These A/N are too long! Aug! so here, lets eat this puppy. ( I need to stop saying that to people I see on the street...)
Noah stared motionlessly at the body on the operating table, it had been three hours since the shuttle had arrived and pick up him and his long-lost friend and now Rex lay asleep (having been fawned over by doctors moments ago) and the Hunter stood watching him, still in disbelief that after 7 years, he was still alive. Everything had been killed in the Paroxysm Event. Everything that didn't live in the underground to date, so how had Rex survived this long above ground?
"How did you do it, Rex?" He muttered to his sleeping friend. it had been a hassle to get the doctors to let him in the room, but now all he wanted to do was shake his E.V.O friend awake and question him. His training was kicking in. He hadn't left for one second, not even to take off his gear, and under the officials suggestion, still breathed through the filter of his mask.
Rex stirred in his sleep, jogging Noah from his thoughts. he stood up straiter (he had been leaning on the tinted glass wall, arms crossed over his chest) and looked at the sleeping E.V.O for answers, he didn't get any, but clues had been reviled. Rex was pale, Noah remembered him with a tan. And what happened to his trademark outfit? It was patch-worked into a different one, he still wore the same pants and boots, but also just a plain black shirt (which had been removed for the doctors to examine him)
Along Rex's torso, overlapped by all the heart monitoring equipment, Noah could see small scars, but they weren't recent, and a few dozen needle marks and bruises to go with them. But the thing that bothered Noah the most was that he himself was a man now, and even though protocol kept srict orders that stated you have to keep it short, he did have a beard, and looked older. But Rex hadn't aged a day since he last saw him.
One of Rex's eyes opened, Noah saw the pupil before it shrunk, it had flooded almost his entire eye.
"...Noah...?" Rex asked, his voice was hoarse and scratchy, like he hadn't used it in years. Or wasn't able to use it...
He jumped to the side of the table, there was nothing in the world that he wanted more to do that to catch up with his buddy, but a nurse with a respirator on who had been in charge of monitoring the heart rate rushed in and swatted him away. She began running standard test on the awaking Rex who was completely out of it.
"Don't you have to go file a report and get detoxed?" The nurse muttered under her breath.
Noah wanted to say the he and Rex (while still knocked out) had gone through detox on the way in, but he simply nodded to the nurse and kept quiet, rule No. 1 of being a hunter was you don't piss off your doctor, many times in the past did Noah wind up on the same table as Rex now, but he had pulled through thanks to him being on good terms with them, O.K, maybe not good terms, but relatively a neutral pact stood between him and the medical examiners.
Noah paced down the hallway, dodging other soldiers as he made his way to his bosses office. He stopped before he reached the white door, placing his head on the cold metal, letting it cool his head, still warm from being topside, and thought about his find. Rex was alive, as much as Noah hated to admit it now, he had given up the E.V.O for dead seven years back when the earth was fried.
The coolness of the metal began to make his head ache, so he stood up, straitened his hunting gear he had yet to take off since he rescued Rex from being eaten, and entered the office.
Well, beyond the door was a small room, not an office, Noah had been through the procedure before. Beyond this small room was about another seven or so just like it, each one detoxed the visitor for different kinds of germs. (or something like that) anyway, his boss was a germaphobe and had been as such as long as time itself, or so the rumors said.
A purple light flashed off the wall, reflecting off of Noah's bullet resistant vest and glinting eyes and weapons (two 0.17 glocks, a battle rifle, and a series of knives, switch, hunting, buck, and butterfly, most of which were concealed cleverly).
The scanner traveled down and around Noah, scanning every inch before declaring him clean.
"I always tell him it doesn't make a difference if everyone who comes in the base is detoxed on entrance anyway..." Noah muttered as he went through the cycle another 7 times.
He impatiently entered his bosses office, the eight steps of detox didn't really make a difference in any sane persons eyes, seeing as that even if you went through them, you were still separated by a thick glass wall with a two-way speaker from the boss. You could call it a face-to-face conversation (if that what you call talking between two feet of solid Plexiglas) but the bossman would not hear of removing any part of the maze to his office.
On the other side of the glass wall he could see an unhappy face that hadn't changed for the 7 1/2 years Noah had known him, except now W.K. had skin and flesh hanging limply on his bones, rotting there because he took drugs and cures the scientists and doctors dreamed up in their lab.
Those drugs kept him from dying.
"I understand you found something interesting on your patrol and decided to break rank, you know thats worth a penalty." White Knight may have gotten excessively paranoid in his golden years, but the fact that he was a cold, heartless bastard by nature didn't.
"Sir, with all due respect, a scout was in trouble and I happened to be paroling near him, it was a life or death situation, sir." Noah hated rolling over for his boss, especially because it never seemed to help, but talking back would probably just make it worse.
"Then where is the scout?"
Damn.
"He's...on patrol." Noah cast his eyes to the sickeningly white floor.
"I assume that means he's gone and bit the dust? You soldiers and your slang, I don't see what sentimental properties it holds, but just tell me hes dead next time." Knight spat out, mercilessly stabbing Noah through the heart with each word.
Every soldier here, whether they be scouts or hunters, field clerics or those smart-ass scope research scientists, or anyone below Knights precious doctor pets that kept him alive with their drugs, anyone who actually went out into the hellhole that was the outland and risked their lives for the civilians in the city was like a brother to Noah.
