A's/N: Wow, this one is actually shorter than the last chapters. XD Haven't had that in a while!
I don't really have much to say this time, so enjoy the chapter I guess! ;D
The junkyard was exactly what it sounded like: A yard full of junk. It was piles worth of miscellaneous house appliances, long forgotten children's toys, pieces of trash, used and shattered bottles, stray pieces of glass and old, rusted and broken cars, bikes, boats and parts of whatever was left of them. It reminded Ellie of the TV shows about hoarder houses she used to watch. This place looked like someone's enlarged lost and found.
"This may take a while." Said Tori as she began digging around in a small pile. Her eyes darkened with focus.
Ellie eyed the many larger piles of rubble. "Be careful guys, it's easy to get hurt around here." This would be why she volunteered to come with them. The vehicles themselves looked as though they could crush them if they fell and there was so much debris that it was impossible to say just what else could be lurking underneath it. She pushed the thought away as she began searching for computers, or anything resembling the green thing.
Rocket, Stone, and Koba just looked around at their new surroundings, both amazed and frightened by how much the junkyard actually contained. No wonder Ellie was worried, everything here seemed sharp and pointy. It was unlikely anything here could kill them, but it defiantly wasn't the sort of place one would want to stick around in for very long either.
"Stay close." Signed Rocket to the other two apes. Maybe Tori had been here before, but Rocket didn't want Koba or Stone wandering around this place by themselves.
The group mostly searched in silence. Occasionally, the sound of rust grinding against another rusted object broke the quiet, but nothing fell or moved from its pile. There wasn't anything creepy about this place, but it felt haunted by the stuff itself. As if each item contained a memory of its origin and was replaying themselves in their hollow and broken shells.
"Do you recognize anything?" Stone asked as Koba pulled something out of a smaller pile. A wheel from a bike, it's web-like structure broken and bent. Like it had been torn apart somehow.
"Some of them." It was hard to tell, but there were a few things that Koba vaguely remembered seeing at Tommy's house. A box that he now knew to be a TV, a couch with its springs and stuffing falling out, a yellowed pillowcase, a white flower-like object with a bent stem that water would come out of, a faded and dirty rug. He wondered if anything from Tommy's house had found their way here, but doubted it considering that Tori had found his old plush kitten there even after so many years had passed since he himself had been there.
Stone shoved a broken piece of a car door out the way as he dug deeper into the pile he was looking through. As dangerous as the rubble looked, he found himself feeling curious and fascinated by them at the same time. Koba just liked picking up pieces of them and looking at them and putting them back down. Looking through them gave his mind time to think and reflect. Being careful forced him to focus on something more pressing than any inner-turmoil he was feeling.
Stone poked him and asked. "No more schemes?"
Koba knew what he meant. "No more." He confirmed. Any schemes he had to try and kill off the humans were gone. His drive to kill long forgotten. Stone looked concern.
"Are you ok now?" Stone didn't get a chance to ask before, but he really was worried for his friend.
The scarred bonobo shrugged. Koba didn't miss his old self, but there was some parts he wished he still had. His past thinking made sense: Caesar is wrong and he is right. Humans are bad and apes are good. Dolly is his sister and all his other relatives don't exist. Humans abuse apes and neither like each other. Parents don't abuse their children and family stick together. Now nothing makes sense and the changes keep happening faster than Koba could comprehend them. He wished time would stop so that he could ease into it all.
"I don't want to kill myself anymore if that's what you're asking." Koba assumed that was what Stone was referring to.
That reassured Stone. "Good...And you know that if you ever need someone to talk to, you have me. And Maurice, and Rocket, and Luca, and all the others." He smiled at the scarred bonobo. "We're all here for you, Koba."
Koba bit his lip to keep it from quivering. Stone's words really touched him, confirming something he should have known all along. He wasn't alone. Even if he felt like he was, his friends were right there with him. Just as much as Dolly was.
Suddenly, someone squealed and something crashed. The chimp and bonobo jumped at the sudden noises and their heads glanced all around, searching for the source.
"What happened?!" Ellie called from a distance. She and Tori appeared a second later.
There was another sound. A barely audible croak. "Iiiii….El….Mo." The group of four followed the sound around a corner and found Rocket standing there. The near-bald chimpanzee was staring at something on the ground as he pressed on it with his foot.
"Rocket?" From here, Koba couldn't tell what the chimpanzee was looking at but he didn't seem wounded.
Rocket glanced at them then picked up whatever it was he that had startled him. "What. This?" He asked.
The thing he held up was gross looking! It's once red fur was now caked with wet and dry mud and had holes in its body. Its limbs were loose and hung in a grotesque manner. It's big, white and black pupil eyes were dusted with dirt and one was, in fact, falling from where it should have been. Its mouth hung open in a fake, half broken smile, revealing black insides and a dirty, fake tongue. When Rocket squeezed its body, it made another sound:
"Huuhh…Ahhhh…Ahhhk…Wah…Lay…I…ov…u…"
Stone and Koba glanced at each other. They had never seen a human thing like this one before and it creeped them out almost as much as it disgusted them.
Tori tilted her head to the side, trying to put a name to the weird thing. Then shrugged. "I think it's just an old Elmo doll."
Stone burst out laughing. "Rocket. Scared. Of doll?!"
