"X? X, do you copy?" Douglas and Life-saver called out, Trying to find the heroic blue bomber in what was probably the most peaceful and pristine celestial crash site in exorbitance
There had been no increase in pollution, nothing had burned upon the delicate re-entry, and the Virus was well contained by whatever was left of the Colonie's dome.
All in all, things seemed to have gone better than expected...somewhat.
Still, Zero was missing, and Alia had lost all contact with X. And thus...they had sent the two medics to try and find whatever remained of the blue bomber and Zero.
"Douglas..." Lifesaver began. "I don't think X is in any capacity to answer." The tall and hulking medial reploid informed his partner. " I doubt Zero would be foolish enough not to-"
"Hey! Shut it!" Douglas snapped. " Zero would never turn on X. Those two are practically brothers!"
"This means nothing, Douglass..not to a maverick." The doctor spoke grimly.
"ZERO'S NOT A MAVERICK," Douglas vehemently denied. "Alright, so his bodies practically working in harmony with the virus. But he's not-"
The green medic paused...he had just received a ping from X.
He sent another ping in response, trying to locate their missing blue bomber.
He got another one...he was in a cave not far from here.
The two medical specialists rushed as fast as they could to the location—nothing how...curiously free of maddened mechalinoid the valley was.
There was no trace of the Maverick virus...not much anyway. And most seemed to be on standby.
On a hunch..and because he was programmed to, Life-saver took a few samples of the now much docile plague. Murmuring how he had never experienced something like this before.
Eventually, they came to the entrance of a cave, around the perimeter of its opening were...
"What is the name of Light's first son?" Life-saver murmured as he beheld what was unmistakably a barrier.
A barrier that was had not origin saved for some...light squares that evoked ancient paper talisman of old.
Douglas pinged X again, and again, the blue bomber pinged back. He was still alive...but could not, or would not move.
The green mechanic feared what he would find beyond this point...a dead Zero was not out of the question yet.
They approached the magical...for lack of better words, barrier. It was but a mere shimmer...but Douglas could see some lines in a circle.
He took a snapshot; he would cross-reference it later, when X and Zero would be recovered and in their dedicated repair capsule.
Hopefully.
Life-saver tried to touch the barrier...only to take back his hand as if bitten.
He looked at Douglas, his lips pursed. "I don't think saving X will be as easy as expected." he addressed his close colleague.
"And Zero...Don't forget him," Douglas growled as he tried to figure out how to break through the mysterious barrier. X was there...but if Zero was present, he didn't ping back.
Meaning he was either completely unconscious, not there...or dead.
None of those scenarios were great, but some were worst than others.
"Douglas... You may worship the ground the Red ripper trod on, but do not be blinded." The more robotic of the two warn darkly. "I know he has some connection with the maverick virus. There are no known cases where a reploid is not only immune to the plague but thriving from it!" He spoke meaningfully.
Douglas gritted his teeth. "Hey...you better watch your mouth, greenhorn. I don't like the allegation your giving."
"At that point, those are not allegations; it is a fact." Life-saver coldly stated, holding his now limp arm. It was clear he had tested the barrier with an excruciating result. "I don't think we can get X out..."
"We can still try. There must be a way in..." Douglas said as he desperately looked around and requesting Alia for a map of the place.
He had to save X; he just had to.
Otherwise... how would the rest of the hunters go one without their symbol of hope?
They had already lost Zero; there was no doubt about it. And now... there was this super-powered woman.
They needed hope... not another hero to bury.
"We can't save all of them, Douglas... an right now, Short of uselessly flopping at the other side of the barrier, no one can reach X."
The older medic could only stare in deep shock and disgust at his colleague. "...what?"
" The barrier won't let me pass without giving out a powerful shock...my systems are still reeling from it. No point of crossing it if we can't-"
"No... No, Lifesaver, you can't give up on X. It's... it's X."
"It's just another machine..."
"THAT'S IT! I HAD ENOUGH!"Douglas roared as he angrily pointed at the much bulkier lifesaver. "You are a disgrace to eh medical profession, A STAIN ON THE GLORIOUS PAPER OF THE HIPPOCRATIC OAT!"
