"You don't seem to care that the kid is gone."
Rex's absence left his chimp sidekick with a lot of free time on his hands. Whereas before he would waste his days goofing around with the teenager, he now spent his lonely hours making himself a bit of a nuisance in Caesar's lab. The elder Salazar had welcomed him when he first began appearing in his workspace, feeling pity for his brother's animal companion. When he discovered just how talkative Bobo could be, he immediately regretted giving him the permission to stay. Caesar could usually get away with ignoring him until the chimp grew bored enough to leave on his own, but this time, he was being really offensive.
"Oh really?" He hummed, trying not to let annoyance leak into his tone. "Where did you hear that? Rumors from the Providence soldiers you gamble with?"
"No." A pause. "Yeah, maybe."
Caesar gave a genuine chuckle, never once looking up from one of the trackers he was disassembling. He thought that would be the end of the topic, but Bobo pressed the subject further, "You didn't answer the question."
"You never asked one."
"Shouldn't you be more worried about Rex? What if he doesn't come back?"
"You and Rex have watched too many soap operas." His lips twisted into a bland, hollow smile. "What should I do to show my grief the 'right way?' What would stop the idle gossip? Should I despair to the point I can no longer function?"
"Didn't say you needed to. Breaking down is one thing. You could at least look a little torn up about it."
"Of course I am upset, there should be no question about that. He is my brother."
"And he's my best friend. When he went missing, you couldn't even pull a frown."
"I did not think I had to prove that I care about my own brother." He said dryly. "Especially not to his pet monkey."
He would not grieve over his brother as though he were already dead.
"Chimp."
"At the moment, the only thing you are to me is… annoying."
Whatever else the animal might have said, Caesar tuned out, turning his attention back to the tracker he was tuning up. He wanted the device to be in top shape on the off chance that it would register Rex's location, wherever it was he reappeared. Too absorbed in his work, he nearly missed an observation Bobo voiced about the state of his lab.
"... like shit. Didja blow somethin' up?"
"Pardon?" He blinked a few times, not following Bobo's train of thought. He would never trigger an unreasonable explosion.
"The wall. Looks like shit." He repeated.
Bobo was right. When Caesar followed the direction of his gaze, he realized he'd overlooked tiny, weblike fractures defacing the surface of the wall. The cracks were thin, but the damage was extensive, trailing upward toward the ceiling. A careless janitor? A clumsy lab technician?
"No, that was not me." He said, losing interest in favor of returning to his work. "I'm sure someone will come along to repair it. It is only the wall."
Bobo slid off of his stool, grunting in annoyance. "Yeah, hopefully. Knowing you, you'd probably just leave it."
The chimp left the room. Caesar thought he would feel the relief of silence, and he waited to be at ease again. Bobo's presence filled him with agitation. Tuning up his equipment was difficult when he had to drown out the mindless chatter in the background. But when he was left in complete silence, the ease never returned. His situation did not look good, and Bobo did not improve matters, but at least he provided background noise as a distraction.
He understood where Agent Six and Doctor Holiday were coming from. Worrying about his brother for sentimental reasons was one thing, but Caesar's concern went beyond them all. He was thinking about the Meta-Nanites. He and his parents had always intended for Rex to use them at their full power. With him gone, Caesar didn't have the privilege of slowing down to process his own feelings. Eyes flickering back toward the fractures in the wall, he sighed and propped his chin up on his palm.
"Computer, connect me to White Knight." He called to the empty room. The robot dialed White's office. The breaks in the wall weren't urgent, but now that they'd been pointed out to him, they nagged in the corner of his mind.
One of the communication monitors emitted a sound, signalling that White Knight had answered him. Without glancing up away from the wall, Caesar made his request, "I think one of the lab technicians cracked the wall. I wanted to let you know, just in case you wanted to send someone to fix it. If not, that is fine too."
Whether or not it actually got fixed didn't matter. It was a courtesy. The workspace was given to him by Providence, but he didn't own it. Maintenance was decided by them.
He turned his head toward the monitor when White Knight did not reply. Instead, he was gazing down at Caesar with unconcealed disdain. What stood out to Caesar the most however was the unnatural glow of his eyes. They glimmered a brilliant gold, signifying nothing good.
Caesar swallowed thickly.
