The Suite Life X

48 - Ground Zero

For Zack and Zero alike, touchdown at their destination was quiet, and it wasn't only because the former was still sorting out how he felt about the latter (now that he was clear-headed enough to notice it).

The silence was also because they were completely separated from each other.

"Zack, do you copy?"

The shorter-haired blonde winced at the sound of the doll-like Navigator's voice.

The screechy ones were always fun, he thought.

"Yup, I copy. My 'partner', however, is nowhere to be seen."

"I'm in another part of the lab," said partner butted in, referring to the maze of computers they found themselves in. I'm not sure how we got split up, but we'll need to find each other or the Maverick. How's the lighting situation over there?"

He looked around and shrugged, even though nobody could see it. "Seems fine to me. You?"

"I get to stumble around in the dark." If one listened closely, they could hear the eye roll in the red swordsman's voice.

"Huh. Sucks to be you."

"So this is the real 'you', huh?"

"More or less."

A brief pause. "Well, it beats you mop--"

At that moment, a blast of static drowned out whatever would've been said next.

After the noise subsided, Zack hesitantly checked back in. "Okay... Anyone want to tell me what the heck that was?!"

"I have no idea..." Pallette trailed off, apparently preoccupied. "...but Zero's gone dark!"

Now that didn't sound good. "Seriously?"

"Nothing." Collecting herself, she ordered, "You need to get in contact with him manually.

"What about the Maverick?"itedhichever comes first. Now go!"

Ending communication, he did so, unable to shake a wierd feeling in his gut...
---
Zero could only wish that he was still swamped in the darkness he had originally landed in.

Had he fallen asleep?

If he had, he'd love to wake up now.

One minute, he was trying to get his bearings while keeping the kid in check, the next, everything goes black.

What greeted him was a gruesome, yet tragically familiar sight: bodies, dozens of reploid bodies haphazardly piled around him half drowned in their own oil, and his hands absolutely covered in the fluid.

The stuff of his reoccurring nightmares.

What was more, he could very clearly hear a terrifyingly familiar voice...again.

"Zero..."

It was his girlfriend. The one that was supposedly dead.

Was this Lucien's fake? Whatever the case was, his body didn't seem to care, nor did it seem interested in waiting for an answer.

Like a man possessed, it followed the long-lost groan, taking the baffled mind of the Hunter with it.

As he walked down a seemingly endless corridor, the ghostly wail got ever louder until it suddenly stopped. What it was replaced by would've chilled his blood if he'd had any.

"That's right, my son... Come to me. I can give you what you want. Everything you want."

"Everything..."