[For anyone asking me when I expect to update- I have no clue. This is just a haphazard hobby for me.]

The elevator was falling.

Rex clung onto the railing on the sides, feeling lightweight due to the rapid speed he was descending at. His stomach churned and soon, it was falling so quickly his feet were almost lifting off the floor. It only struck him moments later how he didn't know if he was truly falling, or if this was simply the world's fastest elevator.

That time he went to space came to mind.

He tried shouting out any names that came to his mind, but realized that it wouldn't make sense for anyone to hear him. A shrill shrieking sound emanated through the air, caused by metal scraping violently against metal. And even so, the elevator didn't slow down one bit. If anything, it only increased the speed it was plummeting at.

Panicking, he looked towards the front of the tiny compartment where the level and emergency buttons were located, hoping to dial police or firefighters. To his horror, only a single button was embedded in the wall.

Hell.

……

…………….

…………………………..

Rex woke up with a shock, lurching forward like he'd been struck by lightning. He coughed, finding himself in a bed- but not the one he was coming around to call his own. He glanced around at his arms to check if anything was attached to or buried underneath his skin, but there were only tiny red pinpricks. On a tray next to him sat a small vial of colorful pills along with a pair of frighteningly sharp scissors.

He shuddered as he exerted effort to stand up, only to feel as if his body was magnetically attracted to the bed itself. The sensation frightened him, but the intensity abated when he learned that it didn't render him entirely immobile. Rex lifted himself up and down to the ground, nearly collapsing when he was forced to hold up his own weight. It was as if he'd become a pile of tired rubber.

"Where am I?" he mumbled, barely awake as he glanced around the room. The mere act of moving his eye muscles was like dragging Velcro across sandpaper, but he managed to catch sight of many news clippings across the walls, as well as a computer, some file cabinets, and a very familiar looking coat hanger…

Just to be sure, the teen stretched his foot forward towards the last item he noticed, feeling solid wood touching his toes.

"I guess it isn't him," Rex yawned, trying to keep alert. It was no easy feat. The memories of the last events began to float into his mind as unorganized bubbles of information, causing him to groan. That giant ball of death would have killed him, if it wasn't for-

Actually, he couldn't remember.

The child stared down at his body, trying to figure out how he had managed to escape. Truth be told, the memories of the event may have returned to him, but they were so incredibly blurry that they were borderline useless. A surge of embarrassment rose within him upon the realizing his clothes were pure white, no doubt something he hadn't put on himself.

Soft murmuring entered his ear, prompting him to turn to the right where a wooden door stood. The quiet words became louder and louder for quite a while, now somewhat discernible. Soon, the doorknob clicked and turned, revealing the origin of the noise.

"You look pathetic," Biowulf sneered as he stepped through the entrance, closing the door behind him. "Do you even know where you are? You're under more drugs than I've ever seen any EVO take."

Rex scowled, though his facial muscles were slow to contort. "I… might. Why are you even here?"

"To see you get what you deserve for the pain you've caused me."

The boy closed his eyes, trying to recall. Images of the blue EVO yelling and burning from no apparent cause flashed through his mind. In any normal circumstance, he would have felt bad, but Biowulf made it hard for anyone to like him.

"Did you think I'd forgotten about what I've suffered?" the mechanical EVO snarled, frustrated with Rex's silence. "You're still intact. I'm going to fix that."

With that, he turned and left, leaving the teen alone with the lingering vague threat. His stomach twisted with discomfort when he realized that he had indeed forgotten entirely about the blue EVO that was part of the unintended destruction he left in his wake. Perhaps even Breach was somehow affected ever since his arrival- her normal crazy was far less lethal than trying to set her own cohorts on fire, including those sick or injured. He'd even directly caused an assault just to gather blood samples in the city. If he was supposed to be the hero, why did he feel like wherever he went, he made everything worse?

It was the "survivor's guilt", wasn't it? Perhaps his gloomy feelings were an extension of it. Or maybe he had trouble taking responsibility for the damage he caused? He couldn't quite tell if he could be trusted to interpret his own emotions anymore. Possibly, he was simply too drugged up to think properly. His brain felt less like a machine, and more like mush. He hoped it wasn't permanent.

"Behold, he is risen."

Rex looked up to find Van Kleiss entering the doorway, carrying a clipboard and a pen.

"Biowulf informed me you were finally awake," he told the child, shutting the door behind him. "I'm sure he was relieved to do so. I've been making him stand by this room for days now."

"D-days?" the younger EVO sputtered. "What? How long have I been out? What happened?"

"By tomorrow, it would have been a full week. As for the latter question, I'm surprised you don't remember. Perhaps that toxicant affected your memory as well. I only vaguely anticipated that."

