Zest slowly came to with a groan of pain. He tried to move, and gasped as spokes of pain traveled down his skull. Confused and feeling like his brain was encased in cotton wool, Zest tried to figure out what was going on. His head hurt, he couldn't move his arms, and he seemed to be standing… well, sort of, his toes just barely touched the ground. And there was hard steel pressed against his back.

"I am in the Dungeon?" Zest muttered, remembering a Dominatrix club one of his brothers had taken him to once. "Some of those ladies can be so bitchy… ow!" He shivered as he tried to pry his eyes open, wishing he could rub them… they seemed to be gummed up with dried blood. But he finally blinked, and managed to focus on his surroundings. "…"

He couldn't see a thing. The room was utterly black, a darkness that defeated any attempts to penetrate it. Zest closed his eyes again, and breathed deeply, doing his best to identify scents. Steel, oil, burnt plastic… Zest frowned. Those were smells he associated with damaged Reploids. Maybe he was smelling himself.

A door opened, and lights were flicked on, briefly blinding Zest. He winced, closing his eyes tightly and riding out the pain in his head. Eventually, when he thought he had adjusted, he opened them again. And almost wished he hadn't.

X… no, someone who looked like X was standing in front of him, flanked at either side by powerful Mavericks. Zest shivered faintly as he looked at the expression on X's face. The Maverick copy was absolutely identical, on the surface, but his smile was like a dark mockery of the one X would have worn. X's smile was warm, generous and sweet. This copies expression was just as sweet, but it made Zest want to shudder. It was wrong…

"Hello, Zest." The copy said smoothly, smiling. "You can call me Dark X." Zest took a deep breath, and managed to sneer.

"Another stupid Maverick copy. Who did they get to make you?" Dark X raised an eyebrow, not disturbed by Zest's attitude at all. He smiled sweetly, reaching out to pat Zest's cheek… and jerking his hand away with a laugh, as Zest tried to bite him.

"Ah, Zest. Are you a stupid Maverick copy? But unlike you, I am what I was meant to be." Dark X slowly looked Zest over, his eyes twinkling with amusement and… Zest shivered. There was something dark in the copies eyes, dark and joyful. "Ah, Zest… we're going to have so much fun together."

That was what Zest was afraid of.

"It's been a week, Chip," Axl said, fretting and pacing. They were in the lounge and were theoretically watching a movie… but neither one of them could concentrate on it. Only one thing concerned them, right now.

Zest was still gone. There hadn't been any word, not a phone call or e-mail. X seemed depressed, but not worried… but Chip and Axl were getting really worried. Unlike X, they'd had no falling out with Zest before he disappeared. He wouldn't just go and sever all contact with them! And for a week! If Zest reappeared tomorrow, he'd be docked a months pay and put on probation for this.

"The only way I can see him going with his family for this long is if they accosted him somewhere, and there was some kind of family problem going on he can't tell us about," Chip said, trying to think of an innocent explanation. Then he chewed his lip. "But I would have expected an e-mail by now." Zest would know that his friends would be worried. Axl sighed, and flopped down in a seat beside Chip.

"So what do we do about it?" Axl asked, and they were both silent for a moment, considering. Then Axl suddenly brightened. "I know! I bet Zest's computer has ways to contact his family on it." Chip blinked, tilting his head.

"Well, yes… but I don't know Zest's password. And I bet he has a lot of encryption." Zest's family was big on privacy, so Zest would have advanced protections. Axl grinned.

"Oh, that won't be a problem! We can ask Gate." Gate had finally been purged of the virus and brought out of his coma. He was good friends with Axl, mostly because they were both in similar situations… not particularly trusted by the majority of the HQ. Gate because of his Maverick history, and Axl because of his former membership with Red Alert. That was gradually changing for Axl, as he proved himself and the younger Hunters developed friendships with him, but Gate had a more difficult time. The technical staff didn't change as often, and Gate wasn't as engaging as Axl, so he treasured the few friends he had. Axl was high on that list. "I bet he can get in, no problem." Chip brightened at the thought. He didn't know Gate well, but had heard about his technical genius.

"Let's go ask him," Chip said happily, jumping to his feet. The two Hunters dashed off, making unwary passersby flatten to the walls to avoid them. Although there was no real danger… when a young Hunter froze, they both neatly sidestepped her. They were very good at this sort of thing.

