So this chapter was originally supposed to be really long and have an epic fight scene and everything but half way through typing it I realized that would have made it way too long. Just this chapter was 15 pages so I'll be posting the rest of it some time next week as chapter 9 instead.

Also could y'all go do me a favor and thank the Archangel of Dragons for me because they really inspired literally all of this chapter. They gave me a lot of ideas and have been a huge help with writing this story. So thank you so much!

Disclaimer: Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more!

Within These Walls

Chapter 8

Six's POV

Now of all my travels around the globe I have a great variety of untold displays of violence and acts of cruelty. Here though, watching this altercation between these two EVOs from above, what I was witnessing was the most basic forms of combat between two predators. The hooded figure fighting the smaller EVO was brutal in its attacks, negating any damage received to strike out with brutal swiftness. There were no calculated strikes or well-placed parries only the intent to maim and kill between the two figures. There was no honor nor skill in these types of fights, and thus I wanted no part in it. Even so, Providence had their order, whether I agreed with them or not; and my orders were to contain these two threats. Believe me there were much better, more productive things I could be doing with my time than interrupting some mindless brawl between two EVOs; preferably to looking for Rex.

Having surveyed a majority of the city and contacted every one of Rex's possible aliases I was reaching my wits ends. Every second we wasted, the longer we took to find him, the further Rex slipped from our grasp. Normally I was content knowing Rex possessed the capabilities to fend for himself, but following his recent decline in health and previous mental breakdowns I was all too aware of the fact that he didn't stand a chance.

My troops quickly took notice of my souring mood having searched for the remainder of the night with little success. I was beginning to grow frantic as we were slowly forced to expand our search radius and Holiday's scans were still coming up negative for Rex's unique bio-signature. At this point my hands were beginning to itch with the urge to just rip into something and find who could have possibly hurt Rex so they could be painfully and slowly decapitated.

Growling with annoyance just wanting to get this over with I reached for the ship's microphone for the exterior speakers hoping for once that one of these EVOs had enough sentience to just listen to reason and make this easier on all of us. It would be nice change of pace for once to persuade the EVOs to stop in their mindless rampages and then send them on their merry fucking way with little incident and without the huge waste in government funding and equipment. Though it didn't seem like one of those days.

"Release the EVO!" I called down to the larger of the two figure who currently had the smaller one pinned proceeding to choke the life out of it. It rose glaring at the ship with disdain I likely shared until it caught sight of me standing in stark contrast to the bay doors. What I didn't expect was the events that followed that had me hurtling past unloading troops with a shout of 'Rex!' Things all but exploded into blue light surrounding the pair just as I had witnessed hundreds of times before. The hooded figure loomed above the quickly shrinking EVO with his head bowed as blue circuits snaked down his arm.

I couldn't be this easy that Rex was just hiding under our noses the entire time? Of course it was that easy, because no one seems to be able to do their fucking jobs around here. Despite this I still I had my suspicions, because whatever that thing was down there it sure as hell wasn't Rex. He never fought so volatile—so full of animalistic rage he was trained better than that. Better than simply resorting to mindless violence. He especially never fought EVOs with the clear intention of harming the things none the less outright attempting to kill them.

"Six, we've got signal from Rex's bio-signature in your immediate area," Holiday practically cheered into my com confirming my fear, as of course, the coordinates she rattled off were my exact location. My pointed glare to my surrounding troops had them shrinking away pretending to busy themselves with menial side work. You better be ashamed that you're trained military personnel and you couldn't locate one teenage that was injured for that matter.

"I think I just found him," I was never good at detective work in the field usually my means of interrogating is to either threaten or beat the information out of my target. Even so, this doesn't mean I'm too dense to see when pieces were coming together and certain events were related. The nightmares, the break downs, the bite Rex sustained, and the EVO attack from last night were all connected somehow. I had the distinct feeling that things were beginning to create a bigger picture I wasn't ready to look at just yet. I doesn't really matter because as soon as I'm done being relieved to have found Rex I'm going to make sure Holiday finds out whatever the hell is wrong with him; she can figure out the answers to this mystery we have on our hands by herself

Back to the matter at hand I was all but flying past unloading troops and the unlucky ones who didn't get out of my way were all but ran over. When I was finally in sigh of my unruly charge my steps faltered at seeing his haggard state. Despite his little excursion, it seems that whatever has been plaguing Rex is not quite done with him and is only taking its toll on his already fragile mental state. Every time I find him it just seems like he's getting worse and worse. He's so pale and broken. The way his shoulders all but crumple and his intimidating, defensive posture makes a complete 180 as the cruel predator I had just witnessed gives way to the scared 15 year old underneath. Rex's face seems to all but shatter with heartbreaking relief when he looks into my shaded eyes. It tears at my heart in a whole new way while these rare moments of vulnerability seem to be occurring more and more recently in the coming days. I'm brought it startling awareness that despite all of Rex's combat training and experience he is still only a teenager. His form shook with sobs as he fell to his knees staring at me with such begging and pleading eyes as if he thought I would just up an vanish.