"I am just realistic here, Douglas..." Life-saver said with the same infuriating tone.
"realistic?" Douglas scoffed. "Get out of here, kid...go back to your lab and play with your computer and telescope." The eldest medic practically spat...
No, he had absolutely no love lost between him and the robotic reploid. Douglas turned his back from the so-called medical unit as he inspected the glyph, trying to make heads or tails of them. And clearly ignoring the pile of emotionless scrap at his back.
Said pile of scrap teleported out, leaving Douglas to try to solve this conundrum.
"Hmm...maybe there's another entrance to this cave..." He hummed as he tried to find an updated map of the region he was in...without much success.
He vented out through his nose. The valley was deathly quiet; only the esoterically floating space colony's metallic moaning filled the audial void.
"That's...not better, to be honest. But beggars can't be choosers." Douglas grumbled. He could swear he had just heard someone giggling to his left.
Then...he walked through the barrier as if it had never been there in the first place...and without any logical explanation.
"Oh...ah...sure ah..." He sniffed, wiping his nose before looking back...
Nope...there was no one, and that whiny slacker was not there either.
He pinged X back, and once again, the blue hero answered.
Don't worry X, I'm coming." he declared as he entered the cave's mouth, his light gun primed and ready.
Inside the cave...no mechalinoid where to be seen, it was empty... and free from whatever Douglas had hoped would be there.
Never the less, it made finding X much easier than anticipated.
And sure enough, there he was, wrapped snugly in a red blanket, in crest-jewel flashing in a sequence that indicated a hard crash for his logic centre.
Douglas openly winced; whatever X had seen or heard, he hoped he would never see it.
"X! X, Do you copy?" The only competent medic asked as he quickly knelled by the unresponsive, blue bomber.
X managed to jankily turned his head toward Douglas, his eyes trying to turn on, but even this seemed to cause him trouble. "Ma...Ma?"
'Ooh...that's not good.' "No, X, I'm not your Mama; I'm just your medic," he informed the thoroughly confused blue hero as he picked him up from the ground. He touched the side of his head, activating his communicator. "Alia, this his Douglas. I got X, but... don't expect anything from him at the moment, his processor's got scrambled something fierce...and I don't see Zero anywhere."
[Oh no...] Was Alia's dismayed response.
"I think our mysterious flying nun may be behind this tough," Douglas informed the best and foremost Navigator. " X's been wrapped in her red cape, and she made a magic barrier. Life-saver could not breach it."
[So I've heard.] Came the blond's wry response.
[God bless your saintly patience Alia, I couldn't handle it.] Douglas readily admitted. "Alright...ready to get out of there. Zero's nowhere to be seen, and the area is...Well, X got some virus on him, but...it's doesn't feel like anything I've experienced before."
[meaning?...and why are you not afraid of the Virus Douglas?] Alia asked, clearly on edge. [If he's hot... oh, we can't lose you... not you too.]
[Alia... I'm wet-ware, remember?] Douglas reminded her, using the old code for Cyborg.
There was a reason why he was the primary physician in H.Q... the virus could not affect the human brain.
Or course, Douglas also knew some humans that could easily check all the diagnosis boxes for maverikism, but... that was another story entirely.
[Alright, I'll see you there, Doug... be careful.]
[I will.]
Douglas sighed as he picked X up from the ground, noticing how the afflicted blue bomber held onto the cape like a child a blanket.
He sighed again... this was going to be a fascinating evening and night.
Back at Zero-space... Bahula had just finished chanting her prescribed numbers of rounds. Her mind was under control, her heart was cleaner, whatever niggling fear was gone, and the source of the vile and putrid miasma had attained liberation.
No, Bahula did not even look for him...the thing, a demon made of half-melted metallic flesh, had tried screaming at her...and the next thing she knew, the Lord's Sudarshana Chakra ended his miserable existence in a flash.
The whole thing had lasted for no longer than three seconds, and the saint quickly forgot it...saved for the fact that God had just sent his divine weapon to protect a demon from a ghost.'
Well...He could do as he liked, and Bahula devi dasi was fine with that.
