[sorry if this chapter is rushed, I needed some filler]

Rex stood quietly in front of the news station.

Being back in the city made him realize how much he missed it . Fast food just a few minutes away, loud noises of people walking by, the beeping of cars stuck in traffic- hell, even the smoggy air. He didn't realize just how clean the air in Abysus was until he landed back in the mainland. Granted, it should have been obvious judging from the amount of trees in his new home. Whether he liked it or not, the location alone was a cleansing experience, aside from all the drama he'd faced.

"What are you waiting for?" the king's voice crackled through his earpiece. "Did you forget your papers?"

Van Kleiss sat in the comfort of one of the labs back at the castle, unwilling to let Rex continue his mission without supervision. Last time caused enough trouble to force him to put the boy on a digital leash. Rex swore he wouldn't do anything so harsh again, but nothing he said would convince the man to give him the ultimate freedom.

Rex tapped the binder he held in the crook of his left arm, walking through a pair of glass doors. "No, I just forgot what it's like to be around so many people. Ones who aren't trying to kill me every five seconds."

"Maybe you deserve it."

"Hilarious."

The A.C. hit him like a strong gust of wind as he walked past crowds of businessmen and secretaries scrambling around with falling papers. The goal was simple- get an audience with Diane Farrah by any means necessary. If anyone would know what was behind the string of lies the stations were reporting about the fate of his old home, it had to be one of the top reporters within the state. The real question is whether she would willingly give out information, but he hoped he wouldn't have to do anything drastic to make her.

"Excuse me, I have something to report to Mrs. Farrah," he told one of the nearby workers fiddling with a pile of notepads. "Could you tell me where she is?"

"You're going to need to go through her sector first," the man informed him. "She only reports what her team filters out. They're Sector Four, over there in the green."

The teen turned to the side, spotting a cluster of workers dressed in dark green suits. They sat at conjoined desks, scrambling to write down on papers that were eventually organized into binders. Rex raised a brow, knowing that there was a high chance that lies were intentionally scripted into the files.

But why?

"Thanks," he told the man before making his way towards the fellows in green. "Excuse me, I'm a small town reporter for a city a few ways over at Turner's Point, and I have to expose what happened at my home just a few days ago. The world needs to know. How can I make that happen?"

A few of the workers eyed him up and down. While normally that would make the child nervous, today certainly wasn't the day for that. Head to toe, he was dressed in black, and his hair had long grown past the length most people recognized him in- almost to his shoulders by now. Rex had even allowed hints of stubble to grow on his face, altering his persona even more. Lastly, he wore a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes.

In short, this way, no one would recognize him.

"A lot of folks come around here saying the same thing, bud," one of the women stated. "What's going on in your town that the entire country would be interested in? Diane only reports what brings in the most views across the nation."

"There's been several sightings of the missing EVO we know as Rex," the teen revealed. "I have official witness statements and photographs to prove it. Unless you want to let a terrorist run free, I suggest you let me see Diane stat."

Rex smirked, recalling all the fake candid photos he'd taken of himself sneaking around buildings or sitting on a lone basketball court several towns over. Just a few days ago, in fact. Van Kleiss had been the one to suggest writing false citizen reports to make him seem all the more threatening. It was the first time the boy had homework he genuinely enjoyed.

The crowd of green businessmen and women went quiet, pausing their work immediately. One of the men stared at the floor for a moment, then glanced up.

"May we see the evidence?"

They sat awestruck as Rex presented them with a binder that contained photo after photo, paragraph after paragraph. He made sure his signature orange jacket flashed alongside his face throughout the papers brightly, so no one could deny his identity. After around ten minutes of displaying his golden tickets to his goal, he put it all away, awaiting a response.

"These don't look doctored at all," one of the women spoke up. "That's definitely Rex. Even the best pretenders in costumes don't match that level of authenticity. How did you get all these?"

"They're not all mine," Rex said. "I compiled what people who saw him sent to me in the mail."

A few whispers and hums emanated amongst the crowd.

"Diane is through that black door," a male worker stated, pushing back his glasses and pointing the way with his finger. "Normally we don't approve of her touching anything we don't see first, but she needs to be in the know immediately."

"Yes, thank you for the material!" a woman gushed as the boy waved and left to enter the aforementioned door across the room. His heart thudded as he came closer to his goal.

"Excuse me, Ms. Farrah?" he greeted the woman as he walked into the small room just behind, closing the door behind him. "I'm here with a story your team told me to give you ASAP."

Diane sat with her back turned at a small dresser, quietly looking into a mirror. Her hair was prim and proper, her makeup was set gently in place and sprayed down, and her clothes were neat and tidy. But what made the boy's eyes widen was the sight of a large, long scar that stretched across her back, just below the sheer white shirt she wore, intended to be covered by a professional jacket. From her shoulder blade to somewhere below her waist, it seemed healed, but only recently. The woman quickly covered her back with a garment and whipped around, seemingly shocked to see the teen.

