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five-rivers · 10 months

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Big chapter! I'm also changing the rating to M, because I realized that I was tormenting Rex a tad more than is really covered under T.

Warnings for this chapter: 'medical' abuse, torture, brainwashing, semi-detailed description of medical procedures, naked people

Let me know if there was anything important I missed.

AO3

Asleep was not the same as sedated or anesthetized.

People who were asleep could still feel things. Pain, especially. That’s why slapping a person across the face woke them up. They felt it. It hurt them.

But Rex couldn’t wake up. He’d been told to sleep.

So, when white hot pain splintered across his nerve endings, all his sleeping mind could do was come up with different scenarios for why he was being hurt. Van Kleiss’s needle-fingers. Hunter Cain’s special anti-EVO bullets. Zag-RS’s nanite zapper. No Face. Just No Face.

(Years-old incidents he’d more than half forgotten but which still haunted his nightmares. Memories of being small and soft and drugged, and White, and a man with a scalpel, and the buzz of electricity all over his body.)

Eventually, though, his dreams settled on a single, simple scenario. Being locked in a small, dark box while long, sharp needles were pushed in from outside. It was, after all, close enough to reality.

In the observation area, Black Knight watched idly as the doctors took a thorough set of biopsies from Rex. Broadly speaking, the medical sciences were not her forte. She tended to operate on the opposite side of things. But there was always something of a pleasure in watching people who truly knew what they were doing work. Especially when it seemed that some days she was surrounded by nothing but incompetents.

Didn’t they know better than to get attached to an asset? Well, maybe she could forgive Holiday to some degree, the woman was a doctor, not involved in the business. But White and Six… bad form, boys. She shook her head, amused by her own train of thought.

Dr. Donevsky removed a pinhead-sized sample of flesh from Rex’s chest, and the boy’s breath hitched, the first time his breathing had been anything but mechanically even.

“Make note of that,” said Dr. Donevsky. “Are we ready for the bone marrow sample?”

“Yes, sir,” said another doctor.

“Nurses, turn him.”

They flipped him onto his front and swabbed clear the area near his hip they’d chosen for the puncture. Dr. Donevsky took a long thin needle with an oddly-shaped cross-section and vial from one of the nearby trays and smoothly inserted it in one practiced movement.

“Okay, then,” he said as he passed the sample off to another doctor, who began the process of splitting it for preservation and study. “Good job, everyone. Now, let’s get him fetal for the spinal tap.”

Black Knight was glad she’d had the pawns escort Caesar to his quarters. Oh, that was mostly to give him time to think about his position, but from her experience, family members tended to get overly emotional about these sorts of things. Irrational.

Although, that could be fun, too, sometimes. Still. Better not to have any disruptions. This looked like a very delicate process, despite the bruises that were blooming - and already fading - all over Rex’s skin. It did take quite a bit of effort, not to mention special tools, to get through the skin and muscle of an EVO like Rex. She would know. She’d had more than a few medical examinations herself.

“That’s the last regular organ sample. What time do we have?” asked Dr. Donevsky as they finished the spinal tap.

“Two hours, sir.”

Dr. Donevsky paused, then nodded. “How are we feeling about a nanite extraction?”

“I’d like to get a thorough sampling of those nanite nodules he has in his peritoneal, pleural, and pericardial cavities,” offered another doctor. “Holiday always had theories about those, but never let us test any of them.”

“Don’t we all know it,” said Dr. Donevsky. “Okay, let’s do that first, then we’ll do a minor generalized extraction - we’ll have to wait for Purgatory Base for a larger sample. Dr. Smythe, can you prep the nanite imager? Janice, the larger magna-scalpels, we’ll need bigger incisions for this part. Karl, the Faraday jars.”

“Do you think we could take a brain sample at some point? Just a small one…” said another doctor, wistfully. “It’s so hard to find sapient EVOs.”

“At this point, we don’t want to do anything that might compromise its ability to cure other EVOs,” said Dr. Donevsky. He tapped Rex’s thigh with the side of a scalpel. “We know that all of this can heal without issue, based on previous injuries. But brains are a different matter entirely.”

It wasn’t anything they didn’t know, but the doctors responded with a smattering of appreciative mumbles and got on with their work.

Black Knight wondered if it bothered them, to cut into flesh that didn’t bleed. If the rapidity with which the incisions clotted and scabbed gave them an impression of an uncanny valley. Probably not. Rex was far from the only EVO they worked with, and far from the only one with superior self-healing abilities. After all, nanites had initially been developed as a medical tool, even if the focus of the project had changed over time.

Dr. Donevsky maneuvered one irregular clump of nanites after another into specially prepared and magnetized Faraday jars. There was a chancy moment when one clump, removed from the pericardial cavity, spasmed, amoeba-like, reaching back towards Rex, but it was small enough, and Dr. Donevsky was fast enough, that it, too, was safely stored.

“Woof!” said Dr. Donevsky. “Well, I’m glad that’s the last one. What’s the time?”

“One hour, sir.”

“Well. Just enough for a very minor extraction. Let’s pin him.”

The cuffs on the table weren’t robust enough to stop a conscious escape attempt from an EVO, but that wasn’t what they were for. During magnetic nanite extraction, even heavily sedated EVOs tended to spasm.

“Resonator?” said Dr. Donevsky, holding out his hand. The devices had been loosely based on MRIs - which couldn’t be used medically anymore, with thousands of metallic nanites infecting everyone - but far smaller. He dragged it over one of Rex’s legs, a silver film bleeding up out of his pores. One of the scabs from earlier broke, a thin trickle of blood escaping while the nanites were otherwise occupied.

A common complaint of Providence scientists was that magnetic extraction couldn’t be used as a true cure. For one, complete extraction usually resulted in unsurvivable physical, internal trauma, as the magnets didn’t care about important organs that might be in the way. For another, EVOs tended to have abnormal body plans that couldn’t survive without nanites. White Knight was, in some ways, far more of an outlier than Black Knight and Rex. The prevailing theories regarding his survival were that he either had an abnormally low nanite count to begin with, or Rex had done something with his nanites prior to the extractor being turned on.

The doctors used another tool to collect the extracted nanites, avoiding Rex’s twitching fingers.

“Time?” called Dr. Donevsky, once again.

“Twenty minutes.”

“Okay, let’s get him wiped down and covered up for the boss. She said she wanted to be here when he woke up.”

Black Knight had to smile a little at that. She’d already been in the observation area for nearly two hours, and it wasn’t as if she’d never seen a naked person before. But she had wanted to see Rex when he woke, so she walked down into the lab.

“Director!” said Dr. Donevsky, smiling as he dried his hands. “You’re just in time. According to Dr. Salazar’s timeline, he should be waking up any minute now.”

Black Knight nodded. “You were able to take all the samples you wanted?”

“Oh, yes, and then some,” said Dr. Donevsky, beaming. “It’s been a long eight hours, but very worth it. Of course, we’ll have to take more. Test how things change over time, how the nanites respond to different stimuli…”

“Of course,” said Black Knight. She’d been intimately involved in testing procedures for the original nanite project. She knew how this worked. “Send me your recommended testing schedule, so we can accommodate it with Rex’s field missions.” Although, it would be some time before she approved a field mission for Rex. She wanted to make sure he was secured before she let him out of sight.

