Chapter 7

"He did WHAT?!"

"That's right. Thanks to a certain someone not respecting my personal space, I no longer have a door."

Cerveau pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of all the darned― You'd think a legendary hero would treat his weapons a bit better."

Iris's mouth fell open. "Excuse me?! I have a huge hole where my door used to be, and it's the sword you're worried about?!"

"Zero's Z-Saber is a remarkable piece of technology," said Cerveau. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. To see such a thing of beauty used as a crude cutting tool is nothing less than weapon abuse!"

"But…it's a sword…" Iris stammered. "Isn't it supposed to cut stuff?"

"Yes, but not walls or doors! Something like that could cause permanent damage to the saber! I'm going to have to have a talk with Zero later. In the meantime, I'll take care of your door."

"Thanks, Cerveau. That's all I wanted you to do."

"By the way, how long are you planning on keeping that doll?"

Iris fidgeted uneasily. "Err…"

"I suggest you give it back by the end of day, or else Alouette is not going to be happy."

"Um, sure, Cerveau. I'll see you later."

Iris exited Cerveau's lab with a sigh. That Reploid always got overly excited over any mechanical or technological thing. If Zero was foolish enough to give Cerveau his Z-Saber, he'd probably never see it again in one piece.

"I'll never understand him," Iris said softly. "At least my door's being taken care of. What should we do now, Kitty?"

"I want to learn more about you, Iris!" Kitty replied.

"To be honest, I don't know a lot about myself. I don't even know why I was built in the first place."

"Then why don't we find out together? We can start by exploring the place you came from."

"Hmm… I suppose," mumbled Iris. "But I've never used the Transerver by myself before, and no one's supposed to leave the base without permission."

"Don't worry! We won't be gone long!" chirped Kitty. "We just have to look around for a little while and get back before anyone notices we left!"

"Well… Okay. I just hope we don't get into too much trouble."

The Transerver was fortunately vacant. Iris climbed on top of the device, and it reacted immediately. A keyboard with a small display popped up. Iris tapped a few keys, which caused several different names to appear on the display.

"These must be places saved in the Transerver's memory," she reasoned. A few more keystrokes caused the names "Underground Laboratory" and "Ancient Laboratory" to scroll by. One of those two had to be the lab she awoke in. She switched between the two names, wondering which she should try first.

Her decision was made for her when she heard footsteps nearby. In a panic, she mashed the Enter key and was swallowed by the Transerver's light. A moment later, she lost her balance due to dizziness and fell with a resounding splash.

"Ooog, I forgot that teleporting makes me feel woozy," she moaned. When her head cleared, she saw that she was sitting on a floor covered with sickeningly green water. Shouting in disgust, she leapt to her feet and furiously swept the liquid off her dress. Kitty had luckily avoided a soaking, but the water was still deep enough to cover Iris's ankles.

"Oh, this is so gross," she moaned, grimacing as she lifted her foot and observed the slime that oozed off it. "Where am I, anyway?"

"I don't know," said Kitty. "Why don't we take a look around?"

"But…what if it's dangerous?" asked Iris.

"If we see any bad guys, we can just go back."

"Well…okay."

There was only one door leading out of the Transerver room. Iris was mildly surprised to discover that it still worked in spite of how ancient it appeared. On the other side of the door was what appeared to be a computer room of some sort, but everything was incredibly dated. Fortunately, this room was free of slime, enabling her to clean her shoes. Once that was accomplished, she tested the computers, but they failed to respond.

"Hm, no good," Iris muttered. "I wonder if there's anything else around here."

"Let's keep looking!" chirped Kitty.

There was a large opening in one side of the room. Debris littered either side of it, and it looked like it had been forcibly moved. Iris disdainfully noticed that beyond this opening, the floor sunk back down into the murky water. Her curiosity overpowered her revulsion, however, leading her to venture into the slimy unknown. To her dismay, however, the short hallway led to a dead end.

"Well, that was pointless," she said. "I can't believe I walked through this muck for nothing! I guess it can't be helped. We'd better head back, Kitty." She turned to leave, but before she could make a step, something was pulled over her body, and several spindly limbs snatched her into the air. It all happened so quickly that she didn't have time to scream.

"Well, well, well… Isn't this a surprise," a cold voice crooned. Iris froze in terror as she found herself face to face with an enormous spider Reploid. She shivered as the spider caressed her cheek with a foreleg. "It seems a little mouse has wandered into my trap."

Iris shrieked and swatted the leg away, but in the process realized that she was covered in something fine, white, and sticky. She thrashed about in a panic, but the substance merely stretched and entrapped her further.

