doc_holi | Musebox #1 [CLOSED]

Entry tags:

musebox

Musebox #1 [CLOSED]

Who: Holiday and Six
What: being awkward/horrible/flirty/omg
When: Right after "Six Minus Six"
Where: Providence HQ
Warnings: Spoilers for "Six Minus Six" and MAYBE "Lions And Lambs"

Holiday walked back into the tower after the LONGEST couple of days she ever had. Okay, not the longest, but it was far too close for comfort.

She set the chart she had carried in with her down on the desk, already turning her attention to the computer screen. So, Caesar's invention hadn't worked... twice. It was good that her sister was cured, because Six had just become her new project. She had to get the other Six back. This one was driving her nuts... even if he could be sweet... when he wanted to be.

She sighed, staring at the computer, but not sitting down. At least, he wasn't physically hurt... That was a good plus.

Didn't mean that she couldn't worry...

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~~You can never over-think Six.~~

Still, Holiday gave him a blank look. He had apparently put together something she hadn't and she still wasn't seeing it.

"Okay..." Now, she's distracted trying to figure out whatever he found out...

...

She gave up pretty quick. Instead, she shrugged. "Well, at least I managed to help out in some way."

Six put his face in his hands again as he tried to reason out everything he'd already learned, trying to look at it through the lens of not just what was there but what wasn't there.

"It's like the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime," he said, thinking out loud.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of dogs that didn't bark, things he might've expected the other Six to say or do that he hadn't.

She stopped typing again. Now, he's just talking weird.

"Dog in the nighttime?"

Maybe... she should just leave or something. Let him think in silence.

"Huh? Oh. Sherlock Holmes. The one with the horse. 'Silver Blaze', I think." He thought for a moment before dismissing it. He could look it up later. "There was a guard dog that didn't bark. Holmes saw that as a clue to help unravel what had happened.

"That other me didn't say a lot, but maybe that's part of it. Maybe there were things he didn't have to say."

She... finally looked back at him with a smile.

"Well, you're right in that respect. You never said a lot and you certainly never outwardly said what you wanted or actually meant. Your actions meant a lot more than your words..."

There was a lot that the other Six thought he didn't have to say and... really, he didn't. But... it would've been nice every now and then, and she knew that Rex would agree.

"So how did you ever figure out what he wanted or didn't want?" Six asked. "I assume context was part of it, but with the more ambiguous gestures that could've meant anything, how could you be sure?"

There had to be some trick to it. He might never understand the why, but if he could just duplicate the how...

She almost gives a sarcastic snort to that, closing her eyes. "We never really did know what he wanted," she told him, going back to the computer.

And she was right. There were things that she did know about Six. She knew he managed White Knight, but mostly trusted the man's judgement. She knew he cared for Rex and that he would've never hurt him, even if the boy would some day turn again. She knew he cared for her to some extent.

But what Six wanted? If he ever wanted anything, he sure didn't let anyone know about it. He worked, lived, and breathed for Providence... and Rex. That was about it.

Six stared at the woman, trying to wrap his head around that.

"He never asked for anything? At all?" the mercenary asked.

Everyone had something they wanted: wealth, fame, sex. Surely his other self had had those motivators for his own. He knew that he had them.

But if that other Six wasn't trying to obtain any of that, what drove him to be that man?

Holiday shrugged in answer to that.

"When I first met him- you-... You weren't anything like you are now when I had first met you. Other than the fact that you were for a cure to this EVO business, you were cold hearted, stoic, an 'orders are orders' kind of guy... Actually, I can't even count how many times that phrase came out of your mouth. Most of the soldiers had placed bets on whether or not you were robot and I was considering it, too, for a while."

"But...," and there's always a 'but'. She decided to look to him this time. "There's just... little things that proved you were more than that. In the end, you still did what you believed was right, but... I never really seen the result work out in your favor..."

And she quickly looks away again, remembering how just a little while ago, he had almost killed himself for her sister, a hopeless person whom he had never met, because of her connection with Beverly. No, that hadn't been for him.

Six listened intently, hoping to understand and failing miserably. He stood mutely for a moment before asking quietly, "What did he do?"

A list. She has it.

"Well, there was this one time where an EVO started infecting everyone in New York City. White decided it was best if we just bleached or nuked the whole city, just wiping it out. Rex eventually found a solution and you took the risk to let Rex finish the job. It worked, but with only a few seconds to spare. White was... less than happy, then.

"And there's another time when... a lot of... things happened and Rex needed to leave HQ. Clear his head. I couldn't and you didn't either. Even though White wanted him back, we still stalled as much as possible until Rex came back willingly. Again, he was less than happy."

Holiday sighed, "That's only two examples, though. You did a lot of things like that for me and Rex, but you were lucky if you got nothing out of the deal. Usually, you were putting yourself on the line."

Looking at the Six standing by her right now... she would never think that was the same man. It really was curious why he did the things he did and even more so, how he became that person.

Six listened to her list, finding himself more and more depressed with each word.

That wasn't him. It couldn't be him. Not any version of him could be that selfless for someone who wasn't One.

The most dangerous man on Earth had earned Six's undying loyalty and devotion after all he'd done for him. He knew he'd be in debt to One for the rest of eternity, not that he minded.

But these people...what had they done for him? What had they done that prompted that other Six to feel the need to put himself on the line for their sakes? What had he gotten out of the situation that he felt the need to pay back so much?

