Circling birds were gradually winding downward, beginning their slow descent toward a body nearly buried in the sand. It was the hunting hour for vultures, where the sun no longer burned as bright, but the sand was still warm from the hours it spent absorbing its heat. Rex felt half-drowned in the warm sandy sea, sweating from only lying still under the heat of the sun. He could have been mistaken for one of the dead.
Beneath his ear, he could still hear the incessant chiming of nanites in the ground, sharing strings of code with each other. Nanites whirred, whining at a pitch that only Rex could hear; zeroes, ones, and zeroes pounded within his skull, preventing him from ever truly being alone. His entire life could have been summed up as one huge noise. Once, it terrified him. At night, he would lay awake shaking, unable to comprehend the codes relayed through the air overhead. Providence was full of computers, machines communicating with one another, even at the most basic of levels.
The Earth was alive. The sounds of life could be found in more than just the vegetation and animals that thrived on it.
When he opened his eyes, he awoke to find himself face first in the sand.
Groaning softly, he pushed himself up from the floor, eyes burning from the unexpected brightness of the desert and the particles of sand on his lashes. Tears of irritation pricked at the corners of his eyes. Squinting, he rubbed his face, trying to clear his vision. It took them a moment to adjust to the sunny day. The last thing Rex remembered, before Breach had sent him away, was that it'd been dark.
Now he was stranded. Alone, except not really. Not even the barren desert was silent. He really shouldn't have expected the absence of sound anyway. A little bit of static at his ear was there to give him his first bit of help. He still had his communicator. Taking two of his fingers, he pressed them to the device, testing it.
"Hello?" He asked, his voice small. Was anyone on the line?
More static. Then: "This is a secured Providence line. Identify yourself."
"It's me…" He said dumbly, head scrambled by space-time breaching. He shook his head and amended, "I mean it's Rex Salazar."
A million questions were burning at the tip of his tongue. What happened? If it was sunrise, then he'd been out for at least the whole night. Was Breach okay? His body was still shocked, and the only thing he could manage to say was, "I'm… lost."
"Rex Salazar?" The agent's voice sounded disbelieving. "Is that really you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Is everything okay?"
"Rex, if that's really you… Remain where you are. We'll send someone to your location."
"'If that's really-'" Rex stopped mid quote, scoffing. "Who else would it be? Seriously, what's going on?"
"It's… It's a little complicated." The agent said cryptically. "Just stay where you are. Someone's heading your way right now."
It wasn't like he could go anywhere even if he wanted to. He didn't know where 'his way' was.
The line went dead.
Rex's eyes flitted over his surroundings, wondering if they literally wanted him to stay in place, slowly boiling alive. Groaning, he raised his arms over his head, trying to keep as cool as possible. Because none of his questions had been answered, the wait was killing him worse than the temperature. If it was a secured line, there was no secrecy necessary. Why couldn't they have filled him in while he waited? Leave it to White Knight to be overly paranoid about information leaks. Weirdo.
By the time the Providence agents arrived, he had removed his jacket entirely, forced to use it as a shield from the sun. He practically ran to the jet they sent for him, kicking up dirt on his way to get to the doors.
"What took you guys? I was melting! If you left me out there any longer, there'd probably be no more… Rex…" His voice tapered off when he found that he could not recognize the pilot. The uniform was not one he'd ever seen. Instead of Providence's customary black and white color scheme, the armor was entirely black. It set off a warning bell in his head.
"Who are you?" Rex frowned. He was aboard one of Providence's standard issued jets. If they were heading home, wouldn't they have sent someone he knew from base?
"I'm Agent 00142 from Providence's Black Pawn division of soldiers."
"We have a Black Pawn division? How come I've never heard of you?" There was no way to properly scrutinize the agent, not when his helmet was on, guarding his every expression. It didn't matter that Rex couldn't see him, everything about him was wrong. The strangeness of his uniform. How he supplied him with a number and not a name. The fact that nobody had ever mentioned 'Black Pawns,' in Rex's entire four years of working with Providence. Something was amiss.
"We're a separate branch of Providence not under White Knight's command." The pilot's words were carefully delivered, making it clear to Rex that he would not get anything out of him unless he asked directly. And maybe not even then.
