Archive of Our Own ^beta

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A/N I like to headcanon the epsilons people are called "the graymen" Also I don't remember where I got the image for this but I was really proud of the cover when I posted this to Quotev years ago. 

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Zak could feel the airship land, he clung to Fisk's arm as Fisk led him to the ramp. The first thing he felt was the warmth of the sun on his skin, he could hear his parents shuffling behind him. "on your right," Drew gently touched Zaks's shoulder to let him know where she was. Zak being blind was a hard adjustment for all of them, it didn't help that the way he was blinded was so violent, even with the warning he still tensed at her touch and hoped she didn't notice. Drew feels her heart sink in her chest. She always notices and always feels guilty. Drew gives Doc a desperate look, as a mother all she wants to do is help her son, her baby is suffering and there's nothing she can do. Doc feels equally powerless.

"we're in the middle of the desert for a solar recharge and to do repairs," Doc explains "You can walk around if you want," 

Zak sighed as Fisk tried to lead him down the ramp. Zak's legs shook slightly, he wondered if it was visible, it felt visible. Since the injury, he's always felt anxious about exploring new areas. His mom had told him he'd learn to enjoy it again someday, that new sounds and smells are just as enjoyable as sights. Someday seemed like too many forever away to an impatient kid who still saw 15 minutes past bedtime as staying up late. He stopped the moment his foot felt sand letting go of Fisk and allowed himself to fall back, sitting on the edge of the ramp too scared to leave it. "I'm going to sit here, you can go explore. No reason we both have to be miserable," Fisk tries to argue but a look from his parents makes him stop. This is one of the few times Zak hasn't wanted to cling to his brother, in their eyes this was a sign he might be improving. They couldn't see the terror he felt at the idea of walking off and losing track of the ship. 

He traced the edges of the metal ramp feeling it slowly heat up from the sun. He could feel the sun reflecting off the metal because of how much hotter the air was getting around him. Sitting here was going to be uncomfortable, he was already regretting telling his brother to leave. He still looked around out of habit trying to see if he could see anything at all, his brain kept telling him he should be seeing something. This caused more hallucinations than he'd like to admit, at least that was the best word he had for them. He was afraid to zone out or get too lost in his thoughts because his mind would bring back memories and images so vividly that sometimes for a second he'd forget. Then it would hit him again, over and over like a train that at the age of 12 he will never see again. The worst part is without eyes he feels like he can't cry but he does, he cries often, tears would be falling down his face right now if he had them.  

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It didn't take long for Epsilon's computer system in his robotic transport to locate the Saturday family. It took even less time for him to close in on them. They were not informed that Zak was blind, only that he was none other than the all-powerful cryptid Kur wrapped up in a young, impressionable, weak-minded body. Epsilon can tell something is off immediately when he lands. The family was already acting more aggressively than usual.

He got out of his robotic transport taking care to move slowly and keep his hands where the family could see them. Even from here, it was clear they were all distressed and he didn’t want to set them off. His goal was to negotiate. He won’t take no for an answer but starting with that ideology considering the current situation seems unwise. 

"Epsilon's here, get Zak!" Doc orders Fisk. In the meantime, he and Drew prepared for a fight charging up their weapons. Epsilon knows he needs to react quickly to de-escalate the situation. “Take one step and I’ll break your perfect nose,” Doc said in an attempt to keep Epsilon's attention on him and off his son. 

Epsilon didn't get a good look at Zaks’s face as Fisk scooped him up. However, the panicked yelp from Zak does give some hints that something is wrong with the boy. By now Francis joined his father on the ground. “I assure you, we are not here to harm your family, I’ve come with a proposal.” More like an ultimatum but they didn't need to know that. 

“Fisk put me down! What’s happening?! Did you say….Epsilon?” Zak was unfamiliar with the voice, it wasn’t something he paid attention to. All the noise was disorienting, he couldn’t tell how many people there were now, were they surrounded? Was Francis there? Were they armed? He tried to listen but it was impossible to tell. Epsilons people moved in closer on their machines waiting for orders but making noise. Fisk pulled Zak closer to him and let out a low growl. It was tempting for Zak to connect with his brother and use him as a guide. That was how he had been getting around the airship. At the moment he doesn’t feel safe using his powers since he suspects Epsilon to have a similar motive to Beeman. The less Epsilon knows the better. 

“It’s okay baby, just stay with Fisk!” Drew called to her son in a warm motherly voice. Her voice becomes cold when she goes back to addressing Epsilon. “You don’t have anything we want.”

“Maybe not, but I think I can offer something Zak wants….I’m guessing there are no eyes under those bandages,” Epsilon spoke.

Doc looked stunned. Komodo and Fisk both move closer to Zak. Drew just looked angrier. “How did you-” Doc starts to ask only to be cut off by Francis.

“Please, you people aren’t the only ones watching Weird World, it was Auizotl wasn’t it?” Francis was allowed to watch popular media for research purposes only, and Weird World only because it was an interest of Zaks, and Zak was an interest of The Graymen. 

Epsilon felt his control of the situation slipping “Enough Francis” He also didn’t know what Francis was talking about, No one had reported anything strange from his TV show in months. Even so, whatever Francis was going on about seemed to have a sobering effect on the family leaving them vulnerable. He can read them like a book, blaming themselves. How many sleepless nights had they recently spent debating who was to blame for whatever hurt their son. “I’m a father myself, if Francis was in Zaks's place I’d stop at nothing to help him, I can offer Zak security and structure, we have resources you don’t, we can teach him brail and use his other senses. From one parent to another, I promise you can trust me. It'll be like the old days”

Francis and Zak both tensed at the lie, Zak’s been manipulated enough recently to see it even without eyes. Zak isn’t aware that Francis and Epsilon are clones but he is sure that Epsilon doesn’t care about Francis. 

Drew looks up at Doc, she has tears in her eyes. “No” he doesn’t let her speak “It's Epsilon, we don’t know what his plans are, there’s no way he actually wants to help”

“I know I just….my baby boy is hurting, Doc we have to do something!”

“Why not let Zak decide, I came here with the intent to Recruit him, train him alongside Francis to be able to defend himself, but after seeing the condition he is in, I believe I owe my old friends a favor” Epsilon continues to try and play the hero. 

Zak feels sick, he feels like everything is spinning so he holds onto Fisk to keep from falling. His parents can’t teach him the things he needs to learn, and the secret scientists even if they could give him his sight back are too busy trying to get rid of Kur. He decides this is a battle he wants to win, he won’t let his family be manipulated like this and he won’t let Epsilon get everything he wants. “I’ll go, but I have 3 conditions,” he says strictly

“Go on” 

“Leave my parents alone, take just me and Komodo”

His parents and Fisk start to protest “Zak please don’t do this,”

“No Mom, If you're going to get rid of Kur you can’t be with me worrying, you can’t protect me anymore, I need to know there’s someone I trust still out here,” Drew hugs him taking him from Fiskerton who whimpers. She understands but she doesn’t like it. “Find a way to stop Kur, please” he begs her. 

Doc takes his other hand “We understand, this won’t be forever, Beeman will get tired eventually and we’ll find Argost” Docs hatred of Argost was bad before but it's on a whole new level now, one that scared both Drew and Zak at times. 

“And the other two?” Epsilon already regrets asking. 

“I want my uncle Doyle to come along if you’re training me you have to train him too” If there’s anyone Zak trusts to help him escape from Epsilon if things get bad it's Doyle. He's not sure how long he'll stay with them but he is sure they won't give him a choice so planning his escape now seems like the best move. It was something Doyle had taught him, to look for exits before entering a new location or situation. 

“He’ll be an annoyance but fine,” 

Zak takes a breath and moves away from his family's embrace, standing on his own, making himself vulnerable “I want my eyes back, I know you have technology better than anywhere else, my powers don’t work without them, and….without my powers” he hugs himself “I’m scared” he confesses, his voice cracking and his shoulders shaking.

 According to Zaks's file while he can play tricks he isn’t supposed to be manipulative instead he is listed as easily manipulated as evidenced by Argost's near death-grip on the boy’s actions. Francis knows Zak is capable of manipulation and is sure he is trying to do something right now but unsure of Zaks’s plan. Does he really not have powers anymore? Then isn’t this a waste of time? He expects Epsilon to decline. Without powers Zak would be useless to them, Zak also does not seem to know he is kur. Or, he doesn't know that the Graymen know he's Kur. Francis isn't sure. 

“I agree to all the terms, but you have to agree to mine” 

“I’ll do anything!” Zak keeps the act up, well it isn't much of an act. He is desperate. 

“Even after you regain your sight, stay with us to train for at least a year” What he really means is, to stay with us indefinitely but he’s sure he only needs a year to make it so Zak believes staying is his idea.  

“Are you sure this is what you want Zak?” Doc asks from behind him. 

“Yes, it is. A year isn’t so long…..ok I'm in”

Francis is careful to make sure he doesn't scare Zak. He feels like he is looking at a stray cat. He voices his actions before he does them. "I'm going to assist you now, our robotic transports are round, and the top opens. there is an arm to your left you can grab" Once Zak is holding on to both Francis and the cabel-like arm Francis waits for him to stop shaking so much "I'm going to get in first so you do not step on any buttons" 

Epsilon and Doc are equally impressed watching. Francis was blind once, but he was never taught to assist someone like this. "as you can see my people will be able to provide Zak comfort and stability as well as help him adapt to his situation….in the meantime we will be working on a way to fix his eyes" 

Even though he got in willingly Zak is shaking. If they call his bluff it's all over, the only way he will get his sight back is if they believe he needs it to be useful to them. Zak thinks it might be years before he will have a chance to see again, he doesn't know how advanced the gray men really are, he doesn't know about the clones or most of their weapons. "where's Komodo?" 

"He is about to fall on your lap" Francis warns Zak, just a bit too late. then closes the hatch and they start the long journey back. Everything is uncertain, Zak doesn't know what kind of world he's about to walk into. He is afraid but so desperate, sore, and tired that part of him no longer cares. 

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Doc and Drew watched as Zak climbed into their strange machine, drew wanted to grab him and pull him down. This was the most they'd seen Zak move on his own in a while. Neither wanted to let him go, but they knew they didn't have much of a choice. With Zak out of reach now they felt hollow, haunted by second thoughts.

"Did we just let him take our son?" Drew starts as the reality of the situation begins to set in.

"Drew" Doc touches her arm to try and comfort her. 

"no, he took our son doc!" Drew cut him off as her hands shook. 

"Zak seemed like he had a plan, we'll get him back I promise, but right now this might be for the best, it gives us more of a chance to find a way to get the power of Kur out of him without cryogenically freezing him or worse." doc tries to reassure her. 

"I know but...what if we never see him again? we don't know what they're going to do to him. Epsilon always has an anterior motive!" Drew said

"I think that's why he asked for Doyle to come with him instead of us. I mean think about it, Doyle's escaped Weird World on his own, if zak changes his mind and wants to leave he's the best person to get him out" Doc said.

"you're right...I just hope Zak knows what he's doing...we have to get him back," Drew said

"we will, I'll make the world a safer place for him if I have to," Doc promised. It doesn't make Drew feel much better but it does help her calm down.

 After a while of standing in the sun, they return to the airship to call the other scientists and let them know Zak was somewhere they couldn't get to him, somewhere even his own parents couldn't find him. The faster they all find a solution to the kur problem the faster things can go back to normal. They also take time to warn Doyle to expect Epsilon's people to pick him up soon.

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        The flight wasn't that long, it was very bumpy and Francis was silent for most of it. He thought it was odd Zak wasn't talking, last time they met he'd been so social and chatty. He decides to try and make conversation while the two are alone together. 

"so...what happened?" Francis asks, trying his best to sound friendly. 

"I don't want to talk about it," Zak growled. Francis raised an eyebrow at him, mentally deciding silence must be better than this. 

"Can you be honest with me?" Zak asks after a while. 

"That depends on the question, I'd say I wouldn't lie to you but well the jellyfish incident" Francis reminds Zak of how they met, honestly he's still a little mad about it. Francis got into a lot of trouble after that failure. 

"Right...so what happened to Epsilon's arm?" Zak asks, really hoping they can use similar technology for his eyes. 

"Oh...in a way I did."

"What do you mean? You cut it off?" 

"No, nothing like that. Not that I haven't considered it. The genetic material in the arm was used to create me, since you'll be joining us you should know we're clones. Not all of the agents are clones just the special ones. We're designed to be the perfect agents.... they didn't need that much material but Epsilon was starting to stray. He's a waking warning sign for what will happen to me if I'm caught acting out of line," 

"a clone?" Zak asks his voice softer now, no wonder Francis acted the way he did, he wasn't allowed to be his own person. Zak has a suspicion that the clones aren't actually the best agents, they're the most expendable more likely, or the least likely to be trackable since 100-year-old DNA being found at a crime scene would be listed as some sore of computer error or sample contamination. 

"If you're wondering if they can do the same thing for your eyes I can't promise anything, but my eyes were replaced so it's not impossible," Francis continues. "It's why I can't take these glasses off." 

That gave Zak a lot of hope even if it did make him feel back for Francis. He felt like his plan would work and like he made the right choice. He silently pets Komodo for the rest of the flight. 

When they landed Komodo jumped out first. "Do you need help?" Francis asks turning around to face Zak. 

"No, I'll just fall, I like to blindly fall and have no idea where the floor is actually" Zak joked sarcastically. 

Francis sighed and reminded himself Zak's in pain, he had to tolerate more rudeness and sarcasm from him than normal if he wanted to gain his trust and learn what he knows about kur's power. "what I meant was, will you allow me to help, I do not want to touch you without permission" 

Zak frowns "Oh...yeah," he says softly and allows Francis to help him out of the robot. There's a lot of noise in this room, it's some kind of garage or hanger, it smells like gasoline, rubber, and oil. The air is humid and hot much to Komodo's delight, the whirring of fans overhead and heavy equipment echos around them. Zak can't help clinging to Franci's arm as he hears more people approach them. Komodo responds to this by wrapping his tail around Zak's leg and hissing at the men. 

"control your lizard and follow me" Epsilon orders. 

Zak kneels and pets Komodo to calm him down, normally he'd talk back but he decides it's not worth the energy.  He has so little energy lately and the pain in his eye sockets is really starting to get to him. Francis continues to lead him as they walk. He doesn't mind going Zak's pace. Eventually, he asked, "Where are we?" 

All he got back was "That's classified. All you need to know is we are at a medical facility to assess your condition," Epsilon states. It feels like talking to a robot. He only seems to speak on automated messages, echoing generations of brainwashing. It's unnerving. 

They led him through a door, then down a long hallway, zak tried to feel if there were any doors or not but was stopped. It felt like they walked forever, the ground slightly slanted the whole time too causing him to feel off balance whenever they took a corner. 

"A team is on their way to retrieve Doyle, while you wait our doctors will your wounds" Epsilon's voice isn't echoing as much as it was. Zak assumes they made it to a smaller room. Though they don't need a doctor to tell them something's wrong, Zak's pain has visually gotten worse. Komodo seems worried about Zak and tries to maneuver Zak to an exam table like a herding dog. The behavior is promising, Epsilon makes a note of it. 

Zak gets nervous when he feels the paper-lined bed "w..what are you going to do to me?" He can't keep the shakiness out of his voice. 

"That is still to be determined," Epsilon continues to be robotic. 

Francis tries to help despite limited social skills "You wanted this remember. You asked for this." 

"No I...this isn't what I...wait wait" Zak could feel a man grabbing him now, he felt like someone sucked the air out of the room. Technically he did ask for this ,if it meant getting his eyes back, but he was terrified and really really wanted his mom and dad now. Zak had always been healthy if a little accident-prone. He never went through something like this without his parents by his side. 

