For Zack and Zero alike, touchdown at their destination was quiet, and it wasn't only because the former was still sorting out how he felt about the latter (now that he was clear-headed enough to notice it).
The silence was also because they were completely separated from each other.
"Zack, do you copy?"
The shorter-haired blonde winced at the sound of the doll-like Navigator's voice.
The screechy ones were always fun, he thought.
"Yup, I copy. My 'partner', however, is nowhere to be seen."
"I'm in another part of the lab," said partner butted in, referring to the maze of computers they found themselves in. I'm not sure how we got split up, but we'll need to find each other or the Maverick. How's the lighting situation over there?"
He looked around and shrugged, even though nobody could see it. "Seems fine to me. You?"
"I get to stumble around in the dark." If one listened closely, they could hear the eye roll in the red swordsman's voice.
"Huh. Sucks to be you."
"So, this is the real 'you', huh?"
"More or less."
A brief pause. "Guess it beats you mop-"
At that moment, a blast of static drowned out whatever would've been said next.
After the noise subsided, Zack hesitantly checked back in. "Okay... Anyone want to tell me what the heck that was?!"
"I have no idea..." Palette trailed off, apparently preoccupied. "...but Zero's gone dark!"
Now that didn't sound good. "Seriously?"
"Nothing." Collecting herself, she ordered, "You need to get in contact with him manually.
"What about the Maverick?"
"Whichever comes first. Now go!"
Ending communication, he did so, unable to shake a weird feeling in his gut...
-000-
Zero could only wish that he was still swamped in the darkness he had originally landed in.
Had he fallen asleep?
If he had, he'd love to wake up now.
One minute, he was trying to get his bearings while keeping the kid in check, the next, everything went black.
What greeted him was a gruesome, yet tragically familiar sight: bodies, dozens of reploid bodies haphazardly piled around him half drowned in their own oil, and his hands absolutely covered in the fluid.
The stuff of his horrid fantasies.
What was more, he could very clearly hear a terrifyingly familiar voice...again.
"Zero..."
It was his girlfriend. The one that was supposedly dead.
Was this Lucien's fake? Whatever the case was, his body didn't seem to care, nor did it seem interested in waiting for an answer.
Like a man possessed, it followed the long-lost groan, taking the baffled mind of the Hunter with it.
As he walked down a seemingly endless corridor, the ghostly wail got ever louder until it suddenly stopped. What it was replaced by would've chilled his blood if he'd had any.
"That's right, my son... Come to me. I can give you what you want. Everything you want."
"Everything..."
For what felt like an eternity, slavishly, he walked. Eventually, a certain silhouette became visible in the distance.
"Zero..."
"Iris?"
"Yes..." Her voice, that which he hadn't heard in person in oh so long, was like ambrosia to him. As he moved closer, he took in every perfect detail, from her soulful brown eyes, to her never-ending flowing brown hair only a few shades darker than her skin.
Just as he held his hand out to touch her cheek, however, he was left in awe in a very different sort of way when it seemed to phase through her body like she wasn't even there.
"No... NO!"
Then, as if to add to his torment, the voice spoke again. "Ah, ah, ah, my son. You get your toy as a reward for being obedient. Do you know what that means?"
The ponytailed blonde shook his head, though a sort of dreadful anticipation flickered on his features.
The holographic image shifted to someone else that looked familiar. A certain Buster-wielding comrade...
Instinctively, the warrior backed away.
"Destroy him. You are more than capable of that."
"Never!"
The image became Iris again. "Why? Don't you love me...?"
"I-I do!" His voice was practically pleading, desperate for a way out of the obvious choice in front of him. "X... Isn't he your friend, too?"
She shook her head. "You aren't naive, Zero. You know there are no true friendships in war. Remember what happened with Blast Hornet?"
He remembered well that the insect-themed reploid had been sent to investigate a potential cure for the Maverick Virus invented by a scientist by the name of Dr. Doppler. He never returned. Sadly, he would wind up being turned against them as a Maverick and meeting his end at the end of X's cannon.
"Besides, destroying your enemies and him is literally baked into your very programming. You know it to be true..."
The nightmares... They couldn't mean...
With an unfitting smirk, the hologram finally faded away.
"You know the deal, Zero," the malevolent voice echoed. "I'll leave you to think it over for now. We're not done here, my son. HAHAHA!"
With that, the world around him followed suit...
-000-
He woke back up surrounded by the corpses of enemies he'd apparently slaughtered...in his sleep.
"...ro! Please tell me you can hear me!"
"Copy..." He internally cringed at how shallow, soft, and dazed his voice sounded, as if he'd just woken up.
"Zero, thank goodness you're alive!" Palette's gratitude melded seamlessly into what could only be described as the sound of a raging beast. "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"
He should've expected that. Unable to effectively roll his eyes over the radio, he settled for what he hoped sounded like an indifferent grunt.
"I'm fine," though the warrior's mind reeled under the force of the reality of the situation. In what world was he fine? He had just been sleepwalking through the mission!
To avoid further questioning, he gave an order. "Location report."
