A/N: BOOM another update. I'm on a roll!

When the lights turned back on, Leo knew a few things for certain. The night had passed in a fitful, half-sleep haze. Max and Mia gone, his memories and the way to delete them, the pressing urgency of capture – it all whirlpooled through his brain and would not be compartmentalized.

But he knew for certain that he had to fix this for Mattie.

Everything else could remain uncertain for the time being.

She'd been right earlier in that he needed to prioritize. He couldn't focus on anything else if he had to consider her safety at all times - if he had to be in the same room with her whenever he wasn't being picked to pieces by a mad scientist. It was hard enough trying to sort everything out in his own brain, let alone trying to do it with her constant input. And questions. And concern.

No, Mattie needed to be safe.

It wasn't a clean, simple decision but it grew steadily easier as she edged slowly nearer to him in her sleep. She was probably drawn to his warmth. It was probably an unconscious survival instinct. Nothing more.

Leo watched her sleep. The lights hadn't woken her up yet. She was curled into a tight ball, back to the corner.

He took a deep, heaving breath and closed his eyes. He reached out with his mind, feeling out along the invisible radio wavelengths– opening a door that he did not often open. It was like suddenly stripping naked and stepping out into a crowded room.

Well, maybe not crowded.

But he still felt naked.

There were only one other nearby, in his range. He had a very limited range. Mia said she could pair with Synths who were over twelve meters away. His range was closer to eight meters in good conditions. The walls surrounding him brought that range down to five, probably.

It was there, though. The synth. He couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was but he knew it was there.

A sudden nervousness rippled through him and he realized then that he'd never done this with anyone other than his family. He wasn't even sure how it was supposed to work, exactly. With the others, he sort of just…felt the connection – like reaching for a hand in the dark.

Leo sent that same feeling out to the other Synth.

There was a pause.

Then a pulling…

And then he was in a new mental place. It wasn't the forest that he visited when connecting with any of his family. There were no trees, no open wild spaces. This was a clean white room. There were blue chairs lining the walls – like waiting room chairs.

"Hello, I am called Wynken," came a voice. Leo turned around.

It was the male Synth. It was smiling pleasantly at him. Images and text started scrolling across the walls – weather reports, Instagram photos, social media posts, news reports.

It was an info dump. He felt all the bytes pouring into his own brain.

Leo did his best to shut it out. He forced himself to focus.

"You appear to have corrupted data," Wynken said. "I will attempt to use my updated software to repair your operating system." The Synth walked toward him and reached out a hand.

"No!" Leo barked. He backed up. "No, you just…you just stay right there."

Wynken halted. "I am detecting unsanctioned upgrades. Your systems may be malfunctioning as a result of this illegal programing."

"Yeah, I know," Leo said lamely. "I'm fine. Look I just..."

He blanked. He just what? He just needed to hack into the head of this other Synth. And how, exactly, did he mean to do that? Leo looked around at the room, which still swirled with information. There were no doors or convenient keyboards.

"I am being summoned," said Wynken. "Thank you for sharing."

"Wait, no!"

But it was too late. The Synth disappeared from the room. The walls were white again.

"Shhhhhit," he growled.

"Leo…"

He paced around the white room, feeling the walls for cracks or ports or openings – as if it would be that obvious. He knew it wouldn't be so simple. This wasn't the other Synth's head. This was a waiting room. An in-between space.

"… I swear to god, this is not the time to go coma patient on me…"

Leo sat in one of the chairs and stared at the place where Wynken had disappeared. He stared really really hard.

"LEO!"

He jolted, blinked, sucked in a breath. The white place vanished and reality closed in around him.

Mattie made a noise. "Oh my god, that was not funny," she hissed at him.

Leo shook his head, mentally doing his best to close the open doorway in his brain. "Sorry. Sorry, I was um. Just. Trying something. Didn't work. Don't ask me about it." He rubbed at his scalp.

"Are you ok?" She leaned in very close to him, examining his face as if it would tell her something that he wasn't willing to offer her.

"I'm fine, I promise," he insisted. "I'm—" He looked down. Her hand was on his knee. She must have felt the clap of awkwardness at the same exact moment because she whisked her hand away.

Any attempt at a redeeming conversation was taken from them. The door opened and Synths arrived with the all familiar gurney.

He stood. "It's going to be ok, Mattie," he told her as he walked to the gurney, feeling somewhat composed for the first time since being kidnapped. Again.

He didn't have to look at her to feel the suspicion. The emotion flattened her voice. "Don't do anything stupid, ok? Promise me you won't do anything stupid…"

Leo flashed her a rueful grin as he was strapped in place and pulled from the room.

"Leo!"

The door clanged shut – cutting her off from whatever else she wanted to say.

He drew in a long deep breath as if that could steady his frayed nerves. As if it would shake the feeling of finality. As if it would help him do the impossible.

"Mr. Elster!" came the voice of a mad scientist. "I trust you slept well?"

