A/N: Um...it's been a while, hasn't it? Heh...uh, heh. Over a year now, I suppose.
My writing style has changed, obviously, so if I sound quite morose with my writing, let me know...I've been told that my style is too poetic for some people now...which for me, sucks.
Chapter 10: Beautiful Tragedy
Transmission Reestablished
There was nothing. Nothing to be had. Nothing alive. The moment seemed forever for him, watching the scene of his Commander...no, the girl who meant a lot to him, ripped from the safety of the KND and sent somewhere nightmarish, a place where the infamous members of Sector Z most likely disappeared to, where the inevitable happened.
Nigel sat in utmost dejection aboard Sector NV's buggy, the amount of individual failure riding his senses, his mind and body. He failed his mission. He failed it badly.
His team tried consoling him, but to no avail. Lizzie would not look at him, for her individual pain for him was more personal than what transpired a few hours ago.
But, he couldn't remain stuck in a rut over his miscalculation in planning. Whatever, whoever they were had both Rachel and Numbuh 777 within their grasps, pretty much handed to them on a pretty silver platter courtesy of Numbuh 1 himself and he couldn't bear it.
Numbuh 5 and 86 were quietly conversing with each other. Fanny was valiantly trying to give Abby the rundown of the case in few short sentences with Abby listening intently, hanging on every word as diligently as Rachel would. She would have made a brilliant leader if she wasn't so adamant against taking such a position.
Kuki began a one-sided conversation with an unresponsive Lizzie, doing as best as she can to instill peppiness back into the gloomy group but to no avail.
To his right, Hoagie busied himself with keeping Wally from speaking from anything irrational; by keeping him busy helping him with the latest 2x4 technologies. It was something handheld and Wally kept having the mousetrap like mechanism smash against his fingers.
His yelping was the only thing consistent throughout the entire ride.
"What do we do now?" Numbuh 60 asked after a rather awkward silence. "Do we know where that copter was heading?"
Nigel's reply brought the team to a standstill. "What's the use?"
"Excuse me?" Abby raised the cap on her head a little higher, her dark brown eyes widening in disbelief. "Did Numbuh 5 just hear what you said correctly?!"
"You heard me," Numbuh 1 took off his sunglasses and stared at the rumbling floor. Dark circles prevalent around his eyes. "We're in over our heads here. We're dealing with something that's beyond a kid's understanding!" He gripped the dark lens tightly and a warning crack of the frames echoed throughout the vehicle.
Fanny's facial features darkened. "So, that's it?! We're just letting Numbuh 777 and Rachel to those...that monster to get Delightfulized or whatever?!"
"Do you have a better idea, Numbuh 86?" Nigel retorted back, looking up for the first time. "Do you know where they're heading? What the next plan of action we should do now?"
"Mate, it's just like every other mission," Numbuh 4 reasoned much to the surprise of the rest. "We go in, kick some adult butt, and save the Commander! Standard stuff, Numbuh 1---"
"No, it's not 'standard stuff'! It's worse!" Nigel grounded out vehemently causing Wally to slightly cringe by his gaze. "You weren't there...hearing 777's story…how a couple of innocent children were robbed of their free will, their lives! And for all we know..." He broke the glasses in half, debris pieces escaping from his palm. "...Rachel…could already be Delightfulized."
He threw what's left of his trademark glasses against the back seat of the driver, earning a yell from Numbuh 521.
"Knock it off back there!"
"Sod off!" Nigel growled back. Fanny glared at him.
"I'm not leaving her there," The red head said darkly. "I'm not going to sit idly by acting like a mopey baby while she's at the hands of a psycho adult! We're coming up with a plan, Numbuh 1, right now!"
Numbuh 1 glared right back. "And what do you suppose a bunch of kids are going to do? Attack them with silly string? Throw gumballs at them?!"
"Then we form a plan like adults!" Abby grabbed Nigel by the shoulders, gave him a good slap on the face and shook him vigorously. "What's wrong with you, Nigel Uno?! The real Numbuh 1 would never ever act like this! Numbuh 1 doesn't fail, he doesn't give up! Get a move on! Form a plan! Scramble the team! Finish the mission, no matter how impossible it is!"
For a second there, Nigel could've sworn Abby's face was replaced with Rachel's at the last second, her soft, melodic voice at the height of urgency and order as she slipped into Commander mode. Something strong was surfacing inside him as he memorized every strand of golden, blonde hair that was shortly framed around her face. Eyes as brown as rich chocolate that darkened when angered and bright when amused.
He shook his head. He never memorized anyone's profile like that, especially over a girl. Never had he reminisced about Lizzie, never felt his stomach flop unsteadily when she smiled at him, nor felt something monstrous trying to claw its way out of his gut when another boy's eyes fell upon her.
Rachel was something more than what Lizzie ever meant to him, and it scared him. Did it mean he like-liked her? Was it deeper than that?
"Rachel?" He stared at Numbuh 5, his eyes glossed over as he was lost in his thoughts. Abby pulled away.
"Yeah, Numbuh 362. We can't let her down! She's our Commander, she's counting on us!"
