(I… tried :P)

Rex, you absolute idiot," Van Kleiss's voice called out to him, "Wake up sometime today."

Rex felt something sharp poke the tip of his nose and trail down to his forehead, easing him out of his unconsciousness. Opening his eyes, he found himself lying down on a soft bed, comfortable and unrestrained. A series of white bandages adorned his body, wrapped around various parts of his legs and stomach. He attempted to touch them out of curiosity, but his hand was swiftly whacked away.

"What is wrong with you?" his enemy asked, tying the last of the bandages to the teen's shin. "You worry about me killing you, yet you nearly murdered yourself down there. Have you lost your mind?"

Rex struggled to regain his memories, but finally recalled the fiasco with the wasp EVOs.

"I... you told me you'd help me if I plucked their wings," the boy muttered. "So that's what I did. Or tried to, at least."

"You are incredibly lucky I stepped in before any permanent damage was done, or they would have skinned you alive. I didn't do this to you. You are the one who used incorrect weaponry against them. Electricity, Rex? I told you they were resistant."

Rex shook his head. "I... I just wanted to finish the job. I didn't know they were that powerful. You didn't tell me they eat metal."

Van Kleiss scoffed. "It doesn't matter if I did or not. You fought EVOs perfectly well with Providence. Is your poor performance due to a lack of recent training? I haven't had you do much of it since you began grieving. Perhaps that's the cause."

A failure.

Rex buried his face into the sheets beneath him, his face reddening. "I'm sorry."

"You should be. You wasted my time and equipment."

"I'm not talking to you."

The king paused for a moment, then stared suspiciously into the younger EVO's eyes. "Then who are you talking to? I believe you were cured."

"I'm not hallucinating, if that's what you're thinking," the teen responded. "I'm apologizing to Holiday and Six and Bobo. My family. I let them die."

Why should he have lived?

"I'm not surprised you think this," the man remarked. "I don't suppose these thoughts have anything to do with your near death?"

"They...do?

"Out with it, then. Stop stalling."

Though his face was still mostly behind the bedsheets, Rex turned his head enough to look the man in the eye- or at least, he tried to. "They didn't deserve to die."

"That's debatable, but I know that's not all that's bothering you. You've had quite some time to get over that mentality."

"Tú también me molestas."

"Permanecer en el tema."

Rex let out a huff. "Ugh, I hate that. You won't even let me escape into Spanish."

"It's quite the advantage," Van Kleiss informed him. "Rex. I am not attacking you. I am merely trying to make an analysis of your thoughts. If they nearly killed you, they're not something to be ignored."

The boy let out a long, deep sigh, shifting his gaze towards his bandages. "I feel bad. About them, you know... dying."

"Obviously."

"No, it's a different kind of bad. I feel guilty."

The king raised a brow, the pieces clicking together in his mind. "Oh, I see. Do you feel guilty for surviving?"

The teen stared up at him. "Aren't you weirded out by that? You're not gonna call me crazy?"

"You say that as if you want me to."

"I don't want you to! But I just feel really bad because they didn't deserve it! I don't know why I feel bad about living after the explosion. I mean, I want to live, but my mind is telling me there's something wrong about it. I can't tell if it's loneliness or just plain- I don't even know! It feels like betrayal to just forget about them and move on! It's why I had to keep fighting the wasps! I-"

A single glance at the man's unamused expression made him realize how loud his rant had become.

"And now, you definitely think I'm crazy," Rex finished, his voice reduced to a whisper.

Van Kleiss rested his chin in his palm. "I've seen people with your mentality back in my warrior days. You're not insane, but you do have an issue with your thought processes."

"So... you don't think I'm crazy?"

"To put it simply, because nothing else seems to be getting through to you, you have survivor's guilt."

Rex frowned, slowly sitting up out of curiosity. "Explain."