Koba didn't think it was that funny, but smiled at the thought of a tough chimp like Rocket being frightened of a human toy.
Rocket frowned at the two other apes. To Tori and Ellie, he asked: "Dangerous?" He eyed at the doll corpse. It had to be the most ugliest human toy he had ever seen.
"Not unless you open it up." Said Tori. "There could be roaches or something equally foul living in there."
That sounded worse than the doll itself. Disgusted, Rocket threw the thing far away. The group heard it land on something hard, and suddenly car alarms went off which echoed in the otherwise silent junkyard.
"It loud now!" Stone yelped as he covered his ears with his hands. Koba nearly jumped at the sudden noises himself.
"Consider yourself lucky it was just an old toy." Ellie added as she glanced in the direction Rocket had thrown the Elmo doll. "This place is full of dangerous objects. The old vehicles themselves could kill you if they fall on you."
"Survived many attacks." It was hard to tell if he was annoyed at Ellie's words or at the noises. Probably both. "Don't die easy."
"You guys keep looking, I'll go see if I can make that thing shut up." Said Tori over the noises. She sped off in the direction of the car alarms before anyone could stop her.
"Be careful!" Ellie called after her. She sighed when she didn't get a reply back. "Koba, go with her." She said as she turned back to the apes.
Koba obeyed and darted off to where Tori went. He wasn't sure but it seemed as though Ellie was upset about something. Was it the junkyard itself? Sure the place wasn't pleasant, but that couldn't be too troubling, right?..Maybe it was the many broken treasures that littered the ground that was making her worried.
He thought he could see Tori by her pink hair and picked up the pace. However, what he saw next made him stop in his tracks.
Dot stayed standing in front of the window even after Bon and Rex had left hours before. To where they went, Pope didn't know and didn't really care. Rex can take care of himself and Bon can talk his way out of just about anything. They didn't need him worrying about them. Dot, however, did.
She stood so still that Pope couldn't help but stare at her. Wondering what she was thinking about as the glass reflected her faraway gaze. It was only when she finally pealed her eyes away from the glass and walked back to where Pope was that she said anything all day.
"Do you ever go outside?"
Had the question not come from Dot, Pope probably would have laughed. He had slept, hunted and spent so much time outside that the rooms inside the buildings of the city seemed small and empty to him. "All the time. My colony and I live outside"
The sadness in Dot's eyes flickered for just a moment in surprise. "But there's humans everywhere."
"Not in the forest."
"You live in the forest?!"
"Yes."
There was real amazement in Dot's face. She glanced at the window before looking back at him. "Why did you come back then?" She asked. "If you were all free then why would you ever want to come back here?"
Pope was beginning to realize that Dot may not have ever been to a forest before. In fact, she probably had never tasted freedom in her entire life. She definitely wasn't a lab ape, so she most likely would have come from a zoo or an ape shelter like most of the apes did. Her question was one Pope was secretly asking himself. Part of him wanted to blame Caesar, but how could the Ape King order the colony back to the very city he freed them from so many years ago when he himself wasn't even around to do so? It had to been someone else, but regardless they were all here.
"If it were up to me, and if that colonel didn't exist, I'd never come back here again." Pope wondered if other apes felt the same way. He knew for sure Koba and Dolly did."I guess there was no other option for the colony."
Dot nodded her head, glancing back at the window again. It was as if she were trying to decide to return to the glass surface or continue the conversation. Pope wouldn't have minded which ever she chose, but he liked talking to her. He felt comfortable around her like that.
"What's it like out there? Living without cages, or walls." She asked, looking back at him.
Pope had to think about the question for a moment. Before he was freed, cages were all the scarred chimpanzee knew. He had grown up behind their bars, ate and slept in their darkness, and, far too many times, had screamed and cried in pain in their emptiness. The cages were always small, big enough for him to live in but never big enough to call home, and he was always alone in them. He vaguely remembered having blankets and a toy or two while inside some of them, but none of them cured his loneliness or could protect him from the humans who used to come and take him to hurt him.
He had to stop thinking about his past. Pope feared that if he didn't, he'd explode and he didn't want to in front of Dot. "It's amazing." Was all he could say. He didn't want to be in this room anymore. Heck, he didn't want to spend another second in this room!
So when Dot asked if they could go outside, he gladly agreed.
Just like Ellie had suspected, just about all the apes in the colony had chip implants. The only ones who didn't appeared to be Caesar himself and all the apes born after the battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. It still angered Caesar that his people had been subjected to this, but he now understood how they could help them and felt an odd sense of relief about it.
"What are we gonna do with all these anyway?" Asked Foster as he added another document to the growing pile.
"I was hoping we could add them into that computer, if we can get it working, so that if anyone else gets kidnapped or get lost, we could locate them." It seemed like a good idea to Malcolm. It certainly could help protect the apes.
Caesar was zoning out again. His head was beginning to hurt so he rubbed it to try and relieve the pressure but it felt like the beats from his heart were now in his head rather than in his chest. He kept his eyes straight ahead, at the wall. If he looked down at the pictures of his fellow apes before he had freed them, he felt like he'd lose it and he already felt like a boat on shaky water already.
It was Maurice who noticed this. "Caesar?" He successfully got his king's attention with a gentle shoulder tap. "You seem lost. Is something wrong?"
