Cerberus Rising

Stage Two: Kings and Queens

Chapter Four: The Alchemist Part II – Quarantine

"You are unbelievable" Seras hissed as they exited the shuttle to the quarantined zone of Omega. The decay was visible, as accommodations seemed to become more broken as they headed towards their destination.

"What? I found out where the Alchemist is, plus I scored points with Omega's queen bee. As far as I see it that was a total success" X responded in offence.

"Oh you were trying to score alright" she snorted, putting fresh ammo into Vladimir in preparation for possible resistance. After all, this was where all the violence was spawning from, so it was likely things were going to turn ugly.

"Wait, wait, that's why you're so pissed off? You're upset because the blind girl was overly friendly?" X asked, eyebrows widening.

"That's a mild way of putting it. She was practically on your lap the entire time!" she retorted, slinging the giant weapon over her shoulder.

"Hey! She was coming on to me! I was the victim in all this!" X snapped back, holding his arms up in defence.

"Oh yes, you fought with all of your strength. Please, you were practically encouraging it! I'm starting to fear that between the times you stop to ogle every woman that passes you by, the Collectors will have taken every human colony in the Terminus System" she snapped back.

She realised that may have seemed a little harsh, and in fairness the only woman he really did seem to crave attention from was that quarian (why? The reason completely eluded her) but she had said it none the less, and it wasn't in her nature to apologise.

Her sapphire blue eyes met with dark crimson ones. Despite being to guess his emotions from his heartbeat, his rate of breathing, and his movements, she couldn't truly guess what the masked man was thinking. He could be smug, fearful, vengeful or frustrated and it would all look the same to her. That fact infuriated her. It was her business to know what others around her were thinking, it was how she had always been.

"…You're jealous" X finally responded.

All sense of composure immediately went down the drain in an instant. In a burst of anger, Seras's eyes switched to a much darker red which was not unlike the eyes of her counterpart's mask.

"W-What?" she stammered.

"You're jealous of the fact that I don't look at you like I do other girls, I guess you must be upset that you're not my type. Understandable" X sighed, as if it were a tragedy.

Seras's face went a bitter scarlet, her sharpened teeth clenching in anger at the thief's comments, and made all the worse by the thief's attitude. She swore he was smiling under that damn mask, and that made her blood boil.

"Bastard! For your information, I find you to be the most despicable human being I have ever met in my entire life! I don't what the Illusive Man was thinking bringing you back! And I'll have you know I'm grateful that I don't qualify as attractive in your mind, because I'd rather shoot myself than be stuck with an annoying, egocentric an underhanded thief!" she howled, not pausing for breath.

Kid, who had been watching at the back, felt this face fall into the palm of his hand. The two of them were his commanding officers, so he had no say in the matter, but it was becoming evidently clear that the two of them would kill each other before they even made it to the medical facility.

X was quiet for a moment, before speaking out again, much calmer yet much more serious this time.

"Somebody didn't love you as a little girl, did they?" he asked.

Seras froze. Her eyes returned to their sky blue colour and her body became so still it was if she were made of stone. Her expression was one of horror, as if she were staring at a ghost, a ghost come back to haunt her from some shadowy area of her past.

For a single moment, he had completely shattered her guard.

X chuckled slightly; he gave her a firm punch on the shoulder which broke her out of her train of thought. She recovered as best she could, and put on a face that showed she was still angry with him.

"I'm just messing with you, come on, let's grab this Elric guy at leave before the allure of the Serpent's Pass calls me back" X commented, heading deeper into the slums.

Seras watched him like a hawk, but did not dare move. She had broken down, for a split second she had lost contact with reality. A sickening fear grew in her stomach, a fear that she knew to be accurate. He had read her, he had figured her out.

But what was most frightening, was that he had let it go. He had found a weak point in her indestructible wall, and chose to avoid it. It was a mercy, it was a human act. An act that she had thought he was incapable of doing.

He had seen past her armour, yet he had sparred her the pain of asking questions. He was sharper than she had previously thought.

"Seras? You okay?" Kid asked.

"Y-Yeah, let's just stay focused on the mission" she replied with a weak smile.

She sighed internally. He had spared her the pain of remembering, just so that they could bear to work together for this single mission. It was an act that was expected of a leader, one than she had not anticipated.

All she could do now was return the favour, and follow him deeper in the gruelling unknown.

"I told you, the plague has this whole zone quarantined! Nobody gets in or out, so get lost!" the Shinigami yelled.

"I'm human, asshole! Humans are immune to the plague, now step aside and let me through so I can get my stuff before it all gets looted!" the woman snapped back.

The entrance to the quarantined zone looked just as run down as the rest of the slums. An encrypted steel door was all that stood between the virus-infected area and the rest of Omega. The only guard stationed there was a Shinigami with dark purple hair and three scars along the left side of his face. The female was definitely human, and looked like she worked in an office of sorts. X was surprised that ordinary people even attempted to live on Omega, with so much death and decay and it just didn't seem worth it.

"I'm not going to risk mass infection just because your stuff may get stolen! My orders are clear, no one gets in until this plague has run its course" the Shinigami snarled.

