Zack, for his part, was blissfully (for lack of a better term) unaware of anything that happened after the Man-O-War incident, due to being knocked out by a certain two people he thought he could trust.

He hadn't had time to think about that at first, as unconsciousness allowed for an unwelcome yet frighteningly common visitor into his psyche.

The nightmares.

They had been popping up on the odd occasion for quite some time but had gotten worse and much more common over the past month.

They'd all start out relatively similar. He'd either break something or pull some sort of ill-advised prank that wound up blowing up the hotel or ship (which one, he could never really tell, but that's dreaming for you) or killing someone.

Then came the worst part: everyone he knew systematically disowning him. It would start out small, with every girl he ever so much as looked at dumping him before picking up with his more distant friends such as Max (even though she hadn't even seen her in a while), Bob, and Woody (he couldn't imagine the rotund, curly-haired oddball hating anyone, let alone him, but there it was). Then it would hit closer. Esteban would no longer call him one of the "little blonde people" or call him a "disaster" in a far less funny way than normal. Arwin would threaten to build a time machine to go back and make sure they never met. London wouldn't say anything, instead not making eye contact while staring daggers at her when he wasn't looking. Maddie would simply pretend he wasn't there.

Then things got that much more personal. His dad, normally a laid-back jokester (exactly where Zack got it from), would say, stone-faced, "I have only one son, and it isn't you."

His mom, tears in her eyes, simply wouldn't look at him. She would just leave with her ex-husband.

Finally, Cody…

This would vary a bit, not only depending on whether or not he was killed in whatever he did (zombie Cody freaked him out far more than he'd ever say aloud), it would also depend on what he supposedly did.

"You may be my twin, but you certainly aren't my brother."

Agonizing as that was, it the least painful possibility, actually.

"I wonder if it's too late for mom to get an abortion. You know, correct the mistake in front of me. You're too stupid and weak, and you'll never measure up to me, anyway...literally or figuratively."

If only he had stayed asleep during health class…

The third possibility was him just staring back at him, blue eyes apathetic and cold. He'd infinitely prefer Cody, who always wore his emotions on his sleeve, to be eternally angry with him over having to deal with that look.

A look that said that he didn't care whether he lived or died.

Now, of course, Mr. Moseby would normally have been in the fray as well…

…if he hadn't already given up on him in real life.

Instead, another person he couldn't quite make out appeared, his voice mocking, dark and deep.

"You poor, poor, thing…"

-000-

Normally, whenever he woke up from these nightmares, Zack would be in a cold sweat, quickly forcing himself to calm down so that anyone who might possibly bring it up (like a certain friend of his who shared a cabin with him) would be none the wiser.

That didn't happen this time, considering his robotic state. The voice and face he was greeted with wasn't immediately familiar, either.

"You need to get up. Come on!"

A very familiar-looking blue-haired girl with a dark complexion stared at him with concerned eyes. She was flanked by a redhead looking between her and him cautiously.

His head ached for some reason…

Wait…

He jumped up and back in shock, instinctively taking a fighting stance.

"You!"

Ruby instinctively backed up behind her older sister, who held her hands up in surrender.

"Don't! We're not gonna hurt you…"

"A little late for that," the boy said testily.

Now Sapphira was really confused. "What? We never laid a hand on you!"

"More like a staff…" It was then that the blonde remembered a crucial detail that set him even more on edge.

"That voice… Just who are you two, anyway?!"

"Voice?" The younger girl wondered.

"So, you heard it too," the older girl said and looked as if she was confirming something in her head before going on. "I've gotta figure out what's going on here."

As she stated that last part more to herself, Zack simply turned around and began to walk away.

What…? Where are you going?!"

The reply was thrown back over his shoulder. "Away."

Unfortunately for him, the girls didn't take the hint and decided to follow.

"To where? Do you even know where you are?"

"Does it look like I care?"

Sapphira sighed in exasperation. "Look around you!"

A massive mechanical labyrinth sprawled out before them, replete with floating platforms, spikes, and enemies of all shapes, sizes, and descriptions.

He couldn't even gather the energy to groan at this point. What else had he expected?

"Oh, I'm looking, all right. Not liking what I'm seeing…"

"You need our help," the blue-haired girl pointed out.

Zack turned back from his walk and glared at her. "No. No, I don't,"

She put her hands on her hips. "Um, yeah, you do. This isn't your world, and I'm pretty sure you have no idea where you're going."

He wanted to retort, but he had nothing to say to that, so he just broke eye contact and kept on walking.

"I'll be fine. Just leave me alone."

A much quieter voice challenged this. "You seem kind of lonely to me."

He flinched, turned and opened his mouth, but found he didn't have the heart to yell at the 10 year-old.

