Chapter 37: Tormenting Realities
(Rex uncovers devastating news, one that rocked and shook his entire world.)
Rex staggered a bit, the terrifying discovery too much to take in. His breaths now came in short pants, no longer able to fight back the panic and fear gripping him. Just exactly how much has changed? A quick check of the calendar on his mobile made his head spin even more. It hadn't occurred to him before to check the dates, or even if he had seen it, the time gap didn't register because of his memory spaz. But now that his brain has righted itself, Rex was swallowing gulps of air in terror like a fish out of water.
It was seven years into the future. What the hell happened here in the seven years or the years since he and Circe married?
Only one last person left to call.
"Circe, I need to check in with Providence. Do you know the number to call?"
"Excuse me?" Circe's shock and anxiety could be well heard.
"Rex, what's gotten into you? Why do you need to contact them? Did something happen?"
Rex warred inwardly a bit, wondering if he should tell her where he came from and how they really never married. But he decided otherwise, knowing he was too perplexed with the situation to explain properly.
"I just need to check on something."
He got Circe's distressed breathing for response.
"Circe," Rex prompted more urgently.
"This can't be happening!" she near exploded, "First you lose your memory and now you're totally acting out of sorts –" Circe rambled in tones stretched thin, words sounding off huge alarms in his head. Everything that happened over the last few days clearly showed the most important thing missing from Rex's life – Providence. Not that he didn't appreciate married life– but why was he a house husband rather than out there tackling crazy situations? Why was he working as an average, household repairman instead of reporting to Providence for duty?
"Circe," Rex cut her off, tones sharp and wary, "Why are you acting like this is a big deal? Me calling Providence shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, right?"
"No, this can't be. You're being completely abnormal – you've never got in touch with them or asked to, in all these years!" she sounded shaky now, distraught, "That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital. You must have some brain damage, or impairment, that's making you act all different."
Circe's frenzy whipped Rex's own even further, making him lose his patience.
"Circe! Stop, there's nothing wrong with me," Rex refuted in an exasperated tone, no longer able to mask his torrid emotions, "It's everything wrong with this timeline. I'm seven years younger than I should be, and maybe even before that, things had changed and they're not as how they are."
"You're not making any sense!"
"It means that I'm not supposed to be here! I come from some other – ugh-" a frustrated grunt escaped him, not able to find the right words.
"I don't understand, I don't understand anything," came her shaking tone.
Rex sighed frustratedly.
"Yea, me neither. Which is why, I really need to get Providence."
"No, no, no," her cry of turmoil made it worst for Rex, slamming against his chest and echoing the equal tromping of his own internal thoughts, "You can't. You've washed off all ties with them – you shouldn't go back to them."
Rex dropped his phone right then. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. She might as well have told him to shoot himself.
And the way the conversation went, he knew Circe wasn't going to help him. No sweat, he'll go to Providence base on his own – but before that, he made sure the nanny arrived to take over looking after Riaena before he left. Whether history truly gave him a daughter or not, Rex at least knew he had to do the responsible thing to ensure she wasn't left alone.
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He rocketed over to Providence base on supersized turbine wings, blasting them at full speeds. Despite his prowess with his nanites constructs, Rex had a shaky flight, or it could be that too much chaos was churning within him, making his whole body tremble.
Faster, faster!
He was nearing, swooshing over miles of pale yellow, sun-baked canyons in a secluded area, far off from the rest of society. The familiar sight soothed him for the first time in his life, never feeling so grateful or so relieved to be near Providence grounds.
Then there, coming out the shortcut through a narrow rift between two hardline cliffs, he spied headquarters, looking thin and tiny like a needle, which quickly grew as he approached, into a rising, sword of light, pointing upwards at the sky.
However, his relief was short-lived. Landing on grounds, it was clear to see the building was empty, walls worn and dirty, with moss growing over, looking like it had been vacated for a few years. Shock couldn't begin to describe how he felt.
Providence couldn't be gone. He desperately held onto some vestiges of logic, forcing himself to be calm enough to think. He saw Noah and Providence on the news a little over an hour ago, so they were obviously still in operation. Perhaps they just changed location – maybe the current location was compromised. So then, what now? Without a lead or clue how to find them, what was he to do?
Hearing his phone beep for the hundredth time, Rex sighed and ran defeated hands through his hair, finally picking up Circe's call, whom he had ignored all through his flight over.
