Chapter Text
X rolled to a stop where he'd been thrown, and with some effort, managed to right himself into a seated position. "Cool down in there and think about what you did." The collar around his neck clicked, and a hand pulled the now-detached bag from his head. They'd taken his few possessions, such as they were, and put him in manacles, hands behind his back. He stared up at a tall reploid, torso and helmet painted with a splash of bright red over a steel gray, with two retractable fixed wings on his back. The reploid, who must have been Maglev, regarded him in turn.
"Damn, I have no idea how a piece of unpainted scrap like you took Faraday apart like that. You're lucky you're so obsolete, or we'd just take his replacement parts out of you," he said. "You simmer. Captain'll figure out what she wants to do with you soon enough." Maglev turned. The door slid shut behind him, leaving X in a room barely larger than a closet and lit by a single fluorescent light recessed behind a grating.
X shivered. They could have bothered to give his clothing back, he thought, but they hadn't, and the concrete floor sucked the warmth out of his exposed metal plates as quickly as he could generate it. The sensor Glitch made for him was probably forfeit, though he hoped beyond hope that maybe they wouldn't deem it interesting enough to dismantle.
Then again, he also hoped that nobody would be foolish enough to try to find him, even as he wished that somebody would.
He looked around, and the bottom dropped completely out of his circuits as he realized where he was. X had never been on this side of one, but he recognized the reinforced door and plated wall paneling immediately: this was the holding cell block of a Maverick Hunter precinct. He'd even visited this one several times in the past. The Drifters must have moved in and taken it over, and he had a strong hunch regarding who'd given them the idea.
Then, since this was a Hunter base, they were almost certainly using Hunter equipment, and this was likely a standard-issue containment collar, X realized hopelessly. If he even tried broadcasting anything or toggling his tracking system, it would neutralize the signal, and possibly also him for several minutes. No point in trying to step over the cuffs, either, because they were self-adjusting full forearm sleeve restraints. He wouldn't have had the flexibility without pulling his arm joints apart, and his body complained loudly enough already without that.
I wonder if this is it, X thought, despondent. Wouldn't that be ironic…disposed of in the end by a Maverick Hunter gone Maverick, still playing at being a Hunter. Maybe I deserve this. He ached, frame-deep, and despite the biting cold and the awkwardness of doing it with his arms bound behind him, X laid down on his side on the floor. At least his electronic systems would appreciate it. His mechanical systems…well, they wouldn't be happy no matter what he did, but he could quiet some of the warnings just by lying still.
The cell spun for a few minutes until his glitching balance system concluded that he really wasn't moving anymore, and X could finally stand to close his eyes. He took a deep breath and sighed it out with a half-laugh that startled him.
Things really can't get worse, he thought. At least the Drifters aren't harassing the camp tonight. I accomplished that much.
He wondered if Glitch had heard the altercation. Probably. I hope he doesn't blame himself for not insisting on coming with me, X thought. Should I have let him? We'd still have been outnumbered five to three at least, with Mack…and those aren't good odds, when I'm one of the three. And as competent as Mack was with the advantage of terrain, it likely wouldn't have had that. Or perhaps they'd have entirely avoided the Drifters, but then, would they have continued on to attack the encampment without Glitch to relay the alarm from his sensor network? Seren had said something about calling 'it' off. There may have been more Drifters yet on the way.
There was no use dwelling on what-ifs, X reminded himself, but what else was he going to do? He wondered if he could manage to defragment like this. It would at least pass the time until the Drifters decided to do whatever it was they were going to do with him. Maybe he could talk some sense into Seren, if they weren't trading buster fire. Despite everything, he still held out the faintest hope that maybe she would listen to him.
Like Kathy listened to me? X thought, suddenly and sourly. Because that went so well. If I don't try, everything goes to hell. If I do try, it goes to hell, and then I'm tired from trying too. At least he was too exhausted and in pain to have another panic attack. That would have been the absolute last thing he needed.
The second-to-last thing he needed, however, happened, which was his battery complaining of a low charge. >W.00010-NRG: Battery at ten percent., his systems informed him. Ah. I see. It'll be euthanasia, then, if they don't bother to check on me, X thought, remotely bitter but struggling to summon any other emotion about it. I suppose there are worse ways to go than a dead battery.
With one more sigh, he set himself to power-saving mode and passed out. Whatever had happened, he'd given it his best. He'd been truthful, just like he'd told himself he'd do.
And now it was over.