Nevertheless, two hours and a half had passed with close to no disturbances, and for Zero, quite a few millenniums had already gone by.
She shuddered; Bahula was never one to give such a harsh punishment for one so wounded. But mister X's friend had left her no choice.
She picked Zero from the mockery of solid ground and flew out of his off-shoot of Makai. Carefully navigating the maze-like confine and the awful memories that haunted this place. Eventually, she found the tear in 'reality' that gave to the glorious blue sky.
When she emerged... she could not help but shed a few tears as she remembers the first time she saw the sun-set after, for her, tens of thousands of years locked away in the darkness.
'Krishna, if the open sky is so beautiful in this dull world of matter, how must it look in the spiritual world?' She wondered to herself as she found a small, grass-covered hillock some distance away from the grounded steel behemoth.
She laid Zero on the grass, knowing that to feel mother Bhumi's motherly embrace would help the Tsukumogami remain grounded during his re-awakening.
"Alright, Zero-kun. Time for you to return to the material manifestation...I don't think you want to remain as no one and think nothing for another millennium...I know I didn't." And with that, she gently released the blond doll from his illusion of the void.
First, she reawakened his False-ego and released his mind, returning him to consciousness, then she activated his sense of touch, and held his hand... and gently touched his handsome face, like a mother would her child. And then came his hearing.
She gradually let him hear the sound coming from his body, his heart-beat...or whatever made sound in this metallic body of his, then the wind playing in the desolated valley.
"Zero, can you hear me?" She asked as she freed his movement.
She felt him gently squeeze her hand, not letting go.
"It's alright, Zero... It's over, my son...Nirvana's not as amazing as ignorant people were led to believe." She spoke to him soothingly. " No...millennia did not go by, only two hours pass...nothing more," Bahula assured the doll. "My name is Bahula Devi Dasi...Servant of the truthful cow. I know X, and I only want to best for you." She told him gently."
"I'm sorry I had to make you go through this ordeal, Zero... but short of damaging you until you could move no more, it was then best I could do."
She paused as she kept rubbing the back of Zero's hand. 'He has big hands... I have never seen anything like this before.' and she could feel plenty of sunshine in his wrist and heart. 'What a remarkable Tsukumogami.'
But knowing the state he was in, Bahula decided to strike a monologue, just to let Zero reacclimated himself to the phenomenal world again.
"I was like you, centuries ago... and I succeed in becoming one with everything." She felt Zero shudder. "I know, I know... I didn't want to show you the impersonal hell, but my Best Friend told me you would not listen to reason unless soundly defeated." She admitted.
Really, Zero was no different than most Yokai she would rescue...
She gave him more access to his senses... more specifically, his eyes. She watches them open, their icy dept regaining their inner glow as he stared at the cloud-free, evening sky.
"See? DO you see this sky, Zero? Can you feel the wind? Hear it?...how does it feel? Do you want everything to return to the void?" She asked him. "Is the featureless Nirvana really what you desire? To be alone and comatose?
She could see that the doll was getting overwhelmed by emotions; no tears fell from his eyes...but she wasn't that surprised either.
" I know... I know my child, Nirvana is no better than death, and for us, the Eternal spirit souls, whose nature is to be active and in a relationship with the Divine, to merge...is equal to suicide." She spoke sadly... she could Sadly relate.
Zero turned his tired gaze at the witch...his eyes conveying a profound amount of grief and pain...and a thirst to know.
"Oh, my child... You must have suffered greatly to have the desire for spiritual death." she gently caressed his face. " We are souls...yes, even you! For you see, the main symptom of the spirit soul is desire. And yu, I can see that you desire a reason to fight, to exist...to live."
Zero's eyes opened wider, his iris blooming like a white and blue lotus.
"Zero, we are eternal, and an eternal spirit soul, our reason to exist has to be as eternal as we are. And this reason is to serve and love the chief of all eternal, the master of the senses and the Lord of the Gopis of Vraja; Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead." She explained. "To remain in this world of matter, acting by following our conditioned mind, the three modes of material Nature and uncontrollable senses will only result in more pain and Lamentation, Zero. But to return to our eternal nature as lovers of God... no matter what happens, not even being sent to the lowest pit of hell can stop you from serving your Eternal Beloved and experiencing the highest of bliss."
