Adam's POV
The virus - I was wondering whether she was actually a virus - wiped the tears from her face and nodded a little, saying a wary "Okay."
"How did you get in here?" I asked. That was the biggest problem right now. If this virus could get in then others could too, which would spell disaster for the glitches.
She dropped her gaze to the floor and muttered. "I don't know. I just... knew how to get in."
"The firewalls didn't stop you?"
She shook her head slightly and I frowned. The firewalls should stop any virus from getting into the mainframe and at the very least, should majorly injure them. The worm had no cuts on her arms or legs as if the firewall never affected her.
"Where are your weapons?" I asked.
The virus shook her head slightly. "I... I don't know."
"You don't have any?"
"No, I have weapons," she said instantly. "But... I don't have them with me."
I gave a quiet sigh. This chatting wasn't getting me anywhere, but I couldn't just kill her now that I had started talking. It just seemed.... Wrong.
"I-I'm sorry," the worm whispered. "I... I don't really know what's happening."
This statement only made me more confused. "What do you mean?" I asked, shifting slightly.
"I... I don't remember much," she admitted. "I remember waking up in... somewhere. It wasn't here, it was similar but... bigger. More confusing. But there was a voice there. I was told that my job was to spread chaos amongst servers everywhere, destroy them, and to kill any glitches I found."
My hand went to my sword. If I wasn't sure that she was a virus before, I was now. Only viruses killed glitches.
"So that's what do you?" I asked, my tone unnaturally level. "Move from server to server?"
She nodded her head slightly. "I stayed at the back of servers, out of sight. I..." She looked up at me, seemingly unaware of my hand resting on my sword hilt. "I don't want to kill people. Or glitches."
"Soooo... What do you want to do?"
"I...don't know," she whispered, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks again. "I feel like I know but I can't remember it. But I don't want to destroy things, and I don't want to kill people."
Suddenly, it hit me so hard that I almost fell over. I wobbled a bit, catching my balance at the last minute. The virus gave something that could have been the beginning of a laugh hastily cut off. I looked at her and I saw the amusement in her code-eyes. This virus somehow had emotions. It could feel something other than hate and contempt, which was impossible.
"What are you?" I asked.
She tilted her head slightly, confused as if she didn't understand my question.
"Are you a virus or are you something else?" I elaborated.
Her eyes widened and she suddenly noticed that my hand was on my sword. "You're a glitch," she said quietly. "Viruses are supposed to kill glitches."
I quickly stood up and took a step back, ready to draw my sword. She watched me, her arms crossed over her chest in a hugging manner. She didn't try to attack or even to run. She simply waited, her eyes fixed on my face.
"Well?" she said. "Aren't you going to kill me?"
I bit the inside of my lip. I was supposed to kill her. She was a virus and she was in the glitch's mainframe. I had an opportunity now. She wasn't putting up a fight and she was unarmed. I was an idiot if I didn't attack her.
"Glitches kill viruses, that's their job," the worm said quietly.
I sighed and my hand dropped from my sword. "I became a glitch to kill the viruses that wanted to destroy everything we've worked for, not to take an innocent life."
The virus smiled slightly - and perhaps a little nervously too - when she realised that she was the 'innocent life' I was talking about. She tilted her head to the side. "I'm Alesa," she said quickly, ducking her head.
"A-Adam," I said, caught a little off guard. The worm, Alesa, glanced up at me with a slight smile and then her eyes flicked to something behind me. The smile slipped from her face and she began to grow nervous again. I glanced behind me.
At the beginning of the corridor stood two figures, each standing so that they were mostly hidden by the corner of the wall. The one on the left had brown hair with a small white crown keeping it out of his face. The hood of his purple and black cloak was down and the bottom of the cloak came down to his ankles. The figure on the right was vastly different. He had bright orange hair that stuck up in spikes and he wore a simple black jumper and pants. The irises of both of them were filled with green coding.
"Seto, Brice," I said. "Do you guys happen to know the way out of the mainframe?"
"Yeah, of course," Seto said slowly. "Why?"
"Can you show it to me?"
The two AI's nodded a little and moved down the corridor to the left. I held my hand out to Alesa. She cautiously took it and I pulled her up.
"I'll show you the way out," I told her. "But you have to promise to not come back here again, and not to tell anyone how you got in. It's too dangerous."
She nodded. "I promise."
She held my hand for a few moments longer than what was absolutely necessary and then dropped it. I wanted to take it again but I turned and followed the two AI's through the mainframe, making sure that Alesa was following me.
Seto and Brice both glanced back at me several times as we walked, no doubt wondering what I was doing. After a few minutes of walking, Brice stopped and put his hand on the wall. The green coding rushed together and formed into a doorway with a completely black space in the middle of it.
"That's the way out?" Alesa asked.
"Yeah," Seto said, crossing his arms and glancing at me, obviously confused.
I ignored him and gestured for Alesa to step through. She gave me a slight smile, murmured a 'Thank you' and ran through, turning into red coding as she did so. The black space swallowed her almost as soon as she went through the doorway and she disappeared. Brice closed the exit of the mainframe and then turned to me.
"Alright, what was that about?" he asked instantly.
"How much of our conversation did you hear?"
"All of it," Brice said. "We are part of the mainframe after all."
"What were you thinking Adam!" Seto asked incredulously. "That was a worm who knows how to get into our mainframe and you just let it go!
"You saw how she acted, she wasn't like the other viruses."
"But she still is one!"
"Look," I said, tired both physically and mentally. "I'm not going to defend my actions. I did what I did and I can't change it now. Just don't talk about it, okay?"
"Yeah, because you'll be kicked out if someone realises that you helped a virus."
My heart dropped to my feet. I hadn't thought about that when I had decided to let Alesa go. Being a glitch wasn't just what I did, it was who I am. The thought of being kicked out, of never being able to enter the mainframe again...
Some of my fear must have shown on my face because Seto sighed. "Don't worry, we won't talk about it," he said.
"Your secret is safe with us," Brice added.
I gave them both a slight smile. "Thanks guys." I pressed down on my amulet and left the mainframe, solidifying in our world. Nothing had changed, which was a relief.
"What happened?" Jin asked instantly. "You kinda just stood next to the virus for a while, I was getting worried." He was still sitting at his desk and he took his headset off, looking at me concernedly.
"Yeah, it was a really weird virus," I said, rubbing the back of my head a little. "But don't worry, it won't be getting back into the system again."
"I might strengthen the firewalls anyway, just in case," Jin said. "Why don't you head home, I can do the rest myself."
"Alright. See you tomorrow."
You can always depend on the AI's.