Zero

Senya Starseeker

twilight_rhapsody@hotmail.com

Chapter 11

A/N: I'm baaaaaaack! Finally I'm getting a chance to write more fanfiction (yay ^_^) I'm so sorry that it takes me forever to update my fics, but school is a real pain in the @$$ these days, I just finished writing a 1500 word essay for Law, and a major project, and History...aaahhhh!!! Well, I'll shut up now and get on with the fic -_-:

Disclaimer: Zero, Dynamo, X, etc, etc, all belong to CAPCOM as you no doubt know. Senya is me, I belong to ME. The other teachers are all my original characters, blah, blah, blah.

WARNING: I feel I have to put a warning on this chapter, it contains extremely violent and disturbing content, that a lot of people might find alarming. Please, please, please take heed of this warning! Please don't read it if you are sensitive to violence in schools. There is also quite a bit of swearing. If anyone thinks I should boost the rating e-mail me or tell me in a review and I will.

"Well now, class." The young brown-haired English teacher began, turning back to her students, it was the last day before the holidays and none of them were really paying attention. "Today we are going to study Shakespeare we'll be looking at a brief overview of his works, the theater groups that lived in his time, the . . ."

One of the students yawned loudly, and several others tittered and laughed nervously.

Senya rolled her eyes, it was going to be a long day, she didn't get paid enough. Sighing quietly, she turned to the overhead projector, but the minute she flipped the 'on' switch the screen flickered and went black, then the lights went off.

"Cool!" Some random student exclaimed, then they all began talking excitedly, like she'd vanished magically in the dark.

"Oh brother," She muttered, and went to the intercom, pressing the switch, "Marianne." She said the secretary's name into the small speaker, "Marianne what's going on? The power just went out?"

No response.

"Marianne?"

Still no response.

Senya shook her head, the locks of wavy brown hair swishing from side to side, "Class I'm going across the hall to the machine shop, I bet they blew a fuse again or something."She said, not that her students were paying any attention, and left the room.

Oddly, the entire hallway was pitch black. "Now that IS odd." She commented, "Even if a powerline went down, what happened to the high school's back-up power?"

"My thoughts exactly." Came the voice of one of her co-workers.

"Angel!" Senya exclaimed.

"Hi." The quiet art teacher replied. "Yes, I came out here after the power went off in my room, and I couldn't contact the office."

"When we decided to become teachers, I never thought we'd have to deal with these things." Senya said softly. "I'm not sure I want to know what caused this . . ."

"Oh it's probably nothing!" Angel said cheerily. Angel and Senya had been close friends since grade ten of their own high school careers, and went to teacher's college together, and now were teaching at the same school by some odd twist of fate, as they were both far from their Canadian hometown.

At that minute several other classroom doors open, and Senya snapped out of her reverie. Other teachers saw them in the dark and walked over. "Is the power out in your rooms too?" The other staff members asked.

Soon it was determined that the power was out all over the school, and the large metallic sliding doors that blocked their level (level two of three) of the school were completely sealed and not opening, meaning that they were pretty much trapped. To make matters worse no one could contact the office over the intercoms. "Great, this is what I get for working in a futuristic post-modern building." Senya muttered, "This never would have happened when I went to school."

". . . You sound like an old lady." Angel joked softly.

Senya laughed, "Probably. Hey, I'm just in my twenties, give me a break!"

Suddenly a force shook the school roughly, the walls trembled, the entire structure shaking.

"What the hell?!" The shop teacher, Shawn Kingsley, practically shouted. Now students were coming out of the classrooms as well, a few were frightened, mostly they wanted to know what was going on.

So did the staff.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Shawn exclaimed, "Let's try wedging these doors open!"

"Wait!" Angel cried, "We don't know what's causing the--"

Another shock ran through the building, it was more violent, standing in the hallway they could hear desks and tables tipping over in their rooms, books falling to the ground, beakers from the science rooms smashing.

"This is a safety hazard! What's going on?!" Shawn continued, oblivious to the worried looks Angel and Senya exchanged.

"We need to be cautious." Senya said slowly, "Why don't we try and open the back stairs and sneak down to get a glimpse of what's going on on the first floor."

Shawn and Angel nodded. "Mr. Kingsley and I are going to try and go and see what the trouble is." Senya informed the large body of students, "Miss Soner, the art teacher, Mr. Klun the math teacher, and Mr. Gar the shop teacher will be here to supervise." With that, they nodded and headed for the back stairs. Surprisingly the students had begun to quiet down a little as the tremors continued to shake the school, it was becoming almost rythmatic actually, Senya thought, and very strange, she liked it not.

