"No."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDiv89MUwY
"Yes."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyLosGAAou
"No."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyNQW5ACYv
"Yes."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDDquGSQUC
"You're lying!"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAvBzA1FOF
"I'm not."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckzlew35BO
Yes he is! He must be!
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jveDWa4LS
"You are!"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDW5N2OJUnj
"Really, I'm not," he deadpanned, but it was easier said than believed.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnL0ERZGms
"Gemma?" I gawped.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOMeQXULcm
"I believe I've specified that before."
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"You better not be lying to me, or I swear to God—"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOviDJTRMPc
"202," he stepped towards me, "I'm not lying."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLFzuYogn2
I stared into the distance, bewildered. "Gemma?" I repeated. "Gemma Reynolds?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3XqXsIlzMF
"Yes."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAU5B4gcggm
"You're not just winding me up, are you?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0aygZT7eB5
"Should I even bother answering that?" he replied bluntly.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDmksF3lwIE
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?!"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI523Q3Y3Fs
"As of now, seven billion, increasing at a rate of one-point-zeo-nine percent."
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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.
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"Reasonably speaking, her dad was the only person who knew about what the Front had been up to."
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"That's why he set up a branch in London anyway."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkWarFOzXJb
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.
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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.
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"Oh, come off it," I grumbled. "What do you even intend on doing there, anyway? Walk in, and demand they give you the drug?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMM4gRu2ka
Silence dominated the forest.
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"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."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTghoiqUonH
"The, I ask you questions, and you don't answer them phase?" I quizzed.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡceYYD27rqj
"No."
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"We're going to demand the drug from Gemma?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44egazcE4c
"We will take a more tactful approach, than how you put it."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuK7WdjnjVl
"Define tactful."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw794faKUrV
"Smarter," he said, flatly.
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"Hey!" I swatted his arm. It was equivalent to hitting steel. "And then, what?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡII2RT6z3IK
"We expose Director."
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Good plan. Except: "How are we going to do that?"
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"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?"
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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.
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Everest gave a curt nod.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡftreXxEpFv
Wow.
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"Because the semi-cure only lasts twenty years, or so?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYqwinp0gRd
We also agreed on calling 202 the 'semi-cure', since it only half worked.
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He nodded again.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYEYh4rJBx
Wow.
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"And they were serious about the termination thing?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHIqOh2WArs
Another nod.
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Wow.
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"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?"
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"Not quite. I'm still better. It's how they made me."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsiUdXBHydq
I scoffed. "And how exactly did they make you? I mean, Director did say that you have something that I don't. What?"
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This time, I didn't even get a nod – not that it was a question that could be answered with a simple nod, anyway.
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"It's getting late, we have to move," he said, a while later, getting up.
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"It's midday," I stated, cornering him. Physically.
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"It doesn't matter—"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOjrGacDOg
"What do you have, that I don't?" I demanded.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjLcWigDE8c
"Brain cells."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCFslOxhyQ
I gasped. Humour was my thing!
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKyFiHZS6w
"Dead brain cells!" I couldn't help but shoot back.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMdXghBHCL
"We both know that I'm smarter than you," he retaliated.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ui6wQNGH8
"Tell me!" I pushed.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOiC2XtI8r
And we're back to square one.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡClQDUBPVWH
"I don't owe you anything, 202," he replied.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhbB0Sy1G2
No! Do something, quick! Make him answer!
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRM6rWwsfz
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.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFAAfa50cR
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.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3UPINmqlmX
"No. Neurologically speaking. I don't have emotions."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNEINobmkN
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!
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Ypfwt9Cx5
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."
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What the hell?
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I snatched the almonds from his hands. "They're doing something to you."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbbAoZeWfg2
"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."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJWKZ2x9LWX
"They already have," I muttered, unable to restrain the comment from slipping out.
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He sent me a glare that could have cooled plasma.
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I shuddered. "Kidding. Continue."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqGLWDM0PrJ
"They removed emotions that cause weakness."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8RNWwujZIE
I cocked my head. "Weakness?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnqza9Asuz
"Grief, empathy, shame, remorse, fear, love," he recited at meteoric speed.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojO45n6YEL
I glanced up, repeating them in my mind, at a much slower pace...
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHEddFz59D
Oh.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlMdqGV2Xyx
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.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNI7pY2k66
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?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqcgMiSKoy
"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.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFizoGOq1Wo
"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."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKxPn080Mt
"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.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMphgvizYo
Wow, they really did remove those emotions.
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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."
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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.
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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?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGcj4CHXMac
"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."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUBSsjf6aI
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!"
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"Yes."
"Using you!"
"Yes."
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"That's why they took your emotions away."
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"Yes."
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"You were supposed to kill me."
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"Yes."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ghhE34qGR
"You were supposed to kill me!"
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"We've established that already."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJFFFHQomL
"No. You were supposed to kill me. So why didn't you?"
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXP3pnDFtTf
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?"
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"If you suppose."
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEDfoc0UAd
"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?"
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His face remained unmoved. "I don't have to explain myself to you, 202."
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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?
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHbBeAydNW
Thank you for reading, I really, really appreciate your amazing taste in books. Please, vote comment (no, seriously, go nuts), and share.
567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEakP53DIB
-Ruth
ns 15.158.61.12da2 