"Rex, are you hurt? We've been searching for you after you went MIA at the base," I asked kneeling beside the vulnerable teenager restraining myself from outright embracing him. Even so, the gentle hand I place on his shoulder seem to answer whatever doubts plaguing him.

"Everyone is okay?" His eyes clouded over with tears that slowly trekked down his face, but the far off looking in his eyes alerted me whatever dissociative episode was taking place. Following his first breakdown I was beginning to recognize the signs that another was imminent.

"Yes, no one is injured," Shouts were erupting from behind us as the medical squad rushed to care for the cured EVO. What brutality I had witnessed from the ship was nothing compared to seeing the brunt of the damage first hand. Several fractured ribs, clean break in his right femur and a plethora of other cuts and bruises littered the child's form. Rex did this I dully noted making the blood in my veins freeze.

"Though you did a number on the kid," I absent mindedly muttered trying to connect how he managed to inflict that much damage without even using his builds. He wasn't trying to take the EVO down, he was trying to kill it.

Because he's a dangerous EVO the treacherous part of my mind offered and I had to fight the urge to recoil. The sensible part of me wanted to get the hell away from Rex and had been screaming at me to do just that since I picked him up in the jet the day before. I could see the kid's blood splattered on Rex's clothing as well as on his face. The gore stood out like a beacon the kid's too pale face and watery eyes. Rex did this my mind repeated and this time I had to stand to hide my shaking hands.

I need to get Rex to Holiday now.

"Rex, we need to get you back to base," it seems nothing ever plays out like I planned. I could already see things beginning to go bad as Rex's body shifted away from me and the guarded quality his eyes took on.

"I'm not going back Six," dammit all couldn't the kid ever just follow my orders for once?

"Rex, we're not arguing about this now. Holiday and I need to ask you a couple of questions as to why you were nowhere on base last night while it was being attacked," I need to get you back to base before people start realizing you practically killed the kid. Get in the jet.

"I'm serious, Six. I'm not going back with you," people are staring now. Troops are glancing our way. They're whispering between sidelong glances to the teen covered in blood and shaking their heads. Media has already arrived at the scene filming a reporter talking about another act of Providence brutality at the hands of their supposed 'cure'. The mother is screaming over her injured child as to how Providence could do this? We're supposed to help people. But who is helping us?

"Get in the ship. Now," this isn't happening here, not now, not like this. Just get in the ship. Just get in the damn ship. This was going to end in violence. Someone is going to get hurt and it's going to be me, because for the love of god I can't hurt this kid.

"No," the single syllable rang out clear over the noise around us. He shouldn't be this cold least of all to you. Please don't make me do this. Please don't make me draw my swords against you. The look in his eyes tells me he's full prepared for a fight. He's prepared to make a stand and fight his way out of this. He looks like a cornered animal. Dragging him away by the back of his hoodie I should know very well now what cornered animals are willing to do.

A growl breaks from his throat and before I even have a chance to turn around I feel cold steel slice into my arm and wrist. Rex is ripping from my grasp and the fabric slips from my clenched fingers with a rip. Looking down, the anger and worry that had been boiling in my veins suddenly overflows as I see blood—my own blood flow into my palm. This isn't the boy I spent five years raising and training. This isn't the same 15 year old from three days prior who was trying to learn Spanish from Google translate. Black claws sparkled and caught the light, claws I dreaded seeing again and brought me back to yesterday night where I was fighting for my life. Against my better judgment I brought my eyes to meet my once was charge now revert back into the dangerous EVO I knew was hiding just beneath the surface.

It seemed fate never seemed to play on the same side as me. The dangerous growl rose in ferocity only causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. Rex did this.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Rex bit out and this time I reacted naturally to the threat before me; flicking my swords from my sleeves I hit Rex with the flat part of the blades. He seemed to stagger for a second sharp teeth clicking together and glowing blue eyes dilating to tiny pin pricks before rolling back in his head as he succumbed to unconsciousness.

