Twelve hours. Twelve hours had passed in the real world since the beta test had started and it was now nine in the evening. Cobalt let out a stressed sigh before he looked at his Cyberband and opened up the menu. He figured that he spent enough time in CyberSpace for the day so he pressed the logout button before his senses died out and everything went black.

Waking up slowly Axle realised that he was back in the real world. Almost as if he woke up from some sort of strange realistic dream. He slowly took off the electrodes attached to his body and put his shirt and coat back on. He closed his eyes and pressed his hand against his forehead before thinking back to all the events earlier in CyberSpace. His personality as the Crimson Gorilla came back and he loved the feelings he had. He chuckled lightly before thinking, Great. Just when I thought I was done with my online life.

A small smile crept up on his face before he left his station. The beta tester slowly made his way to the door, wondering what was going to happen the next time he logged in as he was walking out, before he was stopped by none other than Rebecca herself. Axle saw the look on her face and his lost all of its colour. He recognised that look on her face all too well as it was one that Wyatt told him about. If it was ever seen, he was to flee on sight. "We need to talk." Rebecca told him, further proving that the look she had was showing that she meant business. Axle had no chance of escape now.

"Fine, I'm on my way home... maybe Wyatt would like having you over." The beta tester told the scientist who looked like she was glaring at his very soul.

"Fine, but don't think you're escaping this conversation." Rebecca told Axle while agreeing to go back with him to her brother's house. There was no way she was going to allow the beta tester to escape his fated conversation with her.

Since Rebecca had her car nearby, the two decided to go with that. Convenient for the head of the program but not for Axle since that was the perfect place for her to talk to him alone without any interruptions.

Once they got into the car and they drove off to Wyatt's house.

"So, Mr Cobalt Light, care to explain your rather evil and ruthless behavior in CyberSpace?" She asked the young man as she got straight to the point. Axle was worried now because she usually liked to beat around the bush and she only got straight to the point when things got serious and as he knew, this was one of those times.

"You know about that?" Axle asked in both surprise and shame. He knew what he did was wrong and if any of the Cyberbands were faulty he could've killed those people whom he had looted and that was what brought on the shame. Sure, he had killed before but that was out of circumstances followed by a will to survive. "Axle, not only do I know but I'm pretty sure everyone in CyberSpace knows now. It's not the first impression you'd wanna make with people online."

"Who cares about them... The whole point of this was to test all the functions and see if it would work." Axle told his foster aunt while trying to keep up his bravado. He knew what he did was wrong but he wasn't going to keel over like a weakling because of it. It was just part of his stubborn nature. "I came to do a job, not make friends." And like that, the loner within made itself known to Rebecca.

"You realise that jobs can be done better when friends are there to help you right?" Rebecca asked, trying to appeal to Axle's soft side which she was sure still existed within the troubled man.

"Friends don't exist and I had to learn that the hard way." He said in quite a harsh tone. The scientist sighed in defeat before she chose to go back to the topic of CyberSpace and what Axle did in it. "Now onto the topic at hand, what happened? Why'd you kill Malice's avatar?"

"He pissed me off." Axle said, almost growled actually. "You've got an anger problem Axle." Rebecca sighed as she was trying to get him to acknowledge his greatest flaw.

"I know, okay..." He replied now in a gloomy mood, devoid of all joy, anger or any other emotion. "Axle... is something wrong?" Rebecca asked the beta tester due to her worry and his sudden change of emotion.

"Leave me alone okay." He said refusing to not only speak to her but face her as well. "Just drop it... You wouldn't understand anyway."

"Try me Axle... I know all about the Grey incident and what you did. PTSD, survivor's guilt, I know you're suffering with that but just know you're not the only one in this car with a past they're not proud of. I did things that earned me eternal shame back in the day." "Like what?" He asked with a skeptical look on his face.

"Listen, I know all about Project Cyber, every detail of it, the fact that Carly was one of the many victims of that project... you're probably gonna hate me for this but, I'm the one who provided Grey and Bernstein with the CyberHuman research."

"If you think I'm gonna hate you, you're sadly mistaken. Obviously you wanted it to be used for good but Grey and Bernstein twisted your research in order to create an army of CyberHumans."

"Yeah, we're all lucky that you stopped that before it could happen." Rebecca said with a weak smile. Axle however couldn't feel happy. He knew that Bernstein was still out there lurking somewhere and if he was still out there, he still posed as a big threat.

Not only to Axle, but to Carly as well and the new family that he grew to love. He didn't want to lose that. There was no future with that fat bastard still alive, not at all.

"You're still mad at yourself aren't you?" She asked her 'nephew'.

"Yeah... It's all my fault. I hate it." He said as all the life in his voice vanished. "Stop blaming yourself for all the shit Grey did, you're still letting him win if you do."

"It's not just Grey... It's all the people I killed before him... including your cousin." He said with his voice cracking while his breathing became irregular. "Axle, it was either your life or theirs... It's basic survival instinct."

"How?" He asked. "What?" Rebecca asked in confusion before tears escaped the beta tester's eyes. "How can you all accept me when I killed a member of your family?!! How the hell can you all go by day in day out knowing that the man who murdered your cousin is living and eating with you?!!!" He yelled before clawing his face.

"It's an agonising hell that I have to live with. Why do you all take pity on me?! Why care about me at all?!!" He started to twitch and scream. He was having another mental breakdown. He was clawing away at his body, making himself bleed on his arms and face.

"Why? Why? Why?!!" He asked repeatedly. She managed to make it to Wyatt's house but he was still having a breakdown. It was in a word, scary. All that self hatred, the way he was mutilating his body and worst of all was the aching pain in his heart that wouldn't go away.

How was she going to help him? How the hell was she going to help the man who was having a panic attack caused by his own guilt?