Interest

With his power dampeners active, Ky was tossed back into his cell by two guards, nearly toppling over, but he was able to catch himself by grabbing onto the metal bunk bed he shared with his roommate, Tom. Tom looked over and smiled at Ky as the door closed behind him. "Well, well, well. I thought you were dead." he told him in a mocking, though friendly tone.

"Almost, but not quite. I was hospitalized for a few hours I guess." Ky told him as he sat down on his bottom bunk. Hanging off the top bunk, Tom looked down at Ky with his eyebrows furrowed behind his glasses. He was confused since for him, Ky was gone for far longer than just a few hours. "Hours? It's been days."

"Seriously!?" Ky was surprised at first, however, his tone soon shifted to a calm one. "Well, I guess after everything that's happened, that's the least crazy thing I've heard all day." Ky spoke sort of casually. As he said, things were getting so bizarre, sleeping a little longer than he thought wasn't too far beyond the realm of belief.

"You'll get used to it. I'm on week three at the moment." Tom admitted. "Still looking for a way out. Unfortunately, I get frisked every time I enter and exit my cell."

"Shh! You want to get your head blown up?" Ky, figuring there must be cameras or something of the sort watching them, did not want to get in trouble for speaking about escaping.

"Mate, there are no cameras or microphones in here if that's what you're thinking about. I'd use the parts to get the hell out of here. Trust me, I checked more times than you can count." Tom seemed fairly certain, but he could tell by Ky's expression that he wasn't buying it.

"What about the chip in our heads?" Ky asked assuming there could be some sort of microphone inside of it.

"Nah, I've seen one. It's just a remote bomb." Tom hopped down from the top bunk and got close to Ky, looking at the door before whispering to him. "There are guards on the other side of that door. The only thing they can do is listen to us speak when we speak at a normal volume. They won't kill us for simply thinking about escaping, especially you since you're Waller's Golden Goose. But I do have a plan that can get us killed and I need your help to get some of the things to escape. They aren't going to let us keep whispering like this. When I start listing things, reverse time and count up from one. Does that make sense? It'll be as if I-" As Tom whispered this, one of the guards banged on the door, interrupting him.

"HEY! No whispering, get back on your bunk, 0304!" As the guard ordered, Tom climbed on the top bunk and put his head on his pillow. Without any hesitation, he started initiating his plan.

"Disposable camera." Tom saying this almost made Ky panic, but he stayed calm and remembered what Tom told him. Ky reversed time by one second and just as Tom told him to, he said a number.

"One." Ky spoke just before Tom was about to say disposable camera once more. Hearing Ky say a number brought a smile to Tom's face. Tom had been planning this for days after learning about Ky's power and things seemed to be working just as he had planned. For him, time was not being manipulated, but since Ky already said a number, he figured that the first reversal of time must have already happened.

"Rubber gloves." Tom spoke of the next item on his shopping list, this time with a smile, and Ky reversed time once more.

"Two." Ky said. Again, for Tom, none of these time reversals were happening. For him, Ky said two just as Tom's head hit his pillow. From Tom's point of view, he never said the words "disposable camera" and "rubber gloves". With a good guess about how Ky's powers work, he was able to deduce what was happening.

Tom then continued to list items and Ky continued to reverse time.

"Lan cable."

"Three."

"Toilet paper."

"Four."

"Butter."

"Five."

"Matches."

"Six."

"Aluminum foil."

"Seven."

"Graphite."

"Eight."

"Copper tape."

"Nine."

"Metal fork."

"Ten."

"Bearings."

"Eleven."

"Play-doh."

"Twelve."

"Double A battery."

"Thirteen."

"Cardboard."

"Fourteen."

"Hey, Ky. When we make it on the team, are you excited to go outside again, yeah?" Tom was saying this as a hint and Ky picked up on it.

"Yeah. I miss seeing all there is to see out there. I'd even be happy to see something lame like a cardboard box." Ky saying this told Tom that they were on the same page. Most of these items were going to need to be found from the outside world, but some could possibly be found inside the facility. They weren't sure how they'd sneak them in, but they had other things to worry about for the time being.

"I hope you're able to beat your opponent. I really do." Once Tom said this, Ky couldn't help but think of 0111, the girl he'd be sparring with every day until the presumed final test where only one of them will live.

"Right…" he muttered. He didn't want to kill her. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he knew he had no choice.

The very next day, Ky once again found himself standing in front of 0111 inside their training room. This time, the background that was being projected onto the walls looked as if they were at the top of a frozen mountain. The temperature inside the room matched the aesthetic, as it was so cold that Ky was clearly shivering where he stood.

"Wh- what the fuck." he muttered through his chattering teeth, looking forward at 0111 who seemed to be unaffected by the extremely freezing temperature. Without an ounce of hesitation, as soon as the ready alarm sounded, 0111 sprinted at Ky and began her attack.

Ky dodged her strikes by backstepping and occasionally reversing time when she was cutting it close. Eventually, Ky began to speak as they fought. "Are you not cold?" he asked her, seeing that she was moving at the exact same pace as the day prior and her skin was still perfectly smooth, lacking any goosebumps.

