#generator rex black knight

[god-help-me-pls]

if u see a mistake no u dont

[eelektrossfan]

Strategy to your (own) demise

[whispering-radiance]

| Generator Rex doodles |

This show is constantly on my mind— Each character is so well written and overall it’s really fun to rewatch >:33

[hyakilove129]

[crystal-moon-101]

If you could of change one evo design with one would it be how and why + do you like the ending of the show or you are not happy that Rex just deactivated the nanaits.

I presume you're asking if I could change a canon evo design, which one would it be. The first ones that come to mind are Black Knight and The Consortium. They just look way too robotic and play into a lot of the problems I have with the metananites stuff. I have done my redesigns for them, with Black Knight getting her own one, while the The Consortium become a fused Evo.

In terms of your second question, and I am very much not a fan of how the show ended for many reasons, reasons I could list off in an entire rant, but I will contain myself, lol. In general my biggest problem was it felt rushed, was way too crazy for the grounded story the first season planted, and I just didn't like how they handled the end of certain plot lines. Including how Rex handled evos and curing them. Generator Rex presented itself as a more complex show, trying to show things aren't always black and white, and to not take things at face value. This includes evos and how they were presented. The ending kind of sours it, along with ending a lot of unanswered questions in the air.

[providencehq]

Maybe the omega nanite will cure your fucked up body, who knows

Additional versions under readmore:

OG evo form of Brook (Black Knight) for my reverse AU my beloved. I'm trying to figure out textures right now.... very cruel in CSP. Also I trying to not do lineart, experimentation time

[fisksaturday]

i was gonna draw more of this before i posted it but drawing is hard and i drew these like 400 years ago. so here it is

generator rex swap au, a little about it under the cut

beverly swaps with rex

césar swaps with holiday

black knight swaps with six

circe swaps with noah

i considered van kleiss and white knight swap but their personalities just. would not work in each others scenarios. like the vibes are all off. so they dont swap at all its just regular for them

heres evo rex

[sunyfan]

The Number That Changes Everything

3 years ago, I had suspicions that Rex might have a different age. So to dispel all my doubts, I began to draw a timeline of events using measurable facts:

Besides the show, there are other sources indicating that Rex’s current age is 15 years old.

I get it, Man of Action, it’s a “red line” that I shouldn’t cross if I really want to know the truth ^_^

As a result, I got 5 scales:

These scales on Rex’s timeline:

Even in the first version of the graph I have obvious conclusions:

Rex’s birthday is clearly not the same date as Six’s, despite the fact that an entire episode was devoted to this topic.

The Nanite Event and Six’s memory loss also did not occur on this date, otherwise we learned it from Caesar.

Yeas, the show has a character like Caesar, but lack of mention or hint of Rex’s true age from him, don’t letting me to set colored scales correctly..

I could have made a lot of versions of scales location, but something told me to pay attention to dots and that there is also a connection between them..

Hmm… dots forming another scale…

No way..

You’ve got to be kidding me?

Is it for real?

So thanks to WIKI I can even set the correct proportions!

Since things of «Lions and Lambs» and «Back to Black» happen on the same day for Rex, I placed dots on the same level.

I can’t make the dot’s scale longer/shorter because it affects the time and course of events

Well, I have the correct positions of colored scales (second graph), but still no answers. Perhaps if I add Six’s timeline, it will be easier for me to search.

Based on Six’s timeline, almost 2 years have passed in the show, and since there is not a single hint about Rex’s age in the series, so it’s quite possible that the answer lies in the gap of 6 months. But how far should I move Rex’s scale?

The show featured numbers such as «5», «6», «10» (Ben 10) and «15», where the number «6» has a special meaning:

Only 6 Master Control Nanites 6th dangerous man on the planet Six lost 6 years of memory Rex remembers his last 6 years Rex was sent 6 months into the future

Definitely, creators have another, special number and they had moments when they changed the airing dates of episodes just for this certain number. And I can tell which episode this happened.

The show has a special: «HEROES UNITED», the official release of which was 11.25.2011, in other words, it was the 3rd episode on air, but on GRwiki it goes as the 11th episode. Why did they decide to use 11?

I know MOA have such a character as Kevin 11, you don’t have to comment about it ^^

Besides this, «11» also relates to the another ep. like «Back to Black» which was released on the beautiful date: 11.11.2011. It’s remarkable that just in this episode we learn how scared Rex can be when he sees that Providence instantly changed for him, like he had lost his memory again.

But he is not the only one. Six also was in same situation. And do you know what I found out? «11» has its plase in «Six minus Six» too!

When Six was released from his obligation to search for Rex’s family, and One was gone, the anxiety is over in his life. But it wasn’t for long. Сreators hinted back in the series “Promises, Promises” that changes await him.. Six: «Whether for good or ill, our fates will follow the same path».

But that’s not all!

This is it, guys…

One day… some artists of the show published their resume of Generator Rex in honor of it’s anniversary.

Guys!..

It was in 11th Anniversary! 11th! This number is truly special, no less than «6»!

It was in «Six minus Six» where Six changed, It was in «Back to Black» where Providence has changed, It was in «Heroes United» where Ben helped save the World from Alpha, changing Rex’s Builds. And it was on the day when Six found Rex, boy’s life IS CHANGED!

Rex was 11 years old!

I’m not sure that Rex’s and Six’s birthdays are identical, but it’s enough for me to know that these dates in that same 6-month gap. As a result, Rex missed both of his birthdays according to the calendar and memory. And the fact that Rex remembers 6 years was a clue to his true age all these years … astoundingly o_O

Man of Action, I'm giving a standing applaud! It feels like a whole paradigm has changed!.. For good, of course ^^

BONUS

When I was studying the coincidences with the number 11, I thought that if I slightly change the positions of episodes of Season 3, because the existing one looks unnatural and this is what I got:

As far as I remember, starting from the “Black and White”, both sides began to search for meta-nanites and apparently the last one should have been found in special episode, in which Six’s memory should be back too, because it was maaany hints abouth this [ in ep. «End Game 1 & 2» ]… and so as we found out, the creators leave hints for a reason. Also in the same special, the leadership of Providence passes from Black Knight to White, because in the episode «End Game 2» after Rex was kidnapped, Six receives support from the army.

