"No."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXyjzocPC1x
"Yes."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM2fV7jUOJY
"No."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn2JINeubQ6
"Yes."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUih1wEUQw
"You're lying!"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEHtvVrD2K
"I'm not."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDWdr0Cx8C
Yes he is! He must be!
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYecRZ5HK8
"You are!"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHvtEkfuzDh
"Really, I'm not," he deadpanned, but it was easier said than believed.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6HdZJBlRb
"Gemma?" I gawped.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSu9KMafNU
"I believe I've specified that before."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44iFL0W4kj
"You better not be lying to me, or I swear to God—"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYju6GIfoNi
"202," he stepped towards me, "I'm not lying."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OcKrC6sVK
I stared into the distance, bewildered. "Gemma?" I repeated. "Gemma Reynolds?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Ip1slT3rt
"Yes."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDo1PJYS3XA
"You're not just winding me up, are you?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUaG4iIUTO
"Should I even bother answering that?" he replied bluntly.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavcj8Z4Lxd
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Of all the people in the world..." I looked at Everest. "Do you know how many people are in the world?!"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyht4neGnn
"As of now, seven billion, increasing at a rate of one-point-zeo-nine percent."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXRUPj39GIM
I smiled, bitterly. "Seven billion people, increasing at a rate of one-point-zero-nine percent?" My smile morphed into a scowl. "Seven billion goddamn people, and it had to be Gemma! Gemma bloody Reynolds!" I spat.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF6ZBfnVsLN
"Reasonably speaking, her dad was the only person who knew about what the Front had been up to."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCauwpW1U9s
"That's why he set up a branch in London anyway."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLj6F8pIkCz
In actual fact, Robert Reynolds was American, as was Gemma – that was why everyone made a huge deal out of it when she appeared at the launch evening. The base of their company was located in San Francisco, but just after the discovery of the cure, Robert established another commercial building in London, – hmm, I wonder why – making it geographically closer to the Front's Headquarters. The two rivals were practically neighbours.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xL4UVXK4S
Suddenly, I gasped, realising something. "That's why you wanted to go to London!" My stare attempted to penetrate through his rigid exterior. "To find Gemma!"
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"Needed," he corrected.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRGTzi1RjZ
"Oh, come off it," I grumbled. "What do you even intend on doing there, anyway? Walk in, and demand they give you the drug?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnOyrEn80Tw
Silence dominated the forest.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Ho0YtnAaa
"Oh for the love of God, just tell me! I think we're past the whole I-ask-you-questions-and-you-don't-answer-them phase."
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"Fine. That's exactly what we're going to do."
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"The, I ask you questions, and you don't answer them phase?" I quizzed.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgzkSRMqIW
"No."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡulqm5rvTmc
"We're going to demand the drug from Gemma?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwn2qOhBumz
"We will take a more tactful approach, than how you put it."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8ZuRmIpID
"Define tactful."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOmfoGy4bdu
"Smarter," he said, flatly.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSLgJPsabY
"Hey!" I swatted his arm. It was equivalent to hitting steel. "And then, what?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91PdUigWz7
"We expose Director."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5OlpWi4fbx
Good plan. Except: "How are we going to do that?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJaBwhcj7hk
"One thing at a time, 202."
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***
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"So, you're telling me," I spoke, nibbling on an almond. "That this time next year, I'd be dead?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeWYVuQJGf
Even with the bizarre ability to maintain hunger for an abnormally long period of time, it didn't take much brainpower to understand that two days without food or water was over-doing it. Hence, the next morning, we busied ourselves with the job of finding edible food; it proved to be a success.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRJadFGBa6O
Everest gave a curt nod.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKubzUToMNZ
Wow.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxt6OzhTVL
"Because the semi-cure only lasts twenty years, or so?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tFHzOUUCs
We also agreed on calling 202 the 'semi-cure', since it only half worked.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5jlVCoAie
He nodded again.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnr09OMnX3q
Wow.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4VHq6hiDC3
"And they were serious about the termination thing?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVLIZTTPOE
Another nod.
