-Ze-

"How about this." Hmm?

"The mornings. I can't promise to give you a lot of time because I am a bit busy but I promise to be with you every dawn." Jesus, that's cheesy. And strangely flattering. Wait, where am I?

Blinking I look around me and the same old hallway of the Hidden base is here and nobody is around me at all. I wonder what that was, it was like my mind suddenly drifted away for a bit, I must have been daydreaming. But I don't recognize that voice, maybe I'm going a bit insane after being away from home for so long. Taking a deep breath and shake my head. It feels like my heart is fluttering after hearing that sort of cheesy lovey talk in my head. Maybe I'm feeling a bit lonely without Leo just constantly over me and acting as if he were my lover like he liked to do a lot for fun. Glancing around the base still seems completely empty, everyone is somewhere doing something. Francis sure makes it a thing that every Hidden always constantly has work to be working on at all times so no time is wasted. Every Hidden besides me really, since there isn't much work that can be given to me with my lack of experience.

"Hey, sorry, were you waiting long?" Chilled asks as he leaves the room where he had to talk to his supervisor. I shake my head and he seems relieved and places his hands on his hips and looks around seeming a bit anxious strangely. Is he expecting something? Maybe he's just expecting Francis to come over here and give us more work together despite being told today is my free day before the big mission tomorrow that will challenge my capabilities as a Hidden. It'll also be my last day with Chilled before I'm on my way to another base then back home at last. It feels close, to be back home and back to the normal work as usual just lazing around with Leo occasionally coming by to bother me some more.

"What do you wanna do on our free day? We can finally just fuck around a bit. Man, it kinda sucks not being able to play video games," Chilled complains, walking in some random direction as I follow. He stops suddenly and looks back towards me, giving me this strange gaze that makes me feel like he's my older brother. "You know what, actually? You take the lead this time. I'm always the one taking us around because I'm better at the battlefield. It'll be our last day to fuck around anyways, you might as well take the 'leader' position on our free day." I blink in surprise, always blindly following him to wherever he leads which is usually some place completely off of our objective. But on a free day there really isn't any objective so I'm honestly completely lost. Chilled is staring at me, expecting me to go somewhere and I blank out, what do I even like to do for "fun"? I've never even thought about having fun before now.

"I feel like seeing the sunrise," I note and Chilled raises an eyebrow and laughs.

"It's a little late for that, buddy. Funny, you still like dawn, huh?" When I stay silent his smile fades away and there's something far off in his eyes before he focuses back on me with a frown. "There isn't any other place you'd like to go? Within the base at least? Nothing you'd like to do?" Suddenly I feel a strange chill on my back I realize we really are on base, we're being watched right now. If Francis sees me acting really friendly with Chilled, I feel like he'd get suspicious and tell Leo, then Leo would get mad at me. Chilled notices the sudden fear in my eyes and he sighs, leaning against the wall beside him and seeming a bit tired when looking at me. He must understand, right? He knows the worries of constantly being watched. "What do you usually do on your time off?"

"Usually? I just... sleep or sit somewhere," I answer truthfully. Chilled raises and eyebrow but sighs and laughs a bit before motioning for me to follow him.

"Fine, we'll have it my way. We're going to eat first since I'm starving," Chilled announces as I follow him towards the mess hall. "You seriously need to work on getting your personality back, man. It's like talking to myself sometimes," Chilled mutters, seeming really upset today with me. There's always this bit of disappointment he has when he greets me and finds me not very reactive or emotional but today it seems to be higher than usual. Something's bothering him today I guess, maybe he'll miss me since today is the last day we're together before a mission. Maybe it's the lack of progress he's made in trying to get me to remember everything again, because that surely hasn't progressed even the slightest bit. But I know something that has changed, I worry a lot more for this guy than I used to. I'd say he's my first friend thus far that I enjoy to spend time around, and because of that I've begun to worry for his well being, including his traitorous ways. When we're in the mess hall and there's nobody here I take my courage to break my emotionless cover.

"Hey Chilled, is something bothering you today?" Chilled suddenly stops and turns back towards me with shock before a bit smile appears on his face. He grabs my shoulder and his eyes shine as he looks to me with somewhat of a cocky face.

