but no harm will come to you. Sound good?" he asked as he laced his fingers together.
"Yes, it definitely sounds better," Byte replied.
"But here's the twist. If you die in Reality Space then you die here. The same goes for your opponent as well," he laughed sheepishly while he applauded his own evil creation.
The girl's eyes widened just as she heard the news. "What? You can't do that!"
"Oh, but can't I? Let's remember, in this world I am God. I decided whether you live or die and what's wrong and what's right…and this, Byte, is your test to prove to me that you are worthy of living," Ram said.
Finally, Java stepped in. "Ram, the kid's got a point. It's much too risky. If we lose her then we lose a valuable member of our team."
"Then all the more reason for her to try harder. I want a genuine fight coming from her and if you ask me, I couldn't have thought of a better idea," he snorted.
"You want a genuine fight? Then send me out to that virt market," Byte replied.
He shook his head and glared at the young girl. "What's the matter, Byte? Are you scared? Look, I wouldn't have given the game these settings if I thought you couldn't handle it. You are going to play this game. Do I make myself clear?" he asked loudly.
Reluctantly, Byte shook her head. She then slipped on the visor and found herself in a simple pair of jeans and a purple t-shirt.
To her left was a kitchen and then to her right was nothing but blank space. Apprehensively, she walked toward the kitchen. As soon as she stepped forward though, a voice echoed throughout the world she was in. "Where are you, you dumb little shit!" she heard a woman say. Then when Byte looked over to her right, she saw the back of a woman's head. She was raven haired, simply raven haired. The woman turned around suddenly and Noelle froze out of fear.
The woman's face was none other than that of the face of Jane. It was twisted with anger and her breath reeked of alcohol. Noelle stepped away but the woman's hand shot out and grabbed her fiercely by the arm. The girl tried to pry the woman's fingers off of her but soon she found herself as helpless as she was when she was a child. "C'mere! What the fuck did you do today?" Jane asked then threw Noelle down on the ground. Afterward she proceeded to retrieve her trusty black studded belt. However, once she grabbed it and brought it up to whip the girl, the belt turned into a whip with little barbs attached to the end of it.
Noelle quickly tried to move away and once Jane brought the whip down, it had luckily missed her. The girl looked around to find a wooden baseball bat sitting in a corner. She acquired it and when her enemy brought her hand up to whip the girl again, Noelle swung at her. When the baseball bat struck her, it cracked along the side and when she struck her again, the bat broke.
Jane simply laughed and suddenly the whip turned into a large butcher's knife. Now, the girl ran for her life. She went up a staircase she saw but suddenly tripped and fell. The raven haired woman was quick to grab her by the ankles and pull her down then slice her in the calf.
Byte shrieked loudly as she swiftly kicked the woman in the face. She watched her falter and that's when she took the knife from Jane. She punched her once more in the gut then quickly pinned her against a wall with the knife against Jane's neck. "Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't dig this knife straight into your jugular," she growled.
"Because I'm your mother," Jane said.
"Liar!" Noelle yelled.
"Oh, but am I lying?" Jane asked when suddenly she appeared to become Java. "You wouldn't kill me, Noelle. You couldn't kill your real mother," she taunted.
She weakened slightly as she backed away from Jane. "No, you're lying to me," she said.
"Noelle…I wouldn't never lie to you, would I?" she asked with her voice altered to sound exactly like Java. She then smirked when she approached her. She inched closer to her, now with a revolver in her hand. When Noelle was in clear view, she shot at her.
Noelle felt the shot go straight into her shoulder. She weakened slightly just as her actions became more lax than before. She glared at her and suddenly threw the knife at her. When the knife landed in her chest, she abruptly tackled the woman to the ground and wrestled her for the gun. Once she retrieved the revolver, she aimed it at her "mother's" forehead.
Java looked to Ram worriedly and finally acquiesced to her husband's request. She slipped on the Reality Space visor. She found herself in the same exact scenario as Byte. She found her daughter pinning what looked like to be her to the ground. Then she noticed the gun in her hand. "Noelle, stop," Java said.
The girl turned around quickly then looked down at the other Java. "Is this some ploy of yours?" she asked while she gritted her teeth.
"Maybe it is," she replied.
Java approached her daughter, "Noelle…please. It's me, it's really Java."
Noelle shook her head and then got off the fake Java and aimed the gun at the both of them. "How do I know that you're not lying?" she asked the newcomer.
"Ask me anything," Java replied.
"Yes, ask us anything," fake Java replied.
Her hand shook as she held the gun. Suddenly in her left hand appeared another gun, in which she aimed each gun at each of the Java's. "Answer this for me. Who's my favorite singer?" she asked.
The fake Java smiled. "John Lennon," she answered with ease.
Java shrugged then smirked, "I don't know."
