Weeks had passed since Asard’s execution.
What had once been baseless accusations against Zero now was a grim reality that weighed upon the Maverick Hunters. Most of all, weighed upon X.
Every day was much the same.
Every day he was met with stares every Hunter.
Every day new missions would roll across his desk.
Every day he was made an executioner.
Every day was sent to fulfill the will of the Maverick Hunters.
Every day…
Every day…
Sometimes he would meet with ‘Zero’. But it became apparent that this was not the Zero that X had known.
A faulty replica. A poor creature lost in its own obsession of death. A dog with no master. A rabid dog that did not wish to be put down. But wished to continue to perpetuate violence whilst sullying the name of the one who sought to end it. Every mission after, X would be left to sit in his room to untangle the web of emotions that would arise because of the copy. Because every time he would yearn to bring the other back to him. To take him in his arms and betray the world. Because all he wanted was his friend back. But he could never be content with a mere reflection, even if he wished to be content with what he had.
There was a deep sigh as X placed his head on his desk, eyes staring at the photo that sat in the very corner barely hidden away by the accumulated junk. The picture of Cain, Zero, and himself. Happy as ever.
How he longed to return to those days.
Slowly he closed his eyes, envisioning some decades ago where life had been so free. Where he was not a conscript of war. Where he would sit with Cain in the odd hours of the day discussing their next archaeological trip. Where he would sit with Zero and play chess as they would usually do after his shifts. Where the only thing he felt was happiness.
Now, he laid here. Paying the ultimate price of that happiness. The price of grief.
Now there was none of them. Now was just a lonely, empty room, with only the images of memories left to haunt him by. With only the nightmare of the person made to haunt him with. Meant to forever fight in a world that was left to him.
It was a lucky death to leave thinking that one had saved the world. Anyone would feel the same. That much X knew for certain. That Zero was happy.
But he wondered if Zero would be happy with this future that had been created. Not the one that he thought he would have made, but the one that X lived in now.
It was a thought that would haunt his days.
A thought that would pull him into the ocean of sleep. The ocean with nightmares.
“We finished decoding the DNA that you brought back, X.” Alia stood at the other end of the table beside Signas.
Papers were stacked neatly beside her with data pads sprawled everywhere. It looked as if she had carted them all the way from the scientist’s room to the meeting room. As if she needed the entire load of evidence to defend her results to X. Perhaps that was the case. Knowing him.
X sat at that table alongside Stephen.
What used to be everlasting hope was now etched into his skin as nothing more than grief and exhaustion. Perhaps he should feel relieved in the moment that was to come. But the past year had taught him there was nothing to get his hopes up now. For every hope he had turned into nothing more but more pain and grief and agony. All he could do was try to keep the dying light lit for himself. Even if it slowly killed him.
Stephen was no better as she stared up at Alia in anticipation. Her words now only uttering the prayer of killing. The prayer of vengeance.
“What did you learn?” Stephen stared at Alia. Her eyes fixated on the navigator. Her soul had been hardened now. She could feel her vengeance closing upon her.
Alia looked at Stephen nervously, then to X with pity.
“It’s him.”
Years ago, there might have been an announcement of joy. Hugs and laughter to go all around them. X would have faced Stephen to wrap her body in the warmth of happiness. Knowing that their friend had returned to them. Knowing that they Zero still lived and would be brought back to the safety of their arms.
Perhaps X should have cried. That would have been the appropriate response from him, wouldn’t it? But here he sat, not a tear to be shed from his empty carcass. Merely sat a shell of himself.
And yet… he could not believe it.
“Are you sure?” X quivered. Emotions betrayed him, always as ever.
Alia stared at X, trying to carefully plan out the way to explain this truth to him. Even if she knew that X would refuse to believe it. “His DNA is nothing that I’ve ever seen before. It would be highly improbable that someone would be able to replicate his DNA to such magnitude—”
“But not impossible.” X kept his stare on her. He spoke his words with conviction. Perhaps stupid. But he still held onto hope. The hope that this copy was not the true Zero. That this was merely a fake and his friend was elsewhere. Dead. Alive. Anywhere but there.
Alia shifted uncomfortably. “No… Not impossible. But to replicate it so perfectly… someone must have recovered Zero’s body. Or pieces of it.”