It was hard to explain, but everyone who had a job to do that took place outside had a bond with each other, because in a world of sames, that was something you had in common. The other person had gone through similar training, similar losses, and similar hardships to do what they had to to protect the remaining people on earth. Even the clones were closer to him than family. They all respected each other because they all had to do the same thing every day-risk their lives for people they don't know-and in some kind of unheard of science, that made them all equals with the same morals. And Knight had just spat on those morals.
"Sir, he's died because of a-"
"I don't care how he died, 2N61, I care about the thing that was so important that you broke rank. I care about the why he died, whats the reason, hunter? You know every human being needs to be counted so the overseers don't complain."
"Sir, the scout was a clone, according to the new laws, clones aren't considered citizens of the city, and Evo's are second...class... therefore, it...didn't matter..." Noah muttered sadly.
"Yes, he was just a clone, a nameless, mindless, worthless little clone. But next time, he could be a human like yourself, and if we loose one human, just one, then the O.V.S.E's are going to be angry with me. We will loose funding, and they will seek out someone with better ability to protect the city, meaning I would have to go live down in the city with all the other germ filled humans. So, let me make myself very clear on this; if you, as a hunter, fail in ability to protect those below you in biological status, whats to keep you from failing to protect something equal or greater than yourself?"
Noah thought long and hard about his answer, he had known for his whole life that you should always chose your words with the utmost care, but only had to start following that policy six years back when he began working for Knight again.
"Nothing will, sir," Noah's voice became steely and emotionless. "Because it won't ever happen again."
"Is that legit hunter?"
"As legit as it gets, sir."
"Good," A thin and eerie smile spread over Knights face, " then let us discus your find, if the rumors are true, we may have a way to save the human race. And...for all its worth, your reputation..."
Rex's P.O.V (finally!)
Rex's awakening was long and broken by bouts of darkness, he never really woke up, but could sometimes see a faint light, or a face with no features before it blurred into blackness again, although once...the first time he had been awake, he could have sworn he saw someone, a man...dressed in mostly grey and black...he had blond hair and a short, sandy beard and was disturbingly familiar...and then it clicked into place.
The man was Noah.
But...Noah's eyes, if it was in fact Noah, were not the lively blue he remembered they were, but a stormy grey laced with hate, fear, and desperation.
They were the eyes of a killer. Rex knew what the eyes of a killer looked like because once, when he was very young, just starting out at providence, (10 or 11 years old), he had stood up on Six's desk and with his little hands still chubby with baby fat, and taken the agents glasses off with no warning. Six simply stared back into Rex's eyes with undying animosity for what seemed like everything in the world before quickly taking his glasses back and put them back on while Holiday distracted him with a cookie and a glass of orange juice. At that age he hadn't realized what the coldness and isolation and spite in those eyes meant. But now he did, and Noah's eyes had looked just like he remembered Six's did on that day.
When he finally did wake up for real he was in a dim, white room that seemed vaguely familiar. Many a time had he woken up in a room like this one. The time it took to wake fully was painstakingly slow. As he approached full consciousness the dimness began to wear off, but the brightness of the well lit room burned into his eyes as if he was staring into the sun.
the nanites began to whisper things to him and he repeated them out loud in a monotone voice.
"30% reloaded. 19% inoperable. Attempting to reline Anterior Humerus, deltoid tuberosity with intertubercular suicus. Stand by for snap reaction."
Rex was awoken from the nanites vocal trance by a sharp pain in his left arm causing him to scream out in agony as his nanites realigned his broken bone and began to mend it.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore..." He muttered looking about his cell. His voice hurt him when he talked, it felt like he had swallowed sandpaper. He was hooked up to a small life support machine with a respirator which he removed from his face
"Detaching foreign intruders." His nanites rang in his head
"Go for it lil' guys." He approved.
'You always need to be capable of controlling them(nanites) in any situation.' Holidays voice rang out. And whatever the situation may be, the people housing him didn't want him dead, seeing as a I.V was in his hand.
"Detachment engaging...detachment complete." A sudden wave of heat ran through Rex's body as multiple wires detached from his chest and limbs, including the I.V vein.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and tried to clear the dazed feeling from his mind. He tried to jump off the table and walk to the door, but epically failed, crumpling to the floor on his legs, it was as if he hadn't used them in years...the door looked locked anyway...
He pulled himself up to a sitting position and leaned against the cool wall, trying desperately to remember something, but only terrifying flashbacks came. Circe's blood, Holidays blood, an explosion, being forced into a cryo pod.
And a feeling of total and utter loneliness...
that was so long (and thats good (?)) I cant wait to get Six in here, hopefully next chap Rex can spill his guts to Noah and vice-versa.
I tried to fix my spelling mistakes, but I pass in stems, not grammar. I don't think this was a good spot to end, but if I didn't do it now, I never would have been able to later. If you don't know what cryo is, google that shit, cuz I can't explain it. Also, if you noticed, Noah was in this chap a lot. Sorry about the whole 'brother' thing, but it says in the summary it's a rant. I have to get Noah's prespective across now cuz once people start to come back from the dead there wont be much time for him. also, I need to rename this fic, the title is to long. suggest something if you like, I never was good at names anyway...R&R? TBC?