The sound of the door sliding open woke X. The light from outside hurt his eyes as they struggled to focus, and the relief of unconsciousness gave way to the excruciating reality that he'd overtaxed his systems, badly, and his self-repair couldn't make heads or tails of what was even wrong to begin trying to fix it. He sucked in a breath and tried to duck his head away from the light.
"Well, good morning, sunshine. I hope I didn't interrupt your nap," came Seren's voice. The door closed behind her, and she crouched in front of X, interlacing her fingers. He blinked up at her, blearily, still lying on his side on the concrete floor with his arms bound.
I must look like I feel, X realized. Without his armor or clothing, Maglev was right: he looked like unpainted scrap. The seams in his synthetic skin had worn to be more obvious over the years, his shoulders weren't much more than spherical connection points for his armor, and aside from his arms and neckline, he was unadorned metal and dark gray all over. He hadn't been able to do anything to keep his hair from falling into his eyes with his hands bound. Indeed, X wasn't sure he could even get himself upright now without some complicated maneuver involving the wall.
"Seren," he said. X hadn't seen her in years, aside from the brief and distant look he got when they'd been shooting at each other. She'd spray painted the white of her chassis red along with the rest of them, but she'd kept the metallic gold and violet trim of her armor. It matched her hair, which she now wore down instead of tucked up in her helmet as she had the last time X had seen her, and her eyes. The emblem of the Maverick Hunters still showed through underneath the paint on her arm, dark as a bruise.
"You've got me at a disadvantage, it seems," Seren said with a smile, clearly amused at her choice of words. "Whatever are they saying about me there?"
"Nothing that bad," X replied. "But that's not why I know you."
Seren cocked an eyebrow. "Do tell."
X turned his head upwards to look her in the eye, as much as he could. "Seren. Class A Hunter, 13th Unit. Outstanding combat capability, underdeveloped leadership skills, and a concerning disregard for collateral damage. I see you've been working on the leadership skills at least."
Seren's other eyebrow slowly raised to join the first, then they both plunged together into a pointed scowl. "Who told you that?" X simply held her gaze, watching her expression evolve: from anger, to suspicion, then concern. "Who are you, that you'd know what my last promotion review said?"
"Your reviewer," X replied.
Her expression shifted again. The concern deepened, and she leaned over further to peer into X's face. He just kept staring her down as she processed his statement.
Seren dropped back suddenly as if she'd been pushed onto her backside, fingers over her mouth. "Oh my God. You…can't be."
"I'd like not to be right about now, believe me."
"Captain X, sir! I'm so—oh, no," Seren stammered, then bolted to her feet. "Wait right there!" She fled the holding cell, not even watching the door slide closed behind her. Before it did, X caught a brief glimpse of a black-plated female reploid on guard duty, looking between Seren's retreating form and his cell in complete bafflement.
After not even thirty seconds, the door slid open again, and Seren burst in with the keys to X's restraints. She unlocked the cuffs and collar and pulled X to a sitting position, which made the room immediately begin spinning again.
"Sir! I'm so sorry, sir, I didn't recognize you," she said, bordering on panic in her rush. "What are you even doing out here? Oh, no," she said again.
X rolled his shoulders and immediately regretted it. He hurt far more now than he had on the floor, and that had been substantial. "Calm down," he grumbled, because she wasn't helping his situation at all by being loud and moving him around without warning, even if he did appreciate not being in cuffs.
Seren immediately calmed, or at least quieted. She stared at him, eyes wide with something like terror, as he tried and mostly failed to regain his bearings. "I was following a missing person case," X said. "Just on the side. It wasn't anything official. Where's my cane?"
"It's—I'll have someone bring it," Seren said, leaping into action. The door opened again, and this time it stayed open. "Era. Bring his things. Right now. No backtalk, just do it." The reploid on guard hesitantly left. "Sir—" Seren started, turning to X.
"I'm retired," X said. "Please stop calling me that."
"Yes s—I mean, yes, of course," Seren stuttered. X hadn't seen his presence have this much of an effect on someone in some years, and he now remembered very keenly how much he disliked it. "I'm so sorry. Do you need anything? A recharge? A…somewhere more comfortable to sit?"
"A recharge," X admitted. "It's been a long day." As much as he didn't want to obligate himself to her suddenly subservient hospitality, he couldn't argue that he was running concerningly low. "And…maybe a blanket while I'm at it."
"Of course!" She sent a rapid-fire burst of diagnostic codes out, still in the same encoded syntax as before. "We've got several pods you can use in the barracks. I'll show you to them."