“Yes,” said Dr. Donevsky. “I’ll have it to you by the end of the day. Now, I should tell you that with all of this, we’ve strained his nanites and body fairly severely, so he won’t be healing as quickly as he normally would. If possible, I’d avoid sending him out for at least twenty-four hours.”

“I see. That’s good to know.”

There was a movement from Rex, an exaggerated twitch, and Black Knight and Dr. Donevsky both turned to watch him.

His eyes blinked open a moment later, staring flatly at the ceiling. Then he frowned. “Hol-iday?” he called, his voice cracking in the middle. Blue lines traced over the surface of the cuffs that the doctors had used to keep him still, and they sprang open. The lifts on the table also engaged, lowering to a position it would be easier to get off of. He raised a hand to his chest, and traced the line of an incision, his lips moving silently.

"Hello, Rex," said Black Knight.

Rex startled and flailed, sitting up suddenly then pretzeling himself around the tiny modesty towel a nurse had thrown over him.

"Black Knight! Hiiiiiiiiiii," he said, a furious blush working its way over his skin. “I’m– I didn’t– What brings you to the– to the–” His eyes darted around the room. “Lab? Today?”

“I’m here to see you,” said Black Knight, amused.

“O-oh! Do you– Do you, um, like what you see?” The inexpert attempt at flirting was undercut by the obvious uncertainty in his voice.

Black Knight stepped closer. Sleeping aside, it was quite possible, even probable, that Caesar had lied to her, that Rex was not truly under control. But if so, how well would Rex be able to hide it?

She put her hand under his chin and tilted up, so he would be forced to look her in the eye, then readjusted her grip so that her hand lay along the underside of Rex’s chin, her fingernails resting on the collar itself. His skin was precisely the same temperature as hers, which was strangely pleasant. The wonders of nanite-regulated homeostasis, she supposed.

His expression started off startled, surprised, but gradually relaxed into something… strange.

Once, when Black Knight was young, her family had a dog. It was a rescue, a floppy-eared, soft-furred mongrel of no particular value or lineage. It had never warmed up to her. Her parents said that sometimes animals that had been abused were slow to trust, that she just had to be patient with it. It didn’t, not in the five years they had it. But sometimes she’d watched it with her parents, and with them it had often made a face awfully similar to this.

The boy blinked up at her, slow and calm. She could feel his breath, his pulse, fluttering under her fingers. He turned his head and nuzzled into her palm.

This alone would be good evidence. Rex hadn’t been particularly inclined to affection with her before, and this level of docility was unprecedented, according to his file. However…

She swept her eyes down his body, making note of injuries that hadn’t healed yet, lingering on the mottled bruises on his hip and leg, wrapping up to join bruising lingering around incisions on his abdomen. They’d collected the nanites from the same side they’d taken the bone marrow sample from. She hummed, contemplatively.

“Black– Ms. Knight, what… happened? Why am I…?” He trailed off, flexing one hand. She wondered if a sample had been taken from there earlier, before she’d come to watch.

She patted his cheek. “Don’t worry about that, Rex, what matters is that everything is back to normal.”

He perked up. “So, Six and Holiday are back?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Black Knight, displeased and letting it show in her voice.

“Did something happen to them? Should we–”

“Rex,” interrupted Black Knight, dropping her hand to Rex’s shoulder and drumming her fingers on his skin. A deep divot, all that remained of the hole she’d put in him earlier, was only inches below her hand. “You don’t need to worry about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t talk about it.”

“I–” He faltered. “Okay. Is, uh, Caesar here? And–” His voice cracked, “--can I get dressed?”

Ah. There was her test. “We can go see your brother.” It might be a good object lesson to Caesar as well, insofar as that man ever learned anything. “Follow me.” She walked off, without a backwards glance. She didn’t need a backwards glance. As with most spaces in Providence where people might be moving expensive and delicate things around without clear sight lines, there were half-dome mirrors scattered all around the lab. She watched Rex look around wildly, his earlier bewildered expression coming back full force. Before she had gotten too far away, however, he levered himself up off the table, and, limping heavily, keeping the thin modesty blanket in place with one hand, followed her.

His leg almost gave out beneath him twice before they left the room, and by the time he had gotten halfway down the hall he was pausing to rub his eyes or temples. A headache from the spinal tap, most likely, possibly exacerbated by dehydration, anemia, or low blood sugar. Nanites couldn’t fix everything, after all. By the end of the hallway, he was using the wall to brace himself.

The next hallway had a group of pawns passing through, and Rex cringed away from all of them, even though they didn’t do so much as look at him. He showed the same behavior when humans passed by. His mounting distress was evident even in warped reflections.

But he didn’t stop. He didn’t complain. He didn’t question. He obeyed. Not perfectly, perhaps, but you didn’t even get that from animals.

She led him around a little longer, to the point where she could tell he was on the verge of collapse. It was enlightening for her to map out his limits. White had never gotten so close. He hadn’t even been able to fight Rex effectively when the boy was practically passing out from sleep deprivation.

But it was time to bring him to Caesar. She did, unfortunately, need Caesar’s cooperation, and there was no foolproof way to ensure his obedience. Caesar was not, after all, an EVO.

He could also, undoubtedly, undo whatever he’d done to Rex. He was a risk, in more ways than one. But she’d found that credible threats to family members generally were effective. He just had to keep believing that she could and would kill Rex if he stepped out of line.

Not difficult. She could and would kill Rex if he became more troublesome than he was worth. And even if he did manage to escape from Providence’s immediate control - from her immediate control - it would be oh-so-easy to turn the whole world against him. She could ensure that he never knew a single moment of peace.

She opened Caesar’s door. Nothing in Providence was locked to her. He was frozen in the middle of the room, obviously caught mid-pace.

“Black Knight,” he said.

“Dr. Salazar,” she said, smiling. He’d been confined to quarters, and she was pleased to see it had worn on him. His clothing was the same as it had been eight hours ago. “I hope you’ve had a restful day.” Rex was lagging. She could have some fun.

“Is Rex awake?” asked Caesar. “If he isn’t following your orders to the letter– What I did just makes him like us, trust us. He will follow instructions, but he won’t do it mindlessly, he’ll do it because he likes you. You do understand the difference between that and the control we have over standard EVOs, don’t you? Even I understand that. You can’t punish him for not– Not being a robot. He is under control.”

“Careful,” said Black Knight. “What I do or do not do isn’t up for you to decide.” Hearing Rex’s slightly labored breathing, she turned to the door. “That being said…”

Rex stumbled into the room. “Caesar!” he said brightly. Then, his leg gave out. Caesar caught him just before he hit the ground.

“What did you do?” demanded Caesar as he maneuvered Rex onto his bed. Rex whined and clutched at him, breathing shallow.

“When you made the effort to put him to sleep, we thought it would be best to give him a little checkup. It has been six months, after all.”

Caesar’s eyes widened, and he looked over Rex’s body again. Black Knight wondered how many of the marks he recognized. They were fading unnaturally fast and Caesar wasn’t a medical doctor. “You didn’t. That command just puts him to sleep. Asleep isn’t the same as anesthetized. Did you have your maniacs operate on him without even painkillers?"

