Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

24 - Ghost Girl

"And you didn't?"

Arrow shook their head. "No. And it was a bad idea."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." A shrug. "You didn't do anything. Ferra's old school, she's dangerous, and worst of all, she's got the skills to back up her mouth. I just stay away from her now."

"Could have used your advice before I decided to go down there," Piper chuckled, before stopping abruptly when pain lanced through her ribs.

Silence settled on them, filled only by the low hums and bleeps of the medical machines. Piper didn't quite know what else to say, and her body still ached all over from Carstairs ministrations. She could feel the ruptured grafts reattaching to her bones in a singularly odd experience.

Odd, but welcome somehow. With every millimetre of metal that wound its way back through her body she felt a little more whole again.

"Piper," Arrow said eventually, looking almost ashamed. "I didn't just stop by to see how you were doing. I've been... doing a little research."

"Research into what?" Piper asked warily.

"Into, well, you."

"Great." Piper closed her eyes for a moment, leaning her head back against the pillow. "Why?"

"Sorry, it's just, you're different. There are so many questions and nobody will give us any answers." Arrow kicked with their heel, propelling themselves neatly over to the dormant computer. Their wand appeared in their hand. "So I decided to look for them myself."

A flick of their wrist made the screen spring to life, their amplifier glowing softly. Piper could see the wisps of power flickering back and forth between the machine and Arrow as they warped the system to suit their needs.

"They didn't tell you," Arrow said as they worked. "They ran DNA tests on you when you arrived here."

Piper shrugged. "Corps keeping secrets. Big surprise."

"They don't keep secrets from themselves."

"What does that mean?"

Arrow reached out, delicately turning the slim computer screen so she could see it. "I'm sure it's not news to you that the corps keep the DNA on file of every registered citizen of Hadrian."

"Not news at all." Piper could feel her temper rising; Arrow held something just out of reach, and she was tired to being given the run around in this place. "What has that got to do with me? What did you find?"

"I hacked the medical databases in the academy," they replied, as though it was the most casual thing in the world.

Their amplifier pulsed softly at the screen changed. Suddenly Piper was looking at a photograph of herself, accompanied by a few paragraphs of medical text. She tried to read some of it, but her eyes hurt, and none of it meant much to her anyway.

"So I've got a file here. What about it?"

"I... well there's not really an easy way to say this." Arrow shifted awkwardly in their seat, then shrugged. "It's a fake."

Piper blinked. "What?"

"It's a fake file. The DNA tests they ran on you when you got here, they don't match with corporate records."

"So somebody made a mistake-,"

"No, Piper." Arrow shook their head. "It's not real."

A sense of utter dread coiled itself around Piper's heart and she sucked a breath in through her teeth, bracing herself for a fresh revelation that she knew she didn't want. Her implants flexed with her emotions, sending a shudder through her body.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I cross-referenced against your family." A faint flick of the amplifier changed the screen again, and Piper's breath caught in her throat when she saw the faces of Arden and her mother appear.

The first time she'd seen them since the night with the wraiths.

Arrow's right eye twitched as she manipulated the system. All three files showed side-by-side, and at a glance they looked like a family. Piper wanted to believe it with every scrap of herself, and it was all she could do not to scream. Their eyes matched, evergreen and bright; their faces looked similar too – enough that they had to be related.

But Arrow kept working. DNA helices appeared in front of each image, swirling languidly in a pattern that was almost pretty. One by one they locked into place.

Confirmed Match.

Confirmed Match.

Error. No Match Found. Contact System Administrator for further information.

Piper swallowed hard. She could feel the implants beginning the heat under her skin and a faint orange glow seeped through the flimsy medical bedclothes.

"Piper, easy," Arrow murmured, rolling their chair back slightly. "I thought you had a right to know."

"What does this mean?" she forced out through gritted teeth, battling to keep control.

"Well, I'm not totally sure." They shook their head in bafflement. "But, according to this, they're not your real family."

"They're my family," Piper snapped. "No matter what that fucking machine says."

"Of course, I know, I didn't..." Arrow raised stammered. "I just mean, you're not biologically related – to either you mother or your sister. The records are wrong."

She felt like she was about to explode. Piper closed her eyes and tried to sink back into the bed, hoping the dark might just swallow her up like a bad dream, and she'd wake up at home, away from the corps, away from AmpCorp.

Away from a real world she couldn't handle.

When that failed to happen she exhaled, long and slow, feeling her breaths and letting the power flow gently through her damaged implants. When she felt calm enough, she tried to just logic this whole mess out.

"Does that thing tell you who I am related to?"

Arrow shook her head. "Well, that's the weird part."

"There's more?!"

"There no match for your DNA in any corporate records. Nothing – not in any of the medical corporations, security companies, employment medical submissions. There's no trace of you." Arrow told her, looking back at the screen. "I've never seen this before. Piper, you're... a ghost."

"Why would someone fake my records?" she asked.

"You're unique, because of your implants." An awkward shrug. "I guess someone, somewhere, was trying to hide you."

"From who?"

A flicked of fear crossed Arrow's face. "From whoever sent a codewraith to try and kill you."

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