The Suite Life X

41 - Knowledge And Power

The twin's return to Hunter Base was chaotic, to say the least. Any sort of elation at the fact was quickly squashed with one look at the two boys.

Zack hadn't met X’s eyes when he quickly, carefully took his brother's unconscious body off his hands. In fact, he didn't so much as look at any of the girls, new or old, that tried to talk to him.

Even indirectly, though, it was easy to catch the aura of guilt and shame just radiating off of him.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't afford to completely shrink away like he wanted to. Not when the world was at stake.

---

With help from the two new girls, his communicator was tinkered around with until a direct connection between Black and the Base could be established.

"Hunters, are you receiving?"

"Reading you loud and clear," the taller, princess-like one said. "Layer here. Speak on."

After introductions were made, information was swapped between the parties. Much of it was known to Zack, like how the old man had hacked his comms to get in touch with him and attempt to learn more about Lucien's plot.

One thing was that while Black had been toiling away in his own isolated lab, the Maverick had employed an army of reploids and had been building an airship specially made to deploy some kind of a signal.

For what, it wasn't hard to guess.

Of course, Black couldn't take the risk of constant communication with him, otherwise Lucien's scientists would've caught on eventually. That was where Zack would come in...not that he really had a choice.

"Zack?" It was Layer who interjected. "If you don't mind me asking, how did it feel...having him control you like that?"

Everyone had expected the teenager to balk at the mere idea of an explanation, but he actually was quite forthcoming about it.

"Like a prisoner in my own body. I could hear outside, but not much else." He looked at Layer suspiciously. "Why?"

She exchanged a look with the other girls that was subtle, but just visible enough to be caught. "Collecting information, nothing more."

He raised an eyebrow at this but didn't say anything. He had enough to think about.

"Not much different than what he did to me," Black chimed in. "Of course, he preferred for me to FEEL it whenever he took control. A sadist if I've ever seen one..."

He had gone on to explain the specifics of his daughters' involvement, as far as he knew.

The scientist couldn't see the Hunters' expressions darken.

"Does that mean that you were the one that got Ruby and her sister to team up on Zack and take him away?" London asked, voice growing dangerous.

"That wasn't me, actually. That was Lucien. He has more complete control of them and can make them act completely without their knowledge. He'd said himself that he used them to monitor you for any weaknesses he could exploit."

...and I just made myself an easy target, the boy in question muttered to himself as he remembered the outburst that led him to isolate himself and get caught in the first place. His attention perked back up as the old man continued to speak.

"His original plan, however, had involved whittling down Cody until he broke, allowing Lucien to go for his opportunity."

All that and it turned out that even for the bad guy, he was simply a backup plan for his brother. Second fiddle, as usual. A shield.