"Y-You sounds like... a Christien," Zero admitted with a croak, as he kept his purple eyes on the saint. He was definitely calmer than the first time she had met him.
A wry yet kind smile drew itself on Bahula's lips. "It's not that a Gaudia-Vaishnava sounds like a Christian; they sound like us."
This got a chuckled out of the red and gold doll. "I see..." then he fell silent again, just taking in the cool breeze. Bahula remained near, quiet... yet always ready to listen.
Suddenly, Zero bolted forward, his eyes wide open! "Sigma!"
"Ah...Oh, right, I had to find this poor soul." Bahula murmured. " The poor thing must be terrified, your Hokkai."
"No, no, you don't get it." Zero tried to get up, but after a few eternities in the illusory void had left the usually nimble doll scrambling for the ground.
Bahula got up and attended the vertiginous reploid.
"Easy there, Zero... you have been in a void for twelve eternities, you're not used to normal material laws." Bahula gently pushed him down. " Sigma was the one X asked me to defeat, but I only found you here and a very evil presence," she mentioned.
Frankly, between this evil spirit and Kaku Seiga... She almost made the wicked and disgustingly lusty hermit pass for a semi-saint.
"That was sigma...what's left of him anyway." Zero huffed as he pressed his eyes closed. "He was... He's the one who corrupted the space colony...He's the virus."
"The Virus?" Bahula asked. "You mean, the Miasma, the magic."
Zero opened one eye and stared at the saint in black and white.
"From where I come from, a human can gain magic by absorbing miasma, or a special type of poison that, if done properly, can bestow an amazing array of power to those willing to take this risk," Bahula explained to the blond doll. "And you... you seemed to be filled with it. Not that it's bad... you just need to use it for good, and it will return to greyish white."
"No... here, what I have is a virus... and it turned every reploid I come in contact with murderously crazy." Zero pressed his lips together in a thin, unhappy line. "The first reploid I infected was Sigma...and were still trying to get rid of the guy..."
"Oh... I see." Bahula muttered. "I...I think I've seen him then. He was but a ghost wrapped in miasma and melted metal when I saw him, and I don't think he will ever return to cause you any more strife." the saintly Vaishnava assured an utterly floored Zero.
The doll stared at her, repeatedly blinking as he tried to compute what Bahula had just said.
The ancient witch lowered closed her eyes in a slight cringe. "Please, My son, don't crash like your friend."
"X crashed?"
"It seems he could not handle the fact that I am infected by 'the virus' and the fact that I am human," she informed X's friend.
"But... How did you... A human can't breathe in space; it can't fly and... How did it not crash?" Zero asked, clearing having a hard time computing the fact that Bahula had some mystic power. "Just... What the hell are you?" Zero asked with wide eyes.
" I'm a Witch; I can use magic to strengthen my body to a ridiculous extent... and I have lost the need to breathe centuries Ago."
The Blond Tsukumogami stared at her with his mouth wide open...
"Listen... Witches and powerful Yogi's have such type of control over their bodies... and it's not all that amazing once you have them."
Zero closed his mouth with a click... "OK... Mystic power... Let's go with that."
Internally, Bahula let out a sigh of relief; it seemed Zero's power of suspension of disbelief was stronger than X.
" I took him out of your domain, and in a cave at a safe distance from the landing site, only those who see him as a friend can go it."
"Alright...Alright." It was transparent Zero was getting agitated. "So... You're a magical human, and somehow, magic is the virus. OK... no problem...and how about Sigma, what happened to him?" He finished whit a high pitch.
"Oh... I believe the Lord who holds the Chakra has granted this soul impersonal liberation." Bahula let out a slight shudder of both bliss and horror.
Once again, the Lord had no business to bestow such mercy on her...and she was confident the faith of Sigma, in the opinion of those he had wrong, should be worst than losing his individuality and attaining Nirvana...
But knowing the reality of this place...
All impersonalist who desire to merge in Sri-Vishu's bodily effulgence attained the same Destinations as the demon the Supreme Personality of Godhead would mercifully slay, essentially putting them in a cosmic timeout.