"Once I've got my cane," X said, waiting on the floor until the other Drifter came back with his belongings. His jacket no longer contained Glitch's sensor, but that didn't surprise him, even if it saddened him a little. He threw his clothes over his shoulder, reassembled his now-empty cane shaft to the handle, and stood, with the additional aid of the wall. Seren hovered around him as if she wanted to help him stand but didn't know how to offer. X ignored her, because he was far too tired and in pain to extend manners of any kind to someone who'd only recently had a laugh about zapping him with a shock collar, no matter how quickly she'd pivoted to treating him like royalty.
Actually, X wasn't sure which was worse: the shock collar, or the cringing deference. At least with the collar, he knew exactly where they all stood. This was just weird. But he was also far too tired and in pain to scrutinize the benefits that closely.
Once he'd gotten to his feet, Seren personally led the way through the commandeered Hunter base. "Captain?" one of the reploids along the way asked upon seeing their leader escorting their newest prisoner as if he were an honored guest, and Seren motioned emphatically for him to shut up.
"Once you've recharged, si—I mean, X," Seren started, "I have so much I need to talk to you about."
"I'm sure you do," X agreed blandly.
"But, uh, in the meantime, have a good rest?" she said, hopefully. "Don't worry about the pod. It's all yours."
Someone had already put a blanket in one of the pods. X remembered an urban myth he'd heard once, that gangs of infected Mavericks were using recharge pods to spread the Virus, and wondered if it had ever been true. It would have been clever if it were, he thought, even if most reploids didn't tend to recharge in strange pods left lying around in the middle of nowhere. It was probably about as realistic as humans catching diseases from using a toilet, in his estimation.
He settled in with a click and watched his energy systems handshake with the pod's energy systems, because it beat watching the warnings and critical alerts in another data stream. It was one of the Hunters' fast chargers, even. He would run warm from the sheer amount of current going into his old batteries, and that was fine by him. Alright, I stand a little corrected, X reluctantly admitted. Today could be worse, but it could not be stranger. At least I'm alive to be confused about it.
X didn't feel like having another dream that he didn't have the mental energy to handle, so he set himself to auto-wake at 90% or any external activity above a certain low threshold, and switched back to low power mode.
Nothing happened. Nobody bothered him. No one came in to attempt to peek in on him, which was a surprise; he had fully expected at least one gawker, but even that didn't happen. Feeling self-indulgent after everything he'd gone through, or maybe just exhausted despite a fresh recharge, he stayed put for an extravagant fifteen whole extra minutes before he finally decided to endure the pain of getting up. He pulled his clothing on, slowly and carefully, and tried to stretch. X let out a series of remarkably human cracks and pops. His joints were having none of that from him.
He risked a nosy look around the room. There was a section of seating and a bank of six recharging pods, arranged around a central column from floor to ceiling. Everything was standard issue, clean, and kept in good repair. It was spartan, as far as creature comforts and decor went, but a reploid could live well enough there for quite some time. Six pods, X thought, and if I remember the floor plan correctly, the small bases like this one had four rooms like this, and a pod in each officer's quarters as well. Glitch would literally kill for access to just one of these… He had to admit that the Drifters seemed to be doing well for themselves, everything else about their behavior aside.
X experimentally tried the door, and it slid aside obediently. The hallway beyond had seen some buster fire, but aside from some scorch marks that had been largely polished from the walls, it was intact and just as tidy as the pod bank. Evidently Seren had assigned someone to keep watch, as a reploid in black plating stood waiting in the hall, and as soon as she spotted X, she broadcast a brief, unintelligible signal. Then she spoke aloud.
"I'm supposed to take you to Seren," she said. "My name's Era. It's an honor to actually get to meet you." X recognized her from having been on guard duty outside his cell, for the brief glimpse he'd caught of her. She was…distinctive, X thought, her black hair shaved in an undercut and with several clearly aftermarket piercings in her tanned and scarred synthetic skin, as well as all manner of designs scratched into her paneling and stained into her skin like tattoos. Her chassis had probably been all black, maybe with a bit of silver, until she'd painted her trim with the usual bright red. Appearance aside, she regarded him with nothing less than shy admiration. X wasn't sure how to handle this.
"Nice to meet you," X said, politely, for lack of a better response. Was nobody here afraid of him? What the hell was going on with this group of Mavericks that they largely seemed to idolize him?