"What's there to explain?" the man asked. "You said it yourself. You feel guilty for having survived, and chances are, it's because you don't feel that they deserved to die while you didn't. Guilt for something that wasn't in your control, which is why it's irrational- though a well documented phenomenon."

"Oh," the boy breathed. "I thought I was just being... stupid. But I didn't know why."

"I'm not surpris- well actually, in a sense, I am. It's strange to have that much of an attachment to people who hurt you. Nonetheless-"

"Shut up about that," Rex snapped, his melancholy vanishing for the moment. "You know that hurts. You can just say "coworkers" and leave it at that."

The king narrowed his eyes at the child. "I took you in and fixed you. In fact, I'm continuing to fix you. Don't you tell me what to do unless you want a real reason to cry until your lose your voice."

Rex glared at him.

"We can discuss that later," Van Kleiss went on, ignoring the child's radiating resentment. "Now, for the more important things. I believe your condition is what is lengthening your grieving process for longer than it should. As you said, that's why you're so adamant on finding the cause of your... coworkers' deaths. However, you might be acting against your own wishes."

"You're lying."

"No, I'm being quite serious. Let's say we find that the cause of their deaths was torture, strangulation, decapitation, electrocution, or even a mix of the four. Tell me, would that make your feelings of guilt weaker, or stronger?"

The boy froze. "Don't... don't say that."

The king shook his head. "No. If you truly want to investigate, you should prepare for the worst. But you must also acknowledge that you're already being irrationally affected. Are you going hurt yourself with your mission?"

"Wait," the younger EVO began, "You're talking like you're allowing me to go."

"That's because I am. Though your work was shoddy at best, you did manage to clip a few wings for me, so you kept your end of the deal. At the end of the day, I still have control over you regardless. The question is if you're ready to handle finding out the truth."

Rex shifted his gaze towards his lap, his eyes wandering over the stains of blood that formed at the last minute. "It would... put me at peace. Even if it does hurt. I can handle it."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so."

"You don't seem like it. You can hardly look me in the eye."

The teen bit his lip. "I know what you're trying to do, and I'm not falling for your stupid head games. You're pretending you care about what's gonna happen to me if I find out, but you're just trying to... what's the word..."

Van Kleiss grinned. "Discourage you? I never stated I care about the effects on you, nor did I imply it. I merely told you what could happen."

"You're not going to dupe me, so stop trying," Rex retorted. "You don't want me to go because you wanna keep me locked up, and plus, it's obvious you're just trying to alienate them from me. Admit it- you're trying to scare me away. I already know what you're like, so the least you could do is stop being fake with me."

His enemy raised a brow. "What an interesting accusation. If you truly want honesty, know this. I would prefer you didn't hurt yourself."

"That doesn't even make sense," the boy ridiculed. "If I did, what does it matter to you? It's not like you care."

"For one, I didn't go through the effort to keep you alive just so you can damage yourself," the king began. "At least attempt to preserve some of my hard work. Secondly, you are under my control, and I'd rather a stronger person served me, rather than a weak imbecile. Lastly, you're a child, and a victim on top of it. You don't deserve pain unless you earn it."

Rex scoffed. "You can scratch that last part out. You've hurt me before."

"Yes, and you earned that," the man explained. "Ultimately, my goal is not murder, but that tends to become necessary for certain missions."

"That's still sick and twisted," the boy argued. "You don't even care if you kill anyone! You just do it. You don't give a f-"

"Can you truly tell me that Providence has never hurt anyone?"

Rex sat in silence, scowling at the man. He supposed he should have learned a long time ago that it was impossible to rationalize with the enemy, but after glancing at the clock, he decided it also wasn't the appropriate time to. Midnight was only a half hour away, and this wasn't what they were discussing in the first place at all.

"I wanna go to Providence and find out what happened to them," the teen announced determinedly. "I've made my decision. I didn't hurt myself for your wasp wings just to give up."

"Fine, then," his enemy responded. "Be prepared to leave in the morning."