Sixty Days: Game
"I think it's rather unfair I can't even move my own piece," X teased, smirking across the chess board.
Zero tilted his head, not looking at him, instead at the board. "Why not make up some data pieces then?"
"I'm an Elf, Zero, not a magician." X pointed toward his white knight piece. "That…" he pointed to Zero's rook with a triumphant smile. "There."
Zero blinked, squinted at the board, then swore. "You did that on purpose," he accused, but moved the piece and placed his rook on X's side of the board.
X rolled his effervescent eyes, smiling. "You're just not really in the game."
Found out, Zero slumped with a heavy sigh, losing his fake smile. "I forgot you're damn good at that."
"Observation is the key to chess." X vanished for a second, then reappeared next to Zero on the couch. "Zero, you're still mulling over it, aren't you?"
"Of course I am." Zero sighed again, dropping his head into his hands and gripping his helmet. "I can't… You know. I never failed anything since waking up. Go here. Destroy this boss. Scout this. Save this. I did it all, but when something is important to me, I just failed utterly."
X's body shimmered, breaking up like a bad static image as his own sadness flooded his being. He raised his hand to put it on Zero's slumped shoulder, but stilled the movement with a forlorn look. Zero dropped his hands, turning his head to look at him.
"Look at you," Zero muttered. "You've been nothing but helpful and patient with me, helping me remember who I was, helping me cope with my new life, and I couldn't even protect you. Feh, some best friend I turned out to be."
"You can't blame yourself, Zero," X said gently, dropping his hand back into his shimmering lap. "It's almost a wish come true. I always thought if there was a peaceful way for me to die, it'd be in my sleep."
"You were murdered in your sleep! How can you be so forgiving?" Zero rose to his feet, stalking to the nearby window and raising his arm to lean against it, resting his forehead on his forearm. "Were you always this… nonchalant?"
X couldn't help the small smile at Zero's frustration toward him. "Kind of. I guess I just… accept it easier. I always knew, once I decided to seal the Dark Elf… that I'd never really be allowed to 'live' again."
Zero turned enough to look over his shoulder, and X bowed his head so his old friend couldn't see his expression.
"I knew…" X muttered, "That I'll never get to experience the peace I strove for… I won't physically be there to see the wonderful things humans and Reploids can achieve together. I knew, and I guess the destruction of my body was simply the termination of temptation. But that's okay." X looked up, smiling. "I can say I helped bring about that peace, I got to watch over Ciel and… I got to see you one last time."
Zero dropped his arms, staring out the window for several seconds before crossing his arms over his chest with a heavy sigh. "When around you, I feel like I can remember," Zero said quietly. "You have this aura around you that triggers something in me. I see blurry faces, hear static-filled voices, and there's camaraderie with people I hardly recall from over a hundred years ago. I want to remember them… remember you, again."
X stood, his footsteps silent as he walked up to Zero. "You have a new life now, Zero. They aren't going to hate you if you decide to make a new you, live a new way."
"There's nothing here for me."
"Oh hmm? I believe our sweet Ciel has taken quite the liking to you."
"She's human," Zero turned around to face him, frowning slightly. "Ciel's a nice girl, but, I don't think it's worth pursuing anything other than friendship, as I could die at any given moment."
"Well, you aren't going to die right now around me."
"Don't be a smart ass."
"I'm just saying, I have full faith in that you can save the world and live to enjoy the harmony." X smiled at him, yet Zero saw it as empty. "If you love her, then love her."
"I don't love her."
"You could grow to--"
Zero raised his hand, making X cease in his words. "I don't want to love her, X. Ciel deserves a nice, normal human man who can provide her a nice, normal human family. I'm a Reploid, a combat unit, made only to fight. When the peace comes, I'll be useless. Sure, I can always stick around and defend that peace from any would-be future Elpizo's or whatever… but all I live for is to fight."
"That's not true."
"It isn't?"
X lifted his hand and put it against Zero's carefully, making sure he did not go through his friend's own hand. "You live for what you believe in, what you love, what you wish to do in life," X said carefully. "I lived for peace, for harmony, for happiness, because that's what I wanted. You told me yourself, many times, you wished you didn't have to fight… if you want to settle down with a nice girl, then do so. If you want to hang up your saber and live like a human, then do so. Life is what you make it, Zero."
Zero stared at their hands, gazing mournfully at how unreal X was. He didn't feel a thing from that shimmering hand, and if he moved his at all, he'll go right through him. X technically didn't even exist anymore.
"I wanted…" Zero murmured, his mind working as X's words stirred something in him. "Some sort of life… with you… with… our other partner, and… maybe the girls…"
X smiled, brilliant and happy, as the fragments of memory Zero was grasping. "Do you remember his name? The girls' names?"
"No." Zero dropped his hand from X's, moving toward the couch again. "And I guess it doesn't matter anymore, since they aren't alive anymore."
"So you should think of other goals to do when the fighting is over."
"I think re-building you is a decent one."
X laughed, shaking his head. "You're like a child!" X said, ignoring the glare Zero shot at him. "You can't justify your existence based on me, Zero. You're your own person… I am just a friend, a guide. You don't need me to live."
Zero shrugged. "No, I don't. But I like having you around." He motioned to the seat X was in before.
X vanished and reappeared in the chair, his halo shimmering vibrantly. Zero felt, despite not remembering all the major details, that the angelic form X's spirit took on was quite fitting for him. For all he had done for the humans, despite their stubbornness, X certainly deserved to go to whatever 'heaven' awaited the Reploids.
"You're just being stubborn and trying to hold on to your previous statement. You think I am your reason for fighting, my beliefs should be yours."
"That I do, and I am correct."
"Pah! You're just stubborn."
"I am." Zero leaned over the board, picking up his queen piece and gliding her over the glass surface to where X's knight had been before taking his rook. "Check."
X pointed where he wanted his king piece to go, and Zero moved it. "Living for a dead person isn't a way to live," X said quietly as Zero took his turn.
"Better than no reason at all." Zero said, his eyes scanning the board. If he could move his other rook to the left side…
"You're not observant to finding another reason," X said, pointing to his own queen piece, then pointing to a corner. When Zero moved the piece into place, X looked at him triumphantly. "Checkmate."
"Wha…" Zero stared at the board, and his eyes widened. His king was boxed in by X's rooks and queen, no where he could move.
Zero sighed, accepting defeat. "You win."
X chuckled, giving Zero a quick wink. "In the end, I always do."
"That's what you think. Best two out of three."
X smirked, leaning back as Zero re-arranged the glass pieces back into the beginning mode. He knew Zero would resume their argument as well as their game, but so long as Zero was short-sighted and did not open his mind or heart, X would win, game and argument. Maybe a few losses would get him to think.
"What if I win all three times?"
"You won't."
"If I do?"
Zero smirked. "Then I just might take your advice."
The spark of the old Zero in him, the one X remembered so fondly, made the Cyber Elf seem more solid in his happiness. These days of peace, of Neo Arcadia's silence as Ciel researched her energy source, were becoming some of X's most treasured last moments.