"We'll take your recommendations under advisement in the future, Dr. Salazar. Assuming your work continues to produce results."

Caesar’s jaw clenched, and he stared up at her, even as he tried to wrap a blanket around Rex’s shoulders. It wasn’t terribly effective. Rex wasn’t sitting still. “I always get results,” he said.

Black Knight raised an eyebrow, and he looked away.

"For security reasons,” continued Black Knight, “we've restricted programming access to Rex's collar to a few select terminals. However, we’ve made sure you can still access the data from it. For monitoring purposes."

“That’s generous of you,” said Caesar, still not looking at her.

Black Knight smirked, and stepped back into the doorway. “You can catch up with each other while Rex’s room is being prepared.”

“Rex’s room?”

“You didn’t think he was going to stay here with you? You only have one bed. Where is he going to sleep? The floor? The pawns will come get him. In the meantime,” she nodded at the camera in the corner of the room, “you’ll be monitored. In case there are any health complications.”

“Thank you, Ms. Knight,” mumbled Rex, resting his head against Caesar’s shoulders.

“You’re welcome, Rex. I look forward to our new working relationship.”

Caesar had been locked in his room, which wasn’t something that had happened to him since that time he’d been put under house arrest for– Well. That hardly mattered. He’d been absolved of any wrongdoing. And he’d been a teenager. Teenagers didn’t have fully developed brains. He was practically a different person, now.

Anyway.

He was locked in his room. The few human agents still around had searched it before shutting him in, pulling out, well, just about everything except for his clothing and the computer built into the wall - and he’d been restricted from that by the expedient of shutting off its power from somewhere outside the room. Not much he could do about that.

But Black Knight couldn’t stop him from thinking, and Caesar flattered himself that his brain was his best quality. It was certainly the muscle he exercised the most. Well. Metaphorically speaking. The brain wasn’t actually a muscle.

So, he paced and thought, paced and planned, paced and daydreamed, for a bit, even. Something felt… wrong about sleeping or resting when he didn’t know what was happening to Rex. Watching him being wheeled away by those doctors felt bad in a way that Caesar couldn’t qualify or quantify. Not that he was ever very good with feelings.

Hopefully, the uncertainty wouldn’t last long. The Consortium needed him to complete their plans, and both he and Black Knight knew it. She must also know that he wouldn’t cooperate without some assurance of Rex’s relative safety… Well. That was to say, although there were other ways they could force him to cooperate, as they had been before, to some degree, the quality of his cooperation would be poor.

Once he had contact with Rex, again, he could… He glanced up at the camera in the corner of his room. They were everywhere. Anything he did would have to take constant monitoring into account. He couldn’t do anything direct. Or, at least, nothing that was both direct and physical. When he got his computer back, he could walk back the changes… walk back some of the changes. Rex wasn’t very good at secrets. Or discretion. Or lying. And he didn’t doubt that what he’d done had been logged and archived for study, and that any changes to what he’d altered would also be monitored, although there were plenty of ways around that. Even here, very few people were fluent in the programming language used in the nanites.

Something like a sneer flashed across his face. Well. To be accurate, rather than a few, the number was two. Himself and Rex. And in Rex’s case, his fluency was less because of study and understanding, and more because a large portion of his thought processes occurred in it.

Anyway.

Even if he wasn’t able to, though, Rex should be able to change his own code. Change the numbers back to normal levels. Should, if he noticed the discrepancies between what had been written in and reality. There was a mechanism for that, one that should have worked even without Caesar removing the partition. With the partition gone, it should happen all that much faster. Should.

Caesar wasn’t happy hanging so much on should.

But that was why it was only a fallback plan. Or… a bit more than a fallback plan, considering other precautions…

The important thing was keeping Rex alive. As long as he could do that, then eventually they’d be able to get away, and once they got away, Caesar could fix anything that hadn’t already been fixed. But until they were ready to escape, Black Knight couldn’t have any doubts about Rex.

Maybe Rex had made a game of escaping from Providence before, but that Providence hadn’t doubted he’d come back. As today had shown, he could be overwhelmed, and there was a lot of empty space between Providence HQ and the nearest town. Lots of space to intercept him, to set up traps, or even to shoot missiles at him. No. They needed a better plan than just run.

A plan that Caesar would come up with.

His thoughts swirled in increasingly labyrinthine circles.

Then Black Knight opened the door. He recognized that as a power move on her part. Showing she didn’t need to knock, ring the doorbell, or otherwise acknowledge his privacy in any way.

“Black Knight,” he said. For a moment, he wondered if he could activate his nanites through the sheer force of hate alone. Preferably into something with laser eyes, so he could laser Black Knight’s face into oblivion.

(Of course, laser eyes were very physically unlikely - On the other hand, Breach existed. He was fairly certain she must be using some variant of Dr. Porter’s batch 3667 nanites, but who knows how they’d gotten to Greenville, Ohio in enough concentration to cause her, and then propagate enough to–)

(Well, that didn’t matter right now.)

“Dr. Salazar,” she said, smiling. There was absolutely no warmth behind the expression, only poison. “I hope you’ve had a restful day.”

“Is Rex awake?” asked Caesar, hating how anxious he sounded. Black Knight would use any weakness, but he had to know. “If he isn’t following your orders to the letter–” He broke off. That wouldn’t help. That would sound like the exact opposite of what Black Knight wanted. No good, no good… “What I did just makes him like us, trust us. He will follow instructions, but he won’t do it mindlessly, he’ll do it because he likes you. You do understand the difference between that and the control we have over standard EVOs, don’t you? Even I understand that. You can’t punish him for not– Not being a robot. He is under control.”

“Careful,” said Black Knight. “What I do or do not do isn’t up for you to decide.” She turned to the door, as if she had just heard something outside. “That being said…”

Rex stumbled into the room. “Caesar!” he said brightly.

Caesar almost choked. He almost inhaled his own tongue. He did stop breathing.

Rex was… Well, first off, he wasn’t wearing anything but a tiny scrap of a towel. He’d never walk around like that of his own accord. In a bathrobe, yes, but like this? Not a chance. He had as an acute sense of embarrassment as any teenager. But beyond that, his skin was mottled by fading bruises and striped with incisions.

Precise incisions.

Surgical incisions.

Caesar was… Well. Not exactly a pacifist, but he wasn’t the sort of person to resort to violence as a first option. He was educated. Rational. Unemotional. Although, again, that might be some variety of mental or psychological problem. Even when Rex had told him that Van Kleiss had claimed he’d killed their parents, Caesar had merely made a mental note of their enmity, and resolved to do away with him at the first possible opportunity.

He wanted to kill Black Knight. Preferably painfully. Preferably now. Preferably with his bare hands.

Then, Rex’s leg gave out. Caesar lunged forward caught him just before he hit the ground.

“What did you do?” demanded Caesar as he maneuvered Rex onto his bed, trying to cover up his near slip and continuing bloodlust. Rex’s breathing was shallow and pained, and he pushed into Caesar’s side as if he were trying to burrow under Caesar’s skin.

