--Poor kid, he hasn't exactly had a good time since he came here..-- Christophe thought as he carried the out cold robot to the hospital. --First he gets yelled at and beaten up. Then the same thing happens, only with less people involved..--
When tucked into the bed, the guy instinctively curled himself into a ball. The doctor said it was likely a subconscious reaction, an attempt to protect himself. Given time, he would hopefully grow out of it.
Cortes sighed irritably, this guy was so much fuss. No matter how hard he tried, he still seen the psychopath he'd dealt with. The guy had tried to kill him, pinned him to the wall by one wing, like a butterfly in someone's twisted collection.
And he'd nearly killed his own twin. That was what had made Cortes the maddest. This guy had sauntered in, kidnapped Sirus, and damn nearly killed him. How was he supposed to forgive and forget? It wasn't that easy...
He was interrupted from his thoughts by the doors being flung open. Looking up he seen the familiar figure of his precious Sirus, and ran to hug him, tightly.
"Everything OK Aran? Wayan said there was an incident..." sirus asked as he ran a hand through Cortes' hair, then kissed him gently. Cortes sighed, indicating the room where the guy was.
"He's asleep, he passed out from getting himself too worked up...some guy tried to threaten him and he damn near blew up the restroom at the tavern."
"How?" sirus asked, baffled, "I didn't find any knowledge of combat techniques in his system..."
"Beats me, Cheng guessed it might've happened when he tried to shield himself and something didn't go right.."
"Sounds about right...that kids a mini genius..." sirus added.
Cortes smiled "ill say, he's practically your brothers biggest fan now, he's fascinated by him. He repaired the radio I gave Cheng in about 5 seconds apparently. then again..."
Sirus sighed "..he did build a canon, I know...I wonder if that means some of his knowledgebase is still intact...?"
Cortes sighed and stared at the floor, Sirus frowned, he seemed upset.
"What's the matter love?" he asked, then had an idea of what it was "you're still worried about last time aren't you?" he nuzzled Cortes hair gently "that side of him is gone now...its up to all of us to help him create the right sort of personality files. If we look after him, he'll be alright...ill make sure.."
"I know...I know...it just cant forget what happened so easily...he nearly killed you. What if some of his old self DOES come back?"
Sirus sighed and nuzzled Cortes nose "I doubt it will. What he's remembering is probably just HOW to do things...not when and where he last used them.."
Alone in his room (Christophe having wandered off to get something to drink) Anubis could pick up on every single word. So that's what it was. It was those two he'd tried to attack, his brother and the winged guy. No wonder the guy hated him. He felt sick. He could deal with this...He got up from the bed, running over to the window. He had to know what had really gone on. Why was everyone shielding him?
Then he realised he had a problem. the wings he'd had had sustained massive damage during his accident, and they had to be taken care of. Removed actually, since they'd borne the brunt of the crashing rubble they were beyond repair. So how was he going to get down? this was the first floor...
So he went close to the door to see what else those two were saying.
Christophe had finally come back from his little wander. Spying his brother and the angel he snuck up behind Cortes and scared the living daylights outta him.
"Damnit don't do that!" Cortes snapped
Christophe sniggered "sorry, cant help myself.."
Sirus sniggered at his arans pissed expression.
"That guy OK?" Christophe asked, indicating the door to the room Anubis was in.
"The doctor said he's probably suffering some kind of traumatic stress disorder. That's why he panics so easily. sirus said at last "there's not a lot we can do, except try convince him he's not in any danger.."
"He doesn't seem to be seeing much evidence for that..." Christophe added "so far he's been attacked twice, it took ages to convince him to even go to the tavern again. He seems distracted by something.."
Cortes thought about it. What had the guy kept saying.."i think..he wants to know what happened the last time. Every time I go near him he freaks and runs away.."
"He's probably copped on he had some dealing with you before, and now he thinks you're keeping him here for some sort of revenge.." his brother added. "that's why he's so terrified of you. Of everyone now you think about it...except Lena and her brother..."
"Speak for yourself...he seems to think your his blooming safeguard.." Cortes butted in, "what's with that?"
Sirus had been silent through all this, then he spoke "I think...its a basic instinct. People that've been hurt instinctly seek someone that wont hurt them, that'll take their side. Being on your own in that kind of state is a horrible thing to think about. From the point he awoke, he's been led to believe he's some sort of danger, thus he's been afraid of everyone he's met...and been proven right for thinking so.."
Cortes blinked "So...the reason he's so fond of el dimwit here is because..."
