There's No Place Like Home When You've Got Nowhere to Go

Zero was slowly starving to death.

A veteran of battle nearly since the day he'd been rediscovered and reborn in the dim depths of an abandoned subway tunnel, Zero knew about physical pain. He had seen the gleam of violence in the eyes of a wall of Mavericks preparing to throw itself at his comparatively paltry count of Hunters, so he knew about hopelessness. He had slipped into death while holding onto the trembling fingers of his best friend, so he knew loneliness.

He was even familiar with fear. Contrary to popular rumour, fear was not reserved for humans, a species that was never more than a step away from the Dark (though its healthiest and most capable men and women found themselves time and time again on the battlefield, panting, billowing steam into the icy morning, defrosting the stiff white grass with blood. The Hunter had seen plenty of that, too).

Zero had known fear. He had known terror, if you wanted to get right down to it.

But Zero had never known hunger. He had never suffered the excruciating pangs that still afflicted wide pockets of humanity in a supposed world of plenty. Neither had he ever known the desperation that was exclusive to hunger, or felt the trembling of a betrayed body making one last plea for attention.

Zero had never even heard of such afflictions from other Reploids. While humans were always subconsciously on the hunt for their next meal-it was one of several biological drives that made the race a little nutty, Zero thought-Reploids rarely found themselves in a position where they were in desperate need for their own fuel source, Energen.

Zero had never been without Energen.

He had never had it withheld from him.

He had never even considered that humans were capable of doing such a thing.

Zero cursed himself a dimwit for overlooking such an obvious snare for so long. He had considered himself independent, a creature capable of free choice. What a joke. He'd been crouching at humanity's feet this whole time.

Only Mavericks are independent, Zero realised with a chill. The rest of us get fed when the humans decide it's time to eat.

Eden had decided that it was not time for Zero to eat. The Hunter had been assured that it would not be time to eat until he had earned the Energen that would be slotted into his system through whatever recharging bed he was granted.

And to earn that Energen, Zero had to teach the children of Eden how to kill his own kind.

"We-Reploids are armoured for a reason," Zero said to his audience, which looked up at him with cool, expressionless eyes. "We have vital components that can't take much abuse. Think of those parts as-think of them as our Achilles heels."

Zero's voice caught, but he doubted anyone heard it. He was giving his lesson to a tight knot of about twenty warriors gathered in what little breathing room there was among the foliage at the bottom of the Great Tree. The river slipped noisily by and erased much of what Zero said beyond his loud instructions on how a human could make a Reploid suffer.

"Humans made us," he said. "Humans also try to ensure there is a way to stop us."

He allowed himself a smile.

"They don't always succeed."

Nobody laughed, least of all the two women who stood directly in front of him.

Zero sobered. Those two women who were the only reason he was cooperating with Eden in any regard. He could face starvation; he was a phoenix. In fact, Asmodeus' threats against his life hadn't initially been effective, and Zero's first lesson for Eden had been a five-minute rant about why he'd rather kick in his own teeth than have any truck with a passel of brain-dead inbreds.

Asmodeus had looked at Zero thoughtfully, thanked him, and asked him to teach again soon.

The following day, Zero had limped back down to the lagoon at the base of the Tree. "His" students were all there again, with a new addition: Celeste.

"Like humans, injuries to our wrists are dangerous," Zero said. He paused for a few beats. "We don't have arteries in the same manner as you...people, but there are a lot of important wires and tubes, and not a whole lot of flesh to protect him. Not unless-" Zero hefted his right arm upwards to show off the steel gauntlet that protected his own wrist and still did, despite considerable dings, dents, and scars.

Zero allowed his eyes to brush over Celeste before he jerked them back to the rest of his audience. He had done this several times already to assess her condition in quick mouthfuls. She appeared unhurt, though one arm was bound in a sling. She looked a little thinner, but her blue eyes were still clear, and wholly her own.

