A/N: The title for this was taken from my favorite movie ever that my possibly batshit crazy mother let me watch when I was like eight or something: The Shining. I loved how murder became red rum. Its like a bloody alcoholic beverage. How cool is THAT? 8D

EDIT: Alright, since this is now officially a chapter story I have added a title to this and removed the ..::Epilogue::.. so that it is just a regular time-skip at the end.


Red Rum

Absolute Anarchy

As soon as Rex opened his eyes he saw blood.

Sticky, crimson blood that was splattered all over everything and everyone. The equipment, the walls, the lifeless Providence agents, everything. It was even oozing down from the cracked ceiling overhead. A few drops landed on Rex's forehead, causing him to quickly roll over onto his left side to avoid more. When he did pain instantly rocketed up his left arm and he rolled again to get his weight off of it. Standing unsteadily from the broken floor, Rex looked down at his throbbing limb and saw a slash running the entire length from his elbow down to his wrist. The skin around it was hanging in strips like it had been shredded and under all the blood Rex could see it was quickly turning purple.

The teen Evo swallowed hard and blinked back the tears that formed in his chocolate colored eyes. Crying wasn't an option, crying was never an option; it never solved anything or helped anyone. As he walked further into the destroyed aerial-base – holding his injured arm close to his chest – the tears returned and threatened to spill over at what he saw. Sparks flew from ruined machines, water sprayed from busted pipes, lights flickered like they were straight out of a bad disaster movie and there was a faint smell of smoke in the rancid air. Still, the worst part was the mangled corpses of the Providence agents that were scattered everywhere and that prompted Rex's gag reflex. As he began to see the full extent of the damage the boy became aware of how fortunate he was to have actually survived the crash and was mortified that nobody else had been that lucky.

'Nobody?'

Rex suddenly felt a wave of sheer terror wash over his body as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks: Six, Holiday and Bobo were on the airship somewhere. The pain in his arm seemed to dissipate at the same time the urge to cry was snuffed out as his mind focused solely on the safety of his friends. A determined look appeared on the teen's face as he took off at full speed through the macabre scene, screaming their names over and over, searching desperately for a sign they were still alive somewhere as he ran through the entire base.

The further he ran the worse the damage seemed to get and the more frequent the dead bodies were. Rex did his best to ignore it all, to stay on task, but it wasn't easy. When he hit the end of an especially wrecked corridor the fifteen-year-old spun around and dashed for the nearest door, quickly unlocking it with his nanites and running through to another hallway. He sprinted for the first door, opened it and launched himself through. Then stopped dead in his tracks at seeing what was in the room. Or rather, who was in room.

Lying completely still in the middle of what looked like a medbay – surrounded by nameless agents' lifeless bodies and partially covered by a large machine of some sort – was Agent Six. He was entirely too pale for comfort and bleeding heavily from a large gash across his forehead. From the looks of it he was unconscious and Rex couldn't see whether or not he was breathing.

"Six!" the teen yelled, darting over and turning his right hand to metal before easily lifting the contraption off his caretaker's lower half and throwing it clear across the room. Switching his hand back to normal, he checked frantically for a pulse, then sighed in relief when his gloved fingers found one. "Hey," Rex took the agent gently by his shoulders, lightly shaking him, "Wake up. C'mon, Six. Snap out of it," he shook him more firmly, "Six. Wake up!" Rex felt the entire base lurch suddenly as something exploded in the distance. There wasn't any time to sit around doing nothing. As unstable as the place was it could come down on them and/or blow up at any second. This realization brought with it a new sense of panic and urgency. "Try not to hate me for this," Rex said to the unresponsive man before backhanding him across the face.

Due to the sunglasses he knew better than to remove, Rex couldn't see when the agent opened his eyes, only being able to tell when he woke up by the low groan that emitted from between his cracked lips. Six propped up on his elbows, groggily cocking a slick eyebrow at Rex. "What was that for?"

"Had to wake you up," Rex shrugged, secretly relieved he wasn't in a coma or something, "Sorry."

Six sat up fully, taking in the mess around them until the blood flowing from his lesion ran down into his eyes. He turned his head away from Rex, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, removed his sunglasses for just an instant, wiped at the blood and then replaced them. Under normal circumstances Rex would have tried to sneak a peak at his caretaker's eyes, but now the thought didn't even cross his mind.