X stepped forward, drawing the attention away from the woman. The Shinigami's relaxed posture when confronting the woman immediately changed to something far more military. The appearance of the suit was enough to make him focus his entire gaze on the thief, weapon in hand.

"The hell do you people want? I was just trying to tell this broad that the area is closed off, scram" The Shinigami hissed.

"Can't do that, I've got business with a guy called Edward Elric" X explained, folding his arms in defiance.

"The Alchemist? Crazy bastard opened a clinic here a few weeks ago, trying to help deal with the plague. The Varia weren't too happy about that" the Shinigami exiled, relaxing ever so slightly.

"The Varia?" X asked.

"You must be new here; they're one of the major merc groups on Omega. They've occupied the entire slums. My orders are to wait until this plague ends or until the Varia kill everyone inside, before going in and picking up the pieces" the Shinigami explained.

"In that case, you better stand aside and let us in" X demanded.

"Why should I do that?" the Shinigami asked.

"You can either stay stuck out here for weeks while the virus keeps killing people off, or you can let me in and I'll take care of it. Besides, we're not exactly amateurs when it comes to dealing with death" X instructed.

"Far from it" Seras added, exposing the weapon in her arms.

"You want to take on a group of pissed off mercs? Fine by me, besides the quarantine is really for keeping the infected in. Don't say I didn't warn you" the Shinigami shrugged.

"Wait, you're letting them in? You son of a bitch!" the human snapped, pointing her finger at him accusingly.

"You don't have a rocket launcher, get lost lady" the Shinigami snarled. In a huff, the human stormed off, muttering a whole host of curses under her breath.

"I'll radio in and get you clearance, but once you've entered Varia territories then you're on your own, hope you've got good life insurance" the Shinigami grunted.

"Just make the call" X insisted. The Shinigami activated his omni-tool, switching to a friendly radio frequency and spoke clearly into the holographic tool.

"This is Lieutenant Shusei Hisagi, I have three armed humans ready to enter the quarantined zone, permission has been granted, allow safe passage through to the hot zone" the Shinigami ordered.

"What a waste of my time, who does the boss think I am?" the figure snarled. He was short, draped in black robes that even covered his face, though you could tell he was snarling.

"Oh Mammon, will you just relax for once! I'm sure Master Xanxus knows exactly what he is doing, after all, he is going to surpass that witch Toph one day soon, and we are just cogs in his magnificent design! Why, we should be honoured!" the second figure grinned. He was very extravagant-looking, wearing orange sunglasses along with long green hair. He was also draped in the same black clothing as his partner, though they each seemed to have conflicting convictions at the moment.

"…You really are desperate to sleep with, aren't you Lussaria?" the figure known as Mammon snorted.

"Hey! While that may be a long running fantasy of mine, I will not allow you to say it as if it were a taboo! Levi would agree that Xanxus is a fantastic man! One who is truly worthy of ruling Omega!" the figure known as Lussaria snapped back.

"If he was smart he wouldn't have split our forces down the middle. What the hell is he thinking? Teaming up with the CPX and Millennium, it's a disgrace to what the Varia stand for!" Mammon spat out.

"Ice Dragon must be giving them a lot of trouble for him to go such extremes" Lussaira shrugged.

"To go as far as to hire petty thugs as freelancers, how can one Shinigami cause anyone this much trouble? If he's such a threat then Xanxus would have called in all of Varia's forces in one go" Mammon hissed.

Lussaria was about to respond, when the sound of footsteps caught their attention. They turned to see three figures enter the confines of the storage bay. All previous conversation died, and the pair faced the trio with hostility.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? I thought they had quarantined the whole area off" Lussaria, excited by the prospect of killing his boredom.

"You two part of the Varia?" X asked as he approached.

"You couldn't tell by the stylish colour of our uniforms? Looks like we have outsiders in our midst and such beautiful ones at that" Lussaria giggled.

"We have our orders, kill any who come close" Mammon snarled.

"Really? What a pity, I really do hate it when we have to kill such good-looking people. Oh well, at least I'll get that dashing suit as a prize" Lussaria chuckled.

Without a second's hesitation, Lussaira leapt forward at dangerous speed. It was now evident that underneath his cloak, heavy metal pads were attacked to his knees. From appearance alone they looked quite heavy, but from how quickly Lussaria moved you would have thought they were no lighter than paper. That alone showed how physically strong he was, and just how deadly that impact would be.

There was a thunderous crash as impact was indeed made. However, the only thing that was shattered was the concrete beneath him. Lussaira, momentarily stunned form the recoil, looked around to see that masked figure had indeed vanished.

"I really don't have time for this"

A gloved fist shot across from the right, nailing Lussaria directly in the face. He was sent spiralling to the floor, his glasses broken and his jaw fractured from the sudden hit. X materialised, massaging his knuckle.

"Sorry, but you punks are in my way"

There was a spark of blue flames across the back of X's gauntlets. The metallic plates instantly connected, and the familiar set of giant blades shot out from the wrists, just as menacing as they were on Freedom's Progress.

"I'm going to kill you twice over"