Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

49 - Touched a Nerve

Her fingers glowed softly. Piper let the energy sizzle through her implants, turning her hand forward and back, examining the bones and veins given form by the light beneath her skin as she lay on the bed, head propped up against the wall.

She felt emptied.

Her family was safe, at least, but the conversation with her mother left her feeling twisted up like a coil. Some answers, but more questions to go with them. At least now she didn't have any doubts, and she had a name.

Casimir.

Who was he? Why did he give her up? Where did he go?

Piper couldn't fight down the horrible sense that he was probably dead. That was what happened when you got on the wrong side of Hadrian's rulers – Cutter Jennings found that out the hard way.

But even if he was dead, there had to be a connection somewhere – something she could track down to find out what she was. He had existed. That meant he'd left a mark on this world that went further than just her and her family.

Her mind wandered on, on to her biological mother – another missing puzzle piece. Was she dead too? Part of her wanted to indulge the pleasant fiction the Casimir had heroically sacrificed himself, protecting his daughter and his partner in the process. The cynical part of her brain reacted violently against that.

Get real, Piper. Hadrian is where fairytales go to die.

Besides, while finally seeing her mother and Arden safe again had given her a welcome peace of mind, there was another person sitting grimly in her thoughts: Kirk. She couldn't stop seeing his face. That horrified, terrified, disgusted expression that cut her deeper than any blade or bullet. Anger filled her every time she remembered that look.

How dare he judge her? After everything they'd been through together, he just couldn't see past the corporations. Couldn't see past what she was now.

Could she blame him for that? She wanted to. God, part of her hated him for how he reacted. She tried to imagine if their places had been switched. If Kirk had suddenly appeared wielding the fearsome power of AmpCore, would she have handled it any better? She hoped so.

But he didn't. He freaked out and almost shot Arrow in the process. With everything that was happening, they were one of the few people Piper genuinely felt she could depend on in this fucking mess. She hoped he was alright, wherever he was, but she couldn't help feeling like there would be no coming back from this.

Something in her chest guttered and died.

On top of all that, the consequences of their unsanctioned excursion from AmpCore came thick and fast. She didn't know the back room corporate brawls and negotiations that had taken place, but her family reunion had been cut short by the arrival of the result.

She and her companions had been escorted back to AmpCore by Toran and a troop of heavily armed Skiltron troopers, bundled into the back of an armoured truck, and driven straight back to the enclosed walls.

They'd had their amplifiers confiscated, their faces were marked on all security terminals and all of them – Odiye, Holly and Arrow – were placed on an extended performance review, with reduced roaming privileges by the academy administrators.

It didn't sound that bad when you wrapped it up in corporate terminology, but it really meant that guards would shoot them on sight if they tried to leave again without a sanctioned escort. For the first time in a long time, she felt like a prisoner again.

Time crawled by. Piper's mind wandered unwillingly back to the codewraith – the one she's taken control of briefly.

You see what you can do, Piper. You are special.