Rex sent a flying punch into the EVOs jaw, which was quickly deflected by a high swinging tail. The hulking creature roared out its displeasure.

"It's not my fault you're an obese porcupine!" Behind the green shades Six rolled his eyes at the teen's sarcastic comment. And focused on the task at hand; one "obese porcupine" and several more hideously mutated EVOs, which had wandered from the nearest settlement, into a zone which was a little too close to home for provenance to feel comfortable with. He hated the desert. "Hey, Six! Where's that agro-nanny when you need him?"

Agent Six immediately snapped into action, katanas glinting in the sun as they slid out of his sleeves, and his feet sunk deeper into the sand. He made quick work of some of the smaller EVOs, slicing through most of them without even thinking about it, he was working his way up the hierarchy, until the large spiny creature would be easily exposed. He found himself wandering about the significance of the multiple quills protruding from its back.

Then the green clad agent heard a rather strange noise. Behind the glasses, his eyes flick over to where he knows the EVO is. Sure enough, the spines on its back are quivering, and it's aiming towards an oblivious and apparently engrossed Rex.

He inwardly sighed.

It took him under a second to kick off from the ground sheath his katanas in mid-air. Just over three seconds to land meters away from his target, and see the spines begin to detach from the corner of his eye. Two more seconds and he's reached Rex.

His arms connected with Rex's body, and barrel him to the ground, tumbling behind a large rock for cover. He'd done his job. He was immediately back on his feet; ready for the next round.

Rex stood up quickly, a little bewildered at the sudden chain of events, nodding his head in gratitude before running back to the EVO he'd been occupying before.

Six turned to face what looked like an angry looking tapir EVO, when he became acutely aware of a single trickle of liquid, making its way down the back of his neck. He put his hand on the source. Damn. He pulled out the quill. At least it was a smaller one. He thought calmly

The world seemed to shift, and suddenly he was staring up at the sky. It looked green.

Why did he like that colour so much? He wasn't sure. Searching through his memory banks he tried to find an answer to this question that he hadn't bothered to ponder until now. He suddenly felt himself going back so far that he had previously discarded the vague memory as a dream or a phantom.

He was six. Well around six, that's all he knew. Literally all he knew. He was only six years old and he was alone in the world, fighting for survival against others who were also alone, but they were bigger and stronger.

There was nowhere safe to go for a small boy, people were everywhere, and he knew that he couldn't trust anyone.

One day he had been hiding, he couldn't recall why, but he had been pretty desperate for sanctuary, when for once in his life, he looked skywards.

Above him towered the most beautiful green trees, swaying gently in the breeze like great waving hands. His first instinct, of course, was to scamper up one of them and conceal himself in the shiny green leaves as much as he could.

He felt safe.

Blurred shapes moved swiftly in front of him, in the form of depleted colour, and ground rumbled with footfalls. He should get up. He should throw sharp pointy things. But for once, it seemed like too much of an effort.

He had chosen the colour of the suit for the same reason he had chosen to hide in the tree. It somehow made him feel safer, more protected. He could still remember the look of amusement on his mentors face, as he slipped on the finishing touch – dark green glasses.

"You want to fight, in a suit?"He had said, leaning up against the wall and shaking his head slowly (a habit that Six would later pick up). The he had just ignored One, continuing to fix his tie.

There was a slightly concerning vibrating sensation running from his back to his chest, and there were two slim arms harnessing him in position. His usually sharp mind was muddled. Where was he?

A blurry line came into view; blue on the top side, yellow on the bottom. The horizon. He was flying.

"Please Six, don't die."

Rex…?

From behind the Myrtle coloured shades, everything looked slightly green. No matter what colour it was. Sometimes Six wondered whether, even with them off, he'd still see the world for its gloomy tones.

It took a 10 year old Mexican boy, with the ability to manipulate his nanties to convince him against this theory.

That kid was the first assignment with provenance he'd ever actually wanted to protect, instead of just having to. To Six, Rex meant a hope for the future; he'd seen that from the very start. He was the hope that humanity really needed to stay afloat. And Six had fought for that even when the rest of provenance had discarded him as just another EVO.

