Will was pulled in and out of consciousness for a long time. Every time he gained some semblance of coherence, he was pulled under, as if something wanted to keep him there. There was an anchor tied to his feet, and the more he resisted, the heavier it got. Desperate, he pulled and strained, and with a titanic effort, he wrenched himself free and came back to the land of the living.

His eyes snapped open, and he blinked past the blurry, boxy outline in front of him. Will recognized the cartons and shelves from the school storage room. They were at the far end of the room, and he was lying on a high table. An IV drip was attached to his arm. Will followed the tube and spotted a TSN bag hung above him. The medication dripped slowly, and Will grimaced.

There was a soft intake of breath, and Will turned to his other side. Becca was there beside him, with her head resting on the table, fast asleep.

"Will!" came an excited whisper, followed by the soft clatter of footsteps. Remy came around and took him by the shoulder. The brunet had bags under his eyes and looked the most serious Will had seen him. Gone were the jokes and smiles. Remy looked lost and a little demented.

Will made to sit up, but Remy rushed to stop him.

"Lie down, you are still in bad shape," said Remy.

Will gave a quiet groan as he laid back down. "How long was I out?"

"Six hours," said Remy.

Will nodded his head absentmindedly for a second before he registered what he had just heard.

"Six hours?!" His eyes went wide. He rushed to get up, but Remy stopped him.

"Don't worry. I talked with your mom. Told her that you're working late."

Will relaxed and laid back down.

"How ya feeling?" asked Remy.

"Like shit," Will muttered and looked around. "You moved me from the pod? We are all the way at the back now."

"Yeah," said Remy. "No one bothers to walk all the way in here, so we thought we could stash you here for the time being. Becca wanted you out of here and into a hospital."

Will groaned. "No, you made the right call. Better here than the hospital."

"Will, Becca and I have been talking. What happened at the end? You said the beast was talking?"

There was a buzzing sound off to the side, and Will spotted his slate resting on top of a shelf next to the table. Will ignored it and turned to Remy.

"It wasn't a rift beast; it was a person," said Will. "I'm sure of it."

Remy leaned in. "A person?"

"We fought for control over the shard. I tagged the main control node, but then..." Will touched his neck. The red mech's clamping jaws flashed before his eyes, and he shuddered.

Will felt around his channels for the etherite crystal; he needed to know that he hadn't been imagining it. He did connect to the main shard at the last moment. Will tried to take hold of his field and felt nothing. He frowned and tried again but failed. "Remy, why can't I move my field?"

Remy grimaced. "Will, there is something that you need to know. I don't know how to tell you..."

Will gritted his teeth and pushed at his field, forcing past an invisible barrier that had been holding him back, and it flared to life. The field snapped and flickered, and the moment he touched the etherite crystal with it, he yelped in pain. His personal field collapsed, and ice raced up his nerve endings. It rolled over him like a wave, and then he lost all control over his body. There was no building up, no steady rise in pressure; the wave slammed into him like the tide and had him drowning. Tremors ran through him, and Will suffered the most intense seizure of his life.

Becca shot awake. "Wha? Who?" she asked groggily.

"It's happening again," Remy hissed. Becca leapt off the stool and helped Remy hold Will down.

"Grab him tight. We don't want him to rip out the IV again," said Remy.

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Will held on as the shakes passed. It was quick and intense, very different from his normal attacks. His very signature rebelled against him and attacked him without any mercy. Current raced up his nerves, and he lost control in an instant. Will lay shaking on the table as the shakes left him, and his field returned to his control.

Will groaned and sat up. Remy didn't stop him this time. "You said it's happening again. How many times has it been?"

"I've lost count," said Remy. "Will, your signature has been altered, at least the channels closest to your leg."

Remy rolled up his CAD suit and revealed his metal leg. The etherite crystal was now embedded more deeply into him, and only a tiny bit of the shard poked out of his skin. Black veins snaked out from it, and the skin around the crystal was an angry red. The veins burrowed into him and pulsated as if it were feeding off him.

Will stared at his knee in numb shock. The veins twitched as they tried to extend further up his body. It was rebuffed multiple times, but Will could tell that it was slowly gaining ground. It was taking over his body; the conversion had already begun.

"Will," said Becca softly next to him, but he was too shocked to respond. His slate vibrated off to the side, and he absentmindedly reached for it and accepted the call.