The two teachers reached the emergency staircase, it was sealed off as well ("Nice 'emergency staircase.'" Senya muttered sarcastically), Shawn ignored her and began to pry it open with tools from the shop class.

"Aren't you going to help?" He asked, struggling with the door.

"I'm your inspiration." Senya replied with a quick smile, forgetting he couldn't see her in the dark.

Shawn Kingsley was an older teacher, already in his mid-forties, but he loved his job and she'd never heard him say a bad thing about any of this students or coworkers.

A particularly violent tremor rocked the building suddenly, Senya fell face first to the ground, and the force jolted the tool in Shawn's hand, causing the door to wedge open slightly. The two teachers stood, shaking slightly. "Um . . . let's go find out what that is." Senya said in a whisper. "Uh . . . you first."

Creeping down the stairs in the dark proved easier said than down, they were narrow things, (or perhaps the teachers were just unbelievably clumsy) but the two stumbled often, always ready to steady the other. Finally they reached the bottom. "Okay." Shawn took a deep breath. "Here we are."

The two looked around, the shaking seemed worse at the bottom, they could barely walk. Finally, emerging into the hallway their eyes met a sight which would haunt them until the day they died:

Teachers spend a lot of time with their students, and grow to care for them on any number of levels, and for their coworkers, superiors, and assistants. They become a part of their school's community, and the bond is there. In any case, they have dedicated a part of their lives to being with these people, and so are obliged to help them through life and also protect them. The sight which these two teachers now faced was their worst possible fears and dreads from the depths of their darkest most horrible nightmares, straight from the pits of hell itself.

Blood streaked the walls. Thick, red, and the stench was overbearing. There was so much blood. It formed pools on the shiny smooth floor. And the bodies. . . there were bodies, bodies of the people they knew, worked with, taught, lying there, in the pools of red blood. They weren't moving. Just lying there, it was a scene from sick twisted movie, from some nightmare, from something to horrible to be true.

"Oh God . . ." Shawn muttered, he was pale and wide-eyed. Senya wouldn't know, she couldn't even see him, she felt dizzy and weak, and like she was about to faint away into nothing.

Like in a dream she walked over to one of the bodies, it was a fifteen year old boy she taught in the afternoon, his name was Brad, he hated her class, but he still tried sometimes, he had a lot of friends, a popular, sports kinda guy.

There was a hole through his chest three times as wide as her fist. His eyes were staring open, blank, expressionless. There was . . . so much blood.

"B--Brad . . ." She said in a shaky voice.

Senya was a very calm and laid-back woman, she could take a lot without being fazed. She didn't scream or even cry, really.

But this just transcended all borders of horror, she wasn't even aware that she was screaming, or that tears were streaking down her face, but Shawn was holding her in his arms and rubbing her back. "We have to get out of here." He said in a quiet voice, "We have to get the others out of here."

"All of them!! All of them!!" She screamed hysterically. "All the children! The teachers! Marianne--"

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" Shawn repeated, and then the shaking stopped. The world was suddenly very still.

Footsteps echoed through the hallway behind them, both teachers spun around quickly.

There was a reploid standing there, he was tall, about six feet, with long blonde hair tied back in a pony tail and brilliant red armor. "That's Zero!" Shawn exclaimed.

"A Maverick Hunter!" Senya sobbed, "Oh thank God you're here!! Th--The--the--"

He smiled. The reploid standing before them smiled. A slow grin spread across his lips.

Something on his hands suddenly caught Shawn's eye. Red. It sent a shock like electricity through his body. "Senya." He hissed into her ear.

She was still in shock, and puzzled over why he was smiling like that.

"Senya!" Shawn repeated, "Get back upstairs, now! Warn the others!" He whispered into her ear.

"But--but--the Hun--"

"There's blood on his hands." Shawn whispered into her ear.

She was standing closer to the stairway than he was. But she suddenly looked so pale and terrified that he was afraid she would really faint. But she did not. Swallowing, she looked one at him, quickly, then began to back towards the staircase softly.

"Who are you?" Shawn asked. Of course he knew, everyone knew who Zero was, but he was drawing the Hunter--the Maverick's attention away from her.

She had still been in a massive state of shock, if she hadn't been, she would have realized what Shawn was doing, but then she might not have left him there.

As soon as she reached the top of the stairs, after stumbling through tears and a thick invisible barrier that seemed to press against her and make her legs feel like jelly there was a sickening blast from the first floor. She almost screamed, she spun around and almost ran back down the stairs to his side. But caught her self. She slammed the metal emergency door at the top of the stairs shut, and fell to the ground sobbing.

