Chapter Twelve: Soul Searching One past, a thousand faces. Every face was different, and each radiated a different dominant emotion, and in no case was that emotion anything good. Unknown faces cried out in shock or wailed in both agony and confusion as they slipped into death, not knowing how or why. Faces of friends were masks of terror, paranoia clenching their features like an iron claw. Pain, longing, confusion, fear…there was more of that on the faces of friends then there were on those killed. Then, all the faces began to melt together. They swirled as though in a spin cycle, blending together in a giant mass of color that reshaped itself into the hateful image of a human soldier, glaring ruthlessly and without remorse. Then the image changed again, and a hole was torn in the hated human’s throat. He collapsed to the ground in a pool of his blood, and every other face that had been sucked into oblivion because of him was suddenly free, and none had the same image of pain, confusion, or fear. Finally, the score was settled. Finally, Timofey Komanov’s death meant something to his killer. Malevex of Terrornova stared out towards the bright full moon from his position on an outer walkway of Seraph Castle. He was leaning into the iron guardrail of the walkway, his elbows braced on top of the barrier and his head rested in his hands. The wind was neither strong nor freezing, but it was very refreshing as it blew past his face and through his dark hair, making it even untidier than it usually was. The Maverick was alone, as most of his comrades had retired already, and he was using the opportunity as a much needed chance to think. It had been a very full, hectic day when it should have been relatively quiet. He blamed himself for it, since if he’d gotten rid of Komanov anywhere else it might not have happened. Mortar had arrived at Seraph Castle five hours ago, charred and frazzled, but otherwise unharmed. Gredam had seen him immediately, and then called Malevex and Teytha in as soon as they had been available. The other Mavericks were a bit miffed at being excluded, but at the moment none of the three leaders had cared. As they talked, everything became clear, and Malevex found himself feeling very thankful, because it could have been a lot worse. After Malevex had killed Komanov, a targeted coveted by both the dark soldier and Gredam, he had sent Mortar a fax on their secret machines to make sure nothing had gone wrong for the old man, since the killing had gone on right in his back yard. Mortar replied that he needed two meddlesome thieves taken out, so Malevex had called upon Diavus, a sniper he trusted from days of loyal, effective service in Malevex’s spy network. Diavus had arrived just as the two thieves were making a comeback, but unfortunately the Hunters had already been alerted about Mortar, and Zero of all people had been inside Mortar’s shack. Zero’s guard had seen Diavus somehow—which surprised Malevex, since Diavus was very good—and started a firefight. During the few moments of chaos the thieves had broken in and Zero had roasted one of them, but Mortar’s cover had been blown. Malevex did not know why, though he suspected Mortar was covering for someone by not telling him. Diavus and Zero’s guard had fought in the slums while Zero interrogated Mortar, and the sniper returned for the old man just as a bomb from an unknown source destroyed most of Mortar’s home. The two had returned to base together, and while he still didn’t know everything that had happened, Malevex had already made a mental note to promote Diavus as high as was possible for what he’d done. The real beauty, he knew, was that Zero now had to mull over the truth about his pet humans. Unless, of course, the bomb had jolted the crimson one’s memory, and that would suck. But since that was unlikely enough, given the recovery programs the Hunters possessed, it was safe to assume that Zero was turning the information over in his head even now, and the way Mortar had described their conversation, it seemed like Zero would actually be taking the information seriously. The fact that Mortar’s attention getter had been Malevex’s least loved mission, which said a lot considering how much he’d hated all his missions, seemed very ironic. The encounter with Zero in the quarry had been what prompted Malevex to get back at Komanov, the man who had ordered Mea dead and forced him to do it. Then, shortly after, Zero had been manipulated with the same incident. The Maverick sighed and his body was racked with a shudder. He’d not allowed himself to dwell on the quarry incident until now, but since he knew he’d go nuts if he didn’t think about it, now was as good a time as any. He shouldn’t feel so strange about it, he knew. He’d done his job. He’d killed Sigma, so now the changes could take place, the changes that would make the Maverick army great again. He’d won. At the same time, he knew that wasn’t true, since if Teytha hadn’t shown up to help him when she had, Zero would have cleaved the life out of him. He blinked suddenly, realizing he hadn’t properly thanked her for that, even though he knew she wanted no thanks. The type of bond between himself, Teytha, and Gredam generally allowed any one of them to risk their necks for any of the others. What lingered, though, was Zero’s eyes, same as the first time. Way back at that Olympiad, the looks of confusion and grief in Zero’s eyes had been well overshadowed by fury. In Zero, Malevex had detected a great sense of justice, and besides the creepiness of being correctly identified randomly among a crowd of thousands, that justice more or less told the Maverick that Zero wouldn’t rest until justice was carried out. Even with what Zero knew about Terrornova, Malevex severely doubted the noose around his own neck was any looser. He knew he wouldn’t