(This chapter was a necessary evil tbh)
Before Rex could reach out to touch the device, the buzzing in his body intensified to twice the sensation it had been before. Anywhere that the ashes touched his skin was marked by a static- like feeling in his nerves, causing him to shiver and clutch his limbs as if they were to escape from his body. He tried to stand and shake the ashes off, but the more he contact they made with his skin, the stronger the buzzing became, causing him to panic.
He was soon relived by a golden gauntlet pulling him into the air, shaking him viciously, then setting him back on the ground.
"Ow!" the teen groaned, rubbing his neck where the collar had pulled against. "I didn't ask you to help me up!"
Van Kleiss shook his head. "You weren't going to manage it yourself, clearly. Stop complaining."
"Lay off and let me see this for a second."
The teen slowly reached down to lift the radio and set it on the command center's large, round table, examining it for every detail he could find. It appeared to be much less technologically equipped than most of Providence's devices, and wasn't made with matching high quality material. Amidst highly developed machinery, it seemed like a plaything for someone of the past- too primitive to be used in this day and age.
"Why would they have one of these?" Rex wondered aloud, running his fingers across the edges. "They're super outdated."
"Perhaps it was for emergencies," the king responded. "I suppose they valued all technology, even the kinds that aren't used as often anymore. Odd, especially for an organization like Providence."
"You know what else is weird? There's no dusty crap on it."
The older EVO trailed his reddish eyes across the radio a second time, realizing that the boy was right. It seemed to be devoid of any surrounding filth, completely mismatching the rest of the room's equipment. A simple touch with his human finger only affirmed the observation- not the slightest buzzing sensation accompanied it.
"I don't believe in coincidence, Rex," the man spoke up after a while. "At least, not to this degree. It's too unusual for it to be this untouched in a setting such as this one."
Rex poked and prodded at the dials, wishing his nanites could work again. "And what would that mean?"
"At this point, simply that I might have been wrong about something before," Van Kleiss explained. "Unlikely, but a there's still a very slim chance."
"Shocking," the teen muttered sarcastically, searching for the battery compartment. "What's your lightbulb moment telling you now?"
"We're not alone."
Immediate chills began to run up the boy's spine like he'd pressed against a live wire, prompting him to snap his head up.
"That sounds like the start of a ghost story," Rex pointed out. "What are you even talking about? I don't see anyone around."
"If you recall how I told you that no one returned to these ruins due to everything being untouched, you may now believe I'd spoken too soon. This radio might have been planted here after the explosion- after all, it's too clean for something on the floor in the first place, let alone intact after a disastrous event."
The boy stared at him. "Someone came back."
Rex lifted the radio into his arms and held it tightly in order to keep his hold firm, turning around to leave the room. The man frowned, feeling that while the boy had gained some information out of him, he himself hadn't quite satisfied his curiosity yet.
"Don't leave just yet," the gauntlet-clad EVO commanded. "Where did Providence keep the syringes?"
The teen froze in his tracks.
"Don't act as if I'm going to bite you, Rex," Van Kleiss insisted, though he was entertained by the reaction nonetheless. "You're too easily wound up. I simply want to collect samples of ashes to take back for analysis, and I need the proper equipment to carry them."
"They're... I don't know... in the labs?" the younger EVO guessed. "Upper floors. I they're crushed, though. The explosion ruined most of the building."
"Fine. I suppose I'll have to use these dirty mugs for now."
The boy watched as he picked up an old coffee mug from one of the tables- it's owner clearly not requiring caffeine anymore- and scooped a pile of ashes into it.
"That's really gross," the teen remarked. "You don't know where that's bee-"
A deafening howl cut him off mid-sentence.
"What... was that?" Rex asked, clutching the radio even tighter against his chest.
"Biowulf," Van Kleiss murmured, suddenly rushing out of the room.
Running out of the building, the two made their way past the masses of corpses they'd seen earlier, letting the open breeze hit their face. The agonized noises became louder and louder as they sped towards the remains of the Petting Zoo, prompting them to search for the mechanical EVO. Rex kept his eyes out for the familiar blue fur and long snout, but after pushing aside some minuscule rocks with his bare hands, he found something far stranger.
Blackened fur.
Biowulf lay unsteadily on the grass, thrashing wildly as if being attacked by an invisible swarm of hornets. The pained growls that escaped his throat jarred the boy out of any sense of peace he'd had, prompting him to back away in instinct. The blue EVO's body seemed to be sizzling, and by the time Van Kleiss reached the scene just after him, Biowulf was nearly out of energy to howl at all.
