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  I chuckled, thinking about the way Aaron had been with me last night. Infuriating logic seemed about right there. You have to hand it to him, it does make sense. I pointed out. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to agree to something that was basically a relationship with three men, but then, I had no experience with any other kind, so for all I knew this could be the norm. I doubted it was, but a girl could dream right? Saying that, it didn't seem like I had to.

  It does. If you're okay with it. It was said as a statement, but I'd have had to be deaf not to hear the question. Or blind not to see it? I wasn't really sure how that worked while I was reading what he was saying but hearing the tone and intention behind his words. The idea of them taking me away from this apartment, and being able to speak aloud most of the time was suddenly far more appealing than I'd ever expected. Scary, but appealing. It was an interesting contradiction.

  I am, it seemed a litt-

  "What are you doing?" a shrill, angry voice broke through the message I was sending to Adrian and I turned to find my enraged Mother standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips and a look on her face that could burn ice. Huh, what a weird thought? Ice would melt not burn. Dammit, snap out of it.

  "What do you mean, Mother?" I asked as sweetly as possible, slowly moving my hand so I could grasp the mask that was sitting next to me and slide it off my desk and into my pocket. I didn't want to let Aaron down by not having it on me.

  "I mean, what are you doing with this stuff?" She waved her hand towards my desk which was littered with all the debris of my tinkering, as well as several plans. Guess I was busted then. But I wasn't used to her being home during the day, so hadn't thought to take any precautions. Stupid, I know, but then she was doing the unexpected.

  "Entertaining myself." I shrugged. What did she think I did all day? Sit around and watch knitting commercials? Did they even make those anymore? I wasn't sure, I spent most of my time watching older archived things, there was more information in those for me to use and learn from.

  "And who were you talking to?"

  Ah. Shit. I worried my top, while trying to avoid looking into her eyes. They were darker than mine. Actually, everything about her was a shade darker than me, raising a lot of questions about the father I'd never known. I'd never get any answers about him, I'd resigned myself to that years ago.

  "No one," I muttered, looking away so she wouldn't see the lie. It was probably too late, but it was always worth trying.

  "Oh, Zel, how glad I am you said that." A wicked smile crossed her face and my heart sank. That wasn't good. Neither was the small black machine thing she pulled out of her pocket. She pointed it at me and a loud screeching noise filled my head. I screamed as pain built. It was completely unlike anything I'd ever felt before.

  As suddenly as it had appeared, the pain vanished, and I was shocked to discover that I was curled up in a ball on the floor, panting heavily and with a sheen of sweat covering my skin. Whatever the hell had just happened, it hadn't been good at all. I just hope that Adrian hadn't felt it down our bond too much, and that it hadn't affected the electronics in his head like it had in mine. Oh wow. I had a robot brain.

  "It's true, isn't it?" I pushed myself up slightly and forced myself to look my Mother in the eyes. The twisted smile on her face told me everything that I needed to know. Everything Aaron said was true

  "How long?" I croaked, my voice hoarse from the screaming.

  "Since you were born, Zel. You've been my precious little bundle of joy ever since that moment." She smirked, and a thought I'd never even entertained before crossed my mind.

  "Am I even your daughter?"

  Mother laughed almost manically. "Of course not. Would I do this to my own child?"

  “How the hell should I know?" I bit out. "I thought I was your child."

  "Your real Mother died during childbirth. She had an unfortunate run in with a needle full of drugs."

  "Why?" I was horrified. She'd killed someone. Or at least, that's what I'm pretty sure she was insinuating, it was kind of hard to tell in some ways.

  "Have you any idea what you're worth?"

  "I'm going to go with no." Great. Now wasn't really the time to be sarcastic, yet my mouth and my brain didn't seem to be agreeing on that and doing it anyway. Oh well, worst she could do was either kill me or make me scream in pain. Neither were ideal, but if I could keep her talking then there may be a chance the As could get to me. If they even knew I was in trouble.

  Despite already knowing the answer, I reached out in my mind and tried to reach them. Nothing happened, and disappointment welled up within me. I don't know why I was surprised, I'd already felt the broken connection in my head, and I knew it wasn't coming from their end.

  "A fortune. Well worth the risk of killing a woman too poor to even feed you properly," she snarled the words, contempt clear in her voice. Damn, that was cold. I tried calling out to the As again, desperate for them to hear me. I needed the comfort of their voices in my head. I wanted them to hold me and tell me it was okay.

  "Nothing is worth killing for."

  She laughed again. "There's always something worth killing for." She pressed the button on the black thing and pain filled my head again. This time, I changed tack slightly, and pushed the pain backwards. No, not backwards, outwards. I felt something cold and wet begin to drip down from my nose, and realised that it must be blood. The effort was excruciating, but the pain itself lessened.

  A very human scream echoed through the room, and it took all I could to focus my eyes on the woman who I'd called Mother my whole life. She was clutching her head, much like I'd been doing moments before, but unlike with me, it didn't seem to be letting up, at all.

  After what seemed like an age, but was probably only a minute or two, she collapsed into a heap, unconscious I hoped. I didn't want to be responsible for killing anyone. I wasn't sure how long the whole thing had actually taken as I couldn't access my chip to actually time it. Well, not my chip, just my brain it turned out. Weird how that worked. I tried to access it, but all that did was create a sharp pain, which was when I lost consciousness myself, and slipped into darkness.