forgive himself if he were in Zero’s shoes, regardless of the situation. Though this situation had at least carried some weight with it… What Mortar had told Zero had been the sugarcoated version of what the Terrornova soldiers had lived through. In many cases, death had indeed seemed better than life. However, death was always a fairly frightening thing for a Reploid. At least the humans could look forward to reuniting with some deity once they died, but Reploids, who were the soulless mechanical devices created by mankind, only had oblivion to look forward to. And even if someone had decided that dying was better than living, the type of death Terrornova had in mind usually changed his or her minds. The human commanders hadn’t been content to just execute rebels military style, with a gunshot to the back of the head. They hadn’t even considered decapitation. They had far worse things in mind. Whenever they had to kill one of their soldiers, the humans had fun with it. They had first gathered all the other soldiers to watch, in order to frighten them out of choosing similar rebellious paths. The methods of murder, since it could be called nothing else, varied. Generally the Reploid was tortured to death, in vintage machine hater fashion. In one case every vital vein in a circulatory system was slashed, and the poor bastard had stumbled around without any coolant while his systems had shut down one by one, with the humans inflicting other agonies as that went on. Each time, Malevex had watched it all with a rapidly growing hatred for the entire race of the bastards who controlled his life, and wanted to lash out and kill each and every one of them. But he hadn’t, because it was suicide, and the others would probably suffer for his actions. That was another thing they’d done…when one Reploid screwed up, they’d punish everyone for it. They’d known that the soldiers were close, so this was an extremely effective way of controlling them…who would revolt if they knew their friends would suffer for it? But whereas those like Malevex, Gredam, and Mortar had watched silently, their sanity supported by nothing other than pure, immeasurable hatred and a desire for vengeance someday, there were others who just couldn’t handle the stress, and would try to kill themselves before Terrornova got around to doing it for them. This was an even worse idea, since to make sure that their soldiers didn’t just all kill themselves and end their glorious program, the humans would revive suicidal Reploids for the simple sake of killing them again, only in a more gruesome manner. So, the soldiers rapidly tried to discourage suicide amongst each other. Malevex had brushed uncomfortably with that problem, because Teytha had been one of those who had balked under the oppression. While she’d always been ruthless in combat and confident among her friends, Teytha had been like a scared rabbit back then, and even now sometimes he knew she didn’t feel safe. She’d wanted to kill herself to escape it all, even though she knew what would happen to her afterwards, and while she’d been much closer to Mortar then, she and Malevex had been friendly enough, and with Mortar away on a mission she had no one else to confide in. He’d talked her out of it, finally, and gotten her to look at life a little more favorably, though he still didn’t know how he’d done it, since he wouldn’t have minded suicide at times, either. She’d repaid the favor after his mission to kill Mea, when he’d been both fearful at having been identified—their commanders would have just shit if they knew—and for the first time really conscious of what he’d done and the blood on his hands. He’d been grateful for her friendship then, as he had been Gredam’s and Mortar’s, and he’d never forgiven himself for letting her get killed. The other thought, besides suicide, that had danced through the soldiers’ heads had been running away, but since they knew they wouldn’t get far, that was a bad idea. Afraid that runaways might expose them to the Hunters, however, the humans had killed runaways when they caught them, but to discourage it from happening in the first place even more, they tormented the rest of the squad. No one wanted to put their friends through that, so no one ran away. After all, the machine haters of Terrornova were very good at torment. Malevex remembered an acquaintance being kneecapped as he slept because he had done less than perfectly on a combat test. The knee had been repaired without any form of painkiller as the guy was restrained, right there on the spot, and he was expected to perform even better on the test course the next day. That was the reason Malevex learned to shoot so well…if he hadn’t, he’d be dead. Then came Sigma’s War and the Purging. The three of them had survived it all, and now they were in charge of the Maverick army, finally able to get the revenge they had always wanted. So lost was he in thought that Malevex didn’t realize he was alone anymore. When he did he spun around in surprise, but quickly relaxed. Teytha, armorless with arms crossed over her chest, stood silently behind him, with the corner of her mouth twitching in a smile. “I was wondering when you’d notice.” “You could have said something,” he said, shaking his head. “You looked so serious. I didn’t want to throw you off track.” “Right…you look pretty serious yourself. What’s on your mind?” “Stuff.” She stepped forward and joined him at the guardrail, leaning into it in much the same way he did, gazing down at the ground far below them. “You?” “Stuff,” he said just as simply. “Probably the same things you are.” “Hmph…” A gust of wind kicked up, blowing strands of her raven colored hair into his face. She brushed it away and smiled apologetically. “I didn’t feel like braiding it?” “I guess not.” He was very happy that he wasn’t sneezing