The Suite Life X

44 - The Fate Of The Heiress

Back with Axl...

One could tell a lot about any Hunter in particular by simply taking a look into their barracks.

For example, aside from a picture of Iris and a couple of mounts for his older blades, Zero kept his accommodations pretty spartan, having little more than a bed and recharging station. X, being more of the sentimental type, had a few helmets and other artifacts specifically from Mavericks that he felt particularly bad for (even the former vigilante himself knew that there were more than a few reploids that went bad more out of necessity than anything else, sadly similar to humans) as well as fallen comrades.

As for himself, he collected trinkets from his adventures. A habit that was a holdover from his Red Alert days, he would collect scraps from enemies of every kind and store it in places that would vary due to certain...cleaning ordinances that the Hunter Organization handed down.

This time, the collection happened to be in the closet. Being far from and just outside the view of the door and any potential intruders, it was relatively easy to hide.

This was what London had been silently staring at. In fact, she had to put all her energy into doing that. If she didn't, she would start thinking about...other things.

Things like what that "other her" had said. Was she *really* that dumb? Sure, everyone else was smarter, but...

She slammed her eyes shut to force away the thoughts of her father before she could even dwell on those.

Her fears shifted to what she'd just done.

She glanced back at her mentor. He was talking about the places where he got all this junk (as she saw it). Whatever he was saying, he sounded pretty into it. She couldn't make herself pay attention, not that she was good at that anyway, but it was even harder now.

“Can I ask you something?”

The navy blue reploid walked up beside her, one look at him telling her that he was more concerned that he let on.

“What is it, Princess?”

“Why aren't you scared of me? I’m not safe! I can hurt you…”

“I'm pretty sure that I can handle you. I have experience.” The smirk he'd been wearing then faded into a more serious, compassionate look. “Besides, I've…fought my friends before. Even my mentor.”

This story piqued her interest. “Really…?”

He nodded solemnly. “They were like my family, before even the Hunters… Red Alert.”

---

Axl got her to sit down next to her as he told her the whole, sordid story, starting with his being found and taken in by the group, his gradual bonding with them (excluding Splash Warfly, who loathed him with the feeling being mutual), and later learning of their increasingly underhanded and lethal methods. His protege did speak up when Crowrang was mentioned, her voice lacking its usual fire.

“Bird Brain. He talked about you a lot. Called me your lackey…” The childish distaste he’d grown so familiar with was faint, but clear. He decided to use this to his advantage.

“Maybe you are. After all, you complain enough to fit the bill. Besides, titles mean something, don’t they, Protege?”

Her voice fell to a shame-filled whisper. “What’s that mean?”

“Just a fancy word for ‘student’…” It didn’t escape his notice that she found her feet much more interesting than him at the moment.

"Stupid," escaped her lips, but when he tried to reassure her, she just told him to pick up where he left off.