Her head was hurting, no it was trying to explode. Pain beat against her eyes and it felt as if her brain was too large for her skull. Bowing over she put her hands over her face, fingers seeking her temples to rub as if that would work away the pain.

The program was still running, the trigger had been tripped several times already and had produced similar results. She did nothing that she would not have done if the circumstances had been right...if she still wasn?t mourning Joshua or if she was a bit more willing to let herself just be a young adult with wants and desires. She had those wants and desires she just didn?t allow herself to indulge in those things. When those inhibitions were released things happened... or they didn?t and the headaches were the result.

Cooper had been over, she could remember that. But much of his visit was fuzzy for her, she couldn?t recall what was said or done but she could remember him speaking to her in a tone that was full of reproach and anger. No, that wasn?t right either was it? She couldn?t tell, her head hurt and she felt exhausted.

Last night she?d gone out to some of the raves at the docks again, or so she surmised by the stamps on her hand when she woke in the morning. She could recall none of it but the look she?d been given by Jacks as he showed up to watch her tonight had said a lot about the things she could not remember. She couldn?t ask him, not with the look in his eyes being what it was... so cold, an expression she hadn?t seen from him in a very long time.

There was the vaguest of memories of two men hitting on her, or talking to her and then trying to take her home. She hadn?t wanted anything to do with them, she wasn?t about to just leap into bed with anyone. But with Zan or Cooper or... She groaned softly as her head throbbed again, it was in time with her heartbeat, which quickened at that last thought. With Zan? Cooper or..? That last spot surely was Jacks but that wasn?t something she?d do, he was undead and she was not. Zan? Really brain? She couldn?t do that either, she?d just met the man and had spent most of their time together saying that she wasn?t trying to date him. What kind of woman would she look like if she suddenly tried to bed him?

The memory brought a bit more, a flash of Jacks laying the one guy out and crushing the other guys hands so that the guns he carried would be of no use. Gods no wonder he?s looking at me like that. She recalled pushing the guys away, or trying to but they got aggressive and then... nothing, there was nothing else left of the night. ?What the hell was I drinking?? She said aloud and regretted as even the sound of her own voice caused her pain.

She?d spend the night in and try to recover, then maybe lay off any alcohol for a few days, if it was causing her to black out then it was getting to be a problem and she didn?t want to be a problem for anyone. Laying back on her bed she closed her eyes and tried to forget the bits and pieces of the past few days, those things were only causing her grief for their incompleteness anyway.

Life went on, even if some of it was riddled by areas that felt more like a dream than reality and the headaches that got worse no matter what she did. That wasn?t quite right, the headaches eased up when she was doing things that were on the outside edges of her normal behavior -- things that caused that rush of adrenaline to burst through her blood, flooding it like a broken dam would wash away the pain.

And then there were the moments of brief intimacy she?d share lately, nothing like that one night that still lay in her memories like some sweet daydream but nice nonetheless. A kiss here, a touch there, very tame in comparison to the night they had shared. She had proof of that, the Stars End had cameras and now they had a few hours of missing footage. It was unlikely anyone was going to review those vids but she couldn?t just leave them there so there was time missing now... she?d replaced the actual footage with footage of an empty bar so the time stamps wouldn?t be off but it was a quick job and someone really good at vid manipulation might be able to see the edits she?d done.

The vid was... explicit and it had solidified some of the memory. The angle the camera had on them wasn?t good enough for it to be a porn but there could be no doubt what the two of them had been doing. Her cheeks warmed up whenever she thought of it, she had been aggressive with him and he seemed to enjoy it. Any time he mentioned sex now she could feel her cheeks warming up but thankfully she rarely blushed so that anyone could notice.

They had a date. It seemed odd that the date came after what she?d seen on the tape, but for her that night was still some type of dream and thankfully he seemed content with her explanation of her actions and willing to keep any affection to just the few kisses that she was comfortable with at present. It had been...nice, and the headache had receded during that time.

When she was alone and trying to focus on work or just relaxing the headache would swell to a level that brought tears to her eyes with its intensity. Her doctor was at a loss as to what was causing it but he was trying. He was the best at what he did and so she didn?t even consider going to anyone else but she needed him to come up with a solution; she was running out of events to try that would trigger the right response to lessen the pain. The zero-g laser tag had been fun and had worked, some of her motorcycle rides had been on roads with enough curves that the likelihood of a crash, given the speeds she was going, eased the headaches too.

When she was setting up work with ?Mr.Blue? there had been an element of danger there too. He was a dangerous man, she could sense that but yet she still did stupid things like get into the car with him to drive her to a place unknown to her at the start. It had turned out OK, better than that as he had given her a puzzle to work out and was going to pay her nicely when she was done with it.

But when she was left to herself she could feel that crawling sensation just beneath the surface of her flesh and it was starting to bother her in a way that was like throwing a stone in a still pond. Something was wrong and she couldn?t figure it out, her doctor couldn?t figure it out and her decision making process seemed out of alignment.