Finally, they burst into the research lab, to the surprise of the scientists working there.

"Gate!" Axl pulled to a stop in front of his station, grinning. "Are you busy?" Gate arched an eyebrow at him.

"Moderately. What do you want?" He asked, amused. He was certain Axl wanted something. Axl leaned forward, his expression suddenly turning serious, which surprised Gate slightly.

"We need help to break into a computer. Our friend, Zest, has been AWOL all week and the Navigators say he's with his family. It's really weird, though, that he hasn't contacted us. We want to get onto his computer and find out how to reach his family." Gate considered that for a moment, then nodded.

"Very well," He stood up, shutting off his station and stretching. "I've been here too long anyway. Show the way." Axl grinned again, and took off, more slowly this time. Gate wasn't nearly as familiar with quick avoidance, and it wouldn't be nice if he ran into someone trying to keep up.

"Thank you for helping," Chip added brightly, pleased. He really appreciated that Gate was willing to take time out of his day to do this for them. Gate waved it away.

"It's nothing. I appreciated the invitation to the paintball game." Axl grinned as he remembered that. He had organized some of the younger Hunters, booked one of the simulators, and with Chip's and Zest's help, created a scenario to remember. Recalling that Gate was a credible fighter, he'd cheerfully invited the scientist along.

"Even after Zest shot you off that wall?" Axl said innocently, and Gate smiled, amused.

"I nailed you first, grasshopper."

"He did too," Chip agreed with a grin, making Axl pout. "When you were gloating over nailing me!"

"Pthh…" They reached Zest's room, and Gate sat down at the terminal. "You'll have to be really careful, Gate… Zest's family is pretty paranoid. I don't know if the computer will self-destruct, but…" Axl shrugged, slightly helpless. Gate nodded, and started typing.

"It's not the first time I've dealt with something like this. Leave it to me." The two Hunters nodded, then glanced at each other, wondering what to do as Gate took care of that.

"Thumb war?" Axl offered, making Chip snicker.

"Why don't you get me coffee instead? And donuts?" Gate said as he typed. "Preferably apple fritters. Or maybe a cream cheese Danish."

"Sure thing, Gate!" Axl said cheerily. It would at least give them something to do. "C'mon Chip."

It took several hours for Gate to delicately part all the protections on Zest's computer. Although it could have been worse. Despite his families' paranoia, Zest's terminal held very little truly sensitive information, and as it turned out, it was not rigged to self-destruct under unfriendly probes. That allowed Gate to be a bit more direct in dealing with it.

"Here we are," He finally announced, sitting back. "What precisely do you want me to do?"

"Check his e-mails and see if he has any messenger programs, like AIM or IM." Axl urged him. "We need to figure out how to contact his family. Maybe they'll know where he is."

"Right." The two Hunters watched anxiously as Gate opened AIM… which fortunately had the screenname and password saved. The program opened and they started looking over the contact list.

"Red Hot Vixen?" Chip said, bemused, as a screen popped up. "Hey, she's talking to us!"

Zest, where have you been? You missed the Tuesday poker game! We waited a half hour for you! The screen read.

"Uh oh," Axl muttered as Gate typed a reply. "That doesn't sound good." Unless this person wasn't part of Zest's family. That could be possible.

This isn't Zest. He's been gone from HQ without leave for a week, and his friends were worried so they asked me to break into his computer. Are you from his family? There was a note left with the Navigators that he was going home. There was a long pause, then the other person started typing. They waited for her to finish, watching the tiny 'typing in progress' icon.

What are you talking about? Who are you? I'm his sister Angel, and I haven't seen him for months! Axl groaned as Chip looked slightly sick. Despite their worries, they had hoped he really was with his family. That would mean some serious, serious flak over completely skipping out on his duties… but it was still better than any other possibilities. Who are you?

I'm Gate, and Zest's friends are Axl and Chip. Are you sure he isn't with anyone there? It was a far off hope, but maybe she hadn't been informed… there was a short pause.

Dad's home, let me check. There was another pause, then more typing. Dad says no, he doesn't know anything about that so Zest couldn't. Dad knows everything, even stuff you'd wish he didn't. Hold on, Dad says he's going to send some people down.

"We can take care of it, now that we know," Chip protested, and Gate typed that in. But Angel was definitive.

