Amelia, Ch 244- Theo
Riley has feelings for me? "You're sure about this?" I asked.
"I trust the source," Missy answered. "And that source is certain."
"And you're not going to tell me who gave you this info?" I prompted again. It was a pretty narrow list, considering the first step would be to eliminate absolutely everyone who didn't know Riley existed. That alone left us with, at most, a dozen or so people. I could remove Amelia from the suspect list because I didn't think she'd talk if she did know. And if Taylor found out, she'd tell Amelia, and they'd default back to saying nothing. It could have been Dinah, the whole outsider perspective. That, and the most powerful precog any of us had ever heard of. "Was it-"
Missy put her hand over my mouth. "I promised I wouldn't say who it was," she told me, her beautiful green eyes were intense and determined. "Please don't ask me go back on my word."
Well, there goes any chance of me finding out. "That's not fair and you know it."
"Sure it is," she replied, lifting herself on her tip toes to kiss me on the cheek. "You do what I say, and I let you go out with me."
"You've been spending too much time around Victoria," I leaned down an gave her a light peck on the lips. "Or maybe it's Emma this time. Now what are we going to do about this thing with Riley?"
"We aren't going to do anything," she emphasized. "I'll make us a shortcut to the roof so we get our armor from the other side. Don't worry, already had Trevor activate their remote guidance, they'll be waiting. Then you will shunt over. And I'll wait for Clarice. I have a plan, but I have to do it alone. You can wait for us to sort everything out."
....
Something about this just seems wrong. Missy was in her full armor, which was a rarity. She wasn't one of the ones that really needed her armor system to be effective. In fact, it actually slowed her down. She had to 'fill' the armor before she could extend her power around it, which meant it took longer to extend her power outside than it otherwise would. Of course, in the tradeoff she had a defense that only Endbringers and Lily could break through, and an energy weapon that could shatter a city block.
Clarice came up to the roof, and was turned into some kind of bizarre three dimensional pretzel, at least to my eyes. Missy's power couldn't work directly on the construct anymore, thanks to the Endbringer upgrades. But Missy had a lot of practice finding ways to work around her power's limitation. When everything snapped back, Missy was holding the decorative ribbon that Clarice kept in her pocket.
After that, she spoke. "So, I recently found out you have a crush on my boyfriend." Yeah, she has definitely been spending way too much time around Victoria.
Clarice froze, looking for all intents and purposes like a deer caught in the headlights. Then she started to cry, and it was all I could do to keep from shunting over to comfort her. Clarice isn't real. It's a puppet for Riley. Fuck you, Dream Girl. Meanwhile, my armor's systems automatically read the construct's lips and interpreted the words for me, using a fairly generic sounding female voice to speak. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
Missy put a hand on Clarice's shoulder, and they shunted over. Clarice was doing an incredible job of mimicking emotions. "Time to take us all back home," my girlfriend commanded. "We'll talk when we get there."
It was a simple pair of footsteps to take us back to the base. "You wait here," Missy demanded.
"What? Can't I at least go to my room?" I asked.
"Nope, you stay here. And no peaking," she ordered, and then she shunted over, taking Clarice with.
What the hell? You'd think I was the one in trouble right now. I wandered around a bit, examining the structures going up on Avalon's side of the portal. There were several buildings, relatively squat office complexes of no more than four or five stories. More of it was dedicated to the zerg, they were lined up in rows like a massive and alien car lot. The creatures lacked autonomy without Khepri's direct control. They would act on their own in some circumstances, but for the most part they simply waited and did nothing. How did they ever manage to build to this point without being labeled a Class S threat and destroyed?
After a while, I found myself at the bioconstruct labs. Rey was inside, because he basically lived there, prodding a some glowing material. There were a number of tools near him, all in pristine white colors. They'd started growing basic equipment out of Endbringer tissue, crazily enough. A copy of Rapture's armor was there as well. I wasn't a tinker, and I didn't really know what projects were on the go, so I wasn't sure what he was doing with the armor. That wasn't really my concern anyway.
"Is something wrong?" Rey asked, looking up from his project.
"I honestly have no idea," I sighed.
"Girl problems," he nodded sagely. "I know that look."
"Got any advice?" I asked.
"Not really," he answered. "If I understood women, I'd have a very different life right now. Somehow I just happened to stumble across a Thinker who was just barely neurotic enough to date me for whatever reason. So I guess my advice is don't give up, and eventually things will work out through sheer dumb luck."
"Well, that's better than nothing, I guess."
