Chapter 27 Roxi
Joey is a fighter. He doesn’t cave, not right away. But he’s in too much pain to think.
All of the Augments he has are CSP tech or vanity mostly, so they were installed with high doses of pain medication. I don’t give him shit. And I make sure I take my sweet time.
When Joey doesn’t answer a question, I let Leah take a swing. Every time she does, she rattles off another name of a Relic or Rogue who has been decommissioned because of him. Sometimes, it's a human like her father.
I access Joey’s memory hotspots when they light up and pull the information that I can, but he resists thinking about things. “It’s too bad you didn’t stay on the just side of this war,” I remark. “You would’ve made a good recon agent with mental control like this.”
“You’re complimenting him after he tried to kill you?” Menace shakes his head outside the door. “You and Sefina…”
Fracture’s eyes light up as he leans his body toward Menace. I wager he’s telling his Brother about my slow torture tactics, the kind I used on Crezlith.
“Oh.” Menace snickers. “Please proceed, Roxi.”
“Guess this thing could be broken,” I mutter, taking a loose metal probe and tapping the device I’ve punched into the back of his head. The tap-tap-tap resonates into his skull and his brain.
Joey lets out a yell. “Okay, okay! Fuck! Just stop! I’ll talk!”
Veins rise in his face from the strain of trying to escape.
Sitting back, I watch his mind map. “I want to know about the new bases, your father’s plans with the Solcrue, how the enemy is manufacturing so many ships so fast, and everything about your fleet. Withhold anything, and I will let Fracture start taking parts.”
Joey winces and jerks inside his restraints.
“Starting with your little prick.”
Joey’s eyes jerk to mine.
I shrug. “Don’t want you to fuck over anyone else.”
Fracture chuckles. “You better talk. I do not want to touch you there. I’d rather just shoot it off.”
Joey makes a strangled noise.
“Then talk.”
He growls like he doesn’t want to.
Fracture leans back against the wall and frees one of his crossed arms, disaggregates it, and darkens to Obsidian.
His voice booms out of his void-black body.
“Please disobey. I am just waiting to shatter you for what you have done to my Brothers and Sisters, to our Omega Force family, and to my mate.”
“She was mine first,” Joey snarls.
I twist the probe and open up the memory feed, even though part of me really doesn’t want to see it again. But it is a wound that never properly healed. It has become infected and needs to be drained before getting stitched.
Fracture and the other Titans watch the video feed. Human and Solcrue memories aren’t like Titans’. They are blurry when things weren’t important, like my face, and sharp when they are, like his father’s face, then my angry one, and the conflict that he started.
Joey’s father gives him orders to bring me in or be put in jail for treason.
Our date night was a lie, a ploy to take me to CSP, to the secret cells on base so the other Creators wouldn’t know.
I watch it unfold again and remember my joy fading into confusion because I knew the route.
I knew where we were going even though he drove a winding route trying to confuse me.
I look away as the last of our fights replays, this one more violent than the others Joey and I had as I tried to escape. There are flashes of our other arguments intermixed. I just don’t need to watch them again.
Fracture moves forward, darkens, and settles his hand over Joey’s throat. “You have committed the worst offense in Titan culture.” His hand squeezes. “You will not leave this ship alive. How long you survive depends now on how well you comply.”
“I comply! I comply!” Joey rasps.
Obsidian gets close to his face, his voice rumbling like thunder. “And how well I keep my control.”
Joey stares up at him in fear.
“How are you so calm about this?” Esthi whispers to me, motioning to the screen. “That would make me fall apart.”
Armor curls an arm around her and speaks softly. “I would rather decom myself than betray you.”
I rest a boot on the middle rung of my stool and look back at everyone who’s watching.
“I’ve replayed these moments hundreds of times, trying to figure out where I went wrong.
But it was never me. His corruption ran deep.
This is when I stopped trusting CSP and started relying solely on Titans, even though I worked with CSP on their security measures too.
I had to ensure systems would integrate.
But I never saw CSP Creator Calern the same way after this.
It’s why some systems don’t integrate. But Creator Core, the board that made decisions on these issues, had already installed backup plans in Titans to break them free. ”
“Why?” Menace asks.
“Because Creators will always want to preserve their creations above all other things. They only allowed CSP to exist without conflict because that’s what it took to garner public approval for the Titan program.
