Misc. Games, X-overs 1. Pay The Library Free

_There's a mysterious force out there, lurking in the void nothingness between time and space fabric, come into contact with it, and you're gone. You are spirited away from existence._

* * *

A small figure stood in the middle of a large room, surrounded by cold steel book shelves that loomed above the person. There was only one small light bulb at the top, it hung drearily from the ceiling, next to its 'deceased' kin; the other bulbs that failed to glow at all when the switch was flicked on. Although many areas of the room was covered by the shadow of the tall shelves the bulb shone bright, so the lone reader could read the old words in the book they held. That person took a step deeper into the light, towards the aged desk, where a red leather back note book lay- new but worn, compared to its surroundings.

The young girl closed the book she was holding, and used her free hand to sort out her light brown fringe, with her soft hair away from her face, two red orbs were revealed. They glanced down at the book, analysing the black leather and the golden letters of an 'H' and an 'M' scratched into the item's spine. A faint sigh escaped the curious girl's mouth, and she moved towards her note book swapping the black for the red. The girl turned towards the door, her long, light brown pony tail swayed behind her as she spun. As began her journey to the door, she held a fountain pen in one hand, which was hidden in her crimson poncho and began to jot down notes, in her red book.

"Orela, what was in that book you were reading?" a small soft voice emitted from the shadow of the celling high book cases.

Orela turned to her left, although she maintained a blank stare, her red eyes darted around scanning where the sound had come from. Her red eyes met another pair of red as they emerged from behind one of the massive book cases. Although they were the same colour of red, the new pair seemed to glow. Two small feet, clad in white boots, stepped into the light revealing a small, almost miniature child. This familiar face had pale skin in contrast to her, also, white clothes she had jet black hair. A white beanie hat sat precariously on the small girl's head. The markings down her soft cheeks showed that this particular girl was an android. She stood looking up at Orela, on her tip toes, looking curiously at her.

"You're Tata. Its 23 minutes past 11- shouldn't you be asleep?" Orela looked down at her class mate. Already expecting an answer, Orela had her note book out, ready to take down some notes as to why Tata wasn't asleep.

Tata grinned sheepishly, as she shuffled on one small foot to the other. "I don't sleep. I'm the only android that has a long battery life without charging." Orela wrote this down. "I normally patrol the dorms, during the night and take care of the… Take care of Cerberus during the night. I have permission to stay up so late, as long as I keep others from venturing out of their dorm rooms – you shouldn't be up." Tata tilted her head. ".. But don't worry I won't tell anyone."

Orela let out a subtle sigh and decided to continue to walk to the door. The little turret followed behind, so Orela took the chance to take more notes. "Why did you follow me here?" -Another question that will lead to a note-worthy answer. Pen at the ready, Orela paused for Tata's small steps to catch up.

Tata looked up at her. "You are not permitted to be on this floor in this building at this time, originally I would have stopped you but I decided to follow you because this room is not on my map- this area is just blank on my program. Is this a library?" Tata's gaze drew beyond Orela at this point, taking information in about this room, as she looked at the towers of books, stored away in their shelves.

_No full data on school map, and hidden blank spaces_. Orela scribbled into her note book.

"What else has blank spaces on your map, Tata?" Orela took several steps towards the exit again, causing Tata to stop processing whatever she was looking at and jog after her friend.

"Analysis of this room shows that most of the second floor areas in each of the buildings have blank spaces- except for the dorm buildings. Their volume is ok with their dimensions. Why don't you ask Mr. 'Wescott' for the full map?" Tata returned a question back to her interviewer.

"I've asked him, he said it the complete version of the school grounds, and there isn't unaccounted- that he knows of." Orela quoted the teacher. "But he also began to question if there were things missing in the map after my query. This library is clearly off limits, especially if it's not on the map. Personally I think the Academy will benefit with such a facility. This room and the vast amount of information seem to be of no current, use. I'm beginning to wonder why." Oreal grinded to a halt again, this time little Tata bumped into her back. With this 'break' Tata went back to looking at her surroundings whilst Orela scribbled down more notes in her red note book.

Tata gazed at the giant book shelves that were lined next to each other; it was significantly different from the rest of the academy. This room held a dusty atmosphere, with her vision, being able to see in the dark she could identify several spider webs that belonged to three different species of spider.

She muttered each arachnid species gently as she identified the web. Orela whom had taken the nib of her fountain pen of the paper in her book, looked at Tata, a little confused.

"Spiders?" She questioned. "Why are you naming different species of spider?"

Tata nodded. "As a turret I have night vision or infra-red vision-" Orela had her note book out again, her fountain pen scratching the fine paper, absorbing the information. "… Umm. I also have other sensors that can identify the heart rate of my target, or anybody that's close by—like my sensors that detect energy fluctuations!" Tata grinned, knowing that Orela was listening. "That's why I am able to identify those webs- this room hasn't been used in a while."

"You seem to be a really useful android, what's my heart rate right now?" A small smile tugged on the edges of her lips. A small spark of curiosity derailed the main subject matter.

"An average of 75 beats per minute- " Tata froze and her smile melted away quickly as her head turned towards the only door in the room. "Another human, two, with an average of 80 beats per minute is approaching this room." Tata's gaze didn't leave the door, and she stood still, as if she was frozen. The two children were just a metre away from the dusty grey door.

"What are you doing? Tata, we have to hide." Orela's voice hissed a whisper to the small child turret, with a tint of anxiety. Her heart rate had increased to 83 beats per minute. Tata snapped back to reality, and darted into the darkness, in persuit of her friend. Shutting her red lights off, and huddling next to Orela, they both waited for the two new-comers to enter. Already both girls were thinking of a non-invasive escape route when suddenly the door knob clicked.

The door creaked open towards the room with the books and the shelves – with only one light on, Orela and Tata sat in the dust behind a well hidden book case, watching two tall figures stroll into the room. Orela looked down at Tata, who was leaning on her arm, in a curled up position. Orela leaned towards her head. "Are you recording this?" Tata nodded silently in response. Orela, hesitantly patted Tata on the head as reassurance, not knowing if that would calm an android turret down and help it focus on recording. She averted her gaze on the open door to check Tata. The little turret had her eyes fixed on the exit; watching two tall figures walk into the dim room.


	2. First Hand Research

"I have no memory of how I enrolled into this academy, I need to retrace my steps, think back properly."

* * *

A young man fiddled with his dark brown curls on his head, pushing up his horn rimmed glasses every so often, whilst he typed on his metallic green laptop. He sat on the floor, on a pile of unwashed winter jumpers, which mainly consisted of his favourite colour, hunched down. His sapphire and emerald eyes were fully focused on the monitor in front of him. He typed the last few lines of binary for a new program he was working on.

"Get off." A familiar voice stole Q-b's attention from his laptop. The man looked up at his older twin brother, who looked down at him, with the same emerald and sapphire orbs, whilst holding two bow ties in his hand, one black and one brown. Q-a, wore a soft red hoodie, with the zip open, showing a nicely ironed shirt, neatly tucked into his jeans. Although Q-a's look was more casual, he was a lot neater than his younger brother. Q-b didn't want to get off his little mound of soft woolly jumpers. There was a moment of silence before Q-a glared daggers at his younger brother. Q-b's only response was to burry more deeper in the mound, taking his laptop with him into the darkness. "I need to wash them!" The voice of the older brother could be heard from the outside of the jumper fort. Q-b sighed.

A tuft of curly hair was left visible from the top of the mound, which now contained a lethargic human inside of it. Q-a clawed at the heap of jumpers and sweaters, pulling each one off and throwing them over his shoulder into a laundry basket. He didn't even have to look, he knew exactly where it was, and each knitted vestment landed straight in without effort provided by the man throwing the things blindly. "Argh! No! I need to concentrate! It's soft enough for me to sit on it!" cried the little twin.

"Sit on your bed, Quiller!" More of Q-b's little jumper mound was pulled away, engulfed by the stripy laundry basket in the corner of the room. Now he was visible, and for the amount of time Q-b has gotten used to the darkness in the depths of the disappearing sea of jumpers was fairly quick; this resulted in a hiss, when his face was revealed to bask in the light of the bed room. "I was so close to finishing this!" Q-b held up his green laptop in the air, shoving it into his older brother's face. The throwing-a-jumper-into-the-laundry-basket activity was momentarily halted, as Q-a read what was showing up on the monitor. Although Q-a was more specialised in building a few things, his brother had showed him a few bit here and there with computer programming. Q-a tilted his head, and then looked past the monitor to his brother just underneath it. The laptop was brought down. "Why are you writing up an Aperture based memory code?" Q-a asked Q-b.

"It's for that annoying android, M.M.A.I- You know how we can't remember how on earth we managed to get into an academy like this?" Q-b asked.

