Chapter Twenty-Eight: Always There
Telling Axl his new orders went over easier than Zero expected—especially after he realized where exactly he was being placed. X was less than amused by their son's joyful acceptance, but Zero quickly steered him out of the room before he exploded and damaged their relationship any more than it was.
Dinner was tense and quiet that night, with Zero giving up on making small talk within the first five minutes. X finished eating first, and with a mumbled good night, retired to the bedroom, leaving Zero and his adopted son alone.
Axl took a long drink from his soda before finally speaking, "I don't hate Pops."
Zero flicked at a salad leaf. "That's a relief. X doesn't hate you either, but obviously a 'sorry' isn't gonna fix this stupid rift."
Axl sighed heavily, looking down forlornly at his half eaten dinner. Despite the hunger program still running, he couldn't bring himself to eat another bite, so he turned the annoying program off. "I just… wish he'd let me…"
"He'll come around, at least somewhat," Zero interjected. "He's just very worried about you."
"I know. Tell him I love him, okay? I'm going to bed now." With that, Axl stood up and kissed Zero's forehead. "Love ya, Dad. G'night."
"Love you, Axl, 'night." The blond watched impassively as Axl put his plate in the kitchen, courteous enough to dump his uneaten food and wash the dish before heading to his room.
Zero sat at the table for a while yet, staring at the gradually wilting salad. A dull, familiar ache was originating from the back of his head, and he winced as the pain bled toward the front of his head. He rubbed his forehead, closing his eyes with a deep sigh before pinching the bridge of his nose.
Ever since disconnecting from X since their little connection session in the Recharge Room, Zero had felt a little lethargic. He reasoned it was just an after-effect from such an amazing rush of energy and raw emotion, but it had yet to really subside, and it made the blond feel incredibly lazy, something he never truly was and it jarred him a little.
Probably just a minor system crash, Zero reasoned, we did get into it pretty heavily. I'll run diagnostics when I go to sleep.
Assured himself thusly, Zero slowly rose to his feet and dragged himself to the kitchen. Unlike Axl, he just dropped the plate into the sink, not minding the crack forming in the dish, and barely managed to get up the stairs.
Zero fumbled with the doorknob, his eyes feeling so incredibly heavy. He did not even realize how ragged and exhausted he was from today's event, and set his internal clock to wake him earlier so he could get to a recharge pod before work.
X was already dead asleep by the time Zero managed to get into the room. The blond threw off his clothes, but felt too tired to bother putting on pajamas; he fell ungracefully onto the bed naked, his head not quite on a pillow. Even if he was uncomfortable, Zero was just too tired and lethargic to care and adjust himself, falling into hibernation then and there. He never did turn on his diagnostics.
~*~
When Zero and X, separate from Axl again, came into the Base and reported in to Signas, Layer intercepted them coming out of the office.
She handed the bleary-eyed Zero a stack of papers and looked pointedly at X. "Sorry, X, but any missions you get today, I'll be your Navigator."
X blinked at her, as if coming out of a trance. "Uh," he rubbed his eyes, then seemed a lot more alert. "No offense to you, Layer, but Alia is my Navigator."
"I know, but Alia suffered a break down and has been put on standby for the rest of the day, as per Signas' orders. Palette will be guiding Zero for today; which, Zero, you're off Jakob. It's been halted until the New-Gens are finished."
Zero also now seemed more alert. "Alia broke down? Is she okay? What happened?"
Layer shrugged before crossing her arms under her breasts, tilting her hips. "She asked to take over my duty of analyzing the spy data Axl has gotten, so I went home. Next thing I know, I'm getting a call to come finish out Alia's shift because she frazzled out. Lifesaver won't let anyone but Signas see her, and when I asked what was wrong, he just kicked me out of the medical bay." She bit her lower lip, a sign of worry. "If she's down all day, it must have been bad…"
Zero and X glanced at each other, brows furrowed. X did an about face suddenly, going right back into Signas' office. Now suddenly finding herself alone with her previous crush, Layer nervously pushed some of her long, violet hair behind her ear as she glanced shyly at the floor. Zero glanced at the papers in his hands, sighed, looked at the office door, then back to the blushing Navigator.
"You all right, Layer?" Zero asked, tucking the sheaf of papers under his arm. "Need me to take you to the medical bay?"