[mariusageyn]

something for my genrex au...

[disgruntledexplainer]

the characters of Generator Rex as living symbols

Something interesting that's been bouncing around my head for years is the inherent symbolism of several of the characters in Generator Rex.

Van Kleiss is transhumanism; the philosophy that humanity can and should be changed into something new through technology. in other words, he is the idea that humans should abandon their humanity to become gods, at any cost. he's brilliant, but menacing, and everywhere he goes unsettling change follows. he commands nature, enslaves time and space, and nearly becomes what he seeks to be, but he leaves suffering and misery in his wake.

White Knight is the inverse of this, a reactionary fear of change. he sits alone in his sterile room to insulate himself from change. he is the last vestige of the old order, the last memory of humanity before the event. he may be a "good guy", but in the first 2 seasons he's a nasty old bastard all the same. ultimately his efforts preserve humanity, but also hold it back from truly growing.

Black Knight is something of a synthesis of Van Kleiss and White Knight. She is a symbol of the old order, but specifically the part of the old order which brought about the new order. she is power hungry but calculating and manipulative, and willing to crush others under her heel if it allows her to get what she wants. she is in many ways similar to a bureaucrat, ceo, politician, or career military officer, or some kind of combination of the most dangerous and callous elements of all four.

Caesar Salazar represents science, in all it's glory, and all it's horror. He is capable of creating devices which can entertain and make life easier for others, and to solve problems which everyone else is unable to solve. but he also creates weapons of terrifying power, and has a knack for inventing things that nearly end the world by accident, over and over again.

So where does that leave Rex? well, that's simple. Rex is the living manifestation of all the positive aspects of science and technology, all of the potential of humanity's mind and spirit. He heals the sick and defends those who cannot defend themselves. he builds, he fixes, he creates wonders. he is a living miracle. in many ways he represents humanity at it's very best, even with his disdain for authority and difficulty following directions.

of course characters like no-face, hunter cain, quarry, and gatlock are also living symbols, but I don't feel like typing all day. if anyone wants to pick up where I left off through reblogs, feel free.

[triysn]

Guyyss why doesn’t anyone ever talk about how shitty white knight was at his job. He was never even meant to lead a paramilitary organisation he was some mid-tier hired merc who went around driving graffitied armoured tanks and being a misogynist then he tried to murder a kid and almost got murdered instead (had to be saved by the kid he tried to kill smh) and got thrown into the job literally as a puppet leader. He calls himself a “poster boy” in Promises, Promises, verbatim.

Then he ends up being a really annoying boss who just tries to blow stuff up and yells at people unhelpfully. It’s so clear he’s still trying to play by the ‘soldier’ rulebook because he just tries to KILL EVERYTHING THAT MOVES with zero chill. He actively antagonises and demeans humanity’s literal last hope and the only Cure in the entire goddamned world. He accuses Rex of being a wildcard and not a team player while also being the least personable person in the world. He’s straight up xenophobic.

And even when he’s in the field he still fucks up?? Plague was just him getting in the way of Rex curing Patient Zero, blowing up a hospital, and then getting the shit kicked out of him. (Spoiler Rex had to save him AGAIN). He sends Rex to make friends with Breach and then JUST when Rex manages to win her over he swoops in and fucks it up MAJORLY. This sends Rex to the future and directly kicks off the events that lead to him getting fired from Providence and having to fake his own death.

This guy is literally his own worst enemy. We can actually see how his own paranoia and prejudice bites him in the ass countless times and he KEEPS DOING IT. He refuses to improve or apologise for the entire show. He’s doing it all while being locked in a sterile white box for years on end.

Contrast him to Black Knight and, like, even being an absolute girlboss villain, she was so much better at his job. She actually changed Providence policies to utilise incurables instead of letting them rot as deadweight in prisons. (Ethical? No. Profitable? Immensely). She was nice enough to actually get people on her side, or outright manipulate to get what she needed. Say what you want about her, but she definitely never let prejudice get in the way of profit or efficiency. White Knight would never even have considered EVOs being useful because he’s too busy hating them.

And the show STILL places him as one of the good guys. Hes the most fucked up grandpa I’ve ever seen that’s for sure. I don’t know whether to put him in prison for war crimes or a freaking nursing home

[god-help-me-pls]

idek no more

[bambeptin]

god forbid women do anything

[technicolourebel]

Generator Rex Doodles

A collection of drawings that I found in a old sketchbook. I decided to redraw them photoshop.

Individual images are below.

Generator Rex (C) Man of Action/ Cartoon Network Drawing (C) Technicolourebel / Korzuan

[hyakilove129]

Fem versión and boy versión

[neopuff]

title: all the interim (chap1: like a phantasma) word count: ~7800 characters: holiday, six, white knight, bobo summary: Providence went through a lot of changes after Rex disappeared. chapter 2: https://www.tumblr.com/neopuff/729900866388328448/title-all-the-interim-chap2-or-a-hideous?source=share ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50434108

She’d been kept out of the loop. Again.

Sometimes Holiday wondered what it even meant to be Chief Research Officer and second-in-charge to the most important Special Agent in their organization when her direct superior loved to keep important information from her as often as possible. Even when it was important information that directly impacted her and her job.

After Six’s admittedly paranoid comment, she’d snuck her way through classified Providence files in an attempt to find out what could possibly be wrong with Knight. In her opinion, the man was not acting too differently than usual. He was always pushy and demanding and rude and secretive. But it was undeniable that Six knew Knight better than she did, and if he was worried, well…she’d do what she could.

And what she found out was annoying. It was annoying because White Knight should’ve informed her. He should’ve told her that the committee was putting significantly more pressure on him. He was given a deadline to handle the more dangerous EVO threats or he’d deal with the consequences of his ineffective leadership.

