As everyone else looked on, a very battered Zack rematerialized in the base. The teens in particular expected him to get angry, snap at Zero, or produce some sort of response other than that rather indescernable facial expression he wore.

"Looks like you made it back in one piece," Zero stated nonchalantly with the tiniest hint of a smirk on his face.

The boy's unoccupied fist clenched, as if intending to attack him. Zero didn't back down, his gaze turning sharper, seemingly ready to spring even as he stood there with his arms crossed.

Predictably, Zack backed down, settling for giving him a death glare, hoping beyond hope that he somehow developed laser vision in the next minute or so.

He didn't.

Giving up on that, he practiclly tossed the red orb at Alia upon her request for it, asked Axl where the Repair Bay was about as nicely as could be expected, and walked off.

Sapphira opened her mouth to say something to him, but the swordsman stopped her.

"Let 'em go. He needs some time to himself."

--BREAK--

After healing up, the shorter twin found himself wandering around the Base rather aimlessly, lost in his thoughts.

A three-ring circus of emotions reigned in his head, alternating between fury, sadness, and abject frustration. Between Dragoon's final words, having to fight him alone, and his so-called mentor's lack of interest in his survival, he certainly had his mind full.

What was worse, if fighting like this was so normal here, what did that mean for Bailey? London? Cody…?

Eventually, he found himself at an observation deck. He stared at nothing in particular for a few minutes before an unknown voice snapped him out of it.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

A black armored reploid looking to be in his 30s with long, white hair (though not as much so as London's or Zero's) and bearing a tanned complexion walked up to him.

The teen was immediately on guard. "Alright. Who are you?"

"A friend," he answered as if he was talking to an old one. "You seemed troubled, so I thought I'd stop by."

Zack stared down the mystery man, looking for any giveaways in his features, mannerisms, or anything else he could see. That was one thing out of many that separated him from his twin: he didn't trust easily.

"Is there a problem, bud?" The question was light in tone, giving nothing away. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you didn't trust me…"

"You could say that."

The man stroked his bare chin. "Well, Cody did say that you wouldn't be the most…welcoming. He wasn't wrong."

The mention of his brother's name put him even more on edge. Just what did this guy want?

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it." His easy smile dipped briefly before returning again. "Honestly, I consider it a nice change of pace compared to the others…"

Zack felt his fairly small attention span and patience ebbing away by the moment. "Get on with it. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Call me Black. The Hunters requested your presence. I'm here to collect you."

That figured. He wouldn't be able to avoid everyone forever, after all…

"Fine," he said simply with a sigh.

"I could escort you back…"

"I'll find my way back alone, thank you very much."

Zack began to walk off with Black in tow, but not before the latter stopped to communicate with someone in secret.

"He's suspicious."

"Let him be," advised the dark, masculine voice on the other end. "He knows and can prove nothing. The Plan will go on regardless…"

--BREAK--

Ten minutes earlier…

Just after Zack had left, Alia was having Cody stand in front of a special scanner situated in the Navigation Room. For once, both former human girls shared equal looks of bewilderment, not exactly sure what was going on.

"So… What's this for, exactly?" Bailey asked Alia.

The navigator reploid seemed pretty absorbed in her task as she answered, "Scanning Cody's internal systems. I'll need a good readout for what's going to happen next."

"Uh…" was all the taller twin could manage in the face of…whatever this was. Bailey visibly shuddered while London's face wrinkled in disgust.

"Okay…"

"Ew… Just, ew."

"It's not as creepy as it sounds," Alia reassured. "It's just a scanner. Besides, this is a necessary part of the process if we're going to get your weapons ready."

"Weapons?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not the best person to explain that to you, actually. X?"

She guestured toward the lighter blue reploid, who broke his relative silence to answer.

"Yes, weapons. You see, being New Generation Reploids, you should have a variation on my Variable Weapons System."

While Cody and Bailey were intrigued in a manner befitting two prospective college students, their normally wealthy friend looked about as lost as could be expected.

Zero stepped in to simplify matters. "Basically, whenever you defeat an enemy, you can get a weapon or learn a move based on them."

"That red orb Zack dropped off after defeating Dragoon was part of the process."

The taller twin internally flinched at the reminder. Knowing that Zack hadn't come back yet, he could only hope that time to himself would do him some good…

"It'll be molded to your specific DNA as a reploid, resulting in different abilities most of the time."

"What about the two of us?" Cody wondered aloud, referring to his absent twin. "Our DNA is identical, but our power sets obviously couldn't be more different."

"That can most likely be chalked up to differences in physiology. It happens. It's not the first…" Alia stalled right there and gave a look to Zero, as if expecting him to object to what was being said.

"Just go on, Alia. I'm not a child. I don't need to be babied." Zero responded with just enough touchiness to imply that a sore subject had been hit upon. X shot an odd look back at him.

She rather uncomfortably moved on. "As I was saying, this isn't the first time we've dealt with sibling reploids."

"Interesting discussion, there. Mind if I put my two cents in?"

A certain black-armored reploid walked in at that moment. Zero raised an eyebrow. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Just a man wanting to help his fellow reploids. You can call me Black, and I trust you've already met my daughters, Ruby and Sapphira…"

The two in question went down and hugged their father, apparently pretty happy to see him.

"They'll be helping out around here in my stead. Anyhow, these two, like I assume you two do, have differences that manifest in different ways. Different personalities, too. Ring a bell?"

"Well, yes," Cody responded. "Zack isn't exactly…himself right now, but if he was and we were back home, he'd be most likely plotting some scheme or prank, likely roping Marcus and/or Woody into it somehow…

"Who and who…?" Alia asked.

"Friends of ours from our world," Bailey supplied in answer.

"So..." London asked after an awkward silence. "You're Black? Like the color?"

"Yeah…" he answered, looking at her as if she'd grown a second head. He left the moment there and shook hands with X. "It's nice to finally meet you in person, X. Your reputation precedes you though, I must say, you look taller on TV… "

"Well, the camera does add a couple of pounds," the heiress quipped absentmindedly.

The man looked around. "Speaking of the other twin, where is he?"

"He hasn't been here in a bit," X thought for a second before continuing. "I imagine he might've gone up to the Observation Deck. I go up there sometimes to figure things out."

"I see. I'll get him."

"You sure you can find your way on your own?"

"I have a natural sense of direction," the white-haired man chuckled heartily. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

After giving a knowing look back at Sapphira specifically, he left.