"..most likely because you were the first person that didn't fall into the "violent and scary people" category he'd met with up till then...his grasp of emotional understanding is way below your normal persons. He thinks like a little child, basic and easily scared. Children always have someone that in their mind is safe to them, that they can count on to get them out of trouble..."
"Will he ever get anything of his memories or general knowledge back?" Christophe asked
"That's debateable. The best we can do is teach him ourselves.." Sirus said at last. "so he'll learn only what wont cause him any pain or bad memories.."
"Great..." Cortes grumbled "this is gonna be confusing.." he looked at his brother "you'll be stuck babysitting him for a while I think..."
Sirus sighed "well, I asked him to Aran, he's the only person my baffled brother doesn't go into hysterics on seeing...so I figured it calm him down quicker if he had a bit of help.."
"Didn't think he'd get so attached so quickly.." Christophe said, looking at the door to the room "he's gonna haveta get used to people eventually, otherwise his whole damn life's gonna awkward...he cant rely on one person all the time.."
Huddled by the door Anubis felt sick. did this mean that guy was gonna abandon him soon?
--I guess im a nuisance to him. He didn't WANT to help, he was just doing what my brother asked. Attacked my own brother, and his partner...those two are the most important people in this block place..thats why everyone's so mad.--
Shaking he managed to quietly lock the door to his room and sneak towards the window. Outside he could see a pile of crumpled cardboard boxes below his window. Those'd cushion the fall. So he clambered onto the eldge..took a deep breath, and jumped. He landed with an unceremonious splat amidst the boxes. He lay there awhile. Slightly dazed, then got up. He had to find the report Cortes had talked about, he said he'd destroyed it, but there had to be a second copy..
"Guess I'd better check he hasn't blown the room up.." Christophe joked, then tried to open the door. "that's odd...its locked. It wasn't when I left earlier..."
Cortes frowned, then banged on the door. "Open the door, or I'll knock it down!" but no answer.
Sirus stared in bemusement "why would he lock the door..." then he had s sudden sinking feeling "oh dear.."
"What? what is it?" Christophe asked worriedly, seeing his expression.
"I think...he may have woken up. And heard what we were talking about. Seeing it from his point of view.." he looked at the older Cortes brother "he probably now thinks your going to abandon him eventually, and that's probably frightened him into locking the door-"
WHAM. The door went flying inwards as a short tempered Cortes kicked it.
They ran inside, and immideitly their attention was drawn to the open window.
"Ah. he's done a runner.." Christophe said worried.
"Reminds of you Aran.." sirus said, "when you refused to stay put because I was gone.."
"Yes I know.." Cortes grumped "but what's the kids excuse. If he needed el dingbat here, he only had to open the door, not lock it.."
"Perhaps he's looking for something.." Christophe suggested with a shrug "who knows how that guy thinks..hes a little weird.."
"We'd better find him, fast!" sirus panicked "his system is probably running low on energy, if he doesn't eat soon he'll black out again..."
So off they all ran, each taking a different route..
While they were off searching for him, Anubis was in Cortes office. He'd acted innocent enough, asking where the office was, saying he needed to ask a favour of the captain. A kind woman had steered him in the right direction, and he'd eventually found it.
He'd used the toolkit to open the lock, then closed it behind him. This done he took a look around the office. This guy kept it meticulously neat. Papers were stacked on the desk. Notebooks and journals were piled up in stacks. Sitting on a shelf above the desk was a framed photo. He took it down to have a look. It was a snapshot of his brother, his arms around the human. They both looked so happy...
Sighing he put the picture back. What did it mean, when someone wanted to be by you all the time, no matter what?
--I wish I knew...I envy my brother...he always seems to smile when he's with that guy...I guess he cant be all bad. Maybe its because im a bad person that he hates me..--
He shook the daydreams from his mind, and set about looking for the document. As it was he didn't have far to go. Cortes had taken it from the filing cabinet and left it on top of it. As soon as he opened it, and caught sight of his own name. he knew he'd found it.
He stood there, hands shaking, and began reading...
"Hey man, what's the rush!" Mahad called to Christophe as he bolted past.
"I'm looking for Anubis. he did an 'Aran' and bolted from the hospital.." the older Cortes wheezed.
"He's missing again?" Lena asked, then frowned. "he doesn't know his way round, he could get lost again, then panic.."
"We'll give ya a hand!" Mahad added, and the three began afresh.
He felt sick. The report slowly slipped from his trembling hands and scattered over the floor. What had he done?