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Wow.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoYRGmqGez
"So, the real reason for the termination wasn't because you're better than me; it was because they're going to release 202 anyway, but didn't want the world to know that it doesn't do what everyone what everyone actually think it does?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡovVMGeykLF
"Not quite. I'm still better. It's how they made me."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmWKZoMhzA
I scoffed. "And how exactly did they make you? I mean, Director did say that you have something that I don't. What?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ3PTfRMhEY
This time, I didn't even get a nod – not that it was a question that could be answered with a simple nod, anyway.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6J3UIJq5P
"It's getting late, we have to move," he said, a while later, getting up.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkDsgnD8377
"It's midday," I stated, cornering him. Physically.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4VOjxFCnF
"It doesn't matter—"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rQkYhIsfv
"What do you have, that I don't?" I demanded.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMJVp3mFtE
"Brain cells."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaFgbND1o6
I gasped. Humour was my thing!
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXQQY08lBEq
"Dead brain cells!" I couldn't help but shoot back.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9ObqUG79F
"We both know that I'm smarter than you," he retaliated.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLqDtanIwi
"Tell me!" I pushed.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6xbHEqeZZ
And we're back to square one.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QBlyK3bRS
"I don't owe you anything, 202," he replied.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRVMfOef36q
No! Do something, quick! Make him answer!
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡulT9MjfphD
A sad smile plastered itself across my face. "That's true, you don't. But I'm going to die soon," Ha! Of course I wasn't planning on dying! "So whatever you say, I'll take to my grave." I sighed for effect. "Isn't that enough insurance for you?"
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His chiseled face remained as still as igneous rock. "You and I both know you are not dying. Now, drop it."
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Unexpectedly, that made me feel a tad – just a tad – better. But the second part of his response initiated frustration.
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"Bloody hell, just tell me!" I rid myself of my vulnerable pretense. "You know everything about me! Hell, you know more about me than I do! So, you do, in fact, owe me this!" Plus, the curiosity was eating me inside out.
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At first, I received no response. Then, just as I was about to cuss him for being his obstinate self, he spoke; his voice low.
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"It's not what I have. It's what I don't have."
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Don't have? My mind flickered through the various things which he might've lacked in order to make him stronger. Fatigue? Flesh? Nerve-endings?
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"Emotions," he stated.
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Emotions?
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"Yeah well, I knew that," I replied, uninterested in the obvious.
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"No. Neurologically speaking. I don't have emotions."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxp3SFlDWn
I made a face. "What do you mean? You do have emotions." I could name a few: anger, distrust (in me, particularly), pride, annoyance (at me also), narcissism... it went on!
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39vq5QzjQ8
He gave me the same cold look that I'd already received a hundred too many times from him. "Of course I have emotions. I said, Director took away emotions, not emotion."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZHMhjxIaZQ
What the hell?
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I snatched the almonds from his hands. "They're doing something to you."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxZEHP5ly8
"They're not," he said, taking them back. "When I said emotions, I meant they took away specific emotions, not all of my emotion. If that were the case, they would have created a robot."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQNvrp1QLRL
"They already have," I muttered, unable to restrain the comment from slipping out.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡobGY1ZUuSg
He sent me a glare that could have cooled plasma.
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I shuddered. "Kidding. Continue."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9NKcQFGD2p
"They removed emotions that cause weakness."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPQUOcynDAW
I cocked my head. "Weakness?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQJrnUVYcB
"Grief, empathy, shame, remorse, fear, love," he recited at meteoric speed.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAI3wKU3bkM
I glanced up, repeating them in my mind, at a much slower pace...
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUpoBwrG9h
Oh.
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True, such an act seemed impossible. But for a multibillionaire company that possessed laboratories which stretched as far as football pitches, it would have been as easy as baking a cake. Scratch that; I tried baking a cake once, and that night, I went to bed with a blocked ear, thanks to the relentless screeching of those damned fire alarms.
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"When?"
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"When they decided they wanted you dead." He clearly didn't understand the concept of sugar coating certain details, I concluded.
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Gazing at his handsome yet stony face, I uselessly pondered at the thought of what it must feel like to have your emotions torn out of you – or rather, what it wouldn't feel like. Eventually, I gave up on the thought, realising how it paralleled a paradox: He wouldn't have felt loss, because they seized the very thing that stimulates the feeling of loss. So he wouldn't have actually felt like he lost something, despite simultaneously acknowledging the fact that he had.
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I fiddled with the ring in my eyebrow. In a twisted way, Director played us both. But why him?
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"So when they said you have something I don't have, they meant you haven't got something, I have?"
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"Yes. You've got weakness, and I haven't," he stated.
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"I was talking about emotions! And these emotions don't make you weak! They make you... a good person. They make you human!"
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"And that leads to weakness."
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"That's a lie. They fed you lies."
