Had to admit, for being a complete prick, Blackett had pretty decent taste. And I couldn't beat the fact that I was getting this vacation instead of being crucified for killing all the XPCA bosses.

In fact, I should kill XPCA more often. Seemed like a win/win in my book.

But what irked me, despite the pleasantness of this cosy mountain cabin and the intrepid company of the XPCA sharpshooters on a tower outside my range who made sure I stayed inside it, was that I felt like I was taking the fall for Athan again.

He was like the cutie at the bar that I couldn't stop buying drinks for, even though I knew he'd never take me home. Every time I worked myself up to start cracking skulls and getting some much-deserved vengeance against the stupid mouth-breathers of this planet, he rolled in and patted my head and told me to be good.

And then I did. It was hard to have much opinion of myself after doing that two or three times. I just wanted to effect a little indiscriminate genocide, was that really such a crime?

Blackett had even had every 'net-enabled device in the house taken out. I know the XPCA was going through a rash of cyber attacks, but he had to be truly nuts if he thought I was behind any of it. Why would I learn to use a computer when I could reprogram people?

The answer was obvious. Because I was bored, and there were at least a hundred years of holos to binge-watch, and I had none of them. I'd spent most of my time inventing new games like 'make a bird drink a lot and don't let it pee, and then send it flying over the XPCA watchtower and hope it poops on one of them'. Not a catchy name, but they couldn't all be Apotheosis.

I also spent a lot of time in the shower. I hadn't had a hot shower in years. Years and years and years and years and years. And it was the most wonderfully self-indulgent thing, I cranked the water up so hot it almost burned me and spent so long in there, I came out looking like...well...like myself. Apparently I didn't wrinkle up like a prune like humans did.

I tried drinking water too. Threw it all up. Nowhere in my body for it to go. Kind of made me terrified for what the state of the rest of my organs must look like. I accidentally choked myself succeeding at inhaling some of the stuff, so I had that going for me at least. Nice to know if I ever got dumped in the bottom of the ocean, I'd spend the whole time drowning over and over.

I was also tired a lot. Not sleepy tired, but...I hadn't exactly lived an active lifestyle, and my body showed it. It seemed like my powers wouldn't let me go below a healthy level of musculature and fat, but whoever set those parameters had a sick definition of healthy. There were mirrors here, and I spent a lot of time just looking at myself, usually before washing all the grossness of my own body off me with a shower. I guess I could see why Athan didn't really see me as a girl, depressing though that thought was.

I was a lanky, spindly mess, with hands like spiders and feet like boats. My hair was flat and straight, and my boobs, thank God, were bigger than Athan's, but only just.

I kinda regretted having the mirror. It was interesting to only see myself the way others saw me. Athan might have gotten most of the general strokes right, but his estimation of my breasts and the softness of my lips were way off, especially considering how much time he spent looking at them. I'm pretty sure Karu honestly believed I had red eyes and possibly even horns, and Lia...well, she was a sweet kid. She didn't see me as I was at all. In a weird way, her view of me was the most right, but also the most wrong.

And then there was the cold, unfeeling glass, which probably had an identical opinion of me as AEGIS; it thought nothing of me at all.

I couldn't really complain. I could move, I could stretch. I could undress and shower and lay around naked all day or lay on my front-side or whatever I wanted really. It was a huge step up from being locked in my coffin or sarcophagus or whatever Athan had called it.

So I was completely underdressed and just laying on the floor running my fingers over the thick carpet just to feel it with my own senses when I sensed them outside, before I even heard the roar of the engine. Faster than I think I'd ever moved, I bolted up the stairs on all fours, counting the minds entering my presence.

Many I recognized from our little encounter in the black tower. Athan, of course, all of his Exhuman friends, minus the very interesting little girl, his boss and two others I didn't know. And some XPCA schmuck driving who didn't matter in the least.

"'Sup," I announced mentally, all cool and casual like, even as I was completely out of breath, and scouring the upper floor for where I'd left my clothes. Bathroom? In the bed? Downstairs?

[Uh, what about clothes?] Athan asked.

"I didn't say anything about clothes," I replied, and grabbed a little better hold of my mind, while tearing the covers off the bed. I'd only been here something like a week, I guess...days were kind of a weird concept if you never slept or went outside...and were accustomed to deliberately ignoring the passage of time. So, a week, and I'd already gotten lazy enough that I'd lost my damn clothes.

