Chapter 11: Contradicting Thoughts
I had a great deal of headache writing the next two chapters, rewriting them again and again. Ultimately, it turned out to be... rather controversial. Hopefully it's not too bad and would not hamper your enjoyment. Brace yourselves, and read on!
Zero, still battered and damaged from the previous confrontation against Magma Dragoon, did not make returning to the recovery room his priority, instead, he limped his way to Dr. Thoth's chambers.
"Dr. Thoth!" Zero exclaimed soon after he entered the room.
"Ah, Zero, glad to see you return safely." Dr. Thoth turned his back around to face Zero. Zero did not notice this at first, but the Supreme Commander's fingers were mostly crooked, probably from handling dangerous chemicals, fiddling with machineries and typing countless theses and reports. Despite his stern appearance and unnerving glare, he actually looked rather feeble, his hair was greyish and unkempt, his back hunched a little and the white lab coat he wore did not look as if it was recently washed in the past few months. All these details were only seen from up close, in other times Zero was always looking at the professor from far, far away. He looked every bit, a human, an aging one.
Zero had no time to sympathize with Dr. Thoth's health condition, he walked up to him, agonizingly, as fast as he could. "Why were there soldiers coming to back me up at the Volcano?" Zero spoke, his tone furious and impatient.
"I could not risk losing one of our best soldiers in such a petty operation, Zero, please understand!" Dr. Thoth's crude voice which was commanding as usually now holds a pleading tone within. He sounded desperate, and insecure.
"Then why didn't you understand the reason why I went alone!?" Zero grabbed the professor's stained lab coat on the collar as soon as he came into distance, his head totally all over him now where he forgot the man he confronted was his superior. "Did you know how many died!? Among those who came to back me up?"
Dr. Thoth did not immediately answer, not only that Zero's actions intimidated him, he had yet to receive a mission report from the Volcano as well. The one handling him right now was supposed to be the one to report to him, first hand. Fearfully, he swallowed his throat, and waited for an answer.
"Almost all of them… only five survived. They were instantly wiped out by Dragoon in front of my eyes! Dragoon had zero tolerance for interrupting his moment!"
Zero recalled there were two units who came, the Fourth Unit and the Fifth Unit, all of them accounted to a total of fifty people. He thought there were three units at first, he was wrong. It was a minor bliss amongst a major catastrophe. However, no matter the amount of soldiers they had, nearly all of them were wiped out by a grossly empowered Dragoon. It was unbelievable, for one Maverick to bear such incredible power.
"But! You will die if we didn't come and back you up!" Dr. Thoth reiterated.
Zero's patience had reached a boiling point, he raised a fist trying to drill it into Dr. Thoth's face. At this abrupt moment, X appeared and grabbed Zero's fist before it connected, stopping it midway.
"Stop… Zero, don't rush things!"
Zero let go of Dr. Thoth and removed his fist. The professor was immediately relieved, but was still extremely terrified at his red Maverick Hunter. X attempted to look at Zero in the eye, but Zero quickly turned away.
"Don't you get it, Dr. Thoth merely wanted to provide help! He was right, from what I heard from the survivors, you would not stand a chance against Dragoon!"
X's word hit Zero's heart like a sharp knife. He was absolutely right, there was no way he would defeat Dragoon, he was utterly outmatched, was it not because of the intervention and sacrifice of those Maverick Hunters, he wouldn't be standing here, right now.
Zero, frustrated but had to accept the bitter truth, walked away a few steps before he came to a complete stop. He recalled the dying words of Dragoon, which were of utmost importance for this war.
"Sky Lagoon…" He began.
"What?" X and Dr. Thoth did not hear Zero clearly, his voice mumbled and did not come out, but surely he had caught their attention now. Dr. Thoth slowly climbed back to his feet, his weak back not helping much.
Zero did not resume immediately, his head filled with a myriad of feelings – anger, confusion, grief and most of all, agony. He still could not believe one of his most respected comrades would do such a thing. Not Dragoon.
"Sky Lagoon's fall… was not caused by the Repliforce."
"What!?" The same word, but a much different tone by the two listeners, this time mixed with much puzzled tone, and utter surprise.
"Dragoon himself testified, in his dying words. It was his doing that Sky Lagoon collapsed, not the Repliforce. We were all wrong." Zero found himself difficult to piece out the words together, he spoke slower and slower as he went on.
"How could this be…?"
X had yet to finish his sentence before he got startled by Zero slamming the nearest table in front of him, his head lowered and his fist shaking. "Why… Dragoon… why…?"
It was the worst kind of news that the Maverick Hunters could've hope for. They were wrong, all this time, and such a mistake ultimately started the war. It was unfathomable that Magma Dragoon would do such a thing. X knew Dragoon pretty well, he was not one to perform such atrocious deeds, an act that caused the death of thousands of lives, and an entire city to collapse.
