"...Doc?" Rex rubbed at his eyes and cringed at the goop that came away. Gross! He looked around the lab, which was darker than usual. "Gee, did White Knight forget to pay the power bill or something?"
He sat up and paused momentarily as the world went fuzzy around him. Blech. Not a great feeling, but he was clearly sick or something, otherwise he wouldn't be in the Doc's lab. "Holiday?" Rex asked again, hesitantly.
He stood up, leaning on the wall for support. His head throbbed and his legs felt like jelly. And his mouth tasted weird! That was probably the worst part of it. The doors to the lab opened and the bright light of the hallway streamed in. Rex covered his eyes and stumbled from losing the support of the wall.
His shoulder hit the wall. How had he even gotten here? He didn't remember getting sick. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor, groaning. A shadow blocked out the lights. "Doc? Six?"
Rex squinted at the figure until it got closer.
"Rex, what are you doing out of bed?" César. It was Rex's older brother, standing with his hands on his hips and head tilted as he looked down at his brother, lying on the floor in a puddle of sweat.
For his part, Rex shrugged. He couldn't remember ever feeling this sick before, but considering that his memories didn't go that far, that wasn't saying much. "Where…where is everyone?"
"Oh, Rex, mijo, don't you remember?" César laughed and shook his head like Rex was still a little kid. Suddenly, his face hardened and he stared at Rex with a gaze that was fiery enough to make him uncomfortable. "They're not here. They don't care about you. Not anymore. Not like I do."
"Wha–?" Rex watched as César's face turned into a blurry mess, and his vision faded to black.
When he woke up for the second time, the lights in Holiday's lab were on. Rex scrambled, looking around him. A bad dream? César turned around from the chair, "Ah! You're awake. Good. Stick out your tongue."
Rex did what he was told, mostly out of confusion for whatever was going on. César popped a thermometer in Rex's mouth and closed it, preventing Rex from asking any questions as they waited for a beep to indicate that it was done.
"Well, your fever has gone down a little bit, but it's still not great…Holiday's records indicate that you normally run about half a degree above average human body temperature…that's in Celsius, of course, not Fahrenheit, so it would be different if the thermometer was in Fahrenheit, okay?"
"Um, okay?" Rex said, staring at César. "Hey, um, you don't remember seeing me here last night, by any chance, do you?"
"Well, I said goodnight to you, but not after that." César tilted his head and looked at Rex. "Why? Did someone wake you up?"
"Er…no. It was a dream." Rex forced out a laugh.
"Okay then." César went back to typing something up at Holiday's desk, which led to Rex's next question. One that he wasn't quite sure he wanted the answer to.
"So, um, where's Dr. Holiday?"
"Business trip. Something about the molecular composition of nanites, which is strange considering that I know a significant amount about the subject. Or maybe about the history of the subject. Reading papers written on your own inventions is fascinating, Rex. You should really try it some time."
"Er…yeah, I will. If I ever get the chance." Okay, just César being César. Slightly…off, but that was regular César behavior. Rex wondered if he'd always been like that, or if it was a symptom of being sent forward in time.
Rex's head hurt. He blinked. "Where's Six?"
"I'm not sure, actually. Don't worry about it." César answered, not turning away from his computer. And then he did not elaborate any further, which frustratingly enough, was also regular César behavior.
"So what am I supposed to do all day? I can't go beating down on some freaky EVOs with a fever, can I? What about my nanites? Are they sick, too?"
"They're machines, Rex. They don't get sick." César paused and then grinned, "Unless you count viruses."
Rex rolled his eyes at the corny joke. "So is this like a sick day or something? I just hang out here until I start feeling better?"
"Something like that." César said. Then, he turned the computer off and patted Rex on the shoulder. "Get some rest, mijo, I'm sure you'll be feeling better soon."
Rex grumbled a little, but he made himself as comfortable as he could on what appeared to be the worst improvised bed in all of Providence. And he should know. A single blanket and pillow appeared on the exam table. On the bright side, Rex had also spent enough time in Holiday's lab to know how to get El Amor De La Pasión El Amor on the screens.
Perfect time to catch up, and then he could go figure out if anything was weird. But before he knew it, Rex was drifting to sleep to the sound of Carmen slapping a minor character for a perceived insult.
Once again, he woke up in the darkened lab. Okay, nothing weird. César probably turned off the lights or something. Again, Rex had to rub goop away from his eyes, which made him gag just a little bit. He knew that he should probably go back to sleep, but something was bothering him.
He knew that he had gaps in his memory from before, but he'd never had any where he'd lost only a day or two and remembered everything before it. Well, not that he could remember. Hah.