While trying to wrestle the man he heard Komodo growl before biting someone's leg followed by his nails sliding across the floor as the man kicked him away. Komodo returned to bite at the man again, They were being swarmed now as Epsilon and a doctor also tried to get the situation under control using restriants. Zak felt a steel toe boot collide with his ankles swiping them out from under him. His jaw hit the floor shortly after his chest with the full weight of a grown man pressed into his back and neck. That was the tipping point, he tried to activate his power, seeing a snapshot of himself through Komodo's eyes. 

He was pinned. He didn't recognize himself. Bandages were quickly soaking through, blood streaming down his face where tears should be. Some had also splattered on the wall when the man forced him down. Using his powers and hitting the floor made the bleeding worse, he watched himself as the blood began pooling on the floor under his head. He didn't look like he should be alive he looked like some undead monster from a horror movie he'd accidentally walked in on his parents watching, or maybe it was a war documentary zak was never sure.  He wasn't really paying attention to the room but it looked like a normal hospital room, though the technology and screens looked more advanced. The man above him was dressed in all white, with red stains now on his gloves. There was also a woman in a lab coat, under it she had relatively normal clothes on aside from a skirt which stood out as odd. In the process of borrowing Komodos sight and seeing the state he was in he scared himself so badly and screamed so loud it almost made up for him blowing his own cover. They knew he still had his powers now, but based on his reaction it seemed like he wasn't able to use them for more than a short moment. They also wouldn't be able to know he could see using cryptids eyes. 

"Get off him" Francis jumped in taking the place of the man. "Can't you see he's scared, that isn't helping. Honestly, I can't believe how dense you security guards are" 

"Francis enough!" Epsilon says, through his hyperventilating hears a sound like a tazer before Francis drops next to him. He always hated how his forcefield generator could be used against him. He knew that if they were going to gain Zak's trust they'd have to be a lot softer with him, make sure Zak felt like he had a sense of control over the situation. It seemed like basic common sense. 

"Francis might be right here, Zak isn't used to being blind, and based on his file he's had entirely too much freedom in the past, Besides Francis formed a connection with him before, he's just protecting his friend. isn't loyalty something rewarded here?" A woman's voice says. Epsilon grumbles something under his breath but stops shocking Francis. This doctor outranks him, if he does anything to upset her then he won't see a field mission for months.

After he catches his breath Francis touches Zak "You are bleeding. Please let us help. You came to us for a chance to see us again right? We need to start right away to have the best chance do you understand?" 

"I know I know but..." Zak starts and is interrupted by Francis turning to Epsilon

"We should wait for his chosen guardian to arrive," Francis says. 

"Every moment we wait could be the difference between a successful surgery or not," Epsilon reminds them. 

Zak feels around on the floor, Komodo returns to him and crawls into his lap trying to help lick the blood away. "I'm alright, its ok," he tells him and pushes his face away, he's pretty sure Komodo shouldn't drink blood. He's able to calm down more and breathe, with the adrenalin gone the pain is back, Zak pulls away and holds his head again, on top of this his blood pressure is rapidly dropping. Luckily Francis was there to catch him. The doctor helps him into the bed.  

"We can't wait to treat this," she says sighing "Trust me I wish we could but you need immediate treatment or you'll bleed out. There isn't a choice anymore I can either start now or wait for you to lose too much blood to struggle. It's up to you,"

"ok ok help me! it hurts please make it stop!" Zak begs. He feels something cold pressed against his skin and hears a hissing sound followed by stinging, pins and needles feeling spread across his body from the spot on his arm, the sounds of the room slowly faded away as he went under. Francis helped restrain Komodo while the adults moved Zak to the bed and hooked him up to machines. Epsilon left after that and Francis was taken to another room to babysit the lizard. The doctor ended up doing more than stop the bleeding and remove any infected tissue. When Ahuizotl tried to take Zak's eyes Doc had ripped his son away in an attempt to save him, to spare him the trauma he'd gone through with his own eye injury. As a result most of Zak's eyes were still there, in the form of shredded tissue, this is part of why he was in so much pain. She was able to save most of the muscle but the cornea and most of the inside of the eye had to be removed.  She kept the removed tissue to clone tissue from later. In the meantime, she replaces the eye with a semipermanent sclera and regenerates some of the muscle tissue to help with the mobility of the implant. The technology to regenerate the whole eye already exists but she was instructed not to use it. If they gave him his sight back right away they'd lose too precious of an opportunity to gain control over him. It was the same reason they removed so much of epsilons arm and replaced it with a biomechanical one. The eye she replaced his with was similar, a biomechanical version, matching the ones in most of their agent's heads. This way his recovery would be shorter, only a week at the most and he wouldn't need his eyelid stitched closed to protect the wound.  While he's under she also puts a chip in the back of his neck and one in his wrist. 

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Francis had to restrain Komodo to keep him from bothering the doctors and nurses as they sedated Zak and tried to convince him to behave the entire time Zak was in surgery lucky for Francis food seemed to be a good distraction for him. He's left alone with the lizard in a room nearby until Doyle shows up. He was NOT happy about this situation at all, he didn't believe a word the agents said but seeing Komodo made it seem more real.

"you, Epsilon's brat. Where's Zak!?" Doyle yells after being shoved into the room. Francis takes a few steps back, he didn't expect to be harassed since all he's done for the past two hours was play with a lizard. 

"he's in surgery, they're trying to save his eyes," Francis says holding his hands up. He's been shocked and lectured and bruised today he did not want to get beat up by Zak's uncle. 

Doyle felt bad for scaring him. "sorry" he sits and pets Komodo "I just didn't expect my day to go like this, your boss roughed me up a lot...how was he?" 

"Not good...I've seen worse but... never mind he should feel better when he wakes up, and he'll need someone he trusts with him. He told us he'd work with us for a year if we saved his eyes and helped him regain his powers" 

"he said that?" Doyle's skeptical but goes along with it. "I can't say I blame him though, since the accident Drew's called me almost every night in tears...do you really think they'll be able to help him,"

"I think eventually they will be able to give him his sight back, everything else is unclear, we've never seen anyone with power like Zaks so it's hard to predict what will happen, when he used his powers his eyes started gushing blood, there's no way of telling how his power will affect him"

"there's no telling how any of this will affect him," Doyle sighs. "so what, we just wait here till he wakes up?" he asks. Francis nods and motions for Doyle to take a seat. Doyle always hated waiting games. 

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There was no clock in the room. Actually, Doyle was pretty sure he hadn't seen a clock once since he arrived. Without anything to pass the time other than talking to Francis who wasn't much for conversation and Komodo who was only slightly more talkative, it felt like a week passed before someone else came to the door. Doyle was just starting to drift off leaning against the wall when it happened. 

"Mr Blackwell. I'm the doctor in charge of our anomalous medical study program. I'm going to be Zak's doctor. You can call me Holiday or Doctor" Holiday said. She spoke to him in a tone he'd seen other women use when they expected men not to respect their credentials or authority. 

"Is that a code name?" 

"I'm not at liberty to say" 

"fine whatever, Can I see my nephew now?" 

"You can, He's starting to wake up but I'm worried about his anxiety, his file said he didn't have any... if he panics when he wakes up or attempts to use his powers he may have to be sedated until they're healed to prevent more trauma. I'm not sure yet how his eyes are linked to his powers but based on how much they started bleeding I think it's best if he doesn't attempt to use them until he is fully healed" Holiday explains. Doyel nods a lot, she seems genuine as far as he can tell. 

"May I visit with him too?" Francis asks. 

"that is up to Agent Epsilon...oh Mr. Blackwell after you are done visiting him you should report to your supervisor too, you're onboarding paperwork and training is starting today," 

Doyel frowns, he hates being told what to do, and he hates that they aren't giving him a lot of time with Zak, the poor kid hasn't even woken up yet and they're already trying to pull them apart. "whatever I just wanna see him first." he says and motions for her to lead the way. He has Komodo take the spot on his back where his jetpack would be if it hadn't been confiscated so he can visit with Zak too. Francis tries to tag along wanting to avoid the inevitable lecture he knows he's going to get tonight. He's also pretty sure he can gain Zaks's trust despite what happened with the jellyfish. Since Francis didn't see Epsilon hanging around he decided to keep following Doyle. 

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Doyel entered the room slowly. Seeing Zak there hooked up to all those devices tugged at his heart. He didn't look like the tough energetic kid Doyel knew at all. He looked too fragile and still, it made Doyle feel uneasy. "hey minimal you awake? How do you feel?" Doyle asks slowly putting his hand on zaks shoulder. 

Zak flinched a little "It doesn't hurt anymore but everything feels funny"

"Your face is a bit swollen and you're on a lot of painkillers, when they start to wear off I'll give you more" Holiday said. 

Zak reaches up to touch his bandages "I can feel my eyes again, did you fix them?" 

"not exactly. You're lucky you had enough tissue left I replaced them with a bio-mechanical prosthetic" Holiday explains. 

"wait, I have robot eyes? really?" He almost sounds excited. 

"Not exactly," she laughs "Bio means they're mostly organic, but some spots had to be replaced with synthetic parts in this case inorganic tech is used to support communication between the nerves and the brain, though we won't know how well they'll work until they're healed and even then they can't run all the time you'll need to recharge them,"

"I'm going to be able to see again!"

"If your brain is compatible with them then yes you will be able to see," Holiday said. 

In other words, Zak is now bound to the Graymen since they control his sight and the technology to charge his new eyes. With all the tech here Doyel's pretty sure he could clone Zak's new eyes on his own if someone showed him how it worked. He hates this, Zak seems so happy right now and he doesn't want to ruin it. He looks over at Francis to try and gauge his reaction but the kids got a pretty good poker face he can't tell if he's trying not to look smug or trying not to pout. If they did all this to Zak he can't imagine what they might have done to a kid who was born and raised to be conditioned to think this is all normal and ok. 

"what happens if his brain isn't compatible?" Doyle asks. 

"He'll die" Francis spoke before Holiday could stop him. The room fell silent for a moment. 

"Not exactly, we did have a few agents who had complications but they were not as healthy as Zak and the parts that were replaced were a bit more complicated, some had damage to over 70% of their body and some of them had been brain dead for over 20 minutes. In Zak's case, there might be other things we can try, his life is not in anyway danger" Holiday spoke fast, she didn't like remembering those experiments. 

"whoa..." Zak takes in a shaky breath, he was somewhat used to medical talk but his parents would usually sugarcoat it more when talking about the injuries and deaths of their friends and themselves. Komodo could sense Zak's anxiety and crawled off Doyle's back curling up next to Zak who wrapped his arms around him, this seemed to help. 

"sorry" Francis said "I'm sure Epsilon is looking for me I should go" it took alot of self-control for him not to run out of the room. He's worked alongside those agents and knows that even before them the test subjects for the implants left a lot of causalities. 

"you know how kids can be, no filter" Holiday sighed "If your brain isn't compatible I'll try adjusting the device to work, if I can't then I'll try something else, in the meantime your only job is to rest and recover"

"I'll stay here as long as I can and visit as much as I can" Doyle promised Zak once the doctor left them alone. "but they want me to start working today, what kind of deal did you make with them?"

"I don't know" Zak hugged Komodo tighter "The other scientist... they're supposed to be our friends but they turned against us. Argost was messing with my head. I didn't think I'd be safe if I had to hide out with Wadi or Ulraj and then this happened" he waved his hand in front of the bandages. "I was slowing Mom and Dad down even more and all of these things were happening because of me. Then when Epsilon showed up I...

"you improvised?" Doyle asked rubbing Zaks back. "I get it. Besides weird world itself this is probably one of the hardest to get in and out of places, I don't even know where we are because they knocked me out"

"Exactly...and I remembered Epsilon's arm and the mind control device. I thought maybe they could fix my eyes too. So I promised to work for them for a year if they tried to, and one other condition" 

"you volunteered me too hu?" Doyle chuckled 

"Sorry"

"don't be. I wouldn't want you to go through all of this alone. I'll work here as long as you need me to" he promised. "guess that means I shouldn't keep my new boss waiting"

"yeah...sorry" 

"stop saying that," Doyle said. "you did the smart thing and a very brave thing." He pulled zak and Komodo into a hug. "last time I was hurt pretty bad I slept as much as I could to pass the time faster. Its hard but try to" 

Zak nodded and laid down once Doyle let go. He pulled Komodo closer to him, tuned out the beeping of the machines and voices from the hall, and tried to pretend he was in his bed at home. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Once He was sure Zak was asleep Doyle left, he had been given a tablet when he was abducted. He pulled a map and slowly made his way up a few floors. The environment only a few floors up was completely different. There were classrooms, server rooms, offices, kitchens. He half expected to look out a window and see a completely normal view, but there were no windows. There were only hallways that seemed to go forever, buzzing yellow-toned fluorescent lights, and cameras whirring from the corners of rooms. He noticed some doors were automatic and some were normal office doors, some sections didn't have doors at all and were divided up into cubicles. He found the office of his new boss. The name on the door said Edan and Faith Epsilon, he noticed other doors followed the same pattern. Emmerson and Frank Epsilon, Etsuko and Fojan Epsilon, Evon and Francis Epsilon. He wasn't sure what it meant yet but he got the creeps as he read the names. 

When he entered Edan's office a few more puzzle pieces fell into place. She was tall and sickly looking, next to her was a healthy younger girl she assumed was Faith. They both wore matching green trench coats with black shirts underneath. Edan wore green lipstick and had a pixie cut with side bangs, something low maintenance that required little time or energy to care for while Faith wore a long braid that looked as if she'd spent a lot of time on. She looked to be a little older than Francis or maybe she was just abnormally tall. 

"Congratulations on the surprise hire Agent Blackwell. I will be training you alongside my daughter Faith" She had a small smile when she spoke, but her voice was cold. "you'll need to catch up to her before you'll be allowed in the field, though I'm sure you aren't too eager to get out there while your nephew is still healing." 

"I heard the surgery went well, are you happy?" Faith asked in the same cold but polite tone as Edan. The part that creeped Doyle out more was how genuine the question seemed. Not like she cared if he was happy or it was more like a morbid curiosity or maybe intel gathering. Like she wanted to know if happiness was the correct emotional response. 

"I wouldn't say any of this makes me happy. You're already putting me to work when Zak needs me. Can't this wait?"

"I'm afraid not. You are actually quite skilled and have good connections to the Ten hero tusk market so we'd like to have you properly trained as soon as possible to prevent certain artifacts of important from winding up in the hands of those who won't appreciate them" Edan explained. 

Doyle frowned "Van Rook said everything on that site was anonymous how do you know who my connections are?" 

She laughed and held her head "Nothing is ever truly anonymous, we have detailed records on every so-called explorer who sells 'found' artifacts on that site. Baron Finster is the only one more familiar with it than you and Your old mentor" She explains it in a tone that makes Doyle feel like he's just now learning the tooth fairy isn't real. 

"I get the point" he clenched his fists "when do we start?" 

"You'll start by changing your appearance, we are allowed some self-expression within reasonable limits but can't have symbols of rebellion.Then you'll need to get a chip implanted so you can interact with our technology. Then I will show you how to access some of our computer databases and how to use that tablet. The real training starts early tomorrow"  

Doyle reminds himself why he's here and unclenches his fists and takes a breath. "Alright, lets get started" The girls share a look before Edan nods.

"we'll be working closely for some time so I'd like for us to get along. I'll leave your hair longer on top, I wouldn't want you to look like Evon or Emmerson." 

"Is Evon..."

"he's Franci's father" Faith answers the question before Doyle could finish asking. 

"oh yeah, anything but that," he jokes. They seem to like the joke, it helps ease the tension but he's still creeped out by them. At least they can agree on not wanting too much conflict. So what if it cost him his hair, earrings, clothes, and tools? Zak needed him. 