“When you made the effort to put him to sleep, we thought it would be best to give him a little checkup,” said Black Knight, carelessly. As if she hadn’t had her pet monsters vivisecting Rex. “It has been six months, after all.”

Caesar looked over Rex’s body again, cataloging injuries. Then the implications of her words caught up with him and he reexamined the cuts and puncture wounds with new eyes. None of them looked quite like what he’d come to expect from an IV.

“You didn’t. That command just puts him to sleep. Asleep isn’t the same as anesthetized. Did you have your maniacs operate on him without even painkillers?" That would have been brutally agonizing. Even if being asleep meant Rex didn’t remember…

"We'll take your recommendations under advisement in the future, Dr. Salazar. Assuming your work continues to produce results."

He was going to kill her.

But his little brother needed him. After all of this, he wouldn’t put Rex under any more risk. Jerkily, he pulled up the comforter from his bed and tried to wrap it around Rex’s shoulders, give him just a little more privacy, but his hands were shaking hard enough that it just wouldn’t stay put.

“I always get results,” he ground out, finally.

Black Knight raised an eyebrow, and he looked away. If he had to look at her smug face for even a second longer, he would snap.

“That’s generous of you,” said Caesar, still not looking at her.

“You can catch up with each other while Rex’s room is being prepared.”

“Rex’s room?” No. No. They weren’t going to take him away–

“You didn’t think he was going to stay here with you? You only have one bed. Where is he going to sleep? The floor? The pawns will come get him. In the meantime, you’ll be monitored,” she said, as if Caesar didn’t know about the cameras. “In case there are any health complications.”

“Thank you, Ms. Knight,” said Rex, sweetly, as if he were a grade schooler talking to a favorite teacher. He shifted to rest his head on Caesar’s shoulder, his forehead, sticky with sweat and whatever horrible product he liked to put in his hair, against Caesar’s neck.

“You’re welcome, Rex. I look forward to our new working relationship.” And then she left.

Caesar struggled to get his heart rate under control. He was no use to Rex like this. He was no use to himself, for that matter. He just–

“Mmm,” said Rex, shifting to nuzzle Caesar’s neck.

Caesar went still. Complex systems always had emergent behavior. He hadn’t considered how altering numerical values in the relationship matrix might affect how Rex expressed affection directed towards individuals.

“Caesar?”

Caesar could feel Rex’s lips moving against his neck. “Yes, mijo?”

“Your nanites are weird.”

Oh, thank goodness, it was about nanites. He hadn’t considered how changing Rex’s awareness of nanites might influence his behavior, either, beyond the obvious.

He’d been operating under a lot of pressure, okay?

Caesar chanced a glance downward. To his dismay, lines of blue light radiated from where Rex’s skin touched his.

“Weird how?” asked Caesar.

“Needs update,” mumbled Rex, shifting to lean more heavily on Caesar. “Old. They’re not– They’re not– locus h-sapiens two-seven-two-five Caesar Salazar primary composition b-two-two-three-seven-alpha, b-seven-two-five-two-delta, b-four-nine-nine-nine-omicron, b-four-seven-three-nine-beta. Present nanos iterations of b-two-two-three-seven-alpha and b-seven-two-five-two-delta not compatible with present nanos iterations of b-four-nine-nine-nine-omicron. Permission to update?”

Caesar had… underestimated how disconcerting it might be to hear Rex rattle off things like that. It wasn’t quite how Caesar would have read those codes, but it was certainly understandable. Caesar must have nanites from the first moments after the event in his body. Over time, nanites outside the pod lab would have modified their programming. It made sense that not all evolutionary paths would generate programming that meshed.

“Let’s let them sort themselves out for now,” he said. It was unlikely that the different strains would learn to communicate with one another again without intervention, but they were capable of working around one another, at least. “I think it’s more important that we get you some clothes, yes?”

“Oh,” said Rex. “Oh, no.” He pulled away from Caesar and practically cocooned himself in Caesar’s comforter. “Oh, no,” he repeated.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got plenty of extra clothes.” None of which would be quite Rex’s size, but better poorly-fitting clothing than nothing. Which was what Rex was currently wearing.

He got up and went to his closet. He… didn’t really have a lot of sartorial variety, to be honest. He thought this shirt might have shrunk in the wash, though…

“Caesar,” said Rex, voice muffled by the blanket.

On the other hand, he really just needed pajamas right now. “Yes?”

“What happened?”

Caesar paused. There were a few things he could be referring to. Or, that’s what Caesar would like to think. In reality, those ‘few things’ were all one big thing. But it was possible that he meant something else, something Caesar wasn’t thinking of. “Can you give me some more context?” he asked. “There have been a lot of things that… happened,” he finished, lamely.

Rex shifted inside the blanket bundle. “I was… The incurable EVO… The worm from the other day… I’m sorry, it’s hard to think, I’m just–!”

“It’s okay,” said Caesar, “take your time, get your thoughts in order.” He found a set of clean pajamas and set them on the bed. “I’ve got PJs!”

Rex didn’t emerge, but Caesar could hear him mumbling, indistinctly. “After I caught the worm EVO, I followed it back, under the truck, and I– I saw where you were putting collars on. And I was upset? I think? I was angry? But I don’t know why I was angry, I mean. The collars are the right thing to do, aren’t they? If you and Black Knight both think so. I don’t know why I was angry. I don’t know why I– I tried to destroy the– the machines? I don’t know. And then Black Knight, she– I don’t understand what happened. I feel like I’m– I have to be missing something, right? I don’t know why she– I mean, I tried to break the machine, but I must have done something else, because she stabbed me, and– and then you– and then–”

Rex took several deep, if ragged breaths, then, slowly, pulled back one edge of the blanket so his head was free. His eyes looked wet.

“I’m thinking about it,” he said. “I’m trying to narrow down what it was, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

It didn’t make any sense, because what had been done to Rex was wrong. Caesar couldn’t just say that, though. “What are your options so far?” asked Caesar.

“One is that, um, what I did was really, really bad. Worse than I think it is. Thought it was. You know what I mean.”

Caesar made a sound that he hoped was interpreted as encouraging. He… really didn’t know what Rex meant.

“Because I thought I didn’t need the- the, um–” Rex’s hands emerged to trace the rim of the collar. “And it sounded like she didn’t think so, either, before, but I did get angry like that, for no reason, so… Maybe I did need it, and you needed to do that, to keep me from going on a rampage. But… After? Caesar, after– It really hurt. It still hurts. And you don’t– You don’t do things like that without a reason. You don’t hurt people like that without a reason. So there’s got to be something I don’t remember. So– So I need to know. Caesar, did I–” His voice broke. “Caesar, did I hurt someone? Did I hurt people?”

“What? No, no. Mijo, you didn’t hurt anyone.”

Rex’s hands fluttered over the edge of the blanket, uncharacteristically nervous. “She stopped me?”

“No,” said Caesar. “Rex, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But I must have. You and Black Knight are good people. You’re not like White Knight, or, uhm, Dr. Fell, or Van Kleiss. You don’t hurt people for no reason!”

Being put on the same moral level as Black Knight was somewhat distasteful, but Caesar supposed he only had himself to blame for that. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but be curious about part of Rex’s statement.