"That's…weird." Rex said as he stepped off the table. His foot was all metal, but not in the way it was when he built his machines. It was just like his foot, but metal. He focused, and it turned back to normal. Weird EVO-style sickness. He grabbed a cloth, put some cold water on it and held it to his head as he went to wander the halls.
He was also accustomed to not being heard. How else would he sneak out to do normal teen things? He walked around, not quite sure where he was going. For some reason, his room felt off-limits.
"You promised that he wouldn't find out." An unfamiliar female voice said. The lady was frustrated, clearly, and Rex stopped in his tracks. Either this was some seriously telenovela-worthy drama between the soldiers of Providence, or…maybe there was an answer for what had happened last night.
"He won't." César stated. "He seemed normal today, aside from the illness symptoms displayed earlier, but we can correct those."
"And the difference in obedience?" The unfamiliar woman said. Rex peeked in, holding his breath. Her hair was dark, and short. She wore a lot of black, enough that if they were fighting, he might make a goth quip.
"Seems to be working, albeit less so than in other subjects." César answered. "He's still, well, Rex, for lack of a better term, but he'll take orders. The memory wipe has been working fine as well."
Orders? Memory wipe? Rex's world seemed to spin at his feet, but he couldn't tell if that was a part of the sickness he'd been feeling before or the rage bubbling up under him as he listened to César, his own brother, betraying him to a stranger.
"And any thoughts about the change in leadership? Or the firing of a certain pair of my employees?"
Fired? Holiday and Six had been fired? Rex held in a gasp, and then the urge to go in and start roughing people up. Whatever this new boss-lady was doing, Rex was sure he didn't want any part of it, especially not if it involved memory wipes and firing some of the only people Rex considered family.
"He's asked, but I thought it better to delay the conversation until he's ready. Or until the orders work a little more seamlessly. The first time, well, the initial memory wipe covered that. And I'm not entirely certain that it's unrelated to his current sickness…" César said, trailing off pensively. Rex heard the scratching of a pencil in a notebook.
"Hm. Well, see to it that he'll be ready to go in the next month. Providence needs your progress, César."
"What? Oh, yes, Black Knight." César said, and then he started to leave the room.
A more coordinated Rex would have been able to slink off into the shadows to hide that he'd been eavesdropping. Rex with a headache the size of a rabid bunny EVO and legs that were feeling less and less stable by the minute stumbled on the third step and drew the attention of both César and this Black Knight lady.
"Ah, Rex." César cringed, "I really wish you hadn't heard all that."
"All what?" Rex's words came out a bit slurred as he shouted, "The part where you stabbed me in the back, or the part where you lied to my face?"
"Now, Rex," Black Knight started, "Be reasonable. Providence needs someone with your abilities to participate. To be the leader in EVO defense around the world."
"And you didn't think to ask me about it? I've been curing EVOs for like, ever now!" Rex said. His head pounded.
"We did ask, mijo, but it didn't go very well." César said, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"So the next step was mind control?" Rex yelled, "You're my brother! You're supposed to help me! You're supposed to care about me, not want me to just…follow whatever orders this crazy lady wants you to. Is this even Providence? What's going on?"
"Listen, Rex, when we explained it the first time, like I said, things didn't go well…"
Black Knight played an image of Rex's giant metal fists crashing through a wall and a couple soldiers.
"César's methods are far more humane when employed on other EVOs. For some reason, your nanites seem to work a little differently." Black Knight explained. "But don't worry. I'm sure all of this will seem like a bad dream, soon."
"What?! You're gonna erase this, too?" Rex tried to form any of his builds, but the nanites fizzled out. The most weapon-like thing he could build ended up being a little lump of metal on his elbow. Rex looked at César, pleading to his brother. "Please, César. Don't do this! You're my brother."
"I'm sorry, Rex," César said, approaching and managing to easily evade the weak punches that Rex was able to throw at him. "We'll try to do better next time."
He stuck something on Rex's arm and Rex immediately felt the world closing in on him. With the last of his strength, he tried to throw another punch at César.
"Ugh, what happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck." Rex said when he woke up in the infirmary. His nose was all stuffed up, his head really, really hurt, and he was sweating so much, even though it felt like he was freezing cold. Thank goodness César was there. César always helped.
"Well, under microscopic analysis, the virus seems like a common cold. But for some reason, the nanites in your body are worsening the way your body fights it. I'd estimate that your fever might last a day or two…and you'll need a few boxes of tissues." César placed some by Rex's bed, where there was already a water bottle and some type of soup.
"Thanks, bro. You're the best."
"Don't worry about it, Rex." César patted him on the shoulder. "Get some rest, and maybe you'll feel better tomorrow. Let me know if you need anything."
Rex nodded and reached for the soup. For a second, he worried, like he was forgetting something. But it was probably nothing too important. Otherwise, why would he have forgotten?