"Wait... a cosmic timeout?" Zero weakly uttered.
"I...I spoke aloud, my apologies." Bahula bowed her head in shame, after a thousand years in Hokkai, all alone until Shinki noticed the nun; said the nun had developed the habit of talking to herself..out loud.
It was either that or her heart, for Hokkai was completely silent.
" Oh... Sound's terrible."
"Yes...case in point," she muttered, reminding herself to remain in the present. " In other words, this Sigmasura will not return... oh he will, but were talking in the next cycle, meaning the next few Aeons..."
"Aeons..." Zero whispered. "That's...too good to be true." he shook his head in a daze, to which Bahula shrugged.
"That's the thing with Krishna. Whatever he does is too good to be true and yet still true. Look at the universe we are in right now...and look at you and me!" She spoke kindly to the doll as she laid his head on her lap. "But... this will be subject for another time. Now rest... your fight is over, and when you feel ready, then I can start teaching you how to use your magick... and Bhakti-Yoga if you are so inclined."
Zero stared at the nun... a tentative smile light his lips...and then disappeared.
"My son?"
"X sent you to find me..right?" Zero asked.
"Yes, he did. This friend of yours truly cares about you..." Bahula bean to worry her lips. "He... Thought a virus-infected me. And he fainted when he learned of my human nature."
"Wait...your a... human?!" Zero asked, and Bahula feared he would have the same reaction as X.
"Yes... I'm a type of human called a witch... But before you ask me more about my nature, I assure you: your friend is fine, He was not in mortal peril, and a friend had already found him." she assured the doll as she kept caressing his head.
She felt him relax... Yes, she knew another doll, one in green had found him...
She only prayed that X would recover from his encounter; the poor thing probably never saw a witch in his entire life.
Meanwhile, back at the Maverick hunter's Base...
"X... Is everything alright there, buddy?" Douglas asked as most of his attention remained on X's diagnosis screen. "You keep staring at the ceiling. Do you see a ghost, perhaps?" He asked with a very apparent smirk. Beside him, Life-saver was pouring over some sort of document about the impact that didn't happen.
"Yes..." X answered simply as he stared at the ghost staring at him from the top of his medical pod.
His skin was sun eerily pale, and her frizzy, cotton-like hair reminded X of Cain's favourite toothpaste, wintergreen. He big eyes were also green, and their heart-shaped pupil's white and empty looking.
Well, they first appeared as such, but upon closer inspection, the visual anomaly's eyes held a power light that shone bright with...
Divinity?
Yes... there were no other words that X could use to describe it.
She wore a bright yellow shirt, a black hat with a yellow ribbon and she had a...
"That's my Third eye..." She informed him. Her voice very innocent and lacking any emotion saved for plenty of enthusiasm.
A very dark-blue third eye was floating in front of her chest; it was connected to her feet by a pair of the equally blue artery.
"Wow! You keep looking at me... and you still remember me. You must be very young then. Oh wow! You're over a hundred years old! That's not that old for a Tsukumogami, but OK... it's still impressive!"
X turned his glance back at the ever so oblivious Douglas, once again trying to send him a picture of the anomaly floating in front of his eyes.
The green reploid sighed. "X... I know you think there's a ghost, but it's clear this... entity corrupted your memory drive." Douglas informed the recovering reploid. "Just rest, and if you still see this optical glitch... just ignore it."
"No, he won't!" The apparition piped up. " I don't want to be ignored by him; he's nice and sweet and extremely lonely and stressed and unhappy. I don't want him to be alone with the other greeny either... and Gate." She pouted...right in his face. " X is my new best friend... you hear that X?"
"Oh...I see." Douglas murmured before returning to his computer screen, back at ignoring the elephant in the room...and elephant only X could see.
For all he knew... she was actually pink with yellow polka-dots.
"I...think I'm going crazy," he admitted to the best medic in the world. " Either that... or I just see something you don't."
Douglas sighed as he turned back to X. "Listen, X, I think this woman mess you up with something..." He stated sadly. "Your whole system's flooded with the virus. I counted two strains, both of them unknown to the database."
