ZERO

Chapter 10

The Unthinkable Mission

Senya Starseeker

twilight_rhapsody@hotmail.com

A/N:Here we go, I'm posting it before you can all complain about the nonsense which was Chapter 9 (but it will all tie in together in the next chapter, really) ANYWAYS, on with the show . . .( So to speak) . . .

X groaned, his head hurt, his arms hurt, his legs were numb, and his entire chest . . .hell, everything hurt. He forced his eyes open, squinting and blinking against the painfully bright white lights over his head. "You're awake." An elderly, friendly voice said softly. X tried to move his head, but he couldn't, it was a ton of bricks.

"Don't try to move right now." The voice of Dr. Cain continued, "Your internal systems are still under heavy repair. You're lucky you're recovering as well as you are. We were worried the trauma to your systems would cause a memory or a personality rupture, but all of your systems seem to be recovering quiet nicely."

"Ugh . . . Dr. Cain . . .?" X groaned, barely hearing the words Cain had told him. Everything was blurry and hazy. Slowly he began to remember the past events, the battle with Zero, and May screaming in pain . . .

"Yes, X?" Cain asked gravely.

"M--May, is she alright?" X asked.

"Yes." Cain nodded, "She's resting in a bed beside yours, actually. They finished repairing her wounds, and she's sleeping peacefully now."

"I'm glad." X said quietly.

"I know." Cain said, and he was nodding slowly, although X could not see that.

"X . . . You know that Zero has been corrupted by a virus." Cain continued.

"Yes . . . a virus made by Lifesaver, it's damaged his personality and . . . he's completely mad." X said in a whisper.

The doctor was silent for several moments then, he could see the pain in the young Reploid's face, it was pain from his heart, not his body. It was deep and horrible, and Cain dreaded the next words he had to speak, but he thought of Zero's awesome powers, and of what had happened to noble Signas, and knew that there were no more options available to him. "X. . ." He said slowly, choosing his words with care, "How would you like a partner?"

"I have a partner." X said automatically, then remembered Zero was no longer a Hunter. He was a Maverick, or if not a Maverick, something even worse.

"X. . . We have to face the reality that Zero is an extremely powerful Reploid, he is capable of vast amounts of destruction, infact, I believe that he could destroy this entire planet, if he wanted to badly enough."

X was silent. He had always known Zero was stronger than he was, incredibly strong.

"And . . . now he is no longer on our side," Dr. Cain continued soberly, "He is a threat to humanity, to all peace-loving Reploids."

"I know! I know that, doctor, but . . ." X struggled weakly, "But . . . we can help him, it's a virus, the virus that Lifesaver made that's doing this, it isn't Zero himself! You talk as though it were Zero hurting people but it's not! If I or Signas had taken that injection wouldn't we be doing the exact same things?!"

This time it was Cain's turn to be silent, he could see that X was suffering, he knew that the mental anguish was great, and would one day take it's toll on the Reploid. He dreaded that day. But, not now! The aged doctor hardened his emotions, they had a job that needed to be done. "X, Signas is dead." He said bluntly, flatly.

X suddenly stopped, his green eyes widened in shock, "Wh--why . . .?"

"Do you know what happened? Zero killed him. Destroyed his life-matrix. He will never be repaired, and is lost forever. Zero has no more emotions, no more feelings, he is a soulless, thoughtless, demon! X we can not allow him to kill anyone else. We have to face the fact that he can not be cured, and therefore he must be killed!"

Dead silence descended upon the small room.

The last words of Cain's speech echoed quietly off of the walls and through the Maverick Hunter's mind. '....he must be killed!" He could not respond. He found he could not even think properly. It was to much--to much! How dare Cain ask him to kill his friend, his closest friend, his partner, Zero! Zero was not evil, he had proven that countless times, he had beaten Sigma when no one else could, he had sacrificed himself before to save all of them! "No." X said finally in a quiet voice, a weak voice. "No." He was shaken terribly, he could not accept what was happening, and blinked his eyes furiously to hold back tears, hands shaking. "No. No. No. No matter what you say--NO!!" X shouted, taking every ounce of strength in his body to throw his body into a sitting position and screaming the last word at Dr. Cain's face.

Dr. Cain was stunned for a moment, he looked at X for a time, blinking slowly, then shook his head, "Are you going to be responsible for the lives of innocent civilians that Zero takes now, X? And do you think the Zero you know would want you to let this him destroy the world he was willing to die to protect?" With that the man turned and left.

X, exhausted physically and mentally fell back on to the bed, his chest heaving painfully. He had never before been so unmannered towards the doctor, he had certainly never yelled in his face before. But he could not accept it. He could not accept that he had to kill his best friend. There had to be another way, everything had an anti-thesis, everything! There had to be a cure! X felt his eyes watering as he remembered the crazed look flashing in Zero's eyes as they fought, as he had cruelly struck X and May with his saber . . . Dr. Cain had told him that Zero had killed Signas? How could that be? How could that even be?!

". . . . Are you alright?" A voice from the side asked quietly.

It hurt, but X forced his head to turn to the left and saw May lying in a white bed beside his. Her shoulder was heavily bandaged, and she look pale and exhausted, but not to bad, not dead.

"I--I'm not . . . I don't know . . ." He replied softly. "I just don't know . . ."

"I heard all that . . . that stuff you guys were talking about." She said calmly. "He wants you to kill Na--Zero, doesn't he?"

X hesitated, then nodded.

"I see. . . . well, what's the problem, he's insane, right? Look what he did to us! And that man just said that he killed another Reploid!"

A sudden anger swept over X, "That's not-- Zero's my friend! My best friend! We've been through so much together, he's always been there for me, always! I won't . . ." He broke off when he realized that his body was shaking.