Caesar shook his head. "No, I'm fine Maurice." The lie was complete with a small smile. The truth was Caesar didn't know what was wrong. He felt as if all he could feel was anger and then sadness and then worry, then back to anger. As if all other emotion had been sucked out of him. Worse of all, he felt annoyed at the very thought of opening up and telling someone about these feelings even though he knew he probably should.
Maurice eyes Caesar's face for a bit. Suspicion shining in his eyes. He obviously wasn't buying the white lie but only nodded and went back to looking at files. Choosing to keep any doubts he had about the Ape King secret. Caesar felt relief for that.
The sudden sound of papers falling offered Caesar a chance to escape his thoughts for just a moment…Or so he thought.
The papers that fell turned out to be a stack of unread files that simply spilled over on themselves. Thankfully, none of the papers appeared to have fallen out. Except for one of them, but it was only a stray document. Luca picked it up and was about to put it back in it's manila-colored folder when he saw the picture inside of it. His eyes widened and he handed the file to Malcolm who opened it up curiously.
"What is it-" His voice cut off. The picture was of an ape that Malcolm now knew as Pope, the one that they encountered after finding Hazell's body. The picture was taken of him at Gen-Sys, after he was given the virus. His golden eyes held this intense, hateful glare at the camera. No doubt intended for the unfortunate cameraman who had taken the photo.
"How did we miss this one?" Asked Foster, looking at the picture from over Malcolm's shoulder.
"I guess it got misplaced." Said Malcolm with a shrug. He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. There were so many files in the building, all of containing information about apes, humans, long abandoned businesses, and everything else in-between, that any one of them could be out of place in a matter of seconds. "What fell out of it?"
Luca still had the document. He handed it to the human, curious about what it could be.
Malcolm wasn't intending to read the paper. He was just going to put it back in the file but the words on the white sheet jumped out at him. He was mortified.
Animal Euthanasia Request Form
"What the hell?!" He said unconsciously while skimming through it.
"What it say?" Asked Caesar. Maybe this wasn't a good distraction from his feelings after all.
The document was exactly what it looked like: A request to euthanize an animal-in this case, Pope. Not reading it out loud, it said:
Requested By: Steven Jacobs Gen-Sys CEO
Name of Animal: Pope
Species of Animal: Chimpanzee
Gender of Animal: Male
Age of Animal: 9
Reason for Euthanasia(?): This animal has had too many failed experiments performed on it. As CEO, I require room for more, fresh apes to be used for research and testing and this animal is taking up too much space. For those reasons, I request to have this animal put down immediately.
Requested Date for Euthanasia: April 5th, 2016 at 10:00 AM
Requester's Signature: Steven Jacobs Gen-Sys CEO
Malcom stared at the paper in mute shock. This wasn't just a request form. This was a contract of death. Jacobs didn't even sound the least bit sympathetic in his request. His words came were heartless and cruel. Motivated by greed and his own selfish desires.
His voice shook when he finally found it. "P-Pope…Pope was supposed to die.." He put the document on the table for all to see. "Steven Jacobs wanted him euthanized."
"What?!" Foster re-read the paper, out loud so the apes could hear.
Anger returned to Caesar, but he let it. He may not have liked Pope, but he never wished any harm or death to the scarred chimpanzee and if Jacobs could have asked other humans to kill him, he could have just as easily have done the same to countless others and most of those apes most likely never had a chance…Then realization sunk in.
"Pope still alive when I free him." Caesar remembered that day as if it were yesterday. He remembered that scarred chimp walking out of his cage. He was alive that day. Not euthanized. Not dead. "Jacobs. Not kill him."
Caesar was right. The date listed on the form that would have been Pope's last day was one that Malcolm remembered fondly. It just so happened to be the very same day that he and his first wife, Rita, had decided to take Alexander to Disneyland instead of school. It was the last normal thing they did as a family before the virus. But! that very date was also just weeks before the outbreak started! A good three weeks in fact!
"Jacobs wanted him dead. So why wasn't Pope euthanized like he was scheduled to?" This didn't make sense to Malcolm.
Maurice and Luca glanced at each other. Neither of them knew what to make of this confusing finding any more than their king and human friends. Maurice was about to sign something but then noticed a document sticking out of one the other files-it was Dolly's. He pulled it out just as Luca found one in Koba's.
"Maybe Jacobs forgot?" Offered Foster. "Or maybe he just decided to cancel it?"
"Why would he do that if he was so desperate to get it done?"
"Stamp?" Caesar knew the word well. What he saw on the paper had to have been that. The only stamps the chimp had seen were the play stamps Will and Charles used to give him to make art with-some that were animal shaped sponges that he could paint on and press into paper and some regular stamps but with fun shapes and colors. This one was much different. Both of them were.
Foster and Malcolm looked at what Caesar was pointing at. Both were surprised when they saw them. Right next to Jacobs' signature, there was a line that must have been reserved for the superiors approval. There two stamps on the line. The first one was green and said APPROVED but right on top of it, the second stamp read CANCELED in bold black letters.
"…They canceled it.." Malcolm concluded. Unsure if he should feel relief or confused. "..They were going to euthanize him but…They decided not to?"
"So maybe he did cancel it." Said Foster with a shrug. "It happens."
"I don't think so." Malcolm looked at his friend. "From what we already know, Jacobs doesn't sound like the kind of guy to give second chances. Especially to apes in his lab."
