CROWLEY

  Rail-thin and gaunt, Crowley looked like a ghost of the man he once was. His scraggly beard hung loosely around his sunken cheeks, and his disheveled hair stuck out at odd angles. He muttered incoherently, his voice rising and falling in sharp, panicked bursts.

  “No... no... no...” The words tumbled from his lips like a broken record.

  The trio stood mere feet away, yet Crowley didn’t seem to notice them. His hollow eyes stared past them, locked on something only he could see.

  Will exchanged a confused gnce with Remy. Becca, however, gave them a sharp nod and motioned forward.

  “Grab him.”

  Steeling themselves, Will and Remy stepped into Crowley’s path. Still, he didn’t react. It wasn’t until Will reached out and grabbed his arm that Crowley snapped to life.

  His head jerked up, eyes wide with shock that quickly morphed into rage. “You!” he shrieked.

  Will barely had time to brace himself before Crowley lunged. The thin man thrashed with unexpected strength, pummeling Will with his fists.

  “You! I’ll end you!” Crowley howled, his voice raw and primal.

  “Shit!” Will cursed as he struggled to hold Crowley back. Remy jumped in, grabbing one of Crowley’s arms, while Becca tried to pin the other.

  Crowley fought like a feral animal, biting and cwing, spittle flying from his mouth as he screamed. Remy staggered back with a grunt as one of Crowley’s fists connected with his jaw.

  “Ow! Damn it, he’s cyberized!” Remy growled, rubbing his jaw. “Most of his body is augmented!”

  Will dodged a wild swing, his eyes darting to Crowley’s exposed arm. The metal joints gleamed under the fluorescent lights.

  “Stop filing,” Remy spat.

  Crowley snarled and thrashed harder, his rage building into guttural growls. Will saw no way to subdue him without escation.

  “That’s enough,” Will snapped before driving a fist into Crowley’s temple.

  Crowley crumpled instantly, his body going limp. Will staggered back, breathing heavily.

  “By the All-Mother, what was that?” Remy groaned, rubbing his jaw again.

  Becca knelt beside Crowley, checking his pulse and lifting one of his eyelids. His eyes were rolled back, and his breathing was shallow but steady. She looked up, visibly disturbed.

  “Come on,” Will said, nudging her shoulder. He pulled out a steel cable from his coat. “Let’s tie him up.”

  Together, they secured Crowley to a chair, ensuring the restraints were tight. His head lolled to the side, unconscious but no less unnerving.

  “So, what now?” Remy asked, wiping sweat from his brow. “Do we wake him or...?”

  “Not yet,” Will said firmly. “We need to prep first.” He gestured toward the computer terminal.

  Remy’s eyes lit up. “Right. Let me see what I can find in there.” He moved quickly to the workstation, fingers flying over the keys.

  Becca sat down beside Crowley. “We should power down his cyber enhancements too. Just in case.”

  “Good thinking,” Will muttered, kneeling to examine Crowley’s prosthetics.

  Together, they worked quickly to disable all of Crowley’s augments. Becca severed power conduits and detached control nodes, while Will drained the reserve batteries feeding the impnts. They left nothing to chance, cutting off redundancies until the augments were reduced to dead weight.

  As Becca examined Crowley, she paused and frowned. “Will, there’s something wrong with his field.”

  Will looked up, curious. He brought his psionic field closer to Crowley, expecting the usual repulsion caused by a living body’s natural defenses. Instead, Crowley’s field flickered and hissed at the contact, crackling and popping unnaturally.

  “What the hell...” Will muttered, his voice trailing off.

  “Guys,” Remy called out from the workstation. “You need to see this.”

  Will and Becca looked up as Remy gestured to the lines of data scrolling across the monitor.

  “Tons of data in here,” Remy said, jerking his thumb toward the screen. “This is the rgest file, and it contains diagnostics from a mech—and not just any mech. It’s a Web-walker.”

  Will sat bolt upright. “That’s the Bishop’s mech.”

  “Same make, same type,” Remy confirmed. “But this one’s heavily modified. And the data? It’s massive—terabytes’ worth.”

  Becca looked confused. “How did Crowley get his hands on it? Was he spying on the Bishop?”