"N-no…" Layer kept her hand over her ear. "I just… I'm still not used to knowing that… you know, you and X…"
"It's nearly been a year, Layer, how can you not be used to it?" Zero chuckled.
Layer blushed harder. "I-I used to like… you, you know?"
"Oh…" Zero glanced away, suddenly embarrassed. He knew many women had a crush on him, but for some reason, he found this particular situation awkward. Where did all his usual confidence go? "A-ah… I'm sorry? I really didn't…"
"No, no, it's okay. I didn't mean to bring that up… but I am glad to know you're happy." Layer gave Zero a genuine smile, and it reminded the blond why he liked her enough to make her his permanent Navigator.
"Chin up," Zero said, placing a friendly hand on Layer's shoulder. "You'll…" Don't say that phrase… you just might curse her like you did… "…get lucky too." Too close? Will she be okay after this?
Layer nodded, stepping away and giving him a polite, shy wave of goodbye before heading back to the Navigation Room. Zero watched her go, awkwardness and strange feelings slowly bleeding out of him as she got further and further away.
Feeling more like himself when Layer was away, Zero turned just as the office door opened and X ambled out, a frown on his face.
"Well?" the blond asked, reading the agitation and anxiousness on X's face. It was sort of odd, seeing X so… negatively affected by everything; that was usually Zero's thing. "Signas tell you anything?"
X's frown deepened. "Not a damn thing. Started quoting the damn HIPAA code at me but assured me when she's recovered he'll let me know."
"Oh, bullshit,"
"Tell me about it! Fuck this HIPAA shit, I'm going to the medical bay and seeing my Navigator!"
Zero took a small step back at X's outburst, watching with wide eyes as X turned, marching off to do just as he declared. His boyfriend was getting really stressed out, and worry wormed into Zero and spread like a virus throughout his being. He had to do something to help X…
Something, something… Zero glanced at the papers still under his arm and mentally cursed. This month sucks hardcore!
~*~
"Oh, Axl!" Delia nearly squealed. "I heard from the Commander you were transferred here but I hardly believed it, yet here you are! Why the transfer though? Not that I'm not thrilled but…"
Axl blushed a bit, twirling the wrench in his hand. "Oh… figured I'd take a break from the field."
Delia pressed a hand to her chest, letting out what seemed to be a breath of relief. "I'm glad to hear that," she said. Suddenly she was much closer, and Axl's face turned a deeper red. "I heard Red Alert's been trying to find you… and they're doing atrocious things! I was so worried you'd stay out in the field and get caught… but now you can stay here where it's safe…" she leaned closer, "… with me."
Axl stammered, his mind going completely blank at the way she uttered those two words. He dropped her gaze and looked back down at the basic arm cannon he was fixing, willing his face to cool off and to try and drain some of the pigmentation. Delia giggled, running a hand along the back of his shoulders before going back to her work station with Douglas, who had been yelling for her since she dashed away from him ten minutes ago.
The young Reploid tinkered with the cannon, unable to resist glancing up once in a while to catch glimpses of Delia as she flitted throughout the Engineering Department, fetching tools or parts for Douglas or resuming where he left off when he was called elsewhere. Just the few minutes Axl spared to watch her, he could tell she was incredibly brilliant and very sharp-minded, something Axl found wondrously fascinating, and something he would want in a girl…
Oh jeez. Axl resumed his work, carefully reconnecting wires. You don't even know if Delia would go for that. Which, in hindsight, makes this fight with Pops that much worse.
Yet even as he tried to focus on the task at hand, which really was simple and any half-brained Reploid could do it, Axl still kept glancing up to follow Delia with his eyes. She had a unique look to her, with the green hair and pink eyes, but somehow they meshed well together with her creamy skin and obviously super-model based body. Delia was gorgeous, everyone knew—in fact, if Axl bothered to strain his memory, there was one point he heard rumors of how there was a little contest between all the Navigators, Delia, and even Iris over whom was the most beautiful. Recalling Iris and all the other females Axl knew, he could safely say he did prefer Alia's more homely appearance, but he would never turn down someone was sexy as Delia.
Something about the way he thought made Axl sputter and his face turn a deep, deep red, and he dropped his eyes just as Delia turned to face him. 'Sexy' was a word Axl never really used for another person, if at all, and now that he was beginning to associate it with a female, a sort of discomfort blossomed in him. It made him squirm in his seat, and made it just that much harder to focus on reattaching wires.
