{3rd Person POV}
"But sir—"
"I have my orders." Tiger told Monkey calmly.
"What about—"
"She was proving the wrong choice for overseer of this project. Project Superboy has been put into my hands by the company-head. I don't need to remind you that I am the director's assistant, do I?"
Monkey gulped, shaking his head.
"Good. Then do as I said. The parent specimens are to begin returning to the group practices beginning next week." Tiger said. "Now, shoo."
Monkey fled the office. As he did, a familiar black-masked person emerged from the shadows.
"I hope I was not too bold."
"No." the golden-eyed person replied. "Just make sure you don't disappoint me too."
OOOOooooOOOOooooOOOO
{Eidolon's POV}
It should be any minute now... If I was right, we woke up, ate, had time to ourselves, ate lunch, went to group in the afternoon, then came back around evening. Rabbit had said that they'd come back in the evening...
I paced nervously back and forth, wondering what I was supposed to say... It was me they were fighting over when they were sentenced to solitary... It was my fault... I'd been too harsh on them...
I stopped, grinding the heels of my palms into my eyes.
This was driving me nuts!
The door began to open, and I froze like a frightened rabbit, staring at it as it scrolled up...
"Izaya! Shizuo!" I yelled as I pitched myself onto my parents, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault...!"
"Your fault?" "Are we missing something here?"
"I blamed you guys for me being the smallest of the lot, when you probably had a really good reason for picking me... I was too harsh, I'm sorry...!" I whispered into... Whose chest was this?
"... That's not why we fought...?" Izaya said.
"Huh? No?"
Shizuo pried me off of them, giving me a quick hug. Sighing, he explained, "We were fighting because I was hiding things from you two and Izaya wanted to know what. He said he didn't want my secretiveness to wind up hurting you, when I wasn't telling him because I thought it would keep you safe. I already have a tough time keeping my anger under control, so his accusations set me off pretty quickly and I tried to strangle him."
"My neck still hurts, by the way." Izaya commented. His neck was a lovely combination of purple, yellow and bluish-green...
I stood between them, looking back and forth between the two.
We were quiet for a long time.
"So... what were you hiding...?" I asked at last, voice soft.
Izaya made a noise of agreement, crossing his arms. We both looked at Shizuo, who sighed, running a hand through his hair. Sitting down, he gestured for us to do the same.
Once we were all seated, he swallowed, not really looking at us.
"Shizuo." Izaya said firmly.
My blonde parent nodded dejectedly. "Well... One of the things was... Eidolon, you had been blaming us for making you small and weak, like you said."
"Yeah..." I said nervously.
"Izaya didn't exactly pick you out. I did. I picked the age-range and you specifically. I didn't tell you... because I was worried you would then favor Izaya over me... I didn't want that."
Izaya blinked once or twice. I didn't know how to respond...
"I'm sorry." Shizuo mumbled, hanging his head.
I crawled over to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. "Thanks for telling me. I don't blame you." I whispered. He gave me a quick hug back, and I crawled back to my seat. As Izaya stuck his tongue out at Shizuo, I gave him a hug too.
Everyone back in their seats, Shizuo seemed to have cheered up a bit. "So... You said that was one of the things...?" I prompted.
"Yeah... I said Paris was gone."
"You said they were shot." Izaya nodded.
"Rabbit did tell us what they did with the... 'child' specimen." Shizuo put his face in his hands for a moment. Lifting it back up, he said, "If we fail, or if we try to escape, there's a lab in Africa that they need human lab-rats in. They sent the Paris-subject there. He's going to be experimented on for the rest of his life, which, according to Rabbit, may not be that long."
"WHAT?!" Izaya and I demanded. I began to tremble.
Shizuo closed his eyes, nodding. Whimpering a tiny bit, I hugged myself. Both Shizuo and Izaya moved closer to me, comforting me. But after a minute, Shizuo jerked away, looking guilty as he scooted away from us.
"Shizuo, what's wrong?" Izaya asked.