X let out a shaky breath... he was virus-proof in theory, but now he doubted if it was true. "Doug...I think this woman may be a manifestation of the maverick Virus."
"No, she's not!" the apparition yelped.
"She's... my system recognized her as human and... She can't be a human. A human can't carry the virus; a human can't fly, shoot bullets and carry a disintegrating space colony falling from the stratosphere!" he began to gesticulate as his logic processor tried in vain to make sense of it all.
This was not logical, and it went everything the laws of physic dictated.
"X... Calm down; we've all reviewed your recording... and were also having trouble computing what he just saw. "And I don't think the human government will be able to handle her either." Douglas ruefully admits.
In other words, X either had to tough it out as he dealt with her... or not and still face her with failing software.
X remained silent as he reviewed his memory of Bahula Devi Dasi.
She appeared very kind and motherly, and would it not be for the virus that poured out from her very pores, X would've readily called her an ally. And besides, she did nothing wrong...and she prevented two disasters.
"Will you go and look for her?" The apparition asked. "I miss Bahula..."
"M...Maybe I will." X agreed. "Say... how do you know here? And why does she... why is she infected with the sigma virus?" He asked.
"Oh, she took me in when I wandered in her Buddhist temple. She's not a Buddhist anymore now... but she was back then." She explained. "And that was not the virus, that was magic. And every Witch I know have that... expect Marisa, but Marisa's weird." Kokila added as an afterthought.
"Ah... she's a-"
"A real, honest to Krisha Witch who flies around, use magic, heals people and hunts down yokai when they are real rascal... but she's so sweet, saintly and peace-loving that she ends up giving them shelter anyway." Kokila hugged herself with a grin. "Her Guru-Deva called her Bahula because she super truthful and as motherly as a gir cow..."
"But how did she managed to survive the vacuum of space?" X asked. "And how did she-"
"Magick! Magick, and love of God!" Kokila chirped. "She's also a friend of Krishna, even if she can't see him yet."
X let out a sigh... "Alright... and let's just say I believe you... This means that she performed a miracle with the help of God."
"Yup!" Kokila enthusiastically nodded." And You want to go and look for her."
" I did ask her to look for Zero and Sigma." X practically admitted. " I hope Sigma didn't kill her."
"Who's Zero and Sigma?" She innocently asked. "Are they friends?"
"Sigma used to be the head commander of the Hunters three decades ago, he turned Maverick tough and... he's been causing endless wars and mayhem." X's tone darkened.
Sure, to Douglas and life-saver, he was probably talking to himself, but if he was rendered mad by this new virus... then so be it, he was tired of fighting it.
"Oh...so that's why Krishna's Sudarshana Chakra gave him liberation!" The apparition stated, her eyes widening even more in a heartbreaking show of innocence. " You don't have to worry X, he's gone now, and he won't hurt you, or Zero..." She declared with a confidence that was almost strong enough to convince the overwrought war veteran. Then, she seemingly grew confused. "who's Zero?"
"Zero's my best friend... my only real friend, really," X admitted. " He and I... we knew each other even before the war began." he grew silent.
He loved Zero in a way no one could hope to describe... and unfortunately, X knew he would never be able to reciprocate Zero's love for him even if he had an unlimited long life span.
"Oh yeah! I remember him!" The apparition chirped. "His Magic was getting out of control, and the evil spirit was making his cra-zy, so Param-Atma told me to make him spaced out... so I've made his space out a bit until Bahula came there."
"Really?" X asked as he tried to sit up, only to have his restraints tighten. " how is he?"
"he Almost went Crazy, but I asked God to save his sanity, and God did!" she happily chirped as she began flapping her sleeves around. "Krishna's like super nice and sweet, and he's nothing like the old testament and other Jewish tradition describe him as! It's true! It's true!"
X could not help but smile at her enthusiasm. "Say... what's your name? He asked, fully aware that he had completely lost grasp of reality at this point.
" Kokila Devi Dasi!" The apparition smiled. "And can you please stop calling me an apparition? I'm a satori, not a ghost."
"Oh... so why..."
