It's that time of the year, folks. November. I will be taking a part in NaNoWriMo, so expect slower updates for this month. Sorry about this.
No interlude for this chapter, I'm afraid. But on the plus side approximately five more chapters to go (not counting interludes)!
When the cop walks into the ice cream parlor and heads straight for them, Rex's immediate thought is "I knew we should've called an ambulance for Bobo, even though Tuck assured me that he'll be fine." But there wasn't any blood and Tuck was really convincing and...
The officer stops at their table and turns to Rex. "Rex Salazar?"
And it's not until he speaks up that Rex realizes who the officer is. It's Calan. Rex didn't recognize him without the scar, but the southern drawl is something that he can't miss. It's only then that Rex finds himself relaxing because hey, it's Calan! Not only is he part of Providence (well, was, technically), but he's a good friend. There's no way that he's here to arrest them. But his friends must not get the memo, because they're tense.
Tuck grabs the napkin holder casually. Walter reaches into his pockets as if to reach for a weapon. Cricket looks ready to bolt. Circe loosely holds her spoon in her hand, as if preparing to use it as a weapon if worst came to worst. While all of this is going on, Rex smiles charmingly at Calan. "Yes sir," he answers, surprising himself at how serious he sounds.
"Your brother drove us crazy trying to file a missing person report," Calan tells him, giving them all a look of disapproval. It's odd, Calan's never given him this kind of... Oh right. This Calan isn't the one friendly patted Rex on the back after a successful mission. The thought's more than enough to cause Rex to tense. "Let me guess, you forgot to let him know that you were going to be out late with your friends?"
"...César did?" Rex mumbles lowly. Then loudly, he says, "Yes sir. Sorry about this. I'll get home right now and calm him down."
Calan nods. "Good, see that you do." Then he turns and leaves, much to the relief of Rex and his friends.
"What's the evil dictator planning?" Circe asks, shooting Rex a worried look. "He's never cared about curfew or anything before."
"Ah, it's part of the deal I made. I completely forgot about it," Rex says with an easy laugh. "I'll catch up to you guys later, okay? Thanks for tonight."
The group nod and wave goodbye, much to Rex's relief. Tuck looks much better now, too. And Rex is starting to wonder if he just imagined the dark look. Probably. After all, it's Tuck. Out of all of them, Tuck's the most reliable.
By the time Rex arrives back at home (he doesn't get too terribly lost for once, and he's counting that as a victory), César is pacing back and forth on the front porch. There are signs of parked cars around the house and the lawn, so Rex can already imagine what kind of crazy spectacle his brother made when he called the police. The motorcycle that he borrowed from Moss is still in the driveway, reminding Rex that he still hasn't taken care of that either.
"¡Hermano!" Rex calls out, waving.
The result is automatic. César doesn't hesitate to run across the lawn to throw his arms around Rex. It's not until then that Rex realizes that his brother's shaking and cold, and- How long has he been out here, waiting for me? For a while, César just holds him, not saying a single word. Then he slowly releases Rex with a shuddering breath.
"You scared me," César whispers, his voice hoarse. "I just kept imagining the worst scenario. I know statistically, it is highly unlikely that you were hurt, but this is you, we're talking about. Then I started to wonder if your memory was back or worse, you lost even more and-"
"Sorry. I got chased and then just lost track of time. Nothing happened, César."
But it's not a look of calm that appears on his brother's face. "Chased? By the...?"
"The man in green. Sixth most dangerous man in the world," Rex answers him.
"Rex... Your information..."
There's a small pause. Then César lets out a sigh, rubs the back of his neck, and declares, "Let's talk more inside. There's someone I want you to meet."
They walk in to the kitchen and Rex wants to just bolt out of there. Because there, at their kitchen table, typing furiously on her laptop while sipping whatever drink she's drinking is Black Knight. Rex takes a slow step backwards, but Black Knight looks up and spots them. She smiles.
"Hello, Rex, we meet again."
"You know each other?" César asks, looking slightly worried at what that might mean.
"Don't make that kind of face," Black Knight tells him. "We met very briefly in the parking lot, isn't that right, Rex?"
Rex doesn't answer her. He doesn't want to talk to her or look at her. He just wants to get out of here, maybe crawl under the covers or something. He's already dealt with Providence tonight, he really doesn't want to deal with her as well.
"She's going to help us, okay?" César says, looking at Rex with sincere eyes.
And it's so not fair, because it's happening again. His brother is going further and further away. And isn't it bad enough that César betrayed him once in a different universe, and now he's going to betray Rex again to Black Knight? Gatlocke's words about the Consortium and César echoes in Rex's mind, and he takes a deep breath.
"Alright, fine," he decides finally. "Tell me what you have to say."
"Good choice." Black Knight smiles again, but it looks more like the smirk of a shark than anything friendly.
The three of them sit around the kitchen table. It appears that Angela has prepared some tea before she left, because César quickly pours himself and Rex a cup. Then Black Knight turns her laptop around and shows Rex a picture of Six.
