r1

For a moment, the world was silent. The white was everything, and in an instant, he became nothing. He was simply destroyed by the rush of white energy, but somehow… He didn't stop thinking. Alex rested in the comfortable nothingness for a long moment, dulled confusion streaking across his muted thoughts, then sensation returned to him.

He was trapped within something, simple glass pressing against his formless body. Formless? Why wasn't he- oh, of course. He survived a nuclear blast and was reduced to nothing more than the shapeless virus that the Contact had revealed him to be. If he had lips, he would grimace.

He should correct that, shouldn't he. It was odd being without limbs or eyes, or even the familiar stolen face he'd thought was his own. It seemed he had just enough biomass left to reform, so he did so. Tendrils writhed within the prison, until they broke through and left him a squirming puddle on the dirty floor.

Soon red flesh formed to frame bones, then eyes and organs filled the spaces, then finally he was whole. He rolled his shoulders, twisted his jaw, stretched and closed his hands, marvelling at sensations he'd missed. Then he looked up- to see the perfect mirror of himself. "What the fuck are you."

The only difference between Alex and said mirror of a man was attire; rather than the hoodie and leather jacket combination, he donned a lab coat and an expression laced with morbid curiosity. The vial shattering had spurred him to back away, but now, he stood up straight, staring Alex down with a familiar piercing gaze. The gesture lasted only a second, because soon the scientist was right in Alex's face, unbothered by the fact he was standing less than a foot from the bioweapon he himself had created.

"It completely mimicked my form, right down to speech. A near perfect clone, without any DNA samples to go off of." He spoke as though Alex wasn't there at all, in the way one muttered to themself about a chemical reaction in a test tube rather than a person coming out of nowhere. Dr. Mercer's prying was unyielding, to the extent he grabbed Alex's chin, trying to turn his head back and forth to better examine him. "A perfect clone, not even nearly perfect. The modifications I did were only slight, but you've managed to evolve incredibly, haven't you? Far beyond anything any of us-"

Alex grabbed the hand gripping his chin with an iron (not bone crushing- yet) grip, shoving it away. Despite his unexpressive face, the way his eyes widened and he backed away from the scientist before him told plenty. "I said- What are you?"

He hissed out the question, visibly agitated. This person before him- perfectly like Alex Mercer with the addition of a lab coat- was impossible. Alex Mercer was dead, he'd taken the man's life before he even thought his first thought. Add that to the strange, detached curiosity he was displaying, much like Karen had when he came to her… The young virus was quite wary. A redlight clone of the scientist he was supposed to be, or something else entirely, he didn't care for the attitude the guy was showing.

Dr. Mercer merely raised a brow as his hand was shoved away, but he stood his ground-and for a moment, a smile seemed to cross his face. His mind was at full speed, analyzing the way the virus moved, "its" reactions, "its" expressions and tone. He tilted his head upward a fraction, huffing a little as he regarded Alex despite the clear, borderline sadistic glint in his eyes.

"Sentience- it's acquired fucking sentience." The scientist shook his head, barely containing himself. The breakthrough of this-what it meant for the whole project. What he had done and not even realized he had done. Again, he moved closer to the virus; but thankfully for both of them, he managed to keep his hands to himself. Instead, he reached over to one of the desks, grabbing a notepad and pen to start scribbling down notes as he spoke. "What am I? Your creator. You're the Blacklight virus. You've copied so well that you're alive."

His… Creator. Alex's hands dropped to his side, eyes narrowing with contempt. This was Dr. Mercer? The one who was supposed to be Dana's brother- Dana. Where was she? All thoughts of chasing up how the hell this person was alive again vanished from his head. If he was alive- could he know? Tendrils warped around his wrists, forming the familiar knife like weapons just in case. He spoke in a low growl, "Dana. Where is she."

The name actually brought Dr. Mercer to pause, but beyond recognition, there wasn't anything in his face-not caring, not worry. If anything, he seemed intrigued, drumming his fingers against the notebook and tilting his head.

"Dana? So you've gathered some of my memories, as well." His tone remained cool and calculative, the entire thing akin to discussing equations rather than real people. "What about her? Has she proven to be a good host, from what you've seen of her? I wouldn't mind bringing her here if you're so interested. You're probably seeking out fresh cells, anyway..."

Alex's face twisted in disgust. This was what Dana had expected him to be. He hated people like this- the marines and blackwatch soldiers he'd consumed always left him reeling, feeling mentally sickened by the taste of their personality. And his creator was such a person. Disgusting.

