Eve made her way around the virtual space until she came to a section that was used for government files. It was a place where Eve could hopefully get the information she was looking for. “Let’s see… Why are all these folders numbered in a strange way?” Eve pursed her lips as she began looking through each file section. It was as if she was standing in front of a large file cabinet with how she was able to pick a folder and begin shuffling through it.

“This is not it… Nor is this anything of use. Hmmm, criminal records… criminal records… Here we go! Now Todd… Todd… What the hell was his last name? I don’t even think Lilly knows… I guess it doesn't matter as there are pictures here of them all.” Eve quickly went to the file structure for T and scanned through them as fast as she could because she knew her time was almost up. When she started to feel a tug on her tether, which was a warning she only had five minutes, Eve finally found what she was looking for. She quickly scanned the entire file and committed it all to memory before being pulled back. But as she was being pulled, her eyes landed on a small figure holding an umbrella. The sight of this small figure stunned her as it was staring right at her!

After Eve disappeared, the small figure stared in the direction Eve disappeared in, twirling her umbrella. “Hmmm… A human? How was a human able to enter this space? What’s more, I can't track them…. Interesting. To think that there were humans in this city who had such abilities! I really wish to meet this human. Hehe…” The small figure twirled her umbrella and skipped her way into the distance making large strides with each skip before disappearing. 

Eve opened her eyes only to see a face full of tears in front of her. “Lilly!? Lilly, what's wrong!?”

“You wouldn’t answer! I thought you stopped working!” Lilly cried out as she hugged Eve and buried her head into Eve’s shoulder.

“Aiu, what happened?” Eve could only ask Aiu as she was the only one here at the time.

“I had to use every fail safe you created plus more to pull you back. I do not know how long it felt to you while you were in the web, but here, eight hours passed. I even had to code several more retraction programs to pull you back… The tether held you to your body but would not bring you back on the few you created… Eve, you almost did not come back….”  Aiu was very worried. When she saw Eve's time was up, the first fail safe fired off to pull Eve back, but nothing happened, she waited and waited some more. Only when an hour passed did she try the next fail safe. She continued trying each one until the last one. But when she went over the code for it and saw it was almost the same as the last, Aiu took the code and began modifying it to pull harder on the tether in order to try to yank Eve out of the web. After many failed attempts that did pull on the tether but not enough to retract Eve, she finally went all out and created a massive program that would bind the tether in multiple places and begin reeling it in like a winch. 

“I see… No wonder Lilly is like this. Thank you, Aiu. To be honest, it only felt like a few minutes. I had no actual sense of time while in the web. But I did find the data I was looking for as well as something else that is concerning.” Eve wondered just who the small figure was. She could not see them clearly. She only knew they were young and wearing a strange dress with an umbrella in their hand.

“What did you find?” Aiu asked curiously. 

“I think there may be more A.I. in this city than we think. I saw a figure wearing a dress in the web as I was being pulled out. I am not sure if it was an A.I., though. This is just my assumption. It could have been a cyborg, for all I know. But they did enter the web like I did.” Eve explained.

“We will need to be more careful then. If there are other A.I. and they do notice us, it could spell trouble for us.” Aiu sighed, knowing she now had another thing she had to worry about. She wished this world was not as dangerous and hoped Eve could live a life free of worries, but it seemed more like wishful thinking than anything else.

“Yes, much more careful. Luckily I got what I needed from the web. So now I can concentrate on my tasks and missions.” Eve wanted to begin building her weapons as soon as possible, or else there would be no telling what could be coming her way. If the figure she saw was indeed an A.I., then the city of X-Cyber City had already been infiltrated. 

Eve sighed and ran her fingers through Lilly’s hair. She had to be sure not to make Lilly worry like this again. “Sorry for scaring you. I had entered the web to get some information. But it seems I messed up a bit and only returned now.”

Lilly squeezed Eve more as she said in a muffled voice: “Don’t ever do that to me again. I was so scared. I do not know what I would have done if you had never returned. Now that you have entered my life, you can not leave me alone.”

Eve smiled and hugged Lilly, resting her chin on top of Lilly’s head. “I promise. I will never do that again.” No, she would not. She could not risk her own safety or hurting Lilly if she did end up trapped there. Although she knew that Aiu would keep working on trying to save her, there would be no telling how long it would take, and if Lilly had to suffer because of it, it was not worth it.

“Good…” Lilly mumbled, her shoulder easing up as the tension in her body began to release. Her eyes slowly closed, and she fell into a deep sleep. She had been freaking out for a few hours, trying to wake Eve up with no luck. She was getting ready to try to hack Eve’s systems to bring her back. But now that Eve was back safe and sound, Lilly could finally relax.