"Are you worrying about me?" I flinch and look away in embarrassment but he keeps that big goofy smile as he tries to lean to where I turned away. "Are you? The emotionless Steven worrying about me? Oh my god this is the best day of my life, I must never wash this hand again," he says happily holding the hand he grabbed my shoulder with by the wrist. I pout and push passed him, feeling stupid for risking my cover and showing my worry for him.

"Whatever, never mind. I don't know why I was worried," I complain and hear Chilled's laughter behind me as I just try to cover my red face.

"So you admit you were worried? That's more like the Ze I know. I mean, you are Ze, even now." I turn back to him in confusion after his declaration. He looks to me with this brotherly expression he's been looking to me at since I first met him, like he's constantly trying to take care of me. I always dismissed it since I thought he was just a strange partner but now I see that he really does sincerely care about me, not just the old Ze who had his memories but me as well. "You've always done this, when something was bothering you, you would shut yourself out like this. This is just a more severe case and it pisses me off but I can't do anything about it, because you're my best friend in the end." I stare at him, touched by this declaration for some reason when he's said it countless times before and I should be used to it by now.

"Chilled, I.... I don't understand," I note, looking slightly down feeling the blank space in my brain begin to ache. It's like everything I was working to keep shut off is slowly powering on the longer I spend time with Chilled. This was a mistake, Leo was right, I wasn't ready for this even after two years had passed. "How can you call me your friend even after I've completely changed? Why do I feel like you're still my best friend when I've forgotten everything about you? I don't know your favorite color, your favorite food, I don't know your nationality or your birthday. I don't know anything about you, and you don't know anything about me anymore. I don't understand," I say plainly, my eyes becoming wide as I feel sudden panic in my chest. I need to calm down, I absolutely need to calm down before someone else walks into the mess hall and sees me in this vulnerable and uncharacteristic state I'm in. Suddenly I feel a twist of pain in my chest and I gasp in pain and fall to the ground, clutching tightly onto my chest.

"Z... Ze?! What's the matter?!" Chilled shouts and kneels down beside me but I focus on my breathing and keeping down the coldness growing in my chest and the ache in my stomach causing me to be nauseous. I'm getting colder and colder and my stomach is flipping, I know what this is. I grab onto Chilled's shirt and pull his shirt to the right, pointing towards the door behind me.

"Red bag... the metal case. Get it," I order and he immediately gets up and rushes away from me as I grab onto my own shirt in pain. This again, it's a good thing Leo prepared some medicine for me before sending me off here. That's what he prepared, medicine and this knife in my holster right now are both farewell gifts from that bastard. Why now of all times though? In the middle of an emotional moment where I felt something hurt in my head. I head the door behind me open, causing me to sigh in relief while the edges of my vision is becoming black and my vision is blacking out every few seconds that feel like blinks. Somehow a metal case appears before me and I quickly scramble it open and take one of the small syringes and quickly pull up my sleeve and inject myself with the chemicals. Slowly the heat comes back to my system and I no longer feel like throwing up. Sighing in relief I take a lot blink before returning the syringe and closing the case.

"What was that?" Chilled asks and I glance up to him, he's pale as he looks at the metal case with wide eyes. "Is that... the Hidden cure? That is the fucking Hidden cure, I know when I see it," he snaps and takes the case away from me while I watch, still too weak to do anything. "Are you telling me-!?" He's interuppted as I violently shush him and he immediately shuts up but kneels down near me now violently whispering. "Are you telling me that these fuckers are keeping you on the brink of death constantly? Is that why you can use technology? You're constantly half way dying??" I stay silent, rubbing my head that is still aching.

"Is that what it is? I never asked so I can't answer your questions," I answer and Chilled frowns and his grasp on the case causes the metal to bend a bit under his fingers. Staring at the metal I sigh and turn away, already faintly having a feeling that he'd get upset at this beforehand, which is why I didn't want to have a meltdown in front of him. And it worries me a bit that what he says sounds like some evil bullshit that Leo is pulling on me, and it's partially why I didn't want Chilled to know. Because he knows more than me, he'll explain to me that I was created and used by some evil people and I didn't want to know about anything like that in the first place. Taking a deep breath I place my hands on the ground and attempt to pick myself up and off the ground, still feeling very weak and most definitely near death, if it really is true what Chilled is saying.