The rest of the day was long and tedious. The implants were itchy, the back of his neck was cold and they had him type so much that his fingertips were sore. They also tested him on every bit of information, even asking questions about the color of someone's shirt who walked in or out of the room. They quizzed him about the database, about codes, about everything. They criticized his note-taking and memory skills as well as his computer skills. The tablet was at least kind of fun to learn, most of the information they had was blocked to him but what he did have access to was still pretty cool, it made him feel a little weird when they showed him how to use it to spy on his own family though. They explained even a good enough hacker could access Doc's security cameras and computer webcam apparently even Dr. Beeman had even done so in the past. By the time the day was over he didn't have the energy to question anything. He decided to stop by Zak one last time before they fried the rest of his brain. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

"Hey, miniman!" Zak can tell from the tone in Doyle's voice that he's smiling. "you'll never guess what they made me do!..oh here you can feel it" Doyle guides Zak's hand to his head

Zak gasps. It's not shaved, but Doyle's hair is definitely shorter. "they made you cut your hair!?" 

"yea, they didn't like the mohawk, said it symbolized rebellion and wanted me to prove I was obedient or whatever" Doyle shrugs letting Zak feel his hair for as long as he wants. 

Zak feels guilt tug at his stomach. He knows how much Doyle loved his hair. "You didn't have to do that..."

"It doesn't matter, I wanted to. You asked for me to be here, and I have your back no matter what. Besides I look good even with a stupid haircut" He promises. "I'm exhausted though and they want me up early so I can't stay long"

Zak nods and hugs him for a long time. He knows he has to let go but doesn't want to. "will they let you see me first?" He asks. 

"I'll get up extra early if I have to. I'm sure they won't keep me away from you they know you're the only reason I'm here. Besides it sounds like they need me for something too, something to do with my old jobs" 

"that doesn't sound good," Zak frowns. 

"I'm sure I'll be fine don't worry about me just focus on healing ok...zak can you let go?" Doyle asks. 

"I don't think I can sleep if you leave...I miss Mom and...I'm scared" He's embarrassed to admit it but he's never spent time away from his family like this. It's not like he had the opportunity to have many sleepovers. Usually, if his parents weren't there to tell him goodnight he'd still have someone familiar like Abby or Beeman or Fisk with him. Sure two out of the three turned out not to be as good as he thought but that just made this worse. He felt like he couldn't trust his own instincts at all. 

"what does Drew do when you have a hard time falling asleep?" Doyle asks, it's sort of just now clicking that Doyle is more than Zak's escape plan, he's also his primary guardian right now. 

Zak doesn't seem to know the answer, he's a kid they don't always know how or why they feel a certain way or what helps. Zak's usually pretty independent too so if he knew something would help he'd try to fix it himself. 

"what if I tuck you and Komodo in?" 

"I'm not a baby" 

"I know let's just try it ok?"

Zak sighed and let go. He lays down and holds the blanket up so Komodo can crawl under it. Doyle tucks him in. He kisses Zak's forehead then Komodos who hisses at him. This gets a laugh out of zak "he hates that"

"Sorry, it seemed like something drew would do...I'm trying my best here" 

"it's ok, goodnight Doyle"

"night Zak," 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

When Doyle finally gets to his room a few floors down he lets himself fall onto the bed. The room is tiny like a dorm room there's room for a bed, dresser, storage chest, and desk but not much else. He can't seem to sleep either, the chip in the back of his neck itches, and his eyes keep scanning the room for cameras. Every time he tries to force them closed so he can sleep a noise from outside the room, or on the other side of the wall makes them open. He ends up searching the closet-sized room almost 5 times looking for speakers, cameras, microphones anything. He knows they are watching him somehow. He has waking dreams where vents open in the room releasing gas but after sitting up everything is normal. Then a man crawls out from under his bed, again he jumps up to find everything normal. Cameras and apparitions appear and disappear all night. He's fairly certain he didn't fall asleep at all when he woke up in the morning. At least he thinks it's morning, without windows and having jumped time zones his tablet clock flashing 5 am doesn't feel any much different than a clock flashing 5 pm. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Chapter Text

With no way to tell how much time had passed Zak couldn't really count the days, but he could count visitors. Most of it blurred together. Doctors and nurses who'd take blood and change his bandages without much conversation, then bring him meals. Epsilon would stop by to complain about how slowly Zak was healing. Francis would stop by once a day. Sometimes Francis would tell Zak every tiny detail of his day and ramble regardless of whether Zak was awake and listening or not, other times he would be silent and sit there for hours while working on some device. Doyle would visit any free moment he had, though his new boss made sure those moments were few and far between. 

Francis's voice came from the doorway "It's Francis again. I wanted to warn you that you're having a new visitor later." Francis almost always announces when he enters the room, he's one of the only visitors Zak gets who does this. At first, Zak wasn't sure if it was to make fun of him or not, but then he realized how much mental energy it takes to figure out who someone is from their voice and context clues without any visuals. Even when he already knows it's Francis who's talking before he tells him it's a nice jester. Another thing that's been exhausting is trying to figure out who to trust, he used to be a lot more trusting before Argost got so deep in his head. 

"Why do you try so hard to get me to trust you after you lied to me, how can I know when you're telling the truth?" Zak asked tucking the information Francis gave him away for later. 

"You don't," Francis sighs and sits in the chair by Zak's bed looking up at the ceiling tiles "Look, Zak, if you obsess over what's true and who to trust it's never going to stop eating at you. Sometimes what's true doesn't matter as much as what's real," 

"What does that even mean? You do hear yourself don't you?" Zak asked growing more frustrated. 

"It's hard to understand but I'll give you an example...my mom was real,"

"But you're a clone, you don't-"

"I don't have a mom. Yeah. Before Agent Epsilon told me I was a clone he raised me for the first 10 years as if I were a normal gifted kid born into the agency. The expectation was still there but he used the excuse that it was my mother who wanted perfection of me, that she died so I could live and fulfill her wish. It wasn't true but...the grief is real and it never really goes away. I used to talk to her sometimes too, of course, I feel ridiculous even admitting that," he explains. 

Zak had to think about this. Francis could have made it all up, he could be lying right now, he could have lied back then and not really be a clone at all. Francis did have a point it was exhausting to think about. "Do you miss her?" 

"I miss...having someone to miss. Talking to you helps, you're a better listener than a ghost of someone who never existed," This was Francis idea of a joke. It made Zak feel a little uncomfortable and sad for Francis. He didn't realize how little Francis actually got to live and think for himself. 

"we're just kids how much can they really expect? what if it's all just lies to control you?" 

Francis laughed at the thought "You'll see. You have a lot of catching up to do. Anyway If I get caught questioning things they'll stop trusting me with field missions, I finally earned my place I'm not about to risk it on a what-if and I'm happy here, I know you can be too," 

Zak decided to drop it. He mentally made a promise to help get Francis out of here someday, even if it's just for a short time before they get caught, brought back, and punished he wants to show Francis what freedom is really like. "I hope so...I'm so tired,"

"I'll let you rest. Oh, don't forget someone will be by later to see you and Komodo to measure him for a vest"

"If these prosthetics work I won't need him to guide me, so why waste the resources?" Zak asks. 

"Epsilon Is impatient and wants you to start as soon as possible. So, I'm supposed to practice walking with you and Komodo" he tries to pet the lizard and gets snapped at causing him to huff and cross his arms. "I think I overstayed my welcome, I'll be back. goodbye, zak," 

"bye?" Zak frowns, "You didn't have to bite him did you?"

Komodo clicks his tongue at Zak resting his head on his chest. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Fojan found Zak before Francis, He's noticeably less considerate, he also seems to be more out of the loop. "I'm here for Agent Komodo...oh he's a lizard, that makes more sense" 

"Who's there?" Zak asks while holding onto his friend in case he decides to get snappy again.

"Oh right...My name is Fojan. I'm here to take measurements for a vest. No offense but I'm actually glad I'm not working with a human. He's the same Rank and me and Francis by the way,"  Fojan sounds young, Zak's not sure if he's younger than him or if his voice just sounds that way. 

"You're not going to hurt him right?" Zak asked.

"Of course not. Just make him some vests, even animal and cryptid agents have to follow dress code," 

"He also will be able to help provide you with more freedom easier if he uses a vest and handle to lead you around instead of nipping your ankles or whipping you with his tail," Francis explains walking into the room. "oh it's me again, Sorry I'm late," Something sounds off with his voice it sounds scratchy. 

"Not exactly a herding dog hu?" Fojan jokes "I promise I'm just taking measurements. I really couldn't care less about anything else," 

Zak sighs "Be still for them," he tells Komodo. 

Komodo nods and lets Fojan take the measurements. Fojan leaves when he's done without saying anything else. 

"Slacker" Francis mutters "Oh, they left by the way," 

Zak sighs and leans back into the bed. "Was it really just measurements?" 

"Yeah, Fojans lazy, they break dress code half the time by wearing black sweats under their lab uniform. Komodo is as of today officially an agent, and enlisted to aid In your treatment. It's mostly formalities but a vest is practical, It also gives him access to different floors and locations so you can leave the room whenever you want" 

"I didn't realize I couldn't, I haven't tried to leave" Zak admits

"yeah...it's concerning, I'd have expected you to dig your way out with a spoon by now" 

"what about you, your voice sounds bad what happened?" 

"me? nothing," he lies. 

"Nothing?" Zak frowns.

"fine, I was practicing with our sonic scream collars and I overdid it, It's sore but I'll be fine." he cleared his throat as if to prove the fact he's in pain. 

"you don't seem like the type to get carried away like that," Zak says

"Well, it can be quite fun to use. I should go make sure Fojan doesn't procrastinate" He says excusing himself. He doesn't want to tell Zak that he was ordered to run extra drills with the device because Epsilon believed he was sharing too much personal information with Zak compared to the little Zak had shared since arriving. Not that they don't already know almost everything there is to know about him. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Doyle was the next visitor, arriving just in time to watch Dr. Holiday take Zak's bandages off permanently. Francis wanted to be there but Dr holiday insisted it should be just family. 

"just so you're not too disappointed I'm going to warn you right now you won't be able to see anything yet, your eyes need to be charged wirelessly, they can feed off your nervous system so you might see static or vague shapes but try not to look at lights or the sun it could damage them. Keep your glasses on as much as possible. I can replace them but it every replacement has a higher risk of failure" she warns him. 

"Is that why Francis and everyone wear glasses?" Zak asks. 

"I can't tell you their medical history," She says

"Why not? aren't the gray men all about not following laws?"

"We don't technically have HIPAA or anything like that here but actions still have consequences and boundaries are still something we respect, we don't do whatever we want," Holiday said.

"they gave me glasses too, it's part of the dress code, pulse they have small screens in them" Doyle explained.

"oh, I guess that makes sense...ok, I'm ready," Zak said. 

Holiday carefully unwrapped the bandages and put some eye drops in his eyes. They felt normal, he could blink and move them around. She was right, when he looked at the light he could see a small spec of color, everything else was pretty gray and had a static overlay. Looking at the light also caused him to wince in pain. 

"what did I just tell you" she sighed handing him the glasses. 

"Sorry," he says, he touches them frowning a bit. Komodo nudges him asking for pets to try and cheer him up, it worked well enough. 

"you can also shower now that the wound is healed" Holiday tried to sound cheerful, it was somewhat forced. She knows showering isn't everyone's idea of exciting or fun. 

"When can he see?" Doyle asks "It's starting to seem like you're stalling on purpose" 

"I'm not," she says strictly "We don't know how Zak's powers will affect his new eyes, taking things slow and monitoring them is safer. Tomorrow we can charge them to 5% and see how his body reacts. All of this is still highly experimental and unpredictable and unlike Epsilon, I don't enjoy taking risks." 

"5%? Will I even notice that?" Zak asked. 

"It will be enough for you to notice if they're working properly, you won't see anything in detail but you should see a full range of colors and be able to tell if a room is dark or lit, and it will be enough for me to predict some possible side effects. Eyes are tricky and the nerves are complicated," 

"You're not missing many colors" Doyle promised Zak. "other than green,"

Zak nods "I want to shower" 

"right this way," Holiday leads them while Doyle helps Zak so he won't walk into walls. The shower is a small hole in the wall, the size of a small closet. Holiday made sure Zak had everything he needed, it was hotel-sized products all unsented. For the first time in weeks, Zak feels like he has a real moment to himself. 

Some paranoid of his mind is worried about hidden cameras but he's too emotionally drained to entertain the thought for long. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to enjoy the privacy for long, now that he's alone everything he's been bottling up emotionally comes out in the form of sobs. The tears make his eyes burn, they feel so normal. He couldn't tell how long he stayed like that, crying as his mind wondered and processed recent events he just knew he needed it. He needed to cry without anyone being upset or affected by it, without anyone trying to stop him and tell him it was going to be ok. He was feeling a lot of emotions at once, Grief over losing his eyes and being away from his family, excitement at the thought that he might get to see again, Hope that he might be able to defeat Argost and go home, anxiety over the chances of it not working, paranoia over being manipulated by the Graymen the way Argost had manipulated him, disgust watching Francis accept this place as normal and being in denial about the way it's negatively effected him. Crying didn't make him feel better exactly, actually, he felt worse than he had in days but he fell asleep faster and slept sounder that night than he had since the accident. He felt like he was able to wash some of the trauma away and maybe in the morning things would be better. Doyle warned him before he left to let him sleep that tomorrow would be a big day so it was a relief to watch how fast Zak managed to fall asleep for the night. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

The last visitor came to Zak in a dream. Zak started off laying on his back. He opened his eyes and was greeted by a sky full of stars, more than he'd ever seen. It was a welcome sight, he was relieved to see at all. When he sat up to look around he found himself on a river bank in a dry grassy plane-like area. Even though it was dark it wasn't too cold out. Something moved through the tall grass. A giant orange snake with colorful feathers coiled and lifted his head towering over Zak before shifting forms into a man. "hello kurling. You have strayed far from your path" 

The man had dark skin, glowing orange eyes, and orange scales crawling up his arms and legs. He also had feathers in his hair and fangs. He wore hand-woven robes. 

"you...you're kur," Zak says backing away. 

Kur shakes his head "I am you, we are one. Gods cannot be killed no matter how hard mortals try. We are cursed to feel our bodies die over and over. You will be unable to remember but you must find your path again or the balance will be lost," 

"I don't want to be you! I'm not evil, I don't want to hurt people!" Zak yells "I'm not you!" 

That made the man chuckle "Human concepts." He slowly reaches out to put a hand on Zak's shoulder. When he does scales crawl up Zaks's neck and down his arm, he wants to run but finds himself frozen in place. He tried fighting next but couldn't seem to hit hard enough for Kur to even feel it. He wanted to explain to Zak that evil in his time meant anything that disrupted ones path, it wasn't a moral failure of some kind. He was not a cruel god who sought to punish humanity though humanity was not innocent of crime it was not his business. He was a shepherd of sorts, meant to help protect cryptids and the balance between them and humanity. He had angered fellow gods and became cursed to live as a mortal, however no curse can change one's soul so it was trapped in the stone as a prison. The goal was to allow humanity to advance without worrying about spirits and cryptids. With no protector to stop it technology took over. Everything changed when Drew Saturday, carrying an empty vessel got exposed to the kur stone. Whether or not all moral bodies are empty before birth he couldn't say, all he knows is the universe has its ways of keeping a balance. 

"I am your power, use me." He whispered in Zak's ear before vanishing into a black mist. Zak looked down in horror to see the scales still spreading as the mist slipped between them. This imagery startled Zak awake, he felt himself up and down for scales and spent the next hour nervously scratching at the chip in his neck. He's very determined to go as long as possible without using his powers now.  