She was pretty confident that she knew what that meant.

The situation with Breach became Providence’s number one priority while she was making this discovery, and Holiday opted to deal with the present before confronting White Knight. There wasn’t much she could do from the Keep except monitor Rex’s vitals, but she wanted to stay on-task in case they needed her.

Unfortunately, from what she could hear over comms, everything that could go wrong was absolutely going wrong.

Ten minutes after Van Kleiss arrived at the scene, she was distracted from Rex’s signals by White Knight’s haggard self lumbering onto the Keep. He looked a lot worse for wear, and she could tell his suit was struggling to keep the nanites out. It was a good thing they’d installed a small nanite decontamination chamber on the Keep specifically for this type of incident.

She followed him to the chamber and helped him get inside, frowning at the disturbed and frantic look on his face.

“What’s going on?”

He glared up at her, looking surprised that she was still standing there. “Nothing. Get back to work.”

“Knock it off, Knight!” she scolded, pressing her pointer finger onto the glass. She spoke more quietly as she added, “I know the committee’s been putting pressure on you. Tell me what’s happening.”

White glanced at the floor, then shook his head and mumbled something about ‘terrible timing’ and ‘Six’s fried brain’.

She was used to him fighting back when she yelled at him. This response was…different. Calming, for whatever reason. She took a deep breath and put her hands down. “Are you getting fired?”

With that question, he looked up at her again. He scanned the room, making sure that the other grunts on the Keep were fully distracted by the battle going on in the park below and none of them were paying any attention to the two of them. With that confirmed, he stepped a bit closer to the glass to speak softly. “There…may be some changes very soon. New management.”

Holiday raised an eyebrow curiously. “You seem pretty sure of this.”

“Listen to me, Dr. Holiday,” he said sternly - with a distinct air of warning. “Do not trust the woman in black. She is not your friend.”

“I…what?” Holiday tilted her head, not expecting such a cryptic statement to come out of his mouth. “What are you talking about?”

“Rex is just a kid and Six is still a liability. If I’m not here anymore, you need to keep an eye on them.” He spoke like it was an order, but they both knew he cared about their team more than he’d ever let on. “There’s not enough time for me to exp-”

They were suddenly interrupted by the loud beeping sounds of Rex’s vital monitors. Knight’s eyes widened and Holiday turned around to find that every single one of Rex’s vitals had gone completely flat.

She ran over to the monitor and quickly pressed a finger to her comm. “Rex?! Rex! Come in, Rex! Six? Six, what’s going on? What happened to Rex?”

“I…” His voice crackled like there was something affecting their signal. “I don’t see him. He’s disappeared.”

Holiday almost growled. Six had grown a lot in just the few weeks since losing his memories, but he never seemed as worried about Rex as he used to be. 

White’s voice cut in with the exact question she was about to ask. “What do you mean, disappeared?!”

There was a moment of hesitation before Six answered. “Breach sent Van Kleiss somewhere in a yellow portal, then she and Rex were caught in an even bigger one. Took half the park with them.”

Holiday stared at Rex’s vitals on the screen, still slowly beeping at her. Rex was gone. “Are you…I’m sorry, are you telling me that you let Rex get sucked into a temporal wormhole?” She knew throwing blame at Six wasn’t going to help anyone, but goddammit if she didn’t need to scream at someone.

He responded with a simple, “Yes,” then paused for a few seconds before adding, “...we’re going to look for him.”

She didn’t answer or bother listening anymore as Knight handled the assignments. Holiday reached out a hand and touched the screen where it showed Rex’s heart rate at zero. If he’d gone through the temporal wormhole, that meant he wasn’t dead. But if her monitors weren’t picking him up, that meant that he didn’t currently exist in the present. There was no Rex at the moment and the thought of that made her want to cry. A world without Rex wasn’t one she wanted to live in.

Holiday started thinking of how she’d go about telling Caesar the news when Knight called her over.

“Holiday, I need your help repairing my suit,” he said sternly. “As quickly as possible.”

“Shouldn’t be more than a half hour ‘til we get back to headquarters.” Holiday combed her fingers through her bangs. Working on White’s suit would be a perfect distraction from the pounding in her head and the aching in her chest. “How bad is the damage?”

“...bad.”

She nodded. Though Holiday hadn’t helped design the original battle suit, she’d been in charge of upgrades and upkeep for the past year. She’d become decently familiar with the design and wouldn’t need long to get it back to normal. Especially if she worked through the night - which was guaranteed in her current state. How could she possibly sleep knowing that Rex was gone?

X

Six wasn’t sure what to expect. He and a large team of grunts had searched the area around Breach’s portal for any sign of Rex - finding nothing. They then began to contact Providence bases around the world and asked for all of them to scan for Rex’s biosignature - once again, finding nothing.

Breach’s power was immense. He didn’t understand why Providence hadn’t captured her or killed her, since apparently she’d always been extremely dangerous. She could send someone to any place - other dimensions, under the water, into outer space - and somehow they didn’t think the threat was bad enough to warrant capture until she could also send things into the past or future. It didn’t make sense to him.

But a lot about the future - er, the present, didn’t make sense to him. Six was doing his best to fall into the patterns of his old self, but it was just…difficult, at times. Dr. Holiday blaming him for ‘losing Rex’, for instance - he felt a very strong urge to bite back and say it wasn’t his fault. But he knew that his older self wouldn’t have bothered. Maybe his older self would’ve agreed with her. Rex was his responsibility, apparently. And he let the kid disappear. It didn’t feel great, but he didn’t think there was any way he could’ve stopped it.

So he did what he could, and that was…search. He personally spent over twenty hours flying around the world with a constant scan of Rex’s biosignature, just in case it would only show up in close proximity. He flew over Abysus, he flew over Hong Kong, he flew over Mexico and Argentina. There was nothing.

