Chapter Text
Not once had he ever measured up as a performer.
Years in the garden and there were so many that excelled. Alois was never sure why his mother had registered him there, something about meeting those similar to him. Despite his reluctance to mingle with the other children, he was determined to do good for her when it came to performing. She had given him everything, what else was he supposed to do? Sit around? That’s what many children in the garden were doing, running around and giggling with one another. They held hands and told false stories backed up only by their childhood whimsy. Did they not see how much of an opportunity going to ANAKT really was?
Fools, each and every one of them. They let their friendships and emotions for one another hold them back, focusing on one another rather than why they were brought to do in the first place. They should be putting their focus on achieving what they were tasked with to make their guardians proud. So many children failed to measure up, they were weak and ignorant. They didn’t understand the reality that they didn’t matter, not to society, and they could disappear at any moment. No one other than the other foolish children would care, and even they would later move on.
Those who were weak were tossed away and rained down as “snow”.
It wasn’t snow.
Alois wouldn’t be “snow”.
For years, he worked hard. Practiced, rehearsed, until he knew everything like clockwork. Then he practiced more, to really get it. To really understand what it means to be a performer, being able to sing whatever someone wanted without being told what they wished for. Reading sheet music became as simple as reading a picture book after a few years.
But it wasn’t talent, it was never talent. He worked for it, sweat and tears were poured into what was child’s play for some. Alois wasn’t those damn artificial freaks who had singing and dancing embedded in their veins or something. Freaks, they weren’t anything natural. The only thing about them was that they turned out a bit more obedient than those who came from a provider. Still, they had their own flaws, they developed connections with all the other children as well.
They weren’t perfect, far from it. And that accident proved that even they could be discarded. So Alois worked to not be like that, to be perfect. But in the end it didn’t matter, he would never be as good as those damn artificials.
Maybe if he was, he wouldn’t have been taken out of the ANKAT.
“You have physical prowess, but lack the talent for us to want you to perform.”
Suddenly, Alois had been pulled away after an exam. He was sure that he aced it, it was on music theory. He had spent the previous night staying up, humming to himself and practicing for hours. But now he was in front of one of the caretakers of the garden, one that had praised him in the past for his work. But now they were saying this, that he didn’t have talent. Alois knew he didn’t have talent, but he was working hard to make up for it! He was doing well, right? Was he not good enough, was he too weak?
No– no they said he was strong, but then what was this? Alois wasn’t good enough to perform? But he was working hard, he was trying to make them proud? They were disappointed in him, weren’t they. He couldn’t measure up to be what they wanted so now they were going to make him into “snow” just like all the others who just weren’t enough. Alois wasn’t weak like them, promise!! Please don’t toss him away, he’d do good, he’d–!
The caretaker sighed, holding out a sheet of paper. “Instead, you’ll be brought to BASILIKOS ARENA, a camp of sorts.”
BASILIKOS ARENA, that’s the name in bold letters at the top of the page. Alois took it with trembling hands, skimming over information about it. A training ground of sorts it seemed, outside in mud and dirt. Humans holding weapons, maybe being taught to use them? There were pictures there of the soldiers seen around, “Drones” they were called. The wording on the page made it clear it was an advertisement given to guardians. Was he supposed to have this?
Maybe they liked him enough to tell him! He was allowed to have the information because he had always been good to them. Not disobedient like any of the other fools roaming around the fake paradise.
“It will shape you into what we need you to be. Your guardian has already approved of your transfer.” They said flatly. His mother had heard of it before, seeing it on television. When Alois would ask, she said it wasn’t something he’d ever need to worry about, that she’d never send him there.
“It’s too dangerous for you.” She’d say, changing the channel before patting his head. “That place is for the strong, it’s not somewhere my precious boy needs to be.”
Dangerous? It was a camp, it couldn't be terrible, and they already said he was strong. He’d be strong and he’d go there, he’d do something to make all of them proud. Alois looked up at them with beaming eyes. So they weren’t throwing him away, he was good enough to do a special program! They paid attention to him to see performing wasn’t his strong suit, but instead of turning him to snow, they had other plans for him. He did a good job, he’d please them with this for sure.
“Now go on and say bye to the children.”
With that, Alois was dismissed. He left the office, clutching the brochure in his hand. He was allowed to go on his own back to the garden. Maybe he should have asked when he was leaving but it didn’t matter much. He didn’t care, as long as he could leave. As long as he could get far away from the freaks who infested the ANAKT with their own beliefs of connection and friendship.