That's why, from his point of view, Rex was the only thing that wasn't even slightly green. And to him, that meant he was dangerous, different and exceptional.

The only problem had been, of course, that a man like Six did not bode well with children. Or most children at least. And he knew what the kid would want from day one: a father figure, someone ruffle his hair and pat his back, someone to read him stories at night and tuck him into bed. Of course, Six could never be this person, but that didn't mean that Rex wouldn't still think of him like that.

The annoying thing was, Six liked it.

There were foreign hands on him. He counted more than three individual sets. All of them unfamiliar. They were uttering unintelligibly, only occasionally he would discern words – "test", "immune", "infect".

The beeping in the background gradually increased in speed.

He tried to wake his body up. Make it move the way he wanted it to; unsheathe a couple of deadly weapons and quickly dispatch them against these new assailants, but he couldn't.

The beeping hastened.

"Get the hell away from my patient." A familiar voice rose above the others. "You can find another infected subject to experiment on" she sounded aggravated. "Unless you want me to give him a list with your names on when he wakes up. And before you say anything, he will wake up." The anonymous hands hastily left, instantly replaced by a pair of soft, familiar ones.

The first time he saw them he was left completely speechless….they were the most perfect shade of emerald he had ever laid eyes upon. And they were staring out at him from an equally perfect face, with a perfect smile, perfect hair, perfect body…

Of course the professional side of his brain instantly took these thoughts and slammed them into a little green locker, found somewhere at the back of his mind, which was only ever to be opened unintentionally, by the subconscious (which turned out to be more regularly than he had hoped). And his poker face quickly plastered over any emotion that might have been visible to the naked eye. He listlessly introduced himself to the young doctor in the most formal manner he could muster, hoping she hadn't noticed his initial slip.

Ever since then he'd managed to fight back anything more than the bare minimum of emotional attachment that any outward appearances might have advertised. But those eyes of hers still haunted him, simply because they were impossible for him to ignore. The way she looked at him always somehow made him feel that he could trust her, above anyone else, and he was secretly fond of that. It made him feel the need to protect her, similarly to Rex, just because trust meant faith, and any faith left in this miserable world was worth fighting to protect.

He began imagining her emerald-green eyes, staring at him almost in awe, as they usually seemed to be.

"You can pull through this Six, I know you can,"

The image of her face gradually swirled into view, it looked slightly melancholy.

"I haven't let anyone unnecessary in. Only a few people have heard what happened. You can still uphold your 'super ninja robot' reputation. I just really need you to wake up."

Wake up? Her lonely voice echoed in his head, which itself seemed to spin a bit, almost like he'd drunk a little too much (which wasn't an activity he'd partaken in for over a decade). The image of her face faded, and was replaced by that of an EVO, its horrendous jaws agape, leering over at him with beady little black eyes. He recognised this EVO – it was the same one he'd fought before, with Rex on that desert plain. How had they dealt with it? Cure, kill, contain? He couldn't remember.

The absence of memories instantly alarmed him. He fought to regain them but there was simply nothing there. All the while the EVO slowly advanced on him, clawed hands stretched out to claim him. But before it could come any closer he had come to a decision. Kill.

He rounded on the creature, with eyes ablaze. He wanted out, now. His katanas appeared in his hands, and he effortlessly sent them soaring into the creature's chest, killing it with a single stroke. The ease with which the creature went down disturbed him a little, and he watched it's body disintegrate into thin air.

He soon realised that not only was the EVO disintegrating, but also the ground beneath it, and consequently the ground beneath him. His stomach shot up into his throat as he realised he had started falling. And instead of fighting it, he gave in to the dark abyss which rapidly reached up to greet him.

He awoke with a silent gasp, and an involuntary eyebrow twitch. He was lying down on something flat and hard in a room filled with the smell of sterilising equipment and perfume. Holdiay's lab.

He remained perfectly still and assessed the situation. Sunglasses? Present. Suit? Present, but open at the shirt. Katanas? Absent (glancing over, his eyes found them on Holiday's desk) Tanto? Absent. Shuriken? Present (he was fairly glad that no one had looked to find them – they were hidden in a rather discrete place). He also seemed to still have all his extremities and vital organs attached and functioning, which he supposed counted for something.