"Who hit us?" the agent asked, as professional as ever, as he held the handkerchief to the large cut to stem the blood flow.

"Not sure," Rex answered, surveying the room quickly. "But whoever it was, they wanted to take us out." A beat. "Bad." They were definitely in a medbay, which was considerably lucky in their current condition. Running over to a steel cabinet that was still halfway standing, the teenager began searching through the medical supplies. Six stood up slowly, watching Rex the whole time, and limped painfully over to a nearby table. His ankle seemed to be sprained but thankfully not broken. Six turned his attention to the gory mess around him. The damage in this one room alone was immense, it was almost completely turned on its head and everyone else in the room but him had been killed. This didn't look like a regular shoot down… Six tried unsuccessfully to shake the thought as Rex came back over carrying some bandages, antiseptic and few strips of cloth. He placed them on the table Six was leaning against and stepped back.

"Head wounds bleed a lot, Rex," the man stated stoically in response to the worried look on his charge's face. He took the antiseptic and poured a little onto one of the cloths before placing it to his forehead, easily suppressing a wince at the burning pain. "You'll need to take care of that arm," he nodded towards the bloodied wound Rex was sporting, "or you'll bleed to death."

Rex looked down at the appendage nervously; he hadn't realized how much blood he was actually loosing. Now that he thought about it he did feel a little lightheaded…great. The teenager forced a tense smile. "Cheerful," he commented, reaching for the bottle of disinfectant and reluctantly pouring it directly onto (into) the slash. His breath hitched when it made contact and he squeezed the bottle until it almost burst. Suddenly it was torn from his hand and laid back on the table.

"Here." Six, who had already finished with his own injury surprisingly quickly, turned his attention to Rex's, bandaging it tightly. "You're going to need stitches, but that will do for now," he informed the adolescent before turning around and striding from the room. His ankle was still hurting badly, but he had enough firsthand battlefield experience to know exactly how to favor it so that it didn't slow him down.

"Where're we going?" Rex asked, following him into the hallway just as the base lurched again and another unseen explosion was triggered.

"We need to find Holiday – and I suppose the monkey – and then get to the main communications room to radio for help."

'Holiday.' The tan teen swallowed down the lump that rose in his throat. "Six?" he said softly. The man paused and looked at the adolescent over his shoulder. "You don't think the doc was, you know…killed, do you?" For a minute, Six thought of the scared little kid Rex had been when he first found him and how vulnerable he had seemed. Then he remembered how not a month later he had saved the agent's life and the look of determination in his eyes as he attacked the Evo that had Six in its giant claws. Rex was still just a terrified little kid on the inside, yes…but he was also still damn good at protecting the people he cared about. Better even.

The stoic man hesitated only a moment before answering, "You're old enough to know the odds," then started walking brusquely down the hall again, leaving Rex standing alone. The young Evo attempted to beat down the rising panic as he thought of Holiday's sweet, smiling face. What if he never saw it again? What if she was lying somewhere in the base right now, alive and in pain, and they didn't get to her in time? What if she was already dead? Rex tried to remember the premise of the last conversation they had had and drew a total blank. What was the last thing he said to her, the last thing she said to him? What was—?

"Rex!" The cross shout brought him back to reality, forcing him to leave his panicked thoughts alone for the time being. Six had backpedaled and was now standing directly in front of Rex with his hands placed on the youth's shoulders. Rex vaguely wondered how long Six had been trying to get his attention.

"I'm…sorry, Six. I was just thinking—" Rex was cut off by a third explosion – this one louder and closer than previous two – as the airship lurched violently and threw them both to the ground. Six landed roughly on top of Rex, propped up on his arms and knees and remained there – acting as a sort of shield – while the ship shook unstably and pieces of the cracked ceiling rained down on them. Rex stared up into his protector's face, which was only inches from his own, and blushed at the close proximity. Luckily for him, Six's eyes – from what he could tell with his shades in the way – were squeezed shut, so he couldn't see the light pink dusting.

A large piece of sheetrock hit Six squarely between his shoulder blades – knocking him down completely, with his head landing on Rex's left shoulder – just before the shaking stopped.

"You…okay?" Rex asked into the strangely loud silence that followed as Six slowly pushed himself off his charge.