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Chapter Text

Doyle showed up early that morning to be there for Zak. When he first showed up Zak still hadn't gotten the dream out of his head. "do I look normal?" Zak asked. 

"Define normal. Your face isn't messed up or anything. Your new eyes are orange and white instead of brown and black though. I think they did that to mimic your powers," 

"oh...is my skin normal?"

"of course your skin is normal. What kinda question is that? Zak if someone said something racist you point them out to me and I'll take care of them," 

"no one said anything, that's not what I meant."

"Are you asking me if your skin is ashy?" 

before Zak can talk Dr. Holiday enters the room. "ready to test your new eyes?"

"yes!" Zak would have said anything to change the topic. Doyle isn't sure what kind of skincare routine Zak had before. He made a mental note to ask Doc and Drew about it. He kinda assumed if Zak is worried about how his skin looks he must be feeling better. 

She placed a device on his face. It was lightweight and felt like a plastic mask, the shape was similar to ones used for light therapy for skin. It edited a similar glow as well, in a green hue. It didn't take long to reach 5% as promised. 

"Ok we're ready to test basic colors and shapes, we can start with your favorite color," Dr. Holiday said sitting Zak in front of a screen. Right now he could make out some shapes already but everything was pretty gray, mostly he could see the contrast of Holiday's black hair against the white walls. The new eyes felt heavy in his head and it took a lot of focus to make sense of anything at all. They also made a slight buzzing sound, or at least it felt like a buzz it was the kind of sound one feels more than one hears.  

"ok yeah uh, it's orange I guess," Zak said. 

When Holiday turns the screen to orange she expected some kind of reaction, but instead Zak seemed to freeze. "Zak is something wrong?"

"Uh...I don't...I think they're broken, somethings wrong," Zak said. he tried to hide his anxiety but it came through in his voice.

"let me try a different color, what's this one?" She asked changing the screen to blue.

Zak relaxed a little "That's blue I think...everything looks like dream colors"

"what color hair does Francis have?" Doyle asked,

"orange," 

"and me? without looking." 

"orange..r.. right? you're both redheads"

Doyle failed to hold back a laugh "Sorry, one of those is right Zak did your parents never test you for color blindness?" 

"I'm colorblind!?" He didn't know whether to be relieved or offended. 

"well not anymore," Holiday said. "I wish I'd known that before. I would have started with blue, processing new colors is probably going to give you a migraine. They seem to be working fine though do you want to try charging them a little more?"  

"how much more can we do today?" Zak asks

"I only feel safe going up to at least 10% charge, they'll probably run out of charge quickly but you risk overwhelming your nervous system if we go higher than that for now," 

"Anything is better than nothing!" Zak said. 

The extra 5 percent allowed Zak to see a little more contrast, he couldn't tell where the wall ended and a labcoat began but he could make out shadows and shapes better. when all the walls were white and every agent wore green white or black he still relied heavily on Doyle and Komodo for navigating. 

"I don't think you need to be here taking up a bed anymore, I'll have the charger here for you to use under my supervision for a while until you acclimate to it then you can take it with you but tonight what do you say about sleeping in a real bed? With no machines hooked up to you,"

"You'll technically outrank me so instead of getting a closet like I got I think you'll get a bigger space but I'll still be nearby if you need me" Doyle explains. 

"I guess so. I know Epsilon wanted me to start training today but I still can't see enough to do much," 

"He told me they'd make accommodations whatever that means," Doyle says rubbing Zaks back. "lets go find your new room,"

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Epsilon volunteered Francis as Zak's roommate. Francis had been making a lot of progress in gaining Zak's trust and Epsilon hoped he'd be a good influence on Zak even if he didn't approve of how comfortable Francis had gotten with him, Francis reassured him it was all calculated. 

Most of the living quarters for agents were a few floors below the medical wing. This particular base had about three floors just dedicated to housing. Floor one had small dorm-like rooms like the one assigned to Doyle, they're mostly used by agents who travel a lot and only need to use them as a place to sleep, most of these agents have homes elsewhere in the world to return to and families. Floor two is set up to provide amenities for agents who live on-site for an extended amount of time, they are hotel-style rooms. The third floor is saved for agents who live full-time, in epsilons case it's organized like a small two-bedroom apartment with a shared living room and kitchen area for him and Francis. 

Epsilon opens the door to let Zak and Doyle in. The room was pretty empty, the kitchen looked almost untouched and everything seemed oddly sterile. "Francis has agreed to share a room with you until you have recovered more,"

"Our room is this way," Francis said leading the way by grabbing Zak's arm. 

Francis's room, or his and Zak's room was significantly more decorated. Even with as little vision as he had Zak could make out a lot of colors in the room. Zaks's side was empty aside from some clothes, blankets, and other things provided by the Graymen to all agents. Francis's side had a lot of flashing colors and things pinned to the wall. Zak could make out a vague shape of a computer desk, and large colorful squares on the walls. Most of the colors on that side of the room were green but he also saw a lot of smaller colorful squares he assumed were sticky notes.  "what's all this?" Zak asks "I can see...lights?" 

"They're fairy lights I think, or you might be looking at corkboards. Since we live here full time we're permitted to decorate as long as it doesn't affect our ability to work. It's one of many employee benefits. We also get a private bathroom and have access to high-quality food ingredients"

"We're given an allowance every month to spend just on food, Francis learned the hard way if he spends it all on snacks he will have nothing else to eat" Epsilon explained. 

"I was 4," Francis pouts "Now I make all my own meals...oh I can cook for you I guess, until you learn to do it yourself again," Francis said.

Zak was beginning to understand why Francis resented the Saturday family for babying him, in Zak's opinion Epsilon was way too strict and expecting too much but he couldn't argue with the results. Even at 11 Zak was pretty sure he'd have spent his on mostly snacks. Before his injury, he could make a few things for himself, sandwiches, popcorn, TV dinners, toast and ego waffles, bagels, etc. Anything that required a stove was a little intimidating, even more so now that he was blind. 

"uh...yeah I'll need help with that...and with decorating, I guess," he was still intrigued by the flashing colors, his new eyes seemed to prioritize light sources, they looked like rainbow fireflies inside a dark gray fog. 

"want me to get stuff from the airship for you?" Doyle asked snapping Zak out of whatever trance he put himself in. 

Komodo led Zak to the empty side of the room so he could sit on his new bed. "yeah, I guess...photos of everyone and maybe some of my posters," 

"you got it, I'll ask my new boss if I can leave to get it today while you're in class"

"class?" Zak asked. 

"class, training, whatever you want to call it. Most of today's going to be busy work but I heard that because you're blind one of our instructors is going to have us all practice navigating without vision today,"

"Do I have to go?" Zak asks. 

"Yes. It's important for your recovery. Komodo is supposed to be fitted with a vest later today so you can practice walking more freely. I would have expected you to want more independence," Epsilon says. 

"I do," Zak promised. "I want to."

"Good. I'll have my associates take Doyle to collect some of your things while you learn today," Epsilon said. He knew if he didn't use something as a carrot on a sick it would be very hard to get Zak to do anything he doesn't want to do. He also knew that if he allowed Zak to shut down and isolate himself now he won't ever fully recover enough to be useful to the Graymen. He also knows it's really hard to predict the actions of someone who feels they have no control or structure in their life. Zak may be content behind these walls doing nothing today but the body can only hold onto fear for so long. Eventually, he'd get bored, and be in a hurry to find a sense of agency and independence if they don't create it for him. The easiest way to do that is through learning and training, with the promise that eventually it will be safe for Zak to leave this building and when he does he will be skilled and able to defend himself.  Little does Epsilon know he's fallen victim to the same tactic, regardless of how special of a special agent he believes he is, regardless of how skilled he is or how much he gets to leave the truth is he will never be more than he was designed to be. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Doyle was relieved to get out of the base and see his family again. He had to have a chaperone of course and was surprised that Edan actually gave him a lot of space. She dropped him off at a meeting spot for Doyle to wait alone for the airship to land and promised to pick him up when he called her.

As soon as he's onboard he gets hug tackled by his sister with Doc not far behind. "Where's my baby? how is he doing? Is he eating enough? They made you cut your hair!?" 

"whoa slow down. Zak's alright, he got some vision back today but he seemed weirdly worried about his skin," Doyle explained 

"what about his skin?" Doc asked raising an eyebrow. 

"don't know, just asked if it looked weird. The air inside their building is pretty dry" he shrugged. "does he have any skin or hair products I should know about?" 

"I'll grab them for you," Drew said "I thought he might be homesick so I wanted to send you things that would make him feel at home anyway, I have a lot of it packed and ready to go," She handed him a few suitcases filled with things from Zaks room, blankets, clothes, pillow cases. 

"Good thinking, he's sharing a room with Epsilon kid and I told him I'd get him decorations he wants photos of everyone so when he gets his sight back he'll be able to see your faces"

"I'll grab some," Doc offered rushing off to print and frame photos, he could have just given Doyle family vacation photos they already had printed and framed but he wanted to give him some portraits so Zak wouldn't have to strain to see the smaller details. 

While they wait Drew makes some food for Doyle to bring back to Zak as well. She misses him so much, it's been hard to get used to cooking for just two people again. "here take some for yourself too, I'm sure you both could use a good home-cooked meal," 

"Thanks sis...look I don't know how much longer I can tolerate these people, I'm only doing this for Zak's sake. Theres something weird going on it feels almost as creepy to work there as it did in Weird World," 

"we're following another lead. The flute is out of the question but it's far from the only artifact said to be able to capture the power of ancient gods" 

"I hope you find it soon, whatever you're looking for," he stopped her before she could reveal too much, he's sure they're being watched.

She takes the hint. Doc returned just in time to eat dinner with them. It was a quiet dinner, no one really knowing what to say. It felt like someone had died and Doyle hated it. "he really is doing ok you know, His Doctor was really nice and he's starting classes today," He explained trying to cheer them up. He hated seeing his sister look so upset. 

"That's good. We just miss him so much," Drew sighs. 

"He misses you both too. Maybe next time they let me out I'll be able to bring him. I'll try to anyway, he deserves to see his parents even if it's dangerous"

"you better, if I find out he's outside and he doesn't come see us I'm holding you personally responsible," Doc said. 

"Just...take care of our baby ok?" Drew begs. 

"I'm trying...you two make it look easy" he admits "I don't know what I'm doing I never had a kid, Zon was the closest thing I had to a pet when she was helping me look for Argost and honestly I think if anything she trained me more than I did her," Doyle explains. "I'm sure all of this will help him feel less homesick but other than that I don't know what I'm doing," 

The parents are quiet for a moment. Drew was not sure she'd know what to do in Doyle's place either. 

"all you can do right now is be there for him, losing even one eye was hard, losing both I can't imagine. Listen to him, let him vent to you. Make sure he knows he's not alone and he's not a burden," Doc spoke from experience. 

"I will, I'm not going to leave him there," Doyle promised. 

"you should get back to him, don't be a stranger ok," Drew said hugging him one more time. 

Doyle nods choking back the lump in his throat. This whole situation was clearly taking a toll on all of them he wished he could do more, it didn't seem fair that they didn't get to be a family anymore. He blamed himself for being the one to find out Zak was Kur in the first place, he knew Drew blamed herself for not keeping a closer eye on what Zak watched on TV, and Doc blamed himself for not helping Zak more after the injury and not being faster to get to Zak when he needed him. Not to mention Fisk, the kur guardian who blamed himself for not being very good at his job. Doyle knew dwelling on the blame was pointless though. 

"I'll bring him back to you as soon as I can I promise." 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

After some more convincing Francis took Zak to the learning center. Most of the day Zak spends listening to recordings and audiobooks or lecture-type classes. Some of them were interesting documentation of coverups, history of experimental technology not available to the public yet. He even got to listen to some files about his own family, he seemed to automatically have clearance for anything regarding cryptids though he didn't know how to look up specific things for himself or where to start combing through it all. From the reports, it seemed like Epsilon was very close with both of his parents during their college years and was somewhat responsible for Van Rook breaking up with his mom after a job gone wrong. Back then all four of them tended to get into trouble more often, usually Epsilon would have to clean up the mess. The school they went to had a special gifted program, it was one of a handful of schools that funded the secret scientist. Doc was able to fund all his own research and tended to side with Epsilon going against Van Rooks's methods while at the time Drew would go along with Van Rook seeing it as a fun adventure and challenge. She was against stealing and he would lie to her about it. Van Rook was mainly motivated by his inability to qualify for grants and funding he also had low grades and didn't care about learning as much as he cared about money which eventually led to him dropping out. When Drew learned of the theft and about Van Rook selling sacred artifacts she dumped him. Epsilon would go on to third-wheel Doc and Drew for another year before being recalled. His mission had been to go undercover to study to program creating secret scientists to see if they posed a threat to global security Extra notes mentioned him getting too close to both Drew and Doc, his performance in the field apparently started to decrease after the couple got married.  Zak couldn't really imagine his mom siding with Van Rook. Some were less interesting, basic algebra for example. Even with a calculator that read the numbers To Zak in a pair of headphones doing it without a good way to write down the numbers was challenging. 

Komodo spent most of the day trying to help Francis keep Zak from walking into anything. Overall Zak was not having a good day and every task he had to complete left him more tired and frustrated at himself. None of the instructors seemed proud of Zak for completing things either they seemed more annoyed at him needing to complete the task in a different way than the others. Most of the other kids are normal enough at least. When they're allowed to speak to each other most of the conversations Zak overhears made it seem like they'd all had normal lives outside of their parents working for the Graymen. It wasn't until they transitioned to training that Zak met the other clones. 

They all showed up early so Zak had to talk and meet everyone. The room was a lot colder and quieter. Fojan was the first to speak. "it's Agent Komodo, I have his vest ready," 

"oh, ok...I'll try to help you get it on him," Zak said. Komodo hissed a complaint but otherwise stayed still. He seemed to know this was to help Zak so he accepted the vest even though he didn't like wearing it. 

"You've met Fojan. There are two more, Frank and Faith, you could call us siblings or cousins," 

"genetically Francis and I are Twins," Faith says. "Frank and Fojan are the most genetically different from the original agent we were cloned from,"

"I am the most similar" Francis bragged. 

"Oh...hi," Zak tried to get a look at them. By now his eyes have lost most of their charge. He couldn't really tell if the light was on in the room or not. The eyes were starting to feel like someone replaced his normal eyes with 3lb weights and all he wanted to do was lay his head down and rest. 

When the other clones go back to chatting among themselves Francis elbowed Zak "What's wrong? Don't tell me you're tired already?"

"Of course I'm tired! I woke up tired. You do all this every day?"

"Well no, normally we start the day in this room but I'm told we have an extra special lesson," Francis explained doing his best to ignore how snappy Zak was because he knew he wasn't feeling good. If Francis didn't have to share a room with him later he probably wouldn't have been as patient. 

"That's right," a void came from behind him. "New kid. You can call me Agent Epsilon or Agent Emmerson. If that is too hard for you then call me Sir do you understand," Emmerson spoke like a drill sergeant. Worse than that he spoke like someone who resented the fact he was stuck in a room full of weird clone kids with every fiber of his being.  "Start warm-ups,"

Warm-ups included a pretty intense obstacle course. Komodo helped Zak through it, Emmerson made him run it again and again until Zak almost memorized it. On the first few trips, Zak went too slowly. It took multiple runs just to get used to holding the handle for Komodo's harness as he tries to lead him. Everyone else waited until Zak could come close to their times. Zak could overhear complaints from the others while they waited for him to finish. 

