Hi! I want to thank and GreenFantasy64 for following this story so far. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to review and follow me.

So, please bear with me and I will update as often as I can and I'll do it for you guys :)

-Dolly.

Albert usually slept quite well.

Over his many years, the debilitating feeling of grief and guilt was overcome with steely will and determination, and sometimes good old escapism.

Since his escape with the zero-zero team, he found after a long day of helping people, he could sleep dreamlessly.

Albert liked to think it was because his guilt was relieved some by doing the right thing, but it also could have just been the exhaustion.

Despite all the electronic 'enhancements' they received, Albert still felt tired.

Not physically, but mentally.

Emotionally.

He was so disconnected from his body now. He felt it move, and knew pain but the strength in his limbs was alien like the power was not really his.

His thoughts were definitely his though.

No matter how they changed him physically, the human mind was still a mystery and what went on in his head was his alone… not that that was always necessarily a good thing.

He was the unstable cyborg.

The reason for the gap time gap between himself and 005, but they still hadn't figured out how to control them.

In a way it felt like a victory, setting back their pet project with ultimately no solution.

A petty and small victory is was, yes, But, anything that inconvenienced Black Ghost was fine in Albert's estimate.

Tonight was going to be a bad night though.

Albert's limbs would not respond to his commands properly.

For days he had hobbled around Dr Kazumi's home like an invalid.

It was a horrid term but it accurately summed up his feelings about the situation.

Albert managed to turn on to his back and tried to relax.

He could hear the waves as they slapped against the shoreline and his mind's eye he could picture that afternoon spent on the beach watching the others in the surf.

With a long sigh Albert wondered if this was what getting old felt like before drifting off finally.

It was pitch black when Albert's eyes snapped open and he knew something was wrong.

Lying prone for a moment he attempted to get up.

A thrill of panic washed down his spine and into his stomach.

He couldn't move.

Albert began to strain against his heavy limbs.

Attempting to thrash, like a patient restrained, his arms and shoulders moved, but nothing else.

Albert lay back and attempted to relax.

Movement in his arms was a good thing, maybe with a measure of calm and control he would find he could move normally.

He took deep breaths to calm himself then concentrated on moving his fingers.

Nothing happened.

He jerked his head up to see his hands and wiggled his fingers again.

They didn't move.

A thrill of panic rushed through him hot and livid.

"Ivan! Dr Gilmore!" He yelled.

"Dr Gilmore!" He roared. "Help me!"

Doctor Gilmore sat in his lab. The starkness of the colour and the light hurt his eyes and abided the headache forming in his temples.

Having so many years behind him he liked to think he had built up an immunity to difficult situations; a professional detachment, if you would. This then allowed him to function without panic or emotion and focus with logic and handle a problem with efficiency and practicality.

God knows it was true when working with the subjects of the zero-zero project.

But hearing 004's terror disturbed the doctor. He felt it in his bones.

004's body was rebelling. It no longer responded to commands from the brain and this little technical glitch that had merely been an inconvenience for a short time now was a major issue.

With no answers the doctor sat back and pinched the bridge of his ample nose.

Unbidden images of 001 and 003 rose from somewhere dark in his mind.

Forcibly held and experimented on, the doctor actually felt he had gotten used to it when it came to Ivan. He could forget Ivan was a child when dealing with such intellect and ability.

Fooling himself into thinking of Ivan of someone a kind to an equal, like someone in a wheelchair. Yes, he was different but it was in a way that was not his fault and irrelevant when it came to the person themselves; the personality, the intelligence, the talent.

However, later when Francoise arrived, her fragility stung him. It was hard to ignore and it was hard to ignore Ivan for the same reason.

With the rose-tint vanquished, he saw a child, and a woman, and an evil organisation defiling human rights and doctor who violated people and stole their humanity.

Doctor Gilmore, lurched forward, his head in his hands.

The point, he thought, of the cyborgs was their invulnerability. They were not supposed to get old, to hurt, to age and fail and despite the emotional vulnerabilities they displayed, these ultimately made them strong.

Enduring.

But this? This rankled.

Losing control of one's faculties was supposed to be an impossibility for the cyborgs and yet here it was!

Looming at him. Teasing him.

Screaming from the recesses of his will and past that he had failed! He was arrogant and his brilliance was nothing but a dull gleam.

The one thing that bothered him most, that he had crusaded against in his life and his career was here. And not only in himself but in his masterpiece!

Old age.

In a fit a frustration, Doctor Gilmore swept everything from his desk, where it all fell with such as noise that it only aggravated him further. He stood only to sit again and pull the strands of his hair until he could no longer stand the pain of his protesting roots.

He released his hands and breathed. The mess on the floor glared a reminder of the pointlessness of losing one's temper and he scooped to collect it all. With an organised desk once more the Doctor walked to the window and their through the glass lay 004.

Albert.

The first step is to face the problem with rational analysis, he thought. Like fear, you cannot plan a course of action without knowing what the issue is and then developing a plan to counteract it.

So, what was the base issue here?

"Losing control." He whispered to himself.