"Are they going to be all right?" Roxanne asked as she stared at the fish that were now taking up the room in the back of the news van. They drifted in the water like any normal fish, blinking now and then and casting her a few warning looks. Did they trust her? Were they bred to trust anyone other than their master, and creator? She doubted it.

"They should be." Six said as he pressed a hand against the glass, green eyes wide as he took in the sight of them again. He still felt horrible that a handful of them had passed away out in the ocean, beyond his reach, but there was nothing he could do about that now. That was all in the past, and this was the present and he had to focus on it. "I'll be back." he said to them, withdrew, and shut the van door on them.

Now Roxanne was worried, more so than before. She had almost forgotten about the library of books and notes that took up the majority of her apartment. Then the second realization that struck her almost had enough strength to knock her off of her feet. The fish in the ball, Minion, was in her apartment. What would Six think of this? How would he react to this realization that she had his dead, somewhat best and only, friend in her possession? This had suddenly become far more dangerous than she had thought before. She chewed at her bottom lip for a moment as Six walked around her, gazing up at the tall apartment block that she called home.

"You live here?" he asked.

"Yes. Yes." Roxanne said as she fumbled for her keys, tugging them out of the back of her jeans pocket. "Have for a long time."

Six just nodded, and she walked him through past the security guard who eyed the skinny pale black clad man who was walking in with her. It was obvious that Carlos wanted to ask questions, who this man was, but one sharp edged look from Roxanne froze any questions on his tongue.

"This way." she guided him to the elevator and pressed the button and waited for it to arrive. The doors made a pleasant little ping noise as they opened and she walked into the elevator, but stopped when she saw Six had remained standing out in the foyer. "Uh... Six?" Roxanne asked.

The alien, man, took a step away from the elevator. "No, no. That won't do." he said quietly.

"What won't do?" she asked.

"I. What floor are you on?" asked Six, lifting his gaze as if he could see just how many floors the apartment complex had from his vantage point in the foyer.

"Eighteen... what is it, what's wrong?" Roxanne asked, stepping out from the doors before they could close. They made an unhappy 'bzzt' noise at her, and remained open.

Six looked at her. "It's not like I'm afraid, because I'm not. I want to make that perfectly clear." he said, opening his hands widely. "I'm not afraid. But I. I can't go in there."

Roxanne looked over her shoulder at the elevator, and felt like she could smack her forehead with the palm of her hand. Of course he wouldn't like elevators. He fell down one, once, and what had happened to him afterwords was well documented. Naturally he would have an adverse reaction to an elevator from then on. "I understand." she said. "Do you want me to... go up the stairs with you?"

"Oh no. No." Six shook his head. "I'll be fine. Eighteen? Eighteen. You, door slave, which way to the stairs?" he asked Carlos, who had been doing his best to not appear to be eavesdropping on the conversation.

"That way." Carlos pointed and Six gave Roxanne a small wave before hurrying off to the stairs and vanished through the door. "Strange boy, Miss. Ritchi." Carlos commented once he was gone.

"I know." Roxanne said as the elevator began to complain again. "All right, all right... I'm coming..." she muttered angrily at the complaining elevator, and the doors finally shut. At least this moment alone gave her a moment to think. Taking in a deep breath she pressed her hands to her forehead, and shut her eyes. "Okay. Okay. You can run ahead, put Minion somewhere... just make sure nothing too obvious... oh god if he reads my mind and finds out he's there what would that do... I can't have him blow up the apartment... can he do that? I don't even know. How'd he keep these abilities hidden all those years in the facility anyway?"

The elevator suddenly opened on the right floor and Roxanne jumped, despite herself. Grasping at her chest she heaved a breath and hurried out into the red carpeted hallway and to her door. She unlocked it and hurried in and saw the small ball with the fish sitting on her coffee table amongst some books. Grabbing the fish she looked around her apartment loft, trying to find a place to put him. She decided on the bathroom, hurried in, opened the pantry that had towels inside and shoved him inside and slammed the doors after.

She'll try to ease Six into the fact that Minion was in her apartment. Coming at him straight off the bat... she suddenly opened the pantry again to pull out some towels since Six was still very much wet, and shut it again. Just as she was walking into the lounge she jumped, since Six was standing in the doorway. "Wow you... you're fast." she said.

"Works when you're as skinny as me. Plus I might have flown most of the way." Six said as he walked in, closing the door behind him and fiddled with the watch. Pale skin gave way to blue, and that huge cranium appeared once more along with that shaggy beard, all of which was still wet. "So..."

"Here, here." Roxanne opened up one towel and placed it over his still soaking wet clothes. "You're no good if you stay wet, you could get sick."

"I don't get sick." he replied quietly but paused a moment, and gave a small tiny smile. "Thank you." Six took another one and actually wrapped it around his head in the same way someone who had hair to dry would. It was almost comical in appearance.

"It's nothing. Anyone would do it." she replied as she moved to turn on the kettle for some tea.

"No. Nobody would do it. Not after what I did." Six said as he began to pat dry his clothes and skin. "After all the horrible..."

