Chapter Three: I'm Lying to Him

White Knight had given him several instructions when dealing with Rex; keep him in line, do not let him wonder too far away from the city (if he does leave make sure he comes back), if he's called for work and he's with you, encourage him to go.

And last, the one thing that White Knight put a heavy emphasis on when he gave Noah his instructions: do not get attached to him.

"Yeah, easier said than done." Noah muttered to himself as he lay on his bed, curled up, trying to take an afternoon nap. He had finished his homework early, something unusual for him, as he preferred doing it later at night. However he was meeting up with Rex at the courtyard after dark to teach him how to play basketball. He still remembered the flurry of questions Rex had threw him when he casually mentioned he played basketball at his school.

"What's Basketball? How do you play? Can you teach me how to play? What about school, what's that? Can I go there? Are there any girls in school? Do girls like basketball?"

The sudden questions had caught Noah off guard at first, until he remembered that Rex had told him he only remembered his life at Providence. Not school, not basketball, and the only girl he had interacted with was someone named Holiday. When he thought about that, it made a lot of sense. "Well I don't know about you going to school, but I can teach you how to play basketball." He had suggested and the teenage EVO sounded very happy thanking him and everything.

Noah was starting to think that maybe it was a bad idea. He had only known Rex for four days and already he had to constantly remind himself that the teenager was an EVO. A potentially dangerous EVO. He could not get too attached, he could not. Rex was a pretty nice guy – obnoxious, but nice and fun to hang around – but EVOs were dangerous, which in turn meant Rex was dangerous. He had seen firsthand what Rex could do, when they were forced to Abysus by Van Kleiss' minions, and once the shock had worn off, he honestly felt sick to his stomach. Rex could just as easily rip a person apart with that giant blade. He could easily rip him a part, kill him in a heartbeat.

Noah shuddered and sat up starting to feel nauseas from the thoughts. He shook his head trying to get that thought out of his mind. That wasn't going to happen to him. White Knight assured him that he would be safe while he was working for Providence. He would be safe so long as he was Rex' friend and he would be paid for his services. Nothing bad would happen to him.

Noah took a deep breath to try and calm down, only to jump when he heard his cell phone ring. There was no number just that it was a hidden caller; either spam or Rex. He picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey Noah!" It was Rex and he sounded very happy, "Guess who just found out Providence forgot to put security cameras in there air vents?"

"Where are you?" Noah asked, but already having a pretty good idea of what Rex was going to say.

"Just outside the base, heading over to you now. We still meeting at that court place you showed me?"

"Y-yeah." Noah said.

"Good, cause…" Rex trailed off seeming uneasy, something that caught Noah's attention. "Look I need to talk to you about something. Meet you there in an hour?"

It was much earlier than they had originally planned, but Noah agreed to it. If Rex needed to talk that badly, something must have been up. "Yeah, I'll see you in an hour." He said and after hearing Rex say 'thank you', he hung up.


Rex wouldn't say what was on his mind once they met up and Noah decided quickly that pushing would probably be a bad idea. He decided to teach Rex how to shoot the ball into the basket thinking after a bit, the teenager – no EVO – would tell him what was on his mind. Eventually the practice turned into a game of horse and after his fourth loss, Rex started talking.

"And the EVO turned out to be this kid's priest." He said, "I mean yeah, we're Providence so we're the good guys, but to him I was the bad guy. I wasn't fighting a monster I was hurting someone he cared about! What am I supposed to do with that?"

Noah shrugged, having no idea how to answer that. "You try talking to Six?" He asked. The idea was shot down almost immediately, but from what little Noah had seen of Six, Rex was probably right about the agent not being one to talk. He tossed the ball over his head and it went right through the hoop. He hid his surprise; he had never actually been able to pull that off before.

"What do you think?" Rex asked as Noah picked up the ball.

"You cured the guy didn't you?" He asked tossing it to him.

"Of course." Rex said, "And the kid was happy, but that doesn't change the fact I had to hurt someone he cared about. And Six was ready to kill the guy. What if I hadn't been able to cure him in time? What if Six killed him?"

"Rex!" Noah cut him off. "Calm down. That didn't happen."