"Holiday, be ready in the medical wing with a full team for Rex," I stated already heaving Rex's limp form into a jet. His brows seemed to tighten while his expression turned distraught that had me pausing as I placed him into an empty seat.

This wasn't how it was supposed to play out; any of this. I was just supposed to watch and train the kid not develop a soft spot; not grow concerned him, and look at where it got me. If I didn't let him go with Caesar alone, if I got him to Holiday sooner, if I was just able to notice something was more seriously wrong than just too many sleepless nights then none of this would have happened. I slammed my fist into the control panel of the jet swearing loudly before bring it down a second and a third time feeling the strain pull on the new cuts on my arm. Rex did this my mind whispered and this time there was no denying it.

Rex's POV

Now it's understandable that following my experiences at Providence, the good and the bad but mostly the bad, that I have developed a sort of aversion to the color white. There's nothing particularly bad about the bland color only that I've come to associate the shade with none the few trying experiences. After five years of living in my own personal white purgatory it now only speaks to me of restraint and lying in the dark of my room wishing for things I could never have. Wishing to remember a past I no longer had a place in. So now the first thing I see as my consciences slowly drifts back to me is that vile color. So bland, so void of any personality. Like a blank canvas people would say, but it takes a skilled hand to turn the color white into anything beautiful. The only possibilities for imagination these white walls possessed was the destruction of it.

As my mind began to stir from the blackness it has been occupying quite recently, courtesy of the hell that has become my life, my consciousness was slow to slip back to me. Bright flashes behind clenched eyelids almost had me wishing to return to the ever encompassing emptiness in which I had escaped. Muted whispers came next that would fade and crescendo into white noise that only served as an annoying buzzing scraping across my fragile mind. Still I persisted into pushing past the sensory overload that seemed to make the task of coming to awareness almost daunting.

With an audible gasp I woke with a start, and immediately regretted it as too bright white lights flooded my vision. Muscles already tensed to prepare for whatever danger brought brief snippets of a fight that had me heaving and eyes rolling around wildly for the perceived threat. Even so, what snapped me awake faster than the lights overhead was the feeling of being restrained, in pain, and confused. My endeavors to rise from whatever I was lying on was met with a swift jerk in the opposite direction. Looking down I realized why. I was strapped to a metal medical gurney. My hands and legs bound with thick leather straps usually seen in mental hospitals. My thought process was still slightly stunted due to my rude awakening and the concept that maybe my frantic struggles weren't going to loosen the leather straps anytime soon never occurred to me. Thus, I slipped into my natural body's reaction and began to panic. Gasping in a lungful of air my struggling only increased seeming to attract the attention of whomever I shared the room with.

Faces swam overhead but I paid them no heed only focusing on the matter at hand that was until they decided to place their hands all over me. The white noise that I had been ignoring from the beginning pounded at the forefront of my mind, but was drowned out by my vicious snapping and growling at the figures above me.

"Rex….need to…calm…more…sedatives now!" someone screamed and the world only became a thin tunnel of my perspective. This was just another nightmare I begged some part of me to just wake up, because suddenly the hands pinning me down were instead clawing at every exposed part of me. Ripping and screaming as the putrid air of gore and death filled my lungs while the shadow's cackle echoed through my mind. I only had enough mind to recognize the cold glint of steel above my head as someone filled a syringe with god knows what but I knew it was intended for me. Something snapped within me like a switch being flipped inside as my panic response went from flight to fight. Orange clouded my vision and the restraints all but lifted from my body given me the blessed chance at escape, but reality came crashing down all too soon.

White was everywhere I turned. White walls, white lab coats, and white shocked faces saying things with their mouths gaping open like fish. I swayed for a second as my BFS kept these unfamiliar people at bay until a familiar face stepped out from the crowd too white crowd.

"Holiday," I asked with teeth still bared and clouded eyes darting around distrustfully.

"Yes, Rex it's me. I need you to put the sword away. Can you do that for me, Rex?" her voice was calm but her eyes were too wide, too fearful. She took a delicate step forward even while my sword was still drawn only for it to snap up to be centimeters from her throat.

"No…no I need to leave here," I swayed unsure of where my feet wanted to take me. I didn't even know why I wanted to leave. I just knew I couldn't stay here. It wasn't safe here. I was still in the nightmare. These people weren't real.