Returning to headquarters empty-handed made him feel like a failure, but he had no other choice. Rex was gone, that was very clear. There didn’t seem to be any sign of him anywhere in the entire world. He could reappear in a day or a month or a year - or, much worse than that, he could’ve reappeared so far into the past that he was already long dead.

Six may not have been as close to Rex as he used to be, but he still felt an angry, protective urge spread throughout his chest. He was worried sick and he didn’t know what to do about it. And what would Providence do? They relied on Rex for everything cure-related. How was Providence supposed to continue curing when their cure was gone?

The hangar was busy - grunts going in and out to take care of EVO problems as quickly as possible. Six knew he should be fighting alongside them, but he needed a break. A quick nap, at the very least.

But instead of walking to his room, he ended up in front of the door to Holiday’s lab. Six often felt comforted by her presence, though in this particular moment he just wanted to see if she was alright. If he was worried about Rex, he couldn’t begin to imagine what she was dealing with. She seemed like a bit of a worrier.

He walked in and found her sitting in her chair, hand covering her mouth thoughtfully, and eyes glaring holes into the floor. She was thinking hard about something, that was for sure. But she also looked…very sad.

“...we’ll find him, Holiday,” he said suddenly, not really believing it but really wanting it to be true.

She looked surprised when he spoke, obviously she hadn’t noticed he’d entered the room. She blinked twice and then shrugged. “I know. I…I know we will. But it could…be a while.”

Six walked closer and leaned against the desk next to her.

“Without his cure, Providence is going to have some trouble.” She leaned forward and wrung her hands together. “Funding is going to drop. We only have the money we do because of Rex. Anyone can find guns and tanks. Who else has a cure, right?”

She was rambling and Six didn’t know how to interrupt her. He had a feeling she did this kind of thing when she was upset or nervous.

“Having one of the original Nanite Project scientists could be helpful, you know, to get funding. But it could also really hurt us, even worse than we’re already about to be hurt. So Knight hasn’t taken the risk of making that information public.” She stopped for a second and brought a hand up to her forehead, gently massaging. Then Holiday suddenly stood up and crossed her arms over her middle. “Do you know what Caesar said? When I told him?”

Six raised an eyebrow at her.

“He said, and I’m quoting here: ‘Hopefully he’s not gone for five years like I was!’” Holiday threw her hands up. “That’s it. He’s not worried at all. I mean, what did I expect, honestly? But…I just…”

Deciding that enough was enough, Six reached out and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. He didn’t understand Caesar at all, and according to Holiday and Rex, he never did.

She took a deep breath and cradled his hand with hers, giving him a very brief smile. Then she changed tunes again, taking a breath. “You were right about Knight, by the way. That he was acting suspicious.”

Six took his hand back. “What’s going on?”

“The committee is going to replace him. Especially with Rex gone, he’s got nothing to convince them he should stay in charge.”

“...what does that mean, exactly?”

She sighed. “It means we’ll be working under new management, Six. And…and, I don’t know, it’s not like they’re going to promote someone. It’ll be an outside hire, I’m sure.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to decide if he felt bad for Knight or not. The man didn’t seem happy at his current job, but it wasn’t like he could really do anything else when he was trapped in that box. That did bring up the question, though…were they going to force him out of the box? Forcefully infect a man with nanites? That couldn’t be right. “I was under the impression that you hated working for Knight. Isn’t this a good thing for you?”

“It doesn’t matter if I hate him. I know him.” She held herself tighter. “I’m used to how Knight operates and he lets me work how I like. Losing Rex and immediately getting a new man in charge…I’m not optimistic about it, Six. Things are going to get worse here.”

He frowned. It almost sounded like she wanted to leave, but Six didn’t think they were in a situation where they could just leave whenever they wanted. Plus, well. Holiday was one of the world’s foremost experts in evology and nanotechnology. It wouldn’t make sense for Providence to just let her go without a fight. “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I just…I think we should be prepared for the worst.”

Six nodded at that. He was always prepared for the worst anyway, so that didn’t change much for him. But…he was curious about why Holiday was so confident in her pessimism. “I think I should go talk to Knight.”

“Good idea. Let me know whatever else you can get out of him.”

X

White Knight was very different than he used to be. Very different from how Six remembered him - in a lot of ways. One of the ways that was not different was his inability to mask how he felt. When he was anxious or worried, Six knew it. And when he was purposefully avoiding conversations, it was abundantly clear that something bad was happening.

“Have you made any progress finding Rex?” White asked, not looking at the man standing alone in his office.

“No. He’s definitely not…present in the world. At the moment,” Six answered quickly. He felt strange reporting such an odd phenomenon, but it was the truth. He hoped it was the truth, anyway.

With that, White gave him a curt nod and turned away to shuffle through some files.

Six frowned. “Knight.”

“Not now.”

“Knight.”

“Listen to me, Agent,” Knight said harshly, looking up from whatever he was doing on his computer. “You’ve talked to Holiday, I take it?”

“...yes,” Six answered cautiously.

“Then you already know all there is to know.” White glared at his old friend pointedly - tilting his head to the side in a very specific way.

A way that Six recognized. He and Knight worked together for a long time and naturally they’d developed dozens of silent codes to share information without anyone else understanding. Knight’s current position indicated to Six that he was about to say something of the utmost importance.

“Look, Six. Even if I’m gone, keep in mind that there’s always someone watching you at Providence,” Knight said carefully, as if he was reading from a script. “Got it?”

Six hung on the older man’s words. “Noted,” he said quickly. He wondered if Knight would say anything else, but the man immediately went back to what he was doing before. It looked like he was digging through files - maybe organizing them or collecting them. For what purpose, Six didn’t know. But he knew it didn’t bode well.

He left the room with his hands in his pockets and wondered about what he would do if Knight was forced out of Providence. He was the only truly familiar face Six had here - though he enjoyed Holiday’s and he was used to Caesar and Rex and Bobo, he didn’t really know them like he knew Knight. He understood that his older self knew them well and trusted them with his life, but he wasn’t quite there yet.

