Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Background: See Chapter 1.
A/N: See Chapter 1. Thanks for the review, favorites and follows! They mean a lot as always! :-)
Beta: Lady of the Shards
Chapter 2 – The Second Time
After X5-494 spent a total of six months in Psy-Ops and had undergone extreme re-indoctrination, he was sent to a new unit, all units had been reorganized in the months after the escape, and life continued on at Manticore as if none of the X-series had escaped, except for the fact that they were now in a new facility and Colonel Lydecker was searching for the twelve escapees.
For his part, 494 tried to forget everything that happened except for his training, which included the man in the trench coat. He was sure he was a hallucination anyway.
Years passed with hours upon hours of training and 494 was now being sent on his first away mission, which he was sure was going to be a success.
It was this mission which happened to be the second time 494, who was roughly fourteen years old, met the man in a trench coat.
He had just completed the mission – gathering intel for Manticore from a South African political power about something known as Project Red – when from behind him, he heard the door open to the house. He fought to sigh. Screw (and can 494 say how much he enjoyed the course Common Verbal Usage) those health nuts out there who like to walk everywhere.
He secured the intel he had just gathered and hid himself just as the door to the office he was in opened.
A man walked into the room and went to the desk. 494 carefully slipped out of the room when the man's back was turned towards him and the door. What 494 failed to realize was that there was more than just one set of footsteps in the house.
He realized there was another person, a bodyguard, who was armed just as he was shot in the leg causing him to drop to the ground.
If he survived this, 494 vowed to pay better attention in the class that taught you how to compensate, like if your enhanced hearing was compromised, so the next time he wouldn't make such an X6 mistake. That way, if he couldn't hear the separate footsteps at a distance, at least he could focus on the heartbeats or smell them.
He was picked up by the arms by the bodyguard, dragged back into the office, secured to a chair in front of the man at the desk, who was doing paperwork and thus didn't look up as they entered the office, and searched for weapons –494 played docile, his orders were not to make a mess if it could be helped. Luckily, he secured the intel somewhere it wouldn't be found on a weapons search.
The bodyguard then took a step back, pointed his gun at 494 and waited for the man at the desk to finish his paperwork. The man took his time – as if there wasn't a teenager tied to a chair in front of him – before he finally looked up and smiled.
"Good afternoon. Who are you?"
494 said the name of one of his trainers. He didn't have an alias for this mission as he wasn't supposed to run into anyone and Manticore didn't give him a cover. Maybe he should bring it up with someone?
The man smiled wider and said, "Tell the truth, young man. Who are you and why are you here?"
494 said the name again while adding, "I just thought I would steal some paintings. You didn't have any though." He tried to shrug. It was a good thing he got top marks in his class that had the X5s assimilating to new situations as soon as possible.
The man laughed and gestured to his bodyguard who tucked his gun into his pants and punched 494 in the face.
"I said the truth," the man said still smiling as if he didn't just okay the punch and they were just having a conversation over a drink – not that 494 ever had the experience but he now understood the reference he spent hours studying.
Either that top mark was undeserved, Manticore had low standards or the man was a suspicious person. 494 was going to go with the man being a suspicious person – that top mark was well-earned and Manticore would never lower themselves to have low standards.
So 494 repeated himself and got a backhand to the face and punch to the stomach.
"Who do you work for?" asked the man. He was no longer smiling now.
"No one," said 494. He got a hit to the bullet wound for his troubles.
"What are you after?" asked the man.
"Nothing," wheezed 494 through the pain. His trainers weren't kidding about interrogation techniques though this beating was weak compared to what he had been through at the hand of said trainers.
The bodyguard broke a finger for his answer.
It went on for over two hours like this – 494 gaining many more broken bones – before the man, 494 never learned his name, decided that 494 was telling the truth as he laid on the floor still tied to the chair.
"Kill him and get rid of the body," the man told his bodyguard and he left the office.
"With pleasure," grinned the bodyguard at 494.
Maybe 494 shouldn't have called into question the bodyguard's intelligence as he was answering the repetitive questions.
The bodyguard pulled his gun out of his pants and shot 494 twice in the abdomen and walked out of the room telling 494, "I'll be back in an hour after you've bled to death. Shame, we're going to have to burn the carpet."
He did all of that before 494 could think of getting out of his restraints and killing the bodyguard. The bodyguard was faster than he looked.
494 laid his head down on the floor, still tied to the chair, and hoped, rather morbidly, the bodyguard got rid of his body in a really good way. He didn't want Manticore to harvest his body, he had seen it happen once before to an X5, though he would deserve it for dying as he had.
His ears felt fuzzy and like they ringing at the same time. It was new experience to 494, dying like this. This helplessness and hopelessness reminded him of that time in the cell when he hallucinated the man in a trench coat appearing and healing him.
"It was not a hallucination and technically, it's an overcoat," said a deep, grave voice suddenly from above him.
494 did not jump – he didn't have the strength to as he slowly bled to death on this really nice carpet.
Suddenly he was touched on the forehead and –
He felt fine. He felt perfectly fine. All of his bones were healed. His bruises gone. His gunshot wounds healed. It was like the past few hours had never happened. He glanced at his body to make sure. Everything was healed - even his clothes were mended.
He looked up – as he was still tied to the chair on the floor – and the man in the trench coat, overcoat, was above him, looking at him with a serious expression on his face.
The man tilted his head at 494 and said, "You shouldn't still be here when the man comes back."
494 stared and said, "I'm still tied to the chair and I haven't exactly got anything to untie myself."
The man continued to stare at 494 and 494 was impressed at his ability to not blink. The man said suddenly, "I think we both know that's not true, young one."
494 stared for a moment longer before he suddenly grinned and said, "True." He was untied and out of the chair in under a minute – a personal best for 494.
"Time for you to go, young one," said the man in the overcoat.
"Why do you call me that?" asked 494, confused.
The man tilted his head.
"'Young one,'" explained 494.
"That is what you are and you have no name yet," explained the man as he walked over to where 494 was standing.
"My designation is," started 494 as the man touched his shoulder and they left the office only to reappear outside, right next to the spot where 494 was to have his rendezvous with his handler, "494," he finished looking around confused as to how he arrived at his new spot.
The man scowled – 494 felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up at the potential danger but not quite sure where it was coming from – and said, "That is not a name."
"What's your name then?" asked 494.
The man stared at him.
494 quickly backtracked and said, "If I can ask that, I mean, sir."
The man continued to stare for a minute – and 494 was sure he had yet to see him blink – before he said, "There is no need to call me 'sir.' My name is Castiel."
"Castiel? What kind of name is that?" asked 494.
Castiel looked at him as if he were unsure if 494 was joking or not.
"It was the name I was given upon my creation," explained Castiel.
"You mean your birth?" asked 494.
"No," said Castiel simply.
There was the sound of a car driving in the distance that 494 could hear – one of Manticore's cars. Finally something was working out for him and he wasn't late for his rendezvous.
"You should be more careful in the future," said Castiel and then he disappeared, leaving 494 staring at the spot Castiel was at moments before. 494 wondered if Castiel was always going to depart like that. He still had questions.
The sound of a car door opening snapped him out of his thoughts and staring.
"Any problems, X5-494?" asked his handler as he walked over to him.
494 snapped to attention and said, succinctly, "No, sir. Mission was a success."