"Yes. What's up with Mai?" Q-a stated.

"She doesn't have any memory of how she got here either! I think I should ask the rest of the bots and droids, but that Technician won't let me near some of them!" The younger man sighed with a tint of frustration in his voice.

"But you managed to hack some basic coding from her laptop didn't you? Why are you writing something for that android?"

"It's harder than I thought- this… The codes here… I've lost count at all the drafts I've done and tested. I need to find her memories; it's a lot easier to recall data from a computer than a human, Starq."

Q-a sat down on the floor next to his brother, and the both looked at each other. "The scan…?" a small grin appeared on Q-b's face as his brother said this. "How did it go, was I right?" Q-b eagerly closed his laptop to listen to the answer. A simple nod from his twin made his grin increase in intensity. "We're going there tonight. Plug the camera in… I'm going to make sure these jumpers are put away." Q-a smiled back, watching his twin's smile fade, it was back to normal- with the floor of jumpers slowly disappearing from beneath Q-b's cold feet. However, their plan on examining each building was getting back on track.

Prior to their dorm room sorting, they had already explored as much as they could in every area of the school, they were allowed to explore. A map had already been issued to the students at the beginning of the month and rooms highlighted in blue diagonal lines required a member of staff's permission to have access to. One of these rooms was the school canteen. This was highly suspicious, as that building -according to their interior and exterior measurements- did not add up to the right volume and thus the hypothesis of extra hidden rooms popped into the heads of the twins. They wanted to know everything. Nothing is going to escape their knowledge.

The hours passed, and school was finally finished. The two young lads walked out their ICT classroom. The teacher gave them an anxious look, like he did with most students that already knew most of the syllabus required for the year. "M-make sure you send me your homework before 6:00 pm, Q-a." Mr 'Wescott' called to the older twin.

A small snigger emitted from Q-b's mouth. "You're not one to program a little game are you?" He teased.

Q-a folded his arms. "I was too busy taking pictures of the school, _remember_?" Q-a disdainfully stated. He saw his brother hunch in guilt in the corner of his eye. "Oh yeah, sorry. I should have helped you last night—but let's get ready for tonight." Q-b increased his pace as they headed back to their dorm.

A small finger print sign in was required to enter the dorm. They both placed their fingers on the red screen and a small beep was heard and the door swung open, welcoming them into their dorm of 'T.V and Film'. "Stop scratching, Quiller."

"I'm not!" But Q-b's hands were up his jumper fiddling- Q-a realised what he was doing, and watched his brother take out his laptop from underneath his jumper. Q-b opened it up and hit the enter button. "I've sent off your homework to that Felix guy." He paused on the steps that lead to the second floor of the large building. "Felix- that's the android Sue didn't want me anywhere near!" The little brother exclaimed. "Shhh!" Q-a hushed his twin quickly. "I though her name was Marie…? – Plus, we shouldn't worry about Mr. 'Wescott' right now- but thanks for sending off my homework." He quickly added, sheepishly. "We need to get the camera set up properly." Q-a refocused on what he needed to say. "The first building will be the main one. We'll just have to make sure that Marie is going to be with Felix tonight."

"It's Sue, isn't it?" Q-b laughed.

"Nevermind! Let's just tinker with the time tables of the androids, make sure nobody is going to get in our way tonight. "Q-a shrug off the name issue with the school Technician as the two men stopped at the top of the stairs and turned left, walking towards their room.

They stopped in the middle of the corridor.

"Who are you—oh, it's you." Q-b, stepped in front of his older brother, a little protectively. There stood a female android, in her usual black and white attire, her yellow eyes blankly stared at the two figures. Then her expression changed as she put on an expression on what seemed like bitter recognition. Her yellow eyes glared at the man with the laptop. "You took your time. I'm scheduled to be examined by you." She said with very little emotion- but somehow there was the slight haze of battery acid in the air as she said this.

"Mai- I mean. M.M.A.I-"

"Mai will be sufficient, dork." She smiled when she added on his usual nickname.

Q-b cringed, with a Q-a slightly recoiling in a few sniggers behind his back.

"Your schedule will be changed."

"I have been waiting here for 5 minutes and 31- 32—seconds. You are that amount of time late. You should have mentioned it earlier, dork." Her smile remained as she waited in front of the twin's door.

"Stop calling me that, Mai. Or I will not help update your programming anymore." Q-b retorted.

"The Technician does a better job anyway."

"She's going to be spending most of her after school hours with Mr. 'Wescott'."

"… When's my next update then?" Her voice came out a little worried now.

Q-b typed with one hand quickly bringing up a timetable. Another unknown button was pressed.

"Tomorrow" Q-a read over his little brother's shoulder. "Make sure you're here tomorrow, at 22 hours."

Q-b pressed enter, nodding. "Off you go Mai."

The sunset still hung about, casting an orange glow on the white dormitory hallway. MMAI trod down on the soft padded blue carpet as she walked away from the twin's direction, hearing their door close hastily she spoke to herself: "I know you're up to something Quiller." A giggle escaped her lips as she instantly knew what to do next: Follow him later on.


	3. Two Wooden Hearts asked me to

_"You're the only people I can trust with this kind of mission."  
_

* * *

The hazy purple clouds floated lightly in the starry night sky, engulfing the small sparkles of light in a fluffy embrace. The clouds moved with the authority of the wind that pulled them in front of the stars and lastly the moon, now a murky grey light behind the curtain of water vapour. This meant the night that these three students decided to go out into during the sleeping hours of the school got darker; uncomfortably darker.

"Bayfur! Where the hell are you!" a man desperately whispered out into the forest before him. "This is important business! If my laptop gets damaged during this secret mission, Sue will kill me!"

If you were out in the dark, listening to the unsuspecting student call out of a mischievous dwarf, you'd figure out by the mistake in calling the school technician Sue, when her name clearly isn't 'Sue' and the fact that this peculiar young man was highly protective over his laptop, that this particular student was –

"Q-b. If you continue such stupid whining the wolves will eat you." A soft girl's voice muttered behind him, the bitter end of the synthetic sound made Q-b jump.

"Tata, are there really were wolves?" Q-b, decided to hide his overwhelming fear with the lack of their guide with scepticism. Being from London and all, raised up in a pretty well off household with his older twin brother looking for him, this was clearly not a life that involved anything supernatural- Especially werewolves. Although he could argue that there are some pretty unnatural things in his current situation, simply by being part of this academy.

Q-b's general curiosity over the universal 'amnesia' of the staff and students relating to how they ended up attending this academy had pushed him to conduct research on pretty much everything, and this included hacking into the school mainframe and pretty much all the other robots he could get his hands on – which, in the bigger picture would be every single android in this school, as he has sweet talked his way in as assistant technician with the receptionist, who had put him down as assistant technician straight away without consulting the technician and the Head Mistress. It was a risk that was well taken, with the sacrifice of Sue's trust; of course (that woman was livid at the fact that a student would be helping her with her much specialised job).

Thanks to that drive of curiosity, he's found out a few useful things and that to finding out these useful things he's been head-hunted by the leader of the academy rebellion and has been appointed a mission which now leads to his current, unfortunate situation: Sleep deprived, standing in front of the forest that surrounds the school, looking for signs of werewolves whilst trying to follow an incredibly annoying dwarf that walks faster than he does, despite being the one with the longer legs.

"He's no too far ahead of us- we need to be quite. Now shush." The miniature girl was probably smaller than Bayfur too – and she just over took Q-b's shaky footsteps, mashing against the forest soil. Thank goodness she was dressed in white, a blessing to follow in this malicious shadow of a forest rather than the darkly dress Bayfur. Looking for him would be near to impossible in this dim light. And with that in mind Q-b now felt that maybe Bayfur hadn't abandoned him and the small turret in the middle of a werewolf packed forest next to their closely insane academy. _Oh how I wish Stark and I were just back home._

"Here's a node!" The sound of Bayfur's voice being closer than anticipated was a sigh of relief for Q-b. A promise is a promise with this guy. "Hey, little one, are you sure you can cover a wide area for us?" Bayfur asked Tata, patting her head. "You don't seem so tough, but I can see you're not scared one bit- like Goggles here!" The dwarf laughed, still succeeding to be quiet at the same time. This was a true professional when lurking in the shadows whilst enjoying his company.

"I can detect the heart beats of creatures in a two-mile wide vicinity." Tata whispered over to the leader of the group.

"Oh, is that how you managed to keep up and follow Bayfur then?" Q-b asked.

"Nope, I just have good eye sight. I don't stare at computer screens for extended periods of time."

The dwarf in front snorted at the little child's witty remark. "This one is a serious laugh."

"My expression isn't always serious!" Tata's voice cried a little annoyed, but at the same time filled with a little bit of self-confidence, for making Bayfur laugh.