Quit thinking like that! Axl admonished himself, hurriedly trying to resume his work. Delia is just really pretty and nice and smart and I bet she feels really soft and—no, stop thinking, Axl!
Realizing he was making stupid mistakes on an easy task, Axl threw his hands up in the air in frustration. They won't let him stay in Engineering, near Delia, if he couldn't do something as simple as basic cleaning and putting an arm cannon back together!
"Hurry it up, boy," Douglas' voice cut through, making Axl jump. "That's for Alia, and she'll be coming down whenever she wakes up for it, and we want it ready!"
"Alia?" Axl raised an eyebrow.
Douglas gave him a look that Axl didn't appreciate. "Since the Repliforce incident, it's been decided all Hunter-associated Reploids will have basic weaponry calibrated to their systems so in case of a home attack, we won't be as devastated. Alia's more of a shooter type of gal, so she asked for a buster like X's. Have you even started on the thing?"
"No offense, but who the hell thought of that stupid rule?" Axl asked, even as he resumed his work, "What if one of them goes Maverick?"
"We gotta take our orders from the human council. Signas can only pull so much before he gets risked for… retirement. Giving Iris and Colonel a proper burial probably has him on the hit list already."
Axl snorted. "Humans are so short-sighted. Sometimes you have to wonder if it's really a Virus makin' Mavericks."
Douglas didn't explode like Axl was expecting or hoping he would. Instead, to the young boy's amazement, the Engineer shrugged. "Sometimes we all think like that. But then you gotta think, if them Mavs are going by their own free will, who exactly is at fault? The humans who drove them to that point, or the weakness that Mav possessed to not persevere despite? Balance is the key, boy, just like in weaponry."
Axl blinked at him, even as Douglas walked off and left him alone with his unfinished buster. Something about what Douglas said made Axl shiver, as if they had a foreboding meaning underneath it all.
Who is at fault?
Axl shook the feeling off. Sigma was at fault of course, and once he, and Red Alert, was gone, people like Axl could settle down and live a decent, normal, peaceful life.
His eyes shifted to Delia again.
~*~
Alia never did deal with confrontations well, having blundered many a possible relationship because she hated confronting a person, including herself. She liked things to be plain and simple, black and white—even as a scientist, she sought to break down the complex to its simple roots. Once something was broken down, she could do with it as she wanted, build it back, and it'll work the way she intended.
This, however, was nothing like she intended, and was far too complex even for her scientist side. Her mind swam, her emotional chip felt like it was melting and she had to fight the urge to shut herself down all over again just for the obliterating feeling of falling. This had too much 'what if' thinking involved without enough facts to make any sort of scientific hypothesis, and way too much emotional involvement to even think clearly in the first place. She was Alia—she liked complicated things. Wait, didn't she just think she didn't? She couldn't even keep up with her mind anymore; it felt that out there.
"Alia," Lifesaver's grating voice cut through and she cringed. He didn't seem to take offense though. "Tell me what caused your emotional influx and eventual malfunction. What were you doing? What did you see that caused you to BS-D?"
Blue Screen of Death—anyone who knew computers knew what that was, and Alia was a walking computer. Every Reploid went through Blue Screen of Death once in their lifetime, even if kept in pristine condition. It was like an unrecorded Newton's Law—if it was a computer, it Blue Screened. Alia once tried to find ways to prevent BS-Ds in Reploids, thinking maybe it could lead to eventual discoveries related to the Maverick Virus and how it corrupted Reploid and Mechanoloid systems. Why, when she was a scientist before she signed up with the Hunters, she had once…
"Alia!"
Alia blinked, then looked at Lifesaver. "What?"
Lifesaver frowned deeply, and she nearly cringed again. No wonder Cain didn't like him—Lifesaver frowning wasn't a nice sight. "What caused the BS-D?"
If she thought about it again, Alia was sure she'd overload again and force a BS-D. Why couldn't this idiot see that? Fine, it was his medical license if he kept breaking her. "I was analyzing the spy data Axl had been gathering," she said, carefully accessing the memory files. So far so good. "He saw Red there, so we know Red Alert is now in league with a group of sophisticated scientists. According to Axl's recordings, they recovered a piece of Sigma that, I presume, somehow survived not just Final Weapon's explosion but also re-entering the atmosphere. How it did, I can't wrap my current mind around."