"If you're not under White Knight's command..." Rex took a step backward, closer to the door. "Then whose command are you under?"
He didn't recall Providence having split leadership. Then again, he also never asked many questions about Providence's chain of command. He assumed it was straight forward and that everyone who breathed within the organization's walls answered to White. Rex blinked a few times, only recognizing at that moment that he never properly paid attention to how Providence was managed. Maybe if he'd listened better at their meetings, he wouldn't have been left so clueless.
"We take our orders directly from the Consortium."
That name sounded somewhat familiar to him. There was also the chance that his mind was conjuring up fake memories to alleviate how strange the situation was for him. The sensation of wrongness was only amplified by his gaps in knowledge.
"Okay. The Consortium. And they are?"
"That is classified information. Providence's acting leader will brief you on everything you've missed since your disappearance." The agent responded dully. He didn't even seem to care that Rex was inwardly losing it!
Inhaling deeply, Rex tried not to blow up at him and flopped into one of the ship's seats, swiveling around to quell his frustration. "Well, you're useless. Do you at least have anything to drink in here? I've been stranded out there for…"
He paused, freezing in his chair. "How long have I been gone?"
"Rex Salazar was officially declared missing six months ago. Although, it is unlikely you've been out in the desert for that long. We could not get a read on your location and were unable to trace you after Breach sent you through that wormhole. Wherever you were, it was not on this Earth."
Horrible understanding dawned on Rex, followed by disbelief and hurt.
"Six months? Didn't anybody try looking for me?" But the fact that nobody familiar had come to greet him was glaring. "Where is everybody?"
"That is classified information. Providence's acting leader will brief you on-"
"I heard you the first time!" The teenager cut him off sharply, folding his arms across his chest, glaring out of the wind shield at the bright white clouds that hadn't come to his rescue when he'd been frying in the sand. Six months. He'd lost six months of time. It was bad enough he couldn't recollect more than half of his entire life. Now, he was going to be a stranger to the world he'd not been a part of for half a year. Half a year was so very long when he hadn't experienced much of life to begin with. His glare softened into a pained expression.
The ship landed on the roof of a building unfamiliar to him. It was not the base that had become a home to Rex over the years, although it was still retained Providence's signature eggshell white color from the outside. The bright sun reflected off of the structure, making him squint when he jumped out of the keep. The heat assured him that they were still in an arid environment, so even if this wasn't home, it had to be close or a neighboring outpost. Rex did not allow himself to lower his guard simply because he could somewhat recognize the building. He wasn't going to relax until he knew what the hell was going on. Swallowing hard, he followed the agent into the building. A flight of stairs lead them down from the roof's entry point. It was darker inside. He didn't like the way the blinding bright colors began to dull into darker shades as they walked through the hallway.
Finally, they stopped at a door which Agent 00142 opened and shut for him. Inside was a dimly lit office. The only light that entered the building came from the large windows behind the desk and the person seated there. It wasn't White Knight they'd brought him to meet, but a woman with black clothing and a neutral expression on her face. Her face was partially obscured by short dark hair that hung in her face. Rex had never met her before in his life, but in the back of his mind, he felt like he should have known someone as official looking as she was. He'd clearly missed some important aspects of Providence which he now regretted. Normally, not knowing something hardly bothered him. Providence's more bureaucratic affairs was all Greek to him. Now, it put him at a disadvantage he didn't like. He didn't enjoy being lost when something big was clearly going on. If he'd paid attention to White's board room lectures, maybe he'd have a clue as to who these people were.
Furrowing his brows, Rex regarded the woman with caution. "So… Are you the one in charge here? Or do I have to keep waiting to find to someone who'll actually talk to me?"
Surprising him completely, the woman smiled. "Welcome back, Rex. You've had quite the trip."
"Yeah. So I've heard."
"There's no need for the hostility. We're on the same side, although I understand how difficult it must be for you to believe that much. We've been dealing with your disappearance among other crises for months. So, even if this is new to you, it isn't for us. Forgive us for not mentally being where you are." She rose from her seat, walking around her desk to stand in front of it. "I'm Black Knight. I've acting as Providence's leader ever since White Knight became… indisposed."