"I didn't get bad eye sight from staring at a computer screen for a long time either!" Q-b groaned, adding to the denial.

Q-b could hear Bayfur's foot steps ahead, scratching the surface of rock. The next set of steps heard were the long fall boots of Tata, who now stood still- her eyes and core lit up a bright red, coating the illuminated area of the forest with the colour of blood. Q-b felt his own mud covered shoes slide along the rock. He quickly lifted up the screen of his laptop, the monitor light also accompanying the red light that Tata emitted. In the corner of his eye Q-b could see Bayfur step away from the light of the bright monitor a little startled.

"Blimming heck, you two. It's like its sunrise already!" Bayfur stepped a few more feet backwards. Q-b focused back on his screen- it fizzled slightly.

They were at the destination of their appointed mission, set by Secret. Something she blabbered on about, called a node – high in energy, great for electrical disturbance and something to do with the lunar phases, and the rest of the timey-wimey,-wibbly-wobbly nonsense the school rebel leader spouted off the tip of her tongue.

This node was, in all its glory, a rock, neatly arranged in the middle of another set of rocks, in the formation of an imperfect circle- Q-b mentally note – and the special little rock had whet, Bayfur identified as an Elven language. Basically another whiff of the supernatural snuck up into his inner nasal cavity, providing his olfactory cells with some chemical volatile enough to send an action potential to his brain indicating this place reeked of supernatural-ness. Wanting to distract himself from the presence of magic, Q-b refocused on the familiar light from his monitor of his green laptop. He reverted back to the close line of fooling around in the middle of a werewolf infested forest and science; which was using Tata and her special awareness to record the energy fluctuations of this particular node they were sent to with the varying howls of the creatures that surrounded him.

Surrounded.

The forest that Felix warned the students not to go into, specifically instructing everyone, including Bayfur to stay away during night time, now reverberated with blood curdling howls. Q-b looked at the data in front of him. Tata's sensors that Sue had built into her, for unknown reasons, were highly sensitive and were extremely accurate with predicting just how far away from the node each elongated howl was – _those howls needed a large lung cavity to hold for such a long time_. Q-b thought.

"Werewolves are as tall as that Deputy Head fellow, the blonde goggles man." Bayfur chipped in, with the same concerned thoughts as Quiller's.

Great, these werewolves probably had super large stomachs too.

"One could probably eat four of you- because you lack so much muscle. Think of it as snack time with all of us – Tata was the toothpick." Bayfur laughed completely throwing off the fear that Q-b though Bayfur was feeling.

"For the love of God, will you be quiet- aren't you scared?!" The man with the glasses hissed as he tapped his lap top screen.

"Not so far now." Tata's unwavering voice came from behind. "Hurry up Q-b."

The screen showed a load of images. Quiller watched as each images was rapidly saved onto the hard drive of his laptop. Star charts and planetary systems flashed on the screen, circles and geometric patterns. Secret's Galifreyan.

A louder, closer howl was accompanied by the sound of metal scrapping against each other as Byafur changed the tip of his weapon to a more offensive 'head'. "Quickly lad."

Quiller continued to watch the flashing screen- the magic from the node was speeding up this special transfer.

_Who the hell is Secret?_ – She knows a lot more than he did. She probably knows a lot more than Felix and Sue about this universe.

A loud crash brought Q-b out of his bad habit of deep-thinking-during-dangerous- situations as he saw in the corner of his lenses, Tata narrowly dodging a padded palm of massive claws. It burrowed into the magical rocks.

Q-b quickly shut his laptop. "Let's get out of here!" He screeched.

Shoving the machine underneath his jumper he hoped that the transmission was still being processed and that it'd be completed soon- Bayfur's weapon slashed though the air above Quiler's head, as it made contact with the skull of the werewolf.

The dwarf landed back on his feet next to the human. "Where's the lass?"

"Follow me!" Tata's voice called from behind a rock. "We can hide here!"

Bayfur had killed off the first werewolf and there were more coming.

"What do you mean Tata! WE have to get out of this forest now!" Bayfur called back from the other side of the rock arrangement.

"There's a trap door!" She cooed. Her feet trampled over the metal door making the familiar sound of the school floor boards – a firm tap. It was enough to persuade the Dwarf and the human to join her side of the Node.

Quiller reached Tata first and skidded on his knees to try and pull the trap door open. "Augh! It won't budge!" He cried.

A rustle came from the bushes behind Tata.

Bayfur quickly reached for the handle and gave a loud shout as it swung open; the three of them dived in just as a werewolf had dived out from the bush behind Tata.

Everything happened quick and even quicker for Quiller as he held his eyes closed, as he tumbled down a flight of stairs hurt his chin and his elbow, trying to protect his laptop. He felt that he and Bayfur had made a few rough contacts along the way hearing his disgruntled shouts of pain as he also made his rugged way down the stairs. Quiller also heard the sound loud banging and scratching from the now closed trap door (he assumed it was closed – if it wasn't he'd probably be dead by now).

Q-b opened his eyes. Although both of the men were expecting the feeling of relief being safe and sound away from the hungry jaws of those forest monsters, a feeling of fear and worry hit them both. Their new location was dark and it echoed the question that came out from Bayfur's shaky throat.

"Where's Tata?"


	4. Art is Human?

_(It's awfully dusty here...)_

_The 'GLaDOS Yellow' crayon glided over the paper, as a small hand held it tightly like child. A bright sun was drawn against the sky blue, illuminating the lines of green on the bottom of the page. This section of the artistic piece contained scribbles of pink and yellow in random places, some having their own stalks and leaves. On the luscious green grass sat a thick line of a picnic rug. The soft blur and purple rug provided a comfortable place for the group of people who sat eating the bright orange basket of paper textured food. _

_There was a boy dressed in grey with a heart drawn on his chest, carefully drawn with the 'Companion Cube Pink' crayon. His brown hair is slightly merged in with pink and one side has a bit of light grey that belonged to another girl's head of hair. Her eyes were yellow and it appeared that she wore a grey dress, similar colours to the boy. She sat leaning on the boy with the heart. A viewer of the master piece would consider these two people to be a couple._

_There was another person that sat next to the couple, but not as close. This lady had dark brown hair and the rest of her body was coloured in with the 'Test Subject Orange' crayon. Her face had two brown dots and a black smudge of a creative attempt of glasses. The woman in orange is sat down with a large plate of brown, red and green lines, covered with a light layer of yellow showing a more stylised interpretation of a heap of sandwiches. A tall skinny man in grey sits next to her. His eyes are two rectangles of 'Wheatley Blue' – a hint of cubism from the artist as she conveys the theme of glasses. The man's hair is a spikey blonde – almost resembling the way the grass was drawn. The rest of his body is a lanky mess on the rug. _

_Then there is a drawing of a small girl clad in 'Turret White' with a 'Thermal Laser Red' core on her small chest. Her hair consists of straight lines of 'Mesa Black' crayon strokes._

_Sitting next to the small figure are two more ladies. Both used 'GLaDOS Yellow' for various elements. One consisted of long hair, with a few precise dots of 'Curiosity Yellow ', 'Morality Purple','Angry-ass Red' and 'Blue-isn't-the-right-colour-for-cakes-Blue' on the top of the head. This woman also consisted of dark greys. The other woman had more white and yellow eyes. This one was latched onto another person in green. He had brown curly hair – drawn in the same fashion as the clouds in the breath-taking background. He also had glasses, and these were properly drawn on to his green and blue eyes. The man also has a twin in the image but he is dressed in red, sitting next to the one in green, also latching to the green man. _

"That's a really detailed document of my drawing Orela."

Tata spoke as she read over Orela's shoulder with ease as she was allowed to stand on the edge of the chair and lean over her back to see the writer's notes.

Orela handed the drawing back to Tata.

"The school Technician will love this when you give it to her, well done Tata." She flashed one of her rare smiles – normally seen when she has documented something worth recording – maybe that's partly why Orela smiled.

_Every drawing Tata the Turret does shows significant signs of improvement and personality with each subject portrayed in her art – something truly unusual for any android. Hopefully Tata will draw me in one of her pictures one day. _

Orela Idris' note book was closed.


	5. Template Response

_(The Dust saturates the air we breathe...)_

* * *

_"Oh my puny, pathetic little android. You've done serving me well, but you're not as good as my darling Bradley now – I see you've taken a liking to that test subject I managed to snag out of one of the universes. Oh, it says you've made friends too. You feel happy with them? If you're able to feel happy then you can feel sadness and sorrow too. I want to see you sad. I'm bored of your happiness. Let's have a bit of sad, angry, power hungry orange, shall we, my Felix? A few explosions will be sure to kill them all off, damage their bodies and give them pain, you'll watch them die and you will enjoy it as much as I will – and when you're back to blue, I'd like to see you cry." A low female voice murmured a laugh in the pitch black. "You'll kill them all for me, my Felix."_

* * *

An android is never really fully in deep sleep-mode, not like the way Felix was. Being the school mainframe, Felix would have to handle a lot more data than the average robot-based student or staff. The amount of time he'd spend plugged into a charging port is also significantly more than any of the droids in the Academy.

