In which the curtain of secrecy is finally lifted, up to a certain height.
Joe's hands folded around the sterile white bars of his cell with a painful grip as he pushed himself closer to it.
"Macy? Macy, is it really you?" He questioned, resting his forehead against the cool metal, exhaustion washing over him like a tidal wave. He was already on his knees, locked up in a cell after what was probably the most traumatic experience of his life.
He'd seen the blood of a brother and watched as another fought intruders like a murder-machine, after which he'd betrayed the same brother and ran for the arms of his (former?) best friend, broke down and blacked out and woke up in a place where what he had formerly thought to be a human had taken his blood forcefully and left him to probably rot away in this cell.
He felt like crying when he heard her familiar voice call out to him; "Joe, oh god, yes! It's me! Are you all right? What happened to you? Is the Humanoid okay? Why are you here? What did that monster do to you?"
The questions were bombarding Joe's mind and he struggled to keep them apart, deciding to answer what he could;
"I'm, well I'm far from fine, actually," he sighed in her general direction, still not sure where she was, "I'm rotten, to be honest and Penny or that thing or whatever it was just cut me."
He glanced down on the wound on his arm, blood seeping through his makeshift bandage, "I don't know if Nick is okay, I left him in quite the dangerous situation… I don't even know if the rest of my family is okay," tears now streamed over his face as he recalled Kevin happily playing his guitar with him, just moments before Stella had barged in and everything had collapsed; he had no idea where Kevin was, or if he was okay. Would his parents come home to one son gone and one son dead? He didn't even want to think about it.
"Oh my, Joe, I'm so sorry," Macy answered from somewhere in the darkness outside of his cell, "I'm so, so incredibly sorry. Please forgive me; I never should've brought you in here, I should've known it was wrong from the beginning. It turned out to be nothing but trouble, I'm so sorry," she took a deep breath, maybe to keep herself from crying too, "I didn't know, Joe, I really didn't, this never should've happened; grandfather would be so disappointed…"
"Don't say that," Joe suddenly caught himself say, soothing in Macy's direction, "You did an incredible job with Nick, with the project and everything."
It was silent enough to hear her breathing, to localise it somewhere to his left, to hear the anxiousness in her voice.
"He's everything you– we could've hoped for, he's intelligent, strong. I've seen him do incredible things, inhuman, incredible things. Oh Macy, you wouldn't believe what he's capable of," he said, "But he's so human at the same time, he reacts human. And you know what, you know what?" Joe swallowed and fell silent for a minute, staring at the vague white-grey wall opposite to his cell, picturing Nick's face, smiling at Joe when he sang with Kevin, talking to the little, pigtailed girl, interacting with Joe in between tests.
He remembered the first time he'd seen Nick; still locked up in that hideous tube and that first time he'd opened his eyes. Their mother's eyes.
The struggle and problems Nick had faced at the beginning of his life, like a newborn baby The way he'd connected with Joe back then; both of their hands on opposite sides of the tube and later, on the glass of the testing room.
Why would he have protected Joe, instead of his creator, when they'd been attacked, if he couldn't feel that bond they had?
Joe had seen him laugh, at a safe distance from the scientists; Joe had seen fear flash in his eyes when Coler had showed Joe the reset-button.
The shock of seeing him so, so robotic at the firehouse had only had such an impact because somewhere, along the lines, Joe had begun to see him as something more then just a robot, more then a humanoid.
His subconscious had seen Nick was someone like himself, something alive, breathing and human.
Nick had become a friend, a brother, family.
"I think you created life, doc," he said, concluded at last.
Then, she chuckled softly, shutting him up immediately as his eyes hung on to the strange sound of humour.
"What?" He questioned, puzzled.
"I know what he's capable of, what he is, Joe, I made him," she answered softly.
Joe went silent for a few moments, both of them just breathing stuffy, chemical air into the darkness.
"So you knew along?" Joe asked to a Macy who had regained her calmth in record time. He figured all scientists were like that, Nick's testers had been void of any kind of emotion.
"I always knew he was alive and rational, it was the way my grandfather designed the Humanoids. I just… failed to inform Mr. Coler about that, because it had always been our secret. We didn't think people were quite ready to know we might be able to create life, create a successful clone of a human-being, we weren't even sure we could. But when I saw your brother's unique DNA, I knew I would be able to succeed what my grandfather had started so many years ago. With his discoveries and designs, modern technology and Coler's money, I knew I could make it happen and I did. Nick is soundly alive, Joe, just a little stronger and more advanced then an ordinary stranger. That's why he's called a human-oid."
He could feel her smile through the darkness.
"So you knew how strong he was and the stuff he can do?" Joe asked, "All those tests weren't needed?"
