X slowly played with a knife as he waited for Wraith to wake up. The playing was not skillful or flashy. It would not awe anyone or send chills down their spine. No, it was just X's usual, nervous fidgeting with the nearest item at hand.

When Wraith finally stirred, he certainly didn't fear it. The slit eyed look he gave X was one of contempt. But then, he didn't know the alternate X very well. His own Wraith would have been afraid. Once Sigma had departed, Maverick and criminal attacks had been mostly covert, and vicious. And there was no mercy for captured spies.

X slowly stood up, and walked over to Wraith. Wraith was nearly naked, stripped to his boxers and held down onto a table by titanium manacles. X's face was blank as he looked down at the spy.

"So. Do you care to tell me what you did to our Wraith?" X had a few faint hopes the Mavericks might have taken the spy alive. "And why you arranged to have Iris infected?" Wraith just looked at him for a moment… then spat in his face.

X wiped it away without expression, then rested the knife on Wraith's cheek, caressing his skin with the flat edge of the weapon. It was a vibro knife, and would cut through titanium, although not easily. That would only make it more painful. "You'll tell me, Wraith. One way or the other. Spare yourself some pain."

"You won't do it," Wraith snorted. X regarded him for a moment, his own heart hurting as he realized the young Maverick was serious. He honestly thought X wouldn't hurt him. How could any version of Wraith be so naïve? X would have felt better if he'd been gearing himself for the pain like a professional.

Then the truth came to him, in a moment of clarity. This Wraith was not a trained spy. He had gone Maverick about the same time as the alternate Wraith had joined the Hunters. Sigma had left him uninfected, probably on the off chance it would be useful in the future. But Wraith's going Maverick had been very public… he'd blown up a building… so he hadn't been trained as a spy. When they had come, Sigma had selected Wraith simply because of his availability, not any particular merit. Or perhaps he was simply the best choice of the five available.

That was good, and bad. Good in that Wraith probably didn't have the training in resisting pain their Wraith had undergone, or in muddling up the confession. Bad in that he didn't understand the realities of spying. Sigma wouldn't have told him exactly what he was getting into, so X was going to have to prove it.

X suddenly slashed down, opening a long, thin cut on Wraith's cheek. The Maverick yelped in pain and surprise, then glared up at him as liquids oozed from the wound.

"The penalty for spying is death, Wraith," X said gently, trying one last time. "Your double would have understood. He was a professional spy. You have only two choices… tell me the truth, now, and die quickly. Or refuse and die very slowly." Wraith still glared at him, but a hint of uncertainty and fear showed in his face.

It wasn't enough. Wraith said nothing, and X set his face in a blank mask as he got started…

Elsewhere in Hunter HQ…

"Zero, Dynamo," the original X said icily. "What in hell were you guys playing at, coming up with that without telling me?" He was really far more upset with Zero than Dynamo. What else could you expect from the annoying bounty hunter? But Zero should have known better.

Unfortunately, his logic was impeccable.

"We couldn't risk the plot getting out, X," Zero said reasonably. "It was just too important. The bastard could have caused a ton of trouble if he'd realized his cover was blown before we could catch him." Dynamo nodded, then added a few thoughts of his own.

"And what if we were wrong? What if they found out somehow else entirely… or if it was just bad luck? A lot of your people don't trust us alternates at all. Why make it worse if we were wrong?" It was going to get worse now, Dynamo was sure of it, but at least it had been for a good reason. The other Hunters with Maverick doubles would have to be kept in groups from now on, to prevent another substitution. X fumed quietly, but couldn't think of an objection to that. They were both right, and it had worked.

The alternate Zero walked into the room, his expression blank. X turned to him, finding a target for another grievance.

"And what are you guys doing with Wraith? Lifesaver and the others should be scanning his core!" Zero gave him an unfriendly look, and X frowned. Zero's double was not nearly as cheerful as usual. "And what's with you?"

"Maybe you. Piss off, X." The real Zero blinked and X stiffened at the hostile tone. The alternate Zero took a deep breath, obviously controlling his own temper. "Sorry, X. It's nothing personal."

"Then what is it?" X said, knowing he sounded peevish but unable to stop it. His own Zero was keeping secrets from him, and now the alternates were holding Wraith without a word of explanation to anyone. They had the right to take care of it since Wraith was one of their unit, but they should have given the spy to Lifesaver to get information out of. What were they doing with him? Gate had the expertise to run the probes, but not the equipment. It was pretty specialized.

Of course, that kind of probe never really netted good results. It easily destroyed as much information as it took in, and it was done after a Maverick was deactivated, so there was no going back. X thought there was very little likelihood they would find out what Sigma's plan was from Wraith.

"Just something going on that I don't like," Zero said, then frowned at X. "…You don't have a clue, do you?"