"It's useless," the spider chuckled. "The more you try to fight, the more my web fights back. But do keep struggling. I do so enjoy feisty prey."

Iris froze. "P…prey?"

The spider's green eyes glowed menacingly. "Why yes. I was designed to absorb the energy of other Reploids. I used to make my living draining Mavericks dry. Oh, those were the days! But then Neo Arcadia came up with more 'efficient' means of purging Mavericks, declared me outdated, and sent me to this godforsaken hellhole to rust!"

She took a very deep breath. It seemed as if she had wanted to say this for ages. "But…spiders are patient. We will wait for fresh prey until we breathe our last. I have lived here for nearly four years, biding my time and draining power from the dying computers to sate my appetite, but yesterday, something living finally came through here. However, those dreadful Pantheons and Golems made a mess of everything and killed all the Reploids save one, and their meddling made it impossible for me to set my trap. That one would have been worthy prey; he was brimming with life."

The spider bared her fangs, causing Iris to shrink further in fear. "I had hoped he would return so I could have my fill, but instead I caught a helpless little girl. No matter. I've waited four years for a live meal, and I'm going to enjoy every last drop of it."

She lunged forward and sank her fangs into Iris's neck. The scream that had been building in Iris's throat finally set itself free and echoed all around the abandoned building. However, it was only a reflex, as deep down she knew no one except her captor could hear her.

How could she have been so stupid? She knew leaving the base was dangerous, and she did it anyway. Now she was going to die for her foolishness. Already, her vision was blurring.

There was a second great scream that did not come from her voice synthesizer, and suddenly she was falling. Was this what death was like? The falling stopped. Something, no, someone was holding her. Was it, perhaps, the Reploid equivalent of an angel or death god? She could not see well enough to tell, but it was wearing an awful lot of red. There was a shining green light nearby as well. Iris tried to get a better look, wondering what the light was, but her eyelids were too heavy. Deciding it was pointless to fight the inevitable, she let go and plummeted into a world of darkness.

"Milan… I'll see you again soon."

WARNING. ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL. SEVERE OIL LOSS DETECTED. ENTERING POWER-SAVING MODE.

Iris floated within a black abyss. She found herself incapable of movement or speech, and her thoughts seemed to come at the speed of molasses. Perhaps this was what the humans called "limbo". The red death god seemed to have left, but Iris had no doubts that it would be back at some point to escort her to the afterlife.

Dying wasn't so bad. The pain was gone, and this floating sensation was oddly relaxing. So what if she couldn't move or talk? She had all the time in the world, and there was no one to speak to. Every so often, though, she heard voices. They sounded familiar, but her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton.

"Ze… Wha… pened?"

"…ly hurt…"

"Hurry…"

The voices seemed to be distressed. Perhaps they were the cries of the dying before they passed on. After all, Iris had been in the same situation before. Now, however, she felt at peace. She had accepted her fate.

A long time passed, during which the voices continued to fade in and out. There was no sign of the death god, but at one point she felt an invisible hand squeeze hers. It was a nice hand, too; it made a pleasant, tingly sensation bubble up inside her chest. The hand vanished as suddenly as it came, and with it went the sensation. Iris was surprised at how disappointed she felt, but resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do.

After that, the world around her went silent. With nothing to do and no voices to listen to, Iris was quickly lulled by the floating sensation. Surely the death god wouldn't mind if she took a nap before it returned. It could wake her up if it needed to. Iris drifted to sleep, quietly wondering what sort of afterlife awaited her when she awoke.

SYSTEMS STABILIZED. EXITING POWER-SAVING MODE. REBOOTING…

The first thing Iris noticed was that her body felt stiff and heavy. Her eyelids protested as she opened them, and she was nearly blinded by the lights overhead, forcing her to close them with a groan. For the second time in as many days, she had awoken in an infirmary bed. She groggily wondered what had happened to her this time.

Her eyes shot open as her memory unit came online. With some difficulty, she reached up and touched the place where the spider Reploid had bitten her. Her fingers met with fabric. Only now did she notice the slight constriction around her neck. Clearly she had been repaired and bandaged, but how in the world had she survived that encounter?

She heard footsteps nearby, and Rocinolle appeared over her bed. "Good to see you awake, Iris."

Iris's core froze. She had left the base without permission, and there was no doubt that everyone knew about it by now. She was really in for it. "R-Rocinolle!" she squeaked. "Uh, good morning."

"It's afternoon," Rocinolle corrected. "You've been asleep for two days. May I ask, dear, what you were thinking when you decided to leave the base on your own, unarmed, and without permission?"