"Fine," he grunted, rolling his shoulders. Rex saw his nostrils suddenly flair as he tested the foul air. "We need to move." Six grabbed Rex off the ground by his arm and took off down the hallway. Rex was trying to determine what had happened while they ran when he smelled it. 'Smoke.'The teen had smelled it earlier, but not this strongly. 'Not good…'

Six and Rex ran through corridor after corridor, room after room, doorway after doorway with out pausing for thought or to determine where they were going. Six seemed to know where their friends were and Rex wasn't questioning. Until they reached the main communications room, that is.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rex asked, "We don't haveHoliday or Bobo."

"I know," Six pushed Rex through the door, "Send out a distress call while I go find them."

"Wait!" Rex grabbed Six roughly by his arm before the automatic door had a chance to close. "No way are you going alone!"

Another explosion was heard as the ship pitched again. "Rex, we don't have time for this!" Six jerked away and took off down the debris-ridden hallway, ignoring Rex's shouts that 'he could be killed' and 'he had no idea where Holiday or Bobo even were so he needed help' and 'of the two of them he was the only one who knew how to make a freaking distress call'.

Exasperated, the young Evo boy turned heel and bolted to the miraculously still intact communication system. He was a little hesitant to approach it as bad as it was sparking, though. The absolute last thing he needed right then was to catch on fire. 'Speaking of fire…' Rex thought, smelling the smoke even more strongly than before. With a determined nod of his head, the Evo got to work.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes, Rex finally got the overly complicated machine up and running. He tapped his short fingernails against the desk anxiously as he waited for someone to answer. "Hello?"

'Thank God.'

"I'm on Providence's main aerial-base," Rex said, skipping the pleasantries, "We were on our way back to base when someone shot us down. The ship's on fire, slowly blowing up and there are a lot of dead agents as well as injured ones. We need immediate assistance."

"What is your location?" the voice on the other end crackled.

"Well, uh, I…" Rex made a sound that could only be described as a growl. "Dammit, I don't know! Can't you just lock onto my biometric signature or whatthefuckever?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Rex. You know, as in White Knight's favorite little nonexpendable 'weapon' that he wouldn't be too pleased with loosing?"

The line was silent for a minute. "We've got a lock on your coordinates. Help will be there soon." With that the connection went dead.

Rex turned around and leaned back against the table. 'Come on, Six. Where are you?' He ran a gloved hand through his ebony colored hair, knocking his orange goggles off his head unintentionally. They landed with a quiet thud on the desk behind him, where they continued to lay as Rex simply didn't care enough to pick them up at the moment; they were far from foremost on his mind right then. Another blast rang out, making Rex worry even more than he already was. And that was saying a lot.

The frazzled teen was just about to go out to look for Bobo, Holiday and Six (again) when the door opened and said agent charged in carrying an unconscious Holiday in his arms bridal style with a limping Bobo at his side. "Fuck," Rex swore under his breath when he caught sight of the doctor. He could see blood soaking through her orange top, going through to stain her normally clean pressed, white lab coat a sick crimson color. She had large, dark scorch marks on her face and from what the youth could tell third-degree burns on her hands and wrists. The sleeves of her lab coat where burned – made evident by the ripped material coated in grey-black soot – and both of her knees had gory-looking abrasions on them.

"Tell me a Providence jet is on its way," Six said stiffly as he came to a stop in front of the stunned boy. Anyone who didn't know the agent exceedingly well wouldn't have noticed a change from his normal behavior, but to Rex and even Bobo it was obvious: he was worried out of his mind.

"I…" Rex trailed off, the lump in his throat making it hard to talk. No; he didn't cry before and he wouldn't cry now. Crying still didn't help, still didn't solve their problems. Swallowing hard, the young Evo managed to say somewhat sturdily, "I got through to base and the guy on the communication line said he had locked onto me. He said that– that, uh, help would be here soon…"

Something else exploded and for all he was worth Rex could've sworn it was in the next room over. Suddenly, there was a loud grinding sound followed by violent quaking as the entire base began to slowly tilt. "We need to get out of here," Six stated, heading for the door he only seconds before walked in through.

"Don't hafta tell me twice," Bobo said as he and Rex started after the agent.

"You know where the nearest exit is?" Rex checked as the three of them – four if you counted Holiday – made there way down the rapidly titling corridors.

