Noise

A week later, 0111 and Ky found themselves training against each other using weapons of their choice. Ky was using dual swords, similar to a certain wise-cracking mercenary, though his were made of wood. 0111 was using a Chinese Bo staff, a weapon she was already well-versed in.

By this point, the two of them were fighting with their power dampeners active at all times since Waller had grown tired of watching them play their game of cat and mouse over and over. They were only ever allowed to use their powers during the final hour of the day.

On the seventh hour, which was slowly coming to an end, Ky and 0111 could be seen fighting as if their lives depended on it, which pleased Waller to see as he watched from the one-sided glass.

"You're improving." 0111 said to Ky as they both clashed their wooden weapons together. She would be right as he was a rather fast learner. Despite having little to no experience holding a weapon, he was able to defend himself to a decent degree, landing a few attacks on 0111 himself. However, the number of times he landed attacks would pale in comparison to the number of times he was struck by 0111.

"You think? I thought you might've felt sorry for me and decided to start going easy on me." Ky quipped as he nearly struck 0111's body with a backhanded swing.

"Hilarious." 0111 said plainly before she smacked one of his swords away and swept him off his feet with her staff. Once Ky was on his back, she pointed her weapon directly at his throat and gave him a chilling stare.

At the same time, a buzzer went off and Waller entered the room with his guards and those mysterious drinks he always gave them, along with his shit-eating grin. "1226, you seem to be really struggling. I guess without those powers of yours, you're rather useless aren't you." Waller's smile soon faded into a stone-faced expression as he said those words. Waller was the type of man who hated things that served no purpose. If Ky didn't step it up, he'd do what he'd always done to things that served no purpose in his life. He'd get rid of him.

"Anyway, the eighth hour is approaching so we will deactivate your power dampeners now." as Waller spoke, both mutants could feel their bodies going back to normal.

Already sitting in her spot on the ground, 0111 looked at Ky with an ever so slightly mischievous grin, one that he failed to notice and would be the first time she'd ever smiled during their training. She was reading his mind and she could hear all of his thoughts about Waller at that moment. She knew exactly what he was thinking and she wanted to see it play out, even if it was through Ky's mind.

"Do it." she said quietly, causing Waller to look around Ky's shoulder and at 0111.

"What did you say, 0111?" he asked her.

However, before she could give a response, Ky had an answer for him.

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!

Ky smacked Waller with everything he had using his wooden swords, hitting him directly in the face before reversing time.

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!

Once again, Ky smacked Waller with his wooden sword, this time hitting him on the other side of his face. Ky, of course, reversed time once again before delivering yet another strike to Waller's face, this time using both swords at once.

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!

Ky repeated this process about thirty times before all of that pent-up anger, frustration, and disdain toward Waller was finally released from within him.

Once time resumed, Ky could hear 0111 stifling a laugh behind him. He quickly turned around to see her covering her mouth with her hand, looking at the ground as if hiding her eyes would make her invisible.

'She... laughed?' Ky thought to himself, grinning ever so slightly at her while Waller continued to look over his shoulder with his eyebrows furrowed.

"What's so funny, 0111?" Waller asked.

Quickly, 0111's expression turned back to normal and she responded with her usual plain, bored-sounding voice. "Nothing. Ask your guards." she told him, insinuating that she read the mind of one of them.

Waller squinted at her before looking back at his guards, both looking at him while shrugging. With nothing else to say, Waller handed both of the mutants their special drinks before leaving the room once again.

As the two of them drank from their glasses, Ky could still see a remnant of a smile on 0111's face. "So you can laugh?" Ky teased, prompting her to avert her eyes to the side embarrassingly. She didn't really know what came over her since she rarely laughed at anything in her past. There wasn't really anything to laugh about.

"Maybe sometimes." she said quietly before downing her entire glass of mystery milk and pushing it aside. "I thought what you did was funny. I could see it in your brain. I didn't expect you to do it more than once."