A small snicker drowned out the last bit of Numbuh 5's motivational speech. Everyone turned to find Lizzie with her back to them, her shoulders shaking with unconcealed laughter.
"Nigel is right!" Lizzie choked through her laughter and tears. "Why don't we leave that boy-stealing witch to her fate?!"
Numbuh 86 jumped up to her feet, with Numbuh 60 following suit to stop her from unleashing her trademark wrath. "Shut yer trap, ye dun know nothin' abou' her!"
Lizzie grinned a rather pathetic smile and she turned to stare down at Nigel, who looked back with something akin to disbelief on his face. "First he breaks up with me so he can try and be with her---"
"---That's not true!" Nigel exclaimed bleakly.
"---And then, some coo-coo bananas stuff happens and his new little 'girlfriend' gets kidnapped and now all he does is mope!" Lizzie finished darkly, her grin turning into a sneer. "What happened, Nigie...? Whenever I got kidnapped, you'd go after me blazing with weapons without thought. Is she not that important to you now that you won't even consider saving her? What was the point in leaving me for her when you don't even care about her--?"
"Enough!" Nigel yelled angrily, standing to cut between the fuming Fanny and Lizzie's visual range from each other. "I'm not going to let her down, so sit down, shut up and Numbuh 2, hand me the updated N.A.V.I.G.A.T.O.R.!"
(Computer: Kids Next Door N.A.V.I.G.A.T.O.R.- New Aviation Visual Information Able To Origin Ranks)
Numbuh 1 snatched up the 2x4 handheld that Hoagie and Wally were tinkering with earlier and pulled out the KND Book from Rachel's abandoned bag.
Kuki blinked and continued to stare at the pigtailed girl, who returned to her original position of her seat, away from the rest and her face concealed. And for a brief moment in time, she felt the pangs of rational thought seep into her consciousness and her smiling face sporadically became calculating and serious. Did Lizzie…? Was she trying to coax Nigel into saving her Commander?
"Eh? Numbuh 3…?" Kuki's expression changed into surprise when Wally addressed her. She slowly turned to face him, her eyes alight and open.
Wally scratched his head. "Oi, what's up with you? I've never seen you look so…serious before." Kuki blinked again at his next words. "It's kinda freaking me out…"
It really didn't. It actually made her look kind of pretty to Numbuh 4. It reminded him of her graceful, yet calculating mother. But, it didn't suit Kuki. Not at all.
The hairs on the back of his head ceased when her expression returned to normal and a cheerful smile graced her face once more.
"Numbuh 4! Were you worried for me?! How cuuuutttteee!!" She giggled into her overgrown sleeves. Wally felt himself turn red.
"I was not!" He huffed and turned away. "I don't care about dumb girls!"
Kuki continued to giggle until she was shushed by Numbuh 5.
"Do I smell a plan forming in your bald head, Numbuh 1?" Numbuh 5 smirked as Nigel flipped through pages of the KND Book with a purpose until he found what he desired, ran his finger down the page and stopped short halfway down the middle. He flipped the mousetrap phone open. A rather angered groan issued from Wally, insinuating that the reason for his prior suffering was due to him opening the device the wrong way.
"We need to plan like adults, right?" Numbuh 1 repeated as he started pressing the multicolored buttons on the handheld. "This device is capable of reaching anyone in the KND...kind of like a cell phone for teenagers. Numbuh 362's earphone should react to the call enough for her...or someone, to answer. Once the call's been connected, the N.A.V.I.G.A.T.O.R. will pick up the signal and track her positioning on a global scale."
His team looked at each other and smirked. Numbuh 1's back in action.
"...achel"
She groaned from the sound, wanting to sleep some more.
"Rachel..."
Opening her eyes slightly, her vision was blurred and her mouth was as dry as a mummy's. As soon as she gained control of her environment, she began to panic when she couldn't stretch her legs.
Her breath shuttered as she observed herself looking through a glass panel surrounding her and she felt an upcoming bout of claustrophobia as she slapped her hands against the glass madly, frantically trying to figure where she was.
She was in a glass pod.
Feeling around, she could only manage to keep her knees up and curl in a fetal position to alleviate the feeling of claustrophobia. Testing out the three by three feet egg pod, the best she could do to fill up the pod would be from her slightly stretching her bended legs to the middle of her back.
Taking deep breaths, she mentally called upon her expert espionage skills and quieted her frantic mind. Now was not the time to panic. She needed to understand where she was and where Numbuh 777 was being held.
With a bit of difficulty, she managed to maneuver herself around, so she was on her knees, pressing against the semi-foggy glass to look around.
The place seemed to look like a dimly lit lab, with few overhead lights flickering periodically. She saw tables filled with debris of mechanical objects and multicolored beakers of bubbling liquid. It was almost like something off of a science fiction movie.
Someone called her before while she was out of it. She was sure of it.
Closing her eyes, she rummaged through her hazy memories, figuring out what caused her to be put into such a predicament in the first place.
