Neither of them knew what the next day had in store. Middy had met Aero personally at the reception desk, and almost took her hand again as they went back to the programming room. There wasn't any delay for their next task.

"Today, we're going to build off what we worked on yesterday." Middy happily explained. "But this time, we're going to add digital signatures and timestamps. Hopefully, by the end of the day, you'll be able to add certificates as well for extra authorization."

Aero gave him a firm nod. "Let's get to it." she agreed. Middy grinned from ear to ear. That was exactly what he wanted to hear.

The two became so engrossed in their work that they didn't hear the door open. It was Middy who caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to see who it was, he gave another wide grin. His first assumption at seeing the blue B-Class Hunter had nothing to do with work. If anything, most logical explanations were centered around Aero.

"Hey there!" Middy greeted. "What brings you to our little division?"

"I was asked to come to investigate a certain matter. It shouldn't take too long, since I doubt you would-"

Hearing X's voice was made Aero pause what she was doing to turn around. She greeted him with a wide grin.

"Hey stranger." she said. "How's it going?"

A light blush found its way onto X's face. Her sincerity in meeting him made him feel bad for what he was about to tell them. However, it left no doubt to him that they weren't involved. But he couldn't lose his professionalism. This was a serious matter.

"I've been sent by head of data research and management in regards to the work you sent yesterday." he told them. Middy, he noticed, immediately looked taken aback by this. His fellow Hunter knew what it meant when the head of a certain division sent someone in their stead. Aero did not.

She instead asked X, "Why'd they send you? You're primed for on field recon and defense, not data management."

For this, X gave a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm technically on auxiliary duties until they find me an operating unit." he admitted. "I wouldn't mind just being in R&D for awhile though."

He shook his head. This wasn't the time to start rambling off to her- definitely not when another Maverick Hunter was standing right there.

"There's a problem with the data you sent over last night." he told them. "It was incredibly unprofessional and held a heavy bias toward… well, me."

The look of disbelief was near equal on Middy and Aero's face.

"But I sent the data over the same way I always did." Middy said. "We worked on it together."

"Not according to research and management."

Knowing that this moment would come, and dreading it even more now, X pulled out a holographic tablet. It was already on and the faintest of the report could be read from where he was. He didn't hand the tablet to Middy. Instead, he handed it to Aero. The human immediately raised an eyebrow at this choice. Carefully, Aero read over the revisions. The further she went along, the more her face contorted into one of near fury.

"I didn't write this." She shot a cold look at X. "I wouldn't write this!"

"I know," he quietly admitted while refusing to look at her.

"This is all my fault." Middy told them.

"Don't even say that, Middy!" Aero immediately argued, slamming the tablet on the terminal. Its edges made a hard clunk sound upon impact.

"But it's true! I didn't recheck the data we sent last night because I was too excited. If I had, we wouldn't be in this situation. You wouldn't be in this situation!"

X recoiled slightly at this.

"So what you sent over was different?" he asked.

"Yes!" they both agreed.

"The original copy is still here," Middy then went on to tell him. "See, look. If it was that distorted, we wouldn't have been able to make a dent today."

X obeyed the suggestion. He allowed Middy to let him look over what they had done today and what they had accomplished yesterday. A part of him was amazed to admit it, but X wasn't even able to tell where Middy's work ended and Aero's started, and vice versa. It was only when it got to today's work that he could piece together the differences.

"We should send this while the head of data research and management is still here," he said as he continued to look through the data. "It might satisfy the higher ups enough to give a grace period."

"That's a wonderful idea!" Middy agreed with an eager nod. "I just hope they don't call for a full operation supervision."

"Me too." X carefully nodded. "I still don't see how the two versions ended up different."

"Maybe once we gave it to the manager, the data frequency got warped with something else. You know how those Navigators are always writing their diaries in our personal servers. They must have merged at some point."

"If that's the case, then it's a major breach in the frequency. Other divisions would have made similar claims too."

"Yeah… well… it's the only thing I can really think of at the moment. Maybe we should try to encode it differently tonight."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

As Middy started to prepare the procedure to change the data's encoding, X took a look over at Aero. She had started reading through the edited work a lot closer now. Her mouth silently repeated the words she was reading off the screen. Each one looked like it was making her even more furious. X wished he could pull her aside and personally talk it over. Then again, it was mostly because they hadn't spent a lot of time together since he formally joined the Maverick Hunters. He missed having lazy afternoons with her, doing nothing more than making idle conversations. He missed her laugh.

