A/N: Wow. I have all of one reviewer and I'm still motivated to keep at it! Who would've thought one person could really make such a difference? Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm lovin it. I've got a small break from school work and where am I? Writing! I haven't been here in weeks! W00T!

Kyogre: Long monologue... Oooo... My head hurts. Don't worry about the original characters though. There's really only two or three you'll want to get acquainted with. You'll see that sooner or later. I know, originals can be confusing. I hate it myself, but I didn't want to throw in someone from the series itself when they didn't belong. I did mention that this story takes place before the first X game, right? OO... Oh hell...

I swear, I'll get my head on straight one day. As for now, on with the fic!

Sunrise

Chapter 5: Hesitance

Vile.. 'e said 'is name was Vile... Before this is all ovah with... you... get 'im for me... Do it, Zero...

Zero silently stepped through the doors to the infirmary, one hand partially covering the lower half of his face as though in thought, the other loosely propped on his hip. He wandered down the halls numbly, unaware of things or people around him; the words of his friend still playing through his audio sensors. His eyes saw nothing he passed - in his mind, he still saw Dokanru on the operating table, stripped bare of his armor, wincing in pain one moment, then fighting Ketsu and the other two violently the next.

The actual recovery efforts didn't faze Zero, even as he saw everything as he tried to hold the Australian Hunter down. It was the eyes of his friend that unnerved him. When he wasn't struggling, Zero saw there the creamy hazel irises glistening in agony. When Dokanru did fight, it were as though he was a different person altogether. He would scream and yell something terrible, like a wild animal caught painfully in a hunter's trap. The hazel would disappear then, fluctuating between the natural color and a blood red. When he stopped flailing, the red was gone.

He'd never seen anything like it, and he never wanted to see it again.

The moment Dokanru went limp, calm, eerily still despite the horrible pain he had to have been suffering from his injuries, Zero knew he was going to die right there in his arms. Then the navy Hunter had opened his eyes one last time. Had they been in any other situation, Zero would've thought him to be waking from a nightmare. He made no sound as he glanced around at the faces surrounding him and the look in his eyes was lethargic, but Zero felt the gentle tremors moving through his body. The Australian Hunter knew his time was nearing its end.

At last Dokanru found Zero's face, and that was when he gave his last message to the world before silently slipping away.

Something outside of his thoughts brought the crimson Hunter back to the present, and he looked up slowly. X stood some distance before him, eyes wide and mouth parted in shock.

"Zero, what happened?" asked X, venturing a step toward his friend. One hand went out tentatively, then retracted, uncertain. Zero blinked, not confused and yet not understanding the blue Hunter's meaning. He cast a lazy glance down at himself; he was splotched from head to toe in dark blood. Dokanru's blood. Belatedly, he realized he had not bothered to clean himself off after leaving his friend's deathbed. His hands were spotted with the drying substance as well, but it barely occurred to him that he might have stained his face also.

The sight was vaguely disturbing, but Zero paid it no mind. He shrugged and tilted his gaze back to X. "He didn't make it." His own voice surprised him - he sounded a little tired, but he'd imagined he would sound worse for the wear than that.

X's eyes widened all the more at the horrible news. His entire demeanor seemed to droop, and for once, Zero had nothing to say about it. The crimson Hunter straightened himself and made a short apology before heading down the hall the bathrooms. As he passed X, he paused and sighed, one hand reaching up to graze the shoulder of the smaller Hunter. A sympathetic gesture. Zero hesitated, almost certain the other would turn to him to cry into his shoulder as he had so many times before.

The pained look on the smaller Hunter's face stayed. Two tears streamed down either cheek, then a third slowly followed, but the azure reploid didn't turn to his friend or bawl. He nodded, brought one hand up to grasp the other's briefly, then silently, slowly moved to the opposite end of the hall. Numbly surprised, Zero wondered over his friend for a moment. Then, finding no reason to stand there at all, he headed to his original intents, his thoughts elsewhere.