"I know, I know." Rex said and he dropped the ball, it bouncing in front of him each bounce being shorter than the other. "It's just, I don't know anything about what happened to my folks or how I felt, but – I mean – can you imagine what it must be like to lose someone close to you?"

The question felt like a punch in the gut. "Yeah… yeah I can." He said; he could do more than just imagine, imagining was one thing, but experiencing it was another. He noticed Rex take a step back, and gave him a confused look before realizing that the look on his face was probably anything but pleasant.

"Oh sorry," He said, "I didn't mean… did I say something bad?"

"No." Noah told him, but the look on Rex's face didn't leave. In face he seemed to be just as worried he said something wrong if not more so. Noah tried his best to steer the topic in another direction, putting up a strong front. "I'm just saying I feel for you. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it."

"Well sometimes I wish that someone wasn't always me." Rex said still sounding uneasy as he picked the basketball.

"I dunno. Personally, I'm glad you're helping with this war." Noah said giving him a more natural grin. "Because when it comes to basketball skills man, you're hopeless."

Next thing Noah knew, he found himself thinking that they would need to find a new basketball court to hang out at.


"Nice!" Rex said as he looked around Noah's house. He still wasn't quite sure why he invited Rex to his place. Admittedly part of it was because he was getting bored of just shooting hoops and he wanted to do something else with the teenager. EVO. Both? The other part was wondering why he didn't just suggest they go see a movie, his mom would be home in two hours and she did not like the idea of Noah working for Providence, specifically working as 'babysitter' as she liked to put it.

He still remembered the conversation they had after Noah came home late after being dragged to Abysus and coming back with bruises covering his arms and chest. That had been a very long night filled with Noah trying as hard as he could to assure his mother that all of bruises were from his unexpected trip and not his own doing. She only relaxed a little when he pointed out that half of them were in places he couldn't even reach.

"Hey Noah, who's this?" Rex asked picking up a picture off one of the tables. It was a picture of a woman with bright blonde hair.

"Oh, that's my mom."

"She looks nice." Rex said a large grin on his face, "Do I get to meet her?"

"Might be a bad idea." Noah told him rubbing the back of his neck. "Mom…" He stopped realizing he was almost gave his job away. He was not supposed to do that; Knight would fire him, but that was not the least of worries. "Mom works late." He said, "You need to be out of here by five."

Hearing this Rex pouted and let out some kind of whine that reminded Noah of a small child. "But that only gives us two hours to hang out. Can't we just, I dunno, leave and still hang out when she gets back?"

"Rex tonight's a school night." Noah said and again Rex let out a groan.

"You keep saying that, but what is a school night? Do you go to school at night or something?" He asked and Noah sighed explaining that it meant roughly that he had school the next day and that he had to spend most of his night doing homework. Rex raised an eyebrow at the mention of homework.

"What's that?" He asked and Noah didn't answer right away simply because he needed to think of something to compare it to that Rex would get.

"Think of it as a type of training." Noah said. Probably not the best comparison but the answer brought a look of disbelief to Rex's face, his body hunching over so he actually looked like he was shorter than Noah.

"You know what, never mind." The EVO said, "I don't care if school has cute girls, I don't wanna go anymore."

Noah could not help but grin at the comment. "Come on, I'll show you around." He said. Of course there was not really much to show, just after the living room was the kitchen and table, and upstairs were the bed rooms. He watched as Rex looked at the photographs scattered across the house, pictures of him and his team when they won the junior high basketball game, pictures of him and his mother at the docks, ones his dad took. He wished they could some pictures of his dad up around the house, but they couldn't. So they stayed in a box in his bed room closet.

"You and your mom are pretty close." Rex said and Noah nodded keeping quiet as the teenager continued to look over the pictures. "I wonder if I was close to my mom." He said, "Or my dad."

"I don't see why not." Noah said and Rex shrugged staring at the photo of him and his mom at the docks and empty look in his eyes. He put a hand on Rex's shoulder getting the EVOs attention. "I'm sure you were, and someday you'll see them again."

"Yeah, but what if I still don't remember them?" The question had caught Noah off guard and for a second he didn't know how to answer that. The first thing he wanted to say was 'I don't know' and be done with it, but he stopped himself. He had a feeling if he said that it would bring Rex down and he did not want to do that.