He opened his mouth to respond, venom on his tongue- only to close it after realising something. Usually his thoughts came in bundles, mixed memories and concepts providing a unique internal language. This time, however, his thoughts were alone. For the first time since he consumed his first victim, there were no screaming thoughts, no last moments replaying without his prompting. He was… Alone in his head. And he stood before his creator. Two impossible occurrences added on to the fact he was alive… Something was very amiss here.

"I don't want to consume her, you sick bastard." He said, eyes flashing with rage, then stepped closer, placing one blade hand tightly on the others shoulder, digging in just enough to draw blood. He stepped closer, equal height doing nothing to diminish the threat dripping from his posture. Alex smiled, and stepped back a little. "If you don't talk, though…" He gave a small shrug of his shoulders, a far too casual motion for someone threatening murder.

Where the scientist hadn't reacted much at all to the thought of sacrificing his sister, the blade to his shoulder spurred a half second of panic to flicker across his features. He was a proud man, but by no means was he a dumbass-his life took priority above all else. Even his ever mounting curiosity, because that blade was metal, he could feel it in the way it brushed by his arm. Was this what Dr. Frankenstein had felt, when his monster came to life? That itching curiosity, but self preservation winning over in the end. Dr. Mercer narrowed his eyes, refusing to let even an ounce of fear show on his face.

"I don't see how she'd serve you any other purpose, Blacklight." The scientist would have mimicked the shrug, if not for the blade against his shoulder. "My sister's in her new apartment. She moved here recently. And as much as I'd like to take you on a damn field trip to see her, you're not leaving this lab."

Alex let the blade go from the other's shoulder, hands returning to normal as he backed up, before moving towards the door. "Thanks for the information, but I am going to find Dana."

Dr. Mercer let out a quiet sigh of relief as the blade was moved from his shoulder, but still, the virus was intent on leaving. He knew the hazard of letting an incredibly deadly virus literally walk the streets, but… there was that curiosity. What would Blacklight do, once it was out and about? Would it infect all in its path? This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and Dr. Mercer was willing to take a couple bystanders down to investigate. So, setting his notepad aside, he moved to stand behind the virus that had been intent on killing him moments ago.

"You won't need to "find" her. I'll take you to her. My shift has been over for thirty minutes-I was doing last minute work." He spoke calmly but firmly, his expression unreadable but by no means friendly.

Alex didn't care for this man at all, but he had something useful. There was no need to consume him just yet, so he wouldn't. He stepped back from the door, eyeing Dr. Mercer with dark, impatient eyes. "What are you waiting for? Let's go." He needed to find her safe- needed to know if she had died under Ragland's care or from the explosion. He had to check on his sister, but he had a feeling he would abuse the information if he let him know why.

If there was any time to sneak an incredibly dangerous virus disguised as yourself out of a lab, it was now. Most of his coworkers had already gone home, and the hood concealing most of the virus' features made it easy to slip him out of Gentek. It was just after the rush hour, leaving the street empty of its usual suffocating crowd. Maybe a car would have been a better idea, but there was scientific curiosity, then there was locking yourself in a metal cage with something that could wipe you out in an instant. Waving from people who recognized his face- their faces-was answered with little more than a grunt; the scientist's focus was purely on Blacklight. He'd left his lab coat behind for his coat, making it nigh impossible to tell the two apart.

Except for the fact Dr. Mercer continued to linger as close to Alex as he could, constantly glancing back at him and analyzing his every movement. If he had the instruments, he would have surely been poking and prodding.

"Why my face?" He tilted his head, but his eyes never remained on Alex for more than a few seconds; he looked all around them, at every person, at every dark corner that someone could be lurking. He didn't seem intent on explaining why. "Out of all the faces you've seen since you were made, you chose to mimic mine. And my sister is who you immediately want to find. I'm pretty sure you can see why I'm curious."

Alex was… unsettled by being so exposed, but no one seemed to be screaming about the number one terrorist, merely a few excited whispers about what good twins they were. Which was very strange, considering the reputation he'd brought upon himself. The lack of Hives or Infected, or even soldiers combing the streets, made him very uneasy as well. He was pretty sure Nukes were supposed to kill everything- not just redlight- and they especially didn't bring dead men back to life.

