The Spark. (001/Peter Ballard/Henry Creel Fanfic)

- 13

(Sorry for the slow updates, life has been busy.  I've also been mapping out where I want the story to go, considering I found myself staring at a blank google doc far too often, out of ideas.   Hopefully now with this road map I can update faster and write better.  Thanks for reading!)

A1, or Emmaline, according to the insufferable worker rolled her eyes and shoved away from him, walking to the door that led to the room 001 was in, clearly annoyed. That should've given 001 some kind of comfort, but she had also been annoyed with him when they met, and he knew how that ended up.

He shut off the line of thought before it could continue, the past didn't matter, no matter how much it hurt. No matter how much each memory caused a fresh tear on his heart that left him with a sharp pain and even sharper regret. What mattered now was fixing A1, getting her memories back, everything after that would work smoothly, it had to.

He snapped back into focus and turned towards the door as it clicked open, as soon as A1 left he would follow her, and once they were alone he would remove the chip, once and for all.

Unfortunately for him, Tate followed her through the door, turning his head to eye 001 up and down before shooting him a not-so-friendly smile that pissed 001 off. A1 then noticed him too, and gave a sharp nod as her form of acknowledgement, she very clearly was not in the mood. She spun back towards the other door and swung it open, stepping through into the wallway and letting it close behind her, causing Tate to have to lunge forward and stick his foot between the door and the frame. With one last size up of 001, Tate pushed open the door, shouting a quick, "wait for me, Emmaline!" before running out after her.

001 just sat there for a moment, so much anger running through him, his head spun. How much had he missed, who was Tate and where did he come from, and why was he calling A1 'Emmaline'? The questions swirled through his head before he came to his senses and walked out after them. He could hear their bickering voices from down the hallway and he followed them all the way to A1's room.

When he showed up there, A1 was inside her room, blocking the doorway and yelling at Tate, while Tate was right outside the door, leaning on the doorframe and arguing back. A1's focus turned to 001, and in the moment of distraction of Tate turning around to follow her gaze, she slammed the door in his face. He turned back to the door for only a moment, looking very pissed, before spinning back around to face 001.

"What do you want?" he spat, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning back against the door.

"Oh, excuse me for wanting to see A1, I wasn't aware I needed your permission" he shot back, so tempted to use his abilities on the cocky guard.

"I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now!" A1 yelled through the door, and as soon as a smug grin crossed onto Tate's face, she added "however, you're welcome to come back at any time, whether that asshole in front of the door wants you to or not."

This time it was 001's turn to cast a smug grin at Tate's now scowling face. However, A1 still didn't want to see him.

—-------------------------

For about two weeks, the few times he saw A1 she was with Tate. For meals, practice, even just sitting around, Tate followed A1 like a shadow. Brenner likely suspected that 001 was wearing her down, and so, as some lame move, he had decided to sicc a useless, annoying prat on A1, 001 concluded. It was so frustrating, seeing Tate's smug face every time he encountered A1 and Tate together. His only saving grace was the knowledge that A1 was not reciprocating any of the clinginess Tate was showing towards her.

It wasn't enough.

Finally sick and tired of the two together, 001 formed a plan. It was messy, complicated, and would likely leave them off worse than they started, but the slim chance of it working was enough. Maybe, just maybe, he would pull this off. The first step was to take out Tate. Once he did that, he could find A1, remove her chip, and flee the lab. It was their only option, it had to work. He would've chosen to keep it a secret, to plan ahead, but considering how much Brenner knew last time, their only option was to be spontaneous.

So, when Tate finally left the position in front of A1's door, close to the middle of the night, 001 followed. He stalked him down the corridors, followed him past doors, snuck behind him all the way to a door he knew very well.

Brenner's office.

001 waited outside, his heart pounding, as he listened in on Tate's updates to Brenner. Of course he was a spy, why not add the cherry to the top of his already shitty personality. It made him wonder why A1 tolerated him.

That wasn't important now.

As the door crept open, 001 waited behind the corner, bent slightly down like a cat stalking its prey, watching, waiting. Luckily, the coverage of the darkness pressed in around him, concealing his shadow, his form. And as Tate's steps got louder, closer, 001 readied his abilities. Like tensing a muscle, as soon as Tate turned that corner he let it snap, his powers slamming into Tate and causing him to collapse.

Perfect hit.

He shook his head, feeling a bit more dizzy then he would've liked, but he gave himself slack considering his powers had just returned. Dragging Tate into a spare meeting room, he ripped Tate's sleeves off, took his belt off, and used them to tie him up, hands behind back and tied together, ankles together, and binding around and over his mouth. Once satisfied with the tightness of the ropes, 001 shoved him into the empty cabinet in the room, locked it, and then set off to finally free A1.