"Is this man chasing you?" César asks. He looks worried again, and Rex just wants to tell him that it's going to be fine. Six isn't really all that harmful and then it stops his train of thoughts because this isn't his Six. Who knows what this Six will and won't do?
"Yes."
"Why are you running from him?" Black Knight asks. There's no worry in her eyes. It's just morbid curiosity.
Because if I stay, I'll tell him everything. Rex shrugs his shoulders. "Don't know. He just seemed dangerous."
"Well, you aren't wrong." Black Knight turns her laptop back towards her. "Do you know who he is?"
"Six. The sixth most dangerous man in the world. What of it?"
"Rex..." César starts. Then he stops, looking down at his hands.
"Odd. You knew about me, yet your information on him is outdated. The man in the green suit is not Six. Rather, he's One."
"... That makes no sense." Except it does. Of course, it does. If Six never had to put his life on hold so that he could help out at Providence and become a babysitter for Rex, then doesn't it make sense that he would have achieved that title? It makes perfect sense, but Rex doesn't want to admit it. Because the minute he acknowledges Six as One, that would mean that he's agreeing completely to severe the ties to the other world that he can never go back to, and he's not sure if he's ready to do that yet.
"I don't know who got you that information, but you should think about getting a new informant. At this rate, you'll die before achieving any of your goals."
Black Knight looks like she's mocking him. Her voice is sincere, but her eyes aren't. She's watching him as she always does, like a cat toying with its prey. Rex doesn't like it at all. And throughout it all, César just looks uncomfortable, staring at his tea with his mouth set firm in a frown.
"I'm not going to die."
"Can you guarantee that? Can you guarantee that you won't lose everything?"
No, Rex can't. But damn it, he has his nanites. That has to count for something, right?
"So this is our proposal," Black Knight says. She closes the laptop and leans forward. "The Consortium has a brand new project. It's in its beta stages right now but-"
Rex blocks out the rest of the words. He doesn't want to hear it. He feels his entire body tensing and his hands clench into fists. Deep breaths, he tell himself. He's not going to get mad. Because this situation is just like back in his original universe, and he hates it all too much. He doesn't want to talk to her. He doesn't want to talk at all. Damn it, why is this the one thing that's similar? Why couldn't it have been Six? Or Holiday? Or Bobo?
"... We can get your memories back with it. What do you think?"
"I think it's bull." Rex looks up and meets Black Knight's cold eyes. "You guys want to test your newest creation, so you're offering it to me like it's some kind of salvation. But it's not. It's yet another trap. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you aren't welcomed in this house. Leave."
"Wait, Rex!" César places a hand on Rex's shoulder, trying to get his attention. "Don't you understand? This might be able to help you. You can..." He gulps as if he hates himself for what he's going to say. "You can get your memories back. I know it sounds kind of sketchy, but the procedures are completely safe. You're going to be fine and you're going to have answers."
"And then what? Go back to who I was before? You didn't even like who I was, hermano! Hell, did anyone? I like who I am right now. Why can't you just be happy with that?" Because if they were to hook him up to the machines and he ends up reverting back to his old self... Well, that really depends, doesn't it? Which old self would he revert to? The him when he met Six? The him when he was in Hong Kong? And no matter how Rex looks at it, there's no way that he'll end up getting the memories that these people want him to. Because he's not that Rex.
César looks relieved at Rex's words. Like he wasn't sure at all what Rex would've said and he wasn't sure if he would have been okay if Rex had chosen otherwise. But it's Black Knight that worries Rex. The way that she's watching, the way that she looks like she's carefully calculating everything...
She smiles. "Your choice is your own."
But Rex doesn't believe that at all.
"I'll take my leave. Thanks for the tea."
"César, I think you owe me some explanations, too."
His brother looks like a deer caught in the headlights. But then he takes a deep breath and sits across from Rex. "Okay," he says. "I've been working with this group called the Consortium. They want... They want to achieve immortality. But all of their researches led them to a dead-end. And then I... I approached them with an idea. What if you can download your memories and thoughts? And then just... upload them? You know, have backups of your memories."
Dear gods, no wonder Gatlocke reported this to him. Rex closes his eyes and rubs his temples. You have got to be-! He has figured that it would be something pretty bad that César was involved in. But of all things, why did it have to be...?
"... Why...? César, what the hell was going through your head when you proposed something like that for research?! Don't you know how easily that can become corrupted? The application of that kind of technology is-"
"I just wanted a way to help you! You said you were losing your memories and I got... Hell, I got excited. I thought this might be a way to connect with you. I just... I just wanted my family back, mijo."
"Boys, it's late at night. You shouldn't be yelling."
The two turn to the entrance of the kitchen, where Rex's mom stands, looking at them with disapproving eyes. She has an intricate looking shawl wrapped around herself, looking cold and oh so tired.
"Mom," Rex says (although he can't help but to wonder if he ever did call her that in this universe). "Tell César that he's being an idiot. He needs to stop the research now and-"
"It's already in the beta stages, Rex. We're just looking for test subjects and-"
"People, César! They're people. They're not just test subjects!"