She remembered being captured by Chad alongside 777 on a helicopter, away from Nigel and the rest of the KND. She remembered being brought up in the helicopter and struggled when Chad covered her mouth with a foul smelling cloth before she went out cold.
"Rachel...?"
The sound came from behind her. She turned around and peered through the glass. A familiar young woman was tied to a chair, her brown eyes staring at her with resoluteness and terror at the same time.
"Numbuh 777?" She pressed her forehead against the glass for a better look. It was indeed her.
"Don't panic," Numbuh 777 muttered quietly. "You're in a Delightfulization Pod."
Rachel's heart sped up at those last words. She tried to keep her breath drawn out, but it kept stuttering as panic settled in. She remembered the horrifying tale of the monstrous machine that drowned many children from Sector Z. Destroyed their hearts and minds and leaving their bodies alive like empty husks…waiting to be manipulated into ultimate submission. She was in one and the thought scared her to the point of shaking as she conjured the notion that she was meeting her mortality so early in life. "...am I...? Am I gonna die...?"
Reina looked away, her mouth forming into a thin line. "Not your body."
She let out a terrified breath as those words sank in. Her shortened breath became muddled.
"Breathe, Numbuh 362, breathe!" Reina exclaimed in alarm, only to find Rachel raise her head and a calm expression lit her face alight.
Numbuh 777 watched in awe as Rachel pushed herself off the glass and rested her back against the opposite glass, calmly sitting. The blonde Commander gave the Ex-Numbuh a reassuring smile.
"I'm okay."
"Wha?" Was the only answer that left Reina's lips at the scene. Rachel was so...calm and collected. "Aren't you scared?"
Rachel tilted her head down a bit and her smile dimmed a bit which looked like a wistful smile. "I believe in him."
"You do, huh?" A gruff voice echoed from across the room alongside the beeping. Both females stared at the darkest part of the lab. It was followed by a cruel, melodic laugh that filled the room with a foreboding terror.
The figure stepped out of the shadows and both girls recoiled at the sight.
It was as if a child's head was superimposed on an old man's body. He was hunched over and covered in a long white lab coat, liver spots invading every open part of his body. His head looked exactly like a ten year old boy, sandy blond hair and all, which was entrapped in a glass contraption.
He grinned at the looks of horror on their faces and stepped forward toward them, causing them to unconsciously scoot back in alarm.
"Ah, Numbuh 777. We have met before." The doctor grinned. Reina's look of terror transformed into one of utmost hatred. "You escaped from me once. I assure you this will not be a repeat."
He turned to Rachel. "Enjoying my humble accommodations, Former Lead Espionage Agent, Supreme Leader Numbuh 362?" He came close to the glass and tapped it eagerly. "Or should we refrain from the formalities, my dear Rachel McKenzie?"
Rachel responded by kicking the glass to where the doctor's face was reflected from. He let out short snicker.
"What do you hope to achieve from all this?!" Rachel demanded. "Let me out this instant!"
"Achieve?" the doctor echoed. "Why, my greatest creation of course! The ability to transform terrible, noisy brats into well-mannered little adults! It's been years since I performed the Delightfulization...far too long..."
He pulled off the covers over the mechanism where more empty pods appeared, surrounded by a monstrous machine with a large tube filled with a glowing, green liquid.
"Behold the fruit of my labors, my young ladies! The almost complete Pro-Delightfulization Machine!" the doctor beamed at the controls. "But of course," his eyes glanced expectantly at Rachel. "The party won't start without our Guest of Honor..."
Almost as if by fate a familiar beeping echoed throughout the room. The sound of an incoming call. Rachel's ears pricked up at once.
Her earpiece!
The doctor snickered some more and withdrew something from his pocket. The beeping became louder.
"Well, well...right on schedule." He pressed the side button of the earpiece and the call went on speaker.
"Rachel? Rachel?! Is anyone listening?" A familiar voice piped up on the piece. The doctor silently pressed the piece against the glass.
Rachel glared at the gesture, but answered. "Nigel? Nigel!" Her voice was very much muffled by the glass, so her yelling was reduced to a dull roar.
Nigel answered almost at once. "Are you alright? Where are you?!"
Before she opened her mouth to answer, the doctor withdrew the piece and carefully placed it against the glass of his own head-case. "Come and play, Nigel Uno. The game is just about to begin...!"
"I swear to Zero, if you harm either of them...!" Numbuh 1's growl blared against the static.
"You'll need to drop by and find out, Uno. Time to throw off the trading cards and put on some big boy pants, now," the doctor sneered into the piece. "Come alone and face your destiny like a man."
Numbuh 777 stared resolutely at Rachel trapped in defeat in the pod. She will not risk another child's life. She broke her silence. She could not take this anymore. "Numbuh 1! Memorize these words! Twist opposite from the left! For the mind, in itself, pause, counter-twist, for the heart, in control!"
"Silence, brat!" the doctor snarled, dropping the piece onto the ground and stomped on it, breaking it cleanly in pieces.
The line went dead as Numbuh 1 thought it would. He tossed the handheld at Numbuh 60, who deftly caught it. "Trace it."