Then a shot was fired from one of the guns. "No!" Byte yelled as she moved over the dead body of one of her mothers. She kneeled down and then shook her head while a tear flowed down her cheek. She sighed then quickly wiped the tear away, "I never told you who it was." She smirked now and grabbed the key from Jane's back pocket. "So you wouldn't know, would you."
Noelle stood back up to face the real Java. "Time to hide this thing," she smiled as she tossed the completed key up in the air and caught it.
Now instead of a blank area, the two of them found themselves in the depths of an underground tunnel. "I'll see you once you're out. You're on your own on this one," Java said with a smirk and then left the girl.
Byte nodded then continued walking deeper into the tunnel. She found herself in front of a room where the doors slid open to allow her inside. She walked in and found a small box on a column. Once she placed the key inside the box, she smiled. "The key of the city is safe now. Now, it is up to you, citizens, to keep it that way," she said. The room then faded out and soon enough, Byte found herself sitting in the Black Room with nothing but a blank screen in front of her. She took the visor off and saw Ram, Jay, Java, Mega, Damien, and a few other Technos. They all applauded her proudly as she stood up.
"Congratulations, Commander, you've completed the game," Ram said. "Let's open up a bottle of champagne and celebrate."
Within minutes, guards brought back two bottles of champagne and poured each person a glass. Everyone received a glass, including Byte. "To A New Hope, thank god it's finally wrapped," Java said. Everyone raised their glasses and took a sip.
Ram looked over to Noelle, who hadn't taken a drink. "Byte, won't you have a sip of champagne? After all, it was [i]your[/i] show."
"Oh…um…I just wanted to make a toast myself," she smirked. She raised her glass once more, "Thank you to everyone who made the show a hit. May we have more successes in the future."
Now each of them clanked their glasses and took yet another sip, including Byte. The girl, however, did not swallow it. [i]"Oh! This is gross."[/i] She instead let it sit in her mouth, until she could find a moment to spit the drink out. Finally she saw her mother with an empty glass and snatched it.
"Noelle, what are you doing?" Java whispered.
She couldn't speak; instead she just made noise, hinting that she still had champagne in her mouth. After a couple seconds, she spit the drink into the glass. "Ew," she muttered then handed Java her glass of the liquor. "Have it," she whispered.
"Okay," she shrugged.
Damien then walked over to Byte and handed her a champagne glass that he filled with ginger ale. "Madame," he smiled as he handed her the glass.
Noelle nodded and finally drank from the glass he handed to her. She downed the entire thing just to get the nasty taste from the champagne out of her mouth. "Thanks…um…I have to go," she said quickly.
"To where, Noelle?" Java asked curiously. The girl had nothing on her plate as of now, so where would she absolutely need to go?
"Outside, I need some air," she replied.
"Alright, why don't I send Dami-"
"No," Noelle said abruptly, "I can handle it, thanks." She then walked out of the computer room towards the entrance of the place. She sat on the steps of the hotel and hugged her knees. [i]"What the hell is going on? Is he trying to make me crazy or something? He knows very well that I've got Max…and I know very well that I've got Max and the baby. Is it me? Is it me who's been prodding him to act the way he does? If anything, I need to avoid him. I really do. How else can I get my mind off him?"[/i]
Three months later, Byte stood in front of the remaining recruits, including Noah. Of the twenty men that were recruited only seven were left. The each stood proudly as Byte handed them their new Techno uniforms, complete with the demon-like silver mask that the guards wore. She looked Noah in the eyes then handed him his uniform, "Looks like you made it." She didn't seem all too happy about it. Java's prediction was wrong, and the worst part was that Noelle relied on it. She sighed deeply after she saluted the newly formed Technos. For a few moments, she idly stood next to Damien.
"You okay there?" he asked as he glanced down to her very small, almost unnoticeable baby bump.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Noelle replied unconvincingly.
He stared down at her then handed her a bottle of ginger ale. "Well, looks like the troops are coming back soon. Maybe that'll cheer you up," he muttered. All in all, he wasn't too thrilled that Max was coming back. He actually had a liking for Byte at this point but he knew he could never pursue anything with her. With that, he thought that what he was about to tell her wouldn't affect her too much. He sighed briefly then took a seat on a chair in the empty recruitment room. "Listen, Byte, I've got to get something off my chest."
She took a seat across from him, "What is it?"
He contemplated his words before he spoke. It took him a while but eventually he just sighed and shook his head. "I….shit….I don't know if this'll affect you one way or another but I really just need to tell you this. I really, really like you. It's driving me crazy, Byte. I've never felt this way about anyone, it's only been you."
Byte just stared at him for a moment, just a bit taken off guard. She looked at him now before she spoke. "I know you've been feeling that way, Damien. It was more than obvious."