Dr. Mercer's seeming ignorance didn't fit anything he knew of the man. Alex was silent, just walking alongside him while he tried to think of a response. Should he tell it to him straight? Try to make it less strange sounding? For once, he missed the clamour of souls screaming in his head. All he had were the scant few positive interactions he'd had completely as himself to draw upon.

"You were the first person I consumed. I thought I was you." He said it plainly, without emotion, but the knitting of his eyebrows betrayed his confusion over the situation. "I'm going to see Dana because she's…" Nice? Good at thinking? The first person who didn't try to kill him? "My sister."

The scientist's steps came to a brief pause, but he was quick to recover. The first person consumed; the first person ever infected? He pushed down a surge of paranoia, shaking his head at his own ignorance. He was far too careful to get infected. Besides, with how the virus spoke, it was as though it'd been alive for a while. Long enough to believe it was Alex Mercer. Its movements were too fluid for something that just acquired legs, even if it was incredibly adaptable. But he had never seen it in this form, and he was in the lab far more than anyone else. Either it had been careful and only exercised its existence overnight... or someone was tampering with his experiment. His virus. He thought of his investigations into Gentek's higher-ups, and his chest tightened.

He clenched his fists for a moment, but relaxed with a careful exhale. He knew it. He knew they were tampering with his work, and he had solid proof now. Damn Gentek…

"If you know you aren't me, why would you call her your sister?" Some of the coldness in his tone had sharpened, laced with the unease and anger he felt towards those he worked for and alongside. "Doesn't matter, ultimately. You're lucky I was going to see her anyways, so this isn't completely out of my way. We'll continue this conversation once we're off the streets." A small shrug.

Off the streets… Alex looked to the top of the buildings nearby, then shook his head subtly. He didn't have enough Biomass to waste dragging this bastard around, not unless he consumed a civilian. Which he made a point to avoid doing. Plus, the weird anonymity they had was kind of pleasant.

He didn't deign Dr. Mercer with a response, as he turned a corner and saw a familiar apartment complex. He recognised it by the way the windows were arranged, the one with flowery curtains always drawn shut next to the one with mini statues lining the sill. They were a familiar sight to him, as he'd been jumping past them regularly before Dana… Was taken.

Alex grit his teeth in frustration, and broke into a sprint, running directly through the glass doors and bounding up the stairs. What did her door look like from this side again...? He stalked the length of the hall, breathing deeply. Could he catch that familiar smell of hers here? There were so many smells when he put his mind to it, it made his expression sour.

The scientist was several paces behind-how could it move that fast?!-so it took a few minutes for him to emerge at the stairwell, struggling to keep his rapid breathing subtle as he caught up with Alex. The second he caught his breath, however, he glared daggers at the virus he'd been admiring so intently just moments before.

"Do you want to see Dana, or do you want your ass dragged back to that fucking lab?!" His tone was low but sharp, and he kept glancing behind himself, as though he expected someone else to come charging up the stairs after them. Dr. Mercer dragged a hand down his face, hissing through his teeth, before returning to his standard calm. "You can't just do whatever you please, Blacklight. You're going to get all three of us killed if you don't get yourself under control, do you understand?"

Alex shrunk back at the harshly whispered reprimands, and glared right back at the paranoid Doctor. "What's it matter anyway? Blackwatch is only after me." He realised as he spoke that perhaps he should have waited for the automatic doors, but he just wanted to see Dana, damnit. He shook the glass shards out of his sleeves and picked them out of his chest, staring mulishly at a door instead of continuing speaking.

Then he blinked, suddenly fully focused on the door. She was behind it. He could tell. Alex flung it wide open, very nearly hitting the Doctor in the face with it, and the light in his eyes came back, small tears beading at the edges. She was alright. Admittedly, she looked quite stunned to see him, and mildly confused. "Dana…" He whispered, unable to form coherent thoughts from how overwhelmed he was.

Frankly, he expected the virus to continue what he equated to a child pouting for the rest of the time they were here, so the sudden shift in mood spurred a raised brow from him. Not that he got to dwell on it for very long, seeing as he nearly had his nose broken by the apartment door swinging open. He swore under his breath, moving to stand alongside the virus in front of his sister. (Not its sister, his sister.) Dana was predictably bewildered, if… less so than he would have expected. Dr. Mercer crossed his arms, greeting her with far less interest than he did Alex.

"Alex? And… Alex. What the fuck?" She glanced first at Alex, then Dr. Mercer, blinking a few times in between to make sure she wasn't just seeing double. No, there were actually two Alexes here. Add that to the pile of weird shit she's been through over the last who knew how long. Dana stepped away from the door, making a small motion for them to come in despite the obvious confusion on her face. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if Alex could clone himself, but that didn't solve the fact she had no idea what the hell was going on.

