Today was the day, the day that Glitch would disappear forever. Wira told him the time frame of when he would be gone. He returned to the Mainframe, and didn’t see Glitch anywhere. Did he disappear already? He remembered getting random mood swings in the past mirrored with the time Glitch lost a limb, but he didn’t feel any different today.

He kept walking, he knew there was a barrier Wira put up to keep him from going to different zones, and he wasn’t about to take a risk going into those sprawling hallways that his mother had constantly gotten lost in before. He got to the halfway point and still nothing. If he wasn’t there, but he wasn’t feeling aggravated, where was he? He wasn’t mad, just really confused.

He arrived at the edge of the entrance zone, and found nothing. He turned around, thinking he would see nothing. There were two figures off in the distance. One was lying down, and one was looming over them. He quickly walked towards the two figures. As he got closer, he could see the figure looming over the other one had blonde hair, and the rest of her was white. Was it his mother, Deeana? He ran the rest of the way there.

He could see an incomplete body made of metal, the same materials that WireGirls were made of, but he recognized the arms and legs, those belonged to Glitch. What were Glitch’s limbs doing on a metal body? Why was his mother there?

“Mother?” He slowed down and put his hands to his knees, panting.

“You’re just in time.” She turned towards him. She had something under her arm.

It was a head made of metal, with very recognizable hair and mouth.

“What-” Before he could say anything, she walked over and placed the head on the headless body.

It clicked into place, and the body whirred to life. It lifted its hands and opened it’s eyes.

“Mother? What… What’s going on? Why aren’t I dead? Why do I feel again?” Glitch was confused and visibly pained.

His mother took a wire exactly like Wira’s from her makeshift belt of bandages, and stuck it onto his head, sticking the other end onto the back of his neck.

“Why the fuck are you doing this?” Drake was enraged, he hated Glitch with all his might, and didn’t want to see him survive.

“I wasn’t about to let another one of my children die.” She turned to Drake, stone faced.

“He killed people! Lots of people! Not on accident, either! And he never felt one bit of remorse!” He angrily pointed to Glitch, who was in the process of sitting up.

“I refuse to lose another child.” Not once did she soften her glare.

“He has to die! Don’t you understand that?” He only relented because Glitch was going to be gone soon, now he felt that he needed to take matters into his own hands.

“I won’t let you hurt him.” She threw up her hand, and a few red pentagram sigils materialized in front of her.

“Why are you protecting him? You want to save people, right? Then saving him would bring harm!” He looked on in disgust as he saw Glitch get up and dust himself off.

“You think I don’t feel any remorse? After what I had realized?” Glitch turned to Drake, a mix of confusion and agony etched into his face.

“Don’t lie, I know you more than anyone else, you said the same to me, remember?” He didn’t believe Glitch, who had previously defended his reasons for killing people constantly.

“Don’t come any closer!” She held her hand out further and the sigils started to spin

“Why would you threaten to attack me like this? I’m not going to hurt you, I’m only after him! Don’t believe him!” He couldn’t believe that his own mother would do such a thing as attack him to defend Glitch.

“I’m not lying, I have no need to. People change, Drake.” Glitch adjusted his shirt.

“Are you saying that because she would defend you anyways? Aren’t you pissed off too? Didn’t you want to die?” He was brimming with rage, how could this happen? Why would his mother prevent Glitch from dying? He just couldn’t understand.

“I did, want to die but I’m guessing this new body is immortal, and only the weapon Wira created can take me out. And I know she wouldn’t because I’m complete again, so I’m shit out of luck too here.” Glitch put a hand to his head.

“So you’re just going to let this slide then?” He didn’t know what to do anymore, he was so confused and angry and nothing made sense.

“Yeah, I’m going to have to keep on living. I would have preferred that she didn’t install a heart though.” Glitch clutched his chest.

“Please, I didn’t want him to die, because he isn’t less precious than you, and you are not less precious than him. All my children are equally precious, and I couldn’t, I just couldn’t lose him...” His mother’s bandages under her eyes started to stain red as she cried tears of blood.