"Oh White… You are unwell."
Six inhaled.
Sand-filled targets stared back at him, shredded beyond recognition by his blades. While his mind was away in far places, his aim remained impeccable. Finished with the practice dummies, he slid his weapons back into their sheaths and began picking up after himself, considerate of the fact that he wasn't the only one who used the training room. He hauled one of the targets up into his arms, a replica of a humanoid evo the size of an adult male. After successfully moving it into one of the disposal bins, he took the other and dragged it into the heap as well. A loud thump managed to make him flinch. His head whipped to the side, and he realized that it had only been the door. He was met with the sight of Holiday's amused, but exhausted expression.
"Jumpy?" She inquired.
"No." He denied. It wasn't a lie, he just hadn't expected her. "You look tired."
"I can't get anything done." She confessed. He knew how she felt. Work hadn't been easy after they had lost a vital member of their team, and the future looked uncertain without him.
"Want to grab a coffee?" Holiday offered with a weak smile. There was no harm in joining her. It wasn't as though he was being productive anyway. Standing from his hunched position, he followed her lead out into the hall.
"It's freezing in here," She muttered without being prompted, rubbing her hands together for friction. "My room and the lab were both so cold this morning. The central heating might be going out."
Like her, Six had taken notice of the drop in temperature too. Unlike her, he was unfazed, having endured harsher conditions.
"That's just perfect, isn't it?" She continued, more frustrated with each word. "It feels like everything that could have gone wrong finally came crashing down on us. I mean, has anything gone right lately?"
"Things break. It's only the heating." Six stated mildly, sticking to the surface level issue in an attempt to keep her from becoming too upset. "They'll call in the repairmen."
"Six, you know that's not what I mean…"
"It can be fixed."
"How?"
Six made it into the elevator, but he wasn't given the opportunity to respond. Abruptly, the doors slammed shut with enough force to take an arm off, trapping him inside and separating him from Holiday.
"What the-" Holiday attempted to pry open the doors with her hands but they would not budge under fingers.
Six attempted to help, pushing at the doors to no avail.
"Hang tight, Six. I'll call someone to get the doors open…"
He waited, but Holiday never did return with help.
When the lights flickered out, leaving Six in complete darkness, he began to suspect that Providence was experiencing something more than mere maintenance issues. Right as the wariness crept into his system, the shriek of metal pierced the air. The elevator car slipped. Six could feel the box quake, nearly thrown off balance by the force of its shaking. Throwing a hand out, he caught himself on the wall, his eyes straining to find an escape in pitch darkness.
The car jerked to a halt, jostling him once more.
Faintly, he could make out the outline of the elevator's emergency exit overhead, far out of his reach. He knew that if he leapt for it, the elevator would go plummeting into Providence's basement. If he did nothing, he would most assuredly suffer the same fate.
Steeling himself both mentally and physically for the impromptu gymnastics he was going to perform, he inhaled once and held his breath. Missing the hatch was a mistake he could not afford. Without hesitation, he leapt for the handle, his fingers locking around it like a vice. The elevator car trembled precariously in warning. Cautiously, he slowed his movements in response, taking care to gently slide the door open before pulling himself through the hatch.
It took immense effort to support his own weight without further disturbing the elevator. He scaled the cable holding him up, working his way back toward Providence's upper floors. Metal scraped against the walls, indicating that the elevator had finally fallen behind him. The box clanged and crashed until it hit the ground with a deafening slam. Six could feel his bones rattle from the force of the vibrations.
He had to find Holiday.
Grunting, he continued his ascent. The cable rubbed against his palms unpleasantly, not unlike rope burn. It was only mildly uncomfortable though, his palms were rough and protected by the calluses that had formed on them from years of swordsmanship. When he got to the opening of the second floor, he swung himself back and forth, gaining momentum before leaping through the entrance. Landing smoothly, he surveyed the area in silence. The lights weren't working there either, but Six was able to see better than he could when he had been in the elevator. Stealthily, he crept through the building, making his way toward the stairs. It was cold, and it only grew colder as he walked down to the first floor.
When he got to the bottom of the staircase, he found himself right back where he started. He was still on the upper levels of Providence, as if the staircase had only brought him back up.
His eyes narrowed.
"Six!"
