As the weeks went by Justin was beginning to loose hope. Stuart had taken over in the absence of the hacker's mate, giving the man a much needed break to focus on finding his lover.

Many search parties had been deployed, and most if not all of the soldiers had ended up returning with no recollection of what they'd found. They were dazed and often times wouldn't respond to any questions when asked, and quickly filled up the infirmary. So many virus were upset that their mates had ended up in this state, and naturally found blame in the hacker who's mate had caused the searching.

Justin couldn't handle it anymore, and his hacker was stretched to its limit with trying to help its host cope. Stuart seemed to be the only supporting figure in his rapidly dying world, and the man was constantly dealing with meetings and training to be able to talk with Justin much.

The hacker sat down on his mate's side of the bed and heaved a heavy sigh of exhaustion, looking at the pillow his mate's head used to rest on in mourning. He was so worried he'd never wake up to see the handsome face of Preston the virus commander again, it hurt him to think about it.

Laying back, the boy inhaled his mate's fading scent of winter pine from the feather pillow and brought it close to him. He felt safer when he closed his eyes, imagining the pillow being the warm chest of his lover and the smell his inhale-able lullaby. He had needed a moment like this. Just a small moment to feel like he was still there with him, that the real world didn't exist outside of his closed eyelids.

'We would've felt if he was erased, Justin. He's still out there, somewhere. Most likely just asleep or forced into shut down since we can't track his virus. It'll be okay. Just keep your head up and be strong,' his hacker encouraged softly, 'Any other hacker would've shut down, and look at you. You're still going strong.'

Justin shook his head, pulling the pillow to his chest without responding. They both knew he just wanted to lay there and daydream.

Meanwhile Preston was still tied up in the chair, alone and weaker now that his virus had been dormant for so long. He could feel his systems weakening, and desperation clawed at his mind as he tried to resurface his missing program. The man came in three times a day to spoon feed him oatmeal or some sort of soup, but the woman had yet to visit him since her first appearance.

He hated the weakness he showed while sitting there, taking the food he was offered like a toddler, but they gave him no other choice. He wasn't commander in this place, only a prisoner to a secret society of freak hackers and wired serving one by the name of motherboard. It made his systems shudder with disgust when he thought about motherboard, but somewhere deep inside he felt a tinge of something similar to loyalty. It was like some superior he despised, but knew he had to eventually comply to the orders given to him.

Only questions he had were when would this compliance happen, and how would it affect his mate?