No android could possibly replace him and his processing abilities.

"How on Earth could you possibly be sure he'd wake up?" A familiarly annoyed voice echoed through the room Felix 'slept' in. Judging by the way the sound waves bounced off the walls, there were people in _his_ room, and he simply hasn't just slept in his technician's room.

"Don't question me, kid. I've been working in this field a lot longer than you have. Felix will wake up any time now, just you wait and see." His technician's voice hissed back. Her voice was a lot closer to him and it made Felix relax knowing that it wasn't just Q-b and him alone in his room.

"Can't you just wake him up now? Can we not wait for him? It's urgent he needs to see this. Maybe he can help her!" Q-b's voice sounded less annoyed but more panicked this time.

"Tata will be fine." Her voice wasn't the usual brave tone either. "You and Bayfur will have to explain everything to us – when he wakes up."

Felix found the will to move the components in his neck to make the adequate noise of speech: "What's going on?"

His sky blue optics flickered open, catching glimpse of the technician and her frown on his left side, and another glimpse of the student technician slowly edging his way towards Felix.

Felix unplugged himself from the charge port and stood up looking at the technicians. The female one looked away quickly staring at the tiled floor of the room. Felix's initial response to this was to hold her by the shoulders bending down suddenly concerned by her response to him waking up. Normally there would be a smile and occasionally a hug or on rare occasions a kiss on the cheek. But today she looked sad. "What's the matter Tech, what happened?" Felix asked suddenly more nervous than usual. "What's wrong, Tech?"

Q-b gave a cough, and Felix unintentionally shot a glare at the man. Q-b pushed his glasses up the rim of his nose, averting his gaze from Felix and to the female technician. "Can you show him Tata, Sue?"

"My name isn't 'Sue', kid." The technician hissed as she wriggled out of Felix's grasp. She grabbed hold of Felix's hands and looked up at his face.

"Whilst you were c-charging three students went out to the forests during the night and they were attacked b-by w-werewolves…" The brunette hiccupped and stuttered as she broke down into tears. "I don't know if I can bring Tata's memories back Felix…" The technician sobbed. "Please can you go and see her…"

"She's in the Tech's room." Q-b added.

Felix felt as if his had their pistons and pivots unscrewed – _now isn't the time to wobble and fall Wescott_- Felix pulled his technician into a tight hug. "Don't worry Tech, I'm sure I can help little Tata. You've probably done the hard stuff anyways." He placed his hand under her chin and lifted it up. Her hazel eyes were shiny with the tears and her lips were pressed into a hard line, supressing more tears. A woman Felix should be so familiar with seemed like a vulnerable stranger now that she was crying. "Come on." He said, holding her up with an arm around her shoulder as they walked to the exit of his room into the lift. Q-b followed behind and pressed the button for the ground floor. Felix chanced a look at his face and it seemed that he was close to tears too. – He also had scratches.

The technicians were in a negative mood and one of them had injuries. Felix felt a pang of – he didn't know what it was exactly, but he didn't like it, that feeling in his core. It was as if every step he took towards his Technician's room was telling him to stop, but he had to keep going. _Hold on Tata._ Felix continued to gently pull the woman he was supporting along the corridor.

The three of them exited the glass doors of the Science block and made their way to the Art block. They walked on the gravel path silently, as the Technician stopped crying. She walked ahead of the two men (after she had wriggled out of Felix's shoulder hug).

"Isn't this the Art Block, hey, Sally -" Although the Technician's job revolve around science, her room was in the basement of the Art Block. "Quiller I don't know what the hell you and Bayfur did last night but you two are gonna pay if she doesn't wake up!" She growled back. They walked towards a door at the shadowy end of the ground floor of the block and the agitated woman kicked open the door to a flight of stairs. She stood back to let them both through.

Q-b took his first steps down the stairs, followed by Felix. Felix knew what was coming next.

"I'll meet you both down stairs." Her, now less shaky voice called back – and it almost seemed to call out from the wide gap over the railings. Q-b instinctively turned his head back to see the Technician leap off the railings. "H-HEY RHIANNA!" He scuttled over to the safety rail, as Felix side stepped past him on the stairs. The woman landed on her feet at the bottom and continued to walk down another corridor. Q-b blinked. "Mr. Wescott. Is she angry – is that her when she's angry?!" Q-b called down. It seemed that both of them liked to get down pretty quickly, Felix seemed to just glide down the steps.

Felix just wanted to see what was wrong with Tata.

Q-b reached the bottom and he walked down the dark grey corridor to the light that shone through the open door. "Where is she?" He heard Felix's voice.

"Over here, sir!" Another male voice echoed down the corridor as Q-b walked increasingly slower. He hadn't seen Tata since he and Bayfur brought her in – in the state she was in, the Technician instantly took her away to be repaired.

He edged closer.

"She isn't saying anything!" A sob from a girl – it sounded like Leslie Bloodwell, one of Q-b's classmates.

Quiller walked in to see Merudo smoking his pipe. "Did you get her into this?" His voice was calm but the teacher's eye brows were furrowed into deep worry. Q-b didn't say anything and he stared at Merudo to follow his gaze.

He stared at a long drape of velvet curtain, hanging from the ceiling. There were people behind it; the area that wasn't drawn exposed the shivering back of Leslie, Orela's calm back and Kyuu, whose long trail of a contract draped behind him onto the floor. "Tata said she would sign this contract when she came back from the woods."

"Woods?" Felix's voice came from the other side of the rooms with the sewing machines. The school Technician sat by him typing furiously onto her laptop. "Why were you in the woods!?" Felix's fists were clenched.

Bayfur immediately stood up from his corner, behind Quiller. "We can explain, but Secret needs to be here!"

Quiller looked down at his friend that joined him in his forest mission. "She sent us out there for something important!"

There was no way Tata would refuse if Secret had asked her to do a favour. Tata wouldn't reject asks for help from her friends. Orela looked at the Technician over at the sewing machines and then at Q-b. "At least come over here and see if Tata will respond to your voice, Quiller." Her red eyes locked onto him as she stepped aside from what seemed to be where the Technician slept, to reveal Tata's small body lying awake on the bed – well she seemed awake, her eyes were wide open. Quiller stepped forwards towards her. He felt so guilty. "Tata I-"

"Stop." The rebel leader walked into the technician's room.

C.C slid off the table. Kyuu stopped in the middle of rolling up his contract. Every one of the Secret Club members stopped what they were doing. Felix watched everybody's reaction to Secret and the only thing that could be heard was the fast tapping of buttons on the key board of the stressed orange woman by the sewing machines.

"You knew this was going to happen didn't you?!" Q-b yelled. "What exactly did you want us to get for you?!"

"Blue prints. I can fix her." Secret stood her ground.

"- and you're going to have to use Mr. Wescott aren't you?" The technician pushed her chair back, scraping the cold concrete floor and stood up. "Everybody out."

Merudo held the door open as the hopeless sound of dragged feet made their way out of the room. "You too C.C." The technician's voice croaked, holding back another wave of tears.

"But Tata needs m-" He argued. He never talked back.

"Out Cube." She stamped her foot.

C.C's face went from sadness to a bright red face of anger – the size of the heart of his core remained the same small size, but just slightly vibrated faster whilst he leapt out of the room, slightly crashing against the dark corridor walls to catch up with his friends that were sent out.

The door was shut.

"Secret." Felix spoke. "Why did you send them out to the woods at night?" He looked down at her straight expressionless face – then it suddenly switched to an expression so enthusiastic that it caught him off guard.

"Tata helped me get some very valuable information, Mr. Wescott, even information to _fix _anything!" She giggled. "I just need to link yourself up to Q-b's laptop, Mr. Wescott! "

Nobody detected the manic edge to her voice.

Q-b and Bayfur stayed at the door listening to the conversation through the crack of the door. That's their queue. The Technician's voice called out a calm 'come back in, please'.

"Oh I see what she's going to do." Q-b whispered to Bayfur. "Don't follow me. "

"Why not?"

"Every rebellion requires a lot of sacrifices, Bayfur."

"Lad, I'm not getting what you're trying t-"

"Quick Bayfur, please leave!"

Quiller pushed the door open and shut it quickly just in case his Dwarven friend tried to go in with him. "Edith, you know me so well." Quiller had long given up on her name and handed her his laptop hesitantly.

Felix was soon connected and Secret held control of the green laptop.