"None of that gives plausible reason for your overload, Alia. Quit skipping details."
Assnut! "I'm not. In fact, that should trouble even you! A fragment of Sigma, recovered! In the hands of Red Alert, who have in their possession infected Reploids?" Alia scowled. "We should be getting Zero and X on them right away!"
Lifesaver glanced at the diagnostic screen, wired to Alia's shoulder ports, and gave her such a chilling look she had to really try to not flinch away into her chair. "Alia. "
She finally threw her hands up into the air just as the medical door opened. "Fine! I saw Gate!"
It was as if turning to see who dared intrude, plus saying his name and the images associated with it, was the final draw for Alia. When her eyes met that of Signas', she broke down into sobs, pulling her knees to her chest and hiding her face as torrents of tears and helplessness bleed out of her. Signas froze in the doorway, X behind him, the room still with shock and Alia's desperate crying.
"Who's… Gate?" Lifesaver cautiously edged.
Alia shook her head, rocking herself as she tried to will her system to quit popping up all the error messages and to slow down. Her performance was starting to lag, her system cache exploding, processes freezing and force quitting, but she had to fight off the eventual BS-D. She couldn't keep shutting down each time she thought of Gate…
"He was my fiancé," Alia sobbed, "Was, before I killed him. Left him the way he is. Maybe I should have just shot him in the damn head!"
"Alia…" Signas' deep voice rumbled, a soothing black wave of constant strength, and Alia reached toward him blindly.
Awkwardly, Signas took her hand, and X turned around and left the medical bay. Too much drama in his life already, X wasn't ready to hear Alia's just yet. He'll see her later, when she was calmer.
So we got Red Alert and some dude named Gate who knows Alia. Great! My week is looking up wonderfully. X thought bitterly. He needed to find Zero; a connection with his lover would do wonders for him right now. After that, he could go see Axl… maybe. Depended on how deep he and Zero got into their moment.
Alia didn't bother looking up when she heard someone walk away, just gripped Signas' hand and tried to settle herself down. What she saw on that recording, what she heard, shattered her heart.
Gate, you're still trying so hard… but for all the wrong reasons again, aren't you?
<--- PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER --->
Telling Axl his new orders went over easier than Zero expected—especially after he realized where exactly he was being placed. X was less than amused by their son's joyful acceptance, but Zero quickly steered him out of the room before he exploded and damaged their relationship any more than it was.
Dinner was tense and quiet that night, with Zero giving up on making small talk within the first five minutes. X finished eating first, and with a mumbled good night, retired to the bedroom, leaving Zero and his adopted son alone.
Axl took a long drink from his soda before finally speaking, "I don't hate Pops."
Zero flicked at a salad leaf. "That's a relief. X doesn't hate you either, but obviously a 'sorry' isn't gonna fix this stupid rift."
Axl sighed heavily, looking down forlornly at his half eaten dinner. Despite the hunger program still running, he couldn't bring himself to eat another bite, so he turned the annoying program off. "I just… wish he'd let me…"
"He'll come around, at least somewhat," Zero interjected. "He's just very worried about you."
"I know. Tell him I love him, okay? I'm going to bed now." With that, Axl stood up and kissed Zero's forehead. "Love ya, Dad. G'night."
"Love you, Axl, 'night." The blond watched impassively as Axl put his plate in the kitchen, courteous enough to dump his uneaten food and wash the dish before heading to his room.
Zero sat at the table for a while yet, staring at the gradually wilting salad. A dull, familiar ache was originating from the back of his head, and he winced as the pain bled toward the front of his head. He rubbed his forehead, closing his eyes with a deep sigh before pinching the bridge of his nose.
Ever since disconnecting from X since their little connection session in the Recharge Room, Zero had felt a little lethargic. He reasoned it was just an after-effect from such an amazing rush of energy and raw emotion, but it had yet to really subside, and it made the blond feel incredibly lazy, something he never truly was and it jarred him a little.
Probably just a minor system crash, Zero reasoned, we did get into it pretty heavily. I'll run diagnostics when I go to sleep.
Assured himself thusly, Zero slowly rose to his feet and dragged himself to the kitchen. Unlike Axl, he just dropped the plate into the sink, not minding the crack forming in the dish, and barely managed to get up the stairs.