"Breach!" the king called out, communicating with her through a hidden earpiece, "Return us to Abysus now!"
A shroud of bright red encompassed their bodies, returning them to the castle's throne room.
"What- what's going on?" Rex asked quickly, watching Biowulf whimper on the cool grey floors. Strangely, the mechanical EVO's pain seemed to lessen, judging by the slowly decreasing movement that wracked his body. Still, it was obvious that Biowulf was in great distress.
"Master, help," the large EVO gasped, panting between words. "I'm- fire. Please. I'm burning!"
The gauntlet-clad EVO nodded. "Breach, transport him down to the coldest of the castle's rooms underground. Set the temperature to zero degrees. I'll be down soon."
As soon as Biowulf had been teleported away, the man turned to the teen. The expression he saw on Rex's face was one of simultaneous fear and confusion, and after trailing his eyes down below, he could see that the boy's fingers had become bright red from gripping the radio so fiercely. More than likely, it seemed, the grip was a subconscious reaction- an attempt by his mind to have some stability in the situation.
"I believe we've just discovered why the place was deserted," Van Kleiss began. "Whatever kept people away is clearly still active."
"He said he was on fire!" the teen spouted frantically. "Someone tried to burn him alive while we were gone!"
"Firstly, calm down. Clutch that machine any tighter, and your fingers are going to bleed. Secondly, don't make assumptions until we ask Biowulf for explicit details. He didn't mention a person. You're safe now, so just relax. We're not at Providence anymore."
Rex, now aware of the state of his hands, loosened his grip- albeit painfully. The metal had left harsh indentations in his his fingers, but that wasn't what bothered him the most. The jarring part of the man's words dawned upon him as an undeniable truth- for the first time in his life, he saw Abysus as safe, and Providence as a dangerous zone.
How fast could his world flip upside down?
The king sensed the internal stress blossoming inside the child. "If you want to try to forget what happened- at least, for now- I suggest a nap to sleep the stress off."
"Everything's backwards." the teen muttered staring at the floor. He hardly noticed the older EVO gently remove the radio from his reddened arms. "I wanted to find answers, not more questions."
"Consider it your own private investigation, if nothing else. Clearly, the media couldn't fulfill their promise of finding out the cause of Providence's explosion. But you're no average person, so I believe you have a better chance of it. Additionally..."
Rex hardly heard the man's words while nearly drowning himself in an internal ocean of guilt. He'd fought hard for his first chance to go back and find what killed Holiday and Six, and instead of achieving peace, he'd allowed himself to be taken away quickly like a coward. He'd only spent an hour there, and hadn't even discovered anything useful. What was worse was that they were attacked by something- or someone- he couldn't even see.
Who hated him this much?
"... complications and subsequent treatment- Rex. Are you listening to me?"
The boy shook his head. "Honestly? No. But I don't want to right now, okay? I already feel bad enough as it is. Don't make it worse."
The king raised a brow, slightly taken aback by the blunt answer. "Fine, then. But if you push yourself to start crying, don't hold me accountable for it. Right now, I'm going to attend to someone a bit saner. Biowulf could probably be much more coherent than you, judging by your unstable mindset."
Van Kleiss began to walk away towards the direction of the halls, but to his surprise, the younger EVO began to follow him.
"And just why are you coming?" the man asked, making a turn to his left. "Eat something. Go to sleep. Do something to keep your mind occupied if you're so stressed."
Rex shook his head. "No. Biowulf has answers to what happened back there. They might not be all the answers I need, but hearing them is the least I could do to make it up to Six and Holiday."
"The very least you could also do is not be bothersome. Don't have an episode while I'm trying to heal an injured soldier, and I'll tolerate you. That shouldn't be too much to ask."
The boy huffed, but remained silent- after all, he wouldn't want anyone wailing their lungs out at his bedside if he was sick either. The real reason that had led him to follow his enemy to the cooler, underground chambers wasn't something he wanted to make so transparent, however.
It was true that he needed details from the blue EVO to find out what had happened at Providence, but he also felt unsafe in the throne room. Yes, it was unlikely that the malevolent forces- or people- that hurt Biowulf had somehow entered the portal with them, but at the same time, so were the chances of an armed organization like a Providence exploding in the first place. To ease the uneasiness eating away at him, Rex decided to seek comfort in one of the most primal methods since the dawn of humanity.
To put it simply, he didn't want to be alone.
