Author Notes

Samurai Baker X: Yay! Another update! I'm so happy! And I'm glad one of my old readers is back too. Yay's all around. And now, back to the story. And yes, don't expect me to go anywhere. This computer has a warrantee! W00t!

The Official Legal Info: I do not own Zero, Ciel, Megaman X, or any of the characters represented in any of their series', nor do I represent the intentions or beliefs of Capcom and all opinions expressed in this story are of my own. Any characters created by me, belong to me. They may be used with expressed permission of myself, and this fic may be placed on a site, just so as long as it has my expressed approval, and is not changed or altered in any way shape, or form and published without my expressed consent. Blah blah blah.

Wow, that kinda sounded smart.

Zero Hour

The War at Home

With a night of uneasy quiet between Zero and Ciel now passed, the morning dawned and Ciel hoped to talk to Zero about the situation between Kiyara and himself. However, despite her efforts, she came up empty handed in her search of the base for him. She went from the top of the base to the bottom, covering about every square inch of the complex, desperate to try and talk things out with him. Ciel even started asking others about his whereabouts, but was careful as to not make it sound like any cause for alarm. Finally, when her search led her to the entrance, the guards were able to help the young scientist out.

Guard 1: " Miss Ciel ma'am! What can we do for you?"

Ciel: " I apologize, but have any of you seen Zero? I've been looking for him all morning."

Guard 3: " Actually, I saw him take off into the desert regions around dawn. I've been on watch since around 3am, so I happened to catch him leaving."

Ciel: " Do you know why? Were you able to speak with him?"

Guard 3: " Sorry ma'am, but the only thing he said to me was that he was going to be out for most of the day."

Ciel: " I see then."

Guard 2: " Is there a problem ma'am?"

Ciel: " Oh no! I just wanted to see him for a check up after his mission yesterday."

Guard 1: " Well ma'am, if we see him, we'll let him know that you want to give him a check up immediately!"

Ciel: " Thanks you guys, and keep up the good work!"

They all saluted Ciel, and she gave them an embarrassed wave goodbye as she hightailed it back to her lab.

Ciel: (Zero...what's going on? Why won't you talk to me about this?)

Meanwhile, a ways out in the desert, among the ruins of an old city, Zero found himself sitting on a broken old park bench made of stone. He had his arms cradling his head back as he stared into the sky, gathering his thoughts and trying to figure out the best way to continue.

Zero: (She won't understand. It's Ciel's most wonderful quality and yet her biggest flaw...she trusts far too easily. If I tell her, she'll probably say that I'm being paranoid and dismiss the idea...but if I don't, then we're guarenteed to be sitting ducks.)

He got up and paced around the stone seat, looking to the area around him for some kind of answer. Unfortunatly for our hero, he found nothing and would continue to find nothing from where he was sitting.

Zero: " DAMN IT! Why does this have to be so damn hard?"

Zero sighed, picking up a nearby pebble and tossing it along the ground as hard as he could, watching it skid to a halt dozens of yards later. This was definitely going to be difficult.

And again, back at the Resistance base, Ciel was sitting in her lab, wondering what to do about this whole mess.

Ciel: (I should call Zero on the communicator and try to reel him back in...but I don't want him to think that he's some kind of slave who has to come whenever I call.)

After another quiet moment of thought, she had decided. Ciel pressed a button on her laptop, opening up a program to override the intercom for her own purposes.

Ciel: " Excuse me, sorry for the interruption, but could Kiyara please come to the Lab room? Ummm...thank you!"

She shut the program off as soon as she could. Using it for her own personal reasons made her feel childish and it embarrassed her. Within fifteen minutes of her announcment, a knock came at her door.

Kiyara: " Ciel? It's me, Kiyara! May I come in?"

Ciel: " Oh yes, please."

Kiyara walked in, allowing the door to shut behind her. It locked automatically, which gave Kiyara just a slight idea as to why she was called here. Ciel got up and pulled another chair over to where she was sitting, turning it out towards Kiyara.

Ciel: " Please, have a seat. There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Kiyara: " Is it about Zero?"

Ciel: " Y...yes, it is actually."

Kiyara: " Well, don't worry too much about us. We should be able to take care of this. We are adults here after all."

Ciel: " Please Kiyara, would you tell me what's going on?"

