Reaper laid down with her back to the back wall on the back of the room. Her hair was tangled and sticking to her with sweat.

"You had no problem running to me when you needed help. At least look at me!" The man with half a face yelled at her. Reaper's eyes snapped up to him.

"I'm looking looking at you now!" She snapped at him. "You cannot blame me for what happened more than I blame myself. I'm sorry Bass." Her voice cracked as tears flowed down her face. The ghost was stunned into silence.

Zero could hear a girl's voice screaming in the distance, but he was more focused on the female leaning over him.

"You let this happen. You killed me and my brother when you knew we weren't mavericks. You could have spoken up for repliforce! I could be here with you and you won't even have to replace me with someone who could kill you and not even bat an eye." Iris shouted, her cockney accent bleeding into her anger as soot covered her face and her dress was damaged to the point of falling off.

Zero let out a cry. It sounded like a wounded animal. His breath came out in soft growls and he shook. Reaper saw this and tried to walk to him, failing to do so and collapsing.

"oh, you'll try to help him, but the one who helped you with the scars on your back, me, you leave to bleed out." Bass kneeled down and whispered to her. Cocking his head to the side, his hair fell into his face, making him almost attractive. That made her question herself, just a tiny bit.

"Bass, I'm sorry." She whimpered. Bass just smirked and shook his head.

X and Signas were standing outside the panic room that Zero and Reaper hid themselves. X sighed as he heard both of them going through hell. Reaper was apologizing to someone and Zero was a sobbing mess.

"How long has it been, now." X asked Signas, his voice soft.

"It's been three hours…" Signas whispered.

"oh…." X curled up around himself and choked a little on the force of his tears.

Zero took a deep breath and gained enough speech and bearings to roll over and look up. "Re?" Zero asked, voice soft and cracking.

"I'm. .. sorry…" Was the reply. Zero stood up and pulled off his armor, making him lighter and limped over to her, grimacing at her condition.

"You can't even protect her." Iris sneered.

Zero ignored Iris and kneeled next to Reaper.

"Re...Reaper… Veronica!" Zero asked quietly while gently shaking her. Reaper blinked and slowly turned to face him. Her eyes error neon green, like her skin was turning it's stainless steel, but it was still her pale flesh, the virus making her skin even paler than it should be. Zero cupped her face and wiped the tears off her face.

"Why?" She asked. Zero's eyes snapped down.

"Why what?" Zero asked, quietly.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Zero froze and sighed.

"Because I didn't want to." He decided to lay down next to her and grabbed her hand, which had been balled into a fist. "let's think about it." He uncurled her hand gently. Blood seeped down her wrist. "When we first met, you were a child and I was a mindless beast." Zero wiped the blood off her hand to show the wounds closing. "I thought you were dead… that's why I didn't kill you then, when we first met, officially years later, I wanted to, you got under my skin, but…" Zero looked up. "You fascinated me, I had to know about you." He looks back at her and the scar on her cheek. "Then Sigma attacked and I just couldn't… you were fighting it and I just couldn't." Zero finished.

Reaper sighed and looked at her bloodied hand.

"Do you think that we'll be ok?" She finally asked.

"I don't think we were ever ok, but WE will be." Zero kissed the top of her head.

"Well isn't this cute." Bass sneered. "He won't kill you, but you'll get him killed."

"Zero, Who do you have screaming in your ear?" Reaper asked.

"Iris. You?" Zero nuzzled her.

"Bass." She replied. Zero burrowed his eyebrows and looked at her in silence.

"It's getting quiet in there." X whispered. He walked towards the door, before the screaming started. X flinched backwards and sighed.

The screaming came from Reaper and soon devolved into pained whimpering and moans. Zero pulled her close and closed his eyes.

"It's cute how he still cares about you when you are a cold hearted killer." Bass sneered and touched her scar gently, but she writhed in pain. "What will he do when all of your secrets come out."

Zero wasn't fairing much better. Iris mocked and teased him.

"She's just a rebound girl and you'll probably get did of her as soon as you feel better." Iris laughed from somewhere off. "But you'll never feel better." Iris whispered. "So you'll just keep using her."

"No! I-I…" Zero shouted. His voice died, leaving only his mouth open and gaping like a fish, when he couldn't disprove her statement.

"I know. I know 'that's not what it is', but look at that, you're gripping onto her like she's a damn teddy bear." Iris said walking towards him and running a hand through his hair, the burning sensation causing him to cry out in pain.

Zero tried to ignore the pain by closing his eyes and trying to sleep. It took a few minutes to fall asleep, and he had nightmares. Very vivid nightmares.

He was smelling smoke, tasting the oil of enemies that dripped on his face running into his mouth. He felt the burn of his buster firing off at enemies, and felt the terrifying joy of killing. He wanted to stop. These weren't mavericks, they were people who ran away from him in fear, regular reploids who followed the laws, and he was mowing them down.

"Zero!" Reaper's voice rang out and Zero turned to face her.

Her clothes were in tatters as she stood up to him.

"This needs to stop." She continued her walk towards him, limping all the way to him, and, to Zero's horror, the first thing that came to mind was a lamb going up against the wolf. Go Zero tried to urge her. Please. I don't want to hurt you. She couldn't hear him, and pulled a small blaster, he saw the modifications made to the blaster. It was made to pierce armor. She was ready to kill. Zero was thankful, but terrified if she failed.

"You have to stop this." Her voice was even and her aim didn't shake, she was calm, and that calm scared him more than anything else. She shot him, knocking him down before he even registered the pain. Zero screamed, enraged and In pain and happy and hurt. Zero looked up at her as his eyes failed. His last sensations was her placing a small kiss on her forehead.

Zero's eyes snapped open and he gasped, trying to bring himself back into reality. He would have been successful but-

"Sleep well" Iris asked, the question being perfectly normal, if she wasn't a metaphorical ghost.

Zero tried to ignore her, instead he was trying to fix his internal clock, to see how long he's been in there, no such luck.

Reaper was rubbing the bridge of her nose and sighed out a laugh.

"Nightmare?" She asked, Rubbing her scalp. "I've been having 'em too." She answered his unanswered question.

"I told Iris about me first being a maverick." Zero said after a long silence.

"oh, what did she say?" Reaper was generally curious.

"That it was who I was now, but…" Zero Zero drawed.

"I know what you mean. You can talk about it all you want, but even the most vivid description pales in comparison to seeing you like that." Reaper smiled a little bit. Her green eyes dulled and she looked him.

"How long did Sigma say this would last." She whispered.

"Three days." Zero answered.

"Well fuck." She sighed.