Chapter 26 Fracture
Warmth surrounds my shattered essence. Pieces begin to fit back into place, and a memory returns. Not a recording. It is only a brief moment, a sense of safety between storms.
I am very small on a stiff bed in a dark room. My mother hugs me. The way her body shakes and drops of water fall to my lap tells me she cries, but I can’t hear it. I couldn’t hear anything when I had my headphones on, not her crying or him shouting or things breaking downstairs.
“Fracture…”
That wasn’t my name.
What was my name?
“Obsidian?”
My name has changed many times. Every new place I ended up, it changed so my reputation wouldn’t follow me.
And it continued until…this. Until Omega Force and Titan Force, until camaraderie replaced betrayal and CyberTitan Code gave me structure.
Until the Creator found out my skill was falling apart and moving around, then reshaping myself in a new place, and venting anger with a firm sense of justice.
I have put myself back together again but without my core aligner this time. I always had one. It feels weird, naked in my center, and yet also freeing.
“Fracture.” A soft hand moves up my side. I try to open my eyes, but they won’t move.
“Just a little longer.” The gentle voice pauses. “Magma, can you work your magic over his face? I think he’s stuck.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Heat rises over my chest and throat to my face and passes over my eyes. I feel my eyelids unseal and look up at a radiant orange orb.
The hand moves away, and I look up at Magma in his dark body with his bright red-orange digibadge.
“He’s awake,” Roxi says with relief. “Thank you, Magma.”
“It was a pleasure to serve a Creator. Call anytime you need.”
Roxi leans over me, her eyes filled with hope and her hair up in a messy bun like she’s been working nonstop for hours at a workbench. “How are you feeling?”
I swallow against a dry throat. “Whole. You?”
“Better now that you’re with us again.” She sits beside me on the bed. “Flamberge is safe thanks to you. They’ve headed into Aegis. We’re on Ravenger III. It took some extra work to get your pieces to move again. Got your beacon reinstalled as well so you can chat with your Brothers if you want.”
“Why did you not replace my core aligner?” I ask. “I sense that it is still missing.”
“Esthi is working on one with Rhee. But I’m not sure you need it.”
“I do.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. Something happened to you before you turned into that tornado. Do you remember?”
I think back to it. “I just wanted to protect everyone, but I always do.” I take Roxi’s hand in mine. “But mostly it was you. I’ve never really fought for anything I’ve wanted before.”
She crawls over me and takes my face in her hands. “Please don’t pull a stunt like that again.”
“No promises.”
“Fracture.”
I shrug. “Whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
She leans in and kisses me with soft lips and warm breath and her silky fingers gliding up through my hair. “I’d rather you live for love.”
Roxi locks the door to the medbay with a simple thought-command. I see it scroll over her eyes. “I had some time to work on system upgrades for Rogue Fleet while you slept. Now, when was the last time you felt good?”
“Right now.”
She giggles. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Roxi… You don’t have to…”
Warm pressure moves up my shaft, and I’m suddenly aware of my naked body.
“You don’t know how hard it is to work on you and stare at this,” she whispers.
Roxi sets her tablet aside rather abruptly, gets up, leans over me, and drags her tongue up my stiffening cock.
“Ffff…mmm. Roxi, I am barely back together. I’m not sure tempting me to blow is a good idea.”
“You are in the safest place you can be if that does happen.” Her eyes circle the recuperation chamber I’m still in.
Roxi’s every touch brings more of my Titan synthskin to the surface. I change from my hips outward, until I run my finger down her cheek and my hand begins to turn.
She caresses me with a gentleness that I cannot fathom. I am quickly addicted and craving another caress of her skin against mine until I am begging to be surrounded by her. But somewhere buried in my programming is a warning that I am breaking protocol by letting her touch me in such a way.
“This…”
“Fracture.” She lifts her head and squints at me. “Do not make me root around in your head to turn that damned anti-fraternization program off. Turn it off yourself. It no longer applies. We are survivors. We are all the same rank. Some lead better, and that’s their skill. But we are the same.”
I hunt down and open the warning program, then remove it so it won’t harass me anymore. As it fades from my vision, I get a new sensation, something gloriously hot and wet and impossibly soft sliding over my tip and down my rigid shaft.
Need soars in my groin with a power that consumes me. Roxi massages my base as her lips slide back up, then down again until I’m in a fit of crazed lust, begging for release. Her tongue swirls around my tip, conforms to every curve, and laps up my bead of precum.
