Beyond the Horizon: New Dawn

30) "Seventy-Six"

Thirty-Five clamped down the restraints on Seventy-Six's arms. She grabbed an oxygen mask from the cabinet and put it over his mouth and nose. Seventy-Six stared at the ceiling as she ran through the preliminary checks. He struggled to understand how she was able to spend extended periods of time in the lab. He had only been in there for about ten minutes and had already begun to feel claustrophobic. It was a small room with the MRI machine taking up most of the space. There was a small lab area to his right and a medical cabinet above it. Though it was small, it had all the necessities to treat injuries than ran deeper than on a surface level.

"Alright," Thirty-Five began. "I'm going to put you under and send you in the MRI. It'll scan your brain, determine where the nanites are least effective, then apply more to that area."

"Yea, I'm familiar with the process," Seventy-Six responded.

There was a soft hiss as Thirty-Five administered the anesthetic. With a gentle whir, the bed moved into the MRI machine. Seventy-Six's eyes became heavy as he continued to inhale the anesthetics. His thoughts drifted to the first time he had undergone the procedure. He remembered feeling uneasy and anxious about what would come of him. But now he was only curious. It was not clear whether Jonathan would disappear at the end of the operation. The procedure did not get rid of him before and even though Thirty-Five claimed to have the solution to the problem, Seventy-Six doubted that it would change anything. His body became numb and his eyes slowly shut. He could hear the faint mechanisms of the machine preparing to insert the nanites into his system as he drifted to sleep.

Seventy-Six awoke in a large bedroom. His vision was blurred as everything appeared obscured like he was looking through a heat refraction. But there was no mistaking that the room did not solely belong to him. There was a vanity table to his left that was covered in various makeups and hair appliances. Outside of the bedroom were the muffled voices of two children arguing. Seventy-Six rose from the bed. He was currently inside a memory, though it was not any that he remembered. "Jonathan," he muttered to himself.

The voice of the children rose sharply which was then followed by a woman reprimanding them. The woman sounded familiar yet his mind prevented him from figuring out how. Seventy-Six slowly walked out of the bedroom. He wanted to see for himself who these people were and what they meant to him.

Outside of the bedroom was a small living room. There was a long couch along with two separate chairs in it. Two young boys were jumping on the couch as they watched TV. In the adjacent room was the kitchen where the woman voiced her displeasure with the boys' rowdy behavior. She called on Jonathan to give a hand with the boys. Seventy-Six froze as he watched himself stroll into the living room. He watched himself pick up each boy in his arms, spin around, then gently throw them into the couch. The woman groaned and reminded Jonathan that she asked for his help in settling the children down, not feeding into their nonsense.

Seventy-Six walked into the living room as Jonathan fell onto the couch between the boys. "What is this?" he asked.

"Your family," Jonathan answered as an apparition of him appeared by Seventy-Six's side. "Or our family, the situation appears to have grown...complex."

"Get the fuck out of my head," Seventy-Six ordered through his teeth.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. If I do, me alongside all of these memories will cease to exist. Elias will win."

"Elias and BlackDiamond have done good for the whole System."

Jonathan nodded in agreement. "True, they have. No one is taking away from that. But just because people do good, doesn't mean they're incapable of evil."

Seventy-Six heard the woman call Jonathan and the two boys to dinner. "Who are they? Their names?"

"The two boys are Frank and Mason, your sons. Now the beautiful young lady in the kitchen, that's your wife Angelique."