“Ah, now we get the real reason why it ‘depends’.” He chuckled.
Janet watched him reach under the lapel of his crisp suit and pull out a thin tablet. He held it out to her, and she took it slowly, eyeing the offering. The screen lit up when she righted it, revealing a document requesting her signature.
“I’ve prepared a statement for you indicating that Zeph was deranged,” he said. “That he kidnapped you and your sister and fired upon EPED vessels sent to recover you. Sign it and you and your sister are free to go if you don’t…well, you can remain in my custody forever.”
“And my family?”
“If you and your sister return home, unharmed, our deal with them and their product will stand.”
Janet stared down at the tablet, clutching it to the point it of breaking it. After what seemed like an eternity, knowing that she had no choice in the matter, she nodded.
“Good. It was nice to finally meet you Janet Montihan.” The Cyborg bowed his head. “Someday you’ll forget all of this.”
She waited until he was gone before going back into her room where she sat on her bed with stiff acceptance. There was no way to know if Nightheart believed her, or at least believed her enough to not be suspicious of her. He didn’t know what Hector had revealed to her hours before his death.
Janet glanced at the door and inhaled slowly, finding her breath shaky and unstable. Nothing but numbness remained. Zeph…Hector was dead. She saw it happen right before her eyes. There was a terrible pain brewing just beneath the surface but she held onto the cold, numb feeling with all she had in her arsenal.
How was she supposed to go on now? She’d wanted to leave him for her sister’s sake, never wanting him to actually die. If they’d split, there was always hope for a future, for redemption. But now? Her world had been broken open and all that was left were glass shards. Everywhere she stepped, a new wound opened when the previous ones had yet to heal. Hector had given his life for her and Lily…Just like how I’d give my life for my family.
She wiped her palms across her face until her skin was raw. Then she began reading.
Hours had passed by the time she was finished. She’d had to write her signature on over a dozen different lengthy forms, all of them demanding her silence, all of them rewriting history, all of them degrading the time she and Hector spent together down to legal jargon.Was that all he was?His serpentine features rose in her thoughts. She recalled his impulsiveness, his abruptness, and all of his demands. Hector was more than a few written words on a digital background. He washers.
Everything about him was hers. Even the part of him that was buried deep within. Even Zeph.
God, just get a grip on yourself.
But her chest was torn in two, and the only thing that would ever be able to fix it was…gone.
25
Hector awoke, flinching from the light shining into his face. He tried to move his arms, but they were restrained. He tried his legs next and found them to be restrained as well. There was no pain, no pressing thoughts, and oddly enough, no stress despite the circumstances he found himself in. He settled back onto the surface he was up against.
“You’re awake.”
I know that voice.He searched out the source and found Nightheart standing off to his right. Trace scents of lavender could be smelled on him and Hector banished the smell from his nose. He knew it, he just didn’t know how he did.
“You’re probably feeling a little disoriented, and some confusion. It’s normal.”
“Where am I?” Hector asked. “How long have I been out?”
“You’ve been under for several weeks. You’re currently in my private cybernetics lab on Earth.”
His voice cracked. “Why?”
Nightheart moved in front of him. “Your body wasn’t working for you. Which makes sense, considering it wasn’t yours to begin with, but I believe I’ve fixed the problem. Luckily, you had a trace of life left after Gunner and Hysterian got through with you.” He rubbed his mouth. “Tell me, what’s the earliest memory you can recall?”
“A lab, much like this one. Liquid all around me. The way it felt when I was released from it. A war.” Hector delved further into the data in his head. “Blood. A lot of it.”
A series of numbers flashed across Nightheart’s irises. “Good. What else?”
“The wreckage of entire fleets of ships. Thousands of bodies floating through space. Fighting the Trentian aliens and…that same war coming to an end.”
“Do you remember a Cyborg named Zeph?”
Hector tested his restraints. The name hit him with deja vu, and suddenly, an enormous amount of pain crashed through him, but there was nothing more than a glimmer of a male phantom that rose in his mind. He knew the name—at least he thought he did—but nothing substantial came of it.Why is he asking me about this Zeph?
“No,” he said at last.