Zero fumbled with the doorknob, his eyes feeling so incredibly heavy. He did not even realize how ragged and exhausted he was from today's event, and set his internal clock to wake him earlier so he could get to a recharge pod before work.
X was already dead asleep by the time Zero managed to get into the room. The blond threw off his clothes, but felt too tired to bother putting on pajamas; he fell ungracefully onto the bed naked, his head not quite on a pillow. Even if he was uncomfortable, Zero was just too tired and lethargic to care and adjust himself, falling into hibernation then and there. He never did turn on his diagnostics.
~*~
When Zero and X, separate from Axl again, came into the Base and reported in to Signas, Layer intercepted them coming out of the office.
She handed the bleary-eyed Zero a stack of papers and looked pointedly at X. "Sorry, X, but any missions you get today, I'll be your Navigator."
X blinked at her, as if coming out of a trance. "Uh," he rubbed his eyes, then seemed a lot more alert. "No offense to you, Layer, but Alia is my Navigator."
"I know, but Alia suffered a break down and has been put on standby for the rest of the day, as per Signas' orders. Palette will be guiding Zero for today; which, Zero, you're off Jakob. It's been halted until the New-Gens are finished."
Zero also now seemed more alert. "Alia broke down? Is she okay? What happened?"
Layer shrugged before crossing her arms under her breasts, tilting her hips. "She asked to take over my duty of analyzing the spy data Axl has gotten, so I went home. Next thing I know, I'm getting a call to come finish out Alia's shift because she frazzled out. Lifesaver won't let anyone but Signas see her, and when I asked what was wrong, he just kicked me out of the medical bay." She bit her lower lip, a sign of worry. "If she's down all day, it must have been bad…"
Zero and X glanced at each other, brows furrowed. X did an about face suddenly, going right back into Signas' office. Now suddenly finding herself alone with her previous crush, Layer nervously pushed some of her long, violet hair behind her ear as she glanced shyly at the floor. Zero glanced at the papers in his hands, sighed, looked at the office door, then back to the blushing Navigator.
"You all right, Layer?" Zero asked, tucking the sheaf of papers under his arm. "Need me to take you to the medical bay?"
"N-no…" Layer kept her hand over her ear. "I just… I'm still not used to knowing that… you know, you and X…"
"It's nearly been a year, Layer, how can you not be used to it?" Zero chuckled.
Layer blushed harder. "I-I used to like… you, you know?"
"Oh…" Zero glanced away, suddenly embarrassed. He knew many women had a crush on him, but for some reason, he found this particular situation awkward. Where did all his usual confidence go? "A-ah… I'm sorry? I really didn't…"
"No, no, it's okay. I didn't mean to bring that up… but I am glad to know you're happy." Layer gave Zero a genuine smile, and it reminded the blond why he liked her enough to make her his permanent Navigator.
"Chin up," Zero said, placing a friendly hand on Layer's shoulder. "You'll…" Don't say that phrase… you just might curse her like you did… "…get lucky too." Too close? Will she be okay after this?
Layer nodded, stepping away and giving him a polite, shy wave of goodbye before heading back to the Navigation Room. Zero watched her go, awkwardness and strange feelings slowly bleeding out of him as she got further and further away.
Feeling more like himself when Layer was away, Zero turned just as the office door opened and X ambled out, a frown on his face.
"Well?" the blond asked, reading the agitation and anxiousness on X's face. It was sort of odd, seeing X so… negatively affected by everything; that was usually Zero's thing. "Signas tell you anything?"
X's frown deepened. "Not a damn thing. Started quoting the damn HIPAA code at me but assured me when she's recovered he'll let me know."
"Oh, bullshit,"
"Tell me about it! Fuck this HIPAA shit, I'm going to the medical bay and seeing my Navigator!"
Zero took a small step back at X's outburst, watching with wide eyes as X turned, marching off to do just as he declared. His boyfriend was getting really stressed out, and worry wormed into Zero and spread like a virus throughout his being. He had to do something to help X…
Something, something… Zero glanced at the papers still under his arm and mentally cursed. This month sucks hardcore!
~*~
"Oh, Axl!" Delia nearly squealed. "I heard from the Commander you were transferred here but I hardly believed it, yet here you are! Why the transfer though? Not that I'm not thrilled but…"
Axl blushed a bit, twirling the wrench in his hand. "Oh… figured I'd take a break from the field."
