I awoke with a start and listened to the dark room. It was a few nanoseconds before I realized what exactly had woke me up: I was alone in the large double
bed because Matrix was standing at the window, looking out at Mainframe. Stifling a sigh, I stood up and cautiously approached him.
 
"What's wrong, Lover?" I asked even though I had a sneaking suspicion what it was. Surprisingly, he didn't fall into an attack position at the sound of my voice, but looked at me over his shoulder, the dim light glinting off the gold hoop in his left ear.

 "AndrAIa," he began in a troubled voice. "I don't want you to go with us to the SuperComputer."
 
I felt my temper rise. "And why?" I demanded, straining to keep my voice level.
 
He turned his back to me and gazed out the window again. "I don't want you to get hurt when we go fight Daemon," he replied.
 
Grabbing his arm, I spun him around and glared at him. "Listen," I growled, barely keeping my temper under control. "I am not going to sit around Mainframe and
worry about you while you, Bob, Dot, Mouse, Ray Tracer, and Hexadecimal are off fighting Miss Big Shot Web Virus. Matrix, I'm hardly a weak sprite that needs the protection of every big, strong male sprite to keep her safe from viruses and Game Cubes. So you can forget about me staying here where it's safe since the only way you're gonna keep me here is stop filed in a stasis lock, but I promise you this: if you attempt this, as soon as I get free, I'm heading after you."
 
Matrix gently held my arms and looked at me, his cybernetic right eye glowing in the dim light. "I nearly lost you once, AndrAIa," he whispered. "If we hadn't found
Bob when we did, you would have been deleted."
 
"But I wasn't," I countered, wrapping my arms around his waist and held his muscular body close. "Don't expect me to live in a glass dome. Especially after all the
Games we survived together." I laid my cheek against his light green skin and felt the tension run out of him. His hands caressed the scales along my spine and I smiled.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into my sea blue hair. "I just don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you."

"Enzo Matrix, you willingly accepted the upgrade to Guardian Cadet-Class," I began, softly. "And we both knew what might happen in a Game Cube if we lost the Game, but both of us have sacrificed a life of safety to live happily." I laid a tan finger on his lips. "True, we did spend a lot of time looking for Mainframe, but not all the times were sad."

 Matrix grinned down at me. "You're right," he confessed. "It seems that both of us have sacrificed so much,  but you have to admit that we rarely had a dull moment." With  a slight shift in his stance, he scooped me up into his arms.  "Now that everything's been settled between us, let's not  waste any more time on 'might have beens' and get some sleep."

Giggling, I let him carry me back to our bed but a sense of determination settled over me. I was not going to be left behind on this mission. No matter what the sacrifice.