I glance over to Chilled but his eyes are empty, still staring at the empty space where I had been sitting with wide eyes and his grip on the meal case still strong. I think I broke him. Hesitantly holding out my hand towards him he suddenly quickly hides the metal case in the inside of his jacket and suddenly the door to the mess hall opens. A Hidden we've never seen before glances at the two of us but says nothing as he escapes past us and towards the kitchen where the food will be at. Chilled says nothing before leaving the mess hall without getting a single piece of food despite saying that he was starving, being the reason for coming here in the first place. I hurry to follow him and close the door gently behind me and follow Chilled as he just seems to be blankly wandering the base. It must have been a bit shock to him for some reason, confusing for me who has had to deal with this medication for a while now.

"Chilled-" I call out but immediately interrupted as red lights begin flashing in the hallway paired with an extremely loud deafening siren. I flinch at the noise but it seems to snap Chilled out of whatever trance he had been in as he glances up at the nearby siren causing the entire room to be flashing red repeatedly. "What... what is that?!" I shout in annoyance and Chilled simply turns to me, his eyes still glued onto the siren before finally facing me.

"A human stepped onto base, that's what it means. They're attacking this place," he explains and I immediately panic, looking in all directions just waiting for something to happen before I suddenly flinch at the sounds of gun shots. There are humans, I'm not prepared for a fight at all, I was supposed to do that tomorrow, not today. Chilled grabs onto my wrist and pulls me with him in the opposite direction of the gun shot sounds and drags me into a random room where he tosses the metal case of mine onto the able in the large room with chairs surrounding the table, seeming like a meeting room. "You should hide, Ze, you're not prepared. They're gonna die anyways with two elders on base they're not gonna be able to defeat us all," Chilled explains and I nod. I should just hide... but I can't keep hiding, I need to do my job properly.

Without a word I grip onto my knife and exit the room causing Chilled to turn around and shout out towards me but I ignore his shouts and hurry out to the hall with several Hidden running with me towards the sounds of gun shots. Hurrying to the source I stop when I find a human shoot a Hidden directly in front of me and jump away, sticking onto the ceiling as the humans move around, all seemingly shooting like wild men as most of them panic. The ones who panic are the ones who the Hidden all jump at the moment their gun shots stop. Taking a deep breath I jump down and slash at the nearest human who immediately jumps away, with his finger on the trigger as he points the gun towards me. Immediately moving to the side I sink my knife deep into his back and immediately jump up when gun shots appear where I was just a second ago. I did it. I got one, I finally got one after all of my training.

Suddenly something catches my eye, on their chests these soldiers have patches that say "IRIS" in white lettering. The familiar name causes me to hesitate and jump back, retreating from the battle and flinch when the Hidden around me are shot and blown to pieces before their bodies boil and evaporate. I don't have any time to mourn my own kind as more bullets are shot in my direction and I jump back, still distracted by the patches on their clothing. I'm scared, I... I don't want to hurt anyone. Despite knowing well these are the enemies we were planning to destroy tomorrow I can't do it after all. There's death surrounding me on both sides of the battle and I don't feel prepared at all. Suddenly a grasp grabs onto my wrist and pulls me back and away from the battle and I glance back to Chilled who seems pissed and shouting something I can't hear past all the noise. I watch him as he continues shouting when suddenly his eyes become wide and his grasp on me is let go as he falls to the ground beside me. Staring at him on the floor with those wide eyes with a bullet wound in his shoulder I suddenly feel a spark in my chest.

Turning around from him I move quickly and duck past the bullets of the human and slash at his legs. When he's down I dig my knife into his chest and twist until he stops squirming and immediately hurry to Chilled, dragging him by the arm into the closest room. Sitting him down he watches me as I hurry to peel off the clothes covering his shoulder and look around for any sort of medical supplies in a panic.

"Told you we should have just hid," Chilled murmurs, coughing but I shake my head repeatedly, taking my blindfold out of my pocket and wrap it around his wound. I don't need the extra power, I can handle this by myself. Suddenly the sirens stop and I glance up to the single siren that had been lighting up the room and get up. "That doesn't mean they're gone, just that the captain has died and to evacuate," Chilled shouts before I can leave the room but I shake my head.