No way, Zest is ours! Besides, it'll make it a lot harder for your officers to sluff everything off if the family he's supposed to be visiting is right here protesting.

"She does have a point," Gate observed. "They might think you're being paranoid, since you're his friends."

Dad wants to know, another message said, appearing on the screen. You said a note was left? Did Zest write it? Any idea who left it? Zest said you thought you might have a spy?

"Oh geez!" Axl winced. "Zest shouldn't have told people about that!"

"Who cares? They wouldn't be sharing it." Chip said practically. "And she's right, it would be easy for a spy to put the note in the Navigation room when someone went for coffee." Navigators ate at their station, but they still sometimes had to leave their post for refreshment. Since no one could predict those times, it had no effect on their duties. But someone observing the room could easily plant a note. Actually, that happened innocently fairly often.

"Well, what should I say?" Gate asked them pointedly.

"Um… tell her the note was typed and we don't know." The note would be absolutely no use in finding the spy. It could have been typed on any machine in the HQ.

Ducky. Well, we're coming to set some fires… see ya in about four hours. That was how long it would take, on a straight course, for them to reach Hunter HQ. It had taken Zest almost a day, but he had been riding the bus lines, which was more convoluted than military grade hovercycles heading over the bush in a straight line.

"Alright… let's go tell X!" Axl was sure this would seriously alarm the blue Hunter. If he took it seriously…

Elsewhere, X was looking over the casualty statistics and wincing. Casualties had been rising for some time, since the attacks that had almost wiped out the X and 15'th units. Since that, random casualties had gone up. X hated to see the figures… they were almost twenty percent over the usual for patrols and non-combat time. And the toll was being taken almost equally from all the units, and all experience levels, although newbies were still more likely to be killed. It was a sad fact, but just graduated rookies and newly blooded Hunters were always more vulnerable than the experienced. So many of the casualties were to things that seemed like simple bad luck, but it was almost impossible to believe that bad luck would persist this long, and-

X looked up, startled, as Chip and Axl barged into his office. Gate followed behind them, mostly out of curiosity… he wanted to see how this would go.

"X, Gate hacked into Zest's computer so we could contact his family-"

"And they say he's not there!" Axl interrupted Chip, creating a strange doppler effect. X looked back and forth between them, startled.

"What?" X said, confused. "Where else would he be?" X was still thinking about the reports, and his mind hadn't quite caught up with what they were saying.

"The Mavericks!" Axl exclaimed. "He's been kidnapped, X!" Chip nodded firmly. X blinked, startled… then winced, closing his eyes.

He'd been worried for Zest all week, a steady, knawing worry. But he had comforted himself by the thought that Zest was with his family. If he wasn't there.

"But the note…" X trailed off, all the suspicions about a possible spy coming back full force. "Oh, damn. But where could he be?" That was still the question. If the Mavericks had him, or even someone else, where could they have taken him? Chip looked helpless, but Axl had an answer of sorts.

"We don't know, but some of his family are going to be coming straight over. Maybe they'll have some ideas?" It was a faint hope, but a hope.

"Alright. I'll tell reception to expect them," X said, keying the communications link. "Nana? We're going to be having some visitors…"

Four hours later.

"Woof," Kumba sighed heavily, pulling off her helmet and throwing back her sweat soaked hair. "I hate long trips in the summer sun." They had traveled through scrub desert, mostly, and had taken care to stay hydrated and had applied liberal doses of sunscreen. It had still been unpleasant. Kumba's black halter top was dewed with sweat, and her black jeans were grubby from dust and dirt.

"Well, we're here." Angel hopped off her bike, putting her helmet into the back compartment. "Come on, hurry!" Her thick brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, and she was wearing blue jeans and a midriff baring tank top. Both were just as grubby as her sister's, but they revealed the snake tattoo on her arm, and another coiling on her navel.

"It's been four hours, Angel, a few more minutes won't matter." Her older brother, Thomas, said as he used a rag and a water bottle to get off the worst of the dirt. He heavily resembled their mother, with bright red hair and very pale skin. That skin was turning red, now, despite the sunscreen. "We should at least try to look presentable." Angel grumbled, but pulled out her own water bottle to get as clean as she could. Kumba was already taking care of the worst of her sweat, and trying to dry off her thick black hair.