"Well maybe when you meet them again you'll remember something." Noah told him smiling. "It only takes one thing for everything to come back." In truth Noah did not know whether that would really happen, but he kept that thought to himself as Rex stared at him as though wondering if that was true.

The EVO grinned, "Yeah probably." He said taking lead up the stairs from Noah, "Maybe when I get everything back it will explain why I'm so awesome."

Noah rolled his eyes as he followed Rex to the top of the stairs. The blonde lead him to his room and let Rex in first. He watched as the EVO looked around the room, at everything. The posters on the walls, the guitar in the corner Noah hadn't picked up since the eighth grade, the books on his shelf. "This is so cool."

"It's not that big a deal Rex."

"Dude, you're allowed to paint your wall a color that is not white." Rex said staring at the light blue color. "Six won't let me do that." Noah stayed silent as Rex continued looking over his things, grabbing the second place medal off his wall. "You get medals for playing basketball?"

"You get them for any sport." He told him, "You just need to make a certain place." Rex's reaction was to hold up the silver medal and stare at it. It reminded Noah of a small boy who had never seen something like it before. If anything it reminded Noah exactly how bad Rex's memory loss was. No idea of home, where his family was, what his life was like before hand, the achievements he made. "You can keep that if you want." Noah said, the question coming out of nowhere with Noah himself wondering for a second why he even said that, especially since it was the best he had ever played.

"Nah." Rex said tossing it to him. "I'd rather get my own. Bet I'd get something in volleyball."

"Volleyball?" Noah asked.

"Yeah, no idea why, but I rule of volleyball." He said looking down at the floor. "Hey what's that?" He asked pointing out on old game system.

"Oh that, just a game system." Noah told him, "Haven't had much time to play anything so I brought it up here."

He saw the grin on Rex's face and Noah had an idea of what he was thinking. He grabbed the old system and told him to come downstairs.


He won again. Noah stared at Rex as the teenager let out another howl in victory. How he won considering he had never played before, Noah had no idea. "Dude, you sure you've never played this before?" He asked as he put the controller down.

"Yeah, don't have anything like this in Providence." He said leaning back against the couch. "Man you're lucky, you get to do all these things that I can't."

"Aren't you the one that can turn his hands into giant fists? And form a jetpack out of his body?" Noah asked and Rex gave a smirk.

"Well yeah." He said confidence in his voice as he was reminded of his powers. "But I really don't have anything like this. No home or anything like that."

"Isn't Providence you're home?" Noah asked and Rex rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, a home where I'm a lab rat." Rex told him, "You know the only reason that I got a bigger room was because I kept complaining and begging for it so much the higher ups finally gave it to me."

"Sounds like when I begged my mom to let me learn how to play guitar." Noah said giving a weak laugh. Rex stared at him, frowning, and he stopped. "Sorry…" He mumbled and Rex shrugged.

"I just wish I had a bit of normalcy in my life." He said, "Guess that's why I like hanging out with you."

"Huh?" Noah stared at Rex a bit apprehensive of where this was going.

"If I hadn't met you, I'd probably be back at Providence hanging around with Bobo and don't get me wrong Bobo's awesome, but I can't just hang around with a monkey all day." He said and gave Noah a grin. "Without you around I think I'd probably go crazy, so thanks."

The comment sounded so awkward but at the same time so sincere that it felt like a steak had been driven through Noah's chest. He felt guilt wash over him. Rex considered him a friend, and here he was lying to him. "Noah you alright?" He heard Rex say and Noah blinked before giving a weak smile.

"Yeah. I'm just glad we're friends." He said and Rex grinned.

"Same here man." The teenager said and he gave Noah a light jab in the arm. The blonde winced rubbing his shoulder. He tried to keep the smile on his face, but at the same time he wished that he could turn into a small bug and hide under the carpet.


Noah stared at his math homework, the numbers blurring and none of it making any sense in his head. This was probably why he was never going to go into anything that involved programming, none of it made sense to him. A part of him wanted to blame Rex for this; the teenager did drag him out of school for a premature spring break leaving his real week off to not be one of relaxation, but one that involved him trying to catch up on all the homework he had missed beforehand.

He knew better, Rex just wanted to have fun, to have some normalcy before having to do more work for Providence. It was actually quite amusing really, to see his friend meet and develop an interest in a girl, to tease him about going on a date with her. It was only a shame that everything went downhill so fast.