I turn to Joey. “And I know now that you never loved me. Lenarro might defend you, say you were a good person once. Maybe you were. But you loved the idea of me as an accessory to your future. You never deserved my kind of dedication.”
Joey quiets. The look on his face tells me he’s finally seeing where he went wrong. “Okay. I’ll let you have what you want.”
Obsidian releases Joey’s throat, points menacingly at him, then eases back.
“Tell me about the new CSP bases.”
Joey works his mouth around and drinks in the air.
“I do not care if you live or die,” I admit with apathy. “You are your best advocate if you want to live.”
When I glance at him, he looks away. His mind map activates, and I twist the probe ring to access that area of memories. Joey strains inside the straps, but he doesn’t complain this time.
Finally, I get some answers.
Fracture stays with me until I’ve worn Joey out, and then escorts me onto the transport, heading for Aegis. “I’m sorry he did that to you.”
“Just thought we’d finally worked things out.
He’d promised to avoid his father, who had been meddling in our relationship for a long time.
” I pick at my fingernails as we leave Ravenger III.
“It is an awful feeling to think you’re going on a date with someone you love, someone you think loves you, only to find out they are actually using you and betraying everything you believe in.
I thought dating a CSP soldier back then would be safe.
It wasn’t long after that they turned on us. ”
“What bodymorph were you in back then?” Fracture asks.
“The one before this had shielding like Armor, super speed like Redline, and Jackknife strength, thus the hydramidium bones. But I took missile fire from a Battledagger.”
“Oof. How did you survive that?”
“Barely. Shielding held, but I was thrown quite a ways. I was just protecting a team of CyberTechs, trying to escape on Titan.”
“You were at the Titan battle?”
“Yeah.”
“So was I.”
I look up at him. “You’re kidding.”
“No.” Fracture looks down at his hands. “I was in this body, but we were engaged in battle with the Skysprinters.”
“So I probably saw you fly overhead and didn’t know it was you.”
“Likely.”
I grin and lean close to him.
Creator Roxi>>Fracture: Or know that years later I’d be sucking your gigantic dick.
Fracture’s face darkens.
Fracture>>Creator Roxi: I like the taste of you better than anything else.
I tilt up and kiss him, but he doesn’t let me go. Fracture braces the back of my head and bonds his mouth to mine, his smooth tongue gliding over mine like he can’t get enough.
Menace rumbles from a nearby seat.
“Agreed, Brother.” Savage snags Leah from her seat and pulls her into his lap. “Come here, sexy.”
Leah giggles. “Savage, not in front of everyone.”
“Yes, in front of everyone,” he snickers.
I break the kiss and lean back, studying Fracture’s pale blue eyes. “You said you were an Augment before you were a WreckTank. That’s…unusual.”
He shrugs. “I got blown up. Pulse grenade took my limbs off.
Wasn't entirely dead yet. So Omega Force patched me up and sent me back in with new parts. One moment…boom. The next, I had shiny black arms and legs that were stronger and illuminated with these blue power indicators. A lot better than my meat bits. But you know, when I shatter people now, I don’t feel so bad. I know what it's like.”
I gape at him. “Sounds painful.”
“Body shuts down with that level of agony.”
I nod. “Been there.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with Morbid,” Menace remarks. “Females should not hear such stories told so…”
“Honestly?” Fracture replies.
I sit back. “It’s okay, Menace. After seven body morphs and three deaths, I have a few stories of my own.”
We arrive in the main hangar of Aegis and dock between other vessels.
I’m eager to check on my friends and colleagues in hibernation that Esthi has set up with the help of Relic and Rogue medics. I am off the rear ramp before it’s fully on the ground. Esthi lands beside me.
Rogue Ribos joins us. “How’s Joey?”
I smirk. “Fighting, but I have chipped away some critical pieces. He is breaking, slowly—just like I wanted. How are the hibernation pods?
“Stable.” He motions for us to follow and leads us into the heart of Aegis while Fracture trails behind. “I was hoping we could get your input because my experience is limited, and the other medic units don’t know much about human or augment hibernation.”
We walk to a narrow passageway.
“Creator Roxi Angstrom,” an automated woman’s voice states overhead.
Ribos and Esthi pass through with a simple blue flash of a scanner over their bodies. The shield opens for them and closes again.
I stop and close my eyes. I have missed your voice. “Yes, Mother?”
“Welcome aboard Aegis 189. I am honored to shelter one of humanity's greatest minds.”
Blue scanners pass over me.