Title: Little Remnants part 2
Author: Enide Dear
Rating: NC -17 for violence. Complete AU
Pairing: Nothing explicit, KadajxYazooxLoz. Just cuddling
Summary: Growing up is hell
**
A year past, and the keepers let the Remnants meet more and more often; it seemed to do wonders for their behavior problems. Loz stopped fighting and crying so much, Yazoo stopped stealing and Kadaj stopped looking at the caretakers as if he was wondering what their blood tasted like.
When they were together they sat and talked, mostly Kadaj telling made-up stories which the others listen to intently, despite the fact that they'd never cared much about fairy tales before, or they tumbled in mock fights like lion cubs, laughing and grinning, or they played games. Before, when they had been alone they hadn't seemed to know what to do with the toys they'd been given, but the more they were together, the more they started acting like normal children.
Most of the violent outbursts died away and it got easier to handle them, since the threat of being sent alone to their own rooms always made them cave in and agree on whatever tests the researchers wanted to do, if not happily so at least without trying to stab someone. They were continuously measured, weighted, taken blood samples on, tried for strength and stamina in different test runs specifically designed for them. They were far more clever and strong than normal children, but that was expected.
But they still didn't manage limit breaks. No matter how hard they got beaten and kicked, they just kept hitting back and attacking in normal ways, even when the odds were impossible and their ribs and bones where broken. They were savage and feral and sneaky as hell, but they kept trying to defend themselves against the guards' clubs with fists and feet. One time Loz got a concussion and had to spend days in a respirator, but he didn't limit break and they didn't dare pushing him further for fear of killing him. Perhaps they really were too young; Loz wasn't ten years old yet and Kadaj only five.
**
Kadaj had arranged all the chairs around the table and placed the brothers' favorite cuddly-toys and dolls around it. Loz sat opposite Yazoo, each with a stuffed bear in their arms and empty cups and plates before them, pretending to eat.
"Loz. Yazoo. It's time to go back to your rooms." Three keepers came in, carefully. The children had mellowed significantly, but they were still very difficult to separate. Two armed guards stood outside the room, waiting and ready.
"But we're having a tea-party!" Kadaj pouted. "Can't we play just a little while longer?"
He sipped his cup. "Please?"
"Not now, Kadaj. Loz and Yazoo needs to go back to their rooms, and you are going to meet professor Hojo again. If you are a good boy and don't kick him in the groin this time, you'll get a lollipop."
"I don't want to meet him! Last time he stabbed me!" Kadaj said angrily, waving his now healed hand in the air. Fortunately for the children, they mended quickly.
"Just to see what you can do. He's just trying to help you, you know that."
"Can't you have a cup of tea with us first?" Yazoo asked the keeper, looking up under his bangs, squeezing the toy.
"And then we'll come nicely." Loz added, sipping the water in his cup.
"Promise." Kadaj smiled innocently.
The keepers exchanged a look. The Remnants hade never invited anyone to share their games before; this might be another big breakthrough.
"Alright…just one." The stepped up to the table and took the doll-sized cups.
"Just one," Kadaj agreed. "Them too." He nodded at the guards, who shrugged and stepped up, weapons ready, as the keepers nodded to them.
Kadaj poured the cold make believe tea water into the cups; it looked dark, the keepers reflected so maybe it really was tea. The Remnants drained their cups, making yummy noises. The keepers and guards drained theirs.
Kadaj smiled as he saw their eyes go green and hard and his brothers threw away the toys.
"Now, this is what we are going to do…"
**
Two guards and three keepers supervised the three Remnant children through the research facility; it was a common sight. If anyone had looked closer they might have noticed that the guards had the visors of their helmets down and that the keepers kept their eyes on the floor or on the papers in their hands, but no one looked. The fact that both guards lacked their guns and that the two eldest Remnants had their hands in their pockets also went unnoticed.
They walked through the laboratories where they had been so many times before, and Kadaj helped himself to a large, sharp scalpel from a table.
The rouse worked until they reached the lower floors just above the garage. The Remnants had never been here before, and there were no reason for them to be there. The guards by the door tensed.
"Hey – what are you doing here?" One of them fumbled for his com radio.
"Loz! Get him!" Kadaj shouted and there was a flash of light, then Loz was suddenly next to the guard, tearing the radio away and smashing it against the wall. Another flash and the child grabbed the other guard's radio, destroying it as well. He yelped as the guards seized him, but he was quickly dropped as five snarling monsters appeared out of nowhere, throwing themselves over the guards and making short work of them.
Kadaj spun, scalpel held ready as he listened down the hall.
"They're coming," he said tensely. "We have to get out now. You," – he commanded a keeper "-open that door."
The woman obeyed, punching a code and opening the door for them. The Remnants ran out, their guards by their side.
"That car! You drive!" Kadaj ordered a guard who immediately sat in, his partner on the passenger seat, two keepers and three Remnants in the backseat. "Go! Go! Go!"
The car screeched, howling threw the underground garage. More guards by the door out, but they went down in a hail of bullets from Loz and Yazoo, who were grinning with excitement and beaconing freedom, and the car crashed through the door, out into the world.
It didn't get far. The safety measures and well-founded paranoia of the facility and the orders to kill rather than let the Remnants get away stopped it brutally; a flash of bright light caught the car, swallowing it up and then there was an ear-drum shattering sound as the vehicle exploded into a million pieces.
**
"That will keep them busy. It will be hours, maybe days, before they sort out the remains and realize we're not there." Kadaj laughed, hidden as he was in a ventilation shaft overlooking the empty plain and the wreck. People were already milling around the scorched metal and bones, poking and shouting angrily.
He looked back at his brothers, who waited for him to tell them what to do next, smiling and armed and free.
"Come. We need to get out of here. We're going to find Mother."