The Balancers

Part 2: Switching Sides

They were not leading me back the way I had come, which makes sense. Empty Steve had said I was going to the labs, to become the next subject to his experiments. I began inspecting the areas I walked past, looking for a way to escape. But the two Unknowns who were leading me had a firm grip on my arms, so I couldn't do much.

"So I'm guessing you two and the other four are the best of the best huh?" I finally asked. The two of them looked at me, then went back to looking forward. "I mean that was kind of obvious, other then the fact that you all were standing by the throne. You all are different looking. Especially you," I nodded my head back at the Unknown Steve. "You look older than every other Unknown or Blank Steve in this whole place. Well at least the ones I've seen so far. Plus that other Unknown Steve was much darker, and the other seemed angry, which is strange because you all don't seem to be big on emotions. Plus That Blank Steve looked old, but not as old as you." I nodded back at the Unknown Steve. At this point they were both looking at me. "Plus, that was the only Blank Alex I've seen in this whole place. By the way, is she always that timid?" That last question seemed to make this Alex nervous.

"She's always been like that." Unknown Alex said. "She's the only Blank Alex that Empty has made so far. She always seems kind of lonely, because the Unknowns tend to stay away from the Blanks. So she doesn't have many friends here. I talk to her some, and she seems nice, but like you said she's very timid. She's scared of most things. So they do have emotions, I realized. They even try to be nice sometimes, at least to each other.

"Alex come on!" said the Unknown Steve suddenly. "Were not supposed to talk to prisoners, let alone tell them about us or the others!"

"Why is that?" I interrupted. "Does he think you all could decide you don't want to be evil and help out his prisoners. Which would mess up his big plans of this so-called ultimate weapon?"

"Were not evil!" They both said at once, quite angrily. "We just do what we're told to do. We follow orders and don't ask questions." They both sounded strange, almost as if they were trying to tell themselves that and not me. They led me through another door and we walked into what I assumed was a lab. There were all sorts of glass tubes, machines, and chests all over the room. It was quite organized though, which was kind of surprising. They walked me over to another cell, and pushed me through an iron door before closing it behind me. "You're going to stay in here so Empty can get to work in the morning." Steve said. The two of them began to walk away, but before they did I quickly tried a last ditch question to get them to stop.

"I'm guessing I'm not the first person to be here." I started. I could see small dents in the walls, and even a couple of cracks in the glass that showed people trying to break out. "Ever wonder what happened to the people once Empty took them out? What did he do during his experiments? How many lives he's taken? Families ruined?" The two of them stopped. Alex was looking down now, like you would after you realize you did something wrong. Unknown Steve put his hand on her shoulder and the two walked out of the lab, closing the door behind them, and leaving me in the lab, completely alone. I walked over to the wall and sat down. I leaned my head back against the wall, staring through the glass and at all the machines. Some of those are gonna be used on me in the morning I realized. I thought back to before I had come here. I had never failed a mission. And now it looked like I had failed my first, and my last. This was it for me, it was over. I fell asleep like that, and waited for morning to come.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that it wasn't morning. There was a window in the lab, and it was still dark. Based on my feeling, I would say it was about midnight. Before I could try to figure out what woke me up, I found out. The Unknown Steve and Alex were back at the window, staring at me. It looks like the Steve had just banged on the glass.