Kiyara: " If you insist. Since I came here, and even on the day I arrived, Zero hasn't been very nice to me. And it's not like I've ever asked him to smile and wave at me, or even really try to get him to notice me. I'd almost rather that he not say anything at all to me and outright just not even acknowledge that I exist. Unfortunately, he does acknowledge that, and he does it in a harsh and abrasive tone. I don't believe I've done anything or said anything out of line, or that one would find offensive. But he just seems to not like me, and he makes it very clear he doesn't."

Ciel: " Why? What are his reasons?"

Kiyara: " As far as I know, he's still concerned with the fact that I was being chased by all the Guardians, and that they would not have sent such important or powerful reploids to deal with a lowly service reploid."

Ciel: " Did he call you that?"

Kiyara: " Yeah…"

Ciel blushed at the thought of Zero's brashness. Calling the girl something so callow and mean was not what she expected from Zero. She tried to weigh it in her thoughts that Zero's situation may have caused him to say some mean spirited things, but she still couldn't find a reason to berate a person like that. Ciel's cheeks puffed out as she was starting to get frustrated, which was a bad habit of how she showed it.

Ciel: " I can't stand for that Kiyara. I don't care what he's doing, I'm going to drag him back here."

The young scientist began to work her fingers over the keyboard of her laptop, punching in passwords and opening up estranged files. Finally she spoke into a microphone attached to the top of the screen of her laptop.

As that was happening, Zero continued his wandering, still unsure of what to do. He fought with the terrain nearby, using his saber to cut rocks and dead trees in cleanly sliced halves. In the midst of this, a voice rang in over the intercom.

Ciel: " Zero? This is Ciel. Respond immediately."

Her voice was irritated and demanding, something he was definitely not used to hearing. He stopped in his tracks and listened to her for a moment, not really sure how to respond.

Ciel: " Zero! I know you can hear me. I've hacked your helmet's communicator, so you can't turn me off. Now respond immediately."

Zero: " Zero here."

Ciel: " Return to base. This is an order."

Zero: " Ciel, wait…"

Ciel: " I'll not hear of it. Return to base immediately for debriefing. You've got some explaining to do."

Her voice cut out afterwards, and she shut off the link so he didn't have a chance to get in a response. Zero stood around for a moment, shocked at her demeanor, but after a moment of thought, realized he may have had it coming. With a deep and heavy sigh, he took off back for the base. This was going to be a long day. In fact, a very long day.

After dashing through the wasted landscapes in a hurried fashion, he made it back to the resistance base. He was greeted by the guards, whom which asked him to see Ciel about a physical exam. Zero knew he was fine, and knew that was just a cover up used by Ciel to keep the others from panicing. After all, what would it do for morale if the others knew that Zero was in some kind of trouble? Zero sighed again, knowing that he had to do this in order to get everything back to normal. On his way to Ciel's lab, Zero encountered Alouette. She approached him quickly, giving him no time to try and avoid her.

Alouette: " Hey Zero! Where've you been?"

Zero: " I…was out. Doing some scouting, you know, recon."

Alouette: " Oh, I see. Ciel's been looking for you. And every time I see someone tell her they don't know where you are, she puffs her cheeks out and gets a little red in the face. Is she mad at you?"

Zero: " No, not really. I kinda blew her off last night though, and forgot about something we were supposed to talk about."

Alouette: " Alright! I just wanted to make sure you guys weren't fighting."

Zero: " No…not yet…"

That last little bit Zero kept under his breath and quiet enough that Alouette wouldn't have heard it. He pat her on the head and gave her a reassuring smile, then continued past her until he reached his destination, Ciel's Lab. Again, another a heavy sigh escaped his lips, and he began to wonder whether he should just make a break for it and wait until she had cooled off. Funny how from the outside looking in, they didn't appear to be fighting…but from his stand point, they had never really been at odds like this before. He was unsure of how to categorize the whole thing, and decided to dismiss the thought and get it over with. And with a gentle knock at the door, he was welcomed in by very frustrated Ciel sitting at the end of the room.

Zero: (Yep. Just as Alouette said. She puffs her cheeks out when she's angry. And the crossed arms aren't gonna help either…here goes…)

Ciel: " Come in here Zero. We have some things to discuss."

He entered and took a seat in his usual place, across from her with his back to the exit. The pair sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Zero would glace at her, making eye contact for only brief and fleeting moments, then find something more friendly to look at, like the ground. He felt very uneasy, and wasn't sure what to say or how to approach. The same could be said for Ciel, as she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. However, she found that shooting her angered expression at Zero constantly was a good start to this. Finally, Zero broke the silence, using his apathetic cool to try and make this hurt a little less.

