Partners (Reaper76 Fanfic)

The Meeting

JACK'S POV

After the incident with Gabe the SEP changed drastically. Gabe was capable of gaining his enhancements, thankfully, though many weren't so lucky. Gabriel was a special event, he was lucky enough to survive and to become a super soldier, but after that, it just got worse. Many died in the experiments, every week you wouldn't know if you would find the test subject alive and well, or if there would be crying and mourning over the death of one of our fellow teammates. I was scared. Fear isn't something that invaded my life, but in this period of time, it was the only thing I could feel. The testing didn't stop, either. Every time, each test would be more difficult, more inhumane. Thank God Gabe was there for me, our newfound relationship was the only thing keeping me sane. Over everything that was happening, we were clinging to each other, not letting neither of us fall into fear, and kept living together. Every night we would lay in bed, he hugged me while I cried, wether because I was in pain from the testing, or because I was afraid four our teammates. He would kiss me, tell me he loved me, sing to me, and hold me in his arms. Even DAR14 changed. The professional yet kind scientist became cold and stern. I knew it was stress and guilt that made her that way, but it still hurt. She would almost never talk, and when she did it would only be one word, she would spend hours in her office and got mad easily. It was hell. Thankfully, the government got a hold on what was happening. Many wanted to stop the SEP, many wanted for it to continue. The board was split. I was never really religious, but I kept praying that the government chose to stop this hell. By some miracle, they decided to stop it. The surviving members were taken off the base, while the ones who died were buried with honors. We we're finally free.

Me and Gabe decided that we had enough military activity for a lifetime. We decided to move to Chicago, and rented an apartment for us to live in. I was happy, me and Gabe were finally living a normal life. We decided we would look for jobs in the area, but it wasn't as successful as we thought it would be. I was considered to be smart. Sure, the SEP gave us enhancements to have an IQ higher than average, but I was still considered to be intelligent before that. The problem was that I didn't know how to use that intelligence for a normal job, I was always using it for military purposes. The same happened with Gabe. For a long period of time we were living off from borrowing money from my, and Gabe's parents. It was rough, but we would survive, we had each other. Gabe and me were happy together, every day I would wake up wrapped up in his arms, naked. He would make breakfast, we would depart to find jobs, fail miserably, return home, and have sex, there wasn't much to it. The only problem was that I felt something was missing. I was happy, yes, but I kinda missed the action of the battle field, domestic life wasn't nearly as fun as that. Soon enough, domestic would stop for everyone. Omnics weren't exactly abundant, most of them were automatons that would follow a code an that's it, but there were ones who had personality, an artificial intelligence. DAR14 was one of these. It was these omnics who decided to re-activate all the Omnium factories across the globe, and start production of Omnics designed for war. They started an uprising towards humanity. Cities from the world were stricken by the omnics units, leaving nothing but destruction behind them. Luckily, they hadn't strike Chicago, but deep down me and Gabe knew they would soon enough. The United Nations were desperate, trying to find a solution to this crisis. Me and Gabe were kinda desperate too. One day I was walking around the city trying to find any job that was hiring, when I got a phone call from our landlord.  He said that he needed me in my apartment right away. As soon as I got to the building Gabe was there.

"Hey Jackie"

He kissed me quick and grabbed my waist.

"The landlord called you too?" He asked

"Yeah, he said it was important"

"Mhm, what's so important that he needs both of us?"

"I don't know"