As soon as they felt refreshed and marginally human, the trio went into Hunter HQ. They still attracted a lot of strange looks. Humans sometimes applied to Hunter HQ, but they typically didn't look like they had just run a patrol when they did so. The signs of hard travel were obvious on all of them. And Angel's tattoos were fairly unusual, as well.

But, as it happened, they were expected. Axl bounced to his feet… he had been sitting on one of the chairs, waiting for them.

"Hi, I'm Axl!" He held out a hand, and Thomas shook it. Kumba was quietly scanning the lobby, in the casual yet intense way of someone marking every single doorway and possible escape route.

"I'm Thomas," he introduced himself. "This is Kumba, and this is Angel."

"Nice to meet you. Right this way…" Axl led them into Hunter HQ. "Do you have a plan to find Zest?" He certainly hoped so. But Kumba snorted.

"In four hours? I don't think so. But we'll do our best to root out your spy, and if we can find that person we can find out where he's been taken." Axl brightened at that thought. "Although you DO realize that whoever has him has had him for a week? Things could be pretty damn messy, if he's alive at all." Axl winced.

"We know, but…" He reached X's office. "X! They're here!" X looked up from his work with a tired smile.

"Hello… I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances," he said, offering his hand. "Zest has told me a great deal about his family."

"It's all lies," Angel replied with a grin, but no one laughed. The circumstances were too grim. "We're here to help any way we can. I'm into computer security systems, Kumba's an assassin and Thomas is a freelance spy." X blinked at that set of qualifications. "Think we can be useful?"

"Maybe. We've had a lot of people trying to find where our security is breaking down." Although X couldn't recall them actually managing to secure a spy. Perhaps that would help.

But as it turned out, time had already run out.

Elsewhere…

"They know."

"Mmm. Too bad, I was hoping for longer. Are the traps in place?"

"Yes, we're ready. Should we start tomorrow?"

"Oh yes."

Kikana finished his bottle of orange juice, and stood up to put it away in his hovercycle.

It was a beautiful summer day in the far North. Kikana took a deep breath of the fresh air, and glanced around, beaming. They were deep in a pine forest, exploring the wilds of Alaska. And right now, his patrol had stopped for lunch.

"Cookie?" Shannon, one of the few human Hunters in the X'th unit, offered it to him. Kikana took it with a smile, and slowly ate it… it was a Vanilla lacy, spotted with currants. He loved how the wafers tasted, along with the chewy fruits.

"It's a perfect day," One of the others, a young female Reploid, said with a sigh. "I wish we could just stay here all day."

"Well, we can't." The team leader, a tall male named Magellan, said practically. "Speaking of which, it's about that time."

"Already?" Shannon said with a sigh, levering herself to her feet and adjusting her dark blue armor. "It's not- ghhrk!" She stopped, choking and gagging as a dart materialized in her throat and she fell to her knees. Her companions were briefly frozen in shock… and that shock was fatal.

When the team of ten Mavericks swooped down on them, they really had no chance at all.

X, there's a parcel for you in the reception area. X blinked, tilting his head as Alia's voice came over his communicator. You have to sign for it. X frowned, then shrugged. He had just finished a random, unscheduled patrol in a contested area. He and Zero had a great deal of flexibility in their duties, and used it to try and flush out Maverick activity. So far, though, the day had been quiet.

X slowly walked to the reception area… and found Zero already there, idly juggling his parcel from hand to hand as the delivery guy watched, slightly pissed off but not quite daring to object.

"Zero! What if that's breakable?" X snatched it from him, and blinked at the weight. "Light." The parcel was shockingly light, as if there was nothing inside but air, despite the rather large size. Zero grinned.

"I was about to ask! What, have you ordered a watch or something? A bit of jewelry for a girl?" Zero teased, but X shot him a quelling look. Right now, jokes like that weren't particularly funny.

"If you could just sign here?" The delivery guy, a young human, offered him the clipboard and a pen. X quickly scrawled his full name… a simple X being the symbol for illiteracy. "Thank you, sir." The delivery guy quickly walked out, to complete the rest of his rounds. X frowned at the box. It was definitely addressed to him, and couldn't possibly have anything harmful in it… any packages were scanned… so what could it be? He couldn't remember ordering anything. X quickly tore into the package and…

Gasped softly as Zero hissed a curse. X blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears as he looked at the mass of golden hair inside the box. As he drew it out, a card fluttered free, landing on the ground… it was marked with the Maverick symbol.

