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[rexthebuilder]

I can't come to the phone right now because I'm either kicking EVO butt or hanging out with friends. Leave a message after the beep, and I'll get back to you pronto!

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[pineapplesalmon]

A smile twitches at the corner of César's mouth as he looks over to Rex. "Your microexpression and physical reaction says otherwise."

It's said gently. Neutrally. Unjudging.

[rexthebuilder]

With that soft smile Rex remembers that César used to give him all the time.

Rex furrows his brows and says nothing. Waiting. Seeing what hand César will play.

[pineapplesalmon]

"Microexpressions are brief, involuntary facial movements that reveals a person's true emotions. Mine are pretty bad, too. I got much better at controlling my expression, body, and voice in general so I could fool Black Knight, but I'm surprised I still got away with everything."

César lays down his first card on the table, but face up instead of down so that Rex can see it.

[rexthebuilder]

Rex's eyebrows relax, and he turns to look at César more directly, a note of bitterness on his voice. "... ... ... Black Knight wasn't the only one fooled."

He lays down his card more tentatively, hand remaining on it with it only half flipped over, still deciding if he wants to play it.

[pineapplesalmon]

César's a bit surprised but relieved that the card even came out at all. All of this is metaphorical of course. He taps his to activate it.

"But you were never completely fooled. It's why you kept reaching out. And it's why I had to Gray Rock you to keep you safe and act like Black Knight wanted. ... well, as well as I could, anyways. I almost broken down and told you everything both when you came into the lab demanding answers and later when Gabriel told me to."

CW: Mind control, enslavement, how is this a child's show

[rexthebuilder]

Rex breathes. His heart is pounding and his stomach is doing flip-flops. He feels a little sick, and this isn't something he wants to talk about now at all. Preferably, never. He'd rather forget it all happened.

But it's also the elephant in the room that's sitting on his chest and making it hard to breathe.

"You tried to collar me." Rex's eyes flash with anger, flipping over and slamming the card down with a shaking hand.

[pineapplesalmon]

He's so much like our mother. That hot anger about what's just.

"I know." César's shoulders sag a little forward and his eyes close. "The worst moment of my life."

[rexthebuilder]

Rex launches up into a sitting position, his sending stone falling forward somewhere around his knees, and he glares at César, spitting with rage.

"Your worst memory? Do you have any idea how that felt?"

[pineapplesalmon]

César doesn't shrink from the rage, but he lets his pain show all the same. He makes himself look back at Rex. He's the adult here.

"I know that it's safer to feel angry than afraid." As Rex's hand trembles on his card, César's remains steady.

[rexthebuilder]

Rex refuses to admit it. "That was torture." Distancing himself from what happened with his words, even as angry as he is.

[pineapplesalmon]

"It was." César's heart rate is up, and his expression tries to blank, but he forces the emotions to bubble back up.

[rexthebuilder]

Rex hardly notices César's expression. "Even if you had to fool Black Knight, fool me—"

[pineapplesalmon]

Ah, so Rex had processed that.

[rexthebuilder]

"—Were you really going to let her do whatever she wanted with me?!" Rex is terrified, and it's safer to act like he's a second away from launching at his brother.

[pineapplesalmon]

César plays the card hidden up his sleeve.

"No. I was keeping you alive until Six and Holiday could use the intelligence they gained from the robotic Bobo to mount a rescue mission." A beat. "They came even sooner than I could have ever dared to hope."

[rexthebuilder]

"You—"

[rexthebuilder]

Rex drops his card as confusion slaps anger out of his hand.

[rexthebuilder]

His anger is forgotten. Magne hadn't mentioned that, and Rex has a feeling she doesn't know at all. It doesn't make sense.

For the first time, Rex looks vulnerable, afraid, searching for words. "You knew about Robo Bobo? You knew they'd come to save me?"

Please. It's got to be true. He can't live with the alternative.

[pineapplesalmon]

César finally scoots closer and puts his hands on Rex's shoulders, voice and touch gentle. "Rex... his eyes didn't glow. Because they couldn't. The nanite coherence necessary for the collars to work is impossible outside of a living body. I programmed them that way so we could tell who had a collar at a glance."

[rexthebuilder]

Rex fights the relief he desperately wants to feel. César called them collars.. He forces that angry shield partially back up. No. Stay angry.

"But Holiday said he was enough to fool your equipment."

[pineapplesalmon]

"Mine at Providence, yes. Mine in my mobile lab? Almost." A smile flickers over César's face momentarily. "Holiday might've had access to Providence's computers and Robo Bobo, as you called him, only saw those screens. I didn't let him see my own, and I said to him the anomalous readings on Providence's equipment must've been a fluke."

[rexthebuilder]

Stay mad, stay mad. Stay mad!

[pineapplesalmon]

"Doctor Holiday's work was impeccable; he just wasn't alive." César's voice lightens up with a near laugh as he keeps speaking. "I had to cover for that, you know. Come up with some fake 'theories' and the like. She was still suspicious, but not of me. I knew Providence would likely find you first, and by the time the 'Confine, Constrain, and Control' protocol replaced 'Cure, Contain, Kill', I knew you'd have to get out. Robo Bobo solved the issue of how to communicate your return to the people I knew would keep you safe."

[rexthebuilder]

Stop. Making. SENSE!

"Why the collars?" Rex asks coolly. "Why, César?"

He knows to ask because of Magne. But that doesn't mean he still doesn't need to hear it directly from César's mouth.

[pineapplesalmon]

César's mildly impressed Rex is straight up asking. He thought he'd have to lead into that himself.

"What do you think the Providence protocol became after you vanished?" There's no more cards, now. More walking Rex down the halls of his mind and reasoning.

Rex still hasn't knocked his hands away. He's listening.