"I can control people's subconscious...and I can read mind when I feel like it. But my real power is that I'm Besties with Krishna in my heart. He says's 'Hi,' by the way!" She chirped, her genuine enthusiasm lifting a cloud that seemed to have been hovering in X's mind for a long time.
"Hello to you too, Krishna." He bides... and for a moment...
For a moment, he felt like the universe was answering back with a mischievous grin.
"X... who are you talking to?" Douglas asked, looking at X as if he had grown a second head. But the blue reploid didn't care... he didn't care at all.
He felt happy... carefree...
"A friend." He mumbled as he felt the calling of sleep. When was the last time he felt so serene and calm?
The world was in Chaos, the ocean too polluted, and Zero was still with the virus's personification. And yet... X felt confident that everything would work out in the end; he had nothing to worry about at all.
He closed his eyes...and finally got the rest he oh-so desperately need. A Nap after years of wars...
Douglas stared at X... A heavy feeling in his chest.
He had heard the whole thing...the entire conversation.
Same as Life-saver.
X... had gone mad... and for those reploids who had lost their grasp of reality, only one thing was left to do... something Douglas couldn't bring himself to.
"You've put him in sleep mode," Live-saver spoke up from his work station. His tones were unreadable as always and...
He had no business to be there...
Douglas clenched his teeth. He knew what would come next. He got up to block to greenhorn from acting on this ridiculous law!
He knew he would get into trouble, and he knew Reploids were, but tools and tools once broken had to be decommissioned...
But to Douglas... it felt wrong to do this... it felt so wrong to do so... X... this was X, this was the hero of numerous wars, the one who kept scrapping Sigma over and over again, the father of all reploids!
He deserved better than being shorted! He earned a dignified death, and... and there was still the risk of Zero turning up and Sigma... that Glitch was still out, he knew it!
How would Zero react once he learns what happened to his beloved partner, those two were practically fused to the hips. And... as much as he loathed to admit, and even think about...
'No... I can't run this risk.' Especially since there had been no report of Sigma's death.
But right now, their biggest threat was a grieving Zero... without X to channel his grief away from violence.
"Yes, I've put him into sleep mode for the night," Douglas emphasized. "He's been running himself ragged trying to get the parts for the enigma cannon and the God Damned rocket; I'm sure he'll be right as rain after he let his CPU cool down and his ram defrag." He gave no room for Arguments...
He hoped.
He saw Life-saver open his can of worm... but he beat him to the punch.
He went right up the taller reploid, jabbing a finger to his chest. "Now listen here. You may be more advanced than me, greenhorn, but I'm the one who calls the shot."
"You are emotionally involved in this," Life-saver argued back. " This will affect your decision."
"Oh no, not on this one, VIVIT," Douglas growled. " Zero's still unaccounted for, but knowing our good devil, he can turn up at any moment. Now, tell me how he will react if we short X?" He asked.
"Zero's not rational when emotional, and X is the only reason why he did not utterly destroy H.Q and the capitol when his girlfriend blew up."
"He killed her."
"he had no choice."
"She went maverick."
"She had even less choice." Douglas's face darkened. " If she had surrendered, she would get shorted, and her frame studied and recycled. Zero would then dig into the human side of the Replifoce debacle and find a crypt worth of skeleton." he shuddered at the thought.
One thing Doug had learned from Zero was how he would love.
For Zero, there was no half-measure. If he loved someone, he would give everything for them, no question asked... and this love, as shown to all, would either kill him or spurn him in a fit of rage only ancient legends of the gods of the past could allude to.
The only reason Zero was still with the hunter was X... same as why H.Q and the capital still stood.
"Listen... just give X some time; I'm sure he'll get better and won't go crazy."
Life-saver leered at the older-model, calculating... thinking.
"Fine." He inclined his head. But this was not enough for Douglas.
"And don't return to the infirmary or any other wards. We need compassionate people here, not mere robots."
Once again, Life-Saver leered at his colleague and old mentor before wordlessly leaving the ward. Leaving a despondent Douglas to look over X, praying to whoever had the ears to listen to an atheist prayer.
So... apparently Koishi wanted to play with X.
I'm fine with that.