[Damn clothes? Did you lose something, Saga?]

[Or she's darning her clothes?] The voice belonged to the tall smiling one.

[She's not anywhere near that domestic. Saga, if you need new clothes...well, I'm the wrong guy to ask, but Lia and AEGIS are still in town through today.]

"Nope! Everything's fine!" They all cringed in unison and then all shouted at me at once, telling me to stop yelling.

Sunbathing on the deck? I thought maybe Athan might like it if I were a little less pale, but didn't last under the withering gaze of the XPCA snipers. Still...might be out there?

"So, what brings you here?" I asked conversationally, wheezing across the house.

[Our two new friends here have an interesting story they don't really want to share,] Athan's boss answered. Cosette, apparently. [We'd like to know if they're lying, crazy, or just have a story worse than either of those.]

"Well, you don't need to come here for that, I can check them out from here." I slammed the outside door shut and ran my fingers through my hair. Wasn't there either. Maybe I should just kill them all to salvage my modesty.

[I also thought it'd be nice to see you...didn't...quite end on the best note last time,] Athan said.

Which of course is exactly what I wanted, if only I weren't busy fucking it all up.

I wished I could dive into my own brain and rifle through my memories as easily as I did with everyone else's. Stupid useless powers.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I snapped my fingers, remembering.

[Bathroom?] Athan asked.

[Are her thoughts normally this weird?] Tower asked.

"You guys just shut the hell up, please," I said, climbing the stairs again. My legs were about at their limit, and I slammed into the wall pathetically a couple times on my way up. They were close now, almost ready to pull into the parking outside.

Right in the first place I'd checked, on the hook on the back of the door, it hung. I'd put it up to air out during my shower. I tore it down and jammed one of my uncooperative legs through. Stupid fat boat feet.

The car parked, and I could feel all of them relieved their long trip was over. Not just yet, you dicks! Sit in the car for a minute or something.

"Bring me anything to eat?" I joked.

[Sorry but no, we're on duty and all that.]

"Could you uh, check the back just to make sure there's no crumbs or packs of gum rolling around back there?"

I got my other leg in and slipped my arms through. Err, one of my arms through. Where the heck was the other sleeve?

[Yeah not likely, nobody eats in my car,] Cosette mused as they approached the house. The other sleeve was inside out. This was a catastrophe. My first arm was stuck uselessly out of reach, and I had to pull it out of its sleeve to get the fabric to loosen up enough so I could turn the second sleeve right-side out.

But as I did, I saw something that made my breath catch in my throat.

These hands...these stupid, huge, gangly hands...as I tried to pull my arm through, I was turning the first sleeve inside out as well, doubling the number of inside-out sleeves I had to fix.

Was there no justice in this universe?

The door opened downstairs. They walked in and immediately split up like a search party. It would be moments before someone made it upstairs, and then...my position in the bathroom would be compromised. I could hear Athan's chiding already. But you don't pee, Saga. What were you doing in there?

Frantically I fixed the sleeves and threw them on. Athan was looking for me. [Saga? Are you up here?]

"I'm just uh," I struggled with the zipper. It had been catching ever since he ripped it off of me with his stupid magnetic trick. I tore at it, just pissed at how out of breath I was from running around and fighting my own damn clothes.

The zipper lurched upwards, but even as it did, I knew I'd pulled too hard. It had skipped teeth and left an open gap, right at my thigh. I looked down, flabbergasted, and then at the mirror. Maybe they wouldn't notice.

Yeah, right. My skin was brighter than a flashlight and my outfit was dark blue. Helpfully, that line, half of that V, the crease between the legs and hips, was right freaking there, saying, hey, look at how indecent this patch of skin is.

Murder was definitely looking like the only option.

Athan peeked his head in each door as he went, finally standing right outside the bathroom. I stood there, my zipper still open, flashing my inner thigh gap and my whole chest hanging out, panting, sweating...metaphorically...and just...waiting for everything else to go wrong, for Athan to see me such a mess, for his friends to all show up and ruin even the intimacy this fucking ruined moment might still have.

He reached for the doorknob.

"Athan DON'T!" I yelled, feeling my throat clamp up in protest.

