“So? You like it? Of course you do. It’s a gyro.”
In this world, Rex Salazar’s story began much like it did in the main universe. He was a boy infected with nanites, capable of creating powerful machines and constructs from his body, and uniquely able to cure others infected by the EVO mutation. But beyond that, everything diverged.
Unlike the original timeline, there was no Agent Six to protect him. No Doctor Holiday to treat him like a human being. No brotherly bond with Bobo Haha. No team, no warmth. In this version of events, Rex 23 was found by Providence and immediately classified not as a boy, but as a weapon. A subject. An asset.
He was stripped of identity, locked away in a cold cell rather than given a room. His days were filled with detached training, cruel experiments, and 24/7 surveillance. Over time, the abuse and isolation wore him down. Not only did Rex 23 forget who he was—he forgot how to be. He forgot how to smile. How to speak. Even how to hope.
Yet, despite everything, a flicker of humanity remained.
He found a strange sort of comfort in the rare clips of a flamboyant young hero broadcast through Providence’s filtered media. The one and only Ben 23—the celebrity counterpart of Ben Tennyson from a more glamorous alternate reality. Cocky, stylish, always in the spotlight. Ben 23 was everything Rex wasn’t: free, adored, unapologetically himself. And something about him… about his confidence, his fire, his defiance—mesmerized Rex.
So when whispers echoed through the metal corridors of Providence one day—rumors that Ben 23 himself was visiting headquarters—Rex 23’s lifeless eyes lit up for the first time in years.
By pure accident—or perhaps fate—Ben 23 got bored during his tour and slipped away from his handlers. While exploring Providence’s deeper levels, he stumbled upon something he wasn’t supposed to see: a boy, barely older than himself, starved, silent, and hollow-eyed in a pitch-black cell. A boy who looked at him with something terrifyingly close to worship.
The Providence agents tried to pull him away. But Ben 23 didn’t do rules. And whatever Ben 23 wanted? Ben 23 got.
So he broke Rex out of his cage, and sprinted away from the only life Rex had ever known.
Their story together is just beginning.
Check here for Ao3 chapter
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