Author's Note: Hey everyone! Thank you YellowAngela, PeacexFreedom, and Guest for motivating me to write another chapter so soon. This one's longer than usual so I hope this tides you over!
Disclaimer: Still own none of this except for the plot
After hearing Van Kleiss's unmistakable voice, Six immediately turned his hover board around and sped as fast as possible to Rex's location, the coordinates had been transmitted when the message came through. What he met was not a pretty sight.
Rex was curled in on himself on the pavement, clutching his head with his hands and screaming in what only can be described as utter agony. The kid was lit up blue, like he did when he was overloading.
"Rex!" Six yelled, jumping off his board. He ran over to his young charge and kneeled down next to him. "What did Van Kleiss do to you?"
Rex's body was shaking out of control at this point. "He injected something... nanites can't handle it... system error..." Rex gasped out between screams.
"Did he tell you what he injected?"
"No... said it was special." Rex yelled out in pain.
Touching his com link, Six yelled, "Holiday! Van Kleiss managed to inject Rex with an unknown toxin!"
"What are his symptoms?" Holiday responded immediately.
"A hell of a lot of pain, listen." Six took the com link out of his ear and held it close to Rex. "He said his nanites can't expel the substance."
The good doctor was obviously trying to stay calm but was failing miserably as panic crept its way into her voice. "Get him to the jet right away and sedate him before taking off, otherwise his nanites might cause you to crash with the state their in." Six heard fingers typing fast on a keyboard. "Then rendezvous with the Keep, which is 42 clicks east of your location. I'll meet you there."
"Roger that."
He looked back to Rex who had loosened his grip on his head and had reduced his pained screams to little whimpers with an occasional yell. Six didn't know which sounded worse to his ears. "Rex I'm going to take you back to the jet and then I'll sedate you. Just hold on."
Rex nodded weakly to show that he had heard the man.
Six figured there was no way Rex was going to be able to move at all let alone get up, so he picked his partner up bridal style before jumping onto his hover board and going top speed to the jump jet.
Rex, who had been weakly clutching at Six's suit, suddenly arched in the man's grasp and his eyes lit p a ghostly blue.
System error... danger eminent... shutdown sequence commence...
The boy went deathly still before closing his eyes and hanging limply in Six's arms, causing the agent alarm.
They made it to the jet and Six dismounted his board and ran onto the aircraft as he commed Holiday. "I'm at the jet. Rex is unconscious, do I still sedate him?"
"Yes, he could wake up mid-flight."
"His eyes lit up blue before he passed out. He said something about a system error," Six told her as he strapped Rex down onto a gurney. He heard Holiday furiously typing on her computer again.
"His nanites levels have flat-lined. They probably shut down to save energy. If he hasn't recovered some by the time you arrive we may have to do a transfusion."
Six prepped the sedative and stuck it into Rex's upper arm. "He's sedated. I'll be at the Keep in less than an hour. Six out."
He started up the jet and headed toward Providence's base away from base. Turning on autopilot, Six went back to check on Rex. He looked down at the kid sleeping peacefully when minutes ago he had been in, presumably, the most pain in his life. "Everything will be okay," he said more to comfort himself than his unconscious young charge. He ruffled Re's hair and returned t the pilot's seat.
They had finally arrived at the Keep 52 minutes later; none too soon either because as Six was landing he could hear Rex beginning to stir.
Holiday was waiting for them and rushed onboard as soon as the ramp hit the ground in front of her. "The lab is ready to go!" she said hurriedly as she and Six pushed Rex's gurney down the ramp. Seeing Rex was waking up she said, "Don't worry, Rex. We are going to get whatever Van Kleiss put into your system out, just hold on. You're going to be fine."
Rex just nodded tiredly in response; he was having a hard time staying awake, his nanites weren't even close to fully functioning yet.
They ran at neck-breaking speed to the lab and flew through the doors, skidding to a stop in front of the examining table. Six undid the straps and lifted Rex onto the table as Holiday prepped another sedative.
"I'm going to put you under again, okay? One... Two... Three."
Rex awoke to the sound of hushed voices both sounding worried.
"I just don't know what else to do, Six. I've done fully body scans, blood and nanite samples, CAT scans, I even took a sample of his urine. Nothing's there that wasn't there before."
"Rex said Van Kleiss injected something into him. How does that just disappear? He was in so much pain..."
"I've never seen anything like this. If I couldn't clearly see and injection site, I would never even know that something foreign passed through his system. Van Kleiss sure made it special alright," the doctor said bitterly.