Era showed him to what would have been the communication center in a working Hunter base. It was a large, circular room, the walls lined with now-dark screens and workstations. Someone had gone through and tidied it up, setting the useless headsets neatly on their hooks. The ghosts of spraypainted graffiti still lingered in the cracks of some of the walls and floor. At one point, the Maverick Hunter emblem had been heavily tagged and then destroyed, but somebody had painstakingly pieced it back together and repainted it. It hung slightly crooked at the front of the room.
Seren sat beneath it at the head desk, but as soon as X entered, she sprang to her feet. X had a brief vision of a puppy leaping in excitement. "You're up," she said. "How are you feeling?"
"I have definitely been better," X replied, and then reminded himself that bitterness would not resolve anything. "But I appreciate the recharge."
"I'm so sorry. If I'd had any idea…please, here, have a seat." She pulled a seat from one of the nearby inactive consoles over to the front of the desk, then took her own much nicer officer's chair and pushed it towards X, sitting in the operator's chair instead. X gave her a hesitant look, but sat down. It was hard to complain about the padding when everything else already hurt.
"What in the world is going on here?" he asked.
"I've turned this entire group around," Seren replied, her eyes lighting up eagerly. "We—they used to just be a gang, but once I took over I got them organized, we got the old Hunter base cleaned up…we're going to take the quarantine zone back, X," she said. "We're going to clear the Mavericks out and keep this whole area safe for the eventual rebuilding effort. We're still short on manpower, but we're getting there."
X's mouth hung open. He had imagined so many things she might say to him…but that left him speechless with surprise for several moments. "That's what this is about?" he asked.
"Yes! Isn't it great?" Seren enthused. "I know I wasn't the best Hunter. I mean…they called me an irregular, obviously I wasn't the best, but I'm finally making a difference. I've got my own unit here. We aren't official, of course we aren't, and they really wanted to keep the name and the color, so I didn't argue with that because it's not that important overall, but we've been training so hard and it's about to all pay off."
Pieces began to fall into place, and X didn't relish what he saw. "Seren…they'd just as soon terminate you as they would anyone else out here. Even me, if the Hunters didn't recognize me before it was too late."
"Well, that's the risk we take," she conceded, but Seren's enthusiasm didn't flag in the least.
"I wondered why you were talking about Mavericks as if you weren't one yourself, when we first encountered you," X said.
"Then that was you," said Seren. "I had a feeling I recognized you from somewhere, but I just couldn't believe someone like you would have fallen in with someone like Glitch."
X proverbially bit his tongue so hard it proverbially bled.
"But to answer your statement, I'm not one. How could I be, when all I want is to do the best I can for humanity and all decent reploids? I'm repairing the damage done by the Mavericks here, one step at a time, and if anyone wants to swear off being a Maverick and work with me, there's a place for them here."
"And that's why you put a shock collar on me and threw me into a holding cell?" X said, somehow managing to not simply explode at her. In fact, it came out in a dangerously mild tone. "You tried to shake us down for whatever we scavenged, too."
"I didn't know it was you," Seren protested. "Of course I wouldn't have done any of that if I'd known. Why were you even with them? They're completely unrepentant."
"They are," X agreed. "You're right. They're also just minding their own business and trying to survive. How can you call that Maverick behavior?"
"Reploids weren't built just to survive. We're capable of doing so much more. We were built to make the world a better place for humanity. That's why we exist, X. You out of all of us should know that. You taught me that."
X's grip tightened on his cane. "I taught you wrong," he sighed, "and I'm sorry. I failed you more than I realized at the time. When I should have supported you, I didn't give you enough credit for how hard you worked or why, and I focused solely on your shortcomings without offering you any guidance to overcome them. I set you on the path to being declared Maverick, and I know that now. Instead of showing you how to temper your enthusiasm with caution, I dismissed you and buried myself in my own work instead, and now here we are. I'm sorry."
"You're…sorry?" Seren asked, face clouding with angst. "Really? I…never imagined I'd ever hear…I thought I must have been a completely lost cause, and I…" Her hands curled in her lap.
"I am," X repeated. "I am so sorry. It's not too late, Seren. We can't go back. The damage has been done. But we can always go forward from where we are now."
She looked up, violet eyes filled with an odd light. "Yes. We can! This is the perfect opportunity! You've seen what I'm trying to do, and they'll listen to you. You're X! Tell HQ that I'm not a Maverick. You know me! You know I'm just trying to do what's right!"
"What were you doing last night? How is attacking another settlement right?" X asked.
"Si—X, listen to me. They're Mavericks. Real ones. And I know, yes, my men were too, but they've turned away from it now. We're Maverick Hunters. This is what we do. We can't tolerate Mavericks in our midst."
