WARNING(S): Some mention of death and violence and that's about all.

Pairings: None.

AN: Oh, look another update.

00X00

Ars Moriendi

Chapter 3

Waiting and Disappointment

Axl's stomach felt like it was full of lead—the low grade kind they put in pencils—and had sunk somewhere down near his thrusters. He holstered his gun and locked his systems on to HQ. The instant it took for his off-duty signature to get clearance felt like it was dragging, and his legs twitched as he fought the urge to move. But finally the connection was made and within a few moments Axl was standing on the landing pad...in the Maintenance Bay?

He looked around at the diminutive teleportation pad, maybe large enough for a fully humanoid Unit of his stature or X's. Why had he been rerouted? Was the teleporter pad undergoing maintenance or was it a more serious reason?

Like a room full of EMTs and blood, red armor, and blond hair, he thought, then he shivered at the mental image that accompanied it.

Axl swallowed nervously as he exited the niche into the hallway overlooking the Bay. The floor below was filled with sparks and the smell of oil and hot metal stuck to the air. There were other Hunters around, looking bewildered and scared. Axl couldn't blame them. They would have been notified of scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, and the only other time Reploids got rerouted was if there was massive carnage in the pad—like a whole Unit coming back crushed.

Or, if someone was dead and Signas didn't want the base to know he was dead. Depressed reploids in the strategy room are hard to cover up. The ones manning the teleporter didn't even have tinting windows to hide them.

Axl scattered the small clusters of reploids as he burst through them, leaving them shouting in indignation. He didn't even give them a friendly wave of acknowledgement.

How can they just stand around waiting for an announcement?! Don't they want to know what's going on?

The teleport pad wasn't far from the maintenance bay, he'd... query X! Yes, X'll know; he knows everything and Signas would give him clearance even if he wasn't a Commander!

A probe was sent out immediately for X's signature...and it bounced off an HQ warning with familiar red letters: CLASSIFIED. Classified? Why was X under HQ firewalls? He couldn't sense the old android at all….

X and Zero were partners; had X tagged along to ensure Zero's success? It was impossible to tag-team a volatile Maverick like Gekota, any misstep ended in an explosion. Would….would X have been the distraction? And if he had been the distraction, could—

It's a mistake. X didn't get hurt. X was sensible and calm and wary, and he didn't get hurt. And he didn't die. It was OK for Zero to die because nothing could really kill him. People had tried.

Axl sent out a query to Zero through the comm link. This one was half-accepted before the recipient realized what he was doing and shoved Axl away. This proved that not only was X probably in trouble but Zero apparently wasn't. He might have been anxious but that didn't stop him from feeling flustered with Zero. He was trying to get answers but Zero didn't want to talk, and he couldn't go to Signas for answers because Signas would probably ban him from prying. Well, he knew where Zero was: And where Zero was X couldn't be far away.

Other Hunters seemed to be expecting something terrible, too. The net was stilted with CLASSIFIED chatter, and it didn't take more than a minute of restricted comm to make people worry.

As Axl was making his way toward the location he'd pinned on Zero—which was outside the ORs if his gut feeling and location where correct—he noticed the Lifesavers seemed (more) agitated. Lifesaver and his clones were usually steady, facing down scowling Zero and relentlessly pestering Signas to have Zero confined. He was either stupid, or one fearless Reploid, and either way, Axl was intimidated by them. Only X seemed able to converse freely (and grudgelessly) with the medic.

Only Lifesaver didn't seem so fearless now.

Axl was careful to avoid bumping into them, partially because they didn't seem to be paying attention and partially because they were twice his size and he didn't want to end up as an Axl-pancake. Once he'd pushed through the swarm of med-units, he found the older Hunter.

Zero was slumped in an uncomfortable chair in the hall outside the OR. His dark blue eyes stared through the floor, and he looked so haunted that Axl knew it was as bad as he'd feared, probably worse.

"Zero?" Axl hardly recognized his own voice, it was so hoarse. Was…was X dead?

The blond didn't unslump, but his optics lifted from the floor to the young Reploid's face, "Axl, you got an alert?"

He nodded, "I came as soon as I could." Which suddenly didn't feel like soon enough.

Zero sighed and, even though it was impossible, suddenly he looked aged. There was blood and, ash, and black speckles of burns across Zero's gloves, standing out against the normally squeaky clean white. Had he seriously not come soon enough?

"Zero?" He began cautiously. "Zero, what happened?"