“So…mlad we…” She bobs down over me again. “Went wif…mmm… mimp flavored.”
“Oh, fucking hell.” My whole body tenses as her voice vibrates down my shaft and into my balls.
Roxi backs off and lowers herself between my thighs. “Mint was my preference.”
I’m about to ask how old she really is when her tongue curls under my sack, licks me up to my base, then drags up my near-painful erection. She sucks hard on my tip until it slips free of her plump lips.
“You need release, Fracture.” She works her hands over my shaft as I struggle to catch my breath. “How long has it been?”
“I don’t know.”
“Far too long then.” Roxi takes me into her supple heat and deeper into her throat than I can comprehend.
My ultromotor speeds up. Nanosolution rushes through my Titan husk. She cups my balls with a hand, grips my base with the other, and pushes her beautiful mouth down over me. She pumps faster and harder. A weightless high consumes me. My balls heat and tighten.
“Roxi…” I rasp in warning.
She hums her encouragement.
I grip the bed rails, afraid of what will happen as my raging ecstasy finds that highest point. I close my eyes. Hold it together.
All I want is to shatter for good, to end feeling such bliss, and fade knowing the softness of human touch again.
Roxi takes me with increased effort as I release and pump into her. Her eyes roll back as she drinks me down. Roxi milks me with fervor, then sucks and licks my shaft until there’s nothing left.
My ultromotor whirs as if I’ve just charged through a CSP killzone. I strain to catch my breath as a new Bond writes itself into my memory core. “Roxi…”
She wipes her mouth and crawls up to me, delight in her eyes. I brace her hips in my pale gray metal hands. “Hello, Fracture. You have been Obsidian for a long time. Glad to see you finally leave Angry Mode.”
I guide her loose hair behind her ear. “It feels good to have you in my arms again. You gave quite the chase.”
Roxi hangs her head and laughs softly. “Sorry. I didn’t want to see any more Titans die for me. And you most of all.”
“What’s the point in operating without you?”
“Your Brothers? The Rebellion?” she suggests.
“Bah…” I wave a hand dismissively. “They have Paradox and Evolution. And all the others. Sure, I’d die for them. But I’ll only live for you.”
Roxi kisses me tenderly. “Is that so?”
I crane up and bond my mouth to hers.
Fracture>>Creator Roxi: <3
She smiles mid-kiss. “Cute.”
Someone knocks on the door. “Roxi?”
“Yes?” she sings out.
“He’s ready.”
“Perfect timing. Thanks, Craze.” She gets up and grabs a new nanoreceptive uniform from a nearby bed. “Come on.”
I hesitantly sit up and get to my feet. “Already? But I was enjoying having you on top of me and feeling almost human again.”
My transparent crackle-husk returns as I put on the new armor. Roxi is eager to help me, and doesn’t complain when I’m a little off balance.
“Let’s get some food in you while we’re up.” Roxi motions me into the hallway.
Armor sidles up and produces something I haven’t seen in years.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask.
“A sandwich, yeah,” Armor chuckles. “That Flamberge we stole was stocked with tons of real food, drinks, and Titan cores out our ears.”
“Ears?” Sometimes Relics say the weirdest things.
“He just means hundreds of cores.” Roxi leads me into the hallway, out of the Solcruean officer wing, to the cages on a lower level. Several CSP and some Solcrue have filled the cells since we were last aboard the ship.
“Can we restore them?” I ask before taking a bite of the soft bread, meat, cheese, lettuce and… “Is this a tomato?”
Armor grins.
Fucking hate these, but it’s real and fresh. I’m extremely grateful.
“We're going to try,” Roxi says. “But it would be better to have a Titan CyberTech or a Creator to assist. We just have to revive them first. That’s just beyond my capability. I could secure them. I was not cleared to revive them. So I never had training. Can I experiment with new ways to torture the enemy? Yes. Because if that goes sideways, I don’t care.
Hibernation Recovery? Hell no. I do not want to fuck that up. ”
At the end of the hallway, in an isolated cell, sits Joey on a bench. Ribos, Castor, Flashbomb, and Rogue Wraith watch him.
“Want me to drain him again before you enter?” Wraith asks. I have no trouble siphoning more of his energy.”
Roxi touches his arm like he’s a dear friend. “No, thanks. You’ve done so much already. I’ve got it from here.”
Wraith looks at her in awe. “How did I not hurt you?”
Roxi smirks and opens the door. “I have a security system built in to avoid such…collateral damage.”