May was staring at him with a strange expression, like she was surprised. ". . . .I. . . .I'm so sorry, X. . . ." She said quietly. "I. . . . I just never knew Reploids felt things like that."

"Well we DO!" He snapped back at her, he knew that he was being childish, but pain was suddenly overbearing within him, and he shut his eyes tightly. Images of an insane Zero killing Signas filled his mind. Cain's words suddenly had an impact on him. ". . . . we do . . . ." He repeated softly, shutting his eyes, and forcing his mind into a sleeping state, he did not want to be awake then, he did not want to be awake.

*******

It had been roughly a week, X estimated, from the time when Zero had beaten him and May. He had finished recovering, and so had she. Perhaps surprisingly, Zero seemed to be laying low, the Maverick Hunters hadn't heard anything more from him in that past week, and there hadn't been any sightings whatsoever.

Now was the day he would have to face Dr. Cain again, he hadn't seen him since their argument, and he didn't want to now. He didn't want to kill Zero. He didn't even want to think about. Couldn't consider it. It was to horrible. To horrible.

He would fight Zero, of course, to protect innocent people. But kill? No, no, he couldn't--he wouldn't--kill Zero, not ever, not if Dr. Cain or anyone else told him it was their only choice.

Taking a deep breath, X walked past the sliding metal doors, they had been living in a secret underground back-up Head Quarters since Zero had (as he'd been told be Alia and Douglas) broken into their main Head Quarters and attacked Signas. Signas. He still found it hard to believe that the promising young General was really gone, even with Alia and Douglas' testimonies.

Dr. Cain greeted him solemnly as he approached. May was already there. "What are you doing here?" X asked. He'd already apologized for yelling at her. When you're stuck in a room, bedridden, with one person for a week you do end up talking to them.

"She's here because I asked her to be here." Cain answered rather gruffly.

Something caught X's eye, May was wearing a sleek purple and golden suit with thin lightweight armor over it, armor which displayed the Maverick Hunter's symbol.

"You're--You're not a . . . .a . . . .."

"Yes, I'm a Maverick Hunter now, X." May said softly, looking away. "Dr. Cain and the others all wanted me to join. I was made by Dr. Wiley's trainees, after all, and I've proven I can fight Zero. Especially with armor. I can--"

"But, May . . ." X protested, "It's dangerous . . ."

"So what? I've been alive for how long now?" She laughed bitterly. "I don't care. It doesn't matter when I die. I have no family left, and no friends. The man I love is dead, and the reploid who looks like him is evil."

"How can you talk like dying doesn't matter?" X asked, shocked, "There must be someone--there's always someone who would be devastated if you died!"

"Really? Funny, I guess I never expected to hear that from a Reploid, I mean, you kill others everyday, don't you?" She asked coldly.

X opened his mouth, but shut it, he hung his head. That was true, he hated that part of their job, he always had hated killing them, even the Mavericks.

He remembered.......

It was a long time ago, back when he was still new to being a Maverick Hunter . . . They had been patrolling one of the danger sectors, he and Zero, when they'd been ambushed by a group of Mavericks. It was a small group, only about five. They had attacked first, but X had still had trouble fighting them. He's managed to hit one a few times with buster, and it had fallen to it's knees, but when he raised his arm for the kill-shot, he had looked into the Maverick's eyes and seen a life. A violent, twisted life, but still a life, and he hadn't been able to fire. While he had hesitated a second Maverick jumped him, pinning X to the ground with it's long silver claws. X had yelped in pain when the Maverick dug it's claws into his shoulders, cruelly. He had tried to shoot, but couldn't with his arms pinned down. He'd thought it was the end, right there. When suddenly, the Maverick's eyes had widened in alarm, it screeched, and reared back, and X could see there was a glowing saber sticking out of its back.

It screamed and fell to the ground a few inches from X, dead. Zero had helped him up, and looking around X had realized that Zero had already killed all five of the Mavericks. Just like that. "How can you do that?!" X had asked, forgetting to be thankful, he had suddenly found himself almost angry at his best friend. "How could you kill them like it was nothing?!"

"X. . ." Zero had said calmly, "It is a war, and people die. They knew that when they chose to attack us. We can't afford to think about ever life we have to take, or we'll crawl into a hole and let them destroy the Earth."

"I can't think that way!" X cried.

Zero had seemed like he was going to be angry, but then changed his mind, and instead, gave X one of his rare smiles, "I know. That's what I like about you X. So don't worry about it, I'll always watch your back."

He would not kill Zero.

"I know why you've summoned me, Dr. Cain." X said slowly, "You want me to help May kill Zero. I won't do that. I can't. He's my friend. So no matter what you say, I won't kill him. Not ever."

Dr. Cain never had a chance to respond, for at that moment Alia ran into the room, frantic, "Dr. Cain, X, oh thank goodness I found you two!"

"Alia, what is it?" Dr. Cain asked, turning from X and May.

"It's the human police, Sir, they're requesting our help. According to them an amazingly powerful red Maverick with long yellow hair has just attacked their local school. They can't get the children and teachers out, the Maverick is amazingly powerful, they need our help."

"This Maverick . . . . could it be Zero?" May asked.

"It must be." Cain said softly, he turned to X, his face grave and serious, "So X, what do you say now, will you allow Zero to slay helpless children?! Is that what friendship means to you?!"

"It can't be . . ." X cried softly, turning away, he couldn't face them.

In his mind he could see Zero, his friend, they were like brothers. They had always promised to look out for each other. But that Zero would never have harmed innocent children. Now . . . .

"I'm going." May said decidedly.

"I am to." X said, lifting his head, and turning back to them. "This is no longer the Zero that I know."

A/N: The next chapter will have action in it I promise!! Oh, thanx so much to Lotus for suggesting for May to become a Maverick Hunter. Now . . . . . please review :)