Unlaced

Chapter 8

AN: What is this? It lives! It's important to note that instead of rewriting the previous chapters entirely, I will likely just do some slight retcon to the content that make me cringe. I do think people would rather have the thing more forward than to have rough spots smoothed out. So bear with me as I get back into the swing of things!

Anyway, here's a long, long overdue update. Though every follow and favorite help immensely, reviews are greatly appreciated, they make me remember that there are people who read and value my work.

A Hunter Walks Into a Bar…

Zero found his steps leading him out of the base after he'd seen the rookies, intent on getting a drink. The rookies looked especially terrible this time around, so he didn't take any under his wing. Let his subordinates, if they wanted to, but he wanted nothing to do with this particular batch. There was no use eating up his free time mentoring rookies that would get killed within a month of graduating onto the field. Maybe they'd get discouraged and go find a job somewhere else. It wouldn't pay as nicely as being a Hunter, of course, but at least they'd actually get to use it before they died. X usually picked out a few to train. He always did, and he always beat himself up when they died. Zero wished he'd stop doing that. X was setting himself up for a lot of heartbreak this year, and he knew it, too. One day he'd figure out how to get X to channel his masochistic desires into something less destructive.

He nearly laughed at the images that train of thought brought up, but refrained as he entered the establishment he'd been seeking. The bar was sizeable, but still nearly crowded as it probably would be for weeks to come. The place smelled of metal and something acidic, but it was a soft scent, not like blood and plasma. He'd heard humans hated the way Reploid "alcohol" smelled, but he supposed he couldn't blame them since all the components of it were harmful to humans. This was hardly private given the patrons were almost all Hunters, Reploids that all knew each other. People always knew when Hunters had been here, to the bar, how often, and how much they drank. It was close to the base, but the higher ups had stopped trying to squash any attempts to keep Hunters from going there; Zero suspected the Commanders liked to be able to pick out which Hunters were troubled by questioning the staff.

A few Reploids, some looking like they'd not had a good night's sleep since the war ended, glanced at him. He recognized a few of them, Swift from the aerial unit, looking more upbeat than her companions, and Euclid, a medic who was friends with X. Zero nodded at them and stepped around a rhino-based unit who looked dead on his feet. He bit back his annoyance as he settled down at the bar and waited for Stinger's attention. Stinger was medium-sized Reploid, deep grey with pink accents, some sort of rodent, he thought, but Zero had yet to figure out exactly what, and you didn't exactly ask a bestial unit "what are you?" unless you wanted to get punched in the face. Zero wasn't in the mood to start a bar fight, especially not in this bar where everyone was just trying to relax and forget that a lot of people had died for stupid reasons over the past few weeks. Damn Repliforce.

Zero ordered his usual strong glass of nearly undiluted energy and tried to do some relaxing of his own. The warm orange lights and the worn bar and the (surprisingly) gentle chatter made it difficult to not unwind. Of course, the drink helped, too, enough that he could think about his day without getting a headache.

Zero had, contrary to common belief, been keeping an eye on the process that had taken place that morning. Other than his own, of course. He didn't take many rookies under his wing for reserve training, he, like X, usually just got new men when old Units broke apart due to battle and death and the superior, tempered steel was delivered directly into his hands for scrutiny. X never liked his forging analogy, said it was too cruel and impersonal and sounded too much like what Reploid haters would say, comparing them to simple weapons. Zero used it anyway because it amused him.

In a way, liked the idea of being a weapon, a mechanical predator, and he liked the excitement of a fight and the way humans looked at him with fear in their eyes when he raised his voice. But he would never hurt them. He never wanted to kill Reploids, either. Hurt them, yes, but Reploids were so durable that knocking them around a little would leave them no worse for wear. Zero wasn't violent all the time, and not to the extreme that he took joy in killing others, even if they were no longer really Reploids.

In spite of the rumors, his short temper was fading with age, and he liked peace and quiet outside of the field as much as the next guy. Sometimes he heard whispers, people comparing him to Vile, murmuring that he might be at risk for turning Maverick, willingly or not. That earned a chuckle or an eyeroll depending on his mood; Vile had just been mean from the moment he was activated, and none of the people who compared him to the belligerent unit really knew him. First and foremost, he would never hurt X. But Vile seemed to delight in tormenting the small Hunter.

He still saw X's futile struggling in his head when he remembered the ex-Hunter. Zero's grip tightened on his glass and a low growl rose in his throat. The Hunter beside him paused as he moved into his seat, and for a moment he seemed like he was going to move. But then he slipped into place and ordered his drink. Zero ignored him again.

