X rested his head on his hands as he watched Zero play with a bit of white cloth. Well, it used to be white, but Theta’s lab coat had taken on a rather un-white shade of grey after Dr. Cain had used it to wax the motorcycle. As X watched Zero wave the lab coat around, X decided that he was observing symptoms of some seriously unhealthy mental state. Surely it wasn’t normal to hold up a coat at the shoulders and make it look like it’s walking. Well, I suppose even that’s acceptable, X thought, but to prop up a coat at a computer station and make it look like it’s programming cannot be right.

"Umm…Zero?" X addressed his quickly-losing-it buddy.
"Yes?" Zero replied, not looking up at X. He was too busy trying to make the sleeves type.

"Umm…maybe I’m wrong, but…uh…do you kind of miss Theta?" X asked hesitantly. When Zero gave him a blank stare, X quickly added, "I’m just kind of guessing, that’s all."
Zero released the lab coat and walked up to X. He leaned down to look X in the eyes. "You think so?"

X leaned back his chair to maintain a bit of buffer space between himself and Zero’s not-quite-sane stare. "I was just kind of wondering…I mean, you…with her lab coat…I thought maybe you kind of missed her, I know it was quite a while ago, but…maybe you still miss her?" X said.
Zero continued staring at X, moving his face closer and closer towards X until the chair gave up it’s leaning position and took up a horizontal one on the floor.

"ARE YOU STUPID?!" Zero suddenly screamed. He grabbed the lab coat from the computer station and was about to cause X some serious pain with it before changing his mind and storming out of the room.

X simply remained sprawled on the floor, blinking in confusion. He wished Zero had simply answered the question.

Zero was interrupted from his staring out of the window by a breathless and slightly battered X.

"The glider’s back," X said, not without some annoyance. "It wants to see you."
"Sure," Zero said absently, "where is it?"
"The lab, in case you couldn’t tell from the bits of it trampled into my armour," X replied, not without a hint of irritation.
"Okay, whatever," Zero replied unsympathetically as he half-heartedly left for the lab.

X was surprised that Zero wasn’t happier to hear of the glider’s return. I thought he loved that glider. Unless he’s disappointed that it was the glider and not someone else…but who else could he be hoping to visit? Theta? No, must be someone else…

X was well-known among the reploids for his skills in fighting and strategy, not subtlety and perception.

Zero found Dr. Cain touching up the paint job on the glider.

"Oh dear, X put a little scratch on you when he got between you and the floor," Dr. Cain said to the glider. Suddenly seeing the unusually sombre Zero standing at the door, Dr. Cain put away his paint. "Well, we’ll finish this up later. I’m sure you want to have a chat with Zero," he said before making his quick exit.

The glider drifted towards its favourite reploid, engines purring. Zero patted its headlight gently.

"So, where’ve you been?" Zero asked, trying to sound happy.
AROUND, the glider flashed. YOU DON’T SEEM LIKE YOURSELF. WHAT’S WRONG?
"Nothing," Zero said with a shrug.
HEY, I KNOW WHAT’S BUGGING YOU. CHEER UP, SHE’S ALIVE.

"Really? How do you know?" Zero asked, suddenly very lively.
WHEN THE MAVERICK DOME STARTED TO COLLAPSE, I TRIED TO SAVE YOU. INSTEAD, I FOUND HER AND WHISKED HER OUT BEFORE THE PLACE FELL ON HER. GOOD THING YOU GUYS WERE IN A ROOM NEAR THE OUTSIDE OF THE DOME. OTHERWISE, I’D NEVER HAVE GOT HER OUT IN TIME.

"Where did you go afterwards? We spent hours looking for you." Zero said. Well, we weren’t exactly looking for YOU, but we were looking, Zero thought.
SHE NEEDED TO GO TO A HOSPITAL, SO I FLEW HER STRAIGHT THERE. WHAT HAPPENED IN THERE?
"Nothing. We won," Zero replied, brushing the question aside. "Where is she now?"

SHE’S STILL IN THE HOSPITAL. I WOULD HAVE COME BACK SOONER, BUT I WANTED TO MAKE SURE SHE WAS OKAY. SHE TOLD ME TO TELL YOU GUYS WHEN I GET HERE THAT SHE’S NOT GOING TO PRETEND TO BE A REPLOID ANYMORE. SHE’S GETTING RID OF HER ROBOTICS.

"But her legs and her missing arm…"

WELL, I GUESS SHE’S KEEPING THOSE, BUT NOT THE SPEED AND STRENGTH BOOSTS, AND DEFINITELY NOT THE ARM CANNON. SHE WANTS TO GO RESEARCH AT NISAR AGAIN. THERE’S A BIG RESEARCH CENTRE FAR SOUTH THAT’S SPECIALISING IN HER FIELD.

"Far south?"
REALLY FAR SOUTH. The glider elaborated.
"Really far south, huh? So I guess we won’t be seeing much of her anymore," Zero said. "She’ll probably visit occasionally, though, right?"
I GUESS. I DON’T KNOW. WHY ASK ME?
"Well, as long as she’s fine," Zero said softly. "I guess she was a bit of the nerdy research type," he added with a smile.

Zero paused a while in thought. He suddenly hopped into the glider. "How’s your paint? Okay?"
IT’S ALL DRIED. DR. CAIN DID A GREAT JOB, BY THE WAY.
"Let’s go for a ride," Zero said, now very happy for some reason.
SURE.

"Dr. Cain has a garden out back. Some of the flowers should have bloomed by now. It’s spring, after all," Zero said casually. "I don’t think the doctor will notice a few missing."
SHE’S IN THE D. AUSTEN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, BY THE WAY. IT’S WEST OF HERE.

And off they flew.

author's note: I couldn't resist sticking my name in the ending.

Anyway, someone suggested that Theta's memories should be transferred to a reploid, so Zero wouldn't be so lonely. I had originally planned something like that for the ending, but changed my mind and did this. It's more satisfying, to my mind. Well, thanks to you readers for sticking to the bitter end. Extra thanks to that one person out there who actually liked this story.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I had always planned for Theta to be human. No, I did not change my mind halfway through the story, though it might seem that way...I just wanted to put a pointless non-twist in, for my own amusement.

Constructive or unconstructive comments both welcome!
dnausten@hotmail.com

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