Aero jumped when X placed a hand on her shoulder. Her dark brown eyes met his gentle green ones in an instant. A part of her immediately broke then. She tried to open her mouth to tell him something, but kept thinking better of it. Then, without much warning, she bonked her head against his chest armor, closed her eyes, and sighed.

. . .

"She was an absolute trooper about the whole thing, Techno." Middy later told his brother. "I don't know who would try to make her look bad. She's such a sweet person, and very eager to learn."

"Isn't it obvious?" his brother asked with a callous shrug. "Humans don't belong in the Maverick Hunters."

Middy gasped. "How could you say that?! It was founded by a human!"

"And Sigma."

Middy opened his mouth to refute it, but found that he couldn't. Techno patiently waited for him to stop looking like a fish so he could explain his thoughts more.

"Fact of the matter is, ever since the Maverick War, we can't trust anyone. And of anyone, it shouldn't be the apparently super smart human that has more connections than a spider web. The Maverick Hunters were made for Reploids to protect everyone. Reploids. There isn't a place here for a squishy little human like her."

Middy legitimately looked appalled at this.

"Of course there is!" he finally shot back once the words came to him. "Training here would be a great jumping point. We could direct her to someone who has the additional security to keep her safe. Doppler, or Gate, or… or Gaudile. Anyone! Dr Cain is right about keeping a human near the Maverick Hunters still. We need that additional insight we Reploids probably wouldn't think of. Yes, humans have a hard time trusting Reploids because of the war, and maybe even vice versa. But plenty are still able to work together. Just look at X and Aero! You can almost feel the trust coming off of-"

"If X went Maverick, do you think he'd hesitate before killing her?"

Techno watched as his brother completely froze. You almost would have assumed the small Reploid had gone offline. A still silence came between them like a heavy fog.

"If X went Maverick," Techno repeated- this time in a much lower, darker voice, "Do you think Aero would be there at the front lines, directing the resistance on just where and how to give the final blow?"

It was a good thing Reploids didn't really need air to breathe, otherwise Middy might have fainted by now.

"Consider this then." Techno challenged. "When Zero first woke up, before he helped X end the Maverick War, do you remember how they said he was? Zero was feral. He was the Maverick Virus, personified. Some say that if he was never found, we never would have had the Maverick War. Now that Zero no longer remembers his awakening, he's one of the Maverick Hunters' top warriors. X trusts Zero- with his life, in fact. But Aero doesn't. What does that mean for the divide between us when the two who trust each other the most, can't share the same trust in a mutual Reploid?"

"Technically," Middy softly mused, "Zero is the one that distrusts her. Mostly because her and X are close, and Zero wants him to focus on becoming an S-Class Hunter."

"Middy, you know that's not my point."

Middy deflated a little. "I… I know…" he admitted. "But… Techno… watching Aero learn, and even take steps to correct something on her own, it's like… it's like hope. A hope I didn't know went missing during the Maverick War. I know other people are already working on a cure of the Maverick Virus, but I want her there too. She should be there too. Maybe Dr Cain is right to use her as a hail mary to rekindle the relationship between humans and Reploids. We need humans like her now. We just do. Can't you see it too?"

For a long time, the two just stared at each other. Now would have been the time Techno would have forgotten how to breathe. There were many more counterpoints and roundabouts they could discuss on this. It was why true peace couldn't exist. There were still too many variables -too many similar arguments- for anyone to really get anywhere.

"I'm going to be home late." Techno finally said. "Don't wait up for me."

The best Middy could do to respond was to give a small nod.

. . .

So Middy wasn't just talking fluff when he said Aero had tried to correct a piece of data on her own. The amateur language was sitting right there in front of Techno. In the long term, this bit of data didn't mean much. In the moment, it was more-or-less basic optimization. There was nothing here to grant an award over.

"Hope, huh?" Techno huffed. "Humans don't live long enough to carry real hope. Not a chance."

And yet, he hesitated as he went to wipe those lines. Techno gave himself a condescending tisk before going forward with it anyway. A new sort of fury came over him as he replaced it with anything Zero would find embarrassing.

Aero needed to go. If Middy, X, or even the Maverick Hunters at whole weren't going to shove her out, Zero would. Techno would almost bet on it.