She sat down at the end of the Technician's bed, crinkling the light blue duvet where Tata lay. Felix stood beside Tata. He looked down at his friend's empty expression. Tata just looked like a doll, her hair spread out on the pillow and her line of sight stared in a never ending concentration at the blank celling. Her lips weren't in a smile, speaking to him about all the animals she saw at the edge of the forest. Her arms weren't moving, attempting to shake his hand just to get dwarfed by his. She wasn't trying to practice cartwheels or climbing on his back. She certainly wasn't making that high pitched buzzing noise.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" The shrill voice of the technician pulled Felix's line of sight away from his friend to his technician. But as he turned to look he caught sight of the source of the buzzing – the footsteps to Q-b and his Technician echoed through the pick-ups in his ears. Q-b Yelled, his lover shouted, and Secret grinned as watched her point the Sonic Screw driver at the green laptop.

Felix opened his mouth.

_Template_

"Hello."

_Response_

Tata opened her mouth

"Hello. I see you."

_Turret reset complete_

The familiar sound of Tata's guns had emerged from her hands, and although they were all too used to her shooting at targets with no fear of getting hurt, things were different this time. The bullets pierced through the air and ultimately pierced flesh.

Then the sound of three bodily thuds hit the concrete floor of the art basement.


	6. I did it for Her

_(Shake the dust away, my child...)_

The autumn leaves swirled around in the wind outside the school cafeteria. It's a new school year and the students that currently attend the Academy sit in the room eating their lunch, however it's not in peace.

A young lady wearing a recognisable red fez on her chocolate brown hair stood above the eye-line of the seated students. Her voice was raised, addressing the whole room of munching mouths – talking about memory loss and fighting as she stood on the table.

A pair of curious eyes watched the noisy girl step up from her seat onto her table – "We have to find out what the heck this Academy is on about!" – Leslie timidly looked away from the rebel student as soon as they made eye contact. Without long hair to hide her face she focused on her newly made friend that she had met the week before, when classes had begun for the rest of the year.

"What's that student shouting about?" Leslie whispered down to her left. Her plastic fork twizzled with the cold spaghetti as she felt the loud student's stare again.

From across the table (and the noisy student's view) it seemed like the short haired brunette was talking to herself, but as the loud student had caught her asking the protesting stopped filling the canteen room as the now quietened protestor looked down at Leslie and the hidden student sat on the seat next to her.

Tata looked at Leslie and gave her a subtle shrug. "I do not know, Leslie" Tata bluntly spoke and she turned her body to the additional student. "Why are you shouting in the canteen?"

"I'm talking about a rebellion!" She spoke loudly, so all the other students could hear. "You're pretty small to join but at the same time I can sense that you two have incredible fighting power!"

Leslie shivered at this comment. She doesn't know how to fight, nor would she fight for some stranger, especially in a school she had worked so hard into getting a place for.

_Why did she want to come to this Academy again? _

Leslie pushed the thought to the back of her mind as soon as she realised she was being spoken to.

"What?" She exclaimed as she perked her head up away from the spaghetti to the lady asking for her name.

"I said 'what's your name?'- I'm Secret, what are you two called?" Secret adjusted her fez as she repeated herself, smiling a little to hyperly down at the seated girls.

"I'm Leslie Bloodwell." She smiled back, hoping to make a new friend.

The same applied to Tata. "I am Tata the Turret, hello." Her small voice sung, also with a timid smile peeking at the edges of her lips.

"Huh? A Turret? What's that? You don't look like a turret to me, kid." Secret laughed. She gave a smile to Leslie.

"I am an Aperture Turret Android and I- " Tata eagerly provided more evidence to her 'Turret' status.

"Oh- robot, android, whatever, lemme ask you something: Do you remember why you came to this Academy or how you got here?" Secret bent down to look at Tata, her smile half as big as before. Her voice had a slight air of urgency to it.

Leslie sat back waiting eagerly for Tata's response.

"That part of my data cannot be found, sorry." Tata sat back and adjusted her cuffs, looking a little distressed that she couldn't provide such information.

Leslie sat up. "I'm the same! I can't remember how I got here or why I applied for a place, Tata!"

The two girls sat at the table looked at each other with a sheepish smile seeing as they have another thing in common, made them feel a little tiny bit relaxed until Secret speaks again:

"This is why we need a rebellion."

The two girls look up at her.

"Nobody in this school remembers how they got here."

A shiver ran down Leslie's back – and if Tata could experience the same feeling – that would have also happened to her.

"We need to find out what's going on here! The only person that hasn't told me the truth is the Head Mistress of this wretched Academy! " Secret growled. "He told me that she was bad news the moment she was birthed into existence."

Leslie stood up. "I don't know what you're talking about… Secret, but if you may excuse us" – Leslie moved past her quickly, bringing Tata who didn't eat anything, with her. "We need to go to class now. It's the end of lunch."

Secret sighed. "You two aren't any good either, why does everybody keep rejecting me?" She mumbled loudly to herself.

Leslie felt a tang of guilt. Everyone was new to this Academy and some students didn't have any friends. Secret was obviously one of them.

"I guess you can't remember anything either – but there's no need for a rebellion Secret! We'll help you find out about the school, so we can get more evidence and help!" Leslie grinned.

"Let's be friends."

The three girls smiled as the contents of the canteen hall emptied out to their classes.

"Well if we're going to be friends, and I can't form a rebellion, let's make a club!" Secret called out.

Tata and Leslie walked towards their class as they heard down the corridor the confident and cheerful voice of their new friend; "IT'S GONNA BE CALLED THE SECRET CLUB, YOU HEAR ME?"


	7. A Recipe for Time and Space

_(Can you breathe in this?)_

* * *

The windows lit one half of the dim classroom, letting the day light filter in through its blinds onto the desks close by. At the end of the classroom, the sunlight manages to cast its energy upon the pages of a red note book, a hand concentrating on writing such speedy notes. Each letter showed its deep grooves onto the yellow pages due to its angle against the sun. The girl's red eyes were locked onto her writing, trailing just behind her fountain pen as she read over her notes rapidly. Her soft caramel hair hung down on either side of her face as Orela leant over her note book. Each new page would cause her to move her arms and with extra effort, she had to push her poncho out the way. However the intense zone Orela dwelled in whilst she wrote didn't seem to be disrupted by moving her poncho aside each page – and she made her way through a page fairly fast.

There was another small figure standing small beside the occupied desk. This little girl was a contrast to Orela who, although sat down in complete focus with her notebook, was not as still as the doll like girl with the white beanie hat. Tata stared Orela, standing by her right facing the light, which made the top of her hat glow as it mirrored the brightness of the light. The rest of her short body was hidden behind Orela's hunched-over shadow. She held up something that seemed to glow against the light from the window, like a statuette.

"Orela what are you writing down?" Kyuu poked his curious head around the corner of the empty class room. He never really made the effort to talk to the girls that weren't classified as 'alive' or girls that didn't have a soul, like Tata, but for this occasion he'd have to talk to Tata.

Only one of the two heads turned to look at him from the corner closest to the window. Her large red eyes glowed under Orela's still shadow, blinking, almost as if she felt obliged to answer Kyuu's question instead, but waiting for him to direct the question at her.

"Tata, what is Orela writing down?" Kyuu repeated his question to Tata.

"She is taking down notes from the book we found in the hidden library." Tata stared back at Kyuu's unwavering smile on his pale face. "I have found a feature on one of my arms that let me replay images or footages from my memory bank." She turned back to see Orela lean back, with a frown on pulling down on what was her normally inquisitive but penultimate-to-blank expression. "What's wrong Orela?" Tata tiptoed, still holding her arm out to let Orela copy down and recapitulate any vital information from the small screen hidden away by the polymer shield on her arm.

"It's all circles." Orela blankly stared at the screen. "Each circumference and radius differs but they all join together at precise angles and intervals."

Tata withdrew her arm, listening to Kyuu's footsteps edge towards them. His calm voice spoke. "There's a race that uses circular symbols as a form of language." He said with a smile on his face. This peculiar smile on his face showed that he knew how to read this kind of tongue, in all probability.

Orela sat up straight, and stared at Kyuu. "Do you know someone from this particular race, Kyuu?" A dome of thick black ink left the nib of her fountain pen, slowly sinking into the sunlit page at the end of her tidily written sentence, as a full stop. The pen was elevated off the page, and her red eyes swiftly moved off her familiar notebook to stare at Kyuu. "Or maybe you can read them, and I'll write down what you say." Orela got up – exposing little Tata to the sunlight – any normal person who has stayed in the shade away from the sun would look away and squint, but Tata just merely stayed wide-eyed, focusing on Orela.

Kyuu smiled "Not many incubators have made contracts with the race I speak about – plus I don't know if it's the language you wish to translate, Orela…" He smiled.