X frowned. But it wasn’t quite the emotion he was expecting to feel. Anger and fury because someone had used Zero’s body. But there was something else there too. Something deep and hidden within him. Something more than just anger and grief.
Jealousy.
Because it was not he who had found Zero’s body. But someone else.
His stomach churned. Limbs tingled with numbness. He felt ill to even feel jealous that someone else had found Zero.
Alia paused waiting for X to speak. But continued after the long silence. “The DNA is a 99.99% match.” X could see the discomfort in Alia’s face. The grief in her voice. “I don’t believe in miracles. But it can only be him.”
X slowly sunk into the chair. The anvil of grief mounting upon his chest. Sinking him deeper into the arms of sorrow.
“It means that everything that High Max said was true.”
Slowly, X drew his eyes closed. His chest constricting.
“Our Zero… killed Asard… and the Nightmare Virus…” Alia’s voice trailed off. As if she did not want to confirm what was already known. What more could she say?
X begun to shake his head. Denying this truth. “Zero would never do that,” he clenched his hands into fists. Reiterating this truth, or perhaps this belief, to himself. Thinking that, perhaps, if he said it to himself more than enough times then it would become a reality. His own reality. “I know him better than anyone else. He would never do that.”
Stephen scoffed beside him. Her arms folding across her chest as she stared at X with contempt. “I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like that.” Her lips curled upward, a sneer drawing across her face. “I’ve seen how he is on the battlefield. He’s a ruthless killing machine!”
“He’s not a machine!” X stood from his chair towards Stephen. “He’s the most human person I know!”
“Only a machine can kill like that!” Stephen bit back, pounding her hand on the table to emphasize her point.
“Enough!” Signas bellowed. Both X and Stephen turned to stare at their commander. Anger still shimmering over them. “I understand you two have your differences in opinion. But I will not have either of you fighting under my command.” Silence drifted through the meeting room as Signas’s words wafted through the air. “If either of you start again, I will throw you both in the brig. Am I clear?”
The two were slow to take their seat. They spoke nothing as they drew stares at one another. Their attention slow to bring back to Signas. Alia’s eyes drew to their commander. Waiting (im)patiently for his eyes to glance her way so she could continue her report. Satisfied with the silence, Signas bid her to continue with a nod.
“I have more news to report. Recently the Maverick Hunters have been keeping a closer eye on Area Zero since Asard’s Incident.” She shared a glance with Signas before turning back to the data pad in her hand. “We have noticed an… ‘anomaly’ within Area Zero…”
“You’re alive.”
Deep in the desert laid the magnificent beast. Legs curled to his chest as dust settled upon his broken body. His soul tattered. His eyes worn. Heat shivered through every pipe and vein of his mechanical flesh but the touch of Wolfang still clung to his body. The blanket of beautiful hair laid curled around his imperfect face. The deep ice of blue peered into the rusted color sky. Zero’s heart laid heavy in his soul.
In the rust another body entered his field of vision. A savior. A cross for him to bear.
His purgatory had only just begun.
The reflection of himself stared back. A reaper draped in his own skin with black and purple. A grey hair that clung to his face crawling down his neck and body as he stood above the beautiful perfection of the angel that laid still within the desert sand. Lost in the great heat that seared across the barren earth.
Did an angel truly live?
“Who are you?” he whispered to the ghoul that stood above him.
Such a question need not be asked. For Zero knew who this creature was that stood above him. It was the same devil that he fought those eons ago. Trapped in the same cage that Zero had once been in. Made to do the terrible things that Zero knew himself capable of.
Did this beast finally break free? Did it finally bite the hand that fed it?
“I’m a Maverick Hunter,” it replied plainly. A grin slowly made its way to its face. It was the grin of a madman. But not the grin of evil. A child lost in its own imaginations, never given the antidote of reality. “You are a Maverick.”
Zero almost gave a huff of amusement, or perhaps boredom. He stared quizzically at the reflection. He recalled it being called Nightmare. Recalled the last clash had wounded Zero. But he wasn’t sure if it was because of his faulty system or because Nightmare had truly been able to overpower him.
The system regarded the Nightmare with caution. The same caution of a deer noticing its hunter. But he laid stilled within the sand. He was curious.