"How long does it take you to answer a goddamn phone call," his cousin's irate voice blasted from the speakers.

"Huh?" Will's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Don't get smart with me, jackass! What the hell are you doing with my merch, and why do you need two vials full of Rohypnol?!"

Will pulled his head away from the slate as Ryder grew louder with each passing second.

"You little shit! When I get my hands on you—"

Will cut the call and muted his slate. Remy and Becca exchanged a look, and Will slowly lowered his slate. He sighed. "I don't think there is a level to describe how badly we are screwed."

"I should have been more thorough with the procedure," said Becca, close to tears, and buried her face in her hands.

"No," said Will firmly. "No one could have foreseen this. This is on me. I knew the risks and went with it anyway. This is all on me."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Becca through her fingers.

Will rubbed his temples. He didn't have an answer to that. Will tried to move his field around the shard, and it churned like an angry animal. Grimacing, he backed off.

Remy stirred beside him. "Will, you mentioned that it wasn't a rift beast you were facing; it was a person. What exactly did you mean?"

Will sat up straighter and recounted his last moments in the tunnel. The tale didn't take long, and Remy and Becca fell into a pensive silence when he finished.

"Are you sure it was him?" Remy finally asked.

"Yes," said Will. "Like Becca said, it was all interpretation. No rift beast could pick up human language that fast. I recognized the signature from the mech and associated it with a spider."

"And he really wants this crystal, huh?" Remy looked down at the shard. "Just who is he?"

"He is called the Crimson Bishop," said Becca, wiping her eyes. "The de facto leader of the Revenant."

Remy and Will looked at her with interest.

"It was in the news earlier," said Becca. "While you two were fixing the pod, I did some research."

"I didn't know the Revenant changed leadership," said Remy.

"He is from a more radical splinter faction of the Revenant that has been gaining some notoriety recently," said Becca. "A lot more ruthless in their approach. Killed the former head and took control. There have been a dozen low terror attacks conducted by them for the last few years. The tower had been tracking him for some time. The Bishop survived a dozen assassination attempts and now doesn't even get out of his suit, stays armored up all the time."

"So, how?" asked Remy, pointing at Will's leg. "How did he manage that? How could he hijack an etherite crystal?"

"It's a Hive technique," said Will. "I don't know exactly how it works, but it's how they meld their signatures together."

"He wanted to turn you into a puppet?" said Remy.

"We are not going to let that happen, right?" said Becca, but both boys remained silent. "Guys?"

"Right," Remy nodded gravely and turned towards Will.

"Will?" Becca called out to Will, who looked pensive.

Will raised his head. "The question is how. I managed to connect to the shard, but now my signature is being changed. This was one step forward and two steps back."

"There is one way," said Becca. "We have to raise your level to initiate as quickly as possible. The conversion rate is going to accelerate. You have to increase your reserves faster than it can change it."

Will rubbed his face. "It was already an impossible task, and now it is more difficult. I suppose I have no other choice."

Remy leaned forward in his chair. "I have an idea, but you are not going to like it."

"Shoot," said Will. "I'm willing to do just about anything at this point."

"There is one perfect place for you to raise your level," said Remy. He looked Will straight in the eyes. "You have to join the military mech course."

"Remy..." Will sighed.

"It is the fastest way," Remy insisted.

"Remy, my condition is even worse now," said Will. "What is going to happen if I get a seizure in a half-ton war machine? This is no joking matter."

"We will figure something out. For once, think about yourself. We need to get that shard fully tamed, and we need to do it fast. Besides, there is one more reason."

Remy brought out his slate and scrolled through it. After a few quick taps, he presented it to Will and Becca. On it was an aerial photo of a massive military fortress heavily laden with snow.

"Remember what I said about where the airship holding the crystal was launched from?"

"Fort Thornfield," said Will.

"Guess where our mech training center is?" Remy grinned.

"Fort Thornfield?" Will guessed.

"Yup," said Remy. "Feeling motivated yet?"

Will snatched the slate from Remy's hands and stared at the photo of the airstrip next to the fort. He tapped the screen twice and zoomed in on the lone runway. The crimson spider mech flashed before his eyes, and his grip tightened around the slate. He considered Remy's question. Was he motivated yet?

Will's eyes flashed. "Yes."

He most certainly was.