his fool head off, which tends to happen when you get hair near your nose. “I expected it to be a little colder up here, since we’re in the mountains and all.” She shrugged. “I’m not complaining. Though snow is nice to look at.” “So long as you’re not shoveling it out of the way…” He noted the bit of distance in her eyes. “Something wrong?” “Long day. I’m not sure what to make of everything…” “What do you mean?” “Well…” She pushed away from the guardrail a bit, looking higher in the air. “Mostly I’m worried about what Zero will do with his information. I mean, yeah, it could be deadly to the Hunters, but if Zero is smart enough to handle it right, well…he knows now that there’s some Mavericks still active who probably hate humans with a great passion, and so the Hunters are gonna be on alert…” “And we lose the time we thought we’d buy by killing Sigma, and making the Hunters drop their guard.” She sighed and leaned back into the rail. “Yeah. This next part depends on secrecy…it’s the first part of the second phase. We need this to go right.” “It’ll go just fine. Zero won’t know what to do. We still have time we can use to our advantage. Steel Alley…they confirmed?” “Revolver returned from Steel Alley earlier today. He said they’ve got the stuff ready to be transported. Now we just have to make sure the security is foolproof…train battles are hard, just look at what happened to Slash Beast.” They both shivered at the thought of the Repliforce captain, who after a heated duel with Zero was knocked off the car he was fighting on and crushed under the wheels of his own train. “So, see? The plan continues, no matter how paranoid the Hunters get.” Teytha nodded somewhat halfheartedly. “Can I ask you a question?” “Shoot.” “What do you think of all this?” He blinked, because he was a bit surprised, though he didn’t know why, since he’d wanted to ask her the same question. “You mean…the whole vengeance thing?” She nodded. “Is it what you thought it was going to be?” It was his turn to sigh. “I really don’t know what I expected. I always wanted to do to the humans everything they did to us, but once I had the chance, I couldn’t make myself do it. It just seemed too…sick, too wrong, even though I knew it would have been justified. But…no, I don’t even think ‘justified’ is the right word for it. After spending my life killing people who I didn’t want to kill, more killing didn’t really seem appealing, but I do admit that these deaths bring me satisfaction. I’m glad they’re dead, and I’m glad they died in pain…especially Thornton. Gredam had fun with him.” “Gredam’s really into this,” she said quietly. “He’s totally in love with the idea of vengeance, and he’s a good leader for the Mavericks and all, but…” She shrugged again. “It just seems like he’s getting more and more distant.” Malevex nodded slowly, carefully. He had noticed the distance Teytha referred to in Gredam, but he’d figured that was from the stress that came with running an army. “So that’s how you feel about revenge,” she continued, tilting her head to look him in the eyes. “Do you feel the same way about the Mavericks?” He knew what she was saying, even though he had to think about it for a while. “Raising an army to dominate the humans? I find nothing wrong with it…I’d be the first to help the Reploids take over Megacity 5. Hell, it’d be nice to take the whole planet.” “But do you feel like it’s your place…?” He struggled with that answer. “I don’t really know. It should be, by all rights, since I could never be a Hunter, and I can’t just sit around and do nothing…but I don’t know.” He tilted his head a bit. “What about you?” “I don’t know, either…I started all this with a lot more enthusiasm. Now I can’t help but think we’re in way over our heads. Besides…I’m not sure a war like this is something I want to be part of.” He frowned. “Becoming a pacifist all of a sudden, eh?” “No,” she shook her head firmly. “But now that I’ve got a life of my own, so to speak, I don’t want to risk losing it so soon…you know? And if you or Gredam or Mortar died, it’d be just as bad.” “You’ve already had your brush with death,” he said, resting his hand on hers. “The last person who’s gonna die in this war is you, we’ll make sure of that.” “Mm…” She stared down towards the shadowed ground below them. “But what good is that if you guys get yourselves killed? I’m here mainly because you are. I wouldn’t want to go out there, that world hates us. Besides, out there, we’re fair game for the Hunters and the humans…I barely feel safe here, out there it would be…” She stopped, blushing slightly. “Sorry…didn’t mean to unload like that. I’ll warn you next time before I go into mope mode.” He laughed lightly and smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring. “It’s okay, I know how you feel, a little…” He reached out and ruffled her hair gently, then his hand dropped to her shoulder. “But I ain’t getting killed off for a long time, so don’t worry. Gredam, he’s not quite as perfect as me, but I think he’ll last, too.” She laughed with full humor. “That was horrible…but I guess I can believe you,” she finished, shifting her weight a bit. Malevex wasn’t sure if she was leaning into the guardrail or into him, but he found himself not minding much either way. They stood close together quietly for almost a minute before Teytha grinned to herself and snaked her hand towards him. He didn’t miss either movement and knew what she was going to do, but couldn’t stop her before her arm crept around his waist and she started tickling him, something she knew made him uncomfortable as hell. He damned the day she’d figured out he was ticklish, since it seemed so unbecoming of a soldier, and an assassin nonetheless… Laughing despite himself he managed to ease her away from him, looking around nervously. “Oh come on,” she said, laughing