"I know you do, Rex. We were just giving you a quick check up to make sure you weren't hurt today," the confidence in her voice was all a ruse. She's scared I can smell it on her. They're all scared. I can see the way her hand trembles ever so slightly as she pushes my sword slightly out of her face. This is only a nightmare.

"Just relax, Rex," and against my better judgment the distrust that arches up my spine melts away into familiarity. My sword folds back away and a look of relief crosses Holiday's features before it's replaced by and air of professionalism and an all too fake smile. My gaze snaps to the other doctors in the room and they jump back at my threatening display of growls and gnashing teeth. Holiday clears them from the room with a quick jerk of her hand her eyes never leaving my face.

"Can you trust her?"

"Now Rex, I'm going to need to ask you a couple of questions, alright?" she asks fumbling with several scanners besides me, but I can see her watching me from her peripherals; as if waiting for some reaction on my part. I lower myself to the same medical gurney knowing full well that this isn't how our interactions are supposed to go. With us dancing around one another like we're walking on eggshell. She's scared of me and me of her but for all the wrong reasons. So let's play this game of normalcy like nothing is wrong for just bit longer if only for my own piece of mind.

"Go ahead. Shoot doc," it sounds like a death sentence even to me and I know I fail at normalcy with my too sharp smile that's full of vicious cruelty. Her analyzing glance flickers to me for a second like she's trying to read my features and stiff body language. Come on Doc I know your field is in biology and nanotechnology not psychology. She isn't going to find anything useful in my expression besides my glowing eyes so she lowers herself to playing on my level.

"Where were you last night?' Not the question she wants to ask. She's beating around the bush trying to get as much information out of my without asking the question she needs to know the most. Her nonchalance is betrayed by her rigid posture and the way her eyes scan over her tools to look for something she knows is sitting right there.

"I was staying at Noah's," a lie and a bad one at that. Where was I? I wasn't here that's for sure, because the monster running through the base wasn't me. Something just inhabiting my body crawling beneath my skin and fighting for control all the while.

"We called, Noah. He says you weren't there last night," this time she brings up a magnifying glass to my eyes shining a light into my pupil. They dilate to tiny pinpricks and her mouth turns to a grim line seeming the way my irises glow blue with unnatural light.

"He must have been covering for me so I wouldn't get in trouble," all the while I smiled at her not taking my eyes off her face. I knew full well what that cylindrical device in her pocket was that she kept fiddling with. Who was going to win this game first? Who was going to snap under the pressure?

"Why was there blood on you?" she turned away showing me her back. This was a test and I knew it. Seeing if I bolted or attacked her like the animal she thought I was. Maybe she was right. That's a cruel move, Holiday, to put your life on the line.

"I got in a fight with an EVO this morning, Holiday. It must have come from that," I shrugged dismissively averting my eyes to the white walls. I scowled feeling my claws slice into the mattress I was clenching to stop myself from lunging at Holiday.

"It would be so easy…" the shadow supplied with a laugh

"The samples we collected matched that of one of the EVOs we hold here," she knew already. It wasn't really a guess anymore as to who she expected. Who she thought was the killer.

"Maybe I got in a fight earlier with it—,"

"One that was killed last night by another unidentified EVO," she gave me a pointed look from across her clipboard that she brandished like a weapon. I saw the way her shoulders squared and her knees bent slightly preparing for an outcome that would surely be the end of our game. I didn't want it to end, not like this. So I forced myself to relax onto the gurney despite the darker parts of me screaming to rip her throat out.

"You could be out of the base before anyone even found her body," I knew it was right

"You already know that I wasn't at the base last night, Holiday," that was it I had won. What proof did she have? She was going to let me walk out of this room and off this base to never be seen again. She was going to go her separate way and eventually forget about the boy who could build machines and cure EVOs. She was going to create a worldwide cure for this global pandemic like I always knew she would. She was going revered like a hero. Turning the tide in this fiver year long war I wasn't a hero and I will never be.

"Alright, well I just wanted you to know that the EVO last night attacked Six. It tried to kill him. Almost did at one point. He was really worried that it might have gotten to you first so he spent all of last night looking through the security footage and then looking for you. Luckily no one else got seriously hurt in the fight," fuck. That was low blow Holiday even for you. You can't go cheating at this game. Besides the one who controls the rules is a lot less kind than I that's for certain. You couldn't leave well enough alone, Holiday.