“Who’s ‘Dr. Fell?’”

“Oh! He was the guy before Dr. Holiday. He and White Knight tried to kill me when I first came here.”

There was so much to unpack there. “He and White Knight?” Why hadn’t Rex said any of this before? Did he not trust Caesar?

Stupid question. He'd seen the trust metric.

“Uh huh. Kind of messed up that he was my boss, huh? But Black Knight is definitely an improvement, because she wouldn’t hurt me for no reason. So, there has to be a reason, but I don’t know what the reason is and… it’s kinda freaking me out. Just a little.”

For a moment, Caesar wondered if Rex would figure out the inconsistency, the failure in his logic, the contradiction between program and reality, then and there. For a moment, he hoped Rex’s long silence was him editing his programming.

“Like, I know I’m kind of dumb about things,” continued Rex, looking up at Caesar, hopefully, “but you’re not, so, you know what I did, right?” There was a faint rim of blue light inside Rex’s pupils, and Caesar wondered if the nanites inside Rex’s eye were projecting something onto his retina… If so, that was remarkably inefficient, when they could communicate directly with his brain.

Caesar refocused. He could examine Rex’s code later. For now… He glanced at the camera again. Rex followed his gaze.

“Do you want me to take care of it?” he asked. “I could. You’d think Providence would have better security on their cameras, but nope.”

“No, that’s okay,” said Caesar. “What happened today was… Black Knight is very… It’s important to her that her orders are followed.”

“Oh,” said Rex, nodding, “that makes sense. So, it’s because I didn’t follow orders?”

“Yes,” said Caesar. “The collar just… makes sure you do.” Not entirely accurate anymore. For the other EVOs, yes, the collars applied a continuous modification to their behavior, like how software stored on a flash drive might affect a computer it connected to without the computer itself ever containing that software. Rex’s programming wouldn’t allow something like that. For Rex, it only provided a wireless connection to his nanites, and the modifications that could be made were limited.

“Oh,” said Rex, sounding dazed. “That… makes sense?”

“Yeah,” said Caesar, “yeah, that makes sense. Now will you put on some clothes? You’re in my bed.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess so. I guess– I guess so. I want to– It’s cold.”

“That’s why you need to put on clothes, mijo.” He pushed the pajamas closer to Rex.

“Alert, locus h-sapiens one Rex healthstat abnormal,” mumbled Rex as he pulled the pajamas under the blankets. “Processing healthstat report to topadmin.”

“What’s that?”

Rex continued to mumble. “Processing, processing, topadmin unavailable? Processing… Initializing program three-six-seven-four-three-eight-one-three-eight-three-seven-nine-eight-four-four-six-four– No, no, no, abort, abort– Healthstat abnormal? Abort, abort, file report– healthstat report data storage full?”

“What do you mean your report storage is full?”

“It’s full, it’s full, it’s full. I don’t know. Keeps trying– Abort program, going to quarantine– What were we talking about, bro?”

Caesar considered pushing, but… “Just getting you dressed.”

“I’m dressed. I am dressed.” He swung the blanket back to show Caesar, but quickly wrapped himself up again. “Caesar, I think something’s wrong with me. I’m thinking… wrong. It’s wrong.”

“Hey, hey. It’s okay." Caesar sat down on the edge of the bed gingerly. "You’re just adjusting. You’ll figure it out in no time.”

Rex leaned against Caesar’s shoulder. However, to Caesar’s relief, this time there were no blue lines on his skin. “Really?”

“Yeah,” said Caesar, and even he was aware of how hollow his words sounded. “Really.”

Rex woke slowly. He didn’t want to wake up. His whole body hurt. It had been a while since he’d gotten this beaten up in a fight. Or maybe he was sick? That’d explain why he was on one of the examination tables.

{running healthstat review. processing…}

He shifted, not quite aware of the motion until he came up against the table restraints. Holiday only used those if she absolutely had to, like during a nanite extraction. Was he at Purgatory Base?

{processing… alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin.}

He opened his eyes, and blinked against the light. The ceiling was Providence HQ. Holiday’s lab.

“Hol-iday?” he called. His voice cracked.

{processing… processing… topadmin unavailable. processing… initializing program 36743813837984464…}

That wasn’t one of the normal health and wellness maintenance programs, or the emergency repair programs. He briefly dipped into the code for program 36743813837984464 and tried to trace the individual commands, but most of them were number codes that weren’t well filed in the system and…

What? How did he have… He’d never… He’d have to review this when he was more awake. Maybe talk to Holiday about it. For now…

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{confirm instruction: abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{initialization of program 36743813837984464 aborted. query: file healthstat report for later delivery to topadmin.}

{file healthstat report.}

{error: healthstat report data storage full. recommend running program 36743813837984464. query: action.}

{standby.}

No, wait, he should probably get out of these restraints, first. It sounded like Holiday must’ve stepped out, or whatever. He told them to open up, and while they were at it, to lower the table lifts, so that when he was ready he could get down. But…

He’d gotten distracted, but he really didn’t feel well. His skin felt… he felt… He was cold.

He raised a hand to his chest. There was something pinching here… Everywhere, really. He traced a weird ridge of skin. What was that? A scar? But he never–

He wasn’t wearing any clothes. That was weird. Holiday hardly ever had him take off his clothes. What had happened?

"Hello, Rex," said Black Knight.

Que–

He sat up, trying to cover himself, because that was way too close. Way, way too close. Holiday was one thing - she was his doctor and basically his mom (and that was a thought he would unpack later) - but Black Knight? He respected Black Knight, and he did not want her to know what he looked like naked.

Oh, thank goodness, he had a modesty towel.

"Black Knight! Hiiiiiiiiiii," he said, skin prickling with cold heat. “I’m– I didn’t– What brings you to the– to the–” He looked wildly around the room, as if he didn’t already know where he was. “Lab? Today?”

“I’m here to see you,” said Black Knight.

“O-oh! Do you– Do you, um, like what you see?” Yikes, that was an awful line, even he knew that, and why the heck was he flirting? He was so stupid. He couldn’t even look her in the eye, oh gosh.

He was forgetting something. What was he forgetting? Something about why he was lying here, something about Black Knight…

Black Knight stepped closer, and Rex tensed, his whole body seizing up. He was– He was– Why was he reacting like this? It was just Black Knight. Black Knight. {identify: user-BLACKKNIGHT. status: recognized. trust 100. relación 100. rely 100.}

She put her hand under his chin and tilted it up. He met her eyes, surprised.

{detected: user-BLACKKNIGHT (priloc: b4740-EPSILON, locus: hsapiens2-BLACKKNIGHT). alert: ping not returned.}

Her fingernails tapped the collar around his neck. The– The collar.

Right.

Okay.

He remembered now. Sort of. Maybe? What he remembered didn’t make sense. Couldn’t make sense.

Black Knight was nice. She wouldn’t just stab him, would she? No. She was nice.

And… this was nice, actually. This was nice. People didn’t really touch him, usually. Not outside of, like, emergency situations. Six and Holiday were exceptions, but for Six it was training, and for Holiday it was medical stuff… and maybe a few hugs here and there. Caesar could maybe be an exception, too, but Rex didn’t always know where he stood with Caesar… or he didn’t, it was different, now.

