The Best We Can
Zero was frowning as stepped into the hall. He'd just finished his report on the Maverick incident from earlier that day. While from one point of view, it could be said that they'd successfully dealt with it, another point of view might call this something of a failure. He should have been faster, or anticipated better…
Zero clenched a fist. If this is bugging me, just think how X is taking it. He hurried down the hallway in search of his friend.
X was staring out one of the upper windows of the Hunter Base. A wide view of the city stretched out before him. At the moment, all looked peaceful, but more and more that just felt like a false image, as if terrible things were constantly waiting just beneath the surface, ready to emerge at any time. X closed his eyes, hearing the screams from that day again in his head.
He opened his eyes, but didn't turn around, as he heard Zero's footsteps behind him. Several seconds of silence passed before Zero spoke. "You okay?"
X shook his head. "No. Those two from today… We should have saved them."
"Yeah, I know."
X leaned his head forward slightly, so the crystal on the front of his helmet was just touching the window. He could see the scene replay before his eyes: that Maverick grinning cruelly, a terrified hostage trapped in each claw; him and Zero trying to decide how best to get around this, only for their enemy to promptly kill his captives before they had time to do anything; the red spatters across the ground as the Maverick laughed wildly. That they'd taken him down two seconds later was little comfort at this point.
"We stopped him from hurting anyone else," Zero pointed out. X didn't answer. "You heard him. He planned to go on and slaughter everyone else in the building. We saved more lives than we failed."
"We still failed them," X said harshly. "It seems that no matter what we do, innocents always die. Can't we do any better than this?"
"We do the best we can."
"Apparently it isn't good enough! …Or maybe I'm not good enough. I was right in front of them."
"How would you have done better, then?" Zero asked sharply. "The hostages were in the way, preventing an immediate attack, and the Maverick didn't give us time to act. What should you have done, to save them?"
"I…" X shook his head, then, finally, glanced over his shoulder at Zero. "I couldn't do anything," he said sadly.
"Then stop blaming yourself. If you could have, you would have."
X looked at Zero for a long moment. "Maybe," he said softly. "But that doesn't help them."
"You can't do anything about that either," Zero said quietly. "We'll just have to try and do better next time."
X nodded slowly. Then he slowly started walking away down the hall. Maybe Zero was right, and he tried hard to believe it, even as he still grieved for the lives lost.
As Zero stood and watched X go, he heard doubts still whispering in the back of his mind as well. I'm supposed to be one of the best. Shouldn't I have been able to find a way to save them? He blotted the whispers out, and forced himself to focus his attention only on his friend's retreating back, on hoping that X would take what he'd said to heart and get past this.