Iris gulped at her boss's thinly veiled anger. "I…wasn't really thinking at all."

"Obviously," said Rocinolle. "Iris, I understand that you're grieving, but grief isn't an excuse to do whatever you want."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you understand that your actions have consequences, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Nice to hear you being agreeable for once."

Iris bristled at the new voice. "What are you doing here, Zero?"

"I'm here because I want to be," he responded.

"Do you always have to be such a pain in the ass?"

"Iris, language!" scolded Rocinolle. "Zero saved your life, so show some gratitude!"

Iris's thoughts screeched to a halt. So he was the red figure she saw before she fell unconscious. The revelation made her more incensed.

"You were following me?!" she shrieked at Zero.

"You've shown yourself to be prone to hasty and stupid decisions."

"Excuse me?! At least I wasn't stupid enough to end up as an amnesiac!"

"Enough!" shouted Rocinolle. "I will not tolerate this foolish bickering! Both of you apologize, right now!"

Naturally, this meant Zero and Iris turned their backs on each other.

"I only spoke the truth," muttered Zero.

"He doesn't deserve it," grumbled Iris.

Rocinolle pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I feel like I'm talking to a pair of children."

Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere with either of the two stubborn Reploids, Rocinolle shooed Zero out of the infirmary and prescribed Iris two more days of bedrest. The wound in Iris's neck was deep, and her auto-repair systems needed as much power as possible to close it. Iris wholeheartedly agreed to the proposal, as arguing with Zero had left her drained. She settled back into bed and closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, she heard Lumen's voice yelling at her to wake up.

"Go away, Lumen," Iris moaned as she buried her face in her pillow.

"Come on, Riss!" said Lumen. "All you've done for the past forty-eight hours is sleep! In fact, there was a good chance that you would never wake up!"

"I'm fine, Lumen. I'm just tired."

"You're lucky that you're just tired. When Zero brought you in with that huge gash in your neck, I thought for sure you were a goner."

"Don't you dare mention that asshole in front of me."

Lumen raised an eyebrow. "When did you start using language like that?"

"When I realized that the word described Zero perfectly."

"You're not still mad about the door are you?" Lumen asked, only for Iris to immediately swat her to the ground.

"Thank you for reminding me about that," the Reploid stated. "As a matter of fact, I am."

Lumen quickly recovered and fluttered back into the air. "Geez, you can hold a grudge. Look, I'm sorry about the door, but I was worried about you! And considering what you did, I had every right to be!"

"Shut up. I know I screwed up."

"Riss, you're missing the point! If Zero hadn't trailed you, you wouldn't be here right now!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Iris snapped. "The fact that I owe that jerk my life pisses me off the most! Now everyone's gonna expect me to grovel before him like he's some heavenly being. Newsflash: when he starts showing me a little respect, maybe he'll earn mine."

Lumen was silent for a long time. Iris thought she had left, but when she took a peek the Cyber Elf was still there. At last, Lumen spoke. "You know, Zero worries about you. He's…just not very good at expressing it. When he brought you here I swear he was ready to kill anyone who got in his way."

"Well, he shouldn't worry," scoffed Iris. "I'm no one consequential."

"Maybe to him, you are." With those words, Lumen turned to leave. "I'll let you get some rest now, Riss. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"I wasn't planning to," grumbled Iris. When the Cyber Elf was out of sight, Iris turned on her side and sighed. She could not understand why Zero would concern himself over her. When it came down to it, she was a replaceable member of the Resistance. Not only that, but he barely knew who she was. Yet he went out of his way multiple times to poke his nose into her business, and twice his meddling had gotten her out of a bad situation. She might have been flattered if she weren't so angry.

"Stupid jerk," she mumbled. "I can't believe Milan and Passy gave their lives to revive someone like him. Oh, Milan…" A fresh wave of pain assaulted her core as memories overwhelmed her. "I'm such an idiot. Why didn't I tell you not to go? I miss you so much."

Iris clutched her pillow and cried softly until she could cry no more. Exhausted by her actions, she soon slipped into the blackness of unconsciousness once again.

"You fool. I told you to not get involved with him. Now thanks to your recklessness, your lives have become inexorably tied. This is a union that can only end in pain. Iris, you will have to be strong to survive this. Stronger than I ever was."

I am so sorry about not updating for three months. I had exams and writers block and was catching up on my summer gaming and doing art so… I was pretty busy. I also ended up changing my mind on what to do with this chapter and redid a good portion of it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though.