Orela walked to the desk in front of her and pulled the plastic chair from under the smooth desk and indicated Kyuu to sit down. "It's worth a try. Sit down, your legs might get fatigued, there's a hefty number of symbols to decipher in this book. "

Kyuu gulped, slightly confused. "What are we doing?" as he sat down and straightened his red velvet tie. Orela pulled away and sat back at her desk. "You can read off Tata. Please read what the circles say."

Tata tilted her head. "I'll move to the next desk then?" She progressed after seeing Orela's affirmative nod. Her pen was at the ready hovering over the yellow pages again – so Tata quickly ran to Kyuu's side and quickly tip-toed up to him, holding out her arm. Kyuu stared at the small screen. "Time is a treasure… "

The sound of pen scratching paper was resumed.

"Use each gem of it wisely,

And your dreams will come true."

Kyuu stopped and leaned back. Tata also stepped back from Kyuu. Both seem to look towards the classroom door. The sound of writing stopped once more and the writer sat up again. "What's wrong?" Orela followed their gaze.

There by the doorway stood a lady – of who was one of Tata's early friends in the academy. She stood leaning by the doorway, half in and half out, as if she was just blocking the door on purpose. Her pale arms were folded across her chest, and comfortably held there like a strait jacket, underneath, her red braces held her brown tartan shorts up. The red fez sat on top her scruffy brown hair balanced nicely one side of head as she leaned on the blue frame of the door.

Tata's expression quickly changed from vigilant and wary to openhearted – as Orela mentally noted. Orela felt that Tata would be a useful source for more than the field of robotics and target training. Tata may actually be displaying signs of emotion within friendship – and Orela would be ready to take notes of this when Tata realises and acknowledges that she can show these sentiments. But for now there were more imperative matters to attend to.

Orela was too slow, due her slight derailing in her train of thoughts, to speak up and ask why Secret was standing by the door watching them.

"Secret!" Tata exclaimed as she hopped over to her friend. Kyuu and Orela watched them. "What are you doing here?" Tata's voice bounced off the heavy blocks of silent air and concrete walls. Secret laughed. "I wanted to ask if you could do me a favour." Secret looked up from Tata to the corner of the room. She still had a smile on her face – the usual, enthusiastic yet reticent smile.

Tata grinned back facing the two. "I'm sure we can be of help, Secret." Orela guessed Tata couldn't pick up the malicious side of emotions as well as she could hear the heart beats of living organisms – a strange analogy crossed her mind, despite her lack of emotional understanding.

"What would you like us to do?" Orela sat up, closing her book, ready to listen to her request.

Secret beamed.

"I'll help you translate that chronograph of Galifreyan if you go into the woods and gather information from a special site." Secret watched the two students' faces remain calm.

"I don' think the teachers would let -"

Tata interrupted Kyuu almost in excitement.

"The woods? Oh yes – I'll help you!" Tata called out enthusiastically.

This is bad, Orela thought. This was the friend that Tata had already whole-heartedly trusted and admired. "Tata, what about the notes?"

"I'll complete this mission and then Secret will translate it for us." She chirped.

Kyuu stood up "I'll go too."

Tata had already walked out of the classroom.

"Oh, I only asked for one of you, now that I've gotten Tata I'm all fine." The brown haired lady snickered as she pushed herself up from her lazy pose on the door frame whilst straightening her silk red bow tie. She stepped back and shut the door.

A minute of silence passed the two remaining students in the class room. Their secondary source was just hoisted up and away from them by somebody who had the potential to translate the notes themselves. The felt as if they were just freely robbed. They couldn't go back to the library, it was too risky.

"You know what I found most disturbing?" Kyuu still has his back to Orela, as he sat in front of her. "I locked the door from the inside when I entered, so on one could interrupt you." He held out the class room card key in his hand.

"- and that lady is part of the race I spoke about – except that race is extinct."

Orela looked out of the window – the sun was low, ready to hide behind the horizon to give way for the night. A purple full moon could be seen in the distance as the orange and blues amalgamated along with its rising.

"There's also another unsettling thought that crossed my mind – Secret didn't state when they were going into the woods."

Orela pulled out another book from underneath her crimson poncho. It was bound with black leather and half the size of her red book. She opened it and flicked through its blank pages, reaching a section in the book which was clearly written on – "Students are not allowed in the woods at night." Orela read out her rule book.

Kyuu looked at her and although he smiled a hint of confusion and hint of typicality towards Orela were reflected in his eyes. "You copied out the rule book?"

"I like to read things in my own hand writing." She hid both books under her poncho and made her way to the exit of the class room. "I know Tata can take care of herself." Orela sighed "I just hope Secret will keep her side of the bargain."


	8. The Dragging Motion

The sense of movement was undeniable. Rough material grinded past skin and sent sensory neurones sent those peripheral signals to the brain. The direction of movement and the amount of pressure were messages sent back to the central nervous system. Irritation is one of the feelings the brain picks up. The body reacts by attempting to push the area of friction away from the ground – Quiller yelped as a reaction to using his arm to push him upper half of his body off the ground.

"You're awake!" Merudo's voice croaked from the darkness – well Quiller could only see black – he tried to open his eyes. It was dark indeed. His blue and green eyes just saw darkness for a good ten minutes before they adjusted to the light. His dilated pupils gazed down into the abyss of the night sky, reflecting the celestial constellations on the crystal sheen of collecting tears produced from his eyes. "Why did this have to happen to us?" He sobbed feeling the pain of what could easily be bullet holes in his leg and on his arm – which he stupidly used to try and push himself up.

Q-b remembered everything. He had pushed himself so hard just to save himself and his twin brother. After satisfying his curious thirst by breaking into the hidden library in school, he knew that by simply being under the watchful eye of the Head Mistress many lives were endangered, so he hacked and pulled strings as much as he could alongside his twin to keep them as safe as possible- even by getting a place as a student and as a member of 'staff'. However back then he didn't care about other people. It was only until he had needed the help of his new allies – which were mainly the rebellion group whom also held his interests of overthrowing the power from the Head – which he realised that this fight for safety would require sacrifices.

That paradigm of sacrifice lay at the back of his consciousness for a couple of months and now it remerged from the comfort of forgetfulness thanks to Tata – and how she had simply been used as a body guard for his safety and had been used and disposed of by the very person Tata considered one of her very few 'best friends'. Androids don't work well with emotions and he knew, by simply working beside the school technician, androids had tried extremely hard to reach the emotional and social norm.

The one thing that had out his mind to ease was the guaranteed safety of his twin brother. That was one fact; all the others seemed to blend together. It's as if the world he currently lived in was just a fabrication of a darker side of his mind. He knew he was smart, and he knew what his brain was capable of. Everyone had this latent ability with their well-developed brains. Just one mutation in a base pair in a chimpanzees' DNA caused a different amino acid to be interjected into the normal sequence. Now the protein has taken a different shape, the human brain becomes more developed.

Well-developed emotions were one of the results of this mutation, an encumbrance to people like Quiller.

Quiller cried staring at the purple hazy sky. There were three stars sitting in a row; Orion's belt. Tata had a favourite character called Orion, Quiller recalled suddenly. It was a black bird with gleaming yellow eyes – Tata happily described it to him during one of their check-ups together.

A brave bird:

Aello the pokemon trainer in the school was linked to that phrase. Quiller's mind was set into a memory stack as he took parts away and reassembled parts of sentences to relate to other people. Brave Bird was a move that a flying type pokemon could use – what on earth was a pokemon – he'd never know for sure, but Brave Bird caused huge damage to the enemy and then recoil would be received – Tata gave up her virtual health for Secret – and possibly her mind especially after what happened. She fought against were wolves and got hurt for Bayfur and him. She had protected the Technician also from something they kept a secret about.

The more he thought about the logic applied to the students and teachers from different backgrounds in the school the more he questioned reality.

"Sue…" He whined as he sat upright. He was in the room, Secret was in the room, Felix… and the Technician were there too when Tata was reset. He wasn't worried one bit about Felix. After seeing the kind of outdoor experiments he conducted, he was sure that Mr 'Wescott' was practically bullet-proof. Secret was a half-and-half subject to worry about. Whatever she did to his laptop caused Tata to go haywire – or that was a ridiculously time coincidence. Then there was 'Mary' – Quiller lightly brought his good arm up to give himself a face palm. Her name doesn't matter now, he thought. The authenticity of this life he was living is distorted.

"Merudo… is that technician alright?" Quiller hiccupped as he tried to stop his sobs. How he wished MMAI was here to just tease him and get him lightly frustrated. He'd rather be annoyed than sad. Couldn't he just conjure her up from his mind now?

"Err, that giant fella brought her out. She seemed fine, but he didn't." Merudo coughed. Quiller stared at him, the light may have been scarce but he could swear that Merudo was covered in dirt – and blood stains as Quiller was. The pain felt real, or was that the power of his mind working its way, sending false signals. Everything slowly seeped into lies the more he looked up towards the sky.

