Six flexed his left arm. The glove was off and the sleeve was pulled up. He sighed a little. The day he had lost his arm was a dark one for them all. They had lost two team members to the enemy, and one to God. He closed his eyes. Ethan's lifeless body that was covered in his own blood still haunted Six, and it haunted him so badly that he saw it in his sleep.
Six remembered that it was also the day that they were trapped in the cave during the blizzard. That was the day Six had first pulled out his locket to look at the picture of Rex and Holiday. It had taken all his strength not to shed tears when the team started asking him about them. Nafalis had helped him out by answering some of the questions for him. It was hard for Nafalis too because they were her family, not just his.
Nafalis told them that they had to make plans. She had told Six that he could stay there and think if he wanted, she'd fill him in afterwards. Six nodded and stayed there while the others made plans. Six was nearer to the front of the cave while they were at the back.
Six hadn't cried, no he did not cry, but he did find himself shedding many tears. He felt almost sure that Nafalis had known he would do so and that was why she had said he could stay here, but he was still unsure. Six soon forced himself to stop because his tears were freezing onto his face and it wasn't helping him stay warm at all.
When they came back he was notified that Nafalis would take the first watch, then Elizabeth, then Elar, then Ellie, and he would take watch last. He nodded. The amount she had stated rang in his mind. Five, only five of them were left. Two were missing, and one was dead, five were all they had left.
Five, only five. Just five and no more, he thought to himself. They soon took Enna and Edward back when they broke them out. But even then there numbers were small against the forces Sernor had, and Six was unsure if they would win.
But Nafalis assured him that they would win because they had to win or everyone in every universe would die, but Six was still unsure about their victory. In the last few minutes of a fight he had with one of Sernor's minions he had lost his locket and was very angry. He had gotten it back of course and still wore it today.
Suddenly the flashback stopped and Ethan's face flooded his vision. Ethan had been missing his right arm and his face was so bloody you couldn't see his face hardly at all. He didn't even really look human after all that. Ethan's death was Six's fault, he was his partner and he had let him down! Would he do that with Rex? Would he get Rex killed also? Six shoved the thought away along with the image of Ethan.
Six let out a breath and opened his eyes. He was shocked to find Holiday standing in front of him. Her head was tilted to her right and her right eyebrow raised. At first Six was confused at her confusion until he realized he was shedding tears again. He took a moment to curse himself before standing.
"What were you thinking about?" Holiday said with concern. Six was silent. He didn't want to answer that question, he didn't want to answer it at all, but he couldn't think of a reason why not. He decided to go with the truth.
"A day I dont like to remember," he muttered. Holiday blinked.
"Then why were you thinking about it?" she asked. Six had hoped she would just leave it at what he had told her. He shoved passed her without a word. Holiday watched him go. He had been thinking a lot lately about the mission he and Nafalis went on.
Holiday walked down the hall to Six's room. The door was open and she dared to look in. He was sitting on his bed looking at the floor. His swords were on the ground and marks his swords had undoubtedly made lined the walls. The swords weren't lying on the ground, they were thrown into the ground and were standing upright. Holiday swallowed and prayed to God she wouldn't get herself killed as she knocked on the wall.
Six glanced at her and then looked away as if she was not of importance. Holiday took that as him saying he didn't really care if she came in or stayed out so she walked in. Holiday stood to his right and stayed silent. The silence that filled the room was deafening.
"What is it?" Six asked, breaking the silence. First Holiday mentally thanked him for breaking the silence, and then second off she noted the quietness of his voice and how strained it was.
"What's wrong Six?" she asked sitting next to him. Six didn't answer, and Holiday resisted the urge to repeat her question for she knew it would just anger him. Six sighed and looked at the marks on his wall. Holiday looked as well. Some where old and some were new, some were long and some were short, some were deep and some just barely skimmed the wall, and then there were those that made Holiday almost expect to see blood coming out of the wall.
"Ethan died, and it was my fault," he muttered, still looking around at the marks. "He was my partner and I let him down,"-he sighed-"what if I do the same with Rex, or you? I would never forgive myself if I got either of you killed."
"Six," she said hugging him. "You're not going to get us killed, ok?"
"And what if I do?" he said. Holiday let go and looked at his face. She was shocked that she could read his expression for once in her life. His expression was extremely tight, his jaw was set abnormally and his face was wet with tears.