X stared at the hair, eyes filling with tears. It took a long time for Alia's frantic messages to penetrate his mind.

… Patrols 2, 12, 16 and 21 are not responding! X! Patrols 5, 8 and 10 are taking heavy fire! …Just lost contact with 3! Zero, X, all our patrols are under attack!

"Come on, X!" Zero yanked the box and hair away from him, tossing them to the receptionist. "Hang onto those. X, we've got to go help."

"Y-yes… yes…" X managed to wrench his gaze away from the severed ponytail.

But he wouldn't be able to forget about it.

A few hours later…

Zest closed his eyes, ignoring the pain in his shoulders. That was routine, now.

Dark X always left him like this... tied upright to this frame, a bar over his head, with titanium cords that bit deeply into his wrists. All his weight fell on his arms and shoulders, unless he stood on tiptoe. Either choice was painful, but nothing compared to the other things...

Zest tried not to think about it, tried to just zone out, but his thoughts kept skittering back to what had happened, this last time. Dark X had come in with a roll of duct tape, and laughed, telling him he had something new in mind. Then he had slugged Zest so hard he could barely breathe, let alone struggle as the duct tape was fixed over his mouth.

Then he had beaten him. The blows had been carefully calculated for maximum pain, with minimum damage, and by the end of it Zest had been woozy and weak with the pain, hardly able to think straight, let alone resist as Dark X had bound him into the position he wanted on his back. Zest had managed to gather enough of himself to kick... and had suffered through another round of beating. Then Dark X had tied his legs up into a strange position, his knees bent high...

A tear trickled down Zests face, stinging. He'd found out what that position was for, as Dark X raped him, facing him. When he tried to turn his face away, Dark X grabbed his chin, forcing him to look into that grinning, hated face... and when he closed his eyes, Dark X had slapped him. His face felt tight with bruises, now.

Zest held in a despairing keen. There was no hope. He would not escape, not now... Dark X was so very wary of his fists, feet, teeth. And the other Mavericks had learned their lesson after Agile. They didn't rape him, only Dark X did that, but they came in to torture him whenever they felt like it. Agile had made the mistake of freeing the "helpless, unarmed" Hunter, and had paid for it. Zest was never unarmed when he had the use of his fists and feet. He'd ripped the bastard's face off, then tried to escape...

But he'd failed, and now no one would undo his bindings for any reason except Dark X... and he knew how to beat him until he couldn't struggle, could only try to breath and not scream at the terrible pain...

Hot tears slid slowly down his cheeks, tears he wouldn't shed when the Mavericks could see him. Tears of despair, pain at his fate. The Maverick Hunters weren't coming. If they could have, they would have weeks ago, when they'd received his hair. Maybe they didn't know where he was.

Maybe they didn't care. His tears fell more swiftly, as he let his head droop to his chest. He wanted to keen, but couldn't, wouldn't, not for the entertainment of the bastards who were doing this to him...

He could only hope the end would be soon. They'd get tired of their little torture toy, eventually, and execute him to a titillated audience.

What a thing to hope for...

Zest looked up as Dark X entered the room. He was frowning slightly, and Zest looked away. If he hadn't been in such pain, he would have shivered. That expression was so like X... at least, the way X frowned when they didn't agree...

But that was long ago and far away. The memories felt vague, almost beyond touching, and he lifted his head again as Dark X began to unbind him from the frame. He was slightly surprised. Usually he would beat him savagely first, to make sure he'd be compliant when... Zest bit his lip, trying to make his mind vacant. Dark X slid his helmet back onto his head, then recalled his armor to him. Zest couldn't figure out why...

As soon as his wrists were free, Zest did try to struggle... but his strength was still sapped from the beating and rape, only yesterday. Dark X landed several hard blows, then twisted his arms behind his back.

"Hush now, Zest." The evil Reploid whispered into his ear, and Zest tried to flinch away from the touch of breath. "Today's the day of your execution. Aren't you glad?" And he laughed, that sweet, joyful laughter that Zest hated so much. It was an obscene parody of X's laugh, and made him want desperately to hurt him, tear him to shreds and spit on the corpse... Zest felt shaken by the force of his own hate.