He'd kidnapped his twin unit. Tried to kill the bird-human the twin loved. The guy had sustained a lot of injuries, he'd been nailed by a knife to the wall, the blood loss alone caused severe pain. He'd done this as a torture tactic to get the blocks defence codes from his twin unit.
He'd run amok with some renegade pirates, using them to attack Puerto Angel. Caused needless panic and damage..
Droplets splashed onto the fallen papers as the confused Anubis finally learnt the truth of what he'd done. The pain he felt was overwhelming. All he could do was let himself cry..
--Those guys...they had every right to go after me...why did the guys from that ship bring me here? why did Vector insist I be allowed to stay? I'm sure he meant well...but...there's too much that I've done for me to be here...I have to leave. Before something else happens..--
He heard a rattling at the door, and panicked. He ran for the window, jumping down from it. This time he landed badly on his left ankle, and had to fight not to cry out I pain. Instead he just bit his lip and limped along. He'd seen a map in Cortes office, and his memory had saved a snap shot of it. He now knew his way around like a local...
Wayan frowned as he rattled the door of the office. This was where Cortes normally was...but he never usually locked himself in...
"Wayan!" he heard someone call him name, and seen Cortes at the end of the hall. So if the captain was there...who was in the office?
"Captain..whats going on, there's someone in there...but you're out here..?"
Cortes stared. His office?
"Oh. SHIT!" he cursed, and began hammering on the door.
"What's going on?" Wayan asked.
"That addled brother of sirus' is missing from the hospital, he did a runner-"
"like you then-"
"Shut up. Anyway, weve been looking for him for the last 20 minutes...and it sounds like he's come here-!" As he finished the sentence, he succeeded in battering the door down. A quick look confirmed he was long gone.
"Damnit, too late-" Cortes fumed.
"Captain wait-" Wayan knelt down and picked up the papers from the report. "What's this doing out-oh." he gave it a quick scan, then looked up at the captain, "Sir, its the report from when you last met this Anubis guy. He must've been looking for this.."
Cortes groaned, this was bad. "That guys a head case as it is, this'll drive him over the edge.."
Wayan looked down at the sheet of paper he held. He noticed the damp blotches "I think it may well have done..." he said quietly.
--What a way to find out...-- he thought to himself...
The radio Christophe carried flickered into life, a burst of static preceding the transmission.
"He was in my office, he found the report we had on him...he's likely in a severely unbalance state, be careful, we could get a repeat of what happened in the tavern restroom.."
"Got it, I'll try calm him down if I find him.."
"Try. You're the only person he'll believe at this moment in time..."
Christophe sighed as the transmission ended. That guy was probably hysterical by now. The secrets they'd tried to hide from him were causing him so much pain.
--We shoulde just told him bit by bit. Instead of tip-toeing around the issue...that's what drove him to find the report...he knew Cortes was gonna destroy it, so he went looking for it-- he sighed and gave the kids the update -- c'mon kid, where are you?--
"What's your brother got to do with it?" Wayan asked "I noticed he seemed to be looking after the guy last time.."
Cortes sighed "the first person to help him after those thugs beat him up was Christophe, and it would seem that addled robot got attached to him because he was nice to him. He's the only person he'll listen to right now..."
"Poor guy, everything must seem pretty scary in the state he's in.."
Anubis limped towards the docking bay. People barely gave him a second glance. He simply looked like he was having a wander round. He stammered out responses when people greeted him, and even smiled faintly. But inside he felt sick from the pain.
At last he reached the repair dock. The gates to it were locked. A quick glance round showed nobody in immediate sight, so eh pulled himself up and over the gate, ducking behind him boxes. He waited a moment or two. And when he heard no raised voices, he relaxed.
He crept towards the ship docked there. It was Puerto Angels newest water carrier, the Saint Celine. The ramp was down, repair materials were stacked in boxes by it. He crept quietly on board. Here he could hide awhile...maybe fly away..
There was nobody on board, and he found his way to the main control room eventually. He looked at all the buttons and felt his stomach sink. he had NO idea how to fly it.
"Maybe you need to try the manual first kiddo.." a familiar voice pulled him from his thoughts. He whipped round, seeing scary-guys brother walking into the room from the small break room connected to the main room.
"Ah..uh...you...how..?" he stammered, back away, afraid he was in trouble.
"There aren't many ships that aren't under surveillance. I figure the repair yard would be the first place you'd go. With the gates locked there little need to guard it. Besides.." he smiled "the engines on the fritz...so this one wouldn't made a good escape choice..." he kept walking towards Anubis as he spoke.
The angel robot backed up and up and until he bumped into another control panel.
