Chapter Text
“My Lord... may I request an audience with you?”
“Hmm?” Gabriel turned his attention to the Alternate who had approached him.
The Alternate was tall and wearing a dark hooded jacket. He had only one eye and one gaping hole where the other was supposed to be. His skin almost looked... crooked. Like something had wrapped it around his skeleton incorrectly. Still, he spoke clearly to Gabriel, his voice coming out as a deep croak.
“What do you want... Number Six?” Gabriel asked.
The Alternate didn’t really like that name, preferring to be known as what the humans had named him: The Intruder. Still, he wasn’t about to correct Gabriel and anger him.
“I want to talk about Adam,” Intruder said.
“Adam?” Gabriel smiled. “Our newest acquisition. Oh, he shows such promise. He's already had his first kill, did you know? Took very little convincing. I had been worried that those beasts had ruined him, but it seems that he just needs a little... guidance.”
Gabriel’s tone was light and cheerful, but Intruder had known him for a very long time and was well versed in his moods. He could hear the sinister undertone to Gabriel’s words.
“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” Intruder said. “I have come to humbly ask for you to shower me with your mercy and your gracious generosity... and allow me to be the one to guide Adam....”
“What?” Gabriel sounded genuinely confused. “Why? Why are you interested in Adam?”
“I feel a kinship with him,” Intruder shrugged.
“Kinship?!” Gabriel laughed loudly. “You share your existence with every other Alternate in existence, and yet you’ve never given any of them a second glance. What kinship could you possibly feel with Adam that sets him apart from the others?”
Gabriel leaned down and stared straight into Intruder’s eye. The eye stared back, unafraid and determined. That was another thing about Intruder. He didn’t appear to fear much, not even Gabriel at times. Then again, he was part of the first group of Alternates that had been created. The Sixth attempt, but the first real success.
At least that’s what Gabriel had said...
Either way, he’d been around Gabriel a long time, and he knew that he was one of Gabriel’s best servants. Gabriel may eventually kill him, but he would think twice about it first.
“I can’t explain it,” Intruder shrugged again. “I just... I want to help him. He needs someone to help him. Someone knowledgeable. Someone strong-”
“Someone who once held him in their arms years and years ago?” Gabriel suggested.
Intruder stayed silent.
“I thought so...” Gabriel straightened up. “I thought it might be that. What, do you count him as your own? Do you count him as your family? Your kin?”
“I am offering myself and my assistance,” Intruder said. “You’re very busy these days. Let me take Adam off your hands. I’ll teach him what he needs to know. You know I will. You know I won’t disappoint you.”
Gabriel thought it over for a moment. He really was busy these days and he could use the help. But the whole thing made him suspicious. Intruder was as cold as they come. He didn’t form attachments or relationships or anything really. He did what Gabriel ordered him to do and that was about it.
So why the sudden interest in Adam?
“Very well,” Gabriel finally said. “I can be generous sometimes. I will grant you your request. Consider it a test of your skills. Adam is in a very delicate place right now. You will need to guide him carefully or we will lose him. I do not wish to lose this one, so... if you lose him... I will eat you. Do you understand me, Number Six?”
Intruder nodded.
“Yes, my Lord,” he said. “I will not fail you. Thank you for blessing me with your generosity.”
“Be silent,” Gabriel gave him a shooing motion, already turning his attention elsewhere. “And leave my presence.”
Adam was still sifting through everything that had happened in such a short amount of time.
How much time had even passed? Time felt so... strange now. It felt almost foreign to him. As if he hadn’t just spent the last ten years staring at his watch and the clocks on the walls of his classrooms.
At least the company was good.
The others didn’t seem to mind him at all. Some had even expressed happiness at having a new member of... whatever this was. A family? Not quite. At least, it wasn’t like any family that Adam had seen before. Few of them had names, and yet they always seemed to know when they were being spoken to or called for.
They also touched him a lot. Adam wondered if they were as touch starved as he was. Sure, their touch felt nice, but it was nothing like Gabriel’s. Still, they kept huddling together, and it felt good enough. So Adam let them touch him and hold him and cling to him as if he emanated any sort of warmth. Maybe he did, in a way.
He’d ask Gabriel later.
For now, he was wandering through the weird place they seemed to be holed up in. It was odd, he never thought of Alternates needing a place to stay. Maybe that was why they tended to haunt houses. He kept wandering until he felt a sudden pull towards a specific room.
Adam followed the pull, once again not afraid, and he realized the pull felt familiar. He had felt it before. He opened the door and entered the dark room... and spotted a television set. He hadn’t watched television in so long, but the other Alternates watched it. They watched it a lot, actually.
The television suddenly turned on, and white noise filled the screen. Adam stared as another image suddenly appeared. An image of a familiar face. The face smiled... and then Adam blinked.
And now he was no longer alone in the room.
The taller hooded Alternate stood before him and Adam recognized him. He had seen this Alternate a few times before. But there had always been a screen between them...
“Hello, Adam,” said the Alternate. “Do you remember me?”