"No human. Back then. Would." Caesar had realized this fact years ago. He had been lucky to have been raised and loved by Will and Charles and then by Caroline, but he was the only ape in his colony who have had that luxury. He didn't know of any humans that were like them who lived back then.
Luca growled at something and Maurice made a rumbling sound in his throat, startling the two humans and single chimpanzee. "Another one?" Asked Foster.
Maurice handed him the documents. His features frowning at the discovery.
Sure enough, the two documents in front of them were the same as the first one. Two more Animal Euthanasia forms that were requested by Steven Jacobs and bore the same approved and canceled stamps. The only difference was that one of the documents had Pope's name on it, while the second had Koba's and the last one had Dolly's.
"No way…" Malcolm breathed when he read the two papers. "Jacobs wanted to euthanize all three of them?"
"That guy had some issues." Said Foster as he crossed his arms. "A lot of issues."
Something on one of the documents caught Caesar's eye. "What's that?" He asked as he touched it-a staple. It's metal arms cutting through the paper and curling up the other side as if to give it a hug.
Malcolm flipped Dolly's page over, revealing something none of them expected to find. It became more shocking as he read it out loud. The paper was complete by signatures on the bottom. One belonged to the judge, the second belonged to lawyer or representative of some kind, but the third confused them the most.
Aida Jacobs
Tori was frozen as she stared at the car. The Elmo doll had broken right through the front of the window-which despite being old and dusty, was still in place. The car in general was still in one piece. Even though it had obviously been here for years, ever since his death. It wasn't completely surprising that her father's car had made its way here, but it was hard to say how. Maybe her mother had sent it here. Even though she could have kept it and given it to her when she was old enough to drive it-though Tori knew she wouldn't have wanted it. Even if it could have been her first vehicle.
She heard Koba coming but didn't bother to look at him. Despite how much she wanted to, Tori found that she couldn't rip her eyes off of the cursed car.
At first, Koba couldn't tell why Tori was staring at the car like that. It was just another vehicle, with its once dark colored body now covered in dust and it's windows blinded by grime. It didn't look much different from the many other cars that lived in the junkyard.
It wasn't until he noticed the faded sticker in the front window. It was grainy from the dust, and years have whitened it up somewhat. But Koba could almost clearly see Jacobs' face on the sticker.
"…Tori…" He breathed, now understanding what this car meant…And who it used to belong to.
The blazing screech of the cars alarms seemed far away. In fact, Tori almost couldn't hear them. She stood very still as she stared at the front window. At the two front seats, almost picturing her father, with his stupid suit and ugly smirk, in the driver's seat while her mother sat quietly with a blank face in the passenger side and with her anxious-self in the backseat.
For years, that bastard had treated both her and her mother like shit. For years, he used them as his punching bags to the point of sending them both to the emergency room. All she ever knew from her father was hate and fear. He didn't deserve to be her father any more than he deserved to be her mother's husband.
Tori's breathing began to change, but she didn't notice.
He was supposed to love her! And yet, he never once said he did! Did he ever love her?! Didn't he care about his daughter, his only child?!
"If you die today…I won't miss you."
Those words. The very last words her father had ever said to her, came rushing back. Suddenly, all noises became silent. Tori barely felt her hands grab whatever heavy objects closest to her. Everything moved too fast for her to see them crash and break the abandoned car. In her mind, she could see flashes of her father. The car became her father. He may have died, but she never got to destroy him.
Koba stayed where he was. He could only watch in mute shock at Tori's rage. She threw rocks, old TV's, and several objects he couldn't identify. Each one hit harder than the last. Some even broke through the car's body and got inside of it. It was as if all the hurt and all the anger she carried since childhood had suddenly let itself out. Exploded. Erupted. Broke out of her with every object that hit, cracked and dented its target. All the while, Koba kept looking at her face.
This was the face that he had once hated and mixed up with Jacobs'. The very face that stayed with him in his cell back at the jail and helped pull him out of the darkness he had trapped himself in…Tori now showed a different side to her…A side that Koba had only caught a glimpse of when they talked on the beach…
The pink haired human didn't stop throwing things at it until she was out of breath. By now, the car had gone silent. It's alarm dead. Tori stared at it as tears welled up in her eyes. She destroyed it. Killed it. This car was the only thing left of him and now, it's just another forgotten and ruined piece of garbage.
She inhaled and exhaled slowly, shakily. Her tears fought their way out of her eyes and leaked out on her face as she fell to the ground. Her body shaking from the memories. Tori felt empty inside. As if something that had once filled her was now gone. She brought her hands to her face and allowed the sob to escape. She hadn't thought about her mother in years but now she needed her and wanted her to hold her again. It felt like her mother had died all over again.
Tori gasped when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She looked up, and found Koba looking back at her.
Koba knew they were both vulnerable deep down, but he had never seen hers until now. It felt like Tori's ran deeper than his however. Jacobs tortured him in the labs as an experiment, but he was her father. Jacobs was supposed to love her and protect her, yet he did the opposite. Koba himself had only known his own father for a short time, but he already loved and trusted the older bonobo like any child would who in turn, loved him back. It was something Tori didn't have, even though she had had her father in her life longer than he had.
His green and milky eyes watched her tears as they formed in her brown eyes and stained her face as they ran down. Koba had shown her his vulnerable side before. Now, he was seeing hers.