Sure, if asked with a gun to his head, he would admit that he felt like Holiday was extremely trustworthy. Maybe too trustworthy, though it made sense considering how…generally good she was. It was still a little baffling to Six that he’d managed to befriend a woman like that. Especially to the point where she stayed by his side even after going rogue.

He sighed and looked down the hallway. He still hadn’t gotten any sleep, and he…really needed it. Though he was used to sleeping in short bursts of two or three hours at a time, it meant he struggled to stay completely awake and aware for more than twelve hours at once. Currently he was running on more than twenty hours of being awake and Six felt his body shutting down. He glanced down the other hallway, thinking about how Holiday’s lab was closer than his dorm, but ultimately decided not to bother her again until he was rested.

She could wait a few hours.

x

It was difficult to sleep.

Holiday was pretty sure she’d fallen asleep at her desk for an hour or two at some point during the night, but otherwise she’d been digging deep into old Providence files to find whatever she could about the committee and the initial funding that Providence received so many years ago. After her conversations with White Knight and Six, she felt a strong urge to know as much as possible. Just to be prepared for the coming changes.

She also really missed Rex. She couldn’t stop thinking about him - and the possibility that his memory could blank again. Being forcefully thrown into the timestream would definitely count as a traumatic experience.

If that happened, she just hoped he would come back sooner rather than later.

“Holiday.”

She turned again to find Six entering her lab - she also spotted Bobo walking down the hallway behind him and wondered how the monkey was doing with all of…everything. Bobo relied on Rex a lot more than he’d ever admit. He probably felt like a chicken running around without its head.

“Morning,” she said, turning back to her computer screen. She was far back enough in the files and emails that things were starting to become unavailable to her. A lot of Restricted Access error messages popping up on her screen.

“Have you slept?” Six asked, taking a seat next to her.

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. Not really. Too much going on.” She scrolled for another few seconds, then turned to Six with a very serious expression. “The committee is sending someone today.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Someone…do you know who? Or why?”

“I’m guessing it’s White Knight’s replacement.”

Six frowned and pouted slightly. He glanced at the giant screen above them where Knight’s face would pop up on occasion, though at the moment it was off. “That was…fast.”

“No kidding.” Holiday stood up and sighed, running her fingers through her hair and scratching her head a bit. She was feeling antsy thanks to the lack of sleep and unending anxiety about Rex and her job. “It seems pretty clear that White’s getting fired. Or at the very least demoted. Right?”

“Right.” Six watched her move around, unsure of what else to add.

“But the more I think about it…I’m actually kind of worried about you, too,” she said suddenly, her pointer finger pressed to her chin. “You’re here because Knight convinced you to stay and then Rex convinced you again. But…”

He nodded, understanding where she was coming from. “You think they’d try to get rid of me because of the memory loss?”

“I don’t know.” Holiday shrugged, trying to gather all her thoughts. “It’s not outside the realm of possibility. You could be considered a liability. Or a risk. Providence isn’t known for taking…that kind of risk.”

“Don’t waste your time worrying about me,” Six said, staring at the lab door. “I’d be fine either way, but…I don’t think they can afford to get rid of me. Knight updated me on a lot of classified information.”

“Did he now?” Holiday crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course he did. I specifically asked him to discuss it with me first, just in case, but of course. Why would I expect White Knight to listen to me? That would be insanely out of character.”

Six frowned.

Holiday was very tempted to ask Six about exactly what classified things White had shared with him - especially since she was well aware that there were things Six knew about Providence and about Rex that had been kept from her. This newer, younger-minded Six could accidentally tell her things she wasn’t supposed to know. It was an opportunity to get one over on the White Knight.

At the moment, however, she was too tired to bother. And she was also in a surprisingly pro-White Knight mood. She really didn’t want to deal with new management, which was making her feel a slight (extremely slight) appreciation for the man she’d worked for over the last few years.

Holiday yawned and quickly put a hand over her mouth in an attempt to cover it. She must’ve been really exhausted to have a thought like that.

“You should get some sleep,” Six said, changing the subject. “When’s Knight’s replacement supposed to arrive?”

“Around nine,” she answered quickly.

He glanced at the clock on her computer screen to see that it wasn’t even seven yet. “I’ll come get you before the meeting starts.”

Holiday sighed deeply and stared down at her computer screen for a few seconds before reaching over and shutting the screen off. “I’ll try. It’s just been a bad few days.”

“I know.” Six tilted his head towards the door. “Not sleeping won’t improve things.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled as she walked past him.

X

It was around 8:45 when Six decided to check on Holiday. Hopefully she’d been sleeping since their last conversation - he could tell from the bags under her eyes that she hadn’t slept much since Rex’s disappearance. He didn’t blame her, but she needed to be at her best when meeting their new boss.

As he walked past her lab, headed towards her dorm, he paused for a moment. He may not have known Holiday very long, but he’d quickly picked up on the fact that she was a bit self-destructive when she was stressed out.

He stepped into her lab and found her working at her desk, just as he expected.

“Did you get any sleep?” he asked, frustrated.

“I did, actually,” Holiday answered, waving her hand at him. “At least an hour. Did you get a chance to talk to White?” She swiveled her chair around to face him. “His meeting is starting soon.”

“He’s been busy.” Six leaned against her desk again. “Getting ready, I suppose.”

“Right.” She turned to her computer again and put a hand to her chin in thought. “I should probably be doing more, too. Just in case.”

“Doing what, exactly?” he asked. “There’s no way you’ll be fired, Holiday. You’re definitely…irreplaceable.”

“Well…” She tilted her head slightly. “I guess. But that doesn’t mean I-”

Their conversation was cut off very suddenly by the alarms activating. Six and Holiday looked at each other in concern and confusion, and Six quickly reached up to press a finger to his communicator.

“Knight - what’s going on?”

There was no answer.

“Knight?”

Holiday pouted at Six and stood up straight, reaching into one of her nearby drawers to grab a small pistol. It earned her a raised eyebrow from Six, to which she just shrugged.