Dr. Thoth could not immediately answer, the right words didn't come to him as he struggled to grasp the situation. He was just a lowly researcher, not a war strategist, and never a leader. Now, with such a blunder from themselves for declaring the entire Repliforce as Mavericks, surely the Maverick Hunters deserve the lion's share of the blame.
Who was the man responsible for such a decision in the first place? Dr. Thoth himself.
"Z… Zero? Is this true?" His voice no longer as powerful as before, his ego shattered, now he sounded weak, unassured, and trembling. His legs slowly gave way as well, as he found himself on his knees, so feeble that he could not stand for a moment.
X helped the professor back to his feet, looking at him for a moment, pitying at how drastically the proud professor had changed, "Professor, I believe we have to call on an emergency meeting among the commanders of every units, this must be known to us all, it's crucial information." X said straightly, keeping his cool as hardest as he could, now that his usually cool-headed red Hunter friend had lost his.
As he helped the professor, X observed more of the Supreme Commander's facial features, severely wrinkled, his eyes dispirited and overall he exuded a gloomy aura.
"Yes… yes… we need to gather everyone… we need everyone…" Dr. Thoth said meekly, his voice still weak and trembling.
Zero finally collected himself, standing straight back up, giving his best saluting gesture and said, "roger, sir!"
Dr. Thoth noticed his commander in his terribly bad shape, "the meeting will be held after you recuperate, commander," he added.
Zero, although never liking the supreme commander before, began to have a change of heart, "very well, sir, thank you for your kind consideration." As he finished speaking, he turned his heel and exited the room, heading to the recovery room.
"Professor, if you may, I would leave now as well." X requested.
"Permitted."
Dr. Thoth lowered his rear onto his most trusty chair in the room, still feeling very uneasy and unassured of himself. He hardly left the laboratory to meet people, let alone leading an army. Yet when given the chance, he could not resist the temptation of being called "Supreme Commander of the Maverick Hunters", the respected title held by the late Dr. Cain. At first, he believed that he would have no qualms upholding his legacy, all he had to do, was to direct his soldiers to control some Maverick outbreaks, but now, his hands were full due to some war between two peace holders of Reploids.
Zero returned to the recovery room to recuperate, his armor detached, revealing his exposed circuitry, many of which were severed by the impact from Dragoon's mighty attacks. Pain signals were transmitted to his thinking processor every time the mechanic attempted to reconnect and reconfigure his cables.
"Commander Zero, the damage you sustained this time, it's one of your worst." Douglas, the head mechanic, chose to undergo the repairs on Zero himself. The Hunters needed Zero back and fit as soon as possible, they could not risk any more casualties lightly.
"Be quick with it, Douglas, I don't have time lying down here." Zero was direct with his intentions, but deeply he admitted that Dragoon gave him quite a beating.
Indeed, was it not because of reinforcements, he would already be melting in the Volcano.
Thankfully, he had Douglas working on him, the best mechanic around, he would normally spend time researching stuffs at the R&D department, not sitting around treating some wounded soldiers, which would be the job for those repairmen.
But of course, due to this war and the circumstances, Zero was an exception this time.
Sparks were flying around as Douglas connected the wires and worked them around Zero's circuitry, Zero lied totally motionless, but not totally unaware of his surroundings.
Naturally, he also noticed a Reploid came barging in with some dreadful news.
"Commander Zero!" He blurted out.
"What is it? We are in the middle of a repair here!" Douglas replied, thoroughly annoyed, having a penchant of hating being interrupted midway, especially during his works.
"It's… it's Colonel of the Repliforce! He demands your presence right now! He's just outside our main entrance!"
"What!?" Zero sprang up from his repair table, cables still connected all around his body. Pain pulsed around his body during this instant, and he grabbed the part that released the most pain – his torso.
Why is he here, why now? Flurries of data worked their way inside Zero's thought computer. He must be here to get Iris! The first logical conclusion that came into Zero. Colonel disliked waiting. He did not have all day to figure out the best solution, nor to rally his other commanders to discuss this. Ultimately, the only option he had, was to face Colonel right now.
But could he win? Hardly, but at least he could reason with Colonel. Whatever it was, he had to get out there and see him.
"You are in no shape to move now! Nor to fight!" Douglas quickly got up from his chair and pressed Zero down, but the red Hunter resisted, pushing his mechanic away, and began unplugging all his wires from all the monitors, rearmed himself with his armor and weapons, and forcefully got back to his feet.
His footing was weak, his left knee gave way for a while, and Zero could not bring it back up. "Zero!" Douglas yelled. But Zero ignored him, slowly pulling himself towards the exit, to meet his ultimate rival.