Blood of Glory

Prologue

His mind is hazy, blurry at the edges, and his body aches. He doesn't remember why. The light is bright, but it's sort of buzzy. Blurry. Something's wrong, and he feels unsteady. He's sore and tired. He wants to sleep.

"9901!" The voice is familiar, and he's practically tackled by someone familiar and small and warm. 9902.

"I'm okay," he whispers. He's been gone for a while. Doesn't remember how long. It's been a very, very long time. A time he doesn't even remember. "I'm back." He thought 9902 and 9903 were gone. They'd been gone when he was taken, he thinks. Maybe?

9903's arms come around him, tight and crushing. 9901 collapses into his arms, gasping and shivering. He's warm. So warm. Safe.

They're both crying.

9904 ducks under their brother's arm, looping his arms around 9901's waist and squeezing. His nice brothers are here. He's okay. He's back with them, and he won't have to worry about being decommissioned or whatever that word was.

"So," 9904 asks, face squashed against his chest, "How are your fangs?"

"Pokey." They're sharper than the previous ones were, and it's weird.

"They're supposed to be used now," 9902 says, face buried in his shoulder, "But we can't use them."

He wants to use them. He's so hungry, and he doesn't want food. He wants something else. Something more. His brothers smell of a mingled machinery and warmth and fog.

But he's okay; he's with his brothers now.

Except – except they haven't all gone and come back safely yet.

***

9901 still doesn't remember anything. A couple of weeks out, and he still feels hazed out. He's tired. He still gets hungry sometimes.

9903 has bounced back to all cheerfulness already, but he still sees his little brother crying sometimes. He's big and he's always hungry. It's even worse now. He eats more, but it's never enough.

9902 wakes up crying about every night there is to wake up in. That's what worries him the most.

"You aren't supposed to talk about it," he snaps when 9901 tries asking him what happened. He doesn't remember anything. All he knows is they're cycled through a something that no one knows anything about, but it's standard procedure.

"But it's important!" 9901 argues.

"Don't talk about it!" his little brother snaps back, glaring even through his tears. "We don't get to talk about this. It just makes it worse."

"But it hurt you!" 9903 argues. "It hurt me, too! I remember that."

9901 doesn't remember a full week of time. His mind is still hazy-blackout sometimes. It's annoying, and scary. Very scary.

"Don't ever let anyone hear you talk about it," 9902 orders, glaring fiercely, "It's bad. They can't know."

"Why? What do they do?" 9901 asks, squeezing his shoulder.

"I don't – remember most of it."

"I don't remember any!" 9903 whines, "That's not fair!"

"It's fair," 9902 snaps back, "I... I think it has something to do with our fangs."

01 sees it when he cries. They sleep in the same row, and he can feel it sometimes, beating in his heart and flickering in his palms. It's there, always there, and it's so wrong, it hurts. But there's nothing he can do to help, so all they can do is try to be here and wait for the night when their littlest nice brother disappears, too.