Chapter Text
Five’s earliest memory was of the colour blue. Not a nice, pleasant blue. It was a blinding, painful blue. If he thought about it for longer than a few seconds, the area behind his eyes hurt, his muscles tensed, the world stopped being real. If he thought about it, everything just became words on a surface. The white between the letters and the black inside them, the noise inside an echo.
So he didn’t think about it much.
He’d told Nine about it once or twice. He always told Nine everything, and Nine would listen and share his input, and then they’d move on to whatever they were supposed to do. Nine was great about those kinds of things, never pushing, never lingering. He simply helped as best as he could in the moment.
Nine was way older, but Nine didn’t talk to anyone else, so Five was happy to be his only friend. Five suspected it was because everyone was scared of Nine, or flat out disliked him, which was absolutely stupid to Five. Nine was great! Sure he was super tall and had eyes that kept getting creepier every few months and he knew things he shouldn’t and his hair had already started turning white at the age of eleven, (Five knew how old his friend was because he’d snuck a peek at everyone’s files here and there. He knew everyone's ages, even the ages of those he'd never met. Remote warps were so useful; he hoped none of the Doctors ever found out about them. He’d get his eyeballs examined again and that was no fun,) but really, Nine was a great guy!
Five would have to make everyone see that. Eventually.
-
“Why do you think Nine is creepy?” Five asked Eight one day. Eight was about his age and they got along okay, both enjoying mischief and breaking rules, although she was much louder about it, honest and ready for any punishment. Five preferred to keep low with his own jokes. Steal a pen here, hide a document there, breaking equipment when he could get away with it.
Eight seemed to think about it for a moment, idly scribbling on the papers they'd been given. She wasn’t very good at keeping within the lines but she did try. Five hadn’t even picked out which blue to use.
“I think everything about him,” she said eventually. “The only thing that doesn’t freak me out is how he seems to get along with you. If he didn’t, I think he’d seem much worse.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re nice.”
“Oh.”
“...Your eyes are just as creepy though.”
Five shoved her in offense as she giggled.
Really, all of the subjects- all the ones Five’s met anyway- had something “creepy” about them. Five didn’t find any of it strange, but he’d heard the word at some point and had figured out the definition. Since then, he’d realised everyone who wasn’t around his age had something about them that struck him as strange. He then realised the “strange” outnumbered what he considered “normal”, so really he’d probably been misjudging everything.
Basically, Five’s eyes weren't so different from Eight’s glowing hands and fiery hair, or Nine’s own eyes and whitening hair, or Ten’s silver-tinged skin. He didn’t know about the others, because there must be others, wherever they are, but they must be similar at least somewhat.
He wondered why and how they’d all ended up like this. He used to not wonder and he doubted Ten ever wondered, but Nine always seemed to be thinking about it. He’d gotten quieter recently, which meant he was thinking about things more so than usual.
“You really should start coloring.”
“Hm?”
“They’ll start to wonder.” Eight picked out one of the blues and one of the yellows before handing them over to Five. “Use these for the flowers.”
“Thanks.”
-
It was a standard checkup. Five knew this because the others weren’t around. If it wasn’t one of the standard ones, there’d be others like him nearby.
Five was relieved to see which doctor was conducting this checkup. He was one of the much nicer ones, gentle and kind, with warm, dark skin and green eyes. He wasn’t as old as some of the other doctors and he had a different way of speaking, something about his “r”s and “e”s.
“Alright, open your mouth,” the kind doctor said. Five opened his mouth, the doctor checked it, and nodded. “Close it. Okay, I’m going to check your eyes now.” He took out a small light-stick- Five thought it was called a flashlight- and shined them into the boy’s eyes.
“Hm.” The doctor put the light into his pocket. “This would be much easier if you had standard pupils. I’m going to close the light now.”
Five nodded, even though he knew he didn’t have to agree to whatever the doctor said. The lights closed and the doctor approached again. He put a sort of glass close to each of Five’s eyes, nodded, and then opened the light again. He went to the small desk in the corner and filled in the file on the glowing screens.
He checked Five’s reflexes, measured his height and checked his weight. He checked inside his mouth, under his tongue, checked his nails and hair and teeth. For what, Five didn’t know. It wasn’t important. The doctor then extracted a bit of Five’s blood and took out one hair, putting it in a slim container.
“Everything’s good, 5,” he said, smiling. “You can change out of the gown, your shirt, pants and slippers are right next to the door, get dressed. I’ll wait for you outside and lead you to your- your guards.”
“Yes, doctor,” Five said quietly, hopping off the examination bed. The doctor left, closing the door behind him. Five got dressed, wincing at the tag scratching at his neck. He rolled up the short sleeves- they reached past his elbows, probably meant for someone taller or bigger.
He walked out and just as he’d said, the doctor was there.
This office was a little more remote, only ever meant for small checkups that didn’t need huge equipment. It was largely unused. Five wondered why the checkup was here instead of the usual place. Maybe it was unavailable right now.
“Just a moment, before you go back to your room,” the doctor said, putting a gentle hand on Five’s shoulder, “can I ask you a question?”
That type of question was always a rhetorical question, unless it was Nine who asked, but Five nodded anyway.
“You have uh, portals, right?”
Five nodded in the affirmative, although portals didn’t feel like the right word.
“Well,” the doctor got nervous, “how do they work?”
“I need to see where I’m going,” he said. “Or know exact coordinates, or I need to have been there before.”
“Hm, I expected as much.” The doctor put a hand in his pocket and took out a piece of cloth. It was small, frayed at corners, and there was something written on it in dark letters. He walked to stand behind Five and leaned down to fiddle with the collar of the boy’s shirt, right behind the neck.
“Good luck,” the doctor whispered before straightening up. “Come along then, 5. Your guards are waiting.”
(Five was very happy to cross by the one-eyed man with the pretty hair as he went back to his room. He send him a wink- something he’d learned from the kind green eyed doctor at some point, he couldn't remember when. The one-eyed man, who really didn’t count as one anymore with that cool new robot eye, winked back with a discreet grin.
Five felt like this was turning out to be a very good day.)
-
Coordinates.
The doctor had given him coordinates.
To where? Was this a test? Would he fail if he warped to them? What was waiting for him there? He had the suppression tech on him right now, he couldn’t check through a non functional warp, just to take a peek at the surroundings. He should probably tell Nine.
Scratch that, he should definitely tell Nine.
And then maybe, neither of them would ever have to wonder what the world outside these white walls and doctors and tests was like, what the things in the pictures they were shown and books they had the rare privilege to read were like in real life.
If this really was a test, Five hoped they could escape before they got taken back. If it wasn’t, well, good for them.
He only hoped the others were included in the plan Nine was going to make. It wasn’t his problem though, not really. If Nine didn’t deem them safe or useful, then it wasn’t Five’s place to do so.
Five was smart, but Nine was much smarter.