The agent turned around when his name was called. It was Rex's loyal pet monkey. Bobo froze when he met face to face with the pointed edge of Six's blade.
"Hey, hey. Watch where you're aimin' that! I'm already missing an eye."
Six didn't lower his guard.
"Prove that you're who you say you are."
Unsure of how he was supposed to do that, Bobo floundered for an answer. "I don't exactly go around carrying an ID."
"I want proof."
Bobo grunted in annoyance. "When Rex was smaller, he liked to steal your suits. Once, he spilled some coke on one of your jackets and tried to wash it out before you noticed. He ain't the brightest though and threw it in the laundry with his own clothes. That's why it came out pink."
Six lowered his sword. "We need to find Holiday and White Knight and get them to safety. If White Knight's office is breached, there's no telling what will happen.
"Sounds easier said than done."
"What do you mean?"
"It's been quiet without the kid around. He grew on me yanno? So I've been spendin' some time in the lab with his brother. It isn't the same at all, and I can't stand the rat for long periods of time. He pisses me off and I just can't stand looking at him-"
"The point. Get to it." Six interrupted.
"Yeah yeah. Keep your pants on." Bobo hushed him. "So he pissed me off and I got up to leave, only the hallway was bigger than I remembered it. Dunno how, but the layout of the base keeps changing, leading me around in literal circles."
"We need to find a way out of here and evacuate as many people as we can." Six told him. If the halls were trapping them then they'd have to take another route. He began making his way toward the elevators again. Hopefully it would effectively get them out of the maze Bobo claimed he'd been stumbling through. The chimp took a single look into the dark, unnerved by the depth. How long would it take to reach the bottom? It was a narrow channel. They would effectively be cornered.
"I don't like this."
Six ignored him and jumped, latching onto the control cable. He began his descent without checking if the chimp was following behind. Given the fact that Bobo was a primate, it should have been far easier for him to climb down. He felt the trembling of the cable when he was eventually joined on the way down, where the first floor's exit was blocked by the elevator car that had fallen.
"Shoot it through." He ordered Bobo, who grinned enthusiastically and raised his blaster. In a plume of dust, the wall came crumbling down.
"Where are we going?" Bobo huffed as he exited the elevator shaft. "White Knight's office isn't this way."
"We're going to find Holiday first."
The halls were empty. Whether that was a positive sign or not, Six was left uncertain about his co-workers' whereabouts. If someone was using their base of operations to play mind games with them, they wouldn't have let everyone leave so easily. It couldn't be that everyone had vacated the premises. They still had to be somewhere in the building.
They halted at the doors to the laboratory. Before either of them could so much as lift a hand to push them open, the doors did so of their own accord.
"I don't like this." Bobo said for the second time.
Unlike the rest of the building, the room was not engulfed in darkness. One of the monitors pitched a dim glow over the lab, broadcasting static rather than the face of his boss. Aware that he was walking into a trap, Six stepped in and drew his sword.
Inside, Caesar was facing away from them at his workstation. His slumped posture indicated he was most likely unconscious, but when Six took a step toward him, he jerked upright and angled his entire body toward him. His head continued to loll slightly forward.
"Six!" He smiled in greeting. He didn't seem to be grinning because he wanted to. The glee on his face was uncharacteristically frenzied for the composed man. At first, Six attributed the brightness of his eyes to the computer. After examining him longer, he realized that the unearthly glow came from his eyes.
Six held a hand up to stop Bobo from inching closer. "That's not Caesar. Look at his eyes."
Bobo examined that man too, tensing when he realized what Six meant. "Forget the fucking eyes. I'm not a fan of the slasher smile."
"Who are you? What exactly is it you're after?" Six demanded of whatever entity had Caesar in its grips.
"Am I not human enough?" Caesar stood up, placing all of his weight into his palms pressed flatly against the table.
"What?"
"Am I human enough now?" He repeated. "You said that I lost my humanity."
Realization dawned on him. Six's eyes darted to a cable sticking out of the scientist's neck, disappearing down into the man's shirt. The private meeting they all had with White Knight was brought to the forefront of his mind, but that accusation was not Caesar's. It sounded like White's misunderstanding, how he had twisted Six's words. Though he had never claimed that White lacked humanity, there was no humanity in this, nothing human about him now.