“You can’t honestly believe that I’ll accept this, can you? I killed him because he was too dangerous, if I use the machine, he’ll come back, do you honestly want that to happen?” He knew that the machine, even though it had limited charges, could bring Glitch to Elega, or even the real world.

“I won’t do anything to any innocents anymore, I already have enough innocent lives under my belt to live with.” Glitch slowly shook his head.

“How am I supposed to believe you?” He needed proof to know that Glitch would not harm anyone else.

“You’ll have to trust me.” Glitch looked down with a defeated expression.

“I don’t know if I can.” He was slightly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because of how his mother was acting, it tugged at his heart strings.

“Ask her, the girl.” Glitch looked back up at Drake.

“Her name is Lunara, she has a name.” He didn’t want Glitch to know Lunara’s name, but it had already slipped out.

“Ask her what she feels about it, if you won’t listen to me, please, listen to her instead,” Glitch said.

“Whatever.” Drake tried to get Lunara to see his side, but it was no use, he already knew what she would say, but he planned to ask her anyways.

Drake angrily reached behind his neck and unplugged himself. He gasped and awoke, and turned to see Lunara reaching towards the device.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to come here?” He sat up and glared at her as he removed the device from his neck.

“You’re always in there, though. I told you that if you wanted to keep me away from the Mainframe, you had to go out more, and your father says you’ve barely left your room, so...” She sighed.

“So I have a problem. Glitch isn’t going to disappear, and I don’t know what to do. Mother is protecting him, and he asked me to ask you if he has it in him to hurt anyone else after trying to strangle you.” He didn’t see the problem in just coming out with the information right then.

“I know he doesn’t. Not just because most of him has been re-absorbed into you, but because he’s learned that not everyone feels like he does.” She looked at him sternly.

“So you’re saying I should trust him.” He rubbed his upper arm and lowered his head.

“Trust that he won’t hurt anyone else? Yes.” She nodded.

He still hated glitch with a passion, but he had people that cared for him, both Lunara and his mother, so there must be some redeeming qualities about him, somewhere.

“I don’t know if I can, after all he’s done.” He was still very sore about the death of Marissa, even after all those years.

“I understand why you still hate him, but he’s you as much as you are him. I was scared of what would happen to you if Glitch died.” She reached out and grabbed his arm.

“I’m sure I would have been fine.” He turned away.

“I’m not certain either one of us could have been sure,” she said.

“Nothing in this world is certain.” He looked back at her.

“I get that, but I didn’t want you losing a part of yourself to be a risk,” she said.

“If it meant never seeing him again, I wouldn’t have minded.” He huffed.

“I don’t know if it’ll offend you but I’ll say it anyways, I’m glad he’s not dead.” She sighed.

“Sometimes I think you prefer him over me.” He frowned at her. She had such a bleeding heart for Glitch.

“He’s you though, I like you and him equally. He just doesn’t push me away like you do,” she said.

“I’m not pushing you away, I warned you like once. I just didn’t want you to go into the Mainframe anymore.” He understood that he was addicted to being there, but now that Glitch wasn’t going to die, he didn’t know if he wanted to continue visiting all the time.

“I told you, you’re there all the time.” She lifted her arms slightly and pumped them out to her sides once with her fists balled.

“I most likely won’t keep up the same routine now that Glitch is alive and well.” He put a hand to his head.

“Let me know when you’re about to go out, you know, with that phone Pain gave me.” She fished out the purple flip phone from her dress pocket and held it out in front of herself.

“Your number is already in my phone’s database, mine should be in there too. I’ll let you know.” He turned and walked out.

He retreated back to the clock tower. He recalled every step he took inside the now empty halls, and flashes of Marissa’s face came to him every once and a while when he walked up, causing him physical pain as he clutched his tightened chest. He didn’t know what to do, and quietly wished Marissa was still there to help him. It comforted as well as hurt him, looking over the balcony.