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[the duplicate 'Bob' has a more detailed profile at the Fictives Corner - http://glitchbob.tripod.com/robin.html ]
GAME OVER.
Bob opened his eyes to find themselves back in Mainframe's sector 080. He sighed with relief.
"Dot, I think we did it!"
"Oh, you did it all right."
Bob turned. To his horror, his counterpart was still here... and boy, was she offlined! She strode up to him, a dark look on her face, and prodded him hard in the breastplate of his Guardian armour.
"I think it's time you people left my system. Now."
Bob glanced over at Dot, who was busy comforting Enzo. He looked back at his doppelganger, who continued to glare at him.
"We would if we could, honestly..." he began. He was interrupted by the excited Adena, who came running up to the two Guardians, a big grin all over her round face.
"Mom, I want to be a Guardian!"
Her mother sighed.
"I'll deal with you in a nano," she said to Bob, before turning her full attention to Adena; going down on one knee to be at eye-level with the little girl. "Adena, no. You are *not* going to be a Guardian. Do you hear me? It's not fun. It's dangerous. I play the Games to stop you and everyone else here from being hurt! Do you understand me? We almost got nullified in there! You are not to do that again!"
The girl's bottom lip began to quiver. "Adena..." she said in exasperation, and then drew the child close to her in a bearhug. "I almost lost you, baby. Please. Don't follow me into the Games."
Adena mumbled a reply that Bob didn't quite catch, but he knew it must have been an affirmative, as her mother pulled back and kissed the young sprite on the forehead.
"So much for your theory, Bob," Dot muttered.
Bob shot Dot a scathing look.
"I don't have much to work with here. Glitch still can't give me any stats."
"Theory?" echoed his counterpart as she stood back up. Bob looked sheepish for a moment. She drew a hand over her face. "I think it's time for explanation number three, don't you?"
* * *
"All right. Let's try this from the top once more."
The five of them were back at the Diner; the female Guardian's car still a mangled mess outside. If it had been under any other circumstances, Enzo would have found it incredibly funny. But right now he didn't feel like doing much of anything. He sat between Bob and Dot, and instead decided to find new and exciting patterns in the tabletop, lending only half an ear to the conversation. Adena sat in another booth across the Diner - albeit under protest - where her mother could keep a watchful eye on her.
"Dot was telling the truth," Bob started. "We are from another system."
She looked unimpressed. "Go on."
"Well... it's just that our system... is very similar to this one. OK, it's identical. Almost."
"And you couldn't tell me this the first time around?"
"It's not just that." Bob shifted uneasily.
"I guess not, or you wouldn't have lied to me twice before."
He sighed. "All right. I can't think of any better way to put this. We'd like nothing better than to get back home. But we can't get home because this isn't a real system. I can't open up a portal and take us out of here because this isn't real. And you know what else? This isn't even a real Game."
Dot and Enzo stared at him.
"What?!" all three of them chorused. The other Guardian then buried her face in her hands.
"You three are insane."
Bob shook his head.
"No. I can prove it." He saw her begin to protest, but cut in. "Let me ask you something. Do you remember the last Game you played before we got here? Have you ever seen who owns this Diner? Have you never wondered why you and Adena are the only sprites here?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" she frowned.
"While we've been here, I've had Glitch keep an eye on the power levels of this 'Game.' A real Game's energy levels, once the initial surge is over, are fairly steady. This one's energy signatures, according to Glitch's readings, are all over the place."
His counterpart narrowed her eyes at him. "And this proves what?"
His expression was grave as he continued. "I had some time to think while we were coming back from sector 080. I put some things together, and the only logical conclusion is that this whole scenario is one big distraction, and you were designed to keep us here. There's only one virus I know who'd go to all this trouble."
"Megabyte!" Dot breathed.
"I *knew* Megabreath was up to something!" Enzo said.
Bob nodded. "I have a bad feeling that there's more to it than just keeping us here. I think he's got something bigger in mind, and this is simply a convenient method to distract us."
The other Guardian stood, clearly agitated by this.
"Wait just one nano. I'm a distraction to keep you here?" she echoed, incredulously. Bob met his double's gaze as she looked down at him.
