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The Dream Machine Chapter 19: Hate “Zero… I saw you run in your room…” Aya said playfully as she knocked on the door to Zero’s quarters. “Now come on out.” She waited for several seconds, but did not hear a reply. “Stop being stupid, open the door.” More silence. “I’ve got more information on X and his problem…” This time, she didn’t have to wait. Zero’s doors opened and a hand pulled her inside. “What is it?” Zero asked before the doors finished closing. “What did you find?” “I thought that would get your attention.” Aya winked, but Zero seemed to be getting impatient. “Anyway, I stumbled upon a site on my own investigation… you’ll never guess who was there!” Just then, the door to Zero’s quarters opened again, and there stood Dr. Sky, with blood splattered over her lab coat. “Zero…” She gasped for breath as she tried to speak. Zero rushed over and started to pat her down, looking for her wounds. Dumbfounded, she stood there, eyes wide, for a moment, before sending Zero face first to the floor with a punch. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” She screamed, blushing madly at the embarrassment. Aya cleared her throat, catching Dr. Sky’s attention. The Reploid pointed to Dr. Sky’s lab coat. She checked herself and remembered she got splattered by blood. A different kind of embarrassment took over, and she started to help Zero up. “Sorry, Zero… I forgot about that.” Dr. Sky led Zero to the sofa. “Are you okay?” Zero still had one eye closed as he rubbed the bump on his head. “Wow, you pack quite a punch, so I guess you’re okay.” Zero chuckled. “What happened to you?” She quickly explained what happened with the mavericks and with Doyle to the two hunters. When she finished her story, she thought about something. “Aya, how much do you know about Doyle? He’s your commander, so…” “I’m a likely suspect, yes.” She nodded. “The thing is, he doesn’t think very much of me.” She grinned in a silly manner and scratched her head. “He thinks I’m kind of a slacker, so he doesn’t include me on any important jobs… Anyway, as I was just telling Zero before you arrived, I found something interesting you should see! She pulled a data chip from her pocket and waved it in the air. “Ready?” She approached the video monitor and placed the ship in the receptor slot. Zero flinched as X’s back appeared on the monitor. While the quality of the video was poor, he was sure that the person on the screen was indeed X. “So you’ve found these new chips… what will you do with them?” Dr. Light’s voice could be heard. X turned around to face the screen, an indifferent expression on his face. “I’m going to find the rest and use the new weapon.” The X buster came into view. “So I don’t need your help anymore, Dr. Wily.” Wily’s cackle echoed in the room. “Don’t need me? You’re funny, X.” X’s eyes flickered with hatred that Zero has never seen before. “Just being in the same room with you makes me sick.” Wily started to laugh, louder and louder. X took several steps backward, shaking his head. The video ended with a bright burst from the X-buster. “Where did you say you got this?” Dr. Sky asked. “At the remains of what I guess is the temporary lair of Dr. Wily.” Aya Answered thoughtfully. “And when I say remains, I mean it. The place was totaled, even considering it could’ve been a dump to begin with.” Aya shook her head. “My guess is that X destroyed the lab.” “How did you find the place?” Zero asked. “And where exactly did you extract this data from?” “Half the place was a smoking crater, so it wasn’t that hard to find.” She rolled her eyes slightly to the side as she spoke. Fib. She thought to herself. “The data was what I could extract from the little remaining circuit boards. It took most of last night to do it.” “So...” Dr. Sky waved her hands slightly. “That’s it for Wily? He’s dead?” “Probably not.” Zero sighed. “He’s still a part of my programming, remember? Even without that, he’s probably found a way to escape getting deleted by X.” “Aya, you haven’t shown this to anyone else, have you?” Dr. Sky looked anxious about something. “No, I haven’t.” “Good.” Said Dr. Sky as the other two looked curiously at her. “This clip alone is not enough to prove the guilt or innocence of X.” She turned her attention to Zero. “We’ll debate that one later, but one thing is certain: if we turn this over to another team working on the investigation, most likely Doyle would find out. We can’t let Doyle know about this, or he could get in our way even more.” “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Aya asked. Dr. Sky responded with an affirmative nod. The female Reploid smiled. “So you want to go after the