"Indisposed?" He tensed when he realized she was closer to him. Every alarm in his body was sounding off at once, warning him that she was not his friend. This wasn't right. She seemed to welcome him. She smiled at him like an ally.
"When you were declared missing, it lost the world a valuable asset. You, Rex, can accomplish what no other person can. You are the only cure to the nanite plague." She explained like he didn't already know. Way to state the obvious. She continued, "White Knight was going to be held accountable for your loss by the Consortium, the entity that funds and oversees Providence."
So the Consortium were the higher ups. Even the boss had his own bosses then, Rex mused.
"He couldn't cope with the fact that he was being removed from his leadership position." Black Knight's lips twisted grimly. "So he went and got himself infected with nanites and became an incredibly lethal EVO. Providence's Nevada facility has since been under quarantine. Nobody is allowed in or out. Not that anybody managed to make it out once he turned."
"I don't believe you." Rex scoffed. "White Knight? Willingly infecting himself with nanites? The dude's a total germaphobe. Yeah, he's a control freak, but he wouldn't become the one thing he hated most in the world just because he was afraid he'd be removed as Providence's leader. The job fucking sucks! I doubt he was even happy in that position. He was just in it because he hated EVOs, not because he was power hungry or had some kind of leadership complex. Nobody else wanted to do it."
It was true. He was the only nanite free man in the world. Being the leader of an organization created to combat nanites and their mutations was a job practically designed for someone like him. Sometimes, being an unbiased EVO hater did make him shit at his job when empathy was required for certain cases. However, Rex wasn't going to lie, not everyone could make the hard calls that White did. The teenager experienced that firsthand every time he fought alongside many agents who died or were no longer around due to the severity of the injuries they received during the harshest of battles. Rex would never have been able to stomach the guilt of sending people to their deaths.
"You don't have to take my word for it." Black Knight shrugged.
She made her way back behind the desk once again, typing something up on her computer. Once she found what she was looking for, Black Knight turned the monitor around so that he could see whatever video she pulled up.
"You can see it for yourself. I have no reason to lie to you." She stated. "This is a live feed coming from outside of Providence Headquarters. Excuse the low quality. The cameras had to be set up a safe distance away. One of White's mutations allows him to manipulate technology, and the last thing we needed was for him to hijack our equipment."
Rex leaned forward, watching the live feed. From what he could discern, the building was practically falling apart. Clearly, nobody had been able to keep up with the maintenance. Like vines, there were wires and cords that crawled up the sides of the building and no lights were on. The place was abandoned. Still, he couldn't bring himself to fully buy what Black Knight was saying.
"There's no proof that this was White." He continued to deny. "There's no proof."
"We have footage from just before he turned if you need to see it, too. As I said, I have no reason to lie to you. We're on the same side, Rex."
The frustration scrambling his thoughts made it so difficult to put into words what he was feeling. What he was thinking. He wanted to blame her because someone had to be responsible. He needed to blame her for something because she had to be at fault. People didn't just go EVO, and-
"You just abandoned them all there!" He accused. "You didn't even go back for everyone who worked there. You just forgot about them completely!"
"That isn't what happened at all." Black Knight clicked her tongue. "Don't jump to conclusions when you don't understand anything that happened during the last six months. There was no reason for us to assume that there were any survivors. Knowing that, we still went ahead and attempted to recover the bodies. All rescue teams who went in never came back out. Instead of wasting resources on lost causes, we opted to close off that section of the desert completely."
Rex gritted his teeth. No survivors?
"I'll go, then. I'll figure out what's happening inside. I can…" It made him sick to even consider that people might not have been alive anymore. "...I can recover the bodies. Maybe I can even cure White."
Black Knight arched a brow. "No."
"I wasn't really asking permission, lady." He glared.
"Once again, I'd like to point out that we're not enemies, Rex." She said calmly. The only thing that betrayed her annoyance with him was the way she drummed her fingers on the desk. 'Get it through your head already,' her posture read as she tap, tap, tapped her nails impatiently. "We are aware of your numerous escape attempts while White Knight was leading Providence. Let me get one thing straight with you. Unlike him, I don't have time to play babysitter and retrieve you everytime you want to run away from your responsibilities."
