Iris is the last of the Navigator rookies shuffling out of the instructional room.
Double watches her rub her eyes aggressively under bowed bangs, her tears uselessly spreading all over her face. She's not human so there's no give in her faux-skin for the liquid to go anywhere but everywhere.
Double walks to her with deliberate flat steps, purposely bumping against a few reploids' shoulders with ,"Sorry!" and "Oh gee, my spill!" on the way.
Pasting on a concerned look, he exclaims the obvious. "Iris, you're crying! Oh no, it was the last part of the class, wasn't it? With the slides?"
Sniffing, Colonel's sister unit nods. "I wasn't expecting to see that. Those images were so gruesome…"
"I could have gone on functioning without seeing them too," agrees Double.
It's part of the Navigator training program to watch a series of clips that were captured by scout mechs from real Maverick attacks. "In order to guide your Units effectively, you can't afford to freeze or panic," says the Navigator leading today's class. "You will witness horrible things. You will witness injured reploids and humans. You will witness death. Do not look away. You need to be prepared."
Double was in the back row, bored, and spent most of the time watching the other newbies react in various amusing ways than the presentation itself.
"You were crying too," says Iris sympathetically.
Double blinks, not sure what she means since he didn't do anything like that at all until he figures it out. They were watching the video where a distressed B-Rank Hunter was carrying a sobbing human whose leg was torn off at the knee, demanding desperately to his Navigator at the time what he should do. Double had to cover his face with his hands at that scene.
He couldn't let anyone notice how hard he was laughing.
Double smiles awkwardly. "And to think that before this I was trying out to be a Hunter, huh?"
"It's still so strange to me that some reploids do want to become Hunters," says Iris quietly. "It's so dangerous that sometimes I don't think it's worth it. Why did you want to become a Hunter, Double?"
"Well, the reploids who do it look so neat and important. Like X!" Double grins, picturing a pleasing mental image of scattered blue limbs all over the floor. "So it's tough work but hey, someone has to do it."
"I suppose…but you've changed your mind, haven't you? That's why you're in the same program as I am."
"Not really. I still want to be a Hunter, but I doubt I can. I'm on the heavy duty side and not in an efficient way." Double rubs the back of his helmet in a self-deprecating manner. "My design is basically a bundle of mish-mash parts not fit for battle. The Hunters are going to toss me from one department to the next until I find a role that I can play."
Which suits him perfectly fine. The more he skulks around HQ, the more information he can gather.
Iris makes a relieved sigh, and at Double's strange look she becomes flustered.
"Sorry, it's just…" she reddens further and admits quietly," I know I sound horrible but I'm glad you're not suited for fighting. You're my friend and I don't want you to be on the frontlines and risking your life. I don't want anyone I care about to get hurt."
Shock flashes across Double, but it disappears just as fast. He throws an arm over his forehead, moaning exaggeratedly," Oh Iris, I didn't know you had it in you to desire my failure like this…"
"What? No, I don't!" Iris cries out, and becomes flustered when Double starts laughing.
"I'm kidding, I know what you mean. Anyways, I'm heading to the canteen. Want to come with?"
"Double, you scared me!" huffs Iris, already falling in step next to the yellow reploid to the elevators. "I thought I really offended you..."
"Sorry, I was just teasing. Anyways, how was your day? Did you finally got ahold of your brother?" asks Double innocently.
Iris beams. "I did! He came back from checking the Pacific Base yesterday and the ocean looks so wonderful right now! Oh, he told me this really funny story that happened between Jet Stingray and Spiral Pegasus. So Jet Stingray had to stay up late this one night because of paperwork and while he was heading back to his recharge capsule…"
Iris continues to retell her tale, gesticulating expressively as Double sends her an aside glance when she's not looking.
She's one of those reploids that Master Sigma talks about, thinks Double wistfully in a rare moment of introspectiveness. The ones who deserve to function in the world where all the humans are gone and reploids have evolved to be the sole, superior race. The promised land.
Iris is a genuinely nice bot and probably doesn't deserve what's going to come.
A part of Double almost feels bad what's going to happen. Almost.