"It also helps to take your mind off of the problem," he continued. "So, why don't you give me a hand for a while. I'd like to see how this KEB forcefield reacts to your power. Maybe we'll finally get you a real armor synergy."
....
"Okay, you came come back, now," Missy transmitted over the armor's com.
"Well, I got my call," I told Rey. "Let me know how things pan out." I was pretty sure the experiments had mostly been him humoring me, because there wasn't anything he seemed excited about when testing how my power interacted with Khonsu's power. Between Trevor, Emma and Riley I'd seen Tinker Success Mode enough times to recognize it. And there wasn't one of those here.
"Will do," he replied. He went back to working with the glowing material that was the deepest chunk carved out of Khonsu. I walked back over to our base and shunt onto our lawn. Missy was there waiting, she didn't have her armor on.
She led me inside, to my bedroom. "So, I had a talk with Riley."
"And?" I asked.
"She has it pretty bad," Missy informed me. "Has ever since before I met either of you, actually. She has a lot of issues with self esteem. She didn't believe you'd ever want her because of all the things she's done, so she never said anything. I think she was trying to have a relationship vicariously through me. Kinda like Lisa does, but with a lot less unbelievable bitch."
"I don't know what to think about any of this," I spoke up. "What should we do?"
Missy turned and looked at me, her face a blend of sad and determined. "You're going to give her what she wants," she instructed.
What? "I..."
"I've been exactly where she's at," she interrupted. "I know what that feels like. Being rejected like that by a friend and colleague. Riley has enough problems in her life, I won't allow her to go through that, too. She loves you, and you're at least going to give her a chance."
"But I'm dating you," I pointed out.
"I know," she replied. "Don't act like seeing both of us would be a hardship. You're a guy, after all."
I managed a dry chuckle. "I'm sure my old man is cheering from whichever hell he's damned to. I can't do it," I insisted, holding her hands in mine. She's so small compared to me. "It's not fair to you."
"Then I'm breaking up with you," she whispered.
My stomach dropped. "You can't mean that," I insisted. "You can't throw away what we have like this."
She looked away, toward the ground. "If it were anyone else, you'd be right," her voice wavered. "But this is Riley we're talking about. We both owe her our lives. And as much as this hurts, if I have to step out of the way so the two of you can be together, I will."
"I don't want Riley," I cupped her face and made her look at me. "I don't think of her that way. I love you, and that's that. Then there's still all that shit Dream Girl did to me. Seeing someone else is not a solution. Please, don't do this."
"Theo," Missy sighed. "Clarice is Riley. Her mind, her personality. I don't think you're so shallow that the pretty face is what made you fall for her in the first place. So any feelings you have for one, you have for the other."
I closed my eyes. "Damn it, you are too self sacrificing, you know that right?"
"She did the exact same thing for me," she pointed out. "Now are you going to cooperate, or am I going to have to find Zach and make him explain how you're throwing away a perfect opportunity. I'm sure it'll be an incredible blend of vulgarity and insight that will make you feel dumb for not realizing it on your own. He might even throw in charts. Or we can cut out the middle man. It'll save you from having to see stick figure pornography."
I laughed a little. "Okay," I relented. "If only to avoid having to tell Zach that he's smarter than us."
"Could be worse," she gave me a quick hug. "At least he's not Lisa." She stepped away and palmed my door. It opened. "You can come in, now."
Riley came through the entrance. She'd dressed up at some point, a dark red blouse that accentuated the black hair color she'd been sporting for a while now. She stopped, clasping her hands together in front. She looked at me nervously. I did pretty much the same thing back. Riley is Clarice, in every way that matters, I reminded myself.
Missy pointed at Riley and mouthed the words 'ask her out' slowly and silently.
"Uh... Riley?" I hesitated.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Would you like to go out with me?" I asked.
Her face lit up, but she thought to look back at Missy first. Missy simply nodded. "Yes!" Riley exclaimed, and jumped into me, hugging me tight. "Yesyesyesyes!"
I put my arms around her, and looked back toward my girlfriend. Other girlfriend? This is going to be such a pain in the ass to figure out. Missy managed to smile at me, walking up and gently hugging both of us. Well, I can think of worse problems to have.
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A/N- Yeah, this arc shocks exactly no one.
Except the ones who were expecting me to do something horrible because I'm a trolling dick. To you? Well... double bluff troll maneuvering, go!
....DRAMA ensues.... and hopefully some slapstick comedy and to go with chapter is a song we all know that goes with a certain new year journey and typical teenage drama.this is Phantom Planet's "California"
