Zero's was walking through the halls to his apartment. His hair was tangled, but not with the usual blood and robotic gore. It was tangled from just running his hand through it. With mavericks appearing every two days, with the intention of killing X or Zero or whoever, Zero needed sleep. Desperately.
He walked into the apartment. It was empty. He wasn't surprised about that. Reaper would often leave to do whatever she needed to do. He didn't care what she did when she vanished. It was none of his business.
This time he hadn't needed to guess what she was doing. He could smell it through the air vents. Zero sighed and went to meet her on the roof.
She was smoking a pack of cigarettes in complete silence and waited for him to scold her or the it away from her. Instead he sat down next to her.
"Save one me?" Zero asked quietly. Reaper laughed quietly and handed him a box that hadn't even been opened yet.
"I still can't believe they make these for reploids" Zero smiled.
"Reploids get stressed like humans do they figured that it would only be fair if they had access to all the stress release options." She replied, looking at him.
Zero lit up his cigarette and took a drag the of it. Then he looked up at Reaper. B
She had a dull gray coat and a black tank top on underneath. Her sweatpants were a faded green. Her green eyes shined in the night. He did a quick scan to see if she was injured, and while she was unhurt, she was barefoot.
"What's got you up." Zero asked, concerned considering it was three in the morning.
After a long drag of a cigarette, she sighed. "Just thoughts."
Zero nodded he's been there, X has been there. Everyone he knew has been there. Zero opened his mouth to ask if she wanted to talk about it but shut his mouth because it would be incredibly hypocritical of him, since he usually suffers in silence as well. Instead he nodded.
They stayed for another hour, just looking up at the sky, stars twinkling dimly. Soon they were walking towards the apartment, in silence. Zero stripped off his armor and pulled down the bed. Reaper went to the shower and washed the smell off and get some heat back into her body. She dried off and plopped into the bed, right next to Zero. He smiled, content and played with her hair.
The next morning Zero woke up to Reaper sleeping soundly. Her mouth open slightly and she was nuzzling his neck. Zero smiled and pulled away and went to get his armor on.
At the HQ, Zero and X walked towards the Meeting room with Zero right next to him. Their footsteps synced and they had a small conversation as they went, started by X.
"Zero, I know we don't talk often, so how are you?" X asked, smiling. Zero smiled a little bit.
"I'm good but Reaper's been going through some hard times." Zero sighed. "After Isoc's attack, she's been… a bit more reserved."
"But how is she physically?" X asked as they made it to the door to the meeting room.
"Physically, she recovered from whatever Isoc did to her, but she thinks that I think less of her now." Zero frowned.
"That sounds terrible." X frowned as well.
The meeting dragged on for hours. Signas went over a new virus that was unique in the fact that it did not permanent physical damage.
"The majority of the damage comes from the self mutilation. The reploids infected claw at their bodies to stop the hallucinations. The worst of which was a rookie hunter named Atlas." Signas explained as he sighed and rubbed a temple with his hands. "You would think that the after Sigma, this kind of shit would stop." He laughed bitterly.
"...Sir, are you alright?" X asked rising to walk towards his commander. Signas sighed and nodded, his hand dropping.
"As I was saying, several maverick hunters arrived at med bay with the, injuries. Many were screaming about how they could have saved someone or sobbing about a brother in arms that was killed in battle, at least the ones still conscious." Signas said, passing around some pictures of the damage. They showed hunters bound to tables to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. Other pictures showed hunters curled into a ball, shaking.
"The oddest thing here is the fact that this isn't permanent. Three days later, these hunters were completely calm like nothing ever happened." Signas finished. Zero looked back down at the photos and sighed. How could it get this bad, people were literally ripping themselves apart. Dark red oil covered the reploids in the photo.
"What do you want us to do?" X asked, curiosity blending into his tone.
"A Reploid is using it as a weapon. Bombing places with it. These hunters were caught in the aftershocks. Find him and stop him." Signas sighed and walked out.
Zero was walking towards the epicenter of the latest attack. He was in full armor, it glistening in the sunlight.
"Zero." A feminine voice echoed through his earpiece.
"Reaper. The hell are you doing being a navigator, Re?" Zero asked faltering in his step a tiny bit in shock.
"Helping you." Was the flat reply in return. Zero shrugged and kept on going.
They continue to make small awkward talk as Zero looked around the sight of the first incident of the virus. Everything was dead, there was no people no sounds just dead silence, leaving Zero alone with his thoughts.
Shaking his head Zero stopped that train of thought in a second. Some kind of remains traces of it must be messing with him, but given his that would be physically impossible, it was just the paranoia setting in.
Reaper was avoiding X's worried glance, which would be much easier to do if he wasn't watching her like a hawk.
"Is something wrong?" Reaper asked, her patience running thin.
"You didn't have to do this." X muttered.
"What do you mean." She was denying. Of course she would.
"You didn't have to sign up for navigator duty to try to make up for whatever you did when you worked under Isoc." X tried.
"I'm not." now she was lying to him. X sighed and walked away knowing exactly how stubborn she was.
Zero returned with nothing, which he kind of expected. The hunter's HQ had a different atmosphere than when he left. Since he had left early, everything was calm, a relaxed quiet.
Now things were tense, Zero could taste the unease. Word must have gotten out about the virus.
Zero sighed and took off his helmet. Blond hair cascaded into his face. He carried his helmet to the room where all the navigators were and placed his helmet right next to Reaper.
"This is unnecessary." Zero said.
"It's fine. I need to do something." Reaper replied, not looking at him but looking at the screen. It illuminated her face, but dulled the green of her eyes. Her entire posture was intense as she looked at the monitor, something catching her eye.
"Wait. Wasn't this hunter one of the ones who were infected the worst?" She asked, shooting up in her seat and rushing towards where the hunter was walking.
"'scuse me, but aren't you Atlas?" Reaper asked running to catch up up. The hunter in question turned to face her.
He gave her a pleasant smile, which made her uneasy.
"Yeah. And yeah I know I was supposed to be on bed rest but there was something I had to do first." Atlas smiled and walked towards a door.
"I'm sure we can do it for you." Zero picked up on her uneasiness and faked being polite because something seemed wrong with this whole thing.
"It nothing. I just need to grab a few things" Atlas made his way to the door, but hesitated. "Actually could you get me book from the library please, I don't care which one."
"Oh sure." Reaper blinked and walked towards the library. After she left Zero and Atlas walked into the room together.
"could you please hand me that thing over there?" Atlas asked and smiled. Zero nodded and handed over a small trinket. Atlas nodded and thanked him.
Without warning Atlas grabbed onto Zero's wrist and gripped it tight. Zero gasped and flinched as something shocked him and he felt something dig into his skin. Finally he cried out and collapsed as something dug deep into Atlas's. As Atlas collapsed, dead upon impact, Zero saw reaper with anger in her eyes. Those harsh eyes softened as she looked at Zero's convulsing form. She looked around for something to help and found nothing, so she picked him up and carried him over to a small containment area meant to hold people and carried him inside, where he laid limp.
Pulling away she grabbed a radio that was nearby in case a emergency broke out and called for Signas and X.
She laid down next to Zero and waited for them to arrive.
When they did she only spoke quietly.
"Me 'n Zero got it bad and we're waiting it out in here." She whispered as the door shut behind her. She closed her eyes and sighed to herself and opened her eyes.
"This is gonna suck." She laughed bitterly as a figure stood before her. His hair was a light blond with black tips his eyes were red and he had violet markings down his cheeks. At least he would, if half his face wasn't missing, exposing the metal components underneath.