"See, I have protection," Zero called out, wriggling his wrist a little. "I'm aware of my weaknesses, and take steps to protect myself. But be warned; an especially clever Reploid will find ways to turn his or her weaknesses against the enemy. In the first Maverick War, I beat a powerful enemy by cutting into my wrist and igniting the oil that spilled out of me. Then I slammed my fist down the bastard's throat."

This time, Zero earned some impressed murmurs from his students, and he risked snatching another look at Celeste. Now she looked a little pale; Zero suspected she could recall his most renowned act of sacrifice as well as anyone.

Nevertheless, Celeste's eyes asked him questions. What are you doing? Why are you here?

Zero did not allow his eyes to throw back any answers. For one thing, whenever he saw Celeste-up close or afar-she was always in the company of a short, keen woman who had the gaze and quick mannerisms of a peregrine falcon. Zero knew her name was Adina. That was all he had for official information on the woman, but he could take some guesses at her function. She was there, at least in part, to silently remind Zero of something Atticus the Mechadrake had told him when he had first entered Eden on Jody's arm: Though he was a celebrated warrior above ground, he was the champion of nothing in Eden.

Indeed, Zero had nothing here, below the surface, except his humiliation, his slow starvation, and possibly the support of an idiot boy named Jody-who, Zero suspected, may have sold him and Celeste out for fame among his peers.

And now Zero also had this tiny "Adina" woman watching him like a bird of prey, ready to swoop should Zero communicate with Celeste before Asmodeus allowed it.

He didn't care much about his own safety; even in his hungry state, he'd be capable of giving Adina a few lacerations to think about before all of Eden jumped on his back-and, hell, Zero figured he'd mange to punch his initials in a few of thosesuckers before he was sent down to Robot Gehenna. But Adina seemed to know it too, because her expressions and the way she held herself indicated to Zero that she would take out his misbehaviour on Celeste.

Zero wasn't sure,which was the worst of it. He thought that he occasionally saw Adina exude true warmth towards Celeste, and motherly gestures like absently pulling her hair back from her face (which Celeste automatically shrank away from, more often than not). Other times, especially when the two of them attended his "class," Adina looked tense, like a Rottweiler that was coiled to kill on a single command from its master.

Zero grabbed his wandering thoughts a bare second before he almost said, "You are all out of your cotton-pickin' minds." Instead, he wrapped up his lesson.

"We're done for the day. Now get out of my sight. All of you."

Celeste sat on the hard lip of her mattress and tried to think. Her brain sent back nothing except garbled emotions and stupidities. She closed her eyes tight and attempted to wring out some kind of reasonable answer as to why in Mother Mary's holy name Zero was down in Eden with her. Her brain answered with the whirr of spinning wheels and flashes of idiot images.

Celeste blew her bangs out of her eyes. Okay. So trying to puzzle out the reasonfor Zero being in Eden wasn't as important as finding a way to talk to him.

On that matter, Celeste's thoughts and ideas were at least sane and linear, if not just as useless. Whenever Celeste asked anything like a question about Zero's arrival, Adina shut down their conversation with the finality of a slammed door. Celeste didn't need to ask if she could talk to Zero. She already knew she had a better chance of getting permission to moon Asmodeus.

Celeste couldn't help but grin at that mental image.

Someone entered the empty dorm. Celeste automatically turned in the direction of the footsteps, expecting one of her dorm-mates, all of whom still kept their distance from her except to steal the occasional nervous glance at Adina.

It wasn't any of the other girls from the dorm. The sight of the visitor in the doorway turned Celeste's bowels into a knotted, icy tangle. Her tongue shriveled into a dry piece of leather, but she managed to say, "Jody."

The silver-haired boy leaned his shoulder against the side of the wide door frame. He rubbed one leg with the opposite foot and split his lips into a smile that showed his canines. "Hey Celeste. Welcome home."

Celeste stood up slowly. "You're part of Eden?" she wavered.

"Born and raised."

Nausea slipped around Celeste's stomach like a cold fish. For the worst five seconds of her life, she knew hopelessness, abandonment, and betrayal in their rawest forms. Everyone she had trusted had turned on her.