When she woke that morning, feeling ill-at-ease, she shook it off and got herself dressed. Poor decision-making wasn?t so unlike her, that was what had landed her in Rhy?din in the first place and that hadn?t turned out all bad. There was another message from Jacks on her phone, he was still angry with her and there wasn?t much for her to do about that. She had messed up and he didn?t seem to want to forgive her, or at least not yet. The headache started, a soft throbbing behind her eyes and knew the day was going to be a difficult one. She sent a text out, reaching out for one of the few people that seemed to ease her tension rather than add to it. ?I think I?ll collect that date tonight. Give me a where and when and make it good.?

Then it was off to work on the puzzle from Mr.Blue, the curiosity of what was in the box was killing her and she?d given herself three days to solve it. It was within her capabilities if she focused, but with the thoughts her mind was conjuring up about the man she'd be seeing tonight...? Well, she?d have to buckle down and finish work before she moved onto some play.

Her avatar appeared in the center of her domain, it was as safe as anyplace could be in the Void. To an outsider this world would look similar to the movie TRON but the mechanics of it was different, the underlying code that created the shared illusion was built off of five different alien technologies and melded together so that this world could exist. The code ran a continuous stream along the bottom part of her vision, there and available for manipulation by those that understood the Void and had access to the core. Her domain was compact compared to some but it was also more secure. It possessed just as many features as the larger areas but without the constant threat of discontinuation, a state that no user wanted as it did damage to hardware and the user alike.

The room she?d entered into was her home away from home and it had accents of her personality and was interlaced with echoes of Shakespeare, Poe, Gaiman, and other, more obscure references to literary sources. Subtle things like a small shadow of a man that ran along the edges of the room, her homage to Shadowrun; every time she saw the little man it made her smile. But there was no time to bask in this sanctuary tonight, five minutes was all she had.

She had made some modifications to her avatar, still the androgynous form of a fae but the hair was jet black and one eye was horribly disfigured; an old scar ran from the top of the brow down through the eye and across the high cheekbone. The eye itself stared out a milky-blue color that was difficult to say if it still saw or not, for despite the film over it the pupil seemed to be following along.

Once she felt oriented she locked onto her destination, a small timer was showing at the corner of her vision, counting down from five minutes, ten of those seconds were already gone. Onward, was her thought as she disappeared from view and reappeared somewhere else entirely.

The man was in a tiny cave, to be fair it was a high class cave, with modern amenities like monitors, a comfortable recliner and a variety of tech toys scattered about, but still a cave. She appeared at the foot of the chair the bulk of him was in. Whatever he had been drinking slopped down the front of his avatar as he started, the visitor having tripped none of his security defenses could only mean that it was one of the founders and when his brain registered which one he knew he was in trouble.

?Look, I didn?t want to do it. You have to understand, Puck, I was put in an untenable position. They threatened my family! My family!? He was scrambling now, heedless of the fact the drink had fallen to the floor and splashed its remaining contents. The man was fat, not just overweight, but fat, his avatar was a good likeness of the man that used it. Four eyes sat in a wide face, framed by wispy black strands of hair and his overall appearance reminded Summer of a bloated spider with some of it?s legs missing.

?Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.? The voice was neither that of a male nor a female, holding the soft hints of England and she leaned a bit closer to the scrambling man, as if about to share a secret. He paused, unsure where this was going, or if he should continue to grovel. ?You do know of my reputation, do you not, Baker?? He had taken the tag Baker because he said he could cook any book and he wasn?t half bad, no one with a domicile -- even one so meager -- in the Void could be half bad.

He nodded slowly, still unsure of where things were heading. The counter showed just another minute before Jacks men would pull the plug on the Baker. She had found out who he was, had found out where he lived and had sent the men there to literally pull the plugs that kept him connected to the Void. Before that happened she would need to put up a few shields that would trap the mans mind here while his body became one very large, disgusting, vegetable.

?Every nasty thing you have ever heard told as one of my deeds, every last one of them ... is true. But the deed I am about to do? Well, it is a masterpiece, even if I do say so myself. When night fades to the burning light of the three suns that keep your planet habitable someone might find you. I think perhaps they will not until the day you start stinking from rot.? The smile she produced was too wide, a caricature like a cheshire cat and it caused the Baker to shrink away from her avatar.

?Please! I had no choice!? He reached for his controler, no doubt it was the emergency disconnect to remove him from the Void. Her counter went red, he had run out of time and her blockade fell smoothly into place, trapping his consciousness here. He realized what had happened a moment later and a scream of anguish tore free from his throat.

She tsked at him softly. ?No need to wake the neighbors Baker. If you are very cooperative with me I might let you go before you body ceases to function. But I warn you, I will expect some high levels of cooperation for that to happen. Do you understand??

He was blubbering and crying in turns but after ten minutes he realized that there was nothing he could do, no way for him to escape unless she undid whatever it was that had been done. Finally he nodded and then the real conversation began.