Zero didn't answer right away, turning his hands upward as if he was looking for something on them, "I missed. I hit Gekota's fusion generator and he went off like a bomb." Given what he'd learned of this particular Maverick, that's essentially what he was. "X got hurt and couldn't focus to teleport, so I grabbed him and warped back to the pad." Zero's voice was louder now, full of frustration and anger. "Except when I re-materialized, X wasn't there. For some reason he wasn't granted access."

To carry a passenger back to base, the reploid doing the teleporting had to send an alert to HQ's computers, otherwise they were rejected. Was Zero saying he'd forgotten to do that? And that X had…

"Zero, is X…?" He couldn't finish that sentence, but there was no real reason to, after all. Zero knew exactly what he meant.

The larger reploid inhaled deeply, the stutter in his intake telling Axl he was close to losing it. "I don't know. I tried to go ahead of the retrieval team but I didn't find him. I haven't even seen him since..."

Axl hovered there in the hallway, unsure of how to deal with how he felt. Angry at Zero, guilty at being angry at Zero, frustrated because he felt guilty at feeling angry at Zero, scared because he didn't know what was going on in that OR, and sad because X might be d—

Axl paced to a chair on Zero's left—leaving one empty space between them—and sat down. "I guess we'll be waiting a while, then."

There was a silence between them, tense as a strung wire. Axl had nothing to say to lighten the mood, and Zero felt like a volcano about to erupt, shaking with restrained emotion. Axl was afraid he'd jump up at any minute and start throwing things through the wall, and then he'd be banned from the Medbay and then he'd be angrier and then there would be repairs to the training sims.

After almost an hour, he did eventually run back to his quarters to change into civilian clothes once the discomfort—of sitting next to Zero waiting to see if their friend was dead, not from the armor—but when he returned fifteen minutes later, Zero wasn't there.

He checked the surrounding hallways, the break room, the wash rooms—the older Hunter was nowhere to be seen. Axl wandered back to the waiting area and began walking about slowly. Surely Zero wouldn't just leave? But, nearly ten minutes later, he had to admit that the possibility seemed likely.

Zero, why would you do that? Axl ran a hand through his unruly auburn hair and finally flopped down into a seat.

He'd barely settled, drawing his legs up into his seat and crossing them, when a voice called, "Axl!"

He jumped and looked up to see Alia walking swiftly toward him. Her hair looked messy, strands flying freely behind her. Seemed like she was finally off-duty.

The Navigator stood next to him, her face anxious, "Has there been any news?"

"No, but—"

"You're still here, Axl?" Came Lifesaver's voice, echoing from down the hall as he approached. "I told Zero to tell you to go get some sleep."

"What?!" He shouted, jumping to his feet and nearly bumping his head on Alia's chin. "He left! Without a word!"

Oh now he was miffed.

Lifesaver looked nonplussed, "Well, he was supposed to tell you to go get some sleep. There's no point in you two waiting here all night. I can't give you Commander X's status update yet, but regardless of what happens you won't be allowed in to see him until later tomorrow." His voice left no room for argument, but Axl still wanted to try.

"Why?!"

"Because guidelines, now go back to your quarters," the medic quipped, turning on his heel and marching away.

Axl stared after him, face twisting into a sour expression. Alia put a hand on his shoulder, "Zero left you here?"

"Yes!" He exploded, flinging his arms into the air. "I was waiting here alone for nearly thirty minutes! I've been waiting for over an hour and they won't tell me anything about X?!"

Alia winced and tugged him forward, "There's nothing we can do about that. Now, come on, let's go get something to eat. I'll talk to Zero later."

Her voice wasn't hard, but there was a definite threat there. The female Navigator was a force to be reckoned with, being one of the few people who could keep up with the Commands in an argument. Axl almost felt sorry for Zero.

Almost.

"I can't believe he would just leave me here," he whined. "…He was really upset 'bout this though. I know we all are, but he seemed to take it personally."

"Of course he does," she sighed, pulling him a little closer to her. "I'll deal with him later. Now let's go get some food."

Alia seemed calm, but Axl could feel the tenseness in her grip. She was way more worried than she let on. But weren't they all? He wondered though, if what Zero said about X and Alia was true. There were other people who suggested it to him—he'd caught Signas discussing Alia with X once, and the little blue android hadn't seemed his usually composed self—flustered and evasive. Axl snorted at that memory. He'd have to ask X if there was any truth to the speculation.

If he ever got the chance to, that is.