too. “Afraid people will see you?” “Why, yes, as a matter of fact,” he said with an unconvincing frown, “It’s infuriating when you can run around defeating enemy after enemy ruthlessly and while not getting hideously mangled, and then be susceptible to…” “To the most basic of all attacks?” She smirked broadly. “I don’t know what you’re laughing about,” he said, allowing himself a smirk of his own. “It’s not like I can’t fight back.” Teytha smiled awkwardly, leaning her back into the guardrail and crossing her arms over her stomach to ward off any attack. Malevex shook his head and laughed lightly, turning back towards the moon. “So how’s Mortar?” “He’s good,” she replied, relaxing and stifling a yawn with her hand. “He’s in the east tower, in the officer barracks. He could use some rest. Come to think of it, he’s a smart man…” She yawned again and started towards the east tower. “Don’t stay up too late, you’ll fall off.” He stared down at the depths lurking over the edge of the guardrail for a few seconds. “I’ll be careful.” He bade her good night and went back to staring at the moon, pondering over something Teytha had said. Yes, it was very possible that one or all of them would die soon. Things would start getting very violent after a while, and while they were doing their best to plan everything to a T, they all knew that planning meant nothing unless you had the strength to back it up. His mind wandered to one last article: the papers. When he’d killed Komanov, Malevex had retrieved secret papers that Komanov had meant to transfer to the contact Malevex had killed and impersonated. The papers were from General Virdelko himself, and hinted that the makeshift assassin cartel the government was using in place of Terrornova nowadays would possibly be called to action again. After Komanov’s death, Cyber Peacock had intercepted an extremely well coded message from Colonel Kitao to the assassin cartel, telling them to meet at Icarus, the floating military base that was a sister unit to the now defunct Sky Lagoon. This same day, another message was intercepted from Kitao, telling his assassins NOT to meet, because plans had been scrapped. So unless the humans were toying with them, which was unlikely because they obviously did not think their codes could be cracked, they had nothing to worry about, but Malevex was still on edge. They had to make sure they were strong enough to handle any threat. “Our army is fine,” he whispered into the wind, “We’ve done everything we could do.” They had Grizzly Slash’s engine. All they needed now was one last shipment, and then everything would fall into place. X stood uncomfortably in front of the podium, staring untrustingly at the microphone, and then out at the crowd gathered before him. All those faces, some young, some rather old, were dying to hear what he had to say, but the truth was X didn’t know what to say. He hated public speaking; half because he was shy, and half because had this sinking feeling nobody was listening to him. X’s status as the four-time savior of the free world did garner a lot of attention and respect, though X didn’t realize it, or just didn’t play on it as much as he should have. Normally Zero would be giving this speech, since Zero was usually a lot more outgoing than X was, but Zero had insisted that X take this one, for whatever reason. “As you know,” he started, lamely, he thought, and he once again hated his youngish voice, “nearly a week ago there was a battle in the quarry of Megacity 5’s 12th district. During this short but violent fight, the Hunters managed to kill Sigma and several of his soldiers. “This fight was fought with little time for planning. The Hunters did take some losses, but we all have nothing to feel ashamed of for it, since the results of the mission were incredibly beneficial thanks to the skill of our troops. “As pointed out by Caligula,” X glanced to the side of the stage, where the department chiefs were seated, and saw Caligula grimace about the unwanted attention, “the casualties involved in a normal war against Sigma’s Mavericks usually number in the thousands. The victory we won was incredible because many lives were spared.” X didn’t really want to say the next part, since despite the mood he was in personally, most of the Hunters gathered before him were in extremely high spirits. Those who had lost friends were getting around to the fact that the world had been spared a lot of trouble. Those who were removed from the battle were happy that their enemy was gone. But that was probably why this had to be said, or else they would not be prepared for future events. “However,” X went on, a grave note entering his voice, “This does not mean that we are out of the woods. Sigma has always been eliminated after he loses most of his soldiers. The majority of the current Maverick army is still active and equipped to cause serious trouble. While it is true that the Maverick infrastructure suffers horribly without a well-defined leader, we still must be on our guard, especially now. We are, as I’m sure you know, in a period of Red Climate, and anything you regard as suspicious should immediately brought to the attention of your superior officers. The Mavericks will probably be looking to retaliate for the killing of their leader. We believe this is why Major Komanov of the Megacity Army was murdered earlier this week. In order to stop these random and horrible acts of violence, any and all threats must be addressed.” X smiled, letting the graveness flee his voice. “But all in all, we all showed the Mavericks who’s boss, and I’m perfectly confident that we’ll be able to handle anything they throw at us. Thank you.” Applause roared from the crowd, but X knew it wasn’t so much for him as it was for the state of the world in general. Mainly, the Hunters were happy because