Zero: " Alright, you called me in here Ciel. Let's talk."

Ciel: " …"

Zero: " Come on Ciel. We can't do this all day. I want to get back out there before someone get's hurt."

Ciel: " Some one is hurt Zero."

Zero: " Look, there's a big difference between someone's feelings and someone's life. I know it sounds heartless…"

She cut him off in mid-sentence.

Ciel: " Heartless? Calling someone a 'Remedial Service Reploid' is low. It isn't her choice she wasn't designed for battle like you. I suppose I could modify her, but you'd probably be against that."

Zero: " You better believe it. Look, what I said is true. I don't see why Neo Arcadia would send their most powerful reploids after some girl. I can't believe this to be coincidence. Any one of those 4 they sent would have been more than enough, so why send all of them?"

Ciel: " Perhaps because they knew she would flee here and have to deal with you?"

Zero: " More like they staged a big farce. I don't know, I kinda thought those guys went down easy. The only one that makes any kind of sense was Leviathan, but that's because she's poorly equipped for land based engagements. And I still think she went down rather easy. That's why I think she's a spy…or something along those lines."

Ciel: " Even if she was, what could she tell the enemy? I only utilize her as a messenger. She could tell Neo Arcadia that Bolvido was reassigned to watch the energy stores while I gave Tennen a check up. Or than I like Herbal Tea over coffee."

Zero: " Or when we change our guard, or when the base is least defended, or when I'm out on a mission that takes me a day's length away from the base."

Ciel: " Look Zero, she's been with us for over a week now, and I haven't picked up any strange signals or communications. I see her a lot, and she likes to talk with the others. She's hard working and does a good job. I don't see why you have to give her such a hard time about it."

Zero: " I'm only thinking of the safety of you and the others!"

Ciel: " Safety? You know we were holding our own before you came here!"

Zero: " Holding your own? My memory isn't that bad. I remember saving your life from that Golem that no one else could take down. You call that holding your own?"

Ciel: " Your getting out of line Zero!"

Their voices were raised now to the point of shouting. Both were standing, and Ciel was breathing heavily. Sweat beaded around her forehead and her face was awash in a deep red color. Zero grit his teeth during the exchange of words, getting angry and trying not to lose his cool any further.

Zero: " I may be out of line, but at least I'm not putting any one in danger."

Ciel: " No one is in danger from her!"

Zero: " No one? What if she's a spy? What if she's well trained? She plays with Alouette all the time. Who's to say she won't just one day kill Alouette, or use her as a hostage! It wouldn't be hard, Alouette isn't built to fight."

The thought of what Zero said sickened Ciel. She grit her teeth and clutched her chest as she felt a pain in her heart from hearing that. Alouette was like a daughter to her, and she couldn't bear to imagine anything happening to her. Finally, she let her hands drop and her head tilted down, no longer meeting Zero's stare. She said something, but Zero couldn't hear it.

Zero: " What? What is it Ciel?"

Ciel: "……"

Again, she murmured it at a tone too low for Zero to hear. Frustrated, Zero raised his voice again.

Zero: " Damn it Ciel! Just spit it out! Say it for God's sake!"

Ciel: " YOU'RE AWFUL! HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH THINGS ABOUT ALOUETTE! HOW?!"

Zero: " It's only the truth. You've gotta accept it. The same could happen to you!"

Ciel: " Since when have you surrounded yourself in such paranoia? When have you been so cold and bent…WHEN DID YOU BECOME SUCH A JERK! WHEN ZERO?"

He was taken back by her words. Her eyes were red as tears streamed down her face. Deep down, he wanted to apologize and do whatever to stop her from crying. It hurt him inside, like nothing ever before. But he believed he was right, and didn't want place the lives of the others on a chance that he's wrong.

Zero: " Ciel…"

Ciel: " No. We're done Zero. Just go."

He stood up and put on the best face he could. The only face he could in fact. Just a cold, emotionless, statuesque appearance as he left the room and Ciel bawling in her chair.

Elsewhere, in the Neo Arcadia Shrine…

Dr. Oppensor: " Dr. Coventry, it seems the battle data from the Wraith unit has been fully analyzed. We can proceed when we get our green light."

Dr. Coventry: " Then you're in luck. I've received word from L to move on to phase 3."

Dr. Oppensor: " Excellent. Maybe now that tyrant Harpuia will lay off us for a while."