"Rex, please," she begged, voice quivering, "Please, come back, Rex, we still have our daughter."
She must have called the Nanny since he wouldn't pick up, and guessed that he ran off to find Providence.
Rex was too loaded with a sense of helplessness and powerlessness to be caring of Circe's plea. However, he bit his lip and forced himself to show her some patience – after all, he did feel a bit bad for abruptly ending their call and selfishly zipping off instead of staying with Riaena.
"Look, Circe, in the first place, I didn't say I wasn't going to come back. I just need to clear some things, and get some answers."
"No, you lie, you're back to how you used to, way back before we married."
Sniffles came from the other line, telling Rex that she was crying.
"Circe, please, this is important to me," Rex tried to explain, exasperated and feeling guilt, from hearing her sobs, crawl from his ears down into his chest.
"So is your family, but you're going away again, leaving me alone, like you used to."
"I won't, look, this will be fast. I'll be home before you know it."
"No, I want you home now! God knows how you'll be stuck with Providence forever. That's what you used to do, gone for hours, or days, or weeks, disappearing!" she sounded crazed and livid, and Rex could see her looking mad.
"And once you're gone, I wouldn't even know if you'll come back. All I can do is worry – worry, worry, worry!"
Rex threw his arms in the air for a bit, needing to be far from the phone to draw an exasperated huff. When he next brought back the phone to his face, he tried to placate her and soothe her worries.
"Of course I will, Circe. I'll be just like any other regular dad – we go to work, we come home."
"Other regular dads don't fight crazy machines or super beings, Rex!"
"Don't say it like I'm not gonna make it back. I'm infallible, remember? I'm the all great Nanite King!" Rex tried to joke.
"The chances are too big! Even Six! You used to say all the time too that he was invincible! But he –" Circe abruptly stopped, as if she had said something she shouldn't.
Alarm bells went off in Rex's head. His heart stopped for just a moment.
Six? Something happened to six?
"What were you gonna say? Something about Six?"
Nothing, no words, just shaky breathing.
Rex felt every fibre drawn into a taut line, like a rubber band on the verge of snapping. That jacket – the damn green suit he found in the storeroom just yesterday… Rex's insides throbbed. In sickening terror and anguish.
No. No. No. He was screaming inside, begging and imploring. But the words on the card surfaced to his mind, lettering clear and crisps: 'Rex, for remembrance – H.'
Hell, was burning in his brain.
"What. Happened. To. Six?" he grinded his teeth.
Circe remained staunchly silent. She didn't dare say.
Rex looked to the blinding sun and swallowed a big gulp of air to try to quell the rush of bad feeling churning within his gut.
"Fine, I'll ask Noah."
"No!" Circe screamed, but he cut the line.
Five calls this time, before Noah decided to answer.
"What's up, joker?" Noah tone was equally cold and hard as when he picked up earlier.
"Noah," Rex skipped all the pleasantries, "What happened to Six?"
The short pause was a momentous build up to explosion on the other line.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You are asking me this now? What, you just fucking woke up from some mega shock and realized only now, that Six is fucking gone?"
It was Rex's turn to be silent. Except for his heavy breathing that matched Noah's.
The endless canyons swung sharply on all angles as his vision spun. Rex nearly collapsed, legs suddenly weak, but he fell onto one knee instead, and braced the floor with his palms.
Six is…
Rex squeezed his eyes shut, willing for it to be untrue. Wishing that he hadn't heard it. But Noah wouldn't lie about something like that. So when he finally found the words to reply, he could only croak in a strained, broken voice.
"Show me, please."
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The tears only found their way out upon kneeling on the cold, hard cement of Six's grave. They fell pitter patter like raindrops, adding dark spots on the ash grey stone.
The noon sun was still hot and beat down on his back, but all that Rex felt, was cold, freezing cold and chill of a loved one disappearing and leaving his side without his knowing. Hours must have passed since his knees became numb. Rex didn't care.
It was a shock to find that Six was already six feet under. Rex promptly collapsed on his knees, staring and unmoving at the headstone that had Six's name in bold, engraved onto it.
In beloved memory, a hero, a soldier, a leader, a friend, an anchor.
His death date marked nine years ago. How could that fucking be?
How could I have let this happen? If Rex had been around, he would die before Six did – he wouldn't let shit happen to Six.