"... There's... one other thing..."
"What?" I asked.
"The same day Rabbit told us that, we went down to floor forty-three—"
"Forty-three?! What floor are we on?!" Izaya half-yelled.
"One. Now shut up."
Floor one? Down to forty-three? Was this place made in reverse?
"... Dammit... Well, we were going to do some tests, but on our way there, one of the labs exploded... A lab concerning level-four type diseases. They had been looking into a virus that ate away at stomach-tissue, then progressed to the lungs and heart." Shizuo paused, as if waiting for us to finish it up.
"But... you're okay, right?!" Izaya asked.
"The doctors said I checked out." he nodded.
"Then don't move away!" I cried, throwing myself on him. I heard Izaya move over to him as well. "If you were sick, they'd take care of you! They need you, they wouldn't just let you get sick!"
"Yeah... sure..."
"Shut up, protozoan." Izaya ordered, pulling Shizuo onto the floor.
I let out a shaky sigh.
This was much better, lying together as a family... Why hadn't we done it before?
OOOOooooOOOOooooOOOO
{Shizuo's POV}
I swam slowly to consciousness.
It was pleasantly warm...
"Mmm..."
I shifted a little, turning onto my side—
"Aah!" "What?!" "Fuah!"
"Ow... Shizuo..." Eidolon groaned, rolling the rest of the way off of me.
"What'd you do...?" Izaya yawned, his voice sounding a little hoarse.
"How'd I know...? I was 'sleep..." I muttered, rolling onto my stomach and burying my head in my arms.
"So was I, till ya rolled on me..." Eidolon muttered as Izaya lay back down. I grunted as Eidolon lay himself across me, and Izaya made a muffled 'ouch,' but then we were all settled down.
I'm pretty sure all of us were in the brink of sleep when the noise of the door made us growl irritably.
"Sorry to disturb you, boys."
"... Tiger...?" I muttered.
"Tiger? Is that my name now?" the doctor laughed, crouching before us.
"Go 'way." I growled. Izaya and Eidolon grumbled in agreement.
"Actually, the head of the company thought that it'd be a good idea for the lot of you to have a little counseling. I know, what good does that do you locked in this jail-cell? I just follow my orders. Besides, the stress-levels of this group especially are painfully high." Tiger said. Even with his mask, I could tell that he was smiling.
"Gee... I wonder why..." Eidolon muttered.
"Because you regular was Doctor Elizabeth Jones, who was also the overseer of Project Superboy. The head realized what a mistake that decision was and assigned me to replace her."
"... Rabbit?" we all asked in confusion.
"Aah, I see! Rabbit, Tiger... Naming us for our masks! How clever!" Tiger chuckled.
"Don't patronize us." Izaya growled.
"Sitting up..." I warned.
"Ack!" Eidolon objected as he fell from my back.
"So... You're here... to counsel us?" I growled, ready to pounce on him.
"Yes. And I got special permission to do this."
Reaching up, he pushed his mask up, over his head, letting it fall to the floor with a soft clunk. He was a fair-skinned young man with freckles, orange bangs falling into bright green eyes that one could almost describe as flaming. Smiling, he revealed sharp yet perfect white teeth.
"If you want to keep calling me Tiger, feel free. However, my name is Tyrone Elsworth," he introduced, "And I am the codirector of Omega Science Incorporated."
Eidolon, Izaya and I exchanged looks.
This... was a big change from Rabbit... Elizabeth, whatever her name was.
"Okaaaay..." I murmured, crossing my legs.
"I understand that you three have been plagued by nightmares recently. I can already guess what you'd say the cause is, but would you mind telling me what they're about?" Tyrone asked, his smile gone.
"What're those folders for?" Izaya asked, still lying on his stomach.
Tyrone pulled three manila folders out from under his lab-coat. "Your files." he said simply, laying the folders out. Our names were written on the yellow paper with thick black marker, pictures of us paperclipped to the corners. Flipping the files open, Tyrone tapped a set of graphs. "These are your stress-levels. They become higher whenever Doctor Jones appeared, or when you were introduced into the presence of others without each other."
