Chapter Text
"-starting to wake up! Double time!"
Rex's eyes were scalded by white light as he squinted them open. He inhaled sharply and felt something catch around his chest. It felt like... it felt like...
His eyes flew open and his limbs locked with tension.
He was tied down.
His breathing hitched and began to come in quick, sharp bursts. His head spun as he tried to take in his surroundings. White walls and lights flashed past and there were agents all around him. Their blank, masked faces watched him coldly as they raced forward. Rex didn't recognize anyone. Cold sweat began to dampen his skin and he felt unbidden tears fill his eyes.
Where was agent Six? He said he wouldn't let this happen. He said he was going to protect him!
He opened his mouth to demand some answers, but felt the words freeze in his throat. Something else was clawing its way out of him. Something cold and crushing and suffocating.
His head slammed back against the metal surface he was lying on. As he struggled for breath, he felt his torso split open. His ribs wrenched apart and his muscle fibers stretched and ripped. He couldn't hear his own scream through the ringing in his ears or the pounding in his head.
Through his squinted eyes, he saw a writhing mass of metal tendrils flailing through the air, streaked in his own blood. The torn flaps of skin on his chest instantly began to close, knitting together with a painful itching sensation. But before they could fully heal, a fresh wave of metal burst out.
Rex's back arched as his body tore at the restraints. A fresh wave of blood soaked down his sides before the wounds began to close again. He could feel the metal crawling through his lungs and up his throat. Tears were flooding down his face now, mingling with the sweat in a stinging flood.
The voices around him were rising, but he couldn't understand them anymore.
"-inside now!"
"-becoming too unstable-"
"-level 5 if we don't-"
"-clear the room! I need to-"
Rex coughed and choked on the expanding metal. It was crushing him, ripping his lungs and throat apart. Every breath seemed to tear his body apart, but he couldn't stop gasping for air.
He wanted it to stop! He just wanted it all to stop!
A cool hand touched his forehead. Rex jumped at the contact, startled out of his panic for just a moment. A figure was leaning over him, silhouetted by the bright lights.
Rex blinked desperately, trying to clear his tears away so he could see who it was. But a moment later, the figure spoke. And Rex knew that voice by heart now.
"Rex, can you hear me? You've absorbed too many nanites and they're out of control. But everything it going to be okay. You're going to be okay. Do you understand?"
It was agent Six. He was here with Rex. He hadn't abandoned him!
Rex's whole body shuddered with sobs of pain and terror. But now that his guardian was here, some of the tears were from relief too. Six had promised that he would be alright. And Agent Six didn't lie to him.
Rex locked eyes with him, trying to let him know that he could hear him. He coughed and shook with the effort .A bitter, metallic taste flooded his mouth, making him gag against the intrusive growth. But nothing came from his rebellious stomach. He just heaved fruitlessly, bound to the table and suffocating under his own traitorous nanites.
Agent Six's fingers moved to Rex's hair, sifting through it firmly.
"Rex I... I have to leave now. It will just be for a few minutes, I promise."
Rex's eyes widened desperately and he shook his head.
"I'm going to be right outside this door. Doctor Holiday needs to offload some of your nanites and then I'll be back."
His hand withdrew and he stepped away. Rex watched him go, hysteria rising as a fresh wave of metal ripped through him. Through his constricted lungs and torn throat he wheezed,
"Ssssssiiix..."
The agent froze.
"Sssiiiiiiiiiiix...." Rex pleaded.
The man looked back at him, emotion cracking through his stoic mask. He stepped back to Rex's side and leaned over him until their foreheads were touching. His hands brushed through Rex's hair and he whispered,
'I'll be right back. I swear I'll be right back."
And his calm, even voice trembled in a way Rex had never heard before.
The next moment he was gone.
A new voice echoed through the room now.
"Initiating nanite offloading process."
From all around the walls, a brilliant, searing light began to grow. Rex squeezed his eyes shut, but could still see the hot red glow behind his eyelids. A tinny ringing filled the room, resonating through his ears and into his blood and bones.
The sound and light and searing, searing pain of his body grew and grew. Everything was too much! It hurt and burned and overwhelmed.
It was a mercy when Rex lost consciousness and didn't have to feel it any more.