The implication was clear. Rex flinched, feeling as though he'd just been called an idiotic child.
"You're the solution to this endemic. We both know you won't stop curing EVOs. It's not in your nature to ignore the suffering of others. As long as you continue carrying out the functions of a cure, you're free to walk out of here. We've already learned to adapt in your absence, and we'll continue to do our job as long as you do yours. You don't have to work with us at all-"
Rex's brows rose. They were going to let him go? Just like that?
"-but you'll lose our aid once you leave. You'll find that it will be much easier to have Providence's support and backing than to have nothing at all. The team you formerly worked with isn't here to help you anymore. We don't even know if they are alive. If you walk away now, you'll have nobody. You'll be on your own. That is the alternative you are looking at."
Alone.
Rex was all alone.
She was right. If he walked away, he wouldn't have anywhere to go. At least when he was still with Providence, they were able to accomplish a lot of good working together. But attempting the same while all alone? If she wasn't lying, his friends and family were all stuck in quarantine or worse. And whether he liked it or not, Providence was his only tenuous link to any updates on what was happening to them. His eyes began to sting, but he didn't have anymore arguments for her, fully understanding her line of reason. He couldn't do this all alone. He didn't want to be by himself.
"Why can't we at least try?" Rex pleaded. "I fight EVOs all the time. How is this any different?"
It was awful. The thought of it was sickening. How could he go on to perform heroics, cure the world, and help others when he couldn't save the people closest to him. That was his family and they'd been in need of help for months on end. And where had he been the entire time? He was shaking now, trying to repress the urge to snap at Black Knight.
"White Knight wasn't infected with your run-of-the-mill nanites." Black Knight answered. "He got his hands on one of the Master Control Nanites. It is a different situation from your standard EVO encounters. A Master Control Nanite grants a user power over the fabric of the Universe. Do you understand, now? We've only just recovered you. Losing you right away wouldn't look so good."
Before Rex could voice his apathy concerning how anything 'looked,' Black Knight held up a finger. "Fortunately, we've already decided what we're going to do about the situation. You just need to stick to the plan. There are five Master Control Nanites, and White Knight only has one of them. When we gather the rest, we may stand a better chance at combating him. If all goes well, you'll be reunited with your team."
"Yeah. If they're even alive by the time we find all these special nanites." Rex agreed sarcastically. Who knew how long that could take.
"With your help, it could be faster than you think." Black Knight countered. "It's unlike you to be so negative."
He wondered how long they'd been watching him since they were capable of making all kinds of assumptions about his character. 'We are aware of your numerous escape attempts while White Knight was leading Providence.' 'It's not in your nature to ignore the suffering of others.' And now: 'It's unlike you to be so negative.' He shuddered, but shouldn't have been so skeeved out. Of course Providence kept files and tabs on him. Being reminded that he was an abnormal test subject wasn't pleasant. His eyes shifted off to the side, avoiding his new boss' stare.
"I can be negative if I want..." He grumbled, making her chuckle at the childish display. It only irritated him further. "Where am I supposed to stay then?"
Black Knight didn't answer him. She pulled out a communication device and spoke into it. "I need someone to escort Rex Salazar to the barracks where he'll be staying. Give him a tour of our facility and help him get settled."
It didn't take very long for a soldier to come get him. Together, they walked through the dark base in silence that was occasionally interrupted by an explanation from a solider. Their outpost couldn't have looked more different from home if they'd tried. Rex was starting to understand Black Knight's deal. She was a direct contrast to White Knight and was pulling out all the stops to get that point across. It was kind of gimmicky though and tacky in Rex's opinion. When they got to his living quarters, he was relieved to see that it wasn't a dark shade of gray or black, but a more neutral white.
"If you need anything," The solider pointed to the red 'call' button by the door, "You're free to use this paging system."
"Thanks…" He mumbled halfheartedly, crashing into bed before the agent had even fully left. Rex didn't even bother changing out of his clothes. When the soldier was gone, the loneliness settled in as he lay in the quiet room. Quiet, save for the lines of code swimming through the air, failing to assure him he wasn't alone.