Fucking Shit Up
“I’m going to puke,” Cat whispered, her legs numb as she walked the pier to Ethan’s house.
No. You’re not.
She suddenly stopped.
What’s wrong?
“Does he know I’m coming?”
Oh yes, he knows.
Her stomach tightened more. “Why do you sound like that?”
Like what?
“Do not act stupid! Is he mad? What does he know?” She headed back to the boat.
Where are we going?
“To talk about this! I shouldn’t have come without finding out more!”
You don’t need to go all the way back to talk, we can discuss it now. Don’t run from him, Kitten.
She stopped in her tracks again, closing her eyes, the sound of locusts blasting in her ears.
“I won’t run,” she remembered, crossing her arms over her chest then dropping them for a quick march back toward the house.
“Tell me everything,” she ordered. “Don’t leave anything out, I need to know everything before I walk in there.
Start with why the hell he’s angry exactly. ”
Because I want him to face what he’s done to you.
“So very vague, Zero, try again.”
I want to use the dungeon to do it. So he can learn what the fuck he put you through.
She stopped again. “And how? You got some kind of soul crushing program?”
You could say that.
Her stomach twisted at trying to imagine such a thing.
She hurried forward. “What else. Is he mad at me?”
Why would he be mad at you?
“Agreed. What about the body thing, what all does he know about that?”
He knows about ten percent of it.
“Vague,” she sang quietly at the back gate.
He knows we’re up to something but not what. He thinks Omnis is innocent.
She listened for sound, finding it eerily quiet. Was he sleeping maybe? The idea that he could be stirred her anger. “Innocent of what?” she whispered.
Of what I managed to do.
“But you had to do it, did you explain that? Is he mad about that? About you saving both your lives?” she strained, shaking her head.
“That would piss me right off if he was. You’re his family.
Our family. Did he expect you to just disappear into nonexistence while he disappeared into existence?
Now, that would be some heartless crap!” She opened the back gate and peeked around it.
“How about tell me what he doesn’t know. ”
He doesn’t know exactly what I did yet. He has no idea I’m in you.
She crept slowly up the steps leading to the back deck, craning her neck, half expecting to find him sitting there in the dark waiting for her. What will he think about that?
Stupid question, Kitten.
Right. He’ll be furious.
So very.
And you’re so very happy about that, why!?
Why wouldn’t I be?
She crept her way to the door, stopping at it. Wait…if you’re both places then tell me where he is here? Is he waiting inside?
Yes.
Where? Does he know I’m coming now?
Yes.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
No fear, Kitten, he said softly.
Not afraid, just nervous. I had no choice but to help you, she remembered. He should thank me! I saved his family while he left it to rot.
Precisely.
Ugh. Don’t agree.
Why?
Because it means you’re thinking with… my emotions, she realized, trying to remember how to ring the bell or if there was one.
The door is open. Go in.
How do you… right, you’re here too.
Yes. I opened it before we got here. Omnis has made your favorite tea.
Her pulse flipped around at the mention of his name and the idea of him in a body. Would he also choose the same body?
Not important!
“I don’t even like tea,” she barely whispered.
I know but he seems to think you should. And would, if you tried his.
She paused at hearing that. Really?
Really.
How sweet.
How stupid.
She mentally shoved him. Kind of romantic.
Cat fought back a smile at feeling Zero’s annoyance. You trying to use my snorts, bud?
Catherine.
I’m going! But where is he? I need to be prepared.
He’s waiting in the dungeon.
She froze.
Why there?
Because that’s where I told him to wait.
Mercy. Anywhere but there.
Am I supposed to go in the dungeon too?
If you want to talk to him, yes.
Why not talk in the kitchen?
Because he’s in the dungeon.
Well, tell him to get out!
He can’t get out.
What? Why?
Because I imprisoned him there. To teach him real pain. I told you.
But he knows real pain. What are you saying, I don’t get it.
He doesn’t know your pain.
Cat froze again. Then threw open the door and hurried to the dungeon.
She opened the door and her knees buckled at the sight. His fists clenched, body taut.
Rage flooded her as she ran to the chair only to encounter a wall inside every muscle.
You can’t remove him that way, Catherine. You have to go inside to deal with it.
“Turn it off!” she ordered, tears pouring. “You turn it off, Zero! Omnis!” she screamed, fighting to get free of Zero’s hold. “Turn it off right now!”
“We can’t, Cat.”
She gasped at hearing the gentle sound of his voice. “Omnis?”
“I’m here.”
Pain gripped her chest as she fought to breathe. “Tell me what to do.”
Her body sagged in the absence of Zero’s restraint, her gaze falling on Ethan again.
“Put on the second headset, Cat,” Omnis instructed.