Rex was about to vomit out a whole new slew of questions, but paused when he remembered his new attire. "Wait. If I lost my memory, is that why i don't remember putting these clothes on?"

The king placed the his materials on the desk near the computer, shaking his head. "No, that was my doing. Your clothes were absorbing the chemical that you released from that horrid contraption and poisoning you further, so I replaced them."

The boy's face turned beet red. "B-but- that's uh- private- and invasive- you-"

"Oh please, as if it's foreign to me," Van Kleiss scoffed. "Don't dwell on it. You are neither the first nor the last."

"I-"

"Would you rather have died on the spot?"

Rex crawled back onto the bed and pulled the sheets over himself, arranging his body into a fetal position. "Yeah."

"I studied human biology. Not to mention, I am a grown adult. Get over yourself."

The boy remained silent.

The king rolled his eyes. "Although, I should note- the bit about your life ending instantly was an exaggeration. The fumes from that orb would not have actually killed you. They degenerated. Remnants of their original potent state, if you will."

Rex shifted under the covers, then removed the edge of the blanket from his eyes. "Why?"

"Do you remember what the tape recorder played?"

The teen shook his head. "A woman was on it. That's all I know."

"It was your beloved Dr. Holiday," the man explained. "She told you that the orb had been taken down to the energy supply room in order to rescue you. Based on that, we can safely assume that the machine had been there since… the day everything changed for you. Long enough to allow whatever lethal molecules inside it to decay due to extremely delayed activation."

"Then… my death was planned from day one," Rex mumbled. "Why did she lie to me?"

"Do you still believe that it was not an impostor of sorts?"

The younger EVO perked up, pulling the sheets off himself and sitting up right. He now felt somewhat more alert now that the gears in his mind were beginning to turn.

"No!" he exclaimed. "That's what I thought the first time! I was right!"

But as soon as his own words sank in, he wished they hadn't.

"Then that means I don't know when I last saw the real Holiday," he realized bitterly. "What if the real one was already dead for days, or even months and I never knew? Or what if Holiday was never actually an agent and just a plant all along? I was giving her enough information to take us down the whole time! Did I show the enemy all of our weaknesses? Am I the real reason Bobo died? Or Six? I-"

A gauntlet now clamped across his mouth broke off his miserable monologue.

"Not only do you continue to nurture a ravenous guilt complex, but you do so with unsupported claims," Van Kleiss criticized. "Why do you automatically assume you hurt anyone, even if indirectly? If you're going to hate yourself, you should at least have a proven reason to do so, no?"

Rex said nothing, for he obviously couldn't.

"Yet you don't," the king went on. "So stop feeding yourself the same tired mantra. I know you're somewhat of a military brat, but you should detach yourself from that mentality. Not everything bad that happens to you is a result of not being constantly on guard or a lack of effective tactics. You simply can't save everyone all of the time. Agreed?"

Rex narrowed his eyes, then pulled the metal fingers off of his face. "Maybe. But for once in your life, don't insult me if you wanna make a point."

The older EVO smirked before turning around to sit at the computer. "What? Military brat? It's not an insult. Just a term."

"…"

The man switched on the computer, opened a previously saved file, and began to type notes in. But as Rex watched, he couldn't help but wonder about the tape recording. But more importantly, what happened after the whole disaster was gripping at his mind. Try as he might, he had zero recollection of the later events.

"How did we escape?" Rex asked, spying on the data being recorded. "The last thing I know was getting hit in the face with… ick."

Van Kleiss paused for a moment, his fingers hovering above the keys. "Ah, yes. Interestingly, those fumes exhibited all their effects solely on you. That weapon must have been extremely well engineered to target you specifically. Either that, or I'm immune to more toxins than I realize."

"What effects?"

"You collapsed onto the floor while going off like a siren. It was as if your body was malfunctioning without a conscious. After you suddenly went silent, I carried you all the way back to our EVO transport."

The boy grimaced. "Ugh. Geez. I'm not a princess. Stop carrying me places."

"I wouldn't have to if you didn't have a new hobby of going comatose." the monarch replied. "And is that really an appropriate response?"

Rex huffed. "Fine. Thank you. Or whatever. I still hate you."

"No, you only think you do."

The clacking on the keyboard resumed.

"Um, anyway... I think I know why Holiday said that the third floor was the energy storage room," the child added, uneasy from the king's response. "We gave it that nickname because it had all the food for the EVOs we kept. The enemy got it all mixed up and probably thought we were being literal."

"Mm. Speaking of, I brought back a sample of some of the feed. Perhaps I could make my own by improving the formula."

"You what?!"

