Six was good at keeping promises. In fact, there was one inscribed on his sword:

Whether for good or ill, our fates will follow the same path.

But it seemed like the promises that mattered the most were the ones that went broken. When he had left home, he vowed to return with a cure for his mentor. The deadliest man on earth deserved to die with far more dignity than he had- succumbing to a mutation that left him a mindless monster. It would haunt Six to the end of his days. Regardless of what One said to assuage his guilt, Six failed him.

When he and White Knight were employed at Providence strictly to kill and capture Evos, it seemed like there was no fate worse than becoming one. The daily grind consisted of finishing off the worst of monsters, knowing that they had once been human. Neither one of them wanted to entertain the thought of what two fully trained mercenaries would be like if they were to mutate. Their agreement to one another was that, should either of them begin transforming, they would put the other out of their misery.

He was going to end up breaking his promise again.

"It's him. White's office has been breached." Six stated.

Bobo was lost in the details. "What are you talking about? How can you be sure?"

The bent angle of Caesar's neck made sense now that Six could make out the wires jammed into the back. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen if he attempted to sever the connection between Caesar and White.

"I know him better than anyone." He informed, lips pressing together tightly.

"That was once true." Caesar agreed dryly, taking a step backward, deeper into the shadows where the light of the monitor did not quite reach. The golden glimmer of his eyes wasn't something that could be cloaked by the dark.

Only a single warning was given, an abrupt sting that tore across the side of Six's face. A metal pellet was fired out of the shadows, slitting the flesh of his cheek. Warm blood dribbled down his jaw, pooling at his chin, but he was given no opportunity to so much as wince. A barrage of bullets were fired at him and Bobo.

Glass from the transmission monitor shattered in the background, cutting out their final source of light.

Muscle memory took hold of his body.

In blind swipes of his arms, he used his blades to guard his face and torso. His body was pierced by what he failed to deflect, pain erupting sporadically across his body. The bite of the bullets pushed him backward. He had no choice but to leap behind one of the lab tables, kicking it over to use as a shield.

He could not see where Bobo was.

"Caesar." He called, attempting to get through to the man- if any part of him remained. He received no response except the shower of bullets pelting against the metal table.

"White." He tried instead. Still no reaction, no change to indicate whatever name he called out even mattered. Did the man even remember it, or was he so far gone, driven so mad by nanites that he couldn't recall the person he was anymore? They'd encountered Evos like that before, the ones who lost their presence of mind. Is that what was happening?

No. He'd proved he had some recollection of who he once was. He'd dredged their argument back up. He was there, his mind simply had to be warped and there had to be a way he could get through to him.

"I'm not going to be able to keep my promise to you." He continued speaking, not to garner a response this time. He hoped his words would be an effective distraction. Six's hand slipped into a pocket inside of his coat, fingers curling around his favorite lighter. Unfortunately, he was going to have to sacrifice it.

White only chuckled at him, making him pause.

"You're good at breaking promises. Aren't you, Six?"

Slipping his lighter out of his coat, he began disassembling it, making quick work of modifying it into a flint bomb. He kept talking, dragging the conversation out longer to stall.

"Unfortunately. The only difference now is that I'm not sorry for breaking this one." Many killers sharing his occupation would criticize him for growing weak, as though he'd fallen from grace by being merciful. Once, he'd been so ruthless that he would have been inclined to agree, and killing White would have come so easy. But what those professional killers failed to recognize was that kindness was a discipline too. Now that Love had instilled within him mercy, it was difficult for his body to unlearn its lessons.

He ignited the lighter and hurled it over the lab table. It took seconds before the container erupted, throwing sparks that brightened the room. Light glinted off the broken monitor, bouncing off security camera lenses. Six was able to see once again.

Pushing up from the ground, he lunged over the lab table, straight in Caesar's direction. In a response that was predictably reactionary, White Knight fired at him instead of the open flame. Six knew his eyes never left him. They were always on him. With a sweep of his swords, he redirected the bullets, sending them into the cameras.

Glass shattered, raining down on Bobo's prone form.

"Enough." Six stalked over to Caesar, gripping him by the front of the shirt.

Yanking him closer, Six gripped the cord stuck into the back of the scientist's neck, but not before the lights went out.


When he regained consciousness, Six found that he could not move or speak.

His limbs and head were bound by wires; thick cords smothered his lips, effectively gagging him. He was suspended in the air in what he recognized as White Knight's office. Scanning his surroundings, he saw that across from him were the bodies of his co-workers cocooned in wire too, but they were not awake. He strained against the cords that held him, testing their strength, but no amount of struggling would loosen them. If anything, they seemed to tighten in response, never giving him an inch.

Slowly, he felt himself slipping.

He was lowered toward the ground. The cords around his mouth began receding so that he could breathe easier. They only stopped moving him once he was inches from the floor, never fully letting go of him. In his peripheral vision, he watched a metallic pod glide out in front of him. It stopped just inches away, splitting open to reveal the face of his former partner, deformed by nanites. Parts of White's body had been replaced by machine, more robotic than human. He stood with four legs that ended in flatten points, the entire lower half of his body gone and made metal.

Beautiful golden eyes regarded Six with horrible coldness. Unlike him, Six wasn't sure if he would find mercy there, and he had to wonder what the purpose of confronting him even was. If the nanites had corrupted him enough, did he even remember that they'd once been friends?

"Finally awake." White greeted him, moving too close for comfort. Six said nothing, observing even his slightest movements closely. If there was truly nothing left within White Knight for Six to search for, if he was now only a mere vessel for the meta nanite, then trying to reason with him was pointless. Dedicating his time toward escape would have been the more logical approach. The indecision made it difficult for him to find the right words, even when his mouth wasn't being smothered by cords.

The cords behind White Knight writhed and whipped in agitation. A cold hand seized Six's jaw, forcing them to make eye contact."Not going to say anything? You seemed so eager to open your mouth before."

His fingers tightened on his face. He leaned in even closer. "What was that you were saying, Six? You know me better than anyone?"

Six grunted. Replying was made difficult by the pressure put on his face. He wasn't going to rescind his statement. They'd fought and bled together enough times that there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he knew him. White's words implicating the contrary nearly insulted him, but forgiveness was also on his mind. He was not himself, he tried to remember, but didn't know how he could possibly pull his old friend back from the ledge.

Without thinking, senselessly, Six strained forward as much as the wires allowed. He could barely reach, but White had already unknowingly met him halfway. Closing what little space there was left in between them, he brought their lips together, kissing him softly.