X blinked dizzily. "You're playing at being Hunters. That's what the Drifters are. And they know this?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "That's what we are. I know I messed up with the Hunters, but I worked and fought and built a second chance here for all of us. For you! I wanted you to be proud of me. Please. Just tell HQ. I know you can make them understand." She folded her hands together, imploringly. "And then we can all finally go home together."
Even with the memory of his mistreatment fresh in his memory and aching in his systems, X's heart went out to her. It was the most fundamental wish in the world. X felt it, constantly and as keenly as a knife, though his home and the only one he'd ever wanted to be proud of him had long since died. But that was just it, wasn't it? There was no returning for any of them.
"If a home exists for damaged people like us, it's ahead of us, not behind us," X told Seren, as gently as he knew how. He reached a hand out and placed it atop hers. "It's not something you can find at the end of a road paved in violence. It's not something I can make for you, either. I'm not a miracle worker, whatever they say about me. I'm just another person who's been where you are, trying to bury my mistakes under more effort, but it doesn't work when the basic premise is flawed to begin with."
"But you're X," Seren repeated. "There's no reploid in the world with more influence than you."
"Listen to me, Seren, please," X said, not bothering to correct her on the technicalities of whether or not he counted as a reploid. "That may be true, but I can't just say the word and change the entire system. I can't magically pardon anybody. Even during the War I couldn't have done that. If there's a home for you, or me, it's a new one, and it's going to be found by working together to build it."
"And we have!" Seren insisted. "We've built a home here as Maverick Hunters. We're not official, but we're the only active unit in this area, and we're keeping it free of Mavericks."
"I'm not talking about who's a Maverick and who isn't. We all are. Even me."
Seren sat up straighter, staring at X in disbelief. "W-what are you saying? You can't be. You're X. Don't be ridiculous."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't think there's a difference between killing a reploid and a human. We're all just people, and I've killed countless people. Is that not what a Maverick is? A reploid who kills people?"
"No," Seren objected, and she pulled her clasped hands away from X's. "That can't be right. I-it's unfortunate that reploids have to die, but it's not wrong to do what has to be done with a Maverick."
"Seren. I was wrong for most of my life. Please, let me at least use my mistakes to teach you to do better than I did. Nobody else needs to be hurt. Reach out to the reploids with Kathy. They'll talk to you. I promise they will. You can still work this out and become allies. I've lived with them for almost a week, and they didn't know who I was, so I've seen who they are. They're good people who were in terrible situations, just like you were. They're not monsters."
Seren shrank further back from him in alarm, and X wondered how many more times he was going to see someone make that exact expression at discovering who and what he really was. "No. Listen to me, X. We're doing good work here. Once we've gotten rid of Kathy's gang one way or another, we'll be in control of the Abel City quarantine zone, and then we'll contact HQ and explain everything to them."
Now it was X's turn to sit upright with alarm. "They'll locate and apprehend you, if not destroy you. That's standard operating procedure. You know that."
"Standard operating procedure isn't going to apply, because we're on their side. That's already not standard. Stay here with us, X. You can contact them yourself. They wouldn't arrest you."
"You know who else everyone idolized, respected, and listened to, all the way to until they didn't? Sigma," X said. "If they find out I've gone Maverick—"
"—Stop talking like you have!" Seren interrupted.
"I have!" X said, not quite raising his voice, though it cut through the muted quiet of the dark comms center just as if he had. "Maverick, irregular, it doesn't matter what you call it. It's not even a meaningful term. You're Maverick, I'm Maverick, and without the Virus, the only difference between us and any reploid on the other side is that they haven't had to make terrible decisions to survive. And that can change at any moment. We've stopped following the rules, that's all, because the rules were never fair to us to begin with."
"I am following the rules!" Seren shouted, half standing.
Ah, here we go again, X thought, numbly exhausted, and his proprioceptive systems suddenly reported that 'up' was somewhere in the vicinity of the wall and drifting slowly. For all I've always tried to talk my way out of situations, you'd think I'd succeed at least sometimes, but twice in two days is bad even for me.
"I've always followed the rules. Everything I've ever done, I did because I wanted to be the perfect Hunter and make a difference. Even if the world failed me in the end, I'm not going to fail the world!" She slammed a fist on the desk, rattling the drawers. X's nerves were not so easily jangled this time, though.
"The world does not care about either of us," X cut in, but Seren continued.
"You're wrong, X," she said. "You can give up on justice, but I won't."