Rex stumbled backwards. "Oh, sorry! I didn't know you were still changing!"

"You're alright," the woman said slowly, her right eye twitching. "Let me just put some perfume on, I'm not quite done."

Without turning away, she stared at him unblinkingly as she raised a perfume bottle. Instead of aiming at herself, however, she aimed directly at the mirror, drenching it with mist until it formed a large wet spot. Without a word, she placed the bottle back on her dresser and began to trace letters into the mirror with her finger.

"I just love this scent, you know," she said in an eerily monotonous voice. "It's Kiwano melon. Isn't it splendid?"

The teen glanced at the mirror, finding that she had traced his name into the mist, along with a question mark after it. Being the only person in the building who had personally met him before, she must have recognized his voice.

"Yes," he responded, feeling uneasy. "I love how you know exactly what it is. Must be familiar to you."

She nodded, still stiff as a board, then wiped the mirror off quickly without so much as twisting her spine.

"It's nice to know what ingredients go into my cosmetics and things," she continued almost robotically. "I'm very health conscious."

Her hand slowly slid across her chest from the side until it pointed directly at her necklace, a string of black beads.

"You know what's interesting about Kiwano melons?" she went on, her hand seemingly frozen into position. "They can't grow in American soil very well. They need to be far, far away."

Her gaze disturbed Rex immensely, who tried to understand what on earth he had just walked into.

"Or else they're done for," she murmured. "The second they take root in this country's soil, it's instant death."

The child looked down at her necklace, suddenly noticing a tiny, dim light in the center of the biggest pearl. So small, just the size of a pinprick- but to someone practically one with machines, it was immediately recognizable.

A camera.

Rex's heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he realized why she was speaking in code. Even worse, he spotted tiny dark scratches around her neck where the jewelry was placed, indicting that she wasn't wearing it of her own free will.

"I-I have to go to the bathroom, he stuttered, nearly tripping over himself as he opened the door and rushed out the room. "I'll talk to you later!"

As soon as he left, he ran out the building entirely and pressed his finger to his earpiece. "Did you hear that?!"

"No, I wasn't paying attention," Van Kleiss voice answered, crackling in through the static. "I was working. Enlighten me."

Rex leaned on a nearby lamppost to catch his breath, then crouched down. "Remember how we found out that the news stations are lying to us? I don't think they have a choice. Whoever is behind all of this got to Diane!"

"How so?"

"I don't know, but I need to rescue her, and fast. This is gonna be messy but I can't just leave her here. I have to bring her back to Abysus."

"You wish to cause a well known reporter to vanish from mainland civilization? You're going to cause incredible political ripples."

The teen paused.

"I know, but I don't know what else to do!" he answered frantically. "I don't know if they'll even leave her alive once I'm gone!"

The king scoffed. "If you're going to bring her to my land, you are responsible for her, as well as the subtlety of your methods."

"Deal!"

Rex took a deep breath and turned around, entering the building yet again. Ignoring the odd looks he received, he made a beeline towards Diane's powder room. He cracked open the door and spied on the woman sitting as still as a statue, staring at herself in the mirror as if it was the last she'd see of her reflection.

"Diane," he whispered, slowly stepping inside. "I'm going to help you get out of here. Come on."

She didn't budge.

"We need to go now," the boy insisted, stepping closer.

She didn't even blink.

Rex stared at her. "Why are you acting like I'm not here?"

"You don't know what you're doing," Diane slowly whispered. "They're going to find you."

"Whoever they are, they can't do anything to me," the child rebutted. "I'm stronger than you think. I'm Providence trained!"

The woman exhaled softly. "That's what your monkey said."

She finally moved from her seemingly paralyzed position, turning to see his shocked expression. "I know. I'm sorry. But you aren't the first to try this. You need to go back to Abysus."

"That's- that's another thing!" Rex sputtered. "How did they know where I was!? Who's behind all this?"

"I can't-"

A knock on the door startled them.

Diane immediately whipped around, painting makeup on top of her already caked up face, as if she had been doing multiple layers from sheer anxiety. Rex jumped to the side, hiding behind the door as it swung open. He didn't dare crane his head around the edge to peek, but the voice of the unwelcome visitor was unmistakable.

"You have five minutes," Six's voice spoke in a tone just as monotonous as the teen remembered. "Fix yourself. You look like a melted wax doll."

When the man closed the door behind himself and left, Rex cracked it open just an inch, his eyes darting from side to side to find the person he couldn't believe was real. Lo and behold, a man who could pass as the exact replica of the former green agent barked orders at some of the workers before turning into an unseen corner. His clothes were rather elegant for the environment they worked in, and upon the heel of his dress pants lied a vaguely familiar logo…

A matter for another time.