"More-or-less," Six confirmed.

"I was really hoping you'd be sure…"

"Shit," Six swore suddenly just as the base paused in its leaning.

"Well, I guess we ain't goin' that way no more," Bobo chuckled grimly. In front of the trio (quartet?) was the quickest path to an exit. Regrettably, said path was blocked by the source of the smoke they'd been smelling. About halfway down the hall the ceiling had collapsed and a large machine had fallen through to this floor, catching fire and spreading it to the entire corridor and then farther north.

Holiday unexpectedly groaned and gave a weak cough. "You're awake!" Rex cheered, relief dripping from his words.

"What's going on?" she asked, wincing horribly as she tried to move.

"Hold still," Six chastised gruffly, "You're badly wounded."

Holiday looked up at the agent and, realizing she was in his arms, blushed deeply. The scientist cleared her throat loudly and said, surprisingly strongly in her current condition, "We were shot down and I was knocked unconscious; this is clear. Now, what is our current situation?"

"We were heading for the exit because this whole place is about to blow," Rex informed her.

"But there's kinda a roadblock," Bobo finished, pointing up ahead at the fire.

"Where's the nearest exit?" Six asked, knowing Holiday played a major part in the design of this ship. Rex pulled a Six original and quirked an eyebrow at being disillusioned to the thought that the man already knew where the nearest exit was.

Quickly, the injured woman assessed their surroundings. "There's another one very close. Just go down that hall," she pointed at the left corridor, "and then hook a right. There's an emergency hidden exit built into the floor that'll drop us straight down—"

Holiday was cut off as the airbase tilted violently again and they all had to fight to keep their footing, causing Six to almost drop the pained woman. "Why is the base tilting?" she asked once it had stopped for the moment.

"We're not really sure," Rex answered as they quickly headed down the path the doctor had dictated. Once they reached the hidden exit, however, they were horrified to find it locked.

"I don't understand," Holiday half-yelled worriedly. "That door should never be locked. It is always open."

"Don't worry," Rex reassured her. "I'll take care of it." The teenager pressed his hand to the door, causing glowing blue lines to consume both his arm and the locked exit just before it swung outward. "Uh, guys? I know why the base keeps tilting."

"What'cha mean, chief?" Bobo asked as he walked up behind Rex. "Whoa." The chimp whistled before laughing morosely. "We went down in a swamp."

"Meaning…" Holiday trailed off, thinking. "The base isn't tilting exactly, its sinking."

"And we need to make sure we don't go down with it," Six said determinedly.

"We're up way too high; there's no way can you guys make that jump. Let me go down first and then I'll fly you to the ground." Without waiting for a response from anyone, Rex jumped through the opening, falling halfway to the shallow murk below before producing mechanical wings from his back. "Okay," he called, flying as close as possible to the open hatch. "Toss me Holiday first."

"Toss had better be a figure of speech," the doctor mumbled as Six gently handed her off to Rex. She did her best to hide a grimace at the movement.

"Alright, Six. You need to grab Bobo and jump down onto my Boogie Pack*," Rex ordered.

"That's what you call it?" Six raised an eyebrow at the teen for the second time in thirty minutes.

"Just jump!"

Six complied, grabbing the chimp and hopping down onto one of Rex's wings, then attempting to not fall off as the boy flew unsteadily to the ground a few feet away. Not long after the rough landing, a Providence hover-jet arrived next to them, opening it's doors and releasing agents who ushered the four of them inside. Once they were safely inside, a few medbay workers took Holiday away to be treated and Rex, Bobo and Six – whose injuries were far less pressing and could wait till they were back at base – went to relax in the main passenger area.

Rex let out a sigh of relief as he sank into a metal chair and shut his eyes. "Comfy," he smirked, back to his old sarcastic self, and ran a hand through his hair like he had done after sending out the distress call. Eyes snapping back open with realization, the teenager looked over at Six frantically. "I left my goggles—" Suddenly the hover-jet shook violently at the same time a large explosion was heard. Upon looking out the window, Rex and Agent Six saw the aerial base – half sunken into the murky waters of the bog – explode into a giant mushroom shaped cloud of smoke and flames. "—in the communications room…"

Six reached over and gave Rex a pat on his shoulder. "Better your goggles than you," he mumbled, still staring out the window. Rex raised his head from where it had drooped in depression to look at the agent, a smile slowly spreading across his tanned face. Did Six just sort of admit to caring about him?