"This isn't working," Emmerson crossed his arms thinking. "How about a field trip? Follow me" 

The room suddenly got very quiet. Zak tried to look around to see Francises expression but it was useless. They're led down hallway after hallway and multiple flights of stairs. Emmerson has done this before, based on the other's reactions it's some kind of punishment. He leads them to a heavy metal door. "Are you aware of the name of this base?" 

"no, before today no one told me anything," Zak explained. 

"This base is called geosphere one. Most of this base is underground, it is connected to other underground bases through a network of natural caves and man-made tunnels. Your job today is to navigate the tunnels as a team. This particular cave loops, you have one hour, there will be no lights" With that he had Zak and the clones into the door closing it behind them. Komodo was very unhappy about being left out in the hall. 

Zak did not like how cold it suddenly got, there were noisy vents echoing in the cave as well. He felt around, finding a railing to hold onto while he continued feeling around while trying to compose himself. It wasn't working very well, and the others attitudes didn't help. 

"Great. I'll lead the way," Frank said in an attempt to mimic hai father's confidence. 

"As if," Faith said "last time we let you lead you got Fojans arm broken," 

"Uh it's not my fault they have Osteogenesis. You should be thanking me, if we hadn't gone the way I picked Fojan would still be undiagnosed,"  Frank said.

"at least I didn't get endometriosis despite not having a uterus," Fojan cut in, making a jab at Frank. 

The bickering wasn't helping Zak at all. Any sight he had left was just taken away, his new eyes felt odd and uncomfortable in his skull, and now they were miles underground in a damp cave. He didn't understand why he couldn't be in bed right now, or locked in a shower. As his thoughts raced he started to feel itchy, when he touched his arm it felt like scales. He felt like they were running out of air too or like the caves were shifting and swaying. He wasn't sure what was real or not. 

Francis heard Zak's breathing change and tried to reach out to find him. "Zak?"

The fighting continued. "If you're so smart Faith how come you've never successfully found your way out of this cave? What makes you think you're fit to lead this team? I'm the most experienced and the healthiest," 

"you literary just ignore your body. Some of us want to still be able to work in 10 years,"  Faith said. 

"Everyone stop!" Zak yelled. It seemed like unless it's Frank barking orders the clones are pretty conditioned to do whatever they're told if it's in a commanding voice. They all fell silent waiting for instructions. "We're never going to get out of here if you keep fighting. Has anyone ever done this before?" 

"I have," Francis said. "Not this cave exactly. It was in Yosemite. Father and I were trapped in a cave in Yosemite, we had to navigate it In the dark." 

"This cave is used often to test us. It's supposed to loop but we always run into dead ends." Faith explained. "I think he's playing mind games with us," 

"We just have to be better," Frank said. 

"Francis, how did you and Epsilon do it?" Zak asked while feeling around in the dark for him. 

"Father lead me through. He would feel around and describe the rocks, tell me where hand holds were, but we've tried that before it doesn't work," 

"it will get us father in at least," Fojan said. 

Zak took the lead, mostly because he wanted out of the cave as fast as possible. Most of the issues they found were when it came to height differences. Frank and Faith being the tallest could reach handholds the others couldn't. However, they were more likely to try to stand up and hit their heads in areas where Zak Francis and Fojan could stand comfortably. The cave floor was very unlevel and a lot of areas were pretty steamp climbs. There were also multiple dead ends, it was hard to tell when they had to retrace their steps if they were feeling another branch of the cave or an old one. Zak seemed to have good instincts for it though, one benefit of growing up with less limited access to the outdoors and nature as opposed to never-ending hallways was a sense of direction that wasn't grid-based. Eventually, they got to a larger chamber, everyone could stand and there was a pile of rocks in the middle. After feeling all around the outside and not being able to find an exit Zak leaned on the pile of rocks. They're all exhausted from crawling and climbing, despite the cave being dark and cold they all worked up a sweat. It seemed like as good a place as any to rest. It felt good to be able to sprawl out or stand and stretch.

"This is the same chamber we always get to," Faith complained. 

Once Zak's heart rate slows down he's able to focus more on his surroundings. "do you guys feel that?" he asks. "it feels like there's a fan above us" 

"airflow?" Faith held out her arms to try and feel it. "oh yea there is,"

"These caves are ventilated, they have to be to prevent a build-up of toxic gasses when we use them for training and transport," Fojan explained. 

"that doesn't explain what I'm feeling. These are lava tubes right, they usually layer on top of each other over the years. Faith you're tall can you feel if there's a hole up there?"

Faith carefully climbed the pile of rocks Zak was leaning on. She could feel the ceiling slowly get higher until she couldn't reach it anymore. "I'm not sure how high up it goes but there is a hole here,"'

"'I'll go with her, I don't trust her not to abandon us," Frank said. Faither made her way up first followed by Frank. Being the two tallest it wasn't hard for them to grab hold of the sides of the hole and swing their lets up to find foot holds. After that it was a matter of slowly making their way upward, feeling above them to make sure they weren't about to hit their heads. The edge of the hole was pretty steam as well, once they did make it out they had to crawl for a few feet until their hands felt smooth metal pipes that made up a railing. 

"you're right, part of this lava tube collapsed and fell into that one," Faith called down. clearly someone knew about it long enough to install the railing. Frank quickly moved to the other side of it followed by Faith who felt around the new tube. "it's another larger chamber, we can stand at least" 

Francis and Zak helped Fojan up next since they were the shortest of the group. they were slower to climb up, it was harder for them to find food holds, they tended to be the type to train their mind more than their body so they didn't have the arm strength that someone like Frank who works out when not prompted to would have. Faith had to help pull them up. 

Francis went next. Zak listened to his breathing, he could tell Francis was scared. Even with lights and working eyes climbing through the ceiling of one cave for multiple feet of sock straight up with no equipment is scary. The rocks weren't exactly the strongest either, a few came loose landing near Zak. The clones, overconfident as they were believed that they would never be sent into real danger, at least not anything they couldn't handle. They viewed themselves as the only unexpendable agents so surely if they did fall someone would come rescue them. Everyone but Francis, who was starting to suspect this test had more to do with blind trust than it did with becoming more skilled and useful agents. He was afraid of falling, afraid that cloning a new Francis would be easier than sending someone in to get him if he fell and broke his leg. The fear made his hands sweat and his legs shake. It took him almost twice as long to climb up while the three at the top grew impatient and started to yell at him. 

"just climb up already," "Yeah if I did it you can too, stop being a baby," "What, do you need Evon to come in and give you a boost?" 

By the time Francis made it up his arms were sore and he was exhausted. He held onto the railing and laid on his stomach while trying to clam down. 

Zak's turn was next. He was more use to rock climbing even without equipment and had been in worse spots, but the darkness, the blindness still got to him. He dug his nails in a little extra deep to try and compensate for how numb and slow the cold had made him. He tried to work fast since he wasn't sure how much strength he had left and didn't want his arms or legs to give out. He felt like he couldn't trust his body. He didn't stop until he accidentally grabbed Francis's foot, spooking him pretty badly. He didn't make a sound but he did jump. "sorry...you can lay down once we get out of here,"

The railing they felt turned out to be one they passed when they walked in. Emmerson was waiting for them, he clicked a light on causing all of them to flinch and cover their eyes. Zak hid his arms behind his back worried he might look like the snake man in his dream. 

"Well, you finally did it. Next time I'll pick a more challenging cave, you're dismissed for the day to practice your preferred skills,"

Being dismissed for the day seemed to be a good thing. It meant they got to work on their preferred skills. Zak felt around until he found Komodo and hugged him. "let's practice walking, can you take me to my bed?" 

"I can go with you," Francis offers. 

"I'm sore and cold, I just want to lay down, Komodo knows the way back," Zak didn't want to push Francis away too much but after that ordeal, he really needed time alone. 

Francis understood this so he decided to spend his time working with Fojan on some codes. 

 ︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

By the time Zak got to the room, his eyes lost their charge. He spends the rest of the night listening to a summary of missions since they were the only thing that really made today tolerable. If he pretended he was listening to a weird messed-up podcast it almost didn't feel like homework. 

He sat on the couch while he listened so he wouldn't miss Doyle getting back. He ended up falling asleep sitting there. Doyle decided not to distribute him just yet. He put the boxes of things in Zak and Francis's room, he changed out the sheets and blankets with the ones from home and put the photos on the wall as a surprise for Zak. He left another box for Zak to unpack himself later of other items from Zaks's room and around the airship and Zak's clothes, he's pretty sure Zak wouldn't need too many outfits since he was given a uniform but he figured Zak might enjoy going through them when he feels better. Then he heated up some of the leftovers for Zak. He woke him up and handed him a plate, placed a for in his hand. 

Zak was confused until he tasted it. "this is moms" He said, tears already streaming down his cheeks. He carefully moves the plate to the table and hugs Doyle. "thank you," 

"Of course, I wasn't going to hog it all for myself. They miss you, but they were glad to hear you're healing and doing a little better" Doyle explained hugging Zak back. "hurry up and eat, Epsilon and Francis are already in bed," 

"Yeah" he rubs his eyes "they'll probably wake me up really early tomorrow"

"every day you'll get a little more sight back right, things will get easier" 

Zak nods. Knowing things will get a little better makes it easier to handle how bad they are now, he's pretty sure it won't make him miss his parents and cryptids less though. Zak happily ate the rest of his food though. Doyle helped him into bed. The bed was a lot harder than his bed at home but it smelt the same now. He was happy to have less itchy sheets and a less rough blanket too. It helped him sleep better than he had since he got the injury. Knowing Francis was in the room also helped. 

 ︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Over the next few weeks, Zak got more and more sight back, Thankfully Emmerson didn't send the group of special agents into any more caves, everything was pretty routine. Zak would study and analyze old cases, practice math, media literacy, history, science, and other basic skills, then be trained either in hand-to-hand combat or be asked to try obstacle courses as he got used to his new eyes. Francis helped him as much as he could, the two would usually be paired up to practice together. Zak taught Francis some things too, he often asked Francis to help him cook when Doyle wasn't available. Francis knew how to make basic things but mostly had to rely on supplements since his stomach was so sensitive. When they both had free time Francis would walk around with Zak to help him learn where things are on the floors it's safe to explore unsupervised. 

Chapter Text

As the days went on Zak started to settle into his routine: Start the day by charging his eyes, try to use them during his schooling but ultimately rely mostly on text-to-speech to prevent migraines, rely on his eyes for training, then retreat to his room and slowly watch his vision fade until lights out. Usually, he'd spend this time talking with Francis, swapping childhood stories.

A lot of the talking was one-sided. Francis seemed very curious about Zak's childhood. When he learned to cook, what it was like to make his mom breakfast in bed on Mother's Day. What Christmas was like for Zak. He admitted to Zak he always felt jealous of families that got to be together on the holidays. Epsilon was always working and felt holidays weren't essential. He envied Zak sometimes and some of Zak's stories especially the complaints about things like not being allowed to pick movies on movie night, and needing a babysitter felt so trivial that it annoyed Francis at times but as frustrating as it was he always wanted to know more. He wondered why doing the dishes seemed to bother Zak more than the training he was now undergoing. For the first few weeks, Francis had no shortage of questions but seemed to clam up when asked about himself.

He didn't hate chores, he saw them as just one more thing that needed to be done. Doing the dishes was no different from putting on a shirt or combing his hair. Any interesting memories and experiences he had were either during training or during missions. Zak had been on his first so he already knew what a disaster it turned out to be. He had no pets to speak of nor dreams of what he'd be when he grew up. When asked about his fairy lights and sticky notes he simply said "Being around color is a natural way to boost serotonin so it makes me more productive. And it reminds me of an old Arcade it's the only place Epsilon ever took me for fun"

He got quiet after that night. Zak worried he asked him about something too personal. Francis started going straight to bed just to get up multiple times in the middle of the night when Zak couldn't see what he was doing. Sometimes Francis wouldn't return for hours. One night Zak decided to get up and look for him.

Zak woke Komodo up "Take me to Francis," he said, he didn't bother with the harness since he had the layout of the room's memories, instead using his leg to feel where the lizard's tail was as they walked. He heard a groan coming from the bathroom. The bathroom in their quarters that Epsilon, Francis and Zak shared was about the size of a bathroom on a camper trailer, it made the closet-sized hole in the wall Zak showered in before feeling roomy. There was barely enough room to turn around in there, let alone lay down on the floor. That's exactly what Francis was doing though. If Zak's eyes were charged he'd have noticed the pale legs of his friend sticking out of the bathroom into the living room. Komodo tried to warn him to no avail. Zak tripped over him. Francis only had the energy to groan again, he sounded more annoyed but this did not give Zak the context he needed to put the puzzle pieces together. Not knowing what he tripped over Zak felt around grabbing Francis by the ankle. His skin felt weird...colder than he'd expect a person to be, and softer and squishy. He thought maybe he had found a pool noodle wrapped in a soft fabric of some kind even though that made no sense. When he processed what he was actually feeling his confusion turned into fear causing a scream to escape him faster than he could remember it was in fact the middle of the night, or at least the sleeping rotation for his hallway. without natural light, it was very hard to tell 3am from 3pm, not that it mattered this far underground where the sun was. Francis not expecting the scream or to suddenly have his leg grabbed also screamed. 

"What on earth are you doing go back to bed!" Francis yelled jerking his leg back. 

"Me!? Why are you on the floor!?" Zak yelled back.

"I...I fell asleep here." Francis's voice shook a bit when he spoke. Living with Zak highlighted Francis's weaknesses, especially his health problems as of late. He knew he was supposed to speak up if anything felt off in his body but seeing how well Zak was doing even without proper eyes made him feel insecure, he thought if he pushed through it maybe he could feel normal. "I'm sick it will pass," 

"What do you mean?" Zak asks

"I get sick like this often. It's normal." 

"It's definitely not, I can't even remember the last time I threw up that wasn't a total emergency," Zak said. 

"That's because you have a mommy who overreacts and coddles you. Everyone throws up sometimes, everyone becomes ill, it's part of being alive" 

"I know but...I mean...we live in this sterile box how did you even get sick? Shouldn't you see Dr. Holiday?" Zak asked deciding to let Francis's comment slide.

"She's your Doctor, not mine. Besides I have monthly appointments. I just have to push through till then" 

"You've gotta know that's not good for you," Zak frowned and tried to reach out to Francis. 

"Until the equivalent of morning then. Just a few hours. It won't make a difference," Francis leans back against the wall just out of reach. "Leave me alone" 

"No way. You helped me I'm going to help you," Zak confidently stood up. For a moment the urge to help his new friend overtook his anxiety about walking into things. He turned around too fast hitting his arm on a lamp sending it crashing to the floor. It sounded like it shattered, Zak had only seen it once during the day, the shade was made out of colorful stained glass. It gave him a migraine to look at but he enjoyed seeing all the colors he couldn't before. "Oops" 

He eventually finds Komodo's leash and has him lead him to the kitchen returning quickly with a glass of water for Francis making a mental note of where the lamp probably landed not wanting to step on it. Once Francis took the glass he tried to find the lamp.

"That's enough! What is the meaning of all this noise?" Epsilons said walking over to Francis. He pulled Francis up by the arm. 

"Father your hurting me" Francis whined trying to free his arm. Komodo responded to the boy's anxiety by trying to bite Epsilon. 

"Zak control your lizard, don't touch the glass" he commanded. 

When Zak reached down to try to stop Komodo he snapped at him. He'd been having more misunderstandings and issues with Komodo lately. It seemed to correlate to how little he used his powers. He managed to grab him. "What's going on, what are you doing to him?" 

"I'm going to take him to the doctor. Allowing you to reach for broken glass while you're blind is unacceptable" Epsilon scoffed. There was a sudden thud paired with a whimper from Francis. Zak was somewhat relieved he couldn't watch whatever was happening. The thud made his stomach drop and he pictured Epsilon slamming his friend into the wall. He had no way of knowing if this is what actually happened.  

