A/N- Ha! Another chapter! You can be shocked now! And then review! Things get more disturbing in their own way very shortly, so there might be a bit of a lag a few chapters from now, as I have to consult with my partner about what we're going to do about a certain scene which is important to the story, but very much taboo XD;; Sadly I can't say much more than that. In any case, enjoy and review! Reviewing (aside from ego stroking us) is a good way to let us know what you like, what you don't like, what you want to see and what you don't want to see for future reference. If you still don't have uncensored chaps of something you can ask in any chapter's review and it will be taken care of. nod I think I've run on long enough, I'd better go get ready before I'm late for my first day at new job.

Gimp

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Shit, shit, shit, this really sucked. Dynamo winced, feeling like he was going to collapse. The pain was bad... but hell. At least they were getting somewhere with all of this. He stared up at the ceiling, listening vaguely to X working hurriedly with Zero to get something or another done. He'd given them what information he could, but the fact was his brain was too frazzled to do much.

Rock stared at his friend, cuddling the mercenary as much as he could when he was clinging to the man's hip and helping him stand. "Uh, Rock?" Dynamo muttered, sinking slightly where he stood. "I think I'm going to pass out." Which he promptly did, and Rock was hard pressed to stop him hitting the floor full-force.

Zero looked up, saw Dynamo stretched out on the floor, and blinked. "Fuck." He said. That really didn't help. "X, tell Alia we're going to have to plan on a hell of a lot of deadweight."

X followed Zero's gaze and cursed as well. "He just had to go and do that, didn't he." He sighed, not angry but starting to get a little depressed. "Alright then..." He hit a couple buttons on his communicator. "Alia? Uh...we're in a little bit of trouble here..." X glanced around the room, hearing footsteps echoing from somewhere above them. "And if you could hurry with the help, it would really be great since we don't like dying. We need an escape route, and fast."

:What kind of trouble: Alia's tinny voice demanded.

X stared up at the ceiling. A large group of mavericks were making their way toward them, and fast. Once they hit the stairs at the end of the corridor, they'd be upon them within seconds. "Uh... The bad kind."

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X hauled ass down the hall, Zero not far behind him, following directions Alia fed to them as they ran. Damn, this was never going to work, never in a million years. They were going to die, all of them, and there was nothing they could do about it. "Damn." He grunted to himself, turning right quickly. Rock, who had his small body wrapped around the front of X's armor seemed to sense X's frustration and clung tighter, whispering in his ear for him alone to hear.

"Are we going to die?" Rock had been in many fights, and several wars with Wily and his robot masters. He'd seen them do some rather horrible things, but nothing like what these reploids did. How could a race that spawned from his kind, loving brother do such grotesque things?

"Of course not, don't be silly." X interrupted Rock's thoughts with. "We get out of scrapes like this all the time. Right Zero?" He shot his partner a look that told the blonde to just agree with whatever X said.

"Hmm? Sure, all the time." Zero mumbled, distracted with the bloody- and if that was drool, Zero was going to kill Dynamo himself- cargo on his back. "Hey, X, remember that time Vile was about to kill you and I had to blow him up and save your ass?"

X shot Zero an odd look from over his shoulder. "Of course I do, Zero. You died."

"Oh yeah..."

"Zero... Shut up." So much for the encouraging stories, X thought bitterly as Rock dug his nails into the soft fabric his armor didn't cover. He wished Alia would hurry up and find them a way out, so they could escape from this hellhole.

:Stop here. This is your exit.:

X stared out the window they had stopped in front of- and down. God, they had to be at least 50 feet above the ground, if not double that. "Great."

"How the heck are we supposed to get down there, Alia?"

:Jump, of course. There wasn't another route to bring you to, so this is really your best chance.:

X looked down. If this was their best chance...well, it didn't bode well for any of the other options. Great, just… great. He looked at Zero, who had walked up behind him, still dragging Dynamo's unconscious body behind him lazily. "How much time do we have?" If they had a couple minutes, maybe they could work something out that would get them less injured, or at least lessen the chances of dying.