He gazed down at the ground, disappointed in the fact that he poorly concealed the truth that he was crazy for her. A smirk played upon his face as he looked back to Noelle. "But just let me ask you one thing, did you feel the same way about me?" he asked.
She paused for a moment, hesitant to reply. "No," she quickly said.
Damien chuckled, unconvinced and unappeased with Byte's answer. He shook his head, "You're not telling the truth, Noelle. I know you did but you pushed those feelings away…or at least you tried to. Don't think I forgot about the time I just held you or the time you and I had ice cream. You wouldn't move-"
"Then what do you want me to say, Damien?" Byte said and stood up, ready to leave.
Damien disregarded her and continued, "You could have moved but you didn't. You could have denied my invitation to have ice cream but you didn't-"
Byte shook her head, "I don't need to hear this. Look, I already gave another man my word and I intend to keep it that way." She began to walk away but he blocked the path between her and the doorway.
"What good are your intentions even if you did like me at one point? Why is it so damn hard for you to admit it? You like me and I like you. You like me….there I said it. I don't need a dictionary to comprehend your actions. It's just by the way you stumble around those words," he stood as well and inched closer to her then gazed down at her. "And lately you have done nothing but try to keep your distance. Ever since we started training, you've either been with Java or 'out'. I just wanted a simple answer from you, Noelle…Byte…whoever you are."
"There's nothing else for me to say then, is there?" she shook her head as she looked up at him with her grey eyes.
"But why'd you do that, Byte? Why did you try to avoid me for all these months? Just answer that for me," he pleaded.
She gazed at the ground then looked back up at him, "Because I can't trust myself with you. There…you happy?" Teary eyed, she pushed past him and walked out of the room.
Damien sighed deeply as he shook his head, "Noelle…please…wait." He quickly followed after her, feeling guilty for making her feel so badly about her actions. "Noelle, I'm sorry."
"What do you want, Damien? What do you [i]really[/i] want from me? Did you want me to be your friend or your girlfriend? Because right now, I don't even know what to think anymore. One minute you're doing nice favors for me then the next minute you're just staring at me like you wanna kiss me," she told him, obviously angry at him.
"I know, Byte. The thing is I could never get a relationship from you. I thought I could but I can't…you know it and I know it. So, I thought me telling you that I like you would be a harmless action on my part," he explained then watched a guard approach her. "Just know that I'm here for you…for whatever it may be." He walked off hastily, brushing shoulders with Java along the way.
Byte looked at the guard, who just handed her a yellow envelope. "What's this?" she asked, already exhausted from her argument with Damien.
"A letter from the troops," the guard replied.
Without any further notice he excused himself while she opened the envelope carefully and began to read the letter.
In reply to your inquiry on the current status of Techno Troop 257, I am ordered to inform you that Cadet Maxwell A.K.A "Max" has now been reported in a casualty list that has reached this office as having been killed in the line of duty. We sympathize greatly for your loss. Amongst his belongings was a letter that has been attached to this notification.
Sincerely,
Commanding Officer of Techno Troop 527
Byte sighed deeply as she frantically searched for the letter in the envelope. She shook her head, hoping that this was some sort of mistake. Finally she found it, neat black printing against cream colored paper. Then she read on:
Noelle-
Amongst all of the things I have ever said to you, I just want you to know that I loved you. I loved you greatly and it hurts me to know that I won't be there. Noelle, if you are reading this…it means that I failed-
From that point she stopped reading. She felt her legs weaken as a slow yet shaky breath escape her lips. Her legs gave way until someone suddenly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up.
Java had actually witnessed the entire ordeal she felt sadness for Noelle since she knew how much she loved the boy. It was only because of this stupid invasion that everything her daughter hoped for was just ruined. "It's okay, Noelle…it's okay," she said quietly.
"No it's not okay!" Noelle yelled. She slowly began to break down in front of her mother. "Why did he have to die? It's not fair," she shook her head and cried, "it's not fair!" She collapsed on to the ground and let the tears pour out until she could barely breathe. "Everybody I love just leaves me…I was so foolish to think he'd be coming back…but he left like everyone else. You don't know what it's like to feel alone…to feel isolated from everybody else."
Java knelt down beside her and looked into her daughter's eyes. It was this time that she realized that all the feelings and all of the remorse that was pent up inside for seventeen years were all finally coming out. "You are not alone," she said, struggling to keep her own tears from flowing. Now she felt the guilt for leaving her daughter; she knew that she was the reason why Noelle had felt this way. Her throat tightened as she tried to speak. "You are never alone and you never will be." Java then laced her fingers around Noelle's arm and helped her back up. "I want you to understand that, okay?" she said with tears now brimming over her eyes.
Noelle looked at her, her grey eyes just pleading helplessly. She didn't say anything and instead buried her face in her mother's shoulder. "He's gone, mom. He's gone," she said quietly.