The sharp, breath-taking taste of the strong, high grade energy burned on his lips but he made no move to deal with the persistent droplets clinging there. Reploids weren't so unlike human that they didn't sometimes turn to drink for socializing, or coping. Zero just liked the burn. E got a little boring on its own unless X was doing something to it. X pretended to feel nothing but mild disdain for the intoxicating drink, but Zero had seen him knock back more than a few glasses at home. And he was good at making tasty mineral cocktails.

Reploids could drink human alcohol, and Zero frequently did (he had a taste for fruity drinks), but the result was different, and more of it had to be consumed for it to have any real relaxing effect on a Reploid, so E (short for energy, of course) had been created for enjoyment purposes. Though calling watered-down liquid energy a drink was stretching it. The stuff was utterly toxic to humans, so most bars that served it were Reploid only to prevent accidents. All it would take was one influenced Hunter spilling their drink on a human, so open bars were a disaster. But even with the reasoning behind it, he mused, some humans complained about the exclusion. Suspicious bastards, did they complain that humans were no longer allowed in the main Hunter force? No, of course they didn't, it didn't bother them that Reploids died because they were just machines; it bothered them when Reploids had privacy, because they were untrustworthy robots.

The blond unit shook his head to reprimand himself. He was starting to sound like a separatist, like her. He had always known she was a little leery of humans, but compared to her brother Iris had been downright X-like in her ability to get along and be civil with them. They had had dinner together, lunch, been to the bar. Why had she never told him her feelings about human? Was it because she was afraid he would tell "uncle" X? Or was it something new? It just didn't make sense, none of it made sense to him.

Zero brought his hand up from his glass and rubbed his forehead. If X had caught wind of any of those thoughts, he would be in for it. He zoned out to cautiously check the link between himself and the other Reploid, but only found a wall of fuzzy thoughts and disjointed logic where X's consciousness (so to speak) should have been. Sleeping.

"So, new Supreme Commander, huh?" The Reploid beside him spoke up, causing Zero to jerk out of his internal examination. The alcohol wasn't doing anything to dull his reflexes. "Heard Commander X knows him, and you know Commander X…"

Zero resisted the urge to drag his hand across his face as he brought it back down to his drink

. "Yeah. Calls him his nephew or something. Like he did with Colonel and Iris before," he responded, unable to keep the bite out of his voice.

"Cainbot?" The Hunter asked, interested. Zero thought he sounded cautious. After the last batch of Cainbots, who could blame him?

"Cainbot. Both Cain and X are adamant that he's got the best head on his shoulders of the lot of them. I trust X's judgement," he said in a clipped tone. He did.

"Oh. Well, maybe you'll fare better with this one than with the last three!" The purple-haired Hunter chirped. He was so friendly that Zero thought twice about punching him.

How much had he had to drink? Some Reploids got very relaxed with a belly full of E, and some were like little kids bouncing off the walls after Halloween. The Reploid had nearly been spooked off by his grumbling a while ago, so he would assume he was very intoxicated now and do his best not to get too annoyed.

"So, about… You know. There's a rumor going around that you two were a little more involved than the average Nav and Hunter?" Light, help me.

Zero turned toward him, optics bright from his drink, and the Reploid cringed. Good for him.

"Come on, I mean everyone knew she liked you a lot," he continued with a little nervous laugh.

Not deterred, huh? Really drunk. I hope you're really drunk. Zero watched the Reploid's hands fumble on his glass, emptier than Zero's own was, anywhere but at his face because he was strangely tempted to cuff him.

Don't hit the nice Hunter, Zero. Ok, that was definitely not his own voice. Behave, Zero, he told himself, taking a deep breath and closing himself off from X's mental scrutiny.

"And you spent a lot of time with her. The question is, were you and her…?"

Zero pondered that for the first time in several days. After the Final Weapon incident, he'd been too volatile. Just her name had filled him with a mixture of emotions that made him want to yell or punch the nearest wall. Fearing X's adorable, kicked-puppy Stare of Disappointment, he had learned that it was best not to dwell on it all in his free time. Zero had needed to relax, get a hold of himself. Now he found he felt more frustration than true anger. Better than last time. X would be happy, he hoped. Maybe he should bring this up with X later; the other Hunter was always trying to dig around in his head after a rough mission. Maybe it would put him at ease to learn Zero wasn't permanently damaged by one rogue Navigator. X had suffered betrayal as well, and no one was looking at him as if he was about to jump off a bridge or turn Maverick!