"Who was that?" the teen whispered fiercely. "That can't be Six, but it can't not be!"

He was answered with a fierce thwack to his head with a giant binder.

"OW!" he yelped, gripping his head. The blow brought him to his knees, forcing him to gaze upon his attacker. Diane stood over him with her weapon of choice, not a trace of emotion on her face.

"I'm sorry," she said, her eyelid twitching. "But orders are orders. I learned that the hard way."

Rex scowled. "Even if it's not really your fault, that still hurt. I guess it doesn't matter though."

The teen jumped to his feet, punched the binder from her grasp, and swooped her up to hang her over his shoulder. She kicked and punched viciously, but he was too used to physical assault to be phased. Without caring about presentation, he kicked the powder room door down, sprouted mechanical wings, and flew through the masses to reach the exit, causing screams to ripple across the sea of workers. Diane screamed for help, but as long as the child could manage, he resisted any effort she made to escape. But before he could shoot off into the sky, a gloved hand grabbed his leg.

It stung like hell.

"AARGH!"

He nearly dropped the woman in his grip from the pain. It lasted for only a second, but it was as if a thousand needles lining someone's hand pierced directly through his skin. He turned his head to find the Six clone attacking him, wearing gear he hadn't seen before. Strangely enough, after the attack, the man left him alone as he made his escape. Rex flew as fast as he could towards the carrier EVO he originally rode to the city in on the roof, yelling out a command for it to close its mouth and return home.

"What are you doing!?" Diane yelled, trying to escape the secure jaws of the beast. "They're going to kill me! Kill us!"

"No, they're not," the boy denied. "You'll be safe. I promise."

"Where is this thing going!?"

"Abysus."

She gave him the iciest stare she could muster, sending a shiver down his spine. "Abysus is a wasteland! There's nothing but buildings full of dead people, black acid rain, and psycho EVOs! There's even an active volcano! We can't go there!"

Rex raised a brow. "You're right about the psycho EVO thing, but I don't know where you got the rest from."

"What?" she asked, exasperated. "What are you talking about?"

"It's pretty much just a giant forest. With lakes and rivers and stuff. The only building is a castle, but I live there, so I know there's no corpses in it. And we definitely don't have acid rain or a volcano."

The boy pondered the last bit. "At least, I don't think there's a volcano."

Diane slid down the walls of the creature until she landed on her bottom, worn out from physical and mental exertion.

"I guess I've been lied to more than I thought."

"Yeah, now you know how I felt when I saw your news channel."

She huffed. "That wasn't my fault. And while I'm on the topic…"

The woman yanked off her necklace, found a small hole between the crevices of the EVO's teeth, and threw it into the open air. By now, they were too far above the ocean to even hear it make a sound as it submerged into the water. Rex felt relaxed now that he wasn't being watched anymore, and mimicked her, taking a rest and sitting upon the creature's tongue with her.

"How long have they been making you wear that?" he asked.

Diane shook her head. "It's been so long, now. I can't even remember anymore."

"And you never told me- who are they?"

"A better question is, where have you been all this time?!"

Rex sat, stunned by her sudden harsh tone.

"I told the world you were a hero, Rex!" she shouted. "That you were our last hope! They made me tell the world that you were dead, and we all believed it! How could we not? You were gone for so long!"

"It's not my fault," the teen shot back. "It's not like I chose to get kidnapped and then be sick. And I'm trying to set things right! That's why I came to rescue you!"

"Kidnapped? By who?"

"Van Kleiss."

She sat quietly for a moment.

"Erm, isn't that.. the terrorist EVO?" she asked, giving him a look of pity. "How long has he trapped you? How did you escape?"

Rex faltered. "I, um. I didn't actually escape…"

"What?"

"We're going back to him right now."

Her eyes went wide, and she jumped to her feet.

"You're taking me to an eco terrorist?!" she shouted at him, backing away. "Let me out! You betrayed me!"

Rex rubbed his forehead with his palm. "It's not like that. He's not gonna hurt you. At least, I don't think."

"You don't THINK?"

"He doesn't have a reason to, okay? Look, I know how it sounds, and yes he's crazy, but I'm living proof he's not on a homicidal rampage right now."

Diane scowled. "What, did beat the lights out of you? Is that why you're siding with him?"

"No! I mean sometimes we fight, but it's not fatal or anything! Though, he is pretty sadistic sometimes."

She flung her shoe at him.

"Relax!" he commanded her, dodging the sharp heel just before it pierced his eye. "I swear, I'm not his evil henchman or anything! You'll be fine! Just calm down!"

"You're insane," she seethed. "You have Stockholm syndrome. He's warped your mind and now you work with him willingly. So much for the world's last hope!"

"I just rescued you, you ungrateful-"

The rest of the ride was filled with endless bickering, and the occasional footwear tossing.