Delirious || Bozari

Chapter Seventeen: Boze

Atomic was visibly shaken the next day.

She could tell just by looking at her. Her purple hair was a mess, there were tear stains on her cheeks, and the bags under her eyes made her look like she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. There was a piece of paper in her hands that she kept sliding her fingers over with a dazed look on her face, like she wasn't quite sure where she was or what was happening.

Boze smiled at the sight of her. Lasercorn must've done something, said something, to her last night. Of course, that was precisely what Boze had wanted. Sohinki wasn't that big of a problem, after all. The real reason that Lasercorn was here was because she had wanted him to talk to Atomic about Ian.

Everyone in the institute had known how close Mari had been to the head psychologist. They'd been like siblings. For the electroshock therapy to work, she would've had to forget all about him. If she remembered that Wes killed her best friend since childhood... well, she never would've been deluded into thinking she loved him.

From the looks of her, it didn't seem like she remembered everything, but Boze hadn't been expecting her too. They were taking baby steps here. All she needed to do was make sure that Atomic didn't feel as confident about herself anymore, and from the looks of it, she'd succeeded in that. The only question was how much she had.

After breakfast was done, Boze had pulled Atomic aside while the other brawlers went down to the parking lot to train. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Atomic replied completely unconvincingly, not looking her in the eye. "I'm fine."

"You seem a bit off," Boze remarked, patting her shoulder. "Are you sure? You can tell me anything, you know."

"I know," Atomic sighed, blinking rapidly. "It's nothing. Just a bad dream."

"Was it about Silver?" Boze asked, knowing that the taller woman was lying, but deciding to play into the fantasy anyway. She wouldn't gain anything from yelling at her. And from the way she'd looked at Lasercorn this morning, Boze knew that her lips were locked.

Atomic nodded. "About him getting shot. I just... I can't get over it!"

"I know," Boze said in mock understanding. "You won't for a while. Trust me, though; it gets better."

"I sure hope that it does," Atomic sighed, running her thumb over the piece of paper. When Boze looked down, she noticed that it was a photograph, and saw Ian's smiling face in between Atomic's fingers. When the purple-haired woman noticed her staring at the photo, she shoved it in her pocket, but by then it was already too late.

Lasercorn must've paid her a visit last night. There was no other way that she could've gotten that photo; Boze certainly didn't have any photos of her former boss lying around.

"Well, let's not keep Wrath waiting too long," Boze smiled, cupping Atomic's cheek reassuringly. "Have fun at training."

"I will," Atomic responded. "Thank you."

Then she was off, running down the stairs as fast as she could. Boze didn't know if she was desperate to get to the other brawlers or if she was worried that Boze was onto her. Either option worked.

Boze sighed and turned to walk back up the escalator. Poison and Antidote weren't due for another hour, so she had plenty of time for some planning. One of her watchers, Gaze, had found ties between a sex ring and the man she was stalking. Boze's blood boiled whenever she thought about it. She wanted to take it down as quickly as possible and get those women and children out, whatever it took, and there was an unread report she was itching to read from Gaze sitting in her email right now.

"Vixen!" a voice said from behind her, cutting her off mid-step. She awkwardly hung in the air to turn and face the woman who'd spoken to her.

Rebel was standing at the foot of the escalator, clutching a clipboard. Boze still hadn't gotten used to her. It was the head of the transportation department's job to alert her about visitors, and that used to be Siren. Half the time, when Rebel alerted her of an arrival, she expected to see Siren when she turned to face her. "Yes?"