"They tested him? Gosh he must've had fun with that," she now openly snickered, "I told him he couldn't out himself before I gave an okay, but since I never could I figure he gave them a real hard time."
Joe raised his eyebrows and nearly smiled himself; he could see the humour in her words. Nick had been fooling all of them the whole time, Joe had seen as much for himself.
He'd probably played a very dangerous game with Coler, but he'd played it magnificently, faking his abilities and leaving the scientists desperate for some kind of robot-improvement that he simply didn't give. Throwing all their clever tests back in their faces; he'd aced them all, but with no sign of the promised extraordinarily.
"Kevin's humour, I see," Joe smiled, resting more comfortably against the wall of his cell, since he was pretty sure he would be here for just a little longer; might as well take the time to find out exactly what had happened, right in front of his face.
"How do you mean?" Macy asked in return, probably interested in her Humanoid's source.
Joe thought of his older brother, always underestimated, keeping his own extraordinarities from other people, almost just like Nick had done.
"My brother isn't quite like others; his DNA being different doesn't quite surprise me. He always acts goofy, as if he's obvious to everything that happens around him, but he's really not. People think he's weird; sometimes they even call him stupid. I think I might have been one of them at some point and I'm really sorry for it, because he's got one of the most amazing personalities I've ever seen," Joe pulled his legs up to rest his arms on them, thinking about his older brother, hoping Nick would find him or that they would find each other and be okay, even if he had to rot here.
"How so?"
"Well, you see, he's actually quite clever, he could be an honour student if he wanted to, but he simply doesn't. He comes up with the strangest, most brilliant ideas. He's always the first that figures something out, even though he usually keeps it to himself, because he enjoys seeing other people find out for themselves. He loves watching people, observing them and stuff, though I think it's kind of boring. He acts childlike sometimes, but in truth he's almost wise. He always knows what to do and what to say."
Kevin could always tell when something was up, when someone felt sad or angry and even annoyed and he could usually tell why, too.
"He's so talented, he simply doesn't show it."
And Joe had taken too much of it for granted, he realised. He had sometimes even got annoyed with Kevin and his way of being… Kevin and he really, truly missed his brother right now.
Joe had always taken care of his family in every way he could, he always helped his mother out with everything, always had time for his little brother, made sure Kevin didn't get lost in his endless fantasy.
But Kevin did just as much, in his own way.
No one had been able to make Frankie eat his vegetables when he was younger, except for Kevin and his incredible stories about the veggies. And more then once, before Joe became a pillar to rely on for others, he had been Joe's pillar.
And he could really use his brother's arms around him right now.
"I'm sure he's okay, whatever it is that happened," Macy suddenly said, after a long period of silence, "I can hear in your voice that you're worried and that you love him very much, but he seems like someone who can hold his own, if he's anything like Nick and if they're with each other, I'm sure they'll be fine. Gosh, it'd be so interesting to observe them as source and clone, there's so much I haven't seen Nick do yet, so much I've missed out on!"
"I hope so," Joe said, responding to her earlier words, desperately wanting to believe it. He sagged further against the wall, feeling quite useless.
"So," she continued, apparently acceptant of her fate as well, "Care to explain why you are here and not protecting my dear Humanoid?"
The corners of Joe's mouth pulled again and he wondered why he even could smile, seeing the situation they were in, but apparently Macy had that effect on him. And there wasn't really anything better they could do, except keep their spirits up and hope for the best.
"We got attacked, Nick defended himself, for real, I kind of panicked, ran and got caught. I think," he summed up, "What about you?"
"Found out about Coler's plan to create an army of my poor Humanoids and threw a fit," Macy huffed, "He didn't really appreciate that."
"He what?"
Macy sighed, as if preparing for a long story and set off; "Nick isn't the only humanoid anymore. I think that after I explained to him what DNA I needed, he set Penny out on a hunt for similar DNA, like with the poor girl you saw being harassed and your brother's Scandinavian friend in the hospital, I think they were two of her best catches. Your brother is unique, but there are more people like him, with DNA similar enough to do the same I did with Nick. After Penny attacked us, and I still don't know why she did that, I woke up in one of Coler's private rooms, near the basement-lab in a different building,"
"There's more?" Joe asked, his mind trying to imagine just how big Coler's operation was.
"A lot more, I actually think this is the same one, but let me finish my story," Macy shut him up; "I wandered around and stumbled upon a gigantic hall filled with Humanoids, not yet-activated nor programmed."
Joe's eyes widened in the darkness at that image that he couldn't quite imagine.
"At the sight of those poor babies laying there like mass-production products, I kinda flipped out on Coler, said some things I shouldn't repeat at this time and ended up here, to say put it simply."
"Jeez," said Joe.
"But before he locked the door, he told me what he planned to do with them."
The words hung threateningly into the air, thickening it and making Joe shift slightly on the hard concrete ground.
