Second Season
Chapter 1: Answers
By Cyber
Authors Note: I'd like to thank Ptah (again) for beta reading this for me. I hope whoever reads this likes it, if not review and tell me why so that I can improve.
Inside her apartment, Cybersix sat on her bed, dressed in her Adrian clothes. Her first aid kit open on her right. The last rays of light shone through her open window onto the bed as a breeze gently played with her curtains.
As she cleaned and bandaged her wounds, someone knocked on the door. She put down the gauze she was using and went to answer the door, frowning and thinking 'I wonder who that could be?' She opened the door. "Lucas!" she exclaimed, shocked at seeing him there. Trying to calm her heart, which decided to do laps around the inside of her chest in record time, she asked, "What are you doing here?" still not quite over the surprise.
He grinned mischievously, "I came to check up on Adrian, make sure he's alright," he glanced at her clothes then back at her, "and I guess he is."
Looking at him strangely, she glanced down at her clothes. 'OH SHIT! How am I going to explain this? He's already accused me of dating Adrian behind his back.' She looked back at Lucas, a combination of fright, shock, and guilt crossing her face. "Um, ah…" she tried to find someway to explain as panic started rising inside her. 'Wait a minute, how does Lucas know Adrian lives here? I never told him.' She frowned at Lucas, "How do you know Adrian is here?"
He shrugged. "I asked Lori where you lived this morning." He rubbed the back of his neck "Can I come in?"
"Ya, sure." She replied, temporarily at a loss for words, then stepped aside. After closing the door behind Lucas, she followed him into the living room limping slightly. 'Lori doesn't know I live here, unless Lucas found out I'm Adrian.' She glances towards Lucas. 'Better play it safe until I know for sure.' She cringed inwardly as they passed the chair over which she had draped her shredded leather outfit to dry. She turned to Lucas, perplexed. "How would Lori know where I lived?"
He sat down on a chair. "She's been here before, remember?" An uncomfortable silence settled in as Cybersix sat down on the couch. He frowned at her. "So how come you never told me?"
"Never told you what?" She acted confused about what he was talking about.
A look of annoyance briefly crossed Lucas' face, "Oh come on, I know you're Adrian. I just don't get why you told Lori but not me." He looked away, trying to calm down, then said in a quieter voice, "I thought our friendship meant more to you." 'I thought I meant more to you.' His mind thought instead.
She sighed. 'He knows! It sure took him long enough to figure it out though.' She tried to explain. "I was going to tell you, but when I got to your place… I couldn't. Then there was the kiss…" She sighed again in remembrance, looking down at her hands in her lap. "If I had stayed a second longer I wouldn't have been able to leave and Von Reichter would've destroyed the city." 'I wouldn't have wanted to leave.' She thought silently as she looked back at Lucas, her face filled with sorrow while the hint of a blush colored her cheeks.
He went and sat beside her on the couch, then awkwardly put his arm around her and pulled her into a hug, trying to console her. "It's ok, you stopped him. So, how did you survive?"
She snorted, but didn't pull away. "With pure dumb luck. Von Reichter sent all his creations after us but they turned on him instead and pointed the way out for us. We had just hit the exit when it exploded, so the shock wave sent us far enough out to sea to miss the rocks and the worst of the debris. After things calmed down a bit we were able to find a log that would hold our weight, and slowly made our way back to shore." She closed her eyes, her expression blank "But I'm going to die anyway."
Startled, he pulled away to look at her, concerned. "Why? You couldn't have been that badly hurt, were you?" He added as an after thought, "Data 7's ok too right?"
She looked away, not wanting to look him in the eyes. "Data 7 and I are fine, he's resting with Julian, but It's not that…" 'Should I tell him the truth? Or should I make something up to spare him the pain?' She could feel his arms around her, comforting and protecting. 'No, he deserves to know…everything' She looked out the window at the moon hanging over part of the city that wasn't destroyed, leaning into Lucas' embrace, and sighed again. "Cybersix isn't really my name, it's my designation." She paused, then continued. "I'm the 6th of 5000 Cybers created by a nazi scientist named Von Reichter. We were created to be soldiers, to help him take over the world with our superior strength and speed. When we were about 9 years old Von Reichter decided to terminate us, all 4999, because we wouldn't listen to him." She paused again, fighting back tears from the horrible memory.
Lucas frowned in confusion, "I thought you said there were 5000 Cybers?"
Cybersix swallowed the lump in her throat. "29 fell off a cliff and died, trying to get me a flower, not long before…" She swallowed again, then continued, "I escaped Von Reichter's massacre with the help from one of the slaves that worked at the compound, Elio. We lived in a small fishing village until some of Von Reichter's men found Elio and killed him. I was forced to flee again and on the way I found a family that had been killed in a car accident. There was a little boy about my age that look almost like me in the car, so I buried him, took his identification papers, and became him… During the day I went to school and lived as Adrian Seidelman, at night I'd sometimes go out as myself, to stretch my muscles or to hunt down Von Reichter's creations for their Sustenance."
He looked down at her, trying to process everything she'd said. "Sustenance? What's that?"
She looked down at her hands still in her lap. "Sustenance is a chemical of some sort, that all of Von Reichter's creations need it to survive, and only he knows how to make it." She looked back outside. "When I finished my studies I came to Meridiana and became a teacher, that's when I met you and you found that vial of Sustenance. Since then, Von Reichter's been trying to kill me and my brother Data 7, who's actually 29, with his other creations." She turned to look at Lucas. "With Von Reichter dead, Sustenance will eventually run out and then I'll die, along with all of Von Reichter's other creations."
His brow knitted, Lucas tried to think… "What about that kid, Jose? Is he dead? Would he know how to make Sustenance?"
She sat up, thinking. "Now that I think about it, Von Reichter did mention something about Jose betraying him, which means he could still be alive." She smiled, then turned serious again. "I don't know if he knows how to make Sustenance though: He's not always planning ahead when he does things."
Lucas smiled, "But it's a possibility." He looked off into the distance, thinking. "You know, you being Adrian sure explains a lot."
Curious, she raised an eyebrow questionably at Lucas. "Like what?"
He focused back on Cybersix, then grinned. "Well, there's your reaction to that vial of Sustenance when I first showed it to you; why Lori saw you in Adrian's apartment when she visited; and why you couldn't explain your relationship with Cybersix to me when I confronted you about it. And then there was your reaction to the mechanical circus, I'm guessing you knew it was a trap set by Jose; then there's your refusal to go to the hospital when you got hurt; plus little stuff here and there."
She also grinned, "Oh." she chuckled. "I see what you mean."
He smiled, "So are you still going to be Adrian?"
She turned serious. "Yes, if Jose's still alive then I'll still have to hide. I just hope Lori doesn't tell anybody." She grimaced at the thought.
He shrugged. "That shouldn't be a problem." Cybersix shot him a confused look. "Well she's got appearances to keep up."
To Be Continued
Authors Note: I don't know how long it'll take me to write the next chapter, I'm busy with school and work and such at the moment. Just wanted to let you know, bye.