"I dont know Six, I really dont," she said. Six looked at her. Holiday looked back at what she guessed was his eyes but she couldn't really tell with his glasses. She cautiously removed them from his face and found he was looking directly at her eyes as she was looking at his.
He put his hands over hers and took the glasses from her. He set them down on the far side of the bed and again looked at her. Holiday could see the pain in his eyes and knew that whatever happened on the day he doesn't like to remember was extremely horrible, so horrible in fact it made the most self controlled man cry.
"Must've been horrible," she muttered. Six nodded. "I'm sorry about all that." Six pressed his forehead to hers and was looking directly into her eyes again.
"You dont have to be," he murmured just before he kissed her. Holiday tensed in surprised but then relaxed. Six rapped his left arm around her and sat closer to her. Holiday put her right arm over his left elbow. She could feel the mechanics under the sleeve as they fluxed.
Six pulled back and looked down at her hand on his mechanical arm. Holiday looked too. She had always wanted to know who had made it, it was very high-tech and confused Holiday beyond words. And of course she hadn't ever gotten a look at it. Six pulled his arm back and Holiday took her hand off. Six looked her in the eye and knew just want she was thinking.
"You wanna take a look at it?" he asked. Holiday looked up at him, shocked and pleased at the same time. She nodded. He lifted his arm and set it on her leg. She took the glove off and pulled his sleeve up. She looked the hand over and found that it had sensors all over it, so he could feel her hand as it moved along the metal parts and the mechanical nerves.
She found mechanical enhanced muscles. He had pressure points that she touched, when she did he would flinch and the mechanical nerves would tense. She touched a pressure point by his elbow and he laughed a little. She looked at him to find him smiling.
"That tickled a little," he said. She nodded.
"Sorry," she said.
"It's fine," Six said. Holiday nodded and kept looking it over. Once she reached his shoulder she stopped and hummed thoughtfully.
"Who made this?" she asked looking back at the eyes she was so happy she could see.
"Nafalis did," he told her. Holiday gave a confused look and looked down at his arm.
"That crazy, no self-control teenager made this?" she asked. Six chuckled.
"She is crazy without a doubt, I'll agree with you on that. But she has plenty of self-control, she just doesn't use it much around us because she feels calm around us. And yes, she did," Six said. Holiday raised her eyebrow at him. He was kidding, right? There was no way Nafalis made this thing. Holiday shrugged.
"If you say so," she said. Six chuckled and put his glasses back on. Holiday stood up and walked out to the computer room, Six followed. They stopped in their tracks as they saw Nafalis typing rapidly on her laptop.
"Nafalis?" Six said, his expression tight. Nafalis looked up at him.
"Six, you're getting enlisted again, we've got a problem," she told him. Six walked out and leaned over her shoulder.
"What is it? What happened?" he asked. Nafalis opened her mouth to say something but another voice came first. The voice made Holiday shiver and freeze in place it had so much authority in its tone.
"James, James happened," said the voice. A man walked out in a black cloak. Nafalis stood up and saluted along with Six.
"Boss," they said together.
"Good to see you agent Six and Nafalis," he said with a curt nod. They nodded back. Holiday looked from her friends to the man in confusion. "Listen, I need the both of you at base two minutes ago, now lets move." Nafalis closed her laptop and followed quickly. Six started after her but Holiday grabbed his arm. He looked back at her.
"Will you come back?" she asked. Six turned to her. There was a moment of silence that made Holiday dread his answer. Six put his hands on her shoulders and his expression tightened in a way that almost showed worry.
"Mostly likely not, I'm sorry Rebecca," he said. Holiday looked down at her feet and nodded.
"Ok," she said. Six hugged her and Holiday rapped her arms around his waist. "Goodbye Six," she mumbled against his chest. Six pulled back. He looked her over a moment and sighed.
"John," he muttered. Holiday looked up.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"My name's John," he said. Holiday blinked in surprise. She had never thought of him ever having a name. Well of course she knew he had a name, but she had never really thought about it over much.
"Oh," she said shakingly. Six kissed her.
"Agent Six! Time's a-waistin'!" Shane called. Six pulled back. He looked over at Shane and then back at Holiday.
"Goodbye Rebecca," he said and jogged away. Holiday watched him run away. She held her pad against her breast tightly as the portal opened.
"Goodbye," she murmured as they ran through. The portal shut two seconds later. She closed her eyes and one tear slid. She reopened them and looked at where the portal had been. "John," she added quietly.