"Temperature changes do not impact my performance, unlike you, 1226!" As she spoke his number, she struck Ky in the chest with a powerful palm to his heart. There was so much strength behind it, Ky nearly forgot to reverse time, however, he calmed himself and quickly reverted time so he could smack her hand out of the way before it hit him.

"Stop doing that, you're so irritating!" 0111 was growing frustrated with Ky's time reversals. Of course, she couldn't feel them, but since she could read his mind, she might as well have been experiencing the time reversals herself.

"It seems the only emotion you know is anger, huh?" Ky wanted to feed into her anger, hoping it would make her sloppy, however, 0111 obviously could hear his plan go directly into her own brain.

"I will not let myself be affected by your meanless babbles, 1226! I do not 'feel' anything. Emotions are useless and foreign to me!" despite her proclamations, she was in fact frustrated. However, rather than being held back by her anger, she became faster and her strikes became stronger, generating whiffing sounds with each deadly palm strike cutting through the air.

Ky noticed that her frustration was fueling her, so he quickly shut his mouth and continued to dodge all of her attacks. Though he had no fighting experience, running away was working perfectly for him. However, they both knew that running away would not impress the people of Weapon X, especially Waller.

Outside of the one punch that Ky landed the day prior, he hadn't landed another attack on her, however, neither did 0111 due to Ky's time reversals.

Their cat-and-mouse game continued on for the next hour until their power dampeners activated, signaling that it was time for their intermission. Despite being warmed up after fighting for an hour, Ky was still shivering and his teeth were still chattering against each other. 0111 just simply watched Ky with a curious frown.

Wearing a very comfortable-looking winter coat as if to rub it in the face of Ky, Waller walked in with those same mysterious milky drinks from before and approached the two mutants. "Man, you look very cold, Ky. I warmed yours up for you. Don't say I've never done anything for ya!" with that shit-eating smile, Waller handed Ky his steaming hot drink. Ky was pissed off by Waller's sarcastic attitude, extremely so, but he was thankful to have the warm drink in his hands nonetheless.

Waller then handed 0111 her drink and she downed it in an instant, just as she always did, before sitting on the ground once again. Ky too sat on the ground, though he kept his drink in his hands to warm his body.

"As always, you two have five minutes and then it's back to it! See ya!" Waller's happy-go-lucky attitude only pissed Ky off even further, though he held it within himself.

Once Waller and his guards left, the two sat in silence for a few minutes until 0111 surprisingly spoke first. "I wish you could've done it." she told him, using her finger to draw shapes on the metal floor that was covered in frost. Ky didn't understand what she was referring to. "Done what?" he asked.

"When Waller came in here and told you that you looked cold, you thought of doing something. I wish you could have." after explaining it in this way, Ky finally understood what she was talking about. Ky thought about punching Waller in the face and reversing time so it seemed as if nothing ever happened. Of course, this was impossible due to their power dampeners. However, sometimes, Waller didn't activate them when he approached them. Perhaps as a way to flex his power over time.

"Oh. You mean that. So you don't like him either?" Ky asked her. The guards were listening, but he wasn't afraid of saying he didn't like Waller, even if he was listening in on the conversation himself. He was in fact the supposed Golden Goose, whatever that meant.

"I do not 'like' anyone but my father. However, I do not particularly dislike anyone either. At least, that was the case until I met Waller. In fact, I would say that I hate him. If I were given the chance, I would kill him. But I cannot do that. We need each other to survive." Hearing her cold, emotionless words and the fact that she only hated Waller gave Ky a strange sense of relief. He wanted her to not despise him, despite being her enemy.

"Why do you care about my opinions of you? I do not understand your fascination with me." 0111 asked Ky, reading his mind and feeling his sense of relief.

"I just think you're interesting. That's all." Ky simplified it, but things weren't that simple for him. To put it plainly, Ky was entranced with her. Ever since he first laid eyes on her, he immediately wanted to know more about her. Though her closed-off and cold nature made it impossible.

Unfortunately for Ky, 0111 saw right through him and knew there was something far more complex happening. "I find things intriguing all the time, however, my heart rate does not skyrocket, nor do I feel any sort of uneasiness like you are now." Hearing 0111's cold words exposing him completely muted Ky. He was embarrassed that she was able to read him so well, which was something he wasn't used to when it came to the subject of women.

"I will give you one piece of advice, 1226. You and I are not meant to be anything more than enemies. In fifty-nine days, one of us will be dead, perhaps by the other's hand. This interest you have in me will lead to nothing. I do not quite understand it; the idea of finding another person interesting in the way that you do. But I can live the rest of my life without doing so. I can do that without any problem."

Just as it did during their last actual conversation, a buzzer sounded and the guards inside the room with them barked orders at them once again. "Continue sparring!"

Just as ordered, the two of them proceeded with their sparring. For the rest of the day, 0111 refused to speak to Ky, either ignoring his few questions or giving him one-word responses.

However, despite her refusal to open up, Ky's thoughts about her were starting to make her think as well. She couldn't understand why he would feel such things. She was an empath, but the things she was feeling coming from him were completely new to her due to her sheltered upbringing.

She didn't show it, but she slowly found herself getting closer to letting Ky in, which horrified her. She never let anyone in, not even her father, who was the only one she'd ever cared about in the past.

It felt disgusting to her.

However, at the same time, it felt...

Nice.