There was no one to say bye to, but he didn’t care. None of them were as good as him, as obedient. None of them deserved his time, and Alois didn’t care to give it. They were all pathetic, serving their own beliefs rather than their guardians; a bunch of fools. He was rumored about, mocked when the other children didn’t think he was looking. “Loner” or “weirdo” were common ridicules. Alois could care less. None of them mattered more to him than the people who had given him an opportunity to live a good life. To have a guardian to serve without complaint, one who deserved anything Alois could give her.
One child passed him as he walked through the grass, turning on her heel when she noticed. Hands were quickly placed on his shoulders, making Alois jump. He let out a squeal before turning around to face his assailant, who just giggled in response.
“Sorry, sorry!” She said, taking her hands off of him.
This girl… she was annoying, so bothersome. Out of all the voices that he heard, all discussing amongst one another, hers was sometimes directed at him. She made rounds to talk to plenty of children, constantly surrounding herself with people.
She was one of the most foolish.
Alois’s eyebrows furrowed, brushing off his shoulders. “Don’t do that– and don’t touch me! I don’t want your gross hands on me…”
A sigh came from her, placing a hand over her chest. “Oww, you should be nicer to me y’know, we’re friends.”
Friends? Is that what she thought? She really was one of those fools, it didn’t matter if she was an artificial freak or not. A human was a human, and she was weak just like the rest of them. Alois rolled his eyes, clutching the paper at his side. “No… ew…”
She crossed her arms, leaning down slightly to meet his eyes. Curse height and genetics…. “You’re not very good at being nice.”
If she had listened to anything the other children have said, she’d already know that. She probably already did since she was so sociable. Alois tried to avoid the other children, he wasn’t even going to risk being close to them. This girl was just an exception, and she was the one who always came up to him. He never asked for her company. She was an annoyance, a disturbance in his hard work to become a performer.
Now he’d never have to see her again. Good riddance.
He took a step back, holding his paper close to his chest. “I don’t like you, I don’t need to be nice to you.”
Attention shifted to what was in his hands, and the girl pointed to it. “What’s the paper for?”
“It’s mine, just leave me alone.” Alois said before sprinting away. There wasn’t any need for him to stay and entertain her, he should have left the moment she started speaking to him. For some reason, she managed to merge really well into the groups the other children had made for themselves. No one complained when she joined them, even if they found her obnoxious. She was one of the people the children liked to talk about, discussing the past. A time when she was better, when she didn’t have to go from group to group to make herself feel whole again.
“Hyuna-unnie talked to me yesterday, it was kind of nice, I feel bad for her.”
Pity. They always looked at her with pity, it was shameful. Weak, Alois was surprised she hadn’t become “snow” yet. No, because she was made for it, the girl was just a great performer. That’s probably why she was still alive, but it made it inconvenient for other children. Because she was better than them, she was hard competition to beat. Still, she was broken. They all knew it. Hyuna circled around because she had nowhere else to go.
A faulty girl, he wouldn’t be anything like her. Alois wouldn’t make connections with stupid humans that were so easy to break. That were so disobedient. He’d follow instructions, and he’d go wherever they told him to go. Sit, stay, every order was for him to follow without question. And he’d do it because the Segyein had given him everything.
Alois was the perfect pet.
Good boy.
It wasn’t long before he was removed from ANAKT, a few hours at most. The transfer was quick and Alois was immediately put to work. He doubted anyone noticed his lack of presence. It didn’t matter, it’s not like he’d miss any of them either. Soon enough they’d go on stage and die, and if not by that, they’d be tossed away for their uselessness.
BASILIKOS was a camp, a boot camp. For hours a day he was given lessons on signals, weaponry, and whatever else he needed to know to be a successful drone. When lessons weren’t given, he was doing obstacle courses from sun up to sun down, avoiding getting limbs broken at every possible turn. The garden had general classes like language and math, but the arena lacked those. It was used to mold its children into soldiers.
Alois worked hard to climb the ranks, spending the rest of his childhood there. At the age of 20, he was given a rare opportunity.
A long term field mission, he was to break into the terrorist’s base and live amongst them.
But now, oh mother of fuck. All of that was ruined!! Ruined, and it was really getting on his nerves!! Alois was hiding inside of a storage closet, panicking. Why wouldn’t he be!? He was checking his rifle that had recently gotten jammed when Koi had burst in, demanding for them to go check on one of their many patients. That stupid girl, saying that they can’t put all the work on Erin just because she was the head medic, that they had to “pitch in for the rebellion”. Alois would rather watch this place burn.
It could all burn, in fact, he hoped it would soon.
