Well... Chapter ten... I don't particularly like this one... But oh well. Again, I don't own Megaman & Co. That belongs to whoever it belongs to. Read and review, and don't die of boredom.

CHAPTER 10

Atra never thought of dreams in terms of herself, so she had never expected that, when she laid herself down to sleep, she would suffer from one of the things that mortals lived through nightly. Her eyes drifted shut before her body fell into the black silken material that lined her charging station.

All around her was blood. She smelled it, could taste it on her lips. Something trickled down her face on the side- more blood. Screams tore at her ears. Children, adults, men and women- their pain carved into her and made itself hers. Her eyes pulled themselves open though she wished they would remain shut. Mavericks grinned their trademark, maniacal grins showing all of their teeth. Swords flashed and guns flamed plasma at innocents. She tried to move, but couldn't. She was paralyzed. The dream shifted.

Fire boiled up inside of her, but she couldn't move beyond what she was already doing. She fought, her blue-black sabre coldly cutting down the Madmen who dared stand in her way. Her conscious fought while her subconscious watched. Zero Omega fought to her side, hewing around him with a fiery grace. No one who opposed him remained standing. Atra turned back to the bloodshed. Dimly now the screams still reached her, though when her body began to move the scene had changed from a slaughter to a battle. Now they brushed her ears and seeped in to become a part of her. She grinned wolfishly, icily, welcoming these cries of agony. These were not torn from the tormented and agonized throats of victims- these were the screams of the Mavericks.
Her subconscious considered briefly that perhaps they were victims, until Sigma appeared. His sword flared brightly, cutting friend and foe in his race to reach the Omegas. She smirked and played with her blade, flipping it from hand to hand, sweeping it back and forth. Blood flowed down the fire in dark ripples. Zero, beside her, flicked his blade about as well, though it was less playful than her fidgeting. Soldiers cringed away from the two figures, so similar, and yet so different as they stood there, waiting for Sigma. Like… Like Fire and Ice, she was sure they were thinking, one that burned in its heat, and another that burned with its chill.
Sigma struck, but not at Zero first, as she had expected, but at her. She dodged back quickly and the green sword cut her helmet before wiffiling past her face. The black helm shattered and fell about her like a dark, broken mirror with light glinting along sharpened edges, or on diamond sharp points. A familiar smirk twitched on her face as he stared. Black hair fell unbound to frame her face and drape over her shoulders to her hips.
Dark eyes glinted like ice at her enemy. His eyes flicked towards Zero, then back to her as she spun her blade down onto his neck. He brought his own blade up to parry, with more speed than his shock should have allowed, and Zero lunged in. It was a ruse, she realized, a ruse to draw Zero Omega into doing exactly what he was doing now.
"Stop-" She began, seeing the shift in Sigma's pose, but too late. Sigma danced aside and removed Omega's head, a second before her blade could leap in to parry the cut. Omega's body fell heavily to the ground, blood pooling as his head rolled to a stop, staring, a few feet away. Atra turned on Sigma, leashed fury in her eyes. No mercy she thought determined. It never occurred to the dream-her that it would not be she who determined what was merciful and what was not.
It was a short, though very informative, spar.

Driven to her knees with a broken collar, arm, and leg, all she could do was glare up at Sigma as he taunted her. If my leg weren't broken… she thought grimly, picturing tortures she wished to inflict on the Maverick leader, despite -or maybe because of- the pain arcing all down her side. His sword rose and plunged downwards...

Atra snapped into a sitting position- or tried to. Her head banged on the crystalline cover to her chamber, knocking her back into the padding with brute force. For the first time since she was built almost a century ago, Atra wished passionately that she had never been created. Also for the first time, she felt the need to cry.
What was emotion to her, though? She who was to end the rebellion, she who was built to destroy. What use did she have for it? Why did the loss strike so deeply? And a loss that wasn't even real! She hadn't even lost any troops, because what soldiers had she to command? She buried her face in her pillow, muffling the sounds of her sobs.

Zero stopped at the bar and watched X enjoy himself. Several of his friends were on the dance floor, as Zero himself had been for the last half-hour. He sipped his drink and smiled. It was good to be back. Now if he could just shake that tight nervous feeling he'd had for the last hour… Trust your instincts, one side of him argued, Don't fall into a trap because you aren't listening to your own guts.
Who are you kidding? His other side inquired scornfully, All you've got is a feeling something's up, what's that to go on? Better to ignore it and enjoy the night than to worry over something you don't have proof of! He drained the glass with a growl. He was getting tired of that internal argument. I'll enjoy the night but stay on guard, he informed his two arguing sides tartly, Happy? Good, now shut up and let me be! Whether his arguing with himself or not did any good or not, he didn't care. He felt better and was returning to the dance floor, determined to do exactly what he'd decided. Despite his anxiousness, nothing happened, and he returned to the Hunter's base oddly unsettled. Though… Shouldn't he be relieved?

He said goodnight to X as they came to the officer's hall, then retreated to his room and uneasy dreams.

It was a cloudless starry night- beauty like he'd forgotten could exist. The soft air tumbled through his hair and filled his nose with the scent of rain and spring. It was a good night, a perfect night, even. He turned looking through the tossed golden strands of his hair to find himself face to face with Sigma. He stepped back, reaching for his sword, before he realized he didn't have a sword. No more than he had armor, or a place to run. He stood on a cliff, his only escape route blocked by Sigma and his troupes. Sigma twirled a needle filled with a pink-tinted liquid. Zero's mouth felt dry, dew gathered at his temples as goosebumps crawled over his spine; he knew that fluid, and he knew he didn't want to have that needle stuck in him. Oh hell. He thought, glancing back. Sigma grinned evilly, but then, he was always grinning evilly, and approached. Die like a coward, die as a crazy son of a bitch and a bastard? Zero asked himself, weighing his choices, then turned and dove over the cliff, thinking Cowards aren't all that bad. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. And he doesn't go on an insane murdering massacre. That's got to be a plus
The dream shifted leaving him breathless.

Zero blinked awake and shook his head, trying to put the fragments of a dream together. He heard a muted thud from the next room and got to his feet, pulling a laser-pistol from his bedside table. He sidled up to his bedroom door, the tattered tail end of his dream fleeing completely before the threat.
He peered through the slot and cursed.
"Damn it, X, I was sleeping." Zero complained grumpily. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to ask you something that I forgot to ask earlier."
"What?" Zero ran his free hand through his hair. There would be no silencing X until he was satisfied.
"Have you seen my badge?"
"What?" Zero blinked blankly at his friend.
"I said-"
"I heard. You woke me up to ask about your badge?" Zero shook his head. "The dratted thing could have waited until a decent hour- say 1200?"
"Come on, Zero."
"You left it over there." He grumbled, disgusted, pointing at the counter that separated the kitchenette from the living room. "God, you're hopeless X."
X grinned shamelessly, "I know," He replied. "Any good dreams?"
"I was in the middle of a great one, I think. I can't remember how it ended, thanks to you," He grumbled, throwing a half-hearted punch at X's shoulder.
"Alright, alright. I get the picture." X said, surrendering.
"Good. So can I go to sleep now?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way out now." X ducked out the door, chuckling. Zero ran over and leaned through it to call after his friend.
"And if you left one of your tricks here, I'll leave ya for the Black Omega!"
X shook his head and waved cheerily before ducking back into his room.
"Damn…" Zero grumbled, returning to his bed. "I hate my friends sometimes…" After replacing the gun he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.