I was already leaping from the bed and getting way to close for comfort to Holiday by the time she ripped the needle from her pocket and held it to my neck. Several growth spurts and result of fighting EVOs for a living had already put me about a head taller than her even with her heels. Intimidate was a dated tactic but it worked all the same. Her very being trembled and the smell of fear filled the air that had the beast cackling with excitement.

"What are you trying to say, Holiday?" I snarled down at her while she tried to recover the fragments of her brave façade. The needle at my neck quivered slightly even then I knew she lacked the conviction to do it. I begged her to. I begged her to jam that needle into my neck so I wouldn't have to experience the pain once again that accompanied the rise of the moon. If she didn't she was essentially playing Russian roulette with everyone's lives. The question hung over my head like a guillotine: would this be the night that I kill them all? They had been lucky the first night but it was all going to run out eventually. No part of me doubted the shadow's conviction of making its promise of bloodshed a reality.

"Holiday what is the status of Rex?" White's ever scathing voice emerged from the intercoms around us breaking us from our standoff. I backed off slightly as Holiday gently placed the needle back on to her lab table with shaking hands. We didn't take into consideration another player entering into out game. Still I wondered if her temporary victory was worth the price of seeing what I had become.

"Rex's biometrics are stable and any previous wounds he received have all miraculously healed. In all he has a clean bill of health though I can't clear him for active duty at the time being," she stated flatly as I took to staring at the pristine white walls again. My scowl deepened at her statement knowing full well what she was planning to do. It looked like Holiday was willing to gamble with the false presumptions that she knew what she was getting into and most importantly thinking that she could restrain me. I hope whatever she had in mind was a hell of a lot better than strapping me to a metal gurney.

"Holiday, I know you are Rex's designated physician but you have to realize that we are fighting a global epidemic at the moment. We need Rex to essentially be running 24/7 and unless he has something seriously ailing him that prevents him from curing EVOs then he will continue to fight," this time White choose to grace us with his presence as his disgruntled face appeared on an ordinary monitor that descended from the ceiling. Another reason I hate the color white. He was practically bathed in the loathsome color. Staring at him too long I'm sure the color would be burned into your corneas. Bland with no really personality. Just because he was bleached by color didn't me he have to subject the rest of Providence to his preferences.

"He would look so much better bathed in blood…,"

"Sir, with all due respect I doubt Rex's mental state will allow him to cure EVOs effectively at this point. We wouldn't want to put him in the field prematurely and risk Providence's most important asset and—,"

"Enough doctor! I know you tend to let your emotions for this boy cloud your judgment but it would be best if you remember to put things into perspective. Rex is a weapon of Providence and must be utilized as such to combat a multitude of threats. If he can fight then he will fight. At the moment we have an EVO threat level two attacking Downtown Sacramento as we speak," the screen flicked to a grainy footage of a large creature slamming into cars and roaring at screaming pedestrians before snapping back to White, "I expect Six and Rex to be intercepting the EVO in less than an hour. See to it that Rex is ready for combat," with that gruff dismissal the screen went black. Considerate as ever that fucker.

She stood their hands clenched around her clipboard until her knuckles had turned bone white. She made no move to stop me as I picked up personal effects knowing that our little game of normalcy already had a clear victor. The knowledge that this might in fact be our last meeting weighed heavily on my mind like a burden. Holiday was no god. She was only an ordinary women that somehow got heavily tangled in the lives of several unfortunate individuals. I shouldn't has expected her to have the answers to all my problems. After all she had her own to deal with. With one last glance over my shoulder to engrain as much of her as I could into my memory I stepped towards the door.

"Rex," her voice was only a hushed whisper over all the machines buzzing within the room. She had turned to face me but only slightly. Glancing from the corner of her eye so as to not face the beast head on. Still I stopped to turn to her wishing that none of this sounded like a goodbye, that somehow I could escape these circumstances that had brought me here. A fool's wish at best.

"Yeah, Holiday?" trying to bring back as much of the old Rex I could muster so her last memory of me wouldn't be this monster in sheep's clothing.

"Please, just be careful. Please," I could promise her nothing. I couldn't even promise her safety and she deserved that much. What she was asking was something I could not give. Reassurance that everyone would come home in one piece and I among them. She was sending her children off to war to face a threat she knew dwelled within their own ranks and she was staring right at it. So instead of gracing her with every bitter sweet lie she wished I turned tail and fled from her expectations. If I couldn't be strong for my own sake then I would do it for Holiday. I only prayed that this monster had some semblance of pity.

So what's your favorite chapter so far? What's your least favorite?