"What is it? Sen?" Angel asked, at her side already, kneeling beside her.

"What happened?" Other teachers asked, one moved towards the door.

"DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!!" She shouted suddenly.

They all looked at her in shock, students, teachers, all were silent, all were alarmed at the tears running down her face, her pale skin, her trembling collapsed body. She could barely breathe, her head was spinning, she had to tell them-tell them-tell them--

". . . Senya?" Angel asked quietly.

"A--a Maverick." Senya gasped softly, quietly, only Angel heard her. "K-killed everyone--all of them--S--S--Shawn . ."

"Oh my God." Angel murmured, she stood up, and turned to the other teachers, repeating Senya's words.

They didn't tell the students, who were now becoming angry and demanding to know what was going on.

"We obviously have to get out of here." Mr. Gar said gruffly.

"But how?" Angel asked. "What can we do?"

"Why not just wait for the Maverick Hunters to show up?" Mr. Klun asked.

All this the teachers discussed in hushed voices. Except for Senya. She was numb and shaking all over. She could not imagine that Shawn was not downstairs--that he-that he-- the image of the people lying in pools of blood in the hallway with holes in their chests stuck in her mind-- she felt like she was drowning.

/Let it be a dream. Let it all be a dream!/ She begged, even though she knew it was not.

Another violent blast shook the building, this time coming from the doorway. He was trying to get in.

"Everyone get back!" Angel shouted, helping Senya to her feet, the massive crowd began to move back in the long hallway, teachers at the front.

Now half of the students were downright terrified. "Just stay behind us, it will all be fine!" Mr. Klun kept repeating in a voice to quiet for the students to even hear.

They held their breath as the metal door warped and cringed. And finally burst apart, they closed their eyes as the flame of sparks broke out, then reluctantly opened them to the tall crimson figure before them.

"It's Zero!!" Several of the students cried excitedly, "Is he here to help us?!"

"Stay BACK children!" Mr. Gar commanded, they fell silent.

"My, my, my so many people to kill!" Zero said in sickeningly sadistic way. "SO many ways of killing them . . ."

/This isn't happening/can't be happening/I moved here knowing about the possibility of Mavericks/that's the world in which we live/but no/this is to much/it isn't real/!

Zero raised his Z Buster and pointed it directly towards Senya and Angel. "I think I'll start with you."

In an instant the entire left side of their school suddenly collapsed, the sound was tremendous, like the world splitting in half around them, screams of terror went up, among the smoke and dust rising from around them, Zero had evidently lost his footing, surprised as well, and fell backwards, momentarily stunned.

Senya felt like she was falling off the roof of the world, the world was ending and she was . . . she was . . .

"Are you alright?" A concerned voice asked. "Senya? Senya?!" And two hands were grasping her shoulders, shaking her. There was something wet and sticky on her forehead. Her body hurt.

"I'm a. . . alright . . ." She thought she said, then suddenly, "D--DYNAMO?!"

He was there, the person she never would have thought in five thousand years was there now, she had no words, she was crying.

A sudden thought hit her, "Oh Goddess--the children!" She tried to stand up, it hurt, he helped her, around her the structure was remarkably well intact, it didn't appear that anyone else had been hurt from his entrance.

"Don't worry, they're fine--for now." Dynamo told her.

"What are y--"

"HEY!" A chilling snarl cut through them. All eyes turned to the Maverick-Hunter-Now-Maverick who had risen up again and was glaring angrily at the group with mad eyes.

"Zero?!" Dynamo exclaimed, taken aback, he looked from the crimson reploid, to the huddled mass of students, and back again, "What the fucking hell are you DOING?!" He screamed, in a voice Senya had never heard before. "These are fucking KIDS?! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Hm. I though you were a Maverick, Dynamo?" Zero purred softly. "Have a soft spot for human children, do you?"

"Shut the hell up! I may be a Maverick but this is SICK! You here me, Zero?! SICK!" Dynamo yelled, "And you aren't a Maverick so what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Through the corner of her eye, Senya could see scattered students making their way down the smouldering wreckage of the structure as the two yelled at one another. /Keep it up./ She pleaded silently, /Don't fight here, please, the children . . ./

Zero took the first shot, he aimed a group of freshman students, before Senya could even scream in protest, Dynamo stood in front of them and blocked it. /A side of you I never knew existed./ She thought suddenly. /I knew you weren't as simple as a Maverick, D./

"If you want to fight at least fight someone who can fight back!" Dynamo roared at him, firing his own Buster repeatedly at the crimson armored Maverick.

Zero smiled and easily dodged. "Alright! More FUN!"