"You stopped it happening though, didn't you?" Roxanne pointed out. "You could have unleashed who knows what. But you didn't. You're not evil, Six. You weren't born to be evil. Nobody is."

"So what was my purpose?" Six asked, looking at her with those emotional green eyes. "To be an experiment forever? Is that why my parents sent me into space?"

"No..." Roxanne said soothingly. "That's not why and you know it."

Six stared at her quietly before sighing and began moving down to his chest and sides with the towel before seemingly remembering something and went back to his face and began drying his beard. Roxanne watched him, before moving into the kitchen.

"You've let that grow out a lot, since last I saw you." she commented as she turned the kettle on and retrieved two mugs from her cupboards.

"Huh?" Six asked from the lounge.

"Your beard. Wasn't it a goatee last time I checked?" Roxanne clarified.

The blue alien paused, and moved to a hanging oval mirror that hung on the wall in the lounge and observed himself. His blue skin was taunt and tight, pale in complexion but he had dark rings around his eyes showing his lack of sleep, and possible self control. He looked at his beard, which was wild, unkempt, and still wet. "It was." he mumbled as he reached and ran his fingers through the mass of hair, but found his fingers getting caught on knots.

Catching the reflection of the coffee table behind him he turned and walked to it and crouched in front of the wooden table and picked up the newspaper that had an indent in it, as if it had been sat on by something heavy. The headlines of the newspaper read about another 'problem' with M. Seems not everyone was happy about having a vigilante running around the city, since they had police to do keep the peace and what if everyone took up arms and did what M could do? The problems would be monumental.

"Coffee or tea?" Roxanne called from the kitchen.

"Cocoa." Six replied as he read the article.

"Cocoa. Got ya."

"Coffee's too bitter and tea... I just don't like them." he looked at the photograph used for the article and it made him frown. It was obviously taken from captured footage from three months ago since there was his brain bots biting at the man's cape, legs and arms. He reached out a finger and brushed it against one of the blurred brain bots. "Daddy's sorry." he mumbled quietly before putting the newspaper back down. "Do you still talk to him?"

Roxanne walked into the lounge holding two mugs, looking confused. "Who?"

"M." Six said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Oh. Well, yes. Off the record though, nothing in the newspapers or on the television." she admitted as she knelt besides him and set his cocoa in front of him. "I put in a marshmallow too."

"Marsh. Mallow." Six spoke the word and looked into his mug, and peered with a cautious look at the little white lump.

"Marshmallows. They're soft sweet things that help sweeten up your drink." Roxanne explained, wondering if this was the first time that Six had ever encountered one.

Six picked up a spoon and stirred the drink, watching the white lump spin around with the moving mixture, before blowing on the steam coming off of the mug. Then he took a sip, probably burned his tongue, and set the mug down again. "Nice. I'll have to get more of these marsh-mallows for myself."

"They come highly recommended."

"So what do you talk about?"

"Huh?" the sudden change of subject caught her off guard.

"You and M." Six said as he picked up the newspaper again.

"Well. Any and everything, really. How he's coping. How I'm doing... we wonder where you are, what you're doing because none of us really believed you were dead. Somebody like you... you just don't give into dying that easily." Roxanne said softly as she leaned against her coffee table. "After surviving everything you've survived, bringing a building down on top of yourself is nothing."

He gave her a crooked smile and squeaked a small 'hah' out of the corner of his mouth as if it was a nervous cough. "Well. Thank you for believing in me."

She smiled.

Six suddenly shifted and began removing his boots. Roxanne watched him, before speaking her mind. "What are you doing?"

"I need to drain my legs or they'll get rusty." Six replied as he slipped the calf high boot off of his right leg, revealing the glint of metal. The foot was made from various pieces of metal, all welded together save for some joints that gave it realistic movement. He grabbed the bottom of his pant leg and began to roll it slowly up, revealing the rest of the metal leg all the way up to his knee. Hand crafted, it was like looking at metal muscle structure since everything was there as it would have normally been, if it hadn't been removed the way it had been.

Roxanne could only watch as he did the same with his other leg. "You made those?" she asked quietly.

"My first few sets were made by them." Six replied quietly as he finished rolling up his pant leg. "I was still growing. But after breaking out I had to make my own. So I did. I stopped growing a while back so... I don't have to change them as regularly." he explained as he touched the cold, wet metal. "Where can I drain them?"

"The bathroom." Roxanne replied before realizing that was where she had hidden Minion. She watched, nervously, as he got to his feet and waited for her to show him where it was. He took in the cream and soft pinks of the bathroom before making his way over to the bathtub and sat on the edge of it. While she hated to, Roxanne couldn't help but glancing at the cupboard where the towels, and Minion, were kept before looking back to him.

Six was staring at the bath tub, realizing that he hadn't been within access of one in a long time. Way back when he was only able to wash himself in a white, clean shower stall with large metal knobs that had hurt the palms of his hands when he had to turn them on. And his first real interaction with a bath was to put down that woman from the institute, and for a fleeting moment it felt as though he was back there all over again. The life drained from her eyes, her blood splattered on the floor and walls, the word 'sorry' written out in her own blood by her shaken hand.