"Um, hey, Six?"

The agent looked away from the window at him. "Yes, Rex?" he asked, waiting for something important or at the very least sincere based on the kid's serious expression. In an instant, however, that deep expression was replaced with a sly grin.

"You're getting me new ones." Six sighed. Why had he expected anything different?


"Agent Six?"

The stoic man looked up from the paperwork he was having to file on the airbase being destroyed the day before. Captain Callan was standing at the door to Six's office, looking like he was about to break the news to a four-year-old that her mother had been murdered by her father. "Callan," he acknowledged. "What do you need?"

"I was told to report to you about the airship's destruction. We discovered who attacked it; or rather, what attacked it."

The green clad agent's eyebrow went up, stating for the captain to continue.

"Well, first, it wasn't shot down as was originally thought." Six crumpled one of the pages he had typed up and printed off, almost making Callan smile. "It was massive system failure that brought the base down. This failure was caused by a computer with intelligence to match that of a human: ZAG-RS, as I believe it is called."

Six's eyes widened behind his sunglasses as he recognized that name as the computer that wanted to wipe out all humans. "I thought Rex destroyed it."

"So did we, but when we asked him he said that it managed to escape and download to a new system. Ours as we have just discovered."

Six shook his head, remembering the locked exit door and realizing ZAG-RS must have wanted to make sure they didn't escape. "It hacked into our system."

"Yes, and we can't remove it."

"Great," Six breathed sarcastically. "The thing that wants to wipe out the human race via nanites has complete control of Providence."

"One last thing, by the end of today you and Dr. Holiday are ordered by White to take Rex far from Providence base. There is an underused minor-base in the outskirts of Pennsylvania that doesn't have systems linked to the rest of Providence. That is where you are all to remain until further notice."

"Why?"

"You need to keep Rex far from ZAG-RS.".

"Because?" Six pressed.

Callan sighed. "It has found a way to take complete control of Rex by use of the Providence technical structure. You see, once Rex was finished receiving stitches in the medbay he suddenly went on a crazed rampage. The doctors were able to sedate him and while he was under they determined that ZAG-RS had been in control of his mind and thereby body. It has something to do with his being – in a way – part machine. Luckily, when he woke up ZAG-RS was no longer in control."

Six merely nodded his head, not showing how taken aback he really was.

"That cannot happen again, Six. It is far too dangerous; Rex had absolutely no control whatsoever of actions. And – since I know you'll ask – the scientists are all one hundred percent sure he couldn't break free."

"How?"

Callan blew out a breath of air, knowing what he was about to say made it definite that Rex couldn't take back control. It never would've happened if he could. Just as the captain was about to fill Six in though, Bobo walked into the room and beat him to it. The monkey's words stunned Six more than he ever would've shown.

"Rex almost killed Holiday."


And…SCENE! Dun…dun…dun. :)

I just pulled, like, an R. L. Stein or something. O.o IDK, when I was little I was really into his books and they always ended with some kind of make-you-pull-your-frickin-hair-out-it-drives-you-so-damn-crazy cliffhanger. Which was pretty much what I just did there…

Okay, anyway, the end (not the epilogue) was where this fic really started because I originally had a freaky dream with that ending goggles scene and had to write a fic about it. Then I re-watched some GR episodes and started thinking about how no one was really sure where ZAG-RS re-downloaded to. So, why not make her take control of Providence. Hehe! That was kind of a surprise twist, huh? ^.^

READ ME! YOU MUST READ ME EVEN IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE ENTIRE A/N… Are you reading? Okay, good! ^o^: I'm leaving this open but at the moment this is a one-shot. Who thinks I should make this into a chapter story? Tell me if you review because by, I don't know, next Saturday probably I'm either changing the status to complete or starting work on an update. I kind of have an idea of what to do with the plot, but its not one of those 'mustwrite, mustwrite, mustwrite before I explode' kind of things. (EDIT: IT IS NOW A CHAPTER STORY EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT YET THE DEADLINE. IT WAS KIND OF A UNANIMOUS VOTE TO CONTINUE SO IT IS NOW A 26 CHAPTER FIC)

* Boogie Pack is seriously what that's called. I googled it and everything. O.o