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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]

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.

[rexthebuilder]

"Contain, Kill." Rex knows where this is going. The anger starts to fade, and he stops fighting it.

[pineapplesalmon]

A nod. César squeezes his shoulders.

"Doctor Holiday and Six left when White Knight was removed to look for you. Black Knight took over Providence as the number of captured and uncured EVOs started ballooning; we were bursting at the seams. She started looking over the books for 'cost savings'. Reducing the number of EVOs were were holding became a priority target."

[rexthebuilder]

The squeeze prepares Rex, if only a little. He feels numb. "... Kill."

[pineapplesalmon]

César nods again. "I had to create a fourth option. One that Black Knight and the Consortium would accept without question. One that would make saving lives a priority. And the languages they spoke were money and power. It was the only possible solution." A beat. "You can't save people when they're dead."

[rexthebuilder]

People. Not humans. People.

It rolls off César's tongue naturally. He already made the choice to use it long ago; that much is obvious to Rex. And that, too, is something Rex needed to hear.

Rex's anger is gone. But he's still stubbornly dragging his heals even as he walks through his brother's logic. Looking for hidden enemies in the corridors.

"Why didn't you tell me all this weeks ago? This was important." It's a question only César can answer.

[pineapplesalmon]

"I was a broken man after working under Black Knight for so long, Rex. I was tired. I didn't expect your forgiveness... or anyone's, really." César's thumbs rub across Rex's shoulders, and he lets out a sigh.

"I've been here ten months. I would've been ready to tell you in one, maybe two, here. Because Magne and so many other people helped me piece myself back together, and the adhesive had begun to set." That timeline is important. "The man I was back home had no one, and he hadn't even had time to grieve for our parents. Which aren't excuses, just... the condition I arrived in here."

[rexthebuilder]

Rex is unusually quiet.

"If you meant to save everyone with the collars, then why did you lie to me when I confronted you about them?" He asks, finally.

[pineapplesalmon]

César blinks at Rex.

[pineapplesalmon]

Wait. Rex is serious.

[pineapplesalmon]

"Rex. Mijo." Okay, there's definitely laughter this time in his voice. "Security cameras with audio?"

[rexthebuilder]

A little thrill as César calls him by that endearment again before the gears stop turning together in his head.

[rexthebuilder]

One gear is spinning freely.

[rexthebuilder]

Its teeth almost catch its neighbor.

[rexthebuilder]

And then, somehow, the spinning gear finally contacts properly with its neighbor, and Rex's entire brain restarts.