Alex rushed in quickly, nearly stumbling over the welcome mat in his haste. He stood in the empty, clean hallway, and looked at Dana carefully, eyes scanning her with predatory skill to look for wounds. When he found none, he relaxed somewhat from the jittery mess he'd been under the surface, a small ripple running down his arms as he calmed down. She was safe. She was completely uninjured. Good. "What happened after the Leader Hunter took you."

Dr. Mercer was slower to follow, stepping in without a word or reaction-only watching Alex, frowning a fraction at his behavior. He'd known his sister was in New York for a while; he had plenty of unanswered or ignored calls from her cluttering up his phone. This was the first time he'd seen her since he'd left-not much had changed. Good. He'd need that from her, later. Ignoring Alex's question entirely, he motioned to the virus, a hint of pride on his face as he spoke.

"I know this is abrupt, but it was dead set on seeing you. As long as I get it back into the lab before work tomorrow, there shouldn't be an issue." He averted his eyes for a moment, something seeming to settle on his mind, but he continued. "Dana, meet my life's work; the Blacklight virus. It has chosen to mimic me."

For a moment, she just looked between the two exact twins. Then Dana sighed heavily through her teeth- clearly an inherited tic- and dragged a hand over her face. "Alex-" She pointed to the one behind her, then pointed to the scowling man at her door. Hm, how to distinguish them… "Bitch. I'm calling you that to separate you. So this is simpler."

She ignored Bitch's subtle expression of shock, although it did bring a small smirk to her face, and carried on talking to Alex. "They were taking me to a Hive on the outskirts. Don't suppose you have anything to do with it being over a month before today?" She tapped a calendar on the wall, the month of September barely having a row crossed off.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dr. Mercer-no, he would not be calling himself 'Bitch'-narrowed his eyes, finally stepping the rest of the way into the apartment and closing the door behind himself with his foot. As irritated as he was that the virus got the real name rather than him, he didn't put it past Dana; she was probably bitter towards him or something stupid like that. Instead, he had more important things to focus on. Such as the fact his sister seemed to know the literal virus, and that they were both discussing things he sure as hell didn't remember. "Leader Hunter? Hive? What exactly have you been doing, Dana?"

"Not to mention the fact it is September. And has been, the entire damn time." A new edge slipped into his voice as he spoke, and he took a few careful steps toward Dana, glancing between her and his virus. "Considering the fact that's my virus, I'd like an explanation."

Alex turned to his Creator, and nearly rolled his eyes. "My virus this, I created you that. I don't care. Clearly you don't have anything useful to say, if you don't remember the fucking apocalypse." He paused, then added with a small smirk, "Bitch."

The eye-rolling sentiment was a mutual one, though Dr. Mercer concealed his with a short scoff and frustrated, 'why-am-I-the-only-one-with-a-brain' style shake of his head. His studies of the virus hadn't indicated it caused psychological damage to those it infected, but he couldn't think of another reason Dana would be so easily agreeing with the virus' sentiments. That, or his sister hadn't changed for the better in the five years he'd been away.

"Apocalypse. Right. Because there's been a complete and utter destabilization of society any time recently. Since when did you induce delirium in people, because the amount of bullshit you two are spewing is about to drive me up a goddamn wall." He leaned against the doorway he had yet to leave, looking down on them both in the way he'd greeted many of his less than capable peers back in college. "This is what I get for asking a virus and a journalist for an explanation."

Alex's eyes narrowed, and he stalked closer to Dr. Mercer, getting just close enough that the other would feel the pressure of death, if he misspoke. "I'll give you the simplest run down I can manage, since clearly you know less about the world than I did when I woke up in the morgue."

He flexed his fingers, whole arm rippling into a spiky weapon, and continued, voice a dark whisper, "You smashed a vial containing a lethal virus- that would be me- in Penn Station on the 7th of October. I took your body, and while trying to find out who I was, your actions lead to a full blown plague and military lockdown. The military decided to nuke the whole place and I took the nuke out over the sea." Alex paused, staring at the unrecognising expression with disdain, then he continued. "I woke up inside the vial, and now you're alive as well. Does none of this ring bells?"