Very soon, otherwise punishment might be coming for him. He didn’t think Dewey was going to sneak into his room, he figured he could properly put the rifle away when he got back instead of hastily shoving it under his blanket. But nooo, that stupid man really had to come in on the worst possible day at the worst possible time. Or maybe Alois had been the careless one… Whichever one it was, he was in deep shit.
The rebellion liked humans though, they wouldn’t blow Alois’s head off for this, right? Right!? Okay, calm down, if his weapons were checked for trackers by the technician, they wouldn’t find any. The only thing that has a tracker is his communicator, which Dewey did have his hands on. Would he try using it? He can’t, he’s far to stupid to even figure out how it actually works. That guy would probably break down a pull door trying to push it, which Alois had heard rumors of the man doing once.
As long as Dewey was the one involved with this, it couldn’t go far. He’d just have to find a way to quickly… get rid of him. That’s what Alois was taught to do in BASILIKOS; to get rid of obstacles like that man. Though in the past 5 years, Alois never really had an obstacle. No one suspected the medic, after all, they were needed without a doubt. Especially now when there were only 3– Erin and her nurses.
No one was ever really suspected at all, why would they be? Having internal conflict in something like a human rebellion isn’t something that’s exactly preferred. A spy existing is a fact no one would even want to assume, since it would get rid of the point of their base. For protection. If even the base wasn’t safe, what was?
Oh well, it was bound to happen. If Alois wasn’t the spy, it was going to be someone else. Maybe one of his superiors like Vail. He’s far more equipped with dealing with people.
But no, this was Alois’s task. This was his job– 5 long years of having to live amongst these parasites. It wasn’t going to stop now.
It was now just a matter of handling the situation. Dewey would need to get his gear checked for trackers, which would mean he’d need to go see the technician. If Alois knew Dewey, he wouldn’t have told anyone what’s going on, not wanting to worry them. He’s considerate, far too considerate to want to scare anyone with the idea of a spy. Jacob started the rebellion as a fight back against the Segyein, but also to keep people safe and happy. Sharing that a spy is around wouldn’t keep these people very happy.
Alois was done waiting in this dingy storage room, it’s time to actually do something before this situation could get any worse than it already is.
He stood up, brushing himself off after sitting on that… dirty, dusty floor. Disgusting… Taking a few steps to the door, placing a trembling hand on the knob. Alois ignored the way it rattled as he opened it, speed walking to the technician. There wasn’t much time left before Dewey possibly did something to him, so he’d have to be as prepared as possible. That meant checking on his gear and potentially getting his communicator back.
Without missing a beat, Alois opened the door, watching as Lumi placed a bin down by the wall. There was a sticker on it with a sad face– figures. A symbol that the pile wasn’t good, but… it was usually used when items had trackers in them. His weapons… didn’t. He was the one with the tracker. So that didn’t… make sense?
No matter, it wasn’t anything he could get out of Lumi. Alois knocked on the open doorframe to announce his presence.
“Lumi? Are you busy?”
Lumi looked over at him, smiling when he noticed who it was. “No, I’m not. Do you need something?”
“Not right now, I actually wanted to see if I can… help you with something.” Alois replied, stepping further into the room. He stood with his arms crossed, watching as Lumi sat in his chair.
“You’re offering help? That’s not like you.”
That’s… true. Alois wasn’t just going to offer his help to those he’s trying to eventually destroy, it’s a waste of his time. He just does what he’s told by either Erin or whoever the leader is at the time. So offering assistance like this is… far too out of character.
“With Hyuna-sunbae gone, I thought I can start doing more. Plus, you don’t really have help here.” A good excuse, and it works plenty. Lumi no longer looks confused, accepting the boy’s answer.
It’s true though, Koi is always talking on and on about how they should do more to help with the situation at hand. Reach out, offer to handle things in the medbay and give Erin a break, etcetera. With so many deaths happening all at once, there’s a lot more for each person to do in their absence. Especially since there was a switch in hierarchy, it’s made people curious to see how Isaac will run things.
“That’s true, thanks…” Lumi said with a smile, looking down at his hands. His eyebrows furrowed in a way that signalled worry. “Do you know if Dewey’s okay? You two are pretty close.”
Dewey? Alois gripped his biceps, trying to stop his hands from trembling. Does Lumi know?
No, he wouldn’t. There’s no way that shit for brains actually called him out on anything. No, Dewey was too stupid– too worried about the well being of others to worry them like this. Still, Lumi has the bin. Even if he doesn’t know everything, he could know something. And it’s not like he was afraid to tell people, no, Lumi could spill to anyone. He looked weak– really pathetic– but he didn’t need to use his fists to be an issue to Alois.