It was too late, his hand was on the knob, twisting it as it fell away. The knob rotated ever so slightly, the world seemed to move by in moments. The door creaked open a fraction of an inch.

"Hmm?" he asked. "Oh. This is the bathroom, I'm sorry," he said, and the door closed again. "Let me know when you're done," I heard him call, both in my head and in his voice.

I couldn't stand it. Literally, I fell on the floor with a pathetic 'whump', because I wasn't even heavy enough for that to be satisfying. My shaking legs, my racing heart, my stupid overreacting brain. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

The door opened. "Were you calling for me?" he said. "You're shouting 'stupid' at--"

He froze, and through his eyes I saw the pale skin of my chest and thigh, and the red of my face and neck.

I peeked inside of his mind and immediately regretted it.

A few minutes later, we were both downstairs with the rest of the party after he helped me with my zipper, and I did everything in my power to keep from blasting the whole house with embarrassment. Really not a good look for an alleged, badass like me, and in front of the XPCA as well. I'd have to leave no witnesses.

But he'd helped me without complaint, his hands sure and strong, and he kept everything so clinical and ethical...at least outside of his head...I couldn't even get too worked up. I mean, if he'd accidentally grazed my skin a few more times, I wouldn't have minded.

I shook the thoughts off. This was the insidious poison which was Athan Ashton. How I could spend all day, every day, lazing about, dreaming and scheming, and then the second he showed up in my life again, I went to pieces? It was the damn XPCA conference room all over again, but with a dissatisfying lack of murder.

A man and a woman were in restraints, he had an adhesive over his mouth. Otherwise, they seemed quite at ease. I'd have time to probe their thoughts when everyone asked me to, and instead surreptitiously went around the group, picking up what tidbits I could unnoticed.

"It was a long trip. He wouldn't shut up," Athan helpfully explained.

I was more interested in the invisible girl right behind Athan, whom I could only see by her mind. Sort of the opposite of Blackett. We'd met once before...and she was almost an entirely different person now. I trawled her thoughts, seeing exactly what had brought about these changes.

I was mildly impressed. Not with her, she was complete trash, but with the extent she worshipped Athan. One of the hardest crushes I'd ever seen, and I'd seen quite a few...people tended to get quite pent-up in an isolated military base. That seemed to be in her personality...she'd been clinging to Blackett before, and he basically just ignored the shit out of her, so when she started growing on Athan, and he not only gave her the time of day, but also saved her life a couple times? Oof, if he could see inside her head. Girl was a freak.

Which was a problem, of course, because he was mine. I could just wipe out those feelings with a little work--

"Hey." I snapped to face Athan. "I see that look on your face."

"What look?" I said, mentally, innocently.

"That's the same look you've had when you did brain surgery on me and on Lia."

"On Lia?" When she'd gotten drunk and cracked her head getting out of the bath, like a fucking idiot?

"After we rescued you. You gave her your memories. I don't know what you're doing now, but stop it. Nobody here needs brain surgery."

Oh, if only you knew, buddy. Almost everyone here was screaming for it. How'd you even find such a motley crew of mental misfits?

I shrugged. "Let me just do one thing real quick, then."

"Saga, no--"

But I reached out and tapped him on the forehead. His resistance vanished as his eyes dilated, and he fell freely for a moment before he came to and caught himself.

"Saga!" he shouted, standing, livid. "What the fuck, man?"

"If you want my help with these two, I can't concentrate with you fixated on Karu like that," I lied.

"Bullshit. That's completely out of line. I told you before, when you did that with the terrapath, I don't want you dulling every trauma which goes through my mind! What if I wanted to feel that pain, Saga? What if Karu is important enough to me that if hurting is the only way I can be connected to her, I'd take it a thousand times?"

"If you just want to hurt, I can arrange that," Cosette said, stepping in. "You two just knock off whatever the hell you have going on and focus on the mission, please? I knew trusting one of your girls was a mistake, Chariot."

"Apparently," he said, and sat down, further from me than before.

"Chill, Jesus," I said, but he was having none of it. "I was just helping."

He was going to argue, but we both remembered those words and he shut his mouth. His eyes continued to smolder perilously when he glanced at me.

"Let's just get to it," he said.

I agreed, and the two froze in place as my mind washed over them.