Zero grunted. "Just enough time for this," He muttered, moving forward and kissing X hotly. "Fuck, just jump." he panted, pulling away and swinging Dynamo off his shoulder. "Get down there, I'll get Dynamo to you, but just..." X didn't move. "GO!" He gave X a shove, toppling the man through the small opening, watched him and Rock plummet, X positioning himself to protect Rock from the impact, and turned around to face the mavericks running up the hall. "Come on, you bastards."

They hit the ground and rolled, X grunting in pain and hoping that Rock was alright as he got the wind knocked out of him and a crack in his armor from the impact. He gasped for breath, uncurling from the near-fetal position he'd been in. "Rock..." He wheezed, "Are...you...okay?" When the boy nodded, X stood up shakily to see Dynamo's body shoved roughly through the window by a random maverick. He rushed to catch it, hoping desperately for Zero to be alright.-------------

Zero swung his saber at maverick after maverick, keeping them as far from the window as possible, knowing he would need to leap out of there as soon as he had them far enough at bay. One had gotten past him already, and before he could do anything, Dynamo had been thrown out the window, disappearing from view. Hopefully X had survived the fall and was conscious enough to grab Dynamo before he hit the ground.

As more and more mavericks piled into the room, he began to grow agitated. How was he ever going to get out that window without losing a limb? He really didn't feel like dying again; blowing up wasn't really a fond pastime. Suddenly the ledge hit the back of his thighs, and he realized he had been backed right up to the window. He had one chance now, and he hoped his ill thought out plan would work. "SHIT!" He yelled, stumbling purposefully backward, as though about to fall out the window, and an eager maverick leapt forward, to tackle him to the ground. This gave him extra leverage, and both he and the maverick tumbled out into the night air.

This was it. He grappled with the maverick as they fell, managing to force him beneath him, head first, and held him still. "Get out of the way!" He shouted to X, who had prepared himself to catch Zero before he landed. X leapt aside and seconds later the maverick hit the ground with a loud crunch, head crushed between Zero's fist and the ground. Zero got to his feet, brushing dirt off himself, and looked around, scanning the area for mavericks. "There… That wasn't so bad." He sighed, patting Rock who had rushed up to see if he was damaged on the back; wiping the blood off his hands on the boy's shirt subconsciously. Rock didn't notice this, busy staring up at the window they had leapt through.

"I think they saw us." He stated, pointing up at the window calmly.

Mavericks were shouting orders to each other, pointing back at them and hollering. Zero scooped Rock up quickly, then ran with him to X who was struggling to pick Dynamo up. Grabbing an arm, he wrapped it over his shoulder, and together they held Dynamo up, as though walking, and made for the safety of the forest, off in the distance.

"Alia, better get someone to patch us up when we get back." X muttered, grunting under Dynamo's weight. "Looks like we made it after all.

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It was much, much later when they got back to headquarters, ditched Dynamo to be repaired; and Rock followed X and Zero through the halls like a puppy, having been told he couldn't stay around to watch Dynamo. The boy walked slowly behind the pair, watching Zero's hair swish around and thinking. They'd done so much to protect him, both of them, and Dynamo too...he felt so bad, not being able to defend himself. If only he had his armor-! Maybe then, he could have...

Rock sighed, deciding not to think about it until he could apologize to everyone, especially Dynamo. He forced himself to concentrate on the hushed whispers the two hunters were talking in, then, not hearing anything coherent, watched that long blonde hair swing around invitingly... He moved up close, staring up at the back of Zero's head long enough to decide that it wouldn't bother the man, and grabbed a couple handfuls of soft, silken hair. Zero stopped dead. Rock walked into the hunter's back after the abrupt stop and would have toppled over backwards if he hadn't been clinging to the ponytail.

Zero turned around, frown already in place as he prepared to bitch at whoever had- oh. He blinked; frown fading as he looked down at Rock, the boy's bruised face smiling softly. "You have really nice hair." He gave it a tug, Zero's hands twitching as he instinctively wanted to throttle someone, but Rock was sadly very nice and not the typical hair-pulling idiot he was used to. "Thank you. For earlier." Rock said quietly, and the sudden comment threw the hunter totally off. Hadn't the boy said he'd hated Zero?

".…" Well, what was he supposed to say to that? "...No problem."

