Chapter Text
“CONTAINMENT BREACH.”
The bright red words appeared on your screen with ease. The alarm for your sector following shortly after the words had appeared, you had heard the doors locking the sector down to prevent anything from moving too far into the research center and causing harm.
A small sigh escaped your lips.. This was the third time this week.. Quickly dismissing the alert on your tablet screen, you brought up the video feed to 88’s containment room to see that he was once again gone. Just as you expected. Quickly you brought up more video feed of the surrounding area, including the six other’s containment. As soon as you did you saw him. 88 appeared on one of the cameras before disappearing once again just to appear on another.
What you didn’t understand was why he didn’t start heading for an exit as easily as he could with his teleporting ability. Instead every time he got out it was like he was looking for something, and it puzzled you as to what exactly. You wanted to know what he was looking for… but every time you had run this test he never seemed to find it before the guards managed to contain him once again.
As much as you wanted to let him free for as long as possible til he could find whatever he was looking for, you couldn’t. The higher ups always refused and said that the chance for escape was too great if 88 wasn’t contained again after the amount of time provided. Though a bad feeling was creeping up on you about this test.. Well more exactly you didn’t know how much longer you would be able to run it before 88 would just no longer take his chance at getting out of his containment.
You stood silently in the observation deck of subject 4’s containment. The white haired male seemingly unbothered by the noises going on around him. Even as the lights flashed and changed in intensity he didn’t budge. Your eyes flicked back and forth between the screen on your tablet and watching the male in the room just below you. The first time he killed the lights the second the alarm when off as he had so previously done before 88 had arrived at your facility. The second escape attempt he let the lights go for a while longer before he killed them once again. This time though.. It was well past the previous time period and it didn’t seem like he was going to make any move to stop the light.
The radio at your hip buzzed to life, pulling you from your observations on the white haired male below you. “Y/N! Look at the feed! 88 finally stopped!” The familiar voice of your partner had you scrambling to look at your tablet, scanning through the different feeds until you finally spotted the familiar dark haired male.
He was standing in front of a door. A door that was all too familiar to you. You refreshed the feed just in case that it was wrong or if he moved on but no.. He was standing right in front of 4’s door. Standing at the entrance to the room that you and subject number 4 were in. Was he after you, or was he after 4? You didn’t understand.
You felt your heart rate pick up, knowing that a potentially dangerous subject was standing just down the stairs from you. Were you really about to do this? You swallowed harshly before returning your gaze to the tablet held in your now shaky hands. Quickly you went to 4’s containment controls and released the lock down, opening the doors up for 88 to get inside.
“Y/N? Why is 4’s containment open? What are you doing? Aren’t you in there?” You could tell your partner was getting panicked about you opening the doors, but you didn’t want to respond to him. You didn’t want to make a noise that would alert 88 just in case he was coming for you.
As quietly as you could muster you opened both doors to 4’s containment. Both to get inside the room and then the actual containment itself. Your eyes flicked over to 4, watching as he perked up when he heard the door slide open, but he made no move to exit. Instead his eyes watched the door, probably expecting some sort of staff member to step aside.
Your eyes went back to the stairwell, holding your breath as you watched 88 step inside. Fear coursed through you as he looked around for a moment before moving forward once again, either not noticing that you were here or not caring.
Swiftly you turned your attention back to the containment room. Watching as 88 stopped just inside the door. His eyes falling on the other figure that sat against his bed on the floor.
Questions filled your mind. What was going to happen now? Were they going to fight? Is 4 the thing that 88 had been looking for so long? Did they know each other?
You stepped forward closer to the glass of the observation room. Watching as the two studied each other for a long moment. You couldn’t see 88’s face for his back was to you, but you could see 4 clearly. His face held confusion, recognition, fear, but also relief? Maybe? You watched as 4 spoke, words too quiet for you to hear even with the audio system in place. Then in just a second 88 was over there hugging the other. Not what you were expecting, but you more so weren’t expecting the beautiful smile that graced 4’s features. A smile you haven’t seen in the longest time.