Francis muttered an apology and started cleaning up the broken lampshade. When he was done Epsilon forced him to go to the doctor. Francis begged him not to the entire way out of the door. Zak wanted to help but he wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. Francis seemed really sick, a doctor would help, right? Why didn't he want to go? He quickly hid in his bed and made a plan to ask Doyle to check on his friend in the morning if he wasn't back by then. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Doyle could tell Zak was really upset. He hadn't seen Francis all day. Doyle still got the creeps from looking at the kid so he didn't understand why Zak was so attached but if being his friend helped Zak he wasn't going to say anything. He decided to take a look in the medical wing. After wandering around he eventually bumped into Dr. Holiday. 

"I heard Francis is sick, can Zak visit him? He's really upset," 

"Francis? That's way above my clearance level. Sorry. He's not here but if you have access you might check the lower labs" She said. She wasn't entirely sure if she could direct him in that direction but Dr. Holiday has always had a soft spot for kids. 

Doyle thanked her and tried to get access to the lab only to be denied access at the door. He tried his tablet next to no avail. It was time to get creative. He knew hacking his tablet or the door would be too risky, though he was confident in his skills it didn't seem like it would be worth getting fired over. Instead, he decided a slightly more direct approach couldn't hurt. He showed up nice and early to his usual weekly meeting with Edan. Lately, she'd been more open to bending the rules for him. Whether she wants him fired or likes him, he couldn't tell. Maybe she just wants him in the field more often to get him away from Zak, maybe it's not up to her at all. So little about how tasks are assigned and what exactly his job is was properly explained to him. "good morning Agent Blackwell," 

"yeah yeah good morning," Doyle said back, still trying to get used to the formalities of everything here. She almost seemed sad when he didn't give a proper greeting back. "sorry, good morning Agent Epsilon...are you sure I can't call you Edan? won't this get confusing" 

"Considering it is just us here, I'm sure it can't be that confusing to use my proper name...though exceptions can be made. I always did like my first name more,"

Doyle sighed "Right. sorry, when I visited Zak this morning he seemed upset and when he's upset I'm upset" 

"Oh?" she chirped "What has him so upset?"

The way she looked like a cat about to pounce on a toy upset Doyle more. She didn't care about Zak, he knew that much, no, all she cared about was how best to manipulate his emotions. "I guess Francis is sick or something? I don't really know anything, but I know they're close. I tried to check on him for Zak but...

"you don't have clearance" she finished his sentence. 

He nodded, trying to play dumb. "yeah, maybe you could check on him for me? I mean he's Faith's friend too right?"

"I could, but let's not pretend we're concerned parents, Mr. Blackwell, it's boring. You don't have access to certain information for a reason, you already know more than you should. That being said, the fastest way to get access to more information is to prove you are either trustworthy or predicable so help me on my mission today and I'll send you a file with everything you need to know" 

"How will that prove you can trust me if I'm just doing what you say to get something?" He asked

"I guess it doesn't, but I need your muscles and you need my access codes" she shrugged "Seems like a fair trade" 

"Fine, what do you need me to do boss?" he had to try extra hard to keep any sarcasm out of his voice. 

"You recall the incident in pairs, we believe the mirror left behind is a fake. I've been tasked with collecting the real artifact and Argost is our most likely suspect for its disappearance" 

Doyle clenched his fists. "Why did you make a deal with me? Of course, I want to be in on this." 

Edan shrugged, her lips curled into a smile. "I have my reasons. I'll uphold my end of the deal regardless. First, we need to confirm the mirror at the museum is a fake, consider this your first real mission. Are you prepared to be away from Zak for an extended amount of time?" 

That gave Doyle some pause, Zak asked him here because he trusted him. Sure he was starting to know his way around but it felt way too soon to leave him alone for more than a day or two. He knows they won't kill Zak and he can't say the same for the secret scientist so in a way coming here was the safer option but that doesn't mean there aren't things worse than death. "would they call me if anything happens? If he so much as stubs a toe I want to know," Doyle says. 

"I'll ask Faith to keep an eye on him, and Fojan can set up routine video calls," Edan promised. "He won't learn to be independent with you hovering you know," 

"Zak's the most independent kid I know" 

"That was before the incident. Trust me as someone who's actually raised a child the more you act like he's an injured baby bird the slower he will mentally recover if he does at all. Besides the best thing you can do for his safety and peace of mind is find Argost isn't it? Don't you think Argost would want that mirror if he learned about the mirror? Even a monkey could hack into Author Beeman's computers forget someone with as insecure a system as Van Rook or the Saturday Cryptidpedia." 

"point taken, when do we leave?" Having hacked some of those systems himself he knew she was right. 

"How soon can you be ready to go?"

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Without Francis as a buffer, Zak felt awkward around the other clones. It was hard for him to recognize faces still, the eyesight he had left was static-filled and his brain couldn't seem to properly process faces anymore at all. The mostly matching uniforms didn't help either. He knew Fojan wore an almost solid lime green overcoat that hid half his face and went almost all the way down to his ankles, Frank wore a neon green sweater under a dark blue-green coat and Faith wore matching olive green with Francis so he had to look for Francis pastel hair to tell them apart. He'd been taking notes on them as practice for field notes, he hoped it would also help him fit in but so far he wasn't having any luck. Though without Francis they seemed to pay him more attention. Zak nervously scratched his arms. Komodo hissed at him to warn him to stop. Frank wasn't anywhere to be seen today, just Faith and Fojan. 

"You look exhausted, I thought you were supposed to be exceptionally fit based on your file," Faith said when she caught Zak looking in her direction. 

"I haven't been sleeping well here," he explained 

"Why, you lived in a lab before, isn't a lab a lab?"

"It's not home," he shrugged "and I'm worried about Francis, I didn't see what happened but I think he's sick,"

"oh...I'm sure he's fine. He has the most stable genes out of all of us" She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Zak. 

"I'm not sure what that means, I just want to know if he's ok. I don't think we're friends exactly but...I realized today that he was helping me more than I thought." Zak hid his wrist behind his back as he scratched at it again making Komodo paw at his legs to remind him to stop. He couldn't help it. The scales continued to appear in his dreams almost every night, since he got his new eyes his body hasn't felt like his. He didn't trust the images he saw yet since he wasn't accustomed to seeing some of the colors and the constant static made everything feel edited.  It felt like he was watching a screen display what was right in front of him, sometimes the images lagged sometimes it glitched. When he wasn't having nightmares about kur he was having nightmares about the static forming into creatures no one else could see chasing him down the endless hallways. 

"You can't rely on him forever, besides in the cave you were the one who guided us out, we'd all been in the cave multiple times. You'd be a perfect agent if you just got over your hero complex"

"I like my hero complex, keeps life from being boring" he joked earning a smile from Faith. He wasn't completely sure but it seemed like a genuine one. He was never good at spotting the evil smile of someone plotting against him, it's partly how Argost fooled him. It's entirely possible he was never good with faces since everyone else, even other fans he spoke to in forms got an uncanny valley vibe from Argosts face, Zak never did.  

"you know, if you want I can take you to see him after our group lesson today" She offered. 

"Really!? I asked my uncle to check on him but I haven't heard back yet" 

"He wouldn't have clearance, but I do, and if they think you can't see then they shouldn't have an issue with me bringing you with me,"

"I hope Francis is alright,  he hasn't been online for our games in so long...actually not since you moved in." Fojan said. He always sounded either half asleep or cheerful, zak wasn't sure what to make of him but he seemed nice. He was less competitive than the others, a little too quiet though, Zak forgot he was there.

"I didn't know you two played games...do you want to visit him too?" Zak asked 

"I would but I'm too busy. You can tell him I want a rematch from our last game for me?" 

"You wouldn't be busy if you didn't procrastinate" Faith lectured him. She always acted like the older sister of the group.  

Zak laughed at them. "Don't worry ill tell him. Maybe when he's better we can play together," 

Their conversation was interrupted by their denmother of the day appearing. Etsuko had the children follow him to a new floor, most of the rooms had windows into the hallway, some of them had entire glass walls. It was mostly people looking at large maps of satellite footage, occasionally something would light up and it would get charted down. Most of the screens displayed seismic data, security camera feeds, and webcam feeds. Many agents seemed to be doing their work entirely in VR or on holographic screens. Zak tried to read some of the data as they passed but even the decrypted data was displayed in a symbol cipher the agents seemed to read at a glance. The thing that shocked Zak the most is that a lot of it was backed up by retro technology as well. Zak remembered his dad mentioned something about an analog loophole once and figured it probably had something to do with that.

Etsuko noticed Zak looking through the glass. "when you have technology better than anywhere else in the world and don't want to give away how advanced your tech is having less reliable data can give you a more realistic number. Numbers that can be fact-checked with similar results by people with less advanced technology. We never share our most precise measurements with anyone because we'd be seen as unreliable since no one could recreate our numbers, and often it's not necessary to be so precise" 

"I guess that makes sense," Zak said then looked down at Komodo to check on him. He seemed bored or maybe tired. When he sensed Zak's gaze he looked up at him and growled. Zak didn't have a clue what it might mean, normally he was pretty good at guessing. 

Eventually, they arrived at a room without windows. Upon entry, they were asked to change outfits. Each of them was given a black body suit with sensors and a headset. The headsets covered the eyes and connected to a collar by a tube in the back. The design resembled a neural parasite. It gave Zak the creeps. 

"What about Komodo?" Zak asked. 

"The lizard...he is pretty smart. We can try to send him into the VR with you, or we have a lovely heat lamp set up with a bucket of sashimi," the sashimi comment was a joke. It was a bucket of fish but Etsuko clearly thought he was hilarious. Him having a sense of humor was almost more creepy than the headsets, were they even allowed to laugh? 

Zak looked down at Komodo but it was clear he'd chosen the bucket of fish and a nice nap over him. "...Ok" Zak said letting go of his lead, the moment he was free he was neck-deep in the fish bucket. 

At the end of the room was a small door leading into another room with chairs. They were shockingly comfortable. Zak watched Fojan and Faith lean their chairs back and put their helmets on. 

Etsuko took the time to explain to Zak "we can train our bodies all day but if you practice incorrect form you'll only improve at fighting incorrectly. So we use this device to practice in a way that allows for perfect punches every time! It helps teach your brain perfect muscle memory, it won't make you physically stronger, that still has to be done the old fashioned way, think of it like a video game," 

"Is it going to hurt my eyes?" Zak asked. 

"You might need a few moments to adjust. After that it should feel natural to look and move around,"

Zak nodded and followed the lead of the other children. When he opened his eyes again it was almost as if they gained a full charge. Like his dreams, he could see everything clearly. They were in a dark room with a floor tiled by neon green lines. Green holograms of each of them stood in front of them facing away from them. "Welcome to the Cybersphere, a virtual training room accessible from any of our bases, Zak perhaps you should watch a round it will be easier than explaining everything," Etsuko said

Fojan and Faith stepped forward into the hologram versions of themselves. They practiced a few of the combat moves they'd been taught, the holograms shadowing the movements, showing them where to make corrections until eventually, they lined up perfectly with them. Only a slight glow was noticeable. Then they stepped into the middle of the room to fight. Zak was shocked by how fast they moved, especially Fojan. He didn't seem like the athletic type, though his body was kind of hard to see under the coat Zak assumed he was a bit on the chubby side like Francis. It was clear that at least in here he had the advantage of speed. Faith still ended up winning, Fojan might have more practice in a digital world but Etsuko was right, nothing can replace real-world experience. It took Zak a while to get the hang of moving with the hologram attached to him. It seemed to read his mind, playing out the move he wanted to do, but if his body didn't keep up or move past what the hologram considered perfect form it felt like trying to move against a strong current. He tried to use the moves he learned since coming here, that was his first mistake. His second was thinking that he'd be able to last long in a fight against Faith to begin with.  He lost again against Fojan, then Faith. At some point, it felt like they were taking turns beating him up making him frustrated. Eventually, he decided to switch to the moves his family taught him. The hologram still corrected his form but he was able to think less and move faster this way.

He finally starts winning, knocking Faith down.  Zak jumps and cheers for himself "woo hoo! I finally won!" He had the biggest smile on his face, Faith normally would be annoyed by this kind of behavior but thought it was cute. She even laughed. 

Etsuko claps "I think that's a good note to end on today, time to log out," 

Zak watched how the others logged out and copied them, thankfully it seemed like a simple process. Until he opened his eyes to the real world and realized he couldn't move. His confusion turned into panic when a voice came from behind him. His vision filled with static when it spoke to him, he recognized it as the voice of Kur from his dreams. "you cannot pretend to be human forever little one. Use your power" 

Zak squeezed his eyes closed trying to catch his breath or slow his heart rate. Finally, Etsuko ran over to him and grabbed his wrist "You're ok Zak, it's a safety feature, don't worry" He squeezed Zak's hand, when he saw Zak wasn't calming down he pulled back on one of his fingers until the joint popped. The sudden pain caused his hand to twitch, which seemed to allow his brain to regain control again. He leaned forward and grabbed his hand. 

"ow! That hurt! why couldn't I move? what was that!?" 

"Sorry, I should have warned you"  Etsuko took his gloves off to reveal metal braces. "I was a beta tester for this program, if you aren't put into paralysis the amount of electrical energy going through your nerves can damage your soft tissue," he explained while rubbing his back. "the new system can cause sleep paralysis like hallucinations, but I imagine not being able to move by itself must have scared you" 

"I..yeah...sorry. I'm ok" He looked over to see Fojan and Faith still motionless in their chairs. Zak didn't Know Etsuko that well, but it kind of felt nice when he was rubbing his back. He got the sense that he cared for the kids a lot more than the others did. Emmerson always pushed them too hard and acted like a drill sergeant, Edan seemed too tired and cold, and Francis's dad Evon...Zak wasn't sure how to read him he seemed awkward and skittish like he was afraid to be around Zak.  

"let me fix that hand," Etsuko said. Zak held on tightly to the arm of the chair and did his best not to make a sound. He was already embarrassed that he panicked, and he didn't want to draw attention to himself. He was just glad the voice shut up. Thankfully he didn't need to see his doctor, Etsuko popped the joint back in as easily as he dislocated it.  The commotion alerted Komodo who came over crawling into Zak's lap, if it had been anyone else he would have bitten them but Etsuko gave him fish. Zak hugged him while he waited for the other kids to wake up, then they all changed back to their normal clothes. He made sure to hang back from the group with Faith so she couldn't sneak away and break her promise.   

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Zak followed Faith to an express elevator. It wasn't entirely a lie that he couldn't see the charge in his eyes was so low, he had to rely on Komodo and Faith to lead him through the endless white void of the hallways. She was right they had no issue getting into the lab, as long as they didn't run into anyone who knew Zak wasn't supposed to be with her the plan was perfect. 

"Got any charge left in those eyes?" Faith asked

"No, not really," Zak answered honestly 

"Hold still," Faith said as she held something near Zak's face. He felt some power get transmitted to his eyes, the room coming back into focus. 

"Dr. Holiday said I shouldn't overcharge them," he said nervously. "What if it's too much for my brain?" 

"You'll be asleep soon anyway, just don't let anyone know I did this for you ok?" 

"Why are you doing this for me?" Zak asked. 

"I like you more than I hate Francis, you have no idea how boring things were. Plus I want to see your reactions" She answered honestly while watching Zak closely to find the perfect moment to slip away to give Zak some privacy.  