The deep breath whooshed out of his lungs but he didn't spare a glance for the man. He looked for the second synth. It was at his shoulders.

A nagging whisper of an idea had started developing. It was a ridiculous idea. It was impossible and wondrous and so completely out of the box that he didn't even know where the box was.

His body couldn't move. He could not lash out at his enemy. He could not run or hide.

But that did not mean he could not act.

I am a virus.

It was Matties fault. He'd be sure to blame her for the ridiculous idea when he saw her again. But in the meantime, he pictured a hack. He visualized the code. He wrote it in his head as they turned him onto his belly and tightened the straps and shaved the stubble around the access port. He memorized the lines he'd use if he'd been on a laptop, plugged into a strange Synth, seeking to access it.

I am a virus.

It would have to be fast. Lightning fast. Because if it wasn't, if they plugged him in before he could escape, there would be no hacking. There would be nothing he could do. And there was a great chance that he'd be found out if he did this and failed. And if that happened…Mattie would pay.

I am a virus.

Leo closed his eyes, took another deep breath, and reached out to the female Synth.

For a moment, nothing happened. He had the distinct impression of a phone ringing…and ringing…and ringing.

A flash of panic trailed down his spine.

What if she didn't share with him? What if they'd never share with him again? Was there a limit to how many times they connected to each other?

And then he felt himself slipping into the white room.

His mind went blank.

There she was, standing neatly in the center of the room. The walls flickered with images.

I am a virus.

"Hello, I am—"

Leo lunged forward and grabbed her, both hands slapped to either side of her head. He thought of the code, the virus, the hack. He imagined it like a dagger going into the Synth's core.

Her eyes widened.

A force like a solid brick wall came against his mind. He flung himself against it, adding layers of code to his mental dagger, honing the edge of the blade so that it slid into the gaps in the wall. He pictured it going deep into the operating systems, infecting the surrounding programs and software.

The wall shuddered.

Pain lit across his skull and buried into the place where head met spine.

He pushed harder.

I am a virus…

There was a pop. A flash. A moment of paralysis. And his vision went gray.

"…its vitals have gone a bit…Oh no. There, he's stabilizing. What a strange thing. Mr. Elster, can you hear me?"

He blinked.

The gray haze started to clear.

And he suddenly was not entirely sure he was grounded in reality anymore.

Leo was staring at himself.

He was looking rather poorly, actually. He was pale and sweating and there was blood dripping on the ground. He was completely limp.

"Mr. Elster, if you please, this is not the time to play games with me," said the scientist. He was hovering over Leo's body, nudging it.

He felt that nudge like a ghost. Like it was from very far away. Or, at least, several feet away.

Oh shit.

Leo lifted his hand. It was soft and small and perfect.

He felt a mouth – not his mouth – drop open a little.

But there was a spark going across his head. It flickered and his body – his real body – twitched. And he felt it in both places.

"He's unresponsive but he's basically stable. Wynken, run a diagnostic and lets see if we can't decipher the problem."

He frowned. Time was short.

Focus, Leo. Focus.

As quietly and gracefully as he could, Leo turned the female Synth and walked slowly out of the room. And as he snuck out, he was struck by how much his heart was not pounding and his chest was not heaving because he felt like both of those things were happening. He felt like he was reacting to the stress of the moment and reacting rather badly.

Although, as he stepped further and further away, the sensation did not follow him. It stayed behind. With his body.

Leo wished he could swallow nervously.

He made it to the hallway without raising alarms and as soon as he was out of sight, he jogged. The Synth body felt clunky and unnatural. It surged with perfect power but it was fighting him, making him flail and jerk as he stumbled to the locked door. He patted his pockets and found a few keys tucked into…into his skirt pocket. But there was no time to dwell on that.

The sparks across his head were growing sharper.

He fumbled a key into the lock. It was wrong. He tried another. And another. And then the tumblers turned. He pulled the door open.

There she was, curled in the corner, looking horribly worried.

"Mattie," he said. It was a strange voice. It wasn't even Blynken's voice. This tone was modulating, trying to adjust to new software and doing it badly.

She just stared at him.

"Mattie, it's me. I'd love to explain but I don't have the time. You need to get out of here," he said in a pitchy robotic whisper.

His whole body shuddered.

Confusion painted her features. Then shock.

"…Leo?"

"I'm losing control. You need to go. Now. Quietly."

Her eyes got huge. She wasn't moving.

Leo didn't wait. He started down the hall without her. She came slinking out behind him a half second later. The stairs at the end of the hall lead to another steel door. It was locked but he had keys. He got it on the second try and quietly pushed the door open.

His whole body shuddered.

"Leo…"

"Shh," he hissed.

He slipped into the next hallway.

It wasn't what he'd been expecting. He'd been anticipating another two or three levels to crawl through or more Synths or a fellow scientist. More security.

He didn't get any of that.