... I couldn't make heads or tails out of these, but whatever.
"They also seem to become higher at night, when you sleep. Your dreams must be very disturbing to upset you this much. My superior became concerned for your mental health, and asked me to fix this problem." Tyrone murmured, closing the files and reclaiming them. "So, what are these nightmares like, might I ask?"
Izaya and I shuddered, and Eidolon shifted uncomfortably.
"Horrendous." Izaya said at length.
"Worse." I added.
"What're they about?" Tyrone prompted.
"... Monsters."
Tyrone was quiet, not saying anything in response to my answer.
I continued, "Not the typical monsters that little kids dream of... Monsters made out of people."
"Like lawyers, businessmen, the media, corporate clones...?"
We actually laughed a little at his joke, shaking our heads. Izaya answered this time.
"Not quite. Shizuo's brother and Eidolon sewn together into one, my sisters given the same treatment... They're covered in stitches, dirt, and blood. Their hair is matted and sticky, and their eyes are dead. And... their voices are awful, layered over each other and garbled almost beyond recognition."
"Yikes." Tyrone said simply, voice soft.
"It's always in Ikebukuro. The city's been torn apart, and I'm running from something inhuman that has a gun. As I'm running, I find a few of my friends. All of them are dead, their bodies mutilated and covered in blood. And it always ends with Izaya. He's been crucified, and the Kasuka-Eidolon monster puts a wreath of thorns on his head, telling me that it's okay because I hated him anyway." I shuddered.
"In mine, the city looked like Hiroshima after the atom-bomb. Nothing moved except for me, scorpions, rats and cockroaches. I began walking, because I heard someone singing, but then I came to a mountain of corpses. Everyone in the city had been mutilated in some way and thrown in a heap to rot. As I turned away, I saw the singer skipping around the corner. I chased after them, and they led me to the park. There I found out it was my sisters, and they chased me into Shizuo's monster. After that, the park sorta turned into a dark room... Shizuo was there, only he was unconscious. The monsters tied me down and... they were gonna cut us up and sew us together like them..."
I put an arm around Izaya's shoulder, giving him a comforting squeeze.
Tyrone wasn't looking at us, drawing his fingers around in circles on the carpet. "... The perfect world...?" he murmured.
"What?" Eidolon asked.
Before the scientist could respond, Izaya turned away and coughed, ragged and wet. I touched his arm uncertainly, and he waved me off. Tyrone tilted his head to the side, a look of dark worry crossing his face.
"S-sorry..." Izaya rasped, recovered from his coughing-fit.
Tyrone studied him a moment longer before returning to the subject of our nightmares. "You were told the Omega Science Incorporated slogan, 'We Seek The Perfect World.' This has preyed upon your minds, and our methods only add to the tension. You fear what this perfect world will bring upon your friends and home. Combined with the recent removal of the Paris group, your minds are exaggerating everything, picturing it to the worst. It probably doesn't help that we wear these all the time, making it more nightmarish even when you're awake." he explained, reaching back to tap his discarded mask.
That seemed reasonable...
"What about Izaya's shadow?" Eidolon asked.
"Hm?"
"He saw someone the first day of the group-thing, while we were in the halls. When he asked, it made Rabbit and the guards nervous." I explained.
That was about nine days ago, wasn't it? Nine, maybe ten?
"Aah! A youth clad in black, with a rabbit-like mask decorated with gold?"
"Exactly." Izaya croaked, nodding.
"Are you alright?" Tyrone frowned. Izaya nodded, waving him off. I frowned as well, and Eidolon gave him a worried look. "Hm... Well, she, my friends, is the president of the company. She often ghosts around, being a rather restless soul. Amazing that she's here in Lab Three instead of Lab Twelve in Africa; That one's her favorite."
My blood ran cold, and I think Izaya and Eidolon's did too.
This ruthless head... was here... and seemed to favor us.