X turned around, wondering why Zero had stopped, then sighed as he saw Rock and what he held. Great. "Zero, come on. We have more important things to do than get all pouty about something like that." He glanced at Rock. "We have something to ask you, Rock. But we need a little privacy first."

Rock looked from one to the other, then sighed, letting his gaze drop to the ground. He already knew what this was about, they were going to yell at him for getting everyone into so much trouble, and then they were going to ask him to leave. Tears spilled down his cheeks, and he felt weak in the knees. After seeing what the outside world was like anymore, he suddenly wished to be nowhere but at the MHHQ. Still, after everything that had happened, he couldn't blame them. God... The whole night had been Hell, his overworked mind hadn't dwelled on it yet, and he didn't plan to let it until he was alone and ready.

He half listened as X ran on explaining to him that after they had their little talk, Rock would have to talk to Signas as well, and explain to him exactly what he had said to Sigma, word for word, to be sure there hadn't been an information slip. Suddenly Rock couldn't stand the cold shoulder he felt was getting and threw his arms around X's waist, sobbing. He felt X's hand brush on his shoulder and Rock dug his nails into him, in fear of being pushed away.

X sighed and pat Rock's shoulder lightly, slowing his pace so he wasn't dragging Rock along behind him. Rock looked tired, sore, upset, and horribly, horribly guilty, all of which made perfect sense to him, but it still bothered X to see his brother so distraught. Scooping him up suddenly, he hurried to catch up with Zero who hadn't slowed down with him. "We're almost there, then you can sit down, alright?"

Rock nodded, wondering why X was being so nice to him when he was going to kick him out anyway, but didn't ask, he knew he couldn't rely on his legs for much longer without some serious rest. He rest his cheek on X's chest-plate, finding it oddly comforting to be carried this way, and a small smile found its way past the marring on his face.

The trip to the door was far too short, and before he knew it he was in someone's quarters- Judging from the general mess, Zero's- and X was setting him down on a dangerously comfortable couch. His eyes fought him for rest and almost won, but suddenly Rock felt the weight of X and Zero sitting on either side of him, and he beat it out at the last minute.

Well... This was it. Rock stared at his feet quietly, waiting for the bad news.

"Rock... Why do you hate Zero so much?"

Shocked, Rock looked directly up at X, then turned his gaze to Zero, who was rather pointedly not looking at him. He hadn't expected that...and he wasn't sure that he wanted to discuss it, really. "N-no reason." He murmured, looking down at his lap and wringing his hands together. The boy wasn't stupid; he could see how much X cared for Zero and the blonde had been very kind to him and helped him through the whole day. He was really starting to believe Zero had changed. "It's nothing. Really. You really don't want to hear anything about it..."

X bit his lower lip, worrying. "Rock...I really think it's important. You said...he killed people?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." There was no way he was going to think about that incident, not so soon after what had happened. "Please, X, not now. I don't...I don't want to think about it." He pleaded, repressing the images of a crushed and bleeding Dr. Light as that horrible laughter...he found he was shuddering violently, X holding him steady. "Tired." Rock muttered, clinging to X tightly as he slowly drifted off, escaping the waking nightmare that threatened to arise.

X stared down at his brother, sighed, and let him lay down on the couch. The poor boy was probably so tired...and it was obviously not a good memory. He patted Rock gently on the shoulder. "Fine. You sleep." Tentatively, he glanced over at Zero. The hunter was curled up at the end of the couch, refusing to look at either of them. "Zero? Is... something wrong?"

Zero shook his head dismissively, standing up and making his way to the door. "Nothing... I'm going to report in to Signas now. See you later." Then he left. As though X was an acquaintance, someone you waved to passing down the hall.

X let his head drop back in irritation. What was wrong with everyone? It seemed he couldn't get an answer from anyone these days. "Damnit!" He cursed aloud to himself, and made a mental note to force an answer out of either Rock or Zero in the morning, no matter what. As soon as Signas was through with Rock, and he had located Zero, who he doubted he'd see before then. He knew Zero, who would probably spend the night brooding, drinking, and wandering.

Leaning over, he flicked the light by the couch off and clutched Rock close, half out of a protective instinct, half to keep the boy from running off and getting into trouble again.