His friend… Noah dropped his pencil and buried his face in his hands. He was not Rex's friend, he wanted to be Rex's friend but you're not a person's friend if you're hired to keep an eye out for them. He was just pretending. He didn't want to pretend anymore but there was nothing he could do about it.

He head the door open and jumped turning around to see it was just his mom coming in. He relaxed and checked the time; it was only 4PM. "You're home early." He told her.

"What you don't want me here?" His mom asked, her tone joking and Noah gave her a small smile.

"I didn't say that." He said.

"Got off early so I could get some stuff for dinner." She told him, "But then I decided, 'you know I don't feel like cooking tonight, why don't we just order a pizza.' Sound good to you?"

"Yeah sure." Noah said before turning back to his homework. The math problems were just as blurry as before and he closed the book. Maybe working on something else would help him concentrate. He took out his history book as he heard his mother come into the kitchen.

"So how's the work going?" She asked.

"Could be better." He muttered before sighing and saying, "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing."

"Well if you and you're little 'friend' didn't take off for that island you wouldn't be behind. I swear EVO or normal, that kid's a bad influence." She said and Noah grumbled. He did not need to be constantly reminded that incident. Or to be constantly reminded that he was supposed to be Rex's friend.

"Please, just stop mom." He said. "It's bad enough that I feel guilty spying on him, but do you have to keep reminding me too?"

His mother gave him a confused look. "I never said anything like that." She said and Noah stayed quiet staring at his book. He looked up from the corner of his eye to see her take a seat next to him. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

He wanted to say no. He opened his mouth to say no, but clamped it shut when he saw the look his mom was giving him. His mom had a horrible habit of knowing when something was wrong with him, sometimes even before he knew anything was wrong. He sighed. "I can't do this anymore." He told her. "I can't pretend to be Rex's friend. He's fun to hang around with and yeah the money White's giving me has been helping, but I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

When he was finished he found his mother still looking at him raising an eyebrow, "You don't want to be Rex's friend anymore?"

"No!" Noah almost yelling at her. Realizing it, he lowered his voice. "I mean… I want to be Rex's friend, but half the time I'm hanging out with him and he mentions how much he enjoys hanging out with me I feel like I'm lying to the guy." He paused and sighed. "Well I guess I kinda am."

He buried his head in his hands taking in a deep breath. "What am I supposed to do?" He asked as he felt his mom put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I mean you said it was my choice whether I worked for White or not, but I didn't think this would happen."

"You were hired to keep an eye on an EVO still capable of rational thought and you're telling me you didn't expect to get attached to him?" She asked, "Noah, he might be an EVO but he's your age, a teenager that just wants to have the time of his life with someone that he can see as a friend. And you don't really hang out with anyone, so it's only natural that after spending so much time with him you'd become attached."

Noah stayed quiet. His mom had a point, which did not surprise him at all. After all it was his mom. "What should I do?" He asked again this time actually looking at her for some kind of answer, for her to tell him what to do like she did when he was much younger. She seemed to know this as the expression on her face was the most serious he had seen in quite awhile.

"I think you need to tell him the truth." She said and Noah's eyes widened, getting up from his seat.

"I can't do that, the guy is strong enough to take on EVOs, he could kill me if I tell him!"

"The chances of him wanting to kill you are going to be higher if someone else tells him then if you tell him yourself." Noah's face turned as white as a sheet.

"Mom!"

"Noah." She cut in, her voice completely serious, "If you truly care about this kid, and really want to be his friend, you'll tell him the truth." She said and Noah knew the conversation would end there. Noah looked down at the table in front of him. There was no other option, he could either tell Rex everything, and hope that something could be worked out, and if not that they could walk away from it without anyone getting killed. Or he could keep lying and let the guilt build up until he cracked.

Telling Rex would be best. He would contact Six and request that he take him to Providence when the weekend came. All he needed to do now was try and come up with some way to tell Rex that would not get himself killed.


Author's Note: I would have had this up earlier but I started doing some last minute editing to fix a few things here and there. I dunno something's not right with this chapter; I think there are more than a few grammar errors that I was too tired to clean up. I knew I should have stayed away from those Slenderman blogs…

I can't help but feel these chapters are to long -_-.