Moreover, she was right. He was lonely. Crushingly so. In fact, it had been that way for what felt like an eternity, no matter how many people happened to be around him.

His compliance was begrudging, but then again, that was never anything new for him. "Just…keep up."

Sapphira's smile seemed more relieved than anything else. "Good. You won't regret this."

"I better not."

-000-

The gauntlet thrust upon the three of them was daunting, to say the least. The platforming that they had to do to start with over a great big gaping hole of darkness was enough to give anyone a fear of heights…only or them to loop back to annoyance and apathy again when it just kept going and going, seemingly without end.

In the process, Zack learned that Sapphira could air dash and Ruby could hover, mainly due to a few close calls with the bottomless void below. Oddly enough, they seemed to be strangely adept at using said abilities for Navigators that supposedly weren't doing the fighting.

He gave them a strange look when he saw it for the first time.

"I didn't know we could do that," the blue-haired girl had said afterwards, shrugging.

He thought of himself as decently able to spot a liar (it took one to know one), but he couldn't sense anything off with what she said, not that he had the ability to really focus on it now. He had to file it away.

For his part, he was quickly regretting being so heavily armored. It probably slowed him down and made it all the trickier to hit the floating pieces of safe ground he needed to. After a use of Speed Burner saw him overshoot a landing, it was only the other two's quick thinking and actions that saw Ruby just barely able to airlift him and Sapphira back to safety.

-000-

Next, the enemies that had already been in decent supply thus far started to thicken up. If there was any solace to be found for them, it was that the terrain had finally started getting less treacherous.

A chorus of exhausted and exasperated groans now echoed throughout the maze. There was no longer any way for Zack, or the girls for that matter, to soldier through this slog.

"I vote that we take a break," Sapphira panted at one point.

"Okay," Ruby followed her sister's lead in collapsing on the ground. As much as the elder twin wanted to keep his stoic demeanor, he realized that doing that required much more of his energy than he was now capable of putting in. He instead found himself nodding and copying them.

A few minutes of silence followed. That time was all his body needed for the adrenaline to start ebbing away. Reploids could very much tire in about the same way as humans, and it sucked.

Given what he knew awaited him in dreamland, sleep simply wasn't an option for him. Instead, he decided to vent what was on his mind.

"So then, who are you guys, exactly? What's your story?"

When the two simply gave their names and positions again, he tried his best to level a withering glare at him.

"Yeah, right. Now give me the real answer. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure what I saw for about five seconds before getting knocked out cold WASN'T in the handbook for that job."

The two looked at each other, serious and uncomfortable looks on their faces. Ruby seemed to be particularly fidgety given her low energy, playing around with her short hair.

Zack himself wasn't exactly the type to talk things out. While he could be nice should the mood strike him (there were certainly more than a few girls over the years who could attest to that…at first, anyway), he knew that his twin was always the conversationalist of the two, able to win people over with just his words.

True, those very words may have the source of a lot of boredom and annoyance for him over the years, but they were why a lot of adults in their lives liked and respected him.

Deep down, he knew it was one of the things that he liked about him, too.

"Well?" The blonde urged in a bid to break the silence. Eventually, the redhead spoke slowly and quietly.

"We're…not supposed to tell anyone."

Almost as if by reflex, Sapphira leveled at her sister a look that the boy recognized: one he'd often toss back at Cody whenever he said too much or said something particularly nerdy (the last one happened a lot).

He scooted back, not liking where this was going, though he was still curious. His tone was a bit more guarded. "What is it?"

More silence.

Knowing he wasn't getting anywhere this way, Zack tried something else. "Can you contact the Hunters in any way?"

"Nope," the blue-haired girl answered. "We tried that before you woke up. No signal seems to get in or out of this place. We've probably fallen off the face of the earth to them."

Now that was just great. There was an upside to this, though.

"In that case, would you just spill? It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone." He tried his best to ape his brother's comforting smile after he spoke.

"The New World," Ruby eventually let out quietly.

Zack's face scrunched up in confusion, but he didn't say anything.

There was no turning back now. With a resigned look, the taller of the two girls began to explain.

"We only posed as Navigators to get into the Hunter Base so we could collect the combat data we would need to usher in what Father calls the New World."

"Meaning…?"

Now neither of the girls would look at him. "The Hunters would have to be wiped out, and all of Reploid society would be restarted…"

"…with Black at the helm, right?" Zack finished for her, face unreadable.

"Actually, I'm not sure about that one. He didn't say."

He was about to answer when he remembered something. "Humans. They live here too, right? What happens with them, huh?!"

"Um…"

"We don't know."

"What," the blonde boy said flatly, as if in shock from what he just heard before letting his true thoughts become known.

"That's gotta be the STUPIDEST thing I've ever heard!"