Patton opened his mouth to say something but the look in the Sector V Commander's darkened gray eyes snapped his body to attention and saluted. "Yes sir!" He pulled Numbuh 2 aside and went to work.
Numbuh 86 saw the look too. It reminded her of her father when she was accosted by a stranger with candy and almost followed him into his car foolishly. Her foot halfway into the front seat and she remembered being grabbed roughly from behind and into her father's protective arms with the stranger bleeding from his nose on the sidewalk. A look of animalistic alarm and a stern look in his eyes fierce enough to scare her into heeding his words from then on in never to talk to strangers.
Nigel had that look. It would be ironic for him to believe that he still had the mindset of a kid, when he had the potential of being a charismatic adult. If only he saw what Rachel had seen, he may have been stronger, smarter...
She shook her head fervently. She must be out of her mind! It was almost as if she was thinking like an adult...!
Frowning in horror, she turned to bang her head against the vehicle window, which had illicit angered complaints from the two members of Sector NV.
"The lot of you are all nutters!" Numbuh 702, glared from the rear view mirror. "Tell us where to drop you off...please?!"
"Got a hold on the coordinates after we traced the call." Hoagie swiveled his 2x4 monitor around to show them the multi-grid map where a red dot was continuously blinking on the left edge of the screen.
Patton pointed at the dot. "Signal's coming from outside the city limits, sir. But after we terraformed the map, we got restricted access for a visual."
"Well duh," Numbuh 704 peered from beyond the front seat to stare at the map. "That's Area 51...the adult's equivalent to the KND Arctic Base. At least, that's what Numbuh 701 managed to dig out. Testing weapons is only a cover-up. But we know better..." He grinned. "...it has something to do with aliens...!"
Half of the team erupted in laughter.
"Ha!" Numbuh 4 yelped. "Aliens my Yippee Cards! Who's the nutter now?!" He laughed alongside Numbuh 2.
Hoagie wiped a tear from his eye. "The day we see that being the case would be a day of great discovery! Get it? Disk-overy?! Flying saucer?!"
The entire buggy groaned in unison.
"How do I reach Area 51 if it's closed off?" Nigel asked as he checked over his weapons, preferably weighing his options between using the D.A.R.T. as a more effective firearm, or the S.P.L.O.R.C.K. for a quieter weapon for a sneak attack.
Numbuh 702 made a quick left before he answered. "Numbuh 705 and I managed to build a tunnel that runs underneath the base from the outskirts of the nearby desert. For scientific purposes, of course," He grinned sheepishly at Fanny's glare, knowing that they opened up an unauthorized tunnel without Moonbase knowing. "It'll be about a few minutes to hit the rendezvous point, but after that, you're on your own."
"What do you mean, I? What about the rest of us?" Numbuh 5 demanded. "You can't do this alone!"
Nigel promptly dumped the D.A.R.T. in the rubbish pile. He was always the 'direct approach' kind of man through and through.
(Computer: Kids Next Door- D.A.R.T. (Dairy Accelerated Rocket Thingy))
"This is my battle, Numbuh 5," Numbuh 1 sternly responded. "I can't let anymore of my friends be in danger. The lot of you should go back to Headquarters for back up."
"We're a team!" Numbuh 4 countered. "We should do this together!"
The buggy ended at a complete stop and Nigel opened the back doors with loud protests behind him as he jumped onto the dry red dirt of the desert.
Numbuh 702 got out of the buggy and pointed past a large ditch, where a suspicious looking dirt hole was concealed by bushes.
"Through there is where the tunnel is. It'll lead directly underneath Area 51 until you reach the end of the tunnel where it leads into the sewer drains. You can get in from there."
"Thanks, Numbuh 702." Numbuh 1 affirmed and turned to face the looks of utter disbelief on his teammates' faces.
He smiled, withdrawing an extra pair of sunglasses from his pocket and slipping them on professionally.
"I trust you guys to respect my wishes…lest they become official orders," He shifted the backpack properly. "I'll be fine and I'll get both Numbuh 362 and 777 back…and I'll make sure they never mess with the Kids Next Door…!"
The group stared at Numbuh 1. He knew that they were silently protesting, but they resolutely nodded. They might be kids, but they understood the severity in their leader's desire to do this alone and they believed that he'd return safely. Nigel never broke a promise before.
Numbuh 5 nodded again slightly, a smirk playing on the corners of her lips as she gave him the thumbs up. "Give them something to cry about, Numbuh 1!"
"Yeah! And give those stoopid adults a good kick in the head for me, okay Numbuh 1?" Numbuh 4 hit his fist against the palm of his hand, simulating a punch. Nigel nodded.
"Go for it!" Cheered both Numbuh 2 and 3 as Nigel began to turn away and begin his trek down the dirt road, the N.A.V.I.G.A.T.O.R. at hand.
His friends, his family, his team. They were more precious to him than anything else in this world. He wasn't going to fail them…
…he wasn't going to fail Rachel.