Most of the red liquid had dried by the time Zero got water to it, but it washed away easily anyway. The bowl of the sink swirled with ragged streaks of red in an unnaturally pink water. He watched the colors blend all over again as he rinsed the last of the blood from his armor. Listlessly, Zero stared at the hypnotic flow, unblinking for some time, and it seemed only right somehow that he should just stare. There was the last of his friend swirling down the drain, and he felt a sudden guilt. What it was over, he wasn't certain, but the feeling was there nonetheless.

A loud, sudden noise startled Zero out of his thoughts, and he looked around suspiciously before realizing it was simply another announcement over the intercom. Damnably, the walls of the washroom reflected and enhanced the sound, but it was more the message that had Zero swearing for a brief moment. A meeting had been scheduled for later that day, one concerning the leaders of every unit and a few of the higher officers as well. The others weren't to be left out either - they could watch it over the monitors most everywhere in the compound.

The event was not for another two hours at least, but the crimson Hunter turned and quietly walked out of the room anyway, not bothering to acknowledge the other Hunters around him as he did so. He needed to think for a while, and for that, silence was needed.

--------------------

Of all who had been called to the meeting, none came out of it more agitated than Ketsu. For a Maverick organization to begin now, at a time like this, he knew he had but one choice, and that was to fulfill Forte's request. They were a bit underhanded enough as it was, even more so now that they had just lost one of their top Hunters. Yet, he still wasn't certain their newest Hunter would be completely reliable out on the field. Though numerous scans of his system and memory core turned up nothing but recent events after his activation, the medical tech worried that memories from Forte's past might yet have found their way into the Hunter's mind. The data was so old, the files so almost foreign to their technology that they might very well have gone unnoticed. In that case, if Forte could recall any of the memories Ketsu had attempted to upload into his system, it might cause any number of reactions, and an unpredictable reploid of such talent among their ranks was the last thing they needed.

It was why he had kept Forte out of any missions up until now, but now he had only trust to rely on. Forte was one of their best, no question about it. Being such, he had to be sent out with the others to help eradicate the Mavericks before their forces became any stronger than they already were. Ketsu didn't like that anymore than he liked signing off Forte's release form, but the dark Hunter hadn't shown any signs of remembrance and even if he did recall some things, he either had said nothing or had simply shrugged it off.

Through all of his pestering and persistence, Forte merely watched blankly as Ketsu handed in the form, both their signatures authorizing the Hunter's okay for actual mission runs permanently imprinted into the data pad. He gave no outward indication that he had finally scored a major victory with the Hunters, nor did he revert to his normally cocky state once the deal was said and done. He simply stared at Ketsu almost innocently. After a moment, realizing nothing would be said between them, the purple reploid finally had had enough of it and stepped a little to the side to walk past him. Before he had gone more than a few paces, Forte called back to him.

The tech stopped in midstep, tensing slightly. "Yes?"

His response halted, hesitating, uncertain. "I... know you don't completely trust me yet, but..." He paused, searching for words and knowing there were none. "You won't regret this."

Ketsu sighed heavily. "For the sake of this organization and the people within it," he began wearily, "you understand, it's not personal. I must question everything that might possibly go wrong. I didn't hold you back because I don't trust you, I just don't trust what might happen to you out there. It's my job to ensure the safety of every reploid in this compound because I make it so. You're no different."

Forte considered his words and somehow found them odd. Didn't the Hunters fight to protect people too? Ketsu had to know that – he worked for them just as the black Hunter now did. "And so it's become mine as well..."

The soft sound of a reploid's feet padding down the hall in the opposite direction was all Ketsu heard then, and with that, he took back to his own tasks as well, neither more nor less comforted by Forte's words. Only time would decide if or not he could believe them.

A/N: Is a very short chapter, yes. I couldn't think of anything else to write that wouldn't seem boring as hell, though there's a deal more I could've added. And I know it's boring, what I did put. This is what writer's block does to you. It's horrible. Please guys, take your medicine. Don't let it get you too.

Also, don't expect another chapter for another long while. I want to make the next longer and more eventful than this one has been. God help me...

Anyone know why the site isn't letting me put my little faces up? I make one and it erases part or all of it in the save process.