they figured they’d have to do less work without an army to fight. X frowned to himself, somehow knowing that they would never learn that Sigma alone was not the Maverick army. But as long as the higher-ups did their jobs, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Zero smiled easily at X as he descended back into the wing of the stage where the officers and chiefs were seated. Everyone was filing out now, though, and the two Reploids talked and walked at the same time. “Very nice,” Zero said, slapping X on the shoulder. “You didn’t even stutter once.” “Thanks, I think.” “Heh…” Zero stretched his arms up above his head, yawning furiously. X laughed despite himself. It didn’t matter who gave the speech; Zero would hate it anyway. The crimson Hunter hated all forms of public speaking, except, of course, when he was giving the speech, in which case he expected everyone to pay damn good attention. The beauty of it was that Zero was in a position where he could do that. “You’d have been better off doing it,” X insisted again as they made a left turn, separating from Signas, Caligula, Tiberius, and some other commanders, and headed to the officer’s canteen, since coffee sounded good to both of them. “Nah,” Zero waved it off, “They needed to hear it from the real commander. I’m just a poser.” “Very funny, but I know that’s not the reason.” The two entered the canteen, which was conveniently void of occupants, and set about to pouring themselves cups of liquid caffeine. “What are you talking about?” Zero asked, doing a relatively poor job of acting innocent. That alone was a warning sign, since Zero was a very good liar when he had to be. “Oh, come on,” X said, trying to appear casual, “you’ve been really distant since you got out of the infirmary. You sure they flushed all the morphine out of your systems?” Zero sipped the hot coffee carefully, arcing his eyebrows at X over his raised cup. He lowered it and grinned slightly, wiping a hand briskly over his mouth and setting the mug on a table. “There’s always some narcotic running through my systems, X.” X chuckled lightly and joined his partner at the table, sipping his own coffee and finding it too hot to drink without certainly incinerating his taste mechanisms. He turned over his possible questions in his head, knowing what to ask but not sure Zero would talk about it. “What about that Mortar guy?” Zero seemed to bristle, and worse, seemed to be mad at himself for it. “What about him?” X shrugged, stirring the coffee a bit. “You were pretty sketchy on the details when you talked about the interrogation. What did he have to say?” Zero shrugged too, only it was less at ease than X’s had been. “Only what we already suspected. Sigma’s death means nothing to the Mavericks. They’re going to carry on with whatever plan they originally had.” “That worries you so much…?” “Why shouldn’t it?” Zero asked, a vague trace of defensiveness creeping into his voice. His eyes flared for half a millisecond in self reprimand, and X was slightly put off. Zero was obviously hiding something important from him, and X figured he of all people should have Zero’s trust. “You saw how different the soldiers at the quarry were,” the blonde went on, covering for himself rather nicely. “Usually the Maverick Bosses just swarm into town all at once, armed with a few soldiers and a ton of drones to throw at us. While overwhelming, we always go for the soldiers before the drones, because they’re smarter and pose more of a threat. While I’m sure that the Mavericks have plenty of drones at their disposal, they seem to have a lot more capable soldiers on their hands this time.” He shrugged, unable to find anything else to continue with. “Mortar was just a courier for them.” X frowned, raising an eyebrow. “You’re telling me he had nothing to do with Komanov’s murder?” Zero opened his mouth to insist that Mortar had nothing to do with Komanov, but his words died as he realized how stupid it would sound. Mortar obviously had something to do with Komanov. A Maverick so close to a murder like that? X could make that connection without any of the knowledge Zero now possessed, just as could every other person in Megacity 5. “Like I said,” Zero lied, “He was just a courier. He didn’t do any of the killings, and he doesn’t know who did. The Mavericks operate that way, you know?” Zero smiled as reassuringly as possible at X. “I know you don’t buy that, but that’s really all there is. I’m just tired, is all, and still kinda getting over Sol and Katana.” X recoiled slightly, nodding in understanding. Excellent move, Zero… X knew deep down that Zero was not being truthful at all, but after a statement like that last one, X knew he really couldn’t pursue the topic any further, at least for now. Mourning for his dead soldiers might well have been the truth, but X suspected that Zero was just using the situation to his advantage to get X to shut up. More than a little miffed, X raised his coffee and sipped again, finding it once more too hot for his liking, but drank a full swig anyway before lowering the cup. “If you say so…you just look pretty haggard.” “Yeah, well…” The Hunter polished off his beverage and rose from his seat, placing the mug in the sink and grinning back at his friend. “Gimme a weekend or two, and I’ll be good as new. ‘Course we may not have that luxury, so worry about something important, like your troop strength.” He started for the door. “I gotta get to work on tomorrow’s exercise.” X nodded, giving Zero one last half frown. “You’re sure you’re all right?” Zero nodded. “You know me. I’ll be out of this rut and on a fast track back to perfection in no time. Seeya!” Yes, I’m sure… X took one more sip of coffee, and then slammed the mug back on the table in frustration. He immediately regretted this as the scalding liquid shot out