Zero winced at the memory of the dead units X had stumbled across. He hadn't witnessed it himself, but he'd looked in during cleanup. It was a disgusting mess, and more than a little disturbing to realize such a thing could happen inside of HQ. Zero wondered how X was really doing after seeing that. Asimov knows that, of the two of them, X was more sensitive.

He let his thoughts wander back to Iris. Iris… He had liked her when they first met. She was innocent and so not violent that she stood out even among the Navigators. She reminded him a little of X as well, her hair, her eyes, though she was designed to look a bit older than X. They got along. She liked him a lot, but Iris was so… young. It showed in some of her interactions and thoughts, the way she clung to her brother like he was her parent and guardian all rolled into one. It was adorable and incredibly frustrating because Zero knew just from talking to her that her brother was too overbearing for her own good. She was a year and a half active, X had said, and she was definitely more sheltered than her brother. Not even two years old. She had been pre-loaded with some personality data and information, rather than left to be raised like some of the more experimental units. Yeah, he'd thought about taking her on a date in a few months (if she didn't outgrow her puppy crush), once they were no longer at war.

He might not have been as romantically invested as people seemed to think, but he had still considered her a good, close friend at the very least. He had trusted her. And she had betrayed him.

"I liked her," he admitted, vague as it was, feeling his ire rising in his throat, burning up it the way E went down it. Why did he need to tell this nosy stranger anything anyway? He wasn't X, he didn't need to talk about things like this. Things he was over and done with. He didn't. Only now he couldn't stop his thoughts. His glass rasped across the bar as he dragged it a little closer and emptied the rest of it all at once.

Her brother had been insane, why couldn't she see that? His actions at the Sky Lagoon had cost him the lives of many of his soldiers needlessly. Zero had never seen X so steaming mad at a non-Maverick before in his life. Why had he been so damned stubborn? All of that fighting and death just for the sake of his pride. Well, Zero couldn't talk too much about that; many of his skirmishes outside of hunting were related to his pride in some way. But even he found that to be a gross misuse of power. Being Commander of the 0th Unit had instilled in him more restraint and wariness; anything he did could affect his subordinates. How could Colonel do something so selfish? How could he say he wanted a better world for Reploids and then damn his own men to war for no real reason?

Zero had killed a lot of un-Infected Reploids during this war, they all had. He wasn't used to that. Mechaniloids were easily infected and did what they were told, it was a little like killing a wild animal. Most of them didn't have any degree of sapience. Mavericks weren't really Reploids anymore, they were more like rabid animals, their minds and bodies slowly decaying . Killing them was a mercy. It wasn't the same—it wasn't anything like killing Repliforce soldiers. Like fighting Iris.

That was it for Zero, his night out was over. There was a fire in his chest that didn't come from his drink, anger, and something else. his thoughts were jumbled. Calm down. He tried, but the moment he found his mind going right back to it. Her, Colonel, X, war, innocent people. He nodded curtly to Stinger, who had been watching him warily from the corner of his eye as he thought.

"You alright?" The bartender asked him in a low voice, trying to keep the conversation private as it could be in a crowded room. The Reploid that had been next to Zero was gone. "Drink agreeing with you? That's some rough stuff." Usually for Fire Reploids that tended to burn up E before it could burn them.

"Yeah," he responded, transferring his credits to pay for the drink. "It's fine, I'm used to it."

There were drops of energy on his lips, stinging there, and he didn't dare wipe them off. He grunted, sliding off the barstool, not pausing to see if the Reploid had anything more to say as he wove around Reploids coming and going. Zero stepped out into the street and turned back toward HQ, feeling the cool night air on his heated skin. It did a little to soothe his temper. When would he stop feeling sick to his stomach at the thought of her? He hated that she had joined the ranks of people alive that elicited that gut reaction from him. Could she even be trusted on base? Sure, she wouldn't be allowed access to anything cut training weapons, and she would likely never be taken on a mission above C rank should she ever actually graduate onto the field, but he still felt like she was a risk. Unpredictable. He no longer thought her execution would be for the best, he had calmed down and felt a little ill that he'd advocated her end in the first place. But did X really know what he was doing with her?

Maybe the most frustrating thing of it all was that he had liked her. She had finally gotten out from under her brother's thumb, after being shielded and controlled by him out of some misguided attempt to protect her. She had been developing her own, stronger personality, a personality Zero liked.

Pity she'd tried to kill him.

- Z -

AN: Well, that's it, finally. Reviews are greatly appreciated.