The only smell other than steriliser and perfume was a slight hint of deodorant and stale monkey diaper – Rex and Bobo had been here, not long ago. As for the doctor herself, he could determine that he was the only living thing in this room – out for coffee. According to the time on the wall clock, it was just gone 10pm, which meant she should be retiring soon.

He slowly sat up, ignoring his thrumming head, and carefully unhooked himself from whatever machine it was he was attached to by the wrist. Swinging his legs gracefully over the edge of the table, the providence agent carefully tested his legs with his weight. Once satisfied, he straightened himself up, and marched off to find the doctor, not even hesitating to do up his shirt.

Thankfully it didn't take the green man long. She was the first place he looked – in the small kitchen that separated her lab from his office. She was leaning against the cabinet, and catching a glimpse of her face, she looked like she'd gone several nights without sleep, and she looked exhausted. He silently approached her until he stood a few feet away.

"Doctor Holiday?"

She gasped and swung around, clutching her chest. "Oh god" She breathed as she tried to slow down her now rapidly beating heart. But as soon as it registered who was standing before her, her face lit up with astonishment.

"Six!" She cried, quickly advancing on the agent. Before Six knew what was going on, the woman had thrown her arms around him, almost knocking off his carefully attuned balance. He swayed slightly, trying to adjust in the change in ballast, and instinctively wrapped his own arms around her waist, for balance he told himself, for balance.

"Oh thank god Six, we thought we'd lost you" She had buried her face in his chest, the emotion in her voice made it sound almost like she was crying. He on the other hand, had regained his composure and was trying to slip back into his clinical mode; he loosened his grip on her.

"How long was I out?" His monotone voice was back to its full glory.

"Four days and nine hours" Holiday pulled away from him, having felt the agent's body stiffen, from what may well have been unwanted contact. She did however leave a hand resting on his upper arm, almost as reassurance that he was really there, her eyes dancing with glee to see him back to his stoic, yet animated state. She did her best not to over-emotionalise the situation, knowing how the green clad agent reacted to affection. "It's a miracle you're even alive. Everyone else who was infected either died instantly, or slipped into a permanent coma. You're the only one who's managed to regain consciousness" She looked up at him, again seeming to be in awe of his very existence. "How are you feeling?" she asked tentatively.

"I feel fine" He lied, knowing that the weakness in his legs and the splitting headache would probably disperse after a few hours rest. She looked at him suspiciously, probably aware of his attempted deceit, but she made no comment, she was familiar with how stubborn he could be as a patient.

"Rex'll be glad to see you in the morning" She said with another smile. The young EVO had made any excuse to weasel his way into her lab with every opportunity over the last five days. Outwardly, Six merely rose an eyebrow.

"Thank you" he said unexpectedly.

"For what?" She looked up at him in slight confusion.

"For bringing me back" He replied, gazing into those bright and very green eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards ever so slightly. From behind the glasses, his own eyes held her stare with sincerity. Sharing a long gaze with a colleague is not appropriate. His professional side reminded him. He blinked, and the moment passed.

"Come on, ninja man" She tugged his arm "I need to run a few tests on you, before those techy researchers hear you've woken up and try to get their hands on you." Again, he only rose an eyebrow in response, I wouldn't let them touch me with a barge pole. They headed back to her lab.

It suddenly struck him how lucky he was. Ok, he was living in a world surrounded mainly by people who couldn't care less, and only held an interest in him for his skills. But in this world there was still that select few saw him for something else; a protector, a mentor, a friend. Not just a heartless killing machine, even if he didn't always show it. That was the kind of world he could live with. A world of green.

A/N: Yeah, kinda my first fanfic EVER. So please be nice. It was just an idea I've had stuck in my head for a while now. I guess you could call it character study? I tried to keep in Six's sixyness (ignoring the fact he's a tree-hugger.) And I slipped a bit o' Holix in there, for the sake of good times. Sorry if the ending is a bit bad!

Any reviews are good :)