"How is Rex doing?"
"His nanites have almost fully recovered and he's sleeping peacefully at the moment. He should be waking soon, though."
Rex decided it was time to open his eyes as his caretakers fell silent. He blinked rapidly in the harsh white light standard of Providence and looked around. He was obviously in the lab, lying in a white hospital bed with an IV attached to his arm. He shifted and found that was a very bad idea. It felt like all of his muscles had been torn to shreds!
His yelp of pain alerted his caretakers that he was finally conscious.
"Good to see you awake, kid," Six said with a rare smile.
"How are you feeling?" Holiday asked as she checked to make sure his pupils weren't dilated.
"Awful." His voice came out raspy from misuse. Six handed him a glass of water.
"I should expect so. Any idea what happened with your nanites there?"
"As soon as Van Kleiss injected whatever into me my nanites freaked out. I guess it was too much for them." Rex tried to shrug it off but he shuddered, remembering the white-hot pain that had seemed to devour him.
His shudder did not go unnoticed by the two adults who exchanged a glance.
"I'm going to go get some coffee," Six said. Rex needed to talk about what happened and he had a feeling Rex would hold back with him in the room.
"Can I have some pizza?" Rex asked looking at the doctor with puppy-dog eyes.
Holiday chuckled. "Fine, but not too much; I don't want you puking in my lab."
"Two coffees and a pizza coming up," Six said as he walked out of the sliding doors.
As soon as the doors closed Holiday pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Rex with a clipboard and pen.
He groaned. There was no way this would be fun.
"Rex I need to know what happened to you when Van Kleiss injected the substance into you. Also, anything he might have said to you will help me figure this out. Spare me no details."
Rex stared at the white ceiling above him as he talked, deciding to in fact tell Holiday everything so she could cure him. "Whatever it was, my nanites just couldn't handle it. They tried to stop it but the toxin just ripped right through them. Then all I could hear was "system error" and eventually they shut down." Rex shuddered and squeezed his eyes closed. When he opened them they were full of tears.
"It was so painful... like I was being stabbed over and over with hot knives..." He trailed off as sobs wracked his body.
Holiday reached over and stroked the teenager's hair in a soothing motion. She hated seeing Rex in such a state; she hadn't done this since he first came to Providence and had all of those horrible nightmares.
Rex leaned into the touch for a couple of minutes before continuing. "He... he said he made it special for me... that I would thank him for it..." Rex told her between shaky sobs. "I heard what you told Six... that it just disappeared... What's going to happen to me? What did he do?!"
The doctor made little shushing noises trying to calm the boy. "I'm so sorry, Rex. I promise you that we will figure this out. You're going to be fine, you always are," she said forcefully but with a kind smile.
Rex smiled a shaky smile back and, with Holiday's help, he sat up in the hospital bed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Holiday got up and came back with a box of tissues. "Here, Six will be back any minute."
"Thanks, Doc," he said before he blew his nose. "For everything."
She smiled and patted his hand. "We'll get through this."
"I know."
The majority of a pizza later, a worn-out Rex was once again fast asleep in Holiday's lab. Six and Holiday sat together a couple of feet away from the boy, watching him slumber as they talked.
"Did Rex tell you everything you needed to know?" Six asked, turning slightly as he addressed the doctor.
"Yes. That was smart thinking leaving the room. He really needed to let it all out."
"How bad is it?"
Holiday turned to face Six completely as she said, "His physical damage is almost healed but his emotional... He's terrified Six. Van Kleiss's toxin could do a multitude of different things to him and Rex fears the worst. He also heard us talking about the substance's disappearance.
Six sighed. The kid had always been an eavesdropper and always managed to hear the worst of every conversation. "So, what do we do now?"
"Now we wait. Until he has some symptoms I can't pinpoint what the toxin's target is." She looked back to Rex. "He'll have to be watched at all times, especially when he's sleeping. He's going to hate it."
Six nodded in agreement. "He'll deal. I'll watch him tonight, you go get some sleep."
"No, Six I'll watch him it's fine," Holiday said before she gave an enormous yawn.
Six raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, but make sure you record any abnormality and jot down his stats every hour. Come get me when he wakes up."
"Understood. Good night, Doctor."
"Good night, Six," Holiday yawned again as she walked out of the lab.
Six brought over a chair and sat down at Rex's side, preparing himself for the long night ahead.