He gently wrapped his long arms around her and Tori immediately wrapped her own around him. Tori was normally taller than him by a few inches but with her on her knees, her head went up to his chest which she buried her face into.
Koba stroked her head as she cried on him. Her pink hair felt soft against his gray skin as he ran his fingers through it.
"That day…" Tori sniffled. "…He said he…Wouldn't miss me if I died…" She shivered at the memory. "…I…I don't…Know if he knew or…Or how he would have known…"
Shock stabbed Koba. Then anger. Only now did he realize that there was a difference to being a father and to being a dad: A father can be someone who is biologically related to their child, but a dad is someone who is much more than just a blood relative to their children. The apes tend to call their fathers just 'father', but even they knew this.
He hugged her tighter. "…Koba would have missed you…"
Tori let out a little laugh. "You didn't even know me back then, you furball."
Koba smiled. He didn't mind being called that by Tori. She playfully called him all sorts of things: Smiles, fur ball-sometimes leapfrog, if he lunged or jumped at anything. Tori was the only human who could get away with calling him any of these things.
"Exactly. Never would have met you. Never would have known you. That how Koba would have missed you." He meant what he said. Koba was sure that if Tori had truly killed herself that day and he never knew her, his demons would have taken over him. Even if the Alpha-Omegas kidnapped Caesar before he could kill him.
Tori looked up at him. Her eyes were still wet, but she was smiling now. "…You know, for an ape that almost started a war, you're really sweet on the inside."
Just then, a blur of brown fur suddenly tackled them. Tori rolled back just in time but Koba wasn't fast enough. She looked up to see their attacker-her eyes widened.
Brown fur, fishnet scars, golden eyes…She realized it was Pope, one of the apes that escaped the base. She hadn't seen him since they first encounter him in the forest. Now, the muscular chimp was on top of Koba, beating him with his arms and fists.
"You stupid ape! What you doing with human?! She ENEMY!"
Pope was yelling so loudly and punching him in the face so hard that Koba could barely get a word out. His only defense was covering his face with his hands. "N-Not! Tori!" He managed to yell out.
"You! Surrender to humans?!" Pope's eyes were so darkened by his rage that they were almost bronze colored. "They DAMAGE you! Kill your mother! Blinded you!-"
Pope's ranting gave Tori a chance to run up behind him ad tackle him herself. She managed to get her arms around his neck in a chokehold, but Pope was far too strong for her and much too powerful. He grabbed her arms, ripped them off of him and practically threw her off as if she weighed nothing at all.
Luckily, Tori landed on an old mattress. She wasn't wounded, but her arms hurt bad and were already beginning to bruise. She knew then there was nothing she could do. Even if she did manage to get Pope to stop beating Koba, he had more muscle on his arms than she had on her entire body. She may have fought Koba before, but this was a chimp and a bigger ape than the bonobo. He could easily rip her arms off…Or worse, kill her.
"Rocket!" She resorted to calling out for the others. Maybe they could stop this. "Rocket! Stone! Ellie!"
"Koba! Weak! Koba! Stupid! KOBA! TRAITOR! TO APES!"
"POPE!"
It was as if someone clicked a pause button. Pope suddenly stopped, mid punch. His eyes changed, the dark look going away. The three turned and looked at the direction where the voice came from.
Dot. Her silvery eyes were on Pope and were wide with shock as her frail body shook, possibly from seeing the male chimp's rage.
"…L-Let…Him…Go…" She said in a pleading voice.
Pope dropped his fist. He gave one last glare at Koba before getting off of the scarred bonobo and walked away. Dot glanced at the two of them before following after the male chimp. Only now did Tori and Koba realize how close they were to the city. Pope and Dot had come from an alleyway between two buildings.
"What was that about?" Ellie asked. She and the other two apes had came when no one was looking. In fact, Rocket and Stone were just about to pounce on the fishnet scarred chimp when Dot cried out.
"…Bad fight.." It was all Tori could say about what just happened. She went back to where Koba was. The scarred bonobo had bruises all over his face and had blood smeared on his face but he didn't seem too badly hurt. "Koba?.."
Koba got to his feet, rubbing the side of his face. He dried his bleeding nose on his wrist, eyes looking back at where Pope had left.
Why Pope? He asked in his mind. I thought you were my friend.
Pope had never felt so much anger. It was as though his body had been taken over by the wind itself and was now out of his control. He felt cold all over.
"Pope!" He stopped the second he heard her. He turned to face the female chimp who now looked at him with fear. Great, now she knows what I am. He thought to himself. Dot wasn't supposed to see that but she had and now she'll never be his follower…She may not even want to be around him anymore.
"Why did you do that? Who were they?"
"The bonobo was Koba." Pope was still disgusted with him. Just signing his name angered him. "I think the human was called Tori." This, he only knew from apes who had seen or heard the Ape Council and the humans call her that.
"Why did you attack them?" Dot asked again. "They weren't doing anything."
"You don't understand." Pope was trying not to let his anger show again, but he felt like he was on the brink of letting it go again. "Koba was a lab ape, like me. He and his sister would know, of all apes, that humans are bad and can't be trusted!"
"She wasn't hurting him." She was afraid. This anger was new to her, especially coming from Pope. The very chimp that took her out of the base. "If you saw her as a threat, why did you attack Koba and not her?"