"I checked your code against mine. You're a clone. A double. Except for a two per cent differential which I presume determines gender, they match precisely. Beats me how Megabyte got hold of my code, though..."
"Bob, there was a brief power surge in the Archives a while back," Dot said. "We just passed it off to a problem in the core and ran some tests. Nothing unusual showed up at the time, though. It wouldn't surprise me if Megabyte hired someone - if it was hacked, it was by someone who knew what they were doing and how to cover it up."
"It makes sense," he replied.
The female Guardian pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes briefly, and sighed.
"All right, dork. That does it. Get out. All of you."
Bob raised his hands, palms outwards, in an attempt to try and calm the agitated sprite down. "Let me - "
"No!" she fumed, glaring at him. "I've had more than enough of your insane rambling! Leave!"
Bob looked to Dot and Enzo, who nodded. The two got up from the booth and exited the Diner as he remained seated.
"Where are they going, Mom?" Adena yelled.
"They're going home, Adena. Stay where you are."
The little sprite frowned in annoyance, pursing her lips, but remained where she was. Her mother redirected her attention to Bob. "Why are you still here? Are you not content with telling me I'm part of some kind of bizarre experiment?"
Bob looked back at her calmly from the other side of the table.
"Answer me this. What was the last Game to come down here? How do you open a portal or mend a tear without a keytool? Do you even remember when you first came here? Know who Adena's father is?"
"What - ?"
"Answer me! If this is real and you are too, then you can answer me!"
"I..." she faltered, her angry expression subsiding suddenly, doubt taking hold.
Silence; then -
"I...I don't know..." she said eventually, confusion bringing a puzzled frown to her face.
He pressed on. "Can you tell me when you first took Adena to Floating Point Park? When she spoke her first word? Coloured her first picture?"
She looked at him, then to her daughter across the Diner, who was busy playing with the salt and pepper shakers. Frantically she searched her memory, but kept coming up blank. She sank back into her seat.
"I don't remember," she whispered.
At that moment, she knew it was all true. She looked back at him, suddenly vulnerable, uncertain. "I don't remember anything. I know I'm a Guardian, I know I have a job to do... and how to do it. But I don't recall what I did more than a couple of nanos before you got here."
"That's the Guardian protocol in my code," Bob said. "You have my skills, but not my experience. Look... I know this isn't easy for you... but we have to find what's powering this whole thing and destroy it."
She stared at the table for several moments before responding.
"And what happens when this place disappears? Do I go with it?"
Bob shook his head. "No. There's no reason you'd be deleted. Your code is mine, remember. Which is what leads me to believe Megabyte has something else planned."
She nodded, not looking up from the table.
"What about my daughter?" she asked quietly. Bob didn't respond. She glanced up at him, panic spreading across her face. He couldn't maintain eye contact, choosing to stare at his hands instead.
"Bob, please tell me..."
"I'm sorry," he said, desperately wishing he didn't have to break this to her.
"Adena's my life! She's all I have! There has to be a way..."
"She doesn't share your... my... our code. I don't know why."
The two shared an uneasy silence once more. Bob wanted to say something useful, but he knew nothing he said right now would help. She buried her face in her hands.
"Go," she said.
"What?"
She looked up at him. "Go. Go and end this. If your system is in danger, then you have to defend it. Find this power source and destroy it. Do what you have to. The longer you stay here..."
Bob nodded, slowly, and got up from the booth.
"Do you want to come with us?" he asked. She declined.
"No. I want to be here. With Adena. You understand."
He glanced at the young sprite, who was still preoccupied with the salt and pepper shakers, moving them round the table in a mock battle. He sighed, hoping he'd never have to face losing a child himself; not envying his double's position. What was Megabyte playing at?
"I understand," he said, finally, turning back to face the other Guardian. She didn't look up; her face was a mask.
"Go on. Go."
He'd gotten to the exit when she called after him. "Bob..."
"What?"
"I'm sorry. About calling you a dork, I mean."
She smiled sadly at him. He nodded.
"Apology accepted," he said, as he pushed open the door and walked outside.
End Part 7