Karu, Tem, and I were unfortunately bedridden, on account of all of us being shot at least twice, and in Karu's case, upwards of twenty times. Though, she was wearing armor, and most of those were just bad bruises or small fractures, the simple fact was, the three of us were pretty much beat to shit.

The support crew, Lia, Whitney, and Cosette, were operating remotely too, but that was more by nature of being more effective when divested from the situation. They were still in San Francisco, but plans were being scrapped together to bring them out here, mostly on account of Lia not ever wanting to be too far, but also because my exoframe hadn't worked properly since Hall had waved the ennervator across it a dozen times.

That left Saga, AEGIS, and Moon as the actual strike team, if we could call them that. More of a recon team really, since they worked by stealth...though what they were doing was anything but recon.

Moon and Saga agreed that they would, under no circumstances ever try to bond, since it was likely in their estimation that the feedback loop would probably blow up their minds or something. Which really just meant Moon was not terribly useful from a powers perspective, and her personality prevented her from being useful in general.

Saga was adopting her new role with aplomb. I don't think ever in her wildest dreams had she considered that I might let her off the chain and still ever talk to her afterwards, so for her this was summer Christmas. She seemed to take extreme pleasure in subverting the minds of the XPCA, I think attributing every bad thing in her life to them in some way, and it really was the first broad-spectrum payback she'd ever been allowed. If anything, she was a bit too inspired, and seemed to take it as a personal challenge to reprogram each and every single XPCA she could.

Meanwhile, AEGIS was taking the situation even more seriously than I'd hoped. In a twisted way, this was what she was made for. She was keeping a code-X under strict supervision and control, while also utilizing her planning and predictive aptitude to steer the XPCA in an optimal direction. Almost exactly what Dr. Cross had built her for, and it showed. Though I doubted anyone ever thought she'd be using it to control the XPCA from without.

I was still nervous though, and apparently it showed because despite drowning in her new work, AEGIS still made time to report to me personally what they were up to and their progress and success.

I was reclined on a couch in Dr. Hall's bedroom, a package of frozen corn on my shoulder to keep the swelling down, and my shot foot elevated. I was doing what I could with my exoframe, but something in it had fried, and I wasn't quite sure what. I had some theories that it was one of the program cores, and if that was the case, I wouldn't be able to fix it without Whitney's help. Engineer, I was becoming -- programmer, I was not.

The secure line to Hall's house rang, and I picked it up, a clunky old handset of a phone. Hefty and ancient, like its owner.

"Hiya Athan," AEGIS chirped. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," I said, putting down my wrecked frame. "Karu's still asleep. I can't tell about Tem, she's mouse-fart quiet whether she's up or not."

"That's good. Karu needs the rest. Do you need me to come back and change your bandages?"

"No, I've got us covered. Shoulder injuries aren't the worst. How's the XPCA?"

"It's…" she sighed heavily. "It's probably worse than you guys are, to be honest. Everything's in such disarray and public opinion is so low and materiel is approaching a critical level -- I have no idea how they managed to be such a consistent pain in the ass to us while they were falling apart like this. It's like they took everything they had left and just threw it at us and prayed that'd fix everything."

"Well, we were declared public enemy number one."

She ignored me and continued on, and I used my practiced relationship insights to determine, this was not a conversational call, this was a venting call.

"I mean, they're up to their eyeballs in trouble here. We're up to our eyeballs in trouble. They are actively charting so many new ways for shit to go south, we may as well relocate to Antarctica. Liev or Justice or whatever we're calling him of course, and Oasis is the threat nobody seems to want to acknowledge. But hell, New Eden is practically up in smoke. We went from fewest Exhuman events on record to most...and from what I can tell, none of them are new Exhumans…"

"Wait, what?" I cut in.

"Right? You think of an Exhuman event, you think some guy just turning, his whole life flip-turns upside down and he's a little confused and makes a shitton of bad decisions? No. These are people coming out of hiding. Motivated politically, by vengeance, or by opportunity, everyone smells blood in the water with you and Justice tearing the XPCA a new hole. They're coming out of the woodwork like crazy, and it's working, because we don't have the manpower to put them down."

"Um, I'm not tearing the XPCA a new hole…"

"It's a figure of speech, Athan. Come on."