{identify: user-CAESARSALAZAR. status: recognized. trust 100. relación 100. rely 100.}

That was nice.

Black Knight’s nanites were weird, though.

{detected: user-BLACKKNIGHT (priloc: b4740-EPSILON, locus: hsapiens2-BLACKKNIGHT). alert: ping not returned.}

Rex could detect them easily enough, but it looked like they couldn’t receive contact from other nanites. That made sense from a security standpoint. Much harder to be hacked if you could only talk to yourself. But it must be so lonely�� that was sad… Black Knight was nice, he didn’t want her to be lonely. And she was being so nice to him…

This was nice.

The… touching? The holding. He didn’t know what to call it.

It was nice.

Black Knight wouldn’t stab him for no reason. That was a fact. She was too nice.

“Black– Ms. Knight, what… happened? Why am I…?” He trailed off. There was a weird kink in his one hand, and he flexed his wrist, hoping to get rid of it.

Black Knight patted his cheek with her other hand. “Don’t worry about that, Rex, what matters is that everything is back to normal.”

Normal. What was normal? Wait, for Providence, normal was– “So, Six and Holiday are back?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Black Knight, tone… What was that tone? It was negative. Was she disappointed in him? Somehow? No, that didn’t make sense. All he’d done was ask a question, which, yeah, would have been enough for White Knight, but Black Knight was different. She was more like Six and Holiday. Somehow. He couldn’t put his finger on how.

But what else was there to be negative about? Unless–

“Did something happen to them? Should we–”

“Rex.” Black Knight dropped her hand to Rex’s shoulder and drummed her fingers on his skin. There was one of those places where his skin felt weird just a few inches lower on his torso, on both side. Wasn’t that where she had stabbed him? There must have been a good reason for that. “You don’t need to worry about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t talk about it.”

“I–” He faltered. He could do that. He could. No reason for her to be disappointed. No need for… for whatever had happened right before Caesar put the collar on him. Speaking of Caesar… “Okay. Is, uh, Caesar here? And–” His voice cracked, “--can I get dressed?”

Black Knight looked happy. “We can go see your brother. Follow me.”

Oh. No… no clothes then? Normally, he’d make himself obnoxious over something like this - it was how he’d managed to get White Knight to let him have real clothes, once upon a time - but… he didn’t want to bother Black Knight like that. She was too nice.

She must have just not heard him, that’s all.

He pushed himself off the examination table, and hissed as his legs almost gave out under him. He caught himself on the table.

{alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin. processing… processing… topadmin unavailable. processing… initializing program 36743813837984464…}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{confirm instruction: abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{initialization of program 36743813837984464 aborted. query: file healthstat report for later delivery to topadmin.}

{no.}

Oh, crud, where did Black Knight go?

{tracking… program 226372192824 running…}

Right, right, the security cameras. He’d… Forgotten wasn’t the right word, here, was it? He hadn’t forgotten, but he hadn’t known? But he had known. But he hadn’t? There were definitely times a nanite-assisted link to nearby security cameras would have been helpful, and he hadn’t used it, but he’d had versions of this program going way back.

There was very much something wrong with him. And he wasn’t just talking about his skin and muscles and bones.

Although, he would very much like to know what was wrong with his skin and muscle and bone. This was the first time he’d really looked down at himself since he woke up and… Well… Getting injured was pretty normal for him. Being injured, staying injured, that was something else.

{locus-hsapiens2-BLACKKNIGHT located.}

He pushed himself to his feet, did his best to make sure the modesty towel covered him, and walked, limping, after Black Knight.

Now that he was more awake, more aware, it felt like everything was jumping out at him, everything was… loud. No, that wasn’t the right word. Bright? No. The things he was feeling with his nanites, they all felt new, but that was wrong.

He’d gotten sensory overload before. Not often. That’d be a liability in the field. But in the beginning, when he’d first come to providence, he’d had trouble. He was having similar trouble now. The cameras, the other electronics, the people, the sounds, the sights, the– everything. It was amazing and beautiful and terrible and just too much. Too much input. He could deal with this input. He had been dealing with this input. But now, it was like he’d forgotten how.

He kept getting distracted, or overwhelmed, so he set up a quick and dirty program to ping him whenever Black Knight got too far away, to remind himself that he did actually need to follow her.

Or did he? Couldn’t he just tap into Providence’s network and find out where Caesar was? Then Black Knight wouldn’t have to waste her time… but he liked spending time with her… Caesar might like to spend time with her? But he didn’t want to waste her time… She was so nice doing this.

A group of pawns passed and he flinched away. A muscle in his shoulder seized painfully. They’d passed other groups of pawns. Had he done the same thing, then? The pawns felt… They didn’t have as many nanites as they should, and no locus numbers. Had Providence figured out a way to do nanite extractions from non-EVOs? For Rex, the only reason nanites could be safely extracted from him was because the remaining nanites would fix the damage. What had happened to White Knight had been weird.

All of this was weird.

How had Rex gotten so hurt, anyway? He kept coming back to that. He only really remembered Black Knight stabbing him. Had something else happened afterwards that he didn’t remember? It must have been really bad for him to be so beaten up. An EVO getting loose, maybe? Or…

Hm.

He didn’t like this.

Probably not an EVO, unless someone in the room had gone EVO. All the EVOs in that area had been fairly well restrained, and the collar machine was good at its job, from what Rex had seen. EVOs also tended not to go after people who were already down when there were people moving around and shooting at them. That was true to the point where civilians were sometimes advised to play dead during EVO attacks.

Unless he’d still been awake and had just blacked out? His memory of the event was blurry.

What were the other options?

He didn’t really understand why Black Knight had stabbed him in the first place. Logically, she wouldn’t have stabbed him without a reason. What could the reasons be? What were the reasons that he would stab someone he cared about?

That was easy. If they went EVO and he had to stab them in order to cure them, or hurting other people. Was that what he was forgetting? Had he gone on a crazy rampage and… and…

Freak out about that later. What was he doing now? Looking for Caesar’s room. He should do that.

Oh. They were pretty close to Caesar’s room already.

He hurried to catch up.

“... being said…” He overheard Black Knight say right before he stumbled into the room.

And Caesar was there! Caesar was great. He loved Caesar.

“Caesar!”

Caesar didn’t look nearly as happy to see him as he was to see Caesar. Oh no, he really had gone on a rampage. And the injuries… He must have gotten them while they were trying to contain him. That was probably also why Black Knight had been so insistent on the collar.

That… that made sense, right? There was something about the order of things, but he couldn’t quite–

His leg gave out.

Maybe he should have expected it, but he didn’t have any practice at being injured. Being an amnesiac had given him a unique perspective on learning things, if nothing else. Sometimes people thought there was something everyone just ‘knew,’ but most of the time it was just something they’d learned when they were young, or learned bit by bit over time just by living. Sometimes Rex did know those things, but… Not always.

Caesar caught him.

He did still like him! Thank goodness. He was worried. He was really worried. He was–

“What did you do?” demanded Caesar.

That’s what Rex wanted to know! But, he realized as Caesar helped lift him and got him onto the bed, maybe he wasn’t talking to Rex.

