System Failure (An Adesa Fanfic) [Originally by Littlewolf65]

Chapter 15

Ty's POV
I fretted nervously as I paced around Jason's computer. The mainframe was almost completely shut down and Adam still wasn't back. He wasn't responding to any of our calls. I shouldn't have left before him, he could have gotten killed and we wouldn't know. And Alesa wasn't out either.

"Come on Adam, where are you?" I muttered to myself, my hand tapping against my leg.

Jason and Jin were at the computers and the other glitches were waiting near the doors, quietly talking to among themselves. I caught several glancing towards the computers, no doubt worried.

Green coding flew out of the USB port of Jin's computer and reassembled itself into human shape. I breathed out a sigh of relief, a smile coming onto my face. But the codings became Alesa who instantly dropped to the ground, her hands wrapped around her amulet, tears pouring out of her eyes. My smile disappeared. Something was wrong; very, very wrong.

"Alesa, what happened?" I asked, dropping down to one knee beside her. Jason spun around, his face going slack as he saw Alesa. I gently put my hand on her shoulder which shook with sobs.

"A-Adam," she finally choked out. She looked up at Jason, still crying. "You have to let me go back in," she begged, standing up, her hands dropping from her amulet. "Please! He'll be trapped!"

My eyes widened as I saw that it was Adam's amulet around her neck, not her own. If his amulet was here, but he wasn't..."Adam's still in the mainframe," I whispered then whipped around to Jason. "We have to get him out, quick!"

"I-I'm sorry," Jason stuttered. "It's too late. The mainframe's shut down, everything inside it has fallen into cyberspace. Adam... Adam's gone."

I felt my entire body go numb and I blankly looked at the computer screens. All of them were dark and the hard drives had no lights. For the first time that I could ever remember, the entire room was dead silent, the usual background hum of various computers missing.

Alesa slowly slid back down to the ground again, fresh tears spilling out of her eyes. I clenched my hands into fists, hopelessness swelling in me.

"We... We can't get him back, can we?" I asked, silently pleading that Jason had a good answer.

Jason sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "You can't retrieve something once it's gone into cyberspace," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's not possible. People have been trying for decades."

The other glitches slowly gathered around, all silent. No one asked what the problem was and they stood in a ring around Alesa and I, all waiting for a miracle that I knew would never come. I shoved my hands in my pockets, staring blankly at the dark computer screens. I couldn't think but I didn't want to, and my chest hurt but I couldn't cry.

Alesa's sobs slowly grew quieter until they stopped except for small hiccups that echoed unusually loud. I fidgeted from foot to foot. I wanted to do something instead of just standing here, waiting for something that would never-

"I want to join the glitches."

I flicked my head to Alesa. She was still huddled on the ground, her legs tucked up underneath her and she lifted her head, looking at both me and Jason. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her eyes were red but they were also hard. She slowly stood up, her hands dropping from Adam's amulet.

"I want to join the glitches," she said. "Again."

"Are you sure?" Jason asked.

She nodded. "I want to hunt down the viruses who escaped the system before it fell into cyberspace. The ones who survived. For Adam's sake."

"Let her," I said before anyone could protest. I could see the other glitches stirring in my peripheral vision but I kept my eyes on Alesa as I quietly added: "Adam would have wanted it."

Everyone nodded one by one and Jin and Jason exchanged looks.

"It's a good idea," Jin said quietly. "I mean, she's already fought with us and protected the system."

A slight grin came on Jason's face. "Alright. Welcome to the glitches, Alesa. There would be an initiation, but you've already got everything you need."

"It wasn't in vain, right?" Ross asked suddenly. I glanced at him. "I mean, Adam's sacrifice. It wasn't in vain."

"The system's safe," Jin said, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "The viruses are gone and we can rebuild the firewalls. No one else was lost. We'll be fully operational again in a few hours."

"And let's hope most of the viruses were committed to that attack and so can't spread chaos in the city until we're operational," Mitch muttered.

"If they are, we'll be ready for it," I said. I scanned everyone's faces. "We'll finish what Adam started: Protect the city and get rid of viruses."

"We'll get to work," Jason said. "There's no time to lose."

Jin and Jason's team each hopped on their computers and started to reboot the mainframe while the other glitches slowly dispersed. I stayed where I was and so did Alesa. Her hand had wrapped around Adam's amulet again, holding it close to her heart and her eyes were focused on the computer screens slowly filling with code.

That's when I knew. Even though they had met only a few weeks ago, she had loved Adam. And from the fact that she held Adam's amulet and from the way he had defended her, I had no doubt that Adam had loved her back.

I gently put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, then hesitated. "Would... Would you be my partner? For fighting viruses?"

I gave her a small smile. "Of course."

She returned the smile and then her eyes went back to the screens. Her hand tightened around Adam's amulet and she stood straighter, her shoulders going back and a hard looking coming into her eyes. I followed her gaze, seeing the mainframe boot up.

We had to finish this fight. For Adam.

LITTLE, YOU KILLED ME WHEN I FIRST READ THE PLANS FOR THIS CHAPTER just so you know.