Numbuh 777 twisted and fought against her binds, trying to find a loose end, a weak spot enough to unravel the whole thing and save Rachel, but to no avail. Chad had done the tying himself and being an ex-elite agent would give him enough merit to make a superb knot. She wasn't surprised in the least.
The doctor was methodically checking between polishing up the controls on the Pod and looking at the clock, obviously waiting for Numbuh 1's eventual rescue of his fellow comrades. Reina knew that the doctor was becoming impatient.
Rachel had a harder time adjusting to the small space more that what she gave credit for. The first twenty minutes had her shuffling around the glass pod, trying to at least gain a comfortable position until finally settling back into the original fetal stance. She was currently unresponsive, her head buried into her hugged knees.
"Hmm…" the doctor turned back to the machine and fiddled with the controls. This infuriated Reina to no end.
"This is ridiculous!" She bellowed out, enough to shake Rachel out of her stupor in surprise and the doctor jolted from polishing a switch. "Let the girl go! You wanted me, right? Well, I'm right here, sitting in this stupid chair! You've got the entire 13th Sector Z, good job! Congrats! Now let her go!"
"No can do," the doctor sneered. "You see, there's more to this than meets the eye, dear Numbuh 777. Much more…" He left it at that and walked off, leaving the former agent seething.
"Numbuh 777?" Rachel's muddled voice echoed softly, causing Reina to acknowledge her.
"What's wrong?"
Rachel looked away, almost embarrassed, but she sucked it in and answered. "You and Numbuh 666...what were you two like back in the Kids Next Door?"
This surprised the dark haired agent. But she understood why she asked. Anything to pass the time, anything to keep her from thinking the worst...anything to keep Rachel from losing hope.
"Let's see..." For once in her time spent captive, she visibly relaxed as she poured deep into her memories long since forgotten since the inevitable decommissioning. Before that fateful night when her best friends disappeared completely from the living world, before the boy who cared for her so deeply destroyed her pod and saved her.
She closed her eyes, smiling at the occasional memory that spurred up. Jericho and her secretly visiting a botanical nursery for his birthday, picking out a rare Snapdragon...laughing when Anya would make fun of the teacher in Swedish...playing basketball with Tobias until their parents drove by to pick them up at the wee hours of the evening.
And then she remembered Zephyr and her memories with him.
"Actually," she began with a small smile. "We were pretty much the same as you and that Numbuh 1 fellow."
Rachel blinked. "Really?"
Reina leaned forward warmly. "Yeah, exactly the same. Both loved the KND deeply...we'd do anything to keep the kids safe..." She looked up at the decadent, dripping ceiling. "But of course...we've had our differences...especially concerning life after KND."
Rachel looked away as her own memories hit her. "Just like me and Nigel..."
Numbuh 777 eyed her slightly before continuing. "The TND contacted us a few months before...the..." She didn't finish the last sentence. She didn't have to. "Anyway, they granted us admission to join. I was ecstatic. I never thought that I'd be picked over thousands of kids to become a double agent for the teens. Zephyr, on the other hand," her smile dimmed a bit. "felt that his future lie without the TND. I was angered and sad at his refusal to join. I felt betrayed...and worse, I felt alone."
Rachel looked away. She didn't want to hear anymore. It was too close to home...too close to the fight between her and Nigel.
"But now that I think about it...I realized that I was being selfish," Reina's smile faded complete and it looked as if she was going to cry. "I wish I could've told him that I was sorry. To tell him that I just didn't want to be left alone. He meant the world to me...he was the best friend I ever had."
The blonde commander turned away and stared ahead, not really seeing anything. All her thoughts and feelings were running through her head, each piece snapping together like a jigsaw.
The reason why Nigel acted the way he did, how he so reacted so negatively when she rejected the idea of joining the Teens Next Door. Was it because he felt the same way Numbuh 777 did?
That would mean...that he...like-liked her?
She bumped her head against the glass, resolved with her discovery. "Nigel..."
"You called?" a familiar British voice echoed from behind her.
Twisting forward so quickly that she rubbed her ankles painfully against the pod, she was face to face with the one boy she hoped to see again.
"Nigel!" Her face lit up so bright with happiness and relief that Nigel rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Shaking off the fluttering feeling in his stomach at the sight of her smile, he took hold of the situation and returned to his agent mode.
"Just hang in there, Rachel," He blindly touched everything he saw on the machine, hoping to find a switch that would open up the contraption. "I'll get you out, okay?"
They waited patiently for two minutes before Reina shifted in her seat, huffing impatiently.
"Untie me, Numbuh 1. I think I have an idea on how to open the pods." Reina shuffled briskly, accidentally forcing the knot tighter. "Hurry, before that freak shows up!"
"Who?" Nigel inquired until Rachel knocked on the glass harshly.
"Nevermind who. Hurry, Nigel!"
Nodding quickly, he set to work on the knots behind Numbuh 777. He grunted in agitation as his fingers were temporarily caught between knots. "Jeez, who tied you up? A Boy Scout?"
"You and I both know it's standard protocol to learn the infamous Japanese Hook-Sinker Knot..." A coy, familiar voice taunted from behind the British boy.