"HE! SHOWED! WEAKNESS!" Pope bellowed so loudly that even the buildings they stood next to seemed to flinch. Dot took several steps back, seemingly frightened by his outburst.
Pope slowed his breathing. He had never cared if others feared him, but he did not want to see it in her. He sighed. "Never…Show. Weakness." He said in a calmer voice.
Dot looked at him funny. "Weakness?"
"Weakness." Pope repeated. "Crying. Show fear. Sensitivity. Giving up." He focused his glare at the ground. "Weakness."
Dot just stared at him. She had never asked Pope about his scars, but now she wondered how he got them. "What happened to you?" She signed.
"What?" Her question caught him off guard.
The familiar pain of tears building in her eyes returned like magic. "Pope…I cry for my husband and for my son everyday…I've cried for them for years…I gave up all hope the second they breathed their last breaths…The only thing I ever hoped for in that base was that the soldiers would just kill me and get it over with." Dot's vision was now blurred as her tears ran from her eyes. "Does that make ME weak?"
Pope stared at her in surprise. Dot? Weak? No! He tried to reason with himself. Dot was just broken by the humans. There's a difference between being weak and mourning!…Bur how that any different than you? Pope immediately blocked the thought from his mind. He was about to say something but Dot asked another question.
"Don't you mourn for your parents? Your family?"
He froze. All feelings leaving him. Pope struggled to find words to say but his mind had gone completely blank.
Dot noticed this blinked her tears away in confusion. "What's wrong?"
Before Pope could answer, a human appeared. By his dark skin, graying beard and the clothes he wore, Pope recognized him as Foster.
The first thing Milo felt was the coldness. It felt as if his face had frozen and became ice. Then he felt the soreness in his mouth and the echo of pain in his head. He winced, but made no noise. He was used to pain, and knew it was better not to express it too much.
"Milo…"
His eyes snapped open. He didn't recognize the voice, but expected it to be a human, possibly a soldier. Maybe even a fellow Donkey. But when he looked up, he saw her instead and paused.
It had been so long since their days in Tommy's house, and her body had more scars than he remembered, but he knew the eyes of this female bonobo anywhere. Even though they were no longer brown, he recognized them as clear as day.
"Dolly." His lips formed a smile as he signed her name. "Is it really you?"
"Yes!" Dolly couldn't help but smile in pure joy and relief. She carefully scooped him up in a gentle hug, being mindful of the IV that still stuck in his arm. All at once, memories of her and him and Koba playing together flashed before her eyes. Back in their innocent years, when cruelty was being done to them and they were too young to understand it. "Where were you?" She asked when she pulled away. "What happened to you?"
Milo was so happy to see her he didn't mind the questions. He had lots of his own as well, but he absolutely hated what had happened to him from the day he las saw her until now. "It doesn't matter. We're both ok-where's Koba?" He suddenly noticed that the other twin wasn't in the room.
Dolly found herself giggling with all the catching up she and Milo would have to do. It would be easy now that he could sign more. "He's fine. He's part of the council. He and I were freed by Caesar, a chimp. Now we're part of his colony."
Now Milo was giggling. If he remembered correctly, Koba and Dolly were only two when they all lived at Tommy's while Milo himself was only four. Both of them were playful, but Koba was even more so than his sister. Dolly seemed too worried about her twin brother to really be a child herself. Something Milo understood very well. "Koba? In a council? What is he in charge of? Plush kittens?" He teased playfully, making Dolly hoot-laugh.
"You wish!" Dolly replied. "He's actually Caesar's honorary brother and his second-in-command."
"Does that make you his honorary sister?"
"I'm not part of the council, but yes."
Wow. Milo couldn't believe how much his old playmates had grown. In his mind, he still pictured Dolly and Koba as they were the last time he saw them: Dolly with her blue bow hanging loosely on her head as it hid the recent cut on her forehead and Koba with his own scar running down the left side of his face and his left eye protected by his hand. It was amazing to think that such traumatized and damaged children could grow up into, seemingly, responsible and independent adults. No. Milo told himself. There's more to their story. Milo knew the face of a hidden mask when he saw it, and Dolly wore it naturally. There was something just beneath the surface.
Dolly knew he was thinking about something but didn't know what. Her eyes wandered to the scars on him. She only recognized the birthmark on his face as it splashed his cheek. The AO mark on his right eyebrow gave a clue to his past.
"What happened to you?" She asked again, but with more concern this time.
Milo met her gaze. He considered telling her. It couldn't hurt, could it? There weren't any soldiers or Donkeys to stop him from sharing what he knew with an old friend. He obviously wasn't in the base anymore, so he should be perfectly safe. No one will suffer if he told anyone the things he had seen.
But something held him back. Dolly's scars, the ones he didn't recognize, came from somewhere. They were left overs from whatever horrors she had gone through. Hints to how humans have treated her throughout the years. If her body had this much of them, Milo wondered just how many Koba may have.
No. Dolly didn't need to know what he had witnessed. She didn't need to know what monstrosities he had been a part of. She had already been through too much.
"Humans just being humans." He said instead. "Like always."
Dolly's eyes widened at his words. She immediately knew what he was talking about. "The humans here aren't like Tommy or those humans at all." She gestured to his chin. "One of them was kind enough to fix your mouth."