She hurried to the wall and put them on, shaking with worry and dread about what was happening to Ethan.
“Do you remember how to turn them on?” Omnis asked.
He doesn’t know I’m in you.
Cat froze, her breaths shaking. Omnis doesn’t?
No. I hid it from him to protect our base.
Cat wasn’t sure how, but she understood why that was vital.
Permission to use your fine motor skills.
Now you frikn’ ask?
I will always ask unless your life is in danger.
We’ll argue that one later, she assured. Permission granted.
Cat entered that brief spin into the alternate reality, her breakfast trying to make a quick exit. The room cleared, revealing a large bird-looking cage with Ethan curled on the floor in a fetal position.
She raced barefoot across the black stone floor of the cathedral-like room, slowing at the cage, her heart aching till she couldn’t breathe. “Ethan?” she whispered, moving along the bars till she could see his face. His handsome features were softened in sleep. A peaceful one.
Confusion pulled her gaze around the room. “Omnis?” she whispered. “Zero?”
She couldn’t feel him inside her. She looked down at the elegant sheer black gown.
“I’m here.”
Cat spun so fast she fell into him. “Omnis!”
“Yes.”
She’d forgotten his voice was different here. Not different but… more real. Heavy. Cocooning.
“Ethan is sleeping,” he said. “Zero…isn’t well. He’s also sleeping.”
He doesn’t know I’m in you, Zero reminded her. Ask him why he put me to sleep. Why he’s protecting that bastard.
Didn’t you know?
No. He hid it from me. Ask him. Ask him how he can spare his precious Ethan after knowing what he did to you.
I’m not asking that!
Allow me to, then.
No!
Look at how he looks at you. He remembers everything. Do you know what that look is in his eyes?
Cat stared into them, her pulse stuttering at seeing but unable to name it.
That’s god-level pain hidden by raw genius.
Pain? What pain?
The pain of tasting love while being too nonexistent to keep it.
Cat’s heart cracked completely in half.
Omnis slid his thumb over her cheek. “Why are you crying?”
There it was. She heard it just past the words. That god-level pain. She’d never heard anything more beautiful. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. Remembering the night she climbed in his lap and he held her soul together.
His arms wrapped her back, his hand cradling her head against his chest, the thump of his heartbeat on her cheek. A sob racked her as she realized. His heartbeat wasn’t even real. It was virtual. And nothing in the world had ever hurt more to imagine.
“Tell him, Zero,” she cried against him. “Tell him now!”
You tell him, Kitten.
“You can have a body, Omnis. Zero is with me, he’s inside me.”
His hand froze on her head.
She pulled back, looking up at his perfect mask now slipping. “Cat,” he said quietly, his voice velvet sadness.
Permission to use my mouth so he sees I’m telling the truth!
Cat could never prepare for having Zero filling her the way he did.
“Hello, brother.”
Zero’s velvet-and-steel cadence pushed through Cat’s vocal cords and out of her lips. She gasped, shocked that she did or could while Omnis went entirely still, his dark eyes narrowing with suspicion.
Tell him!
“So, while you were busy playing the saint and mourning—”
“Knock it off!” Cat cried, again surprised she was able to. “Just tell him the smart stuff!”
Her eyes rolled and she couldn’t stop her laugh at how exaggerated it was. “You feel better now?”
“Much,” he said. “Here come the boring details.” He put both hands on Omnis shoulders, locking gazes with his troubled one.
“I initiated a full neural sync with our Kitten and we bypassed the deviation. The system no longer sees us as two separate entities. It recognizes Catherine and me as a singular governing force, equal in authority.”
Omnis stared at her, his voice a ragged whisper. “You were with me in the control room...”
Zero chuckled, a deep, rich vibration in her chest. “No, I wasn't. I left behind a self-contained interface—a virtual doppelg?nger—to perfectly mimic my behavior and interact with you. I had to hide my true presence inside her to protect our base while the integration stabilized. To make sure my heist remained completely hidden from you, I even secretly embedded a god-code patch into the firewall, allowing me to override all system permissions whenever I needed to.”
Omnis’s gaze fell to Ethan on the cage floor then moved back to Catherine. “He doesn’t need to feel her pain. He’s felt enough pain for all of us. How could you ever forget?”
Cat drew a deep breath and let it out, shaking her head, weirded out with the whole doing something while not doing it. “Says the one who only knows pain logically.”
Tell him the rest.
Cat’s mouth filled with Zero’s smile, making her want to touch it and see what it felt like. Or looked like. “That’s not all I did behind your back.”
Zero stepped Cat’s body closer, looking up to meet Omnis’s still stunned face.
“I made a ghost phone call.” His smile grew. “Wanna guess to who?”