With a sigh, she did what he asked. Apparently, in his sleep, he had made pretty good headway through the maze. He gathered that what had been intended, probably by whatever Maverick awaited him at the end of all this, was that he would be ambushed in the dark by whatever random enemies.
Given his decades of experience, it would've been the equivalent of a mildly irritating training exercise, asleep or awake.
It was the lack of awareness, of control over his own actions that bothered him the most.
As if to prove his point, the path he had been walking went dark again, and despite the many whirring sounds and eyes that surrounded him, his blade cut through them all like butter.
-000-
While all of this was going on, his teenage partner was being kept busy.
Very busy.
Between ducking spotlights that shot lasers on sight (he'd lost a few hairs to this) and dodging parts of the very floor and walls that came to sweep him into the pits below, he had his hands full.
What was he up to now? Well, the spotlights were back, albeit with a fun little twist: he was grinding on a rail hanging over yet another bottomless chasm.
It was here where he got a call from Palette.
"Kinda busy trying not to die, here! What is it?!"
"It's Zero! We've got contact with him again. He's headed for your location."
He was about to respond, but first had to dip under a spotlight that had just barely caught the top of his head. "Good for him! Can this wait until I'm on solid ground and not in imminent danger?"
"Sorry," she nearly pouted, flustered, before hanging up.
-000-
Finally, he made it to the end of the gauntlet and almost went to his hands and knees on the now solid ground, taking a minute to gather himself before making a call of his own. The moment the girl picked up, she got an earful of an angry, disjointed rant about whatever sadistic maniac created the death trap he just went through.
Surprisingly enough, the girl just didn't intervene. She didn't even speak, in fact, instead electing to let him carry on.
"You okay?" She asked simply once he'd worn himself out, as if she'd been anticipating this meltdown.
"Yeah, I guess..." Even as he said this, however, company fell from the ceiling in the form of a rather top-heavy security droid: the fourth one he'd faced thus far, each being smarter than the last! "Not you guys again!"
"I guess I better leave you to it. Keep heading the way you're going, and you should bump into him."
"Right." Before ending things, though... "You let me keep talking because..."
"X has to do a lot, himself. This line of work isn't made for the weak, and we need all the support we can get, wherever we can get it," she answered, her tone a lot less chirpy than usual.
He felt the need to mumble a thanks before returning to the task at hand.
-000-
Rushing down his section to the center where he'd meet his protege, Zero tried his best to force away the images, sights, and sounds he just endured from that almost literal waking nightmare he'd endured. He'd tried compartmentalizing them as was his usual tact with these dreams, but the dread just wouldn't leave him.
"We're not done here, my son."
He knew in his very DNA Soul that "he" was speaking the truth.
"Zero!"
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he legitimately jumped back defensively when he bumped into the boy, who too took a defensive stance in response.
He tried with every fiber of his being to look annoyed, or at least unbothered. The last thing he needed to be doing was showing vulnerability to this...this kid!
Unfortunately, his body refused to cooperate with the demands of his mind.
"What's with you? And why do you look...scared?"
Zack clearly didn't need a full explanation to be able to sense that something really bad was going to happen.
"Nothing you need to be worried about. Let's go." An awful deflection, as well as a total lie. He should be very worried right now...
The foreign voice concurred. "Indeed, he should be..."
Zero froze mid-stride. Not now...
"Yes, my son, now..."
His head ached. Then it ached. Then it throbbed.
He could see through his rapidly darkening vision and inevitably fading bodily control that the kid, though backing away, seemed conflicted about taking off, instead preferring to ask questions.
"What's happening to you? Is that freak controlling you?"
"Worse," the red warrior managed to growl through the pain as it all went black again. "Run. Now. Please..."
-000-
Even though every instinct in Zack Martin's head told him to run for his life, fear won out keeping him rooted to the spot as Zero's writhing in agony stopped as abruptly as it began.
Dull, lifeless eyes reopened, crowned by a glowing white "W" on his head gem.
Whoever or whatever this was, it was obvious that Zero wasn't home.
The first slash, delivered at lightning speed, was enough for said self-preservation instincts to kick back in and force him to dodge and run. It was a minor miracle that the one in control seemed as if he was unaccustomed to the blade and testing it out.
He headed back from whence he came using Speed Burner to get as far away as possible, mind racing, grasping desperately for some idea of what to do next.
Thankfully, his Navigator realized something was wrong and beat him to the inevitable call-in.
"Zack, what's happening out there? You're headed in the wrong direction and Zero's gone missing again!"
Having to duck under a slash that was clearly aimed for his head, he snapped, "You tell me! He just all of a sudden started grabbing his head and then he went crazy, or 'Maverick', or whatever you want to call it!"
Desperate to buy himself a few more moments of breathing, the shorter twin searched his surroundings for shelter. Taking cover behind some non-moving versions of those boxes that had tried to kill him earlier, he could only hope that it would be enough to shield him from view. Otherwise, he was toast.
"But," Palette tried to reason as her frantic tone matching his, but probably not for the reasons that he imagined. "X and Zero can't go Maverick! Their creators' hard-coding prevents it!"