  “I’d say so,” Remy said in a hushed whisper. “And for a long time, too. Some of these entries date back years.”

  Before they could process the discovery, a groan interrupted them. They turned to see Crowley slowly coming to. His eyes opened, but there was something vacant about them.

  Will stepped forward cautiously. “Marcus Crowley?”

  Crowley ignored him, instead mumbling incoherently. “Okay, css, what is two plus two?”

  Will and the others exchanged bewildered gnces.

  “Jamie, sit down... and put the glue stick out of your mouth,” Crowley continued, his tone light. “And Liddy, any more mischief out of you, young dy, and your mother will be hearing about this.”

  A chill went down Will's spine.

  “He’s mad,” Remy whispered.

  Will tried again. “Crowley, do you know where you are?”

  Crowley’s vacant eyes looked through him as he hummed under his breath. “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream...”

  Frustrated, Will stepped closer and pced a hand on Crowley’s chest. He sent a tendril of psion into him, probing deeper. But the moment his field made contact, it hissed and popped like bursting bubbles. The ck of resistance was unsettling.

  “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.” Crowley continued humming.

  Will turned to Remy. “Was there anything else in those files?”

  Remy scanned quickly. “Some kind of inventory list. And ledgers—money transactions.”

  Becca’s eyes lit up. “That’s great! If we understand the Revenants’ networks and connections—”

  “—We can track down their leadership,” Will finished. But the triumph was short-lived. A sudden jolt of fear coursed through him. He flinched, his eyes snapping back to Crowley.

  Becca leaned in. “What is it?”

  Will didn’t answer immediately, his focus entirely on Crowley. He delved deeper with his psionic field, and there was still no resistance to his probing. Inside, he found damaged tissues and ruptured blood vessels. As for his psion channels...

  “His channels are torn apart,” Will said in a hushed whisper.

  Becca reeled back. “What?”

  “And it looks self-inflicted,” continued Will, aghast. “He did this to himself.”

  The discovery left the group stunned. Becca began examining Crowley more closely, confirming Will’s findings.

  A slow dread crept through Will, but he pressed his field into Crowley despite his instincts. The gnawing fear ratcheted up the deeper he went, and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing.

  As he dug deeper, something stirred within Crowley. It awakened with a snarl, and Will felt a tremor run through his system as the yellow signature within him greeted its brother. The signatures rushed to join their twin, and a pair of orange eyes fshed before Will, locking onto him.

  With a gasp, Will wrenched his hand away from Crowley.

  “What happened?!” Becca asked, looking horrified.

  “Hive,” Will gasped. “Crowley is part of the Hive.”

  Remy and Becca stared at Crowley, in shock as he slowly came to. The jolt from merging fields had roused him, and now his hollow eyes fixed on the trio as though seeing them for the first time. When his gaze fell on Will, he shuddered in recognition. He knew.

  "You too?" Crowley croaked, his voice raw as the yellow signature writhed within his fractured channels, struggling to break free.

  "Yes," Will said hoarsely.

  "Yes?" Crowley asked, his wild eyes searching Will with desperate hope.

  Will nodded. "But they don’t control me—and they don’t control you. You broke free, didn’t you?" He crouched closer, his voice urgent. "Tell me how. How did you get out?"

  Crowley’s eyes drifted out of focus, his expression flickering as he teetered on the edge of consciousness. For a moment, he seemed lost again. "You can’t stop it, Jamie," he murmured, his voice hollow and distant.

  Will grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "Tell me how! How do I get out?"

  Crowley’s focus wavered, his breath shallow as he drifted between lucidity and delirium. His mouth opened, but no words emerged—only the sounds of his brittle field were heard as it seeped out of his broken channels. His broken, shattered channels. Will froze mid-shake as the cold, hard truth hit him.

  Will gritted his teeth. He shook with an emotion he couldn't describe as his fingers tightened around Crowley. He refused to accept it. Not like this. Will knelt down and began untying Crowley’s restraints.

  "Oy!" Remy began uncertainly. "What are you doing?"

  The steel cable fell to the floor. Will held Crowley firmly in the chair. "Is there no other way?" he demanded. "Answer me!"

  Crowley blinked awake, his eyes locking onto Will. "The connection was severed," he croaked. "It broke—and so did I."