of the mug and onto his hands. Yelping a curse the Hunter leapt up from the table and skittered over to the sink, dousing cold water over his fingers until the heat was canceled out. He grumbled and retrieved a wet rag, and went about to cleaning up the mess he’d made, tossing the half-full coffee mug into the sink next to Zero’s, probably to the disdain of the night janitors. Actually, the night janitors would have cleaned up this mess, too, but X preferred the activity to thinking. But he soon found himself thinking as he worked. The Azure Hunter was slightly hurt at Zero’s outright rejection of his help, and while X knew he technically had no right to demand it, it still seemed right that Zero not keep him in the dark about everything. X had always been willing to talk to his best friend about anything bugging him, which could be a lot at times, and Zero had always listened and managed to return fire with sagely suggestions that more often than not served to solve X’s problems. Zero was a fantastic listener, yes, but he was pretty bad at letting other people listen to him, unless he was barking orders. And even that wasn’t really true, since Zero would often confide with members of his own squad about a number of things, which was half the reason the unit got along so well. He used to talk to X a lot, too, though X found that in some areas Zero was even shyer than he was. He grinned as he remembered how embarrassed Zero had been when X had finally gotten him to confess his mild feelings for Iris. X had never really developed emotions for another person, and so he found the whole thing interesting. Zero had too, and seemed more than willing to talk about it, asking X what he thought of things even though he knew X had absolutely no experience in the matter. About more serious things, however, Zero had been keeping to himself lately, and that was mildly troubling to X. After Repliforce fell, Zero had been a shroud of his former self in terms of confidence and personality. Killing Colonel had not been easy for Zero, especially since they had been good friends before Repliforce rebelled. Even worse was that even when he’d survived the battle with the fierce Colonel, Zero had found himself pitted against Colonel’s sister, Iris, who conveniently had been the object of his affection. Iris had pleaded with both Zero and her brother to stop fighting each other, but after neither side had listened, Colonel had died and Iris couldn’t forgive Zero. In a rage, albeit a confused, desperate rage, she had merged with a suit of ride armor resembling a mighty violet gargoyle and tried to exact revenge. Perhaps her reservations were too great, however, because Zero had been able to conquer the ride armor quite easily. It was Iris that he didn’t want to kill, but faced with no choice, he’d disabled the machine, and at the same time injured Iris fatally. He’d never forgiven himself for these acts, X knew, even though he’d been forced to do them both by Sigma, who had manipulated General and his Repliforce army from the start. Zero’s depression had been huge, and he’d more or less turned himself into a recluse. He did keep his troops in order, and practiced his skills regularly, but his antisocial behaviors were taking a toll on his mind, since he knew he needed to talk to someone but did not want to rehash the memories. X had virtually fought a war with Zero in order to get his friend to confide in him. Zero’s condition had improved after he’d placed his trust in someone, as X and everyone else knew it would, but he was still tight lipped about certain things. At the recent Olympiad he’d chosen to deal with his emotions on his own. Mea and her killer seemed to be very important to Zero, and while he had told X that the Reploid who’d wounded him at the quarry had indeed been his old enemy, he’d seemed to hate doing it, and X had begun to feel like a wall was gradually building up. Then, Delates had dragged Zero home last night, the both of them covered in soot and Zero with a massive dent in his chest armor. The winded Hunter had received quick medical attention for his slight wounds and mainly just needed a chance to catch his breath. Once it happened, though, X hadn’t seen much of a change in Zero. Delates had testified that Zero looked worse than he’d ever seen him before when he’d picked him up from Mortar’s ruined home, which said a lot considering how many sticky situations Unit 0 had been in. Zero had worn a distracted, lost look for most of the day leading up to the address that the Hunter soldiers had been waiting for. He’d recovered a bit of spring to his step, but it was obviously forced, and this last conversation proved that he was keeping something locked up tight. For his part, X was worried that Zero would lapse into another depression, something that was really bad during a Red Climate. The look on Zero’s face last night had been one of those he’d worn after the destruction of Final Weapon at the end of the Repliforce War. X didn’t know why Zero wouldn’t talk to him all of a sudden, but when he made such an effort to help and didn’t get anywhere, he got a bit angry. Sure, he respected Zero’s privacy, but a commander fighting an emotional war more often than not could not fight the real one, and X was very wary about that kind of situation, especially with what the newest evidence was suggesting. X rubbed his eyes, knowing it was early, but planning to turn in anyway. He’d gotten much less sleep this week than he’d have liked, and an early bedtime would do wonders for him. He just hoped the coffee wouldn’t keep him awake very long. Zero walked very slowly down the hall away from the canteen, his eyes half lidded and his face scrunched into a frown. He felt a bit like an ass, since he knew full well that X was worrying a lot about him, and plenty of others in