You observed for a small moment before you realized that you needed to get 88 contained before he was dragged back to his own containment. Quickly you pulled up the controls for 4’s containment agan closing the door to the room the two were in. Their gazes snapping to the door before looking at each other. They were confused maybe even scared but you wanted them to remain together so you could study what was going on, to figure out how the two knew each other.
You reached for your radio pulling it to your mouth to speak. “88 has been contained. Test 14 has come to a close.” You could deal with your higher up’s reaction to this new move later. You weren’t going to let this chance slip by. You certainly were going to get an earful from Mark, your partner, here shortly. You were more afraid of the man that was supposed to be your equal than you were of your bosses.
Quietly you stepped out of 4’s containment area, letting out a breath of relief as the door slide home behind you. The lock down from the breach just a moment ago was lifted as the locks that required a manual override were released. You tucked the tablet under your arm as you moved back to your office just at the end of the sector.
As soon as you stepped inside two familiar faces greeted you. Mark’s eyes narrowed into a glare, while Ten was smiling brightly as ever. Ten was the first to speak breaking the silence that had settled between the three of you.
“So how did the test go?” He asked, the curiosity clear in his tone.
“Ten you know you aren’t supposed to know the findings on other subjects seeing how you are a subject yourself.” You reminded him. As you moved around to your desk, setting the tablet down on top of some papers. “What are you doing in my office anyway?”
As your gaze found subject 10 again, you could see the pout on his face. “Well I was already here waiting on you when the lock down occurred so I couldn’t go back. Plus I have been curious about 88 and 4 for the longest time. Besides you guys will tell me anyway. I have free roam so I hear pretty much everything.”
You rubbed your forehead letting out a small sigh before shooting Mark a glare knowing that the other researcher probably already let some things slip to the older male.
“88 and 4’s status is not something you should be concerned with.” You answered firmly trying to get it through his stubborn nature but you knew he would ignore you anyway.
“Speaking of which,” Mark interrupted the conversation before this turned into more of a deal than it needed to be. “What were you thinking back there? Letting 88 in the room with you inside, he could have killed you!”
You let out another sigh, not really wanting to deal with this. “I was doing what I needed to do to get answers. 88 has never stopped before. We couldn’t risk him not stopping again just to make sure I was safe.” You would do anything to get answers about your research subjects, even if it meant harming yourself but 88 has never shown any violent behavior.
“But he could have stopped again. Seeing what I already saw between him and 4 it was a most likely occurrence! You need to be alive to answer the questions you have!” Mark retorted, coming at you with a point that you knew you couldn’t argue against.
You waved your hand brushing him off, ignoring the smug look on Ten’s face as he was getting what he wanted. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter at this point. What is done is done, and I am safe.”
Mark let out a sigh. “You can’t keep brushing it off. If you don’t listen then one day you won’t be safe. What if that had been 109?”
Of course he would bring up 109.. If it had been 109 you wouldn’t have done what you did. Probably..
“Look, I know you care Mark but at this point we have made progress. More progress than we have ever made with 88, and he is connected somehow to 4 so we might end up making progress with both of them at this rate. It has been a long long time since 4 has done anything or even showed remote interest in other things!” This time he wasn’t able to argue with you. You were right, it was like the two of you had hit a brick wall when it came to progress with 4. Nothing seemed to work until now, until 88 got into his room.
“If it takes others for 4 to make some progress then maybe I can go in there?” Ten asked after a moment of silence between you and mark.
Both you and the other researcher looked over at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
The two of you said it at the same time causing a confused expression to cross over Ten’s features. “Okay what is the answer here?”
“Ten you know the rules, you aren’t supposed to be near other test subjects without proper clearance, and that is clearance I already have denied you many times.” You stated, looking at the subject in your office.
“Oh come on Y/N! You already broke the rules, so why not him? We can see if more progress is made with Ten and besides he already wanders around our sector might as well give him something more to do than just bug us in our offices.” Mark stated doing a hand gesture while he spoke to emphasize his point.
You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his words, but he had just as much authority as you. If you didn’t agree Mark would probably do it on your day off. “Fine.. In a few days from now after we are done picking up data between 4 and 88 we can try it.” You fixed a heavy stare to Ten. “Just don’t try anything funny you got that?”
“Loud and clear ma’am.” Ten said brightly, the ‘ma’am’ making you scowl.