"Look out!" Rachel yelled through the glass.
"Wha...?" Nigel turned but was knocked out cold by the force of the blunt end of his D.A.R.T..
That was all he remembered after that moment.
Numbuh 1 woke up slightly at the sound of tapping on glass and groaned. The back of his head was throbbing painfully and on top of that, a headache was slowly forming. Reaching to rub the now sensitive part of his cranium, he adjusted his eyes.
He was surrounded by glass, pausing in mid-rub to stare in astonishment of his predicament. The tapping resurfaced.
"Nigel," the source of the tapping called softly. "Are you alright?"
He turned to his right and found Rachel in a pod slightly below his, a thin glass plate the only thing connecting to each other.
"Where's Numbuh 777?" Nigel looked around, but didn't see the Ex-Numbuh anywhere.
Rachel let out a deep breath. "Chad took her away. I don't know where she is."
The both of them sat in silence. Both secretly scared, both worried for their fates. With each passing minute, their hope continued to dwindle into nothing.
"I failed, didn't I?" Nigel gritted his teeth in anger. He didn't watch his surroundings and left himself open to a sneak attack. Now, he was as imprisoned as a mouse in a cage. He slammed his fist angrily against the glass.
Rachel wistfully smiled and placed her hand up against the plate. "You came, didn't you? You didn't fail. I'm happy that I can talk to you one last time..."
"Don't say that, Rachel," Nigel reached down to place his hand as well against the plate. If only he could really hold her hand...reassure her that everything was alright. "I'll get us out of here, I promise!"
"You think so?" A voice from far off caused the hair on the back of Nigel's neck to stand on end. "From my end, I just don't see that happening, unfortunately." The doctor stepped out of the shadows and the gruesome sight of his man/child appearance caused Nigel to flinch back in a mixture of alarm and disgust.
"What are you?! Why do you...look like that?!" Nigel demanded angrily, wanting answers, the reason for all this suffering.
"Who am I?" the doctor walked forward, an arrogant purpose in his rickety steps. He stood against the machine and raised his arms out, as if he was a god himself. "I am Numbuh Nonexistent! The greatest Kids Next Door scientist of all time!" He laughed maniacally and dropped his arms in a huff and ran into Nigel's pod with such insanity that Nigel jumped back at the sight. "I am the oldest living Numbuh this world has ever seen! I have seen things that would make your little head explode from the information!"
He rapped on the glass tauntingly and then sauntered over to Rachel's pod, who gave him an equal glare right back. He continued. "Eleventy billion years ago, I was tasked with the power to unite both adults and children alike. 'Stop the fighting,' I was told. 'Do whatever you can so that adults and children can finally work together.'. And so, I heeded their desires, working tirelessly to produce something, anything to appease both parties, but to no avail! It was impossible to make the both of them happy!" His smile twisted into a monstrous sneer. "You brats! The lot of you are all alike! Always worried about ice cream and candy, not knowing how hard I was at work to provide equality for you! I was unappreciated, even laughed at! But the adults! They understood my plight! 'If children were a bit more obedient,' they said, 'then we'd live peacefully for once.'! And so, I created a machine...a machine to make children more delightful to adults...! The Delightfulization Pods!"
"So you go and take away the human rights of children?!" Rachel demanded. "You're a monster! You rob children of their childhoods and force them to become behaved, miniature adults! You call that equality?!"
The doctor's smile dimmed a bit, obviously angry at the statement. "I'm the monster? Your organization causes mischief and trouble for adults and teens alike for the most trivial things and you call me unfair?! Impertinent whelp!" He scratched the glass of her pod, causing her to clap her hands over her ears at the shrill sound. "I've evened the playing field, little girl! I'm giving parents what they want! I'm a hero!"
"Leave her alone, you freak!" Nigel slammed his shoulder against the glass, but to no avail. The pod merely shuttered and stiffened. "Why us?! Why Numbuh 777? Why Sector Z? What are your true plans?!"
The doctor's anger seemed to dissipate at those questions and straightened himself up, as if nothing happened. "Sector Z was in contract to become willing test subjects for experimentation. The code was 'For the good of everyone'. It is still in effect to this day, so long as the scientist in question remained alive..." He pointed at his head-case. "I managed to keep my youth in this box. So long as I remained a child, I am still employed as a KND scientist and the contract remains intact..." Straighting his tie, he proceeded towards a door at the far corner of the lab. "Numbuh 777...? I needed her back to finish what I started. Of course, it's not just to cover up our tracks..."
The door opened and Chad resurfaced, pulling a tied up Numbuh 777 with him. He shoved her onto the ground.
"Numbuh 777!" Both Nigel and Rachel cried in unison. Reina looked up at them in sheer horror.
"What...? What is THIS?!" She twisted violently towards Numbuh Nonexistent, fury and something akin to tears clouded her eyes. "What are you doing?!!"