  "There has to be another way!" said Will, hoarsely.

  "No." Crowley shook his head weakly. "Run away, Jamie. Run away."

  "I’m not one of your students," said Will, his voice tight. "I’m not running away from the Bishop."

  At the mention of the Spider, Crowley’s breathing grew ragged. Rage twisted his features, and he strained against Will’s grip, nearly breaking free.

  "Bishop!" Crowley roared, spittle flying from his mouth. "Get away from my kids!"

  Will and Becca grabbed Crowley’s filing arms, holding him down as he thrashed.

  "He’s losing himself again!" Will gasped, struggling to keep Crowley contained.

  Crowley’s eyes darted to Becca, wild and unfocused. "Run, Liddy. Run…" he muttered, his voice breaking.

  Becca froze, tears streaming down her cheeks. "They did this to him. They did it to break him. I thought he was some kind of monster, but he’s…"

  "I know," Will said softly.

  Becca grabbed Will’s hand, her grip trembling. "Will, you…" She couldn’t finish the sentence, but the fear in her eyes said it all. She was terrified.

  "It'll be alright, Becca," said Will. "I... The Bishop won’t—"

  Crowley’s head snapped up, eyes bzing with sudden crity. "I'll have you, Bishop! I have your face and I have proof!"

  "Proof?" Remy excimed. "Do you have a picture? A video? What is it?"

  Crowley’s expression twisted, his words descending into incoherence. "Bishop, Bishop…" he muttered, his voice a broken whisper.

  Remy didn’t wait. He dove toward the workstation, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he searched for the files.

  "Not real! Masks upon masks," Crowley rasped. "Bishop was a lie! Flesh is but a lie!" He continued to mumble as Will struggled to keep him upright.

  "Found it!" Remy shouted, tapping a key to py a video.

  The screen flickered to life. The image was shaky, captured from inside a moving vehicle. The camera panned to reveal a massive scarlet spider mech—heavily damaged and smoking.

  Will felt a chill pass through him as the cockpit hissed open. Smoke billowed out, half obscuring the glow of the circuitry lining the mech's interior. Neon veins of the psion integration system pulsed along the walls, converging on the shadowed pilot's seat.

  Will leaned in closer, his fingers trembling. "Slow it down. Zoom in and go frame by frame."

  Remy nodded and scrubbed through the footage carefully. The video stuttered through the frames, zooming in on the mech's internals. The level of sophistication of the power convergence and synchronization left Will stunned.

  "It’s Tower made," he said in a hushed whisper.

  Remy looked awed. "This is unreal. A U4? Maybe 5? The Hive couldn’t have made this."

  Will looked at the screen grimly. Hive tech was focused on cyberization while the Tower on mech synchronization. That was one aspect they were ahead on the enemy, and the Spider had taken hold of that advantage.

  "Do they have connections high up in the Tower?" Becca wondered, dreading the implications.

  "Faces, faces," Crowley mumbled, his voice barely audible as he stared bnkly at the screen.

  "Continue pying," Will said grimly.

  Remy unpaused the video and Crowley jerked awake. He grabbed Will and cupped his face, looking deeply into his eyes.

  "Jamie, you must stop..." he pleaded.

  "Stop who?" Will asked, his eyes darting between Crowley and the screen. Mist continued to spill from the mech's cockpit as a figure emerged.

  "Stop her." Crowley croaked.

  A slender leg stepped out first, followed by a lithe frame encased in sleek, bck armor. Burn marks marred the armor, its helmet warped by intense heat. A pair of orange eyes shone through the visor. With a sharp motion, the pilot ripped off the helmet and let it ctter to the ground.

  Will’s breath caught.

  Dark hair tumbled free, framing sharp, angur features. Her eyes—vivid and burning orange—once kind, were hard and unyielding. A burning yellow field radiated from her, snuffing out the fire within the mech.

  Will stared wide eyed at the screen and the world stood still as memories came unbidden.

  "The evil princess is going to getcha, Will! Run, run!"

  "Don't you get tired? You have so much energy, kiddo."

  Laughter and giggles that filled the park faded and he was pulled back into the subway.

  Will stared at the screen, stunned while the bre of the train horn echoed in his head.

  "Annie..."

  JasonCliff