Suddenly, Celeste saw red. She balled up her unhurt hand. "You're the reason. You're the reason I'm here, you son of a bitch."

Jody pushed himself off from the doorway. "You're wrong about that," he told Celeste. He took wide, slow steps toward her, letting his boots scuff on the floor a bit with each step. "No, you know what? You're half-right."

Celeste braced herself, stood her ground. "What do you mean?"

"It's complicated, Celeste." Jody touched her cheekbone with two fingers, and traced the outline of her jaw. Then, in the space of a bare second, he pitched forward with a grunt while (Celeste imagined) indescribable agony blossomed from between his legs.

"Touch me again and I'll cause some permanent damage," Celeste growled. Hot blood flushed her cheeks as the dam that bricked up her frustration and fury began to bulge. "Remember, Loy. I'm yourcommander."

"Ungh," Jody managed. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he used the adjacent bed to help himself to his feet. "Good shot, Celeste, and a good point as well. I'd expect no less from the girl who's going to be my life's mate-"

This time Celeste caught him under his chin with the heel of her palm. Jody reeled and flecked the beds and floor with a spray of blood.

Celeste stood back, a little surprised with herself, but also borderline orgasmic with the release. "I don't want you, Jody," she said carefully. "I don't know where you got the idea that I do."

Jody held the crook of his elbow to his mouth to staunch the red river gushing from his tongue. He looked up at Celeste, and the hurt in his grey eyes went deeper than physical pain. He shook like a heartbroken child.

"I love you," he said, his words mangled by blood and his shredded tongue. "I always have."

"I don't love you, Jody," Celeste returned. "In fact, right this red-hot minute, I hate your guts."

Jody removed his arm from his mouth and spat a jet of cromson onto the dorm's grey floor. "I hope, for your own good, that someday you realise I'm driven to protect and care for you in a way that no-one else ever has. Including your father." Jody automatically held up his hands. "Please don't hit me again. Just listen. On your last night here, Jake left you alone so he could-so he could visit Ange. I found you near the Hollow, dazed. Jake's desire to rut with that woman was more important to him than the safety of his own daughter."

Celeste felt her heart quicken. "I'm not going to listen to your damned lies, Jody."

"How do you know they're lies, Celeste," Jody hissed, showing red teeth. "You seem to have a very selective memory when it comes to your previous stay in Eden. Awfully convenient of you to remember nothing but the good about Jake."

"And I doknow that everything you've told me since you enlisted with the Hunters is a lie. So why should I believe anything that comes out of your mouth?"

Jody lurched forward and grabbed her shoulders before she could react. "How could you forget Eden?" he barked, his breath stinking of blood. "How do you forget spending part of your childhood in a big goddam city underground? How do you forget the friends you made as a kid?"

Celeste tried to pull away, but Jody tightened his grip. "What happened to you, Celeste?" he said.

"Stand down, Jody," Adina called from the doorway. "You've been rejected."

At the sound of Adina's voice, Jody peeled away from Celeste and actually cringed a little. He didn't turn around before saying , "Hello, mother."

"'Hello,'" Adina echoed with a snort. "Sure. You leave Eden, fail to complete your mission, make me the laughingstock of everyone down here, and then try and claim my charge as your own after avoiding me for three days. What makes you think you deserve the affections of McTreggor, Jody?"

Celeste could practically sense Jody gathering up his withering storages of courage. "I have delivered Zero the Maverick Hunter to Eden," he said, finally looking at Adina.

"Don't hand me that, boy. I wiped your snotty little nose when you were tiny, so I think I'd know if you're capable of bringing the Maverick Hunters' very best down here. And you're not."

Jody's hastily assembled confidence tumbled like matchsticks, and he ducked his head. Celeste watched with intense interest.

"Celeste," Adina called to her without taking her eyes off her son. "Are you at all interested in being Jody's wife?"

"I'm not interested in anything to do with Eden," Celeste said. "I'm not a dog or a horse. I won't be bred for a cause."