Nonexistent gave a simple chuckle. "So you understand, now?" He stepped closer to her and grabbed her binds, forcing her onto her knees. "Numbuh 777 stole something precious to me that fateful night five years ago. She was pretty clever too...creating a perfect ploy before her decommissioning, hoping that somehow some brave kids could come and destroy this whole operation. Isn't that right, Reina Valesti?"
"What do you mean?" Rachel inquired.
"Tell her," Nonexistent pulled her hair down, forcing her chin up to look at the trapped preteens. "Tell them everything. The more you tell...the longer it takes before I delightfulize them. Mark my words, I will do it."
Reina growled low in her throat before another bout of hair pulling forced her hand and she finally conceded. "I took the key, dammit! Now stop that!"
"Indeed she did..." He released his hold on 777's hair and turned to open his wrinkled palm to Chad, who wordlessly dropped two platinum bands onto his palm. He then raised the rings up so everyone could see the familiar design glinting slightly from the flickering overhead light.
"Nigel! That's the ring you gave me!" Rachel looked at her hand in reflex, to see that it was indeed gone from her ring finger. She hadn't even noticed that it was missing.
"These rings have an alien alloy never before seen on Earth...the Delightfulization can only be powered by this type of metal. How quaint it was for little Reina here to take it and turn it into cute lovey-dovey rings, believing that I'd never figure it out!" Nonexistent set the two rings on top of each other on his index finger and twisted it. A sound of a small chink echoed throughout the room as if something small locked in place.
"But, how did one of those rings end up with my Grandmother?!" Nigel wondered aloud, confusion etched on his face.
Nonexistent turned dutifully toward Reina. "Indeed. Do tell, my dear..."
The freak of nature was enjoying this. Rachel knew that as she stared at the excited look he was giving their adult companion.
Reina stared angrily for a moment, then stared ahead, as if she was closing off her emotions from the rest of the waking world. "The rings were forged by Zephyr's dad, who was a jeweler. He granted my wishes in honor of his missing son."
She then looked at the floor, a resolute look of determination gracing her features. "I took the rings, but knew that they had to be separated. This...place...still existed and I knew they'd eventually find me. I searched through the KND archives for months, looking for someone special, someone who stood the chance to stop this madness!"
She looked at Nigel, a fire blazing in her eyes. "I found you. I did more research than any Archivist on Moonbase...I searched into the beginning of this era of KND and found that you were related to the infamous Numbuh Zero, who started up the KND and defeated Grandfather. Your mother was Numbuh 999, the first female to ever raise a weapon in the defense of kids in this era, and I knew. I had to give the ring to you."
There was silence all around and she knew that everyone was intently listening. She gave a short sigh and continued. "Before I was decommissioned, I went to England to search for your mother...hoping that I can recommission her for a moment, hand her the ring and go on my way. I came across your grandmother purely by chance at a cafe. We struck up a conversation and, upon discovering that she was your grandmother, gave her the ring as a token of my gratitude for her hospitality. I told her to give it to the one grandchild who may need it most. I knew she would've chose you eventually."
"I kept the other ring with me and used it's foreign alloy to deploy a slight memory erase towards KND agents who were searching for me. This was why you couldn't remember me after that incident in the Warped Tour. I had the ring manipulate the minds of anyone searching for me...except for Numbuh 362," She faced Rachel only to glance at her hand which once held the other ring. "I wasn't expecting Numbuh 1 to forget me, for I thought he had the ring on him. It came to my attention that Numbuh 362 was indeed keeper of the ring now and so I called her to me from the rings, unconsciously knowing I was to be recommissioned one day and deal with this mad doctor and of course, the bloody Splinter Cell."
"Splinter Cell is behind this?!" Nigel and Rachel looked at each other at once. It all made sense now. This is another of Splinter Cell's plots against them.
Nonexistent gave a short, but concise cough which returned all attention back to him. "Now, now. Let us refrain from speaking anymore of that ghastly organization, shall we...?" He focused towards the machine, hunger evident in his eyes.
"These rings," He took the newly formed band from his finger and gazed into it dreamily. "When twisted correctly, will finally start up this beautiful machine...at last!"
Reina jumped up. "Leave them alone!" She tried to headbutt Nonexistent, but was forced back down onto the floor by Chad, who stared at her with an emotionless expression on his face.
"Oh, but Reina, the fun can now begin," He set the rings onto a metal rod, which began to glow with a strange yellow light and at once, the machine began to start up with a mechanical whirl.
The pods began to light up and Rachel sat frozen with terror while Nigel began to slam madly against the glass walls, trying to bust them open.
"Stop it!" Nigel yelled. "Let us out, Chad! This isn't funny! It'll kill us!"
Chad looked away, his expression hadn't changed. He addressed the now cackling doctor.
"Shall I let her go now?" He motioned towards Reina.
Nonexistent didn't acknowledge him, but answered. "Yes, yes! It is time to see if the experiment shall work now and we can't have the girl tied up doing it!"
Chad untied Reina and she at once sprang to her feet, opting to attack the doctor and save the trapped agents. "I won't let you do this!"
But before she could get her hands on Nonexistent, she felt a group of hands grab her from behind in the shadows and she fell backwards, being dragged from behind. She screamed as she stared at the faces of her former comrades.