"Where is the justice in one gang of Mavericks gunning down another?" X asked. "How is that anything but just more death?"
"Shut up!" Seren yelled, hitting the desk a second time. This time, when she lifted her fist, it left behind a faint imprint in the surface. "If you want to play at being a Maverick so badly, I can show you what we do with them here myself. Is that what you want?" she threatened.
X held his ground and took a calculated risk. "How's that going to work out for you when you've gotten your men to idolize me like you do and they find out you've scrapped me?"
Seren froze, staring at X with undisguised disgust. "If they saw how far you've fallen," she began.
"What did you promise them? That they could all go back to normal lives after this? That they'd be pardoned?" X was playing with fire, he knew. He was unarmed, unarmored, and too tired and sore to fight back if Seren decided to attack him. Even so, he couldn't stop himself from speaking. "It's a nice dream, but that's all it is. The system isn't going to change how it treats us overnight."
Seren lunged around the desk, grabbing X by the front of his jacket and hauling him off his feet with one hand, the tips of what would have been his toes dangling on the metal floor tiles. "The system will change, because I will change it myself if I have to," she declared, nose to nose. "Give up, if that's what you want. I will never give up. How could you? After everything you've done, how could you just stop?"
X's combat systems automatically calculated a course of action, then discarded it as impossible, again and again. By any metric, he was beaten, they finally concluded, with a shrug that he could only agree with. "I'm tired, Seren. I'm tired of pretending that I'm okay. I'm tired of being responsible for the entire world. It's too much for any one person to do, and I've made it worse by trying anyway. If finally realizing that is giving up, then I give up."
"If you want to die so badly, I can arrange it for you," Seren fumed, holding him up higher.
"I don't know if I can die, if I've never lived," X admitted, strangely at peace, arms dangling at his sides. "The War is over, but it never actually ended for any of us. What do you want from me? Look at me, Seren. I'm no hero. I can't fix this. How can you ask that of me?"
"How can you expect any of us to do this alone?" she countered, grip tightening as she lifted him higher. X dropped his cane, and it clattered on the floor.
"Not alone," X replied. "It's not possible alone. Each of us are only one person. We can only do one person's work. We have to act as a whole, if we want to be more than one person."
"Liar!" Seren roared, shaking him. "You ended an entire war alone. Why won't you end this?"
"I ended it by killing everyone and everything I cared about, over and over again," X retorted. "It wasn't right. Reploids are more than tools for the advancement of humanity. We have to…" Seren gripped his jacket so tightly that the collar cut into his voice synthesizer, and he could barely speak. "To…evolve," he choked out. "Together. Not…not like Sigma wanted for us. He was…wrong. Our potential isn't…in…war. It's…"
Seren's other hand retracted and her arm reconfigured into a buster. "Shut up!"
"It's…in unity…in…trust…and loyalty…and in…love…"
She pointed the weapon at him, shaking. X could hear its internals humming with energy, like a held breath before a catastrophe. He extended his hand to her. "P…please…Seren. As…long as…there's…a tomorrow…we…can…always be…better…"
A shot, bright and hot, the plasma crackling in the air. X closed his eyes. It didn't hurt as much as he thought.
In fact, it felt very much like he'd had his ear singed, and nothing else. The acrid smell of burnt synthetic hair and hot metal filled the room. X dared to open his eyes. Seren still held him in one hand, buster pointed just past his face and at a new scorch mark on the ceiling. She was trembling with rage and who knew what else, face contorted with emotion, eyes overflowing with synthesized tears.
"Captain!" Era burst into the room as soon as the sliding door had opened enough to let her in. "What's…?" She looked between X and Seren, unable to process the situation.
Well, that makes three of us, X thought, and Seren dropped him. He crumpled unceremoniously before hauling himself up on his cane.
"Put him back in holding," Seren ordered, voice trembling.
"Sir?" Era questioned.
"Now."
"Y-yes, sir." She hovered, uncertain if she was meant to manhandle X or not. Either way, she didn't seem willing.
He looked to the black-plated reploid. "Don't worry. I'll go quietly. Just show me the way."
The sliding doors closed behind them, and after a few moments, both X and Era heard and felt an enormous thud from inside the comms center.
Era paused, staring back at the door. "Did the Captain just…that sounded like she flipped her entire desk across the room."
"Likely," X admitted.
"What happened between you two?" she asked. "I'm…probably not supposed to even be talking to you, but she didn't tell me not to, so…"
"I don't think I lived up to her expectations very well," was all that X could come up with. "Just…take me back to the cell. I'm tired."