Or...or did that other Six do it simply because they were them?

Six stared at the floor and, ultimately, at his neatly polished dress shoes. This was wrong. All wrong. He should be wearing combat boots, body armor, not a suit and tie. His skin crawled at the thought that he was contaminating the other man's memory simply by wearing his clothes. He was a cheap imitation trying to pass himself off as the real deal.

Holiday looked away from the computer that she wasn't even really seeing, to look back at Six who had gone pretty quiet. He knew it as much as she did. The man she had just described wasn't him. Again, she felt awful for backing him up to be something that he wasn't. Yes, he wanted to be him, but he just... he wasn't. Not anymore.

She closed her eyes tight, facing the computer again. After a deep, quiet breath, she started working again in silence, face as neutral as she could keep it. A page from the other Six's book.

He felt cold and strangely alone despite the knowledge that there were currently a few hundred people on base with him. So this was what Alice had felt when she'd fallen down the rabbit hole: confused, lost, even--dare he think it?--scared. Even the people he knew were different as if someone had replaced them with imitators.

He glanced at his reflection in the window again. No, that wasn't right. He was the imitator. He was the actor who'd found himself stuck in the middle of a play after receiving the wrong script and had to be fed his lines, delivering a pitiful performance to the scorn of not just the audience but his fellow actors.

He started to shake, mind setting into a panic as he desperately tried to pull something from his memories. Something, anything from between six years ago and a few days ago. Every attempt brought nothing new.

And why couldn't he reach One? The man always knew what to do when things went catastrophically wrong. He needed his mentor's advice now more than ever, and he was only met with silence.

She glanced to him again. Even though she knew him very well, even a blind man could see the how uncomfortable and... scared he was.

After a second, she hazard to place a hand on his upper arm. She'll speak after she sees what his knee jerk reaction would be. She'll likely be pressed against the floor with a sword to her throat, but at least she knew the open risk.

Sadly, her prediction turned out to be awfully close to the truth.

He grabbed onto her wrist tightly and flung her against the window. Both blades were out, one at her throat and the other at her stomach, before he even realized what he was doing.

He stared at her, face intense and threatening before it melted into pure horror. His swords dropped to the ground as if they were on fire, and he backed away.

"I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it," he whispered, babbling.

Well, at least she wasn't surprised. She did make a grunt when she hit the glass, but she still remained calm... until he started freaking out.

His old self would've given her a crappy apology and just left, but this one was... close to freaking out. That, she hadn't expected.

"No," she said quickly, moving closer to him. Okay, yeah, the back of her head hurt a little, but she could take that. She couldn't take seeing him like this. "It's alright, Six. I figured you would react that way. It's okay. I did it on purpose."

That's right, Six. Her fault. Not yours.

His other self wouldn't have hurt her. He just knew it. After all, the man had done so much for her and Rex. Oh God, he'd choked the kid when he'd first come to. It hadn't registered until just that second.

He looked at his reflection again. Wrong, wrong, wrong. He was all wrong. The only thing right were the sunglasses and even they seemed off somehow.

Alright, let's try again. Holiday closed a lot of the distance between the two of them, reaching her hands for him a little bit instead of actually touching him this time.

She tried to talk with as much stern in her voice that she could muster right now. "Six. Look at me. Please. Look at me."

His heart pounded in his ears. They'd lost the better man and got such a shoddy replacement. He couldn't do this. He couldn't.

But he couldn't just quit. He had to try for their sakes. He owed them that much. A poor copy he might've been, but at least he could give them some illusion that they hadn't lost the other Six. At least until he shoved his foot in his mouth again.

"Maybe Salazar should try again," Six said, still focusing on his reflection.

"No, Six," and this time it was stern. "Look at me."

She needed to get this across to him. Six years was a long time for someone to just lose. She knew he couldn't do this and she wasn't going to make him.

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to be calm. His face closed off. Control...for the love of God, control...

"I'm sorry, Doctor. You were saying something?"

She breathed out, closing her eyes at his reply, then slowly opened them again, her look a good bit softer now.

"Six. I know you want to be him. I can see that much. But..." This was going to hurt her probably a lot more than it was going to hurt him. "You're just... not him. And whether you are or not, I still care for you and I don't want you to struggle trying to be someone that you aren't. So... It's alright. It's still your life and you shouldn't waste it trying to please people that you don't know."

Now, she desperately just wanted to leave... but she couldn't just leave him there... Not right now. At least, not yet. She had to reach him about this.

He tried to stay firm but only ended up slumping a bit.

"He sounds like he was something else. I want to give him back to you and Rex. I know you two were important to him. If I have to take over his life, I want to do it right."

"But you don't have to take over his life. Yes, I want him back and, yes, I want you to stick around, but I don't want you to do something like this for us. Not again."

She slumped a bit, too, trying to read if she was getting through at all to him.

"I don't want you to feel trapped like this. I know that... the Six I knew is still in there, but, for now, I'd rather you just be you... whoever that is. And I'm sorry for trying to tell you otherwise. It was wrong."

It didn't seem wrong at the time. It seemed like she was just trying to help him. But the more she watched him, the more he was struggling, the more he was fumbling. She'd rather him be a hound than be scared.

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blue-ish green dear

I counter with a green-ish blue deer!

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