Elegy of Falling Snow
Chapter 4: Humpty Dumpty

For a few moments after Red disconnected the call, there was only silence in the conference room. It was only broken when a beep sounded – a document was sent from Red Alert.

Alia quickly made the preparations to open it: freezing the system, thoroughly examine the properties of the document… it doesn't seem too suspicious.

"It's passworded," Alia said, "The hint here says: 'Axl's serial number.'"
"Ah… um. It's A-x1. I'm not sure if the A is in lowercase or uppercase, but it's a, dash, lowercase x, and then 1." Axl answered.
"Okay, cool. Let's see here…" Alia replied as she typed in "A-x1."

Fortunately, her first try was correct, revealing that the document was a letter. It was sent by "Snipe Anteator".

"Snipe Anteator… Axl, do you know who this is?" Signas asked.
Axl nodded, "Yeah. One of Red Alert's generals. The tech wiz grandpa. Let me see—"

Once again, everyone went silent when they saw just what was written in the letter…

"The Professor… whoever he is, is ruining Red Alert. He's using us and will not hesitate to destroy us. Whatever his purpose is, none of us know or care at this point. But we refuse to let him win.
Please retire us, and take care of Axl in our stead. Due to his copy chip, he is immune to the Maverick virus and the Professor's modifications. I'm sure he'll prove to be a great asset to the Maverick Hunters.
Last but not least, kindly spare our prisoners, and help them rebuild their lives. They are innocent in all this.
- Snipe Anteator"

"N… no way… no fucking way… right?" Axl stammered out.

No one dared chide him for his language. X, Zero, Alia, Signas… all of them have known the pain of having to retire, or kill infected comrades. They know the feeling all too well.
X in particular is biting his lip – seeing how devastated Axl was pained him greatly. But… even though he's been through the pain over and over again, he can't think of anything to say. Mostly because no words could comfort him in those situations either.
But still…

"Hey… Axl?"

Axl suddenly tensed when he heard X call his name, and reflexively turned towards the blue reploid.
He wanted to respond, but his jaw could only tremble. His only instinct was to stay still, to prevent his teeth from chattering. But no words could leave his throat. He can't even blink—

"Do you maybe… need time alone? Some space? Or would it help you more if you talk to someone?" X asked gently.

Right when Axl heard that, his eyes widened. His mind went blank. Somewhere inside him, he could feel something being opened. His head felt full. Like it was going to explode.
Instinctively, Axl placed both hands to hold his head. And before he knew it, he fell to his knees, and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Zero could only shut his eyes tightly, grit his teeth, and look away. His own heart was aching. But when he shut his eyes, the memory came back to him – what he did to Iris and Colonel – and so he couldn't keep his eyes closed. He just started staring blankly at the empty corner. That was all he could do to tune out Axl's screaming.
Neither Signas nor Alia could bear telling Axl to stop. All they could do was look to X; he was always the best at reaching out to people. He was always the sensitive one, the best one to approach situations like this…
X himself flinched when Axl screamed, but that response wasn't unexpected. Honestly, it was probably better if Axl let it out like that. Bottling it up will, more likely than not, cause it to spill at inopportune moments…

Slowly, X walked over to the kneeling Axl who was still screaming his throat raw. The latter was facing the floor, and so unable to see the approaching X. X knelt down in front of Axl, and placed both hands on his shoulders.

"Hey… Axl? Hello?" X called out in his normal voice, hoping that Axl can hear him.

Suddenly, Axl's screaming stopped. His mouth clamped shut and he lightly bit his bottom lip. His eyes snapped open. All he could see was the floor. It made him realize the position he's in, and so he sat up… and was face-to-face with a concerned X.

"Hey." X greeted, a sad smile on his face. But there was clear relief in his eyes.
Axl couldn't say anything in response, but he started catching his breath.
"That's good, that's good," X said in a hushed voice, "Breathe. Take a breather. It's fine. You're doing okay."
Axl didn't say anything, but he closed his eyes and breathed in and out more slowly.

After about a minute, Axl felt much calmer. He opened his eyes, and saw that X was still kneeling with him, in front of him.

"You okay?" X asked.
"I… I…" Axl stammered out, "I'm sorry. For… screaming. Yeah."
"No need to sweat it. It's… a common thing. Happens a lot with the hunters, no matter their rank." X replied.
"I… I see…" Axl responded.