The older EVO turned his head to find his companion outright distressed at his words. "Why does this concern y-"

"Get that stuff away from us!" the boy interrupted angrily. "All of it! Anything to do with Providence is horrible!"

As soon as those words escaped his lips, Rex regretted them.

"I see," the king said, raising a brow. "Of course, it was only a matter of time before you felt this way."

"N-no, I- that's not what I mean!" Rex stuttered. "I liked Providence before! But now, anytime I try to get close to it, it always backfires on me! Bobo got killed! The psycho Holiday tried to kill me! Ever since the first time we got back, Breach went extra crazy! That place is trying to ruin my life!"

A moment of silence passed between them.

"This doesn't mean that Abysus is the perfect home, though, so don't you dare try to pretend it is!" the teen continued. "Living here feels like walking on thin ice! Biowulf wants me dead. You broke Breach's arm just because you were mad at her. And you can't wait to kill me too!"

Van Kleiss turned back to the computer and continued to type notes on Rex's current state, making sure to add new ones regarding his emotions.

"You're stressed," he calmly remarked.

"Really? I had no idea!"

"For the wrong reasons. Firstly, Biowulf will not kill you. As much as you believe he wants to. Secondly, I did not break her arm out of mere anger. Losing my head would get me nowhere... especially regarding you."

"As if!" Rex snapped. "Why else would you?"

"So that she can't use her powers to try and murder us all, now that she is mysteriously capable of escaping her restraints," the king explained. "Do you want to know an interesting facet of her EVO biology? Breaking any of her four arms drastically decreases her ability to create portals altogether. Her arms are not the source of her powers, but merely conduits that draw energy to where her abilities actually stem from. It's why she can still create portals even if she's rendered immobile."

The boy felt himself lose tension, though only by a small margin. "What? I always thought-"

"I know. I did as well. But during one of her battles a long time ago, she snapped one of her ulnas. It caused her portals to not only shrink in size, but be much harder to conjure in the first place. Even if she tried to use another intact arm. That was the beginning of my series of discoveries with her."

The scowl returned to Rex's face.

"Fine, maybe you didn't go full psycho that time," he speculated. "But you still straight up told me that you looked forward to murdering me!"

"That, I assure you, did not happen," Van Kleiss sighed. "Perhaps you saw this in your comatose dreams."

"No, I didn't! It was right before we went to Providence! After you hurt Breach and told me to meet you at the stables!"

The man glanced back at the agitated child sitting on the bed, confused now. "That's strange. You recalled that sequence of events quite clearly, but I would remember if I'd said something like that to you, considering your paranoia. Yet I don't."

Rex glared at him. "What are you talking about? Are you messing with me?"

"I'm saying that you either had an auditory hallucination, or have a false memory," Van Kleiss proposed. "The first option makes more sense, considering you were under the effects of enhanced hearing."

"But-"

"If I really was so eager to kill you, I could have done so the entire time you lied upon that bed. Use your head."

The teen inhaled, preparing another angry retort, but found that he had nothing to say. As much as he hated to admit it, the aforementioned death threat made no sense. Had he simply imagined it from an overactive subconscious? Were the madman's actions regarding Breach not actually so… mad? Was he just stressed out for no reason?

"Do you want to know why you're always so emotionally volatile?" the king asked, watching the boy slowly but reluctantly relax. "You never stop fighting me. If you would just submit to me, you'd find that so many of your woes would dissipate."

Rex narrowed his eyes at the audacity of this man.

"You almost had me until you got cult level creepy," he snarked, stretching his legs over the bed to walk. "But just because my moods are crappy doesn't mean I'm gonna drink the Koolaid. Even if I'm drugged up right now, I can still think for myself."

"I recommend you don't trust your emotions until the effects wear off in an hour or two. Your sedatives were stronger than you'd think. And where are you going?"

"Finding my phone."

After being informed that his device was in a lab nearby, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, feeling like a sack of wet spinach. As he walked by the screen monitor, he noticed something strange about his reflection. He didn't have a habit of looking at his appearance much ever since he arrived in Abysus- he had far more pressing matters and no one to impress- but now that he stared at the dark screen, he realized he should have done so earlier.

The most strikingly different feature was his hair. He couldn't recall when he last had a haircut according to Providence's required standards, but by now, it covered his ears and seemed quite fluffy. He leaned closer to the monitor and tugged at his locks, realizing that they almost reached his neck.

How unsettling.

"What are you doing?" the king asked, not even bothering to face him while speaking.

"Looking at this dude who cannot be me," the teen answered in awe. "Have I been walking around looking like this the whole time? Since when is my hair this messed up? And how have I not known about it?"

