The world was going by like glitching images in a damaged video file.

  Xe could recall it all but it was blending together, skipping time, rewinding, fast forwarding, filtering memory and internal systems displays and real world into one file being played over and over in xyr head.

  Porting into the Droido and the pain xe could still feel racking xyr nerve endings.

  Bekker saying, “No anesthesia. It fucks with the transfer.”

  Harry leaning over Oz as a child to examine xyr ocular implant upgrade while a white coat explained the new scanning abilities.

  Only the white coat wasn’t one from xyr childhood. It was one from now.

  What is your name?

  Who had asked?

  It took Oz too long to remember it was xem.

  I am T1X. Tix.

  The Droido had spoken to xem. Opening up to give Oz the data xe needed for Harry. There was no catalogued record but T1X had seen it all. They had been a corpo Droido, bred and raised in a high end meditech center down in Neo Paloma. Their owner wanted an upgrade. Droido neuro-tech in a better body.

  They’re coming.

  Oz downloaded the data.

  More images.

  Trig pressing in close, stroking xem to ecstasy.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Harry smiling down at xem when xe proved useful.

  A memory that felt inhaled, not learned.

  The white coats cutting off Tix’ arms and legs.

  Kill me.

  It wasn’t just data. It was growing in xyr mind.

  Seeing the guard point his gun at Trig. Oz grabbed the scalpel and threw with triangulated accuracy.

  No. That’s not who xe killed.

  Tix. Full of pain. Every nerve screaming. Their death inevitable and their mind in the hands of their owner. Never free.

  Kill. Me. Please.

  Harry demanding a virus that would take down a rival’s Droido.

  “I know I’m asking a lot, Oz. But I need this.”

  Harry’s hand stroking xyr hair when the virus was complete.

  Trig’s fingers in xyr cunt.

  Kill. Me.

  Xe unleashed the virus on a timer. It would flood Tix’ systems after xe disconnected the link.

  It wasn’t a clean death.

  The guard bleeding out on the floor, grasping for the scalpel.

  The girl next to child-Oz, seizing.

  The rival’s Droido seizing up on camera as Harry confirmed the kill.

  Tix. Tix writhing as their mouth foamed and human eye rolled back in their head until both eyes were white as death.

  “That was fucking close.”

  Trig’s voice. It sounded so far away.

  Wet.

  Was it raining?

  No. The fire system in the warehouse went off.

  Oz was shivering.

  Warmth. A blanket. Arms.

  “Oz.”

  Trig sounded closer now. Calling them out of a dark tunnel.

  “I got you. You’re gonna be ok.”

  But xe was so tired. Too tired.

  “Get some rest. We have a couple hours before we can move again.”

  Safe?

  A safehouse. Trig had said something about a safe house.

  But Oz didn’t feel safe. Xe wasn’t sure xe ever did.