"With WHAT?" X said impatiently, noticing that Dynamo was looking at him like he was an idiot. The mercenary obviously knew what Zero was talking about.

"What… X is doing to Wraith." X's eyes widened. His double had no real training in repairs, besides being a lab assistant to Dr. Cain, just like himself. He couldn't possibly be doing a mental probe. And the only other way to extract information was…

No no no NO! X shoved past Zero, ignoring the shouts behind him. He was not not NOT going to let his double do this to a helpless Reploid!

As it turned out, though, he was already too late. He ran into the alternate X as he was leaving the interrogation room, his armor splattered with blood and darker fluids. X almost ran into him, then recoiled, horrified.

"Oh, hello X." His double said, weirdly conversational with so much gore on his armor. X stared at him disbelievingly… but his double didn't look perfectly normal. His face was extremely pale, a vague and distant look in his eyes. X felt slightly better, seeing that. But…

"How could you do that?" X said, glancing at the interrogation room. "Is he…"

"Dead? Of course. He was a Maverick." Alternate X said almost indifferently. "I need to get clean, if you'll excuse me." He started away… but X gripped his shoulder, jerking his double around.

"No! How could you do that? Even Mavericks don't deserve that!" X hissed, and his double blinked slowly, then shook his head.

"X, Mavericks do deserve that," his double flatly contradicted him. "At least, a lot of them do. And even if they don't, what's it matter? I do what I have to do. I always do what I have to do…" his double suddenly swayed, blinking rapidly and swallowing hard. "No matter… what it costs me. Excuse me NOW." Alternate X shoved his double away, walking away carefully, but rapidly to the bathroom. X stared after him for a long moment, then looked at the interrogation room, hesitating, then reached for the door. He shouldn't do this. He didn't want to know.

Curiosity was too strong. He opened the door and looked inside… just as the alternate Zero jerked him back. X had gotten only a quick impression of what had been done, but it was enough that he was glad he didn't know more.

"Dammit, X!" The alternate Zero was actually angry. X blinked at him, a bit dazed. The other Zero was usually so cheerful and happy… and feral and joyful in combat. Real anger was very unlike him. "Do NOT snark on X for this. Just DON'T. Do you know what it costs him to do this shit?"

"Costs him? Compared to what it cost Wraith?" Zero growled, and X tried to jerk away. "He's dead! Tortured!"

"And because of that, a lot of people might live," Zero said brutally. "And my best friend just cut out another piece of his heart. So don't you dare hurt him even more!" X stared at the alternate Zero, then looked at his own. He and Dynamo were both peeking into the room. The real Zero just shook his head… he had no idea what to do.

What could they do?

"So what did you learn from that-" X bit his lip as the alternate Zero shot him a dangerous look, and cut off what he was going to say. "What did you learn?"

His double was sitting across from him, chain smoking again. In fact, he was chain smoking almost feverishly. His face was still very pale and his eyes were strange, as he looked up at his double.

"Oh, quite a bit," X said vaguely, knocking the ash off his cigarette. "For starters, Wraith was picked to do this because he's the only one of the Maverick doubles who didn't have the virus. If they try to insert another one, our scans for the virus will pick them up." That was something of a relief. "And this whole thing was a plot against Zero."

"What?" The crimson Hunter sat bolt upright, surprised. The alternate Zero also looked startled, and X shook his head at him.

"Not you, this world's Zero," he qualified, and took a quick drag from his cigarette. "The virus Iris is infected with is specially tailored to send her into a flying rage against him. If it had worked the way they had planned, he'd have had to kill her again. Sigma figured that might drive Zero to suicide, or at least cripple him emotionally." Zero's head dropped down as he absorbed that, and the real X started to reach out… then blinked as Dynamo touched Zero on the back. He'd never expected any kind of sensitivity from the mercenary. "But the bastard didn't know about the jewel chips. That derailed his plan completely, since Iris just passed out. He doesn't know about the chips yet, by the way, since Wraith didn't know. We ought to step up the production on them before he clues in." They had quietly distributed the plans for the chips to several select, heavily defended facilities. No one doubted that when Sigma found out about them, they would be first on his hit list. "Wraith also knew a lot about Sigma's current positions…" X listened intently as his double rattled off the various pieces of information he'd managed to pry out of Wraith. It was a lot, and that made X shiver. How long had he tortured Wraith to get this out of him?

But the information would be useful. X finally nodded, standing up.

"I'll go tell Alia about this… Zero, are you going to be okay?" Zero still had his head down, but he slowly raised it at X's question.

"Yeah… yeah, X, I'll be fine." He rubbed his eyes, and X hesitated, then finally decided to take him at his word.

He really had to get the information to Alia.