Axl could feel tears trying to force their way out of his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut to hold them back, then opened them again so he can continue to act normal. But his tears are still trying to come out…
He… he can't cry. He's already screamed in front of four high ranking Hunter personnel. It's humiliating enough as it was—

"It's okay to cry if you want." X assured.
"Thanks… X…" Axl answered, trying to speak normally.
"I think you need some rest. We can always continue tomorrow." X suggested as he helped Axl stand up.
"Wh… what time is it?" Axl asked once he was standing again.
"Hm… not sure. Alia?" X replied, turning to Alia.
"It's… oh no, it's 2 AM." Alia answered.

Zero want to quip that "to hunters, time is an illusion", but it doesn't seem that everyone's in the mood for jokes at the moment.

"It's too risky to let Axl be… roomless," Zero said instead, "He's gotta stay with somebody."
"That's true. Axl is a key individual in this case. Given his status as an ex-bounty hunter, he needs to be supervised. Not just for our safety, but for his as well." Signas added.
"So I guess we can't slot him in an empty C-rank room?" Alia questioned.
"No, no, no, absolutely not," X said as he shook his head, "He'll be all alone there."
"Um… yeah. I'd prefer… not to be alone." Axl affirmed.

"Wanna crash in my room?" Zero offered.
"Eh? Sure, I guess…" Axl responded.
"With all due respect, Zero… kindly remember that you have… confidential Hunter files in your room." Alia said.

Zero swallowed. He immediately understood what she meant by that.

"Aha… oops. Yeah. I got… stuff to put away. Silly me. Sorry Axl." Zero sheepishly replied.
"Ah… uh… 'kay. No issue." Axl said.
"What about you, X? Your room's usually tidy. It's organized chaos at worst. Plus, I don't think you have confidential stuff lying around." Zero suggested.
X nodded, "I don't mind. Can that be arranged?"

Signas heaved a sigh, "We would love to. But you're not exactly Hunter personnel anymore, X. You've been… categorised as a civilian. We can't put you together with Axl, since he's a key individual of a case. Sorry about that."
"Wait, haven't I been given the Senior Hunter and Activist titles?" X questioned.
"The 'Senior Hunter' title given to you was not the usual one. Yours is mostly for administrative purposes, to… acknowledge your contributions to the Maverick Hunters over the years. The actual functional title is the Activist one, which falls under civilian." Alia explained.
"Ah… yeah. I forgot all about that. Hoo…" X dejectedly responded.

"If I clean up my room pronto, can we sort this out?" Zero suggested.
"That sounds good. But you have a lot of stuff to be cleaned up. It might take a few days. In the meantime, we need to arrange some temporary lodging for Axl. Let me check out a few A-ranks who are online, see if they're willing." Alia said.
"Good. While we wait, let's sit down for a while." Signas replied.
"Great. Axl, if you want, you can sit with me over there." X offered, gesturing to the benches at the side of the conference room.
"Y-yeah. Sounds… sounds good." Axl accepted.

Axl sat down beside X, who said nothing. Which is… alright. Axl didn't want to think at all. He just wanted to breathe slowly. It's the only thing… it's the only thing that's keeping him sane and contained. Breaking down in front of people you're not close to… is incredibly unpleasant.
It was showing your ugly, vulnerable side in front of people who may or may not care about you. And you never know what might come out of it.
Fortunately, X has been supportive. Axl's not sure if he truly cares or if he's just trying to be nice, but… he'd like to think that X does care.

After all, isn't that what X is known for…?

…

"You guys were here. You guys were always so good to me. And X… I'm sure X also has a lot of good friends around him. Zero, Signas, Alia… all of them are experienced seniors. Just what hit X that he… he just broke like that?"

"Please retire us, and take care of Axl in our stead."

"No need to sweat it. It's… a common thing. Happens a lot with the hunters, no matter their rank."

It's a common thing… with the hunters, no matter their rank.

…

Gods.

Suddenly, Axl understood better why X retired…

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the EXTREME delay in updating! I got hit with a quarter-life crisis. It was not pleasant. But I'm starting to regain my footing. Anyways... with every chapter, I already feel how different Elegy's tone is compared to PMGR. And how heavy it can get sometimes in comparison.
In PMGR and its timeline, Iris is alive. But Elegy is closer to canon. So yeah, Iris is gone in this one.