Milo didn't believe her at first, until his tongue explored around his mouth. She was right, in the places where teeth had been missing or broken, there were now new ones. They were smaller and different than a chimps regular set, but they were teeth and they fit in his mouth well. He'd finally be able to eat like a normal chimpanzee would again.
His amazement was short-lived. "Doesn't matter. Even if these humans are good, the bad ones will destroy them all. Then there wouldn't be any good humans left."
Dolly could only stare at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. The Milo she remembered was quiet, but generous. The only times he ever disobeyed or lashed out at Tommy was if he was provoked or if he was trying to help her and Koba when they needed it. Not just when he stole Tommy's sausages, but other times too. If he had anything to say about Tommy, or humans in general, he never spoke about it.
What did happen to you? Dolly suddenly felt worried about whatever Milo might be hiding from her.
Footsteps reached their ears, and Milo suddenly jumped and tried to get off of the bed. The instinct to hide came from years of footsteps followed by pain. He didn't know where he'd hide but he suddenly didn't feel safe on the bed he was on.
"Milo!" Dolly's voice startled him "It's ok, no bad humans."
He looked at her, his breathing slowing down. He hoped she was right.
The source of the footprints turned out to be Luca. Milo flinched when he first saw him, but settled when he saw that the gorilla didn't posses the AO mark or the Donkey tattoo.
"He's a friend." She explained. "His name is Luca, he's one of the council members and leader of the Gorilla Guard."
Friend? Milo hadn't met a gorilla who was a friend for years. Even with Dolly's reassurance, Luca still looked dangerous to him. He knew all too well what a gorilla can do when pushed too far. What any ape could do when pushed too far.
Luca replied with just a nod. He didn't have time for introductions. "Dolly, we need you back in the file room."
That's new. Normally, she was never called by the council unless it involved Koba somehow. Her stomach filled with worry. "What happened?"
"We found something." Dolly wasn't expecting that. "Something that you and Koba should know."
Dolly blinked at him. Her worry replaced with confusion. What was he talking about? And if, whatever it was, was so important, than how could she and Koba not already know it? At least Koba didn't do anything stupid and isn't in any danger. She glanced at Milo, not wanting to leave him after finally finding him again.
"It's alright." He signed with a nod. "I'll be alright. Just go."
Dolly gave a nod of her own and followed Luca out of the room. Milo listen until he could no longer hear their footsteps.
Dolly. He let his mind reflect. Replacing the image he had held on to all this time with a new, up to date, image of the female who, along with her brother, had been ghosts to him.
Just as beautiful as I remember. Maybe even more so.
Dot didn't have to come with him, but she did. She probably just came so she could stay with him, but Tori and Koba and the other three had been brought to the file room with them so now it felt like Dot was really just trying to hold him back from possibly attacking either of them again as she hugged his arm. Granted Pope could easily shake her off, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Not after that scene in the junkyard.
Luckily, most of the group were preoccupied with other things. Rocket, Koba and Stone were talking with Caesar and Maurice while Ellie and Tori talked with Malcolm and Foster. Trying to understand what was happening. Pope was the only one who stayed back. He didn't feel like talking to any of them. What's the point? The apes will start arguing with him over the fight in the junkyard if he bothered to speak to them. Besides, they'll eventually tell them what's going on anyways.
"Koba!" Dolly's voice cut through the other's talking. The female bonobo quickly went over to her twin's side. She then held his face in her hands, inspecting his bruises. "What. Happened to face?" She asked.
Pope's fur bristled slightly. He knew he could win a fight with Dolly, but he would much rather fight an ape who he didn't consider his friend. If he and Dolly were still friends at all.
"Nothing." Koba didn't like lying to his sister, but it seemed like a better idea than having another spat with Pope.
Dolly frowned at him. It the same look she gave him whenever she knew he was lying and was waiting for him to admit it.
"Ok, Dolly's here now. Would you tell us what this is about now?" Ellie sounded annoyed. Everyone was a little rattled by suddenly being asked back to the file room, but it was new for Ellie to express it.
"We were just looking through the files for any apes with chip implants and we found something." Malcolm didn't know how to word this. "It involves Pope, Koba and Dolly...And it involves Jacobs."
Almost the second he said the name, all three apes tensed up. Seems like Koba's not the only one who hated that man.
Caesar stayed quiet. Even if he knew what to say, he was too angry and confused at the situation to talk.
Malcolm showed them the documents. "See these? They're Animal Euthanasia Request forms-"
"Holy shit, my father was going to kill them?!" Tori's eyes went wide, horrified that her father would have gone that far.
As the others reacted to the news, Caesar couldn't help but find it very ironic that one of the apes Jacobs had tried to put down just so happened to have been the one to kill him. Coincidental justice perhaps, but he deserved it.
Pope found himself growling softly at Tori. If it wasn't for Dot's embrace on his arm, the scarred chimpanzee would have lunged at the pink hair human. He may not have had the pleasure of killing Jacobs like Koba had, but Tori would be the next best victim for his revenge.
Meanwhile, the scarred bonobo twins were hugging each other. An old reflex from their childhood. Normally, Dolly would bare her teeth at whatever danger was threatening them while Koba hides in her shoulder. But they aren't children anymore, and the danger had passed long before they even knew it was there. The fact that they had been that close to being killed while in the labs scared them to their core.
"How. They. Still alive?" Asked Rocket when he calmed down enough to speak.