A snap in a twig, the soft trudge of boots on the gravel path, halting just steps behind him, told Rex that Noah had finally arrived. Since telling Rex the address to where he would find Six, Rex zipped over on his turbine wings so he reached earlier.
"How…" Rex started, swallowing hard, half turning his head sideways to address Noah, "did this happen?"
Noah exhaled deeply and loudly, and threw a short, white stick onto the ground before he stubbed the embers with his boots. A cigarette? It took Rex about two seconds to realize. Since when did Noah smoke?
"You don't remember?" Noah sounded suspicious, voice tight. Rex could hear all his anger and disbelief beneath his stretched voice. Rex felt his chest tighten further, like his lungs became constricted and he couldn't breathe.
Rex shook his head woodenly, head still downcast. He dare not meet Noah's eyes, fearing to see eyes of anger and hate as harsh as how he sounds, directed at him.
"Not that I can't remember. But I really don't know what happened. It was like I told you, this morning. One moment I was fighting alongside you, and the next, I was in Circe's bed, with a daughter on bouncing up and down the house."
"That's fucking retarded!" Noah's snarl jolted Rex, as it was so venomous, it took him by surprise, "You can't be fighting together with me, because you left providence. You gave up the fight. You stopped protecting others because you wanted to only protect your idyll dream. It's because of you, that Six was gone."
Rex squeezed his eyeballs shut, wishing it was all a nightmare. Noah was blaming Rex and it hurt, because Noah would never blame Rex so venomously like this. Something had happened in this past – something that Rex did or didn't do but he fucking didn't know what that was.
"What did I do?"
The moment those words left his mouth, he felt Noah's heavy fist connecting with his jaw, sending him twisting sideways and sprawled face down into the dirt. Rex coughed and sputtered, shocked more than anything.
"You didn't turn up –that's what you did!" Noah bellowed overhead, "Providence kept calling. I kept calling. But nothing. You ignored us. Cut us off -"
"That's not fucking possible!" Rex roared into the ground, losing all his cool, losing his head, which was might as well have been lost already because he could hardly make sense of these crazy things happening. He started shaking, bracing his elbows on the gravel, leaning his heavy head on the rough ground.
Sobs racked through him, an overwhelming sense of lost, of confusion, of disbelief, of anger, over this reality that shouldn't be his. It poured out of him that instant, that torrential storm that had already been gathering inside as he struggled with the sudden loss of Six. He banged the gravel with the underside of his fists, striking over and over with maddening need to release the hurricane spinning from his chest to his limbs.
"It's fucking impossible. None of this makes any sense. This shouldn't happen. Shouldn't happen at all!" Rex kept chanting over and over as he slammed his fists on the ground, not caring that his skin has already split from cuts, scraped by the uneven, rough gravel. If he willed it, he could have made his fist as hard as steel, and skin as tough as leather. But his defence nanites were slack now.
"You are putting up an awfully good show, for a bastard who had fucking abandoned his friends," Noah accused pointedly, voice equally thick with emotion.
There was sound of flint, of a lighter clicking. And the deep sound of inhalation. Rex guessed that Noah had lighted another cigarette, taking a deep puff.
To calm his anger? Rex wasn't sure. Only that this side of Noah was strange and foreign to him.
"You never smoke," Rex pointed out shakily, still unable to wrap his head on these new revelations.
"Well I do, now."
"And I'm not supposed to be married to Circe, or have a kid, and Six is not supposed to be dead," Rex went on. "And I have not quit Providence. I wouldn't. Wouldn't even think of it."
"You did. For Circe. She convinced you, at Six's funeral."
Rex took a sharp intake of breath, feeling like he was going to asphyxiate.
"No, impossible. I wouldn't have left, not even if she begged me. I would have avenged Six."
"Really?" Noah raised his voice again, sounding incredulous, "I can't believe you have the fucking gall to act the fucking anamnestic victim. I'm tired, Rex. There's still alot of shit at Providence that needs to be done. I needa go."
On hearing that, Rex became gripped with anxiety with the need to go back to the only place he belonged. To check it out and see what terrifying changes had taken place in this nightmare.
"HQ, what happened to it?" Rex asked, "Is Holiday there? Bobo? And White Knight? Take me with you." Rex started to get up, pushing one knee off the ground first.
But he froze when he felt the hard barrel of a gun at the back of his head.
"You, are not Rex," Noah crazily declared.
To be continued….