“I’m not in the mood to play along in your game,” Zero narrowed his eyes. He still laid curled upon the desert sand. Staring carefully at the other. There was a disadvantage to this position, but he had to be careful in case the other would react. Even if this was a dangerous place to be in, it was the safest. “What do you want? Are you here to take me back there?”
To Dr. Gate?
The grin shifted to a frown. The moments of silence felt as though an eternity passed. It was difficult to quell the fear that was beginning to take hold of his body. But in this fear hid away a layer of himself that he did not want to speak into reality. A want. A need. The same selfish emotions he felt when contemplating whether he should return home or stay here in this dessert. To return to Gate. To go back to that hole. To a place where things were simple and he was treated as a pet. Even if they were torturous, he was treated simply as a machine. As what he had been built for. To kill.
“No.”
Was it relief or disappointment? The complexity of these emotions frustrated him. Made him feel ill. Things were meant to be black and white. Yet he laid here feeling shades of grey.
“Dr. Gate is already in possession of the true Zero,” Nightmare motioned to itself. “Bringing you back would only complicate his feelings. I’m here to get rid of the thorn in his side.”
Zero furrowed his brows at Nightmare. Complex emotions had always baffled him. When he was younger and newly awakened it confused him. Always he was left frustrated when people would not come out to say the things they wanted to say. To speak in such roundabout tongues to avoid hurting other people. As time had passed, he wondered if such things were not plainly stated not to hurt someone else, but to avoid the true intention of the person who spoke. To not betray their own feelings. Not that Zero really cared for what Nightmare felt. In fact, he could care less for what things Nightmare had going on with itself. It he could, Zero would have cut the other down like all before him. That itself would be getting rid of Zero’s thorn in his side. One that had grown to become infected. But a machine could learn with decades of experience. Decades of learning. He would never come to perfect it. But he would come to know.
It was X who taught him. Iris who nurtured it.
Long ago, he might have been gentle. But this hell, this desert, turned him cruel. Turned him mad. Turned him into a beast. A wolf. A machine.
Carefully Zero smirked. His gaze never leaving Nightmare’s eyes. He remained in his small hole he had fitted for himself in the sand. His grave. The smirk that fit perfectly on Zero’s lips was as cruel as the years he spent in this hell. Poised to sink daggers into the other.
“He’s still looking for me.” Zero spoke this truth. Also, a reminder. “You’re scared that I’ll replace you.”
The Nightmare drew back in shock to such words. To such accusation that Gate would dare replace the ‘true Zero’. But Gate loved Zero more than to simply replace him. To simply pretend that Nightmare was his bride. For the reflection that stood above him was no more than a shell for Zero. A being sewn together with the leftover pieces of Zero’s memory. Haphazardly put together so that a plan could be fulfilled. Not for him to exist to be loved. A pawn. A castaway.
Nightmare gritted his teeth. Clenching his fists to his side as he stood above Zero. Did the code that plagued its dreams prevent it from enacting its own judgement? From making its own decisions? Did it think that killing him would cause it to become its own person? For all of Zero’s sins to be washed away into nothing and forgotten forever?
Much as Zero wanted him to be forgotten, it was apparent that the world still dreamt of him.
Zero could only smile. He could only laugh.
The revelation slowly presented itself to Zero. For Nightmare merely hunted Zero not to bring him back to his master and reap the reward of knowing it had done good. But rather hunted to kill the machine that it was made copy of. Perhaps creating a soul for itself in the process. Maybe to steal it away from Zero.
It was a shame that Zero never had one in the first place.
“Killing me won’t change what you are.”
“Shut up!” Nightmare yelled. He reached down suddenly, grabbing Zero’s hair and pulling him upward. It surprised Zero at first, his system flared to defend himself. But even those words were muddled by the agony that pieced through his body. “Once you’re dead then no one won’t question who I am. I’ll be the true Zero. The one and only!”
Even as Nightmare grasped Zero’s hair and held him close to his face with a snarl, all the machine could do was split the silence of the desert open with a laughter. A laughter that echoed through Area Zero, his grave. Nightmare stared at Zero frustrated and confused. His teeth were bare in a snarl, and his fists closed tighter around Zero’s hair. But that pain and threatening gesture did nothing for the machine who hardly felt anything anymore. In fact, it merely bemused him.
“You’re wrong…” a smirk was still planted on Zero’s face. “There is one person that will never believe you.”
Nightmare gasped. He brought Zero closer to him. Huddling around the angel’s corpse to pry such secret from him.
