The Suite Life X

43 - A Bond Rekindled

Not a word was spoken as the girl's eyes returned to their normal color, terror lighting them where cold-blooded killing efficiency had once been.

Instinctively, she backed away from the circle of weapons pointing at her as she lowered hers. What had she just done?

Luckily for her, they promptly began to lower. Axl beat everyone else to the punch speaking.

"London... Is that you?"

Still scared, she nodded the affirmative.

"That's...good to know," Zack half-mumbled in a mumbling, indistinct tone. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." His eyes then lost their color and he went down.

"ZACK!"

The teens, including the boy's revived twin who'd slipped in towards the end of Black's lecture, immediately ran to tend to him.

That is, all except for London.

"P-Please..." she begged (a pretty foreign concept for her, since Tiptons don't beg), her eyes frantically looking for an escape before landing on X. Don't kill me!"

Her other two conscious friends went wide-eyed as the other three warriors exchanged looks, seemingly deciding her fate.

X and Zero, for their part, knew a threat when they saw one. Even though they knew that Lucien was behind this, the fact remained that this could happen again during a mission or another point when they were vulnerable.

But she wasn't a threat right now, was she?

"Relax. We're not going to hurt you..." the blue and red reploid tried to reassure, walking slowly up to her as she nervously backed away. As he was doing so, he didn't miss a beat shooting a glare at Zero, who hadn't put away his sword and in fact still had it still clutched at his side.

Axl didn't say a word. What could he have said? He'd been on the other end of the Hunters' weapons and trust before (more than he would ever let them know),

Taking a look around, he quickly realized that he likely wasn't going to have the option to step aside this time: X and Zero were probably the last two people she needed to see right now and those other two kids literally had another problem on their hands.

Letting out a frustrated breath, he made his decision.

"I got this. I'll handle her."

Cody and Bailey looked up with unease. The navy reploid had expected their hesitancy, to be honest. The blonde of the duo asked the obvious.

"Are you sure about this?"

A cocky smirk lit up his features. This in particular was a mask, but they didn't need to know that. "Of course. She is my protégé, after all..." He pointed to himself for emphasis on that last point.

The twin eyed him oddly for a moment before breaking his gaze. "If you say so."

With a glance at his partners (Zero's crossed arms alone sent the message of her being his responsibility pretty loud and clear), he collected the girl, who was still shaking but remained strangely silent and left for his own barracks...

---

With the teens...

Zack eventually woke up to bright lights in his face. Mercifully, his sleep this time around (for what it was) was dreamless so even if it was possible, he wouldn't have woken up in a cold sweat. He was stopped before he could flee himself off of the cot he was on.

"Whoa there, partner! Wouldn't want to overexert yourself there."

The white and green reploid was smiling, though it was pretty obvious to see that it was more to put the boy and himself at ease more than anything else. Even Zack noticed that there was concern underneath the facade.