The sound of a dozen soldiers running past the lab caught their ears - Six pulled out one of his magnablades and quickly rushed to the door. Within a few seconds of him exiting the lab, he saw soldiers running back towards him, and then there was a massive explosion far down the hallway that shook the entire building.

It didn’t take a genius to realize what had happened. He stayed put in front of the lab door as soldiers continued to run back and forth - Holiday exited and stood behind him with her pistol at the ready, but they could both see there wasn’t much to do.

“What happened?” she asked quietly, putting her gun away.

“It looks like Knight…overreacted,” Six answered, glaring into the slowly clearing smoke. He couldn’t see much, but it looked like there was…something coming their way. Something that wasn’t a soldier. He held one arm in front of Holiday on a sort of reflex, and held out his other arm with magnablade ready.

Instead of an enemy, Bobo exited the cloud of smoke, coughing and waving his hands around wildly in an attempt to blow the debris away. He stopped in front of them and coughed again before shaking his head. “I wouldn’t go over there if I was you two.”

“Was it Knight?”

Bobo nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad I got outta there in time ‘cause he blew himself up and took Rex’s room with him!” He stomped past the two adults and into Holiday’s lab, still brushing ash and debris off his clothes. “I knew White Knight was crazy, but I didn’t think he was that crazy.”

They followed him inside, Six putting his blades away and Holiday crossing her arms over her chest.

Six wasn’t sure how to react to the news.

“Blew himself up?” Holiday wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you mean…I mean. Is…?”

“Not sure how anyone could survive that,” Bobo said with a surprising level of tact. “Even with his fancy suit.”

Six stayed still and silent hearing this, thinking back to his last real conversation with White Knight. He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, trying to decide on how he should be reacting. He was fairly confident that Knight wasn’t dead - not just because he knew the man wouldn’t be taken out by a single blast, but also because of what he’d told him the day before.

‘Even if I’m gone… …there’s always someone watching you at Providence.’

Six was brought back to reality by Holiday’s hand on his arm.

“Hey…Six? Six, are you alright?” She looked at him with pity and concern, clearly unsure of how to feel. She didn’t like White, and she’d been very clear about that, but she obviously didn’t want to see the man die. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t even know what to say.”

He tried to decide how to make sure Holiday understood Knight’s situation without saying it out loud. He didn’t have a code with her, Six could only rely on her ability to pick up what he was putting down. “You don’t need to say anything,” he responded slowly, turning to look directly at her face.

“But…I mean, he was your friend,” she said sadly.

Bobo stared awkwardly at the two of them, especially at Six. He never got along with Six very well, and the new, younger Six he got along with even less. But everyone knew about the shaky history between him and White Knight - and that they’d been friends for a lot longer than they’d been at Providence.

“That’s true.” Six looked at Holiday closely. “But he wouldn’t want us to linger on it. Especially not with new management coming in.” He chose his words carefully. “There’s always someone watching us at Providence.”

She raised an eyebrow, looking at Six like he’d grown a second head.

He just stared at her for a minute, tilting his head slightly forward.

Holiday stared back and pouted slightly, trying to figure out what was going on.

“What are you two talkin’ about?” Bobo interrupted, throwing his hands in the air. “Am I having a stroke or is nobody makin’ any sense?!”

She glared down at the monkey and sighed. “It’s nothing. We need to- er…wait, did you say he took Rex’s room with him?”

“My room, too, case you forgot,” Bobo answered angrily, pointing at her. “I had some nice magazines in there that all went poof!”

Six glanced back at Holiday to see her getting visibly emotional - a small part of him felt strange that she was having a greater reaction to losing Rex’s bedroom than she had to potentially losing White Knight. She hadn’t been kidding when she said they didn’t get along. “...are you alright?” he asked, mirroring her earlier question to him.

She closed her eyes and sighed, though her sigh was shakier than usual. "Fine. It's just things. I mean…maybe some of it wasn't destroyed. But all the clothes we ever bought him, and his memory notebook you gave him last year, and…" Holiday covered her mouth with her hand and stared down at the floor. "You gave Rex a really meaningful gift on his one year anniversary of being with Providence. Maybe it survived the blast…"

"I did?" Six asked curiously.

"Ohh, you're talkin' about the knife," Bobo cut in, hand to his chin. "I dunno about that, but I'll go look and see if I can find it before the new gal does."

Six furrowed his brows - he gave Rex a knife? More likely it was a blade, and if it was something special enough for Holiday to make note of it, he had a feeling he knew exactly what kind of blade it was. It seemed like every time he learned something new about his old self, he was surprised. He'd learned to make some very significant connections with other people after coming to Providence. It was impressive.

"New gal?" Holiday asked, moving on quickly as Bobo started to leave.

"Yeah, wearin' a real goth lookin' getup," the monkey said casually as the door closed behind him.

Holiday frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "White Knight replaced by a…oh. Goth - a woman in black," she started mumbling to herself, recalling the words White Knight had said to her the other day.

Six watched her face curiously and tried to figure out what to do with himself. He wanted to ask more about the knife, but he didn't want to waste time on it when there were more important things going on. He needed to make himself useful. "I should follow the monkey. Make sure no one got hurt in the blast."

He paused and quickly corrected himself. "No one else."

Holiday nodded, gently massaging her forehead. "I…I think I should talk to Caesar."

"Should you?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. He doesn't seem to care half the time, but that doesn't mean I can just pretend he doesn't deserve to know what's going on."

Six tilted his head to the side and headed towards the door. "Suit yourself. Just…be careful with him. Don't say more than you need to."

Holiday frowned. "Alright. And don't forget we have a meeting with White's replacement at ten. Or, well…it's supposed to be at ten. With all the commotion I guess it might get…rescheduled?" There was so much going on that Holiday was only just realizing that she hadn't done any of her actual work in days.

"I'll find out."