"Your participation in Eden's agenda is not up for debate," Adina said with a tight grin. "However, you have the right to choose or reject a suitor as you see fit, and you have my word that I will protect that right. So there you are, Jody. And I can't say I blame Celeste for turning her back on your incompetence and impotence."

Burn, Celeste thought to herself. Still, a small part of her felt a bit badly for Jody, who seemed to shrink into himself with every insult lobbed at him by Adina. Not that any of it was undeserved.

"I'm sorry, Celeste," Jody said with surprising honesty. "I got wrapped up in myself and forgot what had made us friends in the first place." He met her eyes. "Can you forgive me?"

"I don't know," Celeste said coldly. "I don't know what you think we did in the past, but I'm not your friend. And there's still the issue of you being the reason why I'm even here."

Jody combed his fingernails over the top of his head. "Like I said before, Celeste, I'm not the reason. Definitely not the entire reason."

"My son is right about that much, Celeste," Adina said dryly. "He hadbeen ordered to infiltrate Maverick Hunter Headquarters, sow discontent, and retrieve you if possible-but he stopped short of bringing you back. Asmodeus sent up a random patrol to do the job for you. It was the Mechadrake Nytetrayn who carried you here."

"That much I know," Celeste said darkly. "I wouldn't mind having a big talk with thatone."

Adina pushed past Celeste and Jody and retrieved her bo, which was propped on the back wall as usual. She slowly eased into a kata, and Jody and Celeste automatically took a few steps backwards.

Adina stabbed the bo in Jody's direction without breaking her rhythm. She said, "Tell me, my dear son, what drove you to linger above ground instead of doing the job you had been sent to do?"

"I already gave my reason," Jody mumbled. "I care for Celeste, and I knew I couldn't drag her here against her will. Asmodeus had promised her to me if I brought her back, and-and I couldn't do it. If she doesn't want me, I'll back off."

Adina withdrew her bo. "I just assured Celeste that she has the right to choose her partner," she said. "I suppose Asmodeus' 'reward' would have overridden that choice?"

"That's the impression I was under."

"All right," Adina said. "All right. I respect your actions, Jody. After all, your father was a good man, but if I had been given my voice-well, that's in the past." She looked at Celeste. "I understand your unease around Jody, but he's my son, and I haven't seen him in some months. Would you be comfortable with him accompanying us around Eden for a little while?"

"As long as you're with me too, Adina," Celeste said. As soon as she said it she realised how crazy she sounded, asking her warden to stick by her. But she felt like she could trust the woman-savage though she looked-sooner than she could trust her silver-haired son.

"Then perhaps we can all share a meal together, and talk about...things. Like where Jody gets the idea that we're supposed to behold his 'capture' of Zero as anything but a farce."

Zero slowly awakened. He muttered nonsense and flexed his fingers against the greasy, torn vinyl that lined his recharge bed.

He felt rested, but he was still hungry.

He'd been fed some Enegen-possibly just enough to starve a little more slowly.

Zero wasn't at all surprised. He knew he could cause some major chaos to the real estate if he was running at full capacity. No doubt Asmodeus knew it, too.

Zero looked up sharply as the transparent dome covering his bed came unfastened with a clack and a reptilian hiss. He could make out a dark figure through the filmy, scratched plastic. The image sharpened as the figure, a black Mechadrake, helped pull aside the dome. He peered down at Zero with small, gold eyes.

"Good morning, Hunter Zero," said the Mechadrake. His voice was raspy, barely more than a croak. He coughed before continuing. "I'm Nytetrayn. We met once before in Maverick Hunter Headquarters. Your friend X shot me in the throat-perhaps you recall the incident, you made a cute remark when it happened-so excuse my raw voice."

Zero stared blankly. "So that was you," he said slowly. "The Mechadrake who was supposed to die."

"Just a misunderstanding between myself and my peers," Nyte said. "There needn't be any misunderstanding between us, though. We might be of some use to each other. Now, get on up. I want you to meet a friend of mine who has half an ear."

Nyte smiled with all his teeth. "He might remind you of a friend of your own."