the service were sending him sympathetic glances lately. Do I really look that bummed out? But how in the hell was he supposed to talk about this? He knew in his head that he could trust X. He knew, he really did, that X would believe him, or that X would force himself to believe it, even if he didn’t really, because, to the blue guy’s credit, he did know when Zero was telling the truth. X had always been the only one Zero couldn’t fool, except for Dr. Cain. But still, a thought lanced through his head, sending tremors of silent fear throughout him. What if X didn’t believe him? What if X suspected that Zero was saying these things to undermine the Hunters? What if X thought he was a traitor? He knew it was insane, the most insane thing he’d ever thought. X had more than once demonstrated his loyalty to Zero as a friend, and Zero to him, even to the point of sacrificing his life for the Azure Hunter. There could be no possible mistrust between them. Unless you keep putting him off like this. Zero sighed as he walked, having no idea where he was going. He wasn’t going to plan any exercise; he’d just wanted an excuse to leave X, and he felt guilty about it. X desperately wanted to help, because somehow he sensed the importance of this information, and Zero really wanted nothing more than to tell him. He was just so scared. He himself didn’t want to believe a word of it. Christ, a group of humans using Reploids to slaughter their brethren in order to control Reploid growth? If this was right, Sigma had been right on the ball since day one! But Zero shook his head to that thought at once. Sigma was a tyrant who had been tempted by power, and nothing more. His wars came from his desire for dominion over all rather than any inner quest to help Reploids. And it was all so feasible! Humans always had feared Reploids and, Zero admitted reluctantly, this whole Terrornova thing was a clever way to handle it. Clever, though mind numbingly cruel and unfair. What was he supposed to tell X, after relating the history of Terrornova? He couldn’t tell X that he didn’t want the wars to end. How was he supposed to say that he hoped Sigma never died? Sigma provided a reason for the existence of his fellow Reploids, since the humans depended on them for protection. If Sigma were taken out of the picture, all the Reploids would be in danger again, and when they rose up in protest, they would be branded as Mavericks and it would all start again. For the first and only time in his life, and for just the barest flicker of moments, Zero hoped Sigma lived forever. But then he shook his head more violently, smashing his fist into his palm. Sigma’s presence caused too many innocent deaths. He had to die, plain and simple. There had to be other methods of handling the humans, and he and X and everyone else could face them when they came to them. But Sigma could never be allowed to factor into the future. He had already tried to fire a destructive beam at the Earth once, and there was nothing suggesting that he wouldn’t do it again if he were ever reactivated. Zero had been in such a trance that he didn’t realize where he was going at all until he got there. He stood in the outer courtyard of the Headquarters, which sported a nice park-like atmosphere, with plenty of grass, trees, and even a silver fountain in the shape of a shark being impaled upon a seaman’s spear. The shark was supposed to symbolize the Mavericks, which used a strange version of a shark as their insignia, being killed by the Hunters. Water gushed out of the “wound”, as well as from trident shaped nozzles behind the sculpture in various degrees of pressure, meaning that in the silence that this nighttime provided, you could hear both the roar of a heavy stream crashing down into the fountain’s basin, which produced a noise akin to a waterfall, and also the peaceful trickling of less powerful jets of water coming down. All in all, the slightly morbid fountain would seem to spoil the atmosphere of the quaint park, but Zero found it perversely peaceful. Apparently he was not the only one. Standing before the fountain, arms linked behind his slightly hunched back, was a bald old man in a violet robe. His wooden cane was leaned up against a nearby bench. He appeared to be fully concentrated on the fountain’s intricate details, but even though he did not make eye contact with Zero at all, when he spoke Zero knew the old man was speaking directly to him. “I half expected to find you wandering around here, Zero.” Zero’s features loosened up a bit into a half smile as he addressed his mentor. “Well you were always good at that sort of thing, Doctor Cain.” The true master of the Maverick Hunter army smiled warmly. Though he still didn’t turn his head away from the fountain, Zero again knew the smile was directed at him and couldn’t help but return it. He walked slowly up to join Cain at the head of the fountain, staring at it to see if the man was looking at anything in particular. “I think…” Cain said finally, reaching out a gnarled finger to touch one of the eroded grooves that emphasized the shark’s struggling tail muscles, “that it’s about time we called someone in to touch this up a bit. Don’t you think?” Zero nodded slowly. “Probably. We haven’t had it looked at in a long time. No one really complained…” “I was wondering if X had noticed it,” Cain said, retracting his hand behind his back again and frowning in thought. “Have you seen him?” Zero’s smile became fixed. “He was back in the officer’s canteen a while ago.” “Ah…” Cain smiled again, slowly, and let it grow just as slowly until it was almost a smirk. “What?” Zero finally had to ask, knowing again that the smirk was aimed at him. “Nothing,” Cain said simply, though the smirk remained. “It’s just that, for a second there, you actually had your mind on something pointless