Ace and Candice were inside Ace's hotel room. They spent some time alone together, becoming reacquainted with each other's bodies and trying their best attempt at making a monster with two backs. He was nervous about how long they were gone.
People would notice if they were missing for too long, and Levi would definitely chew him out.
"What made you change your mind", asked Ace.
He put his pants back on and tried to be casual about it, as if they didn't just leave work to have sex.
"I never changed my mind", she sighed.
She put her bra back on and grinned when she noticed Ace staring. He wasn't staring at her body in the way she wanted, but instead in anger and betrayl.
She didn't care and continued on.
"You seem different. Like… stronger. Sometimes I feel like you're a different person", said Candice.
"What makes you say that, " he mumbled. "Nothing about me is different at all."
"You never remember anything. I'm so tired! I've tried everything," she sighed.
"Remember what?"
Candice raised her hands up in the air, in exasperation, as if the air could give her the answers she wanted.
"Exactly. I've tried everything. Being your friend. Dating. But you're not the powerful man I first met."
Ace started to snicker. The very idea that someone thought he was powerful was funny, even to him. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't the strongest one on their team.
I like that she thinks I'm strong but doesn't she like me, Ace wondered. We've been together for almost two years.
"Did you really date me for my power", he asked. "Me? A teleporter?"
"Yeah," she grunted.
She never liked me, he thought. Why did she even sleep with me?
"Don't look so surprised", Candice scoffed. "You wanted me for my body".
"At…. first", Ace admitted. "But I know you as a person now."
"I don't. You don't have what I need."
Ace looked at the ground. He had never been so hurt in his life.
Candice turned to leave.
"Call me when you remember", she barked.
She grinned once she turned, knowing that her plan had worked quite beautifully. She planned on pushing him until she finally felt the same spark when they had met so long ago, and his body and mind would finally be hers.
She would never be able to leave him after that.
No small woman would ever steal him from her again.
Make him try even harder to get stronger and I can have whatever he had before, she thought. Make him work for it.
Ace sat on his bed, still wearing only his pants and shook with rage.
I left Ronnie for her, Ace thought. He was my first and all she does is hit me and mess with me.
"I'm glad she's gone," Invictus whispered. "She gives me bad vibes."
"Shut up", Ace yelled at him.
After getting dressed and trying to block out Invictus telling him how to make better life choices, Ace left the room, telling himself that he wouldn't let her mess with his head again. That he wouldn't think with his second head either.
Of course, that's what he always told himself, and he himself knew that it was another empty promise he made.
Ace returned to Rikka's room. Levi was still standing outside. He looked bored out of his skull.
"That's the longest bathroom break I've ever seen. Did you get lost you airhead", Levi teased.
I'm done with people calling me weak and stupid, Ace thought. I'm not a woman.I'm not stupid.
"Don't worry, I made sure to wash extra long because your shit is always rubbing off on me".
Levi was left speechless. No one ever talked back to him often, and when they did he usually just intimidated them with his height and size. Ace was one of the few people that his bullying tactics never worked on.
Ace strolled right inside, ignoring whatever insults he hurled at him. Inside he saw Ryle and Kyle with Rikka. Her eyes flickered blue and Ace flinched, worried that she was going to make more strange invisible people appear around him.
"Where's Gabriel and Fenton", Ace mumbled.
"Your shifts over", replied Ryle.
"Yeah, they left without you," said Kyle.
Rikka got up from her chair and Ace didn't want to be in the room anymore, afraid that this woman was possibly going to next unhinge her jaw and swallow him whole.
Forget work, Ace thought. I'm done being harassed by everyone.
In the blink of an eye he was on one of the viewing decks, trying to get away from any repsonsibilities and people. He bounced around the ship until he found one that was relatively empty and sat on a wooden bench, trying not to think about Candice.
Invictus was now a chatterbox. He went on and on about how much he missed Ace, all the things they could do together, how much he loved him. Ace was very uncomfortable, because whenever Invictus spoke, it was as if his own voice was inside his own head.
Did he watch us have sex, Ace wondered.
"Oh no, I didn't", Invictus replied. "I am not a pervert."
In that moment Ace learned that even his thoughts were no longer private.
Please stop talking, Ace thought. You're too loud.
Invictus was sad. Ace could not see Invictus any longer, but somehow he just knew. He knew that Invictus disapproved of his choice in food as well when he bought three sodas from the vending machine nearby, even though he didn't say a word.
Does he know how I feel since I know how he feels, Ace wondered.
"Yes," Invictus replied bluntly.
I should get rid of this thing, but on the other hand that feels a little cruel, he thought.
"Please don't leave me," Invictus cried.
Ace had a headache and walked around the top of the ship, trying to get Invictus to stop crying. He watched as they went by the Moon Base, and slowly the ship came to a halt.
It was green, yet somehow still let out it's soft white glow. When the Regal Empire colonized Earth they terraformed it, growing all kinds of ridiculous plants, doing strange experiments. Once Earth became independent again they learned that they experimented on not just plants, but people.
Ace didn't like the moon for this very reason.
How can people still think it's beautiful, he wondered.
It was beautiful to look at, but what it stood for was grotesque. The government still used the moon for experiments, but claimed that they were none being performed on people.
Ace, like many others, did not believe them.
His phone rang, and Ace tried to tune out Invictus, who was excited about the phone, the moon, the ship, or anything really, like a dog going out for a walk, even if it was the same walk they went on every day, on the same route.
"Come to Rikka's suite," Levi commanded. "Not the dressing room, but the ship suite."
He promptly hung up, giving Ace no time to respond.