I shook my head at the handset. "Sure. Whatever. What can we do about it?"

I heard her typing for a moment. "Well...I have whatever shadow ops we have left activated and making those guys a priority. But I'm also trying to turn over another new leaf here and handle things as I thought you'd like. Which is to say, diplomatically. Any Exhuman out there we recognize as being halfway decent, I'm trying to coordinate an envoy program to get them to back down. But--"

"But what?"

Irritation spiked in her voice. "But the XPCA won't have any of it. Nor the rest of the feds. It feels like, no matter how many people Saga gets under her thumb, there's always more who are going to scoff at the notion of talking to people, no matter how undermanned and outgunned we are. Seriously, Athan, they're imbeciles."

"I appreciate the effort!" I said, trying to put as much approval and enthusiasm into my voice as possible. "That is exactly what I'd have wanted."

"It's also boring and lame," I heard Saga bemoan in the distance.

"Which is exactly why I put AEGIS on point," I shouted back at her. "You're getting a lot of chances to screw people up, don't complain."

"Oh I'll complain if I want to."

"How's she been?" I asked.

"Really good, actually." She lowered her voice. "Don't tell anyone, but I think she's actually really keen on keeping the XPCA from hurting anyone else like they hurt her."

"I heard that. Just for that, I'm going to kill like, twenty dudes."

AEGIS sighed. "Well, mostly good. There are a lot of 'dudes' who have sort of wound up...dead. It's not helping with the personnel shortages, Saga. But we're making do."

"Those are just the assclowns. You're better off without 'em, trust me."

"Sounds good. Sounds really good," I told her.

She sighed heavily again. "Then you haven't been listening. It's bad, really bad, Athan. And I miss you."

"I'm right here, dude."

"You know what I mean."

"It's been one day."

"You know what I mean."

I paused, wondering if I was saying something incredibly stupid. Which was likely, even if I gave it thought. But that wasn't exactly going to stop me, never had.

"I don't, actually. What do you mean?"

She stopped, and when she picked up again, her voice was just saccharine enough that I knew I'd fucked up.

"Well, I've got a lot left to do tonight Athan. I'll see you when Hall comes home. Talk to you then."

"Um. Sorry--"

"No worries. Bye!"

Click.

I sat there glumly holding the dead handpiece for a minute before gently clonking it back in its cradle. I even knew I was saying something potentially dangerous, and then did it anyway. I just didn't expect to get that kind of reaction out of it. An earful, maybe, about how insensitive or stupid I was. But not the cold shoulder.

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I sighed and tried to figure my way for a minute. She was stressed, working hard, carrying all of our dreams and efforts on her back, I knew. She'd called me to vent, and instead kinda gotten me saying I didn't know or care about her problems. So not a good move.

I shifted the frozen corn where the cold was starting to burn instead of numb and squinted at the phone.

But also not an uncharacteristic move. AEGIS was always stressed, always working hard, always keeping an eye on Saga and my best interests, and rarely did she reply by just cutting me off. It felt strange, and after all the weirdness of the last AEGIS we'd been through...well, maybe I was just overly-sensitive.

Maybe.

So yeah. Now it was a weird and awkward slumber party, as I waited for AEGIS to finish work and bring Saga and Moon home. Not really much for us invalids to do aside from wait.

I tried twiddling my thumbs. That didn't help much. The computer seemed a bit out of my reach with the whole sitting-up and working a keyboard affair, with my arm slinged. I settled for turning on the holo for a bit, watching anything which wasn't news.

I watched Stenson, the adorkable nerd, as he overcame relationship woes and humorously crippling social anxiety by making more pop culture references than I thought possible, as well as schlocky sci-fi shenanigans.

The roboto-girlfriend he'd created had just gone rogue and had brutally dumped him after the most canned catastrophic date imaginable. The machine he'd built to be his partner, and still he couldn't make it work. He sighed heavily and looked into the camera.

"Yeah, that's about right," he said, as a laugh track cut in.

I heard laughter from behind me and turned back to find Karu propped up and watching.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry," I said, cranking the volume further down. "I didn't mean to wake you."

She shook her head, smiling, and slowly, sloooowly sat upright, as though stretching a sore muscle.