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"Is it? If that's the case, am I right in saying that loss wouldn't bring about grief? And, that in turn, wouldn't drag you down?"
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He was doing it again! He was turning my views against themselves.
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"That depends on how you handle it," I said, sternly. "Emotions are a work of nature; you can't control it. It might drag some people into a dark corner, but other people fight it. That's what being strong is."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHSMKyZ0rjC
"What if you can't bring yourself out of a dark corner?" For the first time since I met him, the question wasn't asked in rebuttal, but rather as a genuine question. He was actually asking me, to answer something for him.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdrKhVa74J
Wow, they really did remove those emotions.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdnl1EOtogn
But if the question were asked to contradict what I said, then he had a point. "Then... that's it." Suddenly the feeling of defeat spread through me, one which I despised. "But getting these natural emotions removed just so you don't have to experience them isn't strength. It's cowardice."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2cMk0u0Xv
Something flashed in his eyes, in that moment, but was concealed just as fast. A poor acorn stood, frozen under his glare. "I didn't ask for this."
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I sighed, guilt flushing through my veins. "Everest, I didn't mean that."
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"No," he said, emotionless. Right. No sorrow. Got it.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpPlBAd6fG
This discovery made me contemplate one thing, in particular: Was the front constructed of a bunch of Hitlers? Because, damn, was there anything else left on that evil things to do list of theirs?
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I peered back at everest; his eyes were still fixated on the acorn.
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"How did they do it?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXRVyJpNtU
"You can find out if you take a fourteen year neurology course at university."
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Translation: I don't know.
Then he added, "But they also..." he hesitated, "... they used aversion therapy on me." For a moment he looked like he regretted saying it as though he had said too much.
But it didn't really make sense to me. "Aversion therapy?" I inquired. "Like the ones they give to alcoholics to make them quit?"
He nodded.
"So, what? They used aversion therapy to discourage emotions?"
His visage was cold again, as he shortly replied, "That's exactly what they did."
When did they do it?"
When I first asked it, it felt like an ordinary question, prompted by sheer curiosity. It was when his jaw clenched, that I reconsidered its significance.
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"They started it when you were nine, a few years after they made you, you know, 202," he clarified. "It was after they found out where they went wrong with the cure."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1PV1YYAmU3
I was about to ask why, when it hit me. They noticed that they had messed up. They rid Everest of removed grief, empathy, shame, remorse, fear, love, so that he wouldn't feel the traditional guilt that is usually felt when someone murders another person in cold blood – cold blood indeed, if he had to fuse both of our bloods to finish the job. But the point was, they were preparing him for it! But, that also meant...
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"They meant to kill me since I was nine years! Not just recently!"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv8cKqFbZEf
"Yes."
"Using you!"
"Yes."
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"That's why they took your emotions away."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAa9mYPnjrd
"Yes."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvbKGLW92FG
"You were supposed to kill me."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiWUZ1E2XuW
"Yes."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUFAGUBaHNM
"You were supposed to kill me!"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYzourcPQ5M
"We've established that already."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5Hbzm3Ng1
"No. You were supposed to kill me. So why didn't you?"
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I wasn't really expecting him to declare his undying love for me, or anything, especially regarding the whole removal of emotions thing, but his reply was drier than I had expected.
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"I didn't want to slave for Director."
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I raised an eyebrow. I knew he wasn't being honest with me as soon as he said it – not that I particularly expected him to be honest either.
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"And it took you up till the last minute to decide this, huh?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LY4895pWM
"If you suppose."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5YVPbGrto
"Be honest!" I demanded. "You wouldn't have ended up in this position, in the middle of a forest scavenging for food. Why didn't you follow Director's orders?"
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfoOkBlY511
His face remained unmoved. "I don't have to explain myself to you, 202."
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qvQLr6RCF
No, he didn't. I could have tortured the answer out of him, but it wasn't important, anyway. He had already told me everything I needed to know, including the whole Gemma Reynolds thing.
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So, London it is.
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____________________________________________________________________________
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Author's note: To those bothered to read:
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And there you have it, folks, your (and Emerald's) burning questions have finally been answered. Now, that wasn't so hard was it, Everest?
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What was your reaction when you found out Everest's secret?
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlpKbGnPfkt
Thank you for reading, I really, really appreciate your amazing taste in books. Please, vote comment (no, seriously, go nuts), and share.
648Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxFccT4buu
-Ruth
ns3.23.102.192da2 