"Whuh...why didn't you tell me..what was in that report..." his voice shook as he recalled it all "why didn't you tell me I tried to torture and kill both my own brother and yours...WHY DID YOU ALL LIE TO ME?!" tears welled up again and he shook his head "why did you hide it? Tried to convince me if hadn't done anything bad...I tried to destroy this place...no wonder those men were so angry.." he hiccupped "why did you all try to oppose them? the things I did. They had every right-"
"Stop right there!" Christophe said at last, cutting him off "first off, the pirates that dug you outta storage the first time were a bunch of fking loons with a vendetta against my brother. They persuaded YOU to go after him. Your personality was warped, they didn't bother to repair you, they just encouraged the broken personality you had. Used you for their own ends..."
"But.." Anubis sniffled, unable to stop from crying. "why did they bring me back? why did vector let me stay, and persuade your brother to give me a home.."
"I don't know the full story, but my brothers had a rough life. He finds it hard to give people a second chance. Hell," he winced at the memory "when I finally found him again, he went off his rocker and refused to even talk to me initially...because we were separated for so long by the sphere. He didn't think he could trust me, since to him, id changed so much.." he smiled "its better now. It took time..but we get along well enough now."
He was standing in front of Anubis now as he spoke "there were a lot of people that weren't too pleased that I came here. I used to work for the sphere afterall..i got the cold shoulder for a while too. Its tough I know. But you got to stick it out, prove you really want to help the people here...they'll come round eventually..." He sighed and put his arms around the shaking robot, giving him an awkward hug. It used to work on his brother when he was having a crying fit...
"It'll work out kid, don't go tearing yourself apart over it. Vectors report proves your no longer the same person. People have read it by now.." the kid looked up at him, teary-eyed and sniffling.
"T-they have..?" he asked.
Christophe nodded, "yup. When I was looking for you, one woman said she spoke to you, gave you directions to my brothers office. She thought you were very polite, and very sweet.. so you see, not everyone is mad at you.."
Anubis sniffled and hung his head "I want to stay.." he said very quietly "my brother is always so happy, I wish I could have that.."
Christophe blinked, then realised what that meant "you mean the fact that he loves my brother? Don't stress it, you'll find someone who thinks you're too cute to let out of their sight.." As Anubis looked innocently up at him, a hopeful look finally overcoming the look of misery, he couldn't help adding; "I think you may well have done already.."
Anubis blinked, wondering what that meant- and got the answer a second later. Wondering just when he started caring for the kid in that way, the older Cortes brother kissed him gently. Anubis turned bright red, but he didn't mind. His brother was always doing this with the scary bird-human...did this mean..?
At last Christophe reluctantly let him go. Noting Anubis' bright red face he flushed slightly. Hoping the kid wouldn't wig out again.
"I must be a sucker for a cute face I guess.." he muttered at last, poking Anubis on the nose "I literally got attached to you kiddo.."
Anubis blushed even deeper. He looked up at him, looking so adorably hopeful.
"Then...y-you're not gonna-"
"Abandon you? I think you got the wrong idea about that conversation kiddo. What were talking about
was the fact you're going to need to learn to trust other people soon...not just your brother and me.." he patted him on the head "like hell im leaving you alone." he put his arms around the kid again "im not letting you wander anywhere unless I go with you, get me?"
Anubis blinked, then nodded happily, and for the first time ever, he smiled. A genuine smile, proof he really was happy with the idea..
Christophe quickly gave him another kiss then hugged the kid. --damnit..my brothers gonna have a field day laughing this one up. But eerytime I look at this kid, I want to look after him. Too damn cute for his own good ya know. Always thought going out with someone was a waste of time, but for this guy, I guess ill make an exception. I've gotten too fond of him to turn my back on him now..--
Oblivious to this, Anubis leant his head against Christophe's shoulder. --He smells nice..-- he thought blushing. He felt safe and warm, being held like this. This person wasn't going to abandon him, he said he'd stay with him...even after all the fuss he'd caused him. He didn't want this person to ever go away from him, he felt safe around him. Happy..
His stomach, impatient with waiting for the lovey-dovey schmaltz to end, growled loudly. Anubis turned red and groaned. Christophe cracked up laughing.
"Looks like we need to feed and water ya already.."
Anubis giggled "im not a rubber plant!" he objected.
"I'll say...rubber plants don't growl.." Christophe reluctantly let go of him, grabbed his hand, and began towing him out the door. "Lets go!"
Hehe ta-daa...hides i coudnt help it xD they seemed so cute together
Random Fact: My back hurts. And its 5a.m an' im eating cookies.