and unimportant again.” He craned his head to actually look Zero in the eye, and being a reasonably tall man, he didn’t have to look up that much to do so. “The old you was almost back.” Despite himself, Zero let out a good laugh. “Thanks a lot.” “Well, seriously,” Cain said with an easy shrug. “You’re thinking way too much nowadays about serious junk. The secret of a good life, Zero, is being irresponsible and frivolous. Sure, you need to be serious once and a while, but letting good sense get in the way of having fun?” Cain’s smile grew even wider. “That’s just insane.” Zero laughed lightly again, almost not believing what he was hearing. Cain was a very wise man, usually, and here he was again, wily as an old fox, getting straight to the root of Zero’s problem. “I suppose you’re right. I’ve just got a lot on my mind, is all.” “I see…” Cain’s smile dimmed somewhat and he frowned, jerking his head slightly towards the nose of the seaman. “I don’t believe I didn’t notice that before. The nose is cracked.” “I don’t see it.” “Look closer. There’s a series of little spider web cracks at the base.” Zero leaned forward, mindful not to catch a face full of the shark’s “blood”. “I see it. Seems kinda small, though. Who’s gonna notice?” “Maybe not everyone,” Cain conceded with a little shrug, though his voice became tinted with annoyance as he continued. “But winter’ll be here before you know it. These kind of things always have a hard time enduring that weather, and plus when spring follows, we’ll have all that acid rain again. The cracks might not seem like much now, but they’ll grow.” Zero frowned while raising an eyebrow, expressing what he thought of Cain’s pickiness. “Is it really that big a deal? Why not just wait until it becomes a serious problem? Seems like it’s asking a lot of somebody to fix up little cracks like that.” “It might seem that way, but it’s not,” Cain said with an easy shrug. “People will do it. All we have to do is let them know about it. Or else, if we do wait for it to become a problem, the nose will become so bad, the cracks will get so big, that we risk all of it coming apart.” Cain nodded thoughtfully to emphasize how big a deal it was. He frowned in disgust and pointed to an area of the nose where the statue’s finish had begun to chip. “You see? It’s started already. If we wait for an open invitation, it might become too late. And then Seaman Jones over here won’t be able to smell all you aromatic Hunters anymore.” Zero continued his frown, staring with Cain at the nose, until it all slapped him in the face. Cain hadn’t been wasting his breath about a stupid statue. The genius had been standing here, giving Zero the most creative lecture of his life, while Zero unknowingly absorbed every word of it when he normally would not have. He replayed the whole conversation to himself, his mouth gaping ever so slightly at the cleverness of it all. The nose was Zero, and the little cracks that were splintering through Zero were small now, but they could soon develop into a major problem, and unless Zero sought help, he would fall apart, and it would be too late. And while to him it seemed like a lot to ask people to listen to his problems, they would do it, so long as he let them know about it. He turned towards Cain, who was still staring in total innocence at the statue, the thoughtful expression still etched on his lined face. While Cain could occasionally be a hard drinking party animal, he would always go down in Zero’s book as the smartest fellow ever to grace the planet. Cain blinked at Zero in apparent confusion, though the Hunter saw that deep down in the old man’s clear blue eyes, he knew his point had gotten across. “Something the matter?” “No…” Zero shook his head, still in a bit of amazement. “It’s okay, I think.” “Good, then.” Cain stifled a yawn and pulled back the sleeve of his robe to glance at his watch. “Well then, it’s getting a bit late.” He made eye contact with Zero again. “How about getting someone to work on that fountain, eh?” Zero nodded, forcing himself not to smile. “I will.” “Okay, then.” Cain nodded and fetched his cane from against the bench, turning back to Zero as though in afterthought. “And, one other thing. I noticed you looked a bit troubled after that business with Mortar. Something on your mind?” This time Zero did smile. What a perfect touch… “Not at the moment.” Cain nodded again and started back towards his office, which meant he’d have to pass Zero again at the fountain. “Old Mortar…always was a curious sort.” Zero stood suddenly erect. “You mean you knew him?!” Cain blinked innocently. “Is there a problem with that?” “Well, no…but I mean, he’s a Maverick and all…” “Yes…” Cain gave another of his offhanded shrugs. “Pete Thornton was on my case all through the First War to send a team after Mortar, who apparently was the antichrist or something, because they wanted him gone badly. I never figured out why, but I never got around to hunting the guy, since we needed all our troops to go after Sigma.” Cain frowned as he walked off, but said one other thing Zero was meant to hear. “Frustratingly confusing, that whole thing. I don’t know how you put up with us human enigmas, Zero.” Zero’s smile came with less ease this time, but it came nonetheless. Cain had imparted two things to him in that last part of the conversation. Zero did need to talk to someone. However, if he felt uncomfortable talking to someone else about whatever it was, Cain was more than willing to hear him out. The more he thought about it, the more completely right Cain was about everything. Zero stared up at the moonless sky, kind of wishing the full moon of yesterday was still up there, but instead he focused his attention on the stars, allowing a more real smile to creep onto his face. Things might not turn out so badly, after all.