Delia pressed a hand to her chest, letting out what seemed to be a breath of relief. "I'm glad to hear that," she said. Suddenly she was much closer, and Axl's face turned a deeper red. "I heard Red Alert's been trying to find you… and they're doing atrocious things! I was so worried you'd stay out in the field and get caught… but now you can stay here where it's safe…" she leaned closer, "… with me."
Axl stammered, his mind going completely blank at the way she uttered those two words. He dropped her gaze and looked back down at the basic arm cannon he was fixing, willing his face to cool off and to try and drain some of the pigmentation. Delia giggled, running a hand along the back of his shoulders before going back to her work station with Douglas, who had been yelling for her since she dashed away from him ten minutes ago.
The young Reploid tinkered with the cannon, unable to resist glancing up once in a while to catch glimpses of Delia as she flitted throughout the Engineering Department, fetching tools or parts for Douglas or resuming where he left off when he was called elsewhere. Just the few minutes Axl spared to watch her, he could tell she was incredibly brilliant and very sharp-minded, something Axl found wondrously fascinating, and something he would want in a girl…
Oh jeez. Axl resumed his work, carefully reconnecting wires. You don't even know if Delia would go for that. Which, in hindsight, makes this fight with Pops that much worse.
Yet even as he tried to focus on the task at hand, which really was simple and any half-brained Reploid could do it, Axl still kept glancing up to follow Delia with his eyes. She had a unique look to her, with the green hair and pink eyes, but somehow they meshed well together with her creamy skin and obviously super-model based body. Delia was gorgeous, everyone knew—in fact, if Axl bothered to strain his memory, there was one point he heard rumors of how there was a little contest between all the Navigators, Delia, and even Iris over whom was the most beautiful. Recalling Iris and all the other females Axl knew, he could safely say he did prefer Alia's more homely appearance, but he would never turn down someone was sexy as Delia.
Something about the way he thought made Axl sputter and his face turn a deep, deep red, and he dropped his eyes just as Delia turned to face him. 'Sexy' was a word Axl never really used for another person, if at all, and now that he was beginning to associate it with a female, a sort of discomfort blossomed in him. It made him squirm in his seat, and made it just that much harder to focus on reattaching wires.
Quit thinking like that! Axl admonished himself, hurriedly trying to resume his work. Delia is just really pretty and nice and smart and I bet she feels really soft and—no, stop thinking, Axl!
Realizing he was making stupid mistakes on an easy task, Axl threw his hands up in the air in frustration. They won't let him stay in Engineering, near Delia, if he couldn't do something as simple as basic cleaning and putting an arm cannon back together!
"Hurry it up, boy," Douglas' voice cut through, making Axl jump. "That's for Alia, and she'll be coming down whenever she wakes up for it, and we want it ready!"
"Alia?" Axl raised an eyebrow.
Douglas gave him a look that Axl didn't appreciate. "Since the Repliforce incident, it's been decided all Hunter-associated Reploids will have basic weaponry calibrated to their systems so in case of a home attack, we won't be as devastated. Alia's more of a shooter type of gal, so she asked for a buster like X's. Have you even started on the thing?"
"No offense, but who the hell thought of that stupid rule?" Axl asked, even as he resumed his work, "What if one of them goes Maverick?"
"We gotta take our orders from the human council. Signas can only pull so much before he gets risked for… retirement. Giving Iris and Colonel a proper burial probably has him on the hit list already."
Axl snorted. "Humans are so short-sighted. Sometimes you have to wonder if it's really a Virus makin' Mavericks."
Douglas didn't explode like Axl was expecting or hoping he would. Instead, to the young boy's amazement, the Engineer shrugged. "Sometimes we all think like that. But then you gotta think, if them Mavs are going by their own free will, who exactly is at fault? The humans who drove them to that point, or the weakness that Mav possessed to not persevere despite? Balance is the key, boy, just like in weaponry."
Axl blinked at him, even as Douglas walked off and left him alone with his unfinished buster. Something about what Douglas said made Axl shiver, as if they had a foreboding meaning underneath it all.
Who is at fault?
Axl shook the feeling off. Sigma was at fault of course, and once he, and Red Alert, was gone, people like Axl could settle down and live a decent, normal, peaceful life.
His eyes shifted to Delia again.