"I had to let it all out, you know?" Ky told her, taking a small sip from his glass. He looked down at her lips which no longer showed her smile before continuing. "You have a really pretty smile, 0111." Ky told her softly. He wished he could see it again, but he knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon.

"Thanks..." 0111 told him awkwardly. "Thank you for doing what you did also. I needed that. I haven't laughed since... a long time." she confessed, thinking about her past before being captured and taken away.

"Yeah, no problem." Ky told her.

There was a silence between the two of them. Ky couldn't stop replaying that moment of seeing her smiling over and over in his brain, which embarrassed 0111. "I don't understand. Why do you keep thinking about that moment..." she asked him.

Ky was so caught up in his own mind, he forgot she was capable of reading his mind once again. "Oh, right..." Ky muttered. "You know, I think you reading my mind all day might be a violation of human rights or privacy or something." Ky told her jokingly. He was embarrassed about it, but he didn't really care. His infatuation with her was no longer a secret at that point. All he could do was embrace it.

"I'm sorry. I can't shut it off... your voice just projects itself into my mind whether I want it to or not. I actually liked having the dampeners active... everything was so quiet.

It hasn't been that bad being here, honestly, it's better than being out there. My whole life, my father kept me sheltered. He wanted to keep me away from the outside world because he wanted to protect me. I thought it was because I was a mutant, but I realized that it wasn't just the M.R.D. he was protecting me against.

He wanted to protect me against the vile thoughts of those who lived in the outside world.

I only ever left my home a single time, but it was a nightmare. I wanted to see what it was like to go to a mall, like girls my age were supposed to do for fun so I snuck out. As soon as I stepped foot inside, I could hear hundreds of voices thinking about so many different things.

There was so much pain hidden inside so many people. Everyone hated each other. They were all so cruel, thinking such horrible things about each other.

And the men...

Especially the older men...

The way they'd look at women and start thinking about them...

The way they'd look at me...

I was only fourteen years old. I was a child. It was so disgusting. It was so horrifying. How could anyone even have those thoughts?

I never left my home ever again after that." for the first time, Ky could see a new emotion on 0111's face: dejection. He was beginning to understand why she was the way she was. He understood why she seemed so distant, standoffish, and distrusting of him.

"I see... I'm sorry about that." Ky told her. "Sorry about my thoughts too."

"I don't need you to apologize to me. You can't help it. Besides, it's not like you think of anything sick. Your thoughts are so pure... you really are a good person. You're the only good person that I've ever met outside of my father. You don't belong here, Ky." both of them realized that she let it slip that she knew of his name this entire time. Being able to see inside his head, she figured his name was Ky since he'd sometimes think in the third person.

"I didn't realize you knew my name." he told her.

"I've known for a while... you like to say 'C'mon, Ky!' in your head a lot." she confessed. She wasn't looking at him this entire time, however, her eyes slowly lifted from the ground, and looked up at Ky.

"Do you want to ask what my name is?" she asked him. He could tell by the look on her face that this was a decision that was hard for her to make.

"If it's okay with you, and only if you're comfortable with sharing it." he told her.

"I am." she said with one quick nod.

"What's your name?" Ky asked her gently.

"Xiao. My name is Xiao."

Ky smiled softly at her. "It's nice to finally meet you, Xiao."

"Nice to meet you too, Ky." Xiao whispered before bringing her gaze right back to the ground.

"I have a friend here who can make anything out of anything. That's his ability. Maybe when we get out of here we could make something so you can experience the outside world." Ky told her, forgetting one crucial thing stopping that idea from ever happening.

"One of us isn't making it out. Remember?" Xiao told him plainly.

"Oh, right." Ky muttered. "It was a silly idea anyway."

"No, it was thoughtful." as Xiao spoke, a buzzer went off, signaling that their break was over. The two mutants stood back up on their feet and resumed their training without being told to do so this time.

Xiao finally opened up to Ky, though she wondered if it would end up being a mistake.