That’s… that’s good. It sort of hurt to breathe right now. When had he gotten so out of breath? Walking? Had he not been paying attention while walking? He hadn’t… This is what he meant by being practiced at being injured.

“When you made the effort to put him to sleep, we thought it would be best to give him a little checkup. It has been six months, after all.”

Oh! That was thoughtful. It hadn’t been six months for him, though. If they’d asked, he could’ve told them that his last checkup was–

“You didn’t.” Rex startled at how angry Caesar sounded. “That command just puts him to sleep. Asleep isn’t the same as anesthetized. Did you have your maniacs operate on him without even painkillers?"

Command. What command? A command for Rex?

He searched through his command history, looking for anything Caesar might have done… There! He’d used the emergency medical commands to tell him to go to sleep. That was clever. That was good. He’d probably stopped him from hurting anyone. But why did Caesar sound so angry about it?

"We'll take your recommendations under advisement in the future, Dr. Salazar. Assuming your work continues to produce results."

Of course Caesar’s work would continue to produce results. It was Caesar. He was, like, the smartest person ever. Except maybe for Holiday, but honestly, they seemed smart in different directions, so maybe that evened things out?

But Caesar was angry. Not at Rex. Maybe? Probably. Angry at Black Knight? Why would anyone be angry at her? Angry at… the doctors? Okay. Okay. That made sense. Sort of. Why was he angry at the doctors?

“I always get results,” Caesar told Black Knight.

He was angry at the doctors… because of Rex’s checkup? Did they not do something right? Anesthetized, he’d said. Rex wasn’t anesthetized.

He’d been avoiding thinking about it, but that dream he’d had… He thought he’d gotten all of this in some kind of fight, but… Wow. There must have really been something wrong with him, for them to do all this as a checkup.

(He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but the thought of it was really starting to scare him.)

Program 36743813837984464 tried to start up again, and he aborted it again. Maybe he should quarantine it or something.

"For security reasons,” said Black Knight, “we've restricted programming access to Rex's collar to a few select terminals. However, we’ve made sure you can still access the data from it. For monitoring purposes."

“That’s generous of you.” Caesar still sounded angry.

“You can catch up with each other while Rex’s room is being prepared.”

“Rex’s room?”

Oh, good. Even though it was silly, Rex had been worried he’d be camping out in the bathroom or something.

“You didn’t think he was going to stay here with you? You only have one bed. Where is he going to sleep? The floor? The pawns will come get him. In the meantime, you’ll be monitored. In case there are any health complications.”

“Thank you, Ms. Knight,” said Rex. He let his head fall to Caesar’s shoulder.

{detected: user-CAESARSALAZAR (priloc: b2237-ALPHA, locus: hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR). alert: locus-hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR is experiencing performance errors due to nanOS version discrepancies. query: action.}

“You’re welcome, Rex. I look forward to our new working relationship.” She turned away and went out the door, but Rex was already focused on this new problem.

What was wrong with Caesar? He sometimes got messages like this, mostly in incurables, but… He adjusted his position for better contact with Caesar’s nanites and sent off a series of pings and data requests. He didn’t want this to be a sign Caesar was going to go EVO.

{locus-hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR b2237-ALPHA pop: ping returned. processing data…}

{locus-hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR b7252-DELTA pop: ping returned. processing data…}

{locus-hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR b4999-OMICRON pop: ping returned. processing data…}

{locus-hsapiens2725-CAESARSALAZAR b4739-BETA pop: ping returned. processing data…}

And on, until he got down to a handful of tiny nanite populations that were still registered to other nanite loci. Mostly lsativa98601245001. Lettuce. He must have had a salad, earlier. Or a sandwich. Cooking and baking - not to mention microwaving - killed off a lot of nanites. Far from all of them, but…

… Actually, didn’t that mean that sooner or later, there wouldn’t be anymore nanites? Between Rex extracting nanites when he cured people, Providence taking nanites from him, people cooking things… Just from attrition, the number should be going down…

No, came the answer, as if he’d thought just this thing before. Some nanites have self-replication abilities. And, of course, some of nanites might evolves those abilities through recursive programing and self-modification, which was something the scientists involved in the nanite project were trying to keep from happening…

“Caesar?”

Caesar could feel Rex’s lips moving against his neck. “Yes, mijo?”

“Your nanites are weird.”

“Weird how?” asked Caesar.

“Needs update,” mumbled Rex, shifting to lean more heavily on Caesar. “Old. They’re not– They’re not– {locus-hsapiens2725CAESARSALAZAR primary composition b2237-ALPHA, b7252-DELTA, b4999-OMICRON, b4739-BETA. present nanOS iterations of b2237-ALPHA and b7252-DELTA not compatible with present nanOS iterations of b4999-OMICRON. query: permission to update.}”

Caesar looked at him like he’d said something weird. Rex tried to communicate that this was important and that Rex was worried about him, but it didn’t look like it got across. Or maybe Caesar didn’t trust Rex? Because of… the thing. The thing that had happened. The one that Rex didn’t know about.

Should Rex… ask about it? He was hesitant. He didn’t understand what had set everything off in the first place.

“Let’s let them sort themselves out for now,” Caesar said. He didn’t sound mad, now. More… resigned? Surprised? Afraid? “I think it’s more important that we get you some clothes, yes?”

“Oh,” said Rex. He blindly grabbed at Caesar’s blanket and wrapped himself up. “Oh, no.” He couldn’t believe that Caesar was seeing him mostly naked. Although, maybe Caesar had already…? He’d been a teenager at least when Rex was a baby… But– “Oh, no,” he repeated. He didn’t remember that and didn’t need to remember that.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got plenty of extra clothes.”

Through the security camera, Rex watched Caesar go to the closet and start picking through his clothing. Caesar really was… Rex just didn’t deserve Caesar.

He used the security camera to start picking through the security feeds of the whole complex. Maybe he could get video of the… of everything. If he just traced back where he–

Oh.

He watched the video that had been logged just a few hours ago, in the lab. The one where Dr. Donevsky cut–

He didn’t want to watch this.

How would– Why would– Did Black Knight– Caesar? No, Caesar had been in here, pacing. Caesar had been mad about the lack of anesthetic, hadn’t he? Black Knight wasn’t, but there had to be a reason, there had to be. That was the only way this would make sense.

He could keep going through the security footage but–

“Caesar.” It was better to ask his brother instead.

“Yes?”

“What happened?”

There was a long pause, and Rex once again worried that he’d said something wrong, something bad, and he hadn’t even realized it. There had to be some kind of- of processing problem. Something wrong with his programming or his brain, for him not to be able to just tell.

Maybe that was the real reason Providence wanted to keep him locked up, all these years. The one time he’d tried to leave them for real, he’d almost helped ZAGRS cause the apocalypse, after all. There basically had to be something he was missing.

“Can you give me some more context?” Caesar asked, and he didn’t sound mad. He didn’t sound mad, that was good. He just sounded cautious. Rex could deal with cautious. “There have been a lot of things that… happened.”

“I was…” How did he even begin to put his thoughts into words? Maybe he could just start from the beginning, from where it seemed like things had started. “The incurable EVO… The worm from the other day…” Had it had a name? Nickname? He couldn’t remember if it had been human or not. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to think, I’m just–!”