Dynamo took a step back in shock. This was not the Zero that he knew. Obviously. What had happened to him?

Zero drew his Z-saber in a flash. "I will enjoy this . . ."

Dynamo gritted his teeth. "I don't know what the fuck is your problem, man, but--"

Zero charged at him, Dynamo shot his Buster, and pulled out his own saber, slashing Zero across the shoulder. "Senya, get the hell out of here!" He shouted.

The teacher forced her eyes away from the two battling robots, and eyed the students, almost all of them had gotten down onto the wreckage and were making their way through it with aid from the teachers. "I'll help!" She called.

Dynamo grunted as the saber cut through his armor easily. /Damn it!/ He thought, /It seems he's stronger now to, or maybe he wasn't really trying that hard when we fought those other times?/ The mercenary drove his own saber into Zero's shoulder, or tried to, the new Maverick deflected it easily and punched Dynamo in the gut with a hard blow. Dynamo fell forwards, gasping, and Zero kicked him harshly.

A wind suddenly tore through Senya's hair, she looked up, they all did, half a three large helicopters were descending from the sky all around them. "Maverick Hunters!" Angel cried, clasping her hands together.

Two of the choppers landed around the wreckage and reploids came out, hurrying to aid the fleeing students and faculty. The other began to slowly descend just above them. Dynamo was pinned tot he ground, but Zero looked up at the helicopter with mild amusement. Another Reploid leaned out of it, this one wearing blue armor, a determined and at the same time unbearably sad expression on his young-looking face. "X. . ." Zero hissed. "Look at this X, your precious humans--"

Than with no warning, absolutely, no warning at all, he leaned forwards, and shot from his Buster. There was a bright light. And one second, Angel was standing beside Senya, her dear friend, looking up with hope at the helicopters, and the next, she was not. Senya's eyes widened in horror, she spun around to see her friend lying among the jagged wreckage, blood covered her chest, her hands raised to it were also sticky with blood, and her long golden hair fanned out around her was also wet with blood. Senya could say nothing, could not even move, her eyes were out of focus, then she realized she was crying, tears ran down her face. "Angel! ANGEL!!" She screamed, kneeling by her friend.

Angel looked at her with crystal blue eyes as Senya took her hands in her own. She smiled a little, as she always had so many times before. And then her eyes faded softly. And her hands grew numb and lifeless.

Senya felt the world rock under her in that moment, and screamed "NO!" As loudly as she possibly could. X, watching in horror that his own best friend could do such a thing leapt down from the aircraft, and landed a few feet from the killer.

"Zero . . ." He gasped in a voice wrought with disbelief, "What have you done? What are you doing?" The gentle blue Hunter looked around at the scene of blood and ruble, the SCHOOL, and just lost himself, screaming, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! ZERO?!?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!"

For a moment, the blonde reploid did not smile, did not laugh, his eyes did not look mad and insane, they seemed wide and shocked.

He began to shake.

Then he stopped, the shock turned into a smile, a grin, mocking all of those he had slain.

"Damn it Zero!!" X screamed uncontrollably, grabbing Zero's shoulders before the other could protest and shaking him. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!!" He was crying, actually, X, tears had begun to fall from his gentle green eyes. "WHY?! WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!?!"

Zero smirked, he shoved X roughly away with such force the Hunter toppled over and fell to the ground. But this gave Dynamo an excellent opportunity to jump up, he struck Zero in the jaw with all of his might, the Maverick stumbled backwards.

"Dynamo?! What are YOU doing here?!" X cried, "I don't have time to deal with YOU!" He pointed his Buster towards the reploid.

"NO!" A scream from behind him nearly made the Hunter jump, so filled with anguish was it that it shook even him, a reploid.

A woman, one of the teachers, who was cradling a bloody dead body of a young blonde woman in her arms, with tears running down her face had screamed it.

"Damn it I'm on YOUR side for once!" Dynamo yelled at him.

"W--What?" X stammered, at that moment a second figure dropped from the helicopter and landed lightly beside him. This one was a female-figure, wearing lightweight purple and golden armor.

"What's wrong?" She asked, "If he wants to help let him!"

"Uh . . . right!" X nodded, and all three reploids turned to face Zero as he rose up one more time . . .

A/N: I really truly apologize if this type of violence is to much for some people, I am not sure, should I boost the rating to 'R' what do you readers think? Is this to much for a PG 13 fic? I really don't want to give this an 'R' rating but . . . Anyway, please don't HATE Zero because of this. The virus Lifesaver gave him completely scrambled his personality, memories, etc, it was so powerful the same thing would have happened to Signas or even X if they had taken it!