"Where's Bayfur?" He mindlessly asked, trying to ignore the pain.

"He went off somewhere."

It seemed like Quiller's mind could create almost anything. The Hobbit in front of him was acting strange – his voice was edgy yet clung desperately to his usual air of calm. You can't hide the pain, his own brain created for the substitute he was talking to. "Tell me what happened…!"

Merudo sighed and shook his head. "I'll be honest; I don't really know. Tata was awake and she blew a hole from inside Tech's room and escaped from there onto the school grounds." The expression on his face grew a little more fervent, leaning towards fear. "… and she went on a rampage." Merudo's voice grew quiet.

A malevolent chill caressed its way down Quiller's spinal cord, spreading from the centre of his torso to the sides of his shoulders and rob cage, affecting the recent breath he decided to let out after a while of coming to terms with the words he heard. The amalgamation of the thought of Tata and a recent rediscovery of his luck of translating some of the node data he unwillingly downloaded onto his laptop made this particular shiver feel tenfold malicious.

'No. I don't want this to be real. My brain is overdoing this.'

"What do you mean…?" Quiller's voice broke holding back another cry.

"She killed everyone."

Then Quiller blacked out, almost hoping to have regained his mind and have the power to shut off.


	9. What the moon watches

Quiller woke up startled. The darkness that met his knowingly open eyes made his breathing rate increase. The air he breathed in so ruggedly made him gag and choke. This wasn't the field outside the art building on the school grounds. It was just black. Did he fall back asleep? Did the shock of what he heard make him faint? He didn't like contemplating on such trivial weaknesses, but in a situation like this he hoped to himself that maybe he wouldn't be the only one to faint when you were given the news that all your friends had been killed by another. His sobbing grew louder in the silent blackness. Quiller held his quivering hands across his mouth as he hyperventilated. The hitched sounds made by his spasmic-state diaphragm bounced off walls, creating an echo. Suddenly as he tried to take in the one sense he could trust, one question was answered; Quiller wasn't on the grass anymore. He clamped his mouth shut, his uneven, sharp breathing only escaping as small hisses through his nostrils. Quiller then slowly removed his hands and cautiously touched the ground he lay upon.

His trembling finger tips brushed against familiar man made materials. There was the smooth touch or rubber, which encase the copper wires inside of it. The rounded, elongated forms stayed glued to the ground. Quiller could move his hand over part of its unknown length – there were a bundle of wires – he came to know this by hitting a hard, plastic tie, holding the cylindrical shapes together. Between the wires was the cold, rough texture of concrete. The hardness of the ground contrasted with the moss that grew on it; soft and moist. Or was it moss? He couldn't really tell, this may as well be his second time feeling moss. The first time was when he first entered the forest last night.

Not only did his new unknown environment cause him to panic, the thought of the amount of time passing by caused him to hold his breath once more to prevent him from crying. He moved his hand back up to cover his mouth and his sleeves rubbed against his sweater making a sound.

That sound was also repeated in another area of Quiller's sharp hearing. He froze.

Quiller held him mouth shut tightly as if somebody had punched him there. His fingers dug into his flesh, contorting his features. As bad as he looked when he was nervous, this would have been far worse and far more bewildered a look to gaze upon. Quiller had never sensed this much fear, and it was quickly rising to the top of his head, wanting to well out of his tear ducts and his mouth as discreditable howling. But he couldn't, for his ears had identified that there was something moving in the darkness. Quiller compressed himself to be as still as he could ever be and listened for further noises.

There was breathing and another sound of the low subtle hiss of fabric rubbing against other unknown materials in the dark.

"uhhh. What happened…?"

Quiller let himself go. Exhalation had never felt so good. It was Bayfur's voice.

"Hullo?" Quiller welcomed the voice as it bounced off the walls.

"Boy am I glad to see you alive!" Quiller laughed lightly, completely dismissing their current situation. Quiller popped his own bubble of happiness with another trail of thought entering his head. Where on earth were they? He could feel his face crimple back into a frown.

"I think Tata has held them off. You've been whimpering and crying in that corner for ages, young lad." Bayfur sighed. "I was just waiting in the silence hoping you'd wake up."

What?

"You took an awful bump on the head when we went through that trap door."

There was a painful whine coming from the ceiling of the dark tunnel they sat in, followed by one gun shot. It was familiar and it sent sudden fear through the whole of Q-b's body. It was Tata's gun shots; she killed everyone and she was still on the rampage. Quiller found himself holding his arm where he was shot. It was a natural instinct to cover up the wound and he immediately regretted it because he knew what the pain would feel like from a slight tap to the hit area. His finger traced the bicep of his left arm; there was no pain. His moments on his arm became less prudent as he rolled up his sleeves. The skin was moist, covered in sweat and the Goosebumps were the only texture he felt on his arm.

"My arm…!?" He hissed at himself.

"What happened?" The stoic tone to Bayfur's voice left and there was the tone of concern. "What did you do? Are you hurt?"

"I should have been shot." The young man's reply whined in confusion towards the hobbit.

A laugh escaped the Hobbit. "You got hit by a lot more dust than I expected. Maybe that's what got you out-cold, lad."

"What do you mean dust?"

"Didn't that lass tell you about the side effects of being connected to the node?" This was getting out of hand. Did Bayfur know something he doesn't about this mission?

"What is dust?" Quiller growled. He pushed up his glasses attempting to search for the Hobbit that sounded like he was surrounding him at all angles, due to the way the tunnel delivered sound around the space.

Quiller very rarely trusted the other students, he knew himself well. So when he asked that Secret had covered all the details of this mission he was sure that it was complete. Turns out she had missed out one fine thread of information; something Orela would have no problem missing and informing people she relied on – if she were to have handed out this mission. Q-b also knew that Secret wasn't stupid.

"The Dust surrounding the nodes induces hallucinations." Secret had clearly explained that to Bayfur. "So I held my breath whenever I stepped into the ring surrounding the node." He wouldn't have gathered that information from first time experience. She had told him. "If you breathe in the Dust it'll only be a matter of time before you lose consciousness and begin hallucinating – or it can happen the other way round." Did she miss this out by accident?

Quiller burrowed his throbbing head into his palms, wiping off the nervous sweat he kept on perspiring. His head ached the more he thought about what he had allegedly dreamt of or hallucinated.

"So… I began to hallucinate and then we fell into here?" He croaked. "Where is Tata?"

Just as Quiller uttered the name of the turret another sound accompanied Tata's name; it was the sound of metal creaking open, scratching against hinges and rocks that crackled down the surface of the metal hatch that was opening. Moon light poured in though the rectangular hole, illuminating the steps that the Hobbit and the young man tumbled down on. The ground below them was indeed covered in wires and little bits of dead plant material. It wasn't as damp as Quiller thought it was. The light above the two academy members was obstructed by a small albeit familiar silhouette of a blood covered Tata.

Wolves didn't tear her apart.

"I am right here, are you all right?" moved downwards the metal stairs, using both her legs to slide down each step, like a toddler getting down the stairs. As she moved down towards a more visible vantage point the light brought out red features that Quiller and Bayfur shuddered at.

"You're covered in -" Quiller was interrupted by the turret. "-Red paint. I know." Quiller let out a heavy breath through his nose, making a hiss, almost as if suppressing a laugh or in anger. Tata carefully trod over the wires. "Where is the laptop Q-b?"

The young man turned his head quickly scanning his surroundings for it. It was only now that he remembered that he had brought it with him. His curly bangs bounced around as his movements became more tediously panicked. Quiller briefly remembered that he tucked the laptop underneath his jumper; he quickly patted his abdomen and torso. Nothing. "I don't have it!" he yelped, and instinctively stumbled his way towards the stairs. It was almost like he had swapped legs with Felix, with such clumsy, flimsy moments. Quiller let out an aggravated groan as he hit his knee on a metal step.

"Where are you going?!" Quiller could hear Bayfur call after him. Tata stepped aside, watching the two scramble up the stairs. Bayfur hesitantly looked at Tata, she gave a nod indicating that she had taken care of what she had to take care of. No wolves out here.

The slab of rock surrounded by 16 other smaller rocks reflected the silver moonlight. There was no green slab of technology left around however. It was gone.

The moon hung emotionless in the sky. It didn't care what had happened on the earth below. It just watched the man with glasses scream in anger, breathing heavily in a rage. The moon watched the three of the Secret Club's agents fail their mission in retrieving data from this node.

Little did the three know that the beautiful, unwavering moon had also watched somebody lay their paws on Q-b's laptop and the vast amount of alien data.