other chips, too.” “If we had one of the chips, X would come to us…” Zero rubbed his chin. “So where do we find these other chips?” Aya smiled, even more mysteriously and placed a data pad on the coffee table. “This is an unofficial log of Doyle’s whereabouts for the last three months.” Before Aya even finished her sentence, Dr. Sky started to ask something, but Aya held up a hand to stop her. “I’ll explain when it’s relevant. The codes could be at any one of these locations, but these couple here.” She rearranged the list by pressing her finger on the screen. “He visits these ones very frequently. Among them, is the base where I found you, Dr. Sky. From what you have just told me about X stealing one of the codes from that base, we can assume that the other chips at least among some of bases he visits most.” “Is there any other way to narrow them down some more?” Zero studied the list carefully. “Not really.” Aya shook her head. Dr. Sky still looked skeptically at Aya. “Just… pick one.” “How about this one.” Dr. Sky highlighted one of the names on the list. “This was the Natural History Museum, right? I’ve been there several times, so I know the layout of the place… ooo and from your scans, it looks like the air filtration systems are still working! I don’t even need my environment suit for this one.” “You’re not thinking of going!” Zero stood up. “It’s dangerous!” “Hey, you’re not the only one who can spring back to life.” Dr. Sky said sarcastically. “Besides, if it’s really that dangerous, you could deal with the Mavericks while I get the code key.” “She’s got a point.” Aya nodded. “We can’t go and recruit new people, so what you see is what you get.” Zero sighed. “This is why I hate unofficial ops. Look, I can do this by myself.” “I’m not saying you can’t!” Dr. Sky continued to argue. “I just want to help! And you’re not going to leave me alone here with Doyle are you? I mean, he’s already killed one guy, who knows when I might have a convenient accident?” With his arms crossed in front of him, Zero finally nodded in agreement. “Great.” Aya smiled. “I’ve already arranged for transport.” How does she do that? Dr. Sky tried to contain her suspicions to herself. After we get back, I’ve got a few more questions for her… ---------------------------------------- X walked past the display for the Triceratops. It was easy enough breaking down the weak defenses to get into this place. Maybe I didn’t need Wily to begin with. He thought to himself. He was getting close. Large elaborately decorated double doors stood between him and the final exhibit room of the Museum. The main computers must be inside this room. The doors slowly opened towards him with a loud whine. They were the old fashioned types that did not slide sideways. X stepped backwards, slightly surprised the doors started to move on their own accord. Looks like they know I’m here. X looked up at the high vaulted ceiling of the circular room as he entered. In the center of the rotunda were the remains of a fossil display. The bones were lying in a pile in the center. There were no computer screens visible immediately, which was strange, if this was indeed the mainframe room. The lighting of the room was very dim… “Ready?” Zero now stood atop of the fossil pile. “Zero?” X said, awestruck. “I’ve already taken care of things here.” Zero approached X. “I was hoping you would drop by for the code key. What were you going to use the code for, X? Have you moved onto mass murders now?” “You still don’t understand, do you?” X tried to set his face to match Zero’s steel expression, but the arrival of his friend caught him off guard. “I don’t enjoy doing this.” “Sure you do.” Zero pointed his hand at X. “Did you know that you had a smile on your face walking in here?” Zero saw X pull back slightly. “Didn’t even notice, did you? Weren’t you excited when you killed those Reploids guarding this place?” “No...” His wide green eyes were fixed directly on Zero, who now stood several feet away. “No, I wasn’t… I couldn’t…” “But you were.” Zero shook his head, eyes dark with disappointment. “You’ve gone Maverick and you still haven’t admitted it… I was wrong about you.” X looked down at his hands, trace splatters of blood covered his gun arm. “I couldn’t have.” X shook his head. “No…” Ha ha ha ha ha… A maniac’s laughter filled X’s head, it took him a moment to recognize it as his own. They were so funny! So funny! He grasped the sides of his head and fell his knees. Were you looking, X? “You’re nothing but a monster.” Zero leaned over to X and pointed his buster at X’s head. “You are the one that doesn’t deserve to live.” X looked up at Zero, but noticed a curious beam of light behind the red hunter. It