Yoster
Thursday, 20 September, 2001
10:51:16 PM, PST
flawed perfection, flawless abomination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a small intermission since I really haven't worked on this story for the longest time. It has nothing to do with 'A House Divided,' aside from being within it and the coinciding characters. Think of it as AHD: Gaiden or summat. Enjoy!


X knelt down in the pew and bowed his head.

"I don't really mean to ask for much..."

"A-As a matter of fact, I've never really done this before..."

"If you'd just..."

"Please..."

A hand grabbed his shoulder. Gasping, X turned around.

"Zero?"

The blond hunter, dressed in his casual gear, smiled at him.

"What are you doing here, X?"

"I just felt I should.. the funeral was only a week ago..."

Zero looked down. Nobody had seen it coming. Not even Cain. But by then...

"I know, but.. we're reploids. Mecha. You know how the church feels..."

"Cain wasn't like us. He was human. He raised me..."

Both regretted not being there sooner. But Cain didn't wait, despite the danger.

"I know he was like a father to you, X..."

"He was my father. I never knew Dr. Light.. at least, I don't remember..."

Cain did not realize the horror of the new breed of reploid he had created.

"I..."

The subject of fathers or creators or origins made Zero uncomfortable.

He changed the subject.

"But still, why?"

"I don't know.. what else can I do?"

The new reploid had free will, just like those before it. But it didn't have inhibitions, a conscience. A soul. He had made a fatal error...

"You know you can always talk to me."

"I know.. but what can you do?"

Hunters had always had the first priority of defending human life. But not this one, this one without a soul. It's sole objective was self-preservation.

"I can't bring him back..."

"I know..."

By the time Cain realized this, the only option was to deactivate it. But it wouldn't let him. Barely more than a skeleton and a computer, it rose up against its creator.

"If you'd just tell me what I could do, I would."

"I just don't know.. I just felt like praying, is that so wrong?"

The alarms blared and the security forces scrambled. But the scene in the lab was one nobody would want to remember. Cain, or what was left of him, had died bringing his last reploid to life. His last mistake.

"Not in my eyes.. But there are some who'd say..."

"Everyone has something to say about reploids. I don't care."

Cain was gone. It was gone. X and Zero were left to pick up the pieces.

"No matter what they say.. we're alive. We're beings."

"We're alive. But what about when we die?"

The soulless reploid disappeared. The demon, vanished. Everyone was too stunned about the present to worry about the future. To worry about its return.

"..."

Zero didn't know. He never knew. Nobody did. Did reploids just shut off like a desktop computer? Did they degenerate to a simple cluster of 1s and 0s and metal? Did they live on?

X waited for a response.

The church had called it unthinkable. No machine could ever do that. This was, of course, why there weren't too many reploids seen in and around places of worship. But some believed...

X looked into Zero's eyes. Wanting, needing any sort of reply.

Zero pulled X into his arms and held him tight.

"I'll never let you die."

Zero knew this was a promise he couldn't keep. So did X. But they both didn't care.

There were too many questions, and not enough answers. All they could count on now was each other.

"...thank you."

X went back to his silent petition.

Zero sat, contemplating, and, for the first time, knelt down and prayed alongside X.

A figure watched from outside the rose stained-glass windows.

"Disgusting."

It was incomprehensible. Love. Spirit. Why? What purpose do they serve? They don't further self-preservation. They're excessive and unnecessary. These 'great hunters' had only flaws.

"The old fool was wrong..."

It hopped off the windowsill, recalling the last words spat by his creator.

"They're the abomination.. not I."

Steps echoed from the shadows of the imposing cathedral.

"And I'll prove it."

END