"He wants to use them to set off a revolution, humans against his humanoids, with him as the glorious leader, of course. He wants to use my babies, my grandfather's hard work, for his own evil plan, for his greed. You've got to understand that he's incredibly intelligent and slick like an eel, but also quite insane."
"I kinda figured," Joe said, closing his eyes, Coler had proven a little instable more then enough times for him to believe Macy's words immediately.
The man was mad, period, just like his daughter.
"He used to be my grandfather's assistant and climbed himself to the top thanks to quite some really great discoveries, controversial experiments and quite some charm, but he completely broke down when his daughter died."
Joe shook his head, even though she couldn't see that from the other cell, last time he checked, Penny was well functioning and able to force sharp metal into his skin, that was pretty damn alive to him.
"The Penny you know is not the real Penny, Joe. She's just a rehash of his real daughter; one of his own prototypes for robotized life; a hydroid. The real Penny was a nice, sweet girl; she always used to babysit me before she died in that accident. She was Robert Coler's little princess and losing her drove him over the edge he'd always been hovering near. He couldn't handle it and created a lifeless machine as a substitute, always hoping for more, always hoping that someday, he could revive her."
"But he can do that now, can't he?" Joe suddenly felt bad about hating on Coler, even though he was still a major prick that hurt him and his family, losing a loved one was horrible.
"The accident happened on a bridge and from what I've heard; her car was crushed pushed into the river beneath by a giant truck. They never found her body, so there's nothing left of her to revive."
"So he made a robot of her," Joe finished her story, suddenly less sickened by Penny's headspin earlier and less confused by the way she'd spoken of herself.
"I think the waiting and lack of evidence was a big part of why he fell into the black depth he's in. He never got to see her death or say goodbye properly, so he chose the easy way of simply ignoring it, of not feeling at all and focussing all his pain and wrath on what he's doing now."
Joe grid his teeth together, "Hurting others."
"I think it's the hardest on her brother," Macy continued softly, as if sensing his flare of sudden anger, "He lost a sister and a father, never had a mother to turn to, since she died at his birth, but he didn't have insanity to reside in. Poor Ben."
With a move quicker then he ever would've expected of himself Joe was back on his feet, hands back against the bar and cold sweat breaking out all over his body.
Panic coursed through his veins as he recalled the freckled face of the young blond man Stella had been so enthusiastic about.
"What did you say?" he forced himself to ask, not wanting to know the answer.
"Ben, Coler's other son; I think he was the one that brought you in."
A tear made its way over Joe's cheek as he realised just how close Coler had gotten to them, how obvious he'd been to the man's power, to his insanity.
Was he above killing to keep his secret safe? Was his son?
Joe didn't know and all the fear he'd been feeling before, soothed by the conversation and explanations, came back to him full force.
"Joe! What's wrong?"
"Stella," He whispered.
()()()()()()(SCENE CHANGE)()()()()()()()
His smile broadened as he watched them move, not yet fully conscious, but they were working! He was ecstatic about the progress they'd made since discovering the abilities of Joseph's DNA and the use of it.
And now that he had Joseph at his full mercy and the key in his hands, there was nothing stopping him anymore.
He walked around the two robotic humans and watched them tremble as the machinery inside of them started up, though his scientists still didn't know exactly how it worked.
It still irritated him, that only the little Misa knew exactly how his machines worked, but they had to build them exactly like the first, to make sure they worked.
But nothing mattered now, he had their systems, their growth-process was complete and he knew the key to piecing them together. Once he had more of Joseph's final addition, all of them would reach the state these two were in now.
The only thing left was to program and activate them all.
The one of the two cloaked figures behind him moved slightly, accidentally. His cloak rustled and Coler was on him in seconds, his hand around the figure's throat, pushing him to his knees, so his hood fell off his head and revealed the newly scarred face beneath it.
The face of his son stared at him with a burning hate, but submission in his eyes; Coler knew he wouldn't defy him again.
He'd let the girl live, against every order he had given the young man and he had paid for it.
Coler softly smiled at the few drops of blood that slowly made their way over his freckled face, as some of his wounds re-opened.
"My blood wasted, it's almost a sin," he spoke, "but fortunately, your blood is worthless."
The eyes kept staring at him, broken and anxious, but he kept himself composed, just as his father taught him.
"Don't disappoint me again," he ordered, forcing the boy to rise to his feet and pressing a kiss against his forehead.
"I won't, father," he said meekly, immediately turning to complete his mission.
"Penny, my dearest?" He then questioned, smiling as the other figure immediately sprang to his side.
"The boy?" she asked eagerly.
"You know what to do," he confirmed, "but make sure not to kill him; yet, we might need him in the future. A little tattered and shaken will do."
The age of the humanoids had come, nothing could stop him now.