"Boys!"
The two fall back into angry silence and Violeta sighs. She walks over to them and gently places a hand on each of their shoulders.
"You two never argue like this. What happened?"
"I found out that my entire family is a lie. That's what happened." Rex grumbles. It's not what he means to say, but it's what comes out.
"Rex..." César's voice is fraught with warnings. Of what, Rex doesn't know. And to be honest, he's done caring. Why does he have to tiptoe around this? He's the one suffering the most because of this, isn't he? He has every right to be grumpy.
"Our family isn't a lie, Rex," Violeta says, her voice gentle as if to soothe a crying babe. But Rex isn't a baby crying about his scraped knee. He's an intelligent being who has made the conscious decision to change everything, only to realize that his ideal isn't all that beautiful as he had hoped.
"Really? Is that why you and dad are never around? Is that why Angela's more concerned with what I do with my life? Is that why no one bothers to come pick me up when I'm in the hospital? And when they do," here he meets César's eyes, "they do nothing but criticize me for my decisions instead of inquiring whether I'm okay or not? Is that why I don't even live here anymore and no one gives a crap? Is that why no one questions why there's a motorcycle in the driveway?"
"Rex, stop it. It's not her fault!"
"Then whose fault is it, César? Mine? Because I want to have a normal family? Because I was born? Is it yours? Is it dad's? Tell me, who broke this family?"
"It was..." César looks down at his hands, unable to answer.
"Rex," Violeta says, sternly now. As if this line of questioning is going somewhere that she doesn't want to deal with. "It's not like that. We're not broken. We're just..."
"We're broken, mom. Tell me, when was the last time you took an interest in what I did? What César did? Tell me, when was the last time we all sat together for dinner? When was the last time that we acted as a family?"
The room is silent, and Rex faintly wonders maybe this is all just a hallucination. He never made the wish, he's just having a long nightmare in his bed. Few minutes from now, Holiday or Bobo is going to shake him awake and they're going to go through briefing and-
"What do you want from me?" Violeta whispers, derailing Rex's thoughts. "Rex, mijo, we're all just trying to do everything we can."
"We can to do what? I don't understand. Why aren't we treasuring each other? Why are we so cold and distant?"
Violeta takes a deep breath. "Rex, before you were born... Your father and I were part of a team of scientists on the Nanite Project. It was shut down because the group that funded us believed it wasn't worth exploring. Your father... He and few of the other scientists believed that the Project was the only way to help humanity. They wanted to continue the project. We fought, Rex. And in the end-"
"In the end, our family is the only one that suffers. That's what it boils down to, mom. You can tell me it was the Consortium, it was the project, or something else. But in the end, we're the one with a broken family."
"If Providence had just kept out of this, we would have been fine!"
Rex freezes. He looks at his mom, whose hands are balled up into fists and her eyes are shining with anger.
"... Providence...?"
"I don't know who they are, either. But they offered money. An impossibly large sum enough to restart the project."
Rex recalls the first day when he came home and his mother had slammed the receiver. Could it be that his mother had decided against the Nanite Project and their father had chosen to embrace it? But hey, wait. Isn't the more important question the one about Providence? What the hell? Providence was funding the Nanite Project...? But he just shut down Providence, which means the Nanite Project is shut down again, right? Worse still, if he was the leader of Providence and he was funding the Nanite Project...
"Rex? Are you okay, mijo?" César asks.
"No. I... I need to think."
He doesn't look back. He ignores the shouts behind him and bolts out of the kitchen. His mind is going around in circles, trying to figure out everything that's happened and all that he's learned. And it's not even like he's really thinking about it. He's always been able to rely on his builds to get somewhere. So when he finally realizes where he is, he's driving down the road on Moss's motorcycle.
He doesn't have a set destination in mind. He just drives.
The fact that he ended up in the mountain has to be some kind of a sign. He parks the motorcycle and just sit on the grass, looking up at the obscured view of the night sky.
"A bit late for a late night drive, isn't it?"
And of course, of course, he's here to make things worse.
"Six," Rex mumbles. Except that's wrong. It's not Six. Not in this universe.
The man in the green suit comes to sit down next to Rex, looking a little surprised when Rex makes no move to run.
"Not running today?"
"I'm tired," Rex answers. "And maybe you can answer some questions for me."
"Only if you answer few of mine."
Rex nods.
Six hesitates, as if he doesn't quite trust that Rex will just randomly agree like this. Then he says, "It's been bothering me. Why do you call me Six?"
"Because no matter what number you are, you'll always be Six."
"I'm One."
"Don't matter."
"What do you know about White Knight?"
"Hm? Isn't he just a member of Providence?"
Six's jaw line tighten. "That's just it. After he told me that he was part of that group, he vanished. I have not been able to find any sign of my partner or Providence. As if they don't exist."
"That's because they don't, Six."
"It's One. And I'm starting to get sick and tired of hearing those words."
"No, as in... As of tonight, Providence has been disbanded."
And Rex laughs and laughs, because damn it. Of everything, that seems to be the only thing that's gone right tonight.