Francis was submerged in a horizontal tank filled with lime-green fluid, other than an oxygen mask there weren't any sensors yet a screen displayed his vitals along with a bunch of data Zak couldn't understand. He was in what looked like swim trunks but not much else besides large sensors on his chest. Zak was shocked by how skinny he was, he was sure Francis was not like that before. How had he not noticed how much weight he lost? With the green liquid, it was hard to see but something looked off about his face, his eyes seemed to bulge out a bit, it was hard to tell if that was caused by the weight loss or something else. Zak had never seen Francis without his glasses so he had nothing to compare them to. Francis's eyes remained closed but Zak was sure if they opened something would be wrong with them. The body in the tank honestly looked fake but at the moment he was too shocked to realize that it was probably due to the lack of a belly button. This seemed like an overreaction to an upset stomach. Zak turned his head to ask Faith a question but it was too late she was gone. So he turned his attention back to Francis. He didn't understand what he was seeing, he just wanted his friend to be ok. 

'Are we even friends?' Zak thought. He knew The Graymen and Francis by extension had hidden motives for taking him in. For all he knew they wanted Kurs power for all the same reasons Argost did. Still, Francis had been kind to him, he didn't have to be. Now that he was sick the chances of a real friendship were slipping away, and no one had even explained what was wrong. Francis was right, being paranoid all the time was exhausting, and even if it wasn't entirely real he decided to believe they are friends so it would be ok to cry. 

Epsilon found Zak standing there. He had no idea how long he'd been there or what he'd seen. Based on the time Zak shouldn't be able to see much. "Saturday!? who let you in here!?" 

"were you even going to tell me he was sick?" 

"I didn't know" 

"what's wrong with him!?" 

"I don't know" 

"do you know how long he's going to be in that thing?" 

"I don't, and even if I did it's none of your concern. I'm taking you back to our room" 

"no! My friend is sick I should be here" 

"it's too dangerous in here for you. come on, you need to eat something. Wait can you see right now? You know it's dangerous to overcharge your eyes!" Epsilon knows he'd never hear the end of it from Drew and Doc is he let Zak give himself brain damage by overusing those robotic eyes. compared to his own biomechanical enhancements Zaks were clunky and barbaric. He wanted Zak to prove himself so he could get the upgraded ones so bad but knew that wouldn't happen if Zak kept sneaking around. At least this was his first real offense and his motives were clearly out of an attachment to Francis.  

"Don't pretend you care about me, you don't even care about him! I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong. I'm sick of this you always have some weird ulterior motive why can't you just be honest and answer my questions directly for once!?"  

"dam it Soloman I...I mean...Zak...Of course, I care about him! I raised him! If I'd known how sick he was...." Zak could tell he was choking back tears "Clone DNA is unstable at times, especially at his age. he was supposed to tell me the moment he felt sick! This never should have happened." he placed his hands on the glass looking down at Francis. "I never wanted any of this you know, after I met your parents that was the life I wanted, but it was a clandestine wish and I was disillusioned violently." He touched his robotic arm when he spoke. "Francis was cloned, I was tasked with raising him and that was that. I thought I could change things, make up for all the secrets and lies by covering up cryptid and alien events. I even led Van Rook to your Uncle in hopes your mother would recognize him. I told my bosses about Kur and began to study the atmospheric Jellyfish to try and find a way to counteract Kur's powers but it was never enough. " he sighed and turned back to Zak "You are so much like your parents, you care so openly and freely for others. I thought maybe if I helped you in a way I'd keep part of them in my life. So you see, that's my only ulterior motive. I'm just an old coward who could never tell his friends he loved them, and a worthless father who didn't even know his son was sick. you wanted the truth well... that's it, I'm just a fool." 

Zak was stunned, for the first time Epsilon seemed completely genuine. He wanted to hate him, to blame him for everything but Epsilon was a victim in all of this too. He realized they were the same, both blaming themselves for not knowing how sick Francis really was, both wanting better for the clone kid. The difference was Epsilon gave up on going against the grain a long time ago, Zak was only getting started.

He decided in that moment that no matter how long it took or what he had to sacrifice he would get Francis out of here. Even if it meant becoming the perfect agent. 

"Will you tell me if anything happens?" Zak asked in a small voice after a long silence. 

Epsilon nods "You have my word you will be the first to know," He promised.

That was good enough for Zak. "ok, Komodo lets go," 

Komodo flicked his tongue at Epsilon then led the way back to the room, not that Zak needed him to but it was good to practice. 

Chapter Text

The last thing Francis remembered was floating, it was warm, dark, quiet. Whatever he was floating had an odd pressure to it, preventing him from moving. Being a clone, he never got to experience being in a womb. Was this what it felt like? He liked the warmth, the pressure around his body. At first, he liked how quiet it was. Eventually, the raspy sound of his own breathing and the feeling of his own heartbeat threatened to drive him insane. He was unable to open his eyes. He was pretty sure the scientist didn't know he was aware of any of this. If they were, he doubted they'd care. This was far from the only time he'd ended up in this tube; the familiar waves of pins and needles as nanobots altered his DNA gave him flashbacks to when he was younger. Eventually, the pins and needles turned into pain, the only way his nervous system could process every cell in his body being changed. Every nerve in his body was trying to send a signal at once to a brain unable to process it. It was familiar somehow. It felt like a memory, but he couldn't place it. He tried to focus on it as a sense of urgency fell over him. He needed to make a mental note to tell them about the pain, to tell them he was aware of it, but his thoughts seemed to break apart like fireworks before they could be committed to memory. Not one cell in his body was able to perform properly while the DNA re-sequencing process took place.  

Eventually, the nano-bots were recalled. Though his nervous system continued to ring like a bell. His brain did what brains do: tried to relieve the pain by releasing hormones and chemicals, increasing heart rate, blood sugar, and blood pressure. At this point, the scientists were forced to react as his vitals became undesirable. Sometimes this included pain medicine, which felt like getting hit by a truck, if the truck was intangible and drove through him, only becoming solid when colliding with his veins. Other times, they'd stop and start his heart, which felt like a wave of dread radiating out from his bones, followed by a feeling similar to losing one's train of thought or waking up from an intense dream. Today they picked the truck. His mind would bury this memory deep, where all unsafe memories and feelings go, only to be visited the next time he found himself drifting just below the surface of consciousness in this horrid tube.   

The pain was intentional, so was his illness. The scientists had learned that repeated close calls with death could increase the chances of developing useful powers in their hybrid clones. Especially in younger specimens. The clones would repeatedly have their DNA altered or be secretly infected with terminal illnesses, some with more chronic illnesses thrown in. Many clones would die because the scientist underestimated how much time they had to cure them. The chronic symptoms, while manageable, would create a dependency on the labs and their treatments, with the subconscious message being "if the clones leave, they will die." They wouldn't need to send a agent to kill them, their own bodies would do it in time. Despite their constantly compromised health, they were told they were perfect, the very best science could create, and expected to meet unrealistic standards. Their handlers stressed how they were needed, their special talents meant they were too useful to allow to die or to be wasted on a mundane life. Even if the lies contradicted each other, the clones of the past with their inflated egos always believed them. By the time they learned the truth, it was near the end of their unnaturally short life spans. Though the new program director had been less convincing than the last, giving Francis and his cousins worse treatment than any other generation, fewer benefits, harsher punishments, stricter rules, and worse illnesses. Faith was a second attempt, Frank the third attempt, and Fojan (the youngest of the group) was the fifth. Francis was the only first attempt who hadn't died as a toddler and was mainly kept because they believed he was on a path to developing memory-altering powers or at minimum telepathy. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Since the museum had a private event that weekend with a formal dress code, they were encouraged to dress more formally than they were used to. Doyle hated how he looked with the haircut they forced onto him. He looked ridiculous. If Beeman could see him, he would probably say he looks like a fuzzy baby chicken, the way his hair sticks out, especially with the sides growing out. He finally talked Emmerson into letting him borrow some hair gel, using the excuse that his ridiculous cowlicks would obviously draw attention. He felt like it gave him some of his edge back to be able to style his hair again. It's very likely a footnote was added to his file about his performance improving based on his confidence in his appearance, but he didn't have time to consider the possible consequences of that. 

Edan appeared in front of him. Meeting him at the museum as if they were on a date. He had been instructed to arrive exactly 27 minutes before her, apparently, 25 or 30 would seem too artificially planned. Not that anyone at the museum cared enough to pay attention to that sort of thing. After all, they weren't doing anything shady or illegal. It was a formality of the Graymen to make even simple five-minute tasks an obnoxiously complicated ordeal. Apparently, when your entire survival as an organization depends on no one knowing you exist, you become superstitious about staging normal social interactions. Every conversation felt anticipated, every small change in body language silently documented. The amount of unspoken rules was exhausting. 

"Shall we?" Edan asked, snapping Doyle out of his thoughts and motioning for him to lead the way through the gallery. This gave him time to notice her. He almost didn't recognize her without the uniform.  

Edan was wearing a floor-length asymmetrical dress with a slit that went almost all the way to her hip on one side, paired with bead-work coverings for her sonic collar and force field bracelet. The dress was fitted to her perfectly, but still flowed nicely at the bottom. The fabric shifted from black to forest green, matching her hair. Her olive skin was covered with faded scars, everything from claw and bite marks on her arm and near her hip, a bullet wound near her shoulder, and what looked like chemical burns on her exposed leg. She was a lot thinner than Doyle expected. She touched her glasses, rotating the rims, causing them to shift to solid lime green. As long as no one looked too close,e they wouldn't be able to tell she had solid black eyes beneath the glasses. 

"Cat got your tongue?" Edan asked with a smirk. 

"No uh...I just didn't expect...you look nice," he admits. 

"Yes, well, I can't wear that heavy coat all the time...though it is a bit colder in here than I expected...we need to remain focused,"  Edan said.

"Right. So what evidence do we have that Argost was here again?" 

"It's the lack of evidence actually. There's a very exclusive list of people with both the money to purchase something so valuable from the dark web and good enough cyber-security not to leave a trace behind. There has also been no documented travel of known buyers entering or exiting Paris, meaning whoever the buyer is, they have their own private aircraft or cloaking technology. All we have are anomalous forms, messages we can only decrypt a date from, and a blackout coinciding with that date. You worked for Argost. What are your instincts telling you?"

Doyle had to think for a moment. Argost was lying low, but he was definitely out there and still looking for Zak. Zak had come clean about Argost's secret training methods shortly after he lost his eyes because the incident caused his parents to fight, both blaming themselves for their son's injuries. "I think, if Argost can't get Zak he'll settle for his copy, we have to destroy the mirror," 

"I'm not permitted to make that decision," she warned him. 

"Zak's power is dangerous enough, you can't possibly want an evil, twisted version running around! Don't tell me you forgot how screwed Paris got last time Zak Monday was here!"

"What I think is irrelevant, my handler wants the mirror. There is nothing I can do, I cannot change my nature, I follow orders, I behave predictably," she said. 

"You have a choice, everyone always has a choice. That's what separates good people from bad people," He argued, getting angrier. 

Edan stepped closer, putting a finger over his lip. "I don't believe in good or evil, after all, the truly good thing would be to return this mirror to its people, that's what I would do with it. But that wouldn't be wise since Argost could steal it back. Nevertheless, I made the only choice I was allowed to and chose to bring you along, but I will not debate morality or free will with you." 

Doyle was about to open his mouth to argue but when he locked eyes with her, something clicked. She chose to bring him along because she knew he would want to destroy the mirror.  "You think you're real clever, huh?" he asked, grabbing her wrist to gently move her hand away from his face.

She wouldn't stop him, but that also means the consequences are all his. He didn't like the idea of the Graymen having the mirror any more than he liked Argost having it. Edan seemed to agree with him on that much at least. 

Edan took his hand and led him towards the exhibit.

Doyle looked over the artifacts one by one. Most seemed real. Until he got to the mirror. It was in perfect condition, too perfect. Even without a hand lens, he could tell it had fake cracks carved into it with a laser. That's where they ran into another problem. The curator recognized them.  

"Not you! I thought I had you banned for life!" He said. 

Edan acted quickly. "Tu me manques, it's been too long. You remember me?" She said, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking him in the eyes.

Suddenly, his whole demeanor changed. His shoulders relaxed, and his expression softened from a look of anger to one of appreciation. A security guard came over to ask him if everyone was ok. The blonde French man shooed the guard away. Doyle watched confused as the two began speaking French. The man started to get bolder, touching Edan's arm while they talked. At first, she allowed it, but quickly started to look uncomfortable.

Doyle wasn't as good with other languages as his sister; he knew some basics from his travels, but mostly relied on Van Rook as a translator once he started working for him. Van Rook taught Doyle some phrases he deemed important, mostly relating to drugs, money, alcohol, insults, and women. All he could do was stand and watch at first, until he started the Frenchman started to say things even Van Rook would have seen as a red flag, he silently thanked his past mentor for the lessons.  

"I think we should go," Doyle said, grabbing her free arm. 

"All she wants to do is talk about the Indian exhibit with me, you are lucky she defended you or I'd have you kicked out," the Frenchman said. 

"Aztec," she corrected. "But my partner is right. This conversation has been enlightening, but we are supposed to meet a buyer soon, that is, unless you'd be interested in a genuine ice spear." She said, attaching herself to Doyle's arm. 

"Why would you tell me this?" The Frenchman asked. 

"We're friends, aren't we? Perhaps we can trade for it. a mirror for a spear," Edan offered, still looking the Frenchman in the eyes while avoiding Doyle's. 

"I wish I could ma chérie. But as I said, we no longer have the original. A rich man bought it and sent his assistant to pick it up last night, " he said.

"You could make it up to me if you told me who your buyer was or who his assistant was. Any defining features?" She asked,

"he was like you...um..You could be cousins. He wore goggles indoors and had a tattoo on his chin, said he was a friend of the buyer,"

Doyle recognized the description as Paul Cheechoo. "I think I...ow" 

Edan cut Doyle off by stepping on his foot. "Thank you, If you remember anything else you have my number but I'm afraid we are in a rush," Edan told the man, then led Doyle away. 

Once they were outside, she sighed and let go of Doyle's arm. "How well do you know French?" 

"Enough to know he's a total pervert, are you ok?" Doyle asked. 

"I'm used to it, there is nothing he could have done that would make a lasting impression. You sounded like you knew who our buyer might be" subconsciously holding a hand over the crook of her elbow. Out of all the scars on her body, she seemed to baby those the most.

Doyle nods, "It sounds like Paul Cheechoo, but I can't imagine him working for Argost." 

"I think we should pay your family a visit," she agreed.

Doyle was starting to understand what she meant when she promised him information. By watching her, he was able to learn more about all the clones. He had a bad feeling in his gut, the same one he got before he looked deeper into what Argost was doing. Whatever was on that file Edan had for him was going to change him just like learning about his family had.

    ︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

 Epsilon woke up in a cold sweat. He had the worst kind of dream, the kind that takes you to a time in your life you crave but can never return to. It still felt so real, the beginning part was. He was transported back into a younger body that still sported two functional arms. The Secret Scientist had barely survived Weird World. Epsilon had been one of the last ones out. The ordeal had taken days. Argost thought Epsilon was dead but hadn't gotten around to picking up his body yet. He was severely injured, slowly crawling through spaces between the walls. Eventually, he made it into a room. He was careful to close the panel in the wall behind him to not draw attention to himself. He knew he could make it into the sewers from here if he could get into the massive drain in the floor. The smell of chemicals and bodily fluids would make most people gag. To Epsilon, it sort of smelled like the experiments from his childhood. He remembered the room vividly, the embalming station, the signature outfits of his freshly dispatched friends on crudely constructed skin-covered frames. It was somewhat remarkable how fast Argost had mounted his trophies. The sickly sweet smell of decay had already set it, turning the blood in this room brown. The stains on Epsilon's coat were still red, he remembered that detail because a sense of urgency fell over him, a voice in his head telling him he needed to get out soon if he wanted to make it out while his blood was still red.  