Their skin was as pale and clammy as death and their eyes were hollowed out and blackened, as if they hadn't slept a wink in years. Anya's once brilliant, flowing red hair was now wild and decadent, contorting around her face, looking like a mad woman. Tobias was nearly skeletal and lightened, his cheekbones unnaturally prominent. Jericho looked the worse off, his hair was nearly grayed over, his green eyes almost faded over in gray.
"G-guys...?" Her voice trembled with fear and sadness, she shook her head. "No! It can't be...! Please!" She shut her eyes as they started to chant her name bleakly, trying to grab every inch of her. "It's not real!" She tried to struggle, only to be held down by their leader.
The one boy who she had been dreaming of for years, now a broken young man, held her in a tight death-like grip that nearly stole her breath and she began to shake in fear.
"Zephyr...? No...!" She gasped out. His brown hair was straggled with gray in them and his black, hardened eyes stared down at her with a lack of expression. He was an empty shell. They all were.
"Enjoying the heartfelt reunion?" Nonexistent turned around, hands behind his back as if he was watching an elegant opera. "Yes, I wonder what would happen...preferably to dear Zephyr, if the both of you relived that moment of that night. You see, the delightfulization process seems to be slipping every time they are reminded of something from the littlest thing. Would there be a higher reaction if they saw little Rachel and Nigel become delightfulized...?" He returned to the key, away from the look of terror Reina procured. "Let's see if I can translate these rings...ah!" He grabbed the top ring, where the engraving resurfaced on the ring, bearing the words, For the Heart. He twisted it 180 degrees to the left and the words, For the Mind, appeared.
"Tut, tut. This won't be so hard, will it, Numbuh 777...?" He chuckled as he twisted the bottom ring. In Itself appeared on the ring and when he turned it just the same as the top, In Control.
"Let's see, let's see..." He whispered under his breath. "You've changed the numbers with words, but I think I know how the twists work..." He twisted the rings so the sentence, For the Heart, In Itself, formed.
The machine whirred loudly and the main tank began to fill with a bright green liquid. It was warming up steadily and Reina struggled from her captivity while Nigel and Rachel began to try and break free, but to no avail.
"Watch and learn, my pets!" He called to the zombified Sector Z over his shoulder. "Do you remember? Just one more turn...!" He placed his hands against the rings as the machine returned to full power.
"Leave them alone!" Reina yelled desperately.
"Nigel!" Rachel looked up at Numbuh 1, who was just in frozen in terror as she was. They both stared at each other with what seemed like forever, the inevitable belief that right then and there, was the end.
"I'm sorry," Nigel admitted as Nonexistent began turning the rings. "For everything. I was selfish, but I didn't want you to leave the KND and forget. I didn't want you to forget me, Rachel...!"
There it was. She finally saw it. The first spring of maturity blazed across his storm gray eyes, his face looked older, more sure and stronger. And yet, when she looked deeper, she could see the special spark that made Nigel...Nigel. The playfulness, the suave demeanor as he tried valiantly to perceive when it came to KND, the way he would stutter and clumsily talk his way out of something when he got caught...it was still there.
Nonexistent twisted the rings to form the phrase, For the Mind, In Control. The main valve that carried the green liquid began to empty itself out...and resurface through the filter underneath the pods.
The liquid was steadily rising and it soon submerge their legs. The pressure was building and the liquid began to rise faster.
This was it. Rachel tried praying, but was too scared to do so. She and Nigel were going to die, their bodies would then be nothing more than an empty husks waiting to be controlled.
And then something strange happened to her when she stared into Numbuh 777's eyes. A story began to play in her head...a story so familiar.
Then, as if by slow motion, she looked up at Nigel, who continued to stare back, his gaze unwavering, without falter. As if he wanted to spend his last moments gazing at her and it would've embarrassed her a bit if the predicament wasn't so bleak.
But she knew. Nigel was destined for something great, something out of this world. He couldn't end his legend here. No, she refused to let it happen. He deserved a chance, a chance to be great.
She never felt such conviction before, she never felt so responsible for Nigel's future. It only occurred to her right then and there, that his fate didn't belong here.
The pods...the way the pods were aligned. It was almost as if it was destiny.
"Rachel! What are you doing?!" Nigel yelled as he pressed against the glass plate. The water was already up to the chest.
Rachel had maneuvered herself so her body outstretched the width of the pod, her feet pressed hard against the plate.
"Move, Numbuh 1! That's an order!" She commanded as she pulled her knees back.
She will do the unthinkable because she could. She would do it for the sake of KND, for children everywhere.
But most of all, she did it because for the first time in her life, she truly didn't like-like Nigel Uno....
With all her strength that she mustered from within her body, mind and soul, she kicked through the glass plate and the water from Nigel's pod began to empty itself into hers. His outraged yell was ringing in her ears. She smiled in triumph before she became fully submerged.
...she loved him.
Transmission Interrupted.
A/N: Bah, so much information crammed into this chapter...bleh. XP