She watched Six exit and exhaled a deep breath, sitting down in her chair. She didn't really want to talk to Caesar at that particular moment, but she felt awful knowing that all of Rex's stuff was destroyed and his brother didn’t know. It especially didn’t help that Holiday had been hoping that, if Rex came back without his memories, they'd have all of his things to remind him of them and himself and where he came from. Instead, they just had empty white walls. Who'd want to stay at a place like that?

X

The day had not gone according to plan so far.

Black Knight was annoyed. She was always at least a little annoyed, as was standard for a woman in her field, but that particular day had been trying her patience. Everyone knew that White Knight came from a violent background and had the potential to lose his temper, but no one expected such an explosive response to him being replaced. He shouted, he ran, he threw bombs…it was a goddamn mess.

Still. In the two hours since his outburst, they had yet to find a body. Black Knight figured he probably ran under the assumption that they’d be taking his anti-nanite armor away from him. It was paid for by Providence and therefore owned by Providence, so she could’ve if she really wanted to. Maybe she did want to, a little. She’d never liked White Knight.

She rolled her shoulders in preparation for her next big meeting. Even though Rex was still MIA and there didn’t seem to be a trace of him anywhere around the world, she still requested a formal meeting with his handlers since they were considered (after Rex) the three most valuable employees at Providence. Normally she would’ve preferred to meet with each of them one-on-one, but White Knight’s explosion threw off her timeline for the day and left her with only one option.

Black Knight strolled into the bright white room that was previously used for employees to have private conversations with White Knight, but would soon be converted into something more useful.

The three adults turned to look at her, each sporting a very different reaction to her presence. She smiled and gave them a lighthearted shrug. “Gentlemen, Dr. Holiday - I apologize for the delay. I’m sure you’re already aware of the circumstances, so let’s just move past what happened and get down to business, shall we?”

Caesar tilted his head to the side and lifted one curious eyebrow, Six stayed silent and still as ever, and Holiday glanced at the two men uncomfortably before sighing and taking a step forward. “It’s, um…it’s nice to meet you,” she said cautiously, sticking out her hand. “You’re White Knight’s replacement, then?”

Black Knight shook her hand with a smirk on her face. “You can call me Black Knight.”

Holiday pulled her hand back. “Of course.” The look on her face was as readable as an open book - she thought it was absolutely ridiculous to have two bosses in a row with such similar codenames.

Of course, Black Knight was still getting used to the name for herself. The committee - and more specifically, the Consortium - felt like it’d be easier for Providence to ease into life under their new boss if she held some similarities to the old one. And so, the name Black Knight was born. She honestly liked it quite a bit, it definitely suited her. But it also made it seem like she and White Knight were connected somehow - which couldn’t be further from the truth. She’d never even formally met the man until about two months earlier.

“So…we were hoping to focus a significant portion of our time on trying to get Rex back,” Holiday said quickly, interrupting Black’s thoughts. “We don’t have a cure without him, and without a cure, I worry about a lot of our funding.”

The woman in black smirked. “You don’t need to worry about that,” she said quickly. “From the data I’ve seen, finding Rex is just a waiting game. And until we’re done waiting, there are going to be some changes here to show exactly how effective Providence can be even without our teenage cure.”

Holiday’s fake smile flipped into a frown and she glanced at Six behind her, who stayed stoic as ever.

“Speaking of changes…” Black Knight turned away from Holiday and looked directly at Caesar, who had a hand to his chin in thought. “It’s good to see you here, Dr. Salazar.”

He gave her one short nod, saying nothing else.

“You’re getting a promotion.”

Dr. Holiday quickly glanced between Caesar and Black Knight, certain she was missing something. She looked extremely confused, unable to connect the dots between the two of them. Behind her, Six finally reacted - one of his eyebrows quirked upwards in curiosity.

“I think Dr. Caesar Salazar: Chief Research Officer has a nice ring to it, don’t you?” Black added, smiling softly.

“E-excuse me?” Holiday squeaked out while Six took a protective step closer to her.

“Ahhh, I thought this might happen.” Caesar shrugged, recognizing that his experience with the original nanites and his strange history with the woman in front of him were very influential factors in the decision. “I’m happy to take over the position.”

“You-...but….I don’t…”

“And Dr. Holiday, your new title is Senior Research Officer,” Black Knight added. She held out a hand and patted Holiday’s arm gently. “I’m sure you understand. Dr. Salazar’s experience is invaluable.”

“But I-”

“There was also a vote a few days ago. The committee feels that he’s contributed more to Providence’s research and development in his few months of working here than you have in your three years in charge. It’s a done deal.” She smiled - though there was a small part of her that didn’t really enjoy kicking a woman out of a position of power, a much larger part of her was excited to continue working with Caesar and the original team (if they could find them all.)

Holiday was so visibly angry that it almost made Black Knight laugh - the way that her eye was twitching was downright comical. Offending the doctor wasn’t her intention, but if this was how she reacted to being insulted and belittled then she might consider doing it again.

She continued down the path of adults and looked directly at the last man in line. “Agent Six. The committee is fully aware of your…situation. But we’re all confident in your skills.”

“...thanks,” Six answered hesitantly, not sure how to react to anything after the news Holiday got.

“That being said, we’ve started a new recruitment program looking for men with less focus on guns and more focus on swords and hand-to-hand combat. Ideally, we’d like for you to train this new group and see how they hold up.”

Six glanced over at Holiday, who was glaring at the floor and clenching her fists tight. It seemed like it was in their best interests to play along for the moment - besides that, what else could they really do? “Alright.” He’d expected something much worse to be thrown his way, but training new soldiers wasn’t something he hadn’t done before.

“I’ll have more updates for the two of you soon,” Black Knight continued, motioning to Six and Holiday. “But for now, you can return to your work. I need to talk to Dr. Salazar in private.”

“But I-” Holiday started, cutting herself off. She ground her teeth and glared at Black Knight, then glared at Caesar, then glared at Six as the man grabbed her arm and started pulling her out of the room.

“Let it go, Holiday,” he muttered, walking towards the door.