Wraith eyes me with jealousy. “No wonder she can be with you. If she can manufacture some of that, I’d like a dose if I ever find a female that likes me. I am…scared to find one, afraid I’ll kill her with just a kiss.”
I realize now just how lucky I am and how important it is that Roxi helps pave a pathway for more dangerous Titan Brothers so they don’t have to be alone.
“We’ll figure something out,” Esthi says, walking up with Leah.
Wraith tucks himself inside his insulating cloak and steps out of the way.
Joey gets up with a growl. “Roxi… This is uncalled for!”
I follow her into the room and try to put myself between them. But she eases me back.
“Yeah, stay out of the way, metal head,” he snorts.
“Do not hurt my mate,” I jab a darkening finger at him. “Or I will finish shattering you.”
He curls his lip.
Roxi braces my sides and beams up at me. “Claiming me in front of others?”
“Is it inaccurate?” I ask.
She cranes up and takes my bottom lip between her teeth, tugging until it slips her grip. “I am so turned on.”
Joey snorts in disgust.
Roxi turns to him. “What you did was unprovoked and selfish. You sentenced others to die so you could save your own hide.”
He takes a step toward her. “You were losing!”
She kicks him in the crotch. When he curls forward, she knees him in the face.
Joey topples backward into the chair. I can hear Craze and the other Titans chuckling through the open door.
Roxi shoves him back by his shoulders when he tries to sit forward. “Come on, Joey. I know you love to be dominated.” She takes him by the throat and squeezes. “Does this not turn you on?”
He kicks and tugs at her hand.
“You did it to me,” she says before releasing him with a jerk.
“Fracture, my love?”
Energy pours into my tired body, hearing her call me such a name. I will do anything she asks. “Yes, my feisty little Rebel?”
She grins. “Strap him down.”
“With pleasure.”
Roxi pulls up a stool as I bind Joey to the exam chair.
He’s fighting the urge to panic. I can see it in the way his eyes dart around, and then he forces them shut.
“It’s better if you don’t fight it. Guess it’s finally your turn to see how it feels to be one of us,” I say.
Roxi brings the screen online and hooks a nearby cart leg with a boot, before dragging it to her while her attention is on the screen.
“She’s done this a lot,” Esthi remarks as she and Leah enter.
Leah crosses her arms and rests back against the wall. “I’m not saving you this time, Joey.”
Joey notices her and looks away. “Fuck off, Leah.”
“You should’ve been nicer to your sister,” Savage growls from the doorway. His blue eyes narrow and burn into Joey. His teeth elongate. “Then again, I love ravaging her every night in my bed. One wrong move and I will tear out your throat, maybe even make it sing for me.”
Roxi glances back at him. “Mmm, fitting name for that one. Anyone else?”
Esthi clicks a pair of needle-nose pliers. “Peel out his iris implants, then his toenails for letting Myria be dragged into this hell.”
“That was your uncle’s fault,” Joey snaps.
“Still could’ve done something, coward,” Esthi remarks.
More Titans shout at Joey, until it’s a raucous noise even I can’t sort.
“The only reason you’re going to live is that I am not a monster,” Roxi says.
“But if you ever try to escape or hurt my Titans or my Rebel family again, I will turn into your worst nightmare.” She grabs the alignment core for cerebral probes and twists the rings of teeth so he can see how they will bite into the back of his head.
“I promise, this is nothing compared to what I can do to you thanks to all my years with Sin.”
“My father will hunt you down.”
I smirk. “Not if we find him first.”
“You can’t do this.”
“Oh, we can, brother,” Leah joins Roxi and chews on a stick of something that smells woody and spicy. “And I am so going to enjoy watching her probe everything out of you.”
Roxi winks at him. “Welcome to the hell you helped create, Joey. I suggest you hold onto your armrests.”
Leah pulls the stick out of her mouth and motions it to him. “Unless you want to crack some teeth.”
Joey shies away.
“Suit yourself.” Leah leans back against the wall and swivels the stick to the other side of her mouth.
“I really should thank you for being the best worst brother ever. You gave me this life when you dropped me off on Ellipsis. You thought you were torturing me, but you gave me the most freedom and power I’ve ever had. ”
I place myself by the foot of Joey’s chair. “If you even look at Roxi in a way I don’t like, I will start shattering your limbs one at a time.”
Joey scoffs and looks away.
I pick up an empty crate, show it to him, then turn it to dust with one simple angry thought.
Joey’s eyes widen.
“Don’t piss me off.”