"I think you'd better come in. I'm Mike, by the way. Michael Chase." Mike hurriedly introduced himself.
Slider didn't say anything, although his eyebrows crinkled together.
The moment Jessie saw Slider, she dropped the plate she had been holding and gasped. Luckily, it only bounced a few times, and she picked it up after a moment.
"This is my wife, Jessica Chase." Mike quickly pointed out. "This is Irene, and this is Donald."
Irene was staring at Slider openmouthed. Mike knew what both the girls were thinking, because he was thinking the same. Was Slider a traitor?
"May I sit down?" Slider was asking.
Jessie nodded, and Slider sat down next to Irene, in the chair Mike had previously been in. Irene was obviously uncomfortable. She waited for about two seconds before crawling under the table and sitting down on a chair opposite him. Donald joined her on the chair, and they moved closer together.
Slider waited until Jessica sat down at the table before leaning back slightly. "I can't believe I finally found you guys."
It was a moment before Mike found his voice. "What are you talking about?"
Slider looked at him in confusion.
"You can't tell me you don't remember. You know, just before The Great War was won, Motherboard –" His voice quieted down to a whisper. "– sent out her energy to ever ally who would be in danger once The Hacker took over. She told us that the Earthlies were just like us, hidden in different bodies, somewhere in Cyberspace. There was an underground movement, started by myself and Creech, and almost everyone got into it. Now that I've finally found you, we can go back and start figuring out how to defeat Hacker!"
Mike couldn't look at the man he'd once considered his best friend.
"Irene, come on. Let's go upstairs. It's time for bed." Jessie interrupted. Her voice cracked just a little, but she stood up and tugged the little girl's hand.
"What? No!" Irene cried. "I want to talk to –"
She was cut off by Jessie, who had put her hand over her daughter's mouth. "We're going upstairs now. Donald, you're coming too."
It was obvious neither bird nor girl wanted to exit the room, but Jessie picked Irene up, which ended the matter for her. After a brief moment of consideration, Donald followed the girls.
"Matt."
Mike's head whipped around. He hadn't heard someone address him by that name since before two years ago.
"My name is Mike, Slider." Mike hissed. "I don't know any Matt."
Slider glanced at him. "I know you haven't lost your memory. I can see it in your eyes. You know my name. But what in the world are you talking about? You and I both know your name isn't Mike."
"I think you should leave." Mike stood up. "You don't understand what you're doing. You're kicking up dust where dust shouldn't be. Please stop, and leave my family alone."
"Ma – Mike. What are you talking about? This is crazy! I've spent the last two years looking for you four, and now that I've found you, you're telling me to get out? What's going on? Don't you want to stop Hacker?" Slider cried out.
Mike was struggling to maintain his composure. "All I want, Slider, is to survive, and keep my family alive. Don't you see? There are no Earthlies left. There's only one family, and with one little turn of the wind, we could be blown to dust forever. Go, and don't come back. Tell your people that we're dead. The truth is, we are."
Slider stopped speaking. He searched in Mike's eyes for something. A spark of fire that would tell him what he wanted to hear – that this lonely existence was not the fate that the Cybersquad had resigned themselves too.
When he found nothing, he sighed heavily. His eyes suddenly seemed to age with every passing second.
"Alright." He whispered. "Alright. But Mike…if the Cybersquad ever decide that they want to live again, my door is always open. Just go to Radopolis and ask for Samuel."
Mike met his eyes. "Okay. Okay… Samuel."
Slider nodded curtly once, before stepping back and jogging back down to the street.
Mike shut the door and closed his eyes, trying to calm the hurricane of emotions in the pit of his stomach.
He heard a sound behind him and turned to see Jessie moving toward him. Worry was colored in her dark brown eyes, but she knew not to voice anything.
"Jessie." He heard himself whisper. "Jackie."
Her eyes widened at the sound of her name. "Matt?"
He wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her start to crumble in the safety of his embrace. In this horrific nightmare, they didn't even have themselves. They only had each other.
When it had started, Jessie and Mike had been rocks for each other, and both of them together had been an entire island for Donald and Irene. They'd spent many nights not unlike this one, clutching onto each other, crying, and trying not to alert the other two.
Once in a while, Donald would break down. He spoke, in those times, in brief whispers. They knew it was far too dangerous to let him go on for too long, but the sweet relief he would get from just using his voice was almost too cruel to interrupt.
Irene had never had a single break down. Even now, Mike could never remember a single time that she'd cried. Sure, she'd gotten angry, screamed once or twice, but she'd never cried. She had become withdrawn, almost as quiet as the books she read. Irene had almost become her old self when she'd heard about the school and tried to persuade them to let her go. It had broken Mike's heart to refuse – he knew that going to school, having some sort of constant in her life, might have brought back life into the little girl.
Jessie sighed deeply, the tears slowly coming to a stop. She pulled away and buried her face in her hands, trying to wipe at the smearing make up.
"Did you hear what…what Slider wanted?" Mike asked.
Jessica nodded, and then bit her lip. "Irene did too. She wanted to come downstairs and go with Slider when you refused. She was livid."
"I tried to pick the option that was best for us." Mike explained. Jessie nodded quickly, and he felt himself relax in relief. At least she recognized what he had done for them. It had been pure torture to turn down his childhood friend like that, and he had a feeling Irene wouldn't be as understanding as Jessica was. "Is she still awake?"
"I had Donald watch her so I could come downstairs." Jessie murmured softly. "Let me go change, and then I'll go check."
Mike went to his room, as well, to throw on pajama pants and an old T-shirt. His room was simple, just the way he liked it. The walls were white, and the bed took up most of the space. His dresser was to the side, parallel with the bed. Beyond that, there was nothing else in the room.
He stepped outside only to bump into Jessie. Together, they walked to Irene's room
Irene's room was simply a girlier version of Mike's room. The bed took up most of the room, but the covers were pink. The dresser was also a pink that matched the bed, and also parallel to it. The walls were white, as well. The only real differences were the two or three stuffed animals, strewn across the room, and the stacks of books that covered both the dresser and all four corners of the room.
Irene shifted when they entered, glancing to see who it was. When she saw, she turned around so her back was facing them.
She was wearing a pink pajama bottom and a purple T-shirt, and Mike had to keep from laughing out loud, because Jessie was wearing a purple pajama bottom and a pink T-shirt.
He eased himself onto the bed next to Irene and put a hand on her back.
"Hey, kiddo. How're you holding up?"
He felt Jessie lie down next to him, and Donald flew over, landing below Irene's feet. He used Mike's legs as a pillow.
Irene still wasn't talking to him, apparently. She put her head on her pillow and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.