He forced the memory away, slamming a door on it and turned his back on it.

Unaware of his short trip down memory lane, Roxanne watched as he was fiddling with something at his knee on his left leg, and she watched with keen interest as he seemed to undo something. With a tug, the whole leg came off entirely, save for the part that was the joint that connected to his real leg, which seemed affixed there and wouldn't be removed without the help of serious surgery. Six grunted, and turned the leg upside down over the tub as dirty black water began to slowly leak from the leg.

"...does it hurt taking them off?" Roxanne asked.

"Hurt? No. Reconnecting them hurt." Six said as he gave the leg a good shake, making sure no water was left inside.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well. I don't think you'd really understand if I used technical speak so I'll use small words." Six almost sounded smug having to dumb things down for her, and she let him have his moment. "The legs move the way in which my brain tells them to so my nerves have to be connected. It's that which hurts most."

Roxanne understood, and gave a nod.

"Oh man looks like I have half the sea in these things!" Six complained as he set his leg down against the bath and soon disconnected his other one, and set it against its twin. "Can I just leave them there for a while?" he asked, and at her nod, he thanked her and floated up off of the bath.

Despite knowing better Roxanne took a breath and stepped back, hand to her mouth. Six looked at her, then down at himself. He was hovering at the right height, he wasn't over doing it was he? Then he realized... "...oh. Y.. yes. I'm sure seeing a... legless alien floating would freak anyone out. I'm-I'm sorry I didn't-"

"No, don't apologize. It just surprised me. I almost forgot how powerful you are. To be honest I was just about to offer if you wanted me to carry you to the lounge!" Roxanne laughed nervously.

Six looked at her, before speaking quietly like a small child daring to ask its parent for a cookie when they knew they shouldn't. "You still could."

Roxanne smiled faintly before walking towards him, showing that she wasn't afraid of him, and held her arms out. "Come on then. Not every day you get to be carried somewhere, huh?"

"No. Not every day." Six said as he moved himself into her arms, unable to work out why she was doing this for him. Both of them knew all too well he could move himself with his powers, that he could even get around without his legs if he truly wanted. But they had become a part of him, of who he was, and he couldn't easily dispose of them. His mind suddenly went blank when she carried him from the bathroom, and he felt her arms around him like that. His hearts beat faster within his chest and he wondered if he was blushing.

"How long does it take them to drain normally?" Roxanne asked as she settled him down onto the couch.

"Depends how wet they are. This time... I'd say an hour or so." Six replied as he got comfortable. "Oh wow this couch is soft."

She laughed, and picked up his mug of cocoa and handed it back to him. "Only the best."

"I guess that makes sense."

And so the two sat on the couch, awaiting Six's legs to drain of the water and for the rest of what he wore to dry too. Obviously he wasn't comfortable enough to take off the clothes, so he only wrapped the towels around his thin frame to keep the cold at bay. Roxanne picked up the television remote and turned on the news, setting the remote between them.

A woman sat behind a grey desk, to her back was a busy office space full of people running back and forth, or sitting in their cubicles working at their computers.

"Oh hey it's Alice." Roxanne mumbled, "I didn't know she was on today..."

"Just to update, for those of you just joining us, the storm warning has risen to level seven, with wind speed estimated to reach well over one hundred and fifty miles per hour." Alice said, as stony faced as she could, though you could see she was somewhat worried in her eyes.

"Over one hundred..." Roxanne echoed, narrowing her eyes. "

"Isn't that enough for a hurricane?" Six asked, glancing at her.

"Close enough." she replied, before getting to her feet and making her way to stare out at the dark sky. It really did look bad, but where had it come from?

"Weather specialists claim the storm will strike Metro City in two days time and are going to issue warnings as to what to do in this time of crisis. Information is available from-" Alice's voice blended with background noise as Roxanne had began to speak again.

"We haven't had a storm like that in a long time." Roxanne murmured.

Six watched her, before glancing at the television that was now showing footage of a regular storm striking Metro City. He watched as the rain poured down on the screen, and felt an odd sensation take hold of him. It seemed as though today was a day for trips down memory lane since the next thing he knew, he was back in his youth, freshly escaped from the underground facility and settling into his new home in the abandoned observatory.

He had jolted awake one night when he heard a strange noise coming from outside. Scared that somehow they had found him, Six had rushed to the nearest window and stared out as the sky seemed to be breaking down above the world. The clouds were thick, black, and rain was being whipped this way and that by strong a mighty wind.

The young alien had never seen rain before. It didn't take long for him to rush out into the down pour and run around, a rare flash of childhood innocence with a boy who had just killed a good number of people in order to escape captivity.

Six stood back, watching his young teenage self take great joy in the simple pleasure of rain, before turning around and found himself watching Roxanne as she stood in the window watching the dark clouds. "Maybe Nature's due for a down pour." he said with a shrug. "It does good to get it all out, doesn't it?" he asked.

"Better out than in?" Roxanne asked, turning to grin at him.

"Better out than in." Six echoed on a faint smile, despite knowing she would never really understand what he had just said, or that it didn't reference the incoming storm at all.

To be continued