24 | Game

                                    

                                          
Guess what day it is? Shameless self-plug day! My ao3 is now in my description, so I mean check it out if you want - I don't know why you would because it's literally the same story in both places but yeah-
                          
-Cas
                          
Zak kept his glance on George as both he and Clay... no, Dream rushed up the stairs and into Dream's bedroom. 
                          
That sounded wrong.
                          
Zak punched himself internally, turning back to his own room. His thoughts were bugging him. He hadn't been... eavesdropping, per say, only... listening in on the conversation.
                          
He remembered this game. At least, he thought he did. Zak stood in silence for another second, and then turned and hesitantly knocked on Darryl's door.
                          
"Darryl?"
There was a pause, and then the door opened. Darryl beamed. "Hi, Zak!"
He was too adorable. Zak felt his face light up with a grin, his worries sliding to the back of his mind. "Hey!"
They stood there for a moment, and then Zak remembered why he was there. He took a deep breath. 
                          
"Darryl, were you listening to the conversation George and..." he paused. "The conversation George had this morning?"
Darryl's face fell, and he looked worried. "Well... I wasn't eavesdropping, but I may have heard some stuff..."
Zak resisted the urge to grin. "I heard the whole conversation too, and-"
He was cut off as Darryl grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him inside his room, shutting the door firmly. "Zak, I think I remember what they're talking about. That game? I'm pretty sure I was involved in it."
                          
Zak stared in shock for a second, and then collected himself. "Yeah, me too. I think I may have tested it out, or something. I don't even code, so I didn't work on the game, but I definitely remember playing."
                          
Darryl nodded. "I think I helped a bit with the code, not a lot, though," he replied. "Do you remember my name...?"
Zak pondered over that for a moment. "Dad?"
Darryl sputtered in shock. "Zak!"
Zak started to laugh. "No, I didn't mean that- Bad! Your name was like Bad, wasn't it?"
Darryl stopped short. "Bad? That's it?"
Zak snorted. "No, Bad for short. Wasn't it BadBoy something?"
"Halo!" Darryl exclaimed. "BadBoyHalo!"
Zak frowned. "Do you want me to call you... Bad? Instead of Darryl?"
Darryl hesitated, then nodded. "If you don't mind... I think I went by Bad some time ago, so this isn't really new, anyways."
Zak nodded. "Bad," he said carefully, trying it out. It didn't fit Darryl at all - he was the sweetest person anyone could ask for, in Zak's opinion - but if Darryl wanted to be called Bad, then Zak was in no position to object.
                          
"I remember your name, I think," Darryl - no, Bad said carefully. Zak grinned. "Wasn't it like Skeptical or something?"
"Skeppy!" Bad exclaimed, and Zak felt his face light up yet again. The memories were coming back, all of the times he and Bad had played together. He could remember the games they had played, the special moments they had made together in this game...
                          
"Yeah," he replied breathlessly. "You can call me Skeppy, I guess..."
Bad smiled. "I'm honestly partly used to it already," he replied. "We must have played this game a lot."
                          
Skeppy nodded. "I remember we used to play one on one, trying to kill each other and break like a bed or something," he said, a smile spreading across his face. "We had so many memories here, Bad!"
Bad sighed. "It's like George and Dream. I couldn't remember anything until Dream brought it up."
Skeppy's jaw twitched as he thought about this. Why hadn't they remembered... anything? What was this game? Why had he tested it?
"Do you think it has something to do with the government?"
Skeppy looked up. Bad was staring at him, curiosity in his eyes.
                          
Skeppy shook his head. "I really don't know, to be honest. I don't even know what I remember anymore."
Bad nodded, and the two sat in silence.
                          
But Skeppy was immersed in thought.
                          
He was thinking about diamonds.
                          
George sat at the computer, hitting the power button. He heard the door close behind him as Dream rushed in, typing his password as soon as the computer booted up and waiting briefly. 
                          
George stared. "Your password isn't password10?"
Dream flushed, shaking his head. 
                          
George didn't question it. 
                          
The computer opened, and Dream stepped back, letting George take the lead. George typed something in, waited, typed something else. Dream coded himself, but from what he had seen, George was a lot better than him - George had already changed the coding on Dream's band, and his own. It was a mystery why he hadn't been ranked higher to code for the government. 
                          
George's face creased as he stared at the computer screen, typing furiously. In a matter of seconds, he was in the database, staring at the very code programming his band. His eyes skipped over the functions, landing on the tracking code.
                          
He had used Darryl's activity to sign in, pretending to be a bot in order to access the code. Darryl's account would be around for a few more days, despite the fact that it had been terminated - it had to be searched before the government could completely terminate it.
                          
The tracking code was carefully coded, in such a way that George wouldn't have even thought of. There was some smart person behind this, he could tell.
                          
He blinked and the code changed.
                          
No way. George blinked again, stared at the screen. 
                          
The code was changing before his very eyes.
                          
Goddam it. Someone was editing the code while George was trying to modify this.
                          
George skipped down a few lines, landing on the words "George1335". His tag.
                          
Ok, so that was what was tracking him. He just had to change that, and everything would be great.
                          
But he couldn't. Not while this person was editing it. It was in one-person mode, and...
                          
Oh god, they could have taken his location already. There was one option left.
                          
George scrolled to the top of his code and highlighted the entire coded section, not including the new tracking code.
                          
He took a deep breath and deleted it.
                          
The code flashed, and George's band switched off, the vibrations stopping, the screen going blank. It would never work again. Now that it had been terminated completely, nobody could track him. 
                          
George hadn't wanted to go that far, because now that his band was useless, it could be used against him to verify that he was no longer an official member of society - and in a few days, the band would release it's customization settings, making it more uncomfortable for him to wear.
                          
But it had to be done.
George exhaled, rolling his chair back and standing up. "Done."
Dream nodded, his eyes flashing to George's band and then back again. "It won't work again, will it?"
George shook his head.
                          
Dream's thoughts whirred. It was ok. They were ok.
                          
For now.