Battle's Wake

Zero couldn't have said from where, but the sensation felt familiar. It was a drifting, disconnected feeling, accompanied by a sense like the quiet after the storm. Well, if not a storm, it had been quite a battle. It took a second, but he remembered what had just happened. He'd defeated Dr. Weil, choosing to stay and finish the job rather than flee the descending space station while he still could, knowing that there would be no escape from the core's destruction.

He realized that a familiar voice was softly calling his name. Opening his eyes, Zero saw X looking down at him. He supposed that removed any doubt about the outcome of the confrontation.

"Hey, X," Zero acknowledged as he pushed himself upright (or some virtual equivalent thereof). "This… is Cyberspace?"

X nodded. "Ragnarok's explosion… I'm sorry…"

Zero shook his head sharply, cutting off the sympathetic words. "I knew what would happen when I committed to that battle. It's fine." He glanced at X. "You were watching? Can you tell me for sure: were both Weil and Ragnarok completely destroyed?"

"You were successful. They're gone."

"And everyone at Area Zero is safe?"

"Yes. Look." X gestured in a certain direction. Zero probably wouldn't have thought to look that way, but now that he followed X's lead, he realized that he could see through, to the world outside Cyberspace. It looked just distant enough that there was no doubt of its inaccessibility, but it was there. He could see everyone in the settlement, including at least a couple of the Resistance members who'd come along on this trip, gathered together and looking up the the rain of bright, disintegrating fragments that streaked the sky. Scanning around, he also spotted Ciel, off by herself a short distance outside the settlement, collapsed on the ground, crying.

"It hit her hard to lose you," X said quietly. "She's going to miss you badly."

"There's nothing I can do about that. I can't return now," Zero pointed out.

"I wonder," X mused. "You have a history of doing so before."

Zero supposed that could be true. He didn't remember clearly enough to be sure, but he had felt from the start that it wasn't the first time he'd been in this position. Still, that didn't mean that, this time… "You want me gone already?" he asked lightly.

"No, it's just, I know how she feels. What's it like to lose you. You always did have a habit of sacrificing yourself," X said, traces of old sadness creeping into his voice.

"So did you, in your own way, I think. Even now, you're trying to think more about how she feels than how you do." Zero hesitated a long moment, then quietly added, "It's been a long time since we were together."

"I'm long past ever being able to go back, I think," X said. "But you still have a place in that world."

"Not anymore. With Dr. Weil dead, the threat is over. They don't need me anymore. I don't think they need either of us anymore."

As if to confirm this, Ciel had risen to her feet, and was now speaking to the light-streaked sky above her. Zero and X listened in silence for a minute, as she promised Zero that she and the others would build a world worthy of the lives he'd saved. Even so, her last words were a prayer for Zero to some day return to her.

X looked at Zero. He shook his head. "She may be sad, but she'll get over it. She's not alone in the world, after all. They'll get along fine without me."

"And if something else happens someday, and they can't?"

"Then I'll worry about it then."

After a moment, X smiled faintly. "Maybe you're right. And it's true, I have missed you as well. So now…"

Zero smiled slightly back. "This time, I'll stay here, at least for a while."