~*~
Alia never did deal with confrontations well, having blundered many a possible relationship because she hated confronting a person, including herself. She liked things to be plain and simple, black and white—even as a scientist, she sought to break down the complex to its simple roots. Once something was broken down, she could do with it as she wanted, build it back, and it'll work the way she intended.
This, however, was nothing like she intended, and was far too complex even for her scientist side. Her mind swam, her emotional chip felt like it was melting and she had to fight the urge to shut herself down all over again just for the obliterating feeling of falling. This had too much 'what if' thinking involved without enough facts to make any sort of scientific hypothesis, and way too much emotional involvement to even think clearly in the first place. She was Alia—she liked complicated things. Wait, didn't she just think she didn't? She couldn't even keep up with her mind anymore; it felt that out there.
"Alia," Lifesaver's grating voice cut through and she cringed. He didn't seem to take offense though. "Tell me what caused your emotional influx and eventual malfunction. What were you doing? What did you see that caused you to BS-D?"
Blue Screen of Death—anyone who knew computers knew what that was, and Alia was a walking computer. Every Reploid went through Blue Screen of Death once in their lifetime, even if kept in pristine condition. It was like an unrecorded Newton's Law—if it was a computer, it Blue Screened. Alia once tried to find ways to prevent BS-Ds in Reploids, thinking maybe it could lead to eventual discoveries related to the Maverick Virus and how it corrupted Reploid and Mechanoloid systems. Why, when she was a scientist before she signed up with the Hunters, she had once…
"Alia!"
Alia blinked, then looked at Lifesaver. "What?"
Lifesaver frowned deeply, and she nearly cringed again. No wonder Cain didn't like him—Lifesaver frowning wasn't a nice sight. "What caused the BS-D?"
If she thought about it again, Alia was sure she'd overload again and force a BS-D. Why couldn't this idiot see that? Fine, it was his medical license if he kept breaking her. "I was analyzing the spy data Axl had been gathering," she said, carefully accessing the memory files. So far so good. "He saw Red there, so we know Red Alert is now in league with a group of sophisticated scientists. According to Axl's recordings, they recovered a piece of Sigma that, I presume, somehow survived not just Final Weapon's explosion but also re-entering the atmosphere. How it did, I can't wrap my current mind around."
"None of that gives plausible reason for your overload, Alia. Quit skipping details."
Assnut! "I'm not. In fact, that should trouble even you! A fragment of Sigma, recovered! In the hands of Red Alert, who have in their possession infected Reploids?" Alia scowled. "We should be getting Zero and X on them right away!"
Lifesaver glanced at the diagnostic screen, wired to Alia's shoulder ports, and gave her such a chilling look she had to really try to not flinch away into her chair. "Alia. "
She finally threw her hands up into the air just as the medical door opened. "Fine! I saw Gate!"
It was as if turning to see who dared intrude, plus saying his name and the images associated with it, was the final draw for Alia. When her eyes met that of Signas', she broke down into sobs, pulling her knees to her chest and hiding her face as torrents of tears and helplessness bleed out of her. Signas froze in the doorway, X behind him, the room still with shock and Alia's desperate crying.
"Who's… Gate?" Lifesaver cautiously edged.
Alia shook her head, rocking herself as she tried to will her system to quit popping up all the error messages and to slow down. Her performance was starting to lag, her system cache exploding, processes freezing and force quitting, but she had to fight off the eventual BS-D. She couldn't keep shutting down each time she thought of Gate…
"He was my fiancé," Alia sobbed, "Was, before I killed him. Left him the way he is. Maybe I should have just shot him in the damn head!"
"Alia…" Signas' deep voice rumbled, a soothing black wave of constant strength, and Alia reached toward him blindly.
Awkwardly, Signas took her hand, and X turned around and left the medical bay. Too much drama in his life already, X wasn't ready to hear Alia's just yet. He'll see her later, when she was calmer.
So we got Red Alert and some dude named Gate who knows Alia. Great! My week is looking up wonderfully. X thought bitterly. He needed to find Zero; a connection with his lover would do wonders for him right now. After that, he could go see Axl… maybe. Depended on how deep he and Zero got into their moment.
Alia didn't bother looking up when she heard someone walk away, just gripped Signas' hand and tried to settle herself down. What she saw on that recording, what she heard, shattered her heart.
Gate, you're still trying so hard… but for all the wrong reasons again, aren't you?
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