Then Dark X's words sank in. It's ending. It's finally... ending. A small smile crossed his face, making the bruises tighten with pain. His captor laughed again, then jerked back as Zest tried to bite him.

"Always so fiesty. It's too bad I can't keep you... I would have liked to see how long it would take to completely break you... but, alas, it's not my choice." Dark X sighed regretfully, then jerked Zest to his feet viciously. "Now walk, or I'll beat you half to death, then carry you out." Zest briefly considered it... but no... he might as well just go. This was what he wanted, what they were finally giving him. An ending...

But he was shocked and pained to see he wasn't alone, when they reached the grounds. Other Hunters were there, half a dozen, tied to titanium stakes. He didn't know two of them, knew the other three only vaguely... one was in Zero's unit, he recalled... but the last...

"Kikana." He choked out the name, feeling a deep pain. Don't be here... no, don't be here... Kikana's purple armor was crazed and scorched, his head down. Zest was staring at him when he lifted it, saw him... and the despair on the Hunter's face turned to horror.

"Zest!" Kikana strained against the cords binding him... until a Maverick casually hit him, the sharp crack echoing through the courtyard. Zest felt his eyes burn.

"Sorry for him?" Came that sickening voice, mockingly. "Be sorry for yourself." Dark X and another, nameless Maverick bound him to his own stake. He could see they had set up a video feed... either recording or transmitting the scene.

"Why?" He asked dully. "Why don't you just infect them, make them Mavericks?" Although most Hunters would prefer death, it was more merciful from the Maverick perspective. Zest could see the expressions on the Hunters faces, Kikana's face... the despair, and the fear. They were all so afraid, and it made his heart hurt to see. He wasn't afraid... he welcomed death... but they didn't want to die, and it hurt to see.

"It will be more entertaining this way." Dark X said lightly. "And we so want to make a nice show for the audience, don't we?" Dark X tugged playfully on Zest's cropped hair, laughing as he avoided another bite.

Sigma stood in front of the camera, saying something, and Dark X went to stand beside him. Zest didn't listen. It didn't matter. Nothing they said mattered. He met Kikana's gaze again, seeing the horror, the despair, the concern... for him. Zest bit his lip, holding back tears. He'd wondered, sometimes, as he was being held, if his friends cared... One did, at least, and Zest suddenly felt like a fool for doubting them.

But it didn't matter. Zest closed his eyes as the Mavericks set to executing the Hunters. But he couldn't close his ears, as the screams rang out...

And as one familiar voice rose in agony, it was almost too much to bear. Was this what that sad youngster had joined the Hunters for? The young Reploid with an injured arm, whom no one had cared about enough to repair? The sadness had turned to happiness, as he laughed and found a place with his friends. Zest remembered the raspberry tart Kikana had tossed to him, from across the mess hall, and the laughter as the tart was passed from hand to hand. The shy smile that had slowly become so bright. Was this how it was ending? The crushing weight of despair said yes.

The screaming finally stopped, and Zest looked up to see X's face... and that hateful, sadistic smile that the real X would never have worn. Blood splattered the blue and black armor liberally, and dripped slowly down the Beam Sabre in one hand. Zest was sickened to recognize the powerful weapon with the engraved hilt. His own Beam Sabre...

"It's really too bad. I had so much fun." And Dark X slammed the Beam Sabre home, into Zest's gut.

Zest shook, unaware of his own scream as the pain seized him. It was worse than all the others, than anything he'd felt before. He felt it as Dark X slowly, cruelly drew the sword up. His scream turned into an agonized gurgle, as the blade touched his robotic lungs, and his chest heaved helplessly as Dark X tore it free. He couldn't breathe, and tasted the blood as it frothed up, staining his lips.

Zest could feel the pain dull, as his body refused to acknowledge it anymore. His head dropped to his chest again, the world growing distant... but he still felt it, when Dark X took his chin, raising his head, then kissed his nerveless lips in a mockery of tenderness.

Dark X licked the sweet blood away, and watched as the light slowly went out of the clear blue eyes. It was sweet, watching those final moments... when the awareness was finally gone, he dropped Zest's chin with that sweet, joyful laugh, and dropped the Beam Sabre at his feet.

A few minutes later, the Mavericks were gone, leaving the corpses for the Maverick Hunters to find... and resurrect, if they could...