"Worry not. I despise indolence, as you are well aware, even of a recuperative nature, I find myself restless. I welcome the distraction from sleep, that when it finds me, I feel it better earned."

"Weird, but okay."

"And how do your injuries find you? Shot twice, you were?"

"Thrice. Shoulder got me pretty good, one lodged in my heel, and a graze on my side. Your armor is really good, did you know? The shoulder plates kept at least three others out, AEGIS said."

She chuckled. "I would hope I knew. Familiarity and correct choice of one's armament is a form of preparation, too. All that I have is customized though…" she glanced at the nightstand where the armor was heaped, her visor cracked atop it. "...I am not certain how I will make due to repair it at the moment. My traditional sources are, shall we say, scrupulous. And as it stands, the suit is damaged to the point of unusability."

"Sorry. I dunno. Whitney's coming by soon, she might have a look at it for you. But she's not an exotic materials person, just an engineer. We might be able to source through the XPCA themselves?"

She grinned, and I realized, despite being shot to hell and having fractures up and down her ribcage, she seemed in higher spirits than I thought possible. Ever since she woke up...hell, ever since yesterday, she'd been all laughter and smiles.

And before I could comment on it, she did, in a way. "It brings me enormous pleasure to see you acting as such, Ashton. I am ecstatic that you have donned your destined crown."

I blinked at her, and then felt around on the top of my head in case a crown had snuck up there when I wasn't looking. "Uh. What? I mean, I kinda know what you mean after yesterday but this...is not that. This is just talking about where to get your armor patched up."

"I am well aware. The fact remains that you are willing to use the resources at your physical disposal, rather than the alleged. You did not stop to hesitate in offering up a band of mind-fucked military personnel and materiel for my use."

I blinked at her again, wondering if I was just tired or my injuries were making me stupid. Or if she was just being particularly oblique today.

"Um, you mean, I didn't question the morals of using the XPCA to fix your shit?"

"Precisely."

I had to stop and look at her funny for a minute. This didn't feel like a victory in her side to me. I'd drawn the line at hurting and killing people unnecessarily, but taking weapons from our enemies was just common sense. Not that they were really our enemies at the moment, given how we were actually trying to strengthen them...which I guess kind of made them completely helpless to resist us taking whatever we wanted and--

And, oh damn. They were mind-fucked. Mind-fucking someone to take their shit was pretty messed up. Did different rules apply to taking from the XPCA if they were or weren't mental slaves? Karu seemed to think so. Or, she seemed to think I would think so. Which actually worried me a little that apparently I didn't.

"Um. Let's go with 'sure'," I said. "I agree that it's pretty messed up to brainjack someone just to take their shit or use their services but...that's better than killing them for it, right?"

"I suppose that depends. Are the braindead Oasians better, or worse than the mistreated of New Eden?"

"Uh," I hesitated. "New Edeners are better off, I think. Like yeah, they're miserable, but at least they have the capability to be miserable. That's not an option even offered to Oasians."

"Then you value mental sanctity over life. So it flatters me that you would violate the sanctity of another for the mere reason of armor repair. My, armor repair, specifically. It makes me feel as though you value me and mine above others, and to be thought of such by one such as you--"

She squirmed in a way I was uncomfortable with. I didn't know how she was comfortable with it either, with all her injuries and bandages and splints, and while the pain did look like it took the breath out of her and made her red and panting, I wasn't...exactly sure...it was the right kind of red and panting.

So yeah. We needed to get away from anything involving masochism, because Karu was a weird-ass freak.

"And you're pleased as punch because you see this as another step for me, towards my alleged divinely-granted superiority over other men?"

"Naturally. As well as towards your aim, which is similarly beatific."

"Well, it's not. I did it without thinking, so nyeah." I flipped her the bird and turned back to the show.

"My, that just makes it even better," she chuckled. "As for the mental assessment...who is to say that I did not already know, which is why we are having this conversation right...now?" I glanced back at her, suddenly remembering that conversational traps like this were actually a specialty of her family's. "Perhaps I knew you had acted without consideration, and decided to take the time to point it out, to make apparent what character resides within you, and how it reaffirms my supposition?"

"Or. Or. I just acted without thinking."