But this was no secret to Zero. Nor to anyone who witnessed their gaze.
“Who!?”
The smirk now was more a smile. An etching of the past that Zero reminisced fondly of. The feelings were sickening to him. Emotion that caused him much grief as he passed through the sands. Longing which brought him to scream up at the desert sun as he contemplated the words of Wolfang. A longing which Zero could never bring himself to reconcile with. Only to tread to the edge of the desert and stare at the cradle of civilization, torn and wicked, to turn back and return to the hell that he forced himself through. Still, after so long, he still did not know where to go. Where to turn. Where to run. But the longing still kept him returning back to the edge of Area Zero. Back to where he wanted to go.
“X.”
“You think this anomaly has something to do with Zero?” X raised his brow at Alia. There was a spark in his eyes. An excitement in his voice. Even if the madness of the world brought X to his very knees, the prospect of maybe, just maybe, seeing his friend one last time gave him just enough hope. Even if, perhaps, the other was dead.
Signas and Alia shared a glance at each other. It was exactly what was implied with the information unveiled to both X and Stephen. A 100% match of his complex DNA that was on file at the Maverick Hunters. No differences. No missing data. No replica. But it was as if Zero himself was within Area Zero, waiting for them.
As with all things, Alia was unsure of such readings. She had thought to herself that it might have been a piece of his body that still kept the signal strong. But each day as she stared at the signal, she noticed that it would move. One day it would travel south. Another it would travel west. Up, down, left, right. As if Zero was traveling someplace to escape. Lost within the confines of Area Zero. Imprisoned by the grounds that all Hunters considered to be hell. His final resting place.
It only took a day or two of observation before she recorded such findings to present to the meeting today. But with such company, she wasn’t so sure if it was appropriate to announce such findings. Two obsessed with the past. One with grief. The other with hatred.
Stephen narrowed her eyes at Alia. “So this is the ‘real Zero’?”
Alia shifted uncomfortable. “We’re not sure given the lack of data.”
A laughter managed to escape Stephen’s lips as X glanced towards her. “Lack of data? How much more data do you need? 99%. 100%. Its all the same to me!” There was another chuckle as she pushed her finger down onto the table. “Whatever bot you call Zero, I’ll be sure to kill it for what he did to Asard, Katsunari, and Driftwood.” She made a gesture with her hand, “I’ll kill them.”
X stared hard at Stephen. His brows knitting into a glare as she gave a satisfied smile at her own conviction. Everyone else stared at her in sorrow. In pity. In shame. X, with rage.
Signas shook his head, “We’ll be sending X out to investigate.”
“X!?” Stephen barked a laughter. “You think he’ll do anything? He could hardly pull the trigger to kill Zero—”
“Stephen!” Signas barked.
Stephen merely shrugged with a smirk. Her eyes carefully landed on X. The smile only growing wider upon noticing X’s growing scowl. His hands tightened into fists on the table. Body rigid and staunch. But she merely took it all in stride. There was a sick joy that festered beneath her skin as she noticed the anger that flittered across X’s features. An anger that she wished to drive further into his soul.
They all knew it was unlike X to retort to violence. But shove any animal against a wall it would begin to bite back.
She looked back towards Signas. The smile maintained. “Killing Zero would be executing justice. Half the world would be enraged. And the other half…?” she paused mulling it over. Fingers tapping against the plastic table. Her eyes lazily looking about. A moment lost in thought. “Maybe they would thank me.”
Signas narrowed his eyes at her. X was about to open his mouth to reply to her words, but Signas beat him to it. “I understand that X has his own agenda concerning Zero, much as you do yourself. But I trust him to make the right choice concerning what to do with this anomaly.”
“You put a lot of trust into someone who’s a victim of grief,” Stephen shot a glare at Signas.
But Signas did not back down. But instead, made a promise. A chilling promise that even X could only balk at such words that uttered from his mouth. That even Alia gasped at such promise. But it would be the only thing that could satisfy Stephen’s growing madness that edged upon Maverickism. “If X can’t kill Zero, then you’ll be the next person I send out to kill him.”
Stephen’s smile reached her eyes. Slowly she turned towards X. It was the happiest he had seen her in years.
“Well, X. Let’s hope for your sake, and Zero’s, you make the right decision for all of us.”