was barely noticeable. He wouldn’t have seen it at all if not for the specks of dust that sparkled under the different illumination. Lighting? “Zero…” X whispered, slightly more composed. “You meant it? When I asked you to take care of me if I… became a maverick… that day, when I was flying back from Final Weapon… you said yes… didn’t you?” “Of course X.” Zero kept his buster pointed at X. “Now I’ll keep that promise.” Before Zero could fire his buster, X leapt up and knocked Zero off his feet. A blue light emanated from X’s buster arm as he charged his buster. “You’re not Zero.” X’s expressionless eyes met Zero’s. “The lighting. The lie. There are no monitors in this room, the lighting is dim, except for the different beams set up around this room. This place is set up hologramatic beams, all the monitors are hidden so they wouldn’t interfere. Zero never told me he would kill me if I became a Maverick. You are not Zero. You are just a Maverick.” Without another word, X fired, leaving a smoking crater where the false Zero laid. X looked towards the pile of fossils, where the Maverick rolled towards. “Futile attempt.” The Maverick grinned, still wearing Zero’s appearance. “So you’ve figured out that I’m not Zero. Looks like it will be more difficult to kill you than I thought.” “X!” It was Zero’s voice again, but from a different source. Zero, Aya, and Dr. Sky stood at the large doorway. Dr. Sky’s eyes were wide when she saw the other Zero lurking behind X. “I’m out of here!” The saluted, then teleported away. “Zero…” X turned his attention to the real Zero. “Dr. Sky, go get the code key.” Zero said. Dr. Sky looked around for a moment and found what seemed to be a possible interface. She started to head for it, keeping her eye on X the entire time. She ran her hand along the bottom edge of a mounted display and found a latch. Pressing it, the display started to sink in, and slid away as a computer monitor and a keypad appeared. “The code key is mine.” X said evenly, glancing over to the computer as Dr. Sky tried to break into the system. “Tell her to give it to me.” “What’s the matter, X? Can’t you fight?” Zero narrowed his eyes, and drew his Z-saber. “I brought one for you, too.” Zero brought out the Z-Saber that X had given back and tossed towards him. “If you’re going to do it, then have no regrets.” X picked up the sword, activated it, and pointed it at Zero. “Alright. Have it your way.” Almost like a ballet, X and Zero engaged each other in a sword fight. Aya watched the battle, smiling slightly. I was right, this is fun to watch. Aya thought to herself. She looked over to Dr. Sky, who ejected a disk out of the computer and started to run back to Aya. Well, that was fast. “I got it.” She announced, hoping the two would stop fighting now. To her dismay, X started to fight more aggressively. “Give me the key code!” X demanded. Zero laughed, blocking another hit from X. “You’re going to have to kill me first.” X swung around and aimed the saber at Zero’s torso. To his surprise, Zero did not evade or block the very basic attack. X’s saber connected, sending Zero flying down to the ground. “ZERO!” Dr. Sky ran towards the wounded Hunter. Zero tried to get up, but it made the wound bleed even faster. “Don’t move!” She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it over the bleeding wound, but it immediately became saturated with blood. “Oh god… Aya!” She turned and looked helplessly at the hunter, who was looking at X with an inquisitive expression. “If you’re going to do it, then have no regrets.” “Well, you did it.” Aya said plainly to X. “You got him. Go ahead, finish him off.” X stepped towards Zero, but Dr. Sky flashed him an angry look. The expression reminded him of something painful… “Why!” The girl looked up angrily at X. “Why couldn’t you save my mom!” “I’m sorry.” X replied. “I didn’t get here in time… I couldn’t stop the building from collapsing…” “I hate you, I HATE YOU!” The girl ran away from X. X turned his gaze to Zero, who was now unconscious. “I hate you.” Dr. Sky breathed and shook her head. X staggered backwards, his head filled with voices again. He held his hand up, trying to block something, while his other hand hovered over his chest. Aya reached Dr. Sky and Zero, and put a hand Dr. Sky shoulder. “The shields have been deactivated since that other Zero left.” She whispered to Dr. Sky. “I’m going to teleport you out of here. It’ll hurt Zero tons, since he’s hurt, so keep an eye on him when we arrive, okay?” Dr. Sky nodded, and the three started to teleport away. “Zero.. wait!” X’s arms shot out and he ran towards the dematerializing crowd. “I didn’t…!” They were gone. “I hate you.” Fan Fiction - Top |