"I'm not sure what else you expected from ignoring your appearance these past few months," came a bored reply.

"I need to cut it, fast. Or else I'll look like a hideous monster. Or a psycho scientist. Or a-"

A pointed glare in Rex's direction made him shut his mouth immediately, causing him to leave room. As soon as he walked a good distance into the hallway, he let out a snicker, wondering how much taunting he could have gotten away with. Just a minute later, he entered the only laboratory nearby on that floor, realizing it wasn't one he recognized. Which was strange, considering how often he ended up playing the guinea pig these days.

His clothes lied on a table in the center of the room.

The boy blushed furiously but dared not touch the familiar garments, worried about any lingering toxins embedded in the fibers. Instead, he ignored them and wandered around the perimeter of the lab that held drawers and low grade machinery. Seeking to find his phone as quickly as possible, he pulled on small handles left and right, hoping the device wasn't completely out of battery.

Rex slapped himself internally when he realized that it probably was drained after a whole week. To make it worse, he was beginning to think he had been mislead. The phone was nowhere to be found, and he had searched almost every nook and cranny. He glanced around the room for a few moments in confusion before finally spotting it across the room on top of a counter. He wondered how he had missed such an obvious placement, then attributed it to the effects of the drugs still inside his body. No one was perfect, after all. But as he made his way towards his phone to snatch it up, he noticed something unusual about the drawer right beneath it.

It was the only one with a lock.

"Weird," Rex muttered, distracted from his current mission. Curiously, he pressed his finger against the keyhole, sending in nanites to turn the pin tumblers. The drawer popped open, bending to his will.

A golden plated tube.

The teen stared at it, not really sure what he was looking at. He reached down to grasp the tube and carefully lifted it. His eyes widened as he realized that it was the decorated neck of a a very fancy looking wine bottle- or at least, fancy by the standards in his telenovelas. He wasn't exactly a wine connoisseur. The glass itself was a deep shade of green, and a familiar word was scrawled across a label in cursive.

"Champagne?" the boy slowly sounded out. He swished the bottle around, finding that it was more than halfway full. "Whoa. This thing is loaded."

Feeling weird for simply touching the foreign item, he placed it on the counter. He'd never held alcohol before. But of all places he believed he'd possess any one day, he didn't think it would be in such a grim setting. Then again, alcohol was often used as a coping mechanism for those facing grim moments in life, so it wasn't that unusual.

"Can't believe that dude," he scoffed, recalling his captor. "Acting like he's all perfect and mighty, but probably gets crazy drunk when no one is watching. No wonder he keeps it hidden."

He paused.

"At least, I think you can get crazy drunk from this stuff," he went on, watching bubbles swish behind the glass. "Hey, wait a minute…"

Being drunk, he knew, completely skewered your sense of rationality, forcing you to let down your guard and maybe even hurt yourself. Still retaining the "military brat" mindset Van Kleiss accused him of, he realized that such a substance would be of great use as a survival tactic. Particularly when drunk by his enemies to weaken them.

Although the king was the most dangerous individual in Abysus, Rex didn't feel like using the toxic drink against him. Firstly, the risk of getting caught was far too great to be worth it. But more than that- he hated to admit- he felt the man was somewhat trustworthy. Was it desperation for peace of mind that drove him to this conclusion? Had the drugs still swimming in his bloodstream caused him to soften? He couldn't tell, but for now, the nanite vampire had proven he wouldn't kill him.

No, the real target had to be Biowulf.

Van Kleiss may have been right about not wanting to slaughter Rex any chance he got. Perhaps he was even correct about how to handle Breach when she went haywire. But there was no way that Biowulf, now almost healed, would do nothing to exact some form of revenge. No, he was very much in danger if he dared to let his guard down. And this way, it wouldn't even take a physical fight to subdue him! Much less energy wasted.

Rex grabbed the phone and bottle and quickly left the room, running up and around the castle until he finally reached his bedroom. Looking over his shoulder just in case, he slipped the wine underneath his pillow, wondering how he'd manage to drug the angsty mechanical EVO. Unfortunately, he didn't know when Biowulf's regular rising time even was. The creature was always awake before him. Nor had he any idea what to lace at all, given that his enemy's diet was surprisingly flexible and not just piles of meat like a regular wolf. Lastly, he didn't even know how much of the wine to use to guarantee its effects. Everything was just too convoluted.

The teen closed his eyes in thought, realizing there were too many obstacles. He tried not to let it get to him, considering how many times he'd already escaped death. Sliding his hand towards his pillow he clutched at the firmness underneath, pondering all the loopholes in his plan. No matter what, he would get through this. He always did.

Eventually, it came to him.

He smiled, and set his alarm for 3AM.