"Hey! Making things better for everyone is NOT stupid!" The redhead defended, surprisingly getting up in his face.

A mirthless laugh escaped his lips. "…and how'd you plan on doing that? By killing them?!"

"Father says we don't have a choice…"

"Oh, and why don't you?"

"So the accident doesn't happen again!" Ruby blurted out.

If nothing else, the twin had been shocked wide awake by all of this.

"What accident?"

"A car crash caused by a mechaniloid. We used to be humans until that happened. We were converted into Reploids to save our lives. Father was, too."

Zack wasn't exactly sure what to say, so he didn't say anything. Instead, deciding he was done resting, he got up and began heading for what looked like the next section of the never-ending nightmare before him. The two girls ran after him, trying their best to get his attention.

-000-

As Zack fought his way through a thankfully more combat-focused gauntlet, his thoughts were all over the place, making it tricky as ever for him to focus.

What were those two thinking? Destroying the world (or at least, all the world's reploids and humans) because of an accident?! Yeah, their dad put them up to this, but they could've said "no"!

Copying a disappointed, arms crossed sort of look was effortless for him. He'd seen it so often, after all.

"We…we don't want to do this anymore."

Sapphira looked guilty and sounded sincere, with her sister the same way.

"Uh-huh."

"Neither does Father."

The boy wasn't moved. "Why should I believe you?"

The taller girl pled her case. "I think he, and we, are being controlled by someone. Remember our red eyes?"

He gestured to Ruby.

"Redder. Glowing. My eyes aren't red."

"The voice thing is probably not you either, is it?"

"Nope," the blue-haired robot popped the "p" in the word. "Father doesn't sound like that."

"Let's say I do believe you," The self-proclaimed "better-looking" twin's next words surprised him, especially considering his track record. "You know you gotta turn yourselves in to the Hunters if we ever do find our way out of all this…"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you run after that Dragoon guy without permission?"

"Y-Yeah, but that was different," he stammered before recovering himself. "But you still gotta do it. Who knows? Explain your situation and they might let you off easy."

A small, relieved smile found its way on the older sister's face, as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. "I wasn't planning on doing anything else."

A few seemingly endless hallways of goons later, they stopped seemingly for good. As they finally got near a door, the girl spoke up again.

"You know, you're not that bad of a guy."

Zack kept his eyes off of her specifically so she wouldn't see the shame shining in them. "You wouldn't be saying that if you really knew me."

"I'm serious," she asserted, blocking his way so they had to make mutual eye contact. "Cody must be proud to have you as a brother."

Calling to mind all the times he got him in trouble, bullied him, made fun of him, among many other things, he shook his head. "Doubt it. All I ever do is hurt him. You wouldn't want anything to do with me if it weren't for this situation. I'm not a good person. Heck, he's probably glad I'm gone…"

Sapphira stared back at him, her gaze unwavering. "Wrong. It's obvious from observing you two that you mean the world to each other. You wouldn't have thrown yourself at X and Zero themselves when you thought they had hurt him if that bond wasn't there…"

Part of him wanted to believe that, but… "You heard him, right? He doesn't even trust me. Heck, no one with a brain in their head would."

The blue-haired girl instantly knew what he was referring to. "He was just scared about what happened to London."

"That I caused…"

"By what? Saving her?"

"I should have kept her out of that fight. I…"

He trailed off once he saw the two strangely power off like computers, moving aside before the door opened.

An almost angelic-looking white and gold reploid strolled out of the room, wings folded to his back. His red eyes were piercing, contrasting greatly with his chest piece, and his grin was absolutely predatory.

"Let me finish that sentence for you. You are a fool."

It didn't take long for the elder twin to connect the dots. "You were in my dream... You're behind all this!"

The new reploid clapped sarcastically. "Excellent deduction, Einstein. You might have a modicum of intelligence more than that spoiled brat."

Zack's eyes widened, knowing exactly who that was but his question was answered before he could voice it.

"Yes, she lives, but only because I have use for her."

If it weren't for the mouth it was coming from, the blonde would've been glad to hear that.

As if on instinct, his voice became low and dangerous. "Stay away from her, Maverick…"

"You don't command me, Organic…"

Suddenly, with the raise of the Maverick's hand, Ruby awoke, her eyes an identical shade of red to what they were when he was kidnapped. Again, the completely alien voice of the Maverick came from her mouth. "Instead, you will kneel."

Sapphira followed suit. "Kneel down before my absolute rule!"

In an instant, both were fully healed and armed with their staffs.

The boy was still physically spent.

This was not going to end well.

As the inevitable beatdown began, he couldn't help but remember similar times that his brother was surrounded and bullied.

As he lost consciousness, he couldn't help one last thought.

Cody… Everyone… I'm sorry.