"I need to find something to help you. Just wait," I order and leave ignoring his angry shouts telling me to go back into that room and wait patiently. Hurrying out of the room I run down the hall at top speed when suddenly a human is thrown to the wall directly in front of me. I hesitate and step back as Michael suddenly runs up to the human and holds the human's neck at a high position. Michael... he has... tears running down his face as he has a murderous glint towards the human who is coughing and squirming under his grasp. I can't rip my eyes away from the sight just as Michael has had enough and snaps the human's neck and lets the human down. He turns towards me, noticing me for the first time but before we can even acknowledge each other he's blown to tiny pieces directly in front of me before evaporating into the air. I silently watch, too stunned to say a single word as another human slowly walks to the dead body, looking down. The base is completely quiet now, compared to all of the noise from before. Are we... the last two survivors? The human glances over to me and holds up his shotgun causing me to immediately take a step back in fear. But, for some reason, he lowers the aim of his shotgun.

"Chilled? Is that you?" the human asks and I silently watch him as he steps closer. Chilled? So... he really was a traitor. If that's so, he'll help Chilled, right? "Chilled, so what's so interesting about this base besides the fact there's two elders you neglected to tell me about?" I hesitate as he steps closer and closer to me before he's directly in front of me. He'll help out Chilled, but I can't trick this human much longer considering that Chilled is completely different from me. More outspoken, but if I try to speak he'll immediately tell that I'm not Chilled by my voice. The human narrows his eyes towards me and reaches out towards me.

"You're not Chilled, who are you?" I flinch as his hand stops in front of me before he can even reach me and his other hand's grip on the shotgun increases. He's becoming suspicious, I can sense it that he didn't trust me from the moment he saw me down the hall. "Are you... do you need help? Are you not a fan of the Hidden? You know you can always join us, we have the cure and everything," the human explains, surprisingly not shooting me right away. The cure? The humans have the cure? Leo didn't tell me much about our history or anything, but it makes sense why he's been worrying about the dropping rates of Hidden. No, but I need to get help for Chilled or else he'll be dead when I check up on him next. Opening my mouth I plan to inform the human to get help before I suddenly see a flash of a familiar face over the human's shoulder.

As if on instinct I take a grip on my knife and slash out towards the human without paying much thought. Immediately the human widens his eyes and winces as he grabs onto the slash I dug into his chest. He picks up the shotgun and tries to shoot at me but I slash it away causing the gun to fall onto the floor while he grips onto the cut and falls to the ground. Sitting in front of the man I hold up my knife right above the human's heart when suddenly a bullet comes right to my hand. Flinching in pain I roll off the man and look back to the end of the hall, another human approaching with another shotgun on his side while he holds a pistol towards me. Scrambling backwards and holding my bleeding hand I get up and jump away but several gun shots are following me on my way back. The gun shots stop as the human approaches the other and kneels down beside him, still pointing the shot gun towards me even when making sure the other is okay. I need to escape, I can't take down two humans, especially when I just had an attack a while ago and am even weaker than usual.

"Gassy, how'd he get you? This isn't like you," the new human says, throwing down his shotgun and checking on the other human when I hide behind the corner at the end of the hall. I watch as the human helps out the other and immediately Chilled comes back into my mind, my original plan. I doubt they'd help me now, but it doesn't matter I need help for Chilled.

"He didn't attack at first. I thought he might be one of those who can be recruited. Have you seen Chilled anywhere?" the human on the ground says and I hesitate. They want to help Chilled, maybe I should lead them to-

"I'm right here ya bastards." I widen my eyes as Chilled stumbles out of the room I had left him in and approaches the two. "I'm hurt too, you guys bring anything I can use?" Holding my breath, I watch as Chilled approaches the two of them and in the blink of an eye the newer human goes to Chilled and pulls him into an embrace. Surprised at the sight I turn away momentarily before looking again, finding Chilled hug the human in return while the one on the floor looks away, seeming troubled in that situation. Chilled is... like that with the humans? He really likes them that much? I learned that humans are trying to kill us, and yet, he's actually with one? And... Chilled was my friend in the past, could that mean I was like that too?

"Steven, seems like you witnessed quite a traitorous event." I jump at the voice and turn around to find Leo standing right behind me with his hands on his hips as he watches. Noticing the fear in my eyes he smiles and holds his hand out in front of me. "Let me see your hand." Without hesitation I give him my hand he carefully examines and digs into his pocket behind him and carefully wraps the cloth around my hand.