"Not even remotely." His words were short and to the point, concealing the frustrated confusion just beneath the surface. The sheer amount of detail he was being given made it impossible to shrug it off as bullshit, but it made no sense. It wasn't even October, and he was being accused of what sounded like the start of biological warfare. He grit his teeth, clawing his mind for some sort of realistic explanation to it all. The recognition on Dana's face wasn't helping much.

The woman had been watching the two's back and forth for a while, trying to piece together what was going on. "Alex- you're blacklight?" The way he looked away from her, hooded head shading his whole face told her everything. She took a moment to think it over, deciding that yes, that did match up quite well, and no, it didn't matter.

"Whatever. You were still nicer to me than Bitch over there." She gave him a warm, encouraging smile, relieved when he turned those lost eyes back to her. "Doesn't matter if you're a- virus." She stumbled over the sentence, thinking of the Infected, and shook those thoughts out. Alex was different. She hoped.

Dana turned a much more steely gaze upon her actual brother, who cared just as much about her as he cared for a flea bitten stray- if not less. "You're coming inside." She said, authoritative tone developed from weeks of dealing with her superweapon amnesiac brother coming through. "Seems you've got some explaining to do, Bitch."

"I've got a lot of explaining to do?" He half debated hanging out in the doorway for the sole purpose of irritating her, but decided now wasn't the time. Dr. Mercer stepped away from the door, ready to actually enter the apartment but looking none the happier to do so. "If you can show me reports on an apocalypse from a month into the future, maybe I'll believe you. But as of right now, all I can assume is that Blacklight-" he made a point of the name, emphasizing it as he spoke, "-has contaminated you or something like that. Because I can say without a doubt that only conspiracy theorists and other such dumbasses would agree with either of you."

Alex bristled, only half figuratively, at the suggestion he would ever hurt Dana. He had no idea how to convey the point to the stubborn man who insisted on taking what scraps of humanity he had left with every sentence. "It may sound crazy, but it's the truth."

He made to shapeshift- show him what forms he shouldn't have- but all he succeeded in was becoming a vaguely humanoid pile of tendrils before he snapped back to Alex Mercer shaped. Right. He had no Biomass from other people left. He pursed his lips together, looking down at himself contemplatively. Then he decided to just scare the guy into believing. He shifted his arm, ready to consume, and whipped his swirling limb to wrap around Dr. Mercer's hand, tendrils writhing just above the skin, picking up all the horrible things the guy had touched recently. Like bread. "Trust us, or your hand goes."

Leave it to Alex to threaten him. Dr. Mercer's expression remained a glare, but he remained as still as he possibly could; if anyone knew how dangerous Blacklight was, it was him, after all. His options were to humor a virus and his likely infected younger sister, or to lose his hand and probably end up infected himself. As much as he hated it, the answer was obvious. He met Alex's gaze head on, not even bothering to glance Dana's way.

"Fine. I don't know what the hell you're expecting to get from that, but fine." He crossed his arms, ultimately shrugging somewhat. "If I did, apparently, release the virus in Penn Station, there should still be traces of it there. If we find-or don't find-anything, we might get a better explanation as to what's going on. Time wise."

Dana shot Alex a look, and then addressed Dr. Mercer, "Glad you're on the right side… for once. Its late, so why don't you two stay in the spare bedroom? Alex knows where it is." The virus nodded, and started walking to the room. Although he didn't need sleep, he'd be glad of the chance to make that disgusting man uncomfortable.

As much as the scientist wanted to argue that he had his own place to stay, as well as the fact he wasn't worried about a little dark, he didn't bother. Half because he was genuinely exhausted, much to his own frustration. Half because leaving would mean letting Alex out of his sight. So he followed after the virus without a word, casting Dana a brief glance as he passed.

By the time Dr. Mercer let himself drift off into an uneasy sleep, wary of the predator he'd found himself so close to, the moon was high in the cloudy sky. Alex watched it quietly, taking in the gentle darkness and watching the cloud cover drift and change. Silence was a very novel thing to him. Then, quite suddenly, the softly moonlit room disappeared, Darkness encroaching all corners of his vision. He stood up, his chair shoved behind him by the force, but it was too late. Alex Mercer, the virus who never slept, blacked out.

AN:

r1: complete. This is a collaboration between myself (Core) and my good friend Sketch! I'm hosting it on fanfiction, he and I will cohost it on ao3 under the same name, so head over there if you want to give him compliments on his great writing! We've got lots planned here, so don't forgot to favourite, follow, and leave a review for weekly updates ;)