Author’s Notes: I tend to write the ends, beginnings and major events of my fics before I write the filling pieces, so a bit has taken place between this and “Part 1 - The Target”. Dot has come to the decision to go and face Megabyte in what she’s convinced herself is little more than a meeting, but deep down, both she and the virus himself know it is much more. This chapter and the next will make or break the entire fanfic. The Tor has somewhere along the line been rebuilt, too, I ought to add.
Twisted Fate
- Part [x]: Strange Bedfellows
Dot had to ask herself over and over, as she looked up at Silicon Tor, what in the ‘Net she was doing here.
/’You know where to find me.’/
She was afraid of herself and of what was happening in her head. She hoped that another meeting with the virus, who had all but invited her here to begin with, would get everything out of her system and settle the matter, because she couldn’t forget what had happened. It wasn’t just the fact she had nearly married Megabyte, it was the fact she had chosen his faux Guardian over the real thing, the fact she had shared so much with him, including a particularly passionate kiss. And despite all the hate and the pain that came with this, she couldn’t help but feeling she had tapped into a weakness of this seemingly indestructible viral menace; when he had kissed her, had promised - through the guise of Bob - to never leave her, there had been an honesty and fervour behind his words that seemed to verge on being more than just a very good act. What if she could, if not turn Megabyte, change him? Show him that there were other ways of living…? Perhaps that was too much to ask of a man who was coded to corrupt and conquer, but she had to hope that there was a reason for her to be here, because she was afraid that, in truth, her purpose for coming here was something far less sincere and much more selfish.The large doors at the tower’s base opened for her pretty much as soon as she reached them, and kept her nerves hovering on the verge of fear; she was clearly being monitored. She walked right in, regardless, and followed the dark and gloomy halls through the virus’ fort as if she knew where she was heading. There were no patrolling binomes, no Hack and Slash (they were back at the Principal Office, of course) and no noise. It was all very quiet and very spooky.
After some time, she emerged into what one might call the core of the Tor, the command centre from which Megabyte operated. And there he sat, in his chair, sans legs, staring at her, tapping his fingers against its large arms.
She froze to the spot, some distance away, and just stared back at him until he summoned his binome Doctor from out of the shadows and, whispering to him, had his legs fetched. He then fitted himself into the lanky appendages and dismissed the Doctor with a wave of his hand.
Once the Doctor had gone, there was still no exchange of words between the two. They just continued with their overdrawn staring contest, the virus staring out the sprite, until Dot took it upon herself, with a deep breath, to approach him.
Megabyte watched her, his eyes - more of a pale blue at present than the bright green they had originally been - followed her with rigid accuracy, until she halted before him.
Dot looked up at him and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her mind fell blank as everything she had built herself up to talk about dissipated in an instant and she realised they had been but false pretences for her visit, a cover for the truth, for the fact she had been drawn here by desire and that alone. She closed her eyes as she felt her stomach fill with anxiety at the thought of what she was about to do, and wondered how it had all come to this.
She shuddered as she felt Megabyte’s fingers gently touch her skin, gliding from her cheek to her neck, before he lifted them away and a long, silent pause ensued. Dot dare not open her eyes to see what the virus was doing, though she suspected he was just looking at her, so it came as a shock as she finally felt him press his lips against her neck, and she exhaled shakily. Her fingers flailed at his chest and she gripped onto him as he bestowed upon her what she presumed was a token of his affection…
And then, as he drew his lips away from her, he finally spoke, whispering gruffly into her ear, “Welcome home.”
The words confused Dot at first, and her sensible side told her to run, but she couldn’t. She stared at her fingers on his breast and felt his breaths against her ear as his head hovered by the side of hers. She then drew back a little so she could look him in the eyes and studied his visage carefully, looking him up and down. He gave her a trademark, charming smirk and she could do nothing to prevent herself from reaching up and drawing his head down to hers so she could kiss him. ‘Why are you doing this?’ her conscience asked her, but she could hardly answer. She needed closure, she needed an end to what he had begun, and somehow this felt the right way to go about things - to be here on her own terms, to be in control, to see if the love she had felt from faux Bob existed still within this formidable virus’ core. But this was all so dangerous - not just was there the possibility of what he might do to her present, his savage retractable claws just waiting to be unleashed from his currently tranquil hands, but there was also many emotional consequences at stake, of what this could do to both of them in their heads…
She slowly drew away from him at this thought, staring into space whilst her hands rested on his shoulders.
“You have no reason to fear me,” Megabyte then said, drawing her attention back to him, and she again looked him in the eyes as a large lump of apprehension rolled down her throat.
“I’m afraid of myself,” she confessed.
His wide mouth formed into another grin, but one that Dot found strangely comforting. “Aren’t we all, when we go against our codes?”
She sighed and nodded before he made her a startlingly comforting gesture and drew her into an embrace, resting his chin on top of her head whilst she laid there against his chest.
“Curiosity has brought you here, a need for a conclusion and to understand yourself,” he said, most insightfully, and Dot was suddenly reminded of his intelligence and guile as she lay there against him, something which should not have acted as a comforting factor in the slightest.
He then pried her from him and lowered his head to her level, holding her by the shoulders. “We are both on a journey of discovery,” he continued, his thumbs rubbing her skin. “An unprecedented journey, and there are two things we must ask one another: Do we trust each other, and, if we do, dare we love each other?”
Dot felt compelled to intervene. “‘Love’?” she asked.
He offered her another smirk. “Yes. You have been drawn to me by an uncertainty of whether or not your feelings, or mine, are genuine. You loved Bob, but now you cannot let go of me, and I cannot let go of you.”
“You’re talking in riddles, Megabyte.”
He straightened himself up again and his hands slid from her arms. “Yes. So let us solve this riddle” -his hand motioned between he and Dot- “so we can again get on with our lives.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Dot admitted with despair, “I’m lost, I’m confused, and I’m with Mainframe’s most deadly tiger in his own den…”
Megabyte’s grin resurfaced. “But this tiger isn’t about to eat you. He likes you in his den. Now make your choice.” He outstretched his arm toward the way she had come in. “Go back,” he suggested, before he then turned and began to walk off in another direction, “Or come with me.”
She watched him pace away until he turned and halted at another doorway.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Megabyte continued to smile, her choice in the matter all but confirmed by the ‘we’ pronoun she had utilised. “We’re going down together,” he replied, before he opened his hand to her and added, “Come along.”
And Dot found she did indeed follow him. She walked over and placed her hand into that large, blue palm of his before she was then escorted down numerous more dark halls and into a place where, both physically and mentally, she never thought she would go.
Megabyte was right - they would go down together.
TBC…