"What are you doing here?"

"What? I couldn't check on my cute pet?" Leo teases but when I am clearly not amused he sighs and motions for me to follow him. Hesitating, I glance back down the hall where the three are all standing now although the one human I attacked is limping. "Steven, I didn't trust those two old men with your life and I was correct. Chilled is clearly a traitor who will be fired, come with me right now," Leo orders, suddenly his voice taking a dark turn.

"Ze?! Where the fuck are you!" I suddenly freeze at Chilled's voice calling out for me. I stop following Leo and turn around, clearly upsetting Leo but I don't want to abandon Chilled.

"Fine, have it your way. I'll let you have your fun for a bit," Leo sighs, surprisingly allowing me to slowly step away from him and hurry to where Chilled had been. Poking my head around the corner I find the injured human leaning on the wall with his arms crossed seeming a bit pale with Chilled watching me and the other human behind him with his arms on his hips. The three seem close, closer than Chilled seemed with any other Hidden. In fact, the only Hidden he bothered to talk to with a friendly face is me, which is a bit flattering but... I guess I should have known he was a traitor. "Be careful, I have your back but be careful," Leo mutters behind me and I nod slowly, gripping onto the wall at the corner.

"Ze! You're fine, where'd you go?" Chilled calls out to me and immediately the other humans two turn towards me with great speed. "Come on out here, these guys are safe. I promise," Chilled says with a gentle smile and I hesitate. I feel like a kid whose afraid on their first day of school and that Chilled's like the one kid in class trying to get me to hang out with his friends. Suddenly I feel Leo push me forward and I stumble and quickly turn around to where Leo was but he disappeared. Weird, he's the one who wanted me to stay away from my past and now he's pushing me directly towards it. Taking a deep breath I step forward.

"Ch-Chilled, we should go. Before you get in trouble," I say, feeling uncomfortable with the man who I injured and the one who injured me right there with Chilled.

"No, fuck that. You don't... they're using you Ze, they're torturing you. Go with the humans, I'll come up with something to tell the Hidden. Gassy and Nanners here will protect you though," Chilled says with a smile and I immediately stop walking towards them. When I stop walking Chilled frowns and steps towards me with the two humans behind him watching me carefully. The injured one is gripping onto his chest but he's staring straight at me with wide eyes that makes me feel uncomfortable. "Ze, c'mon buddy. You can trust me. We spent the last week together, you started remembering things, remember?" I shake my head and take a step back, suddenly feeling afraid as the nerves in my chest won't stop. Chilled frowns and takes another step to me and I take a step back in return, feeling unnatural to just be accepting this just like that when all of this time Leo has stopped me. It's like I'm disobeying my parent for the first time.

"Ch-Chilled, stop fucking around. Who is that?" the injured human says, pushing himself off the wall and staring at Chilled while refusing to look at me. His voice... sounds familiar. Maybe I've run into him before. No, I have to stop remembering. Mentally shaking my head I take another step back.

"I fucking told you it's Ze. He's just a little brainwashed, come here Ze, be a good boy," Chilled teases, patting his lap and I roll my eyes and take a few more steps back. "Oh come on I was kidding. Don't you at least remember Gassy? You guys were really fucking close," Chilled says with a smile and points back at the injured human who seems to be still gripping onto his shotgun. Although he still has his guard up his hand that holds onto that shotgun is trembling a bit and a lot seems to be on his mind.Chilled stares at me for a long time before sighing and taking many steps forward.

"Fine, I give up. I'll go back to the Hidden with you. The closest base is around 100 miles from here so we got quite the journey. You're not... ready to remember I guess," Chilled suddenly says with a gentle smile. I hesitate, staying still as he walks towards me when suddenly a small sound echoes throughout the hall of something falling onto the floor and I feel the back of the collar of my shirt pull me back. I stumble backwards and feel arms wrap around me dragging me away from the explosion that follows in the hallway right in front of Chilled.

"Chilled!" I shout strongly and pull away and off of Leo's grip, dashing into the smoke and finding him on the floor, burnt and injured. Quickly picking him up I dash away from the smoke, the coughing humans, and Leo.