"Someone filed an Animal Protection Order on them." A what? Foster could see the confusion in their eyes. "Apparently it was something humans would fill out to protect an animal that they believed was in danger and it would legally protect that animal from being euthanized for any reason other than illness or injury."
"So if Jacobs went through with it, he would have been sued?" Asked Ellie.
"Nope, he would have been charged with animal cruelty and maybe spend five or ten years in prison."
That's why Pope, Koba and Dolly's euthanasia dates were canceled. The shocked silence didn't last long. "Some. Human. Did that." Said Stone. "Who?"
This would be harder to explain. Malcolm had no idea who this was, and neither did Foster. Caesar, Maurice and Luca never heard of the name itself before, let alone know the owner of it. Still, this person had the same surname as Steven Jacobs had so that could mean it was someone related to him-like a sister or cousin. Possibly his own mother? "Someone named Aida Jacobs."
Tori's face went white. She stared at Malcolm, unsure if she had heard him right. She hadn't heard the name in so long that it took a moment for her to recognize it. "Let me see that."
Foster handed her the paper without question.
"…That doesn't make any sense." Tori muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. "That's my mother's signature."
"Your mother?!" Caesar was taken aback. Jacobs was stopped by his own wife?
The others were just as shocked as the Ape King was. They all knew Tori was Jacobs' daughter but up until now, knew absolutely nothing about her mother. All Koba himself knew was that she had died from the virus that killed most of the humans.
"I thought it was just your father that worked in that lab." Said Ellie.
"He was." Tori handed the paper back to Foster. "My father wouldn't even let my mother work at a coffee shop. Let alone at Gen-Sys."
"Then. How she. Save Koba, Dolly and Pope?" Caesar doubted it would have been that easy for Aida to have saved a bunch apes without having worked with them.
"I guess her being the wife of the CEO of Gen-Sys qualified her for filing the order? Hell, I don't know."
The four scarred apes were the only ones who didn't take part in the talking. Dot still had her gaze on the ground as she held on to Pope's arm, though now it felt like genuine comfort. The male chimp and the twin bonobos, however, were silent for a different reason. Their lives were saved. Not by Caesar, but by a human who they never even met. Who they didn't even know existed. And the scariest part was the only way she had known they were in danger and was able to save them was the fact that she was married to the very human who wanted them dead in the first place.
What does that make you? Pope asked in his mind as he glared at Tori's back. Your father was a menace to all apes. Yet your mother wanted to protect us. Which side do you choose?
"There's…One other thing." Malcolm said suddenly. "Koba and Dolly may have younger half-brothers in the base."
"What?!" Koba and Dolly said in unison. They really did look like twins in that second.
"Half-brothers." Malcolm repeated. "They were kidnapped ten years ago, Gavin and Nemo were their names. We're going to ask Cooper if he had seen them around the base."
Rocket, dumbfounded, looked at the two bonobos. "Koba. Dolly. How. Many. Relatives. You have?" For as long as he's known the two, it was always just them. Sure Ishmael had been there for a short time, but it was primarily just Koba and Dolly. Now they have their father back, and maybe half-siblings?
The scarred bonobo twins looked at each other. They didn't know how to answer that, it suddenly seemed very possible that they had more relatives than they thought. "We don't know." They said in unison again.
Ok, now that's getting a little creepy!
Suddenly, Aaron and Dreyfus appeared. "I'm telling you, he would not do this!" Dreyfus sounded upset, which was weird in itself.
"Those are strong words coming from a guy who fights with him half of the time." Argued Aaron.
"I may not agree with Derek's ideas, but he would never turn his back on the people he works with!"
"What is going on here?!" Ellie had to yell at them to get them to stop.
Dreyfus looked at her and the group. His gray hair in his eyes and his glasses crooked. "It's Derek, he's missing."
"Not missing." Corrected Aaron. "He left."
A's/N: Aaaaannnnnnnnddddd we get our first controversy-and it's solved in the same chapter!
To explain it, allow me to quote Jacobs in Firestorm! "You stupid, ugly monkey. If you had any idea what you and that idiot Amol have cost me...By God, I wish I could put you down myself. If I were still in charge, I would." If Jacobs really meant that threat, why didn't he euthanize Koba like he said he would? It could have been for financial reasons, but what if someone (or something other than money) stopped him from doing it? This is where Aida comes in! (Also, I don't know if such a thing as Animal Protections Orders are real or if they do but just aren't used to protect animals from unnecessary euthanasia, it's just something I made up. XD) It's also a question that I have about Pope and Koba: They were abused and tortured by humans all their lives, but if a human had saved them (regardless if they ever met that human) would it change their views of the humans at all?
And yeah, very Tori-ish chapter. LOL, just see it as more information about her character and plus, we finally get to see Koba be the 'comforting' one of the duo! X3
You guys may wanna look out for some Pope and Dot, AND Dolly and Milo stuff in the next chapters...Well, there's gonna be lots of drama in the next chapters from here, but yes there WILL be some CUTENESS as well! :3
Now then, remember the mention of two other bonobos who were also kidnapped and were supposedly related to Carlos in chapter 9? That's right guys, Koba and Dolly have little brothers! We'll learn more about them in the next chapters, but yeah Koba's gonna get some more relatives now! XD
As for Derek...Where is he?! LOL, this is gonna be fun!
Thanks for reading and please review! :D