He chose not to ask for elaboration, partly because he didn't care that much, and partly because it wouldn't really help him much anyway right now.
"Then what's out there hunting me down to cut me in two? Because I'm pretty sure it ain't the original."
"I don't know! Maybe..."
"Hold that thought," He whispered tensely, sensing his foe approaching. Thinking quickly, he grabbed one of the boxes using Electro Snatcher and tossed it as far away as possible. Miraculously the one in the driver's seat of Zero's body took the bait, finding the cube and casually cutting it to pieces.
In better circumstances, he might've whooped in delight. Here, he settled for letting himself grin a bit.
Man, was this guy stupid, whoever he was.
His grin disappeared once the girl was in his ear again. "I've got an idea."
"I'd love to hear it."
"Head in the other direction, towards the Maverick. Lure him there. It might buy you some time, at the very least."
Recalling how well he'd seen his mentor fight, he hesitated. "Got any better ideas?"
"You could try a direct fight...but I don't like your chances."
"Right." Throwing another box closer to his own location to get his foe's attention, he used the distraction to pounce from the top of the box stack. "Over HERE!"
The punch he threw was enough to shock the enemy and knock him down, but not much else.
"Zero" got back up and chased as the brawler ran, his body language (if nothing else) implying increasing annoyance.
"You know," Zack called backwards, "This isn't exactly how I pictured our rematch going!"
-000-
Eventually, as he was running, he saw a part of the ceiling low enough to stand out compared to the mostly samey scenery. He didn't need to be prompted to investigate.
Climbing up the wall, he found himself face-to-face with a capsule.
"I see you find yourself in quite the predicament..." The holographic scientist said upon appearing from the open machine.
"You don't say..."
Dr. Light seemed to merely brush aside the boy's try at sass. "Be that as it may, I have something here for both you and X."
Zack would get an armor program meant for X as well as a move for him.
"The Shoryuken. A fiery uppercut that does a lot of damage!"
"Okay... But I can kind of do that on my own with the powers I've got."
"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'beggars can't be choosers', young man?"
Hearing the monster still searching for him below, he relented. "Fair enough. Thanks."
Good luck, Zachary."
The boy's eyes widened, but the capsule closed before he could question how he knew his name...
-000-
Instead of dropping down immediately, Zack decided to take a different approach: he waited for the short period of time until Zero passed right underneath the alcove and then pounced downward, aiming to land right on top of him.
"SURPRISE!"
His plan did work in spite of the heads-up given, as the longer haired warrior barely had time to look up before being crushed. The boy hopped off and ran, intending to use Speed Burner again, only to be enveloped in smoke.
"No, no... Darn it!" He had no choice but to keep moving.
-000-
By the time the doorway to the Maverick was in sight, Zero was not only closing in, but he was pounding the ground, sending green shockwaves of energy his way.
He practically threw himself in the chamber, with a bipedal bug-like robot warping in to face him.
He almost braced himself...until he remembered that he wasn't alone.
Magna Centipede would only watch in confusion as one of his two targets tried rather valiantly to behead the other.
"Hey... Bug Boy... This guy... He's your target right here!"
The teen barely got his words out, being busy avoiding and getting nicked by slashes until he managed to cross his opponent's blade with one of his bladed kicks.
He would have to time this just right...
The dance would continue until Zack managed to maneuver Zero to have his back turned to the flummoxed centipede.
"Here goes... Shoryuken!"
The well-placed fiery uppercut to the chin sent the brainwashed partner up and up and... into the Maverick!
While the inevitable fight took place, the twin slipped back through the motorized doors to find another place to hide.
-000-
"This is really b-bad..." Palette mumbled upon being caught up. Zack didn't have to be his twin in terms of smarts to know that that stammer was an indication that all of this was taking its toll on her.
Before he could bring it up though, a familiar explosion sound told them both that they were just about out of time when it came to thinking about anything.
"Take me out of here," the shorter twin threw out on a whim.
"What?! But Zero..."
"Leave him. We...can come back for him later, can't we?"
One could practically hear the girl grit her teeth as she made her choice.
"Fine. Get ready!"
He did, but not before a certain statement he couldn't have imagined uttering at the beginning of all this crossed his lips, brought on by something new he felt towards the reploid: pity.
"Sorry about this, Zero."
Just as Zero smashed through the chamber, his student warped away...
-000-
From a secret room in the airship...
"Darn! So close..." Isoc grumbled as he stared at his monitor. The boy had managed to escape before he could be silenced, and there's no way they would allow Zero in his compromised state to warp back to their precious Hunter Base...
"Hmph. I was never that good at video games, anyway..."
He thought about it some more.
"Maybe... Maybe I could use this unusual turn of events to my advantage. Hopefully the shark holds up his end of the deal... All I can do right now is take Zero back and let the chips fall a little bit more. In the meantime..."
-TBC-
Should be pretty obvious who's pulling the strings now for any Mega Man fans reading…
Also, SHORYUKEN!
On your way out the door, be sure to ask questions, comment, review and show your support in any way available if you liked what you've read here. Also, keep tabs on this story and profile for more. Goodbye until next time!