“It’s okay,” said Caesar, “take your time, get your thoughts in order.” Rex heard him get closer to the bed. “I’ve got PJs!”

Get his thoughts in order. Yes. He would do that. He’d try to remember, from the beginning. He could do that. Please. What happened next?

“After I caught the worm EVO, I followed it back, under the truck, and I– I saw where you were putting collars on. And I was upset? I think? I was angry? But I don’t know why I was angry, I mean. The collars are the right thing to do, aren’t they? If you and Black Knight both think so. I don’t know why I was angry. I don’t know why I– I tried to destroy the– the machines? I don’t know. And then Black Knight, she– I don’t understand what happened. I feel like I’m– I have to be missing something, right? I don’t know why she– I mean, I tried to break the machine, but I must have done something else, because she stabbed me, and– and then you– and then–”

Oh, jeez, he was crying. He didn’t like that. He tried to take deep, even breaths. He pulled the blanket away from his head to get more airflow.

“I’m thinking about it,” he said, after he got himself more or less under control. “I’m trying to narrow down what it was, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

“What are your options so far?” asked Caesar.

What were his options? He’d been doing nothing but think about this the whole time he was up, and yet he hadn’t come up with very many options, had he?

“One is that, um, what I did was really, really bad. Worse than I think it is. Thought it was. You know what I mean.”

Caesar hummed, encouragingly.

“Because I thought I didn’t need the- the, um–” Rex raised his hands to brush fingers against the surface of the collar for the first time. It really was there. “And it sounded like she didn’t think so, either, before, but I did get angry like that, for no reason, so… Maybe I did need it, and you needed to do that, to keep me from going on a rampage. But… After? Caesar, after–” He couldn’t put what he’d seen in the lab security footage into words. “It really hurt. It still hurts. And you don’t– You don’t do things like that without a reason. You don’t hurt people like that without a reason. So there’s got to be something I don’t remember. So– So I need to know. Caesar, did I– Caesar, did I hurt someone? Did I hurt people?”

“What? No, no. Mijo, you didn’t hurt anyone.”

No, no. That didn’t make sense. He ran his hands up and down the edge of the blanket, trying to ground himself. He didn’t hurt anyone– That didn’t mean he hadn’t tried to hurt someone.

“She stopped me?”

“No,” said Caesar, firmly. “Rex, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But I must have. You and Black Knight are good people. You’re not like White Knight, or, uhm, Dr. Fell, or Van Kleiss. You don’t hurt people for no reason!”

Caesar blinked. “Who’s ‘Dr. Fell?’”

“Oh! He was the guy before Dr. Holiday. He and White Knight tried to kill me when I first came here.” Did… Caesar not know this?

“He and White Knight?”

“Uh huh. Kind of messed up that he was my boss, huh?” Unless the reason for that was the same as the reason for this, and no one had told him. But, then, White Knight was terrible, and if it was something Black Knight would do something like this over… White Knight would probably have just killed him outright, yeah. “But Black Knight is definitely an improvement, because she wouldn’t hurt me for no reason. So, there has to be a reason, but I don’t know what the reason is and… it’s kinda freaking me out. Just a little.”

Caesar didn’t respond, and Rex continued, hopefully. “Like, I know I’m kind of dumb about things, but you’re not, so, you know what I did, right?”

Caesar still didn’t answer. He wasn’t looking at Rex anymore, either. Rex followed his gaze to the room’s camera. Rex had… Well, the constant state of surveillance had worn on him, now and then, but he’d had ways around it. Ways that Caesar didn’t.

“Do you want me to take care of it?” he asked. “I could. You’d think Providence would have better security on their cameras, but nope.” Compared to usual, the joke felt hollow.

“No, that’s okay,” said Caesar. “What happened today was… Black Knight is very… It’s important to her that her orders are followed.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” said Rex, because it must. Both Caesar and Black Knight had said it, so… following the orders of… Hm. Maybe it was just because Black Knight was so good at what she did that it was so important? Six, after all, had never done anything like this. White had, though. Did that mean White was actually a good leader? Gross. “So, it’s because I didn’t follow orders?” Even as he said it, it didn’t quite sound true. He was missing something. He knew it. But he had no idea what.

“Yes,” said Caesar. “The collar just… makes sure you do.”

“Oh,” said Rex. It was a safeguard. To make sure he didn’t… disobey orders and hurt people? Probably. “That… makes sense?”

“Yeah,” said Caesar, “yeah, that makes sense. Now will you put on some clothes? You’re in my bed.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess so. I guess– I guess so. I want to–” He started to take off the blanket, then thought better of it when a bit of outside air snuck into his warm blanket bubble. “It’s cold.” And the new scars ached. His bones ached. And also his head. And his everything.

“That’s why you need to put on clothes, mijo.” Caesar pushed the stack of PJs at Rex.

Rex started to pull the PJs under, and then that stupid alert came back.

{alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin.}

“What’s that?”

{processing… processing… topadmin unavailable. processing… initializing program 36743813837984464…}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{confirm instruction: abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{initialization of program 36743813837984464 aborted. healthstat abnormal. query: file healthstat report for later delivery to topadmin.}

{file healthstat report.} He might as well try again, after all.

{error: healthstat report data storage full. recommend running program 36743813837984464. query: action.}

{standby.}

“What do you mean your report storage is full?” asked Caesar, pulling a small fraction of Rex’s attention away from the twin tasks of getting dressed and figuring out what was wrong with his code that it kept doing this.

“It’s full, it’s full, it’s full. I don’t know. Keeps trying–”

{alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin. processing… processing… topadmin unavailable. processing… initializing program 36743813837984464…}

No, no. He didn’t want that.

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{confirm instruction: abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{abort initialization of program 36743813837984464.}

{initialization of program 36743813837984464 aborted. healthstat abnormal. query: file healthstat report for later delivery to topadmin.}

{no. quarantine program 36743813837984464.}

{confirm instruction: quarantine of program 36743813837984464.}

{quarantine program 36743813837984464.}

{program 36743813837984464 quarantined. query: set timeout for quarantine of program 36743813837984464.}

{set timer of quarantine of program 36743813837984464 to indefinite. add review of program 36743813837984464 to pending admin tasks.}

{timer set. admin task added.}

Great, which let him… um…

“What were we talking about, bro?”

“Just getting you dressed,” said Caesar.

“I’m dressed. I am dressed.” He swung the blanket back to show Caesar. Oh, wow, that was cold. “Caesar, I think something’s wrong with me. I’m thinking… wrong. It’s wrong.” Adjusting those programs should not have taken so much of his attention, and he still didn’t understand the reasoning behind– behind what happened in the lab, and that should have been easy.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay." Caesar sat down on the edge of the bed, but he seemed tense, not giving it his full weight. Was he worried Rex would attack him? "You’re just adjusting. You’ll figure it out in no time.”

But even if Caesar was cautious… Rex must be a terrible person, because he leaned up against Caesar, taking all the comfort he could get. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Rex nodded. He hoped Caesar was right.

#generator rex #checkerboard fic #fic #my fic

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