It was the back room to an old shop. Stacks of ancient computers and typewriters and telephones littered dusty shelves. The wood paneling on the walls suggested late eighties. There was an open doorway to the front of the shop. It was just as cluttered and dusty as the back.

He snuck forward a few stuttery steps, glancing around, searching for other people. Mattie closed the door gently behind them.

"It's clear," he whispered. "Go."

She trotted past him and got a few feet before she realized he wasn't following her. Mattie turned and fixed him with a suspicious glare.

"I can't come with you," Leo insisted. "I'm still…down there. Go and get help. Don't call the police."

She looked incredibly unhappy.

"Ok," she said softly. "Be careful."

He nodded.

"I'll be back, Leo."

He nodded again. "Please. Go."

She hesitated a moment longer, eying the twitching, uncoordinated body that housed him. Before he could tell her off again, she ran for the front of the shop, eased open the smeared glass door, and disappeared.

Leo felt the ghost of a sigh from his body down below. His lips twitched into a smile.

And then a cackle of electricity brought him to his knees.

It was time to go. The mission had been accomplished and it was time to evacuate this body.

Only….

…he wasn't entirely sure how to make that happen.

He looked back at the door to the stairs and made a face. He didn't want to go back down. It was the last thing he wanted to do. But he did it anyway. There was an urgency tugging him back to his own body.

Leo fumbled down the stairs, falling more than walking. By the time he landed at the bottom, Wynken had arrived.

Dreamily, Leo perceived the Synth picking him up and carrying him back to the lab. He knew that was happening. But control was nearly gone. He felt himself being boxed in by the original personality. Quarantined.

Fear prickled along his consciousness.

It was really time to go.

Leo closed his eyes and sought out the white room.

For a moment, all that was there was darkness – a dead, dull darkness.

He reached out. Imagined it. Called for it. He pictured himself nosing back along the path he'd brutally carved into the Synth brain.

And he was met with black.

The fear ballooned into terror.

Leo reached back for the Synth body and connected solidly with a wall of electricity.

Panic.

He flailed back and grabbed for the white room. For his old body. For anything that made sense. He pushed himself along empty pathways, blindly.

"Mr. Elster, where have you gone?" came a soft gentle sound.

It was barely audible – the faintest wisp of noise.

With a cry of desperation, Leo thrust himself towards the noise. He pursued it. Chased it down. There were more sounds. More words. The musings of a mad man. He did not care. Leo snatched the sensation and rode it down.

He gasped. Arched.

Dark became gray became fuzzy pieces of light and color and feeling and smell.

He was staring at the tiled floor.

His skin felt loose and itchy and unsettled.

And he was back.

Clifford's head was leaning to the side.

The cyborg was trembling violently, taking big shuddering breaths. He thought he heard some slight sobbing noises.

Then Clifford looked over at Wynken who was carrying a limp Blynken in its arms. The male Synth carefully placed the female Synth on another gurney and plugged it in.

"Mr. Elster what have you done?" Clifford asked in a bewildered voice.

He didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one. But he had a distinct feeling that he knew exactly what had happened. "Wynken, please go check on our other guest," Clifford said.

"I do believe," he continued to no one in particular, "that it's attempted a transference. And I'm not certain it was entirely a success."

It was times like this that he wished he still had a human partner in this endeavor to become immortal. This was a very significant event. One that should be shared. One that should be analyzed.

"Matilda Hawkins has gone," came Wynken's perfect voice. "Shall I attempt to find her?"

Clifford sighed. "Oh you've gone and done something foolish, Mr. Elster. And now I'm afraid I'll have to find her and remove a few non-essential body parts. Perhaps her feet. It'll be difficult to run again if she hasn't got any feet."

The half-boy wasn't even reacting to him. Still. It was back in its own body but it still was ignoring him.

He reached over and grabbed a syringe. With another huff of disappointment, he slid the needle into its elbow, going for the bed of nerves. The sounds of distress brought a slight smile to his lips.

"Give it a moment, Mr. Elster. It will soon numb your entire arm and then you will hardly even notice the pain of punishment until well after you've been put away for the day." Clifford leaned back and regarded the thing on the table. "I think you have just acquired some very helpful data, Mr. Elster. I expect this will be very useful to my research. When you've had a moment to recover, please do try to remember exactly what you did."

"I will do nothing for you," it seethed, still panting heavily.

He chuckled. "Still a fighting spirit. No matter. When we find her and make her scream, you will change your mind."

A string of expletives came bursting forth.

"And here I was going to let your arm go completely numb. Wynken, kindly snap the, ummm right radius, I think. Then deposit Mr. Elster in his room, lock the door, and begin your search for Matilda. Do not allow any connections with Elster and update your firewall while you're at it."

Clifford started to shut down his equipment. A flash of irritation crossed his mind. It wasn't even nine-o'clock and already he had to end things for the morning. Ah well. Important information was ready for the gleaning. He wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.