	10. The Ghost and the Hell Hound

The sky above the tower was illuminated a light pink hue. It was dawn. The clouds rolled in the sky trapped by the gravity of the planet. The stars were still visible, and there was the second brightest object in the sky: The planet Venus. The staff that lived in the tower knew vast amounts of knowledge about astrology, and the paths of the stars and planets. Turns out the planet you see in the sky now, could also be visible at dusk. People of the past have thought that these were two different entities, and thus there was the Morning Star and the Evening Star. The morning star was called Lucifer, being named after God's right-hand angel. Many years passed tracing the morning and evening star, and it seemed that the pathway it made in the sky was of that of a pentagram.

The school technician was balanced on three homemade cushions on her bed tiptoeing to just see the planet hang in the pink sky as the sun rose. Where did she learn about Venus again, was it from Avilana or Merudo? Maybe it was from that smart student Orela; she had tonnes of information ready to whip out. She remembered an argument being broken up with just one random fact about Mistletoe: about how it was actually toxic. The technician didn't know if this was true or not, but if she ever had the spare time to find some in the forest and see the concentrations of whatever chemicals it had in it, then maybe she'd believe Orela. For now it remained a symbol of kissing at Christmas.

It wasn't unusual for the school technician to be up this early. She had specific systems linked to her laptop the same way they were linked to Felix; the man second-in-command under the Head Mistress. Boilers had sensors delivering messages to her laptop. The generators also had this hooked up to them, and so did each individual android that was registered as part of the school body, ironically enough so was Miss LeMon, who was the administrative manager of the school. Someone who monitors the school system is also being monitored.

All checks seemed to be in place, all except one. Tata was not plugged into her charge port for the whole night. This wasn't the first time this has happened. Tata was one of the students who had a long weekly battery-life, and they'd disappear on the week-ends sleeping for long hours. The technician giggled at the thought of her all-nighters from university. That was her life too, no sleep on week days, get as much work done, sleep off the stress on the week-ends. Thank God for week-ends.

That was enough stargazing, the technician jumped off her squashed tower of cushions and landed on her bed, lightly bouncing from the shockwaves from her fall. She sighed as she sat up and pulled on her long-fall boots, adjusting each strap carefully as if putting on roller-blades. She was already in her orange jumpsuit and ready to catch Tata off guard in her dorm, by asking her to put Cerberus- the very reason she stayed 'awake' and fully active- away and let Leslie take care of him.

The technician drew the curtains around her bed concealing it from her make shift classroom, like a concealing a patient behind curtains in a hospital wing. Half of the classroom was dedicated to cookery, consisting of stoves and work surfaces. The wiring and piping were all done by her. The other half consisted of tables with sewing machines neatly squeezed next to each other for the textiles clubs she taught. Then there was another corner that served as her office, where the androids would normally have their regular check-ups. It was conveniently next to her bedroom, behind the purple velvet curtains, so with late night sessions she could simply sleep with a sweep of fabric after the android or androids had left. Overall it was a huge basement, still baring enough room for two tailor's mannequins and a few of Felix's dangerous devices undergoing minor surgery to make sure they aren't harmful. (Normally checking if they won't blow up and putting in the right amount of thermistors to stop overheating and all the razzmatazz she had to check up on with health and safety.)

Although it was big room with many dangerous appliances that could easily start a fire, the technician admits that this room is a silly place to host such clubs especially cookery, but with such facilities not freely available in the school she has no choice. She also has no choice but to deal with just one way of an entrance, if there was ever a fire it'd be extremely difficult to escape it that door was blocked. It has its draw-backs and perks but that is not what the technician plans to focus on today. There was still the issue of a sleepless Tata.

Tata was the first android the Technician had ever taken care of, and Tata did strum certain heart strings. This was albeit slightly unprofessional but it couldn't be helped. Tata contained traits like that of a child and her miniature size added to her 'cuteness'; as the technician would say whenever she found it hard to scold the small turret student. If anything were to happen to her… The technician felt a sinking feeling in her gut when she thought about the voluminous problems that could occur to the androids she took care of. Actually any student or teacher she had made friends with, by just thinking about the bad things that could happen to them, made the technician uncomfortable. Nevertheless she would always have enough backbone to dismiss the bad thoughts and replace them with more productive ones, such as; how to keep Tata tucked in charge mode for a whole night.

It's not good to dwell on nightmares.

The technician doesn't normally resort to force to keep an android in line and normally she would treat them like humans and try her best to persuade or give reason. It was hard enough telling Felix that he couldn't use his odd experiments because they were dangerous – and most of the time, the technician is right when it came round to testing them. Telling Tata to stop checking up on her friend's pet would also be difficult.

Slowly exiting the art block quietly the brunette jogged through the damp grass. The long fall boots provided a spring in her steps which made getting from one part of the school to another rather invigorating.

There was the TV Dorm, where Cerberus and his original owner, Leslie stayed. Very subtly, the technician pulled out her staff-card and swiped the card reader to open the door. It clicked open displaying a green light. The lady walked in quietly taking a few quick steps in and then easing the door shut. Thankfully there was carpet, and the braces on her boots didn't make a noise. All the technician had to do was to listen to the ghostly sounds Tata and Cerberus were accused of making.

There was nothing. That's odd; there were complaints almost every day. A night ago, things were quiet, which meant Tata would see Cerberus this night.

The technician walked through corridor to corridor, passing rooms she hadn't visited before and rooms that she had to persuade students to get out of bed, or tend to them while they were ill. She made careful note of where she was going as to not get lost, after all, all her androids stayed in the gaming dorms, she wasn't used to the TV dorm.

There were still no sounds to be heard.

"This is ridiculous …" The technician mumbled rather annoyed that she couldn't read her own turret's motives anymore. Tata was like clock-work when it came to spending time with animals. She walked some more, and she eventually reached her (unwanted) student technicians. They were bound to be up. 'It takes one to know one' – The technician sighed as she brushed her hair out of her face. She knocked on the door.

She heard the sound of a cough, and it was still early enough to also hear the quiet "Shit!" from behind the door. Q-a opened the door with a nervous grin.

"Meredith! Good mor-"

"_That's not my name_; just call me Tech for goodness sake." The lady interrupted the young man's greeting. She looked over Q-a's shoulder. There were two desks in a dorm and two beds. One side belonged to Q-a, where his books were neatly stacked and his bed already made. The desk he worked on already had an open laptop with a few mechanical objects neatly placed in boxes on the desk. It seemed that Q-a was trying to assemble something.

"What are you doing up so early?" Q-a asked the technician hastily sensing that she was looking for his twin brother.

"Where did he take Tata." It wasn't even a question anymore. The technician had simply made one insanely accurate statement. Q-b was nowhere to be seen in the room, although his bed was in a cluttered heap of duvets and pillows she could tell if there was a body on the bed or not.

"What do you mean he's asleep on his bed-" Q-a failed miserably to cover the evidence.

"His laptop isn't here, and neither is Tata, and I know that kid doesn't leave without it." The slightly aggravated lady stood placing her hand on the side of her hip, waiting for Q-a to spill any information. She pushed her glasses up the small rim of her nose, intensifying her glare.

"Alright" Q-a sighed in defeat "You're not going to believe this though – I didn't when he first told me, but he said he was going to the forest to get something important…!" The young man shook his head, closing his blue and green eyes. "I know we were told not go in at night due to the new inhabitants but he said he had no choice and he brought Tata and another person to help him get what he needed."

The technician stared back at Q-a but with a now more bewildered look on her face and then she burst out laughing. "What? Quiller in the forest? What's he going to do pick some fruits?" Her smile faded. "Tell me the truth, young man, or you'll be sent to Miss Holmes for aiding in the rule-breaking of three other students. – ultimately putting their life in danger, if they did go into the forest."

"Tech… I'm not lying…"

They both stood still for a little while, whilst the technician stared just over the top of Q-a's head. What on earth was happening? Tata would never break the rules – unless this had something to do with Secret.

"Is Secret involved in this?"

She could see the young man's face blush slightly at Secret's name – seemed both twins were hopeless with affections for women. "Hello?"

He nodded. "I remember Secret coming up to our dorm and asking one of us to do her a favour. Ultimately Q-b had the more powerful processor in his laptop, so she had no choice but to choose him to get what she needed." Q-a held a temporary look of betrayal on his face, whether it was due to Secret choosing his brother or if he had snitched on Secret was a mystery. As quickly as the expression came it left as soon as Q-a looked back at his desk: "That's why I'm building add-ons to make my device more powerful at processing."

"How much RAM did Quiller's laptop have?"

"Maybe around 18 GB RAM with that special device you gave us."

"Why would Secret need such a powerful computer?" The technician mumbled through gritted teeth.

It was possibly an hour past the sun rise and things were lightening up fast. Just as the technician turned saying her good-byes and thank-yous to Q-a she caught glimpse of a limping figure emerging out of the forest.


End file.