I was spared her retort by the sound of a car pulling up and footfalls across the walk. From somewhere in the house, Mrs. Hall went out to greet her husband.

AEGIS appeared in the doorway with Moon trailing. "Yo," she said, talking over my shoulder, to my surprise. Karu also seemed surprised, since it took her a moment to reply.

"Um, hail?"

"I managed to squeak us a regenerator. You're the most hurt, so you're up first. Athan, if your wounds are really hurting you, we can do you first but--"

"No, it's fine," I said. "I don't feel 'em all, hardly."

"Great. Karu, go with Moon, Saga's coming too to make sure nobody gets too smart about who they're treating. See you guys tomorrow."

There was a reasonable amount of grunting and movement behind me as Moon helped Karu to her feet, AEGIS just standing and watching and leaning in the doorway.

"I suppose you are not helping for a reason?" Karu muttered.

"I'm staying with my man. You had him all day."

Karu scoffed. "We were both injured and recuperating all day. And Tem was here as well. I hardly 'had' him, as it were."

"If you want me to cancel the regenerator, that's fine," AEGIS yawned. "Now go, shuffle off. It's my turn."

She watched them go and then closed the door behind them and locked it. She turned...again, not on me, to my surprise.

"Tem, you're turning off and staying hidden for the rest of the night, got it?"

Tem nodded vigorously, though she'd mostly been watching the holo it looked like, and then melted into invisibility. Finally satisfied, AEGIS scooped me up gently and deposited me in the bed where I could still feel Karu's residual heat. She grinned as she set me down and stared into my eyes.

"Um, hi," I said. "Long day? Wanna talk about it?"

"Oh I do. I really do," she sighed. "But first, I wanted to talk about what we discussed over the phone."

"Oh, that?" I asked, my voice squeaking inopportunely. "Oh that was…"

"Missing you," she said, hopping on the bed at my feet with the grace of an acrobat. "I've missed you. And I think I need to tell you what that means."

I swallowed heavily as she advanced towards me on all fours. As though to signal my doom, I heard the car pulling out, taking everyone else in the house with it. It was just her and me.

And Tem. Which uh, wasn't a lot of help, unless I wanted to laser both of us.

"S-so," I stammered "what's um, what have you got planned here? Like a...presentation or a...slideshow? Maybe some kind of itemized list? That's romantic. Shakespeare, I think? How do I miss you, let me count the ways?"

She giggled, though her advance stopped at my feet.

"I can't say I'm not inspired to do a practical demonstration," she said, he grin impish, but it faded to a soft smile with a heavy sigh. "But...as much as I'd love to do that...and don't get me wrong, I really would, and if you were offering--"

I shook my head. I didn't know where things stood with us, not since she was last iterated, taking the role of AEGIS over her predecessor's dead body. Which was literally in my arms. To say nothing of where I sat with the other girls, or what kind of hell that might unleash.

"--yeah, didn't think so. Damn. Can't fault a girl for trying though."

"It's--"

"But I do have something serious I wanted to make time to talk to you about. About you and me, yeah. About us. But also…" she looked at the corners in a cagey way "but...maybe I should say, mostly about me. But it is us. But it's complicated. And I didn't want to say anything but I also didn't want to...I dunno, screw up this whole XPCA thing?"

I shook my head again. "AEGIS I have no idea what you're talking about. If you could just...start at the beginning or something?"

"Yeah," she said, and sat down, her butt right at my toes and her legs intertwined with my one. Her dress was riding up and giving me a clear view, but considering how relatively shamelessly she'd just propositioned me, I doubted she cared. "Yeah," she repeated, frowning, like she didn't know where to begin.

I gave her a few minutes. After one of them, she looked at me heavily, sighed, and stopped flashing me, giving up on her final sexy attack.

"Here's the thing," she said, her voice glum. "This whole...Saga thing. XPCA thing. You...thing. The whole world-saving thing, that you've been gunning for, and now we're doing. Me managing Saga and running the XPCA and making it all happen, thing."

"Yeah, that thing," I agreed. "What about it?"

She clutched at her hair, as though grasping at any possible distraction. But it didn't keep her from fixing me with a yellow stare and a steep frown.

"I don't think I can do it, Athan. I think you're going to have to count me out."