        Before he could listen to that voice, Argost came into the room, humming as he entered.  Epsilon barely had enough time to hide behind a disposal of some kind with a puddle of dark who knows what oozing out. The smell was even stronger here, and the dampness carried the scent, embedding it in the fabric of his trench coat. After a few hours, it embedded itself into his skin, a smell only detritivores could love. Even more obnoxious was the buzzing of flies and meat-eating wasps harmonizing with the buzzing of the lights overhead. Not to mention the insistent clicking of hungry centipede and beetle legs begging their keeper for a taste of Epsilon's comrades. Worse still was the crunching and lip-smacking and scraping from Argost. He could see everything in the reflection on the puddle he sat trapped in. The shelves of harsh and aromatic chemicals, the glistening tools hanging on the wall. The silhouette of Argost with his mask off, using his teeth to strip flesh from bone, back-lit by the fluorescent bulb on the examination table. The thing that made his stomach turn the most was the familiarity of it all; everything in this room was familiar. Even the monster was familiar, Epsilon's monsters just wore lab coats and extended much less mercy. All he could do for hours was sit there, even as his legs cramped and his eyes got heavy and his stomach turned. He sat there waiting for his chance to escape. He hated Argost's breathing, he hated how he ridiculed his servants, how volatile he became, how he went from humming to growling at the most minor inconvenience. He hated how his own reflection in the puddle mixed with the monsters until he could no longer see a difference. 

        When he finally got out he didn't even think to call his own people; his first and only thought was to call Soloman and Drew. He'd learned about Drew's pregnancy before she'd been ready to tell her husband, she had gone to him for advice. It was the proudest moment of his life. At the time, getting the Kur stone had to be the priority, she couldn't risk Doc hesitating and making a mistake or worse, not letting her follow him into Weird World. If he had died while she stayed home, she'd never forgive herself. Epsilon had agreed to keep her secret, after all, it's what he does best. He needed to know if they made it out too, if they were alive, if the baby was ok. He loved them both, even though he knew he could never truly be with either of them; he'd enjoyed seeing them grow closer over the years as bitter-sweet as it was.

        That's where the memory ended and the dream began. He moved into their lab to help keep the kur stone safe. When his DNA was unstable, they'd work together to fix it. They loved him and welcomed him into their family. When he was sick, they helped care for him, he got to join them on their dates and help them with their research. He even got to help raise Zak, though in the dream, Zak looked like Francis. Having someone to co-parent with, a family to do chores and eat meals with. Even the mundane in the dream had a warmth to it that Epsilon had never gotten to experience firsthand while awake. Sure, they fought like all families sometimes did, there was close calls and broken bones but they had each other. This recurring dream always made him feel sick, not because of how vivid the start was no he had a high tolerance for that. It was the sweetness at the end that sickened his stomach and made his chest ache. An entire lifetime of pleasant memories that were never meant to be. False memories that would forever haunt him, every secret wish he gave up on over a decade ago brought to life and played on loop by his subconscious mind.  

        In reality, when he showed up on the Saturday's doorstep and spent weeks recovering in their guest room instead of checking in, it was seen as a security risk, or even an attempt at escaping the Graymen.. He was labeled as disloyal, so as a punishment, they took his arm and most of his freedoms. Then they began the replacement process. Epsilon had one last meeting with the Saturdays after the Kur stone was safely divided. He told them he was retiring, but his people would still be there to help cover things up. He promised to keep in touch but wasn't permitted to reach out to them until 11 years later. Every time he looked at his arm or Francis, he was reminded of how he lost the only chance at escape he believed he had. The small infant in his cold metal hand was both a wonder of modern science but also his own death certificate. He would be allowed to live long enough to train him, and not a day longer. 

        Now he had this permanent tracking device embedded in him that would kill him if he tried to remove it. At first, he had to charge his arm every day like Zak charges his eyes. He gained his handler's trust back over time. Now his arm needed no power source other than the power naturally generated by his nervous system. It wasn't that bad; once he got used to it, the cybernetic arm proved to be very useful. The same could be said about Francis. He'd resented him at first but settled into his role as mentor and father as best he could. The line between the two was confusing for a child; he understood that, but was never good at balancing it. All he could do was hope Francis would be better than him, either a better agent or a better person, he didn't care. If Francis ever did try to escape (f Epsilon thought the plan would work) he would turn a blind eye to it. If he thought Francis would end up being caught and punished, he would stop him before things got out of hand to try and spare him from going through what he went through with his arm. That was the promise he made to himself. It was the least he could do.   

He decided he didn't want to be alone today, not with the memories, not with Francis's unstable condition. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Zak regretted letting Faith touch his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure what a hangover was, but he was sure it couldn't be as bad as this. There was a pain behind his eyes that refused to go away, accompanied by a loud dizziness that seemed to seep out of his head and into his limbs. He turned over in bed, opening his eyes. Though the static Zak could barely make out a green, blurry blob lying on Francis's bed. "Francis?" 

Komodo hissed in response.

Zak sighed, "You miss him too, huh?" He moaned as he forced himself out of bed. "The doctors gonna kill me," 

"I certainly hope not. That's hardly a doctor's prerogative," a voice came from the doorway 

Zak yelped and stumbled, falling face-first off the bed while managing to get his leg tangled in his sheets. Epsilon was too stunned to speak at first. He'd rarely been around children other than the clone kids. None of them were half as clumsy as Zak. He always felt awkward around Zak because he found him unpredictable. Though he had seen his parents get into more than a few predicaments so when considering their behavior, Zak made sense. After meeting Doyle, he was pretty sure Zak got this from his mom and uncle's side of the family. It was extremely odd how Zak really was an amalgamation of both family trees. He often had to remind himself that Zak's origin was the relatively normal one. 

"I didn't mean to frighten you, just wake you up,"  Epsilon shook his head.

"Well, I'm definitely awake now," Zak said, rubbing his wrists. Thankfully, he caught himself by sticking his arms out. Zak froze like that for a moment before slowly lowering himself and rolling over to try and free his leg from the blurry mass of colors that engulfed it. He looked to the doorway to see if Epsilon was still there; sure enough, there was a grayish green blob watching him. 

"Would you like to accompany me to visit Francis later? He is scheduled to move to a recovery wing if his vitals remain stable. I can't promise he will be very talkative. However, he should be awake," 

"Really!? Yes, wait...my eyes," Zak frowns. 

"Let me see," Epsilon carefully moved closer, holding Zak's head still and removing Zak's glasses to look. Zak winced from the light and tried his best to be still. The pain felt different from normal light sensitivity, it felt like being shocked. "I had similar issues with my arm. The pain will pass. You should let your eyes rest, you can probably charge them tomorrow...Oh, speaking of would you like to take his place on a mission tomorrow?" 

"A mission, like outside? I don't know..." Zak said timidly 

"I've been watching you improve slowly since you got here. Even when you first got here you were a natural team leader. Stalling your field training would be a disservice to yourself, not to mention having a robotic arm limits some tasks I am able to do so without Francis, I need a new assistant," Epsilon said, tapping his foot. 

"ok fine, but I want to be able to see, and I want Doyle with us," Zak pouted.

His expression looked so much like Drew's that it almost made Epsilon laugh. Zak was clearly nervous about the idea of going back out into the world. But Epsilon knew the longer he waited, the harder it would be. "Your uncle is already on a mission. I'll bring a backup charger in case we have to remain in the field for days, and you do not have to be more than a few feet from me. is that a pleasing compromise?" 

"Not really," 

"Wonderful, so we'll both be unhappy. It's perfect," Epsilon pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Zak squinted at him. 

"What?" Epsilon asked

"You sounded like Francis just now," Zak said, partly as a joke. it was uncanny how similar they sounded. Other than Epsilon's voice sounding aged, they sounded the same. They wheezed the same, had the same inflections and vocal quirks, same odd vocabulary but it was the tone of amusement masked as annoyance that no one could master in quite the same way that always got Zak. 

"Just get dressed," Epsilon turned and closed the door behind him. 

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

The light filtering into the room when Epsilon and Zak entered woke Francis. He whimpered, shielding his eyes for a moment. The room was dark to allow him to take his glasses off comfortably. He'd been left in the room for hours before visitors were allowed. At first, he didn't know where he was; he knew he wasn't in his bed and, for a moment, believed he was outside in a random hotel room. 

"It's me, are you ok?" Zak asked as he and Komodo made their way to the bedside, breaking the illusion. Epsilon stood back to watch, knowing Zak would likely be able to comfort Francis more than he could. Komodo hissed to warn them he was about to jump onto the bed. He wasn't sure what was wrong, but the lizard wanted to help. Francis removed Komodo's harness so he could be more comfortable on the bed. Zak squinted to try and get a good look at his friend's face. He couldn't tell if his eyes were black or if it was the lighting casting a shadow over them. 

"Don't look into his eyes too long, they can trigger psychosis in humans," Epsilon warns Zak. 

"He seems fine," Francis said, "It doesn't feel like it's working on him." 

"Psychosis? Can you make people go crazy? Maybe I can't see well enough," Zak shrugged. He thought it was a cool power. "Why didn't you tell me?" 

"You should still be careful, The effect gets worse with prolonged exposure, We also noticed that the effect can be stronger on people who are already anticipating it that's why we didn't tell you, if you are immune you'd be the first" Epsilon explained "Francis, your doctors want you under observation for the next week at least, and you're on strict bed rest for the next 48 hours, don't try to walk without assistance, you will injure yourself further." 

"What will you do until I'm healed?"  Francis asked

"Zak will take your place. The only missions I have currently are routine so I'm sure he can handle it and it should help his anxiety," Epsilon said. He wasn't entirely sure how Francis would respond to this news.

"What anxiety? I'm fine, I was just worried! We just became friends, and then you try to die on me!?" Zak said. 

"What makes you think we're friends?" Francis asked. Suddenly in a much worse mood. Komodo hissed and clicked his tongue at him. Francis tried to remain stoic but couldn't help giving Komodo a few head scratches. Of course, they had become friends, or an equivalent. Regardless, it hurt him to think about Zak replacing him, even if it was only for a short while. Francis couldn't tell what hurt more, The Idea that Epsilon might treat Zak better than him or that Epsilon might treat Zak exactly like him. Somehow, both options seemed bad; he wanted to be mature and convince himself this was all just work-related, but at the end of the day, he's still a kid. 

"Zak came to see you yesterday, he almost ruined his eyes just so he could see you. Don't be crossed with him when you did this to yourself," Epsilon scolded him, then placed a hand on Zak's shoulder. "I believe Zak is ready for this." 

Francis rolled over to face away from them. This was as much as he could permit himself to act out. As a side effect of the procedure, he felt like this body wasn't his. As if he'd swapped places with an identical version of himself from another timeline where all of his senses were ever so slightly off. He wasn't able to remember a time when anyone had ever waited for him to be ready for anything, let alone comfort and support him like he was doing for Zak. It wasn't fair and felt wrong. If anyone needed comfort, shouldn't it be the son who almost died? And didn't Zak know Epsilon was manipulating him? Wasn't it sickeningly obvious? 

"Zak, can you wait in the hallway for me, I want to talk to my son alone. I'll give you two a moment together when I'm done," Epsilon said. 

Zak hesitated, but when Francis didn't protest, he obeyed. Giving the clones space. 

"Why are you being difficult? Why didn't you tell anyone when your symptoms started? You caused a lot of headaches in the lab and for our handlers, why?" Epsilon asked. His tone got him growled at by Komodo. He was pretty sure the lizard couldn't tattle on them to Zak, but he fixed his tone just in case. "What's bothering you?"

"Why do you treat Zak so differently?" Francis asked, petting the lizard to calm both Komodo and himself down. Then he rolled onto his back again so he could look at his father. When he rolled over the room seemed to spin with him, his body felt so heavy. He wanted to cry, but found he had no energy to.

"He isn't like you. Besides our mission, with him dictates we gain his trust by any means necessary. Left uncontrolled, Kurs powers will destroy mindkind we have to control it," Epsilon said 

"We're both children, you know?" Francis meant for it to be an inside thought; he had said it so softly and was so tired that he immediately forgot he had spoken. He definitely didn't expect a response.  

"Oh, Francis...you know none of us are afforded that luxury, not really," Epsilon said, moving Francis's bangs out of his face. For a moment, a vision from his dream replayed in his mind, a life where all he had to be to Francis was a father. He pulled away and turned to look at the door. Pushing the intrusive thought down as far as he could.

Most of the time, Epsilon wanted to pretend he didn't care; he told himself it was for Francis' benefit. He loved him and sometimes it slipped through. He felt guilty for giving him false hope each time, he knew he would die sooner rather than later, and it would be easier if Francis hated him completely when that happened. If he grieved the loving parent while he still lived, he'd be better off in the end. At least that was one of the lies Epsilon told himself. Part of him secretly hoped Zak would be able to help Francis escape this cycle, but he didn't dare let himself dwell on the thought too long. Censoring his thoughts to ones more approved by their handlers was second nature, even if he was the only mind reader here. 

"I'll give you and Zak a moment alone. Try to play nice...Oh, I brought your handheld." Epsilon handed Francis a gaming device. It was used to build skills like memory and precision. It just happened that play is the best way to develop these skills. It wasn't much, but it was an attempt. A small kindness he could write off as simply investing in Francis adapting to his new body so he'd be a more efficient agent faster. After that, he left to let Zak back in, taking his place in the hallway. 

Zak was quick to return to Francis' side, feeling for the curtain around the bed as he moved into the room.  "We are friends, just so you know.  Look, even Komodo knows" 

"Fine, we're whatever you say," 

"I mean it. I know your people just want to use my powers like Argost. Or to experiment on me or whatever. But I also know you're different. So whatever it takes, I'm on your side," Zak promised. 

"What if you're wrong? Look how easily Argost manipulated you, what makes you think I can't?" 

"ok so I don't always have good instincts about this stuff, but...this situation sucks for both of us. And I'm probably the reason no one noticed you were sick. I should have noticed. I'm sorry. I'm going to make it up to you, though."

"Not that I have a choice. But how?" 

"I don't know yet. But I'll stay here as long as it takes to figure it out," Zak said

"You're so predictable. This is exactly what our bosses wanted. You can't save me, Zak. I am what I was designed to be, I can't escape it any more than you can escape being Kur," 

"There's always a choice. I'm choosing this, I'm choosing you, I made a promise to myself when I saw you floating in that tank. Besides, if your feelings about your mom were real, even though she never existed, then so is our friendship," Zak explained

Francis was surprised Zak remembered that. He was even more surprised that Zak seemed to genuinely care; he even gave off the illusion he had a plan. Though Francis couldn't allow himself to imagine a different life, he did accept that, like it or not, this is what friends do. Their friendship survived their first fight. 

"I'm tired...can he stay until I fall asleep?" Francis asked, looking down at Komodo. 

"Do you mean Komodo?" Zak guessed. "Sure," 

Francis wrapped his arms around Kmodo and closed his eyes, he felt awkward with Zak watching him, even though he knew Zak couldn't see much right now. "I can feel you watching me Saturday," 

"oh, sorry...hey why don't you keep him until I get back after the mission tomorrow?" Zak asked. 

"Really?...ok." Francis was secretly grateful, for some reason, having Komodo there distracted him from how bad everything felt. He was afraid of his own body, as illogical as it was he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't his. "I can't take care of him that well," 

"that's ok, Komodo dragons can go almost a whole month without food so he should be fine until I get back," Zak explained. 

"no wonder they got you a dragon instead of a dog" Francis muttered. 

Zak laughed, sure it was a little mean but Francis being mean was a good sign. Zak assumed it meant his friend would be ok. "bye Francis,"