Black Knight watched the two of them go with a disinterested roll of her eyes, waiting for the door to shut completely before acknowledging Caesar again. “I apologize for springing this on you so suddenly, Dr. Salazar.”

“It’s not a problem, I expected to see you again,” Caesar answered, crossing his arms over his chest. “You seem to be doing well, Broo-”

“Ah, ah.” She cut him off with her pointer finger held up in the air. “Any name you knew for me before today is moot. From now on, you’ll refer to me only as Black Knight. Absolutely nothing else. Got it?”

He tilted his head for a second, seemingly taking that in, then closed his eyes and shrugged. “Alright. Black Knight, then. We have a lot of work to do if we want to get back on our old timeline.”

“Of course, but first, we need to find a better way to deal with these EVOs.” She started pacing slightly, crossing Caesar’s path two times before continuing. “Killing them isn’t a good image for Providence, so you’ll need to get to work on something else. If we can’t cure, we need to find a way to get along.”

“You know, I’ve actually been working on some behavior modification technology that I think could be very helpful with that,” Caesar said thoughtlessly. “I haven’t tested any of it yet, but that could have a lot of potential when dealing with particularly dangerous or irrational EVOs.”

“Behavior modification, hm?” Black Knight stopped pacing and smiled at him. “I like the sound of that.”

X

Six had dragged her all the way to her lab, and then all the way to her usual lab chair.

Holiday didn’t know what to do or say or even think. Of all the things she’d expected to happen in that meeting, getting demoted was not one of them. Demoted and insulted, just to add fuel to the fire.

Six stood near her, hands in his pockets, looking very awkward. “...Holiday-”

“What the fuck,” she finally said after so many minutes of silence. “I…I don’t. What the hell just happened, Six?”

“You need to calm down.”

She stood up suddenly, angrily, and glared at him. “Calm down? I just got demoted and now I’m…I’m working for Caesar?!” Not that she didn’t respect Caesar as a scientist. Or. Well. Maybe sometimes she didn’t feel that much respect for him. Especially not after the fiasco with ZAG-RS and then Six’s memory loss - how could she not be suspicious of him? But he was very capable. That wasn’t the issue, though.

“Holiday.”

“Can you give me one minute to process the death of my career? Just a minute? Please?” she asked with a joking tone, but they both knew she was fairly serious. Then she started walking around the room, one hand cradling her head. “First Rex, then White…now this. I…”

The room grew silent as she struggled to continue rambling. Yes, this demotion was going to be the talk of the scientific community at large. Everyone would wonder what she did (or didn’t do) to lead to the decision. She could just imagine the rumor mill going crazy with assumptions.

“Maybe…” Six started, breaking the silence. “...we should consider other options.”

She turned her head to stare at him. “What do you mean?”

“Black Knight said searching for Rex isn’t a priority,” he continued, taking a few steps closer to her so he could speak softly. “But it seems like a priority for you. And…I wouldn’t still be here if not for him.”

Holiday quieted her voice to match his. “We…we can’t just leave, Six. We should be here when Rex gets back, in case he still has his memories. And someone needs to keep an eye on things here. And…” She felt herself unable to look at his face, opting to stare at his shoulder instead. “...where are we supposed to go? We’d just be…aimlessly wandering.”

Six stared down at her, noting how close they’d gotten in their efforts to stay quiet.

After a moment of hesitation, she added in an uncomfortable, “Plus…you barely know me. Not anymore.”

He frowned, turning his head to the side and taking a moment to think. Holiday was right, of course, he didn’t know her very well. But he could immediately tell that Black Knight was shady and he felt not one iota of trust towards Caesar. “I’m going to reach out to some contacts.”

Holiday looked up at him for a very brief moment after he spoke, then breathed out a single laugh. “...alright.”

Six wasn’t exactly sure why she reacted that way, but he enjoyed making her smile. It was certainly one tiny good moment in a day filled with awful ones. “Could be a few weeks, Doctor. We’ll have to play along here until we figure things out.”

She pouted and shrugged. “Yeah, well. If Caesar starts giving me orders, that might be a problem.” Holiday ran her hand through her hair, pushing her bangs back and scratching the top of her head lightly. “I don’t, um…are you able to reach, uh…you know?”

Six nodded his head, immediately realizing she was talking about White Knight. So she’d understood what he meant earlier, that was good. “We can’t expect a quick response.”

“Obviously.”

“So you need to play nice,” he added, still standing very close to her.

Holiday laughed again, this time leaning her shoulder into his chest. “I can’t believe you’re the one saying that to me.”

Six felt a heat bloom under his skin, starting exactly where Holiday touched him. He wondered if that was going to become a problem.

Before either of them could say anything else, a third voice interrupted the conversation.

 “Are you two done with your little lovefest yet?”

The two adults turned to find Bobo Haha climbing down from the top of one of Holiday’s bigger machines. He was dirtier than usual - covered in ash and soot and a couple of cuts and scrapes. Six and Holiday took a reflexive step away from each other as he brushed some dirt off his chest and coughed.

“Bobo! Uh…” Holiday glanced between him and Six. “...did you find anything?”

The monkey scowled and sighed. “Nada. Found some scraps of his posters and I think I saw a grunt pick up a red ball. Otherwise…all gone.”

“Great,” Holiday mumbled, holding her arms around herself again. “That’s just…great.”

“But hey, uh…” Bobo scratched the back of his head and scanned the room quickly before taking a step closer to them. “I heard your little conversation just now.”

Six raised an eyebrow at that, taking a step closer to place himself between Holiday and Bobo. He didn’t know this monkey at all and certainly didn’t trust him to keep quiet. If he had to take him out, so be it.

“I…might have an idea,” the monkey added, ignoring Six’s threatening stance. “But first I’ve got a confession to make. And Doc, Six…you gotta promise not to get mad.”

Holiday glared at him in confusion while Six glanced between her and Bobo. He had a feeling that he was going to learn about something he and Holiday went through before he lost his memories. And since it involved Bobo, it was probably really, really annoying.