His voice got quiet. Not unusual, not anything that seems out of the ordinary for Alois. “Um… I don’t know, I haven’t seen him today. Why?”
Lumi turned in his chair, pointing over to the bin he was recently with. Alois’s gear. “He came in here earlier holding a bunch of stuff. Said one of us smuggled it all in, but it hadn’t been checked yet. One of them was even a communication device, and we ended up testing it out…”
‘One of us’, so he didn’t go into detail. Dewey wasn’t going to bother Lumi with the issue, which is what Alois had assumed from the start. This is still good, though he wondered how much Lumi did know.
“Do you think there’s stuff he isn’t saying about it?”
Lumi shrugged, his chair spinning back over to face Alois. “Maybe? He’s… Dewey. He’s open and honest except for when it matters… like now.”
Thank goodness Dewey’s a people-pleaser.
It makes it so easy to take care of him. He doesn’t want anyone being worried about this, so as long as Alois can keep him quiet, things will work out. Well, that is until he has to kill the guy, and that’s gonna be where it’ll be a bit difficult. Not killing him, but covering up his disappearance. He’s very well known in the rebellion after being the first leader’s youngest brother. It wouldn’t be easy for him to vanish without a trace. Luckily, because of all the recent death, he’ll only be viewed as one more person to grieve over.
“I can talk to him. He’s probably just mourning.”
“Yeah, that’s true…” Lumi said, his thumb rubbing against his knuckle. He looked up to the other. “Hey Alois, could you do me a favor?”
A task? Well he did say he was here to help, but that doesn’t mean he actually enjoys assisting these damn vermin. Helping them to reach their goals of freedom– even the thought itself made Alois sick. They were disgusting, humans as a species had no right to think like this for themselves and–... Calm down. His distaste was showing.
“What is it?”
“All the stuff Dewey brought in is in a bin over there.” He pointed back over to the gear. “It’s not safe to have around. None of them have trackers except for one, but I don’t trust any of them.”
Hm, so it’s not a matter of whether or not they have trackers, it’s a matter of their purpose in the rebellion. If Dewey wasn’t open about this, it can be turned on him. After all, Lumi is the type to be easily swayed. If Alois is supportive enough and helps more, the narrative could be twisted. It wouldn’t be hard to have Lumi believe that Dewey has bad intentions, especially after all the details he left out about all of this clearly dangerous gear.
“You want me to throw them away?”
Lumi nodded, “Usually Michael drives them far away and buries them in the middle of nowhere, but I always feel bad asking him, especially after…”
After that.
No one talks about that, even after two years, it’s not something anyone will bring up. Even Alois knows better.
“I understand, I’ll do it.”
The technician clapped, excited by the news. Lumi was always very sensitive, very emotional. It made it harder to believe he was the same age as Alois. “Thanks so much! I thought I would’ve had to do it later tonight…”
The sudden excitement left Alois feeling slightly… awkward. “No it’s… okay. Do your job, I’ll handle this.”
“Mhm, thanks Alois!”
Walking over to the bin, Alois picked it up. Heavy– he’s never had to carry all of his gear at once. After all, who needs that many weapons on hand? Having this amount was only a safety measure in case he lost any. Alois figured he wouldn’t, but it’s not as though his employers would trust his simple words. The words of a human…
…
Disgusting.
“Of course.”
Lumi had a grin on his face as he waved Alois off. It took everything in him to not laugh at the stupidity of all this. He used his elbow to turn the knob and exited the room. Finally, it was nerve wracking being helpless. Alois wasn’t the best when it came to hand to hand combat, so having all these weapons is extremely necessary.
It was almost too easy to retrieve all of this. Lumi was so open to just giving it away, but it made sense, he trusted Alois. A bit too much so, but that’s what five years hiding away in a rebellion can do to someone. Force them to build connections, even if they’re not real.
For a moment, he assumed Dewey would just throw it out, but of course he had to go get it checked. As if he wanted one final confirmation of Alois’s guilt. But of course, there was a tracker in his communicator, so Dewey was sure to know of his “betrayal”.
It was almost like lady luck was smiling upon him. She wanted him to win, to destroy this filthy rebellion. And that’s exactly what Alois would do. They were an absolute mess, just now more than ever. Not only was Hyuna gone, but so many others. Screw Dewey, screw all that time waiting for the perfect moment.
That moment was now, Alois wasn’t going to waste his chance.