Three sat on one of the beds with his forearms braced on his legs. Since regaining control over himself, the floor had become his favorite thing to look at. It beat watching Six pace the room and wondering how in the hell Four was able to just sit there with his eyes shut like they all hadn't had their bodies hijacked. Frankly, it gave him flashbacks of when Wexler had shot Two out of the airlock.
One and Five were somewhere outside and the good doctors had taken Two away. Three had caught some snippets of what they were saying and none of it sounded good. She'd had her own nanites before One injected the new ones, so who knew what was going to happen there.
There was a flare of anger and then it slipped away again. Three hadn't been able to hold on to any emotion since he came out of it. He didn't know if it was something to do with those damn machines or just shock that there hadn't been anything he could do to fight them. He was sure he could feel all of them crawling under his skin like an itch that he would never be able to get away from.
A scratch that could make him kill everyone around him without another thought.
"I still can't believe you're not throwing a fit." Six said for the seventh time. Same words and Three answered the same way he had each time. This little exchange was all they had after all the hours they'd been here.
"What's the point?"
"How about doing something other than sitting there? Like trying to find a way out of this mess."
Three looked up at him. "Then what, Genius? Two is probably being broken down for spare parts out there and even if we do get out of this room, all anyone has to do is say, 'Stop,' and we're done."
Six's whole being seemed to sink in on itself. It was obvious that he was only barely holding in his own panic. Three felt like crap for bringing him down when he was just trying to keep a hand on his sanity here. Six sank onto one of the beds.
After another minute, Three said, "Would it really make you feel better if I throw a little fit?"
Six sighed. That was different. He usually just stayed quiet until he started the routine pacing again. "Probably not. I just...we don't even know what's happening to the others."
"And there is literally no way out of here." Three added.
"Will the two of you shut up?" Four snapped. Nyx was sitting on the bed behind him with her back braced on the wall. She put a hand on his shoulder and the tension drained away.
"Look who decided to speak his first words in a whole lot of hours." Three said.
The door opened. Three jumped up when he saw One. Then he saw the woman step in behind him. Her eyes bounced to all three of them, but One's stayed on him.
"Hello, my name is Dr. Fremont," the woman said with a smile. She didn't look very accustomed to it. "I'm going to be running some tests on all of you to make sure everything is okay."
"Okay? Okay?! You don't need tests to see that none of this is okay!" Three came up to the woman and One barely got between them, grabbing Three.
Almost as if he could sense her movement, One turned his head to speak to the doctor. "Please don't. He'll cooperate. We all will."
One eased off of Three and turned to face her. "You don't have to control us like that."
Dr. Fremont's eyes stayed on Three over his shoulder. "I promise I'll only use it if it's a matter of security."
One reached behind him to take Three's hand. "He'll behave."
"Then I guess you're first, Mr. Boone." Dr. Fremont stepped out into the hallway.
One spun to put his mouth at Three's ear. "Five is working on a way free."
Three watched him get to the door before following. He got as close to One as he could. "How?!
"Trust us?" One whispered.
Three nodded. He did trust them. If they'd found out about One's involvement with injecting them with nanites before feeling that absolute control, it would be a different story. But not with how they'd turned Three into a puppet, too. Turned them all into that. One hadn't had a choice and they hadn't locked him up when he told them they should.
Three remembered pushing the gun into Five's head. He remembered the instant the knowledge hit that if they told him to, he would kill her. There was nothing he could do to stop it. To save her.
Something warm bumped his hand and lingered until Three looked at him. He could see the question in One's eyes and he nodded. He was okay for now. Never been more helpless in his life, but okay.
Dr. Fremont led them from one hallway to the next. They were all designed to look the same. Made escapes difficult if you got lost.
Out of this hallway, they entered a large area that seemed to be the central place for research. There were other scientists and doctors. Other experiments going on here and who knows what in all of the other rooms in this station. Just from what they could see here, it was not a small station.
Dr. Fremont took them to a window that looked in on a white room. When she saw them, Two jumped up, going to bang on the glass. One touched the glass over where her hand was. Her head jerked to the side several times, her eyes clenching shut. When she looked at them, she was scared.
"Why is she separated from us?" Three asked.
"What's wrong with her?" One asked.
"We've found that she is a mix of biological and synthetic parts. The nanites that were in her body have begun writing over ours. There is a fight going on inside of her that's forcing the nanites to misfire. Do you know who created her?"
Three and One shared a quick look. Three spoke. "Nah. Her past is as blank as the rest of ours."
Dr. Fremont looked at him, raising her wrist to her mouth. "Really? I could ask you for the truth."
"Alexander Rook," One said. "He's with Dwarf Star. If you want any answers about her, then you have to go to him."
"Yeah." Three gave One a look. "You should give him a call. I bet he'd really love to chat about nanites and other nanite-related things."
"That probably won't be necessary, but I'll make a note just in case. We are getting very close to cracking what will help us commandeer the original nanites. Come with me."
Another hallway and Three was sure that she was twisting them around on purpose to make sure they would be too lost to find a way out of here. Frankly, it was a nice tactic and Three was finding it very effective.
Three kept sneaking glances at One, but he never got anything back. There was this look on his face, though, like he was focused on something that had all of his attention. He wished he could figure out what was going on in his head. If he was coming up with a plan, then Three wanted in on it.
Okay, they had definitely taken a couple turns, back-tracking down different halls. Three's mind kept trying to orient itself, but no go.
Dr. Fremont stopped them at a room with a screen covering one wall and a black belt stretching the length of the floor on the opposite wall. Nothing else. She pressed a couple things on a panel that extended away from the screen and the whole wall lit up. Three's entire body was outlined on the left while every little thing his body did was recorded on the right.
"Alright, Mr. Boone, I need you to stand on the belt."
Sharing another look with One, he did. Dr. Fremont did something else and the belt began to move, forcing him into a jog. After a minute, the speed went up to a run. Every hiccup his body made was projected onto the screen. While Three ran on a treadmill, One split his attention between watching him and trying to take in the information on the screen.
The belt under him kept jumping in speed until his chest flashed red on the screen. Three didn't need to see the screen, he felt like his heart was going to explode. The belt stayed at that speed and Three thought he was going to die.
"Stop! You've gotta stop this!" One's yell broke through the twin engines of his heavy breathing and the heart pounding in his ears.
Well, at least he got to hear One's voice one last time. Not exactly the things he wanted to hear him yelling, but he didn't mind it so much. His vision went dark around the edges and then the pain in his chest eased up and he could suddenly breathe a lot better.
The speed began to go up again until his chest flashed red. Three couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't stop.
"Look, you got what you wanted. Stop this." One's voice came from too far away.
The world started going black around the edges again and then one word came clear in his mind. 'Jump.'
Three did. Both feet left the belt and they both came back down. The second they touched the speeding belt, Three flew back into the wall. A crack and then then his vision blacked out completely.
A/n: Thanks for reading!